Elder Chipman's Adventures in Africa: Week 11 - Fairview B

Aight yaaaalll! I hope everyone is still burping and farting turkey from last week and I hope everyone had a great/safe Thanksgiving! It sounds like that first snow storm came in good as well. As much as I hate the snow it is one of the things I miss the most haha.

As for the week, I can say this week was one of the fastest of my mission. It started out with us heading over to the Ezulwini chapel for a dual-zone Thanksgiving lunch and it was super nice being with the two zones and all of the missionaries here in Swazi. The Martins were in charge so you know they hooked us up nice food except for the part that everyone got sick. But it was all good in the hood for Elder Chipman's stomach so no worries.

On Wednesday morning, a couple of us went to Mozambique for some meetings and what not and all went well there! On Wednesday, Elder Stephens and I got caught with nothing to do and nowhere to go in Maputo so we just decided to go see the city. We hit up the Fortaleza Do Maputo (Maputo Fort) which is an old fort from back when the Portuguese were in rule there and built the fort as a protection from other countries and the natives. It is a now a museum with some pretty cool stuff. They have a section talking all about the cinema of Mozambique and I learned that my boy Leonardo Dicaprio touched down in Moz in 2007 to film the movie Blood Diamond so that is pretty chill. After that and some dinner it was on to Thanksgiving. Which was full of seeing tons of old faces, training, and the best Thanksgiving Lunch you could possibly imagine here in Africa. We had everything... turkey, mash potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and yes even pumpkin pie (S/O to Elder Holt).

Right after lunch and interview with President Koch we were back off on the road heading back to Swazi. Friday, Elder Griffeth and I had a division and it is always so good to walk with that kid. Saturday was the regular routine head out in the morning, hit up Galitos for lunch and then head straight back out and "ball out" as my good friend Elder Ramirez would say down in Peru. So, all in all everything is going great down here. We are in the last week of the transfer so we will have to wait to see what happens to Elder Ol' Dirty for the next 6 weeks but I will keep yall posted.

As for a spiritual note, I would just like to share a scripture that President Koch shared with us. He shared with us D&C 59:21 after we had a second to explain to everyone who didn’t know what Thanksgiving was. 21 says, "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments." I realized that Thanksgiving isn't about the Turkeys, football or even Black Friday the next day... although those things are super nice. Thanksgiving is a time for us to put our gratitude on steroids and remember all the things that we have been giving in our life. I can just say that I am so grateful for all that I have been given in my life. I could go on and on about the things that I have been blessed with and the things I am thankful for but I don’t want to bore you guys. But in one statement I can sum it all up. I am so very grateful for the knowledge that I have that we have a Loving Heavenly Father that loves us so much He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to earth to live and to die for us. I hope that we can keep our gratitude going all throughout the rest of this year and especially this special time of Christmas!

Love and miss you guys soo much! Have a great week! And remember don’t eat the yellow snow lolz

Elder Chipman