Weeks Flying Past

Hey everybody!

This week was a good week but went by wayyy fast!  We had exchanges with the zone leaders and had interviews with president and several meetings this week it was a lot of fun but we didn't get to work a whole lot:/ but it's ok!  Maicol is progressing and isn't going to go to Buenos Aires yet so we can still work with him! Also we're going to baptize Franco and that's going to be way exciting! Other than that not a whole lot happened other than the usual contacting/knocking on doors and visiting people.  That's all I can really remember right now! But it was a great week! 

That is so cool how Spencer wrote his testimony in a Book of Mormon and gave it to a friend at school.  I feel like I need to share this video that the church shared in a world missionary conference a week or so ago. I don't know if you've seen it.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbRUXWVMlw

I promise that the Lord will continue to bless us as a family and even more if we participate in this work. If God has placed someone who's interested in the church, Spence should continue with that and you can help him get the missionaries over. Just tell Spencer to not be scared of what he would say.  This will be a great experience for him before his mission--something I wish I would've had before serving my mission. 

Anyway much love to all of you guys!

Elder Chamberlain 

Elder Bennett, Marcelo Riveros, 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:)

Coming up on one year

You are all in Cancun!? What?? This is weird sorry ahaha because usually you guys like tell me or something but I just see "hey we're in Cancun" and these pics of you guys there. That's sooo crazy! The church is really strong in Cancun! Keaton's comp is from there and in my last area we had a missionary from there who told me all about the church and how strong the stakes are there! Based on what I heard there should be a temple being announced there in the next year because it's soo much stronger than here and we have a general setting of members that we need in each stake and the number of stakes. That will be cool when there's a temple there.

Oh my Spencer ahaha HE'S SUCH A STUD!! That's my homieee ahaha! Are those my glasses that Tony gave me? You should send that photo to Tony!   He'd like that! 

Yea I'm coming up on my official 1 year mark.  It's crazy! It's all going by sooo fast! I'm going to try and make wings or tacos or just something from AZ!

WOW sooo Natalie is in the England mtc!! Where is she going again?? I thought it was in the states?

Man Dayton and Nick are out...it will go by soo fast. Then Chip, Colton and the rest that's sooo crazy! 

So we had our quarterly 3 month interviews with President again and I got to ask President some pretty cool questions!

One of them I'll mention was when Nephi  (The one before the coming of Christ) was praying to the lord to know when he would come into the world because his people were going to die that next day if the sign wasn't shown.

My question was that when Nephi was talking to Jesus Christ through prayer was Jesus Christs spirit in his body? Obviously his body was ready at 9 months so hes moving, kicking and everything. Christ said fear not for I come into the world tomorrow...I wanted to know when the spirit entered into the body because people have wondered if that makes abortion ok at that point. I knew enough to tell people no because that would still stop that baby's progression because yes or yes, they were going to be born and you just killed them, but I still wanted to know when does the actual spirit enter the body.

President Goates told me a simple example that it very well could've been something like this.

He told me that when he's really busy and he can't carry out an assignment he will send one of his counselors to get it done.

It could very well be that this happened with Jesus Christ and an angel was speaking "in the name of Jesus Christ". Just how a counselor in a bishopric (if the bishop is absent) is there in the name and authority of the bishop.

But in the end he said we don't know because God hasn't provided us that information.

Anyway Miss and love you all soo much!! Take care!!

Love your son and best friend,

Elder Chamberlain:)

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:

2015 First Letter

Mom-- I'M sooo happy I got to talk to you guys! I'm glad you like my video too haha! I wasn't sure exactly what to say but it's just what came to my head haha.

That's cool that Amber and them are doing good and having fun! I'm glad Amber has a boyfriend.

I didn't know the book Jesus the Christ was written in the temple? I should read it! I will totally read it with you! Let's just make it a habit to read like at least 2 pages a day. Something small and simple. I always do that for everything so I can create consistency because I've learned more than ever if you want something, it doesn't matter literally how much of it you do really, you NEED to be consistent. Let's do it!

I'm glad Grandpa is feeling better! I had fasted for the longest time ever yesterday and put grandpa along with many other people and things in my prayers.

We were going to have 9 people go to church with us from 3 different houses that we had to walk to. All very far apart. NONE of them came...yeeeeaaaaa!!  Haha its all good tho. We'll for sure get them next week! We just have to push 3 baptism dates from the 17th of january to the 24th now. 

Tell Spencer that's exactly how it is. He just has to do it. Nobody likes it but when you do it you're beating all of the people that aren't doing that so you're above the crowd and more unique! He'll become successful that way I know it. I'm soo proud of that guy.

Mom actually could you tell Spencer to write me? I'll just tell you sometimes at night or after studying for a little bit my mind will receive ideas for the future I want to create. I'm very focused on missionary work but it's more of a little hobby I have on the mission in my free time haha! I feel as if they're blessings from working hard and these ideas I have just make a  lot of sense. I like them a lot and I have a lot of faith in them. I'm soo soo grateful for the confidence and faith I actually have and I know they're blessings from my Heavenly Father. I know I will achieve the success I want here in the mission and for my future. I Just know I will, I can literally feel it. 

I need to try and send pictures but I haven't here yet in this ciber! I'm just always busy writing but maybe some weeks I'll write a lot less and just send pictures. Tell me what you guys want!:)

Te amo muchissimo ma, Espero que tengas un buena semana!  Chao!( People say chao all the time but it's an Italian thing soo it would make sense haha)

Elder Kohler Chamberlain