Goodbye to the people of San Raphael

Jacqueline and Oscar Gatica

We made honey bbq wings for the Gatica family.  They loved them!

Hey Everybody,

So this week we said goodbye to A LOT of people that I've come soooo close with!  I'm going to San Luis Ampia with a porteño from Buenos Aires. It should be really cool!  Last week I didn't know I was going for sure but I planned on it because it was really likely that I was going to and if I didn't do it I wouldn't have had time to say goodbye to anybody. It would be like I just disappeared (which happened for several missionaries that were unexpectedly leaving) As I was saying goodbye to a ton of people this week  it was pretty hard. I didn't cry in front of any of them!! But some of the hermanas almost made me ha. I know I'll see them again when I come back with you guys:)  I was able to leave my testimony for a lot of them and with some I was able to share a favorite scripture of mine which is in Helaman 5:12. It's the one about the rock of Christ and if we build on it we won't fall. And I was able to share it with a lot of less actives and ONE family that we were able to bring back! The Aguilera family! They're officially coming back to church and it makes me soo happy! :) 

We had stake conference this last Sunday and the stake president talked a little about the member attendance. There are 5000 members in San Raphael and we have the biggest zone in the mission. We only have 600 that are active.  It was a surprising statistic but it's all good! The stake and apparently the Church is focusing a lot on increasing the priesthood and the leaders are encouraging us to work more with men that can prepare to have the holy priesthood.

Oh my gosh-- I'm so sorry about those people that died in Gilbert and in Europe...I heard something from an old lady about a lot of people died in a concert in Germany haha but ok...soo there were hundreds that died and in France...ya it's been a sad week.

Hey I haven't gotten any packages here at all. Maybe theres that one that that sister brought here but I won't know until the next zone meeting and were probs not gonna go to the offices when we go to mendoza. Tomorrow is when well have the meeting with all the mission and some Seventies over this area and right after the meeting we're all leaving to our new areas with our new comps...it's gonna be pretty crazy with 250 missionaries and those that are leaving with their suitcases and everything haha.  

So, to answer your question, Mom - we don't have a relief society president BUT we have a girl that teaches the gospel doctrine classes and the bishop's wife helps too and I think she has multiple callings. We don't get a whole lot from the ward but there's some hermanas that help us with clothes and giving us lunch!!  We have really good lunches here!

I'm trying my best out here and only care what the Lord wants me to do. I trust him more than anybody and have learned in some of the most fearful time in my mission here to trust Him. All he wants us to do is try our best and leave it in his hands.

Hey I have to go but I love you all so much. Have an awesome week:)

Love your son,

Elder  Chamberlain

Halloween Day P-Day Activities

Men in Black

Hey Everyone - 

Awesome week! We had an amazing activity that we made and we had 5 investigators come and 3 full less active families come that we have been working with for a LONG time haha. Ahh man it's soo cool to see when people finally progress...EVEN if it's just going to the church for a halloween activity haha.

Veronica and BOTH her parents came and they loved it! They had told me they had never seen veronica the way she was since the accident and that they knew she was really happy. That made me feel soooooooooo good I cant even tell you! were going to ahve a family night with them and the Alanes family (Oscar and Jackie) Hermana Alanes came up to me and actually told me that we should do it so were gonna have an awesome time tonight!  Ma, we had such an awesome activity! There were a bunch of kids dressed up and even some of the parents too haha! Ya, that's what we planned to be, "men in black" haha everybody liked that. We put a lot of work into the activity and also the Funez family (our ward mission leader) helped us a lot.   

We had a spiritual thought after and we shared a Mormon Message called, "What Matters Most" and we talked about how activities like this bring us together and unify us.  It was super cool!  Mom, I'm doing good.  The Savior has my back and so does my Heavenly Father.  It's a lot of things but nothing I can't handle with the Lord :)  

Thank you soon much for the scripture (Alma 33:23) that's really good!  I know that through his atonement our burdens can be lightened.  I don't know exactly how but that's just how it is ha ha!

Anyway Im going to try and send pictures Cause I havent been able to in forever(only through some members and facebook ahaha. Anyway much love everybody!

Elder Chamberlain

Elder Chamberlain and Oscar Gatica

Elder Chamberlain with Oscar and Jackie

The entire barrio (ward) at the Halloween Party

Carnitas (Argentine sausage)

Hermanas in our District

Jackie Gatica and our barrio for dinner

Conference . . . Great!! Sleeping on the floor . . . Not so great.

Hey Mom,

Ya I lovvveeddd conference! It is always such a big help in my life. However this was the first time we didn't have a "gringo room" because the stake president said if I was serving in another country with another language I would listen to the prophet and his apostles in that language. So for all the sessions on Saturday and priesthood we didn't listen to them in english. It's just cool to hear things in english and because they are said and even sometimes understood a little different. That may not make a lot of sense-- everything is the same but just the meanings are gotten across and not the actual words. For example:

te damos gracias senor is literally we give you thanks lord but they obviously dont say that.

HOWEVER on Sunday, yesterday the stake president said that if the chapel didn't fill up we could use the extra room for a gringo room and we could for both sessions!! We were all soo happy mom!! Like we hear english obviously between us gringos but it's different to hear other people you don't know and more than anything the prophet talk in his own voice. Just a lot of little things...but this is all good.  I'm grateful we at least got that-- it was a good 6 month treat haha

I've been in a trio with 2 other elders since Saturday morning early because Elder Paz ended the mission and I have to be with them till Wednesday.

Haha its been really hard with only 2 beds and some nasty dirty blankets haha. I offered to sleep on the ground till Wednesday and Ive been even more grateful for that mint scented memory foam mattressI had at home ahahahaha! It's been interesting in their little pench with some other things too haha.

Soo I'm staying in San Raphael with a guy from Peru named Elder Arzubiaga. He's apparently a really quiet guy but he's been with some cool missionaries so I'm hoping it will be good but won't hope too much haha.

Hey Thanks mom for everything. I miss you all a lot. Thanks for the photos! I'll try and send some this next week I was actually going to do some today but I'm not in my pench so I don't have my stuff! But anyway I'm gonna write dad now thanks ma!!  Love you!!

Your capo hijo,(Cool)

E Chamberlain;) 

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

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

Elder Chamberlain in San Raphael

June 8, 2015

Hey Mom!

Wow that's awesome about Dayton's placque being next to mine and your fun trip with dad!  I hope you guys had fun!:)

That's going to be exciting when you guys go to Nauvoo!  Mom, I can't tell you how many times I can say that I've been to the place where Joseph Smith saw God and his son Jesus Christ. It has literally helped my testimony soooo much! It's awesome to be able to say I've gone there!

Mom, I love my area but even more my comp and my pench! I don't have to use buckets anymore to shower after like 4 months or so ahaha! 

I love the members here but there were only about 26 members there and that was including us...haha but a lot more were gone than usual so it's ok! We're gonna fill it!

Hey I have to go and I don't have much time today to write, but everything is good! I'll send pics of my new pench which it's soo nice and I'm soo grateful! As well as my comp and what not!:)

Miss and love ya ma!!

Love,

Elder Chamberlain

June 15, 2015

Dear Dad,

That's soo cool about the experiences Mom and the kids had there in Nauvoo! I wouldn't doubt it was life changing. My testimony of Joseph Smith has grown so much along with the Book of Mormon!

Love the pics---- that was really cool to see that door (the one where the bullet was where Hyrum Smith was killed)  I've shown that movie or the shortened version to investigators and members a lot for family nights and other events.

Wow so ya-- Jake and Trevin are back!?  That's soo crazy! I remember writing Trevin when he just had a year in the mission when I was in the MTC! That is sooo crazy how fast that went! Wow ya Jake's mission is a lot different than mine. He's dealt with some pretty hardened people up there.

That's cool how Trevin talked about that. When people receive that seed to grow it will dry up if not nourished. It's sad for a lot of people to watch it. Us missionaries are just to provide the water and sunlight through Jesus Christ and then they have to use it for their own good.

Wow So I love my comp!  He's sooo awesome! Dad so ya yesterday was my official day for going home in one year but WE MADE FREAKIN HONEY BBQ WINGS!!!! I CAN'T TELL YOUUUU HOWWW GOOOD THEY WEREEE!!!

They weren't Buffalo Wild Wings and to be honest I can't even remember what they taste like but THEY WERE SOO GOOD! WE LEARNED HOW TO MAKE THEM AND THEY WERE SURPRISINGLY SOOOO GOOD!! Just no ranch dressing....BUT I WAS SOO GRATEFUL!!!

I will send you all pics of what we did to fry them and sauce them up ahaha.

Ya so basically I love my comp but we had an ok week. One family dropped us after the previous missionaries had been teaching them for 5 months cuz they're family convinced the Dad (who was the one with a testimony and praying and growing) that they're already Catholics and they shouldn't change. So the Dad told us that he wasn't going to work with us anymore...it was sad but its their choice.

It's pretty cold here right now and we don't have to move apartments from that guy that threatened to hurt us because apparently our renter person, Duena, she's very respected in our neighborhood and she told this guy to stop because now they're having to move and they were really good to me! So he came and apologized to us and told us we can walk on that street whenever we want. So were going to tell President that we're all good but he has the final word.

Our bishop is cool and I'm playing piano now and going to learn new hymns too. I'm playing for a choir in our ward conference "Count your many blessings" so that will be fun! I also played for our zone conference which it's only our zone that meets cuz its the biggest in the mission with 34 people. Hermana Goates (President's wife) said I play really well so that made me feel pretty good.

Anyway all is well with the work and we found several people this week that we're going to try and teach this week. One was a guy who was really receptive in the street and we're going to teach him and his family this week!

Much love Dad I miss you tonzz!! Cuidate che;)

Te agradezco papa gracias por ser un gran ejemplo para mi:)

Elder K Chamberlain

Movie made for Ward Member Referrals

Hey Fam-- this is the movie we made for the ward to help give us more references! These are the elders I'm with all the time. Haha They are super awesome funny guys ahaha!

Obviously everything is in Spanish. I talk in English in one part but it's really got our ward more active in just the past couple weeks so it's helping us!

The water balloon fight is outside our pench and it's filmed in our pench and the other elders pench too!

I hope you can all watch it and that you like it ahaha!!  

(This photo was taken as a screen-shot from the video.
The complete video cannot be loaded on to the blog)

Hey Mom!

Wow I knew L. Tom Perry had cancer but didn't know he died. He'll be missed by many for sure.

MA--- we ha such a good week! I wanted to make sure my comp finished strong in his last week of the mission! We found 2 new big families like the Chaparro family and we taught them a couple times! Others are also progressing too and were really excited for that! But I'm leaving for San Raphael after these 6 months! I can' believe I've been here since December! 

Mom I'm actually excited for San Raphael a lil' cuz it's super pretty there! It's one of the more pretty/richer parts of the Mendoza provinces! I'm with a gringo named Elder White and we already know each other fairly well so it should be fun with him!

Wow that's soo cool that Madison and Rebecca are leaving on their missions. They'll learn a lot!

I didn't know Spencer was a counselor in his quorum-- that's soo cool!

Hey good job in inviting that family to come to church. They have the invitation now and they just need to make the decision. I hope they'll make it soon especially while there kids are fairly young to help them make that a part in their life. It will be a lot harder for them later on in life if they don't make that a foundation now. But you did your part and thats the success of it. We invite and nothing more. There's nothing more we can do neither should do because we have to respect the free agency that God wanted us all to have so badly. Enough to sacrifice a third of his children.

I love and miss you ma more than you know. The mission is going and I've learned and seen more then I thought I ever would--All in only half the time. But ya this time next year I'll be getting ready to come home with you all:)

I miss and love you all soo much. Suzanne wrote me and I LOVED hearing from her! I hope everything went well---Baby Dean looks good!

Love your son,

Elder K Chamberlain