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