11.25.2019 "The Spirit of God like a FIRE ball of pizza..."

A pretty eventful week in the books!

Started out with a dinner with the Pew and Black family! We thought it would be a great idea to bring a recently baptized Family, the Blacks, to a dinner with the Pews! The day of, sister Pew calls us and said "is it okay if we push dinner back just a little, my little boy smacked his chin on the ground and we are just getting out of Urgent Care from getting some stitches! We said "Yeah that's fine!" We get there waiting for them to get home from picking up the Black family! We finally get inside, not to mention what time it was... 

Sister Pew asks Brother Pew, "what did you do with the pizza?" 

Brother Pew - "it got cold, so I put it on BROIL in the oven..." 

*Sister Pew runs into the Kitchen, opens the oven door (Brother Pew running after her)"  

I looked in the kitchen seeing lights of orange and red...

and came to find brother Pew holding a ball of fire on a pizza box... Sister Pew tried to find an extinguisher, but the first one she found wouldn't come off the wall! Then they opened the back sliding door! The screen door was still closed so the box of pizza is starting to fall apart as they tried to throw it out the back door, cardboard and fire flying off, the oven mit was then on fire! The kids were running everywhere, crying! ‍♀️‍♂️They all came running to me while sister Cunningham was in the bathroom (at this point, she really didn't know what was happening because she was in the bathroom as all of this was occurring). They finally threw it out the back door, got another extinguisher and sprayed the fire out! So much smoke filled the house, the fire alarm went off for a while, I was fanning the house with one of the doors so the firetrucks wouldn't come!

What a night! Brother Pew then went and got some more pizza! From that day forward we all know not to put pizza boxes in the oven on broil! 

Pizza was great! The Company was even greater!

Zone Conference was amazing! We had a review of all the zone conferences with in the past 6 months and each companionship share their experiences!

We sang a lot of songs and heard a musical number from the Farci speaking Elders singing "Nearer my God to Thee" as the sang and played the guitar!! It was beautiful! We sang the EFY (Especially for Youth) medley! Then President Caplin was inspired to have us sing "The Spirit of God", like originally planned and I was to play that as everyone sang! Sister Caplin said I could play instead of her! Then she came over and played with me as a duet and we played around on in the song! I WAS PLAYING WITH A PROFESSIONAL PIANIST THAT TOURED EUROPE! She is amazing, the song was amazing and the spirit was even stronger! 

Our new friend Courtney read 17 chapters of the Book of Mormon before our first lesson! Our other new friend Chelle said the best prayer!

On Friday, Donald got permission from his wife to be baptized!! He had his interview and is set for his baptism For next Thursday!

Rose! Every thing has finally clicked with her!! She really has noticed the light around a certain member and she connected the dots and saw the difference in a man who is a righteous man of God holding his power and just a good man without his power and authority! She said "WOW!" For about 30 minutes! Her prayer was amazing after that! What a woman of faith!

Sister Haynie gave us some of her cinnamon and hibiscus juice she made--all natural! Hibiscus straight  from Jamaica!

What a great week doing the work of the Lord! I love my Savior and all the hope he offers!

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin 

callista.chaffin@missionary.org

11.18.2019 Endure On, Press On, Enjoy

Donald wants to be baptized on Thanksgiving and his wife says that she will write a letter saying she supports him!

Sister Rose is getting her glasses today (Which means she will most likely, knowing her, read most of the book of Mormon in the next week!! :) )

Sister Martin plans on coming back to church on the 24th! Once she comes to church she WILL want to be baptized in the following few weeks!

Our new friend Chelle believes, that by us coming and talking with her, that it is a sign from God that she needs to do something soon or prepare herself in some way!! TRUTH! She is so close to the spirit and so faithful!! ( Also a plus, her granddaughter's name is Cali ;) )

We found our miracle friend, Brother James, again! ( He kind of fell off the face of the earth, but by the grace of God we found him!)

Miracles continue to find their way!
I love the Lord with all my heart!

Always Love,
Sister Chaffin

11.11.2019 "It's Supposed Require Something of Our Soul"

I have learned so much this week!

Prayer works 

Faith takes work on our part

Truth is truth no matter what

Blessings WILL flow

Joy is the reason I believe

Our friend Donald has been on and off a date for baptism for quite a while now and has been out of town and hasn't been able to come to church! The reason for him not being able to be baptized is because we want his wife to be on board with everything! Last night she and he truly took a huge step in the right direction! She finally read the letter we wrote her after 3 weeks! We have a devotional where, at the end of the missionary transfers, we hear from those who were recently baptized and their adventure in coming closer to Jesus Christ! 

We asked Donald the day before if he wanted to come to the devotional, and he said "yes I definitely want to come, I hope it will answer some of my questions that I have!"

So we texted him and he said, no I have something to do for my wife... 

Then we called him! "Donald, what do you mean? You said 24hrs ago you would love to come!" He's like "sorry guys I have some errands to do!"  We talked to him a little bit more then he said, "give me 2 minutes to ask my wife!" 

*This is 10 minutes before we had to leave

*He calls us 2 minutes later saying "okay, I just have to grab her McDonald's and I can go!"

Mind you that we have a ride lined up to take us and pick him up. And we can't go to this meeting unless one of our friends are going. He has been to this devotional before and this is where he first decided he wanted to be baptized! So we knew that if he came to this, he would really remember the spirit he felt!

And it HAPPENED! He came, our President talked and invited anyone there that wasn't baptized, to be baptized on Thanksgiving day in that church building! After the meeting Donald said he was interested in getting baptized. 

Sister Cunningham and I got to the bathroom afterwards and we come out and see Donald talking to our President! He explained that once his wife is okay with him doing this, he can be baptized!  TURKEY BAPTISM! Everyone, pray for it!! 

This is how I felt 5 minutes before Donald told us he was coming!

"It's supposed to require something of our soul.

If Jesus could plead in the, night falling 

on his face, bleeding from every pore and crying "Abbah, Father, Papa. Remove this cup from me" well, little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing...

This is the Living son of the living God saying isn't there some other way?

...[if we] wonder why this isn't easy, [we] should remember that [we] aren't the first ones to ask that, because someone a lot greater and a lot better asked it a long time ago! He asked if there wasn't a less excruciating way, and for him there wasn't, and so perhaps for us in token, symbolism that there will be an entirely easier way"

Truly, I have felt the battle against the devil and have fought for good so many times. It is obvious what happens when we follow the devil, we get lazy and fall under temptations and forget what matters most! Keep Christ at the Center, my friends! The Center and the driving factor behind all you do should be for the love  of God, his Son Jesus Christ and His Children! 

As President Nelson has said in this past Woman's session of General Conference, "Part of this endeavor will require you to put aside many things of this world. Sometimes we speak almost casually about walking away from the world with its contention, pervasive temptations, and false philosophies. But truly doing so requires you to examine your life meticulously and regularly. As you do so, the Holy Ghost will prompt you about what is no longer needful, what is no longer worthy of your time and energy."

Happy Veteran's day! Thank you to all who have served to help our Country and our liberty! 🇺🇸

Each Veteran is as Captain Moroni!

Alma 48:11 "And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery."

Have the best week!

Always Love,

Sister Chaffin

Sister Makoni, on exchanges!

Rose and sister Makoni

Our District with matching sweatshirts

Potomac by our Church Building

Card for Rose

11.04.2019 Batman Says He Loves Me 💛

What a week! 2 days of literal Halloween & also,  Rose came to Church!!!

There was a Tornado warning so those on the Base rescheduled Halloween to the next day! The night of real Halloween it was 80 degrees that night with about 90% humidity. It poured rain that night and that next day those on base had actual Halloween. The temperature was 45 all day long! I talk a lot about the weather, but it is just insane here sometimes! I think it's finally Fall/Winter here now!

We were at someone's house on Halloween night and a little kid with a batman suit, ran out and was walking around and then came up to me and said "I love you!" really quietly, haha! What a cutie!

Yesterday Rose came to church! I bore my testimony to the congregation and talked about how much it meant to me when we met Rose and how her Faith in Jesus Christ is so amazing! She almost went up and bore her testimony!! But someone else went up!

But in Sunday School, she basically bore her testimony on Prayer to everyone, that God is aware of you!!! 

On Saturday we gave her a Church Tour! She couldn't stop saying WOW! And she talked about the Savior as she was looking at a painting of Him in Gethsemane and another Sister with us started to tear up!

Sister Martin told us she is praying about being baptized and we didn't even ask her!!!

There is this thing in our mission, called "the 40 day mission fast"! And you fast from food and water the first day to figure out a few things that you can work on during the the next 40 days, so that you can purify yourself and so the Holy Ghost can truly work by and through you more effectively! So we started yesterday! I am so excited to see where this leads us! :)

These next few quotes are from Lynn G. Robbins talk from April 2018 "Until Seventy Times Seven" ->

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/until-seventy-times-seven

"Why Does God Allow Us to Fail?

1. It gives us experience & it is for our good.

2. For us to taste the bitter to know to prize the good.

3. To know that the battle is the Lord's. It's only by and through His Grace!

4. To be refined and develop Christ-like Attributes"

He also explains that, "Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will. This is the gospel of repentance.."

Repentance is the greatest gift we have been given. We can change our own lives through the gift of agency! Either for good or for bad. What a blessing it is to have this gift! We literally get to choose who we are and what we are! I am so very grateful for this knowledge and ability to choose. These next 40 days I choose to be more grateful, continue in positivity, and be more faithful! Repenting everyday allows us the ability to reach our fullest potential! May we all take advantage of fulfilling our full potential and repent each day! I sure pray everyday that we can! 

Know that not only Batman loves you, but THE MERCIFUL MAN, the Son of God, [that pleaded for your sake and asks, "Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life" (D&C 45:5),] loves you!

Always love,

Sister Chaffin