12-29-14

Hello,

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

So on Tuesday we had our mission Christmas party. It was in Geumjeong, the area I had spent 6 months in, so it was weird going back. Good party, had a spiritual meeting first and some musical performances. One of the Barrows visiting sons played the harmonica...weird because that is the second time I had heard someone play harmonica as part of a meeting in that ward building...over 9 months ago an old guy played the harmonic in a testimony meeting while I was serving there. After the meeting we had some delicious American like chicken and salads and stuff that Sister Barrow and a bunch of others helped prepare. Then we watched clips from Remember the Titans (movie) because President Barrow was relating it to stuff. Then we ate some delicious cookies and snacks that Sister Barrow made while we watched Ephraim's rescue. Great day! 

When we left, we left with our zone to go Christmas caroling back at a busy shopping place. We gave out a lot of our He is the Gift cards that we have been using. My voice was very tired by the end of the night!

Wednesday morning, we went and did some service with the sisters. We went to Kindergarten/day care centers, wearing Santa hats/dressing up as Santa and then giving gifts to the kids. There were lots of little kids that cried. We went to two different places in 2 different cities. It was cool because later that night we saw a kid and said hello and merry Christmas to him and he was like "hey aren't you Santa??' pretty cool that he recognized us and our voices.

Wednesday night we had our branch Christmas party. It was super good, lots of food and little performances. The missionaries just did a little dumb singing act thing. I played my little tin whistle thingy. haha. Really good because lots of less actives showed up!

Thursday, Christmas. Just another normal day, sort of. 7:30am calling you family! It was not working out very well...then the phone call ended suddenly right at when I ran out of time to talk, didn't even get to say goodbye! Love you! Then we went to the Branch President's house where the others were skyping and we just played a card game with the kids. It was a miracle because usually the bus to branch president's house comes once every 35ish minutes and in order to make it on time we had to catch the bus quick! and it did come quick! It was awesome!!! So we had lunch at the Branch president's house and then left. We went caroling again with our zone in the same place as before. Place called Nampo. Then later that night we met an investigator that Elder Suttner had taught in his first area and is on school break so he came home to our area.

Saturday we were finally able to meet a former investigator that we had been trying to meet. He is willing to keep meeting but he goes to military service starting January 11. Ate with him then went to the church and played Ping-Pong and shared a lesson.

So one thing we started praying for this week was that somewhat would contact us because of the Christmas card thingies that we had been giving out. Our prayers were answered with 3 people texting. Nothing really more came from it, but it was a prayer answered because we hadn't got any texts until then...and we had given out lots of cards before then.

That was my week! Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a great new years!!!!

Love,

Elder Frampton

12-22-14

So seeing as I am calling this week I'll just keep this short.

Mainly the only thing I wanted to tell you all about was the baptism we had on Saturday in our Branch! So it was the sister's investigator, the mother of a branch member. The Sister is 90 or 91 years old, born in 1924. I had the privilege of baptizing her! Very scary because she is so old. Cold weather was a worry so we had to have the water very warm. Great experience, just a cute old lady. President Barrow and Sister Barrow and their 2 children came to the baptism too. Spirit was very strong throughout the meeting!

That is really it...Have a merry Christmas !

Love,

Elder Frampton

12-15-14

Hello!

So transfers were this week! That is the biggest change. I'm of course staying in my area and my new companion is Elder Suttner. He is in his 3rd transfer just finished being trained. Only been here for 3 months.

It seems like we will get along great. He is very diligent and wanting to do lots of work. On the subway ride back to our area we talked like 3 different people about the church. Even pretty much taught the message of the restoration to one person. It was pretty awesome. He is pretty good at Korean and he isn't afraid to talk to people so it went great. I expect big miracles this transfer!

Wednesday I was on exchanges and we spent 4.5 hours with the "Daeshin Grandmother." just a really old lady in the area I went to that is pretty famous and also crazy. Anyhow, the elders in that area usually take her to the hospital so I went this past week and we just helped her around and just listened to her talk and talk and talk. It was Elder Kim's last week there and she really like Elder Kim (the elder serving there) and he gave her a picture of them together and she cried. Just an interesting experience that I don't even know how to explain. It was fun though being able to serve. I was also in that area the night before and we went to visit another member in the hospital to give a blessing. It was great to have the opportunity to exercise the priesthood in the service of others.

On Friday we went to the church and there was this couple in our parking lot feeding the cats. There are lots and lots of cats that just roam the streets and they brought some food and maybe 7 or 8 cats were eating the food. It was kind of weird and makes me wonder if they do that often.

Saturday we were able to go and visit a less active member that can't really leave the house because he has to take care of his bedridden wife. It was really good because we were able to share a good message and pray with them and feel the spirit. They looked happy that we came and visited. After that we went and visited another member and shared a quick message outside her door. She is super generous and gave us lots of food to take home!

Yesterday we just had some awkward visits after our missionary correlation meeting. The 4 missionaries and branch president, 1^st counselor and branch clerk all visited a less active lady....it was nice but awkward. After that we went with the clerk and 1st counselor to visit a member and his family. We originally had an appointment but we had ended up canceling and then the counselor and clerk thought we still had it so we went to visit and the counselor called the member and said that we were all together and they would pray and leave and we would stay. Pretty much long story short we visited a member that we had an appointment but canceled then went with the counselor who thought we still had the appointment and it was awkward because we didn't really know how to communicate the right things beforehand.....yea, just awkward. Sorry if that doesn't make sense.

Anyhow the members we visited were fine and were nice and we had a good little visit.

So last year I met a guy in Geumjeong and then ended up referring him to this area because he lives here. Long story short I always imagined me just running into him on the street and that happened for real yesterday! He said he remembered me from way back when. He had met the missionaries here once. We will try to meet him again!

K that's it! Have a good week!

Love Elder Frampton

12-7-14

Hello, 

Not too much happened this week but enough for me to write about.

I ate pomegranate fruit for the first time ever yesterday!  I have had juice before but never the fruit, super sour but very delicious.

Last Sunday the Branch President invited us over for a meal on Tuesday...we went on Tuesday and called him and he forgot...he was out with his wife somewhere but he said they were coming home....so we were walking around in the cold for a while waiting. Elder Peck had to go to the bathroom and we ended up going to a police station...I was sitting awkwardly in a small little police station while he went to the bathroom One guy talked to me though and said he knew  Mormons so I got to talk a little bit about us as missionaries and the church. Couldn't really say much though. Then cops started to sit down on the couches I was sitting on and right there and then they had like a 1 minute long brief/meeting....superrr awkward! Also this lady cop was just like polishing her gun. There were like 10 people in that small little place....interesting experience.

Saturday we got to help our member move! They literally live like 3 minute walk away from their previous place. In Korea when you move you just hire moving people and they do like everything. Since people usually don't live in big places they don't have lots of stuff like people in America. So the moving people come, throw everything into boxes, move all the furniture, and then unload at the new house. Took 4.5 hours for them to pack, move, and unpack. We just helped with moving boxes and some furniture. The hardest part was moving their piano. Their new house was up a flight of stairs so it was super hard to get it up there. Luckily nothing was broken. It was good that we could help though, a lot faster and our member was grateful!

After that we went to the church because we had activity that night and we had to prepare. The activity went okay, at first we had an open house thing for nonmembers...but none came so we went out with the members and proselyted. It was a good thing for the members to experience I think. 2 members got this guy to come and the sister missionaries did a little introduction to the church and then he left. It was good that he came through for just that. After we had a fun activity/dinner. Well the branch president put together a 'skit' that was us just 'acting.' It was odd, it was a wedding skit and we were in the dark and we just talked and made our own echoes by starting loud then going quiet. Kind of funny. Then after we did a relay race. Dinner was spaghetti and tacos, super delicious! The one sister missionary here from America is a really good cook. We made so much and there were left overs. Plus I ate a lot. Good activity! 2 less actives came so that was good!

That was the week! Have a good one!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-30-14

Hello,

So this week was not quite exciting as last week :( still a good week though!

So I went on companion exchanges this week with Elder Wunderli in his area. Elder Wunderli is the Elder I lived with in Geumjeong for maybe 4 months. So it was a good time. His area is an island that is pretty much a city built on a mountain so there are many many hills. We were walking up this one to go see a member at her street stand but since she was busy we just walked by. Then we passed a lady that was struggling to carry a bag of cabbage up the hill so we offered to help and we carried it up the hill to her apartment. As we walked carrying it we talked with her about who we were and why were in Korea and shared a simple testimony. She didn't have any interest on the surface but I know we had a positive influence on her. We gave a mormon.org card so hopefully her or her husband looks at the website one day or something. I'm just glad we had that opportunity for simple act of service. Later that day we went to a member's restaurant and ate some delicious food for free! We were able to talk to a good amount of people as we proselyted too.

So in these Elder's house there were a bunch of old Ensigns from like 1988-1991. Since they didn't read them I decided to take a bunch back to my house in my area. While looking through them I came across an article in the February 1988 edition called "The Framptons: "We still like each other after all these years" I'm assuming that we have no relation to them but it was a very funny title. It was just about how they have a bunch of family traditions or something. The old ensigns have a lot of super long articles with sometimes humorous titles.

On Sunday we had the primary program in Church. Usually there are only like 2 kids in primary but another girl that sometimes comes came. Also they had the young women and young men participate too. It was very good, the topic was like Eternal families and it was just very simple. Similar to how we do it in America but also a little different. The 2 usual primary kids played primary songs on their recorder. (The little instrument that people play in like elementary school)

We had 'zone meeting' on Thursday. They talked about sharing this new video http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529 that the church released. Next week we will get little cards with this video to start passing out to people. That will be great for talking to people on the street. I will more easily be able to share my testimony that I know the Savior lives and loves us! 

That is it for this week!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-23-14

Dear everyone, Super great week this week!

Wednesday while street proselyting the spirit led us up a certain hill that we hadn't gone before. It was somewhere I had wanted to try and go but I forgot that I did and the Spirit helped me to remember. We met this married couple exercising and they were super nice as we talked to them. We were going and the road forked and a trail started and they were like, will you keep going on the road and keep talking to us? (They did really say it but that was just what the situation was like). We continued with them and kept talking and were going on this little trail a little up a mountain. We rested with them and they shared an orange with us and we sat and talked. Religion came up and we had the opportunity to teach about the restoration with them and eternal families. They had many questions because they knew some things about different religions so they wondered differences and things like that. We had the opportunity to share our testimony and give them a Book of Mormon and invite them to read it. We were able to feel the spirit so I hope they did too. We walked down the hill mountain with them and invited them to learn more and also to English class (they spoke English pretty well because they had no kids so they could travel a lot). They were from Seoul, in Busan for vacation, and would go back in a month or less so they didn't want to meet really. That is okay because maybe someday in Seoul they will meet missionaries and accept the gospel and live happily ever after! I'm just glad that we followed the spirit when it guided us up a big hill!

So today is a big day too! Today is the day that I throw away my first pair of socks because they formed holes! Haha

Because Elder Peck is district leader, the zone leaders do companion exchanges with us so I went to their area with one of them. It is actually a four man area and the other team is Elder Pickard! My MTC companion so I got to spend a night talking to him. The exchange was good, we talked to a lot of people and gave out 2 Books of Mormon. The elder I was with somehow got everyone to like him with a time of like 10 seconds. It was amazing. Then again, the people in this area are super nice and willing to talk to people. On the subway ride back (it was about 1 hour subway ride) I talked to this college student the whole time. He lived in the area I went to and went to college in my area so we rode together the whole time. I was able to talk about prayer with him and share my testimony how prayer helps me in my life. I can ask questions and receive answers. He asked me if he could ask in prayer for God to help him get a girlfriend.

So Saturday was super good because I saw two of my favorite people from Geumjeong! I met Roger again after not talking to him or seeing him for over 6 months. We came down to my area and we got lunch and hot chocolate together. It was super nice to see him again. Also when we were walking on the street a car drove by with a lady waving to us and it was one of the geumjeong English class members that I really liked! She was waving because we were missionaries then she realized it was me and she said hi and waved more and she seemed surprised. It all happened within like 3 seconds. Ah it was really good to see them!

The most exciting news is that Brother Kim Kyeonghwan from my last area Kyeognsan got baptized!!!! Just as cool is that Elder Pickard and I went on temporary exchanges to go up to the area and see him be baptized. I had replaced Elder Pickard in that area when I went so we both had taught him and we got to go together. It was very tight schedule to meet and catch subways and trains and still go to our sacrament meeting before meeting. We trained up to Daegu from Busan and got to see the whole branch and Brother Kim! It felt like home, kind of sad that I only got one transfer there. I saw a bunch of people that I missed. Elder Brower (my companion when I was there) baptized him. President Barrow and his family were there, including their daughter that just finished her mission in England on like last Wednesday! Brother Kim gave his testimony and talked about how he came a long way and gave up smoking and how he knows the church is true. He talked about the 2 sister missionaries that knocked on his door like 5 months ago that seemed like angels when he opens the door. He is pretty crazy and funny, I got to translate for the Barrows so I was saying some pretty funny stuff to them. The Barrows gave us a ride back so we didn't have to pay for a train and could get there quick. Such a good day!

I know this church and the gospel is true!!!

I hope you have a good one this week!  

Love, Elder Frampton

11-17-14

Hello,

The biggest thing that happened this week was on Saturday we had a stake music festival. The whole stake gathered in the stake center and we listened to different singing/music performances. It was a great time because I could really feel the Spirit's presence. 

This week we were able to try our free English board outside and a few people came up to us and showed interest and later that night one of those people called us. We are planning to move our English class to Friday in hope that more people will be able to attend. The English board is good because we can say who we are and what church we come from and help people see that we are good and just trying to do good.

At our service project this week all the little students had yo-yos. It was interesting to see that something like yo-yos will always be popular no matter what time period it is.

It is getting pretty cold now. Yesterday we turned on the heaters for the first time during church.

Although things are slow I love being a missionary! Always remembering that this is the Lord's work keeps me head up and my body going! I love our Savior and all our brothers and sisters!

Have a Good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-10-14

Hello,

So this week we made a board that says 'Free English' on it and our phone number. We are hoping it will help us find either new investigators or English class attendees. We haven't been able to use it yet because our phone isn't working......so a little back story. A few months ago the number we were using wasn't very reliable because it apparently would have on and off service. That was before I got here. So when they realized it had a problem they got a different phone and number but kept that old one. Then the first day I was here in this area they fixed the old number so we started using it again and just had the other number off. Then at the beginning of this week the APs asked us to send the other phone back by mail, so we sent it. That was Tuesday. The Korean AP was going to turn that phone service off since we didn't need it anymore. But because we were using both phones he didn't really know which one to turn off exactly and he canceled the service for the one we were using, not the one we sent....so that our phone turned off Friday dinner time. We didn't know until nighttime though so when we had to call and report that we were home, we had to go out and use a payphone...So then the next day the AP told us to come to mission headquarters and he gave us the phone that we had sent back so right now we have that phone again and are using it until he turns on our actual phone again. Confusing right?? yup, it's fun.

Because of that problem we were not able to meet with the one guy that likes English and not gospel. We showed up but he did not. He probably texted to confirm but when we didn't text back he just thought that we couldn't meet this week.

When we were going to district meeting on Thursday we saw this guy in the subway station playing Ping-Pong with himself. Just hitting the ball against the wall and returning it.

Sunday at church one of our member’s younger brother that lives in America was visiting on business. He brought two people he works with, one from America Tennessee/Virginia and one from Seoul. They two people the brother brought were both nonmembers and the one from America didn't speak a lick of Korean. He just came to Korea for car stuff, he is part of a small company that is doing some hydrogen thing for car engines that saves gas and stuff and stuff I really don't know anything about. Anyhow, I just talked to him at church for a little. Also the older brother that is our branch member brought his one friend to sacrament meeting. It was the guy that he brought to the picnic but they left after sacrament meeting. Hopefully he comes again and is willing to learn about the church and gospel. It is cool that one of our members is doing missionary work!

We had somewhat of a miracle. The branch president asked us to make a copy of a key and we were trying to find a place we can copy the key. It was Saturday almost time that we had to go home. We found one place that was open but he wasn't there so we called and he said to come back in one hour. We did then called him again because he wasn't there and he said that it would take one hour and then we didn't understand him over the phone. He was kind of rude. We then were rushing to try and find a place even if most were closed and we couldn't find one. I said a silent prayer earlier in my heart that we would be able to find one but we didn't. We got home and remembered that there were a bunch of keys in our house that we didn't know what they went to really, but then there was one that matched the key we were supposed to copy. I considered that a miracle. Kind of reminded me of the principle that God won't always answer your prayers in the way that you want.

That is it for this week! Have a good one!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-3-14

So my computer is realllllly slow today so it will probably be a really short email before it stops again......

So I am staying in my area with Elder Peck for his last transfer.

This week we met with a guy on Friday and Saturday. College guy that I might have mentioned about a few weeks back. Well we are meeting for the English Program...he has no interest at all about the gospel really. He seems to listen well but is not willing to keep the commitments that we give to him..Like Friday we invited him to read the intro of the Book of Mormon, and he immediately responded no. Same with the next day and prayer. We know he listens because we asked him what we talked about on Friday when we met Saturday and he told us everything. At least he is listening. We asked why he didn't want to do what we invited him to do and he just said he doesn't want to. At least he is honest. Usually Koreans are very not direct like that so we at least appreciate his honesty and upfrontness...He also said he wants to become a machine...just sleep and study. He likes study for school and English. He wants to cut his sleep time from 7 hours to 5 hours. Only likes the very basic Korean food. Kimchi, rice, soy sauce. We hope as we invite him and teach him he will feel the spirit testify to him that God lives and what we teach is true. I know that if we do what we are supposed to and rely on the spirit, then we will see miracles.

On Saturday we went with the family that attends our English Class. They took us and the sisters to dinner and then down by the beach and we saw a big colorful fountain. It was a great experience to be with them. We are hoping that they will become investigators soon.

Today we got a flu shot when we went to our transfer meeting. It is the first year apparently that the church is paying for all missionaries to get a flu shot. Didn't hurt! Ha

Love,

Elder Frampton

That is it week! Have a good one!

10-27-14

So this week was pretty long but also fast. Yea.

So last Monday we had family home evening here at the church. We made little cards for everyone and they were to answer the question 'what kind of missionary do I want to become?' On the card, one side was a picture of Christ and the other side was where they wrote. We took them back and are laminating them and then giving them back. That was our spiritual message and then for the activity we made sandwiches and ate them as refreshments. Might sound like a lame idea but it was fun. The Koreans loved it. We just made ham sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. They kept asking if it was what we ate in America.

Tuesday it rained a lot. It was awful, luckily we pretty much had to practice for musical numbers for the following day. We got soaked walking to the church. We then had to go to a different church in a neighboring area and practice our districts musical number and then after that we had to go to another church and Elder Peck had to play the piano for the other district in our zones musical number. Lots of travel and practice....

Wednesday we had zone conference with the Barrows. We learned many good things that we can apply in our work. 

Later in the day we were trying to talk to people. At night Elder Peck used the bathroom in a subway station and I tried talking to a guy. After he came out we were able to share a Book of Mormon with the man. He doesn't really have any interest in learning from us but he said he would try to read the book.

Thursday we had our service activity which we usually do on Wednesday. We also had our English class at night.

Friday Elder Peck had to go to a neighboring area to do a baptismal interview (he is the district leader). Super cool college lady. We also went to her baptism on Sunday. It was interesting because she skyped a friend in America and one of the sisters that taught her who finished her mission last month.

Saturday we met with that guy that I told you about a long time ago. He likes English and knows lots of people. We went to his house and ate dinner with him and his wife. His grandson was also there....We prayed together over the food and then also right before we left. We invited them to try and pray together. The wife was really nice and old. She gave us a big hug right before we left. It was pretty funny and cute.

Today almost the whole mission got together at the mission headquarters and we had a 5k race. The Barrow's really enjoy running and want us to be healthy so they had this put together. We could walk, run, crawl if we wanted. I ran of course and I ran it in 22:52. Pretty decent for not running that in pretty much 1.5 years..I guess I walk more than that in a day but it was still so hard.

Well that is it for this week! Happy Halloween!

Love,

Elder Frampton