8-10-14

Hello!

So big news is that I am in a new area! It is actually the area Elder Shaw came from before he came to Sacheon and also I am replacing my MTC companion, Elder Pickard! My new companion is Elder Brower and he has been serving for about 20 months I think. I don't know anything about him yet. I am in an area called Gyeongsan. North of Busan but south of another main city called Daegu. Small area. Branch of about 25ish members, a tiny bit bigger than Sacheon. Daegu is the hottest place in South Korea apparently, and many of the people here say that it is hotter here than in Daegu city....I will see, either way I will probably sweat a lot. My replacement in Sacheon will be a new missionary meaning Elder Shaw is training. 

So this week was a lot less exciting than last week teaching wise. Monday our friend, the one guy that drinks a lot and we taught him word of wisdom, well we tried to meet him and went to the place where we agreed to meet...he wasn't there, he had gone home already. He had called us before and said he could meet. He was also just rambling and rambling..We called him when we didn't find him there and he just rambled and rambled again..It doesn't seem like meeting him is the best option, one because he is drunk when he wants to meet, and two he wants a Korean missionary so they can understand and so we can communicate...well that won't happen so we really can't meet him anymore.

My last Sunday, yesterday, the less active/recent convert student, Muhyon, we had been working with came to church to see me! He walked in right after sacrament ended but at least he could hear my good bye testimony! It was so great to see him there because we couldn't get him to come before but him coming to see me is a start...hopefully he will come out on a more regular basis at least once a month...it is hard for him because he lives in the city where the church isn't...that was why he never came before so it is really hard for him to go. The members really treated him well and were glad to see him and encouraged him to come out more often. He is so awesome! I will really miss him!

After church we had a branch activity at the branch president's house. We all drove there and had lunch and talked and then we had a musical talent show type thing. It was super fun, many of the members sang or played piano. It really felt like a family gathering. I will miss them all so much.

That is really it for this week! I am super tired right now because I had to get up at 4:30 to get to Busan this morning for our meeting!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

8-3-14

Hello!  

So this week was probably one of the best weeks I have had on my mission!  

So last Sunday our member said that he had someone to refer to us! A little background information. Our member was studying to become a pilot and he was like in the last stage of testing which is why he came to this area. Well he failed the test and now has a lot of time. He had a friend that was in the same situation as him and so he asked his friend if he wanted to listen to our message. He told him that we came to Korea to share our beliefs that our important to us but we don't have anyone to teach. So his friend was willing to listen. We met him for the first time on Tuesday and shared our prepared message about the Atonement (we didn't know what to expect going in to the lesson so that was all we prepared). He doesn't have any religious background so it is all new to him, he isn't necessarily looking into going to church or anything but he says he is willing to listen. After listening he was like "Is that it?" expecting something more and longer...So our member was like, "Nope they can teach more if you want, hey Elders teach more." So we taught the whole plan of salvation and it went well without specifically planning for it beforehand. I think we were blessed to have that run as smoothly as it did. We set an appointment for the Thursday but then in the middle of the day Wednesday we got a text saying that they couldn't meet on Thursday and wanted to know if we could meet that night   (Wednesday). So we met that night and taught more. Also he had read the Book of Mormon reading assignment we gave him. During the lessons he would mainly just listen to us when we talked but when the member, his friend, said anything, he listened intently and would respond to and ask him questions/test his words. I could see the importance of member’s words and presence. People will listen to their friends, so find someone to refer! Anyways whenever we gave scriptures to read while talking, he would read it aloud then to himself again so he could understand. He seemed so willing to really try to understand and know for himself if what we taught was true. I really felt that my companion and I were fulfilling our purpose as missionaries. Teaching with power, by the spirit, and inviting people to change and follow Christ. This morning is where the sad news comes in. We got a message from our member saying that his friend was feeling a little pressured by taking the lessons so for now we cannot meet anymore. We hope and have faith that it will change and we can meet him again!

This Saturday we finally experienced a typhoon. Apparently its name was typhoon Sakuro (or something like that). Well it wasn't too big or anything but there was a lot of wind and rain on Saturday and a little less on Sunday. Yea our church somehow had a leak and we had a puddle in the one corner of our room that is the chapel. We had 3 buckets for dripping water right there...pretty sketchy for a nice church. All during sacrament meeting there was just dripping sounds in the back where the water was dripping.

We also met the one guy I mentioned last week. The one that gave us dinner. Yea well we met 2 times but unfortunately he was pretty drunk both times. The first time we tried to teach him but as we started he said his head hurt. At first he said it in Spanish then Korean. Still weird. Well so we couldn't teach him anything else that first time. That time though he was there with his friends and they said that he should go to church (one reason was because he might find a wife.....no possibilities at our branch...) but they were pretty good at supporting him to meet us. They told us to keep trying and working on him. The next time we met him he was too drunk to let us talk much. He couldn't focus on what we would say at first. He offered us some alcohol (usually he doesn't because he knows we don’t drink, but he was drunk enough this time to not remember). We actually taught him about the Word of Wisdom and the principle of obedience and we committed him to trying to not drink or smoke for one week......yea he didn't accept. We never planned to teach that, but that is what came up, and pretty much the lesson didn't really turn out well, except for the fact that he asked for a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. I really felt love for him as we talked and invited him to try and change. I think I saw his potential to become and I have a lot of hope for him in the future.

We met another guy too! He was someone we met once before. Well we just talked and found out a lot about what he believed. He is Buddhist and pretty much he told us a lot about it. How meditation is a big part of it and that it is through meditation that he feels the most happiness. We helped him understand better who our Savior is and why he is important. He is pretty open to what we have to say, and he says he is willing to try this whole learning about Christ and his restored gospel.  

Yea so this week was just super good and I learned a lot. I am super thankful for the many miracles I have seen this week!

Hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Frampton

7-27-14

Hello!

So I am trying to think about what happened this week....

So we went to a market to follow up with a potential investigator on Tuesday and we didn't get to talk to him because this other guy had stopped us. This guy was super weird. He was a little intoxicated and he didn't communicate very well. He was using a little bit of English, Spanish, and Korean, but only little phrases. I don't think he said a full sentence the whole 20 minutes we were talking to him. He would say his phrase and we wouldn't really understand so he would just sigh/moan in frustration....He understood that we were missionaries and before we left he said he wanted to buy us dinner as service to us...We didn't have time that night, but we got his number and set up an appointment with him to meet the next day. Wednesday night when we called to find out where we were meeting, he said some restaurant name and told us to ask around...nobody knew, so he told us to ask about another restaurant that people helped us find. From then he was just standing in the street but was wayyyyyyy down the street outside the other restaurant that was a little hole in the wall place. Probably the most hole in the wall place I have ever eaten. Anyways he was a lot more understandable this time, and we were able to talk about our purpose as missionaries and about Christ and a little about how knowing him has helped our lives and our family. He seemed pretty interested and is willing to learn more! But we haven't been able to get another appointment with him yet, but every time we call he seems super nice and willing to try and meet. He is quite weird but really nice.

So one of the things that I did a lot this week was show people my family picture. The one from Mike's wedding that is just mom, dad, Mike, Anna, Brian. Well anyways one person said dad looked like a movie star, other times they just said he was very good looking. People said mom was super good looking and that I have very beautiful parents. Everyone always said Anna was gorgeous. Some people thought I was Mike, apparently we look alike. Other people said that I was a combination of Mike and Brian. Family pictures really help in Korea! haha I was able to easily talk about missionary work with other people, especially when they realized that I was not in the picture. I just thought it was funny that someone called Dad a movie star.

  

So while walking on the street one day we passed by two grandmas that are usually sitting outside and that day they called us over and gave us somewhat warm milk....Elder Shaw didn't want to drink the milk but they made him. haha. One lady kept saying nonstop that we were 'pretty', she just kept saying it over and over and over and over and over. It was pretty crazy. We were just like sitting in front of these ladies houses on the ground eating apples and drinking milk with two super old ladies. One believed in Jesus and let us read a bible verse and pray with her but the other one just said she doesn't pray and kind of walked away so we could pray....yea she came back before we got to pray so she was there during it but she just stood there. Super weird experience. Oh they were drinking milk+alcohol, but they gave us just milk.  

So we have a few potential investigators but when we try to meet them they usually are too busy, or we make an appointment and then something comes up on their end and they cancel:( That is okay, we will be able to meet with someone eventually!

Well that's it for this week! Have a good one!

Love,

Elder Frampton

7-21-14

Hello!

So this week best news is that the sister that got baptized last week received the gift of the Holy Ghost! Branch president delivered a wonderful blessing.

So the craziest part of the week was Friday, it rained super hard. Actually the hardest rain I have seen so far in Korea! We were in the middle of a lesson that wasn't going super well just because the guy just wasn't interested, and rain just started pouring and got harder and harder. When we left, luckily I had an umbrella, and we walked home to get some things and figure out a change in schedule. The rain was so hard that as I walked the bottom half of my body got soaked after a little. Later after the leaving the house after getting some clothes to do service that didn't actually happen because of rain, it was still raining and my pants and legs were soaked and I was to the point that I didn't even avoid puddles because avoiding them or going straight through them made no difference. Yea so no one was on the streets really for those few hours.

Another thing that as super weird this week was that these young kids were talking to us on the street, they were 10. In Korea you kind of address people with titles according to your age and they called me as if I was a middle aged man.....it was super weird because I am not that old, but I guess to them I am old. It made me feel super old.

So there is a man in my branch that his family lives in the US in Virginia and I was just talking him and of course found out that  the temple he went to is the DC temple and I actually found out that his daughter who is my age is going to college and U Penn. Pretty interesting.

So a scripture I found in my studies this week is Matthew 5:45. Super good scripture. Just simply put, we have the potential to become as God because of the things we experience in this life. Just read that and think about it!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

7-13-14

So best part of the week was yesterday and the baptism! 18 year old (Korean age) girl that was a referral from the branch president. We had to go to the other areas church in Jinju because we don't have a baptismal font. We ended church then all rode up there and had the baptism! It was super great. The missionaries (2 sisters and us) sang "When I am baptized" for her during the service and the spirit was super strong! She had started to cry while we sang and it was just such a great moment and I could really feel the Savior's love. Elder Shaw baptized her and so he didn't have to do it more than once he really put her under the water a lot. She bore her testimony at the end and it was super nice, you can really see the change and happiness that the gospel brings in her. :DD

We had interviews with President Barrow this week. The meeting was very different than how we did before. The APs just prepared a "watch video clip, think, and share your thoughts" type of meeting while president was interviewing. I found that President Barrow is very straight forward and to the point.

We also had a branch picnic this week! It was on Saturday and it seemed like we just went to a park grounds or something for it. We had a lunch and just played some sports as a branch. We played kickball as a branch. I found out that Koreans call kickball "foot baseball." They also brought volleyball and we were hitting it around for a few minutes then one person caught it and was holding it and then randomly it popped. Super weird.

So pretty much July 3-July 9 it rained everyday...we then heard that a typhoon was supposed to come, and when it was supposed to come, it didn't rain and it was really nice today. Turns out the typhoon apparently turned before getting to Korean and Japan got most of it?

Another thing this week was that we got new pamphlets for proselyting. One is "Who is God?" and one is "What to expect" but the Korean to English translation for that one is actually "the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saint missionaries" they gave each of us one of each and told us not to give them out to people. We are supposed to just read through them and see what we like and don't like and think about how they could improve them. Kind of like a prototype I guess. I think they could really help in introduce who we are and our purpose. Should be really different.

Well that is it for this week. Have a good week!

Love Elder Frampton

7-6-14

Hello

This week was pretty interesting. Lots of things happened.

Tuesday we met our new mission president. He seems pretty good, just talked for like 20ish minutes and we also heard from his wife and son. He is very different from president Gilbert, more quiet, strong testimony and knowledge of the scriptures and seems like he is ready to lead this mission to do great.

Thursday was an interesting day. We went to Namhae again but since we were going from our home we first took and inner city bus for 40 minutes then we had to hitch-hike to the town square/city place. The hitch-hiking took 2 people to get where we were going. We actually got to teach about the Book of Mormon and stuff with the first guy that picked us up. We got in the car and he was like 'what is the difference between Christians and Mormons?' good ride, next person just did some small talk with them. Fun experience. In Namhae we went and visited less actives with our branch president. One was an old guy that couldn't really hear very well and pretty much couldn't speak, he would just mumble too hard to understand because it wasn't really actually words. Sometimes branch president knew what he was saying and sometimes he just put words in his mouth pretty much. Branch president also took us to this nice restaurant out in the middle of nowhere next to the coast, pretty cool, delicious.

Brother Choi took us to dinner on Thursday. He took us to a really good meat place and pretty much spent 100 dollars on us. We had two different types of meat in two rounds. After this first round I was already full, after that I was just so full it was super enjoyable anymore, oh; and then after the second round he bought some of the first meat again, just a little, so we could eat it with cold noodles...but was already so full I couldn't really eat any of it. It was all super delicious though. Bad thing is he got a little drunk...Then he was supposed to come to church and he was going to come a little late because he had a shipment that was supposed to come at 930 but it came super late so he ended up not coming:/

Another drunk person story. We were talking to this old guy that still knew some English and after talking to him for a little he wanted to shake my hand and he kind of pulled me in closer to talk to me and then a few moments later he ended up kissing my cheek. He kind of just put his lips on my cheek and didn't kiss, but pretty much I consider it a kiss....super weird.

Best news this week is that the girl with the baptism date is supposed to be baptized this coming Sunday 13th and the sisters taught her everything that was left to teach yesterday. And the only problem that was left was getting permission from her parents and Branch president had gone and was able to get verbal permission so she just has her interview on Wednesday and then she will be getting baptized! From what the sisters told us about the lesson yesterday, she really wants to be baptized but it’s hard that her family doesn't really support her much. Like the gospel is making a big change in her life, so many blessings she is seeing, but the fact that she can’t be partaking of them with her family makes her pretty sad. She is so great!

That's it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

6-22-14

Hello,

So the new transfer started today! Nothing changing with me. Me and Elder Shaw are staying together for another one. The last transfer was only 5 weeks because Pres. Gilbert is leaving sometime at the end of the week and Pres. Barrow comes on Friday! So this new transfer will be 7 weeks to make up for the one short this past time. I'm writing so late today because we went to Busan for transfer meeting to see the Gilberts for the last time and the meeting was kind of long and after some waiting we finally got back to our area around 7:20ish. So we are emailing on display computers in the store so if the email stops suddenly it is because they tell us to get off......

So since I just realized   I never told anything about Elder Shaw because I hadn't known anything 5 weeks ago I will tell you some stuff now. He is 19 turning 20 next month, from Burley, Idaho. Went to BYU summer and fall of 2012 and has been out about 5 more months than me. He likes hardcore music. Pretty good at Korean and likes to work hard.

So this past week....a lot happened but nothing super great like the week before. I went on a companion exchange with Elder Barr our district leader and I went to his area. We met some interesting people that day. One of them was a little drunk and when we were walking by he called us over to talk to him because he had a question. He at first asked if there was a difference between God and Jehovah in the old testament....he talked about a lot of stuff and it pretty much ended in him telling Elder Barr to show his (Elder Barr) heart to him (the guy)....it was super weird and it wasn't making much sense...so Elder Barr kind of just stared forward and thought for a few seconds and this guy I guess had enough because he just got up and walked away. Super weird. We met a few other good people but that kind of didn't end too well either. Most people seem to hate religion now (especially Christians) because of the boat accident. I don't know how much you know now about it but the captain and company manager ran away right? And something about one of their religions preacher and that belief being the whole reason they like did what they did. Well because of that lots of people think that our religion is just like that and don't want anything to do with it. Also we hear a lot about us being a cult.....it's is kind of annoying because it just makes people not really listen to us when we talk. In a way they are hardening their heart but we still have the faith the when we talk to the people that their heart will have the even slightest softness to feeling the spirit.

  We went and did 'construction' again this week. It was just actually just cleaning up stones and stuff and sweeping because they had just pored the cement a few days before and they have to wait for the cement to completely cure before they can do more building. Well it went well, our investigator is much more open to coming to church now. He says that for sure when he isn't working he will try and come out. He also says that he will bring his friend that we met that day with him. He says that his friend drinks a lot and puts drinking over his family so he thinks that we can help him through church and stuff, hopefully that works out!

I didn't get to meet our old investigator this week because of the exchange and because when they met him his wife told us to stop coming. We are just giving him a little time but we did take a message card by his house really quick on Friday. So keep him in your prayers please.

Well anyways that is it for this week actually! Read the Book of Mormon! It will bring a special spirit into your life that nothing else can! Act upon the things your read! I love you all! Look for people to serve this week, go out of your way to serve them!

Love,

Elder Frampton

6-15-14

So this week was a pretty good week!  We got to do construction this week. One of our investigators that owns the "S-oil" gas station is building a car wash area for his gas station. He studied architecture or something like that and is pretty much a construction specialist or something so he hired workers and stuff to build the car wash to get him more business. A little back story, we met him like 3 times before then and agreed to listen to 'religious talk.' Well we went and he wasn't too open and he kept saying that he would come to church. We think it is just because that's what he thinks we want from him...but it's not.

So on Tuesday we set up an appointment with him and when we went on Wednesday he was too busy because of course he was working construction. Understandable. We waited but he hadn't seen us so we started just write a note to leave for him with a scripture on it. Right as we were almost done writing the note he came over. We talked for like 3 minutes but he said he didn't have enough time for us to share our message because he had to get back to work. Since we are always looking for service opportunities we offered to help sometime, and that was when he seemed pretty interested. He asked if we could come the next day on the Thursday and we said sure! Perfect, Elder Shaw and I were thinking that this, helping him with construction, was the way in. On Thursday we went and helped him. He was just setting bars in the foundation in preparation for pouring cement so we just helped him with that. Setting the bars and then tying them together with little wires. It was super hot and really worked up a good sweat! Felt good to serve. Our relationship with him changed from being the awkward annoying missionaries to more friendly missionaries that want to help in any way they can. He really enjoyed our help we think. 

We met this old guy this week. He is 84 years old. He was sitting outside in the refreshing night after eating a delicious meal made by his wife. (That’s what he said he was doing). So it turns out he was in the Korea war and because of guns he shot with he is deaf in his right ear. Well he talked about how freedom is good and Elder Shaw remembered a Book of Mormon verse about freedom and giving thanks to God so we shared it with him. Elder Shaw asked if it was alright to pray with him, so Elder Shaw prayed.....the funny thing was that the guy starting just repeating everything he was saying. Once addressing heavenly father and the guy repeated it, Elder Shaw was a little shocked and wasn't sure what to do, but he kept going. He then went on to say that we are thankful we could meet with 'brother Jun" and then he repeated that...he was thankful to meet with himself I guess. 

Well anyways we have met him 2 more times since then and he has become our investigator! He is Buddhist but not a big one and we are just teaching about God and prayer. Since he is deaf in one ear we have to sit on his good ear's side so he can hear. He is super old so he tells us the same stories a lot. Like he tells us about how he built wooden boats as a job back in the day, he has 5 kids, how bullets blow of chunks of your body even though the bullet is small, he is the only one of his grandpa, dad and him that came to where he is living now, etc. Pretty much we understand more and more of different stories because we keep hearing them over and over. Otherwise we don't understand the first time because his Korean is suuppper hard to understand, and plus it is kind of random stuff that we don't know very well anyways. Friday we met him and gave him a message card that we made about being children of God and taught him how to pray. Yesterday we met him and took him some bananas and ate them together. We followed up on prayer and found out he hadn't. He was like "I'm old and forgot!!...." haha He is super great, he prayed for us at the end before we left. Hopefully little by little he will remember more and will come to know God more and more. I can't even explain all the goes on with him because it is so much and pretty crazy! But that's the gist of it. 

That's what I have for this week. Have a good week!  

6-9-14

Hello,

This week was quite the fast week. Not super a lot happened this week.

Lately we have been going to dinner with a recent convert less active named Mu Hyon. Ever since the church moved locations he doesn't come to church, but he comes to English class every week because his dad gives him a ride. He is 16 and every week on Tuesday lately we have been meeting after school is done and taking him to a burger place buying a chicken burger and just sharing a message. He is pretty stubborn sometimes but the exciting thing this week was that he really wanted to sleep but he was willing to come out with us even though he was tired. Woo

Wednesday was Election Day for like city representatives and the person that had their headquarters right next to our church (same building floor) lost, so they are slowly moving out little by little. Now our town is a little less exciting without all the political campaigning going on.

This Wednesday was Zone Conference. Sister Gilbert and President Gilbert gave their last training sessions. It was a lot of fun and a real spiritual boost because they pretty much just taught straight out of the scriptures and also things they learned from President Cook at the last meeting thing they had with him.

Our one kid that we taught last week ended up having another plan suddenly so he couldn't meet...we really hope to meet him again.

Lately we just have had no luck with talking to people. We talk to a lot of people but not really anyone that has any interest in what we say or meeting again to just talk more. They love just talking about normal things and then when we bring up religion in any way shape or form they kind of just become uninterested! Darn anyways the joy of this gospel and the spirit that I feel still keeps me going with my head held high!

I love this work and I love the people!

Sorry not much this week:/

Miss you all

Love Elder Frampton

6-1-14

Hello Everybody!

This week was another long but quick week.

This week not too much happened...We started the week by farming on Tuesday. We were pulling up garlic and gathering it into groups of 25 and then tying them together. I liked the smell that was there when we were pulling it up. I kind of wondered what fresh garlic taste like so I tried just a little tiny bite and it didn't turn out too good. It was sooooo strong, the taste got stuck in my mouth for a few hours. Afterwards we had our missionary coordination meeting with our ward mission leader. He is a super good ward mission leader!

This week in attempt to find new people to teach we made big poster boards that said "Free family English program" with our number and website then stood at intersections and held it up and waved and bowed. We got the idea from the political people that are everywhere right now. They all dress in a color and number according to the candidate they represent then they stand on the side of the road and at intersections and wave and bow. A lot of them have boards too. So we got the idea from that and we got a few good contacts that we are trying to set up a meeting with. We will continue to do that in different locations because right now we are really trying to find new investigators.

On Friday we did a little exploring of our area. Parts we haven't gone before. What we found was a big area of houses and a big fish market right next to the port! We walked around the market looking at fish that they were selling (super gross) and saying hello to all the little stand's owners. As we walked around we had a few people ask who we were and we'd tell them about us and they wouldn't really have much interest after that, but it was a good experience. There was one in particular that was pretty funny. We were walking by one lady and she asked us "student?" and we stopped and turned back and told her "no we are missionaries!" and then a lady that was standing at her little stand looking at fish then asked us "are you gospeling to her?" haha

She was an English teacher so she knew English...she then went on by asking us if we were "gospeling" as students for a grade in a college class. We explained to her who we are and that we teach English, but she didn't live in our area so there was much we could say after that.

Saturday we had English class and one new person showed up! He actually had attended in a different area before and so he decided to come to ours.

After that we had an appointment to play basketball with a student that we met while doing the street board thing. He didn't have any English interest at the time but he did want to play basketball. (Kind of funny because Elder Shaw and I aren't too great at basketball) So we played for 30ish minutes with him and then we ended up teaching him the whole restoration lesson! It was not according to our plans at all. We had planned to teach just about God and prophets and how they can help us then we were going to share strength of youth but we were teaching and it kind of went the direction of the whole restoration lesson. We talked about Joseph Smith and a little of the Book of Mormon and how there was a prophet on the earth today. It was definitely the spirit guiding us because it just felt so natural as we taught. The boy even asked some pretty good questions and seemed pretty interested and willing to meet with us again. We committed him to pray about our message. Hopefully he will meet us again. His parents don't have a religion so they probably won't tell him not to meet with us. That is one really good experience this week!

After that we had another appointment with another kid and we ate dinner at McDonalds with him...We were planning to talk about God being our father and then about prophets and how they help us in our life. We wanted to talk about for the strength of youth with him too...We did and gave him the little booklet but one problem. He had a friend that worked at McDonalds and right before we were going to share a message he came and got him to go somewhere with him for like 8 minutes and when the kid we were meeting came back he smelled bad of smoke. We think he went with his friend and smoked a cigarette or something then came back. Super sad, we tried our best to bring the Spirit to what we were teaching and hopefully he felt something:/

Yesterday when we were proselyting around, everywhere we went it smelled like smoke and there was smoke everywhere! Either because of lots of smoking or the farmers are burning their fields. We went home smelling like smoke!

Well that's it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

5-26-14

Hello,

This week felt like a pretty long week. Nothing super exciting happened this week but I have a few things to share.

This week when we went farming, we got to pick little flowers off of the persimmon trees. So the persimmons growing as buds won't survive later if there is more than one or two buds on one little branch so we pretty much just stood under trees for two hours just killing little buds and throwing them on the ground! I kind of felt like the servants in Jacob 5, just with little persimmon buds.....haha

So last transfer, when we were doing a proselyting activity for English class, Elder Lamb (who went home), talked to this one guy that knew about the church and the Book of Mormon and took a Book of Mormon. Well Elder Lamb got his contact info, whether the guy wrote it down, or just spoke it and Elder Lamb wrote it down I don't know. Anyways this week we tried to find his house/call the number but all of it was wrong I think....we thought the number (which was only 5 numbers compared to the usual 8) was like an old number that we would be able to call, but it wasn't. Then we went to find the apartment in an area that he said it was located, and it wasn't. So it was like a treasure hunt that led to a dead end!

We also set up an appointment with our potential investigator and met him...Pretty much it was really awkward because he was like "I know why you are here...." We just shared about the Book of Mormon and bore our testimony. He said he would come to church once to check it out....Pretty much I think he isn't really wanting a change in religion and just will come to church because I think he thinks that is all we want....But if he comes to church that is good even if it is just to fulfill what he thinks our desires are. It will give the Spirit an opportunity to touch his heart and that is what we really need for anything else to happen.

We also met one kid that we had met on the streets again and this time he said he wanted to bring his friend. (He really likes English so we just talk to him in English) He likes us and his friend lived in America for a year as an exchange student so he invited him to join us in our English discussions. Up to that meeting we didn't quite know how to approach him with the gospel, but that night, as we planned, we decided to tell him our purpose as missionaries and ask if it was alright to start sharing messages every time we meet and they were both very accepting to the idea! It was a lot easier than we expected it to be because he brought his friend and that kind of lightened the mood.

Some potential going into this transfer so we hope things will work out!

That's it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

5-19-14

5-12-14 was Mother's Day and we got to talk to Elder Frampton on the phone Saturday night.

Okay hello!

It was an exciting last week of the transfer! First things first, Elder Brown transferred and my new companion is Elder Shaw. I don't know anything really about him yet other than he is from Idaho. He has been out a year and like 4 or 5 months.

So Saturday morning.....interesting time. I started studying at 8:00 and when I got up to go to the bathroom I realized I had trouble opening my eyes. Next thing I know my eye lids are super swollen and I can barely open my eyes! I called Sister Gilbert in order to ask what I should do and since I had no Benadryl (she thought it might be and allergic reaction) she told me to go to the hospital. So I went to the hospital and pretty much the doctor said I was fine and that if it were to get worse my face would swell up and then it would be more serious...so he just gave me a prescription for some allergy medicine stuff for 2 days and he said it would make me tired. Interesting experience...The swelling went away around 1ish.

Also Saturday we had a branch activity! We, the missionaries, planned it all and we did an activity with a bunch of mini games and cakes. Pretty much you could win things to put on top of the cake by winning mini games. We bought the cake bases and made some cream icing to put on top, we forgot to put sugar in the cream when we whipped it so it wasn't very sweet so we went out and bought some that was already made and then put it over the other unsweetened cream. Mini games we did were chopstick-m&m race, telephone charades, something called Korean dodgeball, a food feeling game, a card flipping game, and a balloon popping game. It was super intense. About 6 members showed up and then we were able to get out one kid from our basketball activity and then 5 of his friends! They had a really good time

Yesterday at church one of our investigators came out! It was pretty much to see Elder Brown give a talk in sacrament meeting, but it was a really good experience he said. He is a 30 old teacher and the basketball activity we go to is with him and his students. He came to a branch activity 2 months ago and we had been trying to get him to come out to church again. He really likes the branch because it is like a family. We hope to be able to get him out to church more but he always has other plans on the weekends, but we hope since he has kind of broke the ice now by coming to church once then he will come again. He also does like formally hearing the lessons but maybe now it will be easier to meet him and teach him, maybe not so formally but we hope he will be more open to hear more. Also he had never accepted the Book of Mormon he was offered the two times Elder Brown tried to give it to him, but he finally accepted to take one yesterday. We are praying that he will be able to progress now.

So Wednesday we were on the bus going to district meeting an hour away. When we were five minutes from arriving to the bus terminal the bus totally rear ended a car in front of it! It was raining and I was sleeping but all of a sudden the bus starts jerking to come to a stop and as a result of the motion I wake up...then the next thing I know we just BOOM hit a car! The back of the car was totally smashed and the front of the bus was only a little dented in....dang! Luckily no one was hurt and another bus came 3 minutes later to take us away.

Well that’s it for this week! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

5-5-14

Hello everyone,

So this week was a little more eventful than last week. On Wednesday we went to another area in our district, Jinju, for our district meeting. Afterwards the bishop there took us to where he works at a college and just showed us a bunch of his fancy machines including a 3D printer. We didn't get to see it work but it was super cool and he gave us this little trinket as a souvenir that the 3D printer made. After that we started exchanges, and I was with one of the Jinju Elders in Jinju and the district leader went with Elder Brown to my area. The person I was with wasn't very good with directions and we got a little lost while walking around that day....but it was still a good experience.

On Friday we did home teaching. We went to the couple's house with our home teaching companion and she has made us delicious lasagna with homemade ricotta cheese, tofu, and cucumber. It was super delicious!

Yesterday was an interesting day as well. We held normal sacrament meeting as well as a smaller one later. 

There is one lady in the branch that cannot attend church normally because she has to work because she lost her husband a few years back and has to support her and her family. The branch president said for her to come to church, but she said she couldn't until 3....He asked us to prepare and give her the sacrament, so we waited around and us the sister missionaries, and her had a mini sacrament. I think she expected someone else to be there, but we just think it was miscommunication between her and the branch president. It was a good experience and she seemed very grateful for the experience.  I got to play the piano 3 different hymns and give a short testimony and one of the sisters gave her testimony. Even though it was a small meeting with only 5 people, I really felt the spirit's presence.

That's it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton