30 August 2011

So far so good! We're all gearing up to leave on monday! pretty crazy! weve been teaching a lot! again, they are just people acting, but its still really cool to be teaching! someone told us that before this new system, missionaries taught about twice while here at the MTC, weve taught at least 20 times so far! I think most of us feel pretty ready to go out and teach real people! We taught Junichi, our shinto friend, a couple more times since my last email. He's awsome! and i think hes getting more and more interested. We've taught him most of the plan of salvation and the restoration, and he wants to know more about the BoM! Its pretty cool to experience because he has 0 christian backgroud. I wish he was actually a real person (lol, i know this sounds weird, but this is whats going on in my life lol, MTC makes you crazy i think). Speaking of going crazy in the MTC, we heard a rumor that there was an earthquake in DC? when things like that happen i would like details please lol. We're going to the temple today and we went last week as well! its a lot of fun to go as a missionary with a bunch of other missionaries. We have devotionals every tuesday and sunday, they are all really good but no big names yet, we're hoping for an apostle tonight lol. I havnt had to speak in church yet, and i think this week is testimony meeting, so i think i might have escaped :) Thank you all for the letters! they are the highlights of my day. it takes about 3 days to get a letter from ohio to here, so if you want to catch me in utah, today is probs the day to send that. if not you can look on facebook for my address in nevada, or DearElder works even when im in nevada i think. you might have to pay though, idk. All of you should know im typing this with a keyboard that has no letters on it, and since i normally cant type without looking at the keys its kinda tough lol. Ummmm, what else do i have to tell yall? We play sand volleyball everyday, they have ginger ale here, the missionaries in my district love 90's boy bands, all those are my favorite things! so lifes good :) Ive been reading about the last supper and the Garden of Gathsemene, Christ is AWSOME! I love teaching people about him b/c everyday i realize more and more how awsome he is!

new fav quote= "god gave us serenity to accept things we cant change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference." -idk who lol

love you all!
-elder donovan :)

29 August 2011

How is everybody? I hope you guys are all doing great. We had a nice week of work here in Teshie. Our bikes were broken so we did a bunch of walking this week. On thursday we went on companion exchanges. The district leader, Elder Collings, came with me into our area. Elder Sesay went with Elder Boadu in their area. Elder Sesay is doing a good job teaching me some extra patience. On saturday we had a tri-ward baptism for the district. 5 people were baptized including our candidate, Abigail, and our bishop's little boy. Mostly on sunday we had people come to church that aren't really progressing. They have different problems that are keeping them from baptism. It's good they still come to church so that they can have the spirit's guidance in working things out. I hope you guys are having fun as school starts. I hope Donovan is doing great. I'm sure the Provo MTC has got to be pretty strange. Love you guys so much. Take care.

Love,
Elder Chambers

23 August 2011

So far so good here at the mtc! Ive seen anthony and nathan and darby and so many other friends from my ward last year! a couple ppl have recognized me as the "guy from wyview that broke his leg last year" lol. IM EXHASTED! they keep us busy all the time, and we put all our energy into remembering scriptures and what things we want to teach who, and then we get to the lessons and our investigators want to talk about something completly different lol. Here at the mtc they have a new program with a lot more teaching opportunities. They bring in actors and members and our teachers all pretend to be ppl interested in the church. Which is pretty cool cause my companion Elder Larson and I have taught 4 or 5 lessons already! so far so good. we still arent teaching very well as a team, but i think it'll come. We tried taught a guy yesterday that wouldnt let us talk! His name was Junichi and he was this little bald asian man with round glasses and a ridiculous accent. I told him i was from Ohio and he got this big smile on his face and ask if I knew where Tleditle was. I said "no, im sorry i dont". He was pretty dissapointed and asked "are you sure?" and then spelled it out for me. T-o-l-e-d-o. haha, he used to work in toledo, but i guess he never learned how to pronounce it. anyway, he told us all about being Shinto and japanese culture and about his family and didnt leave us anytime to teach him! We'll see him again on thursday, so hopfully he's run out of things to say and we can teach a little. My companion is a good guy. Hes from idaho and is also going to the Vegas West Mission, along with 3 other elders in my district. The other missionaries in my district, 2 elders and 4 sisters are all going to the west indies! one of the elders went home this week (just to much stress from homesickness we think) so that was kinda sad. But our district is getting along really well! we do well teaching each other and really building up each others testimonies! My address will be the same until Sept 5, so if youre gonna send me something (which you all should) make sure it'll get here by then, or send it to the mission home address, which was the one i put on facebook first i think. Anyway, love you all! so does Christ! dont forget it! Elder Donovan Chambers

22 August 2011

I love you guys a ton. Wow the internet is extra super slow today so I'm just going to keep things brief today. On tuesday we had our first interviews with President Judd. They were nice. He's got that whole psychologist/religion teacher/bishop vibe going. We went through the temple recommend interview since mine expires at the end of the month. This whole week I wasn't having much of an appetite due to some sort of stomach bug. I'm feeling better now so no worries. But anyway it kept us from working the rest of tuesday. The rest of the week was pretty sweet. We mostly saw the people \we'd been teaching, and didn't do much finding. On Saturday we participated in the all africa service project day. Our ward went to clean up the police station's compound. I now have a huge blister from all the weeding I did. (Imagine Link from Zelda using his sword to cut all that grass) Sunday we had one of our investigators interviewed for baptism, Abigail Ofosu. She's 15 and will be baptized this Saturday. Well that's the week's basics. President Judd asked me to make sure I help Elder Sesay to sprint to the finish of his (and mine) mission. He's going the transfer after me. Chances are he'll train next next transfer. There are 42 companionships (excluding the ZLs) and 21 new elders coming. Love you all, Elder Chambers

15 August 2011

How is everyone doing? I'm sure you guys are all super excited for Donovan. I'm very excited. This week was pretty good for us. We had a mission tour with the new member of the area presidency, Elder Legrand Curtis. He has just come to Ghana last week. I think this is his first calling since joining the 1st quorum of the seventy. He and President Judd and their wives all spoke to us. It was a good meeting. The told us a lot of different things. Book of Mormon, being unified with your companion, and more. We were worried this week about trying to teach the people we thought could be committed to coming to church, but we were pretty disappointed on Sunday when none of them came. Well that's how it goes sometimes. This week we'll be looking to see if we should continue working with some of our investigators or spend time finding new ones. Once you start teaching someone you usually end up really liking the person, at least that's how it is with me. So it's hard to stop seeing them even if they've already decided to not follow through. You don't want to give up on them and at the same time you don't want to waste the time remaining on your mission. Nonetheless I'm looking forward to this next week. Good Luck to Donovan! Love everyone Elder Chambers

8 August 2011

Hey guys I hope you all enjoyed your vacation. Happy birthday to Donovan! By the way I got a package you guys sent, thank you so, so much. I love you guys a ton. This week we had our transfers. A lot of people were moved around, but Elder Sesay and I stayed together here in Teshie. We had a pretty good week. The best thing to happen was that two of the people we have been working with for like 6 weeks now, finally came to church on sunday. We were really happy they came. It was Mavis and her daughter Lawrensha. This week we also used the Book of Mormon a bit more in our lessons. It seemed to help some people. I'm looking forward to being here for the next transfer. Probably til the end of my mission. I love you guys and hope you have a great week. Love, Elder Chambers