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