Letter 03-26-2013

Hi,

It's been a really busy week trying to get settled into this new, big area. In some ways it's actually harder than just working the old, smaller area, which is weird because our area only went from around 1500 total people to 3000 total people, and from 22 square blocks to 45 square blocks. But there's been so much to catch up on.

There was a lot of loose threads left when the area was split. One of the brighter moments of the week was when we happened to pass by one of the (famous around here) returned missionaries who served in this area for eight months, from April to December of 2012. They go to BYU now and so are in the area a lot, and the added knowledge and relationships are going to help a lot. It made me think a little bit about how involved I want to be in my former areas after my mission. No reason to let the ball drop when I'm only a half hour south. Already they have pointed us to a couple people that we should be working smoothly with very soon.

One of our wards held an Easter party that was pretty hilarious. The highlights probably were a 20-minute cake decorating contest between the High Priests, Elders quorum, Relief Society, Primary presidency, YM, and YW. Everyone took it really serious (yes, they had fondant and stuff) and they looked good. The MC then picked a random song to which the cake had to be presented to and the classes danced around with their cake. It was funny. We had a couple potentials there as well and it helped a lot with their fellowship into the ward. ha.

Not much else to report... weather is getting warmer, slowly (but it is warm enough for frisbee which is all that really matters. we know what our zone pday activity is going to be today :] )

--Elder Chandler

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thought: finding

Last transfer, Elder Bloomfield and I really focused on teaching skills. This six weeks we've resolved to find out all we can about the decidedly harder part (for us) of missionary work: finding.

And the report I have so far isn't so good; all we can figure out that PMG tells us is this: finding is long and hard and dreary and will cause many tears, but press forward with faith and you will find. An earlier study quickly came to my mind: Psalms 126:5-6. This is easily becoming my favorite psalm as well as one of my favorite scriptures. So simple, yet deep.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Do we not bear precious seed in our message? Do we not "sow" that seed every day, every hour? (sometimes in tears, when we're tired, when its an anti, when its whatever?) Yet this verse promises us that the sheaves, the harvest will come. As will the rejoicing.

cf. D&C 33:9 - The only way to reap is to Open Your Mouth, so do it! Even without the badge. It's worth it.

summary of our study so far? and our montra? "for this cause came I into the mission".

Have a great week!

Elder Sighting 03-21-2013

Posted on Facebook by CR Despain:

"P Day at the Mall with the Zone Leaders!!! :)"

Elder Sighting 03-19-2013

A text:

"Just had dinner and a nice visit with your son. He's a great missionary!"

Letter 03-19-2013

Hi people,

First, pictures! 1. Bernie's baptism, ha. His eyes are closed and the whole picture looks skewed because of the way Elder Bloomfield and Brother Goates (WML) are tilting their heads. 2. My St. Patrick's day garb. Thanks for the tie Soderquists :) (The ties name is Bob the Leprechaun)

Next: Finding weeks are the longest weeks.

Lots of referrals received, many contacted, but no new investigators, so we're still dealing with a dry investigator pool. To add to the situation, the other companionships in the zone had many a person fall off date, so there was a massive scramble by the leadership to try and pick up the pieces this week. Lots of calls to everyone, lots of training, lots of working.

So maybe a little stressful.

But besides that, things are going so. good. We have transfers this week - Elder Bloomfield and I are staying together for another six weeks. That was good enough for us, but then came the plot twist; we're now covering the whole Murray Little Cottonwood Stake, rather than just half of it. The sisters that were covering the other half both got transferred out... so things are about to get really crazy. President Moffat told us that he's looking for us to build a foundational framework in the other half of the stake in preparation of a re-split. We're expected to produce. That's a lot of trust that, after this last week, I don't really feel deserving of. But it's exciting nonetheless!

Other than that, things continue on. Just looked back and realized I've already been out almost nine months... there's no way. Sooo fastttttttt

Elder Chandler

 

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thought: five "keys" to missionary work

Our landlord, John Brantly, has a big bookshelf downstairs. It's full of a lot of books I don't have time to read (Articles of Faith, Millennial Messiah, Infinite Atonement, etc.). But, there was a book by Steven R. Covey that caught my eye for a second, "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations". I looked in the Table of Contents and there just so happened to be a short section titled "to missionaries". So I checked it out, and from the genius mind of Steven R. Covey comes some great suggestions on how to do missionary work!

80% of your success comes from 20% of your activities, and vice versa. The key is to make each of your activities as productive as possible by following these five points:

1) Communicate: a) With God, b) with yourself, c) with your companion. If all three of these happen, everything else will fall into place.

2) Plan Ahead: By effectively planning, you will double or triple your effectiveness in all that you do. It's a hard skill to acquire, but well worth the effort to gain.

3) Simplify: Bear testimony, ask questions, and testify. Be awesome.

4) Be Strong: You have a testimony of the gospel - don't hide it. Drink the bitter "cup" (tracting, street contacting, etc.) of your mission. It's why you're out here. "For this cause came I into the mission".

5) Multiply Yourself: Create relationships with members in a way that you are effectively creating more missionaries out in the field. The power of one missionary companionship trying to place 10 copies of the Book of Mormon vs a companionship handing out 50 to members, and having them place the books, is not only more efficient but much more successful.

From one of the masters of success and human relations himself.

Letter 03-12-2013

Hi,

Not much time to email today. We've got a special opportunity today to leave the mission and go to the Jordan River temple, so that's taking up most of the day. We even get to eat in the cafeteria :)

Bernie's baptism went AWESOME. He's been being prepared for a long time - it just took a little friendliness to get him where he's now at. I had the chance to do the confirmation; what a thrill (and a little bit of a scare). But it was also cool beans.

So yep back to finding. Got lessons set up with a couple pretty promising potentials this week so we'll see how things turn out.

Elder Chandler

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thought: teaching skills

Elder Bloomfield and I have had some great, productive companionship studies over this transfer. The thing we've probably hit most is teaching skills, particularly asking questions, listening, and bearing testimony. We've concluded that 90% of the lesson should be those three things, and only 10% hard teaching.

We had the first counselor in the mission presidency stop by for our comp study this morning. Without knowing he was doing it he solidified everything we had taught each other and gave us the final piece to our puzzle - the 30-45 minute lesson plans in PMG. Know/memorize those statements, and those can be our 10% teaching. Everything else is questions, listening, and testimony. Kinda cool. So get familiar with those bullets brothers!

Letter 03-06-2013

Hi,

Sunny skies lately in SLC. There's still quite a bit of snow on the ground, even after mid-50s temperatures... just goes to show how much snow there was on the ground I guess. But it is a nice relief to have a little smidgen of warmth sneak in.

After the Zhuckkahosees last week, we're now able to turn all of our attention to Bernie and finding new people. Bernie passed his interview and is still set for this Saturday so we'll have pictures from that and probably T^2 as well next week.

But yes, finding. I really wish I could just teach all the time. But, we've actually had quite a bit of success lately with our finding efforts. Cameron and us continue to tract through the half of an apartment complex we cover and have pretty good success. We now get to work through the Zhuckkahosees to find even more people to teach without having to double focus on getting them to baptism themselves. We have miracles happening as wards come together to fast for new opportunities for us to teach. It might not be the most exciting part of the day, and it's definitely the part that takes up most of the day, but it happens and we learn from it a lot!

have a sunny week maybe,

Elder Chandler

thought: the family history center is packed so I've got to go... sorry.

Letter 02-26-2013

So...

There's still snow on the ground. And snow is still falling. Haven't seen grass since before Christmas pretty much. We have to hit the turning point soon though, right? Frisbee weather will be nice for P-days once it comes.

As great as the week ended, there was a lot that led up to it. So let me explain a bit:

Last week I alluded a little to a problem that we had for keeping the Zhuckkahosees on date for the 23rd. James, the dad, didn't show up at church last week. That meant that he had only been to church once and was scheduled to be baptized on the 23rd... which is pretty against mission policy. We had a meeting with the Mission President afterwards (that training I talked about) and we pulled President Moffat aside afterwards and talked with him about the situation. He told us with James' willingness and the rest of the family being ready, we could go ahead anyways.

So all was well, until Thursday night when we got a text from James that read, "Can u take mara off an call her at house ph tx". So we called the house and I had an hour long conversation with Mara about her drive for Catholicism vs Mormonism, her leadership in the family as the oldest, and a couple other concerns. It ended with a couple action points: to make a pros and cons list of her two paths she could follow, to pray and listen for the Spirit, to fast (and we'd fast with her), and to, when she went to temple square with her family the next day, if she felt the Spirit, to take that as her answer.

So, with that chewing on us, we planned again for temple square on Saturday. I hadn't done one of these trips since I was with Elder Davidson back in my first 3 weeks in the mission, so it'd been a while. We called in beforehand and kind told the tsquared sisters the updates since we'd originally set up the appointment on Wednesday, and asked for powerful teaching sisters :)

They didn't disappoint. By the time we got out of the family presentation, "God's Plan", Mara and her mother were in tears, and the Spirit was so strong. And so they all were baptized on Saturday as a family, to prepare to go to the temple. How often do you get to be a part of something like this on your mission? Props to T^2 sisters as well - that's definitely one of the BEST opportunities we have as SLCC missionaries.

So Saturday came, and I got to do the baptism ordinance for all four of them (James, Mara, Kaneysa, and Kamaywen - the mom, Monica, was a member already). It was scary but awesome. Their hair is all long and one of them blocked the little plaque so I did it from memory, but they all worked on the first time. This is more stressful than the sacrament prayers... but a lot more satisfying I think. Confirmations went swimmingly as well

Anyways, other than that... a new SLC mission, the East. We haven't heard anything about its boundaries yet but I assume it's not going to effect us. We're already so small. My guess is it takes everything north of Sandy and east of Murray, right up against the mountains, including the houses on the foothills and everything. But we'll see.

I think I've written enough... Bernie is still on for March 9th even though he didn't make it to church this week - had to work. Will be interviewed this week.

The whole world is white right now,

Elder Chandler

PS: The letter is my spiritual thought this week. My studies as of late have been reading through the Book of Mormon and following every single footnote. And it's been awesome. I'm going to do it for the first 20 pages is all as a "deep clean" study so I know those pages in and out when I ask people to read them. I'm averaging about 4 verses a study. I have insights but no time to type them so, later I will.

Snow Pictures

1. Some people's snow art as of late (Dragon and Calvin and Hobbes-esque snowman)
2. Snow art of my own :)

Letter 02-19-2013

hi all,

The weather is beautiful today! 47 degrees, clear, sunny... the mountains look great. Too bad it's supposed to snow another inch tomorrow and bring the cold temperatures back. :)

It's so much awesome being here with Elder Bloomfield. We decided so in companionship inventory during weekly planning on Friday, where we both decided we both are awesome, so everything is all good.

Sunday was an interesting blur of meetings. Ward correlation at 8, church from 9 to 12, ward correlation at 12, church from 1 to 4, and a special stake training meeting for us, the ward mission leaders, the bishops, the stake presidency, with speakers President Moffat and Elder Tate, the area 70. Bernie came to church again and is still set and golden for the 9th of March. The Zhuckkahosee family is still on for this Saturday (after a little bit of drama), so we're happy campers to help complete this awesome family by baptizing the three kids and their father!

The special meeting was basically a follow up on the idea of the "pilot" mission and how it's going. We still don't know why our mission is a "pilot", and President Moffat confirmed when he said even he hasn't been given direction on what they're implementing much different over here. Interesting.

Anyways things are going great and joyful!

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thought: prophetic direction

I guess we don't really need to know why or what the new mission is. I really like this story and I've heard it a couple times. I might have even told it before but too bad you can hear it again.

When President Monson raised his expectations for the number of missionaries, we responded and the number of missionaries increased from 55,000 to 58,000. People wondered where they should put these new missionaries - back into Europe where they just cut back? more in the US? And so some of the 70 set out to show why these missionaries needed to go to the Salt Lake Valley.

When their plan to create two new missions (the West and the Central) was presented to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, the prophet asked for a sustaining vote. Apparently President Eyring was missing from the meeting. One of the people present asked if it was appropriate to wait until President Eyring would be able to vote as well, but President Monson promptly raised both his hands and said, "no, I think I can vote for him".

What more do we need to know about the mission other than it's divinely inspired and supported by the prophet of God on earth today?

writing from the best mission in the world,

Elder Chandler

Letter 02-12-2013

hi people,

Today's been a fun week, but also very stressful. The Zhuckkahosees are all still working towards being baptized on the 23rd, which means their interview has to be this Saturday. So they have to be totally ready. We had a Zone Training on Wednesday. Right now in February, we have 13 people on date - 4 of those are our companionship, and another five are the zone leaders. So basically the zone leaders are micromanaging us to make sure every single one of them gets baptized, in February. People behind numbers? pshh :| But it's all good. We love the Zhuckkahosees - I hope they feel as excited as we do for the 23rd... and if not, we're going to get a whipping.

We talked with Bernie and had a "real" chat - he's now on baptism date for the ninth of March. He's awesome, as is his new roommate, Cameron. Who knew talking about sasquatch would get us an awesome person and a baptism?

We got transfer calls last night. Elder Fussell is moving to Taylorsville. It's been an interesting roller coaster ride with him. I learned a lot. I'm getting Elder Bloomfield, who was in my MTC district. He's really, really quiet, but whenever he says something it's really funny. We can also talk for forever since we have similar interests too, so it should be a great 5 weeks! (This next transfer is only five weeks due to the MTC changes, so yes mom, I'll be coming back on the 25th of June next year instead of the 2nd of July)

Happy Valentines day and happy birthday jaron,

Elder Ryan Chandler

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thought: Jesus Christ - Our greatest cheerleader

We all know cheerleaders are the smartest, most successful, have the most scholastic drive, and just in general are the best at everything. Maybe not. But somehow, these girls end up at the top of the high school social ladder. There just might be precedent for that, though.

~

In what ways is Christ the best cheerleader?

1) His sole purpose is to give us cheer!

2 Ne 2:25 - "Men are that they might have joy"

Moses 1:39 - "My work and my glory - to bring to pass... eternal life of man"

Christ's whole attention is to bringing as many of his children back to him and his Father. His whole will is pointed towards this goal. He cheers us on every step of the way.

2) We can follow his lead and find cheer.

D&C 78:18 (78:16-22) - "be of good cheer, for I will lead you along."

Christ isn't just a cheerleader, he's a cheer-leader. His example that he set for us was perfect in every way. By following his lead, we will find cheer in our own lives, if not now, in the life to come. His example leads us in cheers.

3) He has perfect empathy, and so can cheer us up

John 16:33 - "In the world ye shall find tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"

Christ suffered for all. He knows each one of us, not just because we knew each other in the preexistence, but because he suffered, intricately, for each and every one of our sins. If we are ever feeling down, or discouraged, or in despair: have faith! have hope! have cheer! Jesus Christ did suffer for you. Never, ever forget that. He knows your feelings and thoughts. Trust in his mercy, and cheer up!

4) He will do anything in his power to cheer us up

Matthew 9:2 - "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee... but that ye may know the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, Arise, take thy bed, and go unto thine house."

I love the video and word inflection used for this story (in the Testaments and Finding Faith in Christ). So much so, when I went to memorize Matthew 9:1-7 today in personal study it only took me two read-throughs to have it down.

Christ has the power to heal us from everything we've done wrong bar denying the holy ghost and murder. Everything. And he wants us back, no matter what. He'll cheer for you when you're down, and he'll give you cheer when you, finally, have paid the personal price of faith and repentance for your sins. It's possible, even for a man "sick of palsy" and wallowing in his own guilt for sin, to be of good cheer again.

~

So what, Elder?

Smile!

Be of good cheer!

The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours!

Have a great Valentines week

love elder chandler

Letter 02-05-2013

Dear everyone,

Congratulations Staci and Heidi! :)

Not much reporting to do this week - much of the same. Zhuckkahosee's are still moving forward. The dad didn't get to church again this week because of work, but has his schedule fixed to where he should be able to from here on out, so they should be baptized in the first week of March. The mom and the kids all came to church this week again though. It's kind of sad to see the rest of the family progressing so well and the dad falling behind a bit, but we're supposed to wait for the family so wait for the family we will.

Everything else is hunky-dory. Working on a finding pool so we don't have to go a week "dry" with no people on date again once the Zhuckkahosees come around. Got a couple of great potentials, just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself.

til next week,

Elder Chandler

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thought: misery and joy

I really like 2 Ne 2:25. So simple but so powerful. Been thinking a lot lately about joy.

I always wondered a bit how our purpose as mankind is to have joy. How, in this pothole, are we supposed to fulfill our purpose and have joy? Earth doesn't seem to fit this at all. I mean, we get those fleeting moments, but it's a real struggle down here to reach joy. But there it is, right in scripture, men are that they might have joy. So how does it work?

It took me a couple reads to finally realize the answer was basically the whole point of 2 Ne 2. The point it hinges on is the idea of opposites. In verse twenty three it says that Adam and Eve knew no misery, and so knew no joy.

So... maybe... the purpose of man is to have joy, but our current stage is one of misery. So that we can know joy, when it comes.

Isn't that the beauty of God's plan over Satan's rebellion? Isn't that why we chose to be on God's side? Satan's plan, sure, would have gotten us right back to Heavenly Father, with glorified and perfected bodies, but then what? We didn't fulfill our purpose - we knew no misery, so we knew no joy. The purpose of our existence would be nil.

Isn't it interesting how the world morphs this idea? How, they take an eternal truth: Man are to have joy; and then they look at it without an eternal perspective. They live life for "joy". (sorry boys, look at Alma 41:10)

And so it is, that Adam's fall created a condition in which we could "be", and which was the only way we could fulfill our purpose and have liberty and eternal life, which is, "joy".

Additional scripture study:

Psalms 126:5-6 - love this scripture enough to memorize it. I've now memorized 38 verses of scripture in the last 5 weeks :) Love this one especially since it take the Law of the Harvest and applies it in a way interesting thought.

John 16:20 - and, while you're there, you might as well read verse 33 because it's probably my favorite new testament scripture

Alma 36 - Look at how many times the word "joy" is used. Yes, a ton - but only AFTER the pain and harrowed and suffering.

Bible Dictionary: "Earnest" - This is from a PMG blue box - it was actually the start of this whole thing, but 2 ne 2 25 made it flow better. I love this definition.

Have a great week--

Letter 01-29-2013

Hello all,

The weather here has been atrocious the last month. I don't think I've talked about it much except for the snow, which I love, but the smog... ugh. For the last month temperatures have hovered in the single digits to the teens because of all the gunka in the air. I wonder how much more of my life has been taken away than the two years on a mission because of being out in this smog... :)

On a good note, Monday was the first time we've been able to see the sun and the Wasatch Front in three weeks - this most recent snowstorm seems to finally have gotten rid of the rotten inversion that keeps the smog trapped. Thank heavens! What a sight the mountains are finally!

We also got an "ice storm" on Friday with about a quarter-to-half inch of freezing rain. People were freaking out - I guess it's the first time Utah has had freezing rain in 20 or 40 years or something. Someone said they counted 14 accidents on I-15 just from Murray to South Jordan on the way to work. It reminded me of home and the one and a half to two inches we got that one year, and the consistent three-quarter inch of ice we seem to have back in AR.

 As far as the work goes, a little bit of a weird week. Still teaching the Zhuckkahosee family - the dad wasn't able to come to church again and we like to baptize families together, so we'll be pushing that back again. None of our other potential investigators were at church either... but almost every single inactive we've been working with came, many of them for the first time in months/years! It might help that we're really close with all of them and we were speaking in both wards, but hey, they got there and had the best fellowship. Many of them are very closely tied to nonmembers whether through family or roommate or extended family, so we're looking forward to the work that can happen by networking these families.

 Hope all is well,
 Elder Ryan Chandler
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thought: the power of our will over the devil

 Regularly in my study (as in, all the time) I study a passage from Preach My Gospel for a little, then dive into the blue boxes. I've been memorizing a blue box scripture a day for a month now, but I think I've overachieved there a bit :)

So, as I was studying Helaman 5:12, I was circling all the times the words "will" and "shall" are used, then flipping their usage and meaning to indicate the "wills" of different things, as I've explained in an earlier email.

And so in Helaman 5:12 we get a nice indication of what the will of the devil is: to drag us into an endless gulf of misery and woe. The verse finishes though with the fact that, if we are built upon the Rock of our Salvation, Christ, the devil will have no power.

As I was reading this morning in 2 Ne 1, I saw the same thing stated, but in practice. in verses 1 through 20, Lehi explains to Laman and Lemuel why they need to repent. He then explains their problem with a kind of extended analogy - that they're asleep and bound by and in @#!*% . He then tells them to awake and to arise from the dust. And thus comes, "Awake!... arise from the dust, my sons, and be men!"

What an idea it is to be men! In 2 Ne 2:14 it says that we're created as men to act and not be acted upon, and in verse 25 it says men are to have joy. Are Laman and Lemuel having joy or acting for themselves? No! They're stuck and bound, acting according to the will of the devil. They need to fix it fast and start acting with their own will, "with one mind and with one heart", aligning that will with God's.

So I think Lehi is essentially saying the same thing to Laman and Lemuel that Helaman told his sons: remember, remember, that the devil's will (will) have no power over you, my sons, if you build a foundation on Christ, so build it! Awake! arise from the dust, and, be men!

 Have fun peoples

Letter 01-22-2013

Dear people,

What a swell week! Spiffy, nifty, fun fun fun fun fun. (PS im reading/skimming through the dictionary in a bit of "downtime", looking for new words that are fun to say and write so I'm not just stuck with spiffy, nifty, and swell)

It started with a bang that I stated in my last letter - we were in the apartments and found a bunch of great potential investigators. And so it began. Wednesday we went on exchanges. Our district leader, serving spanish speaking from Spain, but also fluent in English and 3 other languages, came into my area with me as Elder Fussell headed off to take a culture dip in the Spanish assignment here in SLC. Elder Malan is one of President Moffat's "go-to" guys. He, for a while, single-handedly took the assignment to be the Spanish Zone Leader, until the pressure was such that it was dissolved and waiting for more training. He's one of the smartest people I've met in my life I think... and I got to learn from him for the whole day! Spent a lot of time talking about the "State of the Mission" and ways to be successful. He baptized, in his first 3 months in the mission about 40 people. Needless to say that helped a lot!

So we went into Thursday and taught a lesson to the family of four, which was so powerful and awesome that they all accepted a baptism date for February 9th! They were at church as well - as solid as they get. A prepared family. Cameron, the "less-active" roommate was at church on Sunday. We chatted with him about bringing Bernie along next time. We'll start teaching Bernie shortly. We have a lesson set up with a young boy named Dillon Tourigney who we've been working to get in his house since I first got in the area, for tomorrow. We'll be extending a date to him as well. It's so exciting! I love this work and this area so much. From nothing to just flourishing in less than a week.

Continuing to create a network of members and less-actives. I think I'm finding that, even if less actives don't come to church, sometimes they're still just as happy to hand us referrals for their friends. Why they don't come I'm not sure though... so we work on that as well :)

And so in summary what I think I've found:

Networking is the foundation. Working is the, well, work to build the house. The Lord then makes that house beautiful and sanctifies it. The lot is the small proselyting area out here. Honestly from the thoughts I had and from what Elder Malan said, I can pretty solidly say that the purpose of this pilot is to create foundations, because once a foundation is in place... there's no stopping the work. Not a chance.

Have a great week!

--Elder Chandler

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thought: the role of the Holy Ghost (in a couple ways)

This week I had a couple experiences that allowed me to better understand the Spirit. How it works. How I feel it. It's power, yet how quiet it really is. For the first time in my life I actually feel I can safely say I recognize exactly when the Holy Ghost is testifying of truth.

I really enjoyed a lesson we heard in Elders Quorum on last Sunday. The teacher talked about how he didn't feel he could recognize the Spirit fully until he came on his mission. He talked of how as a child he was looking for a "happy while crying" sensation. Then as he got older he was looking for a "happy while crying, burning in bosom", which only got more confusing as more things were added on.

I totally felt the same as him, but with a few experiences during studies the preceding days I felt I could recognize the Spirit at that point. I explained as a comment how, as missionaries, one of our responsibilities is to help others recognize the Spirit as we teach them.

During our lesson with the Zhuckahosee's (the family, native american, pronounced Shik-as-ee), I felt very impressed to apply this principle. While teaching of Jesus Christ's Earthly Ministry and Atonement, I qualified with something, close to a baptisimal interview question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ really did suffer for all of your sins? As we went around the room and each person testified of its truth with a simple yes, I know they could feel the power of the Spirit. Then, as we taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith, I had the opportunity to do near the same thing: Do you believe that Joesph Smith did see what he said he saw? Each person in the room answered in the affirmative. After explaining that the Spirit was testifying of truth, we were able to bring up and invite them to all be baptized, at which point the whole family, for the third time, was able to answer yes.

I know it's probably a given pattern for most people, but it hit me very hard this week that the Spirit is the key to the work. Helping others to recognize how they feel it's presence is not just important, but imperative for anyone to be truly converted. And as I feel better converted in this time, I know that I can better help others come to the same conclusion - this church is true and living, with a modern day prophet to lead and guide us back to our Heavenly Father again, with the additional help of the Spirit.

Yay for simple truths,

:)

Letter 01-15-2013

Dear everyone,
We got a massive snowstorm this week. There was about a foot of snow on the ground, and it's cold enough there's really no sign it's going to go away soon. Yay! I think I could be out forever in 30 degree, sunny, snow-on-the-ground weather. Now if only it was in the high 20s or 30s and not the single digits or low teens... but a coat fixes that anyways.

What a great week! Got to attend the baptism of Casey Dunn back in Parkway (he was baptized by his friend, Ammon Black on left), and then had a baptism of our own with Katey and Alyson and Bryson. Every week is a good one with a baptism. It's a good reminder to give us drive on why we're on missions - to get people to this point. The Spirit is so strong during baptisms.

Most of the week was spent prepping everything for Katey, Alison, and Bryson, but once we got them in the water reality hits pretty hard that our progressing investigator pool is at zero. A reminder that we are basically whitewashing an area that has had no work for the previous six months. No foundation for finding except for what we've built in the last six weeks. But, as I'm finding more and more, as long as we do what we can the Lord will fill in the rest.

We did a while of contacting in the half-of-an-apartment-complex that lies in our area. Now, in the past we've had no success here at all. There are four sets of missionaries that tract here: us, the sisters that cover the other half, the zone leaders that cover the YSA ward, and the Spanish branch Elders. Numerous times as we knock a new door there, we are immediately rejected and told to stop coming over (even though we personally have never knocked the door). We've been attempting to try a new approach: create a "net" of active members to "catch" all the new move-ins and such for us to try and teach. That's going so-so (there's only two active families and six semi-active families that live in the 150 doors of the apartments that we cover). We did go back and contact a few doors that we've created relationships with in the past that either moved away or have new family living there, and got a warm reception at every single one of them. We're looking at now teaching a family of four, a roommate of a less-active, and the husband of a less-active. We do what we can and the Lord fills in the rest.

This week we had a zone conference where the mission president gave us our new mission standards for the year. Every Companionship Baptize Twice a Month, 4 on date, 4 at church, 7 Lessons with a member, 7 other lessons, 4 progressing inv, 4 new inv, and 7 hours of personal contacting a week The biggest changes: baptizing weekly to baptizing bi-weekly, and 4 new investigators vs 7 new investigators. He also added a new key indicator, personal contacting. I guess some missionaries think the members should do all the work and aren't spending any time doing personal contacting, hm. It's fun to know our companionship "hit mission standard" this month on baptisms! Yay.

 --Elder Chandler
 --------------------------------
thought: Bible Dictionary Faith

President gave us the "silver bullets" for baptizing bi-weekly: Faith, Obedience, and Diligence. I guess it's from the mission president handbook. So I've been thinking about faith a little bit. Spent time memorizing Alma 26:22.

A question that's popped into my head before: Do I really have sufficient faith? How do I know if my faith is strong enough for what I'm doing? So during Personal Study I decided to try and answer by turning the the BD definition of faith. A few tidbits: - Faith must be centered on Jesus Christ - "Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith": I've helped people be converted so I know I at least have sufficient faith for what I'm doing. - "by faith one obtains a remission of sins and eventually can stand in the presence of God", and... - "A lack of faith leads one to despair, which comes because of iniquity": What a powerful thought.

I guess this is what I wanted to focus on. I'm going to attempt to tie together a lot of thoughts at once, so bear with me: Doing a little bit of scripture math/logic, we find that despair = lack of faith = (guilt => iniquity). Sometimes I do find myself feeling a little bit of despair when I think of my imperfections. But all that it really shows is a lack of faith on my part. Humility does not come from "beating yourself up" because of your imperfections and weaknesses, but from the hope that Jesus Christ can make up the rest. And from that hope comes the faith that is true faith, of which we can reap the positive effects of (remission of sins, knowledge the course of life is acceptable to the Lord, reception of the Lord's blessings, and assurance of personal salvation [BD Faith]).

 So it sounds like I have some work to do. No despair, ever! Keep on smilin'. :)

Elder Sighting 01-10-2013

Facebook Photo Tag from the Romney Family:

"Teamwork!!!! After 2 days and 10 patches (one of them duct tape), Elder Chandler's bike is now working......For how long we don't know. :) —"

Elder Sighting 01-10-2013

Tagged on Facebook as seen at a Romney Family Christmas Party.  Looks fun!

Letter 01-08-2013

With the new year comes new opportunity, especially with these slow last couple weeks. Katie, Alison, and Bryson are still going strong for this Saturday. Still working ever so slowly with Max and Zhenia, from Ukraine. Still handing out 21-day promises. We're starting to see some turnaround in the people we've been trying to work with around here - a couple people are progressing closer and closer to lessons. Sometimes I sit and just marvel at how, in a 3-block large area, we are trying to get (and in some cases getting) as much work as everyone else around the world. We're trying to keep tabs on every single house living in our area and measuring their progress towards taking lessons or coming back to church. This mission really is amazing.

It's been really cold. Temperatures continue to stay in a dry 15-25 degree range. They were warmer yesterday though. I absolutely love looking at the snow every morning. It just makes everything so much more fun. The whole valley is just brighter with all the white on the ground! I hope the snow sticks until spring rolls around.

Christmas break ended and so the youth are back in school, young adults are leaving on missions/going back to college, the parents are back at work, people are back from vacation, and life continues on again--

Elder Chandler

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thought: walls and communication

We had what was the best district meeting/training of my mission thus far on Thursday. We talked about loving our investigators. Is is a chore for your investigators to meet with you? Or is it easy to get them to meet? Are you really their friend? Are you "their" missionary? Will you keep in contact and be friends for the rest of your lives?

The answer to the last three should be yes for all the people we teach. We then did a role play on using the love and trust to really, truly, bring out concerns. Not just surface level ones. And it was amazing for me to watch what a bit of conversation did.

There's always a wall in initial conversation. Some people's walls are thicker and taller than others. But you can tell (or at least I've found I can see a difference, somehow) when someone's wall breaks. And just at that moment is when you can probe deep. "Why" questions can be asked, and a real response and feelings can be communicated. "Whats" can be addressed. A "how" plan can be produced. Breaking through the communication wall is preparatory and essential before any and all concerns can be addressed.

Not only that, but after the wall is broken, there is no such thing as being overbearing. You're doing everything truly out of love for the other person and really listening to them. It's pure and true communication. And it's something I now strive for in every interaction I'm a part of.

Anyways the idea is pretty abstract but I like it. It makes more sense when you see/feel it. Have a great week.

Photo 12-13-2012

That tie, Mother--

It's name is Zelgius. Ask the boys who that is. (Jaron or McKay will know, maybe Jamison. I think they'll understand why.) I really do like it.

Elder Sighting 12-26-2012

From: Dave Trudo
Date: December 26, 2012, 5:26:43 PM CST
To: Greg Chandler
Subject: Elder Chandler

Just thought I would let you know that my brother Scott saw your Elder shopping in his store today and said hello. He heard Bentonville and his ears perked up and he went and met him.

Hope your family had a great Christmas!

Letter 01-01-2013

Happy New Years!

There's still a bunch of festive snow on the ground. Probably is going to stick for quite some time, because it's staying so cold around here. (compared to last year, at least. We were still playing frisbee on Heritage Hill much later into the season than this...) (also so cold isn't really that bad - only gets to the teens generally but is still a little chilly).

Found a camera cord so I'll send a couple pictures this time around:

1) Court of Honor for a couple boys in my area that we attended. Got a couple nonmembers to get there, as well as a less active/returning member. It's really fun to get to stand in the eagle's nest for that short time. Thanks mother.

2) It's pretty cold

I don't know how much memory emails hold so I'll leave it at that.

We had our baptismal interview with Bryson, Alison, and Katie on Saturday. They're all prepped and ready for the 12th of January! Such an exciting time in their lives.

On Sunday there was the most massively attended sacrament meeting I've ever seen. Two apparently (very) popular kids from the high school both had their farewells. The attendance rivaled stake conference, not even joking. Got to re-see a lot of the people from my old area that I had to leave in the blink of an eye and gave them my contact info. (That probably means I have a couple pending friend requests on facebook so, mom, if you'd like you can go through and just add all the people that request me, if they're from Utah. Especially the Murray area.) Two great talks from great new elders going to serve in Ukraine (not Kiev, Kelson) and Mexico.

Oh yeah. I told my parents but I'm serving in David Archuleta's home stake. His dad lives 4 or 5 doors down from me. For all of you Utah-people that know who he is.

Maybe it's important to know that transfer calls were yesterday. Elder Fussell and I are staying here for another six weeks (bar another emergency, ha. I'm hesitant to say that after what happened last transfer). I really love this area. Hope I never leave Murray.

Have a great week,

Elder Chandler

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thought: truth of the book of mormon

As a mission we had the opportunity for the last four months to read the Book of Mormon while underlining every mention of Jesus Christ. We finished yesterday. It struck me that this is actually the first time I've read the Book of Mormon cover to cover chronologically with a real system of reading. Kind of sad actually. Don't make it that way! I get so many complements on how well I know the scriptures that it really is embarassing to have this be pretty much the first time I've read it. I guess that attests to the greatness of the seminary program and Book of Mormon classes at the Y. But how many nuggets there are in Helaman, Mormon, Ether, and Moroni!

I guess I could have done my spiritual thought on Ether (I'm memorizing a scripture or couple scriptures each day to try and keep my memory running and in check), but I'll just leave it at this most important one. Read the Book of Mormon, ponder in your hearts the message it contains, and then ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if it is true. If you pray in faith, with real intent, you WILL gain a testimony of it's truthfulness and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. It's that simple. Everything else stems from it. It works.

If you will to gain a testimony, you will gain a testimony.

That principle applies to anything in the spiritual realm. If you will to do, you will. It's almost cliche. But its true, true doctrine even at a secular level.

Have a happy new year. Make a goal to help someone be baptized this coming year. My goal is to baptize bi-weekly for the rest of this year. That means that if all six Chandler boys help one person each to get to the water this year, than I'll bring four people in for each of those. So as a family we could help baptize and confirm 30 people this year. That would be so cool.

--Elder Ryan Chandler