Sept. 16th

Hello everyone!!! Well this week has been up and down a lot but mostly up! The fact that we don't have a lot of success is frustrating but we are trying our best out here. I wanted to start off with telling everyone that Elder M. Russell Ballard visited Madrid and talked with us and we all got to shake his hand!! It was the first time that I had shaken the hand of an Apostle before and it was an amazing experience. The Spirit that he brings with him is indescribable. I loved every minute of it! That was probably the highlight of the week for me and one of the best days out here in Fuenlabrada. Well Monday was decent! Our investigator Esteban bailed on us again because he is always super tired from working all day but we went out contacting and were moderately successful. A lot of people here are just really not interested in talking to two nicely dressed handsome young men from different cultures who happen to have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and are searching for the salvation of their souls. Haha but it is going good and I am learning a lot about patience. Tuesday was a reaaaallly good day. We had a lesson with our recent convert Andrew in the morning which went good and he's becoming a good friend of ours. After medio dia, we had a lesson with our investigator Paul and set a baptismal date for the 12th of October! He gives us so much hope and we are so excited for him. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had yet too. After we went to Jesus Jr.'s house and taught him, preparing him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood in a month or two! He is really opening up especially for an 11 year old which is good. Then we contacted for a bit and then went to Gloria's house, a less active. She wasn't home but we actually taught her son Mario and it went really great! Wednesday we had our District Meeting which was Elder Echegaray's first one and it went really good! Very spiritual and I learned a lot! After medio dia, we had a lesson with Purificacion and we shared a message with her and reviewed her goal to quit smoking. In two weeks she has dropped from 35 a day to 15 which is definitely some progress!! We are working hard with her. After we had a lesson with Juan, our new investigator in the church building and it went really well! He definitely has interest and so we will be focusing on him a lot. Thursday we planned week three which made me realize that I've been in Fuenlabrada for two months already which is crazy and then we went and had lunch with Andrew and Juan Romero, who is basically an eternal investigator. It was good and Juan told us that when he finishes the principles of the Gospel book, he will be baptized. I hope he follows through! After, we had a lesson with Amparo which was great and she received her temple recommend as well which is exciting and I am glad to have that success. Then we went to Esteban's house but he's not the one that bailed on us on Monday so I'll just call him Esteban Español since he's spanish. It was good but also a bit difficult because he isn't very receptive. After we stopped by Gloria's house and there wasn't a male home so we had a lesson in the doorway! She agreed to come to church too! Friday was different but good as well. We had a lesson with Paul in the morning and he is super sick and had to go throw up a few times during the lesson but some how it was still spiritual and he was still really interested. We offered to give him a blessing and he agreed which was great. During medio dia, basically everyone cancelled on us buuut we had an opportunity to help a young married couple move out of our area to Leganés which is close by but in a different ward. It felt good to do some service for once and when we were driving back, it really hit me that I am a missionary serving in Spain. It took me 8 weeks to figure it out but I think I just finally accepted the idea of it. Saturday morning we got to hear from Elder Ballard which was amazing and then during medio dia, pretty much everyone bailed on us agaaaain! We did have a lesson with a less active member named Saide which went well and she ended up coming to church. That night we visited a refferal from Barrio 5 named Bes and it turns out that he has a wife and three children! He's from Nigeria but has been living here with his family for 15 or so years and seems really interested!! He told us about 19 times that he would come to church which was great. Sunday went good!! I gave my first talk and it was like 13 minutes long which I was kind of amazed that I could talk in spanish for that long haha. It went really well and I was nervous but not too bad. Bes didn't come to church though and the only one that did was Pablo who is in a relationship with Saide. After, we had a lesson with a less active member who is also partly deaf named Angel. It was hard becuase he can't hear very well but it was good! Then we headed to Loranca and had a lesson with Aldo and all of his family. His wife and daughter aren't members and so we are going to focus on them as well! Super exciting to have new investigators. We contacted the rest of the night which went decently and I felt guided by the Spirit. Today has been pretty good! We went and played futbol at Pavones again which was fun and I got my haircut by President Sullivan who is the counselor of the CCM and a really cool guy. Just found out that our two lessons for the night can't make it but we will just have to hit the street!! Loving every day and learning hard! Elder Franklyn