What My Mission Means To Me

Hello everybody!
This email will be a little different than usual. It is my last day in the mission field! And I was asked by my mission president to write for him what my mission means to me. I hope that this adequately expresses how I feel. It's kind of long, so if you don't want to read it all you can just scroll down to the bottom and read my testimony at the end:)
Everyone can now get ahold of me at michaelsfrancis@gmail.com ! For those of you on missions, please keep forwarding your weekly emails to my new address! For those who aren't, you can also contact me on Facebook at Michael Francis and on Instagram at michaelfrancis97 (I think... it has been two years hahaha).
I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers, your support, and your love that has made my mission such a life changing experience!

What does my mission mean to me? How does one express the answer to such a powerful and soul-searching question? Well I might've found it to be a bit easier, had my mission not been so meaningful and so life changing as it has. And I believe that as the years go by and the effects of my mission change the course of my life, it will come to mean even more. But for now, I will try to adequately express the depth of my feeling and the extent of just how special and how sacred my mission is to me. 

King Benjamin posed a powerful question, "How knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" My mission has been so sacred and so special to me because as I have served the Lord, I have come to know Him so much more.
As I have served the Lord, I have come to love and treasure the scriptures and the time I get to spend studying them. The scriptures contain within their delicate pages the very character and nature of Christ. The words of the scriptures are endowed with power. By feasting upon them and by treasuring them up in our lives we come to know Christ's character. We come to know also how we can develop that character in our own lives.
As I have served the Lord, He has taught me His gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of items that we must complete in order to be saved. It is a pattern of living that cleanses us from our sins and gives us the strength to resist sin. It is the only pattern of living that will prepare us to dwell in the kingdom of God. It is the only way back to our heavenly home. I have become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ on my mission, and I will continue to deepen my conversion by exercising my faith, repenting, renewing my covenants through the sacrament and thereby earn again the promise of the Spirit throughout the rest of my life.
As I have served the Lord, He has granted me the gift of charity. I have come to understand so much more deeply and powerfully the love that God has for His children. He is ever involved in their lives, and He cares immensely for each precious child. In His love, He has prepared a way for every single child of God to return to His presence. He has given me the eyes to see them as His children. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.
As I have served the Lord, he has taught me of His character and attributes and has helped me develop them. When we do what the Lord does, we become like He is. I have learned from His faith, His humility, His patience, His hope, and He has helped me develop greater faith, greater humility, greater patience, and greater hope. As I turn to the Lord in my weakness and rely on His Atonement, He has given me the strength to put off the natural man and become more saintly. He has made my weaknesses strengths.
As I have served the Lord, I have found the Savior's teaching  in Matthew 10:39 to be true. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I have strived every day of my mission to lose myself in His service, and He has rewarded me immensely. Words cannot express the gratitude and the joy that I feel, knowing that I was able to be an instrument in His hands to bring some soul to Him. At an early time in my mission, I wrote the following poem called The Servant's Prayer:

As a humble servant I implore thee this day,
For thy will, O Lord, which I long to obey.
I come before thee, brought low by my pride,
In thy spirit and love oh I yearn to reside!

How grateful I am for my favor in thy sight,
For thou art my life and my eternal light.
Countless nights thou hast filled my poor cup,
Through angelic hosts sent to bear me up.

Forgive me, I pray, for my mounting sin,
But know, Blessed Father, I will never give in.
To thy strength I will turn from my error and wrong,
That through thee my weaknesses might be made strong.

With thy master's touch shape my broken heart,
For I am the clay, and the potter thou art.
A tool in thy hand, Lord I long to be,
That I might help bring precious souls unto thee.

Oh how He has shaped my broken heart! He has changed my life.
I could continue forever on all of the things I have learned and the lives that have been blessed through my missionary service, but I will just finish with how as I have served the Lord, He has made Himself known unto me in a greater degree. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that He lives. He suffered and died for the pains and the sins of the world, that all might come unto Him. He submitted perfectly and entirely to the will of His Father, completing all that He was sent to do. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. All that I am and hope to be is because of the Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him so much. I want to give everything to Him, because He gave everything for me. God lives. This is His work. I know it, and it has changed my life forever. That is what my mission means to me.
-Elder Francis
1) the three amigos. I sure love these two. (P.C. To Daniel Rivera, best ward mission leader ever)

Zone Conferences!!!...again...

What an incredible week it has been in sunny California! We had Zone
Conferences this last week, and we were able to give a training to the
mission (for my 5th time) on the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion.
I love being able to hear all the comments and insights of all of the
missionaries throughout the mission! There are some inspired
missionaries! This quote sums up our training: "The Spirit is the most
important single element in this work. With the Spirit magnifying your
call, you can do miracles for the Lord in the mission field. Without
the Spirit, you will never succeed regardless of your talent and
ability." It's true, it's true!
I was also able to go on an exchange with one of my good friends Elder
Mills this week! We were asked to go and visit a member in the ER and
give them a blessing. We walked in, and on our way to the room, we
heard a "Hey Elders!" We stopped and saw a young woman in a hospital
gown calling to us from her room. She is a member in Cyprus. She asked
if we would be able to give her a blessing. Of course, we gave her
one. The Spirit was strong as we did, and it filled the small hospital
room with a sweet peace. Afterwards, we asked why she was in the ER,
and she informed us that she had attempted to commit suicide. We told
her as representatives of the church and the Lord how much He loved
her, and how happy we were that she was still with us! The Spirit
washed us over with the love of God. It was a special experience. I'm
so grateful that she recognized us as servants of the Lord, and that
for the priesthood we bear.
We found a new investigator named Pasindu last week! He is from Sri
Lanka and accepted the invitation to be baptized! He was so grateful
that we would spend our time to help him come closer to God. Things
like that really help me put my calling into the right perspective. I
love being a missionary.
Well folks, this next week is the last one of my mission! I am going
to give everything that I have, every ounce of strength, every waking
thought, every motive and intention to the Lord! I'm going to sprint
to the finish. 'When Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile, he
collapsed at the finish line into the hands of his well-wishers. A
journalist, sensing all that was involved in that historic moment
wrote: “The runner, open-mouthed, thin-legged, knowing only pace and
goal, spending his strength so that at the finish, at one mile, there
was nothing more.' For a consecrated missionary there is nothing more
to give at the end of the day. He has put it all on the altar of
sacrifice."
That's what I hope to do. I love you all! Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Francis
P.s. Shoutout to the Storlands who left us for Nevada! We love and miss you!

1) Pday activity with some Spanish missionaries

2) the District at Zone Conference feat. the Taggarts

3) waiting on our investigator

4) my little Venezuelano

5) lunch at Cali Taco

6) the Taggarts took a picture of us during our training....

HE IS BACK!!!!

What a fantastic week we have had here in Anaheim! Well- kind of in
Anaheim... we got to go on three exchanges, and I left the area all
three times! I spent a day in Costa Mesa, a day in Placentia, and a
day in Fullerton, each with an awesome missionary. In Fullerton I had
a really cool experience:
So the week before last week I was on ANOTHER exchange with Spanish
missionaries in Fullerton. While walking through an apartment complex,
we met a woman named Lisa. She told us that she had recently been
diagnosed with terminal cancer, and that she would be interested in
learning more about the gospel. She didn't speak Spanish though, so
she gave us her apartment number and said the English missionaries
could come by!
Then flash forward to my exchange (now in the English program) in
Fullerton on Friday! My companion Elder Sami said we were going to go
visit a referral, except the apartment number was put in incorrectly,
so they couldn't find her. At that point, we pulled up to the complex,
and it was the same one I had met Lisa in the week before! "Wait,
what's the name of this referral?"
"Her name is Lisa, apparently she has cancer. We just can't find where
she lives."
I remembered the area where we talked to her, and so we headed that
direction. Sure enough, as we approached I saw Lisa off in the
distance walking over to her neighbor's house. I called her and she
recognized me! In short, she had read the pamphlet we left last time,
and we were able to teach her the first lesson and get her corrected
apartment number. Truly, this is the Lord's work!
Some of you might remember our golden investigator Eddie, who moved
away unannounced a few weeks ago, and left us with no way to contact
him. We were devastated. He was two weeks away from baptism.
Well as we got back together at the end of one of our exchanges, Elder
Perez hopped out of the car and sprinted over shouting, "EDDIE IS
BACK!!! EDDIE IS BACK!!!" Man, I don't know if I have ever been so
happy as I was when I heard that!
Eddie had moved to Fresno, and had tried to contact us, but couldn't
find out how. His work situation ended up not working out, so he came
back down. We are helping him go to the YSA, and he is on date to be
baptized on June 25, two days before I go home!!! Man, I'm just so
happy for Eddie. I love being a missionary. God is a God of miracles.
Our other investigators are also doing so well, and Carlos still
really wants to be baptized. Please keep him in your prayers so that
his wife's heart will be softened and he can be baptized. We are
expecting more miracles over the next two weeks!
This week is Zone Conferences, and we get to give a training on the
role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. I'm really excited because it is
a topic I am very passionate about. The Spirit is everything in this
work! Keep us in your prayers! Thanks so much for reading, I love you
all!
Elder Francis

A3 missionaries and the Storlands! It was their last Sunday in
church before they move 😫

Elder McMurray and I on exchanges

¡Más chiles!

We have had a great week this week! I was able to go on an exchange in
the Spanish program with an Elder Baer and an Elder Schoen. I tagged
along with them for the day and got to learn from their examples and
follow up on trainings given. I also got to work on my Spanish! I
would introduce myself and let whoever we were teaching know that I
didn't speak much Spanish, and I got told like 20 times to eat more
chiles (they apparently make you better at learning Spanish haha).
Elders Baer and Schoen didn't have anyone on date for baptism in their
area, so we talked about how we could help change that. Towards the
end of the night, we had a lesson with a former investigator named Eva
Joaquin and her three sons, and partway through the lesson, I got the
impression that we needed to invite them to be baptized! She had been
invited in the past, but didn't feel that she was ready. I leaned to
Elder Schoen and suggested that we ("we" meaning him because I don't
speak Spanish haha) invite the family to be baptized again. He was
apprehensive, but consented. They extended the invitation, and all I
could do was just pray that the Spirit would work on Eva and her sons!
Eva paused for a moment, looked at the ground, looked back up at us,
and said (in Spanish) "... Yes... We want to be baptized." Eva and her
two sons over 8 are on date to be baptized in July! That was a huge
tender mercy from this week.
Our other investigators are also doing really well! Please continue to
keep Carlos and his wife Nancy in your prayers so that her heart can
be softened and can let Carlos be baptized.
Last week we also had Mission Leadership Council. It was my last one,
which was sad. We got to give a training on exchanges and how to make
them effective. There were great comments made from the amazing Elders
and Sisters in that group. I love being able to interact with such
incredible missionaries.
We'll have the opportunity to put the principles they shared to
practice this week, as we get to go on three exchanges! I'm looking
forward to it! I love you everyone, and hope you all have a wonderful
week!

-Elder Francis
1) My first MLC (18 months ago)
2) My last MLC