On Saturday we had a giant Asado at the house of Luis Gutierrez, the baptism date. We came early in the morning and helped them prepare and cook the food. There was a lot of meet, perfectly seasoned and sooooooo goood. We had a really great time ( I have photos but didn´t bring my camera cord, so you will have to wait until next week). I can´t wait for his Baptism which is this sunday. I don´t think I will be the one to do the dunking though, probably Elder Saldaño. We are also walking around in a group of three, because Elder Romero came Wednesday. He is from Bolivia, and the mission venezuela. There is now a replacement for Elder Saldaña when he leaves in the next couple weeks. The mission he came from was a lot different than here, where you have all sorts of lessons. But here you have to put a little more work into the investigators, and a lot of time rescuing the many inactives in the wards. But I love the mission. Today for P-day we went to the Aguas de Ramón, which is a national park of Chile with hiking trails, a river, waterfalls, and the good mountain air a little outside the city. It was a nice change of scenery, and a different, fun activity (photos on the way). It´s good to here how good things are going there. Are you ready for General Conference? Do you want to listen to it in spanish like me? JK. And I can´t wait to skype home on mothers day too. Just remember the big picture, and that your efforts can bring many people to the joy that comes from the knowledge of the gospel. Just keep staying strong, and be humble to do what do the work that the lord has in store for you. Every week there are challenges, but every week we can overcome them as well. Until next week, Elder Chandler!!!!!
There is a lot of new news. We had a lot of success this week: new people to teach, a new way to find people, a record number of lessons, a record of people at church, and a new companion coming. First I will talk about my favorite investigator, Mauricio. We found him this week, he was a reference from the other missionaries in the ward next to us. He is super cool, and super prepared for the gospel. He is columbian, and grew up in the United States and has visited the States often (Florida and New York), so he speaks english. We give the lessons in English. Everything that we teach he has the same opinion, and he has never heard the gospel. We talk about the book of mormon, and he says that he always thought that it was weird how the world only has a record of the people in europe, the Bible. He says that the gospel should be all over the world. We talk about prayer, and he says that it should be from the heart, your true desires. We give the opening prayer and when we close he says, is it done, I want to say something, and then goes on to express graditude in another prayer of his own. He is super excited to read the pamphlets and the book of mormon to learn more, and pray about the truth. I could keep describing him, but you would have to meet the guy to understant what I´m talking about, from the awesome columbian accent, to the willingness to learn and have us come back to teach him more. We are using a new computer website named rescate to find new people to teach, and that is how we found Dayana this week and got her to church on Sunday. There were 77 people in church on sunday, a record. We have a 3 hr. meeting on wednesday to teach the mission how to use it, and also train the mission on what to do in an earthquake,give us cpr training, and a emergency kit. There was a pretty big earthquake in the north of chile this week, and a few little tremors in chile so far. One thing I don´t like is we are getting another companion, so I will be in a group of three. He is new to the mission from a mission in Venezuela, because of all the violence there. He is from Bolivia and comes Wednesday as well. We are having a special meeting with the president to talk about it. It´s a little crazy, and I´m not going to like being in a triplet. At least it´s only for a few more weeks. We moved from our nice house into apartments on the main street. It is a little small, missing a few things, and a little out of our sector, so alot more walking. Maybe I can work off the huge lunches that the Chileans feed us. There´s not enough time to talk about all that I want to talk about, but it´s awesome here. On sunday we ate with an awesome family in the ward from Peru, and they make the best food, authentic peruvian food and super delicious. The food is plated like a piece of art too. We saw a little fight yesterday too with an inactive family we are working with, and the police were called, but we left before they got here. Super crazy, and the women were the craziest, one hitting the kid responsiple with a stick and shouting a bunch of words which my compainion told me later were a ton of cuss words, which is why I guess I didn´t understand it. Crazy. Also a woman yesterday fainted while giving a talk in sacrament meeting, and all the men behind her rushed to catch her. She layed on the floor for a few minutes, got up, and finished her talk from where she left off. That made Sacrament Meeting a little more exciting, JK. Well, that´s life in Chile, Santiago Sur, La Bandera. Was your week that exciting. No, I know your week was really fun too. I can´t wait to have another week of success, Elder Chandler.
Sorry, but I don´t have much new news this week. This has just been an extention of the past week. Some things are better, others a little worse. One of our investigators told us she doesn´t want us to come by anymore, and some people are hard to get appointments with, and they are always falling. The thing with Chileans is they are always working to provide for their family. And we set an appointment, call them, and all seems good, we go to their house, and nobody is home, or they are ¨busy¨ doing something. My only wish is that when they set a time to talk with the missionaries, that they remember and set it apart and not schedule anything else at this time. But the good thing is that Luis, who has the baptism date for the 30th, is progressing amazingly and attended the whole church block on sunday. We have a new golden investigator too that is ready to learn, the only thing is he is busy a lot. Oh, and we are moving from our huge house into a much smaller apartment. But I am working hard and ready for another week, Elder Chandler
On Saturday we had a gigantic meeting with Elder Evans of the 70. He is the 70 in charge of missionary work all over the world. 4 hours of sitting in a huge room, filled with missionaries from the 4 missions of Chile. It was an insane amount of missionaries, like a thousand or more. But it was really great, and a little funny. He said everything in english and had a translater translating for him in Spanish. It was a little funny because the translater had a little trouble translating parts. The major theme is assistance and activity in the church. I don´t have the numbers, but there is an insane amount of inactivity in the church in this area. He also had about five microphones going around the room for people to answer his questions and ask questions. One thing he talked about a lot was to focus on young men. He said when he was walking, and there was a couple girls on one side of the street, and a young man on the other, he would always go to the young man to talk about the gospel. He baptized like 21 people in his mission in Japan, and most of them were young men. And almost all of them served missions, and became powerful leaders in the church. They stayed strong in the gospel, and endured to the end. This is what we need in the church, faithful priesthood leaders. He said one of he main reasons for lowering the age of young men to serve a mission was to get them out on missions. I didn´t realize it was so important before to go for young men, but he made it very clear that it is one of the things we need to do more than anything. So I am refocusing my efforts to find more young men in my missionary efforts. And you can do the same, help the young men in your ward attend church, and focus on serving missions. These are not the words of Elder Chandler, but what an Apostle of God said, and this is how the church can be fortified to defend against the fiery darts of the adversary. We also had a meeting of the trunkies, because my companion is going home soon, and the focus there was don´t die, and work even harder than you did before. It was funny too. And there is a new elder to the mission that arrived tuesday that knows way less spanish than me. I was going around with him while my companion was with his companion showing him the ward, and he didn´t say hardly anything in the lessons, and when they asked him a question, he turned to me to ask what they said. But he will learn quickly, there is no other way, and his companion is pretty good. He has a twin too, so there are 4 people in our zone that have twins, wierd. His twin is serving in argentina too. And we ate on sunday with a sister who served in the same mission that Jeremy is serving now. Weird also. But things are good, and slowly the ward is becoming better. With visiting teaching and two of the missionaries working on home teaching which we haven´t had for forever in the ward and two more missionaries and some cool ward activites comming up to strengthen the ward, La Bandera, in the stake La Bandera will be the best ward in Santiago Sur. And I´m one week older and one week smarter, here´s to another great week. Elder Chandler
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