there are always blessings to be recognized

Family and Friends :)

We now starting the last week of the transfer, can´t believe these things are going by so fast. Seeing how I just got here, I´m probably going to stay. I like it here, but sure wouldn´t say no to a cool break up in the north. I´m praying to be called up there some time to see how it is, I guess we´ll see.

We had a really good week. Four of our investigators showed up to church today which made me really happy, and also we´ve been visiting multiple less active people here and in the past we haven´t had too much luck with them coming to church, but 3 of them showed up as well! One of the less actives was Juan Carlos, an older guy who is kind of pscitzofrenic (schizophrenic) ( hahahaha NO idea how to spell that one) and just says the most random things.

We met a really cool Dominican guy, Jari, and after meeting with him throughout the week he walked with us to the church--he´s super chill and seems really interested.

Also, we had another huge blessing--his name is Domingo. He is best friends with a member who basically explained to him all about the Church, and introduced him to us. In that first lesson we had he kept talking about how the Book of Mormon has already changed his life--he won´t drink beer anymore! And he feels so much better and happier. We ended up setting a baptismal date with him at the end of that lesson for the end of August and I´m feeling really good about it. We probably won´t have to do too much, the Lord has already prepared him to accept everything.

We went this morning to Segovia! A really old city up outside of Madrid a ways (we got to ride a train there--that was so awesome, seeing the countryside of Spain). It is a beautiful city, kind of like Toledo with the cobblestones, narrow streets, old restaraunts. But Segovia has a huge castle with lots of towers and cool rooms, and an enormous cathedral to tour, and one of those aqueducts from the Roman Empire. I took lots of pictures, don´t worry :) I wish I could have had someone there explaining to me lots of the things, but it´s alright, I loved it.

I hope you all had a week filled with blessings like ours was. And if it wasn´t, look harder because there are always blessings to be recognized :)

I love you all so much, take care.

Love Elder Franson

The cathedral reminded me so much of Hogwarts! Why can't I be a wizard?

The castle.

The thrones.

The aqueduct.

1 year down!

Hello everyone :)

The weeks are going by faster and faster, not sure why, but we´ve been working really hard and are kept pretty busy.

First item of business- it has been getting so hot lately that I just had to break down and hand in a little piece of my man card...I bought one of those hand fans. But luckily it doesn´t look too girly with flowers and everything, it´s got two Spanish bulls haha. My companion thinks it´s ridiculous but I love it haha. Don´t worry, I try not to use it too much in public.

For lunch today, a family that we are teaching-from Peru--invited us to eat at the restaurant that the mom cooks at. It is a Peruvian place that cooks SO good. I had some papa a la huancaina (potatos with a special sauce) and a big thing of chicken as well. One of the girls orderd anticucho which is cow heart--they just love that here. I was kind of scared of it at first but they let me try it and it´s actually pretty good. They served it with chunks of cow stomach though, which just looked so ugly and had the worst texture, but I swallowed it down, tasted alright. Porter, better get practicing now on eating crazy foods! haha.

I got a haircut today! I love it, always feels so nice. Elder Satlzman did as well but was really worried beforehand because he wanted to keep his hair longer on top--likes to comb it back--and the lady ended up cutting a ton off...he was preeeetty upset afterwards.

Every once in a while we do ´exchanges´ with other missionaries and this week I got to be with a guy named Elder Ziane--from France! Super chill and awesome, he was teaching me a little bit of French haha.

Ok I have been anxiously waiting to tell you this story. On Friday morning, between 6:30 and 7:15, I woke up 3 times, just randomly or maybe from a little sound, and without thinking, got on my knees and started praying! Until I would look at my watch and realize I still had time to sleep haha. 3 separate times in the same night! I don´t really know why that happened, but it made me laugh when I was truly awake.

That good old investigator Alberto--with the flares, cowboy boots, and wife beater--is doing great. He has really good desires, truly wants to know more. He´s been marking up his copy of the Book of Mormon like crazy. He doesn´t want to meet with us too often because he feels like he needs time to be able to read and study a lot, so he told us he doesn´t want to meet until the beginning of August...what?? I mean, good that he really is taking this seriously, but I want to meet with him a bit more often. 

We had a really productive week, met almost all of our weekly goals lesson-wise. None of our investigators showed up at church though which was really frustrating.

That sums up our week more or less, I´m doing really good, and yep, about to hit my halfway mark in the mission. I´m amazed at how quickly it has gone by, makes me scared sometimes. This past year has been pretty tough, but by far the most productive (don´t get much time to sit on a couch and stare into space mom ;)), and rewarding year physically and spiritually. I am so grateful to be able to focus more on Christ and learn how to better my relationship with Him.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder Franson

new favorite food: ceviche

Ok, huge embarrassing story for this week. We were walking down a street, had 30 to kill before our next apt., and just randomly I looked down at my tie and noticed there was a huge bird poop splatter on my shirt!! Ugh so gross. I feel so embarrassed that for who knows how long, I had been walking down a somewhat busy street smiling, saying hi, and trying to stop people to talk about God. They probably thought I was just an embarrassment to nature.

I´ve been getting good at holding my breath, preparing for my swimming career after the mission ;) my best so far is 1:48. Sometimes Elder Galeano and I would, as we were walking, pick a tree up ahead and hold our breath until we got there haha.

Our ward mission leader here is American, which is pretty cool. From the LA area, knows Stevenson Ranch. He is an amazing mission leader--takes the work really seriously and is a really good teacher and leader--it's a bit intimidating. It is so weird to hear English to be honest, usually I can just talk to my companion in English, about people that are right next to us and they have no idea, but I´ve got to be careful haha.

There is a dish served here by the Peruvians and Ecuadorians that is amazing--called ceviche. We have many members from those places and have cooked it for us- it is so good. It is basically a soup type thing, served cold, and there are two types, 1 (Ecuador), with shrimp as the main thing, then 2 (Peru) with fish. The funny thing is though, that with the fish--they don´t cook it! Disgusting right? Well they let it sit in lemon juice to 'cook' it, but honestly I love that food. It´s alright with the shrimp, but I think the ceviche with the fish is much better. They taught me how to cook it so when I get home I´m going to cook it for you and let you try it. I think you´ll love it, Dad :)

They work is doing great, everyone´s doing good. although Jessica hasn´t been answering which is freaking us out, she found out about the law of chastity that we have and I think it weirded her out... :S pray for her please.

I think that´s about it, we had a really good week--teaching quite a bit which is keeping us busy. Thanks for your emails and support.

 Love Elder Franson

the book that answers questions

Dad, you´re going to be so proud of me--we´ve been running every other day now, Elder Saltzman is a really good motivation for me with that since I struggle with motivating myself to run. It´s way to easy to justify a little loop around the block and spend the rest of the time stretching haha. We have a good 2 mile route that we do and it´s good, definitely makes the day better.

This week went by really fast, honestly I feel like I just barely wrote you guys. We had a really good week too, found some really cool people who have lots of potential. I have learned in my mission that it is so much easier when you have the spirit to guide you while contacting.

We have this one investigator, Alberto, who is kinda funny. He likes to wear jeans that flare out at the bottom with cowboy boots, then a white tank top tucked in haha. A little bit weird, but he´s super nice. He stopped us on the street actually and we found out that 4 years ago some missionaries had given him a Book of Mormon but he never read it until a couple weeks ago and he has some questions. He, for some reason, loves the guide at the end of the book and saw the section for Melchizedek, not sure how to spell that one, and he just loved it. Seems so excited to have found a book that can answer so many of his questions, which was pretty cool. He seemed a little scared to come to church but I think that just little by little, he´ll feel comfortable enough.

Ok these last couple of weeks I´ve had memories just going through my head of our hikes each year, and I miss them! Where are you going this year? When? I can´t wait to see lots and lots of pictures.

I´m doing well, the heat of the summer is hear but I´m doing alright, not much more you can do than just bare through it haha. Most nights we get back to the piso just dripping with sweat, haha it's gross.

Have a great week! Happy late 4th of July!

Love,
Elder Franson

twin towers walking the streets

Hello folks,

Madrid is pretty awesome, different of course, but cool. My companion and I are doing great--the Twin Towers over here walking in the streets. People are probably just a bit freaked out when we try to stop and talk to them, but hopefully they´ll get used to it.

The investigator pool here is a bit small so we´re working hard trying to increase it, but the people that we do have are really awesome. Jessica, this lady from Peru, has no doubt been prepared by the Lord to listen to us. She told us that all of her life she´s been opposed to churches, but instead just have your own faith and stick with that. But she came to church and also to the baptism on Saturday and has been improving so much! When we taught her back near the beginning of the week, she started crying at the end--I could tell our message to her touched her heart a little bit more than the other churches. We have a baptismal date with her for the 9th of August so pray with me please for the Lord to help her get prepared and be ready.

I´ve been doing really well, I can tell the lord has been blessing me with Spanish lately, I feel even more fluent when I talk, it just rolls right off so much more easy. The spiritual gifts such as tongues or whatever are real. No doubt about it. 

My companion is doing great, struggles a bit with Spanish, but just in this last week he´s improved! I´m trying to do my best to help him with the little that I know.

 I hope you all had a great week, I love and miss you all. Thanks for your examples and love for me.

 Love, Elder Franson

transfers: on to barrio 9

Beatriz and Edison--recent converts that have been my second family here.

Hermano Fransisco from Peru. Such a good guy.

Well that was really unexpected, I was fully expecting to stay with Elder Galeano for another transfer but as we opened the email on Saturday night, I found out I was leaving to go to Barrio 9 (a big ward here in Madrid, I guess the area is huge). I didn´t move very far but it's still a big change from Alcorcon. My new comp is Elder Saltzman from Draper, Utah, who, you´ll never guess, is taller than me! I don´t know what our success rate will be while contacting in the street because we both will look so intimidating haha. This is only his 2nd transfer in the field so I´ll be training him (!) and  I am also district leader again here in this new area which is pretty exciting--I really loved it last transfer. Sorry for not answering anyone´s questions about being district leader, I think I just forgot. It is really fun, planning district meeting, trying to help them with their challenges or struggles, serving them. I really got close to the missionaries in Alcorcon and it was sad to leave them. Actually, each one of the three companionships in Alcorcon changed this transfer, 3 of us have left. It was a pretty big change, but one that was necessary I think to help us keep the excitment going.
 

Remember that family from Bolivia that I´ve talked about? Carmen and her daughter Jailene (the family that we haven´t been able to get to know the father). Well they finally come to church!! We passed by their house a little bit before the meeting started and walked together. I was so so happy, sharing this with others is a fantastic way to receive blessings and to feel truly happy.

Also, what kind of made it harder to leave, was being able to see this progression in the area and some real potential. We met with a  new guy on Saturday named Andres, who is an artist and writer...can you imagine how excited I was to talk to him? He can paint and he is literally AMAZING. We walked into his house and there is this huge canvas that he has been painting for over a year now and it is a view of the earth but a bit abstract, and it has like a hole in it or crater or something, but it is amazing. Anyway, he came to church yesterday! Afterwards told us that he felt a good energy here and really liked it and wanted to come back--blessings raining from heaven.

This work is what the Lord has commanded us to do in these latter days. I know that this church is true, with all of my heart. The spirit has given me that burning feeling inside of me, so that when I go outside each day, I can testify with more clarity and with more power of the things that i have come to know are true. I want you all to have that experience as well, to have an answer come from the spirit, and I know it will come. 

I love you all, thank you for your supportive emails and prayers. Have a great week :) 

Elder Franson

listening to the spirit

Well some good news to start it off--I´ve lost 13 pounds since I came back from the islands! Pretty happy.

The people here aren´t doin too well after their tragic loss to the Netherlands...pretty bad. This is their life. I´m not even joking when I say there was no one in the street. I hope they can get it back together and not make a fool of themselves. It's sad though because we can´t watch it, and I was hoping the president would let us if maybe Spain made it to the final or something but nope. That's okay though, it´ll help us focus on the work. 

Okay the chair I´m sitting on right now was just slowly going down and I had no idea until my butt was about on the ground. Annoying. 

This week was a struggle with some things, like having our investigators not show up for the lesson or not answer the door when we had called them that morning to confirm it. But it is out of our control, so we just have to do our best. 

I had a really cool experience this week with the spirit, actually multiple experiences. For a little while in my mission I wasn´t exactly sure if I was receiving promptings or guidance from the spirit, and it frustrated me, but lately it has changed. We were walking down a street and my companion stopped just for a second to stretch his leg, and I had just a weird urge to go to the right, change our course. I followed that thought and we walked that way, not knowing what was going to happen, and we came across a recent convert that we needed to talk to and were able to chat with him for a second. It's happened multiple times now and I´m so grateful for the spirit. Maybe in the pastI  just wasn't able to recognize it as the spirit, but as I´ve been studying and really praying to have the spirit, it´s become more evident to me. 

Happy Father's Day to the best dad out there--I´m so grateful for everything you taught me and for helping to get me prepared for my mission. You´re the best.

Also, my camera broke...it's really weird. The lens is out but it wont turn on or do anything. Should I look to buy one here mom or would you rather send one, like the pink one or something? 

Also, could you find out what little town JV Bollar is from? He´s from here in Spain right? I would like to know, if its in my mission, maybe I could visit it. 

Okay, love you all. Have a great week! 

Elder Franson