Some basketball, Haircuts and food.

Hello Family and Friends!

​I dont think that these people like us very much knocking on their door....

    I once heard that as you grow up time goes faster because when you are 1 year old a year seems like a long time because it is 50% of your life… when you are ten years old it is 10% of your life and when you are 20 it is 5% of your life so on and so forth until you die... Scary thought because the time flew by this week and somehow here I am again writing you on Preparation day. 

Well here are some things from the week:

1. So this week we had two progressing investigators move out of the area :(( Jessica is moving back into down town Cleveland and Michael found another foster home on the East side. So that put a big dent in our progressing investigators that we have. But life goes on. 

2. Thursday night at 3 in the morning I was woken up by gun shots that were a lot closer than usual so I woke up Elder Allen and all he says is, "How close are they?" And I said, "Like 2 or 3 blocks" to which he responded "Ehh wake me up when they are a block away" and that was that. So I went back to sleep and nothing else happened. lol. 

​Some cool graffiti

3. It warmed up a lot this week so there has been 4x as many people out in the streets, which is a missionaries dream come true.  So we were able to find some more new investigators to replace the two big ones that we lost. But with the warm weather there is a lot of people outside playing basketball. One night we were headed home and we were walking by an investigators house and they were playing some basketball so they stopped us and asked us to come play with their friends. So, of course we agreed because it was a gold mine for some new investigators. So we played and we won so they said that they had some food from Easter inside. So we went inside and ate with them and were able to teach them the restoration and pick up a new solid investigator. 

4. Elder Allen and I were sitting down after daily planning last night and he said, " I need a haircut and they are expensive" So I had the great Idea of saying " I’ve seen my dad do it a couple times.. can't be that hard." So the next thing we know I am cutting his hair, haha.  Needless to say he only has like 4 bald spots now... just kidding, I would have to say I did pretty well for a first time. But I definitely don’t see myself going to beauty school. 

​dahhhh city

5. With it being Easter and all I have been thinking a lot about is the atonement of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. That knowledge alone brings so much hope and promise to life. I am so grateful for that knowledge. I am grateful for the healing power of the Atonement. I am grateful for the gospel. And I am extremely grateful for the knowledge that families are forever. 

Mosiah 14:3-5

The church is true and the book is blue. Love you all! Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

​Elder Allen and I are trying to go to the Hungarian services next week. 

11000 Hours Or So Left

Hey Y'all. (It is a West Cleveland thing)

Lafe's apartment is the beige home, the door on the right is the entrance.
3044 West 104 Street
Cleveland Ohio, 44111

   Random fact of the week... Mormon male missionaries serve for approximately 17520 hours and the female missionaries serve for 13120 hours.

Yup, Elder Allen and I got bored while we were walking one day and that’s what happened.

Cool things that happened this week:

1. I gave my First blessing in Spanish this past Thursday. Blessings are already nerve racking enough as it is so I was pretty nervous to give a blessing in Spanish. So I said a prayer before hand for some help and I was definitely given that help. It was a really cool experience and I am grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost because I was saying words that I had no clue that I even knew them. 

2. We set two more Baptismal dates this week with investigators that we have found in the last week and a half. Jessica Hacker we picked up last week and she is a former that got in contact with us. We were able to have a really cool experience with her while teaching about the Atonement. She has had one of the craziest last weeks since she got in contact with us but she has been able to quite smoking since our first visit and feels no desire to do it again. So we committed her to be baptized on April 16th. The other investigator we picked up Saturday night and got her a ride to church and committed her to a baptismal date there for April 16th and she agreed and is super excited. Her name is Sherry. We also have an investigator named Michael who lives down the street from us that we meet with a few times a week for like 30 minutes before we have to go back to the apartment. We have to get in contact with his social worker before he can come to church with us but he is one of my favorite people that I have worked with. He wants to be baptized soon but he needs permission from his social worker before he can decide on anything. So in the last 2 and half weeks Elder Allen and I have been led to find a lot of people that are ready for the gospel and are already progressing. I am thankful that Heavenly Father is guiding this work because if he weren’t, then nothing would get done. 

3.Yesterday Paul Cardall visited our stake and performed at a fireside for an Easter event and it was super awesome. If you haven”t heard of him before you should look him up because he has a ton of awesome music and a really cool life story. That was an awesome event I got to go to and I even saw a lot of members from the Perry ward that I was able to talk to afterwards!

4. We get asked the question of "how many wives do you have?" at least 3-4 times a day as we are walking around to and from appointments.  I have gotten in probably not the best habit of answering people by saying "I have 6 and my buddy here has 9!"  7/8 times that I have said it, the people have actually invited us over to talk to them and explain to them what we do. We have been able to actually teach the restoration 5-6 times and found a new investigator from it as well...  I still have yet to ask the mission president his thoughts on my response, so I’ll have to ask him this week. 

5. In the past two weeks I have come to realize that I have a harder time understanding the Lingo of the inner-city kids at this point then I do understanding Spanish... These kids are speaking English but sometimes I feel like I am in a foreign country because they are using words that mean something completely different to them than what it actually means. At the end of my time here maybe I’ll understand.... But in all reality I love the people here they are all super awesome.

Elder Allen and I have listened to the talk called "The Myth of Mortal Perfection" a few times this week and it has really made me think about the plan of salvation and just how much our heavenly father loves us. We each have our own personalized plan with our Heavenly Father because not one of us is  exactly the same and we all think and act differently. But yet our Heavenly Father loves us all the same amount and wants us all to succeed and return to live with him the same amount. I am grateful for the knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father, who has prepared a perfect plan for each of us. Isaiah 49 is an awesome chapter that talks some about it.

Well, I love this Gospel and everything that is included with it. I Love the people of Ohio and I am so grateful for this Opportunity to be serving here. The Book is blue and the Church is true.

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen. 

Caminando, caminando y mas caminando

Hola Familia y Amigos,

​How the kids play ball in the Hood.

  Being in the city of Cleveland, I have seen and experienced many weird things. If they had happened to me 6-7 months ago I would have thought I was going crazy; but now it is pretty much the normal. At one of our lessons this week, there were three naked babies running around in circles running from their dad. The other night Elder Allen and I were awakened at 2:30 am to yelling outside in the street. We went out to see what was up and It was some of the drunk neighbors yelling at each other. All the other neighbors were outside sitting on their front porches just watching like it was a weekly thing and their entertainment until the cops show up. Without fail, when we  walk down the street and see someone walking up to us, like they are mad and it is going to be bad, as soon as they see the name Jesus Christ on our name tags, they just shake our hands and tell us to pray for them like 5-10 times. Sometimes the people will go as far as to say that since we are men of God, that they need to confess their sins to us. Then they start on this list of things they feel bad about and each time I hear crazier and crazier things. And after about 9:00 at night, we begin to hear gun shots randomly and we always just say that the city is celebrating early for July 4th with some fireworks. But after all of this stuff, I have met some of the nicest, most humble people here in Cleveland, that are looking for something more, but aren't quite sure what that "something more "  is. I love this city and all of the people in it.

Anyways, Here are some cool things that happened this week:

1. We found 6 more new investigators. So in the past 2 weeks we have found 16 new people to teach! 2 of the people that we found I would like to share a little bit about.The first is a kid named Michael who just recently moved down the street from us from the East side. We were walking to an appointment on Tuesday night and he was out in the street talking to some friends. He stopped us as we were walking and wanted to know what we were all about.  So I ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes about what we do and the message we share. Then he shared a little bit about how he has been looking for God in his life; so, I gave him a Book of Mormon and marked a chapter for him to read with a promise of how the Book of Mormon can help. He also asked for a Bible.  So I wrote him a little note in the Bible and dropped it off.  The next day when we saw him, he shared with us how he had taken the Book of Mormon to school with him and whenever he had free time he would start to read it. And each time he said all of the problems in the world and all the other things would just zone out and he would feel different as he read the book. He then told us the story about Nephi and how he thought he was so awesome. He is an awesome kid and he is excited to come to church. 

    The other person that we found is a former investigator named Jessica that met with missionaries for four months or so but her boyfriend didn't like the church, so he made her stop. She said that as soon as she stopped trying to find God in her life that everything just turned upside down. So she called the other missionaries and they found out that she had moved into our area. We went over and got to know her a little bit and she shared how when she attended the Mormon church that she felt something different. She is excited to start learning again and to be able to start studying the Book of Mormon. It isn't everyday as missionaries that you just have a golden Investigator dropped into your hands. 

​Pretty much like half the buildings in the city.

2. We met with our investigator, Marlene, that we found 2 weeks ago. When we taught her about Baptism, she stopped us before we could even finish inviting her to be baptized and she said, "You need say no more. I know that I need to be baptized and I want to be baptized on the 16th of Aprill." So after we recovered from our shock, we were super excited for her. She is a good friend of a member and It just comes to show that missionary work goes 100x better and more effective when members are involved.

3. Elder Allen And I walked probably 70 miles this week if not more... But it all paid off because of all the people we have been able to talk to and find to teach. We taught 36 lessons this week! Hard work pays off especially when the Lord is putting people who are ready to hear the gospel in our path. 

4. Since Elder Allen does not speak Spanish, I have to teach those alone which can be fun; but, sometimes when we are working with the Puerto Ricans and they forget that I cannot understand them when they speak 1000 miles an hour, it would be nice to have a companion who could help out with those situations. But it was awesome to be able to teach 10 Spanish lessons this week. But I am also grateful for a companion that loves to work hard and has a good sense of humor about things. We are learning to work together and we made lots of progress this week. 

5. The scripture that Helped me out a lot this week was Ether 12:27

God gives us weaknesses to humble us. I am grateful for the weaknesses that I have been given to keep me in check and keep me on my toes, always trying to be better. But I know that through those weaknesses that God strengthens us as we continually try to be better. I love the Lord and all that he does for us. I love the gospel and the hope and peace that it brings into our lives. The church is true and the Book is Blue!

Love you all! Until next week,

Elder Frandsen 

Cleveland Baby!

Hello Y'all,                                                                                           

Cleveland Baby!

Saying goodbye to the Kirtland Zone Elders

Another week down only 800 more to go (I wish).

So here is how the week went down.

Tuesday: This was a bittersweet day saying bye to all of the awesome people of Painesville and the Perry ward. Elder Watkins and I had dinner with Raquel and Spencer and we had an awesome experience where Spencer’s parents called to face time with us all the way from Mexico to thank us for helping Raquel out along the way on her path to joining the Church. They were some of the nicest people and it was one of my favorite experiences from my mission. After that we went over to Doug and Jessica’s so I could say bye to them. I love them and I know that One day they will both make the decision to be baptized. I am going to miss them. 

Wednesday: Well I left Perry and met my new companion, Elder Allen, in Cleveland on the way to the Apartment. So my new area is part of the Lakewood ward but the actual area covers most of West Cleveland so it is quite the change from Painesville which is a smallish city to an area with over 400,000 people in it... But it is super awesome and I am super excited for this area. 

Thursday-Saturday: We found this new family to teach and there was 16 people in the lesson as we taught... it was the craziest thing I had no clue that many people could fit in one tiny room other than the fact that the mother thinks she is a prophet and should start a new church they are actually super solid. We also started to teach a part member family and their friend with our ward mission leader so this area has already been super awesome and Elder Allen and I have already seen tons of success. The only thing that is hard is that the area we cover is massive and we do not have a car so we walk all day every day and I thought I was used to walking from Perry but I was Wrong... even with using the Public transit train we still walk 10-15 miles a day,  I have never been so tired in my life. 

Sunday: The ward is 25-30% Spanish and I have been able to meet half of the active Spanish members and they are some of the nicest people I have met. They are super awesome. I will be teaching about 30% of my lessons in Spanish now, which I am super happy about.  Plus I have talked to a few of the families and they have asked about teaching them English so hopefully that pans out. Oh and the rest of the members are great too!

A little bit about Elder Allen... He is from Utah and has been out for about 3.5 months (it is really weird being the companion in the companionship that has been out longer) but he is a good guy and he likes to work hard so that is a plus. 

Well this week has felt super long because so much has happened and I wish I could tell you all about it but I can't. But I can tell you that I know that this Church is true (and the book is blue) and I am so grateful for the Gospel and all that it includes. Something that I have learned that has helped me out a lot is that God cares more about who we are becoming then who we once were. That along with the scripture Mosiah 2:41 have both been something I have thought a lot about this week. Well until this time again next week...

Sinceramente,

Elder Frandsen

My new address is :
3044 west 104th Street
Cleveland Ohio 44111

Last time I will se  Elder Bateman :((

This church wins.

A week of Miracles and good byes. Bye Bye Painesville, Hello Lakewood.

Hello Everyone!!

Said bye to Brother Gvp this morning and as you can probably tell we get along rather well...
 it is crazy how mnay people you become friends with and get close to in the
short two year span of a mission. Imma miss  this guy.

So I will start out with a very sad thing that happened this past week.

The two sister missionaries here in the Perry district and ward That I have been serving with for almost 6 months now were in a horrible car accident last Monday. A man ran a stop sign and T-boned them and completely destroyed their car. They were both life flighted from the scene unconscious and were both in the ICU. The first miracle that occurred in this chain of events is that both of the sisters were even alive. The pictures of the car would make you think otherwise and it was said if the guy had hit them a half second earlier that it would have been worse. So the ward found out that night and the news spread like wild fire through out the mission and stakes. And for the next week there were thousands of people fasting and praying for both of them and their families. The stake president and president brown were both able to give them both blessings within 12 hours and this is where we see another one of the many miracles. Sister west within 3 days was awake, talking and walking. They said other than the concussion that you would not have been able to tell that she had been in the ICU two days previous and in a very bad accident 3 days prior. By day 5 she was released from the hospital and is now recovering and another miracle is that she is going to be able to continue her mission.

Sister Morrison suffered from a few more injuries and under went a long surgery but the doctors said it went really well and that it is crazy how much progress she has made in such a short time. They were not sure if she was going to make it Monday night but each day she has made so much progress and she is now expected to make a full recovery! They said that b looking at her as well you couldn't tell that she was in a car accident. There have been so many miracles take place in this bad situation and they all have shown me just how real the power of prayer and fasting are. I am grateful that I was able to serve in the same ward as both of them because they are awesome missionaries and have been great examples for me. Please keep them in your prayers.

Raquel got baptized!!! 

Elder Watkins and I with Raquel, Spencer and their baby Right before the baptism! Favorite family ever. It was a good last Sunday in The Perry Ward.

Sunday was one of the best days ever. I was lucky enough to have Raquel ask me to be the one who performed the baptism and she asked that I do it in Spanish Which I was also very happy about. We had to do it twice because the first time her knee came up but that is okay cause not to many people can say they were baptized twice right? Something that was also really cool was to see the difference in the light that she radiated before and after the baptism. Other people noticed it as well. She just looked super happy and full of light. Spencer was all smiles as well and it was awesome to see their little family together as the ward welcomed them with open arms even with a slight language barrier. God is a God of miracles. I am grateful that I was able to be a tool that was used for the Holy Ghost to be able to teach their young family. 

Also, Elder Watkins and I spent a good chunk of Saturday baking cookies and such things for the baptism and We are now thinking about opening up a bakery after the mission... we only burnt a few of the cookies so I would say it was a success. 

Elder Watkins and I with Doug and Jessica in the
 revelation room of the Johnson home. Another sad good bye is saying good bye to Doug and Jessica. They have been a big reason that I have felt my testimony grow so much these last 6 months. Two people I hope to
be able to come back and visit some day.

Yesterday I had the awesome experience of going to the Johnson Farm with Doug and Jessica to take a tour. It was an experience that I will never forget and I don’t think anyone else in the group will either. It was an experience that will have an impact on me for the rest of my life. I am very grateful for the spirit and for the way that it can teach us things and testify to us of truth. I know with out a shadow of a doubt now that Joseph smith was called by god to be a prophet and to restore missing truths and the true church to the earth again in these latter days. I am very grateful to be able to serve in place where many of the revelations received for the church were received. I love my mission. I love the church. I love the gospel.

Another picture  in front of the home where
 Jospeh Smith would preach on Sunday mornings! 

Last night I also found out that I am being transferred. I am sad to say by to Painesville as it has become like a 2nd home to me. I am going to miss the ward, the people, Investigators, Recent converts and everything else about this area where I was able to start my mission. I am sad that I was only able to have one transfer with elder Watkins because he is awesome and we have become pretty good friends.

But I am also very excited to see what else my next area has in store. I am being transferred to an area called Lakewood. It is right next to downtown Cleveland and Right up on Lake Erie still in the city of Cleveland on the west side. I have heard really great things about the area so I am excited. 

The church is true and the book is blue! Love Y'all.

Elder Frandsen

Brother And Sister Salamone. Power Couple of the Century... I have really enjoyed getting to know them and become friends with them.  They have been great influences on me. 

Finding the good that comes from trials

Hello Everyone!                                                                     February 22, 2016

Well I wish that I could be sitting here telling you that Tim’s baptism went awesome and it was a really great and spiritual experience for all that were involved... but sadly this is not the case. On Saturday morning right after Elder Watkins and I had gone to the store and bought the supplies and stuff for after his baptism we received a call from a very angry lady. Well come to find out that Tim had announced to his family that he was getting baptized this week and his aunt when she found out freaked out and got mad at him and then got our number and called us to try and chew us out. She was claiming that we aren’t Christian and accusing us of a bunch of stuff. So we let her rant for like 5 minutes before we finally got a chance to speak and we just shared with her how much we loved Tim and about the growth and spiritual experiences that he has experienced over these last 4 months. We also shared how we weren’t out to take advantage of anyone or do any harm and by the end of us talking she had calmed down and actually apologized and asked if she could offer a prayer on behalf of all of us. It was very nice and she said that she was okay with times decision but we should probably give him a month or so. So when we called Tim to see how he was doing we came to find out that she had scared him pretty bad and he felt like he needed more time to prepare. So of course we respected his decision. Although I would have loved to see the baptism take place I would much rather see Tim feel as confident about this decision as he can. In the end what matters the most is that he continues to progress and is converted to the gospel on his own and not because of those around him. 

Even though this was very sad we had a really awesome experience on Sunday with the Chavez family (Spencer, Raquel and Santiago) we are working with Spencer to get the Melchizedek Priesthood and Working with Raquel to be baptized. So this Sunday we were able to make strides with both of them. Spencer met with the Bishop and got the ball moving forward with getting the higher Priesthood and Raquel passed her baptismal interview! They have been having family home evening now for almost 3 weeks and have made a promise with each other to make it to Sunday every single week. She is very excited to make this next step forward with baptism and has just taken everything we have taught her and ran with it. We are starting English classes with them this week and Hopefully Spencer’s Brother will be able to come as well as we have been meeting with him recently as well. They are one of the miracles of my mission so far. I am sad because I probably only have a week and a half left in this area But I am grateful for all the many lessons that I have been able to learn here from the members, Investigators and my companions. So even though it was sad that Tim’s baptism fell through I am still so happy because of the knowledge of the restored gospel and what it means for me personally. I agree with President Uchtdorf, The gospel works wonderfully and it works for me. 

Other than that not a whole lot else happened this week because Elder Watkins was still recovering from that accident that he had a week ago. So I was able to almost finish the New Testament and a few of the books from the missionary library.

This world is a scary place but the gospel offers a refuge that is not found in any other place. I am still learning from my mistakes everyday and learning from other experiences as well. But something that I have learned for sure is that The Church is true and The Book is Blue.

God bless!

Con Amor 

Elder Frandsen

Kirtland East Zone! Elder tuitavooki decided to jump the gun a little earlier there on the right... great people.