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

April 9, 2017 Werribee

Good eventide people.

This week was a roller coaster ride! 

So I'll just get right into the meat and potatoes of it. There's an investigator couple named Ryan and Angelika. They are a young couple from New Zealand with 3 young kids. Angelika was raised by non member parents, but her grandmother was a member of the church and took her to church regularly as a child. She was never baptized and since then has had a hard life and she and Ryan were "not very close to God" as she said it. Some time last month, they both realized that the way they were living was not getting them anywhere. They felt lost and meaningless. So Angelika decided to go to church for the first time in years. She thought that Ryan would not be interested at all, but after one week, they were both going together. Then after two, they were bringing the kids along. Pretty soon, we were meeting with them. These two are amazing. They are seeing and feeling the Gospel working in their lives and they are putting the effort into it. They are reading the Book of Mormon and Praying as a family daily. They are coming to church every week. They already knew about the temple sealing, and told us that was their goal. They now have a picture of the Melbourne temple on their wall, with words that say "Family is forever". We invited them to be baptized, and they were super excited and said yes! We knew they were living together out of wedlock (just like every couple in this country), so we explained about the Law of Chastity and how they would need to be married before the baptism. Ryan was all for it, but Angelika looked a little hesitant. They told us they'd talk about it and get back to us. The next day, guess what? They told us they were getting married and baptized on the 27th of May! Wooooooot! Could anybody possibly be this converted???

Well, nothing is perfect, so the day after that, we went to visit, and Ryan was the only one home. He explained to us that he and Angelika were both addicted to a few things, and they had decided to stop cold turkey that day, and the withdrawals brought out tempers and they had had a huge argument. As we were sitting talking, Angelika came back home, and she was fuming. She was so angry at him, and Ryan asked us politely to leave, while they began yelling at eachother. As we were leaving we heard some harsh things of how they no longer want to be married. Well, we were heartbroken. 

but...... MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!! Sunday Morning Session of General Conference comes up, and the whole family came! They came to both sessions and we went to visit afterwards. They apologized for how they argued in front of us, and explained that they still very much want to be married, baptized, and eventually sealed. They really connected with some of the talks in Conference, and they felt the Spirit so strong. We contacted the Bishop immediately and set up a time for them to talk to him about marrying them! 

God has been helping them so much. He will continue to help them as they fight against their addictions, continue to repent and come unto Christ. It is amazing for us to be able to be a part of their journey. Their wedding and Baptism will be on June 3rd. Their sealing will be a year later. 

So that's my week! General Conference was awesome by the way. Holy Goodness I loved it. 

Have a great week! 

Elder Chappell

(us with Ryan and Angelika, with their kids, Rhyze, and Rhavenblue. Their middle one, Rhavaybreeze, is not in the picture)

April 2, 2017 Werribee

Good afternoon people! 

This week has been pretty miraculous. 

The biggest miracle was definitely that Stella was baptized and confirmed this week! She has definitely been the most converted convert I've had on the mission. She is amazing. So her baptism went well. Brother Letalu, our ward mission leader baptized her, and the Bishop confirmed her. 

So on Sunday, we had Gospel Principles class, and the topic was Faith. The teacher asked anyone to share an example of faith in their lives, and Stella raised her hand. She said that when we came to her door, she felt something different. She said that there had been so many people that have come to her door before, but there was something different about us. So she decided to give it a shot. Then she started hearing what we were saying, and we seemed to have the answers to all of her questions. She said that she was praying everyday to know if she should keep following this, if the Book of Mormon was true, if she should get baptized, etc... and in her words, "well, here I am!" That was so awesome for us to hear. It's been amazing watching her journey to gain a testimony and get baptized. 

Now time to get here to the Temple :) 

Now for another MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!

Immediately after the baptism, we had an appointment with a man named Mark, who I had never met before, but my companions met him one time on exchanges just the day before. He lives right around the corner from us and he is awesome! We taught him the Restoration and he just ate it up! He understood and loved it! He accepted to be baptized on the 29th of April. It was amazing.

Probably the biggest thing I've learned in my mission, and reemphasized this week is that God's hand is in everybody's lives. He is leading people like Stella and Mark to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the same time, he is leading people like me and my companions to success in sharing the Gospel in the times that we need it the most. His plan is perfect.

Chappell out. 

Mission Leader Conference

Zone Conference and Flu shots.

Stella's baptism!