TEMPLE WEEK!                                                                                                March 23, 2015

This week we got to go the the Detroit Michigan Temple. It was an exclamation point on a great week!

Monday: Today we didn't have P-Day, which was a real change. We went to see a former investigator in Mancelona. We helped her do some home improvement stuff which was fun. We had a great conversation with her. She dislikes the belief of the Trinity more than anybody I have ever met, she did make a lot of cool points though. ha. We are going to meet with her in the next week or so, she's really cool. Then we knocked doors for a little while in Bellaire. We met up with Bro. Stevenson and had a lesson with John Tweedie. It was the Plan of Salvation, and it was solid. He believes everything and understands it really well. Brian McDuffie has given him like 10 different church videos and he's watched all of them. I love him, he's really humble and funny, especially in his circumstance. (He has ALS) Then we paid a visit to David Hoyt and then Debora Robb. Bro. Stevenson is a really funny guy, it was a good night.

Tuesday: Today was St. Patty's day! I had my special tie from G-Ma Chalmers, so no pinches came my way. :) We knocked all day. It was really fun. We took a lot of heel clicking pictures, they were sweet. :) We met a really cool lady named Michelle, who has some potential. We also met a guy who was just trying to push our buttons, that was frustrating, but Elder Houser was able to keep his cool better than me on that one. Good Companion. :) On a door, this dog was jumping all over me and it put a little hole in my jacket. I was furious. I vented to Elder Houser for about 10 min about how much I hate dogs and how I will never ever own one. (I'm my mother's son.) We had dinner with the Piatts. We had corned beef and cabbage, it was some good stuff. Then they gave us a hair cut. Elder Houser cut part of my hair, it was some fun stuff. :) 

Wednesday: Today we had district meeting in Kalkaska. It was on planning. It went well. Then we had lunch at BC Pizza buffet. Elder Reiswig was a beast! ha. Then we had Steve pick us up. We went and had quite a few lessons. We first taught Chris and Angel. Angel brought up her concern of how we say we are the one true church. Then we were helping her understand, and she had to go to work. Chris said her mom is really against it. Then we taught Chris the Word of Wisdom, he already had read about it online and is working on quitting smoking already, he's such a STUD! Then we taught Virginia about Priesthood keys and because she grew up in the RLDS church, she understands it all and is set to be baptized next month. We then had a sweet lesson with a former named Bill. We called him and he invited us to come back because he felt bad about how things ended with the last missionaries. He said he realized that following Christ is an everyday choice, it was cool then as we were talking he said he had a problem with the story of the Book of Mormon and how it was farfetched. So I told him to forgot what is the social norm and everything else he has been taught and told the story of Noah, Moses, and Christ. Then testified of them and that the former are prophets and the latter is the Savior. The Spirit was really strong, it was really cool. We are going to see him next week. Then we had scrip study class. Virginia, her son David, Steve and Debora were there. We read Alma 32, it was great then we ended up singing hymns together for about 30 min, we didn't sound good at all, but it was really fun, and the Spirit was there. :) One of those moments that you won't ever forget. :)

Thursday: Today Steve came and picked us up and dropped us off to teach John Tweedie. It was a great lesson. He is progressing really well and loves having us over. Then we helped Brian McDuffie do some cleaning since he has gout.. :( We had a lesson with Tiffany that went well, the kids were a little crazy, but not as crazy as usual. We later had a lesson with a guy we knocked into who is also a former. It was good, it's hard to tell his intent, but we will see... Then we had a great conversation with Steve. I love Steve. I LOVE HIM! 

Friday: TEMPLE DAY! President Hoover picked us up, and we drove the 3 hours down to Bloomfield Hills to the temple. It is tiny. It's right next to the stake center there which is about equal in size. It was so amazing though. Everything is on one floor. Elder Houser and I were fasting and it paid off, it was just what we needed. :) Then we ate some Culver's on the way home. We drove through Midland on the way home since Pres. Hoover joined the church there about 30 years ago. We stopped at the Tridge which was awesome! :) We planned the rest of the night. President Hoover is the coolest guy ever, I loved getting to go with him!

Saturday: Today was kind of rough. We didn't really have anything going on and it was a lot colder than usual. We did get to meet some cool people knocking and got some cool potentials. We met with Stanley and taught him the Restoration. We still can't get a good reading on him but the lesson went well. Lots of door knocking today...

Sunday: Church was good today. We had a few investigators at church. Sacrament was all on the Holy Ghost and we taught about Faith in Gospel Principles. President Hoover made a comment/testimony that was awesome! After church, we went up to Bellaire with Pres. Robinson. We took the Sacrament to Bro. McDuffie and read the BOM with John Tweedie, he's still doing great. We tried to see Penny but we can't find her since she went to the hospital which is rough. Then we met up with Steve and went to get Virginia. Her nephew does a Bible study/dinner at his house so we went to that. He is a dang good cook, it was a great dinner. The Bible study was also good. We shared Ether 12:27 that went right along with it all. :) Then we went to see Ken and Donna and following that we had a lesson with Chris. He said that he talked to Angel and she's really not interested anymore... :( That was rough. But we taught him the Law of Chastity. He understands it all and is going to talk to Angel about getting married. Chris is so solid, we love him. He loves to learn. Then Steve took us home, did I mention that I love Steve?! :)

This week was really good and my spiritual thought comes from some of the things I've studied and seems like has been coming up a lot lately. Here is one of the many scriptures to go along with all of this Alma 32:6 "He beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word." The beginning of the chapter talks a lot about how important it is to be humble. When we are humble that is when we are in the best situation to grow and progress in the gospel. So don't wait to be humbled yourself. Make the necessary changes and the Lord will take you and mold you into what you and He wants you to become. 

I love you all so much!

Welcome Home Megan! I love you! :)

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Detroit Temple

Heel Clicking Day!

Party Van with Steve.

Tridge Reunion

Temple

MIRACLE WEEK!                                                                                                 March 16, 2015

This was a great week in Kalkaska! We had a ton of really great and also some really funny experiences!

Monday: Today after P-Day had concluded we were running really behind on everything and we almost ran out of gas. Our GPS took us in the middle of nowhere so we were an hour late for dinner with the Cole's, but it all worked out. We were on trade-offs and Elder Houser still had the phone for Kalkaska and was heading down to Cadillac, so Elder Reiswig and I had to race them down, great way to start a trade-off. :) ha

Tuesday: Elder Reiswig and I had a solid day of trade-offs in Kalkaska. We had Steve Cole with us all day. It was the best. I find myself constantly laughing whenever I'm around Steve, he's the best! We went to see Charles and had the coolest lesson with him. We were reading Alma 32 with him and it just wasn't working so we just switched and read Alma 36. He was in the military and lost his faith because of the things he saw and did. So as we were reading it he grabbed a pencil and circled some of the verses and said "I can relate to that.... You're good at picking these scriptures." It shows how Alma was able to be delivered from his "inexpressible horror" and we related it to him. The Spirit was so strong it was cool to be a part of it all. We were knocking doors in Rapid City later and we helped this guy in a wheelchair who was trying to shovel. It was also 50 degrees today, it was heavenly. We were waiting for Steve to pick us up and a few doors earlier I saw this guy get out of his car and pointed him out and said, "He looks a little tipsy" then this guy came out and told us to come over to him. He asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses and we said no, then he said "Are you Mormons?" So he was asking us questions like "Are God and Jesus One?" and all this stuff about grace, works and all that stuff. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and left then he got in his car and followed us and kept harassing us, so I called Steve and he came and saved us. It was hilarious though. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears, he kept asking "Are God and Jesus one?" and we would say, "Todd, we already answered that question." It was memorable. :) Then we went to see Tiffany. Her boyfriend moved out, so that was great news. We put her and her daughter Alex on date to be baptized again! Then we went to see Donna. We had a good talk with her and let her know what our purpose is as missionaries, which was needed. We went out with Pres. Doug Thomas and with the Young's. We talked about Faith, Hope, and Charity. Then in the car back, we had a great conversation about what it means to "bear down in pure testimony" Great Day!

Wednesday: Today we went to Gaylord and had Zone Training. It was really good. Our Zone leaders and STL's trained on being more Christlike, teaching by the spirit and how to help investigators progress. After we came home we went to see Corey and the Smith's to set up appts. We went teaching with President Hoover today. It was so great! We met with the Hildebrands who are less active. Then we had a lesson with Penny. We talked about family history, temples and eternal families. She is all ready to be baptized. We are shooting for March 27th! :) We also went to see the Draher family. They were baptized about a year ago. They are prepping for the temple. They are truck drivers so they go to church wherever they are. I love President Hoover, he's the 1st councilor in the mission presidency.

Thursday: Today after studies we met with Jesse and read the Book of Mormon with him. We had lunch with the Piatts then did weekly planning. We got shined by a few people today, which was frustrating. We had dinner with the O'Neil family and did more planning. It was a pretty slow day.

Friday: We had lunch and a lesson with Bro. Rancour this morning. Then we met with the Zone Leaders and did a mini-trade-off. I went to Traverse City for the first time with Elder Krebs. It is such a cool city, right on the bay. I did my first baptismal interview for a guy named Dale Ealy. He was super solid and a really great guy. After we traded back we knocked doors for a little bit and then went to scrip. study class. We had a lot of people there and we read and discussed the Tree of Life, they all loved it! Then we had our branch activity, Family Game Night. We had a ton of investigators there, it was really cool. Elder Houser and I got worked at Scrabble by our 72 year old investigator Virginia. :) ha. It was a great night!

Saturday: Today was sort of slow. We taught Donna with Gary Piatt. That was good. We did a lot of knocking. We picked up a few potentials. We made a lot of phone calls and were able to get a few return appts with former investigators, that was really cool. We are actually going to help one of them with service right after this. :) 

Sunday: Today was a miracle day! We had 10 investigators at church...10! :) It was so amazing. We also had our branch presidency changed, so they all bore their testimonies, it was a great sacrament meeting. We had to move into the chapel for Gospel Principles because we had so many people. We taught about the Restoration and it was a good lesson. Priesthood was a great lesson on faith. After church we had a potluck. They do it once a month and we eat after church. All of our investigators stayed for it and were fellowshipped really well. Then we went with Steve and saw a guy in a wheelchair shoveling so we helped him out and are going to go see him later this week. :) Then I had to do call-ins and Elder Houser had a lesson with Steve. Later we went and taught Tiffany and her kids. Those kids are rowdy, so it was sort of tough. But Cody is now also on date! Then we taught Virginia and her son David. He came to church today. He enjoyed it. He is hesitant about investigating but he said he will come to scrip study class and hopefully our lessons with Virginia, so we will let the Spirit work. :) Then we taught Chris and Angel. His sister, Brittany, was also there for the lesson. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we could tell it hit her. So we asked her about her comment of freedom with repentance. We expounded on that and she started crying and is going to be at our next lesson. It was really cool. 

Today we don't really get P-Day, but we get to e-mail. But we are going to the temple with President Hoover on Friday so that is our "P-Day." We are super excited about it. It's been 9 long months since I've been able to go to the temple, that's too long..

My Spiritual thought for the week is Alma 30:9 "Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him" Most of the time, things come down to our attitude towards them. If you are doing something, like keeping a commandment because you know you're supposed to, but you withhold your heart, you are also withholding blessings from yourself. I testify that serving God truly is a privilege, and one that I'm thankful for everyday. Serve others, and serve God. It's the best decision you can make.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Looking forward to Easter. (Guy who dances on the street to advertise something?) :) 

Half of our MTC District in Gaylord

The famous Trout of Kalkaska!

highway 88 on the way home from Bellaire

Trade offs with Elder Reiswig

KALKASKA 2.0                                                                                           March 9, 2015

Friends and Family! How are you all doing?! I want to thank all of you for writing me and for the prayers. They are definitely recognized and I really appreciate it!

This week was a really great week! We were having miracles left and right and it was so much fun to be a part of it and really see the Lord's hand in His work!

Monday: I spent a lot of P-Day cleaning up the the apartment. I "purged" that place. It's now livable then we went up to Bellaire ( I think of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air every time we go there). We met up with Pres. Robinson, who's in the District presidency and saw Bro. Hoyt. Then we went to see Brian McDuffie.  He fed us a ton of ice cream. He split a carton three ways, with cookies and hot fudge, it was a lot, even for me. He was telling us about the referral that we were going to see with him later in the week. (more to come on him :)) 

Tuesday: Today we were going to knock and decided to try and stop by to see Charles. We met him last Saturday. He is a textbook Michigander. Big beard, wearing all orange, smoking. ha. He let us in though which he said he usually never does. He used to have a faith but lost it after the things he did and saw in war. So we spent like an hour throwing everything we had at him on why he should have a faith then we read Alma 32:27, about if he had a desire to even have a faith, we explained how we nourish the seed and then something clicked for him, he said, "I get it! You nourish the seed by reading the word!" It was really cool. The Book of Mormon always fixes things. :) We went out to Williamsburg and knocked. We met some cool people. It was freezing rain so we had ice on our jackets and name tags, it was pretty cool. We went out with our district president, Pres. Doug Thomas, nobody was home so we ended up having a lesson with him. He learned us something for sure! He said how keeping the Sabbath Day holy is one of the biggest struggles that we as a church struggle with then he showed us Isaiah 58:13-14, and then Deut 32: 7-14. They are worth a study to see the blessings available to those who keep the sabbath day holy! 

Wednesday: Today we had district meeting in Cadillac. It was my first time getting to lead District meeting. It went really well though. It was all on the Book of Mormon and how it, combined with the Spirit, is our most powerful tool in conversion, it was really good. :) I loved it. Then we had lunch at an asian buffet. On our way back we stopped by a less active, named Bro. LaForest. He is really cool and his wife told us their conversion story, which was also really cool then as we were trying to get to the place we had planned to knock I got the Jeep stuck since the snow on the side was packed down. We tried to get out for a while, but got ourselves more stuck then a truck came by and helped us out. I guess he heard us, but we were in the middle of nowhere! MIRACLE! :) Then we met with Jesse, a recent convert. After that we did scrip. study with Chris. He is still coming along really well and has a strong desire. He's awesome.

Thursday: Today we had a scrip study at our Branch president's house, Pres. Dan Thomas. His son and daughter-in-law from ST. George were there. She asked if my dad was the OB/GYN she said she had heard that is really good, but he's all booked up. Chalmers family represent! Even in Michigan. :) He taught us all about the Book of Mormon and it's purpose and the Priesthood, he's a genius. Then we went to Bellaire. We couldn't get any members to go with us so we had to move Penny back. But we did get to meet with the referral that Brian McDuffy gave us. His name is John Tweedy. He has ALS and is interested in religion. We had tacos with them, and got to know him better. It's a really sad situation, he really just wants it all to end but we know the Gospel can give him purpose. :) We were finally able to meet with Penny. She just gets it! We asked her about being baptized and she said that she would have to come to church, that would be her next step in finding out if this is really what she wants to do. We couldn't agree more. Then we did our weekly planning.

Friday: Today we had a couple of really good lessons. We taught Virginia who has been investigating for a while and comes to church. We taught the Word of Wisdom. At first she didn't agree with coffee but we talked with her some more and she accepted to live it! :) Then we taught Chris. That was a good lesson as well. Then we met with Ken and Donna. They have been investigating for a while but are hard to teach because their first missionaries were more friends than missionaries, so that's how they view us. They are cool though. Then we had to get an oil change so while that was happening, we knocked and picked up some cool potentials. We had dinner with the Shafer's. They made some dang good food! Then we met with Ruth. Everyone here calls me Alice because of Alice Chalmers of Chalmers tractors and she kept calling me that. The Piatts call us Alice and Doogie. :) 

Saturday: Today we knocked for a while. We met a lady named Edna who let us in and showed us her Santa Claus collection, she has over 2000 of them! We are going to teach her next week. We went out with Gary Piatt today and everybody shined us. Apparently that happens every time he comes with us so we went and watched some Bible videos with Debbie.

Sunday: Today was great! Penny and Virginia came to church with Steve Cole. President Hoover of the mission presidency was also back. He's the most spiritual guy I've ever met, he's the best! :) We had a great lesson on Christ's original church, and then Elders Quorum was also really good. After church I had to do call-ins then we went up to Bellaire. We went to see Steve. He is the funniest craziest guy I've ever met. You can't wipe the smile off your face whenever you're around him. He's Gander Steve. He was baptized 3 months ago. We then went to see John Tweedy and Brian. They took us out to see the airplane he's building and also to see Torch Lake, which is sweet! We had dinner with them and then Steve randomly came over and livened up the party. :) hah. We taught him the Resto then got to see Penny. She LOVED church and really felt the Spirit. She is really hot on how there is a "plan of happiness" and how she can be happy. We shared Mosiah 2:41. She is set to be baptized on March 21 and is super excited about it! :) We had such a great lesson with her! It was so exciting!

Today we went running! It's 40 degrees and heavenly! We worked out really hard after that. Life is Good! :)

My spiritual thought of the week is a scripture: Alma 26:36 " Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land." You can change the second "this" to "doing the Father's will". Isn't that how we should all be?

I love you all so much! 

Love,

Elder Chalmers

PICS:Elder Houser and I at Torch Lake

Kalkaska: Week 1

I've finally seen Lake Michigan! Well sort of, it's frozen, but I did see it! :)                        March 2, 2015

My first week in Kalkaska went really well. The first week of a new area is usually pretty tough, but I'm alive and feel like it was a good week, so you won't find me complaining. :)

Tuesday: Today I was able to e-mail and I also got to set up my missionary facebook account. I'm so out of the loop with technology, it's pretty funny. We knocked for a while and trekked through the deep snow up to people's doors. Sometimes I feel like it's a waste of time because every inclination is telling you that nobody is there, they are probably in Florida, but you never know, so we knock on them anyway. We taught Corey. He's about 30 and pretty cool. We taught the Plan of Salvation and put him on date to be baptized. We have 10 people on date to be baptized here in Kalkaska, it's awesome! :) It's a really successful area. We met a few of our other investigators, and talked for a little bit. Then we had a lesson with Chris and Angel. They are so solid. We had our district president with us (I'm in a district, not a stake up here in northern Michigan). They door knocked into them last week and Chris has such a strong desire, it's so awesome. The lesson was also great!

Wednesday: Today we went to Elk Rapids. It's right on Lake Michigan and is a really nice lake town. Because of that though, everybody is gone for the winter. We knocked for a long time and one guy even told us to not bother trudging through the snow to get to the doors. We said, "okay, thanks" then kept on doing it. :) We didn't get to talk to very many people but we got to know each other better. Elder Houser is a sweet guy. Then we went to Williamsburg to knock some more. It was so cold. We had a guy let us in though and he was cool. He is Catholic and we talked for a bit then we went to our scrip study class, but nobody showed up so we went to the Chowhan's. They are so cool. He's super into powerlifting and benches 400+ pounds! He's the happiest guy, you can't help but love Bro. Chowhan. 

Thursday: Today we went to Bellaire. (Fresh Prince status!!!) I got to meet Steve Cole. He's a really funny guy. He is a recent convert to the church. There is really no way to describe him, he's such a character. :) ha Then we met with a less active member. We were knocking and this big black guy named Tony let us in to warm up. He told us not to talk about religion. He was hilarious though. He was telling us to beware of the south because "they make you good food, then you wake up one day and realize you are married to a big, ugly, girl who beats you." And a lot of other stuff like that. He was something. ha. Then we had a lesson with Penny. She is a really cool investigator. She understands everything and is super solid. She has some health issues that hold her back, but she's so great! :) Then we did our weekly planning.

Friday: Today we met with a less active member and we had quite the discussion on drinking coffee. Justification is one horrible thing... He said he's going to try and quit though, so that was good. We also met with Jesse, he's bro Chowhan's bro, and is a recent convert. He's really cool. Then we helped an investigator help these people move. One of the guys there was named Psycho. So we asked him how he got that name. He said "I beat up 14 guys at once" we both laughed and he said with a straight face, "I'm serious." It was really funny. We had a lesson with a less-active who lives with one of our investigators, he came out of no-where. 

Saturday: Today we walked all day. We knocked down this really long street all day. We taught a lesson to some investigators who live on it that went really well. His name is Bob and we were talking about the Word of Wisdom and he was able to make sense of it, it was cool. It was like 20 and sunny, a really nice day. Then we did a lot of organizing of things at night. That was great. 

Sunday: Today was my first day in the Kalkaska branch. It's a little branch, but there are a lot of great people. Everyone was bearing their testimony, it was really cool. One lady in the branch has a granddaughter who I went to high school with! Small world. We taught Gospel principles and priesthood. It was good though. Then we taught Corey after church then I had to do call-ins. We went out with Pres. Thomas. We taught Penny and then Chris. It was really great. He is really smart, so we were talking in the car, that guy knows his stuff. Then we had dinner with the Piatts and then dessert at the Chowhans. She made these donut things that were insane! 

I got to talk to Elder Laing today and everything in Big Rapids is going great. Justin and Chantice both came to church and the whole McClure/Hardbarger family are on date to be baptized! I will get to go back for the baptisms when they happen! :) 

My spiritual thought for the week is really simple. Study the Book of Mormon and take Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:3-5. It is the keystone of our religion and knowing that it is true will give you a solid foundation for life. I know that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God and I know that that book can change anybody's life if they will take the time to read and pray about it.

I love you all so much, and wish you the best!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Elder Rapp at transfers! I love him

My street address reminds me of Joe every time!