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
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