October 25, 2017 - Buena buena do not kill us

Hey everyone how are you doing? I am alive and well which is all good because I thought we were going to die this weekend, but it turned out all good, I mean what is the mission without a dude who wants to kill you am I right? And what is the mission without two guys who want to kill you?

Ok so first off lets start with the happy news about the people that we are teaching. Daniel our investigator who speaks English is on fire. We had a lesson with him yesterday and put a baptismal date down with him for the 26 of November and he is super excited. He always has great questions when we go by and visit him and he is progressing and putting in work towards his date. As well we learned a very important lesson about member missionary work. Daniel told us that his friend in the US has been talking him alot about the church and the Gospel, and Daniel has been able to recieve help and guidance when we are not around. I know that as we as members work together with the missionaries we can both see the fruits of our labors. As well we have been having great progress with our Haitian investigators. I finally put the goal to study hard kreyol, the language that the Haitian speak, so that we can better present our message to them, and at the same time help them with their Spanish. I am so excited to learn the language of my homies and best friends, the Haitians are my yuntas and cabros. Overall the work is going great, we have been having success and we are loving the opporotuinity to help and teach Gods children. 

Ok so fun story of the week! On Sunday night we were in the street in a mas o menos flite part of our sector walking back to meet up with a member at the chapel. From the side of the street this dude rises up to come over and talk to us. He was about 5 foot 6 but tatted up from head to toe and he was a buff dude. He walked towards us and his beer splashed out of his bottle, so that was probably why he was mad when he started to talk. But he yelled at us and told us to leave or he was going to hurt us and make us regret being in his country. We politely said sorry, and then turned to leave and he moved to grab me, but I just said good bye, have a good night and kept on walking. We survived! The flites are usually my homies, but I guess this guy was just having a bad day, it was probably because he did not go to church that morning. Always go to church, it will make you happy!

Part 2. On monday I was on a div with our district leaders and this tatted up dude just started talking to his friend in front of us and made a joke that he was going to attack us. Nothing happened, so it is all good, and then we found some Haitians listening to Justin Bieber in the street, so we went to talk with them. Overall, it was an exciting two days.

I hope you are all doing well! I love the mission, pasamos la piola and as well I grow more closer to my Savior. We are all safe, love you!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Exodo 19

A Cars kite fell into our yard the other day

We visited an altar today

Senior pics 2017

I am a Chilean

Bunch of smog

I love life

Ripping some grass out of the ground

Zone conference with the favorites!

Pretty trees behind a metal fence

What we do now that we are home

I can sit up wooohooooo

We ate bacon for the first time on my mission on Sunday

Elder Grau left us, he got changed out, this is a bad picture of us

Flowers

Study session

I love Elder Bennett

Service pulling up grass

Star Wars for PDay

The Ortuzar family

A nice park in my sector

Ok mom I got your christmas card picture

October 18, 2017 - Spike and Spiked

Hello everyone so this last week was awesome, we are having some really great success in our sector in being able to teach and talk to new people here in our ward. We had some great experiences this week as well that testified to me that the missionary work that we are doing is of vital importance to Heavenly Father and His children. 

Sunday was the best Sunday I have had in my mission. So usual the number of people who go to church every week varies from where you are at in the mission. My first ward had about 70, my second about 30 and this ward has about 90. But on Sunday we had 150 people at church and I almost fell out of my chair. We have really been working with the bishop in order to get more people to come and partake of the sacrament each week, and it was great to see such a good turnout this week! As well during sacrament meeting Belen was confirmed and she asked us to participate in confirming her a member of the church, while we were confirming her I felt the Spirit fill the room. Thanks to the Priesthood that has been restored here on the Earth, Belen can have the Holy Ghost with her for the rest of her life, and will be able to have a constant companion and comforter in her times of need. All of our other investigators are progressing great as well, they each have their own unique challenges that they need to get over, but we are here to help them with that. Last week as well I started to seriously study my Creole, which is the language that the Haitians speak, so we will see if I will be able to talk that language after the mission as well. 

Overall the sector has been on fire, we are working great and very efficiently and I am so exicted to see the success that we will be able to have. 

Ok so story of the week. There is a giant dog that lives outside of our house called Spike, I gave him that name because it fits. Where we live there are no other dogs because Spike will go and fight them and beat them up until they leave, so he is kinda the only dog that I do not all of the way hate. On Saturday we were walking home at night and we saw Spike run on the street and slam his head into the side of a moving car because he was mad at it for some reason. He also did the same thing on Monday. I hope Spike and I do not become enemies. 

On Monday as well we were walking in the street and we passed a bus stop where there was a guy black out wasted on the bench. As we passed by he dropped his bottle and slowly leaned back and tried to catch himself, but he hit the ground. He then started to yell and moan so we kept going on our way. Once again children, do not do drugs or drink alcohol, only bad things will come.

I love the mission and love everything about it, I hope you are all doing well, do not forget to write!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Daniel 2

October 11, 2017 - Back at it again

So after weeks of silence, the dogs decided to jump out of the shadows once again, but we will save that story for the end. This week was a great week, we are getting a ton of work done, and on Sunday Belen was baptized by her dad! We will see if I can send photos because I am writing in a super ghetto cyber cafe, but we will see. 

Ok so the highlight of the week was definietly on Sunday. Church was awesome, there were so many people that showed up that we had to open the overflow which is the first time that has ever happened to me here on my mission, I could not believe it! It was also fast and testimony bmeeting and there were some great stories and experiences shared, it was a great day for all of our investigators and less actives the spirit was very strong in our appointment.  Then later that afternoon we had Belens baptism! She was baptized by her dad and the Spirit was so strong, it was awesome to see the change in the family during our time with them and teaching them. Afterwards they invited us to their house and we ate cinnamon rolls! Also the first time I have had those on the mission as well so it was pretty awesome, overall it was just a good day. Yesterday I was on divisions with an Elder named Elder Murphy and we went to a reference that we got the day before for a Haitian. We went inside and ended up teaching the whole family, but the problem was that they spoke Creole, their native language so I understood nothing. then out of nowhere Murphy starts speaking Creole with the people, I was so impressed, looks like I need to start waking up a half hour earlier to get some more language study in! 

Ok so story of the week. We had been having a pretty good time with no problems with the dogs or nothing ever since I fell off the roof and cannot ride on the bike, and then this last week they decided to go crazy again. We were walking home in the night and we turned a corner and a dog was in the street and started freaking out on us, but it was a little dog and we paid it no attencion. I guess it felt threatned that we walked towards it because then it turned around and ran inside a fence barking its head off and came running outside with a giant, sheep herding looking dog! We slowly had to back our way out of there until they calmed down. I thought we were dead, no lie. 

Life is going great and we are back to normal! I am loving the mission and I know that all we do is for a reason, and that we teach and preach the true, restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Eclesiastes 3:1

October 4, 2017 - Ping Pong

This past week was a really great week, in all ways imaginalbe, I am so very grateful to be out here on the mission and for the people we help and the experiences that we are having. We had some awesome experiences this week as well which really built upon and helped to strenghten my own testimony!

So this past weekend was General Conference. For those of you who do not know, General Conference happenes twice a year, once every 6 months and the prophet and apostles as well as other Church leaders recieve insight and revelation to share with the world. The guidance that they gives us leads us to peace, joy and new sources of peacefulness, because there is happiness that comes from following the prophet. I really learned alot and enjoyed every second of it, if you have not had the opporotunity to see or hear for yourself, I will leave the link in the email so that you can go check it out. 

As well, we had some great experiences this week. Just yesterday we were walking in the street and a guy on the side of the road looked us in the eyes and said "hey guys how are you?" in perfect English. So of course, we stopped to talk to him. His name is Daniel and he was born in the US but spent the most of his life here, but he speaks very good English and so we talked with him for a little and then went to his house later that night to go and teach him. We talked about his life and experiences with the church, and then we shared a message with him. He is super receptive and a great person, and we have a return visit with him tonight. He was first introduced into the chruch by a friend, which was a real testimony builder for me, we are all workers in the obra of the Lord! This weekend as well on Sunday there is a little girl named Belen who is getting baptized! Her family is coming back to activity in the church, and we have been teaching the whole family, and she will be baptized by her dad this Sunday afternoon. I testify and know that families can be eternal and that through Priesthood ordinances we can make bonds with our Heavenly Father that will last for the eternities. 

Ok so jumping from super spritual moment, lets go to the funny story of the week. On Thursday we were walking through a really ghetto park with trash, alcohol and people passed out on the ground everywhere, or basically the normal, and we saw some kids playing ping pong. We went to talk with them and we talked with them and then played some ping pong so that they would listen to us. We were able to teach them the Restoration, and ten after they invited us to watch them play one more game. They both broke their paddles, so they took out their phones and started to play ping pong with their phones, then one of the phones broke, so he played with his hand. It was good to see that he valued his things alot.

This mission is awesome, I hope you are all doing good! Be safe and have a great week!

Love

Elder Tilghman

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