We have been here for two days now. It is an amazing opportunity to be here with these young missionaries. They are so excited to be here! They are all so friendly and the sisters all want hugs.

Yesterday was a tough day ... I was so tired. I took a nap in the afternoon and then fell asleep about 8pm. That jet lag and time change is terrible. 

So far I have been assisting the nurse here and figuring out where things are and where I need to be. 

Last night a group from the Provo MTC arrived. We went to their orientation this morning with the Trasks.

So fun to meet kids from Bangladesh, Australia, Utah, California, Tonga, Samoa, and other places. Some of these kids have never been in air conditioning before and so they have developed colds. Some are freezing when inside. 

I have a little tummy problems because of the bacteria in the food here. My body is not sure what to do with it. It is not too disrupting, and I am sure I will get used to it all very soon. 

I will be posting photos soon and some more info. 

This week has brought tears, excitement, a little fear & anxiety,and lots of  hope and faith. We have relied on the scripture found in John 14:27. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
We were messaging with Pres. Trask on Facebook and he told us there is no stress there at the MTC. He told us we will love it there. He also said that after we are set apart as missionaries and get on that plane that it will get better. Then we can relax. We are counting on that, Pres, Trask!
We are organizing a few last things before we leave next week and we are looking forward to a family BBQ/party on Saturday. Gotta get in as many grandchildren hugs and smiles as we possibly can. It will be tough not to see them for 23 months, but with email, skype, and Facebook, it will be a little easier. The time will go by quickly and we hope that our example of faith and desire to serve the Lord will be a testimony to our grandkids of our love for our Heavenly Father and  our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We would love to hear from you! You can email Don at Donald.chantry@myldsmail.net
You can email Sue at Susan.chantry@myldsmail.net.
Or you can write to us at:
Elder Donald Eldon Chantry, Jr.
Sister Susan Marie Chantry
Philippines Missionary Training Center
13 Temple Dr., Corner White Plains Ave
Greenmeadows Subd.,
Quezon City 1110, Metro Manila
Philippines

Our departure date has been moved up to June 24th. We will be flying out of Salt Lake City to Seattle, then flying to Tokyo. Then we will fly into Manila. Going to be a long trip, so we upgraded to business class seating. We will be doing our Preach My Gospel training at the Philippines MTC instead of the one in Provo. The excitement and nervousness are getting stronger now that we know the date we are leaving and that it is SOON! But I also feel a calmness in me. I know what we are doing is good and right and that we will grow so much from this experience. I just pray that we can help and serve the missionaries and others while we are there in the Philippines. My emotions get so strong at times...thinking about leaving, thinking about serving, the unknown, etc. The quote from Marvin J Ashton keeps running through my head, "Weeping is a gift of the Spirit." I have been using that gift a lot lately! Sometimes it embarrasses me when I can't control my emotions, but the older I get the more easily the tears flow. I feel the Spirit more and it is hard to contain it, so it overflows onto my cheeks.
I love the Lord! I am so thankful for all He has done for me. Serving full-time for 23 months is going to be an amazing experience, and a way to "pay back" a very tiny portion of what He has given me.
I know that my Heavenly Father is excited and happy that we are going on this mission. I know it will bless me, Don and our other family members.

 In case you don't know where the Philippines are!

 The MTC is in Quezon City

 The front of the MTC

And look what is across the street! The Temple!!! We are thrilled that we will be able to attend the temple!

May 22 2015
We have been pondering about going on a mission for over a year now.  We had some things we needed to take care of first, so we started to prepare. Last Sept is when we really got the impression that we needed to step it up and prepare faster. We both felt that we should sell our house and downsize. We loved our house, but the house was way bigger than we needed for just the 2 of us. It was great when all the family was there, but usually it was just us. So we listed our house for sale. We had lots of showings and a couple of offers. We decided we didn't HAVE to sell, so we waited. We looked for another house to buy and felt that we wanted to stay within our Stake boundary so we could finish our Service Mission. We had been serving for 9 1/2 years. We just couldn't find a house that fit our needs.
In January a couple who had made an offer in Oct came back and made another offer. We accepted it and soon decided to not buy another house at this time, but to submit our mission papers and go. They were not in a hurry to move in, so we were able to stay until the end of April before it closed. We worked night and day getting things packed and sold, and we gave a lot of things away, too.
We are now living at Jason's house while we wait for our mission call. Our boys are storing and/or using some of our things until we get back.
Our Stake Pres called the Missionary Dept in Salt Lake last week to check on the progress of our call. They were reviewing it this week and our call will arrive next week. We have been invited to go and serve at the MTC in the Philippines where our friend, Richard Trask is the MTC President. He and his wife have been there for 6 months now. We requested to go there, so that is where we are hoping we will be sent. We know that we may be asked to go somewhere else, and we will do that. We just want to serve. But how awesome would it be to serve those new missionaries and help them prepare to go out and preach the gospel? It would be amazing.
 The Lord has showed such tender mercies to us since we began this journey, and I know He is helping us. We have seen little and big miracles every day as we prepare to serve. We had gone in for our physicals last November and were very pleased with the results of our tests. As much as Don hates going to doctors and dentists, he went. That shows how committed he is to serving the Lord!
I know that the Lord is aware of us and our situation and He is in control of the timing of all this. Things have happened to slow down our call, but we know it is for a reason. It will all work out in the end.

June 3
We received out mission call on May 29th. We will be serving in the Philippines at the MTC!! We are to report to the Provo MTC on July 27th, but we are working on expediting our Visas.I took our applications to the Church office building yesterday. Looks like we might be able to leave on June 20th, but we will see. We are so excited to go and serve. We had most of our family here when we opened our mission call. Jason was in Indiana on business, and Eric was in a business meeting, so we skyped them. The younger kids had no clue as to what was going on, but the older grandkids seemed excited, but not about us being away for so long. I am happy we will be able to skype, email and Facebook.
We are finishing up the last few things we need to get done before we leave.