Elder Chipman's Adventures in Africa: Week 7

"Heeeeeelllllloooooo" - Robin Williams or Blake Henderson, Mrs. Doubtfire

This past week was a really great one for the boys down here in Liberdade! I have loved serving with Elder Barros so far and I cannot wait for the next couple weeks and hopefully next couple transfers with this guy! The only buzz kill of the week is that we have not had water all week (again) haha. I don’t even feel bad for myself, I am feeling bad for Elder Bailey, who is fresh from American Fork in his first week on the mission, and he has only taken one shower with running water. But, it has been really nice to get know Elder Bailey, he is a super good kid and already a great missionary.

As for the area, we had a really great week of finding some new people to teach. Elder Barros and I focused most of our mornings this week on contacting and we had lots of success finding and sitting with people on the spot to share a little purpose message or to share the Restoration with them. I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk about how when something becomes almost second nature to us it loses its value. I have been focusing on this with teaching the Restoration. I have been blessed to serve in a mission where there are no problems with teaching, which means teaching the special message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can and does become second nature at times, at least it did for me. Until I was able to learn that the Restoration was not just a single event that happened almost 200 years ago, but an event that is continuing to unfold and bless the lives of all that embraces it. The Restoration is always bringing us blessings and my blessing right now is that I have the chance to share this message with everyone possible and see it change people’s lives. Telez is one of those people that the Restoration has been blessing as of recent. I have never taught anyone that wants to read and understand the Book of Mormon more. He is doing great and trying is best to share this message with his family. Manual, the brave teenager that stood up and bore his testimony the first time he came to the church, is doing great as well. He accepted to be baptized on the 11th of Feb. So now it is just getting him all prepared.

As for this past week, I am super sad to hear about the things that have been going down with the family and everything. No one in this world wants hard times but because of a young boy who prayed to our Heavenly Father, we know one of the greatest blessings of this life, that we are all children of a loving God. "In real life, we face actual, not imagined, hard ships. There is pain- physical, emotional and spiritual. There are heartbreaks when circumstances are very different from what we had anticipated. There is injustice when we do not seem to deserve our situation. There are disappointments when someone we trusted failed us. There are health and financial setbacks that can be disorienting. There maybe be times of question when a matter of doctrine or history beyond our current understanding. When difficult things occur in our lives, what is our immediate response? Is it confusion or doubt or spiritual withdrawal? Is it a blow to our faith? Do we blame God or others for our circumstances? Or is our first response to remember who we are - that we are children of a loving God? Is that coupled with an absolute trust that He allows some earthly suffering because He knows it will bless us, like a refiner's fire, to become more like Him and to gain our eternal inheritance?" (Elder Donald L. Hallstrom)

I am so very grateful that I know that I am a child of God and He has sent me here. He has given me a family that has blessed and will only continue to bless me! I love you all and I hope you guys know there are always prayers coming your way from down under! Have such a great week!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Just to let everyone know who reads Elder Chipman's blog. The hard times he is referring to with our family is that Corey & Heidi (Braxton's oldest brother & his wife) were planning on adopting their sixth child. As a family we were so excited to have this little baby girl bless our lives. The birth mother has decided to raise this little girl. We now pray for this mother and for the baby girl that they will know of our love for them.