12-9-13

Hello,

So about this past week.

We have an investigator that we share with the other Elders.  Last week we told him that we want to help him stop smoking (he wants to stop but it’s too hard for him to do) so we said that we would bring him cookies every day that he can use as a reminder to not smoke and replace smoking with.  So every day for the past week and every day for the next while I have been and will make cookies for him. Its super tiring and exhausting to use my meal times/night time to do this but I really want to help him. He has really been progressing lately! Like we found out he that he has been praying at home recently! Here was the real miracle, Saturday we asked him to come to church and we said we would call him in the morning to get him to come. Once we called him in the morning he said he could come just at 11 which is after sacrament meeting, we said that’s okay...he called once more after that right around 11 asking if he should come and he said he would....but he didn’t. Here’s where the miracle comes up, we were sitting in the missionary coordination meeting after church around 2:15ish and the other Elders got a call from him! He asked if he could still come and we said most definitely! Even though church was over it was totally fine. The other Elders gave him a tour of the church and then they talked for an hour and we came and talked for 30 more minutes! He asked to see the baptismal font 3 times.....we had talked about baptism earlier in the week and he definitely thought about it....he said no, not yet, not this month at least....he said he wasn’t ready for the commitment that baptism means, which is surprising because he truly understands what he would be getting himself into. Long story short, he came to church and it was a miracle and he is an awesome guy that just wants to find God but still has few things to fix in his life.

So the new missionary Elder Wunderli is 6 weeks behind me, 1 transfer. He knows a whole lot of vocabulary that it makes me seem like nothing....but rather than getting down about that I use it to lift myself up and push myself to work harder at learning the language. It’s just a reminder how I can do better. We are also trying to involve me more when we talk to investigators and members...it’s still hard though.

The ward Christmas party will be coming up soon here and they want us as missionaries to do something. We choose to perform a short narrated story called "I am special" (I think that’s what it’s called in English). We are going to act it out as someone narrates. It should be super fun and spiritual too!

So every morning we have been getting out at 6:15 to go exercise at the nearby park! It’s sometimes cold but that’s okay. Exercise is good for me! I can do lots of pull-ups now;)

That’s really it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

12-2-13

Hello all!

So great to hear about your Thanksgiving and week! So I have so much to tell about Thanksgiving but first I just wanted to say that my companion and I are both staying in our area. The other person in our house, Elder Baldwin, who was being trained, is leaving. We actually got his MTC companion Elder Wunderli to replace him. I don't know how he will be yet but I will find out this week!

So Thanksgiving was super fun! So I am in the district that the mission home is in so on Tuesday we found out that Sister Gilbert invited our district to her house on Thanksgiving! We went after district meeting on Thursday and she had a bunch of food prepared. Turkey, stuffing, rolls, jello, carrots, green beans, mash potatoes, gravy. AHHH it was so delicious!!! It tasted like home. She kept telling us to eat and eat because she didn’t want leftovers....so I did. I was literally so full after that. Then we find out that there’s dessert (we forgot because usually in Korea they have fruit for dessert and not pies!) She had bought apple and pumpkin pies from Costco and made homemade whipped cream! Also the one senior couple that was there brought a homemade apple pie........it was soooooo good! I ate a piece of that and a small piece of pumpkin pie. I was so full that it hurt.

Here’s the worst part, we also had a dinner appointment that day 2 hours later with a member that we set up the week before. When we went there I got even more full to the point that it my pants hurt my stomach because they were so tight. It looked like I had swallowed a ball.... Then even worse we went to help a member with home teaching that night and the people we visited gave us lots of fruit to eat. Let's just say I haven’t eaten very much since then.

Korean is hard.

So lately we have been going to this big park place called spo1 to proselyte. It is about a 30 minute walk there and on Saturdays and Sundays there are lots of families around which makes good potential conversations and chance to share the gospel. We actually found out this week that there are lots of people there on those days so we will be making it a normal plan to go there.

Our one young investigator wants to be baptized so we are just waiting to meet with his father to talk about it. That should happen within the next 2 weeks or so and we are praying it will turn out well. We are also worried  because he is attending another church still and he really likes that one because he has his friends there and he’s been going there for 5 years. We aren’t really sure what to do so we have been praying about that as well.

Nothing really more happened this week so that’s it.

Love, Elder Frampton

11-25-13

Hello from the land of Korea!

Last week of the transfer this week, transfer calls come on Thursday but I doubt I will leave. Time is seriously flying, this Friday is my 6 month mark! It's hard to believe I've been a missionary for 6 months, it feels like yesterday I entered the MTC.

So this week was pretty normal but fun. Last Monday we were out looking for people to talk to and we went down into the subway station and decided to talk to two police officers! Weird right? It was pretty awesome though, the one I talked to knew pretty good English so he talked to me in English and I talked to him in Korean. Korean police stuff is interesting the guy I talked to said his name was Woong probably like 26 or 25. He’s a 'freshman' police guy first year. he only uses a cell phone once a week on his day off (I don’t know if it’s a freshman police rule or he’s just really focused) but he emails every day so he gave me his email address so I can email him in English and keep in touch. I emailed him today in hope that we can meet and do the 30/30 program (30 minutes English 30 gospel). He is super nice! I will let you know if anything comes from that.

Tuesday we had an appointment that we made with a sister in the ward. Her husband wasn’t going to be home when we visited to we were going to do a quick door visit...but on the way there we got a call saying the husband would be home so we could go in. We get there and she had a whole meal prepared.....we ate before we visited and then had to eat again!!! My stomach was about to explode after that. Especially when she just kept cutting more and more fruit after the main meal. They were super nice though and patient with my lack of Korean skills. Unlike other members they liked to ask me questions to get me to talk.

Also we had interviews with President Gilbert Tuesday morning. I love interviews because when we aren't in the interview Sister Gilbert leads a discussion in another room. It’s fun and I learned a lot! I never really have anything to talk to president about so he just ends up talking to me about his experiences and recent life stories.

Wednesday we met with this new really old guy (80 years old) and he wants to learn English so he can get a job, we are going to do the 30/30 program with him. He is willing to do it but not really any interest in the gospel, but that’s okay, that’s what the spirit is for! We will try to meet him this week again.

So also Brother Baktejun, the one 26 year old from maybe 4 weeks ago that came to church and English class....we met with him again for the first time since 4 weeks ago and we did the 30/30 program with him and taught the restoration and about the book of Mormon. Before we even started talking about the gospel 30 minutes he had a question about the Book of Mormon and what it was! Elder Moon and I were both really nervous. He did a lot of rambling and I stumbled through Korean but the great part was that the spirit was still present! I love the spirit! He says he wants to keep meeting so that is really good! He wants to learn English because he wants to go to 'grad school' just more school, so he can go to America and be a chef/restaurant manager type person. Super awesome guy! I can't wait to see where things go with him.

Last thing I wanted to talk about is about Saturday. I had exchanges with Elder Quist, the other Elder in our apartment who is the district leader. He just came over to my side of the apartment for exchanges. Odd exchange but I learned a lot from him when we went out. He really taught me to follow the spirit when out looking for people. We planned to go to this one bus station to look for people but he had a prompting to go down the other road instead. We talked to this one old guy who we thought was the reason we were prompted down that road, but then we also talked to another guy for 15 minutes about English class and what we do as missionaries. This guy was actually working on the other side of a fence doing gardening. Super interesting because we talked through the fence and were 15 feet away from him! But we were able to get his number so we can invite him to English class! The spirit is awesome! Also later that day we were around Busan Nat’l university and I saw a guy that needed help pushing a cart, we tried to help but he said he was fine but we helped him anyways and then Elder Quist shared a book of Mormon with him and it turns out that the guy likes to study the bible! Cool stuff right??!

Well my hand hurts now so I’m gonna stop there. Have a good week and Thanksgiving! Eat lots of food for me!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-18-13

Hello everybody!

I was trying to figure out what I would say in this email and couldn't think of too many exciting things......

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that I got a cold on Friday or maybe Thursday.....it was really bad that first day and hasn't been bad since then but it is still here...only a runny nose and a tired throat. I bought one of those face masks from a pharmacy that I could wear when I was at home or at church. I don't wear it out in public because I don't want to scare people away;) too bad for them;) but I think a chance to hear the Gospel plus a cold is better than just a cold!

Lately we decided to visit all the members that probably don't get visited often so this week wanted to visit one of the older couples in our ward. They lived a 1 hour bus ride away (I had my cold at this point and it was a terrible ride but I slept a little). Only the brother was there so we had a good visit with him and he was appreciative that we took the time to go and visit him.

This week we had stake conference. We were invited to attend the adult session and they focused everything on the fact that the members and missionaries need to work together. The work of salvation is no longer just one or the others but both together. The main Sunday session was focused on the strengthening of the family. One thing they talked about that stood out to me was the need for families to pray together.

Yesterday we went and did some service with the bishop and some young men.....we went and helped at a less actives recycling plant place....it was just a bunch of trash in piles and stuff but it was fun and cold! I never knew there were so many types of plastics. PP PD PET HDPE OTHER and more. haha just thought I mention about that!

Also I made cookies this week during my meal times and at night! I made cookies and then took them to members and less actives when we visited them! The first ones tasted super buttery....but the second ones I made were better because I made peanut butter so they tasted peanut buttery! haha

We are really trying to focus on finding new investigators or meet with potential ones that we have. Only two weeks left in this transfer! Time is flying!

Always remember this, if you look for miracles and blessings in your life, you will see them! There are always miracles and blessings from God, if you don’t think so at first, then all you have to do is look!

That's all for this week

Love,

Elder Frampton

P.S. When you think about sharing the gospel as sharing God's love instead it is a lot easier!

10-28-13

Hello everybody. This email is going to be short again because we ended up going to a beach and playing soccer today with some of the missionaries in the surrounding area as well as because I had some issues with recharging my travel card so it pushed back our plan about 40 minutes....

So my new area is awesome! I'm living in a 4 man house with Elder Moon, Elder Quist (the district leader and trainer) he is training Elder Baldwin who has been here for 1 transfer already so he’s in his second week of training. The house is super new, but it is supppppppper small. Two rooms enough to lay out 2 Yos in each room and have a small table in each room and some shelves...but yes very small. I have a feeling I'll get to know everyone really well over the next few months.

So I’m serving in a ward now with about 120 members and the biggest ward building in the mission. It's super nice! We even take off our shoes before going in (traditional Korean style ohh yeah.)

Elder Moon is super fun and knows some English, enough to always use English just in a very simple way. When he can’t explain what he wants to say in English, he will switch over to Korean and I usually understand. I think my Korean will improve a lot over the next transfer if I really push myself. He likes to work out in the morning so we go to a nearby park and I run or do pull-ups or sit-ups or jump rope. After we get back he usually lifts weights, he is super strong. He is a small little Korean shorter than me but super strong!!!

I've managed to do probably more teaching here than in Jeju because Elder Moon loves roleplaying every day because my teaching abilities aren’t that great......so I hope to improve because of that and real lessons we will teach.

We have a few people we are working with, one kid around 11 brother Kim has been taught all the lessons before I came and he is just waiting to feel the spirit confirming that he should baptized. Another guy we met through English class, brother Pak, is willing to do the 30 30 program, 30 min English 30 gospel. We met him Saturday while street boarding (proselyting with a board talking about English class) then he came to English class that night and then he came to all 3 hours of church the next day! We think he has pretty good potential. He is 26 years old. And then the last guy we are working with we share with the other set of Elders. His name is brother Pak. he is one really odd guy but has gone through alot in his life. I think he loves talking with missionaries and not really interested in the gospel much but I think the spirit is slowly working on his heart. We will see what happens.

That’s about all the time I have for this week

Hope everything is going well at home!

Love,

Elder Frampton

10-21-13 (1st transfer, 2nd transfer date)

So big news! I got transferred....even bigger news, Elder Yun got transferred too! They whitewashed Jeju city and the old AP will go there and train!

My new area is somewhere in Busan called  ?? (I don’t know how I would spell it in English but I will try.....Gum Jung....but the "gum" part isn’t really how it sounds maybe I Geum Jung.....oh well) I just got to the area just now and went straight to emailing and I don’t really have much to say so I guess I’ll explain next week.....

My companion is another Korean thank goodness. His name is Elder Moon Hoon Jin, he only knows a little English so hopefully my Korean will be able to get better if we speak lots of Korean. I don’t really know anything about him yet either. He takes about 7 minutes to email so I feel bad if I make him wait for me so I will probably keep the emails somewhat short. This weeks is short just because I don’t have much to say.

I was sad to leave Jeju because I loved the members there. One sister told me that her son was really sad when he heard that I was leaving so I got a picture with him that I will send sometime in the future.

I know I am called to this area and the rest of my areas I will be in, for some reason that the Lord knows. I will strive to fulfill god's plan for me as Jesus Christ’s representative.

Oh almost forgot to tell about my trip to Busan last week. We went the night before and then went to a huge church building for the meeting.....and it turns out that that building is my new areas ward! So I will be serving there. Well the guy that came was the 70 that is the 2nd counselor over the north Asia area or something, elder Scott D. Whiting......it was a good experience. He discussed about having power to accompany our authority as missionaries...something all missionaries in our mission are striving to do.

Miss and love you guys

Elder Frampton

10-13-13

Well everyone,

I finally got to watch conference this past weekend!!!!! I ended up watching it all on a member’s smart phone. I sat in the chapel where everyone was watching it in Korean and I just had headphones in listening to the inspiring words from the leaders of this glorious church of Christ!

My favorite session had to be priesthood session though. I have never played more attention to talks in my life than in this session. I had never thought about the Articles of Faith so seriously before hearing Elder Perry’s. I wish I had taken them more seriously when I was younger, but now I think I will study them like he said we should do and I will even try to memorize them (in Korean). I enjoyed the second quote this year from Les misérables in Bishop Causse's talk. My favorite quote came from Elder Uchtdorf's talk during this priesthood session and it is...."Let us rise up and become men of God. We have a champion, a Savior, who walked through the valley of the shadow of death on our behalf........Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish, willingly laid Himself on the altar of sacrifice and paid the price for our sins to “the uttermost farthing.” “So awesome. I hope everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did!

This week we go to Busan for 'mission tour.' We get to be instructed by the North Asian area's presidency's second counselor, President Whiting. It is super exciting to be going again to Busan. But it’s more exciting to be going to this meeting!

Also, this is the last week of my second transfer so next week I will be still in Jeju or in a different area! We find out this Thursday who is leaving and who is staying so I'm getting super anxious...

This week we spent a lot of time visiting members and sharing messages with them. I really got to use a lot of Korean and I have seen how much I have improved. Elder Yun told me he was pretty impressed with my Korean ability which means a lot coming from him;) I'm glad the Lord is continuing to bless me with the ability to speak better and better and understand more and more. I owe everything I am to the Lord. He has made me strong when I was weak and I will continue to be made stronger if I rely on Him. I encourage everyone to simply rely on the Lord in your actions and thoughts and through him you can accomplish all things. I'm so grateful for this gospel and I know I am here in Korea for one reason, one soul, one purpose; to serve God and His children.

Hope all is well at home.

Love

Elder Frampton

10-6-13

Hello all!

So I first have to tell you about the big letdown I had last Monday.....We were heading home to go pack so I could fly to Busan when we got a call saying that they got the tickets for the wrong day because they forgot I was in the group for the Wednesday meeting rather than the Tuesday meeting.....this means I wasn’t going that night anymore. Instead I was leaving Wednesday morning with Elder Yun (because president decided to let him come). It was still fun though! I got to see all of my friends from the MTC. We literally got there when the meeting had started and left right when it ended because we had a plane to catch.

So more about the guy that wandered into our church. We have met him 2 times since then. He is very active in religion so it is difficult trying to teach him the restored gospel principles as something new. He is very open to it but he leaves Jeju this Wednesday. We hope we can meet him once more tomorrow to teach him and ask him if we can refer him to missionaries in Taejon so he can have continued exposure to the gospel there until he comes back down here, which we still don’t know when that will be.

We also started meeting with this other guy that is a referral from the Seoul mission. He is 78 years old. He has beliefs similar to the gospels teachings but he doesn’t believe that Christ was resurrected and that we can live after death. He is actually trying to start a movement, I’m not sure what to call it, on the internet where he tries to spread his ideas about starting a new society that is based on good ideals similar to our church. He moved down to Jeju to do that, he's rich, so he bought a floor on a building and then rents it out. He is investing his money it seems into spreading this idea on the internet. He is very lonely it seems like so he is willing to meet with us often. I think if we can teach by the spirit then the spirit can cause some amazing change in him!

So this past week has been pretty rainy! It’s crazy, I've come home with the bottom of my pant legs super soaked for the past week. It is really hard trying to street contact in the rain, not because the rain is annoying but the fact that people aren’t really out as much as when it’s not raining and because of the fact that people don’t want to talk to us even more. One guy even used his umbrella to kind of block us when we tried to talk to him.

Last week, because the sister’s apartment has a lot more mosquitoes than ours, we gave them our chemical shooter thing that keeps mosquitoes away. Now we have more mosquitoes in our house. Luckily since I slept with socks, long pants, hoody and hood on I didn’t have a problem....until they starting eating my hands! I decided to wear socks on my hands to keep them away but the one night I fell asleep before putting the sock on my left hand (I was reading on my Yo with right hand already covered and I forgot to put the sock on my left hand...) I woke up with 9 mosquito bites on my left hand alone, along with 8 or so on my left arm because they will fly up the sleeve or suck through the cloth if they are smart enough. Which they were. But now they just get me through my clothing so I think I will try my mosquito net. It’s just terrible how annoying and itchy mosquito bites are.

So conference I don't get to watch this next weekend coming up because they wait to translate and then send the wards and branches across Korea the translated disc or something. But they will have both English and Korean playing in different rooms so I will be able to go on splits with a member so I can watch the English. I looked on lds.org to see who gave talks and it looks like it was a great conference! I can't wait.

Oh this past Saturday I got to go to a wedding Saturday! There was this couple in our ward that got married just recently. They did the temple marriage 2 weeks ago and then a regular one for all the friends and family. It was pretty odd, there were so many people! Apparently it’s just like all the parents’ friends and family and friends of family that got invited to this. But we ate some delicious food and talked to some interesting people.

That’s it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

 

9-30-13

Well my family, guess what!

I get to go to Busan tonight again!!! Tomorrow (Tuesday) there is a training meeting for all missionaries being trained and training. Unfortunately Elder Yun has been to 3 training meetings in the past and president doesn't feel like spending the money to fly him there and back so I will be going solo....that’s a whole 1.5 hours that I will be away from a companion! Scary! I'm super excited though because I get to see the rest of the missionaries that came out with me!

So I will tell you about the trip to Busan last week.....quite the adventure. It is about 1 hour total of travel time to Busan, counting take-off and landing, 35 minutes of flight time. We flew to Busan and the office Elders picked us up and we went to the mission office. We stayed the night there, and let me tell you, I didn’t sleep very well. In Busan it is a lot cooler than Jeju, so at night we had air conditioning and because we weren’t used to that when sleeping or anything, I frozzzzze at night! The next day we drove an hour to Ulsan which is where the meeting was being held. I got to see my zone (because it was zone conference)! At the beginning of the meeting Sister Gilbert made some announcements including one about a 24 hour bug going around......when she made this announcement I think I missed it. During the second session of conference (we had 2 sessions, 2 hours, 1 hour lunch, and then another 2 hours.) I started to feel sick in the stomach, headache, and bad chills. I talked to Sister Gilbert and she had said I caught the bug! This just goes to show that being isolated on an island can have some effects on you, or protects you;) I was pretty miserable on the flight back (which was 3 hours after the conference ended) and then also that night and the next morning. I was all better by the next night.

 

So pretty miraculous thing happened this week! Saturdays at 5 we have English class. We usually meet up with the sisters an hour before to prepare for it. This past Saturday we were busy setting up for English class when I heard a noise from the hallway. When I went out to look to see what it was, it was some random guy! He came to our church wondering who we were and what we were all about. We then taught him for about 40 minutes a little introduction to the church, gave him a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and the he left. One thing we talked about was the Sabbath day, he asked us what we believe about it and Elder Yun was able to answer because we discussed it that morning! Let me tell you more about that, Elder Yun and I were discussing it a few days before and we stopped after we couldn’t find out more about why we have the Sabbath on Sunday. Well Saturday morning we were studying and I was looking up something in the bible dictionary and I randomly remembered about how we were talking about the Sabbath. I looked it up and found an answer. I'm sure it was the spirit that reminded me about it because the Lord knew that guy would come today and ask about it........................--------because the conversation was all in Korean and I still don’t understand a lot, Elder Yun told me about his background that he found out. The guy said he is from the mainland and is moving to Jeju sometime soon. He was in Jeju right now looking around for a place to move into (hopefully he moves to somewhere around Jeju city rather than Seogwipo so we can teach him if that time comes anytime soon;) ). But that day, Saturday, he was at a park that is on the opposite side of the street from our church and he was walking on the trail thing that is there. He said as he was walking he saw our church and was interested to find out about it because he never saw our church before. So he grabbed his things and walked over and wandered in, which was when I saw him in the hall. If anything results from this experience I will be sure to tell you how it goes!

Last thing, pday today! I owe it to the Brain for the idea. drumroll please-------------------------------------we went to the Ripley's Museum!!!!!!! It was super awesome, way better than the one we went to in Williamsburg or wherever that was. Apparently there are 32 in the world and it is number 32, aka the newest one. It was pretty big and they had a lot of cool things. I will send 3 pictures again of it. (I only ever send 3 because that’s all that fits in an email and I don’t know how to make them smaller file size)

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

 

9-23-13

Hello Familia!
 
Well this week was an interesting week.....on Wednesday **Thursday** and Friday, Korea celebrated "Choo Seok" (saying Korean things in English romanization just looks and sounds weird because I can’t convey the same words and pronunciations....). Well this holiday which takes place on Thursday is like the Korean Thanksgiving where they perform rituals for their ancestors and eat a lot. Pretty much everyone had off of work and school for the 3 days though. Because of this, not many people were really on the streets and we weren’t supposed to make appointments with people. Because of this reason, we did many things as a district. On Wednesday, we had district meeting and then went to lunch, and then we went back to the church for district "study time". We studied and shared what we learned. After that we had a dinner appointment at a member’s house (they invited the whole district even though the Seogwipo Elders aren’t in our branch.) More details on the ritual that is performed by people here (at least this is how I understand it.) The week before this they go and fix up the grave site. They then like prepare lots of fruits and food and leave it out for the spirits......they first leave it out and then they like say a prayer or take a moment of silence or just chill around so the spirits can eat the prepared food....after that whatever the spirits don’t eat, they feast upon.....most members don’t really do that, and if they do, they only do it to remember their ancestors, not because they believe spirits eat food...

Thursday we went to Seogwipo and went and saw some waterfalls as a district then we went to a dinner appointment/service appointment at a member’s hotel thing....this member rents the whole hotel for a year then runs it. I helped cut grass, it was an electric mower and I just held the cord and pulled the cord around so it wouldn’t get cut or ruined. I got the most mosquito bites there than since I got here. It got really big and there was like a red ring around it....maybe I will die or something, who knows. After that the member cooked us a barbecue meal outside! I smelled like smoke afterwards and on the bus ride home. It was delicious though, we had some meat and ramen, and I didn’t each much ramen because I don’t like it. It was super delicious.

Friday we went to another member’s house and they prepared a whole bunch of food! More meat and vegetables and some cold noodles. The meats at meals usually are in spicyish sauce with vegies and such. There were potatoes, and when eaten in the sauce, they are delicious!!! I ate many of them.

Missionary work is somewhat slow. We have no one to teach, and not many people on the streets want to listen, and even less want to learn more. Elder Yun and I are going to try making more effort to talk to more people, thus giving more people the opportunity to listen, and for us to open our mouths. Opening my mouth is always an act of faith for me since I don't know the language very well. I always have to trust the Lord to help me out, and I learn more about that every day when I am able to have simple conversations with people

 

So in our branch there is a 20 year old guy that is amazing at piano. He has an audition to get into the university in Seoul this Friday and he has been preparing for it for like all his life. He literally comes to the church every day and practices all day. He used to come at like 10 in the morning and stay till like 3 in the morning the next day but he can’t do that anymore because the churches neighbors complained. Now he comes at like 8 I think and probably stays till like 12 at night. for the past 8 weeks I’ve been here I’ve just heard him play his one song so much, whenever we email I hear, whenever we have English class, etc. the point of all this is that the song is always stuck in my head! I literally feel like I hear it everywhere I go, even though he’s not playing. It’s so weird.

No today I am writing my email later than usual, at 5:00 rather than at like 12....that is because we went to the teddy bear museum!!! We found free tickets awhile back and decided to go today! It was super super cool, they had so many cool displays. Even though it is a teddy bear museum there were a lot of other kinds of stuffed animals as well. Super cool. They had a safari exhibit, fish exhibit, painting exhibit (they took famous paintings and kind of made them into ones with bears in it rather than the normal person.)

2 more things.

Today I got my first haircut in Korea! They did a good job. It took like 25 minutes though, but they washed my hair too! Pretty good deal for 10,000 won ('10 dollars') I thought I would have a weird haircut like Korean people get, but they did just fine and how I wanted it.

Last thing, Wednesday we have zone conference in Busan and we get to go to it! We fly out on Tuesday night, spend the night at the mission home, then go to it on Wednesday and fly back Wednesday night. I'm so excited! Leaving this island should be fun.

Hope your week will be good!

Love,

Elder Frampton

9-16-13

This has been the longest week since I have gotten here!

So last Monday we got our two new missionaries in our district. Elder Hays has been out about a year and 8 months, he has okay Korean and is pretty outgoing. Sister Atwood has been out for one more transfer than me. Her Korean is okay too.

 

Monday night when we were out talking with people on the street I realized how fun it was to talk with people! I also realized that I could hold somewhat of a simple conversation and understand what they were saying and give simple responses back!

 

Just recently I have started to understand more and more. In church yesterday I was able to understand maybe 60 percent of Sunday school! I was so surprised! It is amazing to me how the Lord blesses me. One thing I really can testify of is the gift of tongues and interpretations. It says in the scriptures that we must ask for these gifts, and that is true. I realize that we have to ask and also try our best on our own before we are given them. I may not always have these gifts but the Lord blesses me with them every now and then. I think as my faith and trust in the Lord increases I will receive them more and more. Korean is still so difficult but it is getting easier every day.

 

Elder Yun also helped me buy 2 good Korean books that I can use to study grammar and conversation. They should really help.

 

As I have been out here and studying the scriptures everyday with the intent to learn and know the things that I need to teach better, I realize and am enjoying the blessings that come from the scriptures. They bring comfort into my life every time I read. Missionary work is very hard and very discouraging at times, and through prayer and scripture study you can be strengthened by the Lord.

Missionary here is still difficult. We have really no one to teach again because the people that we had found, their situations have changed and made it so they can’t really meet with us. I learn to trust the Lord and just keeping looking forward and looking for those people prepared for us.

So the weather this past week was hot again...not as hot as summer but still hot! It luckily is cooling down once again.

The only super exciting part about this week was that we went twice out to the country of Jeju/Korea. Literally country farmland. I like the country wayyy more than city I think. it’s just so peaceful and much more beautiful. Since Jeju is formed from a volcano, there is all the volcano rock that is found only there. A lot of the farmland has the walls made of volcano rock which is super neat. We were also pretty close to the ocean. The reason that we went out there was to go see a less active and a member.

Friday we had a lunch appointment and we went to this Japanese restaurant. I had sushi for the first time in my life and almost died. I put it in my mouth and chewed for about 3 minutes before I swallowed it....it took me about 5 swallows to get it down because I could only swallow a little at a time and my throat just didn’t want to put it down. It was sooooo disgusting. Never again.

Then we had a dinner appointment last night and I ate some squid. That was rubbery and gross. I hate seafood.

That’s it for this week.

Love,
Elder Frampton

9-9-13 (1st transfer date)

Okie dokie. So nothing to exciting this week, just my last week of my first transfer! done! Today starts the new transfer! Luckily I'm staying here in Jeju! Haha only two people from my district got transferred. One sister that had been here for her first 3 transfers and then 1 Elder in Seogwipo that was here for 6 months. The new missionaries fly in in a few hours so we get to go and meet them at the airport. Oh also Elder Yun is the new district leader this transfer since the missionary that left was the district leader.
 

So like I said last week Elder Yun had his military thing so I went to Seogwipo. On Tuesday we spent like 3 hours doing service for one of their investigators. We were pulling the vine weeds off of mandarin orange trees in one of his orchards. To make it even more fun it was raining a little! ahaha. It was actually pretty fun.

 

I went back to Jeju city, my area, on Wednesday night. It was nice to finally be back at "home" sleeping on my own yo! Um Thursday was our last district meeting: (it was sad since we knew people would be leaving (at this point we didn’t know who was leaving yet because calls came that night). We went to this one place afterwards for lunch and it was like all you can eat meat, but I got really full really quick so I didn’t even eat that much. Later that night we cleaned our apartment for 2 hours which was actually fun. I like cleaning!

 

So Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it rained a lot! The most since I had come here! It just rained and rained and rained.

 

So lessons are getting better. We have a few more people that we are going to meet for the first time and teach. It is a miracle and such a blessing that we are finding people. We aren’t really even finding. Most of them were put in our path and all we had to do was talk to them! We hope that they will show up to appointments that we make with them and that the spirit will touch their heart. I know through fasting, prayer, and faith all things are possible, and I have come to learn that so much more while here serving. I am trying my best to serve the Lord the best I can.

That’s it for this week.

 

Love,

Elder Frampton

 

9-2-13

Well you are probably wondering why I am writing this email so late today....well probably not because you always get it in the morning anyways...today and the next 2 days will be pretty hectic. 

So Elder Yun has his military reserve exercise thingy; he had it today and the next 2 days. Today I stayed with a member that just got back from his mission 2 months ago, I chilled in his house all day with him and his parents. I made a cover for my planner; it’s pretty cool, its Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I also drew a little, slept a little. That was about 6 hours of my day. Then me and the recently returned missionary (brother "Lee") went to a Korean market, this is like the traditional Korean thing. Not like the lotte mart or emart that they have here (like Wal-Mart things). This market is open every 5 days, and Elder Yun said I was lucky to go because it’s like never open on Pday! Well this market was awesome! It was huge!!!!! There were lots of different things being sold. Lots of fruit, vegetables, animals, clothes, trinkets, gardening stuff, etc.. I have some pictures if I have time I will attach. Otherwise it’ll have to wait till next week. I mainly took picture of the cute animals that they sold there....ha-ha. 

We have to go to Seogwipo tonight because I will be doing missionary work with the elders there for the next 2 days while Elder Yun goes to his military thing. It should be fun, different but fun. Apparently they’re doing service tomorrow in one of the members orange orchard.

So this past week went by really fast. We had like 5 dinners/lunch with members this past week which was awesome. The members are getting better at feeding us;) we just need them to do missionary work now...actually one young family (the brother born in Korea raised in America and now living in Korea with his Korean wife, he speaks like only English and very broken Korean) they gave us a referral and we were able to contact that referral and meet with him! We think he might be a new investigator! He seemed interested in what we have to teach. We also met with another guy that Elder Yun met last transfer before I came. He’s like 80 years old and is a North Korean that was put in a war prison during the Korean war or something and has been in South Korea ever since. Well when we met with him we brought book of Mormons in English and Japanese because he can speak English and Japanese (we didn’t give him a Korean one because he can read Japanese just fine....he said he didn’t want it..ha-ha) but he seemed very interested in it, and was pretty accepting to it being another testament of Jesus Christ! We will meet with him again later this week so hopefully the Spirit can really work on his heart.

I didn’t have time to grab my journal before coming here from the member’s house so I don’t remember much from the rest of my week. One thing happened yesterday that I do remember. We were eating dinner at the branch president’s house and.......he let me play his trumpet!!!!!!!! It's been 3 months since I have played, and that was terrible. I sounded so bad. ha-ha but he was really impressed. He let me take the trumpet with me so I could bring it to the church and leave it at the church so if I wanted I could play on Pdays. That’s exciting!

Korean is getting better little by little, I understand a tiny bit more every day. I'm trying to talk more and more every day and I actually like talking. It's still hard to talk to other people because I don’t have much conversation skills and vocabulary and because I don’t understand. But its soo fun! I can’t wait till I can speak and understand better! It’s amazing how far I’ve come in the past 3 months, and I know that if it weren’t for the Lord, I would still be pretty much nowhere. I owe it all to Him. Always turn to the Lord and he will provide.

Sorry it’s so short this week; don’t have too much fun without me ;) 

Love,

Elder Frampton

8-26-13

Helllllo family:

This week seriously flew by sooo fast. So much happened but it still was just so fast.

So let’s start with Tuesday, Elder Yun, because he already served his military service, had to go to a review thingy just in case war breaks out type of thing. Like he learned where he would have to go and what to do and where to get weapons and such. While he did that, the Seogwipo elders (southern island elders) came up and spent study time with me while Elder Yun was gone. That was interesting since it was different than usual.

So on Wednesday at night we called the boy’s mother to see if we could get permission for him to be baptized. She gave the permission! We were so happy, it truly was a miracle from the Lord. I will talk about the baptism later on. 

Wednesday I think was the first night that it rained in a while. It really hasn't rained much this year they say so it has been a "drought". But these past few nights and a little during the day it has rained. On Saturday night it was raining really hard, enough to wake me up. Between that and the heat, Saturday night was one of the worst nights I have had in a while. I woke up many times then couldn’t get back to sleep. Also, my fan had turned off in the middle of the night and I had no idea because I could not hear that it was running because of the rain. One of the times that I woke up because I was hot, I decided to check it.....it was off! I turned it on and got a little better sleep.

According to what people tell us, there is supposed to be a typhoon this week! It’s pretty exciting I think! The weather is pretty nice today (Monday). Not too hot and sunny and not very humid. It’s very nice weather compared to what we've had.

So Thursday we actually had two meal appointments! One was with one of my favorite families in our branch; they are super nice and have 3 kids. The brother is also in the district presidency. We had lunch with them, then for dinner we had lunch with a sister and her daughter. With us, because we needed another male with us, was a guy who had just returned from his mission about 1.5 months ago in Seoul. Both super good meals, the sister gave us some really good meat to take home and we ate that yesterday. Meals in Korea are either meat prepared a certain way and vegetables and rice, noodles with vegetables, or just vegetables. It is all really good though. Also like every restaurant or meal at a members home always has little side dishes of like kimchi, radishes, onions, peppers, and this little sauce that you can dip it in. Some kimchi I like, some I don't but it just takes some getting used to before you like it.

So Saturday was the best day so far here in Korea. President and Sister Gilbert came Friday to Jeju because on Saturday we had interviews! It was so awesome. It lasted for around 3.5 hours. So there are 6 of us in our district, so that’s 6 interviews. The interviews are 15 minutes each. So when we weren't the one being interviewed by President Gilbert, Sister Gilbert was holding a discussion in a different room with us. The theme for this transfer was "walking with Christ" so we discussed things about that. We talked about how we must walk with Christ and what would be holding us back is the natural man. She taught how we must overcome that natural man within ourselves, giving up it, in order to walk with Christ. I enjoyed every second of the discussion. Sister Gilbert knows the scriptures and gospel so well. She loves every one of her missionaries (us). They are literally the best mission presidents anywhere, no doubt about it. They have the highest expectations of us because they know that only the best missionaries are sent to the Korea Busan mission. Sister Gilbert should seriously be called as general relief society president or something.

After interviews we had the baptism! I will send a picture. Elder Yun was asked to baptize him. It was so amazing! We had asked his mother to come to the baptism, and she came! It was so wonderful; I know she felt the spirit. Oh since the Gilberts were there for interviews they were able to come to the baptism! It was just amazing and perfect. On Sunday he was confirmed and given the holy ghost and I was able to help with that, he had asked Elder Yun to give the blessing as well. It was just awesome.

Sunday night we had a thing in Seogwipo so we got a ride there. Because it has rained lately and it is still pretty hot, on the ride back there was really bad fog. We could see maybe 10 feet in front of us and the brother that was driving was pretty much relying on the line that is in the middle of the road. To get between Jeju city and Seogwipo (I think I spell it different every time.) we have to go through/around Halla mountain the tallest mountain in Korea, the roads are super windy, so because of this, the fog experience was even more scary.

Well Korean still is hard, I still don’t really understand much and can’t say much. Since we don’t have lessons ever it’s hard to practice, so President Gilbert suggested setting appointments with members to practice teaching for like 10 minutes. I think we will try that and hopefully it’ll get better eventually. I only have 2 more weeks left in my first transfer....time is flying by.

I hope all is well at home, I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Frampton

8-19-13

Well, interesting week this week!

Where to begin...

Well a really weird thing happened earlier in the week. I was sleeping and I just woke up all of a sudden and about a minute later Elder Yun reaches over and grabs my blanket, pulls it off of me and puts it on him. Weirdest thing ever, I guess he was cold. So on Wednesday day the APs came to Jeju! Elder Mitchell and Elder Kang. They came because they were doing a surprise visit to the SeoGwi Po Elders down south. They were real surprised when we showed up on Thursday morning. Elder Mitchell stayed in Jeju city with us while Elder Kang stayed with them down there all of Thursday. I learned a lot about talking with people on the street from them. 

When we met back up on Friday we went to a really popular noodle restaurant. We waited like 40 minutes!!!! The church is on that street so we always see people waiting outside of it.

So another funny thing that happened was when we went out for proselyting on Tuesday night. We were walking down some side roads where there are always shops and such. And we see this eel thing that had fallen/jumped out of the tank that was there in front of a shop and it was just flopping around all distressed. Then a guy (we think he was the owner of the shop) runs from a truck and picks up the eel and throws it back in the tank. It was super funny! 

Oh so once in a mission opportunity happened Thursday! Elder Mitchell (the AP) was super lucky because on Thursday we had a branch activity down by the picnic area place of the beach! We had to get special permission from mission president, and at first he said no then after thinking about it he said we could go. It was awesome.

I played soccer/volleyball game, which is just volleyball but with a soccer ball and you can only use your feet and head. It was nice to relax there;) We only went because our investigator that has a baptismal date was there. His mother still hasn’t given permission but we think she will this week so we can have the baptism.

So every week we teach 2 English classes. One is the English class that we are supposed to have, and one is a service activity that we do. They are both super fun!

Saturday morning we played badminton and soccer. I'm bad at both. During soccer there were like 3 people playing defense on my team and I was always the only one that was actually defending so it was always like 3 vs me. haha

So Sunday morning I decided to use my bread and eggs to make French toast!!! It was soooooooo good! I missed having French toast, I will make them more often now.

So this guy we met last Sunday, we called him up and invited him to church. He said he would come, but then when we were in church yesterday he called us up and said to meet him just at a shop down the street. He apologized and said he wouldn't be able to come this week because his family like came to town or something and he was going to the beach with them. He said he would come next week. I think he will. He is the closest person we have to being an investigator right now. This week we couldn't get a lot of people to talk to us especially since weren't a lot of men out. I just wish people could know how happy they could be with the gospel. It would make it easier for us because then they would be more willing to talk to us! I just always have to remember that even saving one soul will be worth it, and if I'm doing all this for that one, then it is okay. I know this gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ!

That’s it for this week! Keep it real!

Love,
Elder Frampton

12 Aug 2013

Hello Family!

I will start by answering questions that you all had.

I’m in Jeju for as long as president wants to keep me here. Could be 6 weeks and I finish the last 6 weeks of being trained somewhere else with someone else. or I could be here for 4 transfers, who knows. Both sisters here are on their 3rd transfer, so right out of being trained. One got trained here, the other is a Korean and came here. That could happen to me I guess. Our district leader, Elder Kim Ji Gyo is on his 5th transfer here I think. I came here as part of transfers.

We take the bus or walk. No bikes no trains or subways here in Jeju.

Our apartment is in a big apartment complex on the 4th floor, and we have to walk up the stairs every day.

We get our food from a little mart next to our apartment that we pass by every day. or any other mart in the city. There are 7-elevens all over the place along with other bakeries and marts called CU.

We are about 30-35 minute walking distance from the church, 10-15 when we take the bus. We have a branch here, and the building is a building and not a church building, so it might have been converted....I’m not sure though. There about 60ish members that attend each week.

We have had like 2 meals with people in the past week or so, it is usually for lunch and not dinner.

We use the computers in like the clerk’s office or something (I’m not sure what it is) for emailing. Apparently before I came they went to like a big information building 10 minutes from where we live to email, but it is under construction.

Last Pday after emailing I went to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office. Then as a district we went to the Manjanggul lava caves. It was at least 30 degrees cooler down there and it felt super nice since it was probably in the 80s and humid outside...it was really awesome to see.

So missionary work here like I said is really slow. We had like 2 "lessons" this week. One was with a boy who is like 14 and has been meeting with missionaries for a few months. We actually set a date for his baptism on Sunday and we really hope it can happen. The problem that has existed in the past is that his mother won’t let him be baptized, but her heart has slowly become softened so we really hope she gives permission. Elder Yun wrote her a letter before and then wrote another Sunday morning for the mother in hope that she will give permission. I'm pretty sure that she will:) I'm slowly learning more Korean.

I still understand close to nothing. it’s hard to know what to focus on learning. I can put together sentences but it is really slow. Most people I talk to on the street end up being really nice and understanding so they usually accept a pamphlet from me. We can't really find anyone to teach yet, but there are a few people that we have talked to that might have some interest, so we will see where that goes when we contact them back. 

It was sooo hot this week, so difficult to be outside walking around. I just drip sweat....its so gross. The nights are a little better temperature wise, especially with the fans. But during the day when we are in our apartment, we just die!

For food, whenever we eat out or eat at a members house it is usually Korean food...when I’m at home its mostly been bread and jam, and cereal......I really need to figure out something more to eat at home other than that. I really thought I gained weight since I have gotten here but I weighed myself and I hadn’t......since the scale was in KG. I asked Elder Yun what he thought that was in pounds and he said that it was 6 pounds more than I what I had been when I left the MTC.....thankfully he was wrong. I converted it on our phone and I have been the same weight! 

That’s really it for this week, it’s hard to remember stuff, and know what to say because the days just blend and it is just repetitive.

Love, 

Elder Frampton

 My new district picking me up at the Jeju airport.

My district's last temple walk at the MTC