Navajo Code Mar 25

Yaa teeh!

       This week has been fantastic!!!!! So after I emailed you on Monday we went of a hike into a canyon that had some old indian ruins in it. We did that for about 3 to 4 hours. After we all got back to our vehicles one of the sisters realized she had lost her keys. So we said a quick prayer and headed back out to find them. After about an hour, plus many more prayers, they were found. Talk about a faith building experience! After that we had an appointment with an actual investigator, Jamie. (I say actual investigator because most of the people we meet with are less active or inactive members.) She is one AMAZING individual. She is progressing so well and wants to get married with her boy friend who she is living with. We are so excited for her!
       On Tuesday we meet with a woman who is inactive, Fila, she is a great person but she has some hard feelings toward the church to say the least. While we were in talking with her though, her husbands dog knocked over our bikes and ripped up our nice bike seats and put several bite marks into our helmets. It actually took me a couple of minutes to find my helmet. Haha! Oh what interesting stuff. :D That night we went out and visited more of the 1st ward with the ward mission leader, Bro. Redd, and a ward missionary, Bro. Nakai. We meet with Jermaine has this crazy cool mo hawk, he to is a fighter like Bro Ford and occasionally comes and works out with us in the morning. We also meet with a 9 year old girl, Laikyn, who is by far on of the most intelligent young people I've ever meet.
       Wednesday we went and tracked for the first time... oh joy. Haha! It's not so bad once you get used to it but it takes some getting used to. :D We also meet and read the Book of Mormon with a couple, Benny and Shiloh, who are progressing very well. They've started coming back to church! :D :D :D They are doing great and have great questions when they don't understand stuff that they read on their own. Shiloh actually thanked me for something I said the last time we had meet before this which I didn't even realize that I had said, talk about being a tool in the Lord's hand to touch someone else, WOW!
       On Thursday, we had District Meeting where we learned about how to react when people don't follow through with their commitments. After District Meeting we went out to our Branch in White Mesa, the Ute reservation, and contacted some people there. We then went down to Montezuma Creek so Elder Edwards could conduct a baptism interview. I was happy though because we'd gotten mail that day. Picture this when we get mail, especially for young women :) we LITERALLY go skipping up and down the street into the house yelling the entire time. :D After we got back from Montezuma Creek we went to a members house in the 1st ward, Bro. Glover, because he has agreed to teach us Navajo!!!!!!!!! We learned how to sing "I'm a child of God" FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!! Yaa Teeh is a greeting in Navajo literally meaning "It's Good".
       Friday we did a work out with Bro Ford called "Murph" It went like this; a mile run followed by 300 squats (a squat consisted of your backside touching a 25 lbs medicine ball) 200 push ups 100 pull ups and another 1 mile run. My legs are still sore today 3/25. It was crazy awesome! We had a weekly planning meeting and got to visit with the less active family of Jason and Heidi. We read the Book of Mormon with them. Jason is a straight up cow boy. It's so cool! He has the old old cowboy hat and the pants inside the cowboy boots and he is an AMAZING stale maker!!!! OH... MY ... GOODNESS.... He is good! We also got to meet with Jamie again and go over the Plan of Salvation, she is really progressing well.
       Saturday we just went around to all of our Less actives and investigators and see if we could help them in any way. We got a referral for a lady who could use some help with some yard work. We went and talked with her and found out her son is a Navy Corpsman who works with Marines. We talked about him for quite a while, he's about ready to retire from it, he's coming up on his 20 year mark. We learned that he's been on 5 deployments one of which was to Falouja. (I don't know how to spell but it was a MAJOR battle in the Iraqi Freedom campaign) We also got to go and learn more Navajo with Bro. Glover! I love learning Navajo even though it is a REALLY hard language to learn.
      Sunday Elder Edwards and I had to give talks about missionary work in 1st ward. They went well. We got to meet with Benny and Shiloh again, they are really coming a long way. I'm so glad I get to be apart of it. They are really amazing people with REALLY amazing stories!
      So that's been my week! I love it here and am excited to continue to serve!!!!
      Question for you guys to think about and write to me about, what is the REAL reason we come to earth? :D The answer is something really interesting that most people don't think about. :D
               Until next week,
                    Elder Chipman

Ok here is the rest of his letter :)

I tried to do something and it didn't work that's why you got that first weird E-mail.

So Sat. and Sun. we didn't do much. We had class took pictures with out teachers and went to church and some Devo's. Monday we got up at 0145 to get ready. We got the the airport around 0400 and we went to check in our bags and I look over and saw... Val Nuttall! I say her name and she looks over, and her face when she saw me... ooo PRICELESS!!! So she sprints over and tries to give me a hug, I tell her I can't give her a hug so we shake hands and then we go through security get on our flight and take off to Denver. The flight was about an hour long we landed around 0700 and our next flight didn't board until 0935 so I borrowed a friends, Elder Young's, calling card and called my dad for 30 or so minutes and then I called my brother Chris because it was his B-day. So after we flew out of Denver to Darango, a 39 minute flight. We landed and then walked off the plane onto the airport ground and walked in and meet Pres. and Sis. Batt. After we got our bags and drove to the mission house we had an orientation meeting and Pres. Batt did all 25 interviews. After the Orientation was over we had about 2 or 3 hours to sleep so we all crashed in the living room. Before anyone feel asleep Elder Hirschi said, "Someone should play the piano to put us to sleep." So I got up and played for like 2 hours straight. I played Cristifori's Dream and then almost all of the hymns I knew. Also Elder Provard and I had been playing Go Fish the past few days because we were bored so thank you Jessica for sending that in my B-day package. :) Sadly enough for Elder Provard he has never out right won a game of Go Fish. He's either tied or lost when we've played. haha. :) So after I played the piano for two hours we had dinner and went to the mission office, which is under a church, and had a testimony meeting. After that, some members came and got us and let us stay at their house for the night. I stayed in a Camping Trailer, a really nice big one. So Tuesday morning we got up and head back to the mission office and when we walked into the chapel there were a bunch of other Elders and Sisters already there. We had a couple meeting then we started to get assigned our trainer and area. Drum roll please... my trainer is ... Elder Edwards from Texas, although he's moved like 18 times so he's lived almost everywhere because his dad was in the military and my first area is............................................................................Blanding Utah!!!!!!!! Now some of you might be thinking, "Blanding, well that sucks, you didn't even go out of state." Well guess what, I've been here less than a week and I FREAKING LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!! So Tuesday after we drove 2 and 1/2 hours from Farmington to Blanding we went and had dinner with the Kyle family. Bro Kyle... let me explain him to you like this, 6' or 6' 2" big black guy that loves to talk. He's freaking histerical!!!!! Also before that we went to my first house visit, this house had not 1 not 2 but 3 MASSIVE German Shepards! Like these dogs would put there front paws on Elder Edwards shoulders, btw Elder Edwards is 6' 6", and look him dead in the eyes. Freaky but awesome. The dogs were actually really nice. Oh and we were in a 3 som. The other Elder's, Elder Amott, companion didn't show up till Friday so we just worked on his area from Tues to Fri. Elder Amott is freaking awesome he's super funny and easy to talk to, the only bad part about him is that this is his last transfer. So I don't really remember much from wednesday and Thursday cause it wasn't our area but I do remember this. Every morning we go and work out with Bro. Ford. Now Bro. Ford is a World Champion MMA fighter, that can kinda give you an idea on the work outs we do. I FREAKING LOVE IT!!!!!!! So on Sat. we started to open our area cause Elder Edwards and I are both new to Blanding so we met with our bishops and ward mission leaders. We have a bishop named, Bishop Moses. Ya, freaking awesome, and, he's a seminary teacher. He also took us around to meet some people that he wanted us to work with. On Sunday we went to church for close to 7 hours with all our meeting and then we had our first dicussion in our area. It went great, it was with Benny and Shiloh who are both less active but want to come back so we read the BOM with them then came home and Elder Edwards had to take care of some District Leader stuff cause he is also the District Leader. So for those 2 and a half ours Elder Amott and I talked about whatever came to our heads. Elder Amott's companion is Elder Sobczak (sob - check) So It's been a fun week but I can't wait to really getting working in our area.

The letters I have gotten are alway appriecatied and I will write you back if I get the time. Also when writing me letter they must have my first and last name or I will not get them until the next transfer! If you send me a package it must be sent using priority first US Mail, NOT UPS OR FEDEX OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT ONLY US MAIL!!! Pictures should be coming soon! :D

Thanks for all the support!

Elder Chipman

Bryson's Address

Here is Bryson's mailing address:

Elder Bryson Chipman
New Mexico Farmington Mission
400 W Apache St
Farmington NM 87401


This is the same address for both letters and packages. Please remember that when writing a letter it  must have both his first and last name or he will not get them until the next transfer. If you send him a package it must be sent using priority first US Mail, not UPS or FEDEX.

Thanks for your support!

Navajo Code March 18

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So 

 

 

(Yes this is his entire letter)

The Navajo Code 3/2 - 3/8

Hey Hey!

So after I wrote my first Email Elder Provard and I were able to do TRC (training discussions with real people) We had a guy named Thrijae (3J) a Poly who plays volleyball for Stanford. That was a really interesting less cause we were still learning.
Sunday was Fantastic! We had a great fast and testimony meeting with our zone. Before we did that we had a Mission conference with the whole MTC. It was great, they talked a lot about obedience. After dinner we had a Fireside with the Whole MTC and the Pres. of the Provo Temple came and also talked to us on obedience. We then got to go watch a film, more so a past devo at the MTC, the one we went to was of Elder Bednar in June of 2009. The topic was Recognizing the Spirit. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! YOU NEED TO WATCH IT!! IT IS THE BEST 45 MINUTES YOU CAN SPEND WATCHING SOMETHING!!!
Monday We had gym and class. I didn't get kicked out of 4 square so it was a good day. Class is always good.
Tuesday Elder Provard and I decided to fast because we were not having much success with our two investigators. I have never been so spiritually uplifted and spiritually spent in one day. It was incredible. That night we had a Devo. where Elder Aidukaitus from the seventy came and spoke with us about returning to the Celestial kingdom. He challenged us to go back and write in our journals that we wanted to go there in BIG letters, and why we wanted to go there. It was a great talk. I also liked his Brazilian accent. :D (Dad can you send me my line of Priesthood. Thanks)
Wednesday we had class, gym, then another class. Although Elder Scott came to the MTC that day so when I saw him for the first time I almost took him off his feet. We both a laugh about it before he had to go to his class. Best part is, is that he is part of my zone!! Legit!
Yesterday was In-Field Orientation. Basically activities so we could learn stuff that we couldn't learn in the class room, like how to work with members and stuff like that. After that we had class. The class was split in half and we were able to teach and investigator with 5 missionaries, crazy I know. But it was so cool. The spirit was so strong during that time. That was probably the best class we have ever had.
Today I was able to write letters to those of you who wrote me, thanks for writing! Every time I get mail it's like Christmas Day!!! :D
Also sometime this week I looked in my second scripture case and found a lot of stuff from High School, including some Turkey Grams. Haha! I want to say thanks for those that wrote me those in high school. I threw most of the stuff out but I did keep some of my favorite Turkey Grams.
Andrea Gordon, Thanks for writing me a Turkey Gram that went like this, "A friend will bail you out of jail, a best friend will be sitting in jail with you going "That was fun.", but a b.f.f. will bail you out of jail saying "I told you I could run faster." "    That brought a good laugh to Elder Provard and I.
Justin Cook, Thanks for the Turkey Gram that went something like this... :) "Justin Cook Aghaaoinasldifjglnfjg BOMB THREAT!!!"     That also made my night.
I would love to hear how all of you are doing! It's always nice to hear what is going on in the lives of your friends! :D

Funny story before I go. Elder Provard a package of letters one day and was reading them. I said to him, because I didn't get any mail, "I wish I got mail" He then found a letter in the package address to me and said "Here you go" I then said "Wow, ask and ye SHALL receive." We then almost died from laughter. Haha! :D

Elder Chipman

1st Mission Letter! 3/2/13

We'll I made it!!! :D
So I got dropped off Wednesday afternoon by my dad and sister. I unload my bags and my host took me into a building to get my nametags and some paperwork. My name tags came in a little manilla envelope. So we go drop off my bags in my dorm and we start walking to the classroom. I look down at the envelope and see Provard, Kenneth Micheal. I was like, "What the heck is his name doing on my envelope?!" I look the right of his name and see - Companion: I FREAKED OUT!!!!!! I probably freaked out my host too. Haha. So I got to the classroom and was the 2nd one there. I watched the rest of my District come in and sit down. The best part is, is that there is another companionship that is best friends. Freaking Awesome!!! So after we meet our teachers (Bro Morris and Bro Jacobson (served in the Sacramento California mission, Durtschi!)) We got to know each other and ask questions. I was like the only person who was asking questions so after my second question the banned me from asking any more questions. LOL. So I would lean over to Elder Provard (It's SOOOOOOO weird calling him that :) ) and tell him what question to ask. :D After that we went back to our dorm and found out our room mates were two Elders from our District, Elder Young from Idaho Falls and Elder Hirschi from Brigham city. I'm just gunna say... we have the best dorm EVER!! We have a great time together. On Thursday we went and discussed our purpose as missionaries and got assigned an investigator (teacher that is role playing). Elder Provard and I got assigned Jarrett (Bro Jacobson) We were going to teach him Friday morning. So ya you come to the MTC and start teaching right off the bat. We also meet with and had interviews with our Branch Presidency. There is Pres. Wenn (Awesome man and interesting note he is about 4'10" maybe shorter and he loves hugs! This guy is absolutely AMAZING!!!) 1st counsel Brown (who has a disability in his knee because he had polio when he was a child but has an unbelievable spirit about him!) and 2nd counsel Carpetner (Who also has an amazing spirit about him). After the interviews are zone leaders took us for a tour around the MTC and then we came back and I was asked to fill the roll of District Leader! :D I feel so blessed to be able to be chosen to serve my District as their District Leader. Elder Young and Elder Hirschi were called as the new Zone Leader but where as I started that day they start on Sunday. Also on Thursday we had gym for the first time and we chose to play 4 square, awesome game, and there was only one real rule... no diving. Ya you probably guessed it. On my third or fourth game I dove and was asked to leave. Haha sad day but all well, so I played basketball and ran on the track. Friday we taught our first lesson and it was ok, still a lot we can improve on, like for instance we barely got the door and then I talked almost the entire time so Elder Provard didn't get to say many things, but we've discussed it and feel good about it. We had gym in the afternoon that day and I tried to play 4 square once again. I got really close to diving again but right at the last second I put my had out to balance myself so I did not leave my feet. Also during gym it was only my District who played 4 square so that was a great bonding time. We also, as a District, have a set place to eat in the Cafeteria. :) We had classes on the Doctrine of Christ and What we are supposed to teach and How we are supposed to teach it. Today while we were getting breakfast we learned that we would be driving trucks in our mission too! AWESOME!!

I love being here and can't wait to get out and preach in the four corners area! I know the Church is true and I'm learning that more everyday, the only sad part about leaving the MTC is not being able to see my District everyday! I LOVE MY DISTRICT!!!!!

If you have any doubts about the church I ask you just to kneel down and pray about it because I know that our Father in Heaven WILL answer you!

Elder Chipman