I finally know what everyone was talking about when they told me that Michigan is humid. The first week here wasn't bad at all, but this Saturday was something else. It was 95 degrees outside and we were at the "Tridge" personal contacting people. It also didn't help that it was insanely humid. There was an amateur radio festival thing going on. So one guy was showing us the inside of his RV and it was an oven in there, but then finally he opened the windows, which was a life saver.
We taught some cool people this week. We taught Brian, who is 18 like me. We went for a walk with him (4 long miles) and just talked. We stopped at a park halfway and taught him the Restoration (lesson 1). He understood everything we said, and seemed really interested. He is sorta on a personal spiritual journey, so hopefully he will want to learn more. We also taught Joe, which was the craziest experience of my life. He wants to be baptized, but he is waiting for 1st presidency approval, because of something he did in his past. Which he "kindly" told us about... Then he told us that we didn't need to be afraid of him. I still don't know what to think of it. Then we taught a guy named Adam. His wife got baptized a while ago, but then she fell away. We got to his house and he told us that he didn't believe in God, but then we had an hour lesson with him on faith, and we are meeting with him tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. We also met with a guy named Blake, who I talked a lot of sports with, which was a tender mercy. We are meeting with him tonight, and painting miniatures with him which should be cool. He was awesome. We met with Lee and just talked for a while, he is one of the nicest, most generous people I have met. He gave us 160 lbs of weight for our apartment. We now have 390 lbs in there. Elder Hess really likes to work out.
I got to be a spotter in a baptism on Friday. The sisters were the ones who taught her, her name is Bonnie. She was being baptized by Curt Cormier, who just got baptized 2 months ago, he is so awesome. But she has some health problems, so they needed someone to be in the font to help bring her back up, so I got to do it. It was really cool.
We were knocking doors and met the nicest lady ever. She talked with us for a while and then told us that she wasn't interested at all in the church, but she was still really nice. She then told us that we had better hurry home because we have to be home by 9. I don't know how she knew that....
Elder Hess and I lift weights most mornings, which is good for me, he is a lot stronger than me though. I talked to a Brazilian lady yesterday who told me about the game against Chile, which was like a kick in the groin, because I would have really liked to watch that. I did get to watch a little of the France and Nigeria game in the mall today though..... ha.
All is well in Midland, Michigan. I still miss you all like crazy and still feel like 2 years is an eternity and a half away, but oh well. I love you.
Love,
Elder Chalmers
Curt, Bonnie and me at Bonnie's baptism
June 23, 2014
How's it going everybody?!So my last week in the MTC was awesome. I got along really well with the other district in my zone who were all going to Baltimore. Elder Chee and I were best friends.(Cheelmers) We would always joke around about how we were going to punch people in the face and about how Elder Adams was such a ladies man. Our whole zone also had a joke that whenever one of the elders would be talking to a sister, we would all start acting like we were reeling in a fishing pole, like they were "reeling them in" it was pretty fun. So they left on Tuesday morning, so I was without them, but it was okay. Elder Ballard spoke at our Tuesday night devotional and it was awesome! He told us to never be embarrassed of our faith and to stand up for it.So we left the MTC at 4:30 a.m on Wednesday and headed up to the SLC airport. It was really cool because it was dark so all the temples we passed on our way up were the only things lit up. It was awesome talking to Mom, Dad, and TK at the airport, but it took all I had to keep my composure because it was super hard to say goodbye and I didn't want to have a breakdown in the airport. I also tried to call Courtney like 5 times... but I still love my SIS! I also called Cason, but he didn't answer, he e-mailed me though and said he picked it up right after it stopped ringing, so it was close. I tried to call Rylee but I don't think she had service, and her voicemail box was full so I couldn't even leave a message. I slept the whole first flight to Minneapolis, and I wanted to call, but I let Elder Erekson use my card so he could call home.When we got to Lansing we were greated by Pres and Sis Hess and the assistants. One of the assistants, Elder Jeff Derricott from Bountiful says he knows Megan? We got all our stuff and took a pic then went to the mission home. When we were walking down the stairs to put our stuff on the beds, Elder Adams fell down the entire flight of stairs, it was so funny, you got to love the tender mercies of the Lord. ha. Don't worry though he was okay. Then the assistants took us to Michigan State University campus and we did some personal contacting. Elder Adams and I talked to a couple of guys from China, and they were pretty interested and we gave them each a Book of Mormon, it was really cool. So that night we were all interviewed by Pres. Hess and the assistants taught us about backing the cars, pride, and other stuff.So on Thursday we went to the Stake center and we got informed how to use our cards, and stuff about how the apartments and cars work. One of the older sisters who works in the office kept telling us not to punch a hole in the wall?! Must be a good story there. So after that they lined up all the new missionaries across from the trainers and gave all the trainers their paper with our names on it, so they all flipped them at the same time and then came and found us. My trainer is named Elder Hess. He is a pretty distant relative of the Pres. He is from Idaho and really likes golf and sports and music. He looks a lot like Braxton Kunde. He has been out for 8 months and is 21, he graduated in 2011. So we got a ride to Mt. Pleasant to get our car, and then went to Midland.Midland is a really nice little town. The only reason it exists is because it is where the company DOW Chemical is. Everyone we meet works for them somehow. So our first day we went to the Tridge (Tri-Bridge) and did some personal contacting. It was pretty good, we got 22 ITL's (Invitation to learn) which is pretty good for a day. So all of our progressing investigators are out of town, so we knocked a lot of doors and talked with a lot of people this week. We did teach 2 lessons though. One was to Ben, who is a less accountable guy since he got in a motorcycle accident a while ago, and the other was to Aaron. He is my age and has a lot of really good questions. We taught him for like an hour. He just really wants to find out religion on his own, so we are going to teach him some more. Overall this week has been pretty good. But, I really miss you all a lot. I have been pretty homesick since being here. Elder Hess has really helped me though, which I really appreciate. The mission is pretty hard, but I know I can do it with the Lord's help. I love you all and miss you.Love,Elder Chalmers.P.S. my address:2201 Ashman St. Apt #2Midland, MI 48640
