November 24, 2014

A Miracle.

Amigitos mios,

This week has been really fun! We have had some ups and some downs but all in all we have seen some great growth in ourselves and in our investigators. Marcos' baptismal date is pretty set and we are hoping to have his interview this week! He is doing great and loved church yesterday.

We had two lessons with a man named Prosper this week that went really well! He is from Nigeria and so we teach him in English. Yeah.. my english is terrible haha. It was really hard to teach actually but it went well. He is thinking about baptism which is good!

It has been raining a ton here so we have been trying to stay as dry as possible but sometimes it just isn't possible haha. I hope it doesn't get to windy here or then we will really have a problem. We had this great milagrito this weekend that I wanted to write about.

So on Saturday morning we had a YSA breakfast in the chapel and then we had a scavenger hunt throughout the city of Oviedo. Marcos came so we joined in and it was really fun! Marcos' team won and he was happy about that. We were standing around talking though and Marcos comes up to us and says that he had been talking to a member named Angel and said that Angel was going to give him a ride to Gijon for the baptism that our branch had that afternoon. It was something very small but very important to us as missionaries. Sure enough, Marcos and Angel showed up for the baptism and had a great experience. It was exactly what he needed and exactly what we had hoped and prayed for. The help of the members is something so important and this small act of service shown by a member may be the key for Marcos' conversion. As missionaries, we need to work with the members. And as members, we need to work with the missionaries! I know that this work is for all of us and that each one of us can take part in the work of salvation. I love this work and the time that I have to be here! Thank you so much for your prayers and love!

Until next time,

Elder Franklyn

November 17, 2014 Awesome Week!

Zone Meeting and lots of pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting up with old friends in Madrid!  Grandfather, father and son!

Photos from the game!!!

Elder Carejo and I!

Zone Conference P-Day Futbol game!

Our MTC Group at Zone Conference

Just thought I'd show you some food I made the other night!

Sweet Half-Pipe

Oviedo's "Date" changes everyday - this is my 17 month mark!

Manuela's (investigator) birthday party!

Elder Carrejo cooking empanadas for Elder Ward's birthday!!

When I went down to Madrid I met with Felipe and Isabel again!!

Zone Conference!

I made pancakes....

and they worked!

Yeaahhh sometimes we are still kids... This is at this huge local mall!

Saludos de Oviedo!!

Well this week has been AWESOME!! 

Updates on our investigators:

Manuela - She is doing super good! We had her birthday party this week and some members came with us. It was really fun!! 

Jose Alberto - We had a lesson with him and he told us that he believes that the Holy Ghost has told him that the Book of Mormon is true!! Buut he is leaving at the end of December to go back to the Dominican Republic, so we are going to work with him until he leaves!!

Marcos - We set up a baptismal date with him this week for the 6th of December and he is excited for it!! We are going to keep on preparing him but he comes to a lot of the activities and church so he is progressing well.

Edwin - We met with Edwin again and he is doing a lot better! He recently got back from Colombia and his testimony of the church had weakend a bit but we are reading with him a lot and he is doing much better! 

Those are our top four investigators right now and I am just having a blast teaching them! They are doing really well and I am so excited to see their progression. 

We had kind of a miracle last night with a less active member that I wanted to talk about too. Leomar is from Brazil and he was baptized about 9 years ago. He has been inactive for around 7 years and many companionships have tried to get him to come to church without success. Last night we passed by his house and he let us in! We went up stairs and sat down on his couch. He had a guitar on his couch and I picked it up and started playing a little bit while I was waiting for him to come in the room. He came in and we started talking about the guitar for a bit and he played us some songs he knew as well. We shared a message on repentance and then played some more. It was amazing because he really opened up to us and our relationship grew so much as we taught each other songs that we knew. He was so excited to just be sitting with someone who had the same interests as he did and I feel so blessed to have been guided by the Lord to that point in time. It was such a small thing but I really feel like it had an impact on him. 

I am also really grateful that I know how to play the guitar!! Thanks dad! Haha it was a wonderful experience and I am hoping to see some breakthroughs with him in the future. I know this church is true. It has changed my life in so many wonderful ways and I know that God is watching over us. I love you all so much!!

Elder Franklyn

November 10, 2014

Familia mia!!

Well this last week has been good and hard! 

On Monday I headed down to Madrid and we had the mission council with all of the zone leaders which was reaaally cool! On Tuesday night, Elder Anderson, the assistant, and I went to a Real Madrid game which was sooo awesome!! On Wednesday we had our Zone Training meeting and it went really well but I started feeling sick during the middle of it. On Thursday I woke up feeling terrible but I got better throughout the day. The rest of the week was good just doing our best in finding investigators. I feel like I am finally learning what true success is on the mission. Its not always just about how many baptisms you have or about how good your numbers are, but when I work hard and do my best and when I am obedient, that's when I feel like I am being truly successful as a servant of the Lord. I love this work. I am falling in love with Spain and the mission more every single day. Its amazing how much my heart and desires have changed since I've been out here. I know that this is the Lord's work and that He is guiding us. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

Love,


Elder Franklyn

November 3, 2014

Halloween party

we roasted "castanas" (chestnuts)

more halloween fun

We made pasta at Carole's house. She's awesome

Family and Friends,

This week has been... interesting!  We don't have a lot of investigators up here in my new area, 

so we are doing a lot of finding but it's been kind of hard because my companion has been sick this 

past week so we haven't had a lot of time to be outside.  Sorry, that was like a crazy run on sentence. 

Anyways, Oviedo is awesome!!  The buildings here are beautiful and the landscape in general is really cool. 

Lots of rolling green hills and cool statues. It does rain a lot though which is a challenge but there is definitely 

a lot of work to do! 

The branch here averages around 60 members in church on Sunday and there are a lot of really cool families 

that I have gotten to know. We had a young single adult activity on Thursday and we carved pumpkins! 

Then on Friday we had a Halloween party with all of the decorations we made. It was really fun! 

We had a few investigators there as well which was great. 

On Tuesday I had my first lesson with a guy from the United States! His name is Michael and he is

 from New York! He is really cool and we had a lesson with him on the Book of Mormon. 

His brother is a member of the Church and he has a lot of potential! It was great! 

Then on Wednesday we had a lesson with an investigator of ours named Manuela. 

She is from Guinea and she is awesome! She really wants to get baptized and comes to 

all of the church activities but just needs to get married first. Poco a poco… 

Last night we had a lesson with a man named Jose Alberto from the Dominican Republic! 

He is a new investigator and we taught the Restoration. Elder Carrejo did a really good job 

and we killed it! The Spirit was present and Jose accepted everything we said. It was like 

he wouldn't argue with anything we said and I think it was because we taught with the Spirit. 

I am really excited to see how he progresses in the future.

My mother asked me to write a little bit about how my mission  has affected my life and to put it simply:  

My mission has had a great impact on me. Before the mission, I don't think that I was a bad kid or anything, 

but I've really come to learn about the important things in this life. My testimony of the Church has grown 

immensely and my knowledge of the plan that God has for us has grown as well. I think that I would not 

be on the right track if it were not for the mission.  I now understand so much more about the importance 

of my family and the importance of the gospel in our lives.  I know that this Church is the true Church on 

the face of the earth. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. And I LOVE sharing this message. 

Until next time!

Elder Franklyn