February 28, 2016 Melton

Jaide was baptized last Saturday! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! It was beautiful. I

felt nervous to perform the ordinance but when it happened I didn't
even have to think. I just did it and it was perfect. The Spirit

helped me with that. She is so
awesome. She is only 14 and she already says she can't wait to serve a
mission. Her whole family is coming around too. Her mom, (sister Boyd,
less active member) is giving up drinking, coming to church every
week. Trevor, her mom's partner is now asking heaps of questions. He
is the man. Her older sisters Amber and Shaydie have not been very
excited before, but they loved the baptism and also had heaps of
questions! Also the younger sisters Rhayne (rain) and Skylah are
begging their mom to be baptized. Skylah is too young but Rhayne is 8!
We will see. I have this vision of going with all of them to their
family sealing in the temple in a year. It can totally happen.

This week was crazy!! Transfers happened. Elder Seifert has gone to
the strange land of Tasmania. Fa Seifert!! (fa means goodbye in
Samoan.) We now have two new Filipinos, Elder Olan and Elder
Prestousa. And I am comps with Elder Ching.  We love being

companions. He actually knows Wayne from the 3rd ward! They went to a
youth conference in Hong Kong together! Ask him about Alan Ching. See
if he remembers. We are both 18 and so that is good. A lot of
missionaries kind of look down on the 18 year olds so I am glad I have

a young comp with me.

 We had a special broadcast Stake Conference with Elder Quentin L. 

Cook, Elder Kevin W. Pearson, and a couple others. It was awesome.

There was a lot more that happened, but in short, We were running
around, in and out of our area to help other Elders, and had almost no
time for proselyting. So that was stressful and hard. But this week is
going to be gun as.

I don't know if I use the slang a whole lot in my emails, I can see
that I use a little bit, but I have really picked it up. I still have
a Yankee accent mostly, but some Aussies have said I don't sound
American at all, so that was awesome. I am really starting to sound
Aussie (mixed with New Zealand).

Live long and prosper.

Elder Calvin Chappell

Photos: Baptism, baptism, and a random cool picture with me and my
former zone leader elder Ferris.

February 21, 2016 Melton

Hello world.

Transfers happened. I am staying here! The Australia Melton Mission!!!
Wooooot! That's what I really wanted. Elder Seifert is being
transferred to Tazzy! (Tasmania) I am kind of jealous, but I love
Melton so all good.

Shout out to Sister Spackman going to New York speaking Spanish! Watch
out New York. A small package full of a whole heap of attitude is
coming your way. You'll be a great missionary Kathryn!

So I guess none of my emails sent last week... Sorry! I promise I sent
them! I don't know what happened. Hopefully I can resend some.

We are super excited for this week! Jade is going to be baptized on
Saturday! Oh yeah, the date got changed back to the 27th. We are going
to get two more Elders in Melton. Elder Olan (another Filipino) and a
new missionary. We don't know who yet. Exciting! This area is one
where people are trained all the time. It also seems to be an area for
Filipinos....

The miracle this week is a couple named Jose and Elise. Jose is from
El Salvador. Spanish and Spanish accents and anything Spanish is
unheard of in this side of the world, so that is strangely
refreshing. For those of you missionaries serving in Spanish places,
that's probably funny to you. (Elder Eddy, Sister Beutler, Elder
Clift. I'm talking to yous). But anyway, We saw Jose on the street,
talked to him, and got his address. We came to his house the next day,
they opened the door, greeted us happily, and listened to our message
with heaps of soul searching questions. We taught the Restoration and
they said, "wow. That makes so much sense." Since then, they have read
half of 1 Nephi together! We love them so much and they are so
prepared!


Well sorry for the short email today. Here's some sunrise pictures
from our pre-transfer early morning zone hike. This time the sisters
slept in so we had some good old fashioned man fun. Which means
running around pretending to be zombies or guys with guns. It doesn't
get much better than that.

Elder Chappell is out. PEACE.


Oops never mind, I forgot my camera.. Pictures will come next week. Sorry!

February 14, 2016 Melton

I don't know why this didn't send last week...

Happy Valentines day! I forgot that that was today, cause... Well it
really doesn't matter to a missionary. But it was actually yesterday
for me. Today is the 15th here! Which means it is my 7 month mark!
What in the world?? Where did the last month go? Far out.

Oh btw, Hopper's Crossing is the name of a suburb over here. I am not
actually in it but I'm there all the time for district meetings and
what not. I thought it was a funny name. (hopper means Kangaroo if you
didn't know)

This week was awesome! We had zone conference and I always love that.
Transfers are coming up! On the 23rd!

So the big news this week is.... Jade changed her baptism to this week
instead of next week! That wouldn't be a big deal really except that
means that I will for sure be here for it! This is the last Saturday
of the Transfer so we will all be here! We are so excited. The family
is doing so well. They are seeing Jade's light and the sisters are so
much more interested than before, and even the man of the house,
Trevor! He is a massive man that looks like a beast but he's really
super nice and kind. He is from the Cook Islands, a tiny little group
of islands in the pacific. He is Sister Boyd's partner. We are hoping
they will get married soon. But we are so happy to be teaching this
whole family now!

MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we have this new way of finding people.
It is called "talk to every Filipino and ask for their Filipino
friends". People from the Philippines are just super nice and love the
missionaries, so we just try to find them. Anyway, we had been growing
our Filipino teaching pool, and we asked for their Filipino friends,
and we were referred to a friend named Chona. They knew which street
she lived on, but not which house, so we just decide to tract the
street! Well, we met Chona, and she was cool, but the miracle was
someone else! Her name is Victoria. She is an Aussie. Single mom with
3 little kids. Basically she is golden. When we mentioned families
being together forever she was touched and felt that she should listen
to us. So we told her a simple Plan of Salvation and set a return
appointment. She is super awesome. We haven't had a sit down lesson
with her yet but she is great. She read the pamphlet cover to cover
(which nobody does). And she prayed about it! She felt a peaceful
feeling when she prayed.
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
We are happy.

Happy Valentines day everybody! Eat heaps of lollies!

Elder Chappell

February 7, 2016 Melton

Goooooood evening sweet world!

This week was pretty good! We set a baptism date with Jade! The 27th
of February. She asked me to baptize her! I am super excited. We love
this family. She is an amazing singer but she is super shy, but she is
going to sing a solo of I know that my Redeemer lives at her baptism!
It will be awesome.

Elder Seifert and Elder Ching are doing awesome. We have a blast together.

Ooh funny story! Today the Jehovah's Witnesses came to our door! The
best part was the reaction of the guy when he saw us. "oh...
Mormons... hmm... ok" He then proceeded to give us a memorized speech
using his ipad as a guide. The poor guy. He was so nervous. Reminded
me of myself at my first door. They wouldn't accept our pamphlets :(

We have really been struggling to find new investigators! It is hard,
but we will find them. The field is white already to harvest so I know
it will happen soon!

So the explanation for the subject line is that this week I was able
to try two meats that were new to me! Octopus and Horse. Octopus I
guess is pretty common in the world, but not for me! It was all right.
Really chewy. Horse is very common to eat in Tonga. So a Tongan member
fed us, I had no idea what it was, but it was great! So I asked, what
is this meat? Yep. It was Horse. Now one of my most favorite! They
also eat dog, but I haven't been able to try that yet.

Sorry for the short email, but not that much happened this week!

Love you all!

Elder Chappell

Janaury 31, 2016 Melton (whole city again)

Hi everybody!

Well as the subject implies, this was a crazy week! It started about
an hour after I emailed last week. I got a call from President
Maxwell. He said that Elder Babneau (my former companion, and my then
current District Leader and flatmate) was being emergency transferred.
He then told me that Elder Ching, who was Elder Babneau's companion,
would join Elder Seifert and I, and the area of Melton would be one
area again. Elder Ching is a brand new missionary. Less than a month
in the field. He is from Hong Kong. So this means I am training two
missionaries at the same time... and then President asked me to be the
new District Leader... AAAAH!! What?!  "um... President are you sure?"
So yeah I am now a district leader and training two missionaries, and
I still don't even know how to train one! So this week has been pretty
stressful to say the least. Mostly because the area is so big now.
That is a blessing and a curse. We have heaps and heaps of
investigators which is so awesome. But we have to figure out who is
keen and see them because we don't have enough time for everyone!
Melton needs two companionship's. President said this wont be
permanent, just for this transfer.

For those of you keeping track, I have now served in Melton South,
Melton North, all of Melton, Melton South again, and now all of Melton
again. Yep. Most of the missionaries here call our mission the AMM
(Australia Melbourne Mission), but I call it the AMM (Australia MELTON
Mission).

MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The number one miracle for this week is
that Riel, Joseph, and Samuel were baptized. One of the Priests in the
ward baptized them, and I confirmed them. It was amazing. Riel doesn't
smile very much, but when he does, it makes everyone smile. And when
he came out of the water, his smile was so big I almost laughed. It is
pretty amazing the Spirit you can feel at a baptism.

Miracle number 2 is our two golden investigators!! They are named
Akuei (Uh-quee) and Flora. They are from Sudan, and they are
sisters-in-law. They are so golden! They ask questions like, "how can
we know what the truth is? Every church says they have the truth." and
Flora said, "The Bible isn't enough. Everybody gets something
different out of the Bible. How can that be all?" They have been so
prepared. And they are now preparing for baptism on Feb 20.

Miracle number 3 comes from the Boyd family that I have talked about
before. One of the girls is named Jade. She is 14 I think. She has
been the one sitting in all of the lessons, coming to church, and even
going to young women. We learned that she has actually been pushing
her family to go! Well she told us yesterday that she wants to be
baptized!! We didn't even ask her first! She says she feels something
every time she is at church and every time we teach. We are so happy.
Jade being baptized will be the first step for this family.

Anyway, That's mostly all for this week. Man that was a lot of stuff
though! So much emotion in this week and it was all good emotion. I am
loving life in the Australia Melton Mission!

Love yous all!
Elder Calvin Chappell

 (I'd like to know which super hero he is trying to be...?)

January 24, 2016 Melton South

G'day everyone! I would like to begin with a shout out to a certain
human person. That certain human person is a female. She has hair on
her head of the red color. She has freckles on her nose. Her eyes
are.... actually nobody really knows what color her eyes are. Green
maybe? This certain red haired freckle nosed rainbow eyed female human
person is turning 13 years old today. Are there any guesses as to whom
I am speaking of?

It's Amy Jane Chappell!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you sis! You are now officially a teenager. Which means, watch
out Mom and Dad. Here comes the attitude. Or as they say it here,
add-itch-you-d.

So this week has been incredible! The Melton ward chapel is being
extended. The renovations will last about a year. By the time it is
done it will be big enough to fit three wards! So as a last hoorah for
the old chapel, we had a ward party that was a potluck dinner. A
potluck dinner with a bunch of Samoans and Tongans means it is a REAL
POTLUCK DINNER. They had a hungi, which is when they dig a hole in the
ground and fill it with rocks and use that as a natural oven. They
smoked three whole pigs in that. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Anyway, we invited everyone and heaps of our investigators came!

Riel, Joseph, and Samuel are doing really well. They are now really
good friends with the young men in the ward, which was a struggle for
a while. They are excited for their baptism. And so am I!!!!

The other family that we are working with all the time is the Boyd
family. I don't know how much I have told yous about them but the mom
is a less active and the rest of the family is not members. Single mom
with 5 daughters. They are from New Zealand and they are awesome. The
mom is super keen to have lessons and come to church and everything,
but the girls have been not so keen. But this week that all changed!
The third daughter, Jade (13), went to a young womens activity, and
loved it. So then she went with her mom to the ward party. So then she
and the second daughter Amber (17) came to church with their mom! It
was so awesome! We really care about this family and want them to be
happy so this meant a lot to us. Still working on that oldest daughter
Shay! She will come around sometime.

Elder Seifert and I are having heaps of fun. The work is going really
well. We have been able to go out with members almost every day. I am
loving it!

Well, Bye everyone! TTYNW.
(talk to you next week.)
ILYA (I love yous all)
WLTMFGS (write letters to me for goodness sake)

Elder Calvin Chappell


Pictures: Me and Elder Seifert looking skux, Us with a cute little
girl in our ward named Annabella. It is also her birthday today! Us
with Riel, Joseph, and Samuel.

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..