My last week of being trained! One more transfer done and in the past.

Hola Mis Amigos!                                                                                        December 10, 2015

 Wow lots happened this week... And I am done being trained! It has been 4 1/2 months since I entered the MTC, which seems crazy to me because it feels like it was just yesterday!

Well anyways, here is how my week went.

Monday: We Went with Doug and Jessica (Investigators) back to Historic Kirtland to look at all the Christmas stuff before we had our lesson. President Brown randomly showed up and he was able to talk with Doug and Jessica for a bit! The only thing that is holding them back from getting baptized right now is the big decision of marriage. They know it is true and have shared with us their testimony and we have seen how their lives have changed ever since we started teaching them. They are so much happier now and almost have a glow to them. It is really cool. So the lesson that we had was about eternal marriage and what it means. It was really good! They understand the commitment and this week they are going to fast and pray about it.

Tuesday: Every year The Cleveland Ohio mission has a Mission Conference where all the missionaries in the mission get together for a day. The mission conference is always in the Kirtland Temple as well which is really cool. Something cool that happened was that Elder Ogle and I and a group of like 6 or 8 other Elders Were asked to sing during the conference in the Kirtland temple. We sang away in a manger and it was really fun! The spirit that is in the Kirtland temple is really strong. I am so lucky to get to serve in a place where there is so much church history and to go to a place like the Kirtland temple where the savior appeared to Joseph. The other part of the day was during lunch when we were eating President Brown got permission from the area 70 for us to watch the best two years hahaha. That movie is a lot funnier once you have served a mission or are on a mission!

Wednesday: Well... it is really awkward teaching in a triple up! But we live and we learn right? The cool thing is that even though it is awkward teaching in a triple up, if the spirit is there than the investigator will still learn and grow. Which is what happened! June is an older lady and she accepted the baptismal invitation! She is thinking that she will be ready in 2 months. Another cool story, so we have been meeting with brother salmon a lot. He is a recent convert who is now a less active. His wife is super active and all and she told us that one-day he just said he couldn’t do this anymore and stopped coming to church. He wouldn’t talk to the missionaries anymore and he never came out for when his wife fed the missionaries. The first time that he came out for when she fed the missionaries was the first time that I went over there and it has been progressing more and more since! At first he would never talk during the lessons or even when we were there but in the last 4 times he has really opened up and we are now pretty good friends! So when we met with him this night, Elder Ogle and I had a thought to share with him Elder Holland’s testimony of the book of Mormon. So we did and afterwards we bore our testimonies of the book of Mormon and he then started to cry and told us why he stopped coming to church. He read the book of Mormon last year before he was baptized but he said he still has not received an answer yet. He has prayed and asked so many times but he still hasn’t received an answer. This was a huge step forward. It was so cool to have him actually tell someone why he left. Now we just need to figure out what to do from here....

Thursday: We had Zone training meeting and it went really good! They almost talked me into singing a solo in front of everyone but I somehow changed their minds to having all the elders sing while I played the piano for them... I dodged a bullet there!  Zone training meetings are great because you can learn from all the other people in the zone and you get new ideas of how to move forward with the work. The only weird thing about our zone is that there are more sisters than elders because we are in the Kirtland zone and all the sisters at the Historic sites in Kirtland. 

Friday: we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders and it was great! We were able to meet with a lot of people that have been out of town and we got lots done! Tim is back now and is supering busy but luckily we were able to get to meet with him and he is coming to church again on Sunday! 

Saturday: not a whole lot happened! 

Sunday: We had 5 investigators come to church! And we set a baptismal date with Tim for 2 months from now! Church was really eventful.  This transfer this area has grown a lot and in the next 2-3 months there are probably going to be 8 baptisms which is really awesome to see and watch as all these people come closer to Christ and grow their faith. The other awesome thing is that neither Elder Ogle nor I are being transferred! Which is crazy in this mission because you never get more than 2 transfers with a companion especially with your trainer. Somehow I got lucky.  

Monday: We had our First Spanish lesson with a member present! The one member that is in our ward who speaks Spanish was finally able to come out with us and I went on splits with him while the other 2 elders went out to another lesson. We taught this man named Flavio. Flavio is a former investigator who had a baptismal date at one point but then had to go back to Mexico but has since moved back and we ran into him the other day. It was really nice to have a member who could speak Spanish fluently. We have another lesson with him and his whole family next Sunday! 

Well that is how my week went! Love you all!

Elder Frandsen

We received this from a member working with the missionaries.
He said, "Hello Frandsen's! Here is a picture of your son.
I spent a few hours with hi and his companion.
 He is fun to be around and a good teacher and example."
Oh how we love to hear from people in
Ohio that are associating with Lafe.

Turkey Day

November 30th

Hello people that I have not seen in like 4 months and hopefully wont see for another 20 months:") Do not worry I am still alive I think!

Well here is how my week went down.

Monday: Hmmm, to be honest I do not really remember what happened last Monday because all the days are just starting to blur together and I didn’t really write a whole lot in my journal that day...

Tuesday: Well here is an experience that Elder Ogle and I had that was pretty cool. So, last week we were tracting at some apartments and pretty much every door that we knock is completely different from the last and we meet all sorts of people. So we knocked on this one door and this lady answered and was surprisingly nice and invited us right in which was unusual for people in this area. She seemed super excited to talk to us but she was extremely busy so we set a return appointment. So we came back on the return appointment and she sat us down and before we even started she said that she needed to tell us about what has happened in her life these last four months. So she told us how she had been having a crazy hard time and one thing after another has just been thrown at her and one of her good friends almost died and she said when that happened she got on her knees for the first time in a very long time and asked God what his plan was for her and asked what she needed to do to find that out. So then commenced her journey of looking at many churches these past couple months and how nothing has seemed right and that is why she was super excited when we knocked on her door. She then told us of how She was in a same sex relationship for almost 40 years and how her and her partner decided that even though they had those feelings for each other that it wasn’t what god wanted for them. So we shared with her the Plan Of Salvation and taught about the book of Mormon and Prophets and how it has blessed our lives and how it can bless hers. The spirit during the lesson was really strong and Linda actually started to cry after we shared with her some experiences and had her read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. We have a return appointment set for next Tuesday. This whole experience meant a lot to me with all that is going on with the Churches handbook change. It re affirmed that knowledge of just how much God loves all of his children and how no matter what struggles they have had or are having he loves us all the same and wants to show us that love if we are willing to let him. He will help us if we ask. He will show us what we need to do. Also, It showed to me more of the power of the Atonement. Jesus has felt exactly what we are feeling and have felt. He knows just how hard this life is. He knows how to help us no matter what has happened to what or us we are going through. He understands. So yeah that was pretty cool.

Wednesday: Same thing as Monday... Except that we found out that Elder Fairbanks has to go home because of medical reasons so we will be in a triple up for the remainder of this transfer. 

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!    We went to a lady in the ward named Sister Sallamones house for thanksgiving. Her husband is a less active that we have been working with since I arrived who has slowly but surely opening up to us. So it was we, they, and his side of the family. It was really cool to get to know his parents who are very strong Catholics. She made so much food!!!! And it was all so good! Brother Sallamone really opened up to us; as well it was really cool! He usually doesn’t say a whole lot but the secret is just to ask people about themselves and then all of a sudden they cant stop talking so he told us all about his family and funny stories it was great. But after we finished eating one of his sisters who is very deep into conspiracy theories with everything that is going on in the world and it was different I’ll just leave it at that. Elder Ogle and I told sister sallamone that she needed to take a break so we cleaned everything up and did all the dishes... Hopefully she wont find her pots where her spices go later on in the week... we were quite lost in the kitchen... It’s the thought that counts right?  Well, we had to drive elder Fairbanks to drop him off in East Cleveland With President Brown. Imp going to miss that guy. So now I have two companions!!! The more the merrier right?  People are already scared of 2 Mormons knocking on their door.. Just imagine how scary 3 of them would be!

Friday: At The historic sites in Kirtland they have over 900 different nativities set up from around the world and they have a bunch of Christmas lights set up outside (Almost as good as temple square... ;) ) so Doug and Jessica really wanted to go so they took us with them. It was such a cool experience. There was probably 5-600 people from around the community who came for the turning on of the lights and the start of the nativities so Doug and Jessica got to meet lots more people and ended up meeting President and Sister Brown. Doug and Jessica fasted and prayed this week about the decision of marriage before baptism. We have a lesson with them later tonight and we will see if they have made a decision yet. They have come to Church 7 of the last 8 Sundays and love it more and more each week. We don’t have a specific date for baptism yet because they need to decide on the whole marriage thing first.

That’s pretty much it for the things that happened this week. We found 2 new investigators and have 5 total progressing investigators, which is awesome! Elder Ogle is such a great example and companion and I am very grateful for having the chance to be trained by such a great guy. I am pretty sure the people that live in Painesville have a significantly lower amount of teeth per person than anywhere else in the United States. The Perry ward is a great ward with a bunch of members who love to help spread the gospel. 

Well, That’s all for now! Love you all!

Elder Frandsen