Blacker, Chandler

Hey everyone!  This week was incredible!  We only worked half the week because of my sick comp and zone conference but our numbers of finding and church attendance and everything were WAY more than normal, thanks to the blessings of God. There was one time that we decided to eat out for lunch, something I hadn't done before unless it was empanadas.  I ended up getting a pretty tasty soup that tasted a little like pirate booty, with a giant part of a chicken sitting it the middle, skin, bones, and all.  I used my fork and knife to cut the chicken sitting in my soup to eat what I could.  When I finished, or at least thought I had finished, a man came up to us and told me that as a part of Paraguayan culture, you pick up the chicken and eat it with your hands, despite it being covered in soup!  Turns out this dude was really awesome and paid for our food and invited us to his house for us to teach him!  How cool! I'm incredibly short on time but we've bee...

Okay, started the week with 0 baptismal dates, by Wednesday we had 4 set for Sunday, by Friday we only had 2, and then only one of those 2 actually got baptized because one didn't show up.  It's been an absolutely crazy week.   We had 5 people come to church that we had never met before, and they all told us they want to get baptized.  Half the members are mad at the branch president (or rumors they've heard about him) and are going inactive.  Our branch president didn't show up to church yesterday, and due to the lack of counselors or an elders Quorum President or other priesthood leaders, the secretary ran the meeting.  We started 15 min late and neither of the speakers showed up, so I gave a 15 min talk 100% in spanish with no preparation.  We finished the meeting a little late, and went to do our baptism, but the font was broken and had no water, so we called a taxi and drove with our friend 20 min away to the nearest other church building.  S...

I just don't get it.  Last week was a little rough, but there was no reason for it to be rough.  I just wasn't feeling satisfied in the work.  This week however was incredible, but I can think of plenty of reasons why it should have been terrible.  I guess that's just how it goes sometimes. Tuesday was a crazy crazy day.  I'll start from the beginning... We had a district meeting about a 20 min bus ride away, but we forgot.  The busses don't actually have a schedule.  The morning bus comes anytime between 9:00 and 9:45, so you just gotta be ready I guess.  We weren't ready though.  At 9:30 we remembered our meeting, and rushed out the door, and consequently missed the bus.  We called a taxi, but unfortunately it was 4x more expensive.  We arrived late, and immediately Elder Smith rushed to the bathroom with the very commonly received problem of diarrhea. Our plan for the day was to get off the bus early on the ride home and visit a ...

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great week! I had some ups and downs this week.  A few days where I just felt that something was missing because I wasn't feeling super satisfied with the work I was doing.  But, I want to focus on just the miracles because I know that God loves me and is helping me through my lows. I really saw a lot of miracles this week.  One day I wasn't doing so great, but then I heard my favorite song IN ENGLISH and it really helped me out a bit.  There was another time where we were walking back to the house and somebody stopped us and invited us in for lunch.  That doesn't normally happen, but we were happy to accept.  They started serving us like 5 star quality grilled meat and cake and soda and all the sides.  It was incredible!  They just had extras from a little party and gave it to us.  The simple kindness of people really goes a long way! There was another miracle I saw, and this one really touched me.  We were s...

I feel like I say this every time but, this week was crazy!!  I actually have to adopt the day-by-day format because so much happened this week.  But still, I'll try to keep it short. Tuesday:  We had interviews with President and I stumped him with a question that he couldn't respond to.  I asked him what the difference is between a law and a commandment.  We know from Elder Uchtdorf that the first great law of the heavens is obedience, but we know from Jesus Christ that the first great commandment is to love God.  But I don't know the difference between a commandments and a law (just something I was thinking about).  Anyway, that was kinda fun to stump him lol.  He told me that it surprised him to not know the answer. Wednesday: I got sick.  We left the house and walked a lot, but I had no energy.  It was a rough day, but I endured Thursday: My comp got sick.  We had some mild diarrhea struggles and lack of energy that made the wo...