Week 22: Blessings, Miracles, & Baptisms

Dearest friends and family,

This truly was the best week ever :) My entire soul is FILLED with

gratitude and joy towards the gospel of Jesus Christ :) 

First things first though. I have a minor complaint. I haven't gotten a letter in a month. All the sisters I live with get letters all the time, and it makes me sorta bummed out. And by sorta, I mean it really bums me out. The best way to describe how I feel is in Alma 60:6. Change the word "we" to the word "I".

Monday was wonderful! Full of relaxation, shopping, emailing, and

checking on potentials.

Tuesday morning we went to district meeting where our district leader

came up with a creative way to keep track of miracles! Instead of

march madness, we are doing "March Miracle Madness". So we text in any

miracle that takes place at the end of the day. We have a goal to

bring 5 of heavenly fathers children to the gospel this transfer as a

district; we can totally do it :) 

We also played a game where we got into teams and had to answer questions of the soul from the Book of Mormon. 

• is there a God?
• What does Christ expect of me? 
• How can I balance career and family? 
• Is there life after death? 
• What can I do to avoid temptation? 

 Over the summer I bought a Book of Mormon to

highlight answers to these questions and tag them, so during the gameI

literally flipped to a scripture to answer every time it was my turn

:) I should really use that more often haha :)

I needed a new notebook so I decided to make this one my study
journal. Studying in color and cute little designs make it more fun :)

After district meeting sister Morris and I went to ihop with our

sister training leaders for lunch because that's what sounded good to

them. Apparently it was National Pancake day!? Score!! So I got 5

pancakes :) 

We then exchanged, so I went to Oakton/oakmar with sister

Funk (yep. That's her name!) for the day. It was fun! We had all of

our lessons for the evening cancel on us, but we were so so blessed

because we spent most of the night inside homes. We needed to drop off

a baptismal record to a guy in her ward, and they invited us in to

share a message! Then we asked if they knew anyone who had recently

lost a loved one and as a matter of fact their neighbor did! So we

went to their neighbors house and they let us in, so we taught the

plan of salvation and gave her a Book of Mormon :) we have a return

appointment on Saturday :) 

The roads and sidewalks were insanely slick

once again because it had rained all day and then froze over when the

sun went down. I'm telling you, it's literally like ice skating! Even

the snow looked like frosting because it had a smooth coat of ice

covering it!! Super cool :) but don't walk on it ;)

On Wednesday I went with sister Funk to teach an English class!! It

made me think of when Christian did that in Cambodia, and I loved it!

We taught the sweetest people from Korea and Israel how to use words

like, "mother, daughter, sister, brother, and son" in complete

sentences :) too fun :) we swapped back to our original companions

after that.

Our entire evening from 5-9 was spent with members! So great! We had

13 member lessons last week and we are trying to match that (if not

beat it) this week :) It was also sister Morris' 6 month mark on

Wednesday, as well as another sister that we live with, so we ate ice

cream pie to celebrate. We should really change our eating habits.....

Guess what happened on Thursday? It snowed! For 11 hours STRAIGHT. 

So crazy. All day it just snowed, so we did a lot of potential and former

investigator mapping, as well as a little facebook time. In the

evening our dinner appointment canceled because we couldn't drive, and

she didn't have a car, so she called to have pizza delivered to us :)

that was nice :) after dinner we went to work!! A usual 3 minute drive

ended up being a 45 minute walk to a member lesson. It was awesome!

There were almost no cars out, so it was peaceful, and only a few

people out shoveling their walk. Sister Morris and I think we had

Angels with blankets around us because though it was 10 degrees, we

were really warm! My hair was up in a bun on top of my head and my

ears weren't even a little bit cold! Blessing!! 

The invitation we have been extending to our members

recently is to do 7 days of inspiration! I will attach it, and extend

the invitation to you as well :)

Friday is always a good day because its weekly planning! Sister Morris

and I are going to dominate the next 5 weeks that we have together. We

took a good amount of time making solid goals that will bring miracles

up the wazoo :) we know that if we are exactly obedient and do all

that we can do, Heavenly Father WILL bless us with success. That's

just how He works :)

In the evening we had a Skype lesson, but it fell through. Then we had

dinner and checked on less actives! It was such a fun night :) nothing

necessarily amazing or miracle status happened, but just doing what we

were supposed to do and enjoying every minute of it was fun :) I

really truly love being a missionary. There is nothing in this world

that brings more joy to my life than having the knowledge of the

fullness of the gospel, and living it :)

Saturday was pretty cool because after we spent some time going

through our area book and sending in our progress record, we were

waiting at the church for a lesson with a recent convert when a random

man comes to the door! We let him in and talked to him for a bit. He

is recently divorced, does not have a car, carries music around with

him (like CD's and head phones), sleeps at the airport, and was

looking for help from the bishop! We told him to come to church on

Sunday and gave him a Book of Mormon to read. When sister Morris

handed it to him he looked straight at her with the most honest eyes

I've ever seen, and said, "I will". Did I mention that I love being a

missionary yet?? Because I do!! :)

We had another member lesson, and air dropped the 7 days of

inspiration thing to them; nobody knows how to air drop! They were in

awe and then kept air dropping pictures back and forth to each other

haha 

THEN we went to a cereal party! Saturday was national cereal day,

if you didn't know, and a member threw a cereal party. There were non

members so we went and got two potentials out of it, as well as a

referral! I've never been more thankful for cereal in my life. So fun

:)

Sunday was AWESOME!! And the weather was GORGEOUS! I didn't wear

tights or a jacket all day! Even at night! So sister Morris and I

fasted for help from the ward as we do all we can, and I also fasted

for C to be able to be baptized this month because she's been

ready forever!! We broke our fast with dinner at a members house, and

then spent the evening checking on former investigators. 

Coolest thing--we had an address and a name for a girl, but no apartment number.

We didn't realize we needed one until we got there, but decided to

knock every door until we found her :) the first door we knocked on

turned out to be the right one!! Tender mercy!! We were welcomed in

right away and have a return appointment! Everyone we checked on that

night ended up welcoming us back for another appointment. When we got

to our last stop we said a prayer before we got out of the car like

usual. During the prayer I felt like we maybe shouldn't go. I was more

than willing to! So I know it wasn't me trying to talk myself out of

it, but it was a very very small, subtle, "don't go". After we said

amen I asked my companion how she felt about it and decided we

shouldn't. When driving away I felt so good! So I know that was the

spirit and I am grateful for a companion who also listens to it :)

Okay. Here's the best news EVER. Ready? When we got home Sunday night

and went to the wifi room to plan and sync our iPads, I saw I had a

facebook message from C, so I looked at it and SHE IS GETTING

BAPTIZED ON MARCH 21st!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! If you can't tell, I'm

thrilled ;) I've learned that when things are purely out of our

control, just trust Heavenly Father and His timing; He knows what He's

doing :)

This morning sister Morris and I had amazing studies; very spiritually

enlightening, and began our Pday :) on the way down to email, a man in

the elevator asked what our name tags meant. When we explained who we

were, he asked if we could teach him!? Ya, what?! We have to ask for

permission from president Riggs because the man lives in our apartment

complex and we aren't allowed to teach people who live near us for

safety reasons, but we are hoping we can! He asked if he could come to

church, too!! Heavenly Father is SO GOOD to us!! :)

I know He is there, and He just asks simple things of us in order to

return to live with Him. Have faith, repent often, be baptized by

someone holding the authority of God (priesthood), receive the gift of

the Holy Ghost (and always listen to it), and finally, endure to the

end. Keep doing those things, push through when your faith fades, and

make sure to keep doing the little things like reading your scriptures

and praying. Those little things make a huge difference in our

spiritual growth and relationship with God. I love being a missionary.

I testify that God lives. I testify of this every day and I wouldn't

trade this experience for the world :) my heart is full :)

Have a most awesome week!! Love you! :)

Sister Chandler