Holy Service Batman!!

Hey familia! 

I stinkin' miss all of you (or "all y'all" as they say down here) and I hope you're doing well!
Holy tomato, we have been serving like crazy this week, and our numbers weren't even way down despite how much time we spend doing yard work and cleaning. The Lord's work is truly awesome. We cleaned this lady's house, washed this other lady's dishes that have been accumulating for months, and we installed a drainage system to prevent this member's garage from flooding every time it rains. We also did yard work for this random couple and when we wouldn't take money, the old man started swearing at us. haha! So great!

 

Okay, so here are two super cool experiences-

This last week when we were on exchanges with the Gonzalez sisters, Sister Gibson and I went to see a less active member who lives in a long term care facility, and our visit lasted almost 90 minutes and it would've lasted longer if we'd let it. This sister is so lonely, and it's hard to balance the need to love and serve by spending time with her and the need to see as many people as we can. But the tender mercy comes in here - we left the care facility and I was feeling bummed because we weren't going to be able to see everyone we wanted to visit (we didn't have set appointments, but we had a list of people that needed some hope) and so we went to another less active's house, who is never home, and I really didn't think that we would get to see her. But when we got there, she was there and said, "Hey, I just got home from class, come in and talk." And if our visit with the first less active was shorter, we wouldn't have been able to see this second sister, and she actually let us in and talked to us. It was really cool, seeing how Heavenly Father uses our weaknesses to further His great work.

Also, I'm coming to understand that the Book of Mormon is truly a holy book. I have a deep testimony of that and it is only getting stronger and deeper, and we try to keep ourselves and those we work with in the Book of Mormon as much as we can. This last week we set up an "experiment" (this is our new tactic for getting people to make and keep commitments, or getting ourselves to try something new) with an eternal investigator, and we asked her to read one chapter in the Book of Mormon every day for one week. And guess what - she did it! I think she missed a day or two, but she made it up the day after, and this is the first time she's tried and kept a commitment in a long time. We asked her how she felt and how her days went, and she said that her time in the Book of Mormon brought her peace and serenity, that she felt good when she did it, and she made the connection that maybe that was the Holy Ghost. Hooray! Seeing her make those connections on her own is a miracle. Hopefully, as we continue to love, serve, and teach, and as she continues to keep the commandments, she can receive the strength and the confidence that she needs to make the decision to be baptized.

K, love you all! Watch for letters in the mail! Thanks for all your letters and support! I can feel Heavenly Father strengthening me because of your prayers and I am so grateful for that!

Love,

Sister Chausow

Happy Happenings!!

Hello to my family who I love so much!

Here's a quick update on the goings on down here in Baton Rouge-

It is hot hot hot! And it is made more so by the humidity. Seriously, my glasses fog up when I get out of the car or leave the apartment, that's how humid it is.

Also, we've been eating a ton of jambalaya - don't be alarmed if I've turn into a large bowl of jambalaya by the time I get home. It's so freakin' delicious, I might eat myself if I actually turned into jambalaya....

We had a ton of meetings this week, so we didn't get as much teaching in as we'd like, but we were definitely strengthened by our meetings. This last Zone Training Meeting was the most spiritual meeting I've been in so far, and the Spirit was so strong, you could almost cut it with a knife. Even when me and Sister Jones were instructing, we were still learning, and that's when you know the Spirit is teaching - when both the teacher and the hearer are edified.

Another highlight of the week was our 12 Week Training. For the first three months you're in the field, you are supposed to have an hour of training each day based on this 12-Week In Field Training Plan that the Missionary Department/Apostles came up with. We have been slacking off, not doing training, and yesterday we finally made time to sit down and walk through weeks 9 and 10. And even though we'd been putting it off, we actually enjoyed it and learned a ton! A ton about the Spirit, and ton about the symbols in the temple, and a ton about ourselves. It was amazing. We truly made our apartment a holy place yesterday, because we were learning from Preach My Gospel and the scriptures through the Spirit. And the funny thing was that we were learning about the Holy Ghost. It was almost as if the Holy Ghost was saying, "Hooray! You are finally making time to learn about me! Let me bless you with my presence so that you can not only learn about me, but learn about what I feel like." It was so cool to uncover the mysteries of God. I was truly humbled and felt the acceptance of the Lord during that time yesterday.

Another happy thing is that Sister Jones and I are growing closer in companionship unity. We set goals and make plans everyday to tweak our teaching, tweak our routine, and tweak our obedience, so that we can be more aligned with the will of the Lord. One of the things that means the most to me in a friend is the ability to help me be a better person. And Sister Jones has that. I really hope we have another transfer together so that we can continue to push each other and grow together. :)

I love serving the Lord so much. We've been doing a ton of yard work, we clean peoples' houses, we help with ward activities, and we wash dishes wherever we eat. It's so true when they say that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And as I've served people, I come to love them. If I have a hard time with someone, that's on me, because I haven't done my part to serve them. Heavenly Father has provided us a way to love everyone - and that way is through service. The Atonement kicks in when we serve, it heals our wounds and our sorows, and it enlarges our heart. I'm so grateful for the Atonement - it's the only way I can get up at 6:20am every morning. I rely on it for everything, and I have come to love my Savior by using it. This mission is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Seriously, why did I ever not want to serve a mission?
Love you all a bunch!

-Sister Chausow

Happy June Ya'll!!

Hello to my wonderful family who I love so much! Here's a few updates on this past week.

 

I hope everyone is sitting down as they read this, because I have some earth shattering news - I am human! Who knew, right? This has been a very human week, a little unbalanced and with some mistakes. But thankfully, I've been able to learn a ton from my experiences, and I'm excited to move forward and change.

 

One of the best things about this transfer is my companion, Sister Jones. Our unity has been phenomenal. Sister Jones is so forgiving, and loves me even when I make mistakes. She really encourages me and helps me to see the good in myself, and it's because of her positivity that I have set a goal that whenever I feel like I've messed up or didn't teach the best, to not dwell on the negative but see what I can learn and move forward. I love having a friend and a companion who inspires me.

 

Okay, we have had gajillions of tender mercies, and I started seeing them more during and after my exchange with Sister LaPorte. She is a pro at seeing and talking about all the tender mercies, and things that would seem normal or mundane she recognizes as blessings from the Lord. And I loved learning that from her! She helped me put on my "miracle glasses," and because of that, I've noticed that God blessed us with beautiful clouds and sunshine, the opportunity to meet an eternal investigator's son who has been invisible so far but has potential for conversion, to serve more than I ever had so far but to also teach more lessons than I've taught any other week on my mission. We were blessed by a member who bought us a ton of groceries, and I was able to teach, testify, and understand in Spanish when I went on exchanges with the Spanish sisters. I know this is truly is the Lord's work - I've seen too many miracles, big and small, to say otherrwise.

 

So in our mission, President Wall, has put a big emphasis on the book of Mormon. He wants us to study it more dilligently and he wants us to continually use it as we teach, invite people to read it from the beginning, and if they don't, to read with them. And I've found that I love reading it with investigators, less actives, and members because it brings some awesome experiences. Here are three quick examples:
With investigator D, we have started reading with him weekly. We started in Helaman because that's as far as he got by himself. And we are trying to enable him to read on his own by showing him what to look for and how to apply the wars and contentions of the Nephites to himself. And miracle: D's mother is devout in her religion, and she normally just sits and observes, but this time, she followed along in her own copy of the Book of Mormon as we read, and D texted us later that day and said how much she loved our visit. I think D's mom has started to feel the spirit of the Book of Mormon.

Second, we gave a less active member Alma 36 to read while she was in a detox center for acoholism, and she loved it. We read it before she went to rehab, and we invited her to read it again while she was in rehab, and her faith is really growing in the power of the atonement, which she desperately needs because she needs to use the atonement now more than ever before in her life.

And lastly, we talked about the difference in the people of Ammon before they were baptized and after (we looked at Alma 27:25 and 27) and how we can become more converted. The Book of Mormon is for everyone, and I love it so so much.

 

Lastly, I just wanted to share some word changing I did in a verse from the Book of Mormon. In Ether 6:3, which reads "And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness." And I realized that us missionaries, and every member of the church, is like those stones. The verse could read, "And thus the Lord caused his missionaries/saints to shine in the darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not pass through this life in darkness." I love this! Over and over again I find that the Savior is light, and we as his representatives need to spread and shine His light. It makes me think of that hymn "There is in his sight no darkness at all." I want to continue to stay in that light and exude it by staying close to Him.

I love being here, I love serving the Lord, and I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and emails! I have the best support group anyone could ask for!
Love,

Sister Chausow

Hi Ya'll!

Happy Monday to my wonderful family who I love so much! I

Thanks for all your emails! Mondays are seriously like Christmas, and opening each email is like opening a super big box wrapped in shiny paper. Love it. :)

 

So I'm here! And we are on Week 2 of the transfer already, weird! I wonder if I'm going to count my life in transfers when I get home.... me and Sister Jones are clicking, I love working with her so dang much. Our first day together she got really sick, so I studied while she slept and the Zone Leaders came and gave her a blessing. Since then, though, we have been working our tails off and we have seen some wonderful miracles and have hopefully been planting some seeds. There is so much work to do in our ward, and meeting with a full ward council for the first time ever yesterday (I've only been to Ward Council meetings in YSA wards) was an interesting experience. I realized how important home and visitng teaching is - what if one of the temple recommend questions was 'Have you been a faithful home/visiting teacher?' - would that increase home/visiting teaching or decrease temple attendance? Just a random thought I had as I heard the statistics for the ward and heard the bishopric's plea to the auxilary leaders to help people reach out to people.

 

Anyways, I am so happy here, we are being as strictly obedient as possible, we lift and encourage each other and the members, and we talk to lots of people, trying to find those who are prepared to hear the gospel. Really, I had no idea that working so hard and being super exhausted at the end of each day could make me so happy, and I know it's because we are doing what the Savior wants.

 

To describe the details of my new area, I am going to go through the ABC's haha. It was a fun thing I did in Peru to record memories and I thought I'd do it again.

 

A - Allergies! It turns out I am allergic to cats, and LOTS of people out here have cats. So I've been taking an allergy pill every morning so that my nose doesn't become a faucet whenever we go into someone's house.

B- Busy busy busy! We have at least two appointments every day and make two-ish unscheduled visits to less actives or potential investigators.

C - Crawfish! I went to my first crawfish boil, and the members of the ward taught me how to rip open the crawfish and get the meat. Super spicy, super delicious, super barbaric, and super fun.

D - Drinking a ton of water out here is essential! It's only in the 80's so far but the humidity makes it feel like 8000 degrees (Edna Mode anyone?).

E - Elders Asuao and Navitikula are in our ward and in our district, and we work closely with them. Elder Asuao is from American Samoa and is a spiritual giant, and Elder Navi is from Fiji and is a lot of fun and still learning English. We call them the Poly's (polynesians) and I love serving with them - they are hard workers, they have the spirit, and they always encourage us to do our best.

F - Fun! The last P-Day we had with our district before transfers last week was so much fun. I love being a missionary because you have good clean fun and work super hard with some great people. We played ping pong and Uno at the institute building, and it was so nice to just let loose and laugh for a bit with my missioanry family.

 

I'll start up with "G" next week....until then, know that I love all of you so much! Thanks for all your love and support!

Hugs!

-Sister Chausow

Transferred!! New Address!

Hey Family!

Happy May! Since it is the last week of the transfer, we have P-day on Tuesday instead of Monday. Big News: I am getting transferred to Baton Rouge 2nd Ward! I will be working with Sister Jones and we have been called to be Sister Training Leaders (the female equivalent of a zone leaders). Yikes! But I am so excited to have an opportunity to serve missionaries and members alike in my new area. Effective Wednesday, my new address will be:

11580 Perkins Road #4

Baton Rouge, LA 70810

 

Thanks for all the letters! I love getting them! I promise to write back soon! In the mean time, I just wanted to say that I've loved serving on LSU campus, and I'm gonig to really miss the people and my companion. Me and Sister Olsen have grown really close and I'm going to miss her a ton. But we will still be in the same district, so I will see her at least once a week in district meetings, hooray! I attached a picture, hopefully it comes through! It's of me and Sister Olsen, having a little fun in the car with some buckets. Good times!

 

I wanted to share a little about the people that we've taught in the last week and who I'm really going to miss. I was going to label them the good, the bad, and the ugly, but that's much too harsh. Even our experience with "R" wasn't ugly per se, just not as awesome as we'd hoped. So I will label them good, better, and best.

 

Good: Visited with "R" on Sunday, a potential investigator who'd requested a free bible from mormon.org. When we dropped it off three weeks ago, we also gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him about the restoration. He's from Ghana, and we aren't sure how much he actually understood, but he seemed open. We finally got to go back and talk with him again, and he told us that everything he needs to know is in the Bible, and he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon. He hadn't read at all, and we were bummed because he didn't seem to give it a fair chance. We tried reading 1 Nep. 1:1 with him, and tried to relate it to him (everyone has hard times but can still know that God is good and looking out for us) and he still refused to acknowledge that the Book of Mormon might be a good thing. So we were pretty discouraged, but then the next day, he texted us and told us about a trial that he was going through, just like we'd read about, and we gave him some encouragement. He was really appreciative, and hopefully someday in the future he gives the Book of Mormon a chance because it really does change lives and brings people to Christ.

 

Better: Talked with a member named "E", who got baptized a few years ago. He is active, but seems socially converted rather than spiritually converted, and the Bishop asked us to help answer his questions and strengthen his faith. And I freaking love "E", because even though he thinks I'm pretty weird (aka: I'm not afraid to ask him hard questions) he really opens up to us and he really does have great faith, which inspires me to have more faith and don't let what I don't know bog me down. And Sunday we were able to talk and teach him about clinging to what we know, and told him that it's okay to ask questions. I love visiting with "E", because I always feel the Savior's love for him, and I hope that I am helping "E" feel the Savior's love.

 

Best: Met with "J", a freshman as LSU. We've been slowly teaching her about the gospel, and she is so willing and open to new ideas, she's just been really busy. So we heart attacked her door to encourage her through finals week, and then we actually got to teach her later. And even though we weren't super prepared, we taught her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, and the spirit was there so strong you could almost cut it with a knife. I got to bear testimony of Jesus Christ, and I could feel my own testimony being strengthened as I did so. Isn't it great that Heavenly Father allows us to grow as we reach out to others? It seems backwards, but it's a reality. "J" will be in and out of Baton Rouge for the summer, but she will be back in the fall, and she committed to reading the Book of Mormon overthe summer. I am so excited for her, and I hope the Spirit testifies to her as she reads. She came to church last Sunday, and she said that she felt uplifted. I want so badly for her to continue in building her relationship with God.

 

Sorry for the length of this epistle. Missionary work is just so great, and I can't wait to continue to be a missinoary for the rest of my life, even when I don't get to where a name badge, I hope that I will always have Christ's name written in my heart. I love you al and hope you have a wonderful week! You all rock my socks!

-Sister Chausow

Hey Friends and Family-  This is Mama Chausow.  The picture of Johanna and her companion with the buckets on their heads is hysterical!!  Totally Johanna!!  But unfortunately only a small area of her companion's ear would actually appear when I tried to post it here.  So I will keep "playing" and hopefully there will be one blog of just pictures!

Thanks for all the letters you have been sending!!  She LOVES them!

Toodles!  Mama C

5 investigators, Zone conference, and crawfish corn chowder!

Hey family - 

Just a quick email to thank you all for your email, letters, and support! I could not be doing this without you! I will get letters in the mail today, but I just wanted to send a quick electronic update:

We are teaching five investigators right now, two who I have high hopes for. M. has "hippie parents" and never had religion in her home and she really wants more in her life. K.'s grandma, who took him to a baptist church, passed away and he really misses her. We are excited to teach him about the Plan of Salvation and give him the hope that he can be with her again one day. Both are member referrals, and members are really what makes missionary work happen!

We had Zone Conference this past week and it was so great. WE learned a ton about teaching with the Book of Mormon and with the pamphlets. Confession: I have never seen a pamphlet before in my life, but they are awesome! Ask the missionaries for some and use the questions in the back to direct your personal study one day. They simplify the gospel and help us remember what's important. So great! And of course, it's always good to hear from President Wall and his wife - they are the best ever. President Wall is super kooky, but I feel the love of the Savior through him, and I need that more than anything else. And Sister Wall taught beautifully about Elder Holland's talk "Lord I Believe" and I felt so uplifted. Zone Conference was made even better by the fact that Baton Rouge 2nd ward fed us delicious sandwiches, Crawfish Corn Chowder, and brownies and icecream. I've learned that well-fed missionaries are happy and productive missionaries! :)

I love this work and I feel humbled and blessed to be a part of it. I miss you all and hope that all is well in your lives! Never forget that the Savior loves you and it is only though him that we can make it through this life and return to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father. I hope that we can all make it there together!

Love, 

Sister Chausow

More Q and A's for Mom!

Good Morning Lovely Parents!

Oh how I miss you. I'm so excited to talk to you next week. Sister Olsen is talking to her family at 4ish so can I call at 5ish? And we are allowed to skype, and there is a member of our ward who is willing to let us use her computer and hang out at her apartment for a bit, so hopefully, it's ok if we try skype. Then if the internet connection isnt great, then I'll just call the home phone.

So I don't know if you got my letter about the email with pictures in it, but it turns out that only two pictures actually made it into the draft and both are pretty boring. I'll send some awesome pictures next week now that I know how. Also, just so you know, I wrote most of that letter on P-Day but didn't send it until Wednesday because I kept forgetting, so I wasn't breaking mission rules by writing you on a day other than PDay :)

 

Thanks for sending that joke (mom) and all those crazy stories (dad)!!!! I can't believe our house almost got burned down twice in one night haha. What an adventure. At least you reacted (react people, react!!!). And that's okay about the dinner going up in flames when you were trying to feed the missionaries - it turns out that while missionaries like getting fed, they actually like getting to teach your friends a lot better. We have this saying - we don't want your food, we want your friends lol. But seriously, it's so true. I am going to be a much better member missionary now that I've realized that finding investigators through members is the only effective way to find, teach, and baptize.

 

And now to answer Mom's questions-

1. Do you get any dinner appts.? - Not really, since we are in a student ward and everyone is pretty poor themselves. We had one member buy us jamba juice after a long day at Free Speech Alley, and after the Ward Social, the bishop gave us a whole bag of buns, an unopened bag of frozen hamburger patties, and the left over icecream (Bluebell Icecream = God's gift to mankind) and I'm so freakin excited to have hamburger meat! But also I was humbled because the Bishop doesn't know us super well, and yet he was willing to give us a ton of left over food just because we are the Lord's servants. Woah. We are getting a thank you card in the mail today!

2. Does your apartment have air conditioning? Yes! And thank goodness! It gets pretty muggy here and it's nice to have AC. That's something we definitely didn't enjoy in Peru (Peru has been on my mind a lot lately since it's my one year mark since I went down there - crazy right?)

3. How are your clothes working out? Good, Bad? - I love my clothes! I am getting creative, mixing and matching, and I can't believe that I was worried that I was bringing too much clothing. I'm so glad I brought the amount that I did because I have enough to wear something different every day for two weeks, and everything is comfortable and cool. It's nice to feel cute even when you are sweaty and out of your comfort zone haha. There's a few things I might send home that aren't long enough for the mission and I don't want to be tempted by them. I want to be as strictly obediant as possible. It really does bring the Spirit.

4. Do you need anything that I could save the day with? - I could you some Olay face wipes. The neutrogena kind burns my skin, but the olay kind doesn't. That brand is just a little hard to find down here. Also, I would love some flowers to put in my hair. Kind of random, and definitely a want, not a need, but it's the little things that make life exciting, right? But seriously mom, anything and everything that you send is awesome. Sister Olsen doesn't have a super strong relationship with her family and they never really send her anything, so she gets excited when I open packages because I share whatever I get and/or use it all to decorate our apartment (which is looking much better by the way, thanks for all the cute LDS posters! Our walls look so much better! Plus, Abigail, our born again friend, gave us a strand of 400 christmas lights and we hung them up and it actually looks like girls live in our apartment! hooray!)  

5. Is it hot all the time? - It is hot most days. It's been cool for the last few days so I'm grateful for the cardigans and the rain jacket and tights because the wind can make it kind of chilly. But yes, it gets pretty hot down here and humid definitely. It's only May though, so I'm looking to lots more warmth as we go through the summer!

6. Does it rain all the time? - When it rains is pours here, and our parking lot is such that we have a small lake in our parking lot everytime it rains. We've named it Lake Saskatchewan and the two of us are Sister Lewis and Sister Clark when we have to walk around it. Elder Franke (our zone leader) asked if he could be Sakajewea(sp?) and of course we said yes!

7. Do you know that I freakin love your face! - Oh yes yes yes! But more importantly, do you know that I love your freakin face!!! So much!

Okay- I am out of time but please know I love you and the church is so very, very true!

xoxo-

Sister Chausow