August 18, 2014 - Some new investigators, some miracles, and some early mornings!

Helloooooo Champions!!!

(I guess that intro is funnier if you know a member named Juan Blasco from Alcobendas. Super Spaniard, doesn't know how to talk in a normal, not-yelling voice, calls everyone a champion, and just awesome in all ways. )

Anyway, this week has been good!! Some new investigators, some miracles, some early mornings as well. Lets see...

On Monday, we moved apartments!! We switched pisos with the assistants because we need a bit more room. Talk about living out of a suitcase... I'm still not unpacked. I also got my hair cut which was great. It's suuper hot here!! In the afternoon we did some crazy split magic and had Elder Ward go pick up some missionaries in the airport while Elder Cahoon and I had a great lesson with Guillermo and his friend Iliana who is a new investigator! She was really interested in the Book of Mormon so we will see how it goes.

Tuesday!! We had the mission council!! We woke up a bit early and headed over to the mission home. Then we did some picking up of all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. Everything went well and according to plan (that's a first!). In the afternoon we did some more crazy splits with some of the zone leaders from the north and we had a few great lessons with some awesome investigators! Then we dropped of the Zone Leaders at the train station and went to bed.

Wednesday we had our Zone Training Meeting!! It was really good and our Zone Leaders focused a lot on how to get from the first lesson with an investigator to the second lesson. We talked about a lot of really good things and we are going to be putting them in practice soon. That night we fiiiinally met with our investigator named Yonaisi. She has been working a tooonnnn but we were soo happy to see that she still has desires to come to church and to get baptized. She is incredible and is doing so much for her family. 

On Thursday we had like the split of all splits. It literally took us like 30 minutes to figure out how in the world we could hit all of the lessons we had planned and drop off President and Sister Jackson at the airport. With the help of the Lord we made it through and had some awesome experiences along the way. We found two new investigators, Balthazar and Jose who both seem to have some potential. We also had a lesson with Lucy and Emilio and they just continue to amaze us. Here's a miracle... So a while back Lucy had decided that she wanted to stop smoking. She had been smoking around 10 a day and dropped down to like 1 every week. She continued to smoke one every now and then when she had a bad day. Three days before we had this lesson on the Word of Wisdom, she decided that she wanted to stop smoking completely and she did. When we brought it up in the lesson she was amazed and told us of the impression that she had just three days earlier to quit completely. There is no doubting that the Lord has had a hand in the life of this family. I can truly see the Lord preparing them in so many ways to come closer to Him and be baptized. It is just amazing. My testimony has never been stronger. 

Friday was awesome! We ate with Felipe and Isabel's family and we've got great news!! Isabel is pregnant!!!!! We are all so excited!! They are such an amazing family to us. They mean a lot and I always just feel so welcome in their home. I can't wait until they are married and Isabel is baptized. I really hope I am here for it!! We had family home evening as well which was great!

On Saturday a lot of our plans fell through but we contacted a ton and received a lot of great references from some great people.

Sunday was good but a lot of our plans fell through again. August is hard sometimes. We worked hard until the very last minute though and got home tired.

Today has been long!! We woke up at 4:15 and had to drive a senior couple to the airport!! We got back at around 6ish and went back to bed. We woke up at 7, got ready and studied a little and then headed out at 10 to take the assistants to the airport. We played a little soccer down by the temple which was fun and bought some food like the usual. 

I am really excited for this week. It is going to be probably the craziest week of my mission!! I have been making plans and buying tickets all day for the upcoming zone conferences and the first one is today. President Jackson and the assistants will be getting back tomorrow night, we have missionaries flying in on Wednesday, missionaries flying home on Friday and a lot of lessons to be had in the middle. I am trying to up the quality of work I do as a secretary and I see things running smoother as I do so. Thank you for all your love and support. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I love you all so much!!

Elder Franklyn