"Happy Thanksgiving" November 28, 2014

Hello Everyone!

Wow! Where do I start!? This week has for sure been the best week of the MTC this far! Tuesdays devotional was amazing! Elder Oaks came and talked about being an exact representative of Christ. Everyone was super excited that we finally got to here from an Apostle! So that was just a great way to get our week started of. 3:30 Thanksgiving morning was kind of sad because we had to say goodbye to one of the districts in our zone as they left to Cebu Philippines. They're going to be some great missionaries! 

This week we got our travel plans! So the plan is we leave here on Dec 11 at 3:30 in the morning to fly to LA airport from there we fly to Hong Kong then from Hong Kong to Manila! We are all so ready to go! Haha :)

Thanksgiving was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had and you'll find out in just a second why. We woke up at 6:30 went to breakfast. After breakfast we went to the Thanksgiving Devotional. Much to our surprise Elder Bednar was the speaker. He gave a super great talk. He started of by talking about the Holy Ghost. And that whenever we teach about the Gospel that we aren't the teachers. The only teacher is the Holy Ghost. So during his talk they handed out about 100 cell phones to the missionaries. They gave us a number to text and we could ask any question we wanted to an Apostle and we would get the question on his iPad and answer it. By answering the questions he was using the Holy Ghost to answer them. It was super spiritual! 

After lunch (which wasn't that great) me and an Elder from our District, Elder Coronel started walking back to class and as we were walking we saw Elder Bednar about to leave so we walked up to him and shook his hand. We walked him out to his car and just talked to him for a little bit. When we got to his car it was just me Elder Coronel and Elder Bednar. As we were saying good bye Elder Coronel asked if we could get a picture with him. He said that he isn't supposed to take pictures but he said "Elders you lucked out" so we each took a picture with him. Haha. When he started to talk to us the spirit was so overwhelming! It was like nothing I had ever felt before. That was the reason I will never forget this Thanksgiving! :) 

Then we got to do service where we made 366,000 meals for less fortunate kids around the world. It was so a great experience! 

We finished out the day watching Meet the Mormons with all the missionaries. Super cool experience. They gave us all popcorn to eat while we were watching the movie. So all in all an amazing week! 

Love you guys! Hope everyone had an awesome week and Thanksgiving! :)  Week and a half left!! :)

Elder O'brien  - American Samoa Champion Boxer

Elder Lapepe - Australian National Rugby player

Elder Lele - Tongan National Rugby player

Elder Moffatt

Elder Bednar with Elder Frandsen

Week 4 November 21, 2014

Hello everyone! Another week down. This week as we have been teaching investigators I feel like the language is finally getting a little easier. Its crazy to see that if the Lord wants you to say something to an investigator, even if you don't know the words he will put them in your mouth. This week I have grasped the feeling that I will never be alone. That Heavenly father will always be with me. It's the best feeling ever! It's to bad I didn't fully grasp that till now, but now I will never forget that. And I will watch myself better so I can always be doing what he wants me to. 

It's weird to think i've been here for almost a month already and that in two and a half more weeks I will be headed to the Philippines ready to put this training to work. 

This next week for Thanksgiving the rumour is that an Apostle is coming to speak to us. So everyone is pretty excited about that. But we'll see. Everyone take lots of pics during Thanksgiving and send them to me. :)

Im sorry for the not so exciting email. It's pretty much the same thing every week. Three weeks from now the emails will be way more exciting I promise. :) Well everyone have a great week. And have an awesome Thanksgiving!!

Heres a pic of some of the zone at the temple. Haha ;)

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

First Sunday in the MTC November 2, 2014

Every Sunday the Missionaries in the MTC get to "take a walk" up the hill to the Provo Temple.  His first Sunday there, his district and Grandpa and Grandma Frandsen's district just happened to be walking at the same time.   Got a chance to snap a few pictures his first weekend in the MTC.  
Sure is nice to have family so close and "working on the inside" ! :)

Week 3ish November 14, 2014

Hello Everyone! This week has gone by so fast. We spend about 8 hours a day in class learning mostly the language. We did this thing called TRC this week, TRC is where some members come here to the MTC and we teach them kind of like a home teaching lesson. The only thing that's different is it's all in Ilonggo. We taught this elderly lady that grew up in Bacolod Philippines. She was one of the nicest people I've ever met! We talked to her for a solid 45 minutes! It snowed here yesterday and the Polys went crazy because they had never seen snow before. It was hilarious! We are supposed to get more snow on Saturday so we'll see how that goes. The food here is starting to get kind of old but it's fine. This morning we went to the temple early again so we ate there and the food was amazing! :) Being able to go to the temple every Friday is one of my favorite things about the MTC. At the end of everyday we have a zone song and prayer. The spirit is super strong when we do that. I love it when one of the Samoans say the prayer in there native language. The devotionals are fantastic as always amazing. Well that's about it for this week. Have a good week everyone. Love Y'all

PS mom just FYI we got notice that if anyone wants to send anything to me for Christmas that it needs to be sent to the MTC here before I leave because this time of year the mail in the Philippines is no bueno. So i would just take what ever to the Philippines with me thanks 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

  

Week 2 in the MTC November 7, 2014

 Jake sent a few pictures of MTC life in the classroom and with his district at the Provo Temple.

Elder Frandsen & Elder Swanton (District Leader)

 Hey Family! 

This week has been great! I weighed myself yesterday and well the scale read 146 so that's that haha. Anyways We have been role playing with an investigator everyday this week. He only speaks and understands ilonggo so it gets kind of hard sometimes but he committed to baptism yesterday finally. But turns out that was the last time we teach him because now he is our new teacher. haha So now we have two teachers they are the BEST! Brother Winfield who went to Bacolad from 2010-2012 and now Brother Waggoner who went to Iloilo at the same time. They are super spiritual but also really funny. They teach us to SYL every day. So in other words they want us to speak our language all the time. Its super fun! I never thought learning a language could come this quickly but I know without a doubt that it is Heavenly Father blessing me everyday with the gift of tongues. We pray, sing, and pretty much communicate 80% in ilonggo. The devotionals here are fantastic! This is truly a blessed place. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to go to the temple every friday. Keep the letters coming. Palanga ako mo! Have a great week. 

My p-day is every friday justin case ya'll wanted to know. By the way mom my teacher said "fixin" the other day just like you do it was to funny.   

Elder Frandsen's MTC district at the Provo, UT Temple

October 31, 2014 Kumusta!

Jake went into the MTC this last Wednesday the 29th of October.  We sent him a Halloween "Care Package" with favorite treats, including Pringles and fun notes from the whole family. This is his first letter home...


Kumusta! Yes I got your care package this morning. My district and I loved it! Things are amazing here. The spirit is so strong. Learning the language is hard but it is coming so easily to us. The teacher is amazing! We pray in our language now and and its fantastic! It really brings the spirit! Our district is truly being blessed with the gift of tongues. Last night we met our branch Presidency and there wives. They are so comforting. President Pierce interviewed us all individually, he is truly called of God. After the meeting he called my companion Elder Swanton to be our district leader and me to be his senior comp. I cant wait to start serving my fellow elders here. This morning we went to the Provo temple. It was a great experience and I cant wait to go again next week! So there are two districts that arrived here on the 29th. My district has 6 Elders and 2 sisters. Us 6 elders are all in the same room so it gets kind of crazy sometimes but the spirit is so strong with us. Then in the other district there are six more elders. So in all we have Eight Elders and two sisters going to Iloilo and then four of the other elders are going to Bacolod. But we all fly out the same day together. We cant wait! Oh yeah and just to clarify We are all speaking ilonggo. The don't call it hiligaynon. Haha. One thing that President Pierce has said that stuck out to me is "Obedience brings blessings but strict obedience brings miracles" Well that's all I have so far so I just want to say I love you all and keep doing what you're doing. And by the way you can write me everyday if you use Dear Elder.com and I will get those letters everyday. If you can tell the byrds and carmacks and caleb that it would be awesome to get letters often :) so have a good week and ya'll are in my prayers! I'm in District 45a.
Elder Jake Frandsen
Philippines, Iloilo Mission