Becoming a hermit for the rest of my mission...

Merry Christmas from Toledo
Goodbye to Toledo and Elder Cortez😒

Hey Fam,

Merry Christmas! 

Q:  Why do Mormon women stop having babies at 35?

A:  Because 36 is just too many. 

Well here is an update from the week:

Well to start out, I got to talk with the family :)) It was good to be able to see and talk with everyone again. Crazy that now I only have one more time skyping with the fam before I will be home... Not sure where the time went. We Spent Christmas day with some members and I seriously have never eaten as much food as I did the day prior, of and after Christmas. They also gave us all of their leftovers so I am pretty sure we have enough food to last us for a year or 2. Basically other than that not a whole lot happened this week. All of the recently baptized members are doing great and things are still just rolling along here in Toledo. Sadly though my time here in the Toledo 2nd ward is coming to an end... :( President Brown called me Sunday night to tell me that I am being transferred to be a Zone Leader with Elder Bennett in the Lima Ohio ward. Well, I am excited to be companions with Elder Bennett. We talked about it before that it would be awesome if we could be companions and now we are!! But I am not so excited to be a Zone Leader. I really enjoy just being a regular missionary that can focus soley on the work and investigators. But, now I will have to do a whole bunch of other stuff that to me seems like fluff. But someone has to do it and if that is what the lord wants then I am willing to do it. The other part is that the Lima ward boundaries are massive, like basically you could fit a whole other state within the boundaries and it is in the bottom corner of the mission. So basically I am becoming a hermit for the rest of my mission, hahaha. I am okay with that though. I am excited for another area. At the same time I am really sad about leaving this ward and leaving Elder Cortez.  He has definitely become one of the greatest friends that I have and he has taught me a lot. I have learned and grown so much in the past 6 months in this ward and I have met and become friends with so many awesome people that have changed my life. I spent all of yesterday saying good bye to all of the recent converts and members that I have gotten close to and they all either gave me a present or a note and told me thanks for all I had done. That is the worst part about missionary work is saying bye to all of these people :( 

Well that is all for this week! I will give you an update of the new area next week. Love you all! Happy New Years!

With Love,

Elder Frandsen

Another week, another dollar (or three baptisms)

Nikki and Savannah baptism... Merry christmas from Toledo!

Hey Fam,

Its been a minute (week) !

Q:  Did you know that the Catholics have started doing Baptisms for the Dead?
A: They installed a sprinkler system in their cemetery. 

Hmm.. maybe I should just retire from the whole joke business...

Well anyways, here is a Update from out here in Toledo!

Longhui and Angelina: Longhui got baptized!! So here is the story of how it all happened... Last Monday night we called and asked if their mom had said anything yet or if they had talked about a specific date yet.  He told us no, he was a little bit nervous to talk to her about it, to say the least. So we told him that we would be there on Wednesday to visit them and if he could talk to her before then it would be nice, or that we could talk with all 3 of them when we came whatever worked best. So needless to say our time was short because she was only here for one week. We couldn’t make any plans for the baptism for when it could happen until she had said yes  and we were booked for the rest for the rest of the week. So it was going to be a stretch to say the least. So we got there on Wednesday and realized that when they said she spoke a little bit of English they really meant a little bit of English haha. So we talked to Longhui and he talked with his mom in Mandarin so we had no idea what was going on for the next 10 minutes but finally they both came and sat down and their mom said "Saturday is good" and then Longhui told us how she had said yes and would like to do it Saturday, the day before she left.  So we said okay and we set up a time for it with them and got to planning the baptism. By a miracle we didn’t forget anything and it all went smoothly and we were able to coordinate it with both our ward and the singles branch and had support from both. Elder Cortez baptized him and I confirmed him right after because he was going to be gone the next day dropping his mom off at the airport. During the baptism at the middle part when they were changing, we figured out how to play finding faith in Christ in mandarin so that their mom could feel a little more involved. She loved the service and it seemed like she had a good time and she told Angelina later that she would make a decision about her being baptized in a month and Angleina sounded pretty hopeful about it. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to work with them.. It has been a really cool experience to watch them come from no religous background to praying and reading everyday to being baptized! 

Nikki and Savannah: They got Baptized!! So leading up to the baptism we met with them a few times this week just to make sure that they were ready and even though we have only known them for about a month, they and their family have taken us right in and we have all become pretty good friends and they love having us over... I love being able to be a part of these people’s lives and being a tool in God’s hands to help change people’s lives and watch them come unto Christ, whether it takes a long time or a short time. The other awesome part about the baptism was that most of the immediate and extended family came and they haven’t all been at church together in about 15 years. Shannon (the mother of Jonathan Bozman) texted us later that night and told us thank you for all the hard work we have put in and for helping the whole family come back together and be able to get started back on the right track again after such a long time. It’s moments like that when you can look back and see that you have been able to make a difference that makes it all worth it. Plus Nikki Savannah, Elder Cortez and I got some classic pre baptismal pics and have a nickname of the Mormon mafia hahah. They are pretty funny. The other cool part about it all was too see how as they kept the commitments that we left with them that their faith grew a lot in such a short time.... God prepares those who are ready. I definitely have a testimony of that. 

Mike, Lisa, Kenji: Sadly we were not able to go to the temple with them due to weather complications.  :(   But another cool thing happened this week with them. Mike right now is in the middle of finding jobs and so they do not have a lot of money, barely enough to get by let alone for Christmas. Despite all of that last week Lisa shared about how she wants to do what God has asked and put her faith in him and his promises by paying her tithing even though she knew they would not have enough for Christmas. Well I was thinking about how we could help them and praying about it and yesterday a member of the ward gave all four missionaries in the ward 50 dollar gift cards to a store. I knew as soon as I got it that it was an answer to my prayer about how we can help them out.  Elder Cortez looked at me right after that and said "We don’t need these we already have enough... we should give them Mike and Lisa" and then one of the other Elders looked at us and said I don’t need mine either, you can take it and give it to them. So that is exactly what we did. We dropped them off in little baggies and about 20 minutes later we received a text from Lisa saying how grateful she was and talked about how God always knows exactly what we all need and some other stuff and at that moment I Felt truly happy with everything that was going on around me because I had turned out ward and not inward with out even thinking about it when I saw the cards. I realized just how much I have changed in the last year and how before I would have totally thought about all the things I could get with one of those cards. God really is a God of miracles and he always keeps his promises. The other cool part about it all is that even before Lisa had shared that story about the tithing the ward had chosen them to be recipients of the giving tree and will be delivering the stuff this week. God is good, I can promise all of you that you will never be sad while you are serving others. Even though Christ did not live an easy life and if you were to look at it from the outside and from a worldly view his life was hard and he shouldn’t have been happy. But he always turned outward and served others and I truly believe that he was the happiest man to ever lived because he was always in the service of others. 

Well that is all from this week!  I am afraid that my time with Elder Cortez is coming to a close and that I will be leaving this area here pretty soon. I am pretty sad about that because he is such a great companion and we have become really good friends. I am also sad to leave all of the recent converts and investigators here that I have worked with. Plus, the ward is awesome and have been so good and even though it never got above 15 degrees this week and we had to bike for half the week. I loved every minute of it. 

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Oh and Elder Cortez and I went to Kirtland on Thursday with a guy named John Bolster who is a leader from the RLDS church but has become really good friends with us. He is like our grandpa and gives us food and whatever we need even though we don’t ask for it. He is such a great guy, but it was a really cool trip and it was pretty interesting to get to talk about the slight differences in the two churches. Plus, it is always super fun to go to Kirtland :)) 

Well it was a great week! 

Elder Cortez and I made Christmas cards so if you would like one and we haven’t run out then send me an email with your address! 

Merry Christmas!

Love you all! 

Elder Frandsen

Nikki and Savannah

Longhui

Drunken with the Spirit

Charisse

Hey Fam,                                                        December 12, 2016

To start off,

Q:  What's the difference between a good Mormon and a bad Mormon?

A:  The temperature of the caffeine they drink. 

Q:  Why was the Mormon upset about his marriage-counseling bill?

A:  He didn't get the group rate. 

Well here is the story to explain the title of this letter;

We are teaching this 70 year old Chinese lady who has a pretty thick accent and doesn’t understand English that well but she loves having us over and trying to learn about the gospel... So she called us last Thursday and asked what we liked to eat so Elder Cortez told her Mexican food and then she asked me what I like to drink and I told her eggnog. Being from Utah and all no one ever puts stuff in the egg nog so I just assumed that It would be normal old egg nog and it would be fine... well we show up and she pulls out the egg nog and it is in a glass bottle... so I think to my self, hmm well that is interesting usually they are in milk cartons, whatever" So I pour some into a glass and offer it to Elder Cortez and he says no because he thought it was ranch. I told him it was the stuff we had drunken at sister Mittens but he thought I said Mangums and the last time we ate there we had salad with ranch dressing ha-ha. Since he didn’t take the glass I drank it instead and there was a decent amount in the glad and I drained it all and it was too late to stop before I felt my whole throat and body just light up on fire  and the smell of some type of alcohol hit me and I realized I had just drank something I shouldn’t have.  So after I looked at the bottle and saw that it was 30 proof egg nog with brandy we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she didn’t realize we were only 19 and she brought out some sangria and José Cuervo that she had bought with the Mexican food as well, lol. It was pretty funny. She apologized and said she hoped I wasn’t too loopy. Needless to say Elder Cortez drove for the rest of the night. 

Anyways, Here is how everything else is going:

Mike Lisa and Kenji: Mike got the priesthood this week! It was so cool to be able to stand in the circle for that and I was almost the one to do the ordinance but I decided it would be better for a member to do it so he would have another connection in the ward. Then after that he and Lisa both got interviewed for their temple recommends and are ready to go to the temple this week :)) We did a lot of family history with them and found tons of names and I think they have found a new hobby.  The ward has also talked about putting them as a family for the giving tree. That would be so cool. This week is the best that they have ever been doing.  Mike kept saying thanks for not giving up on them despite all of the things that happened. God knows us each personally and knows if we are ready and wont ever give up on us and they are a testament to that. We also surprised them last night by showing up and shoveling their drive way and walk after it snowed a foot and it always feels good to be able to help people. 

Nikki and Savannah: Even though we only found them a few weeks ago and they are getting baptized next week they have kept every commitment we have left and are well on their way into reading the book of Mormon and praying every day and they both said that they feel so much better and happier now like they have more of a purpose in life... It is so cool to watch that happen so fast. Savannah also came to another baptism in the ward this weekend and afterward she said she felt so peaceful about her decision to be baptized.

Longhui and Angelina: They are doing great. The only problem is that Longhui is probably going to be baptized this week but we can’t set a date until their mom gets home! And she got delayed because of the big snowstorm that we had over here so we won’t be able to find out until tonight and be able to start making plans. There is always some stress involved with planning a baptism (a good kind of stress) but there is always a lot more when you have to throw together a service at the last minute. That’s all right though it is a good problem to have. The other awesome thing is that Angelina has been coming to church with a family and the family has taken her under their wing! Missionary work goes so much smoother and more effective when the members and missionaries work together. I will let you know next week what happens here. 

Jonathan: doing great. Not much to report.

Sonja: still the coolest person ever. 

Other news: Elder Cortez was involved with his first real snow storm and we shoveled about 8 driveways yesterday and I don’t think he really enjoys the snow too much anymore.  Also, there was an investigator named Katie that got baptized this weekend and Elder wheelwright who is in Sandusky was able to come up with. Charrise! It was fun to be able to see her again and she said she enjoyed the service because it reminded her of her own baptism. I am grateful for all of the lessons that I have learned while being a missionary. I wish I could share all of them and the wonderful experiences but I don’t have the time. But one thing that I can share is that God loves us, Jesus Christ lives and he is our Savior and through him and his atonement we can change, repent and be forgiven. He is the hope and light of the world. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and is convincing evidence of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and can bring us closer to our Heavenly Father than any other book can. It can resolve any doubt or issue that we are having as we read and pray every day. God will answer our prayers. Don’t let your pride or the things of the world get in your way of taking advantage of the tools our Father in heaven has given us. 

I love you all! I am so thankful for all the amazing examples I have. 

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

The Famous Egg Nog

Christmas Party with the comp

Charity Never Faileth

Posterity picture (Elder Ogle , grandpa, Me, dad, Elder Cortez, Son) and the last time I will see Elder Ogle before he goes home this month :(( 

Hi,

Here are a couple to start out...

Q:  Who puts the leaves back on the trees in Spring?

A:  The Re-leaf Society. 

Q:  Why didn't the BYU football team have a good season?

A:  Every time they earned 10 yards, they had to give one back for tithing. 

Well here in an update from the week:

1. On Tuesday we had the mission wide Christmas conference at Kirtland and it was awesome but sad at the same time... I realized that I won’t be seeing a lot of those people again because I will be home before next year’s conference and a lot of the people I have served around go home in the next two transfers :(( It was pretty cool though, we got to have the big main meeting in the Kirtland temple which is always a cool experience.

2. Let's see, Mike, Lisa, and Kenji are doing great right now! Mike got interviewed for the priesthood yesterday and next week he will be receiving it... Lisa did family history with the Bishop and found a bunch of names and a line that goes all the way back to the 1400's and Kenji is still Kenji. They are really excited to be able to go to the temple in a couple weeks with the ward. It is always so cool to watch as the ward continues to welcome them in as a part of their ward family.

3. Sonja is still the most prepared person I have ever met... It is crazy that within the short time I have been here, that I have watched her go from non-member to fully involved active member who is fulfilling a calling. She is excited to be able to go to the temple with the ward in a couple weeks as well.

4. Jonathan Bozman got confirmed on Sunday and it went really well... His cousins Nikki and Savannah , the 2 new investigators we picked up a couple weeks ago, came as well. We have been able to teach them half of the discussions this week and they have kept all of the commitments we leave. They told us how they feel so much better when they read and pray every day and how they are excited to be baptized in a couple weeks... The simple things of just reading and praying a little bit each day can make a sudden impact in our lives and yet so many of us cant make time because we are too busy to do those things. 

5. Longhui and Angelina... They are both progressing really well and this week we have been reviewing lessons we taught in the past and their mom said she will be in town next week and wants to talk to Longhui first about being baptized before it happens.  She said that she feels it would be a good decision for him to make. So hopefully she will continue to feel that way. 

6. Last night Elder Cortez and I got to go to the Toledo zoo lights with a member’s daughter and husband because a couple weeks ago we were over at the mom/s house doing service and got to talk with the daughter and helped her with some stuff She said that she wanted to do something nice for the missionaries so she took us with her family to the zoo Christmas lights and it was pretty sweet... Who knows, maybe ten years down the road they will run into some other missionaries and they will be ready then to learn more and what not. 

7. It snowed a little bit this week and it was the first time that Elder Cortez has seen snow.   Let's just say after about 5 minutes of it he decided that he doesn’t like snow, Hahaha Poor kid... I can’t wait to see what he does when he wakes up one morning and there is a foot of snow outside on the ground. 

Well that is all for the week! It went by really fast... But then again so have the last 17 months. Something that stuck out to me from my studies this week and for the previous couple weeks is the importance of charity in all the things we do. Moroni 7:40-48 teaches me something new each day as I think about it and what it means and how I can apply it. If we aren’t doing the things we do each day for others out of charity, then it is for nothing and we are missing the point. When Christ asks us to become more like him and our father in heaven, he talks before that about how we need to love, so as we strive to become more like Christ we will become more loving and care about others and not just about ourselves. I am grateful for the scriptures and all the things that they have taught me. 

Love you all! Don’t forget to read your scriptures :)

Until next week, 

Elder Frandsen 

​Picture with President Brown

Home town pride (Sister Green is from Spanish Fork) 

​Tongan pride and some of my favorite people

Twinkie Regan

Thanksgiving… some change of plans... and some more change of plans...

November 28, 2016

This wonderful family had Lafe and his companion for Thanksgiving dinner.
Lafe sent a message through them:
Hey Ma, Tell the fan I say Happy Thanksgiving and I miss and love all of you.
Thanksgiving was great and I am doing well :)
Love Ya!   Lafe

Hey fam,

Hope the Turkey and pie treated you well!

Q: How many Mormons does it take to change a Light bulb?

A: One to preside... One to conduct... One to say the opening prayer... One to bring the jello salad.... 

I’m running out of jokes here... (probably a good thing) 

Anyways, Here is a run down of how the week went:

Sonja: Still killing it.. She is super awesome. 

Mike Lisa and Kenji: Well... It was an interesting week to say the least. Mike is struggling with an illness right now and so it is making things pretty hard for him and this week was a struggle to say the least. Full of up and downs but at the end of it all, he was able to come to church and get confirmed. It was a good experience for him and will hopefully be something he can rely on to get him through all of this. He has definitely made a lot of changes as he found the Gospel and he is grateful for the support of everyone and he said it came right at the perfect time, because if it hadn’t he probably wouldn’t have made it through the last couple months. Keep him in your prayers. Lisa is doing awesome despite all of the crazy things going on around her.  She has been able to find peace through the Gospel and her new found faith... It is really cool to see someone get it, to just understand that the gospel won’t all of a sudden make life perfect but it will make it so we can find peace through our trials and rely on Christ always. She asked us for 4 books of Mormons to give out to her friends and family and keeps telling us how it is so frustrating because she wants to just give it to everyone, but she knows that she cant force it upon everyone, lol. Kenji as always is just being Kenji and doing great. I am glad that their confirmations went well and the ward has welcomed them in with open arms

Longhui and Angelina: So last week at this time all the plans were set and everything for them to be baptized this last weekend, but as with most things nothing quite ever goes as planned, but that is okay. We went over on Wednesday and Angelina said that they had talked to their mom who lives in Virginia and she had said no to them being baptized, and Longhui would have to wait until after he graduates from college... :( But there is more! So we shared Ether 12:6 and talked about how at times we have trials in our faith, but if we stay strong and trust in the lord that good things will come and we will understand why things happen the way they do and encouraged them to pray that their parents hearts would be softened. Well we saw them again on Friday and at the end of the lesson Angelina offered a really cool prayer and very simply said, "Please let my mom understand why we want to be baptized and that she will be okay with it.” It really touched me so I offered a short prayer and asked that if it was God’s will that her prayer would be answered... so later that night they texted us and said that their mom had said yes that Longhui could be baptized first and see how it is and then Angelina could follow after if it is what she wants! The only thing is that she wants them too wait until she comes home for christmas. I know God answers prayers but I wasn’t expecting him to answer that fast... Pretty cool. This week we will find out more about that. 

Jonathan: He got baptized!!! It went really well and lots of the ward came to support and two of his aunts who are members who havent’ been for a while both came and so that was another Cool little miracle. Jonathan afterward came up to me and said " I am clean! I feel good" So I would say for a 9 year old kid that is a success!  But, all in all it has been cool to meet with him and his mom each week and see them start coming back to church. Another miracle that came from meeting with him this week is that he has invited his cousins to come to church and one of them has come twice now and we have started teaching her and on Saturday when we were there, her mom came as well, and she asked if she could be baptized and her mom looked at her and said if that is what you want you can do it. Five minutes later her other sister came in and asked the same thing and her mom answered the same way. So now they both have baptismal dates one for December and the other for January... So that was another cool thing from the week :) 

Other: Thanksgiving was awesome and I think I am going to have to wait to eat any more pumpkin pie for another year... But the family we had it with was very nice and we got to relax and enjoy the day and so with all of the crazy things that happened this week it was really nice to have a break for a day. We won the turkey bowl. We are biking 20 miles a day and it is cold so we dress up like marshmallows and about 5 minutes into it we are both sweating way too much because it is too hot, lol. We have probably raked about a million leaves and we are extremely busy, probably the busiest I have been on my mission.  A busy missionary is a happy missionary. So life is good.

Love y'all :)

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Bringing others unto Christ and a bad translation.

November 21, 2016

They Got Baptized!!

Hey Fam...Hope life is treating you all well. 

To start off as always I got to include a joke or too so you dont get too bored! 

Who designed Noah's ark?

An ark-itect 

How long did Cain hate his brother?

As long as he was Abel.

anyways, Here is the run down for the week:

Sonja: She is still pressing forward as strong as ever! we weren’t able to go to the temple with her this week because something came up but we pushed it back to the 17th of December when the ward is going... But other than that she is seriously a real strength for the ward even though she is only a member of about a month and a half. The gospel is pretty cool when you watch it in action

Mike, Lisa and Kenji: THEY GOT BAPTIZED!! It was seriously so cool, a couple months ago if you had asked me when we first met them if they would be baptized while I was still here or if it would ever happen I would have been skeptical but they obviously have more faith than I do and God prepares those whom he prepares and knows are ready. He truly knows us all perfectly and knows exactly what we need and when we need it and it is just up to us to accept those things and act on them and that is exactly what Mike, Lisa and Kenji did. The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly for the sinners and not the perfect, for the Broken hearted and not the whole. I have been able to watch a transformation of a young families life right before my eyes as. There have been so many miracles I can’t even count. I don’t know, it is hard for me to put into words how I feel about it all and how to describe the experience, other than it truly was a miracle and it not only changed their life but has changed mine as well. About half the ward if not a little more was there to support them in this decision and it was filled with the spirit. Pictures will come :) 

Longhui and Angelina: So, These two hadn’t told their dad prior to this week that they were being baptized, and on Saturday morning they finally approached him and asked him... and he said no. So when we came later that day with the singles branch president and they told us that we were definitely a little surprised... but oddly enough I wasn’t all that worried and I felt inside that it was going to be okay for some reason. So we asked them if we might be able to come by with a member form the singles branch who speaks mandarin, who has a very similar background as they have, to talk with their dad so maybe he could see what we were actually about. So later that night they asked him if we could come over and meet him and he said no he didn’t think that was necessary... but the thing is that Angelina had asked him in English if we could be baptized... and he doesn’t speak English very well... so he plugged baptism into google translate and when he saw what it actually was he said "oh, that's what it is.. well yeah you can get baptized." Lol, who knows what he thought she was asking before but I am glad we got all of that figured out because it was a mess putting it on hold then replanning it... But finally it is all settled and everything is well in Zion. I will give you an update next week of how the baptism goes :) 

Bozman fam: We have reviewed most of the lessons with Jonathan and he is still on track to be baptized this coming Sunday, We also invited his cousin to sit in on a couple lessons when she was there and she has been interested in coming to church and actually came with them a week ago. Her mom is a member but has not been to church in who knows how long but she has been talking with Jonathan’s mom and said she wants to be baptized as well.. and for being only 10 she has remembered everything we taught and is really interested. So hopefully this next week we will meet with her mom and see if it is alright if her daughter is baptized and comes to church with Jonathan.... we will give you updates on all that next week as well :)

Other: Well, The members have been very pro active recently about coming teaching with us and we have definitely seen the fruits of all that. Elder Cortez is still learning lots of English and teaching more and more of how we need to love everyone. He is a good example for me even though I am supposed to be training him, he is teaching me. I am very grateful for all the opportunities and what not that Heavenly father has blessed me with whether it be here on my mission or back at home.. I truly have been blessed with so many great things, especially my family and parents, that I have nothing to complain about when I think things are hard. I hope Y'all have a great Thanksgiving and can recognize God’s hand in your life. 

I would love to hear from You all!

Philippians 4:13

Don’t forget to read your scriptures and pray daily :)

Love ya!

Elder Frandsen