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 :)
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