On wednesday we did a large service project as a zone at a hospital moving supplies across the street from an old one to a newly built one. It took most of the day, and they fed us lunch. It was cool to chill with the other missionaries for a day and help the community. All the zones are taking time to help out there. There is a lot of work getting inactive members to church, especially the men and helping them become worthy of receiving the priesthood. There are a lot of problems with the Word of Wisdom, and leaving behind alcohol and smoking. There are callings open that need to be filled, but we lack the worthy priesthood to fill them, so the missionaries help fill them. There will be a La Bandera 3 opened, two more missionaries in our ward, 6 in total. They are going to be a big help for the ward, but 6 seems like a lot for one ward. In church on sunday we had an 41 people present. It is all the vacations people are taking, hopefully we will have more this week. 6 more weeks until my companion dies, my training ends, and it will be up to me to keep La Bandera alive. I´m excited to learn more about the Santiago Sur and the get to know more missionaries and Chilenos. The time is just moving by so fast, and changes in the world, and I´m stuck in this bubble trying to catch a hold of Spanish and everything new, but I am ready to get to work. Love you, Elder Chandler
It is starting to cool off, and Saturday the skies were clouded over and it was so cool all day. It feels so nice to have cool weather, and there is even a little snow on the tops of the mountains. But today and yesterday the sun was shining and it was warm again. On saturday we did service project for an old lady in our sector, and it was greatly needed. We had about 16 missionaries there helping cut branches, re-inforce her wooden fence that was collapsing inward, and clean up her yard. She lives alone and has next to nothing. She doesn´t work, just lives off the money that her father left her when he died. She doesn´t have power, and hardely anything. But it was really good that we could help her for a couple hours. Luis Gutierrez is progressing really nicely toward his baptism date, and this saturday is his birthday so we are going to a barbeque at his house. That´s this week, it was really fun playing soccer today, and we get to go to the temple the first week of march. We are starting the 6th and final week until new missionaries come, and I´m not in the youngest group. I love you all, Elder Chandler.
All of the hard work we are doing is starting to pay off. We set Luis Gutierrez for baptism the last Sunday in march, so everybody set your calendars, La Bandera is having a baptism!! I am really sure it will play out, because his wife was recently activated in the church and he is starting to attend church. The only thing is his work schedule, and we can only teach him at the end of the week, but we set appointments with him every weekend to prepare him for this day. He has listened to the missionaries for a while, on and off, and is really firm on the goal of baptism, he only needs a little more work, and we will be good. There really isn´t much more time I have to write, I thought it would be more, but the work is moving along. We are getting less actives to church, and some investigators, but most of the work is just with inactives, and strengthening the ward and church in Chile. I love the work, even though it can be challenging at times, but bring it on, I´m ready. In a way it feels like I´m just flying through the weeks, time is just flying by.What a blessing it is though to be serving a mission, and being able to devote all my efforts on God, and bringing his son´s and daughters into the church. It is such a blessing and I can really see the hand of the lord in peoples lives, giving a little push when needed, and always leading the way to undescribable joy. I feel the spirit so strong, and am so greatful for all you do to suport me on the mission and all you have done throughout my life. I wish I could explain how I feel, but it is something that people have to feel for themselves. It is so great to be an instrument in the hands of the lord in bringing the great joy of the gospel and the Holy Ghost into the lives of others. Until next week, Elder Chandler.
P.S. It is so crazy to see jeremy mixing spanish into the email´s. He always has to make it dificult. JK Things are moving along great in some ways and a little slow in other ways. It´s is just a little hard to find a time we can find some of the people we are teaching in their homes, because of summer vacations and a lot of work. One of these people is Claudio, who works a lot for a Marriot hotel. He has a really cool family and two little fun twin girls, and funny enough he speaks english which is an amazing relief to go to his house and be able to understand what´s going on a little more and speak a little english. Sometimes the language can really make me tired, but I just keep pushing along. Today we went to the city center and went shopping a little at the mall, the nice mall. I had a large hamburger and fries for lunch and we hopped on the subway to come back. We are organizing futbol for mutual this thursday, but unfortunately we can´t play with the youth, only play sports on P-day. But we are working hard with our calling in the Young Mens Presidency to increase the attendance and strengthen the ward. We haven´t seen any rain, it´s been really dry and warm, but starting to slowly become colder, especially in the mornings. We heat the water with gas, and ran out on sunday, so I had to take a cold shower, but I bought more this morning and so we are back to nice, hot showers. We are really focusing on lessons with members, and inviting less actives and investigators to members houses for Family Home Evening. We are making brownies at a Family Home Evening today. It´s really wierd starting out on the mission and my companion, Elder Alan Saldaña, is getting ready to go back home to Ecuador. Crazy!! But it´s really fun here and we are hastening the work of salvation in the best mission and recently restaured mission of Santiago Sur. Until next week, Elder Chandler.
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