Miracles happen every once in a while

Hey everyone! This has been an incredible week. One of the most successful weeks of my mission probably! We had several amazing miracles last week, and the greatest of which happened at the beginning of the week. Late Tuesday night we were visiting some people in an apartment complex, but nobody was home. Even the neighbors of the people we tried to see didn't open up. We hadn't had any success at all in that complex, so we decided to leave and go somewhere else. On our way back to the car, Elder Sirrine and I passed a door with a homemade paper craft on it, obviously made by a child. We passed the window and saw a big playhouse and a woman sitting at a table. Immediately the spirit prompted me to knock on their door, so I stopped. Elder Sirrine also stopped simultaneously, undoubtedly by a similar prompting. Without a word, we went and knocked on the door, and after waiting for ages, the woman opened up. "Oh! Elders come in come in! It's so great to see you! We weren't
expecting you this late." Confused and a little stunned, we entered the apartment and this woman proceeded to introduce us to her husband and two children. She sat us down on her couch and said, "Well I take it my sister sent you over here." We had no idea who her sister was and we told that we were just walking through the complex and felt prompted to try her door. She was a bit surprised, her name is Marlin, but she was happy to see us nonetheless. She explained that she has been inactive in the church for nearly 15 years, since she got
married, and has been wanting to come back. Her family just moved into that apartment, and she finally felt like she could start going again. She had even downloaded the app and tried to find out which ward she
belonged in. We were speechless Her husband and her daughters, Samantha (age 12) and Sophia (age 5),
were baptized Catholic, but she told us that Samantha has been asking her a ton of questions lately about the church, and that is what has sparked her interest in coming back. They took a tour of the Newport Beach Temple and Samantha fell in love with the idea of it. We asked if we could teach the first lesson to their family, and they readily accepted. The husband left the room for work and never came back in after that point. We taught them the Restoration and invited Samantha to be baptized. She quickly accepted! We continued, "We will be
holding a baptismal service on July 31, would you be willing to work towards that date for your baptism?" She smiled and said, "I would be happy to." There was such a special and sacred spirit in that living room. I know
that the Lord has been preparing that family for years, and their time has finally come for them to accept fully the gospel of Jesus Christ! We got back to the car and I just sat in wonder at the amazement of it all. What an incredible experience, one of eternal import, and surely one that I will never forget! Marlin, Samantha, and Sophia came to church yesterday and they absolutely loved it. We implemented the covenant path and started involving ward members immediately and that will be crucial as we continue working with them, especially for the husband. Once he meets more of the members and gets more involved in the ward, I think he
will soften up to the church.

The rest of the week was great! We met and taught another mother and her two daughters too! We invited them to be baptized and they all accepted! Alondra and her two daughters, Valerie and Ariana, are on
date for August 7. So we put 4 people on date for baptism this week! My mind is still blown! The Lord blessed us in abundance this week, and I'm so grateful for it. Have a great week everyone and happy Fourth of July!
-Elder Francis
1) some cool apartments in Koreatown


















2) we had an activity Saturday with the Korean branch. Our tower won

3) Lego store in downtown Disney!

4) downtown Disney

Rice Farmer Hats

Hey everyone! This week in Garden Grove was awesome. We met a little 86 year old Vietnamese woman named Lee. She was wearing one of those sweet cone shaped rice farmer hats and we complimented her on it. Apparently she gets a ton of them every year when she goes to Vietnam and they are made better and are cheaper than the ones you can buy here. To make a long story short, she wasn't interested in the gospel,
but we got two of her hats! Score. We drove all around town on Saturday wearing them.

The work in the area was pretty slow this week, because we had meetings and had to fill out stake reports for several hours. That was awful, but we got it done. Basically, we weren't able to do much missionary work for the first half of the week. But the second half was awesome!! We found a couple new investigators and had a lot of
success. One of the coolest experiences we had was with a girl we met named Sabrina, who is actually the daughter of one of our other investigators, Yolanda. She was super prepared, and we taught her twice over the weekend! She loved the restoration, and although she accepted the invitation to be baptized, she didn't want to set a date until she comes to church and starts getting more involved. Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers out there!! Especially my dad, whose birthday also happens to be June 26th, so do me a favor and wish him a happy birthday on his actual birthday for me!

Thanks so much for all of your love and support, have a fantastic week
everybody!

-Elder Francis

Cherry on Top

Hey everybody! It's been a looooong week here in good ol Garden Grove, but it's been awesome. Transfer calls were Sat night. The assistants called us up and said, "Alright elders so here are the transfers. You will be--"..... Nothing. We tried calling back but it went straight to voice mail, and we later learned that their phone died. Good timing! When they finally called back, we learned that Elder Hansen is getting transferred... We only got to be together for one transfer, so we are both pretty bummed, but we trust that it is for the best! He is going to Orange where he will be in the Esplanade ward. I will be getting Elder Sirrine, who was just called as a Zone Leader! He was one of the district leaders in my zone when I was back in Orange, so I know him really well and we've been on exchanges a couple times in the past, so I'm really looking forward to the coming transfers we will hopefully have together haha. If I follow the pattern that I have been the past couple times then in 6 weeks I'll have another!

On Friday we got a text from a random number saying, "Hey Elders, it's Brother Gomez, I just moved to the ward from Utah! Are you free tonight to meet up and talk?" Seemed a little sketch, especially considering Garden Grove and some of the people we've met haha, but we decided to tell him we were free. "Great" he says, "you like frozen
yogurt? There's a place nearby called Cherry on Top. Let's meet there at 8:30." We are fans of frozen yogurt, so we agreed. It was pretty suspicious though, and for a minute we thought this guy might be trying to meet us at a strip club or something (which are all over the place down here), but we looked it up and Cherry On Top was
legitimately a frozen yogurt place. We get there and are sitting inside, and in walks.... Elder Wong!!! (I guess he goes by Westin now) he was my first zone leader and finished his mission about 6 months ago. He was in town going to a wedding and dropped in to surprise us and buy us frozen yogurt! Score! That was a highlight of the week.

The other highlight was yesterday, when Andrew and Mia Muirhead were baptized by Shawn, their dad. It took him a couple tries but he got it! Shawn just got the priesthood last week and he has come a really long ways to be able to do that. He has been changed through the atonement, and now their family is working towards going to the temple to be sealed forever! This gospel blesses families, and I'm so happy I got to play a role in the Muirhead's conversion. It was such a sweet experience, and the spirit was powerful at the service yesterday. With Elder Hansen leaving to a new area today, it was definitely the cherry on top of our one transfer together. I love being a missionary! Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Francis

Pic 1: Garden Grove Zone!

Pic 2: us and Westin at Cherry on top!

Pic 3: Shawn, Andrew, and Mia

Pic 4: us and some of the other missionaries that taught the
Muirhead's before us

Pic 5: Elder Sirrine and me

Government Conspiracies and Guy Fietti

Hey everyone!! We had an amazing week last week here in Garden Grove! Also, exactly one year ago today I received my endowments from the temple in Salt Lake City. At the exact same time, Elder Hansen was
receiving his in the Baton Rouge temple, so it is a special day for us! I'll start with Yolanda! So on Tuesday we had an awesome evening set up, like 3 set appointments, but one by one we showed up and nobody was home. Should've seen that one coming. As we stood at the porch of the last appointment, with no answer from the door, we looked across the street to their neighbors. "They look home." We said, and walked
over. We were greeted by an old woman yelling at us through the window. As we approached, we were able to distinguish what she was saying haha. She apparently was talking about God and Jesus, so she knew what we
were about. It's interesting how people who have never seen or talked to missionaries before will often just know that we talk to people about Jesus. Anyways, we start talking to her through her window, and learned that her name is Yolanda. We taught her the Restoration, through the window, and she loved it!  We invited her to be baptized, and she accepted! We set the date for the end of June! I also got to go on an exchange with Elder Zachary Johnson this week, my district leader. That was an interesting day haha. We met with a guy named Craig who is a less active member of the church. We invited him to come to church with us on Sunday He looked down, and said "I wish I could" very elusively. We questioned him further, and he revealed to us that he knows a lot about the government, and warned us to get ready and get armed, because something is coming.... Elder Johnson says, "How many years do we have?" Craig says very solemnly, "I wouldn't even say years." So there's my plug for food storage and emergency preparedness for the week! The rest of the exchange was awesome haha and we had some amazing experiences and found people who are super prepared!! We also went to dinner at a place that Guy
Fietti, from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives ate at! 
The best part of the week was yesterday at church. So we've been working with a kid named Andrew, who is 12, and he and his little sister Mia are gonna be baptized this Sunday, and their father Shawn was given the priesthood yesterday. Shawn is awesome. He is an ex marine and is a pretty hardened individual. But it has been so amazing to see how his family and the spirit have softened his heart. He has come back to church, has given up smoking and drinking, and has started to pay his tithing so that he could be worthy to receive the
priesthood and baptize his children. On Saturday, they all went and took a tour of the Newport Beach Temple grounds. Yesterday at church, Shawn came up to us and talked about how amazing it was. The temple is
the goal! The Lord is blessing us greatly here, and the next few weeks are gonna
be awesome. Thanks for reading everyone! Have a fantastic week!
-Elder Francis

Joy = Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

Hey everyone! This week was great! As far as the work is concerned, Andrew Muirhead, a little 12 year old kid, is getting baptized on June 12! His dad, who is just returning to activity, is getting the priesthood next week and will be baptizing Andrew and his 8 year old Sister Mia the week following! We are really excited for them! The gospel blesses families, it really does! We have a new senior missionary couple in the ward, the Westergard's from Bountiful Utah! We went out with them Tuesday evening and didn't have anything set, so we just decided to make some visits. In three visits, we taught three lessons! Three times in a row, people invited us in and we were able to teach the Restoration. That never happens haha. Elder Hansen and I were in awe! That was a sweet tender mercy
from this week. 

This weekend was the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival, and president gave us permission to go, and even gave us permission to go on the rides! I guess it's a pretty big deal here. At church last week in the
Sunday school lesson, the teacher asked about the purpose of this life. A member named Ralph (who is a little mentally handicapped) said, "Well the way I see it is, Adam fell that they might be and men are that they might have JOY! God wants us to have joy! So He has given us the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival!!! It's gonna be a great experience, I'm gonna watch the parade and everyone is invited!" Haha
and Ralph was right! It was awesome!

Elder Hansen and I also went to the Cao Dai temple, where we were given a tour and learned about what CaoDaists believe. It was pretty interesting and the temple is way colorful and pretty. Essentially they believe in all religions, so they totally accepted the First Vision and everything that we believe about Christ! It was neat.
Tomorrow we have MLC and Thursday is Zone Training, so we have an exciting week ahead of us! Thanks everybody for all of your love and support and prayers. Have a fantastic week!
-Elder Francis

Am I even serving state-side?

It's been an eventful week here in sunny SoCal!  We had zone conference on Thursday, where we received training from President and Sister Taggart and his assistants. That was awesome. We learned all about being continually
converted to the gospel as missionaries. It was also sweet because we combined with my last zone, Orange, so I got to see all of my old friends!

We had a good week in our area, but Elder Hansen and I both got sick, which was kinda lame, but we were still able to go out every day and get some work done. We worked primarily with less actives this week and a lot of success and some funny stories. We met with this one lady named Heidi who is in a halfway home, and as the lesson progressed, we realized that she isn't very accountable for her actions at this point in her life. We invited her to come to church, and she said, "I would, but I'm having my baby next week."

...."Woah, we didn't realize you were pregnant!" (She obviously was
not pregnant)

"Yup!"

"How many kids do you have Heidi?"

"Well, you won't believe this, but I'm actually at 52 now! Pop em out
every 2 months!" Hahahaha and that's how the lesson went!

I was able to go on two exchanges this week, one of which was with the Vietnamese Elders in their area! So I got to learn a little Vietnamese! It was a lot of fun though, and I got to try some authentic Vietnamese food. With that and the Korean exchange I went on last week, I am getting the full cultural experience here in Cali!

On Sunday we had a missionary musical fireside, where all of the missionaries in the zone conducted a fireside teaching the restoration through music and song! Elder Hansen and I were in two musical numbers, Love at Home, which we sang with the Samoan elders and I got to learn the first verse in Samoan, and then Elder Hansen and I sang I Stand All Amazed, just the two of us haha. It was alright, but overall the fireside was great and there was a powerful spirit there. Today for Pday we went to the Asian Garden Mall! Haha Asian culture is awesome!
Have a great week everyone!
-Elder Francis
Asian garden mall!
And the missionary musical fireside!
Me and Buddha!

프랜시스 장로

안녕하 세요! 프랜시스 장로!! 
It's been a good week here in Garden Grove. We had a lot of appointments cancel/fall through, but that's just how some weeks go. We weren't able to meet with Vicky and her family this last week, which was a bummer. But we have been able to visit a lot of less actives, and the Lord has blessed us! One of the coolest experiences we had was just yesterday. We visited this recent convert named Amy. She joined the church by herself, and her husband and two kids have never been very supportive of it. She hasn't come to church lately because she's been taking care of her I'll father and she doesn't have any motivation from her family to go. We shared President Monson's talk on choices with her, and she just loved it. She opened up to us about the struggles and trials she is going through. It's times like that where I remember that I'm just a teenager and I'm totally not qualified to counsel people who've had literally like three times as much life experience as me. So we did our best, and we bore our testimonies to her of what we know to be true. The spirit was powerful and it witnessed the truth of the things that we taught, and she was comforted. This work is about the people, it is about lifting and blessing the lives of God's children. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Stumpf, who is in the Korean program, hence the Korean! It was way fun and he taught me the Korean alphabet. I wasn't able to help out much throughout the day, but I learned a lot and Elder Stumpf and I had a good time. He made me some Korean food haha and that was interesting. Other than that, not much has happened this week! This upcoming week will be a good one. We have zone conference and two exchanges, one of which I'll be in the Vietnamese area, so that'll be fun! It was my birthday the other day, so special thanks to everyone who remembered! Thanks to everyone for all the love and support! I love you all!
-Elder Francis
Elder Hansen and I did some service this week!