Elder Chalmers: Tour of Michigan!

TOUR OF MICHIGAN! July 27, 2015

This was a great week. We got to do 3 companion exchanges which took us to Harrison, Oscoda, and Alma, Michigan. Elder Elmer and I had to reintroduce ourselves to one another after all of it. :) It was great, busy. I love it!

We had one of our investigators commit to be baptized this week. I was with Elder Robison, who is a new missionary in Mt. Pleasant. We taught Gareth Elder. He had some questions about original sin and things pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. We had a great discussion with him about Christ's atonement and how we need to be baptized to be able to live with God again. It all made sense to him and he committed to be baptized!
Also on that day we had one of the coolest lessons of my life. We taught a girl named Emma. We started off the lesson by teaching her how the Spirit is the ultimate teacher and we all shared how we feel the Spirit. As we were teaching her we really focused on priesthood authority and why it's so important. It made so much sense to her and she was getting excited about it! Then when we taught her the First Vision and asked her how she felt, she said, "just like how you guys described it." It was so cool. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but didn't know a date. But when we went for a return appointment, she shut us down. She said she wants to learn independently. We were both pretty sad about it but are still going to keep contact, and hopefully still teach her. I know that the Lord has a perfect timetable for her. We can't dictate people's preparedness.
I got to spend a day in Oscoda with Elder Bird. He is a spanish speaker but isn't in a spanish area. We met a lady from Santiago, Chile who has met with the missionaries while there and she only spoke Spanish. It was cool to get to witness and also funny that the people on the other side of the duplex who we had just talked to were amazed. hah.
On Saturday we were walking to go knock on doors when we saw that one of our potential investigators was home so we stopped by and had a lesson with him. He came to church yesterday and he's coming to the ward FHE tonight. What a miracle the Lord blessed us with!

This week was super busy with all kinds of other things and other miracles. I couldn't think that it could get better than this but with the Lord on our side, things can always get better!

My thought for the week comes from Helman 7:9 "But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with a sorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren." Nephi was wishing he was in the days of Nephi of old, but then he comes to terms and teaches us that he is consigned to his days. Consign means, set apart for a special use or purpose. We are all consigned to our current situation, let us make the most of it and pray to our Heavenly Father that we can know and accomplish our special use or purpose.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Companion Haircuts: didn't go to bad for me, at least! :)

July 20, 2015

This was yet another busy week in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan! And what added to it is we have bed bugs in our apartment. We had to reschedule almost all of our appointments, so we didn't bring them into anyone's house. If that were to happen, we'd forever be "those missionaries..." hah.

A few highlights from the week.

We did a lot of finding this week and had a lot of success from it. One guy let us right in and he had Joseph Smith-like questions. We had a great lesson with him. He's my age, 20, and we look forward to getting to teach him again.

On Saturday we were out finding all day and were about ready to start making our way home but felt like we needed to keep walking down the street when we finally felt like we should turn down one of them, and it was Main St. which in Mt. Pleasant is Greek Row. We started talking to a few guys who were from Sigma Alpha Epsilon. They were really cool and as we were talking it started to rain a little bit and then the sky got really nasty and they asked us how we were getting home, so we told them walking, and they said, "There are like 20 cars here, you're not walking home." So they gave us a ride back to our place, which was cool. We still had some time so we went to knock on a few doors by our place and at the first one was a guy we had met last week on the other side of town who told us we could meet again, if God was willing. It was miraculous. He was an interesting fellow and we talked for about 45 min. We gave him a Book of Mormon and hopefully he takes the opportunity to read it.

We went to Robaire's bakery for donuts three days in a row this week. We were addicted after the first ones! :)

I got to go on trade-offs to Midland this week. It was the best. We had breakfast with Bro. Jones, got to PC at the Tridge for a few hours, saw Ben Guffy while we were there and had a lesson with the Shocknesse family. John gave me even more info about how we had passed him at the Tridge on two previous days and occasions to when we finally met. I love them so much! We also got to see Curt and Patti. It was fun getting to harass Curt and get it right back. :) I love Midland.

We have been keeping busy and seeing miracles all the time. It doesn't get better than this! :)

My thought for this week comes from Helaman 6. At the end of the chapter it speaks of the Gadianton Robbers and how the Lamanites destroy them from among them, while the Nephites build them up and they eventually take over. That is just how our sins and the natural man within us works. We either destroy them/it and be like a Lamanite or we try to cover our sins, gratify our pride and it completely consumes us. BE A LAMANITE! DESTROY SIN!

Also, the talk "Becoming Men and Women of Integrity" by Tad R. Callister is awesome!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Chalmers MIDLAND, MICHIGAN REUNION!!