12-30-13

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a good Christmas! Also I hope the wedding went well too! Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas here. It was weird! I got grandma's letter that day when we went to the headquarters. No more packages yet or letters so I think that/hope that I get them this week at district meeting.

So this week Brother K. received the Holy Ghost at church! Awesome right! Also we got to meet his father at their house after church ended. I don't think they are really anything alike. But he was super nice to us and seemed happy that his son is happy. We also met the grandmother and aunt too.

So on Christmas we just met at headquarters, Oncheon ward building, and other people from the zones in Busan came and hung out. We played board games and Ping-Pong. Super relaxed day and fun.

On Thursday we went with an investigator to climb Geumjeong Mountain! It was super tiring because he moved so fast. I was the slowest one! We went with him and the other team in Geumjeong. The top was super awesome we could see the city down below. There will be pictures on my card when I send it home this week...we also went again today just us, the other team, and another set of elders from our district! It was much sunnier and more clear today so we could see the city better, it was a nice hike since we didn’t go at a billion miles an hour up the mountain haha. Super fun!

That's all I have for this week really..

Love,

Elder Frampton

12-23-13

Dear Familia,

I just wanted to write something quick this week since I will be talking to you soon! 

So this week on Wednesday we had the mission Christmas meeting at our ward in Geumjeong! It was super awesome! There were a lot of missionaries there! So every year the Gilberts pick a movie to watch that can be related to the gospel somehow and this year we got to watch the chronicles of Narnia - the lion the witch and the wardrobe! It was fun and weird to watch a movie! I've seen that movie so many times before but I never really realized how cheesy the jokes and how not very good the acting is in that movie...haha 

This Saturday was the ward Christmas party and that was pretty fun too! We were practicing for our skit that we would perform and an unfortunate event happened. One of the sister missionaries tripped on the electric piano chord and broke it. The power chord wouldn’t plug in meaning we couldn’t turn it on. We were all really scared we would get in trouble so we spent a bunch of time trying to find a place that could fix it.....long story short is that nothing was open on Saturday we realized miraculously that the piano took batteries and the night was saved.....bad news is that we still have to spend the time to get it fixed for real and probably have to pay too. But that shouldn’t be too expensive since we will split the cost 6 ways. The skit turned out awesome at night! I was the 'main actor' and I got lots of good jobs lol. It was just a narrated story so I didn’t do any talking;)

Love Elder Frampton

12-16-13

Hello family,

So this week was a pretty productive week! We had talked to a lot of people on the streets. Met with a 2 people that are new investigators, one is a young guy maybe 18 or 19, catholic, pretty open minded. The other was a referral from another area. Pretty open too but the only reason we got him as a referral was because we are the missionaries closest to his place of work. He lives an hour subway ride away so we think we will talk to him about referring him to the missionaries down there because we think that he and his family will probably get taught together eventually. Especially because coming to church in Geumjeong wouldn’t be very reasonable when we invite him. This week was just full of miracles like that! The biggest one is that our investigator called his father and asked for permission to be baptized and received it! The baptism will probably be on the 23rd and he will get baptized the same time as one of the member’s 8 year olds sons! Exciting! 

Also another miracle was that right before English class on Saturday we got a call from the bishop saying he was bringing 4 of his English academy students to the church to play ping-pong/teach them English. So me and Elder Moon friendship them and invited them to the Christmas party and got their numbers. That’s 4 potential investigators! Miracle! 

One word of advice, if you see a miracle in your life, thank God! He will be more willing to give them and you will be able to see them! I owe those miracles to the application of that principle!

So I don't know why but I definitely expected it to be colder here! Some days it’s cold some days it’s not. But it’s definitely colder back in PA than here! Last Wednesday it snowed for about 3 minutes! It was so disappointing! ripoff! Especially since Seoul has been getting lots of snow! I love snow but I never get any!

We finally gave cookies to almost all members so I don’t have to make cookies everyday anymore! well I have to cook at least 12 everyday so we can take them to our investigator but I just make the dough once every few days then stick them in the oven when I need them. I pretty much make awesome cookies now;) just kidding but I bought chocolate and peanut butter to make peanut butter chocochip cookies! I buy little wrapped chocolates and spend like 3 minutes chopping them up. Quite tasty!

In our apartment we have 2 choices when we sleep at night.....be cold when we wake up in the morning, or toast in an oven at night and wake up burning hot in the morning.....the floor heater just cooks us when we have our beds down because all the heat just gets trapped there. We have decided to leave it off and be cold in the mornings for now until we can figure something else out.

That’s it for this week! 

Love,  Elder Frampton

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!