Lots of Snow Today at the MTC
Today at the Provo Temple with my Companion
Some Pictures of Week 6
Elder Sam Chamberlin with Elder Regan
Sam Posing
Elder Bryson's Thai Name Tag
Week 6 -- The Week After Christmas -- December 29, 2014
whats up family and friends<3
Thanks to everyone for all the love and letters and packages it made this me feel not too far from home! It twas a very merry christmas!
This week was really good, especially Sunday for some reason was just amazing, but ill start from tuesday!
so tuesday i got megans fun little christmas package that had the Christmas video of the family in it (which scott accidentally already told me about haha sorry scott) but i put it in the computer and bc of all the restrictions on the computers here at the MTC i couldnt open it! so i was pretty upset about that, but then using all my wisdom and tricks i was able to figure out how to download the video to the computer (still couldn't open it) and then found a shortcut hotkey to open up the downloads, and then it miraculously worked. such a tender mercy<3 haha but really it was actually super cute and probably my favorite gift i loved seeing and hearing from you all!
so for Christmas eve we had a devotional which unfortunately i didnt write down who spoke or what it was about... haha... but i do remember my feelings and i felt good! so it was a good devotional! that night we watched a movie called "The Nativity" which was like a very real portrayal of Mary and Joseph as they were growing up and then all then there travels to Bethlehem and the actions of the wicked King Herod etc. and it was at first pretty wierd- i definitely didnt plan on seeing any births or circumsisions while i was on my mission but i was lucky enough to see both, so the movie was pretty wierd at times but overall it was actually super cool and eye opening to see all the struggles and persecution the Jews were going through and Mary and Joseph specifically what they had to deal with. anyways the movie made me even more grateful for everything the Christ did for us and how God has his hand in everything, even our trials. He loves us and he knows each of us, its so true!
Then Christmas Day! very highly anticipated and it was good, but i definitely was missing waking up with the family, the gift exchange, and all the fun traditions that we do each year for christmas. The MTC still took very good care of us though! We opened up all our presents under our fun little christmas tree in the morning (thank you everyone love you all<3 and my roomates all send their love and apprecation for you and say youre the best mom! i forgot to take a picture with all of us and our stockings, but i hope you still know and felel our love for you<3) I think the best part of christams was talking to the family, but it went so fast! 30 min felt like 5 haha and i guess we couldnt get to detailed in our discussion, but i did love hearing everyones voices! still cant remember the password dad, sorry ill keep thinkin. Second best part was having Elder Nelson one of our apostles come speak to us that night, and he talked about 9 of the doctrines of the gospel of jesus christ, from the godhead to prophets to tithing etc. one thing that really stuck out to me i thought was cool was he talked about how poverty is a generational cycle that is going to continue on forever unless somethign dramatic changes- and that change that will come is the blessings that come from tithing- so to not be shy or slow to mention tithing and the importance of it, even to places where money is such a big issue. Then that night we watched Ephraim's Rescue and it was super powerful, really solid choice. definitely a must see, and the ending was super powerful. It made me wonder if i would have enough faith to be able to trust the lord as much as Ephraim did in blessing and helping all those people in the Martin Handcart company. Along with that thought i watched "Joseph Smith- The Prophet of the Restoaration" movie and there were some similar experiences Joseph Smith had where he was able to give blessings to those who were sick or near death, and he was able to save them, but then his wife Emma said "Joseph how come you were able to help and save all those people and weren't able to save our child" right after their little child passed away- and joseph said something to the effect that "i can only do that which is God's Will" and i think thats super interesting and important to remember that we need to have faith in blessings and the power they have, but also faith and trust in God to know that he has a plan for every one of his children, and if this life was all there was that would seem pretty unfair, but its not, and God is a loving and just God, and so i guess just remember to trust in Him and His Will.
Friday was good and my classes were actually amazing. For some reason i had a super renewed desire to just learn thai 24/7 and so i made flashcards even though i hate flashcards and actually have been really enjoying using them wherever i am in my free time, and idk just been super pumped these last few days to learn and study hard. Saturday we taught some thai members in something called TRC which was a super success. it felt like it really was the first time i could communicate with them and teach without having to translate everything in my head, and it went super smooth, the spirit was strong.
But i think Sunday was the day that made the week SO GOOD and im not sure exactly why! Probably my favorite day in the MTC so far... Had a good priesthood meeting in the morning, and prepared a solid talk on faith for sacrament meeting which i didnt end up having to give which was nice, but i was actually kinda bummed about because it was so good haha (based off a little bit of Elder Hollands talk "Lord, I Believe" ) then had a nice temple walk in the snow which is fun but also has been making miss the beach, and then our devotional we got surprised with some guy name Richard Elliot (and at first im like alright whos this goofball) because David Archuleta was also there, and so needless to say all the Sisters and most of the Elders even were freaking out hahaha... So Richard Elliot started speaking and he is honestly one of the coolest most talented guys ever he is so legit! He plays organ for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is a convert to the church, and just had such a powerful testimony of the power of Music. He talked about how he was in a rockband when he was a teenager and how the music he played then helped people forget about their problems for a short time, but how at an early age he realized the power of music that he played at his christian denomenational church, becuase the music wouldnt help people forget about their problems, but actually face them and deal with them. He played a bunch of arrangements for us from some of his christmas specials he played in the MOTAB to hymns that he just made sound amazing and his feet were straight up going insane underneath that organ haha they put a camera down there so we could see him playing with his feet and it was legit. Then David Archuleta spoke for a little and he was surprisingly pretty nervous it seemed like for being such a famous performer. He talked about how he got off his mission of March this year from Chile and how near the end of his mission the Church asked him if he would record the "Glorious" song at the end of Meet the Mormons. His story was pretty cool but i feel like takes to long to write about, but he sang that song which was even better live, and he sang a bunch of other songs that were super powerful but i think the best one was when Richard Elliot played the organ and David sang to "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and ahhh it was SO crazy powerful. Like im not much of a cryer but i almost felt like Shelley Smith it was so good. ah at the end when he sang the last verse and the end "oh how we'll make this chorus swell" and of course he spiced it up a little bit and it was just so good. heres the lyrics to the whole song anyway but definitely try to find a version of David Archuleta singing it online it was so good.
Then on our way back to the residence there was this dope icey slide on the walkway right by the entrance to our residence so we had a good time sliding around on that, hopefully i didnt ruin my suit, but fortunately i wont really need it in thailand.
anyways i cant believe im off to thailand in 3 weeks now. its been a pretty crazy experience here but ive loved every minute of it! so stoked to meet president senior and to get to teach real people and help real people. Such an exciting work. sorry this letter is so long!- I know God lives and loves us, and that without his grace and mercy of sending his Son to atone for our sins we wouldnt be able to live with him again! Joseph Smith a prophet of God and i just wish everyone could know the truth of that! Life is so good! all hard things have an end and all of our joys and the things that bring us happiness, we can have for eternity! love you all have a great week! Happy new Years! 2015 yiewww!
Elder Chamberlin
Merry Christmas to Elder Sam Chamberlin
Megan made this Merry Christmas video for Elder Chamberlin. I tried to post it here, but I never got it right. We so enjoyed speaking to Sam on Christmas Day. I hope you were able to spend Christmas with your family and friends and those you love. Enjoy our wish for Sammy. Love, Mama C
http://vimeo.com/115410668
http://vimeo.com/115410668
Week 5 Yieww
hey family and friends<3
cant believe how fast time flies! basically already running the MTC.
for the christmas call momma its 3:15-5:15 utah time and i can call for 30 min somewhere in that time gap, and im pretty sure its just over the phone.
so glad its sounds like everyone is doing so good at home! and the christmas card is so cute, but my companion was a little butthurt he didnt make it on. I am very healthy and very warm although it started actually snowing for real this morning. sounds like zane's TNN career is really taking off with the launch of Zane's World, so i was pretty stoked to hear about that haha. i just got a package from Josh and Lauren i think this morning i havent opened it yet, and got Jed and Kelsie's announcement there getting married whaaaat so exciting! also got a letter from melissa and a little memory book from julie (thanks julie!)
as for the walkers- i dont remember them and i dont think she remembered me haha. Send some my love to everyone back at home for me momma<3
so this week lets see- tuesday night's devotional was from an Elder of the 70 from sweden and he was actually pretty funny. takeaway was that right now, on my mission, its like im at the Lord's university and i only get to be here 24 months, so make the best of my time, idk it was a cool analogy. Then we got our new Cantonese serving missionaries in on wednesday. A guy from sweden who is gonna be a homie for sure (he games), another guy from the phillipines, 7 sisters from australia, myanmar (in my mission) philipines, new zealand, england, and crazy places and then a guy from arizona haha. There all pretty sweet and it gets me stoked to go serve the people of asia becuase asian people are so cute and fun to be around! especially when they dont speak english very well but they love taking selfies with me haha...
So elder Dunnaway and i were struggling teaching at the beginning of this week because we felt like our lessons with our investigators (who are our teachers role playing as investigators they had taught in Thailand) just weren't really touching them and helping them to have the desire to come closer to Christ. after sitting down with one of our teachers and talking about how we could improve we realized that we needed to do a better job listening not just to the investigator when we teach, but we need to listen to our companion and be guided by the spirit more in our lessons rather than just teaching what we had prepared (which is a lot harder when its in another language for sure). so we were struggling with one of our investigators nohng who was having a hard time keeping commitments and reading out of the scriptures on his own (especially because he said it was hard to understand.) long story short i guess we went in there with less of a structured plan of our lesson, and really just tried to listen to him and discern his needs. Something we read from preach my gospel that Elder Holland talking about how important it is to LISTEN and he said, "More important than speaking is listening. These people are not lifeless objects disguised as a baptismal statistic. They are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and they need what we have. Be genuine.Reach out sincerely. Ask these friends what matters most to them. What do they cherish, and what do they hold dear? And then listen. If the setting is right, you might ask what their fears are, what they yearn for, or what they feel is missing in their lives. I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more. … If we listen with love, we won’t need to wonder what to say. It will be given tous—by the Spirit and by our friends"
it was the firs lessons where even though we were talking in Thai, i could really feel the spirit, and feel God's love not just for me, but for nohng so strongly as well. It was super cool.
friday was our halfway point in the MTC so we had a little celebration that night- i might have some pictures it was quite the party.
i guess my favorite part about the week though was how much my companion and i have grown together. in our companion inventory (where we sit down and talk about our strengths, weaknesses, what we could work on to teach with more unity, etc, and what annoys us about eachother so we can work things out) we talked about how i feel like with all of my bestfriends theres times when you fight especially when youre together for like a full week together, and how surprising it is that we havent had any serious fights, and i guess i realized how close and how much stronger your relationships are with other people when the relationship is built on christ. When everyday youre striving to find ways to love them and serve them, and serve with them, and trying to learn and study together for the benefit of people who don't know anything about jesus christ, you grow bonds so much stronger than just friendships. So that has been really cool to see this week.
Our district's focus this week is on charity- and so it makes me so grateful for Our Savior and all that he did to love and car for others. So much joy can come from trying our best to be like him. I love what one of the missionaries said the other day that "a lot of joy comes from receiving gifts, but its even better giving gifts" which is so true. I love missionary work its the best job in the world!
Lastly to leave you all with a commitment watch Elder Hollands mormon message titled "Testimony of the Book of Mormon" heres the link for the people who, i guess have trouble finding things on the internet haha
its super powerful and super true.
Remember this christmas the feelings that we feel and the love we feel for christ! we learned that how we feel is so much more important than what we here or see this week. The holy ghost works through feelings, and i know how much love we can feel for the savior and for those around us as we focus on him this season!
Merry Christmas and i love you guys! I am doing super good and i love p-days bc i love hearing and writing all of you! Have an awesome week and share the gift this season!
Elder Chamberlin
P.S. im starting to get a pretty white tan line which is pretty sad, but im gonna embrace it as a badge of hard work haha...
P.P.S. Mom will you send me these things Elder Shipp told me about- called Doterra Beads or something? there like these little minty beads that come in a vial and there basically amazing. thank you love you! also look for me on TV i think the MTC christmas devotional is broadcasted and my companion made me join the choir so yeah. ill be in the bass section bc you know how good and deep my voice is haha love you!
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