People are CRAZY! Letter from 4-21-14

Chelsea has been suffering from Allergies pretty bad.  She could really use some 
prayers in helping her to cope with them and for the medication the Mission 
Doctor gave her will work.  Right now it is just making her feel sick and 
drowsy.  
 
 
> This week was pretty great! There was an amazing video for Easter called 
> #Becauseofhim. (its on my FB page for anyone who hasn't seen it!) Anyway it 
> is awesome and everyone we showed it to just loved it! People were so open 
> to hearing a message about Christ and reflect on what they have because of 
> His sacrifice. Last week sister Calder and I were biking and that morning I 
> promised her and Heavenly Father that I would talk to everyone I saw! I did 
> just that. We both biked and handed out cards and shared messages, but 
> nothing had really come of it yet. I was biking ahead of sister Calder and 
> this lady intentionally moved away from us and gave us an annoyed look. I 
> biked passed offering a simple smile, but sister Calder stopped. I am SO 
> grateful she did! Her name is inita and she is amazing! Turns out she had 
> been praying to find direction and she decided to walk to the store instead 
> of driving and then she runs into missionaries! Crazy! We literally talked 
> to EVERYONE that day! I made the decision to pass ONE and look what we 
> would have missed. When we showed Inita the video the spirit was so strong. 
> She expressed that she didn't feel worthy of God's love or our savior's 
> sacrifice. Tears where in all our eyes as we testified of her Devine worth. 
> Definitely one of those moments when you realize how amazing being a 
> missionary is. 
> 
> Another one of those moments was at Terri Tadle's baptism on Saturday! That 
> is one amazing family. She is the sweetest lady and kept saying how she had 
> been given a clean slate, a second chance, a new beginning. I LOVE LOVE 
> LOVE her!!! She bore her testimony after the baptism and I was just 
> stunned! Mama, you HAVE to add her on Facebook! She and her husband Ken, 
> who are like my parents out here (they asked if they could adopt me... is 
> that cool with you?) are going out to Vegas in July and they want to meet 
> up with you and Daddy! It's a great day to be a missionary! 
> 
> Easter was great too! I spoke in Sacrament meeting and we went top an 
> easter Sunrise service at Siesta Keys with one of our investigators, which 
> was pretty cool and then we had dinner at the bishop's house with a million 
> and 10 other people! haha It was just like a crazy Purdy family party! The 
> only thing missing was a good ol' Upshaw wrestling match! ;) 
> 
> I hope you all had a fabulous Easter! If you didn't get a chance, go watch 
> that video. It is really beautiful and only 2 minutes long. :) I love you 
> all so much! 
> 
> -Sista Upshaw 

This is hard! 4-14-14

Hokay, so I've had a couple tell me my mission seems like a party all the time and that when I email I make it seem like its a walk in the park. I would just like to say that you can blame bishop Urry for that one! Haha way before I ever planned to go on a mission he told me about a missionary serving from our ward and how impressed he was with his emails because no matter what happened in the week he was still positive and spiritual. When I left I decided I would try to do the
same. In response to the emails about my mission being easy... Holy cow this is definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done in my whole 20 years of living! (My b-days on the 24th BTW) I wrote out a big long email about why my mission has been hard, but to be honest I thought the email was dumb and pointless! Ya my mission has been hard, but it is so stink'n worth it that it doesn't even matter! Picture this... $500 is a lot of money right? If you had to spend $500 on toenail clippers you would probably be pretty miserable, but what if you spent $500 and it bought you a mansion, with a gorgeous British butler and a red mustang! I think anyone and everyone would take that steal in a heart beat. Well that's kind of how I feel about my mission! Instead of money, I am sacrificing time, and instead of a mansion, hot butler, and a nice car, I am seeing FAR greater blessings! I can't even believe how much I have grown in the last 8 months and the crazy awesome miracles happening back home! It's insane, but then again... That is how God works.

He asks something of us that seems REALLY hard or maybe it seems too easy? Either way he asks us to do something and that is the test. Will we give up our will to honor Him? When we decide to submit to His will we realize we didn't really sacrifice at all. Our Heavenly Father has a plan for us. He WANTS to see us succeed. HE is the only one who knows how we can reach our full potential and how we can be the most happy. I think if we all could understand that a little better, hard things wouldn't seem so hard. His will becomes our will and it is EASY to do what he wants us to do because we know it is what will make us the happiest! 

Every one has their own "mission" here. Every mission is hard. They all have their own challenges and every "missionary", or person,  has days when they think about how much that plane ticket back home would cost, but it's okay because by the end of the week, and sometimes just by the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. (It's like child birth! Painful, but totally worth it! At least that's what I hear...) lol None of these are perfect analogy's, but hey... What do you expect? I'm just a teenage girl... For 10 more days... ;P 

I love you all more than I could ever tell you! Have a fabulous week! 

-Sister Chelsea Upshaw! :) 

 

 

 

Pictures from the transfer 4-15-14

 

Chelsea's new companion Sis. Skeem

It was pouring rain

 

Longest email ever... SORRY! 4-7-14

> Can we just talk about how amazing conference was for a second? Holy cow...
> If you didn't get a chance to watch it. No worries! It's online! Think
> about it, If Adam, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Moses, or Jesus Christ himself
> was broadcasting His words to the world would you listen? I know that may
> seem a little bold, but These men hold the same authority as prophets and
> apostles of old and this past weekend they spoke to the world about
> problems we face today! SO stinkn' cool!
>
> Side note before I continue telling you how amazing I think conference
> is... Some of you get emails from a certain missionary in Africa and last
> week he tried to justify why he has almost died on his bike like a zillion
> times. I just want to point out that I am combating a bunch of SUPER OLD
> people that still have drivers license!!! One of our members is 98, can
> hardly walk or see, has almost killed us like 10 times and STILL has a
> license! Seriously, I think everyone over the age of 80 should have a
> personal driver provided by the state... It would save SO MUCH MONEY AND
> LIVES!!! I just can't wait till they all go back up north for the summer.
> Randy and Colby can have all their old Canadian people back!!! However I'm
> sure it's hard in Africa... I mean they have like wild chickens and
> stuff... ;P How much more of a brat can I be? Maybe this is why President
> calls me feisty...
>
> Anywhooo okay back to something that actually matters....
>
> I was really impressed with the messages of conference. Particularly Elder
> Holland's talk from the Saturday morning session. He talked about how
> sometimes we expect God to be easy and kind and lovey dovey all the time.
> Well, He does love us and he is kind all the time, but Elder Holland
> reminds us if we don't expect God to put us through hard things and ask us
> to stretch then we don't fully understand our relationship to God. Christ
> himself told the rich man who had kept the commandments from his childhood
> that it wasn't enough. He asked him to give everything. All his wealth. The
> thing is though... He really doesn't ask much of us at all because when we
> do stretch and sacrifice for Him he blesses us more than we could have ever
> imagined and gives back 10X what we gave.
>
> I also loved Elder Packer's and Elder Scott's talk. Many of the speakers
> talked about their conversion to the gospel. I think sometimes we get stuck
> believing that people who have a strong faith were just given it. They both
> reassured us that they too had to pray and ask if the things they were
> being taught were true. They truly wanted to know so they studied it out
> and then asked. Another speaker pointed out some of the hesitations we may
> have to asking about something is that we are afraid to change. We know it
> will stretch us and that isn't comfortable. I had an experience last week
> that kind of made this talk hit home for me.
>
> We had interviews with our Mission President and in the interview he looked
> at me and said, "Sister Upshaw, You are an obedient missionary, but I want
> more, the Lord wants more. He wants EXACT obedience." I was kind of stunned
> by his statement and didn't really respond. He went on and talked about
> something else, but for the past two weeks I have been thinking about what
> he said. How the heck can I be MORE obedient? I am already following all
> the rules... He challenged me to find rules that were more suggestions than
> actual rules and follow them. He promised blessings in the work if I would
> do it. Unfortunately I decided that he had misjudged me and thought I
> wasn't as diligent as I felt I was. So I continued on exactly as I was
> doing before. I knew following his council would bring the blessings he
> promised, but I was prideful and I knew it would stretch me. I didn't want
> to change. Now it's not like I am going apostate over here. As he admitted
> I am already doing much good, but there is even more the Lord wants for me
> and the people here. President Cusick told me to test it out for 2 weeks
> and if I don't notice a difference then I can do whatever I want because
> clearly the promise wasn't true. There is a catch though. I have to do it
> without holding anything back! AKA "having real intent" haha
>
> It's the same with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just
> test it out! Start by watching some of the videos from conference, or
> reading a little in the Book of Mormon, or even just going to church on
> Sunday. Then pray about it. It almost sounds too simple. It does take work.
> It requires effort, but it is so worth it. Think about it. Just like
> President Cusick challenging me to add to the blessing I am already
> receiving, that's what the Lord does. He just asks us to add to the faith
> we already have.
>
> Sorry this is like the LONGEST EMAIL OF MY WHOLE LIFE!! If you don't read
> anything else... then just watch these conference talks! They're awesome!
>
> Elder Holland's talk! -So good!
> President Uchtdorf's -on how to be HAPPY! Who doesn't want that?
> Aidukaitis (sp) -His is awesome if you can get past the accent. I just kept
> thinking about Gru from despicable me! haha
>
> I love you all so much! Seriously like a zillion times 10!
>
> -Sister Upshaw

From the balcony of someone they were teaching

I guess this was so that Dylan could see how rough she has it

Another Week in Paradise

This week was a hoot and a half! (I promise I don't actually say that in real 
life... The old ladies here are rubbing off on me -__-) 
Anywhoo. It was a party. It all started Monday when we helped someone we are 
teaching move in the POURING rain. Our whole ward was there and it was awesome! 
Oh then Tuesday... So ya know how when I was back home I spent more time looking 
for my phone than I did actually using it?  Well Tuesday I lost our phone! I 
totally set it down and walked off without it! This is how the convo went when I 
called the person in charge of phones... "Hey Elder Keys, this is Sister Upshaw! 
How are you doing?" "I'm doing fine Sister Upshaw... Why are you calling from 
this phone and not your own?" "Haha well that's a funny story!"  Needless to say 
it wasn't really all that funny of a story and he wasn't thrilled, but luckily 
Elder Keys loves me and my companion so he wasn't to hard on me! We ended up 
getting it back through a few small miracles so that was glorious! It was crazy 
to be without a phone for three days! You think it's hard in the real world? Try 
doing it as a missionary! We missed so many appointments and phone calls!  
Thursday we had interviews with our mission president and he told me to go do 
drugs... No worries though, I'm like 99% sure he was just joking.  ;P Saturday 
we ran in a 5K at a really pretty park which was fun, even though there was like 
no one there... Lol I am so out of shape! My body still aches from it! We ended 
up trapped at the church with no where to go because it was pouring rain and we 
were out of miles so we couldn't drive the car! So we did what any good person 
with a camera would do... We danced in the rain and took pictures! Then it 
started lightning so we decided that was a poor decision. 

Okay so here's the thing, EVERYONE thinks my companion and I party like all the 
time! Truth is we are just weird and the iPads make it easier for us to take 
awkward pictures that make it look like we party! We work! Promise!  haha This 
week was fun, but it was also REALLY cool! We had so many amazing experiences. 
Saturday night was the women's broadcast for General 
conference next week and it was AWESOME! If you didn't get to watch it then you 
DEFINITELY should! 

Sunday was awesome too! Probably the best fast and testimony meeting ever!  One 
of the sisters in our ward shared a really amazing experience. Have you heard 
about the family in Idaho that died from CO2 poisoning? That was her brother and 
his family. It was really sad. It was a husband and wife with two of their four 
kids. The other two kids are serving missions in other 
parts of the world. The two missionaries came home for the funeral and have been 
interviewed a few times and this sister in our ward said 4000 people were at the 
funeral. I was so impressed by the peace I could tell she had.  She told us 
about the miracles that have come from this tragedy. One of her family members 
is a professor at a university and he keeps a Book of Mormon on his desk. A 
couple days after the funeral one of his coworkers came up to him and said, "you 
need to explain to me what I felt at that funeral".  There have been so many 
other stories just like that surrounding the death of this family. They were 
strong faithful LDS members and they lived their lives in such a way that people 
noticed a difference. This sister talked about how their example is touching 
people even after they died. 
 
It would be easy and even understandable for the family and friends of this 
young family that died to be angry, but they aren't. They understand that they 
will be with their family forever. That doesn't mean what they are going through 
isn't hard. it's just possible. We don't always understand why things happen, 
but I learned a lot from her experience. From this tragedy, thousands have been 
introduced to the gospel and many miracles have surrounded that family. 

I know God has a plan for each of us and I am so grateful to know that this life 
is not the end. It isn't even the beginning. We lived with our Father in Heaven 
before and we will live with Him again! 
 
I love you all so very much! Especially my family! I hope you have an amazing 
week! 

Love always, 
 
Sister Upshaw 

Chelsea and Sis. Calder and the 5K they ran 

Chelsea riding her bike with her eyes closed so she could prove to everyone (Bro. & Sis. Dover) that she could ride

Your guess is as good as mine

She is a crazy one

She received a medal