Picking up the Branches

Hey Fam!

     Well this was an awesome first week to being in the New Portage Branch! My new companion is named Elder Rawson and he has been out for about 9 months and is a goofball just like me so we get along pretty well. He has a lot of energy and loves missionary work, (Except when people don’t keep commitments... Then he gets slightly upset) so it is helping me to stay Diligent and Endure to the end. The area that we cover is pretty great too because it has a little bit of everything. if I want to go to the Hood then we can do that, if I want to talk to a bunch of rich Catholics then we have a place for that, and if I want to go with the middle class then we have a place for that. It is super awesome and  the Branch members seem to be really supportive. 

     Here are some cool experiences that have happened in the short time that I have been here:

1. There is this awesome recent convert here named Carlos and he looks like the next Wolverine.  He has had a crazy life and has been through it all and a few months ago after he got out of a rehab place he decided to give it all to God and was praying and about 5 seconds later the Elders knocked on the door and he has been super solid ever since! He has referred a ton of his family and friends to the missionaries and is talking with everyone and anyone that is willing to listen. We hit it off from the get go and I am really excited to work with him. 

2. This area has had a lot going on in the past. In the last month or so it has kind of dipped down so we went through the area book, called former missionaries that served here, and talked to some members about different people to visit. Now we have a booked schedule with more people to visit in the next week.

 3. There was a family named the Hoffmans that had been meeting with missionaries in the past. Elder Rawson had never met them and we weren’t sure why they had stopped meeting with the missionaries. So we stopped by on Saturday and they were pretty excited to see us and let us right in!  We talked for a while and turns out that she is from Mexico. So we chatted in spanish for a bit and are set up to go see them this week :))))

4. there are a good amount of law students in the branch and two of them have been working with one of their fellow students and recently gave him a Book of Mormon and then they invited him over for dinner on Sunday when we were there, and it was super cool! He started talking about what he had read in the Book of Mormon in detail and telling us about all the parts that he liked and how he felt that God was guiding him to do this. So we taught some what of the restoration and he is down to learn more... the only hard part is that he lives in another wards boundaries but the two families that are working with him live in our branch. So we have to figure that one out. He finishes finals this week and wants to go up on a visit to Kirtland so that will be fun. 

5. We had dinner with the Branch President on Monday and we asked him if there was anyone he wanted us to visit and he mentioned a name that neither Elder Rawson or I had heard of. So we went by yesterday and it turns out that the mom who we were looking for wasn’t there but her daughter is a returning member and she was there with her boyfriend. She pulled him outside to talk with us and we had a great conversation. It was kind of awkward at first because of different things but after a couple minutes we were all laughing and having a good time and that led into a really awesome and not forced Restoration Lesson.  He said that since she had been coming back to church recently that he was pretty interested and would love to learn more and come to church because of how he has seen it help her to be more happy. Now we have another appointment to come and read the Book of Mormon with him next week. 

That was 2 solid investigators that we picked up who already have awesome fellowship... and get this, we were planning one day, when a member called us and told us that his brother was interested in learning about the church.  He then gave us all his info and told us that he would set up an appointment for us in the next couple of weeks! That is 3 member referrals within a week! That is more than I recieved in the last 5 months combined! 

Other weird things about the area: We live right behind a fried chicken place and it drives me nuts because it smells sooooo good and y'all ready know that I don’t have money for that... well that is all that I can remember of what happened this week!

I was studying section 89 in the Doctrine and Covenants the other day and verse 4 stuck out to me:

4. Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

That section is about The Word of wisdom and it was given at a time before we knew all the full repercussions of the things we are warned against in this revelation. It stuck out to me as another witness of Joseph Smith’s calling as a Prophet. 

That is it for the week.  

Don’t forget to read your scriptures

Stay cute,

Elder Frandsen

New Beginnings To The Endings

Hay fam,

This week was pretty average until Sunday night. I had assumed that I would be staying in the Lima ward for at least another transfer because Elder Alder is going home this week and I didn’t think that they would be shotgunning this area.Well President called me Sunday night to tell me that he has a new assignment for me and that they are combining our now area with the
missionaries going home this Summer and how they

 won’t have as many coming in, so they had to make some changes. In the last two days we have been taking a lot of time prepping a bunch of stuff for the new guys so they won’t feel lost and won’t drop the ball on all the investigators and other that we are working with.

I am pretty sad about leaving right now because of all

the work that we have going on and I am worried about what will happen with theRecent converts, Progressing investigators and especially the Sterchak family, with us leaving and new guys coming in. Luckily the ward council in the last months finally picked focus families and have made commitments and plansspecifically with how they are going to work with the Sterchak family. Luckily though I have been able to say goodbye to all of the people that I have worked with the most out here in the last two days.

We had some awesome things happen this week though. We had a decent amount of members come out with us to the boonies of our area. We were able to get some fellowship for our investigators out there and it is all set up so that they are going to be coming to church in the next couple weeks! I am so glad that we have had members involved in all of this because that will make this transition so much easier for the people we teach and the new guys coming in.

Chet is heart broken because both Elder Alder and I are leaving at the same

time :( I will miss the people here. This has been a good area. I am super excitedfor my new area though! I am going to be in the New Portage branch to finish outmy mission. It is in the city of Akron and is relatively Ghetto and Elder Alder servedthere and he said it was his favorite area and the best in the mission. I am excitedto serve in a branch as well. It will be a good a place to finish out my mission :) Iam going to be with a young missionary who is a hard worker and really funny.

Here is my address: 875 Chester avenue Akron, Ohio 44123

Well Elder Alder is going home and I will miss him. He has been one of my

favorite companions and has taught me so much. He is such a great guy. I am

grateful for the experiences that I have had this last transfer. I have made a lot of

really great friends, learned a lot and have seen my testimony of the Savior grow.

That's all for this week! Lots of changes and things going on but it will all work out.

I love you all!

Hope you have a great week! :)

Elder Frandsen

Last minute

Hey Fam,                                                                                                    April 26, 2017

 It was another great week out here in the boonies of Ohio. I will explain a little bit about the title to start off with. Saturday morning Elder Alder and I got a call from a member of the bishopric telling us that the other talks for Sacrament had canceled last minute and was wondering if we could both speak. So of course we said yes and surprisingly this was my first time being asked to speak in sacrament meeting my whole mission, so I was pretty excited. Considering that we had no time to really prepare we planned out like an hour and a half to go and write the talks. We were asked to speak on Service.  So I went about it by talking about how Service is a fruit of being a true disciple of Christ. Based off of John 13:35 and how others will know that you are Christ’s disciple by the love you show unto others and what better way to show Christ like love than by serving others. Elder Bednar gave a really good talk called "The Character of Christ" and in it he talks about how Christ’s character was to turn outwards and not inwards even and especially in times of his own distress and trial. For only having one day to prepare I thought it wasn’t all that bad of a talk. It was a good experience for me.   

       Another last minute assignment that we were given this week had to do with our Zone Conference. The sister Training Leaders had been asked to give a discussion and we had told them that we would help out if they needed it... so the night before they texted us and asked us if we would give a mini discussion on how to work with the youth in the wards and branches. Well we were on exchanges so we couldn’t prepare it then. When we got to Zone conference we went in and tried to prepare something but then President walked in and had to talk to us so we didn’t have anytime to prepare it. So I brainstormed some ideas, and wrote them down as an outline while someone was talking about different things and showed it to Elder Alder and we rolled with it and let’s just say that the spirit is the teacher, not us. It went pretty well considering the circumstances. 

      We went on two exchanges this past week and on both of them we had some cool finding experiences. On the first one we found a family while tracting that had lived in Arizona and was really good friends with some members down there. We have a return appointment with them this coming Friday, I am pretty excited about that. On the other exchange, I had seen a park with a bunch of kids playing basketball and it gave me some flashbacks to my time in Cleveland where we would go basketball finding and play basketball with all the kids in the streets and if we beat them we could share our message with them. So I pitched the idea to the Elder I was with and we went and tried it out and played a few different games with the kids and it was awesome! Since it was in that Elders area he was pretty excited about being able to come back and meet with some of the kids again. There are so many different ways to do missionary work so why not make the most of it? 

       Other than that, not a whole lot else happened this week. All of our other investigators are progressing slowly and Sam Sterchak finished the Old Testament Children’s book in 2 weeks so we have to find more reading material for him! 'His parents are working crazy hours right now so it is hard to really move forward right now with that family for another month or so until their schedules slow down. Hopefully this next week we will have a few more new investigators coming to church! I am grateful for the opportunity to be serving in this mission and to have been able to meet the people that have changed my life in so many different ways over the last two years. I was reading in Hebrews 12 this week and it talks about how the Lord Chastens those whom he loves and a little bit after that it talks about how Esau sold his birthright for a morsel of meat. Both of those scriptures have been pretty cool to think about and all the different places in which they apply. Are you willing to sell your birthright for a morsel of meat? To give up the blessings that God has promised for only a momentary pleasure? it makes you think. 

Well that is all for the week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Frandsen 

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall....

Indianapolis Temple

Hey Fam!

     In accordance with the title of this Letter, I only have 99 Days left! Hopefully that helps it make a little bit more sense. Also, I would like to make you aware to the fact that for those who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are actually a part of another , Non-Prophet organization... 

     Well here are a couple stories from the week. The first was on our trip to the Indianapolis temple an back. On the way there, like 30 minutes into the 2 hour trip we had a tire blow out on the members car and luckily it was right next to an off ramp. We threw on her Spare tire, headed off to firestone and luckily the temple had another session after the one we were scheduled for.. We made it up there and it was probably the best temple session I have ever had... it all clicked a lot more this time and I am just beginning to understand a lot of the symbolism and how it applies to everyday situations. Afterwards, we went and got some food and Sister Rowley, who I went to High school with and is now serving in the Indianapolis mission, showed up and we talked for a little while. It was pretty cool to be able to see someone from back home and see how they are enjoying their time as a missionary. 

     We got a message from our EQ president that Chet was in the ER from falling off a ladder, cutting himself open and then after he got up he slipped on his own blood and fell down the stairs. WE were pretty nervous there for a while but come to find out he is one tough 83 year old and is doing good. We went and visited him yesterday and he is the same old Chet and is as good spirited as ever. He got bruised up pretty badly so like halfway through our lesson he lifts up his right arm, which is pretty much black from bruises, and says "Look I am half black now!" and then put his arm down and continued on talking. He is the funniest guy. I am glad that he is doing alright. 

     There was a funeral in the ward this week and the members family came and one of them is from Brooklyn and knows Stephen so we talked about that for a little while, small world. Thought I would share that small tid bit. 

      We went to a Catholic Easter mass on Saturday and it was pretty interesting. I love being able to see so many different faiths and being able to interact with people of those faiths and be able to see the world from different points of view. 

      On exchanges this week the Missionary that I was with, we I handed out over 40 cards and talked to about 50 people, and it was really awesome! He has been struggling due to his companion situation and so afterwards he told me that he didn’t know that it was that easy to talk to so many people and gave it him a lot of confidence for the situation he is in. It was a fun time. 

     That was about all that happened this week! I have been learning more and more about faith all the time. Faith is such a simple yet complicated thing. We can learn so much about it and there are always more things that faith applies to in our daily life. True Christ centered faith is such a powerful thing. That is what the world is missing... true Christ centered faith. It would solve more problems than any wars,diplomats or any sort of thing could ever solve. Having faith In Christ, His Atonement and His Resurrection bring so much hope into a dark world. I am grateful for the faith that I have. 

I love you all! 

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Suns Out Guns Out

Hello Family! (and others who may be reading this as well) 

     I have this problem where every time I come to the computer to write my weekly letter home my brain just goes blank and all of a sudden I can’t remember anything that has happened in the past week... I am not sure If that comes from being a Frandsen or the fact that I was dropped on my head as a child one too many times. With that being said, try to stay with me as I remember what happened this week. 

     I will start out with a little story first. The other day Elder Alder and I decided to go out to one of the many little towns in our area that we have yet to visit and go work out there for a bit.  One of the members who lives in one of the little towns populated with about 50 people asked us to help out with some yard stuff for a little bit because she just had surgery. Well on the way out to her house, as we drove past a million and a half farms, we finally made it to a town of little houses. The first thing we see is this girl who is fully decked out in bud light beer can boxes from head to toe (Looked kind of like a robot, if that gives you a better visual)  smoking a cigarette and yelling to some people down the road. So we look down the road and what do we see? Tom sawyer and gang coming out of the river with their canoe falling all over each other. Turns out that the walking bud light advertisement lived right next door to the member that we were helping out along with Tom sawyer and the gang.  It was one sight that I will never forget. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of it all, lol. Afterwards we drove to some of the other outlying towns and every single one had a giant Catholic church building that dominated the town and 95% of the towns were Catholic and had gone to that church for like 8 generations back.

     The other noteworthy thing that happened this week was when we had exchanges I was able to go with Elder Hulet who is a former assistant, we have been on exchanges before. It was weird to be the leader of the exchange this time but it was super fun.  We had an appointment fall through so we went tracting for 30 minutes and once again we found 2 new investigators in that small span of time. Later on that night I had the feeling that we should go and stop by a former investigator who fell off the map right before I got to the area, so around 8:50 at night we stopped by and he was home!! So we set a return appointment with him and we saw him a couple days later and had a really good lesson with him and are teaching him again now. 

    That was basically about it for the week. The thing that is really frustrating about this area is so many of the people work on Sundays and they have families to care for or other reasons and the bosses of these people are not very willing to let them even take off three hours Sunday morning and then come to work. It is really frustrating... Fred hasn’t progressed because of it and it is hard for the Sterchaks, and every Sunday that they could come satan is trying his hardest to make sure that they don’t with either car problems or health problems. But the one good thing about it is that if they make it through that hard time then it really strengthens their faith and their resolve. 

     This week we are able to go to the temple for personal worship and I am really excited... we are going to the Indianapolis temple which is a pretty neat temple. It will be a refresher and a boost for me to finish out the rest of my mission strong. I am grateful for the temple and all the blessings that come form it. I am grateful for all the many lessons I have learned on my mission and I know God works according to the faith of the children of men. I read in Ether chapter 12 again this morning and something interesting that I read in verse12 that i hadn’t really thought about before... It says that God can do no miracles among the children of men if there be no faith and I realized that God really CANNOT perform miracles among those who have no faith, because they aren’t humble enough to recognize the miracles or to even accept his help.  God can’t force miracles upon us, he can only help us when we are willing. Which goes along with verse 27 that talks about making weaknesses into strengths if we are humble. IT talks about the power of faith and humility together and how God can work miracles with someone who has faith and is humble versus some one who is prideful. When we are humble we are willing to submit to God’s will and by doing that he shows us what things we need to work on and little by little he makes us strong. I really love the scriptures and all that they teach me and help me to understand... well that is all for this week!  Love you all! 

Until next week, 

Elder Frandsen

Adventures with the Old Folks....

Heyya there! 

Another week has come and gone out here in the boonies of Ohio and I am still alive and kicking. That always makes for a good week. 

      I'lll Start off with a story to explain the title of this letter. So Elder Alder and I have been volunteering at this Assisted Living facility every Monday because a member has recently started working there and suggested that it would be a really good way to help her have more missionary opportunities with co workers and plus it is always good to serve. What we do is call Bingo for an hour with the Old Folks and then we clean their bird cage afterwards. So far it has actually been really good because the residents love having us there and members co workers keep asking lots of questions! This week when we went to call Bingo we had quite the experience... A former missionary who served in this mission once shared with me a tidbit of advice. This is what he told me "whenever you go to a rest home or any type of facility like that where there are older ladies, always throw them a wink, a smile and tell them they look pretty today or ask them about there day and it will never fail to make their day.”  So I have taken his advice and try my best to apply that principle... It works! But sometimes it may work too well becuase there was one lady, as we were calling bingo that kept saying "young man, if I don’t get a Bingo this round I am gonna spank ya!" Over and Over again and it was the funniest thing. Luckily, she was never able to catch me as I was walking by but now I have to watch my back every time we go. It has been really fun to be able to spend some time with those people. 

     Conference!! I really Loved General Conference... There were so many awesome talks given and wonderful insights and principles shared. The coolest part for me though was that in preparation for this General Conference I prayed about and made a list with 5 topics that I was seeking guidance on. Some were more specific than others but regardless each one was answered in just the way that I needed it to be as I listened to what the Leaders of the Church had to share. Especially the Talk by M. Russell Ballard... I felt like that was directed specifically towards me, and  of course president Monson’s talks were really great, simple and straight forward. The other talks that I really liked were the ones by Gary B Sabin, Ronald A Rasband and Dale G Renlund. I received  a lot of answers to how I am going to stay strong in the gospel when I go home and continue keeping the good habits I have made out here a continuous thing. I love having Modern day Prophets and Apostles!! It is the greatest thing to be able to be given the direction that we are given by them. The Gospel is so simple and I am reminded of that every time that Conference comes around. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Sacrament, The Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Mathew 11:28-30 is something I have thought about a lot for the past couple days and also the thought to treat others as I would want to be treated... that is such a great mantra to have throughout life. THE GOSPEL IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRUE JOY IN THIS LIFE. I wish I could just help everyone to see how living the principles of the gospel will truly bring happiness... but the natural man is an enemy of God and it makes it just that much harder for us to keep focused on what is most important.

    Other than that, the Sterchaks are doing great. Sadly our conference plans with them fell through at the last minute because the bishop had to leave for an emergency and we weren’t all able to go there and watch conference but they were still able to watch it on line together as a family. Chet and another person we are working with named Frank both came to the priesthood session and really enjoyed it. The work is good and people are progressing at their own pace and in such a way that is best for them. I am grateful to be able to help people along the path that leads back to Life Eternal. God is good. I love you all!! 

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Well... I am running out of creative subjects.......

Hey there,                                                  March 29, 2017

I have run out of Gospel Jokes and probably shouldn’t move on to Gentile Jokes.

     This week was interesting... The biggest highlight of the week was definitely picking up another new investigator named Cole. Here is the story about what happened and I am too lazy right now to type it so I will send it to you from Elder Alders point of view :)

We found a new investigator the other day. He was a potential that we had two very different contacts with. The initial contact he was pretty nice and wanted to learn more. The second time he was very cold and made it pretty clear he wasn't interested. We decided to wait a week and go back anyway. We arrived on the doorstep and knocked. Nothing. We knocked again. Nothing. We decided to knock a third time. A dog came to the door. We asked ourselves what was the worst thing that could happen by knocking a fourth time. We knocked again. Elder Frandsen didn't knock so loud so I almost considered knocking a fifth time. A large man came to the door and told us the potential was in the back. Cole was back there. He welcomed us warmly and we taught him the Restoration while he was cooking some steaks. We had a really great lesson and got to know him and lead into the restoration. When we got to the Book of Mormon he asked us, "You really believe that? You believe that if you read that book and pray that you can know if it is true? I am really interested." He has 5 kids and has been going through some problems with his relationship with his wife and he is super prepared. We have a return appointment set for every Friday night at 5 from here on out. 

The other interesting thing of the week is that Elder Alder got bit by a mysterious "thing" like 30-40 times and luckily I didn’t get attacked... so we were worried it might be bed bugs (they are a popular item that gets picked up here in Ohio) and I wasn’t too excited about that one so we took a whole day of spraying down every inch of the apartment with bed bug spray and putting traps at the foot of our beds... I dont think I have ever seen a cleaner apartment :)) Since then for four nights Elder Alder hasn’t had an attack so we have won that battle for now. #goteam

That's about it for this week... I am super excited for General Conference this weekend to be able to receive some direction for the next 6 months on what I need to do especially with me finishing up my mission in that time and starting another phase of my life. I want to be able to have the best start to that part of my life as possible. I am grateful for the gift of repentance and the ability to apply that gift every day in my life as I listen to those promptings of the holy ghost that come everyday on what things I can apply and work on. General conference is definitely a time when we can receive revelation on some things that we can apply in our lives and see what God would have us do. It has been really cool this time around being able to teach people about General Conference because it has strengthened my testimony of the Church. Ephesians 4 is a really great chapter that talks about some of the benefits of having leaders chosen by god if you have a couple extra minutes and are looking for something to read :) 

Love you all!! until next week,

Elder Frandsen

The Wicked Comb Over

Stay Tuned for Upcoming Episodes of The Zone

Hey Y'all,

Q:  Why did the home teacher cross the road?A:  It was the last day of the month. 


Well This week was eventful... But the highlight of the week was for sure was that Chet got baptized!! After investigating for over 2 years he actually got baptized! He is such a great guy and I have loved teaching him and getting to know him. He was pretty excited for it and he asked me to leave him under the water for a long time and I only held him under for like two seconds and he was giving me a hard time for not leaving him under longer, lol. When he came up out of the water his hair disappeared and he was bald and I realized that he had a wicked comb over that hid it all up really well and it was the funniest thing ever.

The ward was very supportive and happy to see him finally make the decision to be baptized after 2 years.  Brother Kelly, the member who referred him to the missionaries, confirmed him and you could tell it was a really cool experience for the both of them as Brother Kelly has only been a member for about 3 years now. Other news, Elder Alder and I are staying together for another transfer. I am going to be the one to send him home as he finishes up his mission this transfer and I only have 3 transfers left so, it is possible that I will finish my mission here as well. Weird thought but ya it is getting closer. I am pretty excited we are getting another transfer together! Other than that nothing much else has happened this week and the others we are teaching are doing really well and things are going about the same. 

This week I have really been studying Christ’s life from both the Book of Mormon and the Bible and  every time I study his life I am so amazed at how much his teachings can help us with so many different things. It is so sad to see people reject him and his teaching with out even giving it a chance, they don’t realize the blessings that they are missing out on because of it. I am so very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and all that it has helped me to do in my life. I am grateful for the influence it has had on me and the help it has given me to change. God truly does love each and everyone of us and his plan is perfect. That's all for this week!! Love y'all :) 

CTR,

Elder Frandsen

Elder Alder

Chet

There is a snake (demon) in my boot....

My Boys

Well, it's that time of the week again!                                                                                   March 15, 2017

What type of vehicles do most Mormon Families drive? BMW's (Big Mormon Wagons)

(viewer discretion advised... don’t read this to the kiddos if they are scared of things under the bed at night)

To explain the title, here is the story. We were teaching a less active and his daughter started saying some weird things and saying that there was something that was with her always and that it was telling her to not pray because God doesn’t want to hear her pray (she is like 8). She looked to the side of her and started whispering and then telling us what was going on and I had the feeling to not look and ignore it.  Of course I was dumb and looked to where she kept looking and talking and had this weird feeling come over me and I tried to just forget it... so by the time we left I had forgotten about what had happened and wasn’t thinking much of it and we got back to the apartment and I was getting ready for bed and I knelt down to pray and like 30 minutes (I fell asleep praying... oops) later something grabbed my ankle and pushed my knee really fast and I was in a sort of half sleep state when it happened. So I hopped up and thought it was my companion because we like to pull pranks on each other every once in a while but when i looked back I saw my companion kneeling down at his bed praying, asleep as well, so it couldn’t have been him. Well I got in bed and didn’t think much of it and 5 minutes later I was about to fall asleep again when something at the end of the bed grabbed my foot and pulled me and I hopped up real quick to grab my companion because I thought it was him again but he too was in bed now almost asleep. So I thought it was just a weird coincidence or something and then I tried falling asleep and about five minutes later it happened again, but from the other side of the bed and pulled my leg off the side. This time I got up really fast to catch whatever it was and again there was nothing there so at this point I knew something was up and told my companion and he thought I was playing games with him and being dumb. So I went out in the hall and checked the apartment and what not and I felt this really dark feeling the whole time. When I went back in my companion realized I was being serious and we talked about what it might be and I told him about the experience earlier at the less actives house. He looked at me and said that he had had the same thought to not look and ignore it and he actually did ignore it but he felt that same dark feeling and right then we both felt the temperature drop.... something had followed us home so we knelt down and prayed about it and I don’t have time to relate the rest of the story  so let's just say that I have a really strong testimony of the power of the priesthood now and how God’s power is so much more than the power that Satan has. I also realized another thing that Satan do things like that up to a certain point but in all reality he only has as much power as we allow him to have. And it isn’t just with demonic things but with anything in our life that leads us away from following God and keeping his commandments. The more we give into that, the more power we give Satan in our lives. 

Zone Conference

On a brighter note, Chet passed his interview and is going to be baptized this Saturday! I am super excited for him. Also, the ward has finally picked focus families and is getting more involved with missionary work from the ward council level :))) We had to give a discussion at Zone Conference about finding yesterday and we worked long and hard on this thing to make sure that we would give a good discussion focused on the needs of the Zone and it went a lot longer than expected but it was really good!! I learned a lot from preparing it and I hope that it helped the missionaries in the two Zones that were there. The Sterchaks are still doing just dandy and we have become really good friends with them and their children so it is always really fun to go over and teach them. The ward has rallied around them since they came to church and were able to meet them. Other than that I really can’t remember a whole lot else of what has happened this week.. drawing a blank right now.

Time is short and I can’t believe how fast it is flying by. I am grateful for my time as a missionary and to be able to learn more and more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ each day and all of the Doctrines and Principles contained within. I am grateful for modern day Prophets and Apostles that can help us to more fully understand how the Gospel applies in today’s world and circumstances. 

I love you all! Stay out of trouble and read your scriptures :)

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Another week in farm country

Hey Fam,

What do you get when you cross a kleptomaniac and a mormon?

A: A basement full of stolen food!

Well, This week went really well!!

First off, I found this emerald and hunter green suit at good will for 8 bucks so that is always a plus... next, We had 3 investigators at church plus the Sterchak family!! We made sure that the ward knew they were coming so that they wouldn’t just think they were a visiting family for the week and the ward did really great at fellow shipping and helping them to feel welcome!  

Another part member family that we started working with was able to make it to church again along with Chet, and Chet is progressing super well towards his baptism for the 18th. He has stayed strong since we gave him that blessing a few weeks back. 

        Other good things that happened this past week were that we met with that young family that we met last week and had a really great lesson with them!! The cool things that I have seen on my mission with different things is that before we knock on someone’s door or come into contact with them they have usually had some kind of experience that has led them to be looking for God in their life, a church for their family, or just wanting to get more out of their life. This young family is no different, they just recently had a baby and had been talking about how they needed to find a church in which to have their child grow up in. About a month or so after they had started talking about that we got the wife’s records that said she had moved into the ward and felt we should try them out and it was perfect timing! We could tell that she really loved the church and wanted it but was not wanting to force her husband into joining or anything like that so when he said that he wants to learn more and have us come back she was super happy. I am pretty excited about teaching them, they have a lot of good potential. 

      I had another really cool exchange with some Elders in the zone and once again when we went finding for the short amount of time that we had available, we were able to have some really cool experiences and pick up another couple promising potentials. Good experiences for the newer missionary that was able to help him see finding in missionary work in a different light. 

     One weird quote from the week was from a lady asking us a question and it was "can I give birth to my baby in one of your mormon temple pools?" Yeah I was stumped on that one... haven’t been asked that before!!

     Anyways, that is all for this week!! I just realized that I have less than 5 months left before I go home... well I’ll try not to think about that one again for another couple months hopefully and make the most of the time that I have left. We are truly blessed when we are diligent and don’t give up when times get tough! I have gained a real testimony of that through out my mission. 

Read your scriptures and say some prayers!! 

Until next week, 

Elder Frandsen

Freaky fresh faith filled farm finding for fools 101

Hello!

Yeet! The aftermath of exchanges.

Got another one for this week:

The soldier was given guard duty at 2 AM. He did his best for a while, but at about 4 AM he went to sleep. He woke up to find his commanding officer standing above him.

Remembering the penalty for being asleep on guard duty, The young man kept his head bowed for another moment and looked up and reverently said, A-a-a-men!

Well to be brief, here is how my week went down:

We went on two exchanges in the past week and will be going on another one tomorrow in Cleveland with the assistants. So I will share a couple of cool stories from exchanges this week. The first exchange we went on I was able to go with Elder Rawson, who is New and only been out for a few weeks and it was fun to see his excitement for everything that was going on. Well he and his trainer have had to do a lot of tracting the last couple of weeks because their area got split and they don’t have hardly anyone to teach and it is rough going when you are out all day everyday knocking on doors. We had a great day with 4 appointments planned and only about 45 minutes of finding. The cool experience happened not in the appointments but in the short amount of time that we had to go finding and it was just what he needed to help him to see that good things come from finding. We were with our Elders Quorum President and asked him where he thought we should go finding, so he referred us to  a street close to the next appointment and dropped us off. We knocked on about 4 houses and no one answered or were not interested. I was praying that we would be able to have a cool experience to help Elder Rawson out. The next house we knocked on a bunch of little kids ran up and then ran back to get their dad, the dad came up and he was HUGE like a big body builder and had tattoos everywhere. We started talking and focused on asking good questions to help people recognize the importance of what we have to share. He told us about how they had a really good friend who was a member of the church. I asked if we could comeback the following week to share the message with their whole family and at the point where most people say no he paused and he said "you know what, Yeah you can do that. When can you come back? " We got all his info and when he shut the door Elder Rawson was so excited!! The next house we went to the lady who answered and let us right in and we were able to teach the restoration and set up a return appointment. She had just finished her last round of chemo that day and it was really awesome to be able to testify of Christ and his atonement while teaching her. When we got out of that lesson Elder Rawson was super excited to go back to his area and keep trying to find people and try a couple different things. Well Yesterday, we went on exchanges again and I was able to go with the district leader of another district in the zone.  Our Mission President had asked me to talk about a couple things with him that he has been struggling with.  So I was thinking about how I could help the guy and as we talked he shared how he had lost a desire somewhat to go out and find because of all the rejection.  So I looked at the schedule and all we had time for was about 30 minutes of finding time and so I prayed that we would be able to have another good experience to help him build his faith, and once again we were able to pick up another young family with 6 kids to teach and had a guy let us right into his house and we were able to teach him the restoration!! The other crazy thing is that it was on the same street as with Elder Rawson, just on the other side. So we now have 4 new investigators on the same street. After the exchange when I talked with the Elder he shared how he appreciated the things that had happened because it helped him to recognize that that missionary work is fun when you work.

Elder Alder and I were able to find another young part member couple that just moved in and they agreed to let us come back and teach them!! So many great things happened this week. 

Other than that, all of the people we are currently teaching are progressing well. We had a cool miracle where Chet, who is 82 and was smoking, we gave him a  blessing to be able to quit and he hasn’t smoked for a week now!  So many cool things happen everyday as a missionary. I am going to miss this stuff. 

The lord is good to everyone but especially to those who are willing to sacrifice to keep his commandments and act in faith. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement and all the power and hope that it brings into my life. I am grateful for the scriptures that we have to be able to learn from everyday. Last but not least I am grateful for the power of prayer and how much it helps us through the ups and downs of life.

Love you all!!

Dont forget to read and pray :) 

Until Next week,

Elder Frandsen