Week 43: Trials Are Like Chemotherapy

There was a Woman, Sariah, in my last area who was going through very strong doses of Chemotherapy and would drive her self to the doctors and drive home and to get groceries before and after each session of the stage 4 of Chemotherapy. Sister Kay and I happened to find her trying to walk up the stairs with her groceries one step at a time to get to her Apartment. Sister Kay was basically picking her up and helping her up the flight of stairs. This woman could barely talk with out having to take a wheezing breath in every other word. All that she desired was her daughter to stay in school.

I share this story because in the Bible study yesterday the teacher was asking the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?". The night before Sister Minaker and I asked the same question.... WHY? Shouldn't God give you the most blessings if you are the most obedient?  No, of course not. God has sent us here on earth to become as he is. We hear of Jesus Christ's mortal experience. He was perfect, yet... "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Mosiah 14:3,7). I know that Jesus Christ is the Mediator of all of our struggles and joy's in life. 

The answer to the question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is simple, that God loves us. He loves us enough to let us struggle and learn for ourselves. He loves us enough to give us the help just enough to keep going.  Sometimes we never realize the grace and love and help we receive from God. He is molding us into eternal Mothers and Fathers. The worst things happen to the best people. He has so much more in store for each of us! The challenge is seeing everyone of that potential.

We met this family, the Alessi's. All 3 children have special needs. Imagine not knowing if one of your children will wake up in the morning! 

Now thank God for making it possible for you to wake up every morning and do the things that you are able to do! Thank your Father in Heaven today, every hour, of the blessings you have!

Now the question is, how are you and I going to show and give that love, just as God has given and shown us?

This week was Beautiful. We helped the Murray's clean their kitchen. She had so many questions about the church that she naturally had! She asked, "Can I lend the Book of Mormon??" we said " Of course, you can have one!" She is planning to be at church next Sunday! :) 

We found a tiny little mouse pass out and die in a gas station parking lot because of the the 100 degree  weather.... it is funny to watch the series of event happen in your life. How many mice died that day? 

The funniest thing happen, well I wouldn't say funny but HUGE miracle because one of us almost got Lyme disease... We had a dinner earlier in the week where the family moved from Seattle less than a year ago and she was talking about how many bugs are in Virginia unlike Seattle. Shes started to talk about ticks and how she is so afraid of them, which sister Minaker and I are as well, cause they can be scary! A few days after that conversation, sister Minaker was telling me how she was debating whether or not to tell this sister that she got a tick last year. We laughed as we walked through a few moderately short patches of grass. Sister MInaker thinking I would get a tick as I walk through one more patch of grass than she did. we knock a door to check on someone. we are walking back to the car and she felt something on her ankle. she gets in the car, I go behind the car to back her out of the parking spot and then get in when she is all the backed. She then pulls over, puts her hazards on and picks up her foot to see whats on her ankle, and to our surprise, it was a little tick!!! She had thought before hand that nothing was really on her ankle, but then the spirit told her differently and told her to look at her ankle! Good thing she followed that spirit and got it just in time to take it out with out much effort at all. In the car, there isn't much to contain a tick with... we had a plastic sheet protector for some baptismal calendars we had so I slipped that out and she popped it in there! now that is contained, we needed to have it contained with out us holding it, so we went to a members house real quick to get a zip lock bag! 

Thankfully neither of us got Lyme disease and the tick is in tick heaven! :)

We finally were able to contact, and have dinner with this family that is a part member and part Jewish family! President Caplin's dad converted from Judaism to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so we had dinner and a lesson with the President and sister Caplin with this little family. They had so much in common, it was unbelievable! 

God is so intimately involved with out lives, if only we could see all that he does!

Hymn 129- "Where Can I Turn For Peace"
"Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end."

Love constantly,
Sister Chaffin

Sister Minaker's eye

My Eye

Week 42: No Place Like Vint Hill

It is now going to be Transfer 3 in Vint Hill with Sister Minaker!  We continue to find new things every week to do, as the work of the Lord continues forth! I cannot believe it is another week that has gone by and it is almost June!! WHAT IN THE WORLD?? Can I replay the past 10 1/2 months?? Sweet goodness! 

This week started off well. I made a Scripture reference paper/note cards, so that I can remember references to scriptures that are important! I am using the Doctrinal Mastery from Seminary... Should've paid more attention there, that's for sure!! We had our last District Council before the end of the Transfer and took that picture, basically the same people for last transfer haha, and it is going to be pretty similar for this next on too! What a great group of people! we talked a lot about humility, and I was sitting there thinking how humble these Missionaries are! This time is probably the only time in my life where I will be around so many dedicated people that are so humble, talking about humility and trying to continue to be more humble! (well unless I am with more missionaries or apostles or something in the future, which would be cool!)

There is a Part-Member family that people in the past have been much aware of with needs etc. but sister Minaker and I have been able to give her service, have some really nice discussions with her, and she makes us food, even though she barely has time to eat herself! she is the sweetest woman ever!! Sister Markanich gives so much love and service towards others, but she needs some more of it for herself! <3

We contacted a few people who have requested no contact from the church and they were so sweet!  I learned a lot more about the Jehovah's Witnesses from 2 different scenario's! That was cool!! 

We had an awesome lesson with Farshid about following the Prophet, the Book of Mormon and Prayer! He is changing so much! Praying things would just happen sooner that July 6th!!
There is the sweet family where the Mom, Sister Alessi, has 3 children that have some disabilities! She has such a huge Heart. I just remember walking out of there feeling SO, I don't know how to explain it... The spirit was so strong and sweet. I admire her so much and all she does! It can be so hard having that all! I will never forget her and her family! We are going back tomorrow and meeting with her again!! 

Yesterday, Sunday, there was this Devotional that is mission wide where missionaries bring some of the people they are teaching are the ones able to come! sister Minaker has 2 friends that she met forever ago in a whole different area that were baptized and spoke at this devotional!! how crazy it was to be there and see God's divine hand in all things!! I was able to see sister Harley, and I new I was going to see someone I knew before, sister Harley is basically my mom! and I love her soo very much! She is my friend that was baptized for Iran! <3 What a true blessing this hour was! I love this gospel! I love the people here, there is nothing else better that in the service of the Lord! 

Continue to love, be patient, and be an example of good. You never know the things that will Come of it! <3

Always love,

Sister Chaffin 

Week 41: There is So Much to Do

This past weekend we had Elder Haynie come to our mission and we had a mission tour! Sister Minaker and I were able to play a really hard piano song and we split it up so that it was a duet of her playing the top hand and I played the bottom half! I have never played such an intense piece, especially with another person! 
Last Tuesday Sister Caplin, the mission President's wife, called us to play a song for these 12 Elders singing it! It is called "Because He Lives" By Sally DeFord! I"ll be sending the Audio as well, note that we practiced like 2 run through's with the Elders, so it's a little rough! hahah But a little nerve racking to do that with a member of the 70! We also were able to have lunch with him and he sat at our table! what a treat! He sure looked like and sounded like Jefferey R. Holland! If you weren't paying attention you would've thought it was Jeffery R. Holland! He and his wife were so amazing and loving to each of us! They were also very funny! so never a dull moment, yet so very spiritually uplifting!!  This meeting was Friday from 8am-4pm (at least we had to be there to practice and a small meeting with the leadership at the beginning). 

That night we had a tri-stake member missionary meeting from 7-9pm (we didn't get home till almost 10pm pm). Elder Haynie, Elder Calderwood, and Elder L. Whitney Clayton and our mission president were all there! SOO COOL!!! What great meetings these really were!! We talked all about how we can be Natural and Warm at just inviting others to come and see and come and help, to be more involved!!  The next morning we had to leave around 7:30 a.m. for a Mission Leadership Council until 1pm! wow!!! the amount of things I learned!!!I feel like I am set for all the council I need for the rest of my mission! hahah (JK) I can never get too much council!! There truly is so very much to do to assist the Lord in Loving His Children! 

We then had an amazing Stake conference on Sunday! WOW am I so blessed to be in this Stake! so soo very blessed! :) We feel as if our Stake President could even be an Apostle soon in his life, the speed that he is going!! hahaha! After 12 massive pages of notes, we are trying to implement at least a few things from what we learned!

I learned recently how much I don't know how to teach through the scriptures! so that is really something I want to do because of these meetings! 

I know that so many people wake up every day, yearning, pleading and searching for truth, love, and joy!! We need to do our best to love those around us. And, before we can love those around us, we must know why we are to love them, and that is because we Love God! Love is mentioned in the first two great Commandments: Love God with all thine heart and Love thy Neighbor as thyself!

One of my favorite scriptures, 1 Nephi 11:16,17 "And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?

"And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

God's plan is all about love. 

Some other teachings we were given:
--"We must Gather ourselves first, before we are to Gather others in the spirit of love and unity!"

--"Ask your Heavenly Father on a regular basis to bless you and to help you to guide you and to overcome shortcomings" 

--"Our daily decisions prepare us"

(-My Stake Presidency)

I met some amazing people this week, and hopefully you can hear more of who they are in the next few weeks as we continue to teach and learn to love them! :)

Go & Do and Believe & Love!

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

Cute

Yum

Mt Timpanogas Celestial Room

Battle Fields with old buildings

A banner

He is the light

Week 40: Rain, More Rain, & Missionary Made Floods...

Sooo... we basically flooded our bathroom this morning! 

Left the water running... and later while we were making some cards, I said, "Sister, is the sink running in the bathroom?"..... 

Hahaha!...the drying has been going all day! Not sure if we will get all our clothes done! Sorry for the short email... but our bathroom, cabinet and carpet needed some attention!! Haha! ....and we had just cleaned the bathroom! We had left some things in the sink so that they would soak and be clean, but, we left the sink on...then, probably 30 mins later, we were thinking, "That sound is not the washer, it's probably a sink or something that's on" and THAT it was for sure!   

So every towel, blanket, and bed sheet were soaking up all this water that went all the way into the kitchen, and into all of our drawers!! Squeaky clean! 

It's been a great week! We found so many cool people! I love the Gospel, the Atonement, and the experience I have to be here and experience both! 

ALSO, Didem, Lale', and Koray Urel were all able to come to a baptism,  soo amazing! So worth it! I love them so much! They have my heart for ever! And we taught Lale' the plan of salvation and she retained like all of it, and gets it! She's only 6!  she says "I always want you guys to come over, I love talking about God and Jesus!"

I wish we all could be as children! 

Always love,

Sister Chaffin 

Week 39: May the Forth 💙

Thank you to all who wished me Happy Birthday and sent me things! It really made my birthday special on the mission! :) I am so grateful for each of you, and hope you all are having the best first week of May! I sure did have a great one! Lots of flash flood warnings and some thunderstorms and wonderful 100% humidity! :)

Man am I grateful for humidity! Humidity will always remind me of the first day I got in the mission and all the good days. Reminds me of hiking in the alps in Germany and walking around Iceland, so it is always good to feel some good humidity again! :)

Having been in Virginia it has been record rain fall levels last fall. Now lets see how the spring goes... there has been sooo much rain already! I am really getting to love rain, which is odd, I am usually a sunny-day-only kind of person!

Anyways enough of the weather... well one more thing, last night we were at a member's house for dinner and we got outside and it was raining pretty hard, we went to our car and saw this dog walking around by itself and saw this little kid yelling it's name... so we decided that we had to help these people get their dog back! The dog was running around a few houses, and the second you would start to get close to it, it would think it was a game and it would run around the houses again... Sister Minaker loves dogs and wanted to so badly help these people, so we tried for about 10 minutes helping this dog in the pouring rain with no rain coats or umbrellas! Then when Sister Minaker bent down and started to clap her hands, the dog start coming towards her and Sister Minaker was able to catch him! The owner was so grateful! We gave her our card and let her know that if it happens again, we can help! :) There's my rain story for ya! hahah!

This past week was kind of crazy! Many lessons, many different things that were unplanned but led to being the things that were meant to happen! The Spirit is kind of silly that way! Haha but it is so beautiful and amazing how it works! This past Monday the Spirit prompted sister Minaker and me to go to this guy name Garrett. Sister Minaker had this idea that we could both pray to know where to be when we didn't know where to go and write down 2 areas within our area to know where to be and who needed us at that time, she wrote down 2 places, I wrote down 2 names and 2 places.. haha. I thought of Garret and another guy that I saw in our area book but never met. I also wrote down the name of the place Garrett lived in and didn't know it, but so did she! We were meant to go to his house at that time! He had had a knee surgery and was on crutches when we first met him. He had told us to come back and to text him. We had texted him, but no response. we went back and he was walking around and no crutches! He had remembered that Sister Minaker is from Canada! How cool!

Tuesday was absolute chaos!! There was AT LEAST 5 whole lessons, 90 degrees, 100% humidity, and barely enough time for lunch! Many miracles happened on this day! The devil was working hard on us but we just kept pushing through!! We had an awesome lesson with the recent convert in the YSA congregation and a member from the congregation! He has so many good questions of the Holy Ghost and how he can feel it and follow it more! He sounds a lot like me! Hahaha!

We had a church tour with Yamilet! Wow was that spiritual! She truly is so connected with the spirit and wants to be as Jesus Christ! As we showed her the baptismal font she explained how she can't wait till that is her! She explained how the church was so clean and organized and how it is a church that actually FEELS like a church!! 

We had another church tour with a man from Canada and he loved it! He felt the spirit so strong as we testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ! How beautiful it was to help him come to more of a knowledge of Jesus Christ! 

Love you all!  Have a great week!

May the "Forth" (4th) be With you!

Always love!

Sister Chaffin

Birthday breakfast sister Minaker made

Lunch at Panera