Week 46... Mandarin 1st Ward

Jesus pictures and spiders... 

 Hello everyone!!! :))

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week! A marvelous week! Superb even! :D

My week was ridiculously slow!!! Woohoo woo!!!! Yaaaah!!!

Yeah. Some weeks are like that. Sister Carlson was sick allllllll week. So I studied a lot!! Yay for studying! It was nice. Actually. I sorta went crazy cause I can only sit for so long. . .  By myself........

BUT ALL IS WELL!!!

The whole week was good. We had a lot of little miracles. LIKE! We finally contacted this woman we've been trying for a while who was interested in family history and that was awesome. She is really interested in finding out more about her ancestors. We go over there and we find out that all of her mom’s side (except her mom) is Mormon!!!! Whoa! Cool stuff. I could just see her ancestors on the other side rejoicing that we had found her so she could find them.

We also had zone conference this week!!! That was soo wonderful!! We talked all about becoming more Christ like missionaries and developing more Christ like attributes. I really enjoyed it! I loved seeing all the missionaries that I have served with! Seriously so much fun. Pictures to come!! My blessed companion bore her testimony cause it's her last one. *cries all the tears* and that was really good. I saw Sister Joseph which was awesome!! Because I love her immensely. So all in all, it was good! And then we had dinner with the wonderful Tara a new recent convert!!! I love her. I LOVE EVERYONE HERE. ..so... Much... Looove.. She fed us gumbo. It is the first time I've ever had gumbo. It. Was. Awesome.

Mandarin Zone August 2014

I will tell you what... Southern cookin... So. Good. I'll be cookin that for the rest of my life. (Granted, I'll probably be 400 lbs... BUT WHO EVEN CARES!!!!:D) I also had collard greens this week! They were.. Weird. But good!!!! And ... I had a dish called hoppin johns!!! That was awesome. And then... One of the members thought it would be funny to feed me a spoon full of ghost pepper juice.
....
.....

Yeah. I'm pretty sure I have 12 ulcers now. No biggie. My esophagus hardly exists!! ITS GREAT! It was actually pretty good until I put it in my mouth.


Uhh... What else happened.
OH. Let's talk about the bugs and the weather. So I've had a couple of incidents with spiders as I think I have mentioned in previous emails. Well, they continue to happen.

The other day I was cheerfully pouring myself a bowl of cheerios and I turn my face and 2 inches from my face was a spider dangling from the ceiling. DANGLING. It DESCENDED UPON ME LIKE A HAWK. I screamed uncontrollably and grabbed the closest thing I could find, which just so happened to be a frying pan.. I swung it around like a mad woman until I EXTERMINATED IT. ..then cried a lil cause I felt bad..

And then!
Last night.

I hear sister Carlson scream. (She does this often so I just assume she is having a moment) Well, I walk in and there is this burly spider chillin’ on our ceiling right above Sister Carlson’s beds. She thinks it's a good idea to sweep it off the ceiling onto the floor and then to kill it.

Yeah...

Well it was a good idea until she LAUNCHES THE SPIDER RIGHT AT ME. I'm standing there watching this spider being flung at me and my mission flashes before my eyes. It then hits the fan (to which I think I'm safe) but no.. The fan just added to the velocity of its flight and it soon made a landing RIGHT ON MY BODY. To which I start screaming and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

After I gather my wits I quickly locate the little vermin and AND I KILL IT. No. Actually I put a cup over the top of it. Named it Charles and put it out on the counter as a pet. And trophy.  Those are my experiences with spiders this week!!! Wooo!!  They either hate me... Or really really love me.

The Facebook event where you post pictures of Christ went wonderful!!! If any of you haven't done it I strongly encourage you to!!! Thanks!  :) 

I follow him!

So the gospel makes me ridiculously happy. :)

I came out on my mission to spread hope to everyone. I came out here to save souls and to bring people unto Christ. Little did I know that I was going to gain all those things myself. The phrase "the most important person you convert on your mission is yourself" is true. My Heavenly a father has blessed me so much!! I love being a missionary.  :)

Thank you all for everything! Take care and have a blessed week! :)

Sister Chamberlain

with Sister Carlson

 Mandarin Zone Sisters

MTC Sister reunion

Week 45.. Mandarin 1st Ward

Hey everybody!!! :) 

Funerals and Miracles! 

Well, this week was. . . the most stressful week of my life.   The end. 

BUT IT'S OKAY BECAUSE I SURVIVED!!! IT'S OVER! IT'S DONE! I’M IN ONE PIECE. Barely..     

Alyssa and Sister Chamberlain

Planning funerals are stresssssfullll........ 

Regardless of all the stresses and the sad things... this week was full of miracles. I could focus on everything bad that happened this week. ... Buuuut lets be honest. That's pretty lame. Lets talk about some miracles. 

WWOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MIRACLES ARE FO REAL! 

SO. One day. We were teaching a Facebook lesson in the laundry room of our apartment complex (super classy i know) and this man walks in the laundry room and we start chatting and all the sudden he asks us to tell him what our church is all about! So we did!! It was one of those beautiful moments where the Lord just drops people right in front of your face. Such a tender mercy. 

Then! We were at the church waiting for Jackie’s funeral to start and for her family members to show up and this man walks in and I think it is somebody for the funeral! I go over there and introduce myself. His name was Eric! He came into the church because he had looked up the website familysearch.org and found out that his grandpa was LDS and he wanted to come to church at the same one his grandpa did. WHOA. So cool. he lives in Arlington so we referred him to the missionaries over there! 

AND THEN, On Saturday!! Our key indicators were pretty terrible. Like.. embarrassingly terrible. So I said to myself, "we are going to get 5 other lessons if it kills me!!" This was a mighty goal. It was Sunday night at like 6.. and I prayed my little heart and asked Heavenly Father to provide a way. I didn't let myself doubt!! Well, that night we had 7 lessons. The Lord led us to investigators we hadn't seen in weeks and we had wonderful lessons!! FAITH IS REAL!!! It is so real. It was so cool. Oh my goodness! The Lord is so good to us. So good!!! 

Also, we helped Dixie with her dementia assessment, from a lady from a nursing home. Which was ... informative. And really nice! I'm glad that Dixie will be taken care of :) 

Jackie's funeral was beautiful. The ward members really came together and helped us pull it off! They are truly amazing and I am so blessed to be serving in Mandarin. A lot of her family came and we had such a great service. The spirit was really strong and we shared talks on the plan of salvation and the atonement! I know it touched her family. It was such a good missionary experience! We are hoping the grandma will continue to take Alyssa to church. They are kinda a rough bunch but they have good hearts. Jackie's uncle was interested and impressed with the service. Apparently he had gone through an open house to a temple! So cool. Jackie's boyfriend is now one of the Spanish elders investigators.. he wants to start coming to church! It's so cool how the Lord takes a sad situation and make miracles come out of it! I love it. I am so grateful for Him and for His love for everybody!! 

I have seen the hand of the Lord so much this week. He has truly helped me have faith and the strength that I needed for this week. :) I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails and support :) Prayer is real!

 

THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE! :) 

Love, 

Sister Chamberlain :)

Amen!

Week 44... Mandarin 1st Ward

Hello Everybody!!! :)

What a week. This week has definitely been an emotional/mental/spiritual roller coaster.

It's interesting how The Lord teaches you things and how Heavenly Father answers prayers. I distinctly remember praying this week to have a better understanding of the atonement and to learn how I can be more humble. And The Lord definitely showed me both of these things. It wasn't in the way I expected but it was in a way where He knew I would learn it best. After all, he definitely knows better than I do.

This week, Jackie, my dear friend and investigator of 5 months died unexpectedly on Friday morning. Her 5 year old daughter found her.

You truly have no idea how much you love someone until they are taken away. Saturday was probably by far the worst day of my mission. I woke up and was beyond depressed. I was already done with the day and it was only 6:25 am. I mustered up the humility to pray and ask for strength for the day. And I felt something push me to the gym. God answers prayers. Saturday we ran into every single rude person and none of our gators answered their door. We were on bikes and it was incredibly hot and my faith was shaking and I felt so weak. I sat on the cement exhausted and drowning in my own sweat and tears and offered up another prayer and asking for some  type of deliverance. The next thing I knew.. Those beautiful storm clouds blow in and it starts to sprinkle and the temperature dropped a considerable amount. That gave me the strength to stand up and move on. God answers prayers. After running into so many rude people I was about to throw in the towel.. Saying to myself "I can't be a missionary today. I just can't. I can't do this. I am going to give up after this next door, help me Heavenly Father". Holding back tears I pushed my way to the next door. I heard the spirit whisper "keep praying Sister Chamberlain, I'm here". I don't know how many times the spirit told me that. But every time i offered a simple prayer asking for help and was able to move on to the next house. We passed a dying cat who was half eaten by a dog and covered in flies and it sat there and meowed for help. I lost it. I sobbed all the way to the next house still praying. At that moment I know that my strength had been exhausted. My gas tank was empty. It wasn't my strength that kept me going... It was The Lords. I felt like someone was carrying me. And (quite literally) by the grace of God I made it to the end of the day.  At the end of the day I collapsed and with tears of gratitude I thanked my Heavenly Father for sending me the help that I needed for that day.

Ironically.. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about the power of prayer. I just sat up there and sobbed. Haha.

I know what the enabling power of the atonement feels like. I understand now. It is so incredible. There is no way I could've survived that day without Him. I know that prayer is real and that by pressing forward and continually praying He will help you. So what you said about grace and the atonement ... Yeah. Amen and amen! It's real, so incredibly, wonderfully real. I know I can do anything with the help of my Savior!

And then Sunday came and it was probably THE BEST DAY of my whole mission. So many blessings. So many tender mercies. We had an investigator randomly show up to church and tell us he wants to be baptized and the next week his less-active wife was going to start coming. So amazing. A member gave us a pound if bacon. AND cookies. Heavenly Father sure does know how to lift my spirits. And then President Craig surprised us with Elder Christofferson.

Yeah. I met an apostle of The Lord and it was probably one of the sweetest moments of my life. He answered every single one of my questions. I shook his hand even!!! Wow. The spirit that was with him was amazing. He is so kind! And so humble!! Such a tender mercy.

As for Jackie.. Her service will probably be this weekend. We get to plan the funeral cause she doesn't really have any family or friends.

Things I've learned on my mission.. How to plan a funeral. Everything is coming together beautifully. (Another tender mercy). I'm still a little shaken up about it. But I am so grateful that the work does not end here. This life isn't the end. I know she is being taught in the other side. I am so thankful for the endless amounts of hope this Gospel provides. :)

I love The Lord so much. I love this work so much!! It's beautiful!

Thank you so much for all your support! It means the world to me. :) things are looking up! The sun is coming out. :)

Sorry for the semi-dramatic email buuuut.. Such is the mission life. Haha.

Never take anything for granted! Especially the beautiful gift of
prayer. The power of prayer is real. :)

Love you all immensely!!! :)

With all the loves in the world,

Sister Chamberlain :)

Week 43... Mandarin 1st Ward

President and Sister Craig and I at the Orlando Temple

Hey y'all !!!

So I will try really hard to make this email not lame. Like the last couple of weeks has been... Haha.

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the temple!! :) it was incredible and the spirit there is so strong. One of my favorite things about the temple is the spirit. That the moment you step through the doors all your worries literally melt away and you are just left with peace and the love of God. The temple is truly such an incredible blessing. I sat there and pondered about the blessings of the temple and the amazing blessing of being able to be sealed to our families for all time and eternity there. There is no sweeter blessing. Heaven won't be heaven without my family!! I am so grateful that we have this blessing available to us. I was able to receive a lot of really wonderful answers to prayers while there and overall it was just a wonderful experience. The Orlando temple was beautiful!! I wanted to stay there all day. I was able to go with the missionaries I came out with and some that are going home and it was so cool to share that experience with them!! It was a lot of fun and spiritually very uplifting. It makes missionary work that much sweeter when you realize that you get to share this wonderful message that will help people prepare to go to the temple!!! Man, I love the gospel so much!!!

What else happened this week...OH! Transfers. I am staying in Mandarin!!! With Sister Carlson! I will literally be the death of her!! Haha!!! She goes home this transfer. Which is beyond depressing. Buuuut, I try not to think about it! Haha.

We were able to find a lot of really good potential investigators this week!!! One night it was about 8:45 p.m. and we talked to this guy named John and he was extremely interested in the Book of Mormon because he saw a program on discovery channel that talks about how they are finding European remnants in middle America! So that got him interested. Thank you modern television for promoting the Book of Mormon. :) He said he was gonna come to church! He didn't.. THAT’S OKAY! Next week for sure. :) We had a random former investigator call us and announce that he was coming to church. That was such a miracle!!!! So cool.. Granted, he didn't come. . . BUT THAT’S OKAY BECAUSE AT LEAST HE’S THINKING ABOUT IT. :D

I really enjoy biking in the rain, in the humid rain. You can't tell if it's rain or sweat that's drenching you! I got sick with a stomach bug. That was yucky. But I got over it. Yay!!!
 

We have been teaching someone on Facebook for a couple of weeks now and she has a baptismal date for Aug. 16th!!! It's so cool. She is from Canada! Technology is truly amazing. Facebook was invented so we could share the gospel to the 4 corners of the earth. Speaking of which!!! There is another event going online! This time it's called "I follow him" if you can please join the event and invite all your friends to share why they follow him. This is a wonderful opportunity to share your testimony of the Savior and why you follow him. :)

For my personal studies I’ve started the Book of Mormon over and this time I am going through and highlighting every time it makes a reference to the Savior! It's been so enlightening!! It references every 1.7 verses. Isn't that amazing? I know the Book of Mormon is true with my whole heart!!! It truly testifies of Christ in his fullness. I was reading about Lehi’s dream and I loved this verse:

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
1 Nephi 8:12

“exceedingly great joy”. That's what this gospel brings. It is thee most desirable thing because we get to enjoy it with our family as well. This gospel blesses families so incredibly much!! It has blessed mine beyond words and I'm so thankful that my family has a foundation of Christ and that I have the hope and faith that I will spend eternity with them. :)

This church is true! I know it with my whole heart! :)

Have a blessed week :) I love you all so much!!

Ooey gooey loves, 

Sister Chamberlain :)

Orlando Mission Group

MTC Sisters

Sisters with new convert!

Lunch with the Sisters