SO many blessings... Where do I even start?

Oh boy was it an amazing week or what... Seriously, this one's going in the record books :)

Well I'll try to explain everything that happened this week, if I can haha. So last sunday, I got a call from the mission president telling me that he had gone to a stake conference in the BH Lest (Beautiful Horizon East) stake, which Vespasiano makes part of. He said that at the end of the conference he was able to meet Jorge, who was that guy that I found in like November when I was there w/ Elder Gonzales. I think I already talked about him, but he found a Book of Mormon miraculously in on of his cross country truck driving duties. Anyways, Jorge told Pres Parrella about the story, and that he would be getting married and soon after baptized on the 21st, or saturday. President called me up to authorize me to go back to vespasiano for that night to baptize Jorge and Helena!!!!!! I have never gotten such an amazing phone call EVER!!! I seriously couldn't sleep sunday night, and then this last saturday I was able to go back, and see Jorge and Helena all over again. They're the ones who fed us lunch on Christmas day, and we have just had a super super strong bond with them ever since we've met. It was such a massive blessing for me to be able to go back and baptize them, and most important just see them finally make that step in the gospel!!! They've been waiting since like mid november for their marriage to finally happen, and this last saturday things FINALLY worked out!!! I was and am so so happy for them... You could just see in their eyes that they already have a huge desire to stay firm in the church and one day go to the temple :) I LOVE working with families!!!

  To top the week off, sunday morning we went to Euler's house to talk with him and see if the doctors had taken out his IV thing. He said that they still hadn't, but then he said that he'd just decided to trust in the Lord, and accepted an idea we'd given him a few days earlier of just wrapping plastic around his leg so that water wouldn't go in. Earlier he'd been scared to do so cuz if even a little bit of water entered in, it'd get infected and he'd have to be put into the hospital to recover. But on sunday morning, he had a totally different attitude. He just said, "Alright I've been waiting for this baptism long enough. Let's wrap my leg, put it into God's hands, and everything will work out fine." So we went to church, the meetings were awesome, and throughout all this he was perfectly calm and confident. We ended church, went into the bathroom, and wrapped his leg with a ton of saran (I don't know how that's spelled) wrap and packing tape (sophisticated isn't it =D ) and then did his baptismal meeting. Just to help with his leg and everything the two of us entered the font with him, but as he was about to decend the stairs into the water, he paused for a second, bowed his head, and said a silent prayer. Obviously we didn't know what he said in that prayer, but you could just feel him telling the Lord, 'I know that by entering into this water that there is a chance of me getting extremely sick, but I trust you Lord. Please let everything work out ok.' Man it was a touching moment... It just made it all hit home just how much confidence he was putting in the Lord. Elder Cerutti said the ordinance, Euler simply said, "I'm ready" And then he was baptized. There's been few times when the Spirit was so strong at a baptism like that. As he climbed the stairs to change his clothes and check to see if the IV had gotten wet, he said, "It doesn't even matter if it did get wet! The Lord is in control. Even if I do get sick, the Lord is in control." Can you believe how much faith he has? I did kinda a self evaluation and have thought of how many times I am willing to put my complete trust in the Lord like that. Man, I can't even express my gratitude for that day and that amazing man's baptism... This mission is such a blessing.

   Well, that's about all the blessings I can express in the email today haha, but things are just amazing here. I am absolutely loving every minute of my mission... I am learning so much and even though I still have 8 months left, I have such a strong feeling of urgency!! Even though 8 months seems like a decent chunk of time, I have SO much more that I want and need to do!! This gospel is so great... I am so grateful to be out here and so grateful that the Lord is blessing the lives of all you back home. Hurrah for Israel and até February!

    -Elder Ballard

- I made doughnuts for a ward activity. I finally found

powdered sugar so I was able to frost them!

Look at the size of this hill... it's madness :D

8 Men at Church, 2/3 mark, and the Sun finally arrives!!!

Never ceases to annoy me how the human race is never EVER satisfied with the weather. I was annoyed with the rain that I was always wet, and now that the sun came back I'm annoyed about sweating and being sunburnt haha. Once a Rexburgian always a Rexburgian.

Well this last sunday was about the most miraculous that I've had in a while. We had like 3 men that had firmly agreed to go to church, but when sunday arrived out of nowhere we had a bunch of others decide that they wanted to go! 2 of them went to churches in other cities in Minas, one arrived like 15 minutes late, came by motorcycle, and another 5 came with us missionaries. It was amazing how the Lord is beginning to bless this area, cuz this group needs Melchizedek Priesthood holders SO badly. Out of these 8 guys, it's looking like at least 4 of them have extremely good chances of baptizing, and even better, they have other friends whom they're inviting to go to church as well. It's amazing how the Lord blesses each area with exactly what it's needing. Euler is super super anxious for his baptism. He went to the doctor yesterday and every single time he just sits there and hounds them to take his IV deal out. We don't know exactly when, but the way his faith and prayers are growing, I know it'll be soon :)

   So last saturday was my 1 year in Brazil mark, and I read back on some journal entries from when I got to Brazil, and it is SO funny how culture shocked I was!! I'm super excited to show you all some of my journal entries cuz they are quite honestly really humorous. I've changes so dang much this last year... It's amazing what the Lord has helped me change and what He's helped me become. Sunday marked my 16 month mark... And as strange as that is it marks my 2/3 mark of my mission!! AH!!! That scared me when I realized it! I don't understand how it's been an entire 16 months since I've left... It blows my mind imagining how much I've changed, and how much all of you have changed, and everything else. Each day seems to pass so quick that I feel like I can barely keep up with it. The time in between my morning prayer and my night prayer seems super fast... I'm sure every missionary feels this way but it's totally taking me off-guard haha.

   Well, this next week looks like it's gunna be one of the most eventful and exciting weeks of my mission, we have SO much potential to help these people get baptized and help this little group grow!! The people here are amazing, and I am just loving every minute out here. I've been reading 1 conference talk p/day ever since I got Mom's package, and is it not such an enormous blessing to have these living prophets? I can't believe how simple yet how profound their talks are. It's such simple doctrines and principles but putting them into practice is having such massive and profound differences on the way my life goes. I am so grateful for the many many priveleges we have as members of this great church. Let's never take it for granted and be examples of the believers!!! Hurrah for Israel!!!

   -Elder Ballard

- This place is called Canada cuz it basically has pine trees!

 I have no idea how cuz I've never seen even one pine

 tree in any other part of the state. Interesting eh?

Here we have church at 2pm, so instead of making a big
 lunch the members make breakfast, it's delish.

Canada! The name fits area well :) And a whole year in Brazil?!

Kinda weird swapping areas yet again, this one was a big change for me, but I'm loving it already.

Well, Jardim Canadá is awesome. It's a super small area of just 2 bairros (pronounced buy-ho, it basically means neighborhood, but in american terms it'd be more like an elementary school district: Adam, Lincoln, etc. little bigger than just a neighborhood) in comparison with being 4 cities in my last area. This area is called Canadá cuz it's like the coldest place I've ever seen in Minas Gerais. It's been raining almost every day since I got here, my fingers are actually like slow-moving cuz of the cold, and I'm actually sleeping with a blanket!! It's actually almost a sentimental experience seeing my breath again, it's been FOREVER since that's happened. 

    So it's kinda weird cuz this sunday, the 15th, will mark 1 YEAR in Brazil!!! I can't believe that it's true, but man... a whole year. Missions are like dreams cuz thinking back on other areas and companions, it feels like it didn't even happen. I"ve had SO many experiences and miracles... it's amazing how much happens on a mission.

  Well, enough about the weather haha. This area isn't even a ward or branch, it's just a group still! It's got like 35 or 40 active members, and we take a bus to use the chapel of a different ward about 30 minutes away. Even though it'd seem like a difficulty on the surface, the small group of members here are super super firm and excited about the church. Like the other branches I've passed through, the church ends up being a lot more like a family instead of just a big group of families. The people we've taken to church this last week have loved it. One guy is named Euler, (Eh-oh-lur) and he has a baptismal date marked for this sunday. His daughter was confirmed on sunday, and the week before I got here she was baptized. Euler is a simple guy that has a huge faith in Christ and Heavenly Father. For these last 7 years, his kidneys haven't been working so 3 times a week he has to go to the hospital and they do that treatment where they pull his blood out, clean it in basically an artificial kidney, and put the blood back into him. 2 weeks ago the doctors put in like an IV thing in his thigh so that they wouldn't have to put a new needle in him every single time, but the problem that we have now is that this IV deal can't get wet. So, he won't be able to get baptized until the doctors take the IV out and do the treatment normally in his arm. We're praying like crazy and we know that everything'll work out. He'll go to the doctor tomorrow afternoon, so everyone and anyone's prayers for him would be greatly appreciated :) I know it'll all work out, this guy has amazing faith.

  My new comp E. Cerutti is awesome. He's an extremely mature elder, especially in the spiritual sense. The two of us have been making goals and having studies where the spirit is super super strong, and it's opening my mind to how important studies are. I'm reading the conference talks from october, and especially the ones from Priesthood session that I wasn't able to hear live, man... Talk about inspiration. I love this work, I'm so happy to be on a mission, and I am constantly trying to be the best and better missionary that I can. I love this church, we are SO blessed to have prophets and apostles, the truth about our Loving Savior, and the countless other blessings like Temples and the Book of Mormon. Thanks to all of you for your prayers!! Hurrah for Israel!!!!

    -Elder Ballard

Elder Cerutti and I

2012 brings some crazy changes with the mission. Let's do this thing!!!

Interesting how the years even end up passing by fast... I was blowing my own mind remembering back to the year 2000 and a vivid memory of me and Breck Wightman hitting pillows on a plastic basketball hoop in excitement :D Haha so ridiculous how memories can last so long...

   Nat - I loved hearing about the Christmas dance!!! I will agree with you that I as well want really bad to have a wife that dances ballroom, or at least a wife that will want to learn. Since you obviously can't dance on the mission, I find myself having dreams sometimes about swing or something and in my head my brain is like, "Hold up... it's been WAY long... do I even remember the steps?" Haha, I'm gunna relearn when I go back to BYU for sure.  

  Aust - I agree with you Aust that portugues is gunna be so fun to have in the family. I sure hope that we can teach other members of the fam, future kids, my future wife, etc. It was so awesome hearing about that restaurant... I've been to Tucanos once, and it was sooo good. It's weird re-eating foods here that I vaguely remember from before. That one that you're talking about sounds even better cuz of the brazilians mesmo. I'm so sad hearing about the lack of Guaraná that'll happen after the mish :( So so lame... It's funny you talking about the mission dying off at the end, cuz in this mission, 80% of the missionaries have less than a year out here, so there's hardly anyone left that I know from the beginning... super weird. 

Alan and Jardell

   Well, I'll be kinda quick since yes, I did spent a little more time than usual reading emails haha. BUT, it was completely worth it, thank you. So, new years was really good and I couldn't even sleep cuz of the sporatic fireworks that people were setting off all night haha... But the work went good and we had a great week. Last sunday we took a guy named Alan to church, and talk about being elect. He loved church, told us how he's already going to tell all his friends, already brought his friend Jardell to a message, wants us to teach his mom, it's amazing cuz he's already full of the missionary spirit. I would baptize him this next sunday, but today I was transferred again :) 

  My new area is called Jardim Canadá (Canada Garden), and who would have thought that I'd get to serve in a place named after Dad's mission :D My new comp is named Elder Cerutti (Ser-ooch) and he's from the south of Brazil. He seems like an awesome missionary, and we're super stoked to work here. I'm just barely getting to know the area, but I'll tell you more how it is next week. Things are great here and I"m loving this start of the new year! Happy and prosperous new year to you all!! Hurrah for Israel!!!

Zilvande and Jair's goodbyes

   -Elder Ballard 

This is Fatima and Jefferson. She's the missionaries "mom" here, I ate with her on New Years, and Jefferson will get his mission call this month. I love the city of Vespasiano :)

Helena and Lucas. Jorge was working so we couldn't
 say bye :( But they'll get married and baptized
 on the 21st of Jan! I'm so excited for them!!!

This is Daminão and his family, they should be
 finally getting married and baptized here in a couple months

Yay for Christmas!!



The Relief Society in the ward ended up giving us literally 17.1 POUNDS of goodies. Chocolate, cookies, crackers... it's good stuff.

The 4 of us went carolling in the Brazilian sun :)

Last pday this was my attempt to remake the Ballard classic
 Christmas Eve/Tree Decorating dinner

Christmas lunch

Well, firstly my feelings about the call. So, was it just me or did this call go like 5 times faster than the one back in May? I about tripped out when I looked down and saw that 38 minutes had already passed... I feel super bad cuz I feel like I didn't get to talk to Dad and Mom as much as I wanted :( I don't know how that happened this time. Weird how 40 minutes can just come and go so quick. It's kinda funny how calls go like that, cuz I wait like all of December with that being the thing to look forward to, and then it comes and ends so fast that I sit there with that confused feeling of, Well... now what? Haha, I'm glad that we videod it though, it'll be fun to rewatch after the mission and stuff. I'm so happy that those videos all worked out and that you guys were able to watch them :) I forgot to ask you, did you guys watch them Christmas eve? And which ones were the favorites of everyone? Dad said the shower fixing one but I forgot to ask everyone else about the others :) Remember to back those up somewhere, cuz after I sent the flashdrive I didn't have anywhere to save them on my side, so someone pop them onto a harddrive or something please. I am so absolutely thrilled about all the news that you guys told me during the call though :) I can't get over the fact that Karen's pregnant!!! Seriously I was thinking about how epic of news that is, cuz it's gunna make all the siblings, uncles (crazy thinking how Brig's gunna be a super young uncle, 7 years old :D) And it's gunna make Mom and Dad GRANDPARENTS, and Grandma and Grandpa Bratsman, GREATgrandparents!!! Haha it makes me so excited... And obviously it'll be a while in the future, but when I someday get married and have kids, it'll start making that generation of cousins that'll all hang out at future reunions and stuff!! It's such a new concept to me but makes me so excited!! It's funny cuz now I'm beggining to realize why a lot of missionaries like having girlfriends on the mission, cuz I like want to share all this awesome news with people, but you guys are the only ones that I have to share news with :D Haha
  I'm amazed at how the kids are growing up. Tanner about blew me away, and I also couldn't believe how Nat is the age of the majority of my gal friends when I was a senior... And the voice shows that she's all grown up already haha. I can't even image how weird it'll all be to finally see everyone some day. These next 9 months are gunna make it even more weird. Crazy thinking about how Austin'll be in provo too! Cuz with the baby, I'll be the one who'll get to see him/her the most :D But, it'll also give the family more excuse to come down and visit us haha. Speaking of that, I'm gunna forward some of the emails from admissions and what not so that you guys can start helping me with all this BYU junk... sigh... I don't even wanna mess with all this :/ But, lets get it all figured out as fast as we can right?
  Well, as for the area here, the work is looking like it'll take an up turn. The work's been a little slow for the last while. With Christmas and new years it's been kinda hard to find people who are consistently at their houses and consistantly being able to be taught, but we found some really good receptive people that are showing a LOT of potential. The next transfer will be in the first of January, so I'm already a little antsy to know if I'll be getting yet aNOTHER comp or what... oh dear. I feel bad that I'm not having a whole lot to report recently... I dunno, I guess since I've been in this same area for 3 months, a lot of things are becoming kinda routine for me haha. The other day it rained so much that the river overflowed and covered like half of the lower part of the city. Not really covered, only like a foot and a half of water, but that was kinda an adventure :D I sure miss snow though, not gunna lie haha. There I go talking about weather though... pfft, how lame haha. But, all in all I'm really excited ever since that phone call. It's interesting how the Lord helps those calls not increase homesickness, but actually increase the desire to help other families. All 4 of us missionaries were all super pumper ever since the calls :D I'm so happy to hear that everyone's doing well. I hope that things keep going good, and hope that everyone has a happy new years! Crazy how it seems like last new year's just barely happened... 2012 how crazy. Love you all and thanks everyone for the Christmas letters and prayers!! Hurrah for Israel!!
   -Elder Redge Ballard

Christmas is here again oh Christmas is here again...

Well, I'll be really quick today, but we'll be talking on sunday so not a big deal :) This last week was interesting cuz last pday at 5:30 my comp woke up with a super bad mouth infection where he couldn't even talk, drink or eat :/ So we stayed inside the house for thursday and most of friday. Like Austin's said before, it's TERRIBLE staying inside the house as a missionary... UGH! It was kinda restful at first, but after about 3 hours I started going nuts. Luckily on friday it calmed down a little, he got a penicilin shot (remember when we got those Mom and Nat? Hahahaha) and on friday he was able to start eating soups and soft foods, and by saturday we were back in the field working away. Amazing how fast the recovery process works for missionaries :D
  Besides that, the weeks been really good. We found this family where the parents aren't married but the dad has already been going to the church for 6 months even without being baptized. They were having some major arguments and stuff, but after the whole family went to church, we went back to visit them and things were super super calm, the couple sitting really close and joking and laughing with each other, it was amazing :) Sorry to be so fast and short, but 2 o clock my time on Sunday, we'll finally be able to talk again!! I love Christmas, and the idea of having a Christmas call makes it even more exciting :) I'm gunna make a Christmas style lunch today, so next pday I'll send the pics of how it went. Love you all and hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas! Hope it snows soon as well haha. Hurrah for Israel!! Until Christmas :)
  -Elder Ballard

Blessed with more baptisms, and Angels We Have Heard... down here?

Hello and welcome to the middle of December!!! Sheesh... I know I'm always talking about it but how is this year so close to being finished?! Everyone's talking about Christmas, and I think the fact that I was in the MTC last september until november made Christmas arrive a little slower or something, cuz being in Brazil and not having even the least bit of cold has tricked me into thinking that it wasn't gunna arrive or something, and man, here we are on the 14th of December already... crazy crazy crazy.

"We love you--Merry Christmas!"

This week was completely chuck full of blessings and truly had miracles happening. These last couple of weeks we've been working with 3 people. One couple is named Jair (Jzha-ear) (<-I dunno if american's can pronounce that all that well, ask Aust for pronuciation haha) who's about 70, is married to Zilvande (Zill-van-jzh) (<-Haha, hard name as well.) who's 58 or so. Anyways, they are actually the parents of my first bishop when I started out here in Brazil. A couple weeks back he gave the referral for us to go there and teach them. We started teaching them and they were hesitant to accept the baptismal date, but said that with them visiting and getting to know the doctrine better, and getting an answer from the Lord, they'd do it. Things were going well, but on like the 3rd visit, we arrived and they were already saying, "Ah, we used to watch our other religion on the TV, and I think we're just gunna stick with that one. Thanks for your help." Instead of just accepting that as an answer, using the Spirit we were able to explain to them the difference and importance of the church, and they at least agreed to continue recieving the messages. The next problem was that they smoked a TON. Seriously, between the two of them they were going through 6 packages of cigarettes per month. Each package has 10 packs, and each pack has 20 cigs. So, that comes out to about 1200 cigarettes PER MONTH!! AHH!!! What death!! So we explained about the world of wisdom, and they reluctantly agreed to "reduce" the amount they'd smoke. Jair was especially bad off, you could tell his lungs were already shot from years and years of smoking. Things started out really slow, they told us, "We have about 8 packs left, so we'll slow down, and when the cigs run out, we won't buy any more." Lame haha. But, amazingly one day, after not seeing them for about 3 days, we got there and Jair said, "Well, as of 2 days ago I haven't smoked anymore. I got sick of the idea of "letting them run out", grabbed the remaining 4 packs, tore up all the cigs, and tossed them out the window. I'm going crazy right now and my body is DYING to smoke more, but I'm done. I'm not gunna smoke more." Our jaws about dropped... The Spirit makes the most amazing changes ever. I always think I'm gunna explain a commandment perfectly and then they're gunna change or something, but it's ONLY the Spirit that can make these changes. 2 days later, Zilvande stopped smoking as well! It was incredible! Then we moved our focus on to baptism. We were reminding them every day and trying to get firm with them to just make the decision. My comp was trying to encourage them to just make the step and get baptized, when out of nowhere Jair exploded on us. "You guys are being WAY too persistant!!! I already changed my life and stopped smoking, and I already told you! I want to learn slow, and maybe in January or February I'll be at the point where I'll baptise." He stormed out of the room, and I about teared up. Seriously no one was expecting it at all. From there we continued a little bit more sensitively, and 2 days later, Jair who'd just been quietly listening to the lesson from the background came up and said, "Look, I need to apologize to you two. I've been really nervous from stopping with cigs, I wasn't having a good day, and I just need to you guys to forgive me for yelling and treating you guys like that the other day." Another jaw dropper... From that apology that he made, things have been smooth sailing, and this last sunday, Bishop Carlos came here to vespasiano and baptized his parents!!! Carlos's wife, daughter and neice (all members as well) were all able to watch, and it was a really special moment. I can't believe the changes that happen in these people over the course of just a few weeks. Definitely a blessing from the Lord, cuz seriously, I feel like we didn't do anything :)

Jair, Zilvande, and their son Bishop Carlos, like I said, he was excited :)

 The other person who got baptized is named Aline (Uh-lee-knee) and she's is just straight up elect. We took her brother to church, he came back and said how much he liked it, so the next week she asked to go to church with us. After going to church last week, we visited her and she said, "Alright, so I've been thinking... I want to be baptized. So, what do I need to do for that to happen?" Jaw dropper number 3 :) She was totally willing to live the commandments, and sunday she was also baptized. Incredible how prepared she was.

Aline

  Last miracle I wanted to talk about was something that happened last friday. We had an activity at the church that's basically the equivilant with mutual in the US, but it's with all age groups. We all got there, and us missionaries ended up taking 11 investigators, but just cuz of some problems with planning, at the first there was only 6 members :D Haha, I"ve never seen an activity outnumbered like that. Anyways, I was praying my heart out that it would be a good experience for them, and was praying like crazy for the Spirit to be there. Elder Cavalheiro had the idea to do a musical number between us 4 missionaries. Him and me have decent singing voices, but our 2 comps aren't exactly experienced in singing :) But, I decided it'd be cool to do. So the 4 of us went up there in the front, and sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" and a miracle happened. We started out a little weak, but I decided to just belt it out. I was doing parts to try and make it sound better, but out of nowhere the hymn started sounding really good. The other three we staying on tune VERY well, but then, I started hearing the other parts being sung... I just kept singing but kept wanting to look over and see who was doing the other parts... Then, I could have sworn that I started hearing way more than just 4 people singing. I asked the other missionaries afterwards, and they heard the same thing. But let me just translate the first line of the hymn from what it says in Portuguese, cuz it helped me understand what happened, "Angels descend and sing, peace on earth and glory to God." Wow... I couldn't belive it but I truly believe that we had some extra help with that hymn. I am amazed every day out here at how much the Lord is involved in the lives of every person out here in this world. I love this gospel and opportunity so much.
 Well, sorry to write such a massive email :D But, just know that things are great here, I love this work. Hope that the snow starts to fall soon and I'm looking forward to the chat here in less than 2 weeks!! Hurrah for Israel!!
  -Elder Ballard