Week 38... Mandarin 1st Ward

Hi everyone!! :)

This week has been super lovely! It's been my first week with Sister Carlson and I love her so dearly!!!  She is pretty seasoned so I'm excited to get to know all her missionary wisdom. She is awesome. And super weird. Like me. :D SO IT’S GREAT!!! She is SUPER smart! And a bucket full of knowledge and I have learned so much from her. She is gluten free and dairy free so that makes things fun, eating wise! So if any of you have good gluten/dairy free recipes.... That would be fantastico!! :)

So I was really stressed for the first part of the week because my last companion knew a lot about the area and she left..

So The Lord is making me learn this area real fast!! Which is real nice. It's good to be stretched and challenged.

Paul AND Kym came to the Book of Mormon class on Wednesday!!! Which was awesome! :) They really liked it. Paul is getting closer and closer to coming back to church! One day he will come. One day :)

The AP's gave us a referral and they turned out to be super golden and ready to change their lives. That was awesome!! They are really sweet.

Jackie is slowly progressing as much as she can. She has had a really hard week so we've mainly been focusing on bringing more hope into her life! She needs it. Keep her in your prayers!!

So Sister Carlson is super funny! She talks all quiet and monotone and then she will randomly scream my name or sing opera. The first time she did it I about peed myself. Haha but she is super funny and I'm real excited to be her companion!

I have been studying agency lately! A lot of our investigators have had questions about the fall of Adam and Eve and so I've been studying a lot about it. I found it really interesting that we had to become a fallen people in order to be exalted. I found a cool quote about it!

"The promise concerning the bruising of the heel and head means that while Satan (as the serpent) will bruise the heel of the Savior by leading men to crucify Him and seemingly destroy Him, in actuality that very act of Atonement will give Christ the power to overcome the power that Satan has over men and undo the effects of the Fall. Thus, the seed of the woman (Christ) shall crush the head of the serpent (Satan and his kingdom) with the very heel that was bruised (the Atoning sacrifice)"

Super cool, right?? Heavenly Father allows us to go through trials and transgressions because he loves us and he knows that will help us grow.

My mission president gave us a really good analogy about a marble egg. When the marble is plain white it looks fake and boring. But then you get marble eggs that are speckled and streaked with dark lines and spots and those eggs when polished are beautiful. I know that the savior is the one who polishes us. Those blemishes actually make us more beautiful if we let the savior polish us. Interesting food for thought. :)

I love my Savior! Without him, I would be nothing. He has changed me and has helped me become the person I want to be. There is nothing so sweet as realizing you can have new starts every day, every moment, every second. All we need to do is turn to Him and ask for help.

The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is so true!!!

Florida is really hot. But I think I’m getting used to it! So that's awesome!

That's all I got for you this week! :)

I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)

Week 37.. Mandarin 1st Ward

Changes are coming…

Hello my fellow Sisterens and Bretherens!

I hope you had the greatest of weeks this week. I know I did!!!

I honestly can't really remember what happened this week. Isn't that awful!!

I do know transfer calls went out yesterday!!! Guess who is LEAVING ME? My blessed companion Sister Pasko. Of which I am not happy about. Haha. She is going to outer darkness and leaving me amidst these crazy city people. I will really miss her. She has taught me so much about how to be a good missionary! She has been such a wonderful friend to me and I won't forget the lessons she taught me. But I'm getting a new companion! (Obviously) her name is Sister Carlson. I want to say Sister Coleslaw. . Because words are hard. I hear a lot of really good things about her!! Like, she is crazy and funny. But mostly crazy. So I'm pretty stoked because I'm crazy too. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I see a crazy person staring back... Haha. Granted, I'm really excited to work with her. I'll probably kill her (read be her last companion) seeing that she only has 2 transfers left to live. So that'll be fun!! She probably has all of the wisdoms and advices!!! :) I'm excited to learn from her. :)  I'm quite worried, for I've never had to lead an area before. This is cause for great alarm and anxiety! But FRET NOT!!! The Lord always provides. :)

So once upon a time Sister Pasko and I fasted and prayed forever that we could get a baptism this month. And we didn't. So we prayed with Nephi-like faith to get at least a bap date with someone... And we didn't. So we PRAYED OUR LITTLE HEARTS OUT (literally. It was very messy) that someone would come to the "why I believe" fireside and we waited and waited for somebody to show up and NADA. ZIP. ZERO. Nobody. Sister Pasko and I feeling quite defeated tried to enjoy the fireside but ultimately just sat there and wished at least one of investigators had shown up. Because it was an amazing fireside! The spirit was so strong!! I sat there and thought "why am I even out here!!! I try so hard and I work my tail off and nothing ever comes of it! I have all the hopes and joys and I want to share it with everyone but NO ONE WILL LISTEN." The fireside ended and Sister Pasko and I give each other a sigh and said "well, maybe next time" we turned around and talking towards us was Mark. I could've sworn I heard a choir of angels singing somewhere. The clouds parted and a ray of sun shined down upon Mark. He walked up to us and said "wow. Thanks for inviting me to the service. I don't know anything about your church but I want to learn more". *jaw.hits.floor* Mark was a man we had met previously in the week. We knocked into him and casually invited him to the fireside and he said he would come with his kids. Most people tell us that and never show up... So I kinda brushed it off. But no! He came!!! HE WAS SITTING BEHIND US THE WHOLE TIME!!!! The Lord was blessing us and we didn't even know it or see it because we were blinded by our lack of faith to look around!! FLAWLESS MERRIMENT!!! Truly!!!! He left and Sister Pasko and I look at each other and start sobbing. Right there. In front of everyone and their dog. I was so thankful for that tender mercy from The Lord. It got me thinking about all the times in my life where The Lord has blessed me and I haven't even realized it. I feel like this happens waaayyyy more than I want to admit. I want to be better at recognizing his tender mercies, because they truly are everywhere. Even when I don't realize it. All you gotta do is look around a little harder and never lose the faith.

Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them. My testimony of his reality and love for us will never be shaken. :)

That was my super cool miracle this week. :)
 

Soo.. Funny story....

Sister Pasko and I got home one night and our door step rug was all messed and our door was unlocked. Freaky? Yes. Quite freaky. We look inside and nothing is missing or disturbed. I forget about it. I took a bath because missions are stress and I needed to unwind and I get ready and go to bed. Sister Pasko and I were up talking pretty late, because that's what happens when you put two girls together. Haha. We finally crawl into bed at 11:00 pm and try to sleep. It was then I heard someone at our front door messing with the lock. My heart immediately starts pounding. Then they try the door. Sister Pasko asks if I had locked the door.  I am usually pretty good at doing that so I assumed that I did... Then the person starts pounding on our door. Over and over again! Sister Pasko and I cling to each other. I've never been so scared!!! My mission was flashing before my eyes!! I'm pretty sure I peed a l’il! She grabs the phone and a chair and we sneak into the front room to see what crazy is at our door. I look through the peep hole and it's the.... Maintenance man?

What????

We crack the door open and this big burly maintenance man asks in a gruff voice "did you take a bath?" Feeling awkward about this man asking me about my personal hygiene habits I mutter "....yes?" He then told us it was flooding our neighbors room downstairs and he had come to fix it! I was in my pj’s. My jam jams. No one should see me in those. After a long day if missionary work. It wasn't pretty. But I was more disturbed by his comment "it's okay.. I like to take sloppy baths too".

....

0.o
....

If mental images could kill... *shudder* The word sloppy should never be used when describing bath taking. He fixed the leak and went on his way. And I sat there in bed the rest of the night and pondered my life decisions that had led me to that point.

Haha. Missionary work is so .. Incredibly fun. And awkward. And all of the adjectives. Haha. I love it so much. I'm really excited for the changes and the growth that will take place in this next transfer!

It's my hump day! I received my mission call one year ago! Boy, how time flies.
I love you all! Thanks for everything! Have a blessed week y'all :)

Love,

Sister Chamberlain :)

Week 36... Mandarin 1st Ward

 Well hello there! Greetin’s from da Sunshine State!! :)

This week was a pretty radical week!!!

Last Monday I was rushed on emails because Sis P and I spent the day at the lovely sister hales house while she sewed my skirts back together that had been ripped from riding my bike... Haha. So that was really nice!!!

That night we had two dinner appointments! That is always super fun, Haha!!! We randomly got called by Kym’s friend, Ken, to have us over for dinner!! Ken and Chris live together and they are chefs together! So naturally the food was awesome. Ken is gay but doesn't support gay marriage. Or any marriage for that matter cause he has seen too much infidelity. It was a very interesting conversation to say the least! But oh my goodness, the food was fantastic!!! And he was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He'll be baptized one day. Haha.

On Tuesday we went over and visited this lady named Dixie!! She is a super sweet old lady who is very lonely and she has a terrible memory. I'm surprised she still remembers who we are. Haha. She was complaining that she never went out anymore and she was really hungry. She had no food she wanted to eat and she hadn't eaten in forever. I felt super bad for her so I got the wise idea to walk to McDonald's with her and buy her lunch!! She would get out of her house and have food!!! Hooray!!! McDonald's was really close. So Dixie got really excited and put her nice clothes on and her makeup and we were on our way!! Well, I suppose I over estimated how strong she was because we walked like 50 feet and she was already tired. She insisted we should keep going. Even though it was 1000 degrees outside and she had her favorite long sleeved flannel blouse on... We finally made it to Mickey D's! She was happy to be there and it was nice to see that. The trek home was… Interesting. She was suuuuper tired and her leg was hurting her a lot. "I'm going to kill her... Oh my heavens. I'm going to kill sweet old Dixie because I had the smart idea to walk to McDonald's in the 1848294 degree weather with her to get her some food" I thought to myself multiple times. The last 50 ft. or so she was holding on to both of us moving at a snail like pace while we sang her primary songs to motivate her that she could make it to her door. I'm sure it was quite the scene. I'm also sure people around us thought we were heathens for making her go outside in such awful heat. BUT she made it! Through the grace of God she made it!!!! She was very grateful and happy we took her out. So I suppose that makes up for the rest. Right??

We are still trying to teach James and Amanda! I say trying because Amanda is still pretty antied and doesn't want anything to do with us. James on the other hand is the sweetest guy ever who knows the church is true, and wants to be together with Amanda forever, but he won't do anything without her. The last time we went over there they were arguing and he said to come back tomorrow. He said he thinks she is going to divorce him and he was so heartbroken!! It's really sad. :( On a happy note, he gave us a thing of pepper spray, the kind that police officers and navy brats carry around. The really really intense scary kind. Hahaha. I feel awesome carrying it around in my purse. >:)

We had a trade off this week with our sister training leaders!!! That is always super fun because I love getting to know the other sisters. I went with Sister Heckel in her area. I was able to learn a lot from her. We did yoga. It was awesome!!! Much better than running if you ask me! We went out to dinner with a member! We went to a really good sandwich place. There was this creepy, slightly disturbing photo op I could not pass up. Trade offs are super fun! I enjoyed getting to know Sister Heckel more and she taught me a lot!!

We are teaching Jackie's Mexican boyfriend!!! The only problem is ... I don't speak Spanish. So we ended up showing the Spanish version of the restoration. I tried really hard not to laugh. . . But there is just something about an over dramatic Mexican Joseph Smith that tickles my funny bone. Haha.

So remember how we were going to find a miracle 3. Week baptism?? Well the deadline was Saturday! So Saturday was INSANE!! We spent all day tracting. We skipped lunch and dinner and just tracted all day with Nephi like faith that we would find our miracle investigators !! Guess who found 2 new investigators? WE DID. It was getting down to the last few minutes of our night and we were growing desperate. We finally knocked on this door and this distressed lady with two little boys answered. We simply invited her to church and she said she would absolutely love to come!!! It was the best moment!!!!! She was really excited to find out more. :) So if any of you are wondering if God answers prayers? He does. Saturday was exhausting but very very fulfilling. We talked to so many wonderful people that seemed to cheer us on to find our investigators. It's amazing how The Lord puts little cheerleaders in your path to motivate you to keep going. Whether it be a pretty flower, or a nice person, a cool breeze amidst the hot Florida weather, or a sudden burst of energy.. He truly does deliver you if you put your faith in him. :)

I love The Lord!! I am so grateful to be a tool in his hands to bring about miracles. I truly feel blessed. I feel blessed to know he is helping me change. Which is a flipping miracle because change and I don't get along very well. But he makes up the difference. He never puts anything in my path that he hasn't prepared me for. I know that I've changed. I can't really put my finger on how… Because I still feel like me. Just more of me. :).

Thank you all for your prayers and loves! I love you so much!! I hope
you are having a wonderful day!

Make it a great week! :).
Don't forget to pray!

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)

"There was this creepy, slightly disturbing photo op I could not pass up."