Bueno, Bueno, BUENO!!! March 31, 2014 email

How´s it going everybody! I hope the world is green and warming up where
you´re at. So lets see what has gone on this week. Oh this week I can send you my b-day pics so you can be sure I enjoyed my first birthday here en mexico!!1 So last Monday we went to this giant Christus statue that is on top of this hill in Culiacan and you can look all around and see the city and it is pretty big and also pretty with the mountains in the background. Then after that we walked over to Walmart and I bought a 21 pack of Ritz crackers for 60 pesos or like 5 bucks and then a 6 pack of snickers for 3 bucks. Oh and we also bought pops at the sams club eatery and drank ourselves sick with like 3 refills and all the while i am thinking of diabetes. Well so that was a fun day with us 6 missionaries and I just thought about how great the mission is. Just to have a baptism soon would complete the picture.

Well we shall see but also a question for mom. For this next month I am thinking about changing my eating diet. Every day except for mondays we eat with a member and you know mexicans there is always alot of food and so I feel or actually I know i am getting fatter and since I cant work it off and go for a 8 mile run when i feel that way i need to change the eating routine that i got. I am thinking of buying this powder to make shakes that is called Herbal life and it has all the nutrients and such that you need to keep going and also a protien mix for the morning workouts and a herbal supplement too. That would replace my snacking and junk food eating while i am here cuz i am NOT coming home fat. So what do ya think MOm? Its just that I think I can live off the daily member meal and for breakfast maybe cereal or the shake and in the night maybe the shake and some fruit.

For a spiritual thought this week I have two quick ones from experiences with inactive members. First one we went to visit an ex bishop and ex misionary that is very well off with his real estate business and we got to know him really well and then we straight up and asked him and his wife why they hadnt been going to church for the last two years. And then they told us that they had had problems with members in their old ward and when they moved they decided to "take a break" from the church but that they still knew the church is really good and that they were still firm in there beliefs and this got me thinking. How can we take a "break" from the church? That goes against many things but mainly that you cant think you are better than the church, you cant think you are strong enough on your own and when one is stagnant they are actually moving in the wrong direction. Its like a car on the hill of life. You must always be pressing onward and up ward for if you "take a break" and put it in neutral you WILL slide back even if you think you arent purposefully driving down the hill in the wrong direction. The primary answers come into play here that you should pray, go to church, read the scriptures and this consistency in the small and simple things is what leads to bigger and more glorious things and I think they had forgotten these simple things and we cant affor to take a break from them not on our life because what would we do if God took a break from us. We just cant.

Also another less active has never really been active and smokes and drinks and since her husband died she hasnt gone but we have talked to her and she knows that the church is good and wants that her kids go. This in the first place is hard to do when you say "do what i say but not what i do" and how can her kids be strong and faithful with the support of their mom. She also told us that she likes the life that she is living, the life of the party, but..... she has a fear of her Heavenly Father because she knows what she is doing is wrong. This made me think that I too have vices or weaknesses that I dont want to change and made hide from my Father in fear but that it should never be that way. I told this sister that she should not have fear of her Father in Heaven and that there is always hope. I hope to talk to her and help her see the everlasting and eternal blessings of a righteous life and that her life may need alot of change but it is worth it. Some times when i dont want to change I am blinded to the eternal perspective of the better life i can have if i put my effort into changing something.

Also watched 17 Miracles the movie and was really touched by the perseverance and unselfishness of the pioneers. I need to be unselfish and turn my self to the Lord and His will.

Well got to go but good to talk to you guys

Love you so much and keep up the good work!!

Elder Frandsen#1