I am almost 5 months old!

Hello Family! Thanks Mom and Dad for the emails and for the testimonies for Tommy. Those will really help him. You will find out later in the email what his problem is. I had a really good week! This week the transfer is only 5 weeks so it is coming to a close. There are 6 Visitors' Center sisters coming out which means 6 sisters will be training. Trainer calls were made yesterday and I won't be training (yay!). Kiley Neslen is training!! YAY for her. It's so exciting. She told me not to tell you all because she wants to tell her parents first so don't tell her family that I told you. OK? Sister Bell and I HAVE to stay together for one more transfer- so that we can both help Tommy make it to his baptismal date March 16th. I am up for transfer so hopefully President just leaves us how we are. We wont find out transfers for another week. 

Feb. 18th:
After PEEE day we stopped by a few less actives in the ward. We have about 25 families that are in our area. That is a ton! Our ward basically wants the missionaries to stop by each family and get their story and offer them the options of: 1. Weekly visits from missionaries 2. Weekly visits from HT or VT 3. Leave me alone get off my porch or 4. To have their records removed. We stopped by 5 house. 4 of them weren't home and 1 of them hid in their living room and didn't answer the door. That's my favorite when you can see them hiding. HAHA!!! We were getting pretty bored doing stop bys so we called Tommy and we were like hey no one is home and people are hiding from us can we come hang out with you? He said that he just got off work and he was about to go eat. We met him and we got a drink while he ate. It is really important that we spent some time with Tommy not talking about church. It is important for us to be interested in his life and get to know him better. He has a lot of trust issues and we figured out that the more we just "hang out" with him the faster we gain his trust. We had a lot of fun talking with him and finding out more about his family. He told us that he saw on the news that there are speculations about the government putting a chip thing in people's hands so that they can keep track of people and so that no one can still your identity. It sounded ridiculous to me until he showed us a video from CNN of them talking about it. CNN is a pretty reliable source right? Can anyone fill me in on this chip thing? Sounds a bit fishy to me. Tommy expressed to us that he is really nervous about finding a "good girl" to marry. He always says "Look at me. I'm all tatted up. What girl would want to marry me?" It then hit me that he wasn't have "Tommy issues." He was having age appropriate issues. Everyone that is in their mid 20s starts to freak out a little about who they are going to marry and if they actually will get married. I told him that it's totally normal for him to feel this way (Hello pretty sure Sister Bell and I both feel that way). It calmed him down a bit and made him feel like he wasn't a loser for thinking that way. He really wants to move out to Utah. We encouraged him that it would be easier for him to find a Mormon girl to marry. The singles branch out here is about 40 minutes away and it only has maybe 20 members. Maybe Tommy will be our neighbor in a few years. 

Feb. 19th:
We had to leave at about 7:30 AM and drive an hour and half to the Doctor for my prescription refill. It was really funny. I get into my appointment and he was like "What can I do for you?" I said "Well I have already been diagnosed, I already have a medicine and a dose that works for me, all I need for you to do is write me a prescription." It was really funny. He said "I went to years of school and studied like crazy and all you want me to do is write on a piece of paper for you?" I said "Ya basically" and he was like "Ok cool!" He called Probst to verify my dose and stuff and that was that. He had a medical student in the room and the student said "Well since I'm not going to learn anything about how to be a doctor from this appointment can I ask you some questions about your church?" Of course you can!!!! I told him all about what a missionary does and how the program works. It was cool. I gave him the number to the Elders that are in his area if he had anymore questions. I guess it was worth driving all that way. When we got back to the Visitors' Center we had a lesson scheduled with Tommy. We took him up to the School of Prophets (if you don't know what that is then stop reading this email and google it right now!) in the Newell K. Whitney store. We first stopped in Joseph Smith's office and told him the process Joseph went through to receive revelations for the Doctrine and Covenants. He totally understood. When we got in the School of the Prophets we taught him all about the Word of Wisdom. It was really powerful. He was like "Wow they quit smoking just like that?" Tommy doesn't smoke and rarely drinks so those wouldn't be an issue for him. We didn't really think that he would have a problem with the WOW but when we told him about coffee he flipped. I hate seeing Tommy flip. He is actually really scary sometimes. I was holding my breath that he wouldn't walk out of the room. He very calmly asked "Why no coffee?" I wanted him to teach himself so I said "Why do you think no coffee?" He sat for about 5 minutes and then said "Because Heavenly Father said so." YES!!!!!! Exactly Tommy!!! We asked him if he will commit to live the WOW and he said yes. He was totally calm about it. We asked him to bear his testimony. He bore the most pure testimony I have ever heard. I started to cry. I don't cry when I feel the spirit. That's just not what I do. I was so happy for him. I was so happy that he finally gets it. He knows with out a doubt that this is the true church. We asked him to say the closing prayer. We knelt down on the original floor boards in the School of Prophets and he said such a great prayer. I was bawling during the prayer. He is such an example of faith to me. After he prayed I had a thought that he should have a minute alone in the room. I told him that he would have a minute to say his own prayer and we would wait outside. He was in there for about 10 mins. When he came out he told us that he kept hearing "My son, My son!" YAY!!! Heavenly Father loves him!!! I love seeing happy Tommy!! He was literally skipping off to his car. For the rest of the day we spent chatting and calling people at sites.

Feb. 20th:
Because Sister Bell was sick last week and we had to leave Zone Conference early President made us make it up at another Zone's Conference. We had to drive 2 hours in a blizzard to Youngstown, Ohio. It was a really good conference. An elder that was in my ward was transferred to that Zone so it was fun to catch up with him and give him the details of the Perry ward. We are only allowed to drive about 1200 miles a month and so between my doctor appointment and Zone Conference we are about out of miles. Yikes! After Zone Conference we went to sites and had a few hours to chat with some folks.

Feb. 21st:
Tommy came to sites again and we taught him about tithing. We were really nervous to teach him this. This is a common lesson that people freak out on and then peace out. He freaked out a little but we did a really good job of keeping it together. By the end of the lesson he committed to paying a full tithe and fasting. Tommy is so great. After his lesson we went back home and prepared for our Book of Mormon class. I don't know if I had told you but the missionaries in our ward have been teaching a Book of Mormon class every Thursday. We switch off with the elders teaching it. We were teaching about the Iron Rod. Last week I randomly went through the contacts in our phone and I called a girl named Jaime and asked her if she wanted to meet with us. She said yes!! We had an appointment with her at 4:15. When we got there she wasn't home and her brother said that she was working and wouldn't be home until 8. It is so frustrating when people do this to us. All they have to do is tell us they aren't interested or that they have to reschedule. So weird. We called her and she didn't answer and wont call us back. Oh well. We are looking for people that want to learn. We aren't going to beg people to listen to us. We tracted a bit and then we had dinner at a members house. We rarely get dinners so it was fun to interact with this family. they are great. After dinner we taught an amazing lesson about 1 Nephi 8. It is so cool how the spirit just takes it away. We taught things that we didn't plan. By the end of the lesson we had charts all over the board of how we can make praying, scripture study and church attendance easier. It was awesome because a less active that we have been working with was there and I think it really helped her. After BOM class the elders hold a free spanish class. My spanish is getting really good. I have been able to ask people in spanish if we can pray with them, I can pray with them and then ask them how they felt when I was praying. I can also tell them that there are spanish missionaries that they can meet with. It's cool how Heavenly Father has helped me learn these simple phrases to help people learn about his gospel.

Feb. 22nd:
We had Visitors' Center training (we have it each Friday). It was really good. Kirtland has 2 sisters that are basically girl Zone Leaders. They are called Training Sisters. They put on each training. Our scripture for the transfer talks about light. Each training meeting they have been teaching us ways that we can literally light up Kirtland and more people will come visit it because they will recognize that their is something there that they need. Sister Bell was sick again with gluten so we stayed home all day. I was able to clean up and study a bit. I called a bunch of people but no one was interested in meeting with us. Bummer. The training sisters asked if we would go on exchanges with them. Scary!! I would be going with Sister Larson to Shaker Heights. I packed up all my gear and went over to Sister Larson's house to sleep their. Sister Hillman came and took my place.

Feb. 23rd:
 I was a bit nervous to work with Sister Larson. She is an awesome missionary. We had a really good day together. Shaker is not like Painesville. It is really nice! Tons of cute Sugar House like houses. Darling. We met a lady named Rachelle. The first thing I said to her was "We are out here today telling people that there is a prophet on the earth today, a prophet like Moses and Abraham." She said "Oh I've actually been looking for a church that has a prophet like the ones from the Bible." I almost passed out. We got her info and the Shaker sisters will be calling her soon. I loved working with Sister Larsen. It was great to have a different view on how I can help Painesville. It was a very successful exchange! She is a super hard worker. We tracted 6 and 1/2 hours. I was dead by the time we got home!!!!!

Feb. 24th:
Tommy came to church today!!! When he got there I could smell coffee and I got a little nervous. yikes! In the middle of sacrament he took my scriptures, opened them and handed them back to me. He pointed to Ether 12:27 and said this is my favorite scripture.  27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them. So cool!! We are going to put that on the front of his baptism program. After Sacrament we took Tommy out to the couches to have a lesson with him. We taught him the law of chastity. It went really well. He totally understood everything. I felt a little awkward talking to him about it but whatever. After the lesson I said "So... how is the whole no coffee thing going?" He said "Well I've still been drinking it but I have been trying to resist and I want to stop." I was taught from my trainer that they have to be living the WOW for 3 weeks before they are baptized. I started out by tell him that I understand how hard it is for him. I told him that if someone asked me to stop eating something like cereal or bread that I would probably have a hard time giving it up. I really wanted him to not feel like we were getting mad at him for slipping up. I felt like I handled it really well. I told him that in order for him to get baptized he needed to be living the WOW for 3 weeks and that since he has still been drinking we need to change his baptismal date. I was really nice in telling him all of this. I told him that it's no big deal to change it and because he slipped up that wont stop him from getting baptized. I didn't think he would flip oh but he did!! BIG TIME!! He said doesn't God know that I am trying? I feel like nothing I do is good enough. We tried everything to calm him down but nothing worked. Sister Bell said to me "Do you think President would make an exception to the 3 weeks if Tommy commits today to stop drinking?" I said "Probably." We snagged the Elders' Quorm President (who happens to be about 29 and is Tommy's friend) and asked him about the 3 week rule and if he had that rule on his mission. He told us that in the baptismal questions it doesn't ask "Have you been living the WOW for 3 weeks?" It just says "Are you committed to live the WOW?" That got us thinking... Where did the 3 week rule come from? Is it just a myth that has been passed down from trainer to trainer? We told Tommy that we would talk to our district leader and that everything would work out. We told him that we were so proud of him and he has come so far. Tommy was really, really mad. We sent him to Elders Quorm and hoped for the best. After church we couldn't find Tommy and turns out that he peaced because he was so mad. We talked to Elder Meza and he said that President doesn't go by the 3 week rule. That was the old President's rule. That's great news right? Tommy can get baptized on the date that he prayed about. On the way home from church we called Tommy 10 times and he didn't answer. Oh no! He can't go into hiding. Finally he answered and we had an hour long talk with us. He said that because the 3 week rule can just change he is now uncertain about everything else we have been teaching him. He is concerned that because we didn't know the 3 week rule that how can he be sure that we didn't understand anything else that we have been teaching him? YIKES!! I told him that he has been praying about it and that he has felt the Spirit testify to him that the things he has learned are true. He told us that we had broken his trust in us as missionaries. That broke my heart. I have done so much to build trust with Tommy. I started to cry and Sister Bell had to talk to him on the phone. He said that he doesn't want to learn from us anymore and he wants to learn from someone that he can trust. He said that he is going to start learning from Kevin (The EQP). I seriously felt like I was getting broken up with. My heart was broken. I would never want to do anything to someone that would take them further away from Heavenly Father. I felt so bad. After we hung up the phone Sister Bell and I just laid on the floor crying. We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father for advice. We called Kevin and he is going to have lunch with Tommy and explain to him that we have been called as missionaries by a prophet of God. We wouldn't be allowed to be missionaries if God knew we were going to go out and lie to people. He is going to tell Tommy that it is not his calling to teach Tommy the missionary lessons. Kevin is so great. This will work out. Heavenly Father will take care of Tommy. 

That was my week! It was full of ups and downs. We are having a really hard time finding people to teach. No one wants to listen to us. We don't know what we are going to do after Tommy gets baptized. We will have a lot of free time. haha! Please pray for Tommy. Also will you pray that this week Sister Bell and I will find someone that is prepared to hear the gospel? I love all of you and thanks for everything that you do! I love being a missionary. It is so great! I love you all so much and I miss you. 

Sister Frampton!

four months!

Ahh I have basically no time this week. Yikes!! Thanks for all the emails this week. I love hearing all the updates from home. Since I have zero time to write here are the highlights from this week:

Tommy has been in Hawaii all week. We have been really nervous for him to go there so we ended up fasting a day for him. We don't want him to go back to partying and girls. We had his friend Abinadai constantly watch Tommy's Facebook and give us updates on anything shady that he sees. So far he hasn't seen anything yet. No pictures of Tommy drinking or nasty girls hanging all over him. Yay! We are so proud of Tommy!! He gets home tomorrow. I'll be able to relax after tomorrow. The ward assigned him home teachers to get him ready for after he is baptized. He is excited about that. His baptism is March 16th. I am so excited!!!!  

I have a stalker named Theo. We met him at the library. We taught him twice and he came to church last week. He has been texting me 40 times each day. He is crazy. He gave me a present and professed his love for me. It was a wooden box with a huge bible in it. haha. Every time we go to the library he is always there. Creepy. I have our new Site director call him and we haven't gotten any texts from him today so it seems like he has gotten the message. Oh the people you find when you are in Painesville Ohio.

We started setting up a table at Lake Erie College. It has been really fun to talk to college kids for a few hours each day. We went to the craft store on Saturday and we bought bright paper and a foam board to make a huge wheel that will have all types of questions about Mormons on it. The kids can spin and win prizes. We think they will love it. Our ward is having a talent show coming up so we are presenting it to the college as a "community" talent show. Hopefully we can get people to come to it. 

My companion is great! I love her so much. We have a lot of fun together. This week the prize goes to Aunt Cari. She is the only one I got a paper letter from this week so thanks Cari. I am not sick anymore and life is really good here. I love being a Visitors' Center missionary. I am currently teaching 2 people over the phone at the center. Will you all please pray for Tommy this week? I love you all so much!!! Thanks for the support!

Lacee

Transfer #3

Hello Family! I am so happy that I heard from EVERYONE this week! Tell Austin that I got his letter and his picture. Thanks so much dude! This week has been really great. Change is good. I've taken on a lot of responsibility this week. Sister Hansen got transferred to Kirtland and Sister Bell is my new companion. I love her so much. I knew her from working at Sites. She is from Utah as well. Her and I get along really well and she is a hard worker. Since she is new to Painesville I was the one that took over. I am now the driver of the car (kinda scary when there is huge sheets of ice covering the roads). It is up to me to decide who we are going to stop by and who we are going to schedule with (since she doesn't know anyone). Also with Sister Hansen she has a GPS that got us around. I don't have one so I have been relying on my memory to get us around Painesville. Painesville is 30 minutes away from Kirtland. I've been way impressed with myself that I have been able to get us to and from Painesville without getting lost. This is going to be a really good transfer. It is so weird that I have been out 4 months. 

On Monday after our P day ended we went around Painesville saying bye to people in the ward (because Sister Hansen was getting transferred). The members seem glad that I am staying in the ward.

On Tuesday we were at Sites. We spent the day emailing and calling people. No tours came in.

Wednesday was transfer day. I was so nervous to see who my new companion was. I know all of the Site sisters and they are great but it is scary to see who will come to you. I was worried about who would be best for Tommy since he can be a stinker sometimes. We went to transfer meeting and they go over all of the missionaries that are going home. Sister Tok was going home. I cried the whole meeting because I love her!!! PS she will be contacting you when you go to Hawaii so she can meet you all. Her phone number is: 808-276-1840. She knows all of the secrets of the Island so maybe she could take you all on a cool hike or something. I was happy when I was announced that I was taking over the area and Sister Bell was my new comppy. She is great!!!!!!!!!! We were at Sites on Wednesday so we took some time for me to explain the area to her and who is who in the ward.

Thursday was our first day in the area together. It was great. We did some stop bys so she could get to know the people. We ate at this authentic Mexican restaurant. Everyone is Mexican in Painesville. We have actually been asked to start learning Spanish. I can hold a small convo with someone I meet on the street and I can pray in Spanish. It's been fun to learn. Last week we met a rapper named Nino. We taught him at the library. He seems pretty cool. He is studying to be a J dubbb but we are showing him the truth. He is 21 with a 3 year old son that lives in Cali with the mom.

On Friday we spent most of the day helping a member named Rosa move. 

On Saturday we spent a good part of the day stopping by potential investigators. We had to run to the library to print off some things and we came across a kid named Theo. We took him up to a study room and taught him the first lesson. He is kinda crazy. I think he is 20. He didn't really understand what we were saying but he committed to come to church. We went out to eat with Tommy yesterday just to further build that relationship with him. It was a lot of fun to get to know him better so that we would know how to teach him better. We also had a lesson with Tommy and taught him more about baptism and about the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday we had Tommy and Theo come to church. So Tommy is doing amazing. He got up yesterday during Sacrament Meeting and bore his testimony. It was like a 10 minute testimony. It was sooo good!!!!!! He said that he has never felt this way before in any other church and that he knows that this is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is true and he announced that his baptismal date is March 16th. His testimony seriously made my mission. I am so proud of him. 

Everything is going great here! Thanks for all the support. I love you all so much.

Lacee

A week of miracles

Hello everyone that I love. It sounds like Dallin's gym opening went really well. Congrats everyone. Wow Dall! Big business man! Ya I got my meds. Crazy mix up but I finally got it all taken care of. This week was really good. We didn't tract as much as we did last week. We need people to teach!!! We were really able to see the Lord's hand in work this week. 

Monday January 7th

After P-day we had a lesson scheduled with Thomas at the library. We tried calling his phone to make sure he was still going to come but it said that his phone was disconnected. Something really weird about Ohio is that everyone has these phones called Obama phones. I have no idea what requires them to qualify for an Obama phone but everyone has one. It basically is a cell phone that has a preset amount of minutes and then when the minutes run out then you're on your own. That's the problem we see with a lot of people. They run out of their Obama minutes. Thomas didn't show up to the library so we went to his house. When he came to the door he was super confused. He had no idea that we were meeting. Weird because we clearly told him on Sunday that we were meeting. I felt really weird about it. He also told us that he is on probation and doesn't know when he will be off. Also he told us about his love for smoking pot. He also said that he is planning on moving to a state that has laws that aren't strict on marijuana. Nice! Pretty classy Thomas. We CLEARLY scheduled with him to meet Thursday at the library.

Tuesday January 8th

We were at Sites all day. No tours. We spent a lot of time calling people and emailing. We had 2 different people come onto chat. First Eric came on. He is taking a religion class in Alabama. Last week they had different religions come in and talk to the class. 2 elders came in and handed out Book of Mormons. Eric was really interested in learning more. We talked to him about our church and we scheduled to teach him the restoration over the phone on Wednesday. Cory was the 2nd person we chatted with. He used to be a Mormon but struggles with some doctrine. We also scheduled to teach him over the phone on Wednesday.

Wednesday January 9th

We were at Sites again. We had a really good phone lesson with Eric. We taught him the restoration and we committed him to going to church on Sunday. He said he would and he was excited to go. We scheduled to teach him again on Sunday when we were at Sites. We also talked with Cory. It went pretty good. I think he is just wanting to argue but we have to give him a chance.

Thursday January 10th

First thing this morning we had interviews with President. He is a funny man. Mine literally lasted 5 mins long. He looked at my planner and was impressed with all of the plans that we have set. He randomly picked a name that was in my planner and asked me to tell him as much as I knew about them. I was able to so I guess I passed. After that we tracted for a  bit. We didn't really find anyone that was interested. We stopped by some less actives to check up on them. We had a dinner appointment!!! We rarely get fed by the members. It was nice. We had an appointment scheduled with Thomas. Since he doesn't have a phone it is really hard for us to confirm appointments with him. We decided to go stake out at his house and watch and see if he gets in the car and goes to the library. It was actually really funny. We parked down the street and turned out lights off. It was a legit stake out... possibly boarder line stalking (?). He was outside piling wood or something. We waited until 10 mins after he was supose to be at the library and we drove off and then came back down and parked in front of his house. We knocked on the door and he said "Oh ya I thought I saw you guys down the street watching me." YIKES!!! Not good!!!! We were like uh...uh... no. He again was confused that we were meeting that night. He is really sketchy. Dang we thought he was so ready!!!!!!! We've decided that if he wants this he can come to us. We aren't here to beg people to listen to us. We are looking for people that are responsible and that will help build up the ward and be an asset to the people in the ward. 

Friday January 11

My companion has been having really weird stomach pains for the past week. We have no idea what is going on . She's been talking to President's wife and we think that it is time for her to probs go to the doctor. She spent most of the morning sleeping while I went though old teaching records and calling people to see if they were interested again in taking the lessons. I found a half filled out baptismal record. Weird!!! His teaching record was two full pages. I read that in between his baptism on Wednesday and his confirmation on Sunday he broke the law of chastity. After that he basically just dropped off the face of the earth. I had a good long conversation with him over the phone and he agreed to meet with us later that day. After my companion woke up I told her about Cameron and we went to his house. He came outside and we immediately felt the devil. He was telling us how he sold his soul to Satan and all of this weird stuff. We just turned around and walked off. See ya later Cameron. We've been staying in contact with Tommy still. He went to church last Sunday and he told us that all week he was reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We decided to call him when we got home. When he answered the phone he was screaming and swearing. He told us that he just got finished at CrossFit and he had thrown his back out. He said that he was laying on the floor face down. We decided to just say a prayer with him and we would call back in the morning. I said the prayer. I asked for his back to please be healed so that he could keep working this week. At the end Sister Hansen and I said Amen but he didn't. We were like uh.. Tommy, you are supose to say Amen. He said I am in shock! I am in shock. He said that during the prayer he felt a warm tingling in his body and felt all of his pain taken away. He said that he was jumping to see if his back still hurt and he said the pain was 100% gone! How cool is that? My prayer healed someone. I told him that because he was reading every day and because he was praying that Heavenly Father blessed him. We asked him if he would pray about a baptismal date. He committed to doing that. So cool!! 

Saturday January 12

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN SOMETHING IN THE MAIL FROM ME. IF NOT THEN IT IS COMING! We spent some of the morning putting a package together for Tommy. We wrote down tons of scriptures that would help him. We wrote our testimonies and put those in. I included Hilary's husband's conversation story. To be funny we put in these coloring pages of Joseph Smith. We also put together a Book of Mormon studying kit. We wrapped it up and put a huge bow on it. We have a really good relationship with Tommy. When we gave it to him he started to get teary eyed. He hasn't ever had anyone show that they care about him before. It was so awesome. We had a really good lesson with him. He loves reading the Book of Mormon. He knows that he is getting blessed because he is doing it. We asked him if he prayed about a baptismal date and he said he hadn't. He said he was scared of getting an answer. Come on Tommy! We recommitted him to praying about a baptismal date. He told us that he couldn't come to church because he was working.

Sunday January 13

We watched the CES devotional at sites. We invited Tommy to come and he did!!!!!!! If you didn't see the devotional then I ask you to read it right now. I swear it was tailored just for Tommy. President Uchtdorf talked about casting out our doubts and turning to the Lord. That was exactly what Tommy needed to hear. Lately as a missionary I have been really bold with people. People need to hear it straight up. After the devotional we sat out on the couches with Tommy. I asked him "So did you pray about a baptismal date?" He said that he did. He said that he was confused because he didn't get a specific date but he got the number 16 in his head. We opened our planners and February 16th is the day that we had been hoping Tommy would get baptized. We told him that and he was so happy. He was beaming. I asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptized February 16th. He said yes and the spirit was so strong. He kept saying I get it now!! A really cool senior couple came and sat by us (the ones you met over skype. The prison warden). We told Tommy to tell them his good news and he said " I am getting baptized February 16th." He was stoked!! He really is gonna do it now. He finally gets it. Please keep praying for Tommy that his desire to be baptized won't go away!

My week was really good this week. I love you all so much. I guess since I'm a missionary I can hop up on my box and get mad at everyone that doesn't read the Book of Mormon every single day. Here is a really good quote that I heard last week in church: 

 “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. … Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness. Marion G. Romney 

Since a few people that get my letters aren't parents you can tailor it to your life. If you want to be happy READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you want peace in your life READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. How simple is that? Just 5  mins. a day.

I love you all and miss you so much!

Lacee Rae

Week 13

Hello everyone. It sounds like everything is going so good back at home. It sounds like Dallin's gym is going to be awesome. Congrats Dall! Thanks for the WODs Dall. All the sisters tried one of them one morning and we were laying dead on the gym floor. You would have been laughing at us (or probably yelling at us to keep going). So this week Dad gets the golden star. He answered all the questions I asked him to answer so thanks Pops. I don't have a lot of time this week to write because we decided to take a nap earlier today.

This week we tracted 8 hours. The record for Kirtland Visitor Center sisters is 10 hours. We will probably get that this week because no one will meet with us or they end up not being there when we go for an appointment. Tracting is seriously so funny. We have been knocking on the doors really hard and fast so that people will come to the door quite and think it is something "urgent." Duh we do have an urgent message to share with them. The funniest thing happened. A lady opened the door and we asked her how she was doing and she said good. Then we started our  little schpeel and she started closing her door saying "what? I can't hear you." I laughed for a good 10 mins. I was freezing this week!!!!!!! I was so cold that my face started to freeze and I couldn't talk once we knocked on the door. Nothing seems to help. I wore 3 pairs of socks this week and toe warmers and hand warmers in my gloves and 3 sweaters but it is so cold here. (p.s. thanks for the box dad.)

We are still meeting with Thomas. This week he told us that he had a dream. In that dream he saw a man hiding a gold book in the side of the mountain. Next to the man he saw 3 indians. We hadn't given Thomas a Book of Mormon so there is no way he could have known about Moroni or the 3 Nephites. We literally sat there with our mouths wide open. It was crazy. God answered his prayer and because of that dream Thomas knows that 100% he needs to join this church. How cool is that? Keep praying for him. He keeps making comments that makes us think he's on probation. You can't get baptized if you're on probation so please please pray that he isn't. I will cry if he is. 

We decided to stop by Tommy's house one last time. He has been ignoring us all week.We decided we were going to stop by and have a DTR with him. Basically it was going to be a "take it or leave it" conversation. He's been meeting with missionaries for a year now. It's so funny- he knows the routine that we can't be in his house alone with him so whenever we show up he grabs his coat and comes out to the porch. He told us that he feels great when he is with us and then after we leave he feels like Satan is strangling him. He said that he feels so alone. I felt so bad for him that I started crying on his front porch. It was really weird. I am not a crier. He could tell how badly I wanted him to have the peace that the church can offer. A little light went off in him and he started to see that he needs to get his butt in gear. He ended up coming to church on Sunday and it was a really good experience for him. We are meeting with him this week so hopefully It goes somewhere this week. We are going to commit him to baptism but have him pray to know what date he should go through with it. I really want him to get baptized.

We aren't teaching anyone else at the moment. Also the historic sites are DEAD!!!!!!!! No one comes for tours. The nativity exhibit is over. The Kirtland temple is closed so people assume we are closed as well. This is what every single person that is reading this needs to do. NO ACCEPTIONS!!!! Send me the name and phone number of someone who is less active or a nonmember. We spend all day calling those types of people. You will receive blessings if you give me referrals to call. I wont tell them that you gave me their name. It will be anonymous. Promise!

I love you all so much. This week pray for Thomas and Tommy!!!! Thanks for all of your letters this week. Enjoy the pictures. The one picture is of me at Lake Erie.

xoxo, Sister Frampton

Ring in the New Year

Hello Hello! Well this week's email will be a little bit different because I wasn't able to email last week because I was able to SEE everyone! So I'm sorry that all the details from last week will go untold but hopefully this week will make up for it. In everyone's next email they need to answer these questions for me 1. What did people get for Christmas? 2. How was Christmas Eve? Did the kids watch Santa Claus? Where did people sleep? Did the kids get my letter about Christmas Eve? 3. Dall I need wedding deets- What temple? Reception? What is the date again? 4. When is everyone going to Hawaii? My house mate Sister Tok is from Maui and she hula's at the Grand Wialeia. She wants to meet you if she gets home in time. She goes home Jan 30.

This week we "broke up" with Cynthia, Marcos, Luis and Maleik. They weren't keeping their appointments with us and they were wasting our time. We went over to their house and we had "the break up" talk. We basically said "call us when you're ready." We also "broke up" with Rico and Christine. They were being really flaky as well. We have stopped contact with Tommy. He has been ignoring us lately. Rude people!!!!!

This week it snowed so much!!! Look at how deep the snow is in the picture I attached. It is crazy! The cold here is so different then in Utah. It seriously gets you to the bone. Burrrr! Last week we had a snow day. It was a white out blizzard. I had never seen one before but it is so cool. We weren't allowed to leave our apartments so we sat and called people that had been taught years ago to see if they were interested in us coming back and teaching them. Our new service idea has been to shovel people's walks. WORST IDEA EVER!!! People here in Ohio don't shovel walks. They think well it's just going to keep snowing so what's the point. We started on one person's drive way and we found out that there is about a foot of solid ice underneath the powder. The family already saw us start shoveling so we couldn't just bail. You should have seen us banging out plastic shovels on the ice to try and crack it. I got so sweaty. I ended up taking all of my snow clothes off. I got an idea rummaged around on the family's porch and found a hammer. I can just imagine how funny I must have looked: hammering away at a drive way while I'm wearing a skirt and huge snow boots. After an hour we finally got most of the ice chipped away and clear. We looked back at the drive way and it was already completely covered with snow. I woke up the next day and my back and arms hurt SO bad from hacking away at the ice. 

We tracted a little this week. We found the most prepared guy named Thomas. He is a 27 year old, Harley dude. We knocked on his door and he said that tons of people come and knock on his door and he would never listen to them but he felt like we were people that he needed to listen to. He told us that the night before he was praying and asking for direction in his life. He took it as a "sign" that we showed up. We taught him all about the Restoration on Saturday. He loved it and totally understood it. He even prayed at the end of the lesson. He told us that he wanted to come to church. He said that he didn't really have any church clothes and he asked us if sometime we could go shopping with him to buy some. He is already willing to spend time and money on church clothes! He is so prepared! He came to church yesterday and HE BROUGHT A FRIEND! WHAT UP HE IS ALREADY AN MISSIONARY! I was so stressed. I was crossing my fingers that the talks wouldn't be anything weird. All of the talks were perfect for him and he was eating it up. After Sacrament Meeting he walked right up to the speakers and shook their hands and told them that he loved their talks. The elders were subbing for Sunday school so it was perfect. We have a little class that new members and investigators can go to. The elders basically just taught to our investigator and his friend. Thomas leaned over to me and he said and I quote "All of the questions that I've had are all getting answered." JACKPOT!!!! Then for the 3rd hour we had combined R.S. and Priesthood because it was the 5th Sunday. Bishop talked about goals and really motivated us to become better people. Then at the end Bishop challenged the whole ward to read the Book of Mormon this year. He talked about all the blessings the Book can bring us. Then Bishop asked who wants those blessings in their life? Thomas threw up both hands and was stoked! He leaned over and said "Where can I buy this book?" We gave him a copy and he was in Heaven. We are meeting with him again tonight. During our first lesson with him we committed him to being baptized Feb 23.Yesterday he asked if he could get baptized sooner! He is a champ. This is my first person that I have found, taught and baptized. It's exciting. PRAY FOR THOMAS. PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT HE WILL KEEP HAVING THE DESIRE TO BE BAPTIZED. 

That is basically all that went on this week. It was a weird week with it being Christmas and then having a snow day. Mom- will you make sure to tell Grandma Schaar that I say thanks for the money and card. Also tell Kathy thanks for the story and the decoration and Linda thanks for the present. That was so nice of everyone to think of me. It is weird to hear that Grandma's house might get sold. So sad! I love that house. Oh well. I guess it's time. What else is going on at home? I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and miss you so much. Don't forget that I also like to get letters in the mail. It's fun to get those!! 

Sister Frampton

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