April 3, 2016 Melbourne

Hello everybody! How ya going?

I got transferred again.

April Fools I didn't.


Life is really really really good here in Melbourne. I love this area.
So to give some info on our branch, In the city there are two
branches. Melbourne first (chinese) and Melbourne second (english). We
share a building, meaning one floor of an office highrise building.
Anytime you go inside "the branch" you will always find missionaries
in different rooms teaching investigators. There are many activities
in the branch every week. FHE on mondays, free english classes on
thursdays and Saturdays, and game nights on Fridays. Heaps and heaps
of people come to all of it.

Most of the 2nd branch is recent converts. It is really cool to see
the sacrament being blessed and passed by only men/young men who were
baptised in the last few months. This branch is like a little slice of
Zion. Everybody is so happy and nice and amazing. Everyone performs
their callings so well.

To explain the subject line, there is a sister in our branch, Sister
Huong Mei from Malaysia, who is just so amazing and so funny. She
brings friends to church all of the time. Yesterday she brought a
young man named Perry, and introduced him to us in a very loud and
proud voice in front of everyone, just like this. "here, dis my
invettigata. You teach, he baptize. You're welcome." Haha she is so
great.

So a regular day, we do our studies, go to the city, carry a bag full
of supplies, go to the state library, set the bags down, and just talk
to people. It is very very busy in front of the library so there are
always people to talk to. So many. At first it was pretty hard for me
to do it, but it's amazing how quickly I have gotten good at it! I
love to talk so I just chat with people, and move the conversation to
the gospel. It is really fun! I carry in my hand one Book of Mormon
and one of each of the pamphlets, and just give them out to everyone.
Then I go get more from my bag. We talk to so many people each day. So
many.

Often we can talk with someone, and when we see that they are
interested, we tell them about the branch, and invite them to walk
with us to it. Then we walk (just about five minutes) and go give them
a chapel tour. It is amazing. We have so many investigators already!

Most of the people taught in the city are students at Melbourne Uni or
RMIT, the two big Universities here. (in this country, college means
high school, so you don't say college, you say Uni). Young people just
seem to be much more open. They are usually always keen to chat and
then when they hear the amazing message we share and feel the Spirit
testify to them, we teach them and everybody is happy! I am so excited
for this area.

Please pray for Angel. She is our investigator from Indonesia. She
wants to be baptised, but her parents are Buddhist and she wants them
to support her, so she needs to ask them for permission, but she is
too scared to ask. So she needs prayers.

Well I think that's all for this week. Sorry for the lack of Pictures.
Next week I promise!

Love yous all Bye!
Elder Calvin Chappell

March 27, 2016 Melbourne

Well everybody, Happy Easter!!!

This week I was transferred again. Yep! That's twice in less than
three weeks! If you read last weeks email, that is the reason I was
transferred. The church legal office decided it wasn't safe for me and
my companion to be in that area still, so we both got transferred.
Oh no nobody is in trouble. The guy was just trying to sue the church
and was really angry so they thought it was best if we weren't there
because if we saw him again he would probably be violent again. 
A scripture that I really loved recently, I don't
know the reference but it came from near the beginning of Acts, and
Peter and John were taken to court, tried, let go, but were beaten
first. It said that they left "rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for His name." That really touched me. (But Mom is ok with me not getting beaten!)

Guess where I got moved to.

Go ahead guess.

I got moved into the city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woooot! City life! I didn't
think that would be possible because there were only chinese
missionaries and one companionship of english sisters in the city
before. But they just opened the area to one set of elders. Melbourne
is amazing. Easily the biggest and most modern city I have ever been
in. It is beautiful and big and diverse and big and busy and big and
awesome and big. I would send pictures, but in my haste to transfer, I
left my camera in Springvale. I should get it this week and send
photos next time.

My new companion is Elder Higham from Maryland (nope he doesn't know
the beutlers). He has been serving for 21 months. He is obedient and
hardworking. We are going to see so many miracles! I can just feel
that we are going to find, teach, and baptiZe so many. He is the
District Leader so I don't have to do that anymore! Mwahahahaha this
transfer is too good to be true. A crazy guy trying to kill me was
the best thing that could have happened to me! Yeah!

Because we are opening the area, we have zero investigators. But the
city is famous for baptizing way more than any other area. The work
goes crazy fast. As an example of that, the sister missionaries in the
branch with us "gave" us an investigator on the first day. They talked
to him one time and he came to church. Then they gave him to us.

What??

In any other area, if someone comes to church you cling to them like
your life depends on it. That's how awesome the work is here! We
already got 5 referrals. Which is about equal to how many I have
received in the rest of my entire mission. I am so pumped to get to
work here.

We just GQ all day. Which means we stand in busy places and talk to
people walking by. It is super successful. It's amazing. But it is
totally different to how you do missionary work in other areas, so
it's an adjustment.

If you want to see the places we GQ at, just google Flinders Street
Station Melbourne, and Victoria State Library. This place is awesome.

We got to church in a giant skyscraper. The church bought one floor of
the building and that is our church. It is really really awesome.
Everyone just calls it "the branch". There are two branches. Melbourne
first (Chinese), and Melbourne second (English). There are a lot of
Asians and Australians with a few scattered other cultures.

Life is good. I hope I can serve here for so long.

Love yous all!

Elder Calvin Chappell

March 20, 2016 Springvale

So this week a lot of stuff happened, but for the sake of time I can
only talk about the most exciting part, which I will tell in a story.

It all started in 1997...

Jokes! No it started on Saturday at about 3:00 P.M. My companion and I
were doing some tracting. We had had a pretty good time. We had a few
nice discussions, no one super solid though. Then we came to this
house. In Australia Most of the houses are fenced off. So you often
have to open a gate and walk into the yard before you can knock on the
door. This was one of those homes. We opened the gate, walked in, and
heard a man inside screaming at someone else inside. He used some
colorful language. One word in particular was definitely his go-to
word. Well, at the beginning of my mission, that would scare me and I
would just leave that house. But after a while the fear goes away. So
we just keep walking. When we got up onto the porch, the man saw us
outside his window, and redirected his screams at us, with special
emphasis on his favorite word. He issued to us a firm invitation to
leave his property as soon as possible (garnished with more of that
word, which is was quickly getting tired of).

As soon as I heard this invitation, I turned and began to shuffle out
of the yard. My companion on the other hand, didn't move. Instead he
asked, very kindly, "pardon?". If you don't remember, my companion is
a very large man. He also has quite the temper. So I began to be
worried. The yells and favorite words continued and increased in
volume. Soon the door slammed open and the man came raging out the
door. At this point, my shuffle became a brisk jog, and my companion
decided to follow me. The man picked up the nearest object which was a
bike helmet, and threw it at us hard. It hit my companion in the arm.

Uh-oh.

Well, the man then began to run at us and then in self defense, my
companion picked the helmet up and threw it right back at him.

SMACK

IT hit the man right in the head. Hard.

Well at that point, chaos totally broke. The man raised the beer
bottle he had been drinking from and ran at Elder Faamausili with
murderous rage in his eyes. They were in a dead sprint running down
the road. I began to follow when two other men ran out of the house
and yelled that same word many times at me. (it must be a family
slogan or something?) Well, yeah I did what a true hero full of
courage and faith does. I ran my guts out in the other direction.

When I turned around, I realized nobody was following me. Phew!
Relief! I'm good. good good....


Oh wait.. That means there's three guys chasing my companion.

So I ran back, then was chased back again by one of the guys with a
big rock in his hand. (man these guys are crazy!!) So then I came to
my senses and went around the other way. I got to the car, hoping and
praying that my companion would be there, but of course, he wasn't.

I kept my cool, drove around in the car a little but always checking
back where the car was to make sure he didn't go back. I couldn't find
him. So I parked in the same spot again and waited. It took about 20
minutes before I freaked out and decided I needed to do something. My
companion had our phone, so I borrowed a phone from a nice random guy,
and then realized I didn't know my own number... or any numbers except
for my past number. So I called my last companion and got President
Maxwell's number from him, called him, and then got my comp's number
and found him.

While I had been on my chase, my companion had been in a more exciting
one. These men with rocks/bottles chased him over a fence, where he
was chased by a big dog, then the same three men jumped over the
fence, then the owners of this random house, (also drunk, also using
that same word) came to my companions defense.  Well, long story
short, or shorter anyway, the police were called, then called off. The
man was lying a lot about us attacking him. He had a  nice big
bleeding wound on his head. Our ward mission leader came to the rescue
and stopped all the arguments. Everybody went home and all were safe.

But yeah! That happened!!

Fun story right?

How was your week?

We just have a couple of people to teach right now so we spend all day
every day trying to find new ones! The miracles will start flowing in
soon I am sure. We are teaching one woman, she is a very old Peruvian
woman named Maria. She is awesome. She is at church every week. Her
whole family is members, but she has been waiting to be baptized cause
she doesn't think she is ready yet. She'll come around! She is
amazing. She always cooks Peruvian food for us. I love her!

Yesterday somebody was cleaning out their garage (In

Australia, garage is pronounced so that it rhymes with carriage). We

offered to help, but they refused. But I had thought, man I want to do

that! I really miss the chores, which is weird. But this week we got

to mow a lawn for an investigator, and that was the highlight of my

day! I loved it. I have missed the feeling of holding a trimmer and

the smell of gasoline and cut grass. It was good. But It's not as good

without my family.

Love you all!

Elder Calvin Chappell