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