Week 68... Lake Butler

A Week of Beautiful Things!

Hello everyone!!! :) :)

This week was superb!!

*suddenbrainfailure*

I can't remember anything that happened. Haha.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh .....

The work is going really good! We are finding people to teach and baptize!!

Specifics??? Umm... Okay I'll think really hard.

So there have been 3 funerals here in the past 2 weeks. We have helped with all of them!! This Ward is amazing!! They all banded together and brought food for people they didn't even know!! It is so inspiring. This Ward has really taught me a lot about selfless service. They are some of the most Christlike people I've ever met in my life!! I just don't get it!! They are so nice!! A couple days after the funeral someone told us to go to the church and on the counter there was a huuuuge pile of groceries and food and it was amazing!! I guess someone had heard one of the missionaries say something about running out of groceries and they just went gave it to us!! It is soo nice. I can't. Handle it!!! Amazing examples. I'm so blessed to be here. :)

I have been learning a lot this week about repentance and the beauty of the doctrine of Christ! I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ opens up the pathway to what we may become. It is so empowering!! I am so thankful that I get to share this beautiful message with others. Being a missionary is the best!! It has completely changed my life because I've been able to serve others and apply the atonement in my life!

I am going to add some pictures now because I don't know what else to write for this week!

I love you all so much! :) Thank you for your support and loves!!

Love, Sister Chamberlain

P.s. Enjoy my Book of Mormon selfies! Because it's TRUE! The Book of Mormon is true! :)

Week 67... Lake Butler

Miracles and Apostles

Hellloooooo everybody!!!

This week was AMAZING!!  I can't even begin to explain the miracles that have been happening in this area.

Elder Neil l. Andersen came to our mission and we had a wonderful devotional with him. He taught us about faith and many other wonderful, wonderful things that I unfortunately don't have time to tell you all about.

We were able to set a baptismal date with one of our gators this week! He is so solid. His name is Thomas! He will be baptized on the 31st of January. After much fasting and prayer we decided to give him to the elders. It was really hard because I haven't had a baptism in a while.. But I know it was the will of The Lord. After that.. The Lord blessed us with so many miracles. We were able to surpass the amount of lessons we usually get. We found 7 new people to teach the gospel to. Which hasn't happened in Lake Butler in months.

I learned a really important lesson in humility this week. Numbers don't matter.. Recognition doesn't matter.. What matters is that you are doing the Lords will and are serving worthily and with all your heart.

I am so excited for this next week. Miracles will be happening in Lake Butler!! I am staying another 6 weeks with sister D!!! I am so excited! I am so humbled to be the Lords missionary. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint is true. It is the Lords church here on the earth. There is no earthly power that can separate me from this knowledge. I know this through the power of the Holy Ghost.

I have learned that obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles and is evidence of your faith. I know that even when it's hard to do the right thing the Lord will bless you.

I know that my Savior lives and I'm so grateful to be His servant. :)

This gospel makes me so happy. I am thankful for the spirit and I'm thankful for the love of my Savior. :)

Sorry this is short! I'll try to write more next week!

Love you all dearly. Shine bright :)

Love, Sister Chamberlain

Week 66... Lake Butler

Mud bogging and miracles!

Hey ya’ll!!

This week was fantastic!!! ONCE AGAIN I don't have time to email my life story but I will do my best.

This week Sister Donohue and I had a goal of finding 10 new people to teach the gospel to!! We were averaging about 1 or 2... That seemed to be the norm in this l'il town but we decided that we were finished and done with colorless dreams and tame visions we wanted to go big!! So we chose ten and worked our tails off to find 10 children of our Heavenly Father to teach. By Thursday we had 0 new investigators and things didn't look too swell. Did we let that get us down?! NO! We prayed more and kept working. I remember we felt impressed to go clear out of our in our area.. (Which we don't do often because of the mileage restriction) to contact a potential and they weren't home and it was sorta discouraging. Well, we get back in the car and receive a media referral from salt lake! We go to the house and inside is one member and 4 non-members!! WHAAAAA?! Over the course of the next 3 days the Lord just poured his blessings down upon us. We had a member referral turn into a gator we cleaned someone's windows and they turned into an investigator and people were just coming out of the wood works!! The D family who we are teaching had another son move in from Texas!! It was so incredible!! Prayer works! It's for real!! I am so grateful that the Lord has trusted me with these people. I love Lake Butler!!! It is the Promised Land. :)

We had zone meeting this week which went great! It had a wonderful energetic spirit! I love training the missionaries and helping them get pumped up for missionary work!!

Today we went mud boggin’!!! It was SO much fun!! It was pouring rain and we just adventured through the jungles of Florida. It was beautiful!! Pictures to come. :) I caught a chicken!! That was exciting!

I have to brag about my companion for a l'il bit.. Sister D is thee most selfless person I've ever met!!! We ran into a family who had no food because they had just moved in and Sister D when we got home just starts emptying our cabinets and sticking it in boxes and she says we are going to give it to them! I was dumbfounded!! And so humbled by her example!! We packed up some food for them and dropped it off. Service is so good. I love giving!! I think that is the biggest thing she has taught me. :) I love her so much!!

I've been a bit funny this week because it's been so rainy and the sun hasn't been out. Sister Chamberlain needs her sunlight. Well, I prayed for the sun to shine today and it rained super hard all day and was yucky and gray. Well, I just went outside and guess what I saw, a beautiful sunset!!. God is real and does answer prayers! He also happens to be an amazing artist. :)  I love ya’ll so much. Keep praying and asking the Lord for direction and he will give it to you!

Keep shining!

Love,

Sister Chamberlain :)

Week 65... Lake Butler

Happy New Year!!! This week was superb!!!

That's it!

Bye!

Jk.

It seems the longer I'm out the more I don't want to email. Not because I don't love ya'll! Of course not. But the mental exertion it takes to remember everything I did is... Hard. My brain can only function so much!! Haha but alas!! I will do my best. :)

We have been doing a fun secret service type of dealio where we go into a member’s home and ask to use their bathroom and then sticky note their bathroom mirror!!! MUAHAHA! (On a side note... Sticky notes. I'm drowning in them! I have so many. And I feel like I need to use all of them, before my mission ends. It's very overwhelming. #sistermissionaryproblems) so this all started when we were trying to sticky note their door and we go to the door, all stealth like, ready to sticky attack it like SISTA ninjas and they totally open the door right! So I am forced to sneakily shove all the sticky notes in the back of my shirt and awkwardly ask to use their bathroom. Hahaha. It was funny. Yay for sticky notes!!

We also burned a lot of things this week. That was also fun. I guess people just burn whatever they don't want in their front yards. When I first got to Lake Butler I see all these people’s lawns on fire and I think "whoa, these people need to control themselves! Smoky the bear would not be too happy!" But I suppose they just burn their garbage. Somebody should start that in Murray. It would be awesome!!

We had a missionary leadership training this week!!! Those are always so intense. I love going to those meetings because the spirit is always so strong! I love being with my fellow leaders and talking about how we can strengthen the other missionaries. We talked a lot about having spiritually grounding experiences through the Book of
Mormon! This hit me really hard. The Book of Mormon is such a blessing to us! Through it.. We can receive answers to our prayers! Just yesterday I was really struggling to know how we can create better unity in the ward and between us and the other missionaries and I prayed and fasted to get an answer of what I could do more to help Lake Butler and the Lord answered me via the Book of Mormon!! I read exactly what I needed to read. It wasn't necessarily the words that taught me and told me what to do... It was the spirit. I know that the spirit is real and it will teach you truth!! The spirit won't testify of a lie. So when you get an thought to read the Book of Mormon... Follow it. If you have a question your dying to get answered.. Pray and ask the lord to answer you and he will through the Book of Mormon!! It has happened to me countless times. :) the spirit is real and the Book of Mormon is true!! :) We are blessed to be able to know spiritual truths through the word of God.

So that's my testimony of the week :)

This week we are working on finding!!! I had a really neat experience on a trade-off with another sister !! She has only been out for 3 weeks and had no idea what she was doing. She did so good though!!! I was praying for a miracle to happen as we were knocking and there were a lot of grumpy old people that didn't want to hear about Jesus and finally we kick on this door and this man answered he let us right in and we asked what his name was... And he said "Waldo". At that moment.. If I could have paused the scene I would've ran out into the streets and yelled THE SISTER MISSIONARIES FOUND WALDO. WE FOUND HIM. STOP SELLING THE BOOKS. WE FOUND HIM." But I didn't. And even though he wasn't wearing a red and white striped shirt but he was elect. We taught him the whole restoration lesson and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray if it was true. He had 2 cute kids and a lovely wife!! They are golden. And the spirit was so strong, especially when we were testifying of the Book of Mormon. He said he would start reading immediately! The spirit softens hearts!! After finding Waldo we found another solid investigator and 3 other potentials who said we could come back and teach their families! God is so real. I was so thankful that the new missionary could see that so her faith in finding could increase!!

I hit my 15th month mark here this past week! How DEPRESSING. Haha Basically I love being a missionary. I love the Book of Mormon and the spirit and I love my Savior! Having faith in Him gives you permission to be happy and joyful no matter what your circumstances. Now that's power.:)

Welp, I'm out of time. :) I love y'all!!!

Take care and keep smiling :)
Love,

Sister Chamberlain :)



I hope Y’all have such a wonderful wonderful week!!! It's a new year!
Ying!! 2015!!!