Hello everyone! I cannot believe that it is already November. Soon it will be Thanksgiving then my birthday (Don't forget Dec. 23! I will be accepting presents on this day) then Christmas and then in no time I will be home. I told President that I am choosing not to extend and he said that was fine and that my release day will be March 20th. I hope someone is planning on coming to get me on that day. I don't know how it works when we get picked up. Do you have to buy my plane ticket or is that included in all of the mission expenses? Dad will you call the mission office and find that out?
We had an interesting week this week. On Wednesday we went and had a lesson with Cory (Connee's son and Chuck's brother). It was such a sad lesson. He told us that he thinks he has learned all he can about our church and that he has made up his mind that he doesn't want to be a part of it or learn from us anymore. I was really sad about this. He has seen the change that is has made with his mom and brother. He knows that it is a good church. I dunno. I guess it will just take time. It is good because we are doing the new member lessons with Connee and Chuck so we will still get to see Cory and he is still going to participate in FHE with all of us. Please pray for Cory. He is really struggling right now and needs all the help that he can get.
We had a really fun Halloween. I am glad that Austin got his birthday card and all of the stickers that I sent him. It looks like he had a really fun birthday. We had lunch at the church with this couple from the ward. It was so fun. She had put together these little boxes with candy in it because she knows we can't go trick or treating. They also gave us this Halloween pumpkin card. It was a fun little Halloween party. They are really nice. They were baptized a little more then a year ago and they just recently were sealed in the Columbus temple. After that we went to a less active's house, Debbie Brown. A while back we introduced Debbie and Connee. Debbie helped out with the music for Connee's baptism. Last week Connee called Debbie to thank her and to just talk and Debbie was really touched. She surprised us with the news that she was going to come to church on Sunday!!! We were seriously so excited. We have been working for a while with her. She ended up coming on Sunday and everyone was really nice to her. She said that she is going to keep coming!!!!!!!!!! After Debbie's we had an appointment with this teenager in our ward that was baptized a few years ago. She is the only one in her family that joined the church so the missionaries really try and support her. Her name is Heaven. We went to her house and no one was home so we called her and she said that her mom was working late and she was stuck at school for another hour. We decided to just go to the High School and have a lesson with her across the street at Wendy's. This high school is in Cleveland Heights and boy did I feel a little out of place! Not only were we the only modest dressed white girls, the school was packed with security guards. You had to be buzzed in to each building and the doors had metal detectors. It was really scary. We found out that a year ago a kid came to school and shot his pregnant girlfriend because he was mad that her parents wouldn't let her see him anymore. EEkkkk! It was not Olympus High School. After that we went to Connee's house. She had ordered Chinese food for us. Chris (my recent convert) came over also. Chris has been having a really hard week. His family is not being nice to him because he joined the church. He was planning on going home (New York) for a few days and he was really stressed about what was going to happen. Connee sat him down and gave him the best pep talk. I was so impressed. She said that right now all he needs to do is be an example for his and they will see how great the church is. I was so proud of her. We taped candy to pass along cards and helped Connee had that out to Trick or Treaters. It was a lot of fun. It was a huge rainstorm that night so hardly anyone came. We did that for about an hour and then we played some games. Oh my gosh I have never laughed so hard in my life. I love Connee and her family. She has become my second mom. I will be so sad when I get transferred. Speaking of transfers... they are next week.
On Friday Chuck came tracting with us. It was a lot of fun. He has a strong desire to inform everyone of how great the church is. It was a good motivator because sometimes as missionaries we get in a rut and have the mentality of "It's just another door to knock." Chuck really loves God and really wants other people to listen to our message. He is constantly trying to get his friends to meet with us.
So I have a cold. Not fun as a missionary. I think the reason I have this is because on Saturday it literally rained ALL day long. I mean it didn't stop once. It is something that I am still getting used to. I didn't even know what rain was when I was in Utah. I didn't even know it was possible for it to rain days in a row without every stopping. Well it does happen. It happens in Ohio. Since currently have no investigators we ended up tracting all day, from 10:30am-5:00pm. I had all of my rain gear on, boots and a coat. It was actually kinda fun to run and splash in puddles. I might end up missing the rain when I go home. We ended up at this house that had india looking pictures all over it. We knocked on the door and this lady dressed in an Indian outfit (head scarf, long skirt) told us to come inside. We were greeted by her husband and her mom. They are all Americans but they are of the religion Hare Krishna. I immediately recognized this religion. There is a huge Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork that I have been to a few times for the festival of colors. I talked with them about that for a while and they showed us their front room. It was their temple room. It was decked out in Indian figures and paintings and inscents. The couple was really really nice and welcoming. They sat us down and asked if we were hungry or if we wanted tea to warm us up. They didn't even care that we were dripping wet and getting rain all over their couch. The lady prepared a little bowl of chips for us and we each got a Diet Coke. They asked us what we believed in and they told us all about Hare Krishna. It is a beautiful religion. One of their teaching is that the spirit and the body are different and that we need to be doing everything that we can while we are in our bodies to ensure that our spirit has a good place to go once it leaves the body. They also said that now a days so many people think they can sit and do nothing and then complain about having nothing. We were like "ya we totally believe that." They gave each of us their religious text Bhagavad-Gita and we gave them a Book of Mormon. The guy opened to a random scripture. It was Alma 60:23
23 Do ye suppose that God will look upon you as guiltless while ye sit still and behold these things? Behold I say unto you, Nay. Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also.
Coincidence? I think not? They were really amazed! As were we!!! That is so cool that what they had just told us was in the Book of Mormon. They filled up this plastic bag with inscents and flowers and books for us. It was really nice of them. They said that we were always welcome to come back. They were basically these hippies dressed up like they were from India. I love them. We are going to go back and invite them to the Nativity exhibit that will be going on at the Visitors' Center. I decided that each email from now on I am going to include a saying from the Bhagavad-Gita because I think it's kinda fun. So here is today's:
"Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better then inaction. A man cannot maintain his physical body without work." Amen.
Well my time is up here at the library! I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy. Thanks for everything that you all do for me. God loves you and Kirtland is the best church site!
Sister Frampton
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