Push ups with Elder Kautai

These pictures are from July 30th. Jacob is the one in the bottom right...plaid pajama bottoms.

A Baby Grand Piano

{Letter sent to the parents - Friday, Septebmer 17, 2010}

Dear Mom & Dad ... & Jen probably

This is a short letter, but of great importance; so I hope you get it fast.

Well, I'll just cut to the chase. I made great friends witha member family out here. We had dinner with them tonight, and I actually just got back and am writing you now because I am so excited. Anyway, during dinner I really connected with the husband. We talked a lot about the Joseph Smith Papers and history of the Church, and I told him that I bought a volume of the Joseph Smith Papers for Mom. We also connected about sports. He went to the Uof U and ran track for them. He even went to the Olympic trialsin 1984 for the 800 m., but anyway we are great friends now. We helped them move tonight; and after we did all we could that night, they fed us. Since we have limited miles, they drove us back and forth, and when they were taking us back home, they said this -

"Do you know of anyone who has an interest in a free piano?" Elder Shae said "well Elder Chipman does, he plays amazingly." Sister Lastnameleftoutforprivacyreasons said, "Oh yes, that's right. You played all those cool songs for mutual last week." (I played the opening hymn for the beginning exercises; and after they asked me to play more, so I played John Schmidt.)

Anyway, I felt like I was imposing far too much for this, so I said no thanks - since I thought they were joking anyway. But then Sister Sameskippedlastnameasbefore said, "No, seriously, we want you to have it Elder. We have 2 as you can see; and neither of them gets played very much, and we don't have the room. If youdon't take it, we were just going to throw it out. At least this way, we knowit will get played."

So basically I am getting a piano and need to arrange to ship it ot Utah. That part is easy,but I wanted to know what to do with it there. I know you (Mom & Dad) don't have room for anything to store at the moment, which reminds me, oh yes the piano they are giving me is a baby grand. But then I remembered Jennifer still wants a piano. So Ithought she could have it until I came home. And if needs be, I'll pay for it to be stored in a garage; but they really truly want for me to have this piano, and I thought that there is no way I can pass up this opportunity.

...

{That's the gist of it...SO COOL that he is getting a baby grand for merely the cost of shipping! And so cool that I get to babysit it for a spell!}

September 13, 2010-Letter to Aliese

Liesey,

Alright, first off, my apologies on writing real letters. It's just that snail mail (aka U.S. postal service) is just ridiculous out here. It takes about two or three days to get the letter to the mission home, then when they send it out to my actual address, it takes another two days. But even though it's tedious, I love mail all the same...

I was very excited to hear about all the things going on in St. George as well as Mom and Pops. It sounds like you have all been having fun. I must say I am quite jealous that Krave carries the Dole Whip. That is quite the amazing little treat and I miss it in my belly. The rainbow pearl necklace sounds way cool in theory and on paper, but if Darrin says it looks like MardiGras, or something more gay than Clay Aiken smooching Freddy Mercury...I'm a little reluctant about it. :) I may need to see this necklace to offer a fair judgement on it though.

The Belgium trip sounds like it will be way cool and it's awesome that you can go too, although it does sound like it will be a chore getting all that work off. Good luck with that one. But it's like you said, you would have to be flat out stupid to pass up an opportunity like that, especially when it's FREE!

Val's shower sounded like it was fun. Congrats on getting the ABC Quiet Book done in time...Although admittingly, I don't know what that is. Dinner with Jen, Adam, and Lyv sounded absolutely hilarious! That would have been super cute to see Lyv order for Adam and why in the world did she only order croutons? Did you tell her she'd be tossed in the brick oven if she chose anything over $5? :) That's really really funny though. That crazy kid. The IKEA story was pretty cute too, but I must say I think Johnny Carino's trumps it hands down. But it would be fun to see the look on her dad's face when she said she stole a pencil from Hawaii.

Well it sounds like you are keeping very busy, as am I, I realize I haven't really told you straight forward stuff about my mission, so I have a plan for us I hear works quite well. In your next letter to me, add a separate questionnaire (with the extra space between each question for me to answer in) and then with my letter back home, I'll send the filled out questionnaire. I know it kinda sounds lame, but this way I know I won't leave anything out of your letters. :)

Well, still paddling the old k-new. Sorry about no updates this time. I mostly just do service, so I'm super busy a lot. I mostly just chop wood lots (literally, like I should have been called as a lumberjack in the California San Jose Mission. :) I love it, so it's all good).

Love you lots. Miss you.

Elder Chipman

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