January 31, 2018 - Dude, they are getting married

Hello everyone how are you doing? These last couple weeks have been great down here in Santiago. I had changes yesterday, and I am staying in the sector and my new companion is Elder Gavilanez from Quito, Ecuador! He is a stud and he is actually just about to finish his mission, he will go home at the end of this change, and I am super excited for the opportunity to be able to work with him and learn all that he has to teach me! As well pretty much our whole zone had changes this last week, so it will be really fun getting to know everyone in the up coming weeks! Big news of the day was that while we were playing soccer today I got stung by a bee, and then a few more came after me because I killed the one that stung me. So, I had to avoid the abejas. 

Ok so lets talk about the people. Well if everything turns out well, in the next 4 weeks we should be having 5 baptisms so we are super stoked! And there is one in particular that I am really excited about. We have been working with a member and her husband so that they can get married and he can be baptized, they are named Uber and Regina. Today we went with them this morning and they signed the papers to get married on the 24 of February, with Ubers baptism right after, we are super excited!!!! Plus, this morning, they asked me to be a witness for their marriage, so that was a great first experience that I have had here in the mission, we are so excited for them, I am pumped!!!!

As well we have met and be teaching a girl named Connie. She was baptized when she was little, but was never confirmed a member of the church, and she really wants to recieve the Holy Ghost, so she will be baptized and confirmed again on the 3 of March. She is super short, so every time we go over to her house she makes fun of me and calls me a skyscraper because she thinks I am so tall!

Finally we have Nico, remember the little kid I talked about a couple weeks ago? He still wants to be baptized as well, and the other week we ahd a lesson with them, we had just shared a scripture and he was pondering about what it said and I was going to say something but he held up his hand and told me to shut up so that he could think. Well, I shut up, he thought about it, and he is getting baptized!

Overall I am doing great, this has been awesome to be a part of the ward Los Robles and to be able to work with all of these wonderful people, sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Yes, sometimes there are hard times in our lives, but if we are patient and trust in our Father, he will help us to overcome the hardships that we may have here on this Earth. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

1 Nefi 7

January 17, 2017 - I am not the bad guy!

Hey everyone how are you all doing!? In the moment right now I am sitting next to Elder Spencer who is a little mad because he wants to go and fish for P Day but I will not give him permission, whoops sorry dude!  Overall I am doing great and I am loving the mission and all of the crazy things that are going on and all of the crazy people we are meeting.

So the people. Ok so since last week my companion and I have been crazy. We have had divisiones with a few companionships in our zone, we had interviews with President last Thursday and we had our regular meetings with the missionaries and the stake presidency this last week, so it was crazy. We were not able to be out and about together in the sector as much as we wanted to, but we were still able to see some great progress and miracles in the work. Since last week we have started to teach a less active lady that is in our ward. She wants her sun to get baptized, and we have been going by and teachinghim, his name is Nico and he is a stud. He is really excited for his baptismal date in  February! Mateo is also progressing really well as well. We went by and taught him on Saturday and he really wants to make changes to be able to come closer to Jesus Christ, and he is very excited to be able to learn more about Christ and His Atonement. Overall the progress in our sector is legendary and we are super excited to be working!

Ok so story of the week goes to Nico, the little guy that we are now teaching. So some background. My companion has a hurt arm, he did something with his muscles that messed it up, so he has to walk around with a sling. We go to teach Nico on Monday and he sees my comp with said sling. Nico looks and me and asks what happened. I said I hit my companion, as a JOKE! Nico got out of his seat and walked over with his fist raised and anger on his face, the kid was going to hit me!!!! But we talked him out of it right before he gave me his right hook. Lesson learned; do not joke with little kids.

I love the mission and I love you guys! I am so blessed for the opporotunity to serve and to keep helping the Lord progress in His work! 

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Doctrina y Convenios 1

January 10, 2018 - The Voice Chile Style

Hey everyone how are you doing? This last week was great, the homie Elder Bellido and I are on fire and the sector is on fire right now, and the streets are on fire because it is hot outside, and the trash fields are on fire because the glass people throw away gets hot and then lights the grass on fire, so overall everything is on fire!  But hey, I was raised in Arizona for a reason, so it isnt too bad.

Ok so we got the week. Jhubytza is progressing like crazy, as well as her daughter Camila, they are both on fire doing their homework and compromisos and are really looking forward to their baptismal date on Febrero 12! Last night we had a family home evening as a ward in the chapel and Camila came and loved every part of it! I was in charge of playing the game because my companion calls me the "creative" one, so I brought a ton of ties and we had a giant 3 legged race, pictures and video to come. In my new ward, Los Robles, the members are great and are helping us out with activities and going to visit people, so the ward in and of itself is on fire as well. On Friday we went to the chapel to play soccer at night time and like 20 people showed up to play! It was dope and we were able to teach and fix appointments with people for this week to go by and visit them. One other investigator that we have that is progressing a ton is Mateo. Mateo is an 11 year old boy that we found walking in the street one day, he was playing soccer and we went up to talk to him and he immediately became our best friend. He now comes to every activity at church, and we are hoping as well that he will be coming to his baptism here in a month!

Story time. So on Saturday we went to a lessactive and investigators house because they invited us over for their birthday party and promised us free food, so of course, we went. We show up and they had a karaoke machine and all that they wanted was for the gringo to sing karaoke songs in English. So yes, I sang "Let it go" to a bunch of Chileans and they thought it was hilarious. Good thing they were just focused on hearing the English, becasue I am pretty sure I sung terrible, like really bad, but it is whatever.

No scary story this week, the only bad thing that happened was that some Elders in our zone called us the other day because they were getting chased by a guy with a big knife hahahahahhahaha.

Overall things are poppin, there was a guy from my old ward, Los Limoneros, that visited my family this week, so shout out to Felipe for visiting the fam.

I am so pumped to be on the mission, everything is awesome! Love the mission and I hope all of you are doing great as well!

Lve,

Elder Tilghman

1 Nefi 7

January 3, 2018 - Ready, Set, GO

Hey guys whats up so this week was great, happy new years by the way it was great down here. I started off my new years not getting anysleep because of all the gun shots outside, so I decided to brush my teeth and wash my face again since I was not going to be able to sleep, Happy New Year!

Ok so we got the people. First off, members are the best. We had an activity in the chapel last night and we asked all of the members to bring their friends so that we could teach them and then get them used to being in the chapel, and the members ended up bringing 15 people that were not members! We taught them all at once and then got some appointments with them, boom, members and missionaries working together = major success. On Sunday we had a man come to church that I had not met before and he came and sat in our Gospel Principles class that me and Elder Bellido were teaching. I was supposed to talk about eternal marriage and the family and I spent a few minutes sharing about how if we do not complete with those things we cannot enter into the exaltation that God has for us. My companion was freaking out the whole time and I did not know why and then he told me afterwards that the new guy in class hates the whole idea about the family ... whoops. But the dude liked the class and said he would come to church again next week, testifying of the truth = change of heart in the mean guy. 

Freddy and Jhubytza are on fire as well. They came to church on Sunday with their daughter, so we have high expectations for all of them and their progression. 

We found some new Haitians two days ago so that was dope.

On Monday we got a reference from missionaries in the North mission, and it just turns out that the missionary who sent us the reference was Elder Dolenar! He said hi to me in the information about the investigator so that was awesome to get a new investigator and a note from the homie, love you!

We are also helping Alicia, one of our investigators towards a marriage and a bautismal date and yesterday we went by to teach her about doing her family history work and I showed her my family tree. Thanks mom for doing all of that work from before my mission so that I could show Alicia what it looks like and how we are supposed to do it, I do not know what I would do without you!

Ok so funny story, on Friday we went to a ladys house to go and talk with her, and while we were waiting outside my companions face just went pale and he told me to follow him. With no questions we just turned and started walking as fast as we could, we have a companion rule, if someone says leave an area, the other one has to leave and listen no matter what, o sea, blind obedience. Once we got far away enough we looked back and right outside of the ladys house we were at was a big guy with a smaller guy down on the ground with a gun to his neck. But, the guy on the ground was let go and ran away super fast, and we followed his example! We are safe!

I am loving the mission, there is nothing that I would change about it and what we are doing, there is not place in the world that I would rather be! I wish you all the best new year and hope that you are well, remember the best way to accomplish your goals is to place them in His hands and ask for His help and then go to work.

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Psalms 18:24