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 

Liberdade Week 16 – “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan

Ola peoples!

It sounds like everyone is doing great! Good weather and then some rain was exactly like our week here. Friday, we got hit by the biggest storm I have seen in Mozambique (almost Swazi level) but our home bois from Marracos hooked it up for us with shelter in the Pasteleria so we were all good.

But for the rest of the week it was another good one for your boys down here in Liberdade. Monday, we had our Zone Activity for the transfer and we all went bowling and it was good being with the whole zone and now after an entire transfer and a half of practice I can say that I am "alright" at bowling haha. For the other days, we had lots of running around doing baptismal interviews and going in and out of other areas to meet up with other missionaries so Elder Barros and I are excited about getting some more time to work in our area this upcoming week. On Thursday, we had an in-district division and I got to walk with Elder Bailey for the day and it was a super fun day walking with him in his area. And then the highlight of the week came on Saturday with the baptism of Adelina along with Asvaldo and Claudia. The baptism went great and all 3 were confirmed members and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Adelina pulled it closed and walked in just in timed to be confirmed. Elder Barros and I were sweating bullets that she wasn’t going to make it but when she walked in it was a subtle Tiger Woods fist pump celebration.

I hope everyone has a great week! Enjoy the Conference Weekend! We will be watching the session on the 8th and 9th so I can’t wait to hear what you guys thought and then to watch. Don't forget to have questions ready to be answered and to pray for those that will be speaking especially President Monson!

Love you all,

Elder Chipman

Adelina's Baptism

Asvaldo aka the Division 1 Wide Receiver

The Crew

Just doing hoodrat things with my friends. 

Casa Branca with Elder Bailey

Lots of nature pics...this is the division between
Maputo and Matola. 

Week 15 - Liberdade A - "James Fanco" by Hoodie Allen

"Alright so when I say James, yall say Franco"

First, big bday shoutouts to Berg, Jens, Freya and Beez! I am
not sure if I wished you guys a happy bday in my last email so if I
did... I am doing it again! Hope you guys had a great day and Beez
hope you have a great day on the 25th! Spring Break is here and that
is #dope. I hope everyone has a fun and safe break. It also sounds
like the Madness has been pretty mad this year... sorry to all whose
brackets have been busted and for those who have completely guessed
and are currently winning their pools.

We had a pretty great past week. It started off with a fun pday
walking as the trio of Liberdade. After doing internet we hit up the
famous Fish Market on Costa Do Sol and all I can say is yum. We
also went bowling which was super fun although I am horrible. Just ask
Machi... He knows. So, after a fun Pday on Monday it was back
to work for Tuesday-Sunday. 

On Wednesday, I headed out to T3 to a division with Elder Bennion, who is from Highland, Utah. It was a really fun day working with him in his area and getting to know him a little bit better and the coincidence was that I found out that he worked for Clearlink before the mission so s/o to Dev and s/o to Clearlink on that one.  

On Thursday, it was Adelina's birthday so Elder Barros and I baked a cake for her and ended just dropping it off because she was at work when we passed by. Adelina is progressing and she will be getting baptized this Saturday. Her sisters, Joana and Amelia, will be getting baptized probably on the 8th with Joaquim after we moved their dates around a little bit. 

Thursday night, Elder Barros and I had quite the adventure trying to find an
old member that ran into us the week before. After walking into our area for
30 minutes, waiting for a chappa to go to a place that I didn’t know existed,
an hour chappa ride, getting off the at the "abandoned house" stop.  

The member was able to find us and we had a good visit with him. 

On Sunday, we had a great turn out at church with some members bringing  

friends and progressing investigators coming so all is going well down here!

Quick line for the spiritual side, “I make a plea that we constantly
seek the inspiration of the Lord and the companionship of His Holy
Spirit to bless us in keeping our efforts on a high spiritual plane.”
- Gordon B. Hinckley. There is legit no greater blessing or help
that we can have in our lives than the gift of the Holy Ghost. After
many months of the constant battle of recognizing the Spirit I have
realized that we all need the Holy Spirit to guide, to protect and to
comfort us. I have realized that we need the Holy Ghost in all that we
do and in all the responsibilities that we have. Seek for the Holy
Ghost this week and sit back and enjoy the blessings that will come!

Much Luv,

Elder Chipman

Elder Barros and our favorite dog, Righty

Weekly service, prepping dinner for some
families by killing chickens (haha)

Costa Do Sol 

The Fish Market. The Red tint is because of
the Umbrellas.

Week 14 - Liberdade A - "One More Time" by Brothers From Another

Oh, what it is good yo?!

So, first shoutouts to Teagan and Haddie on killing it at their dance competition! I loved seeing the video of Haddie's solo, thank you so much Mom for sending it! Second, shoutouts to all the birthdays coming up. Happy Big Ol Bday to Bret, Jensen, Freya and Breanne!! And lastly, shoutout to the Mission Moms in the Oly 2nd Ward holding it down in sacrament meeting and giving updates of the Lord's work around the ward to the Ward Family.

So, the week was good for Elder Barros, Elder Bailey and I. Elder Ribeiro went to Swazi for a couple days at the end of the week so we were walking like Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic, and Vladi Divak putting work in all of Liberdade for some days all together. But everything is still going great in our area. Adelina and Amelia weren’t able to come to church yesterday but we had a fun family night last night that Adelina was able to come to and help her feel better cause she was super sad that she wasn’t able to make it to church. Eurico is still going strong without drinking and smoking but since he doesn’t have a phone and at times his work schedule is whack so it is hard to keep in contact with him. We also have started teaching a new family, Vitor and Tina, that we taught about 3-4 years ago, and they have actually been coming to church for a while and we just assumed that they were members but we found out that they weren’t and you know we be teaching them! It has been super nice as well, we have been having lots of help from return missionaries and perspective missionaries. It is super fun talking about experiences from other missions and working with others getting ready to serve. At the same time, all of us working together and helping our investigators out. #MemberMissionaryWork #Word  Also, this past week as I had the chance to do a division with Elder Simonson and work in his area of Matola it was a super fun day. We ended up getting locked out of the house but thanks to Elder Jimmenez, we got in and we had a good day.

I don’t have a spiritual thought or anything but all I can say or invite y’all to do is just SERVE. Service is the key to having joy and happiness in our lives, the moment we forget about ourselves and start to think of others is when the Spirit will take over and do everything. The feelings after doing the smallest act are the things to be cherished so that it will lead us to serve more. Even if you get made fun of like me when I try and help women here with their laundry it is still best thing that we can do!

Love you all, have such a great week to ever one.

Elder Chipman

ps.. in honor of March Madness starting... "ONIONS!!!!"

#ActionPics

Indian Restaurant with Elder Simonson

 

Water!!!

Family Night always popping

Week 13 - Liberdade A - "Anti Freeze" - Pac Div

Hey Harry ol buddy ol pal!!

What is good everyone? I hope that everyone is doing well and safe with the snow storm that hit. I also hope that the little kids have a snow day from school and that its better than the movie, "Snow Day" haha.

For ya boys down here in Matola, we running like the 2005 runningback duo of Reggie Bush and Lendale White. So, to say the least things are going great. We are working with lots of great people as of late. We have been teaching Eurico for a while but recently he has been progressing a lot. It has been about 3 weeks since the last time he smoked/drank and now we are just praying that he will be able to work with his boss to get Sundays off. But the guy is really good and it has been cool to see how in only 3 weeks he just looks different. We are also working with a group of sisters, Adelina, Juana and Amelia. They are progressing really well. Adelina is going Greg Jennings and putting the whole team on her back and helping Juana and Amelia read the Book of Mormon daily and answering any question that they have. And then lastly, we got the homie, Joaquim! For a couple of days, we were passing by this one street and contacting a specific area and every time on our way back we would stop and buy ice cream and some popcorn. After about a couple times the kid that was selling to us asked who we were and we explained to him and right then we could tell that he would be good to teach and so we scheduled a visit with him and his buddy.  Now Joaquim is progressing super well! We teach him just right by his stand and always end the visits enjoying some vanilla/strawberry ice cream haha.

So, for the update I would just like to leave a little quote for a spiritual thought and this quote comes from the OG, President Gordon B. Hinckley, "My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight."

I hope that everyone has a great week enjoying the sunlight that Lord gives to us every day! Love and miss you all!

Dueces,

Elder Chipman

Big ups to Samuel, our fav chappa driver. 

Pre gaming some visits

At Ramida's or Sister Chirenzin's call opening. 

She will be serving in the Brazil, Salvador Mission.
Elder Chipman's good friend Elder Sam Prince is serving in this mission!