Sunday, September 27, 2015

September 27, 2015 Melton

So week was awesome!

Before I tell you about it though, here's an observation... I always seem to start my emails with the word "so". I just realized that. I bet all my journal entries start with that as well…hmm. Well that's
cool!

So anyway, we witnessed a lot of miracles. Elder Sifuentes is a great trainer and a great missionary. We get along really well. I laugh at his English and he laughs at my silly mistakes, (for example when I left the flat still wearing my flip flops.. again..) Anyway…

Does everybody know what time it is?  MIRACLE TIME!!

Thanks Heidi. That's right folks it's miracle time. I'm Calvin, "the Mormon Man" Chappell and beside me as always is my trusty companion Al Borland. I mean Elder Sifuentes. (eh? eh? How good was that? Throwin’ it back to the good ol’ Home Improvement days.)

So we were going to an appointment one night, and nobody was home. It was about 8:00 and dark. Nobody is out when it’s dark, and if we knock on doors when it's dark without an appointment, we get yelled at. So we have no plans, and an hour until the bus comes. So we said a prayer and asked for guidance. Then we started walking. We didn't have anywhere to go but we went! Lo and behold, two people walking, carrying grocery bags! We asked them if we could help. They said no, but then the man said, "hey, I met some of you guys the other day!" We got talking and ended up getting his info, setting up an appointment, and giving him a Book of Mormon. It was awesome. So after we walked away, we stopped and said a prayer of thanks. Then we walked to the train station. Lo and behold, a tiny old woman carrying giant bags. We offered to help, again she turned us down.  Again we got talking. She was from the Philippines! She and Elder Sifuentes talked in Tagalog a little then we talked a lot in English. We became good friends with her, got her info, and set up an appointment.

PRAYER WORKS.

Miracle #2! We learned about a part member family in our ward and have been trying to set up an appointment with them. It hasn't been working out until last Satday. (yes that's how people say Saturday) We finally got a lesson with them! “N” is the father, and he is not a member. They are Samoan. We taught the Plan of Salvation because of a Spiritual prompting. We had planned to teach the Restoration, but we followed the Spirit! Long story short, “N” is the most prepared person I have taught so far. The Spirit was so strong, and he wants to be baptized and be sealed to his family for time and all eternity. We
are so excited for them. He has three daughters. They're family has so much love for each other. Soon they will be able to secure that love and happiness for eternity.

There were so many more miracles but I can't tell you all of them! But if I could request some prayers without telling you the situation to keep privacy, please pray for Luke. Pray very hard for him. That man
needs all the prayers that we can provide.

The subject line is in Samoan by the way! Malo means hello, and Fiaai means I'm hungry. That's all I need to know! I love all of the islanders here. Their culture is so cool. They love music and I swear
they all have beautiful voices. When they feed us, they give us three courses that are all individually too big for one person. So we have to eat a lot. You' might say we are lucky for that, but man! It's hard! They force you to eat! It's like on Matilda when the Trunchbull forces the kid to eat that giant cake. That's every night for me. Needless to say, I take my exercise time a lot more seriously now than I did in Washington. I will not get fat! They also sit and watch us eat. That's the culture. Guests eat first with the man of the house
while the woman and children serve them. It's interesting!

Many have asked me about the spiders. I haven't seen any of the massive as ones that I have heard so much about. I've talked to the people here and they say they have never seen those either. But there
are some dang big spiders. But say it like an Aussie! "spoida" So yeah they are pretty big, but not like as big as my hand. Well, so far anyway.

I have started taking videos to document my mission. Years later, I am gonna love watching them.

Well, I love all of you! I am so jealous that you get winter soon. It's just started getting warm here and I'm already ready for winter!

Here are some pictures of the graffiti that we see every time we ride the train. Kinda cool right?
Anyway, love ya and all that. Bye!

Elder Calvin Chappell



Sunday, September 20, 2015

September 20, 2015 Melton

How ya goin? 
I have to get used to saying that cause people think I'm weird if I ask how they are doing. 

I got to see some kangaroos (or hoppers) yesterday! Sorry I couldn't get a picture. It was too dark. Tell Lilly and Audrey that I will make sure to take pictures of cute animals for them though! Maybe they'll think that this lizard is cute.. (see picture below.)
 
The work is going great! We have a guy named "J" on date for baptism on Oct 17th! Hopefully he doesn't put that off any longer. We are also teaching a part member family. The mom is a member, the dad and all 5 kids are not. But they came to church last week! "N"- (the dad) is super cool. Honestly, it's only a matter of time before he gets baptized, then the kids will follow! I'm excited for them.
 
So here it is about to turn into summer, but it is in the middle of the transition. Meaning that some times during the day are really hot, then some times are really cold. But Elder Sifuentes is always cold because he is from the Philippines. He wears a big coat everyday.
 
I love teaching people! We have been blessed with being able to teach heaps of lessons. I am still getting used to talking to people on the street and at door approaches, but getting a lot better!
 
Guess what??? People like my accent. I heard 4 times this week, "hey you've got a mean accent! Are you from America?" Yep. That's right. This guy has a mean accent. On that note, we had a funny experience where a couple of teenage girls were being dumb and trying to flirt with us. We were walking down the street and the yelled to us things like, "you're hot!" "how old are you?" and the like. I was keen to just keep walking but Elder Sifuentes is fearless and really talks to everyone. Long story short, we gave them each a Book of Mormon, committed them to read, and invited them to church. We got their numbers, but not for the reason they wanted us to! HA! BOOM BABY! (Emperor's New Groove. Brent, I expect that you got that.)
 
Anyway, it's halfway through September. Time to start listening to Christmas music right? Just kidding... sort of..

Love you all! 
Everyone who read this, send me an email and a picture k? I love seeing pictures of everyone.
 These stickers are on every door.  Yep, I stole one and put it on my planner.

 Cool sunset, and a weird bug.


 

Sunday, September 13, 2015

September 13, 2015 Melton

Hey everybody! 
So yep, I'm in Australia. I'm sending this at about 11 A.M. on Monday here. Who knows what time it is on Sunday back home?
I flew here with about 10 other missionaries including Elder Bennion who I knew from the MTC.  A
random girl slept on my shoulder the whole flight... I was so scared but I couldn't do anything! AAAAAAAH!! That’s a funny story for later. We walk or ride the bus or train, no driving for us.  The food here is islander food, meaning tons of meat... mmmmmmmmmmm... tons of rice... mmmmmmmmm... heaps and heaps of food.
So I am serving in Melton! It's a suburb of Melbourne. I'm serving in the Melton south area. My companion is Elder Sifuentes from the Philippines. He is super awesome. I get to do language study with him in the mornings cause he is learning English! He speaks it really well, we are just working on some grammar and he wants to get rid of the accent. He wants to sound like an American instead of an Aussie
for some reason... We live with two other Elders. One of them is also Philippino, (the other is American) so that's pretty cool. We get along really well.

So you wanna hear about Australia?? It's sooooo different. Everything is different. Kilometers per hour, 30 degrees Celsius, etc. They have different ways of spelling some words, (colour, flavour, tyres), they
talk totally differently, and they even have different names for some things! I was so confused when I went to KFC and it said, Chicken and Chips. I was like, nah I don't want chips. Then I saw the picture and
realized that here is Australia, fries are called chips! And get this. What we call chips, they are still called chips... whaaaaa...aaaat? How do you know which one people are talking about??  Anyway, here's
some Aussie words for you;

jumper: sweater
chips: fries
Mackers: McDonalds
Heaps: lots
ages: a long time
cheers mate
I reckon
stuff this! stuff you!
that's crack-up!: that's funny!
mucking around: messing around
chin waggin': talking a lot
far out!
eh?
keen
Good as! sweet as! cool as! keen as! mean as! dirty as! small as! (that one sounds like they are swearing    to us Americans, but it's not swearing. "that's good as!" just means, "that's really good!"
How ya goin?

People don't pronounce their R's here so it would be like, "I'll go pahk the cah". So you can say those words, but don't use R's.

MIRACLE TIME!!!
We met this guy on the bus a few days back. We talked to him for a while, got his number, but he didn't seem too interested. We sent him a text on Saturday inviting him to church. He responded and said no
thanks, I'm catholic. We were disappointed, but then on Sunday he texted again and said I changed my mind, when and where is church? It was so awesome!! He came and stayed for the whole three hours! He's super cool.

This place is so diverse. There are people from everywhere. I reckon it's about 40% Aussie, 20% new Zealand, 20% Samoan/ other islander, 20% everything else. We have met people from India, Africa, Germany, China, Micronesia, Canada, Panama, Chile, Whales, England, America, Indonesia, etc. It's awesome. Our ward is about 80% Islander. They feed us until our stomachs burst, then the bring out the next course and make us eat it. I'm gonna get so fat! But I love them.

Anyway, I reckon we've been muckin around chin waggin quite enough.  There's heaps more I wanna tell you but that'll have to wait till next week! Elder Sifuentes is keen to go get some Mackers so we gotta  go!

Cheers mates.

Elder Chappell

Pictures:  Me and Elder Sifuentes, the view from a cool bridge--  they drive on the left side of the road!, Melbourne at night...it is so huge.







Wednesday, September 9, 2015

September 9, 2015 Melbourne

Well, I'm here. I made it safely. Loooooooooooong flights. total of
about 30 hours travel time. But holy cow Australia is amazing!! I just
have a little time for a quick email, so more details will be coming
on Monday, but yeah, everyone has awesome accents! My companion is
Elder Sifuentes. He's from the Philippines. He's super awesome! again,
more details comin next monday. Oh btw, this went back in time....
whaaaaaaaaaaaat mind explosion

Love Elder Chappell

Monday, September 7, 2015

September 7, 2015 Richland, WA (Flying to Australia today)

Goin' to the land down under!!

Well, as the subject line implies, I GOT MY VISA!!!!! GOING TO
AUSTRALIA BABY!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!

Ok I'll be honest, I am really going to miss Washington. My actual first
response to the news of getting my visa was, "Oh man I wanted one more
transfer!" But now I'm just super excited. So yeah I'm actually flying
out today. Right after I email I am going to the mission home, then
flying out! I will be flying into the future. I will leave on the 7th
then land on the 9th... whoa. My jet lag is gonna be legendary. Elder
Thorn got transferred to Pasco and will be training a new missionary.
He was a great trainer for me and I am so glad he was my companion.

So I made some great friends here.  I never expected this to happen
but after the mission, I'm gonna go visit Richland Washington! I loved
that one transfer so much. I can't wait until the next transfers
though ‘cause I know I'll love them more!

Hey everyone, check out the videos that the church has just released.
They are called 12 steps to change. They are about twelve different
people with addictions and how they recovered by relying on Jesus
Christ. We have been able to show someone one of these videos and they
just bring the Spirit so strong. Also check out the Mormon message
"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go". That one is more positive and also
super spiritual. We use it in lessons we teach members.

Shout out to my man Colin Taggart going to Portugal on his mission!
What a legend.

Pictures:  So one day We were going out to proselyte and I got all the way to the car by the time that I realized that I was wearing my flip flops still. So that's this picture!  And Me with Braydon, and me with Braydon, Kendyl, and Brandee.

I love all of you! I'll send pictures of Kangaroos and Wallabies next week!
Love, Elder Chappell (Captain Australia)