Navajo Code 8/18

       Yaa Teeh!

        So we literally just got back from the Temple! I love the Temple! So if you wrote me a letter this week and don't get anything back that is because I didn't have any time to write back. Next week I will definitely try to write back!

       So on Monday for P-day we went and got pizza, headed up to the church and watched some church movies and played the piano for P-day. Then we went for a walk and saw some kids playing soccer. I was so excited that I went up and asked if we could play with them. It's a lot different playing soccer in missionary clothes than it is in actual soccer clothes! HAHA. :D

       Tuesday we got to go volunteer at the senior citizens center. I went and played the piano and then we both helped serve. After lunch was over a few of the people asked us if we wanted to stay and learn how to line dance. Wow, I miss dancing. I really want to take a ballroom dance class in college. Jacob Hatfield, we'll have to get together some time so you can show me some moves and stuff. ;) Then we got to go over to Fred's house! He is coming so far! He is progressing in the gospel like nobody I've ever seen! More on that later!

       Wednesday Elder Martin and I sent all of the Elders in our zone on exchanges. :) hehehe. I brought an Elder from Bloomfield second up to Aztec and we walked for a good part of the day. We had a man yell at us from across the main road, with traffic going by, asking us where are church was. We ended up meeting him at a corner and talking to him. He was in the Army and has been wanting to meet with missionaries for a while. :D

       Thursday we went walking for 4 hours just trying to talk to people. Then at dinner we had the member ask us if we could give him a blessing for some health issues he is having. He asked me to give him the blessing. It's interesting how God will tell you that your are doing the right thing and that you still have the spirit with you. That was one way he did it for me, letting me give that blessing.

       Friday, met with Fred... again.... AWESOME!!!! So we started going over the Restoration again just to make sure he understood everything. We got talking about the saviors mortal ministry and the Atonement and Fred brought up how his daughter was acting the way she normally was. He asked us if we could give her a blessing. Elder Martin gave a great blessing. After that Fred said the closing prayer. You could feel how much faith he has just by his prayer! It was almost like a fog, you can't physically grab it but you KNOW it is there. Then we helped him fix his bike tires. We didn't have all the right tools, so we called Chet to come help us. That was great, we got Fred's bike all fixed and ready to go. It's amazing to see people come together in the name of the gospel!

       Saturday we did a lot of service for our members. We did some weeding for one and set up a glass desk for another.

       Sunday we had a member go pick up Fred's family for church. Fred was going to come late because he was working. Normally there older two children are crazy. But when they got to church I was AMAZED!!! at how well behaved they were. They loved church! It is so good to see that family come so much closer to the gospel!

       Thank you for all the support! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 8/11

Yaa Teeh!

       Monday we had a Tri Zone activity. I got to play Ultimate, I did pretty good. I got to play with Elder Provard. He's really good at Ultimate! Then we saw our recent convert and then Chet. They are both doing good. :)

       Tuesday we had MLC. We talked about improving our missionaries and talking to everyone. I really love those meetings. They are so spiritually uplifting. Then we went out with a member and saw a less active lady that is trying to come back to church. Members are so powerful! They can do so much more to influence the people than we missionaries can.

       Wednesday we met with one of our investigators, Fred. When we walked into his house it was like hitting a brick wall of the spirit! He had some piano hymns playing in the background and he had been reading. It's amazing what good music plus reading the scriptures can do to influence the spirit in the home. Well, he's doing great. We set a baptismal date with him for the 20th of September. I'm really excited for him. That night we got to go play ultimate with a group that plays almost every week. They are really good too! They are better than me so I really enjoy playing with them.

       Thursday we did our zone training. We had our sister training leader train on talking to everyone, a district leader train on viewing everyone as if they were going to the temple, Elder Martin trained on the commitment process and I train on potential. That took up a good chunk of our day.

       Friday we got meet with Fred again. He is still doing so great! He's reading and getting a lot out of his reading. It's so good to see how the gospel can affect peoples lives!

       Saturday we went walking for 6 hours in the middle of the day in 94+ degree temperatures. Someone got a great sunburn at his collar line. :) Then we went to a baptism that Flora Vista had. It was interesting because the person getting baptized asked me to speak at it. That was kinda weird but I was excited to do it! Fred was also able to come to the baptismal service and then we gave him a church tour. So it went really well.

       Sunday we had meetings and then we meet with the high counselor over missionary work. Then we went on splits. I went with Bro Black. He does such a good job at fellowshipping people. Members here are just great! I love being in Aztec!

       Thanks for all the support! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

 

Navajo Code 8/4

Yaa Teeh!

 

       Monday we got to go play some soccer with two kids that were already there. That was a lot of fun.

 

       Tuesday we went and picked up Elder Leichty from Farmington. Then he got a little unpacked before we had a lesson. We then had splits that night. I went with our elders quorum president and saw bro coleman. Bro Christensen (Elders Quorum President) is awesome! He started testifying and giving suggestions to Bro Coleman of how to quit smoking.

 

       Wednesday was crazy! We had exchanges with Escrito so I brought Elder Brown up to Aztec and Elder Martin and Leichty went down to Escrito with Elder Helsley. Well we had a lesson with a part member family and we brought a member and the member just started testifying about prayer and the Book of Mormon. It was great because that is what the non member needed to here. And plus they've been life long friends! It's great! Then we went for a walk. Well after about an hour and a half of walking in 90+ degree weather Elder Brown needed a drink. So we go try a members house but they weren't home. So we thought we'd stop by sonic and grab a drink for him. Well as we are walking there a lady pulls over and asks if she could by us a drink. Wow. Talk about a miracle! So she gives us like 3 dollars. Then we walk to sonic. Once we get there another lady asks if she could by us a drink. We told her that we'd already been paid for but we started talking to her about random stuff. Well, she was going through the drive through and we were on foot so we are standing outside her car as she is pulling up inch by inch. Well after about 5 minutes of talking to her the manager comes out and tells us that she had just gotten a complaint about us prosilyghting on Sonic's property and she asked us to leave. lol. All well, so we walked over to a gas station and get elder Brown his water. Then we were having dinner at our house when we get a call from President Batt telling us that Elder Leichty is being Emergency Transferred down to Indian Wells. That was a fast tripanionship. So we had to meet up and get elder Leichty back so he could pack what he had just un-packed.

 

       Thursday.... I have never been yelled at, sworn at, and told Christ isn't real so many times my entire mission. But right before we were finished with the walk we were on a lady yelled at us to come back and teach her family! Awesome!

 

       Friday we met with the Catholic guy that tried to convert us. His big thing was Reason before Faith. It was interesting but he was a really nice guy. Then we got to met with one of our old investigator who is going through a hard time. We invited him to go and meet with the bishop on Sunday.

 

       Saturday we met with the guy that we had filled in ditches for all last week. He wanted to pay us for the work we had done. Ya, that was an interesting conversation telling him that we couldn't accept money from him because it was against the rules. So we finally agreed that he could get us gift cards to some food places around Aztec. That night we had a sports night with all three wards in Aztec. We played soccer! That was sooooooo much fun. I did really well. I scored a few goals while I was in the field and had a lot of really nice, some diving, saves while I was in goal.

 

       Sunday.... Fast Sunday. So what do Elder Martin and I decide to do?! Go for a two hour walk before church! Brilliant! Just Brilliant. So we were thirsty all the way through church. But the investigator that we met with on Friday came and was able to talk to the bishop. I went in to him a little more at ease and it went really well. The bishop gave him some great advise and we ended up giving him a blessing.

 

        Well I hope you all have a great week! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

 

Elder Chipman

 

picture of the misquito bites I got from golf. :)

 

 

Navajo Code 7/28

       Yaa Teeh!

       Monday we went golfing for P-day. I did alright. I took dead last, but the way I look at is we were playing basketball. So in my mind I totally won. ;) But hole 4 was terrible! There had to have been more that a hundred masquitoes flying around! Later, I counted how many bites I had. My right leg had around 21 and my left had about 25. CRAZY!!!! And Elder Martin and Brother Satini were the same, roughly. Then we taght Chet. That went really well. He is coming a long way!

       Tuesday we did a lot of walking. We were walking by a park and some people called us over and gave us some pizza. Then we were able to find a part-member family to teach. It was pretty cool. We watched some mormon messages with them. Those video's are so powerful! Then we went up and taught a lesson to Tonya and helped her split some wood. So it was about time to go but we had like two minutes left. So I decide to chop one more. Out of my brilliance I just happened to pick the hardest most dence piece of wood that she had. So... 30 minutes later, after having gotten both spliters stuck, we finally managed to cut it in half. That was including 3 people working on it (Me, Elder Martin and Brother Satini our TONGAN ward mission leader). So that put us back for the rest of the night. Which was splits. But it was a great night. I got to go with Talon from Flora Vista Ward. We started talking about him going on a mission and he eventually said that he was going to. It was great to see the spirit working through me to touch him.

        Wednesday we did some service for a non member that our bishop had set up. We are filling ditches! Then we got to meet with another part-member family. Tom, the husband, was a Marine and then a police officer for 42 years including being an undercover drug officer in Mississippi for a time. So, needless to say, he's got some pretty sweet stories! Well later in the day we went to go play soccer but no one was there. We did see some kids sitting in the bakc of their truck so we asked them if they wanted to come and play some football with us. That was a lot of fun. One of the kids was a 6'2" 240 BUILTguy that plays for Aztec high as a middle line backer. Good thing we weren't playing tackle or Elder Martin and I would be in a lot of pain. lol. Really great kid though. We even gave all 3 of ther a Book of Mormon.

       Thursday we did a lot of walking. Like all day. It was pretty cool, we were walking down the street and we saw this lady trying to change a tire and we went and helped her. So that was cool to be able to give that service. It's all about following the spirit so you can be in the right place at the right time.

       Friday we watch the Restoration DVD with Tom and his wife. His wife is a member but by the end she was in tears and Tom said that he knew Joseph Smith was a Prophet. That night we got to meet with Josh. He's an elder that is having a hard time coming back to church. So we talked to him and ended up listening to Elder Uchdorfs talk, "Come Join With Us". He said it was like speaking to him. It's always cool to hear that from people.

       Saturday we picked up dinner from a sister who is about to send her first son out on a mission. We talked to her for probably a half our on what has helped us on our mission. Then we met with Chet again. He has a goal to go to the SLC temple. Well, we thought he had some Word of Wisdom problems so we taught that lesson. Come to find out he's been thinking about quiting smoking for a little while now, so this should be able to give him the motivation he needs. Then we went up to Brother Satini's and got.... TRANSFER NEWS!!!!! (DUN DUN DUN!!!) Ok, so.... Elder Martin is staying in Aztec. I'm..... (am I making anyone nervous yet :D ) ..... also staying in Aztec. But we are getting Elder Leichty as well. We are really excited to get him. He sounds like a great elder. This transfer is only going to be a 5 week transfer because president has some meetings at the end of the transfer so he just made this transfer a 5 week one. 

       Sunday we had about 5 people that we teach at church! That is great!!

       Well I hope all is well where ever you are! Thanks for all the support! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 7/21

       Yaa Teeh!

       Monday we just chilled for P-day. Then we went on splits with some ward members. I was with Bro Chapman. (Which is funny because that's the name of my dad's first companion.) We had a really great lesson with one of our recent converts. Basically I started off teaching by asking a question, he'd answer and the members would teach. Then I'd ask another question to move on to the next point. Awesomeness. :)

       Tuesday we had zone conference. Elder Martin and I won first place in the vehicle inspection for our zone. Then we went on exchanges with the Spanish elders. I was with Elder Oakley from North Carolina. We went to a less active's then chopped some wood for her. That was the first time he had done that on his mission. Then we had 2 other really good lessons! So to show you how crazy our day was, we had 6 appointments in 4 hours plus a dinner appointment. Crazy awesome... but crazy.

       Wednesday we pulled some more weeds for our new elders quorum president and for an investigator. Then we went for a walk in the 90 plus degree weather. Then we played soccer that night and had a good lesson with an investigator. They had a piano in their home so we actually started off by singing a hymn. That was pretty cool. :)

       Thursday was a pretty uneventful day. We had district meeting then we had a lesson with Chet. He's really progressing, he's come to church the past two weeks. Also, I want to thank Grandpa Chipman and McKinnon and Morgan and Dayna for supporting me so much on my mission. I really appreciate what you are doing for me.

       Friday we helped our Elders quorum president again. They are such a great family and we are really building a good relationship with them that will bless missionaries for years to come. Then we had a lesson with our recent convert. We started watching the movie about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple.

       Saturday we went for a little walk and talked to this guy. So we ran into him because we had talked to his brother who said go talk to his mom and this guy answered the door. This guy is super elect! He has some member friends in Farmington that are awesome. He's read the Book of Mormon all the way through, his friends have given him a temple picture book, and they've invited him on a church history tour of the eastern states the next time they go. Wow! He also loves the idea of educational classes for gender and age groups. We can't wait to teach him this week! Then we helped this family get some stuff out of a storage shed. We had a fun little day doing that for the hour that we did. We got pretty dirty climbing around that storage shed. :)

       Sunday we had an investigator come to sacrament meeting. That was the first one since I've been here! Then we had a stake priesthood meeting.

       Hope you all have a great week! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 7/14

       Yaa Teeh!

       Monday we did a lot of cleaning of our house, wrote some letters, and did some shopping in Farmington. Then we had a lesson with Chet a less active member. We teaching scripture study. Well he has an I-pad and we started using it to look up PMG and Mormon Messages during the middle of the lesson. I can't wait to get one of those!

       Tuesday was awesome! We went on splits. I went with Bro. Satini our ward mission leader and went to a less active lady's named Tonya. We read and discussed part of Mosiah 18. Then we got to split some wood for her. I Love splitting wood! Then we need to go try one more person before we ended the split. Well we were traveling on some oil field roads and Bro Satini took a wrong turn. We soon found ourselves on an obvious 4 wheeler trail in his Jeep Grand Cherokee in the rain. Not a good mix. Well we finally turned around after we went basically 4 wheeling for a little bit. But we got to the house and we didn't find the person we were looking for but we found they're non member boy friend who actually asked to have the lessons.... AWESOME!!!!

       Wednesday I went on exchanges down in Bloomfield. We did service all day. We also played a game of horse shoes. I'm not as bad as I thought I was. I'm not good by any means but I'm not half bad. :)

       Thursday we had a really fun night. We had a great lesson with a less active family. We then went with a member, Bro James to see the guy we had met on Tuesday but he wasn't there but the girlfriend member was, so we talked to her. Man, Bro James is FUNNY!!! We had a good visit and got to know her and her son really well.

       Friday we taught two guys that are super prepared to receive the gospel. The lesson went really well. Then we found out they live in Farmington. .... .... lame. But our area is really picking up! I love being in Aztec! Then we taught Chet again. We had Bro Current the second councilor with us, what a difference having a member makes! I love member missionaries! I challenge everyone to go to a lesson with the missionaries al least once in the next month and then write me and tell me about it! YOU ARE NEEDED! Just so you know, Chet when we met him told us that he loved missionaries but that he would never come to church. Bro Current just showed some real love for him and invited him to church.

       Saturday we went and pulled some weeds for one of our investigators. When we finished the pile was 5' high and 9' in diameter. That's a lot of weeds. Then we took the Elders Quorum president to see one of the members of his quorum members. That was great! He did such a great job at getting to know him and inviting him back. Then we were walking through a park in our area and saw that the other missionaries had gotten permission to go play ultimate there from their district leader so we went and played... in shirt and tie. :) I did really well. I actually had a full out diving catch. I love ultimate!

       Sunday Chet came to church! And stayed for all three hours, that's what happens with member missionary work, it's a whole lot more productive than just the missionaries doing the missionary work. Then we had a meeting with the stake president and mission president to discuss the missionary work in the stake.

       So ya.... it was an awesome week. Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman

Navajo Code 7/7

Yaa Teeh!

       It's been a really fun week! Here we go!

       Monday we tried to get everything done early because we were going to Chaco Canyon as a Zone. Well we get ready and start heading down. We get to the turn off/ meet up point and everyone is there except for one vehicle. So we sat around and threw a Frisbee. Well then we get a phone call from the vehicle saying that they're jeep just broke down. Great... So we all get in our vehicles and head over there. Come to find out they had ran out of coolant so we got some from the gas station and continued on our journey. Chaco was great we all had a great time! My favorite picture was one that I asked the zone to do... good ol' totem pole. :D After Chaco we come back and had a lesson with one of our recent converts, Robin. He's great! He is just soaking everything up like a sponge!

        Tuesday we had MLC! SOOOOOO Good! Everyone was participating and we had some great discussions! I really enjoy learning from President Batt and the other missionaries. Then we had a lesson with Lloyd, he's getting close to getting back in the church. He had a question about the books that got taken out of the bible. So we discussed it and how they weren't scripture but we could still read them.

         Wednesday I finally got to play soccer again!!! It was so great! My leg is all beat up now but it was well worth is. Then we had a really good lesson with Josh. He asked us if we knew any scriptrues in the BOM that talked about being a good role model. So we looked some up for him and then we started to talk about him coming to church. He said he wanted to but that he was having a hard time of just getting back into. That his not going for so long was stopping him from going. I felt prompted to share this Mormon message with him. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-12-21-new-years-look-not-behind-thee?lang=eng  It was exactly what he needed! It was great!

        Thursday we had Zone Training. We had our Stake President come and talk to us about his vision for the stake. Then we had Sister Childs train on Attitude, then I trained on inviting (extending commitments) and Elder Martin finished it off by training on finding. I think it went really well. Then we had a really great lesson with Sophia and Brandon. Sophia is a less active member who fell away and her husband is a non member. We went over and just listened to them. What a great family! They are so special! Listening really made all the difference in that lesson. Then we went to go contact a referral. Well we go and knock on the door. About 10 seconds later a guy comes up and tells us they aren't home. He said he had met with missionaries before and he wanted to meet with us again! AWESOME!!! So it's interesting to see how the Lord provides people. Then we didn't have anything to do and right then our ward mission leader texted us a person to go see. So we did and it went really well. Again we just listened and shared some Mormon messages. I'm excited to keep teaching that family!

          Friday.... Crazy stuff happened. :) So we go out and try to contact some investigators and potential investigators. Well we knock on this one lady's door. She comes to the door and starts going off on how her son isn't doing so well. Then she asked if we could pray for her. We of course said yes. Ok so far pretty normal. Yes, she had been drinking but still pretty normal. Well we are on the top level of an apartment complex with not much room. But she manages to set up to chairs for us and then she sits on the stairs and turned her body towards us. So she keeps asking us to pray for her and I keep saying I'd love to. Well we finally get to say the prayer. I just clasp my hand together and bow my head. Well then I feel her hands on top of mine and her head resting on her/ my hands. Ok... so I say the prayer. I really try and make this a powerful prayer with a lot of sincerity. Well when we finish she was in tears and she went off on how good of a person I was. She could just feel it by touching my hands. She on about this for about 2 or 3 minutes then turns to Elder Martin and asks to touch his hands. "You're a good person too! But not as good as him!" I'm thinking, "Great..." Elder Martin and I had just been going back and forth about who was better, each saying the other was better. So he put a big ol' grin on his face and completely agrees with everything she is saying about me. I feel this was a one sided conversation. :) Well then she keeps going on about me. She would occasionally reach up at touch my face, but even better than that she kissed my hands. Ya... That was a little different. Then she started going off about how the Pope was Christ on earth. Elder Martin and I look at each other as if to say, "How did this get brought up?" So we finally were able to leave and she gave us both really big hugs. Crazy stuff man!

         Saturday we were walking around town when we say this lady watering her plants. We went and talked to her about her plants. Eventually the subject got turned to religion. She went on about what she believed. Right as we were starting to invite her to take and read the BOM she said, I don't have one of those books and I'd love to read it! The Lord really is preparing people to receive the gospel!

         Sunday I got to see my recent convert family at church! They have been really busy. It was so good to talk to them! They are amazing! During our sacrament meeting there was an announcement for the institute party, they said it was going to be held at "Elder and Sister Chipman's house" WOW wow WOW!!! Wait a second!!! Right then a lady sitting behind me leaned forward and said, "Congratulations! I had no idea!" I replied, "Me neither!" Ya that was crazy. I'm pretty sure there are Chipman's in Farmington.

        So that was my amazingly awesome week! Until next time, Hagoonee'!

Elder Chipman