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!