Oh Baby!

As is probably obvious, I have been a super slacker when it comes to keeping up with my adventures, so lets see if I can re-cap and help update all...

December 2014...
Got sealed to my best friend for all time and eternity!

Look at us! We are so cute, and that day was sooo cold!

In the following months the following happened:

We both had birthdays.

We ate a lot of good food.

We bought our first car!

We got a new job, lost a job, got another job, quite a job, and started a business.

We do wedding films if you didn't know. 

I personally just think I am in love with... LOVE!

We spend way too much money of fun film stuff. (Notice the present tense)

We went on vacations

We welcomed home grandparents from missions

and we decided to grow our family!

We found out in August that we would be having a little baby T come May!

I just love that cute little face!!

Here's how we broke the news to some family members...

It was a very exciting time in our lives, well, still is!

In December we had an ultra-sound. This is where the technician told us we would be having a little boy! We were very excited, ok well I was! B kinda had his heart set on a little girl.

The technician said, "It's a little early, but typically those things don't fall off."

So we felt confident in sharing the news.

We told our families, but not the whole world yet.

Then one night while having dinner with friends we told them the news, then we all joked around that with mine and B's luck it would actually be a girl.

Well we went to the doctors office for our scheduled ultra-sound to make sure everything was developing. 

This time we had the actual doctor performing the ultra-sound.

He searched for the gender and then showed us on the screen.

Doctor: There you can see the gender of the baby

*Afton looks at B*

*B looks at Afton*

I think to myself: somethings missing...

*Doctor can tell we are confused*

Doctor: Looks like you are having a little girl.

*B super excited and shocked*

*Afton just plain shocked*

END SCENE

It was very strange, almost if we needed to lament the loss of our little boy, yet there really was not loss. We rode home in shock, and also with gratitude that we had not made any purchases for the babe at the time.

So we had to go back and tell our families with our tails between our legs.

We put together a little scavenger hunt for my nieces and nephews. At the end it had a sign which read...

We have all "bean boozeled"(yes we taped the game there).

We are sorry Grandpa Moy

We really thought we were having a little boy.

Our treasure is more precious than a ruby or pearl,

yup that's right everyone, we are having a girl!

So then commenced the buying of pink, and frills, and dresses.

This girl will own enough clothes to wear a different outfit everyday for the first YEAR of her life.

That may be an exaggeration, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't exaggerate.

So here we are today...

34 weeks pregnant and excited more than ever to meet this little one!!

A little like baby A and a little like baby B

in just 6 short weeks we will meet our baby T!

As always, 

with love,

Afton Michelle

Adventures as a Manager

I should begin with a disclaimer...
I am pregnant
I have dealt with too many rude people today
I'm probably eating too many skittles while trying to console myself.

So this will hopefully be read by some of the people who live in the apartment complex and it is mostly directed at them.... here goes nothing.

Hi.
My name is Afton Taylor.
I'm a person.
I work a job.
My job happens to be the manager of an apartment complex.
My job includes replying to e-mails, sending out rent statements, applying cleaning charges for failed cleaning checks... mostly just making sure residents uphold their end of the contract.

Point of clarification: I DON'T MAKE THINGS UP!
If I charge you for something, there is a real reason, and IT IS IN THE CONTRACT!

I really do want the residents to succeed!
I want everyone to pass their cleaning check!
I want everyone to use utilities wisely so the bill is not outrageous! (p.s. utility charges affect me too!)
I want everyone to understand what the rules to living here are, because it makes my life and their lives easier!!

Did you know?
I don't make extra money off of residents.
I don't get bonuses for failing your cleaning checks.
I don't get a raise if I charge everyone with make believe charges... I would actually get fired!
I don't actually get paid a whole ton, and I don't live here for free either.

Fun Fact:
I'm having a baby! Pretty soon too!
I can't always think clearly, something to do with hormones, and I know it sounds like an excuse but ask any mother and they will know what I am talking about.

This whole being pregnant thing has affected my work. I will not lie.
Sometimes I have been very sick, I have had two run in's with the flu this past school year on top of morning sickness and I even caught pneumonia. This was really unfortunate because I wasn't able to be in the office as much as the residents may have needed me.
I sometimes have Dr's appointments, and sometimes just don't feel well.
I guess I'm not the best at growing a person, but at least I'm trying.

I try to help the residents as best as I can. I try to respond to e-mails, notes and voice mails as quickly as I can. I want them to obtain an understanding of why things are the way they are.
Sometimes I don't have all the answers.
I don't know why the contract sale fee is $40.
I just know it is in the contract.


I do know that the residents have the responsibility to read and understand the contract as much as I do.
I do know that residents should look at the space of their apartment before signing a contract based on price and being very sad that it's not what they had imagined.
I do know that I try to be a moral person. This means doing my job to my best ability, and I know that sometimes this may make other people unhappy.
I'm sorry I'm not willing to bend the rules for you, and sometimes I  am sorry you don't understand the rules.


A POINT I'D LIKE TO STRESS!!!
Please don't call me out over the internet, especially under a psuedo name!
What bogus is that? I can't help you overcome anything if I don't know who you are.

Remember it's not a good idea to tick off your manager. I may be a little more strict on your cleaning check, because you were more strict on me.


Question for yourself?
If my manager could write a review about me what would it say?
- consistently pays rent late, yes it is by the grace period, but this resident is always slacking.
- does not put in the appropriate time to clean. I would not recommend this person as a spouse because of their lack of cleanliness.
- Loves to complain, but does not like to actually work to fix a problem. I would say they are selfish and unable to be a responsible person.

Reviews on the flip side...
-Very punctual and dependable with rent.
-Kind to everyone they meet, I constantly hear them complimenting the other residents and see them going out of their way to help others feel important, including me.
-MARRY THIS PERSON!! They are very responsible, clean, hard working, and willing to go the extra mile to make things work. This is the person that will work through hardships with you. They are definitely a go getter!

This week is cleaning checks.
I do have words of wisdom.
Read the whole cleaning check packet. We give you all the information that is needed to pass cleaning checks. Most people who fail do so because they do not use the correct tools, or forget to do the whole job.
I really would like everyone to pass because it's less work for me, and I get to give you more of your security deposit back.

IN CONCLUSION...

I wish people were nicer. I wish people remembered I have feelings.
That is all.

Missionary For LIFE!

I have been going through the awkward post missionary stage of my life.
I feel like I have done pretty well so far, but here is a wonderful list of things that I am still battling...
Not introducing myself as Sister Chambers
Not calling my roommate my companion
Not calling my other roommates sisters
The approaching cold weather


Though I may not be a set apart Sister Missionary, my heart is the same. I always want to be looking for opportunities to serve others, and my Heavenly Father.

One of the opportunities I have recently noticed is the chance to be an online Missionary. Ya see I currently live in Provo... would it suffice to say that many members of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live here? Well it's true.

I have a hard time finding someone to invite to learn more from the missionaries, so I have turned to the internet. I have been posting things about how excited I am for the upcoming General Conference which happens tomorrow.

One thing about Facebook, and twitter these days is hashtags! If you have not discovered how these little gems work it's about time. When you hashtag something it becomes easier to track. When many people are using the same hashtag phrase then it may become "trending." This means that it shows up on the side bar of Facebook, making it way more visible for many other people.

So here is my challenge to everyone... ha yeah missionary habit to invite people to act.... but any who.... I CHALLENGE YOU (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) TO POST SOMETHING FROM CONFERENCE! I encourage everyone to use the #LDS #LDSCONF #GENERALCONFERENCE #THEPROPHETSPEAKS or even the speakers names. If we all do this we can be a huge force for good on the internet.


Well I think that is all that I have to say... I think I just miss writing to be honest.

Love,
Afton Michelle

I'm not ready to be a returned Sister Missionary!

So for those who have been Faithful in following my blog you may have noticed that I have not posted recently, which of course should happen because my weekly letters get put on here... yeah about that.

So on June 27th 2014 I came home early from my mission.

I had been having hip pains and problems for the past 6 weeks, which had been a really humbling experience. I had been to doctors who couldn't tell me what was wrong or what had happened, and to be honest I was frustrated. I wanted more than anything to run from house to house and talk to everyone in our path, which is difficult when you are traveling the speed of a snail.

I went to Florida to preach the gospel, not to lay in a bed.

So that was it, I was promptly put on a plane to come home to get better.
The plan right now is to get back out there as soon as I can. And boy, are we doing nearly everything we can to get this fixed. Trips to the chiropractor 3 times a week, massages (my favorite), lots of new stretches, WATER, and more prayers than I ever imagined.

I'm so not ready to be a returned Sister Missionary.

I'm not ready to date,
or watch t.v.
I'm not ready to hear politics,
or see loved ones fall off the path.
I'm not ready to stop praying for investigators,
or to be alone by myself.
I'm not ready to listen to the radio,
or to realize everyone's lives continued while I was gone.
I'm not ready for pants,
or to pretend like I didn't get a bit of a southern drawl.

But I am ready to do Heavenly Fathers will.
I am ready to uplift others,
and to try and be my best self.
I am ready to learn more about who I am,
and where I need to be.

I am ready to see some miracles happen,
even if they are only the small and simple things.


So here I am. Not ready, but ready, all at the same time.

I love ya'll.
Wish me luck.

Love,
Sister (Afton Michelle) Chambers

Look before crossing the road or you might get hit by a fire truck

This week has been quite eventful. We have been so busy trying to see
every Less active or potential investigator to invite them out to the
Luau that took place on Saturday.
The Luau ended up being a hit!
We had a whole smoked pig (which the church still smells like...) and
lots of fun.
We were able to have two less actives join us and 3 investigators. One
of our investigators competed in a hula hoop contest and won!
After the Luau we took them on a tour of the church, and they seemed
to like it a lot and wanted to come the next day. Unfortunately they
had to cancel at the last second, but they may be more inclined to
come now because they are familiar with everything.
Oh and sorry I forgot to tell everyone that this was transfer week...
that's why I didn't send out my usual e-mail yesterday.
Any who, a few weeks ago we invited a guy and his sister out to church
with us, and they came and we were super excited. Well we went back
last week to invite them to the Luau. The Brother was not there but it
was perfect because we finally had time to talk to his sister and see
if she had any questions. She asked us a few questions and then she
got to the Book of Mormon and was asking a bit about what it was, she
said her brother had told her some things about it. So we asked her if
she wanted a copy of her own. She got so excited!!! So we gave it to
her. She told us that she was going to put off all other reading until
she finished the Book of Mormon. Yipee!
We will be seeing both of them on Thursday to finally go over the
restoration in full.
With trying to see so many less actives we have been able to have
lessons with a few less actives that it is usually hard for us to get
ahold of. It has been so neat to kind of watch peoples lives from a
distant and see the Lords hand in everything. I have learned that he
continually gives us MULTIPLE chances to accept to live the gospel
more fully in our lives. He opens the doors for these less actives
time and time again. Now whether they walk through the door or not
that is their choice and their agency. BUT it's always open.
God is so Good. He is always in the details of life. If you can't tell
why something is happening you just have to take a step back an see
the bigger picture, or get a little closer to notice a detail about
something.

Oh so here is a story for all of ya'll....
Yesterday we drove up to a potentials house and Sister Shumway almost
parked in front of a fire hydrant, but then I pointed it out to her
and she moved the car up more away from it. Right after she parked the
car a fire engine came bolting down the road. She looked at me and
said moving away from the fire hydrant was a very good idea. We got
out of the car and started to cross the street when we got honked at
by another fire engine making its way down the street. (It scared
Sister Shumway pretty badly) So 6 fire trucks later we were really
curious as to what was happening. They were over by a potential, two
investigators and a members house so we were really interested. We went
and found out it was different house that had caught on fire. Everyone
made it out safely and they quickly got the fire contained. Though it
was scary it was a good opportunity to meet some of the people in the
area. It seems like no one here knows their neighbors, until there is
a tragedy, then everyone comes out of the woodworks.

Online work!!!
It has been so grand to have the facebook events up and running each
week. I have been able to send missionaries to a few different people
and send out some more copies of the Book of Mormon. Yesterday I even
posted a post with a quote from President Monson and a non-member
shared the post on her wall. Ha it is so neat! The Lord is really
hastening the work. We just have to keep our eyes open for the
opportunities to share this wonderful message with those around us.

So I'm not being transferred. Actually all the Missionaries in our
ward are staying in our ward. There seems to be some big changes
basically everywhere else though. We have so many new people in
leadership positions. It's interesting to see how things pan out, who
goes where and who ends up with who.

Another weird story...
We went to a members house last Monday. She offered us an apple so we
took her up on the offer. As she closed the fridge door I noticed
something. On her fridge was a picture of LINDAY FULTON! A wedding
invite. In Florida. Well turns out that she married the members,
husbands, best friend... if that makes any sense.
So it was a weird moment when the world became a lot smaller than I
thought it was.


I'm not sure what else to inform ya'll on. I hope that everything is
going well for you and that your summer is not as sweltering as it is
here. But at least we get a few rain storms each week... well it
doesn't really help because it just makes everything really humid, but
oh well. We love the lightning storms they bring.

Love ya'll!
Love,

#discoverthebook

Dear family and fiends how all ya all doing

So this week launched our facebook campaign #discoverthebook which
many of you may have seen or heard about. Well it was super
successful. We were in the Deseret news, and Mormon.org did a write up
on us. We are starting to get peoples attention. BUT this week is part
two. Tomorrow is the event #searchthebook. We want everyone to post a
picture of them reading the Book of Mormon in their favorite reading
spot. Make it your profile picture for the week, so more people will
have the chance of seeing it! The other facebook missions are joining
with us and hopefully we will have 100,000 people invited to attend
this event, but we need your help. Please look up the event on
facebook and join it since I can't personally invite you on facebook
to do that!
But we have seen MIRACLES from it! Me and Sister Shumway have been
able to send out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon to people. One in
Ohio, one in Arizona, and another to North Carolina. People are
interested in reading it. Also a girl found me and we have been
teaching her a bit. She just started meeting with Elders but after a
lesson or two with us she had decided to be baptized!!!! This week she
is praying about when. Super excited. Too bad my mission president
won't let me go to Canada to see it :/ ha just kidding. :)
But with the online miracles comes some of the online crazies. One
lady told me that Joseph Smith was taken over by the angel Mormoni. I
had a good chuckle at that one.
Our investigators are kind of at stand stills right now. So we are
taking a big leap of faith and dropping those who are not progressing,
and trying to find people who will progress. We need to find those who
The Lord has prepared to learn about this right now, and just let the
seeds we have planted in others grow for a while.
We have been doing a lot of tracting and have met some very
interesting people. Most of them have been nice this week. One lady
even gave us some mimosas and peaches from her front yard. Mimosa
smells so wonderful! The south really does beat us when it comes to
lovely smelling flowers.
I gave my first training in district meeting. It  was on the Book of
Mormon. I have come to love that book soooo much more than I even
thought was possible. A lady this week asked us why we carry around
the Book of Mormon and not the bible. Well I realized a bible wouldn't
do us much good here any way because everyone already has one, and
they all interpret it differently. The Book of Mormon is so important
because it really does show us that we have the priesthood power in
our church. THE PRIESTHOOD it EVERYTHING! It's the most important part
of the religion. If it wasn't for that we would just be another church
without authority to perform saving ordinances.
So many people just go for socializing down here. Its pretty crazy.
Oh I don't know if I mentioned this but our President has asked that
we ask our friends and family back home to join us in praying and
asking Heavenly Father to help us achieve our goal of 1,000 baptisms
this year. We need a lot of help and a lot of faith that we will be
able to do this. Each missionary signed a banner with their name and
how many they say they want to baptize this year, I will send a
picture later.
We also attended Emma's baptism this week. She is already a member of
the ward, but we took our investigator and taught the restoration. It
was fantastic!
I'm not sure what else there is to share except pictures! :) have a great week!
Love,
Sister Chambers

This is going to be BIG

Well I will just jump right in I hope all ya all that is family

and friends are doing well

So this week our mission is launching a huge facebook event called
discover the book and I need everyones help! Join the group called to
share and invite ALL of your friends. Then Tomorrow at 11. we need
everyone to post a picture of themselves holding the Book of Mormon
open in front of your face. We are trying to share this all over the
world and need everyone we know on board. All 26 facebook missions are
helping us and we have even gotten a hold of some very famous Mormons.
I will send an attachment of my Picture I will use.
This week has been a test of faith, but still good none the less.
All of our investigators dropped us but one, and on tuesday our zone
leaders said that they prayed and they felt prompted that all of us
should commit to a baptism this month. Well we don't have many gators
so we know that this is going to be a miracle, and only by the power
of God will this happen. So each ward fasted for one day last week to
jump start the month, and then this week, everyday we are fasting from
a different thing like music, candy, mail, and other things.
Our mission is trying to expand its vision. As part of that our goal
is 1000 baptisms this year. So Our president has asked that we invite
all our families and friends to pray with us that we will be able to
find those 1000 people who The Lord is preparing to hear the gospel at
this time. It's pretty exciting, but we need all the help that we can
get!! :)

Lot of things in the works here, including a southern luau.
The other sisters started heading this project, but have gotten so
busy with facebook that it has kind of been handed over to me and my
comp. So we are putting on a luau!! It will be awesome, we are even
having a full sized pig there and hawaiin dancers. The young men are
performing the hawka, and its just going to be fantastic.

I also had a surprise tradeoff this week. The sister training leaders
forgot to tell us, but it was awesome none the less. It's good to kind
of get away.

We had presidents interviews on Friday and it was so good to sit down
and talk with the president and his wife. they are super sweet and I
know that they are my mission president for a reason.

I also want to hear from everyone what their favorite Book of Mormon
scripture is and why... EVERYONE has been slacking at this. PLEASE can
I hear them? :)

Well we have a very busy day today and we must be going. So I bid you adieu.

Love,
Sister Chambers