Elder Sighting 12-24-2012

Merry Christmas to you. It is a pleasure to have your wonderful son with us.

All Mission Christmas Conference--

Dear Parents,

At this Christmas Season we thought you would enjoy the attached photograph of your missionary. We send it with our best wishes for a Merry Christmas. We love your missionary and thank you for sharing him/her with us. What greater way for them to show their love for their Savior than to be preaching His gospel at this special time of year. We know the Lord blesses missionaries and their families and hope you feel our Savior's blessings in your lives. We saw your missionary today and they look happy!

Merry Christmas,
Richard & Amy Moffat
Utah SLC Central Mission

Letter 12-18-2012

(Rain)dear everyone,

Thank you Chase's, mom, and grandparents Lewis for the treats and packages. One of your presents was already open, grandpa, so I opened up the book. Already read (skimmed) it once through. So cool.

I sent a massive amount of letters out last week to people at BYU. Hopefully they got there before finals ended. I'm caught up now though!

Every day's a good day when there's snow on the ground! After a green last week, we've had a fair amount of white on the ground thus far. I don't know if it will stick until the 25th, but it's made things more enjoyable anyways. Not much is better than waking up at the crack of dawn, seeing snow on the ground, and having those mountains as a backdrop. What a nice comfort it is to be on a mission in Salt Lake City! Hope everyone else's Christmas is just as fun.

As far as the work goes things are still going. Christmas is seeing a lot of people busy and out of town and such, but that's alright. The season's cheer makes up for it. Still working with Katie, Alison, Bryson, Max, Jenya, and Dillon. Built a frisbee game for a short time around a 15 y/o potential investigator, Taylor. He's really cool and I really think it did wonders for us to be able to have a solid interaction with him. Hope to see him come to young mens - he's already playing church ball. Both of his parents are inactive members. Seems to be the most common story around here.

There's so many well-established families here in Murray, especially in this area. They've been here 20, 30, 40, 50 years. It's pretty insane to hear some of their insight into the change of the valley since the 1950s and such. Fun to get them working on 21-day promises with their friends and family they've been trying to work with for years on end. A little faith, fasting, and prayer is all that's needed to change a heart.

--Elder Chandler

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Spiritual thought: Musings on Isaiah

This week in BoM reading was the ministry of Christ to the Nephites. What a great time in the Book of Mormon! One of the things Christ does is throw Isaiah quotes randomly into his teaching. It made me think of a couple other places in the Book of Mormon where the same thing is done - Moroni, and Abinadi. I absolutely love love love Mosiah 14 and 15 so I guess I just want to talk about some of the Isaiah in there.

I think it's funny how Abinadi is giving a speech to the wicked priests in chapter 15 and, in his thought progression, turns to quoting Isaiah. This happens in two instances: verses 15-18, and verses 27-31. These are a few of my very favorite Isaiah verses (along with 2 Ne 24/Isaiah 14):

"And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. 

'For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who ahs redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people;'"

Can't you picture that? A prophet, standing on a mountain, declaring "thy God reigneth!" Then picture that mountain to be a temple, and the prophet angel Moroni, blasting from his trumpet the "good tidings", the good word, the gospel of Jesus Christ again restored on the earth. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!"

Abinadi covers past, present, and future prophets in his phraseology, and then states the one prophet whos "time-stretch" covers them all - Jesus Christ.

Have a great Christmas prep. Can't wait to call home--

Letter 12-11-2012

Hello family and friends,

That package (I guess it was from Christmas Kick-off?) was so fun to get. Just so you know, I'm rocking that tie today. Can't beat light blue and white during the winter, ya know?

"Whitewashing" has turned out to be amazing. The Lord has prepared this area and I'm so excited to be able to work to tie SO MANY loose ends that are leading to so much productivity right now. The amount of work that has been done here the last 6 months is basically nil, and so there's six months worth of backlog on people that the missionaries basically neglected to teach. So things are crazy.

But it helped that we took a surprise Trax trip to the Salt Lake Temple on Thursday. Didn't expect to get to go to the temple for two years, but got a chance this last week. What a historic temple. They didn't let us bring cameras, so no pics, but it was a great chance to reflect and settle a few personal thoughts. I have a feeling the trip was more to fix a few very disobedient missionaries with an emphasis on the first temple covenant  but hey, I'm not complaining. Any chance to get there is worth it.

A couple of loose ends we've been able to tie:

- A mom and dad who haven't been to church in a decade now deciding that it's time to turn around, including their three baptism-aged children: 11/9/8. Katie, Alison, and Bryson.

- A family that adopted two Ukrainian kids, ages 15 and 11. Max and Jenya are awesome! A lot of families out here are adopting Ukrainian children. I think it has something to do with gathering tribes but I'm not sure.

- A kid who's older brother was baptized a year ago and who now also wants to follow in his brother's footsteps

- A couple apartments with the sheer amount of people that that brings in contacting power

I'm still handing out 21-day promises over here. Still working very closely with the youth. It's imperative with these Ukrainian adoptions that we get them comfortable with us since a lot of times they come with some social blocks. So we're making it a point to play ping pong with them at least once a week with some of the other youth to keep a good, friendly relationship with them. (Yep, here in Utah too, Elder Koch). The youth are awesome everywhere. They network so well.

SO GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS, FAMILY? It means you should all network too! And use that network to share the thing that's most important to us all, the gospel. The best way to prepare for a mission is to do missionary work before you come out, so get to work. Don't be afraid to give someone a Book of Mormon. You can even just say it's touchable, see-able, smell-able (???) proof that angels minister on the earth today, that God still works through prophets, that all the weird intricacies of the Joseph Smith story actually happened! So go give someone a book of mormon Jaron McKay Jami Trenton Holdy Lewis family and everyone else gogogogogogo it's not that scary I'm promise it's really just super coollllllll

~Elder Chandler

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Thought from last week: role of works kinda

Just reading in Helaman. Really liked the phrase "restored unto grace for grace." Really thought a lot about the phraseology. How interesting that we receive the grace of Heavenly Father based on our own grace that we give unto others. What an unequal trade, but an amazing one.

Thought for this week: "three kingdoms of glory" in society

I was reading in 3 Ne 7 this morning. Verses 2 and 3 got me thinking:

"the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land. And every tribe did appoint a chief or a leader over them; and thus they became tribes and leaders of tribes."

Secret combinations, when they prevailed, didn't create a "higher society". They were responsible for a regression, a degrading of societal values.

When you get a group of dissenters, or even factions, you're creating a society based on, not a higher, but a lower law:

Celestial Society - based on one; "one heart, one mind"; the will of God

Terrestrial Society - based on factions; representative democracy; multiple wills expressed

Telestial Society - based on all; "every man for himself"; Darwinian rule

It is only through the grace and power of God that humanity is even able to be at a societal level above that of the law of the jungle and Darwinian rule. Satan will do anything to have societies regress - any law except Celestial isn't enough to live in God's presence again.

Examples of societal patterns that relate to regression in recent times:

- language: experts in this field actually see regression of language over time. We can't express ourselves as well as we used to. The language of heaven is perfect. We've gone backwards since Babel.

- law: We're seeing our own judicial system start to create laws, not protecting the minority, but promoting the minorities, thereby increasing factions and groups

- warfare: warfare during the revolutionary war was based on honor and cause. Now based on sending as many people to their deaths as possible.

Also random afterthought: 2 Ne 12:3; out of Zion will come forth the law for the millennium  I really believe the Constitution was an inspired document of Terrestrial law that is fit to be the governing document of the millennial, paradisaical world. Maybe I'm preaching false doctrine here but I think it makes sense. Whatever. See you all soon--

Email from Sister Larsen--

Hi Brother & Sister Chandler,

I asked your son for your email address just before he was transferred. If you haven't heard, he received an emergency transfer to help another missionary.  We were very sad to hear this because we thought we had a few more weeks with him.

My name is Myra. I serve in the Stake YW Presidency of the area your son has been serving in.  We were blessed to have Elder Chandler in our home on several occasions! He and Elder Jackson would stop by often at the end of a day about once a week to say hi.  The spirit was strong with them and always lifted or spirits!

I'm writing because I wanted to let you know (which you may already
know) that your son is an amazing young man! He has a grasp for the gospel unlike any other missionary we've ever had in our home. He's so positive and has a fantastic head on his shoulders!  We have two daughters and are expecting our third daughter any day.  My husband and I often joke that we would be thrilled if our girls could find a young man just like your son to marry.

We were very sad to hear he had to leave out stake.  He will and has done amazing things already as a new missionary and I wanted to express to you my gratitude for raising such a great young man.  We are blessed to have spent the short amount of time with him and know you must be missing him.

Sincerely,

Myra (& Shane) Larsen Family
Murray Parkway Stake - 33rd ward.

Btw, where did he get that contagious laugh from... Mom or Dad?  We miss it!!! :)

Letter 12-04-2012

umm

Hi! Things just got really crazy over the last two hours, so here's the low-down.

9:00, call comes from the mission president, explaining that a transfer needs to happen. All that you need to know I guess is that it wasn't because of Elder Jackson and I. In any case I got sent over to the Murray East Stake with Elder Fussel. He's awesome and has a great drive to get things done... just the last couple weeks have been a wee bit frustrating for him. Elder Jackson the ENFORCER! is now fixing problems and getting job experience for his law enforcement degree.

I loved working in Murray Parkway and hope I get transferred back some day. The people are awesome and the work is great there. The day before I left we talked with Casey Dunn again, a senior in high school who's into acting and stuff. We're going to help him (or now Elder Jackson) will help him to get baptized on the 22nd of December.

Now it's time to whitewash an area. I know Elder Fussel is awesome so we're going to do well together. We've already set a goal to get two baptisms this month, which means putting two people on date this week. He's from Southern Georgia. Other than that I've only been with him for 30 minutes now so I'm sure you'll get more next week--

Elder Chandler

Just so you know, everything is fine. It's not our side that the problem was coming from. It's a little frustrating to always get moved just as things are picking up, but I think I'll find that's how it always is going to feel with any transfer, whether it be emergency or not.

It's scary and exciting. I'm senior companion - Elder Fussel has been out one transfer less than I have. I don't know if I feel ready for this yet. I guess the Lord knows better than I do though.

Yes I remember Philmont...  yet I still feel woefully unprepared. I was reading my patriarchal blessing this morning during personal study before we even got the call, with interest on the line during the declaration of my lineage. Something like "You are a leader". I was thinking about my current position always as junior in my mission and at the same time how much comfort I've found in being junior.

I also thought a lot about how the very first thing, after stating that Heavenly Father knows and loves me, is that I have been blessed with many gifts and an intellect that exceeds many - and then the warning: "Do not let that get to your head". I'm going to have to follow that council a lot... as well as the thought afterwards to pray every night and thank the Lord for the compliments others give me.

Ugh. Change.

Email from Sister Fillmore--

Sister Chandler,

This is Sister Fillmore. My husband and I are the senior couple that is working with your son right now. We are really enjoying him. He is a delight!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

- Diana Fillmore

Elder Sighting 11-27-1012

"Your kids! Found them at lunch. Anyone you know? Happy Thanksgiving! They were doing great! I thought you might like to see for yourself."

Letter 11-27-2012

Dear everyone,

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week. We had fun hopping between five appointments on Thanksgiving (which of course means way too much pie), and pretty much dying afterwards from belly-exploding. I didn't think it was possible to be full past the top of your head :(

But it's okay. Fun week. We worked on getting people to sacrament meeting this week and, lo and behold, we had all of our people on date (and more!) at church. Now we've just got to keep that going for the rest of forever.

The key it seems so far is to use the advantage we get here that no other mission in the world gets - the use of 50% of the population as active members. It's been awesome to "capitalize" on that by getting to know so many great people in the area. With information on every single house in our area, the importance isn't necessarily as much on "finding" here. We know where all the people are. We just need to "find" ways to change hearts, to get into houses. It's a slow process and it falls a lot on the members but it's great to help them out, as well as leave positive interactions for the church with less-active members and non-members alike. It's the best mission in the church!

We're still working with Kaylee and Alec and Sinead (for now, she might transfer to the YSA ward or something...) towards their baptism goals, as well as picking up a nine year old that just moved in this week that hasn't been baptized.

Have a good week,
Elder Chandler

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Thought: "will"

v. a) to choose, ex: I will go and do; b) expressing the future tense, also a statement of implication, ex: If you read, ponder, and pray, you will gain a testimony.

Most of my studies have to do with the will of God and defining what that exactly is. (I've also been studying the "question personalities" of people so I can ask better questions during lessons - either who, what, how, or why people. I think I'm a what. But that's beside the point.) As I was reading one day though, I started flipping the word will, using one definition in place of the other. For example, Nephi says:
"I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded"
Instead of reading that as "I choose to go and do the things...", you read it as "I, in the future, go and do the things...". If that makes sense. I've found great power in switching the definition of the word will, enough that after I finish the Book of Mormon in this read-through I'm going to go back through it and circle every time the word "will" is used.

So what's interesting then is that the definitions become one. To choose something is a definitive statement of implication. Where's the significance?

The significance comes when you realize that to choose something, to will something, when used in a gospel sense, is to imply something else. Thus the word "will" can be applied to either definition because they are one and the same. We must choose to imply something in our lives; we must will.

Nephi doesn't just say he will (choosing) follow the commandments - he's will-ing (implying) to keep the commandments, he's will-ing (expressing the future), and thus he's falling in line with God's will (the express future and the choice we all need to make) for us to keep the commandments.

And then comes the tie-in to an old thought - the thought of becoming. Nephi isn't just choosing, he's literally becoming by using that single word, will. What a strong word - a definitive statement that must imply a full following, thus laying out the future before us.

There's probably more to this that would enlighten me on how I can understand a little better the way God sees the future. I'll probably spend a bit more time on this.

Have a great week!

Letter 11-20-2012

Happy birthday mother. 

It's been fun this week to see everything progress so fast. This was the last week of the reporting transfer, and we have quadrupled our weekly lessons since the beginning of the transfer. Missionary work is always a bit more fun when you're busy teaching :)

As we start teaching, the struggle (as all missionaries know...) is getting people to church. It's a little frustrating to be sitting in sacrament meeting, alone, when someone is supposed to be there sitting next to you. Darn agency. Our investigators on date right now have come to church enough in the past that they "technically" didn't need to come this week but it's still not the point. We'll be trying to fix that this coming week. Alec is still on for the 8th though, and Kaylee is still on for the 15th as of now.

This week turned out kind of funny though. On Sunday we got a call from one of our bishops, Bishop Goddard, that he had a new investigator for us at his home. We were just around the corner and now are teaching a girl named Sinead (Shin-ade). She's working towards a goal for baptism on Dec 15th. Only in SLC.

Also, only in SLC will come things like going to Berlington Coat Factory to browse ties and having a member hand you a $60 gift card. I have a couple fun new ties to wear around now. People are so nice to us here. All those poor people serving outside of Zion... :)
Thanksgiving plans are going to be fun. Oh I guess I should say that Elder Jackson and I are staying here for another transfer. This one goes all the way through January 2nd so we'll get all the holidays spent in this great, great area. Hip hip hooray!

Hope all your Thanksgivings are just as delicious as ours will be,

Elder Chandler

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Thought: Developing Christ-like Attributes

This last week Elder Jackson and I have been spending time in personal and comp study going over chapter six in Preach My Gospel. There was a section header before a scripture that intrigued me one day - "What is the relationship between the first principles of the gospel and Christlike attributes?", which directed me to Moroni 8:25-26

And what I found there was a process that we can go through to endure to the "end" (which I think in this case means until you receive the second Comforter). If it looks like -this-, it's a finite way to tell where you are on the scale:

1) Faith
2) Repentance
3) -Baptism-
4) Obedience
5) -Remission of all Sin-
6) Humility
7) -First Comforter-
8) Hope
9) Diligence
10) -Prayer- (true prayer that reflects the will of the Father)
11) Charity
12) -Second Comforter-

So I get a way to evaluate where I am on the scale. I get a chance to consciously work on the Christlike Attribute where I feel I'm at. From there I get to try and progress up the scale.

I don't mean to say you can't develop attributes that would mean "skipping" steps, but this is a process in the scriptures so I can see it being a bit easier to do it this way. In any case I thought it was pretty cool. Have a great week.

Letter 11-13-2012

Hello, All--

What a fun week! First (sticky) snow of the year, and boy was it fun to wake up and see four inches on the ground come Friday. I think we got another two or three over the rest of Saturday. Snow is so happy and makes me so anxious for Christmas.

A couple pictures, both from a while ago. One of them is at Bryce's baptism, the other is Alyssa's. Finally got access to a computer with USB access...

I don't think I can explain how fast the work is picking up right now. After handing out about a hundred 21-day promises, we're starting to see a ton of miracles happen in houses around the area. What used to be just a list of names of potential investigators is now turning into a list of lessons. It's amazing to watch. We've seen our lesson numbers quadruple since two weeks ago. Super exciting.

It's fun to see things that I can attribute to only Elder Jackson and I happening in the community. We set up a time to meet with Jay Hill, the Utah running back coach who lives in the area and his nice family. As we introduce 21-day promise, we like to talk about a few miracles that have happened as people complete it. Before we even had a chance to though, Sister Hill said she already had heard the stories because some people had been talking about it while waiting to vote. 21-day promise is a conversation topic now :) We also followed up with Rylee on the person she handed a Book of Mormon to. Apparently his reading the book is the hot topic of the school now. Its really fun to organize this kind of thing!

Speaking of organizing, on Saturday we woke up and decided the time was ripe for a snowball fight. We started "spreading a rumor" that at 3:00 a lot of kids were going to be in the field where Bullion "U"s and have a massive snowball fight. We also expressly worked with Bryce to get two non-member youth his age in the ward that aren't baptized to get to the thing. Lo and behold, about 20 or 25 youth showed up from three of the wards we cover. We spent the first hour splitting the people between wards (28th vs 33 & Highland) and building forts. It was a great tool to get the youth acquainted with each other. Afterwards it turned into an all-out brawl and was a great experience for everyone! We had so many complements from the ward leaderships. We're planning on seeing both Skyler and Mikey, the two non-members, coming to young mens now, as well as start taking the discussions and coming to church. Funny how these things work. (picture - back: Bryce Chatwin, visitor, Ethan, Ben Linton, Jake Hardman, Hill cousin, Brock, Caydon Selph. Front: Nick Richins, Emily Richins, Alex Richhart, Doug Martin, Alayna Hill, Hill cousin, Ashtyn Hill, Rylee Richheart, Katie Martin, Soren Selph, Brock brother, Cayden Madsen)

This month in primary, the sharing time theme is missionary work, so we are doing quite a few sharing times. Our lesson is really fun - we call up two kids up front with us, and roleplay inviting them to come to primary to learn about Jesus. Then, all four of us go out and invite someone to primary, and they bring them up to the front. So on, until everyone is standing with us at the front of the primary room. We then talk about missionary work and how important it is to invite friends. I think we'll see some cool things happen with the primary kids' fearlessness. Anyways, I thought of your blog mom when I did this so I took a blurry picture of the blackboard. (picture)

Last funny story - on Saturday morning we had just arrived at our full-time senior couple's house to discuss and correlate when we get a call from the Assistants, asking us where we were and why we were there. They drove up to the front of the house, called us again, and told us they needed us to get in the car, and it would take about an hour. As soon as we were inside and the doors were shut, they asked us, "This is about your landlords. We need to know everything that happened on Halloween night." Elder Jackson and I kind of looked at each other funny since we didn't really do anything anyways, but Elder Wilson the AP broke pretty fast and said they were joking and took us out to lunch. It's always great to get to feel of their spirit and love for missionary work, especially since one of them used to serve in our current area.

It's an exciting time to serve a mission in Murray, Utah--

Elder Chandler

PS: Why did we elect a candidate who will only have two years to do anything, at which point he will be a lame duck with no political presence unless he does something good in the next two years? When he's proved he's done nothing good the last four years? And when the situation in the Legislative branch didn't change one bit? Makes me sick. Sorry Romney, it's hard to win against Santa Claus.

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Topic: Attitude of missionary work

I had the chance to speak this week in sacrament meeting again. Funny how much easier it gets each time I do it. This time the topic was attitude, so of course I made it into an "attitude of missionary work".

I started by talking about how the people were in the smallest mission in the world, the new mission announcement, to have first an attitude of excitement for missionary work. I then turned to the story of Ammon and found three important attitudes that he developed in order to be a good missionary. I then tried to relate how this pattern of attitude adjustment can be applied to us.

Alma 17--

verse 25: an attitude of service

- Ammon gets in the door through service. I talked briefly about the role of service in missionary work. Encouraged others to look for service opportunities. Promised that, as many of them are praying for missionary opportunities, the first opportunity that always comes is a service opportunity

verse 26: an attitude of patience

- Ammon waits three days as a servant. Once your foot is in the door, you need to "submit to the Lord's will and accept His timing" (PMG 120). The change might not happen immediately but we can watch for patterns that show progress and the Lord's hand in their life. Also put in a plug for 21-day promise as a tool to make patience easier by being able to see the Lord's will be done in a max of 21 days.

verse 29: an attitude of faith

- Ammon, even in a rough time, knows that the Lord will turn the situation into a good one. We can all do the same.

verse 31: an attitude of happiness

- Ammon encourages others (and himself) to "be of good cheer". By being happy and just in general being positive, we can have interactions with people that leave everyone feeling better about themselves. This increases the web of connections, which increases missionary work.

I love looking at these patterns that I can follow in the Book of Mormon.

Letter 11/6/2012

Dear everyone,

A busy week in the mission field is always a good one.

We're teaching Jose again who I think I talked about in an earlier email. He just got out of jail and is working to turn his life around. We also started working with a new investigator, Alec. He's 20 and has had the lessons a couple years ago, but was struck down by his semi-anti mother. Now that he's on his own, he's ready to start it up again. We're working towards getting him baptized on December 8th!

One thing I've found that's fun about our current companionship is our retention rate of investigators. So far (almost) every single investigator we find, we have progressing and working towards a baptism date. It makes teaching a lot more enjoyable when you're both working towards something. It's also nice to have those consistent lessons.

On Friday, my companion and I were through with our plans by 8 and didn't know exactly what to do, so we went over to the Richin's house. It was kind of a blind guess, but I wasn't surprised when I found a massive group of 12-13 year olds there. The house is kind of like my house back home - the rendezvous of the neighborhood. It really feels like home to be there. We took the opportunity to pump up the kids (there might have been a little bit of Jigglypuff sung), including our recent convert Bryce, and give away some copies of the Book of Mormon. We played doubles ping-pong and foosball, loser takes the challenge to give away a Book (we did it with love and sanctity though I promise (: ). We've already had requests from other youth to take the challenge, and three have been handed out. We're looking to pick up two new investigators very soon from it. One of the girls, Rylee, got up and bore testimony on Sunday of the experience she's had giving her Book away. It's really been cool to see the Lord work through these kids in such strong ways. (Turns out we were accidentally "crashing" a birthday party for the Richins triplets. They turned 13. They enjoyed it and thanked us though so I think it was alright (: ).

The work continues in Zion,
Elder Chandler

Elder Sighting 11-04-2012

We loved getting a call from Josh and Jenni Hall this evening. They are friends from Arkansas who recently moved to Lehi, Utah. Josh's sister lives in Murray and Ryan is their missionary. Tonight the Halls joined the Murray family for dinner and a message. 

 Josh reported that Ryan acts like he is "30"-- so mature. He said that Ryan was full of light. He said that it is a great companionship and that they really like each other. Ryan and his companion said over and over again how "fun" everyday was! He said that they gave a message and that Ryan was helping the companion with scripture references and acting so confident. Josh said that he tried to talk about Arkansas but Ryan wasn't really game-- they just wanted to talk about about the people that they are teaching and the four that they have on date. It was great to hear from the Halls with this report. My heart is full and bursting over this great kid. Sometimes he feels so far away. It is was wonderful to know that he is well and happy. 

Pictured are Ryan and his companion with Josh and Jenni Hall and their kids: Brinley, Wyatt and Parker.

Elder Sighting 11-1-2012

"Elder Chandler carved a Pikachu pumpkin. Elder Jackson carved Salt Lake City mission. They are both doing awesome. They live in the basement. -The Hardmans. Elder Chandler is an awesome kid. We love him."  Text with Picture from The Hardmans

Letter 10-30-2012

Boo! (again)

Halloween is so big around here... I guess I've never really caught the spirit of Halloween much. I think I like Christmas better :) The wards are all doing their Trunk or Treats. It's been really fun to be able to get a little bit of financial help from our ward mission leaders to finance some candy to trunk or treat out of the back of our bikes. The members get a kick out of it as well. It's been a great way to meet and become close with a lot of the people in the ward!

We had the opportunity to listen to a general authority last week, Elder Evans of the 70 (which is why P-day was Monday last week). The missionary ladder goes: President Monson, Elder Holland and Oaks, Elder Evans. It was so awesome to hear a servant of the Lord speak about what the brethren's and the Lord's vision, not only for the new missions in this valley, but for all the missions in the world. Some random notes I wrote down:

- "this isn't doctrine, but I believe mission presidents and missionaries made promises in the preexistence to serve together"
- "you are part of something remarkable"
- Signs of the Times stated: "The Lord is hastening the work", "there will be an increasing pattern of missionaries speaking in their home language"
- thought: missions are enjoyable because you are able to make connections, make a web, talk with people all the time.- thought: being a missionary is just being a person. God created us as social beings who share what is important to us and listen to what is important to others. A missionary is just a person with a something unique that they would like to share. A mission is an extended time to create an eternal web of contacts that will extend into the eternities.
- thought: leadership in the church is weird. Generally leadership is thought of as one person who is in charge of others. A true leader flips that chart upside-down. A leader goes below everyone else and serves them. Jesus Christ is the ultimate leader who descended below all to pick every single person up.

To kind of summarize what he actually talked about (at least as far as I understood): Missionary work all boils down to having positive interactions with everyone that you meet. The greatest missionaries are the ones that weave the largest social web to "catch" all the potential investigators through the referral process. The commitment was to ask for referrals in every single teaching situation (which is any interaction in which a restored truth is brought up).

It was beautiful to gain a glimpse into the vision of what the Lord would have missionary work be. We're created for it. It's pretty cool.

Small world story: We stopped by a members house that lives down the street from us. Turns out she's Josh Hall's sister. We are having dinner with them on Sunday and Josh is coming. I guess he's moved over here now, but I'm sure you'll get updates and pictures from him come the end of this week.

Other than that, we're continuing to work with Kaylee and Caleb. We also were able to meet with a 20-year-old named Alec. He's super cool and has a lot of questions, and accepted a baptism date for the middle of November. Things are picking up and it's really, really exciting to see. Hoorah for Israel.

-Elder Chandler

--------------------------------------

Spiritual thought: extended application of the dispensation pattern

I read Alma 12 today. Yesterday I did some Preach My Gospel study on the point "Heavenly Father Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation" and drew out a dispensations chart. It was interesting to see exactly what the cause of each apostasy was and apply that to the direction we're headed right now. ex: Adam's dispensation, apostasy caused by Cain, Master Mahan, secret combinations. Whole world "baptized". Noah, apostasy in Sodom and Gomorrah, sodomy, just the cities destroyed. Abraham, apostasy into Egyptian captivity, caused by idolatry. Caused grief but no destruction, and were delivered by Moses later. What kind of apostasy are we headed towards right now? What branch are we heading down? Maybe the gentiles will repent and we'll just all be translated :)

Anyways, that's not really what I wanted to talk about. It was in that line of thinking I read Alma 12 in, and it was really interesting. The Lord's pattern for establishing a dispensation, as stated in Alma 12:27-32:

1) Heavenly Father recognizes man's fallen state and desires to help them (Moses 1:39)
2) He manifests himself unto man through divine intervention, literally giving them physical evidence he is there
3) Man communes with Heavenly Father through prayer, which becomes instinctual after #2 (BD Prayer)
4) Heavenly Father answers prayers and reveals the Plan of Salvation
5) Heavenly Father reveals commandments to help people obey the PoS
6) The Doctrine of Christ is set forth to help people "overcome" the Plan of Salvation

First interesting thing: What's the gospel discussion pattern? Restoration, PoS, DoC.
Second: The pattern for individual conversion is the same as the dispensations pattern is the same as the purpose of earth pattern
garden -> worldliness -> millennium
prophet -> apostasy -> prophet
born -> sin -> repent

Third, to compound on everything else: All patterns and doctrines used in any of these cases can run down or up the line. The scope doesn't matter. It's important to try different scopes on different doctrines to fully understand exactly all the implications stated by one solitary statement.

Added comment kind of in spite: Forget dualism. It's bigger than that, Isaiah.

Letter 10-22-2012

Dear everyone!

I heard through the grapevine that Amy got in a car crash. She's fine but the neon isn't, right? :(

This has been a pretty eventful week. It started a bit slow but things picked up immensely by the end of the week! I love this work.

Last week at church was pretty busy - a nine-year-old girl came with her grandma and has interest in meeting with us. She was at church again this last Sunday, so we're hoping to set up lessons really soon! (as soon as the parents give their permission) There was also a 19 year old who has tried to take the discussions before but his mom shot him down. Now he's over 18 and set on getting baptized. We're just waiting for a time to be able to set up a time with him and we'll be set. He also was at church this week.

We also have been following up fairly regularly with a great active member family in our area, the Chamberlains. They're a hoot to be around. The dad actually gave me the sketchbook I've been doing a bit of work in during down time before bed. Their oldest daughter, Alyssa, has a good friend that she invited to read the Book of Mormon. He got through 1 Nephi and agreed to meet with us. I think he was a bit scared at first but he realized really soon that we're not that scary. Maybe it's that I laugh a lot. In any case we had a great lesson and put him on baptism date for the 17th of November. He's awesome. We're hoping to get a lot of ward fellowship in the big group of priests in his ward that occupy quite a few different high points on that high-school social ladder of things. I can't wait to see him get baptized.

We also had zone conference this week. It was all about the Book of Mormon. It really solidifies my love for the Book of Mormon and the stories inside. I love sharing with investigators the personality of the prophets in the BoM, the ideas on Christ it gives, the idea that it's a book written 3000 to 1400 years ago for our day. I feast on it a lot now, yum.

Other than that we just keep on trudging. I don't think it's really trudging though. More like trucking. Soon we'll be speeding I think.

--Elder Chandler

-----------------------------------------------------------

Thought: Heavenly Father

I just thought this idea in Hebrews 12 was cool so I'll share:

"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye @#!*% , and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?"

I just really like the idea of planes in the gospel. Certain things just aren't passable without unseen changes that we don't know of. Spirit prison and paradise. Three kingdoms. I picture it like a graph that looks like an upside down L but with the edge curved. The graph shoots up real fast, but then it hits an asymptote which it can not pass ever in infinity Yet God deals with inifinites like finites. He gives a little "push" that puts us on a whole new plane, graph, on which we can again shoot up and grow. God's ways aren't our ways. Even so, because of the perfect plan and test he has set up for us here, we get glimpses of eternal principles through our finite lives.

Fun stuff.

Letter 10-16-2012

Hello everyone--

This has probably been the best week of my mission thus far, no joke. I don't think you know how good and fun a mission can be until you're with a companion that you hit off with well.

We've been going around this week pre-fast Sunday dropping off 21-day promises to everyone we can possibly get to, trying to get this area of the mission back on its feet. Our area is the most stagnant, least-transient area in the whole mission, easily. That's something we're not going to be able to change. It makes it really hard for us as missionaries to find anyone when we have a record of literally every house and their interest/activity in the church. The receptiveness just isn't there. Not that it doesn't mean we aren't still residential tracting for an hour a day and talking to everyone we see, but it does mean the most efficient way we'll be able to get into houses is through two different avenues. This is true in all areas, but especially in the residental-all-houses area I'm in right now.

1) The members. While the non-transiency is bad for missionary contacting, it's great for member missionary work. All the members know all their neighbors, all the neighbors are invited to all ward and stake activities, and just in general everyone is pretty friendly with everyone else. This makes our relationship with members paramount to our success in the area. We need their support, and any set of missionaries here that doesn't have it will not have much success.

2) The Lord. This is where 21-day promise comes in. We have all the members read scriptures and pray for a specific list for names twice a day as a family as well as start with a fast. After 21 days it is promised that one of the people they've been praying for will take the missionary discussions; it's a promise from Elder Ballard just for the Salt Lake Valley Let's get a Lord in with the Elders and the member's efforts to prune the vineyard here.

Through these two avenues we're able to change the hearts of people who have been set in their ways for YEARS. We've already seen some blessings from the members doing this promise - on Sunday we more or less picked up two new investigators on date and a couple really good potentials.

The Lord makes things work. Sorry I'm on somewhat of a time-crunch today for email. I promise next week will be better.

Elder Chandler

Letter 10-09-2012

Big week-

Conference weekend! It's really cool to get to listen to conference as a missionary, especially when such a big announcement goes out about missionary work! I hope everyone got to see that first person. The Spirit was so strong. I with many others just wanted to whoop for joy :) Honestly I'm not sure that I would have gone at 18. I needed college. There's no way to know whether it's for you except to get a spiritual witness for yourself. My feeling is I probably would have been told to stick with my one year in heritage, but I'm sure it's different for others. I hope many get on the hump of this wave of missionary work though. What are the brethren going to do with a "number of full-time missionaries" chart that looks like this?
-------000===
past:next year:future

Missionary work also got a plug with President Monson saying that "No injunction is more important than this!". I very much enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk. He's a great speaker. Elder Oaks' talk on children was phenomenal. I think it helps clear up a lot when you hear an apostle of the Lord call homosexual relations a "social experiment" that the consequences haven't been found yet. The stats there were really nice. Also interesting was the three-time repetition of the story of Peter's acknowledgement of the Christ and "feed my sheep". I find it especially interesting that Peter denied thrice, then agreed thrice, and the modern prophets mention the story thrice. "Three is a magic number"? :)

I guess if there's one thing in conference that I noticed, it was the vision of the brethren. Maybe it was just me, but I felt that there's something greater stirring under all of this. They see something ahead and have a vision of how to achieve it. It's the same with these new SLC missions. The brethren have started a kind of "pet project". We're the bees, and need to give our 1/12 of a teaspoon to contribute in order to give the whole, healthy pound. We need to devote all of our lives to this 1/12, and when the time comes to go we've left our mark and contributed to the vision. That vision is one of 18 and 19 year old missionaries, it's one of every single member reconciliating towards the will of God, it's one of each person having a testimony and being converted. Elder Bednar's concluding statements are particularly insightful; we need you with a testimony and converted, with oil in your lamps. Is it coincidence he uses a story that typifies the second coming? Doubt it. That's kinda where it's all leading up to.

My favorite line from all of conference was in the priesthood session during Elder Christofferson's talk. "We can't save you on Sunday when the rest of the week you're a witness of the crucifixion of your own soul." See this way too much around here.

Transfers also happen this week. I'm actually staying in this area, while Elder Slade is getting shipped off to the Taylorsville North Stake. Is that the Lewis family home stake? Anyways, I'm going to be with Elder Jackson now, who served in the stake north of me and was in our district. He's really cool - this is going to be a great six weeks. Learned a lot about myself from Elder Slade, but it'll be nice to actually get to be with someone I would interact a lot with anyways. He also has a year of experience, so he'll be one of the most senior missionaries that I'll ever have most likely. Super excited.

I've picked up drawing/sketching as a small hobby. One of the members gave me a sketch pad and I've been using it during Elder Slade's numerous doctor's appointments (he did end up breaking a bone in his wrist). I took pictures of what I've drawn. You won't be very surprised to see what they are once you send the SD card over. Also, my ankle is up to 90% and has been that way for a while. Apparently sprains don't get back to normal for months, and I feel it every once in a while, but for now at least I can slip on my bball shoes with their innate ankle support and do just about anything I could before. I think I might have lost a bit on my vertical though :(

Housekeeping note that P-Day will be on Monday the 22nd of Oct instead of the 23rd that week because of a general authority visit to the mission. Don't know who yet.

--Elder Chandler

Spiritual thought for the week: the Rock

As I've been thinking about the story in Matthew, where Peter by revelation declares Jesus is the Christ, I've thought of what exactly the term "rock" means. I came up with three kind of deals:
1) Revelation from the Holy Ghost
2) Jesus Christ
and
3) Specifically, the revelation that Jesus is the Christ

As I think about this more, I believe whenever the term rock is used in scripture it refers to the third thing. While you could simplify it by stating it's just "revelation", or just "Jesus Christ", I don't know if that's exactly what the term encompasses. It's given me an interesting insight into just how important that revelation that Jesus is the Christ is to each of our testimonies. I actually have a flowchart written in my study journal, but I can't really explain or draw that so I'll just end here. Our personal knowledge of Christ is what everything is built on. It's what makes it so important to have a first-hand witness of Christ in each dispensation. Between Elder Bednar's talk on personal conversion and testimony, and there was another talk only on pretty much this subject, I think GC covered this pretty well too.

Til next week.

Email from Brother Larsen--

Dear Elder,

Thank you for coming to our home with Kailee for conference.  Here are some charts that I think you and your parents will enjoy.  They can print them at Kinkos for about $8.

Thanks again, and I hope you have an incredibly enjoyable mission.

Bro Larsen
http://www.TenGenChart.com

Elder Sighting 10-6-1012

"Your son seems to be doing great!"

Letter 10-2-2012

Boo! 

Everyone around here already has all their Halloween decor up so I'm trying to get in the Spirit as well. (get it? ha) I kind of want to pick up some candy and be a part of all the wards Trunk-or-treats this month out of the back of the "trunks" of our bikes. Wouldn't that be funny? I bet we'd meet people and get referrals too! Now just to convince the mission office to pay for it... 

We have four people on-date right now for baptism in October. Kaylee, Jose, Jordyn, and Damon. Kaylee is a super cool 10 year old whose parents have been inactive for quite some time now. The dad's an RM... but at least he's supportive in getting her UP for church, right? Apparently in the past he hasn't done that so maybe we're doing something right this time. 

We spoke in Kaylee's ward this last Sunday. I really enjoy speaking in sacrament meeting now. I've been working on making a conscious effort to speak a little bit slower and make sure to punctuate my sentences in real life and not just in writing. When I speak (and a lot of people that is) I tend to connect everything with an "and", which makes everything you say a run-on and in some cases makes it hard to understand (especially when trying to communicate with my companion and such!). Anyways, I really enjoyed speaking on the purposes and differences in the new mission, the challenges of serving in Salt Lake (how much do all of you other elders get OVERexposure to the church?), and the really cool 21-day promise that has been extended for this area. It's still a little scary but when you pray and the spirit is able to help your utterance it helps a lot. I got a lot of complements. Gotta make sure to pray every night to thank Heavenly Father for the blessings of serving in this area so full of member support. 

Jordyn and Damon are 12 and 10. Jordyn is a really fun little girl with some challenging things that have happened in the last couple months, while Damon is super peppy and has a ton of enthusiasm for learning. They're base knowledge is almost nothing though, which is somewhat intriguing considering they've had the missionary discussions twice before us. They dropped them for lack of parent support, but we're hoping to duplicate our success with Kaylee into their household and get something rolling for consistent church attendance. We'll see - I'm kind of doubtful they'll stay on their date for the 27th, but I pray the Lord will prepare them to reach their goal. 

Funny compe story for the week - I know Elder Slade's favorite kind of jam is raspberry. He always comments when the members feed us rolls (which is a lot of the time, with meat and potatoes) with jam on what kind of jam it is. If it's raspberry he always is super happy and complements a ton. Anyways, whenever he buys jam he buys a kind called "Razzleberry". Sometimes he has a bit of trouble with spelling, so I kindly asked him the other day what kind of jam he had got from Walmart. He responded, "raspberry". I said something about it looking a bit dark for raspberry, and he just looked and looked at the jar. He kept going "hm"! It was pretty amusing. Maybe he'll pick up raspberry next time. 

While I'm on Walmart-- I get to talk a lot about what you do for Walmart, dad. Bentonville is a hot topic for discussion over the dinner table, and the stuff you're doing always comes up. You still are on private brand labeling, no? Every time I go there on P-Day I find something new and repackaged. This week it was the chips. Last week it was the Detergents. The week before it was the pink lemonade. I've been taking pictures of anything I see with new packaging. It's pretty fun and reminds me of home. I like the colors. 

Otherwise things are going well. Transfers are coming up this next week. Again, who knows what's going to happen? I'm really scared. I kinda don't want to do leadership or training yet. And I don't want to be transferred. We'll see. The Lord provides. 

--Elder Chandler

The thought this week is short. Just a recap of last week.

We taught a lesson to Jim on Thursday. He's actually super sincere. He wants to honestly know more about the church. Problem is, he's got so much brainwashing for his current religion that his problems turn insane.

The problem wasn't what I thought it was. He has a problem with the conception of the Godhead in general. Easier to place and answer, but harder to convince of a difference. He's marginalizes the three separate beings at the baptism somehow into one thing as well as the appearance of TWO personages during the Joseph Smith vision (which he believes happened still).

So I read Talmage's Articles of Faith (woops not in mission library don't tell), especially chapter 2 on the Godhead. What a great blessing it is to know the true nature of the Godhead, and how many doctrines this extends! That we can be like our Heavenly Father in the future. That our life on earth is a perfect pre-test for future progression, with fathers and bodies and everything. It gives us something to look forward to, rather than something to fear and feel incapable to understand. What peace a true knowledge of the separateness yet oneness in purpose of the Godhead is to us.

BTW- I just read through Articles of Faith (twice) by Talmage this last week (yeah I book it through things). Talmage is my favorite gospel author. Alyssa sent me my Religion 121-122 packets from college and they have a fair amount of McConkie quotes in the back, but some of it just doesn't ring all the way for me. I much prefer Talmage and Skousen's direct interpretations and their true use of Theology as a science.

Letter 9-25-2012

Hello everyone,

Things are starting to pick up again. The goal with a mission I'm finding is trying to keep your teaching pool up while still teaching; I'm trying to get rid of the sine wave and make it an Every Companionship Baptize Every Week line. Gotta study Find while you Teach and Teach while you Find in PMG harder I guess.

Kinda cool experience happened. Last week we got a media referral texted to us. These things are kinda nifty - someone asks for the missionaries or an item through mormon.org and we get a little text with their address and phone number to contact within 24 hours. Anyways, we got one and went to go check it out... turns out it was a "ghost" referral to a member's home. She's a 14 y/o girl who is active and didn't put in the referral, but while we were over there we talked to her friend and her about inviting someone to take the lessons anyways. She actually went and did it, and now we have a lesson on Thursday with one of her friends.

I'm finding I love love love working with the youth programs, especially those with strong quorums and groups. Some wards just have the most awesome youth programs and it really is a pleasure to work with the kids there. It also makes me realize the lack of a youth program in other wards... when you see a name on an unbaptized list and then begin to think how hard it will be to try and fellowship them in, you know you have a problem... but we try and work through it anyways.

Thursday makes three months in the field. I can't believe it. Seven more of those cycles is all that's left. Weird.

--Elder Chandler

Letter 9-18-2012

hellooo everyone

This last week was pretty awful so I'm not going to talk about it much. Injuries make missionary work hard when they mess with the time you get to sleep, and 6:30 always rolls around at the same time. Needless to say, numbers weren't that stellar. The highlight was a trip with the whole mission over to Ensign Peak and Heritage Park on Wednesday. The mission president's wife was the head of Heritage Park between missions so she pushed it and the prez caved. I think he feels bad for it now though because it "didn't contribute to key indicators". Oh well, it was really fun and gave me more energy.

This next week is looking to be a lot, lot, lot better. We had stake conference on Sunday. During the talks I was kind of mulling over my own questions (the topic for conference was "teachers" and was kind of ambiguous so the talks were all over the place). I came up with my spiritual thought for the week as well as pondering the direction that we, the missionaries, wanted to take the mission in this stake. It was a challenge the stake prez gave us. I thought of Alma establishing the church in Zarahemla in Alma 6, so I turned there.

It hit me really hard. The first thing he does is call a bunch of priests and elders to minister and teach to the people. What is the new mission doing, the main pilot? Putting a bunch of missionaries (elders) in a tiny area. The next thing they do is "month of perfection", which is the initiative here to update the church records (including blotting out the names of those who have no desire to attend church anymore) and keep a steady knowledge of every single household in each ward. The new mission has done both of those. So what's next? The people fasted and prayed for the welfare of the souls who had not yet heard the gospel.

I found a sheet lying in our dorm of a "21-day promise". Apparently about a year ago there was a statement made by general authorities promising that if members opened 21 days with a fast, prayed morning and night every day, read the scriptures every day, and were especially obedient, one of the people on a list of potentials would accept the invitation to take the missionary discussions. I've been trying to spearhead this with the wards and eventually the stake to actually get an initiative going on this one year later. It's the first time I think I've ever really got a "bee in my bonnet" (thanks mom?) to do anything. (Except maybe the app that Daniel Butler and I did at college... but that was a 6 hour project.) It's going to begin with a stake-wide fast which I've already set up with the stake. Super exciting stuff happening.

As far as us, we fasted on Monday. That day was the most productive day I think this area has had in months if not years. For all intents and purposes we got 5 new investigators and had 3 lessons. It didn't report like that - there's still some work to do to make them absolutely count - but I'm going to think of it that way. We're hoping to pick up most of them on baptism dates this coming week. Fasting works. I was bad at it at home but holy moley :) Now I know what it's like when Nephi says, while working on the boat, that he had no strength but the Spirit controlled his movements. So cool.

(Now please don't take me talking about this to mean to fast precisely. It's actually in the missionary handbook that missionaries can't ask people at home to fast for specific people in the mission. I'm just telling the success it has given hopefully to increase others testimonies on the subject.)

Anyways, I'll give things more specifically once things get rolling.

TTFN, Ta-ta for now,
- Elder Chandler

Spiritual thought for the week: reaction versus execution

This thought actually stems, from all things to stem from, competitive Pokemon battling. Now I know most of this next paragraph won't make sense but I'm going to type it out anyway for my personal blog. Feel free to try and follow along with one of the top Pokemon players in the world :) After that first paragraph it should be followable :P

In fourth gen UU, the mechanic of rain was obscenely overpowered. Many people (enough actually to keep it from getting banned) decided that it wasn't O(ver)P(owered) based on the grounds of "not being used enough to make a substantial hit in the metagame, its setup is too long". The requirements that it took to set up a rain team were too much for most people to see it as OP. As I started playing with rain though, I noticed a massive spike in wins. I wanted to refute the argument, but how? I thought about how, when I played with a rain team, I made the situation always include rain. Every single battle I was in, it was raining because my team that I used 100% of the time had rain. Not only did rain make the situation favorable for me every single time, but it made the other team play on its back foot and have to respond to the moves I made.

So what is the power in this idea that by creating a condition that, only for me, is favorable all the time as opposed to looking at general statistics where, percentage wise, the favorable condition I use isn't that common? I had no idea, but I felt that the idea was an interesting and strong one, so I applied it to my study on the Holy Ghost. As I studied the question harder, I realized the real question was one of keeping the other person on their back foot. It was a question of execution vs reaction. This brought me to a greater understanding of the power that the gift of the Holy Ghost really has.

When we are younger (or for anyone without the gift of the Holy Ghost), we have the light of Christ, we can feel the Holy Ghost from those that have the gift, but we don't have the gift. What does that mean we're doing? We are reacting to situations. We have the influence of something that is really good, really powerful, but it's only being used every once in a while. The light of Christ is reactive. When something happens, we can deem it bad or good, moral or immoral, in alignment with the will of God or not in alignment. It's after the fact. It's great, it helps us learn. I's been the staple of morality (and mortality) for every single person in existence up to the time of Jesus Christ, bar certain prophetical exceptions. It wasn't until after Christ's death even that he actually bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples and gave them charge to give it to others (John 16, Acts something).

What makes the gift of the Holy Ghost so special then? Why do we need it, why is it such a cool (and I mean cool) blessing? It's because it gives us the power to execute. It gives us the power to have this (bear with me) massively overpowered menace to the great and abominable church metagame. And not just that, but to be able to use it all of the time. It's not something someone else brings upon us through reaction, it's something that we have the knowledge to be able to keep with us at all times. Possibly most important though: The gift of the Holy Ghost lets us be the will of God, and not just react to it.

How is that thought so cool? (I'm honestly kind of shaking, asdg holy moly) The gift of the Holy Ghost is the ability to be perfect. Literally perfect. If we were to follow the Holy Ghost in everything it told us to do, we would be perfect. If we can hone ourselves to the point where the Holy Ghost is our actions, we will be perfect.

"And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked... Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father... giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men"

Here's some scripture math for you, mom. Flesh (Jesus Christ) subjected to the Spirit. will of the Son swallowed up in the will of the Father. Will of the Father = Holy Ghost. Scripture math that into, "the will of the flesh being swallowed up in the Holy Ghost". The key link there is the gift of the Holy Ghost. As we strive to become perfect, "even as our Father in heaven is perfect", we need to have our will swallowed up in the Father's through the Holy Ghost. Because of Christ's "demigod" status, he was flesh and the Father. Through that connection he had power over life and death, and overcame the first part of the fall, spiritual death. The overcoming of the second death, that which is spiritual, though, comes from his perfectness in intent and the ability to have his will swallowed up in the father. Technically with this definition it would be possible for each of us to account for our own sins (not infinitely like the Savior) if we lived our lives directly in line with our wills swallowed up in the Father's. That would not be possible without the gift of the Holy Ghost; the ability to execute as a member of the Godhead as opposed to reacting with the light of Christ.

Hopefully I didn't take the implications too far. Take a ruler to my wrist if I'm teaching false doctrine. But this stuff rings true to me.

Email from Brother Prestwich--

Parents,
Just want to let you know how awesome your son is! I live in Murray Utah and have been working with a family (Chatwins)for 9 years. I am their home teacher. Their son Bryce, who is twelve this year has finally decided he wants to take the discussions. Your son has really connected with Bryce and was very instrumental in his baptism, he has been just the spark needed for Bryce and his [mother] who happened to be attending the baptism. Her mother (gma) is dying from cancer and when your son shared his powerful testimony during the baptism, prompted by the spirit, we all knew that we could live together forever with our parents and grandparents.

Who knew that this kid who looks like he’s 16yrs old could carry the spirit so strong? He is well read and surprises me at some of his study topics, for example, tomorrow he is going to dive into the difference of “the Light of Christ” and the “Holy Ghost” I love your son and his ease of speech and his discipline. His spontaneous personality makes him fun to be around and easy to talk to. We baptized Bryce two weeks ago, I am glad Elder Chandler was able to have such a profound effect in his and my life. Bryce will forever be linked to Elder Chandler. No doubt, he was called to labor in Utah for this reason and many other that the Lord knows he will positively influence. Kudos to you both for raising a God fearing, humble, strong and faithful son.

Sincerely, John Prestwich

Letter 9-11-2012

What a big day. The 11th anniversary of 9/11. I still remember seeing those clips in the cafeteria at Rogers Elementary. Came home to more clips. Hopefully the ripples are still felt today a bit as we help people to understand that we, as a human family, can all come together through the one thing we all have in common - that we are sons and daughters of a loving heavenly father.

This last week was............ hm. How to put it.

I know I'm not supposed to worry everyone back home, but hey, it's not that bad. On Tuesday after emails last week, we were playing frisbee in the parking lot as a zone. I jumped for a frisbee, got up, knocked it, and came down pretty hard on the side of my foot (I probably shouldn't be wearing size 12s or whatever the size of those Nikes are :) ). I was out for the rest of that day, but I've been working on it since then. The bruising from the sprain (not broken, just a sprain) is really pretty right now. I'll probably be 100% again by a week from today. So we were out of business Tuesday, and had to take sporadic breaks throughout the week until Sunday when I felt all the way up to it again.

Then, on Sunday, Elder Slade was coming down a hill and had his weight shifted weird on his bike, hit a slick patch, and turfed it. Because of his positioning he nailed his wrist pretty hard and we were out for the rest of Sunday. We're quite the sad and sorry pair this week! What's been cool, though, is that the Lord's work goes on even when things don't look too great. We had both our baptisms happen without a flaw this Saturday. Bryce seriously had the greatest showing from the ward at his baptism. They had people standing in the back of the Relief Society Room. If we got the help from the ward that we got with Bryce all the time, we will be able to hit mission standards, if not exceed them, every week. The problem is getting the wards to realize that it can happen...

I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting today on my mission. My farewell talk was 5-7 minutes long. I think my talk here was 20 minutes easy. It was more or less the member lesson we deliver. I talked about the new mission and the excitement it should bring to them. I also talked about the tree of life. The tree is the love of God, or more specifically stated in relation with John 3:16 is Jesus Christ. The fruits that we partake are the blessings we receive from obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. I emphasized the need of understanding the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives before thinking about the blessings. Too much people focus on the path and the Iron Rod when in reality you need to first realize why in the world you're even on the path. Its for the blessings of the priesthood, the Book of Mormon, prophets, the ability to correctly access the Atonement through baptism and the sacrament, the keys of the dispensation of the fulness of times (all the keys are restored for the first time ever!) through Elijah, Elias, and Moses. I then segwayed using the keys Moses gave (the gathering of Israel) to showing how we are called and commanded to do missionary work. It comes naturally when you understand the blessings the gospel gives you (See Lehi after partaking of the fruit in 1 Ne 8, see Peter after showing his love for God in John 21). And to sum it up I quoted Alma the Younger, "I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life." I think it's because of the nametag. It has special powers or something.

This has become an even larger problem at this point because, with those two baptisms, our teaching pool is now completely dry. Zero people on-date. Zero progressing investigators. Zero INVESTIGATORS. Which should never happen. So we're working on finding finding finding. There are a couple names in particular I'm looking forward to (praying to be) working with very shortly. One of them is a 13 year old boy named Skylar. His mom is a single mother that's LA, and he's never been baptized. From what I've gotten from him he's a great kid and should be a pleasure to work with him, if we can get in his home.

I finished Jesus the Christ this week. I wonder if any missionary has ever finished JtC and the BoM in their first two transfers. I'm pretty well on my way to doing that. Four weeks to get through the war chapters and the rest of the BoM. Is it possible? We'll see :) I'm not going to rush read at the expense of losing doctrinal learning.

Hope all is well--
Elder Chandler

Spiritual thought: The universality and sameness of (the) God(head) over time

We were challenged in a zone conference that occurred this last Thursday to re-read the Book of Mormon, and underline every time Jesus Christ is mentioned. To me it seems super cliche, so I decided to not only underline all mentions of Jesus Christ, but also highlight each of the principles of His gospel to better understand everything he teaches. Green for faith (seed), red for repentence (blood), blue for commandments (baptism), yellow for the Holy Ghost (spirit/light), and purple for endure to the end (receive royalty in heaven). We're to do it as a mission, so I'm on 1 Ne 12 with this challenge. As I was re-reading 1 Ne 10, I came across, again, those last 5 or 6 verses where he speaks preliminarily about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and goes more in depth in 2 Ne 31. What I came across was an epiphany about how the Godhead interacts with mankind.

The main question that is trying to be answered here is: Why, if God is the same at all times, do His directions for the children of men sometimes change? aka: blacks and priesthood, polygamy.

We know that God interacts with us the same yesterday, today, and forever, as it states multiple times in the scriptures, more specifically though in 1 Ne 10:18. But then I read this part without the verse markings again. Check it out.

"I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him."

Perhaps a clearer statement comes in 1 Ne 12:18:

"A great and terrible gulf devideth them [those in the great and spacious building and those at the tree of life], yea even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever."

Clear statement of the purposes of each of the member of the Godhead as they relate to us. Justice, mercy, and bearing record. The Holy Ghost bears record henceforth and forever. It is the same way God speaks to us yesterday, today, and forever. Not that His word is always the same, but that His Word is always the same. His Word testifies of truth, whatever that may be at that time. "Truth" is arbitrary based on the world that is created around it. Does truth change? Yes. Does the "getter" method we use to receive truth change? No. Do we always know how the "getter" method gets its values? No, it's a programming concept called encapsulation, and it's a common, smart, and good practice.

A lot goes on in the program called earth, but the Lord has given us the method we need to divine what His will is for us at this time. We have no need to access all the methods that lead up to the final declaration of true or false - all that matters is what we get from the method that we've been given.

PS: McKay, have you learned any of this in your programming class yet? Encapsulation, "getter" and "setter" methods? It's got universal application :)

And so, from there can we understand that the doctrines do not conflict. They support one another and give us greater understanding of how the Godhead words. And with that, adios, amigos.

Letter 9-04-2012

So...
This last week was pretty insane. (Maybe every week in SLC is insane?) Transfers are crazy around here, and I'm not sure when they'll settle down. There are so many new missionaries coming in that there's really no way for the mission president to keep people with the same companion for any substantial amount of time. Almost everyone got swapped around. My new companion is... dun dun dun dun, Elder Slade.

He's from Mesa. He's 21 years old. He's been out for NINE WEEKS. So basically we're just two greenies running around trying to do the best we can. To make things just a bit harder, his trainer was a trunky 22-monther so he kinda didn't learn much. The good thing that I realized, though, is how much I really did learn from Elder Davidson. Teaching isn't something that I really have much of a problem with, so my prep from the MTC in that department was pretty much enough. Learning to work with the Ward Mission Leaders, the Bishops, the members of the wards, though, all came from E Davidson. What I've applied so far (the member lesson, a member worksheet, updating records in the area book) I feel has vastly improved the relationships we have and the confidence levels of the leadership in the area. Hopefully this will lead to trust in us as missionaries to hand out the referrals they've been waiting to hand out.

We have two baptisms set up this coming Saturday. Alyssa Miller is a nine year old who, at eight, wasn't baptized because the water was too cold and she didn't want to go under. Her eight year old sister will be baptized first so hopefully this time it'll work out! The other one is Bryce. He's in seventh grade and is super cool. His mom was super less active so he never got baptized, but now he's set and his mom is looking better too. I could probably talk to Bryce for hours just because our interests line up so nicely :) In any case, it's exciting. At the end of this Saturday I'll have been in the field for seven weeks, and I'll have had six baptisms. If we can line up one extra some week, I'll have kept mission standard from day one. That's my eventual goal - which would put me at 101 baptisms over my mission! I think it's a worthy goal.

Working hard at making things work--
Elder Chandler

Doctrinal Study: The Will and Word of God

I think I've stated a billion times already what qualifies us, justifies us, brings us to the celestial kingdom. Faith, and submitting our will to God. The first part is pretty clear cut - you have it, or you don't. I guess you could talk about "do I have sufficient faith?" but I really don't find that very interesting (which is part of why I don't get people's absolute obsession over Alma 32? Great, it sets forth solid doctrine that gives no room for further discussion!). The part that I feel really needs a solid definition is the second one - defining the will of God.

I've already defined it from a justification standpoint through the Doctrine of Christ. The acts of repenting and keeping the commandments allow us to feel the justification power of the Holy Ghost. I'm going to try defining it from a different standpoint now, based off of Mosiah 15 and the seed of Christ.

This week I went back and read the vision of the tree of life. Aside from a few personal things that it set me straight on (mostly the pattern shown on how to receive revelation as shown by Nephi following Lehi's account of the vision), I found great insights into the will of God. I'm sure we're all familiar with the tree representing Jesus Christ, the center of the vision. The fruit represents the Atonement, and the partaking of it is in similitude of us accessing the Atonement. The part here that hit me is the duality of the word "seed", as used in a plant and as a term meaning future generations. Jesus is our Father, the Tree. We can become the "fruit of his loins" by accessing the Atonement. Get it? ha. It's more of a play on the english language than anything else, but it still works as a clear analogy to combine the two principles, to clarify the extended metaphor with the set-forth doctrine. (Also, the "seed" of the tree of each of our lives is faith, and the "fruit" that faith brings forth is repentance and keeping the commandments).

Next, you have the Iron Rod and the strait and narrow path. "The Iron Rod is the word of God". Now in 2 Ne 32:3 it talks about the word of God. If you read versus 3 and 5 carefully I think it's pretty apparent that the word of God is the Holy Ghost; it will tell you all things you should do. So the Iron Rod is the Holy Ghost. The path which we must stay on is the will of God as it pertains to us. This is why it's hard to define the will of God. It's different for everyone.

Example: Brigham Young said, of the young men who helped the Martin and Willy pioneers across the last river and later died from the exposure, that that one act alone gave them sure entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. Don't misinterpret this to say that through our own arbitrary works we are qualified for the CK. That's false doctrine. What is does show, though, is that those young men were so in-tune with the will of God that they fulfilled what God wanted of them to the T, and therefore inherited the CK. Same story with JC - if he hadn't fulfilled the Atonement, he wouldn't have followed the will of God for himself. Of course, being perfectly One with the will of God, he did fulfill every last morsel of what Heavenly Father wanted him to do and thereby granted himself entrance into the CK, as well as qualifying himself to make the eternal and infinite sacrifice that is the Atonement.

So what tools then do we have to discern the will of God as it applies to us personally? There's a direct and personal way, and that's through our patriarchal blessings. God's will is stated there, right in front of us, as clear as day. The blessings stated therein are not guaranteed, but are a direct manifestation of God's will to you through your patriarch. You might as well call your patriarchal blessing your ticket into the celestial kingdom. By not fulfilling anything shown in the blessing, you are showing direct disobedience to the will of God in your life. (Not to say there can't be some things done after death and such, I don't mean to condemn anyone...)

(I thought God was the same yesterday, today, and forever though? How can His will be different for every person ever? You have to understand the perspective God has. He knows everything. He knows every single factor that leads into decisions, and through pattern recognition and such there is no question as to what will happen. What would the word "change" mean to God, then? Did he "change" His position on polygamy, on blacks having the priesthood? Absolutely not. His will has already been set. This is kind of a confusing concept to put on paper. Maybe I'll try again another next week with the same thought stated more clearly.)

So we have now two manifestations of God's will - patriarchal blessings and the Holy Ghost. These kind of mesh though into one thing (as do most things in the gospel...), and as stated by Christ is the rock on which the church is founded on. This rock is revelation. Through prophets. Personal revelation. Direct manifestation of will of God.

Anyways, food for thought. If anyone has a good, clarifying insight here I'd appreciate it.

(I should probably do pre-writes before I start writing some of these. They go all over the place. It's kind of the nature of gospel doctrine to go deep, then simplify itself back to the DoC, and again, and again, and again. It's pretty disorienting. I mean it's cool and all but sometimes when you're trying to dig deep, you'll make a connection back up top with Christ and it throws you off of the topic you're really trying to get at. Not like science where there's not Doctrine of Christ to always refer back to. You don't make new connections about base-level postulations because of new material unless they flat-out contradict the base, which then would shake all of science so it's kind of a no-no, whereas the DoC is already perfect and so everything ties back to it.)