An Ensign to the Nations

 Greetings friends and family from Huskerville.  Hope everyone is
doing fantastic and really getting into the routine of school and
fall.  As always, being a missionary continues to be amazing.
Everyday is a challenge and a growing experience.  It's amazing that
Heavenly Father always gives us personally tailored challenges and
trials in life that help us to learn and gain experience.  Not that
I'm going through any major trials right now, but new experiences
always bring new challenges to overcome, and right now the challenge
is trying to figure out how to serve in a singles ward.  It is
certainly unique.  But this is the Lord's work and He will make sure
it is taken care of as long as we are willing to follow him.  So last
week we were able to take Doug up to Omaha to the Trail Center to see
it the temple and watch the Joseph Smith movie.  It was awesome, and
he loved it.  His testimony is growing so much, and we're so excited
for his baptism on the 22nd of this month.  It was funny, because we
actually took a group of us up there from the singles ward, and the
Sister who was taking us on tour couldn't tell who was the
investigator, haha.  Sometimes Doug is a better fellowshipper than a
lot of our members.  We also have a new investigator who came to
church for the first time Sunday, where we met her.  Her name is
Simone, and she grew up in Omaha by the Trail Center and Temple, so
she knows a fair amount about the Church.  She has a friend in the
ward who invited her to church, so she came.  And get this, she bore
her testimony.  It was awesome.  We were able to talk to her after,
and we're really excited for her first lesson tomorrow.  Other than
that things remain the same.  We still continue to struggle finding,
and the best way it seems is by members bringing their friends to
church.  Really looking forward to this transfer though.  We just
moved into a new apartment that is way closer to campus, so we're
excited to be able to make more effective use of our time.
     So spiritual thought of the week, one of my favorite phrases in
the scriptures comes from Isaiah where it talks about being an "Ensign
to the Nations."  One way I think we can truly be an ensign to the
nations is by our personal standards.  When I look at the standards of
the world, they are very low, and differ widely.  People do not see
the importance of keeping the commandments.  As Latter-day Saints we
have a great opportunity to raise the flag of righteousness by the
example we set to others.  We must realize that people are always
watching us, and often base what they will do off the example we show
to them.  I know that as we strive to be more like Christ, people will
notice, and they will desire to do the same.  This is what our Father
in Heaven expects of us, and I promise as we do so that we will see
the blessings of influencing others for good.  I love you all so much,
and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall

Preparation

 Hey there friends and family!  Wow, what an amazing week.  I just
love being a missionary.  Definitely the most rewarding calling in the
Church.  The funny thing is that nothing major has happened this week,
but the daily experiences that I have with the Spirit and the miracles
that I see bring so much joy to my life.  It is great!  But there were
some pretty awesome things that happened this week nonetheless.  So
last week I think I mentioned briefly Doug, the guy who came up to us
in church and asked if we could teach him.  Well, we went and taught
him on Wednesday and it was a super sweet lesson.  We had it at the
institute building, and there just happened to be a super cool
returned missionary there as well, so she joined us for the lesson.
He really enjoyed it, and invited us to have a lesson the next day.
So then we had a lesson on Thursday, and he wanted another one on
Friday.  So we had another one.  We asked him what his favorite things
he's learned about so far, and he said the Atonement.  He is awesome,
and is planning on getting baptized on September 22.  We are really
excited.  Everyone at church on Sunday thought that he was already a
member and had just moved in, so they were very surprised to learn
that he wasn't.  Good times.  Also, last night.  So UNL had this thing
where all of the organizations were able to set up a booth and all of
the students came and found out about the different organizations.  We
met a ton of people.  It was like missionary heaven.  It was pretty
funny as well, we had these two fairly good looking members at the
booth as well, so we were able to get a lot of guys to come talk to us
and see what we're about, haha.  We'll use anything I guess to get
people interested in the Church.  It was sweet though.  You can just
see in so many people's eyes that they are looking for something, and
our job is to help show them that what they are looking for is in the
Gospel.  We had a sweet zone conference as well on Wednesday and we
now have an extra half of an hour to study the Book of Mormon together
in the morning as companions.  It has been great, so I am grateful for
this wonderful opportunity.
        Well, spiritual thought of the week.  So I've been thinking a
lot about preparation and how it helps us gain the spiritual power
that we need to make decisions in life.  One quote I really love is
"Prior Preparation Precedes Power."  It is a true principle that the
Lord will prepare us for decisions we have to make in life.  From day
to day we all make decisions that, although are small, effect our
eternal destination.  Often times we have no idea when we are going to
be required to make a decision that will be of eternal importance, and
we must always be prepared for what path we will chose.  The best way
we can be prepared is by making sure we have the Holy Ghost with us.
His power will allow us to make those hard decisions in life when they
come.  Best of all, we can commit now the decisions we will make when
those times come.  By doing this, a critical moment in our life
doesn't become hard, but is simple and easy because we are prepared.
I know that as we strive to prepare as Moroni did in the Book of Alma,
our enemies will not be able to overcome us, and we will stand strong
on the foundation of Christ and His gospel.  I love you all so much,
and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Kendall

Comfort and Growth

Hello friends and family from the greatest city in Nebraska,
Lincoln.  As always, it is amazing to be a missionary, and I thank the
my Father in Heaven every day for giving me the opportunity to come
back out on a mission.  Although we go through trials, the Lord is
always there, and will lift us out of them.  So, this week was
interesting.  We had our first zone training with our zone.  It's a
new meeting that the First Presidency has implemented where once a
month we get to gather our zone together without the mission president
or assistants and train them as zone leaders.  It went really well.
Many of the Elders in our zone have unique challenges, so it was a
great experience to be able to pray for what they need and seek to
minister unto them.  We were able to give a training on the principles
of finding, and also the Christ-like attribute of humility.  We
learned a lot, and hopefully they did as well from the Spirit.  So
being in a singles ward we have some very unique ways of trying to
find people to teach.  One way is we play ultimate frisbee with the
ward on Thursday nights.  Well, last Thursday we had two non-members
show up who were friends of a recent convert.  After we played the
member, who's name is Josh, texted us and told us that they both
wanted to start taking lessons.  It was awesome.  Then at church on
Sunday, there was a non-member there from California who said his
buddy had taken him to church a couple of times there and he wanted to
get serious about joining.  The Lord truly sees the desires of our
hearts, and although we don't have many investigators now, he is
providing people for us to teach.  President Weston came on a team-up
with both of us on Thursday.  It was fun.  We took him tracting.  It
was fun, but weird, because he was asking us for advice on how to
tract and what to do with the mission, since he is so new, haha.  We
also had the Sister missionaries come down to Lincoln last night to do
their pioneer concert.  All the Sisters serve in Omaha, so they never
get down here.  It was good, and our missionaries brought a good
amount of investigators and members brought a lot of their friends.
So, although it was a bit of a slow week, all is well. :)
            So spiritual thought of the week is about growth.
President Kunz would always say, "There's no growth in your comfort
zone, and there's no comfort in your growth zone."  That is so true
about life.  It is so important to never become complacent.  Sure, we
should be grateful for the things that we have been given, but we
should always seek and strive to be better.  That means that we need
to put ourselves in situations that will stretch us.  I think of
Nephi, and what an amazing example he is to us.  He constantly put
himself in situations that would make him grow, even though he didn't
always know what to do.  He trusted that the Lord wouldn't give him
anything more than he could bear, and then faithfully walked out into
the unknown.  Whether it was getting the plates, creating a bow, or
building a ship, Nephi was always growing.  It's like my Mom always
says to me, "I can do hard things."  So, this week, do something that
is hard.  Life is all about growth.  Pray for mountains to climb.  I
promise as you do that the Spirit will be there to strengthen you and
you will become more like our Savior.  I love you all so much and hope
you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall