August 28, 2016 Shepparton

Good morning all y'all.

This week was a week! It was pretty good, pretty average! I am honestly trying really hard to think of what to include in this email. I am sure some stuff happened... but I can't remember anything important! Sorry this might be boring.

Ok for all of you that are still reading after that amazing eye-catching intro to an email, I will tell you about the week. Elder Van Wagoner was pretty sick these last few days, so on Saturday we did absolutely nothing. He wasn't feeling well at all so we called Sister Vidmar and asked what we should do and she just said stay in the flat. So we did. Yep. First sick day of my mission! It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring. I don't like staying in the flat. But it was nice to relax a bit I suppose. He is feeling better now, don't worry :)

We saw Neal and Jana again. Jana (pronounced Yawnna) is all set for her baptism. It is still gonna be a while until then, but that's ok. She was also sick and couldn't make it to church this week. But she is doing great.

Adrian and Rebecca are still awesome. Rebecca couldn't come to church because she had to look after the sick kids. (Why is everybody sick???) But Adrian came, which is a big deal, because he worked in his tire shop in the morning, raced home and showered and changed, then came to sacrament meeting, then raced off to work again. He is so awesome. I am so happy about that. 

Elder Van Wagoner and I are getting along super well. I love serving with him. We probably shouldn't choose favorite companions but... we are awesome friends so this is awesome. 

Happy Birthday to Spencer Seth Chappell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in a day for me, two for you. You are the man. I hope you have a great birthday. 

As Zone leaders we just kind of do random stuff. For example this week we will have to drive up to Wagga Wagga (what a name for a city right?) and switch cars with them because theirs is struggling, then we will take theirs down to the office next week for MLC (mission leadership council). Then we will get a new car. So we do random stuff like that.  But our regular responsibilities are exchanging with the District Leaders and the new missionaries and training/helping/showing them how to missionary. (I just fake like I know what I am doing!)  It is fun. We also do all sorts of boring numbers accounting stuff. It is fun. But yeah that's it! 

For pictures this week, all I took a picture of is this awesome cow. I haven't come up with a clever name for it yet. What sayest thou? Like "motorcow" or "beef on Wheels"... I don't know.  I got it!!!!!!!!!! "Fast Food"

I love all of you! Elder Chappell is out. PEACE

August 21, 2016 Shepparton

Good morning everybody!

This week was great. I am loving serving with Elder Van Wagoner! I have liked all of my companions, but this is the first time that I've been like awesome friends with my comp! It is awesome. He likes to talk, I like to talk, so basically we are always talking while we are working! It is awesome.

So we decided we want to make our flat just a little bit nicer, so on last P-day we started to fix our crappy table and chairs. We went to Bunnings (basically home depot), and bought stuff to sand off the stain, and bought some new stain. We are gonna make it look so good! it is just kind of fun and satisfying having a project to work on, but we can only work on it during lunch time and on P-days, so it may take a while. When we finish I'll show you a picture though.

This week we set a date for Jana's baptism! Yay! We have been working with her for a long time. She will be getting married on the 10th of September, then baptized on the 24th. I am so happy for her! She will be such an awesome member. Then she can be a better influence on Neal until he can be baptized too. 

So this week was transfers! Elder Van Wagoner was transferred here a bit early just cause  it had to be that way, but the real transfer time is now. Heaps of our zone is being transferred! So we basically spent all of yesterday calling other zone leaders and coordinating with them how missionaries will be going to and from their areas. It was just a lot of organization. I love logistics. (not) But it is fun. So all good.

Church yesterday was awesome! you wanna know why? Because It was run by me and my companion! Just kidding it was awesome because it is the true church and it's always awesome. But yeah we both spoke in sacrament meeting, and Elder Van Wagoner played the organ for the hymns, plus a musical item on the piano. Then we taught the youth Sunday School class, then we taught the young men Priesthood class! So we taught during all three hours. This is the life of a missionary in a branch. It was fun! 

Anyway, that's my week, what's yours? 

See ya!

The only true and living Elder Chappell

August 14, 2016 Shepparton

Hello everybody! I hope you have all had a good week! My week has been pretty interesting! 

Elder Jeremia has been transferred. He is the new Assistant to the President. This is one week before the actual transfer time cause I guess special things happen to AP's? I don't really know how it works but yeah he is gone! My new companion is Elder Van Wagoner from Bountiful Utah. He is awesome. We actually flew into the mission at the same time! He is the man at piano and singing. Super friendly guy, very easy to get along with. He and I have already been friends since he was in our zone for the last two transfers, so I am really excited to be his companion! We also have a third this week because of the early transfer. His name is Elder Pou from Tahiti. He is the man, also super good at singing. This week will be really good. 

Random funny story. One night this week we locked ourselves out of our flat and had to try to break in and our next door neighbor has a really annoying dog that barks at everything that moves so that made the neighbor come and get mad at us. But we smooth talked our way out of it and she is our friend now. We will try to teach her sometime.

Elder Van Wagoner has only served in Aussie wards, never islander wards, so he hasn't experienced a fafaga (massive Samoan feed). So I decided to line up heaps of dinner appointments this week so he can experience that. We will have 10 dinners this week. and yes that means three days we will have a double feed. I love gluttony.

Congratulations Riley! Happy Birthday! I hope you adjust well and quickly.

So this week we couldn't do too much work cause my companion was packing, then we were driving, then driving some more, then my new companions were unpacking. So slow week. I hate slow. But that's ok. That's what patience is for! 

Remember "A" and "R"? They were a miracle a few weeks back. Well they came to church yesterday!!! I am so happy! They looked so awesome walking in with their twin babies dressed up in little suits and ties. I loved that. Everything is going well!

I love you all! Here's a couple of pictures of the rolling hills of Australia.

August 7, 2016 Shepparton

Hello everybody how are ya?

I'll start with a rare shout out. This is to my brother Elder Riley Chappell. He is going home this week! I have always looked up to him and even now in my missionary service sometimes I daydream about being companions with him and just baptizing nations like Alma and Amulek or the Sons of Mosiah. I miss you and love you Riley! Congrats on a successful mission, I am sure you helped so many people.

Anyway, back to the interesting stuff. This week has been pretty darn good. We had Mission Leadership conference on Tuesday, where we drive 3 hours down to Melbourne and have a meeting with President and Sister Vidmar plus the APs and all the ZLs and STLs. That is always really good. President Vidmar is such a great teacher. I love the way he uses stories. He always uses stories from the Olympics to make points. He has thousands of Olympic stories because he not only competed in them, but he has spent his life in them as a judge, a journalist, a coach, committee member, head of USA Olympic Gymnastic teams and so forth. He has never missed an Olympics since he was old enough to go. Until now. He has to sacrifice just like all of us do, so he won't be watching the Olympics or reading about them at all. That's so hard! I was feeling bad that I couldn't watch them but I'm pretty sure it's harder for him.

Anyway, then we drove back up to Shepp, and President followed us, because we had Zone Conference on Wednesday. Because our zone is so far apart, we had everyone come into Shepp, then stay the night, and then had Zone Meeting on Thursday to avoid unnecessary travel. So the first half of the week was all meetings. As good as those meeting were, I can't handle that much! I was getting really restless at the end. I am happy to now be done sitting and just working!

After all the meetings we had an awesome half week. On Friday we were walking down the street and I decided to sit next to a bloke at the bus stop. I could see that he was Sudanese, and from my experience, all the Sudanese in Australia are Christian, so I was excited to talk to him. His name was David and he seemed sort of interested. Anyway, I got his address and set an appointment for the next day. On the next day we went to see him and he let us straight in. We sat down and had a lesson on the Restoration with him and his brother Zach. They are 24 and 19. These guys are golden! They are really active in their church, but that's good cause that means they have faith in Jesus Christ! They understood the Restoration really well and asked heaps of questions. They will read and pray about the Book of Mormon and when they know it's true, they will be baptized on September 11. 

Another family we are working with is an Indian couple. Their names are Jinny and Shilpa. They are also Christian! Honestly they are the first people that I've met that are from India and Christian! The rest of them are either Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Atheist. So that's awesome. Kind of the same deal with them. Shilpa has been really searching already. After our first visit she read a few chapters in the BOM then read heaps from mormon.org. They are solid. 

Jana came to church again, their wedding is coming closer! Then she can just get baptized. All good. 

I love yous all, cheer on America in the Olympics, cause we always win.

Elder Calvin Chappell

July 31, 2016 Shepparton

Hello everybody!

This week was really good. Hows about I tell ya about it?

So we taught heaps of lessons which basically makes it a solid week
already. We taught Fili and his family a whole lot and had a dinner
lesson with "R" and "A", and then heaps of lessons with Muslim
people we found tracting! Only one of them was arguing with us too so
that was great!

Fili was baptized on Saturday! Yay! I baptized him and my companion
confirmed him. He and his family are making huge strides. I am very
happy for them. They are one of two families that we are really
working with to be solid active families. The branch needs more worthy
Melchizedek Priesthood holders. Fili's dad is on his way!

"R" and "A" are solid, but they need to get married, so her
baptismal date for the 20 of August won't work, but she is still keen
as to be baptized. Just need to work that out and then all good!

I don't know if any of yous remember me talking about "T"? We had
one lesson with her a few weeks ago then she dropped off the face of
the planet. Well we had a sweet little miracle with her. We were
street contacting and I saw this guy that was clearly an Islander.
(When you see Islanders, you talk to them. They are keen, Aussies are
not). So I made a V line over to him and introduced myself. Turns out
he is "T"s dad, and he is a member of the church! (about half of
the Samoan and Tongan populations are actually members, and 100% of
them know the missionaries already, whether member or not, so this was
only kind of a surprise). But he invited us to his home, and we
gratefully accepted the invitation.  Well, we finally saw "T" again! 

She is still keen, just busy. So we have an appointment with her tonight! Yay!

Another person we are working with is a woman named "B". She is
from the Congo! African people are probably my favorite. She is a
single Mum with 3 daughters, ages 14, 11, 9. Her English is not
very good, but we do our best to communicate. She speaks Swahili (if
any of you know that language existed, good on ya mate). So we went
through a lot of trouble to get a Swahili Book of Mormon for her. We
gave that to her on Saturday and then she read 3 chapters and came to
church on Sunday! She couldn't understand much of church, but she was
smiling non-stop so I think she enjoyed it. She is awesome.

"J" is still doing well, just preparing for her marriage and then
baptism, but that's not till September so there's not too much we can
do right now. Just keep teaching lessons, they keep reading and
praying and coming to church.

So this week I sang in 4 different Musical numbers at church! One last
Sunday, and then 3 in a fireside this Sunday! We had been asked to
prepare a song as the missionaries, so we did that, then last minute
we were thrown into another one with some sisters in the branch, then
the Elders Quorum needed help with theirs too! So yeah, my less than
professional singing skills are being displayed to all of the
Shepparton branch. I hope they all believe in forgiveness.

So that was my week! Here is an interesting cow... Not sure if it's My
Little Pony, or something else, but yeah, its a pink cow.  The cow things is 

an interactive art exhibit all over Shepparton and surrounding towns. 

It is called Moooving art. The cows are moved around routinely.

And here is Fili's baptism!

Elder Calvin Chappell

July 24, 2016 Shepparton

G'day everybody back the US of A! (and those of yous in weird places like the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and so on, Hello to you too.)

This week has been SOLID as. 

I'll start it off with the biggest miracle.

Her name is "R"! So Elder Jeremia and I chose a street last week that we wanted to tract. We have been praying for God to prepare the people on that street for a week, and then we tracted it! It is called Paterson road, if anyone wanted to know. Anyway, we found heaps of potential investigators, but most of them were not solid. One of them was "R". We met her on Wednesday. She opened the door while holding one toddler, one baby, and there was a very similar looking baby crawling after her on the ground. We spoke to her for a bit, gave her a pamphlet, got a return appointment and her number, and that was it. She seemed kind of sort of interested. So on Friday we called her to confirm our appointment on Saturday. She said, "yes of course, I just finished reading the pamphlet". 

..whoa.....that doesn't happen...

So then we got excited, then showed up the next day a bit early, and she let us in right away and introduced us to her husband, "A". As we were talking and trying to get to know them, "A" dropped this bomb on us. "Believe it or not, I was actually baptized Mormon!"

....whaaaaaaaaaaaaat....

So long story short, we taught about the Plan of Salvation, both liked it, "A" wants to come back to church, and "R" accepted a baptismal date for the 20 of August! Wooooooooooooot!

Miracles are the best.

So for the rest of this week, well we had branch conference yesterday, which was incredibly awesomely fantastic. President Vidmar came and spoke at it! he is very interested in the Wangaratta district. He really wants to see it become a Stake. He is amazing. I can't wait to tell all of his stories, but I won't be able to tell them like he does. We had 5 investigators at sacrament meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That doesn't happen in this mission. Especially not in Wang. But miracles are happening in Shepparton! 

"F" is still on track for his baptism on Saturday. He is such a bright kid. He keeps all of the visual aids that we use in the lessons and pins them on his wall in his room. The man.

I was sick all week, just a cold, but a nasty one. The last three days, I have had no voice, which makes lessons difficult. It also makes singing in the church choir difficult.. but we made it work. If Sister Maxwell was still here she would have somehow found out that I was sick and made me stay in all day, but there's no chance of that! You can't have miracles when you're in the flat. 

So yep, this was a pretty awesome week. I am looking forward to baptizing all of Shepparton in the coming month, but maybe I'll try to be a bit more realistic. But it happens in the scriptures all the time, so why not now? (I used to have that argument with some of my companions, but you all know me, I never argue ;)

Anyway, here's a picture of a hot dog cow, or "Beef Frank" as I call him. And there's also SpiderCow and Skeleton Cow... I am struggling to find a clever name for this one.. maybe something to do with milk and calcium, but I got nothing. 

Love yous all,

Elder Calvin Chappell

July 17, 2016 Shepparton

G'day everybody!

This week was really good in Shepparton. We found some new
investigators and we have so many more now than when we started! We
are now teaching a boy named Fili. He is 9 years old, and his family
is all members, other than his mom. We don't really know why he wasn't
baptized last year, but he wants to be baptized this year, so we were
like, "yep, we can baptize you." So he will be baptized on the 30 of
July.

We met a girl named Tinah last Monday after emails. She used to be
taught by the missionaries and always liked it, but she has no idea
why they stopped coming. So we taught her and she is set to be
baptized on the 13 of August. But we haven't seen her since then so
we'll keep you posted.

We had a zone meeting this week, which was really good. Our whole zone
came into our area this time, for some that took 4-5 hours of travel,
and the sisters just had to call in. But other than that, everyone was
there, including the two senior couples. (the Senior Elders serve as
Branch Presidents in their branches. They are awesome)

We are having interviews with President Vidmar tomorrow! I am really
excited. We will also be having branch conference next Sunday and
President will come up for that as well! I am really excited for that.
Everybody gets pumped about it because he is a gold medalist. It's
awesome.

There isn't too much news, but everything is going great!

I didn't do anything fun for my year mark... I just updated the area
book and boring stuff like that.

Sorry for the short email. Love yous all!

Elder Calvin Chappell