Week 64... Lake Butler

Christmas Chickens and Miracles

Hey ya’ll !! This will be a shortish email because I got no time to write today butttt... This week was superbly fantastic!!  It was the merriest of all the Christmases.  :) Christmas Eve was the best!! We did lots and lots of secret Santa business and did lots of doorbell ditching! It was the best! We also delivered Christmas chickens to families in need in our ward... Do you know what time it is?? 

CHRISTMAS MIRACLE TIME!! 

So…Twas the night before Christmas and all through Lake Butler, The sister missionaries were scurrying around handing out Christmas chickens! Alas, they had delivered all of the juicy pheasants to their lucky owners. We looked inside our box and to our surprise we beheld one last Christmas chicken! We thought and pondered on who could use such a treat for such a special night and no thought of any family came to mind. But alas, we decided to knock on the poorest looking house in Lake Butler and deliver it to whoever was inside. With a prayer in our hearts and a Christmas chicken in our hands we venture off to find the humble abode! We drive and we drive and found ourselves in a trailer park. We keep driving. Trailer after trailer.. None of them seemed right. We turned the corner to a tricycle in the middle of the road. A sign!!! We swiftly look around! Ah! We see a little child playing in the dirt! This was it. We found our house. We take our chicken up the front steps and knock on the door. A million kids were running around and a very tired looking mother. We gave the mother our little Christmas chicken and wished her the merriest of Christmases. We told her we were missionaries and she said "yes, I know. I've been taught before by missionaries" she accepted a return appointment and we turned around still stunned at the miracle that had just happened. We look through our area book to find her name. We found it but it had no contact info. The Lord led us to that little humble trailer that day! His plans were better than ours. We just wanted to deliver a Christmas chicken. He wanted to re-teach a family!  Moral of the story... Christmas chickens bring miracles.  :) 

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas! It was so nice to talk to my family! The ward took good care of us and fed us so much delicious southern food. I have loved this Christmas as a missionary. It certainly has been one of a kind because Lake Butler is definitely one of a kind. 

We were able to pick up a former investigator family!!! We taught the mom last night and we have a return appointment this week!! We are really excited. :)  ALSO. Our most progressing investigators.. Jacqueline and Jordan... We gave them to the elders so they could teach them because we thought Jordan could connect with them better and then 2 DAYS LATER they got engaged. Which is something we have been waiting for them to do for AGES. Faith test!!! Ahh!! I still know the elders are supposed to teach them. But the lord has been blessing us for it!! We had 2 new investigators show up to church today!! One was a former who hasn't been in a very very long time.. But she showed up!! Such a miracle!!! 

Today we went fishing for P-day. It was the best. I LOVE Lake Butler SO MUCH. It was such a fun Christmas and a wonderful week full of miracles!!! I hope ya’ll had a wonderful Christmas :) 

Oh.. And HAPPY NEW YEAR. :) 

I remember at the beginning of the year I thought to myself "yeay!!! One full year as a missionary!!" And now it's the end of December. *shudder* time just goes by waaayyyy too fast.  But all is well!!! Expect mighty miracles to happen this next week! I love being a missionary and I love all of youuuu :D 

Take care now ;) 

Love, Sister Chamberlain 

 

Week 63... Lake Butler

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Merry Christmas! *<[:o{) Hello, Hello, Hello!!! This week was wonderful!  At the beginning of the week we got to teach the D family!! They are a family of five and I loooove them SO MUCH. They are so nice and have such a strong desire to get back into church. And they live right next to the church. It's just perfect. So we had a really wonderful lesson with them and invited them to come to mutual and they came!!!! They had a wonderful time!! It was the Christmas progressive dinner so it was with all the youth and they shared the Christmas Mormon message and at the end little Alex said.. "Can we come to church?" Uhh.. Pssh.. YES. YOU CAN. Miracles. Are real!!! They will be out of town for Christmas but as soon as they get back we will get them! :) We are teaching a really nice kid named Thomas! We taught him the first lesson and he committed to be baptized! Solid!!! He is very sincere. It is wonderfully refreshing!!! CHRISTMAS MIRACLES!!  *cue choirs of heavenly angels* And then I got sick. The end. Hahaha. I don't know why but I ALWAYS get sick the week before Christmas. The fluuuuu. Ewwwwww. Snot. Everywhere. Very messy. So that's been super lame. Nobody wants to get sick before Christmas so no one will let us in and then I got quarantined to the trailer. Twas the worst. Haha. I'm still feeling nasty yucky flu...y? It's now day 5. Hopefully it will be gone before Christmas!! Yesterday I wanted to go caroling! I told Sis D. "I want to go caroling" and she said "Sister.. You’re sick. It's raining. It's dark. And there are only two of us." And I said ... "SO WHAT?! TROLOLOLOL!!!*' So, we went caroling, even though it practically killed Sis D. She still came with me. (Cause she's the best) We met A lot of mean people that didn't want to be caroled to, that confused me... But that's okay! Trial of faith before the miracle! After trying all the Scrooges... We finally found the family that needed to!! An older couple with their 2 sons. And the dad couldn't go to church today because he just had surgery...  So we sang! I sang through phlegm and sniffles and cracks in my voice a pretty pathetic version of "Away in a Manger" but when we were finished singing the mom said "Wow... Y'all sounded like angels.. Thank you" and they all just sat there and smiled at is. it about made me cry. It felt so good to bring the spirit into their little home that night. :) ANNND they want us to come back. Score! On Sunday we were able to help out with a toy drive for the local families who can't provide a Christmas for their families. That brought back many tender feelings of mysterious boxes appearing on my doorstep full of presents for my family. This was such a wonderful way to pay it forward. We are also handing out Christmas chickens to families in need!! This is truly the best time of the year. :) I'm excited for the miracles that will happen this next week. I love being a missionary around Christmas time. There is nothing else like it in the world. :) The best gift you can re-gift is the gift of our Savior. :) Merry Christmas everyone!!! I love you all. :) Love, Sister Chamberlain Uhhhhh...? We three Sisters of FJM are.

Week 62... Lake Butler

Hey Ya’ll!

This week was quite lovely. Lovely indeed! All of the lovelies! It was also a blur of which I can't remember much. Hooray for memory problems! 

I'll just touch on the big moments!

We finally contacted a referral we got from a member. And it just so happened to be a family of five and they just so happened to become new investigators and God just happens to be a God of Miracles! They are the nicest family I've ever met! Yay!! But, really. It was such a miracle. Our teaching pool hasn't changed much and we have been praying really really hard to find a family of 5 since I’ve gotten to this area. And we found them!!! Hallelujah!  So that was great.

On Friday Sister C, who is a recent widow said she needed help burning some things. Best. Day. Ever. >:) she got a l’il carried away with the lighter fluid and we almost burnt her lawn down. and her house. Ha-ha. But we had a wee little hose! And we saved it! Yay!! It was wonderful though and we had a grand ole time with her. I love her SO much. She says things like "bring a jacket or you'll freeze your bunnies off" and "ladies!! (Referring to her cows) get your little beef butts over here!" I just love her. She reminds me of my momma!!! It's the best.

We did service at the library this week and met Santa Claus. That was pretty sweet! This week we also had the relief society progressive dinner! That was a lot of fun. We had a lot of non-members and less actives show up. Blessings! If y'all haven't seen the new Christmas Mormon message you definitely need to watch it!! It's amazing!! :)

On one day we helped a family move! They weren't members so it was a good opportunity to share the gospel. We are going back to visit them this week! It's amazing to see how service softens people's hearts. :)

This week we also made old fashion candy and fudge with one of the members for us to deliver to people we are visiting! It was a lot of fun. We did it with Sister G. Who is the most...interesting lady you will ever meet. I love her ha-ha.

We have done a lot of Christmas service which is the best!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS SERVICE. It just makes you feel so good. I love being a missionary during Christmas. It is the best time of year to be a missionary!

I've been thinking a lot about the worth of a soul. As a missionary you think about that kind of stuff a lot. My favorite scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants is D&C 18:10 "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" but as I was thinking this week I thought to myself. Define great? What is great? I was trying to put some numerical value to it. Well, as I read on in the scripture it tells you exactly how "great" one soul is worth. "For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance."D&C 18:11-12. That is the price of one soul. Of your soul. God himself came down and died so that we could repent and be forgiven of our sons and ultimately gain eternal life. That is what a soul is worth. Jesus Christ died for you individually. He paid for your sins individually.
He saw you and he saw how much you were worth and did it for you. Because of His great love.. We are all able to return home to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. So what is the worth of a soul? Priceless.  So for all of you who are having a low self-confidence moment.. Remember the worth of your soul is GREAT. :)

I love y'all so much. I hope that you take a long moment to ponder the greatest gift we have received, the one of our Savior. He truly is our greatest gift. :)  I love this gospel with my whole heart and I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ himself stands at the head of this church.  What a wonderful time of the year!! :)

Have a glorious week!! Keep smiling my friends! :)

Love,

Sister Chamberlain :)

Happy Christmas 2014

Week 61... Lake Butler

Hey ya’ll! This week was so much fun!!! :) 

Monday was p-day! Then, during prime proselyting hours, we had dinner at the G’s and they let us help decorate their tree. My favorite part though was listening to their deep love of the temple and hearing their neat experiences! They are both converts and have amazing testimonies! They are so sassy and Bro G reminds me of Santa Claus. 

Tuesday- We had interviews with President Craig. I love President Craig so much! We had a really good talk together and I was reminded of a lot of miracles that had changed me out here. I love him so much and I know with all my heart I was sent here because he is the mission president. He reads all of our emails and responds to 85% of them every week. On top of that he comes out to teach with us and takes time to talk with us anytime. He knows each of us by name and remembers things about us so well. 

Wednesday- We had Zone meeting. My first one!! I was so nervous to give my training and lots of mental breakdowns happened! Hooray for being a sister missionary! And for having all the feels!!!! In the end, though, it turned out to be really spiritual and powerful. That definitely did not come from me. That was alllll the Lord. I was standing up there testifying and I was thinking to myself "who is this talking? Cause it's not me!" It was a very cool experience.  The spirit is real! We have such great missionaries in our zone! I love them all! When we have zone p-days they are super fun because we're all together and having a good time. Playing warrior ball (a form of dodge-ball) is one of my favorite games.  

Sister Alyssa the Sister Training Leader

Thursday- Thursday this week was the best day of the week! We had service all day! First we helped out at the library with the children's program. Our investigator K runs those programs so we help out with those. Then we went to Sister N’s house. She is the most angelic person I have ever met. She has four young children and has a lot of seizures so she has to stay in bed most of the time. But she doesn't complain at all, in fact she is extremely grateful for this trial because it's brought her closer to Christ and her family closer together. Her home is like the temple. It's incredible. Anyways, we house cleaned for her and did some really deep cleaning too. It felt so good to help her.  Then we helped Sister M, a spunky widow in the ward. She's about as Southern as you can get. We helped her on her farm!!! As much as I try to be a tough Southern girl it just doesn't happen. Hahaha. I was trying to pull these staples out of wood so we could tear down the barbed wire fence and she was sitting there yelling "COME ON SISTER CHAMBERLAIN GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT! HIT IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!!" It was so funny to watch. Hahaha. I love her so much. I got to feed a cow. Which was quite possibly the best moment of my life. I dug post holes and put up a brand new fence! This Friday we are burning garbage! Yay! I will be a tough southern girl one day!! But for now I'll just be me. :)   Then later we helped the Bishop build the float for the parade on Saturday. Bishop Paul Waters is one of the best bishops I know. He is so missionary minded and service focused and loves the youth. And boy is he Southern! He's the best! Last week, we just had a question for him and he pulled us into his office and talked to us for a good 45 minutes on how the work was going and who we were working with and what the ward could do to help us. He's amazing. 

Friday- Weekly Planning which is going to be the death of Sister Chamberlain. But we “gotter” done in 3 hours and boogied and went and helped a 93 year old woman put up her Christmas lights. Christmas has opened the community up to a lot of service, which is so good for this area!  Later that night, we felt inspired to go see a recent convert in the ward. She was distraught and deeply depressed. So we talked with her and sang some songs with her which lifted her mood. Later we found that she had messaged us on Facebook and was begging for us to come over to help her. That's a testimony that the spirit is real, it was so neat to be able to be in a position that we were worthy and ready to serve. I love the Spirit. We had dinner at the C’s. They have four young kids, Preston, Adam, Olivia and Ethan. It was so fun! I ran around in a circle with Ethan who is 3 for 20 min!!! Woooo! 

Saturday- The elders and us went helped Sister M again. (We're her visiting teachers, I don't know if I mentioned that already) her son was there this time and we helped dig fence posts and take down some barbed wire and things like that. Man I just love to work hard! It feels so good! I love her!!!  Saturday night was the parade! Probably the best night of my mission!!! The Lake Butler Christmas parade!! After the sun had gone down.. Sister Donohue and I were looking for our ward float and we see it!! A huge star! And blasting from the float was his beautiful redneck Christmas music. Banjo, violin and everything. The float was beaming!!! We had stuck a million lights on it. We had Christmas cards that invited people to come to the Christmas service and to look up the "he is the gift" video and little candy canes to pass out to the children. The float started moving and we as the missionaries and the youth are walking beside it.. I look behind me to see a huge full moon peeping out through the clouds. As the float would pass the people we would run to the people and pass out candy canes and cards and while we were doing that the float would get ahead of us and we would have to sprint back to the float to replenish our supplies of cards and candy canes. The moment I won't forget.. The music is singing and ringing.. The flushed faces of the youth from running and the brightness of their spirits.. The smiles that were spread across the face of the little kids who got handed candy canes... The sincerity in my voice as I said "Merry Christmas Ma'am" wishing with all my heart I would see them at church .. All of them... Kristen the girl with Down's syndrome playing Mary.. Running out of candy canes.. Running out of cards.. Running out of breath .. But feeling so overwhelmed with the spirit of Christmas that nothing could wipe the smile off my face. It was beautiful. There was something about running to those people that just hit my heart. We were running light and joy to them. We were helping them receive Christ. That was one of the best moments of my whole life! Loved it. I love Christmas!! 

The Lake Butler Christmas parade!!

Sunday- Fast Sunday! I love to listen to the testimonies of the members! They are so rock solid! Randy T, a recent convert and a preacher for years bore a beautiful testimony. A lot of the children got up too. It was so priceless. I love Sunday! Then Sister Donohue and I taught Sunday school on Christ’s life and having faith in him. And then we practiced a musical number with the youth for the Christmas program. Then later we had a great lesson with Jacqueline and Jordan, we taught the first lesson over again. Jordan is progressing! It's so exciting! Their reading the bible together and Jordan read ahead and surprised all of us! Their so great! Then we had a soup and bread dinner at the church and afterwards watched the Christmas program which was amazing! Such a great week!

I am staying in Lake Butler for Christmas!! God loves me!! :) 

I hope ya’ll had a wonderful week :) 

Take care and thank you, thank you for everything!! 

Love, Sister Chamberlain:) 

The Christmas Palmetto