Week 7... JAX Beaches

Hey their Ya'll! 
This week was pretty delicious. If I do say so myself. 
Basically, Priesthood blessings are amazing and they do wonders. This week I felt a new sense of confidence in what I'm doing! I feel happier and I can feel the spirit more. My personal studies are becoming more meaningful and I can just feel my testimony grrooowwwinng and growwwing!!
IT'S SO GREAT AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE. *cough* 
Needless to say, priesthood blessings are incredible. 
BULLET POINT TIME! 
-First off, I don't have a lot of time because we are going to the zoo TODAY! HOORAY FOR THE ZOOOOOOO!!! It's like down-pouring right now. Sooo... that might be interesting. But hey, the zoo is the zoo. :D
-Okay. Dad. This is for you. You are like a freaking prophet. haha. You send me an email that said "You will get an investigator tomorrow". Um.. guess who got an investigator? WE DID. Super cool. We went street contacting on the boardwalk. By the beach. We can't be on the beach but we can certainly look at it!!!! I saw this lady sitting so I went and sat down next to her and asked her how her day was etc etc and then introduced ourselves as the missionaries from the Mormon church and she said "oh! I've been trying to get dat book of yours!!" .... *shifty eyes*.... you mean the book of Mormon? YEAH! That one!!! Well... I think we could possibly help you out with that! haha! It was SO GREAT! So Dad, you are amazing and keep it up with this whole predicting the future thing. haha. She is sorta homeless... so that will be interesting but she is super elect. And amazing. and just AH! Missions man... super cool.
-Natalie is progressing sooo well!!!! We ran into some roadblocks cause she has a super gross boyfriend who is abusive and rude who makes me want to punch kittens... soooo ... yeah. But God is good and made it so we could overcome a lot of stuff. She came to this super amazing RS holiday party and the spirit was so strong and she loved it and wants to come to church and be baptized and ALL OF THE MIRACLES!!!! haha. I love her. The relief society party was fun! And sentimental. It was based on family traditions. *cries* haha. It was really nice though. It was nice to get in the Christmas mood. even if I wasn't with my family. I shared how we all go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas and they got a pretty good kick out of that :) 
-We ran into a SUPER Catholic guy who was really intense and wanted to argue and it was really funny. And depressing. The end. 
-So I've started reading Jesus the Christ. K. Um. If I could send you a picture of my mind being blown.. I would. Seriously... that book... is incredible. I have learned so many amazing things about Christ and I can feel my testimony of Him growing so much stronger. I wish I could explain my feelings about Christ. But it's something that only feels can explain. I know He lives though. Simple as that. :) He is my best friend out here and I love Him. :)
-So a lady in my ward took us to a really delightful restaurant named LuLu's. Mom... I know how much you love seafood. So when I get home.. we are coming back just so we can come here. It is right on the river and all of the seafood is freshly caught and it was just yuuummy.... fooood.... *drool* I'm going to come home 400 lbs.. haha. 
-OH! So today is Tuesday. Right. We have transfers this week... Excuse this next part of my email... 
WHATINTHEWOLDITSALREADYTRANSFERSWHEREISALLTHETIMEGOINGISTILLNEEDTOCONVERTALLOFFLORIDAWAAAAWAAAAWAAA
Okay. I feel better. :)   I'm staying in JAX Beach!!! HOORAY! I am very happy about this because I love this area and my ward and my companion. So it's great. :) 
-Annnnnd that's about it for this week!! Overall it's been a really good week with lots of miracles. :)

 I hope this week you remember what you are thankful for cause it's Thanksgiving!!! Read Mosiah 2 and just bask in it's spiritual goodness. It talks a lot about how we should be thankful. It's amazing!!! I am so thankful that I am out here on my mission. Words cannot begin to describe how much I've grown. I am so thankful that I have 18 months to LOOOVE  PEOPLE!!! I'm thankful for my amazing family who gives me strength to press forward everyday. I can feel your prayers. Thank you thank you thank you!!! I love you all! Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!! :) 
Until next week.. Stay classy my friends ;)
 
Love, Sister Chamberlain :) 
P.s. oh yeah. We found another investigator. Her name is Merril. And she is the cutest old lady ever and I want to take her home. The end. 
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Week 6... JAX Beaches

HELLLOOOO EVERYBODY!!!

This week has been interesting! Good interesting! I really like bullet points soooo I think I'll do that!!

FIRST: There was a really creepy guy at the library. He wanted our emails and told us he had A LOT of issues. We tried to help him... buuuut... it seemed as if he wanted to overthrow the government rather than come unto Christ. Which is fine. Still weird. *shudder*

-We are teaching a lady named Ratavia! I thought her name was Raptavia... like off of Fiddler on the Roof and called her that for a good 2 days. Awwkard. Well she is African American and has two little black boys!!! THEY ARE SO FREAKING CUTE I JUST WANT TO KIDNAP THEM. I also want to stay on my mission so I have restrained myself. Savanah would die if she saw them.
We just talked about praying and God and stuff! She is really nice! I am excited to see where things go with her!

-Had a zone conference!! It was super good! 8 hours of puuure spiriutal goodness!

-It got really, really cold here on Tuesday... it was like 50 degrees!!! AHH! So cold!! hahahaha. But really.. It was freezing. Humid cold = not fun. it = colllldd.

-So Sis Joseph and I had a really good companion inventory. I had a pretty good meltdown and cried for like 2 hours because Satan is a really bologna head and yahh. It was soooo good though. And much needed. Our companionship is getting stronger everyday and I just love her to death. :)

-So basically all we do all day every day is visit people. Or try to. Nobody is ever home. EVER. Like.. I think 3 people answered their door this past week. It is actually really funny and Sis Joseph and I just laaaugh and laugh and it all! I love it! :) We also renamed Ponte Vedra "Jericho" cause of all the gated communities. We are working on making those walls tuuumble down!! haha! Get it?

-We had a lesson with Natalie!!! Which was super great! Then we found out she was reading stuff about Joseph Smith that was suuper untrue. Which was... terrible. *sigh* But we were able to clear up most of it and we are going to the family history center this week with her! Super excited! :)

-So Sis Joseph and I were street contacting and we were talking to this Lady while she was trying to catch her dogs and juuuust as we were about to ask her some soul penetrating question about God and what not her dog runs out into the middle of the street and GETS HIT BY A CAR RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES. It was terrifying!! And she just sat there and screamed and Sis J and I were like... uhhhh.................. awkward... The dog was fine. The old man who hit the dog was pretty shaken up. The lady was very angry and stomped inside. The end. haha. Street contacting = fuuuun ;)

-OH. So... pray for my apartment to have thicker walls. Please. *cry* I was just rudely awoken by the heathens next door breaking the law of chastity. Noooo biggie. That said.. I am so beyond scarred. We had the Elders give our apartment a blessing and it feels so much better! I love the priesthood! :)

-I finally finished the Book of Mormon!!! BEST FEELING EVER. I prayed about it and did just what Moroni asked.. and I got an answer. Such a sweet, gentle assurance from the spirit. It was incredible. The Book of Mormon is true! The Church is true! AH! I just love it alll! It's so amazing!! If you haven't read the Book of Mormon... read it. It will change your life! If you have read it.. read it again! :)

-This past week Satan was working overtime on both Sister Joseph and I. We managed to stay pretty positive about our lack of success (not from lack of trying). But last night we just felt something wasn't right with our spirits. It was really weird. I have never had low self-confidence before but yesterday it was like a constant struggle between me and the adversary. He would not leave me alone and it was driving me crazy. Last night Sister Joseph fell apart and cried that she had been feeling the exact same way as I have. It was crazy! And the spirit sooo strongly told both of us to get priesthood blessings because there was something bad with both of us. Needless to say.. We both got priesthood blessings from our ward mission leader. It was sooo powerful. He cried. We cried. His wife cried. All the tears. The spirit was so strong and I literally felt something leave and my whole countenance changed. Amazing. I love the priesthood so much. Satan is real and powerful. But the power of the Lord will ALWAYS overcome that. I felt as if Christ himself was giving me a hug. It was amazing.

-The church is true! :)

-Well, I believe that is all for this week! Regardless of how stupid Satan is..and how we don't have much success... I am absolutely LOVING it out here. I love my mission. I love it i love it i love it!!! I would rather be no where else. The Lord has strengthened me so much it's amazing. It's weird to think that I am still 19 year old Alyssa... Changing peoples lives.. Still so weird to think about but I am doing it because the Lord is helping me.

Thank you for everything! I enjoy getting to hear from all of you!!! :)

Have a blessed week, ya'll!

Love, Sis Chamberlain :)

Week 5... Jax Beaches

HI FAMILY!!! :)

It's amazing how able I am to focus out here. I thought I would struggle because of my a.d.d. but the Lord has certainly blessed me. I am like a pro focus-er... I am so good at focusing it is scaring me. Isn't that funny? It's weird to open up my email and to think... OH. All these things DO exist!!! They aren't just dreams! haha. That said, this week has been sooo great. I can feel your prayers! Sis J and I got along just swimmingly this week and I just love her to death. It's interesting how the relationships you have to work the most for are the ones that are most dear to you. I have found that to be true with her! I have come to appreciate our differences and just loooove her. It's great. :)  My companion tells me she's never opened up to annnnyyyone like she has to me and she feels such a strong connection with me. Wow.  It's nice to know she feels that way :)

So we visited a really sick lady in the hospital this past week and it was like Dad allll over again. Talk about post-traumatic stress. haha. The ICU... the smells.. the noises..  She too had all sorts of wirage coming out of her and tubes coming out everywhere and even had a batman voice juuust like Dad's. You could tell she wanted to go home and she was so frustrated she couldn't communicate with us. I didn't know if she was a member or not or annnything. But it is so interesting.. because of that experience with Dad.. I was able to connect with her in a way that not a lot of people can. I knew how important it was to Dad to just BE there... our presence comforted him. Heavenly Father has given me this amazing gift to sympathize with people and when I was in that room... it was so cool.. I understood how she felt. How frustrated she was and how much pain she was in. I just sat there and cried with her and told her everything was going to be okay and that she was in the Lord's hands. It was then she whispered (in her batman voice which I could barely understand..) "I'm so glad I joined the Church" and I said "me too" and just cried. It was very tender and I knoowww I wouldn't have been able to have that experience if I hadn't gone through what I did with Dad. So Dad.. Thank you! haha. I love you so much :)

My sister training leader and I went on splits and that was sooo cool!!! I LEARNED SO MUCH. This week has really been so amazing. I taught my first lesson to a woman named Natalie and invited her to be baptized and she said YES. No biggie. But it really had nothing to do with me and more to do with the spirit that was in that room. IT was amazing!!!!

The "C" family... *sigh*. We taught the plan of salvation to half the family because the others weren't interested in joining, but at the end they said "it's all very interesting but we have our own religion"

;ALKDJSFA;JGALKJGAL;KJALKFJGA;LKJG;LADKJF How frustrating?!?!?!?!

Oh well. It's alll in the Lord's time. :) I feel good about it though.

It's interesting how that experience with Casey both haunts me and helps me out here. Sometimes it's hard to do missionary work because it brings back a lot of those memories of teaching Casey the gospel and being so excited only to have him reject it in the end. I remember that feeling of "I can't do this... I can't do this..." I had an epiphany the other day... I thought “I am doing this" I have come so far!!! I am so grateful I get to continue to teach the gospel to the people here.

My ward is still amazing. Look up little talks Maughan family on YouTube. That’s my bishop. But it is so humbling to be out here and know that the Lord has trusted me with this ward.

Umm....I’m trying to think of anything else... I can't think of anything.. I have so much to write but am running out of time!


 I'm sooo thankful for my family. I love you so much. This week I realized that most of my testimony stems from my love for ya'll. I am so blessed to have you as my family. Goodness words do not even describe. Thank you for all your support! Have a blessed weeeeek!!! :) :)

Love,
Sister Chamberlain :)  

Week 3... JAX Beaches

Hey ya'll!!! :)
Soo week two in Jacksonville has been quite lovely! The weather has cooled down a bunch.. (But not too much) and the humidity has calmed down too! Soo it's like a perfect 75 degrees everyday. *sigh* I love it. :)
So remember when I was like... "We have no investigators, that’s sad"? Haha... welllll that night Sis J and I went tracting and we ran into the "C's", cutest family. Ever. They are Hispanic and have a 16 year old boy and a 14 year old girl and a mom and dad! AND THEY LET US COME INSIDE. It was the best!! I was so used to people saying "not interested" or "never come back" but the Dad just let us right in! The mom was a little like... "Ummmm honey... why are you letting the strange sister missionaries in.." But that’s okay! He started talking right away and told us he was Catholic but had some doubts but he believed in Christ and he wanted a good life for his children. His biggest question was how to stay away from all the temptations the world has and how you can be happy. And Sis J and I were all... "Welllllllllll.... let us tell you..." haha. IT WAS AMAZING. Sharing the gospel is sooo cool!! The Lord really led us to them. It was amazing. We taught them the restoration and the spirit was soo strong. I got the impression that I needed to talk to the kids how Christ will always be there for them even when they are feeling incredibly alone. (i guess they don't have a lot of friends cause they are "goodie goodies") I did and the boy got all teary eyed and the girl did too and just AHHH the spirit is just amazing and it works miracles! I will never ever forget the look in their eyes as I bore my testimony to them. They were full of hope!! It makes me emotional just thinking about it. But I knooowwww these kids need the gospel!!! So they said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray! The kids said their own little prayers and they were the sweetest things I have ever heard. It's crazy... I love them so much. And I've only met with them once. IF ONLY THEY KNEW HOW INVESTED I WAS!! They would probably be creeped out.. Whatevs. Haha. All that said, we can't teach them for another 2 weeks. *cry*. The mom is going to school and has a bunch of tests and Dad has work and kids have school etc. etc. etc.. but they did invite us back in 2 Thurs!!! Hooray!! I am SOOO excited to teach them again! We have been leaving little sticky notes on their door inviting them to church and inviting the kids to mutual and we talked to the Dad briefly and he said he really appreciates it!! Yay!!! Annnnnd those are our only gators! (investigators...gators...alligators...Florida...get it?? hahaha) So since we cant see them for 2 weeks we are stuck trying to find more people. Which is hard. Buuuut that's ok!! Hard is good!! There are lots of creepy shirtless men. And angry retired veterans who are not interested in family history and ya!

OH. hahaha. K. Sis J and I were tracting and we went to this house which seemed harmless and this guy answered and he was nice and we asked if we could say a prayer on his door step.. So, we did. It was great. When we finished he told us to step back... so we did.. Then he pulled out a knife.. Then I peed a l’il... and then he reached under his door mat and cut the head off of a coral snake that was inches away from us. No biggie really. SATAN WAS TRYING TO GET US. Haha. Nah, but it was really creepy because the snake kinda just wiggled there and bled everywhere. He apologized and said he needed to fix his dishwasher and Sis J and I just walked away very confused and very disturbed. haha. Florida is fuuun. ;) Frogs are super cute here. Except when they are smashed into the road. Then they aren't that cute. haha. 
Okkkkaayy!! Back on track!!! Soo.. I had a really bad case of the grumpies on Tues-Thurs... It was like.. Miserable for some reason. I was really discouraged. And it was making me frustrated that I didn't know why!! I prayed and prayed to feel better but nothing was helping. Sis J tried to help, she put in a techno primary CD with a bunch of screechy auto tuned sounding kids and I thought I was going to die. Like. I had a mental image of me holding a bat and hitting the CD player with it. hahaha. It was quite comical though. So when I went inside... I went to the only place where I could be alone (the bathroom... how classy?) And I just cried and prayed and cried some more. It was AWESOME. I call it an Enos wrestle. You pray and pray and pray and just listen and write down every thought you have after your pray! So I did. And I was immediately comforted and strengthened. How great is the spirit? I mean seriously... I can do anything and I am so thankful for it! After I was done flooding the bathroom.. (with tears..) my wonderful sister training leaders gave me a talk called the 4th missionary. Which if you haven't read it... you need to. It has changed my life. It talks about 4 different missionaries. One being disobedient and ends up going home and the second one lies his way through his mission and the 3rd one is obedient and tries to do his best but his heart isn't in it and he secretly would rather be doing other things. The 4th missionary is the missionary who gives his will to the Lord. Who gives his WHOLE self to the Lord and to this work. It talked about how if we give ourselves to the Lord he will make our weaknesses strong and he will mold us into the missionary he wants us to be. I was like being all prideful and like.. pssh.. That’s scary! What if I don't like who I become! Then I read this: "Trust him that he will make of you immeasurably more than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God." Words cannot even describe how hard this hit me. I was so filled with the spirit and I could just feel God there telling me that everything was going to be okay and that I was doing great. Goodness, this gospel... is amazing. I know that if you give the Lord your heart.. He will never break it and he will help you grow to your full potential. Heavenly Father answers prayers!!

BAH! THE GOSPEL IS JUST SO GOOD!!!

Anywho, that's my emotional soapbox of the week. Haha. So I guess the ward has been praying for years to get sister missionaries. Annnd then Sis J and I show up. They have such a strong desire to do missionary work and it is just awesome! I love them all soo so so so much!! :) Well, I am about out of time!! Just know that I love you all so much and I am so thankful for your loves and support!! You have no idea the strength you give me throughout my week! As they say in the south... Have a blessed week! ;) I love ya'll!
Love, Sister Chamberlain

A member from the ward sent these fun Ward Halloween Party pictures