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

Week 2... JAX Beaches

Hello everybody!!! :)
Well here I am. In Florida. I am in Florida.
It. Is. So. Weird. To. Be. Here. But. So. Awesome.
I LOVE Florida!! From the moment I got off the plane I just kept thinking to myself.. "this is where I need to be..awww yeaaaahhhh"

I think my favorite part, so far, are the trees. K. The trees here are GORGEOUS. Why didn't anybody tell me this before?? They are these beautiful knotted oaks with Spanish moss draping down from them... Ohhh they are incredible. AND there are like lizards and frogs EVERYWHERE. WHHHAAAAAAAT?!?!?! THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!! I like to catch them. I’ll try to upload some pictures. :) The weather is super humid but beautiful. I love the humidity. Keeps my skin nice and soft. And sweaty. (ew). haha. There were some pretty big cockroaches in my apartment. Which made me laugh. (I laughed to stop the blood curdling scream from escaping my mouth) Haha.

I am serving in an area called JAX Beaches. And yes. We are by the beach. 5 minutes from it. *cry* haha. Sis J and I drive on the road that is parallel from the beach ALL the time. And the beach is juust out of sight. It just sits there. And is all "Yeah Sis Chamberlain... I'm the ocean... not only can you not go in me... you can't even see me!!! MUAHAAHHA!!" Pure evil I tell you. Luckily, today was our p-day and we were able to go stare at it. And it was beautiful. And I cried. Cause I guess I do that when I see beautiful things. It was really weird to be there without you guys. I thought about you and smiled a lil :) So my area is like... super super super beautiful. It's breathtaking. It's suuper posh. I live in Ponte Vedra. Which is basically a very swampy area dotted with multimillion dollar houses. No biggie. It's fun tracting and going up to these mansions and knocking on the big door. I have expected Brad Pitt to answer or sooomething. It's usually old men without shirts on... (ew..) haha.

We are opening the area of Jax beaches. Which means whitewashing. Which means no investigators. Which means lots of tracting. Which means lots of no's. Which means frustration and disappointment. haha.. Get the picture?? I had all this wonderful zeal and enthusiasm from the MTC and I get out here and I have to set up my apartment (which is SUPER nice by the way) and sit and feel like I’m being unproductive and it was just THE WORST. We had a lot of down time where we had to do pesky little tasks and that made me bored which made me think of home... and then I got homesick and then I got mad at myself and BLAH BLAHBLAH. I think you get the picture. Haha. But fret not! Prayer is an amazing thing and I don't think I’ve ever prayed so hard in my life. Heavenly Father gently let me know that I needed to get over it and forget myself. haha. It was awesome :) It's funny how that works. I also realized I had just barely gotten out and whitewashing is hard and to be patient with myself. I actually heard dad and mom say that to me in my head. haha. So thank you. You guys are such a great blessing to me. And I get soo much strength from you it's amazing.

My companions name is Sister Joseph! She is a very sweet girl. She is very much an introvert, likes reading, riding horses, and anime. She is VERY mild-mannered which is a good contrast to my spazzyness. Sis J has an amazing testimony and is probably one of the most genuine people I have ever met.   I really am learning to love her a bunch!!! She is great!!! :)  OH! She went to Snow College and watched me perform on LTI. Awesome right??? :)  I am definitely in the Lord's hands though. There have been so many tender mercies. I saw my MTC companion at stake conference and I almost exploded with joy cause of how happy I was to see her. I love her. The end.

I finally met the bishop and the relief society pres and they are AWESOME. I love them so much. The bishop is very young and has an adorable family. His house is in the middle of a swamp and it’s just gorgeous. He is a surfer and travels with his wife everywhere. They are such a cool family. The relief society president also has an amazing family!! They are so nice and they made me feel right at home! They remind me of the family off of "Meet the Robinsons" Her parents live with her and they are just a hoot!! Her dad's jokes remind me of your jokes Dad :) Basically everyone here is super nice. There is Utah nice... and then there is southern nice... which is like Utah nice on steroids... goodness! People in the shopping marts are sooo nice!!! And people love Jesus here! Just not Mormons. haha.

Oh and the clouds here and amazing. They are sooooo BIG!!!! Massive huge clouds of awesome!!! :) And they RAIN! And when they rain... goooood glory it rains it rains it rains :) I love it. This really is the perfect place for me. I love my mission president and mission mom. They are so caring and loving. Oh. the Bishop was talking to sis J and I about sister missionaries and got all teary! It was so tender!!! He is such a great man and I am blessed to be working with him. The ward has a really strong desire to hasten the work. Which is beyond awesome!!! I am so happy things are finally starting to fall into place! :) I just love the Lord with all my heart. He has blessed me so much out here. Even though we have 0 investigators and 0 potential investigators... I am so excited to be seeing some "mighty miracles" :) Also, be nice to the missionaries in the ward!!! Do anything they ask and offer them service! They love that. Especially when a non-member or a less active is involved. :)

I love you all so so so much!! I am so blessed to have so much support from home. I sure do miss ya'll and I think about you often. I hope all is going well with you and I can’t wait to hear from all of you next week!!! OH. My address is 110 Clifton Court Ponte Vedra Beach Florida 32082 apt #308 :) So send me letters there. Please. *twitch* haha. I am doing great out here and I am absolutely LOVING IT. I'm glad I still have 17 1/2 months to go cause I still have a lot of work to do! I love you bunches! Keep smilin and don't forget to pray! Remember that Christ will always carry your burdens IF you let him! :)

 Kiakahaehoa!

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)
p.s. .... Hi..

33 New missionaries arrived in the FJM (Florida Jacksonville Mission) on October 2, 2013.

Sister Joseph is training Sister Chamberlain

President and Sister Craig with Sister Chamberlain

First P-day, to the beach!

Critters!

I am in F L O R I D A!

Week 1... MTC

Hello Family/Friends/whoever else is reading this!!!! :)

I. Just. Don't. Even. Know. Where. To. Begin. 

AHHHHH. 

I'll just start out with saying “Hi! I am alive!!” And doing well! SO WELL. Obviously my P-day is on a Wednesday so sorry I haven't gotten to you sooner. Was the suspense killing you?? It was killing me. That's for sure. OKAY. Um. Wow. Where to begin. Well, Let me just start with day 1!!! WOOO. 

Day 1:

My lovely friend Teagan received me at the front which was SUPER AWESOME. It was really nice to see her there and to have someone that I already knew.. And yeah. She whisked me around the whole MTC and got me all checked in and I got my room and all the little knick knacks I needed to survive here at the MTC. I said bye to her because I was assigned to go to West Campus!!! Because there are so many missionaries they actually had to create another campus and I ended up on that one! SO... I've been to the MTC campus like... twice.. When I watched general conference (which was amazing...am I right?!) So I'm over on the oh so humble west campus. But I love it! It's little and it really pretty. After that I watched a terrible orientation about the Gym (which we didn't even need to know because West Campus doesn't have a gym... haha) Then I Met my companion!!! The lovely Sister Waite!! And I absolutely love her to death.     She is SOOO loving to everyone and so nice and so freaking funny and weird. Which is nice. Cause I’m weird. She's weird.. We get to be weird together and it's wonderful. We have the same sense of humor which is great and we are actually a lot alike! I know we were put together in a companionship for a reason. We work so great together!!! We have grown so close together and I just love having a companion. She is my other half and it's so weird when she isn't around me. (is that weird? haha) Afterwards we met one of our teachers Bro. Gleason... Bro. Gleason looks like a taller version of Darrin Landroche and has the same personality as Kyle.. Hahaha. So he is SUPER AWESOME. I freaking love him so much. He is so sincere and you can tell he really cares about us. He is so good at bringing the spirit into the classroom and has such good insights and and and and an d askldjfalsdkjfa;ldskjf ;ald... He is just great. The other day he was doing a demo role playing doo dah where he recited the fist vision (I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head..etc.) and it was AMAZING. And yeah, so I'm super grateful to have him as a teacher. After that we met the MTC presidency and the Branch Presidency and our Zone leaders and ALL THE LEADERS. Twas great fun and super exhausting. Luckily I had lots of adrenalin keeping me alive throughout the day! I LOVE my district!!!! We are so awesome!!! We have 8 people in our district and we are all going to Jacksonville, FL! Which is great!!!! We are seriously like family. And I love them so much and I am going to miss the crap out of them when we go off to Florida. (which is in a week.... AHHHH) The Elders are suupppperrr funny and are so weird and so different... but it just works and we all help each other out so much and laugh all the laughs and cry all the cries together!!! (good cry) Elder Henshew from our district actually went home because he needed to take care of some stuff. I am soooo proud of him for doing it. I can't even imagine how hard that would be!! I'm gonna miss him a bunch but I know he is making the right decision. I am the only sister from Utah in my district. Which is funny. Sister Mcphee (from Texas) calls me a Utard sometimes. hahaha. Sister Blotter is from Michigan!!! Super cool, huh dad?? :) And my companion is from Northern California! Woo! Yay for districts!!! My goodness... I still have so much to tell you.....

Okay. So that was the first day and since then the days have all just blurred together like one big SUPERDAY. :D The second day was by far the hardest day for me. I was so stressed and overwhelmed and I felt inadequate and that I just had SOOO much to learn and I didn't know what I was doing here and I was just struggling. Luckily... everyone else was struggling too. So we were able to help each other out! (another great thing about districts!!) I can tell you... I've never prayed so much IN MY LIFE. haha. That night I prayed so hard. I realized there was no way on earth I could do this alone. I needed my Heavenly Father's help. (it was then I realized I needed a good dose of humility) But obviously I am still here and am still alive and well so my prayer was answered!! In fact, it was more than answered! It's a freaking miracle how much I've grown this past week. Like... I don't even know how to explain to you..... haha. So yeah. 

Good glory.. missions are HARD!!!! So hard! I have never focused on something so much IN MY LIFE!!!! My brain is like "whaaaaaaaaaaat are you doing to meeee!!! I want to be A.D.D.!!!!" Haha. We have 16 hour days where all we do is study and learn and teach and eat. I swear. I am going to get fat. I sit at leeaaast 8 hours a day and eat. It's been really hard to sit so much. The first couple of days I had like bed sores from sitting so much. Bahaha. Hi Dad. So that’s been fun! So we teach 2 investigators. One (being our teacher acting as a good friend as his) and Two our TRC investigator which is somebody that volunteers to be an investigator!! I looove teaching!! BUT IT'S SO STRESSFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha. Jordan is my first investigator. He is great. He is also a space cadet. LOL. It's really hard to get him to concentrate on what we are teaching but I love it. We are also teaching Sydney. She is the cutest old lady that you have ever met and has soooo many cool stories! She already has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ that it's amazing!!! !:) BAHHH!! I JUST HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU AND TIME IS RUNNNING OUUUUTTT!!!!!! Okay. Ummm ummm ummm...... MOM! I got your letter. I found it on the second day when I was dying of stress... and it was amazing and it helped me so much! So thank you!!! OH! So the second day I feel like I forgot to have fun and smile and laugh and have fun and so-s did everyone around me so day 3 was awesome because we laughed and smiled and had fun and STILL FELT THE SPIRIT AND IT WAS GREAT!!!! Ok. 

I LOVE THE MTC SO MUCH I COULD DIE. BUT I WON'T CAUSE FLORIDA NEEDS GOSPEL GOODNESS. 

I have felt the spirit SO strongly and I wish you could all feel it so you could understand!! It is so tangible and it's EVERYWHERE!!! I can't even believe how much I'm learning. I'm learning so much about how to be self-less. I thought I was generally self-less when I first came out here... Ohh boy was I wrong. Good glory. It took a while to adjust my focus away from me and to this wonderful wonderful great AMAZING WORK!!!! I think I am getting there. Granted... I still have a looong way to go! But it's so awesome to like... not think about you. haha. I looove losing myself in the service of others. I really only think about my investigators and what they need and how I can serve my companion! So when I lay down in bed at night I just take a deep breath and think "ahhhhhhhhhhhh....I am still here right??? Alyssa is still here? Yes? K good." Then I pass out because of how exhausted I am. AND IT LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! I love that feeling. And honestly... I haven't been homesick... really at all..... Is that terrible??? I mean... Of course I think about you guys sometimes... but I find when I do it just strengthens me even more!!! It's great. I love being on a mission and I love learning all of these wonderful things. This gospel is soooo beautiful. And it's even more amazing than I have ever imagined. I have learned a lot about how to rely on the spirit. K, the spirit is so freaking cool. And revelation is so freaking cool. And faith is so freaking cool. I loooove all of it!!!! I KNOW that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He has answered sooo many of mine in that past week. I know he is there and is watching over all of us. Our Savior will always be here for us. I have loved learning about how we can all come unto Christ. Cause really... That’s what it is all about!! ALSO! I love singing here!!! It's great!! THE SPIRIT IS SO COOL. Ok. Sorry for the a.d.d. and for the information overload but I just want to tell you so many wonderful things. haha. WASN'T CONFERENCE AMAZING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!! 

Man oh man if you didn't listen to alllll of the sessions... DO IT. They are great and I want to hear which talks stuck out to you. I personally liked Elder Hollands and President Uchtdorfs, and President Monsons, and Elder Scotts, and President Eyrings, and Elder Dube!!! hahaha. All of them. I liked all of them and being at the MTC made it that much more awesome. (I’m super good at grammar)

The food is good. ish. haha. It's good. Sis Waite is like... super healthy and eats salads and runs and I’m like... mmm....dooonutssss...... hahaha

Elder Stallard is really funny and makes me laugh so hard. Elder Weller is super logical. But funny. And Elder Neilson is such a sweetheart and does theatre!! Which is great! I have found my improv skills come in handy when teaching!!! ! YAAAY FOR IMPROV!!!! Have I mentioned how much I love the spirit???? 

This is for Dad: 
Hahahaha. The MTC is funny. All the guys DO try and out alpha each other!! And the girls are just girls and have to be super cute all the time. And they all feel like they need to go running... and I'm sitting here like... "umm.... who wants to like... not run?? " and they all eat salads and it's just hilarious. I feel like I’m the weirdest one here. Which is fine. It took a l’il to get over that the first couple of days but now... i just don't even care if I eat donuts and throw footballs cause it's not about that it's about missionary work!!! :) 

The mission scripture is Alma 26:12. And that has basically summed up my week. Read it. It's great. I hope you are all praying your little hearts out and reading your scriptures!!! 

oh! I love “Preach my Gospel”. It is basically the best book in the world. Next to the Book of Mormon. Haha. 

I loove this gospel SO MUCH. And I know that it is true!!! I know that Christ will take our burdens if we come unto him. I know that prayer works!!! IT LIKE SERIOUSLY WORKS SO IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED IT DO IT CAUSE IT'S AWESOME. Sorry for the caps.... I just get really excited. hahaha. I just love Christ with my whole being. I'm so excited to be out here. I love learning and I love the exhaustion that comes from working all day. I hope all is going super well out there!!!

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! 

I can feel your prayers and thank you so so so so much for your loves and support!! 
OH! I should be calling around 5ish AM on Tuesday morning. hahaha. GOOD LUCK!  And you better answer!!!! Umm.. I hope that’s all I have to say. Haha.

Haha. I got my district to say "Bakaka" hahahaha. IT's the best. Ok. I'm done. K. 

I love you all so much!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! WOOOOO!! :) 

Love, Sister Chamberlain :)