Final Pictures from the Mission

These are the final pictures that I found on the Mission group from Facebook.  I think they were from his final MLC where he shared his departing testimony.  I believe the small group is the missionaries who will be going home at the time Calvin does.

July 11, 2017 Frankston

Hello everybody.

This week was another blur. I am struggling to even think of what happened this week.

Let's see. We were invited to the MLC so I could give a departing testimony, which was weird. I have seen so many Elders and Sisters give those testimonies, and I never thought about it being me one day. But that happened. There was a massive youth basketball competition on Saturday. It was awesome. Stakes compete against each other and and some of them drove for hours to get to it! I was invited to be on the Missionary team, which was really fun.  The Basketball was awesome! It was meant to be 3 on 3 but it became 5 on 5. I swear every member of the church in Melbourne was there. The missionaries just played against each other as kind of half time entertainment, and then we were the official scorekeepers for the youth games. I was the top scorer 😎 Then on Sunday there was a connected fireside, which had President Vidmar: Our Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist Mission President, Some really cool guy who is a catholic, and played Australian Rules Football,. and Elder Smiler, a fellow missionary (back row, second from the left in the photo) who played for New Zealand's national team. (In the game I threw an off the backboard alley-oop to him and he dunked it at the buzzer. It was pretty sweet.) It was a cool fireside.

Those were the highlights of the week. The rest of the time we spent knock knock knock on everyone's doors. (hey, hey, heyeeyayayee)

That's all folks!

Next week I'll do a great email. Probably. But Hey! Look at me I am sending a photo. I think it's been months since I last did that, so be thankful.

Love you!

Elder Chappell

July 6, 2017 Frankston

Hello world!

This week has been another fast one. I think they are getting progressively faster. Every day when we get to our dinner appointment we are asked how are day has been, and every day we answer that it has been fast.

Not too much news from the area this week. We did begin teaching a part member family. He is a member, and she is not. She is from the Philippines, and they just got married last week! We are excited about them cause there seems to be awesome potential with them.

Other than that, it has just been super fast! You may be wondering why the title of my email is "dear John'd". No it wasn't a girl. It was Gordon Hayward. He left the Utah Jazz!! Noooooooooooooo! He almost waited the full two years for me, but it was just too long for him, and he saw the beautiful Boston Celtics walking by and left me for them. How could he. Oh well. I wish him the best. What ever will make him the happiest...sigh... Dear John'd with 3 weeks left.

Anyway, that's all for now! Next week I will finally be back to a Wednesday email, so Tuesday for you guys!

Till then.

Elder Chappell

Oh one more cool thing. The Stakes in Melbourne have been having youth 3 on 3 basketball competitions and now they are having the big one this Saturday. It has been run kind of by the missionaries and so they have gotten the 6 best basketball players in the mission to form two teams and compete against the youth, so I have been chosen! So this Saturday I'll be ballin all morning! It's gonna be fun. Pretty casual, but fun. Kind of like our church ball back home. But the young men have done really well at inviting their non member friends so that will be a good missionary opportunity!  One of our zone leaders is gonna be playing too. He actually played for the Australian National under 20's team.

June 26, 2017 Frankston

Well, this week has been awesome. 

Roger was baptized this week, Sorry I don't have photo's cause I left my camera in the car during the baptism, but another Elder took photos, so I should be able to send them next week. But anyway, Roger is 71 and in a wheelchair, so that was a big question mark for us, how are we gonna get him baptized? It all worked out smoothly though! He stood up and walked, with a lot of support down into the font. My companion and I, with another member in the ward were in the font with him. The member did the baptism, but we helped him back up and out. It was awesome!

Other than that, it's been a great week. Our bishop has told us about a couple of part member families that we are hoping to start working with soon. So we are excited for the future. 

I love you all!

Elder Chappell

June 20, 2017 Frankston

Hello everybody!

This week has been another fast one! The days are just shooting by like hours. We did a lot of finding, and it has been a struggle lately. We are working with the members heaps, and doing our own finding heaps, but so far neither have yielded many results. We aren't getting discouraged about it though, we know the investigators will come. Sometimes it is after the trial of faith!

We had a really great Zone Conference yesterday. What I got out of it is that in order to grow, we need to step outside of our comfort zone. I remember being told that in the MTC. "There is no growth in a comfort zone, and there is no comfort in a growth zone." That was reiterated to me yesterday. In the mission field, we may have times where we start to feel comfortable because it's not new anymore, but we need to always continue to stretch ourselves, so that we can continue to grow! We are never good enough!

Roger will be getting baptized this Saturday. We are super excited. KEEEEEEEEEEEEN. Roger is awesome. We are so happy.

But... the one new investigator we started teaching this week.... was awesome! So his name is Liam. He is 18, and works at KFC. My companion and I happen to really enjoy KFC, so that may or may not have been the place where we originally met Liam. We probably saw him a good 5 times when he was working at KFC, before he randomly showed up at church on Sunday! The reason is that there is also a member working there who he happens to be dating. When we went there, she would wave and say hi to us, and then he started to ask her questions about who we are and things like that, which got them to a religious discussion which led to him coming to church! He has now been twice, and then we organized an appointment and taught him yesterday. He is cool!


Happy Fathers Day! Thank you Dad for everything you do. I know I am so blessed to have a father like you.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Chappell

June 15, 2017 Frankston

Well good eventide everyone. This week has been really fast, even though the work is going a bit slow. Go figure. We are really trying to find new people to teach and have found one or two, but not much real progression happening. Mostly we are just teaching old people! Honestly we spent more time with people over 80 this week than with any other age group! It was great.

Roger is still awesome. He is doing great! We are excited for his baptism.

Sorry I have to cut it super short today, but maybe this way everyone who normally skims the email will actually read it! Ha!

Shout out to Big Joe Eddy for finishing his mission. He is a legend and I love him. What a guy.

Love you all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

June 6, 2017 Frankston

This week has been awesome. Last week I talked about Roger, and how he wants to be baptized. Well, this week he is even stronger. We have seen him every day, and he came to church on Sunday and is developing friendships with the members. The greatest thing though is how he is changing his life. He has been in a wheelchair for years. In fact, he hasn't stood up on his feet in two full years. But this week one day we sat down with him, and out of nowhere he just says, "Watch this." and he stood up and took a few steps! He has also been reaching out to his family who is scattered across the globe and speaking to them, even though they haven't spoken in years. He is making real changes in his life. 

Other than that, the week has just gone super fast. We are still trying to find new investigators and struggling a bit with that, but they will come. 

Happy birthday Brent, and I am sorry to hear about your allergy to falling down. That is truly unfortunate for someone as clumsy as you ;) teehee

Love you all!

Elder Chappell