The storm

The waves pound.
Wind howls
All are wet with despair.
Though one stands at the helm
Declaring we are all heirs.
He is surrounded by light.
Peace flows to our souls
as he declares with his might:
"Peace, be still."
The waves fall
the storm has passed
for Christ is at the helm.

The Carpenter

Rough, Coarse, Hard
Stubborn, Dull, Lifeless.
In his hands everything changes.

Shaping, sweating, suffering

He places all his strength to the task.
Never losing sight of the potential he sees.

Rough, Coarse, Hard
Learning, Listening, Living.
In his hands everything changes.

Lifting and loving each piece.

He places all his strength to the task.
Never losing sight of the potential he sees.

Rough, Coarse, Hearing
Learning, Loving, Laughing.
In his hands everything changes.

In his hands perfection is set in motion.
In his hands all are safe.
In his hands everything changes. 

The Artist

The whole world is his canvas.
He paints pain in red,
Joy in yellow,
and confusion in darkness.
The canvas is alight with colors and patterns,
Continually changing at his hand. 
My pain... my red
He lovingly covers with his own crimson. 
While my red is pain his is blood.
Crimson becomes hope.
A chance to see beauty. 
He has covered my canvas. 
I am crimson. 
I am beauty.
 

The life of a returned missionary...

My time as a  missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints has come to an end, but 
the impact it has made on my life is far from over. I can honestly say that my mission opened my eyes, and helped me to recognize my role in our Father in Heaven's work. In the Doctrine in Covenants section four it states: "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;" I recognized over the course of my mission that I have been called to be an instrument in our Father's hands... not just for 18 months, but for my whole life. This has led to a lot of reflection over the last couple of weeks since I have returned home. As a missionary I spent 24/7 walking on the streets and talking to people about our savior Jesus Christ. It was the most demanding work of my life and I loved it. It tore me down, it brought me to the point that I was raw. It was the most vulnerable I have ever been, and yet it was a good thing. I was raw in a way that allowed me to overlook myself and turn to my savior in order to see the need of those around me. I allowed our savior to guide me, mold me, and use me in whatever way he needed in order to reach out to those around me. The Lord truly protected me in my travels, and He led me to those that needed Him most at that time. Since coming home, I have been struggling to find a way to continue to see how I can be apart of this work that I have been called to. 
A few nights ago, when I was calling upon the Lord I felt very strongly that my mission has not ended, but the method in which the Lord will use me has changed. I felt that I needed to continue using this blog as a way to share the Good word of our Lord and Savior. I hope that my inner thoughts and feelings can help someone else on their journey with Christ. Here was some of my thoughts from a personal study a few days ago..."I have been feeling as though very few impactful things have been happening in my life since I returned from my mission. I want to follow the Lord's will and I want more than anything to be married... but How am I ever to do that If I am not allowing my high expectations to increase?How am I to continue to have a rock solid foundation if I am not feeding it? I need to find the time to read more than a few verses of scripture a day. I spent 18 months studying extensively... that is all for nothing if I don't continue to do so now. I know that life will find more meaning as I continue to put the Lord first. I need to hold myself accountable and start making goals/expectations for myself. This is NOT the time for me to slack up. I prayed to have my questions answered through General Conference and they were! (LDS church meeting that happens 2 times a year. Learn more here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng) L. Whitney Clayton talked in conference about choosing to believe. Each week that I partake of the sacrament (communion) I am CHOOSING to believe. That is the most important use of my agency I can ever have. This choice cannot be idle though. President Uctchdorf of the First Presidency had a talk about two brothers jumping off a cliff into a pool of water. One was getting scared and the other said: "Brother I'm Committed"... and jumped. If we follow the council in Joshua 24:15 ad we "choose" to follow Christ we must choose NOW to be commuted to continue to be a truth seeker, a light seeker.  I choose today and everyday to believe. I choose today to try each day to increase my testimony and to stand as a daughter of my Father in Heaven. I choose... to Believe. "

Thanks for listening...
Jenn

Week Ending March 3rd, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

I cannot believe that 18 months has come and gone... It feels like I left my home yesterday... and yet sometimes it feels like I left a millennia ago. So much happened in this last week, but as this in my last chance to email all of you as "Sister Franzen" I would like to take the chance to share my testimony with all of you.

I would like to steal some words from another dear Sister Missionary:

"I found a quote to perfectly explain my mission this week

"If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill. The Lord is anxious to lead us to higher grounds"

My mission has been the hardest thing in my entire life. But it has been such a special thing that I would never trade for the world."

I too feel the same way about my mission... 4 areas, 13 companions, having to wear a boot, kidney stones for over 10 months of my mission, having to go gluten free, horrible car crash, having 2 companions get sick and have to go home... Missions are tough... but I would not have it any other way. My mission has truly been the best preparation I could possibly have for my future.

I love my savior. I know that He was born to save me, He lived to save me, He died to save me, and He was resurrected to save me. He is and will always be my everything. I cannot go through life without my savior… it is too hard, too heavy. But that is the beautiful thing about this gospel… we don’t HAVE to do it on our own… ever. Christ is there for us every single step of the way…. He is standing at the door knocking… WAITING to rescue us. If we will but open the door to him, he can enter in.

I know with all my heart that God is STILL a God of miracles. I have 18 months worth of a daily journal full of them if you ever need proof that he lives and loves us. I saw him change lives every day… It was the most amazing and powerful feeling to be able to see him close the mouths of those that tried to tear down our faith and desecrate the name of the Savior… I saw this again last night. God is so loving and so amazing.

I have seen Satan and his minions try with all their might to tear others down. Whether my making them think that they are not good enough, or by making things around them fall apart… but I have seen what “Just one small seed” can do. Just ONE seed of faith changes people’s lives and gives them hope. I saw this in the lives of the families I was able to teach J Satan cannot have power over us as we turn to the savior and give him our life… we are protected, blessed, safe.

I know with all my heart that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that it truly does carry us. I know that God is reaching out to us still as he has in times of old through a prophet on the earth once again. True, prophets are just men and they make mistakes too, but I know that God is still leading and guiding us just as he has in times past… with a foundation set upon apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God just as the Bible is. I love the feeling of peace and comfort I get as I read both books of Scripture. I love that I can turn to my Father in Heaven at any time and ask him with a sincere heart if what I am reading is true, and I KNOW he will answer me! I know He will answer anyone that goes and asks with a sincere heart because he is Truth and light and He cannot be deceived. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ once again on the earth. I know this because I have 1. Studied, 2. Fasted, 3. Prayed to get my answer directly from My Father in Heaven. I know that God hears and answers us. I know that He loves us.

I have loved my mission... I have not wanted to leave but I have been praying and thinking a lot about what my mission president told me in my last interview and I am now ending with the beginning in mind. I have created an action plan on how I will continue to be a missionary in my home ward. I still do not want my mission to end... but I know that it does not have too. I am simply receiving a permanent outside of mission boundaries transfer ;) I will forever and always be a missionary... I love the Lord and I know that I cannot deny it, he has changed me and made me whole and I have seen him do that for others over and over. I love this gospel.

I leave this testimony with all of you in the name of our Dear and sweet savior and redeemer, even Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love,
Sister Jenn Franzen

Week Ending February 23rd, 2015

This week was so great! It was full of Miracles... and some disappointments... but what would missionary work be like without the ups and downs?

On monday of this last week our new investigator dan dropped us... but no worries... we found two more "dans" to teach during the week... Not sure why we are only teaching dans but we will go with it :)

Highlights of this week that I will touch on:

1. I taught another Dance Class

2. We had a "gun pulled on us" 

3. We had not one... not two... but three people come up to us and tell us they were praying for us to find the poeple we are meant to teach

4. My companion and I went to dinner and... more later on that one. 

5. We had another high lesson week

6. I got to see Jill this week :) 

Okay... so the Primary president of the Duvall ward has a friend that has no interest in the church what soever but loves to come to fun activities... So out of an effort to help this friend have more friends we help a dance class. I got to teach ballet to 8 young moms... oh they were hilarious. They were hard to teach because they were ALL chatty Kathy's... but they had fun and that is what matters :) 

So my companion and I were tracting out in the "boonies" and we met a man named Dan. We talked to him for a time, we sang and then we had a prayer with him. As we went to shake his hand he pulled a hand from behind his back and he was holding a hand gun. My companion and I didn't even notice until he said "sorry... we get some scary folk out here sometimes and I wasn't sure who was at my door so I came prepared... sorry ladies not trying to scare you." then he set the gun on a table so we could shake hands... Ha even though he was nice, we ran and got out of the boonies after that ha ha 

Right after that we were walking back to our car and a car pulled by us stopped, turned around and came back. At first we were nervous but then a nice man named cory stopped and told us that he felt like he needed to come back and tell us that we were about a good work. He let us know that while he doesn't agree with all of our beliefs he supports what we are doing and he prays for our success daily. (This happened two more time during the week!)

We went to a thai place for dinner one night because we did not want to cook ha ha... well a lady came in and sat behind us... we ended up talking to her for over 40 min. about God, families, faith, hope, health, and life. It turns out that her Husband is very ill and the only break she gets as his caregiver is when she goes out to get food... she bore her heart to us and we listened... She needed it... we were not expecting anything out of it... but in the end it turns out she covered our bill when we got ready to leave. Such a kind and amazing woman.. That was a really sweet experience :)

We had 43 lessons this week! Duvall is doing great! Not a lot of investigators right now, but we are working on it :)

We had a member and missionary fireside this week (my last one :'(... ) and i got to see Jill! oh that made me sooooo happy! 

God is so good and he made extra sure that we felt loved here in Duvall! Miracles are everywhere :) I love being a missionary! I hope you all have an amazing week. 

Love,

Sister Jenn Franzen

2

Jill Webb :)

 Sister Choi :)

Week Ending February 16th, 2015

This was another amazing week in Duvall! There is so much to tell you, and so little time in which to do so... So our mission has this new rule... where we keep our apts. spotless... We  have had a big push on cleanliness in the past, but more so now. Now we have to have our apts. be at the same rating as the Temple.... Nothing can be out or on counters. All our study stuff has to be put away each day. (We can't even keep blenders and toasters on our counters) it's crazy... but super duper clean :) Anyways... on P-days we have to stay in our apt now until the whole zone has an apt. rating of 2.0 on a 1-5 scale... so We did not get out until noon today... Really eats at our day, but our apt. is very clean :) So in order to get everything else we need to done today I will have to make this quick... So I will just touch on the highlights of our week.... 

#1 I don't know how... but this last week we exceeded my all time high of lessons taught on my mission. We taught 44 different people this last week... I don't even remember teaching that many people... time is flying by ;)

#2 We were able to invite one of our inv. to be baptized, and she accepted ;) I love helping people make commitments to the Lord. 

#3 We were able to get so much done this week! I am really finishing on a strong note... We had interviews with President Choi this week, and he told me that he is proud of me and thankful for the work that I have done :) 

okay two stories that I just have to share... Not so spiritual but this was our week... 

#4 It was BEAUTIFUL out this week and we got to help a lady in our ward work on her garden. (Her daughter is handicapped and she cannot get much done while also watching her... so we helped out... in skirts;) oh yeah)

A sister that was serving from the Duvall ward came home from her mission this week. She served in the Philippines and it turns out that she and I were in the MTC together and never knew it! Anyways she got home this last Wednesday... and she was engaged by Friday! WOAH! That is crazy crazy fast... but she is super happy and she was a big help to us this week. She is going to go out with us a lot this week. Her and her fiance went tracting with us last night and we were having no success! Thankfully there were no door slams ha ha but no one was really interested in talking with us. (maybe because there were four random strangers standing on their porch ha ha ha)  But then... there was a man walking on the opposite side of the street so I told our "group" we were going to cross the street so we could talk to him. We did and you should have seen the look on this mans face! He looked like a mob was coming after him... poor guy... thankfully we began talking and things got better. His name is Dan. He has a belief in God but he said that it is not an active faith. We asked if he wanted to strengthen his relationship with God and he said YES! so We invited him to keep meeting with us and learn more and he accepted! Miracles!!!

Another night we were tracting and we have about 30 min. left to knock on doors. we knocked on this door and a young man named kyle answered. Kyle is super duper nice. He is a physics major at UW. He talked to us for a long time. he told us that he does not believe in God, but he does want to build on his faith and he is interested in meeting with us to learn more! It was awesome! He is super open minded... He asked if we were in school and we explained that we take a break from school and stuff while we are on our missions. I told him that I was done with school... so he asked what I studied. I told him that I got a BA in Dance and focused on Modern and Ballet... BAM This guy started doing the ballet positions on his doorstep and asked how he was doing ha ha ha ha turns out he took ballet when he was in Elementary school at PNB. He has since quit but he does still have nice turn out... That was a funny moment for me. He then asked if he could take a dance class from me if I taught sometime...ha I said we would have to see and we went on our way ha ha it was super funny and weird at the same time. 

On to the best story of all... disclaimer... missionaries... yes missionaries can make poor judgment choices sometimes...  

So We have a ward member that really loves cats and her cat recently died. She is super lonely and we were trying to cheer her up. We were driving in the middle of no where in our area (boonies) and we saw a kitten on the side of the road. We both decided instantly that we needed to "catch the kitten" for our member... nevermind the fact that A. the kitten could have been feral... of B. it Could have belonged to someone.... anyways we decided to turn around and go back for the kitten. We did so (this road has turn around about every 2-3 miles just for an idea of how dedicated we were to this task) and Sister Thinn pulled over I opened the door and the kitten ran... so we decided that we needed to turn around and not park so close to the kitten. We did so and got back to the same spot after driving another 5 miles or so round trip. Sister Thinn then said "okay I am going to pull over, you will hop out and grab it and then we will be on our way" to which I instantly agreed (why you ask? I still have no clue....) So she pulled over and I hopped out... well at that exact same moment a car came around the corner about 100 ft away so I told her there was a car... but instead of jumping back into the car she drove about 30 feet in front of me leaving me standing on the edge of a ditch ha ha... realizing I was too close to the road I made a quick decision. instead of running back to the car where sister thinn was I saw the ditch and decided to jump it... (stupid I know...) anyways.. I jumped the ditch... it was mudd from all of the rain and instead of landing on hard ground I slid into the ditch and landed in water... thankfully only to my shins.. ha ha but I was covered in Mudd... The car that was coming started to slow down to see if I was okay... realizing that they would ask questions I decided to get out of the ditch and run back to the car... We did so and the minute I got back inside sister thinn and I looked at each other and both said "what are we doing?!?!?" We could not stop laughing but we realized how dumb we were being and stopped trying to get the kitten... bad thing... I landed in stinging nettle ha ha so we had to go back into town and we went to the family grocer.... where... miracles we ran into our investigator Erika that we have not seen in a while.... So considering that neither of us have any clue what got into us... we figure that we needed a reason to go to the store so stinging nettle was that reason for us... weird but sooooooo funny.

So I don't share this because it was dumb ha ha because it was... but wanted to show that miracles are found in EVERY situation! cool huh? It was an amazing week and we cannot wait for this upcoming week! Don't worry no catnapping will be involved in our week :) 

I love seeing miracles in God's work and I love being a missionary!
I hope you all have an amazing week! 

I love you all soooooo much!

Love always, 
Sister Jenn Franzen