1-4-15

Hello everybody! 

So last week on P-day we went ice skating, I totally forgot to mention it in my email last week. We went as a zone and we went to the world's biggest department store. The store had a small ice rink in it. It was pretty fun. There were so many tiny kids there....weren't allowed to go fast or backwards or anything but it was still very fun! 

On Monday night we decided to knock doors for 3 hours...we ended up in this little area, super dark, felt like we had gone back in time like 40 years. That's the kind of doors we were knocking on..No luck. We went back down this little tiny road above a house and my companion turned a corner and then a dog started barking and we turned and booked it back.  That is the closest to a good dog story that I have so far.

The last door of the night was a house. Houses in Korea are usually surrounded by a big fence and you have to ring in and they open the gate door. We ringed and they let us in....big surprise, we were caught off guard. We knocked on the door and the lady that answered was confused, she probably thought we were there kid coming home from school or something...so she said she was busy and sent us on our way. We were smart and left a plan of salvation pamphlet and testified about eternal families and then left. Not bad. 

Tuesday we were waiting to go to our service project and were walking around for a while and met this 20 year old girl on the street that was fluent in English. She lived in South Africa for most of her life and could speak English, Korean, Afrikaans, and a little German too. The rest she was fluent in. She could do a bunch of English accents too, American, British, New Zealand, Australian. It was really surprising. Super weird experience though because her sister that was there was recording us the whole time on the phone. Just talked about church and school and stuff. Pretty much she remembered that she heard our church was a cult and we left.

Later that day we went to visit a less active member that we never had met. He was baptized like 1.5 years ago and I had only seen a picture of him before. Pretty much we found the house, which was a store, and saw the active wife. There was this old guy leaving when we were going into the store, little did we know that it was him...he looked different compared to the picture I saw. 

Wednesday we met the investigator that is going into the military this week. It was good. Talked about the Book of Mormon and prayer. Felt the spirit the whole time while teaching so even though our Korean isn't the best I know that the spirit makes up for the rest. 

Thursday morning was hard. Got up at 4:30 to go watch the sunrise...little did we know it didn't rise until 7:30....our branch was meeting at 6 for some reason. It was suppppper cold. First day I have worn my winter coat since 2013 December. It was great, we got our other investigator to come with us and we had a good time with him being really cold ;) Ate some delicious soup. Oh we went to this beach near our area and there were lots of people that went there actually. Sunrise was so beautiful! Prayed together as a branch and sang a hymn then watched the sunrise and left. Wasn't too tired the rest of the day. 

Sunday was a good Sunday. Got one of the young men, well no longer a young man because of the New Year, to come with us to give the sacrament to the sister in the hospital that we visit every week. He also received the calling of young men's president yesterday as well since we didn't have one. Good experience. 

Things have been going a lot better here I would say. Time actually moving kind of slow! Weird since usually it moves so fast! 

That's it for this week! Don't forget to pray! 

Love, Elder Frampton  

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