March 12, 2017 Werribee

Good eventide everybody.

This week has been a good one! There is a lot of potential in our area! This week we didn't have too much success in finding people and teaching them, but we've been given a few referrals and know about a few people that we've been trying to visit, so we are predicting next week will be an explosion of success.

Gavin and Stella are still awesome. They came to church for the 7th time in a row, and their son Tristan came with them! Stella is totally solid for her baptism on the 1st. It just seems like so far away! We are really hoping Gavin and also Tristan will catch the Spirit of the gospel like Stella has, and to a degree they have, but we just hope it will happen a bit faster. But in the words of the famous philosopher Mick Jagger, "you can't always get what you want."

Not too much news to report on this week. We had exchanges with the Assistants, which was good. We ate heaps of Tongan food, which was good. We've been exercising like crazy in the mornings, which is good.

So... yep!

If anyone wants to get motivated to share the gospel, go read D&C 33. Elder Albrechtsen and I have gained so much motivation from those words.


Have a fantastic week!

Elder Chappell

March 5, 2017 Werribee

Good morning sweet world, and welcome to the weekly report from the Land Down Under. This week was pretty great. In fact, it was pretty miraculous. 

I can't believe it's been a week since I last emailed! That feels like two days ago tops. But it's been awesome. So we finally started finding new investigators again! There's a family from the Congo that we met this week and began teaching. They are awesome! They speak French and Swahili, and their English is so so. The cool thing is that we got to go to the Temple as a zone this week, (which is an awesome thing in and of itself) so we got to get supplies from the mission office as well, and we grabbed all the french and Swahili stuff that we could find, then brought it back and taught them that same day! Using the Book of Mormon in their languages helped so much. Also, they have 3 little kids. The two boys were playing with one of those Rubik's Snakes, and I showed them how to make it into a ball which they thought was pretty cool, and their 2 year old little sister is the most adorable little girl in the world. So that was fun. 

MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were heaps of miracles this week. I will just skip to Sunday (yesterday for me, today for you) because that was such an awesome day. 

Gavin and Stella came to church again! They are so awesome. Stella is still set for baptism, and super prepared. We changed her date to the 1st of April though, because she felt nervous for it, and we agreed that she needs more fellowship and more experience with the Gospel first. Anyway, they came to church and Stella is still so awesome. She paid tithing!! 

So let me tell you about the Gospel Principles class. Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Letalu had a lesson prepared about the Priesthood Organization. As people started coming in to class, he realized that there were 4 non-members there! (woooooooo!) So he came to Elder Albrechtsen and I and asked us to teach the lesson about the Atonement that we had taught a couple weeks ago, cause that was probably a better topic for the people there. So on the spot we decided to teach! Man, the Spirit totally carried that lesson! Everybody was participating and it was awesome! So Gavin and Stella enjoyed it, and there was this Sister who came for the first time with her friend, and she was crying at the end of the lesson! She was totally in tears. So that was cool. We will keep you posted on how things go with her. Her name is Deborah by the way. 

After Church we had a lesson with a new investigator named Emma. She is a 14 year old, and her grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins are all active members in the ward. She wants to get baptized, but her birth dad is not too keen. So we'll keep you updated.

At the end of the evening, we had 20 minutes left in the day, so we decided to just pull over and pray about who we should see. So we did. The name came to us of the Strickland family. I have tried to see this family probably 500 billion times and never have had a real conversation with them. So when that prompting came, I kinda thought, no I don't want to waste another visit. But we listened to the Spirit and went. Well, what do ya know, the Spirit knows what He's talking about! We talked to the father of this family, who is not a member, and he is super keen for us to come by and teach his family! We set up an appointment, had a good chat, and then left. It was pretty awesome.

That's mostly it. 

We went to the southern most part of our area, which has the beach on it, and here's me being a rebel and touching the water. hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe😈

Love you all,

Elder Calvin Chappell

February 26, 2017 Werribee

Well this week, not gonna lie, was pretty slow.

We did heaps of searching, but didn't do do much finding. We know they are out there, but this week just wasn't the best for finding the people! Don't worry, we both are still really happy, just had a down week. 

Gavin and Stella are still awesome! They came to church again. Also, a really cool investigator named Uli has come a couple of times! He is super awesome, just not too ready to change right now. 

Elder Albrechtsen and I have been having fun talking in a super funny cowboy accent to each other all the time, but it was a bad choice. Now we're addicted. Any Aussie accent we've accumulated over a year and a half (which isn't much) is now totally gone. Haha but it's fun.

Hmm... well honestly there's not much to say this week! Sorry for a waste of your last 2 minutes everyone! But you can enjoy this very Aussie sign on the door of a house we tracted.

February 19, 2017 Werribee

Good Morning world!

This week has been awesome. Some highlights:

Zone conference with Brother Steven Allen from the missionary department in SLC

 and a bunch of others that are working on this big media campaign. That was awesome.

Ground Breaking of the new Werribee church! The Church is growing so fast here in

 the Werribee area that there are 4 wards meeting at this same chapel. Metting times

are 8:30, 10:15, 12:00, and 1:45. So what is the church doing? Building a new building

 literally next door. We participated in the ground breaking ceremony and it was

 pretty cool. 

annnnnnnnnddddd....... MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!

Stella is gonna be baptized on March 11th! Wooo! She has been really
searching to know if it is true and she now knows it. Every lesson with
 her has been miraculous. Somehow every question she has gets answered
and the Spirit just takes it to her heart! We are so happy! She is awesome.
 Gavin, her husband, is super supportive and believes what we teach, but
isn't quite ready to change yet. Stella is ready for big steps, while Gavin
is ready for small ones. But he will be ready eventually :)

So that's basically all I care about right now so that's our week!

Elder Chappell is out. PEACE.

(ground breaking with me, Elder Albrechtsen, our Ward Mission Leader
 brother Letalu, and the Tongan Elders, Fetuli and Lauaki)

MTC Friends

These four were in the MTC together and still really love to be together.  Elder Wheeler, Elder Wiser, Elder Albrechtson, and Elder Chappell.  I hope they are able to keep their friendships for many years to come.

February 12, 2017 Werribee

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning. 

This week was pretty grouse. We had transfers on Tuesday, which was busy. We drove everywhere getting bags for people and getting people. Also, if you were curious, you can fit a twin mattress in a toyota carolla.

We also had MLC on Friday. It was awesome. One cool thing from that day is that we got to come home on the train because we had to leave a car at the office. So we took the train back and went through a train station named Southern Cross, which is one of the biggest in Melbourne. Thousands go through it everyday. But the cool thing about this is that in Melbourne the Book of Mormon musical has come. They have been advertising for it for over a year and now it is here, and it is sold out through April. It's big. But even though this play is kinda pokin fun at us Mormons, the Church is using it as a tool to help people know about the church. So there are ads for the actually Book of Mormon EVERYWHERE in Melbourne. They are on TV, on Youtube, on the radio, and all over the city. Southern Cross is totally decked out with advertisements for the Book of Mormon. So we got to see all of that! It was awesome. I have never seen the word Mormon so much. Not even in Utah!

Well, about our week, it was kinda slow. Lots of logistical stuff. Heaps of planning.

But... remember Gavin and Stella? They are still awesome! They came to church again yesterday and they loved it! That's 3 times in a row and each time they have liked it more. It was awesome. 

We also have an investigator named Ngahinu, and I can't remember if I told you about her last week. She is a grandma, and used to be a member and lost her records, so she needs to be baptized again, but she has to get married first, so that's what we are working on with her! She totally wants to be baptized though. She is awesome. 

That's us!

Have a good week!

Pictures: Southern Cross, Me with the Tongan Elders, and us with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Letalu (matching ties for the ward mission team!)

February 5, 2017 Werribee

Well, transfers are this week, and Elder Albrechtsen and I are staying here in Werribee! We are pretty stoked about that.
Sorry this will be a short email. We are playing basketball with a big group of guys after this so, that's pretty important. Oh have I ever mentioned that Elder Albrechtsen is a baller? We work really well together. It's like playing with my brothers and friends.
Anyway, this week has been awesome! We found some new investigators that we are really excited about! One of them is a man named Cezar from Sao Paulo Brazil, which is pretty cool, cause both my Dad, and Elder Albrechtsen's Mom served in Sao Paulo! He is awesome. He is really into the scouting program, which is why we found him! We were walking to an investigator's house and saw a scout sticker on a car, and thought, hey, we are both eagle scouts, let's go talk to this guy! So we knocked on his door, and his is super cool. He invited us back a few days later and he fed us dinner!
Anyway, Gavin and Stella are still doing awesome! They came to church again this week and sat on the front row! They are super awesome. Stella totally wants to be baptized! She is praying to know for sure that it's right, and what day is right. Gavin is a bit more hesitant, he just wants to take it slower. But they will be baptized.
That's all for this week! There's more awesome stuff, but I wanna be quick.
Love you!
Elder Chappell

An excerpt from Calvin’s companion’s email:
Another cool miracle from the week, we have been trying to catch up with a sister, Ngahinu, that is a 'loss of records' that wants to get baptized. It has been extremely difficult to catch her. She is Maori, New Zealand, and has like 100 different people that live at her home. So every time we go over we meet someone different. She randomly came to church last week so we went by and visited her this week. Super cool experience, the spirit does work on people. We knocked on the door and her son answered and went to get her, he came back and said she was busy. But then she walked around the corner and invited us in! When we sat down she said she sent her son to tell us then wasn't a good time, but then she felt guilty and felt the spirit tell her to talk to us. An amazing lesson followed, her son was in a pretty bad car accident the night before and was in the hospital in the city. We offered to have the Elders there go and give him a blessing and she accepted. It was amazing to hear from her after the blessing to hear that her son had made immediate progress since the blessing. So amazing to witness.
Everyday just continues to be amazing. God continues to bless us with so many miracles and so many amazing experiences that are unfolding right before our very eyes. I have developed a stronger testimony that this is the Lord's work. He is involved in every single little detail of all of it. He is involved in our investigators lives! It has been faith building and truly humbling to witness the miracles that come in this great work. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is His church. I love the Lord and I love this gospel! Have an amazing week! Love you all!


Pictures:  Our zone, and there is a member here who has a son named Calvin.  (first time I've heard that name in 18 months.  It was really weird every time they spoke to him.  I kept accidentally responding.)  But anyway, he loves that name because of Calvin and Hobbs, so he sent this to me, and I thought you'd like it.