Korean BBQ is my life

Well it's that time of 6 week period again! That's right, transfers!!! I've been in Garden Grove for the past two transfers, or about 3 months, now, and we learned late Sat. night that............ 

I'm staying! And I'm staying with Elder Sirrine!! The adventures of Garden Grove will continue!! At least for 6 more weeks.
This week was a good one to top off the transfer. The Chavez family is doing great. Samantha, the 12 year old, is getting baptized next Sunday!!!😆🎉🏊🏼 She is so ready for it. We went over the interview questions last week and she passed with flying colors. Most prepared 12 year old ever! I'm also super excited because she has asked ME to baptize her!! I'm so humbled and blessed to have known this family. They are amazing, and I love them so much. The Lord has been so good to me, and I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity that I've had to be an instrument in His hands to bless the lives of His children, and to see the gospel of Jesus Christ heal hearts and change lives. I love being a missionary!

The zone, unlike us, is getting some changes this transfer. Two of the three incoming English missionaries will be getting trained in our English district, one Elder and one Sister. It'll be great and we are super excited for it! We also said goodbye to three missionaries this week😩: Elder Jisung Kim (Korean), Elder Naegle (Vietnamese) and Elder Lindstrom (Vietnamese). I got to go on an exchange with Elder Kim last Wednesday (his last one!), and although he doesn't really speak much English haha, it was awesome to get to talk with him about his mission
experience and how blessed he has been and how much he is going to miss the Korean branch and the missionaries. We are definitely gonna miss him too. On that exchange we had 6 lessons completely in Korean!
And they all fed us 😷 ... Sooooo full......I think I only fell asleep once throughout the day!
Side note: we had Korean BBQ on our exchange for lunch and that was the 💣. Seriously. So good.

I think that's about it! We learned not too long ago that Elder Dallin H Oaks is gonna be coming to the mission and speaking to us on August 21!!!!!!! We are all super excited for it and we are starting our preparations now. It'll be so incredible to hear an apostle speak, and such a great blessing for this mission.

I love you all! Thank you for your love and prayers. I appreciate them so much. Have a fantastic week everybody!
-Elder Francis
Garden Grove zone! And more pics from the hike last week
And I said goodbye to one of my good friends today! Elder Pratt is going home!

HELP!!

HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY
HELP! NOT JUST ANYBODY
HELP! YOU KNOW I NEED SOMEONE
🎶 HEEEEEEEEEELP 🎶

Why'd I start this week's email off with a cry for help voiced in a well known Beatles song?? Because this was a service week! Non-stop! We got recruited to help a woman in the stake clean out her garage and backyard. Doesn't sound too bad right? Well this sister is a hoarder, and possessions have been piling up for 20+ years. By the time we got to it this last week, it was infested with rats, cats and opossums. Oh my! Haha everything was covered in droppings and urine.💩😷 We wore full body tyvek suits and protective masks with air filters to keep us
safe. It was pretty awful. Without a doubt one of the most disgusting places I have ever been. The nastiest experience from the whole thing was when I lifted up an old office chair and something was stuck to
the foot of it. We got a closer look aaaand..... It was an opossum that had died and decayed probably years before, well what was left of it.😱

With service, apartment inspections all over the mission (thanks a lot Korean program), stake reports, president's interviews (which were awesome), and all of the other errands and responsibilities we had this week, there were a couple days where we only had a little bit of time to proselyte, but it's amazing how the Lord totally blessed us
with the work He needed us to do in that short amount of time. We found more new investigators last week than usual. The work has been good! That new Pokemon game is out and so it has been easier to go street contacting because everyone is outside walking around, and it's super easy to start up a conversation  about what Pokemon they have caught that day. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Thanks Nintendo!👾🎮

The zone is doing awesome! Transfers are next Monday, and two of the Vietnamese elders and one of the Koreans are going home😩 (Now there will only be 2 Elder Kims in the Korean district). We are sad to see
them leaving, but I'm excited for the new changes in the zone. Change is good! More likely than not, Elder Sirrine and I will stay together. I've only spent 3 months here in Garden Grove but I love it so much!
Every day is an adventure, and you never know who you are gonna meet haha.

This morning we went on a hike with some of the district members. It was fun and I'll attach some pics. Thanks for reading! Have an incredible week everyone! I love you all!

-Elder Francis

Woooooooaahhh we're halfway there

July 8
This past week and a half have been craaaaazy awesome! So much has happened, and I probably won't be able to cover all of it in this email, but I'll do my best. We are writing on Friday because we got to go to the temple today. That was so wonderful. The temple is amazing, and today was especially awesome. I love going to the temple, and today was the fourth time I've been on my mission. Sadly, I'll probably only get to go three more times before I go home...
Which leads me to the next exciting part of the last week and a half, I hit my year mark last Friday!! I can't believe I've already been out for a year. It's kinda scary. It's even scarier to think that I only have one year left. I've got too much left to do! I'm so grateful though for how amazing this past year has been. It's been the best year of my life. It's been really challenging for me, but the Lord has blessed me so much, and I've learned and grown so much. I'll always be grateful for my mission.
Next up, on Saturday the 2nd, the California Anaheim Mission celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation! We had a big celebration with cultural dances from the Polynesians and Mexicans, and musical numbers performed by missionaries. I got to help write a song for it, which was awesome, and then I sang a duet in another one.
It was fun! Past missionaries that served here came back for the celebration, so I got to see some of my old friends that have since gone home, so that was awesome (and a little weird).
Monday was the Fourth! That was a party haha. Fireworks are legal in Garden Grove so people just set them off in the streets and it kind of felt like a war zone, but it all worked out okay. It was a regular proselyting day, but we couldn't really go door to door, so we sang patriotic carols to less actives with our sisters in the ward and went
chalking at a local park with the district. We got to talk to a lot of people that day so it turned out to be good. We also had a barbecue with the Fehrs (the family back in Orange that got baptized)!!! That was so much fun, and it was great to see them all again. It turned out to be a great day.
I went on an exchange with Elder Kim (known as Magic Kim because there are three elder Kims in the Korean district) from the Korean program. I learned to bear my testimony on obedience in Korean so during our
all-Korean lessons he would look at me and I would say my one line hahaha. Elder Kim is awesome. He is 25 and is from South Korea. He's also an incredible singer and pianist. Seriously the voice of an angel.
The work in the area is going good and the 4 people we put on date acouple weeks ago are still progressing, so that's great! Thanks for all of your love and support everyone, and thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and you'll probably hear from me again on Monday! Unless something crazy happens it won't be much though haha.

 my shirt burning got pretty intense lol

just about everyone who came out with me

It's only been two days..(July 11)
Well, not all that much has happened over the past few days since I last wrote, but we were able to get a lot of finding and teaching done, which was great. We found a new investigator named Breanna that we will get to pass to the YSA.
Church was awesome! We got invited to go to PEC (priesthood executive committee) because our ward mission leader is sick, so we went in his place. By a stroke of luck, there was a special guest who attended that particular PEC! Elder Acosta of the seventy was visiting our stake and decided to come to our ward's PEC!! So there was a general authority sitting next to us in that meeting. It was so cool, he talked about the church's reporting system and system of accountability. I started taking notes haha because everything he said was so profound! That was one of the highlights of our weekend! 
Other than that we haven't had anything exciting happen this weekend. This week will be good. We have president's interviews tomorrow, and those are always awesome. Have a great week everyone! Thanks for all
of your love and support!

Downtown Disney