Hey Homies November 22, 2015

Hey! this week was sick, and it was a special surprise as i was sitting in sacrament meeting in the back row yesterday, and got tapped on the shoulder, and when i turned to look back saw the smiling beautiful faces of travis, alexis, and jon and leslie clarke. I love that family so much- and i had no clue they were coming to Udon so that was wayyyy cool- turns out it was travis first area. 

So cool stuff that wend down this week- its rice harvesting season, so we have had a lot of early morning (5am) service projects of going to go harvest rice this week- way fun and surprisingly super tiring. Makes you grateful for indoor jobs and airconditioning. But it was a super fun experience with the crew, im basically professional now. On wednesday when we were harvesting some of the neighbors saw us and thought it was pretty funny to see white people out in the rice fields. so they were crackin up over on the other side of the fence, and elder hancock went over to talk with them and invite them. they handed him a water bottle while filming this whole thing with his phone in the other hand hahaha it was way funny it was like elder hancock was like a zoo animal, as this was all happening haha. it was funny in the moment. but our service projects have brought some nice new investigators and strengthened some relationships with LAs this week which has been way good. Im glad we were physically able to make it through the week though- probhably the most tired i've ever been i literally felt like a zombie almost all week. 

Some great miracles this week- at the beginning of the transfer i challenged us as a district to go out and visit every member in their homes this transfer. And just in this last week with the few visits Hancock and I have made, to those people that come to church, and then go home and we dont see them til next week ( people hancock said they always just kinda overlooked), we have seen such great miracles. with new investigators, new daters, and strengthening these members, it was just a way solid direction to take this last week. One of my last weeks in Korat i remember visiting a way strong member that lived 40min or so out of the city, and he had been a member for 7 years. we had made a dinner appointment with him, and when we got out there he said that they hadnt had the missionaries in their home for over a year. and it was just such an uplifting and exciting visit for them as they loved looking back over old pictures, and talking about their baptism, etc. it made me realize how vital it is that we go into the homes of every member. So ive set a goal to visit every active members home in each area i serve atleast once. a lot of fire has grown in Udon about getting excited about missionary work this last week, so im excited about that. 

We taught some awesome new people this week, both people we met at the mall, and friends/family of members that we visited. I've also been working closely with Elder Kanduns little brother to help him prepare for a mission in a couple months. Theres a ton of potential missionaries coming out of Udon in the next couple months so thats another exciting facet of the work here. I feel like there was just SO much that happened this week, but its like too much to remember, and i honestly dont have much time to sit and think about it. Sorry for the lack of juice in this letter haha, but just know that we're killing it out here and having a lot of fun watching the Lord just pour out blessings here in Udon. 

I love you guys- and I love my #1, Jesus Christ. 

Elder Chamberlin

Pictures and Video leaving Korat

What's Up Udon Baby - November 15, 2015

Alright i don't have much time- but here's the down-lo 

I had an amazing final 3 days in Korat, as Joyem and I went around teaching a lot of our RCs, investigators, and visited our members. It was pretty sad because this was the first time i left an area when all the members knew ahead of time, and so there were lots of little parties and get togethers and what nots. Its crazy how quickly your grow to love the people you serve on your mission and how hard it is to bear that final testimony as you leave them- they really are my family. So a lot of them went to send me and Elder Joyem off on wednesday night- Joyem and I arrived in good old Bangkok at bus station at about 2am and took all our stuff over to the missionaries house over in Jaengwattana, and stayed with them that night/morning. It is way funny going down to transfers with Joyem, because the transfers meeting is held in his home ward building, so its just like coming home for him. We went and got a way tasty waffle breakfast that morning, and then had transfers. It was bitter-sweet seeing my son grow up and move on to a new companion- but there is a lot of exciting stuff happening this transfer. So i got transfered upto Udon, way up in the north-east of thailand, and i'm serving with elder Hancock who just finished his 2 transfer in country. We are in the same house as the ZL's who both happened to be past office elders and theres always a special bond in that so thats pretty sick- espeially elder curtis who we've been praying to be companions one of these days, but staying in the same house is second best. We have 12 people in the district serving over 3 branches so theres a lot of responsability to take on, but getting to know the members these last couple days and a lot on sunday just gets me way excited for this transfer. Its gonna be a short 5 week transfer to finish right before christmas. 

A lot of fun stuff this week here in Udon- but no time sorryyy. I'm excited to take on this new calling her in the beautiful promised land of Udon. The mission is such an adventure full of mystery and excitement, and there is nowehere else i would rather be. My testimony is strengthened as i see the miracles that God is pouring out to his children here. I love you guys- the gospel is so so true :)

love elder chamberlin<3

November 9, 2015

Good morning my good brothers and sisters<3 

The weeks fly by so fast its crazy! We find out today whats going down- if i am staying in korat another transfer or what. I feel like i'm moving but my heart tryna stay so we'll see i guess. We had a way good sunday yesterday. The stake president and one of the counselors from the mission presidency, pres. ampawn, and pres. wisan, came to visit and give some training. 

Sister Neung (one), and her daughter praew (glimmer) got, and then sister muk (pearl)'s friend Bi Mai (New Year) got baptized yesterday. Typical thai nicknames haha but they are all super sick with some solid faith- they all had tons of obstacles to keep them from getting baptized- like down until minutes before the baptism, ahhh but after they got baptized and bore their testimonies it was so happy. Some tears were shed and thats when you know it was good... or really bad haha, but this time it was good. 

English Class was way fun- the sisters were having a hard time controlling all the little kids when they were in a class by themselves so we decided this week to just combine everyone into one large group and i would lead the lesson and it was way fun. It can be pretty stressful when the pressure is on and your expected to make the lesson fun and edifying, help everyone get involved etc. but needless to say i think i have a gift. hahaha- but really it was cool that one of our students that comes regularly, sister Ahw, she went up to north thailand this last week and brought us brought us back ties to thank us- so that was sweet. 

On tuesday we went out to find a members house who drew a little map for us to his house. The map made it look way close, like 10 min bike ride tops, and we start going and keep asking directions and 20 minutes pass, then 30, and we are biking sooo far its ridiculous, through army camps, and through wide open fields, and im thinking where are we at dude we've like biked to a whole nother city. Of course this brother doesn't have a phone, and all we new was the main road he lived off, and that he lived in a two story complex, haha so we finally found the street and were about to give up after searching the street for 5 min to no avail. we make some calls, and no one knows where his house is. right as we are about to head back after this hour+ long adventure, we head back down a road i swear we had ridden before, but this time we saw a complex that could possibly by our guy's. we walk over and he opens the door and yes we finally made it haha, we had a nice 5 min lesson and chat, and then had to start our journey back to the church to get back in time for english class. it was way good that we went out to visit him- and it was good for my legs too there lookin nice and big lately ;)

We went out to visit another member that lives way far out in another little town, his name is brother dam (black), and his family. They said its been over a year since they've had missionaries over, and they were so stoked to have us, and eat with us, and share old picture books and what not, and it was wayyy funny going through some of their history before they were members haha and then pics with the elders that baptized them 7 some years ago, etc. Brother dam had a little personal book of memroies from growing up and it inspired me to take lots of pictures to have good records. his pictures were SWEET aand way classic. yeah im sure i cant explain it to sound cool so ill just leave it at that i guess- we went to visit another family that we serve with all the time but have never went to their house, and that was way fun as well. one of my favorite part of being with the members is learning about their background idk its so exciting to me. one of our RC's mom, was telling us how she fed the american soldiers that were stationed here in Korat during the Vietnam war decades ago- and thats why she speaks pretty good english. This cute 75 yr old lady that was able to speak some english- it was way cool to see haha a pretty rare sight. 

2 of our inv. that are working on giving up smoking are puttin in work. brother T told us a couple days ago- that he doesnt even have the desire to smoke anymore- its been a little over a week, and he said he just feels so free. At first we gave them these mint lozenge things to eat throughout the day if they feel tempted to smoke, and at first he was running thru them way fast, he finished the bag the other day and we had just bought him a new one, and then he told us that he was out but he doesnt want or need anymore. T quit so quickly, and in contrast to a couple other people that we have been teaching that relapse pretty much every day the difference in why is so clear. its all about the Book of Mormon! for real there is so much power in it. the only difference between those who were able to quit and those who still havent is that one group has been reading the book of mormon, and others havent. T told me his favorite scripture right now is 1 nephi 3:15 when nephi says some thing like "as long as the lord liveth, and as long as i live, we will not return back to our father in the wilderness until we have finished the thing the Lord has commanded of us... to get the plates" and T was just like "nephi was such a boss, and such a good example." Anyways long story short- the book of mormon has power to change people- really its jesus christ, but its a super clear that the book of mormon really is a testament of christ. We have seen T's desires change because of it. 

About desires- was my favorite part of the week. Our district meeting on tuesday was all about desires, and then we got trained on thursday and it was all about desires again. i wish i could just relive it all with you because it was so good. but just to give you a little appetizer taste of it. read in D&C 7, all of it, about peter and john the apostles, and what they ask Christ for. verse 8 has Christ's promise to both of them:  "Verily I say unto you, ye shall both have according to your desires, for ye both joy in that which ye have desired." What is it that we desire? I love from that story that Peter has way good desires of serving the Lord for his time here on earth and then speedily going into his kingdom when he has reached a good age. But John "has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done." we talked about Hollands talk "the first and greatest commandment", and another talk by Elder Oaks, that had talked about when we have a vision our desire and ability to act are increased. I dont know if i explained that right, but what im going for is- if my desires are like peters, (comparing my life to my time on my mission in thailand), and i want to work hard while im here, and then speedily head home, and its like my mission is over, well its a good desire that i want to serve him, but we should desire to do more, a greater work than what we have done before. Its helped solidify that vision that our discipleship never ends, and this period of time is just prepping me to be an even better missionary in the states, preparing me for future callings and duties, etc. and with that widened vision of the mission, it gives me a greater ability and motivation to act, and work, and give everything now, because everything i do now effects and prepares me for what is to come. they showed pictures of salmon that are flopping across a slightly flooded road, jumping up mini waterfalls, and cruising up stream, and we talked about how after salmon are born in the river, they swim out to the ocean and grow up, but before the end of their life, they have this embedded desired encoded within them that they NEED to go back home, and thats where they spawn their kids. And they are willing to go through anything, and do whatever it takes to get back home. in conclusion- its time to reevaluate or desires. why? because God grants us according to our desires- whether we desire good or bad or great. And God has never gone back from what he has promised- so thats a pretty sick promise: whatever you desire, its yours. And desires is one of those cool things you can continually change, and improve, so some food for thought. 

Runnin' low on time so yeah- lots of good stuff happening her in Korat and im so grateful for the opportunity to serve here in this part of His vineyard. Christ is our Redeemer and Savior and the church is true. I love you guys<3 

Elder Champ

Pictures in Korat

Last Monday's adventure

The dairy we visited

An Ostrich friend

Joyem milking a cow

 Eating lunch at a pretty sweet little spot

cruising home :)

10/18/15 Another week in Korat and life is good :)

Whats up everyone<3 Another week in Korat and life is good :) 

This week flew by way fast, we had a member of the 70, Elder Funk come visit Thailand on a little mission tour which was a good time. We went up on Thrusday to Khon Kaen and had a meeting in this nice hotel with good free food so that was nice. 

As for cool thailand stuff this week- yesterday we were cutting down forests at an LA house which was a blast- i felt like joseph smith hackin' away at tree trunks with a crazy like tree-blade-knife thing. 

Joyem is a stud- he kinda reminds me of the thai version of zane. Well this week was a typical week full of teaching about jesus, and seeing miracles. I think one of the coolest/biggest answers to prayers that we saw this week was with sister faa- the mom who got baptized 2 weeks ago, and wasn't sure because she wanted to pay off her full debt that she had (which was the crazy like mafia debt where she was paying what started out as 600 baht a day and turned to 1250 baht a day... and that was just the amount she had to pay daily basically to stay alive...) so anyways her debt was a crazy huge burden on her shoulders as she takes care of her cute twin 10 year olds as a single mom. She is so strong its crazy- but anyways last week we taught her again about fasting, and the blessings that can come from prayer and fasting. That sunday she fasted, and the next day she ran into a way old friend of hers from her childhood, and talked for a while, and then one thing led to another, and her friend found out about her crazy debt, and offered to be the "mediator" and pay it for her, and have her be in debt to him instead. It was literally exactly like the story of the debtor, where christ is the one who comes in and pays our debt for us as our mediator. It was such a huge miracle- her debt that seemed like would never end is now planned out to be finished by the end of the month. It honestly felt like a burden was lifted off our shoulders as well- such a sweet blessing and testimony to the power of fasting. 

Another cool story on answers to prayers- Brother Hann, one of our investigators whos getting baptized next week, he invited his friend,Shutter, to come to church this last week and meet with the elders. the first lesson with shutter, Joyem and i were on splits so i wasnt in the lesson, but Joyem told me that he taught about prayer, and extended the commitment to pray, and shutter declined. ahhaha he was just like, no i wont pray. And so Joyem said he promised blessings and then that was that haha. But then the next time we met with Hann, Shutter came too, and Hann was like, yo shutter tell the elders about your prayer- and so he told us the following: "I decided to try it out and pray the other day, it was about midnight, and i prayed for the first time in my life. I prayed that God would help my find a job. I have been looking for a while to no avail. But yesterday i saw my prayer answered..." He's washing cars now- which for a 15 year old is pretty good- and then his prayer in our lesson was so real and tender- it went something like this, "Heavenly Father... I havent seen my mom in over 5 years. Please help me to be able to meet my mom again. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." The power of pray is real- and answers don't always come immediately, but sometimes they do, and it's a solid faith builder especially as a missionary, when we see so clearly the hand of the lord in our investigators lives. 

Final cool miracle/lesson i learned about forgiveness. One of our investigators is struggling to quit smoking- and this last week Joyem and I had seen the new series that the church has done about "12 steps" in addiction recovery, and so the other day we shared it briefly with him as i had to translate anything that we shared with him- but we went thru the 12 steps, and i felt inspired to have him write down on a paper all the people that have ever done him wrong, write their names on a paper, and decide then and there to forgive them all. then write down the names of people he has done wrong, and go try to make restitution with them. 2 days later we met up with him again over some buffet icecream, and he told us his experience. He practically bore testimony of the neccesity of forgiving other before we can be forgiven. He said he saw one of his old freinds yesterday that he hadn't talked to in a long time, mainly because of something that happened between them in the past, aand the grudge was mainly being held by our investigator. But he said he had already decided to let it go and forgive this person, and our investigator spoke of the peace and freedom he felt as he met with his old friend, again without any grudge or hard feelings towards him. I dont know if that story makes sense, but to bring it all together it reminded me the parable of the unforgiving debtor... here it is in its fulness:

 21 ¶Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

 23 ¶Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

 26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

 27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

 29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

 31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

God's lesson was so clear, as was the forgiveness he felt. A nice faith builder in the truth of this principle- we must forgive to be forgiven. 

Well other than those super cool things that went down, we had some nice family parties with part member families, including a sweet little FHE with my homie B.   We had a nice little family dinner and discussion with their family, and my hope is that they get baptized because they are the coolest people ever, but they have some concerns.  It was pretty funny though- as B was drinking a little bit of alcohol that night- he asked me, "elder champ, are you going to get married for real?" and i was like yeah, one day, and he was like "really..... okay come inside with me." haha so we walked into their house and looked me in the eyes and was like "okay be real with me.... are you seriously getting married?"  hahahah i just love B so much. I said yeah im for sure gonna get married, and he's like "okay wait here". he came and brought out these two super super nice quality fabrics, what he said are his favorite, and said he was going to make me two ties out of them as a gift. So that was way sweet haha. You make some way cool friends on a mission thats fasho. My dream is to see his family baptized before i leave Korat- it would bring their cute little fam so much joy- oooooo to come back and see them at the temple! So much happiness its unreal! 

Alright well that was our week in a nutshell. I love you guys! God is real, and he really is a God of miracles. Thailand is sick and the church is true!

Elder Chamberlin<3

General Conference in Korat - October 11, 2015

Today its super overcast and way nice and cool outside with a nice little breezing flowing its way through this little internet place. Thailand is doing good and i love it so much!

Our two golden people- pink and pearl got baptized yesterday and it was way cute. Afterwards pearl bore her testimony and was just like, "the missionaries told me that if i wanted to know if this all was true all i had to do was pray about it... and i did... and *EEEE (some cute little excited noise)* it is!" she is such an amazing missionary. she and pink invited a bunch of their friends to come to the baptism, all of these friends whom we have taught before because they bring friends to the church all the time, and there was 3 in particular who were progressing in a sense but they wouldnt set a baptismal date. after pearl and pink got baptized, we talked with them later that day, and now 3 of the 6 homies of pearl are getting baptized next week! so that was way exciting. It shows what great an influence friends can be and are.

There was some way good lessons, and solid growing experiences of the week, but the best was general conference fasho! it was so good and uplifting. Its funny now being on a mission and im like trying to convince the youth why they need to watch all of general conference and i try to explain how awesome it is- but than i think back to when i was there age and realize i was probably the same- some wisdom only comes with age i guess.

But yeah i think im just gonna do a way quick sweeping overview of what i loved from conference so here we go-

Uchtdorf: The gospel: it works! if your experience in the church isn't all you expected it to be, take it back to the basics, because the gospel truly is simple. Start where you are and go from there. Exaltation is the goal, but discipleship is the journey. (theres a lot of joy in the journey). Satan will take our weaknesses and make us discouraged. God will take our weaknesses and make them strengths. 

Ballard and Christofferson- Ballard about how the church is "old ship zion". he explained that a vehicle is made to take us to a destination- old ship zion was established to take us to eternal life. Christofferson talked about why Christ even established a church. Why cant we just be "spiritual people" that do it on our own? we dont need no church or establishment to tell us what we believe! Christofferson taught that we are converted to Christ, but we are unified in the church. It is only through the Church that we can have priesthood ordinances and covenants, example the temple, how else would we being sealing our families together for time and eternity?!? 

Lawrence: SO GOOD- "what lacketh i yet?" I love how real his examples were. We need to be humble enough (like the rich young ruler) to ask.... but unlike the young rich ruler, we need to be faithful and trusting enough to follow through on our divine guidance. We need to follow the promptings of the spirit, the spirit will show us all things that we must do. whether it is focus more on the sabbath, clean our language a little, something small like not interrupting other people while they talk, or maybe starting to get your life in order by just cleaning your room. This talk was way good and way real- a solid choice to watch for fam home evening

along with Lawrence's theme of imrpoving personally- was elder Hales- we need to do a personal council with ourselves, and humbly ask where we need to improve. And we don't have to do it alone, but we should seek the advice of great leaders, not necessarily friends or people of the same level, but of those who we look up to. Do you want to become as great as your highschool friend? or as great as Elder Bednar, your dad, or some other great figure in your life? Remember your the pilot and you're in charge.

Hollands earth shattering talk about mothers- so powerful. Along with Elder Nelson's "We need Women!" talk. Makes me way greatful for all the beautiful wonderful examples of women in my family and life<3 and elder nelson who shared of the influence that his wife had on him as a young doctor. way powerful

I could go on forever about good talks, but to list of a few more haha-

Bradley D Foster- a fathers council with his 9 yr old son- "i was 9 before, and i know you will face these different problems and challenges, pornography, drugs, bullying, acceptance of friends, popularity, choosing to do the right thing, etc. so when these things come up, i want you to know that you can come to me, and i will tell you what comes next, i will guide you through and help you succeed." so then after hearing about this story Foster decided to call up his kids who were grown and had families of their own already hahaha "i was 31 before, and i know you will face..... etc. etc. hahahah" way good. 

Oaks- powerful on the healing power of the atonement. no matter who we are or what are circumstance, Christ has suffered below it ALL

Anderson- What would Christ say about our faith? he shared a super powerful story of the missionary out in the marshall islands or something who had his parents and 2 younger siblings pass away in an accident. you gotta go watch this one too. using your mind without your heart wont bring spiritual answers. "the natural man recieveth not the things of God"

Bennett- excercising our faith and taking those baby steps until we fall into God's loving embrace.

Uchtdorfs other talk on the story of daniel- SO GOOD! Are we like daniel? do we stay true to god? Daniel past his test, but ours still continues. Talking about critics and cynics... that stuff is easy, anyone can bash and try to find fault. But those who hold fast to faith are for more impressive- the world rejects that which it doesnt understand. be like daniel!

Eyrings- super good on doing our part, and the lord will multiply our efforts.

President Monson- our dear prophet spoke so clear and straight to the point- REPENT! our eternal salvation depends on it. yet spoken is such a soft loving voice. Keep the commandments. in this there is safety, in this there is peace. so repent because the sooner you do the sooner you will experience that peace and assurance. 

Monson pt. 2 Let our light shine. We will be different. We are here for a season to bravely let our light shine.

Then one of my favorite parts was the powerhouse new apostles that bore there testimonies. all three, rasband, stevenson, and renlund were so powerful some quotes- "i stand all amazed" , "love one another as i have loved you" , "the lord qualifies those whom he calls" , "the lord doesnt call us for what we've done, but for what the lord will do through us." , "We must see people through God's perspective" Renlund's touching experience as a surgeon. 

Haynie- super solid parable. some people dont understand/ under-estimate what God requires of us to return home with him. oh just accept him :) he shared the parable of a muddy kid tryna get into his grandmas nice clean house. it took a little repentance and cleaning off by the cold hose in the backyard first. but grandma was there to help him with it- he just had to be willing to accept to grandmas will. and then he got to be all warm and cozy inside, and im sure ate cookies with his grandma. 

Bednar- i loved this one so much- and i love president hinckley! while on 60 minutes president hinckley had been asked or rather told, that the church gets some heat for being a church just ran by a bunch of old men. and he responded cheerfully and without hesitation, “Isn’t it wonderful to have a man of maturity at the head, a man of judgment who isn’t blown about by every wind of doctrine?” and then Bednar powerfully testified of the great men at the head of the church that he has served with in his time in the quorom of the 12, and shared a snippet of each of their great teachings. Bednar is a boss as usual. 

alright well i think that covers it haha- general confernece had more miracles and spiritual upliftment than the good old missionary work joyem and i did this week. but along with all those who spoke with us in general conference i witness and know that our prophet is called of God, and am so grateful for their loving guidance. The Savior declared, “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” As we follow our prophet, we will be guided on our course back to our heavenly father, and there will be so much joy in that journey! Its time to make some slight changes to our lives my friends! lets straighten our course, and continue on to the magnificent mansions in heaven that our father in heaven has prepared for us. 

i love you guys! i hope you each make time to go over the talks in general conference this week. much love. elder chamberlin is having a blast out here in thailand, its all worth it! the gospel is true! so lets share it like the sound of a trump- but if the sound of the trump is uncertain who is gonna prepare for battle? So declare it with confidence, boldness, certainty, and clarity, because it is so clear the blessing that the gospel of jesus christ is in our own personal lives. Cheers!

Elder Chamberlin<3

Pearl & Pink's Baptism

Baptism Day for Pearl & Pink

Korat Pt 2 - October 4, 2015

Good morning everyonnee i hope you had another great week! With transfers, and changes going on around the mission this week was busy but super super fruitful

Elder Joyem and I are lucky enough to be staying together in Korat! which we were both way stoked about because of the way sweet people we are teaching right now. 

Well i forgot my journal today but we'll see what i can remember-

On friday i called one of our investigators, Montira, who lives way far out of the city, and we usually just teach her short messages over the phone, she told us on friday that she wanted to be baptized, and she had her mind set on getting baptized this sunday- so we met up with her on saturday and just reviewed EVERYTHING. we straight up were learning together for 3 hours plus because she had such good questions- and then she had such great faith in seriously everything. like we went over tithing and fast offerings and she was honestly just like thanking me for explaining such a great commandment, and after seeing the form she told me how she felt so strongly that this is from God. and i just saw her trust and faith in him as we taught each commandment. Her story is such a cool one i- im just gonna tell you it.

so a litte over a year ago she was at the mall, and a missionary had ran up to her and told her that he felt inspired to tell her that Jesus Christ wants her to come back. It turns out she used to be christian but at the time she didnt really believe in anything. Apparently the experience hit her really hard, and the missionary, according to the story was going to give her a book of mormon but didnt have an extra one on him, and so ended up giving her his own thai copy that was marked and worn. He told her how special and valuable it was to him, and told her to read and study it. She left and i think the missionaries taught her over the phone for a while, but then she moved to a different province and lived way far from any church. Eventually a few months later she moved back to Korat but there was no contact with the missionaries. We had found her name in the former investigator lists in the area books at our house and had called her one of our first days in the area. Recounting that first call we gave to her, she told us that she had been reading the scriptures and praying daily- but had started to think that God had maybe begun to forget about her.When we called her she said she had been praying that the missionaries would get back in contact with her and she explained that it was like an angel coming and telling her that God is still there and does still love her. I actually think the first scripture we shared with her was 1 nephi 21:15-16 about how a mother can't forget her sucking child, and that even moreso the Lord can forget us- he has engraven us upon the palms of his hands. anyways we continued to stay in contact with her and it wasnt until last week that she was able to come to church for the first time- and there was so much joy as she explained the peace she felt at church. This sunday she got baptized, and her testimony was wayyy powerful. I was actually the one to interview her for baptism on saturday since i had never actually taught her face to face up until that day. At the end of the interview i shared my testimony and invited her to share hers and im gonna be honest i've never felt the spirit stronger as she told me of her whole experience, her whole story, of coming to Christ. It was powerful- and i felt strongly of the love that God has for his daughter the returned home to his fold this last week. 

Another one of our investigators that we've been teaching these last weeks- Pearl and Pink, the girl i had met at the mall 2 weeks ago-ish have just been straight bosses this week. I talked with the ZL's this week about their situation because normally if your under 18 you have to wait a couple months to get baptized, but i asked for special permission for them, and they were just so stoked to hear the news that they could get baptized next week. I had never set a baptismal date for them because i didnt know how long they would have to wait- but even without a date they were the ones that asked me for the parent permission forms to take to their parents and get signed. They have invited 4 or 5 of their friends to come to church now already, and all of them are just soaking in the teachings of Christ. It makes me way glad that i was there at the mall at the right time, talking to everyone- and that i ran into pearl- it has led to meeting with so many great people. They taught one of their friends, Hann, how to pray, before we taught him for the first time- and so when we asked him if he knew what prayer was, he said yes, and then he said that he prayed with peal and pink already. He said it was the first time, and that he got goosebumps from it, and he didnt know how to explain what or why but he just felt super peaceful from it. And from the start he is just a boss investigator and has been soaking in and understaning everything with such ease. It is a testimony to me that once people have a personal experience with the spirit, the rest is easy. I think of other investigators who we teach, i try so hard to ask great questions for understanding, and to help them feel the spirit and grasp onto it, but by the end of the lesson sometimes they leave as if they didnt learn a thing. and its so clear that you can teach knowledge and information all day but until someone has felt the spirit, thats all it is, is information... and in the end they really dont learn anything. But as for Hann he just soaks it up like a sponge, and he loves it, because he knows its real. So anyways that was a great lesson this week. 

We went down to transfers this week, and i got to say some "see ya laters" to some of the dying missionaries- especially to arne<3 and to Slabaugh who just got transfered out to another country Burma hahah. So he is gonna be learning burmese now for the last 8 months of his mission, and helping the church grow there which is way sweet and he is way excited for. Burma has 6 missionaries now- and Laos is a similar deal- they have 6 missionaries i think right now too. so i said see ya to those fellas and then we got to cruise back to Korat with our new district member, sister nitaya, shes thai and way cool. so now our district is half thai half white which is pretty sweet. 

I met a cool guy named Jay that is from korea but grew up in australia, and served a mission in japan, and speaks chinese and i think a couple other langauges. He is here in Korat while hes traveling the world tryna start up some business.

All 7 people that got baptized last week were at church to get confirmed which was a miracle considering some of the crazy obstacles that Sister Faa had that morning. They are all so cute, i love them so much. And yeah this week was just way good, and full of teaching and being a missionary. Im sure there was more, but my weakness of having a pretty bad memory hasnt become a strength yet. 

I love you guys! The church is true, and i am so grateful for the guidance of our prophets. I am excited to hear from them this coming weekend. And i was way stoked to hear the Elder Renlund is in the 12, because his talk from last conference about Shiblon was by far one of my favorites.

I hope you guys have a fun conference weekend, and if your up in utah you get to cuddle up in the cold weather- its still nice and hot here in Korat :) 

much love

Korat DL,

elder chamberlin ;)

September 27. 2015 Pictures