#allin216 #thedroubtisover #protecttheland#cleveland#miracles#yeet

Hello Fellow Friends, Family and Acquaintances,

The Cav's Home

Yesterday we were given some foam fingers as we walked the streets...
 (yes that is the covered bald spot from the barber) 

    Hope your week went well and that god has watched over you as he has watched over this poor wayfaring city this week! It was one for the books... It looks like all the prayers really paid of for Lebron and Co. #champs the city went wild last night after the cavs won and I couldn’t fall asleep due to the amount of gun shots, fireworks, sirens and horns going off for about 3 hours or more straight. People were literally taking their guns out side and just unloading them into the air, ha-ha the people here are crazy. But when I woke up this morning and went outside it seemed like the city was brighter...  or something like that.

Well here are some bright spots from the week.

We had 12 investigators at church yesterday plus 4 less actives :) . It was one of the craziest days at church because I was playing mommy for Charisses children, like 6 of them ha-ha. I had to help them stay reverent during church, guide them to their classes and then find and round them up after church and then guide them to the car.... by the end of all of it one of the kids turned around to me and said "hey Happy Father’s day dad" ha-ha, it was the funniest thing and all the members that were around couldn’t stop laughing. But we were able to get most of the things planned out for the 4 baptisms we have this week at church, so it was all good :) ‘Twas a good day.

Other miracles, this week Elder Brady and I were conversing with some members and the idea came up of getting one of Charisses kids to girls camp this week and so I took it and ran with it. So we made some calls, visited with the girl (Alexis) and presented it to her and she said yes. So, when they came to church she and Charisse met with some of the members and they talked about it for an hour (talk about a miracle for fellowship) and got it all worked out! So she is going one day this week for girl’s camp. I think that will be a really awesome experience for her. 

Charisse has only smoked one cigarette this week! She is still on date for baptism this week and so are her other 3 children, Tiffany, Alexis and Mercedes. Another cool thing is that we set a Temple date with her and Alexis for July 9th and this week, we are having a stake member come and do family history with them both to get them names :)))) miracles, miracles, miracles :)))) Who woulda thought 3 months ago that this family would be where they are now?? God is a god of miracles. The other fun thing that happened with that family this week is that we went over for a BBQ on Sunday night and let me tell you that these inner city folks really know how to cook up some mean ribs. Also I had one of the other family members try and propose to me, it was kind of funny... later that night I texted her the scripture story of Joseph and Potipher’s wife... I don’t think she was to happy about that, lol. 

More miracles, so we have been working with a returning member towards the temple and this week he met with the bishop and set a date for the temple!! We also found him a ton of names to take to the temple :))))) Another less active/ returning member miracle was that we took another guy to the Family history center and he found 15 names to take to the temple! He was crying after wards because of the spirit he felt during that time... it was quite amazing :) 

Weird story, well Elder Brady and I came in contact with another man in the streets of Cleveland that thinks Jesus is black and that because of it that us white folk will not be saved... well I wasn't in the best mood because right before that the chain on my bike had broken and we were by a Spanish shop so I went to ask the Spaniards for help but I didn't know how to say tire in Spanish. So, I kept saying the round things on my bike in Spanish and we all had a good laugh about it...buuut after they helped me fix it the guy came up and proceeded to try and bible bash with us so I just said, " Alright sir, if you can prove to us with scriptures that Jesus was black and that he is only going to save a certain color of people then I will pay you 5 bucks, but if not, then you have to take this Book of Mormon and meet with us and let us share a message with you." So he agreed and then tried to prove to us that Jesus was black but failed miserably and accepted the book. We got him the info, but he still wouldn't accept the restoration pamphlet because the pick of Jesus was white on the front ha-ha-ha. It was a good time. 

Well this week was great, miracles everywhere, The Cav’s are the champions, the people are happy and nice and life is hopeful. The book is blue and the church is true :)

17 points of the true church... if you have time you should listen to it, really good talk. 

read ur scriptures

be good

keep the commandments

send some knee mails

Love you all!

hasta la semana que viene,

Elder Frandsen

Zone Conference

Me, after a long day of work here in Cleveland (I bought the 100 necklace from a girl in the streets for a dollar) (best purchase ever) 

Chocolate kisses to save the day... and few other miracles too

Hola Amigos

 So to start off this week I will tell you a funny story,

So when we go over to Charrise’s house with all the children I always come prepared with some candy to keep the kids focused during the lessons and this certain day I just happened to bring some chocolate kisses. Well there is this girl names Deanna that is over at Charrises a lot and she has been known to try and flirt with the missionaries. So this certain day as we were walking by she says " Hey Elder Frandsen where is my kiss?" and me being the innocent missionary that I am thought that she some how knew that I had chocolate kisses in my bag so I instinctively pulled out a few of those and gave them to her and kept on walking... ha-ha she didn’t like that so much because she was talking about a real kiss, I avoided that one quite well I thought. 

     Well this week went well, like every other week in the mission field, so I will share one of the many miracles from the week. We set a date with Charrise to quit smoking for this past Saturday and we were kind of doubting that she might make it and from the looks of it we didn’t think it was going to happen. But Friday night Charrise started to feel sick and the next day it continued until Saturday night/Sunday morning she was throwing up and wasn’t able to come to church because she went to the hospital to see what was wrong. She has been cutting back on cigarettes since we met her and the side affects finally came in to play this week on the date we had been praying for. When she went to the hospital the doctor told her she has bronchitis and her right lung is bleeding from the smoke and that she cannot smoke anymore. She hasn’t smoked since Friday night and is pretty excited (even though it was kind of painful) that she has no other choice now but to stop. God does answer prayers... just not always in the ways that we expect. So she and her children will be getting baptized on the 25th of June. 

     Another funny/cool experience from the week... we have been working with a less active member to wait drinking coffee and it has been really hard for him, This week when we were meeting with him stood up and said "take it, take it all, I don’t want the coffee in my house." and we were pretty surprised because it came out of nowhere... so he then gave us all his coffee and almost gave us his coffee maker but I didn’t feel comfortable taking that but I told him that if he really thinks he cant throw it away by himself that next time we will take it. We also hid his coffee pot ha-ha. 

Okay one more cool experience out of the many that happened. We took another less active member to the family history center to help him get some names for the temple, as we are working with him towards going to the temple and he was able to find 10 names! He was so excited when we left. It was such a cool experience to be able to watch him get into family history and realize the important work he is doing for his ancestors. That same night a Spanish couple came in and the family history worker asked me to help out because her Spanish isn’t all that great so I was able to help this couple with getting started and finding names for the temple. That was another really cool experience

     Okay sorry one more experience, The Nepal member that we have been helping to go back to church this week told us that he was going to show us what Nepal food is like so after church yesterday we went over and his aunt cooked us like a 4 course meal... we had no clue what was going on because they don’t speak the best English and were speaking Nepal most of the time so it was sort of awkward but it was also one of the greatest meals that I have ever had. It was definitely one of those priceless missionary moments... maybe once I leave here I will be able to speak Nepal too... 

Oh and the Cavs lost :(( sad day sad day....

Well, the church is true, God is good and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to be serving the people of Cleveland.

Alma 36:17-21

Keep the commandments :-)

Love you all!

Elder Frandsen

LeBron where you at? :(((((

Hey Y'all :') 

No one is here.. Just like the Cavs last night

      Well today is a day of mourning here in the city of Cleveland because The Cavs got Murdered last night... R.I.P... Funeral plans are on hold until further notice. 

      Other than that the week was a good one here for us missionaries. Elder Allen was transferred out and Elder Brady came in. Elder Brady is from Monroe Utah (where in the world is that?) and was previously serving in a little farm community as well... Lets just say that the last 5 days have been quite the change for him. He has been out for 6 months and he is pretty shy but he makes up for in spirit. He is a super awesome teacher, which I am grateful for. 

      The transition from Elder Allen to Elder Brady with the Stubblefield family was a little rough at first but yesterday we had one the best lessons with that family yet. Charrise has been having a hard time with all the things going on in her life and with her family. So, this week we have been focusing on eternal families and how Jesus Christ and his atonement can heal the wounds in our family relationships and as we strive to live the gospel and for an eternal family that God will lift us up through our trials. So yesterday as we were talking about it, Elder Brady at the end bore a really powerful testimony to Charrise about the atonement and the spirit came flooding the room and Charrise started crying for about five minutes. I then asked her how she was feeling and she said that she was feeling something that she had felt before but had always pushed it away. We helped her to recognize the spirit in her life and she said that she knew everything was going to be alright because she felt the spirit tell her that. She knows she has some things to change but Heavenly father and Jesus Christ will be right there with her along the way. It was exactly what she needed. It was also what Elder Brady needed, because the family has now taken him in with no problem :)) Another miracle that came from that is that after all that, the dad (Big Rock) came in and we were able to teach him the restoration and explain a couple things to him, by the end he told us that he had decided to sit in on the lessons now! 

       Elder Brady has heard horror stories about serving in Cleveland (mostly false stories from hear say of other missionaries) So, he has been on his toes this past week. One day as we were riding to an appointment there was a little dog that ran out into the street and he saw it out of the corner of his aye and thought it was a big German Shepherd and yelped just loud enough for me to look back right as he hits his front tire into the sidewalk and goes sailing over his handle bars... Elder Brady is about 6 foot 4 and 250 pounds... This is an image that I will never forget of watching my companion get chased by a little dog and flying through the air, lol. We both had a good laugh about it afterwards. 

      Right after that last experience we got on the bus and sat down next to this guy who when he saw the name "Jesus Christ" on our name tags began to tell us his whole life story of how he was saved in 1987 by accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Redeemer.... since then he has served 6 sentences in prison and about how he was taken advantage of, in great detail, the first time he went to prison... I  think poor Elder Brady is scarred for life.  Hahah, but in all seriousness I have really enjoyed being with Elder Brady. He has helped me to get some of that Fire back that I had when I first came out. It has been a nice push along the path. 

       We have seen a lot of miracles with less actives these past two weeks. We have helped two get to the Family history center to get that all started so they can have a name to take to the temple here soon. The ward has started to see these people return to church and are now offering to help us with fellowshipping and it is awesome to watch these people return to church with open arms from the ward. 

       I just realized that at the end of this transfer that I will only have a year left in my time here in Ohio to serve the lord... I can't believe how fast it has gone by. I hope to make the most of every minute that I have left here. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be serving here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now. God is good :)  

Dont Forget:

Say your prayers (pray for LeBron plz he needs it). 

Read some scriptures.

Go to church.

Be a good person.

John 14:15

Hasta la semana que viene,

Elder Frandsen

One of the stubblefield kids took my camera and I just found a whole bunch of random pictures lol.. Here is my little buddy Twonnie and Jeanna.

Another one of my bud twonnie

Life in the inner city :)))

Hi fam

     Well this week was another wild week with lots of strange and good things happened. 

1. The baptism fell through with it being the holiday weekend and all. The kids passed their interviews but they got offers to go to cedar point (big amusement park in Ohio) for the weekend and they are a very poor family and they don’t go on trips very much so we have pushed the baptism back a couple weeks. I think it will be good for the family because it will give Charrise some more time to quit smoking and join her 3 children when they are baptized. Another good thing that came from it was they were all able to meet with the bishop as well and get some other awesome fellowship from the ward. This is something elder Allen and I have been working on for a long time with them. 

2. Last week I forgot to tell the story of a young man named Sandesh Gazmer from Nepal. He is a refugee and he originally moved to salt lake and while he was there he was baptized into the Nepali branch. He moved to Ohio about a year after that and he lost contact with the church in the mix of things. But he got on the church’s website and referred himself and we were able to find him. He is super awesome and so are all the Nepali people. They are very kind and would give the shirt off their backs to help those in need. Also, I have now learned how to speak some very basic Nepal to use when I come over to their house. We have been teaching him English from the pamphlets and things. So we came to pick him up with a member on Sunday for church and when he came out he came with his cousin who is about the same age and not a member, so thus we have kept the 7-week streak alive of bringing a different new investigator to church. Another cool story from this was that we had a ward bbq yesterday and both Sandesh and his cousin (Gavin) came to it. The ward really took them in and now his cousin is interested in lessons and things. Miracles everywhere.

3. THE CAVS ARE GOING TO CHAMPIONSHIP :))))  the night that the cavs won the last game to make it to the finals the whole city went crazy and Elder Allen and I could not fall asleep for a while because of how loud our neighborhood was from all the fireworks and things. #allin216

4. Transfers are this week and sadly mine and Elder Allen’s time together is coming to a close. He is getting transferred to the other side of the mission. and My new companions name is Elder Brady and I will be meeting him tomorrow. I am kind of nervous with all of the investigators we have and making the transition from one Elder to the next But I think It will be okay. I have enjoyed serving with Elder Allen and I am also excited to see what my next companion has to offer as well. 

5. Good news... My hair is growing back in from that random bald spot that the barber gave me :))) SOS

6. We also were able to take our returning member to the family history center and help him get started in getting a name for the temple. It has been awesome working with this man because we met him about a month and a half ago by going through our contacts and getting the feeling that we should text him even though neither of us had met him before. The rest is history I guess. He is almost finished with the Book of Mormon, is almost done smoking and has met with the bishop to set some goals to get to the temple. I wish all people had the desire that he has. The world would be a better place. 2 days latter we also took him to hear Brad Wilcox speak at a fireside and it was one of the greatest firesides that I have ever been too. 

7. Well... Summer has officially started here in Cleveland and all I can say is that I really am not too fond of the humidity. It feels like I am walking into a sauna every time I walk out of the apartment and that doesn’t include how bad the allergies are out here. Also, It seems like the city just thinks that because it is warm outside now that they don’t have to wear any clothes... let’s just say I have seen some things that I wish I had never seen... also I think I have been offered more drugs and alcohol from random people on their porches in the last three days then the rest of my life combined. Lets just say that these last couple weeks have been probably the strangest/most interesting of my mission.  But I have learned a lot in this area and I love the ward and all the people here. 

    The church is true and the book is blue.

    Don’t forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers :)

    Proverbs 3:5-6

    Until next week,

-Elder Frandsen

The week I went to the ghetto barber shop down the road...

Hello Friends, Family, and somewhat acquaintances,

     What goes up but never comes down?

      Your age!

      Well anyways, Ill start out by telling you a funny story of what happened to my hair When I went to the Random Ghetto barber shop down the road.

      So Elder Allen and I had some extra time during lunch before we went to a service project and we needed hair cuts so we were riding our bikes down the road and Elder Allen points out this random barber shop and says, "I have heard good things, Lets go there." So me, trusting my companion’s judgment, said okay. Well that was my first mistake. So we went inside and He went first. The guy cutting our hair is this big black guy with dreads and tattoos all over the place and a sign that says "SPECIALIZE IN FADES AND DESIGN" well we didn’t have a whole lot of time and Elder Allen was already getting his hair cut. So Elder Allen finishes and his hair cut wasn’t bad except for a few things so I wasn’t thinking too much about it. So I step up and he starts to cut my hair and the second mistake is that he didn’t have me facing the mirror the whole time and I should have asked him to turn me around. But before I knew it he was done and he shows me the mirror and I have this HUGE line on the left side of my head of no hair... It is like 2 inches long and 1 inch thick and it is the weirdest looking thing in the world.  But it is the in thing with the kids here. But the thing is that I am not black and I have straight hair. Now that I look back on it I think it is pretty funny but when I first saw it I kind a just sat there pondering about life and wondering what the purpose of life is as I stare at what happened. But hair grows back and life still goes on.  So my lesson learned was to never go to the random Ghetto barbershop down the road.

Also, We (I) broke our phone and lost a lot of contacts but we almost have all of them back after much trial and tribulation... 

   There was a sad story from the week though. There is this 6 year old girl named Nevaeh Willey that lives a couple house down the street from us and she always runs up to us when we are walking back home and asks us for a picture of Jesus So we give her a pass along card and she is the funniest little girl. But Friday night she was kidnapped right from her room while she was sleeping and once they figured out she was missing the whole street filled up with cop cars, police dogs and News stations. There was even a police helicopter flying around. So we were stuck on the street as they were searching. The cool thing was to watch as the street and neighboring streets and the community joined together in the search effort. They found her the next day because she ran from the man at the first opportunity right up to a house with lights on and knocked on the door. The guy ran off so he hasn’t been found yet, but she is back at home now. It is sad to know that there are people out there that do things like that to children. She is probably going to have problems for the rest of her life because of this experience. So pray that this guy is found so he can’t do this to anyone else. 

Dahh police chopper

      Some good news from the week though is that we had another new investigator at church this week! Her name is Amy Kieth and we have been working with her for 2 weeks now. Her daughter is a member and there is no male in the house with them so the sister missionaries were meeting with them previously. Since the sisters got transferred out last transfer we were given the responsibility of meeting with them. But it was pretty cool because they are both willing to learn and work with us. So we invited them to church and they said they would come and they came! They both had a good time and felt welcomed by the ward so it was great. I think that we have had a different new investigator at church for the past month which has been crazy but it has been fun as well. 

      Most of the Stubblefield family came again this week and they filled up another pew! There were 9 of them that came this time. 3 of them are getting baptized this week, so we gave them a tour of the baptismal font and a run through of what was going to happen. The ward was even more receptive to them this week and we had a lot of members offer to help with fellowshipping, which is exactly what we need. That family is a miracle family to say the least. We see changes every time we go over. 

      The Church is true and the book is blue... God promises to strengthen us as we do the small and simple things like reading the scriptures, saying our prayers, keeping the commandments and going to church. ( 1 Nephi 16:29 last sentence) 

Love you all! Until next week,

Sinceramente,

Elder Frandsen

Our Street after the police were  called, this was just the beginning.

The week I rode a camel and Robert Griffin the 3rd came to church in a lambo....

Hey Y'all, El tiempo vuela.

The Beginning of the day with the Elders in my District

The end of the day with my district.

  To explain the heading real quick I will tell you what happened. So first, Today for Preparation day we decided to go to the zoo as a district and we had heard a rumor that you can ride camels at the zoo so we thought we would check it out. About 30 minutes after getting there we asked around a little and found out that we really could ride a camel so we found the place and it was probably the shortest camel ride in the history of all camel rides but I can now claim that I rode a camel. (pictures are coming)

      Second, we share the church building with the North Olmstead ward and they meet before we do. Nate Orchard (Outside linebacker for the Cleveland Browns) is an active member of the ward and his new teammate, Robert Griffin the 3rd (RG3), who was recently signed by the browns to play quarterback came.  Nate must have invited him to come because right when sacrament started he came in the back and sat by Nate and right after the meeting was over they both left before anyone had much of a chance to talk to them. But he did pull up in his lambo, which was pretty cool, not gonna lie. But we all know that Cleveland could use a God fearing quarterback after their recent history with previous quarterbacks...

     Anyways here are a couple of stories from the week.

1.      Greg, Our newly picked up investigator, texted us on Thursday after he had dropped off the map for a couple months saying that he wanted to meet with us and come to church on Sunday. So of course we were at McDonalds within an hour, meeting with him, because it isn’t every day that you have someone say that. It was really cool because about a month ago or more we were able to get into his house and teach the Restoration and place a Book of Mormon, so he said for the last month that he has been doing some studying on his own and he even proceeded to tell us in detail about what happens in the first book of Nephi and how it all makes so much sense and helps with understanding the Bible as well. Then he proceeded to ask us what he had to do to be baptized and if there were some kind of requirements. Elder Allen and I were both still in slight shock from what he had said but when we finally came out of it we showed him the Baptismal interview questions. He passed all of them except for the Word of Wisdom, so we taught a little bit about that and explained to him what church would be like. So he came with us to church on Sunday and he loved it! He was participating in all the classes and he met a lot of the Ward (he speaks both Spanish and English so that really helps with fellowship). After church we were sitting with him and talking about some things and he told us that he hadn’t smoked since Thursday, after we had talked to him about the Word of Wisdom. He also told us that he had decided he wants to be baptized at the beginning of July and he knows that this is where God wants him to be.

2.      Dorothy, the investigator from Liberia that we met 2 weeks ago, came to church on Sunday as well. She doesn’t speak the best English so she wasn’t able to understand a whole lot of what was going on but she said that even though it was long she still loved being in the building because there is a good spirit there. She is also half way finished with Nephi, which is awesome. She said she will be baptized in June if she can understand the priesthood better, so we are currently trying to figure out how to find some pamphlets and materials in her language. But she has been praying about it all and progressing each time we meet with her.

3.     On Saturday Elder Allen and I had to help previous member of the ward move some things out of her old house and lets just say that the house has not been cleaned in a few years and has some water damage and stuff like that on the inside... It was easily the grossest house I have ever been in but the Lord must strengthen his servants in the work because 10 months ago before I came out, there is no way I could have made it through that experience with out throwing up or just giving up. But after two hours of it all we had all the stuff she needed moved out ( please pray that I don’t have fleas or something) hahah. It was good though because now everything else that I deal with in life will be second hand to this experience, lol. 

4. All the rest of our progressing investigators are all doing great. Charrise now has all of the missionary pamphlets framed and hung up on the wall with a couple Books of Mormon opened right underneath them. It was super cool when we walked in the house the other day and saw it. All in all right now we have 18 progressing investigators that have attended church with in the last couple weeks and it has made for a really busy couple weeks. 

All said, it was an awesome week. God is good and knows exactly how to help us and what we need. It is our job to learn to put our trust in him  100% of the time. 

Pray for Cleveland! ;)

Don’t forget to read your scriptures.

Psalms 25

Until next week, (when I will be 19)

Elder Frandsen

3044 west 104th

apt "down"

Cleveland Ohio 44111

Elder Diamond and I riding the Camel around the track

A picture of my shoes on top of Camel Bob.

Camel Bob, up closer and personal.

Another picture of my friend Dan the Donkey

Cavs with the Sweeep

At one time we had 3 phones and an ipad skyping with our Elder Frandsen

Hey Fam,

     I would like to start this letter out by saying that when the Cavs win then the City folks are all happy and willing to let us come into to their homes and teach them the gospel... So if Y'all could send some knee-mails that the Cavs keep up the streak it would be much appreciated. Also, Pray that trump doesn't burn down the city when he comes.

     But in all seriousness this week was another great week in the service of the lord. We saw many miracles happen and We learned lots of great Stuff from president Brown this week in a meeting we had with him. So first I will start off by telling the story of Dorothy the Liberian Refugee that we met on tuesday.

     So tuesday night we were doing our nightly walk to the Stubblefield household when we had this really nice older black lady stop us and ask us who we are in semi-broken english and so we explained and taught a little about the book of mormon and she seemed to be really excited. So before we could even ask for her address and such she was already getting out a piece of paper to give it to us (that doesnt happen to often). We set up a time for the next day to come by. We taught the restoration and invited her to be baptized June 18th and she accepted! we then had another appointment on Saturday with a member there as well and we downloaded the Book of mormon app on her phone so she could listen to it as she read.. So we asked her to listen to the introduction and testimonies and all that great stuff but when we called her today to check up on her and confirm for tomorrow she told us about how she was already on the 3rd chapter of nephi and is going to listen to even more today! Pretty cool stuff.

    next miracle, We had a returning member come to church and meet with the bishop this week! we have been working with him for about a month and a half now and he finally came to church and was able to set some goals with the bishop on getting the priesthood and getting to the temple!

      aaaand another, We finally found out the concern of one of our progressing investigators about baptism after 3 months... he is scared of water... We were stumped for a while on what to do but we had an awesome lesson with him and his family on satruday and he agreed to tour the baptismal font and we had a member explain the whole process of baptism and he finally seemed to feel comfortable about it all. 

     mas, This week I feel like I finally hit a groove with my spanish and all that. It was awesome. I understand what they are saying most of the time and now I can sit down and have a 30 minute conversation and feel completely comfortable. It has been a long 10 months and coming but with the limited spanish opportunities that I have I knew that it would be so.

     And lastly, TALKING WITH THE FAM ON SKYPE! As my understanding of the gospel has grown in my time out here so has my love for my family and for the blessing of having a loving and caring family. I would not trade that knowledge and relationship for anything in the world. ( as a side note, I have the greatest mom in the world too..)

    Well another week has come and gone and here is an interesting thought for Y'all...Time and Eternity are opposites. Isnt that just dandy? 

Don't forget to read your scriptures.

Love you!

Hasta la semana que viene,

Elder Frandsen

Filling up the chapel one family at a time...

Ling time no see......

Hey y'all! 

Well another week has flown by and I dont know where it went but I guess I have some good stories to tell...

1. During the week we have been prepping Charisse and family for church and we thought that there was going to be 10 of them that were going to come. But, come Sunday morning when we drive over to their house to meet them so they can follow us to church, we see that the whole house hold decided that they wanted to come. So all in all there were 16 people from that one family that came that we have been meeting with. It was awesome, we took up almost two large pews once they had all sat down. Not only that but we had 5 other investigators at church and three less active we have been working with. So this week church attendance went from 75 to 100. While it was happening I was pretty stressed out but afterwards when we finally made it home and were able to sit down I was pretty stoked about it. And it helped that the ward welcomed them all with open arms, which was fun to see.  The only sad thing that happened that day was that we finally had to give our temporary car back  :(  But I can honestly say that we made the most of that car. This week we taught 41 lessons, but I do not think we will be able to keep that up now that we don’t have the car, but I am excited to go back to using the public transit again.

2. So about a month back or so I gave one of the less active members in the ward, that is a grandpa,a blessing in Spanish and we didn’t see them again until this week. She told us how after that day when he got the blessing he recovered enough to be able to see all of his family and hang out with them. Before that, he wasn’t talking because he was so sick but for two weeks he was up and active and talking with everyone. It wasn’t until the last of the family arrived and got to see him that he got really sick again and passed away this past week. But from the blessing that is the only thing I really remember saying is that he would be able to see his family. The power of the priesthood and the power of faith are two very real things. God knows and loves each one of us. 

3. The power of prayer is real and God will always answer a sincere and faith filled prayer. This week we had an appointment scheduled with some investigators at 5 o'clock and these people are never late. But for some reason this one time they were late so we decided to go sit in the car and wait a few minutes to see if they got home soon. As we were waiting this lady pulled up in front of us and began to unload her groceries and she was struggling so we got out and offered her some help and she accepted. So after we had finished taking everything in her house we got to talking and we came to find out that about 15 years ago she had investigated the church for a while and had gone to church a lot. She said that she really loved it and the only reason why she stopped was because she got engaged and got really busy and couldn’t find the missionaries again. So she has been attending a baptist church for the last 10 years and she said she wasn’t satisfied with it and the pastor wasn’t the best man in the world. So last week she was praying and asked God to help her to find the right church and know where to go and next thing you know we show up and saw that she needed some help, but none of this would have happened if those investigators hadn’t been late. And right after we finished talking to her, the investigators showed up and we were able to meet with them. God is good.

4. I went on exchanges with Elder Muhlstien from Spanish Fork and it was pretty cool. He ends his mission in a month, so it was pretty cool that we were able to meet up and serve around each other before he left. 

Well that is all I have for this week! But I want you all to know that we are blessed to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth again. God speaks to us through a modern day prophet and we can have our own personal relationship with God through prayer. I am grateful for the Atonement and that through the atonement we have a second chance. I am thankful to be here in Cleveland Ohio serving the lord.

The Church is true and the book is blue.

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen