Power of everyday missionaries

So this week just flew by in the blink of an eye!

Me and my companion decided that we wanted to really focus our time and effort on serving people. We decided this after reading something in particular from the Power of Everyday Missionaries (it's a book we have to read for our mission and it's super great, I strongly urge all of you to read it! :))  So we served! Mosiah 2:17. We started off with a 10 yr old girls room. She is a member, her family is active, so you may ask why? Well 1.an investigator lives in her house. 2. The whole house is a super mess, we're talking hoarder status! 3. You CAN NOT feel the spirit in an environment like that. So we cleaned, for 2 hours. I never thought that I would be actually wiping mold off of walls, good thing the Lord is protecting me and watching over me!!!! That room was just horrendous, worse than mine and addis rooms have ever been COMBINED! I touched things I didn't want to touch, I saw things I didn't want to see, and I smelt things I would never wish upon my worst enemy! We partly decided to help clean her room because the mother of the family just seemed stressed out of her mind on Sunday at church, she provides for the family and we really wanted to help her in anyway that we could.

The following day we helped an older women who is moving. She needed help organizing her food storage and cleaning out the pantry. Fortunately her house was clean and could seem like Heaven compared to the other house. It was not very hard and we were grateful to help. We were even more grateful for the AWESOME  dinner, cake, and ice cream that followed completing the task :)

The next day we helped a lady who has cerebral palsy.  She has been a member for 7 years. Sometimes she swears, and she invites us over every week, primarily for the company that we provide to her. After we helped her tidy up we asked her if she had any questions or concerns with the church that we could help her with. She paused in thought for a time... a looooonnng time. So we thought it was going to be something really deep... then she asks why does the church wait so long to have pot lucks now? We used to have one every month and now we seem to never have them. It took all my strength to not chuckle at her innocent concern. We explained that it's because of the new bishop, that it's not bad, just different.

The following day we went back to the dreaded house to clean the 12 yr old sons room. I thought the girls was bad, I was wrong. TERRIBLY WRONG. It took FOREVER!!! 

And last but not least on saturday we helped an older couple move into a new apartment. It took the four of us four hours to pack and unpack everything into and out of the truck. Luckily they gave us chinese food to thank us :)

You may look at this list of service and ask well how is this missionary work? How are you helping to introduce others to the gospel? Well let me tell you, God works in very mysterious ways! After working in the horrid house the investigator who lives there made more progress in one week then she has in the YEARS she has been investigating the church. She had never before read on her own in the book of mormon and this past week she read 12 chapters!! and she came to church!!! I hope and pray that the spirit can reside in that home more now!

Also every time we see the parents of the horrendous house they thank us about a billion times, it's good to be appreciated!

The older women we helped with food storage came to us on Sunday, thanked us for our service and volunteered to go with us to see less actives this week, meaning we don't have to drive our car and use our miles :)

The older couple who we helped moved ran into a miracle that evening. Apparently one of their new neighbors saw them move in and came to greet them. After meeting with the lady in our ward the neighbor said there was something different about her. They are going to go walking together every morning and the lady in our ward is soooo excited to have her and us over for dinner one night so we can share the gospel with her!!!

We ended up having more lessons this week then last week and more investigators to church even though our focus was not primarily them. God is GOOD!

So we are having a baptism THIS WEEK!!!!! 3 children who are adopted and are 9, 10, and 10. I don't know if I mentioned that last week but one of them had a birthday over the weekend. 

Chloe is 9 and is a sweet heart. She was nervous about praying in front of us, but once we taught her the steps to prayer she gained the confidence to say the closing prayer.

Cade just turned 10. He is smart and active, which makes it hard to keep his focus and attention.

Logan is 10 and uber smart. He knows all the answers to all the questions!

They were actually all adopted as babies. The parents waited for them to be baptized because they wanted to make sure that they understood what they were actually doing. All three have learning disorders, which I would not have known or guessed unless their parents told us. I was shocked! On top of that two of them were... I'm not sure of a nicer way to put this but crack babies who were abandoned in a Georgia Walmart parking lot. Even with their unfortunate circumstance I believe these kids are just absolutely wonderful, and I consider myself blessed to know them and take part in their baptisms. 

Oh I'm not sure if I told you or not but they are being baptized in the pool in their back yard, how fun! Also the family is inviting a family to come who could be potential investigators!

So more about Florida!

Little lizards are more abundant then bugs!

I have seen a handful of dead armadillo's on the side of the roads.

I feel like I'm living in a giant petri (not sure the proper spelling) dish. Everything grows mold and moss and is super green.

I have not seen an alligator yet but I hear there is a place close by called Paines Perry. A lady in the ward promised to take us there on one of our P-days!

Everyone here has a dog. Even the dogs have dogs. We are not allowed to pet dogs... this makes for a miserable life, partially because the people think we are rude and don't like their dogs and in turn don't like us, or the dog is really cute but I can't touch it.  

One of the wards puts on a "beast feast" where they fry up all sorts of weird animals like alligator, armadillo, snake, lizards, just about anything. 

When it rains it pours!!! Sometimes it's sunny and rainy at the same time. I have not gotten a sunburn and have not been wearing sunscreen, which is bizarre to me, but hey I'll take it. 

Humidity is gross. I have never sweated so much in my life, and my glasses fog up when we step out of the car so I don't wear them so much. 

I am kind of in a college town but more on the outskirts. Sometimes we have to drive miles just to get to one members house. 

There are some horses and cows here, though they seem to be much smaller then the ones I am used to, and people call the horses ponies. 

Sometimes I can't understand anything people are saying, I pray for the gift to understand tongues!

The hardest part of my mission so far has actually been learning to understand my district leader. His name is Elder Gao and he is from China and just recently learned english... but he has like a billion chinese speaking investigators!!!

The place I live is actually very very nice! and I'm extremely blessed with a nice car as well.

People are pretty friendly for the most part, but some people walk in a different direction when they see our badges, or don't even answer their doors after we make eye contact with them through the window. 

This place is great and I feel like I'm meant to be here everyday!

There is never a dull moment and there is ALWAYS a miracle around the corner!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Chambers!

P.S. SEND MORE LETTERS I can only read and write them on mondays, same with e-mails but I would love to hear more about your lives at home!