12-7-15 (Week 15)

Family,

This week was kind of shorter because Tuesday we went to Santa Rosa for Zone meeting and that was normal, just talk about Book of Mormon, our goals as a zone, preach my gospel, and then split off into districts for district meeting.

Wednesday was zone conference so President was there and he talked about preach my gospel and talked about the mission and how our zone is doing. Talked a little about Christmas and then at the end talked about finances and money of the mission for a little. Then we had lunch and afterwards his wife talked about exercising and not drinking water from the tap and she talked about eating balanced diet and eating right and what foods and stuff like that health concerning food and exercise. So now we know what to buy next month when the members can’t cook for us anymore we have to make balanced meals.

Thursday we came back here to Pico and was a normal day; taught like one lesson and found like 2 new investigators pretty normal day.

Then Friday was exchanges the district leader came here and I went to his area Castex. So I was with his companion Elder Rickeberg in Castex and we went to like 5 appointments but only taught like 2 lessons the other 3 we had to reschedule for another day. We made hamburgers and had ice cream and I just got to know the little city of Castex it is nice small quiet not many people there so the missionaries know like everyone in the whole city because it is just small and everyone knows each other. Saturday came back to my area taught one lesson in the morning right when I returned and then contacted the rest of the day. Pretty normal uneventful day.

Yesterday Sunday went to church fasting; didn’t get a chance to bear my testimony because all the members and old ladies went up and told stories and talked for like 10 minutes a piece and told the whole branch about their life and their year this year because it was the last testimony meeting of this year. Then we went back home and had lunch and went to our four investigators but only 2 of them were home so we got appointments for later this week. Then we came back to the house in the night and I hung out with the other missionaries in the apartment. I don’t know if I ever introduced everybody so I’m from Estados Unidos, Elder Riveros is from Paraguay then the other missionaries are Elder Diaz from Chile and Elder Sandoval from Peru.

We all just talked and chilled in the house last night and Elder Sandoval has a Rubiks cube and he was teaching me how to do it and how to solve it and I tried over and over and practiced like all night long until I could solve it. And this morning today is Pday I solved the whole cube this morning in 5:30 and I was proud of myself because I have the whole formula and moves memorized. Elder Sandoval then took it from me and solved it in 1:20 . He is so fast because he has like everything memorized and it is muscle memory so his hands just move and remember all the steps. He told me in the mission there is an Elder Hansen who did it 38 seconds wow. So yeah this was probably one of a highlight of my week learning and being able to solve a Rubiks cube now.

And okay today is Pday and some holiday because I think it is the changing of the President today so it is a holiday to make the change in presidency they call it here Feriado. Tomorrow is also a holiday or feriado because it is like virgen somebody day one of the saints or virgin days. Also we will be going to Santa Rosa tomorrow because they said they want to start having the zone meeting every Tuesday. So all Tuesdays we will be traveling to Santa Rosa. So this week may be very similar to last week. I think that is about all and everything for this week. So talk to you all next week and start preparing for Christmas. Put a Santa in the bathroom or something Haha

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-30-15

Dear Family,

Tuesday was a pretty normal day just tracking and finding people, looking for less actives and inactives and new people because we have no appointments right now and no lessons this day. So we just went searching for people.

Wednesday we ate lunch in the house because the member who makes us lunch was busy so we said that was alright we have stuff in the house we can make our own. Then we had district meeting. That was good I had to give the spiritual thought so I just talked about diligence and perseverance. Then the district leader showed some videos and that was it. Came back to the house afterwards and studied and then went contacting at night once again.

Thursday did nothing for Thanksgiving. Went to find where some investigators live and no one answered the door so it seemed pointless because this investigator we went to find lived far away and we went all the way out there for them to not be home or not answer the door but actually we ran into another one of our investigators on the street just in the road going for a walk with her kids and she asked if we could come over tomorrow and teach her a lesson so she has the desire and wanted to set up an appointment we didn’t have to ask to set up a day. Then later that night we were supposed to have a lesson with a family that we always teach, Thursday nights at, 7 and when I called to confirm I called the woman because she was the only number we had for this family and when a man picked up I assumed it was the husband so I said Hola Lionel (the husbands name) can I talk with your wife Valeria. And he says no this isn’t the number you were looking for. I said are you Lionel and he responds no so I said okay sorry I have the wrong number then and so I give my companion the phone he calls the same number asks is this Lionel and the man says yes and my companion asks can we come over, is 7 still good and he says could be, come we will see if we are home. So we go over there at 7 and he is leaving his house going somewhere and we are like where is going and we couldn’t catch up to him obviously but we saw him leave his house like 10 minutes to 7 so we have no clue what happened. 

Then Friday was normal but we had our one lesson with the lady we saw on the street on Thursday. So we went to her house taught her and asked her to come to church and she said she is worried her two boys will be too rowdy and disruptive during church and we say no it is okay there are other small kids and babies that are the same way. Moral of the story she didn’t come to church on Sunday.

Saturday we went to go find a referral that we got who lives far away and she was there. The lady was nice and said we could come back again sometime next week. Then we went to a less active guy’s house who is 88; that is the only reason he is less active. He talked with us told us he has been having pain in his stomach and some stomach problems, asked for a blessing and in the past I would do the anointing with the oil and say like it was consecrated for healing the sick and afflicted the stuff before the blessing. And my companion would do the actual blessing because he is better in Spanish than me. But this time Elder Riveros being new said he hadn’t ever done a blessing before so I had to do both parts and I go to do the blessing and the Spirit was just flowing through my veins saying stuff in Spanish in this blessing and I don’t even remember half of the stuff I said like my mind has been wiped and I used words I didn’t even know I knew. Then went and had lunch with a member and it was good like mash potatoes and then it was asado but had ham and cheese on top. Very delicious.

Then afterwards we were walking through the plaza back to our house and to do study and this guy calls us over sitting in the plaza and just starts saying stuff and I started to stop paying attention after a while because he was just saying stuff from the bible and saying bad stuff and said he has tried to hang himself twice by using one of the trees in the plaza/park. And said he has no family and no friends, his son came at him with a knife, he left their house has been walking around, slept in a cave a few days, has been homeless, said he hasn’t eaten something in 60 days. Said he tried to burn that house to the ground. Said he had to walk 50 kilometers on his knees. Yet I saw he had with him keys, a phone, he didn’t smell for someone he hasn’t showered in 60 days. Then he said he wanted to talk to who was in charge of us so we had to call the branch president and he started yelling at me and like are you mute or something why don’t you talk and I said because I can’t understand you your words are slurred and I don’t speak a ton of Spanish yet. He had a thick accent and talked fast and jumbled and slurred his words. It was even hard for my companion to understand. So he is like call the branch president and tells him to come here I want to talk to him. Then started yelling at me again did you hear me, are you mute, are you scared afraid or something whatever tiene miedo means. And I said no I’m not but I am scared for my branch president to come here he doesn’t need to come here. And then he started talking about the Bible again and Moses and Daniel and Plan of Salvation and we just were like we have to go and we left. Then we went into our pension and just sat there and just pondered about this loco guy in the plaza.

Sunday went to church then ate lunch with the branch president and his family then went to find another referral and found this guy named Juan who is really nice and said we can come back next week for a lesson then went to another house and talked with Monica another referral and she said we can come back next week too so it seems this week we will have 3 lessons with referral people. Then we went back to the house and studied and cooked a small dinner. This morning we went to a store called Chango Mas which was like the size of a Walmart but the layout or style of a Costco so just a really big super market store. That is it for the week other than this week I started and took up the habit of jumping rope every morning for exercise and in just this past week I have become really good. And also I do push ups everyday also. 

Other than that sounds like you guys had a good Thanksgiving tell everyone I say Hello and Hi. Talk to you next week hopefully have a less crazy week too.

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-23-15

Family,

We live on 9 and 24 and the church is on 14 in between 15 and 17. So like 3 blocks to get to 15 and then 5 blocks to get to 14. So 8 blocks total like a 15 minute walk.

So I thought the schedule for the first couple days would be with the other Elders Monday and Tuesday, leave for Bahia Tuesday night, arrive Wednesday, and so on. But actually we get a call Monday night that zone meeting is Tuesday afternoon so we got on a bus that night and went to Santa Rosa. We get there and sleep in zone leader’s apartment.

Tuesday wake up and I went proselyting with the other Elders that live in the zone leaders apartment and then that afternoon we went to the church and had the zone meeting. And we were supposed to have district meeting afterwards like split into our different districts but instead they said we will all just stay together and not split which meant I had to give my 5 minute talk on the importance of baptism and confirmation in front of the whole zone rather than my little district. It went okay. So afterwards I went contacting again with the missionaries and then slept again in their apartment woke up in the morning to catch the 3 am bus to Bahia.

Got to Bahia about 8 that morning the assistants came and picked me up went to the Presidents home. Sat around then he taught us how to be good trainers and gave us a little book for entranadores and gave us a little sermon and then we went downstairs and they assigned people a companion. Paired with me is this Elder from Paraguay. My new companion is Elder Riveros. He knows only like knows how to say in English “Hello, Goodbye, How are you”. Those three phrases that’s it. He doesn’t seem to have much intention or interest in learning English and I have asked and offered to teach. I carry a dictionary now. We eat lunch sandwiches that were provided then pack up his stuff go over to the church grab his suitcases and then head to the bus station. Got on a bus about 6 got to Santa Rosa about 11 that night. On the bus saw some movie called Black Sea about submarines and gold and stuff. Got to Santa Rosa slept in the zone leader’s apartment woke up at 5 got on our bus to Pico and got here about 8. Slept a little went and visited the members so I could introduce my new companion and then went out for ice cream and I got mint chocolate chip then came back to the apartment and made some cookies in the oven then went to bed.

Friday woke up contacted a little went to pick up our lunch from a member who lives really far away and then came back ate quickly and then went over to the mission leader’s house at 1 to help him move because he is going to Catex. We loaded up a whole truck of things; not a moving truck but like a big pickup truck, then when I thought we would stop we kept on going stacking stuff on top of each other and it was just like a mountain really high like more than 10 feet and I was thinking how will they drive and stuff not tumble or fall so then they tied a huge rope and tied all the stuff down and drove off with a huge mountain of junk. Then had Noche Hogar that night and no body showed up so we just left after the first hour we weren’t going to stay form 7 to 9 so we left at 8.

Then Saturday woke up went to lunch had this casserole thing us pastel de papas. And then went contacting got 2 appointments lined up for next week so that was good we could schedule 2 appointments.

Sunday or yesterday went to church then came home and had to stay in the house all the day because it was like voting or the president was going to broadcast or talk to all the people here so there may have been riots or crazies or weird stuff because the President talked to the people so were got a call and were told we didn’t have to go out so we stayed in the house all day.

Today woke up did my laundry, a little shopping at the Super or La Anonima. Then had lunch - hot dogs too. I enjoyed them and then came here to write. Hope you guys are enjoying all the family and their company. Have a good thanksgiving because here there is nothing. No Thanksgiving whatsoever. Have a good week and stay cool in Vegas because here lately it is hot then the next day it is cold then the next it rains and the next is hot and then the night is cold. It is all over the place the weather. 

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-16-15

Hello family,

This week I probably don’t have a large quantity of stuff to write about but I have good quality.

So Tuesday we contacted and didn’t find or talk to anyone. Later that night we went for ice cream and I got a kilo of these four flavors: crema de oreo, limon, americana, y frutos del bosque. Took it back to the house that night and have been eating it throughout the week.

Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning and I had to give an impromptu spiritual thought in Spanish so I just made up some story about shepherds and sheep and we need to look to Jesus the ultimate shepherd. Then that afternoon we had lunch at a member’s house and we had chancho which is pig and with it was potatoes including batata which is sweet potatoes or yams. And for dessert it was duraznos peaches with crema whipped cream. That night we had a meeting at the church with the branch presidency and stuff to plan to visit less actives and stuff. The branch mission leader found a new job and his family and he are now moving to Castex this Friday. So we are going to need a new mission leader very soon.

Thursday was another very bland day we didn’t find anyone and contacting didn’t work super well but I did find a quote when studying that I really liked. "Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death" Very similar to Uchtdorf´s doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. Friday we downloaded a video to watch for noche hogar The Work and the Glory. Then that night two families showed up and we watched it at the church on the TV screen and we made and had popcorn with it too. 

Saturday they called us in the morning with transfer calls. They said Elder Searcy is leaving and is going to Olavarria and that I am staying here. So my companion leaves and I will stay in Pico and I will be training a new missionary straight out of the MTC. They said they don’t know his name yet or what country he is from, but I have a good feeling I will be training a native Spanish Elder from one of the Spanish MTC´s. So I will be teaching him missionary stuff and mission work and he will be helping me with Spanish stuff. So that is the exciting thing. But yet I am also nervous to train a brand new missionary. I get to go to Bahia this Wednesday to pick him up. So I have another long trip of bus rides ahead of me this week. I will tell you probably next P day all about him and where he is from so be prepared next Monday.

So then the rest of Saturday Elder Searcy spent packing and getting ready to leave for Olavarria and he gave me all his training stuff.

Then Sunday went to church and there was a guy visiting from the stake in Santa Rosa and he said he was a returned missionary. He was friendly with my companion and I and asked where we are from and he told him Pennsylvania and he said hey there was an Elder in my mission from Pennsylvania do you know Elder Anderson and I said where did you serve he said Brazil I said Brian or Jason Anderson. He told me he was the trainer of Jason Anderson. So you guys should tell Sister Anderson or Heather to tell Jason that I met his trainer from his mission because he is in my stake.

Then we had lunch with the branch president and it was meat and some pasta stuff. Then later on Sunday we took my companion Elder Searcy to the bus terminal and he left yesterday.

So now today I am with the other elders in Pico that work the Ward side. Then tomorrow I will probably leave and travel through the night to get to Bahia Blanca on Wednesday morning. So until next week. I will probably talk next Monday all about my new companion and my travels to Bahia Blanca. Because that will probably take up the majority of my week leaving Tuesday night being in Bahia on Wednesday and then traveling back to Pico on Thursday. So I will be gone for like half a day, a whole day and then another half a day. Talk to all of you next week!!!!

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-9-15 (week 11)

Dear family,

So let’s see Tuesday or maybe it was Monday after I had already sent my long letter and I went to write the mission president he sent a letter saying he changed the schedule for us missionaries. So we wake up 6 30 exercise eat breakfast shower get ready and out of the house proselyting and contacting by 8 or 8 30. Go until 12 30 go back to the house for lunch which is an hour until 1 30 do our studies personal and companionship for an hour each until 3 30 then for the newer missionaries we have to do language study and/or the program Doce Semanas (12 weeks) which is just like training. Leave the house like 4 or 4 30 go back out and contact and teach the night time until 9 when we have to return to the house again to get ready for bed. So that was kinda new but not really because my companion and I had already been doing this schedule we think president changed it because we gave him the idea because we have been doing it this whole time.

And then the other thing is starting in the New Year in January we won’t be able to get meals from families anymore. So without other people providing us with lunch or dinners we are thinking they will have to increase our budget because literally like everyday right now we have lunch with a member or a less active or someone. And if in January we can’t have lunch everyday then they will have to give us more mission money for us to buy supplies and food for us to cook our own lunches everyday.

Which brings us to this morning when our district leader called asking like how much we eat every day how much that cost what kind of things have we been buying for breakfast which just is cereal and milk but he asked prices and quantities and types of food so we are thinking that is what is about. Probably president is getting an idea how much everyone is spending and stuff and then will up our mission fund from getting 1300 pesos every month to like 1700 pesos or something I don’t know what number he will pick.

So anyway now going back in time to Tuesday. It was a normal day contacting in the morning then lunch then we were in the middle of our studies and the zone leaders call and say Elder Frampton needs to buy a bus to get from Pico to Santa Rosa because they have bought me a bus from Santa Rosa to Bahia Blanca already and that second bus leaves at 11 at night. So we call the bus place looking for a bus and they say there is one that leaves at 6 and one at 8. So I decide to take the 8 one because it is only a 2 maybe 2 and a half hour bus ride and if I would take the 6 one I would get there like 2 hours early so I said I will take the 8 one and get to Santa Rosa about 10 or 10 30 and then only have to wait for like half an hour. So my companion takes me in a taxi to the bus station and we get there at like 7 55 and I made it just in time to catch my 8 o clock bus. Then the bus ride was fine but I was a little confused because we made like 5 or 6 stops some that seemed unnecessary because normally that bus ride only has 2 stops (1 in the next town Castex and then the other in a little pueblo) So with like 3 extra stops I got to Santa Rosa at like 11 05 and I was worried I had missed my bus or something I hop off and I see two guys in suits and it’s the missionaries they give me my bus ticket and tell me my bus hasn’t arrived yet so I didn’t miss it or anything like that.

So I wait with them and my bus comes at 11 15 and I get on and they had me write down an address I’m supposed to go to once I get to Bahia Blanca. So I’m riding on the bus and I’m real nervous and scared to fall asleep because someone will steal my bag (I just took my little shoulder bag with some garments my tooth brush and deodorant). So I maneuvered my bag under my arm against the wall kind of half sitting on it so that way someone will have to wake me up if they are trying to get to my bag. And I am able to fall asleep for only like 3 hours. I wake up its like 2 in the morning and I couldn’t fall back asleep so I stayed awake for the last 2 hours.

So we get to Bahia Blanca at 4 in morning and I get off the bus hop in a taxi tell the driver the address and he says he knows right where it is. I talk with him for a little during the drive luckily my Spanish is decent because I have been here for 4 weeks. He drops me off and I realize oh this is the assistants house the same one I stayed at the very first day I was here in Argentina. so I open the gate walk around to the back go into the little house had to be quiet because I know the others are sleeping I go to the bath room brush my teeth come out put on my pajamas and by this it is 4 30 I hop into my bed that they had left prepared for me. I’m laying there pull the blanket on top because it was a little colder there in Bahia Blanca for some reason.

Then next thing the door swings open the lights turn on and it is the Secretary and the Materiales elders from the office and they say okay elders time to wake up we got to get going now. It was 5 I hadn’t even fall asleep yet I get out of bed put back on my clothes which I had just gotten out of and put on my pajamas. So I put on my suit and we leave. We take a taxi to the migrations office place and they tell us we are here so early because a line will form very quick because everyone always comes here early. So we stand there outside at 5 30 almost 6 in the morning until 8 when the migration office place opened. And by that time we look back and there is a line half way across the street and luckily we were first in line because we have been waiting there since 6. So we go in they have me sign some stuff take my fingerprints and sign something else. Then we leave and take a taxi somewhere else walk inside I give them my passport verify I am who I am why I am here how long I’ll be here for do this stuff called Tramites and DNI a bunch of immigration things. Then by this time it is 12 and they say okay we are done.

Now to McDonalds!! Wahoo go inside it is like this huge 2 story like restaurant the most richy McDonalds I’ve ever seen. Go in look at the prices you got 70 pesos for a kid’s meal that is like 7 dollars for the little kid meal. So anyway I get a Big Mac some fries and a Sprite. It was sooo delicious. Then they take us to the stake center or church building or the mission office its all the same building in Bahia. Sit down on the chairs for a while talk with the guys in the office then the mail elder gives me a package and it was the package from Mom I opened it and ate the chocolate eye balls. Then it was time to hop on a bus to come home. They drive me to the terminal give me a ticket and they tell me Elder Frampton you need to watch and be cautious and get off at Santa Rosa because this bus is going all the way to Jujuy. If you don’t get off in Santa Rosa you will go to Jujuy which I just looked up right now and is 17 hours farther than I’m supposed to go and 1519 km which is 943 miles.

So anyway on the bus got off safely in Santa Rosa looking around for the elders the zone leaders someone. No one is there I walk around looking can’t find anyone so I say maybe I’m just supposed to buy my ticket to Pico and get on the bus. So like 7 minutes later I run into the zone leaders wearing like normal p day clothes and they are like oh elder Frampton we have been looking for you and I told them I got here like 7 minutes ago I’ve been looking for you. They take me to their apartment and I spend the night at the zone leaders get up in the morning and take the 6 o clock bus back to Pico get to Pico and my companion is waiting we take a taxi back to our apartment I change into some work clothes because Thursdays are service days we go over to an old lady’s house and we weed whack and pull weeds.

Then it was a normal day again - went home after service showered had lunch studied and had our appointment that night with that one family. And they hadn’t read or prayed since last week except the father finished 1 Nephi and is starting 2 Nephi. And they were different this time; they weren’t as interested and they just kept saying the phrase like oh we like sharing and talking and beliefs and stuff.

Friday was normal again; no lessons though so we just contacted, lunch, studied, left went to the church for noche hogar and no body showed up absolutely no one. We were the only ones in the church so we took a TV from the media closet and watched Ephraim´s Rescue on it.

Saturday umm I don’t remember I have nothing in my agenda and I don’t remember anything from Saturday so I guess nothing really happened. I think Saturday was just a normal kind of nothing to do day uneventful. Then yesterday we woke up, went to church, came back took a little nap, went over to the branch presidents for lunch and it was good they had a fruit salad I really liked. Then we had dinner at night with the branch mission leader's family.

And first off it is super hot here already like I sleep with short PJs and everyday when proselyting I’m so sweaty. So we are sitting outside talking while the wife is making the dinner and I wasn’t super hot because it as like 7 at night so kind of dark and cool breeze then we move inside for dinner and I start sweating a lot and I’m like really sweaty and they give me some juice to drink and I feel a little cooler then they bring out the main meal hot hot soup.  So I’m sitting here in this already hot house eating hot soup, sweating like so many pounds off I can barely even see because it is running down my face so fast and I wife some sweat off and then more just comes I’m sweating faster than I can wipe it off. And they are like Elder why are you sweating so much?  I just said it is because I am white- I have white skin they laughed and I was like I just want to leave or step outside or something. Finally dinner ended and we left and walked back to our house and I stepped inside our pension and I ripped off my clothes, I was toasting. And they say it only gets hotter here like December and January are terrible and we can’t take our suit coats off or wear short sleeve shirts until President says so and he will make that decision for the whole mission.

So that was my week. Hope you guys aren't indexing too hard until your eyes and hands fall off.

Thanks! Hope you have a good Thanksgiving because I don’t know when it is I think like not this Thursday but in 3 more Thursdays. Eat some turkey and enjoy it! 

Love,

Elder Frampton

11-2-15 (week 10)

Hello!!

This week will probably be very short because it was kind of uneventful.

Tuesday we had 4 lessons and then they all fell through getting canceled except for one of them was just rescheduled until Thursday  Literally nothing else really happened on Tuesday.

So then they carried over to Wednesday and we had nothing planned for Wednesday because we were just waiting around for Thursday to finally come. So we had zero lessons on Wednesday and we did nothing and nobody was around or outside or anything so contacting didn’t work at all. Everyone was just taking siestas all day or something.

Then Thursday came eventually and we went to lunch at a less actives family’s house. 

So then later that day we had our appointment with the lesson that got rescheduled from Tuesday. And we show up and this family has already read the Book of Mormon up to like chapter 16 of First Nefi and was super interested in the church and they have been studying lots of churches and searching around for truth and the church they haven’t looked at yet and know the least about is our church. They are like golden investigator family. So we show up and we teach the Restoration and I did a majority of the talking and I taught the parts about the Great Apostasy and the First Vision and the Book of Mormon and my companion filled in the little holes and filled in whenever I stopped talking it was like the first real lesson I got to teach like whole by myself and my companion just chirped in whenever. They are such a good family of investigators and they said they will continue to pray and read and they had questions at the end of the lesson and asked Elders would you guys know what is our purpose here and where do we go after we die. And we were like wow ironic you would ask that those are actually the concepts from next lesson the Plan of Salvation so we will answer all of that next time when can we come back and they said an appointment for this Thursday would be fine. So seems like we will be teaching them every Thursday.

Then Friday we didn’t really do anything it was a normal day contacting and had like one lesson nothing real special a normal day and we had Noche Hogar that night and no one showed up except for the mission leader and his kids. So we just ate cookies and played Hangman in Spanish. 

So then this weekend was stake conference and it just so happened that because President Cifuentes had to speak at conference he decided he would do interviews with missionaries after conference. So because of that we were allowed on Saturday to go get haircuts and we went and sat in line for haircuts for like an hour and a half to almost two hours just waiting. finally like 2 hours later it was our turns for haircuts and we each took like 15 or 20 minute haircuts for only 30 pesos too which is about 3 US dollars so very cheap but very nice and high quality and good haircuts. But it was funny to sit in the haircut parlor waiting room for like 2 hours all just for a 15 minute haircut.

Then we went to the church because they were broadcasting the conference to the branch because the stake conference and stake center is in Santa Rosa. However nobody here knows anything about computers or broadcasting stuff and they were unable to set it up for us to watch in the branch so they just told us go home we can’t seem to get it to work. It didn’t really matter because only like 10 people showed up to watch it anyway so we were like uh where is the rest of the branch? So we were unable to watch conference on Saturday.

Then Sunday we woke up early went to the bus station and took a bus about 2 hours to Santa Rosa got there took a cab or taxi to the stake center watched the conference live and the stake took up like all the time and President and his wife were last to speak in the program and in the program they spelled their names wrong too Mission President Cienfuegos. Hahaha President Cifuentes and all the missionaries there got a crack and a laugh from that. We had the two pairs of missionaries from Santa Rosa there two pairs of Hermanas, us from the branch in Pico the other guys from the ward in Pico and the missionaries from Castex there. So the stake used up all the time that they left President and his wife with like 5 minutes for both of them so they just went up and bore their testimonies and that was it; they didn’t even get to talk just enough time to bear their testimony.

Then afterwards we all had interviews and President gave us a pep talk and told us advice and stuff

first be disciplined

second I don’t remember what that was and

third be your own agent so be self managing you don’t need the mission handbook or someone else a district or zone leader or president to tell you stuff just manage yourselves.

And then a thing from D&C how there is a law in heaven that each blessing is predicated on. So if you are having diarrhea then you broke the rule of the word of wisdom

if you can’t sleep at night then you broke the rule of sleeping in more in the morning or you aren’t working that hard to make yourself tired and exhausted that day to fall asleep.

Then conducted interviews and mine was perfectly fine it was short because I’m new and he just gave me advice and ask if I had any questions and then it was over. Then he told me he had my maleta or my suitcase he had gotten from the assistants so now I have my little suitcase that was the carry on.

Then I got my suitcase, we hopped in a taxi and headed to the bus station. We were running a little late too because it was 3:50 and the bus leaves at 4. And Elder Searcy was like we need to take out money out of the ATM so we can buy our tickets to get to Pico but luckily something had happened that morning that I felt inspired to take an extra 100 pesos just in case so we could get back and not get stuck in Santa Rosa. So I told him no let’s not go to the ATM but let’s go to buy our tickets and I pull out my 100 pesos and it was exactly enough to get us both back to Pico. And we bought the tickets at 3:58. I felt  good because if I didn’t have that 100 we would have had to stop at the ATM and would have been late and missed our bus probably. But I paid and got us our tickets back to Pico and we get on the bus and we have seats 37 and 38 and there is a girl in my seat and her bag a huge black purse was in the other seat so Elder Searcy was just like telling me sit in a different seat so I sat in another seat.

Elder Searcy sat with the missionaries from Castex because the bus goes from Santa Rosa to Castex to Pico. So the other missionaries were on the bus too because the bus made stops in Castex on the way to Pico. So he sat with them and I sat by myself in a seat close by. Then Elder Searcy and the other missionaries are talking and just chatting and stuff and the girl that was sitting in our seat turns to them and says oh you missionaries speak English? And we were like yes and then she was I speak English too. So then she asked to hear about us why were we missionaries why were in Argentina and about the church and the Gospel and I talked to her in English and taught the Restoration and gave her my Book of Mormon. And she seemed interested in the Gospel it was just so nice to talk to someone in English and she seemed like a potential investigator. So who would have thought I would get a chance to share in the gospel in English in Argentina. There are people here who actually speak English, who would have known. Because the last time we ran into something like this was when we were contacting one day and there was a house that had a sign offering English lessons so I said lets knock on this house but no one answered so I never got to talk with the people that lived there. But it seems like my job so far has been to share the gospel and teach all the people we run into that speak English. So that was Sunday and now we are just emailing and doing laundry on Monday. Hope everyone back home is having fun traveling, interpreting, getting married, and going to the movies and whatever else stuff you guys do. Don’t have too much fun while I’m gone 

Love,

Elder Frampton

10-26-15 (week 9)

10-26-15 (week 9)

Dear Family,

Not a whole lot happened this week so this will probably be shorter than in the past. But I have a few stories. So after I emailed last week on Monday we got back to the apartment and it started pouring luckily we were inside so we just stayed inside and didn’t get wet at all.

Tuesday was pretty normal we had lunch and studied and stuff. Then the afternoon we wanted to go visit an investigator we hadn’t talked to in a few days he wasn’t answering his phone and the last time we visited him was like Saturday so being Tuesday it had been 3 days. So we walk up the  street and we see he is outside and he has his friends over because they all have motorcycles so we are like oh perfect they are all just talking outside so we know he is home and he has his buddies over they can hear the lesson too. We can just have one big lesson. However as we get closer and we are within talking distance we are like hey what’s up. We decided to have a change of lessons and teach word of wisdom that day instead. I don’t know how much he retained of the lesson because of the fact he was high.

Then Wednesday we had lunch with an older couple and it was good some sort of casserole kinda thing meat and cheese like everything else here found a wish bone in it. Then at night we had a planning meeting at the church to talk about missionary stuff. But the only guy that showed up was like the 2nd counselor and us the missionaries. We knew the mission leader wasn’t going to be there because he had something come up.

Then Thursday we had 2 appointments with 2 old ladies that morning that we had scheduled the day before. We get to the first ladies house and she doesn’t answer the door and then we see her walking towards us coming back from the grocery store with bags in her hands. And she is like oh no today I am having friends over for a party. We just left and was thinking why would she have a party and then agree to meet with us at this time. Whatever. Onward to the second old ladies house. She opens the door and we sit down say a prayer start getting talking we gave her a Bible because she said she didn’t have one. Then someone knocks at the door and it is her daughter. She wasn’t interrupting anything she stayed out of the way of the lesson and kinda just stayed in the kitchen. So we get talking and this old lady is all confused and like I thought you guys were the missionaries from the church I already go to and points at a picture of Pope on the wall. You missionaries are similar to the Catholic Church though right you have like same stuff. And the daughter just like turns around and tells her No Mom those are the Mormons mom! And then it just went downhill from there. The daughter didn’t seem to like us one bit. So I don’t think we are ever going back there again to visit that old lady.

Then at night we had dinner with mission leader of the branch and his wife made pizza. But pizzas here are like circular bread with sauce on it and ham and whatever you want. So it looked like a pizza but didn’t taste like a pizza. There was one that we ate that had egg on it like the egg white and the yolk were like the toppings of the pizza. Haha it was surprisingly good though. I can imagine ordering. One small pizza with uh ham cheese sausage on it and um another one with pepperoni and egg whites and yolk, please.

Then Friday was pretty normal we had an appointment with another old lady we met she had been to Los Angeles. So we meet with her and she actually is really receptive of the gospel and likes it and we taught the restoration and she liked it. And she is really nice and set up an appointment for us to come back again. So it seems promising.

Then that night one family showed up for the family night or noche hogar at the church and it was the mission leader’s family. So we played soccer. His son who is like 8 or 9 and me versus my companion the daughter who is 7 and the mission leader Hermano Perez.

Then Saturday we visited an old man who is less active because he is so old he is 88 I think. And went to visit an investigator family but only the father was home so we took advantage of that even though the rest of his family wasn’t there we taught the father alone about the priesthood. Then lunch we ate at a members and that is when I had the sweet meat empanadas and the salty empanadas. Then we went home and made brownies. Then we stole their son who is 14 and he spent the rest of the afternoon and night with us as we went and visited 5 families but only one or 1 of them was actually home. It was a family of recent converts and they also had a boy who is the same age about 14 and those are like the only 2 young men Aaronic priesthood in the whole branch. We talked with them and they have another son who is 5 or 6 and we were in the middle of the lesson and he was goofing around and knocked my glass of juice off the table and it shattered and it scared me a little. Then after that we went back to the apartment and made ham and cheese empanadas.

Then Sunday we woke up and went to church and that was normal except for there was a few people in the branch that asked me to teach them English and I didn’t know if they were joking around with me or if they actually wanted to learn English. I had to pass the sacrament because neither of those two boys showed up to church so we had Melchizedeck priesthood doing everything blessing, passing all. I had to count how many people were in church and there were 30 people. Then we got home from church and the zone leaders called and then the district leaders called and told us we didn’t have to work or proselyte or anything just to stay in our apartment for the rest of the day. It was voting day so everyone was going to the polls and people weren’t home and stuff got hectic and intense if a candidate lost or something. So we had a free day and the day to ourselves. After being in the apartment for like 8 hours we got really bored so we started to bake lemon bread and cookies and all kinds of stuff. Then as it got closer to night and it was time for bed we think we heard like gun shots in the street and screaming and we were just thinking whoever everyone wanted for governor and for who they voted for probably didn’t win and now people are rampaging and shooting guns. Haha.

Then today just woke up showered ate breakfast came here to email and stuff and I don’t know what we are going to do the rest of the day. So we will see what today brings. And the rest of the week.

Also I almost forgot we found out 2 things this week. First some of the members told us yeah a huge hurricane hit Mexico and a part of Texas and it was like the worst hurricane ever to have in Mexico. And then second it was super cold all this week I don’t know the temperature but it was cold every day and it would rain and drizzle a little every day just a little so I had to use my umbrella but my suit never got wet or anything but I got to use my umbrella twice this week and then everyday it was super cold. My companion got out his gloves and wore them I had to wear my jacket some days. All the people at church yesterday was like it is supposed to be spring, almost summer, soon and they said it seemed like winter. They told us this month the month of October this broke the record for the coldest October they have ever had in history. By October it is supposed to be hot and nice and this was the coldest October they ever had here. So that is all for this time. We will see what this week brings.

Love,

Elder Frampton

10-19-15 (week 8)

Well starting with Wednesday we had a district meeting at the church so we walked up there in the morning and had like a 2 hour meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders and the other companionship that lives in house. talked about our investigators and the work and just other stuff. Then when we went to leave the church we realized while the whole time we were in our meeting it had begun to rain and it was still raining.

It was like the heavy fast down pour so we are like okay well this stinks we will be all wet. But before we could go back to the house we needed to stop by a store close to our house to buy some baking stuff because we had promised banana bread and chocolate chip cookies for our investigators we would go visit later that day. So we are running to the store and the streets are completely flooded because like the sewage drains here stink and so the streets were completely like 6 inches of rain in them and there was only like a couple of cars out because you have to be crazy to drive on these streets and we are standing at the sidewalk and we are just watching like all these cars hydroplane and stuff but it wasn’t bad or anything. We are running to the store and the wind starts to pick up and it is blowing like real good and then we see a bright light and I was like what was that and then I hear the noise KABOOM thunder strike it was like really loud almost like 5 cannon shots all in one. We get inside the store we are buying our baking materials then we see another flash of lightning and another Boom and then the power goes out in the store and we are like great. So we buy our stuff leave the store head back to our apartment jumping through the streets that are flooded with the wind blowing and pounding us around with lighting strikes and crackle of thunder in the background it was literally like a mini hurricane or something a storm. I felt like I was in a movie. Getting hit with wind with lightning strikes with streets flooded and I’m drenched my suit coat is soaked my shirt my pants everything was wet all the way down to my skin. I got inside the apartment and I had to hang all my stuff to air dry in the little laundry room we have. They have been drying this whole week along with my shoes and socks and I just found them dry completely yesterday.

Then Thursday comes and we had lunch with this family that lives really far away. We live on 9th and 24th street the corner and the family that we were going to still lives on 9th street but they live on 56th street so we had to walk to 32 blocks or streets down to their house. Lunch was good we had some meat and bread the normal stuff then because Thursday is our day of service we offered to do the dishes afterward so we did all the dishes then walked back to our house and then we did some planning and studying then we had to go give a blessing to this lady because her back was real bad and it was hard to walk and her back hurt and she was in pain. So I got to put the oil on the head and say it was for the healing of the sick and afflicted and then my companion said the actual blessing.

Then that night we had our normal Thursday dinner with the mission leader´s family the Perez´s. That was good we had empanadas and juice and I didn’t eat a whole lot because my head kinda hurt because I think I was really hot.

Then Friday we had our appointment with the Jehovah Witnesses in the park because they didn’t want to meet at our church and they didn’t offer for us to come to their church so we decided to just meet in the park. It was a cold morning and we are sitting there waiting then they show up riding their bicycles and they have their little Testigo bag and stuff. We sit down in the park and we prayed and then decided this was going to be a sharing of beliefs. We didn’t want it to be bible bashing or religion attacking or anything just we share what we believe and we had a few questions about their beliefs and their church and then they share what they believe. So they start telling us they don’t eat meat that hasn’t had all the blood drained. And they don’t believe in war or self-defense or fighting or anything. 

Then it was our turn we shared like one or two of the articles of faith and then we had a Restoration pamphlet to give to them and a Book of Mormon. Because the Jehovah Witness only believe in the Bible. We tell them here look here in the introduction and see it says anyone who reads with real intent and prays to know if it is true will receive an answer and will know the Book of Mormon is true and thus Joseph smith was a prophet and restored the church and the church is true and we showed them the promise in Moroni 10 or whatever. And we go to hand them the copy and they like dive backwards and like scream and like no we cannot accept this we will not ever read that book. Ahh if we touch that book our hands will light on fire and burn. They were fine if we were holding it and reading from it but then when we tried to give it to them so they could have it and they freaked out. They were like we know about that book and the Nephites and Lamanites and all these specifics to the book of Mormon and I was questioning how do they know so much about it and they were like we have a magazine or a book or review or something about our church and our book of Mormon. We were like can we get a copy of this article published about our church. And then they were like no the bible is the word of God not that book that is not the word of God no making additions to Bible stuff like that and Elder Searcy was like well Guess what have you ever read this book NO! You haven’t. Well I have and I have prayed and God has answered my prayers and has told me that this is the Word of God and the Book of Mormon is true. And then they are like, ´´Wait, who did you pray to?´´ and Elder Searcy responds, ´´I prayed to God to know that it was true and it is true´´ and they are like well haha you aren’t supposed to pray to God you are supposed to pray to Jehovah. And after that we just left and were like whatever. They think like Jehovah is Heavenly Father and Jesus is Jesus. But we know better Jesus is Jehovah and Heavenly Father is God. They told us okay if you believe Jesus is Jehovah and is God and all of that then who is the Son of God? And we were like what? no? Jesus is Jehovah, Jesus is the son of God, God being Heavenly Father. Jesus is Heavenly Fathers son. We left. And then I told Elder Searcy I can’t wait to see their faces when we are all dead and we are in the Spirit world and the Jehovah Witnesses are like dang it those Elders were right, we should have listened to them.

Then still Friday that night we had Family night at the church and we watched the movie the Other Side of Heaven in Spanish (it was either that movie or Johnny Lingo)

Saturday we went on splits; Elder Searcy went with Hermano Miranda and I went with Hermano Samoza and Perez and we went to visit less actives people in the church. We visited this old man who was 88 Hermano Argello. And then we met back with the other guys Elder Searcy and Miranda back at the church in a couple of hours and Elder Searcy tells me the less active they went to visit lives so far away they walked a 5k to get to his house and back to the church. Haha a 5k.

Then yesterday was Sunday and we had the potential for 7 of our investigators to come to church and 0 of them ended up showing up. None of them came to church. But church was good the 3 speakers and then I noticed something during the sacrament is that the water here in Argentina is unsafe and bad to drink so then in comparison the water in America is so much better at least we can drink that water but then during the sacrament I had the bread and had the water and while drinking the water I was like Wow this is the best water ever. The sacrament water here is better than the sacrament water in America. Probably because they filter it so good here for the sacrament it tastes super good and cold compared to American sacrament water.

And then in priesthood in elders quorum I got to lead the music a 6/4 song and I did a perfect job and everyone was like so surprised and I was like I like to lead music. Then we went over to the branch presidents house for lunch and we had asado and it was good and then also potato egg salad something like that. Then we went back to the apartment took a small nap and then went to visit some people that night and then came back and afterwards and planned went to bed slept and then woke up today to have P day.

So from the looks of it seems like I have a story or a highlight for each day of the week this past week. Hopefully this upcoming week is just as eventful and I can find a highlight from each day again. Hopefully this week is good. Hope everything back at home is good and not too quiet. Haha enjoy your time alone.

Love,

Elder Frampton

10-13-15 (week 7, first one in mission field)

Dear Family,

So arrived in Buenos Aires went to baggage claim to pick up bags and everything was there except for my carry on that I had to get checked because there was not enough room on the plane so I get it checked. Entonces I go and find someone to talk to and they say oh Frampton yes here and gave me a slip wrote down some info about me and said where my final destination is and I said Bahia Blanca and they say okay tomorrow we will send it to Bahia Blanca airport and you come pick it up at 6 55 at night it will be at airport. So went through Customs no problem then found a guy waiting for us; he threw us in a van and drove off we didn’t know where or what we were doing (all kids going to Bahia Blanca). We arrive at an airport like 30 minutes from the big Buenos Aires airport we were just at. This one is a small like passenger airport. We wait then check our bags and take a bus across the airfield to a plane we get on the plane old fashion way not like a terminal or thing we walk through but like they lower down the stairs of the plane and we physically climb up the stairs into the plane. Get on and it was only a 1 hour flight to Bahia Blanca. They gave us some juice and a cookie on the plane; I was happy for food for such a short plane ride.

Got to Bahia Blanca and the mission president and the assistants are waiting for us. We say hi, greet each other, then get in a van and go to the mission president’s home. They talk to us there and then feed us empanadas for dinner. Then they take us to the assistants like house and we spend the night there. Wake up, walk like 10 blocks to the church and we sit there and wait. The mission president and his wife and missionaries make us breakfast eggs and bacon and chocolate milk. Then we play charades then they take us into the chapel give us the low down on what is going on and introduce us to the missionaries that work in the office, the finance guy, the housing guy, the social guy, and give us speeches and PowerPoint presentations including telling us half the missionaries are Americans and half are Spanish people. Then they pull up our pictures on the screen and pull up trainers pictures and they tell us a little about what’s going to happen.

And I got assigned or matched to Elder Searcy. He has been here for a year and a half and is from Lehi, Utah. He is really great and we went to the office and took those pictures then we had lunch which was vegetable soup and grill cheese sandwiches. Then we gathered my stuff headed over to the bus station and we waited and then took a bus 3 and half hours to Santa Rosa and stayed there for the night at the zone leaders house just so we had somewhere to sleep. Then woke up went to the bus station and took another 2 hour bus ride to my assigned area which we are at now called General Pico. Look it up on the map so you know where I am.

So we got here Thursday and then did some proselyting and then had lunch at a members home, then had dinner at the ward mission leaders home, and we have lots of meat and lots of bread or pan and had some stew kind of soup but not really then went back to house and called it a day.

Friday was like my first real day as a missionary. Went running in the park and around the plaza then showered got dressed, studied then left had lunch somewhere. I think someone made us lunch and we brought it back to the house. That night was family night so we all met at the church and played soccer at the field next to the church. I was the goalkeeper or goalie and for the first like hour that we played. I didn’t let one goal go in and Elder Searcy was offensive and we had like 3 other boys on our team that were all like 14 years old. It was the five of us and the first hour the score was like 7 to 0. Then finally they scored (the other team) which are like all these 16, 18, 20 year old boys here are investigators or friends and like a couple of them are members of the ward. But they were big tough guys and they scored once.

Then we returned to the apartment and went to sleep. Saturday we had some appointments I invited one lady Veronica to be baptized and she said yes and we are having that in 2 weeks and then I invited one guy Jonathan to come to church on Sunday. We just walk around and go to appointments. If we ever have free time we have to clap our hands outside people’s homes because there are no things such as knocking doors or tracking or anything. We stand outside their gates and clap and they come outside to the gate and then talk to us. We have handed out at least 5 pamphlets of the Restoration that way.

There are tons and tons of dogs here like thousands on the streets I really like it; none of them are mean or bite or anything. But I get excited when I see a cat because they are far more uncommon. And with so many dogs I set a goal to see a certain type or breed each day and one day I set a real hard goal to find a dalmatian and lo and behold I saw one I’m pretty sure the only one in all of Pico - here I saw a dalmatian that day.

Sunday went to church. I had to bear my testimony we are part of the rama or the branch and meet at 9:30 as the ward meets at 9 and starts with classes first. But we are part of the branch. And yes Jonathan the investigator we invited came to sacrament meeting actually.

We had lunch at the branch president’s house and we had ravioli tortellini things, pasta manicotti things, and it was good. I liked it and cheese and crackers and bread of course. Then had jello for dessert it was like jello with fruit like floating inside of it. Then we left had some appointments elsewhere.

Yesterday was a holiday of some sort I didn’t find out it was Columbus day until like half way through the day so everything was like closed and because of the holiday they moved our P day to today which is Tuesday but normally it is Mondays so watch for Monday next week.

Then today we went shopping and we are emailing and stuff.

Now for some of the other little details:

1.    we live with a pair of other elders from Peru and from Chile; the four of us in our kinda house pension thing.

2.    Kitchen is nice. Elder Searcy and I make cookie banana bread, empanadas, tons of stuff in the oven.

3.    We have a mini laundry room where we wash our clothes and then we have to let them air dry in the house.

4.    We don’t drink the water. We mostly drink milk a lot and we have to buy clean water in huge jugs and then we make juice so we have tons of tang and lemonade and stuff. So we drink juice and milk mostly.

5.    Breakfast we have a 10 pound bag of cereal and that is what we eat every day for like the month. It is not even close to being like even a 1/8 of the way gone. It is a huge bag and we eat it for breakfast.

6.    We go running every day.

7.    When I got here with all my American dollars the bank exchanges them for I think 8 pesos per dollar. The government and money and stuff is bad but instead one elder traded me at a rate of 14 pesos per dollar so I gave him 200 dollars and I have 2800 pesos so I am pretty rich.

8.    I’m doing good though the weather is not cold. It may be cold right in Bahia Blanca but General Pico is so far away it is hot here. I sweat sometimes.

9.    My Spanish is good and coming along the first couple days I understood no body. it was super hard but now I understand like almost everyone. but I still am not that good at talking I need to work on talking more and sounding more Argentine with ll and y and che so people can understand me better. 

I think that was about everything for the week. Wait I forget I got a real nice cool short haircut this morning for 30 pesos so about 3 dollars and I feel so nice and I showered and shaved after I got home from the haircut and I felt real fresh and muy guapo. I think I look good. That is it for my first week here. I guess I will talk to you next Monday.

Love,

Elder Frampton

Elder Frampton arrives in Bahia Blanca Argentina

Brian left the MTC Monday around 9 am and got to the airport in Salt Lake.

He was able to call home before catching his flight to Atlanta.
He left Atlanta around 10pm and arrived around 9 am Tuesday in Buenos Aires.

We got this picture on Friday.

Elder Frampton with President Cifuentes and Sister Cifuentes

10-3-15 (week 6-last one in MTC)

Dear Family,

Everyone in my district has had Spanish in the past. Everyone at least 4 years then one other elder and I have 5 years and one elder has 6. There is another companionship in my zone not my district that I know are going to my mission so I will know those 2 other elders going to Bahia Blanca too. 

There are missionaries traveling with me; two companionships of sisters and one companionship of elders and myself. I will eat at the airport. I will probably call when we are in Salt Lake airport so a little after 10 because we leave the MTC at 8:30 in the morning. We get to SLC at about 10 so 12 in Pennsylvania and land in Atlanta at 8 leave about 10 from there so I will probably call again. I have a calling card with 10 dollars on it and the rate is 1 cent a minute so I have 1000 minutes. I will call home phone.

We already did laundry early this morning and now we are writing and have conference at 10. I brush everyday! 

I get a choice every day except Friday; dinner is always Papa Juan's pizza so every line is serving that so everyone like must eat pizza. There is salad and pasta I eat those occasionally I eat more fruit salads than I do vegetable salads. I couldn’t go to the temple last week it was closed for General Women's Session of Conference and this week is normal General Conference so I can’t go today either. I’m excited to see who the new apostles are.

I’m a little nervous I want to understand everything but I know I won’t at first. I hope people can understand me. I know I have been thinking a lot of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement and Premortal and after death life. I know the Savior is my Salvador and Redentor. Thanks!!

Elder Frampton

9-26-15 (week 5)

Dear Family,

I saw that the temple (Washington) is getting renovated or cleaning or something. 

The Pope seems to be very popular and Mike sent me a picture of La Papa instead of El Papa. 

It was sad I was on lds.org and saw Elder Scott died and I told my district and they were like really that’s 3 apostles they have to call during General conference. I will still be around to see Conference. 

I got my flight planes or my flight information yesterday. I leave not this Monday but next Monday October 5 so the day after General Conference. I have one week left here and then when October 5 comes I will be on a plane to Argentina. 

My companion and I are getting along fine. His mom is Mexican so I can relate because we both have Hispanic moms. 

That’s a really cute cat. Tell Grandma I said Hello.

Elder Frampton

9-19-15 (week 4)

The letter you sent me in Spanish - I could read the whole entire thing with no problem. I like the subjunctive that you included in a part of it too. 

I have not heard anything about my visa I hope it is okay but at the same time maybe not hearing anything is good. Because for example an elder in my district got called down to the travel office and had to sign some stuff and like reprint his FBI clearance report. I don’t think you are supposed to call about it or anything. 

Tell me how Grandma's house is like if it is big or what. Yeah we don’t have super intense navy training language here but it is still hard. My Spanish is improving I know a lot of words my vocabulary has gone up a lot, but now I really have to focus on pronunciation because I am not good at pronouncing things. The Spirit definitely does help though and I have seen lots of progress and I talk more during lessons when I rely on the Spirit to put words into my mouth as long as I open my mouth first. 

Love,

Elder Frampton

9-12-15 (week 3)

Dear Family,

I have been getting all your dear elders and they are nice the little spiritual messages they are uplifting. My Spanish has been getting easier to speak. I say every prayer during the day almost fluent in Spanish. With investigators it is still a little hard because I don’t always know what to say to them so I have to talk slow and be guided by the Spirit as he tells me what to say and then I try to translate what he says in English then I turn it into Spanish in my head and then say it. Hopefully the spirit will start talking to me in Spanish instead of English that way I don’t have to spend time trying to translate. 

I am feeling good I am not really sick anymore I just have a very small cough. I’m trying to exercise and eat well but yesterday was the first day I didn’t exercise because my companion was super sick so we had to stay in our residence dorm all day resting and studying. I studied a lot from the scriptures and learned some things of the endowment.  I looked up grammar rules and read my scriptures and found some deep doctrine and then I napped like once. But he seems like he is getting better we will have to see how he feels over the weekend going into Monday.

I will try to keep on eating healthy but the food is getting kind of bland because they have like the same food like every day of the week. Like burgers is always Mondays; pizza is Fridays like each day is different but because I have been here almost 4 weeks I have gotten used to all the food and it is starting to taste a little bland.

I saw Jake Szendre yesterday and I also saw my mission prep teacher from BYU and thanked him. The speaker this past Tuesday was the presiding bishop: Bishop Causse. He was great talked about missionary work and stuff and then he played the piano. Instead of a closing hymn he played on the piano Come Come Ye Saints. I was like I didn’t know general authorities could do that. He was really good. That was pretty much the week in a wrap.

That’s about everything that happened this week. 

Love,

Elder Frampton

9-5-15 (week 2)

So they give us an hour to email but no one can ever use it because everyone is always waiting around for a computer so you just log in quick and then email and log off not much time. Normally I can only use like 20-30 minutes before someone is bugging me to get off. There are so many missionaries that have P day on Saturday.

Spanish is getting better. I am talking more in lessons and picking up on new words writing them down memorizing them. So it is getting better but I am still working on it.

Exercise is good I have played volleyball more now and one of the days during the week the gym is closed however the weight room is open so I went there and instead of lifting weights because I don’t. Instead I tried out the bike machine or whatever it’s called the stationary bicycle.

Sleep I still haven’t like slept fully through a night I always wake up sometime in the middle of the night and then have to try to fall back asleep. I got sick in the middle of the week with a cough runny nose sore throat that kind of stuff.
 

I have made some new friends a couple of kids in our zone. Yes Ryan leaves on like Tuesday morning and then he told me to tell Jake hi when he comes in on Wednesday.

I’m not sure if I’m senior enough to help welcome new missionaries and I think it may just be the district companionship that does that but I can talk to them.

I still haven’t seen Robert yet; I have been trying to find him and stuff. I have taken a few pictures on our Sunday walks.

I have an actual companion that I eat meals, exercise with, and stuff. His name is Elder Sais he sleeps on the bottom of the bunk bed so obviously I am on the top. 

Getting to the stuff about this week not much happened. I got sick in the middle of the week runny nose, sore throat, cough that kind of stuff.

We were eating dinner in the cafeteria and BYU basketball player Kyle Collingsworth walked in just visiting.

On Sunday we had a devotional where Elder Dalquist spoke and then we watched a video of Elder Bednar speaking at the MTC a couple years ago for Christmas.

Then on Tuesday the devotional was the speaker Elder Dallin H Oaks. Those were like the highlights of the week along with Spanish still coming along and teaching our investigators and such.