March 28, 2018 - Pitit pitit

Hello all of my fellows how are you doing? This last week was really good, it was a great week for studies and working, our zone is on fire right now, we are killing it in everything so we are pretty pumped!

Starting with the people. Carmen will get baptized in 2 weeks, the weekend after General Conference, she is really excited to be baptized and she walks around telling everyone the day of her baptism and invites everyone to come, she is awesome Elder Tanner and I are super excited for her! Every sunday when she comes to church, her dog always tries to follow her into the church building, so every week my companion and I play the game of how to distract the dog so that it does not go inside the church! We also started to teach some flaites named Benjamin and Fabian, they are 18 and 15 years old. Fabian loves to swear and say bad words, the other day we were teaching them and Fabian got scared by something and started to swear in the middle of the prayer and then Benja yelled at him and told him to shut up, it was super funny in the moment. We are also teaching a girls namend Connie. We had a really powerful lesson with her while we were on Divisiones with Elder Wattles on Monday. We went to go teach her and her mom and we spent a ton of time testifying of the power of the Resurrecion in our lesson with the mom, Ines. Her husbad and son have recently passed away, so we taught her about teh great truths of the Plan of Salvation that get taught in Alma 40 en the Book of Mormon. You should all read it. 

Funny story of the week. so we are in the feria the other day and these Haitians are giving us our fruit that we had asked for and they were talking to each other in Creole, with the little bit of Creaole that I know I knew that they were talking about us. One of them asked the other one if he thought we spoke creole, and I answered, saying "pitit pitit" whichs means a little bit. They started to die laughing and they gave me all a fist bump, my day was made!!!!!!!

"En cuanto a la pasada manera de viver, despojaos del viejo hombre" Efesios 4:22. Change and repentance are real, upon our willingness to submit our will to that of One Greater than us, we can become new people and see our full potential. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Efesios 6

March 21, 2018 - Austrailian Guns, March Madness, Dogs

It was a sweet week! We have had a ton of success in teaching and finding people the last week and we have a ton of people who are getting ready for baptism, we have been working with the ward and the leaders so that they can know the poeple and get working with them after their baptism so that they can stay firme in the church, it has been really busy but really awesome at the same time!It was a great first week with Elder Tanner, we were able to do alot, he is a great guy and we are getting up to go running in the morning because my comp is a runner, so once more I am realizing how out of shape I have gotten here on the mission. Oh well. 

So the people. Carmen has been progressing really well, she is a miracle. She is already obeying all of the commandments, has been to church for a month in a row and is really ready to be baptized and desires to do so, we are super excited for her, so hopefully i a couple of weeks we will have pictures of her baptism! As well in the last lesson we had with her she gave us this weird fruit called membrilla and it is super sour, it does not exiist in the US, thank goodness. As well we have been able to have a ton of progression with a ton of other people. Felipe, our Columbian homie, accepted a baptismal fecha last week and is reading the Book of Mormon to recieve his answer to whether or not it is true, but he is super excited to be baptized ssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. This week as well I learned a lesson about the importance of being bold in the work and not accepting the first no. We went and talked to a less active on Saturday and taught him about the Book of Mormon. His sister was there as well and she told us she did not want to listen with us and that she was going to leave. We straight up told her she could not leave. She looked at us shocked a little bit that we told her no, but then she sat down and listened to the rest of what we were going to say and she accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon.  Just like the song "What do you Mean" by Justin Bieber, just because you nod your head yes does not mean no, and vice versa apparently. 

So crazy stories of the week! On Friday we met this dude in the street who started to speak to us in English.. with an Austailian accent. He told us he spent 27 years in Austrailia and fought in the Vietnam war, then became an illegal arms dealer and a drug dealer, and then moved to Chile and lost all of his money to the rival gangs and his enemies, so now he lives on the street. The best part was he told us he would look out for us and if anyone does anything wrong to us he will, and I quote, "String them by their toes" Awesome! Of course we have also gone a long time without hearing about a dog story. So, another one bit me on Sunday, no blood, but he left some nasty purple marks on my thigh and it hurt so bad, woohoooo. And to wrap it all up for PDay today we played March Madness with President Gwilliam and a ton of other missionaries, we made our teams and our brackets and played a massive tournament, it was dope, sorry mom once again I forgot to use sunscreen.

The mission is awesome, the people are awsome and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to teach them. The experiences I ahve had and the Spirit I have felt are undeniable, this is the Church of God. Because He loves us, He has given us His Son to suffer, die and ressurect for us, and if we are humble and learn of Him, we will return, together with our families, to His presence.

Love,

Elder Tilghman

DyC 63

March 14, 2018 - Ow, My Eye

Hello everyone how are yall doing? Well a lot has happened in the last week it has been quite the journey for me here in Los Robles, a ton of changes and a ton of new opportunities, and of course all of the funny stories that come along with the everyday life as well. I am so grateful to serve here in this mission, there are so many crazy funny things that go on it makes me laugh everyday, but you guys probably would not think it is funny like I do. God definitely called me to the right mission, just imagine, an entire place full of people that think my jokes are hilarious and where I get new material for my humor everyday, who needs Saturday Night Live when you have Wednesday Morning Drunks down here!

Ok so lets talk about the people. Last week we had some great lessons with our investigators that are progressing. We went and talked with a lady that got back from her month long vacations in the south of the country (Do not even get me started on Chilean vacation schedules) and we were finally able to meet with her. We tuaght her a lesson and testified about the power of the Book of Mormon and the testimony of Jesus Christ taht we recieve as we read it and she accepted the desafio to de baptized in a month! Nice. As well on Friday we were walking in the street and we had an investigator stop us in the street, someone that we had not seen for 2 weeks because he had not been in his house, he was busy, we were busy, his phone was dead, our phone had no minutes, overall it was chaotic trying to get in touch with Manuel. But on Friday we talked to him in the street and he told us he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and said he felt really warm and fuzzy on the inside and he thinks it was the Spriit. Of course we told him it was and testified to him of what he had felt and then went by yesterday and he confirmed that he knows what we teach is true and wants to learn more and be baptized. It was a great lesson and then afterwards we were so happy! We always hear about those kinds of moments that happen in peoples missions, and I was able to be the participant of one on Friday it was dope! Overall it has been going great here in our sector!

Ok so on Monday my old companion Elder Gavilanez finished his mission and went back to his home in Ecuador. He left at 4 oclock in the morning, so I woke up and said good bye to the guy and sent him off in the car to the airport and I stayed with the other Elders in our house in a trio until I got my new companion yesterday. My new companion is a gringo from Fort Collins, Colorado and his name is Elder Tanner! He goes home the change after I do here on the mission, and we have known each other for quite a while here and I am really excited to be with him, he will probably be my last companion here on the mission! 

So, email title. This week for our P Day we had a marshmallow war here in the chapel with all of the Elders in our zone (there are only Elders because it is super flaite and it would be dangerous for teh sister missionaries here). So, we bought PVC pipe and a ton of marshmallows and made marshmallow guns and shot each other for 3 hours this morning in our chapel, definitely the highlight of the week and one of the funnest things that I have done here on the mission, legendary. Yes we all got hit pretty hard with marshmallows; in the face, the eyes, the ears the....... well we all shot each other up all day so it was awesome. Part of the deal was that we had to dress up as warriors if we wanted to play, so I came dressed as a space cowboy with my spurs and hat, along with my lightsaber.

I love the mission. I cannot say it enough. Yes I have fun experiences, but I have learned more about my Savior JesusChrist here on the mission than in any other place on the Earth. I am grateful for the opporotunity to repent every day and to represent Him as His missionary here on the earth, it is a humbling experience. Love all of you, have a great week, do not forget to write!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Alma 13

March 7, 2018 - BOOM, TOMA

Ok so this week was dope, we had a great week and we were able to get a lot done. As I speak there is a Peruvian Elder looking over my sholder at my monitor so we will see if his English pays off and he can understand what I am about to say, ok Elder Terrel we will see if you understand.

This week was a great week! So we found a Columbian couple a couple weeks ago ad we are now teaching them, and they are awesome, they have the best questions for us abou the Book of Mormon and God and His Plan. On Monday we went and had an appointment with them and we presented them the Book of Mormon and they both said "We need to read this book to know if what you guys teach is true, come back on Thursday and we will have read the most we can so that we can ask you mas questions." So I am realy excited for our appointment tomorrow, it is going to be bacan siiiiiiiiiii. Last week as well we met and were abe to teach a ton of new people. So down here in Chile during February is summer and everyone decides to take their vacations at the same time, so for 2 weeks all of the investigators we had were out of town so we had to spend the whole time finding new people to teach, so we have had a ton of new people! One of these new persons is Natalia. On Friday we were in a division and i was with an Elder named Elder Wattles. It was about 5 in the afternoon and I had already sweated through my shirt so we decided to go knock on a door and ask about a reference we had gotten for someone the week before. Said person did not live there, but Natalia did. She was super receptive and nice to us and she gave us a glass of juice without us asking (I think she saw the rivers of sweat on our faces and felt bad for us). But we talked with her and taught a little bit about our purpose and she was super receptive and told us to come and speak with her and her family again! Piola, pulento, bacan siiiiiiiiiiii. Overall it has been pretty awesome.

Ok so story of the week. So we were walking in the street the other day and we saw a bunch of Chileans picking on a Haitian in the street and it looked like the Hatian was having a rough time, but then all of the sudden he turns around and nails one of the Chileans in the face and laid him out on the concrete and then walked away. Needless to say, it was freaking awesome.

I love the mission, and so does my companion, he actually will finish his mission on Monday and goes home, I love you Gavilanez, I will miss you a ton big guy. It is going to be weird seeing him go, I have learned a ton from him and I am going to miss him around. But, when there is a beginning there is always an end.

Love,

Elder Tilghman

2 Nefi 19:6