1st transfer-- check!

Hello everyone! First off, thank you so much for all of the packages that I have gotten. The 12 days of Christmas was so fun! I have been so tempted to open my presents but my companion will not let me! haha. She literally pulls me away from our Christmas tree! Second, only 8 days until I get to see all of your bright and smiling faces. This is how it's going to work. None of our members have trusty computers/internet so a senior couple here has offered their house to us. They have two laptops so my companion and I can Skype at the same time. No one in our ward invited us over for Christmas so we are going to spend Christmas with the senior couple. They are so so awesome. They are the ones that took us shopping. We are planning on getting on Skype at noon on Christmas day which is 10 your time. I am not sure how Skype works so will someone call Sister Poulos and figure out what her Skype sign in name is and how that all works? She is really nice. Her number is 801-310-5544. Don't forget to call her. You can even text her but I think calling her would be better. 

So the shooting...!!! Ahh! This is how I found out about it: We were out tracting and we knocked on a door. We could hear that the tv was on. I walked over to the window and peeked in and saw they were watching the news and a huge headline that said school shooting. We decided to not bother the person and let them watch the news. We were super confused and wanting to know more. We went to a member's house for dinner and that's when we got all the deets. So gross. I  think I probably slept for 2 hours that night. I kept thinking about what I would do as a teacher if someone came in my classroom. I got nervous when we would have firedrills. I cannot imagine what I would do. yuck!

This week was interesting.... We only taught 3 lessons this week. Our mission goal is to teach 20 lessons a week so...ya. We did a lot of stop bys and tracting but no lessons. Sites was crazy. We are still doing the nativity exhibit so that brings in a lot of people. 

Monday December 10

After p-day we had a lesson with Betsy- the less active that we have been seeing regularly. Sister Hansen and I decided that we need to first get everyone we teach to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We decided to just read with her. We read 1 nephi 8- The Tree of Life. It was a really good lesson. We taught her how to use footnotes and how to decode symbolism. She really liked it. We are meeting with her again tonight and we are going to finish chapter 8. When we got home we had a text from Cynthia. She told us that her dad wont let her meet with us anymore. If they are under 18 we have to have their parents permission so that means that all of the Pinas are no longer our investigators. We can still stay in contact with them we just can't have a lesson. We asked Cynthia why her dad said that all of the sudden and she didn't know why. We told her to keep asking him why. 

Tuesday December 11

Well I tried so hard to keep my piano playing ability a secret. I have no idea who found out but I was asked to play at zone training. It was so scary. Zone training went from 7:30-11:30. They basically just teach us how to be better missionaries. We were taught how to teach the restoration in 10 minutes. It is so hard. I am dying trying to do it. Our new lesson format goes like this 5-7 minutes of Hey how are you/ follow up on commitments 10 minutes of teaching and then 10 minutes of getting out of the house. It seriously is so hard. Sometimes people want to talk and talk and talk with us. It really forces us to show them what our purpose is of meeting with them. It's not to chat and talk about their life. It's to teach them about the gospel. It also forces us to teach really simple. Try teaching what the priesthood is in 2 mins. Yet we tried that and we all failed. It's something as a zone we are working on. We were also told that the missionary committee in Salt Lake wants us to try something new. When we tract they want us to knock on the door and ask if we can come in and say a prayer with them. That's all they want us to do. At first I thought it was soooo weird! People are going to think we are crazy. If someone came to my door and asked if they could come in and say a prayer I was feel so awkward. We haven't had a chance to try it out yet but other companions have and they have had a lot of success with people.  After Zone training we all went out to eat as a Zone. There are about 26 missionaries in my Zone. We went to some wing place. I forget sometimes that the Elders in the mission are 19 and 20 year old boys. I was definetly reminded this at lunch. They were daring each other to order the triple atomic hot wings and acting so crazy. Wow! After lunch we had to take our car into the dealership. A few lights came on in our car so we had to get that all straightened out. It totally made me think of you Dad. It was weird walking into a dealership and not being able to throw down your name. haha! After we got our car fixed we tracted in a blizzard. Burr! My coat and boots are so warm though. All of our appointments canceled on us so we decided to stop by Rico and Christine. (Remember them? She was the lady that pretended to throw out her back?) We stopped by and Rico answered. He was really excited to see us. He asked us to come back and teach them but we were going to be at sites. We invited him and his family to come check out the nativities.

Wednesday December 12

We were at the Visitors' center all day. Rico and Christine decided to come in and check out the nativities. We were so excited to have them come. They loved it. We are hoping to start teaching them again. They said that they wanted to come back on Sunday and bring their kids!!!

Thursday December 13

We were at sites all day!!!

Friday December 14

In the morning we had a Visitors' center training meeting. I was asked to play the piano for that. ahh!! I don't know how everyone started finding out that I can play. They had a huge breakfast for us. After breakfast we went to meet with a girl named Kesha. Sister Hansen and her last companion found her and we've been trying to meet with her ever since I got here. When we got to Kesha's house some random girl in her underwear and bra came to the door. It was so awkward. She said that Kesha didn't live there anymore and she didn't know where she moved to. Kesha didn't answer her phone. Lame!! We decided to go to the library and study and then plan for the next week. I left a million pass along cards in random places in the library. haha! We had a lesson planned with a less active named Matt. Since we can't meet alone with him we had a member come with us. Matt wasn't home when we got there. It's always a bit awkward when a member comes all the out to help us. After that we tracted a bit and then had dinner at a member's house. That's when we got all the details on the shooting. yuck! After dinner we had a lesson with a recent convert and his sister and her friend. No one else in his family has been baptized but we are working on them. The lesson was really good. We focused on the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they start to love it! Ellie became a new investigator! We texted Tommy and he hasn't been texting us back! Stinky Tommy!!!

Saturday December 15

We studied most of the morning and had a really good goal setting session as a companionship. This week is going to be really good and powerful. We tracted forever this day. We found a super prepared girl named Sydney. She didn't was us to come back but we had a really good conversation with her. She is a college student that is going on some religious retreat over the break to figure out which church she wants to join. We left her with a Book of Mormon and told her to read it while she was on her retreat. We tracted about 4 hours. No one was home! i guess everyone was Christmas shopping. Later that evening was our ward Christmas party! We had our less active, Betsy and her 2 boys, come. We also had our convert's sister, Markisha, and her friend Ellie come. It was a lot of fun. During the party I was asked to speak on Sunday for Sacrament. Stress!!!!!!!!! We found out that Cynthia's dad wont let her meet with us anymore because he things the world is going to end on December 21. Everyone is freaking out about that here. haha

Sunday December 16

I had zero time to prepare my talk. I basically tried to figure something out on the 20 min car ride to church. I had to have faith that the Lord would tell me what to say. I got up and I started talking about 1 nephi 3:7. Then I started talking about faith. I really had no idea what I was saying. The Holy Ghost took over. I was being so bold. I shocked myself. I said that faith is not just believing that God and Jesus exist. Faith is taking action. I said that when we go to Lake Powell we like to cliff jump. I said that I get really excited and pumped when I am climbing up the cliff and then when it comes down to the moment when I have to jump I start to get really nervous and scared. I said that I can have faith that the water is down their and I can have faith that after I jump we will go on doing fun things on the boat. But me just knowing that isn't doing me any good. If I don't take the action of jumping I would be stuck getting sunburned and thirsty. I kept going over and over how important it is for us to act. I was so bold. I said that the Lord doesn't want to hear our excuses. He wont command us to do things that he knows we can't accomplish. After sacrament one of the Elder's investigators came up to me. When I was first in the ward I totally thought this lady was already a member. She comes to church and she does everything. She is just really scared of getting baptized. They have really been working with her to get her to finally get baptized. After sacrament she came up to me and she said "because of your speech I am getting baptized next Saturday." Holy Cow!!!!!! I could not even believe it. The Lord really does help us say the things that he wants us to say. It was a really cool experience. Later that night the Community of Christ (the Church that owns the Kirtland Temple) help a Christmas Hymn Sing in the Temple. Basically we spend an hour singing Christmas songs together. They invited us to come. I was asked to play the piano for it. It was so scary. Playing the piano in the Kirtland Temple!!! I could feel the Lord really helping me be able to play all of the hymns- even if they were super hard. 

I guess this week you can just pray for us to find investigators. You can also pray for Cynthia's dad, Rico and Christine and Markisha and Ellie. I love you all! Thanks for everything that you do for me. P.s. Thank you Cathy and Phil for the cute Christmas present! I love it!!!

Lacee

December 10, 2012

Hey family! Thanks for the emails everyone! Will you tell Debbie thanks for the letter she sent? I loved it! Also will you tell Josh and Janelle thanks for the Christmas card? It was so cute. Also will you tell the Thomas family thanks for sending me an invite to Beth's wedding? Cute invitation. Mom- I just checked and I didn't get your email from last week with the pictures. Weird! I know that everyone keeps telling me to seperate my emails so that they can be forwarded but I don't know what you want me to take out so you guys will just have to do it. I don't have a lot of time at the library to figure out what exactly to say to different people. Does that make sense? I got my contacts this week. Thanks for that mom.I am looking forward to my presents. Thanks! We haven't been invited to anyone's house for Christmas so it will be good to have a few presents to open on Christmas morning with my companion. Also if you could send something small to my companion I think she would really like that! She is my twin so whatever I would like She would totally like that.  I also got Austin's post card this week. Thanks dude! You're handwriting is getting really good. Keep practicing it. Also there is something else that I would really like. A small recorder. That way we can send recordings back and forth. I was thinking that would be good for me and Austin? And it is fun to hear everyone's voices. 

I forgot to bring my planner to the library this week so my email wont be detailed at all! I am so mad about that. It's totally at home sitting on my desk. I'll do my best to recount the week.

1. We haven't spotted any more mice. Thank Heavens!! It looks like Tok's meowing is working because the mice are staying away. Who knew that while I was on my mission I would find the cure for keeping mice away. All you have to do is meow.

2. We are teaching the Pina family still- It started out with 3 kids. Cynthia, Maleik and Marco. Maleik is their friend. The kids are awesome. They are 13 and 14. We have been teaching them about the Plan of Salvation and they LOVE it! It blew their minds. Their 15 year old brother randomly decided that he wanted to start joining our lessons. We had this really good idea to help bring the spirit even more to the lessons. You know the song that Hilary and Trent sang at my farewell? The really pretty version of I know that my Redeemer lives? At the beginning of the lesson we played that song and had them write down what the Savior meant to them. It was amazing. Cynthia made a list of different things that she knows. The listed included things like: I know he loves me, I know that he died for me, I know I need to do what he teaches.. and so forth. It was so cool. Luis committed to baptism for Dec. 29th. It was exciting. He felt the spirit and this is how he described it "I feel like I do when I'm with my girlfriend." I guess that means that he feels really happy and good? The main problem with the kids is they don't have a ride to church. Their dad takes their car on Sunday to work. We hate relying on members to give our investigators rides. Their are only about 5 really good, solid members in our ward. We ask them to do everything. We thought and thought and we decided that it would be a good idea to have their parents start taking the lessons so that they will understand how important it is for their kids to get to church. The only problem is that the parents only speak Spanish and the dad can't read. Extra points goes to someone who got on to lds.org and downloaded an audio Book of Mormon in Spanish and sent it to me. You can do it for free from the website. Cynthia talked to her parents and they are willing to listen to us. Cynthia is so funny. She has the biggest attitude. She has her lip pierced and thinks she is so cool. Whenever someone is at her house and we come to teach her she always says to them "Ya you're going to listen to the missionaries. You need Jesus in your life." That's exactly what she said to her parents "You need Jesus in your life." It's great. There is a sr. missionary here that speaks English and Spanish so we are going to use her as a translator. She is excited because the sr. missionaries don't ever get to teach. They just spend their days at sites. We found a ride for the kids for church yesterday but they ended up having to go to Cleveland so they couldn't come. Bummer. We stopped by their house last night and Maleik was there with some of his siblings and their friends. We invited all of them to meet with us tonight at 7:30. We are expecting about 10 teenagers and the Pina parents. It will be really great. PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR: CYNTHIA, MARCO, LUIS, MALEIK AND MOMMA AND PAPPA PINA. Sister Hansen and I have been trying to figure out how to help the kids become further converted to the gospel. We decided to teach them how to really study the Book of Mormon and how to apply it to their life. I am excited to have that lesson with them.

3. Tommy, I love him and I hate him. He is so frustrating. We've had really, really spiritual experiences with him. He tells us that he wants to change and he really does want to be baptized. Then he goes in hiding. He wont text us or call us back. We showed up for an appointment on Tuesday and he flamed us (meaning he wasn't home). He is afraid of what will happen after he is baptized. He is afraid that he will end up not being able to live the standards of the gospel. He thinks it will be better to just not commit to the church rather then committing and failing. Any advice on how to help someone who feels like this? We decided to surprise attack Tommy. We drove past his house and saw his car in the driveway. We knocked on his door and he was super surprised to see us. We aren't allowed to be inside a house if it is just one male. We told him to put on his coat and meet us on the driveway. We sat their for about an hour having a really good heart to heart. He told us that he feels like he is being strangled by the church. He told us that we don't understand how it feels to be an investigator. He's right- I don't know how it would feel. He said that he is in a constant state of confusion. There are words we use (i.e. gospel, Atonement, apostasy, revelation, apostle...) that he has no idea what they mean and we just throw them around like everyone does. This is true. hhmm.. I had never thought of it that way. He also said that he has never felt so bipolar in his whole life. He has these really high spiritual moments and then he gets super confused and starts second guessing them. It's a constant up and down. Wow I had never thought of it like that. We made a deal with him that we would take it really, really, really slow with him. That we would start as as just being friends with him. He has tons of trust issues. He has tons of walls built up around him. Last night Sister Hansen and I tried to label all of the walls that he has built. Brick wall, barb wire, the walls that have nails on the top of them (like the ones in Kenya), a white picket fence, an electricity wall... I guess we need things to entertain us as missionaries. We were going to stop by his house yesterday just to say hey. Nothing missionary or church related- just a friendly conversation. As we got in the car we both felt that it wasn't a good idea. We decided to just text him. We were worried that he wouldn't text us back. All we said was "Good luck on finals this week." He totally texted us back and we had a good short little conversation. Success! His favorite food is humus so we bought some at the store today and we are going to drop it off tonight as a "good luck on finals" treat. With Tommy we are going to have to first win his trust and then push him in learning the gospel. We have decided to also focus on the Book of Mormon with him. We are just going to read it with him-helping him understand it and see how it can apply to his life. PRAY FOR TOMMY!!! HE NEEDS SO MUCH HELP! 

4. Tracting is really hard! It is so awkward to knock on someone's door and start talking to them about the church. It's something that I've really been trying to work on. 

5. President talked to us at Zone Conference about finding one prepared person. That's what the whole mission has been praying for- for each companionship to find one prepared person each week. Will you also pray for that. We have enough faith that the lord will bless us with one person each week. 

6. The day before I got here Sister Hansen and her companion baptized a 19 year old named DeShawn. We stopped by his house this week to see how he was doing and to read the Book of Mormon with him. His mom and his sister totally joined us in reading. p.s. Their names are Lakisha and Markisha. Yes!! They are black. Love it! They have agreed to meet with us on a regular basis. DeShawn is excited about having his family involved more. PRAY FOR LAKISAH AND MARKISHA.

Sorry that my email this week was kinda lame. I am mad about my goofy planner. There are a few things that I want everyone to do this week. 1. Send me information of nonmembers that you know. I get to spend my days at sites contacting referrals. It would be cool to contact people I would have a connection with. 2. Talk to one person about the church this week. I know that it sounds hard and weird. However, it totally isn't weird at all. In Preach My Gospel there is a section called "How to begin teaching." It basically teaches us that we can't just jump into a lesson with someone. You can't just walk up to them and start babbling about Joseph Smith. There are some questions that you need to ask before you teach. So when you approach someone you can ask them questions like "What faith are you?" and then you can follow up with that question with "Oh I don't know a lot about Catholics. Tell me why you've chosen to be Catholic or Is there anything special that the Catholics do to celebrate Christmas?" Then you can say "How has your faith in Jesus Christ helped you in your life?" Then you can bear your testimony about how your faith in Jesus Christ has helped you. You can also explain how our religion doesn't take away anything from their religion- it just adds more to it. Then you can explain that we use both the Bible and the Book of Mormon and boom you are teaching someone about our church. Seriously try and do it with someone this week and I expect reports back. It will also help you understand what I do every day as a missionary. It's scary but cool how easy it actually is talking to someone about the church. 3. READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! Even if it is just for 5 mins. each day. Read it!! No excuses. It is essential for spiritual nourishment. If you are not reading The Book of Mormon then your testimony will eventual crumble away. I'm serious. Read it!

Thanks so much for everything that everyone does for me. I can feel your love all the way out here! I miss everyone. I love being a missionary out here in Ohio. It's crazy that transfers are on the 19th. Sister Hansen and I wont be transferred out of Painesville. Trainers train for 12 weeks (2 transfers) so we will be together another transfer and then most likely she will be transferred out of Painesville and I will stay to take it over with a different companion. I love you all so very much! The church is true and God loves you.

xoxo, 

Sister Frampton

3 blind mice

Hello hello outside world! Thank you to everyone that wrote me this
week. Thank you for your prayers. We didn't have too much
success this week. It was a bit annoying. Because sites is crazy with
people right now coming for the Nativity exhibit they cut down our
time in our areas. We only spent 10 hours this week in our area. That
means no tracting, no lessons with members and no new investigators.
We have more time in our area this week so that will be wonderful.

Tuesday November 27
This morning was horrible!!!!!!!!!!! We had just gotten home from
working out. It was about 7am. In our house we have a room off of the
kitchen. It's a really random room. It has a fridge, washer, dryer,
shower and bathroom counter, sink and mirror. I went into that room to
get milk out of the fridge. A sister that I live with was in the main
kitchen. She heard a really weird sound and kept saying "What was that
noise." A few nights ago she said that in their room it sounded like
mice were in the walls. They just tore down the house next to ours so
tons of mice have come out. Sister Tok and I like to goof with each
other. I walked into the kitchen and I was like "Tok it's a mouse,
it's a mouse." She then was like "Stop joking about that. I hate
mice." Then all of the sudden a huge mouse runs across the floor. We
both screamed so loud and jumped on the counter. It was horrible. I
was totally just joking with her that it was a mouse. Ahh!! Yuck!!!!
We didn't see where the mouse ended up. We screamed for our companions
to come help us. There was no sign of the mouse. There was no way that
Tok and I were comin off the counter. The mouse is in the bathroom
that I use to get ready. There was a small hole like thing in the wall
so we got the packing tape that mom had sent and taped up the hole.
Thanks for that tape mom. It came in real handy!! Tuesday was our
P-day. We had zone p-day and played games together. After P-day we
went to teach Cynthia, Maleik, Marcos and Fatima. We just love them.
Maleik is our favorite. He is a 13 year old black boy. He is so great.
He reads his Book of Mormon every night. He evem brought a friend
named Ronny to the lesson. Yep Ronny's baptismal date is Dec. 29!!!!
When we got home that night we were stressed that we would see the
mouse again. We decided to name the mouse Butch. By mission rules we
have to keep our house spotless. Our kitchen is really clean. We
decided to take all of our food out of our cupboards and put it in the
fridge until we can get bins that close. Tok was so scared of the
mouse. She was walking around the kitchen meowing like a cat to scare
the mouse. No joke. I was seriously on the floor laughing. Now any
time we enter the kitchen we have to meow to scare Butch away. Nice.

Wednesday November 28
We spent the whole day at sites. Nothing eventful happened at sites.
However, President called me and told me that another Sister Frampton
was coming to the mission. What the..? I guess it's time to do some
family history to see how Shelby Frampton and I are related. Can
someone get on that?

Thursday November 29
We also spent this whole day at sites. I was going through our area
book and looking at a list of people that missionaries had met in the
past. I came upon an 70 year old man named Richard. The missionaries
tracted into him, gave him a Book of Mormon and then never followed up
with him. That was back in 2009. I called him and asked him if we
could come over on Friday. He said that he would be busy working in
his yard. I then said "Can we come help you?" Yep gonna go do some
service.

Friday November 30
We had a meeting at sites for 2 hours and then we had to plan for our
week. It takes us 3 hours to do that. By the time we got out to our
area it was about 2:00. We stoped at Richard's house. We helped rip
out these nasty tomato plants that he had molding in his front yard.
He has a lot of work to do on his yard. There is junk all over it. I
learned that Richard has 40 cats. Yep that's right. 40 cats. 2 dogs-
one bites people, 2 possums and 1 dove that he rescued from the
"wild." Pretty sure when he said "wild" he was referring to his from
yard. He agreed to let us come back next Thursday and teach him.
Hopefully I get to meet all 40 cats. Mom: I got my rabies shot right?
Haha After Richard's house we went to the Pinas house (Cynthia,
Marcos, Fatima, Maleik and now Ronny). We taught them the Plan of
Salvation. They loved it! After the lesson we started talking about
their baptismal dates. Cynthia then said "Wait so I wont be Catholic
anymore???" Oh geez. Duh Cynthia!! Precious little 13 year old. Then
the other kids started freaking out. I'm confused as to why this was
new information to them. We spent another hour talking with them so we
will see what happens next lesson.

Saturday December 1
The Community of Christ had a pancake breakfast for the town. It was
fun to go to that. We were at sites all day. We gave 2 tours. I'm now
able to give a full tour all by myself! yay!!!! After lunch we got a
text from Ronny. It said "My mom said I'm Catholic." We can't meet
with Ronny anymore until we have permission from his mom. Stupid!!!!!!
The facilities manager came and put mouse traps all around our house.
Good bye Butch!! When we got home from sites I had to pee so bad. I
threw my things on the floor and ran to the bathroom. When I got to
the bathroom I had come literall 1 centimeter away from stepping on a
dead mouse that was stuck in a mouse trap. I started screaming and ran
out of the bathroom. I kept saying "There is a mouse!!! There is a
mouse!!" It was very tramatizing. Hopefully Butch was the only mouse
at our house.

Sunday December 2
We haven't been able to get a hold of Tommy this week. We had the most
spiritual experience with him last week and now he wont call us or
text us back. He promised he would come to church today as well as the
Pina kids and their 2 friends. However, no one came to church.
Painesville is the slowest baptizing area in the mission. In the past
year they have only had 1 baptism and he is now less active. Any tips
from returned missionaries on how to find good, solid investigators?
After church we were at sites again. We were able to watch the First
Presidency Christmas message. Wasn't it way good?

Monday December 3
Only 20 more days until my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today we went
shopping with another companionship and a sr. couple. It was a lot of
fun. We went to this AMAZING store called Charming Charlies. Seriously
Google it. It puts Forever 21 to shame. The store is sections off by
color. In each color section there are scarves, gloves, jewlery, bags,
clothes, hats.. everything!! It was so fun. We spent a good 2 hours
there. Thanks for the money!!!! I bought some cute tops and some warm
tights.


I love you all and miss you like crazy! I wish that I Austin would
send me something. Come on dude!! Have a good week everyone!!

Lacee Rae

Painesville

Thanks for everyone's emails. I wish that I could reply back to
everyone but it would take all day and we only have a short while at
the library. So the reason I am emailing today is because yesterday we
had Zone Conference and that pushed our p-day back to today.
 Everything is going really good here. At conference yesterday
they told us about a website that the church has made for the month of
December to help get us missionaries in the doors of people. It's
www.mormon.org/chirstmas. Seriously check it out. It is so cool. You
can dowload free music and send e-cards. Will each of you tell people
about this website? Attatch the link to emails that you send, put in
on Facebook... I sound so much like a missionary. Gross! haha. Do all
that you can to get the word out on the website. You can say to people
"Do you like to download free music? Well if you go to this website
you can download free Christmas music." and then they will wander
around the site and get interested in the church and sign up for the
missionaries to come over and then they will get baptized! Perfect!
Also when we are at sites we spend a lot of time calling and
contacting people that are nonmembers and asking them if we can send
them the Church's Christmas DVD Joy to the World. Will each of you
send me names of nonmembers that you know so I can help bring them
closer to Christ? Don't forget to do that! Ok so here's what's been
going on this week:

Tuesday November 20
We had a district meeting most of the morning. I had to play the piano
for the hymns. Stress! After that we went to meet with these awesome
less actives that we've been meeting with. Besty Rodriguez and her two
sons- Manny and Anthony. Love them!! She is really interesting. She
sits and complains to us for like 30 mins about how crappy her life is
and how she needs direction in her life but tells us that she doesn't
need church. Um...hello! She's missing the connection or something.
She will not come to church or read the Book of Mormon. She wants to
take it "slow." Well then the Lord is going to bless you slow. Her
sons are also not really interested in coming back to church. I made a
deal with Anthony that if he reads the BofM for a week straight and
prays for a week straight and keeps a journal of any spiritual
feelings that he's had and he can honestly say that he hasn't felt
anything then we will leave him alone for a bit. So... pray for
Anthony because it's gonna be pretty awkward when he tells me that I
lost the deal. After the Rodriguez family we went over to this awesome
guy's house. The sister's in my area before me found him and we were
going to give him his first lesson. His name is Tommy. He is a 24 year
old CrossFit trainer. (sound familiar?) He also has a cute weiner
puppy named Dirks! Ahh he is so cute!! He isn't fat like Rubes. We
can't meet alone with a guy so we brought along a girl from the
Single's Ward. Tommy wants the gospel so bad. He wants to not feel
guilty anymore. He wants to "get out of the darkness." We tried to
teach him but he spent the whole time asking questions and talking.
The lesson went alright-not great though. The good points were 1. He
invited us to come back and 2. He has a desire to learn more. Oh also
HE HAS A CAR!!!!! That's the biggest problem here in Painesville.
People don't have cars so they don't come to church. We spent way too
long at Tommy's like an hour and a half. He just has so many
questions. After Tommy's the bishop and his family had us over for
dinner. He is really cool. He ran into a deer last week and is looking
for a car. I couldn't remember Dad if you had a store out here or if
it was in a neighboring state or if you had any connections out here
but I gave him your number for help finding a car. After dinner we
went to teach these awesome kids. My companion and her last companion
found them. All they did was give them the Bof M. When we called to
set up an appointment they have already been reading it and were
loving it. The kids are Cynthia-13, Marcos-14 and Maleik-14. They are
great. They want to learn from us. During the lesson Cynthia felt the
spirit and she couldn't even handle it. She kept saying "what is
happening to me?" She was loving it. Maleik said the closing prayer
and it was so cute and so perfect!!!!!!!!! We love them. They also
comminted to being baptized Dec. 29. Pray for them! We want them to
follow through on this. After their lesson the worst thing happened...
Our super solid investigator that has a baptismal date- Kathy called
us and told us that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. We tried
to figure out what happened (maybe she got anti-ed) and why the sudden
change and she just kept saying "Ya I don't want this." It seriously
felt like someone was breaking up with me. It was so sad. We have been
trying to contact her all week but she wont answer her phone.
LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also remember Misha and Miracle that had a
baptism date? Yep they bailed as well. Oh well. Life as a missionary!

Wednesday November 21
Guess who strolled into the sites today? Erin Blackwell!!! Such a fun
little surprise. She still thought I was in the MTC and she actually
came to see Kylie. Too  bad for Kylie that she isn't at sites on
Wednesdays. I don't remember if I had told you this but each Christmas
sites puts on a huge nativity exhibit. There are like 600 nativity
scenes set up. It's so cool. (whenever I get the chance to send
pictures check out the nativities from Kenya. So cool! They have a
whole Masaii warrior nativity set. They have a building that is just
international sets.) The exhibit has drawn so many people. The sites
have been crazy with tours.

Thursday Novemember 22 a.k.a. Thanksgiving!
Weird, weird to not be at home for Thanksgiving. We were invited over
to the Mcintosh's to eat. It was really nice of them. They had both
parents and then a 30 year old daughter that still lives at home. They
had us write down things we were grateful for and we hung them up by
the window. It was really nice that they had us over. They have the
ugliest dog that kept trying to jump on my lap during dinner.  For the first time 
I felt a bit homesick. It wasweird. I was thinking about how we would all
 go to a movie after we ate and dad would get his popcorn and Austin 
would get 10 sprites.Fun!! After we ate they sent us home with sooo much food. Score!!!!
They had a huge party at sites for all of the site missionaries and
sr. couples. Me and my companion made constuction paper indian
headresses and the other girls we live with were going to be pilgrams
but they backed out. It was fun though to act like kindergarteners and
be indians. We played games and watched the Emma story. The sr.
couples are a lot of fun to hang out with!!!

Friday November 23
Basically everyone that we had appointments with bailed on us. Welcome
to the mission. We tracted A LOT this day. It was a blizzard. I had
all my gear on- puffy coat and boots included. We seriously looked
ridiculous! I looked like an eskimo. No one was interested. Two really
funny things happened while we were tracting 1. A lady opened the door
and then hurried and closed it. We didn't even say a word. It all
happened too fast. It was so funny for some reason. At least we tell
them that we are missionaries for the church before they deny us. and
2. We ask a guy how he is doing and he said " I was doing good until
you showed up on my porch" and then he slams the door. We seriously
couldn't stop laughing. Oh did I mention that Rico and his family
dropped us. Lame. After we turned into popsicles from tracting we met
with Cynthia, Marcos and Maleik. They are amazing. They were all
totally feeling the spirit and they were so excited about baptism.
They have a 20 year old sister who was listening in the kitchen. All
of the sudden she pulled up a chair and started answering questions.
Guess what? He baptismal date is now Dec. 29th. Score!!

I don't have much time left so I will just get to the good part of the week...

Sunday November 25
We met with Tommy again. Best lesson ever of my whole life!!!!!!!!!!!
We taught him about repentence and we read the story of Alma the
younger with him. He kept saying "I want to feel like that." At the
end of the lesson we asked him to pray. He has said the prayer with us
before but he got super weird this time. He wouldn't say it. It was
super awkward. Then I said "I'll pray first and then you'll pray." He
said the most amazing prayer. He opened his heart to the Lord. He even
started crying. He is this huge, buff guy and there he was kneeling on
his floor crying. He said "God please don't give up on me. Please
don't let the sisters give up on me." After he prayed we sat in
silence for what it seemed like 5 mins. He looked up with tears in his
eyes and said "I feel a warmth. God loves me." Yep his baptismal date
is now Jan. 5. Please please please fast and pray for Tommy this
Sunday. He would be a really solid member if he joined. We love Tommy!

Yesterday Monday November 26
At Zone Conference we made a goal that each week we will try to find
one really good solid investigator and that we should be praying for
that. So if you could please pray that we will find one solid person
to teach.

I'm sure there is lots more that I needed to say but I can't really
think of anything. Everything is really good here. I'm loving it!! Keep writing people!!!

Love you all and miss you all!!
Lacee

November 12-18, 2012

Family:
It was good to get emails from mom and dad.That's good to hear
about Austin's surgery. Hopefully he will be better now. Have fun in
St. George for Thanksgiving. We were invited to a members house. We
are a bit nervous because they are really gross and sloppy and I'm
pretty sure they are hoarders. President and his wife and the Edmans
are doing a big dinner at the Visitors' Center. We are also going to
be able to watch a few church movies. We are planning on hurrying and
stopping by they members house and "eating" and then heading over to
the Visitors' Center. Tell the Bain lady that I'm at the Visitors'
Center Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Here's what went down this
week:

Tuesday November 13:
We had a Distric Meeting most of the morning. After we decided to go
tracting. It's not one of my favorite things to do. We went to a
really ghetto part of our area. Seriously Google Painesville, Ohio.
You will die. It is so sketchy. We tracted for a bit on the street and
then when we were walking back to the car we had a feeling to stop at
a random trailer. The guy's name was Donny Loonie. He was a less
active member (however, he's not on our ward's records). He told us
his whole story- He was a faithful member and then one day he just
decided that he wanted to be Catholic. Weird. He's in his 60's. He
left him with a Book of Mormon (he wasn't too happy about that).
Hopefully we sparked something in him. Then when we were getting in
the car two police cars pulled up to a different trailer and were
pointing their guns at the door and when a guy came out the handcuffed
him and off they went. Good old Painesville. Gotta love it. We had
dinner with this super cute family from Utah. We love them. They are a
young family from Cedar City. After that we stopped by an
investigator's house. His mom is a less active and he just never got
baptized. He's about 40 years old and still lives at home. His name is
Alex. He's one of the gems here in Painesville. He's only got a few
black teeth left. Yum. We had a baptismal date set for next month
until we found out that he's on parole for the next 5 years. As he
started telling us what he had done we both yelled "STOP!!" We did not
want to know what Alex had done. All we know is that he's on the Sex
Offenders registry. He was mad that he can't get baptized for the next
5 years.

Wednesday November 14:
Wednesday is our Sites day. Not a whole lot goes on at sites. People
don't come in during the winter. On Friday, when we were tracting, we
met a man named Rico. Did I tell you about him? He seemed super
interested but his wife not so much. We called Rico on Saturday and
his wife answered and said that they were not interested. Rude! We
decided to try and get a hold of Rico. We called him and he answered
and said his wife wasn't happy and they he hung up on us. Boo!! Then
like 10 mins later we get a call from a number we didn't recognize. It
was RICO!!! He said that he talked to his wife and they were really
interested in us coming over. AHHH!!!! I could not believe that had
happened. We seriously sat there for like 5 mins after the phone call
in shock. We set up an appointment for Friday with their family. They
have 4 kids. That does not happen in Painesville. Families do not
exist.

Thursday November 15:
This was a very interesting day. An investigator named Kathy needed
help moving. All of her things were at a friend's house. This friend
just ended up and jail and the owner's of his apartment were just
going to throw out all of his things. She was stressed because those
things were hers. She doesn't have a car to move all of the stuff.
(Why is this our problem? The people here in Painesville need to learn
how to take care of themselves!!) We called a guy from our ward that
has a truck and we helped her move. Picture this: me and my companion
trying to move really huge awkward items into a tiny truck- dressers,
couches, tables... It was not a good idea. It took us nearly 2 hours.
Kathy has COPD (which everyone has here) because she is a smoker so
she just sat back and watched us move all of her junk. After the move
we had some good solid appointments set up- Misha and Miracle was one
of them. Every single appointment canceled on us. Even the meeting we
have with our Ward Mission Leader canceled. It was really annoying. So
we just went home and made calls from home.

Friday November 16:
We had a training meeting with all of the new missionaries. It lasted
most of the day. After we had out meeting with Rico and his family. We
were so excited. When we got there she said that Rico was having heart
pains and was just taken by an ambulance to the hospital. She was a
mess. We aren't allowed to be alone with kids or else we totally would
have watched the kids so she could have gone to the hospital. We went
and grabbed the family a pizza and sat down and just got to know them.
She is a former J DUB (Jehova's Witness). Nice! It was good that we
had that chance to get to know her and the kids better. Now we have a
better idea what they need to be taught. After that we stopped by an
investigator's house. Her name is Marissa. She lives with her
boyfriend (she is 16 and he is 18) at their grandma's house. When we
got their I seriously could not go inside. Everyone here is hoarders.
There was crap everywhere and the grandma was in the corner smoking.
You guys would have died. Marrisa and her boyfriend weren't home so we
sat and talked with granny. Good times.

Saturday November 17:
This morning pretty early we got a call from Rico's wife Kristine and
she said that last night she threw out her back and Rico was still in
the hospital and she really needed help. We told her that on Saturdays
we are at Sites and we couldn't help her. I started to get a really
weird feeling about her. Ya we offered to help her but this was just
weird. We called the elders that are in our area and they said they
would go over and see how they could help. They stopped by unannounced
and said that her back was not thrown out, she was fine. What the
heck!!!!! She was seriously trying to use us and mooch off of us. Now
we don't even know if Rico is really even in the hospital. We were
super frustrated after that. We thought we had found a golden family.
This week has been really weird. We are trying to figure out how to
help these people the best way that we can. No one here is self
sufficent. It's weird. A 30 year old man asked us if we could call him
and wake him up for church on Sunday. He told us that he has an alarm
but that he needs someone to make sure that he actually gets out of
bed. Does he want us to come over and make him breakfast as well?
Haha. Anyways.. at Sites today we had a tour come in. I got to give my
2nd tour. It went really well. However, we didn't find out until half
way through that they were FLDS. Yikes! They totally were saying
things that made us think they were LDS. It ended up being a really
weird tour towards the end. Did you know that the women in the FLDS
church can have the priesthood? Weird. Hmmm... We set up our Christmas
tree when the 4 of us got home. It was so much fun. We blasted
Christmas music and put on all the ornaments. We also drew names for
Pixies! They were all stoked about that. We are even going to go to
Rite Aid and by 5$ presents on Christmas Eve.

Sunday November 18:
We were asked to do sharing time for Primary. It was so fun. We taught
them ways that they can be a missionary now. I had missed being with
kids. After church the elders asked if we could take home two of their
investigators that had come to church. They were both teenage girls.
They asked us where we were from. We told them Utah. One of the girls
said " How do you like the food here?" We were so confused. We both
were like "Uh.. it's the same." She then said "Isn't Utah by Brazil?"
BRAZIL?????? I thought she was joking so I started laughing. Nope she
was not joking. She had never heard of Utah. The senior missionary
that was driving us said she was from Idaho and asked if they knew
where Idaho was. The girl said "Oh ya isn't that in Hawaii?" You've
got to be kidding me. It seriously was so awkward. These are the types
of people that we get to work with here in Painesville. We seriously
cannot stop lauhging about that.

Well life is good here in Ohio. I love it. It's been a lot of fun.
Some people you can pray for are: Misha and Miracle, Rico and Kristine
and Kathy. Also pray that we will be able to find new people.

I love you all and I miss you a lot. I got all of your packages mom.
Thanks so much!!! I love the coat and the mittens! You da best!

Sister Frampton

Dorthy ain't in Kansas no more...

My first email! Hip hip hooray! I have successfully made it to Ohio. Let's start from the top:

 

Tuesday November 8:

Our bus to the airport left at 4 am! Yikes. I had to wake up at 3 and finish packing. It was not fun. My eyes were burning. My travel group consisted of me and my companion, Sister Ence, and 3 elders. I had made a goal the day before that I was going to talk to 4 people about the gospel and hand out 2 Book of Mormons. When I told this to my travel group they were shocked. They could not believe that I already wanted to start missionary work. I was kind of bugged that they didn't want to do it with me. I decided to go ahead and do it on my own. It's really awkward walking up to random strangers, but I did it! I talked to 6 people and gave out both Book of Mormons. I got their information and I've been staying in contact with them. The missionaries in my group couldn't believe how much success I had. It was really cool. When we got to Ohio the mission president and his wife picked us up. They are both really fun and they love to joke around. When we got to their house the senior missionaries had a FEAST prepared for us. I was so sick of the MTC food and they had the best meal for us- steak, potatoes, salad, carrots, rolls and pie. It was so nice of them. After dinner we had interviews with Sister Vellinga and then President Vellinga. I spent my whole interview laughing with President. He took the picture I mailed in and colored my hair brown with a marker and added bangs. It was really funny. We were able to go to bed really early that night because we were dead! I got the letters that Mom Dad and Dallin sent. It was really cool to have those my first day in Ohio.

 

Wednesday November 9:

We wont up at 5 am and we were off to Kirtland by 6. They first took us to the Kirtland temple. It is so cool!!!! The Community of Christ owns it and they were nice enough to let us get in for free (it's usually a $3 charge). We were able to see the whole temple. It's basically a large chapel with a few small rooms upstairs. Karl Anderson (I don't know who he is but I guess he is famous) taught us all about the temple. After about an hour in the temple we walked across the street to the sites. At the visitors' center Sister Neslen was waiting for me. I jumped out of the car and we both ran to each other and screamed and hugged. Everyone else just stood there starring at us. It was great. They took us to the Newel K. Whitney store. Upstairs in the store is the room where the school of prophets took place. They took us up there and Karl Anderson taught us for about an hour. He told us that the Savior and Heavenly Father have appeared in that exact same room. It was really cool. He also showed us in the scriptures about how we were called to come to Kirtland. When the saints had to leave Kirtland and go to Missouri they were really stressed that the church would die in Kirtland. Joseph Smith told them that one day their ancestors would come back to Kirtland to build up the church. He then asked if any of us had ancestors from Kirtland- all of us raised our hands. Not one missionary, as far as they know, has been called to this mission that didn't have an ancestor that was from Kirtland. How cool is that???? I thought it was pretty sweet. We were then told that we would have 15 mins in the school of prophets to start our mission. We all kneeled down and said our own prayers telling Heavenly Father that we are ready to start our missions. It was a cool experience. After that we went to the church to meet our companions. I'm OBSESSED with mine. Her name is Haley Hansen. She is from Sandy and went to Hillcrest-Mccall she knows all your friends from Winner School that were on Drill. We had to get up in front of the whole mission and introduce our new companions. After I introduced mine everyone kept coming up to me and telling me that I am twins with Sister Hansen. She is super super cute. She has a Betsy Johnson coat and I have a Betsy bag. We were meant to be. I felt really bad for Sister Ence because she got a really quiet companion and everyone was saying how lucky I was to get Sister Hansen and no one told Sister Ence how great her companion is. I could tell that she felt bad. After all the new transfers were announced, the sisters ate lunch at the Edman's. They were excited to know who Grandma and Grandpa were. All of the sisters here are so nice! After lunch two sisters gave me and my companion and Sister Ence and her companion a full 2 hour tour of the sites. I can't believe how much information we have to learn in order to give a tour. Yikes. It was our day at sites so after the tour Sister Hansen gave me the run down on how everything works at sites. After that it was already time to go home and FINALLY go to bed!!! We are living in Hyrum Smith's house.

 

Thursday November 10:

We didn't really do too much on this day. I unpacked and we had a 3 hour planning session. We had to plan for the whole week. After that we went to the hospital to visit a lady names Kathy, she's an investigator. We had dinner at a member's house. They were a young family with 2 little girls. As missionaries we aren't allowed to really touch kids. I basically died because I wanted to hold their baby SSSOOOO bad!!!!!

 

Friday November 11:

We had sites this day. No one comes on tour anymore so the missionaries just sit upstairs and call people and email. It's not as exciting as it sounds. It's actually really, really boring. Sister Hansen took me out to the Newel K. Whitney store and had me practice giving a tour of a few rooms. There is sooo much information we have to know.

 

Saturday November 12:

This is when missionary work really started. We tracted for 3 hours. I had tracting. People are so mean! I am in a tiny town called Painesville. It is soo ghetto. Everyone is a hill billy. We literally had people yell at us to go away. For lunch we met up with the elders in our area and had really good mexican food. The elders are spanish speaking and they know the owners. After a short break we were off to find people. I had to go to the bathroom so we went to Rite Aid. Outside of Rite Aid we met a mother with her 2 daughters. We talked to them and set up an appointment to come over on Friday. I guess our bathroom break was inspired. There is a less active sister in the ward named Sister Silvis. We thought that a way we could fellowship her would be to do some type of service. We went with our rakes over to her house and started raking her lawn. She ran out her front door and told us to go away and that they church is sufficating her. Needless to say- we did not see her at church on Sunday. We decided to track 2 more hours on her street. The people were equally as mean as Sister Silvis. We said a prayer and asked if we could be directed to a nicer street. We decided to head over to a street called Sanford. On this street we were able to find 5 people that would set up appointments with us! Jackpot!!!! We had an appointment with a less active so we went over there and watched a conference talk with her. The people here are struggling so much with the gospel. Sister Wheeler is in the Stake Primary but yet she is a less active. They don't have enough members so they start calling unworthy or less active people. It's weird. We then were prompted to go visit a less active family, the Rodriguez family. They live in a tiny apartment. I was super surprised that they were home and they answered the door. My favorite thing so far has been going to a less active's house or an investigator's house and seeing them hide from you. I want to yell at them "hello I can see you" but I'm serving the Lord and he prob wouldn't do that. Right? The Rodriguez family let us in. It's a mom and her two teenage sons. LOVE THEM!!!! She is a huge Puerto Rican lady. They are straight from the hood. So ghetto. We talked with them for an hour. The boys explained to me all of the "ghetto talk" that I will hear here in Painesville. I'm now prepared to serve here. For instance a "hood rat" is the name of a teenager that lives in the ghetto. Good to know!

 

Sunday November 13:

Wow!!!! The Perry ward is not the 28th ward. No Sir!!!!!!! They have about 50 members in the ward. Everyone smokes. It smelt so bad in sacrament meeting.

 

Well... My internet time is up!!! I guess I will continue next time. I love you all and miss you. I'm doing great here! I love it so much!!

 

Sister Frampton

MTC week one

I made it! I'm here in the MTC. It's crazy here. After I was dropped off I was moved from line to line. I collected all of my books and got my name tag. It's weird that everyone is called elder and sister. I guess my first name is now SISTER! I took all of my bags to my new room. I was the last one out of 6 to come into the room, so I got the top bunk... eh, oh well! I didn't have time to unpackright away because I was lead to a classroom to meet my district. My district consists of 6 elders and 4 sisters. The elders are going to Washington and the sisters are all going to different visitors' centers. We found out our companions here... Mine is Sister Ence, she is 21 from Bountiful. She is darling! She is shy but is so cute! I think I got lucky. She is also going to Kirtland. One of the other sisters is going to the L.A. visitors' center (Sister Coplan) and her companion is going to the Independence, Missouri visitors' center (Sister Stobbe). I love Sister Stobbe, she is my twin. We get along really well. These two sisters are also rooming with me.
After we met our companions and district, we met our teachers. We have a boy and a girl teacher. It was so crazy when the girl walked in... I was her EFY counselor, CRAZY! We screamed and hugged while everyone looked at us. haha The edlers in our district seemed alright. After class we went to an orientation with all of the new missionaries and the MTC presidency. At 4:15p we ate dinner. I don't even want to talk about dinner... yuck.
After dinner we had our first teaching experience. They broke all the new missionaries up into groups of like 30. We went into a room that had a professional actor at the front. It was our job to teach this actor all together. Whenever we had something to say, we stood up and talked to the actor. We did this with three different fake investigators. It was cool. A little scary, but cool. Then we went back to our distric classroom to meet our zone leaders-- 2 elders and a sister. All of these missionaries are going to Romania. The sister is from Provo.
At 8p we were finally released back to our rooms to unpack and get ready for bed. The two others sisters are going to Romania so they can only speak Romanian to everyone. It is really hard to communicated with them. When they try to talk to me I just stare at them because I have no idea what they are saying.
I got two letters today! Gold starts go to Tammy Neslen and Mickle Pickle! Thank you McCall! My district was jealous that I already had letters.
I was so tired last night. I was the first one in my room asleep at 9pm. I slept pretty good and I was up at 6am! (Thats a big change)
You know those plastic play dough things that are in a tube and then a shape at the end? I feel like we are one of those plastic play dough toys being squished through the tube in hopes to become a shape. Everyone walks around with their heads down, eyes focused and frequently they are mumbling in some crazy language.
It's been good so far. It feels like an intense EFY where no one is the counselor and we are free of loud 14 year olds.
I love you all and I miss you! It is great here!

xoxo, Sister Frampton