Advice to Spencer

(Spencer's quick letter to Kohler)

Dear Elder Chamberlain,

        Last Wednesday, Brother Hughes called and asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting! The topic is about the Duty to God program and how earning an eagle scout award can help you prepare you for your mission. I instantly thought of you on your mission when he called me. So Kohler, how has getting your Eagle Scout Award helped you prepare for your mission? Make sure you Email mom before Sunday because I need your answer before Sunday. Well, how are you doing, Kohler? Is it still hard? Are the people treating you well?  I hope you are doing great. My birthday was this Sunday and I got a lot of cool socks and some gum. I also got a new cellphone! It is really fun. I hope you can give me a good answer for my talk. I love you!

Spencer

Elder Chamberlain's response:

Dear Spencer,

As it is a journey from starting as a tenderfoot to an eagle,  it's a journey on your mission. On your mission you are going to have many trials and challenges to overcome. The same can be related to the merit badges and accomplishments you'll have to do in your scouting journey. There will be hard campouts with hard long hikes, many meetings you will need to go to in order to learn about how to make yourself better as a person, and much more. I've learned from my own personal experience that earning your eagle award will teach you discipline, independence, obedience, and give you a hard work ethic. You won't be perfect nor perfectly ready for the mission but it will help you more than you think.

I can relate many things to one very particular campout that I had with my good friend Keaton that I have thought about several times on my mission believe it or not.

I was a deacon and we had all left one weekend to go mountain biking. It was said that there was a fairly good chance it was going to rain but we didn't think too much about it. We had also had a good friend that wasn't very active and his parents didn't go to church but Brother Mask, who was one of our leaders, had helped him to come to church many times. His name was Duke and he had wanted to come on the campout with us but wasn't sure about what his parents would say. We had gotten to the campsite that evening and had set everything our tents and everything up (not expecting it to rain).

We had had a fun night with good food as always that Brother Roberts and Brother Hatch had made, and we were ready to get to bed for the next day to go on a 8 mile biking course through the desert. In the middle of the night it had started to rain and I had been sleeping in a 2 man tent with my friend Keaton. We both got out, and despite being tired and confused, we tried to put up the tarp. Others had already done so when they initially put up their tents because they were just...smart... So we set it up and finally we went back to bed being fairly wet and more than uncomfortable. However a lot of coyotes very...very nearby had started howling and it had kept us up for a while. After about an hour I can remember falling asleep. Then I woke up again finding I was sleeping in water as it started to enter my sleeping bag. There were holes in the base of the tent and my entire pillow was wet. There was not one dry spot! That I do remember! Now I was cold and shivering inside my sleeping bag and I tried to use my pillow to block all the water that would come in my sleeping bag if I laid straight down. After about another hour or so of Keaton and I were trying to deal with the same things..

Then, around 3:00 in the morning, one of our leaders had brought up our less active friend Duke...I had a weird feeling right as they stopped the car. Brother Mask came up and had asked us if Duke could sleep in our already soaking 2 man tent( with our backpacks inside because we couldn't leave them outside) We took him in and I remember just thinking this is soo dumb.

Duke came in with all of his things and had put his sleeping bag in between Keaton and I. We told him about the water but most of the water was seeping towards the corners of the tent because the ground was slanted a little. Anyway, Duke then starts to snore after falling asleep. I remember thinking to myself...why am I here right now...? The coyotes were still howling, it was still raining, my sleeping bag and pillow were both drenched including us, and I was literally still sleeping in about an inch of water but was too tired to try and dish it all out, and now we were smushed with another kid who was snoring extremely loud...and we had to wake up in about 3-4 hours

I was ready to leave right there. I didn't really fall asleep that night and neither had Keaton but somehow Duke was able to snore away...

Now with this experience and knowledge from the mission I've been able to relate a lot of things. I would say that if you're going to try and get your eagle its very likely that over the years you will have at least 1 experience like this or worse.  I have related this one night experience to missionary work by thinking this...Duke really wanted to come camping with us...I knew that he had had a very hard family life and wasn't living in the best conditions himself while I wished I could be in my nice cozy air conditioned house with a big warm bed. 

I have learned in simple words that in order to grow and become what God wants...there will be challenges and trials where we will have to tell ourselves....Just deal with it!  Don't whine, groan ,or be that guy who keeps complaining about how much better something would be if it was only like this, or if only this happened. Let this make you stronger and just DEAL WITH IT. Let this make you the man you need to be. Something that has helped me is to ALWAYS remember that we will never be given a trial that we cannot overcome and make the right choice. God knows how much we can take. SO you have to tell yourself this...God knew I could take this challenge...so there's no backing out of it...otherwise that would mean that I gave up on Him and the trial He gave me to become better.

This is one of many stories that I can remember from how scouting has strengthened me and prepared me to be in a country that is unfamiliar and speak a language I've obviously never spoken much nor heard every single day of almost every moment, and to live in conditions where I don't have the things of everyday life which we all take for granted.

The mission will pull, and stretch you everyday physically, mentally and many times even emotionally. But only if you let it. Getting your Eagle scout award is one of the best or even one of the least things you could do to get you ready for your mission. I wasn't fully ready to go out on my mission and I don't think anyone ever has been, but from what I would humbly offer is that the journey to the Eagle is one of the best things you can do. Stick with it and let it make you the person you need to be to serve with God's missionaries---to serve in God's Army, because He requires a lot, and in return, He blesses a lot.

I hope this helps Spence!  I don't know if this is too much but use what you want bud! Love ya! Oh and ya the people on the streets treat us ok...we have a lot of people who will make fun of us and many times they will always stare just straight at us even if they're standing right in front of you. They don't care and I don't know why to be honest. It really annoys me but it's just another challenge to deal with. Hope you had a fun bday bud! Take care!

Elder Chamberlain

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 2:31 AM, Tamara Chamberlain <tntmusic92@gmail.com> wrote:

Murky Water Baptism

Here is a quick pic from the MTC I forgot to send you:

 So, remember Bro. Monson,  President Monson's nephew?  My FAVORITE MTC leader ever!!!    He is such a cool guy!  We had a lot of talks together and he helped me so much.  I love this guy!

A quick look at the Buenos Aires Temple the day I got there.  So pretty!

This is me at the baptism.  I played the piano for Carri and her family.

So this week was super awesome!! Carri got baptized and we're talking to some of her friends right now with their families. We'll have a SUPER busy week so that's good. 

My comp and I had a lot of trouble with the baptismal font though! There wasn't any working water and so we had to go get a bunch of water from this well. It wasn't like an actual old looking well but we had to drop in these buckets in this square opening in the ground and get water. It was pretty dirty. Then the water started to work again from the spout and it was even more dirty so we just turned it off. The water wasn't super bad but it was a little murky. Actually, it was pretty bad to be honest. But we prayed that she wouldn't think about it and that is exactly what happened. She didn't even care. She just walked right in the water.

Her mom was sooo happy for her and was crying. After the baptism I fulfilled my promise and played some piano for Carri in the chapel and we went to go have dinner at their house. We had pizza, or bread with plastic cheese on top haha. But we were hungry so we honestly didn't care and it's all they had so we humbly took it. (as we always do with others) 

The people are soo awesome! We heard another gunfight but it was actually super cool! It was on the far side of Campo Papa and they had soo many legit police/swat trucks heading towards the edges of Campo Papa. So that was cool to watch. We didn't actually see the fighting though, just the noises. Mom I'm fine though--- God is protecting us and it was far away:) It's ALL GOOD. 

I'm learning the language a lot still and my dorm buddies are helping me soo much. I still have trouble talking to the people but I've just memorized a couple funny phrases to say when I don't know what to say. Most of the time I just bear my testimony about what were teaching and its good. We're taught that when in doubt, Testify!   I've also been taught by that from Brother Mask too! He also served In Buenos Aires--- So its obviously good stuff :)

I hope all is well and your calling is doing super good!  I'm soo happy up here and everything has been going so good. I'm working out a lot, eating a lot of eggs and protein and what not, learning alot and the language is becoming easier everyday. Hence, it's still  very hard but it is becoming easier!  The Lord is good and truly takes care of his missionaries!

How's your calling going!? What lesson did you teach yesterday?

I didn't play piano this Sunday but I will the next! I love to play soo much and thank you for putting those books and all of those things together for me mom! I'll definitely use those in the future! I'm reading a lot and I'm sooo grateful too for Dad's how to win friends and influence people papers that he wrote up! They are soo useful and helping me a lot! 

BYU 41-7 with Texas??? Again?  Last year it was something bad like that too! That's gotta make you and Dad feel pretty good right? haha

Thank you for the pics too mom! I actually thought about the moon too and how you're looking at it too my first couple weeks of being here. 

Time is going by sooo fast mom! I'm already a month in the field  which is actually really cool and I've learned sooo much! I'm also a way better cleaner because I've had to clean some pretty nasty stuff in our pench(apartment) and for others!!  I love the people and they're all sooo nice to me!

I love you ma! Thanks for ALL you do!  Know I'm safe and I literally have the best most pelligroso comapanion with me! I'll send the photos soon!

Everything is good here and I hope everything is good there! I miss and love you all soo much --But the blessings are soo good that I'm receiving from being out here and I can't thank my God enough for them. Love you all!

Love your son,

Elder Kohler Chamberlain

For my birthday, this nice family made me a cake!

My crazy comp threw confetti all over me for my bday.  He is super cool!

Me outside the church grounds

Excerpt from a letter to Kelsey:

Kelsey my fav hermana!

 I told my comp ( no matter how scary he is, ha ha) that I will write my fam and everybody I need to no matter the time. This is missionary work in another form so it's no big deal;)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to teach about the family. How through Our God, Heavenly Father, we can all live together as one big family in Heaven. I have a super strong testimony of the family and so many people don't know about that. It always takes people off guard when they hear that they can spend an eternity with their sweetheart and children. Its pretty cool...:)

Letter to Dad:

This is soo awesome to hear! When I pray for you too I always pray for your biz and your staff!  That's sooo awesome that he's learning more about this gospel! You and I both know soo much that this will change his life forever! I didn't realize how much God blesses you for when you did missionary work.. and I don't know about you but I'm sooo happy right now!

I'm working out a ton and every monday tues thurs and Friday I run with my comp now! Our apartment complez is completely surrounded by gate and barbed wire though so we just run on the inside. Not like its dangerous outside but its always better.

Man things are going super good dad! I'm learning sooo many things that I know will help me with things later in life!! Especially with what I want to do! God is blessing me in sooo many ways and I can't thank him enough!

I have a strong testimony that when we do missionary work we receive soo many blessings that we literally can't count them.  A lot of people say that and you just think...Oh blessings...like little things or things that aren't really that important or significant. You receive sooo many blessings and especially those of your own desires! If it be expedient and righteous unto God which most of the time it is then you'll receive it based on your FAITH! I know you have faith and always know that I have faith in you and what you're doing! So proud of you Dad.

Much love to you and everybody else! Miss you all like crazy!

Elder Kohler Chamberlain

I had to throw this picture in---remember when I called you guys from the Atlanta airport and there was this guy playing a grand piano?  Well, I took a quick pic of him!