Hey Everybody!

Elder Frame here and just wanting to let you all know that it's been the good life out here in good 'ol

California.  It's perfect weather right now!  I love it so much! ("It" as in the weather and the good life!)

It's been a great week!  Working like crazy, the World-wide Missionary Training, President Interviews, Teaching, Testifying, and just feeling the spirit like crazy!  Such a great life!  It's no wonder that people always tell you that they enjoyed their missions so much!  I've found throughout my mission that everything that people have told me it would be has come to pass and more!  It's been the best thing ever.  Haha, I think I say that every week, but it's true. Don't think I'm just saying it out of habit or just to sound good.  It's honestly been the best, hardest, funnest, and craziest thing I've ever done in my life.  I can say that I've truly found who I am and who I'm supposed to be through this.

Matthew 16:25

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

It's the same thing for everyone.  We are Christians and saints 7 days of the week.  Not 3 hours of one day.  We as members of the true church know that we've made a covenant to ALWAYS remember Him.  That's exact obedience to His commandments.  As we lose our lives in striving to be like Him, we become like Him.  We fulfill the meaning of our creation.  We fulfill our divine potential.  It's pretty sweet to think about.  It's so hard to do though.  That's why "many are called, but few are chosen."  All of us believe the message and are baptized promising to strive for perfection.  Sometimes we can't handle the promise though.  Do I really have to go to church for ALL 3 hours?  Watching the Superbowl is the ONLY exception to the rule right? There are many others that I've heard.  You might just say I'm a missionary high on the spirit or something, but it's the truth. 

EVERY LITTLE THING MATTERS. 

Exact obedience is not a missionary thing.  It's what we need to be striving for daily and if we aren't, well, we are breaking our baptismal covenant.  Constant improvement.  Constant progression.  The prophets have prophesied that it would be hard and many would fail.  Let's not be the ones that fail.  ACT on what the spirit tells you to change.  REPENT. BECOME.  It's the gospel message.

I don't know if you all like my "soap box" emails.  I'm just kinda barfing out what I learned or what's been on my mind this week.  Hopefully you all find it helpful!  Haha.  I'm out of time this week, but I do want to add some info on some other things like investigators or funny stories or something....

Anyways, LOVE YALL!

Elder Frame

WE DIE….. TOGETHER!!!!

In the mission there are terms that we use and when we say someone is ending their mission it means they are dying…. Well you can guess our transfer from the title! HOW CRAZY! Hermana Campoverde and I stay together for our LAST change…. WOWOWOWOWOW! I am still freaking out! We are SO happy, but it is going to be an adventure of six weeks! But we are doing so well!

I don’t have a ton of time this week but a great experience that we had last night. We are teaching Mabel who is an investigator and her husband is less active. BUT he didn’t want anything to do with us for the whole transfer until LAST NIGHT!!! WAHOO!!!! We are so excited though. Out of a miracle he accepted a visit from us with his wife. I just want to say that it is because of the prayers that have been given. As a district we pray for the investigators, less actives, and those that we are focusing on in each companionship every night. We pray for them individually with their needs, and it has brought miracles… Just like last night. I know God listens to us. He loves each of  his children, and listens. He answers in HIS time. We all know that. But I know He is in this work. It is His work.

Well, this week has brought a lot of crazy normal missionary experiences. I have to go! And just so you know. I LOVE PUNO.

Hermana Frame

Pics

We did splits, and I was with Hermana Miceli! SHE IS INCREDIBLE. We had an awesome day together… but one crazy experience we had was that the first councilor in our ward owns a store below our house and we went to buy something and he just told us… Mario died. I was like… What? I thought I heard right… But yeah, we had been visiting a less active with his wife and we actually had an appointment that day  to meet with them but he told us that he had a heart attack and died the day before. I just went into shock. It was hard to swallow. But we went to his funeral and it was so good… So comforting to have the gospel and to know it is not the end.

Some beautiful pics of….. the lake Titikaka! We stopped by super fast last Monday to snap some pics! It is so pretty!

We eat this plate when our pension doesn’t want to cook. It is a normal Peruvian dish… Rice, a fried egg, fried banana and hotdogs. I actually like it… if you wanted to know. 

But also this week Hermana Tirrell was with us and our pension served a soup with fish… Like whole fish. She was not too fond of it. I didn’t have a problem, so grateful I literally can eat anything. Good thing I came to a 3rd world country.

We are teaching an older couple that is from Arequipa! They are so cute! We had to snap a few pics this week as we visited them.

Samuel… Him and his white hat. He loves it! But he is a convert that we visit frequently. He is so funny and we enjoy being with him…

My companion had her teeth worked on. She almost had a root canal… WHEW! But we were there for a good hour and a half!

Random wedding we went to for like 10 minutes. It is a couple my companion taught in another sector here in Puno. Fun to see the different traditions.

Typical Peruvian house here in Puno…

Good morning from California!

I just wanted to share some personal revelation I received this week!

I had a great personal study and following it, a great companionship study with Elder Horrocks the other day. I studied the talk by President Eyring called The Holy Ghost as Your Companion from last conference. It is a talk that changed who I am. I've realized that we can receive, in my opinion, two types of promptings: chastising promptings or progressive promptings. Both are for our benefit. We as human beings are always changing from the choices we make and just like the scriptures tell us it's always either making us better or tearing us down. Obedience is such a key focus because the Holy Ghost will operate to us according to our obedience. For example, when we disobey any rule or commandment, the Holy Ghost will chastise us with promptings to repent and try to get us to be more obedient. We will grow as we fix those problems we created by being disobedient but we lose the opportunity to receive promptings to help others because the Holy Ghost is trying to help us fix US so THEN we can go help fix others later. When we are exactly obedient we leave the conduit open and clean for the Holy Ghost to give us promptings to help others, which in turn helps us grow and progress on a whole new level. There's no other things the Holy Ghost has to get us to fix before we can go help others. We're there, ready, and willing. I would say that's reason enough to be exactly obedient as a person and especially as a missionary. So, I as a person have to be exactly obedient to leave the way open for the Holy Ghost to prompt me to help others, to find those ready to receive the gospel and to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ over all.

Hopefully that made sense to all of you..... Just pray about it.  You'll get it.

It's been such great week out here on the mission again and I'm looking forward to another awesome week out here in the mission!  I love it so much and I would be happy to be here for forever!  It's so fulfilling and I love it so much!

Love you all!

Elder Frame

Forgiveness

This week was such a good week for me. I feel like I say that every week but in particular I have had the time of my life… not because everything went right but because I learned so many good things.

As you all know we went to Macchu Picchu and it has been such a highlight and my companion and I cannot get over how awesome it was. It was a long day though! But it was a chance in a lifetime.

The next day we had concilio and it was SO good. President had a few announcements that everyone was practically jumping up and down with excitement…

PRESIDENT HOLLAND IS COMING TO OUR MISSION IN FEBRUARY!

 I freaked out when he told all of us! We are all so excited and it is such a privilege.  But my stomach dropped when President asked me in front of the whole council to prepare a musical number for when he comes. Wow, we will see what comes of it but wow! Such a privilege. I can say that I have never played the piano in front of an apostle before…. Whew what an adventure.

But president also announced that we will all have the privilege to have cell phones! It is not too new for me as I have had one for a bit now, but we are so excited to all be able to communicate and in the work as well.

This week I have learned so much about the atonement and how we use it to recognize our wrongs, correct what is right, forgive others, and forget when we have repented. I teach so much about repentance every day in my mission but to be able to have applied it in a serious way really helped me understand what our investigators go through, and what we all need to go through to be clean. My companion and I had a few rough days at the beginning of the week. It doesn’t matter what happened or who, or what. The most important is that we both needed to talk, forgive, and forget. I never have felt so bad about doing something, and it weighed on me so much… But the moment that I turned it over, asked for repentance, and moved forward I felt such peace. And I will never forget what it felt like to be forgiven by my companion. She understands the Atonement. She understands how to love others. She is probably one of the most incredible missionaries I have met. We have such a strong relationship and I know it is because we have applied the Atonement. I will miss her SO MUCH when we part it is in indescribable. The gift of the Atonement cures, strengthens, and motivates us to become someone we never thought we could be. I know that when we apply the Atonement we can get rid of all the mistakes we have made, have a new start, and really find the peace and happiness that we need in this life.

I am not a perfect person. I want everyone to know that. I did not do anything horrible. Haha, as I read the last paragraph it really sounds crazy bad. But just know that in every aspect of our life we need to understand and apply the Atonement. I am so grateful for the forgiveness that not only my companion has for me but the Lord. He forgives us of all that we have done wrong, as long as we look to the Savior, and truly with a broken heart change to become the person He wants us to be. I invite each one of you, no matter what has happened, who you have been, or who you are… to apply the atonement TODAY. Stop doing things that impede you of having the spirit, forgive someone, ask for forgiveness, strive to become better… I promise that you will see miracles.

I love this gospel. It is everything we need to live happy lives and to be clean. It not only helps us spiritually, but physically, emotionally, mentally, and economically. I love it with all of my heart.

Until next week!

Hermana Frame

Pics

These are a few pics of Sicuani! We did exchanges with the sisters there… it is so beautiful with all the mountains and greenery.

We went to eat in a polleria and I literally was as tall as the ceiling! WHAT! Haha I always feel like a giant here in Peru!

Us in Puno in the freezing cold rain, but loving every bit of it!

Haha I was laughing so hard with the chickens just hanging out on the edge of the building.

 Us having fun taking pics in our sector here in Puno…

Sorry! No pics from this last week… I am having so many problems with viruses and hoping to get it all fixed this next week… Love you all!

Machu Picchu and Watson

Well, this is going to be really fast today... BUT WE WENT TO MACHU PICCHU TODAY! IT WAS INCREDIBLE. I can’t even describe it. We got there and I was so excited... Oh man it was better than Christmas! What a blessing it is to be here and that president has given us permission to go while we are here. I loved it! There is so much to say but not enough time. But let’s just say that I enjoyed being with some of my best friends and to enjoy a part of the Incan culture that I never realized was so.... AMAZING. I am sure I will be able to talk a lot more about it later. It was so beautiful and I loved learning about the history of peru. It reminded me so much of Quillabamba... oh how I loved it. But I am so tired. I have been up since 2 am this morning and we have concilio tomorrow so it will be a crazy week.

I had a good week though with many ups and downs. But the miracle that happened was that we were able to teach an investigator named Watson... AND HE CAME TO CHURCH. You might laugh at this because you might be a regular in the sacrament meeting, but for an investigator is something that takes a lot of faith... you don’t know a lot of people, EVERYTHING is new, and it feels like everything is thrown at you all at once. But the best part is that the people change in an instant when they go. So many missionaries have been teaching Watson and I was finally able to really testify and find a way for him to come. During the lesson I flat out said... Whatever it is we can figure out a way for you to go. In that moment I realized that truly it all comes together when he ACTS and comes to church. We were able to teach a lot about the sacrament and the importance.... I felt the spirit so strong and I know he did too. By the end of the lesson he stopped with excuses, and even though he is timid, HE CAME.

 I love worrying about people coming to church and when I see them there, and when I see the change in them it makes me so happy... wow I sound crazy but it is true! I want to extend the invitation to remind yourself  WHY you take the sacrament and what it does for you in your everyday life. I love my calling, I love being a missionary. 

Well, I have to go! Love you all and have a great week!

Hermana Frame

AWESOME.

It's been another week of AWESOME! How can it not be?!  I'm a representative of Jesus Christ out here in California preaching change and repentance to sinners in order to help them save their souls from eternal damnation.  It's so fun.

It's been a great learning week and bear with me while I just throw it all out there on the table.

President Monson has a great quote and it goes like this: "I just want the Lord to know if He wants something done, He can count on Tommy Monson to do it!" What he said really hit me. I need to be the person that the Lord will always be able to say, "I can count on Jackson Frame. I know he'll get the job done. He's diligent and has shown me by the way he lives he wants to be a part of my hastening of the work."  That trust is earned by the way we live.

There's a song in Spanish I really love and that I've listened to throughout this week. It's called Here Am I. I just want to share the chorus with yall:

You don't have to look for anyone else,
I want to go.
Here is my time, here are my hours,
Here am I.
My life is for you and to you I'll give all my time
Here are my hands as well as my voice.
Here am I.
Here am I.

There it is roughly translated, but it really has made me think about Christ volunteering Himself, willingly and in place of us, to suffer.  He knew he was the only one to be able to do it.  He gave everything to us. EVERYTHING. He left nothing out.  He, in sports language, "left it all on the court." He was always there, is always there and will always be there for us. Have I been, am I being and will I always be there for him? It's a choice I need to make and you need to make.  Most of us made that choice when we were baptized but we fail time and time again to ALWAYS be there for our Lord.  That's why sacrament is so important.  You promise every single week to ALWAYS remember him.  You promise and re-promise.  That's why there's an emphasis on the sacrament.  It can't be an empty promise. God knows our hearts.  He will not be mocked.  Our covenant to the Lord is of eternal import and is of such importance that we should stop for a minute and consider if we are honoring our covenants to the best of our abilities.  Onward and upward!  That's why the new year is so refreshing!  New goals.  New page to turn. Make some goals to honor your covenants more and GO GET IT DONE!

*Steps off soap box.*

So yeah.  It's been great and I've loved this past week and we are working with some stellar people!  Namely the Avila family, and a kid named Chris.  I LOVE teaching people who sincerely want to learn about the gospel!  It's SO AWESOME! (I keep saying awesome because I'm having a hard time coming up with bigger and better words... that's why caps come in handy.)

Anyway.  Love you all, have great weeks, pray read take sacrament repeat, remember who you are, don't do anything stupid, be what you are meant to be, and don't ever forget you've always got someone to lean on!

Elder Frame

2016. A Year for His Work!

Hey Everybody!

It's Elder Frame and it's a new year!  That's what I'm talking about!  It's going to be a year to remember!

I'm sorry to report that we had no exciting stories from the new year’s.  We had a rule that we had to go back to the apartment at 8:00 and study extra.  It was good.  I'm reading a book called Following Christ.  It's a follow up book to Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson.  It is so good.  I realize that there are a lot things that I didn't realize might be a stumbling block to enduring to the end for us as humans.  He also gave me a huge insight into how the Fall of Adam and Eve affects us in our daily lives! It's super cool and a super good read!  I love it!

Oh yeah! Here’s a super cool experience we had with a guy named Joe! Joe was a member referral from a sister in one of the wards here in Visalia. She met Joe getting him on board for her business venture and he expressed interest in her church. He said that she's the first Mormon he's met and as he's "gotten himself into a business venture with a Mormon," he'd better find out what they do. He wanted a Book of Mormon which we gladly gave to him and set an appointment with him. During that second appointment he told us another man they were talking to in Texas with a really successful business in crops ended up being a branch President for our church too. He told us he's looking for God in all of that and he finds it funny that right when he started looking for God, this business venture popped up and he started having a lot of random run ins with Mormons. It's just a testimony to me that God really is hastening his work and we can be a part of it as we strive to be the prepared servants that the Lord can send to meet those prepared people.

Anyways, it's been another week of supremely awesome missionary work.  I love it so much.  I know that this is the Lord's work and it's been a huge privilege to be a part of it for the past year and a half.  I know that God is in the details of our lives.  He leaves little breadcrumbs pointing us back to him everywhere.  We just need to be in tune enough to see them.  Keep doing the small things and you'll start seeing them in every aspect of your life.

I love you all!  You all are such unique examples to me and I really appreciate that!  Keep the faith!

Elder Frame

1: Good ol' Elder Salomon leaving!  He's from Mexico City!  Great missionary and friend!

2:  The rest are just stuff we did in the Sequoia National park.  It was sweet!  There was snow

.

other fun!

Igloo!

there are 6 of us in there!

Thank you Josefina!

Not too much this week! It was a normal missionary week, well except for the New Year… but as a missionary it is like a normal day… but I loved it! This week we were able to do divisions with 2 sets of Hermana’s and it was great. I learn so much from each one that I serve with. They all have so much to bring from their past experiences and they are all so amazing… I will be honest. The sisters DO NOT need to serve missions, but when they do I know that Heavenly Father is so happy. I am not saying that all girls need to serve, but I can testify that God loves his missionaries, the elders and the sisters. The lord loves his missionaries. I have felt that so much here in the mission.

I want to share a story about this New Year’s Eve… it was such a touching story. It is about a mother named Josefina. She lives right across the street from us and on New Year’s Eve we bought a rotisserie chicken and needed to warm it up and we know that she had a microwave so we ran across the street in our slippers and without nylons on. We were so cold! But she invited us in and as it was warming up we were able to get to know her more. She has 8 kids that we all born here in Puno, and right after she had her last baby she decided to leave her husband that was an alcoholic. She literally had 5 soles, almost 2 dollars. She lived very poor for a while but started a small restaurant, a pension as it’s called in Peru, and began to provide for her kids. There was a frequent visitor that would come after he would get back from studying that would just want cold water to drink. She would always try to give him coffee or tea but he always refused. One day she asked why and he told her that it is because he was a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and began to explain a little bit more. She accepted to meet with missionaries, and was baptized within two weeks. Now, she has had 4 or 5 of her children serve missions, and all of them are leaders in the ward I am in right now, or close in other wards in the stake. What a testimony to me. She is incredible. She was a pensionista for almost 20 years and has always served as a faithful member, and mother. She explained that it was because of one member that was an example, that LIVED his religion. She was at a point in her life that let her receive the missionaries and she thanks him to this day.

 It made me really think about the examples that we are to others. We do not know who is watching. We don’t know what impact we can make. I know that we are meant to be “examples of the believers”, and “a light” for those that are in need.

Read the scriptures in Matthew 5:16 and 1 Timothy 4:12. They are very well known but read them, study them and improve something today that will help you shine brighter, and help others come unto Christ. President Monson said in his last talk in conference… As we follow the example of the savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light in the lives of others. I love being a missionary. I know that being an example of the believers brings me happiness, as well as others.

Well, have a great week! I love you all! Happy 2016!

Hermana Frame

Pics

Our New Year’s eve dinner! It was super good! And we chatted about our last year here in the mission. 2015 I was able to be a missionary every day. 365 days 24/7. It has been the best year of my life.

Visiting brought pretty views of Puno! And we found an arch that I loved! It was built in the 1800´s.

Teaching two cute abuelitos. They literally have so much faith and read their scriptures every day. AND…. They collect bottles to sell, which brings in probably 20 soles, 8 dollars a week and he still pays his tithing. INCREDIBLE.

Our pensions husband paints masks. They are getting ready for all the festivities that will happen in the next two months.

My companion received a gift from an elder for Christmas. SHE FREAKED! Just so everyone knows THIS IS COMPLETELY AGAINST THE RULES. I died laughing. She was not happy… and she definitely made it known to the zone leaders. It says on the front… be careful… fragil… like my heart. Oh wow I was fuming when they told me to give it to her, but laughing my head off when she was mad… we will be giving it to president this week.. .Haha!

Still loving the glow and the darks mom!