A fire, some cops and a fat guy in a kiddy pool...

Hey Fam,

Got a new one for you this week..,

You Might be a Mormon if...

you have ever used the phrase "bless those that are not here that they can make it next time.." while offering a prayer at a state prison, youth detention center, or other place of incarceration. 

Well to start off I will explain the title of the letter...

So we again, as we were driving home with a member, kept the tradition alive of shooting the flare gun when a new missionary comes to the area. So we pulled off to some of his property and shot the flare gun, except when I shot it this time I must have pointed it wrong or the shot was a dudd. It went like 40 yards not straight up but side ways and it landed in the ditch and all I saw was a tiny flame erupt and let's just say I have never ran so fast in my life... like probably ran a 4 flat 40 to stomp that fire out! Hahaha we got it all on video too and it is one of the funniest videos  watching me run to put it out. The Spirit of God like a fire is burning I guess?

Next story, The two times that Elder Alder and I tried to go tracting this week we got the cops called on us!! Two days in a row and it was the same cop who came to check it out. That is why missionaries are scared of the big rich neighborhoods because the people don’t have to worry about getting food on their table so instead they worry about the person parked outside in their neighborhood for 2 minutes and calls the cops. But it is alright we are planting seeds with the cop that came both times So our plan is to get the cops called again this week and this time place a Book of Mormon!! Good idea?

Last part, We had Mission Leadership Council with all The Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders Yesterday and it is a pretty long meeting.  Elder Alder and I decided to make things a little bit more interesting by giving each other a sentence we had to use in an answer we gave and make it seem totally normal. I gave him "save 15% or more on car insurance" And he gave me "a fat guy in a kiddy pool" and Elder Alder pulled his off perfectly and it was getting near the end of the meeting and so I had to just go for it. They were talking about better ways to approach people on the street and I said" Sometimes we make it really awkward, Like a fat guy in a kiddy pool..." and I never got the chance to finish my thought because President was laughing too loud, lol. I will miss the weird little things about being a missionary when I am finished. 

Other than that this week went really well. The investigators we have are progressing more and more and we have added some more solid people to our teaching pool. We keep relatively busy and as we know, a busy missionary is a happy missionary. We have made a plan to help Frank Festdogg plan to help him the priesthood by the end of April and baptize his daughter who just turned 9. He is already off to a great start and has come to church for 4 weeks in a row and brought her along with him. Lindsey has been reading the Book of Mormon and is almost ready to make the commitment of a date to be baptized. Chet we set a date with him this month for near the end of next month and he feels that he will be able to make it on this date this time. Alan has gotten over his sickness so we finally got to meet with him again and he is still doing great and progressing towards baptism. Fred in the first 2 weeks has become a lot more excited about coming to church and being able to join the church. The Sterchaks were sick last week so we couldn’t meet with them but we will be seeing them again tomorrow and they are still doing great. I am really excited for everything that we have going on plus we are working with the youth each week on getting there friends to come to things, and so we are getting the ward more involved in that way. We wanted to try a different approach to getting members involved by getting the youth involved and it has worked great! 

Well that is it for the week! My time out here is slowly winding down... :( Missions are great and I am so grateful for everything that I have learned and have been able to experience over the last year and a half. I have learned a lot about the importance of self discipline/mastery, as we improve those then we have more power in our life to accomplish whatever we put our mind too. The more self mastery we have the easier it is for us to fully keep the commandments. But it is a lot easier said then done... A scripture That I Have really thought about recently is D&C 58:26-29

The church is true!! 

Read the scriptures!!

Dont forget to pray!! 

I love you all :)

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Another week, another dollar......

Hey y'all,

Wait for it.....

Q: What do you get when you grow marijuana on the Stake farm?

A: High Priests

They get better every week huh?

Well here is a quick run down of what happened this week....,

Elder Alder (my new companion) and I met up on Wednesday and went back down to Lima and that was about all that happened this week.

 Talk to you next week!

Just Kidding. This is really what happened. 

Elder Alder goes home in two transfers ( I will probably only have one more companion after him... scary) and he is staying pretty strong for being so close to going home and is actually a really funny guy. It always makes the work so much better when you have a companion with a good sense of humor, but we are complete opposites. He likes video games and I like sports but for some reason it works out. We found 2 new investigators this week in the form of 2 different part member families and are now teaching them!! We also set a baptismal date with Chet, our 82 year old investigator and Fred, our 18 year old investigator. Alan Stant has been sick the past week but is still on date for next month and still progressing well.   It seems like everyone out here is getting the flu and I think I am getting it now as well, or the chicken that I cooked last night wasn’t quite cooked right, I guess we will see! Other than that I really cant think of anything else of interest that has happened in the past week,  soooo yeah! 

I know I have shared this scripture before but I will share it again. Ether 12:6 has truly come to be one of the most meaningful scriptures to me in the past year.   I have a testimony that God teaches us through our trials and that we grow so much through the trials of our faith and afterwards we see the fruits of it all and realize just how much God helps us through those trials and our faith is strengthened. You see it so much throughout the scriptures and you see it every day in life. The story of the brother of Jared crossing the sea is a good example of this in Ether 6:1-12. Think of the fierce winds from the Lord as the trials that we have and how they push us towards the promised land or to better and brighter things. 

I know God is real And I know that he loves each and everyone of us unconditionally. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he is walking through all of the experiences we have in our lives, good or bad, by our side ready to pick us up when we fall. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for all the opportunities that God has given me and most specifically the opportunity to be a missionary. 

I love you all! 

Dont forget to read your scriptures and pray :)

Until Next week, 

Elder Frandsen

Changes... :(

Elder Bennett, me, Doug and Jessica
"The Crew"

Hey Fam,

Ready? 

Q: What did king Lamoni say to Ammon?

A: Could you give me a hand?

(Alma 17 and 18)

Don't think about it too hard. 

Anyways, Here is the run down for the week:

     First, Elder Bennett is getting transferred :( this was a big surprise to the both of us and I am actually really sad about it.... I  Hate getting really good companions for only one transfer. We have become really good friends over the last month and a half and have seen lots of good things happen in that time as well. I really hope that my new companion is willing to work hard and work smart and not just be one that is going to bide his time until he goes home.

     Here are some of the highlights from the week: We went to Kirtland on Thursday and we saw Doug and Jessica and got to go on another tour with them, but this time the Sister missionaries had Elder Bennett and I give the tour hahaha. Doug and Jessica are doing so good! Doug has a calling in the Sunday school presidency of the ward a home teacher and he is preparing to receive the Mel. Priesthood and Jessica is a visiting teacher and is set to get a calling here pretty soon and they both go out teaching with the Missionaries, like once a week! They both are still so excited about the gospel and love learning more. It was so good to see them again. 

     Chet, a former investigator that we picked up a couple weeks ago came to church this week! Chet is a friend of a member and he is 82. He almost got baptized a year or so ago and had a miscommunication with someone or something and ended up calling off his baptism and stopped investigating. When we stopped by he let us in and he feels like trying it over again and see what happens this time. He had a good time at church and said he felt great about it. 

      Fred, an 18 year old investigator of ours, who is from a part member family, has been doing great. This week he said that as he was reading about baptism in the pamphlet we gave him that he felt that he needs to be baptized... so we set a date with him for the end of March! It was a pretty awesome lesson.

     Alan is still doing great and is still set for next month. He wasn’t able to come to church due to transportation issues but the lesson we had this week he had both of his daughters at and they both participated and hopefully they will start to investigate more with their dad. 

     The Sterchecks are doing well. The bishop came with us to visit them and it was just what they needed. Sam is only 10 but he is extremely smart... he repeated to us from memory the whole Joseph Smith story in the grove and how the Book of Mormon came to be, from reading about it in the Children's Book Of Mormon! He has been praying daily and reading daily and every time we come over he and his sister are always so excited and have drawn a bunch of pictures for us. I will miss that part of being a missionary one day.... 

      And last but not least, Sharon our other investigator got out of the rehab center and surprised us by reading 30 chapters of the Book of mormon. When We had our lesson with her she shared how she didn’t remember a whole lot but she remembered how she felt and said she knows it is true. We shared Mosiah 18 with her and she has decided that she wants to be baptized once she has finished the rehab she is in. Another miracle.

Those are just some of the cool experiences that we had this week. Hard works pays off, These people are all starting progress now and I am pretty excited to see what comes of it all. the other thing we did this week was have a coordination meeting with the stake president about missionary work... a lot of talking and time but it was a good meeting. Hopefully it was more than just a bunch of words and something gets done because of it. 

Well that is all for this week! I have been studying personal revelation a lot recently and have learned some pretty cool things but it all goes back down to what it says in Moroni 10:3-5 To ponder study and pray with a sincere heart, real intent and a faith in Christ. The Holy ghost will tell us the truth of all things and it is different for everyone but a couple other scriptures that stuck out to me were 2 Nephi 28:30, 2 Nephi 31:3, John 7:17, Ether 12:6 and Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9 (this is a scripture chase that helped me learn more about Personal Revelation, for any of you who care to try it). I love this gospel. I know that The Teachings of Jesus Christ are real and will help us if we are willing to study them, and live by them. I am so grateful for the scriptures and all that they teach us. 

Love you all! 

Until next week,

Elder Frandsen

Sister Green, from Spanish Fork, and Jones who gave us the tour.

Heavenly Mother Madonna

Elder Bennett, William, and I

Hey Fam,

Here are a couple of new ones for you:

Q: Where is Engagement Ohio? 

A: Between Dayton & Marion

Did you know that if you are not LDS that you belong to a Non-Prophet organization? 

I figured if I started off with a bad joke or two then the rest of the letter wont seem so bad! Anyways, here is how my week went:

We got to go to the Indianapolis temple with William to do baptisms. It was such a cool experience to be able to again go with a recent convert to the temple for the first time and watch as they feel the spirit and how they react when they go in the temple. He was able to be baptized for 5 family file names and then be confirmed for the same 5, what a good kid. The other crazy thing that happened was that I saw Taylor Rowley at the temple as well!  We went to high school together, the odds of that happening are crazy because I am in the only area in the mission that is closest to Indianapolis than any of the other surrounding temples. She just happened to be going to that temple with her recent convert on the same day. it's a small world when you are Mormon. 

Oh and something else crazy is that I hit my 6 month left mark last week... where has the time gone?? 

Here are some of the crazy quotes that I have heard this week either over the phone with an investigator or in a lesson:

"Heavenly Mother is Madonna,”  "I am going to be re-incarnated as a mermaid and then marry a dragon,” "God sent me here to buy some guns and protect the world in the apocalypse,” " I can telepathically communicate with my husband,” “well he is my boyfriend right now but he doesn’t know that he is gonna be my husband and he comes from canada to pick me up everynight in the dream world" 

These are just a few of the awe inspiring quotes that I have heard this week and the others probably shouldn’t be shared over email. But My personal favorite is that Heavenly Mother is Madonna, needless to say it was an eventful week. 

Yesterday another crazy thing happened... we got a call from a former investigator’s mom who is currently out of the country on a trip. While she has been out there her daughter has had some mental health issues and the only number she could think of or find that knew her daughter in this area was some how our number. So she called and told us that her daughter wouldn’t answer her calls after their first conversation, where she had said some crazy things and threatened to kill herself, so she was worried sick and asked if we could get someone out there to help her. So we called the police and luckily we still had her address in the area book and gave them the address and explained the situation and they called us this morning to let us know that she is now at the hospital safe and sound. I am glad that her mom called us though because I don’t know how she could have gotten the help she needs otherwise. 

The other changes from this week are that the Brethren came out and have made some changes to missionary work!! They have changed our daily schedule up so that we have more freedom and agency to choose how and when to study in the mornings and changed the nightly schedule so that we can get more sleep if it is needed. They have also made it so that preparation day will now start at 8 am instead of 10 am. They got rid of a bunch of the key indicators that we used to keep track of and now only have 4 main indicators. There were some big changes there for us old timers that are so used to a regimented schedule but I am actually really excited about these new changes and I think that they will be really good for us as missionaries. They also gave some awesome training on becoming better teachers and working with the wards, which goes along with what we have been doing in this ward. We presented a plan to the ward mission leader that involves helping the ward council to get on track/ board with the ward mission process and having a member of the mission presidency to come down and do some training because none of them have received it yet. So he is meeting with the bishop to talk about it and to set up a time where we, him, and the bishop can meet together and discuss it and how he would like us to be involved with it and to help the ward. I am really excited about it because the bishop is a really good guy who is new to the calling but has a strong desire to magnify his calling. I think and feel that it will be a big help to the ward and the missionary work here. 

We had a really great lesson with the Sterchek family last week and this week. We are bringing bishop with us to teach them. I am really excited to be able to work with them, they are an awesome family and have a real desire to come back to the fold and to stick with it. We weren’t able to meet with Allen due to him being ill but he said that he has been reading while he has been sick and is excited to meet next. We dropped out investigator David because he wasn’t progressing but he did share with us that we were able to help him get out of a suicidal stage in life that he had been in previous to us meeting with him. He now sees more of a purpose to life and is going to take some time to figure out the things going on in his life. Cody and Fred the young men we have been teaching are also doing really well and will hopefully be able to come to church this week.  Fred is getting his license and doesn’t have to rely on someone to get him to church that isn’t reliable. It has been pretty cool to watch Fred progress in the last month from only slightly interested, to keeping all of the commitments that we leave him and excited about meeting. So the work is moving forward down here in Lima Ohio, even if it is a little bit at a time. 

Something exciting for next week... I get to see Doug and Jessica tomorrow when I head up to Kirtland for a meeting. I am stoked to see them again :)

Well my mind is blank right now and I am drawing a blank on what else happened so I guess that is all that needs to be said! I know that this church is true, I know that the Apostles and Prophets were called of God and that God sees the bigger picture and guides the leaders to give us the direction needed to get through life and our perspectives of the little picture that we see here on earth. The scriptures are guides for helping us to better follow God and develop Christlike attributes that will in the long run truly bless us in this life and help us to have the spirit with us and to be happy. I know that as we seek the will of God through the small and simple things that we will have those little confirmations that help us to continue to know that this is the right thing for us... Building up that foundation one brick at a time. I am grateful to be a missionary and to be serving where I am serving at this time. I love you all! I hope you have a great week and tune in again next week for more updates and quotes from Lima Ohio! 

With love, 

Elder Frandsen

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