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