Goodbye Västerås

I am going to Sundsvall!!! That is what happened this week. Ta da. That is all. haha jk

So I always have a terrible memory when it comes to remembering the week. 

Maybe I can do an area recap. So the area here is really good. I got here with Elder Purkey and now I am leaving my Mission son. He should be fine. He learned the language pretty quick and works. One of the things that I think I improved here is the member missionary work. We have been focusing on it a lot. We aren't perfect missionaries and we still aren't as connected with the missionaries as we ought to be but things are going really well here with member trust and their missionary work is picking up. 

One of the biggest things that I have learned here would probably be being steadfast. I am so thankful for prayer and for answers to prayers. You NEED to recognize the answers when they come. It says nowhere that I have found that when you pray about the church or the Book of Mormon or any of that stuff that the answer will come as a loud voice or an immediate voice. For me I have found that it is more of a process. I start to read the Book of Mormon with a prayer, I get feelings and insights, and then I end with a prayer. You can not forget those little miracles you got. Those were pieces of the answer that came. And when you doubt, (not to have sincere questions but to doubt.) it seems like that stock pile of answers you have received can just fall through. You must be true to it. Like Elder Holland says, "I am not asking you to pretend to faith youdo not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have." I am so thankful for the quite moments that I have with Heavenly Father to talk with Him and for Him to listen. I am thankful for the Holy Ghost and for its teaching power, both in teaching me and helping me teach. Västerås is a great city. 

Other stuff that happened this week:

1. Visited Benita for the last time. She is so amazing and strong. She got operated on for her cancer a few weeks ago but she is recovering. She has started to come to church every week now. I am so thankful for her example.

2. We had zone training and we learned about being converted. President Beckstrand talked about how when someone on the street tells us that we are crazy, that we get discouraged, then we doubt. He talked to us a lot about it and it was really good. Don't get discouraged. 

3. Other good stuff :)

Thank you all so much! Love you all!

2/22/16

This was a cool week. On Tuesday we went with a member out of our area to Stockholm and then north east. I was at that point closer to Finland than I was to my actual area. It was kind of funny. So he thought that we, the missionaries and him were sufficient man power to move a lot of VERY heavy equipment. We moved a big ancient air compressor that must have weighed like 600 or 700 pounds. It wouldn't budge when we touched. So we used a ghetto winch and ski system to move it about 20 feet and then up a 2 foot overhanging ledge. It was so sketchy. Our member is really out of his mind but it was pretty funny and a great experience. After that we moved some other things that weighed much less weighing in at probably 500 pounds and 400 pounds. The cool part though was that on the way home we looked north and guess what we saw? The northern lights! They were pretty dim. It was a green color against the black night. I hope that I can see them in full effect sometime but I will settle for seeing them at all for now. 

We did a lot this week but I have only a few minutes left. I will tell you about the talk I gave yesterday. I wrote a talk for sacrament and every time I practiced it I had only gotten to about 9 minutes. Right before the meeting the member of the Branch Council told me I needed to go over 10 preferably around 12 minutes. I was like okay thanks for putting pressure on me last second. So I had to let the spirit guide. I said a prayer or two before. It was so cool. Once I got up I wasn't scared at all and I could just speak Swedish it seemed like. Like more than normal! ha The member came up to me after and commented on how my Swedish pronunciation was great and there wasn't much he could fix in the grammar.. I just really feel like God helped me a lot with the gift of tongues. I felt really good after church for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we get to go to Zone training! I am really excited. Thanks for everything you guys all do for me!

My ducks

Innebandy nap time. 

2/15/16

So I have no time to write an email as usual but I thought I should just let everyone know, that I Äldste Frankman, against the lack of faith of my district members, finished 72 nuggets in under an hour. I felt pretty okay after. Anything to build district moral right? Apparently they didn't know that my normal diet is about that bad. 

Love you all thanks for everything. I am so thankful to be on a mission and to grow closer to God and Christ. It is seriously a big blessing. 

Sincerely,

     Elder Frankman

2/8/16

the ducks

This sums up our companionship pretty well

Pretty

Elder Swensen

1/4/16

A good week!!! 2/01/16

I had a good week here in Sweden.

So we had a zone training on Friday and it was great. They talked about teaching better and listening to the Holy Ghost. That is almost exactly what I feel like this mission needs. At least I do. I listened and got a lot out of it. I really focused in on what one of the Zone Leaders said. He said, "expect it." That is something that stuck with me. I need to expect miracles, investigators, spiritual promptings, etc. It has a lot to do with faith. We need to believe and work. part of that is expecting. Because if you "believe" and then put that on hold then go to "work" you aren't really going to be ready. It is something that you need to be doing when you work. You need to work and constantly be expecting God to intervene. I don't know if I am making sense but that is what I learned none the less. Soto hopefully illustrate a point, I was on splits with an Elder this week and we went to swing by an investigator and he unfortunately wasn't home so we tracted some doors. Then we decided to go back to the bus stop. A few minutes before the bus got there I thought, "maybe we should go knock on a few more doors." and then I was like maybe that is just a thought but it felt very slightly different. I figured we couldn't lose anything so I told my companion and he said yeah sure. So we knocked a few doors and then got into one. He just told us to come in and teach him a bit. He didn't really particularly like our message. It wasn't bad he just didn't necessarily agree. He then said that he REALLY wants to come to church to get some inspiration. He is very set on coming next week. On the way back to the bus stop we talked to another pretty positive person. We unfortunately didn't get his number but he has ours. It is good to just be a part of the experience. Even if neither of these men progress, I know that I listened to the spirit because 1. it felt right and 2. That doesn't happen often in Sweden. I don't think that would have happened if I wasn't expecting inspiration. I may have just blown it off. It was just really cool.

Lots of other stuff happened this week too obviously but I am running low on time!!! Love you all.

District Picture 1/25/16

What am I supposed to name these things anyways. 1/04/16

So this week I got to go on splits with the Zone Leaders. It was a dandy time. I learned a lot from them. Through their example I learned a lot of ways that I can improve and I am so grateful for that. I got to teach district meeting this week again. It was on humility which, in case you didn't know, is my strong point. So naturally I thought wow this is going to be super easy to talk to them about humility for an hour. I am supposed to be an example of what I teach right? haha So I was nervous about it. I mean I could prepare a little bit but I didn't know how they would respond and how to talk for an entire hour. On the drive there (The ZLs have a car) I was praying about how I could have more, how I could make it better. How could I make it a good districts meeting that members of the district could apply and become better by doing so. I didn't really get an answer. or so I thought. So I went on teaching the district meeting and it went incredibly. The Holy Ghost leads teaching so well. 

Funny story: So we went to this guy's house to drop off a Book of Mormon in Swahili. He said we could come in and teach him a little bit more. So we did. As we were getting ready to go, I remembered that we had Fufu and I thought that he would want to know because I told him I was going to have it last time I was there. He then proceeded, as we were walking out the door, to close the door told us to sit down and made us Fufu and pepper soup. He asked us if we wanted to watch a movie and we told him we don't and then he just told us to find something on the church website. So we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him and ate his pepper soup with rice balls (I guess he didn't have fufu). To wash our hands we did it in a bowl instead of a sink. When that guy was in the kitchen my companion turned to me and was just like, "This only happens as a missionary. I am sitting in a strangers house, watching the Restoration movie, washing my hands in a small bowl, with a guy that can't speak much English, eating Pepper soup and rice balls." I thought it was pretty funny. I love missionary life. 

I am thankful for this church and for the Book of Mormon. I am thankful for the Holy Ghost in my life to guide me. I am thankful for examples in my life. I am grateful for my friends here in Sweden and back home. Thank you all so much for everything! 

​Oh also you can put this on the blog. We had some non-proselyting time on New years eve so we decided to hike up the ski resort in our dress clothes. It was okay though because Sweden does't have real mountains. XD It was still pretty biggish though. Not really. 

​My last companion

January 1, 2016 no time to write, but LOTS of pics

We had a stand set up in Stan. Good stuff. Free cookies and soda!!!

Found this while out contacting

Love you mom! ;)

Family night bowling

This was so huge!!!

Do you want some bad salt? haha

This is when I was stuck in Stockholm forever and then didn't get a seat. So I sat in the baggage area. Good stuff :)

God's will will happen! 12/14/15

This will have to be a quick one. I got my new companion. He is super cool. We get along really well I feel like. He is from California and he is ready to work. He was delayed in DC for a while and his last companion and him didn't really... have a good time. haha Let's just say that I taught him how to plan for the first time in him mission. 

When we were at a bus stop a guy started talking to us and asked about my backpack. We got talking to him and invited him and his friends to the Christmas party. It was pretty hard because he couldn't speak very much English and no Swedish. They are Muslim. We gave them a card and told them the time and one came to the Christmas party. Then the next day they all came. We had Ali translate to Arabic and they were really open. We asked them why they came. One said that it was because when he talks to me he feels like we have been friends for a long time. I felt very honored. God is doing his work. Thank you for all of your prayers! Have a great almost Christmas!

The new guy

KEEEBBBAAB!!!

Our role play dummy

The fiery sun

Lamb Legs are basically Turkey..11/30/15

So this week was a good week! We got to do Awesome Tuesday as usual. It is a great opportunity to practice Swedish. Things are going good with them and  they are getting closer and closer to Christ =)

We finally got to go and eat fufu!!!! So we got there to make the food and and he through a bunch of chopped up meat into a pot and then an entire chopped up onion and a chicken cube. Then he cooked that and through in some ginger and some garlic and some "spice" and a pepper. It was seriously the best soup ever... Like ever. But that was just the appetizer. He made some soup kinda similar but added peanut butter. It was strange. I thought it was pretty good but I was super full. We then proceeded to make the fufu. He poured it out of the bag and he mixed the water in and then he was mad and through it away because it was a crappy imitation so we just made some rice balls instead. It was pretty funny. It was so good. I was so stinking full that I was in a food coma basically all day while we were working. The cool part is that we fasted before that that he could have the opportunity to come to church more. He told us that in two weeks he will be able to come to church again if his boss does what she said she would. So that is a small miracle (if small miracles exist). I love that guy! 

The next day we went to District meeting which btw are the coolest things to teach ever. I just prepare some thoughts and then the spirit super guides the meeting and the spirit is strong and everyone learns and then we are all pumped up again to work. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to plan district meetings. District meeting day was also Thanksgiving so we had it (for reals this time) with the district. Some Elders were doing service on a farm earlier that week so they brought some lamb legs!! They brought them and we chopped all the meat off. I and another elder just took the meat remaining on the legs. I basically ate lamb like fried chicken. It was awesome.

Friday was great because all of our lessons fell through... It was okay though because that night payed off when we taught 4 street lessons in like an hour. It was super awesome!!! We are going to meet a guy that we taught then on Thursday. 

On Saturday we got to work with this kid named Emil who was baptized last year who is now the Young adult leader guy. We went with him to go and find all the Less active young adults. We then stole him and took him to Skultuna to teach a lesson that we had planned with a guy named Salvidor. He wasn't home... So we knocked the building looking for him. We knocked a door and the guy opened in and said to come in so I figured it was probably the guy we were looking for... it wasn't. It was however someone who is super prepared to take the gospel into their life. He said that he was born a Muslim and looked into all the options there and figured that is not really what he believes. He said that sometimes he feels like there is no purpose to his life and he wants to know why he is here. He is thankful for The Book of Mormon. Even if the initial guy that we contacted to meet never gets baptized, think of the intricacy of God's plan in sending us to this man through the other. God has much larger plans that I think any of us notice or could if we tried.

I know that God loves us. I know that family is a indispensable part of His plan. I love the gospel especially on the hard days because it brings promises of good things to come. Thank you for all of your prayers and love!!

Helaman 5: 12 The devil shall send forth his mighty winds 12/7/15

So this week was also really good. I decided that I got to comfortable with missionary work so I decided to make myself uncomfortable and it paid off. I will be making it a life goal to not be comfortable anymore because that is when there is no growth. Not much at least. haha

On Tuesday we taught a guy name Ali that we found last week tracting. He was Muslim but doesn't believe in it. He came to meet us all that way at the church and he had read like half of the first book of Nephi. He loved it. He is the classic example of a seed of faith growing by SINCERELY exercising it. He told us something very cool. He said that two days before we met him he had a dream/vision (call it what you will). He said that he was in a big bright room with windows all around. They let a lot of light in. He was thirsty and he went to get a drink of water. He talked to a man to get him some water but he didn't speak in Arabic (his native language) or in Swedish. He spoke in English. That man gave him water and he said it quenched his thirst. He said he thinks it is not a coincidence that two days later we show up speaking English to him. He is sooo cool. 

So on Thursday I taught district meeting again. It was seriously the best thing. So for those of you who don't know (like a lot of you) there is a prophecy in the re-dedication prayer called the second harvest. It basically says that once the members work with the missionaries, thousands of Swedish people will come into the church rapidly. So I was thinking about that. The subject for district meeting this week was "diligence with members" and then I combined it with the district meeting "diligence with the Book of Mormon." It just went really well. I realized that in the Book of Mormon there is member missionary work when the Sons of Mosiah take "a small number with them" in Mosiah 28:1 (and other places). They I went on to tell them how important the Book of Mormon is. It really is a separate perfect book. If you get a testimony of that book. It holds everything together. We talked about sparking members testimonies again so that they would desire to do missionary work. The sons of Mosiah going to preach is almost exactly what is going to happen in Sweden. I am so excited. I hope that made sense. It is a lot harder to explain on this email. But the spirit led the meeting and it was awesome.

So we went on splits with the Zone Leaders right after district meeting. Elder Burgin is currently my Zone Leader. He was my first district leader in Sweden so that was cool to go on splits with him and to see a difference in how we could work together.Elder Purkey (my current companion) went to Stockholm to the "train the trainers" meeting because he is going to train too this transfer. I just stayed with the zone leaders and was on my way back. The Zone Leaders dropped me off at the train station by myself (cause that is allowed when you are traveling in the Stockholm mission) and I waited for my train. Every other train was getting delayed and then BAM everything is cancelled and also Elder Purkey was in Stockholm and the same thing happened. A huge wind storm blew trees and stuff all over the tracks in all of southern and western Sweden. It was crazy. So the next day we finally took a train to our area and worked some more. 

On Sunday a guy that we talked to earlier in the week, and his girlfriend, came to church. That almost never happens in Sweden. This mission is changing and it is so cool to be a part of it. His name is Frank which is just the best name almost. His girlfriend doesn't really believe in God but I was talking to Frank and he said that "she liked it too much." It was awesome =) 

For this transfer I will be staying in Västerås to train and be a district leader. I will be getting an additional companionship in my district. I am super duper excited. 

I know that the Lord leads this work. If he didn't, a bunch of kids running aimlessly around the world over wouldn't be having so much of an impact. There are people out there who need this gospel. Help your missionaries. Thanks for everything!!