Thank you for telling me about the family! I am getting the weekly cards and for the past 3 and a half months they have been wishing me 'Merry Christmas', so i wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas back! I sent some pictures this morning and now I am writing the email, because the pictures are more important I think. Does my tie make me look fat?
This week was tremendous, I would like to share a few quick experiences (this is this week's substitute for CrazyRadar):
On Wednesday I went on a day exchange with Elder Hegland, where we switch companions and learn from each other, we do this frequently and it keep us a little more sane. I am so impressed with how fantastic Elder Hegland is!! We were down in Carlsbad and walked and walked and really were not finding anyone to talk to, and so we started knocking on doors, but still no luck. It was getting hot and we were tired, but we just kept walking and talking to everyone we saw, we ended up talking to about 30 people about the Gospel that day. The miracle was though, even though no one answered their doors or was interested when we approached them, there was one lady that came up to us outside of a school and asked us to say a prayer for her to help her overcome an addiction that she was struggling with, so we said we would love to and we would love to come by and meet with her whole family. We got her address and phone number and sent it to the missionaries in Vista that went by and invited her to be baptized the next day and she accepted! The Lord sometimes delays us so that we can be in the right place at the right time.
On Saturday the 3 Amigos were baptized! Elder Hammar and I talked to them on the streets a few moths ago and it has been awesome to see how the gospel changes people. Then on Sunday we went with a member to pick them up and bring them to church and we got there a little late and so we walked into the chapel right when they announced the baptism and said that they were going to do the confirmation. The member of the bishopric who was conducting invited Jilbert to come up first and he was walking down the aisle and he threw his hands up in the air and said "I'm right here!" It was pretty funny, but not very reverent. I think I am getting a taste of my own medicine of all the years that I was rowdy in church or made a scene at the wrong time. I am grateful for the Amigos for showing me the converting power of Christ as well as helping me appreciate yours and Dad's struggle you must have had with young Elder Chandler and preparing me (in a small way) for rambunctious children of me own... In 20 years.
Then on Sunday Elder Hegland and I got together again and went down to south Carlsbad and taught Oboo again and Naraa at Segii's house. Segii is a member of the church and she had us all over to eat traditional Mongolian food! The Buuz (Boe-dz) were delightful! We ate them too fast to even take a picture of them, sorry. Naraa asked again what makes our church different and the only true church, so we, in our very imperfect Mongolian taught them about those things that make our church different. She also was curious about why we don't drink wine, so we got to talk about that. It was difficult for us sometimes, because Elder Hegland and I both felt so strongly about what we were teaching, and have powerful testimonies in Mongolian, but we have no teaching skills in Mongolian. It is like liking trying to ask a girl on a date who you really. REALLY like, but you have no social skills. We tried and did our best and enjoyed the food and conversation and spirit.
I am grateful to be a missionary at this time in my life and I hope that each of us can do all we can to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. I pray that we may have opportunities to help others this week.
Oceanside, CA
Elder Pendergast and Elder Chandler (Oceanside)
HAve a good one! -Elder Chandler
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