June 19, 2015 Month 7 Week 1

what up crew! i love you guys so much.

this week has been capital D, Dope! it's been really really good. If you have seen the video that the Thailand Bangkok Mission made like right as i was leaving to the MTC in novemeber called "Bovember 2" or "Why we do what we do" something like that, that's basically what i'm doing. i watch the video to get pumped up and then go invite and Terminal 21, a giant mall place. elder wolfley got some way sick footage of us inviting haha, so who knows we might be premiering in a new Thailand Bangkok Mission facebook video. it's way sick working and serving in the heart of bangkok i love it. 

I had a switch off with our Zone Leaders this last thursday and we had like a 5 hour block of just straight inviting at terminal, my mouth was literally so dry, and my voice was nearly gone, i felt like i had been at some amusement park all day- but it yielded so much results! first cool miracle of the long invite sesh of inviting people to cleanse their sins was this one girl about 22 yrs old that came up to me out of the huge crowd, grabbed my invite card out of my hand, and so i asked her if she wanted to be clean from sin, she nodded yeah, then i asked her if she wanted to go to church sunday to learn how christ can help us change, she said yeah, and then she is like "can we meet tomorrow? i want to bring my sister too" of course i said yes, we met the next day and these two sisters (one with a 2 yr. baby boy) and now they are preparing for baptism on the 5th of july. they are both soo good. and i love seeing God prepare the way for me to find those of his children that are just so ready to follow Him, and change their lives, and see the blessings that come from it. 

It has been good- we have a lot of people that we are teaching right now, in comparison to how it was when i first got here (no one) and we've got 4 people with dates to get baptized these next couple weeks. Seeing the joy of our investigators just makes everything worth it- even the middle fingers from angry white people that don't like us inviting people to learn about jesus christ haha. we've made some pretty good friends that see us all the time at terminal 21 :) 

Elder squire is a great dude, funny guy. We just had a little family from st george that is here traveling around thailand- they walk into the mission office, so sorry thats why im emailing so late. 

I think favorite part of teaching is when we are sitting down with these thai people, and when you bear testimony of things that you know are true, and things that will benefit their lives forever, and then you see it just sink into their heart, and you seek the sincerity in these peoples eyes, theres just nothing better- its the coolest best feeling in the world feeling the spirit as you teach, and seeing those you teach feel it as well. this gospel is so true! 

yesterday we were out inviting, and there was this one thai kid about 20 who called me over and spoke perfect english, he asked if he could ask me a couple questions. so i started talking to him and he reminded me soooo much of my boi blake (miss you man). he asked us why we are missionaries, what we are doing here, what church do we belong to, and then one question led to the next and i ended up teaching him in like 45min to an hour everything there is to teach from the restoration of the gospel, to the plan of salvation, to the gospel of jesus christ, to law of chastity and word of wisdom and why commandents are so important and so sweet, to temples and eternal families, to prayer and why we pray, to how mormons feel about science, and what we think about homosexuality, to what God looks like haha. But this dude was just so sincere and wanted to know this deeper more profound questions to life. And it was kinda the first time i was able to realize how much i've grown since leaving on my mission, or maybe just how much more i can feel the spirit guide me, because there were just so many dope comparisons, and stories, and parallels, and answers that came to my mind as i was teaching him all this stuff. idk it was an interesting experience, he thanked me for having the deepest talk with anyone hes ever had in his life. hahah it was way sick and it reminded me of all those late night talks in the jacuzzi back in the days with my boys. anyways im praying for him to come thru and get baptized we'll see if he makes it to church this sunday though first. 

I also met a couple from germany (a thai husband with a german wife) i got to use my little bit of german that i remember (which is just i love you hahaha) they thought it was pretty funny but they were interested enough in what we were doing and who were to learn more about christ, but they said they were going home to germany the next day. i told them not to worry i got a homie out in germany who im sure would be happy to meet with them (i got you elder clarke ;) ) and so that was sick sending a referral over to germany. 

this week our AP's Arne and Wolfley have been all over thailand with president for zone conferences so they've been missed, and the house at night has been quiet. It's just been me and squire holding down the fort. 

Last thought, i met a sick black guy from england the other night, and he wasn't too interested about christ, but he was just a way solid dude- i met him as he was buying an umbrella at 7/11. as he was heading out, they didnt know how to tell the taxi driver where their hotel was, so i helped them out a bit, talked to the cab guy, and then as they were leaving he was way thankful, and was like "cheers mate!" i thought it was way sick and decided im gonna start saying it.

Or there was also one other way cool inviting miracle of a girl coming up to me and asking me if i knew how to become christian. like she said she is buddhist but has been going to a christian church for a long time now, she wants to be christian but just doesnt know you make that change. with a big smile, i intro-ed baptism ;) lots of sweet miracles this week- a lot in inviting. i have grown an even greater testimony of the importance of just getting out and "being with the people". even if the people you invite seem like they are ALL uninterested, every 1 out of 100 or so you just see miracles happen i love it. and God just places people in your path to meet you. I love seeing people change their lives, and seeing the crazy amount of peace and joy, comfort and hope that just comes into their countenance as they learn to follow, and learn to become more like our savior. MISSIONARY WORK YEAH! so dope! alright well, thats most of the good stuff from the week. love you and miss you all- Cheers!

elder chamberlin

June 12, Live Reporting From Bangkok

Live reporting from Bangkok- i made headline channel 3 news here in thailand this week haha

It's been another great week, i love it here so much! 

So biggest thing that happened this week i guess was becoming a thai internet sensation for the past couple days by the way i crossed a flooded street next to our apartment haha. sounds like most of you guys have heard about it so yeah- the articles on it are pretty funny. The members like to call me superstar which in thai just sounds like sup-staaa haha good times. 

Anyways this week has been filled with some great stuff! Second sickest thing that happened this week- I got my License ayyyye! so i drove for the first time in 7 months the other day, and also rode my bike in bangkok for the first time which was just a blast. the whole experience of getting the license was way funny though- so i went on splits with our AP Elder Wolfley because he had to renew his as well. we end up getting to the place at 2:55 and talk with the lady at the front desk and she is like- "we close at 3:30, you still need to go get a physical, and make copies of passport,license, etc. etc. and there is no way you can do it all in time" and it takes a while to get to this place from where we live, and so we determine to race and try to get it done, we didnt really have another free day we could come back and do it the next few weeks. so we run outside, find a taxi, and tell him he has to book it to the nearest doctor so we can get a physical, and get us back here ASAP, and he like gets all way serious and starts mobbin, as he is breaking down minute by minute how we are gonna do this haha. so we get to the doctor right nearby and its closed, but not to worry our taxi guy had it all mapped out and got us to another guy, travel time was about 3 minutes haha. we run into the small little clinic (our taxi said he was gonna pull around and wait for us across the street) and we tell the old doctor man that we need our physicals and are in a bit of a hurry. he starts filling out some papers and then our physical exam consisted of the following: Him holding up a green marker and a red marker and he asked what colors they were, then asked us how are health was, we answered "good" and he signed and stamped the papers and we were set to go in like 5 minutes haha. our taxi guy mobs us back to the License place, we were able to make copies right downstairs, then got back up to talk to the lady by like 3:15ish and they rushed us through all the driving tests and what not because everyone wanted to go home and we were the last people haha. lots of funny little stories within this one but by the end of it everything worked out, and now im legal on the streets of Thailand woo! 

We took out the bikes for the first time this week as well and that has been a blast. there was a moment i felt like i was in the movie "I am Legend" when all the cars are just abandoned on the streets because the traffic was so bad for this way long road, like no cars moving anywhere in sight, and me and my comp are just mobbing and weaving thru gaps in the traffic. We have had a big focus on inviting this week as the investigators in this area are pretty slim right now, and we have seen some miracles come of our hard work. we found tons of interested people, but we'll see if the come to church this sunday or not. 

Zone conference this week with the Bangkok West zone. Pres. senior is a boss as usual and it was his last one, so that was pretty sad, itll be hard to see him go he's done so much good here the past 3 years. The theme in zone conference was Hope. Lots of good stuff of how Faith, Hope, and Charity are related, and how they should apply to our goals and our vision. So much good stuff, dont even know where to start to share, but yeah it was way good. 

In studies this morning i read some stuff in Helaman that i really liked so i'll share it:

Out of Helaman 14: 

8 And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life.

...

13 And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits.

and so i liked the emphasis on repentance- because having faith isn't just saying you believe- but the gospel of jesus christ is to change us and help us become like him. I focused my studies on Repentance. Repenting is such a rad thing- and its not just praying and asking for forgiveness for mistakes, but its a process that change us and who we are. good stuff. this morning im in a bit of a hurry, finna go get a suit cut today with some saaweeet fabric i picked up last saturday. i will be looking very sharp on sundays. love you fam<3

Elder Chamberlin

P.S. momma can you send the gopro? we are gonna be making videos for the mission, and yeah it should be safe to send it just tape it up real good with some protective stuff around it. <3  

The Office Lyfe - June 5, 2015

whatsup family and friends alike!

Im still out here on that Bangkok grind, its way fun and i'm loving it. Elder Squire (just Sky if your thai) is a way good comp, and our APs Arne and Wolfley are bosses as well, so needless to say we are tearing it up in the heart of bangkok right now. 

One thing thats way different being here is meetings that we literally have every day. And we get pretty tight with all the people working here in the church office which is sick. 

President Senior gave us some nice counsel that got me pumped up this week- he was telling us that we basically need to be the best missionaries in the mission by the example we set, and on top of that get all the work done that needs to be done in the office. Like just because we have a lot of other stuff going on we still need to be looking out for the people in our area. to compare it to school, its almost like now volleyball season just started, and you would think since i have practice and games and stuff i wouldnt have as much time to do hw, study, etc. and so thus my grades would go down, but for some reason i would actually do even better in school during the season, because i had to learn how to use all my time wiser. its pretty similar here, how now in order to get our 2 hours of inviting in each day, we just spend extra time going anywhere to talk to everrrryyyyonne, which i like- had a cool miracle the other day. so we are walking from the mission office over to the church which is just like a 5 minute walk, and missionaries have walked this path probably a billion times and im sure the people that walk it are similar each day, but anyways there is just mobs of people walking down the sidewalk, and so you have 1 second to try and get people interested about going to church. and so as im going inviting as many people as my mouth has the speed to speak, i had a thought of doubt "i wonder if anyone has actually stopped and been sincerely interested by inviting in this way" just becuase its all so quick, and theres so many people walking its like hard to get out of the flow of traffic to stop and talk anyways. so i have this thought and literally the next person i invited was a mom with her 2 kids about 12 and 14 maybe, and to my surprise she was like, "yeah, my friend is christian... we do want to go and learn, where is your church?" A family! so rad just to see God straight up be like "yes elder chamberlin you do need to talk to every single person" idk cool experience. 

we've been slowly but surely picking up some good investigators. 

some other fun things that happened this week, which feels like forever ago-

we went to a dinner appointment with this family actually from nepal, they came over here after the earthquake just over a month ago. they are the coolest family with the two boys preparing to go on missions soon- and the food was wayyy good. 

favorite part of the week is brother off. he is this member who is about to go on a mission to ogden, utah, and leaves in about a month and a half. but right now he is doing like a mini-mission thing and so he was staying with us this last week. he is this small little guy (whos actually 20) from phuket. I want on splits to go inviting and teaching with him alot this week, and just fell in love with this kid he is gonna be such a good missionary. We got to be way close this last week- i just love thai people man. he speaks english way well, and is just so funny, and i dont even know how to explain all our funny experiences with him. but he is actually gonna go be companions in a 3-some in east thailand for the next transfer, so he will be very missed in our home. 

we had some good lessons, and have 3 people lookin to that baptismal font in the next 2 weeks. Bangkok is way hot like pitsanulok, but the ward here is wayy good. 

one super cool member i've gotten way close with is actually Elder Clarke's convert when he was here about 8 months ago- Brother ต้อง (dong) he is way tight. we threw a sweet birthday party dinner for him and a bunch of members on tuesday, and it was a good bonding expereince for us all :)

i feel like so much has happened and i just don't even know where to start, so ill just stop haha. i love you all and i know this gospel is true! Jesus Christ lives and his influence in our life is so real, every single day. One thing i really liked from my studies the last couple days came from the "4th Missionary" talk i forgot who gave it. But basically he was talking about how we determine our success (talking towards missionary work, but it applies in all things). And threw the scripture out, where jesus told his disciples... actually im just gonna copy paste the quote from the talk:

"The Fourth Missionary does not so aspire to become a "great" missionary; rather he aspires to be a "servant". He knows that "greatness" implies his performance in relation to others. He knows that the critical measure is his conduct in relation to his own abilities and in comparison to his past performance. While he fully understands and does not resent the need for statistics, numbers and measurements, he is not motivated by the praise or recognition of men. He is motivated by hisdesire to give himself and all that he is and has, to the Lord and to his work, however, that may compare with others. He knows that Jesus taught his disciples who at times aspired to the honors of men, that "whosoever will be great among you...shall be servant of all." He said: "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."(Mark 10:43-44)."

so remember to be like christ this week. i love you ทุกๆ คน (everyone). 

Elder Chamberlin<3