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

Tortillas

Hello my pretties.

Things here in the good ol' mission are sure good.  Things have been a little rough with the work but you know what? It is okay.  We just keep moving forward. The Lord works in mysterious ways.  This week we found this lady named Maria.  She is this little old lady who lives alone in a gigantic very fresa (fancy/rich) house.  She has the most incredible story.  She is from Chiapas (a very very very poor place)  She was so poor at one time that she lived in a cemetery.  And it was there in this little old Chiapas that she first encountered the missionaries.  At the age of 25 she moved to England.  Where she found the church again but did not get baptized.  She married there and lived in Oxford for 30 years, when they told her that she had cancer, and that she only had 6 months to live.  She then told them that it wasn't true and that she was going to live longer with out treatment.  So she refused treatment and here she is 10 years later.  Why she lives here with out her husband I don't understand.. but randomly we found her in the street about two weeks ago because we were lost but we decided that we would go by and visit her.  I realized that throughout her whole life she has had a connection with the church but never joined it.  And now we are teaching her and she is accepting the message so well. SHe told us in the first visit that she knew it was true and that this was the church that Jesus Christ had established.  (Wow.)  That was a really cool missionary moment.  

This week was really awesome.  We really found a ton of people, one of which happens to be our next door neighbor.  They are so awesome.  They invite us over to eat all the time and they are always so excited when we visit them!! I love it!  

Today I was lucky enough to spend my p day with one of my dear friends Hermana Finlinson. She is just the best.  We went to the Centro and we ate ice cream and we met a man who is just funny and dresses like Aladdin and gives you a little fortune like the fortunes that you get from the fortune cookies.  Anyway, I love the mission because I make new friends.  It's cool because you learn to see them differently.  Because everybody has a cool story!! (I don't know what it is about the badge but when they see it.. they start telling their whole life story.. and confessing.. it's awkward.)  

I love you all! I hope you can all be missionaries for your little friends!  Don't be afraid of rejection.  When you get scared that someone won't listen to you, just think. Hey Emily gets rejected everyday and you will feel more confidence.  I LOVE YOU ALL!! Be good. 

Hermana Chandler 

1 in 88,000

Well family I am one of 88,000 misioneros.  What the weird!?  Things here are lovely! I got to watch conference and it got me all pumped about being a Mormon! I sure hope it had the same effect on all of you! WE ARE MORMONS!  How great is that?!  I loved conference! I even got to watch it in English!  And Cantonese and Portuguese and Spanish... That was pretty cool!  

Anyway this week I have come around to the fact that I am staying here in Museo.  I am sucking up my pride because I know that God has got something pretty awesome planned for me here.  Now I just have to find it... dang it.   Oh well!  I am happy!  This week we worked super epic-ly and found a ton of new people.  We started teaching these little old ladies who seriously just cracked me up! Seriously.  Ana Maria and Mikaela.  They are old investigators of the elders that we started teaching. So we were visiting them and we were all sitting there about to start, feeling the spirit and stuff when suddenly this little cat snuck in the room when Mikaela (88 years old) sprang to her feet, went running over, grabbed the cat my the scruff of its neck, gave it a good hard shake, and hurled it out the door!!!  All while saying ''gato cochino''.  I know it may not sound too hilarious.. but it was!!  

Another interesting thing that happened is that every Monday we wash our clothes with a hermana from our ward who has a grown son with autism.  He is super great, he hardly talks and when he gets mad or embarrassed or anything he will start to yell and run around.  But anyway.   He sort of has this feddish with gym shorts.  I don't know why but he just loves them.  When we got to their house I saw that he was wearing a pair of shorts that were oddly familiar... I finally figured out what happened to my shorts that went missing over a month ago!!  I almost died laughing when I saw him.  The shorts were obviously very tight and short but he didn't care.  He just started laughing and running around saying, "Pantalones!  Pantalones!!" ... hahaha he knew exactly what he was doing.  Haha I almost died!! Anyway. This week was really great and I hope you all enjoyed conference!  Remember, decisions determine destiny.  You are lovely people and I hope you keep getting lovelier! 

Hermana Chandler

Mikaela y Ana Maria 

Conference!

This guy sitting on the couch is Keke.. he is the one who stole my pants.

The changes that weren't quite changeful.

One thing I have decided is that if there was ever to be a zombie apocalypse I would want to be in Mexico.  Every house has bars on the windows so I think you'd be pretty safe there.  But in other news, as you may have guessed, this week were changes!  But they were not very eventful for me or my companion.  We are both staying here in dear sweet Museo.  Cool.  6 months.  Oh well.  It might be awkward because I said good bye to everybody yesterday so when I show up on Sunday it is going to be really uncomfortable.  But it is okay.  I really do like Museo.  The members are super cool. and I have made a lot of friends that I hope will be in my life for a long time!  

This week was pretty cool.  We met a lot of new people!!  One great thing that happened that I can now check off my bucket list is that I played an accordion!  Gilberto just randomly bought an accordion and decided that he wants to learn to play the hymns!  It made me laugh.   

Anyway, the church is true and I love you all!  

Hermana Chandler

Hello Family!

Things here have been really great!  My compañera y yo have been working here in our area having the same struggles as usual- finding people to teach-  but we are getting there. I have faith that we are going to find some new people that are so ready!  It is true what they say, that God is preparing people the hear the gospel! It is pretty awesome!  

Next week are changes and I expect that I will be leaving Museo 3.  Who knows?  I don't want to jinx it!  But I am ready for a new adventure.  This week has been pretty interesting... well that's not true.  This week was pretty much a normal week of the mission!  But I still love it!  Right now I am racking my mind for a good story!  But I am not sure! For the 15 Septiembre we stayed in our apartment and played Uno and ate french fries.  That's how we celebrate Mexican Independence.  Like foreigners! But yeah, this week it rained, and rained and rained more.  It rained so much that a hermana locked us in her house so we wouldn't leave and get all wet in the rain.  Then she so kindly gave us a giant sheet of bubble wrap to protect us from the rain!  We then capitalized on this oh so special gift and began to dance on it! (like mr magorium.) I didn't think the situation out very well.  Bubble wrap, water, tile floor... I definitely fell flat on my back.  It hurt really bad.  But I got up and started dancing again, vale la pena.  Anyway, I know this letter is kind of lacking something interesting... sorry.  But I love you all! Be good!

Hermana Chandler

ps. Gilberto went to the temple!  Agh!

The bubble wrap!

Feliz Día de Independencia!!

Mis Carnalitos!

Happy Mexico Day!  Well.. I guess not too happy because our president is making us stay in our houses today!  We can't even go out to  work. Triste Xalapa. 

Well this week, just like every other week, had its ups and its downs. But I am still loving it.  So don't worry.  I realized that the problems that I have to face aren't really my problems. I just have to help other people with their problems.  It is kind of cool.  I don't know what I am going to do when I come home and I have to worry about
my problems.  Geez. 

Anyway so this week I did divisions with the sister training leader and she got me sick.  Thanks. So I have been fighting with a wicked cold all week long.  And it is hard because I am losing this fight. Why?  Because it is always raining.  ALWAYS.  Let me tell ya.  The cows don't even stand up here! Apart from that it has been great! 

I had my first Noche Mexicana... which was very Mexican.  One of the members gave me this necklace so that I could look more festive. There are a few members here that I just adore! They are my favorite. We have this hermana that we eat with almost every day, at least two or three times a week.  And she just takes such good care of us!  Her name is Hermana Galmiche and her sister's name is Blanca. We just love visiting them. (okay, I know you are all sick of hearing about Gilberto..) This week Gilberto got the priesthood!!! Wow!!! And this weekend he is going to the temple to do baptisms.  I am so happy!!!!!  I am so happy to see my conversos taking these  steps in the gospel!!!  It is amazing! 

Something amazing about Mexico is that it is really old.  And because it is really old it has millions of stories!!! Supposedly, Merida, Yucatan is where Jesus Christ appeared to the Nephites!  There are a ton of ruins of temples there and there are legends that talk about how a loooong time ago a white god appeared to the people at the temple.  But in this culture they called him Quetzalcoatl (ket-sa-kua-tel). But how cool is that?!?!?! Seriously! I am living on set!  I am living on the set of the Libro de Mormon!!   In a museum they have a painting of the tree of life! 

Here in Xalapa the people are very superstitious.  They believe in leprechauns!  Also my favorite is, you know how in the US we tell the kids to put their teeth under pillows and a little fairy will come and give you money?  Well here it is a little different.  They believe in something called Ratón Perez.... they say that a rat comes and leaves you money.... que asco.  But Mexico is pretty legit.  I am enjoying learning about this culture because it is really interesting!

This week I did receive some sad news.  My missionary daughter, Hermana Daza, got sent home for her health.  I am so sad!  But I know that she will  be okay there and that she will come back soon!  But anyway.  I love you all to bits and hope you enjoy your P-DAY!! I love you!

Hermana Chanclita!