Zoo round 2! - Week 32

Andrew Moore was baptized this week! It was so great!! It went
perfectly and the spirit was so strong! Right after he was baptized, I
ran back to give him a towel, and he was literally glowing! He had the
biggest smile on his face and said "I'm in!"
We have had another very successful week here in the YSA ward! The
work is progressing and there are a lot of good things happening! One
of those is Ruby and her family. We found them almost a month ago, and
had to pass them to the family ward, but they are on date for baptism!
We invited Ruby to come to the YSA ward and she loved it! She wants to
come every week! We are so excited for her and for her baptism coming
up in a few weeks. After church, she sent us this text: "I know I'm
emotional, but I wanted to tell you that I see you guys as one of the
greatest blessings in my life. I thank God for sending you guys to our
door. In just little time you have impacted my life greatly, and I
will forever be thankful for all of you."
I'm so grateful that I've had this opportunity to serve a mission! I
have never known so much joy as that which I've experienced while
serving the Lord. I love it!
As a mission, up until Easter we are studying the atonement every day
to better understand what the Savior did for us. I'm  so excited for
it, because as we come to know and understand the atonement, we can't
help but have a desire to share the gospel! As members of the church
of Jesus Christ, we know more about Him than anyone else on Earth. How
important then is our calling to share that true knowledge of the
Savior and His love that is unique to His church.
As a zone we went to the Orange zoo today. It was a party! Have a
great week everyone!

-Elder Francis

The Church is true...Who knew? -Week 31

Hey everybody! It's been a great week for weather, with an average of
about 80 degrees accompanied by a cool ocean breeze. Doesn't get much
better than that. The great weather has been followed by a great week
of finding and teaching! There is a lot of good happening in our area
and zone right now, and there is nobody to credit but the Lord. He is
blessing us in such great abundance, and I'm so grateful for it! The
work is moving forward and the Kingdom of God is spreading! No
unhallowed hand can stop this work! We have a baptism coming up this
weekend, Andrew Moore. He is solid as a rock! Literally and
spiritually haha, he plays football and rugby. So we are very excited
for that coming up this weekend!
We had an awesome broadcast at church on Sundayy where we heard from
some of the church leaders, including Elder Renlund. I felt like it
was completely directed towards missionaries, but everybody seemed to
really love it, including me! I love hearing from church leaders and
being taught by them. What a great opportunity to be taught at the
feet of those representing the Lord Himself. It happens so often in
His church that it can get taken for granted, but each chance we get
to hear from the leaders of the church is a privilege that few people
throughout history have had. I'm so excited for general conference
coming up in a month and a half.
There are so many good things happening and so many miracles every
week that it is hard to narrow them down. One cool little thing that
happened this week happened while we were on temporary exchanges. I
was with elder Sparto, and we were tracting in their area to try and
find some more people for them to teach. He decided to have us go to
one of the wealthiest parts of their area, which is also one of the
wealthiest areas in the U.S., so we drove up the hill and began
knocking on the mansions overlooking the Anaheim. We were surprisingly
having some success, when a car pulls up, and the driver shouts, "Are
you Mormons?!" ..."We sure are!"..."well my brother is a Mormon, and
he has been in prison for the past year, why hasn't your church helped
him?" Haha I didn't know what to expect, but I'll admit, I wasn't
expecting that. We had a really nice conversation with him though, and
he actually said he wanted to start meeting with us. Booyah!
Thanks for all of your love and support everybody. The church is true!
The book is blue! Have a great week!

New transfer, new me - Week 30

Well it's been another great week here in Cali! Today is transfers!
Elder Johnson and I are staying together for 6 more weeks! We are also
getting another pair of sisters in our zone finally!  Sisters keep us
grounded haha so I'm really glad we are getting some more. Sister
Jacobs and Belnap are good sports for putting up with 22 elders.
Do you all remember the family that Elder Johnson and I tracted into
about two weeks ago? We had to pass them over to the family ward
elders. Well they are all on date for baptism now!! We got a call from
the other elders this last week saying the entire family accepted the
invitation to be baptized on March 12!!
We had MLC last week on a recent worldwide missionary broadcast title
Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. Elders Bednar, Andersen, and
Ballard all spoke at it! We then got to take that training to the zone
a couple days later. I love how much I learn from being taught by
President and Sister Taggart and his assistants, and then teaching it
to our zone. That's been a blessing that I have really come to
appreciate over the past transfer. We also had stake conference this
weekend, and the stake presidency was reorganized, so we had visiting
general authorities come and teach the stake. That was so incredible!
This has been such an edifying and enlightening week! Revelation after
revelation has just been pouring down on me! It's so amazing to see
how the Lord blesses us with knowledge as we seek Him out!
Thank you everybody for all your love, prayers and support! They
sustain me and give me strength! Have a fantastic week!

We are also losing half of the Tongan program, so we took a pic on our
last district meeting.
(From left to right: elder Fili, elder Vimahi, the palange(white
person), elder Kupu, and elder Tua'one)

Another One Bites The Dust-week 29

Well it's been an awesome week here in the Orange zone! It's my 7
month mark and the Orange zone numbers are higher than ever! What a
great time to be alive!! :D
We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators this
last week named Carlos. About 2 weeks ago he was one of our most
progressing investigators! He was coming to church and fhe, but he had
some definite reservations about the priesthood and didn't like
talking about it with us. We had a lesson with him where we read
through 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the gospel. When we got to the
gift of the Holy Ghost, Carlos got really quiet and didn't really talk
much. He felt discouraged because we were telling him that he couldn't
have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost without receiving it
through priesthood authority, which was against his beliefs. We tried
to explain and comfort him, but he just asked us to leave. We left a
little sad, and were even more so when we got a text from him that
night saying he no longer wanted to meet with us... After we got it,
we called Carlos' fellowshippers from the ward and told them to keep
inviting Carlos to activities and to fhe, and they did! And he kept
coming! The ward members continued to involve him without us even
having to ask. Then a few days ago we got a call from Carlos saying he
wants to start meeting with us again! He came to church yesterday and
has an appointment for this week! He is progressing better than ever!
Fellowshipping and member involvement is real!!
We have had so many miracles over the past few weeks, and I can
attribute them to the Lord only. A few days ago we were out finding,
tracting an apartment complex, and as we were walking back to the car,
we passed a woman sitting on a bench with a baby in a stroller. As
soon as we did, we felt strongly prompted to talk to her, so we turned
around and began a conversation. Not knowing anything about her, we
immediately started to testify of how much God loves her. As we did,
tears filled her eyes and began to pour down her face. She is going
through a really rough time, and felt like she was alone. We were able
to remind her that God was mindful of her, and that she had not been
forgotten. We testified of the peace and comfort that comes from
reading the Book of Mormon, and she gladly accepted a copy and set a
time we could come and talk with her more!
The gospel is amazing! Have a great week everyone!
-Elder Francis

OFA ATU! Week 28

Hey everybody! Another great week here in the CAM. It's actually been
one of the best weeks of my entire mission! We were able to have so
much success in our finding and teaching this week. The Lord has been
blessing us in great abundance and it just fills me with gratitude!
Two of my favorite stories from this week:
First, on Tuesday we were out tracting this complex looking for YSAs.
We had been going for about an hour and a half and it was time for
bed, so we decided to knock one more building. Finally on the last
door ( it is ALWAYS the last door) a YSA girl named Ruby opens up! It
might have been our charming smiles but she seemed way interested,
took a Book of Mormon, and said we could come back on Thursday! So we
came back on Thursday and she actually remembered! Not only that, but
when we got there, she asked, "Is it okay if my family sits in with
us?" Uhhhhhhh of course that's okay! So we taught the entire family,
minus the stepdad who was at work, the restoration and they totally
accepted it! All 5 of them! They were all asking questions and were
super involved! They committed to read and pray about the Book of
Mormon as a family and personally and to come to church on Sunday! We
gave them the info for the family ward.
Come Sunday we went to the family ward they were gonna come to. We
waited out in the foyer.... Nothing... Church started.. Still
nothing... We decided to stick around until the sacrament was over.
During the sacrament we just sat out in the foyer and I was praying so
hard that this family would come, but still nothing. Right as the
sacrament was finishing up, we saw Rubys family walking down the hall.
I wanted to run up and hug them! Ruby was at work and her mom was
sick, but the stepdad brought the rest of them, and get this, he is a
member! He has been inactive for years!! This family is so ready for
the gospel! They are all gonna get baptized! We set up a return
appointment for Tuesday where we will pass them off to the family ward
elders. I am so excited to see how they will progress.
My second experience was with an old Tongan couple that Elder Johnson
and I got to interview for baptism. Salote and Metuisela Maniatu. I
interviewed Salote (the wife), and that was such a special experience.
We wept together as she shared in her broken English how she has come
to know that this gospel is true and that after a lifetime of
searching she finally feels like she is where she needs to be. After
their interviews, Salote said, "we are so happy, lets celebrate with a
song!" So she pulled out a ukulele and her and Metuisela sang to us.
The spirit was so strong as they sang. It filled me with love for
these precious people and gratitude for this beautiful gospel. Their
baptism the next day went perfectly, and we parted ways with an, "Ofa
atu" (I love you).
Have a great week everybody!
-Elder Francis