Beer, Guns, and a 70

Elder Bennett and I with our Michigan and Ohio State ties on.

Hey fam,

Here is the Joke for the week! (Sorry it is a bit longer)

George W. Bush, in an airport lobby, noticed a man in a long, flowing, white robe with a long, flowing, white beard and long, flowing, white hair. The man had a staff in one hand and some stone tablets under the other arm.

George W., struck by the man¹s appearance, approached the man and asked, "Aren't you Moses?"

The man ignored George W. and stared at the ceiling.

George W., unaccustomed to being ignored, positioned himself more directly in the man's view and asked again, "Aren't you Moses?"

The man continued staring at the ceiling.

George W. then tugged at the man's sleeve and asked once again, "Aren't you Moses?"

The man finally responded in an irritated voice, "Yes I am."

George W. asked him why he ignored him and the man replied, "The last time I spoke to a Bush I had to spend forty years wandering in the desert."

Well here is the story of the beer and the guns, 

One night Elder Bennett and I got back from proselyting at like 8:30 and since we live so far away from anywhere we can’t really go out and do anything in the cities where a lot of our work is so we decided to stop by the only people we teach in Delphos. So we called and they said we could come by... well when we showed up the door was wide open and all we could see is

Ben and Carlene’s friend named Eddy sitting there by himself with a large beer can on one side and 3 guns on the other. Well, we walk in and start talking to him and he starts to say that we are moving too fast with them and that we might be of the devil and that he is confused by the whole Book of Mormon stuff.  This didn’t sound like him and we quickly realized that he was really drunk. Well shortly after that realization he started to tell us of how he is the greatest man to ever live and how he was going to lay his hands on us and heal us right there, all the while there were three large guns sitting right next to him. So then he suddenly stands up, grabs the back of our heads and puts our heads and his head right next to each other and said the craziest prayer I have ever heard. Then he showed us a little pocket bible that had his "saved by Jesus" date in it that was written in pencil... I guess salvation is erasable? So we slowly snuck out of the house before he noticed and ran off. Good times.

This past week we also had Elder Gay of the Seventy come and do a mission tour and talk to us. It was really awesome to have him come and meet with the mission. The day we went to hear from him he focused on member missionary work and talked about how a mission will not reach its full potential unless the members and missionaries are working together. In order to do that and see more success in the wards we have to have the bishop on board and be the one to set the example for the rest of the ward and have the ward council meeting focused on people. Well Elder Cortez got picked to go up for a role play and his companion wasn’t helping him out at all and I felt bad for him So Elder Bennett and I volunteered to go up and help and then Elder Gay decided to make the role play 2x harder for us and at first we got roasted by him until the end we finally figured it out and made it through. But it was definitely a new experience getting roasted by a member of the 70. Some interesting things he said though are:

1. Missionary work is a principle not a program

2. We have three cultures in the church, a missionary culture and a member culture but those both need to be the same and need to be a gospel culture

3. We will get nowhere with out personal revelation in the Lord’s work.

After that big meeting we had a special Mission Leadership Conference and he talked about 3 things there:

1. Culture eats purpose for breakfast.

2. Every breakthrough is a break.

3.The example of the brother of jared in ether 2 and 3 the lord will not tell us what to do in all things, in example of the story of the brother of jared he is given an idea and expected to figure it out on his own and then to bring his idea before the Lord with his faith. 1 nephi 3:7 the lord always prepares a way but it is up to us to find and show by our faith if we are willing to act in faith to find it. Other scriptures that go along with that are John 7:17 and Ether 12:6 and D&C 9:1-9. Just like Joseph Smith leading up to the first vision, he read the scriptures, pondered on what he read, and came to a decision and then went to the lord in prayer along with his faith. Right before the first vision he had a trial of his faith but he continued forward in diligence and did what was right and received a witness to the trial of his faith. 

I can say I am truly grateful for being able to learn from Elder Gay. 

The other things that happened this week were:

1. We set a baptismal date with our investigator Alan for March 19th! 

2. We went on exchanges with the Assistants and learned lots from them.

3. I got to see Charrise again!

Well, It was another good week here in The Ohio Cleveland Mission. I am so very grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord full time and for all the many experiences and blessings that I have had on my mission. I know this is the Lords work. Love you all!

Until Next Week,

Elder Frandsen

A picture with Elder Eardly, he was my Zone leader for almost one year.

A picture with Elder Bennett and the assistants

A picture of the trucks we drive.

Finding Joy in the Small things.....

A picture that Rachel gave us

Hey Fam,

in honor of my almost 6 month remaining mark....

Q:  What's the difference between taking a bath in dirty water and dating a returned missionary?

A:  The dirty water leaves a ring. 

:)

anyways, Here is a run down of another week here in Lima Ohio.

Thing #1: Last Wednesday we were able to meet with a Part member Less Active family for the first time. It was actually a really cool experience and I am pretty excited about it.. here is what happened. So we went in and right off the bat the children loved us and were trying to show us all of their toys and the usual run down... Kids are a way to the parents heart (That rhymes right?) So we sat down and explained our purpose of wanting to meet with them and right after that the mother shared with us about how in the last few months she and her husband had felt that they needed the gospel back in their lives, after being inactive for 12 years since moving from California. They have a son who is ten who I asked if he wanted to learn more about God and Jesus Christ and talked a little bit about prophets and he said he would love to. The parents said that they had been thinking about retaking the discussions as well and decided that they would do it together as a family!! Talk about being in the right place at the right time... God truly does lead us to those who are ready and willing to meet. So we will be meeting with them again in the coming week and see what happens from there. 

Thing #2: WE have an investigator named Alan who has been investigating for a little bit over a month or 2 now and we sat down a couple weeks ago and decided to really focus on helping him to progress.  So we focused on helping him to keep commitments and have those spiritual experiences necessary to become converted. Last week we focused on the Book of Mormon and for him to pray about baptism and this week we focused on the Plan of Salvation. Last night when we were teaching him we were talking about the atonement and while they were talking about it the spirit prompted me very strongly to, right at the moment, share Alma 7:11-13 and then to share 14-16 and follow up on baptism. Well even though that wasn’t what we had planned you should listen to the spirit when it comes. So I did just that and first we talked about 11-13 and about the atonement and that led perfectly into 14-16 which are scriptures talking about baptism that I had never shared before in a lesson. So when we read them I asked him if he had prayed about being baptized and if so what was the answer. He answered with a very solid, “yes,” which took both Elder Bennett and I back by surprise because the week prior he had seemed so hesitant. It was another testimony builder of the power and ability of the spirit to change the hearts of those we teach and how important it is to act on those promptings when they come. The member who was with us loved the lesson so much that he has offered to come with us every time we teach Alan! Miracles all around. 

Thing#3: Last week we had members out with us almost every day! This week we are already on track to beat that. We had a different member with us at 6 different lessons yesterday, it was awesome! We met with another investigator last week with a member from the ward and they hit it right off and it was so much more natural for the member to invite the person to keep a commitment rather than us. That investigator made a lot of progress in that lesson in recognizing the spirit. Elder Bennet and I have been focusing pretty hard on effective planning and effective planning with members and we have seen the blessing comes from it already. The members even invited us to teach seminary this morning... let’s just say 6:00 seminary back at home would have been a rough one for me but the lesson went good. 

Another picture that Rachel gave us.

Thing #4: Rachel is doing a lot better this week and we have pushed her date for baptism back till further notice to help her focus on making sure she is stable and getting into the run of things with her new medication. It surprises me how much she knows about the gospel every time we go over.... Hopefully the fire that she has right now will continue. 

Thing#5: Last miracle of the week... So Sunday after church we had a member come out and drive us around to do some stop-bys. We first got into a part member families home and met with the grandma for a bit and it went well and we can visit her now on the weekends. The best part was when she told us of how a young man who is a member that hasn't been for a while and moved next door. Well, the member we had with us had been this guy’s Young Men’s leader before so we went over and the kid was home with his girlfriend. He and the member hit it right off and the kid is really cool and is still paying his tithing but not coming to church and had kind of disappeared the last 5 years... So the member told about how much the ward missed him and how much his grandma missed him and told him to come back. It was bold but it was filled with love.  The kid said yes and he knew that he needed to come back but what had been holding him back was just the fear of it all because it had been so long. WEll then he turned to us and asked us to share something with his girlfriend so we did and she then told us that she wanted to come to church with him because she had stopped going a couple years ago to her old church and they knew they needed it. After wards it was really cool to see how happy the member was from that experience and plus the fact that we were again in the right place at the right time to be able to figure out that he lived there. God is good.

Well that is all for this week! I love my mission... it has been the best thing for me to be doing with my life for the past year and a half. I wouldn’t want to be any where else at this time. I am grateful for the scriptures, prayer, and the opportunity to take the sacrament each week. I love you all!

 Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Shooting Flares

Hey Fam, 

Jokeeeee

Q: How many Young Men does it take to change a light bulb?

A:One. He holds the light bulb in the socket and the whole world revolves around him

Well here is the update for the week:

So you know that story I shared with you last week? well there is an update to it. Rachel got out of the hospital last Friday and talked with a member and she told the member she was still planning on being baptized and what not. So she calls us Saturday night to tell us she still plans on being baptized and that she was coming to church the next day. She also told us about why what happened last week happened the way that it did. She has really bad anxiety and had been using medical marijuana but the day she committed to baptism she stopped and so her anxiety got worse combined with some other things and it all blew up that Sunday. So it was actually a blessing that she was able to go to the hospital to get the help that she needed and plus she had been fasting for 48 hours before it all went down. She is on medicine now and when she came to church she was really mellow and normal. SO we prayed about it that night to know if she really was ready to move forward with this and we both felt that she was. So we met with her on Monday and set up a plan and she is really excited. The ward doesn’t know the full details of what happened but they know that she got the help she needed and are still very willing to help. just another week in Ohio...

This past Sunday I was able to give a recent convert named William the Priesthood! William was baptized two weeks prior to me arriving here and he is the coolest kid. For some reason he chose me to be the one to give him the priesthood and I was honored to, Pretty cool experience. :) We are also going to the temple with him in a couple weeks and were able to get him started on family history work. 

A member took us out to a farm and we got to shoot his flare gun and it was pretty sweet. I would attach the video but sadly these computers are extremely slow.

Yesterday we had mission leadership council with President Brown and there are some changes coming to the mission with exchanges... and they really don’t affect anyone in the mission too much except for me and my companion because we have the biggest zone, area wise, and we now have to bring both missionaries into our area for exchanges instead of splitting so we will have to figure that one out. 

Elder Bennett and I spent a few hours planning one day on how we are going to help the members do their missionary work and getting them out teaching with us. So far the plan has been accepted really well and the members have been willing to work with us! I am excited to see how it goes and watch the members get excited about missionary work. 

Well that is all for this week! Missionary work is awesome... I have come to know over the past year and a half that Jesus Christ is our Savior  and his Atonement is real and it has so much power to change us. I have come to know that God truly does love all of his children no matter the circumstance. Last, but not least, I have come to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is God’s Church established here on the earth and that the Book of Mormon is convincing evidence of that. I would invite you all to read the Book of Mormon and test the promise that Moroni makes us in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. I know it will bless your life because it has blessed mine.

I love you all! Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Melted Chocolate in a Golden Wrapper.... a week in Delphos

Hey Fam,

If you are a high councilor then you can just skip over the next paragraph....

Here is the Joke for the week,

I don’t recommend to try these at home!

Top 10 Ways to Get a High Councilor to End His Talk.

10. Look at your watch  Shake it  Hold it up to your ear

9.   Yawn.  Stretch.  Curl up on the bench and take a nap

8.   Start snoring

7.   Say "Amen" loudly after every sentence

6.   Throw your kids' cheerios up in to the air and try and catch them in        your mouth

5.   Throw your kids' cheerios at the high councilor

4.   Lead your row in a Chinese fire-drill

3.   Pull the fire alarm and lead the entire congregation in a real fire drill

2.   Raise your hand and object

1.   Take out your hymnbook and start singing the closing song

Well here is a story of the craziest Sunday of my mission... Viewer discretion advised.

So we have/had this investigator named Rachel (not actually her name but we can pretend it is) and she was found about a week before I arrived here in the Lima ward. 2 weeks ago she was found and here is a little back ground on Rachel that leads up to how she was found.  Rachel is from California and has had a hard life.  She was abused from the age of 6 to 16 by a relative which led to some other not so great things and experiences growing up, at the age of 16 she got into a string of bad abusive relationships, one after the other. She found one guy who was alright and while they were together, about a year ago, they met missionaries in Oakland and began to investigate.  Rachel learned a lot but had a lot of changes and stuff she had to make and wasn’t ready at that time to do that. Well she left that guy due to other reasons and moved to Kentucy with her mom and while she was there she started to read the Book of Mormon. We also think she started to watch some stuff that maybe wasn’t true so it led her to have some mistaken views but she felt the spirit and when she met some people from Ohio and moved here. She really wanted to go to church and meet with the missionaries again and felt she was ready to be baptized and knew it was all true. So on Christmas Eve she called up Elder Bennett and told him her story and how she wanted to come to church and be baptized. So they met with her, set a date and she came to church.  She was mad it was only one hour cause she wanted all 3, that never happens, lol. But anyway Rachel is very open and will share her story with anyone and everyone.  She is a very kind compassionate soul who really wants to change and has made a lot of dramatic changes over the last year and recently has felt the spirit very strongly. We think that because of the dramatic changes and everything that is going on in her life may have caused for some problems. Well I met her last Thursday and she told me everything I have just shared with you and then we had a lesson on Friday. 

Well, that morning she had texted us and said, ”I am getting rid of all of my worldly possessions because they are holding me back and not letting me be as happy as I should be.”  We both thought that was a little bit odd but if it works for her than it works for us! We were thinking she was going to like let us the stuff or give it away but no... when we pulled up to pick her up that night with a member we saw this fire in the back yard (she lives in a place surrounded by farms).  So I thought it was just a burn pile or something but elder Bennett immediately knew what it was. So when we pulled up we saw her running around with her phone recording the fire. She was burning most of her clothes in a metal cage and she was recording it for youtube.  Now she only has 7 shirts and she burned all the worldly things she doesn’t need, that doesn’t happen very often either. Well the lesson went well and she still seemed golden and what not.  When it is time for church we have a member who picked her up and when he got to church he told us that her roommate had walked out naked when she went back into the house to grab something and it had caused her a little bit of grief. During sacrament she leaned over to me and said " I have a message prepared can I share it?" I told her that there were already speakers and she was fine with that. Well after sacrament she looks at me and says "can you tell everyone to sit back down? I would like to share this message with them." Well I was a little bit worried at that point but I explained to her that fast Sunday would be next week and she could have the opportunity to bear her testimony there. That calmed her down and she was good with that. WEll, next she said she had a present for us and she took us out into the hall and she gave us these paintings she had made which were pretty awesome, one was the ocean and it had a pearl and represented the Pearl of Great Price and then the ocean was everyone in the world. She said within every group of fish there is a Mormon who is a good example. Then the other painting was a representation of the kingdom of God painted with sand, it is pretty great. Sadly I did not take pictures of them this week but they are in the apartment so I will take some pictures and send them next week.  So next we went to Gospel Principles and we were a little bit worried because Rachel is kind of like a little fire ball of energy waiting to explode hahah. In gospel principles she shared her whole life experience with everyone, which I am okay with because I am used to people doing that as a missionary but I don’t know about the ward members. Then she started talking about women and the priesthood, Heavenly mother, garments and the potential to become like Gods and she said that she was fine with all of it. She had mentioned how she was wearing white underneath her clothes to get used to it now and I looked and she was wearing a white undershirt that looked like a garment top. So at this point I was thinking, "You are either really prepared or you are a little bit off today..." Well gospel principles got over and she went to relief society, and there again she shared her whole life story.  After the lesson started she was sobbing and they asked what was wrong and she said "I am just so happy" and then one of the sister missionaries said "we can go out side and talk about this if you would like?" She said okay but instead of going out and talking with the sister she ended up running out of the building. I was in the bathroom when that happened so when I came out Elder Bennett said, "Our investigator just ran away, but she said she would be back in a minute and she left all her stuff here so she is probably just trying to get calmed down.” Well after 15 minutes one of the sisters went to look and couldn’t find her, we waited until church was over and that was when we were a little worried so we went and looked and couldn’t find her. Well someone had mentioned earlier that if they had run off they would have gone to the gas station. For some reason that stuck with me and I looked at Elder Bennett and said, ”For kicks and giggles let’s walk over to the gas station and see if we can find her.” That was definitely inspired because the rest of the story wouldn’t have happened had we not gone there. Well we got to the gas station and I was going to ask the cashier if they had seen a short little blonde girl with a red dress come through but right before I asked the guy in front of us said to the cashier, "Did y'all hear about the blonde girl that was arrested at the end of the street for running around naked?" I thought "There is no way, please no please no.” Elder Bennett and I looked at each other and we both couldn’t believe it so we asked the guy, "Was she wearing a red dress before she got naked?" He said no she was wearing a pinkish type of white shirt before it happened. So that made us feel a little better. We thought that since she wasn’t wearing a red dress that maybe it wasn’t her. So we hopped into the truck and rode down to the other gas station and went in and asked the lady at the cash register about what happened. First we explained what Rachel looked like and the descriptions matched exactly with the girl that was arrested. So at that point we knew it was Rachel. The story that the lady told us was this:  There was another lady driving around the building and saw Rachel sitting by a pole with her undershirt on and when she came out of the drive through, Rachel was completely toppless and ran up to her car and asked for a shirt and the lady told her that she didn’t have a shirt so Rachel gave her a hug and said, “I have forgiven the he person that did this to me ( referring to her step dad who abused her)  and ran off to the front of the building. At this point she had mud wiped all over her face. So she tried running into the gas station and then two cops pulled up, wrapped her in a blanket and arrested her. SO after we heard that we got the police department number and went out to the pole to look for any of her stuff to take to her and we looked at the ground and we found her white undershirt she had been wearing earlier and we saw where she had dug her hand into the mud and then wiped it all over her face. So we go over to the truck and throw the stuff into the truck and we are driving back to the church when about half way down the road Elder Bennett points out a red thing on the side walk and we look at each other and say "there is no way..." well we pulled up and I hopped out and picked it up and sure enough it was Rachel’s dress and it was ripped right down the middle, kind of like what the hulk would do when he rips his clothes off. We threw it into the truck and knocked a few doors to see if anyone had seen what happened but they saw nothing. I guess she was running and about half way in between the church and the gas station she decided she didn’t need clothes anymore. 

After that we went to the church and told the member who gave her a ride he didn’t need to worry about it... and we got all of her stuff she had left at the church and called the police to see if she was at the jail and they told us they had dropped her off at the hospital due to possible drug usage or mental break down. So we head on over to the hospital, I found a bottle of oil that fell out of her bag and it said "Holy Annointing Oil, Blessed by Rachel Evangeline.” Well that was a surprise, lol. Anyway we get to the hospital and have to tell this story to the social worker and everything and the social worker told us that she seemed to have just snapped or something and has some serious mental health issues and will need some intense therapy or meds to fix it. Rachel was also going by like 3 different names and at this point she was put into a safe room so she wouldn’t harm herself or anyone else.  So when we put all the facts together we think that with all the dramatic changes she is making in her life that it caused her to get stressed and with telling so many people her life story in such a short time span and seeing her room mate naked that morning that it cause for her to have like a PTSD type of flash back and she snapped. When she left the church she had no idea where she was and was reliving a bad experience and that is why she ended up getting naked and running around. But if we look at it from another perspective it was actually a blessing for her because now she has the help that she needs to get over all of this, the help that she never had access to prior to all of this and she was dealing with all of this on her own. They have hopes that she will be able to make a full recovery.... but to sum it all up, it was the craziest Sunday of my life, our progressing investigator went from progressing to baptism to progressing to the psych ward in the matter of a day. I don’t think that I will ever have another investigator get arrested for public nudity either... 

Well, other than that, Elder Bennet my new companion is super awesome and a great missionary and I am excited to be serving with him. The new area is massive but it is good and has a lot of good potential and there are people to teach. The zone leader life really isn’t that much different, all we have to do is make a lot of calls and send some texts and plan a meeting or two here and there and then go on exchanges each week. Hopefully it won’t take away from the work out here too much. 

Happy New Years! Crazy to think that I will be home in 2017. 

Love you all!

Elder Frandsen

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