last email from the mtc!

Well where do i start...Life here at the MTC is great, but it just feels a little like a prison haha. There are natives that got here last Wednesday and they´ve tightened the rules a bit because in the past some of them have organized to meet their family or girlfriends outside, so we can´t go outside unless its for the sport time and we´re going to play soccer or if we get special permission from the president.

I keep a list in my planner throughout the week so I don't forget the good stuff to tell you all, and it helps so much haha. So that is why my emails may seem super unorganized.

This will be my last email from the MTC, because i´m leaving on Tuesday morning! They will take us to the stake center, the other red brick building right next to the temple and MTC, and the mission president will come and tell us where we´re headed and who our trainer will be. I´m so excited, i can´t wait! I talked to Chelsea the other day and she said if she is made a trainer again then she will be at that meeting, but who knows. She has been trying to come by when we sing on the steps on Sunday and we can talk for a second. it was so cool, she is so happy and having a great time. We talked about the good old days when we played Settlers of Catan and the competitiveness between her and Steph hahaha.

Let's see, oh we had our first real rainstorm and thunderstorm yesterday! Oh how I love those days. There were some dark clouds and while we were playing soccer in the stadium thing we saw some lightning. So cool! I´ve missed that. Here in Madrid it is pretty dry and hot (we´ve been playing soccer in around 44 celcius weather, but the hottest was 48! And this is all at 5oclock at night!!!) The rain was amazing, I got some pictures of the dark clouds behind the temple--pretty amazing. Madrid is cooling off, it isn´t as hot has it used to be. But it's still hot haha.

We went to the big city mall last Thursday and had a great time. We (my district) all wanted to get nice indoor soccer shoes to play in because our Nike Frees were getting beat up, but as i was struggling to get the shoes on my skis, I nicely found out that Nike and Adidas don´t send shoes to Spain that are about size 11... I´m a size 13... super. Hahah no its fine, we all had a good laught about it. My Nike Frees are holding up besides the one square on the bottom that casually ripped off in one of our games. But it's all good ha.

The mall was HUGE! So many stores, I got lost multiple times. It was so crazy. There was an IKEA and a huge grocerey store a little smaller than the average Walmart I´m guessing, on both sides of the mall. There is a store called Primark which makes so many things for so cheap, like a really nice Dillards or JC Penny- and I got 3 skinny ties from it for about 6 euros. Pretty sweet!

We watched a devotional on Sunday from a recording of Holland´s talk from awhile ago. The title was "Don´t You Dare Go Home." It was incredible. He talked about some stuff and then stopped for a second and said 'I don´t know why I´ve been so strongly prompted to say this, perhaps there are some of you in the audience who have been having these thoughts. Don´t you dare go home. Don´t you dare leave this place, we´re on the Lords time and it is not about us...' So cool! I have never had a thought of going home early, but throughout his talk he did a really good job at just pounding it in our brains how important this opportunity is and to do our best and trust in the lord. I love that man.

I got a big letter from Adam and Melissa, so nice of them. They told me to spend 20 bucks and buy something nice from Spain but I have NO IDEA what to get. I need help!! haha

Well I don´t have much more, I love this work and am so happy to be here. I´m so sad to be missing stuff at home but I am putting my full trust in the Lord and I know everything will be fine and that even though I´ll be gone, both you and I will be blessed so much more if I stay. Hopefully that's not weird for me to say that.

I love you all, thanks for the emails and prayers.

I go out to the field in a 5 days!! I´ll be able to write on Tuesday I think and tell you where I´m going

Love Elder Franson