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