Greatandbusyweek!

 This week was great! I don’t have much time today, but everything has been going well!

This week we have been working and using most of our time with prepping the ward for missionary work. We had a ward missionary activity Saturday and so we were passing by the members house a lot is week to get them to actually come out. One of the APs taught in a training that to feel more of the spirit, and to have more spiritual learning experiences, we have to do three thing; Prepare, Participate, and Practice. So we have been passing by the members houses passing along a talk for them to read so they could "prepare" and have a better experience. We gave them one of the coolest talks ever according to missionary work given by President Hinckley in the 1999 Ensign called "Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep". And if you are a member, or missionary I would suggest to READ the talk and pray for missionary opportunities. I promise it will bless your life more than I can say. There is a saying that "Spiritual Experiences create friendships for the eternities". And we have really been trying to help the ward here see that we do missionary work, because these experiences will be recorded in the Heavens, and in us FOREVER.

I remember there was a time when our Stake President, at home had us write down three people we knew that we could share he gospel with, and I think I wrote down one person. I didn't know how, or when, to share the gospel with my friends and so I didn't even try. And if you feel in the same boat, then you can talk to the missionaries. Every missionary would love to help you share the gospel, because every member is a missionary, and our coolest lessons ever have been won a member. And so at this activity we taught the members more of how to share the gospel with their friends, and we gave them a list of specific ideas they could do each month to share the gospel. Then they chose like 5 new hints from this list every month and we pass by and do practices and help them if they don't know how to complete their goals. So we will see how it goes. I am really excited for this ward, because we know of the blessing that come from sharing the gospel with others!

And as for investigators, they are all doing well. We did a fast with Fredrick, and tried to take him to see a baptism but in the end we may have to drop him. He knows these things are true, but he won't come to church or complete with our commitments. So it's sad but we will see this week. And we could meet with the Venezuelan family his week, but they are doing well. And Julian is progressing immensely. He really was a blessing to find because there are times when we are teaching him that I almost forget he is an investigator and not a member he is so prepared! But we are excited.

Thanks for all you guys do and I hope you have an awesome week!

And share the gospel win a friend! It will bless you forever! If you want, email me and I can send you a whole list of ideas.

-Elder Chandler

Monkeying Around

Well, this week has felt like one of the hardest weeks working wise, and strangely one of the best as well. Every week just gets a little better because I feel like I am learning and changing little as every week goes by. This week was rough lesson wise, because almost EVERYONE failed us. Haha yesterday we had to plan splits with members and the other Elders because we had so many people to teach yesterday afternoon and all of them but one family called us right before and told us they couldn't meet. Or some just didn't even answer their doors or their phones when we came for the time we planned. Haha it was pretty rough, but through it I feel like I have learned a lot. A ton of people failed us, but at the same time there were some amazing people just put right in our path to find. People that we just talk to in the street, and after like 5-10 minutes of talking to them are already interested in coming to church. It's like the Lord is directing us out of our way of doing this work into his way and to the people he wants us to find.

But not everyone failed us. We had some really cool lessons this week where the Lord has really helped us out. We taught Diken  and Alejandra and their family this week and it was super legit. They fed us arepas and Venezuelan food and we taught another lesson of the Restoration with them because they were all here this time, and to answer questions. They are super cool. When we read a scripture, Diken will close his eyes and put his hand on the bridge of his nose to understand more of the scripture and they always have lots of great questions. We also brought Juan Manuel with us, and they are all really good friends which is cool. And this is the family that we challenged to a game of basketball to get to teach them! They are really cool and I am excited for them.

We have also been working a lot with the less actives here. One in particular is progressing immensely. When we met here about a month ago, she told us she was even sure if there was a God, or if even the Bible was true. But we met with her this last week, and she just had the greatest light in her eyes that wasn't there before. I wish I could describe the change we have seen in her but I can't. It was a miracle we even got contact with her at first because she was leaving her door right as we walked up, and now she texts us to see when we can meet next. And next week she has an interview with the bishop to get her Patriarchal blessing! We are super excited for her, and I have been able to really see how much this Gospel changes lives. 

I have been studying a lot about the power of the Book of Mormon and there is SO much power in this little 2 inch thick book. A quote from President Benson I like:

It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance. (Chapter 10: Flooding the Earth and Our Lives with the Book of Mormon)

I hope you all have an amazing week and I love you all!

Ciao

Elder Chandler 

It's Summer!!

So this week has been really good! Things have slowed down a little,
but we still had some good lessons, and it has been a fun week! 

 We sat down and talked with Edu and she decided that she wants to be
baptized in July, on Gran Canaria so that her boyfriend can do it. It
was kind of sad, because we may not get to see it, but she has grown
so much and she is doing well. We asked her to share her testimony and
she is SO ready! It is amazing to see the change in her and in the
people we get to help. 

 Fredrick is also doing really well. We met with him yesterday, and and
he said he knows that these things are true. He as well is seeing some
great changes in his life and I love him a ton. My favorite part of
the work is when they realize and can feel a change in their lives. 

 Something I have been learning this week is that we really need to
feast on the Words of Christ. We need to really be getting something
out of the Book of Mormon when we read, and I feel it every time I
study. We really need to start with a prayer, a desire, and a
question. And we will get much more from the scriptures. I have been
studying Hope a lot this week, and it says in the scriptures that we
must have faith, hope, and charity, but what really is hope? Hope is
what helps us through our trails, what gets us through those hard
times. Hope sometimes is the blessings of our faith (Alma 22:16). And
it can only come if we have faith. Faith in our Savior Jesus Christ,
and in his Atoning sacrifice for us. I have been studying Alma 22 and
Ether 12 together this week, and learned some cool stuff. 

 We also found a family from Venezuela this week who seem really cool.
We were walking down the street doing some passbyes, when we saw a guy
and his wife playing basketball on the court next to us. So we went
and challenged them to a game, and if we won, we would get to share a
quick message. And if we lost, we would go. Haha so we played a game
of around the world with them, and when we won we shared the message
of the Restoration with them. We are really excited for them, and they
are really cool so we will see! 

 Um.. Something funny this week. I was standing next to the heater
during studies and I was just standing there reading, when I smelt
something really bad. I then noticed smoke coming up around me, and
when I looked down I saw that my pants were on fire because I was too
close to the heater! Haha but it was all good, I got it out pretty
quick haha I just lost a pair of pants.  

 But it's has been an amazing week! I hope everything is going super
well and you guys have an awesome week! 

 Love, Elder Chandler 

 Here is a video from the ward activity. 

They are using guitars hand made by the guy in the gray sweater!

I'm not sure what to call this

Hola como estáis? 

 This week was another great one! I am writing today, because we had "Dia de Canaria" yesterday and some activities with the ward. I'm not sure what it's for, but It was really cool! We had a fiesta at the church with music and stuff, and a bunch of the members brought their friends! 

 This week has been great, and we have had a lot of teaching opportunities. We have been working with Fredrick almost everyday, and he is progressing a ton. He is a great kid and I love their whole
family to death. We are starting soccer up every Saturday here for an hour and then we share a spiritual thought and have cookies or something and the members really love it! We have been able to get a lot of less active members to come play and it has been really cool. 

 Our other progressing investigator, Edu is also doing really well. We are getting the details down for her baptism, and it is looking like she might need to be baptized on Gran Canaria when she heads home from school. Her boyfriend doesn't finish school until July, and he won't be back until then. So we will keep working with her and we will hopefully know this week for sure if she will be baptized here or on Gran Canaria. 

 Our leaders are always teaching us to "work through the members", "work through the members" and we are starting to see success from it. We had a good turnout at Dia de Canaria, and it was really cool to see the members bring out friends. The Bishop would show them around the
church, and the members would just bring them right in. Haha this Ward really feels more like a big family then a ward sometimes, and it is the coolest thing. We are having a meeting with the ward mission leader, and the Bishop tomorrow to teach more about working with members and some of our goals for this area, and so we will see what they think. 

 I have a cool experience that I wanted to share real fast about a less active guy named Pablo. We were coming out of a lesson and all of a sudden we felt like we needed to pass by his house and talk to him. Which this didn't make any sense, because it was late, the other Elders are actually teaching him, and like the week before had told the other set of Elders that he didn't want to listen anymore. But we passed by him, and he had gotten there maybe seconds before us and at first we weren't really sure what to do. We began by asking him about his swords, and how things were going, and then how his reading and praying had been going. And he said "you know what... I prayed today, and I received an answer. I wasn't like asking for anything but I just felt this feeling of comfort and peace. It was really cool, and it is something I would like to feel again." The spirit was there so strong, and we were able to have an amazing lesson with him. And I know it was something that his parents have really been praying for a long time. He is a great kid and we will
see if we can continue to help him. 

 But anyway, thank you everyone for everything you do. I love you all a ton! 

-Elder Chandler

HOLAALOH

Holy Cow this week has been something awesome. I feel like I have been
learning to become a more effective missionary in so many ways. We
have been finding some AWESOME new people to teach, and hopefully this
upcoming week we can meet with them and have some good experiences.

One new thing we have been doing to find is first, we find what we
call investigator pools. Our best one right now is a little convince
shop down the road. The owners are super cool, but have gone through a
lot of missionaries. They love having us around, but they aren't
interested in the message. They are fun to talk to, and they are
really fun, so they have a lot of friends that come by to grab
something and chat. So what we will usually do, is we will tag team
it, and one of us will talk to one of the owners, and the other with
the friend. And they have had some amazing friends! And it's so cool
because they almost instantly like us because they see how good of
friends we are with the owners of the store, who are also their
friends! Next, we just build up a lot of these "pools" (menos activo
houses, little shops, and such) and with these relationships, we find
the friends, and the friends of friends. So who knows, we will keep
looking for new ways to find!

We also have been working a ton with members, and have already seen
great results from it. Our leaders are really pushing us to move off
the streets, and into working with members, because it is SO much more
effective. It has been a good week and we have been finding cool
people.

Oh and we had the blessing of talking with Elder Bednar yesterday, and
we got to ask him questions. It was honestly one of the coolest
experiences of my life. We were in a smaller room, with about 30
missionaries, a member of the 70, the mission president, and Elder
Bednar and his wife. They gave us some of the most powerful, direct,
and uplifting advice I have ever felt. It was definitely a game
changer moment. The main focus was on teaching more in the way of
Christ, and faith.

Some things he said I would like to share with you;

"You cannot get to Christ without knowing his true nature and character"
BUT
"We cannot change our nature" "Let HIM (Christ) change your nature"
We need to "yield" our hearts to him.

"When we teach, it is infinitely more important for an investigator to
describe what they are learning, then for you to speak to them"

It was really cool, and I am excited to use what we have learned in
our teachings, and in our area. Alright, I've got to go.

I hope you all have an amazing week!
-Elder Chandler

Thank you for your prayers!
Picture on the boat heading to Gran Canaria

Mother's Day!

Wow, what a week! The best part by far was probably getting to talk with my family. It was so cool to see everyone again, and how big everyone is getting! Oh, and HAPPY MOTHERS Day! I forgot to say that during the call, but I am so grateful for you Mom and all that you do and have done for me.

This week we have been working really hard. Haha we are definitely not the best Elders out there, and our Spanish is lacking sometimes, but I think we have been really blessed for trying. This week we had 3 investigators come to church! We were SO stoked and we are really excited for them. There was Edu, who has a date for June 18, Fredrick, and Dominic! Dominic, is a really cool story. Dominic is the friend of one of the less actives in Puerto, and she is super solid. We were actually out there trying to reactivate Susana, the less active when she invited her freind to the lessons. And through teaching Dominic, Susana has really had that fire rekindled and helps us with the lessons and shares her testimony multiple times throughout the lessons. We have only had two lessons right now with Dominic, but she has already come to church and she is progressing and it is because we have worked with a member. My testimony of working with members is growing SO much because that is where we are seeing miracles. You all have so much ability to share the gospel in many ways..

We had a really cool lesson, with a less active named Isabel Obama Sunday. It was actually a miracle we found her. My comp said they had passed by her house like 5 times before and she was never there. But we decided to pass by her one more time after I got here, and right before we knocked on the door she opened it. She was heading out to go somewhere, but we were able to set a time to come back. Anyway, flash forward a couple weeks, and we are there in her living room. She told us that she no longer believed in the Book of Mormon. It was really hard to see but before we could say anything, our ward mission leader (who is a convert himself) gave one of the most powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon I have ever heard. The spirit was there incredibly strong, and because of it, we were able to commit her to start reading, and come to Church. I cant even begin to stress how much of a blessing it is when missionaries AND the members are together in the work.

Then today we went a wicked crazy hike. We hiked like 10 kilometers straight up, and right as we get to the top of these beautiful mountains there is a little pueblito at the top. There werent many people still living up there, but I was still blown away!! Ill try and send more pictures.

Thanks for all you do! I love you all a ton!

Qué tengaís un buen día!

-Elder Chandler    

Where Am I?

Wow, what a week! There is so much to talk about, and not a whole lot
of time, so I might have to give you like a readers digest version of
the past week.

This week has been great! I really tried to hit the ground running as
I got here, and we have been blessed to have some great lessons. I
love serving here and I am really lucky to be here on the islands.
Haha it is really nice here and the people are amazing! We missed our
tran-via stop a couple times because the people here will just come up
to us and talk to us. Everyone here is just so open and friendly.

We have some great investigators, and we found some more this last
week that seem really solid. And one of them, Has a date to be
baptized! We are praying like crazy that everything goes well. I have
been learning this past week about the power of prayer and I know that
prayer is one of the greatest tools we have in this work, and in our
life. Why? Because it is literally a chance for us to talk to our
Father in Heaven, and receive revelation from him! Jesus taught in 3rd
Nephi: 19-20 I learned that:
"whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right,
believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you."
I feel like sometimes God has blessings just waiting for us, all we
need to do is ask. If you have time, go and read what the Bible
Dictionary has to say about prayer. It is really powerful.

A funny story from the week,
We were teaching a girl and her boyfriend the first lesson the other
day, and it was going super well. They had a lot of interest to learn,
and they were asking some great questions. We could see they were
really paying attention and though it was a bench on the side of the
street, the spirit was there really strongly. Everything was going
well, and then right as we got to the best part of the lesson a news
reporter and her camera guy squeezed in between us and started asking
our investigators random questions and interviewed them for a couple
minutes. Haha it was definitely a distraction, but after the news
people left, we were able to bring it back and invite them to read the
Book of Mormon and find an answer of these things for themselves. The
news lady was a distraction but at least now they will be seen on TV
with Books of Mormon in their hands! ;)

Oh and President Bednar is coming to the mission to speak to us in
like 2 weeks!!! He will be going to Madrid to speak to all the
missionaries in the mission except us. But the good news is that he
will be coming to the islands to speak to all of us on Grand Canaria!
It will be super cool to get to listen to him.

I love the work, and I really hope that you all have an amazing week!

-Elder Chandler

Me Voy!!

Hey Everyone! 

Wow, there is so much to talk about this week.
First off, I got transferred!! I have to say, it was SO hard to leave
my first area, and leaving the people there was even harder. I said
goodbye to everyone Sunday and we ate lunch at our ward mission
leaders house. Then today I'm heading down to Madrid to catch a flight
to the Islands in a day or two. It has been an amazing experience
serving up in the north, and I am not sure if I will ever be the same
because of it. 

I am being transferred to the island of Tenerife, in the Canary
Islands! Some of the members showed me some pictures and it looks
pretty cool. It's the island where they filmed parts of the new Fast
and Furious movie. I'm really excited, and I'm ready to hit the ground
running. 

As for the week it has been a pretty eventful, but I have some cool
experiences that I want to share with you. So to start in out, a
couple weeks ago we were talking with a guy on the street about the
gospel and the Book of Mormon. We felt like we needed to talk to him,
but as we started talking with him he told us that he didn't believe
in God or the scriptures. When my companion kind of asked him how
come, he told us that he wouldn't believe anything he couldn't see.
These are always tough, but it was a cool experience to testify to him
that God does talk to and answer his children today. He then told us
that if he were going to believe, he would have to see at least a
miracle. "Un milagro, por lo menos" So we gave him with a Book of
Mormon and left. Then, flash forward to this week, and this same guy
stopped us on the street and told us that he was reading the Book we
gave him. I don't know how to describe it, but we could see such a
difference in him, and he said he wants to come to English class. He
told us he didn't want to meet with us yet, because he would have to
read more of the book first, but I am really excited for him. I know
that the Book of Mormon changes lives and I could begin to see that
even here. 

The scriptures are really such a great blessing for us. I was reading
in Mathew a lot this week, and there is a part that I love in chapter
14. It's where Christ and Peter walked on the water. Peter was walking
out to the Lord, and in verse 30 it says that "But when he saw the
wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me." And it says in verse 31 that "immediately
Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him". I think that we all
have these moments of struggle and trails, but I know that if we call
out to our Lord, he will always lift us up. And that is something that
I have felt so much as I reach out for my savior. 

I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! 

-Elder Chandler

Sabbath Surprises

Buenas todos,

This week has been another great one! We have been progressing in the
area and the work has been moving forward! We have been having fun and
I love being a missionary. 

We have had some cool experiences this week with investigators, and it
has been really cool to see them change their lives just bit by bit.
We had a lesson with a man named Jose this last week and we were
really close to getting him to come to church with us! He knows these
things are true, and he is a great guy, but he doesn't feel like he is
ready to come to church yet. That is always hard for us, because it's
when investigators go to church that they can feel the spirit and it
is the spirit that changes their hearts and grows their faith in
Christ. 

We also had a cool experience at English class this week! When the
kids came last week, we taught them English for a while, and then they
asked us how our church is different from all the other Christian
churches. We really wanted to answer their question but we had to go
so we told them if they would come again the next week, we would
answer their question. So right when they got there this week, we were
able to share the message of the Restoration with them and it was
really cool to testify of this church and after challenge them to read
the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it is true. 

We have been working to get more people to come out, and Elder Bennet
has been armwrestling the jovenes to get them to come to English
class. And let's just say there should be a lot of people at English
class next week. Haha 

Something funny, I found that there is a red churiso (sausage) here
that makes a TON of grease after you cook it! And it you dump it into
a cup or something it looks just like wax. And so what I did, was I
bought a decorative candle holder and dumped the "wax" into it. Then I
put a wick in it and gave it to the Pontevedra Elders. Haha I told
them that it was a "study candle" and it really enhances your morning
studies if you get a good whiff of it ;). haha 

Then, on Wednesday we taught Luciano and Hector and hey we're both
good experiences. We had to drop Luciano because he loves to meet with
us, but doesn't really want to know that our church is true. He is big
into the Bible and teaches a Bible class every week, but would tell us
that he knows everything about the gospel already and was willing to
look for an answer if these things are true. But we shared the lesson
of the Joven Rico or the rich man, from the Bible with him and it was
a good experience even though it was hard to drop him. 

Then on Sunday 11 people came to church!! It was the greatest feeling
ever to see more people "coming back to the fold" and we are really
excited to work with the less actives this next week. 

I have learned that there really is such a difference in my life as I
try to keep the Sabbath day Holy. My whole week seems to go by so much
better, and I have felt a change in myself. 

There is a scripture in that I love in Leviticus 26: 2-12 that says: 

2 ¶Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. 

3 ¶If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield
her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 

12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

-Elder Chandler

View of Pontevedra from a companion exchange



A view of Villagarcia

Bonjour Surprises!

Hey Everyone!

This week has been really cool. This last week we have really been
trying to improve ourselves in every aspect. From Teaching, to
Finding, to Obedience, and we have been trying to apply things that we
learn from our leaders into our missionary efforts. It has been
amazing to see the blessings that come from just trying to improve and
grow.

We had English class again this week, and we have never had any
success from teaching English class before, because no one would come.
So we decided to see what we could do to improve, and we decided to
move places from the Hotel in Carill, to some tables out by the beach.
We were hoping this would making it easier for people to come, and
four people came! It was a great blessing to see the Lord helping us
out with that.

Then, on Wednesday we had a companion exchange and I was with Elder
Forseberg from Norway! It was a fun experience and we were able to
teach some cool lessons. We even got to teach Rum! Rum is one of our
investigators from Thailand who speaks very little Spanish. Haha it
has been a different experience, but we are here to teach whoever we
can. We got her the pamphlets in Thai, and we teach the lessons by
explaining things a couple of times, and pointing in her pamphlet to
what we want her to read, or what we are trying to say and it has been
a great experience. I liked what Martin said in his letter that "The
language of the Spirit is universal" because we have really seen that.

And right after we were finished teaching her, we had a cool street
contact. We stopped a family walking by, and we almost taught the
whole first lesson right there. They listened as we bore our
testimonies to them that we KNEW these things are true, and the father
thought about it for a minute and said the weren't interested. When we
asked them why not, he told us that he had seen too many people who
don't really live their religion to believe in a religion. And right
there I felt prompted to give him a Book of Mormon. The only thing,
was that as I looked in my bag I didn't have any! And as I started to
looked at my companion to ask him for one, he asked me if I had one! I
though "shoot what are we going to do?" And then the prompting came to
me again really strong, "give him a Book of Mormon". And right then I
looked done to my hand, and I had my copy that I had gotten from
Grandma and Grandpa Chandler. I had bought a cover for it, and had
burn some cool designs in the leather all over and had decked it out,
but I decided that if God wanted him to have a Book of Mormon, I would
give him mine. It was full of markings, and had my name all over it
but I grabbed some of my papers out of it I gave it to him anyway.

I felt so much power as I explained to him that this book really meant
a lot to me, but that we wanted him to have it, and the spirit was so
strong as we testified again of this Book.

Something our zone leaders have been pushing for this week is for us
to have more faith, and to pray for things we need in our areas. So we
have been putting our faith forward and praying really hard to have a
baptism here in Villagarcia. And this week Soledad, a less-active came
back to church and asked us if we would begin teaching her 8 year old
daughter so she could be baptized!! Sometimes I feel like we really
just need to ask the Lord with faith and he is waiting to bless us.

And then a member from Boiro who just moved here from Venezuela called
President Temis and wants to come to church! He just needs a ride!

We have just had SO many cool experiences this week, as we have done
everything we can to improve and so I want to encourage all of you to
try the same! I know through the Atonement we can become so much more
then what we were before and it has been changing my life little by
little "poco a poco".

I hope you all have an awesome week!

Con Cariño,
-Elder Chandler