The Colors, They Are a Changin'

Sept. 29, 2014

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This week was a great week for Elder Rapp and I, but I don't have my planner with me so this whole e-mail will have to be from memory, bear with me.

Monday: Last P-Day we didn't really do anything. We played basketball and e-mailed. Elder Rapp and I then just chilled at the apartment for the last few hours of P-Day. After that we biked to the Pierce's. We had dinner with them and taught FHE. It was really cool though because they hometeach a part member family, the Sexton's. Joseph is a member and his wife Teresa isn't. He really wants to be able to bless his 18 month old son, so it's really cool. We taught them the Restoration and it went really well It was great having the Pierce's to teach, they are such a great family. Then we went to Blake's and he went off about government and once he gets going you can't stop him. Then we had to bike home in the dark, which was pretty fun.

Tuesday: We spent most of our time either at the Tridge or knocking doors. We met a few pretty cool guys. We did have dinner at the Cormiers which was sweet. I love them so much, they are my favorite! I honestly can't really remember exactly what we did but I know that it was fun. ha

Wednesday: Today was fun! We woke up early and met the Zone Leaders and the Midland 1 missionaries. We played some basketball at the church which was dang fun then we had district meeting. After that, Elder Rapp and I hurried home and changed and I got my stuff since we were going on trade-offs with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Tuttle to Mt. Pleasant. We had lunch with a member named Bro. Clynick, he is just full of off-color one liners, it was pretty funny. :)  All day we did personal contacting on campus and also taught a few lessons. They have a ton of people they are teaching since everyone on campus is super open. We taught a couple of girls named Mckenzie and Krystal. We taught them both about covenants and the Restoration.  I love teaching about covenants. Elder Tuttle showed me how he does it and it's super effective. We had dinner at Bro. Bassett's. He is wanting to rejoin the church and has so many struggles and wants to change so badly but he just can't get himself to commit. It was really sad. Elder Tuttle is such a stud. He works super hard and it was a blast. 

Thursday: I spent today in Mt. Pleasant on Central Michigan University's campus. We taught like 4 lessons today and they were all about the Restoration. We ran into one of their investigators named Alex and she is a fireball. She is a sorority girl and as she would say, she is a "hot mess". She is all drama and super chatty. She would see us and then all the personal contacting we were doing was shot. It was a really fun day, and I learned a ton. I loved the trade-off but I was happy to get back to Midland, I was starting to miss it. 

Friday: Today was busy and fun. We went to teach Joe and it was Tracey's birthday, so he had made her a cake and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. It was pretty cute. Then we taught Joe about the Sacrament. We also tried to visit a few former investigators. We tried to see a guy named Bill, so we got there and asked if he was Bill and he was, so we talked to him for a while. But it turns out he had just moved in and was a different Bill. ha. He let us hold his little parrot though. :) Then we went and got shined by Ben. After that we did weekly planning which was actually really, really good. :) Then we picked up the 1st ward elders and went out to the Crippen's farm for their ward party. It was super fun. We got to meet Jade & Nathan who are their sweet investigators who are moving into our area. :) We played ultimate frisbee with some of the priests and Nathan. It was super foggy which was sweet. Then we went on a hay ride which was also really cool. It was a super fun day.

Saturday: Today is the day we met Jon... This morning after studies we went and taught Ben the GOJC with Bro Cannady. Then after that we went to see James Cannady, Bro Cannady's son. We got there and the last time we were with him he was telling us how excited he was to see the new TV show, Gotham, that I guess just came out. We asked him about it and for the next hour he told us every little detail about the first episode. He even had to use the bathroom after about 40 min so we were prepared to get the lesson back when he came out, but NOPE, he didn't lose a beat. It was crazy. After he was done we asked him if we could start with a prayer and he offered to say it! We have really been working on getting him to pray so it was super cool. :) Then we went to the Tridge and met with one of our potentials that Elder Hess and I had met at the Tridge. He is awesome! We taught him the Restoration and really focused on covenants and the priesthood. We read Mosiah 18:8-10 with him and he said, "Well, the catholic church is wrong. You can't make a covenant as a baby." It was so awesome. He is so prepared. He is on date for the 25th of October. Elder Rapp and I are super pumped about him! Then we went to meet Sis. Reyes for dinner at the mall with the 1st ward elders and she gave us money to get food, so we went to Golden Buffet which is a Chinese buffet. It was super good! :) Then we went and saw David Clark for a little bit. It was a really good day.

Sunday: Today was really good as well. None of our investigators showed up for church which was a little frustrating but church was still really good. Bro. Gudmundsun gave a talk about the evils of the world and the Atonement, which was really, really good. We listened to Dallin H. Oaks's talk from last conference about the priesthood which was also really good. I like how he says that men are not the priesthood. After church, we went to Bro .Jones and he gave us a ton of venison stew, which is pretty dang good. After that we knocked doors and for some reason nobody was home?! After that we went to the McCormick's where we talked about covenants and priesthood. Penny said that she believes everything we teach and knows she needs to be baptized, she just isn't ready for it yet. It's kind of frustrating, but we don't want to push her away then we stopped by the Robel's to follow up with them and we just chatted for a while about D&C 4. We had dinner at the Tuft's, who are a new family in our ward, they made surprisingly good meatloaf. They are really cool. Then we did our studies. 

Today we have gone shopping, done our laundry and we went to Dow Gardens which is a really cool place. We got a ton of pictures, it's super beautiful in there. Then we played soccer which was sweet, since we haven't played in forever. Tonight we are going to Helen's to teach her FHE and she's feeding us, which should be good. :)

So this week, I learned a lot from my studies and I don't know what to share with you. I will just share something from last Sunday. As I was preparing for the sacrament, I read Alma 5. It's a pretty intense chapter about basically how prepared we are to meet God. I really like a section from verse 48. It says "It is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name." I thought that it was really interesting that Alma distinguishes that Christ will take away the sins of only those who have faith in Christ. I don't really have much to add to that, but I would just challenge each of you to ponder what Alma says and see how it applies to you personally and also to read Alma 5 and really check your progress and see the areas that you need to improve. I promise that it really helps. 

I love each and every one of you and am so thankful to have so much support out here.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

2 Cor. 12:9-10

The Cormier's

Foggy ultimate frisbee

Elder Rapp and me at Dow Gardens

Hey Everybody!                                                                          Sept. 22,2014

Joe Booth got baptized on Saturday! It was such a great experience to get to help him prepare, especially since he has been waiting for 3 years to get baptized.

Monday: It was a pretty typical P-Day. We had to go to Marshall's to get Elder Rapp a jacket and they had a ton of Eagles mugs, so I bought one. :) We had dinner at Justin and Erica Jones. They made some really good enchiladas. I really like Justin, he's a Steelers fan and always wears his Steelers tie to church, so we talk about football. ha. Then we went to Blake's and he brought up the afterlife, which was cool since it's hard to keep him on a gospel topic. Then Bro Jones gave me a haircut, which wasn't quite as bad of a hack job as the first one he gave me. ;) hah. I put on all my Eagles gear at night to support my Eagles against the Colts!

Tuesday:Today I was on trade-offs with Elder Nielsen in my area. We studied Alma 36 quite a bit. I really like it a lot ,especially verse 27 that says "I do put my trust in Him, and He will still deliver me." It talks a lot about how a faith in Jesus Christ can bless us. Then we taught Joe the Restoration since we needed to go through all the lessons with him again. Then we watched "Hope Through God's Light" Mormon Message at Ben's house. We talked a lot about hope and showed him Moroni 7:41 about having "hope through the Atonement." We knocked doors for a long time after that. We ran into Gary Glenn, who is running for state senate here. His wife and kids are all members, I'm sure I've mentioned Hunter Glenn, he teaches with us all the tim and returned from his mission in May. We talked with him for a while. He talked a ton about Boise State Football. Then for dinner we heated up some of the ribs Dad sent me. :) 

Wednesday: Today was sweet. We had District Meeting and we talked about the Holy Ghost and how He works through our testimonies. Then we had to extend our trade-off for a little bit. Elder Nielsen and I went to see Patti since we had to reschedule with her. He shared Jacob 4:7 with her and she said that is exactly what she needed, it was really cool.  Then we went and taught Joe and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During this lesson is when the Spirit testified to me that Joe was truly ready for baptism. He explained repentance to us and talked a lot about the desires of our hearts. Then I asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he talked about how he wanted to follow the Savior and help others do that same. Right then I knew he was ready. Then we traded back and had to give the car to the STL's in Mt. Pleasant. So we are now on bikes for the next week. So we biked to the Krueger's for dinner. She made ribs, but they were no Traeger ribs. We then knocked doors and one lady threatened to call the cops on us and have us arrested and I told her, "I don't think that's how that would work." ha. But we just left. Then we had dessert at the Marcou's. We talked about Faith, Hope & Charity in Moroni 10:20 as well as 1 Cor. 13. Then we had to bike home in the pitch black and we were singing hymns and some guy yelled, "It's late!" at us. ha. 

Thursday: Today while studying PMG I found that my responsibility as a missionary is to teach from my heart by the Spirit.  Then we did weekly planning. After that we went out to Joe's. This time was different though, because since we were on bikes and it's like six miles each way. We had to bike out there and about half of it we have to bike on the side of the road which was sketchy. ha. We just basically went over all the Commandments and Laws & Ordinances with him. After that we went to Dennis's. We did tear off one of the sides of his roof and also unloaded all the shingles from the truck. Then tried to visit a few potentials, so we stopped by the Robel's and shared D&C 4 with them. Then we had dinner at the Gilberts. He picked us up, thank goodness. We had Hawaiian Haystacks and they were so good! They are such a cool family. Then we knocked doors.

Friday: Today was so much fun! :) Today while studying PMG I read some cool stuff. I read that my power as a missionary and priesthood holder comes from prayerfully and worthily exercising authority. Then after studies, Hunter Glenn called us and told us that the car he had planned to borrow from his neighbors to pick us up wasn't there. So we told him that we would just meet him there. So we had to bike all the way to Helen's which is like 6 miles each way. We were like 20 min late but the Sisters came with us too so we just told them to start. We went over the Plan of Salvation and then taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really great lesson having 4 missionaries, an RM and a member as well there. Helen fed us pizza, noodles w/ shrimp and lemon cake. She's an angel. :) Then on our way home, Joe called us and told us he passed his baptismal interview and asked if we were coming to see him. We said we weren't planning on it,then he told us that he thought we wanted to see him everyday this week so after trying to visit a few people who both weren't home, we decided to toughen up and go see Joe. We watched the John Tanner story with him. We talked about doing all that we can to give everything to the Lord. We also did his paperwork and then we went to Mancino's with Sisters Anderson and Nyman. We met a sweet girl named Jaclyn at the Tridge, she is so solid. We are going to meet with her next week sometime. We biked like 25 miles today since Helen is the furthest North of the people we regularly see and Joe is the furthest South. It was so fun though. :)

Saturday: Today was awesome! It was Joe's Baptism! We had to bike to the church at about 7:30 since we had to start filling the font. We set up everything for the baptism then we also studied there. We got Joe ready in his jumpsuit. President and Sister Jacobsen both came and they brought Elder Hess and his companions Elder Lyman and Sinsel. Since Elder Hess and Lyman have both worked with Joe and Joe really wanted them there. It was amazing getting to watch Joe get baptized. I was so happy getting to watch him enter into the waters of baptism. He's been waiting so long for this and he finally made it! After the baptism we went and met with James Cannady, we watched Only a Stonecutter with him and talked about how keeping the commandments isn't always easy, but we receive blessings when we do. Then we knocked doors for a while. Then we went to the Fall Frolic stake activity. It was just pretty much free food and a ton of sweets. :) Then we were at the Tridge. On our way home I looked in the window of one of the coffee shops and I saw Brian Simonds! :) He is going to Grand Valley State but was back in town for the weekend and so we gave each other a big hug and then chatted for a while, it was so cool. :)

Sunday: Today was incredible. I was able to confirm Joe in sacrament meeting. I was shaking the entire time, I was really nervous. It was an amazing experience. Then Bishop Savage spoke about how we need to look past others imperfections. The way we do that is to be welcoming, accepting, patient and sincere.  After church we taught the McCormick's with Bro Krueger. We talked about being prepared. Then after church we did studies. Then we had Stake Priesthood meeting where President Lenhart talked about how we are all on the same team. He showed the Mormon Message about football, which was sweet. Then President Henrie talked about how we need to go to the temple more. After we had dinner at Sister Wheelers. We went with Hunter and Jefferson Glenn. She made some good enchiladas. :) Sister Gallon, who is a less-active, was also there. She asked me if Satan can disguise himself as the Holy Ghost. So this will be my spiritual thought for the week. I read her Moroni 7:11-13 which says that whatever inviteth and enticeth us to do good is from God. Then she asked if we follow that prompting if something we think is good, and it turns out bad. Then I told her that it comes down to us being worthy of the Spirit. If we aren't living worthy of the Spirit, we won't be able to discern the promptings we get or even recognize them. I also explained to her that sometimes we do follow a prompting from the Holy Ghost and it doesn't turn into something "good." I used the example of Jesus Christ and how suffering for the sins of the world wasn't "good" for him to go through but it was incredible and worth it. It all comes down to submitting our will to the Lord's. 

I have been having a ton of fun out here, especially this week. I love getting to be on bikes. I feel like a true missionary. :) I want to tell each and every one of you how much I love you and how thankful I am for your constant support and love. 

Love,

Elder Chalmers

haha!

Joe's Baptism!!

Elder Rapp and me

mid-September

Get out! I'm a DAD! -Dwight Schrute                                               Sept. 15, 2014

This was not a normal week for me because I got to go pick up my boy in Lansing this week! It was super fun getting to personal contact on Michigan State University's campus and it's been super fun so far getting to serve with Elder Rapp, my boy!

Last Monday we had dinner at the Peterson's house. They are a young couple who just moved out here from BYU. They are really cool but it was actually pretty weird because I'm so used to eating dinner with big families but it was all good. We just shared funny mission stories. Then we went to see Blake, Elder Hess had to say goodbye, which pretty much stinks. I don't want to have to say goodbye to all these people! 

Tuesday morning we woke up at like 4:30 and drove to Mt. Pleasant so we could play some transfer ball. We played volleyball and basketball. There were about 12 of us elders then we all went back to the Zone Leaders apartment and showered and chilled for a little bit. Once we were all freshened up,we headed back to the Mt. Pleasant church and waited for the transfer van. There were a ton of missionaries there and I don't know like any of them but it was cool getting to see all of them. I rode to Lansing in the assistants truck with Elder Derricott (the assistant), Elder Elmer, Elder Hess and Elder McBride. Once we got to Lansing I had to say goodbye to Elder Hess which stunk. Then Elder McBride, Elder Taylor, and I went out on MSU's campus and starting doing some personal contacting. Elder Taylor was only with us because he had to wait for the transfer van to go over to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, since that is where his companion was. There were a ton of people on campus. They are all really open to hear what you have to say. We met a guy named Lucas, who is from Mozambique, and we got an appointment with him then at 3, Elder McBride got to interview a girl who the assistants had been teaching. She was so solid. Then after he interviewed her, we got to teach her. The transfer van got back and I got to see Elder Adams, my MTC companion! He's doing great. We were waiting at the Institute building for Lucas to show up, but he never did, so we put our stuff back in the assistants apartment, then on our way back out, we spotted Lucas and chased him down. :) We taught him the Restoration while walking around campus. He said he wanted time to think about it. I got some sweet pictures of the football field. It was pretty sweet. We talked to a lot of cool people, and got a lot of people's info. Then at the end of the day we went to the campus cafeteria and they had a Panda Express! :) It was soo good! Then we all chilled in the assistants' apartment. The other trainers who were with me were Elder McBride (my companion), Elders Wiscombe, Wilson, Blatter, and Gregory. They are all super sweet!

Wednesday morning for studies Elder McBride and I talked a lot about leadership and pride. It was really good. We read D&C 121:34-46 which is awesome! We just worked campus all day long! It was raining the entire day so we got pretty wet, but we just stole a couple of Elder Derricott's jackets. :) It was a ton of fun though. We would like try extra hard to talk to people who had headphones in, for the challenge. ha. We met even more really cool people. College kids are really cool and easy to talk to. Then since all of the new missionaries who were coming in had their flight delayed we got to go to the mission home and eat dinner with all of us trainers and President and Sister Jacobsen. Pulled pork baby! :) Then we had our training on how to be good trainers and then just chilled at the assistants' apartment. I had so much fun with all the other trainers, they are all studs and I love them!

Thursday we woke up and Elder McBride and I started to work out but after we benched we lost motivation so we just chilled and looked at all the pictures of the new missionaries and were guessing who would be with each trainer. One of the greenies pictures he is looking past the camera so we called him GQ. :) Then we went to the Lansing stake center and we had to wait for what felt like forever because they were running behind schedule, since the new missionaries didn't get to the mission home until like 1 in the morning. Then they finally walked into the gym and we all introduced ourselves. Then all of us trainers were given papers with our Greenies name on it so I looked, and mine said, Elder Rapp so I found him and gave my first born a big hug! :) Then we had Subway and cookies for lunch. President Jacobsen then did a little presentation and sent us on our way. I drove up with Elder Rapp, Sister Cornia, and a couple who live in Lansing. They took us up to Mt. Pleasant then I had to say goodbye to Elders Wilson, Wiscombe, and McBride which was lame, they are so sweet! Then we drove back to Midland. It was so sweet. We got back and went to the Tridge for a little bit but it was pretty dead and it was also kind of cold. Then we had dinner at the Bowman's which was really good. They made this same chicken dinner they had made the last time I went there. We shared the story of Ammon with them and talked about how when we are obedient, God can trust us. Then we knocked doors and the very first door that someone answered, he let us in and we taught him!! It was awesome and we were both super pumped about it! Then we went to Bro. Jones house and the new Sisters in our ward were also there. Sister Nuttall and Sister Chisholm. Sister Nuttall is also training. We went over the area and all that good stuff. 

Friday was our first full day together. I woke up and worked out but Elder Rapp isn't really into that... Dang it! ha. Then we studied and had our first comp study. We went over what we were going to teach for the day and did some practice teaching. Then we went to see Helen. Brother Place came with us. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had a ton of questions, and was like "I have never learned this before." So that is why we go over everything again. :) It went really well though. Then we taught Joe. We watched the Restoration movie with him and talked about prophets. After that we had lunch and then did weekly planning which took forever for some reason. We taught Curt and Patty tonight. We taught them about obedience, prayer, and scripture study. I love getting to teach Curt because he just ends up teaching me.

Saturday was fun. We woke up and studied then we went and did service at Dennis's house. We were able to completely finish one of the sides of his roof. Elder Nielsen and I hit a groove while we were shingling and got it done pretty fast. I had on shorts and a short sleeve and I got pretty cold, but it's okay, I need to get used to it anyway. Then we went to Arby's for the creme brulee shakes. We also stopped at Sister Reyes garage sale. Then we went and taught James C. We talked about prayer with him since he said he feels awkward when he prays. We read about prayer from the Bible Dictionary with him. It went really well. Then we went and taught David C. We shared D&C 59 and chatted with him. After that we knocked doors for a while. We met a few crazies, but it was good though. Elder Rapp has to get used to the majority of people we meet. hah.  Then we made some mac n cheese for dinner. I was eating my peanut butter oreos that the Miller's sent me and I spilled milk all over myself and I was wearing my Eagles footie pjs. I have spent too much time with Megan. hah. 

Sunday was a super busy day, but it was so awesome! :) We went to church, and I introduced Elder Rapp to as many people as I could. It was also really cool because we had 3 investigators and less-actives at church. So the new sisters in our ward are go-getters, especially Sister Nuttall. She was trying to steal Helen from us, but Helen totally shut her down, it was awesome. :) ha. Then we talked with Bishop Savage about Joe and we agreed that he was ready to finally be baptized so right after that we pulled Joe out of elders' quorum, and told him the good news. He decided to get baptized this Saturday! It's so awesome. He's been giving us updated agendas for his baptism the past few weeks so he's super excited for it. :) Then during correlation meeting after church we planned out Joe's baptism, which is at 11 on Saturday!  Also, Bro. Jones showed us how to fill up the font. Then we studied right after church. Then we went to the McCormick's. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was an awesome lesson. Elder Rapp was a lot more confident about it as well, which was awesome. By the end of it, Bro. McCormick was even trying to convince Penny to go to church. It was cool. Then we had taco's at the Herzog's. They are super cool. Then we taught Jeff Horn and Drew, the Seventh-Day adventists. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. But Jeff kept asking us questions and we ended up teaching them about exaltation which isn't what we wanted to do. It's NEVER what you want to do. hah. But I think we were able to clarify things enough for them. hah. Then we watched Legacy last night and went to bed. 

So far today we had gone shopping, studied and played volleyball with some of the sisters in our ward. It was more like Relief Society though, since they play in a league, they were talking all these strategies and stuff and it was super annoying. They were working us though. hah. Then we played basketball and now we're e-mailing. :)

It's been super fun getting to be a trainer so far. I love getting to serve with Elder Rapp. He is super excited to be a missionary and has such a strong desire to be the best he can be. I know that we are going to have a ton of fun together and I'm so lucky to get to have such an excited companion. 

So a really cool scripture and principle that Elder Rapp and I studied this week was Guilt. I am a firm believer that God does not make us feel guilty. I feel like he makes us feel godly sorrow, that way we have a desire to change. Because if we didn't know we had done something wrong, we wouldn't know to fix it! So, as we were studying this out, we came to Alma 24:10. It says, "And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son." I really like this scripture. Guilt causes us to feel like we aren't worthy or good enough to repent, which isn't from God and after we had come to this conclusion, Don McCormick brought it up in our lesson. He talked about how he feels guilty sometimes and so we shared that scripture with him, that we had just found the day before, it was really cool. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter what you have done, you are always worthy to repent and be forgiven. As long as we have faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, we can have all our guilt taken away, and can have those burdens taken from us. I promise you that this is true. I love you all and am so thankful for all the love and support you give me.!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Heisman!

The Spartan statue

Elder Rapp and me

The greatest car I have ever seen! :)

Balloon tie for the Balloon Festival

Happy Hippos=Happy Elder

Last Week with Elder Hess :(                                                                 Sept. 8, 2014

This past week was my last one with Elder Hess. I'm pretty bummed out about it. He is going to Williamston, which is just east of Lansing and I'm staying here in Midland and I'm going to be training a brand new missionary! I'm pretty nervous, but am super excited for it. :)

Last Monday we didn't do that much. We went shopping and e-mailed, nothing fancy. Then we went and taught Don and Penny. We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation to them. She even told us that she believes it's true, which was really cool! The only issue is that Don is a less-active and has a word of wisdom problem, which keeps him from coming to church, which is too bad. It was a good lesson though. 

Tuesday was a good day. Elder Hess and I went to the Tridge in the morning and did some personal contacting then after lunch we went with the 1st ward elders out to Dennis's house. We helped him out some more with his roofing. It was really fun. We were able to finish doing tear-off on one of the sides of the roof. After that we had dinner at Curt and Patti Cormiers. Patti made enchiladas which were so dang good, I could have eaten so many of those, but thank goodness I have been working on my self-control. We watched the John Tanner movie with them after that and talked with them about magnifying their callings since they are ward missionaries. We shared D&C 88:77-81 that talks about how when we teach others about the gospel we learn them better ourselves which I think is a really cool principle. So, we were scheduled to meet with Blake after the Cormiers, but he canceled, and then we got a call from Jeff Horn, who is a Seventh-Day Adventist. We met him at the Tridge and we set up a time to meet. However, when we had set it up it was on Monday night and we were planning for Tuesday so we told him we could meet with him tomorrow but we thought tomorrow was Wednesday, but we had the Cormiers and Bonnie scheduled for Wednesday, so we kind of messed that one up. But with Blake cancelling on us, it all worked out. We met with Jeff and his friend Drew at our church. We were a little late, but it all worked out. We taught them the Restoration and it went really well. They were taking notes the whole time. So they are pretty staunch Seventh-day Adventists, so we set that the next time we would meet up, they would teach us which was actually yesterday, but I will explain that later. :)

Wednesday was sweet! So I won a free day pass to the Midland Community Center last month. Elder Hess and I finally decided to use it. We woke up at 4:50 so we could get there at 5 when it opens. It was so awesome! I felt like a kid in a candy store! We are used to working out in our tiny apartment so it was like heaven. We worked out until about 7:45. We destroyed ourselves, it was awesome. We also had a lot of fun with the row machine. :) There were also freebies blasting the whole time which was a bonus. Then we had district meeting. We talked about "we invite, they commit, we follow up." It was really good. I also played "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" on the piano for it. It was a "wrong note" fiasco, but oh well. ha. Then we did district pictures which were pretty funny. :)  We had lunch at Mancino's which was awesome as usual. Then we taught Joe the Plan of Salvation. It went pretty well, Joe kept getting way off subject, but it's okay. Then Elder Hess and I went to the Tridge and knocked doors for a little bit. We met a couple of cool potentials there. One guy had a problem with not being able to see God so we talked to him about modern-day prophets. Then another guy really liked how Jesus Christ came to the Americas. All that happened knocking doors was a lady threatened to call the cops on us, because we knocked on the door twice. haha. I also got a package today which was a big box that was pretty heavy. Turns out the my awesome mama sent me 12 liters of passion fruit juice. :) I never would have expected to get sent juice on my mission, but I'm not complaining. :) We had dinner at the Henson's. Of all things, we had taco salad, which was just like being at home. hah. They are such a cool couple. We talked to them about Mosiah 2:20-24. I have been really hot on this one lately. I love it. "Of what have ye to boast?" I think that it is such a great scripture, because really, without God, we are literally nothing, all we have is from him. After the Henson's, we taught the Cormiers and Bonnie. We went over the organization of the church with them. 

Thursday was a day of finding. We accidentally planned to do weekly planning, but forgot that transfer calls were on Friday, so then our whole day was kind of messed up. I got a package today from my Dad. He sent me an Eagles tie and hat, which are awesome! And he also sent me a full rack of ribs that are super good. I have the best parents in the world.! :) We knocked a lot of doors. We met a few ladies who talked FOREVER! One of them just did a good old Gander-rant. Then the next lady was a street preacher and she was crazy. She was talking all about how if you are sick, it's only because you don't have enough faith. She said one time her hip hurt her and she just smacked her hip and said "Get in line with the word of God!" It was hilarious. Then we went to the Tridge and stopped by Blake's at the end of the night so Elder Hess could say bye to Blake's step-son Kyle, because we assumed he'll be getting transferred. 

Friday was a nerve-wracking day! It was hard to stay focused on studies because we were super anxious about transfer calls. We finally got the call at like 10:30. Elder Hess is going to Williamston to be a District Leader and I'm staying in Midland and I'm training! I was just in shock for a little while after the call. I just finished training yesterday and now I have to train. But I'm also excited because me and my greenie will get to learn together. After that we did weekly planning except I will be gone all next week. Then we taught Ben about prayer with Bro. Cannady which went pretty well. He's been off cigarettes for a whole week! It's pretty exciting. Then we knocked doors for a while and it was extremely humid today. We had dinner at Bro Jones house. Sis Jones made peach crisp for dessert that was amazing! Then Blake canceled on us again so we drove way out to Jeremy Joneses. We were finally able to find his new house and we chatted with him and his wife Lauren for a while. We were able to teach them the Restoration. We asked Lauren if she would be baptized if she came to find out that our message was true, and she said Yes. :) 

Saturday was another day of finding. We made Comp Study Pancakes, which were super good. I peeled a ton of the Hershey's kisses that Courtney sent me like my first week here. They had melted when she sent them, so they were a pain to peel, but they were worth it in the pancakes. :) Then we went to the Tridge and we saw Helen and her family there. They all looked super lost so we went and talked to them for a little bit. After that we went and talked with Nick K. We helped him build these mini-greenhouse things. Then we went and met with James. He's a less active. He has special needs. We talked with him about why we go to church in D&C 59. It was pretty sad though, because you can tell he's super lonely. After that we had lunch and I just skipped lunch and took a nap. ha. It was awesome. Then we knocked doors. We knocked on a door and a lady answered. Then her husband and his friend pulled up and they were decked out in their Michigan apparel. The friend had met with missionaries before. We were talking a lot about football and stuff and the husband was setting up a projector to watch the Michigan vs. Notre Dame game. We were just chatting with them for a while about all kinds of stuff, even Sister Wives came up. (Thanks Mom, I was able to actually talk intelligently about that.) Then the guy brought up how we do work for the dead in temples and we explained the Spirit World. A lady named Heidi really liked it. She gave us her info and told us to come back so we're pretty excited about her. :) When we finished up at the Tridge, we met a couple of Seventh Day Adventist preachers. They were super nice guys and knew Jeff and Drew. 

Sunday was a great day. We took our Sunday morning nap, which was great. James came to church! His mom came and told us that he was really excited when she called him asking him if he wanted to come to church and thanked us for going to see him. It was really cool. :) When Elder Hess was telling people he was leaving they were all complimenting us, which was really nice to hear. :) Sister Jenkins especially thinks we are super stars for some reason. hah. Elder Hess bore his testimony about how much he loved being in Midland and about member missionary work. Jabari Parker's sister bore her testimony as well. She gave her background info and said she had a brother who went to Duke and I knew exactly who she was talking about. :) hah. Then sister Henson bore her testimony and was really loving on us, which was really nice of her. It's nice to know that you have the ward on your side. :) Gospel Principles was a train wreck. It was on exaltation which I have no idea why it's in the Gospel Principles book at all. The teacher made the mistake of saying that we would become equal to Heavenly Father which ruined the rest of the lesson because we could tell people were confused and it was just bad. She even quoted the King Fallott sermon which isn't the best thing to share with recent converts. Then after church we had correlation, which was good. Then we tried to go visit a lot of our potentials and other people, but nobody was home. We then went to the Cormiers, so Elder Hess could say bye to them. We also cleared up the exaltation confusion with them, but Curt already had a really good understanding about it all. It was sad watching them say goodbye. I'm already dreading when I have to say goodbye to all these people that I love. Then we went to the Marcou's for dinner. We had stuffed hamburgers that were delicious. :) They had football on so it was tough to not get distracted. But it was the Cowboys and 49ers...so at least that made it somewhat easier, but I love football! We were able to teach Jan about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We just taught it really simply but it was good then we met Jeff and Drew at the Seventh-Day Adventist church. They taught us about their religion. It was really interesting. They also really aren't that far off but I really learned to appreciate the Holy Ghost. Because He testifies of truth so I was able to know that what they were teaching isn't true. I learned a lot though, and they are super nice, cool guys. After that Elder Hess and I played with some glow sticks that we have had for a while and went to bed.

Today we drove to Mt. Pleasant to go to the Dentist but there was some miscommunication and they actually weren't going to clean our teeth, so Elder Hess got his retainer reattached and then we drove the hour back to Midland. And now I'm e-mailing.

This week was a really good week. I studied humility this week. I really liked the definition that it gave me, it was something like, it's knowing where your true power lies. I have been able to better understand humility and it has really helped me. Knowing that all I have and also all the success I have is from my Heavenly Father, has really helped me to realize how thankful I am to Him for that. As I do humble myself, I have found that I'm much happier as well as more successful. I also liked Mosiah 4:11. It says "I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness."  Even once we come to the knowledge of the greatness of God, we still need to remember that it's all because of Him. I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father, and for all the blessings He gives me. 

I love you all so much, and am so thankful for all the support you have given me!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

The Midland District

Me, Bonnie, The Cormier's and Elder Hess

Awesome treats

Midland Sunset

Helen and her family with me and Elder Hess

Elder Hess, Joe and me

We Got A New Bench!

                                                                                                                 Sept. 1, 2014

This was a dang good week. We have lost a ton of investigators lately, 6 to be exact; Brian and Aaron both left for school, Marta broke our hearts and dropped us a little while ago, we dropped Clifford since he just wanted to Bible Bash with us, Nick G. moved to Saginasty and we baptized Helen Liu. But that didn't stop us from doing work!

Last Monday we played frisbee golf, basketball and e-mailed. Nothing fancy. Then we met with Blake, and didn't really do that much. The Lego Movie was on the whole time so it was hard to stay focused.

Tuesday was also a good day. We did some personal contacting down at the Tridge then we got to do service at Dennis's house with the Midland 1st ward elders. Elder Hess and I were using shovels and tearing all the old shingles off the roof. We were covered in sweat and I had two gnarly blisters from it, but it was super fun. Service is the best. :) After that we got back into our pross clothes and got back to work. We tried to contact some potentials and ended up at the Tridge the rest of the night. 

Wednesday was a sweet day!!! We had Zone Conference which was sweet but in the morning we had a sweet soccer game. The zone leaders made a bunch of phone calls and we had 13 missionaries at our little soccer field at Grove Park. It was so much fun! Then zone conference was really sweet. They talked about planning and studying which was really good, especially the studying part because it is so important to be good at studying because it allows you to become more converted to the Gospel so you can help others also come to where you're at. President Jacobsen uses a ton of football analogies when he talks to us, I love it. He showed the clip from Remember the Titans where they run to Gettysburg, it was really cool, and I love that movie, so it was a bonus. :) After zone conference we went and helped Heather H., Nick G.'s Mom, move. They are going to Saginaw (Saginasty). So it was the last time we got to see Nick, which I'm pretty sad about. I liked talking with him a lot! After that we had dinner at Brother Smith's. He's in the bishopric and they are a super cool family. Then we taught Curt & Patty and also Bonnie. We talked about Prayer with them and used Matthew 7:7-11. We used this scripture a lot this week. I really like how in verse 8 it shows a progression, that is when we ask for something we will receive an answer but then we need to seek or work on the answer we get and we will find what we're looking for. I love the Cormiers, and Bonnie is also opening up to us a little more, which is really great to see. :)

Thursday was the day we got our new bench! :) I also learned today how much I love studying the scriptures! I just start studying and then go to a scripture and I get stuck. I love learning more from them and just applying things to me and to my investigators. I almost want to lock myself in my apartment for a month and just study! :) Then during studies we got a call from a guy who was selling a bench at a yard sale and he asked us if we wanted it. So we got it from him for $40! Then we walked over there, and carried the thing about a mile back to our apartment We looked ridiculous and got a ton of funny looks. :) Then we went to the Tridge for a little and then taught Ben. We read the story of the Brother of Jared with him (Ether chap 2&3) and related it to him and how if he can have faith, he can do anything with the Lord's help. We committed him to pray whenever he felt the urge to smoke. Then we knocked doors before we went to the Gudmundson's for dinner. After dinner we tried to visit a few potentials, one wasn't home and the other didn't want to see us, he was a less-active. Then we went to the Tridge and met a guy named Darrell. He was a little crazy and kept telling us that he was a lost cause. But of course nobody is, so we talked with him for a while. He was rolling his own cigarette right in front of us and said that he was going to read from the Book of Mormon and to have us call him. Then we met a couple who were also missionaries for their church. Turns out that this guy was The Fountain of all Knowledge and Truth because he enlightened my mind and told us that we weren't Christian because we don't believe in the Trinity. He had all kinds of pride. Elder Hess was pretty mad about it but I made a joke about the guy having a stick where the sun don't shine and we just laughed it off. :) Then we met a couple of really cool guys and went home happy. :)

Friday was also a great day. After studies, we went to the Tridge, had lunch and then went and taught Joe. We taught him Matt 7:7-11, but he kept on rambling and it was hard to teach him. After that, we tried to visit a referral we had, but they weren't interested. So we knocked for a little bit and then went to the Marcou's. I love Jon and Jan Marcou! They fed us steak and potatoes. It was a huge and delicious steak! Then we talked with them about Matt. 7:7-11 and just had a great discussion about all kinds of topics. I got lucky because they had their TV on and of course, the BYU game was on! But I was sitting with my back to the TV, thank goodness, or I would have been useless. :) Then we finished up at the Tridge again. We were again told we weren't Christian which was pretty annoying, but who cares. 

Saturday was also a great day. We finally got to do legs day, which was sweet. We did squats which was sweet then we did our personal study and went to help Curt and Patty move. They are just moving to a smaller apartment in the same little court so we won't lose them. :) It was fun and it was raining on and off, so that was also pretty fun. Then we went and taught Helen Liu. She made us lunch. She is such a sweetheart. She told us about how happy she was to be baptized and how thankful she was that we helped her. She also told us to not give up on Gordon because she really wants him to be baptized. She is the best. :) Then we finally got around to comp study. Then we saw David Clark. We showed him the "Because of Him" video that is on mormon.org. It is such a great video. I would recommend that everybody watch it! Then we went back to see Curt and Patty to make sure they are doing okay. Curt made us play a guessing game with him. He asked "In the Lord's Gym what is the sweat?" After like 45 min of guessing, he told us that it was Dross. That word is used like 5 times in the scriptures, it was ridiculous. hah. Then we finished the day at the Tridge. We met a really nice girl and had a great conversation with her. She went from being not interested to taking a copy of the Book of Mormon and saying she will read it. :)

Sunday was also a good day. I studied Alma 32:13-16. It talks about how when we humble ourselves we are more blessed than when we are compelled to be humble. At church Sister Glenn brought a girl named Tilah Parker to Gospel Principles since she home teaches her, turns out that she is Jabari Parker's older sister! Then after class we had a quick correlation meeting and Sister Henson told Elder Hess and I how thankful she is to have us in the ward and the change she has seen in us. It was really cool and made us feel like all-stars. :) After church we pounded like 5 choir cookies. Sister Pierce in our ward makes like 100 cookies every week for those who come to choir, but since we are missionaries, we still get them. :) Then we changed and knocked doors and tried to contact some people. After that we went Home teaching with Bro. Lindauer. We met with the Pierce's, who gave us even more cookies and then with Andrew, who is a less active. I shared Matthew 11:29 with him, about yoking ourselves with Christ. Then we had dinner at the Kruegers and during our church media study, the other Elders came and picked us up and took us to the church to get our gold mine map that we had left during zone conference. They made us do a scavenger hunt since they had hidden it. hah. 

Today has been awesome. We woke up at 5:00 and hurried and did grocery shopping, then we went and played soccer at the Midland High field from 7-10. It was a blast. I had so much fun.

This week I had a ton of fun. I love being a missionary, it's the best! :) I love the gospel so much and the joy that it brings to my life and to the lives of others. I would like to challenge all of you to try to turn your scripture reading into scripture studying, as you study and ponder on what you are reading, you will be able to find something that is applicable to your own personal situation and I promise that it will bless you. I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Elder Hess, Nick and me

Elder Hess with our sweet new bench

A Michigan sunset

Sunset at the Tridge