Zone Conference and Transfer Prep

TRANSFER PREP                                                                                                        JAN 23, 2016
This week has been a blur. It's the last week of the transfer so what that means for our mission is transfer planning (who will go where), planning how to make that all work smoothly and other things that need to be done to close out a transfer. In short, that means a lot of time working in the mission office which is great, just different from what I've done for my whole mission. We were blessed to be able to have a lot of lessons this past week though and there were some really powerful experiences with it. 

Just a short summary of how transfer planning went. We sit with President Jacobsen in his office, and in there he has a big magnetic wall of each area and the missionaries that are serving in each area. We start with a prayer and then we talk about where we should move people, discuss, and then move magnets. It was really cool. We started on Monday and made some addition changes throughout the week, it's a really inspired process.

On Tuesday we spent all of our day getting ready for transfers until 5. We had a lesson with a guy named Zach that we met on campus. We got to know him a little bit and taught him the Restoration. As we were teaching him the Spirit was really strong, and as we taught him about the First Vision and the Restoration of the Priesthood, Elder Haddock invited him to be baptized and receive the Priesthood, the Spirit was so strong during it and he was noticeably emotional, and he said yes. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he is going to start reading it. Then right after that lesson, actually at the end of the lesson, a guy we had met on Saturday, named Jake showed up for our lesson. There was a Bible Study class at the institute, that's taught by the Institute director, Brother Tibbitts, so we took him to that. It was great and Jake even made a comment at the end that he was really grateful that he came! It was a great night, we were truly blessed with miracles!

On Wednesday there was a worldwide missionary broadcast where the Missionary Executive Committee spoke, including Elders Oaks, Andersen, and Bednar. It was all on the basics of missionary work and it was super powerful and inspiring. Then we had a lesson with Austin who's getting baptized in two weeks, and he is prepared. We had Kalin Tibbits with us. He's an RM and went to BYU for a little while, but he's at home working for now. He's money! 

We also taught Tatiyana this week. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really liked it. I received an answer to my prayers during it. I've been praying a lot and studying to be able to teach with more power and authority and at the end of the lesson, I was prompted to promise her that as she continued to seek after righteousness, that her family would accept and embrace the gospel. It was really special, it wasn't something that I was thinking beforehand. I was really trying to listen and discern, and the Spirit delivered, it was so great! Tatiyana has been fellowshipped really well and we're excited for her!

We made transfer calls yesterday. President would call them and tell them where they were going, then we would give them their travel arrangements. Then we had to get the truck and transfer van ready to go for Monday since we spend the entire day driving people around the state.

My spiritual thought for this week comes from 3 Nephi 1:13&15. Nephi is praying to the Lord because the wicked people have set a day where they are going to kill all of those who believe, unless the sign of Christ's birth comes. The Lord answers and this is what he tells Nephi in verse 13, "I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets." Then in verse 15, it says, "And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled." What I learned from this, is that the Lord says it, then He does it. That is a truth. So, as you read scriptures and see promises from the Lord, you can be assured that as you do what He says, He will do what he has promised.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Elder Haddock and me with my fam!

ZONE CONFERENCE!                                                                                                 JAN 18, 2016

This was a great week here in Michigan. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday in Lansing, Thursday in Midland, and Friday in Kalamazoo, and they all went great and were super uplifting. It was also a huge blessing to be able to be at all three of them and learn from everyone there, as the Spirit inspired each of us. That took up the big majority of our week, but it definitely didn't stop us from seeing some awesome miracles in our area!

Our Zone Conferences went great. Elder Haddock trained about our mission goal of 280 baptisms and what we need to do to reach that goal. It was really well done and the participation was great. One thing I learned from it is that you can't reach a goal that you don't know exists. Nobody knew of our mission baptism goal for last year, so of course, we didn't achieve it. 

I trained on Magnifying Our Calling. My focus was on answering the questions: What? Why? and How? of Magnifying our calling. It was all focused and centered on smaller group discussion and then we discussed after as a full conference. One cool thing shared was a lot of people used the example of a magnifying glass, and someone said how when you put light through a magnifying glass and leave it on something, it will eventually catch fire. They said how Jesus is the Light and how when something burns, it is literally changed, even the chemical make up of it, so as we magnify our calling and involve the Savior in that, we can change who we truly are into something greater. We become more like Jesus Christ. Then in the How of magnifying our calling, I trained on the importance of taking care of our health, through diet and exercise, which was fun. I committed everyone to buy vegetables this week :) then also coming to know why you are serving a mission. My point was that we are all here on missions, but why...? Why do we choose to stay and be obedient and work hard? Then I shared why I'm here and what motivates me to magnify my calling... It's the impact that two missionaries serving in Hawaii had on my life and the life of my family, and me knowing that I can have the same impact on others lives. I included the powerpoint I used, so you can go through it, and see why I'm here serving in the Michigan Lansing Mission. I then committed everyone to put something on their wall or somewhere they will see it everyday, something that will remind them of why they are in the MLM serving the Lord. It went great!

President Jacobsen talked a lot about staying with our companion for safety, and also how we need to baptize converts, people who have already experiened a change of heart, through us teaching them repentance. Sister Jacobsen talked about having patience.  Zone Conference was a great experience, it was amazing how much the Spirit led me to know what to say, and what to do. I was really nervous leading up to it, but it turned out great!

On Thursday, we drove to the Burleson's home on the way back from Midland. We had dinner and then a lesson with Austin. We read 1 Nephi 8 about the Tree of Life and it was great. He loved it and understood it really well. He is super prepared for baptism and we're excited about it. Then we came home and had a lesson with Tatiyana. She was taught once before Christmas break. She told us she had read from the Book of Mormon over the break and loved it, and she feels really good whenever she meets with us. We set a baptismal date of Feb. 20th with her. She also understands the restoration really well. She's money. She also came to Institute on Friday and was at church yesterday, and some of the members invited her to dinner with us and them after church, they fellowshipped her really well and we are teaching her again tonight! She's awesome.

I got to go on trade-offs with Elder Hunter Johnson this week. We got to spend a lot of time on campus. We met a really cool guy who has seen us around before but never talked to us and he's really excited to meet with us. 

Things are going great for me here at MSU in East Lansing, MI. This week is transfer planning so that should be a great experience. I've been told the next two weeks are crazy, the last and first weeks of the transfers... 

My spiritual thought this week is my training on magnifying your callings. We all owe it to ourselves to magnify our discipleship and callings in Christ's church. It not only leads to greater success, but we will be much happier and become so much more than if we don't do it. I love each one of you and I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us as well. 

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Zone Conference-talking to Elder Rapp

ZC-power point

ZC

Elder Rapp and me

Kalamazoo Confernece

Trade offs with Elder Johnson

LIVING THE LIFE IN LANSING

LIVING THE LIFE IN LANSING                                                                         1/11/16

Another great week here in Lansing. I say that, but I spent about half the week not in Lansing, since I was away on both of our trade-offs this past week. I got to go to Wyoming (south of Grand Rapids) and back to CMU with Elder Tubagus. This week has included a lot of prep for our upcoming Zone Conferences on Wednesday-Friday and it has just been altogether a great week!

We had MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) it was so great. We discussed why things die out. Like, we have really good things implemented and then over time, they just die. We came up that a lot of it is change in missionaries and leadership and we drop the ball in following up on those things consistently. We also set a goal for 280 baptisms for 2016, it was a really spiritual experience disucssing and setting the goal. We were all really unified and it was a great meeting! I drove with Elder Clark to Wyoming for trade-offs after that. We taught these two African teenagers and one of them, Wimbo, his mom fed us some food. It was casava leaves and fufu, a traditional meal from the Congo. It was pretty good, and the most exotic food I've had here in Michigan! We then picked up a former investigator, which was great!

While doorknocking on Wednesday in Wyoming, we met this girl and she needed help changing a tire, so after being persistent, she let us help her and we talked to her for a while and got a return appointment out of it which was sweet. We had some great lessons after that. Elder Haddock picked me up and we headed over to Mt. Pleasant where we spent the night.

I spent the day with my old companion, Elder Tubagus at CMU. We did our usual morning routine of boxing and spent most of the day on campus. We got shined by a potential investigator that shined me at the beginning of last semester while I was there, so that was sort of funny, also unfortunate that we weren't able to meet with him. I love the CMU campus. We also got to go see Keith and that was great. Keith is super fun to be around, we are buddies. He wouldn't let Elder Haddock break one of his cigarettes again. He still associates Elder Haddock with that. ha.

We got to see a few less active members on Friday. They live up in Dewitt. One is named Adam who was on a mission for a few months and returned home early. We had a great lesson with him and he even asked us for a blessing. We also got to see a recent convert named Jake who is struggling with some questions he has encountered from unfavorable sources. We met with Austin, our awesome investigator. He is on fire and we moved his baptismal date up 2 weeks Feb. 6th. He says every time he comes to church or meets with us he feels better and better about his baptism.

Most of the rest of our time was spent preparing for Zone Conference in various ways...

Things have been great serving in East Lansing, I love the close association with President Jacobsen and being able to learn from him. I love my companion!

We were able to watch President Nelson speak in the worldwide devotional last night. I really like the things he shared, especially how we need to expect and prepare to do the impossible. Last night, we were doing our weekly report and we were changing some things and it got all messed up, it was getting late at night, and I prayed that we could figure things out and finish it, and then everything just came together and we got it done 5 minutes later. It was a little thing but I know that the Lord is mindful of all the little things we do and that we can do the impossible, big or small!

Love,
Elder Chalmers

MLC-Missionary Leadership Council

Visiting Keith

Christmas and some big changes...Kalamazoo to Lansing

FIRST WEEK AS AN ASSISTANT                                                                                               1/4/16

This has been a great, and very busy week. We did a lot of traveling around the state of Michigan and also had plenty of other things to do as well. There are plenty of things to learn and I'm picking up on things pretty well, all thanks to the Lord's help. I love being with Elder Haddock and I love getting to serve the great missionaries in the MLM and in turn serve the Lord.

Monday: We had our meeting with President Jacobsen to discuss the status of the mission. During which we came up with the idea of the "MLM Cup," a trophy that we will award to the most successful zone each transfer. We were all pretty excited about it. After the meeting, we did a lot of cleaning in our apartment and threw away a ton of stuff. We also played basketball at the Stake Center with a lot of the missionaries in the Lansing area. It was fun, then we spent time doing some office work.

Tuesday: Today we went trophy shopping. It was actually a miracle because the place was closed, but the lady happened to be in, so she let us come in and look at our options for the MLM Cup. It was fun, then we talked with President for a while. A lot of our day was spent in the office doing all kinds of things, then at night we went over to the Mission Home. We had a mini transfer of 3 missionaries going home. Elder Elmer, one of my former companions, was one of them. We went out to dinner and then they all got interviewed. It was fun to spend time with them.

Wednesday: We had to be up early to get the missionaries to the airport. It was weird being inside an airport... We saw them off, then Elder Haddock and I came home and we packed and studied, then drove up to Traverse City to do our trade-off blitz with them. I spent the day with Elder Webb. We had a great experience while finding, we took our shovels with us and shoveled for people. One lady was amazed that this is what we do and was very appreciative of our help. We also had a pastor give us some cookie which was pretty cool. We went to dinner at one of their recent converts homes and all of her kids were there. When dessert came around, one of them threw whipped cream at the other and then a whipped cream food fight broke out so we headed for the door and Elder Haddock and I made it out safely. It was crazy! ha. It was fun being in Traverse City.

Thursday: We spent almost all day in the car. We drove from Traverse City all the way to Sault Ste. Marie, in the Upper Peninsula. We drove through Kalkaska on the way, which was awesome! We had to check out their church building for President Jacobsen, since they want to move into a nicer building that is easier to find. They currently meet in an office building in the middle of town. The Mackinac Bridge was super cool and we even got to see Canada. First time in the U.P.! :) We drove the 4.5 hours back to Lansing and got back at about 8, and had a little missionary get together at the Institute building for New Year's Eve which was fun.

Friday: We spent some time over at President and Sister Jacobsen's today getting ready for our Missionary Leadership Council next week and had lunch with them, a lot of the day was spent doing office work and other things. We did get to spend some time on campus, which was awesome. We also got to have a lesson with our investigator named Austin. We taught him at a members' home named the Burlesons. They are super cool. We taught  him the first half of the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was super strong, it was a powerful lesson. He has been coming to church, and he came yesterday. He is awesome and the Burleson family is awesome at helping him, they even read the Book of Mormon with him all the time! We had dinner at the Parents' home. They are really cool.

Saturday: We spent a lot of time on campus today. We talked to all the people we could and even set up an appointment for next week. We also had our correlation meeting today. We did weekly planning and it took some time figuring out the miles situation in our mission since we are both new to doing that. It was a good day though.

Sunday: We have church at 1 in the East Lansing University Ward which is weird. I haven't had church that late since I was home! Not very many people were there due to the break in school. Austin was there and he fits in really well. We had a great meeting with Bishop Solomon after church and then dinner with Ethan and Chris. We then had call ins at night. 

Things have been going really well. We are preparing for our Mission Leadership Council tomorrow and then three days in a row of Zone Conference next week where we will get to see all of the missionaries. We are looking forward to both of those things. 

My thought this week is something that I just barely read from my Grandpa Green who is serving a mission right now as well with his wife, my Grandma Green, in Germany. He shared a quote with me that comes from Elder Neal A. Maxwell who says, "If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do." I want to couple that with another quote that I really like, "Growth cannot be achieved without change." Change is a hard thing, and doing hard things, is, well, hard. I know however, that it's through overcoming challenges and tackling our fears, that we can grow and more and more assimilate the characteristics and attributes of Jesus Christ as we continue on our path back to our Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for the example of all of my grandparents for sacrificing their own wants, time, and talents to serve the Lord. This is the Lord's work and we are all engaged in it. If you're not, then repent and become involved, it's the best decision you can make.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Kalkaska!

Mackinac Bridge

 Elder Elmer at the airport

CHRISTMAS AND CHANGES...                                                                         12/28/15

This was a very eventful week for me in Michigan. It involved a trade-off in Battle Creek, a Christmas party in Grand Rapids, Christmas day, and then an unplanned transfer, which now has me in East Lansing, serving on the campus of Michigan State University with Elder Haddock again!
First of all, the trade off in Battle Creek. It was a great time. I was able to be with Elder Heskasia-Joji. He is from the Marshall Islands, but has lived in the US most of his life. We had some great experiences. We had a lesson that was one of the most spiritual teaching moments of my life. We taught a 21 year old guy named Jermaine and at the end of the lesson I felt prompted to give him a priesthood blessing. So we explained what it is and then administered the blessing. After it, he told us that he was going to come to our church this week and how when he reads the Book of Mormon he feels the Spirit more than he ever does with reading the Bible (He did come to church! :)) We also saw a miracle in applying the "plus 2" principle, that I learned from my high school football coach. We were done with our finding for the day and had to go fill out an exchange form but the Spirit prompted us to go "plus 2" so in doing so we met a really cool girl and got her information, it was awesome. When you are done with something, always go "plus 2" give a little more, go the extra mile!
On Saturday, Elder Erekson and I had another cool experience with "plus 2." We spent all day knocking on doors where students live with almost nobody answering, since they are all gone. We were about to start heading back to our truck when we felt like we should go "plus 2." So we did, and neither of them answered but by taking the time to knock on those doors, a car pulled in and so we went and talked to the girl and had an awesome conversation, and she was really interested. It was cool how she told us that she knows that a lot of the things she does in her life (breaking the word of wisdom and law of chastity) are wrong, and we told her that we can help her to find true happiness, it was amazing. There is nothing better than following the Spirit, it always brings success.
Our Christmas Party in Grand Rapids was great. We as Zone Leaders all had to come prepared with a game, so our game was where everybody had an oreo on their forehead and had to get it into their mouth without using their hands. It was great and then we realized we had a ton of extra time with each group, so Elder Erekson came up with a cool charades game, and it went great! There were a lot of talents shown and jeopardy. At the end of the party, as we were cleaning up President Jacobsen came up to me and told me he wanted to talk to me before I left, so about ten or so minutest later I went up to him and we went out into the hall, and since one of the Assistants had to go home due to health reasons he needed a new Assistant, and he called me to be his new Assistant and to serve with Elder Haddock again. He told me that it's all work. I'm really excited/nervous/humbled by the opportunity and responsibility. I always remember what my mom told me a long time ago whenever I felt overwhelmed. "The Lord qualifies whom he calls."
The next day was Christmas. We exercised, studied, and opened presents then we had breakfast at the Stevens. We also watched Joy to the World with them. After that I got to Skype my family. It was awesome. Best Christmas present I could have asked for! We were at a family's home named the Lillroses. I was helping her peel potatoes and I told her about how my Grandpa Chalmers would always say SPOA (spud peelers of America) when it was time for the kids to peel potatoes. She liked it and was telling her whole family about it. We had an interesting lunch at some members' house, and then had dinner at the Lillrose's and then Elder Erekson skyped and I taught their family how to play Mexican Train and they loved it. It was an awesome Christmas.
Yesterday after church, Elder Erekson and I drove to East Lansing and he dropped me off and at my new home. I will be serving on the MSU campus and working closely with President Jacobsen on helping the mission to progress. I just got out of my first weekly meeting with him and Elder Haddock and it went really well. I'm excited for the future.
My thought for this week is about receiving and following spiritual promptings. This is something that I have recently found more success in doing by applying the following: When I receive a prompting to do something, I usually ask myself, "Should I do that?" whether it be to talk to someone, to knock on a door, or go out of my way to do something. I have learned that whenever I ask myself that, the answer is always...YES. All good things come from God, if we feel like we should do something, that we know is good, it is from God,  so we should act on it, and we will see blessings come. I promise you that in the name of Jesus Christ.
I love you all! I can feel the strength that comes from your prayers on my behalf. Thank you so much for everything!
Love,
Elder Chalmers

See ya WMU!

WEEK ONE IN THE ZOO...KALAMAZOO.                                                     12/21/15

Hey Everyone!
My first week in Kalamazoo has been great! The transition to a new companion, area, and zone has gone better than I could have hoped for. I really like it here and the WMU campus is a pretty sweet set up, similar yet different from CMU, but I like it none the less.
I'm assigned to the Kalamazoo University Branch, known throughout the mission and here as the KUB. It's for all the college aged members in the entire Kalamazoo stake and we meet in an old baptist church right by downtown that the church bought. It's super cool. That also means that we only work with and teach the college aged people, and it's Christmas break for all of them, so that is giving us slight anxiety. We aren't sure what we are going to do for the next three weeks. We are really going to have to put our faith in the Lord on this one!
This week went by like a blur for me. I can't believe it has already been a week. We did have some really cool experiences during this week, probably better stated as miracles!
I had the chance to meet one of our investigators this week, his name is Nathan. We had a great lesson with him and we taught him about fasting. He said he would join the church as soon as he knew it was true, so we challenged him to fast about whether the church is true and during the week he asked us a few different doctrinal questions via text and Facebook and told us he was fasting to know! We're excited to see how it goes.
While personal contacting on campus this week, we met a professor who was on a walk, so we walked with him. We ended up walking around the neighbor that is east of campus for about an hour and teaching him the restoration in a very conversational way, it was a really cool experience, and he said he'd be open to talk more next semester.
I was able to do two baptismal interviews this week, they were both great experiences, one of them passed, and the other did not. It was my first time interviewing someone and having them not be ready. I'm not sure how to describe the experience other than I learned a lot about following the Spirit and doing God's will, not my own, or what is easy. I'm confident that the person will be baptized soon after further preparation.
Probably our coolest miracle came on Saturday. All the finals were done and we were pretty unsure about what Campus had in store for us, but we went as we knew we needed to. We prayed specifically for a miracle then got out of the car and as we were getting our stuff, we said "Hi" to this guy who was in his graduation outfit, also getting out of his car, he responded by saying, "How's it going Elder?" That caught us off guard a little bit. Since I'm new to the area I thought, "Could he possibly be a member?" Turns out that his sister is a member and so are his grandparents, so we asked him what is keeping him from learning more about it. He said, "Well, school has always been my excuse, but I guess I don't have that anymore..." We are going to be teaching him tomorrow! Prayer answered! Miracle!
We had a great Sacrament meeting yesterday. After the ordinance of the Sacrament what we did was, they opened the floor and invited anyone who wanted to, to come up and share their favorite Christmas song and bear their testimony of why it was their favorite then we sang one verse of that hymn. It was a great meeting. Attendance at church was pretty sparse this week, due to Christmas break, but it was still great.
I've had some really good studies in my scriptures lately. What I learned today came from Helaman 15:9 - the verse says, "And ye know also that they have buried their weapons of war, and they fear to take them up lest by any means they should sin; yea, ye can see that they fear to sin—for behold they will suffer themselves that they be trodden down and slain by their enemies, and will not lift their swords against them, and this because of their faith in Christ." I found this scripture to be really helpful to me. Most of the time sin is what is easy and what will offer us pleasure in some way or another, which is why it's so hard to stay away from. We learn here though, that as we increase our faith in Jesus Christ, we will begin to fear to sin more and more and we will be able to withstand the temptations Satan throws at us more easily I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. Over the last few weeks,I've spent a lot of time in Helaman 15 and I've read this verse at least 10 times, but it wasn't until today that I caught this. Continue to read and study the scriptures, they contain a never ending wealth of knowledge, guidance, and peace for our lives.
I also hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and remember the reason for the celebration, being Christ. If you haven't already,watch the video the church put out, "A Savior is Born" and ponder what message it is teaching you. Each gift you receive represents the ultimate gift that a Father gave to his children, His Son, Jesus Christ. Again, Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Chalmers

Goodbye with Elder Tubagus (Elder Bloskas in the background)

The elders in Coldwater

WMU

My Last Week in Mt. Pleasant

LAST WEEK IN MT. PLEASANT                                                                                      12/12/15
I found out on Thursday night that I'm getting transferred from serving on campus at CMU in Mt. Pleasant, and will be going to serve on campus at Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalamazoo. I'll be serving with Elder Erekson, who I came out with. I'm really sad to leave MT.P. I love the ward and I love serving with Elder Tubagus. Life has been good to me here and I'm really excited for the great opportunity to serve in Kalamazoo, also called K-Zoo or Kalamazion. :)

Last Saturday we got to attend the Midland Nativity Exhibit and it was amazing. They have over 700 Nativities, it fills the entire Stake center and there is a wonderful spirit there. Elder Tubagus and I both really enjoyed it. 

We were able to have a really great week. It's the week before finals so everybody on campus is pretty stressed out. A lot of the people we met gave us their info but said they wouldn't be available until next semester. We had some great lessons with our investigators and also Calie was baptized today, which was an awesome experience! Again, it was a really great week...

A few of the highlights of the week:

• We had a lesson with a guy named Jack. It was interesting, when we originally met him he did not seem very interested but when we had finished talking to him and were parting ways he kind of lingered like he wanted to keep talking. So, he had to reschedule once but we met with him on Wednesday and we had an awesome lesson. He told us how he had put his faith on the backburner for a while and had recently begun trying to do the things to live his faith because he said that was when he was the happiest and then we stopped him. We told him how we don't believe in coincidences and had a great first lesson and he will be awesome for Elder Tubagus and Elder Mafile'o (my replacement) to continue to teach!
• We also had a great lesson with our investigator named Troy. We had him read 3 Nephi 11 and he understood it really well so we went over it and asked him how he felt about baptism and he said he felt good about it so we invited him and he accepted to be baptized on January 30th! He's great.
• We taught a guy who is from China and has been here for 4 months. His English name is Lockett. We taught him about Heavenly Father and it was awesome! He is the nicest guy. I'm excited for him. I think he will progress really well!
• We had a YSA Christmas dinner and white elephant on Friday night which was a lot of fun. I stole these aloe infused socks from Elder Tubagus and then taunted him with them the rest of the night, it was pretty funny. We stole the show because we brought some nerf guns we found in our apartment and they were the hot item. ha. The YSA are great. They are giving me a hard time since I'm going to WMU which is the rival of CMU. ha. 
• The BIG highlight of the week was Calie's baptism today. We had to work pretty hard to get it all set up and ready this morning and it turned out great. Her parents came up from the Detroit area, around a 2 hour drive. Her mom told us how she was really nervous for her to come to school and what kind of friends she would make. She said she is so grateful that she found us and that we were able to take that burden from them. It was really cool. I got to speak on baptism. I spoke on the role that Justin (the one who baptized her), Calie, and Jesus Christ play in her baptism, it went well. The whole service was great and President and Sister Jacobsen were there, it was just great! 

There was also some funny things that happened this week that I have to share:

• We were doing our weekly car fast on Tuesday and on our way to campus we saw these two Asian ladies and as we got closer we could tell they were speaking Chinese to each other. We said hi to them and when they saw Elder Tubagus they both got super excited and started speaking Chinese to him so he had to say, "No, no, I'm Indonesian." It was super funny. We laughed about it for a while. 
• Another funny thing is that there is a room next to the library with a lot of art in it where students always go to study and we saw one of our investigators sleeping in there. We laughed about it and then it was about 4 hours later when we walked past again, and she was still sleeping! We saw her phone on her lap so we decided to text her and see our text on her phone, so we did, and she woke up, and I said, "Oh shoot, she woke up, let's get going!" So we hurried outside, it was pretty funny.

I'm sad to be leaving CMU but again excited for what the future holds and to learn what the Lord has in store for me in Kalamazoo and become who the Lord wants me to become while I serve Him there. I love the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us and I also love the quote, "Growth can't be achieved without change". It's through the changes that occur in our life that we can grow. It doesn't have to be because of our situation or circumstance that we are forced to experience change, it can be because we take the initiative and desire to grow. That is what repentance is for; it's so we can become who Heavenly Father wants us to become. I'm grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and for how it enables us to become more and in turn experience more happiness, joy, and direction in our lives. As we utilize the atonement of Jesus Christ we will never plateau in life; we can continue to enjoy all that our Father wants us to enjoy.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

P.s. My new address will be 4449 Hemmingway Dr. Kalamazoo, MI 49009

Midland Nativity Exhibit

Keith Walma, one of my favorites

Taylor Hill (our investigator, not Jonny's high school friend)

Calie's baptism

5 WEEKS OF ELDER CHALMERSES LETTERS AND PICS

ANOTHER GREAT WEEK IN MT. PLEASANT                                                                12/5/15

Elder Tubagus and I had a great week. I was just asking him if anything crazy or different happened this week and we couldn't really think of anything, other than we got Calie and Mariah to take us to the campus dining places two days in a row. :) And we also had MLC in Lansing on Tuesday. We were able to teach a lot of lessons and meet a lot of really cool people in our work this past week. I say nothing crazy or different happened, but that doesn't mean that it was a boring week. It was a super great week and we had a blast. 

Monday was an awesome day for us. We taught 5 lessons and were able to get members to every single one of them! 

Tuesday we had MLC in Lansing. It was a great meeting. We spent a lot of time talking about goals and how we can improve in working for them and setting good and realistic goals as missionaries. It really inspired me to make goal setting much more of a matter of prayer and to be committed to the goals I set. It was great. After we got home we had a lesson and then we attended Institute.

Wednesday we attended district meeting in West Branch. It was a great meeting on how we can be more effective in working with less active members and how we need to remain purpose minded while we are with them. It was good to see all the missionaries, especially Elder Rapp, my boy, and Elder Blazzard, my fellow St. Georgian. :) We had dinner with Calie, Mariah and Mariah's roommate Mary, and also the Sisters. We talked to Mary after they all left and she is really cool. We met with a guy named Caleb and he is super cool. We met him on Thanksgiving and he asked us a ton of different questions, it was all over the place, but awesome. 

Thursday we car fasted. We walked to campus and taught a lesson then we spent a lot of time PC-ing which was great. We had a lesson with a guy who the Sister missionaries met named Bernard. He wanted to meet with the guys and we found out that is because he had compassion on the sisters and really wanted to tell us how wrong our church is. It started off nice but then he started going off on us so we told him our purpose and that we weren't there to argue and it ended fine. He talked a lot so we were going to have to cancel our lesson at CMU. We ended up asking him for a ride and he said "yes." It was pretty awkward and uncomfortable making small talk but we made it for the lesson! We had a good lesson with Audrey and then we talked Mariah and Calie into taking us to get food on campus again. :) It was sweet. We met a friend on one of our investigators at night, it was cool. We then ran home from campus so we could text our miles to the Assistants before 9. We were pouring sweat, but we made it! ha.

Friday we had some good lessons and a lot of great time spent finding. We have had a lot of success using the new "A Savior is Born" cards and we've been trying to hand out as many as we can. 

Today we will be going to the Midland Nativity Exhibit at the Stake Center in Midland. It is a big community display of over 700 different nativity scenes so we're really excited for it!

In my studies, I've been studying a single verse, it's Helaman 15:8 - "Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free." I find it very reassuring to know that as we are obedient and true to what we know to be true, that is where we can find true freedom from the chains that accompany sin. True freedom comes from strict obedience, at face value that doesn't make sense, but from a correct understanding, it's as clear as can be!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

MLC

The Sister Training Leaders we work with

A true statement!

THANKSGIVING WEEK!                                                                                         11/28/15

This was a great week in Central Michigan! Beginning Wednesday at 5, CMU campus was shut down for the rest of the week, so we weren't able to teach as many of our investigators, but we had packed days of teaching on Monday and Tuesday so we were able to make it work. However, I was not in our area on Tuesday, I spent Tuesday in Bad Axe, MI which is is the Thumb of the Mitten. There were so many things to be thankful for this week. It's a great time to be a missionary. 

Monday we had a great day. We taught a guy named Troy and he accepted the invitation to be baptized, but is hesitant on setting a date. He's really cool. He feels like he lost his faith at college and didn't want to. He really wants to get it back. We also had a great lesson with a girl named Taylor Hill. She is roommates with one of our top investigators, Ashley and they are super similar, it was a sweet lesson. Afterwards we had to drive the 2 hours out to Bad Axe. I got to be with Elder Stayner from Mesa, AZ. He has been out for about 3 months and is super fun to be around. We saw a less active family who were really welcoming at first, but then the husband went on a crazy rant about religion that then turned on us, so we left. It was crazy. Things are different in the Thumb of Michigan for sure!

Tuesday was a great day with Elder Stayner, again, he is a ton of fun and a really great missionary. We spent time door knocking in Bad Axe. We were walking across the street and this guy rolled down his window and called us over. He said he had met missionaries before and wanted to meet with us again. The Lord put us where we needed to be. We had a lesson with a lady named Kathryne and it was a good lesson, we had a member along and he took the kids and entertained them while we taught her so it wouldn't be crazy. We had dinner and scripture study class at night which was good. Elder Stayner and I had a lot of fun together and built a really great relationship. I've been "Stayned" hah. 

Wednesday: We had district meeting in Caro and it was really good. As we were driving home, I realized I had forgotten my journal so we had to meet the Bad Axe Elders and get it which added to our travel time which made a lot of time in the car for us. We did get to teach Keith, which was fun as always. We also had a couple of awesome miracles with talking to people on campus. It was all shut down, but we felt like we should walk around and we met some awesome people, probably the only other people on campus!

Thursday. It was a great Thanksgiving, we did some intense cardio of jump rope, running, and sparring, so we could eat a lot of food. We spent the beginning of the day proselyting. We walked to campus and talked to people on the way and people around there. It was great. We met one guy especially who was awesome, named Caleb, whom we taught all about the Book of Mormon and he was really into it! We're teaching him next week. We had dinner at the Harrast's. It was so good. She is a super awesome cook and everything was amazing. I ate a lot of food. We then spent some time talking and socializing with them. They are a great family. After that, we had another meal appointment with the Thornock's. He is in his 2nd year of Medical school. It was a simple meal, and it was really good. I had already eaten so much and then after the meal, I was super full, they had cheesecake and ice cream! By some miracle, I was able to eat it real quick then I hit a brick wall. I thought for sure I was going to throw up. I was in so much pain, but we were able to share a message and make it home. I had to lie down. I was glazed, it was horrible...

Friday: I was all better from my feast(s) yesterday. We were able to have a few great lessons today. We got to see Bro. Nelson, whom we hadn't seen him in a while. He asked us to take all of his soda cans and bottles to get recycled, since you get 10 cents for each in Michigan and to have us donate it to the scouts. He had $75 worth of cans, it was crazy! We also had a lesson with Keith and then Jonathan Riggs. We read from the Book of Mormon with him and did some service for him around his house since he barely has use of his arms. We had dinner with the Spencer's and had a great message. They have some kids who are struggling with a testimony and a 17 year old son, so they asked us what they can do to help him prepare for a mission. It was a great opportunity to help them. 

Today we have studied and we cut each others hair. Poor Elder Tubagus got the bad end of the deal. I may have taken a chunk out of his hair that he didn't want to lose. :) It was fun though. We have a few meal appointments today, so it should be good.

I'm thankful for so many things: a loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ my Savior, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the Gospel, my family, my mission, and all the things that have come from it, the list goes on and on. Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy came to our mission and taught us how gratitude is the antidote for pride. I know that through expressing gratitude to others and to our Heavenly Father daily in prayer we will be able to see many more blessings in our lives. 

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Morning run

Haircut: courtesy of Elder Tubagus

Recycling

CMU

THE SNOW HAS ARRIVED!                                                                                               11/21/15

Today is the first day of snow here in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and so far it is sticking pretty well. It's good to see snow (I probably won't be saying that for much longer). This has been a busy and great week here at CMU. It seemed to just fly by.

We had some great teaching opportunities this week and have some super amazing people that we are blessed to be able to teach.

• I believe I've mentioned her before, but we are teaching a girl named Amber and she is super cool. She is a member of a Baptist church in Midland and is super open and prepared to hear the restored gospel. She is a pre-med student so she is pretty busy with stuff. We met with her first on Tuesday and she was pretty stressed with school. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and taught her more about what it is. By the end of the lesson she was intellectually and logically converted to the Book of Mormon. She was asking us why other people don't believe it?! We then met with her again yesterday and we taught her about the baptismal covenant and she is very open to be baptized as she comes to know what we teach is true. She just needs to get reading the Book of Mormon which she committed to do so we're excited for her progress. She is really cool and we've been able to build a strong relationship with her!
• We also teach a girl named Ashley. She is awesome. She really wants to learn the gospel and when we give her assignments of things to do or read, she does it and really tries to understand. She was taught on trade-offs so when I came back and asked her what she learned of the Plan of Salvatio, she taught it to me like a pro, it was super impressive. She really loves to meet with us as well. We PC-ed into her roommate (who we are meeting with next week. :)) and she told us how Ashley is always super pumped after she meets with us and loves what she is learning. Her roommate is super excited to meet with us as well! It was a miracle. 
• We picked up three new people to teach this past week. One of them is named Nikki and we re-PC-ed into her this week. I had met her, but I didn't really remember when. But when we met with her it all clicked. We met her at the beginning of September during the first week of school and it has taken a month and a half, but we had a super great first lesson with her. We also met with a guy named Troy, who said he wanted to meet with us out of curiosity and also he didn't want to lose his faith at college, but he kind of ha, and wants to get it back. I was struck by his sincerity and we're excited for him. 

The other teaching opportunity we had this week was we had a Zone Training. This is only my third one that I've had on my mission. Usually we do Zone Conference but in those, the way our mission does it is we do it as half the mission. In a Zone Training it's just your Zone and we do the training. So Elder Tubagus and I, and also the Sister Training Leaders all trained. I was stressing preparing my training. I was assigned to train on the Blessings of Obedience. I couldn't quite formulate my thoughts. It was on Wednesday and so on Tuesday night I was working more on it when President Jacobsen texted us and asked us where we would be holding our meeting, so that added more stress to us both. :) ha. I woke up early on Wednesday and finished preparing my training and it went really well. President told us that it was "outstanding" so that was great to hear.

My training will be my spiritual thought. I began by having all of the missionaries pair up and come up with what they thought our #1 reason for serving a mission is. I then had people share and got a few different answers: invite other to come unto Christ, it's a priesthood duty, because we love God... The answer that I built my training around and something that President Jacobsen has taught, is that the purpose we serve a mission is so that we can become personally converted to the Gospel and be able to go home and raise a righteous posterity and be forever faithful members of Christ's church. I then read a story about an Emperor, a boy named Ling, and a seed that goes as follows:  

A storybook emperor called all the young people in his kingdom together one day. He said, “It has come time for me to step down and to choose the next emperor. It will be one of you. In making that selection, I am going to give each one of you a seed today. Come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed." A young boy named Ling was in the crowd of children. He went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil. He planted the seed given him. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his pot, but nothing ever grew in it. Eventually all the others were talking about their plants. Ling was apparently the only failure. Everyone else spoke of small trees and tall plants, but he had nothing.

Finally a year went by, and all the youths brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But she encouraged him to go, report how hard he had tried, and be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. Ling put his empty pot on the floor amidst beautiful plants and flowers of all shapes and sizes. When the emperor arrived, Ling tried to hide in the back of the room. But the emperor spotted Ling—empty pot and all. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front, where the leader said, “Behold your new emperor!” To a now very quiet audience, the older man said, “One year ago today I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. Yet all of you, except one, have brought me magnificent trees and plants and flowers. Obviously, when you found that the seed I gave you would not grow, you substituted another. Apparently only one young man among you had the integrity to abide by the rules I gave you. I can trust him to take my place and lead my people.”

I related that to us, by having one of the Elders read his call letter and in there it says how we are expected to keep the commandments, live mission rules, and follow the counsel of our Mission President. So in speaking of obedience, nobody is asking you to do anything that you didn't already agree to do, all that is left to be determined is if we have the integrity to live true to our word much like Ling, and he was made emperor, and Heavenly Father wants us to inherit His glory. As is stated in D&C 25:15 - "Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive." I then tried to help the missionaries look at obedience with an eternal perspective, instead of an 18 or 24 month perspective, because if we can't learn to be obedient now, we most likely won't later in life. And how life is all about change and by choosing to be obedient, we can experience a true change of nature, from natural man to Saint (Mosiah 3:19). It went well. 

I love my mission and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. 

Love,

Elder Chalmers

The Midland Zone

Today, it's snowing!

DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!                                                                              11/14/15

Another amazing week has passed here in the Mitten that is Michigan. Things are going Great! Our area of CMU is on fire (Fire Up Chips!), the Lord is sending miracles my way and I couldn't be happier. And as always, the church is true and is led by living prophets and apostles today!

We had a great and busy week. We had Stake Conference this past Saturday and Sunday and I got to see a ton of old friends from Midland (Curt Cormier is looking as good as ever and Joe Booth and I took our first ever selfie together. :)). There were a lot of great talks given. The Patriarch said something in his talk that I really liked, he said how we all want to hear the Lord say to us, "Well done thou good and faithful servant..." He shared the insight that the work "done" implies and requires a lot of doing and that in order to do that, we need to continue to live faithful and work hard in our lives. It was a great conference.

We also had MLC this Tuesday in Lansing. It was great. President Jacobsen spent most of the time talking to us and preparing us to answer questions about the Church's update in its policy. (He made sure we understood it was not a change to policy, more of an update or clarification) it was really cool though. During it all, he continued to say that we will never be the dominant religion, because we "ask too much" (he uses it in a way that implies that is what others think) and to close his remarks he said, "if the church wasn't true, nobody would care." It was awesome. MLC is always a great time and always has great discussion. On our way back we traded off with the Ithaca Elders and I got to be with Elder Smith at CMU. He is so awesome.

I spent most of the day on Wednesday with Elder Smith. We had district meetin and he did a great job, then we had some great lessons. We taught Calie and she's getting ready for her birthday/baptism coming up on December 12th! We also taught Aaron, he's working for baptism on December 5th, it's really exciting. We got to see Keith Walma which is always fun. We had a great lesson with Amber, we finished up the Restoration and she asked us what it meant for her baptism, since she had a good understanding of the Priesthood, I began to answer, and then our member Audi jumped right in (Audi was baptized about a year ago) and she explained how she had the same concern and how her previous "baptism" was one of the best things that happened to her in helping her to take her faith in Christ seriously, Amber was loving it so we invited her to be baptized and she is going to be reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know. She is super prepared and really wants to know what the Lord wants her to do, it's awesome.

We also had a great lesson this week with Ashley, she is doing great. Working for baptism on the 12th of December as well. Our lesson was great. We had Tyler and Audi with us (Tyler got home from his mission to Brazil about 2 months ago, and he and Audi are engaged). Ashley had read the Restoration pamphlet and understood it super well, we were all blown away, she was super into it and then she took over and was asking us questions about how the Gift of the Holy Ghost has blessed us. It was a powerful lesson, she's so cool.

We also had a great meeting with the Stake Presidency and the Mission Leaders in all the wards and branches this week. It was a really inspired meeting and we all came away with great direction on the work in the Midland Stake. President Hoover then talked to us and the Sisters after. He talked about how prayer is central to missionary work and how we need to be constantly praying to baptize and the difference of us baptizing 1 or 20 people on our mission is agency. He's so great.

I got to spend all day Friday in Midland on trade-offs with Elder Tindall. He's from Layton, UT and is amazing at the piano, like incredible. He's a hard worker. We were on bikes all day and we tried by some people and then had lunch with the Jones family, which was great as usual! I love getting to see them, they are like my Michigan parents. :) We spent the day door knocking and we had a ton of success. We knocked on this one door and the guy said, "I know you!" His name is Dean and I door knocked in to him about a year ago, we had even taught him a few times. He is a little less accountable and we ended up teaching him and his staff member the Restoration and it was a great lesson. They are teaching them again tomorrow. It was another realization of why I'm serving in Mt. Pleasant. I get to go back to Midland,= and the Lord puts me where he needs me!

I'm out of time for today but if any of you happen to be worrying about me or anything like that... DON'T! I'm as happy as I've ever been and I love being a missionary in the Michigan Lansing Mission. There is no greater cause than the salvation of souls!

Love,
Elder Chalmers

The senior couple who came out with me are going home.

Elder Tubagus is the man!

TEACHING TIME WITH ELDER TUBAGUS                                                                    11/7/15
First things first, my new companion Elder Tubagus is great. He's from Anaheim, CA. He's been on his mission for about 14 months, is Indonesian and he's a great missionary and a great companion. We had a great first week together. We taught more this week than I ever have on my mission, saw many miracles, and we were able to have the Spirit with us. 

Elder Tubagus arrived in Mt. Pleasant on Monday and we got done the necessary things (e-mail & shop) before we got to work. We had a cool experience that night. We met with this girl we had met on campus a few weeks ago and she brought along her pastor/evangelist friend. We had a really pleasant conversation and it was really interesting how his point of disagreement with us was that our Prophet and Apostles aren't "homeless" and leaving everything behind and relying completely on others for food, shelter, and the necessities. It was a very interesting theory but we all left uplifted by the experience, it was really cool. Then we went to try by one of our new investigators and he was really drunk. It was really sad to see. When we had previously met him, he had shared how he was six days sober and working at quitting, so to catch him in those circumstances, it was really sad, so we said a prayer with him before we left. 

The rest of the week consisted of a lot of teaching appointments and a trade off with the Saginaw Elders. I stayed in Mt. Pleasant with Elder Hoover, who I served around when I was in Kalkaska and he has in Cadillac.

We had an especially great day on Tuesday. We had three lessons right in a row with Nate (He got his mission call to Houston, TX leaving Jan. 13). They were all great lessons, especially with a girl named Amber. She is a senior and a pre-med student. She is really open to learn about the Book of Mormon. She has a great attitude about it. She has the belief of, "Why wouldn't God give us more scripture?" We taught her twice this past week, and we taught her the Restoration and it went awesome. She is super cool. She talked about how people always tell her to give her troubles over to God, so we shared with her Alma 7:11-15 and how it teaches of Christ's Atonement and that we can give it all over to Him, and it's really cool how the few verses after that, Alma teaches us that we need to have faith in Christ, repent, and witness to God by being baptized and making a covenant with Him. It was really a cool experience. It was one of those times that the Spirit teaches you as you are teaching someone. I had never previously thought to use those scriptures in that way! 

We had a very similar lesson with a girl named Ashley, she is super cool! She is awesome to teach because she is really relaxed around us and we are able to have more gospel conversation, compared to lessons. She committed to be baptized!

We also found an investigator who is an athiest. He is a really nice guy and our lesson with him was really cool. We asked him a lot of different questions about what he believes or I guess what he doesn't believe in. He was really open and what we gathered is that his parents are Christian but he doesn't have a good relationship with them, so that was a catalyst of sorts to his unbelief. We read part of Alma 32 with him and invited him to try the experiment as stated in verse 27, and he was very open to it (we use the "experiment" analogy a lot on campus).

The last experience I'll share happened last night. We had a lesson with an investigator and it wasn't that solid of a lesson. We were doing some planning and work in our area book, and I got a prompting telling me that we needed to leave to his house right away so we acted. It was our car fast day so we walked over to his apartment (it's really close to us) and knocked on his door, as we did, one of our former investigators came walking down the stairs with his laundry so we chatted with him and we set a return appointment with him. The guy we came to see wasn't home, so we started walking home feeling accomplished and then ran into another guy outside and set a return appointment with him as well. It was a great witness of the blessings that come from following spiritual promptings. 

In my scripture study, I've been learning about Samuel the Lamanite in Helaman 14. In verse13 it says, "And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins..." I love how this teaches that faith in Christ and repentance are inseparable. When we have true faith in the Savior it will always lead to action, acting to bring our lives in closer harmony with His and that in itself is another way to define repentance, so they always go together. It was some really great revelation that I had this week. 

Things are going great at CMU and we are having a blast teaching and spending time with the students here. I love the Mt. Pleasant ward and I love CMU. Fire up Chips!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Elder Tubagus!

The old Mt. Pleasant crew