Ward Game Night

Thanks for your emails!

This week was very fun, but went by so fast. When anticipating transfer calls, the time will go by so slow, but will then soon pass you by, as the tricksy tortoise always does.

The weather is cooling down, so we are so happy. I love it, it sure makes it easier to be comfortable and happy when you talk to people on the street.

We met with Pastor XXXX on Tuesday like usual. He's great. His wife couldn't come, but we were still able to discuss doctrine. It seems that as soon as we started teaching him, I started to notice articles and talks in the Liahona about teaching simply, teaching only pure doctrine, and avoiding speculation. That helps a lot, because of course he wants to go deep into what each translation means, and sometimes that gets jumbled. We explained clearly our belief on baptism and eternal marriage, and he explained what he learned about baptisms for the dead. I love talking with him, but it seems that at the end of the lessons, he chalks it up to 'well, this is your translation and interpretation, and this is my interpretation.' But he still has potential. I quite enjoy meeting with him.

We referred the two girls we met to the sisters, and it turns out they're really prepared. They don't have a religion, but are looking for something.

A while ago we met a grandpa that keeps calling because he wants chocolate. Korean chocolate isn't good for you. And naturally, since I'm American, I carry around American chocolate with me. When you sent me the s'mores kit (THANK YOU THANK YOU!!), we met with him and gave him some chocolate. He was really grateful.

We also met with our new investigator, the one that called us a week or two ago and came to church. He's a b boy, a dancer like Andrew Dransfield. he's really nice, and super humble. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! We haven't set a date, but I have a feeling it will be before the end of this month. He's great.

We spent the next day preparing for the game night. We sat down, made flyers, gave them to all of our members at their homes, then the next day, called all of them, then sent a mass text the next day. We really wanted a lot of people to come. It was a big success. We didn't get the attendance we wanted, but we had about 40-50 people show up, not including the missionaries. It was fun, we met members, less actives, and investigators in our stake. We played a lot of 'minute to win it' type games. We were in charge of the chopstick stacking game. They used chopsticks to stack caramels. That was interesting. They were all so good at using chopsticks so the games were intense. At the end we all tied balloons to our ankles and had a game to pop others' balloons while protecting ours. Then we played ping pong soccer, using your breath to protect your side of the table. That was so fun. We had our president show up, and he was a good sport and played all of the games! It was a lot of fun.

So overall, this week was super stressful, trying to put together a whole stake activity, but we saw miracles through it all.

I love you all!

Elder Franchina