10-6-13

Hello all!

So I first have to tell you about the big letdown I had last Monday.....We were heading home to go pack so I could fly to Busan when we got a call saying that they got the tickets for the wrong day because they forgot I was in the group for the Wednesday meeting rather than the Tuesday meeting.....this means I wasn’t going that night anymore. Instead I was leaving Wednesday morning with Elder Yun (because president decided to let him come). It was still fun though! I got to see all of my friends from the MTC. We literally got there when the meeting had started and left right when it ended because we had a plane to catch.

So more about the guy that wandered into our church. We have met him 2 times since then. He is very active in religion so it is difficult trying to teach him the restored gospel principles as something new. He is very open to it but he leaves Jeju this Wednesday. We hope we can meet him once more tomorrow to teach him and ask him if we can refer him to missionaries in Taejon so he can have continued exposure to the gospel there until he comes back down here, which we still don’t know when that will be.

We also started meeting with this other guy that is a referral from the Seoul mission. He is 78 years old. He has beliefs similar to the gospels teachings but he doesn’t believe that Christ was resurrected and that we can live after death. He is actually trying to start a movement, I’m not sure what to call it, on the internet where he tries to spread his ideas about starting a new society that is based on good ideals similar to our church. He moved down to Jeju to do that, he's rich, so he bought a floor on a building and then rents it out. He is investing his money it seems into spreading this idea on the internet. He is very lonely it seems like so he is willing to meet with us often. I think if we can teach by the spirit then the spirit can cause some amazing change in him!

So this past week has been pretty rainy! It’s crazy, I've come home with the bottom of my pant legs super soaked for the past week. It is really hard trying to street contact in the rain, not because the rain is annoying but the fact that people aren’t really out as much as when it’s not raining and because of the fact that people don’t want to talk to us even more. One guy even used his umbrella to kind of block us when we tried to talk to him.

Last week, because the sister’s apartment has a lot more mosquitoes than ours, we gave them our chemical shooter thing that keeps mosquitoes away. Now we have more mosquitoes in our house. Luckily since I slept with socks, long pants, hoody and hood on I didn’t have a problem....until they starting eating my hands! I decided to wear socks on my hands to keep them away but the one night I fell asleep before putting the sock on my left hand (I was reading on my Yo with right hand already covered and I forgot to put the sock on my left hand...) I woke up with 9 mosquito bites on my left hand alone, along with 8 or so on my left arm because they will fly up the sleeve or suck through the cloth if they are smart enough. Which they were. But now they just get me through my clothing so I think I will try my mosquito net. It’s just terrible how annoying and itchy mosquito bites are.

So conference I don't get to watch this next weekend coming up because they wait to translate and then send the wards and branches across Korea the translated disc or something. But they will have both English and Korean playing in different rooms so I will be able to go on splits with a member so I can watch the English. I looked on lds.org to see who gave talks and it looks like it was a great conference! I can't wait.

Oh this past Saturday I got to go to a wedding Saturday! There was this couple in our ward that got married just recently. They did the temple marriage 2 weeks ago and then a regular one for all the friends and family. It was pretty odd, there were so many people! Apparently it’s just like all the parents’ friends and family and friends of family that got invited to this. But we ate some delicious food and talked to some interesting people.

That’s it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

 

9-30-13

Well my family, guess what!

I get to go to Busan tonight again!!! Tomorrow (Tuesday) there is a training meeting for all missionaries being trained and training. Unfortunately Elder Yun has been to 3 training meetings in the past and president doesn't feel like spending the money to fly him there and back so I will be going solo....that’s a whole 1.5 hours that I will be away from a companion! Scary! I'm super excited though because I get to see the rest of the missionaries that came out with me!

So I will tell you about the trip to Busan last week.....quite the adventure. It is about 1 hour total of travel time to Busan, counting take-off and landing, 35 minutes of flight time. We flew to Busan and the office Elders picked us up and we went to the mission office. We stayed the night there, and let me tell you, I didn’t sleep very well. In Busan it is a lot cooler than Jeju, so at night we had air conditioning and because we weren’t used to that when sleeping or anything, I frozzzzze at night! The next day we drove an hour to Ulsan which is where the meeting was being held. I got to see my zone (because it was zone conference)! At the beginning of the meeting Sister Gilbert made some announcements including one about a 24 hour bug going around......when she made this announcement I think I missed it. During the second session of conference (we had 2 sessions, 2 hours, 1 hour lunch, and then another 2 hours.) I started to feel sick in the stomach, headache, and bad chills. I talked to Sister Gilbert and she had said I caught the bug! This just goes to show that being isolated on an island can have some effects on you, or protects you;) I was pretty miserable on the flight back (which was 3 hours after the conference ended) and then also that night and the next morning. I was all better by the next night.

 

So pretty miraculous thing happened this week! Saturdays at 5 we have English class. We usually meet up with the sisters an hour before to prepare for it. This past Saturday we were busy setting up for English class when I heard a noise from the hallway. When I went out to look to see what it was, it was some random guy! He came to our church wondering who we were and what we were all about. We then taught him for about 40 minutes a little introduction to the church, gave him a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and the he left. One thing we talked about was the Sabbath day, he asked us what we believe about it and Elder Yun was able to answer because we discussed it that morning! Let me tell you more about that, Elder Yun and I were discussing it a few days before and we stopped after we couldn’t find out more about why we have the Sabbath on Sunday. Well Saturday morning we were studying and I was looking up something in the bible dictionary and I randomly remembered about how we were talking about the Sabbath. I looked it up and found an answer. I'm sure it was the spirit that reminded me about it because the Lord knew that guy would come today and ask about it........................--------because the conversation was all in Korean and I still don’t understand a lot, Elder Yun told me about his background that he found out. The guy said he is from the mainland and is moving to Jeju sometime soon. He was in Jeju right now looking around for a place to move into (hopefully he moves to somewhere around Jeju city rather than Seogwipo so we can teach him if that time comes anytime soon;) ). But that day, Saturday, he was at a park that is on the opposite side of the street from our church and he was walking on the trail thing that is there. He said as he was walking he saw our church and was interested to find out about it because he never saw our church before. So he grabbed his things and walked over and wandered in, which was when I saw him in the hall. If anything results from this experience I will be sure to tell you how it goes!

Last thing, pday today! I owe it to the Brain for the idea. drumroll please-------------------------------------we went to the Ripley's Museum!!!!!!! It was super awesome, way better than the one we went to in Williamsburg or wherever that was. Apparently there are 32 in the world and it is number 32, aka the newest one. It was pretty big and they had a lot of cool things. I will send 3 pictures again of it. (I only ever send 3 because that’s all that fits in an email and I don’t know how to make them smaller file size)

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

 

9-23-13

Hello Familia!
 
Well this week was an interesting week.....on Wednesday **Thursday** and Friday, Korea celebrated "Choo Seok" (saying Korean things in English romanization just looks and sounds weird because I can’t convey the same words and pronunciations....). Well this holiday which takes place on Thursday is like the Korean Thanksgiving where they perform rituals for their ancestors and eat a lot. Pretty much everyone had off of work and school for the 3 days though. Because of this, not many people were really on the streets and we weren’t supposed to make appointments with people. Because of this reason, we did many things as a district. On Wednesday, we had district meeting and then went to lunch, and then we went back to the church for district "study time". We studied and shared what we learned. After that we had a dinner appointment at a member’s house (they invited the whole district even though the Seogwipo Elders aren’t in our branch.) More details on the ritual that is performed by people here (at least this is how I understand it.) The week before this they go and fix up the grave site. They then like prepare lots of fruits and food and leave it out for the spirits......they first leave it out and then they like say a prayer or take a moment of silence or just chill around so the spirits can eat the prepared food....after that whatever the spirits don’t eat, they feast upon.....most members don’t really do that, and if they do, they only do it to remember their ancestors, not because they believe spirits eat food...

Thursday we went to Seogwipo and went and saw some waterfalls as a district then we went to a dinner appointment/service appointment at a member’s hotel thing....this member rents the whole hotel for a year then runs it. I helped cut grass, it was an electric mower and I just held the cord and pulled the cord around so it wouldn’t get cut or ruined. I got the most mosquito bites there than since I got here. It got really big and there was like a red ring around it....maybe I will die or something, who knows. After that the member cooked us a barbecue meal outside! I smelled like smoke afterwards and on the bus ride home. It was delicious though, we had some meat and ramen, and I didn’t each much ramen because I don’t like it. It was super delicious.

Friday we went to another member’s house and they prepared a whole bunch of food! More meat and vegetables and some cold noodles. The meats at meals usually are in spicyish sauce with vegies and such. There were potatoes, and when eaten in the sauce, they are delicious!!! I ate many of them.

Missionary work is somewhat slow. We have no one to teach, and not many people on the streets want to listen, and even less want to learn more. Elder Yun and I are going to try making more effort to talk to more people, thus giving more people the opportunity to listen, and for us to open our mouths. Opening my mouth is always an act of faith for me since I don't know the language very well. I always have to trust the Lord to help me out, and I learn more about that every day when I am able to have simple conversations with people

 

So in our branch there is a 20 year old guy that is amazing at piano. He has an audition to get into the university in Seoul this Friday and he has been preparing for it for like all his life. He literally comes to the church every day and practices all day. He used to come at like 10 in the morning and stay till like 3 in the morning the next day but he can’t do that anymore because the churches neighbors complained. Now he comes at like 8 I think and probably stays till like 12 at night. for the past 8 weeks I’ve been here I’ve just heard him play his one song so much, whenever we email I hear, whenever we have English class, etc. the point of all this is that the song is always stuck in my head! I literally feel like I hear it everywhere I go, even though he’s not playing. It’s so weird.

No today I am writing my email later than usual, at 5:00 rather than at like 12....that is because we went to the teddy bear museum!!! We found free tickets awhile back and decided to go today! It was super super cool, they had so many cool displays. Even though it is a teddy bear museum there were a lot of other kinds of stuffed animals as well. Super cool. They had a safari exhibit, fish exhibit, painting exhibit (they took famous paintings and kind of made them into ones with bears in it rather than the normal person.)

2 more things.

Today I got my first haircut in Korea! They did a good job. It took like 25 minutes though, but they washed my hair too! Pretty good deal for 10,000 won ('10 dollars') I thought I would have a weird haircut like Korean people get, but they did just fine and how I wanted it.

Last thing, Wednesday we have zone conference in Busan and we get to go to it! We fly out on Tuesday night, spend the night at the mission home, then go to it on Wednesday and fly back Wednesday night. I'm so excited! Leaving this island should be fun.

Hope your week will be good!

Love,

Elder Frampton

9-16-13

This has been the longest week since I have gotten here!

So last Monday we got our two new missionaries in our district. Elder Hays has been out about a year and 8 months, he has okay Korean and is pretty outgoing. Sister Atwood has been out for one more transfer than me. Her Korean is okay too.

 

Monday night when we were out talking with people on the street I realized how fun it was to talk with people! I also realized that I could hold somewhat of a simple conversation and understand what they were saying and give simple responses back!

 

Just recently I have started to understand more and more. In church yesterday I was able to understand maybe 60 percent of Sunday school! I was so surprised! It is amazing to me how the Lord blesses me. One thing I really can testify of is the gift of tongues and interpretations. It says in the scriptures that we must ask for these gifts, and that is true. I realize that we have to ask and also try our best on our own before we are given them. I may not always have these gifts but the Lord blesses me with them every now and then. I think as my faith and trust in the Lord increases I will receive them more and more. Korean is still so difficult but it is getting easier every day.

 

Elder Yun also helped me buy 2 good Korean books that I can use to study grammar and conversation. They should really help.

 

As I have been out here and studying the scriptures everyday with the intent to learn and know the things that I need to teach better, I realize and am enjoying the blessings that come from the scriptures. They bring comfort into my life every time I read. Missionary work is very hard and very discouraging at times, and through prayer and scripture study you can be strengthened by the Lord.

Missionary here is still difficult. We have really no one to teach again because the people that we had found, their situations have changed and made it so they can’t really meet with us. I learn to trust the Lord and just keeping looking forward and looking for those people prepared for us.

So the weather this past week was hot again...not as hot as summer but still hot! It luckily is cooling down once again.

The only super exciting part about this week was that we went twice out to the country of Jeju/Korea. Literally country farmland. I like the country wayyy more than city I think. it’s just so peaceful and much more beautiful. Since Jeju is formed from a volcano, there is all the volcano rock that is found only there. A lot of the farmland has the walls made of volcano rock which is super neat. We were also pretty close to the ocean. The reason that we went out there was to go see a less active and a member.

Friday we had a lunch appointment and we went to this Japanese restaurant. I had sushi for the first time in my life and almost died. I put it in my mouth and chewed for about 3 minutes before I swallowed it....it took me about 5 swallows to get it down because I could only swallow a little at a time and my throat just didn’t want to put it down. It was sooooo disgusting. Never again.

Then we had a dinner appointment last night and I ate some squid. That was rubbery and gross. I hate seafood.

That’s it for this week.

Love,
Elder Frampton

9-9-13 (1st transfer date)

Okie dokie. So nothing to exciting this week, just my last week of my first transfer! done! Today starts the new transfer! Luckily I'm staying here in Jeju! Haha only two people from my district got transferred. One sister that had been here for her first 3 transfers and then 1 Elder in Seogwipo that was here for 6 months. The new missionaries fly in in a few hours so we get to go and meet them at the airport. Oh also Elder Yun is the new district leader this transfer since the missionary that left was the district leader.
 

So like I said last week Elder Yun had his military thing so I went to Seogwipo. On Tuesday we spent like 3 hours doing service for one of their investigators. We were pulling the vine weeds off of mandarin orange trees in one of his orchards. To make it even more fun it was raining a little! ahaha. It was actually pretty fun.

 

I went back to Jeju city, my area, on Wednesday night. It was nice to finally be back at "home" sleeping on my own yo! Um Thursday was our last district meeting: (it was sad since we knew people would be leaving (at this point we didn’t know who was leaving yet because calls came that night). We went to this one place afterwards for lunch and it was like all you can eat meat, but I got really full really quick so I didn’t even eat that much. Later that night we cleaned our apartment for 2 hours which was actually fun. I like cleaning!

 

So Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it rained a lot! The most since I had come here! It just rained and rained and rained.

 

So lessons are getting better. We have a few more people that we are going to meet for the first time and teach. It is a miracle and such a blessing that we are finding people. We aren’t really even finding. Most of them were put in our path and all we had to do was talk to them! We hope that they will show up to appointments that we make with them and that the spirit will touch their heart. I know through fasting, prayer, and faith all things are possible, and I have come to learn that so much more while here serving. I am trying my best to serve the Lord the best I can.

That’s it for this week.

 

Love,

Elder Frampton