As Sisters In Zion!

Hello All!!

Wow. What a great week! I can't believe I have been out for 6 months! And that me and Sister Wanlapa have been companions for 3 weeks! To celebrate we did what any good missionary would do! Naturally we ate food! We went to this restuarant, it is like the Hometown Buffet, but Thai style. You have this little grill on your table and there is EVERY kind of meat in the world and you get to pick whatever you want and grill it right on your table. Then there is all the fruit, veggies, rice, noodles, and ice cream you could ever eat too! Oh man. it was delicious! If I ever go back, I'll need to make a game plan before. So fun. But I really can't believe how fast the time is going by! I need to start working so much harder and be so much better!

I don't really have much to say this week. Just the normal. Thailand is awesome! I'm still just filled with joy to be here! Oh ya! Last Monday we went to this huge market in Nong Khai. Oh man. It took all my power not to buy everything! It is the coolest place ever! They have everything from clothes to swords and army knifes! Its right on the boarder of Laos. So that was fun looking across the river into Laos! We ate at a little restuarant right on the river. It was so cool!

Isn't the gospel so amazing. The church is always the same. No matter where we go. The members might be a little different, ok a lot different and a little weird, but the gospel is still true! I look up to converts so much. I can't believe how much faith they have. Well thats all I have this week! I sure love you all! Thanks so much for all your love and support! Thanks so much for all your prayers!! I love being a missionary! I'm so happy!! The church is so true!! Loves!

Sister Chambers


Eating a chicken foot :)


Fruit pizza and banana bread!! They turned out delicious!!!


Zone Conference with all the Sisters!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!!!!

Dearest Family and Friends!!

Oh Christmas is in the air!! Well...at least in my heart :) My favorite song this last week has been "Joy To The World!" Every day is so exciting because I get to share the joy that the gospel brings to my life with others! I just love Christmas!! I am so grateful for my Savior!! This last week has been amazing! Last Tuesday was "Zone Conference" I forget the real name of it, it was like a mission tour or something at the church in Khon Kan. Elder Perkins of the seventy was there. It was AMAZING!! Before it started I found out I was the sister chosen to get interviewed by him. Intimidating no?! He just wanted to talk to a couple of the missionaries to get ideas of what to talk about. It was awesome! He was the mission president in Taiwan and said that there was an Elder Perry from Hooper in his mission that just got home a while ago. I wasn't sure I knew who he was talking about, but I was excited he knew where Hooper was! Well the meeting was pretty much all day and it was all so amazing! Elder Perkins and his wife talk, plus President Smith and Sister Smith. We had a delicious lunch! And then everyone talk again and we did some role playing and then had a testimony meeting. It seriously was the coolest meeting ever. It felt like I was back in the MTC! The spirit was so strong! One thing that was particularly cool, that I need to be better at doing, was when Elder Perkins first started talking, he challenged all of us to come up with a couple questions we had, either about how to help investigators or how to be better missionaries, or anything! He said that if we have questions before we go into a meeting, if we are sincere, the Spirit will answer our questions. And at the end of the meeting he asked if everyone had at least one question answered, and everyone had! Both my questions got answered through out the day! It was really cool! It is amazing how the spirit can help everyone! So I challenge everyone with general conference coming up next week, to start thinking of questions. I promise it works! Well after the meeting was over, President Smith wanted to interview everyone, so while we were waiting all the sisters got together in a little classroom and sat and talked with Sister Smith and Sister Perkins. It was so awesome! They both have had such amazing lives! It really was a neat experience.

Well the rest of the week was filled with teaching and inviting. It was great fun! We found this darling family, the mom just had a stroke and so her right arm and leg are paralyzed. Kinda hard to ask her to come to church, but she is thinking about! Her daughter has thee cutest little boy! Their names escape me...Phii Uan and Ning I think. Anyways they are a-dor-a-ble!! Friday night I made no-bake cookies. I used chunky peanut butter and added some bananas. And surprisingly they turned out delicious! It was fun taking them around to some of our investigator families! Yesterday Elder Seykui and Elder Anderson had a baptism! So me and Sister Wanlapa were at the church from 8:30 am til 5:30 pm. Haha. It was great! It really is fun going to two wards! I get to meet twice as many people! We went inviting for a bit at the park. And we started talking to this dad and his little daughter who were selling THEE cutest little puppies ever! For only 800 bott! Oh if I wasn't a missionary I probably would have bought all of them! I'm not sure what kind they were. But they were about the size of my hand and were so darn cute! Don't worry though Lucy, I haven't forgot about you :) well we came home and Sister Wanlapa taught me how to make this delicious stir fry! Dad you would have loved it! It had chicken, cashews, onions, peppers, and potatoes! You should try it! So good! I seriously can't say it enough, I love Thailand so much!!

Well I have a couple of analogies for everybody before I go! Ok so in our kitchen we have these annoying mesquites. They are really little and really fast and only fly close to the ground. So they always bite at my feet and they itch so bad! And its so cheap because I don't even hear them. Luckily I have some great anti-itch cream. Anyways, that doesn't really have anything to do with my story...I was just thinking about how if we use bug repellent we don't have to worry about getting bit. So why don't we always use bug repellent? I find myself thinking, "oh its ok if I get bit a couple times, I'll just use some of my anti-itch stuff." Which has worked fine, but I know I should be careful because there are all sorts of diseases going around. But it is like sin and repentance. If we just stay away from sin, just use our spiritual bug repellent, we don't have to worry. Sure we can always just use our anti-itch stuff aka repent, but what if we get sick first and then it is too late. Moral of the story...repentance is amazing! And my testimony of the Atonement has grown so much these last couple months. I know that the Savior did indeed take upon Himself all of our sins. But if we just stay away from the sin and temptation, we won't need to worry about having to repent later!

My other one is kind of similar. There is this stop light by our house and the green light is burned out. But everyone knows that as long as it isn't red, you can just go. How many times do we think that? "As long as the movie isn't rated R, we can watch it" NO!!! Just because there isn't a flashing red light telling us not to do it or not to go, doesn't mean it is ok!

Well thats all I have for this week! Oh it is so beautiful here!! It reminds me of Bear Lake. Its so quite and the air is so clean and fresh!! Oh I'm just in heaven!! I love being a missionary!! I'm so happy!!! The church is so true!!! Thank you so much for all your love and support!! Sure love and miss all ya'll!!!

Sister Chambers

More Pictures!

Sister Wanlapa on her bike doing a great job of leading, kids don't try this at home :)

Some pictures of the country!

Phii Guy and her darling son. This was us on the duke-duke that took us to the families houses in the jungle

Our bathroom! No shower curtain or tub. You just shower in the whole room :)

This is a picture of a meeting at the church with some of the members from Sister Wanlapa's home ward :) They were so excited to see her! Everyone loves her!

Lead Kindly Light!

Hello all!!

Well it has been another amazing week here in Udon!! My oh my how I love it here! And how I love my companion! It is so much fun trying to talk to her and get to know her better! I usually understand everything she says, but sometimes I just smile and act like I know what is going on. I sure am learning so much from her! I'm also learning how different it is here in the country than life in the big city. I love it! I need to be better at taking pictures, because I want all of you too see how beautiful it is here! We had a very successful week inviting and finding families! But yesterday at church was kinda depressing. In the first branch, none of our investigators came to church :( and in the second branch only Phii Guy, our darling little lady who is getting baptized next year, (her boy friend is in Israel and she wants to get married before she gets baptized, but he isn't coming back to Thailand til next year...anyways...) her and her crazy little son came. Oh well. That's the hardest part of being a missionary. You can help your investigators only so much, and then they have their agency. But this week we are going to work extra hard!

Ok so this last week was so great! Last monday was such an adventure. I just want to tell you really fast about it. :) So after we emailed, I wanted to make zucchini bread right? But in order to make zucchini bread, you need zucchini right? And there is a store on the way outskirts of town that we thought would probably have some. So we rode our bikes out there, probably like 30 mins. And I got some sugar, flour, and baking powder. Success. We checked out and then when we were almost outside it hit me! I hadn't even looked for zucchini! So we ran back inside, and....they didn't even have any zucchini! AH! So then we decided to try the huge mall in the center of town. There is a store there called Tops, and they have EVERYTHING from america. And so I found my zucchinis! Yeah! We don't have an oven, but the Elders do, so they baked it for me and it turned out delicious! Success! Just a side note, I love Thai food. Sister Wanlapa is such a great cook and knows where all the good resturants are! Oh I'm getting so fat!

Tuesday we went out into the jungle! It was SO beautiful! We went to visit some families with some members. It was so much fun! Then we had English. Me and Sister Wanlapa are teaching Basic. Its so different! Sister Wanlapa explains everything in Thai and then I demonstrate. Haha I don't think I should be allowed to teach English tho! Especially grammer! Haha oh my poor students. They are learning how to speak Hooper-English :)

Wednesday I decided I'm very grateful for fences, my brakes on my bike, and rain ponchoes :) It rains here a lot. But I have a great rain poncho, so don't even fret!

Thursday we found five new families!! And when I say "we" I mean Heavenly Father. :) He is so good to us! Friday and Saturday nothing too exciting. I just love being a missionary!

Sunday was so funny! In the 2nd branch me and Sister Wanlapa went to YW. Oh it was so much fun and made me miss my YW leaders so much! I'm SO grateful for all my amazing leaders and the great examples they were to me! I don't know where I would be in my life without them! It was so funny because they started talking about marriage in the temple at the very end, and the teacher showed a picture of the temple and a couple standing in front of it. And I was like "awe!!" And Sister Wanlapa leaded over and said "Lock your heart" in her darling English accent! Oh man! I started laughing so hard! Good times! Oh and I almost forgot! In the MTC we had RMs that would come and help us in the TRC right? And me and my comps first time we had a sister named Jade come help us. She had been home for about 6 years and actually married another RM from Thailand. I kinda forgot about her until my second day here in Udon, when we randomly ran into them at 7/11!! So crazy huh! They and their two sons have been in Thailand for about 3 months and just barley moved to Udon too! They are doing some sort of internship, I don't really know, but anyways they come to the 1st branch! Its so nice to have Jade there to talk to! Its crazy, after only spending about a week not speaking English all day, I already feel like I can't speak English! And my Thai is getting so much better!

Well today we were going to go to this killer shopping market about an hour away from Udon. But it has been raining all day! So we will just chill here again today! Tonight we are all heading to Kon Ken, tomorrow there is a mission tour there, so all the missionaries in this zone are going! It should be great fun! I'm way excited!

Well yesterday I was looking through old Ensigns looking for pictures and ran across the April 2008 Ensign and had the impression I needed to read it. And it was just what I needed! Everyone should read the talk by Pres. Monson, "Treasure of Eternal Value" so great! Plus the talk "Remember Who You Are" and "Your Divine Heritage" those helped me out so much!! Man its crazy how much satan tries missionaries. But on the other hand it is amazing how much help we receive from the Lord! I'm so blessed! And I'm so grateful to be here! I need to be so much better. This week I really want to work hard! I love being a missionary! I'm so happy!! The Church is so true!! Thanks so much for all your letters and love and support and prayers!!

Sister Chambers

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go!!‏

Me and my new ADORABLE companion, Sister Wanlapa!! I love her SO much!!!



Bus ride to Udon!!




Seriously!! I'm in heaven!!! I can't get over how good Heavenly Father is to me!!!!

I'M IN LOVE!!!!

I'M IN LOVE!!!!!!! I absolutely love my new area!! I love my new companion!!!! Life is so wonderful!! Ah!!! Before I tell you where I am I'll tell you all about last week :)

So last week after emailing we just chilled all day. It was a great p-day! Then we went to Pa Santi and Mae Rugira's house. We had dinner and talked to them about baptism and read some scriptures together with them. I love that family so much! Mae is getting eye surgery, she isn't sure when, but we're hoping she'll get baptized before! Tuesday we got a phone call from President Smith...he said that Sister Webb would be training this next moves! Meaning, Sister Chambers was getting bounced out of Srinakarin! It was so bitter/sweet! Its a weird feeling knowing you are moving somewhere and going to get a new companion, but not having any clue where or who. Its great! Well we had our last District Meeting together. It was great! Then we planned for the English Showcase that was that night. I think it went really well! I played a game with my group, where we all had to take turns making up a story, (thanks for the idea Aunt Nae!! :) it was so funny! I love Thai's. Well after English Sister Webb and Sister Rat taught one of our investigators and I helped clean up and talked with everyone. It was sad saying goodbye! I can't believe how close you get to people so fast! I love that ward! They really are like my family! It was a great night! Came home and helped Sister Pect get all packed up. It was neat. Me and her just talked about life and everything. I'm really gonna miss her. I told her I would come and pick her up in New Zealand because I am her family!

Well Wednesday morning we had to go renew my visa. It was fun because I got to see a few of my Elders from the MTC. After that we went and took Sister Pecht to the Mission Office. Her flight was at 5:00 pm, but the Assistants were going to the airport at 10 am to pick up the new missionaries. So they just took her then. I felt bad she had to be alone all day. I'm still waiting to hear from her. I hope she got there ok! It was sad saying goodbye to her! I've never seen her cry and she started crying when she hugged me. It was so cute :) She is going to be such a fantastic missionary. Well came home and studied and then started packing. It was crazy. I felt like I was leaving the MTC all over again. Well I attempted to make Special K bars. Since we didn't have any Karo Syrup I just improvised and used pancake syrup and carmel ice cream syrup. I burnt the chocolate chips...so I just put Nutella on top. And surprisingly enough they turned out pretty descent! We went inviting after, and then we broke the rules a little bit and went and had dinner with some of the members. Sister Rat, Brother Ooy, and their two children, Win and Woon, that family, I can't even begin to describe how amazing they have been to me these last 12 weeks, (holy cow I've been here 12 weeks really?!) I love them so much! They wanted to make me dinner before I left. They made my favorite- SomTam! So yummy! Mae Nong and Sister Off were there too. It was so great! A wonderful way to end the best 12 weeks!

Thursday morning Brother Ooy and Sister Off took us and the Elders to moves meeting, so nice of them considering we left at 6:30 am!! It was a fun ride tho! I'm going to miss Elder Narin and Elder Chiu! They were such great Zone Leaders! Well when we got to the church I saw Sister Harris and Sister Jensen, plus all of my other Elders from the MTC, (they were doing their visa's too. Visa's are kinda confusing. You have to renew it every other moves. If you live in Bangkok, you go the day before moves, but if you are serving outside of Bangkok, you go the day of moves, make sense?) Anyways it was great fun seeing everyone! Well there were two sisters going home and two sisters fresh from the MTC! So fun to see the difference. Well moves was so exciting! Drum roll please...I am in Udon Thani!!!! Woot woot for the Easton!! And my companion is...Sister Wanlapa!! She is a darling Thai and I love her so much already!! It was so fun! Well then we got on a bus with all the other missionaries heading to the East. It was so much fun! It was crazy leaving the big city! I saw hills and mountains! And everything is so green! It was such a fun road trip! A couple of the elders had ukilayle (someone help me with the spelling...) (Ukulele) anyways they played and sang songs. It was so much fun!! Seriously it is so beautiful here!

We live in such a nice house! And the Zone Leaders and the District leaders live right next to us! Its so fun! Church yesterday was great. There are two branches in this area, and lucky for us we get to go to both block meetings! I love fast sundays! So great! All the members are so cute and I'm so excited to get to serve with them! Funny side note! My trainer, Sister L, well her trainer, Sister Nisarat, is in one of the branches here and she was also Sister Wanlapa's trainer! So we joke that she is my grandma and Sister Wanlapa is my Aunt! So funny! Well I love riding bikes! So much fun! Don't worry mom, I'm being safe :) We aren't in too big of a city. I'd say its probably like Ogden. I've seen an elephant every day though! Oh and the rice fields! I can't even describe how beautiful it is!!

I feel like there is so much else I want to say! But I'm out of time again! I'm really so happy! I love being a missionary! The church is so true!! Thanks so much for all your love and support! Loves!

Sister Chambers

I Stand All AMAZED!!!!!!‏

Wow. I really don't even know where to begin. This last week has really been the BEST week ever. Mostly yesterday. I can't even begin to express my joy. I know that I've claimed to be happy before and that every week is great. But yesterday tops it all. I've never felt so much happiness!! But ok I have to tell about the rest of the week before I can explain why Sunday was so amazing. Ok. So.

Wednesday, August 25th- Fabulous day. P-day was changed to Wed. just for this week because of some training that was going on. After we emailed we went and bought some groceries and then went to the church and baked all day. It was so much fun! I made some delicious Zucchini bread! Mae Nong was at the church too, so she helped me and so it was so fun. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out, but Mae, Sister Pecht and Sister Webb all loved it! It was gone before 6 pm :) I made some Rice Pudding too! It turned out a little yellow and not as sweet as my amazing mothers. I think Thailand just has weird eggs, weird butter and weird milk. But I'll try again. I couldn't find any Karo syrup :( so I couldn't make Special K bars, but I'm going to look again today! Mae taught me how to make สมตำ (Som Tam!!!!) Oh I was so happy! It was so much fun!! And it turned out delicious! Brother Ooy, Sister Rat, Woon, Win, Tob, and some other members came to the church and when they tasted it they couldn't believe I had made it! It was funny. Oh I love this ward so much!! They really are like just one big family! That night there was a HUGE rain storm! I mean it usually does rain a ton at night anyways, but the thunder and lightning were so crazy cool! I love standing on our balcony and looking out at Thailand! Yes I know I'm a sap. :)

Thursday I made some delicious choc. chip pancakes! Oh man. It was heavenly! We went and taught this darling little mom and her 8 year old son. They live in a huge purple house in this way high-so neighborhood. It was the nicest house I've ever been in. Sister Webb said it was the nicest one she has ever seen too. We met them on a song thow and invited them to English. Then at English they said they were interested in learning about our church. The moms name is ออ (Awe) and the little boy is กาย (guy) he said the closing prayer and I seriously thought I was going to cry! He started off by saying: "Heavenly Father, today at school my teacher taught me about Buddhism, but I like Christianity better." haha it was so cute! I love little kids! They seriously have so much faith! He prayed for his dad at work and then he asked Heavenly Father to help him with a test at school tomorrow. So darling! But they won't be able to come to church this week because he has a test at school. Then we went to see our next amazing family! ตัก (Phii Tag) She is the cutest little lady that we invited a couple weeks ago. We've taught just her 3 times, but last Saturday we met her 11 year old son Bos and her 16 year old daughter Belle. They live in this big condo in the same neighborhood as Brother Ooy, Sister Rat, Wun and Win!! Its crazy! Its like the same family! Anyways Sister Rat and Wun have been helping us teach Phii Tag. Since there is so many of us we have just been teaching her in the lobby. Key note: there is a security guard that sits at the front desk. He is the nicest guy. We always say hi and ask how he is doing. We can tell that he is listening in on the lessons, but we haven't asked if he wants to learn. Anyways, wow I am really bad at telling stories because I get so distracted on all the details! Sorry if this doesn't make any sense! Ok. So Thursday night. Me, Sister Webb, Sister Pecht, Sister Rat, Wun and Win, all go over to the lobby to teach them. But just Phii Tag comes down. She said that Bos and Belle were just doing homework. You could tell she was way sad. Ok another random important side note: Phii Tag is already Christian. Her two kids and husband however are not. She hasn't gone to church in 4 years because she used to be at the church all day every day and started neglecting her family. But she still has such a strong testimony of the Savior. So her kids are a little sketchy about their mom learning about Christianity again. And we haven't met her husband because he isn't very happy about it either. OK. haha Well Phii Tag asked Win if he would be friends with Bos and asked Wun if she would be friends with Belle.

Friday, we had a great day too! We had two random lessons right off an invite. Then we went and visited this darling lady. She is 83 and only has one arm. Her name is ดรณี (Dorani) and we only had time to teach her for about 15 minutes. She went to a Christian school when she was young and loved singing songs about Christ. So she said she would come to church for sure. We taught Mae Rugira and Pa Santi too. We told them if they didn't come to church, they wouldn't be able to get baptized. Pa has been pretty good about coming. But Mae Rugira just always finds an excuse of why she can't go. We taught เเซง (Sang) She is darling. Oh it was just such a great day! I came home and experiment with the Som Tam. I put some apples in it and not any peppers. It was so delicious! I'm so my fathers daughter and love creating new recipes!

Saturday,we taught ปริม (Breme) She is darling. We taught Phii Su. She is so funny. We were riding on a song thow and she saw my name tag and said that she was Christian, but didn't really have a church to go to...haha. We told her we could fix that. We went inviting in this new neighborhood I found on the map. haha it was so funny! Because I didn't really know where to tell the taxi driver to take us, so we got a bit lost. So finally I was just like, "Oh that house! That house right there!" haha and the taxi driver was like, "Really? That house?" Oh I love being a missionary and confusing the poor taxi drivers! :) But it worked out great and we found some great new areas! Well we went and saw Phii Tag, and guess what?! Bos and Belle came down! Bos and Win are already best friends. Belle is a little stinker and isn't really interested. But Wun is still trying to be friends. It was so amazing! Tag was so happy!! She just wasn't sure if she could go to church, if her husband would let her.

Sunday. Ok. Is everyone ready for the miracle day?? Ok. It started with cute Dorani, the 83 year old lady calling us and saying that she couldn't come to church because it was raining. So we offered to go pick her up. Got to the church and who did we see?? Bos, Belle and Phii Tag!!!!!! We were all so excited!! Her husband had woke up and made them breakfast and called them a taxi to go to church!! She told us that the secruity guard that has been listening, talked to her husband and told them that we were nice and teaching them good things!!!! CRAZY HUH!! Oh man!!! It was so epic!! haha. Well Mae and Pa came!!! Su, and Sang too!! it was amazing!!! The best part was the Elders investigator, Tob, got baptized!! Oh it was the best day of my life!! i was just so excited!! Tob is the cutest little guy!! He is so always smiling and so filled with the spirit! I can't even explain it. And I'm so happy! The Lord is so good to us! I feel like Ammon!! I love being a missionary! I'm so happy! The church is so true!!

Sister Chambers

PS moves are this week. And I'm most likely moving ;( there are two new sisters coming in and Sister Webb hasn't trained yet. So I'm probably getting bounced. I'll let you know next week!