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