Week 24 and 25 - Transfers

Hey everyone! It's taken me a while to send out a group email, but

here it is. You can always just write me personally too, but this will

probably be easier for me.

You might be thinking, "Elder Francis, Thursday isn't your Pday, why

are you being disobedient?" Well in response to that, we went to the

temple today!! It was sooooo awesome! So that pushed Pday to today.

This past week and a half have been insane! For those of you who don't

know, I was called to serve as a zone leader for the orange zone! So I

packed my stuff and left good ol P town, the land of my inheritance,

and came to a zone full of strangers. I'm serving in the Orange Hills

YSA ward, which covers the entire Orange and Irvine stakes, with Elder

Johnson. Thankfully we split the ward with sisters, so they cover the

Irvine stake.

Being a zone leader is way different! I'm learning so much about the

work that I didn't even know existed before, and even the past week

and a half has been such an incredible learning opportunity. It's also

come with its challenges, but the Lord has a plan for me and I know

that I can overcome anything as I rely on Him. Just yesterday we had

my first zone training, where Elder Johnson and I trained the zone on

how to be more effective in our planning and goal setting. I don't

necessarily like the teaching part, but I love how much I have to

learn about the principles in order to teach it effectively.

The work so far has been extremely successful here! We have 4

progressing investigators and 2 on date for baptism! I don't know what

it is about my charming smile but people just can't say no to it! Jk

it's probably the spirit. We have found 4 new investigators in the

past week, and have been very successful in our finding and teaching

efforts. We had 3 investigators at church on Sunday!! Crazy! The Lord

is just pouring out blessings right now and my heart is just filled

with love and gratitude for these precious people.

Our New Years was pretty boring.

I've been thinking a lot about how we can help the zone and we decided

on setting a goal for every companionship to have positive, gospel

related contact with at least 12 people every day. If everyone does it

then that will be 1000 every week! I know that that goal will improve

the work in our entire zone, and that it will lead to more

investigators and more baptisms, because it all starts with opening

your mouth.

I loved going to the temple this morning! The spirit was powerful and

my heart and soul were just filled with the love of God. There's

nothing like it.

Anyway, thanks for all the love and support! Have a great week!

-Elder Francis
Oh and I always love getting personal emails and stuff so don't
hesitate if you ever wanna write me!