Hello everyone!!!
Mandarin is kickin’ my missionary buttocks
Sorry about the lack of email last week. I was super short on time and wanted to send all of the personal emails!! Welllllp, at the end of this week I will have been in mandarin for almost a month!! Don't ask me how that happened. I have no idea. Basically. I am really really enjoying it here!!!!
Lemme begin by telling you all about my B~day
and Easter!!
So my birthday was lovely!!! I got a wonderful wonderful package from my familia with all of the missionary goods in it! And I loved it so dearly! I also got mail from my Grandma L. and a package from my dear friend Brooklyn!! Aannnnd… My fabulous ward members sent me cards!!! Wow! I am so blessed. Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes. It truly made my day wonderful! My companion made me birthday brownies which are always a good idea and they were delightful! Other than that, it was just like any other missionary day. It was a Friday which means weekly planning and only those who are on missions or have gone on missions know how truly exciting that is. Haha. None the less.. It was a great day. :)
So for Easter, Sister Pasko decided last minute that we were going to sing in the ward choir!! That was fun. We had two delicious Southern dinners. We had fried salad with bacon. Because apparently that is a thing. Only in the south... Where Mac n cheese is a vegetable. . . Haha I love this place so much. We had a wonderful sacrament meeting and it was probably the most spiritual Easter I've ever had! I don't know if y'all have seen the because of him video that the church produced.. It's amazing!!! It really puts into perspective what we can do because of Jesus Christ. I have really been able to strengthen my relationship with Christ while on my mission and it's been so incredible. He truly does live and love us. Because of him.. We can do anything! How great?! So Easter was really good. :)
So our investigators are doing fantastic! I love them all so dearly. So Kym is doing well we were able to move her out of her house and that was surely an adventure. I swear, by the end of my mission I am going to be a professional mover. We also cleaned her house and did yard work for her. In the 90 degree humid weather. Oh, and we are on bikes. Now, I've never been considered myself to be a sweaty person. .. But good glory hallelujah ... I sweat SO MUCH. THERE IS SO MUCH. I walk outside and I sweat. Where did I get sent? What is this place? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? Ahhh Florida. How I love you. There really is no point in trying to look decent or do my hair and makeup. By the end of the day I always look like some homeless person that has wandered through the Sahara desert. I'll send a picture one day. Maybe. . . .Anyways. Enough about sweat and homeless people. Kym is great and I love her. The end. Her husband went to salt lake for a business trip. I told him to say hi to the mountains and the non-chigger infested grass for me. Haha.
Have I talked about Alex and Zachary C. yet?? Well, if I haven't I cannot even wait to tell you how great they are. We found them through a referral that was a wrong address and their dad said we could come back later annnnd so we did! We talked to Alex (who just turned 18) and he was quite distracted by.. Everything. So our Restoration lesson was a little rough and he seemed like any other punk 18 year old . . .But. . . He said we could come back. Something told us we should. So we did! Next time we went over there his younger brother Zachary answered (he is 16) and we talked to him about the gospel and he was pretty receptive to it! So that was great!! So we came back again expecting to teach just Zachary and Alex comes out and I'm thinking "oh great.. Here we go again with the swearing and the A.D.D." But they balance each other out so well and he was calmish!!!!!! We told them about our conversion stories and the spirit was so incredibly strong!!!! We invited them both to be baptized and they said yes!!! Within the course of this last week we have taught them almost all the lessons and they have a baptismal date for June 1st!!!! My favorite lesson was with Alex and we were explaining how families can be together forever and you are sealed to your spouse forever in the temple and he was so surprised and overwhelmed that that could actually happen. The spirit was really strong and he said that is what he really really wanted. And his brother Zachary came to church and another baptism and he looooved it!!! And I just love them both so much! They are the little brothers I never had and I just want so badly for them to make it to the font and to the temple to receive all the blessings!! Please pray for them! They have both expressed things have been harder ever since we have been teaching them. Satan is on the move. We are teaching them the law of chastity this Saturday with their girlfriends. . . Which should be.. Interesting.... Pray for them and us!! They are so elect and ready for this. It's amazing to see the progress they have made in the past week!
So that is basically who we are working with this week. We need to start finding other potential investigators. Which means more tracting!! Hoooooraayyy :) speaking of tracting the bishop gave us a wonderful game to play while tracting! We give each other a word right before the door opens and we have to use that word in our door approach! It definitely makes things interesting and does my little improv heart so incredibly good!!! It's like a game if who can see who keeps the door open longer. Haha it's a lot of fun and makes the time of tracting in the hot Florida weather much more bearable. I really enjoy the bikes!!! They give me a good work out and the breeze feels fantastic! Granted, the moment I get off of it I'm drowning in a pool of my own sweat and I have really terrible helmet hair. But hey!!! I'm not trying to impress anyone. Right?? ;)
So my birthday was lovely!!! I got a wonderful wonderful package from my familia with all of the missionary goods in it! And I loved it so dearly! I also got mail from my Grandma L. and a package from my dear friend Brooklyn!! Aannnnd… My fabulous ward members sent me cards!!! Wow! I am so blessed. Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes. It truly made my day wonderful! My companion made me birthday brownies which are always a good idea and they were delightful! Other than that, it was just like any other missionary day. It was a Friday which means weekly planning and only those who are on missions or have gone on missions know how truly exciting that is. Haha. None the less.. It was a great day. :)
So for Easter, Sister Pasko decided last minute that we were going to sing in the ward choir!! That was fun. We had two delicious Southern dinners. We had fried salad with bacon. Because apparently that is a thing. Only in the south... Where Mac n cheese is a vegetable. . . Haha I love this place so much. We had a wonderful sacrament meeting and it was probably the most spiritual Easter I've ever had! I don't know if y'all have seen the because of him video that the church produced.. It's amazing!!! It really puts into perspective what we can do because of Jesus Christ. I have really been able to strengthen my relationship with Christ while on my mission and it's been so incredible. He truly does live and love us. Because of him.. We can do anything! How great?! So Easter was really good. :)
So our investigators are doing fantastic! I love them all so dearly. So Kym is doing well we were able to move her out of her house and that was surely an adventure. I swear, by the end of my mission I am going to be a professional mover. We also cleaned her house and did yard work for her. In the 90 degree humid weather. Oh, and we are on bikes. Now, I've never been considered myself to be a sweaty person. .. But good glory hallelujah ... I sweat SO MUCH. THERE IS SO MUCH. I walk outside and I sweat. Where did I get sent? What is this place? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? Ahhh Florida. How I love you. There really is no point in trying to look decent or do my hair and makeup. By the end of the day I always look like some homeless person that has wandered through the Sahara desert. I'll send a picture one day. Maybe. . . .Anyways. Enough about sweat and homeless people. Kym is great and I love her. The end. Her husband went to salt lake for a business trip. I told him to say hi to the mountains and the non-chigger infested grass for me. Haha.
Have I talked about Alex and Zachary C. yet?? Well, if I haven't I cannot even wait to tell you how great they are. We found them through a referral that was a wrong address and their dad said we could come back later annnnd so we did! We talked to Alex (who just turned 18) and he was quite distracted by.. Everything. So our Restoration lesson was a little rough and he seemed like any other punk 18 year old . . .But. . . He said we could come back. Something told us we should. So we did! Next time we went over there his younger brother Zachary answered (he is 16) and we talked to him about the gospel and he was pretty receptive to it! So that was great!! So we came back again expecting to teach just Zachary and Alex comes out and I'm thinking "oh great.. Here we go again with the swearing and the A.D.D." But they balance each other out so well and he was calmish!!!!!! We told them about our conversion stories and the spirit was so incredibly strong!!!! We invited them both to be baptized and they said yes!!! Within the course of this last week we have taught them almost all the lessons and they have a baptismal date for June 1st!!!! My favorite lesson was with Alex and we were explaining how families can be together forever and you are sealed to your spouse forever in the temple and he was so surprised and overwhelmed that that could actually happen. The spirit was really strong and he said that is what he really really wanted. And his brother Zachary came to church and another baptism and he looooved it!!! And I just love them both so much! They are the little brothers I never had and I just want so badly for them to make it to the font and to the temple to receive all the blessings!! Please pray for them! They have both expressed things have been harder ever since we have been teaching them. Satan is on the move. We are teaching them the law of chastity this Saturday with their girlfriends. . . Which should be.. Interesting.... Pray for them and us!! They are so elect and ready for this. It's amazing to see the progress they have made in the past week!
So that is basically who we are working with this week. We need to start finding other potential investigators. Which means more tracting!! Hoooooraayyy :) speaking of tracting the bishop gave us a wonderful game to play while tracting! We give each other a word right before the door opens and we have to use that word in our door approach! It definitely makes things interesting and does my little improv heart so incredibly good!!! It's like a game if who can see who keeps the door open longer. Haha it's a lot of fun and makes the time of tracting in the hot Florida weather much more bearable. I really enjoy the bikes!!! They give me a good work out and the breeze feels fantastic! Granted, the moment I get off of it I'm drowning in a pool of my own sweat and I have really terrible helmet hair. But hey!!! I'm not trying to impress anyone. Right?? ;)
By the way, if you have the choice of not carrying your water bottle and having a lighter bag while riding your bike or having a heavier bag and lots of water. Choose the later. Florida is ruthless! Lesson learned.
We had trade-offs this week and Sister McLeary and I had a lovely time!! We ran into a magical neighborhood!! It was like we had been transferred to a fairy tale land! There was a huge Asian mansion where the doorbell was a gong sound and a little tiny cottage that looked like a witch would come out of it and try to cook us and a creepy jungle house and then we knocked on a house that looked exactly like the house from Peter Pan the dog ran out and the lady said "Tinkerbell! Get back here!" For real. That happened. No biggie. I am sure that if we try and find the neighborhood again we wouldn't be able to. Haha. Florida is getting stranger and stranger the longer I am here.
There was a brown recluse in our apartment. *twitch* if you don't know what that is.. It is a spider who's venom eats flesh. I don't suggest you google it. Well, we saw our little friend and proceeded to FREAK OUT. I got the 409 (yes, the kitchen cleaner.. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do) and heroically sprayed it to death.
Speaking of bugs. . . .
Mosquitos. Who's idea was that ? I've never had so many mosquito bites in my liiiiife. The other day I counted 13 just on my ankles. It's really great when you are talking to someone and you can feel those little vermin having a nice little snack on your ankles. And you can't freak out or the person will be weirded out.. So you just have to take it!!! Then you get home and you want to cut your legs off cause they itch so bad. Haha. That said, I want you all to know how dearly I love Florida. All the bugs and humidity and heat and everything. I love it. I never want to leave this glorious paradise. Truly truly. :D it is a place with so many strange people. And I'm pretty strange myself. So I fit it nicely. ;)
So somebody stole my pros card account number and they used it to buy gas in California. They probably really really needed it. Right? RIGHT?! Haha. And so Sis P and I have been pretty broke the past couple of weeks so we have been living off of eggs and lettuce. Hahaha. I HONESTLY JUST LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. It is so glorious :)
This was truly a week full of a bunch of miracles and weird adventures! The longer I'm out here the more I want to stay and the faster time is moving. I am working really hard and the obedience level is high! Which is fantastic! I've been reflecting on how I felt at the time they announced that the missionary age changed. I remember sitting there and I felt my spirit jump for joy. My head didn't know what was going on but my spirit knew. It remembered that I had been preordained in the preexistence to be a missionary in the last days. Such a surreal experience. But amazing. I am so blessed to be out here. This is such an exciting time and it truly is the 11th hour. The last great push. There is a sense of urgency in the air that I can't quite explain. But it's real!! Missionary work is such a sacred privilege of serving The Lord! There isn't any other time in my life where I can dedicate my whole self to blaze the streets of Florida proclaiming His name and calling people to repentance. I love being a missionary. :)
I hope y'all have had an amazing week!!! Thank you again for all your birthday wishes! You're all in my prayers and I love you so much!!! Talk to you sooooon!!!! :))
Love Sister Chamberlain :)
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