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