December 30, 2013

 12/30/2013

Hello everyone - and Happy almost New Year!!!

My branch here is actually having a New Years activity but it starts at 10 so we can't even go... Pretty shady. Elder McWhorter and I just think they don't want us there!   Nahhh we have an awesome branch and we have been really growning closer to the branch president here. He's an awesome guy. Last week was crazy and awesome and really hard all at the same time. Let's see...

Monday we did not have P-Day and so that was weird. But we did have District meeting in A Coruña which went great. After we tried to find a lesson but with it being the 23 and all, not many people were around. We ended up heading to Wendy and Guillermo's to eat with them and had a great time over there. They are some aweeesome members.

Tuesday was Christmas eve or as they call it here, "la noche buena".  We had a lesson with Jacobo and Silvia,  and it went pretty good!  After, we headed to A Coruña to have a sweet noche buena and watched the Christmas Program that the church made in Spanish. It was really good! We got back and headed over to the house of a family thats a little less active. We had dinner at their place which went really well. They invited us back on Saturday too!  After we just headed home and dreamed of sugar plums all night.

Wednesday was pretty awesome aka rough aka fun. We opened Christmas presents in the morning which was great. It was our P-Day and the Calderon family invited us over to eat with them! We had a great time and talked about their recent baptism and how great their desires are to learn. They're gunna be a really strong family. I got to Skype with my family too which was awesome!! Couldn't figure out how to call my dad though. When P-Day ended we just went out and tried to contact but were pretty unsuccessful.

Thursday I finally got to talk to my dad!! We went over to Wendy and Guillermo's again and they hooked me up. We planned the week too of course and fiiiiinally had a lesson with Zorkan. It was short but good. He is really stressed out and always busy but it was good to see him and share a message with him. After we had Clase de Ingles which went really good and then had Antonio's baptismal interview!!!  He passed with flying colors and it ended the day great.

Friday was a decent day and we saw a little miracle too. We had to set up the baptismal font in the morning because its basically just a blue swimming pool haha so that was good. After medio dia we were calling a ton of people to come to Antonio's baptism because it was a little last minute and we got a call from a member who told us that they saw an old investigator named Adan. Adan had a baptismal date a while back and ended up missing it and left to go to Ecuador for a few months. Well he's finally back and still really interested in the church!  We met with him and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he loved it! After, we went to the Calderon's again and had a little lesson with them too. Right as we were about to leave they brought out a bunch of hamburgers as a surprise!! Score!! They are awesome.

Saturday was good but hard. In the morning we filled the baptismal font and finalized the program for the baptism. During medio dia we ate with Ada's family, the ones we met with on la noche buena, and had a great time with them. We played games with some of their daughters too and are getting closer to them! In the after noon we tried to find something to do but couldn't manage anything besides contacting in the street. At 7 we had Antonio's baptism which went great!! He was so awesome and he went up to the front after and said, "I don't know much, but I know this church is true." He's 70 years old and just a great guy.

Sunday was fun and busy. In the morning we went to take down the font which we had been draining all night and then had church. Antonio got confirmed and I had a suprise talk to give haha. It was hard because my head was so tired but I hope it went well.  After we went to Irina's house and ate a tooon of food.  Right after we had to go to the Calderon's and they fed us even more food! I was about to throw up but I didn't. After that we went contacting and found a new investigator named Maria Jose who is really nice. She's really Catholic but who isn't these days? After our little lesson in the stairway with her because there wasn't a male home, we went to Wendy and Guillermo's because they invited us over for hot chocolate. They are so awesome and just a really great couple.

Today has been a great day so far. We woke up and studied of course and then went and played futbol and volleyball with some branch members for like 2 and a half hours. I had a blast and it felt good to play again.  We are now going to head out to continue to work hard for the rest of the night. I truly love it here even though it is really hard at times. I know this church is true and I am so grateful to be a part of this great work. Keep up the work back home and remember, the invitation is the most important part.

Love you all!

Elder Franklyn