Thanksgiving - November 30, 2015 - Week 57

Happy Thanksgiving Yall! 

So for the first time in my life I went to sleep hungry on Thanksgiving...

This week was over all an awesome week as far as missionary work is concered. We introduced Joseph Smith and the restoration to 223 individuals. Right now we have 6 solid investigator families. Two of the families have baptismal dates and are coming to church. When you get to the end of the day you look back at that and it just makes you so excited. 

Yeah so this week on Thursday (Thanksgiving) we had Zone Conference. I learned tons. After Zone Conference we went and worked till about 9:45 at night. Then when I got home we planned for our next days activities. I looked at the day and remembered it was Thanksgiving. But by then it was about 10:30 so we just went to bed. So to answer yalls question if they have thanksgiving here the answer is no...

But its okay because wether I get to eat lots of food or not I'm still grateful for my awesome Family and Friends. And I'm super grateful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters here in the Philippines! :)

I love yall like crazy! Have an awesome week!

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

Weekly Email - November 23, 2015 - Week 56

Hey everyone!

This week was another great week is Roxas. To start out the week Elder Elkington and I went to Manoling on Tuesday to go on splits with the missionaries there. Manoling is probably one of the most remote areas in the whole mission. To get there we had to take a bus to President Roxas. From there we had to take a one hour motorcycle ride to get up the mountain into their area. It was awesome! Then when we got there we got right to work.

 I went with Elder Bontoyan who was one of my apartment mates in Bugasong. We had a great time. We talked to so many people taught lots of lessons and even hiked up to a waterfall. We some HUGE spiders! The spiders there are bigger than my hands. There is also tons of sugarcane farms in Manoling. You can just walk by and cut some down and eat it as your walking around. It is sooo sweet! Then That night we headed back down the mountain and went back to Roxas. On Wednesday we went back to the Banjao family. We had an amazing lesson where we taught the Plan of Salvation. At the end I asked the Father what kingdom he wanted his family to go to. He said of course the Celestial. Ans then he said so we need to get baptized. I was shocked we had never invited them to be baptized. All we told him was in life we have a purpose and they're five things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do while he are here. Faith, repent, baptize, holy ghost, and endure. So all of them committed to be baptized on CHRISTMAS! They will all be coming to church on Sunday as well. We are so excited for them and their family. The spirit has really taken control of the situation and we are just the mouth piece. Our goal is to find another family like that this week.

This week was awesome I learned so much. Hope yall have an awesome week and an awesome Thanksgiving! Eat a lot of pie for me! Love yall!!

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

Successful Week - November 16, 2015 - Week 55

This week was AWESOME!! 

Monday evening we started of by just doing some finding. We went out for a couple hours and founds tons of families that want us to come back and teach them. Then we went home and finished preparing our training's for zone training on Tuesday. I could barely sleep on Monday night because I was so  pumped to give our training the next morning. So lately Roxas Zone has kind of been stuggling a little bit. So our goal for the training was just get everyone super excited and motivated to do missionary work.

Tuesday came and we went over to the church to set up. To our surprise the AP's showed up. But I'm not gonna lie we gave an awesome training. All the missionaries participated and it was just a huge success. After the meeting was over Elder Elkington got pink eye so I went out and got to go on splits with Elder Dorman one of the AP's. We had a solid day! Missionary work is great when you are with someone who is crazy excited to share the gospel to anyone. Like that whole day even though we were sweating like crazy and it was so hot we both had a permanent smile on our faces and we couldn't get to the next house fast enough. Missionary work is really an exciting thing if you do it right! :) 

Wednesday and Thursday Elder Elkington had pink eye so we had to stay home.

Friday through Sunday was super solid. We mainly just did finding this whole week because I guess the missionaries that were here in this area before didn't do to much. So we had no investigators when I got here. So that was our focus this week. This week we talked to 150 people and introduced them to the unique message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith.

This week we have set and raised our goals to share that message to 210 people. And extend some baptismal dates to a couple of families for a "White Christmas". 

Sunday Night we went back to a family that we found this past week to share the Restoration to them. It was such an awesome lesson. We taught their whole immediate family (Father Mother and 8 kids) and their grandma and a lot of their cousins that live close and their families. The are super interested. We will go back on Wednesday and teach the Plan of Salvation and really focus on being a forever family and then extend a baptismal date to them. There are 15 of them that are of age to be baptized. So we are really going to push for Christmas day for their baptism.

Haha I love this so much!! Being a missionary ROCKS!! Love yall!!

--

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

Crazy Week - November 9, 2015 - Week 54

Alright I don't really know where to start...

On Monday I got a call from Elder Dorman the AP. He told me that I would be transferring. He said that I have my work cut out for me in my next area. I was like alright I will do my best. And then right as I was about to hang up he said "oh and by the way you will be a zone leader there" I responded super quickly with "are you sure?" He wasn't kidding. So yeah pretty much all week iv'e been stressing out. But one thing that I do know is God qualifies those who he calls.

The last few days in Bugasong I did my best to work as hard as I could. 

Thursday came around and I got pink eye the night before transfers which was awful! 

Thursday came around and I got pink eye the night before transfers which was awful! So I found out my new area is Roxas. After transfers we just stayed there in Iloilo because we had MLC on Thursday and Friday. Friday night I finally got to come to my new area. It is great. I am super excited to do amazing things here. I am still super nervous about the whole being a zone leader thing. Tomorrow we have zone training meeting where all the missionaries in the zone will meet together. The training that I will be giving is strictly about getting everyone excited for missionary work. And the best ways to be the most productive and time efficient. So i'm pretty excited for that. 

 MORE "LOOK MA' NEW PANTS" PICTURES

 THESE WERE JAKE'S HOT WHEELS.  HE ASKED US TO SEND THEM TO SHARE WITH HIS FAVORITE PEOPLE

LOOKS LIKE PACKAGES FOR CHRISTMAS HAVE STARTED TO ARRIVE...THANK YOU ALL...I KNOW HE WILL LOVE IT

Elder Elkington is my new companion. He is from Idaho. He goes home three transfers before I do. He has only been in this area for 5 weeks. So we are still trying to figure out this area and everything.

Then also tomorrow I will be able to go on splits with the AP's. I hope to learn a lot from them! 

Well that's all for this week. Love and miss yall like crazy! 

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

All Saints Week (Happy Halloween) - November 2, 2015 - Week 53

Kamusta kamo!?

So this week was another good week. Elder Puig and I went out and tracted in some new places and found a couple of families that we plan on extending baptismal dates to this week. We ended up having to move back Marcelo Macario's baptism to November 14th. We felt like we needed to teach him a little more before he gets baptized. We are still planing on having 10 baptisms on the 14 of November. We are like crazy excited and working harder then ever to continue to have that every month. One thing that I have really learned is how truly important families are. I can't explain how happy I am when we go into a home and are able to teach a whole family. And plus I love teaching kids more then anything ever! I can't say how important it is for husbands and wives and their families to be sealed in the temple. I know here that is not always an easy thing. The closest temple to these people here is on a different island. But watching some of the members here diligently prepare for years just to go once is amazing. Everyone that has been baptized has achieved eternal life through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Now its time to work towards achieving exhalation! Exhalation is the only way we can for sure live with our families FOREVER! I'm not about that "till death do you part" kind of life. I love my family more than anything and I want nothing more then to be with y'all forever!

                With a little help from Google we found out that Elder Pogi means Elder Handsome! :)

Looks like all four Elders got new pants.  I believe they all went in a bought a single bolt of fabric and got a great deal

Love you guys so much! Hope y'all had a great Halloween! :)

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

Hey Ya'll - October 26, 2015 - Week 52

This was another great week full of exciting stories and hard work. This week I had the opportunity to go on splits with one of the missionaries in my district. We had a great time. We both learned tons! We also came across a snake so we of we caught it haha Ethan, do you have any idea what kind of snake this is?) 

Ethan's response to Jake's question about what type of snake this is, "Some crazy jungle snake but probably not venemous" :)

Anyways this week I tracted into a Muslim family. They let us teach them! It was a huge learning experience for me because I know just about nothing about Muslims. We are actually told to be really careful when teaching them. Because it is really easy to say something that could make them really dangerous. But I think they actually really liked me, because I didn't really focus on teaching as much as just building relationship and trust. It was a success! Right before we left they asked when can we come back and share to them again. It testified to me you can't judge anyone on their religion. We are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. As members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have the responsibility to share the truth to ALL! :) 

This week we also found out that our transfers will be on the 5th instead of the 19th. So it kind of stinks because we have does of baptisms in November. We find out if we are transfering the night before transfers. So right now I have know Idea if I will be transfering. But I think I will because Iv'e been out for a year now and i'm still in my second area. But we'll just see what happens. 

This morning we were woke up early by someone saying tagbalay at our door. So we woke up and he told us the Mayor wanted to meet with us immediately. So we all got dressed and went to meet with him. We just kind of discussed who we are and why we are here. It was pretty cool. And then he gave us the number of the head of the police and security department and said if there is ever any trouble just call. Then he offered to take us to breakfast.

Well that's it for this week. Love and miss yall! 

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

ONE YEAR/TYPHOON - October 19, 2015 - Week 51

So last week we had the best weather I've had my whole mission. Turns out it was the calm before the storm...This week we had a Typhoon blow in and it hit pretty crazy hard making it a little difficult to do missionary work. But we managed to just endure and work through it. Not gonna lie...sometimes it was pretty scary and kinda dangerous. But it was also pretty fun to just watch.

(This is a note we also got from him in another letter..."hey! Crazy week with crazy weather but im still alive! Last night my comp and I were walking home and out of now where winds and rain was super crazy worse than I have ever seen! So we stood there and said a prayer with lightning and thunder and winds and rain all around us and i couldnt even here my comp speak. But we walked home and we are safe now! How is every one doing there?")

Anyways this week I had an interview with President which was good. He told me a few things that I can do to be a better missionary and help out our District. 

Right now here in Bugasong Elder Puig and I are seeing so many miracles and blessings happen daily! Right now we have 8 full families with a baptismal date for the end of November. And if thinks work out we will have a baptism on the 31st of October and also another one on November 14th. I just want to testify if we do our best to do everything we can to fulfill our purpose as missionaries and just GO TO WORK everyday. Our Heavenly Father will put people in out place that are prepared and ready to receive His Gospel! Missionary work is so discouraging sometimes but its important we don't focus on the challenging things but that we remember this is our Heavenly Fathers work and "...NO unhallowed hand can STOP the WORK from PROGRESSING." Well thats about it for this week.

Love and Miss you guys...have a great week! 

P.S. ISA KA TUIG NA LANG!! :)

      (ONE YEAR LEFT)

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission

Great Week - October 11, 2015 - Week 50

Hey Y'all!

Okay so since I've been here in the Philippines this past week was amazing as far as weather is concerned! Everyday was a bright and sunny day. We only had just a little bit of rain on Sunday. And when the weather is like that the work is fantastic!! 

Also this past week we had the opportunity to watch General Conference! Which was as usual... GREAT! 

Right now here in Bugasong Elder Puig and I have 12 investigators that are on track to be baptized on October 31 and November 14. We are super excited and hope they all work out. 

Right now Elder Puig and I are working on not just being the average missionary but doing our best to become a preach my gospel missionary that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. 

Hope y'all had an awesome week. Love and Miss you guys! 

-- 

Elder Jake Frandsen

Philippines Iloilo Mission