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

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

9-22-14

Hello everybody!

So I have news! Well I got transferred again, after only 6 weeks in Gyeongsan I am leaving! 

I am back in Busan again in an area called GweJeong. So one of the subway lines in Busan is the orange line and when I served in Geumjeong I served on the one end, now Gwejeong is on the other end of that orange line. Quite the big feat there. It was sad to leave so soon from Gyeongsan but I look forward to serving here. 

I think the thing I will miss the most is Brother Kim. He was doing so well. When I was talking with him on Sunday he said he has been doing good with smoking. Trying to keep to the schedule we made even though he got behind he was caught up apparently. Down to 8 a day. He said it is a miracle. He never really thought about smoking he said, it was always just natural. Now he said that he is very conscious of it. That when he smokes, he thinks 'okay how many did I smoke today, how many more can I smoke?' He recognizes this and considers it a miracle. When we met earlier in the week it was so miraculous. It is just a miracle. He said he prays 2 to 3 times a day just about smoking, and acknowledged that he knows he is weak but Heavenly Father has been strengthening him! He knows that Heavenly Father has made him more aware of when he smokes! He said he can see the blessings of the gospel in his life, when he didn't have it and now when he does. He thinks that if he was raised in the gospel that he could have become the prophet....I kind of just nicely laugh that one off because I don't really know how to answer that. He is sooooooo great! I will miss him and he was really sad that I was leaving! I also gave him this past week a list of 31 good scriptures that he can read...kind of a read one a day thing and think about it throughout the day so he can receive the strength of the Book of Mormon to help overcome his addiction. He is super great!!!

Yesterday our branch had 2 baptisms. Both sisters, one maybe 11, the other like 30s. Had the baptism in the neighboring areas church because our church doesn't have a baptismal font. It was really good, the missionaries in our district sang a musical number and I accompanied on the piano. I only messed up a little but it was okay, one of the papers fell off the piano so I elbowed whoever was behind me hoping they would understand that what I needed, they got the idea and picked the paper up for me. The service was really good though 2 really great sisters!

Not really much else happened this week really so that's about it. I look forward to serving in my new area!

Have a good one!

Love,

Elder Frampton

7-13-14

So best part of the week was yesterday and the baptism! 18 year old (Korean age) girl that was a referral from the branch president. We had to go to the other areas church in Jinju because we don't have a baptismal font. We ended church then all rode up there and had the baptism! It was super great. The missionaries (2 sisters and us) sang "When I am baptized" for her during the service and the spirit was super strong! She had started to cry while we sang and it was just such a great moment and I could really feel the Savior's love. Elder Shaw baptized her and so he didn't have to do it more than once he really put her under the water a lot. She bore her testimony at the end and it was super nice, you can really see the change and happiness that the gospel brings in her. :DD

We had interviews with President Barrow this week. The meeting was very different than how we did before. The APs just prepared a "watch video clip, think, and share your thoughts" type of meeting while president was interviewing. I found that President Barrow is very straight forward and to the point.

We also had a branch picnic this week! It was on Saturday and it seemed like we just went to a park grounds or something for it. We had a lunch and just played some sports as a branch. We played kickball as a branch. I found out that Koreans call kickball "foot baseball." They also brought volleyball and we were hitting it around for a few minutes then one person caught it and was holding it and then randomly it popped. Super weird.

So pretty much July 3-July 9 it rained everyday...we then heard that a typhoon was supposed to come, and when it was supposed to come, it didn't rain and it was really nice today. Turns out the typhoon apparently turned before getting to Korean and Japan got most of it?

Another thing this week was that we got new pamphlets for proselyting. One is "Who is God?" and one is "What to expect" but the Korean to English translation for that one is actually "the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saint missionaries" they gave each of us one of each and told us not to give them out to people. We are supposed to just read through them and see what we like and don't like and think about how they could improve them. Kind of like a prototype I guess. I think they could really help in introduce who we are and our purpose. Should be really different.

Well that is it for this week. Have a good week!

Love Elder Frampton

8-26-13

Helllllo family:

This week seriously flew by sooo fast. So much happened but it still was just so fast.

So let’s start with Tuesday, Elder Yun, because he already served his military service, had to go to a review thingy just in case war breaks out type of thing. Like he learned where he would have to go and what to do and where to get weapons and such. While he did that, the Seogwipo elders (southern island elders) came up and spent study time with me while Elder Yun was gone. That was interesting since it was different than usual.

So on Wednesday at night we called the boy’s mother to see if we could get permission for him to be baptized. She gave the permission! We were so happy, it truly was a miracle from the Lord. I will talk about the baptism later on. 

Wednesday I think was the first night that it rained in a while. It really hasn't rained much this year they say so it has been a "drought". But these past few nights and a little during the day it has rained. On Saturday night it was raining really hard, enough to wake me up. Between that and the heat, Saturday night was one of the worst nights I have had in a while. I woke up many times then couldn’t get back to sleep. Also, my fan had turned off in the middle of the night and I had no idea because I could not hear that it was running because of the rain. One of the times that I woke up because I was hot, I decided to check it.....it was off! I turned it on and got a little better sleep.

According to what people tell us, there is supposed to be a typhoon this week! It’s pretty exciting I think! The weather is pretty nice today (Monday). Not too hot and sunny and not very humid. It’s very nice weather compared to what we've had.

So Thursday we actually had two meal appointments! One was with one of my favorite families in our branch; they are super nice and have 3 kids. The brother is also in the district presidency. We had lunch with them, then for dinner we had lunch with a sister and her daughter. With us, because we needed another male with us, was a guy who had just returned from his mission about 1.5 months ago in Seoul. Both super good meals, the sister gave us some really good meat to take home and we ate that yesterday. Meals in Korea are either meat prepared a certain way and vegetables and rice, noodles with vegetables, or just vegetables. It is all really good though. Also like every restaurant or meal at a members home always has little side dishes of like kimchi, radishes, onions, peppers, and this little sauce that you can dip it in. Some kimchi I like, some I don't but it just takes some getting used to before you like it.

So Saturday was the best day so far here in Korea. President and Sister Gilbert came Friday to Jeju because on Saturday we had interviews! It was so awesome. It lasted for around 3.5 hours. So there are 6 of us in our district, so that’s 6 interviews. The interviews are 15 minutes each. So when we weren't the one being interviewed by President Gilbert, Sister Gilbert was holding a discussion in a different room with us. The theme for this transfer was "walking with Christ" so we discussed things about that. We talked about how we must walk with Christ and what would be holding us back is the natural man. She taught how we must overcome that natural man within ourselves, giving up it, in order to walk with Christ. I enjoyed every second of the discussion. Sister Gilbert knows the scriptures and gospel so well. She loves every one of her missionaries (us). They are literally the best mission presidents anywhere, no doubt about it. They have the highest expectations of us because they know that only the best missionaries are sent to the Korea Busan mission. Sister Gilbert should seriously be called as general relief society president or something.

After interviews we had the baptism! I will send a picture. Elder Yun was asked to baptize him. It was so amazing! We had asked his mother to come to the baptism, and she came! It was so wonderful; I know she felt the spirit. Oh since the Gilberts were there for interviews they were able to come to the baptism! It was just amazing and perfect. On Sunday he was confirmed and given the holy ghost and I was able to help with that, he had asked Elder Yun to give the blessing as well. It was just awesome.

Sunday night we had a thing in Seogwipo so we got a ride there. Because it has rained lately and it is still pretty hot, on the ride back there was really bad fog. We could see maybe 10 feet in front of us and the brother that was driving was pretty much relying on the line that is in the middle of the road. To get between Jeju city and Seogwipo (I think I spell it different every time.) we have to go through/around Halla mountain the tallest mountain in Korea, the roads are super windy, so because of this, the fog experience was even more scary.

Well Korean still is hard, I still don’t really understand much and can’t say much. Since we don’t have lessons ever it’s hard to practice, so President Gilbert suggested setting appointments with members to practice teaching for like 10 minutes. I think we will try that and hopefully it’ll get better eventually. I only have 2 more weeks left in my first transfer....time is flying by.

I hope all is well at home, I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Frampton