Just another "Pee" Day.

Hey Fam,

     As always, it was another great week in the mission field and sadly the amount of Great weeks in the mission field left for me are very small... :( Buuut to explain the title of the email I will give a short story of something not so great that happened this week. Yesterday we were at a members house for a dinner, and I love this couple, they are relatively new members and live in humble circumstances, yet they have 6 smaller dogs that are very hyper. I love dogs, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes people out here have A MILLION DOGS and they are crazy. Anyways, I sat down at the table and was talking with them when I felt this warmth come from no where on my ankle and my foot and I was confused and looked down and saw that one of their many dogs had decided to mark me as their territory with a big puddle of pee :((( lol so I say in my head "act like nothing happened and figure it out later,it will be okay." Well, it was hard to focus there for a bit and keep from not laughing or something but I didn’t want them to be embarrassed and at some point they were trying to round up the dogs and looked under the table and saw the present the dog left me, and yes I felt bad for them, but I guess it is just another thing about being a missionary!! Good times. 

     This week was awesome though. Elder McCarrey is my new companion and he is the perfect companion for me to finish my mission out with. He is Young, diligent, hard working and has the greatest sense of humor and could probably make the Devil laugh if he needed to. It has definitely given me an energy boost to finish out my mission strong and to keep on working hard and focusing on the people and not the things that are to shortly come. Sometimes that is difficult to do but he helps me to stay focused and we are able to learn a lot from each other. God truly is great and is mindful of the things that we need and how to help us keep growing. I have a testimony of that especially when it has come to the companions that I have had on my mission. I have had a very different and interesting group of companions but with each one I have learned something new and something that will help me. 
They have all been just the right companion that I needed at that time and I hope that I was the same for them. 

    Sunday night we went to this thing called the warriors Project put on by a church here in Akron and it is  a thing put on to help people who have overcome and are currently struggling with addictions of any kind. They have motivational speakers each week and we got invited and I am so glad that we went. The speaker was a man from this department of the US who had grown up in a broken home and basically lived in the streets his whole childhood. Well one thing led to another and he was running and gunning and was on all sorts of drugs and with all sorts of people and he shared his whole journey of how God helped him to beat the addictions and how the moment that he let go of all of his stuff (pride/other things that keep us attached to old habits) and just let God do his thing that he was set free from addiction. I have seen a lot of that the last two years and I had a decent understanding of how bad it was in areas of the US but Elder McCarrey had no idea and it was pretty eye opening. It was eye opening for me, none the less. It reminds me of how God is all about freedom and Satan is all about addiction. The commandments may seem restrictive but when everything is said and done they are actually what brings us the most freedom and happiness. 

     Other Cool things this week: Dakota, a member referral has come to church 3 weeks in a row and I have hope for him to see him go a long ways. We found a new investigator who is legitly named fat Albert. The Christie family is still doing great and the branch is so awesome at fellowshipping. Brother Stone, the one whose wife passed away a couple weeks ago, came to church for the first time in forever! The branch welcomed him right in and when we met with him on Saturday he kept talking about how all that he wanted was to be sealed to his wife and be able to go to the Temple. So we set some goals with him and are now working with him to get the Mel. Priesthood. We were tracting the other day and these two guys were really drunk and high and they said to us, "the word on the street is that we are gettin lit so we ain’t got time for the word" so we said okay and went on to the next house and we hear a cup fall down and break and the guy was like" ahh man that was my favorite cup!" Then he looks at us and says.”God works in mysterious ways huh?" It was so funny. 

      Well that is all fro this week! I can’t believe how fast this time has flown by... I am truly grateful for the life lessons that I have learned, the Gospel teachings that have sunk down in deep and that I have a true understandng of now. And for all the amazing experiences that I have each and every day. Life is hard and no one ever said that it would be easy but when we follow God it is all worth it. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father  who gave his son for us so that we could overcome the natural man within us and put the things of the world behind us and find true Joy. The atonement of Jesus Christ is amazing and blesses my life everyday. I love you all!! Remember that God loves you no matter where you are at in your life and no matter what you may have done. Don’t give up.

Stay Cute,

Elder Frandsen

Ending, Beginning, Meeting

Hey Fam! 

   

  Well, This week was great! I had surprise visit from Stephen Hillary, Edie and Ozy! Somehow they got my number, called and acted like investigators moving into our area and got us super excited that we were getting a new family and asked us to meet them at a pizza place at 5. Well we are pulling up and we are behind this car with a New York license plate and they were parking when I look over and I see Stephen in the car!! Hahaha, it was an unexpected but a much appreciated visit. Almost made me trunky but not quite... still holding out strong. 

     There was another interesting and some what sad experience this week. A less active member named Brother Stone, that we meet with each week who is the nicest guy and isnt able to come to church due to his wifes health ailments, called us Friday and told us that his wife was in the hospital and not doing well. So we offered to come and give her a blessing and he said yes. We show up and she was not in good shape at all and come to find out she had 3 different types of cancer and they didn’t know until two weeks ago. They had all progressed quite a bit and there was nothing that the doctors could do. I felt the spirit very strongly tell me to give the blessing to her which is not something that usually happens. Well in the blessing I told her to have comfort in knowing that God has a plan for her and that he was ready to receive her and was standing by her through it to carry her on to things to come. Well in the middle of the prayer she was more responsive than she had been for the past day and opened her eyes and grabbed Brother Stone’s hand and then went back to what was going on before. It was a powerful moment and it was really hard for Brother Stone as well. We got a call saying that she had passed away within 12 hours of that blessing... it was a moment that hit me pretty hard about the frailty of life and yet the love that God has for each of his children. It is good that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore and that she is in a better place but it is also so sad to see someone go.  

     The Investigators are doing great still and they are progressing slowly but surely. Elder Rawson is getting transferred and I am getting a new companion and I have no Idea how to spell his name so I am not even going to try and attempt it...  Elder Bennett is going home and we went on an exchange yesterday and it was really fun. I am going to miss, him but I will see him soon enough, I guess lol. This is the start of my final transfer as a missionary here in the Ohio Cleveland Mission and I have many mixed emotions about it. 

     I gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week on the Holy Ghost being our comforter.... it was a really awesome experience to be able to study for it. I love studying for talks and being able to give them because I learn so much when I do. I based the talk off of John 14:26-27  about the ways in which the Holy Ghost helps us to receive that peace that Christ promised his apostles.

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Well I love you all!! Sorry I don’t have a whole lot of time today so I couldn’t say much. 

Stay Cute, 

Elder Frandsen

Blessings, on blessings, on blessings....

Dearest Fellow Relatives and Acquaintances ,           June 7, 2017

Greetings. 

This week was yet another awesome week out here in The new Portage Branch! 

Here is a quick story for you: we were at the Kirtland temple with Peter, our investigator, and there was a large tour group from out West there right before us. They walked out of the temple when we were walking up to it and I saw this girl that looked oddly familiar.  Well, apparently she recognized me as well and came up to me and asked where I was from and what not and come to find out she was from Gunnison and I had hung out with her sister before! Pretty sure her last name is Sorenson if that rings a bell for any of you Gunnison folk reading this letter. Small world right? 

Well, anyways, this week we went to Kirtland twice with investigators and each time was super great. The first time we went with a member of the branch and his friend peter. We have been wanting to go with Peter for a while and this is the last weekend that it would’ve worked out for all of us to go before the member went back out West for a few months. Cool story though, we wanted to take a tour of the temple but we got up there just after they had given the last tour and so we decided to just take some pictures from the outside and then head on down to our churches historic sites. Well one of the community of Christ interns was walking up to lock them temple up for the night right before we were about to take off and i asked her if she could show us the inner court of the temple really quick. She then ended up giving us the full tour for free plus she took us down into the basement of the temple and gave a lot of extra parts to the more in depth tour, it was awesome!! Then we went on down to our sites and had a really great tour as well and that large tour group followed us as well. I think Peter is a little bit more interested in the church now due to the fact of how many single, righteous, cute Mormon women there were... also, since Peter and I share the same name he likes to call me Pete. He is a good guy. 

Next, We went to Kirtland again yesterday with an investigator names Joe. Joe has been investigating for almost 2 years on and off and we decided to pick him back up and for some reason he has just started to progress! He loved Kirtland a lot. he is really cool and I think their is a lot of hope for him! He has overcome a lot of things in his life and is still suffering from some of the side effects but he is a trooper about it. When we were in the School of the Prophets there were some really cool experiences shared and the spirit was really strong. The member that took all of us up is really awesome and really helped with being the fellowship that is needed to help someone feel welcome into any branch or ward of the church. Also, I love going to Kirtland. It is such a cool experience to be able to take investigators to the place where so many awesome things happened in the restoration of God’s Church. I wouldn’t trade serving my mission here in this area for anything. It has helped me gain such an understanding for the things of the Restoration and helped me to appreciate the early history of the church. 

That is all for this week! My thoughts for the week are as such: the only way to beat Satan at his own game is by not even playing in the first place. The best way to overcome temptation is to not put yourself in those situations where you know you will be set up for failure. The moment we even set foot on the court with satan we have lost... we should be following the example of Jesus in Mathew 4:1-11 where he shows us how to put off temptation and how when we do that more and more then Satan leaves us. The more right choices you make , the easier it gets to keep doing that and the opposite of that is true also.

Well, I love you all! My time is running short out here and I am pretty sad about it :( Keep on reading your scriptures and praying with full purpose of heart and I promise that the Lord will perform miracles in your lives. He has done that to mine. 

Stay super cute, 

Elder Frandsen