Sept. 30th

Familia y mis amigos!! This week has been a rough one. I began to be sick on Tuesday and it has still carried out till today. Just a runny nose and a cough with some headaches mixed in there - so nothing to worry about but it makes the missionary life a lot harder. We have been working reaallly hard here in Fuenlabrada though to try and end this transfer on a great note. I have never exercised this much faith in my life and I owe everything I have to our Heavenly Father. Last monday we went to Parque Sur which turned out to just be a big mall and not even a park at all! It was really cool though and we went bowling with the missionaries from Mostoles which was fun. I am undefeated in bowling in Spain which is a good start. Two years to go so I've gotta keep my "A" game going! That night we had a lesson with Margarita which went good! After we went to Hermana Consuelo's house for dinner and it was great. She is so nice and basically my mother in Spain although we all know that no one can replace my real mom. Tuesday I went to Mostoles again on an intercambio haha. We had a really good day and found a man in a park named Franklin and taught him the first lesson and even invited him to be baptized! All in all it was a really good day and I got to be with Elder Smith from Utah and was able to speak English! Its like breathing fresh air some times. Wednesday we had our last district meeting with Elder Echegaray because next week is Zone training and the week after is the Temple! It went really good and I learned a lot! He is a great missionary. After, we had a lesson with Purificacion, the less active, and gave her a boost to continue trying to stop smoking. She only smoked 3 on Tuesday so she's almost there! Then we had a lesson with Miguel Angel and Ana because they live together. They have really separate needs but one of the amazing things is that Ana asked, "If there were always prophets in the Bible and then we had Joseph Smith, why don't we have a prophet today?" It basically blew us a way and we taught her more about President Monson and she understood everything so well. She might even come to watch General Conference with us next week!! Thursday went okay. We planned the week for a while and had a good amount of people cancel on us but we continued to work hard throughout the day. The branch president actually came to a lesson with us which was great and he is really starting to help us. Friday we had intercambios with the Elders in Toledo and I stayed in Fuenlabrada with Elder Moreland who is actually from Irvine! He is really cool and we like all of the same things so we talked for hours about life in the States haha. Well we had a lesson with Mike and then Amparo, both less active members and it went really good! Then we went and had a lesson with Margarita and she accepted to be baptized again! Hopefully this one follows through and I have faith that it will. After that, we kiiiind of took the wrong bus, got a little lost, had to walk a little ways and I kind of broke my chapa (missionary badge) on a fence haha but all is well! I felt a little dumb but we still saved the rest of the night by contacting and ended up receiving 9 referrals in one day. Saturday Elder Echegaray came back and laughed about my broken chapa story haha and we went to work. We had a lesson with the less active member Angel and with another less active member named Kiverka and both of them went really well. Kiverka even came to church on Sunday! Then we stopped by Solange and Rafaels apartment and had a short lesson with them and watched the video of President Monson wiggling his ears. It went good but Solange was a bit sick but we gave her a blessing too! I really hope they continue to have interests and one day be baptized. Sunday was great and we had 3 investigators in the chapel! Ana couldn't come because she had some problems with a man that she shares the apartment with and she had to call the police and it was just a big deal but she's okay. We went and ate with the Counselor of the Branch who lives like 30 minutes away by car and it was really good! Their family is awesome and so strong in the church. After that, we headed to Ana's and she explained the whole story to us. We then had a lesson with her and a friend of hers and it went really great! We invited her to be baptized and even set a date for the 26 of October. She agreed almost immediately! Her questions are perfect and we can tell that she really does want to know if our church is true. Today was P Day of course and it was great! It has been raining for the past few days but I am enjoying the weather change. We headed to Sol because President Jackson called up Elder Gutierrez, who is in our district, and told him that he was going to the Canary Islands today! We had lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant which was super good but not as good as El Farolito. Then we headed back and have been relaxing for a bit. All in all a good week! I am loving the mission so much and wouldn't trade it for everything. I have given up so much to be here, but in reality, Jesus Christ gave everything for us, so my service is just a small portion of that. I am loving every day and can't wait for General Conference!! Cuidense mucho! Elder Franklyn