Adventures in Florida! *cue confetti* : Week 26... JAX Beaches/Mandarin 1st Ward

Enjoying a lovely shake with the new companion

Hello ya'll!! :)

Wow! It has been such a crazy wonderful week of transfers and new areas and new companions and new blisters on my feet and new everything!! !

Are you ready for this update?

Are you sure?

?!?!

So. I think I’ll have to bullet point this. It's gonna be pretty intense!!!

-Tuesday was really stressful for me. Saying goodbye to JAX Beach was hard!!! I love them way too much!! I did get to see Debbie though and say goodbye to her. Who knew teaching the gospel to someone automatically creates this unbreakable bond of friendship? I didn't!! Until now!!! I am going to miss JAX Beach. The prideful rich people right down to the beach bums. I loved it!

BUT NOW IM IN MANDARIN AND ITS AMAZING BECAUSE PEOPLE ACTUALLY TALK TO US.

But seriously.

-At transfers I met my lovely new companion. Sister Pasko!! I. Love. Her. So. Much. And yes, the periods were necessary. We have a lot in common and she is very hard working and exactly obedient and such a trooper!!! I love her!!

-So Mandarin is in the suburbs which means a lot of people!! And a lot of people mean Missionary paradise!!!! WEE! I have taught the restoration so many times! I love it!

- We are in a car share so that means we share the car with another set of sisters. Which means we need bikes. But we don't have bikes. Which means we have feet and we walk. Everywhere. Can I just tell you how awesome I feel about all of this?? I got a super sunburn and I have super blisters and super sore feet and I feel like a SUPER MISSIONARY. I am loving so much!!!! I swear I’ve walked more than 20 miles. It rocks. Working hard feels so good.

-Another thing that is different about mandarin is that we tract!!!! Everyday! ALL DAY!! hahaha i have met the strangest most lovely, weird, people here. Most of them are African American and they love love love Jesus. We met this one lady named Dorleen! hahaha. Ohhhh Dorleen... She was talking about how she loves Jesus and she said (in thick southern black lady accent) "I don need a man! All I need is Jesus! He wakes me up every morning and caresses me every night!" hahahaha. It was so... weird! and wonderful!! The people down here have amazing faith in Christ! And we met this other black man sitting in his garage and i have never seen the light of Christ beam so fully from someone’s eyes! He told us his story and got all teary eyed when he talked about the atonement. He is so ready for the gospel and I can't wait to teach him. He had such a pure, strong testimony of Christ! I love people so much!

-So we tracted into this lady who said her husband was dying. Although it didn't really seem like she was too sad about it... which was slightly awkward.. But he didn’t seem sad about it either so whatevs. She was really old and crusty and so was he! They were really cute! But she asked us if we could pray over him so we said a prayer for him and after we walked into the kitchen with just the wife and she takes a hundred dollar bill and shoves it down sister Pasko's shirt and whispers "keep this in your treasure chest.." Hahahahaha it was thee funniest thing of my life!!!! We tried to give it back but she insisted and so now we have a hundred dollar bill in our apartment and we don't know what to do with it. We will probably just give it to the ward. We wouldn't use it for anything. Haha.

-We taught a really powerful restoration lesson to this woman who was drunk and it was actually... really cool!!! She was so sweet! I guess she is drunk all the time so it wasn't anything new but the spirit was so strong! Her desire is so strong and she is such a sweet lady. :) Even though she was slightly intoxicated... it was very cool! I just hope she remembers it. During the lesson she kept randomly praying and repenting for her sins and we kinda just sat there awkwardly and didn't know what to do. What do you do? Sit there? Haha. It was very sweet. :)

-There are a lot of half-naked people here. Like, come on people. Put a shirt on when you are going to answer the door. Foooor the love of all that is good in the world I have seen waaayyy too many shirtless old men. *shudder*

-Speaking of uncomfortable things... I've never been hit on so many times in my life than while I’ve been in mandarin. Haha. What in the heck is it about Sisters that is so attractive??! OH WAIT. We have the liiight of Chrriiiisst!!! :) :) :) That said, I want to throw up every time I get a cat call. Haha.

-General conference was amazing!!!! I loved it so much!! SO MUCH. The talks were so inspired. They gave me so much strength to carry on and keep doing what I’m doing! I really loved the once by President Uchtdorf on being thankful. My brother told me the key to happiness is being thankful. I have a testimony of that!! I also really loved Elder Holland's. Right after conference we were tracting and we tracted into a really anti Mormon who was really drunk and he sat there and spouted off so many horrible things about Joseph Smith and the Mormons and laughed and cackled and he was super close to us and kept touching my companions elbow in which I almost punched him in the face. Haha. But Elder Holland’s talk was just resonating in my head about the tough life of discipleship and I felt better. :) I also loved Elder Scotts about love and President Monson about love and just allllll of the talks!!! They were so fantastic!!! :) :) I feel like such a fangirl about the gospel. I got soooo excited when the prophet got up to talk!! It was like Christmas!!!! I love being a missionary. *sigh* :)

-Oh I have no idea what’s up with this whole crying at everything thing. If I stared at a piece of toast long enough I'm sure I would probably start crying. Ohhh the curse of a sister missionary. Haha .

-Hmm... What else... umm... OH. Our apartment is lovely!!! It has a washer and a dryer and a ceiling fan. Yay!!

-I'm trying to eat healthy. Key word.. Trying..

-I love being a missionary so much. The longer I've been out here the more I've been able to recognize the spirit in my life and how sacred this calling really is. I love being a missionary. I could say that one thousand times and it wouldn't suffice. Sure, sometimes I feel like "why in the world am I out here again?" But the Lord always always shows me. I love my Savior. I know He lives! And he loves us so much!!

-I am beyond excited to get down to business in this area with Sister Pasko! It will be a great transfer! Thank you so much for your loves and prayers! I love you all so very very much!!! :)

Have a blessed week! :)

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)