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

                                                     
 

Week 5--Travel Plans to Mozambique

What’s good fam??

So week 5 in the MTC has brought some exciting news!!!  First, weekly shout outs. A Notorious B.I.G. S/O to Mom, Colin, and Brandon for running the St. George Marathon!! Super proud of you guys and from what I have heard the trip down and back was a fun one! And early BDAY S/O's to Phank, Brandon and Penny!

Alright time for the news...

1) We sent off Elder Binford to Singapore!! He is so ready and I am beyond pumped to hear about all of his experiences!

2) Elder Wade and Elder Sperry (the Elders in my district that are going to Brazil) got their visas!! We were hoping they would get them in time so they wouldn't have to get reassigned.

3) I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!! Ya boy is finally going to Africa!!

I leave Sunday and fly to ATL, say what up to my dude Luda, and then I have a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg will be arriving in Maputo Monday night! I am honestly soo excited!! Even for the plane ride de Inferno.

Being able to watch General Conference in the MTC was such a great experience and was such a nice relaxing weekend. I hope everyone received answers to any questions that you all had for last weekend and apply what we learned! Sunday night, we watched Joseph Smith and the Restoration along with watching conference that day; I gained such a greater love for the prophets and their guidance.

My spiritual highlight of the week came from last Tuesday's Devotional. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Costa, of the Seventy’s. He brought up the analogy of cutting an apple open. When you do, you can count the number of seeds that are in that apple. But, you cannot count the number apples that are in the seed. I love this analogy because we truly do not know how many people we will truly effect in our lives. I hope that we can all try and positively influence other people in everything we do. Even if you do not see it instantly, you will never know what kind of seed you will be planting.

So my next email I will be in Africa... I don’t think I have ever been this nervous in my life but I also don’t think I have been this excited! I have the special opportunity to go across the world and invite others to come unto Christ help them feel the happiness that comes from living this Gospel. And through the love of the people of Mozambique and this giant leap of faith I will also come closer to Christ!

I love you all so much! Pray for me with travelling and settling in to Africa! Until next time, be excellent to each other and party on!

Love,

Elder Chipman

 Elder Smith, Chipman and Owens with their travel plans.

 Elder Florez on his last night before leaving to Brazil.

  First view in the morning while in the MTC.

Medical Release Form from Swaziland.  Read it through--We are glad he was cleared.