Week 30: You're Never Going to Believe This

AFTER 7 MONTHS I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!! I'm going to the Vint Hill Ward! Gainsville/Warrington area!! Man am I excited for the reset!! But wow am I sure going to miss these amazing people here!!! My heart breaks to leave them!! I have so many friends here that that I would seriously call this my home! You have no idea!! From school beginning through Christmas and through Valentine's day! Crazy! But I am soo excited for my new companion, area, ward, people to teach, and new friendships built!! 

This week was the last run... even though I didn't know it was going to be my last week here, I felt it. I wrote my companion a letter just to say thank you and it basically was a good bye letter and then that night I get the news!! The day we found out, we saw everyone and had multiple lessons and because of that I knew that God is aware of me and knows me!!! As we left each lesson I felt it as if the big man was telling me it was going to be the last time you see these people!! 

This week was a great one we visited with Rosa and Sofia Bertoldo and got smoothies and chatted for the longest time! It was awesome!! We had a nice conversation with the Arnez family about languages! Soo cool! :)) Connor, the person we are teaching that is a member referral, bore his testimony on Sunday at Sacrament and it was AWESOME!! He already has a testimony, he says he's just waiting to have the "confirmation" to be baptized!! Go Connor!! :)) We had some Awesome lessons with Jay! He truly has a personality! And This Young Single Adult ward is going to love him and all that he has to bring to the table! We got to have lunch with Sister Harley to Do Fresco! It was soo yum!! I love these people to death! I am learning so much every single day!!! 

Never say the word w.e.i.r.d. too much... or you and your companion will make a deal that when ever you say it you have to do 5 push ups... since yesterday was Sunday... I didn't do them yesterday. So I had 65 push ups to do today and counting from the ones from today... yay!!

Sorry for the short weekly's lately... they will get better! Just been chatting with the family!! 

Love you all so much! 

Gracias por tú amor!

Love always, 

Sister Chaffin

Baby Alex Bertoldo of "Javi" (H-o-v-i)

A woman gave me an Aguascalientes magnate because a know someone who went there so she gave it to us.

We drew a temple for a widower we are teaching

El Fresco Lunch!!

Bertoldos

Brother Li 

Brother Li and Sister Li

We are teaching Connor, right next me!

Good bye Jay

Week 29: Abide With Me

Woo hoo!!! JAY IS BAPTIZED!!!! He slept in and couldn't make it to his confirmation so we are doing that tonight!! I am so proud of him and all the sacrifices he has made to be able to be baptized!!! 

Wow was this week fun! Every week comes with new challenges and things that God wants us to learn!  We truly learn every day! An amazing talk that I read and was lead to this week really struck with me. It is called "His Spirit to be With You" by President Eyring. I truly love that man! The 5 simple parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are perfectly weaved into this talk! We used it many times this week in teaching! 

He says "The Holy Ghost is a person of spirit. It is your choice whether to receive Him and welcome Him into your heart and mind." This struck me because of the person we were teaching that day! It truly is our choice. Every choice we make it is either to get closer to God or push away from him. So it has been really interesting to watch my self through out the days! Our thoughts compile to make our words and actions our actions become who we are, and who we are and who we want to become. I know that we can always strive to remember Him and keep His Commandments! 

I love the gospel! I love these people soo much! I never want to leave them or this work! 

Always love,

Sister Chaffin 

Callista.chaffin@missionary.org

"Mercy" or Mercadies the puppy! 

a pretty recent convert/returning member, Alvaro baptized Jay

"Jay" 

Mayra:)) in YSA ward

Jay, YSA lead missionaries, us, and President! :)

Week 28: Growing Week

Wow was this a growing week!!

Working on humility has been fun! There is an amazing experience we had with a guy that we had a lesson with and he is a widower named Eugene! He talks about history a lot and wars! And he's not interested in converting but he wants to learn more.. so we've been going back! We taught the plan of Salvation and half way through he talked about how he saw on Twitter, a post that said, "what would you put on your gravestone" and he said with a trembling lip and tearful eyes, trying to hold it back "I wrote, 'looking for my wife" literally at that moment, so many things hit home for me and watching that man express his desire to find his wife!!

Truly amazing!! I know this work keeps going forth! We watch it go forward every day! TENDER MERCIES!

Love you lots!!!

Sister Chaffin

New email- callista.chaffin@missionary.org

The hand sign for love

Jay (far left) who we are baptizing this Saturday!!

Sisters conference

Teddy the nicest most cuddly pitbull ever

A ward member's backyard! They are building a Roman temple/Colosseum 

Week 27: Siéntate. Sé humilde

Sit Down. Be Humble.

What an amazing week! From 6 degrees last week, to 63 degrees, now back down to freezing. Humidity has been up and down too! Never know what the day is gonna be like! 

We had lots of lessons that the Lord blessed us with this past week! He sure loves His children and watches out for them! I am so grateful for the places I've been and the milagros (miracles) that have perform in my eyes! The spirit that was in the room when God aligned us to have Sister Harley, Brother Moez, Syrous and Brother Bertoldo and Sofia Bertoldo all in the same room discussing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Brother Moez was translating for Syrous. Sofia and Brother Bertoldo were testifying! it was absolutely amazing! 

We had a few lessons with Jay and he is getting baptized Febuary 23rd! he is awesome! we was so mad that we missed one of the lessons we were going to have and he was so sad that he brought us cookies for next time! haha He is making so many changes into his life that are amazing we hope that he can keep it up!! Pray for Jay!!

This week we have been asked to work on a Christ-like attribute for the transfer, and I picked to study Humility. When you start working on an attribute it ends up being something you really need to work on that transfer, at least of heard. So far so true. Haha

God has now changed my view on everything from that time forward. The opposite of humility is pride. Pride is very well seen in others, but hard to find in ourselves. Yet each of us are prideful because we are people, we make selfish mistakes. Pride is not something in your life where you can flip a switch and your humble. It is a life long process because it involves basically every Christ-like attribute.

I love you all so much! I am so blessed to still be in this area with the amazing sister Wood! she truly has been called here for a reason! God truly has tender mercies every second of our lives! If you are having a bad day take a step back and check out your blessings! God is real. The Holy Ghost changes every ones lives. Strive to keep the Holy Ghost with you always!! :) 

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

A quote from Ammon that a sister drew on an elephant for me! :)

 Syrous and me on the deck

Syrous, Sister Harley's dad. We took him on a wall on a better day when it was 60 degrees haha

A massive lunch we made... We got excited!

Sister Harley's mother that we took on a walk. She looks a little mad because it was cold and super windy.. darn

Week 26: Positivity Moves Mountains

Good morning to the West Coast!!!! 

Have you ever wondered why we say "good morning"? 

It is so we start our day off with positivity so that we can conquer the day! :) haha 

I've been putting negative thoughts out of my head this week and striving to change them to a positive and extra optimistic to keep Sister Wood and I both going! The end of this week was sooo rough! I swear from Friday to Sunday is when everything happens!

We had Zone Conference Friday and every time we see President Caplin, there is revelation I need to get from him! From God essentially. But no matter the day, he is my President and he gives me the orders so that I can be successful, and be a consecrated Missionary to the Lord! He gives me revelation from God to me! What's really awesome is that I gained much revelation while at that Zone Conference and my head hurt for the next 3 days from trying and pushing forth to being completely be lead by the spirit! That night after Zone Conference we put 2 people on date for baptism and adjusted the date for another one that is already planned for baptism! The work keeps flying and we strive to baptize monthly here! :) I've never testified so much of promised blessings within 3 days of teaching! I know this work is the most important work we can be doing on this earth! The Gathering of Israel is happening among us today, people!! I pray that it can take properly in all your lives! We see the promise of the Lord being fulfilled continually!! 

There is now going to be a Ghanaian program here of missionaries and hopefully then a ward of Ghanaians! How amazing! Anyone speak Twi?? Haha but what is really cool is that there are now companionship's of half English half Español! Sooo we as a companionship asked President if we could practice a little Spanish and he said of course!! We got 2 people's numbers yesterday from memorizing four phrases!! I am more than excited to start praying and contacting in Spanish. The Goal is so that I can teach in Spanish, but that's still in the making.. No hablo mucho Español. Haha! 

The topics of my studies have been crazy, I've been reading in the institute manual with the Book of Mormon and I've been reading 2 Nephi 2 all this week! There is so much in it! Its amazing! But the Highlight of my studies have been directing the talk "Consecrate Thy Performance" by Neal A. Mawxell!! WOW! I really recommend this talk! He gets deep! I'll share some of my favorite quotes!

"Having our will increasingly swallowed up by the will of the Father actually means an enhanced individuality, stretched and more capable of receiving "all that (God) hath" (D&C 84:39). Besides, how could we be entrusted with His "all" until our wills are much more like His? Nor could His "all" be fully appreciated by the partially committed.

...Frankly, it is our prospective selves we betray by holding back whatever the "part." No need therefore to ask, 'Lord is it I?' (Matthew 26:22) Rather, let us inquire about our individual stumbling blocks, 'Lord, is it this?' We may have known the answer for a long time and may need resolve more than His response." Neal A. Maxwell ("Consecrate Thy Performances" --General Conference address May 2002))

Keep building your Faith, Always.

Always Love!

<3 Hermana Chaffin ;)