4-7-16

Hola!

Friday we contacted almost all day and it rained so many people don’t open their doors or reject us or they say chicos come back another day when the weather is better when it’s not raining. So not much success. 

Saturday was Conference and that was good we worked a little in the morning didn’t find anyone then we had lunch and took the bus over to the chapel and watched conference form 1 to 3 and that was good and then stayed there until 5 and watched from 5 to 7 and then we left and went contacting a little and then went home we couldn’t watch or see priesthood because it was 9 to 11 that night.

Sunday same thing woke up went to church and I talked with this new elder brand new straight from the MTC and also he is from Maryland so I can finally relate to someone from East Coast. Elder Coleman, he is cool and he practically told us the whole Star Wars Movie before conference started and then we watched again 1 to 3 and stayed at church and then 5 to 7 and then went home and planned and did some other stuff and then went to bed. But in general for the both days I really enjoyed conference I took lots of notes but not of what the speakers said but what the Spirit told me to note or write down. But I really liked these two days it was a good break and everything that everyone said I could take and apply to the missionary work and the apostles and prophets knew exactly what to say and I noticed a lot of themes that were touched upon. I can’t wait to read all of them in the upcoming Liahona or Ensign and then read them all over again. 

Monday once again it rained so we contacted in the morning and found absolutely no one and then went home and lunched and studied and then went back out in the afternoon and it was still raining it hadn’t stopped and the afternoon and night was again finding no one but we went and visited this part member family the mom and the 3 kids are members and we are working with the 4 child the last one and youngest to work towards baptism and teach her but also the father of this family is Muslim and we talked a lot with him because honestly I don’t know a whole bunch about that religion and I wanted to learn and for example they believe Jesus was a good prophet and our Savior but they don’t believe he is the son of God. And I was like how and he told me Where in the Bible does it say I am the son of God or God is my father and I opened up to a random page and sure enough it said soy el hijo de Dios and vino al mundo... Obviously everywhere in the Bible every page testifies and says he is the Son of God so how can’t they not believe it. I do however want to get my hands on a read a Koran or Quran. 

Tuesday we woke up and walked really far to visit this one lady and she wasn’t home so then we walked back and contacted a little and then went and made copies and bought lunch ingredients to make it and went home and ate it and then had zone meeting and we talked and played games to help us with the Book of Mormona and Preach My Gospel like hangman and guess who this prophet is? He died by fire. Abinadi yes. And that was really fun and then we headed over to the other chapel for meeting with mission leader and he ended up never coming or showing up so we left and contacted that night and visited another part member family and then another investigator. So we are getting places slow but steady. 

Yesterday Wednesday we woke up for service; we picked up trash in the street and garbage in the grass and along the road and that was kind of weird I felt people were judging us or like thinking why are two young boys collecting garbage. Then we had lunch something good here called Aoquis? or gnocchi. It was good then we studied and left and went for one investigator and we got there right as he was leaving his house and smoking marijuana leaving right when we arrived. Then we went for another lady and she wasn’t home and then went for a part member family and talked with the grandma and she left the church because she didn’t want to pay tithing she said the branch president tried to force her and tell her she had to pay tithing so she left the church and never gone back but we are working with her youngest granddaughter to be baptized the other grandkids are already and the mom too but the mom is never there she is in a psychiatric hospital. Then we went home after talking with grandma and the kids and we planned and went to bed

Today Thursday I tried to make oatmeal for breakfast but it turned out terrible it was too watery and runny and I don’t know how to do it. But anyway if you have any other recipes or anything else you want to send me of something I should make I would love that and am wide open for any recipes. We are emailing now and then will go eat lunch and go home and just chill and stay in the house.

Hope everyone at home is doing well and everyone is having fun and enjoying the PA spring. Go visit some Amish people, that is what everyone here knows PA for. Thanks for everything! Go Villanova!! Also I heard that Spencer Josephsen is home from his mission. 

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