I Will Go and Do What the Lord Commands: November 2015

Monday, November 30, 2015

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

Monday, November 16, 2015

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!