Todo Bien . . . Seguir Adelante

Hey Mi Familia-

Here are some pics of my "pench."  This is our pink building and ours is the one on the left with the door open.  There is a small market next door but it's pretty expensive so we rarely shop there.  

Here is my desk and all of our maps for our area.  

My bed is the one next to the window.

Here is our kitchen---it's WAY nicer than the one in my last area.  

 And of course, El Bano :)

Hey everybody! 

So this weekend we had a Regional conference for all of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It was in Salt Lake with Elder Cook and Elder Hales. It was really cool. They talked a lot about how members working with the missionaries is really important and how they need to always be striving to help us. Also about marriage which has ALWAYS been a big one. But right after the conference we had a family come to us saying they want to learn and be baptized...we were soo stoked and they all asked for blessings so we went to another room and just did it but wow this family is awesome! I'm gonna be making banana bread for them this week to make it better ahaha! That has seemed to help especially with other missionaries. I'm just hoping they don't have a divorce situation to deal with because that has happened soo much where we could baptize a family but we couldn't because they didn't have the papers to do it. We have a family in our ward that has been waiting for over 4 years to be baptized because he can't get divorced from his wife that he hasn't seen in over...30 years. It's ridiculous...there's a lot to complain about Argentina but I try not to haha.

But other than that we're finally starting to teach another family that's like for sure going to get baptized after 4 plus months or so! Also we're still working with the Alonso family/ the references from a recent convert in another ward! If all goes as planned we should have...at least...11 baptisms and maybe 14 if the law actually did something to help people get divorced faster from what president told us but I'm getting more info on that. It's a pretty big fat number but there's always a first and who said it was bad to be positive? I'm just gonna think "Baptisms... Baptisms" and they're eventually gonna come.  These families are the ones!  

Wow I almost forgot to tell you---- its almost kinda normal for me in the mish now ahaha! Soo our chapel got broken into really bad... like a bunch of windows were broken(even though you can't get through them because of the bars) They broke them with bare hands so there was blood everywhere...?? Also they somehow got inside and broke down a triple lock door which has literally 3 locks from bottom, middle, then top. I don't know how they even did that but we went to go play some futbol in the little court that the church has and we saw it... the members already knew about it but ya its was pretty bad. They stole the computer which had a lot of information which helped us and the members with less actives, part member families and just a lot of other things like tithing etc...sooo were trying to help out the best we can. They even broke into the primary cabinet with the kids snacks and stuff and they were ALL gone....seriously? I couldn't believe it, but todo bien ("it's all good") ----God knows who they are and we're gonna seguir adelante. ("move forward")

Love you all tonzz have a great week!

Elder Chamberlain

Fun Familia

Here I am on my 20th Birthday with the awesome hermanas who made me a paper lizard and gave me a box filled with funny notes and cards for me! 

This was the fun surprise birthday breakfast my district made for me on my birthday.  They made french toast and a birthday cake.  It was SO awesome!  They are like family to me here.

Dear my awesome fun familia,

Dang Brandon Roberts is already back from his mission? That's crazy. Mom I'm glad your back is doing better. Sorry Dad about what's going on in the office. You'll find the people you'll need. I'm soo glad you guys are learning and growing at the same time as me even though were really far away from each other!

That's so awesome you both get to be in that concert this week.  I LOVE ROB GARDNER. Ever since day one I've been listening to him and his music has helped calmed me down and kept me thinking about the blessings I'll receive by doing the things I'm suppossed to on my mission and becoming the person I need to become for my future. I'm really wanting to hear the music he's made specifically for our church now-- wow that's going to be awesome!

You guys are going to have soo much fun doing that together I wish I could be there! You guys should film it or buy the video so I can watch that with you someday and hear dad saying some of the parts. That'd be cool if you could get those actual songs with dad saying the parts so that every time we listen to the music it will be of dad narrating and knowing that Mom sang in the choir too! Just a thought that'd be awesome!

So we got transfer calls last night and I'm staying in San Raphael and Elder White is out and going to SAN JUAN! I really want to go there again I miss my recent convert familia-- hermana chaparro was like my mom...but anyway we'll see in the future! It's going to be really hard for me to say goodbye to Elder White. We've gotten really close to each other and he's helped me with sooo many things. But its time we part ways to serve the Lord and do what we've gotta do. Well def be seeing each other in Arizona. Does Tucson have a big international aiport or no? Just curious cuz then I can go see him when he goes home because I leave first.  That would be cool.

I'm getting an elder from Uruguay named Elder Paz and he's awesome! I knew him a little bit in San Juan and he's a super funny guy ahaha!  We're gonna get along real well. He's got about 9 months or so in the mission.

This morning before coming here I actually got to go give blood for our ward mission leader's mom who has cancer. I got to see her and talk to her at the hospital in centro and she's been on chemo fora while and didn't look super good. I think she's going to get better tho...I've kept myself in good shape so I hope my blood will help my senorita out!! She was a really nice and sweet lady so she deserves my blood anyday:)

HEY SO IM GOING TO SEND PICS TODAY!! I know I haven't done that in like 3 months or soo but I'm going to do it right now so I love you all soooo much!! You all are my everything!! 

Shoutout to Brother Dave Gadsby for the awesome emails with the advice he gives! You're a very smart man and you know your stuff.  I'm actually really impressed!  Thanks so much!

Anyway much love to you all!!

Elder K Chamberlain

(responses to a quick email from Spencer and Hailey)

Hey Spence!

The weirdest foods I've tried have been morcilla which is called "blood sausage" its literally just conjugated blood haha. But I've tried cow tongue, liver, and I can't remember all the others but I have def tried some weird things here in Argentina haha. I'm probs going to try a pigs head next. It's literally a pigs head cooked up haha!

My pench? That's what we call them because in spanish they're called pensiones. It's  wayyy nicer than my last area.  I'm going to send pictures today cuz I brought my stuff!

Dude tell me about tennis! I heard at the BYU camp you like won the whole championship for your division or something?! That's crazy!! Keep that up bro and you'll be a professional if you want to someday seriously!

Hey bro miss and love ya tonzz talk to ya soon!!

Elder chamberlain

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Dear Hailey--

Hailey how you doing!? You're soo big!  You're a little lady basically ahaha! Hailey Argentina is awesome! It's actually been pretty warm this last week more than normal so that made me happy! I've been growing and learning soo much lately.  It's been hard and fun! Did I read you're playing tennis too? Hailey thats' awesome! How's that going?? I love you soo much Hailey!  Keep being that good beautiful girl you are!:)

Love your older brother,

Elder Chamberlain:)

Happy Birthday 20 Year Old!!

Hey Mom and Dad!

Wow ya this week was one of the hardest and best in my mission! 

We had intercambios and a white storm about 3 miles away in pouring icy rain! It was pouring sleet for a lot of this week!  A white storm is where a whole district or even a zone goes to an area of a set of missionaries and talks with everybody they see! Except it was pouring rain and everybody was inside. So at least we knew where they were haha! But ya we could literally see our breath in this rain and there were still a lot of people that just didn't want us or just slammed the door on us. The excuses you only get in Argentina...estoy con mi abuelita( I'm with my lil grandma) Estoy con el bebe( I'm with the baby) Estoy con mi suegra( I'm with my mother in law) El bano esta tapado( the toilet is clogged!) Ahaha I can't tell you how many we've heard.  My district leader is literally writing a book about all of this called  "si Dios quiere" which is "If God wants to" haha! It is soo funny and I actually think he will do well if he can get that into deseret books and get it into the hands of missionaries that have served in Argentina because los argentinos are unique ahaha!  We were both soaked head to toe and it was miserable and there were still a lot of people that turned us away or slammed the doors on our faces. HAHA but its all good we dont care:) Just a very verryyy hard week for ALL of us and we got through it and now I'm able to celebrate it with my birthday!  But ya Ma, this week was awesome.  We suffered with A LOT of joy!;).   

Hey sorry yesterday we couldn't have P-day because it was a holiday and all the cibers were closed. I don't know if I ever told you guys what a ciber is but there just places where you can rent out a computer for a while.

Mom and Dad, I'm sorry I don't have a cord to send you guys photos but today my whole district along with one of my zone leaders who's going home this next week was with us (we were on exchanges) they all threw me a surprise breakfast birthday party with french toast, and dulce de leche which is like caramel.  It's pretty good and I've com e to like to put it on a lot of things like the Argentines do haha!  The hermanas made me a hand made lizard and a big cake and a really cool paper box that you open which has a bunch of funny letters to me.  It was sooo funny! I thought nobody would be able to beat my birthday that I had a year ago when I only had 3 days in Argentina but mom, it was amazing...I can sincerely call these people family. These missionaries made me feel soo close to any home that I could have in this country and being soo far away from you all. We also did some other weird things that they do here for birthdays like swallowing a raw egg and my comp shoving my face in the cake and then me putting it on others too ahaha! We got both on video and I'll be able to show you guys them someday haha!  This is by far the best district I've had in the mission and I'm going to miss them all soo much when I go.  It was so awesome. 

Our transfers are ending this week so by Sunday I'll know about what's going to happen to Elder White and I. If we go a 3rd together that'd be awesome! We'd be together for general conference haha!

Hey Nico is doing a lot better and he's interacting more with several of the boys we have in our ward so that's been going great! Other than then that our zone has been kinda struggling but were on track for success with our attitudes!! So we're gonna get some baptisms for sure! Also a new law came out for getting divorced which is what President Goates told us so now we're...actually going to have SEVERAL baptisms very soon haha so I'm pretty excited for that! That's going to help the mission work a lot!

Anyway Ma, I had and am still having an awesome day!! Hey thank you for that birthday message that you sent me just now!!  I love the pics!!  Ya, I don't feel 20 Mom, but I guess I kinda do a little bit more now! It's weird...I'm finally in my 20's...it doesn't feel right! I will try and send some videos of me and the egg and face in the cake etc with some pics ahaha! Much love Mama!  I'm sorry your back is hurting and I hope you get better!  Hey Love ya tonzz dad!  You're a stud-- keep up the great work with everything you do!:)  

          Love your son and best of best of best friends,

         Elder Kohler Chamberlain

Elder K Chamberlain

Winter Weather

Hey everybody

We had an alright week this week! It's been snowing a lot and the ski resorts are getting a lot of it. Sorry it's actually not snowing right here-- it's been raining a lot which has been suuupppeerrrrr fun especially in the winter haha. A lot of aguanieve in other areas(sleet) But ya in Malargue there's snow in the elders area and they showed us some cool pics so that was cool to see.

We have been working a lot more with our ward and we're now officially having ward council every Sunday. The bishop showed up pretty late and he was the only one. They at least started out good because we were starting out at once a month and did that a couple weeks ago with about 10 people! But it's all good-- we're doing a lot better with the ward than we initially were! Tomorrow we're going to have lunch with a recent convert and our prime investigator family haha! They are all soo awesome! We've been working with several people including them but transfers are coming up again and I don't want to have to leave with people getting ready to baptize again...it's fun to be the one to baptize and Heavenly Father wants them to do just that so it's all good.

Nico and his mom/family are all doing better and we're working with them. Nico with several other kids apparently want to write Kelsey because I showed them and their families a couple pictures of my family. Haha its nothing new but it's always funny.

SPENCER CAN TOTALLY MAKE THAT GOAL!! (wanting to play for the varsity tennis team his freshman year)  It's happened many times before and if he's this good already he's going to for sure make it. Tell him I said that ma!

Hailey is looking soo much bigger and taller too! She looks like a mini Rachel Blasi in that photo haha!  She's got her type of clothes and everything. Hailey is beautiful!! Enjoy the time with her mom but don't feel too bad because you have a lot more memories to make with us all over again and OUR KIDS...haha!  Anyway I love and miss you all--- let's get after it this week!

Love the one and only,

Elder Chamberlain

Don't Want to Leave!

I am still serving in San Raphael

Hey Everybody!

It's pretty crazy how fast that first year went!! ya...I don't want to leave!! I LOVE the mission. I've learned soo much! I love helping other people through this gospel and many times just being a friend to someone that doesn't have many or none at all. That's so cool you all got to go to Dean's blessing! I'm glad at least you guys got to go and support them!

Haha I miss Hailey tonnzz!  Tell her hi for me and that I listen to her songs a lot! My comp thinks that song with both Kelsey and Hailey was pretty cool and he's gonna learn it on the guitar when he goes home haha!

This week was a good one! We had such an awesome time with Nico and really helped him out. We talked a lot about serving a mission and how it's not an obligation in the church. He can make his own choice to answer God's call to serve. He seemed to feel better from that. That its his choice and it's not that he's being forced to go. We talked to him about all the many people that he would bless and how God will richly bless his life in return. Later it turns out that in the week the day before we had lunch with them Nico was beat up in the streets...at 7 at night...it happened where we've had some bad problems before.  We don't go there anymore. He wasn't beat bad but more than anything just robbed and they beat him in the dirt. He's such a quiet timid kid and it makes me sick that people could do that to him. We gave him and his mom a blessing when we went for lunch with them at their house. The mom was actually getting pretty sick because her blood pressure raised significantly after that happened. So that's why we gave her a blessing too.  We're going to continue to visit them and help them out and go out with Nico to visit some people too!

We visited them yesterday too and had a lesson with the Hermana's daughter's husband who isn't a member. It was weird because we were trying to start the lesson and they were literally talking about whatever...they started talking about their kids and how they used to share their kids with other moms to give their babies "more suck" (nursing)  But I'm not going to lie it was pretty weird and ya one of the mom's almost 4 year old son runs up to her and just pulls down her shirt to do it...I've seen it before and older and I don't want to talk a whole lot about this but you really don't know how many things I see here in Argentina!   So I thought I'd share something different with you all haha!

Today I'm going to the dentist and their office looked ok. I dont know if dad would approve haha but I've seen a couple others for other comps and it's not too bad in comparison to the others! I just hope they use more than soap to wash their stuff because I rememebr how I had to wash your tools dad haha it was a really looonnnggg cleaning process haha but it doesn't look like they do that...haha.

Also I'm going to watch Meet the Mormons with our zone today! President said we could do it if we had good food and drinks so he was cool about this one!

Also the highlight of all the lessons we had this week was with one new family who I know is going to be baptized! The hermanas had given us this reference and we're now going to visit them again with him. It's a family with the parents and an 8 year old daughter! We taught them the Plan of Salvation first this time and they really liked what they heard. There's some word of wisdom problems as normal but we're sure we're going to get through to them!  

I've been using this jacket I bought 3 months ago or less to keep warm. I almost always use my light jacket and the big one I have for going outside and gloves and stuff.  It can get pretty cold! But we have a little heater that we use in our room at night and that with my sleeping bag all helps! The real thing now is that our hot water for our shower isn't really working. Like it's a little warm but we have to turn one of the sinks hot water on so that water can go to the shower but if we do that then it literally just dribbles out water. But ya-- it's all good haha! It's the mish!

Really with my Spanish I just need to pay stronger attention to every single word they're saying. When I don't know a word I'll write it down or if I didn't understand them I'll still ask them to tell me what word it was and I'll look it up. Most of the time I'll ask my comps though. It's nice with Elder White because he actually lived in Guatemala with his family too so he already had good Spanish before the mission and has gotten really good!  I'm reading a lot in "Jesus the Christ" and just studying the scriptures! Every now and then I'll get a really hard but good question too and Elder White and I will both look for answers on how to explain it.

Hey thank you soo much for the prayers and your love and support. I'm trying hard to do my best. We're really thinking that the new family that we found is going to be baptized more than the other people we're teaching.

Anyway that's the gist for this week. I love and miss you all!  Have an awesome week!!

Elder K Chamberlain