2-22-15

Hello, Family,

I'm a happy to have this opportunity to email my wonderful family!

This week we had a zone conference with the President Barrow. Learned about some new things that we will be working on and new ways to work. They introduced a new referral program which we will be using online rather than just calling and receiving from mission headquarters. Nothing really special compared to the rest of the world I think, but it is one step closer to technology! haha Also just like the He is the Gift campaign the church did at Christmas in our mission we kind of started one for the Because of Him video. The mission made some cards and we are using those to proselyte and share about Jesus Christ. We got those Tuesday at zone conference and have been using them this week and have had a few good experiences to use them!

Thursday, the main day of the solar new year which is the holiday that just passed we went to a member's house for a meal with the sisters from our area and the other elders in a neighboring area. We had delicious food and we had the privilege of sharing a message so we took the opportunity to talk about the Because of Him video and gave them some cards. We watched video with them and then talked about things in their life that were possible because of Christ. The sister of the couple started to tear up. The spirit was super strong and it was a big testimony builder for all of us. She told us that she had given a pamphlet and shared her testimony with the apartment security guy and invited him to learn more. It was a huge testimony builder to me to know that our branch members, at least some, are trying to do missionary work. The branch every day at 8 pm stops what they are doing and prays for missionary work in the branch. Every week for the past 3 or 4 weeks the topic for sacrament meeting has been missionary work. I can feel the spirit more and more every week in church as they are trying to do the work of salvation.

On Wednesday while proselyting, well at night we met this guy from Seoul visiting his parents for the holiday. We were able to talk about Christ and share the video and talk about what the video says and how Christ has been the biggest blessing in our lives. He was really nice and looked very interested in the video and what we had to say. His mother was in the hospital because she was having some brain problems so we said we would pray for her and offered to help if they needed anything. As we were walking away he tried to give us money, he insisted and insisted, even put it in my hand (I wouldn't close my hand). He said give it to the church and we insisted that we were okay. Even taught about tithing sort of! haha He ended up just putting back in his wallet since we insisted that it was okay. Super good experience. He hasn't called us yet but hopefully he calls or just talks to the missionaries that he sees in Seoul because he says he sees a lot of them there.

Friday because of the holiday nobody came to English class except for this old guy in our branch. Didn't even mean to come to English class. He was just at the church studying something. Well we just talked with him, not in English but just in Korean. Good opportunity to get to know him better. Oh he said something very profound about marriage which I really liked. He actually said it in English which he isn't very good at so what he meant to say and what I heard at first were different. (Talking about his wife he was trying to say) "She is my wife"--------------what I heard and was very inspiring was "She is my life"

So last but not least. Yesterday while going to take the sacrament to the Sister in the hospital I saw this guy that I had met in Geumjeong. He was interested in religion and he was the one that was attending the super crazy church. Anyhow I saw him getting into his car and he was in a white shirt and was cleaned up real nice. I said Hello. At least it seems that he is attending something else then the crazy one he was attending in Geumjeong. Super quick that I saw him but it was a really good experience.

Good week.

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

2-15-15

Hello,

So this week not too much happened. Just a few fun/good experiences I will share

We were in English class on Friday and I usually help with teaching basic. So there was this one lady talking about her house and cleaning it and then talked about how she grew her own garden. She said a bunch of vegetables that she grew most in English. She said 'cucumber' in Korean and then I said 'cucumber' in English so she could learn it.....well then the other guy that was in our class was talking about something and then he said that he doesn't really 'cucumber the house.' He definitely meant to say 'clean the house' but he said cucumber instead. Super funny.

On Thursday I was on companion exchanges. I ate a lot for dinner with that Elder and got really really sick the next day....My stomach pretty much died Friday at dinner and I did not have a very good night but I was fine in the morning. I really shouldn't have eaten that much food. Well on the exchange we talked to this one guy about churches and he ended up rambling on and on about how there were like 7 churches within a 5 minute walk from where we were....also as we talked he was chugging down a beer. Tried to help him now about living day prophets but he wouldn't really listen. It was very interesting.

Oh last Monday we met with the recent convert that came back from America. We found out a little about him. His aunt lives in Virginia and he went and lived with her and her family and studied English by himself and by talking with people while living there. They are members of the church and as good members do they took the opportunity to introduce him to the gospel! They invited him to participate in family scripture study and prayers. They also invited the missionaries over a lot and then he started to listen to the message of the gospel. He doesn't really know much about religion but when he heard what they said he felt a good feel and eventually got baptized. Anyhow we met with him and talked and talked about the Book of Mormon with him. Really felt the spirit's warmth and comfort as we talked!

A Sister in church told us about some cool thing. Nobody knew what it meant except her so I don't know if it is made up or an actual Korean thing. We were talking about what a good life is and how old we want to live. She told us this 9988234-she said '99' is living to age 99. '88' is living healthy and being fit when you are old. (Based off of what '88' is in Korean) '23' is 2 to 3 days in hospital then '4' (4 in Chinese is death) so die after 2 to 3 days in the hospital after living a long good life is good she said. Just interesting.

This week is a big Korean holiday so we could be super not busy this week since everyone is so busy....we will see:/

Hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

2-9-15

Hellooo,

First off, funny story that I forgot to share last week. Last Monday we were riding the subway. Rode for maybe 40 minutes then got off at one of the bigger stations, one where you can transfer to a different line. (That is important because they usually keep the doors open a little bit longer at these) We got off the subway and Elder Suttner says he doesn't have the phone so we run back on the subway...he looks around the seat he was sitting in, makes a guy get up so he can check under him.....then Elder Suttner checks his pockets again and realizes he had it. So without saying anything he runs off the subway again (the doors are still open because this was all within 20 seconds). As he goes through the door it starts sliding shut! I of course must keep the rules so I run and try to make it through, kind of in a diving motion, upper body first. The door closes on my shoulders..So I of course push my body through but then the door closes on my bookbag! Then I was stuck, squirming and squirming and squirming for 7 seconds or so without anything happening. At that point Elder Suttner realizes he can help so he quick grabs me by my bag and just pulls me through. Then finally the subway guy opens the door realizing I was stuck but by that point I was free! Ridiculous!  The things I do for obedience! Always. haha

So there is a family, mom and kid, in our branch. They are Korean but 13 years ago they moved to New Zealand. The mom divorced and came back one year ago with the one kid. Robert. He is 10 years old and only knows English. He had spoken Korean at home in New Zealand but once he started school he forgot all the Korean. So he is here in Korea not knowing how to speak and only able to understand maybe half but only sometimes. Anyhow because he is young and doesn't understand Korean church was too boring and pointless for him so he never came. He came once when I was here maybe 3 months ago. So we started trying to work with him. Called his mom and set up an appointment to meet at the church with them and the sister missionaries for a little family home evening type thing. Played some Uno, ate cookies and had a little lesson. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  We challenged him to read every day. He has been reading every single day. Even took the Book of Mormon to school and read in his free time! He even came to church yesterday! Mainly because he likes us.  We sat with him in primary and translated and participated. There is only one other person, a girl, in primary and the teacher is her mom. So yesterday was an interesting day.

Also I think I mentioned a recent convert that got baptized in America and moved back here. He finally came to church yesterday. Super nice, it seems he has a true testimony. He was only in America for 3 months studying. Missionaries knocked on his door and he let them in. Got baptized in December and then moved back here. Got his number so now we will be trying to work with him when he has time. :D

Called some more of the less active members on our list this week and had 2 good experiences that were more or less miracles. Super confusing so I can't really explain but it was great!

Talked to one kid on the street about the Book of Mormon and testified to him of the truthfulness of it. I super felt the spirit. He seemed to like what we were saying, he also had a strong Christian background. When we asked for his number he got out his phone and saved ours and called ours so we had his. We called back the next day with lots of hope to meet him. He answered and when I said who I was he ended the call. 30 seconds later we got a text saying don't call. It was a really good experience. Mainly because it was really comfortable talking and testifying and inviting on the street. Even though he didn't want to talk to us for whatever reason I felt the spirit testify to me that I had done my part.

We started preparing our spiritual messages for the hospital visits Sunday, on Saturday so we could tell the Branch President’s son what to study and prepare. When we made the visits he shared a bigger part. We talked about the first article of faith and had him read Joseph Smith history the first vision beforehand and he summarized it and related it to the first article of faith. He did a super good job. I know I felt the spirit as we shared the message together and I hope he felt it too. I can see his confidence growing and I know that there is a testimony growing inside him little by little. We are trying to help him to read the Book of Mormon every day because there is power that comes with the Book of Mormon!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and valentine’s day!

Love,

Elder Frampton

2-2-15

Hello everyone,

Two experiences I would like to share this week.

First. Wednesday we got lost in the middle of nowhere. Well not lost, I knew where we were, generally speaking. But we were in the middle of country in our area. Knocking on doors. Talked to 3 people briefly and testified of God and his love and his plan for us. No interest. Most of the houses had dogs 'guarding' their doors so we couldn't knock on them. Even at one point we were walking between fields. Very interesting time. It was also raining and we had no umbrellas. It was a good time since we got to testify 3 times.    Then later in the day after we had got back into the city and we were in a little mart. And this lady asked Elder Suttner in English if he needed help with anything. As we were leaving we saw they lady again and talked to her. She asked us if we were the church (she knew the old name of the church) and we said yes and she said she always wondered about our church. What we believed differently. So we pretty much were talking with her for 20 minutes in the cold outside a mart. Taught her all about the restoration and a living prophet. She believes that once Christ died and went away and gave us the Holy Ghost, comforter, we didn't need prophets anymore since we had the Comforter. Also she believed in the trinity. She said she believed that Joseph Smith was a good person but just couldn't believe he was a prophet. We introduced the Book of Mormon and testified that she can know if what we were saying was true but she wasn't interested. Just a nice, young, curious mother. It was a great experience! I could really feel the spirit's warmth inside me despite the fact that it was freeeeezing outside.

Friday night we had a wonderful surprise. We had finished planning and were getting ready for bed, I was in my pajamas. We heard a knock at the door.....we had no idea who it could be. I go and open the door and it was our neighbors! (These are the neighbors that we gave banana bread to a few weeks ago). They are a young family. The mother and young son came returning our plate with some rice cakes on it! It was their little baby's 100 day mark (the day babies turn a hundred days old is a big thing in Korea) so they brought it over for us :D It was awesome! There are so nice and it was very nice to do something like that. We are thinking about how we can share the gospel with them. It made me feel really good inside.  :D

This week the Branch President’s son came with us to take the sacrament again. He shared a small part of the lesson we prepared. We really are trying to work with him through service and example and feeling the spirit. 

Hope everything is going well back in America! Remember to always give thanks to our Father in Heaven!

Love,

Elder Frampton

1-26-15

Hello familia,

I am good, how are you?

So today was transfer day but it is the same here. I am still in the same area with Elder Suttner :D 

This last week flew by. Maybe only a few exciting things happened this week. 

The bulk of this week was going through records calling phone numbers. I probably called close to 200 phone numbers. Maybe 30 or 35 of those picked up. 30 being the wrong number and 5 the right number. The other 165ish were all no longer existing phone numbers or they didn't pick up. Takes a long time to call people because you have to wait a while for it to ring before giving up because people often don't answer the phone until 25 seconds of ringing and it can probably ring for a good minute or so before saying no one picks up. Don't want to be ending the call so quick just in case someone might pick up. 1 of the inactive members said he would be willing to meet this week so he told us to call this week. We'll see what happens. Another old English class member ended up coming to English class because we called. So at least there are some little fruits coming from these calls.

This week we also went and met a guy from 2 weeks ago that we met. He was an older man that owned a dry cleaners and likes English. We took our white shirts to get dry cleaned there. We were trying to find the place so we called and he told us where it was and we eventually found it. Super small cramped little place. Super nice guy, we talked with him for a little and then left. That was Wednesday. We then went again Friday to pick up our stuff and talk to him. As we were talking he said he wants to learn English again :D well practice more at least (he knows a lot and understands a lot) so we took that opportunity to jump in by explaining our English program. 30 minutes English, 30 minutes gospel. He said it sounds great but the only problem is he is really busy.(as we were talking like 4 people came to his shop in the 10 minutes we were there) We said that we can come and talk and he can just take care of things as they come. He told us to stop by anytime so this week we will surely stop by! :D

This Sunday we went with Branch president's son to take the sacrament to the two old ladies in their respective hospitals. It was our first week taking it to the one lady and having to get there by ourselves by bus. We almost got lost because I found the wrong thing on the map but luckily it was actually just a street over from where I had thought. 

This past week we were trying to work on listening to the spirit more and there were a few times that we felt to do something and nothing really came from it. I just think that we were being tested. Whether or not we would listen. I don't really know but we hope to be able to more readily heed the promptings of the spirit when most needed. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and may the Lord bless you with more happiness in your life! 

Love,

Elder Frampton