Sunday, December 15, 2013

it's christmas time in the piso


Hola familia!

 This is super weird, it is December 9 and it does not feel like Christmas at all. It still gets pretty warm here, doesn´t snow at all here. However it has been raining a lot lately--on Friday it didn´t stop raining all day! Lots of the roads here they have made sort of a more ´modern´ cobblestone look, and with that they have a super bad drainage system. We were driving on the freeway and there was probably a 6 foot cliff to our right with water just billowing off onto the freeway. It was super scary ha, driving on a freeway covered in water. But we got home safely :) Thank goodness I wasn´t driving. (I hardly ever drive now. First off our area and companionship doesn´t have the car, but whenever we are together the other elder always wants to drive ha).

So, I have a great story for today. Remember Pilar? So she has a husband and son here living all together in a house. We went to her house one of the first times and asked if her husband wanted to hear but she told us ´No, he doesn´t really believe in anything, I don´t think he wants to hear´. So it was kind of tough but one day we were talking to her and her son, Pablo, and invited him to JAS (young single adult activities they have every Friday) which he wanted Pilar to come as well. So we went down to Santa Cruz for the activity expecting to find just Pilar and Pablo but we found the husband there as well!! So we spent the night with them cutting out snowflakes (MY FAVORITE! P.S. I got your letter with the snowflakes and they are now all over our piso haha, the other elders love them. I made some more to add to the collection) and eating some delicious food that the senior couple made. THEN, we invited them to church on Saturday with brownies again and they all three came!! It was such a great day... well...week haha. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to teach them and bring this light into their lives. Pray for them to continue coming to church and meeting with us please! 

Ok, frustrating story about Miguel. So this guy has a photographic memory or something becuase he just spends his time reading Wikipedia pages or books and can remember everything. After he started meeting with us he has been reading tons of stuff about our church- both true and false. When we met with him again this was part of our conversation:
Miguel: ´I´ve been reading lots of stuff about your church and there are just some beliefs that I cant believe. For example you believe that Adam (Adam and Eve) was God. And I do not believe that at all. 
Me: ´Uhhh no. Actually we don´t Miguel¨ 
Miguel: '...Well Brigham Young said this and its true! So I can´t accept that. 
Elder Wilson: 'Miguel, we don´t believe that Adam was God! You can´t read stuff on the internet and expect it all to be completely correct!'

Miguel: silence...

Honestly it was so frustrating because he didn't care what we said, he still firmly believes all of the ridiculous things he has read on the internet. We kept telling him the only way he can know what is the real truth is through prayer. Because God is the only person who can do that. But he brushed it off and said he won´t pray. I don´t know, I guess there´s not much we can do. It's just pretty sad. He got into such deep doctrine like the planet Kolob and how God lives there but he doesn´t believe that because blah blah blah. It's making my blood pressure rise just thinking about it. 

Back on a brighter note, the ward had their Christmas concert last night! It was very good, the choir of only 8 or 9 members sang. I love the Christmas spirit. I love seeing just the small group of willing members use their talents for the ward. For some reason I was always afraid of doing the choir at our ward. Remind me to buck up and be a man please when I get home. We´ve been singing Christmas hymns and cutting out snowflakes during mediodia which has really been getting me in the spirit. Today we´re going to go buy a little pre-lit tree to have in our piso ha. 

Ok, thats probably about it. I hope you all have a great week! I love and appreciate you guys, thanks for all the help, encouragement and support you´ve given me. 

Elder Franson

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