Franco, Matthew

He's back!! Welcome home Elder Franco. Many friends and family excitedly endured a very late night (12:49 am - 2 am) at the Salt Lake City airport to finally give you a hug. Sadly we are missing our beloved Grandpa Franco, but his spirit was definitely felt and Grandma Franco was ready and willing to give you a hug from both of them. You are so loved and we are so proud of you. Your sacrifice to serve the Lord you love has been a blessing for all of us. Thank you! My prayer is that you will continue in faith and keep building your relationship with your Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dear Friends and Family!  This is my last email in the mission field and for this email I want to list the 24 principles I learned on the mission! 1. Exact obedience brings miracles 2. If you can make your bed, you can change the world 3. Be diligent in all that you do 4. Come what may and love it! 5. Follow the spirit in any situation 6. Find joy in the small things 7. Build strong relationships with your companions 8. Be Greater and Be yourself  9. Repent daily, even for the small things 10. Resolve conflict with kindness and meekness 11. Don't live two lives 12. Read the scriptures daily  13. Laugh at your mistakes and get back up! 14. Always be proactive, not reactive 15. Comfort those in need of comfort 16. Be open to new things 17. Be honest with yourself and others 18. Have an eternal vision 19. Find the "why" of the gospel 20. Have a spiritual feast with church 21. Seek correction and improvement  22. Have hope in Jesus Christ 23. Have a humble and learn...

What a week! Hello everybody! This week has had a lot happen so let's just get into it here.     Tuesday was actually quite slow for us. Not many people could meet and we just were going around trying to find people to teach. We found some people in the evening time so that was nice.     Wednesday we had our zone conference! It's was pretty good. It was nice to see some of my friends I have made over mission and to get together. Not much after that.     Thursday we had our weekly planning for the week. Afterwards we had some appointments. As we were heading to our first appointment, Elder Miller actually noticed some people signing. And yes that's right, we found two deaf people and was able to yet again have the wonderful experience to sign with them. They were so happy to see us and for us to sign with them. One of them we drive by almost everyday but just found out she was actually deaf. Was so cool and was great to see them. One of them named Love lost ...

Dear Friends and Family, The title is correct! This is my second to last email in the mission field and this is my last week here in Guyana. Time flies here and it I learned that is important to always be in the moment. This week was another crazy one because I moved to Lusignan. I wrote about it in my last email and I got to spend a lot of this past week getting to know the people that we are teaching and the members. I got sick.  It wasn't fun because I had to stay in for two days but I did a backflip and was able to finish the week strong. We found this cool guy named lennox and he is an older gentleman and wants to learn more about our church. Spiritual thought: my thought this week is about studying the life of Jesus Christ and knowing him. It was a spiritual experience because christ is evident throughout all the scriptures. For me his patience and humility stook out to me and I found alot of examples of him in his mortal and resurrected ministry. My invitation to you all is ...

Dear friends and family, This week was amazing and went by quick! Our friend Sabrina got Baptized! She was super prepared by the lord and Im happy that she started her journey towards going to the temple. From the title of this email, Im getting Moved again! I'm going to the east coast, in lusigian. I'm going to be there for two weeks and I found out two days ago lol. My new comp is going to be Elder Dean and he is an amazing elder. Im excited to help build up his area before I go home. I'm sad to leave Diamond, so many wonderful people! I know that they will continue to grow and I will remain in contact with them. They helped me learn a lot and I am so grateful that the lord sent me here. Spiritual thought: My spiritual thought today would be to invite you all to read the books of Nephi and study his story. Nephi is my favorite bom hero and I try to emulate alot of his attributes in my life. You can too! Let me know how it goes! Sincerely, Elder franco

Dear friends and family, Its been a wonderful week here in the TPOS mission! I moved into a new apartment with the other Elders and I'm here for the rest of the transfer. This will be my second Trio in my mission and Its very interesting to be in one again. Both Diamond areas are still opened so what we do is rotate each day the area that we work in. We got to teach Sabrina, she is still on track for the 10th, this Saturday. Continue to Pray for her and her family as she continues! We also meet this cool man name Deon. He need help changing his tire and we were able to help him. He said that we were angles sent from god. We exchanged numbers and are going to follow up him friday. Spiritual thought: We had Zone Conference this week. It was my last one and I got bear my testimony with the other Elders I'm going home with. The emotional part is when we sang our closing song "We will bring the world his Truth". It is also known as the Army of Helaman song and I found myse...