Sister Callista Chaffin: 9.2.19 "I Wanna Do What God Does."

Our week began with teaching a member family's daughter who will be baptized on the 5th. She is literally the sweetest girl ever!! We had 2 lessons with her this week and the first one we had to have on the porch. It was dark and we sat on these wooden chairs outside and the dad and 3 of the kids were out there. Little 4 or 5yr old Jacob H. was to my right. He was rocking back and forth on this little rocking chair. And we were asking about the biggest event in the Book of Mormon.. some of the kids said the atonement, he talked about Peter (which is in the bible). Then we started to talk a little bit more about how Jesus Christ came to the Americas. Randomly in a quite moment in the conversation he said, "I wanna do what God does!" The dad, sitting there near him said "so do I Jacob, so do I!" My mind was blown. I sat there a little shocked. This 4-5 yr old just gave me the answer to so many questions. Without even knowing. It was this nice summer night, talking about the Gospel and the beauty of it and he just randomly says that!! Love that kid sooo much! Then, later that week I read Alma 32:23... "And now, he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also. Now this is not all; little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned."

Kids can teach us sooo soo very much.

My next story is about a guy who sprayed us with water... Hahaha we were talking to this guy, he was atheist so we were talking and trying to help him understand where we are coming from. We asked if he had ever heard of the Book of Mormon, and he said "No." We explained to him that it has the answers to his questions. He had lots of questions like "why would God allow this much suffering happen in the world?", and things like that and we said, "we have the answer.." while he was talking (he was finishing up washing his car) he picked up the hose and accidentally pressed the sprayer and sprayed the both of us on the spot, in the middle of a parking lot... haha he just nonchalantly said sorry in the sentence he was in and kept talking.. haha sister Cunningham's book of Mormon got all wet and glasses, and I just stood there soaked. He didn't mean to do it, but it was funny. He ended up taking a Book of Mormon though! And, he's gonna call us and let us know what he thinks!

Right before that conversation we had parked and i parked, sandwiched between 2 cars that were right on the line and I had about 4 inches to open my door to get out. There was this other guy standing on the corner that we needed to talk to! We both got out of the car, very carefully and went and talked to this guy. We gave him a card because he was heading somewhere and waiting for his ride. He seemed like a well-mannered person, then the car of his ride comes screeching in with really loud music and picked him up. They sounded like they were about to go party hard... and many other things that I won't go into detail. I prayed so hard that that card with a picture of Jesus card would go really far and affect some more people!

That night we got home and found a millipede on our bedroom ceiling and about 4 other spiders! (What a time that was, trying to kill that thing and suck it up!... flying millipedes!!) "Welcome to Fort Belvoir Sister Chaffin where the bugs like to linger!"-Sister Cunningham

What a day! We went to bed early that night. So early that my alarm to write in my journal went off and woke us up from almost falling asleep!

Missionary life is a bit crazy. Sister Cunningham and I were talking about this, it truly is the strangest thing! People think we are absolutely insane. We talked to some T-mobile guys that were pretty cool. They thought we were crazy. They said they have to knock a certain amount of door and be out a certain amount of hours. Glad we don't have to do that! They still thought we were crazy for leaving our families and doing this not to get paid for it. It is for serving and loving others and serving God! Alex, one of the T-Mobile guys said he has a friend in Utah and has heard a little bit about our faith. It truly was a miracle that we ran into them and talked to them! They were about our age and so we were really enthusiastic about what we were saying and talked so highly about how cool The Restoration is! Alex got a Book of Mormon and we got both of their numbers. We talked for about most of our dinner and got a 15 minute dinner but that's okay. All that matters is that he got a Book of Mormon and they got to hear more about the restored Gospel!! :)

I have been studying a lot about Faith and what it is. My faith has grown so much because it.

Ether 12:4 "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

I know that Jesus Christ lives. He cares. He wants us to trust him. By that trust and confidence in him we can yield to his will and transform our life and our nature to be more Christ-like and charitable.

It really does give us hope. Who wouldn't want to live with hope?

I wanna do what God does too, little Jacob.

One day. One day, little one.

Always love,

Sister Chaffin