yellow flies and yucky guys

Dear family and friends 

I hope you have had a wonderful week here is my adventure for this past week

So I have discovered a new insect, Yellow flies. They are
horrible. They follow you around and bite you and are just not very
nice. We accidentally walked into a group of them and they stayed with
us all the way home, which was about a mile from where we ran into
them.
The yucky guys part come from the ward members. Saturday night there
was a relief society event, a pintrest party, and everyone had their
phones out showing me pictures of different guys they want me to
marry. I don't think I will have any problems finding a date when I get home.

Any who this week has been interesting. Actually pretty hard. We had 2
nearly 3 people drop us this week and our investigator who was
supposed to be baptized called it off. BUT good news is she is still
investigating, and now the ward wants to get more involved to help her
get to her baptism.
With all these tough things happening I realized that something
wonderful MUST be coming our way, or else our faith wouldn't need
testing right now. :)
But on the plus side...
It was fun to see all the pictures of graduation this week, congrats to ALEX!

Not too much happened this week that is note worthy. Oh we did go to a
priesthood training meeting on Saturday, and it was strange to be in a
sea of white shirts. But they fed us pancakes, with ice cream on top,
so it was totally worth it.

One thing we are focusing on is family history. There is a sister here
who had to go home early because of health problems but has been able
to come back out, any who she said that the only thing she could do to
stay in the missionary mindset and feeling was to do family History.
One thing that I didn't realize that we could do is upload stories and
photos of our ancestors. I know that we have some lying around
somewhere, we need to get them into the system so I can show others
where I come from :)
It's amazing how quickly Family History softens the hearts of all
those around us. It's like magic.

Well, running out of things to say. Hope ya'll have a great start to
your summer! Love ya!

Love,
Sister Chambers

Mango Mac n cheese

hello to all the people I know

So Yesterday I had some great Mango mac n cheese. I was kinda nervous
to try it, but now I am a big fan and will have to make ya'll some
when I get home! :) I also had dolphin, doesn't make me too happy...
but they said it was an ugly dolphin. ?

This week was good...

Highlights include:
Finding Wild Blackberries,
3 investigators at church,
Zone conference,
Chinchilla,
and 2 parties!

The 3 investigators that we had at church was such a miracle. One day
we were going to go pick up something from a member, who happened to
not be there, so we turned around and were walking back. Along the way
we met a man walking his dog. Well he had a giant tattoo on the back
of his leg with 4 nails making a cross, so I asked him about it. Turns
out he loves Jesus. Also turns out that he and his sister are church
shopping currently. We invited them to come to our church. He said
hmm, ya know what my sister was just saying the other day that we
should try a local church. :) We got his contact info and he and his
sister did come to church! They sat behind us, and then our gator with
a baptism date came in late and sat down next to us. After the
sacrament our bap gator turned around and freaked out. The sister was
her music teacher in Middle school, how neat! So we invited her to the
baptism, and I'm pretty sure they are coming. Church was pretty great
because it was a missionaries farewell, he is going to Australia
speaking mandarin, so the whole day was mission themed, and the gators
have a few questions to ask us so we are going back! :) Miracles do
happen!

Zone conference was wonderful! We focused on a talk entitled the
consecrated missionary. It was neat because I don't ever remember
reading it officially, but many things stood out to me like I had just
read them recently. The talk was very straight forward about how we
need to really do our best and be exactly obedient, why? Because we
love The Lord. This has stuck in my head whenever the natural man
tends to ask why we are doing something. Any who, I loved conference
and being able to hear from our leaders and get ideas about how to
better help our investigators. Our focus right now is GENEALOGY.
President feels like this will be a huge thing that we can do with
people so that they can feel the spirit of Elijah, and their hearts
can be softened so they will be open to receiving the gospel
themselves. Actually that is how our investigator decided to be
baptized. We taught the plan of salvation and told her about spirit
paradise and prison and how all our ancestors who where not baptized
wait there for us to be baptized for them. BUT in order to be baptized
for them we must be baptized ourselves. Well that is when she knew
that she had to be baptized, so that she could help her family. It
just makes me so happy.

Chinchilla! One of our new investigators has a chinchilla, and I got
to hold it! Man that thing was so soft! I was kind of nervous to hold
it because it just looks like a hybrid of a rat and a rabbit, but it
ended up being pretty friendly. Pictures to come.
But our new investigators love learning about the church. We taught
the plan of salvation and they just soaked it up like little sponges!
Hopefully they will be able to come to church this week.

Parties! We went to two of them this week. One with all the people who
live in our area of the ward, and the other with the young women. They
are selling lumpia, which is like egg rolls, for their camp
fundraiser. We went over with our gator to help make them. The young
women are so amazing. I'm grateful that I have spent more than half of
my mission in young womens with an investigator.

Oh also yesterday we had 2 less actives at church. One had her baby
blessed and the other is trying to come more regularly, which is just
blessed!

Well I feel like time between p-days is just getting shorter and
shorter. Didn't I just write ya'll last week. Time is flying by!

I love ya'll and hope that you are having a great Memorial Day!
Love,
Sister Chambers

The ABC's of being a Missionary

Dear family And friends

Many things happened this week and we will just begin with the ABC'S

A and B are for AppleBees!
This thursday was Sister Shumways 20th Birthday so we went out to
Applebees with our carpanionship. (I have decided it was a pretty
clever name for them.) When we got there one of the sisters gave us
both gifts. Mine was a key chain of a bee to always help me remember
that one time that I was stung by a dumb bee.

C is for CAKE!!
I think a week ago I sent you a picture of that pink and yellow cake I
made? Any who this week I made and ate a lot of cake, judge least ye
be judged. ;) I made Sister Shumway special pancakes made out of
funfetti cake mix. They were pretty tasty. Then with the left over mix
i made cup cakes.
Her favorite type of cake is Black Forest cake. It is chocolate cake
with cream cheese and cherry pie filling. I must admit though that I
am getting pretty great at making cakes. This one was really tasty. I
liked it because there was no frosting on top that would sit really
heavy in your stomach, so you just felt like you could keep eating it.
Then on Saturday we had a meal with a member and guess what they gave
us... cheese cake, which is still in the cake family. And she gave us
some to go. I think I am getting all caked out!

Besides that we had a very busy week this week.

Monday- We had a lesson with our Gator Betsy and brought a member
along with us. The member was stellar and just invited Betsy over to
her home for dinner with us on saturday and to watch Joseph Smith
Prophet of the restoration.

Tuesday- We had lessons with our little Rosie before she went to young
womens, and also we have another gator also named Betsy who came and
watched finding faith in christ with us at the church. Oh also we
walked 3 miles to a lesson from the church, and 3 miles back. It was
really hot and we were really tired.

Wednesday- Our ward mission leader came out with us for a lesson. The
lesson fell through so he went and walked around the neighborhood with
us. We introduced him to some of our investigators and were able to
have two lessons. One with Denise and one with Mike. We even scheduled
another lesson for this upcoming wednesday. We also introduced him to
Bill (the wwII vet) (oh and Dad I did shake his hand and say thanks
for all he has done for our freedom).

Thursday- We had a zone meeting, and it was pretty swell. I love those
meetings because it brings the spirit more into the work and I have
noticed that each time I really feel the spirit stronger it makes me
want to work harder and do more! :) Also this was Sister Shumways
birthday! We just ended the night with tracting and looking for more
people to teach.

Friday- I felt really really really sick when I woke up. We took the
carpanionship sisters to a meeting that they had, then we went to
another room to study and I fell asleep on the ground. Later we talked
to the Mission Presidents wife and it turned out I was just really,
really, really dehydrated. She made me drink 3 water bottles right in
front of her. That seemed to help a lot, but now everyone is on my
case about how much water I am drinking. We planned for our week and
then took off to tract. We were walking a street we usually walk on
and then I noticed that another street stems out from it. So we
decided to go down it. The first 2 houses were duds. The third house
we knocked on a man came to the door and then said that he was going
to get the lady of the house. When she came walking up she was
carrying a load of laundry and seemed a bit frustrated that someone
was at the door for her. She threw the basket down and then turned to
see who it was. Surprisingly we knew her and she knew us!! She is
actually pretty good friends with a member and a less active. We had
met her about a month ago at the hospital when we went to see our less
active and her new baby. So instantly perked up and invited us in. We
were able to share with her the message of the restoration and invited
her to be baptized and read the Book of Mormon. She said yes!! We are
meeting with her next friday and a member (her friend) might even host
it in her home!!! Oh God is Good! It's more then just good luck that
we knocked on her door.
After we realized that we had given her the last copy of the Book of
Mormon in my bag so we headed back to the car for more. On our return
back there were some people out smoking and drinking in their drive
way so we went up to talk to them. One man invited us to a bbq and to
the beach on Sunday. He also invited us to partake of items that are
against the word of wisdom. We declined. He then asked if we were nuns
and we told him we were missionaries and then he de-invited us to the
bbq. He said other interesting things that I may just need to save for
stories when I arrive home. The best way to put it was that he was way
drunk. Maybe when he sobers up he will find out card and check out the
website. I guess we can only hope.

We then continued down the street and saw one of our gators out
smoking with one of our potentials. She seemed to be having a rough
day. We went over and talked, and she had some great questions about
the plan of salvation. We taught the second lesson and found out that
she really does want to stop smoking. We told her about the power that
the Book of Mormon can really give her, a power that could even help
her overcome her weaknesses. She was pretty intrigued by that. I hope
she puts more effort into reading it!

Saturday- We helped said gator with a garage sale in the morning. She
then introduced us to some of her neighbors and it was the sweetest
thing because she introduced us as her sisters. I love her and I am so
sad that her house sold so she is moving in a month to wyoming. She
said that after our missions we have to come visit her, so we are
already mapping out a road trip!!! Maybe she will be baptized by then
and we can go to the temple with her soon after!! :) Please keep
praying that Denise will read the Book of Mormon!! :)

We had correlation with our ward mission leader who seemed to be very
impressed with the work me and sister Shumway are doing. Which is kind
of abnormal for him. He seems to look for your faults and point them
out. It's all in good work though because he wants to see us work like
a finely tuned machine. I was also flattered a bit when he told me he
is going to be really upset when I leave and that he will call
president craig and give him a piece of his mind if he decided to move
me. (also mind you he is a welch man and everything he says is in a
British accent, I'm getting pretty good at mimicking him)

Following our meeting we had dinner with the other sisters at Sister
Davelines along with our investigator Betsy. She really enjoyed
watching Joseph Smith: prophet of the restoration, though she seemed
to gain a lot of questions, like what where with the oxen in the
temples, and what where the swoopy  nosed creatures (the sun stones on
the temple)

Sunday- We went to the Fort Lauderdale Temple dedication! It was so
wonderful. Uchdorf spoke and he was pretty comical. He said that he
was so glad to see all the young people that were in attendance, and
that some of them were still awake. He said that it was ok that others
were sleeping because a church sleep is a healthy sleep, that they had
come there to find peace, and peace they found. One thing he said that
I really enjoyed was that things of the temple can not be explained,
they can only be felt. He gave the example of a boy asking his parents
how they knew they loved him, when they tried to explain their answers
the young boy was not pleased with the response. The parents then
asked him how he knew that he loved them, he said I feel it here, in
my heart.
I have learned that one of the biggest things of this gospel is not
necessarily knowing, or learning, but feeling. The Spirit will always
testify of truths, so all we have to do is become so in tune that we
will be able to hear him testifying to us.
We stopped by and saw Betsy and were able to read the first chapter of
the Book of Mormon with her. She is the sweetest little old lady that
you have ever met. Except for my grandmas of course.

But any who I have big news!!
On thursday I get to go to the Orlando Temple!!! YAY!
1 yr ago on the 3rd I received my own endowment.
1 yr ago on the 4th I opened my mission call.
Now I get to go back to the house of The Lord. It seemed like this
would never be a possibility for me on my mission because Orlando is
not within our mission boundaries. But now we can attend twice on our
missions, our half way mark, and right before we go home. It will be
so wonderful to see everyone from the MTC there with me. We were
unfortunate to not be able to go to the temple together when we were
at the MTC because the provo temple was closed for cleaning. But now
we get to go and I am sooooo excited!
Also next Mother's Day I get to talk to mi familia! Wahoo! Can't wait,
this is the best week ever!!!


So here are some requests of ya'll this week.
Pray for Betsy, Denise, and Jennifer to read the Book of Mormon.
Pray for Mike's heart to be opened.
And pray that Rosangela will pick a day to be  baptized this month.



Also I would like to hear your "Ah Ha" moments from the Book of
Mormon. Our mission Presidents wife has been asking for us to share
these with her for all of my mission and it has been really neat to
read some of them. But just this past week our mission President and
his wife had the opportunity to meet with Elder Holland and some other
Mission Presidents. Elder Holland said that we as a church need to be
having more "Ah Ha" moments with the Book of Mormon. These will come
as we truly search for knowledge from the Book of Mormon. So please
share your insights with me! They may just be inspiration that will
help me with my investigators.

Well I love all of ya'll!
I love ya little, I love ya big, I love you like a little pig. However
that much is...? :)

I hope you make this week just as awesome of a week as mine is looking
out to be!
Love,
Sister Chambers

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

This one time....

Dear family and friends

So Sister Shumway has experienced me at my tiredest this week, which
resulted in us lying in bed and me listing off a bunch of crazy
stories from my life, and each one began with this one time...

We have had a fantastic week, I was so tired because we have been
talking to so many people and have just been so busy!!

We have 3 new investigators this week!! Oh I love walking. It makes it
so easy to just go up to people and talk to them. I am loving it!
First few days my feet and my legs were sore, but now I think I'm
getting used to it.

So this one time.... we were walking in an area and looking for people
out and about that we could help. We were walking by this one house
when I felt the spirit tell me to go knock on it... I shrugged it
off... then it told me to go knock on it again... and I ignored it...
then the prompting came a third time. Me and sister Shumway were in
the middle of the road almost completely passed the house when I just
threw my hands in the air and said fine and began back to knock that
houses door. Just as we were about to knock we noticed that she had a
bunch of mulch bags in the front of her house. We told her that we
would love to help her and she said she didn't need help... well
needless to say she was very closed when we began our conversation.
After she declined our offer to serve her we began to teach her about
the Book of Mormon and read a scripture from it to her. We asked her
what she thought and she said that it would require some more
investigation. So we said here ya go, and gave her the book. At the
end of our conversation she not only accepted the Book of Mormon, but
she set up a time for us to come back the next day to help her mulch.
We brought a member and her 3 yr. old daughter and they were perfect
fellowship. We mulched in no time and then she let us teach her the
restoration when the task was completed.
Then last night she even came over to the members house to watch
Joseph Smith Prophet of the restoration. She has not yet read the
book, but says she really wants to.  She is taking it with her on her
vacation to Kentucky, so will everyone PLEASE pray that Denise will
read the Book of Mormon this week, that would be wonderful!!! :)

So this other time....
We met a lady name cynethia. We invited her to an event this saturday
but we couldn't find an invitation. She said that when we found one to
come back and give it to her. So the next day we did. She invited us
in and we began talking about our favorite things about Jesus Christ.
The conversation evolved to her telling us about all these dreams she
has been having about her family that has passed away coming to her
and trying to tell her something... WOW. She is pretty prepared. We
asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said of course... we
tried to set a time to come back. Well that resulted in this awkward
moment when she had sooo much faith that she wouldn't reschedule with
us because she knew we would come back at the right time... ha.

So this other time...
We were knocking doors when I realized that the door had 2 peep holes,
one normal height and one very low. I jokingly said to him, "that's a
small peep hole, is it for small people... ha ha ha" He didn't
laugh... it was awkward, and he wasn't interested. As we were walking
away my comp. said, "that awkward moment when his wife is a midget."
GAH! Don't tell me that!

So this one time I forgot sunscreen and got sunburned very very bad...
It peeled. BUT I think I am actually getting tan!?!?!?

So this one time I had a question. I looked at my companion and said
what do you say to Jesus when he sneezes?
you: bless you
Jesus: no, bless you...

So this one time a lady tried to bible bash... and it was really hard
to not bible bash. Seriously people just because it says in
revelations that nothing is to be added to this book, well I always
want to rebut with ...that same statement is written in Genesis, so
should we just throw away the whole bible? But I contained myself. She
asked some questions and we answered, and then she bore her testimony
to us, then we bore our testimony to her and read moroni 10:3-5 and
asked her to read it and compare it to the bible and find out if some
of the things she has heard are really in the Book of Mormon. She
accepted and took the book!! Man I know the Book of Mormon is true, it
seems that every time we read them something from it they accept the
invitation to read it!! :)

So this one time sister Lambson told us a joke...
Sis L: did you hear about that guy who got his whole left side cut off?
Everyone else: what?
Sis L: yeah he is all right now.
Everyone else: HA HA HA!


So this one time our new members brought not only one but two non
members to church. We talked to them and they want to learn more and
be baptized, so we are going to get their parents permission and begin
to teach them!! :)

GOD IS SOO GOOD!

This was one of the best weeks of my mission. I love being here and am
kind of sad that I am at my half way point because that means this is
going to end sooner rather then later... :( though don't get me wrong,
I still love all of ya'll! :)

Happy Easter week! It is going to be so great!!

Love ya'll!

Love,
Sister Chambers

Sharing is Caring

So it has been pretty interesting sharing our car this week... They
have to pick us up and drop us off... and the other sisters don't know
where anything is so basically I just feel like a chaffer. But in a
good way. I love being able to serve them and  help them learn the
area.
So there area is further away then ours so.... looks like we will be
looking into bikes today and seeing if any members could loan us some
bikes.... I think I'll have the best looking legs by the time I go
home.

We are really looking hard for new investigators to teach... which
means a ton of knocking on doors. But Sister Shumway (my new comp.) is
a champ! The first golden hour we had we were able to find a
potential. He is interested in learning about our views on life after
death. He had a ton of great questions but we didn't have enough time
to address all of them. He even gave us a referral for his roommate,
who we met the next day and he was pretty nice.

Oh Just a little shout out about my comp! She and my trainer were mtc
comps and I think she is just the most awesomest person ever. We
already are having a wonderful time laughing and telling stories and
working super hard. I feel like she pushes me to be a better
missionary in the best way possible. She is so sweet and caring and
just what I need right now!

I have decided that I want to improve myself... like a lot! So to be
able to do this I am picking a goal each day and working my hardest to
accomplish it... The first day was to hand out 10 cards to people... I
got 8! :) Second day was to be bold and tell someone that I know the
Book of Mormon can change their life! Did it, and the man even took a
Book of Mormon, though he was not exactly ready to meet with us... at
least he has the book! Today's goal is to make sure that those who I
talk to I make sure to mention the restoration!

When you come out on a mission you are so excited to share the gospel,
but it seems the longer you are out you begin to loose a little of
that zest. The new missionary in the ward is reminding me of what I
was like... Super bold and ready to tell everyone about the church.
Now I am a little hesitant and sometimes as I see people I let fear
rule and not my faith. So my overall goal for this transfer is to not
let fear make my decisions. So far I feel like I am improving!

Oh CONFERENCE!!!
If you loved conference raise your hand (I'm raising mine!!!!!!)

I loved Elder Hollands talk. It is so true, people not only want a God
who doesn't rock the boat, but they want a God who doesn't even row
it.
I have seen this so much here in the south... there are
non-denominational churches.... WHAT? It shows how people are just
making up things that they want and not really doing the Lords will
which will really make them happy.

I have been pondering on how if we were always only doing the things
that we would like it would be detrimental to us. I like to eat, if I
ate all the time I would be way over weight. I like to sleep, if I
slept all the time, I would be depressed. I like to watch t.v., If I
were to watch t.v. all the time I would be lethargic and I wouldn't be
doing my Heavenly Fathers will.
We really do have to fight against our natural man so that we can
become more like our Savior and return to live with our Heavenly
Father.

There were so many things that I loved, but what about you? What were
your favorite parts?
Oh I also like when Elder Ballard talked about the members studying
preach my gospel and then talking to their missionaries through
letters and e-mails about the things that they are learning and how
much power this would bring to all of us. Also I loved that he called
out everyone to invite people to learn from the missionaries 4 times a
year.... I wan't everyone to pay attention to the fact that he didn't
say everyone except those who live in Utah. Nonmembers do exists there
and its up to you to help them!!! So what's your game plan?

Just like I'm stepping up my game I challenge all of you to step up
yours and let's be tools in the Lords hands so that we can see the
miracles he is waiting to perform!

Well I love ya'll a ton!!

Have the bestest week ever!!

Love,
Sister Chambers

The things I have learned...

Hey Ya'll!
I'm staying here in Mandarin and getting a new companion!!!
I am also in a car share... :/ But I have stewardship over the car!! :)
We will probably all pitch in to get some bikes or something to get around.
I am excited to have another set of sisters in this ward. That makes 6
sisters 2 Elders. 1 crazy ward mission leader.
But as far as this week goes I would like to announce that this was
the best week of mail yet! Thanks to all those who participated.
Cute letters from my nephews, letters from friends, and sistas. LOVED IT!
HINT HINT

Now that we have that out of the way...
 This week we had two trade offs.
One day I went with sister Ashcraft. We stayed in our ward, but worked
in a different area. We met an awesome guy who is a Brazilian ju jitsu
fighter. He also teaches a family in our ward, so he already has built
in fellowship.

I also went to the Hendricks area with Sister Heckle and met some
pretty crazy people. It was neat to say the least.

My big Easter project is picking up momentum! In 17 days we will be
showing the Messiah and having a picture gallery of Jesus Christ. This
week a big sign is being made up, and an announcement is going in the
paper, so hopefully we draw a big crowd!

UM.... I can't think of what else we did.
The past days we have been heart attacking people we love as a way for
sister Toledo to say goodbye. She is going to Georgia.

On Sunday there was a cool fireside where they played memory with
pictures of people currently and when they were on their missions.
That was neat. Also all the youth got to open up fake mission calls.
It was fun to see them all get excited to go out and serve a mission.

Yesterday we met with two investigators. We invited both of them to
come to conference this week. The one from Colombia for some reason
thinks that Jesus will be speaking. She is sweet, but kind of crazy.
She always talks about her fear of the Devil, which is not my cup of
tea, but hey I don't drink tea.
Either way she want's to go to conference so I guess that is a win!

OH!!! MY IPAD got wiped clean... which means all the missionary apps
were removed and then my IPAD was all worldly... yuck. So today I got
a new one. And by new I mean used by a missionary who went home. He
left the pictures of his nephew on here though... we thought it was a
sisters Ipad because the screen saver was a little baby.


This week will be a busy week getting everyone squared away, and
figuring out how to share a car... I'm not really great at sharing,
and The Lord knew that so he is making me work on it. Hopefully I
learn something.

Though these past  2 transfers have been my hardest, I think i have
learned the most about myself, and also other really important lessons
that will help me in life.

1. I have learned how to care for others more, and try to really
understand why they do the things that they do.
2. Patience. Sometimes you have to just let people do the wrong
things, even when you know its wrong. It ends up being the best way
for them to learn.
3. Forgiveness. He is a fool who takes offense when none was meant. He
is an even bigger fool who takes offense when it was meant.
The greater sin is in not forgiving.
4. We have to have the downs to appreciate the ups. This was the
roughest companionship with some of the greatest rewards... Mike and
Nicol!!!
5. Prayer is the best remedy for anything!!!

My testimony is stronger now, and my relationship with my Heavenly
Father is stronger. I don't think I would have traded in these hard
times for anything... they have made me stronger.

Tough things don't last.... Tough people do!

Well there are going to be a lot of changes to get used to this
transfer. My new comp will be sister Shumway, from Cottonwood Heights.
We have a new District leader, zone leader, and assistant to the president.
And a lot of sisters loosing cars... :/

I'm excited. I just know this is going to be good!!!

I love ya'll!
Hope ya have a great conference weekend!


Love,
Sister Chambers