Week ? 3 or 4 ? I think 4

So I get my flight plans this week! That is so exciting! I am going to Sweden #nbd

I got to listen to this stake president speak and he was funny and fun. His name was Vai Sikahema so you sports fans may know him. He is also the stake president of one of the 21 missionaries in my district.

So this week I learned lots of stuff... I learned that the atonement can fix anything. Like things that are not necessarily sins but mistakes. You know what I mean? No? Okay cool. It works. It is so infinite and incredible I love it. I learned that to spell stupid in Swedish it is spelled d-u-m. Which is ironic because dumb and stupid are synonyms and you don't even spell it correctly. XD Zach will appreciate it.

I am so grateful for all of my family member and friends that are writing to me and praying for me. If you guys wanted to do some more dear elders these last two weeks so I could beat my companion for once that would be awesome. He is the one that gets all the letters in our zone. XD haha It is like on The Best Two Years. 

The three Swedes are practicing a Swedish only song. It is awesome. I am singing Tenor! Crazy eh? Tenor is like not my range haha I love the song. It is called Blotten Dag. I will see if I can't record it and send home an SD Card or something. It is awesome :D 

The time here is so weird it is so long... but actually it is so short. haha makes no sense. Everything seems like yesterday at the same time it feels like an eternity ago. Walking to the Provo temple is like weird sometimes cause you are like, "There are people out here...." Haha and cars and... It is just strange. I am so psyched to go to Sweden. My teacher said, "The sky is a different color... You know those cheesy commercials where they put the glasses on and everything gets brighter? Yeah Sweden is like that." I am so excited. There isn't like a mile in Sweden that doesn't have water!!!! It is craziness....

I get to Skype with a Swedish member tomorrow! Wish me luck! :D

So thanks for the prayers! The gospel is true! Can't wait to get to Sweden.

"If you WANT to FINISH a mission you won't regret it. It is a huge growing experience. Sometimes we just have to experience growing pains."

-Äldste Frankman

That is my deep thought for the week. You are welcome.

Make sure to post this to my blog! Those are my EFY buddies! Make sure Sam sees it too :D

Elder Frankman's Address

3 more weeks in the MTC, and he's off to Sweden.

His Physical Address is :
Elder Alvas Jacob Frankman
May11 SWE-STO
2007 N. 900 E. Unit 44
Provo Utah 84602

His E-mail :
alvas.frankman@myldsmail.net


He really likes us to use www.Dearelder.com because it's free, and they deliver the letter to the MTC that day rather than him having to wait until P-Day to read the e-mail.

Thanks for all the extra TLC, He loves it!

# 3

So this week was awesome. I just have to say if the MTC devotionals are available to listen to for you guys, "Character of Christ" by Bednar is like phenomenal. It is a few years old. 

I know that this mission really is what I need right now because it seems like every talk and all my teachers and companion and zone are exactly what I need. They except me for exactly who I am!

I am so happy to serve the Lord. I am just starting the Book of Mormon again if you want to start with me. I wrote a question in the front of a cheap copy and now I am reading through solely for that question. Bednar say by the time I am his age I should have 400 or 500. I want a bookshelf full of Books of Mormon!!! My zone has Elders going to the mission where the Best Two Years Mission is! 

There is a swede here in the MTC! He is going to Italy. So he can speak Swedish. He is fluent in English and has already take some Italian... So unfair! haha He is super chill and doesn't even try to make me feel stupid in my lack of language skills! 

The Gospel is true :D

Love you guys

Elders for the "Tie Draft"

Those are only some of the ties!!! Tie Draft is the best.
 Send me more ugly ties :D

Week 2? Check :)

So this week was awesome. So you know how vocal point came last week? Guess who came this week? BYU Men's Chorus so that's pretty cool... They sang the music from the Moses movie! They also had an incredible African Chant! I loved it so much. Look up their African music if they have it!

This week was a little easier but it's never going to easy and I know that. God doesn't take away our burdens he just lightens them.

There was an incredible devotional on the atonement yesterday. Elder Zwick of the seventy spoke to us. He made so good points I want to share. Actually I will just attach my notes.

One of my favorite points was just something he said in passing. He said, " I know it with my mind but I know it especially with my heart." sometimes at least in my life I feel like I might not know that the Gospel is true just because that's what Satan wants. But when I bear testimony I can feel it. I know it in my heart, I just can't let my mind forget it. That was an answer to my personal prayers.

I have too many friends to write all of them! Thank you ALL for all the emails. They really really help me. 

Sincerely,

     Elder Frankman

​All the Guys in my district! Doing laundry like a boss. 

First Week

So the MTC is an incredible experience. It has been the hardest experience of my life to date. It has also been the most spiritual experience of my life. It is like Satan and God are playing a tug of war, but it's all good because Satan is sorta nothing next to God. 

So my companion is great! He is OCD and I am OCD... BUT about different things so... He needs everything clean and perfect. I just like numbers to be in multiples of five and for things to be symmetrical. He is more overboard than I am, but we really needed to be each other's companions. It is great. God knew what he was doing sending me out early. I know there was a reason and this is at least one of the many reasons I'm sure to find. 

I can say a full Svenske bon. (prayer) It is kinda crazy how much of the language I can speak. I mean I'm not fluent but I can have a conversation mostly in Svenske sorta. So I show up to class and our teacher just starts to speak Svenkse. And then finally he speaks more Svenske. But in the end he thankfully was speaking more Svenske. Our class every day is entirely in Svenske. It really makes you rely on the gift of tongues. It must be real. So day three of the MTC you get your 1st "investigator." guess what? He doesn't speak Engleske. Good thing he speaks Swedish though cause that I really can't understand. The first lesson went about as expected. The second lesson though, I taught him the lesson. He thought I was off my rocker crazy but I taught him, in Svenske.

This gift of tongues is a very real thing. 

So the food here is okay. It depends on the meal. I usually eat like three meals per meal though so that's cool. I haven't weighed myself though cause I don't want to see what's happening. My dad always told my basketball was the sport missionaries played. Not anymore. It is all about that four square life. Also everyone in our gym time is going to Europe so today we played four square with our feet in honor of soccer. I will be the best soccer player when I get to Sverige. 

I got to give a blessing of comfort. This first week in the MTC is brutal. You really really need to get on your knees. I have been wanting to give a blessing because for me, helping other people helps me a ton, and I wanted the experience. It was super cool.

In general conference one of the many spiritual moments I had was when we sang "I know that my redeemer lives." Hearing hundreds of young missionaries sing, " Oh what joy this sweet sentence gives, I know that my redeemer lives," brought peaceful tears to my eyes. I know that my redeemer lives.

So this was such a hard week but God knew what he was doing. He sent me into the MTC (Which by the way -we can't listen to ANY music in the MTC) the week of conference. Oh and my companion is who I need. OH not a big deal or anything but guess who came after. I will give you a clue, I enjoyed it thoroughly and i needed it. Vocal Point. Yeah Vocal Point came and sang us songs. Not only that, but not all of them were church songs. And to add to it guess what the last songs was? No just guess. "Nearer My God To Thee" which just happens to be my favorite song they do... So is that all some freak coincidence? Yeah, no. Not even. 

Sincerely,

     Elder Frankman

First MTC Letter

Dear Family, 

I made it to the MTC! I love it here. People are always so happy. I mean everyone is homesick but they are happy. My P-day is Wednesday so I can write you an e-mail then. Just send me questions so then I will know what to say! My companion and I were meant to meet each other. It's kind of a testimony builder because he waited to get out here because his sister was out serving and he wanted to see her.Then his call made him wait a while to get out because he got it the same day as me. i on the other hand rushed out as fast as possible.We needed to meet and it happened because of God. Now I know why I was supposed to go so early. God is there.

Love, AJ