Free FALLin'

What a week!

So many things happened this week, big and small, but first I need to
tell you how much I love my companion. Sister Donato is leaving this Thursday :( 

bittersweet for her, but secretly I'm really sad about it. She is going home!

L for love, U for You

Each companion that I've been blessed to serve with has been exactly what I needed when I needed them, and sister Donato is a wonderful example of that.

Before I was transferred to this area I prayed for a companion to help me better learn meekness and how to become more charitable. I can honestly say that no one could have taught me those things better than
sister Donato. She is FULL of patience, meekness, love, joy, forgiveness... everything I prayed for help with. I've never met a more relaxed, happy person in my life.

We have worked incredibly well together for the past 12 weeks; I haven't had better companionship unity since I was trained, and a lot of that is because we both put forth the effort to be humble and submissive. Our goals have been the same, spiritually and temporally. She is so supportive!

On Monday night she offered to massage my shins (that sounds so weird) with Deep Blue (lotion similar to Icy Hot), and of course I didn't turn that down! But she did that for a solid 30 minutes voluntarily, and that was just the climax of my gratitude towards her. I love that sister. My heart is so full.

Monday evening was a blast because after dinner we went to a less
active's home for FHE and made treats to go spook people as part of
our lesson on service :) sister Donato has never ding-dong-ditched
anyone before, and it was hilarious because she was just as giddy as
the 5 and 7 year olds in the family ;) It was FREEZING but so fun :)

On Tuesday we did a lot to prepare sister Donato to return home; of
those things included visa stuff, so while she did that, I did stuff
for college applications. It was time well spent! We had a meeting
that night with our ward mission; we are in charge of the ward
Christmas party, so we spent an hour planning that before we talked
about missionary things :) it was a very productive day!

Sister Donato had her departing interview right after district meeting
on Wednesday! So weird! Sometimes I feel like I'm going home this
week, too because I'm by her side doing all of these departing
missionary things with her 24/7 :P But lucky me, I still have 5 more
months :))

The rest of Wednesday was so stinking good!! I got a lot done for my
application to schools; my essays and such are written and finished,
so that's off of my plate which is incredibly nice. Sister Donato had
to fill out some departing papers, so I started writing "Open When"
letters for her 12 hour flight home :) just because I love her, and
she will still be a missionary so her forms of entertainment will be
limited.

After dinner with our ward mission leader and his family, we spent
some time with Ka and her mom reviewing the baptismal interview
questions before our district leader came to interview her! For those
of you who are wondering why the heck people need to be interviewed
for baptism, we believe that this is a big commitment that one needs
to be ready for; the interview is to make sure the individual truly us
ready to make sacred promises with the Lord.

We finally saw a less active and her spiritual dinosaur of a son that
evening as well!! This is the sister who can't ever come to church
because she is extremely busy from 6am to 8pm every day, and her son,
T, is the most spiritually in-tune 9 year old I've ever met. We
taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, invited them to come to church, and
put her son on date to be baptized for December 19th! It was such a
good day :)

We had our last zone leadership meeting of the transfer Thursday
morning. My companion continued to complete departing tasks, while I
worked on "open when" letters. I also pulled out my journal and read
from December of 2013 to now. It's insane how fast time flies, and how
much can happen in such a short amount of time. I'm thankful that I've
kept a journal since I was 8! It's been fun to be able to go back so
far and see how I've grown :)

We had another lesson with Ka Thursday evening; the last one before
her baptism, on the priesthood. She was so excited for Saturday :)

Then we stopped by P's home to 1) see his new puppy and 2) remind
him about church on Sunday. We were still picking our jaws up from off
the ground from last week when he said he wanted to come :)

Our last appointment for the night was with C, the gentleman who
feels the need to convert us. It ended up being a mutual dropping;
both parties felt like it wouldn't go anywhere, so we had a nice discussion about Christ and how we have
seen Gods hand in our lives. We bore testimony of the truthfulness of
the things that we share, and he gave us a book on grace as a gift to
say, "I have enjoyed our meetings! Thank you for your time and
efforts". He's a nice man :) walking away from that appointment, we
felt good! We both feel like this is one of those stories where we are
the first set of missionaries that he drops, and there will be a
couple more, until eventually he will come around :)

All day Friday we kept thinking it was Saturday! We just weekly
planned and continued preparing for sister Donato's departure. There's
so much to do when you get ready to leave! We have been really good at
staying focused and living in the moment though, so that's a tender
mercy :) neither of us is homesick or "trunky" which is what

missionaries say when they're mentally on their way home :)

For dinner we went to a recent converts home and she needed Tylenol,
but didn't own any. We offered to go home to grab some for her, but
when we got there we realized we actually didn't have any. So after a
quick run to the store, we got some Tylenol for B :) she's lonely
and sick, so after we shared a message with her, we sat on her couch
to look at her high school year book from the 60's. Holy cow!
Hairstyles back then were so funny! I'm glad I was born when I was ;)
She told us about the different "groups" of people back then; we
learned a lot!

After that we went out with our relief society president to check on
some people none of us have ever met. Nobody answered the door until
the last house we tried for the night. Usually parking is nonexistent,
but we found a spot, right in front of the house we were going to
knock! The lights were on and everything looked perfectly promising :)
and it was! We were let inside and got to know this wonderful
individual who has lived there for 5 years!? Why has nobody ever
contacted her?! We had a lovely chat and invited her to the primary
program on Sunday :) she said we could come back, so we will :)
I LOVE our relief society president SO much! She's the bomb :) it was
a good day :)

Saturday was even better because our sweet friend Ka entered the
waters of baptism :)) It was beautiful! So many people were there to
support her, and her whole family came, too! We love her, and know
that Heavenly Father is so proud of her decision :)

Right after her baptism we went to the temple visitors center with
Mo!! It was so fun! She's super cute :) the sisters there did a
wonderful job teaching us about the temple, and the restoration. I
love this gospel so much. Every time I go to the temple, or even stand
on the temple grounds, I am filled with peace. It's an amazing place
to be :)

We ended our night with the bishop, discussing people we work with and
who we can help in the ward. Sister Donato and I were BEAT that night!
We said a prayer to end the day, and then out of no where (possibly
from a Hershey's candy bar) we became full of energy!? So we took
pictures and made a music video to "make a man out of you" from Mulan.
It was pretty great. Then we were exhausted again, so we went to bed
:) haha can anyone say sugar rush?? :)

Sunday was the primary program, and it was flat out adorable! You
can't not grin from ear to ear during those things :) you know how
there is always a teacher whispering in the little kid's ears to tell
them their part? One little boy was like, "I know my part. I know
Jesus loves me because he gives me food". That was my favorite part :)

P came! That was cool! Then he texted us and said he would
stay longer next time... The fact that he is even considering a 'next
time' is a miracle. Heavenly Father is so good to us!

We spent the evening saying goodbye to people and taking pictures for
sister Donato. It was productive :) we saw a handful of less active's
that we have been working with as well!

I love my mission. I can't say it enough. I'm so grateful for the
opportunity that I have to spend 18 months of my life, at this
specific time in my life, to serve my savior. What a blessing it has
been and will continue to be throughout my life! I'm happy :) the
gospel is true :) I hope you went to church and had a wonderful week!!
Transfers are on Thursday, so everyone pray really hard that Sister
Lewis comes to Gainesville ;) just kidding :) ..... But not really.

Love,
Sister Kailey

Ps. A from my last area in Alexandria is getting baptized on
Wednesday, and we get to go!! :) yay!! :) we clicked really well, and
I miss her bunches, so I'm thrilled :))

------

We totally went up the only mountain in Virginia, parked in the middle
of a windy road, and took pictures because fall here is gorgeous :) I
love these sisters!

Knocking in Jeans, and Following The Shepherd

Hey guys :) 

How goes it? I hope your week was so good! Last week when I just told stories, I felt like my email was so

scattered and disorganized. So. This week, I'm going back to the weekly structure :) starting with..

MONDAY

Sister Donato went to the temple and Sister Taylor stayed with me! Which was awesome because I was able to briefly follow up and see how she was doing :) We literally spent 20 minutes in the grocery store, did laundry, and emailed all the rest of the day. It was so great :) not to mention the hour and a half nap we got to take! P-days rock, but they go by faster than any other day of the week!  When it was over, we went to a less active's home for FHE and taught about the Word of Wisdom. We played a game in the beginning where you go around the room naming one thing your body can do, and comparing it to an animal or an object. For example, "I can sleep like a rock" or "I can jump like a frog". It's great for little kids! Then we talked about the importance of taking good care of our bodies :) We asked, as always, if there was anything we can do for her, and then suddenly we got her whole life story and learned so much!! She is such a light in her family. I could feel Gods love for her as she spoke, and reassured her that she was doing good things in the eyes of the Lord.

TUESDAY

Was ridiculously fun! We spent the afternoon baking homemade pumpkin bars to give away to people we love :) My companion is obsessed with everything pumpkin; they don't have it where she is from :)  I kid you not even a little bit when I say we made 40 plates full of pumpkin bars. Not even small plates! Normal paper plates! I didn't even know what to do with myself. We had a list of people to give them to; we did need to make that many, but we also had a good 10 plates extra :) So we put some down stairs in the kitchen of our apartment complex for all the old people to enjoy :) (we live in a retirement home that was opened to the public, so there are tons of old people. We also had exchanges on Tuesday! Sister Orr came to Gainesville with me, which was awesome for both of us! She needed a break from her area, and I needed her to help me not eat all of those pumpkin bars!

She has the same fitness/health brain/goals that I do, so it was nice to chat about that with her :) That evening we had pumpkin soup at a member's home for dinner, and then a lesson with Frances! While teaching the plan of salvation, we pulled out Alma 7:11-12 to read about the atonement, and she stopped us to ask, "Wait, why does the Book of Mormon talk about Christ's life?" Ah. *hand to the forehead* We've talked about this. So we ended up switching gears and going more into depth about the Book of Mormon :) which was fine! Because we needed to meet her needs. She just needs to read the darn book :) Sister Orr was really struggling to function; she wasn't feeling well at all, and we didn't get home until 9:30 so I felt bad :(

WEDNESDAY 

We exchanged early in the morning only to find out that my companion had been up sick all night! Sister Orr went to the doctor later that day and discovered that she had strep throat. Sister Donato was coughing and stuffy so I played "Nurse Kailey" all day and loved it :) We went to district meeting in the morning and had a lesson on finding. We always practice teach at the end, but my district leader is quite the creative fella and came up with a super fun way to practice teach for "finding" people to teach. We played Hide and Seek :) A companionship would go hide somewhere in the church (with certain places off limits) and everyone would be set loose to go find them,

after the timer for 2 minutes went off. If you found them, you were to hide with them (like sardines) and the last companionship to find everyone has to practice teach to the companionship that originally hid. Sister Donato and I hid eventually, and nobody could find us! We hid in the mothers room behind the rocking chairs. At one point 3

companionships walked in the room all at once and then they all left because we are just so good at being silent and still ;) it was fun :) But as soon as we came home, Sister Donato hit the meds and her bed until it was time to go to dinner! We ate with the Cambodian members again, and then had a lesson with Kayla on temples and family history. We also went over the baptismal interview questions which was really good because we were able to really get an understanding of her understanding :)

THURSDAY

Sister Donato woke up super congested and... dead. She looked and sounded so sick. Sister Orr was ordered to stay home because of her strep, SO they stayed home all day while Sister Palmer and I went on an exchange for the day! :) We started at the women's shelter in the morning to help out over there, then we brought our sweet companions some hot soup from Panera Bread for lunch. We then had a lesson in the afternoon with a recent

convert from their ward! The lesson was on family history, so we got on her account to find some ancestors and see if we could print out names to take to the temple- of those include her husband, parents, and grandparents. We discovered that she is related to a member on the other side of the country who already did her mom's and grandma's baptisms! Hmm. Not sure how that happened, but oh well. Pizza was for dinner, and all of our lessons canceled, so we ended up delivering pumpkin bars to families that we needed to see! Less active's and investigators mostly :) it was great! I felt like I was on a field trip all day because half of it was spent in another area :) despite the sickness of our companions, it was a really good day :)

FRIDAY

Feeling a bit better, Sister Donato went down to the gym with me in the morning, but ended up falling asleep on the mat instead :) Sister Orr eventually did, too. Those poor sisters!! Sickness is never fun :( Also, I have had shin splints for a couple weeks and they were awful this week. needless to say, none of us really got a super good work out in that day :P I took a picture to document the moment :)  In the morning we had a leadership meeting with members of our zone where we discussed details for upcoming activities, and then we were off to another meeting with the AP's to discuss the topic of Facebook. Nobody likes Facebook. So we brainstormed how we can make it a positive, productive, effective tool in the mission, and how we can eliminate distractions. It was good! The rest of the day was just weekly planning until dinner. Then we delivered more pumpkin bars and had a lesson with the Morante's before we went to a lesson with K--! The 24th is almost here!! :) It's also my 13 month mark. So stinking weird. Later that night we returned a missed call from Sister Jones back in Alexandria, and she said A-- was for sure on date for the 28th!! So we are going to go to that, too!! :) I am so excited!! :) I love being a missionary! You meet the best people :)

SATURDAY

In the morning we went to our bishops home for breakfast and a meeting; the usual Saturday routine, but the afternoon was exciting!! We got together with our zone and did a "service finding fest". Instead of going around knocking doors to see who wants to learn about God, we went around in jeans and hoodies asking if we could offer

service, which brought up questions like, "why are you doing this?" And "who do you work for?". Most everyone said they didn't need help and that everyone they knew was quite, "self sufficient", so after a couple hours of hearing that, we prayed again to be led to where we were needed. Guess where we ended up? Sister Jensen's! This woman has the largest, craziest ideas ever. She has a bunch of plants outside her home but Saturday night was supposed to reach freezing, and her plants would all die. So she had an idea to build a green house under her deck... all by herself. Of course we helped her! Later in the day she told us, "This is kind of selfish of me, but this morning I thought, 'I wish the sisters could come help me', and then look at this! The Lord provides!" :) She's sweet, and it was neat to see that we really were right where we were needed :) So yeah, we grabbed a power drill and some screws and built a greenhouse from scratch. It was awesome :)

SUNDAY

Church was amazing. I absolutely love the Sabbath day. I have loved every ward I've served in, but this is my favorite of the 3! The sacrament meeting talks were on strengthening faith in times of doubt or confusion. They were so inspired! All 3 meetings were incredibly spiritually filling, and there were 2 families there that hardly ever

come. The lord is so good to us. We were thrilled :) I had some cool revelation during relief society! We were reading a couple verses in John where it talks about Christ and how he shepherds his sheep. Somehow we got on the topic of parenting.. or maybe we didn't and that was just the spirit speaking to sister Chandler... But I had a thought. Christ doesn't push, force, or prod his sheep to follow him. He leads them, then leaves the 99 to go get the lost 1 when it strays, and carries it home. Similarly, Christ doesn't push, force, or prod us to follow the commandments; he leads us by example. He gives us tools such as scriptures, prayer, leaders, seminary, etc.

and let's us choose our way. When we get lost or go astray, he always finds us, and in some instances, he carries us back. With this in mind, my mind wandered to the way I was raised, realizing that my parents were shepherds in my life. They didn't poke, push, or force me to do anything. They let me make my choices, gave me guidelines, set an example, and when I needed it, they carried me. Christ not only set the example for returning to live with Heavenly Father, but also how to parent ;) for me at least :) I thought it was pretty cool :) After dinner with a wonderful family in our ward, we had a lesson with Ch-- and B--! Siblings; Ch-- is investigating and B-- is a recent convert. It was on faith, and the spirit was so strong. I am so thankful for the (what seem like) road blocks placed in my life, and for the faith I'm required to show in order to receive a witness. Ether 12:6 in the Book of Mormon :) Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and it's always better than the one we have for ourselves!

I had a really good week :) I feel like this email wasn't as exciting as some that I've written before, but I did learn a lot this week! I felt the spirit lead my words and actions every single day, and I'm truly overwhelmed with gratitude that I get to be a tool in the lords hands. I get to do that every day of my life, but more-so on a mission :) how great is my calling?!? :) I love you. I'm grateful for you. I hope you have a fantastic week and remember who your shepherd is :) also, I hope you're seeking ways to offer service throughout the week :)  ~Sister Chandler

P.S. 

In case you wanted a weather update-- it's FREEZING here!! I'm pretty sure fall lasted 2 weeks and now it's just straight winter with colorful leaves. It's been in the 50's all week, and this week is supposed to go up to the 60's, but that's still pretty cold. I hope Idaho isn't as bad :)

Happy As Can Be!

Good Morning! :) The weather was much better this week, in case you were wondering, but still dropping in temperature as it turns to fall :)

Instead of going day by day, I'm going to switch it up this week and just talk about

the MAIN EVENTS that took place!

THE FIRST, beginning with a less active family that we saw early in the week :) She asked if we had dinner plans, but we didn't, so she said she would make us pumpkin bread! That was it :) We just had pumpkin bread for dinner while we watched the 20 min. video of the restoration with her kids. It was good! Her 7 yr. old daughter asked, "Sister Chant-ler, can you come have dinner with us sometime??" :) Super cute :)This family struggles to get to church for multiple different reasons every week, so we decided to start coming over every Monday night to do FHE with them! :) That being said, we see them again tonight :)

We had ZONE TRAINING this week! It was sweet because we were told to come in JEANS :) When we arrived, we found out why! We were divided into two different teams, each person received their own PVC pipe and 2 Nerf guns and darts. There were obstacles set up in the gym to hide behind for cover, and we went to war! We played multiple rounds :) It was super fun! There were a couple different points to this object lesson:
• We need to face our fears and just go for it when it comes to talking to people.
• We are not alone; everyone was hesitant at first, and nobody was brave enough to go to the other side, or stand in an open space for fear of getting shot by the foam bullets. We are in this together :)
 It was a blast!

   
Then we went in the relief society room for the spiritual aspect of the training. The topics we covered were receiving revelation through both scriptures and prayer; Sister Donato and I taught about prayer. We used a lot of passages from Joseph Smith History and it went really well! The spirit was really strong :) I love my zone so much! We always have wonderful, uplifting, spiritual, fun meetings :)




That same day the spirit led us to France's home! An investigator who adores us and thinks we are the coolest people alive for being so dedicated to the lord. She is SO prepared for this gospel!! She brought up questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon; we just taught the restoration to best answer all of her questions, and it was awesome! It clicked for her :) She also brought up some prayers she needs answers to, so we introduced fasting to her and said we would fast with her! So we did :) We ended up seeing her a couple days later and taught another lesson :) We love Frances :)

{Just For Laughs}

I love my companion. She is the sweetest, most kind, thoughtful, honest person you will ever meet. She doesn't understand sarcasm very well, she's always in her own world, and she is- for lack of a better word- extremely innocent. That being said, it didn't surprise me when one day she suddenly got a terrified look on her face with huge eyes,  gasped, looked at me and said (poking her calf), "Sister! Do you have this??" Bahaha the workouts we have been doing are KILLER but our muscles are getting quite toned, especially our legs, and she has never had super strong calves before :) It was hilarious :) I was like, "a calf?? Yes. :)" She thought it was a tumor/deformation in her leg :)

We also had exchanges this week! I stayed in Gainesville again and Sister Taylor came to me :) Remember when the spirit reminded me to "listen before I seek to counsel" right before I got the phone call to be an STL? Well I saw the fruits of listening to that prompting this week! Sister Taylor is going through some pretty large struggles because of things at home right now, and felt comfortable to vent!  Which was totally fine! I was happy to listen :) By the end of our chat she said, "Thanks so much for listening! I feel like whenever I vent, people feel the need to throw out solutions, but I hate that! I just want someone to listen to me, and THEN give me solutions after I get it all out" :) haha I laughed, but also felt extremely grateful for following that prompting.

Later that day we had a lesson with Kayla and her mom which went super well! We saw them twice this week :) AND we stopped by a less active whom we haven't had contact with for a couple weeks because she is so stinking busy! She's a single mom, working two jobs. To give you an idea of her life, every day she wakes up at 6 am, gets her son ready for school, takes him to school, goes to work, and doesn't get home until 7pm... sometimes later than that. Then when she is home her phone is constantly going off with messages and emails from work/friends/family... you name it! In addition to that, she makes dinner, eats dinner, gets her child ready for bed, and goes to bed. Despite her hectic life, she made time to listen to us and as we LISTENED to her, the spirit brought to my mind a Mormon Message that she could relate so well to! So we shared it, and she expressed that it was exactly what she needed.

I love being a tool in the Lords hands :) 

I've learned that listening truly is the key to be able to follow the spirit 

the way we need to. Whether that's in order to help ourselves, or others :)

Cory-- the coolest cat on the block who is sincerely searching for truth. He was found during the "Finding Fury" when our zone tracted all day :) We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and it all made good sense to him! He is keeping all of his commitments and desires to learn more as he reads the Book of Mormon and prays to know if this is the true church of God :) We LOVE this guy. He rocks :)

Sister Donato and I are good friends with one of our ward missionaries, and half of his family is less active, so we see them once a week. Earlier in the week we went over in the afternoon to make cupcakes with his daughter, and talked to his wife a bit. After knowing this ward missionary for so long, I learned that he FAILED to tell me that his wife grew up in Nampa and totally went to the same middle school as me! Her mom was in town so they shot names right and left to see if I knew anyone, and I totally did! They started talking about street names and the Deer Flat building (my hometown stake center); I was in heaven! I haven't met a single person yet who knows so much about Nampa :) I miss Idaho... 6 more months ;)

Every transfer we do a zone service activity and both transfers we have spent a good 6-7 hours helping on sister Jensen's farm in one day :) It's so much fun! We split tree stumps, built shelves, helped with the chickens, experienced missionaries drove the tractor and cut down fields of weeds, etc. it was a blast :) I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve! Every day is an opportunity, :) in fact!

SUPER FUNNY STORY!

Sister Donato and I were driving out of our apartment parking lot the other day, on our way to a lesson, when we saw an old lady dragging something under her car. She kept getting out to look and see what/where it was, but couldn't figure it out. We pulled our car to the side and went to help her :) What we found was a big, orange construction cone stuck really well under her car. How long or how far she dragged that thing, I do not know, but we got down on our bellies in our nice dresses to pull it out :) This sweet old woman was the cutest thing! She told us to come on by her place any time we want, and gave us her apartment number :) We had a lot of random service opportunities this week!

My companion turned 22 on Friday and sang T-Swift's song, "22" aaaallll day. I asked her earlier in the week what she wanted to do, or where she wanted to go, or if there was anything she wanted to eat. It's her last birthday on the mission and she only has 3 weeks left, so I started thinking of big, creative things and all she wanted was to eat at Cafe Rio :) The last time I ate at Cafe Rio was sophomore year in high school. Pretty sure. I didn't love it before my mission, but I do now! :) So we went! But on my birthday she was super sneaky and asked a ton of people what they "love about sister Chandler", then she wrote everyone's comments on sticky notes and put them all over on the bathroom mirror so I would see it first thing in the morning :) SO! I was trying to think of what on earth I could do without her knowing. It's extremely difficult when we have to be together- within sight AND sound- 24/7.

During exchanges when Sister Taylor came for a day, I called the zone leaders and planned to have everyone in the zone at Café Rio before we got there, so it was a surprise. I LOVE surprises :) Nice, happy, good surprises :) She kept asking people when we were doing service at the farm if they wanted to come, and everyone "already had a dinner appointment", so it was fun to see her reaction when we walked in :) THEN!! Okay, this is cool! Everyone started singing happy birthday as soon as we walked in, so the whole restaurant knew it was sister Donato's birthday, including the cashier who BOUGHT HER MEAL as a gift!! I just thought that was THE kindest move ever. People are so great :)

After dinner that day we were able to see the Morante's, the family we took to the temple visitors center a few weeks ago, and another recent convert. It was awesome! Such a busy, exhausting day! We were literally dragging our feet and walking like zombies to our last appointment because we were so tired. We slept so good :)

This weekend we had the privilege of meeting the cutest girl on earth; Morgan. She's a senior and a friend of a member in our ward. He suggested that we go see her a couple weeks ago but each time we went, it just didn't feel right! For the first time Saturday night, it felt right. So we went :) Before we got out of the car we prayed to know what to say when the door opened. We had no idea how to go about this; do we tell her that her friend sent us? What if someone else opens the door? Do we ask for Morgan? Do we just do a normal door approach? So many options! We were definitely relying on the spirit to speak through us, or to place the appropriate words in our minds. Welp. That's exactly what happened!

We knocked, the dad answered, gave us a thumbs up as if to say, "We're good, thanks anyway", and in every attempt I could stutter (hoping to say something fast enough before he closed the door) I said, “Wuh-doe- ah-ck-we jus-uh... Morgan! Does Morgan live here??" hahaha :) Carelessly he turned around to call for Morgan and said he had to go. She came down the stairs super confused so the only logical thing in my mind was to tell her we knew her friends and they said we should come meet her! We introduced ourselves and she said, "Sister Chandler!? Oh my gosh, my friend loves you! Do you want to come inside?!" Um. Yes. Yes we do :) So we totally talked to her for the rest of the night, became BFF's, and taught about the Book of Mormon! I seriously LOVE this girl. She is the sweetest! She even made a Facebook post about our visit right after we left :) We are going to go to the temple visitors center with her soon :)

To top off the week, our entire day yesterday was stellar. Church was so filling, and in the evening we had dinner combined with FHE with two families, both have 7-9 children and it was awesome! I learned a lot about what I want in my future family as we observed, participated, and listened to the lesson :) And THEN we got to skype Cynthia!! :) We taught her about patriarchal blessings and discussed her temple sealing because they will be able to do that in March :) It was such a tender mercy. I am incredibly grateful for technology!!

This week my love and testimony for a couple different things definitely grew leaps and bounds.

• The first being service! Random acts of service especially :) I love being a tool in the Lords hands and helping lift someone's burden!

• Second, my testimony of being humble, submissive, and in tune with the spirit grew even deeper as miracles unfolded this week. Heavenly father's hand truly is in all things and I have the gift of being able to recognize it every day throughout my life! I can see His hand in every detail, and I'm amazed! He takes such good care of me.

• Thirdly, and probably one of the most important things that I learned this week, was the importance of reaching up before we reach out. Immediately turning to Heavenly Father in prayer when something goes wrong, when confusion or doubt enters my mind, etc. before seeking guidance from peers. At home I would immediately turn to my earthly father, unloading my mind and heart to him before receiving wise counsel, but I can't do that on a mission! So I've learned to turn to my father in heaven, unload my mind and heart to Him, and listen for His wise counsel. It comes :)It's a beautiful habit to develop :) I'm beyond grateful for my mission. I don't want to be anywhere else for the next 6 months :)

Have a wonderful week!! Love you tons :)

Sister Chandler

This little bug was on our car the whole night!

General Conference and Tender Mercies

   Good morning to all of you beautiful people! :)

 

  

Because of the hurricane over in the Bahamas, we have been getting

tons and tons of rain this past week! It rained every single day, some

days felt like the hurricane had made its way to Virginia, while

others were just normal rainy days :)

P-Day last MONDAY was awesome. 

We didn't go anywhere, and got to lounge around in sweats all day, until it was time to go to dinner:) After dinner we went to visit sister Jensen, the sister with the farm that we help on. A couple weeks ago I said her husband had a heart attack, but I was mistaken; he had a stroke! 3 of them to be exact :( The poor woman is so overwhelmed. We thought it would be a good idea to go do her dishes or find any possible way to help her

that night. Well we knocked and when she opened the door she said, "Oh hello sisters! Do you want to come in and watch my uncle's funeral with us??" Guess who her uncle is?! Elder Richard G. Scott; A modern day apostle of the lord who has recently passed away. Her maiden name is Scott. We had no idea!  The funeral was being broadcasted online, so we watched it with them :) We thought that maybe we would be intruding on personal family time, but multiple times she expressed her gratitude for our presence during the broadcast. It was neat :)

We had exchanges on TUESDAY and Sister Lemmons came to Gainesville with me! :) We spent a good amount of time training which was so productive and useful! She is currently being trained and has some adjustment troubles that I faced when I was a new missionary :) It was neat to share my experiences and be able to help her. I felt like I was just rambling story after story; experience after experience, and felt so bad for talking so much, but then she expressed her gratitude for it because she needed to hear them! I was grateful :) She's so awesome :)

We had dinner with our relief society president whom I LOVE! She gave us some names of people to go see, so we went to see them right after dinner. In the POURING rain! We were soaked all the way through our clothes--my shoes are STILL wet from that night! We literally had to ring my skirt out before walking into the church for a meeting because it was dripping from being so soaked. I felt like I jumped in a pool fully clothed, and then went straight to correlation with my ward mission leader! It was nuts. I have never been that drenched in my life and all we did was walk from the car to the front door of people's homes! We took pictures, but you really can't tell how drenched we truly were :)

                                       

[WEDNESDAY] morning we exchanged back and talked about how exchanges went. Lunch was with a member who has a stellar family! The parents are incredibly missionary minded and are always thinking of people to reach out to/invite; that's exactly the kind of marriage I hope to have. One that is rich in the gospel :) Each one of their family members loves one another. They are so happy! The 2 year old was at lunch with us naming all of his siblings and asking when they were coming home :) It was so cute. The gospel makes families happy when living it fully :)

After lunch we went to the women's shelter with sisters that we live with to do some volunteering, and then off to interviews with President Huntsman we went! My interviews were really good :) I know that President Huntsman is my mission president right now because I need him, and in some cases he needs me. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to serve with 2 mission presidents!

We noticed that one of the sisters in our stewardship was quite down and troubled, so after some thought and prayer, we decided we needed to go on exchanges for the night. So she came to Gainesville with me! :)

**Super cool story: Two days prior, I was pondering on the genuine joy that I felt because of my understanding of the gospel and my relationship with my Heavenly Father. 

Finally instead of constantly feeling like I need someone to help me, I feel on top of the world; ready to help anyone with anything! I was overwhelmed with love and

happiness, with a prayer in my heart that I could help someone... 

anyone who is really struggling.

So then, fast forward to 2 days later... WEDNESDAY. Heavenly Father placed a sister in my stewardship who is struggling and needs some help. Does God answer prayers? You tell me :) So she came! And I listened as we sat on the couch and she downloaded everything on her heart/mind. Sister Donato and I have really been practicing feeling for the spirit since we have been together, so I said two kneeling prayers before this mini exchange because I really wanted to know how I could best help that sister; I knew that God knew what she needed, and that He would help me help her. It was THE coolest thing, because as I listened, thoughts and solutions came to mind that were definitely guided by the spirit. I know the advice I shared with her did not come from my own thoughts completely. I then felt prompted to go work! To get off of the couch after we had a wonderful, much needed chat, and to go check on people because that's what she needed. She needed to focus on something/someone else :) So we did! And it was perfect. 

We went to a less active's home where there are 9 kids and we were invited in for a spiritual thought before bed. There was a 5 year old little boy with the cutest, biggest afro ever that plopped right down next to us. We had an awesome discussion with the mom after the kids went to bed, and then headed home. 

We decided that the sister I was with needed a blessing, so we met the zone leaders at our apartment complex. She told them her needs without going into any detail; basically saying she just needed comfort for personal reasons, and then they placed their hands on her head. Four words. 

I. LOVE. THE. PRIESTHOOD!!!

I testify that the authority to act in Gods name is given to man on the earth today. I bore witness of this for the trillionth time in my life that night as our zone leader addressed her needs very specifically, as if he knew exactly what she was struggling with. He spoke with the spirit, guided by the spirit, and this sweet sister felt so much better when we all said, "Amen". I am immensely grateful for the priesthood and the worthy men in my life who I've been able to receive blessings from. That is real power. I know that it is because I've felt it in my own life, and I cherish it! What a day! It was so good :)

To make the week even better, we had MLC (mission leadership 

conference) for a good 6-ish hours on [THURSDAY] and I got to 

see my favorite--> Sister Lewis :) She goes home in 4 months!! Does anyone else feel like time has flown?? Last year around almost exactly this time we became companions! Both brand new to the mission, not really sure of what we were doing, running off of loads of faith, ice cream, and pizza :) haha Good times ;) Anyway, MLC was awesome! We talked about finding people to teach and how we can effectively work with missionaries in our stewardship.

We also discussed the hurricane that could potentially keep us inside for a couple days! President Huntsman told us to go to the store that day to make sure we had a supply of food and water to last a few days, just in case. The storm was supposed to hit sometime last night (Sunday) or sometime today, but we are only expecting heavy rain; enough to cause a good amount of flooding which isn't unusual here :) So we went and bought food :) Then we took a nap during dinner because we didn't have a dinner, and we were mentally exhausted! Afterwards we went to a lesson with Ka and her mom! It was so stinking good! :) Ka moved her baptismal date to... O C T O B E R  24th... so that Sister Donato can attend :) We noticed that her mom was glowing that night; there was a different sense of happiness and love that basically radiated from her whole being, later we found out that she has been reading the Book of Mormon, and drawing temples when she can't sleep late at night :)  This gospel IS happiness, people!! :) I love it! :) Thank you for keeping them in your prayers :) they are doing so good! To finish off the evening we spent it with a less active family and had a lesson on faith. My brain was so fried by the end of the night. Meetings take so much brain power! I was a zombie getting ready for bed, but I slept really good :)

[FRIDAY] morning I woke up with a swollen, red eye out of nowhere!? It got worse throughout the day, so after we had a meeting with our zone leaders and lunch, we called the mission doctor to see what was going on with my eye. She sent me to urgent care where we found out I had a contagious eye infection!  So. Random.

The doctor said its not pink eye, but because it's contagious I had to stay home for a full 24 hours -_- I also had to go pick up some eye drops and learned that those eye drops came in a teeny tiny bottle the size of my Thumb- I kid you not even a little bit- that costed $180. Ya. What?? Luckily after some phone calls I only had to pay $10; I've never been so grateful for missionary insurance. Anyway, I had to stay home that night. Lame sauce. We are so blessed to live with sisters in the same building for situations like this, so we went on splits in

order for Sister Donato to go to an appointment we had in the evening :) Remember the sweet sister who was struggling on Wednesday? She stayed with me Friday night which was so inspired! It was awesome to have a follow up conversation and spend more time with her :) Please keep Sister P in your prayers :)

Because I was stuck inside for 24 hours, we had to cancel our plans to watch conference at our bishops house on [SATURDAY ]. Luckily our apartment complex has a theater room with cable, and we signed up earlier in the week to have the room all day :) blessing!! Except despite the cable, it didn't have a channel broadcasting General conference - Lame. So we went to the computer room with the sisters we live with, blankets and snacks, SO ready to soak up the spirit :)

• I loved a quote from President Uchtdorf: "Exaltation is our goal.Discipleship is our journey". He talked about how simple the gospel really is, and we can start where we are to get on the road to exaltation :)
• I also loved Elder Maynes talk because it was focused on how living the gospel of Jesus Christ brings happiness into our lives! That has been such a big focus for me over the past few weeks, so I really enjoyed it :)
• And then of course there's Elder Holland's talk that reminded me of how much I cherish my mother; as if I needed reminding :) He is such a wonderful speaker! Love you, mom :)

The second session ends at 6pm here, so we had dinner afterwards and then had a lesson with a less active family. They are SO hippy. It's hilarious :) But it was good!

Finally, we have [SUNDAY] :) Oh how I LOVE General Conference!

We spent the morning session in a members home, and the afternoon session with our relief society president and her family. This was the first time I've ever taken serious questions to conference, and it was neat to watch and see how they were each answered :) Elder Renlund's testimony was wonderful! I could go off on so many different speakers/talks that I loved, and my reasoning why, but this email would become more of a novel than it already is :) 

Like Nephi, "It sufficeth me" to say that there is a modern day prophet and 12 apostles who lead the church under the direction of the Lord. Each man is inspired, and I am sincerely thankful for all that they do to help build the kingdom of God. I whole heartedly sustain them. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed the path to honest joy, and we need to have more faith in Him. We forget that He is very aware of our hearts and our minds; He knows what He is doing :) 

I love my mission so much! 

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't learn and progress into my best self. 

I know my savior lives :) I am honored to be apart of this great, marvelous work. 

I hope you enjoyed conference as much as I did, and received answers to your own questions :)

Today is once again P-Day, and Sister Donato and I are a little excited about it ;)

Have a fabulous week! Read over the talks, seek the lords guidance as to what you can improve on, and do it :) Change doesn't happen until we ACT :)
I love you. Thanks so much for your support, love, prayers, and emails! 

If anyone needs anything, I'm only an email away :)
Sister Chandler

P.S.

 The washer destroyed my comforter!!!?? I'm a little heart broken. It's fine.