Week 2 - Chamanculo A - "Aint No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye

Alright Sports Fans,

Big shoutout to the Jazz, and bigger shoutout to Phank for his clever tweets hahah! But, it sounds like it was a great week for everyone. Jensen looks like the next big thing in the MLB in his uniform and I loved hearing about all the soccer games and Lane still killing it in Track/Cross Country.

So, the Splash Brothers are back and it was a great full week of work in Chamanculo. To try and help you guys out to understand a little bit about how our area is like I would explain as downtown Salt Lake from about 13th South to about South Temple. And it is like we have the west side and the Assistants have the East side. We are working in very compacted bairros and I have been loving it. The people in our area (members, investigators, and everyone else) are all great! This Saturday, we will be having the baptism for Shanaya which we will be great and we will have busy week with our last conference with President Koch and Sister Koch and then with greeting President Senna and Sister Senna so it will be a dope week.

This past week we were teaching a lot of recent converts and trying to find some new people. Junita a week after her baptism is still doing great and while we were visiting with her we could tell that she had something on her mind as if she wanted to ask a question or something.  We asked and she opened up to us letting us know what’s been going on. She was really concerned and worried about tithing because she is working and going to school right now and every month her entire pay check goes to pay for her school so would not be able to pay tithing from her paycheck if she wished to still go to school. And on top of everything it seems that in a couple weeks her work is going to be going out of business. But, the thing that touched me the most is how much she was putting into practice the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 6:36, "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." She told us because this a commandment of the Lord that He would help her. Elder Griffeth and I just looked at each other, sat back and said to her, "Preach, girl!" haha. This is one of the greatest thing that the Lord has been blessing me with is the chance to meet such great people with such faith that they will forever be an example for my life.

This week as well we had the chance to attend the farewell devotional of President and Sister Koch and Saturday with all the members of the Maputo Stake. I am going to miss them so much and I am going to miss learning from them. Elder Griffeth and I were talking and we both agree that hearing them speak and talk about the Gospel is one of the best things about being around them. Most people get up and try to preach in front of people but they simply just.. talk and are able to connect with the people that they speak with. President Koch and Sister Koch were able to share some stories both funny and spiritual about their lives and how the Gospel has blessed them. President Koch spoke for half the time as the Mission President and the other half as a General Authority so it was super dope. He talked about how humility plays a key and vital part to the church's growth and our growth as disciples of Jesus Christ. He talked about what being humble truly means and what are ways that we can see if we are being humble. One of those ways is being able to take counsel and advice from our leaders who are called by God to serve us. I am so grateful for the President and Sister Koch and for all they have done to serve the Lord as our Mission Presidents.

Sorry for the long email but hope ya’ll have a great week! Miss and love you guys tons!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Elder Baker surprised us with a visit from Irma Judite. 

Pedro after climbing up to get some coconuts

The Coconut Crew

Elder Chipman

Week 1 - Chamanculo A - "Last Night Was A Movie" by G-Eazy ft. Kyle

Let me just start by saying HAPPY EASTER! 

Easter, is legit one of the best holidays and I hope all of you guys had a great day and a great week celebrating some warmer weather and also remembering the life and the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

So, the big news and changes came in for me this past me on Tuesday. We were able to go and see transfers and while I was looking at them I didn’t see my name or picture next to Liberdade so I said to myself, "Alright let’s see where I got transferred to." And so after looking for a second to see where I would be going and who would be my comp, I found it.. and legit I couldn’t believe it haha. The Splash Brothers are back together! I will be serving with Elder Griffeth again in the area of Chamanculo! It was about a year ago that we stopped being comps and so now both us and the whole mission is in awe that we are back together. 

After saying a couple of goodbyes in Liberdade (which was super hard by the way), packing in 30 minutes, we switched Tuesday afternoon. And ever since then it has been just getting to know the area, the members and the investigators are nothing but laughs and good times. Chamanculo is a really different area than Liberdade in terms of how the houses and everything is set up. Liberdade was very spacious with huge roads but Chamanculo is full of apartment buildings and really close and tight alleys and houses. So, it has been cool to be getting a new experience especially since I have had the other 2 experiences of serving in Magoanine/Mahots and then in Matola in Liberdade and now in the straight city. 

The Chamanculo ward is straight dope as well. We taught English Class on Thursday so that helped me get to know some more people. On Saturday, we had the baptism of Junita who is just straight elect! Elder Griffeth and Elder Watteyne did a great job teaching her and she was so prepared to be baptized. Enough that she was standing up to her mom and telling her the reason she wanted to get baptized.  Her mom had some doubts because Junita had already been baptized in their church as a baby. But the baptism went well, and Junita's mother, fiance and friends were all able to be there. And then the Bishop straight dropped a bomb on me and called me to talk at church so I stayed up Saturday night and prepared that and it went well. I was super blessed to give the talk because studying and preparing for it I was able to truly get in the spirit of Easter.

To end with a quote from the Prophet Joseph Smith said, "The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it." 

I am so very grateful for the peace and hope we have in our lives because Christ overcame the world and death. He truly is the Light of the World and the only way we can find peace in a life full of problems, illnesses, and adversities. I am also so very grateful for the opportunities that I have been given to come to know Him better and see the happiness in others as the come to know Him. 

Love you all, hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Chipman

Tired little Taxi Guys

View from the new house

English Class and quote of the class,
"Don't you go losing control!"

Oh hi new area

Junita's Baptism

Dropped of a cake for Sister Mboia's bday

Stake Easter Program

Back of the house

Week 18 - Liberdade A - "I Believe" by Christina Perri

Helllloooo to the fam and to the peeps!

So, it sounds like rain and snow is stilling killing the spring vibe in the 801 but I hope everyone is doing well! And I hope everyone is gearing up for Easter and still pondering and reviewing the amazing talks that were given during conference! We are legit so lucky to have men and women, called of God, to help us with our daily problems. I am so grateful for the chance that we got this past weekend to watch, learn and grow personally.

But today is the day, the start of transfer #14. And as of now, we are not sure on transfers and changes haha. President Koch, has been busy with travelling and everything so we will know about transfers during this week, so next week I will have news whether I will stay or leave.

This past week was a great one to top off a great transfer. It was full of more baptismal interviews, divisions, and general conference. On Wednesday, I had the chance to work with Elder Combs for the day in Liberdade and it was dope time. It was the first time we had ever walked together and it will probably be our last. On Friday, Elder Barros and I enjoyed our first day in a couple of weeks of working full time in our area.  We had great visits with Adelina, Amelia and Joanna. Amelia is very excited about getting baptized and should be getting baptized on the 22nd of April with Franklin, and Joaquim. We also had a great visit with the family of Naimo, Andres and Juvencia, who came to church a couple of weeks ago. They have been progressing really well and came to watch conference with Joaquim, Adelina, Adelina's friend, Vitor and Tina's family. So, we had a really good turn out to conference with investigators and members. We watched all the sessions combined with the wards of Matola and Mozal.

With my last general conference on the mission I can officially say that I was able to understand a lot more than the others which is good, but the talk that stood out to me the most on first listen was the talk of Elder M. Russel Ballard. I loved how simply he was able to speak about the Plan of God and our individual roles in that plan especially on the outlook, dreams and goals that we have on our mortal journey in this plan. "Wise goals setting includes the understanding that is short-term goals are only effective if they lead to clearly understood longer-term goals. I believe that one important key to happiness is to learn how to set our own goals and establish our own plans within the framework of our Heavenly Father's eternal plan. If we focus on this eternal path, we will inevitably qualify to return to His presence." With any achievement or failure, with every aspiration and trial we need to look with a "google maps" perspective on the plan of God and remember that all we do and all that happens to us plays in part of this plan and eventually help us receive the happiness that Heavenly Father needs for us. And all of this is possible because of Savior, Jesus Christ. And this week we have the special chance to celebrate that He lives and through Him we can find peace in this plan that at times we do not understand.

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Easter!!

Bday shoutouts to Burke!! Buddah is all grown up! I hope you have a great bday buddy!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Advantage of travelling lots...beautiful scenes!
Matola Rio

Kelvin and Sanildo or Sanildo and Kelvin...
I can never tell haha

Conference!

Big ol peace to Elder Tanner...catch ya in 4 months!

The homies, Joffress and Amilcar. 

Dinner with the best and only eating the best. 

Caril de Masangos e Arroz

Week 17 - Liberdade A - "And We Danced" by Macklemore

Alright what is good fam?!

It sounds like the rain has been coming down pretty good but it also looked like DEvily and the girls had a beach ball in Hawaii. I also hope that everyone loved conference! Got to give my shoutout of the email to President Koch for being called as a general authority! I am so lucky to have learned from President and Sister Koch for these past 19 months. I am the missionary I am today because of them and their example of dedicated service to the Lord. But, this next weekend will be really fun watching all the sessions, I cannot wait!

So, this week flew by full of divisions, interviews, baptisms, food, heat, and just overall good times! It started with us having a great dinner visit with Sebastiao and Lidia on Monday night. We will be going there tonight as well to celebrate the birthdays of one set of the 3 twins in that fam. Wednesday, we got hit by a huge rainstorm at like 5 in the morning so our planned division with Elder Da Cruz and Elder Francis was delayed until Thursday. On Thursday, I was able to walk with Elder Francis in Liberdade and it was a really good visiting lots of progressing investigators. We ended up switching that night because in the morning on Friday I was going to be heading out to Boane to do a division with Elder Baker as well. So, in the morning we met up and Elder Baker started our adventure in Boane. Boane is the newest area in the mission. It is about 2 hours out of Maputo, 1 hour out of Matola on your way to either Swazi or South Africa and Elder Baker and Elder Kolditz have been doing great work there. The group there, meets and has all of their meetings in the house of the missionaries so it was cool to see their house and work there for a day. We visited a family that lives in an uncomplete house without electricity but have a spanking nice Audi A4 haha and no one drives in their fam so that was chill. After a couple, more visits we headed out to the far side of their area and visited Irma Judite. Irma Judite was practically mine and Elder Griffeth's mother in Beira, always preparing food and what not for us. And she has been in Maputo visiting family and so it was so fun to see her for the first time since I left Beira and went to Swazi. On Saturday, we went to the very firsts baptisms of the area Boane. The baptisms were held at the Matola Chapel and I had the privilege of performing one of the baptisms. And to top of a great morning we had an amazing lunch in the house of President and Sister Massango with them and their family. In short it was dope.

So, with a long update I will just keep the spiritual side of this email short. I would just like to invite you all to read in April's Liahona the talk from Elder Larry R. Lawrence. I legit felt like I was a quarterback again and watching film on the adversary and I was able to learn his strategies and techniques that he uses to have us become all that Heavenly Father wants us to be here, happy.

Sounds like everyone is great! Love and miss you all, have great weeks!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Blessed that Gift chose me to perform his baptism. 

The first two baptisms from the area of Boane, Graca and Gift. 

Family lunch at the Massango's

Cooking with Mama Lidia and Jessica.

Sneak Peak at Boane