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Letter 06-24-2014

Hello everyone--

Go ahead and email me at rolfkip@gmail.com from here on out.

Missions are amazing! :)

--Elder Chandler

Elder Sighting 06-23-2014

"Just saw your boy in the mission office.  He is coming home Wednesday.  But he said that he will be back to school at BYU in a month or so.  He has been such a great missionary. -- Sister Bingham."

Letter 06-17-2014

Another week that doesn't really give me much to write about, except for all of the personal growth and learning happening during personal studies.

We had zone conference this week, and we did departing testimonies. I'll just include what I ended up saying as the thought. A great conference though, with a lot of talk about where the mission needs to go from here. In my transfer group and the next one, the mission will lose 30 missionaries and only gain a third of that back, so a lot of areas are going to have to close/adjust until we fill back up to capacity.

Other than that we're just enjoying proselyting and trying to fill our teaching pool again.

--Elder Chandler

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thought: award ceremonies

As I was up giving my testimony and hearing the others I was thinking about the end-of-season awards ceremonies that we always have as sports teams. For those who have been to these things, there's a lot of awards handed out.

Everyone gets an award (It's the trophy generation, after all haha), but some awards are ranked above others. There's the MVP, the "most valuable player" award, the most assists, the best at keeping the team motivated, etc. As I was seeing everyone go up to bear their testimony, I felt comfortable classifying and awarding everyone a trophy that went up.

But my mind went to one award in particular. It's the outlier of awards. The one no one wants. The "most improved" award.

For those who aren't familiar with this award, it basically means two things:

1) you were really terrible in the beginning

2) you're still really bad

---

I think on my mission the lessons I've learned have basically led to the lessons of the "most improved" award.

1) I was in a really sad spot before my mission (I was nothing)

2) Even after the growth I've had, I'm still nothing

So let us hearken to the parable of the "most improved" :) and get ourselves out of the way to let God's light shine through us. The faster we realize these lessons, the faster we are able to progress spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and physically - not because we're any better ourselves necessarily, but because we've become better lenses through which the Spirit and Light of God can be focused.

Letter 06-10-2014

Everyone,

Don't have much to update on this week at all, so it's going to be a short letter. Things are staying relatively flat lately. We're still working on getting people set for June, and also to get some working for baptism in early July. Thank you for all the prayers and support!

We've got quite a few people really close to moving really fast - the key is to just get into the door and teach the first lesson. The Restoration is so powerful! The Spirit left after teaching it makes it very simple to help people come closer to Christ every lesson and want to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so they can be with the Spirit always.

Not sure what else to say so...

--Elder Chandler

:)

Letter 06-03-2014

Things are ramping up it seems... as the weather gets warmer more people walk around and people just seem to be innately more amiable. It makes missionary work more pleasant at least when they're nice to you at their door!

At the all-mission pday activity I took first in the mission at standing long jump and the 400m dash :) It's always fun to get together with old companions, friends from districts and zones, etc. And to get outside in shorts and a t-shirt and play ultimate of course.

We're continuing to teach quite a bit. Lots of teaching = time flying and the work is paying off... we've got quite a few people with dates for baptism and are going to keep it coming! The stake here really is amazing, with so many people so eager to invite their friends. The Murray South Stake was the highest baptizing stake in the mission in the first months of the central mission, so it's always good to be in a spot that utilizes my favorite part of missionary work so well.

Work work work

--Elder Chandler