May 29, 2016 Melbourne

Gooooooooood morning sweet world!

So the big news I've got today (well big for me, but to all of you
back home, it doesn't really make much of a difference), is that I am
being transferred! Elder Chen and I are both being transferred out of
the city! So I got a call on Saturday night from President Maxwell,
and he asked me to be a zone leader. So I guess I'm gonna be a zone
leader! I am pretty nervous about that cause I don't know how to be a
zone leader, and I always really look up to my zl's, and I don't think
I can be as awesome as them! But I'll do my best. I actually don't
know where i will go yet, and I don't know who my companion will be.
Rumor has it that I'll be in Wangaratta zone, and I've never been
there, but I here it is all bush. We'll see!

So in my time in the city, around all of the Chinese missionaries, I
received the name, "Cha-Shuai" which is, being interpreted,
"Chappell-handsome". I am gonna miss the Chinese.

So this week we did a lot of finding and it was good! We found a lot
of potential investigators for the next missionaries. The musical "the
Book of Mormon" is coming to Melbourne soon and it is a big deal I
guess. So there is a gigantic poster for it just across the street
from the state library, where we often are. I know the musical is a
satire of our religion, but I love having the poster there. It makes
talking to people so easy. I would send you a picture, but I left my
card reader at home :(

Hmm... Yeah that's about all for this week!

Love you all!

Cha-Shuai

Elder Calvin Chappell

Facebook Message from Melbourne Happy Birthday Calvin!

(When I heard that the branch members celebrated Calvin's birthday I knew it was a tender mercy, both for me and for Calvin. He is always the one to decorate and remember and celebrate any special occasion. Having him gone for his birthday, and so far from home was hard for me. But I am not the only one who knows how important celebrating is to Calvin. Heavenly Father made sure that someone was prompted to celebrate him. This Mom is very thankful for this dear sister for listening to the spirit. Here is the story in her words.)

Hello Sister Chappell! My name is Karen, and we are in the Melbourne 2nd branch where Elder Chappell is serving. Today my husband got a cake for us (my 2 kids and I.)  

He came home at 5 and we had an appointment with Elder Chen and Elder Chappell at 5:30. He said that he would like to have a piece of cake but it was getting late so I told him that we should go to the branch to the lesson. 

I felt a strong feeling that we should bring the cake to share with the missionaries and members (Friday is game night). That moment when we finished our beautiful lesson we asked how was their day? And Elder Chen said that today was Elder Chappell's birthday (Friday 13th of May.) Not knowing anything about it I felt that I knew. 

So I asked him if already had somebody to celebrate him and he said no. So I went to prepare the cake and we all, with the help of members sang happy birthday to him. He was so happy even asked me if you told me about it. His companion was the only person who knew about his birthday. 

How bless we are to have him serving in our branch. He is such a good missionary and his testimony is changing lives. We love him so much.

May 22, 2016 Melbourne

Miracle Week!

Good Morning Everyone!

It's morning for me, even if it is evening for you. So good morning.

Well this week was rough. I know the subject line of the email is
misleading. Allow me to explain.


So this week we decided we need to focus on miracles. We cannot
convert people, God can. Missionary work is just miracles. That's all
it is. So since we are building up this still new area, we decided we
needed to pray in every prayer for a miracle, always trust in
miracles, and even fast one day for miracles. We set these amazing
goals with Faith. We were so confident that God would bless these
people and lead them to us. We were so excited for this week!

Long story short, we broke the zone record for finding hours in a
week. (25. Previous record was 19.5) And we found nobody.


Ok Long story long. We spent every spare minute talking with people.
We knew the miracles must be coming. But as the week went on, and we
had found nobody, our faith started to dim, and so did our enthusiasm
and effort. God must have been really testing us. Or satan must have
been really working hard. Either way. Normally I can Street Contact
for one hour and get maybe 5 phone numbers and a couple of return
appointments. This week, in those 25 hours, I got a total of one phone
number, and she already dropped us. It was pretty rough! All of our
current investigators were out of town, so we had no lessons! So this
was a rough week.

But I wasn't being sarcastic when I called it a miracle week! I meant it!

So here it is...



MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In the last couple of days as we realized that we weren't being as
faithful and diligent as we should be, we knew we needed to improve
if we wanted to see miracles, so we did! We worked like crazy the last
couple of days of the week. We still didn't see any results, but our
Faith was still strong, and the Miracle finally came! Last night as I
was calling people for accounting, I received a text from some
missionaries in our district. It was the information of a girl named
Sonia! We got a referral!!!!! Woot! She is a student in the city, and
she is dating a member. We called her and spoke to her and she is so
keen! She met those missionaries in the district and was so intrigued.
She already connected to us because she is part Chinese, and lived in
America, and my comp is Chinese and I'm american so that is cool. She
is keen as so we set an appointment for this week and we are so happy!

God sure likes to test our Faith doesn't He? Sometimes I wish
everything was easy, but at the same time, if it was easy, those
miracles wouldn't feel so good.

I love being a missionary!

Love you all!
Elder Calvin Chappell

May 16, 2016 Melbourne

Well I am officially 19 years old now. I feel like such an old guy.
But I still have one more year of teenage-hood (I'm working on getting
a copyright on that word that I just invented), so I am going to live
it up! As a missionary! What better way to spend a year?

Yesterday was also my 10 month mark. Whoooooooooooooooa how did I get
here already???

So my birthday was really great. We got to teach 3 lessons, found two
new investigators, and did heaps of finding! Yeah! But at the end of
the day, we were teaching the Branch Mission Leader and his family
(the De La Luz family from mexico who are my favorite.), and at the
end of the lesson, Sister De La Luz said, wait here we want to show
you something! So we waited and chatted and then she came back with
the whole branch, singing happy birthday and carrying a chocolate
cake.
Funny story, turns out that she didn't know it was my birthday until 5
minutes before, but day she had felt like she should bring a cake to
the branch and share it with people so she asked her husband to buy
one. Then when she came, the Sister missionaries told her that it was
my birthday and so that became my birthday cake. Fun little miracle.
That made me happy! I love this branch.

So our Korean investigator couple wants to get baptized!!!! Yeah! I
love Allan and Sila. But they are not married and living together. So
we will talk to them about that tomorrow and hopefully they will want
to get married!

We have a new investigator named Sarah. Sarah is from Mongolia! She is
so prepared!! She knows almost nothing about Christianity, but as we
taught her, she just understood things in a way I've never seen
before. For example, when we taught about the Holy Ghost, she first
thought that it was like a ghost, like scary movie, but when we
explained, she says, "Oh yeah it's that feeling that helps you to make
decisions and gives you peace when you are stressed and guides you and
COMFORTS you." ...My companion and I were just speechless. Whoa. She
is so in tune with the Spirit but she didn't even know it! She also
wants to be baptized, but we couldn't set a date. We will soon! She is
so awesome.

The work is picking up! We knew it would. See you all in 14 months!

Love you!

Elder Calvin Chappell

May 1, 2016 Melbourne

Well g'day everybody!

This is the best month of the year! The wonderful month of may! The 13th is an especially great day I reckon. 

So this week "J" was baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah! I haven't said too much about "J" because you guys might just think I am making it up because he is too cool. But I will let you see the pictures and you will know how legendary "J" is.

Elder Chen and I are doing great! We are learning a lot of patience and diligence, so we will be the most patient and hard working missionaries ever by the end of our time together.

This week we found a woman named N. She is so awesome. I can't tell you the whole story but basically, she knows so much about the bible and because of that, she knows that there is more truth out there. She had so many questions. When we met her, I gave her a card with mormon.org on it. So when we came to our appointment, she had printed off an article that she liked from it. Man She is so good. She is an honest seeker of the truth. So I will keep you updated with her!

It's starting to get cold, cause believe it or not, It is becoming winter here! Yep so we will see how that goes!

Love you all! Here's some photos. This is us with "J", and this us with "J" and a member named holly photobombing.