Week 15-Bonsai!!

This week wasn't very awesome. We walked a lot, did a lot of finding that wasn't very successful, and had like 4 investigators drop us. It was rough, but I have been obedient and have been working really hard, so I feel good about it despite how things turned out.

Although, we were visiting an inactive lady and it turns out she has a 9 year old daughter that has not been baptized! She said that they want to start coming back to church and that she wants her daughter to be baptized! Neat! So we will see where that takes haha, hopefully into the waters of baptism once again!

That was a pretty cool experience.

Something pretty amazing happened on Friday of this week. Through some of Elder Dube's connections in Anaheim, each of our companionships got a bonsai tree this week! A BONSAI!!!! I have secretly wanted my own bonsai tree basically my entire life, and now I finally have one! We named it Mr. Myagi. It is 12 years old already! It is a mini tree! And we set it back on our balcony, along with a bamboo mat we picked up at the store, and I like to go sit on the mat and center my chi and ponder the scriptures and the universe. We pruned it and wired it this morning, so it looks even cooler than it did before.

My companion is a very skilled juggler, and because of that, I've actually gotten pretty good at it myself. We have been using it in our finding! It's worked pretty well actually, so that's cool. We also have been using family history a lot this week and that has been pretty successful also.

I've put a lot of thought into how a mission is like a mini life and it's so true. We leave our parents for a season and get a new father, have our own sons, learn and grow constantly as we are faced with new challenges and callings. We learn lessons and principles that will bless us long after we depart, and we help others in that same quest for truth and knowledge. We face trials and adversity, but learn to turn to the Lord and rely on Him. All the things we do on a mission are the goals and challenges of a lifetime! It's awesome!

-Elder Francis

Week 14- Thelma's baptism!!

This week has been so great!  Street contacting is definitely more difficult than tracting haha, but I have been working on it a lot. Elder Dube is sooooo good at it. He is great at talking to people, so I have been watching and learning from him. But we have been doing it a lot more this week and I feel like I am getting better at it.

 Thelma got baptized!!!!!!!!!! Barely.... We got a call on Thursday telling us that Thelma was in the hospital. My heart dropped into my stomach. We rushed over as fast as we could! We get to her room to find tiny little Thelma laying on a big hospital bed. She had lost 10 pounds overnight, putting her at like 90 pounds. We walked in, and she gets a huge smile on her face and shouts, "Elders!" I walked over to her, she took my hand in hers and said, "thank you so very much. I just knew you would come." And that just melted my heart. I sat down next to her and held her hand while she told us what happened. She had collapsed in the middle of the night due to a blood pressure spike or something like that. We gave her a blessing and left the rest to the Lord.

She got released the next day, just in time for her baptismal interview, which she of course passed with flying colors. Her baptism on Saturday went perfectly. All of Beulah's family, the Theobalds were there. And they are amazing. After being best friends with Thelma for over 50 years, they never gave up on her! Everyone was quite emotional haha, especially me. I was crying practically the whole time. Because I know how much this baptism meant for Thelma and the Theobalds. I felt the spirit so powerfully, and the veil was so thin. I knew that Clyde was watching with approval and love from the other side. 

I have never felt as much joy and happiness as I did on Saturday. It was eternal and Godlike. Thelma will be able to be sealed to Clyde now, and the unimaginable sorrow and pain she felt just weeks ago for her lost husband has been replaced with the hope and love of Christ. She now has the companionship of the Comforter, and she will never have to feel that sadness again.

And all because we acted on a prompting to go knock on a door and reminded a daughter of God that she has not been forgotten.

Love

-Elder Francis

Week 13 - Temple trip

The temple this morning was AMAZING!! I have been waiting for the chance to go since I left home, and have been preparing myself for it since then. And man, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. Walking into the celestial room, being showered with light through windows that shimmered like the sun's rays on the ocean. The walls were trimmed with gold, and the crystal chandelier shined like thousands of diamonds. I was just so overcome with the spirit. It filled me with love and light and I tried to imagine what the celestial kingdom will be like. I sat and prayed and read the scriptures and received so much comfort and strength. I was so sad to leave, even though I was the last one haha. I wish we could go more than once every quarter, but I am so so grateful that we get to.

I got my new missionary this week! His name is Elder Cook, and he is also from Idaho haha. He is also a big guy, and his voice sounds just like Russell from UP except a little deeper hahahaha. To be blunt, I have been going crazy trying to figure out what to do with all of our time while also teaching him what he needs to know. I realized like a slap in the face how I literally have no idea what I'm doing out here. It's awful haha I go to bed every

night completely wiped. But we somehow made it through the first week. Booyah. And, crazy enough, Thelma is getting baptized this Saturday.  I know, I can't believe it either! And for the most part, everything is
pretty solid. We already have the program lined up. So I will be sure to let you know how it goes!

Week 12-transfers

I hope all of you guys absolutely loved conference as much as I did!
I loved SO MANY of the talks given! I'll just talk about a couple.
First, PONDERIZE! I'm definitely going to start doing that. As we do,
he said that it will provide a higher place for our thoughts to go,
and that was an answer to my question of how I can better train and
master my thoughts. 
I loved the talks of the first presidency sooooo much. They all did an
amazing job. I especially like President Eyring's, and I applied to
myself as a missionary and the callings I will receive as one! I also
got a lot out of Elder Cooks and Elder Oaks. How about those new
apostles?! I secretly kept on thinking dad might get called hahaha. I
am really excited to hear from them more. I especially liked Elder
Renlunds testimony.
We had an awesome last week of the transfer! On the 1st I got a
package from Moroni and Deb and that made my week! It had letters from
all of their kids and some candy!
We got leadership and transfer calls this past week, and I have been
asked to train next transfer, and so has my companion. I will be
staying in P1, and he will be moving to Yorba Linda 3rd, which is
right next door and is in our zone. We get our greenies tomorrow, and
I'm excited and kinda nervous! But I know that it is all in the Lord's
hands. I'm really glad that I get to stay in the ward for at least
three more months!! I love the ward so much! More good news, we got a
call from Buelahs son this last week, and we scheduled the date of
Thelma's baptism for October 17r! Less than two weeks away!!
How amazing is that?! I am sooooo excited for her!! Even MORE good
news, Mark and Lyndsey are getting MARRIED!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!
 On Dec 19th! So I will be able to go. And more importantly,
 they are getting sealed a year from now!!! And I will be able to go to that
too!!!! Oh my gosh that is going to be the best day of my life!
We realized at the beginning of last week that we were at 78 lessons
for the transfer, so we thought to ourselves, "let's go out with a
bang". We were able to meet our goal of teaching 22 lessons last week,
and ended the transfer with exactly 100 lessons taught. Mr. Monk
would've liked that haha. More importantly, all of the lessons were
really meaningful, not just numbers.
 I love you!
-Elder Francis

My Zone

My district