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
Monday, November 24, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
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
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
Monday, November 10, 2014
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!
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!
Monday, November 3, 2014
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
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
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