Rigamortis

Dear family and friends

This week we have had to walk extra because we are out of miles. Moral
of the story if you drive 50-60 miles a day you are going to run out
very quickly of the 1100 allotted  miles. We have had many adventures
walking. One of our least favorite parts is that the blood rushes to
your fingers and then they swell up. 

A bit ago all 4 of us sisters in 

the car share were hopping into the car when they saw a snake. They
couldn't tell whether or not it was alive so they decided to poke it.
Then they lifted it up on a pen and when they did so it kept it's
shape because it was rigamortis (spelling?) So this week whenever
Sister Shumways fingers swell up she tells me they are rigamortis. Ha.

We also met this old guy. And I can say he is old because this
upcoming week he will be turning 90! Any who he has a very neat story,
turns out he was a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II.
During our first encounter he was not interested in hearing our
message or allowing us to help him, but being as we walk a lot he saw
us walking on saturday and invited us to a sprite. He asked if we
wanted a little one or a big one. Wanting to be conservative we said
that we only wanted a little one. He proceeded to pull out these itty
bitty cans of sprite. Then he said Oh I have a little beer to match
it! HA HA he reminded me a lot of Grandpa Chambers. Before we left he
gave us pictures of him when he entered the navy, then 70 years later
in the same location, and a picture of the ship that he was on when it
sunk and he became a P.O.W. Then we happened upon him last night as
well and this time he had prepared for us a big book filled with his
whole story. It is pretty neat to read his experience and see how he
continued to preserver even during really horrible circumstances. He
is still not interested in learning more about our church, but he may
have invited us to his birthday party.

Oh I am training to run a 5k! A bunch of us missionaries are going to
get shirts made up with a name tag and tie on the front with Mormon
missionaries on the back, along with mormon.org. We have heard from a
ward member that it is a great way to get media referrals! :) So
because we only have 1/2 an hour in the morning we have condensed our
nightly planning to be able to go out and run about a mile and half
before we go to sleep. I thought that I was exhausted when I got home
before, but now I am convinced that nothing can wake  me up at night!
I sleep not just like a rock, but like a boulder

Miracles are in abundance here though! A week or two ago we met a
little old lady who was walking her dog and found out that she had
been to one of our buildings in Orange Park to do family history
(because our building does not have a family history center, it has an
institute instead.) Any way... We told her that we would find someone
who would be able to teach her more about how to do her family history
on her own and she thought that sounded like a wonderful idea!! We
then remembered that we had a twig meeting set up this week just for
family history. We left a little invitation on her doorstep one day
because she was not home. We were not sure if she would turn up or not
so we were kind of playing it by ear. As the time drew nigh we were
nearly positive that she was not going because we had called her and
had not heard back from her. BUT then a little ray of hope came, the
other sisters in our ward called us and asked us if we knew a Betsy?
Oh we rushed to the church as fast as the regulated speed limit would
allow. (Yes, we are being exactly obedient and following the laws of
the land.) We had a great evening and learned more about how we can do
our family history. Then we decided to take her on a little tour to
the chapel. When we got there and turned on the light she said it was
a wonderful room and she enjoyed it a lot. We invited her to come and
visit our church, and then came a whole slew of questions. We were
able to give her a Book of Mormon and she said that she would think
about going to church on sunday because 12:30 was not too early for
her.
Unfortunately she didn't come on Sunday but we have an appointment
with her tonight at 8! and a member is coming! wahoo!

Oh also on Tuesday we met with one of our recent converts friends and
she ended up teaching us the restoration. Her family is from Cuba and
she then told us how there were two elders who would go over to their
home and her Dad would always get excited. She then told us that they
had a video about Joseph Smith and that her family watches it pretty
often. WOW! GOLDEN GATOR! So We were able to set a baptism date with
her for the 17th of May.
On Sunday we went to class with her, in young womens they talked about
the restoration of the priesthood and what that means for all of us.
She had some really good questions and then after the lesson she told
us that she wanted a priesthood blessing. So we got the elders and
they were able to give her a blessing, she loved it!
Later we found out that she has some concerns about being baptized so
this week we are going to try and really understand what would be
holding her back.

Our pool of investigators has grown a lot since we have been walking
which is super wonderful. Now we are just working to find out who is
really ready to work to find the truth. As we are walking around
everywhere people are really noticing us. People are waving and
smiling at us, which does not always happen as a missionary, but I
feel like we have become a staple in the community. :)
Just this week a lady brought us care packages. We are not sure who
she is, whether she is a member of another ward, a less active, or a
non-member completely. But she brought all 4 of us in our car share a
little package. It has sunscreen, aloe, a hand fan, sun glasses,
slippers, salt foot soak, shoe insoles, and little wash clothes. She
said that the spirit lead her to make these little packages for us and
then when she dropped them off she wouldn't tell anyone who she was
and said let not the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
Pretty neat if you ask me.

Sometimes it's fun to see life from my companions perspective, so here
it is... :)

"Bro Jenkins: "How do you recognize truth?"
YM: "if it feels right."
Mallory: "it felt right to eat a cupcake... But then I threw up..."

This week has been interesting... We have done a lot of tracting, we
are helping the other sisters find some investigators. We were
knocking this neighborhood and we got to this door and I knocked,
sister chambers looked at the house number funny, and then turned to
me and opened her mouth to tell me something, when the door opened....
And sister Patch stood there (her husband is in the mission
presidency) I got really embarrassed and said "sorry we accidentally
knocked on your door-" and sister chambers elbowed me in the ribs, and
said "we were just in the neighborhood and wanted to see how you were
doing!!" Sister Patch just laughed and invited us in for some water.
Ha ha ha. If you haven't figured it out yet... Missionaries are
compulsive liars. Ha ha ha in the best way possible though... :)
We have a really great ward mission leader here in mandarin. His name
is Dave Mathews (imagine my shock when I was looking at his friend
list and found out that he is friends with my mom... Weird... It is
like mission and home life is mixing that is weird... :) ) any way he
is hilarious. He used to be JW, so he knows too much about missionary
work. We were talking with him and he was trying to get us to look for
more refurals  and he was all like (he is a Welshman so imagine the
following in a British accent) "it isn't that hard! All you have to do
is get a copy of the news paper and look at the obituaries!! Automatic
refural for someone in distress!! Then you go to the rest of the
families effected... And BOOM automatic 5 families!!" He also told us
how you can access tax records to get peoples's information... No
worries I have no plans to use that method, people get angry enough
when we knock on their door. Ha ha ha needless to say the work here is
a lot different from St. Augustine!! Ha ha ha
A couple weeks ago we had been tracting with the other sisters and
were heading back to the the car. Sister Chambers got in the driver's
side and I walked around to the other side and right in front of my
door was a snake, it was black with a blue stripe down its back. I
just sat there watching it waiting for it to move when the other 2
sisters came up behind me and asked if it was dead.... We didn't know,
so we poked it with a stick, and it didn't move so we poked again...
Same result... So we picked it up with two sticks and and it retained
the same shape! Ew! So threw it into the Forrest. We got back in the
car. Sister chambers was just sitting there and was like "what took so
long?" Me: there was a snake,  her: how do you know it was dead? Me:
it was rigamortis  ha ha ha , later we had been walking for a couple
miles when sister chambers started walking like those older ladies
that go walking in groups in the morning  :) aka speed walking with
her hands up and arms swinging. I thought that either she was trying
to walk faster or burn more calories walking or something... So I
dicided to follow her example but I must have gotten more in to it....
Because she turned to me and asked what in the world I was doing. I
stopped and was all like, I don't know... What are you doing?? Her: I
am trying to stop my fingers swelling. I looked down at my fingers
that resembled sausages more so than usual, the I lifted the slowly to
eye level and declared "they are rigamortis!!" Ha ha ha "

I know our Father in Heaven is mindful of all of us! This week I had a
few rough days were I was frustrated with the car and mile
circumstance, but got would send me angels each time I needed a pick
me up. Sometimes he just send members driving down the road we are
walking on and they may honk and wave and it just cheers me up! or
sometimes they even pull over and talk to you for a moment. I love it!
Who needs angels in white robes when you have members who listen to
the spirit! :) There truly is angels among us.


I feel my desires changing... it's kind of strange. All I want to do
is think and talk about my investigators. In the past it would be easy
to talk about pop culture before the mission, music, movies, books,
t.v. shows, but now I really could care less. My favorite music is the
lamb of God, my favorite movie is Joseph Smith: prophet of the
restoration, my favorite book is the Book of Mormon, and my favorite
t.v. shows are the bible videos. Everyday really is one less day that
I have to spend out here doing The Lords will. That is a sad thought
to think about.

Pop quiz this week: Did Jesus Christ prophesy that Peter would deny
him 3 times or did he command him to deny him 3 times?

-Think about it though... Peter was with Jesus ALWAYS. But Jesus gave
Peter the keys, he would be the next in line, so it was important that
he was not killed or the church would not have a leader... pretty
interesting.

another thing to ponder: Matthew 16:15-19
What does peter mean? Footnote 18 a! :)

Also it is my duty to follow up with all of you... how is your reading
of preach my gospel coming? Remember that we were all asked by an
apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ to do so! ;)

Well I love all of you! SOOOO MUCH!
I hope that this week you can see miracles too!

Love,
Sister Chambers