A Brighter Day

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope it was great. I certaintly had an amazing Christmas here being a missionary. So, as you probably guessed, not very many people wanted to talk to us this past week. But that was alright. We had a good time anyways as we strived to serve others. I got my new greenie Elder Gonzales on Thursday. He is pretty cool, haha. He is from Taylorsville, Utah. He used to be in a screamo band so that's pretty cool. And he plays violin as well so we have that in common. It's crazy that I'm training a new missionary though. We're basically trying to figure this all out together since I've only been in the area one transfer. So Friday and Saturday we went to the Obara's house and helped them drywall and on Saturday spent Christmas Eve with them and played some board games. Sunday, Christmas was great. For sacrament meeting they just had people go up and share their favorite Christmas experiences that they had. It was so awesome to hear that people's favorite or most memorable Christmas experiences were usually when they didn't have a lot or where people performed service for them. We sang Christmas hymns and it was great. After sacrament we met with Laura who is a recent convert from Omaha. Her family lives in Beatrice so she came to our branch. She was having a hard time because her family isn't too happy about her converting so we were able to brighten her day by talking about trials and how she is being an amazing example to her family. After we went to the Satterfields and had a Christmas dinner. It was really good. Brenda who is a recent convert and her son Wayland who also recently got baptized were there as well and we were all able to enjoy Christmas together. It was kind of a weird Christmas, but I liked it. I wasn't worried about what gifts I was getting or how much fun I was going to have. I was just a missionary and enjoyed spending time with people and getting to knkow who they are. President Kunz told us this would be the best Christmas ever and it certaintly was (not saying that I didn't miss the ones back home, haha). Oh, and yesterday I made bread for the first time. It's pretty good. Hopefully I'll send a picture of it soon so you all can see how awesome it is, haha.

So Spiritual thought of the week. So hopefully you all know this alreday, but Christ was not born on December 25th. He was actually born on April 6th. So why do we celebrate Christmas when we do? Well, originally Christmas was a pagan holiday that didn't even celebrate Christ, it celebrated the winter solstice when the days go from being shorter to longer. So what does this have to do with Christ? Well, if you think about it Christ made it so that if we would come unto Him that we would receive more and more light. When we follow Christ and keep our covenants, we continue to receive more and more light. And just as this life is hard sometimes and things may seem dark, we are promised that a brighter day will come. We just have to be patient sometimes. So let us strive to live our best and have the hope that a brighter day will come. I love you all and hope you had an amazing Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

Merry Christmas Friends and Family! Well this past week has definitely been a week of adventure. I guess I'll start from the beginning (a very good place to start). So Wednesday President Kurl from the Mission Presidency came down to Beatrice to interview Jackie. It was a great interview and she passed with flying colors. Thursday we went up to Lincoln for a Christmas missionary conference. We did white elephant and had a couple of trainings. It was really good. We got to watch the Bible video from the Christmas Devotional. It was really good. I love some of the videos the church puts out and I'm excited for these. Haha, my white elephant was a little canvas with a drum set on it that said, "Music is what feelings sound like." Haha! So Friday was the branch Christmas party. It was so great. Sister Saterfield made it look really nice and a lot of people showed up. It was so much fun. Elder Bell and I performed a dance I choreographed to Michael Bulble's "Let it Snow". Haha it was great and people laughed, so mission accomplished. Well Saturday was Jackie's baptism. It was hillarious. Elder Bell didn't exactly explain very well what she should bring in terms of clothing and I didn't clarify. So we gave her the jumpsuite and she came out with it over her clothes. She had a bright orange shirt on so we tried to explain to her that she just needed to wear the jumpsuite when she yelled in front of everyone "I'm not taking my clothes off!" Haha, it was awkward, but funny. Anyways, luckily Sister Garman came to the rescue and took her to the bathroom to explain how it worked. Other than that the baptism was great. The branch has been so great about fellowshipping Jackie and she fits right in to the branch. Elder Bell baptized her and he brought her down hard, basically beat the sin out of her, that's how hard she got dunked. Sunday I was able to confirm her a member of the Church and give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really cool. Anyways it's been a crazy week and I can't even begin to say everything that's happened. The reason we're having P-day on Wednesday is because this is the last week of the transfer so they move P-day to Wednesday because today is when we get our calls. So this morning we got our transfer calls. Unfortunately Elder Bell is leaving me and going back to Omaha. He is training a new missionary. And guess what? I am also training a new missionary! I'm so excited! I heard it's the best ever. His name is Elder Gonzales but I won't meet him until tomorrow. They also made me district leader which I'm not too excited about at all. But what's a guy like me to do. I will miss Elder Bell a lot though. Luckily he only goes home about a month before I do so we'll have our whole missions together.

So spiritual thought of the week. Hmmm... ok the wise men. (This is totally on the spot so don't judge me). Why were the wise men "wise"? Well they were able to see the signs of the coming of the Lord. They knew what to expect and where He would be. Then they saught Him out. They brought Him gifts and bowed and worshipped Him. Pretty basic, but are we doing the same in our lives? We know that we are living in the last days and that Christ will come soon. He has given us His word and provided us with a way to follow Him. And the greatest gift we can give the Lord is our wills. In fact it's the only thing that we truely have that we can give to Him. So this Christmas let us remember to look for the signs of His coming, let us try to follow Him, and give Him the greatest gift we can give by striving every day to follow Him and keep our covenants that we have made. I love you all and hope that you have a very Merry Christmas!

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

Chandler's Mission Address

11027 Martha Street

Omaha, Nebraska

68144-3107

For God so loved the world...

Feliz Navidad a todos (um... maybe that is correct Spanish?). Haha, anyways this past week was a good week. So Elder Bell and I are doing a lot of tracting whenever we don't have appointments, especially in the evenings. We started doing this thing, because a lot of people we talk to say they're kind of interested but then they are really not. So we have these "letters" that we give out to people who are kind of interested. In it is a letter from Elder Bell and I about who we are and what we do as missionaries with a link to our mormon.org page (by the way everyone should have a mormon.org page). We also have a Restoration pamphlet in there and a card with our phone number and when Sacrament meeting is. Then we'll get their numbers and tell them that we'll call back in a couple of days to see if they're interested, and if so then we make a return appointment. We just barely started doing this at the later half of last week, but we got a lot of potentials. Hopefully as we call them this week we can get some good investigators. We ate dinner twice this week with the Obara family. They are awesome. They have four kids, two boys and two girls, and they are from Connecticut. I walked in and they had Red Sox and Patriots cups for every plate on the table. It was pretty awesome. Also Sister Obara is half Irish so we had a good little talking. They are an awesome family, just like all the families in the branch here. Thursday I went up to Lincoln on an exchange with Elder Hadley who is a Zone Leader. Man, we worked our butts off. The cars were grounded because of the snow so we were walking everywhere, and I forgot to bring my boots up. Opps, haha. But he is an awesome Elder. He is very humble, and he has a speech impediment that makes it hard for him to say what he wants to say sometimes. But he doesn't let it slow him down and it was a great exchange. Jackie is still doing awesome. She's getting baptized this Saturday. We're so excited! The branch has been great at fellowshipping her and she even came over to the Obara's one day when we were having dinner. Yesterday I gave a talk on covenant's in Sacrament meeting. I thought it was pretty good, haha. But like always I learned a lot just by writing it. All in all it was a pretty good week.
So Christmas Spiritual thought of the week. So probably the most famous scripture ever, John 3:16, says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son." That is the message of Christmas! God loved us so much that He gave us His Son. If we ever want to question God's love, we can't, because He gave His perfect Son to us so that we could return to live with Him. So Christmas isn't about gifts. Sure it shows that we care about a person. But Heavenly Father gave us His most prized possession, His Son Jesus Christ. So what are we willing to give to those we love? Well... one of the most prized possessions we have is our time. People want to spend time with other people. Sometimes they just want to talk. Sometimes they just want to sit, and say nothing. Sometimes they want to get out and have an adventure. Other times they just need someone there to comfort them. We can use our time in so many ways to help others. So this Christmas let us strive to put away some of our time to be with those we care about, and especially those who need someone there by their side because they may be feeling a little lonely. Angels do exist, but sometimes Heavenly Father wants us to be the angels that people are praying for. So let us remember how much our Heavenly Father loves us and how we can show that love to others this Christmas season. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

The little Drummer Boy

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season and enjoying winter. It's relatively cold here. It's staying around 32 degrees in the day. We got some rain but haven't got any snow yet. Lincoln got a lot of rain on Saturday though. Anyways... so last week was a pretty good week. First of all I told you about Jackie, the young single mother we tracked into last week. Well... SHE'S GOLDEN! She went to church last Sunday and we've met with her everyday this week. She has so many questions, but she's accepted that it is true and she's being baptized on the 17th! She even came to church again. She already told her boyfriend that they would be living the law of chastity before we even taught it to her. And although we haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet, she already lives it! It was so crazy because when she first let us in she was really hesitent and quiet. But she's opened up a ton, and now we're all best friends. Haha, it's pretty crazy. We also have this other investigator Tina who found the church on mormon.org. It's kind of a long story but basically she chatted with the Sisters in the Trail Center to learn the gospel and get into the church. They didn't even know she lived in the same mission. So I hadn't met her yet because she had been sick so I got to meet her last Saturday. She is super awesome. She's about 50 years old and used to be a gypsie. She's been living with her boyfriend for 14 years and we taught her the law of chastity. So now she's going to get married on the 29th and she'll be baptized the 21st of January. There's awesome things going on here. There are also a lot of people going through really hard times who really look up to us. It's really hard because I've never really been through anything and I'm only 20 years old. But we try to help them the best that we can, even if it's just being there so that they have someone to talk to. Friday I was in Lincoln on an exchange while Elder Bell went to a leadership training up in Omaha. It was fun to meet some of the Elders serving up there and work that area for the day. I even met two people from Africa! All in all it was a great week.
So spiritual thought of the week. I guess since it's Christmas I'll give one about that. So one of my favorite Christmas songs is the Little Drummer Boy (especially the Josh Groban version). Anyways the message is that sometimes we feel like we have nothing to give to the Lord. Sometimes it feels like there are so many people better than us and that what we have to give is nothing compared to the things others are able to give. But it makes me think of the parable of the talents. We all have talents, whether it's five or three or one. In the parable the important part is not how many talents we start out with, but that we are trying our hardest to improve our talents and gain even more. Sometimes we have talents that we don't think we have, but when we strive to improve we gain even more. And that's the story of the Little Drummer Boy. Even though he did not have much in the way of wordly wealth, he still was able to play his drum for Christ because that was his talent. So let us during this Christmas season strive to share our talents with others. Everyone has some, whether it's music, dance, decorating, making things, baking treats, or the one we all have time. Sometimes the best thing you can share is your time. Everyone needs a friend, and everyone needs a friend who will listen and who will help. I love you all and hope you have a great week and a Merry Christmas.

Godspeed,
Edler Chandler Kendall

The Little Things- Nov. 21, 2011 Beatrice, Nebraska

Hello there! It is good to have the oppurtunity to write to you all this week. Just a heads up before I start writting about my week, I am trying very hard to get in contact with everyone and write them letters, but seeing as I am a missionary and very busy with the Lord's work it will take time. Nevertheless you will all be receiving letters before Christmas and hopefully sooner. Ok, well what a week. So on Tuesday we went up to Lincoln where we had a big conference with a bunch of the Edlers and Sisters. Elder and Sister Golden of the First Quorum of the Seventy were there to talk to us and guess where they are from... Johannesburg, South Africa. Well I was very excited to meet them and they were wonderful. We were very enlightened and learned so much I don't think I have time to tell all that we learned, let alone the things I learned from the promptings of the Spirit. One important thing I learned though is that our faith increases as our personal rightousness increases. The more obidient we are the more faith we have. Anyways, it was great. Oh, and remember Tanner Jones, you know who played football and coach would always be like "JOOOOONNNNNEEEEESSSS!" Haha, well he's in this mission and I saw him there, so we talked and caught up on life. Well so then on Wednesday we taught these two 16 year old kids named Dillon and Tyler. We were talking about families and Tyler, who talks with a sort of redneck accent, said, "Hey Dillon, did you know that families are forever?" And I was like, "How did you know that?" And he said, "You know, you have kids and they have kids and they have kids, forever." It was hilarious. So then we tried to set them for baptism and Tyler, again in his redneck accent, said, "Well I've already been baptized... (silence)... but... I guess I can get it renewed." Haha it was so funny and hilarious. So then we went and taught this refferal from South Carolina we got in the mail. It was an older lady who lives about 30 miles from Beatrice. See our area is huge, one of the biggest branches area wise in the mid-west. So sometimes we have to drive an hour one way just to see a person. Anyways, so we drive to see this lady, Helen, and basically what she wanted was a blessing because she is having health problems. Well we talked to her about the priesthood and kind of where it comes from. Then we talked about trials and she admitted that she sometimes blames God for a lot and gets mad at Him, but that he's still our Father so we need to trust Him. Then we gave her a blessing and it was really quiet after. Then all of a sudden she just started saying a prayer and talking to Heavenly Father right there. She asked for forgiveness and said that she was willing to accept whatever came her way if it was His will. It was truely a sacred moment. Yesterday we went back and taught her again and she was very accepting of the Book of Mormon and the need for prophets. Hopefully she'll receive her own testimony of it and want to be baptized. So yesterday was also my first day in the brach, and it was the primary program! Ha, it was awesome. I love kids. The people in the brach are so great. Many of them are converts and have just amazing testimonies. And, as always, there are also a couple of characters that make every branch or ward it's own and fun to be at. Well Elder Bell is great. We get along so well and just have the best time working hard and preaching the gospel here in Beatrice.
So spiritual thought of the week. Well I guess it should be something about Thanksgiving. So I guess the most important thing I've learned over the past couple months and with the many people I've met is this: If you want to truely be happy you cannot focus on what you don't have. Instead you have to be truely grateful for the things the Lord has given you. Don't become a victim. Many people blame life, or God, or someone else for the problems they have in life. But the truth is we all are going to have hard times and we're all going to have problems. So instead of blaming others and trying to figure out why things are so hard, we instead need to look at the many blessings we do have and focus on even the little blessings we have in life. I know as we do this we will be much happier, regardless of where we are, what circumstances we are in, or what problems we may be facing. And best of all, when we show our gratitude to the Lord he will pour out His spirit upon us, one of the greatest blessings we can have in this life. I love you all and am so grateful to have you as a part of my life. You are all such great examples to me and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Godspeed,
Edler Chandler Kendall

Omaha, Nebraska- November 2011

Grettings everyone from Nebraska or as we like to call it here N.O.M., you know, like Vietnam. Haha. Anyways this is a sweet mission. So first of all I came in with nine other Elders and 4 other Sisters on Tuesday. That day we spent with President and Sister Kunz and the APs and they did the basic orientation. We spent the night in a hotel and then the next morning they took us into Omaha. It was really cool. The best was seeing the Winter Quarters trail sight and the temple there. It is a beautiful temple and I can't wait to do a session there. Well then we had some training from the APs and President and Sister Kunz. It was a really good trainig. Then we went upstairs and had a testimony meeting with all the new Elders and Sisters. The Spirit was really strong and it is always good to hear the testimony of new missionaries. Well then they gave us each a letter saying where we would be serving and who our companion would be. I learned that my companion would be Elder Bell and I'd be serving in Beatrice. I was like, "Sweet! I have no idea where that is or who Elder Bell is." Haha. But we spent another night in a hotel and then the next morning we went to transfers. It was cool to see the missionaries there. Since I was going to Beatrice, which is aboout 40 miles south of Lincoln, I had to ride the transfer bus to go and meet Elder Bell. Well then we got to the site and I met him. We embraced and said hi and then got on our way to go to Beatrice. Elder Bell is awesome. He has been out about 9 months and is from Boise Idaho. He is a very consecrated missionary and likes to work hard. So we've been working. The people here are so awesome. Everyone is just very polite and kind. Beatrice is a pretty small town, but we cover a pretty big area of some other small towns. Well I haven't really met any of our progressing investigators yet, and yesterday we had stake conference up in Lincoln so I haven't met the branch yet. But I've met some of the members and they are awesome. We played raquetball with a couple in the ward this morning. Well the very first thing we did when I got back was go to a funeral of an investigator who just died. It was really sad because he was only 45 and died of cancer. But I know he is with his Heavenly Father and things will work out for him. Well we met some pretty crazy people. We met this Appiscapalian (have not idea how to spell that) lady who we tracked into. She used to be a member of the Church but she had a pyschotic husband who kind of forced her to get baptized. Anyways she has family in Logan and has been through the temple, but she was super crazy and wanted to show us her church. There were some other crazy things. Like we called this investigator and they said, "Oh I can't meet with you tonight. I've had a stressful night last night getting to sleep to I'm just going to smoke some pot and go to bed." So Elder Bell said, "Well why would you do that." And the person responded, "Well pot is actually not that bad for you. In fact it's been around longer than alcohol" Haha like that's a good excuse to do anything. It made me laugh. Well our apartment is ghetto but I like it. It's right above a tobacco shop if you can believe that. Elder Bell and I get along really well though and I think we're going to do some good work in this area.
Well spiritual thought of the week. Hmm... let me think. Ah! Ok. So I was reading about the Holy Ghost the other day and the thought hit me that had never struck me before, or I guess I had just never thought of it in this way. The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, and part of being baptized is if we keep our covenants we will always have the Spirit to be with us. That is an amazing gift! Like... He's a member of the highest council in the universe, and we get to have Him to be with us and talk to us all the time. That's why it's so important to learn how He speaks to us and to be worthy to have Him by our side. I've thought about that with missionary work here in Nebraska. We do get referrals, but some of these people we are going to have to find ourselves. Well if we always have the Spirit to be with us and we can understand what He is telling us, then we will be led to those who are ready to hear the gospel. So I am going to try my hardest to be worthy to be the companion of a member of the Godhead and I would challenge you all to try your hardest to do the same. I love you all and hope you are having an amazing holiday season.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

P.S.- My net mission address is 11930 Arbor St. Ste. 203
Omaha, NE 68144

When Necessary-Use Words, Oct. 31, 2011 Payson

Well what a week it's been. So it seems like everyone was out of town for the deer hunt. It was hard to see anyone. And the few lessons we had planned each day seemed to all fall through. But that's missionary work. As long as the Lord see's you're doing your best, it doesn't matter what the numbers say. Well Saturday night we helped a part member family with a spook-ally they are doing. It was really fun, and we scarred some people pretty bad. The sister missionaries came and Sister Uryu, who just got here from Japan, was very excited to have her first Halloween. It's hilarious, she is always super excited about everything, even when we scarred the living daylights out of her. We were able to find two new investigators which is really exciting. They are a teen brother and sister who just moved her from Arizona about four months ago. So we ate with the one family the Jarretts. They are an older couple and they were telling us about their kids and how they're all married except for their youngest daughter who is 27. And I was thinking, "Well what the heck is wrong with her?!" So then halfway through dinner she walks in and she's not bad looking, but I didn't care too much because she's 27 and I am a missionary. Well we started talking to her and I've never seen Elder Johnson so excited. Usually I'm the one that gives the spiritual thought at dinner, but he asked if he could give the thought to the Jarretts. He is a really good speaker, so he gave a really good thought. So then we left and he told me that he had found his wife, haha. But he can't stop thinking about her, so I have to try to help him focus, since he also got his trunky papers and they did their job. That's probably another reason we aren't teaching as much, but I'm trying my best to get us out there and working.
Well spiritual thought of the week. So even though Elder Johnson doesn't want to work too hard, when we get in lessons or give talks he is powerful, which is something I've always envied in Trevis. One thing I've always wanted to do was to inspire people when I speak. But I am very much like Moses and am slow of tongue. But I was thinking a lot about it. I'm still working hard and trying my best to be obedient, and an important thing I realized is that we all have different gifts. The phrase "Preach the Gospel and, when necessary, use words," has taken a new meaning for me this week. As I've focused on what gifts I do have I've been able to use those to help our investigators and those that we teach. I may not speak with great authority and power, but I know what is true and I'm not afraid to say it. Well I don't want to go on saying all of the gifts that I've been given, but I have definitely seen them this week and I have improved them. So find what gifts you do have and make them better. The Lord has given them to you for a reason. And who knows. If I work hard enough maybe one day I can be a great speaker, but for now I'm still the scatter-brained professor, haha. Love you all and hope you have a great Halloween.

Godspeed,
Elder Kendall

The Blessings of Trials October 24, 2011 Payson Utah

To whom it may concern (haha),
Well this was a good week. First of all being a missionary is great. I cannot stress that enough. So we have this new investigator named Kristen. She is eleven years old and what a character she is. The first time we met her she was really nervous and wouldn't even shake our hands. It was funny. The way we found her was interesting too. We had the referral from the Sisters but we had the wrong address and only a last name. It took us a couple of weeks to find her. We kind of just knocked on doors in the general area where the address that didn't exist was and asked people if they knew of an eleven year old girl with the last name of Perkins. Well FINALLY we found her. After we introduced ourselves and talked about having lessons with her she decided she wanted to and when we came back the next time she was looking out the window waiting for us. She still wouldn't shake our hands, but we convinced her to give us a fist bump. We have this other investigator named Jeff. I think I might have mentioned him. He is from Oregon and is about 40 years old. He is here following doctors for school. He is very smart, but doesn't really see the point to life. His marriage isn't what he wants it to be and he doesn't get the need for faith, or why we have to work so hard in life to know if Heavenly Father is really there. But he feels the Spirit when we come and when he goes to church. He still wants to know everything intellectually, but I think he's making progress. Anyways Jeff is a tennis player and so is Elder Johnson so on Saturday we wanted to show Jeff that we're just normal people and not some sort of cult, another thing he is afraid of. We ended up talking to him for a couple of hours and eventually we just sat down and he expressed some of the concerns in his life, especially about his marriage. Basically he was asking us for marriage advice and what he should do to make it better and I'm thinking, "Alright, what the frak do I know about marriage. Any relationship I've been in has been a disaster." But Elder Johnson and I knew the principles of love and had the examples of our parents. So being 19 and 20 we were sitting there giving a very smart man advice on how he could make his marriage better. And guess what, he listened and wants to take our advice. It is awesome that the gospel works. Also this week we participated in a ward's mini-mission for their laurels and priests. We told them to carry around a Book of Mormon to give out, but then the next day we realized that they probably didn't have one to give out. So during our free time we stopped by all their houses and gave them copies that they could give out. The youth are awesome and I would encourage everyone to always carry around a Book of Mormon that they can give to someone in need.
Well it wasn't to easy to do work this weekend with fall break and everyone deer hunting. Which is kind of where my spiritual thought is coming from, along with a couple of other less active people we've met and the attitude of some of our investigators. The scripture comes from Revelations 3:15-16. Basically we need to decide whether we are hot or cold. Are we active in the gospel or not. The Lord says "...I would thou wet cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." So how committed are we to accepting and living the gospel? I know in my life I have definitely been lukewarm many times. Are we willing to accept and live all the commandments? Are we striving to magnify our callings, not only church callings (which are important), but our callings in families and as neighbors and acquaintances? Are we striving to improve our Christlike attributes? Do we strive to have the same love that he does? Do we stand for what is right and true, regardless of what others will think of us? Do we diligently search the scriptures and seek to know them? Are we praying with real intent? Do we strive to increase our faith? Do we repent daily and strive to become more like Christ? Obviously there are many things we can all improve, especially myself, but I promise as we strive to be committed servants of the Lord, in whatever capacity that entails, He will bless us we strength to do His will and a burning conviction that what we are doing is just and true. I pray that this week we search our motives, find where we are not as committed, and then strive our best to become better servants. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

Become as a Little Child...Oct. 17, 2011 Payson

Greetings Family and Friends,

Well fall is definitely here. The colors are amazing and the weather is so nice. So Monday night President Pitts went out teaching with Elder Billy and I. It was fun, but stressful because you have to make sure you have stuff to do. One of our appointments canceled so we went out contacting referrals. We had one from the sisters but they gave us the wrong address so that was kind of embarrassing. But it was a good night nonetheless. This being transfer week and having an awesome district, we had a district brunch that was really good. I made pancakes which actually turned out really good, which isn't normal for my cooking. About half the district was transferred, including Elder Billy. He is now out in Rosevelt. We visited families that he knew with his time here and it was fun to have the Ellis' send you some pictures. My new companion is Elder Johnson from Dallas Texas! He is awesome. He's been out for 20 months and is pretty bold in proclaiming the gospel, just what this area needs. We've already had some amazing lessons with people I didn't think were progressing that well. There is one investigators named Jeff from Oregon. He is down here following doctors for medical school. He is having a hard time finding the meaning of life and says the Book of Mormon is just making him more confused, which shouldn't be the case. Elder Billy and I had a hard time trying to address his concerns, but Elder Johnson came in and helped give a great lesson. I think Jeff is finally starting to get it and hopefully he'll start to find some direction in his life. Well it's been great to hear from people. Grandma and Grandpa Marjorie and Dean sent me a package. Thanks a bunch and I'll send another letter soon. Brother Miller has been writing me which has been awesome. And I got another hilarious letter from Elder Hess. So Saturday we had two baptisms. The first was for a kid named Jerramy Gilson. He actually just moved to Payson from Spanish Fork and was taught there. We only knew him a week before he was baptized. So kind of a bonus baptism. The second was a nine year old boy named David Swalberg. We've been teaching him for a while and his family is just becoming active again. It was an awesome baptism and he is a really cool kid. He is super shy but super nice and loving. It was awesome to see him get baptized. Anyways not a bad week. A lot of our investigators who have been going through trials have had a better week as well so it's been encouraging for them.

Spiritual thought of the week. So Sunday we went to two primary programs. It was awesome and fun. I always love the primary. It is amazing how they still have really strong testimonies at that age. It reminded me of when Jesus said that we must become as little children or we can not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is definitely easier to teach children than adults because they are so accepting of the gospel. And the adults who are making the commitment to change their lives are humble as little children. We need not to be stubborn or question everything. Instead we should trust in the Lord and love others. Sometimes our testimonies should be simple, and I believe that's how it should be. We only need to have a spiritual witness to know that things are true. Whether it's 2+2=4 or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Spirit will always tell us the truth. And as little children believe and trust the things their parents tell them, we also should believe all that the Spirit testifies to us. I love you all and hope you have a great week and enjoy this wonderful fall weather.

Godspeed,

Elder Chandler Kendall

P.S.- We finally found the referral the sisters gave us yesterday! :)

The Blessings of Trials October 10, 2011 Payson Utah

Hola a mis amigos y a mi familia,

Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the cold weather we have been having. I know I certaintly am. So first of all Elder Billy is being transfered on Wednesday to Rosevelt and my new companion is going to be Elder Johnson. The only thing I know about him is that he is from Texas so I'm excited to meet him this week. Well Saturday we were able to usher for the groundbreaking of the Payson Temple. It was freezing, but awesome. Elder Oaks presided and gave the dedicatory prayer. He is from Payson and it was great to hear about his childhood here. There were almost 3,000 people there battling the cold, but we were warmed by the Spirit we felt. I'll send you a picture of me digging part of the ground for the temple. Friday we went to the temple, which I always love. I can not believe how fast this transfer has gone by. Elder Billy has been such an amazing companion and I've learned so much from him. People in the district think we are the fun companionship, which we are, but we also work really hard, especially since we're the only area in the district without a car. But it allows us to meet a lot of people. We've been tracting a lot, and although we don't get too many investigators out of it we always are blessed with more refferals when we do. The Lord sees that we are working hard and has blessed us greatly with three new investigators. No baptims this week, finally, haha. We were hesitent on schelduling any for that weekend because of the groundbreaking.

So my spiritual thought this week is about trials. It seems like this week that many of our investigators are going through really hard trials with a variety of different things. The question is always the same, "Why?" Why, if we are trying to follow Christ, do hard or bad things happen to us. Well let me tell you WHY we should be grateful for trials. First of all Heavenly Father's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. How does he do this, through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Now trials help us to become more like Jesus, but only if we apply the atonement. Now Christ suffered not just for our sins but ALL of our pains and afflictions. So when we receive a trial, Christ has to suffer the same thing we do, and yet He still allows us to go through them so that we can learn and grow. And the best part is we don't have to go through it alone. Because of what Christ did He will always be there to lift us up when we come unto Him. I hope that we can all lean on our Savior to help us through our everyday trials. I love you all so much and I feel your prayers every day.

Godspeed,

Elder Chandler Kendall

Hello my family and friends! You can wake up now, September is over, haha. Hope you all enjoyed General Conference. I know I certainly did. So let me start by telling you how the week went. Lately we have been working hard to find new investigators to replace the ones that are being baptized. It's been hard the last couple of weeks to find people that want to listen to us. But this week we were blessed with five new investigators. It was very exciting, and they all seem like really faithful people who are motivated to change their lives and come in line with Christ. So we had a little fun with the district on Wednesday. We had our district meeting and when we were on exchanges with our district leader the week before I mentioned that it might be fun to do an Asian DTM. He loved the idea so we had an Asian DTM. It was really fun, but we also learned a lot too. We also were able to have a baptism between conference sessions which was really cool. The guys name is Tony Mondragon and he has basically been waiting two years to turn 18 so that he can be baptized. There were tons of people there and it was really awesome to see how long he was willing to wait to make that covenant.
So conference was awesome! Saturday we watched it at two different members houses who were in the same ward as Tony. They cooked us food and made sure we were comfortable so that was really nice. Sunday we watched it with the Spanish branch, which was cool. We had to wear headphones, but I felt like I was on my mission in Mexico or something. I also got to work on my Spanish as I talked to people. The talks were amazing. I really liked the talks by Sister Thompson and Elder Cook. Elder Cook said something that really helped me. He said we should not mourn for opportunity lost. It really helped because I've been reflecting a lot about when I came home and the opportunities I lost. But it helped me to know that I'm back out and doing the Lord's work, so I shouldn't be worrying about the past. President Erying is always my favorite. He always has personal stories and you can tell he has a tender heart. President Monson is always hilarious. I think he knows he is trying to be funny, but he also helps us feel the Spirit and strive to be better as members of the church. I love it when he talked about the Beatles saying "All you Need is Love" which people tell me all the time and I tell them it's not true. Now I have a prophet to back me up, haha.
I talked to President Pitts about when I'll know where I'll be reassigned to. From talking to him I'll most likely be reassigned somewhere in the states, but ultimately it's up to an Apostle. He said he'll put in a recommendation around October 17 and I'll know probably right before I leave. So I'll probably know in about a month what is going to happen.
I think the best spiritual thought this week is to take a talk from Conference and over the next 6 months really try to apply it to your life and live it. The talks are modern revelation to prophets and apostles and they are meant for us RIGHT NOW!!! If you can't remember everything, that's alright. Just try to remember a talk where you felt the Spirit the most and look it up online. Mark it, take notes, and make goals of how you can better live that principle in your life. I promise as you do so you will be better prepared for the challenges you will face over the next six months. I love you all and pray that we can all do our very best to follow the teachings we learn from the Lord's chosen servants.

Godspeed,
Elder Kendall

Hello family and friends. Fall is here and it is great. I think fall is my favorite season. What a week. So a couple of experiences we've had. Tuesday we split of and I was able to see this guy named Andrew who we've had a hard time seeing lately. We went over to his house earlier in the day and didn't see him, so we tried again towards the end of the day. He was home and let us in and told us about some of the problems he's been having. He asked for me to give him a blessing. It was amazing, the words weren't even from me, but it was exactly what he and his wife needed to hear. I think he trusts us a lot more now and were meeting him on a regular basis. So we have these two investigators named Kyle and Rika. They are from Vegas and they are living with Kyle's grandma here in Payson. They are super awesome and golden. They're both about 20 years old and they've never heard of the church until they moved here. They always have the most profound questions and are amazing about going to church and reading the scriptures. They want to be baptized, but they can't until they either get separate housing or get married, which is hard right now because they don't have jobs and are living with Kyle's grandma. But we love teaching them and they are super awesome. Saturday Elder Billy and I had the opportunity of baptizing two kids named Michael and Malcolm. They are the funniest little kids, they remind me of Trevor and Cameron. But there was only one problem. We forgot to call someone to fill up the font, which takes approximately three hours. We had to rush there to start filling it up and the sisters came and helped us take pictures of water from the bathroom into the font. It was an adventure, but they were baptized and it was really cool. So those were some experiences I've had, but not a bad week.
So spiritual thought of the week. One saying you hear a lot on your mission is, "Be the kind of missionary that your mother thinks you are." It's a good thought to motivate yourself when you feel like being disobedient or to not try as hard as you should. But I was thinking about family and how when I think about you guys I always remember the good times. Sure we've had our down times and argued, just like any other family, but every time I think of memories they are always good and I see us as being a perfect family. So my thought for the week, "Be the kind of family that I think we are." Obviously we won't be perfect, but every time there is an argument or things seem to be down, remember that we should try to make positive memories that we can remember for the rest of our lives. I'm almost sure that any argument we have only has small importance, but if we let it get out of hand it will have lasting consequences. I know you all love each other very much and can do what it takes to always love and support one another. So that's my thought for the week. Stay strong, say your prayers, read your scriptures. Be like Christ and try to serve others. Love you tons and can't wait to hear from you.

Godspeed,
Elder Kendall

Aloha family and friends. Hope you are all enjoying this nice Fall weather. I know I certaintly have. So I won't write too long of an email because I'm trying to upload some pictures to send to you but I'll let you know how the week went. Also I know I need to write letters to a lot of people and I'm working on it, so... yeah, they'll come sooner or later. So this was an interesting week. First of all we had Zone Conference on Wednesday which was really awesome. We learned a lot about the 8 fundamentals of Preach my Gospel and it was good to see President and Sister Pitts. So we had a lot of cancled appointments this week and we were suppossed to have a few new investigators. We were getting a little discouraged. But then Saturday we had Cameron's baptism and Maddy and Gabby's baptism. It was so cool. Cameron is such a cool guy (he's 20) and has just an amazing testimony. He moved to St. George the same day that he got baptized so it was sad that that was the last time we would see him, but it was cool to see him change. Maddy and Gabby's was awesome becuse there were a lot of people there and they had so much support. They are two wonderful girls and they'll do great things in the Church. It is great to hear all about the family. Carsen will have a great time at homecoming. Hopefully Cassandra gets her part that she wants in the play. Craig, keep being awesome and kicking butt. I'll try to write you all letters soon. I pray for you all every day, even extended family and friends. I love you all so much.

So this week my spiritual thought is about the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law does not give us an excuse to do less than the letter, but it actually requires more. The letter says thou shalt not kill, the spirit says thou shalt not be angry. The letter says thou shalt not commit adultery, the spirit says thou shalt not lust. The letter says thou shalt not steal, the spirit says feed the hungry, help those who stand in need of comfort. Let us strive to live the spirit of the law and be true followers of Christ. I love you all so much. Keep up the good work.

Godspeed,

Elder Chandler Kendall

Chandler's Mission Address

Here is Chandler's mission info. He is in the Provo Mission for 2 transfers and then he will go somewhere else. Not sure where yet, but so excited he is doing so WELL!!

Elder Chandler Kendall

2520 N. University Avenue

Suite 100

Provo, Utah 84604-3877

Hello Family and Friends,

Hope everyone had a great week and a fun Labor Day. Oh crap! I'm wearing white the day after. Oh well. So I'm writing today because the library was closed yesterday. So since last week... well, we had transfers so we have some new Elders in our district. We basically have the funnest district ever so that's really awesome. We've been playing "Tron ball" a lot in the mornings. So teaching was a little slow this week because of the Labor Day but we did have the Onion Days Festival going on here which was really cool. Whenever we had down time we would go talk to people there and try to get referrals. We got a couple and we also saw some of our investigators who we were able to make appointments with. We also got a lot of free food and a free tie so that was pretty sweet I guess. Saturday we had a baptism of a woman named MaryLou. Her husband baptized her which was super awesome because he recently became reactivated. Her father believed in polygamy and so she had to meet with the mission president. She was really nervous but it went really well and I felt the Spirit really strong. She is also having twin girls in December and has a little two year old named Sycoya. She is hilarious. So I had an experience that about broke my heart this week. We met with a girl named Jenakah who is nine years old. We've had a hard time catching her and we were finally able to teach her a quick ten minute lesson on her front porch. We see her a lot at the snowcone shack and she always comes up and gives us hugs. We talked to her about getting baptized and how God loves us and His love for her. Her parents aren't members and I guess she gets yelled at a lot and picked on by her older brother. So she was telling us how her family doesn't love her and how she would like to feel that love. We tried to tell her that her family did love her, but I think she felt better when we told her Heavenly Father loves her and that we love her. So that was pretty sad so if you are reading this tell everyone in your family that you love them.

Spiritual thought for the week. Magnify your calling. First of all we all have callings, whether it's as a parent or child, home or visiting teacher, or other church callings, we all have different stewardship over things. To show that we are faithful we must do the best we can at whatever we are called to do. That doesn't mean we try to tell everyone else how to do their calling or to overwhelm ourselves. All we have to do is to do our best and when we feel too weak to keep going, the Lord will strengthen us. So do your very best and you'll never have any regrets. And if we make mistakes the Savior is always there to help us. Love you all and hope you are doing amazing things in your lives. I know I certainly am.

Godspeed,

Elder Kendall

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Payson! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life and school. So I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, adore, love, cherish, love, um... I can't think of any other words, love, being a missionary! I am so glad I came back out and have the opportunity to be in Payson for a bit. So good news, I'm not getting transferred and neither is Elder Billy. He'll probably be around for another transfer and then I'll take over the next one. So a couple things that happened this week. I was actually in a threesome with Elder Osbourne when I first came out here. He was another trail missionary from West Jordan and had to go home Sunday because he has a back condition that is getting worse. So while he was here we had a car, but we're actually in a biking area, so Tuesday we got our car taken away. So Payson is really hilly so, on Tuesday, we were going pretty fast down this hill and Elder Billy was in front of me, and he saw an investigators brother he wanted to talk to. So he went in front of me and, since my brakes suck and we were going so fast, I pretty much hit him at a ninety degree angle. We both crashed pretty hard (don't worry Mom I'm totally fine) and he got up right away and started shaking people's hands around us without missing a beat. It was hilarious. I wish I had a video because the crash was also pretty funny. So that was fun. We had DTM on Wednesday and our Zone Leaders were there. One of them, I forget his name, served in Highland and taught my good friend Chelsie Martinez and he was wondering what happened to her, so if you're reading this Chelsie the missionaries miss you. We had a really good testimony meeting and the missionaries here are great. Their testimonies are so strong and help lift me up. One tiny problem, they're not the most obedient people, so I try to help out as best I can, but there's only so much I can do. We also have a member named Brother Gordon who owns a snowcone shack and he gives us free snow cones every day. His wife isn't a member so we go over and try to see her as well. He makes the best snowcones ever and has a lot of his own flavors he made up. He has this contest called the Titanic Resurfaced where you basically have to eat a 64 oz. snowcone in ten minutes. If you beat it you get to rename it. I was thinking if I beat is I'll call it Sprinkles my Dead Cat. Haha, anyways. We are teaching about twenty lessons a week and picking up about 3 or 4 new investigators. We pretty much have baptisms lined up every Saturday for the next 6 weeks. Yesterday we had the baptism of a girl named Taylor Farr who is Cassandra's age. She's really shy but she knows what is true. At her baptism she had a lot of her extended family there who weren't members or inactive so it was good that she was able to set that example. Friday we went as a district to the Provo Temple and it was awesome. I saw my friend Daniel who I played lacrosse with there. He's in the MTC and going to the Philippines. Katrina Lewis was also in the witness couple in the group that went before us, but I don't think she saw me. We had really good sacraments yesterday and I felt the Spirit a lot.

Spiritual thought of the week. I was thinking a lot about people and how often it is those who are poor in regards to worldly things who are the most receptive to the Gospel. When they do accept the gospel they are very happy, sometimes even more happy than those who have lots. So I was thinking what constitutes the measure of our happiness. Basically the question we must ask ourselves is "If I lost everything I have, would I still be happy?" We need to make it so that in our lives our happiness is based around the Gospel; that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, we have our older brother Jesus Christ who is always there to help us and to heal us, and we have the Holy Ghost who is always there to comfort us and guide us in our lives as long as we are living worthy to have his companionship. We don't need nice things, or to live in a certain place, or to have certain friends, or to have a girlfriend, or money, or any other thing we think we need. These things are certainly great and we can want them. But our happiness should be based on how well we a striving to live the gospel and how our relationships with our Father in Heaven, His Son, and the Holy Ghost are. So my challenge for you this week is to try to improve your happiness by improving your commitment to living the standards of the Gospel. Love you all and hope everything is going well for you in your lives.

Godspeed,

Elder Kendall

Greetings everyone from Payson, Utah. The culture here is so different, haha. Actually Payson is awesome. So I arrived here on Friday and my companions name is Elder Billy. He's Native American from Southern California. More importantly he is a huge Harry Potter fan so we get along quite nicely. He's also a huge Tron fan. I guess the missionaries got to watch it on the 4th of July so he's pretty obsessed. The missionaries in the district actually made up a Tron game called Glow-ball Wars and we made Tron outfits with black shirts and glow in the dark paint. Elder Billy made a whole outfit with black pants and everything so he's pretty excited to wear it when we go to play today. So Payson is awesome, especially since this is where they have the Scottish Festival. So the first day I got here we had two baptisms. The first was a 17 kid named Edgar. The second was a 16 girl named Anne-Marie. She's actually pretty cute and Carsen should date her because she's really good at the piano. We teach a lot of kids, which if you know me is the greatest thing in the world. It's a good thing I taught primary before I came out. The members here are great also. We get a lot of referrals and they'll come and teach with us a lot. So we cover three stakes and 25 wards which is a lot. For church we attend three sacrament meetings. Yesterday was all in the same building and they were having the High Councilmen all give a talk on the same topic, Duty. So we basically heard the same talk three times, it was rough. But we had our two confirmations which was awesome. We get a lot of free food here and people feeding us as well. It's nice :). We go to this Snow Shack owned by a member named Brother Gordon. He is awesome and basically the Snow-Cone king. His wife isn't a member so we have a good excuse to go there and get free Snow-Cones. Oh, Cassandra will like this, there was a guy in one of the wards we went to yesterday and he looked just like Chuck Norris. It was pretty amazing. Anyways we've been teaching a lot and it's been a lot of fun. I love being a missionary and am looking forward to serving the people here in Payson. Spiritual thought of the week. Nobody is perfect. Everyone is trying to fit in in life and figuring out where they belong. Sometimes they may make decisions that may not be the best and we can judge them. They may be going down a path that we can see will lead them to unhappiness, or maybe they've even done something to offend us. But you know what, I think that for the most part people are good, and they want to do good. For some it make take longer to find the Gospel and accept it. Others may never accept it, but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ don't love them any less, and neither should we. It's not up to us to judge others or to try and make them live like we do. Instead we must serve others and try to be their friend. Everyone is our brother or sister and we all have different challenges. It is not up to us to judge how people respond to live. Even Christ, the greatest person who ever lived or will ever live on the earth, did not judge. Instead He taught, He served, He invited, He loved, and He did everything he could to improve the lives of His brothers and sisters. So my challenge to you is to think of someone who you might be judging or who you just can't stand, and instead of trying to make them do what you think is best just love and serve them. Try to see what trials they are going through and have the same love Christ had to help them through their trails. They may see your example and want to know what your motivation is. They may not change at all, but if you really love them that won't matter. The only thing that will matter is that you were able to help lift someone's burdens. Love you all and hope everything goes well in all of your lives, especially you kids with school starting.

Godspeed,

Elder Kendall

A Great week!

First of all Happy Birthday to the most wonderful sister is the whole wide world! Officially a teenager. Those were the days, not a care in the world. Dad said you're getting as tall as Mom. That's crazy. You're not supposed to change until I get back. Anyways Happy Birthday and hope it was fun. So another week in the mission. We actually had a pretty good week. We made our new trimester goals for baptisms in the next four months. Our goal is to have nine, which is a pretty high goal for this area. Right now we only have four people on date, and two of those are maybies (they could be eternal investigators, they've been investigating for a while). So this past week we worked on helping our investigators understand that they need to be baptized by the proper authority and what promises we make during baptism. Pretty much everyone we teach is Christian and has already been baptized so it is hard to explain the importance of being baptized again. Yesterday we had a confirmation that I was able to help perform for a Sister Meise who got baptized the first week I got here. This week I have my first baptism. It is for a white mother and daughter named Thelma and Charnee Armstrong. They are golden investigators, the mother is divorced and her birthday is on Sunday so it is a perfect day for her to get baptized. The daughter is 18 and has a son and they live together in an appartment close to the church. Charnee asked me to baptized her so I'm pretty excited. Also quick note, I can't put pictures on this computer but I'm going to try and put them on a CD at one of the photo places and send it to you. The branch I'm in is pretty small. Since we're in town we have a good mix of blacks and whites, but a lot of the members are older and have been members for a long time. Our next door neighboors, the Jubbers, are part of the temple presidency so that's pretty cool. We only have one counselor in the branch presidency. I guess the work in this area has been hard for a while. The two Elders who live with us have more success in the township that they serve in. Anyways we have a teaching pool of about 20 progressing invesigators who we want to put on date, but it's really hard. There is one family, the Vulshank family, who reads The Book of Mormon like crazy, the dad Villum even got in a fight with a Jehova and gave him one of our pamphlets. They haven't been to church yet though and we haven't brought up baptism yet. They do smoke, but the other day he was having a hard time believing the Book of Mormon because Nephi killed Laban and the Lord says thou shalt not kill. He said he needed a sign to keep reading the it, so I gave him Alma 32 to read when we left and he said when we came back that that was the sign he needed. So hopefully we can get more people on date soon. Anyways Elder Albertson is awesome and is hilarious. I'm going to have pretty sweet abs when he leaves from laughing so much. There are certainly some characters that we teach and a lot of the members of our ward. The scripture from my study this week is from Alma 37, 35-37. We must always have our thoughts directed towards the Lord and He will direct all of our doings, and if we allow Him to lead us we will be lifted up at the last day. I love you all and hope everything continues to go well in all of your lives. I will continue to pray for all of you and may the Lord bless you in everything you do.

Love,

Elder Chandler Kendall

First of all Happy Birthday to Carsen last week and Happy Birthday to the best father ever today! And Happy Easter as well. I had a lot of mail to read today and tried to send a email out to everyone so this will be a short message this week. So losing my memory was not fun at all, it doesn't really make adjusting to a mission any easier, but I'm glad to be back in the work. I am amazed at all of the people who care about me and have prayed for me. I know that the power of prayer works and that it was because of your prayers that I was able to heal so quickly. So basically what the doctor said was, because we had no water in our flat and I was taking a cold sponge bath, that all the blood probably rushed from my head to my feet and I fainted and hit my head. All of the missionaries and senior couples and Presient and Sister Poulsen were so helpful to me and I was blessed to be in their care. I had three stitches in my head, and a CAT scan, both of which I don't remember. The doctor said I'll probably never get my memory back of that morning. Anyways by Friday I was back in Klerksdorp ready to teach the Gospel again. Well I'm almost out of time so I'll leave you with a spiritual thought.

All things that the Lord does for us is for our benefit. Losing my memory helped me better understand the Plan of Salvation and what it is like to come to this earth. We live with out Heavenly family and then we pass through the veil and come to earth, not remembering how or why we came here. We may have spiritual homesickness that sometimes we forget about as we go through life. As we grow closer to the Spirit we will remember our Heavenly home and remember that the reason we are here is so that we can go back to live with our Heavenly Parents. We should use that to motivate us to try our best in everything we do so that when we do return home that we will have a joyous reunion.

I love you all so much and hopefully next week I can tell you more about South Africa.

Love,

Elder Chandler Kendall

Thank you for all the prayers

Dear Friends of the Ward-

Thank you so much for the phone calls and e-mails in support of Chandler and our family! Chandler hit his head on Sunday morning and woke up with a concussion and 3 stitches. He also woke up feeling like it was Dec. 2008. He just turned 17 and now he was wondering how he got to South Africa on his mission. We updated his mission blog- ElderKendall.blogspot.com and our family blog. The funny thing is that on our family blog we updated Chandler on his senior year. For those of you who don't know him, he went from playing Football and Lacrosse to drama his senior year. He was looking at the drama picture wondering who he was... thinking he is a Linebacker for the Lone Peak Knights! Now we can laugh about his e-mail he sent.
This morning I called the mission office and they said that he was up to remembering about the summer of 2010. The other Elders wanted to play volleyball with him on Monday, their P-day, but the Senior missionaries didn't think that was a good idea. The Elders joked that if the ball hit him he might go back to being 12 and I heard that he laughed about it. I do wish I could talk to him, but they said they thought he might get too homesick. I know he is in good hands, but he is my boy. His name was in at least 5 temples and I know there were literally thousands of prayers offered in his behave, especially all around the world from his friends on missions. I was tough on Sunday through yesterday, but today my heart is full and I am very emotional! I have found out that the tears come when the spirit is so strong and I have a grateful heart. Thank you so much for all that you do.

Love,
Michelle



Thank you so much to everyone for your prayers and support. I know that the reason I was able to regain my memory quickly was because of the many prayers that all of you have given. I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in my life. As of Thursday my memory was restored and Friday I was back doing the Lord's work. I loved the emails everyone has sent to me and thank you so much for providing me with memories and pictures of things in my life that I have forgot. It's actually kind of funny to see what I forgot and the different person I became my senior year. Apparently word got around that this happened to me, and as such I have received a lot of emails. Unfortunatley we only get an hour a week to read and to write emails, but I would like to personally write each of you a letter. It takes two to three weeks to get letters out of here so it might be a little bit before you get it, but I have written everyones' name down and all I need back is your address so that I can send it to you. If not I'll just send it to my family and they can give it to you. The Lord truely does work miracles and I know that it is because of each of your personal worthiness and faithfullness to Jesus Christ. I pray that he will personally bless all of you in your lives and that you will always feel His Spirit throughout each day. I love you all so much and once again thank you for helping me out here on my mission. The work of the Lord will always go forth!

Love,
Elder Chandler Kendall

So I can't remember a lot of things right now. For me it is December 2008. I have no idea why I am remembering this time in my life. I just got done looking at all of the pictures and different things, but right now it doesn't seem to help. Imagine being 17 years old and waking up the next day in Africa on a mission. Basically I've lost two and a half years of my life. Everything is so strange. Every time I try to remember anything it is useless right now. It's like trying to remember tomorrow. And seeing pictures of myself and other people is super weird. First of all all of the kids look so big, especially Carsen. Also I can't believe I did theater. I got a package today from a Johnson who gave me a journal and said I did theater with her son and I see pictures of me doing theater and I look like a fruit. And I guess I went to Utah State. I was looking at the pictures and my dorm was ghetto. I wonder who my roommates were? So they said that Grandma is doing better. What happened to her? And Mike is having a child? I think I have too many questions right now to be answered and every time I try to remember something I've read or a picture it is like looking at another life. I'll tell you everything I remember before yesterday. I remember going to school. I'm kind of stressed because of AP classes. I'm preparing to take a test in U.S., Chem., and Calc. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. It's been snowing a lot. I also am working on my eagle project. I have long hair (not any more) and I wear glasses. I'm not doing so well in Chemistry. I think my short term memory is getting better. I can remember things that are happening over the past day better, but there is still that gap in my memory. It's like I'm in a strange dream and I'm just waiting to wake up and go on with my life. I'm going to try my hardest to get my memory back, because if I don't I have no idea what I"m going to do. Tell everyone thank you for all of the support, even the people I don't know I know. I love you all and sorry for how spoiled I act. This is the craziest thing that has happened to me. Hopefully I don't end up like Jason Bourne, at least I know who I am. I wish I could remember everything over the past couple of years so I can say something significant, but right now there is nothing. Tell the kids I love them and I love you guys as well. I hope I make it through this.

Love,
Chandler

1st week in the field!

Hello my wonderful family! I am finally out in the field in Klergsdorp, South Africa! My companions name is Elder Albertson, as you already know, and let me just tell you what an amazing trainer he is. I am truely blessed to have such a great trainer. We get along great. He enjoys working hard and keeping all of the rules. He is an amazing example to me and is teaching me how to be a great missionary. He is also the district leader and has been out in the field 21 months (lucky) and I will probably be his last companion. He knows almost every language here. Klergsdorp is a very diverse area. There are a good amount of both whites and blacks and we teach and go to rich areas and poorer areas. We are on a biking area and we only get a car two days of the week. The other days the other two elders Elder Smith and Elder Bais, who was in the MTC with me, get the car. They serve in a township called Joberton. Where I am isn't a township, but it's pretty urban. Our flat is right next to a member named Brother Jubber, an old Afrikaans member who owns the flat and works at the temple throughout the week. We are about 2 hours outside of Joburg. We have been teaching like crazy. Our main goal right now is to teach father lead families because we need priesthood holders to be leaders of the church. We serve in a branch by the way. It's really small but the members are great. We had a baptism yesterday for a woman named Sister Meise. Right now we have 10 people on date for baptism so I guess we're doing pretty well. Some of the stories here are amazing and heartbreaking. I feel so blessed to live in America and the blessing I have in the church as well as with my family. I am convinced that the is no one in the world who loves their family as much as I do. Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe. We get an hour each week to write emails every Monday. The only way we can get mail or packages is when we go down to the office in Joburg or someone comes up from the office, which only happens every 4 to 6 weeks, and sometimes maybe longer. Luckily our district is going down for interviews tommorow so hopefully the packages you sent will be there then. I'm glad you got the letters I sent to you guys. If people want to send packages or letters they can do it through the Private Bag X4 address you have, or through the P.O. box 30150 address you have. I don't know my home address yet but I'll see if people are allowed to send me letters there, but I don't know if it's against the rules.Also if you want to watch a movie about the mission work in Africa you can call this number 1-800-962-8061 to get the DVD. Being on a mission is the hardest thing ever! I love teaching people and testifying of the gospel, but it is hard to be away from home. That is the major struggle for me right now is getting over home sickness. Remember when I went to Clear Creek and I called you guys after 2 days to come and get me. Well now I'm on a mission for two years! The missionaries say that after about the first three months time really starts to fly, and after the first year it really goes fast. I sure hope so. Not that I don't love being on a mission but I am awefully far from home and my family. But I guess everyone goes through it. I still haven't heard who one the tournament. It's good to hear how well the Sox did against the Yankees. Hopefully they'll get better than their starting 0-6 record. So is Carsen living in my room now? That would be crazy. Oh by the way, I sent a letter to you guys for Trevis, Jaren, and Ryan so if you just want to get it to Trevis' mom that would be great. Tell Grandpa I said happy birthday and tell everyone I said hi and that I love them so much. Also tell people they can start emailing me. It would be great to hear from everyone, especially the kids and my friends. Well there is so much I can tell you, but I'll save some more for my other letters so I actually have something to write. We will write our letters every week around 10:15 our timeint the morning so if you want to do some quick back and forths that when we can do it. Hopefully I've answered all of your questions. Love you all a ton and will try to send some pictures if I can get it figured out. Stay strong and pray that I will endure my mission well.

Love,
Elder Chandler Kendall

Chandler at the airport and meeting new Elders!

Favorite Pictures of the Day Chandler received his call!

Chandler's Memories of getting his call to South Africa!

Dear Brother and Sister Kendall,

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Chandler Kendall, has arrived in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission and he is doing wonderfully. We are delighted to have him serving with us in the Mission. Elder Kendall will serve initially in the Klerksdorp Area of the Roodepoort Zone. His companion and trainer is Elder Tyler Albertson from California.

I’ve also attached a group photo of the missionaries your son served with in the MTC who also came to our mission, as well as a photo with Sister Poulsen and me.



Uplifting and supportive letters from home are important to missionaries. We encourage you to write or e-mail your son weekly. His email address throughout his mission will be chandler.kendall@myldsmail.net
In fact email communications are preferred.
For Letters and Documents sent through pouch (no checks or photographs)
Elder Chandler Kendall
South Africa Johannesburg Mission
P. O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-01550

For Packages and Letters sent through Postal Service
Elder Chandler Kendall
South Africa Johannesburg Mission
Private Bag X4
Ansfrere 1711, South Africa

Packages should be labeled “Missionary Supplies” and be valued less than R300 in order to avoid high custom charges. Missionaries may also receive mail by fax to the Mission Office. We put faxes into the post (mail) delivered to missionaries. The least expensive parcel maybe the US Postal Box which has a flat rate. For secure items please use Fedex or DHL and the physical address: 3 Phillips Avenue, Discovery 1709, South Africa.

We appreciate your support of your missionary and thank you for sharing him with the South Africa Johannesburg Mission. Attached you will find a picture that we took soon after his arrival.

Sincerely,


David E. Poulsen, President
South Africa Johannesburg Mission
The Greatest Mission in the World!
Private Bag X4
Ansfrere
Republic of South Africa

Final Week at SAMTC

Just a few quick notes before I start talking about my week. We can't print things here, but that might change in the field, so I wasn't able to print the fathers blessing. I hope you used Romans 8:16-18 for my plaque. I haven't recieved any package yet but hopefully it will come today. I don't know if you guys got my letters yet. I think they said it takes 10 days to get there. I sent more to the kids on Monday and the ones I sent you last Saturday should be there early next week. Email is great, and it works well to write you every week with it, but I also like getting real letters from people because I don't have time to email them every week. Tell Savanah thanks by the way for the letter she sent me. I guess DearElder.com workds really well. Also let me know how you want me to write all of those thankyou notes. I haven't had time to do any at all so far. Anyways here is how the week went. First of all I think I am adjusting a lot better. I still miss home a TON!, but I think I'm getting used to it more and more. Tuesday we went to the temple again and we were able to do sealings. It was an awesome experience and really gave me perspective about my role as a missionary. Then we had a fireside with one of the senior couples around here and were able to go to the Distribution center. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We just have been having classes and firesides. The teacher for our district Sister Nkokla, got married yesterday so that was exciting, even though we didn't go. Also yesterday night we met with some of the local members to practice teaching and share a message. My companion and taught two lessons and had seven people in each one. It was crazy. Besides all of the fences here and the high crime rate, I think you would really like it here. The weather is really nice and the countryside is really green. Oh, also on Monday the local missionaries stoped by to play sports because it was their P-day. We have sports time every day so we were able to talk to them. I met two Elders from Lone Peak and they said that once I am out in the field that there will be six of us Knights. Also we don't get to watch conference this weekend. We have to wait until the end of the month. Bummer, I know. But I hope you guys enjoy it. Today we get to go out tracting with the missionaries around here. I'm so excited to start doing some actual work. They show us a lot of videos here of actual missionaries teaching and it just makes me want to get out of here and start teaching. We go to our first transfer meeting on Tuesday where I'll meet my trainer and learn what area I'll be assigned to. I'm way excited. Hopefully my friend Elder Bangeter will be my trainer. That would be awesome. Anyways my time is running out and I've got to go get ready to meet the other missionaries. Tell Craig and the team I'm proud of them and let everyone else know how much I love them and miss them. I love you Mom and Dad will continue to pray for everyone every day.

Love, Chandler

Anyways, I'll let you know a few interesting things about South Africa. The light switches here turn down to turn things on. They drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right, like England. They don't say you're going on a mission, they say you go "on mission." There are lots of little things that are just a little different and funny. I sent a letter to you guys today. They are addressed for earlier in the week, but I didn't get them out until today so we'll have to see how long it takes to get there. My companion is pretty funny. We get along really well and have no problem being with each other all of the time (I can't say that for all of the companionships). I know you wanted me to write a thankyou note to all the people who came to my farewell. I will try my best to, but there isn't a lot of down time to do things like that. We went to the Temple on Tuesday. I cried so hard in the Celestial room. Mostly we've been learning how to teach people. My companion and I work really well together. Last night we were able to teach members here who were acting as investigators. Most of the members I've met so far are Afrikaans and I get along really well with them. Today the President is taking us to a giant mall. Hopefully I'll be able to find some gifts for you guys. This week President and Sister Chritiansen went to Zimbabwie from Saturday until Wednesday. We had another counciler stay with us named President Barnett. He grew up in London and has lived in South Africa since he was 20. He knows a lot about the Gospel and I really enjoyed talking to him. When we have free time here we play A LOT of ping pong. I'm getting pretty good. We usually play around the world with 8 to 10 people. It is so great to hear about Trevis' and Michael's mission calls. It will be great when we get back to have had experiences we can share about our service to the Lord. There are so many things I want to say, but unfortunately we only have 20 minutes to read and write our letters. Tell people to start writing me! I'll try to write all of my thankyou letters, but it might be better if you guys do it because it will take me a while. I'll try to send the letters for the kids this week and hopefully the ones I wrote to you guys will arrive soon. I miss you and love you all so much, more than you can imagine. Stay well and I will talk to you soon.

Love,

Chandler