first baptism success

Dear Family and Friends, 

I have lots of good news for this week- Pilar got baptized!! What a great miracle it was to see her choose this path for her life. Pablo isn´t quite ready, still needs a little bit more time, so our game plan is to continue with him and his dad and get a date for them both. Pray for them! 

Pilar´s baptism is a memory that I don´t think I can ever forget. The spirit was so strong and I felt so much joy and happiness from seeing her get baptized. I felt so happy, so at peace. I realized how truly amazing this Gospel is and the light it gives us. Since her baptism I can see just a bright light in Pilar--she seems so happy and glowing. That was a cool experience for me, just to see the dramatic change in her countenance. Just after the baptismal service we gave Pilar the opportunity to share her feelings/testimony. She got up to the pulpit and started off by thanking everyone, then thanked ´the elders´ for being persistent and loving to her and her family. (backup a little, about 2 months ago we told her our first names and haven´t said them again ever since), She said ¨I can´t remember their last names, all I remember are their first names--Levi and Landon¨ haha so now the whole ward knows our first names! It was hilarious, we couldn´t stop laughing. How did she remember our first names but not our last names?? She then went on to give such a powerful testimony, talking about Joseph Smith and how grateful she is for his sacrifices for her personally, then about Jesus Christ who suffered for us all. It was such an amazing testimony, not that usual testimony that we all seem to give every fast Sunday. I love hearing the testimonies from new members; they just seem a lot different, maybe more sincere. Pilar was definitely ready to hear and accept this Gospel. Missionary work is the greatest. I´ve had some tough times out here of course, but the joy and happiness that I´ve gotten from being a missionary is something super special for me and I´m so grateful for it. 

We had a really good District meeting last week, about the Law of Consecration. We talked about dedicating ourselves completely to the Lord and this work. There is a talk that was given to a bunch of missionaries and that foccused on this and how we as missionaries can do better. It is super good, and it made me truly want to dedicate myself to the Lord for these 2 years. I´ve seen missionaries who have one foot here in Spain and another back home, and it doesn´t work too well for them. So since this talk, I have been working on being a consecrated missionary day by day. I am definitely not perfect and I still have a lot of things to work on, but I know the Lord wants me to be completely focused in the work and do my best. He´s done so much for me. I´m going to do my best to do this for Him. 

Thank you for everything, you all have been a great support for my and I love you all. Have a good week!

Elder Franson

At Pilar's baptism.

Levi in his new Christmas shirt.