Elder Chandler Obray: No Such Thing As Coincidences

Man, it was a great week this week. It was a great time to be a missionary. I think the Lord is just hooking me up with good weeks to prepare me to get wrecked on Friday. I might ask President to do a quick exchange with me so I can make it to the wedding. I can't complain though the work is good, we saw some great miracles this week and I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. Yep so be excited.

First off, I want to give a shout out to Trevor for teaching me a little bit of his Tagalog. We were knocking an apartment complex yesterday and I heard two women speaking in a different language outside the apartment we were knocking. As I started to talk to them they told me that they were from the Philippines! It was awesome to talk to them about it! They did say that they have seen the Elders walking around back home so I am pretty positive that you talked to them while you were there bro! I am excited to say that I was able to ask two Filipino women what their names were and tell them that I loved them in Tagalog. They were impressed! Haha I wish there was more to this story, but the conversation ended with us only giving them a card and her telling us that she would call us. I have probably handed out 3000 cards on my mission and I have not once received a call back... But hey, this will be the first!

We had the sweet opportunity to visit the pageant this week. It was a great experience to be in Nauvoo. Elder Youngstrom and I got there a little early so we were able to spend some time in the temple. We didn't have enough time to do a session, so we went and did some initiatories. It was great to be in the temple, it was my first time in the upper part of the temple for about a year so I’ve missed it. There is a special feeling in the temple that can't be felt anywhere else. It was great to go from the dirty streets of Cedar Rapids to the sacred halls of the temple. I love it!

The pageant was awesome. Part of me almost wished that I had decided to try out for the pageant squad instead of serving a mission. That feeling was very short lived. It is an awesome show though. We saw the British Pageant which talked all about the reformers and early saints in the British Isles. Pretty amazing stuff. Plus, I even saw a couple people that went to my high school. That was pretty wild.

I have great news! Q, our convert from earlier in my mission, received the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday and was able to give his first priesthood blessing! Man, he is a legend. He is taking off to China in August, he will make a great contribution to the saints there. I told him that he will be called to be the Branch President in no time.

Because I know you are dying to hear about it, I will share a super cool finding experience from yesterday. Elder Youngstrom and I were cruising down the street headed to knock by the community college in our area. We drove by an apartment building that Elder Cline and I knocked out a few months ago, but when I looked at the building I had the impression that we needed to turn around and go knock it again. I ignored the prompting and justified to myself that I had already knocked it and the people were mean there. When I got it again, we were about a half mile down the street so I turned around and went back. As we drove past it, I accidentally missed the turn and had to pull into a neighborhood to flip a U-turn. I noticed there was an apartment building that I had never seen before and I felt like that was the place we were supposed to knock. As I got close to the apartment I saw the lock on the door and started to get a little upset, but when I got to the door, it was slightly open so we got to it! Out of the whole place only one person answered the door and he told us that we needed to leave. What the? I was pretty bummed that this spiritual guidance didn't prove to be legit so we started walking to the original apartment I was prompted to knock. As we were walking I saw a guy sitting in the shade reading a book. I knew that he was the guy we were supposed to talk to. When he saw us, he excitedly stood up and walked to us. We explained who we are and started the Restoration lesson when one of his other buddies pulled up. Long story short, we taught them a super spiritual restoration lesson and committed them both to baptism in the parking lot of their apartment complex. Their names are N and S from Benin, Africa. They are the coolest guys around. It was an awesome experience when I truly felt that I was being guided by the Spirit. It was one of those times when you know for sure that you are on the Lord's errand. Gotta love missionary work.

I see that this email is way too long so I will shut it down. I am so bummed that I can't be at the wedding this week... But I know that this work is the most important thing that I can be doing right now. Just know that when I get home, we will be reenacting the whole thing. I am so happy that you guys are happy and finally decided to make the next step in eternal progression. Thank you for being such great examples to me. I hope you got the letter that I sent and I hope that my awkward missionary personality won't shine through. I wrote it like four times. Feel free to edit it in any way you want. I love you all and I will be thinking about you all week.

Perfectly Lonely,

Elder Obray

p.s. Transfers are this week and from the looks of it I am pretty sure that I will be taking off. Big news coming next week!