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

Bangkok or Bust - With Elder Squire at the Wax Museum

what up fam we got some big changes this week-

so after a way good p-day of exploring with the crew last monday, on tuesday we were getting ready to start district meeting and president senior called us at like 12 in the afternoon. he's like "hey so whats goin on over there?" "how quickly can you get down to bangkok?" "well, get on down here i want you to be here for the new missionaries coming in tonight. are you willing to work in the office with us for the next couple transfers?" so we had about an hour to rush home, pack everything, and make it back to the bus station to make it to bangkok in time. it was pretty exciting, and pretty sad at the same time. the members were planning this big activity on wednesday night to say goodbye and the what not, and so i called them to let them know i was leaving in an hour and they all just rushed out of school to make it to the bus station in time to say goodbye, and it was literally like a movie. our bus showed up, and i was trying to stall it because one of the members was there and was saying that everyone was coming, and then the bus guy was like yo we gotta go, and im trying to stall a little more, and then the bus starts rolling and so i hop on, and right as i get on, i see members on their motorbike things cruising around the corner chasing down the bus hahah, when they eventually catch up it was like them in slow-mo outside the bus as i watched them through the bus window. there was a lot of people i didnt even get a chance to say goodbye to, but yeah so thats what happened. i love them so much they are the best kids ever, im gonna miss them a lot. saddest part of the story is that brother chuu, one of my wayyyyy good investigators had a baptismal date for this sunday, but moved it forward to tuesday, so that i would be there to baptize him, and then i ended up leaving the morning of the baptism. elder wright and i have 4 people getting baptized this sunday, so hopefully ill get the pics and ill send those over. btw elder wright is training a new missionary in p-lok now, so good stuff.

so we get down to bangkok and the first two days here were just crazy busy with getting stuff ready for transfers, getting the new missionaries from the airport, getting the dying missionaries off to the airport, etc etc and so we got up at like 3 the other morning, and werent able to go to bed until like 1ish the night before. it was nice to have a normal night of sleep last night, and i think stuff is gonna start to cool down a little bit with transfers come and gone. Transfers meeting was soooo good its ridiculous. since it was pres. seniors last one, there was just a lot of good stuff idk, an emotional meeting for sure. also something funny- all the dying missionaries stay at our house here for the last couple days, and so i was talking with this one elder, elder vance, and i couldve sworn i had met him before or knew him somehow, and then just gave up and decided he just looked a lot like ryan roche, and then turns out his family came to pick him up and were there at transfers, and the vance family is way tight with the roches, and i know his little sister, sierra, who came so that was way cool. 

yeah so im posted up in the office elder life now i guess- which isnt too much different, but heres some changes: 

im gonna get my license this next week and will be driving our fat vans around in the chaos of bangkok haha

i was gonna list stuff off but i honestly don't really know haha. i think we send out mail and stuff, we help pick up new missionaries and send off the dying ones, we do a couple special reports each week, and enter in baptismal records and what not into the system. the coolest part will be working close with pres senior for the next month or so before he heads home, and then ushering in our new president, president johnson. but yeah other than that im still on that good grind of inviting, teaching, and baptizing. these last couple days in bangkok it is just so much more fun to invite, the amount of people everywhere you go is just ridiculous. you spend a second inviting someone and if they dont want to cleanse their sins, have a happier family, or learn about jesus, etc, then yeah theres only thousand of other people right behind them to invite. so thats a change. bangkok traffic sucks so driving places takes forever. food is way more expensive too. and the skyscraper city life is a pretty sweet change from my humble birthplace of phitsanulok.

so my new companion is elder squire. a nice fellow from nephi utah. he's a little less of a "get out and grind" guy and more of a "do things around the office" kinda guy, but he is a solid, smart dude. im excited to see the miracles that go down this transfer in Asoke. thats my area btw, Asoke, Bangkok west. we have a ward building which is way sweet, and there a huge thai branch that has about 120 people come to church on average, and a foreign branch as well. 

we livin with the assistants to the pres, who are way tight. missions are great things. i love you all, and miss you dearly. i got some wonderful packages at transfers- thanks mom and julie you are the best<3  

elder chamberlin

a shot someone got in the process of the making of our bands music video

some sick place we went to on monday for my final harrah in p-lok<3

Cool Waterfalls

the sun setting on my last day <3

sister lek, my pride and joy - our final goodybye it got pretty sentimental

Mission Office with my new companion, Elder Squire

From missionary, to homeless, to marriage counselor, to bouncer, to cripple‏

Yo fam whats good! elder wright and i are just not able to have a normal week for real haha its nuts. 

after emailing last monday i finally got a nice haricut, it looks very sharp. here in thailand they are way boss haricutters and use these gnarly just straight razor blades to shave the sides and what not, trim your nose hairs, and give you a nice washcloth to the face. all for the generous price of $2. so that was good this week. monday night we met up with one of the way golden investigators we picked up last week named bay. he came to the soccer activity but when he showed up he was not dressed for the occasion, and im like are you playing or what? and he said he actually was just more interested in learning about jesus that night- ahhhhh yeaaaahh. solid lessons with him this week- good kid, i hope to see him entering those waters of baptism in the very near future. 

all in all this week was way good with lessons, with a baptism this last sunday, and with 6 baptisms lined up for this week- all way solid people so we'll see what happens. 

the missionary life to a little twist tuesday night when we came back to our house on a rainy stormy night, and our electricity was out. all the other houses next to us seemed to be fine, and then we noticed that the electric company came and cut our wire connection for electricity or whatever- and it was pouring so i wasn't tryna risk climbing up a sketchy ladder in the pouring rain to try and see if we can take off the tape and plug it back in. we found out there was actually a way old bill that never got payed and thats why they cut our cord. we got a notice about it a few days back but didnt really understand it and just threw it off to the side haha. lesson learned i guess. so the house was BLAZING hot because we had no air. elder wright was straight "sweating like a dog" and i proposed we just try to sleep through the night whatever, it'll just be like a hot night out at lake powell. but as a laid down and closed my eyes for a good 20 minutes or so i woke up literally just sweating from every pore and laying in a little pool- hahah there was no way we were staying and elder wright was already on the phone with the ZL's to get permission to go sleep at the church. yeah so thats what we did. not gonna lie the couch cushions from the church were probably more comfortable than my bed cushion haha. so that was a fun night of being homeless. 

i think i dropped my first investigator this week that i was genuinely pretty upset/dissapointed about because i had such high hopes for this guy and his faith. my boy brother watermelon. but it just wasnt his time i suppose.

i also became a marriage counselor this week. our investigator chuu came in to the church friday night just like way sad and down and couldnt focus on anything in our lesson. turns out he was way stressed about some stuff going on with him and his girlfriend (sister gate who just got baptized this sunday), because of some drama stuff. theres lots of love drama in thailand. anyways, elder wright and i decide we cant continue teaching him like this, and decided just to invite them both into the same room (sister gate was already at the church) and talk it out. haha it was pretty funny at first, but we let chuu vent his feelings, and then sister gate, and then i mention some good mama C advice of repent a little, and forgive alot, something like that. long story short elder wright and i just nailed this lesson with them without even talking about the original issue of some text message. i pulled up a picture of josh and lauren and there cute little family out front of the church all of them just smiling and so happy, and talked about God's plan for each of us his children. we helped him really grasp onto and understand this vision of having a happy eternal family, which is foundation-ed on the gospel of christ. chuu couldnt help but smile and say how happy he felt as i scrolled through other pictures of my super cute nephews. no matter how are family is or was, we helped chuu understand that he literally had the power to decide what his family was going to be like, and no matter who its with (god knows) he can have a happy eternal family. way good lesson- and we couldnt help but feel like brother chuu walked away from that lesson being set for life, even past baptism. his conviction and testimony is so strong of what he knows will bring him true happiness. such a good kid. 

as for sunday- way good day not much crazy to say other than the branch is doing good and continuing to grow together. i love being here to see them come together to help pitsanulok grow in the truth and joy of the gospel! anyways after all the activities of the day and what not we were at the church with a couple members and other people. a little messing around got a little too serious between two of the kids, and wright and i stepped in to seperate it. one thing led to another and i walked away with a little bit of an injury... lets just say i look like a cartoon from the simpsons. however im healthy, im good, and all is well!

We also started the translation of Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie sunday night to get thai subtitles. it's looking way good. alright love you fam! pray and read the scriptures- those are the two best things we can do everyday to have a happy life! much love, i love this work, and feel so blessed. thailand wooo!

elder chamberlin<3

            my investigator chuu whom i love with all my heart. he is gonna be a stud leader in the future. 

sister cartoon and bro garfield. they are the cutest and are very good at reminding me of my cute little kids i miss at home

                                                                                      another pic with chuu

                                                   and then after that brother frame wanted a pic hahah

                                                 a drawing that the very talented sister mew drew for me. 

                                              and then dont be worried i just thought the pictures were too funny not to send-                             

                                                                      heres the incident for the week haha.

Bathing the Elephants -- Working to Make a Ward

alright so heres the backdrop for the week: we set a goal at the beginning of the transfer to have 100 people come to church on sunday. average is around 50-60. we worked hard, and we prayed even harder. we literally had every member involved in trying to get this goal to happen. we had all of our home teachers praying for the goal, and telling their families about the goal. And then having them invite others to help us reach the goal, in helping this branch become a ward. (the branch needs 80 people to come to church consistently for 6 months or something like that in order to get a ward building. so thats been our goal. baptisms and rescues. a hundred people at church. 

last week we were at about 65, and we had a big dissapointment of having every investigator not show up. We worked way harder this week, and honestly i was startign to feel like "okay maybe not 100 but atleast we can get 80 people to church." but i still kept praying that we could get 100. now let me relate in a scripture from the book of mormon, the words of the prophet moroni: 

"27 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?

 28 For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.

 29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.

...

 35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

 36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

 37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith thatmiracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because ofunbelief, and all is vain."

an answer to our prayers for sure- having 110 people come to church yesterday- we didnt have enough chairs for everyone, we didnt even have enough room for everyone to stand- elder wright and i had to sit on the stairs and just listen to sacrament. it was a way good day for everyone and an experience ill never forget- but of course there is still a lot of work to do.

so some cool experience this week- 

1. so we were inviting in front of the church with some free time in between lessons, elder wright was inviting (i taught him the dance) and i was rolling calls trying to set up some appointments. i decide to go dance and invite with him for a bit, and one of the first motorcycles driving by starts to slow down a bit as if they might be a little interested, but they are too scared to talk to a white boy. so i run after them, my jesus inviting card out in hand, and get them to stop and talk. haha she was signaled to her other friend to stop to, and after hearing my spiel, she said she had free time right then, and so i invited them into the church, and taught these 3 people right there. we had a member at the church just hanging out to so to make it better it was a lesson with a member. it was a solid first lesson, and this crazy miracle lesson of an invite was what helped us reach our goal of 5 member lessons that day. woo!

2. so we finally get sister lek's family to meet us at the church (our recent convert) and its a mom, a dad, and 2 daughters. there was two members there that helped us teach (a single mom with one of her daughters- who they are way awesome but i've always kinda felt like they judged me or just didnt like me for some reason haha not sure why) but anyways they help us teach. we had a really good lesson on the plan of salvation. after the lesson sister ming (the daughter that helped us teach) came up to me and thanked me WAY sincerely, for being such a powerful teacher, and for serving here in the branch. she told me that when i spoke, it brought her to tears (which during the lesson i thought it was just the "because he lives" video that we watched). they thanks me again and complimented me on being such a good represantative of christ. coming from anyone a compliment like that would have meant a lot, but ESPECIALLY coming from them it was very moving, and i just got one of those feelings that i only get every once in a while- that im just so grateful to be out here, and there is nothing in the world i would rather be doing right now. i thanked them for being such a strength to the branch, and they really are. 

3. in one our lessons last night with an recent convert/less active member, we are helping him prepare to serve a mission- which was a desire he expressed to us last week. this last sunday he actually came to church in a white shirt, tie, and nice slacks and looked so great. but anyways, at the end of our lesson, i felt impressed to invite him to share his testimony (however big or small it was) with the 2 investigators that just happened to be sitting in at the end of the lesson. after that i invited both of our investigators to bear their testimonies about their experiences thus far, and then another member that showed up, to then bear his. it was a really good powerful experience where the spirit was strong. our investigator brother chuu, said how grateful he was for everyone else's testimonies, and he bore a way solid testimony himself about the joy that has come into his life in coming to church and meeting the people there. 

4. had a lot of way good street contacts of people down to quit smoking so we'll see where that leads ayye! and speaking of people quitting smoking- we have an investigator named watermelon who is about 32, just a good humble nice dude. he is actualyl getting married this year which is pretty exciting. but anyways we had a powerful lesson with him this week as well. we are helping him to quit smoking. i thought for sure the Lord was gonna perform a crazy miracle and give him the strength to stop smoking that day (in the lesson he was pretty funny and when i asked if he was going to quit or not he said "well it seems like i dont really have any other choice do i?" haha) but he relapsed the next day. last night he called us and told us he didnt smoke once that day, and didnt even crave it. it is so rad to see his faith grow as he meets with us, prays, and reads in the scriptures. at first he was a guy that said he just believed in science and he didnt believe that anyone could REALLY know for real that god was real. his transformation and his trusting in God's power has been making huge differences in his life, and will continue to help him change to become a better person. great dude. 

ahhh soo many sweet experiences i want to share about the week but yeah ill just finish with one last one-

so its friday night and we have book of mormon class. we have a rule as missionaries that if their are sisters or any girls in the church we have to have male present as well- and so we sit down for book of mormon class and only a bunch of sisters show up. elder wright and i were like, well this is wierd i guess we'll just go sit outside haha, and so we take our chairs and sit out front of the church, and i called the zone leaders to see what they thought we should do. they gave us the okay, but elder wright was still like "dude i dont know man i think we should just stay outside", so kinda feeling like he just didnt want to go to book of mormon class for some reason i took the phone and called president senior haha- pres. senior gave us the okay, and after that elder wright was like okay fine lets go, just wait a bit while a call a potential or something like that. so im sitting, and there is a kid walking by and im just like "hey do you feel like your looking for happiness in life and not finding it?" and a little caught off guard he stopped and came to talk to me, and after talking a little more he sat down and starting asking all sorts of questions about our church, and how it would change his life, and what activities we had, etc. the most GOLDEN contact ive ever seen. thanks to either elder wrights slight stubborness or his following the spirit haha we had this way rad contact- who will be entering the waters of baptism in no time. 

yeah so anyways good week, lots of miracles, rode elephants again which was a blast, and i am having the time of my life out here :) 

love you fam!

elder chamberlin