California Elders, We're Undeniable!

Elder Budding and I looking gooooood!

So yeah.  I officially exited the CCM on October the 8th and I am now in the California Fresno mission in the area of Modesto!  What is up!  I'm planning on seeing a bunch of UFO's and aliens here!  Let me let you in on a secret.  There are so many sightings of aliens and the like here because there are so many people on meth or pot or something here!  I'm serious!  There are so many homeless people!  It is so sad!  I love it!  I'm gonna help these people out!!  Oh, also something awesome!  Our mission has a goal of 1000 baptisms this year and we are way more than on track to hit that by December 31!  Isn't that awesome!?

I have a problema though.  I thought I was doing pretty good with spanish until I showed up to the mission and went with an Elder Taufa to do the activity open your mouth my first day here.  We went street contacting and I realized something.  I don't know Spanish worth a dang.  I can say just about whatever I want slowly, but I can't understand these good people.  Bleeding !@$@%@&#*^**$#%!!%@#!!! (none of that was a swear word.  I just didn't know how to express my frustration so i took it out on the keyboard.)  Anyways, I'll figure it out.  I CAN DO HARD THINGS! (thanks mom)  Every white elder said it's taken them about 3 months to start to try to understand.  I dislike patience so this will be my first real test in the mission.  Work hard at learning the espanol and then waiting for my brain to catch on that English is dumb now.  Anyways, something funny about my Open Your Mouth experience.  I tried to give some Jehovah's witnesses a Book of Mormon because I didn't know who they were and they about ripped my head off.  I didn't know anything that was going on because it was all in Spanish so I just stared at him while he yelled at me and then turned to Elder Taufa and waited.  Elder Taufa was stifling his laughter and managed to get out that we needed to go or something and we left and then I found out about their religion.  So yeah that was a great first experience.

My trainer is a boss!  Elder Budding, a native Argentine who grew up in Orem Utah from age 6 until now!  He's a real help with the language!  Ha I saw some pictures of him before the mission and he was about as hipster as a person comes!  Long hair on top with super short hair on the sides, skinny jeans, big sweater, complete with the hipster glasses.  He looks real nice now though!  I'm planning on learning so much from him and he's gonna change my life!

Hey you.  Go watch the new movie Meet the Mormons.  The church made it to spread the gospel and the 12 need your help to do that.  Invite your friends!  It's actually a really cool movie!  We watched it right after we got our trainers.  It's made to show the world we are actually super normal people that aren't super weird AND to entertain.  So yeah. Depending on how the movie does the 12 will decide what more to do, so help out!

So Modesto doesn't have a lot of investigators right now so we've been doing a lot of finding.  Not a lot of people like us.  There have been many cuss words, doors slammed, and things thrown and it really flustered me when I started knocking doors!  I'm pretty much over it now, but it makes me sad for them because everyone just looks so beat up here and I know what I have can help them, but they just won't listen! Anyways, this whole week I've kinda just been sitting through the lessons we actually have with people and trying to pick up on words that I know and then when it's my turn to talk just generalize what I say because I don't know where we are in the lesson and I don't want to mess up the good work my companion has done!  It'll come.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.  BLAAAUUGGGGGGHHHHH!

Sunday I gave the opening prayer.  It was really slow but it sounded nice!  Everybody asked if I was new right after sacrament so I must have given myself away.  Haha.  Our branch is pretty small.  We have about 80 active people and around 250 total.  So our work with the inactives is going to be a big focus right now as well!  We looked at numbers and it turns out around 70% of all of our baptisms come because of inactives!  Isn't that insane!  So we are gonna work with them and hopefully get a bunch of baptisms along the way!

Some of our mission culture you'll find awesome!

-We are required to run for at least 30 minutes each morning and make it at least 3 miles.

-We are required to do at least a 2 minute plank every morning.

-We part our hair because we were made a promise at the beginning of last year in this mission that if we part our hair our baptisms would double.  They have more than doubled this year is what the assistant's said.

-WE BAPTIZE!

-Oh and we don't call it p-day.  We call it preparation day.  We don't call them DL's, we call them distrist leaders, we don't call them ZL's, we call them Zone Leaders, and we don't call them AP's, we call them Assistant's.

I'm gonna look so good when I come home cause I'm running for 2 years and planking!  Ha!

Holy.  I wrote a long letter!  Love you all and I loved reading your letters and emails!  Don't be strangers!

ORAN SIEMPRE!

                               Con Amor de California,

                                                                      Elder Frame

All us new Elder's and our trainers and Pres. and Sis. Clark. 

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!

I will probably say this every time but this week went by so fast! But everyone: Mi espanol es muy bueno!!! Ha-ha not! But it is coming... day by day. I hope by the time I talk to you on Christmas I will be able to sound at least decent HAHA. You all will be so proud- hopefully you won’t be laughing your faces off! The new Latinas that have come in this week have been so fun to talk to! I can understand most everything they say and even though it is a simple reply they understand! My life here at the CCM is so great! I have come to love every minute of it. Our district is so close and I have been so so blessed with my amazing companion. This week I will share two things-experiences.

1. If you have ever watched Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan in it and the part where the brother is shaking the table and yelling at his grandpa to pass the milk and the grandpa thinks it’s an earthquake and freaks out. Well this week WE ACTUALLY HAD AN EARTHQUAKE. Don’t worry guys I am alive. Ha-ha actually it wasn’t even bad. I didn’t even know until someone told me... But it was funny because my comp and I were studying and I felt the ground shaking and she was sitting on a table so she couldn’t feel it and I felt dumb saying something because it sounded crazy if I would have said EARTHQUAKE!!! Ha-ha so for 3 more hours I went about not even knowing it was an earthquake until at dinner another Hermana told me and I freaked out. Ha-ha! It was only a 2.5 or something so not a big deal but I thought it was because I have never felt one. But apparently I did and didn’t even realize. Oh Hermana Frame... Sometimes I struggle

2. This experience happened on Monday while we were in class. I was able to teach Camila- our investigators here at the CCM. It was a really good experience for me and my confidence in being able to talk with her is getting better. But before this I did an activity with the whole class and I learned so much about how important it is to teach with the spirit. Our teacher, Hermana Cepeda had us teach a lesson in 8 minutes in English and then teach 8 minutes in Spanish. During the time I taught English I was feeling like I was on cloud 9! Dude I was freaking out BECAUSE I GOT TO TEACH MY NATIVE LANGUAGE. It was actually the weirdest feeling. But wow... And then the Spanish lesson came and it felt normal but of course it was harder. But the main thing that was different was I could tell the difference from when the spirit was there and then when it wasn’t. It was a HUGE difference. The spirit converts. It is not how amazing you are at Spanish. The way the Lord works is through the promptings the missionaries have and the feelings that the investigators have while they teach. No matter if I say something completely wrong, or I can’t conjugate a verb right it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you have the best Spanish in the whole world, or you are me here in Peru who knows so little. It is the spirit. The spirit helps us understand the love Heavenly Father has for us, and for the people I am teaching. Hence it is so important to constantly have it. It was a good realization for me.

I hope you all had a great conference weekend! How cool to hear some of the speakers teach in their native tongue! It was so exciting to hear two of them in Spanish! It brought tears to my eyes. Please please please take advantage of conference. It is such a blessing and if we make effort to listen read, and reread the talks they will bless us so much! One of my fav sayings is -A conference talk a day keeps Satan away- and it is true, I know that.

Well I am down to two weeks left! Crazy how fast time flies! I think of my brother who is now in California and I can’t believe it! We can finally apply all that we have learned.... Thank you all for all of your support and love. I feel it all the way down here in Peru. I love this gospel with all of my heart and I am thankful each day I have it. Until next week!

Hermana Frame

Whaddup!!!!!! Last Week!

Branch President, Pres. Campos on left and his Second Counselor, Pres. Tikalski on the right!

Ha!  So I am super giddy right now at this moment emailing all yall!  I am going to actually teach some real people who will actually maybe possibly get baptized and have eternal life.  And, they´ll be from California!  We talked as a district about if we try super hard we can change the political views of California and we as Republicans will have even more votes.  Ha just kidding.  I have no political views because I am from the church who doesn´t have a political preference.

Anyways.  I had so many opportunities to serve and be a channel for the spirit in the lives of other people this week!  Zone Leader is possibly the greatest leadership position ever in the CCM because all I do is just serve others by being their friends! And there is in no way any paperwork involved or anything else like I´ve heard out in the real mission field.  One awesome experience I had this week as Zone Leader was standing in for a comfort blessing for an Hermana.  She was having troubles with some idiot immature elders (basically all of us in the CCM) and she asked us if we could give her a blessing.  I was honored and very happy she felt like she could trust us as her Zone Leaders because that meant I was doing my job right!  Anyways my companion gave her a beautiful blessing!  I know the spirit was there because I was praying for my companion as I stood in and every time I thought of something else he could bless her with, he´d say it almost right after I thought it!  She´s doing great now and I know where she´s coming from.  The CCM kinda feels like an extension of High School at times and it´s stupid.  Anyways, the priesthood is real and never forget that!

Sunday was super awesome!  Since General Conference is next week and we are leaving a few days after it, we did our goodbye special musical number as the oldest district in our branch.  We sang Abide With Me ´Tis Eventide in español which is Conmigo Que Daté Señor.  It was pretty good!  At night we had the weekly devotional and we listened to Elder Bednar give one of his MTC talks about the character of Christ which I will expound on at the end of this letter!  After his talk we went back to classroom and in the hallway of the building was a mouse!!  We all chased it around the hall for a minute and I ended up with some cups and we trapped it in between two cups!  I named her/him/it Gertrude.  An elder wanted to hold it so I let it go into his hand.  He took it outside and let it go and we´ve never seen it since.  So yeah that was our Sunday adventure!

My morning teacher, Hermana Santiago!

Addonai Salomon, my night teacher!
WE TAUGHT OUR FIRST REAL INVESTIGATOR THIS WEEK TOO!  It was during a thing called TRC when random people from the city can come and be taught by struggling gringos!  Usually it´s just a bunch of members coming to help, but we got lucky and taught a real one!  Her name was Maricárme.  She was the nicest old lady I´ve ever met!  She wanted to know what we do in our "big white building" cause they wouldn´t let her in.  Ha.  I didn´t know what to say to that so I told her we do bautimos de los muertos or baptisms of the dead.  We went into a whole big conversation about that and somehow we ended up teaching her the whole plan of salvation.  She was super interested!  She took notes the whole time and asked if she could keep the pamphlet.  Then she wanted to give us her address so we could come to her house to continue teaching her! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  We had to tell her we can´t leave the CCM!  I hate that rule right now!  We were gonna baptize the crap out of Maricárme!!!  Oh well.  We asked our leader to put her in contact with the missionaries in her area so she could continue to be taught but she asked if she could just come back and continue to be taught by us.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  What the heck!  She loved us and we had to teach her our last week here!  Hopefully the other missionaries help her out!  I can´t wait to get to Fresno.

Ok.  So this talk by Elder Bednar was THE BEST talk I´ve ever heard.  Sorry Elder Holland.  It was about the character of Christ.  Here are a few of my notes:

-Learn OF Him not about Him.  

-There would have been no atoning sacrifice without the Character of Christ.

-Christ was all about TURNING OUT not TURNING IN.

-Testimonies are not enough; you MUST be converted to HIM! 

-If you lose yourself in others, you´ll find yourself, but you won´t be looking.

I know that as you learn of Christ you will truly come to find out who you are!  I know that my Redeemer lives!  I know that through his sacrifice we can live again and be able to overcome anything in this life!  I know we can all become like Christ but you have to start NOW!  You might think that´s a big thing to ask and you´re right!  That´s why you need to start now and continue to become like him a little bit each day!

I love you all!

ORA SIEMPRE

Con amor,

                  Elder Frame

Selfie overload!!!!!

Elder Garbero loving the CCM.   (He has the voice of an angel, and has a scholarship to sing at BYU for opera, so yeah!)

The Secret is....... WHAT?

I can’t believe it is already p-day! The weeks are flying now! The first week felt so long and now I am beginning to freak out because I am going to the real world in 3 weeks, what?!!! But wow the amazing, life changing things I am learning. It was another week of up and down, happy and sad, failures and success, and everything in between.

Update on the Spanish: It still is the hardest thing I am working through here in the CCM. Honestly I have been trying to pin point what it is and my comp and I pretty much have it figured out.... My love for the gospel and my ability to teach the gospel has been so easy for me growing up..... But the one thing that I haven’t realized is that without a language (or the ability to speak a language)  you are confused, lost, and unable to connect with others. I can’t tell you the heartache I have. The gospel is the most important thing to me and to not be able to teach it, and share how I really feel has brought some really hard times. But more than that I have witnessed miracles that I could never imagine. The gift of tongues is real people!!!!    No matter how bad I am at Spanish I realize every time I am in the mindset of giving everything to the Lord and teaching what He wants me to teach. The spirit is always there. I can’t even describe the feeling. My favorite thing has been to recite the memorized first vision in Spanish. It is so so powerful. Wow. Sometimes I want the Lord to just BAM make me speak the language fluent the next lesson, or miraculously put words into my mouth that I don’t even know. But quickly have I learned it does not work this way. I have learned that first just like in anything related to the gospel I have to have faith. After faith I pray to have strength to keep the faith as I act. ACTING is the hardest part. But it is where we find the answers Heavenly Father wants us to receive. This week I was reminded of a scripture that I have heard probably 2000 times. 1 Nephi 3:7 I WILL GO AND DO.... This scripture is up on the wall in the cafeteria and I don’t know why I didn’t notice it till now (well actually because now I can actually read and understand it HAHA) but it has been my answer this week. I had so many people tell me that missionary work is.... wait for it.... work. It is in the doing, or the acting. My faith in the Lord is matched with His faith in me. So first I have learned to have A LOT OF FAITH. Second pray my guts out and third act so that he can place miracles. Oh and I can’t forget the most important thing which is something I thought I already learned in school BE PATIENT!!!!   I have to tell myself.... HERMANA FRAME BE PATIENT literally like every two seconds. Goodness me.  It is the hardest Christ like attribute for me to learn.

My other big realization this week is how important it is to be in the continual process of being converted. Here in the CCM you are taught how to help the investigator with this but this is true in everyone’s life. We are all investigators of Christ. Every day. So here are the few points I have figured out and the fundamentals we are taught. First, realizing how the Holy Ghost speaks to you personally. Second, revelation comes through prayer that is consistent, followed by the study of the Book of Mormon to hear what God has to say to you. Third is revelation we receive through attending church. This one was huge for me. It is the 3 hours weekly that we are able to come unto him by learning more about the gospel and with an open heart the Lord can fill our lives with blessings, answers to questions, and the reminder of our daily sacrifice to remember Christ. Remember conversion is continuous. DO NOT JUST GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS. It is easy when you have grown up in the gospel to have it be mundane.  Each day pray, read, ponder, repeat. Oh and go to church prepared. My bishop always said to have DAILY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES. It is so important. Whatever we are doing, how happy or sad we are, what trial or success we have. Come to him.

Last night we had the area seventy come and speak... It was so great but the end hymn was I Know that My Redeemer lives. Oh what joy it brought to my soul. It is my favorite song and even though it was in Spanish it hit me hard. I remembered how vital it is to come to him daily. It is through our obedience, constant nourishment our testimonies, and ask-seek-knock all day everyday do we feel his love and become better people anchored in him. Yo se que vive mi Senor. Yo se que soy una representante de Jesucristo. Yo se que mi mision bendecira mucha vivas. Yo se que esta Iglesia es verdadero.

Before I end here is a few random facts of the CCM

-It is in the middle of Lima in the district of La Molina about 10 min away from el Templo

-The food never fails to be amazing-rice chicken, beef, rice, potatoes, rice, rice and veggies, oh and more rice ;)

-Physical activity is from 2 to 3 every day that includes ping pong, futbol, volleyball, beach volleyball, running, foosball, and sometimes just chilling. I love just being able to get out and do something.

-The ratio of Hermanas to Elders is 10-2.    I LOVE IT WITH ALL MY HEART.    We eat first, we sit in the front, and we are literally pampered.

-Most of the missionaries are from Utah, Cali, and Idaho----go figure

-And most of all I LOVE IT SO MUCH. The spirit is here 24/7... I thank the Lord every day I get to be here.

I had an amazing week with so many miracles, blessings along with trials. Each day my head hits the pillow and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this opportunity to serve. I love it, with all my heart. I love this gospel. Until next week!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Frame

2 Weeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkssss Leeeeeeefffffffttttttt!!!!!!!!!

Left to right.  E. Harrison, Hermano Hernandez (funniest dude I´ve ever met!), me, Hermana Hendersen, and E. Burwell all seeing who can hold themselves up the longest on the desk.  It´s harder than it looks.  1:59 is the record.

So yeah this week has been crazy.

     First off.  The español coming along bueno.  I can have conversations with the natives now and I can catch almost all their words without it sounding like aslñdglñashdgilñhasldhgklasdhguiwerauibk.  Our lessons with our teachers/investigators are going super well!  We have them both committed to "baptism" on October 8th the day we leave the CCM!  So yeah that´s great and to all yall that are learning a language before you leave, learn it as much as you can before entering the MTC/CCM/any other name of a Missionary Training Center, because the Spirit can work with you so much more during lessons when you have the words and grammar already there in your brain.

     Next item of business.  My compañero and I were called as Zone Leaders on Sunday so that has been an adventure figuring out what the heck we are supposed to be doing.  We had some training with the zone leaders that were leaving and turns out, all we really have to do as Zone Leaders is be friends with everybody, conduct priesthood on Sunday´s and keep the Zone unified.  So yeah, it´s been awesome being Zone Leaders cause all we do is go and talk (goof around) with the other districts in our Zone, set up Ultimate Frisbee matches for gym times and just generally let them know that we love them.

     So I got to leave the CCM again this week except this time it was to a private hospital clinic thingy cause the Enfermería at the CCM said I had fractured my foot.  Word from an experienced CCM missionary: Do not play cage soccer, competitively, with kids who loved football and rugby in high school. I was playing with these huge Elders and an Elder and I were both going to kick the ball.  I went to kick the ball but instead of the ball I kicked the other Elder´s bottom of his foot which made him trip and I totally didn´t mean to do it.  Needless to say it hurt like the dickens.  I didn´t want to look like a baby so I kept playing.  The dude I accidentally kicked thought I did it on purpose so he let me know he didn´t like me by bodying me up.  A lot.  Then I guess his "enthusiasm" rubbed off on the rest of his team and I got to know the court floor pretty well.  My foot never stopped hurting so we checked it out at the Enfermería and the Doc said I needed Xrays.  So I took a drive through Mexico City with two other kids one who was getting his knee Xrayed and the other a Ultrasound. I got my foot Xrayed on what was actually a really nice machine and it turned out to be all right.  I was counting my blessings cause the other guys weren´t so lucky.  The Ultrasound kid has kidney stones and the other kid has to go someplace else for an MRI cause they think its nerves or something in his knee.  In the end I just have to wear a boot thing for three days and I have to constantly say thank you to Heavenly Father for helping me out.

       We have paintings in our classroom building by Walter Romes all about the Book of Mormon.  If you guys ever get the chance look those bad boys up because they are super inspiring and very very cool.  Just something random I remembered I wanted to share with yall.

        All right here´s the spiritual paragraph.  And it goes out to all of you who need to feel some love.  You want to know something special?  Well I hope so because Imunna tell you anyway.  It´s you.  You are 110% bona fide special.  You are a hijo de Padre Celestial.   He loves you so much your mortal brain cannot comprehend the love he has for you.  I cannot stress how important that is to never forget.  You have the potential to become a God.  Heavenly Father wants this for you.  You know this deep in your heart, you just need to come to terms with it.  NEVER FORGET IT.  No matter what you do, no matter how you messed up, no matter how much you don´t care.  Heavenly Father is hoping, watching, waiting for you to love him and love him enough to follow our elder brother Jesus Christ´s example.  I challenge you to pray and ask to feel that love.  He is and will be listening and he WILL answer.  REMEMBER ALWAYS that you are loved, no matter what.

                     ORA SIEMPRE!

                                                    Con mucho amor,

                                                                                  Elder Frame

Selfie during TALL time.  Tall is a computer language learning program that is super helpful!

WOW WHAT A WEEK!!!

WOW WHAT A WEEK!!! I will probably say it each time I email. But first things first I want to let you meet my comp Hermana Jesperson!

Physical: She is a cute blonde, short athletic rugby player at BYU. She is so so so cute and I swear all the boys will be after her when she gets off the mish. She has a surfer girl look and totally rocks it.

Emotional: Okay this is where she is completely opposite of me. It is the funniest thing. The whole CCM knows this. I am so emotional and I wear my emotions on my sleeve and this girl is SO laid back... she is the perfect comp for me here in the CCM. I was so freaked out that I overwhelmed her with my break down the 1st week here but wow she is so compassionate and loving.

Mental: Holy cow this girl is SO smart. Like 31 or 32 on the ACT. She is literally the best one at Spanish in the district. She had 4 years in high school and her cousins speak Spanish so she knows it really well. #blessing because I am the worst and she is the best so we balance each other out perfectly! HAHA

She has been a blessing since being here and we get along so well. I thank Heavenly Father every day for her friendship, love and strength.

My district is CRAZY! I have to remind myself that they are 18 years old and barely on the mish and still learning. Oh goodness, coming from a nursing program with a bunch of adults to these funny, crazy -in the process- maturing elders. But my favorite thing is that I am called the -Mom- or I am the -Hermana Mom- Oh goodness I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing:) Oh and Mom your binder that you sent with me is the talk of all the Hermana’s here. When we were all at the airport all of them asked what my binder was for and the freaked out because I told them it was to stay organized. HAHA. They flipped out, rolled their eyes and now call me -Hermana Binder- Oh my goodness. So to the girls I am freakishly organized and to the elders I am -their Mom- HAHA

Proselyting happened this Saturday which was the CRAZIEST thing I have done since being here. I don’t think the CCM in Mexico or Provo do this but they took all 100 missionaries out and had us proselyte in Lima! Wow! The newest missionaries were paired with the Latinas and we actually went to visit less active members, street contacted and taught lessons. LIKE WHAT!? Okay when I found out I freaked out. First I know practically nothing in Spanish-well I know how to pray, bear my testimony, and how to give out a pamphlet-- so you can just imagine my worries. Oh man, oh man the stories I have from this! Just a few included on Hermana getting bit by a dog, speaking to 2 drunk guys (me not having a clue what they said but I got their contact info so we are gucci) and practically me looking like a complete idiot while the Peruvians spoke 200 times faster than I was taught and me just nodding and saying -Si- or -Bueno!- (which is not so good when a less active member is telling you how the son died and he is having  a hard time with it. Ha-ha not to self... THANK HEAVENS I had a comp that spoke fluent Spanish. Goodness m eis you could have seen me. You all would have died laughing. But the amazing part of being able to do this helped me realize so many things. One that I am here in Peru preaching the gospel. Wow I have waited so long to do this and I am here. Two that a simple powerful testimony can literally bring the spirit so so fast and three that I love love love the Book of Mormon. I was able to place my first one and I was on cloud nine. But the lady I gave it to live in the most ghetto area of Lima. Literally we couldn’t {t go to tow or our contacts because it was so bad. And it was during the day! But I am alive and well Mom don’t worry. But anyways we were in the most humbling of circumstances and literally my comp turned to me and said give her this and say -para usted- which means -for you- in English. In that moment even though I looked like a two year old I was so excited and I wanted her to read it SO bad. Of course she took it but as I was walking back down this dirt path in the middle of Lima Peru I couldn’t help but stop and realize that I was actually a missionary. I am out proclaiming truths of Jesus Christ. I love saying that. I love this work with all my heart. I so hope she reads it.

The last week I have been studying gin PMG and the BOM. Wow I can’t describe how much joy, peace, contentment and happiness I feel. Each time I learn the doctrines or relearn them it just tastes so good. Just like Nephi said. On Sunday we also had the privilege of listening to 2 apostles. Oh how much I love each and every one of them and the prophet of course ;) General conference is so soon and I am so excited! It is like waiting for Christmas morning here. I know that you will receive answers if you go in with questions and you pray to receive revelation specifically for you. Make it a priority. We all need to hear what they have to say.

Missionary work is hard. It can be so rough.. I never really understood it till I got out here. I have been humbled in so many ways. Just when I think I’m good-BAM the Lord knows I can handle one more thing. From the first day until now I can say I have learned so much. I remember waking up at 6 thinking- oh man another day of not understanding anything, brain cramps, and being with dumb immature high school boys. Oh how my perspective has changed. I feel the spirit everyday here. Even though I can’t speak my feelings or emotions I can still bear my testimony of Jesus Christ which is the most important thing. I know I am doing the Lords work. AND I AM SO HAPPPY. Oh what joy it brings to my soul. I challenge you all to do three things.

1-each day wake up and do the best you can and never forget the Lord in all you do

2-Remember that family is where it’s at. Spend time. T.I.M.E. is the most valuable gift

3-Pray every morning and night. Go to the Lord with problems, with questions, with concerns, and most of all with faith. Then you have to act. It is the most important part.

I love and think about you all so often. Family friends, ward members, etc. I hope you are all doing well! Have a good week in the USA!!!

Hola mis amigos, familia, y everybody else!

. Me at the Mexico City Templo

First off.  You guys are great. Love you all.

Second.  Here’s all my random as crap thoughts:

     Sunday was a nightmare.  I was called to give a talk.  The way they call on you for talks here is as follows: They tell all missionaries to write a talk on a certain topic then pick randomly on Sunday who´ll give it.  All in Spanish.  And to make it even better the topic was the Fall of Adam and the Atonement.  I can´t give a bloody lesson on The Fall of Adam in English, let alone in my broken Spanish!  Anyways.  Being the prepared missionary I am, I had a third of my talk written when they called me to be the concluding speaker.  I ended up saying that Adam and Eve ate some fruit and died. Then I said they were living on the earth and had about one billion kids.  I was gonna read a really long quote from PMG but I left it at my seat, so I panicked and said Uno Momento then went back to my seat, got it, went back and kept going with the quote. Then I actually did pretty bang up job on the Atonement since I studied some phrases and words for it.  All in all, I was probably red for the whole thing so yeah.  At least I won´t have to give another one for the rest of my stay!!

 

Me y Mi Compañero in front of the Cristus

    Mexican Independence day was Monday and we had a presentation given to us on the culture of Mexico.  The presentation was 3 hours.  The dancing was cool but it was for 3 hours.  The costumes were super colorful, but it was for 3 hours.  Ok, no, it was actually pretty cool and not half as bad as I make it out to be.  The dudes all tap-danced and it was awesome! It reminded me up Singin´in the Rain for all of you who are sufficiently Americanly cultured enough to know that movie.  There were a lot of ARRRRRRRRRRRREBA´s and AY AY AY AY AY AY´s!  It kinda scared me.  Then we sang the Mexican national anthem at the end and saluted their flag.  I felt super weird and kinda traitorous for saluting but whatever.  Plus their salute is the Nazi regime salute only on your heart and not in the air! 

The Mexicans dancing in the Septiembre 15 celebration for us!

The Mexicans dancing in the Septiembre 15 celebration for us!

 Fireworks were going crazy that night and a bunch of missionaries were getting on the roofs of the casas to watch.  I wanted to also but since I´m obedient, I stayed in my room and wrote in my journal.  I told Heavenly Father I wanted blessings for being obedient and my next thought was that I was grateful for the barbed wire fences that keep all the crazies out.  I then said another prayer and said I was sorry and that could he please keep all the crazy party Mexicans away from us. Ha.

 

. Me escaping spirit prison (the CCM)

     If you want a really good Mormon message to watch, watch Moments That Matter Most.  Don´t judge me but it made me want to just come home and get married so I could have those moments in the video.

     Also our Tuesday devotional was a live broadcast from Provo. It was Richard G. Scott. Get this.  He basically gave the same exact talk I based my farewell talk on called the Supernal Gift of Prayer.  It was super good to listen to it again and I got a few more things out of it!

     Things I miss but don´t:

     The videos we watch on Sunday nights are one of my favorite parts of the CCM.  I miss my movies. I enjoy every Mormon message and every type of video we get to watch because I miss my movies that much.  The movies I watch now though are guaranteed to lift me and help me to lift others so it´s great!

     I also am reading Jesus the Christ.  I got halfway through it these past 4 days.  I miss my books, but the books I´m reading now are helping me so much!  By reading it I am getting to know my Savior so well and I´m noticing good changes in myself every day! Jesus Christ is the most interesting person I have ever learned about. Ha it reminds me of the Lego movie prophecy about the special.   Rely on Jesus Christ. He is the special.

     I miss my music but the hymns are so powerful, even if I sing them in Spanish and sound like a blubbering donkey trying to pronounce the words.  Also I met an Elder who plays the piano like some really good dude that plays piano.  Me and my comp listened to him play for an hour and a half!  Look up hymn arrangements from Josh Wright.  They were amazing.

Hope you are all doing bueno and always remember to rely on our older brother Jesus Christ!  Love you all!

Oran Siempre!

Elder Frame

. Me and the other Elder Frame from California.  Can´t find any relation to us in our family trees we brought.