Monday, November 25, 2013

A bunch of success!


Hola Todos                                                                             November 25, 2013

 

 


It’s been a good week serving here in Argentina! I can honestly say that I have never been this hot in November before—or this tan!  I think it’s been about 27 degrees Celsius (whatever that means) so if you have some sort of conversion method, you can figure out what that is in Fahrenheit.  They say it gets even hotter in January and February, close to 40 degrees Celsius, so I don’t know what to expect.

 

We are starting to have a bunch of success!  5 investigators came to church yesterday which is really awesome!  Two of them are a mother and son. The son is about 26 and the mother is, well, older than 26.  she is the aunt of some members of the ward.  She is very open and feels like this is a good thing.  She is very active in another faith, but is very open to listen to what we have to say in order to make sure she is following our Heavenly Father’s plan for her.

 

The other two are some neighbors to a family in the ward.  We taught them once about prayer and they have come two weeks in a row!  The only problem is that they are about 15 and 12 years old, so we need to start teaching their parents as well.

 

Today is a holiday here in Argentina.  Nobody really knows why.  Apparently there are 21 holidays in Argentina, and for every one of them, nobody works.  We were lucky to find an internet café that was open!  But this morning we played soccer with a bunch of the men in the ward and it was a lot of fun!

 

It’s been pretty good here. The Lord is really helping me with the language, and I’m starting to get the hang of it more.  That being said, I don’t understand the details to what is going on, and usually I have things repeated to me, but I’m finally seeing improvement.  I feel more peace.  President Thurgood sent a quote today from Lorenzo snow saying that we can’t be perfect in an instant, but we can improve everyday.  So that is what I’m trying to do.  And it is helping me put my head down and move forward.

 

I’m also trying to figure out how best to do the work.  It is hard when I’ve got what I learned in Georgia from the mission president and my trainer, and now what I’m learning from President Thurgood and what the missionaries here tell me to do.  But I think I am starting to figure out how I best want to work and what I need to do.

 

It is funny how I sometimes don’t see miracles until after the day end and I look back on what we did.  In those times it is really easy to see the Lord’s hand.  Just yesterday I had a miracle.  It was a hard morning because I was tired so it war hard to get started.  The day before, our apartment didn’t have water so I couldn’t shower.  On that day, we had water but it was cold.  The other two elders took cold showers before my turn.  I was starting to get sad, so I prayed for the Lord’s help.  When I turned the hot water knob just to see, there was hot water!  After I showered, my comp showered and it was cold again.  It was something that really wasn’t that big of deal, but it was a tender mercy and a miracle for me.

 

Funny story:  Sometimes my comp tries to speak English to me. He doesn’t know a lot, and he can’t pronounce anything worth beans, but the fact that he tries is pretty cool. The funny thing is that if I can’t understand what he is trying to say, he throws his hands in the air and says “Chipman no entiende su propio idioma” or “Chipman you don’t even understand your own language!”

 

Thanks for the sports update Dad.  It is kinda fun to see what is happening and honestly I’ve seen about the same amount of Bronco games here as I did in college anyway.

 

I would love to go on a run sometime, but w shouldn’t.  our area isn’t the most safe area in the whole world.  The mornings are pretty dangerous because all of the drunks are just coming out of their all-night parties.  So running in the morning is a bad idea.  That being said, know that I am safe and doing well.  I try to do some pushups and stuff in the morning, but I’m just getting back into it since I was sick.

 

We don’t have a lot of food in the pension, but every night after planning I make a little plate of fideos or spaghetti to king of relax and finish up the day.  It gives me something to look forward too.

 

I got the Conference Ensign Magazine this week.  Seriously the best thing ever!  I also got dad’s letter, but nothing else.  They say that anything over 4 lbs will be taxed and is difficult to get, and also to wrap everything in brown paper or use brown boxes.  Anything that even looks valuable will be held and taxed no matter the size, but if you stick a Jesus Sticker on it, it usually works out fine!

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Anyway, that is all that happened this week!  Hop all is well at home!  Don’t eat too much turkey without me ok!  Or if you want, you can mail me the leftovers!

 

Have a good week, Love you all!

 

Elder Chipman
Here is a hat that a member knitted for me!

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