LAST ONE

Well,

This is it. The LAST ONE!!! My last email that I will be writing. 

This last week was really great. We saw a ton of miracles. The biggest of all of them though has definitely been Norma and Marco. We finished all of the lessons with them this week and we had their baptismal interview on Friday. Elder Ward did it of course and they both passed perfectly. I will be having two baptisms on my last full day as a missionary. The Lord has been so good to me. I never asked for anything like this but I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to be here in Santa Cruz and to have been able to teach them the message of the gospel. Like mostly all of the baptisms that I have had on the mission, I honestly feel like I haven't done anything. Gabriela and her family were the ones that brought them to the Church and Heavenly Father was the one that brought about the change in their hearts. The day of their interview was soo hectic because Norma's cousin was coming from Cuba and she had to go pick her up at the airport. Elder Ward was running a little bit behind schedule and so we got to her house late. The best way to put this is that Norma's flight was miraculously delayed a few hours (thanks Heavenly Father) so that Norma and Marco could have their interviews. Everything went wonderfully and we are so excited for them taking this most important step. I love them so much!

Another miracle that we saw this week was with a man named Candido. He's from Cuba (yeah I love the cubans). We contacted him in the street two weeks ago and he hasn't missed church since. We had a first lesson with him last week and it went incredibly well. He accepted the invitation to be baptized and is progressing wonderfully. On Sunday we had Candido, Norma, Marco, Miguel, Maria Fernanda, and Antioneta (Gabi's mom) all at church with us. All of them are cubans besides Miguel (who is from the Dominican Republic) so we kind of had a cuban party in the chapel this week haha. It was amazing though and we are seeing soo much progression in Gabriela's mom, Antioneta. She basically bore her testimony during the second hour and Norma jumped in too. It was incredible. They love us soo much. 

I wanted to finish this email by bearing my testimony about this experience of being a full-time missonary and also of this Church. During these last two years I have been through good times and hard times. The mission has never been something easy for me to go through. It's always hard but I have seen myself grow so much during this wonderful experience. I have never felt a greater feeling of love in my entire life than I have while serving as a missionary. I love the mission so much. I know that my calling has been of God. I have seen so many people change their lives for the better while I have been sharing this message with them. I know that the Gospel changes lives. It has changed mine more than I have ever imagined. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of God. I know that this Church is His Church. I have no doubt about that anymore. I know that Heavenly Father has been watching over me during my whole life and guiding me by His merciful hand. I know that I am not perfect but I have never felt as close to the Savior as I have felt while serving alongside Him in this work. I love you all and I can't wait to see most of you in just a week!

Love,

Elder Franklyn