Zone Conference and Travel

Hello Everyone,

This week was a pretty good one this week was all of Zone Conferences and a quick side note for President and Sister Zapanta their whole week was conferences because from Tuesday-Friday they had had Zone Conferences with missionaries and then from Saturday-Sunday they had a District Conference in Iriga so you can imagine what their schedule was like this week. I personally enjoyed my Zone Conference it was a great experience as it always is and I always enjoy learning that things that we can do as missionaries to improve and become more efficient and to move the Lord's Work forward in the way that he wants us to and not the ways of man. I know that my mission president and his wife have been called of God to preside over this mission at this time while I have been assigned to serve here as well I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and he knows what we need and he knows how to help us and he gives us trials and hard things so we can grow and progress here in our time on Earth. 

I also did some traveling this week as well which all went well, I made a delivery trip to the Iriga this past week, so I went to all of the missionaries apartments except for the Baao Sister's house because they were having a fiesta when I went to the main road that I wanted to go down was closed so I had to go around Baao to get to Iriga City and so then I tried on the way back to go to the Baao Sister's house but there were a lot of people that were in the streets partying and enjoying their fiesta so I just decided to go a different way to avoid Baao on my way back to Naga City. Then I ended up going to Sipocot as well this week so I went to all of the missionaries apartments between Naga City and Sipocot in the Pamplona Zone so I went to Pasacao, Pamplona, Libmanan, and Sipocot and I had plans to go to Del Gallego as well but I received a text from President Zapanta so we came back because President Zapanta needed my van in Iriga City because he was having some problems with his van so I took his van over to the dealership and of course got things taken care of it turns out that some water or something got into the fuel filter so they had to change that out so now the check engine light is off the dash board which is good. 

We spent a lot of time this week contacting referrals which was fun we recently got a lot of referrals and so me and Elder De Silva have been working on contacting referrals so we found this one family and they are pretty cool I think that they have a lot of potential to be baptized and so we had a pretty solid lesson with them and they agreed to come to church yesterday and believe it or not they came to church and the awesome part is that the people that came to church brought a friend as well who was interested in I guess the church so he came to church and we met him and he said that he wants us to teach as well which is awesome so I hope that things will continue and that they will really progress and I hope that they will continue to keep other commitments that we give them.        

I guess one more side note that I was approached yesterday by some other people and they asked me to sing in a special choir for stake conference because we have stake conference this upcoming Sunday and of course I agreed so I will be singing in a special choir for stake conference I think that will be fine, I am pretty used to performing with little practice that is what happened when I sang in an all male accapella group we did not really practice all that much and then we would perform so that does not really bother me anymore but I think that it should be good and I love bearing testimony through song so that is always a plus as well and I know in New York that school is starting up now and some of you probably already started school so I wish all of you the best for this new school year.

Love,

Elder Chilson   

Three Fridges

Hello Everyone,

I cannot believe that August is almost over and that this week is another Zone Conference week. This week was a pretty good week for me I had a baptism again this week and that went well we had two young men that were baptized and it was a very nice service and I played the piano again and that went fine and it was just awesome to here in one of the young men got baptized when he bared his testimony he talked about how he wanted to serve a mission and that was just awesome to me that the young men and younger people that are baptized they are the future leaders of the church and the future priesthood holders so they are really important and they are also of the chosen generation of Heavenly Father's children so of course they are important to him as well. 

Also I had a solid follow-up visit with the doctor this week and he said that I do not have anymore symptoms and that the Dengue Fever had now left my body and he said that I did not have any restrictions no more medicine and all that so that is great for me. So I also made a delivery this past week to the Goa Zone and that was a fun trip it is about 2 hours to Goa roughly and I had a special delivery there as well because believe it or not this week I had to take care of 3 broken refrigerators and here in the Philippines it is very hot so missionaries like need to have their refrigerators to keep food cold and such and so I had 2 fridges that were broken in Goa and they were both for Sister Missionaries appts so I went to Goa and took care of them one of them is fixed now because I talked to the Tatay there in Goa and he agreed to fix it and I told the Sisters to just follow up with me if there was any trouble and that one is okay then there was another one in Lagonoy that was broken to so I took a temporary fridge up to them because it is more rural so I am not sure when someone with get up there to fix it I am still working on that because normally I bring everything that is broken back here to Naga and get it fixed because I have connections but Lagonoy/Goa is sort of far so I am trying not to transport as many fridges as I can because it is sort of a pain anyways I got a third one fixed this week for another appt for Sisters that their fridge was broken as well so those are some of the things that I was dealing this week here in the office. 

I also made a special delivery of a couch as well too I dont really have time to explain but me and Elder De Silva teamed up and we got that job done and it was a great feeling. Nothing else really happened here this week that was super exciting. I have just been keeping busy with whatever has been going on. I know that as week continue to give our best efforts to our Heavenly Father he will magnify us to help us arise to the levels that we need to be at for example I played the piano for the first time in a Sacrament Meeting in my life and I had no idea that was going to happen just that 20mins before that Sacrament Meeting started a member of the Bishopric approached me and asked me if I could play and I said okay that is fine and for those of you that know my sisters are much better piano players than I am but I can play several hymns in the hymnal and I can read music pretty well so I ended up playing the piano in Sacrament Meeting and I did fine and I got compliments afterwards from my Bishop and the Bishopric and also from the member of the Stake Presidency that was visiting that particular Sacrament Meeting so that was nice but for me as a missionary that was just me serving the members of the Naga 3rd Ward that being whatever that Bishop asked me to do that was what I was going to do and I see it as an opportunity to serve so of course I accept that with whole heart so bottom line is Service is awesome!!!!!!!! And everyone should be involved in some kind of service and it is a great way to share the gospel as well and I hope that all of you continue to enjoy summer wherever you are.

Love,

Elder Chilson       

Dengue Fever

Hello Everyone,

I hope that all of you are doing well for those of you who were not aware or who did not know I am doing well now as well. For those of you who do not know I was hospitalized for three days this past week for Dengue Fever so last Sunday after church I decided it was time that I had to go to the hospital to get some serious medical attention (I will spare all of you the details) but I saw a doctor and he gave me some medicine and it did not really work so I was admitted to that hospital Sunday night and I had a lot of tests done and to make a long story short the doctor concluded that I had Dengue Fever so I was treated for that Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday the doctor said I could go home and just take medicine so that is what I did and then I just rested and worked in the office. Then I just picked up with the work that I was doing in the office my Mission President just said that I could not travel to anywhere outside of Naga City for the rest of the week but other than that I did not have any restrictions and last night my appetite came back fully and that was the best thing for me so now I can eat whatever I want now and not have to worry about me stomach getting sick or things like that so that is great and I do have a follow-up appointment with the doctor on this upcoming Wednesday so I will let you know about that next week but everything is fine now I lost some weight with the Dengue Fever but I feel good now. 

In some weird way I think that me going to the hospital was a good thing or a blessing because I still have two investigators that are planning to be baptized this upcoming Saturday so hopefully that will go through and I think that it will so that is pretty exciting for me so I will let you know as well on that for next week but I am really excited about that. I guess I have a quick story as well so I got a lot of deliveries while I was in the hospital so of course when I got out of the hospital I had to take care of all the stuff that got delivered so while I was doing that a saying popped into may head and it was "You are a lot stronger than you think you are" and that is what my mom used to always say to me as I was growing up and as I was carrying all of those boxes of Book of Mormons and before I had the Dengue Fever I could carry two or three boxes at a time (of course that is heavy) but now I just carried them one at a time and the thought came into my head that I do not know if is because I am close to turning 20 my strength is starting to run out or I am for sure not as strong anymore as I used to be before I entered the mission field or whatever but I just thought I am the opposite of stronger than I think I am or I thought I was. (Sorry if that was pretty boring was sort of self-centered on me but some of you might think that it is funny, I did)        

Another quick thought is I have been playing piano more as of recently as well a member of the Bishopric in the ward where I am serving now came up to me yesterday and asked me if I could play prelude music for Sacrament mtg and I was like Sigge po (I said okay) I still have yet to play piano in Sacrament mtg but I have played for several baptisms now. Who knows what will happen or what I will be asked to do as it is whenever I go into one members house I have to sing for them and the Mother that lives there loves my rendition of The Star Spangled Banner that I sang so that was fun as well so this week should be a little bit smoother for me and I should not be that crazy but we will see what ends up happening anything can happen and I cannot believe that this transfer is half over now and that I will be officially over one year now on my mission and that is so crazy I refuse to believe that my mission is half over now but that will just make me work a little bit harder because this opportunity is not coming back to me so I need to push harder and live it up while I have my mission in front of me and thank you for all of your prayers and support in my behave.

Love,

Elder Chilson  

Hospital

Dear Brother Chilson,

Hello!
This is Sister Zapanta of Philippines Naga Mission, I am writing to inform you that your son Elder Chilson was confined here in the hospital , he was diagnosed to have Dengue fever.
He is closely monitored by the hospital personnel.
His latest Actual Platelet Count is 93.
He wants to say, Don't worry about him, he's doing fine and getting better.
We will update you tomorrow after his repeat Platelet counts.
Thank you!


Hi Sis Chilson This is Sister Hansen a senior missionary here with your son. He is doing much better today and should be out of the hospital soon. He is being well taken care of. From one mom to another don't worry if you can He looks good He's a great missionary