Photogenic week

My week can basically be summed up in four or five photos:

Chickens!

This was a fun week, and started with us catching the chickens last Monday. 

Catching chickens

(Tuesday nothing happened, and Wednesday we helped build the Scott's house.)

Bowl of Menudo!

On Thursday, we went over to Max's house and he fed us dinner. He fed us pasta, and we were able to teach him about the last few commandments. He's so cool. (most of the rest of the week revolved around him.) And he agreed to be baptized on Sunday! (Yesterday!)

On Friday we went back with the zone leaders and had his baptismal interview. But not before he fed us again! This time it was a Mexican dish called Menudo. What is shown in the remains of the bowl are the hooves of the pig. Also, there's cow stomach in there, but there wasn't any left in the bowl when I took the picture. It tastes pretty alright, but the experience can be summed up in the words of Elder Green, one of the Zone Leaders: "To make Menudo taste good, you need to put in as much as possible of whatever else is on the table. Lemon juice, onions, whatever. And then, just eat it fast and don't think about how what you're eating could be eating you."

Bowl of Menudo

Octopus!

Just thought I'd throw that in there. We ate octopus and it tastes like shrimp.

Octopus tastes like shrimp.

Elder Robbins!

For those who don't know, the picture at the top is of Lynn G. Robbins, from the presidency of the Seventy. He lives one street over from our house in Utah. He and Elder Oaks came to McAllen and had a conference with the entire mission. It was AWESOME! And I got a shout out for being his home teacher! It was really good, and I learned a lot about receiving revelation, procrastination, and "to be" lists. It was really good.

My friend and neighbor, Elder Lynn G. Robbins

Max!!!!!!!!!!

Not much needs to be said. The picture says it all, pretty much. He's so cool. I'm still euphoric about it. Happened yesterday.

Max got baptized!   Sunday, January 25, 2015.

Basically, the week was amazing! It's the kind of week that you can only have when you're a missionary. If you've got the possibility of going on a mission in your lifetime, you should do it. It's the most gratifying experience in the world. And I think I've said this before, but a mission is a "you had to be there" experience. Do it.

I love you all. Please continue writing, and I will do my best to respond. And thank you for your prayers. They really mean a lot to me. I love hearing about the experiences you're having a lot more than I enjoy writing about mine (keeping a journal is hard! But dont' worry, I'm doing it.)

Have a fantastic week! Con mucho amor,

Elder Chamberlain.

Super busy but amazing week!

This was a super busy week. It was amazing, though!

We got a new greenie in our district. It's so weird to think that I was as stressed out as she is just three months ago! I already feel like I know all there is to being a missionary. At times, at least. Other times, I'm just willing to sit back and watch Elder Larsen work his magic in the lessons, cause I feel like I have no idea how to do it. But either way, it's insane how much you grow and change over just a short period of time, especially when you've got goals and the Lord is involved.

DQ Blizzards on Friday

We got a new car! We had to drive down to McAllen on Thursday to get it, so we lost most of the work day. But on the way back up, we got permission to stop by one of Elder Larsen's recent converts, from when he was in Harlingen. She'll be able to go through the temple in about three months, and Elder Larsen might be able to get permission to go with her, since he was involved in her teaching process. Just wait! In one year, I'm going to be going through the temple with Max!

Max is still doing great. He came to church yesterday, and we're almost done teaching him everything he needs to know. He's getting really excited for baptism, and our current goal with him is the first of February. The Zone Leaders are really pressuring us to bump that up a week, though, cause we're still short of our zone goal for the month of January. We're not sure if that's what's best for Max, but we might just have to follow their council. So don't be too surprised if next week's email has pictures from a baptism!

Even though we lost a few work days this week, due to meetings and such, we were able to find some cool people to teach. One of the problems here is just actually getting around to the second lesson, though. Most of the people here work in the oil industry, and their work schedules are pretty hectic sometimes. That makes it hard to find a specific time to meet with people. Like they told us in the CCM, we'll be teaching a lot more first lessons than anything else! But it's good. I need the practice. And we met a family last night that seemed really interested. The whole family is really cool, and the Mom, who we were teaching along with her kids, received a spiritual confirmation during her prayer that our church is true! She's super cool, and we could totally baptize their whole family. It's pretty awesome. But I'll try not to get cocky or anything like that.

Elder Larsen is so dead. He hit his Sister Mark on Saturday! He's soooo dead. But not really. He's still working super hard. Besides, he's still got 6 months left! Plenty of time to live and make a difference in the grand mission of Texas, McAllen. And I've still got plenty of time to learn from him. It's good, too, cause I've still got tons to learn.

Elder Larsen's face when he realized he's a sister! He hit his sister mark (18 months) on Saturday!

Texas is awesome. If you've never been here, you should come sometime. And if you have, you should come again.

I love you all. Have an excellent week, and I hope to hear from you all!

Con Amor,

Elder Chamberlain

Great week!

Well, this was a good week. Good, long, and I'll probably still miss everything that happened because so much did happen. But here it goes.

Tuesday! Elder Nichols (our dying zone leader) and I went on an exchange in the evening and were able to get a baptismal date with one of mine and Elder Larsen's investigators! His name's Max, and I'll go into more detail about him later in this message. But basically, he's a boss and is going to be baptized on February 1st (Happy Birthday Hannah!), if not sooner.

The Zone Leaders, asleep in the back  

Wednesday! We met a woman named Tilly, who we will hopefully be able to talk to again this week. She's Catholic and wasn't super interested in changing religions (or so she thinks) but she said that her granddaughter might be interested, so we could come back again. She's super nice, though. We also ate dinner with one of the part member families in the area. I found out that Chicken-Fried Chicken tastes almost exactly like Chicken Taco Pie. Or at least it does when made at the George West Steakhouse.

Thursday! Had a Zone Meeting in the morning, and another lesson with Max in the afternoon. We introduced him to the Book of Mormon, and he said that he would do his best to read it.

Friday! In the evening, we found a man named Corando. He's super cool, and currently goes to the Pentecostal church in Three Rivers. He's had a lot of crazy stuff going on in his life, and about 15 years ago he started looking for God. He's been getting prepared for more than 15 years to hear the gospel, and we'll keep working with him. Not really got a ton to talk about on him, but we will next week!

HATS!  We got them from Corando, our new investigator

Saturday! Had another lesson with Max about the Plan of Salvation. And we got him to commit to coming to stake conference, which we had yesterday.

Sunday! Max came to stake conference! He's such a stud, and he told us that he really wants to learn more about the church. He was expressing a lot of doubt before, but now he looks amazing! And the first thing that he did when he got home from the stake conference was look up one of the scriptures that was talked about in the Book of Mormon! (1 Nephi 5:5) He'll be coming to a family night that we're having tonight. Also, we were able to find a family of 6! They're a little strange, but we'll be teaching them this week. I don't remember any of their names!

That's essentially my week in a nutshell. Not a ton of emotion was put into this email, sorry bout that. But that's what happened.

Now, how it happened: I really don't know. Apparently this is the most success that George West has ever had in one week, and we've never had anyone in this area that's been really close to being baptized. Max is going to be the first person, and this area's been open almost a year! I'm so excited!

Also, we got transfer calls today, and I get to stay here for one more transfer with Elder Larsen!

It's been a great week, and I need to go! Time goes so fast, especially when writing!

Love you all! Don't forget to write!

-Elder Chamberlain

Teetertotters/seesaws still exist in Texas! (EVERYTHING is legal here!)

New Year!

The weeks just keep getting faster and faster, and I don't think it'll ever stop! It's a little ridiculous. But it's all good. And this was a really good week!

On Wednesday night we got to watch Frozen! Every year the Mission President lets us watch a movie on New Years Eve, and we watched the animated hit from 2013 starring Adele Dazeem as the queen Elsa. (If you don't know about Adele Dazeem, click here to see John Travolta's introduction of Idina Menzel at the March 2014 Academy Awards.) It felt really different watching it out here than at home, but it was really fun. We also had a party as a Zone. I got a Mr. Potato Head. We didn't finish the movie until almost 9, so we had to spend the night at the Zone Leaders' house. The floor isn't very comfortable, in case you were wondering. Also, the Zone Leaders are staying with us right now again. So it's pretty crowded at the Trailer.

This is how we got pumped up for Frozen!

We had a miracle this week!  On Friday night I decided that I was going to fast, because we hadn't been having very much success finding people in our area. so with that thought in mind, we worked super hard on Saturday and had a pretty good day. We were able to talk to Miguel again and have a short lesson with him, and also a really nice man named Max. But we were unable to find anyone new to talk to. Nobody was interested. All our plans kept falling through, so we  decided to knock on a door of a former investigator in the area. She'd apparently been taught the first lesson, but was never at home any of the other times that the missionaries went by. So we knocked on the door, and met Tony, Hannah (his girlfriend) and Jason (his uncle). Tony had talked to the Sister Missionaries almost 15 years ago, when he was 7, and they'd made such an impression on him that he remembers them still. He told us he wanted to hear what we had to say, then Jason and Hannah walked in. We were able to sit down with them and have a lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel. It was amazing to see how they were all prepared to hear about it, and to want to learn more! We're planning on going back to teach them the next time Tony's off work later this week. The Lord has been preparing them for the last 15 years! It's insane!

I'm out of time, but I want to thank you all for your support and love for me. It's amazing out here, and going by way too fast! Make sure you make this year count! Make good plans for it. I love you all!

Love, Elder Chamberlain

Lion statues we saw in George West