Week 3

Dear Family, Friends, basically all the truly special people in my life,

I'm here in Florida!! I have been assigned to work in the Gainsville area! Gainsville is pretty big compared to Salem. UF is close by, or so I hear, but I'm not actually assigned to serve on, or near campus which is kind of a bummer.

My Companion or my sister trainer is Sister Atkinson. She is from Washington State and is just wonderful!! She has only been here for one transfer and is already training. The Sister training leaders (similar to a zone leader) said that I  be training the next transfer. 

Any way... Sister Atkinson has a ton of motivation and drive to get things done. She is 20 as well and for the last 2 years has been golfing for BYU. My first days were AWESOME, we met with all of our scheduled appointments and I met some of the investigators we are working with. It's strange how much I can love someone that I barely know. 

OOOOHHHH wait....

Before I talk too much about my days here I have to tell you about my plane experience.

I was assigned to sit next to an Elder. I jokingly dared him to give the other person whom we would be sitting next to a book of Mormon. He said why don't you. after a little banter the lady who was assigned to sit near us came down the isle. 

We started having some casual conversation about where we were going. She was coming to Jacksonville to see her daughter who is on the Navy base here. 

She asked about us and we told her we were coming to serve missions. We talked a little and she brought up how important families are to her. She talked about how every night she was determined to have family dinner together, and how hard it has been for them to be apart. Then we talked about our families and how much we love them. I told her that part of our beliefs are that we believe families can be together forever, and she really liked that.

Later conversation died down a bit and me and the Elder looked at each other and decided to "casually" pull out our scriptures and begin reading. We were sharing some scriptures we liked when she looked over and asked us what we were reading. She said, "is that like the bible?"

The Elder then begin to introduce her to the book of Mormon. He said how it was an account of Jesus in the Americas and she said she believed that, she believed that something had to be happening here while it was happening over in Jerusalem. He then began to talk about Joseph Smith when he looked at me, and bam, I took it away.

I began to tell her about the first vision when not to my surprise the plane hit turbulence... that satan is a trickster.

Any who we continued to push onward and I just "happened" to have a copy that I had bought from the bookstore before we left the MTC. I asked her if she would like to have the copy to read for herself. She said she would LOVE THAT!!!!!

She then asked a bunch of questions, that were all the right questions about the restoration of the preisthood, and many other questions that we had the answers to. She said she was excited to have some new reading material because she had until 4 everyday for a week that she had nothing to do. GOODNESS, GOD IS GOOD!!! He had prepared this lady so much for us! She even told us that her mom used to say if they didn't grow up catholic they would have grown up MORMON!!!!

The Elder dog eared some awesome parts like 3rd nephi 10, the intro and some stuff in alma. We got her e-mail and then said goodbye because our plane had landed! WHAT A MIRACLE! I was so happy as were the other missionaries sitting around us listening in on the conversation. As we walked off the plane me and the Elder (Elder Noall from cache valley) shook hands and joked that we didn't know our first "REAL" companions would be of the opposite gender. 

Today I'm going to E-mail that lady and find out how her reading went!! So stoked!

Well...

FLORIDA!  Basically this is the most foreign place ever. So many tall trees, so much GREEN! All the trees have spanish moss on them which gives it a really eerie look, but it's pretty much the bomb! There are really so many lizards here along with bugs galore! We even saw a frog in our work out room.

My apartment is WAY nice and I'm so lucky to be blessed with a very nice car as well.

The teaching is my favorite. Our days are long and planned out to the T but everything flies by because I get to teach the gospel. 

The first few days I noticed that we were around a bunch of people but we were not taking advantage of it. We were not handing pass along cards like we should and were not really searching for potential investigators (here they just call them gators, it's awesome secret mission code language).

The people are wonderful! Some are progressing quickly and I can see the light growing within them. Others (one older lady in specific), not so much. She has been working with missionaries since before my companion, and before her companion, and so forth. She wants to know if the Book Of Mormon is true, and if her family (who are members) are truly saved. The problem is that she has so much fear that it is not true that she stunts herself from really learning that it is true! I have never prayed so hard or so much for someone. I know the Lord will bless her though.

To be honest I have not really had a hard time transitioning to the mission. I love it here, I love this work, I love the Lord. I know I'm meant to be here! I'm just so excited to share this gospel with everyone!

Oh on Saturday we were asked to work with the youth for youth conference. We taught them, and ended up taking them tracting with us... which happened to be my first time tracting too, and maybe one of my last times. By Dec. we will no longer be tracting, we will also have smart phones and IPADS! AWESOME!

Gosh it's just amazing!

I love you all! I hope that you can be missionary minded and look for opportunities to spread the gospel, the work is hastening!

Love,

Sister Chambers

Week 2

So Here I am, second week in the MTC and I leave tomorrow morning to Florida!!!

We leave the MTC at 3:30 in the morning to head to Salt Lake airport.  Our Plane leaves at 7:08... we think.

This past week just flew by us! We had a devotional on Tuesday night with President Hinkleys Son and his wife,

they were pretty awesome, something that stood out to me was "at the end of your mission don't be the one saying

I wish I had, be the one that said I'M GLAD I DID!"

On Wednesday we had classes and taught an "investigator" she may really have been an investigator or someone

who had just volunteered to help us, either way it was really awesome! She was catholic, her husband Mormon and they had been attending both meetings on Sundays. She had some questions about our religion. We went over the articles of faith with her to give her a more solid outline of what we believe in. We also read JSH about the first vision and left a book of Mormon with her, inviting her to read the introduction. She was really cool.

Our other investigator that we taught (who was really our teacher) said that he would be baptized!! Then we found out that our teachers act like real people from their missions that they were close with, and they then tell us the real back story to that person. My teacher served in the D.C south mission (even in the woodbridge ward!!! I don't know if that was our ward or what not.) Any way the name of the investigator was Andre, but it really turned out to be Audrey, he changed the gender of the investigator and was very tricky! She was baptized and she is actually going to be serving a mission to Washington state in September!! AWESOME!

On Thursday we had in field orientation. It lasted all day long but it was pretty cool. We did different activities and practiced different things like handing out pass-along cards, explaining the BOM in 5 mins or less, and watched a lot of movies from different general authorities.

On Friday we had more class, taught more investigators, it was awesome.

On Saturday we taught a girl who is from California, she came to spend some time with her grandma who is a member and told her she should come learn some more about our church. We talked about the restoration. the book of Mormon, baptism by proper authority, and invited her to baptism with the proper priesthood authority. She said she would have to read the book of Mormon before she could commit to baptism but she really liked what we had to say. She even said the prayer at the end of our meeting!!! It was BOMB!

Sunday we went to a bajillion meetings. Music and the spoken word was really cool, they had a hip hop violinist, can't remember her name but she rocked!

Every week everyone is asked to write about a 5 min talk about a specific topic. Last week was baptism, this week was the Holy Ghost. We don't know who is actually giving the talk until it is announced at the pulpit. On Saturday I had the feeling that it was going to be me. GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT! So I gave a talk. It WAS only supposed to be 5 minutes, and I only wrote brief bullet points I wanted to cover, but the talk ended up being 12 minutes, and everyone was thankful because the leaders who give ten ish minute talks at the end couldn't make it. The branch president would have called on more people to talk if it wasn't for me saving the day.

So I hear many Elder Pritchett stories because my Hermanas ( three girls me and my companion share a room with) are in his district. Apparently one day this week they were sitting at a different table across from us. You see Elder Pritchett has a thing for long curly hair, like an obsession really. My hair was down and curly this day and the Hermanas asked him if he liked my hair. He did, A LOT! They asked him if he recognized who I was, apparently my head was turned and he said he didn't know, then I turned around and they were like that is Sister Chambers. Then he blushed a little and got a little awkward. OH how I love awkwardness!

A Dad of one of the sisters in my zone mailed her some leggos and fruit loops. She had no idea why, but we decided to make the best of it. We made a video of the first vision according to leggos, and it was pretty epic.

I have a joke of the day everyday here and the Elders don't really think my jokes are funny, but the sisters just absolutely love them. I think I just might tell gender specific jokes. The Elders say that I'm corney and cheesey. 

It looks like my time is running short for now. I may be able to write more while I'm doing laundry tonight, but I guess we shall see!

Love ya ALL!

Love,

Sister Chambers!

Sister Afton's First Letter Home

Sister Afton's First Letter Home

First week of the MTC is just crazy crazy crazy. No time to think about anything except the gospel and how you can become a better teacher.

I'm learning a ton though.

My favorite thing so far is teaching our progressive investigator, I feel like I'm meeting my purpose when I'm teaching people and it just makes

me so pumped to get out into the field.

Days are long and they seem like weeks, but when we look back on the weeks they seem to feel like days. Time is not a real concept here.

My companion is AWESOME! We joke around that God just assigned us new best friends. We teach well together but are able to talk to each

other about our flaws and how we can teach better and feel the spirit more in our lessons.

 

The Elders where a bit hard to get along with at first. We felt like they had tons of inside jokes and they just seemed to be really immature.

After a district conference we were able to come more together. We are more focused during our study time and the spirit has been increased.

We sit with eachother at meal time and are actually starting to feel like we are friends and I'm actually going to be sad to see them go.

All the sisters in our district and another district in our zone are going to Jacksonville Florida. Half the Elders are going to Bama, and the other

half are going to Florida as well.

 

Every day I tell a joke of the day, the Elders don't seem to think they are very funny. The funniest one so far to their standards has been the

following.

What do you call an alligator in a vest?

An investigator!!!

 

See it's funny because we are going to Florida and they have alligators there, and we are going to be teaching investigators... funny stuff right there!

 

As far as our investigators go right now we have two.

One is starting to gain a testimony of christ, he has prayed and feels the spirit. We have taught three lessons to him so far. He has not committed to

baptism because he is afraid of what his family would think, they have not had really good experiences with the church in the past, but his girlfriend is

apart of the church and so he was very interested to get to know more.

 

Our second investigator is married to a member. She, however, is catholic. They attend both mass and sacrament everyweek. We have had one meeting

with her and have asked her to pray to know the truth. We shared with her Joseph Smith's story and experience as well as the restoration of the church

and the priesthood. She thinks her chuch has the right priesthood and that it was pasted down through Peter. I'm not sure what to think about that yet.

We have not had time to look at where she is and study for her. Ya know BUSY BUSY BUSY at the MTC!

 

The food is not great, it's just cafeteria food, and it's actually making many of us sick. We are so glad we don't have to stay here weeks on end.

Yes they do have a lot of cereal, but I have only eaten it once, so there ya go.

Tell Mom I love her all the muches and miss her hugs in the morning SOOOOO MUCH! Also tell her thanks for the package! I loved the cinnamon roll,

my companion loved the cinnamon roll, and the two other sisters loved the cinnamon rolls! Every one thinks your the best mom in the world, along with me!

 

I have seen a ton of people I know here like Elders... Finkenthal, Findlay, Anderson, and Pritchett (who I hear is a very good dancer, some girls in his district share a room

with me and my companion. We have seen the video proof.)

There are a ton of kids here from Salem!

 

I actually won't be a host on Wednesday. That job is usually left to the more experienced girls who are going speaking a language, so they have been here much

longer than I have, and have a ton of more experience. We will, however, be the oldest districts in our zone, so we will see all the new kids come in on Wednesday.

 

That's cool that there were tons of girls named Afton, No one calls me that any more and I miss it, A LOT!!!!!!

 

Everything is great and my mind has been so opened. I love this experience overall, even though sometimes it may feel like I am in a prision.

Gospel is true!

Jesus is True,

He loves you,

and I do too!

 

Love,

Sister Chambers

(oh, p.s. It's hard to get used to people calling you that, and also not calling people guys or dudes but missionaries or sisters and elders)

 

Hope your week is brilliant!

Tell everyone to write me letters, and e-mails so I can write back!

I can't write if I don't have their addresses, but they have mine so they can!!!!

Love all ya'll, share this as you so please!

BRILLIANT!

I have heard some brilliant ideas when it comes to serving as a sister missionary and thought that I should share with the inter-webs!

If you are serving a mission as well these might just be note worthy!

1. Alligator clips!
These things are a gem if you are in a biking mission. They are typically used in wood work or handyman jobs but work great at clamping a skirt together.If you don't want to get an actual alligator clip I hear that if you break off the clampy part of a skirt hanger you can use that just as well!

2.Golf balls!
Want to save your delicate little knuckles from knocking on all those hard doors? Take it out on the golf ball instead! (I'm not sure how helpful this will be since there is more of a push for referrals and less door knocking.)

3. Smaller portions!
I'm headed down South and you know they love their Southern comfort food! I'm pretty positive that I will love it too, but I'm afraid that I might gain some weight while I'm out there. So the tip is to take smaller portions, you know they will offer you seconds, and you may feel rude to not accept, so initially take less than you really want to eat so you can be polite and take a little more a little later!

4.Address papers!
Before your  farewell make handouts with your MTC address and your mission home address. This way people can take them home, hang them up, and know where to find your address. You can also pass around a notebook for people to write their addresses in so that you can write them as well!

5. Lanyards
My best friend roommate who was just recently in the MTC said that you will really want a lanyard when you are at the MTC because you have a card to get into everywhere, and it's nice to have it readily available.

6. Wax!
I am trying to think of ways to shave off some time from my usual routine so that I can live missionary standards. One thing I thought of was waxing my legs on P days, then I won't have to shave for two weeks. I have a Sally Hansen strip-less wax kit that is very light and small, perfect for traveling. You can also buy refill packs!

Well those are all I can think of off the top of my head, if you know of any other lovely gems just comment below!

While at the Laundry mat!

So I leave tomorrow for the MTC!!! I wanted to begin packing on Sunday but ran into the problem of having our washing machine break. I was like..."wow Satan, you really think you will stop me by breaking the washing machine? ha nope!"

On Monday morning my mother and I went to the laundry mat to wash all the clothes I will be taking on my mission. Who did we happen to run into while we were there? Oh none other than the sister missionaries in my area! I was so excited to see them. We had the normal conversation that occurs between people who are/will be serving.

Me: I'm serving a mission too! I head out to the MTC on Wednesday!

Them: Oh how exciting! Where are you going?

Me: I will be serving in Jacksonville Florida!

Them: That's great, you will love serving a mission!

Me: Thanks! Where are you guys from?

Them: Texas... California

Me: Do you guys like it here so far?

Them: Yes, it's Wonderful! Serving a mission is the best! You will absolutely love it!

Eventually we say our good byes and they take off.


Me and my Madre where waiting for our laundry to finish up when a little old man comes and asks my Mom a question. I'm not sure what he asked her but my mom noticed his angel Moroni tie clip and we eventually got on the subject of my mission again.

This sweet old man asked me if he could give me some advice, I said of course! I will take all I can get!

He proceeded to tell me about the power and importance of prayer. He told me to always pray for my investigators by name, and ask them to pray for me by name. He stated that after one week of both of us praying for each other our hearts would be softened towards one another, and they would become more receptive to the spirit teaching them.

He also stressed the importance of praying for my companion (whether it be mission companion or eternal companion) by name everyday, and asking them to pray for me by name as well. He said that nothing else could help draw both of you together and unto Christ as much as praying for each other by name, everyday.

He bore his witness of prayers power and wished me the best of luck on my mission.

It was so profound the way that he stated it and I was a little in shock that all of this could happen in a laundry mat, just because my washing machine broke down...

I guess the Lord really works in mysterious ways. Another lesson to learn from this though is that we should never shrug off promptings, if this old man shrugged off the impression to talk to us, I wouldn't have heard those words of council that I really needed.

Well wish me luck finishing up my packing!!!

Good Luck!

Love,
Afton (soon to be sister) Chambers!

My Sis Miss Threads

So previously I gave some advice on how to buy clothes for your mission, if you missed here you can see it under dressing for my adventure!

Any who.... I decided to post some of the outfits that I have been able to put together before I have to pack them up to take off on WEDNESDAY!!!

I think I will begin with a series I'd like to call 1 shirt 7 Skirts.
This series will feature (in order) 1 pink button up shirt from Downeast, one navy blue skirt made by my momster, one black and white polka-dot skirt from Dress barn, one black and white hounds tooth (I think that is what it is called) skirt made by me, a white and royal blue square patterned skirt made also by me, a black pencil skirt from unknown (sorry!), a floral skirt made by me as well, and a stretchy grey pencil skirt also from Downeast.

 Navy Skirt by my mom

 Polka Dot skirt from Dress barn

 Black and white hounds tooth made by me!

 blue square skirt by me as well!

 Black skirt from unknown

 floral skirt made by me!

Grey pencil skirt from Down east

 You see the moral of the story is that you should look for things that can be worn multiple ways. If I buy a shirt and skirt that only match each other you really begin to limit your options!

This next series I would like to call... one tan shirt takes on the world!
The featured tan shirt is a basic shell shirt from Forever 21! Also featured is a floral skirt from Dress barn, orange blazer from Papaya, tan jacket from Dress barn, plaid skirt from Seagull book, previously featured floral skirt made by your truely, a scarf I got from Belgium, the previously featured black pencil skirt, a cute lacey jacket from Forever 21, a pink blazer from H&M, and the previously featured navy skirt made by my lovely mother.

 Cream shell shirt from Forever 21, Skirt from Dress Barn

The addition of an orange blazer from Papaya 

 Tan jacket from Dress barn

 Plaid skirt from Seagull book

 Again the lovely floral skirt that I made

 Scarf from Belgium and unknown black pencil skirt

 The addition of a lacey jacket from Forever 21

 Pink blazer from H&M

Navy skirt my mother made

 Just by adding a few things like jackets or scarfs you can really make your wardrobe work for you! You can also see that I reused some of the items that were previously listed, really allowing me to make my wardrobe go further.

Next is a little number called the sprint of mint (although it may look a little aqua).
This lovely shirt was bought at Dress barn. It is accompanied by my floral skirt I made, a pleated skirt from Forever 21, and lastly the previously featured tan jacket and floral skirt both from Dress barn.

 I picked out this floral print to make a skirt with because it has many different colors that could work with it, for example... pink, white, yellow, green, and mint. It's very versatile! It is also a very light weight fabric which is perfect for me since I'm headed to Florida! The lovely thing about making your own skirts is that you can control many things that you can't when you buy all of your clothes from a store. 

 Skirt from Forever21

 See how far one shirt can go!

Next I have a picture of a polka-dot shirt from Dress barn.

This next white button up shirt was actually found at Wal-mart. Sometime you just have to keep your eyes open for some good opportunities!

 This following picture is of a dress that my mom actually wore when she was in high school. This is just to show ya that there may be hidden treasures in thrift shops, just lucky for me my mom held onto it!

Now for some more advice!
I love belts, they can really help bring an outfit together. I would suggest that you get three basic colors of belts... tan (really light brown color), brown (this one should be more dark brown) and black. Belts are also great because they can hide some of our problem areas when worn properly!

Really make sure that each piece of your wardrobe can function with other items. This will allow you to have more variety when you are out in the field.

Some of the colors and patterns I have are a bit brighter, but that is because I'm headed to a more tropical place. Also many of my fabrics are very light weight and very breathe able (thank you lovely humidity!)

I think I will post a tutorial of how to make a simple skirt (so simple that I made 3!). If you can cut and sew a straight line then this skirt is perfect for you and will help ya save a little dinero! If you can't sew yourself (or your mom), then I say hey ask a sister in the ward! They seem to always be asking you if there is anything they can do to help, how about asking them to make a skirt!

SHOES!
Shoes are very important as you will be walking a ton and on your feet constantly.

I have these lovely naturalizers from Famous Footwear. Right now they are actually 50% off and they even come in black!!!

I also have a pair of Eurosteps also from Famous Footwear. I know some of you may think they are they stereotypical sister missionary shoes, but that is for a reason, because they rock!

My lovely bag is actually from JCPenny's. I liked to be able to see my bag before I bough it. I took with me my mini preach my gospel, my journal, my quad, and a water bottle, they all fit in there nicely and there was even some spare room for another Book of Mormon.

For Jewelry I tried to stick with the basics.
I have a pair of pear earrings, silver earrings, and gold earrings.
The same goes for necklaces, pearl, silver, and gold. I figure I have the basics and can match anything I have. I do have some other fun items to take as far as jewelry goes, but I didn't really make that my biggest priority.

The best advice I can think of when shopping for your clothes is to not shop frustrated  This will lead to frustrated buying, which means you probably don't really like what you are buying, but you are buying it because it is the only skirt in the world that is actually long enough and mission appropriate. You won't really wear that skirt because it will remind you of the horrible time you had finding it. Only buy things you absolutely love because you will be wearing it for 1.5!

Remember not to buy anything too short (skirts need to be past the knees sitting and standing), too tight (Downeast shirts or shade shirts are too tight, although they do work nicely to help increase modesty!) or too long (those really cute and fashionable maxi dresses/skirts need to be hemmed.)

Just remember to KISS
Keep
It
Simple
Silly!

Well I think maybe I should include some of my mission pictures... :)

See 1 green shirt + 3 skirts= 3 fabulous choices!

Oh and these lovely photos are thanks to Uniquely Rae Photography! She is absolutely FABULOUS!! Seriously check her out at http://urphoto.tumblr.com!

GOOD LUCK!

Love,
Afton Michelle

p.s. If you have any questions just leave a comment :)