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

9-9-14

Hello,

So sorry for the late email this week. Yesterday was the Korean holiday Chuseok. We gathered as a missionary zone at one of the other areas church buildings pretty much all day and had lunch, talent show, and board games. Very fun. Because of that event we did not have time to email yesterday and also because pretty much most stores are close so we don't have access to computer. So we were allowed to email today.

So this week was pretty good and pretty slow.

We met Brother Kim last Tuesday and set up a plan to help him stop smoking. It puts him giving up smoking sometime next month because he started out smoking 20 cigarettes a day. We have not been able to meet him since then because of the holiday but we will meet him today actually and see how he has been doing. I have kept in touch with him every day to encourage him. On Friday or Saturday he sent a text saying something like 'I prayed and asked for help to give up smoking and it seems that I have received help to meet my goal.' He was talking about his goal for the day but it is amazing to see that he is receiving heaven sent help and that he truly desires to give up smoking. 

So we met another potential investigator this week. He is a man from Nepal in Korea looking for work. We met him a few weeks ago and finally were able to meet. He said he was very interested in what Christians believed and said he wants to learn the gospel!

So this week was one of the most sad weeks on my mission....I lost the 'Apollo moon' tie bar that I always wore. I wore it every day on my mission except for 3 days when I forgot! I was getting up out of my seat on the bus when it fell off. I thought I heard something hit the ground when I got up so I turned around and didn't see anything. It wasn't until later when I realized it wasn't there that I realized that it was my tie bar that had fallen! Super Sad!!!!

Once again sorry for the late email!

Love,

Elder Frampton

Parents Note:

Since we did not hear from Chris on Monday, Belinda scanned the Internet for anything that may be happening in Korea that would not allow Chris to not be able to write.
She found a Busan Korea Facebook page and was scanning it when she saw a photo. Upon looking closely at the photo she saw Elder Frampton was in it.  She sent it to him and he did not even have a copy though he knew someone had taken it. They apparently made the poster out of cardboard and put topics that my be important to people and asked people on the street put a sticker on the one they thought was important so they could start a conversation.

A miracle!

8-18-14

Hello,

So this week was pretty quick since it was the first week in my new area. A little stressful actually. Just super busy but at the same time not really. 

So we have 2 progressing investigators right now. Both around 60 years old. 

The one is gospel interest and not an English program but he really likes English so he ends up asking many questions so it is pretty much an English program. He comes to church and super loves our church. He says it feels like a family here and he says he will get baptized....sometime. We tried to commit him to a date but he didn't really give a yes or no, kind of just said that he would..sometime. Yesterday at church he said that he wish he could have been in the church since he was a kid just because he thinks it is so good! He likes the classes and the doctrine and everything. He even took notes in church. He really likes learning. I am not sure if he is necessarily feeling the spirit or just the idea of the church and it's structure, but the fact that he likes it so much makes me think that it is all the spirit. 

The other investigator we do an English program with. He is super nice and really just wants to find faith really. He kind of believes in God and Jesus Christ but is really wanting to know. He came to church the day before I came but didn't come this week for some reason. We will find out next time we meet. We meet him 2 times a week for the program and then he comes to English class 2 times a week as well.

On Friday, it was Korean Independence day so the branch had a branch activity. We went somewhere about an hour away and had like a picnic thing next to a little river. All the kids and some adults went in the little river, played with water guns, threw buckets of water at people (the water in the bucket, not the bucket itself). Good way to start the transfer getting to know the members. There are lots of kids in the branch so it is pretty fun to be with them too.

The weather here was supposed to be hotter than everywhere else but it was very cool this week. Didn't even really sweat while I was outside. Plus it rained like 3 days so far out of my week that I have been here so that was great.

The apartment is about the same size as my last one but it is a nicer layout. I have a good yo this time. There is one bed but it is my companions. I sleep on like 5 yo's though. It is great. I finally get comfortable sleep.

That is it for this week!

Love,

Elder Frampton

4-21-14

Hello Family!

This has been a good week! Right now I am actually talking on the phone with Roger from my last area on the phone so it is hard to type! Haha I’ve been keeping in contact with him about once a week. 

Okay just finished talking with him so it is easier to type now. Last week P-day was fun, we went and hiked the small mountain and we could see so far, Sacheon is actually right next to the ocean so we could see the ocean at the top! When we went down the other side we went to this cafe and Elder Lamb is friends with the owner so we got a bunch of free stuff.....it was crazy! Super delicious though!

Also that night we met with a guy for the first time that wants to learn English and is very open to the gospel it seems. He says he likes the bible and it has good words and that he will study and do whatever homework we ask him to do so we are excited to teach him again. He said he can meet two times a week. He is in the air force and on Wednesday we were supposed to meet him again but we received a text talking about the ship accident and that he was not allowed to leave the airbase because of it so we couldn’t meet.....actually at the time we received the text we didn't know about the ship accident so we had no idea what his text actually meant because without knowing about the accident, the text out of context made it seem like he was saying that he was 'submersed in time' or something, which we took to understand that he was just busy with military work stuff. Super confusing. We hope to meet him this week but it will all depend if he is able to leave the base and when the whole accident situation gets completely resolved and such. (Note: the Korean ferry sank killing more than 200 students)

So before I came Elder Brown was teaching this guy English and the gospel and I met with him once the first week I was here and he actually ended our meeting because his wife from the Philippines came to Korea on the Saturday before. So when I met him for the first time I also met his wife. She doesn't speak Korean so he was learning English with us so he could communicate with her. So now we were able to set up something new after discussing it with him and the Sisters are going to meet with the Filipino wife and teach her Korean for 30 minutes and gospel in English for 30 minutes because the husband wants her to learn Korean. Confusing right? Well we will also start teaching him again 30 minutes English and 30 gospel and hopefully the wife will have gospel interest because that is the way that we are going to try to get the husband more interested.

 Yesterday we met with a guy from South Africa. Not to be racist or anything, but to specify, he is white. It was very interesting....he is somewhat of a conspiracy theory person...he actually talked about everything that is anything. He talked 2 and a half hours straight to us....not with us but to/at us! It was crazy how he could just go on and on and on. He is a hard core Christian and we pretty much found out everything we need to know about his beliefs and how we will teach him in the future. We were able to at least give him a restoration pamphlet and asked him to read it and then we will talk about it next time. He could either be really accepting because he seems like someone who would embrace truth but at the same time he seems like someone who could just be pleased with his religion and beliefs and not want to 'change. We will see.

Yesterday night in celebration for Easter we made scones! It was crazy making them, took a lot of work, our dinner time and then at night after we planned. They were messy but super delicious! Haha

That’s it for this week!

Have a good 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