Trials

Hello Everyone,

This week in all truthfulness was a pretty trying week but I am not letting that gt in the way of my work here in my mission. Trials come to everyone at various times in their lives usually in the moment we do not know why they occur but I know that Heavenly Father knows why they occur because I know that he gives us trials so that we can learn and grow most of the times these are humbling experiences I experienced many trials before my mission and since I have been here in the mission as well I have experienced many trials as well and I believe that I have become stronger because of them spiritually sometimes we just need to take a step back and do out best to see things through Heavenly Father's eyes and I know that if we do that then we will see more of the reasons as to why the trials that we have faced have come into our lives. For me trials are just opportunities that we have to draw nearer to our Savior Jesus Christ because without him and his atonement we would have no chance to be able to return to our Father in Heaven. 

This week me and Elder Abrigo did a lot of finding and walking luckily we were a little bit more successful this past week in finding some new investigators because that is one of the goals that me and Elder Abrigo have at this point for expanding our teaching pool because we are just doing our best right now to be able to sort between the progressing investigators or the investigators that are keeping investigators as opposed to the investigators that are not willing to keep commitments and continue to the Gospel of Jesus Christ but for me whenever we find some people that are not really interesting in the Good News that Jesus Christ lives and he loves us and that his church has been restored to the Earth again through the Prophet Joseph Smith there are always other people near by that are interested in hearing our message that we have for them as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints regardless I know that in the service in the Lord no effort is wasted and everything will work out in the end.

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve a mission for the Lord in the Philippines I know this is the work of the Lord and that without him I would not be able to accomplish the things that I do I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and they love us all very much and I know that as we continue to turn to the Savior this Easter Season we will be able to have strong desires to serve the people that are around us and help the to know of the joy that the gospel brings to all of our lives I know that the Book of Mormon is a true witness that Christs church is here again on the Earth and I invite all to read it because I know that it will change our lives for the better and that is was saved for our day to help us face the challenges of our days.

Love,

Elder Chilson  

A Week Full of Meetings

Hello Everyone,

This week was a week full of meetings, I guess that is what you get for being a leader is you have to go to a lot of meetings and represent your group or in this case I represent the missionaries of the Pamplona Zone because I am their Zone Leader. So this past Monday me and Elder Abrigo went to Naga in preparation for our MLC meeting the next day with all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the Philippines Naga Mission and that was okay the MLC meeting was an all day meeting with President Zapanta and the other mission leaders and it was fun I learned a lot and there are a lot of things that me and Elder Abrigo will implement in our zone to help the missionaries here then the next day Wednesday we had a DLC meeting with all of the District Leaders of the Pamplona Zone and there we talked with all of them about the things that me and Elder Abrigo learned from MLC and then we taught the District Leaders and we did some training with them then of course I had District Meeting on Friday and then went well as usual and then on Sunday after church me and Elder Abrigo went to Libmanan for our PL meeting with the leaders of the Pamplona District and we talk about missionary work and the missionaries for the whole District of Pamplona (Pamplona is not a Stake yet because there are only branches in the Pamplona District but in the future those branches with become wards and then Pamplona will become a stake) That is at least the goal and those are some of the things that I am helping the people here in the Pamplona area with I am all about achieving goals so I am working very hard to do my best to be able to help the members achieve their goals and then by the start of next year hopefully they will have a new church here in Sipocot.

Also I would just like to share quickly about how the Lord answers our prayers, yesterday I had two experiences where the Lord answered my prayers in two different ways. The first was in church me and Elder Abrigo have been fasting and praying for our investigators to come to church and yesterday we saw that come to a reality we had investigators come to church that we were not envisioning that were going to come to church and I believe that was an answer to one of my prayers and then in the afternoon and we got back from the PL meeting while I was reading the Book of Mormon, Heavenly Father answered my prayers as well in the form of a verse in the Book of Mormon in the Book of Alma and so for me that was awesome I know that if we have questions we can ask Heavenly Father and if we are patient and we are preparing ourselves to receive his answers then we will receive what Heavenly Father has in store for us I know that he has all the right answers for us and I know that answers come in many different forms but I know that if we are ready then I know that we will not miss the answers when they come and I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture and that if we read it often we will also find the things that we are looking for in this life me and Elder Abrigo usually tell our investigators that we know that you will not become temporally rich by reading the Book of Mormon but we know that we will become spiritually rich as we read the Book of Mormon often and I know that is true and I know that we will learn much about our Savior as we read and study and ponder the words in the Book of Mormon because it testifies of Christ.

Love,

Elder Chilson        

Ground Breaking

Hello Everyone,

Nothing really all that exciting happened this week other than the "Ground Breaking" that took place here in Sipocot last Saturday. So everyone here in Sipocot is pretty excited because they are going to have a new chapel here in Sipocot that was what the "Ground Breaking" was about and for me it was fun because some of my friends from Naga City came up as well to see it or at least some of the local leaders of the church that I used to work with while I worked in President Zapanta's Office before when I was an "Office Elder" so it was nice to seem and for me it was just an exciting time to see how the church has grown since the past because they have been waiting for close to 8 years I think for this new chapel to be built because the chapel that they have now is a little too small for them and for it just shows have hard the past missionaries and members have worked here in Sipocot to move the Lord's work forward and now they are seeing the blessings because of it even though I will not be around to see the new chapel finished I am still excited for the people here in Sipocot they deserve it.

Me and Elder Abrigo worked pretty hard this week and I sweated a lot no joke it was pretty hot this week we walked a lot and we did our best to find some new investigators to meet our goals that we have for the month of March and April and here in the mission I have really learned about how important goals I have never really set goals in my life I do not really thing before I came here in the mission but I know that goals are the way that the Lord has designed for his missionaries to accomplish his work and of course as a Zone Leader here in the Pamplona Zone I need to set the example for the other missionaries in my zone and if I am not able to achieve my goals that I have set what are the other missionaries going to be thinking, that Elder Chilson and Elder Abrigo have not achieved their goals this month so me and my companion do not have to achieve mine either. Now that for me is simple to handle because for me in life and here as a missionary in the Philippines it is unacceptable to give anything less than my best and I think that a large part of achieving goals in having the right attitude so I know that if I can set a good example to the other missionaries and help them to have a good attitude then we are going to be okay, we are going to be able to achieve our goals with the Lords help so those are some of the things that I have been doing this week is just working hard to be able to achieve my goals for my zone and ultimately for the Lord because I know that he will not leave us alone but I know that he is always there to help us whenever we ask for his help. 

I know that as we continue to do all that we can to be the kind of people that the Lord expects us to be then we will be blessed with heavenly help that is meant just for us. I know that we are all Children on God and that we need to help our friends and our families be ready for the time when our time on Earth is done and we get to go and return to our Father in Heaven I know that he is cheering us on and as we continue to make right choices here on Earth we will be just that much more ready to return to our heavenly home. 

Love,

Elder Chilson       

  

Sipocot

Hello Everyone,

So this week was full of adjustments for me but now everything is all in place. So this past week I was transferred from Paracale, Daet Zone to Sipocot , Pamplona Zone and now I am the new Zone Leader for the whole Pamplona Zone, everything went pretty smooth on Monday I packed up all of my stuff and then said goodbye to everyone in Paracale which I must say was a little bit different this time I am not sure why but I think that it was harder for me to leave Paracale as opposed to my other past areas (aside from the office that was a different experience) I think that I got closer to the members in Paracale as opposed to my past areas and I think that they will miss me there but I left Elder Denoy there and I think that I left a part on me with him there and he will keep things rolling in Paracale then on Tuesday morning at 3:30am (no joke) I was at the bus terminal to go to Naga City and then we traveled all morning and for me now whenever I go to Naga City I just feeling like I am coming home after a long trip so that was fun for me to go back to Naga then I received all of my Zone Leader stuff and then I found my new companion Elder Abrigo who I know pretty well we were in the Canaman Zone together for a while before and then we were on our way to Sipocot. 

Sipocot is of course different than Paracale and different than Naga City it is sort of a high way town because Sipocot is the biggest city between Daet and Naga one of the biggest differences for me is that they speak Bicol-Naga here like they do in Naga City in Paracale they only speak Tagalog so now I am getting used to that again which is not problem when I was working the office in Naga I spoke Bicol as well so I was get used to that again and some of the Bicol-Naga that I forgot when I went to Paracale is coming back and the Branch here in Sipocot is pretty nice, the members here are really nice, I spoke in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and that went well there are some members that remember me from when I was in the office so I have some connections here including the Branch President here in Sipocot I met him several times before in Sipocot and in Naga when I was in the office doing various tasks for President Zapanta so we already know each other and there are a lot of members that work with me and Elder Abrigo I am now settled in here in Sipocot and I am excited about the potential that there is here in Sipocot I think there is a lot of great missionary work that is about to happen here.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and he is our Savior and that he loves us and I know that as we follow his example and we do our best to become like he we will feel of his love especially as we read the Book of Mormon I know that as we read and study the Book of Mormon we will draw nearer unto Christ and believe it or not March is here and Easter is vastly approaching so what better way to spend this Easter Season then reading about the Saviors life from the Book of Mormon and other scriptures that we have and I hope that we can all remember the Savior daily as we are out and about our various tasks each and every day of our lives.

Love,

Elder Chilson          

Pamplona Zone

Hello Everyone,

This week was another week full of surprises because everything was leading up to last night with the transfer announcements because everyone wants to know who was going to get transferred and who was going to stay in their areas so last night I got the call from my Zone Leaders and they said that I was going to be transferred and I was not that surprised I sort of got the feeling that I was going to be transferred but then I also got the feeling that me and Elder Denoy could stay another transfer here together in Paracle so I was torn but at any rate I accepted the assignment to be the new Zone Leader in the Pamplona Zone and I was really surprised I was not expecting to go the the Pamplona Zone and become a Zone Leader but that is sometimes how the life of a missionary is the most unexpected things are the things that usually come to pass and that is something to me that strengthens my testimony about revelations because I know that President Zapanta receives revelation for the Philippines Naga Mission and he does not just tell the missionaries where to go and what to do but he tells the missionaries what the Lord wants them to do and where they should go so I am excited for this opportunity as a District Leader before I was in charge of 8 missionaries and now I will be in charge of a whole zone and 18 missionaries so I am excited for the challenge and for all the opportunities that lie ahead for me to be able to help and serve the other missionaries in my zone.

Also this week I cannot believe that I am saying this mostly because on the calendar it says that it is February right now but in the Philippines Naga Mission summer has officially started and it is really hot for me I think that it is hotter in Paracale as opposed to Naga City but it is still hot and another thing that I did for the first time this week was I patched up my pants this past week because I got a hole in one of my pairs of pants the hole was not that big it was about the size of a small nail and then I said to myself I can handle this and then I did my best to patch it up and I am not a professional sewer by any imagination but I think that I did a pretty okay job. This week me and Elder Denoy had a lot of fun I think that he really enjoyed his training and he learned a lot as well and he for sure he learned how to work hard something that he was not that used to before he came on the mission and no joke yesterday we walked over 3 miles in the heat I am sure that you can picture that anyone who knows me know that I work just as hard as anyone and I will not let anything get in the way of the Lord Work.

My new companion pala is a Filipino I know him pretty well we have both been on our missions now for a little while his name is Elder Abrigo and he is pretty nice I am not really that surprised because most of my companions that I have had on my mission have been Filipinos so I think that it will be fun and I am excited for the adventures that lie ahead in Sipocot I am sure that there are many people there that are waiting to hear the Gospel and I am going to be one of the people to take it to them and that for me right now means everything. Now is the time that I have to give my all to the Lord and his work and I am doing my best to now waste the time that he has given me to do so and I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ lives and I know that he is our Savior and that he loves us very much and I know that as we turn to him he will come to our aid and support us when we are feeling down and we are in need of comfort and we will be able to feel of his love that he has for us and we will be able to continue on our pathways that lead back to our Father in Heaven.

Love,

Elder Chilson            

Solid Work Week

Hello Everyone,

This week was a pretty solid work week nothing super exciting happened but it was a pretty fun week as well. I cannot believe that this is the start of the last week of Elder Denoy's training it seems that we have not been together for that long but believe it or not we have been together for almost 12 weeks now so at the end of this week his training will be finished. This past week I had a lot of exchanges, on funny experience I had this past week was that I got to work with Elder Petersen in Daet because this past week I had exchanges with the Zone Leader's because he is a Zone Leader in the Daet Zone and I actually enjoyed it a lot because if you can remember Elder Petersen was my companion while I was in the MTC in Provo and in the MTC in Manila so we know each other pretty well but this was like the first time that we have been in the same zone together and so it was really interesting to be able to work together again and the fact that me and Elder Petersen both can speak and understand Tagalog helped so much because when we were in the MTC together we did not always understand what we were saying to each other or what our investigators were saying either while we were in the MTC. So for me it was pretty funny and it so amazing for me to see that Heavenly Father knows for real what we need I am not really sure why me and Elder Petersen were brought back together here in the Daet Zone after us being together in the MTCs but I know that Heavenly Father knows what we need so he will put us in situations where we can learn and we can grow because he knows what is best for each of us. 

This week me and Elder Denoy helped some of our investigators come closer to baptism which I think is great but the whole marriage this is what we will be waiting on here in Paracale for the next little bit because the government right now in the Philippines is changing the process by which people can get married so we are waiting on the final verdict on that (or at least that is what I am being told I do not really know that much about the Filipino Government) anyways we have two part member families that we are working with right now and that are pretty cool but the only problem is they are not yet married so hopefully by March me and Elder Denoy will be able to sort all of that out and we are also constantly finding new investigators so me and Elder Denoy are just keeping things rolling here in Paracale this place I think is a place that has been prepared by the hand of the Lord for his children to accept the gospel so that is what I have been doing my best to do is to invite other people to Come unto Christ and to partake of his gospel.

I know that when I accepted my mission call to become a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I told Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that I was going to do anything and everything that was in my power to help Heavenly Father's children be able to return to him and that I was going to have to make sacrifices in the process, and I know that the sacrifices that I have made are all going to be balanced out in the end and I know that my efforts on the Lord's Errand will not be wasted but that the rewards will be so much greater so I am just going to continue give all that I have to this work because I know that this is the work of the Lord and that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church and I know that as we continue to center our lives around our Savior Jesus Christ we will be blessed in more ways than we will be able to count. 

Love,

Elder Chilson 

Big Week

Hello Everyone,

This week was a very big week for me but it all came together just as it should. So as we know Super Bowl we is a big week and a lot of things have to happen at just the right time in order to be successful in the Super Bowl and that is what I felt this past week as well because last Saturday the whole Aysara Family was baptized and I was so happy for them it was a feeling that I had never felt before and for them it is just their first steps on their way to the temple but I really hope that one day they will be able to make it to the temple and they will be able to be sealed as a family for all time and eternity one of the great blessings that Heavenly Father has to give to us and I feel so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be able to help this family move in that direction. I know that they are so happy right now and all of the sacrifices that went into their baptism and everything I know will be worth it. 

Me and Elder Denoy also had two part member families that came to church yesterday which for me was awesome because they really showed their faith in Jesus Christ because a lot of the people here in Paracale they need to work everyday even Sunday just to have enough food to be able to feed their families for the week so when a whole family of 6 comes to church that is a big sacrifice for a family but I know that the blessings will be there as well and that Heavenly Father will not leave us alone, He wants us to be successful and I know that as we call upon his name he will come to us and help us in whatever way that we need because I have seen that in my life and while I have been here on my mission I know that that is true. Even though sometimes are tough and for reasons we do not know why we need to just continue to move forward with the faith that we have and that is one thing that I have been trying to help my investigators with recently and I know that is something that we can all apply to our lives I am not certain what the future hold but what I am certain of is that God, Our Heavenly Father is in control so we should not fear but we should be of hope for we are waiting for that day when our Savior, Master, and Redeemer will come again and oh what a great day that will be.

I know that as we continue to strive to do the little things right especially in our families we will feel an abundance of the Spirit in our homes, and I know that the Book of Mormon is the key for that, that is one thing that the Aysara Family did they read from the Book of Mormon almost every night and they found something that was missing in their lives and even though they were facing trials before their baptism and even now after their baptism they are still facing trials but I know that they will be okay because they have to tool that they need to find peace and answers to their questions and that is The Book of Mormon I know that it has changed the lives of the Aysara Family and I know as I have been helping them on the road of conversion I have been more deeply converted as well to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is my invitation to all of you to read the Book of Mormon because I know that if we will all continue to read the Book of Mormon it will change our lives for the better and help us get back to our Heavenly Father.

Love,

Elder Chilson    

The Aysara Family Baptism