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