learning, living & loving

hello everyone! first official pday and i have no idea where to start! i brought my journal with me so that i could remember some of my favorite things that i've experienced. first i'll start with my companion sister g. (yes mom the one i met on fb!) she is from idaho and she is so great and we get along really well! heavenly father knew i needed a good companion to start this journey off so we got put together. we have a lot in common.. sometimes too much because we can never make a decision. haha but couldn't ask for anyone better. our roomies are sis c and sis w and they are absolutely adorable! the day i got here i was 1 of 750 missionaries that day.. WHAT. isn't that crazy?! in total there are about 2100 missionaries here in the mtc right now. so the mtc president told us that we are literally the 2000 stripling warriors. so awesome. the first song we sang was helamans army and you know when it says 'we will be the lords missionaries?' we all sang 'we are now the lords missionaries to bring the world his truth' oh my gosh i couldn't believe the spirit i felt and especially the confirmation i had that i'm exactly where i'm supposed to be. 

satan hasn't given up on me and probably wont. i had a day where i felt like i am so not good enough to be here, so i prayed to my heavenly father and the next day was wonderful! we are so lucky we can call home whenever we want! and he directed me to the scripture that says we need to have perfect faith not perfect knowledge, which is what i need to keep reminding myself of. an area seventy came and talked to us on sunday and he said that because we are on missions we are officially an enemy to satan, and that means we are at war and should be ready to battle with him 24/7. as strange as it sounds, that was a huge comfort to me because teaching is hard stuff.

so my district! me and sis g are the only sisters in our district which at first we were bummed about but now i'm glad because we get along so well not just with each other but with all of the elders too. as a district we sometimes have a hard time staying focused because we're friends now but we're working on it. i met my branch president sometime last week. (don't remember the day because time is really weird in the mtc) but anyway his name is pres h and he is an amazing guy. when he interviewed me, he said that i need to be in the book of mormon everyday so that i can be there on the hill of bountiful when christ comes. it was so powerful. when we had a zone meeting he said that 'the savior has given you all a long rope of leeway, dont screw it up and dont hang yourself.' WHOA. intense huh? that might not be the exact phrase but it was crazy spiritual. just like everything here is. 

my teacher is bro p he definitely has some good insights and has helped me grow a lot! we learned that the phrase 'be not afraid' is written 386 times in the scriptures, so pres h said 'missionaries, be not afrad.' he's awesome. 

we are teaching two women right now, trinity and erika. we have learned so much from them! with trinity we have been talking too much and not teaching enough. but with erika, we've only had one lesson and we taught her about the restoration and i asked her to be baptized.. haha who am i?! but before you freak out you should know that she knows a lot about the church from her boyfriend but.. i said 'erika, as you come to know these things are true by praying to your father in heaven, will you be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of god?' she responded and said 'the second i know its true, i promise i'll be baptized!' ahh! so cool. shes not even a real investigator but it feels like it. i can only imagine how it will be in the field! 

we already got out travel itinerary.. they kick us out of here fast when we're speaking english! im not complaining though. so crazy that next week i will already be out there in oklahoma.

i haven't even gotten to sunday.. ahh so many thoughts. we watched a thing from elder bednar called the character of christ and it was easily the best talk ive ever heard and apparently it can't be found anywhere except here in the mtc.. bummer because i was going to tell all of you to listen to it! it was amazing though. i learned from him that my testimony is not enough. i need to be truly converted to the lord, and thats something we all could work on. he said 'get over yourself. this mission is not about you. but as you lose yourself in others, you will find yourself when you're not looking.' it was AMAZING. 

LAST thing sorry this is forever long. today we went to the temple i felt like i could literally feel god's love pouring down on me. this place is incredible. no better army to be on than the lords army. 

im a missionary i know it i live it i love it! (see what i did there?) 

i love you all.. a lot. i miss you. but i pray for you every night. thank you for being my light and support. I LOVE YOU. talk to you next week. 

xo sister franklin 

love these sisters

sis g and i

first night at the mtc

my amazing district