Saludos de la hermana Vita

Hello family!

Being a missionary is great!  Today are transfers and my compañera is heading off to Xalapa and my new companion is coming tomorrow from Xalapa- Hermana Morales.  This change went by so fast!  They cut it short by a week so that everyone that is going home can be home for Christmas.  It was a really quick change but it was great and it ended with a couple of baptisms yesterday. 

This week was crazy trying to get everyone and everything ready for the baptism.  And we were also going crazy trying to find new people.  We found a ton of new people this week.. none of which went to church but... oh well.. That's not the point, the point is that Hector, Enrique and David got baptized. We almost lost one though but God is great and Moms know how to take care of their children. David is a ten year old boy we've been teaching with his mom.  He is awesome!!  He is so smart he ask us questions from the soul.  Seriously these questions are so deep.  It is crazy!  This week he was so excited to get baptized!  He was counting the days!  But on Friday we saw him and he was sad and didn't want to talk to us. He told us not to come back and that he didn't want to get baptized.  So we talked with him and still he just kept saying no, no, no.  So we finally get him to tell us one of his troubles, one of which was that someone had told him that he couldn't believe in Santa if he was Mormon.  In that moment I understood why children inherit the kingdom of God.  His troubles and doubts are so innocent.  So we talked to him and tried to clear up his doubts but still he wouldn't listen.  So we figured that someone had told him a bunch of bull honky about Mormons.  Like we don't celebrate birthdays or Christmas or anything... That's not us.  So finally we left.  The thing that broke my heart is that he said that he was mad at us.  He was crying, so it was really hard on all of us.  The rest of the week we were busy with interviews and stuff.  Then we got to Sunday.  (Day of rest?... not for missionaries) When we got to church  we were disappointed to see that our investigators had stood us up. I was looking around to room to see who was there when I saw David's little face sitting there with his mom!  Moms and miracles always go hand in hand.  It turns out that on Friday when his mom got home they chatted for a while and someone had told David that Mormons commit suicide.  Poor kid got so scared that he wanted nothing to do with us.  But his mom cleared it all up and they showed up to church on Sunday all ready for his baptism.  It was amazing! I just love David.  In his prayers he always thanks Heavenly Father that ''his hermanas'' (us) came to see him!  Then Enrique got baptized we never thought he'd actually get baptized but he did!  And Hector.  He is the best.  He is always so excited to go to church and visit with us and he is already excited to go on a mission! 

This is great! I am happy to be a missionary! I love you all! Be good!

Hermana Chandler

El es la Dádiva

Hello family!  I hope you all had a splendid Dia de Acción de Gracias! I sure did. I want you all to know that I kept the tradition alive! I set up my own little Christmas tree, and I ate a quesadilla with turkey.  I celebrated Thanksgiving mission style! 

Things here are going fantastically!  I love my new area and I enjoy working with my new companion.  I just want you all to know how awesome the church is.  I feel like I am part of a global church movement!  They just came out with this video called, "El es la Dádiva"... I imagine that in English it is, "He is the Gift."  It is AWESOME!  It talks about how Christmas is about Christ and about how He is the real gift of Christmas.  The cool thing is that the church has been promoting it non-stop.  They are even going to rent out the jumbotron in TIMES SQUARE!  Do you realize what that means?!  AGH!  Also they rented advertising space on youtube.  So on December 7th,  they are going to advertise it all day!! The church is taking over the world!! Yay!! IT IS AWESOME!! I am so excited!  We are showing the video to EVERYONE! So all of you have to do it too!! PUT IT ON FACEBOOK! Send it to everyone!!! The whole world needs to see this video!!! Share the gift!!!  Woo!! 

Anyway, I apologize that I am writing so early. I am taking a little road trip to Xalapa for an all-sisters conference!  Hooray. I am excited! But at the same time... not.. We will see. It will be fun to take a road trip though. We will be in Xalapa for 3 days.  It is going to be great!  

So the cool thing about my area is that it is gigantic.  There are cool things in every corner.  It is awesome. We have ruins in our area.  AAAH!! It is so awesome! It is an ancient temple!  I still haven't gone in yet because we haven't had time but it is awesome.  

The people out in this community are awesome. I am sure that they are all escogido.  Why?  Because they like 45 minutes from the chapel.. so it will be difficult but not impossible.  We met this family who is just awesome. They are always so happy to see us and they already have friends that are members of the church.  I am loving working here, and meeting these people.  Papantla is super traditional so they wear the traditional clothing of Veracruz.  Also they speak in dialects.  (which I am dominating.. just kidding.. its really hard..)  It is called Totonacu.  It reminds me of the language they speak in the movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy.  Because it is just a bunch of strange sounds that don't make sense.  But I am loving it!  The mission is great! And I hope you are all happy this week!  

I love you all!

No olviden a compartir la Dadiva!!

Hermana Chandler

Totonaco

Nicolalawila: ¿Como esta?

Nicolawalikana: ¿Como te llamas?

I ate a banana directly from the tree.

I hope you all understood the title of my email.  I ate a banana DIRECTLY from the tree.  I hope you all realize that is impossible in Utah.  Also did you know that bananas grow from like this weird pod thing?  It is amazing! I have never seen anything like this in my whole life.  

Papantla is super awesome and tropical.  So tropical that it used to be the ocean.  Papantla is also really really hilly.  The whole city is built on hills.  So one day I was walking on top of a hill, minding my own little missionary business when suddenly I saw that there were seashells!!! On top of this mountain!! Seashells!!! The whole city was once under the water!!! Agh! Do you realize how cool that is!?  Anyway.  

Things here are going just great.  We have been finding a lot of people and we have been working in a new area called Tajin.  It is a tiny community near the ruins of Tajin and it is out in the middle of nowhere.  But we went out there and we found a bunch of people and we found a donkey. And we fed it ilote.  It was a great moment. This area is super awesome.  There is so much greeen!!!!  It is amazing! Almost everyone has a banana tree outside their house.  

The ward is super great, I have been getting to know the people a little bit better and they are awesome!  I think they are accepting me into their herd.. haha They are always working and visit inactives and just being epic.  Just like every ward should be!! I am happy to be here and I am happy that it is almost Christmas!!!! I hope you all enjoy Thanksgiving this week! Eat lots of turkey for me!! Be happy! I love you all!

 

Hermana Chanclita

Barrio Xanath

So this week has been great.  I got to my new area on Tuesday!  I said goodbye to my neighbors and it was really really rough.  They are just the best.  But I know that they will be just fine.  Then off the ADO (that's what they call the bus system here). All day in the bus... woohoo.. that was awesome.  One awesome thing about Veracrus is that every street in this state is extremely curvy.  So basically to travel in ADO, you feel like death.  So after traveling for 5 hours in ADO I felt awesome!! I got here around 1 met my companion Hermana Vite and we started working at 2.  It was great!  Very tiring.. but great!  

This area is awesome.  I am in Barrio Xanath.  These members are great and the people here are just awesome.  Another super cool thing is that here they speak another language.  They speak totonaco (I don't know how to write that..) But it is this crazy dialect. Papantla is like a tiny pueblo, super super super traditional.  The people here are awesome.  They are so friendly!! And they are so willing to listen.  Well obviously not everyone but yes there are definitely more people to talk to here in Papantla. 

The area is cool, it is very very very green. Almost a jungle!!  Which is awesome!  But also means there are a lot of little creatures.. gross.  The weather here is cold.  Everyone told me I would be dying of heat but it has been ridiculously cold.  And I sure love bathing in cold water when it is cold.. you could say that I just don't bathe now... okay.. That's not true.  But it is pretty miserable.  

This week we had a baptism.  A little girl named Debani.  She is super cute and she was so excited for her baptism.  She wanted so badly for her dad to baptize her but he couldn't because he wouldn't stop drinking coffee. One of the new elders helped us with the ordinance.  Poor guy.  He just got here and he struggles with the language.  I remember those days.. we are doing what we can to help him feel good here, so we let him baptize her!  It was a super cool experience.  We had to baptize her in the other chapel because there was no water in our chapel but everything turned out really well.  The work of the Lord can't be frustrated.  I have seen so much proof of that in my mission.  All the weird things that happen that seem to be a huge stumbling blocks...all just kind of go away.  God is awesome.  He always has out backs.  I hope you all always remember that.  I love you all and I hope you are all happy! 

Hermana Chandler 

Tacos al Pastor

Hi family,

I hope that you are all happy and healthy!! Things here are going well!  This week are changes so tomorrow I will be embarking on a new adventure to Papantla, Xanath!  I am pretty excited! I have heard a lot of super cool stuff about Papantla!! There are lots of ruins and this super cool place called Tajin!  I can't wait to see it in person!! I am a little sad about leaving my area because I really do love it!  In spite of all the complaining, I really did love it! 

This week was pretty awesome.  We had a Bautstrito, meaning that companions in our district had a baptism this week! It was amazing! Why? Because I know that God really does perform miracles!  We baptized one my best friends from the entire mission! Her name is Kassandra. We started teaching her forever ago and on my last Sunday in Museo she got baptized! I am so happy!  She is super awesome and I know that she is going to be an awesome missionary one day! Things here are going really well. I am sad that I have to say goodbye to everyone but I think that I will enjoy my next area just as much as my first two!! 

I love you all and I am sorry that this letter is short and a little boring.  I wrote it with love!  

Hermana Chandle

r 

Greetings

Welp, here I am living the life of la misionera in Xalapa, Mexico.  I am only 6 months short of coming home and AAAAAH!!!!! Wow. How the time just flies!  Pero bueno, alli voy.  

The cool thing about a mission is that you get to meet at ton of super cool people.  Por ejemplo, my neighbors!  They take such good care of us.  Every night when we get home we go over and see how they are doing.  But this week we got home late and tired so we just went to our little house instead of visiting them, so they came over and said they were worried about why we didn't want to go over and visit them. And then they made us dinner. It is great.  Its like being part of a tiny cute family.  Every night when we get home they greet us with a big hug (just like moms do).  I guess that is what makes the mission so bitter sweet.  You make such good friends that you leave behind.  But oh well.  This week has been pretty good. 

This week also we went to this super cool park called Tecajetes!  It is a little nature park.  Everything is green and beautiful!!  I don't know what I am going to do when I go back to the desert.  Because absolutely everything here is green.  You could plant a stick of gum and a gum tree would grow.  Seriously!  This is such a cool place.  

I love you all be good!

Hermana Chandler

Pantuflas- slippers 

It's fine. I didn't like cats anyway.

Well family it seems that I have inherited more than my good looks from Mom.  I am very allegric to cats.  I get hives all over and I sneeze.  Awesome.  Good thing there are millions of cats in Xalapa.   So anyway this week was great.  We started teaching our neighbors, they are so great!  They always take care of us and bring us food at night when we get home.  Including last week when she brought us coffee...awkward..  They went to church and they liked it a lot.  They have a tiny tienda of fruit across the street so in order for them to come to church with us we went and helped them set up in the morning.  So I am pretty proud to say that I have become a professional at making freshly squeezed orange juice.  But I am sad to say that all day today I have been sore.  

This week was pretty good.  I learned a lot about myself and about how to Lord communicates with us.  It is very mysterious.  We've been working a lot and we have been finding new people.  I am sorry because I really don't have mucho to say but I sure love you all and I hope this week is so ridiculously fantastic for each and every one of you!  Be good!  Go, fight, win!

Hermana Chandler