Best of Times!

Well... I can honestly say I'm the happiest I've ever been.

The Lord is so good to me.

I'm not really sure where to begin... There's no way I'll be able to describe EVERYTHING that has happened in the last few days. But I'll start with this:
A while ago I was feeling particularly selfish and a little down in the dumps. It was my first day back on Facebook after an eight month absence and I can't say I had a super great attitude about it. Having my whole home life right there in front of my eyes was kind of a huge slap to the face... just a bit of a shock. The world had indeed gone right on without me. My RM friends had warned me of this... and I knew that this realization would be had at some point. (However, I thought it would be around the time I stepped off the plane to come home. Haha. Wrong again.) But nonetheless I started to worry... And asked myself some "dumb" questions (something I highly discourage anyone from doing)... Such as, " Am I where I need to be?" "Has everyone forgotten me?" "Am I even making a difference here?" "Will I ever learn how to use Facebook effectively?" "Does anyone love me?".... Well, that night I went home and actually asked God these very questions.
In the last three days I got very much a "NOW do you see?? Oh ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" kind of answer.

It started with Aurelia...a sweet little lady from Mexico. She came to English Classes and has interest in learning more about coming to our church services and learning about our beliefs! Plus, she already has friends who are in our ward, how perfect is that! Cool thing to note about her is that if you saw the Instagram photo of me and my comrades street contacting with lemonade, she is the woman that I'm talking to in the picture. Lesson learned! Talk to everyone! You never know who might listen to you!

The next day we taught a lesson to Jeremiah and Rosie and Rosie's husband Eddie. Sister Jorgensen gave an INCREDIBLE, inspired lesson. Everyone was in tears! Eddie informed us that he would be coming to church for the first time in more than 6 months. The whole family would be there together, finally!! However, it broke my heart when I saw the look on Sister Jorgensen's face when she realized we wouldn't be there on Sunday to see it. We had planned to attend the baptismal service of Graciela in Woodside. Sister Jorgensen had been working with this family for her entire mission, and had never seen them ALL at church together. And now I was going to make her miss it. She reassured me many times that she was more than happy to go to the baptism with me and she was not about to let me stay home for her sake. But I still felt bad. I lost quite a bit of sleep over it that night.

Came to find out the next day that my district leader, Elder Erickson (the saint that he is) (apparently, it was Elder Goates' idea to begin with.. He's a saint too) went ahead and arranged an exchange with the English ward sisters so that I could go to the baptism in Woodside with Sister Freeze, and Sister Jorgensen could stay here in Midwood with Sister Blosil to be with the Castro Family and our THREE investigators who planned to come to church. WHAT A BLESSING. We both would got to go to our respective Events!
Sunday morning is one I will never forget. All four of us Sisters went to the Midwood English ward's sacrament meeting.. as that was the only one Sister Freeze and I would be able to make it to. We sat down and as it neared 9:00am people/families just kept coming and coming and COMING. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The ENTIRE chapel was filled by the time services started... and MORE people continued to walk through the doors. There were people who stood in the back due to lack of seating. I just wept at the sight of it all. I hadn't experienced anything like this in the 8 months I've been out. A chapel full of families AND investigators?? Don't misunderstand me, I love the wards I've served in and I'm not saying "they're not good enough" it's just different serving the Spanish speaking population. Very different. I realized then that our missions are just assigned and MEANT for US. Everything about where/who we serve is catered to help us learn as we need to. It was the first time I had been to a sacrament meeting in English in 8 months... first time hearing the sacrament prayers in English. I just couldn't stop crying because I could understand EVERYTHING. I forgot how that felt.
It was their fast and testimony meeting due to conference, and let me tell ya, that was NO coincidence. A few sisters got up and shared experiences and testimonies that I absolutely needed to hear and needed to understand in my own native tongue. Such a blessing. This meeting was an answer to my prayer in and of itself.

After sacrament meeting Sister Freeze and I went to Woodside for the baptism. On the train ride there I started to feel a little uneasy... "Will they even remember my name?" I started to ask myself more dumb questions.... DUMB. Haha.
As I walked down the stairs into the baptismal room I heard a, "Sister Franklin's back!!". What a tearful reunion it was. Haha. So many hugs! I saw Graciela all dressed in her white jumpsuit and we just hugged and cried some more. Haha.
Hermano Hidalgo approached me before the baptism and he said, "I hope you know that all of this that you see here has been possible because of the foundation you laid while you served here." It was amazing to see how much the ward has changed. SO many people I used to teach are now attending church and even have baptismal dates. It really was an incredible moment. I felt complete peace. I KNEW that the last 8 month have NOT been wasted... In fact they had truly been the best 8 months of my life. Definitely not the easiest, but the best.

The baptism was beautiful!

I just want you all to know that God truly answers prayers. He hears you. Even when you ask him dumb questions. Haha. He will always let you know he's there. Whether it's in an obvious way, like it was for me this week or in a quiet way. He'll tell you!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Franklin