The Best Two Years!

Hey Fam,

     I am not sure where to even begin in expressing my thoughts and feelings about the last 2 years of my life. I feel that words cant describe how I feel about what has happened... But I will try my best. 

     I remember the day like it was yesterday, Driving to the MTC with my family thinking how much I would miss all of them and all of a sudden we were there, we got out and I said goodbye and walked away knowing that I wouldn’t see them again for 2 years. Those first three days felt like 2 years long each and I was wondering how I was ever going to do this, but determined to succeed, I went on. All of a sudden I was stepping off a plane into what felt like a wall of water in the mid summer humidity of Ohio, again wondering what I had gotten myself into, nevertheless I was excited for the challenge that lay ahead although 2 years felt like forever at that point. Throughout it all, the days have felt like weeks and the weeks have felt like days. Like I said it feels like yesterday I stepped off that plane thinking two years was a long time and now here I am, 2 years later wondering where the time went? When it started I couldn’t wait to be done, now that its done I would give anything to go back to when it started. At first I missed home, but now I feel that this place has become my home. This is where I have come to find my testimony of and become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have watched the Gospel in action for the last two years in so many different peoples lives and I can’t deny that there is a God and that his son Jesus Christ lives again so that we also may live again. It is through Him and only him that we can find true happiness in this life and true healing from the afflictions of mortality. I Know now more than I did before that Christ is at the head of this church and leads it through Revelation. I am grateful for God and the person he has made me to be in the last two years. I have learned so much and wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything. These have been the hardest two years of my life but at the same time they have been the Best two years of my life. I Truly love the people here and have loved every minute of my time with them. 

With that being said...

       This week was a great last week to end my mission. Elder McCarrey and I had a really cool experience this past Sunday. A few weeks ago we found this lady named Elizabeth while tracting and she didn’t have a lot of time to talk to us ( If you remember the story of the lady who decided to nurse her child right in front of us, this is the same person) and we committed her to pray to know what God wanted for her in her life. Well, we had a return appointment set for this past Sunday and we went and she let us in and totally surprised us by saying, "I have been praying about it and God has shown me that this is what I need to be doing in my life and that the stuff you left me with to read, is all true. So how do I go about doing this?" So we taught the Restoration and talked about baptism and she told us that is what she wanted before we could even ask. Wow, it was such a powerful lesson. Right before we taught her we were across the street teaching a man we had found a few weeks ago as well and he is awesome! He is a total Gangster, wearing Big chains and tons of Gold rings, but he is the most respectful and sincere person. We had a great lesson with him and he was really excited for us to come again this next week. Then before that Guy we had another cool experience with contacting this media referral. Her name is Evelyn and she is the sweetest old lady and we went and gave her a Book of Mormon and taught her the restoration and at the end she told us she believed it all and was really interested in becoming a member and learning more. Wow, just one miracle after the next... and that isnt all! Dakota had texted us saying that he wanted to talk to us about possibly getting baptized and on Sunday, we taught him during second hour and commited him to baptism and he said yes! His girlfriend is going on a trip to Spain for 2 months and he wants to get baptized right when she gets back so he is planning on us teaching him the rest of the discussions right after she leaves so that he can know that he is doing it for himself and not for her. 

Bye Cleveland ily

I was able to say bye to a lot of people this week.Elder McCarrey, who had a training meeting up in Cleveland and I got to work in Lakewood for a few hours, I saw Willy and Stephanie Holleyfield! We pulled up to their house and got out and they didn’t recognize me from a distance but when they saw who I was they both got super excited and It was so good to be able to sit down and get to talk to them again :) It really was a great last week and I am so grateful to have been able to serve with Elder McCarrey for this last transfer. He is a great missionary and we have worked really well together and he helped me to finish strong. I also gave a talk this week on the relationship between faith and works and I really enjoyed it and learned some good things while preparing it. That was about all that happened this week! 

     I want to thank all of you who helped me to get out on a mission and all of you who have supported me while I have been out here. I am excited to see you all again and I am excited for what life has to offer from here on out. God is good and he knows each one of his children and he knows exactly what to do to help us learn and grow and these last two in years in this place are exactly what I needed to be able to learn and grow. I am so grateful for The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, thats all from me for this week and for two years. I love you all! 

Stay Cute, 

Elder Frandsen

P.S. Hello Everyone! My home coming will be This Sunday, July 30th, and the Sacrament Meeting begins at 1:00 and the address is 1150 East 1240 South Spanish Fork Utah. I would love to see all of you there! 

Bye Randy

Tallmadge District

Tallmadge District

Uno Mas Last one, greatest car ever!

Keeping and Eternal Perspective

Hey Fam, July 19, 2017

     This week was full of a lot of lasts for me as my time here in Ohio is coming to a close. But I realized that even though they may be lasts for me that when you keep an eternal perspective on life and what its purpose truly is, then it helps give understanding to the "why" of things. It is bittersweet for me as I have loved the last two years of my life so much and feel that this is the place in where I have found who I truly want to be in life and I know it will be hard to leave. At the same time I am excited to start the next phase of life and see where it leads all the while remembering the lessons that I have learned here and keeping an eternal perspective. 

     Cool story: we were contacting a referral from Salt Lake and the person didn’t answer so we knocked on all the persons neighbors houses in hopes that WE had been sent there for some reason. We knocked a few and then went across the street and knocked... this Lady answered, she was younger yet she was walking with a cane. We asked if she knew if her neighbor still lived at the address we had been given and she said no and didnt seem too interested... well as we were walking around I felt I needed to ask her If she needed any help so I immediately turned around and asked "hey, do you need any help?" She was about to close the door but when she heard the question it seemed like a weight went off her shoulders. She opened up and started talking with us. Come to find out that she had just had a big surgery and was in a lot of pain and she could use some help in a couple weeks or so with different things because she herself would have a hard time doing them. We gave her our number and she texted us right after that and asked a lot of good questions about what we do and we were answering them for quite a while. I am very glad that I responded to the prompting and didn’t let the fear of awkwardness get in the way. 

     Another Cool story: This Sunday Dakota came to church again and there was no one else in gospel principles besides us, Dakota  his girlfriend, who is a member. So we decided to have a lesson with them and we had already taught him the first half of the plan of salvation so we picked up from where we left off. Elder McCarrey asked a really great question about families and somehow that led into us talking about how we are the only church that believes in families being able to be together forever and it is only though the Priesthood and temples that we can make that happen.. somehow that led to talking about baptism and at the end he was able to wrap all of it together in his head and seemed to take it pretty well. We didn’t invite him to do anything yet because the girlfriend wants to take it slow. Well, yesterday he texted us after we invited him to come and play basketball and said that he wanted to talk to us about possibly getting baptized! Good times. We have been praying for that for a while and there we see it came to pass. 

     This week we once again went to another church before ours started. It is called the "word" Church.. it is a mega church here in the Akron Cleveland area. It was different that is for sure. The sermon the guy gave was good but he talked about tithing so much! Holy cow, if I were someone with no money and came there I would feel like I had to give up my house as a loan to help pay for the church or else I wouldn’t be doing enough. It was interesting. I Believe that all churches can be good and help do good but as I have gone to these other churches it has only confirmed to me that The Church of Jeusus Christ of Latter day Saints is truly God’s Church.

     Yesterday was the last time that I will be going on exchanges for the remainder of my mission. It was a good day though and when we went to see Brother Stone he told us that he has a friend that he will be bringing to church this week, all good things. He is doing better for sure. 

     Well I am running out of time for today so that is all I can write about this week. We met and became friends with Carlos’s Uncle who is an alcoholic but he loves us now even though at first he would always tell us to go away whenever we came over, lol. He wants to come home in my suit case... weird how things like that happen. James 2 & Doctrine & Covenants 6:33 have been some scriptures that I have been thinking about this week in preparation for my talk in church this Sunday and the Sunday following that. President Hinckley said "I believe in a gospel of hard work,” and I would have to agree with him %100. Life is hard but it is better if we work hard on the right things. As it says, ye shall reap what ye sow. Well, I love you all!

Stay Cute,

Elder Frandsen

A Nice German Fellow And His Wife Go On A Trip...

Hey Fam,

This week was short, long and in between. It feels like it was just Wednesday yesterday yet, so much has happened in the last week and I am left wondering how it all went by so quick. Well here is a run down of how the week went:

This week our mission gathered in Kirtland for a special visit from President Uchtdorf! 

President and Sister Uchtdorf have a grandson leaving on a mission next year, so they brought him out to tour the Kirtland sites this past week and took some time out of their schedule to meet with our mission. It was such an amazing opportunity. A few of my favorite highlights from his talk include: 

1.We need to set goals for our life. He said that if we don’t have a destination in mind then it doesn’t matter where we go. We need to always be planning but at the same time be humble, submissive and willing enough to change the destination as we go along when God shows us what we need to do. In using the specific goal of serving a mission he said that no matter what our intentions were in coming out, we can make the most of this experience and it will impact the rest of our lives. 

2. Some other brief highlights from the talk were when he talked about how we shouldn’t underestimate the power of prayer especially the power of praying for toher. He mentioned how each week when he meets with President Monson that President Monson never fails to say how grateful he is for the prayers of the members of the church. He talked about D&C 121:45, which is one of my favorite scriptures, saying that if we don’t feel "confident before God" that the solution is right there. We are promised that confidence as we let virtue Garnish our thoughts. We can Judge that by how we feel as we pray each night when we come before God in Prayer, are our thoughts ones that if we were thinking them in the presence of God that we would feel comfortable? Thoughts become actions at some point so why not let virtuous thoughts garnish our mind then our actions will reflect that. 

3.Since we had recently celebrated Independence day, he told us that we can make each day our own independence day. No matter what sorrow the previous day has brought, we can go to bed that night and thank Heavenly Father for how we have grown through our trials, then we can wake up the next morning and thank Him for our blessings--then live that day to the fullest! Then to end it out he gave the mission an apostolic blessing saying, "You will be confident before God and find joy in your service and feel God with you, as will your family, especially those that have strayed as you serve diligently and give dedicated work to the Lord.  He is such an incredible speaker. I also loved the fact that he kept cracking jokes--that helped me remember that he is a person just like us. He explained to us how he felt when he received his calling to be an apostle, and that our responsibility in our callings is just as important in our area of responsibility  as his is in his area of responsibility.

Two days after that we went to all of the available church history sites in the Kirtland area with Brother Stone and a member from the Branch. We first went to the John Johnson Farm which I think is a hidden gem in church history because of the fact that Section 76 of the doctrine and covenants was received there. Sadly, we missed President Uchtdorf being there by one day. He had gone the day prior with his family and had talked with the sister Missionaries there and the whole 9 yards and if we would have decided to go the day earlier we would have run into him! That's alright though it was still really awesome and it was really good for Brother Stone to be able to get out of the house and go learn abut Church history as he is still having a hard time with his wife having passed away only a month ago. I know I have said this before, but I am so extremely Grateful to be serving in this mission where so many events of the restoration took place. President Uchtdorf called this place the "Hub" of modern day revelation. 

Alright last story for the week, we have been doing a decent amount of finding and have seen some good miracles happen! We found 1 new investigator last night and 2 more on Monday and we also picked up a few more potentials so that was good but we had a not so normal experience last night happen to us as we were tracting. We knocked, a Lady answered and at first she seemed not all that interested and said she didn’t have much time. But we testified of Christ and apparently it softened her heart and she told us that Sundays would work best for her and that she needed to write it down on her calendar so she told us to come in while she went to write it on her calendar. While she was doing that she asked if could share something more with her while she was writing so we talked about the importance of prayer and how starting that right now with her daughter will help her have a solid foundation for when she is older.  Well while we were talking about that she just up and says "Hope you don’t mind, I am going to breast feed my baby" and next thing I know she was breast feeding her child with no cover or nothing. I was Grateful that her other child had brought a helium balloon over with a weight tied to the end of it and put it down in front of me so then I didn’t have to look at her as we finished talking about prayer. But poor Elder McCarrey wasn’t as lucky as I was and the look on his face was priceless right when it first happened. shortly there after she stopped and we left her with a word of prayer and a return appointment for a week from now which hopefully will be a little less eventful. 

Well, that is all for the week! A statement that I heard this week has had me thinking and I thought it was pretty good so I will share it as my closing thoughts. The statement was, "This world is full of too many "Christians" that care more about being politically correct instead of Jesus Correct." Oh how true that statement is. There is no spiritual power in being a convenient Christian. There is no power in only keeping the commandments when it is convenient. I hope and pray that we all may stay strong in our testimonies of Christ and not fall into the trap of convenient Christianity. As my time comes to a close out here, I am ever more grateful for the many lessons that I have learned and the habits I have formed. God is Great and his Gift that he gave to us of his Son Jesus Christ is the worlds #1 greatest gift ever. That I know to be true. 

I love you all! Have a great week. 

Stay Cute,

Elder Frandsen 

Blunts, Fireworks, Parades and some big ole rims.

Happy 4th

Hey Fam,   

  This week was interesting to say the least. I'll start off with a few stories to explain the subject of this email. The other day, Elder McCarrey and I were tracting in the Hood of South Akron and came upon this man who was sitting on his porch looking like he was enjoying the weather. So we went and talked to him and the conversation that proceeded was a good one. We asked how his day was going and what not and then we started talking about how faith In Jesus Christ can help free us from so many of the terrible things in the world. And he said "I know all, about Jesus and the scriptrues and what not... but what I really need is someone that can free me from my electric bill!" Then he paused for a second and asked, "Y'all wanna smoke a blunt with me? cuz I'm gonna smoke a blunt here in a bit." Elder McCarrey isn’t quite used to the whole "Being offered drugs as a missionary thing yet" so his reaction was pretty good. I told him no after laughing for a bit and the guy looked at us both and said well if you ain’t gonna smoke a blunt with me, wanna pay my bills for me? And without waiting for a response he said again" yall are probably just gonna tell me to go and pray about it... I cant tell the electric company that on the phone when they call that they need to go and "pray about it" and the money will appear." Good times... needless to say he wasn’t interested in the Gospel but it still made for a good laugh afterwards.

A picture of the car we saw on the 4th.

     With it being July 4th yesterday there were tons of fireworks everywhere all day long with out fail. We tracted into the one guy who said, "July 4th is my least favorite Holiday because I can never tell the difference between gun shots and fireworks... and they are about as common as the other on July 4th!" Well that gave us lots of comfort as we were walking around all day yesterday hearing big bangs the whole day and night. We went on exchanges as well with the Zone Leaders and we found out that there was going to be a parade near by their house so we decided to go and contact at the parade and see how many cards we could hand out. Only expecting to give out no more than 100 we only brought about that many... well within the first 10 minutes of walking the parade route we had already handed all of those out and luckily Elder Van Orden had some extra differnet types of cards stashed in his bag and we were able to hand out another hundred or so cards and combined with the two companionships + the sisters in the district as well, we probably talked to over 500 people yesterday and sadly but not sadly they were all in the Zone leaders area, but either way it is people being found to teach the gospel to. A little bit later on in the day, Elder Van Orden and I were tracting and this convoy of cars drove by and the front car was a sports car with some HUGE tires and chrome rims and luckily they appeared later on and I was able to get a picture of the car. The car sums up how most of the cars look like here in Akron. 

 Merry Christmas from Elder McCarrey and I with our matching ties

      Tony Chirstie came to Church again this week but sadly, Yesterday moring he texted us and said that he has a new project that his tribe (he is indian) asked him to take on and he is going to be doing that along with working 6 days a week and he said he doesn’t think that he will be able to make it to church and that he will need some time to get this done before being able to progress any further. :( Yes, that was very sad to hear that but in place of that we had a really cool miracle happen! We had an investigator from the Kirtland ward move into our area and the  Kirtland Elders didn’t let us know and the guy showed up to church and looked like a member dressed up in a suit and the whole nine yards. Well he came up to us and informed us that he was an investigator and that he was looking for the gospel principles class... well that is a great thing to hear when you are a missionary. He has been investigating for a year and knew the doctrine relatively well. We got his number and hopefully we will be able to pick up where he left off with the Kirtland Elders. 

Thats it for this week! As my time slowly dwindles out here I get this sense of urgency like there is so much more that I have to be doing and get done before I leave and it is a strange feeling to have. It is good and definitely helps to keep me going day by day even when at times I am tired. God is Good and gives that lending hand to all those that reach out to him for his Hand. I am extremely grateful for all the lessons that I have learned on my mission and the time that I have spent out here in the Service of the Lord. I love you all! Have a great week. 

Stay Cute,

Elder Frandsen

Ghetto cars Pt 2. 

Just another "Pee" Day.

Hey Fam,

     As always, it was another great week in the mission field and sadly the amount of Great weeks in the mission field left for me are very small... :( Buuut to explain the title of the email I will give a short story of something not so great that happened this week. Yesterday we were at a members house for a dinner, and I love this couple, they are relatively new members and live in humble circumstances, yet they have 6 smaller dogs that are very hyper. I love dogs, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes people out here have A MILLION DOGS and they are crazy. Anyways, I sat down at the table and was talking with them when I felt this warmth come from no where on my ankle and my foot and I was confused and looked down and saw that one of their many dogs had decided to mark me as their territory with a big puddle of pee :((( lol so I say in my head "act like nothing happened and figure it out later,it will be okay." Well, it was hard to focus there for a bit and keep from not laughing or something but I didn’t want them to be embarrassed and at some point they were trying to round up the dogs and looked under the table and saw the present the dog left me, and yes I felt bad for them, but I guess it is just another thing about being a missionary!! Good times. 

     This week was awesome though. Elder McCarrey is my new companion and he is the perfect companion for me to finish my mission out with. He is Young, diligent, hard working and has the greatest sense of humor and could probably make the Devil laugh if he needed to. It has definitely given me an energy boost to finish out my mission strong and to keep on working hard and focusing on the people and not the things that are to shortly come. Sometimes that is difficult to do but he helps me to stay focused and we are able to learn a lot from each other. God truly is great and is mindful of the things that we need and how to help us keep growing. I have a testimony of that especially when it has come to the companions that I have had on my mission. I have had a very different and interesting group of companions but with each one I have learned something new and something that will help me. 
They have all been just the right companion that I needed at that time and I hope that I was the same for them. 

    Sunday night we went to this thing called the warriors Project put on by a church here in Akron and it is  a thing put on to help people who have overcome and are currently struggling with addictions of any kind. They have motivational speakers each week and we got invited and I am so glad that we went. The speaker was a man from this department of the US who had grown up in a broken home and basically lived in the streets his whole childhood. Well one thing led to another and he was running and gunning and was on all sorts of drugs and with all sorts of people and he shared his whole journey of how God helped him to beat the addictions and how the moment that he let go of all of his stuff (pride/other things that keep us attached to old habits) and just let God do his thing that he was set free from addiction. I have seen a lot of that the last two years and I had a decent understanding of how bad it was in areas of the US but Elder McCarrey had no idea and it was pretty eye opening. It was eye opening for me, none the less. It reminds me of how God is all about freedom and Satan is all about addiction. The commandments may seem restrictive but when everything is said and done they are actually what brings us the most freedom and happiness. 

     Other Cool things this week: Dakota, a member referral has come to church 3 weeks in a row and I have hope for him to see him go a long ways. We found a new investigator who is legitly named fat Albert. The Christie family is still doing great and the branch is so awesome at fellowshipping. Brother Stone, the one whose wife passed away a couple weeks ago, came to church for the first time in forever! The branch welcomed him right in and when we met with him on Saturday he kept talking about how all that he wanted was to be sealed to his wife and be able to go to the Temple. So we set some goals with him and are now working with him to get the Mel. Priesthood. We were tracting the other day and these two guys were really drunk and high and they said to us, "the word on the street is that we are gettin lit so we ain’t got time for the word" so we said okay and went on to the next house and we hear a cup fall down and break and the guy was like" ahh man that was my favorite cup!" Then he looks at us and says.”God works in mysterious ways huh?" It was so funny. 

      Well that is all fro this week! I can’t believe how fast this time has flown by... I am truly grateful for the life lessons that I have learned, the Gospel teachings that have sunk down in deep and that I have a true understandng of now. And for all the amazing experiences that I have each and every day. Life is hard and no one ever said that it would be easy but when we follow God it is all worth it. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father  who gave his son for us so that we could overcome the natural man within us and put the things of the world behind us and find true Joy. The atonement of Jesus Christ is amazing and blesses my life everyday. I love you all!! Remember that God loves you no matter where you are at in your life and no matter what you may have done. Don’t give up.

Stay Cute,

Elder Frandsen

Ending, Beginning, Meeting

Hey Fam! 

   

  Well, This week was great! I had surprise visit from Stephen Hillary, Edie and Ozy! Somehow they got my number, called and acted like investigators moving into our area and got us super excited that we were getting a new family and asked us to meet them at a pizza place at 5. Well we are pulling up and we are behind this car with a New York license plate and they were parking when I look over and I see Stephen in the car!! Hahaha, it was an unexpected but a much appreciated visit. Almost made me trunky but not quite... still holding out strong. 

     There was another interesting and some what sad experience this week. A less active member named Brother Stone, that we meet with each week who is the nicest guy and isnt able to come to church due to his wifes health ailments, called us Friday and told us that his wife was in the hospital and not doing well. So we offered to come and give her a blessing and he said yes. We show up and she was not in good shape at all and come to find out she had 3 different types of cancer and they didn’t know until two weeks ago. They had all progressed quite a bit and there was nothing that the doctors could do. I felt the spirit very strongly tell me to give the blessing to her which is not something that usually happens. Well in the blessing I told her to have comfort in knowing that God has a plan for her and that he was ready to receive her and was standing by her through it to carry her on to things to come. Well in the middle of the prayer she was more responsive than she had been for the past day and opened her eyes and grabbed Brother Stone’s hand and then went back to what was going on before. It was a powerful moment and it was really hard for Brother Stone as well. We got a call saying that she had passed away within 12 hours of that blessing... it was a moment that hit me pretty hard about the frailty of life and yet the love that God has for each of his children. It is good that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore and that she is in a better place but it is also so sad to see someone go.  

     The Investigators are doing great still and they are progressing slowly but surely. Elder Rawson is getting transferred and I am getting a new companion and I have no Idea how to spell his name so I am not even going to try and attempt it...  Elder Bennett is going home and we went on an exchange yesterday and it was really fun. I am going to miss, him but I will see him soon enough, I guess lol. This is the start of my final transfer as a missionary here in the Ohio Cleveland Mission and I have many mixed emotions about it. 

     I gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week on the Holy Ghost being our comforter.... it was a really awesome experience to be able to study for it. I love studying for talks and being able to give them because I learn so much when I do. I based the talk off of John 14:26-27  about the ways in which the Holy Ghost helps us to receive that peace that Christ promised his apostles.

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Well I love you all!! Sorry I don’t have a whole lot of time today so I couldn’t say much. 

Stay Cute, 

Elder Frandsen

Blessings, on blessings, on blessings....

Dearest Fellow Relatives and Acquaintances ,           June 7, 2017

Greetings. 

This week was yet another awesome week out here in The new Portage Branch! 

Here is a quick story for you: we were at the Kirtland temple with Peter, our investigator, and there was a large tour group from out West there right before us. They walked out of the temple when we were walking up to it and I saw this girl that looked oddly familiar.  Well, apparently she recognized me as well and came up to me and asked where I was from and what not and come to find out she was from Gunnison and I had hung out with her sister before! Pretty sure her last name is Sorenson if that rings a bell for any of you Gunnison folk reading this letter. Small world right? 

Well, anyways, this week we went to Kirtland twice with investigators and each time was super great. The first time we went with a member of the branch and his friend peter. We have been wanting to go with Peter for a while and this is the last weekend that it would’ve worked out for all of us to go before the member went back out West for a few months. Cool story though, we wanted to take a tour of the temple but we got up there just after they had given the last tour and so we decided to just take some pictures from the outside and then head on down to our churches historic sites. Well one of the community of Christ interns was walking up to lock them temple up for the night right before we were about to take off and i asked her if she could show us the inner court of the temple really quick. She then ended up giving us the full tour for free plus she took us down into the basement of the temple and gave a lot of extra parts to the more in depth tour, it was awesome!! Then we went on down to our sites and had a really great tour as well and that large tour group followed us as well. I think Peter is a little bit more interested in the church now due to the fact of how many single, righteous, cute Mormon women there were... also, since Peter and I share the same name he likes to call me Pete. He is a good guy. 

Next, We went to Kirtland again yesterday with an investigator names Joe. Joe has been investigating for almost 2 years on and off and we decided to pick him back up and for some reason he has just started to progress! He loved Kirtland a lot. he is really cool and I think their is a lot of hope for him! He has overcome a lot of things in his life and is still suffering from some of the side effects but he is a trooper about it. When we were in the School of the Prophets there were some really cool experiences shared and the spirit was really strong. The member that took all of us up is really awesome and really helped with being the fellowship that is needed to help someone feel welcome into any branch or ward of the church. Also, I love going to Kirtland. It is such a cool experience to be able to take investigators to the place where so many awesome things happened in the restoration of God’s Church. I wouldn’t trade serving my mission here in this area for anything. It has helped me gain such an understanding for the things of the Restoration and helped me to appreciate the early history of the church. 

That is all for this week! My thoughts for the week are as such: the only way to beat Satan at his own game is by not even playing in the first place. The best way to overcome temptation is to not put yourself in those situations where you know you will be set up for failure. The moment we even set foot on the court with satan we have lost... we should be following the example of Jesus in Mathew 4:1-11 where he shows us how to put off temptation and how when we do that more and more then Satan leaves us. The more right choices you make , the easier it gets to keep doing that and the opposite of that is true also.

Well, I love you all! My time is running short out here and I am pretty sad about it :( Keep on reading your scriptures and praying with full purpose of heart and I promise that the Lord will perform miracles in your lives. He has done that to mine. 

Stay super cute, 

Elder Frandsen

Having a Holy Ghost great time with the God of the Hood....

Hey fam!

     To start off I would like to share a story to explain the title of the letter. The other week we were tracting in the Hood (Ghetto, poorer area, whatever you would like to call it) and came into some people that we sitting on their porch, enjoying the weekend with some drinks and family. We started talking to them about religion and had a great conversation and they told us about the church that they attended and they then invited us to come to one of their services. Well, I have really not done a whole lot of that on my mission because the time that church has started has always been in the morning, when most other churches meet but since the branch meets at 1:00, I now have the opportunity to do that. So we accepted. I didn’t realize the shock that I was in for! It was a Baptist church in the middle of the hood and here is how the services went: We walked in and the assistant pastor ran up to greet us and introduced us to the pastor. They were both extremely nice. Well the services started and they had a live band and a guy who played the organ professionally to go along with the pastor to add a little "umph" to the sermon. They had a fellowship moment where the pastor said "And today we are honored and privileged to have 2 young distinguished ministers with us, make sure to make them feel welcomed." The next thing I know, I realized he was talking about us and we had a bunch of old, sweet, black ladies come up and give us hugs and pull us up to the front for their community prayer. Well, that finished and they had a welcome song to all visitors and once again he pointed us out as the "2 young distinguished ministers" and they sang this really cool song to welcome us to the church that day. Next, the pastor had invited a gospel group to come and sing for 15 minutes and not gonna lie, that group was really good but I have never been in a church service with so much dancing, singing, shouting and not being able to hear myself think because it was so loud. Here are some of the best quotes from the service: "We are gonna have a Holy Ghost great time" "God is the God of the white house and he is the God of the Hood... and God loves the Hood!!". It was pretty cool to be able to see how different people worship and show their love to God and at the same time it was an experience that showed the difference in the spirit that I felt going right from that to our church service. God is good and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Say Saints is His church. 

We had a new family come to church this Sunday!! Tony is the husbands name, we have been working with him mostly and he has recently started to progress more and finally came to church.  We had a really good lesson with him with a member of the ward that works with him and has recentloy became his friend. They hit it off right away and during the lesson Tony’s wife decided to join and opened up to us about how because of some challenges they have had in the last couple years, that it has led them to search more for God in their lives and how they were looking for a church. She would have come to church but called into work Sunday so she wasn’t able to make it. We had another great lesson with Tony yesterday and it just felt so much more comfortable and like we have a solid foundation set that will help him to accept the gospel and have his family follow along after. I am really excited to work with them. We also had another recent convert /less active family come to church for the first time in a while and it was great. 

Peter, The law student and friend of some members in the branch came to the branch pot luck and loved it! We are hopefully going to go to Kirtland with him this Sunday. He is in 2 Nephi and doing great. He is just going to be so busy with him studying for the bar for the next couple of months that it might be hard to meet with him.

We were able to go to Kirtland with a recent convert, his wife and his wife's sister on Saturday and it was super awesome. The recent convert and his wife got into a wreck about a year ago and it got her pretty bad and she was in a coma for a while and has been recovering ever since and he joined the church after that and she has seen miracles in her recovery. The School of the prophets was super awesome and I haven’t felt the spirit that strongly for a while when they talked about how God has helped them through the last year. Then we went to the temple with him and Elder Rawson and I knew more about the temple than the tour guides did so we ended up breaking off and giving Vince the tour of the temple, lol. 

A couple of nights ago we were stopping by a less active and he didn’t end up being home but the guy who answered the door lit up when he saw us. At first we were confused but he then told us about how he had literally just been sitting there thinking about how something was missing in his life and how he and his girlfriend were looking for a church and he prayed about it and then we knocked on the door. This dude was covered in tattoos and was a rough tumbler, which once again goes to show that we cant judge others by how they look because we are shutting heavens door on them if we do. We ended up teaching him and his girlfriend the restoration and they loved it. We have a return appointment with them next week. 

In closing, I would like to share a little bit from my studies this week. I have been pondering on what it really means to be a Christian and the scriptrues that I have run into are D&C 81:5, John 13:34,35 and a few others that talk about how to be Christs disciples.  We first  need to have love one for another. Being a christian isn’t about finding a community of others like you and just stay there thinking that you are safe and that you can kick everyone else out that isnt like you... it is about succoring the weak and lifting the hands that hang low and strengthening those around you. It is about becoming something, becoming as Christ is and turning outward and thinking of others and not worrying about our "Checklist' to get to heaven. Reaching out to those that are lost in forbidden paths is all about compassion and mercy, not compromise. I have really enjoyed pondering on this subject and studying it as well. I love being taught things from the scriptures that connect together and help me to improve. That is all for this week! Love you all :)

Read your scriptures and be good! 

Stay cute,

Elder Frandsen