Sam is now in Korat - I'm a Dad!

Hey whats up everyone sorry its been like over 2 weeks since i've talked to you all haha- no it has nothing to do with the bombing. Ahh these last two weeks have been so awesome it will be hard to try and write about it all. 

I'll just start with Holland from last Saturday and Sunday- he got fired up it was super good. All the missionaries in the mission, even from Laos and Myanmar came together for the meeting and it was sick having everyone together- people that I haven't seen for 4 months+ and what not. So we all shook Holland's hand before the meeting started, and he later told us that that was our "interview", and that when he shook our hand he was looking in our eyes to see into our souls. haha it was pretty intense, but his talk he gave was even more so. It was pretty much themed on "Don't Miss It" in reference to our short time on a mission, "No going back", "never walking away", etc. He talked about how his mission meant EVERYTHING to him, and he just couldn't imagine how a someone could go out and serve a mission for 2 years, and not be converted to the gospel, to the point where they could fall away afterwards. I was way happy he started getting fired up like he does in his talks if you nawmmsayin. He talked about how some missionaries will say that after there mission they are gonna adjust back to "real life", and then he raised his voice and was like "THIS IS REAL LIFE, capital R, capital L, this is as real as it gets!" He talked about how as missionaries we want our investigators to repent and change, and compared that to us and God, and how God wants US to repent and continue to change. How frustrating it can be when an investigator doesn't keep commitments and grow when they say they want to and will, and how God must feel that same frustration with us, but somehow in his perfection He is always there guiding and leading us forwards and upwards. There was a lot of good stuff, it was a solid pump up for the whole mission. He said one funny thing that reminded me of you dad haha, he was asking us if we thought that he would just be wasting and tiring his life away for a cause he didnt know was absolutely true. He said that old guys of his age, and the other apostles, should be somewhere out in palm springs with a nice lemonade in hand, kicking back and relaxing, and then he is like, "I didn't just fall off the turnip truck!" hahaha, typical big papa saying. It was way fun having him here, unfortunately i didn't get to drive him around, or hangout with him much, but it was way fun sitting right in front of him as he bore powerful testimony of the Savior- super cool weekend. 

So after all the Holland stuff was over, we had a lot of stuff getting ready for transfers, and that week is mostly a blur- but all of it in a short summary, I'm out of the office and now serving in Korat! I felt the responsability/mantle of the office come off, but now there's a new one haha. We white-washed into Korat, which means me and my companion both came in together and don't know the area. I'm also the DL for the first time which has been a sweet experience, and i'm training a new missionary, which makes me a dad. A dream com truee ayyyyyee! I told president, that if i could choose what i could be the rest of my mission it would be to train all day errday- and he came thru! I'm with the homie elder Joyem, he is thai and is the coolest kid ever. He is such a solid missionary. President said he has got some big expectations for Korat. We have a lot of exciting goals for the transfer as a district, and It is gonna be way fun. 

This transfer started off with a lot of nice little challenges to test us right off that bat- and it started with one of my bags disappearing right after trasnfers meeting. We were looking all over the church for it and after a few hours i decided to just go to Korat without any clothes so we could get there and sleep a little before we had to work the next day. So we grab a taxi and as we start loading up the taxi with our bikes and stuff the rain little just drops out of the sky like a blanket it was insane. So we were 100% soaking wet and trying to tie up our bikes on this taxi, we finally get everything in and squeeze in the taxi, and take off to thebus station, and then realize we forgot the wheels to our bikes, and the traffic was insaaaane so it took like 45 minutes to get back. The two sister missionaries in our district were already at the bus station and had bought us tickets for a bus to Korat, and we literally made it to the bus station just in time to walk onto the bus as it took off. We slept on the bus in our wet clothes haha which wasn't too comfortable. The first two days here i had two where the same G's and the same clothes. Fortunately it really didn't smell that bad, tender mercy. We got to the house and it literally looked like a tornado went through it haha. Our excercise the first morning was just cleaning, and we got together 5 huge black trash bags full of stuff. Needless to see the house is beautiful now, and im grateful for my house cleaning skills that always seem to come in handy out here.

Elder Josh Wolfley is no longer with us, he has died and gone home which is sad, but it was super fun serving with him. I think thats the biggest thing i miss from serving in Asoke is being with him, arne, and slabaugh, all such great guys. However, in Korat the ward is just awesome, literally our first sunday we just had members on members coming up to us telling us that they wanted us to go teach their friends- it is gonna be a good transfer ;) a lot of people recognized me as the guy on TV a while ago too somehow haha.

So as District Leader i interview the people in our district for baptism, and so i interviewed twice on saturday, for the first time, and im not gonna lie, i was pretty nervous and wanted to make sure it was an uplifting experience for the people i was interview, and they turned out way good. I love getting to sit down with the people and listening to them and their story, and testimony, and faith in Christ, its an awesome experience. 

I'll share a quick story about a cool family we taught this week, and whose son got baptized. We go to visit them on friday, and we had to have a member drive us out to there house way out in the boonies. The family is pretty much all members, except for a few. They have "family home evening" every night together, like the WHOLE family, where they come together and read the scriptures together, eat, and have a good time. They are way awesome. We were just going over some of the commandments for our investigator, B. Yo, and it was cool to hear the strong testimonies of everyone in the family. His dad had joined the church after quiting and overcoming different drug and alcohol addictions, which his son said "i never thought he would or could." and that is one thing that helped our investigator have a change of heart, until yesterday when he got baptized and shared his story and testimony of the change that occured in his life, very similar to his dad's. It was a day to rejoice. 

Korat is a beautiful little place out in the eastern section of Thailand. East Thailand is called the "Esan" and they speak like partly Lao language here which is pretty sick, it's almost the same as Thai, just a lot of extra sayings to learn. Korat is called the "Door to the Esan, or the Mouth of the Esan" something like that. Its sweet to be back in a smaller area, a big transition from Asoke for sure.

Well i have a lot of stuff to catch up on bc i didnt email last week- but i love you all. My pday is mondays from now on again. 

Jesus Christ lives and the church is true! I feel blessed with knowledge of his restored gospel. Okay much love friends and family, work hard this week, and remember the good stuff in life :) there is so many reasons to be happy

Love your boy,

Elder Chamberlin

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