September 26th, 2013

Happy Wednesday! 

Today was our temple trip day and we went to the Newport Beach temple. That is the only temple that the Irvine mission goes to now. I got a sweet email from Ben Barton with some pictures of him and Jackson hiking Timpanogous. That was really sweet. 

We will go pick up mail on Monday, so I am excited to get whatever you sent :) 

I am also glad that you got the little recording from Sister Coleman of Elder Shiu singing in sacrament, he is a good singer! We also have started mission choir, so he and I go to that and have a good time. Elder Hegland is there too, so I always sit with him and we sing Mongolian songs to warm up. 

Fun story of the week: Sunday night we went by the Nelson's, who are a part-member family and they have 2 little blonde girls. We went by around 7:30 and it was getting dark so it felt late (During the summer it is light until 9 and no one cares if we come by at 8:30, but when it gets dark sooner, for some reason it gets later sooner...). Anyways the non-member wife answered and said that it was a little late for them and they were putting the girls down for bed. At that moment the 2 year old girl ran out and pointed at Elder Shiu (pronounced El-der Shoe) and started yelling "Mister Shoo-ee, Mister Shoo-ee!!" We all couldn't help but laugh. So the mom changed from being mad to inviting us over for dinner. Thank you Mister Shoo-ey! 

The Journays are still golden and are set to be baptized on October 4 (hard to believe that it is almost October here in Orange county again) We taught them all of the commandments on Saturday and here is a little snap shot of how the lesson went down:

Journays: Well thank for being here Elders, what are going to learn today?

Us: We want to talk about some ways that we can be happier in this life through obedience to some commandments that God has given us.

Journays: great!

Us: We believe that Joseph Smith reveived a law of hea...

Journays: Oh! The Word of WIsdom?!

Us: Right, the Wor...

Journays: That is where you don't drink, smoke, do drugs adn stuff, right?

Us: That is right, and we can promise you that if you...

Journays: We need to throw away that 10 pound bag of coffee on our counter!

Us: ... Are you for real?...

So this pattern continued for the law of Tithing (He had questions about whether it on our net or gross), Chastity, Sabbath day, fasting, etc... It took about 2 minutes for each commandment and they pretty much just taught us. 

We are excited for them and they are too good to be true, except they are true!

I hope you all have a great week and the gospel is real. That has hit me pretty hard this week: That this is all real. I knew that it is true, but we will literally live again after we die and following the commandments WILL make us happier! 

Have a great week! Love- Elder Chandler

September 16, 2013

Hello Mom,

Thank you for your email! It is good to hear that you are out and after the ivy! I haven't cried in the library reading my email in a while, so thank you for that. This week was nice and everything is going well. The weather is cooling and the palm trees are green :)

We had a glorious ward picnic on Saturday to celebrate the Santa Margarita ward's 25th anniversary. There were all 6 of the Bishops who had served in this ward since 1988 (back when this was all farmland!) Then on Sunday each of them spoke for 5 minutes and it was a wonderful meeting. Lee was sustained to receive the Aaronic priesthood, but he went home to watch the football game after 2nd hour so we need to go explain that he didn't get the priesthood yet and needs to stay for all three hours next week. The Journay's were at church and they met about 30 people at the ward picnic. They would get baptized today if the Mission President didn't require 3 times church attendance before baptism. 

Elder Shiu and I gave a training to the zone on baptism on Thursday and it was good, the zone tripled the number of baptismal dates set this month! Yay! Life is good, if the weather would just chill a little more then the lack of working AC would be bearable, but everything else is good. My shingles have been medicated into submission and I feel on top of the world! 

Have a luvverly week!

Love, Elder Chandler

September 9, 2013

Good morning starshine, the earth says hello!

I often feel like I am in a dreamland and this is not reality, but I really like what I am doing right now so I do not ever want to wake up. I used to have dreams about flying and right now I feel like I am having a dream about flying. Life is good. 

I am here in Rancho Santa Margarita and would not rather be anywhere else in the world. unless God told me to go somewhere else, then that would be the place I would most like to go. 

Thank you mother for the notepads you sent in that last package, it was incredibly timely and I have been taking lots of notes about everything, because I don't feel the pressure of perfection like I used to when I only had little notebooks to write in and I didn't want to make any mistakes when I was writing, so I just took less notes. Now we do language learning activities and sketch out trainings and do all sorts of fun things with this new found freedom of paper and writing utensil!

The California, Irvine mission is starting a mission choir tomorrow and I will probably talk more about that later. The California, Irvine mission also established a service district of missionaries that focus their day-time proselyting hours on giving meaningful service to the people living here. President Orgill is really focusing on becoming a positive presence in the community.

Elder Shiu (my favorite Chinaman companion) and I are training a sharp new missionary from Lehi, Utah named Elder Donohue. This is quite a different experience, because now I need to filter more of my jaded comments so that he doesn't feel like the mission can be as difficult as it is sometimes. There are times of trial and slow days of searching for people to teach, but there are also unexpected tender mercies of the Lord.

On Wednesday evening, Elder Donohue's first full day in the mission field we stopped by a young couple that just moved in from Mission Viejo. They are not members, but they invited us in and asked us about what we do and they told us that they had grown up with a lot of friends who are members of the church. They want to become "eternally linked" in the "Mormon castle" and want to know how long it will take to "join the team". It was really a good feeling to be able to find some people that wanted to talk to us! 

Sometimes I feel like a real creeper because I don't feel awkward walking up to people and introducing myself and sharing a few sentences of restored truth and asking if they have 15 minutes to hear more about it. Even when it is 8:30 and dark outside. Elder Shiu is getting used to it and Elder Donohue is also learning, but they still think I am creepy. Does anyone have any advice on ways to approach people without seeming creepy? I really don't try to be creepy, but sometimes my companions feel like I am really creepy. 

Well that is about all I have to share this week, are there any questions that you want to know about the area, or missionary work? 

I am so excited for the missionaries leaving from our ward to go and serve. Including Brother Von DerLohe. I am sad I won't see him for a while. I am happy to know that he will live again. I know that the restored gospel that we share everyday has the power to enable people to overcome any trial that we face. I am grateful for this time that I have to be a missionary. I know that it's true!

Have a great week, 

Love Elder Chandler

September 3, 2013

Aloha Mother!

This week has been quite a ride, we have been busy, Lee got baptized, Elder Shiu and I will be getting a brand new missionary to train together and a Sister in the zone went home. All is well in Zion.

I will attach some pictures of Lee's baptism for you! He was really happy. Then he came and played basketball with all of us yesterday for a Preparation Day activity. 

So here is what a normal day is like for Elder Shiu and I:

6:23 wake up and exercise for a while. We don't run any more, but we do this 7-minute workout that includes push-ups, sit-ups, planks, squats, etc...

7:30 eat breakfast

8 study, so I usually spend 30 minutes to create some teaching plans and finding scriptures and identifying specific blessings of the principles that we are going to teach.

9 Elder Shiu and I share what we learned and put our heads together to finalize the teaching plans. We might spend some time organizing lists of potential investigators that we are going to go by that day in a specific apartment complex.

10 Elder Shiu and I learn English grammar together.

11 Lunch... You don't want to know what we eat.

12-5 Spend some time finding people to teach through visiting part-member families, potential investigators, tracting and talking to people on the streets. 

5 Dinner! Yay, because the members make us good food that is good for us, except we always get dessert, which I used to like, but I would be totally fine with no dessert. 

6-9 usually 2-3 teaching appointments for families that we are teaching. 

9 plan for tomorrow

9:30-10:20 clean the apartment and brush teeth. 

10:20 pray and go to bed

So that is a fairly normal day. Elder Shiu is so awesome and we are working hard together. I hope that as the summer ends and there is one less Chandler child at home that everything goes well. God is in charge of His work, so I know that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Chandler

August 19, 2013

Hello Mom!

I am writing you before Dad this week so I actually have time to say something, because Dad always gets the good stuff and then I feel bad because I don't know if what I say makes sense by the time my hour is almost up! Anyways California is wonderful and I love Elder Shiu with the same amount of love I have for everything else Asian, which is a lot!!

We are teaching a part-member family, the Ortegas, and they told me a story about how they were up in Oregon and saw a dancing LIberty Tax Service statue of Liberty. I said, "Oh, really? When was that?" They replied "Last march and it was doing a snow-rain mix" I told them "I remember that day!" and then we laughed because just like we knew each other in the pre-existence we also had met before in a less personal way before I even came on my mission. Or maybe that is a very personal way! Either way it was humorous.

We have had a whole bunch of meeting and it has been great to see new methods of finding, teaching and baptizing (of course the doctrine and principles are still the same, and the ordinance itself!) For example last Thursday Sister Joyce Tan came to our mission and gave a conference about something she called "Windows of Heaven" where we set aside some time of our day to go find the elect who God will place in our path. We know that God puts people in our path, and when we talk to everyone then we will find who God wants us to and when we are 100% worthy for the Spirit then we will know exactly what to say. So Elder Shiu and I tried it on Saturday, when we finally had 2 hours to find, and we talked to about 30 people in the park. We met nice people, mean people, black people and white people! We taught the first discussion to a group of druggies (for lack of a better term) and they were interested in learning more. I am not sure if they are the elect, but God wanted us to talk to them so we did. Hopefully this week we will have more time and opportunity to talk with more people and spread the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The work of salvation is going forth and I am so happy! I mostly blame Elder Shiu for the constant happiness and spirit I feel, because we work in unity! Thanks for praying for me, I pray for you all too! I am glad Kennedy got to be at home and spend time with you and that Jackson is staying 'rooted' in his interests (That is a tree joke :) 

Have a great week!

love- Elder Chandler 

August 12, 2013

Thanks for the email. My companions are all done, so I have to go! I am so sorry... Is nate in Korea! See you next week

August 5, 2013

Hi Mom!

This week was great! Elder Shiu is teaching me Cantonese and I am teaching him English, although he speaks it well already. 

Is Nate (Elder Pratt) in South Korea? 

I wrote Dad an extra long email today, so I don't have much time, but the weather is good and we are teaching more than ever in this area and staying very busy! Congratulations on another successful year of girl's camp and on finishing the standard works! Paul is fun to read.

I owe you a good email next week! Everything is great here though :)

Love, Elder Chandler