new year, six months left!

Family and Friends,

Even though it hasn´t been long since we talked, there are still some great stories and experiences to share.

But first, thank you so much for that skype call, it was amazing to see you all and be able to share fun stories and moments. You guys are amazing and taught me a lot. I hope you continue to have a great Christmas break and are able to start the new year with good goals and plans. Like Preach my Gospel says a thousand times--set goals and make plans :) first you can set the goal and then make a plan on a way to accomplish that. I know I could do a lot better in that as well, which will result in a very productive and happy year for each of us :) 

Our contact with Charlie has really been struggling, and it´s so hard to see. He´s been working and hardly ever picks up his phone now, which is so frustrating to see. Ugh. I know it´s not because he doesn´t want to come to church or anything, it´s just that right now he´s super busy. He was so close to being baptizeddddddd. Don´t worry though, he will be soon. Just as soon as he stops working. Pray for him please, he needs our help. But yesterday night we met with this family, I´m not sure where they are from now exactly what there relationship was to each other between the four haha, but they were all there and anxious to listen to us. We had a great lesson with them in which we fel the spirit really strong, and I pray that they will continue with that interest.

Sometimes I´m reminded of truly how many people really are ready and waiting for us. It´s easy to forget at times when you get a lot of rejection.

I love you all so much!! Thank you for everything that you do for me. Mom and Dad I love you, thanks so much for your love and example.

 Have an amazing week! And talk to you next week :)

Elder Franson

andrea's baptism

Good morning!

You guys are the greatest support group every, thanks for everything you do :)

We had an amazing week, Andrea got baptized on Saturday and it was so beautiful. I think she was a bit stressed/overwhelmed at the beginning because everyone was giving her orders to go change, take pictures, Do her hair. It would have stressed me out too haha. It reminded me a bit of someone I know...I won´t say the name. :D haha. No but it was really cool to see her baptized and the happiness and peace on her face. She proved her family wrong, they were all saying to the missionaries for a while that Andrea would never choose to get baptized, that she wasn´t really like that. But here we are, and she´s a member now. She´s so awesome, and you all might be able to meet them when we call on Christmassss! We want the branch start a zumba class thing at the church and call her as the instructor...and see if we could get permission to attend haha. We´ll see, it may not actually happen but sounds like a ton of fun.

We are teaching a new girl named Raquel, from the Dominican Republic and has so much potential. Walking out of a lesson I was so speechless and amazed. In the middle of the lesson she asked what the process was like to be baptized, and later after inviting her to be baptized she said she would. I´m really excited. I honestly feel like the Lord is just putting so many great and wonderful people in our path. The ratio of the people we actually teach out of the total number of references that we receive I don´t think has been quite as high as it is now here in Fuenlabrada. There is tons of potential here in this area. Elder Schwenke and I are working super hard.

We´ve been teaching quite of few Spaniards lately, which is super cool. It´s never been the majority but I love talking to them and teaching them. They are very very different than any other nationality here. I would say that if you stopped a Spaniard who was around my age, more or less, 90% of the time they would be atheist. The older generation would be 90% Catholic, but it has kind of flipped flopped here in Spain. Weird how that worked. But I´ve learned a ton as I talk with more of those people who don´t believe in God and figure out how I can help them, how to let them see that God really does exist. Sometimes it stumps me, but I know it´s not impossible to teach someone with that background. Lots of times though they just have a completely closed heart and mind to things like that, I´m sure their parents tried to push them in the Catholic direction for a time and they changed directions. They need a humbling experience...like a storm or something...haha just kidding, that´s rude of me. But it´s for a good cause in the bigger picture. Like in 3 Nephi, I would like the Lord to send a famine or something, to help them turn their hearts unto the Lord again. I want these people to have a chance to accept this great gift that the Lord is freely presenting to them.

We stopped this one girl in the street, I thought she was around 21 or 22, but as we started talking to her we found out SHE IS 14!! I felt a bit weird haha, she doesn´t believe in God, but told us about her sister who actually does, who is a bit older, and we´re going to teach her. Funny/weird experience.

All in all, great week. I´m loving this mission--each day I love it a bit more. Also, we get to skype in like a week, which is BLOWING MY MIND. I´m so excited, it´s going to be awesome.

I haven´t heard much about the snowflake making, hopefully you´re keeping up the tradition. I´ve been teaching some members how to do it, won´t be too long before their housed are covered with them as well.

I love you all dearly, and am so thankful for the things you write me, the support and love you give me. I couldn´t do this without that. Tell everyone in Soda I say hi, and that I miss you all.

Have a great week!

Love Elder Franson

Andrea's baptism.

so many baptisms!

Good morning or evening to everybody!

Wow, Christmas is coming up so fast I can´t really believe it. I still remember last Christmas so well, being in the nice warm climate haha. It´s been pretty cold here, no snow at all. Sometimes rain. I realized it´s basically been 2 years now since I´ve had snow, except that one time when we climbed the volcano. But it sounds like there isn´t much there in Idaho anyway, that´s too bad. There is actually a big mall here that has an indoor ski resort so that people can go, sounds pretty cool.

Ok, do you guys remember the lady I talked a lot about back in my last area--Barrio 9, named Jessica? She's from Peru and was always coming to church and we could meet with her quite often but she didn´t really want to get baptized, didn´t understand it. Her main concern was the reason we have the law of chastity. Well, on Friday night I got this random call, turned out to be her! After talking for a bit, she invited me to her baptism!!!! I couldn´t believe it, didn´t know what to say haha. She told me she realized it´s time to take it seriously and to do the right thing, that she´s known it was a good thing. I am so happy!! I don´t think it´ll be possible to go to her baptism, but I´m going to try one of these pdays to go over to that area and see some of those people again.

Another amazing blessing was seeing Charlie grow, we weren´t able to meet him during the week (he had some jobs and didn´t have time) but he came to church and loved it like usual. He leaned over to me at one point and told me "I´ve found the church now, I´m not going to leave!" Bam! I´m so happy seeing that. He continues to progress towards his baptism which will be the 21 of December, after the church meetings. He´s so excited being there with us and all of the members. That is something that this branch does really well in, fellowshipping the new people. It´s easy to notice the new people and they always go over and introduce themselves. Please pray for Charlie as he continues to work for his baptism, he needs lots of support and love.

Andrea is getting baptized this week, one of the daughters of the family that got baptized about a month ago. At first, she didn´t seem interested at all, even refused to pray, but now she´s completely changed. She´s so weighed down in her studies but she still likes to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon. This weekend will be very special for her and her family, and us of course. She´s amazing, so spiritual and such a hard worker too. To be honest she reminds me a bit of Leah--she´s independent, works so hard, studies a lot. She could use your prayers as well to continue strong on this path.

The work is moving forward so fast a feel like, and I love being a part of this great army. I again encourage everyone to serve a mission, there is nothing I could be doing better at this time of my life than being here.

I hope you all take care and and have an amazing week. I love you all so muchhhhh.

Elder Franson

the kid learns to whistle

Family and Friends!

Ok I have a huge accomplishment i want to tell everybody... I can whistle. Yep, I´ve learned. Ok well it´s not very good nor loud but I can make a sound! haha, Dad you´ll be proud. I´ll continue practicing to get better.

This week went by really fast, we did 2 intercambios- one with the APs, and another with our district leader here. When I was with the AP I learned so much, and had such a great day. His name is Elder Anderson, from Boise, and he´s hilarious. It definitely reminded me of a lot of things I could try to do better, like many of the intercambios we do. I was grateful for that opportunity to see how he worked. Also he said that his grandma and some family are from Grace, who are Rasmussens. Dad, do you think you know her?

Funny all of the connections there are with the church.

Charlie is doing amazingggg. I am overjoyed to see him so willing to accept these things and how much he loves what he hears. He came to church again yesterday and during the 5th Sunday thing, the guy talked a bit about tithing and about doing the settlements now. Charlie turned to us and asked if he needs to go to that, we said not until he´s a member, and he said oh, and then after I´m a member I can pay tithing and go to that? Sounding pretty excited about it haha. Sometimes it´s just a little difficult to meet with him during the week, he´s got a really crazy boy, but I know he´s loving it. Continue praying for him please, to continue progressing and being able to continue to his baptismal date for the 21 of December.

Another little cool miracle we had was Sofia. On Saturday night we wanted to pass by some African investigators to invite them to church, but instead of them being home, we found another lady who a couple days before had just moved in, renting a room there. I felt something pushing me to continue talking to her there in the door way instead of just saying bye. After breaking the ice for a sec, we invited her to church and she surprised me with saying yes and agreeing to walk with us. Surprised me even more when she actually came with us that morning and enjoyed church!

I read the email from Rachel talking about how they don´t really teach in their mission language, and laughed as I realized my mission is pretty similar. We teach a ton of people from completely random countries, and a mix of Spanish and English. I don´t really like teaching in English, it feels super weird. I can´t say a normal prayer in English either, just not used to it. But it´s great, those people are amazing.

Oh this is the last week of the transfer, just wanting to let you know. I got the shoes! Thanks so much for sending them! They´ll be perfect.

I love you all so much, thanks for everything!

Elder Franson

love meeting so many people

Family and friends,

This week was a good one, we were able to go to the temple on Wednesday morning--love that place--then on Thursday we had a huge zone conference. But unlike times before, on Thursday it was every zone here in Madrid (there are 5 zones). So it was huge, but a lot of fun. I learned a ton and felt the spirit really strong. They do such a good job at motivating us, at least me. One part really struck me was when they gave us the envelopes that we had actually written to ourselves on the first day in the mission field. I got to read what I wrote back then, and It felt so weirddddd. Like I was talking to my best friend, or my twin self haha. Holy smokes, made me all emotional. But made me remember the desires I had at the beginning of this mission, and how eager I was to go start working. I hope to continue with those same desires and to become the missionary that I imagined myself being as I grew up. Thank you mom and dad for helping guide me so that that is actually possible.

We´ve been finding amazing people! Thank you for your prayers! You´ve been helping us out a ton. One of them was Charlie--from Ghana :) he´s been here for quite some time, and is married to a Spanish woman and they have a little cute boy. We found him actually a while ago but it just took forever to meet with him. On Tuesday we had a great lesson and then another time this week, then he came to church!! He told us many times that he felt so good there, and that he´s going to come every Sunday now haha. This is the best. Pray for him. He´s accepted a baptismal date for the 20 of December, so excitedddddddd.

Also found a couple of other great people, one from the DR, one from Africa, another from somewhere else on the globe. I love meeting so many people. I would like to be able to teach more Spanish people though. 

Thanks for everything, I love you all and appreciate your prayers. Take care!

Elder Franson

missing swim team and the english hymn book

This week.... what happened. It went by so quickly honestly.

It´s definitely cooling off here, just so bitter. Yesterday we didn´t have time to drop our suit jackets off and get our coats, so we just went throughout the rest of the afternoon and night with our suit jackets and scarves and it was so painful. I mean, I grew up in Idaho winters, you´d think I´d be able to endure a little bit of cold, but I think my body is getting used to warmer weather. I bought nice little gloves though for super cheap which will help a ton.

On Saturday we ended up attending a big activity in Mosoles--a neighboring town--for a big open house thing. Our zone went there and divided up with members, doing splits, to contact a ton of people and invite everyone to the chapel. Honestly, we talked to literally everyone that we passed for two and a half hours. I was exhausted by the end but so motivated and excited to continue working. We returned to our town and I tried to bring that same excitement back. We´ve seen lots of good things, and hopefully we´ll be able to continue with that.

We walked into a rec center the other day to figure out if we could go there to play some tennis or something one pday, and as soon as I walked in the door I smelled the chlorine from the pool and I about started crying--I miss swimming! Haha it brought back a ton of memories from swim team.

We taught a girl from Egypt this week!! Super cool, I mean she looked very similar to those people from Morocco, but it´s really cool to say I taught someone from Egypt. She´s Muslim, but listened to us and is really interested in our English classes as well. You never know what can happen! Sambou from last area--Muslim from Mali--is doing really well I´ve heard and has been going to church! Pray for these people please, they need lots of help.

This Sunday was the primary program for the branch and it was so cute, they have a decent number of kids, and did very well. One little boy started sleeping with his head put back on the chair, mouth open and everything, and when they tapped him on the shoulder for his turn to get up and say his little line, he rolled his head forward and just had the most depressed/discouraged face, I imagine it´s very similar to the face Porter makes sometimes, for example, Leah woke him up and said he had 30 minutes to get ready for church and he just got so stressed haha. The members ended up escorting the poor boy down off the stand to his mom, he looked pretty tired haha. I love primary programs.

One really cool thing we had happen was 2 less actives that we´ve been visiting came to church! I was just so happy when I saw them walk through the door. One of them, Mike, doesn´t speak Spanish really well, and so we had to translate for him. He just moved here as well from a couple different countries that he´s lived in, including Austria (!). He´s got a nice quad scripture set, little English hymn book, and some other things. It was so weird to look through that hymn book, so many hymns that I´ve forgotten about! The Spanish one only has 209 songs.

Well I can´t think of much else to write about, sorry it wasn´t the most eventful/funny week.

I hope you all have a great week continue working on the little things that will help strength and fortify your testimonies. I love you all so much, thanks for your support and love for me, I appreciate and rely on it so much.

Love Elder Franson

polynesian chants and the cups song

Family and Friends,

Hey everyone! This week was great, and it all started with a super awesome meeting we had at the mission home with the other leaders and President, I learned so much and left with a much bigger desire to work my hardest, living up to my potential, and to help other missionaries accomplish the same. In my mission we have some amazing leaders and I have so much to learn from them.

We´ve been kind of slow on finding new people these last couple of weeks, and our investigator pool not super big, but we´ve been talking about how we can do better this week so I´m excited to get to work :) sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed thinking about how many people are here that we need to stop and help.

I can´t remember how much I´ve told you of some of our investigators, so I´ll explain a bit. Andrea is one of the most promising, is a 21 year old girl, she´s a member of the family that was baptized just a month ago. She just doesn´t want to go super fast and make the big decision to be baptized, but we have a baptismal date with her for the 6th of December and she´s progressing. She sings super well, and her sister Diana (who is baptized, and reminds me a lot of Lauren for some reason). They´re an awesome family, I love them so much. They´re always full of jokes and stories.

Another investigator we have is Paloma, who is from Guinea Equitorial, and is pregnant (with only like 5 weeks or something). She´s really cool, but basically doesn´t move. She took the doctors advice a little too literally of being on rest in these few months. She doesn´t even leave the house hardly haha. BUT, she did come to the branch´s talent show on Saturday miraculously and loved it! even started dancing a little bit afterwards. We also have a date with her but we´re going little by little.

That talent show was super fun, I had a blast. I participated in singing a song with a member and the other elders, then us elderes did the Haka (those Polynesian chants they do, like in Forever Strong?), then we also did the Cups song with those 2 sisters--Diana and Andrea. Those hours of practicing with Cady and Porter really paid off haha. When they found out my companion and I could do it they asked us to do it with them. We didn´t sing, but just did the cup part. I´m pretty sure all of the members have the videos of all of them on YouTube/Facebook, they loved the activity so much. I love ward/branch activities, they are so great. I think it´s really important for investigators to see that we´re normal people, and that we have good clean fun. One girl said she had no idea she´d have such a fun night without alcohol and clubs and things like that. Ok the relief society sisters´ talent (there were 5 of them) was a dance to Elvis´s song that goes like ´Ain't nothin but a hound dog´, and it was HILARIOUS! hahaha there was one sister, she´s like in her later 40´s, that went all out--whipping her hair and everything. I have a video of it, and can not wait to show it to you guys.

Besides that, the mission life and work is going great, I love it. I want you all to continue to pray and look for missionary opportunities. And also, family, to get a copy of Preach My Gospel and have it at home :)

Love you all so much!
Elder Franson
Elder Wilson and me again!

share the gospel while you can

Hey Mom and Dad and everybody!

Week 1 went really well here in Fuenlabrada. To fill in more information that I forgot last time. My companion is from Utah, went to Timpanogas High School and he´s Polynesian and I love it. He´s so chill and awesome. He´s a lot like Helaman and we get along great :) His name is Elder Schwenke (sounds like shwenky).

We had a super good week, have some great people here and some great potential. I hear about Elder Wilson a lot, he really made an impact on these people. Makes me really miss our time we had together in La Laguna--feels like forever ago now.

Ok so there´s this little boy in the branch, 10 years old, cutest little thing. He likes to sing for us in English--songs from Jason Derulo (no idea how to spell his last name) and others, and it´s the best. Well the other day we had a ward family home evening and long story short, he was blindfolded walking around trying to find a specific person when he ran into a little cement curb thing that scraped up his shins. The really funny part was that like 45 min later when we left to walk home, he started limping really bad, going a centimeter an hour almost haha. Reminded me a lot of those funny times when Porter gimps around the house after a minor scratch. Don´t worry bud, I still love you more than anyone.

One of those Jason Derulo songs they have and played once was the song Whatcha Say, which brought back lots of fun memories of the backwards video we made with Lauren, Lexi, Natalie, and Cady and Porter. So funnnn haha. There are some members here in the branch who are in charge of the music and hymns here and take it so seriously. First of all, there are about 50 members who come to church each week max, and it makes me regret not being better at the piano so I could help play the hymns because they use just a CD player haha. The director is so funny, remind me to demonstrate it when we Skype for Christmas.

By the way, I just wanted to say that I LOVE working in branches. Wards are great, and I love that so many members go, but there is something different in branches. I feel like they typically work a lot more with the missionaries. This branch is so unique and diverse, it's awesome! People from all over in Africa, China, South America, and other countries in Europe.

There is an awesome family here that continues to amazing me with their dedication and love for the Gospel. And get this, they were baptized just a couple weeks ago. They´re awesome!

Missionary work is the greatest people, I love it so much and feel so blessed to be here right now.

I hope you all will continue to pray for opportunities for missionary service. We have this thing that is so crucial and important in this life. I´ll always remember an experience that Bishop Harris taught us about this. He said he had a friend, not a member, and he didn´t really invite him to church or to hear more about it, and not long later his friend past away. He shared with us how he knows his friend is going to come up to him after this life, and ask him ´Why didn´t you ever invite me to your church if you knew it was the true church?¨. I feel the same, I don´t want to fear man here, and then face them after knowing I didn´t help at least give them an opportunity to know more. That´s our obligation as members, and I dont want to forget it. Thank you for your great examples mom and dad, you´ve been amazing guides for me. You are amazing.

Love you all so much!

Elder Franson

transferred to fuenlabrada

Hello Everyone!

We finished the transfer really well, working really hard with Elder Boone. However, we found out on Saturday night that i´m getting transferred! To Fuenlabrada (it´s actually where elder Wilson served not too long ago, which is exciting haha, I love that guy. By the way, did I tell you guys that he´s the AP? So awesome!)

Our address is
 Calle Tulipanes 4, 4´C
 28941 Fuenlabrada
 Madrid España

But remember, that with the main bigger stuff, you can send that to the mission office.

Our investigators are doing well, Sambu went to the ward´s FHE last Monday and loved it, I really do think that one day he will be baptized. Jari is still awesome, and has started to read a bit more. It confuses me a lot with him, he loves this stuff and visiting with us, but he´s not progressing...we finally got it out of him that he wants to be more prepared to be baptized, to learn more. So we´ll see.

On Sunday we had a lot of goodbye appointments with members and investigators, we were honestly running from house to house. We said goodbye to Roger and Analis--a family there that is amazing and so special. Roger especially has made a huge impact on me. They hope to visit the states one day and come visit us and see our horses and cows haha. He loves seeing pictures and hearing stories about our hobby farm.

Another family that was really hard to say goodbye to was one that has a little boy about Porter´s age, who I got attached to over these last couple of weeks. He loved, by the way, the goldfish and jam haha, couldn´t stop eating them. Thank you mom for sending that, it was perfect. At the end I gave him a big hug and he couldn´t let go, started crying saying that his favorite elder is leaving. It broke my heart! His mom said that since it was his dad who baptized him and everything, he didn´t really have any special ´missionaries´ like many converts have with those who taught them. But that I kind of became that elder for him. He wanted me to promise that I´d come back and visit him later, which I am totally down for, mom haha.

I´m excited for this change though, it´ll help me grow a lot i think. Thank you so much for your emails and prayers. I am praying for you all the time and hope everything is going well!

Love Elder Franson

With Roger

teaching a muslim

Well, This week has been an interesting one haha. I´m sitting here looking at the amazing pictures from Leah´s wedding, so happy for her and excited. That day was a weird one for me haha, I kept looking at the clock and my mind was constantly just calculating the time for back home and wondering what you all were doing. Probably not the best thing I could have done, but I missed you guys a lot more on that day. I´m sad to have missed it but I´m so happy for her and Todd. Wow, can´t believe they´re actually marrieddddd.

Ok, bringing my mind back to Spain. We had some really cool miracles! We have that investigator from Mali--Sambu--and he is awesome!! So he is Muslim (isn´t the first time I´ve taught a Muslim), and he´s from the very very poor part of Mali where the kids grow up on the field without any schooling. He is very slow at reading, but has told us that he takes the Book of Mormon with him everywhere he goes and reads it when he can which is really cool. THEN, he told us after I asked him what he thought about the book (because Muslims don´t believe in Jesus Christ like we do and I was a bit nervous), and he said he likes it more than the Koran (their 'bible')!! I´m so happy. He´s showing some great potential and we´re hoping he continues. Pray for him please, he´ll need it.

Jari isn´t really reading the B.o.M, and isn´t progressing at all which is a big bummer. He is super good and I love him, but he´s not putting in his part at all. He´ll also need some extra prayers. We continue to work with him and push him down the right road haha.

Just so you know, this is the last week of transfers, this Saturday we´ll find out the changes. I´m hoping I won´t leave, so many good things going here! And Elder Boone and I are doing great together.

Today was cool, we went to this huge forest area right next to Madrid, and did a cool little hike/walk to the place where Elder Romney dedicated Spain for the preaching of the Gospel. Took some pictures, and then read the dedicatory prayer. Pretty spiritual. I can´t tell that many people here have been prepared by the Lord.

Then, we went to a store called Taste of America. Yep. It´s got American stuff haha. Lots of things there that I didn´t realize they don´t sell here. I found Goldfish there! But they were pretty expensive and I knew you were going to send me some, so I didn´t buy them. They were from Pepperidge Farm though! I did buy some Fruit Loops and a Dr. Pepper since it´s been over a year since I´ve had those haha.

Oh yeah, and have you found anything Idaho or America related that I could give to this one amazing member family here? Like a fridge magnet or something, I think he´d love it.

Thanks for everything you guys, I love you so much. I love you Mom and Daddddddd and Leah! AHHHHH gosh, this is so crazy. Ok well have a great week and take care!

Love Elder Franson

the cotton-eyed joe

Hello everyone!

This week was SO great! So many great moments that have brought me to a higher level of happiness.

Okay so one of the greatest moments was the huge activity our ward put on on Saturday that celebrated each country and culture that our ward has here. Spain, Ecuador, Peru, the Domincan Republic, Bolivia, and the States. The Latin groups each prepared great dances with complete costumes to represent their culture, which was really cool to see. We as missionaries wanted to do something for our country, so a couple weeks ago I was thinking about country line dancing, something pretty typical right? Haha so we started planning and decided to do the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance for them, and it turned out so good! They all started getting excited and clapping and yelling, pretty awesome :) Jessica, our investigator, filmed it and put in on YouTube so you guys could all watch it. Okay actually I just called her and she said it´s not working right, so she´s going to send it to me. We´ll see, but some day you guys will be able to watch it haha. There were some really cool dances and things from the other countries. I just love those countries and people. 

Other great news, it´s been raining quite a bit here too, which is nice. I mean it does make contacting a bit more difficult when it´s pouring, but always makes for a great story. On the way home from the activity, we were walking home with some other missionaries with plates full of food and out of nowhere tons and tons of water just comes falling down! Haha we found shelter in a little bus stop and decided to wait there for a bus. I also found out my shoes have a hidden hole in the bottom, when I realized my toes were sloshing around in water haha. Pretty great. The Nordic skis have a little crack in the bottom I guess.

Jessica is doing really well. Now that she has work she only has 1 day off, and so she came to the activity this last week, and this week she´s going to come to church! She´s a great person, and even though we weren´t progressing a whole lot when we were meeting regularly, I think she will in the future and be baptized someday.

The work is doing really great, I´m doing great out here and loving life :) I hope you guys are all doing great! I´m praying for you every day.

Love, Elder Franson

when nice miracles fall into your lap

Hey!

Well conference was just great, and although I miss being able to watch it with you guys in my pjs in the living room, it was great to be with other missionaries and members at the temple/stake center. I especially loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talking about getting an answer, and focusing on the basic requirements. I wish Jari and all of the other investigators could have heard that (yeah all of the investigators were punks and couldn´t). We did however have a nice miracle fall into our lap--Elder Boone´s teacher from the MTC had a friend who lives in our area, and brought him for the last session and we went and sat with him. He´s great, got a lot of questions, but has some potential. Member references are the best, one of the greatest surprise gifts you could give a missionary. We don´t get many here, but the ones we do get are great.

I was able to see Logan just for a second! haha I knew he was there, he left a little note with Hermana Hadley (Leah knows her) who lives around there, for me. So I saw him while I was down by the temple, and he was inside in the stairwell and I got all excited haha. They are pretty strict on us missionaries not getting anywhere near the MTC missionaries, but somehow Chelsey found a way haha. I´ll try to see what I can do, I´m sure there´s a way. He looked happy and good, as far as I could tell down from the temple grounds looking up to the glass stairway.

You asked about Sambu, mom--he´s doing good, the other elders I guess saw him walking around the city with his Book of Mormon tightly held with him. He is the only one out of them that can somewhat read, he reads fine but it is just really slow. He ran up to them and showed them the book, telling them he reads it whenever he has a moment :)

The Brazilian lady invited us over to eat some Brazilian food--rice beans and some chicken haha, it was so good. She seems to accept the gospel really well and doesn't have many problems or objections.

Jari is great, haven´t met with him since Tuesday, but he´s awesome. We´re just working with him now to help him be more active, he´s only come to church twice and it´s been a while.

Thanks for everything you guys, thank you mom. I wish I could show you guys more love and appreciation than what words on a computer allow me.

Have another great week!

Love Elder Franson

The cinnamon rolls turned out great, Mom! Thanks for the recipe.

new companion, new investigators

Hey family and friends!

We´re progressing really well, my companion and I and with our investigators. I´ve been so impressed with him and have already learned just so much. I can tell he really wants to work his hardest and do his best.

This last week wasn´t as funny nor interesting as was last week with all of those funny stories, but there were of course many little miracles and blessings we saw.

Those Brazilians that I told you about are doing really well, Ivonne is the main lady´s name, and she's so sweet and nice. We´re actually meeting with her tonight to teach the Plan of Salvation. They seem to take good interest n our message and show potential. Hopefully we can set a baptismal date with them for the 1 of November.

It takes some adjusting to get used to teaching with a brand new companion, just because they are so new they don´t have that experience first of all, and with the Spanish as well. But we´ve been working together and I can see lots of improvment already. I have been trying to give him things to do--have him contact the people in the street and do more talking, then later I had him use the phone and call them. He was pretty nervous but has been doing so great! I´m very impressed.

So we contacted a guy in the street- African named Sambu--and set up an appointment for a couple days later. When we walked into the house, we found ourselves sitting in a squished couch in between 7 other HUGE african guys. I was really intimidated. Haha my companion was too, and since he wasn´t able to understand what they say I think that made it a bit worse haha. We came to find out that they are really really nice guys, and were very welcoming to us. They are Muslims, (oh and from the DR of the Congo), and can´t read...so we weren´t able to give them a Book of Mormon but we are wanting to just read a bit in the Book of Mormon with them and hopefully the spirit can be there to touch their hearts.

I don´t know if you guys remember, but the Cozzolino family from La Laguna (one of my favorite families I´ve met here on the mission), well the one girl Romina who got back from her mission while I was there, just got married! I was able to talk to her for a second and she´s doing really great. I miss that family a lot--they are expecting my return some day so mom we definitely need to plan something haha. You guys would love them, they are from Argentina and are really really awesome.

I´m doing super good here, very happy and blessed. Thank you for your love and prayers, The Lord has taken good care of me here and is helping me each day.

Love you all!!

Elder Franson

elder franson the trainer

Hey y´all :)

Our new district leader is from Honeyville, Utah and has a farm and we like to talk about the farm life a lot haha, He´s a hoot.

So, My companion is Elder Boone! Straight from the MTC in Madrid, just graduated in June as well. He´s amazing, I was praying really hard for a companion that would come into the field with a good desire to work hard and be obedient, and he´s just that. He has impressed me a ton in these first couple of days. We´re working together really well and he´s doing so good. we´re working together on the Spanish, and he´s been improving each day. I´m so excited for this opportunity to train, it´s going to teach me so many things and I´m really excited.

I got the package, Thank you so much, mom! I´m so excited, and thanks for the good ol' Chalean Extreme, love it :D My companion thought it was pretty funny. Thanks also for the pictures, they are beautiful! I miss that place. The district leader--Elder Bennett--loved them as well since he is from a farm haha.

I´ve got a really funny story from yesterday at church--so Jessica showed up with her cute little son Lucas and sat by us during sacrament meeting. Sometimes he can be a handful and super noisy and bad during the meetings, so I tried my best to keep him entertained and quiet. It worked for a while. drawing, rock paper scissors, who can be the quietest contest, holding your breath contest...and he was doing pretty good. Then toward the end, he was on his chair and sneezed really big. He was good though and put his hand over his mouth, but sadly there was a little hole where this big lugey shot out right onto my ARM! hahaha so gross, but so dang funny. We had a good laugh about that one for a while.

I tried to make cinnamon rolls the other day...didn´t turn out at all. They were pretty gross actually haha. I mean I was kind of guessing at all of the ingredients. I´ll try to get better. I made some no bake cookies for a baptism of the other elders on Saturday and they turned out well. There aren´t many things like those desserts here in Spain, so when we make them the people really like it.

We struggled this week with being able to meet with each of our investigators, multiple times they called to cancel the appointment and change it, or sometimes they just didn´t show up. It´s a bit sad and frustrating, but there´s not much we can do I guess.

On Monday or Tuesday, I started noticing my neck getting really tight and aching a lot, and then all of a sudden it got so bad that I couldn´t turn my head from side to side, nor up and down, I was just stuck there haha. Kind of like Sally---remember dad and Leah? From over by trout poop creek? It was really weird haha, and I felt like an idiot having to turn my body 180´ to check both ways before crossing the street haha. Since then it´s stopped though, just a weird fluke thing for a couple days. I made a home made rice bag to put some heat on it, which helped a lot. Hopefully that´ll give you guys a good laugh.

While waiting for the metro (subway basically), a girl came yelling up to us ´Mormons! Mormons!!´ turns out she is an 18 year old, just graduated, from Walla Walla, Washington (!), and is here to teach English for a year. She is not Mormon, and doesn´t really like us, but for the last 2 months there in Washington, she had the elders over every Tuesday I guess to ´argue´ about their beliefs. At one point she said to us ´have you guys converted anyone to Christianity lately? or well I guess Mormonism? since it´s pretty different´´ ... It was really weird, definitely one of those girls Leah would have just killed with her stare and no more within a couple seconds haha. I continued talking to her for a second until we got off, trying to be as nice as I could. Interesting person.

Other than that...we went to that candy warehouse again today and my companion bought a HUGE bag of popcorn for just three euros, like five bucks. Haha so funny, it´s going to last us for such a long time.

This week was a really good one, I´m just smiling as I imagine you guys hearing about some of those funny experiences. I´m doing really great and am so happy, This transfer will bring lots and lots of blessings.

Love Elder Franson

Baptism of Joshua

the Lord can soften the heart of anyone!

Hello everyone!

Big news to start off with transfers- Elder Saltzman is leaving to the Canary Islands (!) I´m really excited for him. And for me, I´ll be training a new guy! I don´t know who he is, I´ll go to pick him up from the MTC tomorrow so that makes me a bit nervous but I´m really excited. I´ll be able to let you know more about him next Monday, I´m really hoping we´ll get along great- like Elder Wilson and I did. I will definitely be applying many things that Elder Wilson taught me when we were companions, they helped me become such a better missionary and person.

Yesterday we got fed a ton from all of the goodbye visits for Elder Saltzman, and since he loves spicy food and the members know, they loaded the spicy stuff on it haha, he woke up this morning with canker (no idea how to spell that) sores all over his mouth haha.

It is a long story to explain and I´m not going to try--might turn into those typical stories I used to tell that last for hours and end with no punchline haha. But we are switching piso´s with the hermanas, who live just down the street a little bit, so my address will change. Calle Fransisco Garcia 16 3´D and then all of the rest would be the same. I haven´t gotten the package yet but I´m sure it´ll come soon. You guys are amazing, thank you so much for everything.

Elder Saltzman´s mom sent him like four packages with tons of spices and food and everything, and he had to leave quite a bit of stuff which sucks for him but is pretty awesome for me haha. I inherited the wonderful syrup, candy, he had bot like eight packages of brown sugar as well haha. Our cupboards have been pretty stocked full.

I was going to ask you--in the next package you send whenever it be, could you maybe put a couple little souvenirs from the states or Idaho in there? The members here give us lots of stuff from their countries and I want to give them something little from the states in return. I think they would like something like that.

We had a baptism this last Saturday! Joshua--the 11-year-old-kid--and it turned out to be really cool. He asked that Elder Saltzman baptize him and I confirm him. The story is amazing because the Lord softened the heart of his dad who, after months of refusing, finally let him be baptized. The Lord can soften the heart of anyone!!

This was a great week, it´s always very gratifying to see one of your investigators get baptized and make that step. How is the work going in Soda?

Love Elder Franson

serving someone who needed a friend

Hey everyone! :)

Life is good. I honestly can´t really write and explain the complete impact, the change I´ve had, the blessings I´ve received, all from choosing to serve a mission. I would encourage everyone to serve a mission if they can, I know there are so many things that are preparing me for the trials and steps I will have later on in life. It´s time we´re giving back to the Lord, but he gives us so much more in return. 

We´ve had multiple investigators fall off the face of the earth a bit haha, some aren´t answering their phones anymore, some aren´t doing anything and don´t quite have the desires to change right now. So we´ve been contacting a lot, walking in the busy streets here in Madrid. I love it! We´ve found some people with some good potential- one family caught my eye in our area book, so we passed by their house and they were home AND had some time to let us in! It was really cool, I love Brazilians so much, that country is awesome haha. Andy is pretty lucky. We have a return appointment for tonight so we´re really excited.

A couple days ago we were walking and saw an old lady in a wheelchair who stopped us and seemed a little deprived of a friend to talk to. We ended up pushing her along the road for a bit, listening to her tell us story after story. I love service, I feel bad for all of those times I did it grudgingly, or complained about having to go out and help you, Dad. I was stupid. Don´t worry though because i´ve changed :)

We have another new investigator named Giovanna (pronounced like yobana) from Bolivia. She is really cool and has already read in the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets, and is super interested. It is so weird going to her house though because every time I see her I get a strong feeling that I´ve seen her before, or knew her before. Who knows, the spirit world? Not sure, but it´s a cool thought.

There is an 11-year-old boy we´ve been teaching (mom is a strong member but his father is pretty against the Church) and he´ll be getting baptized this Saturday! For a long time his dad wouldn´t give him permission but now his heart has been touched and softened by the Lord, and he is letting Joshua get baptized! I´m praying that all will go well and then maybe one day his dad's heart will continue to soften and he'll join with his family in this Church.

Thanks for everything, Spain is doing really well and I'm so happy to be here.

Love Elder Franson

if we do our part, the Lord will do his

I swear my adrenaline always pumps a bit faster as i walk to the locutorio on Mondays to write to you guys. It is the best :)

I played soccer with Elder Wilson this morning, it was so great! I miss that elder a ton, can´t wait to be able to just sit and share old memories one day haha. He is such a great missionary here, and I was so lucky to be able to be trained by him. We have made plans that he´ll come up to our house later on and stay there, hope that´s cool with you guys :) haha.

Even though this week was a bit slower/tougher in some senses, looking back on it I can still count many blessings that the Lord gave my companion and I. Jari is slowly progressing, although now it´s tougher because he isn´t reading very much, but we´re trying to help encourage him. I read in Preach my Gospel this morning a part that says "Trust in the Lord that he will bless anyone who reads the Book of Mormon and prays with faith and a sincere heart and true intentions, with a confirmation or answer that it is true." I think it has to do with many other things in life as well, just trusting that if we do our part, the Lord will do his.

One of our main struggles this week was Jessica--that Peruvian lady who always meets in a park and cooks for us. She´s been hung up on the fact that even though there should be one true church, all of the churches, including ours, are the same. She doesn´t feel much different in our church than in the Catholic. We´ve been struggling a bit with what to say and finally came to the conclusion that we should give her a printed version of the talk Callister gave about the blueprint of Christ´s church which explains it pretty clearly. A couple days later we met again to talk about it and, I´m not even joking, I was about to laugh out of frustration and confusion at her response. She said something like ¨Yeah it was good, I mean it is basically teaching the same thing the Catholics and others teach, they´re all the same!´. Freak how do you get that out of his talk? I made a comment like ¨... Well where are the 12 Apostles and prophet in the Catholic church since that is how Jesus formed his church?¨ and she just said they have their leader and then it just extends down..."

I don´t know, it really just frustrated me haha, not sure what more we can do with her. I love this people and really want to help them, her included. But I think not always do the investigators have those desires, but maybe later on they could be ready to accept it more fully.

I finished the Book of Mormon (I started it back at the end of March, not this new challenge that I recently told you guys about) and I learned so much more. I´m excited to read it again. It´s a book that just never gets old!

Tell all of the people there I say hi.

Love Elder Franson

1. My cluttered desk :S.

2. Doodles in my Spanish grammar book.

banged heads and pancakes

Family and friends,

This week wasn´t more eventful than the rest, but we got our share of blessings and help as usual. There were some funny things though--Elder Saltzman and I are having quite a problem of hitting our heads on random things--doorways, the metro (subway), trees, signs. The other day I was walking and reading when out of no where I walked straight into this bar that was sticking out from the wall of a little store, I´m pretty sure there were some chunks of metal that fell down haha so embarrassing but funny. I wouldn´t be too surprised if we have gotten a concussion from hitting our heads so much haha.
Our investigator Jessica feels bad for us that we can´t listen to worldly music so she feels the responsibility to download the artists we like and play them for us as we sit and chat before we start the lessons haha. Of course she just had to download Adele and a song from Imagine Dragons, which brought back memories from home haha.

There is an inactive man we visit, I think I've mentioned him before--the Spanish guy who is a bit different--and when we sat down he had us pull out our hymn books and start singing. I´m pretty sure we ended up singing 10 hymns for him ha.

We had pancakes on Sunday morning! My comp's mom sent him syrup so we treated ourselves to a good breakfast, tasted so good.

Another funny story from today came from the barber shop as I was getting a hair cut. The TV was going and it was a program of some Spanish guy in his 20s or 30s who is trying to do what Man vs. Wild does. But the part that was funny, Kayla and Leah you are going to appreciate this, is that he was wearing bright orange Crocs! hahaha.

Ok back to the more serious stuff. Jari is doing really well, although we´ve moved his baptismal date a couple weeks back so that we can have more time to help him prepare. He doesn´t seem quite ready to make that covanent and be a strong active member yet. But he is reading and praying which is helping him a lot.

The work continues forward, I love being a part of this powerful army. Thank you for all that you do. 

Love Elder Franson

baptism date for jari

Family and friends,

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you have a great great day!

The blessings and miracles of missionary work never really stop or slow down, we are doing really well here. We have a great pool of investigators now, continually growing, and can see some really great potential with some of these people. One thing unique to this ward here in Madrid than my other areas is working with part member families. Right now we are teaching 5 separate investigators that belong to member families, which is way more than any other area I´ve been in. I´m really excited for these upcoming weeks and months for this ward.

Our investigator Jari--the guy from the DR--is doing really well. He has been reading a lot and has no problem accepting any of the stuff so far. His baptismal date is for the 30 of August which is coming up, but he will be prepared. I´m so excited for him.

Our good old Alberto--Peruvian who wears a tank top flares and cowboy boots--is doing really well also. Lately he´s been a bit weird on meeting with us, he doesn´t like doing it very often, also about coming to church, but he finally came to church and enjoyed it a lot.

We as a mission just got challenged to read the Book of Mormon together and finish on the 23 of December. I am excited to do it and have a chance to read it again with all of the other missionaries here. I wanted to invite you guys to do it as well with me if you want,. I know you just started the new testament, Mom (sorry). you guys don´t have to if you don´t want to, just an invitation for those who aren´t already working on their own goal like that.

I´m doing well out here, I´ve changed a ton and feel so much more mature and ready for life, ha.

Love you all so much,

Elder Franson

letter from hermana jackson

Dear Franson family,

Just a quick note to tell you that we were in Barrio 9 today for church, and your cute son gave a wonderful talk on "Trusting in the Lord." He had such a humble spirit, did a great job, and his Spanish is so good! We sat there like proud parents and thought how pleased you would be to know that he is doing so well. Also in attendance was Elder Tad Callister, the new General Sunday School President. Elder Franson translated for him during the Sunday School lesson, which was on The Atonement. (Kind of ironic, since Elder Callister wrote the book, "The Infinite Atonement"!)

Elder Franson is a wonderful missionary and we are enjoying him so much. He and his companion, Elder Saltzman, call themselves "the twin towers" and they are definitely a tall, handsome force for good! Thank you for sharing him with us. We know you miss him, but he is doing a great work, and we appreciate his goodness, hard work, and humility.

Warmly,
Hermana Jackson

the miracle of healing

Hey everyone,

We had an exhausting week, had so much to do, but as I look back on it, I don´t know if I´ve seen so many little and big miracles squished into one week before. We had the baptism of Mariela this week which was really special, she´s been taught for quite some time now but just never made the decision to be baptized, I think she was a bit scared, but when I got here we presented her with a date and she accepted, and now she´s baptized! Also, I found out that Lucho--from Alcorcon--got baptized as well! He is incredible, I talked to him on the phone for a bit and I can tell how much this Gospel means to him now. He told me he loves to watch the Mormon Messages now haha. He is going to come over here to where I live and he wants to visit investigators with us haha. I love that guy, such a good friend.

This week I´ve seen real miracles happen from priesthood blessings. I´ll share a couple of the experiences with you. There is a guy here who we are pretty close with, who has that skin disease (the one he thinks is psoriasis) that doesn´t have a cure. I´m pretty sure he´s had it for over two years, just scabs and scales all over his body that make it hard to move around sometimes. He asked us for a blessing, and as I was giving the blessings I started thinking about all of the blessings Christ did--healing so many people--and also about the John Tanner movie where the missionaries heal his leg and he´s able to walk after. Then just out of my mouth come words saying that with faith, his skin will be completely healed. I kind of forgot about it, but then three days later he came up to me, beaming with happiness and light, showing me his arms. Three days before it was covered in gross rash things and white scales, but it was all gone. I was astonished and speechless, I mean there was hardly anything there! I wrote it all down in my journal haha, that was an experience I had that I hope to never forget. The power of the priesthood is real. It has been restored onto this earth, and I am sure of it.

I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday and it went pretty good, I talked about having faith and trusting in the Lord with missionary work. As I was preparing it I thought back to the talks Dad gave which were always so good, I miss hearing them. The funny part was that, well, in the talk I made a reference to that blessing we gave to the man and the complete change because of his faith in the Lord, and after sacrament meeting we had four people come up to us asking for blessings haha.

So, we have been working super hard every day, haven´t had much rest time, but it feels so great. I love the feeling of getting home at night knowing I worked hard and did my best to keep a good attitude during the day. I remember talking about that in one of my emails back a while ago, that after lots of hard work or when you feel like things are really down, is when the miracles come. Always give that one more step, go a little bit longer, and the Lord will bless you for that.

Thank you for the great emails and for all of the love and support you´ve given me. I couldn´t have done this without you. Have lots and lots of fun on the hike! I really wish I was there, but I will be next year :) good luck and have a great week. I love you all so much!

Elder Franson

translating for tad r. callister

Hello everyone,

Running out of first liners.

This week was great, like always, full of highs and of course some lows, but it´s easier to remember the highs.

Our investigator, Mariela, is getting all ready for her baptism which is coming up. We´ve been trying to keep daily contact with her so that she will be spiritually prepared and ready for her baptism. I´m so excited for her. She is the lady whose kids are all members now, except for 1 or 2, her in-laws as well, but she´s just been a little scared. I think her main concern is making that covenant and then having the possibility of making a mistake and breaking it. I think that is a really good concern to have, lots of times I forget about the real importance and significance of our baptismal covenant. Yeah, we´re not perfect, but that shouldn´t keep us from keeping in mind that that promise we made was real, and we need to do our best every day to have His name upon us. It´s tough, but Mariela taught me a little lesson, or maybe just reminded me of that. It´s good that she knows it is something serious and that she needs to try her hardest, but we also need to know that there is no limit to sincere repentance. The Lord loves us and wants us to be happy. Never think that you can´t repent or change, because it is always possible.

Yesterday at church we were standing by the front door greeting people as they came in, and guess who just walked up without any notice?! Tad R. Callister!!!! What??? Crazy, still can´t really believe it. The story is that our ward mission leader, who is American, married Callister´s daughter, and our WML's son is getting baptized this week so they came up for it. BUT the story gets even better. I only got to talk a little bit to him there at the door, but in the Sunday school class he came up to me and asked if I could translate the class for him! Can you believe that? I got to sit in the back right next to him translating the class for him, haha I was so excited. A bit nervous of course, and felt weird since he probably knows better than anyone in that room did of the lesson topic, but it was a really cool experience. Just be ready for a story or experience when he gives a talk at conference one of these times and talks about a missionary who helped him translate :) haha just kidding.

Ok, not much time today, but to finish up I just wanted to thank everyone for all of your help and love. You all mean so much to me.

Love Elder Franson

there are always blessings to be recognized

Family and Friends :)

We now starting the last week of the transfer, can´t believe these things are going by so fast. Seeing how I just got here, I´m probably going to stay. I like it here, but sure wouldn´t say no to a cool break up in the north. I´m praying to be called up there some time to see how it is, I guess we´ll see.

We had a really good week. Four of our investigators showed up to church today which made me really happy, and also we´ve been visiting multiple less active people here and in the past we haven´t had too much luck with them coming to church, but 3 of them showed up as well! One of the less actives was Juan Carlos, an older guy who is kind of pscitzofrenic (schizophrenic) ( hahahaha NO idea how to spell that one) and just says the most random things.

We met a really cool Dominican guy, Jari, and after meeting with him throughout the week he walked with us to the church--he´s super chill and seems really interested.

Also, we had another huge blessing--his name is Domingo. He is best friends with a member who basically explained to him all about the Church, and introduced him to us. In that first lesson we had he kept talking about how the Book of Mormon has already changed his life--he won´t drink beer anymore! And he feels so much better and happier. We ended up setting a baptismal date with him at the end of that lesson for the end of August and I´m feeling really good about it. We probably won´t have to do too much, the Lord has already prepared him to accept everything.

We went this morning to Segovia! A really old city up outside of Madrid a ways (we got to ride a train there--that was so awesome, seeing the countryside of Spain). It is a beautiful city, kind of like Toledo with the cobblestones, narrow streets, old restaraunts. But Segovia has a huge castle with lots of towers and cool rooms, and an enormous cathedral to tour, and one of those aqueducts from the Roman Empire. I took lots of pictures, don´t worry :) I wish I could have had someone there explaining to me lots of the things, but it´s alright, I loved it.

I hope you all had a week filled with blessings like ours was. And if it wasn´t, look harder because there are always blessings to be recognized :)

I love you all so much, take care.

Love Elder Franson

The cathedral reminded me so much of Hogwarts! Why can't I be a wizard?

The castle.

The thrones.

The aqueduct.

1 year down!

Hello everyone :)

The weeks are going by faster and faster, not sure why, but we´ve been working really hard and are kept pretty busy.

First item of business- it has been getting so hot lately that I just had to break down and hand in a little piece of my man card...I bought one of those hand fans. But luckily it doesn´t look too girly with flowers and everything, it´s got two Spanish bulls haha. My companion thinks it´s ridiculous but I love it haha. Don´t worry, I try not to use it too much in public.

For lunch today, a family that we are teaching-from Peru--invited us to eat at the restaurant that the mom cooks at. It is a Peruvian place that cooks SO good. I had some papa a la huancaina (potatos with a special sauce) and a big thing of chicken as well. One of the girls orderd anticucho which is cow heart--they just love that here. I was kind of scared of it at first but they let me try it and it´s actually pretty good. They served it with chunks of cow stomach though, which just looked so ugly and had the worst texture, but I swallowed it down, tasted alright. Porter, better get practicing now on eating crazy foods! haha.

I got a haircut today! I love it, always feels so nice. Elder Satlzman did as well but was really worried beforehand because he wanted to keep his hair longer on top--likes to comb it back--and the lady ended up cutting a ton off...he was preeeetty upset afterwards.

Every once in a while we do ´exchanges´ with other missionaries and this week I got to be with a guy named Elder Ziane--from France! Super chill and awesome, he was teaching me a little bit of French haha.

Ok I have been anxiously waiting to tell you this story. On Friday morning, between 6:30 and 7:15, I woke up 3 times, just randomly or maybe from a little sound, and without thinking, got on my knees and started praying! Until I would look at my watch and realize I still had time to sleep haha. 3 separate times in the same night! I don´t really know why that happened, but it made me laugh when I was truly awake.

That good old investigator Alberto--with the flares, cowboy boots, and wife beater--is doing great. He has really good desires, truly wants to know more. He´s been marking up his copy of the Book of Mormon like crazy. He doesn´t want to meet with us too often because he feels like he needs time to be able to read and study a lot, so he told us he doesn´t want to meet until the beginning of August...what?? I mean, good that he really is taking this seriously, but I want to meet with him a bit more often. 

We had a really productive week, met almost all of our weekly goals lesson-wise. None of our investigators showed up at church though which was really frustrating.

That sums up our week more or less, I´m doing really good, and yep, about to hit my halfway mark in the mission. I´m amazed at how quickly it has gone by, makes me scared sometimes. This past year has been pretty tough, but by far the most productive (don´t get much time to sit on a couch and stare into space mom ;)), and rewarding year physically and spiritually. I am so grateful to be able to focus more on Christ and learn how to better my relationship with Him.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder Franson

new favorite food: ceviche

Ok, huge embarrassing story for this week. We were walking down a street, had 30 to kill before our next apt., and just randomly I looked down at my tie and noticed there was a huge bird poop splatter on my shirt!! Ugh so gross. I feel so embarrassed that for who knows how long, I had been walking down a somewhat busy street smiling, saying hi, and trying to stop people to talk about God. They probably thought I was just an embarrassment to nature.

I´ve been getting good at holding my breath, preparing for my swimming career after the mission ;) my best so far is 1:48. Sometimes Elder Galeano and I would, as we were walking, pick a tree up ahead and hold our breath until we got there haha.

Our ward mission leader here is American, which is pretty cool. From the LA area, knows Stevenson Ranch. He is an amazing mission leader--takes the work really seriously and is a really good teacher and leader--it's a bit intimidating. It is so weird to hear English to be honest, usually I can just talk to my companion in English, about people that are right next to us and they have no idea, but I´ve got to be careful haha.

There is a dish served here by the Peruvians and Ecuadorians that is amazing--called ceviche. We have many members from those places and have cooked it for us- it is so good. It is basically a soup type thing, served cold, and there are two types, 1 (Ecuador), with shrimp as the main thing, then 2 (Peru) with fish. The funny thing is though, that with the fish--they don´t cook it! Disgusting right? Well they let it sit in lemon juice to 'cook' it, but honestly I love that food. It´s alright with the shrimp, but I think the ceviche with the fish is much better. They taught me how to cook it so when I get home I´m going to cook it for you and let you try it. I think you´ll love it, Dad :)

They work is doing great, everyone´s doing good. although Jessica hasn´t been answering which is freaking us out, she found out about the law of chastity that we have and I think it weirded her out... :S pray for her please.

I think that´s about it, we had a really good week--teaching quite a bit which is keeping us busy. Thanks for your emails and support.

 Love Elder Franson

the book that answers questions

Dad, you´re going to be so proud of me--we´ve been running every other day now, Elder Saltzman is a really good motivation for me with that since I struggle with motivating myself to run. It´s way to easy to justify a little loop around the block and spend the rest of the time stretching haha. We have a good 2 mile route that we do and it´s good, definitely makes the day better.

This week went by really fast, honestly I feel like I just barely wrote you guys. We had a really good week too, found some really cool people who have lots of potential. I have learned in my mission that it is so much easier when you have the spirit to guide you while contacting.

We have this one investigator, Alberto, who is kinda funny. He likes to wear jeans that flare out at the bottom with cowboy boots, then a white tank top tucked in haha. A little bit weird, but he´s super nice. He stopped us on the street actually and we found out that 4 years ago some missionaries had given him a Book of Mormon but he never read it until a couple weeks ago and he has some questions. He, for some reason, loves the guide at the end of the book and saw the section for Melchizedek, not sure how to spell that one, and he just loved it. Seems so excited to have found a book that can answer so many of his questions, which was pretty cool. He seemed a little scared to come to church but I think that just little by little, he´ll feel comfortable enough.

Ok these last couple of weeks I´ve had memories just going through my head of our hikes each year, and I miss them! Where are you going this year? When? I can´t wait to see lots and lots of pictures.

I´m doing well, the heat of the summer is hear but I´m doing alright, not much more you can do than just bare through it haha. Most nights we get back to the piso just dripping with sweat, haha it's gross.

Have a great week! Happy late 4th of July!

Love,
Elder Franson

twin towers walking the streets

Hello folks,

Madrid is pretty awesome, different of course, but cool. My companion and I are doing great--the Twin Towers over here walking in the streets. People are probably just a bit freaked out when we try to stop and talk to them, but hopefully they´ll get used to it.

The investigator pool here is a bit small so we´re working hard trying to increase it, but the people that we do have are really awesome. Jessica, this lady from Peru, has no doubt been prepared by the Lord to listen to us. She told us that all of her life she´s been opposed to churches, but instead just have your own faith and stick with that. But she came to church and also to the baptism on Saturday and has been improving so much! When we taught her back near the beginning of the week, she started crying at the end--I could tell our message to her touched her heart a little bit more than the other churches. We have a baptismal date with her for the 9th of August so pray with me please for the Lord to help her get prepared and be ready.

I´ve been doing really well, I can tell the lord has been blessing me with Spanish lately, I feel even more fluent when I talk, it just rolls right off so much more easy. The spiritual gifts such as tongues or whatever are real. No doubt about it. 

My companion is doing great, struggles a bit with Spanish, but just in this last week he´s improved! I´m trying to do my best to help him with the little that I know.

 I hope you all had a great week, I love and miss you all. Thanks for your examples and love for me.

 Love, Elder Franson

transfers: on to barrio 9

Beatriz and Edison--recent converts that have been my second family here.

Hermano Fransisco from Peru. Such a good guy.

Well that was really unexpected, I was fully expecting to stay with Elder Galeano for another transfer but as we opened the email on Saturday night, I found out I was leaving to go to Barrio 9 (a big ward here in Madrid, I guess the area is huge). I didn´t move very far but it's still a big change from Alcorcon. My new comp is Elder Saltzman from Draper, Utah, who, you´ll never guess, is taller than me! I don´t know what our success rate will be while contacting in the street because we both will look so intimidating haha. This is only his 2nd transfer in the field so I´ll be training him (!) and  I am also district leader again here in this new area which is pretty exciting--I really loved it last transfer. Sorry for not answering anyone´s questions about being district leader, I think I just forgot. It is really fun, planning district meeting, trying to help them with their challenges or struggles, serving them. I really got close to the missionaries in Alcorcon and it was sad to leave them. Actually, each one of the three companionships in Alcorcon changed this transfer, 3 of us have left. It was a pretty big change, but one that was necessary I think to help us keep the excitment going.
 

Remember that family from Bolivia that I´ve talked about? Carmen and her daughter Jailene (the family that we haven´t been able to get to know the father). Well they finally come to church!! We passed by their house a little bit before the meeting started and walked together. I was so so happy, sharing this with others is a fantastic way to receive blessings and to feel truly happy.

Also, what kind of made it harder to leave, was being able to see this progression in the area and some real potential. We met with a  new guy on Saturday named Andres, who is an artist and writer...can you imagine how excited I was to talk to him? He can paint and he is literally AMAZING. We walked into his house and there is this huge canvas that he has been painting for over a year now and it is a view of the earth but a bit abstract, and it has like a hole in it or crater or something, but it is amazing. Anyway, he came to church yesterday! Afterwards told us that he felt a good energy here and really liked it and wanted to come back--blessings raining from heaven.

This work is what the Lord has commanded us to do in these latter days. I know that this church is true, with all of my heart. The spirit has given me that burning feeling inside of me, so that when I go outside each day, I can testify with more clarity and with more power of the things that i have come to know are true. I want you all to have that experience as well, to have an answer come from the spirit, and I know it will come. 

I love you all, thank you for your supportive emails and prayers. Have a great week :) 

Elder Franson

listening to the spirit

Well some good news to start it off--I´ve lost 13 pounds since I came back from the islands! Pretty happy.

The people here aren´t doin too well after their tragic loss to the Netherlands...pretty bad. This is their life. I´m not even joking when I say there was no one in the street. I hope they can get it back together and not make a fool of themselves. It's sad though because we can´t watch it, and I was hoping the president would let us if maybe Spain made it to the final or something but nope. That's okay though, it´ll help us focus on the work. 

Okay the chair I´m sitting on right now was just slowly going down and I had no idea until my butt was about on the ground. Annoying. 

This week was a struggle with some things, like having our investigators not show up for the lesson or not answer the door when we had called them that morning to confirm it. But it is out of our control, so we just have to do our best. 

I had a really cool experience this week with the spirit, actually multiple experiences. For a little while in my mission I wasn´t exactly sure if I was receiving promptings or guidance from the spirit, and it frustrated me, but lately it has changed. We were walking down a street and my companion stopped just for a second to stretch his leg, and I had just a weird urge to go to the right, change our course. I followed that thought and we walked that way, not knowing what was going to happen, and we came across a recent convert that we needed to talk to and were able to chat with him for a second. It's happened multiple times now and I´m so grateful for the spirit. Maybe in the pastI  just wasn't able to recognize it as the spirit, but as I´ve been studying and really praying to have the spirit, it´s become more evident to me. 

Happy Father's Day to the best dad out there--I´m so grateful for everything you taught me and for helping to get me prepared for my mission. You´re the best.

Also, my camera broke...it's really weird. The lens is out but it wont turn on or do anything. Should I look to buy one here mom or would you rather send one, like the pink one or something? 

Also, could you find out what little town JV Bollar is from? He´s from here in Spain right? I would like to know, if its in my mission, maybe I could visit it. 

Okay, love you all. Have a great week! 

Elder Franson

spreading the 100 day journal challenge

Hello everyone,

Well, not sure how Idaho is doing, but Madrid is getting pretty hot. I think my legs and back are sticking to this chair from sweating haha, gross I know. 

This week went by pretty fast, we are doing really good and have been having a planned and set up lesson for almost each hour but so many of those lessons failed us, which really frustrated me. But I guess there's not much more I can do, they will always have their agency. Whoa okay a weird drunk guy that we always see in the street just came up behind me, and in a really creepy voice, said "Heyyyyyyyy!".... Oh boy. Oh good he left. Whew. 

 

Okay, back to the week, we set a baptismal date with Sebastian! That Spanish investigator that we have. He struggles a bit with prayer, when we ask him to pray he just says 2 or 3 things really fast and then ends it. So we´ve been working with him on that, and after a lesson my comp and I were talking and I found out that he too had had a thought just like I did, of having him write it all down on a paper--the blessings in his life and then the things he needs. We followed that idea and it worked wonderfully! He´s doing pretty good. The Spanish and the South Americans are very different. South Americans are very open and nice, but then they are pretty lazy and aren´t too firm--stereotypically--and the Spanish have a harder shell to crack at first, but once you get past that they can be the most dedicated and firm members you would see. So pray for Sebastian, he needs all the help he can get!

We met with a nice family from here in the branch and somehow the topic or journals got brought up, I think I had invited their 8-year-old daughter to start a journal so she can remember how she´s feeling as she is preparing to be baptized. Of course I got super excited as we began talking about the importance of journals and all that, you know me :) and I talked about my experience, how Kayla challenged me to write in my journal for 100 days straight. It really did help me so much, that challenge, helped me have that habit and even on those days where it seemed like nothing happened, I was able to find something good. Here in the mission it has helped me a ton, helped me recognize the hand of the Lord every day. So what did I do with this family, Kayla? I challenged them to write in their personal journals, but do it as family, for 100 days, and they were super excited! They made plans to go buy journals the very next day and get started haha. It was pretty cool, I´m just a journaling freak, thanks to Kayla, and I want everyone else to be one as well. 

Just got back from the world's oldest restaurant today, went with a couple other missionaries, and it was so good! Started in 1725 and has some great, great food. Their suckling pig is what they are mainly famous for and so that is what I got and it was super good. A bit pricey, though. Made some great memories, I´ll send the pics next week. 

Oh. Important thing--we are starting week 5 of the transfer, so if you want to send stuff do it soon, idk if I´m staying or going. 

Also, found out that there is a word is Spanish for long-legged. Zancudo, might be using that now haha.

Okay, well I´ll talk to you later, have a great week everyone, stay strong in the Gospel by doing those little things. No one can expect to conquer Satan if they aren´t reading their scriptures everyday, going to church, and praying. 

You all are awesome! 

Love, Elder Franson

goodbye to chelsey + the power of service

Good morning everybody,

My eyes have been opened this week to the reality of blessing coming through service. I´ve realized how beneficial it really is, not only to the person you are serving, but to the one who is doing the service. We were helping Beatriz and Edison (a family here in the branch that is our second family for here in Alcorcon) move to a different piso and at one point we were had to take a heavy washing machine down 3 flights of stairs, then over to their other piso building. It was pretty heavy, not going to lie, and we were kind of struggling haha. Well this guy rushes over to us and starts helping us carry it down. His name is Jorge and is from Peru, and he was in the process of moving as well. We were able to help carry some things for him to help out and he was really grateful. The conversation quickly turned to religion and what we did, he asked about what we did because he was so surprised we were willing to help him move and carry stuff. Sorry, long story short, we were able to meet the next day and start teaching him, get to know him a bit, and in the middle of the lesson he asked us what he needs to do to become a Mormon! I was pretty surprised, didn´t really expect that one. He also came to church which was pretty amazing. I´m counting my blessings and thanking the Lord for all that he has done for me, and for blessing us with this experience--all because we were serving. 

Today we went to Madrid to a big park (the big park we went to in the MTC to proselyte on Saturdays) for a little farewell to Chelsey who is going home in 3 weeks! I can´t believe it. It was pretty fun though, we rented bikes and rode around the park, then had a little picnic. It was pretty nice, fun to talk to her about the potato gun wars, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, all those fun memories, haha. She is still a little bitter when I mentioned Settlers of Catan, didn´t like it too much when Steph kept winning. 

The work is going forward, and is doing great. I know there is no such thing as a hard area or mission, it can all change with our attitude and faith. And its the same in life as well, you can always make your life better, always get more happiness and joy, that is what the Lord wants to do. 

Have a great week!  Love you all so much.

Elder Franson