Week 11 - Chamanculo A - "Put It Down" by Hurris and GIG

Feliz Dia de Independencia!

June 25th is Mozambique's Independence Day and with the end of Ramadan yesterday there is some good partying going on down here hahaha.

This week was another great one. We had the chance to visit with Junior to get him all prepped for his baptism and everything went so smoothly for his baptism. The best part was that his family showed up too to be with Junior on his special day. He was super scared to get in the water and then it didn’t help that the water was pretty chilly. His testimony was great that he bore and it just solidified the fact the Junior will be a solid member and priesthood holder here soon.

Other than that, we had a couple of improvisations go down with a division with the AP's on Tuesday. It was very nice tho, I was able to walk with Elder Smith. It was our first time walking together since Beira and it will probably be our last time until August. But we are teaching some really great people still. Elder Griffeth and I found Sheila this week knocking doors on Tuesday, taught her on Friday and she came to church on Sunday. Sheila is an older lady who just recently moved backed to Mozambique from South Africa because she divorced from her husband after 25 years being together. She said that she has been looking for something that can bless her and her family’s life after many hard years of trials and problems.  She told us that it seems like she found it right off the bat with our message and the feeling she had a church. We are also teaching Benjamin who is probably the closest thing to the Mozambican Ryan Gosling haha. He is a super smart business man and has been loving what he has been learning so far about the Church and the Priesthood being restored in these later days. On another note, all of the recently baptized members are doing great. Lurdes is participating in seminary, Nelio gave a talk in church on Sunday and will be receiving the Priesthood this Sunday, Shanaya gave a talk at the baptism which she was super nervous about but did a great job. So Chamanculo is really being blessed right now. And since I am hitting close here to 50 days the motto for these next couple of weeks comes from the homie, 50 Cent, "Find elects, or die trying."  

For this week, I would love everyone to read, Elder Neil L. Anderson's talk from the past conference titled, "Overcoming the World". It is a simple message of how truly we can be in the world but not of the world and the things that we can do to always press forward in what the Lord wants no matter how much the world is changing around us.

Estamos juntos! Love you guys!

Elder Chipman

Shoutouts... Happy Bday to Ez on Tuesday! And shoutout to the homie Bubs for killing it on his homecoming talk! Miss ya boi!

Junior's Baptism

Our Pday Meal #ChineseRestaurant

Bishop Pavava and Milo from Mahotas

More Food Pics...

Dope Sunset

Family Night at Irene and Senna's home. 

Family Night

Week 10 - Chamanculo A - "Like Father, Like Son" by the Game

Alrighty yall!

This week was pretty great for us down here. A week full of the sweet spirit of service and the overall highlight came from Wednesday, when we helped a group of audiologists from the States, at the hospital all day. Last Sunday night, right before a stake devotional with President and Sister Senna. Two Americans just showed up at the chapel, walked right up to us missionaries and introduced themselves as brother and sister Rakuskus and so that gave it away that they were members haha. But it turned out they were in Mozambique on a charity event called "Hearing the Call" where their objective was to help test for hearing loss, distribute and teach the use and care of hearing aids, to those that do not have the conditions to receive this help. And Sister Rakuskus came by to ask President Senna if there could be some missionaries at the hospital Monday-Wednesday to help them out with translating. Elder Griffeth and I had the blessing to go on the last day to help out and it was such a special day. Elder Griffeth and I were able to work in the rooms where they put the hearing aids in and turn them on for the first time for the people and seeing their faces light up every time is something that I will never forget. We got to the hospital at about 7:00 AM and left there at 5:30 PM so it was a full day of work but it was well spent.

The work is still progressing as well! We are planning on having the baptism of Junior this week and on top of him being confirmed on Sunday, Nelio (who was baptized a few weeks ago) will be speaking and receiving the Priesthood as well. So, it should be a great week for us teaching and seeing the Lord's work move forward here in Chamanculo!

To end I would like to throw out some shoutouts. First S/O goes the only Parker Henry Chipman for going beast mode and getting that master’s degree! Second, to Corey and Teagan! I hope you guys have great birthdays! And last but definitely not least, to Papa B! With yesterday being Father's Day I would just like to let you know how much I love and appreciate you. I am so grateful for all the sacrifices that you have made in your life to bless my own and the lives of everyone else in the family. In short terms, if the Chipmans were like the Mighty Ducks, you are our Emilio Estevez hahaha. Love you tho Papa B!

Have a great week beach bums!

Elder Chipman

Pictures from "Hearing the Call Mozambique"

These are the last two little girls that got their hearing aids on Wednesday. The first is Rofin (age 10), who lost her hearing when she was 6 because of Malaria. When her hearing aids came on that smile would not come off her face! When I went to take a picture with her she gave me the biggest hug ever and thanked me. In my mind I thought, "Well I didn’t do anything." But then it hit me that if you are serving someone, through a huge act or small, everyone that is involved can feel of God's and of Jesus Christ's love them. The second, is Albertinha who is 15 and was so happy that when the Doctors put on music she started dancing.

Relaxing

Elder Griffeth and I eating PB&J's at KFC after a long
 day of service. haha

.

Week 9 - Chamanculo A –

Hellooooo loved ones!

Twas another great week down here for ya boys in Chamanculo! Lots of fun activities and lots of work. Elder Griffeth and I are working very hard with some investigators, preparing them to get baptized on the 24th of June. We are teaching Elvis and Nelson, who are twins and they are really great and humble and want to learn. The only thing that isn't helping is that they are soccer rats haha they are playing soccer 24/7 so whenever we pass by their home and they aren't there we have to go the closest field and try to find them which always leads to fun experiences. We are also teaching Junior, who is the neighbor to our ward mission leader, Xavier. Junior is the most mature 16-year-old I have ever met. At night, he is usually taking care of his little brother, cooking and prepping everything for the next day. With every visit, he is breaking out of his shy shell haha. And we are also teaching Marta, who is the nanny/worker of Amilcar and Elvira. We went by the other day to teach Junior a follow up lesson and Elvira told us that Marta was already reading the Book of Mormon and that the she was already in 1 Nephi 9 sooo she is pretty dope.

Monday night we had a meeting with President and Sister Senna at their home speaking and conversing about the work that needs to be done to help the Matola Stake be created.  On Saturday, the stake had a big open house at the Summerschield Chapel. They took the chance to do a blood drive and open the doors to everyone that wanted to come. It was a great turnout and we as the missionaries were in charge of the after snacks for giving blood.  We went out in turns talking with everyone in the road and inviting them to check out the open house. It was something so simple as a missionary but something that we don’t do much in this mission of just walking up and down the streets and parking lots talking with every person that we can. It was an amazing experience talking with everyone and seeing all the members that were participating as well. Two returned missionaries went out and were bringing people to the church like crazy. Elder Griffeth and I went out with some perspective Elders and they would just talk to everyone so naturally. Elder Griffeth and I were so amazed about how much more prepared they were than we were going into our missions.

All in all, the work is rolling on like it talks about in Daniel 2! The work of the Lord will continue to go on, no matter what! Even if we take a back seat, lose motivation, or just think that we don’t have time in our role of sharing the gospel, Heavenly Father will still find ways and give us opportunities to share. His work and His glory is that all His sons and daughters hear of the message of happiness and joy, which is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love yallz! Have a great week, signing off

Elder Chipman

ps. Shoutout to Parker for graduating this upcoming week. I hope you listen Graduation by Kanye all week. Another shoutout to Devin and Emily congrats on another baby girl coming your way!

Pics from the Open House

Elvira made us luch after a visit.
Fejiao Nhemba, best beans in the world!

Week 8 - Chamanculo A - "Tacos on Broadway" By Brothers From Another

Coming at ya live from the English School that is next door from our apartment that offers internet,

How is everyone?! I absolutely loved seeing the picture from Diem's baptism! Diem, congrats, you and the whole fam looked beautiful! I am so happy that you were able to have such a special day with all very big and very special family!

It sounds like summer is bumping for everyone and I cannot wait to hear about this DelTaco incident when I get home. I hope everyone keeps having a great summer with all vacations and fun activities coming up.

As always, the week was very good for Elder Griffeth and I. We were able to put in a lot of time this week finding throughout our whole area and through all ways possible. One way was through English Class. The Elders and Sister here in the city have been teaching English class on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays and it has been a huge blessing with finding new people to teach, integrating investigators, and strengthening recent converts. Elder Griffeth and I taught a lesson with 6 college students who have been coming to English for a little bit now and it was one of the coolest lessons I have had on my mission. All 6 vary in religion and faiths, from Catholic to Muslim. We taught them in the chapel and the spirit was definitely there and you could tell from their excitement and desire to know more and keep asking questions.

The highlight of the week probably comes from Wednesday, when we had the blessing to spend the whole day with President and Sister Senna and Elder Palmer and Sister Palmer (of the 70s) at the Matola Chapel for our Mission Tour. I won’t try to describe all that went down cause I wouldn't be able to do it justice but Elder Palmer helped ministered, inspired, and motivated everyone that was present at those meetings. The Lord truly does extend His hand to us by the leaders of the church that He calls. For a spiritual thought, I would just like to leave you with a line from Elder Palmers talk from the last general conference. "Anytime you feel you are being asked to do something hard, think of the Lord beholding you, loving you, and inviting you to follow Him." I want to invite you all this week to read Elder Palmer's talk and to study the story of the rich young man in the New Testament. Charity is the pure love of Christ and it never faileth! I promise to you all that if strive to develop that type of love for everyone in our lives we will feel of the spirit more fully, be able to bless more lives, and feel more joy in our own lives.

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Elder Chipman

Titos turned 10 the week and is pumped about his talk
in Primary next week (haha). 

Selfies with Zinha and Ana

Sunsets from the Varanda. 

More Views

Week 7 - Chamanculo A - "Power" by Big Sean

What it is?!

It sounds like summer has actually hit in Salt Lake and what a coincidence cause it feels like winter has hit here haha. But it sounds like last week was a rager, s/o to Burke and his little league team, s/o to Teags, Haddie Girl and Wrenly on their dance recital, s/o to all the kids who finished school, and s/o to Diem, who will be getting baptized this weekend, can’t wait to see the pics!

It was a good ol' week down here for ya boys! The highlight came on Saturday, with the baptism of Nelio, Junior and Lurdes. Everything went smoothly with Bishop hooking it up by filling up the font for us and with Xavier, who is our ward mission leader, putting together a star studded baptismal service. All three gave great testimonies but the one that hit out the park was the testimony of Irma Lurdes. Lurdes has been receiving the missionaries’ visits since April as a reference from a member. She loves the Book of Mormon and has learned a ton about the Gospel. The only thing that was missing was her Parent/Guardian permission to be baptized. Lurdes' mother lives in Quelemane and has never spoken with her.  Her uncle and aunt were not super excited about her wanting to get baptized. Lurdes would always pray before/after visits asking Heavenly Father that her uncle and aunt would let her get baptized. So, last Tuesday we went by to visit her and she wasn't home.  We started talking with her uncle a little bit and of course with a baptismal service already planned for that Saturday we started talking to him about Lurdes getting baptized. After talking and more explanation he said would happily let Lurdes get baptized and he even came to the baptism and said he loved it. In Lurdes' testimony she thanked Heavenly Father for her family, for the Book of Mormon and for the chance that she had been given to be baptized.

After the baptism, Nelio put together a little dinner with the help of Suzy and Dalia cooking. It was a super fun night being with lots of members and seeing the friendships starting between investigators, recent converts and older members. Other funny story of the week, when we were walking home at night, a lady stopped and said, "Alright, I see you guys everywhere. I need to know who are you?". We explained to her and she instantly sounded relieved cause she had been hearing that we were working with the CIA haha. After, a long talk with her about what it is that we do and what we share with families, her eye just shined super bright and said she would love for us to visit her and her family.  Let’s hope all goes well with us trying to visit this new family this week.

Long update so I will try and share a quick spiritual guy. In the April General Conference, President Nelson gave a talk on how we can receive the power of Jesus Christ into our lives. He gives a couple of things that we can to do more fully receive this power.  Such as studying and coming to know better our Savior, acting with faith and when we make covenants with our Heavenly Father and keep them with precision. The last thing that he mentions is a true desire to reach up diligently and receive His power in our lives. When I was studying this talk I thought to myself that this was obvious and something that everyone had but President Nelson spiritually back handed that thought of my mind when he gives the example of the women who exercised her faith but just touching the robe of Christ and was healed (Mark 5:28) and then says, "When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do." I instantly thought about the motivational video on youtube that I always watch to pump me up for football practice haha. But I know that as we search and strive to receive Christ's power in our lives and it will bless and help us through any personal problem or any social issue that we come across.  This ended up not being a quick spiritual thought, but I hope that we all can continue to understand better, receive more and be blessed by the Savior's power that He has because of the sacrifice that He performed for all of us.

Love you guys so much! Have a great week!

Elder Chipman

3 ball...Splash!

Junior and his family

Lurdes with friends and fam. 

Nelio's family

Chamanculo Ward!

After party

Week 6 - Chamanculo A - "Scaper Bikes" by Trunk Boiz

What is good fam?!

It looks like all the bdays were happily celebrated and that the Ogden Marathon got shown what is up by the Chipmans! Happy Birthday to everyone again; Wrenly, Grady, Diem and Elliott! And shoutouts to Mom, Corey, Colin and Brandon for throwing down at the marathon!

So it is official, Elder Griffeth and I have conquered this transfer and with transfers coming out today we barely got the news that..... we are going to be staying together for another one! You can say we are happy. But not just cause we are going to be serving for one more transfer but also because of the work that we are going to be putting in for Elder Griffeth's last transfer, starting of this upcoming Saturday with the baptism of Nelio and Junior.

This past week was great. Fun Family Night on Monday, work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, dope division to Katembe on Firday with Elder Chugg and Saturday we went to Matola to watch some people be baptized that Elder Griffeth had started teaching a year ago when he was in T3.. So, all in all it was a good week! And for a little update on past areas and what not, I received some amazing news from Swazi this past week. So first, Monwabisso Matsembula, who Elder Souza and I taught and help baptize is about to turn in his papers to serve a full-time mission. Second, Orlando (of Orlando and Precious, who got married and baptized after I had left) received the Priesthood and will baptizing their youngest son, Oliver, when he turns 8 this year. Straight up, it was one of the happiest moments of my mission hearing that news.

For a quick little spiritual guy for y’alls, I just have a quote from Elder Quentin L. Cook, "We must live by faith and not by fear." Our faith will straight wreck anything that Satan throws our way if in the gospel we learn it, live it, and love it!

Love you guys, Keep Scrapin!

Elder Chipman

East is the Beast even taking over Mozambique. 

Family Night

Leaving the dock on the ferry going to Katembe. 

Ferry Selfie with Elder Chugg. 

Elder Chugg showing me how it's done out in Katembe. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Combs, Elder Payne and Elder Goes. 

Week 5 - Chamanculo A

Alright Darrells,

You do not even know how good it was to see all the fam on Skype last night! Elder Griffeth and I were talking while walking to Brother Campera's house and it was the most antsy we had ever felt before Skype and S/O to the Family Campera for letting us Skype at their house, they were so cool about it and every time we tried to thank them Brother Campera would just reply with a , "For what? Cmom!" haha. So, all in all it was a great time! After I hung up I remembered that totally forgot to say some stuff to y’all. Like one happy birthday to Wrenly, Elliot, Grady and Diem! And two, Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers in the fam! I said it at the beginning but forgot to wish to you all individually. But shoutout to mothers!

Not much too update on cause we kind of talked about most of it last night, but everything is going great. On Thursday, we had a division with the AP's and I had the chance to walk with Elder Fuchs (he is going to be famous one day) and then it was just a normal week of finding and teaching. We are super excited for Nelio, the brother of Suzy who is a recent convert. He is pumped for his baptism on the 27th and he has loved learning about all the commandments and learning more about the Book of Mormon with each visit. And if everything goes to plan, we should be having the baptism for Junior as well that day so it will great.

For a spiritual thought, I have been pondering a lot about how when our lives become more focused and centered on Jesus Christ how much easier our lives are. Easier not in the terms of us not having problems or trials but easier meaning that we will forgot about ourselves and look outward, feeling and embracing more light and love in our lives. And with yesterday being Mother's Day how important mother's play a part of life and us coming to know Christ. In Elder K. Brett Nattress Conference talk last October he talked about how his mother had a special goal written while he was growing up to "be patient with Bret" and I felt like I can relate to this story a little bit too much haha. And it just makes me feel so much more grateful for all the women that are in my life that have helped me come closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ. And in the top spot, is the famous, Barbara Jean Chipman! Mom, thank you for all that you have done and all that you do! I hope that you can feel the greatest joy of knowing that I, and all the Chipman squad, know that our Savior lives.

Love you all!

Elder Chipman

ps... concussion dabs lolz

The homie, Godsen! He turned 5 this week and has the coolest smile. 

Letters from Russia

Division with Elder Fuchs

The Skype set up. 

Brother Campera and his wonderful family. 

Skype takes it out of ya.