Elder Sam Chamberlin: April 2015

some of our boys after recieving there DOPE new hometeaching plans and routes. idk why but they wanted to look like prisoners or something haha. we got brother frame on the far left, then lukas, guitar, and gap.

the crew at the baptism

sister lek's family, not sure why the only pic i got of their family had sister leks daughter way out off on the side haha but yeah

sawasdii khraappp week some big #

hey family whats good whats good! rad miracles this week fasho

so to start it off sister lek (small) and sister gam (cheek) got baptized this last sunday. they are SO good! sister lek is literally the best investigator i've ever seen, especially coming from a non-christian background. her testimony she bore after her baptism was so pure and so powerful about the beginning of her new life. her daughter and son in law and their daughter (sister cartoon who didnt get baptized this week but will) made it to the baptismal service and it was just all way good, and organized, and im way stoked how it all turned out. sister gam also bore really good testimony about the commandments and how even though she doesnt understand fully whyy tea is in the word of wisdom- she gave it up and is willing to keep the commandments in order to follow christ, to recieve blessings. we saw alot of miracles with these two awesome investigators. sister lek was addicted to coffee, has drank it all her life, everyday, and when we taught her about the word of wisdom she dropped it. the next day we met with her and she told us about her raging headaches she had been having but how she prayed to ask God to take away all the pains and addicttions to have to drink it. The next day she said it was a little better but she still had a headache- the day after that she was completely okay. no pain, no addiction, just completely free from that with an even more increased faith and desire to follow God- shes so rad! hopefully we'll see her family follow her example into the waters of baptism as well. when we visited her the day before sunday to try and introduce her family to christ, and to make sure they knew they were invited to church- sister lek told us and her family this, that would just make any missonary burst with joy- something to the effect of "we are just 19 year old boys and dont neccessarily have the most knowledge in the world, when we teach her all she can do is accept it, love it, and believe all things we teach, because she knows that when we are speaking, its not really us, but it's God speaking directly to her heart." i think her family felt the power of her words- i know i did it was way intense!

another cool similar experience- a sister in our branch, sister amy, told me again that when elder kandun and i had gone to go visit her mom who is pretty ill, we gave her a blessing, sat and chatted for a while, and then when we left, her mom asked her if it was the Lord that had just came and blessed her. its experiences like these that honestly just cant compare with anything else, like no greater joy comes than through missionary work, and bringing God's children back unto Him!

theres a lot of fire in elder wright and I with our goals and with this work here in p-lok, this week was the most successful week ive seen out here in thailand in terms of just working way hard and smart, working with members to get them pumped and get out inviting people esp. their friends and families, and just seeing the Lord's hand in his work.

found some new families to teach this week which are way solid and progressing, and had some fun "calling people to repentance" in the act type experiences. after teaching "jew" the dad of this family, his sons were juts posted right at the front of the house probably in their 20s and drinking some alcohol of whatever sort and invited me in like to drink with them- in like a sincere way haha. i taught them the word of wisdom on the spot and commited them to take my challenge to see if their health really would improve, if God would bless them or not. unfortunately they were still drinking the next time we came to visit haha but atleast now they know- we'll see if they come around. same experience with a big group of kids that were just hanging out at a park smoking. i like coming up and speaking english to people first in these kinds of situations bc then immediately they already have like a respect for me for some reason haha bc they cant understand me and then when i just throw down in thai, they are normally just speechless and just look at their friends for what to do or say haha, but the invite to church and to quit smoking was given so yeah- i'll leave it to the Lord to do miracles with them.

one of our new investigators sister duhan is like way gnarly already. finding her was a miracle in the first place. her number and name were already in our phone, neither of us knew her, and so we figured she was a past investigator or something. so our first visit we sit down with her at her somtum restaurant and it is like way apparent that she had never met with missionaries before. she knew nothing about joseph smith, the book of mormon, or anything about our church or where it was. so how we got her number only God knows but way rad. we sit down with her and we see her bible that she has- that has been read and marked and worn front to back- so much so that the front cover was missing and she had made another one out of a cereal box. like ive never seen a bible so well used and marked- old testament to new. that short lesson we had with her she gave us 3 referrals of family and friends that she has that want to learn about jesus christ. hahah so rad.

i guess another funny experience i can remember was we had sister gam come to the church earlier in the week, and there were NO brothers or anyone that could help us teach. so we were stuck in the awkward situation of not being able to go into the church to teach her alone, and with the Lord's hand again fersure in the work, i decided to find a guy of the street that would be willing to come into the church and "help us teach" haha. walked across the street from the church, asked the first guy i saw if he had 20 minutes free and was willing to come just hangout in the church to help us with our dillemma, and he said yeah fersure. hahaha he didnt really become interested or anything but it was enough to get our lesson in with gam.

as for some less miraculous but just funny stories, sister cartoon's friend that came to one of our lessons earlier this week (her name is bell and is just the cutest most innocent looking 6 year old) was repping a dress that had pictures of weed and bob marley all over it. hahaha typical thailand- you would be way surprised some of the things people's shirts say. especially just like way normal nice looking mom type ladies. they dont know what the english means but if you have english on your shirt your cool so you find some pretty wierd stuff hahah.

we also ran into this white due from england that actually flagged us down and said "hey arent you guys mormons?" in his thick english accent and so we pulled over and talked to him and he told us he was mormon. he is way less active and hasnt come to church since he moved to thailand some 8 years ago- but i finnagled his number out of him and said we would come visit his wife (who he said is way gnarly buddhist) and then he invited us to his house party he is having next week haha. he said there is gonna be a ton of free food and booze and then added i know you dont drink alcohol but itll still be free anyways haha. so we might stop by to see if we can pick up some new investigators we'll see haha.

way good packed week- elder wright and i are loving it out here and have some lofty goals for this branch this month. the members are so awesome, and God is good. i love being a missionary and am grateful to have a part in bringing his children to the knowledge of Him. i love you family, miss you friends<3 i hope everyone is good and happy because life is so good and so happy, especially with the gospel at the center of it.

much love,

Elder Chamberlin

Goodbye Elder Kandun

Bro pii a rad member from gam-pang-phet

dinner with some members, it was way classy and the strawberry smoothie was dank. there was also this way good oreo shake guy in gam-pang and they were jstu 20 baht, like 60 cents. so dank.

sister duhey gettin baptized ayyye

Songkran
Celebrating with Water Fights

Final Goodbye to Elder Kandun

My New Companion is Elder Wright

i parted ways with the lovely elder kandun this week :-( he's a zone leader down in bangkok now- i love that little thai man and will miss him dearly.

so yeah im still out here grindin' p-lok and my new comp is elder wright from colorado. good guy and way stoked for this transfer, he's got a lot of drive and reminds me a little of elder dunnaway, my mtc comp, bc he's kinda stalky- kinda like jake loy ;)

so this week i went and stayed in gam-pang-phet for a couple days so kandun could ride down to transfers meeting with another elder moving as well. i unfortunately didnt get to go to transfers bc songkran (the crazy thai new year celebration) was going on and it is just chaos in bangkok so pres senior wanted as little people to have to go as possible. gam-pang was good- the members are way rad. i just love thai people i think im gonna live here. i was def missin my cute pink p-lok house tho so coming back on friday was like coming back from vacation.

super stoked because even though i wasn't in my actualy area for most of the week- when elder wright and i finally met up friday evening we went way hard, had like 4 lessons that night, saturday was super good, and then sunday as well and we came thru on our weekly goals which was a way rad miracle.

yesterday we went to visit brother hua's family- he is a member, his wife and kids aren't, yet ;) and so as we are getting there after the 15min or so bike ride, brother boy a member at church runs into us, we talk to him surprised to see him (bc he wasnt at church, and it was just random to run into him here) and ask him to help teach. He says he is just barely free from work or whatever he was doing before, and so helps us teach. This experience just shows that God's hand is in all things for real. because we walk in to teach this family right, and brother hua the father wasn't home yet and showed up like 45min late. if God didnt guide brother boy to us at the perfect timing- we would of showed up and not been able to go in the house and teach (and meet sister may, the wifes sister who is a new investigator). so that was a cool little miracle.

so our three baptisms for this sunday we moved back to next week- and im way stoked for that. sister small, and her grand-daughter cartoon are so excited, picked out hymns they liked this week, and we're trying to make baptismal services more of a special day for our investigators, like it is back in the states- so yeah way cool. sister cheek came to sister duhey's baptism yesterday and is way more confident and excited to get baptized next week, and sister duhey invited her 4 sisters to her baptism so that was rad. super good sunday.

we're also gettin home teaching pumped up this week and month and are gonna get this branch ward-ready so there is a lot of excitement in p-lok right now about the work. yeah way stoked to be here.

it's always way hard trying to remember all the little funny things that happen through the week so sorry- but its been a way fun adventure. love you all

elder chamberlin

oh yeah ps. i met the raddest new member in gam-pang-phet who is a chinese teacher here and so he gave me a bunch of chinese learning material to use to learn and some point in the future. learning thai is such a blast and that'd be rad to come home speaking thai and chinese- so we'll see how that goes. the chinese guy (brother jacob) was baptized in a waterfall, thought that was wayyyy rad- maybe have the opportunity to do that one day haha. alright much love fam<3

oh pss mom can you send me pictures of the family and like grandma grandpa, great grandparents, etc. for this little family history booklet thing of mine. thanks you the best<3

Pictures Galore...I'll come back with captions

Sukothai, Songkran, Quick Trip to Bangkok, and A New Companion this Transfer

Sukothai was so rad! check the pics, i felt like a monk for the day!

Other than the sore throat that was tryna cramp my style this week it was a week for the books fersure

Tuesday night Elder Chamberlin the greenie had to teach english class solo because the sister missionaries didnt get back from an appointment (in another city) on time, and of course kandun doesnt really speak english, but not to worry, hahaha my thai class learned some very valuable vocabulary that night.

Thursday night elder kandun and i hopped on a bus down to bangkok to go renew my visa. the ride down, aside from the bus running out of blankets and me not getting one haha, was okay. we got to bangkok at 3 am and just expecting i guess elder kandun to have a plan, we show up to bangkok with no where to go hahaha at 3 in the morning. fortunately some nearby elders answered our call for help and we got to sleep on their nice kitchen floor for the last 3 or so hours of the night. friday morning was a blast getting back together with all the MTC district group. hugging elder dunnaway was like hugging a brother. Ate some mexican food at que pasa to celebrate and then we were off returning to p-lok. fun little mini trip.

this week our numba one investigator has been sister little, and her grandaughter cartoon. they are literally just like thee golden investigators that anyone hopes to have. like alot of times when you follow up with people on their prayers, or scripture reading they will just say "yeah its pretty good, i feel good about it, etc" like pretty surface level whatever responses, but sister little is so rad and just loves talking about the peace that she has when she prays and how she is so grateful for the knowledge that she has a heavenly father that listens to and answers her prayers, or when she comes into the church- the peace she feels, or her love for reading the scriptures with her grandaughter, etc. SO RAD! they are getting baptized this sunday woo! and then sister cheek is also way good. i think all of our investigators really like conference this last weekend- i know i did.

general conference was way good! idk if it was just because im a missionary or what, or maybe i just wasnt as attentive as a kid haha, but it seemed like every talk was so powerful and had a good lesson to apply either to my life now, in the future, or to help an investigator.

i think my favorite speaker as usual was elder holland with his story of john and jimmie going rock climbing, one brother hanging on the cliff edge with no way to make that final move to safety and so he takes a jump for his life, and there is nothing there. he starts to slide thinking death is imminent, until the hands of his brother come and grasp his arms. life isnt just us hanging on the edge of a cliff waiting for our time to end, christ is there to save us, to bring us up to safety. he gives us hope and peace. ahhh so rad. he just speaks so powerfully its impossible not to feel the spirit when he speaks. you know that talk is going to get turned into a mormon message... president uchtdorf on grace was supppper good, and his talk about the potemkin village as well- took me back to my european history days. the many many talks about family, marriage, and fatherhood- also very good. i liked a quote from elder zeballos "man cannot be contempt with mediocricy once they know that excellency is within reach" and from Elder pearson who when he spoke reminded me of ben, "average is the enemy of excellence" and "hanging in there" isnt a principle of the gospel haha. but i think my favorite session was sat. afternoon- with elder ansersen talking about the indian chief that asked the doctor if he knew how to dance haha (super good message i liked it), elder renlund about being a latter day saint- a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying, and then elder ringwood speaking about his favorite book of mormon hero shiblon, which of course reminded me of you dad. took a lot out of conference this weekend and it gets me so excited to get the gen conference edition of the liahona hahha which is so funny to think. so much good stuff ill stop there and just invite the fam to watch/read a gen conference talk each week maybe for family home evening each monday. from elder Teixeira "how are we using technology to deepen our understanding of crhist?"

oh yeah big news: im staying in p-lok for the next 6 weeks ayyye and kandun is moving. ill miss that rascally little thai man companion- he is such a stud and im way grateful for all he has taught me and is still helping me learn.

Today, tomorrow, and the day after is songkran in thailand (thai new year) and everyone goes all out- thailand just got turned into like a giant water amusement park with everyone wearing there hawaiian shirts and water just getting thrown at you from everywhere haha idk way but the tradition is that its just a big 3day waterfight. and they really love seeing a "farang" (white boy) ride by on his bike so they can splash me its like double points or something... hahha forunately i made it to the internet cafe this morning with minimal damage.

i had a super cool study this morning in alma 5-8... and it is so cool to see the lord guide me whether its in my studies, in finding people to teach, in teaching, etc. because in my personal reading i read a chapter that is straight up perfect for one of our eternal investigators that has finally actually met with us the other day.

sunday was super cool, we went to visit brother guitar's family- and they live way up high in the mountains. there is like a little village of 8 houses and they are all family, cousins, etc. i thought that was way rad. did a little bit of service for them and then took off to our dinner party we had at sister nancy's house. super cool week, excited for this week, and am excited to see that baptismal font get filled this weekend too ayyyyye- gonna be getting a new comp too which is exciting so stay posted on that. yeah ill shoot some pics from this week and sukothai last monday- way good week.

love you fam, friends, love hearing from you all. i love being in thailand and i love serving the thai people they are so awesome i just love it. i am grateful for jesus christ and his atonement, super grateful for conference this last week, the messages shared, and the invitations to have christ have a bigger part in our life. i know this work is the lord's work!

your one and only,

Elder Chamberlin<3