The Baptist Bash‏ (week10)

So yesterday I went to my very first baptist church. So on wednesdays we have a Book of Mormon class where we read with investigators and help recent converts and less actives get more out of their reading. The elders have been teaching a 19 yr old and he has been coming to church and the book of mormon class very regularly. This wednesday he brought his little sister who is 13 yrs old. She has even come to church once. We talked to her after the class and asked her if she was going to church on Sunday. She said that she would come to our church if we went to church with her. 

So we did.

When we walked in everyone was looking at us, reading our name tags. They had a billion greeters and they held onto our hands for a long time very sincerely thanked us for being there and followed up with handing us pamphlets about their church. WEIRD, who gives pamphlets out about their church and beliefs... oh wait... ours does :) ha ha

So we go in to this great and spacious building and sit down next to our friend. They then had us stand up and sing, the music was really loud and they had an entire band stand up front. The music was not bad, but not super inviting to the spirit. We then sat down and they prayed, then we sang a ton more. They also passed out the offering tray and the pastor asked us to think about all the things Jesus gave to us this week and then give back to the Lord. We just sat there thinking... "hmm how does this go to the Lord when it goes in YOUR pocket?" After all Jesus wasn't paid, why should we be for the work we do for him? plus isn't that breaking the sabbath day? Any way then they had a guy give his testimony but it was really just a big long story about how he doesn't work on wall street any more. 

Overall it wasn't TOO bad, and it was actually pleasant because me and my companion realized how many people are searching for Jesus and Heavenly Father, and use to know more in their lives.  

After we went to bible study. We went with our friend so we ended up in a class of high school aged girls, similar to young women's. They read from 1st Timothy chapter one, and it was pretty good except the teacher kept talking about how we should really teach from the bible so that we are not teaching false doctrine, this was accompanied by looks in our direction.

We didn't say anything the whole time. We just read from our bibles(which were different then theirs) and listened to what they had to say.

After the class a lady (who happened to be the preachers wife) came up to me and began asking me tons of different questions. She was asking questions but apparently she really didn't want the answers because she wouldn't let me answer. It was so hard to keep my composure. She thinks its absurd that we don't believe in the trinity, yet couldn't answer my question about how Heavenly Father says this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased at Jesus's baptism if they were the same person. ????E?Eldskfjal;dksjf;lskdenlkn!L!LKJ:LK?

I don't understand! MAKES NO SENSE!

Also she never answered my question about why wouldn't we want more revelation from God? 

The words from 2nd Nephi chapter 29 (I believe, not quite a scriptorian yet) where it says something along the lines of A Bible! A Bible! We already have a bible and have no need for a bible. 

Any who me and my companion bore our testimonies and then they asked if they could pray ... basically pray for us.

So they asked for our first names. I said, "I go by Sister Chambers" She said no what is your first name, apparently she didn't hear me the first time, or I must have stuttered, so I said again, "I go by Sister Chambers" She paused then asked me why that was. I replied... "I am a representative of Jesus Christ, I'm not doing this for myself, this is not for my glory so I don't go by my first name."

The lady was shocked. So then she continued to pray for us, that we would be lead to the right, funny thing is that is a prayer that has already been answered! :)

Oh also in the prayer she addressed my companion by her first name and referred to me as "this lady" she wouldn't even recognize me as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That was probably the rudest thing that has happened to me so far. BUTTTTT... me and my companion wished them a lovely day and began to walk out of the building. They immediately rushed to the girl we were with and hugged her and  were talking to her, but then she left them and began walking with us. She  apologized to me for the preachers wife, which was sad that she felt like she had to do that because of her preachers wives behavior. Then she came to church with us :)

Any way!

We met a lovely lady this week who we will be having a lesson with on tomorrow. She opened up to us pretty quickly and began telling us all these stories about how so many of her family members have passed away recently, and how it's really hard and difficult for her to deal with. My companion gave her a picture of the Salt Lake temple and told her it is a place where we can feel closer to our family that has moved on, and how we can feel closer to God.

She seemed to have many questions about it but we had already talked to her for an hour so we told her we would talk about it at our meeting. I can't wait to go see her :)

Early on last week we went out to a small town that we can rarely go to because it takes SSSOOOO many miles to get there. We are now running kind of low on miles so we decided to walk around the town instead of driving, also this helps us have more visibility, and our mission president has asked us to spend more time out of our cars. 

So we walked, and walked and walked, and WALKED... 7 miles.

Then the next day we could NOT walk.

We ended up meeting a lady who we had a good hour long lesson with. She said she would love for us to come back so that she could convert us. THESE PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET IT!  I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

OH! 

LAST WEEK I SAW ALLIGATORS!!!

TONS!

I EVEN SAW ONE EAT A BIRD!!! 

IT WAS REAL LIFE!

CRAZY!

I can't show you pictures, however, because I left my camera and cord back at home :(

So I guess I should share some of the lessons that I have learned this week. 

I can't teach those who are not ready and will not harken unto the word. 

Also, investigators MUST understand the NEED for a RESTORATION vs a reformation. If they don't understand this one thing Nothing else will matter.

I don't know if I mentioned this recently but we learned about miracles and how miracles only come After you have done everything in your power! 

Sometimes other peoples agency is frustrating but it's really crucial to being on this Earth and stuff.

Well I guess in closing all good things come from God and this was a pretty good week so it must have come from God!

I have had a wonderful 2 months out on my mission so far and am excited to see what the next 16 of them bring! :)

I would love to hear more from all ya'll! most of ya'll are slacking on the e-mail and letter writing!

I hope all is well and ya'll can have some missionary experiences of your own! :)

Love ya'll!

Love,

Sister Chambers 

Trail Blaze ( week9)

So Me and my Companion (sister Atkinson) Trail Blaze a lot!

Trail Blazing: When one companion walks through a spider web and allows the other companion to walk through without walking into a spider web!

Basically I get the worst end of the deal, you see I'm a good 4 inches taller than sister Atkinson so even when she goes first I still get the tall ones that she misses. EVERYDAY you walk through a spider web, and then you become a really awesome ninja!

 I'm not sure what to write about this week!

We had two meetings this week. District meeting was on Tuesday (it's the smallest group of missionaries after a companionship.) Our district had 8 missionaries and now we have 12 missionaries including the zone leaders. On wednesday we had zone meeting, which is the next group of missionaries after district and there were about 40 missionaries there.

Our zone meeting was awesome!!

Any who, so if anyone is going to be baptized they have to have the desire to do so.

 this raises the question how can we help them develop the desire to be baptized...

We learned that as we teach of Jesus Christ their faith with increase. As their faith increases so will their desires to do God and Jesus will. As that happens they will be desirous to be baptized!

 AWEOSOME!

As we learn more about our Savior we become more desirous to do his will, and we realize that part of his will is to help other come unto him, so we do missionary work, and as we do missionary work we are blessed with more knowledge about our Savior. It's a perpetual cycle of wonderfulness!!!

I have realized that my mission is just preparation for the rest of my life. As my full time mission will come to an end one day I will begin my lifelong mission as a full time member missionary. I'm learning how to share the gospel so that I can do it in my everyday life and help build the Kingdom of Heaven!!

 I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!

Some pretty crazy things happened this week!

 We had a lesson this week with a guy we have been meeting with regularly now. His girlfriend and the mother of his two daughters is a member and he has been listening to us, but I think I have told you that before!

So we went over to their house to have dinner (love it when members feed us!) and have a powerhouse lesson. We planned to watch finding faith in christ and then talk about what the atonement meant to him personally. Before we could begin watching the movie his brother came over and was talking to us a little bit about his job and what not. Well our investigators walks in and his brother is in his chair and he starts to threaten him to get out of his chair. His brother doesn't listen to him like a normal little brother would so then he walks into his room and pulls out ... drum roll please... a pistol.

AAHHHAHHH.... Well lucky for us our investigator looks as tough as nails but is the biggest sweet heart you ever will meet. They joked around for a min. and then the brother finally moved and we began to watch a movie about Jesus Christ.

Then two days later we have another appointment with them (this was last night) So we are sitting down talking when their 5 year old girl heads to the kitchen to get something to eat. She sounds frightened a little bit and come back into the room to tell us there is a rat in the kitchen. YIKES... but we all thought she was joking or something so we send in the other sister. The next thing we hear is AAHHH it's swimming in the sink! At this point our investigator hops up and goes into the kitchen to find there is a field mouse, indeed swimming in their sink.

He gets the mouse out of the sink in a cup and puts a plate over it and proceeds to bring it in to show us... of course if you know me I'm wiggin out. Then he takes it and just lets it go outside on his front lawn. GROSS!

 SO I have decided that the children are pretty good at prayers here. I have two instances to support this one.

The first we were at a dinner appointment with members when they asked their 5 year old boy to say the prayer. In his prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for thunder, and lightning, jetts and fireworks. After we asked him if he liked those things and he gave us an adamant NO! in fact he hates them, but yet he is thankful for them...

Second we were at another dinner appointment and they asked their young son to bless the food, he then began to sing a protestant or methodist prayer. That was weird!

We met a girl on Saturday who is 19 and we had the whole first lesson, and she was asking really great questions! We talked to her for about an hour and a half and later committed her to be baptized in 4 weeks!!! :) in the very first lesson! AWESOME!

Love ya'll!

Love,

Sister Chambers

Southern Hospitality (week 8)

So this week has been pretty great but I have some items of business to get to!

1. P-day is tuesday because transfers are tomorrow.

2. You can send me letters now, I will be staying here another 6 weeks with my awesome companion!! :)

So Back to my week...

This week we were treated to many different and truly southern foods like...

Grits (not too bad with some sugar, like cream of wheat)

Corn Bread (YUM!)

Collard greens (yuck)

Fried okra

black eyed peas

fried green tomatoes

and...

ALLIGATOR!!!

Yup ladies and gentlemen I ate alligator. It's consistency was really chewy and it didn't taste much different then chicken, though I would not order it off a menu for a whole meal.

Now we didn't eat all this in one sitting. I think it was pretty interesting.

Another thing about the south is Mam and sir, everyone says it... "yes mam, no sir" so me and my companion are going to work on using it in our vocabulary more this week.

Funny stories so far...

so we go running in the mornings and one morning a guy on a bike almost ran me over, so I had to run in the grass. Remember how once I said that everyone and their dog has a dog? Well this became very evident when I stepped in something a dog leaves behind. 

Also that morning (or at least I think it was that morning) we were running when a football in the bush started running away. I was really surprised to see a football with legs and then it hit me that it was actually an armadillo.... they are weird.

Well I think I'm going to have a bad reputation here... One night we were eating at a members house, one of the little girls was telling me about a lizard with a blue tale. Someone already told us about those lizards, and we have even seen one! I got so excited and tried to recall what the lizard was called. I was also trying to beat my companion to the punch so out of my mouth popped the work SKANK ... I meant Skink... oh no... my companion tried to cover my mouth but it was too late, it was already out there. Luckily for me the youngest was 12 and everyone else thought it was pretty funny. I'm still dreading a phone call from the bishop or the mission president telling me that those words are not appropriate for our mission. :/ Woops!

Also I got asked if I was a nun... NOPE.

Well now on to the wonderful work...

We are teaching a guy named mike, his girlfriend was a less active... I think I mentioned him before. 

Any way...

After many prayers his girlfriend just got hired at the county health department, which is amazing because she can work more, make more, and doesn't have to  work on SUNDAYS!!! :) ( I never realized how much I appreciated things being closed on sundays until they weren't)

We were so excited for her, he was making fun of us for all being so excited though, he thought it was a coincidence, we knew better! :)

He is going to pray out loud this week. We have been meeting with him twice a week and is already understanding so much more! I really hope that he can realize how big of a blessing it would be for him to hold the priesthood.

Another miracle this week...

We got a referral to go and talk to an owner of a second hand store, so we did. We met with them and began talking, the lady told us her daughter had passed away two years ago and was still really having a rough time with that. She left us for a moment because she was embarassed to cry in front of us. During that time her husband confided that she has had suicidal thoughts but the only thing that has kept her from that is thinking God does not look lightly upon those who take their own lives. She came back, we talked some more, and gave her a plan of salvation pamplet along with a picture of the temple and told her we would love to talk to her some more about it. She said sure and gave us her phone number. Then she told us...
I almost joined your church a while ago...
 WHAT?!?! 

The only thing that held her back was smoking... me and my companion thought, "well if that's the only hang up that's no problem at all!" 

So hopefully this time God has really prepared her and she is ready to find the peace and happiness she is searching for in her life.

Ya know sometimes things are hard in life, or in missionary work, but Heavenly Father gives us trials so we can become stronger. I KNOW HE IS WATCHING OVER EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US!!

I hope that all of your weeks are going just splendid! :)

I love ya'll!

Love,

Sister Chambers

Walking is controlled Falling (week 7)

Not that I fell or anything this week, I just liked the perspective. 

Oh Goodness I'm not sure where to begin or what to say, everything is AWESOME!

I got 2 Packages!! Thanks Mom and Alisa!! :) I have had plenty of sugar this week ;)

A family took us out to dinner, guess where they took us! My favorite place... OLIVE GARDEN!!!

We were having a lovely time when look who shows up... the Elders. They are always crashing our dinner appointments, even when the family takes us out to a nice place, and guess what else, THEY BROUGHT SOMEONE WITH THEM!!! 

So at the beginning of the transfer our ward mission leader told me and my companion to "tract" into a specific house who's best friends are in the ward, so we did. They were really nice and we found out that the lady was almost baptized into the church when she was younger because her best friend was a member and she went to church with her many times and really liked it. Anyway, they were leaving on vacation so we were not able to see them for a while. Last week our ward mission leader prompted us to return, so on Thursday night we did. We came up with an awesome plan. She said she knew everything about the church and didn't want to be a member, so we asked her if we could "practice on her" because my companion may be leaving in the next week and I could possibly be on my own. She agreed and let us in! :) We found out what her real concerns with the church were and they were actually really unusual and different. We had to leave because of a relief society activity so we asked if we could come back and "practice" some more. She said sure and we set up an apt.

Later that night we get a phone call... From the Elders. Apparently the family who are the previous mentioned families friends in the ward showed the Elders where they lived and referred them to go and talk to them. Our ward mission leader on the other hand told them not to, that we were already going to be working with them. WELL... The Elders didn't listen and guess who showed up that same evening like right after we left. GAH! Now we all look silly, but they were rebuked. 

Moral of  the story... Listen to the line of authority, and the sisters are better at getting return appointments :)

Almost forgot we had ZONE CONFERENCE!

It was awesome!!! Our mission President talked about not being mediocre, that mediocre actually means to be half way up the mountain. So you are putting in some effort but you are not really giving it your all. He had us list things we are mediocre about and strive to do better. I felt really encouraged to give it more of my all! 

His wife is super awesome! She talked about how from the beginning of time Satan sought to destroy women. If you look back at history Women really only began to be "free" (in a sense) after the restoration of the gospel.

She also pointed out that Jesus spent a lot of time with women, they were even the first to see him after he was resurrected. 

She said as Women we can have it all, we can be rough and tough and then we can dress up and be pretty, she said we can have it all!

So now onto a MIRACLE!!!

I love hearing other peoples miracles in their missions but I just hadn't seen anything really huge yet, guess I needed a trial of my faith. Anyway we were planning one night and this one name kept sticking out to me, so I said to my companion hey we should see Brianna, she said, "yeah that name has just been stuck in my head for a while now."

So we knew we were supposed to be there. The next day we found where she lived and found out we had been in that area frequently the past week. We knocked on her door and she was the one who opened. Me and my companion were a bit in shock and stumbled over our words a ton! We were not sure what to say and ended up just telling her we felt like we were supposed to meet her. Eventually we navigated the conversation to the gospel and started talking to her about the Book of Mormon. 

Oh back up a little bit... We saw her name on a potential investigator list. Meaning Elders from about a year ago had met with her and thought she was not ready at the time but knew she would be in the future. 

Now back to where we were. She said it was really interesting the whole situation because she felt like a lot of people recently had approached her about reading the Book of Mormon. We were a bit stunned and asked some more questions. Apparently a Month ago she was shopping at a grocery store when a group of youth approached her with a mormon.org card and talked to her about reading the B.O.M. (I figure this was from the youth conference we participated in at the beginning of my mission) Anyway we talked a little bit more and found out that her mom actually reads from the B.O.M. ON A REGULAR BASIS!!!! 

THAT WAS IT! I WAS SPEECHLESS!!! 

Good thing my companion could pull herself together enough to get her number and plan to head out there this week. Oh and on top of all this we discovered that her mom travels a lot for work but will happen to be home this week!

GOD IS GOOD! I have seen the Lords hand in this work and KNOW that he truly is preparing his people to hear this gospel. 

So... life is awesome!

I'm also working with a part member family. The lady we began working with was less active but decided she needed the gospel back in her life. She lives with her boyfriend and their two kids, so now we are teaching him. Mostly we have been focusing on the priesthood and how he can actually hold the priesthood and bless his family. I think he really  likes that idea, but we will keep working with them!

There are two baptisms in our district this week and hopefully we can get some people to go with us! The stats say that 80% of people who attend a baptism end up being baptized! 

I would challenge all of you to do more missionary work! If we are not gathering we are scattering! 

Oh also I believe next week is Labor day on Monday, and transfers are going to be next Wednesday so that means a few things 

1. If you have letters to send me (which you all should!) send them early in the week it takes about 3-4 days for them to get to me and I want to have them before Wednesday in case I'm transferred. 

2. I will not be e-mailing next monday, but I WILL be e-mailing on TUESDAY! So now you know why you didn't get an e-mail.

Not sure if I will be transferred, or if I'm training, or what. The other sisters in our district already know they are both training...guess only time will tell.

I hope you all have great weeks and look for the Lords hands in your lives, because I know it's there!

Stay Awesome!

Love,

Sister Chambers

We are all Sinners (week 6)

So this lovely title comes from my companion... We were at the doorstep of one of the members neighbors. He was an older hispanic man and told us that he didn't know if he could go to our church on Sunday, that him and his wife were seniors and so they had to plan everything out. 

My companion thought he said sinners so she said oh it's ok, we are sinners too. Luckily he didn't understand what she said and I just picked up the conversation.

Apparently that day was just an off day... We were at a potential investigators house and three young children answered the door. Then an older man came and answered the door. I asked him if the three where his grandchildren... to which he replied no these are my children... GAH! (Insert foot in mouth) Good thing he didn't take it too personal!

We were teaching a lesson on a doorstep to a minister and we asked if we could leave her with a word of prayer. She said of course and axed me (people say that a ton down here and I am always nervous that there are mass murders going around) to offer the prayer. I began praying like normal, then to my utter surprise she was interrupting me and saying "yes Lord Jesus, Thank you Lord Jesus, AMEN Lord Jesus..." I was so startled! I was caught off guard and just tried my best to keep praying. Any who we left her with a B.O.M. and told her that it would help her understand the teachings of Jesus even more. We went back the next day and she told us it was not the bible... NO DUH, But I'm a missionary so I just politely told her two scriptures that she could compare and we are going back tomorrow to see how it went :) 

So hope you have some laughs from our misfortunes, because we sure do!!

This week I am grateful for back-up plans! So many people  cancelled their appointments with us, but we were still able to keep busy!

We are trying to get the members more excited to do missionary work, seeing as they are really more effective than us anyway. Some are dragging their feet, while others are planning wonderful things. This Friday we are going to a ladies home where she is hosting a concert for a less active member and inviting non-members to come. My companion keeps telling her I sing, she thinks it would be good if I sang a hymn or something, I'm not really sure if I am up to it, but guess we will see what happens. 

This week I have really experienced a RAINSTORM!!! In seconds you are drenched! Luckily people take pity on you and invite you under their garage or something, the perfect opportunity to get to know them a little bit and share the gospel!

Well my mind is going blank so I guess that is all for today! 

I hope that as all of you get back into the swing of school you can feel your Heavenly Father Strengthening you! 

I love you all!

Have a wonderful and splendid week!

Love,

Sister Chambers

LDS and wives moving company!‏ (week 5)

 This week we helped two people move... 

At one of the moves we had our entire district there and had the girl moved out and into a new apartment within two hours. She was amazed and super happy that she decided to give all of our Elders hugs... Their faces were priceless!! They all cringed. 

I always want to have a creative subject line when writing these e-mail. This week there were a few potentials...

Skrawberries,Skrimp, from down the Skreet, will set you Skraight.

apparently some people just throw in some k with their s's!

Ok so now I going to get to some stories from the week...

Last Sunday our car was making a horrible flapping noise. Once we got to church we tried to identify the source of the sound but to no avail! Then on Monday we saw that part of the splash guard was the source. Part of the plastic that is part of the tire wheel decided to come down. I could tuck it up inside enough that it wouldn't make the noise and off we went to the dealership after calling the Elder in charge of the cars. Once we got to the dealer we found out that someone had run over a curb and that was the cause to rip off the splash guard. We got an estimate and the Elder in charge approved for us to fix it tomorrow. So we were just driving around to our next appointment when it decided to come un-tucked and was dragging. People were looking at us like we were crazy, one guy even was pointing while his mouth was gaping open. We got to the end of the street and had to turn around. As we pulled a U turn the splash guard decided it no longer wanted to tag along and fell off. We took pictures with it! 

Also in one of our appointments my companion sat in a chair which then decided to break and she just fell to the floor. It was pretty comical, then we found out the chair was previously broken and it was not her love for ice cream that caused the incident.

Well now for some MIRACLES of the week!!!

3 BAPTISMS!!!!! Granted they grew up in the church, are 9, 10, and 10, and didn't really need the lessons we were still super excited for them!!! I especially loved when they received the Holy Ghost! 

Unfortunately my companion missed the actual baptism because we were on trade off's and the sister she was with had an investigator who was coming to the baptism. He just forgot to mention that his only mode of transportation was his scooter that could only travel at 20mph making the trip about as twice as long as usual. She did get there in time for the confirmation and to take pictures :) 

So we have what we like to call an eternagator. An investigator who has been investigating for a very long time!! Not only has she come to church and our Book of Mormon class we teach along with our appointments, BUT she is actually reading from the Book of Mormon which is awesome! AND we set up a baptismal calendar with her. She wrote down some steps that she can take to find out if the church is true by a certain date, and when she gets that confirmation she will be baptized on Sept. 29! I know its a long time away but we are making progress!!! It's hard to teach someone who thinks the Book of Mormon could be deception, we had to talk about how lightness and darkness could not co-exist and neither could Satan testify of Christ. Things are starting to click and she is really exercising her faith!! :)

One day we were dropped off at the front of our apartment complex. we were discussing some possibilities of what to do at the moment when a lady approached us and started asking questions about our scriptures and if we were women of God. We told her we were representatives of Jesus Christ. She then told us about her sister who was diagnosed with cancer and asked if we would pray for her. We said of course, got her number and asked if we could stop by some time to see her. She said sure. GUESS WHAT... SHE IS ITALIAN!!! Maybe she can teach me some more Italian! :) 

Also... WE GOT A NEW GATOR!! (which I have yet to see any real ones yet!)

She is 16 and super eager to learn. Her uncle is a member and she already knows a bunch. We have even set up a baptism date for Sept. 1st if she is able to come to church for the next three weeks! The only thing that would really hold her back is that her mom has to give her permission to be baptized so we are really praying for her!!! She is just awesome!

I have been told that our area is one of the roughest in our mission, so sometimes its kind of rough that we don't have as many people interested or any gators but I know that as I continue to work hard and help the people to the best of my abilities the Lord will bless me and up hold me!

We are half way through our transfer and everyone says I will be training next transfer. YIKES! pray for me!

I love you all, and I especially love to hear from you! Write me letters and e-mails so I can keep up with what is going on in your lives!! 

Spread the good word of God and look for opportunities to be missionaries in your everyday lives!!!! Member missionary work is way more effective and important then what I am doing out here!

Oh and people think I'm funny! :)

Love ya'll

Love,

Sister Chambers

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!