Georgia is beautiful, hot, humid, green, buggy, but nice :)

Wow, it’s been a long week. Good, but long.

 

My new address is:

Georgia Atlanta Mission

112 Governors Square Ste A

Fayetteville, GA 30215

So I don't really know where to begin. This whole week my companion has been saying "I have never been so confused in my life." On Wednesday I was called to serve the Cunningham Spanish Branch in Marietta Georgia with Elder Bakes, from Pocatello, Idaho. He's been serving for 21 months and is almost done. We were called to Whitewash an area, which means that my companion and I don't know the area at all. We are sharing the Area with Elder Nay, and Elder Crowther. We get there and honestly, have no idea what’s going on. The records are good, but not very detailed, so the past week we've just been spending most of our time trying to find people. The Branch here is great, but there are a lot of inactive members. The members who are active are extremely strong though. The President, President Gonzalez, is very faithful, and into the mission effort. It’s really awesome. We're starting to get some momentum and start getting the work going again, but honestly it’s a little embarrassing to report numbers because a lot of our time has been getting organized so we know what we are doing. It’s all good though. We're working hard. I know that there is a reason I was sent here, and I know that I will figure it out soon, because honestly, I might not be here for much longer.

Georgia is beautiful, hot, humid, green, buggy, but nice. Marietta has a very diverse community with lots of Hispanics and African Americans. Our branch covers both the town of Marietta and Smyrna which is right to the south. The apartment is nice! We share it with Elder Nay and Elder Crowther, which is fun! There aren't a lot of lights though so it has kind of a grim feel to it.

President Harding, the mission president, is awesome. He's really nice and seems to know the reason why we're here, and that is to baptize. He mentioned that the first thing the Savior did while visiting the Nephites was show that he was the savior, then immediately after, gave the authority to Nephi to baptize. So that is the goal down here, and they seem to be having a lot of success.

Something that they do that is really cool, is that instead of tracting, we travel and give blessings. We go door to door, but instead of try to share a message, we ask if they would like us to bless their home. There are so many churches and Christians down here that we usually don't get rejected. We go in and bless their home specifically using people they want to bless and troubles that they are having. Afterwards you know that they felt the Holy Ghost tell them that what just happened was significant. They are then open for us to give them a pamphlet and tell them more. We gave a blessing to a woman a few days ago named Angela. She was really touched and was even crying afterwards. We were then able to set up a return appointment for tomorrow! So I'm super excited for that!

Well life is good! Christ is my Savior, and his church is true! In English and in Spanish! Hope all is well!

Elder Chipman