Happy New Year!

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year,

First off I cannot comprehend right now that I have been here in the Philippines for over one year now as in that I spent Jan 2017-Dec 2017 all in the Philippines for me that is crazy because I think that the year of 2017 has been the fastest year of my life but at the same time it may be one of the most memorable years for my life but only time will tell that story. My New Year was pretty smooth we had a lot of food that was given to us from members and my appt is on the third floor I was able to see a lot of fireworks all over Paracale which was nice that was the same case for me last year as well that we climbed onto the roof of our appt to be able to watch all of the fireworks. I cannot believe that 2018 is hear now a lot of things are going to happen to me in the year of 2018 so I think that it is going to be a fun ride and I am excited to see what will happen.

Most of this week was a lot of traveling for me I was able to skype and talk with my family last Monday for Christmas so that was nice so they are doing well and it was nice to see them. I had a lot of exchanges this week which means that I went to Jose Panganiban twice this week so that I could have companionship exchanges with them because I am their District Leader and so I had a fun time working with the missionaries that are assigned in Jose Panganiban they are all Filipinos and they are actually all training right now just like I am training with Elder Denoy right now so I have been working with a lot of newer missionaries which has been fun because there are a lot of good leaning opportunities to learn from each other and there are a lot of good teaching moments as well. They are hard working up there in Jose Panganiban because most of their area is in the mountains so they really have to walk a lot and up mountains, I thought that there were a lot of mountains in Paracale but there are more in Jose Panganiban but it is a lot of fun up there for sure the people are really nice and most of the time they are receptive. 

My work here in Paracale has been going good as well we have just been helping our investigators get closer to baptism and we have been working really hard with one family about their marriage but it is going to be a little while longer before anything really big happens there because here in the Philippines there is a long process to get married and it takes a long time to process the papers and that is one reason why a lot of the Filipinos do not usually get married because it is a big hassle but I think that for January there is going to be a lot more progress made like yesterday at church I stood up the whole time for sacrament meeting because there was not enough room for more chairs so hopefully more and more people will continue to come to church and stay active in the church but I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ here on this Earth and that we have a live prophet today and all the tools that we need to be successful here on this Earth and I know that as we continue to do the things that Heavenly Father has commanded us to do we will be happy and the year of 2018 we be a year never to forget. 

Love,

Elder Chilson         

Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone and Merry Christmas,

This week was a very busy week for me and I did a lot of traveling this week because with Christmas here now and the end of the year approaching I have been pretty busy. This past week I have traveled from Paracale, Camarines Norte to Naga City, Camarines Sur twice and that is a pretty far distance I have to take 2 big buses and total travel time takes about 5 hours most of the time. The reason that I have been traveling to Naga was because this past week we had our Philippines Naga Mission Christmas Conference and so we all met up in Naga City and we had sort of a Christmas Party/Conference type activity. I enjoyed it as I did last year we played games and gave presentations and had a lot of food I sang a solo of Away in a Manger and it was pretty good and I think that everyone had a good time. We also had our Paracale Branch Christmas Party and it went well also we there were games and food and different activities and I also sang a solo of O Holy Night and that was pretty good even though that it was sort of last minute so if you are noticing a theme I have been singing a lot this week because we were supposed to have a Mission Christmas Choir again this year and back when I was in the office in October I helped to start make the beginning preparations with Sister Zapanta but for various reasons the choir fell through and that was fine, so as a result I sort of adopted "Elf's" philosophy of spreading Christmas Cheer so I said to myself the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear, so that is what I have been doing to past few days or so and I have been spreading Christmas Cheer that way and I think that people's lives have been lifted because of that.

We also had some great lessons this past week and first off I was surprised that we had some new investigators that came to church yesterday and I was very happy about that we had a great lesson with the investigator family that we have been working on that needs to be married, they have been reading the Book Of Mormon a lot as a couple and they have been letting it change their lives which I think is awesome for me it is awesome to see the Book of Mormon change peoples lives because it for sure has changed my life and I have been honored to have accepted the call to help other come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel that lies on the pages of the Book of Mormon. We also have found some other investigators and I think this next month there are going to be big things happening here in Paracale, because one thing that we have really been working on is the Priesthood situation because there are not many Priesthood holders here in the Paracale Branch and it sort of mind boggles me that it is that way but that is why I think that I am here is to help out that situation some.

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful Christmas I hope that wherever you are there is snow and that you are having great family time or you are hanging out with friends or whoever is close to you. I know that Christ's birth was a very humble occurring and I know that sometimes in the world that we live in it can be tough to remember that because of  our busy schedules, all of the things that we have to do etc. but I know that as we take time to pause and ponder about our Savior Jesus Christ we will draw nearer to our Heavenly Father and we will further understand what he desires of us while we are here on Earth and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas from the Philippines.

Love,

Elder Chilson      

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4:45am Skype with Elder Chilson on Christmas morning. 

Christmas Present

Hello Everyone,

This week was a pretty crazy week and there were a lot of crazy things that happened but for me this past Saturday I got my Christmas present, this past Saturday I was able to baptize one of my investigators in the Pacific Ocean and that for me was my Christmas present because ever since I got here in the Philippines Naga Mission that was one of the things that I always wanted to do was to baptize someone in the ocean because when I got here in the mission I heard that there were some areas where you can baptize in the ocean because they do not have chapels or baptismal fonts and Paracale, where I am assigned right now is one of those places so that for me was great even though the weather was pretty bad. 

This past weekend we also had a sort of mini typhoon which was sort of a surprise to me but then we got the word that it was true so then we prepared our 72hr kits and everything to be ready in case of an emergency, because just like I explained last year that the months of October, November, December, January are the typhoon months of the wet season if you will here in the Philippines and so where I am serving in the Naga Mission there are a lot of typhoons that come this way I am do not really know why yet but it just always happens so last Christmas if you remember there was Super Typhoon Nina and so this Christmas hopefully that will not happen again but there is another typhoon-like storm coming this next week I think so hopefully it will not be that strong of a storm but the wind in these storms is crazy it is not like the wind in a blizzard that they have in NY the wind is really different. 

We also have some really awesome progressing investigators right now we have one whole family right now that is working towards baptism but the trouble is that they are not married yet so we are working on helping them to get married so by next month hopefully they will be able to get baptized but this family really reads the Book of Mormon and they really want to change and accept the gospel which I think is awesome. Yesterday there were not that many people that were able to come to the church because of the mini typhoon but the missionaries are working hard here in Paracale that is for sure to help the branch become stronger and gain more members so that one day they will be able to have a chapel here in Paracale.

I have my last Christmas Conference later which for me is crazy because I remember last year when I was young and new and di not know any missionaries and now I am going and I know like all the missionaries and I am not that new anymore in the mission but now I am a leader and the other missionaries look up to me and I am training as well which I still cannot really get over but it just shows me that the Lord is using us in his own way to accomplish the work that he has for us to do here on Earth, I know that we all have a purpose as to why we are doing what we are doing here on Earth at this time and I know that Heavenly Father loves us more than we can comprehend and especially at this Christmas time I know that as we think about Jesus Christ we will be able to feel of the love that Jesus and Heavenly Father have for us because we are his literal children and I hope that all of you have a Wonderful Christmas.

Love,

Elder Chilson 

Miracles

Hello Everyone,

This week for me was full of up and downs but in the end it ended out to be great. Me and Elder Denoy have been working really hard this week and yesterday turned out to be a day of miracles for me and Elder Denoy. First we were really blessed to have 8 investigators at church yesterday so that was like the beginning of a day full of miracles because yesterday before church it rained so hard and me and Elder Denoy were thinking that maybe our investigators were not going to be able to come to church because a lot of them are coming from the mountains and the roads are not that great there and we thought that maybe they were just going to get stuck in the mud so to speak so they were not going to come to church but regardless of the rain they came anyway and that was awesome. Then many other miracles happened throughout that day and at the end of the day at me and Elder Denoy saw the biggest miracle since I have been here in Paracale and what happened was last night we were just about to go home and we ended up finding 7 new investigators and that for us was huge because that is something that me and Elder Denoy have been working on for most of this week and what made it even more meaningful to us what that Saturday we spent the whole afternoon and I mean the whole afternoon just finding new investigators and we found not very many so that was tough but that is sort of missionary life sometimes but we kept our faith up and we kept praying and we stayed obedient and as always Heavenly Father delivers. 

Also another miracle that we saw yesterday was we had an investigator that passed his baptismal interview so that was great as well and so he is scheduled to be baptized this coming Saturday and he personally asked me if I would baptism him so that was an honor for me and this boy has made big changes in his life and of course because I am still kind of new to Paracale I do not know this boy very well but from what I have heard is that he has made big changes in his life and he really wants to get baptized and that to mean is one of the greatest things here on my mission that I have witnessed. We have some other investigators that have some potential and we have one family that we are working with and they are awesome they are really keeping their commitments that we have been giving them and they are just searching for the truth and hopefully  they will get baptized as well in the future because I think that it will make all the difference in their lives and help them get ready to be sealed in the temple forever and that is awesome as well for me as a missionary to help other people especially families become eternal that is for sure a great feeling.

I hope that we are all doing our best to share the gospel this Christmas Season, I know that as we do our best our Heavenly Father will be right there with us and that he will help us every step of the way he is always there for us even though sometimes I may seem like he is far away I know that he is the God of the whole Earth and he is everywhere and he wants us to succeed and this Christmas Season I hope that you can feel that too God loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ here to Earth so that we can all return and live with him again, I cannot really imagine what it would feel like to give up my son because I do not have any yet but I am sure that it was a big sacrifice and as we continue to do all that we can to become more like Jesus Christ we will feel of his love that he has for us.

Love,

Elder Chilson            

New Companion

Hello Everyone,

This was another very interesting week for me. So first off on Wednesday I found out who my new companion was and it is Elder Denoy he is a Filipino and he is from around Letye which is in the Philippines Tacloban Mission and he is really cool, I think that I am really going to enjoy training him. We have started things off great we have a new area a new District Leader (That is Me) we have awesome Recent Convert Members that work with us which is great as well everything seems to be rolling in the right direction for us right now in Paracale. I did get to do some fun things as well this week like carrying a bag of wet sand up a mountain that was a very interesting experience. I had never gone up into the mountains here in the Philippines yet like I did last Saturday and it was a lot of fun the life up in the mountains is a lot different than the life in the cities or towns but if that is the kind of lifestyle that you want to have than I would say go for it. They do not really have electricity up in the mountains here so that can be difficult but sometimes you have to make sacrifices would you rather have electricity or would you rather have food? Those are some of the things that people in Paracale are facing sometimes it is very hard to find a job and keep a job for a long period of time so obviously that can be difficult when you are trying to support a family.

The members here in Paracale are very nice and they are willing to give ans sacrifice so much which I think is awesome especially when me and Elder Denoy are pretty new to an area the help from the members is a huge help and I will be indebted to them I am sure, but we also had 7 investigators at church yesterday and I thought that was pretty good considering we did not get to work as much last week as we wanted to because we spent a lot of our time traveling at the beginning of the week because Paracale is pretty far away from Naga City, I am basically up in the Gold Fields so to speak because most of the people here in Paracale mine gold and that is their job and it is not an easy thing to do but I can say that I have see real gold but I hope to have some baptisms pretty soon and I can assure you that to that will be of greater worth to me than any amount of gold that someone could place before me.   

I just want to leave you with this that I know that be obedient even though it is hard to do in the world that we live in today will be of more greater worth in the next life to come like President Monson said I believe that we need to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Our Father in Heaven is counting on us to make the right choices especially when we are faced with adversity. Satan wants us to throw in the towel and say I give up let me just commit this little sin and no one will find out but that is wrong we need to stand up and tell Satan to take a seat and tell him that he is not going to control our lives I know that can be very difficult sometimes and I have struggled with that as well from time to time but I know that as we continue to stay rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ we cannot go wrong and I hope that we all continue to draw nearer to our Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas Season

Love,

Elder Chilson  

Paracale Branch

Hello Everyone,

A lot of crazy stuff happened this week, what I said last week about me getting emergency transferred was just the beginning of it, so I got here to Paracale on Wednesday and then me and Elder Mauigoa got right to work, he is really nice he is originally from Samoa but he has also spent some time in the USA so I was really excited to be able to work with him so the day before I got here Elder Mauigoa had some investigators that just passed their Baptismal Interviews so we had some baptisms lined up for Saturday which was very exciting but the catch was that there had to be a wedding first because some of the people that were going to get baptized they had to get married first (that is sort of a common thing here in the Philippines most people when they want to get married they do not have enough money to get married so they just sort of look past that and the husband and wife just live together and they act as if they are married but they are legally are not yet married) So most of this past week I spent a lot of time with Elder Mauigoa getting the wedding and baptismal preparations done so there was a lot of paperwork involved with the marriage contracts and the fact that this was going to be a civil wedding me and Elder Mauigoa went back and forth from the city hall to make sure that everything was done right. It was also really nice that we had a lot of help from the members here in the Paracale Branch they helped out a lot with the wedding and I also got asked to sing at the wedding so that was I guess an honor and I sang a song at their wedding as well and provided the other music for the wedding and the baptism as well and everything went well with the baptism as well this week we had a total of 8 people baptized this past from my district here in Paracale in the Daet Zone. 

I would say that my adjustment here to the Daet Zone was pretty smooth this is the first time that I have been assigned out of the Naga Stake so things are for sure different here in the Daet Zone or the Daet Stake but I have traveled up here many times before when I was in the office so I am pretty familiar with everything up here in Daet so there were not that many surprises up here which was nice as well. My appt is pretty nice sometimes we do not have running water so that is tough but we save water throughout the day so that we do not run out of water so Paracale is one of the farthest area in the mission so I am very far away from the mission home now which is different but it is nice here as well in Paracale because I am close to the coast and beach and there are also a lot of mountains here as well so I have rural areas and areas in the city here in Paracale.

Also we had transfers last night so I found out that Elder Mauigoa is actually getting transferred tomorrow and I actually found out that I am going to be the new DLT here in the Paracale District so that means that I am going to be the new DL or District Leader here in Paracale and I am also going to be a Trainer as well at the same time so that means I am training a new missionary that is coming into the mission on Wednesday so that is exciting as well so that will be a different experience for me but I am excited because the members are very nice here in Paracale but at the same time it might be tough because I have only been here in Paracale for 6 days now so I am still learning the area but I know that my Mission President and my Heavenly Father have faith in me that I can do it so I am excited for what lies ahead of me and I hope that everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a Happy Thanksgiving as well. 

Love,

Elder Chilson      

Final Tour

Hello Everyone,

This past week was my last week in the mission office and it was for sure one to remember. This past week I was able to travel to every zone in the mission which is something that is not done very often, but that was I guess my final tour so to speak because I found out today to my surprise that I am going to be transferred out of the office now and I will be transferring to Paracale an area in the Daet Zone this is arguable the furthest area away from the mission home in the mission. So this is going to be a huge change for me because as most of you know I have been in the Naga Stake for all of my mission up to this point so I am pretty excited to see how things are in different area of the mission, I know a lot of people and members in the Naga area so that is going to be a little different getting to know new people but I am sure that I will get used to it, Paracale is a town basically on the beach, it is on the coast of the ocean so I think that will be exciting and for sure a different experience than here in the office where it is all concrete walls that I see. 

Change is a big part of our lives here on Earth and a fancy word for change is repentance and so at this time I just thought that I would add in that I know that repentance is a gift that we have been given from our Heavenly Father to be able to change so that we do not have to be the same person our whole lives, but that we can change and become better that whatever mistakes we made yesterday they become wiped away because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I know that the power of the Atonement is real and I have a testimony of that.

On another side note, some of you probably remember that I was diagnosed with Dengue a few months ago there were two missionaries from the Goa Zone that were diagnosed with Dengue this past week as well so that was interesting to sort of being on the other end of that and I was able to help out in the hospital and with other things for those sick missionaries and that was a great experience, service I also know is a universal principle and that something that we should all be a part of especially as the Christmas Season is drawing near, we are celebrating Christ's birth after all for me it just makes sense that we should be doing the things that he did while he was here on the Earth like I mentioned last week the miracles, the "being a friend" type of moments, the putting others first before himself sort of mentality, the care, the love, and support that he gave to other people was just so great that we cannot even really comprehend it all but I know that he lived here on Earth for a time and completed his mission and then his father called him back home so he came out of the tomb and rose on the third day and then ascended into heaven after he had performed all his labors, that was then he received his crown of glory I know that can be the same for all of us as well that after this life there are many mansions waiting for us and we will be able to inherit all that Heavenly Father has in store for us. I hope that everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving has a very Happy Thanksgiving and that they have the opportunity to watch a lot of football and they get to spend a lot of time with their family or friends. 

Love,

Elder Chilson