December 29, 2014

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

 

It's weird that the last time I was writing this letter home, I was with Elder McWhorter in El Ferrol. Good times... Well, first of all, I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and making lots of memories! Christmas this year was pretty great! But I'll talk about that in a little.

On Monday, we had a normal day since our P Day was on Christmas and we had a lesson with Javier and Lourdes that went really well!  We set a baptismal date for the both of them for the 24th of January. They seem to have a lot of desires to get to know people in the branch here in Oviedo and come to church so hopefully we can get them ready for the 24th!  After we had a good lesson with Prosper on missionary work and the priesthood. It went well!

Every year in Madrid on the week of Christmas, the zones in Madrid have a huge Christmas devotional and all of the missionaries down there get together to celebrate Christmas. For the second time in a row, I missed it!!  This year, David Archuleta came as well and sang a few songs. It sounds like it was really fun but we had a great time up here in Oviedo! Elder Ward planned a great devotional for us and I learned alot about the importance of Christmas this year. It's kind of amazing how much I can learn about simple things like Christmas and missionary work even after having done it for so long.

On Wednesday, the noche buena as they call it here, The Hunt's invited us over to their house for dinner! The other missionaries came and some YSA members and it was great! I was in charge of the dessert and let's just say I whipped out some egg nog shakes which turned out suuper good!! I was suprised because I had to make them from scratch and I've never made egg nog from scratch before but it was really good and pretty easy too. It was a memorable night and Elder Ward dressed up as Santa Clause which made it even better. 

Christmas was good and tranquilo. We had breakfast at the Hunt's and then I dominated everyone in Uno by winning 4 games out of the 6  that we played. I was on fire haha. Skyping with the family was great too! It was really good to see my family and I miss them a lot. In the afternoon we hit the streets and received a couple of Christmas references which was bomb. I've heard that in some missions they don't let the missionaries go out to proselyte on Christmas but we go hard here in Spain.

The rest of the week was great. The highlight was when we went to sing at an elderly peoples home (that sounds really weirdly phrased sorry its called a residencia here...). We sang some carols and some hymns and it was great! I also played the lead role in a skit about a boy who gives his winter coat to a poor kid. And I also played the role as one of the Whos in Whoville. Elder Ward of course took the role as the Grinch. It was unforgetable haha. Sunday was great too. I gave the lesson in the Elders Quorum on Christmas and it went really well. 

I especially wanted to share with all of you a verse from the Old Testament that I found. Micah 5:2 "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And a snip from verse 5: "And this man shall be the peace" I know that Jesus is our Savior. What better time do we have to think about him than now? As this Christmas season ends, I hope that we all can remember our Savior a little more during this coming year. I know that He lives and that He loves us. He was born in the humble city of Bethlehem, but He truly is a ruler in Israel and the Son of God. He is the way, the truth and the life!

I love you all!

Elder Franklyn

December 15, 2014

VARONESSSSS Y VARONAAAAS,

Veo en todoooooo que ustedes están... leyendo mi carta semanal!

Well, this week has been good!  Difficult but good! The good part is that we haven't given up working hard! Elder Esquen and I have been contacting alot and looking for new investigators and we have seen a good amount of success from that! Our investigators are doing good! Marcos kind of fell off of the map for a few days and so he won't be getting baptized now but hopefully in the new future he will feel ready to take the step! 

On the other hand, Prosper is doing wonderfully! We had a fast with him on Sunday to help him quit smoking and he is doing good! He seems to have a lot of great desires to do it and we are just trying to do our best to be there alongside him to help him reach his goal. 

Something that I've learned in the mission is that when we set a baptismal date with someone, its not OUR goal, but THEIR goal. We can't drag people to get baptized, but we can help them try to reach their goals. And there's nothing more than I love to see than an investigator who really has true desires to hit their goals. It's awesome to see! 

Well other than that, we have just been contacting a lot in the rain and having some great experiences with the Asturian people. I hope all is welll!!

Love you all!

Elder Franklyn

December 8, 2014

We missed our bus in Leon this week so I bought everyone popsicles to make us feel better haha

Here is our district hiking up to a giant statue of Jesus Christ in Oviedo.

The statue! And an epic shot of me pointing at Oviedo.

Our last day with Elder Carrejo and Elder Dugan.

Down in Madrid! !

One with Elder McWhorter. Reunited

Family and Friends!

First of all... Someone could have told me that Nate and Rachel were having another baby!! #missionprobs Oh and I am sorry for not writing last week, I had to catch a train down to Madrid!!

This past week has been crazy but super fun.

On Monday we took a hike up to this huge statue of Jesus Christ and then I hopped on a train down to Madrid. I got to stay in my old apartment again with the office elders and I felt right at home haha.

On Tuesday we had the Mission Leadership Council which was really fun! I got to see Elder Echegaray, Elder Beuden and Elder McWhorter again so that was great. Then Elder Lopez and I took a train back to Leon and planned for the Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting went really well! We watched the video He is the Gift and the Spirit was really strong. We have one of the smallest zones in the mission missionary-wise but geographically the largest zone and a lot of work to get done. I love working in this district because there is so much potential. I can see them having a stake and a ton of wards here one day! After the meeting we missed our bus by a few minutes and had to wait in Leon for a good 2 hours. We had food though so that was fun. But kind of annoying haha.

On Thursday everything kind of fell through besides a great lesson we had with Prosper! Nigerias are the best!!! We taught him about the word of wisdom and this is what I wanted to focus my email on. So we were there with Carol, Jessica, Elder Carrejo and I and we began talking about the Word of Wisdom and we explained the things that we shouldn't take into our bodies. We knew he had a problem with smoking and we were a little worried about how he would take it. After explaining it, he responded to us and said something like this: "I have smoked for many, many years. I love smoking just because I have done it for so long. But I want to see the other side. I want to see what it would be like to not have to smoke every day. If you say that there really are blessings that God has for me if I don't smoke, I want to see what those blessings are." It was amazing to see how much he had changed. He accepted the challenge to quit smoking from now until his baptismal date on the 20th of December and if he can make it that long, he will quit for life. He is such an example to me. I have learned so much from him and he seems to be progressing so well. He came to church on Sunday and is just a boss through and through.

On Saturday we had a big activity with all of the YSA in the Leon district and it went really well! We had a great turn out and we saw some miracles as well. We were given a 1 hour time slot to talk about missionary work which ended up changing into a 2 hour time slot the day off. We were all nervous about it going well and we got together as the missionaries of Oviedo, said a prayer, and then just did a fantastic job. We took the JAS (spanish for YSA) out to contact and had some great miracles in the street as well.

Sunday was good! Prosper, Marcos and Jose Alberto came to church. Oh by the way, Jose Alberto leaves for the Dominican Republic on Thursday! I'm gunna miss the guy. He is awesome and I totally see him getting baptized some day. Church was great though and we ended the transfer at the Palma's house. Right back where we started from! Elder Carrejo seemed sad to leave but ready for a change at the same time. Elder Esquen just got here and he seems really cool! I'm sure we will get along well and have some fun together. Hopefully my spanish will improve as well! Thanks for everything. I love you all! Shout out to Brody Palmer for working hard. Can't wait to hear all of your amazing stories from Cambodia!

Love you!

Elder Franklyn