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