September 11, 2016 Shepparton

Good Monday/Sunday Morning/Evening everybody! 

This week has been good. In fact, it was really awesome! We had MLC on Tuesday, which is seriously the best. My companion and I gave a training on asking questions and listening in lessons. It went really well I think. I love President and Sister Vidmar. The meeting was awesome. I was on such a Spiritual high when we were driving home. We were just excited to go work and baptize nations, when we got a call from Jana.

I'll spare you the details, but basically, Satan is a loser and threw in a satanic sucker punch (my new favorite term from Elder Holland). They were going to get married this week, but now we are not sure what's happening. They did not get married this week, and Neal is still nowhere to be found. That was really sad. (MAJOR UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT) 

But........... MIRACLE TIME!!!!!!!!!!! Even when Satan throws cheap shots, we are stronger than him because we are on the Winning Team. Take that loser! So we were planning for our zone meeting and we were making this awesome poster at Office works. One of the workers there came and talked to us, and he was totally interested! He had just joined a church and had a spiritual experience for the first time in his life and he was excited about it, so he wanted to talk to us about it, and we basically taught the whole Restoration lesson in the middle of Office Works, and he asked us for a Book of Mormon! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? So we gave it to him like the nice guys that we are. His name is Ethan. We will talk more about him next week!

Miracle #2!!!!! This is a simple miracle. Jana came to church! We were not expecting that. But she came and it was awesome. She is really struggling, but she came anyway! So we were really happy about that. She will still be baptized! Just not sure when.

That was basically our week! It was a good one. This week is our Zone meeting that we are working our tails off for. It is gonna be awesome. 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Chappell

Here's President Vidmar's Gold and Silver Medals. And here are those cute babies from last week.

September 4, 2016 Shepparton

("Australia is entirely peopled with criminals...")

Good morning sweet world. I had no idea what to write for the subject line of this email so I went to a Princess Bride quote about Australia. Go-to movie. You're welcome.

So this week...stuff happened... I am sure stuff happened... I am struggling to think what happened though! Time is really meshing together. I can never remember what happened this week, this month, this year. Everything jumbles up in my mind. 

We are going to the  Mission Leadership Council this week and we have been asked to speak at that, plus we have a zone meeting coming up and we have big ideas for it, so we did a lot of planning this week. We are really trying to make a positive change in our mission culture and we are starting by making the mission meetings engaging! (I know, crazy idea) but we are excited.

We taught Neal and Jana this week, and they are still doing awesome. The wedding will be this Saturday, and then baptism 2 weeks later! It is awesome. 

We also saw Adrian and Rebecca. I will send a couple of pictures of their adorable twin babies. They are my favorite. Adrian and Rebecca are so awesome. We are really trying to help Rebecca feel more comfortable praying out loud, but she is praying on her own which is awesome!

Last Monday we were at the grocery store and this guy who was clearly an islander of some sort walked up to us and started talking to us. Turns out he is a member, but hasn't been in a long time. But he has been wanting to come back to church. Once he saw us he was so happy and we set an appointment to see him. We saw him later in the week. His name is Jared, and he is HUGE. Big guy. He is super cool. He wants to learn the lessons again then come to church! Yay for hiding less active members!

Today we will practice some baking and make some cinnamon rolls. Then we will drive down to Melbourne and stay overnight with some other Elders, then have MLC tomorrow morning! Should be exciting! 

Love you, Elder Chappell

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