Mahotas Week 4

Ok so first of all MERRY CHRISTMAS AGAIN!! S/O to Beez and BMads for getting the house!! And also way to keep up the tradition and living super close to home haha. I hope everyones day was amazing and that Santa brought every one the presents that they wanted! I am still in shock from skype haha it honestly felt like a dream that went way to fast for me! But I am sooo grateful for the chance that I had to talk with all everyone and to see your blurry faces! After skype we hung out at the Mission Office for a couple more hours and finished everyones interviews with President Koch. I honestly love President so much! He told all of us in our interviews about our mission plan for next year and I am honestly so motivated for 2016! 

Last week was all a gaint blurr for me because of Christmas and everything but I will try and give an update! All of the families that we are teaching are doing really well! Armando/Atalia and their daughter in law Zormira came to church this week and so we super pumped about that! We marked their baptisms for the 20th of Feb. so now we just have to, week by week, help them set goals to get all they need done to get married by then! Otavio/Cecilia are still my favorite people in the world! Otavio says hi to the fam "with a big hug".  Sorry for the small update but dont have much to update since I talked to yall three days ago! I hope everyone has a safe and a Happy New Year! 

Love,

Elder Chipman

With Otavio and Cecilia

Mahotas Week 3

Alright y'all week 3 is in the books that means... ITS CHRISTMAS WEEK!! But first it sounds like everyone is doing well and having a good Christmas season. Mom it sounds like you are doing a lot better. Good luck with your first doctors check up tomorrow! Keep being strong and put your trust in the Lord (Moshiah 24:15) and He will ease this burden for you and I am sure of it! I hope every one has a great week and stays safe with the weather and other stuffs haha. 

Update on me one for the week can be summed up in one word: Lobhola!!!!

Lobhola, aka a dowery, is when a husband needs to pay a wife's parents to receive their blessing/permission to marry their daughter. It is usually paid here with either cows or goats... its some straight Johnny Lingo, 8 cow wife stuff haha! But.. Elder Ribeiro and I are teaching 3 families that have Lobhola problems. We are teaching Armando and Atalia who want to get married the same day as their son but their son is having concerns paying but they are a super smart family and understand they need to follow the Savior but are just needing a little help. We are also teaching Xavier and Bacilia and they are a super cool family as well! Bacilia has came to church the past 3 weeks but Xavier hasn't cause he works all day on Sundays which is kind of hard. But we visited Bacilia late last night and we weren't planning on teaching a lesson but I asked if she had any doubts or anything for us and she asked about BAPTISM! Her question was what she needed to do to be baptized so we had to on the spot teach her about baptism as well as the Law of Chastity because her and Xavier are not married legally either. So she was super cool with the lesson but just had some doubts getting married because of freaking lobhola but she said that she has faith the Lord will help her and help her husband. People's faith here is incredible! We also have one other family, Marcelino and Beatriz, but I think if they figure out their problem we can teach them. have them married and baptized by the end of January which is exciting! 

Other than that it is hotter than Ryan Gossling down here. We had a lesson the other day at 9 in the morning and walking home after I had to ran into a bar that had an AC cause I thought I was going to die haha. But I love you all soo much! Cannot wait to talk to the fam this week! Hope everyone stays safe this week and I hope that as we have this week we can truly remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, and acknowledge everything that we have because HE LIVES! I am eternally grateful for all the things I have recieved because of Him, and I am soo happy to have this oppurtunity to be doing His work and sharing this happiness we have with others! Love you and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Chilling with some future Mozambique missionaries

Pictures of the Laulane house

Mahotas Week 2

Sooo shhheeeesshh yall! It sounds like a lot has happened in a week! Mom, I hope you and your arm are doing well! I am so sorry to hear about your accident but I am glad to hear that surgery went good! A plate and 10 screws?! Mom, I hope you know are my hero and that I will be praying extra hard for you recovery to go smoothly. And I hope that Brett, Evie and Diem start feeling better too! AND WHAT?! Stu Barrett and Maddie are back home?!? That is crazy! It is cool to see that missions end tho haha just kidding... haha all the Christmas cards that I got look great! Brody and Annie.. your guys' is dope so good job on that! 

Update on things here in Mozam; This week was HOT! I am talking like warming up to play Hurricane at Hurricane on their turf field plus humidity hot! And with white washing are area we have had trouble with a lot of lessons falling so we end up contacting in the dead heat of it but T.I.A. (This Is Africa) right? Elder Ribeiro and I are getting along and he has been helping me out a lot with my Portuguese. The Magoanine chapel got robbed this week so that was kinda sad to see but they didn't take much just the clerk's computer and other small things but Sunday every one was there, happy and feeling the Spirit. So one of our families, Otavio and Cecilia, have started doing their wedding documents are progressing really well. Cecilia is leaving by train on hopefully Wednesday to Ghaza where she was born to get the documents that she needs to open the wedding process. If all goes right with them we should be having a wedding and baptism in January for them. One of our other investigators, Rute, she is awesome and so strong for her situation. She is "married" to a dude who has 3 other wifes... and he kinda just bounces around Africa staying with whatever wife he wants. So Rute hasn't seen him for a year and has been on her own ever since providing for her family. We always pass by her house and see her reading her Book of Mormon in the shade next to her baraca and it always puts the biggest smile on my face. We should be having a baptism for her here shortly as well! Other than all is well down here in the durty south! Weirdest thing for me though is that it is so close to Christmas but it doesn't feel like Christmas at all for me haha but I have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit. I love and miss all of you, and hope all is well! be safe this week!

Love,

Elder Chipman  

This is me and my favorite little kid in our ward, Tchitchutchi!

Elder Ribeiro and me

Mahatos Week 1

Alright yall, so it sounds like all is well back home! Beezer and Brandon I hope you guys are loving Puerto Rico eating a lot of rice and beans like me haha Cait and Bret hope you guys had a good trip to O-Town to see Tony! That is super cool to hear about him starting and playing! Tell him I say congrats and to keep working hard haha. 

Alright so my first week in my new area was kind of slow and super hot! This is the hottest transfer of the year, so its about to get super sweaty haha. Elder Macanige didnt end up leaving until Friday so Elder Macanige had a lot of chances to say bye to some of our families, I am going to miss Elder Macanige so much! But.. with him leaving on Friday, Elder Ribeiro arrived friday night as well. Elder Rebeiro is from Recife, Brazil. He is in his 6th transfer, (the five before this one were all in Swazi) he already spoke English before the mission so that is good, and he is an awesome missionary! I am excited to learn from him and he is excited to help me with my Portuguese and every thing else as well! 

So Elder Rebeiro and I will be white washing (two brand new missionaries in an area) Mahatos B which will be dificult but because of a couple divisions I was able to do with the Zone Leaders last transfer I am fimiliar with the area and we have a lot of cool families to teach! I was able to the last two week help finish teach another teenager, Junior, and he was baptized on Saturday and it was a super cool baptismal service. 

My spiritual thought this week comes from John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might find peaces. In the world ye shall have tirbulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world." I love this scripture so much especially with the Christmas season upon us! All of us will face hard times in our life but because of the Savior and His eternal sacrifice for us, we can find light in our darkest times. I have been trying to apply this of my mission. No matter what happens I can always be of good cheer because I am know that Jesus Christ lives and that I am doing His work here is Africa. Hope everyone has a great week getting prepared for Christmas. Love and miss all of you so much!

Love,

Elder Chipman

                      "Welcome to Jew Burger, home of the Jew Burger, can I take your order?"                                            (Mine and Elder Macanige's fav burger shack that was in our old area)

         This is Vania and Michele. Vania was baptized that transfer before I got here and Elder Macanige and I finished her teaching.

Junior's Baptism with Elder Mejia, Elder Openshaw and Junior's Brother-in-law

Magoanine Week 6

ALRIGHTY, so first thing first it always makes me so happy to hear how well the whole fam is doing! The CTR run looked soo fun and you guys know I am soo in when I am back! (PS you all looked pretty dope rocking head to toe Nike) I hope everyone had a great and safe Thanksgiving!

This week was really amazing for me to end my first transfer in Mozambique! It started with us having a Turkey Bowl last P-Day with the Matola Zone! My arm was super rusty so I played Randy Moss for the day ("Straight cash homie" -Randy Moss). Elder Macanige and I had a day where all of our visits had fallen and so we went out to the outskirts of our area to contact and the Spirit really helped us find people that the Lord had prepared. We ended up teaching 4 lessons that night with just families we had contacted. Next we had Thanksgiving and holy... what a first Thanksgiving to have on the mission! For lunch we went to the city and ate at Rodizio's. Plot twist it isn’t anything like the Rodizios in America haha we dropped about 1500 Met (pricy) and they got soo mad at us for how much we ate so that was chill. And then Elder Openshaw did a division that day and we worked out in his area. Walking to our first visit had a little bit of an emergency hahaha so I had to ask to use the family’s caso de bano and I wish I would have taken a pic of it! It was two walls with no roof or door with just a hole in the corner and it was an experience! And then later that night it started pouring rain with a giant thunderstorm.

To top of a great week, we had Vicente's baptism Saturday and it was an amazing service! All three dupplas in our ward had a baptism so it was good work for the Magoanine/Zimpeto Elders this transfer! And now we are working hard to meet President’s goal for every duppla to baptize and reactivate a family before the end of the year and we had Benidito and Amelia come to church yesterday so we are really going to work with them over the next couple of weeks!

I hope work and school is going well for everyone! Hope everyone has a great week! Much love from Mozam!

Love,

Elder Chipman

After this email came Braxton (Elder Chipman) was able to let us know he was being transferred to the Mahotas Area in Maputo.  He will have a new companion; Elder Ribero who is from Brazil. 

Vincente's Baptism

Cleaning the Baptimal Font the night before the Baptisms

Go Ducks, Go Phank, Go Jazz too! (this little girl is wearing an
University of Oregon shirt)

Hanging with the kids in front of a Baraca!

Week 5 (Magoanine)‏

So first things first, two big ol happy bday s/o's to Colin and Brody! Hope yall had amazing days!

Magoanine has treated me well this week! Weather wise it has either been suuuuuper hot or a big thunderstorm it has kind of been unpredictable! Water and energy has been the same way!

Yesterday we had stake conference and they created a new ward, it was honestly so cool to be there with the whole stake of Maputo and to feel the happiness and excitement about the growth of the church!

Elder Macanige and I are still working hard! We are still focusing a lot on our families that we are teaching right now and I am honestly so lucky to have these amazing families in my first area. We are teaching this one family (Ceisa and Laura) and we hadn’t met with them in a while and we came back to follow up on the Book of Mormon and we come to find out that he read up to 1 Nephi 15 and I was pumped!! We have another family (Benidito and Amelia) and they have come to love prayer after we had to help them get over some type of shyness they had about praying. This week we will only be baptizing Vicente but it will be a big baptismal service so I am really excited about that!

This week is Thanksgiving so I just wanted to end with some of the things I am thankful for. I am thankful for showers, air conditioning, cloudy days, sunsets, this opportunity that I have to serve the Lord, the gospel, my friends, and most importantly... I am so grateful for the family that I have and for all the love and support I have and always receive from you guys! Super bummed that I will be missing feasting with yall this week but (and I can’t remember who said this... I think it was Cait) although I won’t be there we are going to be closer than we have been especially over these first holidays.

 Love you all so much! And I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving week!

Elder Chipman

Maputo Stake Conference

Week 4 in Magoanine

Alright so we had a little bit more of a mellow week than the past two. This week started off suuuuper hot and then it has been storming the past couple days here. Lighting storms are incredible here, every 4 seconds from every direction, its nuts! We have been battling with not having power and water this week. Saturday night we didn’t have power for the entire night so the mosquitoes had a feast! We are all super bitten up which is chill because T.I.A. haha (This Is Africa)

Elder Macanige and I had a good week. Made a little bit of an error with the baptismal date, it’s not on the 24th... it’s on the 28th. Elder Macanige and I were looking at the October on the calendar when we gave them the dates so we got a little mixed up.  We are marked to baptize Vicente and Didi. Both jovens (teenagers) Vicente is from a part member family and his sister just barely got her mission call to Brazil. He is super smart and has a super solid testimony. I hang out with him and his buddies at church and they help me with Portuguese and I play tic tac toe and the dot game with them. Didi was a referral from one of my favorite families in our ward. She is super smart when it comes to the scriptures but she has been having some doubts since we have been teaching her about the commandments. We have one new family and have been teaching the same other ones. Our families right now that we are really excited about our Sidonio and Yolanda, and Paulo and Laura, and Bila and Laura. We have been meeting with them for this whole transfer. They have been really progressing we just haven’t been able to get any of them to come to church yet so we are really working hard for that.

Africa is Africa and I am loving it. I have great missionaries around me that are teaching me how to work hard but also how to enjoy my mission. Tuesdays are always popping at Uno's (a pizza place in Magoanine) for Crazy Tuesdays aka buy one get one free day so we throw down there for lunch on Tuesdays and its good za (pizza) too. It sounds like the fam is doing great. Yesterday we had lunch at Bishop Tualufo's house and his daughter Kylanee reminds soo much of Sloane so it was super fun playing with her and eating with the bishop and his family.

I have restarted reading the Livro de Mormon after finishing it last week and it is crazy how much we can learn from Nephi. He was the youngest out of his family and had to be an example for his 3 older brothers and continue to be obedient to his father and to Heavenly Father. Being an example is never easy especially when you may be younger, inexperienced, our feel out of place.  Elder Stevenson says it best, "Stand ye in holy places and be not moved." I am honestly so grateful for the examples I have in my life with all of my coaches, older siblings and parents and I know first-hand the strength that can come from examples. My challenge for all of you is that no matter the situation to always be an example and represent Christ! Love you all so much and miss you like crazy! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Chipman

"Abdul and the crew"
These kids wanted to get a pic with me after I said some things in Chingana to them which is the dialect they speak in this part of Maputo 

The new and improved Magoanine house.

Week 3 and 4 in Magoanine

ALRIGTHY... You will have to excuse me for not emailing last week.. The power here is a little bit slow! Last Monday, the wind was crazy strong and blew out the power in Magoanine! So I am sorry for the worries and the delay.

But for reals it has been a crazy two weeks haha. SO big news, two Saturdays ago our house got broken into. They broke into the gate of our patio that connected to our kitchen and the bathroom which connected to my room. They got away with our fridge, washing machine stove, gas tank and all of our food! So that day we moved out and now are living in the Mahotas house which is actually in our area so it’s kind of nice.  Then, Elder Macanige and I went back to the old house two days later to get something and we found that it had been completely broken into with our other fridge, microwave, iron and about everything else jacked except a box of Book of Mormons. So we were lucky that we have moved out when we did!

Anyway for the work update: Elder Macanige and I are still teaching a lot of families just not a lot of progression which is common here and why we always are finding new families to teach. We did mark two baptisms on the 24th of November (Happy bday Brod) which we are really excited about! It is getting super-hot down here and it is just barely starting.  Apparently December is extra spicy down here which is super chill! I am already rocking pretty dope watch, sleeve and collar tan lines.

I so glad to hear that everyone back home is doing so well! Mom, your bday party looked super fun. Halloween looked like it was blast as always, the costumes were also on point! S/o to all the football that’s going on! Burke, I am so glad that you were able to have a fun season, and Bret good luck in the rest of the playoffs! and HAPPY BDAY TO EZRA! Hope you have a great day!

Not going to lie this last week was a pretty tough one with Mom's bday, missing home, and tough times with the language but I honestly received the most comforting feeling Saturday morning after I listened to Elder Hollands talk from this last conference. And I know it truly was the comfort from all the love I have coming from back home, so thank you guys so much! 

We studied in Ether 12 this week with some of our investigators and this chapter is straight fire. It talks about faith and how through faith all things can be done.  What I was able to get out of this chapter was with all the talking about the miracles the prophets had performed because of faith.  I realized that this is the same faith that we have in our lives. Through this same faith that Ammon and the other prophets had, miracles will happen in our lives. I have learned that little things truly can bring miracles. Faith is a lot like trash talk though, it doesn’t mean anything if we just talk about it. True faith leads to action and then after we act the Lord can bless us. I honestly am so grateful for the small and giant miracles that I have had in my life and the ones that I will continue to have here in Africa. Love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Chipman 

Get Water of Die Trying

                                                                                                                 
                                                               

   

      This field is just down the street from
      the house I am staying in. 

         

Second to the Gospel, WuTang is for the children!

                                    

The road "Costal Da Sol" (This street goes to the beach & hotels
in Maputo)

The Sunsets are amazing here.

Week 2 (Week 1) lol

ALRIGHT so first Happy Birthday S/O's to Lane and Aleck!  I hope you all have amazing bdays! Also, S/O to the Chipman genes! Kinda like how people thought Brody was a Native or Hispanic on his mission, people here think I am Portuguese until of course I start speaking Portuguese.

Ok y’all my first week of my first transfer is done and I have a ton to tell you but first I will start by answering some questions I have got. 1) We have 6 elders living in our house but we Elder Mejia and Elder Openshaw (our ZL's) are moving out into a new house with another set of missionaries so after today it will just be 4 of us. 2) I am not in a tri anymore. Elder Larsen got transferred up to Beira so it is just me and Elder Macanige. 3) We do walk our area and our area is huge. On Saturday we walked to an investigators home that was 2 and a half hours away from our house so that was way chill. It takes us about 10 min to get to our area and then we just walk for days.  I am still trying to get down all the streets and where are families houses are at. 4) I have ridden in some chappas. We take them to and from our Internet Cafe and the grocery store and sometimes into the city for our District and Zone Meetings. I love them. They are the size of the Morris' VW vans and they pile in 20+ people in them hahah.

Elder Macanige and I are working hard down here in Magoanine! We are teaching a lot of cool families right now and have a lot of progressing investigators. This week we have a goal of marking 10 baptism comments which I am so excited and nervous about because I hope they all accept. We are teaching a 13 year old kid named Vincente and he reminds me so much of Burke. At first he is kind of quiet and shy but after talking to him for a little while, he his super smart and funny! I asked what we had talked about in our first lesson and he understood all of it and said how he had felt Christ's love for him while reading and praying and that’s why he wants to be baptized to feel that more. HOW COOL IS THAT?

The language is coming, I am starting to understand others a lot better but when I get asked a question I freeze up and don’t know what they say so hopefully this week I will keep getting better! I have seen as I work hard in my language study I am better able to express myself so I just need to keep working hard. So throughout the day all I basically do is sweat, sweat and sweat so I am super pumped for summer starting up here.

I have loved to hear from everyone this week. I am so happy that Grandma Jo's funeral was good and that the spirit was strong there. I hope everyone has a great week! I will keep you all posted on our families we are teaching! Quick spiritual note for the week comes from Elder Holland in a talk we watched in the MTC. He says, "Once we start to put the Lord's will over ours, then will he be able to strengthen us the most." And I can promise you this because I have felt both sides of this in my first week. This will be something I need to work on for my entire mission and the rest of my life. Until next week.

Love,

Elder Chipman

 Elder Macanige and Elder Chipman

 Enjoying some Sunday night football

 Elder Macanige, Elder Chipman and their boy Junior!

This is about an hour and half walk into their area where the houses start spreading out. 

So Africa is Africa! Week One

Alright... so I feel like sooooo much has happened since I talked to everyone last! First, we left the MTC Monday night, got to NYC Tuesday morning (sang a little bit of newsies once I got outside lol), and then got to Johannesburg on Wednesday morning, then flew straight to Maputo where we met President and Sister Koch and the AP's. They took us to the Mission Office where we able to relax and have lunch for a little bit. That night we had dinner at the Koch's home and we able to get know them a little bit more, they are so loving and caring of every missionary so I think I will be in good hands. That night we stayed in one of the Mission Apartments and it was really nice. They next day we got to go to the Maputo Zone Conference and it was super chill cause I was able to meet a lot of elders there and see kind of how things are done down here in Mozambique. After that we went back to the apartment and everyone just fell asleep but I went and walked with Elder Stanley (Mission Secretary) and it was amazing to get my first experience of real mission work! We taught a family but the 2 other visits fell through. The next day we had lunch with the AP's downtown and after a little bit more training we got to know where are first area was! Drum roll please...... I will be serving in the Magoanine District and in the Maputo Zone!! For the past couple of days I have been in a tri with Elder Larsen and Elder Macanige and for the next transfer I will be trained by Elder Macanige (Mock-a-neesh)!! I could not be more blessed; Elder Macanige is from Beira, Mozambique so I will be learning a lot of Portuguese! The past couple of days we have gone out contacting and taught a couple of lessons. Saturday, in our ward we had a "Cultural Activity" where the elders got tell more about the US and we learned more about Mozambique. After that we had a baptismal service and there were 7 people that got baptized. During the baptism I felt the spirit so strong it motivated me in my purpose as a missionary! I am legit living on my own and it is a big change for me but it’s a good and a necessary change! The language is ok I guess. When other elders talk I can pick up on a lot more but when natives talk it is like they are not speaking Portuguese so I am extremely bless to have a native Mozambican as my trainer!

So here are my first impressions of Africa and Mozambique...

1) IT IS HOT! I am honestly sweating buckets out here and the best part is apparently it’s not even hot yet soooo hopefully my body will adjust to the weather here.

2) Driving here is so tight but so scary! It is like everyone got their license from GTA.

3) The people here are truly amazing! The ward made me feel right at home on Saturday and Sunday! I am so excited to work with the ward a lot more over this next transfer! Even the nonmembers when you contact people are so nice and receptive and then the little kids.. don’t even get me started on the little kids! They all make fun of me cause I don’t speak Portuguese but they are still dope. Whenever we pass kids on the streets kids will give you a thumbs up and yell, "Cho!" and they will not stop until you do it back they are the best.

4) The handshakes/hi-fives down here are dope. I will teach yall when I get home!

I am so glad to hear that everyone is doing awesome! I just read mom and dad’s email about Grandma, and started crying in this internet cafe but then I got this overwhelming feeling that she was finally reunited with Grandpa and now they and Muz and Poppy are all looking over us! I hope everyone has a great week! For a spiritual note this week I challenge everyone to go study President Erying's conference talk, "Is It I?" and for all of us to look more inward so then we may change and better ourselves to help others! Love and miss all of you soo much!

Much love from the real durty south,

Elder Chipman

   

 

Elder Chipman with Pres. & Sis. Koch

 

  View from the Mission's Apartments

   

  

Our Home

My new gym on our Patio

This is the street we walk to get to the main streets

   

       Ward Cultural Activity

                           

       

The Maputo Stake Center

Sunset in front of the Maputo Stake Center