Give thanks and Light the World!

What a week!! It's been super eventful, but I'll try and keep the email short.
First off! The church came out with a new video for Christmas! It's
called Light the World! Not only that, but to help light the world,
the church has made an advent calendar for the 25 days of December
leading up to Christ, with a Christlike attribute to live each day!
The video and the calendar are all available on Mormon.org! Check it
out pleeeeeease!
We've had a ton of miracles this week! Elder Thornton and I had more
time to find people to teach, and find we did! We did our best to
follow the spirit in all of our finding, and it was neat to see how
the Lord led us to those who He needed us to see. For example, we were
led to a less active member who wants to be sealed in the temple to
her fiancé. Except.... her fiancé isn't a member! We can fix that! We
are going back to teach Claudia and her fiancé the first lesson later
this week.
Thursday was Thanksgiving!🦃 We got well taken care of. We had two
dinners and a service activity at the Honda Center in between them
both! We got to help at a huge event where thousands of homeless
people were fed a Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome!
At the end of the week I was able to go back to my old area in Garden
Grove to attend the baptism of Elijah, Andrew, and Michael Finona, who
are three kids that Elder Sirrine (my last companion) and I found!
Their grandmother Julie, is raising them and three others, and I was
able to teach them all the first few lessons before I was transferred
out! It was so sweet to go back and witness their baptism.
To top off the week, Elder Thornton and I had transfer calls! We
called all of the Zone Leaders and told them where all the
missionaries would be getting transferred and who their new companions
would be. That was a little intimidating! These phone calls literally
change lives! It went well though, despite a few Zone Leaders getting
mad when we told them they would be getting transferred.😢
Transfers affected us too... Elder Thornton was is leaving for Santa
Ana, and I'm now with Elder Wilson, who was newly called as an
assistant! He's awesome and I'm super pumped to be serving with him
for the next few months. This week we get to go to the airport again
and pick up new missionaries, give some trainings, plan for MLC, and
who knows what else! Thanks for reading everybody, I love you!

-Elder Francis
1) Thanksgiving service
2) Finonas baptism
3) Transfer Calls!
4) Elder Wilson and I

Week 71

I'm not sure if this was actually week 71, I just couldn't think of a
subject for this week's email.
This week was awesome! On Tuesday we picked up 4 new missionaries from
the airport. 3 of them are in the Tongan program (which doubled the
size of the current program): Elders Jorgensen, Fifita, and
Hanohano-Hashimoto. Sister Haynes, the other incoming missionary, is
in the Samoan program. We greeted them with a big malo e'leleí and
talofa!
We then had Zone Conferences last week, so on Wed, Thurs and
Fri we went around the mission and got to give training to all of
the missionaries. It was pretty terrifying, I'll be honest, but we
prepared well and so did the missionaries, and each day there was a
powerful spirit as we gave our training on having the faith to find
and baptize.
Coincidentally, we get to put that training to the test this week! We
will have a lot of opportunities to go out finding this week, and I
know that we can be led to those who are prepared to receive the
gospel! We are hoping to catch a lot of families at home because of
the holidays.
Speaking of thanksgiving, I am so thankful for all of you! I'm
thankful for my mission, and all of the incredible experiences I've
had. I'm thankful for the knowledge that I have of the Plan of
Salvation. I'm thankful above all for the mercy and goodness of God.
He has blessed me in such abundance throughout my life. The blessings
that He has given to me are so precious and special. They are eternal
and life changing. In His love, He has provided a Savior, who I will
forever be thankful for. It has been the blessing of as lifetime to
come to know Him even more by using His atonement to change. Thank you
for reading everybody! I love you!

-Elder Francis
2500 N Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA 92706

Another week in paradise

What a great week! I got to go on two more exchanges with some awesome missionaries! First, with Elder Valenzuela from Guatemala City. I was with him in the Spanish program for the day. That was a smack in the face as to how little I know of the Spanish language! Everyone was talking so fast! I was, however, able to bear my testimony is Spanish, so it was a good day. Elder Valenzuela is awesome. I've attached a picture of us with a member we met at the bottom of the email. Then I got to go with Elder Haynie! We thankfully got to speak English all day. He's a great missionary, and a good friend of mine.

We began transfer planning with President and Sister Taggart this week. That was a really cool experience. I got to see how inspired the transfer process is, and see again the love that the Taggart's have for the missionaries. I love them. I also basically was told who my next companion will be, so that was weird

On Wednesday we only had about 45 minutes during the entire day to proselyte. We prayerfully decided on where to go and chose an apartment complex in the area. We walked through the front gate and heard, "oh hey Elders." ....The "pay attention, this person might have potential" bells were going off in my head because anytime someone calls us elders they are either a member or a former investigator. We turned and saw a young guy holding a baby getting his mail. As we talked with him, we learned that he is a member! "What ward do you go to?" We asked.

"Anaheim 3rd ward."

"Huh......", we've never seen his guy before, "that's our ward..." 

"Yeah... We don't always get to make it out."

Long story short, Bro Driggs (that's his name) invited us in! He and his wife are both return missionaries (how do two return missionaries go less active?!?) and we taught them the Restoration and invited them to church! We also scheduled a dinner appointment

The Driggs came to church on Sunday with their 6 month old baby! I'm grateful that the Lord blesses us as we seek out His will for the time that we do have. It's no coincidence that we ran into the Driggs as soon as we walked into the complex. I love being a missionary.

This upcoming week is Zone Conferences on wed, thu, and fri! Elder Thornton and I get to present a training on finding to the whole mission! We also get to go pick up new Tongan missionaries tomorrow from the airport! Another week in paradise! I love you all, thanks for all of your love and support!

-Elder Francis

1) had a lesson with the Storlands and their kids!

2) Elder Valenzuela!

3) Zone Conference planning got us like....

Don't base your testimony off of South Park

It's been another fantastic week here in sunny SoCal! We had a lot going on so I'll just dive right in! 🏼On Tuesday we had mission leadership council at the mission home. That was awesome! Some big changes were introduced, including the decision from the brethren that Zone Conferences will now be every 6 weeks instead of every 3 months. That means more teaching opportunities for us... The Taggart's trained on teaching repentance and baptizing converts, the worldwide focus for missionary work this year. Elder Thornton and I got to demonstrate teaching repentance to president and sister Taggart. I'll be honest, I was pretty nervous! Teaching the mission president and his wife in front of some of the missionaries that I look up to the very most was a little nerve racking! But the spirit brought peace to my mind and led the discussion. I learned so much from the comments of the diligent elders and sisters in mission leadership council. They are so great and are some of my best friends. 

Speaking of great missionaries, we got to go on two exchanges this week! I got to be with Elder Boyle and Elder Wilson. They are two incredible missionaries that I look up to a lot. Elder Wilson is in the Spanish program, and it was super cool to see how he has mastered the language throughout his 20 months as a missionary. It was a stark comparison from my one year of high school spanish back in senior year hahaha. "¡No hablo español!" is all I need! 

We got to attend two of the zone trainings this week as well. We also got to have a temple grounds walk! That is where missionaries bring investigators, recent converts, and less active members to the Newport Beach temple grounds for a short video and tour of the grounds. There is such a sweet spirit at the temple. It is one of my favorite places to be. I wish we could go more often. 

I went on splits with the bishop of the ward this week, bishop Hoover. We met a less active member and asked him why he doesn't come back to church. He responded, "well I just have a lot of questions about the church. I saw an episode of South Park and they brought up a lot of good points that I hadn't ever thought of before."..... this guy had been through the temple!! And he was basing his testimony on an episode of South Park! I'm sure there was more to it, because he was really an awesome guy and was super friendly to us and had no bad feelings towards the church. We invited him to find out for himself whether or not the church is true, to start reading the Book of Mormon again, and to come back to church. Moral of the story, don't base your beliefs on South Park. Please.

We also got to view the video that the church has created for this year's Christmas initiative! It's called, "Light the World"! It includes a beautiful little video and an awesome advent calendar with an activity every day that gives us an invitation to work on a specific Christlike attribute, and some ideas to help us do it. It will be released to the public on November 25, so I invite you all to check it out on social media or lds.org when it does!

Thanks for all of your love and support everybody! I hope you have a great week, and I love you!
1. Mission Leadership Council
2. Roasting Marshmallows on Halloween