4/27/2015

Banana writing

Come cards we made

chinese food

Elder Franklyn gets a new suit

transfers

Family and Friends!

This week has been great! We have been able to see a lot of progression in our investigators and at the same time we have found some great new investigators. Marco and Norma are still doing really good. They came to church this week too even though Norma was a little sick. We haven't been able to set a date with them yet but hopefully this Tuesday we will set one with them. They are awesome. Our 19 year old Guatemalteca investigator Karla also came to church and enjoyed it! She told us that her mom was NOT happy with her going though and so we are still working on that. We had an amazing lesson with an investigator of ours named Gimena as well! We went over to her house when she is normally home and she let us in! Her husband was there with three of her friends (Bolivians) and we got them all to sit down and listen to us. We taught an amazingly powerful lesson on the Restoration. At first we could tell that they weren't all very interested but by the end they were paying atention to every word we said. They all accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and we are going to go over to their house this coming Thursday. It was a huge blessing for us and we are so happy about it! 

Elder Koeven is feeling a lot better now but he was pretty sick on Monday and Tuesday. A member in the ward (Los Manzano) gave him some medicine to take and that has helped a lot. 

Not much else is new. I'm a little bummed because I have less than a month left in the mission and I got an email from the office explaining what I have to do before I go home. Lame... Oh and our mission is getting iPads so that's cool! I'm not sure if I will actually get them before I get home but there is a big possibility that we will be getting them on the 7th of May. Not sure yet. I hope all is well back home! Shout out to Jacob Mayans for killing it until the end! I hope you enjoy the land of eternal P-Days.

Elder Franklyn

April 20th, 2015 Chicharro!!

Chicharreros verdaderos y chicharreras verdaderas...

This week, I ate chicharro!! The people here are called Chicharreros because back in the day the majority of the people here were fishermen who fished for a certain type of fish called chicharro. So I ate some chicharro heads and my companion didn't feel super good after. I was okay though and it actually tasted pretty good! Let's just say that that was definitely not the weirdest thing I've eaten in the mission. 

All is well out here in Tenerife. Sometimes I think that I'm just stuck out on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and then I realize that I am and that makes me smile. The work here is going good! This week we walked a lot in the street which is always fun but we also had some bomb lessons! Let's take a look and see...

(I'm gunna do this investigator by investigator)

Norma y Marco - Cubans. Mother and son. Bossesssss. They've come to church twice and we had a great lesson with them this last week. After they came to church yesterday, a Cuban family invited them over to their house to eat and the Cuban members (Gabriela and Nanda) told us that they were talking to them about the Church and about baptism and Norma said that she wanted to get baptized with Elder Koeven and I because we were the first ones to teach them. Máquinas.

Karla - Guatemalteco. 17 years old. She is doing good. Her mom is not letting her get baptized though but she loves the Church and feels the Spirit really strongly with us. She doesn't turn 18 until January so hopefully she can stay strong until then! Oh she also said that she wanted to go out contacting in the street with us.

Sula - This is a weird story. I'm not going to go into all the details here. She is a friend of a member and she's really nice but we aren't sure about how much true intent she has. In our second lesson she said that she wanted to meet with the sisters instead of us because she "can't understand anything that we say." Talk about pride check to the spanish skills. We passed her to the sisters to say the least.

Daniel Cabrera - Boss. Semi less active. He is doing really good. He didn't come to church this week but he has been reading in the Book of Mormon everyday since we made a contract with him that he signed haha. He is awesome though and we feel that he is progressing alot.

Well we have a lot of work ahead of us and I am excited to keep working here in Santa Cruz. Elder Koeven is down for the count after eating some Chinese food and fish heads but hopefully he will be recouperating quickly. I love this work and I know that this is Jesus Christ's Church on the earth. I love being a missionary and I will miss the good times and the bad times out here. I love the mission.

Elder Franklyn

My last transfer

Santa Cruz Friends

Elder Koeven and Elder Ward

Family and Friends!

So last Saturday the transfers came out!  I'm staying in Santa Cruz!  And I'm staying with Elder Koeven! Strangely, today is actually the first day of my last transfer as a missionary. The time has flown by but there is still more ahead of me! 

This week was good! On Tuesday I went on intercambios to La Laguna and I was with Elder Smith! It was really fun and we had some good lessons there in La Laguna. Meanwhile, Elder Koeven and Elder Ward had a lesson with Karla. She is doing great but she told us that her mother is not okay with her getting baptized or coming to church... Karla is soo ready but we just need to help her over this little but important obstacle! We are going to try and meet with her mom sometime to present ourselves and help her have a better understanding of the church. Poco a poco.

We also had this booomb meeting with a less active kid named Daniel Cabrera. His parents are worried about him so we went over to their house when the parents weren't there to see what we could do. We started reading the Book of Mormon with him and ended up getting him to sign a contract with us that we made on a piece of paper that if he reads everyday we will come over every Tuesday and Thursday to talk with him. He really likes us but is just struggling with a few things. It seems to be working though because he came to church on Sunday and that was the first time that I had seen him at church! He is a great kid but just needs a little help. 

On Saturday we had a wonderful day! A lesson with a less active kid named Airán in the morning and a lesson with Richard our investigator. Richard is doing good but he just doesn't want to accept that what we teach is true even though he knows it is. Poco a poco. In the afternoon we FINALLY met with Antonio the dominican again! We had a suuper good lesson with him but he told us that he can't go to church on Sundays because of work. He is still fantastic and actually gave us a basketball. Love that guy! After that lesson we went to the church for Susana's baptism! The sisters were teaching her and she was golden! I'm not sure if I told you about this but we actually received her reference twice but the sisters had already gotten in contact with her. It was a wonderful baptism though and we had a really good lesson with Gabriela after.

Sunday was awesome too! Great day at church and then we went to Gabriela's and Maria Fernanda's house after! Gabi is the only member of the church in the family and is such a light to everyone. I looove this family so much! The mission is soo much better when you just fall in love with the people you are serving. I love the mission and I love Tenerife and I love Spain. I am so grateful to be able to serve here as a missionary. I know that God Himself has sent me here and I know that this Church is true. I miss you all and I love you all as well.

Elder Franklyn

Blessings

Un cortazo de la vida de Elder Franklyn

I wanted to start with apologizing for not writing a weekly email last week. It was a mixture of signing up for classes at BYU (yeah I know... totally trunked me out) and the myldsmail website having some problems. This week was pretty good though and I wanted to touch on some highlights that happened.

First of all, I've got to go back to last week and tell you all a wonderful little story about my companion Elder Koeven. Some important background information to this story is that Elder Koeven has a big fear of terminal illnesses. I think we all do but he is a little over the top sometimes about it. Well the story starts with Elder Koeven and I walking on the sidewalk. We were talking to a few people in a dark street in Santa Cruz when we received a phone call from a less active father of a less active family. He explained to us that his brother-in-law was lying in the hospital and wanted a blessing of health. We changed our direction and headed to the house of this family. We met up with the parents and made our way to the hospital. On our way there, we found out that this man in the hospital was suffering from bone cancer and was given just a few months to live. As we entered into the hospital I was working on mustering up the faith that I would need to lay my hands on this man's head and call down important and life saving blessings from heaven. When we reached the door, they gave us hospital gowns and gloves to put on. As I tied the gown of my companion, I realized that this was a little more serious than I thought upon entering. We went in and the man was eating some food in his deteriorated state. We left the room to let him finish and the less active member explained to us that apart from having bone cancer, he also had a stomach virus that was highly contagious. That was why we were wearing the hospital gown and gloves. I entered back into the room and noticed that Elder Koeven was lingering at the door. He told me that he was going to hang back for a bit. I entered into the room with Elder Koeven still in sight and talked with the man for a bit. I glanced out the door and saw Elder Koeven leaning against the wall looking a bit pale. I went out to see how he was doing and he said to me, "I can't go in there. I don't feel good." I replied, "Alright well let's go take a walk and see how you feel." As we were walking away, he told me that he wanted to get out of the hospital clothing that he was wearing. I helped him take off the gown and he told me that he really wanted to wash his hands. I could tell that he was acting a bit different. As he washed his hands, he stopped and stared at me. I looked back at his even paler face and watched his lips move strangely slow as he said, "I don't feel good Elder." I rushed over and caught him under the armpits right as he  fell to the floor! He was still concious but barely. I helped him walk away from the sink and around the trash can that he bumped into a number of times. I helped him slide down the wall as he struggled to stay concious. We got him some juice and water, and he ended up recovering in a few minutes but that experience scared me a ton! I went into the room with the less active member and we gave a great blessing to that man lying in the hospital. I almost had to give two blessings that night!

Well I thought you all would like that funny/scary story. The rest of the week was filled with contacting a lot of people and having some great lessons!

Our investigator Karla is doing great! This last Tuesday we had a wonderful lesson with her on the Word of Wisdom. It was one of the most powerful lessons that I have ever had in my mission and I felt the Spirit extremely strong. 

We also found a new investigator named Antonio. He is dominican and great! As we started our first lesson with him, he asked, "Who is Nephi?" Elder Koeven and I were stunned! We hadn't even talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father! Apparently he had met missionaries in the Dominican Republic and had read half of the Book of Mormon but never went to church! He is great and has a beautiful family as well. We are going to try to meet with him more often this week.

Elder Koeven and I are teaching wonderfully together and I feel like we really teach with Power and Authority. I am loving the work out here and all of the great times that the mission brings to me. General Conference was also wonderful this weekend and I learned soo much from our Prophet and Apostles during all of the sessions. I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I love this work and it will be hard for me to leave it all behind. I love you all and I am so grateful to all of you for the love and support that you show to the many missionaries around the world. We feel your prayers.

Elder Franklyn