El Ferrol!

December 2, 2013


Family and Friends!!

I am really low on time but thats how the mission life goes sometimes aka always. Well I'm in El Ferrol in probably the most northern area in my entire mission. The city is set on a bay and so I get to see the ocean every day. This city is beautiful and the buildings here are amazing. I finally feel like I'm in Spain!! Its amazing. Anyways, my new companion is Elder Mcwhorter from Rexburg, Idaho. He is an awesome missionary and only 18 years old! He is a transfer behind me and is really excited about working and learning.

So we have a good amount of investigators and right now 6 baptismal dates! Kadir, Alex, Patricia, Jose, Shaila, and Shaine are their names and they are all so prepared. I am excited to see some success here in Ferrol and really grow the church! The branch I am in is similar to Fuenlabrada and the members are extremely nice. We eat a meal every single day! Usually with Hermana Irina and her family from Cuba. Oh and there are a tooon of Cubanos here so tell the Mayans!

I'm loving it and working hard here. Our piso is huge. The church is true. I love you all.

Elder Franklyn

Transferred!

Monday, November 24, 2013


Family and friends!!!

Well I pretty much got sideswiped on Saturday night. Transfer calls came in and they are sending me up north to a city called El Ferrol! Its right above Portugal and its gunna be crazy!

This week was pretty good. I don't have a ton of time but I'll cruise through it.

On monday we went to Parque Sur to get some winter clothes and at night had a lesson with Juan Romera to help prep him for his baptism. They made us eat a tonnnn of churros and I felt a little sick after haha.

Tuesday was great! We had a lesson with a new investigator named Sandra. She's Nigerian and really awesome! Mike came with us and made the lesson super great. She has a family too and so we are excited to meet with them. After we met with Esteban and he basically dropped us which is sad but then had correlation with David which went great!

Wednesday we went to the Temple which was amazing and I felt the spirit so strongly. After, we had intercambios and so I was with Elder Stevenson who's from Chino CA!! It went well and we had a lesson with Purificacion. At night we went to Consuelo and Enrique's to help Consuelo with her talk. It went great!

Thursday we worked hard and had a lesson with Amparo which went great and then Maxwell. He still has a ton of questions but we are answering them bit by bit. After we went to David's to talk about a few things and we had a great time discussing all of our ideas.

Friday we planned the week which went good. Bummer I'm not gunna be here. After we went to Carlos Murillo's and had some good food and shared a great lesson! Then we contacted some references in the street and then had a lesson with a less active girl named Jessica. She's only 20 but really awesome and super strong. Then we had clase de ingles and noche de hogar which both went great. We shared a lesson on Nefi building the boat and it was awesome.

Saturday we didn't have too much but we ended up contacting a good amount of our references that we had. We had a lesson with John which went amazingly and he is actually really interested in baptism. Hopefully we can get him to progress and come to church! After we went contacting again and passed by some members. That night I got the call and freaked out for a bit.

Sunday was pretty sad. Everyone was sad that I was leaving. I bore my testimony and thought back on how much I had learned here. Basically everything. I'm gunna miss this place a ton. Hermana Amparo cried as she tried to say good bye to me. She's like my substitute grandma and our relationship is awesome. After medio dia Elder Beuden wanted to practice getting around everywhere so we did some area tests and walked around passing by members houses to say good bye. Basically no one was home haha. We ended where I started and Consuelo and Enrique's and had a great time there with them. They are awesome!

Today I finally got my residency card! Super excited about that. My train leaves tonight at 10:30 pm and so I am going to be hanging out here until tonight. Wish me luck in El Ferrol!

Elder Franklyn

Ping-Pong/Dining Table

Monday, November 18, 2013

¡Mis amados hermanos y hermanas!

Well all is well here in Fuenlabrada. Training is going good and I am learning a ton! This week was a little on the hard side but we have been really trying to strengthen the branch here. Difficult work but just have to keep pushing forward.
Thank you for all of your emails and support!

Last Monday was great! We relaxed a bit to give our bodies some rest and then at night we met with Wisdom, who is a friend of Mikes. Not sure if I have already said this but he took the lessons in England and then moved to Switzerland. He is down here for a bit because he and Mike go way back but he wants to be baptized with us!   He's pretty ready and we could have a little surprise baptism here in Fuenla haha.

Tuesday was great. We are beautifing the chapel a little bit and finishing off our missionary board which is looking great!   We had lunch with Andrew and he taught us how to make Fufu and vegetable soup which is some amazing Nigerian food. After medio dia we met up with a less active named Jesus Conde and went to another less active members named Estela. We had a good lesson with them!

Wednesday morning we prepared some paperwork for our meeting with the President that night . After medio dia, we went to pass by many peoples houses but no one was home. We ended with the meeting with the branch president which actually went really well. During the meeting he called up David Guzman and told him that he was going to be called as our mission leader! We are really excited about that.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Pavones! It was awesome and I learned a tooon. We got haircuts while we here there too which was great. When we got back to Fuenla we had a meeting with Mike and talked about him sharing the gospel with his friends. He is really excited about missionary work but has a lot of other stressful things on his mind as well. After, we met with Jesus Conde again and we went over family history and had him show us a few things.

On Friday we had to plan the week during the morning because we missed it on Thursday and it was actually a really good planning session. We are definitely getting better at it. We then went to Carlos Murillos for lunch and had a great time with them. After, we met up with Purificacion to start her family history work. She doesn't know too much about computers and didn't even have an email account but we got Jesus Conde to meet with us and got her all situated. She's really interested! After we met up with the President at the chapel and headed to Ana's to help her buy her glasses. Jesus Conde tagged along too which was great. After we had Noche de Hogar which was wonderful and I really felt the spirit. we talked about sharing our light and how we can help the lives of others.

Saturday it started to rain and it hasn't stopped since! In the morning we made some calls to everyone about the cooking class we were having at 7 that night. We went out and contacted a little too which was good. After medio dia we headed to Loranca and had a great lesson with John. We set a baptismal date with him which I am really excited for! I hope he follows through! We headed back and made it to the cooking class. A lot of members showed up and Juan Romera came too. He's awesome. We were joking around and having a great time. The class took forever and we ended up having to leave early just to make it home on time. We didn't even get to eat!

Sunday was a decent day. It continued to rain and very little people were in church. Jesus Conde didn't come which was a bummer but we found out that he was in Toledo for the morning. Ana and Andrew came though and lets just say that we have secret plans to get them married haha. David was called as mission leader which was wonderful and Elder Beuden and I gave talks! They went really well and I continue to feel more and more comfortable with spanish. Afer medio dia we had a lesson with Kenny the nigerian lady and we set a baptismal date with her too! She is so receptive and promised to come to church next week. After we called up a woman named Sonia who I had met with before and she said we could come over. She gave us her address and we went to her house. Turns out that this was a different Sonia that I had never met before haha but she was really interested! I remember contacting her though. There wasn't a male home so we had a lesson in the doorway and it went good! She said that she is going to go to noche de hogar on Friday so we are excited about that and that we got a random new investigator! Oh how the Lord works.

Today we have some winter clothes shopping to do for my son, Elder Beuden. I'm really excited about this week and we are going to try our very hardest and re-dedicate our selves to the work. Thank you all for your wonderful examples in my life. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of you. Keep up the hard work back there at home.

Elder Franklyn

**Check out our new table we made out of some random stuff we found! One second its a dinner table, the next its a ping pong table! 

Monday, November 11, 2013

Photos: Circus was in town so we saw some lions. HUGE We decorated the chapel for the halloween party! Check out my nerd costume! Maxwell (investigator), Juan Romera (inevstigator), and David (member)! Elder Beuden and I having a great time.

Photos: A less active member named Aldo gave me this skateboard deck! I almost cried and lets just say I had a great 30 minutes of exercise the next morning. Halloween Package!!!! The Rama de Fuenlabrada put on a birthday party for all those who had birthdays during October and November. We rocked it. Just an awesome picture of the recent convert Andrew. Looking good on Sunday.

Well its been a while!! Really sorry about last week. Lets just say Elder Echegaray made us late. Haha he came in town so we had lunch with him and Ana but we had to go take him back to his area so its his fault! Well I'll just recap last week quickly and then get on to this week. It was a pretty great week actually and Elder Beuden and I are working very hard together. He has a ton of ideas which is great because usually I have none haha. We had a great lesson with Rosa on Tuesday and she started crying while bearing her testimony on Jesus Christ and during the closing prayer. I am so thankful for the power the Spirit has to bear witness of the truth of the things we teach. Wednesday we had district meeting which went well and we got to finally meet with the Branch President and discuss some important things. Thursday we had the Halloween party which actually turned out really great! Maxwell, an investigator, came and we had a ton of fun. The pres was a little crazy haha but it was great. Friday was our day of miracles. We read in Preach My Gospel about family history work and we were talking about how great it would be to have someone to help us do it. We take out the ward list and a name catches my eye so we visit him. Turns out his name is Jesus Conde and he is a family history specialist. Whaaaaaaaat?!? Yeah that was awesome. Then at 5 we were waiting for the bus which was like 15 minutes late. Heavenly Father made it late because I got a call from Juan Romera, who lives with Hermana Josephina, telling me that we needed to come to give Josephina a blessing because she was in serious pain and could not even get up from her bed. During the blessing, I felt impressed to bless her that she will get up and walk. Just like the John Tanner video, she stood up and walked. Within ten minutes, she was walking around and feeling much better. I know that this church is true. Saturday was great and we met with some members! And then on Sunday everyone cancelled on us and we got some paperwork and other plans done. Well that week was amazing but on to last week! Monday was great and we ate with Ana and Elder Echegaray came. After, we had a lesson with Maxwell which was a little difficult but it turned out decent at the end. Tuesday we had lunch with Andrew and a lesson with Aldo, which was when he gave me that skateboard deck! After we had a great lesson with Radhames and lets say that Elder Beuden is obsessed with him because they both love baseball. Their bond is wonderful! Wednesday we had Zone Training Meeting in Mostoles which went well and I learned a TON. After we met with Hermana Purificacion who is doing good! We ended the night teaching a new investigator named Edgar who is really interested! Thursday we planned the week of course which went great and then basically everyone cancelled on us so we started working on our mission board! (pictures to come) Friday we had intercambios and I was with Elder Gillam here in Fuenla and it was good! We had some good lessons and he had a lot of good advice to share. Saturday we continued to work on the missionary board which is a work of art for two 19 year old kids. Then we had the birthday party at 7 which was wonderful and really fun! Juan Romera loved it haha Sunday was great! Church was really good and especially amazing because we had the primary program! We have a big primary here actually and it was wonderful. Ana came too and she enjoyed it. After we had lunch with the Camacho's and had a lesson with an old investigator named Bright. Mike came with us because they are both Nigerian and he made the lesson. We tried to visit some less active members but no one was home. Today has been great! We built a table out of some scraps of wood and unused desks we found. I'll send some pictures when I take some and we are gunna try to convert it into a ping pong table for some medio dia fun! The mission is amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know that this church is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ really has been restored on the earth again. I love you all so much and know that I am praying for you! Elder Franklyn

Family and friends!!! I am low on time this week for several reasons but I can definitely say that this has been the best week of my mission so far! I will try to cram as much as I can in and I might just have to fit in the more important parts. Well I am in Leganes right now which is close to Fuenlabrada. Reason being is that this morning, Elder Echegaray left to go to an area called Cuatro Caminos and he is serving as Zone Leader there in Barrio 1. As we say here, ¡¡Que maquina!! He is awesome and I will miss him a ton. I have been chosen to train a new missionary straight out of the MTC which is nerve racking but exciting as well! It is rare for a non native speaker to be training right when they finish getting trained so I know it will be hard but I am excited to work hard with someone filled with excitement. I'll find out tomorrow who it is and so I have to stay with the Elders from Leganes for a day. Well this weekend our miracle finally came full circle. Ana was baptized on Sunday and she chose me to baptize her! It was the first time that I had baptized anyone and it was suuuch an amazing experience. I will never forget it and I felt the Spirit so strongly. Exactly three weeks after we had our first lesson with her, she was baptized. Lets see... what crazy stuff happened this week. Well on Tuesday we went to Parla to do an interview with a whole family who was baptized on Friday! Elder Echegaray was the district leader so we went there to do it. Everything went great and they all passed! On our way back, they told us to take this bus home and it ended up going the wrong direction and we wasted about an hour and a half of our night! We just barely got back to stop by Ana's to see how she was doing. She gave us a ton of food and so that lifted our spirits. She is amazing. Well on Friday we went to Parla again to go to their baptism which was fantastic. The family is so strong and amazing. It really got me excited for Ana. We basically had 4 lessons with her this week and they all went amazingly. She accepted all of the commandments and has a testimony of Joseph Smith. On Saturday we had her interview and so we had to go to Carabanchel to meet with the Zone Leaders there and bring them down to Fuenlabrada. It went great and she passed wonderfully! We had an activity during the night which was awesome. Members brought food from their own countries and it was super cultural! We cleaned the baptismal font and thats when we found out the transfers too. I am so stoked to train!! So Sunday we had church and Ana came with her two kids, Esteban came with his two daughters, and Solange came with the Morena family. It was amazing to see so many investigators in the chapel! Oh and Juan Romera was there too of course! At 6 we had Ana's baptism and honestly, it went perfectly. Everything was just perfect and I will never forget it. Elder Echegaray bore his testimony and it was the first time that I have seen him cry. I was filled with the Spirit and cried myself. After, Ana bore her testimony and told her story of how we met her (ask my mom if you want to know!). It was amazing and I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here in Spain, as a missionary. Sorry I don't have more time but thank you for all of your letters, prayers, and love!! Elder Franklyn

October 7, 2013 - Conference Weekend!

Another week has passed by here in Fuenlabrada! The time seems to be going by more quickly but we are also beginning to see more fruit from the work that we have accomplished here. This week will mark my fourth month as a missionary and it has gone by quickly! Only 20 more months left! Haha but I know I'll enjoy every one of them. Well for P Day last week we went to El Sol like I talked about last time and it was really fun! After we had a lesson with Marinela and her family. They are from Romania and I kind of feel like Elder Mayans over here. Just wish I knew some more Romanian. Or any... We taught them about the Book of Mormon and it went good! Tuesday we had an intercambio with the elders in Parla and so I was with Elder Baker again and I stayed here in Fuenlabrada. It went really well! We had a lesson with Ana in her door way adn we read 2 Nephi 31 with her which she loved. Then we contacted for a while and actually had a lesson with a man named Jorsh who is from Bulgaria in a park. That night we went to Hermana Consuelo's house and ate some cheese empenadas and had a short lesson with her. Juan Romero came too and our relationship continues to grow better! Wednesday was a hard day. It started out great with our Zone Training meeting but after, a bunch of people canceled on us. We ended up having a lesson with Purificacion and we talked strictly about steps that she needs to take to quit smoking. Her record to date is still 3 a day but we just need to push a little bit more to the end. After we stopped by Marinela's and gave her a Romanian Book of Mormon because we didn't have one before. After we went out to pass by a few houses and no one was home and a few people just didn't want to see us. We tried hard that night but didn't see much success. Thursday was amazing. We planned the week which was a little boring but good and I learned alot about recieving answers through prayer. We prayed a lot about Ana and decided that we needed to set a date with her to be baptized. After Medio Dia, we went straight to Ana's. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set a date with her to be baptized. I'm gunna leave you guys hanging a little and not tell you when but just wait for a picture of some good looking people in white haha. She is such a blessing for us and I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for her in my mission. We can't do anything without His Holy Spirit and He has blessed us through our obedience to have the opportunity to teach her this wonderful message. After we had a lesson with Esteban the spaniard which went really well and we actually set a date with him to be baptized on the 26. He agreed hesitantly but told us of some experiences in which he has seen signs that he needs to get baptized. It truly was amazing. After we went out contacting and recieved a few good references and ended the night on a great note. Friday we had another intercambio with the elders from Mostoles and I.... stayed in Fuenlabrada again haha. Third time in a row but I am learning a ton and had a great time with Elder Malan. He's from Draper Utah! We had a blast together. We contacted for a bit in the morning and had a little success from a guy that was practically yelling at us but we had a lunch appointment with Hermano Carlos Murillo which went great! The food was booomb. After medio dia, we had a lesson with a new investigator named David. It went really well and he is really interested in the Book of Mormon! After we went to Amparo's and shared a little message which went well. Then we taught English class with Purificacion as our only student but it was fun! Noche de Hogar didn't happen because no one showed up but we went out contacting and had a lot of success. We met a man named Sergio and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and he told us he would read the whole thing! Good day! Saturday was great!! We switched back in the morning and then had a lesson with Mike! It went really good and he is trying to be better every day. After medio dia, we had to basically head straight to Pavones to watch general conference at 6. It was the morning session and I watched it in spanish with Elder Echegaray and it was amazing! I was suprised how much I understood and how good my notes are on it. We headed back after taking a few photos by the temple and arrived back at 9:55 so we went straight to planning. It was a great day though! Sunday was even better! They held priesthood at 11 but we couldn't go because we went to Ana's at 12:30 to take her and her two kids, Ashley and Leandro, to watch general conference with us! It was the farthest she had travelled with the two little ones, only being 3 and 1 years old, and my faith grew a bunch by seeing her excercise hers. We watched the 2 o'clock session with them in spanish which went good but I was mostly wrangling the little ones to give her a chance to listen. After we walked around the temple grounds a bit and took some pictures and then took them back to the train station. At 6 we watched the last session and I finally got to see it in english!!!! It was amazing and I learned sooo much. Conference is amazing! Today we are going to Parque Sur, the mall not the park, to eat food and bowl with a bunch of other missionaries!! I am super excited and know it'll be a blast! I love you all and thank you for all of your emails and love! You're the people who make this work possible! Keep it up. Elder Franklyn

Sept. 30th

Familia y mis amigos!! This week has been a rough one. I began to be sick on Tuesday and it has still carried out till today. Just a runny nose and a cough with some headaches mixed in there - so nothing to worry about but it makes the missionary life a lot harder. We have been working reaallly hard here in Fuenlabrada though to try and end this transfer on a great note. I have never exercised this much faith in my life and I owe everything I have to our Heavenly Father. Last monday we went to Parque Sur which turned out to just be a big mall and not even a park at all! It was really cool though and we went bowling with the missionaries from Mostoles which was fun. I am undefeated in bowling in Spain which is a good start. Two years to go so I've gotta keep my "A" game going! That night we had a lesson with Margarita which went good! After we went to Hermana Consuelo's house for dinner and it was great. She is so nice and basically my mother in Spain although we all know that no one can replace my real mom. Tuesday I went to Mostoles again on an intercambio haha. We had a really good day and found a man in a park named Franklin and taught him the first lesson and even invited him to be baptized! All in all it was a really good day and I got to be with Elder Smith from Utah and was able to speak English! Its like breathing fresh air some times. Wednesday we had our last district meeting with Elder Echegaray because next week is Zone training and the week after is the Temple! It went really good and I learned a lot! He is a great missionary. After, we had a lesson with Purificacion, the less active, and gave her a boost to continue trying to stop smoking. She only smoked 3 on Tuesday so she's almost there! Then we had a lesson with Miguel Angel and Ana because they live together. They have really separate needs but one of the amazing things is that Ana asked, "If there were always prophets in the Bible and then we had Joseph Smith, why don't we have a prophet today?" It basically blew us a way and we taught her more about President Monson and she understood everything so well. She might even come to watch General Conference with us next week!! Thursday went okay. We planned the week for a while and had a good amount of people cancel on us but we continued to work hard throughout the day. The branch president actually came to a lesson with us which was great and he is really starting to help us. Friday we had intercambios with the Elders in Toledo and I stayed in Fuenlabrada with Elder Moreland who is actually from Irvine! He is really cool and we like all of the same things so we talked for hours about life in the States haha. Well we had a lesson with Mike and then Amparo, both less active members and it went really good! Then we went and had a lesson with Margarita and she accepted to be baptized again! Hopefully this one follows through and I have faith that it will. After that, we kiiiind of took the wrong bus, got a little lost, had to walk a little ways and I kind of broke my chapa (missionary badge) on a fence haha but all is well! I felt a little dumb but we still saved the rest of the night by contacting and ended up receiving 9 referrals in one day. Saturday Elder Echegaray came back and laughed about my broken chapa story haha and we went to work. We had a lesson with the less active member Angel and with another less active member named Kiverka and both of them went really well. Kiverka even came to church on Sunday! Then we stopped by Solange and Rafaels apartment and had a short lesson with them and watched the video of President Monson wiggling his ears. It went good but Solange was a bit sick but we gave her a blessing too! I really hope they continue to have interests and one day be baptized. Sunday was great and we had 3 investigators in the chapel! Ana couldn't come because she had some problems with a man that she shares the apartment with and she had to call the police and it was just a big deal but she's okay. We went and ate with the Counselor of the Branch who lives like 30 minutes away by car and it was really good! Their family is awesome and so strong in the church. After that, we headed to Ana's and she explained the whole story to us. We then had a lesson with her and a friend of hers and it went really great! We invited her to be baptized and even set a date for the 26 of October. She agreed almost immediately! Her questions are perfect and we can tell that she really does want to know if our church is true. Today was P Day of course and it was great! It has been raining for the past few days but I am enjoying the weather change. We headed to Sol because President Jackson called up Elder Gutierrez, who is in our district, and told him that he was going to the Canary Islands today! We had lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant which was super good but not as good as El Farolito. Then we headed back and have been relaxing for a bit. All in all a good week! I am loving the mission so much and wouldn't trade it for everything. I have given up so much to be here, but in reality, Jesus Christ gave everything for us, so my service is just a small portion of that. I am loving every day and can't wait for General Conference!! Cuidense mucho! Elder Franklyn