7/28/2014 Miracles

This week on The District...

This week has been awesome!! I've been able to catch up on most of my work in the office which is nice. Tomorrow I will find out about transfers so this coming week will be busy!   Lots of plans and buying tickets. We will see how it goes...

We had a lesson with Vladimir on Tuesday in a park with a member named Hugo. It went amazingly well and we set a baptismal date with him for the 9th of August! When we invited him to be baptized, he said "Yeah I feel like I am ready. I may not be perfect on everything but I feel ready." Perfect response!! None of us are perfect but that is what baptism is for! It helps us become more perfect and honestly opens the door to the path towards salvation. I am so excited for him and for all his progression that he is making.

We also had a sweet lesson with Guillermo and a girl that lives in the same apartment as he does named Ivana. We always thought Ivana was kind of anti the church but she sat in on a lesson and we taught about the Restoration. When we started talking about Joseph Smith, Guillermo said that he would like to show Ivana the video of the Restoration. We put it on and it was amazing! She understood so much and loved the story. She accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to read and pray about it!

I've saved the best for last... LUCY! I talked about her as my miracle of the week last week. Well all this week we have been trying to get in contact with her. She never answered her phone and never called us back. We were really bummed. So on Saturday night we send her a text message just inviting her to church again and she said that she would come. So on Sunday, I'm sitting in the back and she hasn't shown up. Right when the Bishop starts the meeting, I see her walk in the side door! She sits down with her son and I see them singing the hymns and it seemed like they enjoyed it. When the meeting ended, I ran up to her and started talking to her. She introduced me to her family... SHE BROUGHT HER WHOLE FAMILY TO CHURCH!! Her husband is named Emilio and he is from Peru! They have two children, Giorgi and Rosa, who are so cute and nice. So I'm talking to Lucy and she says, "Elder Franklyn, I love coming to church and everything but I really just want to sit down with you and your companion and talk about the doctrine and values that the church has. Is there any way that we could meet soon?" I was just in shock. We set up a lesson for that same night and had a wonderful lesson on the Restoration. They both were extremely nice and open. They accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if it is true. During the lesson they also told us that they would like to meet more than one time during the week, they would love to come to church activities, they are looking for a good group of friends to help raise their children with good examples around them, and that they admired us for the service that we give as missionaries. Just perfect. Only God could have prepared a family so much as He has for Lucy and Emilio's family.

I testify that the same church that Jesus Christ himself established in the days of old, with 12 apostles and the authority to act in the Lord's name, has been restored to the earth once again. We are not a new church. We are a very ancient church that has been restored through a living prophet. I have seen Heavenly Father answer the prayers of others. I have seen Heavenly Father answer my own prayers. Lucy and her family are evidence of that. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He loves each and every one of us dearly. In the Bible we read, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." I know that Jesus Christ laid down His life for each and every one of us. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything! 

Your missionary ;)

Elder Franklyn

7/21/2014 & a ton of Photos!

There's this ice cream shop called Tino's and it is fantastic. Ice cream shops are not very common here in Spain.

 

     

Elder Ward explaining that he was going to play the piano blind. He killed it.

Our great friend Andres directed the whole night and it was great.

During our mission leadership council, Elder Ward, Hermana Fuller and I happened to throw together a few hymns in a guitar/piano trio. It was really fun! I played background music in our skit in the talent show as well.

On Saturday we had a Ward Talent Show that went really well! A lot of people showed up!

Oh but the second photo is our FHE program white board.

This is us at Family Home Evening playing musical chairs!

Elder Ward playing the piano with our great friend and recent convert Enrique in the background.

This is our awesome ward mission leader named Segundo. His full name translates to Second Shoelaces. He is great.

And my amazing parking job I did the other day. I had to take a picture of it.

A great picture of Jesus Christ next to my desk.

Elder Ward and I!

Here is President Jackson's desk. This is where they decide all of the transfers and everything.

I honestly don't know how they let us take this photo but yes, this is President and Hermana Jackson sword fighting in the office.

Here is my view most of the day. That's Elder Chapple in the background, a senior couple that works in the office with us.

And yeah thats President Jackson wielding a sword made in Toledo.

Aaaand Hermana Trone and Hermana Hillman. They serve here in Alcobendas with us.

Here's our awesome van that I drive sometimes! Its stick and so Elder Ward is working on his driving.

A classic round about here in Alcobendas. They are every where!

Aaand Elder Ward in the street. Yes, he's reaaally tall.

Here's a normal street in Spain. Looks a lot like Fuenlabrada.

 Some more great pictures of us missionaries.

Hermana Trone and Hermana Bennett at a Zone Training Meeting!

Here's our zone!

Hello!!

Well this week has been good and a little hard, but mostly good. Looking back on it, it was a really long week but there were a lot of highlights too. 

First of all, we had our mission leadership meeting!! I planned everything out and had to take a few trips to the airport and train station to pick everyone up but it went really well! We had the same thing right when I got to the office but this one went a lot smoother. I think I'm starting to understand my job a bit!! On Wednesday we had Zone Training Meeting which went really well! My zone leaders are Elder Miranda, who was my district leader in the north, and Elder Davis, who started in the MTC with me! They are both great missionaries and the Spirit was really strong during the meeting. On Thursday we had the opportunity to go to a senior home and sign hymns to them which was awesome! We have a member who stays there and it was so much fun. I wish I would have taken pictures!! Our investigators are doing well. Guillermo is doing good and still excited for his baptismal date! Vladimir has been doing well too and we are trying to help him get ready. But another great event of the week... The Talent Show!!! It was on Saturday evening and it was soo much fun. Our investigator Vladimir came and he loved it. We did a skit/musical called "Dear John" which was hilarious. I'll try and get it to you all some how but it was awesome. I played the guitar too! It was a memorable night to say the least.

On Sunday we saw an amazing miracle that I want to tell you all. So I sit down in church and two girls come and sit down next to me and I didn't recognize them at all. Elder Ward was playing the piano (he's amazing at the piano by the way) and so I couldn't ask him if he knew who they were. The meeting starts and everything is going well. Right before the sacrament started, I heard one of the girls tell her friend that was sitting right next to me a little about Jesus Christ and the sacrament. I thought that the one sitting next to me must be new. So the sacrament starts and after taking the bread, I closed my eyes and said a little prayer just asking Heavenly Father to help this girl next to me have a good experience at church and have the desires to learn more and to come back. After the meeting ended, she got up and went to the bathroom. The other girl that was there started talking to some members and I found out that she was a less active member of the church. She told me that she would introduce me to her friend from work. She came back from the bathroom and we started talking a bit. Turns out her name is Lucy and she is from Bulgaria and she has two little kids! She came to church by invitation of her friend from work but also was really interested in the message that our church has. I explained a little bit about who we are and what we do as missionaries. I took down her number and she even stayed for the second hour. It was an amazing experience in which every little thing that I asked from Heavenly Father was given to me. I went back and thought about what I said in that prayer and literally everything that I asked for was given to me. I know that prayer is real and that it really does have power. I know that Heavenly Father is listening to us and that he really wants to bless us. Experiences like these strengthen my testimony of the church and of our Heavenly Father. I know that the Church is true and that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. Keep up the good work wherever you are in the world and remember that He is always there!

Love you all,

Elder Franklyn

Baptismal Date & Talent Show

Family and friends!! 

Yeah I don't have much time buuuuut I just wanted to say that this week has been awesome!! We set a baptismal date with our investigator Guillermo and he is really excited about it.  Everything is going well in the office and I am learning new things every day! I just wanted to bear my testimony though that I know that this work is of God. I know that this Church is true and that I am not just wasting my time out here. I can feel the love and power of our Heavenly Father every day and know that He is here with me. I have no doubt that this is the true and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth today. I love you all and hope for the best for every one of you. Prayer has real power. Trust in our Heavenly Father! He is always there to uplift us. Thank you all for all that you are doing. Keep it up!

Elder Franklyn

P.S. Our ward has a talent show coming up and we Elders are doing a skit ,so I will try to record it and pass it to you all so you can get a chance to laugh at all of us.

July 7, 2014

Mis queridos amigos,

This week has been a little bit more calm than last week and we actually got a good amount of missionary work done too!

We finally washed our car last Monday which was much needed and managed to have a few lessons. One of the more amazing experiences we had was that we met with Tanchi and Yonaisy again. It had been a while since we had met with them and so we sat down to see how they were doing. They are doing amazingly! Yonaisy really wants to come to church but can't because of work. She seems really excited about everything though. At the end of the lesson, Smill, their son, was running around and Tanchi said, well when this one is 8 years old he'll be a Mormon too! Elder Ward and I just busted up laughing just because Smill is so awesome... but it really showed that they really like the church and have desires to stick with us for a while. They are amazing people.

One other cool experience that we had... So just some background, Spain is relatively close to the country of Morocco and there are a lot of people from there that live here. Almost all of them are Muslim people but very nice and great people but never really interested in hearing about other religions. So the other day we are contacting in the street and we meet a man who is from Morocco (sorry I have no idea how to say marroquí in English) but he seemed really open and so he told us we could stop by his house on Saturday. We went and he was there! He let us in and we started talking about his views on religion and everything. He is super awesome! Technically he is Muslim but we had a great discussion on religion and how it blesses our lives. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and so we are going to pass by today because we have one in Arabic. It was just a really good lesson and I felt the Spirit testify to me strongly that He is preparing all kinds of people to hear the message that we bear as missionaries.

Everything else is going great. The time out here is flying by. I am in charge of making sure that the missionaries have return flight information and I just started receiving some information for the sisters that were in my MTC group (sisters serve 18 month missions) and it's kind of freaking me out!  It's too quick!  I'm just glad I have a full two years out here. Well I love you all and hope the best for each of you!

Keep pushing forward the work of salvation,

Elder Franklyn