UNFORTUNATE NEW...

Hello people,

So I was informed this morning that me and one other elder in our branch have not received our visas. Unfortunately, our whole branch flies out on Monday so I will not be joining them. Also unfortunately for me, everyone leaves work at 4:45, I do not have a cell phone, mtc travel office is terrible at communication, and no one works until Monday morning at 9am. I am sure that you can imagine my frustration. In my mailbox tonight I received a paper telling me that I have permission to make one phone call to the Norwegian Consulate to talk to them myself about my visa. The first thing I was wondering is, "I turned in my visa application in May, why am I the one trying to figure out what the problem is? I feel like I am doing someone else's job." The second thing I noticed is that the Norwegian Consulate is only open from 9am-3pm, which is 1am-7am UTAH TIME. So I am still deciding if I am going to call at one in the morning or at six in the morning tomorrow. 

Anyway, the fact of the matter is I am stuck here in the mtc. Our branch is moving to the West Campus on Tuesday right before the new Norwegian and Swedish missionaries arrive on Wednesday. I will be moving with them! If I do not have a visa by next Friday I will be reassigned for 6 weeks to a state side mission. 

As hard as this has been for me all day to realize I am not traveling with everyone, I am really trying to stay positive. For the relief society meeting tomorrow, we are singing "I will go where you want me to go" and it could not apply more to my situation. I have prayed all day, not for my visa, but for the attitude to get me through this and keep a smile on my face. 

All I ask is that you would keep me in your prayers. I will keep you updated with the information that I know and that they give me. I am so sad that I won't be calling and all of my friends will be, but again, my time will come. 

The miracle doesn't come until after the trial of your faith, right? 

Love you, 

McCall 

Hei hei alle!

 I have made it! This is my final week of MTC food, no girl companions, and the land of the free. I have received my travel plans, but will not receive news about my visa until this Friday. PLEASE keep my visa in your prayers. Let's hope everyone has done their job thus far so I can get to where I am going on time! If all goes as planned, I fly Monday morning from SLC to Dallas, to London and then to OSLO! 

So last week I was able to be a host missionary! It was so much fun. The first missionary I hosted was Sister Jeong. She is from Korea, going to Korea but had to fly here to get missionary training for just 10 days! Crazy, huh? She speaks about 5 words of English but we communicated mostly through sign language we made up. We run to greet each other every time we see one another. We even took a picture together, peace signs and all. The second girl I hosted is one of my friends from BYU I forgot that she came into the MTC that day and it was complete chance that I got to host her! Cute Gretta Lybert is going to Portugual, it was so much fun catching up with her. The last girl I hosted was not so fond of the whole MTC idea. The second her mom got out of the car she said to me, "I got a missionary here who is about to throw up. Good luck!" Sister Young is going to Houston, TX! I was able to talk to her about Texas a little and hopefully calm her nerves. Mom and Dad, you both know how I played bellboy when I was a child... I got to take sisters' bags and show them to their rooms all over again. It was a dream come true. I CANNOT WAIT to host my cute cousin Alisha, who is going to Little Rock, this week.

Saturday was a special day here at the MTC. As I am sure you can imagine, 99% of missionaries here are BYU fans so that is all people were talking about that day. Picture me in my group of 12 eighteen year-old Nords talking stats and lineups and football history THE WHOLE DAY. It was awesome for the first 5 hours and then it kind of got old. At night everyone sat outside and just listened to the cheers from the stadium. Some missionaries claimed that they could hear the announcer, but there was no way. The night became especially exciting when elders were trying to climb trees to see the jumbo-trons. Anyway, I was able to figure out the outcome of the game the first 3 minutes of my leadership meeting with my branch president on Sunday. He was not in the bet of moods. haha! 

I cannot tell you how excited I am for the relief society broadcast this Saturday! I actually get to sit in the choir seats and sing for the whole world!!!! Not to mention, leave Provo for a couple of hours and enjoy my favorite city! We have had choir practice EVERY morning for the past week and will continue to do so until the performance. Be sure to write me and tell me how it sounds, ok? The only down side of the whole thing is that the 70 year old mtc relief society presidency is in charge of our outfits. Oh dear, is all I can say. The second one of them said, "jewel tones" I just put my head in my hands. Couldn't we all get sweaters from j.crew or something??? haha! When you see me on the big screen in my red button-up collared shirt just know that if I was in charge, things would be different. 

I have one final "MTC secret" for ya'll. This week I am going to explain a little something called, uncooked chicken. Ever since I was dropped off here my protein intake has been cut drastically. I do not trust mass produced meat so I just choose not to partake. One day last week I decided to make a salad and add some boneless chicken wings that they were serving. It was quite yummy and I was proud of myself for going out on a limb with the meat. It wasn't until someone in the cafeteria yelled, "DON'T EAT THE CHICKEN" that I realized it was definitely uncooked. I will save you the awful details of my next half hour, but everyone was so disgusted and lost their appetites SO FAST. Don't worry, no one got sick and no one died. I am still alive, but very looking forward to my cafe rio salad that is waiting for me at the SLC airport.

Other than my MTC secrets, I really have loved it here. My teachers are amazing as well as all the elders. Besides the fact that they are going to Sweden, I absolutely love the girls that I am bunked up, also. I have learned so much about the gospel and so much Norwegian. I feel so blessed that I have been here for the last 6 weeks and it will be a little sad to leave. I am nervous to be the new missionary again over in Norge, but I know that is where I am supposed to be. I am SO fired up and motivated to share the gospel with as many people as I can. Everyone deserves to know the truth and to have the joy that we all have. 

I was reading in D&C 31 this week and realized that that section can be applied to my mission so easily! v. 3 "Lift up you heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed , and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation." v. 13 "Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you."  I love the work that I am doing and cannot wait for my  very cold, but amazing adventure on the other side of the world. 

Thank you so much for the love and the prayers. I love all of you so much and am so grateful to have you in my life. Good luck to my beast of a dad who is running his 31st marathon in 10 days! Kill it! 

xox,

Sister Frampton 

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ONE MONTH DOWN

Hello everyone! 

Can you believe that this is going to be my FIFTH Wednesday? I can't even believe how fast time flies. EXCITING NEWS: I get my travel plans this Friday!!!!!! I cannot even wait. Here is the thing though, the Danish missionaries in our zone got their travel plans a few days ago and only ONE of them got their visa. AH! So, they are all getting temporarily reassigned state side. I could really use your prayers that I get my visa. I do not want to do the reassignment thing. I leave in 14 DAYS! I am so excited to get out of this place and over to Norge! 

Another exciting thing to look forward to is the general relief society broadcast, Saturday the 28th. I WILL BE SINGING IN THE MTC CHOIR! I am so excited. I am not too much of a choir singer, but to get out and drive to salt lake with be worth the singing. Most sisters can read music and harmonize with ease. Unfortunately my qualifications only include practicing in the shower and in the car. Oh well. All the sister missionaries in the mtc will hopefully get to go and be the choir for the broadcast. Look for me on the jumbo-tron, people. If you don't go to the broadcast for the spiritual enlightenment, go to look for Sister Frampton on the screen. 

I am learning more and more about Norway from my teachers and it gets me so excited to arrive. We are learning Bokmal Norwegian which is what the kids in school learn, but a lot of people speack NyNorsk which is totally a different language. I am so nervous about getting there and not being able to understand anyone! Not to mention, in every city there is a different dialect. Oh boy! Norway also has an open immigration policy so there are people from all around the world living there. One of my teachers told us that he met people from over 80 countries while serving there. Crazy! I think I will be speaking a lot of English. Also, missionaries on their P-days do nothing but hike... I am so incredibly excited about that. Thinking about actually being outdoors right now gives me butterflies of excitement. I have also learned about the FREEZING conditions. I knew all along about the weather but hearing someone talk about it that has actually experienced it is pretty intimidating. I've heard everything from hair freezing and breaking off, spit freezing before it hits the ground, mouths freezing to the point where you cannot talk, and hot chocolate freezing in the first 15 minutes of being outside. I am so excited! When I get there in a couple of weeks the days will be close to 6 hours long with sunlight. It will be a whole new world!

 

So here are a few things that just seem normal since being here at the MTC. Short-sleeved dress shirts are just second nature now. I have always hated the short-sleeves with a tie but hey, now I wouldn't even expect anything else. My name tag. It is like my cell phone, except for the fact that I cannot check instagram, send a text or call anyone. I just feel naked without my cute, little, black name tag. I never thought I would say this but how did I even spend so much time on my phone? Where did I even put it? What are phones even good for? I am also used to the judgement looks from surrounding sisters. Every time our two Norwegian districts walk anywhere the elders count the number of glares from sisters towards me. One sister with 12 elders is something you don't see everyday. I wish I could tattoo SOLO on my forehead so they would know I am not actually breaking any rules. The last thing that is just completely normal now is that I get church songs stuck in my head all day every day. Last night I was trying to remember words to an Adele song and I COULDN'T! They were literally lost from my mind. 

So this week I really focused on my goals as a missionary and as a person. "Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action. Goal setting and planning are acts of faith." Thanks Preach My Gospel. I love this quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard, "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in his life." We should always have personal goals, but also have goals to continue progressing to become like the savior. When studying the scriptures or even thinking about how you could be better, we should pick one Christ-like characteristic to work on. Such as being more charitable, more prayerful, hopeful, patient, obedient, diligent or humble. If we choose one to focus on for a week, write it down and evaluate your progress everyday. It makes a HUGE difference. 

Thanks for all that you guys are doing for me. I can feel your prayers and support every single day. Keep up the good work at whatever you are doing! Pray everyday, the outcome is so worth it. 

"Jesus Christ is the bread of eternal life. By following Him, remembering Him, and having faith in Him we can change and become what we aspire to become" -D. Todd Christofferson

Love you guys,

Sister Frampton

THREE WEEKS

McCall, Donald Kirk and our neighbor Connor Mcgavin

Donald is in our stake and is also, going to Norway.

Connor is going to Cambodia.

Family and Friends,

Can you believe I have been here for three weeks now? It is awesome. The days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like DAYS! I will miss it here for sure when I leave for Norway but I cannot wait to arrive so soon! The language is coming along! I never thought I would be saying that but the gift of tongues is REAL! I pray for help multiple times a day and I definitely am blessed with help. 

My elder companions and I are teaching two "investigators" (they are really our teachers), and we hardly have to stop to think of words to say. Obviously they are super simple lessons but hey, I AM SPEAKING NORSK! 

This week the hardest thing for me to learn was how to tell time! Someone needs to teach those Norsk people the right way to do it. Let me try to explain... First of all, their digital clocks are in military time, and that is how they write it as well. But, they don't tell people the time in military way. So, that is interesting. There is no such thing as hey it's 12:13! They would say it like, "its thirteen minutes past the hour of 12. UM WHAT? But wait, it gets worse. If the minute is in the second quadrant (15-30) you count down to the half of the hour. So let's say it is 12:24. Heaven forbid you just tell the person that it is 12:24. You would say, "Its six minutes until half to 1." This is not a joke people, this is real. I will just stop there to keep you from feeling bad for me/ falling asleep. Just know it is the hardest thing for me to figure out. By the time I do the math to tell the person what time it is, it isn't even the same minute! I'll just hand people my watch to look at themselves if they want to know. 

So, you know how I was determined to beat the mtc female pull-up record? Well, they won't let me kip!!! They think it is cheating..... So there goes that dream. Stupid. Deep down I know that my name belongs on that board though. #crossfitstrong

At our Sunday night devotional, we had brother Heaton come to speak to us. He is head of the administrative department at the MTC. The first thing he did when he got up there was invite his son from the audience to come up and join him. I was like what the heck? Well, to my surprise THE CUTEST (besides Austin) 13 year-old down syndrome boy joins him at the microphone. Brother Heaton asks, "Hey Russell, what do you think of all of these missionaries?" His cute son Russell looks around with THE BIGGEST smile on his face and says, "This is EPIC!" It made everyone smile but it made me cry. Just tears streaming down my face!! I was a little bit embarrassed but it made me miss my best friend so much. I ran up to the front of the room at the end of the meeting and introduced myself. He managed to tell me his favorite sports were soccer and hockey. I loved talking to him. I put out my fist to give him bones and he about broke all four of my fingers. It made me laugh so hard... I am sure he could beat me in an arm wrestle too.

I am so excited to tell you that I was called as zone sister training leader this past week! Our zone is made up of missionaries going to Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, and Denmark so I am in charge of all of the girls in our zone. Since the announcement in October, the first presidency has made sister leaders because of the HUGE jump in sister missionaries. They only called me for our zone because I don't have companions but also because we don't have too many girls. Quick note, they told us that a few months ago in the mtc they had 52% elders and 48% sisters! Anyway, there are district leaders in charge of each classroom and then two zone leaders and I in charge of everyone put together. I feel super blessed that they trust me to be a leader!

Here is your MTC secret for this week. The church/mtc has thought of a really good way to save money, and that is not to hire any custodial workers. Since they have big groups of missionaries have p-days every single day, they require 75 minutes of service on your p-day. Don't get me wrong, service is just great, but I don't know if missionaries quite keep things as clean as professional cleaners would. Yes mom, I would MUCH RATHER weed. This morning we were put in charge of cleaning the showers. Oh yes, they are public showers that probably 40 girls per floor use. One would think that they showers would be clean since that's what they are used for... think again. I cannot tell you how many times I gagged this morning. I have one word for you, HAIR. SO MUCH HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was tempted to just shave my head after cleaning out the drains full of hair balls. 

One more secret is that someone in the cooking staff should be fired this week. I am not one for tator tots, fried french toast sticks, or biscuits and gravy in the mornings. So, I usually get some fruit and hard-boiled eggs. Yesterday I finished peeling the shell of the egg and split it in half. To my surprise it started chirping. Just kidding, but it probably could have. The inside of the egg was still RAW!!! I lost my appetite so fast. I was just grateful that I split it in half first, if I would have just taken a huge bite of it and got that in my mouth.... OH BAD NEWS!

Okay now to the spiritual stuff, I am ALMOST finished reading the Book of Mormon again. Oh man, I love that book so much. I am just starting Moroni so I will be finished today. I hope you all find just a few minutes a day to read. It is the hand book to life and it is literally God's word. I feel so blessed to have a testimony of it and the opportunity to feast from it's words every single day. I love in 3 Nephi went Christ comes to the Americas to bless the people. He takes so much time to heal and visit with every single person. It is such a huge example to me of charity and how we should treat other people. My favorite spiritual quote for the week is, "I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun. Not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." 

Jeg vet at Jesu Kristi Kirke av Siste Dager Hellige er sannheten. Gud elsker hans barn og vil hjelpe oss føle hans kjærlighet. Hivs vi lese Mormons Bok og be til Gud verdag, Han skall velsigne oss. Jeg elsker Mormons Bok og vet at det kan hjelpe meg med mine problemer. Jeg er så takknemlig for evangelium og min misjon. Jeg er glad i deres! Takk for alt! 

Love you guys! Thank you SO much for the support and the sweet notes of encouragement that I have received. 

xo, 

Søster Frampton

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pictures Sept 4, 2013

Subject: Stayin' alive...

Hi people!

THANK YOU so much for your love, letters, prayers and support these past 14 days. I have needed it and definitely have appreciated it. 

The last time we talked was last Tuesday morning, well Tuesday nights are MTC devotional nights. Last week the devotional was broadcast-ed to all the MTCs around the world because Elder Neil Anderson came to speak to us! It was so fun to hear an apostle speak to all the training missionaries in the world... And we got to see it live! He brought such an amazing spirit with him, as I am sure you could imagine. He spoke on forgetting the word "I" and replacing it with Jesus Christ, companion, investigator or members. It was amazing and it really put perspective on the way I should be thinking while serving my mission. 

So remember how I hated having my dork dot on the Wednesday I arrived? I took EVERY opportunity I could to welcome new missionaries to the MTC last Wednesday and it was a great feeling. I am movin on up to the pro leagues quicker than I expected... I gotta make sure the rookies understand their place. Haha!

Let me just tell ya that fast Sunday's here in the MTC are one of the most trying experiences of my life. If you are receiving this email you probably know me well enough that I am always looking forward to the next meal. Like, always. Having said that, you can also start to conclude that fast Sundays are the hardest days of the month for me. I will admit that fasting one meal that day was always passed off as acceptable in my book. Well, let me just tell you that is IMPOSSIBLE to pull off here... Except if you are diabetic (believe me I thought about lying). I fasted for 24 hours people! Be proud of me. I had a migraine and was in one heck of a mood but I pulled through! Dinner that night was one of the most rewarding meals of my life. Laugh all you want, but that's the cold hard truth. 

I will let you all in on a little secret right now. The MTC resident halls' bathrooms are the most entertaining places in the whole world. Without getting to inappropriate I will just say that I have never laughed harder in my life at other Sisters. One of my favorite activities is to brush my teeth at night and listen to "the shower singers". Girls some how think that when they are in a large, tiled shower room with the curtain pulled shut that they magically turn into Beyonce or something. Its like a full blown concert in the bathrooms at night and I just love it. 99.5% of the time the sisters are off key and vibrato at times that they shouldn't, but every once in a while you get a fairly good singer that was probably star of her concert choir class. I've never heard so many hymns sung in the shower at one time. It is quite exquisite. 

On Monday nights, our zone has gym time at 8pm. Luckily we can go outside and exercise the way that we want. I went running with the other solo sister that I went with last week. (Her name is sister Angerhofer. She is stuck here waiting for her visa). We had done about one lap around the MTC and it just started POURING and thundering AND lightning. Naturally, most all of the other missionaries ran for the doors to keep themselves dry, but not us! We ran 3 miles in the pouring rain watching and listening to the thunder and lightning. It was my form of heaven. I was freezing and soaking wet but was honestly the HAPPIEST I have been since arriving here. 

This language is CRAZY! Sometimes when I sit in class I just think to myself, what is going on right now? I have fallen in love with everything Norwegian. Our teachers reward us with a story from their mission or a cultural insight, if we behave during their lesson. I cannot wait to get there and enjoy the beauty, people and the culture! I feel really good about my progress in the language so far. It boosts my confidence when I explain to one of the other missionaries how to say certain things in Norsk. I have taught 6 different lessons all in Norsk to two different fake investigators already. I cannot wait to be super fluent and not have to even think in English. <Jeg elsker evangelium og mine ledsagare!>

I have yet to get sick of the people I am around, maybe that means that they are sick of me? All 12 elders going to Norge are hilarious and definitely make this experience better. I also love that I get to have Emi in my residence dorm at night. We just laugh and laugh about things that happen in the day. 

I have NOTHING to complain about. I am so happy to be here and love getting up and working hard everyday. Thank you again for all that each one of you does for me! I couldn't be here without the help of people around me. Remember to look outside of yourself and forget the word "I" this week. I pray for all of you and truly hope the best in your lives. 

With all my love,

Sister Frampton

*Pics on the way

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