His wife sent him traditional African ceremonial robes to wear on his baptism day. He said he would “look like and angel”
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Week ending December 23, 2013
Hey Everyone! Sorry this will be extremely short! I just wanted you to all know that I love you and I hope you have a great Christmas. Sorry no group email about my week today really because I will be skyping mom and dad on Wednesday! I wish I could skype you all though!
Kidney stones are still there and they KILL but I go to the Dr. the day after Christmas so I hope they figure things out then. Until then I will remain on Vicodin (which doesn't make me loopy thankfully but it does make me extremely dizzy. ) So Sister Thompson and I are stuck inside most of the time right now but that will hopefully change after this week. I am ready to get out and help people!
Our investigator Jonathan is getting baptized on Saturday! He is such a Christmas miracle! I will have to tell you more about him next week!
I love you all and I sincerely hope you have a Christ filled Christmas!!!!
Love always
Sister Jennifer Franzen
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Week ending December 17, 2013
Well folks it's a week from Christmas!!!! WAHOOO!!!! I hope you are all finding ways to make the Spirit of Christ the focus of your Christmas season!
I wish this email could be full of amazing miracles from missionary work this last week, but alas it cannot.... but this next week will hopefully be chalk full of them!
So this week Sister Thompson and I did soooo much! ha ha not.. we stayed in all week :/ we got 8 lessons though! Wahoo for phone lessons and dinner appointments. So I had an eventful medical week. So I was put on a gluten free diet last Monday. Ya that didn't help. My pain still got worse!!!! So on Saturday I was talking to my Sister Training leader sister Mcbride, Sister Nudd, and Sister Thompson and they were ready to take me to the Hospital! Yikes!!! So we called Sister Choi (Mission president's wife) and we had a bunch of phone calls to try and get a plan of action... so finally an ultrasound, Cat scan and x-rays later we now know that... I have KIDNEY STONES! yup tiny little calcium suckers are the source of my pain. :/ And not just one.. nope I have "several" Says my doctor. Here is the best part though! Vicodin does nothing for me! It didn't even make me loopy! I got a little dizzy when they had me take two and that was it! So i am no longer on pain meds because even narcotics DON'T help. Hence the reason we are staying in. Laying down is what helps the most. But Hopefully I will be back on my feet soon!
Sister Thompson and Sister Mcbride took our investigator Jonathan to an awesome Fireside while sister Nudd "babysat" me. They were all pretty worried that two vicodin would be really bad for me but it turns out I was normal. Sister Nudd and I had a blast though! We did a puzzle, sort of. Ha the life of a missionary that is sick is very boring. Our Area book is great though! So up to date!
Jonathan is still on date for baptism this Saturday but I am still kind of on house arrest ha ha.
We had our stake Christmas party and I went for a little bit. Just long enough to get some fun photos with sisters and then it was back to bed for me! We also had our Mission Christmas party. That was fun but short lived ha ha I practically ran out of the room to get to the car... but once again I think I am going to be on the up swing of things soon! i have an appointment with the Urologist on Friday to figure out how to deal with "Several" Kidney stones. So we will see.
Week ending December 10, 2013
This last week was… difficult. My stomach got worse by far. I went to the drs. twice since I have last emailed. (ps before I forget sorry p-day is on Tuesday this week and next for mission wide temple trips!!! Wahoo!!!! So I will email on Tuesday afternoon next week!) Anyways the Dr. thought I had stomach ulcers so he put me on a different antibiotic. Well instead of helping my on again off again stomach pain my stomach went to hurting 24/7. So needless to say this week was difficult. I couldn’t sleep most nights and we had to come in from working a few times because I was in so much pain. I went back and the Dr. put me on a gluten free diet for the next few weeks. If that doesn’t work I have to go get a scope :/ Can’t wait for this pain to be gone ha. In spite of that though the work continued and we worked as hard as possible when I could. So here is my weekly update J
The work is going well here. It was slow but we still have had miracles! Brother Jonathan Tengbeh has been the largest miracle of our week by far! When I emailed last week, Jonathan was being persecuted by his housemates for meeting with us. Instead of dropping us to have a place to stay he chose to leave that house leaving himself homeless. Our ward jumped into action and are housing him for the time being. He is diligently seeking a place to live and job hunting as well. While he has been living with a ward member though he has been having gospel discussions with him every night and the progress has been amazing! We met with him on Wednesday night and taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He said he wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ and… is on date for baptism on Dec. 21st and he is the most amazing person I have met. His testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing and his love of the Book of Mormon is contagious. He makes me want to make myself more converted to this gospel. I am working on that everyday but I want to be like him. New to the truth and drinking it all in with pure joy. Make sense? Wonderful example. Here is the best part though. His wife and baby girl are stuck in Africa waiting for him to get a place for them to come to. He took a trip to the temple with the ward member he is living with this last week though and we wants to take his Wife and baby girl to the temple!!!! So sweet! I look forward to his lessons each day we meet with him! So inspiring!
Sister Alicia White is unfortunately back off date. :/ She is on date for Jan. 11th now. The 14th of December was too soon for her. She went swimming with her activity days group and it took her over an hour to get into the water :/ She is trying so hard to combat this fear but still needs to work on it. We are continuing to have faith though and we are praying that her faith will overcome her fear. She is very sweet and she wants to baptized in the worst way she is just so afraid of water!
Our investigator Sister Valerie Narjano is FINALLY progressing again! Sister Mullins and I started working with her in September and she hasn't been reading or coming to church, but we couldn't get ourselves to drop her. She is so sweet and loves having us over. This week she came to church again (Second time) and she read all of the scriptures and answered the questions we left for her! So glad that she is wanting to come closer to her Father in Heaven! I have loved seeing her grow! She really connects with Sister Thompson which is great! We are headed to her place after this though so I can teach her how to crochet ;)
Our Recent Converts The Bynum family came back this week! Sister Latrece Bynum called us on Monday and has been in contact with the Bishop every day since and is soooooo involved now. She is back on track and feeling the spirit work in her life! So happy that her and her son Jeremiah decided to come back to church and give it another try. She called us this morning sooooo happy with church and life and everything! So wonderful! She also has a great job opportunity! Wahoo I love seeing miracles happen in the lives of those that I am teaching. I know that they are coming because of their obedience to the Lord’s commandments. They make changes in their lives and he blesses them!
We also worked with a less active elderly couple named the Halls. Sweetest couple ever. The Husband Bill showed us his “train room”. He said that it took over a year to build. I have never seen something like it. So precise and detailed down to coal and bark dust and pebbles in the right spots. Dad you would love it!!!
I hope you all watched the Christmas devotional! So great!!!!!
So funny/crazy stories of the week:
We had a dinner appointment on Sunday and Sister Thompson and I got there just on time…. But we were late anyways. Here is why: There were chickens on the road. Yup. 5 chickens to be exact just wandering around. We found the house they belonged to and Sister Thompson and I herded the chickens back into their coop. I bet it was hilarious to watch!
Sunday night was an …. Adventure. We broke curfew by a long shot. But our mission president was involved so that’s okay. We were on our way home from our last appointment of the night when we got a call from our STL (Sister training leader) who happens to be companions with Sister Nudd at the moment. We found out that her bed was against the wall heater and she had tried to move it. In the process her leg rubbed up against the wall heater and burned her leg… bad. They called us to have us administer First aid. …… um….. ha that didn’t go so well. We showed up and I had her put her leg in the bathtub but it was bad. It was blistered a lot already and I didn’t know what to do. So we ended up going to the ER. Ya that was fun. It ended up being a second degree burn but I still had no clue what to do. When we got out of the exam room our mission president was there to greet us. Ha ha. Awesome!
Also on Monday (Yesterday) While my STL and I were in Drs. Appointments, Sister Thompson and Sister Nudd went on a mini exchange… and they got us a tree. His name is Trevor apparently. It is really a tree topper but it is sooo fun! We have two ornaments on it! An owl and a mustache. So fun.
Well that is our crazy fun filled, exhausting week in the life of a missionary!
Scripture of the week Jeremiah 17:7! If we have hope we cannot fail!
I love you all and I hope that you have a good week! I will send pictures of “Trevor” next week.
Love you!
Sister Jennifer Franzen
Week ending December 3, 2013
I’m officially a missionary!!! I made it through my twelve weeks of training! Wahoo!!! And I also made it through another transfer call….. and I am staying in NORMANDY PARK through the new year! I am soooo excited about this! I did not want to leave yet! Sister Thompson will be staying with me which is great since we have only been together for two weeks now ha ha .
I have still been sick so I had to go to the hospital and doctors this week which is a bummer but we were able to still teach 19 lessons this last week! WAHOO! Plus it looks like I may have my medical issues under control…hopefully.
We got to spend thanksgiving with an awesome family named the Gonzalez’s. Their son is serving a mission in Peru right now so they wanted missionaries here to make it feel like he was there too. We got so much delicious food. After Thanksgiving dinner we got to visit a family named the Ledrews. They didn’t get thanksgiving dinner due to health so we were able to take our leftovers to them and help them out. It was so sweet they gave us a “Christmas” present. It was a bag of rice. We know that is about all they can afford too and they thought of us and chose us to be the recipient! So honored ;)oh awesome story. We had a thanksgiving day activity as a mission and we played basketball and volleyball. One sister wanted to learn how to walk on her hands so I was helping her do handstands. As she was upside down in a handstand our mission president walks in. (Who is a General Authority) He asked “what are you doing?” she got so red in the face and came out of her handstand and said “Hi president” instead of getting upset though he asked if he could try! So he did!!! When he came down out of his handstand though his kicked my companion in the arm HARD… she is super bruised there now.
We are still working with getting Alicia baptized on Dec. 14th but her fear of water isn’t as intense anymore! She is also going swimming with the activity day girls tomorrow so there is a chance that she will actually get baptized!! YAY! We took Alicia to a baptism on Sunday night and it went really well. The only bad thing on our part was that we accidentally took her to a Spanish baptism. Oops. So she couldn’t understand what they were saying but we explained it and had her watch. She is so anxious to be baptized so I hope everything works out.
We unfortunately lost another investigator this week but that is okay. It was Sean who sister Mullins and I put on date so that is super duper sad but all is well. It wasn’t his time yet. Oh our Investigator Jonathan!!! Jonathan is from Sir Leon Africa, and he moved here three months ago. He had to leave his wife and baby girl behind in Africa but he moved here to try and get a job and place for them to live when he comes. We have been teaching his off and on for the past few months. Three weeks ago we were super busy and didn’t end up making it to his house. He hadn’t seemed very interested so we didn’t worry too much. The next weekend though he called us and asked us where we had been. He told us he missed us fellow shipping with him and helping him better understand Jesus Christ. So Sister Mullins (before sister Thompson came) and I rushed on over to his house and taught him a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He loved it! He came to church two weeks in a row. He didn’t come this Sunday and we were really bummed. He texted us yesterday and let us know that he was sorry he wasn’t at church. He then proceeded to tell us the family he was staying with has been persecuting him for taking the discussion with us so he moved out and was homeless!!!! We freaked out! So we called our Bishop and he jumped into action. He is staying with a ward member for a few days at least and looking for work. It was a miracle though. Jonathan was so polite and so happy for the help given. The man he is staying with called us this morning and said Jonathan has one of the most caring hearts of anyone he knows. And that he is really interested in the Gospel. Apparently they stayed up really late talking about the gospel for a long amount of time and he is really interested!!!! MIRACLES!
Well that is all for this week I hope you all have an amazing week and I will write more next week
KYI
Love Always
Sister Jennifer Franzen
Week ending November 25, 2013
This has been a great week! I have a new companion and her name is Sister Thompson! She is from Farmington Utah and guess what!!! She is shorter than me! Didn't know it could happen right? She has been on her mission for over a year and is teaching me a lot!
We had to adjust to having a surprise new companionship a little bit but we are working great together. She has been on her mission for a little over a year. She is super sweet and funny. We laugh a lot together which is a lot of fun. It is a little weird to adjust to a new companionship though. I am trying to make sure she feels 100% welcome here in Normandy park because it is awesome here!!!
I found a perfect location to get a picture of Mount rainier and the Puget sound together! Now I just have to time it right and get the sunset too! I will work on it! ;)
So funny story of the week. Our focus family (Active family the Bishop asks to have the missionaries go and visit) invited us over for dinner last night. We decided to do a gratitude activity. We found out that the dad has Narcolepsy! (Falls asleep with no notice) as we were writing things we were thankful for down he zonked!!! I mean snoring and everything! and then out of nowhere he sat bolt upright and said "Adversity" ha ha ha because that was something he was trying to write that he was thankful for. Sooooo funny. Sister Thompson and I weren't sure that it was real.
Our recent converts kind of fell of the face of the earth which is soooo hard. The Mom called and said she is not sure this is what she wants for her and her son anymore. That crushed me! This church is true and I have personally seen it touch not only my life but hers! She was happier and things were finally falling into place for her! We are NOT GIVING UP on her! She will feel the spirit again and
Miracle of the week:
one of our investigators moved a few weeks ago and we didn't have her new address to send her as a referral. She called us two nights ago and told us that she saw elders on the street one night and approached them and asked them where the church was and things. They talked to her and found out that Sister Mullins and I had been teaching her. She is now an investigator in the federal way mission and so is her 9 year old daughter! She went to church on Sunday and called us to tell us it was great! She is moving back to Normandy park in Jan. So we have to make sure that whatever missionaries are here then help her stay in the church so she can progress towards baptism!
So sorry this week is so short!!! Just know that I am so good and I love and miss you all! The work is going great and i will be sure to write you more about how people are progressing this next week!
Love you all
Sister Franzen
P.s. everyone NEEDS to read "Our search for happiness!" Please if you haven't pick up a copy and start reading it!
Week ending November 18, 2013
This week was crazy and wonderful. Ha crazy wonderful! We were supposed to have a baptism with our 9 yr. old investigator Alicia this last week but she has a phobia of Stairs and water. So the font freaked her out to the point that she had a panic attack. So we are going to try and work with her to not be so afraid of water. The Bishop has agreed to put her into swimming lessons to help her out with that. It was so sad to see her not breathing and so frightened. Sister Mullins and I both talked to her and told her that if she was that freaked out she should not be baptized that day but that we will work with the ward to get her comfortable with having water on her face for her new baptism date of Dec. 14th!
We got 4 new investigators this week! And Sister Mullins and I invited 3 people to baptism the first time we met him! Wahoo! That means we have increased by 300%! And one of them named Sean accepted the invite! The other two said maybe, but they both agreed to keep meeting with us and to learn more. It was the coolest experience! Sister Mullins and I were tracting and we both saw Sean sitting outside of his house and we both knew that he was the one and that we were going to put him on date. It turns out he had a really awful day, and that he was looking for a way to feel better. So we talked to him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He had heard some rumors growing up about the Mormons so he asked us some questions. We talked with him for a good bit and asked if we could meet with him regularly to teach him more about the gospel. He said yes and then we invited him to be baptized if he came to know that what we will teach him is true! He said yes!!! It was the best feeling in the world. The spirit was so strong and we felt like we could talk to everyone!!!
Two elders in our district got us two investigators through referrals and they are both on date for the 14th of December! We now have 4 investigators on date for that day ha (Alicia, Sean, Rochelle, and William!) So that was a great miracle. We had less lessons this week but I like to think they were more effective lessons. We gave two church tours! And giving more church tours has been one of our companionship goals!
We got the call this morning that Sister Mullins is being transferred today, because the Lord needs her elsewhere. I am sad that my “Mother” will be leaving me but I know that she is going where the Lord needs her. I have LOVED having her as my companion. I know that she and I will be lifelong friends (to the point we have talked about making road trips back to the mission together, being roommates, being in each other’s weddings one day etc. ) She really has become one of my best friends and I am excited to see who my new companion will be. I am confused how transfers will work in two weeks now though ha. So today will be full of crazy quick packing! But it will be full of fun with the spirit and we will both have amazing weeks with our new companions.
I am excited for this next week! My new companion and I will be raising our expectations for sure! We will be trying to reach a goal of 34 lessons taught this week. This is more lessons then I have taught yet on my mission but I know that it is possible, and we will have a great week full of tracting and street contacting! It is going to be a great week and I am ready to get to work!
I am no longer sick which is such a blessing! The meds the dr. gave me worked like a charm!
P.s. Dad happy early birthday! 51!!! you old man! ;) Love you!
Sorry this email is short but we have to go get Sister Mullins packed!
Also now that ward choir is cancelled we will be emailing earlier on Mondays! 10 am-12 somewhere in that time frame! Love you!
p.p.s I was supposed to sing with Sister Mullins at a funeral on sat. And now I may have to sing a solo. Yikes not cool!
Love you!!!
Sister Jenn Franzen
Week ending November 12, 2013
Jenn was running short on time so she sent us the letter she sent to her mission president.
Hello Family and friends! This week has been great! Due to the holiday I am emailing on Tuesday! I don't have much time so I am sending what I sent my mission president! I hope you all had a great week and I would love to hear from you!
President Choi,
This week has been crazy full of ups and downs! Luckily the downs were not really in missionary work but just other circumstances. I still did not feel good at ALL this week but thankfully I was able to go to the Doctor today. (PS that is why Sister Mullins and I are emailing this evening. We had to go to my dr. appointment around our normal lunch time so we switched emailing to dinner since I had to go.) I hopefully found out what is going on but only time will tell. The doctor gave me some meds and I should see a big improvement in my stomach pains in the next few days. With that being said I will be honest that missionary work was hard this week. Stairs KILLED! But I know that our Heavenly Father blessed me because each and every time Sister Mullins and I entered into a lesson the pain would go away and I would be okay… until the lesson ended and then whoosh the pain was back! I am so glad that he helped the pain subside when teaching so that I could be sure to feel the spirit! That was a really neat miracle for me to see.
In other news this week was crazy for a few various reasons. An interesting part of the week that might bring you a good laugh… I was peed on by a dog. Yup that was a great highlight to my day ;) In all reality though it gave me something really good to laugh at. I also accidently deleted all of my photos from my mission which I was devastated about but the Lord is so good. He blessed me with a few computer genesis living in the ward I am serving it. They were able to restore 100 of my 400 lost photos. So much better than nothing!!! So those were the challenging things… now on to the great things. Zone conference was wonderful!!! I loved hearing about our goal for baptisms in 2014 being 1200 souls in seattle Washington!!! I loved it even more that as missionaries we made goals that took us to 1600 souls to be prepared and baptized. I also love that my zone made a goal of 300 baptisms for 2014 and we bumped it up one baptism so that it could be 301 or “I am a child of God”. There is so much work to do and I know that it will be a hard, exhausting, and rewarding year. I am really ready to give it my all! Sister Mullins and I have a baptism for a 9 yr. old girl this week and we are ecstatic about it! I can’t wait to see who else the Lord is preparing for me to meet and help learn and grow in the gospel.
I am admittedly sad that choir is no longer happening, I am not a trained singer and it was great to learn from Sister Choi. I also know that choir has truly touched my missionary work. Today in fact Sister Mullins and I had an opportunity to put our singing to use. I was supposed to have an appointment at 1:50 today and for some reason they didn’t take me back until 2:30 so to still feel productive we sang hymns because there was 4 other people in the waiting room. It may seem crazy that we sang in a waiting room but when we finally went back one of the woman waiting thanked us. It was then that I realized “what better place to sing then somewhere where people don’t feel good and are looking for ways to feel better” Hello best medicine out there… the Gospel! So that was really fun. I am glad that I can take what I have learned from Choir and apply it to my missionary work!
This morning I was studying 3 Nephi 17. I love this chapter soooooo much! I don’t think there is a single verse where I didn’t find something important. Verse 4 in particular struck me by surprise though. It says (concerning the lost tribes of Israel): “They are not lost to the father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.” I could not help but think of the scriptures shared in Zone conference in Alma 26! We must go and teach the people of Seattle everywhere! Their streets, hills, homes, temples, EVERYWHERE! The lord is preparing the people and waiting for us to do our part to find them! I am trying to do my part to find the people that are waiting and I know this week will be even better than this last week! Thanks for everything you and Sister Choi do! I will miss seeing you both on Mondays but that is okay! Onward to Zion! Sing, Sing, Sing. TO ZION!
Sister Franzen
P.s. sister mullins and I won our car inspection and look at our reward!!!
Oh ya! Golden Plates :) Hope you are all doing great! I love you and will write more this next week!!!
P.s. keep the Philippines in your prayers! I know some missionaries there/from there! Luckily all missionaries are safe and accounted for but others are not so lucky!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)