Guerrita!!

Alright famfam.  I would be lying hard core if I told you that this week was easy.  This week definitely was tough!  We found around 14 new investigators who are not going to progress, awesome.  We were waiting for I think about 8 people in the chapel and none of them showed... Geez.  It was terrible.  But it is all good. The church is true and the people have their agency.  It is all good.   Three of the 14 investigators were.... Oh geez what a mess.  This crazy old lady contacted us in the street and invited us over to talk about the gospel!  And we were thinking wow how awesome, this lady is totally going to be baptized!! So we show up the next day to only to realize that these people only wanted to prove to us how wrong we are!  These 2 old ladies and this 9 year old girl were trying to argue with us and having us read stuff out of the bible, it was some story from Daniel about a tree and a dream.. I really have no clue what the point was but they were crazy, then out of curiousity we asked them why they didn't donate blood.  Well apparently it is an abomination, because of something to do with Cain and Abel.  Yeah, I didn't get it.  It was something about not consuming or eating the blood of our own kind.  And then we were talking about how if someone was dying and they needed blood they couldn't do anything about it!  And then I said, well... If you think about it, Jesus gave his blood for us and we are supposed to follow his example!  Okay that example was a little extreme but I got my point across.  This poor little nine year old girl needs some friends because she was hard and mean and only wanted to prove us wrong.  Gosh,  they talked at us for probably 2 hours until we said okay. Cool we are going to end in a prayer and the crazy old lady offered the prayer and said please bless these señoritas that they will be illuminated and learn the truth... Oh heavens you guys. THe church is so true.  That is the only thing they proved to me. 

Oh well.. This week wasn't all terrible.  I was invited to a birthday party with this legit Mariachi band!! Mexicans know how to party!  That's about it!! I love you all!

PS Guerra means white.  And I always always always get called guerra in the street!  "Hey guerra!"  It is not offensive but I always feel a little insulted! 

¡Ay Chihuahuas!

Well my dears, I realize that my letter last week may have been vague and perhaps a little troublesome.  But don't you worry.  I am just fine here in Mexico. Although I have days where I wake up thinking, "What the crud am I doing here??" Those moments pass and I am happy to be serving the Lord.  This week I had my first real baptism.  I feel like this baptism was my first because I actually helped a lot in her conversion.  She is so great and she only needed 3 weeks to prepare.  She was one of those people that was definitely ready to hear the Gospel.  Her name is Mairel and she is 21 years old.  She was baptized yesterday and it was honestly one of the best moments of my life because I just love her.  And to see someone you care about make this covenant with the Lord is one of the most increible things!!  I was so happy for her!  

Aside from the baptism, this week was a little rough, we had to quit on most of our investigators, which was sad but it is okay because we are starting fresh!  We have been trying to find and teach more people but it is tough!  I guess people just don't want their salvation or something!!  Geez!  

We were walking down the street and there were some JW with their little stand about the end of the world and I was scared that we were going to have a little missionary show down. But then a weird thought popped into my mind, Napoleon Dynamite.  When Uncle Rico says that all they need to be legit is a name tag.  He was so right.  The name tag is what sets us apart.  We are legit, missionary work is so cool!  At times I totally forget that I am a missionary because it is weird!  But its all good.  Mish life is just life times a thousand. Life is good and I hope that everything is going well for you!  

baptism de Mairel Esteban campos!

The suit was gigantic on her!

Love you all! Hermana Chandler

No clever title this week

Okay, so life is nuts.  The wedding fell through and we are not going to be baptizing Omar. But we do have 2 other baptisms coming up!!  Hooray!! This week was crazy.  I really don't even know how to sum it all up. Well, I learned that there are shady things in everything.  We had been working through this Hermano in the ward to help us get people married, but he kept asking us for more and more money and we couldn't figure out why. He was asking for a ton of money and this last week finally I felt like this was messed up and asked somebody about it. It turns out that he had been ripping of missionaries (who do not have money). He was asking for money to bribe the people at the offices and then he was pocketing most of the money!  I was super bummed to find this out but really glad that we caught him because that is so not okay!  Like really?  Bribing, blackmail, robbing... wow.  It was messed up!  On the other hand we taught this guy who was totally fried.  It was weird he was asking us super weird questions and was just a weird fellow.  I really don't even know how to describe all the weird stuff that went down this week.  Oh well, life is good.  I am still prepping myself to be a trainer, and I can see that my Spanish is getting better because my English is getting worse.  I am a woman with out a language.  This letter is really scatter brained, sorry!  I love you all!  Be good!

Hermana Chandler 

Agency: A blessing for everyone but missionaries

Well family.  This week flew by!!  The mish has to be the weirdest but most wonderful thing ever.  At times it still doesn't feel real.  I assume that you are wondering about the subject of this email.  But I feel like all of you RMs will understand this.  We have this couple that we have been working with for forever.  She is a member and he is not.  His baptism is set for the 16th and they have been progressing really well.  Until... we went over to their house the other day to give a lesson and out of the blue this girl says that she doesn't want to get married, she doesn't want anything to do with the church and she doesn't believe in God because so many bad things have happened to her... wow.  So yeah.  Not a big fan of agency right now.  If they don't get married he doesn't get baptized.  Wow, thanks Satan.  Satan is one major jerk. Oh well that was my bummer of the week.  

On to the good stuff, we had baptism #5!!  Yay!  Angel Andradi Mauricio.  He is our miracle.  He is an old investigator who was not baptized because he lived with his girlfriend, they broke up and he decided that he wanted to be baptized! Cool,right?  He is so awesome.  60 years old and just as nice as can be! I am so happy!  It was marvelous!  

We met a new family that we are totally going to baptize because the story is legit, we found a phone on the sidewalk and returned it to them, they turned out the be the coolest people ever!  They invited us over on Sunday to visit with them and it turned out that they invited us over for a birthday party!! It was so awesome.  I am so excited to teach them.  

We had a visit from a member of the 70 and it was super cool.  We took a horrible two hour bus ride to Tezuitlan on the windiest roads I've ever been on.  Thank heavens for motion sickness pills because everyone was super sick.  But it was great.  It got me super pumped for the work!  

Okay, almost done.  Time for a funny story.  We were walking down the street and there was this little old lady carrying a ton of stuff so Hermana Manzueta went to offer to help. While Hermana Manzueta was walking and talking she walked right into a pole! Some reward for trying to serve your fellow man!  It was great, I felt bad but I was laughing so hard!!  Okay, that is my week!  I love you all!! 

Hermana Chandler

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Así es la vida.  Well famfam, I had a shocking realization of the life I now live.  I have sunk deep into the life of a missionary. One of the elders in my zone quoted the District Movies... I could not help but be overcome with a deep sense of sadness (Christopher and Carson will understand). Ah!  The life of a missionary is a beautiful but strange thing.  I feel that this week I have had a few of those moments where I thought, "yep, this is one of those moments that will turn into a story."  

I had my first meal where I was dry heaving the whole time.  I am really not sure what it was.  It was like mushed up lumps of corn (moldy corn) that was deep fried.  It was super mushy and everything kind of had a flavor of black licorice.  Yep.  Nasty. One of the elders was having a seriously difficult time eating it and everyone was finished but him and when the Hermana had her back turned he wrapped his last lump of corn in a napkin and stored it away in his pocket!  Clever fella.  I hope I never have to eat that again. Yuck.  

So with the upcoming transfer they have been making a lot of changes.  There are now 2 zones here in Martinez and they have finally sent two more Hermanas to us!!! Yay! We finally have friends out here among all the elders!!  One of them is even a gringa straight from the MTC!!  I was so freaking pumped when I found out there was another American girl I went over and gave her a big hug!! She is wonderful!  So the new focus out here is numbers, numbers, numbers. When we come home at night and we don't have very good numbers I feel like Buddy from Elf.  I am a cotton headed ninny muggins!! Oh well, I am scared that I can't keep up with all these numbers! Agh!! Oh well!  

Okay, time for another story. We were going around to visit our investigators and we took one of the young women in the ward with us. One thing you need to know about Mexicans is that they are very very loving.  They always greet and farewell with a kiss on the cheek. As a missionary this presents a problem because the men do this as well! Before I knew what was happening our investigator gave me a kiss on the cheek! Ah! No touchy!  I had no idea what to do.  And then I got reprimanded by the YW from my ward.  Oh man.  Needless to say the next time I saw him I gave him only a nice firm handshake. 

It has been great though, yesterday we got 5 of our investigators to come to church!  The tender mercies of the Lord are amazing, because last week we didn't have any! Also one amazing tactic to missionary work is taking your investigators to a baptism.  It really gets them excited and it puts them at ease when they see how it is done!  We are going to be baptizing this next week!  (keep your fingers crossed)  I will let you know how it goes. The church is true! Preach it!

Love,

Hermana Chandler 

Mexicans don't sugar coat anything.. Not even their candy.

Hello family!! I have learned something since being here in Mexico.  These people are very honest.  Very honest.  They tell it exactly how it is.  If you are fat, they will say it.  And in my case everyday delgadita.. also they think that I can't understand them, but I can and it is uncomfortable when they talk about me in front of me!  Thanks?  Anyway, life has been good.  Can you believe that January is already halfway gone?  Wow!  Time flies!  This week we had a multizone conference in Tezuitlan which is about a 2 hour bus ride.  And you would not believe how cold it was there!  I needed my big coat and a scarf to stay warm!  This is Mexico what the heck? Anyway this conference was super cool, Hermana Manzueta and I were the only hermanas in both zones but don't worry I believe there are more hermanas coming this next cambio.  While at this conference President Lopez so lovingly announced to everyone that in 6 weeks I am going to be a trainer! AAAAHH!!!!! NO!!!!  To say the least I am very nervous!  But also very excited!  It will make me learn a whole lot faster.  I am going to be a Madre!  Woohoo!! Whilst at this conference we also talked about goals that we have set as a mission.  The goal this year for baptisms is 1500!  So that means every companionship has to baptize every week! Ah!  The work is hastening, and I sure hope that I can keep up!  

There are a whole lot of new things coming up and I am excited to meet the challenges so this means that I am going to need a lot of prayers!  That is about it for now!  I love you all to bits!  Be safe! 

Hermana Chandler 

ps. I met Elder Dunn at the conference

MI PRIMERO BAUTISMO

This week was awesome!  I had my first baptisms.  It was a family of four.  They are so awesome.  They were married and baptized on the same day!  Needless to say it was one beautiful day!! It was amazing to see the changes in their lives.  They are so much happier and confident in their prayers and such.  Gloria (the mom)  even requested to get up during sacrament meeting to share her testimony.  It really was so awesome.  The Church is true, people.  It is true.  It is awesome to be involved in this work.  

  On Monday I had to take a road trip down to Xalapa to take care of some stuff for my VISA and one amazing surprise for me was that I got to stay with my dear friend Hermana Johnson.  Oh how I have missed her and missed speaking english!! It was wonderful.  The next day we went down to the offices and to my surprise all of my district from the MTC was there!! You would think that we have all been friends for our whole lives!! It was wonderful to get to see them! I was glad to hear that they are going through basically the exact same things as me.  Other than that things here have been pretty normal.  Lots of food, lots of walking, and lots of Spanish.  

Today!!  Agh!! I WENT TO A BEACH IN MEXICO!! Oh man!  It was awesome!  This is my life, I live in Mexico!! How crazy is that??  The beach was beautiful!  We went with some of the missionaries in the zone, it was awesome!  I ate food and played in the water up to my ankles! Man, this is the life! That is about it for now!  I love you with all my heart!  Be safe!

Hermana Chandler

Me with little Emily

The baptism!

My apostasy calendar