Elder Ballards Bolivia Mission

Hey everybody its been a little bit so I figured I would give an update

First and foremost, the work of the Lord continues! We feel so blessed right now to have the technology we do, to communicate with God’s children all over the world. We have expanded our teaching pool to people in 3 more countries! Throughout the last couple months, everyone has just been trying to survive & “get past” this faze of missionary work, but we are done with that, the Yuma Zone is going forward! Really, we are understanding God’s vision a little bit more as we do better to align our wills with His, each day as we try to be positive. Me and my companions have tried so hard throughout this transfer to through out any negative idea or thought about this “quarantine”. Within the zone we have had some struggling missionaries, saying how difficult this situation is, and we have been smacking down on it. What situation? This is the Lords work! If you are not happy and enthusiastic about the way missionary work is done, we feel it is a better direct connection about how you appreciate Jesus Christ, we signed up & told Him we would do HIS work for 2 years, He did not tell us how it would be done. The fact that we are able to continue the work of the Lord right now just testifies about how specific God’s plan is for His children.

Something we have been pushing in our zone is goal setting, we set stretching goals, and we are accountable to them. It has been so interesting to see how missionaries set such high goals, and then once they see they can’t reach them, they lose motivation. So all the calls & meetings we have had over the last little bit with our DL’s & STL’s have been focused on how we can praise missionaries for the work they do, but also to help them assess and adjust their goals, so they are more consistant, and attainable. 

So also we just got transfer news, I will be staying in Yuma & my good buddy Elder Noble, who I have spent 3 cambios with, is heading up to Casa Grande. I am so excited for this next transfer, we are going to have 30 missionaries down here now, and all of the missionaries in leadership positions will be there for the first time! It will be such a cool experience to be able to train & help these guys understand how special & crucial their new callings are. 

Props if you got this far on here, I promise I’ll keep the rest of this short. But the other day I was reading in my journal from some entrees back in March when this all started, and I wanted to share a little bit -> 

3/20/20 “First Real Day in the Can D1”

“Holy Fetch, I barely made it through today, there is no way I can do this for weeks…”

3/21/20 “Man, today was hard D2”

“Today was one of the saddest days of my mission. This is not missionary work. I feel so horrible. I am so sick of this.”

3/22/20 “Sad Thought”

“I’m done I’m sick of this here, I want to go home and climb…”

I have come to better understand the prophetic words of Nephi, “yea, and is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all the things according to His will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in Him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to Him.” (1 Nephi 7:12) & the counsel that “the Lord seethes fit to chasten his people; yeah he trieth their patience and their faith.” (Mosiah 23:21) 

Truly I have been humbled. The work of the Lord will go forward, and no one, no thing, and certainly no pandemic will be able to stop it. I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and we are just seeing the beginning, of the Restoration of His Church. 

Thank you for listening to today’s sermon, I love you guys, thank you for all your support we’ll talk to you soon. 

Elder Ballard 

Hey guys, I was going to start off this letter by saying I’m sorry about never writing these and that I will do better but I know that will never happen lol 

I figured I could give a quick update on some things that have gone down over the last little bit 》》》 

– First off, I hit my 10 month this week, and I am so excited to see the miracles the Lord still has in store for this next 14 months!!

– I was companions with Elder Thatcher and Elder Noble separately up in South Phoenix hace alguno tiempo and this last transfer we were in a trio down here in Yuma 

– A new transfer is up so Elder Thatcher ya se fue a su casa and we got a reassigned missionary named Elder Alton. He was out 16 months or so in Chile before COVID hit 

– Me and Elder Noble are over about 30 missionaries and they all know why they are out here. They are all so eager to further the work in Yuma. If you want to see any of our efforts, check up “Followers of Jesus Christ in Yuma” & “Seguidores de Jesucristo en Yuma” !!

– We have found through technology we are able to reach such a new wide variety of people, here are just a couple!! 👇👇

• We are teaching the Sue family from Samoa. She is now a single mom, after her husband left her and their 8 kids. She sails to another island 5 days a week to care for kids. What a boss mom!! 

• We have our friend Isaac from Mexico who meets with us at his work because he doesn’t want his parents to know that he is taking lessons with us. We just had a powerful fast with him yesterday, so that he could answer to see if he should be baptized! 

• Our guy Andres in Peru! We were able to work out a baptismal date for him and we set a daily scripture schedule because he wants to finish the book of mormon! 

• Good ol Matilda in Argentia! She is a 70-80 year old women who now has the desire to learn more about the church. She said she prayed about the book of mormon and that God told her it was true!!! We are so excited for her!!!

• Irma from Venezuala, who is elect as it gets. We have gone through all the lessons and baptismal questions with her, she just needs to finish her move to Colombia than we will give the information to missionaries over there so she can be baptized!! Wahoo!

• Our buddy Naphtali over in Nigeria. Not even kidding, he has family members dying every other day from COVID & other things going through his city 😥 but he loves learning about Christ so we are working to get his info sent over to the bishop in his area! 

Really, over all, I would just say I am happy. Days are long, stressful, repetitive, unmotivating, the list goes on, but I do however feel so blessed and privileged to be a missionary in these times. I am coming to better understand what President Nelson has so often said, about how it does not matter your circumstance, if you are growing your relationship with your Heavenly Father through prayer and scripture, you are winning. 

Thank you for everyone that supports me, I feel so loved. Please remember to make time today to have a real conversation with your Father in Heaven, he has been waiting to hear from you. 

Be safe! 

Elder Ballard 

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Helloooo my friends, I’m loving it out here Yuma. The people are so nice, all the missionaries in our zone are hard workers, and the spirit is strong! 
I had some pretty special, humbling experiences this week about Christ’s Atonement and gratitude. There are way too many things that people can be negative about, and we are always so quick to take for granted what Christ has given us. I wrote out some thoughts in my journal hace algunos días -> 
Saturday 6/13/20 “Man, I will tell you what, even though it feels like there are so many difficult things happening and going on, I am so thankful to be a missionary right now, how blessed am I? And what a crazy time? Corona Virus cases are repeaking, again, there are a new 300 cases or so everyday here in our little city of Yuma. We are trapped in our little apartment, cannot leave, having neighbors that just sit, smoke, yell and cuss outside all day, and we are trying to gather scattered Israel.. through Facebook.. in a foreign language.. how beautiful? I cannot be more thankful for God, in trusting me with this sacred responsibility of being a representative of his son in this crazy time. I love being a missionary.” 
How wonderful is His big plan? -that our Heavenly Father loves us so much, that he allows so many things to go WRONG in our lives. Now, that sounds confusing, but I know, that if i get my way all the time, and things just work out first try, it’s nice for a second, but I don’t grow. I know how aware of, and how caring my Heavenly father is of me, because of what “roadblocks” come in my path day to day. He sees me now, but more importantly sees me as to what I can become, and he wants to push me to get there, by putting very difficult tasks in front of me to accomplish, what a loving example? 
Please, take time this week, to tell your Heavenly Father how thankful you are to him, for not letting it be easy. Thank Him for loving you so perfectly, that he gives you such hard trials. I promise, that your relationship will grow closer, and you will be more receptive to what the spirit has to say to say. 
You are ALL my friends and family, I thank you so much all the support and always showing love. I love you guys, till next time! 
Cuidense,Elder Ballard 

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Hello to all my buddies and family! Through the Lords help we are surviving over here in Maricopa! Here are a couple updates -> 

– In the last 2 weeks I have gotten 2 reassigned missionaries to be my companions, one that served in Ecuador and one that served in Peru. We whitewashed into the Spanish Branch up here in Maricopa!- We were able to have a district council in person for the first time in 6 weeks a couple weeks ago which was super good to see everyone in person! – Now the Lord is seeing fit to shoot me down to Yuma to Zone Lead, so we are having a fun adventure up ahead! – We are still in quarantine as of right now, but we are making the best of it! As we catch ourselves getting tired or lazy, we just try to call more formers and members so the work has been chugging forward! 

Serving a mission his helping to change my nature and perspective on things that really matter. I feel so lucky to be able to be here as the Lords representative in this position at this unique time, what a blessing!! To all those who are looking to serve a mission, please do it, you change out here! 

Thanks to everyone for your support, I love all of you guys so much! Cuidense mucho. 

Elder Ballard 🤜🤛

Yeah so miracles have not ceased, this week had heavy evidence of that over here in Arizona. Couple quick ones and one not so quick one for ya 👇👇👇
1. We live right next to an open desert so we love to go ride our bikes and explore. We came across 2 rattle snakes this week, both times they were right next to our tires. But both times their tales were facing us, and not the head!
Lesson Learned – Watch out for snakes 
2. On Sunday we were able to go bless the sacrament in the home of a recent convert. Her and her mom that partook of the sacrament broke down crying. They had not had it in a couple weeks and went on to express their gratitude for the ability to still renew their convenvants. The spirit was felt so strong. 
Lesson learned – Do not take for granted how special and blessed the opportunity is to partake of the sacrament. 
3. Alright here is the short version of a long story – Earlier this week we were messaging a bunch of people on Facebook, trying to share a message. Nothing came from it initially, but a couple days after I got a message back from a guy saying he liked talking about God. We were able to set up a video call with him later that night. As we got to know him, we come to find out he lives in Nigeria in a mostly Muslim area. It is pretty difficult to Christian over there he said. As we slowly start to share the message of the restoration with him, we get to the story of Joseph Smith and the connection drops! We cant get ahold of him! He then texts us saying all of his data ran out from our call. We were super bummed but determined to teach this guy, so we asked if we could tell him about Joseph Smith through text. He eagerly said yes and we were able to tell him about Joseph’s experience and how we have the book of mormon today. After he accepted our invitation to read about pray about it. By some miracle, as we were looking on member tools, there is a church building just 15 minutes from his house over in Nigeria. We were able to get in contact with the bishop of that area through Facebook to go reach out to him in person. 
Lesson Learned – The Work will go forward! 
I love you all thank you for being my buddies the church is true 
♡Elder Ballard 

Hey everybody, I tell myself I will write a group email every week and then the hours just go and go and go then it’s too late lol, so this is me punching procrastination in the face at 8:50 am. 
Alright I know it has been some time so here are some things that have gone down >>>>>>>> 

> I left South Phoenix and I am back up in the desert of Maricopa 

> We are covering an English branch and a little Spanish branch right now 

> Our house has CARPET 

> I am in another trio, with Elder Davenport, who is the #1 chess player in Tennesee, and Elder Neyra who moved from Peru, to the US when he was 9

> I’m a district leader now 

> I hit 7 months a week or 2 ago 

> We have now hit 30 full days in quarantine 

> AND SPIRITS STILL STRONG 

Being in quarantine seemed tough at first however, really it has been such an incredible experience to see the hand and direction of the Lord in the work. Our prosoliting efforts have basically all been through Facebook and contacting members. Although the circumstances are not ideal, we have found the lord is more than willing to provide miracles as we are willing to work to see them. For instance, we were a little bummed this week because it has been so difficult finding people to teach, we weren’t having very many lessons. So yesterday on Sunday, we worked so hard and did our best to seek out teaching opportunities and we were able to have 5 lessons! The Lord lined up so much for a bunch of families to be blessed. 
This week as I was reading about Noah and the ark I had a cool connection. When the Lord commanded Noah to build the boat, he provided a type of blueprint, he told him the height, width, and length, what wood it needed to be built out of, what to take with him on the boat, and so many other things. However, what the Lord didn’t do, was do it for him. Noah still had to construct the boat, still had to get his family, and still had to gather all of the animals, then he had to endure the whole time they were afloat. As we apply this story to these days, we see the Lord has provided us with a blush print of sorts, to follow the prophet, to repent, to read the scriptures, to pray, etc. However, we have our agency as did Noah, to put our trust in the Lord, or not to. If Noah put off the feelings he received, Him, his family, and all of the animals would have drowned in the depths of the flood. Similarly, if we put off this heavenly council, we can too, be spiritually be swept away. 
My weekly invitation to all is the follow this beautiful council we have been given. Set aside specific time everyday to talk with your Heavenly Father, and take His advice. Set aside time to read your scriptures and learn of eternal truths. I testify as we learn to make time for the Lord, he can in turn, make time to help change not only our actions, but our nature. 
Realemente, en estos tiempos, doy gracias por la plan que Dios tiene para me. Estoy agradecido por todas las bendiciones que Dios me ha dado. Porque Él quiere que seamos feliz en esta vida, ha preparado una manera por todos de nosotros. Se que como seguimos las enseñanzas de su hijo Jesucristo, volveremos y viviremos con nuestras familias en la presencia de Dios, para siempre. 
Cuidense mucho ♡Elder Ballard