"Fire Up Chips" & Birthday in Midland 2.0

FIRE UP CHIPS!                                                                                                                         10-17-15
The reason for the title of "Fire Up Chips!" is that this week especially we spent a ton of time on campus, we only had one trade-off, which was with the Elders in West Branch, so I got to be with my fellow St. Georgian, Elder Blazzard at CMU for a day, which was a blast. We were able to get a lot of work done and see a lot of great blessings from the Lord!

• This Monday we were able to teach a guy named Cody J. He was in the Navy for 4 years, and now he's going to school. We met him a few weeks ago and had a great talk with him. He was about to give us his number, but then decided not to so on trade-offs Elder Haddock ran into him again and had another good talk with him. So later that day, Elder Haddock found a phone in the bathroom of the library and called a number on it, the guy said it was his brother's phone, so they explained what the person looked like and where to find him. Elder Haddock asked, "Is his name Cody?" and they said yes. So Elder Haddock found him, and gave him his phone. He said he doesn't believe in coincidences, so we got to meet with him. We focused a lot on the Book of Mormon, and it was powerful. He said, and I quote, "I've been saved, but I feel like something is still missing. I think this (pointing to the Book of Mormon) might be it." It was so cool. He is super humble and we're super excited about him!
• I got to be on trade-offs with Elder Izaic Blazzard at CMU for all of Tuesday. It was a lot of fun having, what I referred to Elder Haddock as "St. George talk." ha. He's doing really good and I was really impressed by how well he could talk to people, especially with how long he's been out. The missionaries that come out are more and more prepared! It was a really fun day, I really enjoyed it.
• We had some other great lessons this week. We met with Bianca again. We had Audi with us, she was baptized like a year ago, and was great to have along. She had some great questions and we had Audi teach the First Vision and Bianca had a huge smile on her face. She's coming to church on Sunday! We also picked up a new investigator named Alexis, who is super genuine. We picked up quite a few new people this week!
• We have been doing a ton of personal contacting on campus and it's been so great. We've developed great unity and we see a ton of success from it. I love it so much!

I'm out of time, but my spiritual thought/experience comes from an e-mail I sent to my Grandpa Green. He and my Grandma are doing amazing things in Germany and they are inspiring me so much, just as my sister and Grandma and Grandpa Chalmers did on their missions. 

I had a similar experience this week. I studied in Helaman 13:1-4 how Samuel the Lamanite was told to return to Zarahemla and preach whatever was put into his heart so he goes, and the people won't let him in, so he gets on the wall and preaches. I learned that the Lord will direct us but we still need to be the ones who make stuff happen. So once a week we have a "car fast" where we don't use our mission vehicles. We were walking to CMU capmus and we were in a time crunch but we walked by the house of one of our neighbors and felt really prompted to stop and talk to him, but kept walking, the feeling persisted so we knocked on his door. We had a great conversation with him and he even asked us if we had been driving a lot lately so we told him how we aren't using our car today. We then left and about 5 min. later, my companion said, "We should have asked him for a ride..." Then we realized why we were prompted to stop at his house... The Lord directed us where we needed to be but we didn't do our part and make it happen. I sure wish we had, but looking at it in hindsight, it was a really cool experience.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Elder Chalmers and Elder Haddock caricatures

Trade-offs with fellow St. Georgian, Izaic Blazzard

BIRTHDAY IN MIDLAND 2.0                                                                                                      10-10-15
Thank you everyone for the Birthday wishes and gifts. I really am so grateful for how much support I get from each of you, it makes a big difference in my life and in helping me to continue to do my best in serving the Lord.

We had a very eventful week and stayed super busy with all of the things we were able to do...

• On Tuesday we had MLC in Lansing which usually includes just the Assistants, Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders with President and Sister Jacobsen, however this time all of the District Leaders were there as well. We had some really good trainings and discussions about effective leadership and other topics. I got to see a few past companions there which was a lot of fun. President Jacobsen made a joke about having me "chalm in" so I've been getting teased about that a lot. hah. I learned a lot, especially  about how important it is that you have charity for those that you lead and serve. One thing that Elder Stevenson said in his press conference was, "We lead by serving, not serve by leading" and that really stuck with me a lot.
• Wednesday we had district meeting in Midland and then I was on trade-offs with Elder Jackson in Midland. It was a really cool day. We got to do some work at the Tridge which I always love. We were about to leave, but when we got to the car, felt like we should stay. We met a guy named Ben who was interested and we set a time to see him, that was a great experience with following the Spirit. We tried by a few people that I used to teach or had met while I was there, and they were really positive. :) On our way home to eat dinner we passed a guy who was working in his yard, so we got home and walked over to talk to him. He was super cool and told us how he had been at his friend's funeral that day. We had a great discussion and set a return appointment! It was a great day and the Spirit really led and guided us in all we did.
• Thursday was my Birthday! It went great. I got to see the Shocknesse family. We talked about the temple, and I had the opportunity to give John a blessing, his health isn't great. That was a great experience. John and Jan Marcou had us over for lunch and cake. It was great to see them again. They are so good to me. :) We got a chance to do some door knocking and met some really cool people and had some great success. We also got to see Blake and Joe. I love Midland. :) We traded back and headed over to the church where we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency, some of the high counselors, and also President Jacobsen and President Hoover. We presented some data we had compiled on missionary work in the Midland Stake. It was an awesome meeting, the Spirit was super strong and it was awesome to be a part of all of the revelation and direction that was received in that meeting, it was super great. Afterwards we drove home and planned. And I ate more sugar that night than I think that I have ever eaten in my life. It was a very poor decision (never use your birthday to justify....). :) I really had a great birthday and getting to spend it in Midland for the second year in a row was really special.
• Friday Elder Haddock and I got to work our area together! :) It had been a while. We were walking to campus but never got very far as we met a ton of really cool people and had some great experiences. We also had a great lesson with Gareth. He's making a lot of great progress. 
• Today we went to Wyoming, MI for a baptism of one of Elder Haddock's former investigators. I'm glad that he was able to make it to that.

I'm really grateful to be a full time servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessing that comes from realizing that. In a recent study of the Pride Cycle (Helaman 12:2-6) I learned a lot about making sure I remain grateful for all of the blessings that the Lord gives to me because when we forget Him is when we see our lives take a turn for the worse. I know that through gratitude and always remembering the Lord we can find true success and lasting happiness in this life and the next. Alma 36:1&30

Love,

Elder Chalmers

The one and only Joe Booth

Lunch with the awesome Marcou's

Me and the amazingly wonderful Shocknesse's

Trade Offs and General Conference

Oct. 5, 2015

This past week can be summarized by Trade-offs and General Conference. It was a great week to be a missionary and a great week to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

The early part of this past week was crazy, actually this entire week leading up to General Conference was crazy. We did trade-offs with the Assistants (I was at MSU with Elder Norton), Bad Axe (with Elder Johnson) and Saginaw (at CMU with Elder Stewart) which took us from Monday to Friday night. At the end of it all, Elder Haddock and I had to re-introduce ourselves to each other! It was a lot of fun!

Monday: It was a great day. Elder Haddock and I spent most of our day personal contacting on campus. Our days vary so much here at CMU since it's a college campus. On a given day we have about 5 lessons scheduled but since we are dealing with college students only a few of those lessons tend to actually happen. All but one of our lessons fell through but we met a lot of really cool people. Last week Elder Reese and I met this guy who when we talked to him, told us that he, "gets down with Jesus" so we asked him what that meant and he said, "you know, getting down with Jesus." So we asked him why that was important and we made him feel a little stupid since he was being obnoxious. But I've seen him like 5 more times around campus so we were walking with this girl and he was walking the other way, so I peeled off and pretty much told him that we have seen each other so many times we need to meet up. He agreed. :) (Elder Haddock taught him twice on trade-offs while I was gone. He'd just looked up anti-mormon material and Elder Haddock broke his testimony of the Trinity using John 17).  We had a great lesson with Calie, she is doing super great. She is now in the Book of Mormon so we read a chapter with her and had a great discussion about the pride cycle and repentance! After that I drove down to Lansing with Elder Norton.

Tuesday: It was a fun day personal contacting on Michigan State's campus. We met some really cool people. We had a great discussion about how to be effective in finding. Also, how when offering correction we can't just tell people to stop doing something, we need to help them know what to change. You can't replace something with nothing. We spent some time in the mission office talking with President Jacobsen. We got to teach a recent convert and then we drove to MT.P to trade back. Elder Haddock and I then taught Keith, which was a lot of fun,and also got to see Melvin. He's super funny.

Wednesday: We had district meeting in Caro. We reviewed our training with Elder Andersen of the second quorum of the Seventy. It was really good. We went to a buffet for lunch and that was bad news because I ate way too much. I went with Elder Johnson to Bad Axe (The Thumb). We spent our day door knocking in Harbor Beach and I got to see my first lighthouse during 16 months so far in Michigan, it was pretty sweet. We then went out with the Elders Quorum pres. It was pretty good. I love being with Elder Johnson. We get along really well.

Thursday: I ate way too much for lunch today, so I felt super sick but once we got out and were working it was all good. :) A cool experience from today was when the mailwoman walked past us on the street. I wanted to talk to her but was apprehensive. So I just said hi but as she was walking away the Spirit reproved me and told me I had to talk to her, so I mustered up my courage and put my faith in the Lord and started walking after her. We ended up having a great conversation and getting her info! I love the Gift of the Holy Ghost! Elder Haddock came and got me and we drove to Saginaw and I picked up Elder Stewart and we headed back to MT.P.

Friday: Today we did quite a bit of finding on campus which was really fun. I love getting to talk to college students. We got to teach a lesson to Gareth Elder, we had dropped him, but we Facebook messaged him and were able to meet up again after over a month, so that was a huge miracle! :) It went really well. We had Nate Byrd with us and he is super solid then at night we traded back.

Saturday: Lots of General Conference! It was so great to be able to be instructed by the Lord's chosen servants, I loved it. It was also really cool to be able to see the three new apostles who have been called. They will all be amazing in their calling. We had a little hot dog grill out before Priesthood session which was fun. I loved Elder Andersen's talk on faith, it was probably my favorite.

Sunday: Today we had breakfast at the Hammer's with the YSA's and watched the morning session of conference there. We had call-ins, watched more conference, and then more call-ins. It was a great Sunday. :)

I've been contemplating a lot about faith this past week and how I can come to the point where I can surrender my will to God's. I realize that it is a lifetime pursuit, that hopefully we all are on. As I watched conference, I really tried to look for how I can trust in the Lord in all that I do and especially in His timing with how things transpire in our lives. I loved Elder Andersen's talk for that reason. A few quotes from his talk, "Faith does not fall upon us by chance nor stay with us by birthright. … The future of your faith is not by chance, but by choice.
How we live our lives increases or diminishes our faith.… There is an adversary who delights in destroying our faith! Be relentless in protecting your faith."
By living righteously we can increase our faith and our trust in the Lord. Faith is nothing more than personal righteousness. Keep the Commandments, that is what President Monson taught in this past conference and that is the key to a happy life and eternal joy.

I love my mission. This is the Lord's work, it must be done in his way!

Love,
Elder Chalmers

The lighthouse

Gotta love doing call-ins!

SEPT. 26, 2015
This past week has been awesome! I love my new companion, Elder Haddock. He is from Grantsville, UT originally and is an awesome missionary, as good as they come! We had an awesome week working on campus at CMU. We were blessed with perfect weather and amazing experiences in finding and teaching. We spent pretty much all of our time on campus. We've slowly made the transition to spending as much time on campus as we can. The Lord really prepared us for this, right before school started, and at the beginning of the semester, a lot of our investigators started to lose interest and we weren't finding as many people to teach as we would have liked to, but we know that he was freeing up our schedule so that we could focus out time and attention on the young adult students on campus at CMU.

Elder Elmer left on Monday. He was packing until the last minute, but it was all successful. We got to experience a peanut butter creme filled long john from Robaire's together on his last day, a fitting way to end our companionship. I'm really grateful for all that I was able to learn from serving with him. He really helped me to be better at being organized and how to be a Christlike leader. He set a great and mature example for what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and I'm grateful to him for that. He is opening an area that was previously shutdown and he will do awesome things.

I was a little nervous to be serving with Elder Haddock. I came out with him and really didn't know him very well. We've had very few and brief interactions during our missions and I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, as I said, he is awesome. We get along really well. He goes running with me in the morning and we work well together. We are going to do great things together.

We had some amazing lessons this past week. Let me start with telling you about Sylvia. Elder Elmer and I found her on campus. She was the one whose number we thought that we hadn't written down the last 4 digits of, so we chased her down and it turned out we did write it down. So, our first lesson with her was great, the Spirit was really strong and whenever we would ask her if she felt the Spirit, she would get a big smile on her face and say, "yes." We taught her how she could have that feeling with her always if she gets baptized and we set a day for November 7th! She is super shy and quiet, but so nice, and also prepared! So that was with Elder Elmer. Elder Haddock and I taught her on Tuesday. The lesson was great. We taught her the Restoration and it all made sense to her. She even said that November 7th felt like the "perfect day" to be baptized! We invited her to church and she said that she had already decided to come with her friend Josh who met with the missionaries last year. We again taught her on Thursday and the Spirit was super strong. We taught her about covenants and read 1 Nephi 2 with her, since she had read chapter 1. She really liked 1 Nephi 2:16 where Nephi did "cry" unto the Lord. We taught about prayer and invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon. She said she already had and believes it is true! WOW! She attended a YSA activity in Midland yesterday and we're expecting her at church on Sunday! We also had some other great lessons with some awesome people. We are really focusing on teaching people about covenants to give them something tangible to associate with the gospel and so far we've found a lot of success with it.

Elder Haddock is the best teacher I've ever seen! It's so great to get to be his companion and teach with him. He is great at using the scriptures and teaching to people's needs. The Spirit is always so strong whenever he speaks. I look forward to learning a lot from him in our time together! Again, I love being his companion.

I got to go on a companion exchange with Elder Reese. He's from Logan, UT. He is really new and is the man. He is so full of energy and we had a blast on our exchange. We have pretty much the same interests in everything and we only spent a day together and I want to be his best friend. :) The new missionaries coming out are so prepared! It's truly amazing to see the work is going to keep moving forward. “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

This is the Lord's work and the only way to do it is His way. I've been studying Helman 11 for the past month of so. It's a great example of how sin can lead to addiction. The end of the chapter (verse 24 to the end) talks about how the Gadianton Robbers return. It all begins slowly and then they begin to take over and cause havoc. We learn the moral of the story in verse 34, "Now this great evil, which came unto the people because of their iniquity, did stir them up again in remembrance of the Lord their God." The people did not rely on the strength of the Lord to destroy the Gadianton Robbers, but only their own. It was insufficient. In our lives, the strength that each of us personally has is insufficient to conquer the "Gadianton Robbers" or the natural man tendencies in our own lives. But if we rely on the Lord, is we rely on His strength, we can through our obedience and faith overcome any obstacle. Again, it's only in the Lord's way. Faith is nothing more than personal righteousness. No matter what, never lose hope, you are a child of God and he will help you!

Love,
Elder Chalmers

Keith!

Campus Life!

Celestial Week                                                  9/19/15

I was trying to think of what to title this e-mail, there were so many amazing things that happened this week that Celestial seems like a good word to describe it. The highlights of the week go as follows: Mariah Shocknesse was baptized, we had Elder Wilford W. Andersen came to our mission, and campus is picking up and starting to catch fire! Another event was transfer calls, but I wouldn't necessarily consider that Celestial...change isn't always the easiest thing...

Mariah Shocknesse's Baptism:

• I received permission to go to Mariah's baptism on Sunday. We made it work so that after Elder Elmer and I did our Sunday call-ins, we drove up to Houghton Lake and Elder Rapp and I got a ride from a member down to Midland. It was great to be with Elder Rapp and go to Midland. We arrived at the Midland building and were in the chapel. John was the first one to walk in and when he saw us he said, "Oh my gosh!" He gave each of us a hug and what added to it was John's parents were both there! I have never met them before but John said to them, "These are the original missionaries." John's parents both hugged us and thanked up for "saving John's life." Then Karolyn walked in and when she saw me she freaked out. She ran up to me and gave me a big hug (it wasn't possible to stop her). It was one of the most precious moments I've ever had in my life. We were standing there and Karolyn and John's mom was crying and John was choking up. I love their family so much and they mean the world to me. I'm so happy I was able to be there to see John baptize his daughter. That is what it's all about, having them get closer to being sealed forever as a family. I often think of the scripture in Alma 27:4 that says, "Now when Ammon and his brethren saw this work of destruction among those whom they so dearly beloved, and among those who had so dearly beloved them—for they were treated as though they were angels sent from God to save them from everlasting destruction—therefore, when Ammon and his brethren saw this great work of destruction, they were moved with compassion." When I'm around the Shocknesse family, I really do feel like I'm treated like an angel. I love them so much. Every experience I've had with them has forever changed my life. 

Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Second Quorum of the Seventy:

• I got the privilege of getting to hear from Elder Andersen twice. On Monday we drove down to Kalamazoo and the Assistants, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders got to hear from Elder Andersen. We first did Zone reports and then he took the rest of the time. He taught us about how it's unwise to lower ourselves to get on the level of those we teach, such as when they are struggling with something that we have also struggled with, we shouldn't tell them about all of our past sins. He, as well as President Jacobsen, taught that it's important to be who you are now so they have someone to look up to and an example to follow, not to lower yourself to their level. He also taught us that the way out of the pride cycle is to be grateful. He had a few cool quotes about how faith is a principle of action. He said, "it takes a certain level of faith to try, it takes another level of faith to do. It takes a certain level of faith to register, it takes another level of faith to graduate." Also, "We can't expect the Lord to guide our footsteps, unless we move our feet." He then taught us an amazing leadership principle of how to truly lead with power. He shared a few experiences about his dad. He told us that his father would rarely say yes or no. When they would ask him if they could do something he'd ask a few questions to find out more then if he didn't agree, he would say, "I wouldn't do it..." Elder Andersen said that they all respected their dad so much that if he wouldn't do it, then they wouldn't dare do it either. He then shared about when his dad passed away. He had some disease where his nerves or something degenerated and before he died he was powerless. They were all gathered around him in the hospital and he shared how all of his siblings were trying to do all kinds of things for him. He then taught that his father was the most powerless man alive at that point, but he could have had whatever he wanted. D&C 121 teaches us how to achieve this through - "only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge....The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." It was so awesome!   
• We then had a half mission conference where he spoke to us again. One of the highlights of that was how he talked about how there are different ways to "know" something. He differentiated between head knowledge, heart knowledge, and soul knowledge. Head knowledge comes through learning, heart knowledge comes from the Holy Ghost, and Soul knowledge comes from application and action. He compared soul knowledge to learning the piano, you have to practice. He taught us how we can help our investigators to gain all three kinds of knowledge. 

Campus is catching Fire. (Fire Up Chips!)

• Fire Up Chips is the slogan for cheering for CMU and I thought it sounded cool. We picked up six new investigators this week, they have all been solid first lessons and just so amazing. One of the coolest ones was Sylvia. She is super shy and we had a great first lesson. She had a friend give her a Book of Mormon. He had one from meeting with the missionaries last year. She'd read the introduction pages and had really liked it (she loves to read). We spent a lot of time identifying the Spirit and every time we would ask her she would smile and say that she felt it. It was incredible! She committed to be baptized on Nov. 7! We had Nathaniel Byrd who's preparing for his mission with us which made it that much better! He even went and PC-ed on campus with us. We had the most unorthodox conversations with him but it still went well. We talked to the first guy who was fairly anti-mormon and he was really straight forward. We met him and he almost immediately said that he wanted to discuss the doctrine of exaltation. He's met with the missionaries before, he was a nice guy and Nathaniel was a champ! 
• We also have new investigators named Bianca, Amy, Alura, Kaylan and Metab who is from Saudi Arabia. We met him at a coffee shop and he's one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He's Muslim and is super real. We had a great time with him.

Other:

• On our trip to Kalamazoo, we did a donut taste test. We first went to Robaire's and got some of our usuals. It is so good, like ridiculously good. Then we stopped in Battle Creek at a place called Sweetwater's Donut Mill. We've heard a lot of good things about it, including absurdities that it was better than Robaire's so we had to put it to the test. They had some really good donuts but you can't beat a peanut butter creme filled long john from Robaire's. :)
• We got our transfer calls on Thursday night. Elder Elmer is going to Dewitt and was released as a Zone Leader. My new companion is Elder Haddock. He's coming from Grand Rapids. We came out at the same time. I don't know much about him other than he's about 25 years old and he served with Elder Hess. I'm really sad that Elder Elmer is leaving. We've grown really close together, learned a lot from each other and had great experiences. He's awesome! The future should be bright. He left CMU with a bang!

I love my mission so much. It's great experience after great experience out here. I've never been so exhausted and busy in my life and I've never been happier. This is the Lord's work and He will never leave us when we are doing His work. He does strengthen us and make us so much more than we can ever make of ourselves. I feel his strength every day and you can too. Pray always and keep the commandments and you will grow revelation for revelation, knowledge for knowledge, grace for grace. He lives!

Love,

Elder Chalmers

The Shocknesse family

Joe Booth and Tracey (Joe was saying how he's going to beat me and my dad at golf. :))

Comp Suits!

Joe Booth and Tracey (Joe was saying how he's going to beat me and my dad at golf :))

Elder Rapp and me with the Shocknesse Family

Comp suits!

Robaire's is the best!

 The Holy Ghost...brings all things to your rememberance." John 14:26                         9/12/15                        

The weeks just seem to fly by... Things have been going great for me in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan serving on Central Michigan Univerisity campus. I love the work that I get to do each day and how rewarding and good I feel at the end of the day which outweighs any exhaustion I could ever experience. :) 

We've been spending almost all of our time on campus. We walk around and talk to as many people as we can and we've been having a blast with it. It's really fast paced since there are so many people so it's quite a bit different than knocking on doors, but it's awesome! We've picked up a few new students to teach and have a lot of other students we have talked to who are interested in meeting with us. We usually meet with people in the campus library. It's a really convenient place to meet up. 

One of our awesome investigators is Calie. She has been investigating for almost a year now. She is going to be baptized on December 12th, which is her birthday and has a lot of significance to her. She just got back to CMU. She lives in the Detroit area. She comes to church and attends all of the YSA activities during the week. She is really cool. We felt like we should get her into doing family history so we did that with her on Wednesday. It was really cool, she was able to go back a generation on one of her lines and it was actually really exciting! The Spirit of Elijah is for real! 

On Thursday, we had about a 15 minute window of awesome miracles. It all started with us talking to this girl named Sylvia. She was super nice and we exchanged information. After she walked away, Elder Elmer and I wrote some notes about her, like we usually do with people we meet, so we can remember them and as I asked Elder Elmer for her info (since I had been writing our info for her) he said, "I don't have the last 4 digits of her phone number, I guess I forgot to write it down..." which was really weird, but she wasn't walking too fast. We were able to track her down in the library. She was on a bench right outside the entrance to it so we got the rest of her number and then this girl approached us. She told us that she had seen us a few times recently and wanted to finally talk to us. She looked super familiar to me and then just like a lightbulb it all clicked. So I said, "Is your name Alexis?" She said, "Yeah." So the backstory to all of this goes as follows:

Alexis was taught for a while by the elders in the Midland 1st ward while I was in Midland. I remembered that I taught her on my very first trade-off (July 9th, 2015- blessing of keeping a journal:)). We also attended the Catholic Mass in Midland with her since she goes to the Catholic church. So we talked and then after a bit she said, "So do you guys want to meet up?" It was so awesome! The Spirit will bring all things to our remembrance when we need it. Then we were writing about her outside on the benches and we were talking to a super nice girl, Kavya from India, when another girl approached us, her name was Jordyn and she works for the campus newspaper and wanted to interview us. So we set it up for the following day. It was a crazy 15 minutes. It gets even better... As we were sitting there, Elder Elmer was looking in his planner and realized that we did have the last 4 digits of Sylvia's number but as he was transferring it to the back of his planner he had a stupor of thought, which led us to follow her and then Alexis saw us and approached us and so on. It was such a cool experience! :)

I love being a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is nothing I would rather be doing with my life right now and I love every second of it. I'm really grateful to my mom for making me promise to keep a journal of every day of my mission. It has been such a blessing to me already. As I was going back to find when I met Alexis I was reading and I had a great witness of why my Mom was inspired to make me promise to keep a journal. I was reading and I had written that while door knocking we had met a girl named Mercedes, who was 17, but looked older. Last week, Elder Elmer and I met a girl on campus named Mercedes who was from Midland who looked super familiar and I told her that, but she told me where she lived and it wasn't in my area, so I could not figure it out. But then it all clicked! I was on a trade-off so that is why I met her. To even add to that I can't believe of all the people I met on July 9, 2014 I happened to write her name down. I usually never do that in my journal about door knocking experiences, unless it's really crazy or something. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)

D&C 6:36

Love,

Elder Chalmers

                                           The picture doesn't do the sun justice, it was really cool.

West Branch district

CMU Missionary                                                 9/5/15

Hey!

First of all, the reason I'm e-mailing on Saturday is because for the rest of my time serving on campus at CMU we will be having our P-Day on Saturday. Campus is pretty dead on Saturday and it's alive on Monday, so that's the reason for the switch. It's a change but it will be fun!

This week was a great week. We have spent most of our time on campus talking with as many of the students as we can. They are super receptive and open to initial conversation which makes things really fun. I also got to go on companion exchanges back to Midland. I always love going to Midland. I have so many special memories and experiences from there. 

Monday: Following emailing last week we went home and needed hair cuts, so we decided that since last time didn't turn out too bad we would cut each others hair again. It again was not too bad. :) Then we did some cleaning and other necessary things to get us ready for the week. We spent some time on campus and met some cool people then drove to Midland and I was there with Elder Erekson who I came out with!

Tuesday: My day in Midland! We were on bikes which was really fun. It was also really hot and humid so we were sweating pretty good. We did some door knocking and taught a few lessons. One of their investigators was about to drop them but Elder Erekson taught with so much power and authority and told him that turning his back on God is the worst thing to do. It was really cool. We had dinner with the Pierce family. They are awesome. It was good to see them again. I also got to see Sister Jones which was great! I love Midland.

Wednesday: We had district meeting in Midland. We went to Mancino's for lunch and I got to have my favorite calzones again. That was sweet. We had a lesson with Keith that was really sad. He hurt his leg pretty bad and it was in bad shape so we gave him a blessing and Bro. Bigford took him to the hospital. He is a little less accountable and doesn't live in the best circumstances but he's a great guy. We spent a lot of time on campus and met a ton of cool people. One huge miracle was, we were walking and this guy who was about to walk past and I noticed him out of the corner of my eye as a guy I had met almost a year ago when I came to CMU on trade-offs. So I asked him, "Are you Mac?" He said, "Yeah." So I told him that I had met him before and I remembered like everything about the time I met him, even that his fiance was overseas last time we met. He was probably freaked out but it was a miracle. The Holy Ghost brings all things to your remembrance!

I'm running out of time, but Thursday and Friday we spent a lot of time on campus. One of the days it was raining lightly on and off and then when we finally headed back to our car and got drenched, it was really fun though. We also taught a family who moved here from Nigeria 6 months ago. It was a super cool lesson and they are really open to learn! It's exciting. 

My thought for the week is real simple: Keep the commandments. It is the simple solution to happiness. It's how we live in the world but are not of the world. God's way is the way to happiness. I know that to be the truth.

Love,

Elder Chalmers

First day of School!                                         8/31/15

Hey everyone!

It's at least the first day of school for the students at Central Michigan University which we are excited for. We've been in Mt. Pleasant for two months and finally get to work the campus here. It will be a ton of fun. It's been about six months since I was on campus at Ferris State University so it will be good to talk to the students again. :)

This was a really busy week for Elder Elmer and I. We had companion exchanges with the elders in Caro, Bad Axe (the thumb) and Saginaw. It was a lot of time spent in the truck but was really fun getting to work with so many great missionaries!

• I got to spend all of Tuesday in Caro with Elder Adams my MTC companion. It was a blast. We got to do a lot of finding and met some really cool people. I recently talked to him and they found two new investigators out of it! So cool. He is such a sincere and kind elder. I'm so glad I was able to be his companion in the MTC. He has taught me a lot.
• I was with Elder Johnson from American Fork, UT on Wednesday and part of Thursday. We ran into a lot of opposition to the church while we were together. I really enjoyed getting to defend the faith. It's actually really funny, after a while you sound like a broken recor. We really simply tell people to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they can know for themselves. People just aren't willing to do that. They are too satisfied with what they've heard and are just following other people's opinions. We got along really well, he is a great missionary.
• I also got to be in Mt. P with Elder Engel from Lehi, UT. He is a fairly new missionary. He is so cool. He is super loving and understands how to improve. We had some good lessons and discussed a lot about how to be an effective district leader.

This week was crazy and busy but we had a great time and did a lot of great work. I feel like the Lord is really trying to teach me the importance of keeping the commandments lately. With all of the students back in town, there is a lot of partying going on. We talked to a couple of guys on Saturday who were amazed at how we live, who were pretty drunk, and it was really sad. One of them even said, "You guys will live way longer than me." I know that the promise the Lord has made that if we keep the commandments we will prosper, is true. It's first found in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 2:20 and is repeated many times... We often get pleasure and happiness confused. The former leads to regret and the latter comes from keeping the commandments and leads us to our Father in Heaven. 

I love being a missionary and I love each one of you. "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

Love,

Elder Chalmers

Caro District meeting

I found Cameron Street in Caro, MI!

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