Busquen la verdad!!

Hello Family,

The font on the day of the baptism... yuck!

This week held a number of adventures for me.  One of which was trying to find new investigators... none.  This week was a little rough but it was great.  We met a lot of people who like to preach apostasy. We met this crazzzzy man who pretty much told us that he wanted to argue.  He told us that the Book of Mormon was false, that there were no such things as prophets, and that we were in a cult. He is a sad strange little man. I can't imagine how sad that would be to think that God has abandoned us.. what a weird man he was.  He also told us that we are working in darkness and secrets because we wouldn't tell him our names. Then as I was thinking about it, I wouldn't have told him my name even if I could have. He was weird.  Then to top it off he tried to hug my companion!! Agh!! Ew!  

Well this week we had a baptism! Her name is Amailyn. She is so awesome.  Her and her sister were supposed to get baptized together but it didn't work out that way. Amailyn was so happy and so ready!  Too bad we weren't. When we got to the church, the font was so so so dirty!! We spent all morning draining all the water and taking it out with buckets. It was a crazy, tiring morning but everything worked out really well.  I am really happy!  I am loving  the missionary life.  At times I feel like all it is is terminal exhaustion.  Which is true but I love it anyway.  I hope you are all happy and healthy!  Be good! 

Hermana Chandler

Amailyn's baptism

My companion and I with Amailyn!

Can you say jelly shoes?

Yes, it is true.  I have purchased a pair of jelly shoes to protect me from the rain. I guess that isn't all that important.

This week was pretty great. We are having some difficulties finding new people to teach. We have a lot of people that are getting ready for baptism and so I am pretty excited, but we haven't found any new people for a while. So keep us in your prayers that this week will be better than the last.  I hope that you are all doing well!  

I was a little disappointed to hear that there was no baby (One of Emily's siblings is expecting a baby any day now!). But oh well I guess. I have already had 2 missionary daughters in the time that it has taken for the real one to get here. Geez. Baby Chandler just keeping us waiting. How rude. Oh well.

Anyway, this week was girls camp and all the girls from our ward went. And let me tell you, girls camp in Utah is NOTHING compared to girls camp here. These girls had to dig latrines and they got rained on and last but not least they had to make all of their own food. Okay, that doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Wrong. They had to KILL their own food. Yes, girls camp in Mexico is hardcore. They had to kill, clean and cook a chicken!! I just about died laughing when I heard that.  

Another thing, you should all give me a round of applause. Seriously, do it right now. Why? Because I ate the soup in the picture. Seafood. I ate it. Agh! I wanted to die.  Seriously. I have never eaten a soup with my fingers before, but I did it. I almost wept.  But I am starting to think that the gift of tongues is not only languages.  It also helps you eat spicy, weird foods.  

After all these crazy changes I am happy to be back in my little house in Museo. It is cute and the members are a whole lot of fun. This week we had interviews with the President! He is the best human being on the planet. He seriously has helped our mission so much already. President Greer is just the best.  He beams with this happiness that is contagious!  I haven't had that great of an interview in a really long time. He got me super pumped to get out there and baptize the world! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for sending us the Greers.  Hooray por la obra del Señor!  Les amo!  Sea feliz sea mormon! 

Hermana Chandler

Nevermind. Triste cambios.

Me and Hermana Monroy

Alrighty then.  I'd just like to throw a giant NEVERMIND out there. I packed my bags up and headed over to my new area with my new companion, Hermana Monroy.  So we started working and meeting new people and getting stuff done.  Until that night when I had a million missed calls from the assistants, from the ZL's and from the president! Agh!! "What is happening?!"  So I gave him a call and the President told me, "Hey. Hermana.  You are going back to Museo and you are going to be training."  So I am now a new missionary mommy!  I am training a pre-trained missionary boss.  Her name is Hermana Lopez.  She is from Honduras and she is super awesome.  I am super happy to be back in my new, old area!  Seriously though.  I am so happy to be back because my other area for 2 days was super chaffa.  Seriously, I was only there for 2 days and it was so hard.  Everyone there is rich and apparently don't need God.  My first door contact shut the door in my face.. 'Thanks?'  But yeah, Hermana Monroy was great for our

My companion for 2 days and me

2 days as companions and now I am going to be working with Hermana Lopez with the same district!  I am so happy!!  A ton of crazy stuff has been going on this week. When we came back, everyone in the ward was like, "hey, what are you doing here!?" But they were all happy. 

We should be having a baptism soon and I am very excited! We have these 2 investigators who are just the best people in the world.  I just love them and they are so awesome that they are even going to girls camp! Anyway I don't have a ton of time but I love you all!  Be good! 

Hermana Chandler

My zone for 2 days

Totally America-ed so hard this week.

AGH!  America.  The land I call my home.  This week we celebrated the Fourth of July!  My compañera y yo.  It was epic. We very proudly wore our red white and blue and we were so excited to tell our district leader, who also is American.  But he forgot!!! Agh.  I was appalled.  How could he forget the best nation on the planet?  Oh well. It was great.  This week we met our new president.  HE IS AWESOME.  Seriously he is the best.  He is so great and he just gave us all the loving we needed after we didn't have any for so long.  We had a multizone activity.  He was calling people out from the congregation to just hug them and love them and tell them he loved them.  And he called me out and then he had his wife hug me.  They really are so funny.  I just love them.  I am really excited for all the changes that we will be having.  

Also this week is transfers and I have to say goodbye to my little gringa... I am sad.  She is so great and I just love her guts.  They are closing our area and I am going over to another area of Xalapa.  This week was full of changes.  But I am happy and healthy and getting rained on.  I hope you all America-ed really well this week as well.  I love you all.  Be good. And be Mormon. 

Hermana Chandler 

Elder Dunn's birthday party 

Hermana Menlove and I with our cat.

My zone on our last day as a zone

If you want to know what craziness is... go to Mexico during the World Cup

Well family, I'd be lying if I told you we didn't dominate this week, because we did.  We missionaried so hard.  The life of the mission is awesome.  I am so happy to be here in the Mission Mexico Xalapa!  This week we raised the bar and we found a ton of new people to teach!  It is awesome!  We have been working really hard to find new people to prove to all the doubters that 2 gringas together in Mexico can do work! We can!  It really is so much fun to be with Hermana Menlove, she is great.  We have a blast and our district is super fun too.

This week we made an interesting discovery. There are these flowers here called florryfundios, and they are super cool flowers that hang from trees and are all sorts of different colors.  They smell SO good.  Like magic, in a flower. La verdad. And every time we passed by one of these trees we would pluck a flower and take it with us, joyfully sniffing along the way.  Well lo and behold, we went to eat with one of the members in the ward and she told us that the flowers are toxic. These flowers are intoxicating! They make you high! So we had been marching around Xalapa getting high off of flowers. I thought it was a spiritual high but apparently not. We learned our lesson.  Now we are a little less crazily happy going from lesson to lesson. 

That is only one of the great things that have gone down here in Xalapa.  This place is really cool, there is definitely a spirit of unity during the World Cup.  I think everyone and their dog, and their dog's dog, are wearing their Mexico jersey today!  Mexico, during the World Cup is the coolest thing ever.  For real. I don't even like futbol pero tengo ganas a verlo.  It is so funny seeing everyone going crazy.  It makes missionary work hard because no one wants to open the door.  (knock knock) "ESTAMOS OCUPADOS!!"  Okay.. geez.  

Also, this week, I had something happen to me that has never happened in my life.  I was serenaded in the street.  Yes. It is true.  This old man came and chatted with us for a bit.  He seemed really concerned that two gringas were roaming around Mexico.  So he starts singing this song that some man wrote about his Norte Americana.  It was great.  And then to top it off he gave us both pocket bibles, white pocket bibles. If we didn't look like testigos de jehova (Jehovah's Witnesses) we sure do now! People always think that we are Testigos de Jehova.... I think it is the umbrellas.  Speaking of Jehovah's Witness, we made a friend that is a JW, we chatted for a while and then he told us that if any one ever tried to mess with us he would mess them up.  That's right.  We are making all sorts of friends of faith.  It is so funny.  He is a great guy.  He would be such a good Mormon. He just needs to see that.  We have a couple of investigators like that.  They would seriously be such good Mormons... but they are Catholic... Always.  But whatever I guess.  

I just want to say I just think you are all swell and that you should all invite someone over to listen to the missionaries.  Missionaries are kind of cool sometimes. I love you all and I hope this week is so awesome. Tambien escritura de la semana.  Moroni 8:3 (read it) 

Hermana Chandler 

P.S. I TOTALLY HIT A MILESTONE. I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON IN SPANISH!!!! WOOHOOOO  ALSO I STARTED AGAIN.  THIS BOOK IS EPIC AND SO TRUE.  READ IT! 

i'll send pictures next week.. this computer is weird. 

Vendid a Christopher

So life in the mission just keeps going.  We are working away and just partying it up here in Xalapa.  This week was really hot.  I don't have a whole lot of new stuff going on but I do have a funny story that I believe Christopher would appreciate.  So we were sitting in Sacrament meeting and we were next to one of the members who brought her two year old named Christopher to church.  We started the sacrament song and we sang ''Venid a Cristo." When we were in the chorus singing, ''Venid a Cristo...FER''  her little boy was singing along with all his might singing VENID A CRISTOPHER! It was the best thing ever.  He sang with all his confidence. It was the cutest, funniest thing I have ever seen.  Life is great!  I really like my compañera, we get along really great and we have a lot of fun!  Don't have a ton of time!  I love you all be good! 

​Translation....​

​Venid a Cristo - Come Unto Christ​                Venid a Cristopher​ Coming Christopher

Hermana Chandler

Raindrops keep falling on my head.. and in my shoes... and in my window... and in EVERYWHERE

Okay.  First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of information in my last letter, may have left a little something to be desired. (Note from Emily's sister: Her last letter was only 3 sentences long, not even blog worthy!) Well here I am in little ol Xalapa. And Xalapa has got a few things to offer that Martinez doesn't have, rain, lots of food (that is kind of gross.. aka fish), hills, and crazy people.  

Well, lots of crazy people.  We found some guy who supposedly is a member but he said he doesn't remember how long ago or what day he was baptized because to him time doesn't exist.  Only God exists.  So we started questioning him, who it was that baptized him, if he could remember the elder's name.  And he said God himself came down from the heavens and baptized him.. okay.  Byee!  That guy was crazy.  Then we found these two young men who we are teaching with their mom and their mom is trying to marry us off saying that they can and will only marry gringas. Then when we tried to give them away to our district leader our district leader said, "Eh its okay, just keep teaching them." So we are teaching who we so lovingly call ''the gringa hunters," awesome. Then we met Jaime.  Mohawk pony tail, wooden gages, no teeth.  He is awesome.  You can barely understand him but we are going to baptize him.  The people here are super funny but not very sociable.  

Another thing that Xalapa has to offer that no other place has to offer are surprise visits from President Lopez!!  He came to our ward this last sunday and I just think that was the best thing ever.  It was the first time I had seen him since he got released and I miss him to death. You can tell he is really sad that he is not with us.  I just love him and Hermana Lopez.  No one can ever replace him! But in about 20 days we are going to get our new president!! Woop!  President Greer from Arizona!  I am really excited for him to get here.  They are going to be great! 

Also, I made a discovery, I would be super fisherman.  We were walking when I heard Hermana Menlove scream, "OH NO!  HERMANA!" And I looked over and she had dropped her badge down a rain gutter.  And it was super far away so we took the other half of her magnet badge and tied to to string and went fishing.  Haha I just love my new companion.  It is so much to fun to have another gringa.  But yeah I believe that is about it.  My district is great.  I have a nice ward and area but my house is really really small.  I guess that is okay except for the bathroom.  It is a closet.  Por ejemplo, it is so small that you have to sit side saddle on the toilet... mission life.  Wow.  Okay well I hope this letter was better than last week.  I love you all!! Be good!

Hermana Chandler!