Some Photos from the Mission

 Calvin's Zone

May Birthdays

 Teaching at Golden Review

 Elder Pulalasi and Elder Chappell

May 31, 2017 Frankston

Well this will be really quick, but we had an awesome miracle this week!

A man named Roger contacted the church and wanted missionaries. He is an old man from Italy who is now living in a rest home. He has two sons in England who are members of the church, and he wants to learn about it. We have been seeing him everyday since then and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying. When we invited him to be baptized, he said he would have to think about it. So we invited him to pray specifically about it. The next day when we came, he sat us down and told us immediately, "I would like to get baptized". He prayed about it, then that night he had a dream of being baptized by us in the church. Miracles Happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I have been talking to the other Elders too much during my email time and I ran out of time... that's why it's short.

Love you all!

Elder Chappell!

May 21, 2017 Frankston

Good morning people!

This week has been awesome. My companion is awesome. We actually get along super well. He is funny. Yes the work in the area has started slow, but it is picking up. Actually, I think these last three weeks have been the fastest 3 of my mission. I feel like the transfer just started, and it's halfway over.
So we are still just trying to figure out this area and trying to find people to teach, and it has been a bit of a struggle, but then we had a miracle! Sister Gray from the mission office called us one day and told us that we have 5 referrals from mormon.org of people that requested copies of the Book of Mormon. They were actually old, from February, but because of a hiccup in the system, they didn't get to us until now! So we went to them right away!

...THEY ACTUALLY WANTED THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! That was a very new thing for me. It was amazing. There were 3 of the 5 that are now investigators for us and really promising! So we are really excited about that.

That is mostly the news for this week. It has been a very fast week. I feel like I emailed two days ago, not a week ago. Time is going super fast. Oh I will be emailing on Wednesdays from now on! (Tuesday evenings for all you Americans) P day has been changed.

Shout outs: Shout out to Kathryn Spackman, Happy 20th! Shout out to Ashlyn Grange, congrats on your engagement! Shout out to Kanaue, because why not? And, last but not least, shout out to Brent Chappell, because this week I went to a public toilet, and someone had graffiti'd the name Brent all over the urinals.

Love you all!

Elder Chappell

May 14, 2017 Frankston

Good morning sweet world.

This week has been pretty solid. We are just trying to build this area up from nothing, and it is taking some time, but I guess that's to be expected. We are starting off with all the part member families in the ward, and so far, no luck, but we haven't been able to meet all of them yet.

MIRACLE TIME!!!!!
So we were going around doing our thing, trying to visit the part member families, and we went to go see this one family in the evening, so it was dark outside. We got out of the car and began walking to the house, and there was one other guy on the road. Of course, he was a dodgy looking guy with a big beard. But we just said hi to him anyway, and he stopped in his tracks and said "missionaries?" When we see signs of recognition, we get so excited. So turns out he is a member from Queensland, who came down to Melbourne to visit his brother and sister who both live in Frankston. He was walking to his sister's house, because she was sick. He said she might want a blessing, but she's not a member, so he decided to just take our number and go ask her, then call us. So we went on our merry way. Within 15 minutes he called us and said that she and her partner both wanted blessings! So we rushed over there. We ended up talking to this family for about an hour. Their names are Will and Bec. They are looking for a church right now! They are honest seekers of the truth, and they loved what they heard from us. Bec is especially excited to read the Book of Mormon. Will had about 10000 questions. It was great. And the funny thing is, the family we had originally been trying to see, didn't even live at that address anymore, so we know we were led there for Will and Bec!

I turned 20 this week! That was weird to think. Thanks Mom for sending the cake mix, I made it and it actually tasted really good! I don't think I've ever done that before. Birthday miracles.

Happy mothers day to all the moms! Or "mums" as they say here. I love you Mom!

Farewell, and Godspeed.

Elder Chappell

May 7, 2017 Frankston

(Elder Chappell sent a voice recording this week instead of a group email.  You can listen if you want...they are a little silly at times.  But we love hearing his voice, and getting to know his new companion a little.  It is neat to hear the Australian/Samoan accent.)

Hi Mom,  So I am in Frankston with Elder Pulalasi, a new missionary that I am training.  He is Samoan, from Brisbane Australia.  He is awesome.  I don't even feel like I am training him!  He came pre-trained I swear.  The ward is AWESOME.  Honestly they are so into missionary work.  The last elders in this area were...struggling.  So we are basically starting from scratch.  But the investigators will come soon.  The ward is happy to have us which is awesome.  You can send this one out as the weekly email, cause to be honest, there's not that much to report this week, and I just can't be bothered typing up an email.  Congratulations to the Callaway's and their new baby.

Love you all.  Elder Chappell

April 30, 2017 Werribee

G'day wonderful people.

 

So this week was the last week of the transfer and it finished with a bang! This was honestly one of the fastest weeks of my mission. We did a lot of hard work and did find a few people. 

 

Update on Ryan and Angelika. They are still absolutely awesome. They are not going to get baptized super soon, but they are 100% getting baptized. And when they do, they will be totally prepared. They are doing more missionary work than most of the members. In church they take up an entire row, because of them and their 3 kids, Angelika's 2 nieces, Ryan's mum, and Angelika's 2 cousins. They are all coming because of the example from these two. They are making some amazing changes in their lives, and we love them. 

 

Stella is still amazing. Since her baptism, she has been on fire still. This last Saturday we had the amazing privilege to go to the temple with her and do baptisms for the dead. She did a baptism for her own mother, and it was awesome. She loved it and wants to go again! She is awesome.  Excerpt from Calvin’s companion’s email: “We had the amazing opportunity to see Stella attend the temple and do Baptisms for the dead. It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission. The spirit there was simply amazing. Stella was beaming. She was able to be baptized for her mother and a few other names the temple had for her. It was just really cool. As we talked about it after Stella said that it was such a privilege for her to be baptized for other people, she even said that she was trying to remember all the names and thinking of how much it would mean for them! So a very successful month for Stella, baptized on the 1st and then attending the temple on the 29th. In the Pacific area there is an interesting statistic about recent converts attending the temple. If a recent convert attends the temple within 30 days of their baptism there is an 80+% retention rate. If they don't there is a less than 30% retention rate. It goes to show you just how important the temple really is. It was such a great day! We are so excited for her!”

 

So, transfer news is that I will be leaving Werribee! I will be going to Frankston, (a.k.a. the armpit of Australia.) Honestly, there's a few missionaries from Queensland (northern Australia), and they say that they always hear stories about Frankston. Going to the hood! I will be training a new missionary, and I am pretty keen. So we will be doubling in, or white washing, or whatever you wanna call it. We are both going to be new to the area. I am pumped to go and just get to work and baptize nations! 

 

Sorry... I never take photos. 

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Chappell

 

P.S. Go Jazz

 

Picture: Elder Albrechtson, Elder Chappell and Stella at the temple

April 23, 2017 Werribee

Well, this week was great! 

We basically have either dropped, or been dropped by every investigator except for like 3! So this week has been full of finding. So far, the investigators are few and far between, but we know they are coming. We did find a guy named Glory who could be absolutely golden! So I will keep you posted on him. 

Ryan and Angelika are still awesome. They are doing everything they can. They are coming to church, reading as a family, praying as a family, attending the addiction recovery class, paying tithing, and making plans for their wedding! They are so cool.

So I thought I would share some of our tracting experiences from this week! In Australia, just about every door has a sign that says DO NOT KNOCK no sales people, or different variations of that. Most of them specify that they are just talking to sales people, but there are some that also call out religious representatives. Of course, we ignore all of them anyway, but there was one this week, that is very general, It just said NO DOOR KNOCKERS. So naturally, we knocked on the door. Turns out that this guy was just inside the door. So the knock scared him, and he came out with an attitude. He immediately pointed at the sign and asked, "WHAT DOES THAT SAY??" Elder Albrechtsen calmly responded that we were just the missionaries and we wanted to share a message with him and all that, but the man cut him off and repeated his question a bit louder, and Elder Albrechtsen answered his question by reading the sign. The man then went into a rage rivaled only by the Hulk, and screamed some expletives at us as we offered him a card, and walked off of his property. He was a nice guy. Maybe an hour later, an older woman answered the door wearing nothing but a towel. She told us it was not the best time. We kinda figured that, but, yeah. Oh Aussies.

So that's this week! 

Sorry I don't ever take photos... my bad.

Love you all!

Elder Chappell