March 27, 2016 Melbourne

Well everybody, Happy Easter!!!

This week I was transferred again. Yep! That's twice in less than
three weeks! If you read last weeks email, that is the reason I was
transferred. The church legal office decided it wasn't safe for me and
my companion to be in that area still, so we both got transferred.
Oh no nobody is in trouble. The guy was just trying to sue the church
and was really angry so they thought it was best if we weren't there
because if we saw him again he would probably be violent again. 
A scripture that I really loved recently, I don't
know the reference but it came from near the beginning of Acts, and
Peter and John were taken to court, tried, let go, but were beaten
first. It said that they left "rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for His name." That really touched me. (But Mom is ok with me not getting beaten!)

Guess where I got moved to.

Go ahead guess.

I got moved into the city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woooot! City life! I didn't
think that would be possible because there were only chinese
missionaries and one companionship of english sisters in the city
before. But they just opened the area to one set of elders. Melbourne
is amazing. Easily the biggest and most modern city I have ever been
in. It is beautiful and big and diverse and big and busy and big and
awesome and big. I would send pictures, but in my haste to transfer, I
left my camera in Springvale. I should get it this week and send
photos next time.

My new companion is Elder Higham from Maryland (nope he doesn't know
the beutlers). He has been serving for 21 months. He is obedient and
hardworking. We are going to see so many miracles! I can just feel
that we are going to find, teach, and baptiZe so many. He is the
District Leader so I don't have to do that anymore! Mwahahahaha this
transfer is too good to be true. A crazy guy trying to kill me was
the best thing that could have happened to me! Yeah!

Because we are opening the area, we have zero investigators. But the
city is famous for baptizing way more than any other area. The work
goes crazy fast. As an example of that, the sister missionaries in the
branch with us "gave" us an investigator on the first day. They talked
to him one time and he came to church. Then they gave him to us.

What??

In any other area, if someone comes to church you cling to them like
your life depends on it. That's how awesome the work is here! We
already got 5 referrals. Which is about equal to how many I have
received in the rest of my entire mission. I am so pumped to get to
work here.

We just GQ all day. Which means we stand in busy places and talk to
people walking by. It is super successful. It's amazing. But it is
totally different to how you do missionary work in other areas, so
it's an adjustment.

If you want to see the places we GQ at, just google Flinders Street
Station Melbourne, and Victoria State Library. This place is awesome.

We got to church in a giant skyscraper. The church bought one floor of
the building and that is our church. It is really really awesome.
Everyone just calls it "the branch". There are two branches. Melbourne
first (Chinese), and Melbourne second (English). There are a lot of
Asians and Australians with a few scattered other cultures.

Life is good. I hope I can serve here for so long.

Love yous all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

March 20, 2016 Springvale

So this week a lot of stuff happened, but for the sake of time I can
only talk about the most exciting part, which I will tell in a story.

It all started in 1997...

Jokes! No it started on Saturday at about 3:00 P.M. My companion and I
were doing some tracting. We had had a pretty good time. We had a few
nice discussions, no one super solid though. Then we came to this
house. In Australia Most of the houses are fenced off. So you often
have to open a gate and walk into the yard before you can knock on the
door. This was one of those homes. We opened the gate, walked in, and
heard a man inside screaming at someone else inside. He used some
colorful language. One word in particular was definitely his go-to
word. Well, at the beginning of my mission, that would scare me and I
would just leave that house. But after a while the fear goes away. So
we just keep walking. When we got up onto the porch, the man saw us
outside his window, and redirected his screams at us, with special
emphasis on his favorite word. He issued to us a firm invitation to
leave his property as soon as possible (garnished with more of that
word, which is was quickly getting tired of).

As soon as I heard this invitation, I turned and began to shuffle out
of the yard. My companion on the other hand, didn't move. Instead he
asked, very kindly, "pardon?". If you don't remember, my companion is
a very large man. He also has quite the temper. So I began to be
worried. The yells and favorite words continued and increased in
volume. Soon the door slammed open and the man came raging out the
door. At this point, my shuffle became a brisk jog, and my companion
decided to follow me. The man picked up the nearest object which was a
bike helmet, and threw it at us hard. It hit my companion in the arm.

Uh-oh.

Well, the man then began to run at us and then in self defense, my
companion picked the helmet up and threw it right back at him.

SMACK

IT hit the man right in the head. Hard.

Well at that point, chaos totally broke. The man raised the beer
bottle he had been drinking from and ran at Elder Faamausili with
murderous rage in his eyes. They were in a dead sprint running down
the road. I began to follow when two other men ran out of the house
and yelled that same word many times at me. (it must be a family
slogan or something?) Well, yeah I did what a true hero full of
courage and faith does. I ran my guts out in the other direction.

When I turned around, I realized nobody was following me. Phew!
Relief! I'm good. good good....


Oh wait.. That means there's three guys chasing my companion.

So I ran back, then was chased back again by one of the guys with a
big rock in his hand. (man these guys are crazy!!) So then I came to
my senses and went around the other way. I got to the car, hoping and
praying that my companion would be there, but of course, he wasn't.

I kept my cool, drove around in the car a little but always checking
back where the car was to make sure he didn't go back. I couldn't find
him. So I parked in the same spot again and waited. It took about 20
minutes before I freaked out and decided I needed to do something. My
companion had our phone, so I borrowed a phone from a nice random guy,
and then realized I didn't know my own number... or any numbers except
for my past number. So I called my last companion and got President
Maxwell's number from him, called him, and then got my comp's number
and found him.

While I had been on my chase, my companion had been in a more exciting
one. These men with rocks/bottles chased him over a fence, where he
was chased by a big dog, then the same three men jumped over the
fence, then the owners of this random house, (also drunk, also using
that same word) came to my companions defense.  Well, long story
short, or shorter anyway, the police were called, then called off. The
man was lying a lot about us attacking him. He had a  nice big
bleeding wound on his head. Our ward mission leader came to the rescue
and stopped all the arguments. Everybody went home and all were safe.

But yeah! That happened!!

Fun story right?

How was your week?

We just have a couple of people to teach right now so we spend all day
every day trying to find new ones! The miracles will start flowing in
soon I am sure. We are teaching one woman, she is a very old Peruvian
woman named Maria. She is awesome. She is at church every week. Her
whole family is members, but she has been waiting to be baptized cause
she doesn't think she is ready yet. She'll come around! She is
amazing. She always cooks Peruvian food for us. I love her!

Yesterday somebody was cleaning out their garage (In

Australia, garage is pronounced so that it rhymes with carriage). We

offered to help, but they refused. But I had thought, man I want to do

that! I really miss the chores, which is weird. But this week we got

to mow a lawn for an investigator, and that was the highlight of my

day! I loved it. I have missed the feeling of holding a trimmer and

the smell of gasoline and cut grass. It was good. But It's not as good

without my family.

Love you all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

Note and Pictures from Australia

Just a little note and pictures from a member in Melton:

G'day My name is sister Toi.   Just thought to let you know Your Son is a great missionary we have had him in our home on many occasions tonight was another.

He has been in our area for nearly 6 months now, he has a fantastic attitude & a great spirit about him. l see the patience he has with his companions that are not English speaking. Our daughter Mia loves to stir him up by calling him Elder Chapoo.

 

March 14, 2016 Springvale

This week there was an E.T.! That's right. Extra Terrestrial. Jokes,  no
that means emergency transfer. So yes I have been transferred! I am no
longer in the Australia Melton mission! I am back into the Australia
Melbourne Mission! I am now in Springvale, which is one the other side
of the city. Wahoo, East side baby! My new companion is Elder
Faamausili. He is a giant Samoan Rugby Playing Man Monster...Elder. He
is the man. He has already given me an authentic Samoan Lava-lava,
which actually isn't called that, but I forget the real name.

Springvale is very Asian! I went from an islander area to an Asian
area! It is full of Chinese and Vietnamese. I am again in a four man
flat. The other two elders are Vietnamese speaking. But one is from
Utah and the other is Aussie.

I finally got letters in the mail! They had been sending
them to the wrong address, so somebody found them and I received 

about 10 letters from months earlier. That was happy and frustrating 

at the same time. I will write a response as soon as I am not so busy.  

But I will respond to all of the letters that you have probably forgotten 

about and you'll probably be confused.

I am glad you have spring coming. Our weather is just now going
cooler! It's been really comfortable the past few days! I am enjoying
the transition. Everyone talks about how it gets so cold here in the
winter, but I think that's just cause they don't know real cold.

Guess what? You can now add Spanish and Vietnamese to my language
list! Also I forgot to mention that Chinese means Mandarin and
Cantonese, and Tagalog also means Cebuano (the dialect that both Elder
Sifuentes and Elder Seifert speak in their home, but all Filipinos
also speak Tagalog.) There are many Spanish speakers in this ward.

I got the valentine package from home.  It was great. The candy hearts were
a big hit. Mostly with me because I hogged them, but everyone else
liked the one that I allowed them to split between them. ;)

Our ward is much smaller, but our chapel is much bigger than Melton.
Go figure. Everything is going well. We don't really have anyone to
teach yet, I've only been here since Friday. But we will have a
massive teaching pool in a couple weeks! I have no doubt. I can feel
the potential in this area.

Oh I also got to go to the temple this week! That was a surprise
because I had thought I was going in April, but the transfer changed
the date for me and I went to the temple the second I was with my new
companion. I love being in the temple. It feels like home.

I drive a Holden Cruze now. For you Yankees, Holden means Chevrolet.
It's really nice. The key flips out when you push a button, kind of
like a switch blade, so we have fun with that.

We had a P day where many Elders gathered together for basketball at a
chapel, and President Maxwell showed up! He played ball with us and he
was actually pretty good! But don't worry. I trash talked and beat him
just like I do with Dad.

Speaking of Dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! Thanks for everything Dad. I
love you and I hope someday I will be exactly the kind of father to my
children that you are to me.

It was a week of adjustments. But I am excited for my new area!

Love yous all!

Cheers

Elder Chappell

March 6, 2016 Melton

Good eventide everybody!

This week was a bit of a struggle. We were working really hard but
lessons fell through, people were not keen, and nobody came to church.
But weeks like that happen so no biggy! Next week will be killer.

The biggest thing that happened this week was a zone conference with
Elder O. Vincent Haleck from the 70. He is awesome. Man he inspired
everyone! Basically he spoke about how important our missions are.
They will shape our lives.

A quote from him that I loved. "you have been preparing for your
mission for eternity. You will be reflecting on it for the rest of
eternity. And you have 2 years to live it. So live it well."

There are heaps of Filipino missionaries here. More and more each transfer. Sorry I didn't explain the
New Zealand. Almost every Samoan/ Tongan in Australia lived in New
Zealand for some time. Everyone is from New Zealand. So the NZ accent
is all the slang. Heaps, sweet as, etc. They sound really cool. The
funny part is that they struggle to make the "th" sound. It comes out
as an "f". "one two free". I am not picking up that part though. Yes
Jaide's family is kiwi. (local New Zealanders are one of two cultures.
Kiwi or Maori)

I still love the missionaries from the MTC district. Since I have been here, I have
had Elder Bennion, Elder Albechtsen, and Sister Rhodes in my district.
Elder Bennion left, then came back to this zone. He is my zone leader
now! I got to see Elder Porter at a zone conference. I have only seen
Elder Wiser and Elder Wheeler once since the MTC. But that was awesome
when I did. I seem to see Sister Johnson at meetings a lot.


Have a great week.  Love you all.

Elder Chappell

Hmm... I don't really have much to say, so I'll spice it up with some photos.

This is me looking fly, and the new group of four in the flat.