January 25, 2017 - Blackout

"Hello my friends how are you?" I am just quoting something that I hear everyday on the street down here. No but really, how is everyone? I am loving it down here in Chile, everyday is a new adventure and new things to do it is sweet. This week was a good week of doing some tracting to find new people, and it was a good week of getting oriented in the new sector.

Alright so I will start off with the new people that we have found here in Condell. This week we were walking in the street doing some contacting, and we contacted a Haitian on the side of the road and got a return visit to his house. We ended up going to teach him and he actually lives with two friends, and we are teaching all of them and they have started to read the Book of Mormon, so we are really excited to see the progress that they start to make, it will be really fun to watch. Elder Gowers and I have also been going around trying to clean up the ward too. We have a list of all the members, active or not, in the ward, so we are going around in seeing if people still live there, and if they are, we invite them to meet with us and come back to church. A ton of miracles have come that way as well, in terms of people to teach and new people to know. We also met with some people the past week who were old investigators of my companion and his old comp, so we went to visit them to see how they were doing and how they were progressing. They have some great people who are progressing great, we just have to get them out to church with us, so this week in our lessons we just talked with them all about their progress and coming to church, and fixed some plans to go pick them up as well. Overall we are doing really great, and we are sacaring la mougre from the sector, because there is really a ton of potential here and I am so excited to work. 

So the funny, scary moment of the week happened last night. Elder Gowers and I were wrapping up our last appointment for the night and we were getting ready to leave to go to the house. Then all of the sudden, all of the power went out in our sector and everything went completely dark. So, we had to hurry and book it back to the house in the dark, because we were just nervous about getting robbed or something, but we are all good now so it is ok! But that was the funny and scary moment of the week, but nothing happened to us. 

Overall I love my new sector and my new companion. We are really working hard to work and lead in every way possible that we can so that the Lord can perform his work in Santiago. I love you all and I am grateful for everyone of you, do not forget to write!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Alma 6

This is Dude, he is like the pet of the mission!

Zone activity on the mountain!

Some of the boys from the house, Elder Gowers and Elder Ebert

January 18, 2017- Condell

Hey everybody what is up? I got transferred yesterday to a new area and a new companion, and believe it or not this sector is even more hood than my first sector was, so it is awesome! My new companion is named Elder Gowers and he is from South Jordan, Utah. He has only been out on the mission like 4 months, and I am his second companion, so I am "greenie breaking" him, which basically means I am his second comp after his trainer. This is definitely a fun experience, because I get to bring Elder Gowers into the "real world" because he is not sheltered by his trainer anymore. Overall, it is pretty awesome.

Ok so some info on my new sector and some more info on my companion. The new sector is called Condell, and it is one of the smallest areas in the smallest mission in the world, so yeah it is pretty tiny. But, even though it is tiny, there are a ton of people that live here because all of the houses are super small and squished together, and the sector is basically apartment buildings and tiny, dirty alleyways where everyone goes to smoke! I do not know how, but I think Heavenly Father knew that I always liked to be in the more thug places hahahhahahaha. My companion Elder Gowers is a great guy, for the next week I will be learning the sector and the members here, so I will have to follow him for a little bit, but he has been doing a great job leading me. Right now we are short of investigators, but that is awesome because it just means a ton of contacting and talking to people in the street, which is probably the best part about the mission. We hit the ground this morning going to find some people to teach, and because the sector is so small, the people know the Mormons pretty well, so a lot of people invited us to come back and talk with them, so this morning we got about 5 new investigators in two hours, it was great. I am super excited for the work here, because it looks like that we just have to open our mouths to talk to people and invite them to listen to us and they will say yes, so I have a ton of ganas to do the work here in the sector. (I do not know how to say ganas in English, but it means like I am excited). Some things are still the same from my old sector, Parque Combarbalá. There are still dogs in the street, but now there are more smokers in the street, but it is fine by me.

So now for the sad part of the email. Even Though I have a new area right now, that means that I left my first ward, Parque Combarbalá. I was sad to leave that ward after 6 months, I met some great people there, both members and investigators, and I know I will not be able to forget them. I also had to leave the house that I was living in in order to go to my new sector, so that also means I am not living with the Assistants anymore. I will miss those guys, they taught me a ton and were great examples for me about the type of person I want to be and what I want to do with my life. But, the future is looking bright here in Condell.

I love you guys and I hope you are all doing good! Do not forget to write to tell me all that is going on, I love to hear it all! Keep safe and Take care.

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Mosiah 3:19

Elder Gowers!

The vega family

The goat from the old sector

January 11, 2017 - I want to visit Haiti

Ok so this last week has been really awesome with the work in our sector, but it is also a little sad because this is the last week that Elder Topalda and I will be together. And I am sorry if this email is a little shorter, but this computer that I am using to write isnt the best, so it messes with my typing. But anyway, I loved this week, I feel like I have definietly recieved answers to my prayers.

So lets start off with the investigators and the less active members that we have. This past week was a little rough because we started with about 7 investigators in our pool and then at one point we only had 1 because everyone this week either moved or we dropped them because they were not progressing. But, this last week, thanks to some contacts and some miracles we found some more people to teach! We found a new Haitiano who only speaks English and says that he came to Chile to find the true church of God, and so far he has come to church, started reading the Book of Mormon and accepted a baptism invite all in a week! His name is Jimmy, and he will be getting baptized the 22 of this month! On Monday we also had a good lesson with the daughter of a part member family. We have been working on reactivating the mom, and the daughter started to listen to our lessons. She is only 10 years old, but understands everything we teach and says she feels at peace when she is with us or in the church. So, this girl (Javierra) will also be getting baptized the 22 of the month as well! Overall I felt like this week was great because we have been working hard but have been hitting dead ends, but this week we have seen some amazing progress, and I thank my Lord for these blessings.

Ok so funny story of the week, we were in the street with a member from our ward to go a visit Javierra before a lesson on Monday. As we were walking we ran into a Haitian we know and we started to talk. He then looked at the member and asked her for her phone number so that he could "start to talk with her". This Haitian totally hit on this poor girl right in front of us hahahhahahaha. We ended the conversation and left, and when the Haitian was out of earshot we started to laugh hahahahha. It was super funny oh my gosh.

I am grateful for being a missionary. I am grateful to be in Chile. I am grateful to serve my God and His children everyday. And last of all I am grateful for the blessings that He gives me everyday. I hope you are all good and that the New Year has been good so far. I love you and do not forget to write!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Isaias 2:2

Caught sleeping

Elder Gutierrez is one of my favorite people, and the best DL ever

Yeah we played soccer again today

January 4, 2017 - Chilean Fruit

Hey everyone I hope you all had a great New Year! This last week was awesome as we got to meet with people, and because we also had a great New Years with a member family in our ward! Things are going great here in Chile, but this weekend was definitely weird because there was no one in the street during the day because they were all busy celebrating in their houses ahhahahah, it was like a ghost town. 

So this week was a long week of doing some street contacting. Elder Topalda and I have been looking for new people to teach, so that means a ton of talking to people in every momento that we can. It was a fun and spiritual experience going up to people on the street and talking with them about their lives and the gospel. It was also very humbling because we had to put our trust and faith in God to have him help us to find people, and it has definietly worked, we have gotten about 7 new investigators in the last week. It has been a long, hot week but it has definietly been a week were we have worked to harvest the field. We also have some less active members working to help bring them back to the church, and they have all been progressing. Overall this week has been a good week of work and I love it!

Oh yeah so down here in Chile, they may not have basic necestities like clean water or gas to heat and cool the house, but everyone has a fruit tree. So whenever we go to peoples houses, they let us pick fruit, so we have eaten a lot of peaches, cherries and avocados. And as a bonus in our church, there are a bunch of cherry trees, so whenever we go there, there is something to eat.

So for New Years this year we went to eat dinner with a member family and we had an awesome barbeque, I do not think I have ever eaten so much chicken and beef in my entire life. We woke up the next morning in a little bit of pain, but it was worth it.

It was great being there, because the brother of the member was there, and he is a less active member, and I got to talking with him and we talked for about 2 hours about life and the church. It was a great experience and it was amazing talking to a person in Chile who speaks Spanish, who has life problems, who is 50 years old and he trusts all of it to an 18 year old missionary. This really is the work of the Lord, there is no doubt about that, I know that he trusts us as missionaries to do his work, and although we may do it imperfectly, it is humbling to know that my Father in Heaven trusts me with his children. I love you all and I hope you are all doing good!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Mosiah 25

Elder Scott!

New Years Eve BBQ

A ton of meat