I love the mission! Lots of pictures :)

Hola Todos!                                                                May 24, 2014

It sounds like a crazy week with Graduation and everything, and it’s weird to hear the names of the people who are graduating.  I guess my high school days were a LONG time ago! 

I am just hoping that Eric (cousin) gets called to my mission.  I’ve heard of that happening before.  How cool would that be?!

It’s been another great week in Adrogué Argentina! Winter is definitely on the way. We work closely with the missionaries in charge of the pensions and furnishing them, and the majority of the calls they get is because the missionaries are in need of some electrical heaters (central heating doesn’t exist here). So we are getting ready for the winter. The office is nice because we have a lot of heaters to work with, so I am always nice and toasty! ! If I want I can even have Malta or Hot Cocoa any time because we have a microwave in the office kitchen! So Yea, there are perks to the office life, plus I get letters quickly! I got the one with half of the General Conference Ensign stapled together, and it didn’t count as a package! So thank you.  I’ve been enjoying it when I have the time to read.

I’m adjusting better to life in the office. The president let us play soccer last Monday so we wouldn’t be so isolated, but honestly it wasn’t that fun. We don’t have a very big zone and so there weren’t a lot of people who wanted to play. I guess exercise in general throughout the mission is dying; so I’m not missing anything by serving in the office. After last Monday,   I was satisfied with just watching a movie and playing Risk on P-days (we found the Risk game in the office). Today we watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It is funnier in English because its hard to translate words like Bodasity, Awesomeness, and the other words he uses, but still very fun.

I’m still exercising in the mornings and that helps. As far as weight goes, I don’t seem to be losing or gaining just at a plateau. We don’t eat the greasy food made for us by members, so that helps!

My companion is a nice guy, and we get along really well which makes it nice. He is just a great kid which makes working with him enjoyable, and that makes working in the office a pleasure. Unfortunately, we don’t know the area at all, so proselyting is super difficult, but we get out when we can.

Other than that, we’ve just been getting a lot of work done with supplying the missionaries with pamphlets, DVD’s and books. Everyday there is a zone conference, and we prepare the supplies each individual missionary need, then call them up to let them now how much money they need to pay. It’s a pretty long process, and takes the majority of our time, but we’re pretty much getting it down to a system.

Another perk in the office life is the close relation to the senior couple Elder and Sister Dance. They are super nice and are always supplying us with cinnamon rolls, baked potatoes, and good old American favorites, so I’ve been eating very well!

It’s been a good week! I’ve learned a lot! I mean a lot of spiritual stuff. And it helps. I was able to read a conference talk by President Eyring from this past General Priesthood Session. While I learned a lot, something that struck me was his description of prayer. There are many times in my life when I have thought that it would just be easier if the Savior came down and he just told me what to do, and then I would know, but little did I realize he has given me and every single one of us that opportunity. Prayer is not only a time to speak, but to listen. Its more than a wrote blessing, but an effort filled conversation that can result in responses as well as questions. It’s not easy to pray fervently, but it’s not supposed to be. If we put the effort into prayer, than we will see the blessings occur.

I love the mission!  I learn something about myself, and my Father in Heaven and  the Savior Jesus Christ every single day, which makes each experience is worth every minute of my mission.

Love you all, hope you’re doing great!

Till Next week,

Elder Chipman

My chubby picture

cinnamon rolls  :)

Making the cinnamon rolls

Our bikes from the last area

The office where I work

 

Defensa and Justicia uniforms

packing for the transfer to the office

It's a horse!

My Companion was robbed at McDonalds!

Hola Todos,                                                                 May 17, 2014

It’s been another great week in the offices! I’m learning a little bit here and there, and we were able to travel up to the Capital for a little bit yesterday to pick up some packages, so that was cool!

The best story of the week is that my comp was robbed this week. We were waiting to pick up some cell phones in a place called Lomas de Zomora. We saw a McDonalds and decided to buy some ice cream. So there we were enjoying our ice cream when a poorer man walked up to us with a bag full of trash in his hand. After a short conversation, he looked at Elder Mason’s Ice Cream. He then asked if he could have a little bit of it. Elder Mason said No, but that the McDonalds was selling them. That wasn’t good enough for the man, so after he did some thinking, he had an idea! He reached in his bag of trash and pulled out an empty french fry carton from McDonalds, and used it to scoop off the top of Elder Masons Ice Cream. Without another word, he turned around, and continued on his way. 

It was probably one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me. 

Other than that, office life continues and honestly, nothing more super exciting to report. It’s been pretty normal, not going to lie. Other than my companion and his ice cream, we’ve just been running around getting stuff done. It’s not a bad thing to be an office elder, just a little lonely at times. We just get isolated, and don’t have a ton of contact with other missionaries, and when we do call them, it’s usually us asking them for money, so they usually aren’t very happy when we call.  With all of that, I’m trying to keep myself grateful, because it really is a privilege to serve as a missionary.

A typical day includes a devotional with the office staff at 10, and then we get to work. Usually we do Baptismal Records at the beginning, where we receive the records from the missionaries, try to read the handwriting and type it into a program on the computer. We then work on Pedidos, which are the supplies that the missionaries order. We do it individually to save the President time, so we do it by zone, and every missionary receives a bag full of the stuff they asked for. That takes a long time to figure out how much they owe and things like that. We have lunch at 1 pm, then we sometimes study language at 2, but that doesn’t happen very often. The rest of the day is spent finishing the Pedidos, or organizing the numbers for the week. If we have time we leave at 6pm to proselyte which is difficult because we don’t get a lot of time to find people to teach, and it’s hard to know where to go. Later at night we plan, and then call the missionaries who are receiving their stuff the next day. 

So that’s our life. We get to go to a place called Avellaneda about once a week to get cell phones picked up, and we get to go to capital once every other week. 

Some sad news too, Pablo still hasn’t been confirmed. Apparently last Sunday he said that it was raining and muddy, and refused to come. I guess a lot of other members do that, but it postpones his confirmation for another week. I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

I’m glad I got to talk to you on Mother’s Day over Skype. It’s nice to see and talk to you, but only one hour just isn’t enough time. I guess there’s only one year left. I can do that. I will be a little annoyed, though, if Allies’ first High School State Track Meet happens only days before I get home, but I guess that’s out of my control. We’re Half way there!

Hope Everyone is happy and doing well. Love you all!

Elder Chipman

New Assignment as the office Registrador

Hola todos!                                        

It sounds like Allie is running super fast, and it also sounds like the rest of the world is too! I guess I can’t argue if Andrew ran a 4:17 to take my school record. There’s only so much you can do!

Last Saturday PABLO WAS BAPTIZED!!!! It took a long time, but he was finally there and we were able to perform the ordinance. It was a really a cool experience. The branch that I just left was a difficult one, and only the branch president and the Elders Quorum President came to the service, but he was baptized!  Unfortunately, he caught a cold the next day because he was all wet and so he could not be confirmed until tomorrow.  I won’t know about it until the record comes into the office.

Also, last Saturday night I got a call from President, and he asked me to be the new registrador in the offices of the mission. Honestly, I wasn’t exactly expecting the office call, nor did I want it. I will probably in the office for about 4 transfers, or a little more than 5 months--maybe more.  It takes two transfers just to train me with the new responsibilities.  I’m about at my year mark and that is when I would expect to be called as a trainer or maybe a district leader. I was even a little bummed on Sunday because I only have 2 years to give, and now about 5 months of my mission is not going to be outside working all day and that is where I want to be.  

I did also learn for myself that the Lord has a plan for me--even if it’s not down the normal road. I read a scripture in Hebrews that taught me a lot. It talked about how we need to have patience until the Lord’s will is completed, and then we will receive the promise. That really helped me put things in perspective, and now I actually like the new assignment. Honestly, this week was nice, and fun because the people that work in the office with me are great.

My p-day has changed from Monday to Saturdays so that is when you can expect my emails. The only down side is that we can’t play soccer with the other missionaries on Monday.  However, winter is rolling in and I’m not sure if the Elders are going to be playing soccer for much longer anyway.

My daily schedule has changed completely too. We still wake up at 6:30 do our studies and all, but then at 9:45 we report to the offices to have a devotional with the office staff. After the devotional, we get to work. We work on baptismal records, mail, supplies, key indicators, and what ever our mission president needs from us. There isn’t too much travel involved, but we do get to drive to Capital every other week because the international post office is up there and we have to pick up packages. Each night at 6pm, we get to go and proselyte for the rest of the evening like normal missionaries.  I still have a lot to learn, but it’s getting easier to understand what is happening everyday.

The area around the mission office is super nice. It’s the nicest place in the Mission, or at least I think so. Our Pench is also super nice; we even have a washing machine! (Hallelujah!!!).

My comp is really great too.  They only let those who speak English have this assignment because the Senior Couple that work in the office do not speak a lick of Spanish. So my comp now is American and my next comp will most likely be as well.

For P-day, we watched the Disney movie “Frozen.” I liked it, and it was a lot of fun. You were right about the snowman being pretty funny. Other than that, we shopped, wrote letters, and did other stuff around.

Mom, I think that is interesting that Sister Thurgood (Mission president’s wife) called you. She didn’t tell me about it. It does make me feel good to know that she likes me and I’m doing a good job. It is easy for me to feel just like a normal missionary and blend in, but I think it is cool that she at least thought enough about me to call you to tell you.

I´ll talk to you tomorrow for mother’s day. I think I’ve got Allie beat. She can’t beat a missionary phone call for Mother´s day, so you can just let her know I´ve got it in the bag this year!

Haha, I´ll talk to you tomorrow!

Anyway, that’s it for this week. Hope to have more next time!

Love you all!

Elder Chipman

Hola todos!