May 30, 2018 - Dude

Wow. 2 years have passed and it just feels like the blink of an eye. But, the work is the same so lets get right into talking about the week!

Last week was really good for us, it was a week full of lasts as well. Because I am nearing the end of my mission, there are some meetings and visits that I have the chance to participate in, and becuase our mission is so small, I get to go back and say goodbye to all of my beloved people on the mission during these last couple of weeks! Last week as well was great because we got to have a couple of interesting lessons. A few weeks ago Elder Tanner and I contacted this mans house and his son came out and started to talk to us, so we kept listening and ended up sharing the Gospel with him and then last week we went by and started to teach him and his sister as well. Everytime we go by their house, they always have different questions for us about the Church and the doctrine of Christ, and it has been awesome to testify of the power of the Book of Mormon. All of the doubts and questions that we may have about God, the Church, Joseph Smith and any other thing can be answered if we read, ponder and pray about the Book of Mormon. God has given us the way to recieve answers to our questions, so why would we not recieve answers and read the book? Read the Book of Mormon! As well, Maribel has been progressing great these last few weeks! She has come to every Sunday at church, read, prayed and done all that we have asked her, and who would have guessed, she knows that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true! Shocker, I know. But she is doing great, really progressing and living the commandments, she is not going to make her baptismal date due to some personal matters that she has to attend to, but that is not stopping her or desanimating her, she is chugging along and loves it all. The mission is full of miracles that I have seen not only in my own life, but in the lives of others as well. 

Sad news. During my time down here in the Chile Santiago South Mission, we have had a mission dog that has lived at the mission office and has always been there to greet us during conferences, meetings or any other thing that brings us to the office. His name is Dude. Now, I do not really like dogs, but Dude was one of a kind, he literally was mans best friend, and everytime I saw him he ran up to me and licked my hand and nuzzled his noze into my leg, but that all changed on Monday. Just as I am ending my mission, Dude had to end his and due to health reasons was put down Monday night, I was sad to see him go. Love you buddy.

Alright since this is my last email from the mission I decided I would give my testimony. It has been a journey! I am grateful for the mission and the experiences that I have had, the people I have met, the ways that the Atonement has changed me, but I am most grateful for the way that I could come to know my Savior. That is the most wonderful gift and memory that I take home with me, the knowledge that He lives! I am grateful that God sent His Son. I know and testify that Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world in the Garden of Getsamani, going down to the lowest pits of suffering and agony in order to lift us up and grant us life on high. He is the Prince of Peace, King of Kings and Lord of Lords! I love Him and all he has done for me, and that is the most precious gift that anyone has given to me. 

Love you all, thank you for everything, see you soon.

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Mormon 7:7

May 23, 2018 - Young Love

Hey everybody how are you doing? I know my mom is super excited for me to come home, even her email title she wrote me today was called, tick tock tick tock, dont get too trunky mom, there is still work to do! This week was awesome as well, Elder Tanner and I are having a great time together, we are killing it in our sector and the Elders from the zone are killin it as well. And on top of all of that, last night we found a place in our sector that sells mexican tacos, and last night was the first time that I had eaten mexican food in almost 2 years and it was so good! So you could say this last week was pretty dope. 

Alright so lets talk about the people! This last week was really awesome for us during our Spanish class. So every week Elder Tanner and I give a spanish class to a group of Haitians so that they can learn more spanish and get better established here in Chile. In our class this week we invited the 5 students that came to come to church on Sunday and participate in the classes at church. So us of course being great missionaries forgot all about the Haitians we had invited to come to church... whoops. As we start church we are sittig in class and all 5 of them show up to the classes at church and they all stayed for sacrament meeting and they all loved it and they all said they want to come back and a ouple of them said they wanted to get baptized! The situation could not get any better, we are super happy right now. On top of all of that stuff that happened last week, we also had a great experience on Sunday. We went to go visit this family that we had a found a few weeks back and their son was the only one home but he let us come inside and share with him on his patio. We decided we needed to talk about the Book of Mormon and the testimony of Jesus Christ that we get as we read, study and pray to God to know if the book is true. At the end of our lesson our investigator looked at us and asked us when we could come back and talk with the rest of his family, teach about the book of mormon and help them to be baptized! I have no idea what we are doing to have the priveladge to teach so mamny humble people ready to accept the Gospel, but I love it!

Funny story of the week. There is a yojung man in our ward named Sebastian whose birthday was on Sunday, and we went over to talk with him and coordinate some visits that he is going to do with us this week. While we were there he was not paying attention to us at all, he was on his phone with a awestruck complexion and a smile smeared on his face. We finally asked him what was happening, and he said he was talking to his crush over text messages, and he explained us his plan to win her over. And on top of that, he cancelled on us and our plans this week so that he could go and win over his soon to be girlfriend. Gosh dang it. 

I love the mission. I am grateful to my Savior for everything he has given me, everything he has taught me, and the peace and happiness that come from Him. Here on the mission I ahve come to know Him not only as my Savior and Redeemer and older Brother, but I have come to know him as a Friend. He suffered for us, he knows the way and he provides the light in order for us to find our way in this oftentimes dark world. He is the best Friend we could ask for. I hope you all have a great week, take care!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

3 Nefi 27

May 16, 2018 - Yeehaw

Hey everyone how are you all doing?! I hope all of you moms had a great Mothers Day, thank you so much for what you do and all of your sacrifices! This past week was really good, and we have entered into winter, so it is now cold and gets dark really early during the day! Two weeks ago I was sweating buckets in the street and now I am wrapped up in a sweater, jacket, scarf, gloves and two pairs of socks. I do not like the cold.

Ok so lets start with the people. This last week was great! Church on Sunday was really good. So last week I did not get to talk too much about the new fammilies that we have taught, and they are awesome. Last week we found Maria and her fmaily. Maria is a less active sister in the ward who has not been to church for years because she is sick and injured and cannot move very easily, but we found her one day going by and knocking on doors. She invited us in and was super happy to see us, and we went in her house and taught her and her famliy a lesson about the Gospel. She has a daughter named Maribel who is not a member of the church and she LOVED the lesson and she asked us to come by and continue to teach her. So, we taught them again and on Sunday Maria, Maribel, and the two little kids of the family, Alejandro and Madeline went to church with us! They loved it! The members were very friendly to them and treated them amazing, Alejandro and Madeline have some Primary songs memorized, and Maribel wants to be baptized on June 2! Miracles are real. Elder Tanner and I are super excited to see their progress and the ward is super excited to have them! Last week as well we found another family to teach, their names are Carolina, Fabian and their son Santiago. They are super young, love to learn about English, love to learn about God and they gave us some fruit right when we walked in so I was super happy right from the beginning! We also taught them the Restoration of the Gospel, and Fabian even turned off his Colo Colo soccer game to listen to us which in and of itself was a huge miracle! Last week was pretty heavenly, it was full of miracles.

Now its email title time. Last night my companion and I were walking back in the freezing cold weather, super dark outside, no one out, so cold that we can see the smog hanging in the air. We walk by a little plaza and a playground and the strangest sight comes around the back of the slide. A drunk 50 year old man rides by on a little kid bike and wearing a giant bright pink cowboy hat all while he desperately tries to hold on to his bottle of beer and his ribbon decorated handle bars at the same time. He looked over at us and yelled "Hey! You guys STILL out here walking around at this time?"

"Yeah!" we replied

" (Curses loudly in Chilean and lights a doobie)"

Overall the mission is going great, I am blessed to be here and learn and grow everyday in what the Lord would have me do and be. Every experience, espiritual or ridiculous, has helped me to recognize the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the healing power it brings into the family and into the lives of people. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman 

Helaman 10; 1-5

Elder Scott and Elder Tilghman birthday boys

May 9, 2018 - Fight Night

Hey everyone so this last week was not too different of a week, just spending another week out on the mission working! On Sunday we had a ton of people at church which was awesome, we are hoping to keep it like that! We found 3 new families to teach last week and they are all super receptive and want to learn more about the Gospel! And on Sunday we saw two giant fights in the street and in one of the fights a lady took out a 2 by 4 and started to smack this guy up the face with it! So all is normal in Santiago! Love you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Alma 46

May 2, 2018 - Lazarus

Alright so we have to start off this email with the weirdest experience that has happened to me yet on the mission, which is saying alot since I have been two years in the Santiago Ghetto.

So Yesterday me and my companion and chilling and eating some barbeque with some investigators that had invited us to their house for lunch. So all piola right, and then all of the sudden we got a call from two other Elders in our zone and the call went something like this:

"Tilghman"

"Yes Vargas"

"Hey so some lady just called us, her brother died, and she wants us to go in her house and resurrect him."

"....... yeah we will be over there in 20 minutes."

So we went to the other Elders sector and got there so that they could explain us better the situation that was going on. Turns out the Lady who called was a less active sister who was at her brothers funeral and she felt prompted to call the missionaries so that they came to her house and sang hymns to her family and if so prompted by the Spirit we could revive her dead brother. First we went in the 4 of us to the house and saw the casket and the dead body, we told the sister we would sing and then see if she wanted us to do anything else. She then looked at us and told us it was ok, we did not have to resurrect her brother, we just had to sing so that his soul could return peacefully back to God. Long story short, we sang for an hour in this house to the less active sister, her son, and her dead brother laying in the casket. All of the other funeral guests were out back smoking, drinking and having a barbeque and listening to rap music because "This is how we respect the dead". In the middle of us singing Amazing Grace, a little kid ran up and licked my companions hand front to back, and then people started swearing at each other. As we were leaving the weirdest funeral of all time, I went to go take a look at the dead guy in the coffin to see what he looked like. He must have been a super gangster becuase they dressed him up in gold chains, a blue Addidas jacket and a soccer jersey from his favorite team.

It was so weird.

I love the mission I have learned so much from my experience and from my time as everyday I have the chance to grow closer to the Lord. I love you all and hope you have a great week, write me while you still can!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

1 John 3:18