Monday, January 18, 2016

January 17, 2016 Melton South

Hey everyone! How has your week been?

I have been happy. Elder Seifert and I are getting along really well
and we are having much success. We have had to push Niko's baptism
back because we can never meet with him! But Rel, Joseph, and Samuel
are still on for the 30th and it will be awesome! I can't wait!

So some random stories this week. We were tracting down in Bacchus
Marsh and we knocked on the first door of the street. A woman opened
the door and proceeded to talk our ears off about some sort of issue
with orphans and child abuse. She was very upset. Eventually she took
a breath and we were able to speak so I told her about the Family
Proclamation and gave her one. She read it over then all of the sudden
she was very friendly to us. As we talked more we found out that this
woman believes that she is a prophet... hmm.. She is also a psychic
and is willing to read our minds if we go somewhere with a table that
she can lay out her cards. I really wanted to see that but I thought,
mm better not. She is keen to learn though and anybody who is keen
will be taught! Whether they believe in the Norse gods (oh did I
forget to mention that part?) or not.

The next door we knocked, the guy straight away let us in and said,
lets hear what you've got to say! Turns out, this bloke has spent the
last 4 months in a mental hospital because he did something crazy. He
claims the spirit took over his body and forced him to do whatever it
was that he did. Because of this, he also believes he is a
prophet...hmm... But he is keen to learn so he shall be taught!

Sometimes the elect come in different packages than we expect.

Our new way of teaching people is by singing. I am not the greatest
singer but Elder Seifert is really good so we just take the hymnbook
and my primary children's songbook (shout out to my Auntie Jennie who
gave me that song book) and we sing duets to people! At first I was
uncomfortable with it but now I have realized just how much the Spirit
testifies through music.

Well as the grizzled vet I am, (six months in) the mission is not what I expected
in lots of ways, but it is in others.. Mostly I just didn't know what
to expect! Yes I have definitely learned a lot and grown heaps. I
actually know how to share my testimony instead of just saying a joke,
a cool story, an analogy, and the same things everyone else says. That
is probably the biggest difference. I am disappointed a little bit
with how much the missionaries aren't who I thought missionaries
were... This mission has a lot of disobedience and the worst part is
how everyone is so focused on leadership. But don't let me get you down, 
there are plenty of amazing missionaries here too.

Hey I thought about our family FHE's as well this week. I actually introduced
the m&m throwing to a family in our ward! They loved it and I had some
good memories. I was 100% accurate btw. They were amazed at my
mouth-eye coordination.

Well that's about all for this week. Sorry that's not much but I hope
you enjoyed it anyway! Love you all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

pictures:
A sweet as double rainbow, and my new favorite Do Not Knock sign. I
appreciate when people are clever like this, so I always knock and
tell them that. They don't always appreciate that though..



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