Letter 08-27-2013

Everyone,

 

Midvale is never short of surprises. The stories from some of the other missionaries and their investigators... and the frequency of the insanity is crazy. So many people working to baptism go to jail... or move... or go back to meth... or whatever.

 

But none of our kids have gotten into any of that so we're still good :) The weather is cooling off, so there's really nothing to complain about. Finding is always a bit of a struggle with an area that covers .4 square miles - the Lord provides enough to keep us busy though. If there's one thing that's true about this mission it's that, even though we might not be busy with investigators all the time, all the investigators we do pick up get to the water. And it's a miracle every single time they do.

 

So the funny story of the week is when a 13 year old boy OYM'd us walking home from school (usually when people talk with us instead of us talking with them, it's not a good thing) and asked if we were Jehovah's Witness. We told him we were LDS. From there the convo went something like this:

"You know that God isn't real, right?"

EC - "Where'd you get that idea?"

"It's just common knowledge... there couldn't be a God."

EC - silence...

"There's no proof there's a God."

EC - "Where did life start from then?"

"You've never heard of the Big Bang Theory, have you?"

Elder Oliveros - "You mean the TV show?"

 

hahaha i thought it was funny anyways. If you were wondering how that finished up, he told us to have a bad day and walked off. We get quite a bit of "Hail Satans" and such... we even got a "White Power" yesterday?? But hey it's all part of the gig.

 

--Elder Chandler

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thought: Children of God

 

I really don't think there's a more powerful thought than the fact that we are children of God with a divine heritage. We inherited divine potential. Borrowing a bit from Elder Bednar's talk on chastity and taking a little of my own inflection: We are defined by our divine potential. What a thought! We are defined by our divine potential. Right now in the Book of Life each one of us is defined by our potential, and it's up to us to live up to that definition.

 

I wrote a little couplet-thing that I feel connected to:

I think in this life

We oft forget this thought.

The thought: in this life

We are as, "I think oft..."

 

I hope I can more often reflect on my divine heritage and potential in order to live up to and ultimately become as such.

Letter 08-20-2013

Hello,

Whether it be the heat in the past weeks or whatever, it's been really hard to find people. But the Lord always provides a way to baptize twice monthly through faith, obedience, and diligence.

The very first day I got into this area, we met a young mom that wanted her two children baptized. Because she had the kids before she was 18, her parents have legal custody of them and haven't wanted them baptized. But this last week she finally got permission from her parents! So they're being baptized on August 31st. They've been attending church in West Valley with their grandparents for a long time now, so we're able to move quickly with them. It's awesome.

Other than that we just keep going out and working. And playing frisbee and basketball on pdays.

--Elder Chandler

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thought: commitment

I recently went back to read Elder Cook's talk from this last October. I think the talk was kind of overshadowed by President Monson's preceding announcement for me... because it's very, very insightful. It attempts to tackle the apathy felt by many members towards the church, and even just to help us during those "spiritual droughts" we all sometimes fall into. In some ways I feel like Elder Cook's talk and Elder Holland's talk from that general conference attempt to address the same issue. Elder Holland's talk is beautiful to listen to and inspiring, while Elder Cook's is quainter and more logic-based. I like both.

It's not until the middle of his talk that he really gets into his meat - starting with a quote by CS Lewis. He asks us first to change our paradigm towards commitment to the gospel, to realize we're sick and need a doctor. He gives us a good process to be able to do so in Alma chapter 5. He gives us some checks to make sure we aren't doing - abuse or sexual immorality/impure thoughts.

In PMG we are told that all concerns are based in either testimony or commitment. By helping our investigators first realize(!) they need to repent ("Commitment and repentance are closely intertwined"), then go through the process of commitment we can help them more often overcome the commitment concern, which is by far the most common concern I've run into. (The investigators I've taught usually have testimonies...)

It's also helped me a lot to be able to work my way through back to that fervor pitch to want to share the gospel by following Elder Cook's suggestions instead of relying on spiritual punches from Elder Holland :)

Elder Sighting 08-18-2013

Valerie,

I was pleasantly surprised when I turned around in Sunday School today, and there was 'Elder Chandler.' I grew up in the Midvale 6th Ward and was back visiting. I had a training in SLC on Friday, and went to my old ward for church this morning. When I asked him, "Are your parents Greg and Valerie?" he didn't seem totally shocked but did ask how I knew you. When I told him I was in the Little Flock Ward it all made sense. Attached is a picture of us with his companion. It isn't super clear, but I thought you would still like to see it.

Lynnette Smith

Letter 08-13-2013

Hey,

I think I'm the most tan I've even been in my life. Not just tan but missionary tan - a beautiful white strip on my wrist from the watch and a nice white neck from a high collar. It's funny because Elder Oliveros always looks in the mirror and says "I'm so dark". Apparently just like it's cool to be tan in the USA, it's cool to be light in the Phillipines. I will say though I think my leg hairs are suffocating because they haven't been outside in shorts for 14 months now... Poor guys :(

The work is still where it was last week... all of our time spent finding. We're doing a bit of everything - LARCs, member work, personal finding, formers. It's going to come together at some point on the Lord's timeline, but right now we're still kind of struggling in the dark.

I've been reading through all of the conference ensigns in our apartment during "free time" (lunch, dinner-at-home, etc). It might also interest you mom that we spend a lunch every once in a while in the church building where I've been practicing hymns. I can play "Nearer My God to Thee" and "Come Follow Me" now, and I'm working on a couple more. Piano lessons and music theory aren't totally useless out here...

I don't know how many of you watch "The District" or know what it is, but rumor has been going around that they're making a District 3 in the Salt Lake West Mission... we just got a short clip the other day during Zone Training and it turns out Elder Joseph Isabell is in it. Kinda fun to have a college roommate become a movie star!

Also we just did the math and our area is 4/10ths of a square mile, ha.

Have a good week,

Elder Chandler

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thought: Beguile, yet guileless

Part of training in my last 3 transfers has been going through the 12-week training program. It basically adds an extra hour to companion study in the morning and gives us time to go through a guided program through Preach My Gospel. It's really insightful. Each week we've been coming up with a catch phrase for what we've learned that week. This weeks was the title of the thought.

There's a phrase that's always intrigued me, found in two places in the standard works that I know of. "Be wise, yet harmless" - Alma 18:22-23 and Matthew 10:16. The statement to "be wise, yet harmless" is directed straight at missionaries - Christ gives the injunction to his Apostles right before they are sent on missions, and Mormon uses it to describe Ammon during a classic missionary discussion.

(I apologize in advance for the scripture math): Alma 18:23, Alma "beguiles" King Lamoni. That's his being "wise". Therefore, "beguile, yet harmless". Matthew 10:16 footnote for harmless defines harmless as "guileless", and thus we get to: "Beguile, yet guileless". Guile = G. G = notG, which is kinda dumb because that's a completely illogical statement.

I just like the idea though that as missionaries we're supposed to be sneaky and crafty but, as long as we're doing so in love and for the right reasons, we're doing our job well, specifically dealing with committing people to do things.. It reminds me of the wording of Phillipians 4:12, counseling us to be "full and hungry, to abound and to be abased". Because of the contrasting opposites though, the idea that they are trying to get across is expressed even though it's way hard to describe in words.

Sorry this was kind of a wordy thought without a good conclusion.

Letter 08-06-2013

Hi,
Apparently this has been the hottest July in the history of the state of Utah. Wasn't it just yesterday we had the coldest January on record? Hmmmm...

August doesn't feel any cooler yet. We're still working on finding people to teach. It's seriously the most trying thing in missionary work. We taught a lot of LARCs (Less Active/Recent Convert lessons). From what we've heard, and for some reason no one is sure about exactly, apparently teaching a lot of LARCs helps you to find investigators, so we're testing it out and making sure we ask for referrals.

I personally want to make sure we don't fall into the same trap that Elder Bloomfield and I fell into in Murray Little Cottonwood when we were given the Coronas family and some others the Sisters were teaching that we weren't helping progress very well. We've got to find the balance between working with families like the Darlingtons, Ammons, and Andrews while still making sure we're finding time to, well, find.

We just finished having a massive birthday party at Brother Hobson's house for Elder Ciavardini and Elder Nuttall. It's fun seeing a fair amount of people again. Bro Hobson is so good to us Elders. He takes us shopping every week and we have lunch at his house every Saturday. He even took in Chris Floyd a couple weeks ago while we finished teaching him and baptized him. He's a returning member.

--Elder Chandler
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thought: fun one-liner from the August Ensign

We get our hands on the new Ensigns whenever we have a mission conference. This time we were lucky and got it pretty early in the month. I love some of the profound statements in it. I like to try and come up with my own every once in a while. It's fun. Anyways....:

"We pray continuously for guidance, but we shouldn’t expect continuous revelation. We expect continuing revelation..."

I love how pithy the apostles are in their language.

For all I do though, it's hard to beat Elder Holland: "To those who were once with us but have retreated, preferring to pick and choose a few cultural hors d’oeuvres from the smorgasbord of the Restoration and leave the rest of the feast..."

I hope I can say things that succinctly and cool someday. Honestly, I think I could read that out loud forever and never get bored of hearing it. :)

Elder Sighting 08-06-2013

Ryan and most of his district on Temple Square.

Letter 07-30-2013

hello friends,

Two baptisms! Chris and Sherri's baptism was great, as was their confirmations. Elder Oliveros was able to do the confirmation for Chris which is awesome - his first one! President Moffat told us in the pre-training meeting we had that the most important thing we could do for the person we're training is to let them see through a baptism from start to finish. That's Sherri for Elder Oliveros! The Lord blesses us during training so much.

 Other than that we're back to finding. Hitting the streets hard with a smile woo. The district set a goal together to get a lot of baptisms this month, which is invigorating. If we can put 2 on date and baptize them in August we'll have done our part to hit the goal - hopefully though we'll be able to get one of the three (!) families (!) that we've found in the past. Teaching families is the best thing ever.

--Elder Chandler
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thought: Book of Mormon

This week in my Book of Mormon studies, the theme that keeped jumping at me was just how much I need to be using the Book of Mormon and the words of the prophets in my teaching. Between Jacob 7:10, Mosiah 1:3-7, and Mosiah 3:13, there was a ton on just how much influence the scriptures should have in our teaching.

My favorite section on this though is in Enos - verses 14, 16 and 19. The Lord makes so many promises to the Book of Mormon prophets about how the Book of Mormon will be preserved for the people living in our generation, and it's us as missionaries today (verse 16) that get to reap the benefits of their faithful prayers for their children.

It gives me some comfort to be able to lean on their prayers sometimes if I'm feeling week, and also makes me feel an even greater need to use their words in my teaching.

Letter 07-23-2013

peeps(.com),

My companion is from Bulacon.

So today I'm going to do rubric again but I'll go back to paragraphs next week.

Tomorrow is transfers - Elder Oliveros and I are staying put.

Food - We just ate at Moochie's on State and Center. It's WAY good. There's one in South Salt Lake as well if you want to avoid me (as if it's possible but do try).

Weather - is good and hot Teaching - Chris and Sherri were successfully interviewed and will be baptized this Saturday. :) Pictures of that next week.

Things are doing good! Hope all the vacations are going good.

-Elder Chandler

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thought: helping people to salvation

I love Jacob 4. This time verse 13 struck me: "wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old."

It made me think that I need to make sure I'm teaching for understanding, that I'm manifesting things plainly, to help other people gain salvation. The scriptures/words of the prophets are our best aids in doing so.

Part of our language study is helping Elder Oliveros memorize short scriptures that he can use in teaching; it's helping me to ground myself in foundational scriptures as well.

It's interesting to me as well that the beginning of the verse talks about the Holy Ghost, -wherefore- these things are manifested plainly.

Does it get any plainer then true or false? Right or wrong?

Our "getter" method always returns a boolean value back to us. I'm finding more and more comfort in being able to ask God and get true or false answers back to direct me where I need to be or what I need to do.

Letter 07-16-2013

hey,

the weather - things are getting pretty hot again. but thats alright i survive anyways pretty well.

the food - i still haven't had green jello with carrots yet. only slightly disapointed.

the members - are cool

chris floyd - maybe you'll get to hear his story in my journal after my mission. but hes back on date and shooting for july 27th

sherri derho - she smoked last week and so her date had to be pushed back a week, but shes four days clean now and also shooting for july 27th. shes been smoking for over 40 years so it's a hard change for her

annnnnd of course the update on tammy and madi - the cop cars took madi away to a happier place than shady wasatch apartments (they don't have a name so thats what we call them). shes at her dads now permanently. stink for us but better for her

elder chandler

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thought: proof

2 Ne 11:4,5 - "God... proveth his words... my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ"

secular: ethos -> pathos -> logos

As we teach, we first help people to feel an emotional connection to the Book of Mormon, as it pertains to their needs. We then have the witnesses of our companion, members, and the prophets in the scriptures. Finally you are able to delve into the logic of the truthfulness of the church - the stats, the Book of Mormon, the miracles, the "greatness of the evidences" (Hel 5:50). I, like Jacob, love during personal study to jump into the logos, the logic, the proof of Christ, the church, and Joseph Smith (Intro BoM last paragraph).

spiritual

It's by the Book of Mormon that God has proved his words to us. I love that the word prove is used - a certainty that comes from being founded in truth. That truth comes through the Holy Ghost. When I'm in personal study, my faith has grown so much as I've noticed all of the prophecies and their fulfillment today in the Isaiah chapters; as I've felt the Holy Ghost tell me these things are true, I too have proof that I can see, touch, and read that we tell the truth, no matter how many detractors there are out there.

Letter 07-09-2013

So,

 

Funny that grandpa met President Moffat. That's what happens when they call you to your mother's home town... I wouldn't get too uptight about him talking to grandpa about going to visit, he told me the same thing my first interview, ha. He did stop by the next morning for companion study, but of course didn't tell me anything about meeting grandpa.

 

Other than that, Shery continues to press for July 20th. We're going to teach her the stop smoking program tonight. Everyone else has kind of flown under the radar... There was a couple police cars in front of Tammy and Madi's house yesterday and we know friends with alcohol have been over there lately. (Midvale woo) We're continuing developing faith to find and are trying the whole member network thing Elder Jackson and I did in Parkway again. We'll see results here soon. There's so many great people around here. Our bishops are amazing. We've gotten two new WML's lately and they're great as well. Oh yeah.

 

Yep,

Elder Chandler

 

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thought: Us and Isaiah

 

1 Ne 21/Isaiah 49. What a prophesy! Starting in verse 8, Isaiah talks of "a servant", to give a "covenant of the people". I don't know where I remember this from, probably Rel A 121, but in Hebrew 'covenant' and 'testimony' are the same word. So a servant will bring forth a testimony of a people to establish the earth, and to cause people to inherit the desolate places. The people will come from far, to be established "in the east" (In the American continent) and to sing "O mountains", to be smitten no more.

 

What strikes me though as a missionary here in the valley is verses 14 and 15 - "Zion [Salt Lake City] hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me". Right now many of the people here in Zion don't agknowledge God, or have forgotten him and the miracles that were manifest to bring their forefathers here because they were 'offended' by a bishop or whatever. Maybe some of the members feel that the Lord has forgotten them, He isn't answering their prayers while their wards dwindle in sacrament meeting attendance, even here in Zion. But, "he will show them he hath not... Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands...".

 

I love that. Especially because, hey, that's me, right there in the scriptures! One of 100 missionaries serving in a small mission in Zion, that's there to "show them he hath not" forsaken them.

 

:)

Letter 07-02-2013

Hi,

It's really cold out here. A nice 40 degrees, celsius. Somehow I haven't sunburned yet. We keep the enthusiasm up to match the temperature though.

We had a roller coaster week... so many people we're teaching, but so many of them "soft-dropped" us. They basically all said, "Come back any time, we'll share a scripture and say a prayer! But we're not ready for baptism yet. Don't get too discouraged because of me - you brought me back to God, and I'm just choosing to stay where I'm at for now. I'm still open to change my mind though!" It puts us in a very tough spot. We could teach and teach and teach and teach but only have a shot at getting them back on date and working towards baptism. So we're really praying whether to drop them or not.

That's got to be the hardest part of the mission. Deciding whether or not to drop someone. Especially when our areas are so small, we'll see the people we drop on the street and outside all. the. time. We have to trust that the Lord will put other people who are prepared in our path, and so far He has - we have a lady that is on date for July 20th that showed up from a Ward Mission Process (yes, those referrals are the best!).

And so on the work moves. I spoke on Sunday again and gave my "The Lord is Hastening His Work" talk. I love giving it. I think I'm going to save giving it as my thought though so I can use it for a certain talk after my mission.

-Elder Chandler

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thought: Prayer

I really enjoyed a recent article in the June Ensign: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/06/improving-your-personal-prayers?lang=eng

I've always been a big fan of the Bible Dictionary definition of prayer. In the article heading "Align Your Will with the Father's", he says that prayer is an alignment process. I love that. It's something that I've been realizing more and more over the last weeks. When we pray we're given an opportunity to gain a glimpse into the perspective of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, then realign our lives to be in harmony with their's.

I think it's because of this concept that Alma the Younger was able to tell Helaman, "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good, yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord that he will watch over thee in your sleep, and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God. And if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." Or something like that.

Then the promise comes in the article: "When we align our will with Heavenly Father's will, answers and spiritual power will flow more freely." And that's something I need, seeing as "prophesy" and "speak (with power)" are two of the most used missionary verbs in the Book of Mormon thus far.

Letter 6-25-2013

Hi,

So today marks one year..... Insanely fast.

The missionary fireside was fun. We had the whole mission get together to watch it (it's a max 20 minutes bike ride to the mission office from the furthest area in the mission). We discussed a little bit afterwards. I was impressed personally by how much charity matters. How our motivation should be charity. So I want to continue to work on that. The whole internet thing where we get to start using facebook and stuff will be interesting but I'll be waiting to see what the guidelines are going to be. And when it'll be rolled out for SLCC

We're continuing to shoot towards baptism with everyone so things are going forward with valiance. Other than that not much else to say. Here are some random pictures, like me shooting a basketball or a discount cake the member who went shopping with us today got written on. I don't know how he found out I'd been out a year today.

Anyways yeah things are good,

Elder Chandler

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thought: testify!

We were challenged to read through the Book of Mormon on a study schedule during personal study, looking for verses about missionary work. Which of course there's a ton. I've been keeping tabs on the verbs that missionaries do in the BoM.

It's interesting to note that, behind missionaries speaking, they testify the next most times so far. It made me think of President Monson's talk during the priesthood session of general conference. In any case I'm going to make it a point to testify more.

Fun fact is that, behind testifying, missionaries have 'fled'. So apparently lots of people get mad at us? No surprises.

 

Letter 6-18-2013

Hey,

It's been a busy week. We had to get Elder Oliveros all set for everything that comes up at the beginning of a mission - bike, all that. He's from the Philippines. Started learning English in the MTC basically, so he's still learning the language. It's definitely different, but it's fun. He comes from a culture in which internet cafes are the norm (and League of Legends), which I think is so cool. (But just so you know that's not what we talk about, I just think internet cafes would be fun).

Things continue to progress with the investigators we have, although lately we've had problems with them falling off date. At least we can put them back on again. They haven't dropped us :) So things are staying busy. We've just got to continue finding more.

Other than that all is good... some pictures to make up for last weeks lack of baptism pictures is coming up (Chris' baptism with his eight year old neighbor friend, and our last zone workout in the morning before transfers):

~Elder Chandler

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thought: Personal Peace

I really like Elder Cook's talk from general conference more and more. As the missionary work gets busier and responsibility is added, I'm finding it's easy to dwell on all the things I need to do and all the mistakes I make. And so I really enjoy the idea that "happiness and contentment" can come through Jesus Christ, by our personal righteousness.

Scripture to back it all up, that to me basically says, "don't stress, but find peace", Phillippians 4:6-7:

"Be careful for nothing; (footnote: Don't be unduly concerned about anything) but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ."

Letter 06-11-2013

Everyone,

Things are still moving forward strong. Chris was baptized - I actually ended up baptizing him, which is always fun. I don't have my camera on me now so I'll have to get the pictures to you next week. We're still working with all the others we're teaching, although a couple (Luke and Madison) fell off date. We're working on finding more so we can continue to see progress!

Six weeks goes by so fast... so transfer calls came in yesterday. Elder Ciavardini is heading off to Union Fort (my first area!), and I'm getting a new companion. I'll be training someone straight out of the MTC, so I'm not sure exactly who I'm getting yet. It's a pretty big honor though - I'm one of two Elders training this next transfer... all the rest are sisters. They're starting to come...

I hope my new greenie will continue to push me to be the best missionary I can be, so we can continue seeing success!

--Elder Ryan Chandler
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thought: The foundational principle

Recently during our final week of training with E Ciavardini, we re-read chapter 1 of PMG. As we read, we'll read a section at a time, then teach each other a "one bullet-point" (two to three clear, concise sentences; it's to help us try and teach better for understanding) summary of what we just read. Then we go sentence by sentence and see what more we get out of it!

--- But first I'll start with a kind of secular analogy to get your brain running on the right track: We've all driven a car. We've all driven cars down the freeway or an interstate or whatever. (I especially like picturing I-15 just because it's always insanely busy and them Utah drivers...) Stop and picture that for a second. We know how we usually react when people cut us off, when people do dumb things on the road. Have you ever had that moment though, where you realize that everyone in each of those cars is an individual person, going somewhere different, with their own agenda and needs and likes and problems?

Just realizing this one thing - seeing people as people and not things; changing who you are and not what you do - changes the ~everything~ of what you do. (notice here who -> (why) -> what etc, it's the who that comes first.) ---

As we were doing this, it struck me what I think the apostles were trying to say out of that first, and presumably most important paragraph of PMG.

Read it now and picture it. Compare it to cars. And try thinking of everyone around you as children of God without smiling! PMG chapter six first page (paraphrased) -

Much of PMG is spent teaching missionaries what to do - how to teach, how to find, how to fulfill your purpose. "Just as important as what you do, however, is who you are." :)

Trainer!

June 13, 2013

ElderChandler

8153 Hoover Street

Midvale, UT

84047

re:  Call to serve as a Trainer

Dear Elder Chandler,

You have been called by the Lord to serve as a trainer in the Utah Salt Lake City Central Mission.  Your companion will be Elder Oliveros and you will serve in the Midvale 5^th, 6^th & 7^th Wards in the Midvale Stake.

Training is one of the highest honor’s that the Lord can bestow upon a missionary.  The Mission President’s handbook counsels:

            “One of the greatest expressions of trust that you can give a missionary is to assign him or her as a trainer of a new missionary.  A missionary’s first companion will have a profound, lasting influence on the development of the missionary’s attitude and habits.  Give special consideration, therefore, to those you assign to train new missionaries.  Choose only outstanding missionaries to serve as trainers.” (p.48)

As a trainer you are expected set an example for your companion in every aspect of missionary work including faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, obedience to all the rules, hard work, study, teaching and following the Spirit.  You have been entrusted to help your companion become a “Preach My Gospel”  missionary.

I encourage you to closely follow  “The First 12 Weeks” training program in your daily study. 

Remember that your companion is also a set-apart missionary who you should call upon to participate fully in the companionship, and in teaching, from their very first day.

The success of the Utah Salt Lake City Central Mission and the salvation of many souls depends upon how well you train your new companion.  I thank you personally for accepting this important responsibility and pray that you will seek the Lord’s help as you seek to humbly magnify this calling.

Love and Support

Richard W. Moffat

President, Utah Salt Lake City Central Mission

cc:  Parents

Letter 6-4-2013

Hello people,

It's hard to fit everything that happens in a week in one email lately. Midvale just keeps producing miracles. Sometimes, when I'm walking around in some of the government housing, I like to think I'm out in Central America with Nick and Conner, ha. There's enough hispanics to justify the feeling (and enough success as well) :)

Right now we're working with six people for baptism! The easiest way I can think of to organize this letter is this:

June 8th: Chris Hansen - nine years old, was interviewed on Saturday and is excited and ready to go! He's been filling out baptism invitations and leaving them in all his neighbor's mailboxes, haha. Been great to teach him! He's also asked me to confirm him so that will be fun too.

June 15th: Luke Sherner - a fifteen year old that's been going to church actively since he was an infant, but has so much respect for his dad he hasn't wanted to move forward to baptism until he got permission from him (even though dad has no custody...). He feels now he's old enough to make his own decision though, and so is planning on telling his dad this week he's getting baptized on the 15th and wants him to be there.

June 22nd: Sara and Tori Darlington - A family that we've been teaching for a while. They just got to church for the first time on Sunday (one for five!). We're going to temple square with them on Saturday, so they should contune to be steadfast.

June 29th: Madi Brito - nine year old whos mom wants her baptized... but her mom is also a heavy drinker and smoker. They're hard to catch but things should work out in the end;

Chris Floyd - single, older guy. He came to Utah with his fiancee, but they broke up. Some other missionaries ran into him and he read the Book of Mormon they gave him. He wants to change his life and get baptized before he goes back to Florida.

So yeah! And more should be on the way. Other than that, the birthday was great. I picked up some pink lemonade cookie dough to try. ummm... yeah!

~Elder Chandler

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thought: the process

I've been thinking a lot lately about a process pattern that I see a lot of different places:

Who -> Why -> What -> How -> When

I see this process in a ton of places! So some examples:

Planning: who -> (why) -> what -> how -> when

The Gospel: Faith (who) -> Repentance (why) -> Baptism (what) -> Holy Ghost (how) -> Endure to the End (when)

Solving concerns (PMG pg 187): (who -> why)[testimony] -> what -> (how -> when)[commitment]

That's a few that came to the top of my head... I'm sure there's something on this already but it just intrigues me that it has such power.

Letter 5-28-2013

Happy birthday to me,

I've been lucky to get out on a mission where Pdays just happen to fall on Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. Woo.

With enough Dinosaur Egg Oatmeal to feed five thousand, I've been doing pretty good this week. Who wouldn't when you're able to start off a day with dinosaurs? (Holden, that egg had a triceratops in it, and it's getting pretty big now...).

Even though we're going through a rough spot with most of our investigators, I'm optimistic about how things will turn out in the end for each of them. Chris is still moving forward really steadily. The Darlingtons missed church because of memorial day out-of-town-ness so their date is going to have to be pushed (again). The Andrews girls that I wrote about last week had their permission to be baptized rescinded, so we're working on that. We are beginning to teach a family (mom, dad, and daughter) that was taught in the past and wants to start up again. So many families we're getting to work with!

The mission has been doing really well this month so next week we get an extended mission P-day at the mission office with inter-zone competitions. My loyalty still kind of lies in Murray so it might be tough... :) 

Elder Chandler
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thought: conference musings

 I've been reading through the conference ensign, a talk or two a day, during personal study since we got the Ensign for May. I'm through Sunday morning. There's lots of good phrases that I've marked up but I don't have my Ensign with me. Next week, maybe.

So for now, you'll have to suffice with this haiku:

The Church of Jesus Christ
Restored through the Prophet Joseph
Is the Lord's true church

Letter 05-21-2013

Hello all,

We had a great week this last week missionary work wise!

We hit the mission vision in every key indicator except for baptisms and confirmations. It's a great thing to be a part of! Chris came to church this week and had a great time - we also got to take he and his family up to temple square. They loved it. We also met a mom who wants her two daughters, 9 and 10, baptized. They've been coming to church actively for a while now, just not baptized yet. We're working with quite a few less actives - especially youth LA - who seem to be catching fire for the gospel and want to share it as well. We've had a couple bishopric changes, including one of our Ward Mission Leaders becoming a bishop. Things seem to all be falling in place very, very quickly. The Lord has plans for this valley!

~Elder Chandler

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thought: repentance

During our district meeting at the mission office (the steaks we had were yummy!), our companionship role played with President Moffat asking for referrals. He asked us to do it in the context of teaching Repentance, on the premise it's what we should be "crying" anyways. So we did, the role play went really really well, President couldn't stop thinking about it, and so on.

But it really got me thinking about repentance a lot. So I went to the Bible dictionary, where the first sentence really hit me:

"The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of -mind-, i.e. a fresh -view- about God, about oneself, and about the world."

As I analyzed the passage more, I realized that the first definition of repentance is the definition of the noun repentance. The more common definition is stated in the second sentence, and is about the verb repent, or to "turn your will to God's".

I love the first definition, and it sounds a lot like a paradigm shift. I feel that this explains the true effect of sincere repentance, the verb - a continual shift of your view of the world, until that view is aligned with God's. I've felt the power of this idea since I've been on my mission, and at no other time have I had as many chances to repent, to gain a clearer view of the world, until now.

My study brought me to one last thing, a scripture, I wanted to share. Read it with the enthusiasm it deserves!!!!:

"For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort [repented], what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!

In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter."

~2 Cor. 7:11

Oh, and I guess I should add--
M. Russell Ballard from the quorum of the twelve came and spoke to us on Friday. He gave a great talk on the statistics that the General Authorities have run on missionary work and that by far the most important thing in the conversion process is... us, the missionaries. And deeper than that, the enthusiasm and personable-ness we show in our work. Good to hear we shouldn't be robots :)

--Elder Chandler

Letter 05-14-2013

Dear people,

Things are pretty busy over here in Midvale. We actually just got our weekly email from president which told us that our district, Midvale District 2, is leading the mission so we get a bbq at president's house tomorrow. :) When Elder Ciavardini and I set our goal for six baptisms this transfer, we've really strived to try and do our part to obtain our goal so the Lord can fill in the rest, and it's been amazing to see the miracles happen not just in our area but in our whole district. (It also helps that the Spanish elders in our district have eight people on baptism date... little mexico over here)

The nine-year old boy, Chris, is really a star. Elder Ciavardini and Martell talked with his mom outside her house and set up a lesson. While he hasn't been to church yet still, he is developing such a great testimony. In our last lesson, talking about him needing to church, I asked him, "Chris, why do you want to come to church? Why do you want to be baptized? Why do you like our lessons?" He was silent for a while. Finally I told him, "I'm going to read your mind if that's alright... It's because it makes you feel happy!" He gave me a high five for reading his mind. Then we turned together to 2 Ne 2:25 and repeated "men are, that they might have joy" until he had it memorized. Ha. I love teaching kids. (He now tells me every day about how 2 Ne 2:25 runs through his head EVERYWHERE, from school to skateboarding to karate. hahaha)

I love teaching this much. It's seriously a blessing. Now if only they'd come to church... but they will.

--Elder Chandler

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thought: D&C 121:34-46

I said I would give this thought two weeks ago and still haven't, so here it is. Sorry family for having to hear it twice, both over phone and written now.

I had been thinking a lot lately on a couple of random topics, mostly questions posed by less actives that I wanted to answer for myself because they seemed to be leading to something fun:

1) Why would the Lord work through priesthood authority given to only a select few? Would a loving heavenly father not accept ordinances performed with good intentions as sufficient? Doesn't that kind of contradict the idea that the Lord wants all of us to be with him?

2) Why organized religion? Why is it not sufficient to just do your own thing, march to your own drummer, while still keeping the commandments?

3) How does leading a principled life effect leadership? Why does success follow those, not that do all the right things, but those who are the right things? How can I apply this? What principles should I deem most important to follow to begin to really lead a successful life?

So, yes, lots of random questions. They each would have a separate answer if you were to answer them individually - #2 is answered by talking about the need for continuing revelation from a prophet for instance - but I felt that there should be one answer, together. And so I turned to D&C 121. And loved it. And memorized the whole thing (starting from verse 34) (by that point I had read it over so many times it took a total of like... 25 minutes to memorize the 12 verses).

1) Hence many are called but few are chosen (proceeding verses explain why there is need for a select few "chosen")

2) Organizations led by men holding the powers of heaven can bring forth blessings that include everlasting dominions and such... which is kind of the point of our existence

3) By living principles of patience, humility, love unfeigned, kindness, pure knowledge, integrity, charity, faith, and virtue (some of these are a little different from the original text, but mean basically the same thing) we are able to gain the blessings stated, most especially that "[success], without compulsory means, will flow unto thee forever and ever".

I'd say more but there's too much... so maybe we can all look over it again together.

What fun ideas! And so the work of shifting my paradigms continues...

Letter 05-07-2013

Dear everyone,

This new area is insanely fun. It's good to actually be teaching again. I think I was getting a little antsy with the inability to have ANYONE to teach. But I think I'm sane again.

We've got a couple great investigators - a nine year old who's mom is being a great help, and a part member family with a couple kids. They're both joys to work with and really have desires to press forward with baptism. Which is always good :)

Training isn't as scary as I thought. It's not much different, especially since Elder Ciavardini (that's how you spell it!) is mature enough to handle the load he does. There's honestly not much to train him on. So we just go and work. Midvale is great, woo.

-Elder Chandler

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I have to skip thought again this week. With more people to email now it's harder to get the time to write everything I'd like to :( Gotta have some time to play dodgeball hehe