Divisions, little bit o' difficulties, but learning a LOT

Dang, such good emails this week, thank you all a ton :) Lotta laughs and feel-gooders.

Aust--Question about Bahia for ya, did you have an época during the year when there was randomly MASSIVE numbers of these big flying ants everywhere? Here they're called tanajuras, but my comp says they even eat them in the Nordeste. Weird though cuz literally every 3 steps I'd step on one... really odd. 

 Alrighty, not a whole lot to report this week. I went on a division and ended up with my recent buddy Elder Cancino again! Ha, he's already speaking portugues better and it was fun seeing how he's growing. We've been having a little bit of difficulty here in our area, but it's helped me learn a few lessons that I wouldn't have otherwise learned, so I'm glad the Lord thinks I'm worth the trouble to send a little bit of trials my way :) I realized this week a lot about how the Lord's way is the only way. Not only as a missionary but with how we live life. My comp and I were having a little bit of a period where we were trying to teach using our own intelligence and knowledge of the scriptures, and without realizing it we ended up simply basing the lessons off of our own strength, AKA never works out here. The Lord didn't interfere obviously, He just kinda let us do our thing and learn for ourselves, and a family we'd been teaching ended up not wanting to go to church to be baptized, another family we had been teaching had a pastor from a different church tell them a load of junk about the Book of Mormon, and it was just a wake up call for us that we can't do this by ourselves. We were doing ok on some things, but had just kind of let ourselves slide into some dumb habits that weren't asking or letting the Lord help us very much. So to make a long story short, we've been humbled and we are now praying, fasting, doing everything we should be, and I am totally certain that it will bring about the results the Lord wants. I've learned as well that we can't ever worry about what will go wrong or what could prevent something from happening because when the Lord asks us to do something or when He makes a promise in the scriptures, our patriarchal blessing, or whatever it might be, we need to just go and do what He asks, without doubt, without fear, without question. Sorry the email was kinda rushed and short today, but I'm doing fine here. I'm excited, I'm healthy (thank heavens haha) and I'm so happy and grateful to do this work. I love the Lord and this Gospel! Hurrah for Israel!!!
 -Elder Ballard