Pics today

My Happy Birthday shout out photo to Hermana Frame down in Peru.

Elder Street with the Elder's baby.

The other Elder's on Elder Street.

Elder Agazzani and I.

PICS

 
We were able to go to a waterfall that was beautiful!!! It is called

siete tinajas which translates to seven large earthen jars. So pretty!
We had a bunch of fun taking pics and trying to NOT jump in… Haha the
one rule that has been hard here in Quillabamba because we want to
swim every day because we are sweating our faces off! But, we didn’t
and we were content enjoying the greenery of the jungle. I sometimes I
forget where I really am… Haha! But yeah, the lady told us before that
we shouldn’t go up because it is a little dangerous but IF we did to
be careful. Of course Hermana Hoskins and I just decided to go up.
Adventure! YES PLEASE! But, as you see the ladder was really iffy and
ants were crawling all over it and you can’t see it but I got bit by
mosquitos the whole time going up and going down! Oh but it was fun
and gorgeous and such a fun opportunity!

This week we were also able to do an activity with the YW and we
taught them all how to do different kinds of braids. It was a blast!
They loved us! All the braiding while getting ready for my sports
games in high school paid off!

Also the Elders had a great baptism that we were able to help and
attend! It is always great to see someone enter the waters of baptism
and start a new journey, new life, new everything. The gospel changes
people, and in such an amazing way.

So, I have to start out with a funny story this week. I have been
crazy busy these last few weeks, sorry! But it was definitely a Madi
moment.. Or should I say Hermana Frame moment? Haha! We were walking
up to an appointment for our first appointment of the day and we ended
up walking by one of our members house and as we got closer we
recognized that our Zone Leaders were helping her paint the outside of
her house so of course I am not a loud OR outgoing person… Of course
not… Yeah, if you know me that is so not true. As we were passing I
started to say Buenos Dias Elders! And as I was saying this I did not
happen to see a hole right in front of me, totally twisted my ankle
and we both started laughing so hard. Awkward! Luckily I got up,
walked it off and laughed a little bit more as we walked to our
appointment as Hermana Hoskins tried not to hyperventilate because she
was laughing so hard! Fun fact about Peru is that there are holes all
over in the sidewalks. NOT COOL! Well, as for right now each time we
walk anywhere my eyes are glued to the ground!

Oh my food experience this week has been an adventure as well! I ate
chicken intestines, the heart, the stomach and everything else
in-between! I have just figured out that you never ask what you are
eating before you eat it. You ALWAYS ask after because then you don’t
want to freak out while eating it! Haha!

But this week has been great. I AM SO SO SO SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!
It is seriously like Christmas for us here on the mission! I have been
able to teach a lot about prophets this week and wow the spirit has
been so strong! Our message is one that is unique because we know that
we have a living prophet today that holds the priesthood. I have been
able to understand more about the priesthood and how key it is in our
church. Without it we cannot do anything. We wouldn’t have had the
restoration because of it so ultimately I wouldn’t be here right now.
We couldn’t partake of the sacrament; we couldn’t receive revelation
through our prophet Thomas S. Monson. Okay, basically we can’t do
anything.  Haha, no but it is SO vital to have a prophet, a living
prophet today that has all the priesthood keys in order lead and guide
this church. In Preach My Gospel it says “The teachings of living
prophets provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting
values and help us avoid misery and sorrow…. But we can enjoy the
assurance of being in harmony with Gods will.” Wow, we are so blessed
to know that this is the ONLY true church. The ONLY church with the
authority and power of God. I love testifying that our church is the
ONLY church that has the authority to baptize. It sounds really blunt
but as I testify I can feel the spirit teach. Yesterday we had a
lesson with a new investigator and he had a daughter sitting in the
living room space while we were giving him the lesson and immediately
when I pulled out my picture of the prophets and the apostles and
started teaching about the priesthood and prophets she immediately
came over wanting to know more about the church. WOW! The church is
true okay?

Well, I had a great week and thank you to all who have wished me a
Happy Birthday! Not quite sure how I feel about being 21 yet! But, I
love looking back at all I have been able to experience in the last
year and WOW I feel so blessed and so grateful. But more for the
opportunity that I have to be here and spread this gospel.  Well, I
need to go! Have a great week!
Hermana Frame

Shock.

I'm in shock right now.  This week has been the craziest awesomest thing that has ever happened to me!  Mostly the weekend.  Heres why:

CONNOR BROWN IS OFFICIALLY MORMON NOW!  That crazy son of a gun waited for all of us to go out, until we were all over the world to finally decide to get dunked!  By Bishop Harris!  That's so AWESOME!  I mysteriously lost contact with everybody about Connor and his missionary lessons until now!  Now I know why!  I'm just so happy typing this email right now I have to keep backspacing cause I'm shaking so much!!  IT FINALLY HAPPENED!

We listened to Elder M. Russell Ballard and shook his hand.  He was there in the flesh!  An apostle of the Lord!  He gave a super cool talk about finding new people to teach and then we had a quick 30 minute question answer thing.  There was a point when he started talking about "going to the Garden of Gethsemane" during trials, doubts, discouragement or whatever and the spirit just came through and bowled us all over.  You could've heard a pin drop.  It was awesome.  He told us that when he has no more strength, no more will, no more energy that he takes out his picture of Jesus Christ and looks at it and "goes to Gethsemane."  He looks around in Gethsemane, thinks about what Jesus Christ did for him, and he keeps going.  That simple.  If Jesus Christ did what he did for me in Gethsemane, then can we not do a little more when we are just out of energy, out of breath, out of strength?  So applicable and what I needed to hear.  What everyone needs to hear.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,
 Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy,
 and Elder D. Zachary Smith our Area Seventy
 with President Clark and his wife, Sister Clark

 I received a call on Friday night from President Clark and I've been called as a district leader and also training.  Yeah.  Not going to be hard at all right?  I have no idea what I'm going to be doing.  My trainee is gonna want me to be fluent.  Am I fluent?  You could say I can talk to ages 8-10 year old kids and be fluent....(personally, I'm hoping for a native trainee so he doesn't know English and I can help him learn English and learn Spanish in the process...) So yeah, just a few things I'm stressing over, but it's all good.  I'll get the hang of it hopefully pretty quick and be able to district leader, train, find, teach, baptize, and everything else before I know it!

Change is always a guarantee in this life so I guess I should be used to it by now, but I'm not. So I guess the Lord is helping me understand that a little more........

I'll let yall know how it goes.

Elder Frame

Leonardo Family

Discover Them, Discover You

Which shadow belongs to which Hermana?
Which one is my shadow!?

Well, this week I have had so many great missionary experiences as usual! Oh wow, the Lord is in this work and despite the fact that sometimes I don’t see it or don’t recognize it, he is.

It has been a week of trial after trial. Dropping investigators, losing people, low numbers, having diarrhea, being called fat (like 1000 times), and totally being made fun of because of my Spanish. HAHA! Wow, I am making a mission sound horrible! No, THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT THINGS! I am going to tell you about it now…

Well, one aspect of “missionary work”.  The Mormonad that says “Discover Them, Discover You” is AMAZING!

                               

It is so true! When you seek out your ancestors, when you do their work, you are helping the work move forward. We were able to help an Hermana in our ward with her family history and also to start indexing. WOW! I felt the spirit the whole time we were doing it with her. They are waiting. I remember sitting in an EFY session this last summer as a counselor and they were having a Morningside about Family History and how important it is for the younger generation to do… Wow, helping this woman that had so much desire to learn how to even work the computer but to put in her family history was inspiring. She knows her family needs her to do the work here.

 Also, we were able to get the information of Abuelitas family and we are so excited to set up an account and do it for her. The whole time we were asking the dates of her father and mother, her parents and grandparents I could feel it. They need their work done and they depend on us to do it.

 

HAHA! Our abuelita…
We had a realization one of us
will be leaving her in 2 weeks.
 Sad day!
 But we are soaking in
 each moment we have with her

 It strengthened my testimony of temples and WHY we go. We go to be spiritually uplifted but we are allowing others who did not have the chance to have this gospel have it. There are so many prepared. I was reading a talk that Elder Bednar had in the Liahona and it was great what he said. Your life has been generations in the making. Find out where your story began. When you seek out stories, when you read what they did to further the work here on the earth you can feel it. I do. I know there have been studies done that when you do family history your self-esteem is higher, you want to live the gospel more fully, and you are happier in general. “A yearning for connection to our past can prepare an individual to receive the virtue of the word of God and fortify his or her faith. A heart turning to the fathers uniquely helps an individual withstand the influence of the adversary and strengthen conversion.” I know that if we understand the plan of happiness that Heavenly Father has for us we will want that for others. It draws us to search out and cherish our ancestors and family members, both now and in the present.

Missionary work is all about bringing others to Christ. I can testify of that. I can tell you that when you are striving to become a better disciple, you will be happier. I definitely am. When I am doing good, I definitely feel good. I am so grateful to be here. Keep the work moving forward. I feel the urgency. Be prepared and don’t procrastinate.

Have a great week!

Hermana Frame

Oh and the crazy story about the HUGE TOAD! We were walking home and we came across these kittens playing and by our surprise they were trying to play with this GIGANTIC toad. Haha! Of course I wanted to follow it and see where it went because it was on the sidewalk and it had to be from more in the jungle. It was quite funny and one of the native children freaked out and was freaking out with us! Haha! Definitely not normal to find a toad in the middle of the city… Loving my jungle life here in Quilla.

Piano lessons this week! We love Yanela!

Keep Filling Your Lamp

FIRST, I went crazy and dyed my hair! WHAT! I have never attempted this. This is exactly what happens when you are together too long as a companionship and in the same place for almost 6 months with two crazy Americans in Peru with desire for change! Well, just saying it was quite the adventure… Doing it without help and it was her FIRST time dying someone’s hair. Let’s just say I was practically screaming when she put the dye in! Haha! Anyways, enjoy the pics. Or not and if you hate it… Don’t tell me.

 

This week, I had such a good week. Oh side note I have a horrible cold right now but despite that I am doing AMAZING! It probably is from the crazy amount of missionary work we have had… Ha! Ha!  No, we have been able to teach a lot and I have been spiritually filled and wow!  I can’t believe I have been here for almost 6 months. It seems like 1month. Anyways, life in Quillabamba has been quite enjoyable.

This week President and Sister Harbertson came to do interviews and have a conference! I was able to learn so much about how I need to apply the doctrine more in my life. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. President personally talked to me about it all and it was amazing. Everything relates back to these 5 things.

But more I want to talk about what Hermana Harbertson taught us while we were waiting to be interviewed. She talked about the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 versus 1-13. Wow, I apparently needed this because we taught it this past week and she gave this lesson. It teaches us we CANNOT procrastinate. You all probably know the parable but 5 virgins were prepared with oil to light there lamps and 5 were not. The bridegroom (Christ) was coming and they all had the chance to prepare. It really made me understand how important it is for me to not waste any time. The virgins fell asleep and didn’t know exactly when he was to come but when they heard he was there they all definitely knew. The 5 unprepared wanted oil from others but they couldn’t take from anyone else.

 You HAVE TO HAVE YOUR OWN TESTIMONY.

 You have to know for yourself that Jesus is the Christ. That through Him, we can overcome all. He brings us everything. He helps with every situation, and in the end He will be the ones to judge us. Will we be prepared? What virgin will I want to be? How much oil will I want in my lamp…?  Just barely enough? Or do I want to make sure it is there… I really have no time to play around. You don’t either. Realize that the gospel is everything. Jesus Christ lives. I can testify of this. Evaluate where you are at. Become a disciple of Him. You can do it. We can do it.

I love this gospel and I love being a missionary. I will always say that. It is all worth it. I know that. I have a testimony of the work and I am moving forward with hope and continually filling my lamp. Fill yours daily with those good things (i.e. scripture study, prayer, etc.). I testify you will be ready, and I hope to be right there with you as we wait for the Savior.

I would like to thank all that sent me a birthday card. I cried, I laughed, I enjoyed every moment. I miss you all but just know your support and love is felt clear in Peru. Thanks for all the time and effort you all put into my birthday. I hope you are all doing well! Until next week!

Hermana Frame

Oh and you get some extra pics of my skills with a Machete!!! 

Wow, definitely cut through some jungle these last few days.

 The member in the picture thought I was hilarious! Haha! 

Wow, enjoy!

Caridad y Amor

Hello everybody!  We'll get right down to business.

The cooks!
Please don't hug or kiss or kick the chefs!

Bad week.  We've dropped about 15 investigators.  They've straight out decided that the gospel isn't for them and that they would not like us to stop by anymore.  Something I've noticed about Latinos.  They won't tell you they don't want you to stop by anymore until they've been uncomfortable for about 3 months and that's even if you straight up ask them if they would like us to continue to stop by.  The FRUSTRATION!  We could've dropped these guys a while ago instead of making them uncomfortable every time we stopped by.  THE STRUGGLE IS REAL!  It's a huge blessing even though we have about half as many investigators now.  We are going to be able to focus a whole lot more on the rest of our investigators now!  It's going to be awesome!  We won't be juggling around 33 people to go talk to every week!

Other than that the only other interesting thing that happened this week was me puking three times on Friday.  Woo hoo.  Elder Vargas went on a split with the Reedley Elders to make it to all our appointments Friday night so I could just conk out.

It's getting SO. DANG. HOT. HERE.  It's in the 90's right now and it's technically still winter and MARCH!  I'm going to melt, literally melt, when summer hits!

Anyways, here's a cool tidbit from my studies this week.  Charity and Love.  We desperately need a whole lot more of them in the world today.  The Bible Dictionary defines Charity as:The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ.  Super cool thought as I was reading that.  Everything in the gospel has love as the center or motive.  The Plan of Salvation. Love.  The Restoration.  Love.  Eternal Families.  Love.  Serving a mission. Love.  Jesus Christ.  Love.  EVERYTHING in the gospel is done, was done, or will be done because of love or charity for us from our Heavenly Father.  We as his children are destined to become like him, so should we not pray in earnest for this type of love?  Should we not be striving each day to have more love and charity in our countenance and in our actions.  Truly showing Charity and Love is service to others and serving our Heavenly Father.  When we do anything ask yourself, is this serving others?  Or am I serving myself?  Stole that from you mom.  My prayer is that we all can become more charitable in every decision and in turn become more like our Heavenly Father.  It will make the difference in somebody else's life and, more especially, in your life.  Matthew 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

I love you all.  Have a great week.

Elder Frame

Elder Vargas and a different guitar he found.

Bowling in Hanford

Hey everybody!

California is great!  It's been HOT!  Summer is going to be KILLER!  I can't even handle how hot it's been and it's only march!  Sall right.  Instead of only my face being red, I'll have a super bad missionary sunburn to go along with it!

Works been slowing down.  Partly because we've been doing a bunch of service for members this past week and partly because nobodies been opening their doors!  Although it's been slowing down we've been able to get a decent amount of lessons in this week and we have a baptismal date with Fernando and Victor and Becca have decided to take the baptismal challenge and work towards getting dunked!!  So awesome to see people want to change and experience the joy and peace that comes from living the gospel!

BIG NEWS!  ELDER BALLARD IS COMING TO SPEAK TO OUR MISSION ON MARCH 21ST!  SO COOOOL!  He'll be coming and I'll be singing in the choir so hopefully I'll be close to front row or something!  That'd be sweet!  Maybe I'll be right behind him and I can touch him and be translated!  That'd be SWEEET!  Anyways, that'll be a really awesome experience!

Something I've noticed this week is that Christ has many names.  Emmanuel, The Good Shepherd, The Living Water, etc.  One that I've really focused on this week is The Light. In John 8:12, John 9:5, D&C 11:28, Alma 38:9 are a few that I found while studying in Preach My Gospel and I'm sure that there are a bunch more in there!  It really made sense to me studying about Christ and how he IS the light.  I realized that the light that I give to other people, that I'm sharing with other people, does not come from me.  It all comes from Jesus Christ and his Atonement and the hope and love that comes from them.  I realized that the closer I am to Jesus Christ and the more I utilize his Atonement, the more I can share this light with others around me.  We all should realize where our light comes from.  Is what your focusing on drawing you nearer to The Light or are you wandering farther and farther away from your only source of true light by what you do, say, hear, and think?  Food for thought.

Love you all and keep fighting the good fight!

Elder Frame

Teancum that Elder Vargus drew