Week of September 15, 2014

Well I guess Elder Franks didn't feel like writing today a letter, he did chat with me and said that he is having mix emotions about coming home, he is scared and doesn't want to leave Colombia.  He loves the people and the country.  Colombia Barranquilla mission has been good to him but we as his family are excited for him to come home.....next week!!!!  Yeah

Week 19 (September 15, 2014)

How is everyone???? 

My week was pretty good. First of all we went to Salta for a conference. We had Elder Zabello (I think is his name) from the quorum of the 70 come. It was really fun. His wife gave a really good talk about being better missionaries. Friday we went to Jujuy to do a service project with our stake. For the Mormon's helping hands day. It was really fun we had a place to cut hair and also to donate blood. And it was by a stop light and everythime the cars stopped lots of the members would run into the street and hurry and wash their windows while the missionaries talked to them. It was pretty funny to see. 

We are teaching a Family. The Family Ruiz. I love them so much. We are teaching the mom and her 2 daughters. Her husband is a police man. And Fabiana (the mama) is worried that he isn't going to let her get baptized. If you could please pray for their family that would be wonderful.

Today one of the members of our ward cut our hair for us and then we went back to our apartment and made tacos and rice and peach cobbler. Yeah It was pretty much delicious. It was really wonderful because they are not tacos or burritos here. And the don't eat alot of heat. Like jalepeños. But me and hermana ramirez (the hermana with live with from mexico) love it alot. I love hermana Ramirez we are really close. I'm glad that we live together. Her companion right now is a little hard. She is a little weird. And Hermana Ramirez said that its really hard to teach with her. But we love all of gods children no. My companion is good. we get along good. She is a little disty but she is a good missionary. 

How is my family? How is life in grass valley?

I want you guys to know that i love our family so much. Yes i miss you guys a ton. But i know i am exactly where i need to be. I am so thankful foe the church. and that our parents raised us in such a wonderful place. I am so thankful for the example of my brother for having served a mission. And i am so thankful for my sisters 2 of my best friends in the whole world. I am especially thankful for my parents. My family is definitely a gift from my heavenly father. Thank you so much for your love and support. I love you all with all my heart. Have a Good Week.

LOts of love From Argentina.

Hermana Franks.

Week of September 8, 2014

so hows my trunky family doing? haha guess what 2 WEEKS ha no but ya I'm doing good. super happy and just keepen on chugging away. I'm not writing much but ya I'm all good here. Mel stay away from boys oiste, and Brit i love you and your letter. the part about the oil, so funny hahaha. and Marisa, where are you? i have not seen nor heard anything from you for literally years. whats up sista? 

anyway really I'm not writing much because I'm going to be able to tell you everything in poco tiempo. 

love you all so much and I'm just super excited and cant wait to see you guys again. 

love from COLOMBIA

Elder Franks

P.S. Hermana Franks, lo siento si esta carta la hizo que sientas mal. pero de igual forma te quiero mucho. y te extraño tambien

Week 18 (September 8, 2014)

So i got a new companion. She is from Peru. She is really nice, I really like her alot. She is so excited to work with me. 

She has 6 months in the mission. 

I am doing good. I have an allergy to bug bites.They are only on my legs.  I think its from mosquito's...but I'm fine. I talked with the mission presidents wife and all i have to do is wash my legs then put some antibacterial cream on the bug bites. Yes mom i use the oil. 

This week we are going to go to Salta for a reunion with a general authority but we don't know which one. I am so excited. 

Today I'm super tired but all is well. Everyday i think.. this waking up at 7 everyday will get easier and easier...but i does not.. its like school all over again. But with more work. And less sleep. Here we  cant sleep in on Saturdays or anything. Its awful:( 

 How is everyone at home? I still  want to hear from my sisters. And Brennan we are not getting close because some of us are a little bit farther from home....

Oh my banana bread is a house favorite and so is my french toast. Yesterday i made a pizza that was pretty good too. Oh and i make a pretty good spaghetti sauce. I start by roasting 2 or 3 whole tomatoes and half an onion in a pan with 1 clove of garlic them i add some type of pepper. like a jalapeno. then i put it in the blender with a little bit of pepper and salt and oil and a little bit of basil and there it is.Yep its delicious.  Oh and a Carmel sauce that is rico also. I always new the food network station was a good channel.

Anyways love you all so much. I will write more next week.

Love, Hermana Franks

Week of September 1, 2014

So first things first.....how is everyone? haha no this week was good. to tell you all about the conference that we had with Elder Christoffferson, it was sick hahahaha. no actually we had Elder Christofferson, Elder Soares, And Elder Wadell. all three general authorities. so totally wicked hahaha. um oh ya and this week was a week of eating weird stuff. first i ate a snail rice, yes you read right, SNAIL RICE ha then like two days later i ate......no you are not ready, really not ready ........still not ready, ha i ate pig and cow foot beans, yes you read right again, pig and cow foot or hoof beans. hahahahaha what the. no really funny story with the last one. we went to lunch just normally and we ate everything. the bean did taste alittle weird but I've learned that its better to just not ask. so i ate it all then i did the unthinkable, i asked and my response was just that. cow and pig hoof. i could not believe it. so finally i will have some good stuff to tell the seminary kids. 

um so today was good. we just went to the market again to finish up a few things i needed and we went to a pretty nice restaurant. i went with Elder Thompson, and Elder White. my two really good friends from the mission. you guys will be able to meet them both i promise. actually elder white will be in the airport when i come home. um que mas?

how is everyone Spanish? i hope good because its one thing to type and another to speak again in English. 

um que mas? the people I'm teaching right now are alright. we are teaching alot of kids which kind of bugs. that's all we had when i got to the area. but I'm hoping for the best. that one of them we be ready to go before i leave.

anyway i think that's all for this week

i love you all and we re getting close ha.

Love from Colombia,

Elder Franks

Week 17 (September 1, 2014)

Hola mi familia, 

Well how is everyone? How is life going? It sounds like everyone is happy and doing well. 

I am doing ok. To be honest this was probably one of the hardest weeks of my whole mission. And quite possibly my whole life. But i know the importance of every moment and every experience that i have here in my mission. 

I am happy and i am glad that i chose to serve a mission. 

The Spanish is coming a long great i can talk with and understand pretty much everyone, but there are days that its really hard especially those days when I'm frustrated. 

But the food is great. And there are little funny things that happen everyday. Like the other day we walked around then corner and there was this guy just peeing in the middle of the road. And im pretty sure that im the only one that saw. Man the things that happen in Argentina. 

But how are you all doing? How is everything at home? 

Sorry I don't have alot of time. But i want you all to know that i love you sooo much. You are the most important people in my life. I miss my family so much. but i believe in what I'm doing and i know the importancia of this work. 

I hope to hear from you all next week. LOve you tons. 

Hermana Franks.}

Girls send my fotos of your school clothes and brennan let spanish become a part of you live it and love it.

Week of August 25, 2014

haha todo bien fam.

so first off, thanks for all the birthday wishes. i had an alright day yesterday....ok really it was just a normal day. nothing special. but today was cool.every Monday we wake up at 6 to start washing clothes and at 6:30 we go play soccer. so we did that as usual and at the end there was a couple of missionaries that wanted to take a picture. so we started to pose and they put me in the front. so reacting quickly without thinking i went in the front and all of a sudden everyone just started pounding me with eggs. haha that's a latin or missionary tradicion I'm not sure which but that's what happened. i would send pictures but i don't have them yet, so next week. so that was pretty cool then we ate some cake. it was nice. 

um and I'm super excited for this week. so i said it last week but this Thursday we re going to be visited by elder christofferson. so m way excited to be taught by him. oh another cool thing. the lady that is going to translate for his wife is in our ward and Sunday i got to spend some time with her helping her get ready to translate. it is cool and it made me even trunkier because4 she speaks English really well and i miss just listening to people talk in my language. but ya not much this week. my companion and i are great and well just excited to work. I'm ready to finish but I'm excited to keep working as well. the truth is is that i am anxious to come home but sometimes i don't want to. I'm scared about starting basically a new life. I've become so accustomed to this one that i don't know any other.but we will see what happens soon enough.

anyway love you guys so much and i will talk to you all soon 

Love from Colombia,

Elder Franks

Week 16 (August 25, 2014)

Hola mi familia, How is life? I cant believe that the girls are already in school. How crazy. How is everybody? Marisa and Melanie how is school? Mom and Dad how is work?  we didn't have a baptism but its ok with faith we will have in one soon.  

Well i love you all hope you have a good week. Sorry for the short letter.

Love you all with all my heart!

Mucho amor de Argentina.

Hermana Franks

Week of August 18, 2014

Hola Mi Trunky Familia,

hey so to start off with the big news about transfers......well I'm now in ......Cartagena again. my companion is from Bolivia. he has a year in the mission. I'm still district leader. i will be honest it was really hard for me to leave Santa Marta. i really loved it, even if there wasn't any water and my area was terrible because i had several semanas that i couldn't really work but that's alright. like i have always believed in the mission and especially with transfers is that when God wants a change you just have to go along for the ride and work hard. but as well some positive things happened. i am in the zone where my two best friends from the mission are and one is in my district. their names are Elder White and elder Thompson. they are in my group and are going home with me. so that was an upside. and i have already talked to one of my really good friends. the guy who's like 36 or so. i think i sent pictures home before. hes the one that we used his office to do our skype. so that was cool. it was so funny to see his face when he saw me. anyway ya that are things here. my new area is good but the only baptisms that we have planned until now are just kids. no but life is good and hot her in the big old Colombian heat on the good old coast.

anyway i love you guys and hope that all is well. ill be seeing you in 5 weeks hahahahahahahaha

with lots of love 

From Colombia,

Elder Franks

Week 15 (August 18, 2014)

Well my family....

How are things?? Sounds like everyone is having fun and loving life. And getting ready for school! How crazy Its already time for school to start. 

Well Hna. Brown leaves this Sunday. We aren't sure what will happen with me. Hna. brown is going home earlier than the rest of her group because she is is going to start school on the 2. I know crazy huh. Yeah so transfers aren't for another 2 or 3 weeks. So I'm not sure what will happen but its alright. 

Yesterday Darling came to Church. And she is going to get baptized this weekend!!!!!!! Wohoo my first baptism.. Oh we are so excited! All week long we´ve been praying for a miracle and each day we have found little miracles but i think they were all building up for this. I am so excited.  

I know that you are all getting excited for Brennan to come home but please don't forget about your other missionary in Argentina! I mean i know you guys will be busy having fun in school and spending time with Brennan but I still need you to write. And whats the deal with Marisa???? Why haven't i received an email from her!!??? Is she to busy to write her sister? Has she already forgotten about me???? Tell her to write me:)

Yeah so here we don't have dinner appointments we have lunch appointments because lunch is the big meal here. Yesterday we had lunch at a members house. We had locro...i don't know if i told you about it before but it is definitely not one of my favorites. We had it once before and this time it was a little better but still... Anyways what it is, is intestines...and carne and sausage and beans. Its a thick soup and it is not my favorite!!! After we ate they showed us of everything that goes in it. Yeah beans sausage carne this aquash thing and intestines.... 

So Mel and Mis cut their hair. wow:) what an adventure.
Anyways, well I love you all  so much and I'm so thankful for my family!! I'm thankful for my sisters and my brother and especially my parents. Hope you all have a good week and try not to have to much fun! 

Much love from Argentina,

Love Hermana Franks!