San Jose Newbies

San Lorenzo Valley

(paraphrased snipets from an email sent to Jennifer August 24th)

Hey all! I am currently in the San Lorenzo Valley...specifically Boulder Creek. My companion is good and does a lot of good work but seems leanient on some of the rules... i don't really know being brand new and all. The weather so far has been quite nice cooler than utah...except for today which is supposed to be a record breaking day of 104, but i'm surrounded by redwoods so there should be plenty of shade.

. . .

P-day was yesterday but we spent all day with an investigator...today is not a p-day but i am e-mailing, again i'm not sure about rules of priorities of my companion yet. The only thing i do know is that e-mail is probably best to keep in touch with you and family because the letters you send, they say, have to be sent tot the mission home in San Jose and then they send it out to us from there so as to avoid confusion and lost mail when transfers happen.

. . .

My current area doesn't cover it, but San Jose mission does so I have seen it already being out here but not serving near it quite yet... and from the sounds of it i won't be anytime soon.i may be in this area with my current companion until he goes home in december/january.

. . .

There's not much going on by way of news. I'm still just meeting people in the ward and people investigating. There are 3 people who are supposed to be baptized Saturday though, we'll see how that goes [he says a lot about them individually but his mission president asked him not to make public displays of their investigators...so I'll leave it at that for now...write him and ask specifics if you'd like them].

~The letter is a little choppy because I left a bunch out...sorry guys...but feel free to write him yourself if you are curious to know all the juicy details! Or if you are related to me, I'd be happy to forward the emails~ ~Jennifer

Aug. 11, 2010 Letter to Aliese

Liesey :)

First off, if handwriting gets worse than usual, I am sorry. I was playing volleyball and hurt my thumb, so I am writing with a misshapen claw with the tip of the pen between my ring and middle fingers and the end of the pen between my middle and first fingers.

I'm glad Florida was fun. The beach must have been awful though since your burn from California had probably just barely healed, lots of blisters for Liesey. :( The water being as hot as it was kinda sounds gross when mixed with the humidity and heat; it must have been like, "Oh, just got out of the ocean...wait...didn't I?" Must have been fun no less. :)

Universal Studios sounds pretty much amazing. Harry Potter World must have been so cool. That ride you described sounds fantastic...But it's a little, shall we say, unsettling for me to think that Universal Studios has my fingerprint on file just to ride their rides, (sounds like a wonderful way to catch criminals though, 'cause even murderers and thieves like Harry Potter). Someday, I will have to give it a visit.

Well, on the subject of summer, in your letter, I feel bad for you in that the day I write this, you are already teaching young-uns. Oh, which reminds me, Elder Nuckles is in my zone; his room is two doors down from me and he is heading to Santa Rosa, CA. But anyway, I hope that teaching science doesn't go terribly, I also never really enjoyed the class. Of course in all my years taking it, I never had a great teacher. I had a senile, old woman who, as I hear-despite some students' best efforts (sad/scary, I know)-refuses to retire/die. Then a giant Asian man who sat in his Lay-Z-Boy while we did book work all year. Then 9th grade I finally got an interesting teacher who would breathe fire during class and read us children's books, but that is all I retained from that class. My 10th grade Biology teacher rocked though to be honest. That class was loads of fun, but I didn't remember much from that class either though. Then I didn't take science my junior year. Senior year, I had an absolutely crazy midget for a teacher who didn't teach a dang thing all day everyday, just yelled at football players, then punished the whole class for stuff they did.

Hopefully all is well and I hope Darrin gets to go on his trip, which reminds me again, I had a sub. in my class here one day. His name is Bro. Harward. Oh my, I swear Aliese, if Darrin would spike his hair up in front and dye it brown, he WOULD BE this guy! They look very mush alike, his voice sounds just like Darrin's, and they have the same personality traits (especially when excited about something). It's hilarious; I'll have to try and get a picture with him before I leave. Well, that's all for this letter. Hope you are having fun; love you and miss you.

~Elder Jacob S. Chipman

Spiritual Thought: Liken the parable of the good Samaritan to the Atonement where:

High Priest=Any Priesthood holder those days

Levite=Quorum of the Twelve (because at their time, those two groups were the only ones allowed the Priesthood and had "religious power")

The "Fallen Man" (think of Adam and Eve when you read it)=All of us here today

Good Samaritan=Christ

Since that one is easy, riddle me this: consider the man Christ taught this to. Why, in this story, would Christ relate himself to the people who hated him? And consider what was the man Christ taught supposed to get out of this lesson?

First Week

Hey family,

First things first: I only have a half hour a week on this thing and it literally kicks me off after that. Next order of business: Since I have no time on this thing, if you want me to write you...send me stamps please 'cause as far as things are going now, I bet that is going to eat my wallet out of house and home. Well my first week has honestly been pretty great--and Jen, you can put as much or as little of this letter (and ones I mail to you) on the blog as you want, its completely your discretion. Anyway, MTC is actually pretty good. The food isn't that bad, the teachers here are awesome, and we have so many opportunities to learn from leaders of The Church. We have firesides every Sunday night, devotionals every Tuesday, and various random meetings with our branch leaders throughout the week.

My companions...yes I have two rather than one, are first: Elder Holtz--he's from Denver and kinda an interesting kid, but clearly called of God, and my other comp. is Elder Kautai (cow-tie) and he has led an amazing life so far, and left a lot behind. He's from Texas and most of his friends are Catholic, but he has such a great love for this church and a very good heart. I already have a great love and respect for him. They are both my roommates which kinda rocks 'cause we have a room for four people and only 3 in it. To be honest, I have learned quite a bit this week and don't type fast, so in the interest of time I'm going to give you my favorite moment first and try to fill in more after. Last night, we were taught by a member of the Seventy and then by our 1st Counselor in our branch and the spirit was literally the strongest I've ever felt it in my life after those meetings. Anyway, after the meeting, most left with tears in their eyes (for more details on the meeting ask and wait for a letter :) ) Anyway after, we were walking back to our residence halls and some Elders heading to Chile next week stopped us and asked to share their testimony with us (in Spanish). Granted, I did kinda have an understanding before, but as you know I only took up to Spanish 2 and it was quite some time ago. The amazing thing was not that I understood what they said to us, but what came after. I recognized that they asked us to bear our testimony after (and keep in mind that these are people studying the language for 12 weeks), but I gave my testimony and went on my way. As we were getting ready for lights out that night, my comps asked, "Chip, where did you learn Spanish?" I said, "What in the world are you taking about?" Apparently I gave my whole testimony and the conversation after all in Spanish (gift of tongues or what?), so now I have issued myself a challenge to constantly live my life to feel that strong of the spirit because that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far. I am still in awe over it.

Well anyway, besides that experience, the fav. of highlight can be summed up in a quote from Seventy member L. Lionel Kendrick's talk to us: "PRAY as though EVERYTHING depends on the LORD, but ACT as if EVERYTHING depends on YOU," "BE obedient," "Don't miss a minute it goes by too quickly," "Faith always precedes a miracle" (that isn't just a commandment, it's a promise), "Don't ask 'well what are we going to do today?' ask 'How in the world are we going to get it all done today?'," "No area/companion is hard. Everything is only as hard as you make it," "I can do hard things," "You are NOT 'serving time,' you are serving the Lord," "Don't be a Laman and Lemuel missionary."

Scriptures: D&C 10:47, D&C 8:10, Matt 19:26, Matt 10:34-35, D&C 18:18, Matt 7:21-23, D&C 130:20-21

Love you all. I am doing well, I hope you are too :)

Elder Chipman

P.S. Don't mail anything to the MTC via post office after Saturday, Aug 14th, or I probably wont get it. Send it to the Mission Office in San Jose instead. Please spread the word on that Jen; thanks. Love you all :)