9.30.2019 "Never Be Weary of Good Works"

Faith = Positivity for the future, Enthusiasm for good, Hope for better

Doubt/Fear = Negativity, Distress, Depressed, no Hope for better future

Truth: One thing can reside in one place at a time.

      -> Therefore Faith and doubt or fear cannot be in one mind at the SAME time.

"When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." D&C 130:21

As we work towards our worthy goals we continue in faith, believing that we can achieve the goal! Within a goal that we have set, we want to change or be better at something! In pursuing this goal, (if you have Faith that Jesus Christ can help you and you also ask and pray for his help,) then you are using and applying the principles of the Gospel and Doctrine of Jesus Christ! You are becoming little by little, like Jesus Christ! Recognizing that there needs to be a change is the first step of repentance!! Recognize, then change it! Set goals and make plans and ask for help from the Savior! He will provide the things necessary as we do our part, he will magnify our efforts!

I love the principles of the Gospel, and especially Faith. Without Faith in Jesus Christ, His Great Atoning Sacrifice and in His divinity, we can go nowhere. It is relying "wholly upon the merits of Him who is mighty to save"- 2 Nephi 31:19

Experiencing this mighty change in our lives and in our hearts truly requires some enduring to the end! It is enduring to Perfection! It may feel like the refiners fire- (actually it will), but in this is the test! 

This week felt a little like that! A mission is no easy thing! Without the difficulties that come, I would not know what it is to develop Faith or know what hope in the Savior Jesus Christ is. If it never was hard, how could we know easy or simple? Christ is our hope. Without that belief, it's just less hope! Oh how I love Faith, Hope and Repentance! 

"Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ."

"Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls."- Alma 37:33,34

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

callista.chaffin@missionary.org

Our District

9.23.2019 "I Think You're Going To Save My Life"

Who else is in love with the new Book of Mormon Videos???

What a week of adventures! We got a puzzle with our faces on it of the picture of us holding mugs with our faces on it! Haha! Sister Martin is doing great! She had another yard sale this weekend! Quite fun!

We listened to the song "When You Believe" for 6 days straight! Good thing there was a few different versions of the songs we could go through! Can't believe we made it that long! Let me tell ya, when you believe something good can happen, it sure can happen!!! I heard a quote this week, " Everyone is already God's children, all we need to do is gather them to come back home!" :)

Yesterday was miraculous! Last night we were walking to a family's apartment. Before that we decided to park at the bottom of the hill, go visit a different family and we were on the verge of maybe not doing that, it was a matter of "Shouldn't we go visit Allan and Jenny before the Black family?"  Then we parked, visited that family, then asked ourselves "Should we walk all the way up this hill to get to the Blacks?" The answer was, we don't really want to, but we will to see more people!"  We saw 2 specific people on our walk! One we talked to and wasn't too interested, but the other really was! He was putting away his boat! He said, "Hold up for a second!".. he went and did something and said, "Let's talk for a bit, because I Think You're Going To Save My Life!" He walked away, I turned to Sister Cunningham and said, "We sure are"! and gave her a big grin! He sure wondered how we found him be cause he said he needs us! :) MIRACLE

We had a lesson with Brother Deadwyler and we talked about the Book of Mormon. He has met with the missionaries for a while now so he knows a lot. We decided to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ! I love the Book of Mormon! It helps us find the key to true lasting happiness. Never in my life have I felt so much peace until I have followed the teachings of Jesus Christ, found in the Standard works. It has a power that cannot be described in words. The Fullness of His gospel is in the Book of Mormon. The restoration of His power, love and grace continues to become more and more real to us as we abide by the precepts in the Book of Mormon and from the Modern day prophets! The testimonies of Jesus Christ, modern and ancient, continue to press on my heart and continue to soften it as I let it.

We must read, study, feast on the book of Mormon in order to truly use the power it contains. As I have memorized verses, shared verses, and applied  them to my own life,  I remember Christ, I feel his spirit more often and I know more of what he needs me to do. In turn, I know what I need to do to become more Christ-like!

I love my Savior. He illuminates the world.

I add my testimony to the Apostles today, 
  "He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great and atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary's Cross. He gave his life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth."
                                                       -The Living Christ

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

Masoneck Harbor

Anaya and her mom Toy! :)💙

9.16.2019 "Enter Into My Rest"

Once upon a time Sister Martin, a non-member, talked to a group of missionaries in Walmart. She explain to them that she had a date for baptism one day and the missionaries for got about her. She desired for the missionaries to come back, but the sisters she was talking to did not cover her area. They said, " We will send the missionaries over in you area!" She said, "okay, I'll be waiting for them!"

After 3 weeks the elders in her area arrived at her door! She was very upset at this point because she had talked to the sisters at least 3 weeks prior to having the missionaries come over. She yelled at them, told them to not come back and shut the door. They were so confused because they had just gotten that referral a little over 24hrs before that moment in time. 

Thus we see we have some very confused Elders and an upset Woman who is understandably is not happy, due to the series of unfortunate events. 

A year goes by and some Sister missionaries sees her in Walmart, once again. The Sisters talk to the Elders. The Elders, because we have the Area split into 2 "areas"-- (half of which is their's and half is ours), so we have the ability to teach in their area, if needed! So about 6 weeks ago the Sister missionaries in this area got a referral for this woman and it was specified "Sisters missionaries only!" 

Sister Martin set up a time to meet and said, "if you can't meet at this time, you better not be coming back, because I am done, You guys don't care about me!"

Thursday rolls around, the Sister missionaries realize what they had done. They scheduled Sister Martin's lesson on Zone Conference day! in the middle of the Zone Conference meetings, When they realized this what a  sad day for The Sisters and Sister Martin! :(

Over these past 6 weeks, we have continued to go back, bring her cookies and then I showed up and brought a new face to this situation. And communication continued to go on and we finally got a time to sit down and talk with her! What a story!

Sum of the story she loves us now! She gave us bags of food, a mug with our face on it and a title to who we are on the mug as well. Mine was "Specially Calm". Then we helped her move some things for a yard sale and she gave us these mustache straws! She told us to send us a picture of us with the mugs and mustache straws.... so we did!..........and tune in next week for another personalized item!  (we are hoping it is a t-shirt with our faces on it of the picture of us with our personalized mugs with our face on it and the mustache straw!) 

Scripture of the day!

Alma 12:33,34 "But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;

Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest."

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

Exchanges with Sister Grover

A mug made for me 😂

Ravioli given to us by sister Martin, she gave us the mustache straw and made us our personalized mug!

Sunday

Long Story 

Sofia Bertoldo from Centreville!

William and Alex Bertoldo from Centreville

9.9.2019 Has The Day For Miracles Ceased?

Tuesday we had 6 lessons, 2 happened.

We met a little girl named Jacklin a week ago in the parking lot and Sister Cunnhingham is awesome and gives the kids stickers! So Jacklin wanted us to come to their house and visit them, so we did last Tuesday! We knocked on her door and we talked to her a little bit as her mom stood there. Her mom didn't speak much English so Jacklin was translating!  We asked if we could give Jacklin a children's Book of Mormon and she said yes! so we talked with Jacklin all the way to our car to get it and went back to her house and gave her mom a Spanish Book of Mormon! That was so cool! They accepted it so easily! we referred the Hermana missionaries over there to go talk to them! :) What a miracle children are and Sister C's idea of giving them stickers, inspired! We met with Brother Del Valley that night! What a powerful lesson it was! We Watched "The Savior Understands Me" video by Elder Holland! (If you haven't seen this video, it is a must watch! GO WATCH IT NOW!) We had some members join us and they helped out with brother Del Valley and Wanda so much! Wanda was actually feeling the spirit the most I think! She had been reading a good portion of the Book of Mormon as well, but hasn't been able to make it to a lot of lessons! We aren't exactly sure how willing brother Del Valley is, but Wanda is great and really felt it that night!

We taught a member family the 10 commandments (we are teaching their almost 8yr old so that she is ready for baptism!), Oh how much easier it is to teach people that already kind of know the commandments! Love the Hassel Family sooo much! :)

Wednesday:   We had a lesson with our friend Tyler who is a young single adult and he had so many questions about standards! He is so confused by the world! I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have grown up knowing to keep me on the right path!!

Thursday:   We had Zone Conference! Oh my goodness is President and Sister Caplin are inspired! I love them so much! They are such a blessing to this mission! I was able to see my only other companion left in the mission, Sister Topham. The Centreville sisters were also there and I had the blessing to know that my past areas are flourishing! The Bertoldos are doing great! I miss them but they are so strong and continue in such great ways with the gospel as their foundation! :)

We had a lesson with Brother Deadwyler that night! We weren't exactly planning on having that lesson because once again we had 3 of our lessons cancel.. :( but it was meant to happen, We were supposed to meet with Brother Deadwyler! He has so many things that run around in that head of his! He just needs to name some of those things "The Spirit!" :) He is so smart, (a little too smart for his own good) haha but he is on fire! He prayed such an earnest prayer that night, it was awesome! This is the lesson when I got the 70 mosquito bites from!

Saturday & Sunday there is so much within these 2 days! Sunday, yesterday we had an awesome lesson with our friends Colton, Benji, and Dakota! They are doing summer sales and heading back home this next week! We read Mosiah 18 and talk more about baptism and the importance of it! And those who desire to be baptized! They are going back home and being baptized! They are awesome and have had such good examples of friends that have helped them choose this path!

We found this referral that is Gold and we are seeing them again this week! They are so excited to learn more about God!

We had a lesson with the Black Family! The husband is not a member and the wife and daughter were just baptized! What a blessing it was that a member was able to come to that lesson! They had a daughter the same age as their daughter! The husband prayed at the end and said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray as a family! :) such miracles this week! 

Every day there are so many miracles before us!

Moroni 7:27 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?"

What do you think? Have they ceased?

"29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men"

They have not.

Find miracles today!

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

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Junk Mail

Forever Relying On GOD...FROG

Sister Cunnginham, Me , sister Topham and her trainee sister Kilinger.
(My 2 half daughters and granddaughter in the mission)

Colton, Banji and Dakota! We have been teaching them as they are here for summer sales! They are going back home to get baptized!

Catching Lizards in the apartments

U turns. Soo Virginian

Mosquito bites

Sky