More rejection here means less rejection after the mish... right?

Painting the house!

Hello my pretties.

Things here in Papantla have been just as good as ever!  Yesterday Casimiro got baptized!  The ex volador --he  is the one who doesn't speak Spanish very well. But it was awesome to see because although he may not understand Spanish there was no mistaking the feelings that he got from the spirit! It was a super spiritual reverent baptism. He was so happy! It was great!  We are also teaching another hermana who is progressing really well but her problem is that she has so much stuff to be doing always! Always working. And she has to paint her house! So us being the awesome people that we are, totally went to help her paint her house.  Let me tell you, it is pretty awesome looking. Although I have been walking around with paint in my hair all day, it is worth it!  She will be getting baptized soon so I am very happy.  

I met a little boy that is named Jose Smith. That was weird. He isn't even a member.. Anyway love you all! Have a good week! 

Hermana Chandler

Casimiro's baptism

I drank fresh orange juice this morning..squeezed by my own hand.

Hello family! Oh how I love reading your letters! I love to hear that you are all doing well.  I hope that you are all happy and I hope that you all realize how lucky we are to be Mormons.  But don't just be Sunday Mormons... because that is lame.  100% Mormon. Sea feliz sea Mormon!

Well family I am happy to say that we were untouched by the transfers this week! I will be spending the next six weeks with my dear friend, Hermana Morales.  It is really great working with her! She is awesome and I always learn new things from her everyday and we are always laughing.  She is really quiet but when you get her talking she is hilarious and we always have a good time.  But yeah, today were changes but I am staying here in Xanath 3! Which is okay because I will be able to see my investigators get baptized :) 

We are teaching this guy who is an ex volador.  And as such he is from a nearby ranch where they only speak Totonac.  So he has been learning Spanish and he knows it well enough, but not so much that he can understand everything that we say to him.  So we have an hermana in the ward that is helping us out and translating for us. So we teach and the things that he doesn't understand she says to him in Totonac.  It is so cool!!! I don't understand a single thing. Spanish and Totonac are not even close to being the same.  For real. But let me tell yah.. Totonac is a really ugly language.  It is weird sounds and they aren't even pretty sounds.  It uses X a lot but they use the sound shh... a lot.. ew. It is still pretty awesome to hear them talking.  (the hermana helping us may have been preaching apostasy and we wouldn't have known...I hope not)  

Anyway this week has been awesome.  It has been hot so all of the bugs are starting to come out... yay? Also, the sun is starting to give me the most attractive tan line on my feet... even more yay?  But all is well in Zion.  This week I had a funny experience.  My compañera, a kid from the ward, and I were waiting in the street for another kid to take him to the church. Then along comes a little borrachito (little drunkard), it was funny. So, being the kind missionaries that we are, we said good afternoon to which he stops and stares at us for a minute and says (with a giant smile... well giant drunk smile..) ''Good afternoon!!! To you three persons.''  And he just stood there staring at me.. then all of a sudden he stuck his hand out and just sat there for like a minute and finally he said, ''you're not going to take my hand?'' and I said No. And then he got this sad disappointed look on his face and says okay and stumbles away. I realize when you write it out it really isn't that funny... but in the moment it was really funny.  I will have to tell you in person in 3 months ;)  

I love you all be happy!! Be good!! 

Hermana Chandler

Livin la vida loca... well not so loca... Livin la vida de orden

Hey familia! My mission is pretty cool.  I am kind of loving it.  Although there are a few people that have been reminding me that my time has now grown short, I have decided that I have to take advantage of the time that I have here in little ol' Mexico. I am so happy to be a missionary of this church because it is so awesome.  The more I learn about other churches, the more I realize that this church is true. 

Awesome thing #1: This week two of my conversos received the priesthood! Remember the ones that got baptized a couple of weeks ago, Hector and Enrique?  AAGH! I almost cried when I sustained them! It was the coolest thing ever.  They are also planning their trip to the temple this month so it is going to be incredible!! I am so happy for them!  Hector is preparing to go on a mission himself in this next year.  

Awesome thing #2: Remember David who also got baptized a few weeks ago?  Well his mom got baptized yesterday!! EEEEE!! It was the best!  Little David was being a missionary by teaching his mom all the cool things that he had learned about the church! She progressed amazingly well.  She accepted everything without questioning it!  I really admire her faith.  It was really an amazing day, everything turned out beautifully.  I think the price we had to pay for having a day so beautiful was that the entire week was freezing!  Wet and rainy and cold.  Agh.  It was miserable but valia la pena.  

Sometimes I feel really blessed to see and be apart of these kinds of miracles and sometimes it makes me feel that I am not quite worthy of all these amazing things but I am sure loving it and I am grateful with mi padre celestial everyday for these amazing opportunities!! I love you all and I hope you all know that the church is true.

Bye!  Hermana Chandler

Baptism!

My zone

This is my mission, the jungle.

Yoga in front of Tajin

2015

Woop!  We have made it to 2015!! I am so happy! This is marvelous!  We have a new year to become better people. New Years day was pretty uneventful.  We talked to a lot of drunk people that all told us that they wanted to change... cool.  Lots of new and interesting investigators. We did start teaching this guy who used to be one of the Papantla Voladores and he has been EVERYWHERE! For real he has been and lived on almost every continent! Its super cool. 

Here is a picture of my dog. I named it Elder. It is mormon because it always follows us.  Look how sad he is because we took him back to his house.  He always greets us by barking and jumping! It is great.  

Anyway, the church is true.  Joseph Smith is a profeta! I love you all very much and I am happy that we are an eternal family! 

I love you all and I hope you enjoy the beginning of 2015!  Be good! 

Hermana Chandler 

Long time, no see.

How amazing it was to speak with all of you! And to meet my little sobrinita.  It was awesome.  I can sure tell you that Christmas is amazing!  That it is a time for miracles!  God is always willing to bless us with miracles.  I know he has a whole lot of miracles planned for us.  We just have to be able to reecognize them! I love you all a whole lot!  I feel like I have already told you everything!  But I want you to know that I am happy and healthy and I hope you are all feeling the same way!  Well.  Happy 2015!! Be happy be Mormon!! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Chandler

Christmas eve night

Christmas with compa

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?