E-mail Sis. Chapman

You can now e-mail Sis. Rachel Chapman at: Rachel.chapman@myldsmail.net

She'd love to hear from you.

Her physical address is: 1810 Winston Dr., St. Marys, OH 45885

Monday, May 6, 2013

5/6/13

Mom you're the best! I really appreciated all of the encouragement. This week has been another tough one. But things are starting to get better I think. We have been tracting a lot - and that isn't very effective at all. but we don't know what else to do to try and find new investigators. We have been praying so hard that the Lord will lead us to people who are prepared to hear the gospel. So we decided to walk down this street, Smith, and try and find some of the elect. It was really awesome, every door that we knocked on someone answered the door! We talked to this guy, Nate, and his 3 kids. We told him about eternal families and he seemed really interested, told us he wanted to come to church on Sunday and then we set up an appointment to come back friday to teach him about the Restoration. Then we went down the street a little bit and knocked on this guy's door, Seth. He seemed to be about 20 years old and really nice! We left him with a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. Well they both canceled on us later in the week. We think Nate had some friends that gave him anti-mormon stuff and now he's not interested anymore and Seth didn't answer. So that was really disappointing. Then Tuesday night we had a lesson scheduled with Chucky. We were teaching the law of chastity. He is living with a woman, not someone he is in a relationship with, just a friend. He is helping her take care of her young kids while he is looking for a new place to live. We told him that he was going to need to move out and asked him if that was something he thought he would be able to do. He asked us if he didn't move out if that would effect his baptismal date. We answered yes. and everything went down from there. He got so discouraged and couldn't believe that we were going to have to push his date back again. He felt like he was doing something good and it was what the Lord wanted him to do. He felt like after all he has done and changed and improved, it still wasn't good enough. We tried to explain that this is just a trial of his faith and that it is something  that we're going to help him get through. We told him to think about the person he was when we met him and who is now and that he isn't the same person! He didn't care, he told us he was done. Like I said, it was a rough week. BUT then the next day we called him and he sounded like he was back to being great again! He said that he ended up staying with Rick and that he was thinking about moving in with them, and that things were going better. We sent him a few scriptures and he said they really helped. Since then we have had 2 more lessons with him and he is back on track for being baptized for May 18th! We are so happy that things are going well again. That was the first time I really had experienced that kind of disappointment and discouragement. It was really hard for me to handle, but we got through it and are tryin to keep moving forward. 
This weekend was stake conference. It was so great! Saturday we went up to the stake building in Talmadge and heard from the stake presidency. The 2nd counselor in the presidency's daughter was one of my teachers in the MTC! She was so awesome! I loved her so much! and then I recognized a younger guy that was there and he looked like he recognized me too and so we talked and it turns out he was one of the students I was in charge of for Get Connected! and then it turned out that he was my MTC teacher's little brother! They're all related!!!! IT was crazy - such a small world! They gave some really great talks! And then on Sunday we watched a broadcast from SLC. Elder Gay, one of the 70's gave a really great talk about service. He was a mission president in Ghana and he talked about how he only regretted accepting the call to serve once. He was on this road on the way to the major city. This road was one of the worst roads in all of Africa, full of potholes and such... It took them 5 hours on this road to get to where they were wanting to go. On the way, he received this phone call from some of his old business associates from the company he used to work for before he retired. The friend informed him about a business deal that he had been apart of and how much money he had made from it. Elder Gay began doing the math and realized how much money he had just lost. It was A LOT of money. He continued to think about this as they were traveling through the African brush. Then all of sudden they were involved in a horrible car accident. The car got stuck in a pot hole and did 3 summersalts. no one in the car was seriously hurt except for him. He had a lot of glass stuck in his head and a huge gapping hole in his arm. They made a turnequit for him and flagged down the nearest car and took him to the city that they had been traveling to. They got to a clinic and the doctor laid him down on his wooden operating table. The doctor noticed his name tage and asked Elder Gay if he knew how he had gotten most of their equipment and the gowns that they were all wearing. Elder Gay said he didn't. The doctor informed Elder Gay that most of the clinic's tools and resources were donated by a senior missionary couple from the church. Elder Gay said that he heard the spirit so clearly in that moment. When one loses his life, that is when he saves it. He was saved by the service of others who had accepted the call to serve. He had almost lost his life and because of the Lord, that is when he was saved. This story really hit home for me. I have been struggling a lot, as you have noticed, with being out here. This is so hard, and I wasn't quite prepared for it. I have been questioning whether I can do this or not. Elder Gay taught me that I have to lose myself here in the Lord's work and that is when I will be saved. As missionary we MUST suffer, that way we will be able to truly understand what the Savior went through during the Atonement. We are losing our lives for those we are trying to serve, and through that service we will find our lives again. It was a really great talk.
I received a package from Maggie on Saturday and it was full of Cinco De Mayo stuff! So Sunday after church we had a little party in our apartment! It was nice to be able to enjoy spending time with eachother being dumb. We took lots of pictures so you would be able to enjoy as well!
I can't wait to skype with you guys next week!!!! The Rohrers are letting us come to their house on Sunday at 2 our time and Skype! I am not sure what account I will be using to talk to you, but we will probably just have Brandon or Rick call you and let you know what it will be so that we can get that all figured out.
Well I'm glad to hear that you guys are all doing well and that the family is good too! I'm jealous you guys are going to OKC for memorial day!!! It's going to be so fun! Make sure you tell everyone hi for me!
I miss you guys and love you all so much! Can't wait for Sunday!!!!!

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