May 5, 2014 LAST EMAIL HOME

Thank you so much Mom!

 

I am really looking forward to the plans that we have for this coming week! On Wednesday we set a baptismal date that is really solid with Casey Wells for May 24 (looks like my Cali trip will heppen around that time) On Sunday we made a schedule for Tara and Thomas as Thomas prepares to baptized his wife (They just got married last week) and set a date with them for July 5 when he gets back from Switzerland. And today Ian Baer got interviewed and will be getting baptized on Saturday! I am so excited about the glorious work that is happening here in the Laguna Niguel stake and the Aliso Viejo ward.

 

I suppose that I need to come home this week and that is inevitable so I accept it. I am not finished with my service yet though! When I get released then I am not longer called and set apart to be a full-time representative of Jesus Christ. Until then... Look out!

 

Well I will tell you all about everything else you could possibly want to know about and more on Thursday and for the rest of your life until you die and we bury you and sing songs about the great life that you had and how we will be together in the spirit world.

 

I should probably write some sentimental and spiritual testimony right now, but I am not really in the mood. Sorry! I just know it is all true and we have a work to do! I love my mission!

 

I love you too Mom!

-Elder Jefferson Chandler

P.S. I love everybody else who reads this email too. Just not quite as much as I love my mom.

April 28, 2014

Hi!

 

Ian Baer moved out of his girlfriend's house on Saturday and quit smoking that same day! He is getting baptized May 10. Casey Wells is getting baptized May 24 and she is good to go. Mike, Heather, Patrick, Tara, George, Rebecca, Mitch and Conrad don't have dates yet and some of them are not progressing so we are trying to help them. We found George and Rebecca this week and taught them the first lesson. George is 26 and lives with his mom and sister, Rebecca. He has given up drugs and alcohol and gotten out of the gang he was in. They are looking for a church to go to because they have drifted away from God ever since their father died 6 years ago. They are humble and wonderful people,

 

Everything is going pretty well. I don't have pictures to send because I didn't bring my bag in because I broke the strap ofSaturday and have to fix it. I will today.

 

On Sunday morning we got to have our monthly meeting with the stake presidency and the Bishop's and ward mission leaders and the MIssion Presidency.

 

This morning we helped Sandra again. We got up at 6 and put a lot of her trash out curbside for pick up. We are trying to help her clean house and start a garden. It is pretty dirty and junky.

 

I am trying to be a better person. Sometimes I just need to slow down. But other times I need to get strict and really run a tight ship. Still working on that balance. The zone is doing well. I love Elder Jung and Elder Deakyne. We have a good time.

 

I love being a missionary!

 

Well people are waiting to get on the computer, so I better go.

 

Have a great week! I will have lots of pictures in two weeks. Is that okay?

 

Love, Elder Chandler of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

April 21, 2014

Hi Mom,

 

Happy day after Easter to you too! We had some fun things happen this week and we have some really great things that are going to happen this upcoming week! Just this morning we got up at 4:45 and participated in a relay race where we ran the boundaries of the stake and I got to run in two of the legs, so that always feels good to do something that I know how to do. I was thinking that one thing about being a missionary that is challenging is having to do things that you don't know how to do. I was coached for years and practiced for years to be able to learn how to run and race and get the fundamentals of running. Then I also was just thinking that pretty much my whole life prepared me to be a missionary; like learning the fundamentals of a testimony, how to study the scriptures, recognize the spirit, listen, love, serve, work and so many more things. Even though I really am not the best at running or missionary work, I do feel like these are things that I love and have a passion for because I have learned, in part, how to do them effectively.

 

We also had our zone training meeting on Wednesday and talked about setting expectations in lessons and providing the 'why' of what we are teaching. Especially with these new pamphlet lessons some of the members are just shocked that we don't teach a lot of the things that they taught in their missions (back in the roaring 20's) so we have been trying to explain a lot about how people can be best helped when we adjust the teaching to meet their needs and the pamphlet lessons are just ONE way to do it, not the only way. So we discussed that. And emergency preparedness. And not blaming others or complaining or gossiping.

 

on Thursday we got to teach a new investigator named Ian Baer and he is so cool! I really love him and he wants to get baptized really bad! So he has already taken the missionary lessons about three years ago and a week before he was going to get baptized he just felt a lot of opposition and backed out. He is still striving to keep all of the commandments and wants to make sure that he will be able to completely walk the walk and live the lifestyle that Christ wants before he makes this big commitment. he even just broke up with his girlfriend whose house he was living in. So we are looking for a place for him to live right now haha

 

Funny story of the week!!!

So it was really actually tragic and sad because we randomly walked by these people in leisure world (we call it seizure world, affectionately, because it is a big gated community filled with sweet residents aged 55+) and so these two random people called out and asked us to come help them. We are not allowed to "evangelize" in there so it was odd that they reached out to us. Anyways i will try to keep this long story short and say that this lady had gotten abandoned by her husband and she had been abused and was left with nothing and this other guy on the street was helping her try to find shelter. We introduced our selves and he said Elder Jung, Elder Chandler and Elder Deacon, nice to meet you! So then we called some people and when we were on the phone with the relief society president he asked to talk to her for a second and he was explaining the situation and it was a dire situation and he was begging for help and said, "please, I am standing here with two Elders and a deacon from your church!" And Elder Jung just busted up laughing and that made me crack and the situation was really serious so Elder Jung just ran behind the car and tried to calm down and I was only two feet away from this man's face and was just holding in my giggles because he had mentioned that he knew what a deacon in the church was and so he misidentified Elder Deacon as just a deacon. Holy cow we quote that a lot. We answer the phone by saying: "Hello, two Elders and a Deacon here".

 

I am just skimming through the week and going to skip to Saturday - Elder Anderson came and instructed us and the Anaheim Mission. A few things that stuck out to me were about the Book of Mormon and a living prophet. He invited us all to really know the stories and testimonies in the Book of Mormon. He also invited us to sit down with a sheet of paper and write down the names of the 1st Presidency and Quorum of the 12. Then write down what they talked about this past conference (without reviewing notes right before) and after that write down what we were doing differently because of their messages. Well I did that this morning and I aced the name test. I got 11/15 on the topics, but only 6/15 on what I changed because of their messages. So I need to go review again.

 

yeah, that is pretty much it. Today I just rambled in this email, sorry. I hope it gives a little taste of how things are doing. Casey Wells is getting baptized in two weeks and it is so fun to teach her!!

 

Have a great day!

Love, Elder Chandler

 

P.S. We are having a sand volleyball tournament today and racing hard boiled and dyed eggs pinewodd derby style at the park. Elder Schumacher is a creative genius!   

April 7, 2014

Here are a few pictures that I couldn't send last week.

1 is me and my new companion Elder Jung from Seoul Korea! how is Elder Nate Pratt doing?

The Afflek's in the ward have chickens in their backyard!!! It was so cool! i love the chickens!

Hello!

I tried to send more pictures but I am having a hard time with the computers... At least we got a picture of my new companion, Elder Jung! Elder Deakyne (the deacon) took the picture for us.

This week was really good! I am having dinner with Elder Hegland tomorrow night and then he goes home. Or he goes somewhere... I don't know what there is outside of the mission.

Elder Hegland and I sang in the transfer meeting on Tuesday and we sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" The chorus on the third verse was me singing in English and he came in harmony in Mongolian and then we sang the whole fourth together in Mongolian. That was the same song that we sang in the MTC for a devotional for everyone so we thought it fitting to sing at the last meeting together the same song we started our missions with.

Not too much interesting is going on.

I will try to send some more pictures real quick!

Love, ELder Chandler

P.S. I enjoyed conference. I will write about that in a second. 

Darn , I can't figure out how to work the camera, I guess I could ask my Asian companion; he is good at technology.

Well my favorite talk in conference was Sister Reeves! She was so bold and straightforward and I thought she shared some very simple and practical things that we can do in our own lives to keep us close to the Lord. Daily scripture study, prayer and weekly family home evening. I am grateful for a family that strived to do that. Even if I didn't want to it was a good tradition to knw that as a family we read the scriptures and pray together and support each other in our activities.

I also loved President Uchtdorf, of course! I need to make sure that i don't sleep through a minute of this next month!! Because I will never get it back again!

Also, President Eyring in the priesthood session really taught a powerful and simple message to me personally about prayer. I feel like President Orgill, by his example, is teaching me the same thing. It is so vital that we don't just say words to God, but express our feelings and extend our souls to meet Him and align our wills with His. The reason I think that this is so important to me right now is because often I have said nice words and gone through motions and "said my prayers", which was good, but recently I feel like I have exerted myself, even if it is early in the morning or I am exhausted late at night, to pray specifically for what and who and how I am thankful that day (which goes along with President uchtdorf;s message on Sunday).

There was so much good stuff! I need to go back and review and read that which was shared. I have a few inparticular that I am giong to study.

As an aside, since I no longer am teaching English as an assignment for my mission, my grammar and spelling and punctuation and syntax and what I do with my clauses, or don't do with my clauses really doesn't weigh heavily on how I write! (Shoutout Patrick Garvey) There Their They're annnnnnnnnd thier!

Well I think that was it. I am not going to play Norwegian kickball too hard today, because we had a stake hike this morning and we did our studies in the Laguna Beach wilderness park and for the three mile hike back I decided to run up and down the rough terrain with some other missionaires and I am WAAAAYYY out of shape. #icebath.

Hopefully I will be able to walk again next week when we talk again.

May the peace of God be with you!

-Elder Chandler

March 31, 2014

Hi Mama!

Nothing from Obye yet, thanks for trying!

Would you be able to look up something else for me? I heard about a company called Vivint, have you heard of that? I got chastised my some people that I should really be setting up some things so I don't waste time when I go home. So I was just wondering if Vivint should be an option? Sounds like good work and good money over the summer.

This week was so fun!

Elder Corcus is getting trasferred though, which is pretty sad. We have become good friends. I will get another companion who will join Elder Deakyne and I tomorrow. Should be good!

I have a few pictures and a few updates:

We met up with the Sisters this week to try to get a direction for what we should do to help strengthen the Aliso Viejo ward. We have really been trying hard to find people to baptize here, but no one seems to be coming up. So we thought it would be good for us to ask the Lord how we should tend for His vineyard. We felt that it was most appropriate and productive to spend more time visiting the 300 people who were members of the church but who don't come to church that live in the ward boundaries. That would double the size of the ward if we could reactivate them! Just as important as 300 baptisms in my book. So we picked 5 names for the Elders to visit and 5 names for the Sisters to visit. As we went out later that day to go see these people we contacted this guy named George who lived relatively close to one of the people we were visiting. As we talked to him we felt that he was prepared to hear the gospel so he said we could come back on Thursday! That was just a small experience that helped realize that my ways are not the Lord's ways and if we really want to help God, then we need to ask Him what He wants us to do. Then do it!

Everything is going just wonderfully! I am really happy today. I am usually really happy anyways, but I am just grateful to be doing what I am doing right now. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Love, Elder Chandler

March 24, 2014

Hi Mom!

Palm Springs is a desert! We stole all the water down here in South Orange County!! How is your trip going? 

On Tuesday morning I woke up from a dream that I had about some video game. It was about Star Wars. I really like Star Wars. I don't think I played Star Wars video games on a regular basis though, so I was confused about what, if anything, this dream meant. Obi-Wan Kenobi was the hero of the game and in my dream I just barely won. I just kept hearing in my head "Obi, Obi, Obi". then I thought about my friend Alex Obye! We called him Obye in high school. He and I played a Star Wars game together I think and I was just thinking about Obye a few days before that. So I was wondering if I can get Alex Obye's email address? Is that possible for you to get?  

This was an awesome week! Not perfect and not the numbers I was hoping for, but really I feel good about it. Numbers measure how much we are inviting and how much people are accepting. So we invited a lot this week, more than usual which was good, but not a whole lot of people accepted invitations. Invitations include to be baptized, hear the missionary discussion, come to church, give a referral, etc... Not that the numbers represent "success", but they are a strong measure of our diligence and effort and positive responses. 

I feel like it was a $5 week because every one did their best.

I am looking forward to crazy roller coasters with Harrison. He just needs to wait about 15 more months for when I get home from my mission! I think that is about how much longer I have.

We had some really nice lessons this week and I feel like we have some really good relationships with the people here in the ward. Nothing huge happened, but I am really happy here.

Get psyched for General Conference! #MoTab

Have a great week

Love, Elder Jefferson Chandler

March 17, 2014

Hello Oregonians!

 

Thank you for the email, That was nice to see the picture of Elder Chandler at the airport!

 

Is the dynamic realyl different at home now, or not really since he had already been in college for a while?

 

This week was really! We worked especially hard! I have gotten in a bad rut of working really smart and it is not as hard as walking around and talking to awkward people because I am awkward too. Basically I prefer to drive and make visits to people who need help that we already know about, then to go out and hit the pavement and find new people who also need help, or people that we need their help.

 

So on Wednesday I got frustrated that not too much work was happening in the ward like I was hoping that it should be and I wanted my two brand new companions to see that it should be, so we decided to have a companionship study on finding. things like D&C 4:4 and section 33:7-10 and Moroni 8:16 and PMG pgs 155-156, and some other stuff that I don't remember the references too. So we were renewed that the field is white already to harvest if we thrust in our sickles with our might and Open Our Mouths! So we talked to more than 30 people on the street that day and were able to share the message with 3 of them even though they were not interested in hearing more.

 

Then on Thursday we had our mission leadership council and President Orgill stood up and told us to go to D&C 4:4 and PMG pgs 155-156 about finding. and we talked about the exact same thing that my companions and I had discussed 24 hours previously.

 

Then on Friday morning I called the zone together real quick before weekly planning and we decided to really dedicate ourselves to opening our mouths and working hard to find the Lord's elect this week! Each transfer is 6 weeks long and we are in "week 5", so I related a story I heard a year ago about President Monson when he was a child would cut grass for an old lady and she would pay him according to the job that he did. So he would cut it and get a dollar or two. he would cut it twice and line it up nicely and get three dollars and one day he wanted to do a $5 job! So he brought his edger, and sharpened the blades of the mower and brought a tape measure and made sure everything was PERFECT! And then he got $5. So the zone is going to have a $5 week and so in weekly planning they all prepared what they were going to do and I am super excited about it!! $5 week! This is week 5 :)

 

Then one Elder was like "So what should the winner get?" And my awesome companions Elder Deakyne said "Now, I really think that you are over thinking this! The only reward and incentive that we should need is the gratification of bringing someone closer to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father." That was a good reminder for all of us.

 

Well I am trying to stay out of trouble and my dear companions are keeping me in line. The power of a 26 year old Bolivian engineer and the sincerity of an 18 year old humble man.

 

God bless you all this week!

Love, Elder Jefferson Chandler