A Good Week in the Neighbor"Hood"

Hey Y'all!

What is Round on the ends and HI in the middle...

oHIo

ANYWAYS,... here is how the week went:

1.  We met with our Progressing investigator Willy who we have been teaching for a month now and he has quickly become one of my favorite people hat I have had the opportunity to teach. He is a former alcoholic and was formerly homeless but has made some really big changes in his life in the last 5 years or so. His wife is a member and they have been coming to church together for a while. He had a problem with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon for a while but a couple weeks ago he said that he did what he was supposed to and prayed about it and received his answer. He knows that it is true and really wants to be baptized but he has the problem of smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. So during our lesson we taught him about priesthood blessings and faith and he said that he wanted a blessing, on Sunday, to be able to not smoke and be able to quit slowly, but surely. So we gave him a blessing and we followed up with him on Sunday and yesterday and he said he was able to make it the whole day without smoking and he felt 100x better... So when we met with him last night again to follow up he said that he had only had a half a pack that day and all of a sudden the cigarettes have just started to taste bad to him and he is slowly losing the desire and crave to smoke. So we are going to follow up with him again today, but he is determined and he thinks that by this coming Sunday he will be done smoking and never look back. 

This is Polo and I.

2. We meet with a less active Spanish speaking member named Polo, once or twice a week,  he has had a drinking problem for a while now and it is the only thing keeping him back from going to church and baptizing his daughter. He surprised us this week when he told us that from our previous visit to that one he had quit his job and checked himself into a recovery program and is now 15 days free from drinking. We left with him the talk from conference about fathers and he said he watched it 3 times he liked it so much and he is determined to be a good parent for his daughter now and he came to church on Sunday as well. God will help us when we are willing to try and do our part in overcoming addictions and this is true with Polo. 

3. Sherry our investigator that we picked up a month ago has come to church every week since and is on fire right now. We are working with her to quit smoking (I swear everyone we find to teach smokes) and in the last week she has cut her usage back in half, which is really awesome. So if anyone has any tips on how to quit smoking please let me know.

4. Charisse and her family came to church this week! It was super crazy and hectic setting up the rides and all and we never thought that it would happen but she and her 4 of her kids were able to make it, it was super awesome. During gospel principles Charisse was talking about how she has been meeting with us for a little while and she then started to cry, which took me by total surprise,  she said that in the last month she has seen a change in her family as they have listened to the message of the gospel and about how much happier they are. She said that she knows God sent Elder Allen and me there and that we are pretty much members of the family now too. This was probably one of my favorite experiences from my mission. It is nice to know that what we are doing is helping someone. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a tool in the Lord’s hand to help others come unto him and experience the joy of finding their relationship with him. 

5. Since it is transfers this week and Elder Wray who was the district leader is being transferred, we didn’t have a  District Leader.  President called me  yesterday to tell me that I am going to be the new District Leader. It really took me by surprise, ha-ha, I guess it’ll be okay. I am going to miss being a normal missionary who only has to worry about the people he is teaching and all that. But now, I have to try to run a couple meetings a week at the same time. 

6. Well this week was awesome. We saw lots of success and we had 11 people that we are teaching at church on Sunday, it was the craziest day of my life. But the ward did awesome in fellowshipping all of them. 

The church is true and the book is blue. Hope you all have a great week! 

and remember-

Antes de tu cases mira lo que haces.

Exodus 14:14

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen