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.