Week 11 - Fairview B - "Thank You" by Jay Z

Aight yaaaalll! I hope everyone is still burping and farting turkey from last week and I hope everyone had a great/safe Thanksgiving! It sounds like that first snow storm came in good as well. As much as I hate the snow it is one of the things I miss the most haha.

As for the week, I can say this week was one of the fastest of my mission. It started out with us heading over to the Ezulwini chapel for a dual-zone Thanksgiving lunch and it was super nice being with the two zones and all of the missionaries here in Swazi. The Martins were in charge so you know they hooked us up nice food except for the part that everyone got sick. But it was all good in the hood for Elder Chipman's stomach so no worries.

On Wednesday morning, a couple of us went to Mozambique for some meetings and what not and all went well there! On Wednesday, Elder Stephens and I got caught with nothing to do and nowhere to go in Maputo so we just decided to go see the city. We hit up the Fortaleza Do Maputo (Maputo Fort) which is an old fort from back when the Portuguese were in rule there and built the fort as a protection from other countries and the natives. It is a now a museum with some pretty cool stuff. They have a section talking all about the cinema of Mozambique and I learned that my boy Leonardo Dicaprio touched down in Moz in 2007 to film the movie Blood Diamond so that is pretty chill. After that and some dinner it was on to Thanksgiving. Which was full of seeing tons of old faces, training, and the best Thanksgiving Lunch you could possibly imagine here in Africa. We had everything... turkey, mash potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and yes even pumpkin pie (S/O to Elder Holt).

Right after lunch and interview with President Koch we were back off on the road heading back to Swazi. Friday, Elder Griffeth and I had a division and it is always so good to walk with that kid. Saturday was the regular routine head out in the morning, hit up Galitos for lunch and then head straight back out and "ball out" as my good friend Elder Ramirez would say down in Peru. So, all in all everything is going great down here. We are in the last week of the transfer so we will have to wait to see what happens to Elder Ol' Dirty for the next 6 weeks but I will keep yall posted.

As for a spiritual note, I would just like to share a scripture that President Koch shared with us. He shared with us D&C 59:21 after we had a second to explain to everyone who didn’t know what Thanksgiving was. 21 says, "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments." I realized that Thanksgiving isn't about the Turkeys, football or even Black Friday the next day... although those things are super nice. Thanksgiving is a time for us to put our gratitude on steroids and remember all the things that we have been giving in our life. I can just say that I am so grateful for all that I have been given in my life. I could go on and on about the things that I have been blessed with and the things I am thankful for but I don’t want to bore you guys. But in one statement I can sum it all up. I am so very grateful for the knowledge that I have that we have a Loving Heavenly Father that loves us so much He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to earth to live and to die for us. I hope that we can keep our gratitude going all throughout the rest of this year and especially this special time of Christmas!

Love and miss you guys soo much! Have a great week! And remember don’t eat the yellow snow lolz

Elder Chipman

Thanksgiving Lunch in Ezulwini.

The Comps

Photo with a statue

Fortaleza Do Maputo

My boy Nathi is passing the Sacrament every week now.

Just like ol' times. 

Week 10 - Fairview B - "It’s our thing, Dudesgiving" -Schmidt

Alright sports fans, what is up?! So, I have officially been away for two high school football seasons which means next season it is nothing but Billy Bob Thornton and Friday Nights Lights for me haha. But s/o to Berg and East for the the back-2-back state championship win! Also, Happy Birthday to Colin last Friday and Happy Birthday to Brody this Thursday!  Also, Happy Thanksgiving for all ya jive turkeys out there.

This past week was yet another good on out here for ya boys Rev Run and DMC (Elder Feliciana and I). This week has been full of long days, lessons falling, new investigators, lots of Coke, lightning strikes, Mozambicans, usithiles, and lots of love from our Heavenly Father. This past week we started teaching a Mozambican lady named Ancha. Ancha works super close to where we stay at a fruit stand. About two months ago she had a dream that she was in a church that she had never seen or never been in, she said she felt like she was at home. Then about a month ago some missionaries just invited her to church when they were buying some bananas and she decided to come. When she got to the church she realized it was the exact same church that was in her dream and ever since then she has been coming to church. So, we have stopping by every day to teach and to read with her. She is super funny cause every time we visit her she says, "Ok vamos revisar porque eu naõ demoro para esquecer!" ("Let’s review because it doesn’t take long for me to forget!") But she is doing great and has a baptismal date for the 4th of December. Also, this Saturday we headed out in the morning to get some work done and visits in before lunch but right as we got close to our visit a big ol' lightning strike cracked right above our heads and then the rain commenced and it was legit like someone turned the shower on full blast. It cleared up though and we able to get in a visit and some contacts before heading and getting some lunch. That night we had a really great night with three of our lessons falling and being able to find 3 different families that we hadn't planned to visit.  The work is coming a long every day here "kancane kancane" (little by little).

On Sunday, José and Zethu were confirmed which was great to see because they had been waiting for the wedding process to get all finished up. Also, Bheki (recent convert) received a calling to teach the young men and Sakhile (a perspective elder we have been working with) was called to be the Branch clerk! It has been super cool to see how the gospel can truly help people progress in their lives and be able to fight through struggles and difficulties.

For a spiritual thought, it will also come from a talk that was giving by a sister during sacrament on Sunday. She opened her talk by saying, "Today, I am celebrating the death of my oldest daughter, November 20th, 2012. The reason why I say I am 'celebrating' her death is because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and because of that I know about the Plan of Salvation and I know that I will be reunited with my daughter again with my entire family and feel the joy and happiness that our Father in Heaven has for us." First line of her talk and I was already in tears. My fellow sister went Mike Trout and hit it out the park with her talk but ever since I heard that opening line I haven't been able to get it out of my head because it is honestly so true. We know about the Plan of Salvation, it gives us hope, comfort and joy and it’s up to us to help others come to know of this special, perfect plan as well.

I hope y’all have a great week! Eat some turkey, play and watch some football and watch the Thanksgiving episode of New Girl for ya boy down here!

Love and miss you guys!

Elder Chipman

Our dinner with the Dlaminis's...Prince was already digging in. 

Street names aren't much help here. 

Couldn't fit all of the house in the pic. 

S/O to the 0 contacts that we made in this area. 

Visiting Sister Gill at work.

Lunch with the Martins. 

Week 9 - Fairview B - Donald Trump by Mac Miller (Edited)

Soooo. what’s good America?? It sounds like this week was popping with the elections and everything. With me not being super savvy in politics and being away for more than a year I am not going to say anything cause I don’t know anything but just like Brody emailed me Mac Miller called it.  Got to give a shout out to the youngblood right now... Ezra! Happy bday my man! You are sooo big it is crazy and your style is 100 haha I hope to grow and be like you.

This past week was great for the squad down here in Fairview. Only got hit by two storms so that was nice. The weather is still being super bipolar, starting off hotter than Snoop Dog while he is in the crib to raining like its Seattle out here. The rain has been coming down more and more cause of the drought that this part of Africa had last year.

But more on the week; the highlight came yesterday at the baptism for Make Thandie. Elder Feliciana and I got to the chapel at about 8 to fill up the font. We get there and everything was locked up so after a scavenger hunt for the keys we were able to open the font and we found that it had been filled a week ago and never drained. Let’s just say I saw some insects that I have never seen before living in that water. So, we called in a 22-19 from Monsters Inc. and did a quick draining and cleaning of the font and were able to get everything good to go. The baptisms went great! It was Thandie, Tandeka and her 2 sons and then the daughter of our Elders Quorum President that were all baptized. My favorite part of every baptism is how humbling and sweet it is to hear the testimonies of those who were just baptized. Thandie was really nervous to get up in front of everyone but she did a great job!

As for the rest of the week, I have been eating like a king yet again because of the Thanksgiving box! Thanks, Mom and for all that sent love with that package haha. But Elder Feliciana and I put in the work. On Saturday, we left our house at 7:30am to help Hlobisile with washing and so after getting made fun and a day full work and sun we came back looking like Mr. Crab. On Thursday, I had the chance to do a division with Elder Griffeth! It felt just like ol' times in Munhava running the streets as the Splash Brothers. The weeks are going by and I am loving every day here.

Just for a quick spiritual thought; It comes at the end 2nd Nephi 9 when it says, “Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.”  Short and sweet just how I like it. In our lives if we think and keep our spiritually well being on focus all will be great! I know this to be true!

Love, you guys sooo much! Hope everyone has a great week!

With love and blessings,

Elder Chipman

Baptism for Thandie

Baptism of Thandie, Tandeka, her 2 sons and
the Elders Qurom Pres. daughter.

Sharing the Gospel and Sharing Sour Patch Kids

"The Usual" at U&Me Butchery, 1KG of Chicken, Pork, and
Chakalaka (Sausage)

Cool Clouds

Week 8 - Fairview B - "All I Got Is You" by Ghostface Killa

Alright with today being the 7th of November, the first shout out needs to go to Barbara Jean Chipman! Happy birthday mom! I hope you have such a great day and I am so glad that the package I sent got there!

And secondly would just like to send my regards to Emily and all her family.

As for the week, it was a good one. The weather has been changing from playing a season opener at Hurricane to the Skyline vs. Kahuku game in 2000 haha. It will start out in the morning a little overcast and then the sky will open up and then comes out.  Every night at about 6 pm a lightning storm comes out of nowhere. This past week we got caught in 3 storms, with each one being stronger than the one before. So, it has been a battle against mother nature and a battle against Satanas out here. Elder Feliciana and I have been working hard with our investigators but a whole lot are not progressing. We will be having the baptism of Make Thandi this Sunday along with the baptism of one of my favorite ladies in the other area of Fairview so that will be a great day!

Last Monday we had a super fun Halloween activity at the house in Ezuwlini with the all of the Manzini and Mbabane zone. Also, the Martins hooked it up on a low-key deal with some BABY BLUE POWDER GATORADE! I have been sipping on that stuff like a king this whole week haha. With that, and two division with Elder Mataveis and then with Elder Copitzky I can say just like Ice Cube that this was a good week.

Just for a quick spiritual thought; This morning I was reading in 2nd Nephi and I came across something that made me think. In verse 27 it says that the people of Nephi lived in the manner of happiness and also in Alma 50 we can see that this was one of the happiest times of the people in the all of the Book of Mormon. When I read this, I thought... "How did they get that happiness?? Everyone in this world wants to be happy and these people found it and lived it.. what did they do?"  In all of chapter 5 we can see the things that the people of Nephi did to achieve this level of happiness.

-In verses 1-7 we can see that they faced afflictions without complaining or questioning the will of the Lord.

-In verse 10 they kept all the commandment of the Lord.

-In verse 11 and 15 they worked diligently.

-Verse 12 they treasured the scriptures

-Verse 13 when they began to prosper they avoided pride.

-Verse 16 they enjoyed the blessings of the temple.

-Verse 26 they lived worthily to receive the blessings of the priesthood.

If we want happiness in our lives, we need to do the things that the Lord has showed us over and over through the examples in the scriptures and the things we have learned in our lives. The best thing in my opinion of this pursuit for happiness is that we will fall sometimes. Because we fall we can get back up and be better than we were before. All of this is because of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the price that he paid so that we could have this happiness. It is only through Him and His help that we might be able to achieve the happiness that the people of Nephi enjoyed at this time!

Love, you guys so much! I hope you guys have a great week! I loved seeing all of the costumes from Halloween, everyone looked tooo good! And just because Barb is the best let’s get #HappyBirthdayBarb trending haha

Love you guys,

Elder Chipman

#HappyBirthday Barb! (Written in Siswati)
Nikhosingiphile says happy bday.

Trick or Treat Trigs!

The Soulja Boi of letters.

Manzini, my home 

Had to run down the mountain after this pic cause it started raining too hard. 

Week 7 -Fairview B - B.O.B. by Outkast

Happy Halloween ya fools and ghouls! This is the 1 year mark of my first house on the mission getting robbed so that’s chill haha. But yo, hands down Ezra and Wrenly already won for the best costumes of the year! I can’t wait to see all the rest of the costumes.  I hope everyone enjoys the donuts, root beer and all the candy your hearts can imagine!

So, this week flew by with the quick trip to Mozambique and back but I feel like more happened those two days than in the other 5. Monday night after we got done doing internet and eating we went and visited the Mahotas house and said what up to the missionaries there and after we were planning on going to visit some of my favs from Magoanine and Mahotas but right as we got to the road, out of nowhere, the biggest storm I have ever seen happened. We got lucky and found a taxi that could take us back to the Mission Office. On the ride, it started to hail... yep hail in Africa and it didn’t matter that all the power was out because a lightning strike every .4 seconds lit up the sky. After making to Costa De Sol we found the beach and the road straight destroyed! The wind had blown over trees on to the road and even on to some cars and chappas. After making it as far as we could in the traffic we had to get out and trek it by foot. After about 40 minutes we finally made it to the mission office. Once we arrived I checked my bag and realize that I did not have my camera in my bag and so after a quick hit of depression of losing all my photos and videos my dude Elder Sharpe remembered that he got the taxi’s contact number.  After calling him, he was able to find my camera in his car and in the morning, the homie brought it to the mission office... can I get a hallelujah?!  That plus a late-night KFC run with the APs (Elder Holt and Elder Payne) made the trip worth it haha.

Going to Mozambique made me remember how much I miss it but being away from Swazi made me realize how much I love it here. The rest of the was great with Elder Feliciana. We went head to head with the heat and the heat won. We have some really great investigators progressing especially Thandi. Thandi is a little bit older but she can understand everything we teach her and she loves coming to church to learn more about the Savior. Also, this next week we are getting ready for some big activities to continue to excite the members about mission work here in the Manzini area.  We will be trying out a lot new ideas of how we can best work with the members to continue finding, teaching, baptizing and retaining to form a stake here in Swazi.

We will be doing some reverse trick-or-treatin tonight, every house we knock we will give them candy just to spread the Halloween spirit! But everyone have a safe day and week! Watch Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, and the Halloween episode of Freaks and Geeks for a homie. Love and miss you all so much!

Love,

Elder Chipman

Had to find my inner Legolas to help this lady out. 

The famous Riverstone Mall where the Mulungos flock on Mondays to do groceries.

A few old Pics

 

Week 6 - Fairview B - Life in Reverse by Hurris &GiG

Alright everybody so the transfers are in and we have got some news... Elder Feliciana and I will be staying together for another transfer in Fairview! But the strange thing about it is that I am currently writing this email in Mozambique... actually in the exact internet cafe that I would use in my first 3 transfers of my mission while serving in Maputo. Elder Smith, Sharpe, Owens and I had to wake up early (4:30 AM) this morning to head to Mozambique and redo all of our citizenship for Mozambique and so Elder Owens and I will be staying the day in Maputo and driving back down with the missionaries that will be transferred to Swaziland... and something that is even doper is that Elder Griffeth will be coming to Manzini! It will be the first time I have seen that guy since Mother’s Day so I am too excited. It is super strange to be mobbing the old stopping grounds again actually knowing how to speak Portuguese haha.

But as for the last week of the transfer it was another great one. Elder Feliciana hit 6 months on the mission so we had a nice lunch (Galito's) to celebrate.  Other than that Elder Feliciana and I worked super hard this week and the sunburns on our faces/necks can prove it. So, it is just that time now when at 10:00 AM it is hotter than Ryan Gosling in the movie, "Crazy Stupid Love" hahah.  We were able to press through the heat and continue on finding great people and working with the ones we have already found. After not seeing Patience for a couple of days, we decided just to past by her house to see if we could her catch at home. After knocking we heard, "Ngubani?!" (which means who is it) and we simply responded the missionaries and right after we heard a big, "Houw?!?" (What Swazi say when they are surprised. Patience opened the with the Book of Mormon in hand and said, "Right as I read something and didn’t understand it, you guys showed up... houw?!"   After that little cool experience and explaining to her what the Urim and Thummim was we had a great lesson with her. Also, we were able to find Thandi, who is an old investigator of the missionaries a long time back, and after visiting her twice she has a baptismal date and came to church. So, if everything keeps going to plan we should be having a busy day on the 13th November.

A quick thought that I would like to share comes from Mosiah 5:12-13 in this scripture it talks about our relationship with our Master, Jesus Christ. It says that we need to "retain the name written always in your hearts" when I read this for some reason I thought of having Christ's name tattooed on our hearts and how we can do so.  What came to mind is how tattoos hurt but through constant and consistent actions it becomes permanent on our bodies. To always retain his name written on our hearts I think it is the same process. In the midst of trials in our lives, through constant and consistent actions (Prayer, reading the scriptures, serving others-verse 13) we will find a permanent testimony and relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, this is it... start of transfer #10! I am super excited to be staying in Swazi and in Fairview and especially to continue working with Elder Feliciana. It feels like everyone is doing great and I hope everyone has a great week!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Chipman

The beautiful land of Swazi.

Sister Masina and her son always saving me a piece of that corn!

6 month lunch for my boy!

Sunday we had Sibusisso Burgers
(Chicken, Egg, Bacon and Cheese Burgers)

Samora Machel mean muggin (more pics from Mozambique to come next week)

Week 5 - Fairview B - Autumn Leaves by Chris Brown

What is up everyone? It sounds like that fall has truly started and everyone is doing great! In my opinion fall is tied for the second best time of the year and Africa doesn’t really have a fall sooo enjoy it guys! But it sounds like everyone's week was killer. Bday s/o's to Brandon and Penny! Those Oreo cupcakes looked too good. Sounds like sports are sports too.

This week for team, Carlos Arroyo and Milt Palacio, was a good one! It started out with us kind of still being down about not finding too many people last week but changed right around when we were able to teach 2 lessons back-2-back (S/o to Drake) of some contacts that we had done. First we taught Fissile and it was awesome. She understood everything and accepted to be baptized. Right after, we taught Patience and Patience is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. The Lord has blessed her life so much to lead unto the point she is right now to be able to hear this message. We taught her the Restoration and she said that everything "just clicked in her mind and she felt like her eyes were being opened" to what she always wondered and wanted to know. After just dropping a baptismal invitation with Fissile it was only right that we did it with Patience as well. Elder Feliciana kicked my leg and started saying Portuguese, "Invite her, invite her now or I will kill you" hahah so we invited her to be baptized and she said that after hearing what she just heard she wanted could have been baptized right then and there. We returned the next day and taught her the Book of Mormon but even before we started teaching she asked us, "I believe that the Bible is the word of God but that it is missing something… I don’t know how or what... but do you think that God has more scriptures for us?" So after wiping our giant smiles off of our faces we taught her and she loved it. We are also teaching two sisters, Zanele and Wendi, who have been progressing really well. They felt super bad cause they read the Book of Mormon but didn’t understand it and so we had to explain to them that it didn’t matter if they understood or not but that they were keeping a commandment of the Lord and opening themselves to the Spirit to come to the know the truth.

As for other things this week... we celebrated Elder Sharpe's bday with ice cream cake, chocolate cake, and chocolate waffles. Elder Payne was transferred early which was kind of sad for our whole zone but it is all chill. And last but certainly not least the past two nights there have been the two biggest lighting storms I have ever seen. On Saturday night, we had just got done with a lesson when Zeus decided to have target practice on Manzini haha. Elder Feliciana and I had to book it up because it was soo sketch. It didn’t give us comfort that every person we ran by yelled at us, "You shouldn't wear white when there is lighting!" Chillbo Baggins. haha but I was able to get some amazing videos which I will try to send. But that is pretty much it for the squad this week! I hope everyone is still watching, listening and pondering about what we heard in conference. I love and miss you all! Have such a great week!

Love,

Elder Chipman

"Were there" - Lloyd Christmas
Running home in lightning storms.

My dude Simon just got his mission call to serve in the Ghana Accra Mission

Why not take a selfie while waiting for a visit?

Waiting for the suprise for Elder Sharpe