madrid temple trip, new companion, and a futbol fiasco

Hey Family!

I hope you had a great week, sounds like you all are doing awesome.

So the main news for right now is that Elder Mower got transferred and I have a new companion here. His name is Elder Galeano, I always think of Galileo, probably will just call him that. He´s from Nebraska and is in the same group as Elder Mower, so about 4 or 5 months I think. His parents are Latino, and I haven´t really heard his Spanish yet but I´m guessing and from what I´ve heard, he´s basically already fluent. I´m really really excited for this transfer, I struggled a bit with Elder Mower, he personality was so different from mine. But he was a good missionary, I learned a ton from being with him. I´ve learned how to be a better leader, and how to lead more by example and with love.

So, another big thing that happened was on Saturday we went to play futbol with members/investigators like we normally do, but it was raining and they play on concrete so it can be really dangerous. I didn´t want to play, but Elder Mower was like, well okay but I still want to play. So we went, and I was just watching them play (and keep in mind Elder Mower can get pretty aggressive) and he was chasing a kid for the ball when he slipped and fell on his back. He slid pretty far, close to where I was, and then I heard him say ´Elder I think I dislocated my shoulder,´ but I went over and felt his shoulder and it sure didn´t feel right. I felt the shoulder and right below it you can usually feel something in there, but it just felt super squishy. So the ambulance was called and we went to the hospital where they eventually got it put back place. The doctor was really cool, and of course the whole atmosphere there reminded me so much of going to the hopsital with dad, hanging out there while he does his rounds. I am really grateful for you dad, being a doctor. We always have that inside ticket haha. Ok, moving on. So Elder Mower is fine, little sore I think, but he´s doing alright. It was a big lesson learned though, its important to remember we´re on missions and who we represent.

Real quick to finish up, we have a really cool investigator named Lucho, from Ecuador. He is 21 and super cool, we´re really good friends now. He has a true desire to learn more and has told us he will get baptized! We didn´t set a date becuase his schedule is pretty crazy right now but it will for sure happen.

We went to the temple on wednesday, got up super early and rode the train to the temple. I was so happy to be back there, brought back lots of memories from the MTC and just a peaceful and happy feeling. We did the 8:00 session and when I got to the celestial room I just sat in the super comfortable chair and thanked my Heavenly Father over and over and over again for all of the blessings I´ve received, to live in this dispensation, to be a missionary right now, for everything! I just felt so happy and peaceful there. I like to think of the temple as the pavilliion like Isaiah talks about, the shelter that we can gather in to protect us from the storm. In these days there are so many things against us, if it were a physical storm I imagine it being a huge hail storm only with big bricks falling down, like in Home Alone haha. The temple stands strong and provides perfect protection from the storm. We watched the new movie as well, which I just loved. So amazing, I feel like I understand Satan´s power a little bit more and how driven he is to make us fall. But the Lord is always willing to help us, and his light can never be hidden by the darkness.

Missionary work brings so much gratification, I am so happy, so overwhelmed with joy sometimes because of the things I witness or experience here. I am learning many things, and I have grown spiritually and mentally, and yes physically as well, as much as I hate to admit it haha. The Lord is hastening his work, and he´s got over 15 million soldiers fighting the battle :) 

I love you all, have a great week! 

Love Elder Franson

a fresh perspective on service

Hey everyone!

Well, this week was a tougher one, more humbling. We had some days where different things took up lots of useful hours we could have used to teach and proselyte, so our numbers were a little lower, but i´m excited to start this week new and improve :)

 

Just so you all know, we are starting week 6, the last week of the transfer, today. We´ll find out transfers this Saturday- I´m sure I´ll stay since I just got here, but we´ll see what happens with my comp. 

 

On Saturday we helped a family move to another apartment, starting at 2 we thought we´d be done by 6:30 for when we teach English class but it kept going and going until we had to be back in our piso for the night. So much stuff. And thats not even the best part, they are moving to a piso on the 11 floor...yeah. Haha what an adventure. Thank goodness most of the big stuff fit in the small elevator, but we still had to carry the mattresses, bed frames, wooden drawers, closets, etc. up the stairs. My companion´s still complaining about his back being sore ha. It was pretty tough work but really gratifying, knowing we were able to make something that would have previously taken maybe a week, into just a day. Service is awesome, before the mission I remember being quite to complain about stupid things, but I see it from a different side now. 

 

We have a cool investigator--named Libe. She is from Africa, I know the spanish name of her country but not in English haha. The elders taught her a while ago but then she started to be harder and harder to meet with. But a couple weeks ago we started teaching her again and she is awesome, was raised in a Catholic home and thats all she knows, but likes to listen to us. She came to church on Sunday!!! I was so happy, and also what made me super happy was that so many members went up to her, gave her a beso (the whole kiss on the cheek greeting), trying to make her feel welcome. We have a baptismal date with her in April and she seems pretty strong and set with it. I would appreciate it if you prayed for her in these coming weeks. 

 

Well that's about it for this week, The work is going forward with the power of God, and nothing can stop it. I feel like I´m a medieval knight fighting (with my Toledo sword ha) for my Heavenly Father. 

 

I hope you all have a great great week, filled with miracles and blessings. 

Love, Elder Franson

a visit to sword city

Hey Everyone!

We´re a little short on time today to write because we spent the whole morning in a city named Toledo, which is one of the oldest cities here in Spain, and it's also known as Sword City. There are professional sword maker that make some wicked sweet swords! They made the swords for Lord of the Rings, Eragon (I think), and a bunch of other armor for Lord of the Rings as well. Almost every street has a little shop that sells some. And actually, there is one store, a  really nice one, that has a good relationship with us, so they give the missionaries a 15% discount! Haha what awesome people. They used to make the sword of Laban, and they continue to make a Captain Moroni sword, a mini statue of Moroni on the temple, and a little statue of 2 missionaries haha. So...yes I´ll admit that I bought a sword haha. I just had to. But its not a huge decked out sword that cost over 100 euros--mine was only 30 and it's smaller, so I can fit it in my suitcase. Lots of missionaries buy ones that they have to spend 80 more euros just to send them home.

Ok, I just wanted to mention one of our new investigators named Fausto. He is a super cool guy, reminds me of Leo Dicaprio first of all, but second he just is really nice and loves talking with us. He was a Jehova's Witness but now wants to know more about our religion and the Book of Mormon. He knows the bible like none other and it intimidates me haha. It was a big miracle that we found him. They hard thing is the fact that he just loves to talk and get deep in discussion with us that it is so hard for us to leave haha. I´m working on being more in control in the lessons, that way we can have the spirit with us and he can feel it. 

Well that's about it, sorry for the short email. I had a great week and am so grateful for all of the things this mission has taught me so far. I have grown a ton. I am so happy to hear everyone is doing March Madness, that's awesome! Keep it up. The Book of Mormon really does carry a power with it, and we can get that power any time we open up its pages.

I love you all so much!

Elder Franson

carolina's baptism in cold water

Heyyyy Family and Friends!

Well this week's emails were especially great, thank you everyone :) And first of all, because every dang week I forget to mention it: 

1. Thank you for all of the witty compliments you gave me after Christmas, you all know me too well and how that is one of the best compliments anyone could give me. 

2. Dad made a funny comment in his letter (p.s. I have gotten your letters, 2 went to La Laguna after I left but Elder Wilson was nice enough to send them back to me) that you all are worried I´m still growing and are worried my pants are all high waters haha. Well idk if I´m growing right now but all I do know is my pants still fit...length way and fat way. Whew. 

Ok I think thats it for the list. 

So! This week was really good--we had Carolina´s baptism! She is super super awesome, doing very well. But the baptism has a funny story. We don´t have a font here, so we have to do it in a neighboring place--Mostoles. So we called the elders there to remember to fill it up (called in the am) and we were making sure everything was fine. Well we were on the way to the baptism, walking to the train stop and we get a call from President Jackson saying he´s coming! Which made me a little nervous haha. We got to the train, were about to get on, 5 minutes after president's call, and we get a call from the other elders who are in Mostoles--there are 4--who said the font wasn't filling up...Are you kidding me?? 20 minutes before the baptism is supposed to start?! We got there are there and there were 3 inches of water. The elders had turned it on, the hot water, and then left without plugging the drain. So the hot water was gone and we had no water. And president was there. We got the water going as fast as we could, cold water unfortunately, to get it going. The water was SO cold. I´m not even joking that it was similar to that of the Windriver glacier lakes. Haha what a memory. Neither she nor I will forget that baptism. Reminded me of Porter's, when we all were shivering on the ice in our big coats watching Porter and Dad standing in the bone chilling water. Anyway, the baptism went great and she now has the Holy Ghost. Elder Mower and I were talking last night about the happiness and joy that we receive as missionaries just witnessing these people making these decisions. I love this work so much. I´m giving back 2 full years to my Heavenly father, with the intent to repay him for all of the amazing years of blessings that I´ve had, and yet he is blessing me even more. I am so happy and honored to be a missionary right now. I´ve grown so much and changed, all for the better. I can´t imagine what my life would be like without this time of being a missionary. 

Well thats it for now, thanks for the emails and help. I hope you all have a great week this week!

Love Elder Franson

"i hope to obtain the place by His side"

Well heyyyy,

Lots of hard/difficult days and lots of miracles. Interesting how the two always come together.

Our investigator pool here isn´t very big, so we´ve been spending a lot of time in the streets trying to find more people. And even though it was super exhausting, we´ve starting finding a lot of great people. People who actually have lots of potential and seem to be really interested. So that has been a huge miracle, to be guided by the Lord in the street to his children who are ready. Then we´ve just been having some great lessons with Carolina--who is getting ready for her baptism this Saturday! To show how ready and prepared she is, before I had come here they had just started teaching her and only had 2 or 3 lessons! That in and of itself is a huge miracle.

Another really cool experience we had was the mission tour on Wednesday. I guess every year they do a mission tour, where a member of the 70 or whoever comes and talks to us, as well as the president. For us it was Elder Teixiera, who is the president over the Europe area. He is so. cool. So funny, constantly making us laugh haha. It was really motivating and moving, we talked about finding more investigators and how we can go through the members and progressing investigators to find many people. When members give us a reference of their friend or family member, it typically has much more potential becuase that person already has this person who is a member, someone to give them that needed support when the missionaries can´t. They always have that friend to sit by at church and won´t feel so uncomfortable.

One last little thought. We watched the Emma Smith movie the other day and there was a really cool thing she said that I wanted to share with you. Before Joseph Smith goes to Carthage, he and Emma are talking one night, knowing what was to come. Emma asked Joseph for a blessing before he left but he told her to write down the blessings she wanted, then he would sign it, and whatever those desires were would be hers. One of the blessings she asked for was ´I hope to obtain the place which God has given me by His side.´ The Lord loves us and really does want the best for us. He has promised to give us all that He has, if we follow His commandments and do what He has asked. The Lord has a place set apart for us, right next to Him. My hope and desire, like Emma´s, is to do all I can here on this earth, in this life, so that I can rightfully receive that spot next to my Heavenly Father. It is possible, I know we all can do it. Never forget that the Lord is willing to help you and give you comfort.

I love you all dearly and miss you, But I know you are in good hands :)

Love,
Elder Franson

new area, new companion, new investigators

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from here in Alcorcón! It´s been quite a change for me, my first area change in the mission, and it was kind of hard. New companion, new area, new investigators. Every companionship does things differently, has their own style. It was hard for me when Elder Wilson came to my area--I felt like he just came in and wanted to change everything, which wasn´t true. It was a learning experience for me, to realize there are other ways of doing missionary work. Everybody has different likes and dislikes. So I did my best to open my heart and learn from Elder Wilson. Now, looking back, it was some of the best times I´ve had and we worked super hard. I´m really grateful for that. Now, I´m on the other side of things. I came into Elder Mower´s area and I have some different ideas. So that has been what I´ve been working on lately, trying to adapt to his ways and help him adapt to mine. I don´t want him to think I´m barging in and turning everything upside down. I´ve learned a ton just in this last week. He is a good missionary, he's got some things that have helped me be better. He is still pretty new in the mission and his Spanish isn´t the greatest, but it's good because it's made me work harder--I have to do my best to understand what they say. I was thinking about it the other day and realized that all of a sudden I can understand everything, and I can speak Spanish! I´m not fluent, of course, but I was able to recognize the hand of the Lord and the Gift of Tongues. Holy smokes it is amazing. How is this possible?!

So we have an investigator named Carolina, 17 years old, kicked out of her house becuase she had a kid, lives with a very nice and willing member who helps her and provides for her. She is so prepared, so ready. Everything we´ve taught she has accepted as the truth and is willing to live this Gospel. What an amazing miracle. She loves reading the Book of Morning and praying.

It is a branch here and there are some awesome members. Church is held in the bottom floor of a big apartment building--a little squishy but that's alright. The branch president has some of the biggest hands I´ve ever shaken hands with. Just imagine a catcher's mitt.... that´ll do it. So intimidating! Haha don´t want to get on his bad side.

Oh one more thing, my new address is

Calle Moraleja 6, 3B
28921 Alcorcón Madrid
España

Can´t wait to get some letters! *hint hint* haha just kidding.

Love you all, thanks for everything! Have a great week!

Elder Franson

transferred to alcorcon

Dear family and friends,

Well, big news to start this letter off...I got transferred! We got the email on Saturday night and I had Sunday to say goodbye to all of the members and investigators that have had an influence in my life and changed me forever. I have changed so much, especially in the spiritual sense. It was really hard to say goodbye to them--knowing it is possible I never see them again. As the day went along I did alright holding back my tears, but each one got harder. We went by Pablo, Pilar and Luis's house and at one point she said that we were her angels, we saved her--which just about killed me! She is such a wonderful person, so sweet and pure. But how happy I am to have known her and taught her about this gospel. At night we went by Mari and Paco's for the usual hot chocolate and bizcochon, then afterward we took pictures and said goodbye. That's when I started bawling. Freak, these people mean so much to me!

But the goodbyes are done for now, my new area is Alcorcon, just outside of Madrid. It is a smaller city outside of Madrid. It is a smaller city and every street basically looks like a constant sidewalk--modern cobblestones--and it's super cool. A lot colder here, and a different cold as well, more dry. But I'm so excited to begin working here and have a little change. My companion is Elder Mower, from Texas, and only has about 3 or 4 months in the mission--just barely got out of the 12 week program. He is super cool, I think we're going to get along really well. Before I left La Laguna, I was getting a bit nervous, you know just having to get used to another companion, another way of doing things. But when I got here I just got really excited and ready to work. Sounds like the members don't really feed the missionaries here much, which thank freaking goodness maybe I'll lose a bit of this unneeded and unwanted weight.

I don't really have much more news than that...I'll have more details and info for you guys about this area and the people here next week. Oh and I don't have the address for our piso (which by the way is super nice! Two floors! And I have a big bed and my own bathroom!), but I'll get it for you guys next week.

I love you all so much, thanks for your help, your prayers and love. None of us missionaries could do this without our supportive families and friends. I am so blessed to have you with me. Have a great week, and go share the gospel with someone! :)

Love,
Elder Franson

Rainstorm that only made half my pants wet because my jacket was covering the other half. Our investigator, Alejandra. We gave her a drawing I did so she could make a shirt for the craft store that she runs and she gave us each one! Super cool.

Our investigator, Alejandra. We gave her a drawing I did so she could make a shirt for the craft store that she runs and she gave us each one! Super cool.

 With the Cozzolino family!

In front of the church.

With Paco, Mari, and Arelys--my second family here.