Week 38... Mandarin 1st Ward

Hi everyone!! :)

This week has been super lovely! It's been my first week with Sister Carlson and I love her so dearly!!!  She is pretty seasoned so I'm excited to get to know all her missionary wisdom. She is awesome. And super weird. Like me. :D SO IT’S GREAT!!! She is SUPER smart! And a bucket full of knowledge and I have learned so much from her. She is gluten free and dairy free so that makes things fun, eating wise! So if any of you have good gluten/dairy free recipes.... That would be fantastico!! :)

So I was really stressed for the first part of the week because my last companion knew a lot about the area and she left..

So The Lord is making me learn this area real fast!! Which is real nice. It's good to be stretched and challenged.

Paul AND Kym came to the Book of Mormon class on Wednesday!!! Which was awesome! :) They really liked it. Paul is getting closer and closer to coming back to church! One day he will come. One day :)

The AP's gave us a referral and they turned out to be super golden and ready to change their lives. That was awesome!! They are really sweet.

Jackie is slowly progressing as much as she can. She has had a really hard week so we've mainly been focusing on bringing more hope into her life! She needs it. Keep her in your prayers!!

So Sister Carlson is super funny! She talks all quiet and monotone and then she will randomly scream my name or sing opera. The first time she did it I about peed myself. Haha but she is super funny and I'm real excited to be her companion!

I have been studying agency lately! A lot of our investigators have had questions about the fall of Adam and Eve and so I've been studying a lot about it. I found it really interesting that we had to become a fallen people in order to be exalted. I found a cool quote about it!

"The promise concerning the bruising of the heel and head means that while Satan (as the serpent) will bruise the heel of the Savior by leading men to crucify Him and seemingly destroy Him, in actuality that very act of Atonement will give Christ the power to overcome the power that Satan has over men and undo the effects of the Fall. Thus, the seed of the woman (Christ) shall crush the head of the serpent (Satan and his kingdom) with the very heel that was bruised (the Atoning sacrifice)"

Super cool, right?? Heavenly Father allows us to go through trials and transgressions because he loves us and he knows that will help us grow.

My mission president gave us a really good analogy about a marble egg. When the marble is plain white it looks fake and boring. But then you get marble eggs that are speckled and streaked with dark lines and spots and those eggs when polished are beautiful. I know that the savior is the one who polishes us. Those blemishes actually make us more beautiful if we let the savior polish us. Interesting food for thought. :)

I love my Savior! Without him, I would be nothing. He has changed me and has helped me become the person I want to be. There is nothing so sweet as realizing you can have new starts every day, every moment, every second. All we need to do is turn to Him and ask for help.

The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is so true!!!

Florida is really hot. But I think I’m getting used to it! So that's awesome!

That's all I got for you this week! :)

I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)