June 13, 2016 Shepparton

G'day everyone!

This week was pretty interesting. A lot of stuff happened, but at the same time, not too much happened. I know that sounds like it doesn't make sense, but it does, I promise. 

So we had heaps of meetings this week! And in our zone, meetings are a big deal, because we have to travel for ages to get there. So my comp and I had MLC, a meeting with the zone leaders and stuff. So we had to go down to Melbourne for that. That was good. That was Tuesday. Then Friday we had Zone Conference, so we all had to gather at Wangaratta for that one. Then Saturday we had a District Conference, (like a stake conference, but for a district), again at Wangaratta, so most of the missionaries in the zone had to sleep over at other missionaries flats, which is only allowed with special permission, so we had to organize all of that and get permission from the AP's. Then Sunday we had the second session of District Conference, so another sleep over happened. Then on Monday we had an awesome meeting with the whole mission. Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy, Sister McConkie of the Young women's General Presidency, and Sister Reeves of the Relief Society General Presidency along with their spouses were there. It was awesome. But I'll tell you about that later. So we had to organize more travel using the least amount of cars and K's (kilometers) as possible, more sleepovers, and get more permission. We ended up driving so much. I feel like being a Zone Leader is more like being a business man than a missionary sometimes.

Anyway, the meeting was so good! Elder Nielsen inspired me so much. They all just talked about missionaries. Each of them had been a mission president/ president's wife before, so they knew what they were talking about. The biggest thing that stuck out to me from that meeting was from Sister McConkie's husband. He said that we as missionaries are living the dream and we should 

always be happy. "There is no room for unhappiness in the life of a missionary." I totally believe it! I am living the dream! Honestly, I have been looking forward to being a missionary ever since I was a little kid, and now I am finally living my dream! It is pretty amazing.

So about the area! We have one investigator preparing for baptism!!! His name is Gritharan. He is Indian/Malaysian. I actually haven't met him yet! My companion saw him on exchanges with another missionary, so he is doing well, but I haven't met him. His Baptismal date is the 25th of June! He is smoking though. He would have been baptized ages ago but he couldn't quit smoking. So today we are meeting with him and we are going to start the Stop Smoking Program with him. I am so excited!!!! 

Miracle Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's a long story, but I'll cut it short. Elder Jeremia and I were reading about Abinadi and He said to King Noah that he had not finished his message. So Elder Jeremia thought of a former investigator named Crystal. He had taught her and she eventually texted and dropped them. But he felt strongly that we have not finished our message with her. So we said a prayer, called her, set an appointment, then said a prayer of thanks. I know that may sound pretty lame, but it was a total miracle! The Lord softened her heart. She was so keen to meet with us again! Miracle! After that happened, we felt so pumped to do more missionary work that we just wanted to go tracting! Too bad it was about 9:30 at night.

This has been an awesome week! I drove way too much, but this week we will actually be able to work in our area so I am really excited. 

See yous later!

Elder Calvin Chappell

This is me with an awesome dog, and this is a cow painted like a tiger. Shepparton has this thing with cows everywhere painted in funny ways. Kind of like Park City, Utah with it's Moose. I'll send more cow pictures next week.

June 5, 2016 Shepparton

Hello everybody!

So this week was quite an experience!

My companion is Elder Jeremia from New Zealand. His parents are from a
little pacific island called Tuvalu. He is the man. He has been
serving for about 15 months. We get along really well! I really love
being his companion. Honestly I already feel like I am a better
missionary than I was last week. Also I love the NZ accent, and I am
hoping I'll pick it up from him.

So we are in the area called Shepparton, in the Wangaratta zone.
Shepparton doesn't have a ward, it has a branch. A very small branch!
We are not in a Stake, we are in a District. It is awesome! Each of
the areas is a branch. Our branch is pretty awesome. I'll tell you
more about them later. Wang zone is known throughout the mission as
the bush zone. It is seriously bush. Shepparton itself is actually a
pretty good sized city, but the rest of the areas in our zone are tiny
little towns. We are very isolated. It is a long way from our zone to
the rest of the mission, and it's a long way from our area to any
other area in the zone! This first week we spent so much time driving.
I am not sure how much time, but we had to fill up the tank 3 times
already. We went to each area in our zone to help the new missionaries
move in and help them get started in their areas. So our Friday was
literally, 3 hour drive, 1 hour help elders, 2 hour drive, 1 hour
help, 3 hour drive, 1 hour help, etc. It was pretty tiring. But most
of our driving is finished!

Actually I lied. This week we will drive heaps too. We have so many
meetings coming up! MLC, Zone Meeting, Zone Conference, District
Conference (like stake conference, but we are in a district), and a
special meeting with a couple of general auxilary leaders and one of
the seventies! I don't know who it is yet, but I'll tell you next
week.

So about the branch, I am going to gain weight again!
Noooooooooooooooooooo! I have worked so hard to lose it, but It's
definitely gonna come back. Why? Because Samoans. The branch may be
small in numbers, but in physical size, it is large. Most of the
members are Samoan, and for those who don't know, the Samoan culture
very much includes, food, giving, giving food, missionaries, and
giving to missionaries. When you put those together, it means I will
gain weight.

For example. My first night in the branch, we had splits with a couple
of the men in the branch. We went to visit a less active Samoan
family. When we went there, they let us in, we talked, and as I have
become accustomed to with Polynesians, they invited us to sit down,
and put a table in front of us and the children began to bring food
and drink. I was pretty hungry, so this was a welcome sight. They
placed a MASSIVE plate of chicken, rice, and lamb chops in front of
me, and one in front of the Brother i was with, and instructed me to
eat. I did as I was asked. it was delicious. When I finished the plate
in record time and sat back satisfied, I noticed that they were
looking at me rather impressed. Then the Brother who was with me
informed all of us that he was sick and unable to eat. He then
proceeded to offer his plate to me. Looking at this plate, heaping
with delicious food, measuring my full stomach and trying to decide if
I was able to eat even half of it, but also considering the knowledge
I had of how to help the Samoan members like you as a missionary
(which is based on how much you enjoy their food), I decided I only
get to serve a mission once, so experiences like this are once in a
lifetime. I undertook to conquer the second plate. After I finished,
my stomach aching, my companion laughing, and the members smiling, We
taught a quick lesson and got to our next appointment. Then on Sunday
at church, the family came (Yay!) and the mother bore her tesimony on
the pulpit. From the pulpit she said, " This branch is paradise, eh
Elder Chappell? His first night here he ate two plates! I never
thought i'd see a palagi eat two plates. Everyone, feed these Elders."
For those who don't know, Palagi (pronounced pah-long-ee) means white
person. We now have 8 dinner appointments for next week. Yes I know
there is only 7 days in a week. This is the Australia Melbourne
Mission.

Well that's about it for this week! We have a couple of solid
investigators but I haven't met them yet because I have barely been in
our area! But more info next week.

Happy Birthday Brent! Go date some girls and drive some cars.

Sorry I didn't bring my card reader... again. So no pictures this
week. More to come.

I love you all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

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.