Trips to the Airport

What's up! 

This week is a big blur but we'll see what comes to me as i write haha-

Elder Slabaugh and I had a bunch of trips to the airport this week. I think it was tuesday we took my favorite little thai man in the world over to the airport at 3am. He is now serving a mission in Ogden, Utah and he is just gonna tear it up. He is such an awesome example of a disciple of Christ. His name is Elder Sangsuwan, the one who stayed with us last transfer and did a little mini-mission here in thailand for a month and a half. He's from Phuket and is just the coolest dude. 

We also went to pick up this sister missionary who is leaving for the phillipines mission from Burma, so that is wayyy awesome as well. These 2 years/ 1 and a half years is gonna have such a big impact in these peoples lives just as it has had in mine, its so awesome to see them embarking on their own adventures. 

Slabaugh and i got lost the other day coming back from the airport bc we missed the offramp, so that was another 2 hour little adventure throughout bangkok trying to make our way back home. 

I think one of my favorite parts of our week has been our new investigator Justin. He is Thai but studied in Tennesse for a couple years, and is actually about to head back. But when he was there he was introduced to christianity by friends he met, and after having too many "coincidences" that seemed like they could have been God's influence in his life, he came to study the bible more closely, and eventually became christian, after his whole life of being a very strong buddhist. So we meet him at our english class last week, and he came to us and basically said, "while i was in america some of my christian friends i remember talked so awfully about the mormon religion and called it a cult, not christian and etc.etc.etc. but being here it doesn't seem like most of what they said is true." and then he was like "i've heard one side of the coin, but i want to meet with you guys so i can see the other side." So we set up an appointment to meet him the next day, and it was super exciting to get back into the bible in my studies that morning to prep for our lesson with him. He came with an article his friend had sent him that was called like "10 ways mormon doctrine reject the bible" or something like that. it amazes me all the junk on the internet about mormons- but to make a long story short, we went through point by point with him. By the end of our discussion he realized that he couldn't just find his answer of whether this is all true or not just by searching online. I told him shortly of John Tanner's experience, and sent him the links for some super solid videos, like the Joseph Smith video, to balance out all the crazy anti-mormon lit. he's got, and invited him to study it out for himself, read the bible side by side with the book of mormon and learn the truth of it for himself. he is a way awesome dude and we meet with him one more time before he heads back to tenesse next week. The book of mormon is so true man- 

I love something my nepal RC, brother sanjeeb, said last night. After he read 3 nephi 12, and we went over it all with him, he just paused for a second, held up the book of mormon, and said "i love this book... this book has everything and anything we need in this life- this book teaches me how to be a good man". Becoming a good man was one of the first things he shared with us when we started meeting with him weeks ago, and it is so awesome seeing how happy his mom and grandma are (who don't speak english or thai) as they see there son/grandson change his life from what it was to what it is and will be. His mom has plans to get baptized this month- his grandma loves church and all its teachings but we are still working on her. Teaching them is a way special experience- as we rely on brother Jok or Sanjeeb to translate, but it's interesting how strong the spirit can still be in lessons. I decided to start picking up a little Napalese to better guide them in their journey back to their Father. 

My pride and joy, brother PJ, is continuing to be a boss- but he has a big swim tournament this week so we haven't had much time to meet with him. But there is not too many better feelings as a missionary then when you follow up with investigators how their keeping of the commandments is going, and they say, "dude... i've thrown all that stuff away, i promised i would change". This kid has so much drive and has grown so much faith in His savior in these last weeks. 

Oh another wayyyy cool experience where God's hand was so evident this week. Our investigator sister nuk brought her friend to church the other week, and that day i thought her friend, blaew, was just interested in elder, not jesus, as she was videoing me while i talked with nuk haha. But this last week while i was actually on switch offs, slabaugh had met with both these two, had a solid lesson, and at the end asked blaew to say the closing prayer. typically, actually always with people we haven't taught before they are hesitant to pray, but slabuagh told me that she just like immediately folded her arms, bowed her head, and started praying- and gave a beautiful prayer. Afterwards Slabaugh asked her where she learned to pray, and blaew said that nuk had taught her. And that she already has a testimony that prayer is real. She said that last week after nuk had taught her about prayer, she tried it out that night- and had specifically prayed for God to prepare a way to get in contact with her brother that she hasn't seen or talked to in years. Then blaew says that 5 minutes after she had prayed, her brother had sent her a message on facebook. They now are both planning to follow their Savior, Jesus Christ into the waters of baptism this week or next. Nuk is still a little scared to tell her parents that she wants to be christian, but she said she is more scared of the water hahaha. 

Switch-offs this week in Bangkhae, west bangkok was fun with Elder Sukhan. It was cool inviting, teaching, and serving in a new area, but it felt good to be back in Asoke. When i was leaving Phitsanulok about 2 months ago- i remember thinking that no where else was gonna feel like home like Phitsanulok did, but Asoke has definitely taken that title of Home. I love it here so much. That also reminds me of Brother Renny, this super amazing dude from Kenya that we have been teaching, becuase he had mentioned how important it is not just to have your house be a house, but we need to make our house be a home. And that home of love and peace is established on the teaching of Jesus Christ. A way funny lesson with Renny, as he invited one of his friends that is a preacher here in thailand to join us in our lesson. And it was wayyyyy funny haha his friend was the stereotypical black preacher you would think of, in his prayers, and really just whenever he talked. His friend testified way intense of how Renny needs to be baptized in order to have the holy ghost with him haha, it was wayyyy intense, but what made it the whole lesson was at the end his preacher friend said- "when i was baptized as a kid...THEY DID IT WRONG! they just threw some water on my head! so i am walking WITH the spirit, but not IN the spirit Renny! We need to be IN the spirit! we need to be baptized HERE, in THIS church, and you know what?! I'm gonna get baptized with you! (all in his Kenyan accent)" hahahahah it was way funny but at the same time super awesome, and so we are looking forward to that on next sunday. 

We had a big Bangkok sports day this morning so thats why im late writing today. 

Thailand is the coolest place ever- oh yeah one funny thing that happened a couple days ago- i got a text from another missionary that said some americans had called and want missionaries to come give them a blessing in the hospital, here in bangkok. so i give them a call and apparently the girl that was sick, or her friend, knows megan somehow. i didnt end up going becuase i had to run that young english class and meet with some investigators if you nawwwmsayin- but i sent slabuagh and arne hahah and apparently it was pretty funny because it was elder slabaughs first time giving a blessing in english and apparently the girls were pretty good looking so he was getting a bit nervous haha. 

Well, God lives and love us. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and the church is true. The Book of Mormon is full of truth and light, and will bring us closer to our God, and ultimately, by living it's teachings, we will return with him again with our whole family- what a great reward! 

I love you my friends- share the Gospel

Elder Chamberlin

4th of July Goodness

Independence Day Dinner with the Missionaries at Tony Roma's

Elder Arne Getting Ready for Baptisms

Ahkom and his son Boo Ready for Baptism

Ton

July 10, 2015-New Companion Elder Slabaugh-Elder Sky Transferred to Saphaan Sung

This week was so good but what makes it even better is how SICK this transfer is gonna be! The new homie Elder Slabaugh is the new comp and he is a straight boss it has been so fun- and we have been seeing so many sick maricales just in these first few days. we are looking at a goal of 15 baptisms this month 

Yeah so slabaugh is this sweet dude originally from DC but live in italy for all of highschool - his dad is an airforce medic. our district is stacked this transfer and yeah i could just go on about how excited we are but i wont

Our investigators mint and may met with us earlier this week and may brought her 2 year old daughter nikki who is just way cute, and her boyfriend, best, came as well. we started teaching him and now he has a date to get baptized this next sunday- may and mint are tomorrow ayye! so excited for them. mint's story is so sick- she is the one that came up to me while i was inviting at the way busy mall, terminal 21, and took my picture of jesus and said she wanted to come to church. over the past 3 or so weeks its ridiculous how much i have seen both of them grow. sister may went out of town to hongkong for a week and a half or so, and we finally got to meet with them again this last week. we had a solid lesson but it was more focused around the boyfriend Best, and both mint and may wanted way bad to get baptized this sunday, but still had a lot of things they were supposed to learn before, especially law of chastity, word of wisdom, 10 commandments, honestly just like all of them haha idk how we forgot to teach all those, so anyways yesterday (friday) we meet with them and have a solid lesson just packed full with stuff- i was stressin before how it was gonna go just because i normally dont like teaching commandment back to back to back, but it was one of our best lessons with them. at the beginning of the lesson i told them that they both had faith and i've seen them already start changing their lives to become more like Christ (aka repent) and that they were ready to be baptized, they just had to learn all of christ's teachings first, and so when we taught it was so evident the faith that they had, and their strong desire to follow christ. we would honestly just like tell them a commandment, explain way short why its so important and they would just be like "yeah... we can and will follow that". it was even sicker when we were introducing the word of wisdom (not drinking alcohol, tea, coffee, smoking etc.) and sister mint told us that in April, like 2 months before we even met, that she stopped drinking tea and coffee because she felt like it wasn't good for her. sick instance of the hand of the lord in her life preparing her. 

some more sick lessons with my nepal investigators. sanjeeb is getting baptized this sunday as well and he has grown so much as well. his cousin invited him to come to church with us the first week he was here in thailand (they live here right now- i think mainly to be away from the earthquake stuff that happened a while ago) but anyways sanjeeb had a wayy good first sunday at church. the next week he told me how much his life has changed that week, how he wanted to be a better man, and wanted to follow christ etc. but his big issue was that he knew he had to go back to nepal one of these days, and he was afraid that his hindu/buddhist friends and family would reject and neglect him. i read scriptures with him that day, and gave him some encouragement and then we met with him again this week- and he is just so on top of the world, stoked and ready to get baptized- he read all the chapters in the BoM i gave him for homework, and has just grown so much faith. there is so much joy in teaching the gospel.

Transfers day was way dope- you have to go watch nate bartling's video he made for it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7hxzp8bVtA

it was super fun, and it was pretty clear to everyone how much inspiration pres. johnson has been getting for this mission as we move forward. this month we are naming กลับใจ July, which means repentance July, but it sounds sick in thai (glab-jay July). 

we have been super busy this week and thus i havent been doing so great at writing much in my journals, but dont worry i repented and im getting better. being a  missionary here in Asoke is just way too sick that words cant describe, or pictures, or even video, but we are doing a way good job of getting sick video of a lot of stuff we are doing around here with the go pros. unfortunately theres no way to send you guys the videos because there too big, but nate bartling might be editing and making some videos for us this transfer. 

im wayy happy and i love being here- missionaries are so sick man. a lot of miracles to come- God lives and the church is true. i love you all

elder chamberlin

America!

God bless America :) and Thailand too!

hey fam bam whats up how we doin'?!? this week has been a blast- heres the lo-down

early in the week we met with a new investigator named lily, this chinese girl from china obviously who works here as a property manager of some sort for way rich chinese people that come to work/live here in thailand. shes way sick- i wish i had a picture for you but just to describe her in a few words: she said that she has been buddhist for the last year or so but that it just isn't enough for her- that she wants to find something more to help her actually become something. she talked about how there is so much good in all the religions she has studied but how in each on she is left wondering so much and confused about all her questions that are left unanswered. i compared God's plan for us in life like a puzzle, and how in his original church beginning with adam, down through the ages, eventually to Jesus Christ and then restored later through Joseph Smith, is one big puzzle. all religions (mostly) teach us to be good and have true doctrine, but they only have some of the pieces to the picture- but that here, she would see the whole picture, and not be left to wonder. she had such crazy good questions which i wish i recorded because the spirit was strong and with the help of a chinese member in the branch that speaks both thai and english we were able to help answer Lily's questions and concerns about her life and about religion. it was a way good lesson and we are looking forward to see her and her friend that she brought to our lessons, get baptized here this month. 

sister mint and her sister may are two of our investigators from about 2 weeks ago. sister mint- i met her inviting at terminal 21 (right out front a giant mall) where there a just tons and tooons of people. and in the rush of the crowds she had come up to me, snatched the picture of baptism out of my hands and basically asked me if she could get baptized. she could be baptized this sunday, but we didnt want to rush it, and so she will be baptized next week, hopefully along with her sister on that same day. they are soo good and already have so much faith in their savior jesus christ which i love. 

biggest miracle with our investigators this week was my first investigator that we found when i moved down to bangkok- ahkom. he is a tuk tuk driver (its like those crazy big go cart type things ill send you a pic) and has accepted a date to be baptized since i think the first time we met with him. his only problem has been that he lives with his girlfriend, and they have 4 kids and havent been married. hes only like 27 btw. and he was way afraid to tell his gf that they needed to get married because of a messy situation between the two, so after a week or 2 of meeting with him and telling him he needs to talk with her and figure out the situation before he can get baptized, we had pretty much dropped him as an investigator, but then he came to chuch the next sunday and asked what he had to do to be a member in this church. we told him that he could get baptized as soon as he got married or seperated (which getting married in thailand just means going to the government building and signing a paper and paying like 3 bucks.) and so we told him we would go meet at his house with his gf as well to explain the situation to her. we met with her and she was NOT down to get married at all. like not at all haha it was pretty awkward. but we had a solid member testify about trusting in God, testified about families, and temples (this member just went to the temple in hong kong for the first time about a month ago.) but we left still feeling like she wasnt down for it. then two days later we get a call from ahkom and he says, "elder champ, im just calling to let you know that we are getting married this friday and i want to be baptized this sunday" MIRACLES BABY! so we got to go and be the "witnesses" at the paper signing of their marriage thing. ahhhh yeah! and so we are working to get his 9 year old son baptized with him this sunday as well- 2nd case scenario would be have him baptize his son in a week or two. missionary work wooo!

some big transitions here in thailand with president senior leaving us and president johnson coming in. bittersweet fersure. we had a nice final meal at some crazy nice buffet japanese place with pres. and sister senior this week though which was a good time. gonna miss them- but president and sister johnson are just so great. elder and sister grange (the new office couple) are just hilarrious too so working here is gonna be soooo much fun this next transfer, with tons of baptisms as well. 

we have had two cambodian missionaries staying with us the last week or so- one of them is here because he has to make some visits to the hospital this week and next, but it has been way fun having them here as well. we went on splits with them the other day, so i took out elder kim and it was way fun seeing him invite both thai and white people to repent and be baptized. he doesnt speak any thai except pretty much just "yaag lang bab may?" asking people if they want to be clean from sin. hahahahaha. satan has been working hard on us these last couple days. we had a goal thusday friday and saturday to invite soooooo hard and get 100 numbers of interested people. and we went SO hard- hahha but after all that i came meeting a total of zero people that were interested. but thats not enough to get us down- we have a lot of sick investigators right now, and the Lord continues to bless us as we push forward serving him with all our heart might mind and strength. transfers this next week already and ill be getting a new companion... asoke is about to blow up with how many people are gonna be in that baptismal font this month its gonna be ridiculous- stay tuned. love you all and miss you with all my heart. 

God lives and jesus christ is our savior. the message is real- we can be clean from sin. so much joy in this great work, and even more in sharing it! much love,

elder chamberlin

4th of July Photo Shoot with my companion and AP's Elder Wolfley and Elder Arne

A letter from your Thailand Man on June 26, 2015

what up fam! 

this week has been way sick and crazy! we had to get this project done by yesterday for pres. senior- we are making a miracle book that is filled with miracles from every missionary throughout thailand that happened in may. so its called Mayracles. the book is sick, but getting everything good to go cause some late nights and so i havent had too much sleep so sorry if this letter doesnt make sense. 

We had some cool miracles come thru last sunday with one of our old investigators randomly coming to church with his 2 kids. he asked us when he is gonna become a member of our church haha, and we told him he needs to marry his girlfriend that he is living with before he can get baptized (in order to keep the law of chastity of course) and so we'll see if he makes prgoress this week. God has been blessing us with tons of new investigators this week which is way fun and sweet to see. we even had president senior come and help us teach in one of our lessons it was a blast. his thai is impressively pretty good haha. its gonna be hard saying goodbye to that great man. he is filled with so much goodness and knowledge. 

so monday we had companionship study with our AP's and we decided we need to change something to get the mission fired up like it used to be a year ago. talking with them they said one thing thats changed is just how baptism hungry they were back then, in the sense that when they were outside, there was a lot of times they were just like running around to talk to everyone they saw. like just nuts crazy, taught even bolder, etc. so we decided just to take everything we do back to the next level and just be obssessed with baptism this week, like talk about it with everyone, literally everyone we see. so it takes us alot longer to get places but it has indeed brought much fruit. 

there was another thing that got me way fired up the other day. elder arne was showing me a mission weekly newsletter from last year when elder campbell and saunders (the two missionaries that changed the way we invite in thailand to just asking everyone if they want to cleanse their sins, etc.) and there was a month where they had baptized 15 people. like solid baptisms- not just get them in the water and then they disappear. i told pres. about it and he said that it only took one, and then the whole mission took off with baptizing- then he's like it need to be you. LETS GO! i love bringing salvation to souls, seeing our investigators change their lives- it just makes me so happy. and then when we get rejection from crazy white people and they tell us we are spreading a disease haha, its just like yeah you tell us that after you go meet the dad that quit alcohol and stopped abusing his family, or the kid with suicidal thoughts that completely changed his life around and has so much joy in living. there is just NO GREATER WORK! sorry i get pretty fired up about it- it is just so much fun over here.

my roomies are pretty jealous that ive gotten 3 packages since ive been serving in asoke. shoutout to the homies mom julie and megan! thanks for the love you guys are great keep it up<3

I can't remember too much that happened this week bc all the days got blurred together with the lack of sleep and i didnt write much in my journal bc of the lack of time- but i guess its sufficient to know it was a great one!

cool new investigators that have such geniune desire to follow christ, to improve their lives, and help their families be eternal families. i love being a missionary and love serving here in Bangkok, there is no where else i would rather be. I know God is fo real, and it is more clear to me each day i get out and serve his children. 

one last random fun thing- we've had some cambodian elders staying with us the last couple days (there here bc one of them has to go to the hospital) but yeah thats been fun. its a party over here, or as they say in thai: part-iiiiiii

alright love you all! have a good week, and make it a better week by serving and loving those around you :)

elder chamberlin

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