Hola Everyone! I am still alive and doing well. Aug 26, 2015

Here is how the week went.

Saturday: Food, Class, More Food, Gym, More Class, Even More Food, Even More Class.... a pretty normal day here at the mtc and it makes the days fly by in a blur because they all seem the same. Some notable things from Saturday... I lost my suit coat and it was pretty devastating but then again we are at the MTC so who would steal a suit coat so I had faith it would turn up eventually. We taught Ines that night and it was super cool. I have been studying out of pmg and been using tabs to mark scriptures to help explains the lessons better for investigators so in lessons I can just pull the scriptures right up. The spirit prompted me to open up one of the tabs and it explained perfectly to Ines her question about baptism. 

Elder Brown

Sunday: Spiritual P-Day! We have tons of personal study time and personal time to write letters. Sunday mornings are when they assign callings to people in the districts. I was called to be the new district leader for the rest of the time here! Pretty much that means I have to be a good example still and help the district to stay on task. The rest of the day went great and smoothly. Temple walk with our zone is one of my favorite parts of the weeks right next to the devotionals. The Sunday night devotional was by Stephen Allen and he gave an awesome devotional about mission rules and looking forward and not behind. Also I found my jacket. 

Monday: Pretty cool day... We had three lessons and during the one with Alan I just felt super happy and really felt a love for what I was doing and for my investigators. I definitely needed that and it made me strengthen my resolve of working harder. I gave the baptismal questions to Alan, which is the first time I had done that. It was awesome he said he will be getting baptized in 2 weeks now. We still aren’t sure if he is an actual investigator or and actor because half of them are and half aren’t. Either way it was a cool experience. The tabs came in to save the day again with Phil who is a super hard investigator and has had a lot of hard experiences in his life so he is skeptical. Overall another great day at the MTC.

Tuesday: Spanish is hard but it is crazy how much I have learned in the last 3 weeks! We had 30 minutes normal conversations with 2 members who came in for a home teaching type of deal. I am so grateful for the power of the spirit.  We shared our favorite scriptures with them and it was really spiritual. Wee had a devotional this night and it was good but the speaker was hard to understand and he preached rather than taught. Still a very good talk. Oh and today was also ugly tie day!

Wednesday: Half way done with the MTC!!! Wow at times it feels like it has been so long but now that the days are blurring together it almost seems surreal how fast it is already going! We are learning Preterite in Spanish and it is super hard and probably the things I will need to work on most for the rest of my time here. Golden comes in today and I was hoping to see him but I didn’t. The tradition of smelling the cream soda tree is still going strong.

Thursday: Patience is definitely a virtue and something I need to work on. Charity is also and is also another things I need to work on with people in my zone but I still love them no matter how hard they try to be dumb and not work and find reasons why they shouldn’t be here. We are teaching Alan about the commandments, which were interesting but another great experience. If I eat like I did tonight then I will definitely gain 20 pounds before I leave. But we learned a ton more Spanish today so I was hungry. Anyways it was another great week at the MTC! I also saw Golden today which was great!! But I didn’t get a picture so I will have to do that for next week!

Friday: P-Day!! Laundry, Email, Hair cut, Spanish review and basketball then after all that we finish the P-day off with the temple before we have to go back to classes for the night. 

Funny story for the week: My companion has been struggling with remembering little words and it comes to show in the lessons... one lesson he told Phil that through repentance and baptism he can be freed of all is escudos instead of picadors which is fish instead of sins and both Phil and I corrected him but he ended up making the same mistake like 10 times and it was really funny Hahaha. We had a good laugh about it after but he said he definitely needed to use his language study time more effectively.

During the week I have noticed that right before lessons when I say a prayer with my comp. For the spirit to guide us in the lesson I immediately feel the power of the spirit come to me and calm me down and guides me through the lesson and when we end the lesson I feel it go away it is crazy! Maybe that is why I love teaching the lessons so much, I don’t know. But it is a testimony builder to me about the power of the spirit.

     You se queue El labor de Mormon as verdadero y el palabra de dios. Te Amo. Adios.

Elder Frandsen

Hola mi Familia y mi amigos! August 21, 2015

Hola mi Familia y mi amigos!

I cant believe how fast this week went by compared to the first week! It is already Christmas again... I really enjoy having Christmas every week here in the MTC. Aaaaand this week only felt like a month instead of a full year, ha ha. 

well here is the run down of how the week went!

Friday: Twas a great and relaxing P-day of only three hours of classes instead of nine! 

i have realized how needed these days of rest are because of all the work that is done here. The only sad part of the day was that I walked all the way up to the temple in my suit in 90 degree weather fro nothing because I forgot my temple recommend. Oh well I’ll never make that mistake again. Another great day at the MTC

Saturday: Classes, classes, and more classes but we have Sunday to look forward to so we make it through the day! I have been going on splits with Elder Brown in my district a lot during study time because my companion cannot focus very well and neither does Elder Brown’s so we go out in the hall and practice Spanish and find scriptures that are good to use in lessons. I accidently stayed up for the first time past 11 talking to the out going district about advice and things that they wish they had known while in the MTC.

Sunday: Sundays are like a spiritual P-Day... they are really refreshing and recharging and a break from the repetitive schedule of the MTC. I taught priesthood on how to recognize the spirit and pretty much preach my gospel has every thing you would want to know on these things... i am grateful for PMG I don’t know how i would get through study time with out it. That night for the devotional we had the Nashville tribute band come and perform and it was really awesome! Music really brings in the spirit better than pretty much any other thing. After that we watched a video on the first vision and on the saints in Kirtland! It was super cool because Kirtland is in my mission and it made me super excited to go out and serve in the field.

Monday: these days are a days of goodbye.  We had to say goodbye to the outgoing district and it was sad to see them go. They have been really good examples and helped to us through out my time here. And which also means we are the second oldest district now in the zone and we haven’t even been here for two weeks yet! It was crazy how much more I felt the spirit in my teaching on this day. My words were a lot more fluent and I could understand most things they were saying! The gift of tongues is a real thing. It is crazy how much you learn here in the MTC. Our investigator said he is willing to take the steps necessary towards baptism now all he needs to do is give up drinking and we are on our way.

Tuesday: Tuesday’s are another favorite day because we have the Tuesday night devotionals to look forward to. we are learning more and more by the day on how to teach and about the language. also, my companion is in love with one of the Hermanas in our zone and it is super annoying because during ciclo he just goes out in the hall by their door and every time their door opens he tries to talk to her and it is funny to watch at the same time because she has a boyfriend on a mish and she is having none of it. This is good because maybe this will make him finally learn we are on a mission to serve the lord not ourselves. Don’t get me wrong he is still a great guy and loves the gospel he is just super distracted by everything.

Wednesday:  We Get a new district in or zone today.. i cant believe it has only been two weeks and at the same time i cant believe its already been two weeks. When I saw the new elders I felt for them because they have all those emotions from the first day... they don’t know what is coming for them.. But they will love it if they are willing to work. My ciclos are getting better everyday... I put the colored tabs in my scriptures so I know where certain scriptures are about certain lessons and today it saved my life. My companion was running out of words in the lesson because he never prepares and I am the one who always prepares and leads the lessons and he just comes in at the end and bears his testimony which I am fine with but he needs to learn how to work and prepare... so right before the lesson when I knew he hadn’t prepared, I felt that should tell him as me being senior companion that I want him to take charge this lesson and teach the main points. Yeah, he made it a couple minutes in doing okay and then he just got lost so I looked at the tabs and found a scripture on what he was trying to teach and read it so the lesson could go back on track. I ended up teaching the lesson after that because he turned it over to me. Oh well, I hope it helped to make him realize how important ciclo is.

Thursday: We taught three lessons today in Spanish! And all of them went for about 40 minutes. They all went really great and one of them committed to baptism in a month right before we leave. We learned por y para and im pretty sure my brain is still fried the next day after learning that. I am really happy with the progress I have made and am making so far.

Friday: Elder Brown and I got splits approved for the day mostly because our comps don’t want to work out or anything so it worked out. He is probably my best friend i have made so far and he has been a great example. Now I am just writing emails and about to go enjoy the rest of my p-day and the temple :)

Thoughts from the week: El Evangelio De Jesucristo es muy simple.( the gospel of Jesus Christ is very simple.) if you have faith and are converted through the Book of Mormon then everything else will fall into place. No matter what others say about the church it won’t affect you because you know the book of Mormon is true which then means that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.

Home Sickness is definitely real and I have it. It is hard being 10 minutes away from my house and friends but I have learned that through prayer and hard work I don’t have time to think about it and I can stay happy. Scriptures and the friends that I have made here also help.

I have actually still lost weight since coming here which is crazy cause everyone else in my district has gained like 10 pounds and I saw Zach Harrison the other day and he has gained 15! But he will just lose it all in the Marshal Islands so its al good.

I still love packages and letters and I don’t think I will ever not love them :) 

I saw Hayden Eyre! Pictures coming soon.

Also, it is game day for high school football and I miss football so much but knowing that I am serving the lord makes me happy. 

Funny story: So when I was teaching this week I accidentally told someone that if they were willing to pray about the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith with real intent and sincerity that they can know it in their tie that these thing are true.... i said corbatta instead of corazon and corbatta means tie and corazon means heart and after that my companion and the investigator couldn’t stop laughing. Learn and laugh is my motto here.

Until next Chirstmas ( P-day) Te Amo 

Elder Frandsen 

Hi Everyone! August 14, 2015

Hi Everyone!                            

I can’t believe It Is P day and that I am writing another weekly letter. At times I never thought this past week would end and at other times I couldn’t believe how fast it went.

Well here was my week 

Friday: I received my first package! Packages not only make me happy but it makes every single person in my room happy because they know that they will be getting some of the goods as well. It’s like winning the lottery when the district leader comes out of the mailroom telling you that you have a package or a letter, ha-ha. Next we went to the temple and did a session but we just missed the 2:40 time, so we sat In the chapel for 20 minutes and every one of the missionaries In the group fell asleep... If that doesn’t tell you how long the 3 previous days were I don’t know what does. Anyways, after that we had to go and prepare for our first lesson In Spanish. Elder Southwick and I used a pamphlet In Spanish on the Restoration which when we got In it was going okay until she started to ask semi complicated questions then we just got lost... It was cool though because I could understand what she was trying to ask us which is crazy because I had only been at the MTC for three days but the problem was I couldn’t say anything back to her. We probably said maybe 10 words In 15 minutes, at this point we decided to bear our testimonies In Spanish and immediately the spirit came into the room and the lesson was amazing.

After that the investigator even tired up a little:') Overall It was a great day at the MTC.

Saturday: The Food here is not agreeing with my stomach, which is probably a good thing because I have started to just eat fruit and salad. This is the first real full day of classes and a normal schedule without any orientation or anything. It was a super long day but It made me realize just how real the gift of tongues Is. we had our second lesson with Maria today and we again taught out of a different pamphlet, but this time I was able to ask her a few questions in Spanish and was able to respond to about half of her questions with answers In spotty Spanish but I still was able to tell her what I needed to say. It was a pretty good lesson. But after the lessons my Spanish goes away and it gets hard again but we are still learning a lot each day. We have named my companion elder giggles or elder Santa because he Is constantly laughing and If he had a white beard he would look like him and If Santa snores then elder Southwick probably snores like him too. Oh and talking about snoring we got earplugs for the whole room so we can sleep at nights ha-ha. It was another great day at the MTC.

Sunday: Everyone calls Sunday’s spiritual P days because all you have is church a temple walk and then a devotional at night. Our branch presidency decided to add something so that we wouldn’t just be lazy the whole day they make everyone prepare a talk for sacrament meeting In Spanish and they don’t tell people who Is going to speak until we are In sacrament meeting and they call them up from the pulpit so It Is kind of nerve racking. Luckily since we are new they said they would give us a pass this week but I have become friends with the zone leaders so he decided It would be nice of him to pick me to say the closing prayer all In Spanish which was a good experience to be able to practice In a public and real situation. But I accidentally said a bad word Instead of but and they are very similar but It was still embarrassing but Vie learned its better to laugh at yourself and learn and move on then get embarrassed. The temple walk is where we walk up to the temple and talk with friends and districts and It Is super relaxing and nice. That night we had a devotional from the director of the MTC which was great but hard to stay awake because they put us In a tiny room to watch It on a screen with the lights off but very time one of us would start to fall asleep someone In the district would put a sticker on your forehead so we learned to stay awake really quick. Also we have a tradition now of after we finish with classes or devotionals at night we go and smell the tree that smells like crème soda. I have come to love this tradition because it means its time for bed. Overall another good day at the MTC 

Monday: the beginning of my first full week here at the MTC... I feel bad because I got after one of the members In my district because he has been taking away from the lessons by falling asleep and when we have study time he gets off topic and has started to act like he doesn’t want to be here which makes It hard for the rest of us In the class. After I said something about it he started to act get better slowly and apologized for how he had been acting. So I hope it helped and it didn’t make things strained. We had another two lessons today one with Alan and one with Maria. Marias went great she said she would come to church and she had been reading the book of Mormon and would pray to know If baptism was fro her because she had already been baptized In the catholic church. Alan Is a super nice guy but he loves to party on the weekends so when we Invited him to come to church he said he would think about It because he doesn’t usually wake up till 1 or 2 on Sundays. I love it here and I love the people. Our zone goes out and plays sand volleyball for gym time and It Is super fun. It was sad to see the oldest district in our zone head out today they were great guys.

Tuesday: we had to wake up at 6 to go and do service and me and my companion have the worst job of cleaning all the toilets but it ended up not being so bad. Other than that It was like every other day of going to class for six hours and eating for the other six... other than on Tuesday nights we have a devotional and tonight we had one of the members of the presidency of the seventy come and he gave a talk about being obedient It was great. That night afterwards we went back to the apartments and someone had received a package with jelly beans In It and half of them were disgusting flavors like skunk or dog food while the other half were black licorice and chocolate pudding. You spin and whatever one It lands on you have to grab but you don’t know If It Is the good or bad one and It was hilarious because whenever someone got the bad one they would almost throw up every time.

Wednesday: I have been here for a week, which is crazy because it feels like a month but at the same time I feel like it was yesterday day that I was dropped off. The nice thing is we aren’t the newbie’s anymore. So now we are the ones who get to tell the new guys welcome to the match and watch there faces as they take It all In. this was the first day that I had a hard time with everything. The past couple nights before my comp. Was not really working with me during comp study so we didn’t really have a lesson planned and it was a pretty bad lesson and both of us like completely forgot all our Spanish and couldn’t answer a single question. We sat down afterwards and talked about it so hopefully things get better. 

Thursday: when we were doing service this morning we were at the top of the big building and I looked out and I could see my house elk ridge and Salem hills from there. That Is the first time I realized that I am going to be gone for two years and how much I missed everyone but after that we went to breakfast so I was good again because food makes any man happy. 

Well that was my week! I promise it will get shorter next week. 

Here are some things Vie realized... do not use the middle showers because they are freezing. For some reason 5/7 last nights we have had someone different knock on our door around 2:00 fro different reasons or another. As long as I am obedient I will have the spirit with me while I am teaching and learning. Be able to laugh at my self for dumb things it makes it go by faster. My companion snores like a bear loll.

Quick story. One of the elders was teaching and he kept saying feat Instead of fee, which means ugly Instead of faith and he kept calling the Investigator ugly Instead of telling her to have faith.

The church is true. 

Love you all 

Thanks to those of you that sent me packages I appreciate it :) 

Elder Frandsen

   Smelling the Cream Soda Tree just before bed.

 Just Because...

My MTC district at the MTC

  My Companion, Elder Southwick.

My room at the MTC.

Hey Everyone-August 7, 2015

Hey everyone i have decided to write my letters day by day instead of just one big thing so here it goes.

Day 1: I woke up and realized today was the day I head out.. it hit me pretty hard but even then I had no clue what to expect or what was coming for me. My family took me to the MTC at 1 and they were not kidding when they say they kick you out on to the curb and you are gone on your way. i probably had about 2 minutes at most to say goodbye which is sad but it is the best way to do it. I was picked up at the curb by an Elder Bustos, who is a super nice guy. He took me on a little tour of the place which i had already forgotten in 20 minutes because there is so much to take in. Eventually he took me to my classroom that I will be studying the gospel and Spanish in for the next 6 weeks. He dropped me off there and said good bye and the next thing I know I meet my teachers for the next  6 weeks and they are speaking Spanish only I have only heard them say 5 words of English the last 3 days, it was super confusing and it really hit me that I am on a mission and I am going to be learning a different language to serve the lord in for the next 2 years. There were 7 other guys in the classroom and they are in my district. We have a district of 8 guys that we do everything with for the next 6 weeks. They are all super awesome and nice and we are all serving state side Spanish speaking missions. There names are Elder Pugmire, Call, Shawgo, Brown, Rust, Escobar and Southwick. Elder Southwick is my companion. He is a great guy he is from Springville. Well anyways so we sat in the classroom and had our first Spanish lesson and then we went from there to a orientation. There were 600 new missionaries that came in the same day as me which now makes it so they have 2400 missionaries here at the Provo MTC. Next we went to dinner and I ran into Zak Harrison, Daniel Raleigh , Trevor Gasser, Jake Warr, Sky Johnson, Jacob Mckee and a few other kids that I knew from high school. The rest of the night flew by! We talked to some investigators in groups and then went back to the dorms. We unpacked and kind of just sat around because none of knew what to do next it was kind of funny. The next thing I know I hear this loud noise out in the hallway and it’s a big group of Polynesians who were giving someone a blessing and after they finished they called everyone out for zone prayer and one of them caught my eye and said to his friend, who was a pretty big guy, that I was a greenie and that I looked like someone that could challenge him in an arm wrestling match (they do this every week to one of the new missionaries) so I agreed to doing it even though I knew I had no chance! This guys biceps were the size of my head, hahaha. At first he let me seem like I was winning but then as soon as I looked up into his eyes he winked and just pinned me. It was funny. He is one of the nicest people I’ve met. After that it was quiet time and lights out to get ready for another long day here.

Day 2: Sorry day1 was so long there was just a lot that happened. This day was still pretty hectic and lots happened but not so bad. We woke up and all the showers were taken and there was a line, also even when you do finally get a shower there is basically no hot water left :( So now we have to either wake up earlier or shower at night. Next we went to breakfast for like 20 minutes and then straight to the classroom for a Spanish lesson to help us prepare to teach an investigator in Spanish for three hours.  Then we went to a seminar in English finally for an hour or so. Then lunch and straight back to our classroom for another Spanish lesson to help us prepare for tonight when we actually have to teach a real lesson in Spanish only. Yeah, kinda crazy how fast paced it is here. I already know how to pray and bare my testimony in Spanish, which is awesome. So now when we say room or companion prayers we have to say them in spanglish. It’s really awesome how fast we go and how fast we learn. The gift of tongues is a real thing. Next we went to dinner and then straight back to the classroom for a mini lesson and then we got to meet our branch presidency like our bishop for the next 6 weeks. They are all fluent in Spanish and super nice people who care about the missionaries. They interviewed us all personally and gave us some insights it was cool. They called Elder Call to be the district leader and I am the senior companion, which basically means nothing in the MTC, hahah. Next thing we know we are already off to get ready for bed. So after we had turned the lights off and were trying to fall asleep some of the elder from the room down the hall around 11:30 came and started knocking on the door and saying that they were campus police but they had jimmy rigged the door so we couldn’t open it and we were all just about to fall asleep because Elder Southwick had been snoring for a while and made it so we couldn’t sleep but he had just woke up so we were falling asleep and then were wide awake again. Then the Elders from down the hall tried to do some other stuff but I ran and opened the door before they could jimmy rig it shut again and they ran off and a guy from another room came and apologized for them because they do it to everyone and its super annoying but I guess that’s just part of being new here.

Day 3: that is today. Fridays are my Pday, which are awesome but are also kind of busy but not anywhere as bad as the other days. I am currently doing my laundry and email at the same time so I can save time to prepare our Spanish lesson better for tonight.

Here are some of my thoughts from the past couple days: First, the showers are disgusting so I am very glad I have shower sandals second, I can see why so many people gain weight here because they give you a ton of food. Third, all the leaders make such a big deal out of the Elder Sister relationships and flirting, it’s really funny. Luckily we don’t have girls in our district so we don’t have to worry about it. Fourth, ties are like currency here because everyone loves trading them. Fifth, iI love it here iI love the people here and I love the environment here. Sixth, write in a journal. Seventh, the church is true and this is what i am supposed to be doing. The spirit is with everyone here which creates an amazing environment. 

 Well I am out of time so until next week....

I will have pictures next week to send you all!

If you would like to send me anything in the mail my MTC mailing address is: 

Elder Peter Lafayette Frandsen

SEP15  OH-CLE

2005 N 900 E Unit  56

Provo UT 84602

I love you all, the church is true and try not to do anything stupid this week :) 

Last Lunch with our missionary.

Pre-mission pictures

  This first picture is of our famiy after his farewell talk at our Church.

 The next few pictures are of some of our family after Lafe went through the Payson Utah Temple to receive his Endowments.  It was a very special day because Lafe's ninety five year old Grandfather was able to come with us.  Dad told Lafe when he came into the Celestial room, "You are a man now and you know what the rest of us know now, you've just got to do it."

 Grandpa was an ordinance worker in the Manti Temple for over 20 years.   He was also set apart as a marriage sealer.  He has been able to seal most of his grandchildren when they were married.  

The next few pictures are at the Missionary Training Center where,

 as you will see, Hannah, Lafe's sister just older that him started us all crying. 

 It was pretty emotional.  

We were all happy to receive his letter that came the following Friday (two days latter) that he was doing well!

Even Edie (Stephen and Hillary's baby) 

knows where Lafe is going on a mission.

Our Last Son Leaves On A Mission

Our son Lafe Frandsen, left for a mission, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on August 5, 2015.  He will be serving in the Cleveland Ohio mission, Spanish speaking.  I have decided to post his letters for those who are interested.  Lafe is the youngest child, by 7 ½ years, of 6 children.  His oldest brother, Paul, was nineteen and entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) to serve a mission in the Philippines when Lafe was only 3 weeks old.  The next brother, Stephen, served a mission to Taiwan and the next brother, Jonathan, served a mission to Russia.  Lafe has 2 sisters that adore him, their names are Elisabeth and Hannah.

Lafe’s full name is Peter Lafayette Evans Frandsen, a very long name. When he was a little boy he would go around telling everyone what his full name was and then he would say, ”But people just call me Lafe because it is quicker.”  Peter Lafayette was the name of Lafe’s Great Grandfather.  Evans is my maiden name and is the middle name of all our sons. Each of his siblings are married and Lafe loves each one of his in-laws.  Lafe also has 11 neices and nephews that he adores.  His Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen are are still living at the ages of 95 and 96.  

For the next two years I plan on posting his letters and pictures weekly. 

We have loved receiving these letters and have been inspired by his

 drive and zeal for missionary work and the desire to do and be his best.

Photo By Libby Frandsen Jones