Week 59... Lake Butler

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey Y'all!!

I have no time to write!! Yay!!

Thanksgiving email!

Things I'm thankful for:

-This wonderful opportunity I get to serve the Lord and the people of Florida with all my heart might mind and strength
-My savior Jesus Christ.... For without him I would be nothing
-A loving Heavenly Father who loves me despite all my weaknesses and flaws
-My family. They are my pride and joy!
-The amazing people I've met on my mission! They have changed my life!
-My companion. I love her, :)
-Southern cookin’
-That we have the ability to change through the atonement
-The Lake Butler ward
-A car
-The Book of Mormon and the Bible
-The prophets!
-Just the whole gospel
-This beautiful earth :)

I love you all so much! Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!

Love, Sister Chamberlain

Week 58... Lake Butler

Hey y’all!!

This week was fantastic! The more I'm in Lake Butler the more I fall in love with it. :)

Monday I went on my first trade-off with another sister as a sister training leader. It went interesting.. I stayed in Lake Butler and Sister Donahue went to the others sisters area. Soo.. That was interesting because I didn't have a GPS and driving in the country is really confusing. I may or may not have driven into a ditch.. *cough* BUT EVERYTHING IS OKAY. We just lost a couple car parts.. Hahaha.

We had a tornado today in our ward boundaries!!! I didn't get to see it. But it was just a wee lil one. Only took down 10 trees! Pretty crazy!

This week we got to paint a nursery for one of the members! That was super fun. She is doing a Dr. Seuss theme so her room was red and white stripes and blue. A pain to paint but it looked awesome at the end!!

Reasons why this ward is incredible: Brooke one of the members and she comes up to us and says "hey my friend has been reading the Book of Mormon and he really wants to get baptized"

Wow! The Lord is so good to us. I know he is preparing people to receive his gospel. I love the scripture in Alma 13:27 which says that angels are preparing men to receive the word. The longer I am out on my mission the more I see that is true. :)

The work out here is a lot different than it is in the city. It moves a lot slower. Which is very fantastic but it also gives me room to work on my patience. Haha.

I love my companion so much!!! Sister D is so great! She is an angel! We have a lot of fun together. :)

We are teaching this adorable old lady named Wanda. She is thee sassiest old lady I have ever met. But she is so funny!! It was hilarious.. We were just sitting on her front porch reading from the Book of Mormon about how Jesus Christ came to the Americas and the Nephites were feeling the prints in his hands and in his feet and she stops and says "I just can't believe how people don't believe in Him. He loved us so much!" And then we continued to talk about how wonderful the atonement is and all the sudden out of nowhere Wanda said " I think I just need to go streaking. I've always wanted to."

.....

Sister Donahue just sorta sat there in utter confusion and tried really really hard not to laugh. It was SO random. And hilarious. She is crazy. But I love her to death. We were able to set a baptismal date with her for the 21st of December! Such a miracle. It's so cool to see how the spirit works with people and softens their heart to the truth. :)

Every Saturday we play volleyball with all the people that we are teaching and that is so incredibly fun!!! Turns out I'm not too bad at volleyball. I destroy them all. *mental image of Sister Chamberlain flailing her arms around try to hit the volleyball* hahaha.

Half the city of Lake Butler invited us to Thanksgiving dinner.. Haha... So we will be well fed. :)

Not too much happened this week but it was still good. I'm still getting used to my calling as a sister training leader but I know that will come with time and lots of patience. (Yay more patience tests!)

I love y’all so much!!! Thank you for your support and for your prayers. It really means the world to me and I can feel them.

I'm so thankful for the gospel. I am eternally grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith for being strong enough to resist the persecution around him. It certainly makes me want to follow in his example! Above all, I am so grateful for my savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. It is through Him that I've been able to change my heart and my desires. I know that every day I can work on becoming better and better. It is because of Him I know I will be resurrected and be able to live with my family for eternity! I am grateful that I get to help other families be together for eternity.  There is no greater blessing!!! I love the gospel so much! It is perfect in every form. There is nothing else on the planet that can offer the peace and joy that this gospel brings. It's so simple. I love it :)

Talk to you next week!!! Until then.. Stay classy :)

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)

I love the older people!

One stroke painting (look it up)

Week 57... Lake Butler

Hey y'all!! :)

This was a great week!! And by great I mean it was SO INCREDIBLE AND I LOVE LAKE BUTLER SO MUCH.

We worked a lot with less actives this week. It was awesome!! There are so many good members of the church out here.... They just need to go to church!

We are working with a couple who are on the verge of getting baptized.. They just need to get married! This area is a gold mine ...There are people out here just waiting to get baptized. There are just a couple of things they need to overcome. So it's wonderful to work with them!

I swear I've met these people out here. They remind me of people I know but have never met before. It's the strangest thing!

I love being a missionary!!! NO TIME LEFT BYYYYYE!!!!!!

Love, Sister Alyssa

Week 56... Lake Butler

I found Zion!

Hey ya’ll!!

This week has been absolutely crazy amazin.

I. Love. Lake. Butler. So. Much.

There is just so much love going on right now that I don't know how I'm adequately supposed to express to you in words how much I love this place!

We drive into the lil quaint town of Lake Butler and I get emotional because the spirit was so strongly confirming that I needed to be here and that I had a purpose in Lake Butler.

Lake Butler is a tiny town where everybody knows each other and everybody is related in one way or another. The ward is literally one big family. It is thee coolest thing. We call people sister or brother (insert first name here) The spirit they have in this l’il town is incredible. So loving and full of service!! The people here are the kindest most charitable folk I have ever met in my life. True story. They are all so nice!! And the best thing about it is that everyone is sincere. They love you for who you are. They know when you are being fake or putting up walls... And they will tell you what they think ‘bout that. Haha. But it's so great!!!! They are going through some of the roughest trials I have ever seen but their faith is unshaken. There is this woman who is dying from a weird disease.. She is 36 and has a beautiful family. We went to see her and she was smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong!! Holy cow did that strengthen my faith and put into perspective what enduring to the end truly means. The ward is so nice and I just am really happy. The bishop is awesome. He is the biggest red neck I've ever seen. Hahaha. I love it! The first thing I heard him say "Life's like a hill.. Ya either crawl under it or ya git over it." He makes up words like "geet" for "did you eat" or “yonto” for do you want to. Hahaha. Love it!!!!

I've never felt so loved on my mission by a group a folks like this! They are bursting at the seams with love!! I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT’S SO GREAT. I'm waiting for the city to be translated.

ANYWHOOO. So I love it here. I'm very very, very blessed. So blessed. I don't understand why ... But I'll take it. :)

The missionary work here is very different. The town is small ... There aren't a lot of people to talk to and tracting has been outlawed by our ward mission leader. We are working purely with members, less actives, and their non-members friends. The great part is that the members are the ones doing the finding!!! We just teach! It's amazin!

The members are on fire! This transfer we have a goal of 5 baptisms and we have amazin’ Gators so it's going to take a lot of hard work and prayers but I know we will be seein’ miracles here soon. We are doing family mission plans based on the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" and I'm very excited to get those runnin’.

We had the trunk or treat this week! It was at a ward members home! ..err.. Farm. It was so fun. Like a big family party. There was a hay ride and lots of chili. And it was FREEZING. Yay for bipolar Florida. Haha. Oh.. I've had to start learning how to say "yes ma'am and yes sir" ... It's so fun!!!

I've always wanted to live in a tiny farm town where everyone knows each other and where there are cows and bunnies bouncin’ round... It's beautiful. I don't know if I'm going to be able to leave. Haha.

We did service at the library and at the Methodist church! There are wonderful opportunities for service here and the community loves it.

Overall, I am just so humbled that Heavenly Father sent me here. At first I thought, Well…  I'm going to change Lake Butler!! So far the only one that has been changin’ is me.

This week will be great! We have zone conference and fun stuff planned. :)

Oh by the way... This area is going to make me incredibly obese. Southerners can cook. Real good. Too good. *drool*

Oh and I love my companion!!! Blessings!!!!!! :D

Stay tuned for next week’s adventures. :) I love ya’ll so much. Take care and keep smiling. :)

Love,

Sister Chamberlain :)

Sisters Chamberlain and Donohue

Who'da thunk it... Heaven is a Trailer home in Lake Butler, Florida!