Transfers and my second Trip to the Temple

Temple Trip #2                                                                                                           August 24, 2015
This week was another amazing week to be a missionary in the Michigan Lansing Mission (The Greatest Mission in the World). I'm really happy that I'm able to say that. I think back and I didn't think that at all when I got my mission call. It's funny, when we tell people what we do and how we are called to serve a mission they always say something like, "Why did you choose Michigan?" I remember that as I was still coming terms with the fact that I was going to Michigan, instead of Brazil, or a foreign country, my dad told me that "it's all about the people." Once again, my dad is always right. I have met some of the greatest people ever and I'm grateful every single day that on March 6th, 2014 I was called to serve in the Michigan Lansing Mission!

• The big highlight of this week was going to the Detroit Michigan Temple on Saturday. It was really last second. I was aware of it but didn't know any final plans until Elder Allred called me on Saturday morning and asked if I was still planning on coming, since Tyrone S. and Virginia H. were both going to do baptisms for the dead for their very first time! I made the phone calls I needed and got permission to go. Steve Cole was driving the party van down to the temple so I rode down with Steve, Joy, Virginia, and Elder Allred. It was a blast. There is nobody like the famous Steve Cole! I saw so many people I know at the temple. I ended up seeing someone from every single one of my areas. The Hoerters from Big Rapids, Bro. Bowman from Midland, The Riley's from Mt. Pleasant and a lot of people from Kalkaska. :) I was talking to Ty in the waiting room and I asked him if he'd finished the Book of Mormon yet, he said, "I'm in 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants" so I said, "You've finished the Book of Mormon then!" He said, "Oh yeah, a while ago." He is such a stud and is doing great. He brought about 5 family names to the temple. He's been a member for less than 2 months. He also goes teaching with the missionaries all the time. He is super prepared and keeps on working it. Elder Allred and I did the confirmations which was a first for me, it was a great experience. I got to see Bro. Chowhan and Pres. Robinson as well. We were all so happy to see each other. I knew I loved Kalkaska but seeing so many of them at the temple helped me realize just how much I really do love that branch, some of the greatest people you will ever meet. :) Elder Allred and I got to talk a lot on the ride home, it was really nice. I love Elder Allred. Nothing beats the temple!

I also got to go on a few exchanges this week:

• I was in the Ithaca/Alma area with Elder Baker first. He is a stud. He is in his second transfer and has been having some struggles with adjusting to life as a missionary. We had such a great exchange together and I learned so much from him on enduring and having unshaken faith in Christ. We had some good lessons and he is such a powerful teacher, it was amazing.
• I also went with Elder Wharton from Kamas, UT. He has been out for a week. We had a great time together. He is one of 10 kids, just like my mama. :) 
• I went with Elder Bloskas, one of the assistants. I got to go to MSU for the day. It was a crazy day, but we had a lot of fun together. 

Another experience from this week and my thought for this week. Elder Elmer and I on Friday felt like we should go and knock doors on Maple street, so we went and when we got there, there was a guy who was "asleep" on the grass right on the corner of the street, so we parked and headed over there. Turns out he was totally drunk. I've never seen somebody so drunk. At first we thought he might be special needs, but then realized what was going on. He tried to stand up and started to fall straight back so Elder Elmer caught him. He would have smacked his head on the concrete. His name is Rob. (I thought that was pretty funny.) :) So, we called the police and 4 cars showed up and even an ambulance (we watched from our car). It was really sad, he had lost all of his accountability. We left him our name and our number. He actually called us the next day and told us that last thing he knew he was in Traverse City, then woke up in the hospital in Mt. Pleasant. He was grateful we helped him and asked if we would buy him a bus ticket back to TC. I really learned how important it is to keep the commandments. Rob had really put himself in a predicament and it was sad to see. By simply keeping the commandments we put ourselves in a much better position for happiness, peace and joy in this life and for eternity. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that the things in our life that keep us from experiencing these feelings can be made right through his Atonement. CTR!

Love,

Elder Chalmers 

The Rob Incident

Temple Trip-my head got cut off. ha.

New Transfers=Touring Mid-Michigan                                                                  August 17, 2015
This week was the start of a new transfer in the Michigan Lansing Mission! For me, that means that Elder Elmer and I have nine companion exchanges to complete in 3 weeks and as a result we'll spend a lot of time in the car driving to different areas to conduct companion exchanges then going back the next day to trade back. It's a crazy few weeks, we barely ever get to see each other, but it is a blast getting to spend time with all the amazing missionaries and meeting all kinds of different people in different areas. I love it! We had a great week.

• On Monday, we scored the sweetest deal on suits. It was seriously so cool. They were on clearance and then the store was doing 25% off, so we scored big time. We can completely match, we just need to get matching ties and belts then we will be so unified, there will be no stopping us. :) We also met with our new investigator named Melvin, he is about 60 and he literally grew up on the streets in Detroit. It was crazy and really sad to hear about. His upstairs neighbor was blasting rap music the whole time, so that was distracting, but we had a good lesson.
• Tuesday was really cool. I went on my very first split as a missionary. I was with an 18 year old priest, named Ryan Bess. We went and found a new member who moved into the ward. Ryan really clicked with him and we had a great lesson. It was a miracle that Ryan was there. Afterwards we taught Alysha, who is our top investigator right now. We taught her about the Godhead and how They all work together to help us to return to live with God again. It was great. I got to talk to Ryan for a while about how he is really trying to be better and how the youth went to Kirtland for Youth Conference and he really felt the Spirit for the first time. It was inspiring. Youth activities really are so powerful and influential. I remember visiting President Benson's grave in Idaho on scout camp, it was a great experience. We then did some finding and drove to West Branch. I was with Elder Turner and we went to see a part member family where the wife is getting baptized this week. They are so cool. They just moved there from California. Crazy story, she has already been baptized but on the day she was supposed to get confirmed she got arrested due to not paying traffic tickets...crazy stuff. 
• Wednesday we spent time door knocking and visited a couple of really cool people. The real highlight of the day was getting to do a baptismal interview for Jennifer whom I met the day before. It was a really spiritual experience for both of us and I'm really grateful for it. We traded back and traded off with Harrison on the way home. 
• I was with Elder Woodland today in Mt. Pleasant. The theme of the day was Gander Rant (a term we use here because they all love to get off on a tangent and it doesn't end). It was pretty painful. But we still had a good day.
• Friday we had a great lesson with Alysha. We asked her what she learned last time, and she remembered it all perfectly! She's so awesome. She said her life feels more complete now. Then we did some planning and had a few lessons. We had a really great talk tonight about our companionship and how we can both improve. We came to the conclusion that we need to become master planners, so we can magnify our responsibility as Zone Leaders and take care of our area as well. It was really good.
• Saturday we were out walking all day. It was 90 degrees and humid. We met so many awesome people. We were walking home to eat dinner and kept feeling prompted to knock on random doors even though we were in a hurry. But we followed the Spirit and eventually we ended up at this one house, and as we were talking to the girls outside, this guy walked out and it turns out he's a former investigator and wants to meet again. It was so great to get to see that witness after we exercised faith!
• Sunday we were both exhausted all day, but it was still a delightful sabbath!

My thought for the week comes from a great study I had about studying, oddly enough. I was studying the importance of writing things down. From multiple scriptures I learned that revelation received and not recorded is destined to be forgotten (Mosiah 26:33 Ether 4:1 D&C 76:49). So my plea to each of you is to not only keep a daily journal, but keep a study journal to use as you study the scriptures. I have found it to be so helpful in receiving and remembering the revelation the Lord has blessed me with!

I love you all so much and am grateful for your support and I'm grateful to be a member of the only true and living church on the earth today!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Right before our short, little hailstorm

me and Melvin Morris

me with the West Branch elders

Miracles, Miracles, Miracles

                                                                                                                                  Aug. 10, 2015
This week has been a blur. Once I sit down to e-mail I can't even remember what I did during this past week. Blessings of keeping a journal! :) We really did see so many miracles this past week in Mt. Pleasant. We had a great time. I wouldn't say that anything that happened to us this week was what the general population would consider a miracle, but really, what is a miracle? I don't know if there is a true definition for it. But simply put, they are blessings from a loving Father in Heaven and we were sent an abundance of them! I will fill you in on a few examples. 

• We had a lot of first lessons with new investigators this week and got quite a few new people to teach (Miracle). One of those lessons was with a guy named Kevin. He is doing a masters program at CMU and is super fit. We were able to get a member to come with us who is studying physical therapy at CMU. We had a good lesson and the member was great. At the end, Kevin brought up how he's in a Parkinson's disease support group and he had been trying to find someone from the PT program to get them involved. Kevin said, "And you come walking through my door." We have sort of a hard time right now getting members to come out with us since we're in a college town in the summer, but this was a miracle!
• We picked up a new investigator named Alysha. She is so cool. She doesn't have much of a religious background but she wants to get a better relationship with God. We are going to start meeting with her quite often and she has such a sincere desire to learn. We're super excited for it! 
• We also started teaching a guy who loves golf more than Dad, so that is noteworthy, his name is Greg. 

We found so many people that were interested this week, it was awesome. We were able to schedule a lot of return appointments, so we should be able to stay busy.Also, the new transfer just started so we have a lot of companion exchanges to go on, so the next three weeks should be a lot of fun! 

• One of the highlights of my week was strangely enough when we met the most anti-mormon person of my mission. For about 30 minutes he was telling us all kinds of stuff and he had definitely done his research. We tried a few times to tell him that he needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to know the truth for himself. I was able to feel sincere charity for this man, but it was so sad to see how against the truth he was. Right before we left, Elder Elmer bore his testimony and said, "I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet." After that the guy cut him off, but it was powerful. I'm so grateful for Elder Elmer. He's a great missionary and has an amazing testimony. I've learned a lot from him and I'm grateful to be his companion. 

This week in my studies I learned a lot from reading in Helaman. One thing I learned recently from chapter 9, I'd like to share. Nephi, son of Helaman, is prophet to the people, on his garden tower (chapter 8) and tells how the chief judge has been murdered. The judges there send five men to go and check and they find the chief judge dead and they fall to earth from shock, realizing how Nephi was correct. They are arrested because the people assume that they did it. The judges from before free them and then they start to tell the people how Nephi must have set it up so somebody would kill the chief judge, so the people would think he's a prophet. Then the five men confound the judges but the judges ignore them. 

I share this story because it teaches a valuable lesson taught by Elder L. Whitney Clayton in this last General Conference. We all have to choose to believe. You can't convince people, even after they receive a clear witness of the truth. Never get discouraged in your missionary efforts. As long as you invite others, either by words or by example, you are successful!

I love you all so much! Never forget that The Church is true, God is our Father, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was and is a prophet. Nothing anybody says can change that, all that is left to be determined is whether or not YOU will be true to the truth. Are you true?

Love,

Elder Chalmers

View from the CMU library

Follow up District Meeting in Saginaw

The Sister Trainer Leaders and Zone Leaders

Half Mission P-Day                                                                                                      August 3, 2015

This was a great week. We had a big activity day in Mt. Pleasant. Half of the mission was there and we had a blast! I had 5 of my companions there! Elder Elmer and I have seen so many miracles and life has been great!

I'll give you a few highlights:

• We had a ward FHE activity on Monday. We had hot dogs and food and really just socialized. Our investigator, Ron, showed up and brought his friend Renee and her son. It was super cool and they really enjoyed it. We hope to be able to teach both of them in the future!
• I went on companion exchanges with Elder Norton, one of the Assistants this week. We had a pretty crazy day having to drive around to get stuff for the half mission p-day as well as do a baptismal interview. I got to do the interview. Her name is Joana. She is a super sweet lady and the Spirit was super strong during the whole interview. She had such a sincere intent to be baptized.
• We were out finding and felt like we should knock a different street than the one we had planned and then it took us down another street and we went up to this door and the guy came out and told us that he had just opened his Book of Mormon to start reading it. He was a less active member who wanted to get back into church, so we read with him right there! It was a huge miracle!
• Half-mission P-Day was a blast. We played all day until about 4. I got to see so many of my good friends. We played soccer, football, did relay races, ate KFC and all got super sunburned. It was a blast. President and Sister Jacbosen both went on the slip n slide. It was so awesome! :) 
• We had a great and busy week. There is nothing more rewarding than hard work, especially when it is the Lord's work. I love it!

My spiritual thought this week is really simply to work hard. I have found more joy and satisfaction in working hard while I've been a missionary than doing anything else in my life. I'm so happy when I'm busy, busy helping others and in doing so, improving myself. If what we're doing isn't helping us to become more like Christ, it probably isn't worth our time.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Most of my old companions

Sunburns

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!!

The Shocknesse's

Brother Jones

The Cormier's

Elder C. in Mt. P.

Hey Everyone!                                                                                                      July 13, 2015

This week was busy! We went on a few companion exchanges, had a meeting in Lansing, and it all just flew by! 

Monday: Today Elder Elmer and I explored Mt. Pleasant. We went to a few stores and got to know the town a little better. It was fun. We had dinner with the May family. He is our ward mission leader, and he is the man. He is super funny and on top of things. 

Tuesday: Today we had Mission Leadership Council in Lansing. It was a great experience. We all gave reports as to how our zone is doing then discussed some of the things happening in the mission, which was pretty interesting to hear all of the different opinions. My favorite part was when the elders had a pow-wow with Pres. Jacobsen and the sisters went with Sister Jacobsen. We read through Ether 12 and discussed it. It was so powerful. A cool thing I learned is that as it says in Ether 12:27, the closer we get to Christ the more weaknesses we realize we have so when we look at the whole scripture we can realize that is a blessing because we can have all those weaknesses become strengths. It was great getting to talk with Elder Hess. I love him. Afterwards we drove back to MT.P and had a lesson with a new investigator named Cody, and his fiance, Beth. We were really able to help them recognize the Spirit. It went really well. We had to drive out to Caro and stay the night there, so we can go to district meeting with them.

Wednesday: We had district meeting in Caro, my MTC comp is there, so that was fun. Elder Adams made all of us lunch after district meeting, which was really cool. I came back to MT. P with Elder Boyd, who is serving in Bad Axe (the thumb). He is super cool. He's pretty new and went to 2 years of BYU before his mission. We had some great experiences while knocking. We met his black guy named Paul. We were talking to him, and he said, "You guys are serious about this, I mean you are serious! You make me want to get more serious about the gospel!" hah. We also went out to dinner with a YSA, Justin Bates, which was really sweet. We found a lot of cool people.

Thursday: Today we had to drive way out to Bad Axe to trade back then Elder Elmer and I had to hurry to Midland so we could meet with the Stake Presidency to discuss missionary work. The council has like 5 people from the Midland 2nd ward, so it was good to see some familiar faces. :) We then drove to Saginaw and traded off with them. I got to be in Saginaw with Elder Giar (he knows Kristi Fry's brother, Bobby Dean, he's in his ward).

Friday: Saginaw was super sweet. We got to do some finding in the super ghetto part. We met a guy named Hadee, and his "brother". They told us we were in the hood so I asked them what that meant and they said, "When it gets dark, you wear a white shirt..." It made no sense..hah. We did quite a few prayer circles with people as well. ha. It was a blast. We found a lot of really cool people.

Saturday: Today we did a lot of finding. We basically walked across town to the street we wanted to knock and it took like 4 hours because we talked to everyone we could on the way. We met some super cool people. 

Sunday: Today church was really great. There were some great talks and we got to have lunch with the Harrast family. He is a triathlete and did the half ironman in ST. G this year! They are super cool. We did call-ins the rest of the day.

Today we found a super awesome bakery in town and they make the best donuts, so that was a score. :) Man is it gangbusters!

My spiritual thought for the week comes from Helaman 5:6-7 

 6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.

 7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.

This really shows us the power of a name, and as I thought more about this, I thought about how when each of us is baptized we take another name upon us, Christ's name. We need to always REMEMBER him, and keep the covenant that we have made. 

I love Michigan and being a missionary here. It's the place to be!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Wade Bringhurst look alike

The best donuts in Mt. Pleasant

                                                                                                                         June 6, 2015

This was a crazy first week in Mt. Pleasant! We have so much to do and so little time to do it, but it has been a blast and we've seen so many miracles! There are a lot of new responsibilities but my companion, Elder Elmer, is really helping me to learn them and I'm looking forward to the future! We don't have any investigators, since there haven't really been any elders here for about a month so we had the privilege to do a lot of finding activities and saw so many miracles!

Our first day in Mt. P. Elder Elmer got some shopping done and then after our P-Day was over we had to do a lot of planning to figure out things in our area and who is even in the zone here. 

Our week consisted of a ton of planning and organizing and then finding people to teach. It has just been a blur (thank goodness for a journal...).

Some really cool finding miracles from this week:

We did some companion exchanges with the missionaries in West Branch, so I was with Elder Isaacson in Mt. Pleasant. He also served in Kalkaska so that was a topic of great discussion. We had some awesome things happen. We got to this one duplex and we were talking to this lady when her neighbor came out and started talking to her so we started talking to both of them. The neighbor lady said it was cool how we came because she has had a lot of people telling her she should go back to church lately and we talked about eternal families and our purpose here and she really liked it, and we are going to teach her! Later that night we were finding some more and were walking up to a house when someone yelled, "Stephen!" at us. So we turned and a lady was waving us over. She thought I was Elder Stevenson who used to serve here so we were talking to her and she was super friendly and wants to meet with us. After we left, I was on the phone with some missionaries and she came running out of the house with money, saying, "I forgot a donation!" ha. She tried to give us the money but we wouldn't take it so she said she will just make us a sandwich when we come to teach her. hah. MIRACLE! Then a few doors later, I had to really use the bathroom so we were speed walking it back to our truck and the house before we got to the car had some people out front, so we just walked up and I introduced us and the first thing I said was, "We've been out and about could I use your restroom?" She told us how it's really messy but that her husband could take us in. So that was a miracle, but then her husband was showing us all of his turtles. He has over 20 turtles and a huge snapping turtle, so we were talking about turtles and then talking about eternal families. He said he doesn't believe in "til death do you part" so we are going to teach him! MIRACLE! We were really diligent about following the Spirit and even when we did, and what we were led to do didn't exactly work out, we knew, learned, and witnessed, that it's all about being in the right place at the right time with the right message. And we definitely were. :)

On the 4th of July, Elder Elmer and I saw a ton of miracles. We were finding and met some really cool people. We have been focusing on talking about eternal families and temples with people. Our focus right now is to find a family that is prepared for the gospel and baptism so we've been praying for that every day and teaching to that need. We met a lady who knew a little bit about the church and had a great conversation with her and she is interested! We felt like we should walk on the other side of the street, and that was when we met her. :) 

We watched fireworks for a few minutes from our porch, so that was nice. 

I also saved a turtle who was in the middle of an intersection, so I feel like it makes up for my dislike of animals. :)

We saw so many miracles, and it was a wonderful week. The ward is great, and we are excited to help them fulfill their missionary responsibilities!

Never feel like when you follow the Spirit you are wrong, you never know exactly what the alternative outcome would have brought, but you can rest assured that because you followed you are and will be blessed for it!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Goodbye Kalkaska

                                                                                                                                  June 29, 2015
I got the news this week that I will be getting transferred to Mt. Pleasant, MI. I was thinking I was going to leave but once I got the call it really hit me how much I love it here in Kalkaska. It is a special place and has a really special branch. I loved every second of being here! This week we also had the baptism for Tyrone Shauan. It was amazing and he's such a stud! There were a few highlights of the week:

• Ty's baptism was great! We had to get to the church super early to get the font filled but everything came together for it. I was able to baptize him which was a wonderful experience for me to be able to perform that ordinance for him. There were also a lot of members from the branch there to support him. Ty was baptized 20 days after we first met him. It was such a miracle! After he was confirmed yesterday and we all raised the right arm to welcome him, he turned around and said, "Thank you, God bless you." He's so great! Leading up, on Thursday, he had us over for ribs. They were a slug between the teeth! He knows how to whip up some ribs! He also fed us some stuffed burgers yesterday that were also off the hook. Another way to know he's something special is that I actually like his dog. ME! It's an american bulldog, and such a sweet dog. He's going with Bro. Chowhan to visit some less-actives on Tuesday and can't wait to get the Melchizedek Priesthood. I've never met someone so prepared!

• Elder Allred and I did a lot of door knocking this week but weren't seeing too much success from it. However, we have total faith that the Lord will bless us with miracles as we remain obedient and diligent. Kalkaska is in for some awesome miracles!

• Another cool miracle has been our Bible Study/dinner we go to at Virginia's nephew, Dennis' house. Virginia lives with her niece, Trudy, and about 6 months ago she wouldn't even let the missionaries in her house to teach Virginia but we've built a really good relationship with her and as we were leaving Bible Study she said, "I'm going to have to give you a hug." I, of course, had to shut her down but she has come so far and her heart has softened so much. I'm really excited to see where she goes. :) 

• Saying goodbye to Rich Mason was pretty sad. We really grew close together. He told us how when we met him he had been really depressed and was letting himself die from malnourishment. But since we've met him and been teaching him he's getting a lot better. He has told us a few times that we saved his life. I feel like Rich is one of those people I came on my mission specifically for. 

• Saying goodbye to everyone this week was so sad. I didn't realize how much I came to love it here. The Kalkaska branch has some of the greatest people under the sun! I was asked to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I testified of the truthfulness of the Gospel and that I know it's true because of the blessings that have come to me as I've lived it. It came to me that I've never been this happy in my life. It's all because I'm doing my very best to keep the commandments and I'm giving all that I have in the service of the Lord. It never gets better than that! Never...

• I again feel like I'm leaving home. I have grown to love so many people here, from the service I've done with and for them. A piece of my heart will always be here with the great people of Kalkaska, Michigan.

Once again, a mission is and always will be about the people you serve and how you help them to accept and learn to more fully embrace and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the foundation of any good relationship and of any happy life. This is the work of the Lord and this is what this life is all about. "Shall we not go on in so great a cause..."

Love,

Elder Chalmers

I forgot to mention... I got attacked by a dog for the first time this week! It was an english bulldog that tried to bite my ankle but luckily missed, then it came after me again so I took a few swings at it with my only weapon, my Book of Mormon, and we got away safely. The owner was equally mad at the dog and us for coming on her property. The lady across the street got a kick out of it at least. My heart was pounding for 30 min. But I'm safe! :) Everyone have a great week!

me and Rich Mason

Elder Allred and me with the Cadillac elders...

The District (the one of the left is my new comp)

Me and Morgan, don't ever plan on seeing a picture like this again...

Ty's baptism!

The Kalkaska Branch

The Robinson family (He's the Branch Pres.)

The Chowhan's

Ty, Morgan and me

Bible Study Group!

Virginia, my fist bump buddy

And last but not least, The Famous Steve and Joy Cole

Ty is Our Guy!

                                                                                                                                               June 15, 2015
This week was awesome. So last week as I said, we had a guy named Ty show up to church and we were able to meet with him 5 times during this week. He is doing awesome and we are looking for a baptismal date of June 27th! :) Elder Allred is awesome. I love serving with him, he is so sincere and has such a strong testimony. We really do love being companions and are having a blast in Kalkaska! :) 

•We went out with President Hoover on Tuesday evening. We had our lesson with Ty. We taught the Restoration. We committed him to be baptized and he was a little hesitant but then Pres. Hoover shared his experience on how he decided to be baptized and it helped Ty to understand and he committed to be baptized! Then we drove up to Rich's place. Rich has the mind set of being a bad reader and learner, so Pres. Hoover, who spent his career in education, built Rich up so much, it was awesome.

• We had a powerful district meeting this week. We discussed how we can strengthen our faith. There were many powerful testimonies borne and the Spirit was so strong. One thing that I came to realize in that meeting is that those people who exemplify Jesus Christ just by being themselves, help other to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. As a missionary and striving to be Christlike, each door I knock on and each person I meet I hopefully help grow in their faith in Jesus Christ We can all have that impact on those we meet. We again taught Ty and he had read 12 chapters in the Book of Mormon!

• We helped Virginia's nephew Dennis do some gardening. He's the one whose house we go to each Sunday for dinner and Bible study. He met with the missionaries in the St. Louis area in the late 90's and from talking to him we are going to start teaching him the lessons again, so we are super excited about that. 

• We taught Ty again on Friday and he has already read both 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi! He is so prepared! :) He said something that I thought was super cool. He said, "Everything you teach makes sense and is pretty easy if you aren't looking for something to be wrong." It's so true. The Gospel is so simple and plain if we have open hearts and minds. It's easy to love and understand. 

• The first time we met Ty, he told us that we'd need to explain how the Bible and Book of Mormon go together and explain coffee to him because as he says, "Nobody loves coffee more than I do." So, after teaching him on Saturday the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we planned on teaching the Word of Wisdom. But before we mentioned it, he asked, "So what's with the coffee thing?" We began to beat around the bush a little bit, (we shouldn't have) and he said, "I already stopped drinking it, I just want to know why I have to." So we explained and he said, "Makes sense." The Lord is preparing people! :) 

My spiritual thought comes from a talk that our district president, Doug Thomas gave yesterday. He spoke on covenants. He gave Joshua 1:8 as a pattern to keeping covenants and Joshua 1:9 as the promise of keeping our covenants. Covenants, such as baptism, put us in a place to act. They get us off neutral ground and are the means of opening the windows of heaven for us to access greater spiritual power. Do we love the Lord enough to keep our covenants?

This week has been such a great week. Kalkaska is the place to be, Elder Allred is the companion to have, the Church is the place to worship, and Jesus is the Christ!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY                                                                                                              June 22, 2015

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all of my Father figures, especially my Dad! Thank you for all you do. This was a solid week for Elder Allred and I in Kalkaska. We got to have a lot of really cool lessons with Ty and his baptism is this Saturday at 2:00. He will be baptized 20 days after we first met him, he's so prepared! Also, I love Elder Allred, he is so humble and great to be around. He helps me to be better everyday. I'm so blessed to be with him and be in Kalkaska, so many blessings! :)

Monday: We had a sweet lesson with Ty. We had both the Piatt's with us on the lesson and it was Debbie's first time. (She was sitting on a chair behind the table and read in the Book of Mormon the whole time, she was so proud. :)) At the end of our lesson we had some concerns with Ty's baptsim, but we felt really prompted to bring it up, so we did and we were able to overcome the concern, being really open. It was something that we would normally be pretty nervous to do, but the Lord made us up to the task!

Tuesday: Today we had a great day. We had another lesson with Ty. We went with "The Famous Steve Cole," we still don't know what he's famous for..." (That is how Steve refers to himself most of the time.) ha. We had another great lesson and he's doing great. Then we went up to Bellaire to see Rich. He told us how one of his neighbors was telling him how we're not Christian and how he told her off. He vented to us for like 45 min. about it, how we are Christian. Rich is so loyal. He also shared a really sweet experience with us. He said when he met us he was at the point where he didn't want to live but ever since we met him on the street he's gotten much healthier, gotten back into the scriptures, and he's happier. It really gave me confidence and courage to never stop working. You never know what one thing you do can mean to someone else. As we left, we gave him a hug and he kissed me on the cheek. haha. Rich is an old school farm boy. We had dinner with the Mundell and Robinson families. They made homemade ice cream and no-bake cookies, I barely made it out of there. :) We met some really cool people while we were knocking today, one guy named Emmanuel was super cool, and had a great belief already of the Plan of Salvation. At the end, he told us he only argues with the Mormons. So I just pointed at myself, and said, "that's us" ha. Then he told us his issue and we got through it. :) We are really hoping we can meet with him.

Wednesday: We taught Ty with Bro. Chowhan. It was a great lesson on the Priesthood. It's also Bro. Chowhan's first time coming out with us in a long time, he's getting better each day. It's a miracle! Then we got lunch at Subway with him. We spent the day door knocking in Fife Lake. It was a really nice day and we met some cool people then we had dinner with the Piatt's. We had a great scripture study with Virginia and the Coles tonight as well.

Thursday: We had interviews in Gaylord today. They were really simple, quick, but great. :) I got to see Elder Laing. It's cool, Elder Allred and Elder Laing knew each other at home! We also had district meeting, it was a great experience. We all shared what our purpose is and what it means to each of us individually, it was powerful. For me, it's all about joy. The joy the gospel brings me and the joy it can bring to others. Then we drove home which was a blast. We drove the Cadillac Elders, Elder Johnson and Elder Hoover are so much fun! We had our first real lesson with Virginia's nephew Dennis. It went well, he likes to talk a lot. But he's read the first 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon so far, so that's really cool. :) We also did some door knocking and met a few former investigators and made great contact with them.

Friday: We had a sweet lesson about temples with Ty. He kept wanting to know more. We had Bro. Chowhan with us. We went to an asian buffet and Bro. Chowhan was putting down a lot of food and dishing out the fist bumps, he is so fun. We got shined by a few people so we did a lot of knocking. It was cool, we weren't having much success, but on our last door we got a potential, it was awesome!

Saturday: We did a ton of knocking today. We had a really cool experience today. We were talking to this couple, who pretty much started attacking us and telling us to stop preaching the Book of Mormon and ranted about being "born again" (nobody understands what they are saying when they use that term they way they do). Every time they gave us a chance to talk, we testified of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. That's what the spirit kept giving us to say, it was a really powerful experience for both of us. 

Sunday: The sacrament today was amazing. If you really take it seriously and prepare the day before, you can get so much out of it. I learned a ton this week. We also had potluck today, which was great as always. We did call-ins then had our bible study/dinner at Dennis'. That went great. We tried by a potential tonight, and he let us in. We talked about how absolute truth exists and how the gospel has been restored, it was a great lesson but he didn't want to continue to meet. :( It was a good experience though.

My spiritual thought for this week came from the sacrament. I went into Sunday with the question of how I can become a better disciple of Christ. As in the prayer, the words "take upon them the name of thy Son" I realized that I need to represent Jesus Christ at all times and to everyone, including myself. We all need to be the same person in the dark that we are in the light. I realized that what I do when nobody else is around or when I'm just with my companion, define who I am as much and maybe more than how I act around others. 

I love you all so much and am grateful for your support!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

D&C 6:36

love catching your comp in a real hearty laugh! :)

Driving on the 131...ha!