Munhava B Week 9- RIP Prince

What’s good fam?? Another week down and a whole lot to share. But first things first... Happy Birthday to the Man, the Myth, The Old Bull... PAPA B!!! Thank you for being the Vin Diesel to our fast and furious family hahahaha. Thank you for being the patriarch to the Dirty 30! I hope you have a killer day and week! Don’t party too hard!

Next, it sounds like it’s nothing but some chill times back home right now.  Glad to know that all the little kiddies are having a fun time with soccer and baseball. Brod is all done with classes, Phank went up to Washington, and everyone is planning their vacations! S/O to all the homies right now getting their mission calls; Nathan Roderick going to Argentina and Andrew Parkin going to Kazakhstan!

So this past week was really good with a really busy weekend! First, on Wednesday, Afonso and Jasinta went to the register with everything they thought they needed to have people sign off for Jasinta. They got their and were told that they need an extra document and another 500MT to sign off for authorization.... Afonso and Jasinta didn’t have the 500 extra MT right then so he called his boss and asked if maybe he could get payed early and after explaining the situation, his boss told him that his brother in law was in charge of the entire municipal. His boss then gave him a call and got everything taken care of for them so.... THEY WILL BE GETTING MARRIED AND BAPTIZED ON THE 7TH OF MAY!!! It is going to be a great day, with a combined 6 wedding and 20+ baptisms for the Beira Zone!

This Saturday was pretty nuts.. We first woke up early so we could go help out at cleaning at our ward. Only thing is that, only Remina (Jorge's wife) showed up.  So it was Elder Griffeth, Remina and I to clean the whole church. Remina probably did most of the work haha. But after cleaning we had to hurry and get ready for the baptism of Tomas and Francisco for Elder Smith and Elder Beacham. We got the church cleaned and started filling up the font.  After about 20 minutes the water stopped working so we had to scramble and find a hose to run in through a window in the church and then into the font. After about 20 minutes of that all of the water in chapel was gone so those who were being baptized had to sit and those baptizing kneeled but hey you gotta do what you gotta do. Also, during all of this we were helping Jasinta and all of the other brides to be pick out their dresses at the chapel.

Our water did get fixed so after 2 weeks of buckets showers it was nice to take cold working shower

haha. Yesterday, all of Beira didn’t have power and it barely came back at 9 last night. So it’s safe to say that Sacrament Meeting yesterday was quite hot and a little stinky. But, everything is going great! The days are weeks and the weeks are days and I am loving all of it!

I hope everyone has a great week!! I will close with a quote from Prince, "Shoot the J... Shoot it!" haha Love and miss you all tons!

Love,

Elder Chipman  

"Carpi Diem" - Richard Luce

Maybe the cutest kid I have ever met

Munhava Gang!

"Drumline, Nick Cannon, I can't even  count bars bro; Bless,bless,bless make the room get spiritual"-BFA

Helping Jasinta close the banca at night. 

Week 8 Munhava B - "If you aint talking bucket showers I dont wanna talk! Scuuurrr Sccuurrr!"

"Good Morning! Wake up Mr. West, Mr. West!"

Like the Mozambicans who try to speak English, "How is it" fam?? haha It sounds like it was a full week of fun games and activities! Made me laugh so hard that Burke made it rain with the money that he got for his bday... Thatta boy.

So the first week the Golden State dupla has been back in action and it was a good one! Had some really good lessons and had a really good week of finding!

First, we had a lesson with Admiro and Alferida where we brought Frozys and popcorn and watched "Its a Mircale", the video President and Sister Kretly had done about the Mozambique Mission. They have been having some relationship issues so we thought this would be a good idea to show them how living the Law of Chastity and being baptized would bless their lives. The lesson went super well! Lots of laughs and lots of Spirit. After bearing our testimonies and asking if they had any questions or concerns, Admiro goes, "Questions or concerns no... Comment, yes... the porpcorn was good..." Elder Griffeth and I just started dying! He pulled a real Darrell move telling us to bring popcorn every visit but we shot that idea down hahaha.

Second, we taught Jose and Lucia the Word of Wisdom this week and we were a little sketched teaching it because when we had visited them at the first of the week they tried hiding some beer bottles from us, but when we taught them they really understood what we were teaching and the importance of this commandment. I hit Jose up with an example at the end of the lesson that when the next time his buddies want to go to the bar and he goes what is he going to do... after thinking about it for a minute he responded, "I will ask for juice!" in a super excited voice hahaha. They are doing really well with everything else as well and are working on getting the documents all ready to open their wedding process to be married and baptized in the early part of May! They cooked us dinner on Friday night it was quite the bomb if I do say so myself.

Third, Afonso and Jasinta are still working to pull of the "Miracle of Munhava" and track down any relatives close to go to the register to sign off for Jasinta. They are pretty confident that one of her cousins will be able do it this week! We have pushed their wedding and baptism back to May 7, where there will be 6 other families being married and baptisms! So we are all looking forward to that!

Other than that, this week we cooked up some dank breakfast burritos for lunch and it made me miss Rancheritos and Molca so much. Had some pretty funny run-ins with some drunk dudes this week! We met an inactive member outside of a bar yesterday, who was baptized in 2003. He couldn’t remember the name of the missionaries that baptized him but he told us that one of them was from Brooklyn and personally knew ODB... After talking to him about the Wu-Tang Clan for a minute he offered to have us over and listen to 36 Chambers... I sadly but happily rejected the offer hahaha. Also, we had a zone training with President and Sister Koch this past week and just got done playing soccer with President today. He confidently picked me but I had to apologize to him after cause my football coordination did not translate to the soccer field haha.

Love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers and love! I honestly feel them help throughout the day when little trials happen. Hope you all have a great week! "And remember... keep your stick on the ice." - Red (a quote for Papa B)

Love,

Elder Chipman

24th Street Sharks (some of these kids of Elder Macanige's cousins)

Elder Macanige's niece and I

Frozys and Popcorn with Admiro & Alferida (apparently I said something funny haha)

All of these little girls are in love with Elder Griffeth and only like me cause of my umbrella haha

The Change

"You aren't down to eat some chicken feet!"

"So not down!"

Our way dope Nokia #TrapQueen

And can you say face??

Week 7 - Munhava B ''Changes by 2Pac''

What’s good fam? It sounds like everyone is doing great and had a super fun past week with lots of soccer, baseball and artsy stuff. The cherry blossoms looked sooo cool! I bet there were a lot of super dope instagrams taken there haha. Ps happy bday to the young gun Burke! Hope you had a great day and another great week of celebrating!

So this past week has been quite interesting to say the least. For most of the week we were still walking as a tripla and walking the entire area of Munhava. Because of that, Elder Griffeth and I didn’t get the work that we would have like to get down in our area but it’s all good! On Wednesday, we attended the funeral of the father of Alferida. It was all the way out in Dondo so it was a voyage and a half to get out there. The funeral was super sad. There were ladies collapsing because they were crying so hard and sad African tribal music. We have visited Admiro and Alferida a couple times since the funeral and shared some scriptures with them to help give comfort.  Alferida was pretty affected by the loss of her father but when we visit, she is the first to ask about marriage and baptism, which is super cool! Alfonso and Jasinta are doing well! So the situation with getting the signature in Quelimane was kind of shut down because the register in Quelimane was asking for 500 meticais to fill out the document and Jasinta's family doesn’t have that type of money.  So we are hoping that they can get the signature from a cousin that lives close by and that we can have them married and baptized on the 23rd!

Also, the past weekend we watched General Conference! It was still kind of hard to pay attention and understand all the talks being in Portuguese but I was touched by what I felt was the general theme.. Progression. I was really touched by the first couple of talks in the Saturday Morning session and the distance between us and the Lord in our lives. And then I think it was all summed up by Elder Holland's bomb of knowledge he dropped on us as the concluding speaker. Are we going to truly change our lives and apply the counsel that we heard or are we going to let tomorrow and the trials that come stop us? Although I didn’t understand 100% of what was said, the Spirit was still there, testifying. And it will do that anywhere those talks are listened to or watched because all of the talks we heard are Heavenly Fathers guidance and instruction for us. I am so grateful for the chance I had last week, testifying of the power of prophets and then being able to feel that power this past weekend!

Love you all,

Elder Chipman 

Elder Braxton couldn't get the computer he was using to send pictures this week.  His companion Elder Griffeth's mother sent us these pictures from their week.

Chicken Feet!!!

YUM, YUM

Week 6 Munhava B "Park outside the sun, hit the beach, beach bums"‏

Alright yall!! So thank you for the updates on conference. We will be watching the sessions this next weekend on Saturday and Sunday so thank you for letting me know the messages that touched yall, I will be looking out for those. It will be interesting to see how much I can get out of conference this time, than the last time I watched in Portuguese in my first transfer!

But, transfer 4 is over!! Moving into transfer 5 and big news.... Elder Griffeth and I will be staying one more together. It was kind of an up and down week cause we were hearing that Elder Griffeth might be leaving or going but today we got the news that it is official, he will be staying his 6th straight in Munhava B. I am honestly so excited to have another 6 weeks with him.

As for this week, Elder Baker, the companion of Elder Smith, was transferred early so in waiting for a new comp, Elder Smith walked with us this week and we formed the Munhava tripla. We would split time each day in both of our areas and so there was a lot of walking and some pounds being dropped. But with that we still had a great week of work teaching a lot of lessons and.... AFONSO AND JASINTA OPENED THEIR WEDDING PROCESS!! But... there is always a catch. Jasinta is under 21 so she has to get a signature of a family member over 21. Not too bad except all of her family lives in Quelimane which quite a distance... but miracles are real! Jorge, our new first counselor and recent convert, will be travelling to Quelimane this upcoming week. So we will need to program with the Elders in Quelimane to tract down Jasinta's family, get the signature, and then meet up with Jorge to bring it back... If all goes according to plan we will be having a wedding here soon. The good thing is that their process is opened so the other documents that were about to expire do not need to be redone.

Just a quick spiritual thought for this week…

As members of Christ's Church, are we just going through the motions, or are we truly living and enjoying the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Enjoying the Gospel is a phrase I had never heard before this week and it made me think how sometimes we see the Gospel and commandants as do's and don’ts and not as the happiness and way of life that we all have the special opportunity to know during our lives! I hope everyone has a great week. Love and miss you all dearly.

Love,

Elder Chipman  

We met a monkey named Chico.
Fed him some coconuts

First encounter with Mango Spiders

Out here eating pastries like straight g's.
PS-- the milk cup is full of expired milk.  Should I drink it?

Sunsets are dope here

Candid

Thinking of Newport (haha)

Artsy companionship photo

When your comp has a girlfriend and you don't!