Why do I need the Savior?

Well hi there. I know, it’s been ages. I’m not really sure why. Maybe I just haven’t really known what to write about, but I have my institute class to thank for this one! Institute is legit now. I mean, it was legit before, but I LOVE what they’ve done with the program. You don’t just show up to class, put your name on the roll, take a nap, and get credit for it anymore. You have to go to class, do all the reading, and take a test or write a paper or something like that, and then you get credit. It gets you involved and I learned so much more this semester than I have before.

Anyway, one of the essay questions for my class (Christ and the Everlasting Gospel – amazing class all about the Savior and His eternal ministry) asked, “Why do I need the Savior?” I thought this was a particularly appropriate question as the Christmas season approaches and we’re reflecting on and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to ponder this question for yourself. Why do you need the Savior? Share your response in the comments if you want! Merry Christmas everyone!

Why do I need the Savior?

I honestly feel like I could never do this question justice, as my understanding of my need for the Savior has only just scratched the surface, I’m sure. As incomplete as my understanding is, I do have a strong testimony of the Savior’s essential role in our Heavenly Father’s plan for His children. I know that without a Savior the plan would not have worked or been possible. The only way for us to progress was to leave the presence of our Heavenly Parents and learn by our own experience the good from the evil. The only way for us to truly become like them and achieve immortality and eternal life was to come to earth, receive a body, and as Paul says “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). This ultimately meant we would make mistakes. Sometimes we would not choose the right or be obedient, and according to the laws of justice that disqualified us from returning to the presence of our Heavenly Parents. Thus we were stuck. The only way to progress was to learn for ourselves, which meant making mistakes, which meant we couldn’t return to our heavenly home. A Mediator, a Redeemer, a Savior, someone who could satisfy the demands of justice was absolutely essential (Alma 34:16; Mosiah 15:9).

I will forever be grateful to Adam and Eve for their courage and faith to take the step into mortality. While they could have enjoyed the peace and comfort of the Garden of Eden forever, they decided that having a family, passing through trials and eventually death, and gaining knowledge and experience were more important. After the fall Eve said, “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (Moses 5:11).

And so we inherit the consequences that Adam and Eve faced. We receive a fallen, mortal body, subject to pain, weakness, temptation, and death. Yet we also inherit the same blessings as our first parents. We have the opportunity to use our agency to learn for ourselves the difference between good and evil, and how to control a physical body. We also have the gift of a Savior who makes it possible to overcome the pain, weakness, temptation, and death we all face. Because of the Savior’s “great and last sacrifice” all shall rise from the dead and receive immortality (Alma 34:9-16; Alma 40:5). This is a gift, free to all who come to the earth, that allows us to keep our bodies for eternity, which bodies are necessary to become like our Heavenly Father. But the Savior’s Atonement enables us to achieve much more than just immortality. It provides the necessary opportunity and power to learn, progress, and exchange our weaknesses for strengths. It allows us to “learn from [our] experience without being condemned by it” (Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for All, April 2004). It allows us to be cleansed for those mistakes that we have moved forward from and done all we can to correct. It gives us the opportunity to inherit eternal life.

My favorite talk on the Atonement is Brad Wilcox’s “His Grace Is Sufficient”. Truly, no matter how good we are in this life, no matter how righteous or obedient, we could never merit eternal life. It simply cannot be earned by our good works alone. Only the grace of Christ allows us to inherit eternal life. Yet, He still requires us to be righteous and obedient, have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end, meaning have faith, repent, take the Sacrament, receive and keep additional ordinances and covenants, and follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost for the rest of our mortal lives and I’m sure on to eternity. Why put forth so much effort, if in the end our effort doesn’t get us there anyway? Because eternal life is about so much more than us having done something while in mortality. It is entirely about us being something. Being godlike. “The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can live more abundantly (see John 10:10). The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed (see Romans 8). Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God (see Alma 40:26), but, brothers and sisters, no unchanged thing will even want to.... The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there” (Brad Wilcox, His Grace Is Sufficient, July 2011).

Why do I need the Savior? Because I want to go home and I want to feel at home there. I want to be with my Heavenly Parents and my Savior and I want to be like them. I want to be changed. I want to bring them joy and experience that eternal joy as well. Without a Savior none of these dreams would be realized. I have made my share of mistakes and experienced my share of trials and disappointments, with many more to come I’m sure. Without a Savior I would be lost, hopeless, and without motivation to become more than I am. But because I have a Savior He has made those bitter moments sweet. He has helped me to learn from mistakes and overcome weaknesses, turning them into strengths.  He has comforted me and lifted me out of sorrow to the sweet peace only He can provide. He has given me hope, which hope maketh an anchor to my soul (Ether 12:4). And He will continue helping me to become all that He knows I can be.

Sketch by David Bowman.

Dog Eats Rat

Hola fam!

Holy calor. I´ve never sweat so much in my life! Which I´m sure you all wanted to know. ;) I hope you´re enjoying your pseudo-winter!! Enjoy it while you can!!!

The other night we woke up to the biggest lightning/rain/hail storm of my life. There was literally lightning every second, but you couldn´t hear the thunder because it sounded like our roof was being pelted with baseballs! I like the storms here. :)

So this week we have a new investigator named Nestor. He´s a reference of the familia Costa in our little branch and he is SO ready to receive the Gospel. We had a super good noche de hogar with him at the Costa´s on Saturday, and we didn´t even have to invite him to church - he told us he was coming! Missionary work is SO much more effective when we work with the members. Invite your friends to activities and to learn more!!

Alright, this week it was dog eats rat, haha. We were at Norma´s having a lesson and we look over and her dog is chewing on what is left of a rat! Hna Chesler starts screaming and puts her feet up on her chair. Norma is chasing the dog around trying to get the rat. And this time I´m the one laughing. Something funny with an animal is always bound to happen at Norma´s. :)

I´ve been thinking about HOPE lately and what that really means. Because of this Gospel, I have a PERFECT hope that I am going to live with my Heavenly Father, my Savior, and my family FOREVER. I have no doubt that if I continue to be faithful, that is going to happen. No matter what happens in my life, nothing can take that hope away, unless I choose to stop living the Gospel. That hope means EVERYTHING to me. I can´t imagine life without it. Life would have no purpose, no meaning. From that hope springs the most profound joy and peace, no matter what is happening. There are so many people living without that hope, but this Gospel is one of HOPE!! Share it! Learn more about it! The joy from doing so is indescribable.

¡¡¡OS AMO!!!

Hna Chipman

Cathedral in Bahía - makes me think of Spain!!

Yeah, we had ice cream delivered... :D

1 kilo of ice cream coming right up!

Amigas in church! Maria Paz normally isn´t that pale... haha :P

Dog eats rat :)

Dog Eats Bird

Happy Monday familia!!!

FELIZ CUMPLE DADDY-O!!! One year older, and maybe wiser too. ;) Chiste. You´re a pretty wise old man!! And now you´re twice my age!! Crazy! Love ya daddy-o. :D

We did some servicio this week!! We almost never get opportunities to serve here, so we were pretty stoked. We cleaned this little abuelita´s house. I have never been in a house so dirty, but she can´t really move around that well and all her family is in Buenos Aires, so she can´t really help it. Poor thing. I think her neighbors bring her things to eat. And now her house is squeaky clean! :) There´s actually a lot of people here like that. Lots of people work caring for abuelos whose family isn´t around. It´s sad. But we just keep visiting the little abuelitos to read and sing to them. They love it. Sometimes all people want is for someone else to notice them and listen for awhile.

So we saw a lot of random things this week... 

First, we were at lunch with a member and the husband busted out his accordian to play for us! SO tight. I loved it.

Second, cat fight (literally) of the year. Mariana and Macarena got new little kittens and they brought them out to show us. Well, they aren´t quite used to the dogs they have yet and they started freaking out. One was clinging to the front of me. Mariana has the other one, which is freaking out, and she´s trying to pull the one off of me while the dogs are barking and trying to sniff the cats. It was a scene straight from a movie. Hna Chesler and I were laughing so hard.

Third, just walking down the street and there is this dog chewing on an entire bird. Not on the ground or anything, just hanging from its mouth, wing flapping around. Gracias Argentina, haha. You´re welcome for not taking a photo of that one (only because I didn´t have my camera...). ;) The dogs here...

Also, we saw lots of little miracles this week, like finding investigators we´ve been looking all over for randomly in the streets, or knocking on just the right door and just the right time. Heavenly Father is guiding His work and making it all possible! He works miracles in your lives everyday. Pay attention to the little tender mercies He extends to you each day. I promise they are there! He is so anxious to bless you and He is doing it ALL the time!!!

I love you all!! Have a fantastic week!

Hna Chipman

´Murica! :)

Macarena y Mariana with their momma Norma, and the other little chica
that Mac wanted in every single picture, haha

Mariana y Macarena! They are so good

He just wants to come out and play! ;)
(and eat you!?)

Lunch with Hna Parreño! We´re all twins. Presh.

Bahía!

The new and improved trash can.

Does somebody need a hug??

LA FALDA

Hello there fam!!! I hope you all are just swell and loving life, cause life is pretty great. :)

Yesterday we had real traslados (transfers), buuuuuttt nothing happened. Hna Chelser and I are still in La Falda. Wooooo!!! I´m excited. La Falda is definitely different than MdP. Our area is a lot smaller and the branch here is teeny (although basically all the members just happen to be on vacation this month), but it´s great! We love it. And the people here are all wonderful. And eating lunch at President´s house every week is pretty cool too... ;)

This week the hot turned on. Like the real hot. We had the nice sea breeze in MdP. Yeah, not here haha. I´ve never been so sweaty in my life! Not even as a lifeguard!! But we love it. It´s more funny than anything else. We did have a nice downpour this week tho. We were in the middle of a lesson with an investigator named Angie when it started and she lent us her umbrella when we were leaving cause it was still going. Well, the umbrella was only kind of keeping us dry so we found shelter underneath a porch. Two minutes later the door opens and someone runs out and the guy that lives there invited us in to keep dry. His 7-year-old daughter then gave us a whole 30 minutes lesson on dinosaurs! Haha, that made my week. I could not believe how much she knew. She showed us ALL her dinosaur toys and explained every single kind to us. :)

Ok, the real highlight of the week tho were the two baptisms on Saturday!! The two daughters, Mariana and Macarena, in the little family got bapitzed. It was SO good. They just loved every bit of it and Norma was all teary. You could tell she really felt and understood how important this was for her family. We´re trying to prepare her for baptism next month. Haha, so we only had one, rather large, white dress for the baptism... We had the older one, Mariana, go first. It went all the way down to her ankles but fit ok. Then the little one, Macarena, had to put on this huge, soaking wet dress right after. Haha, she was such a good sport. We tried to roll the end of the dress up so she wouldn´t trip all over. Hna Chesler and I were trying not to laugh. Luckily, it all went ok, and the important thing is we could feel the Spirit. :)

These past couple weeks I´ve been studying about the Atonement/the Savior and my love for Him and for the people has grown immensely. His life and sacrifice for us are truly incredible. I invite you all to do the same! Take some time each day to study about Him and about what He has done for you. I promise your love will increase and your burdens will feel lighter!

Well fam, I sure do love you!! Keep smiling and saying your prayers! :)

Con mucho amor,
Hna Chipman

Haha, she´s trying to keep the papa gato from eating all the food.

View from our casa. Not too shabby. ;)

Yeah, it´s that hot...

Sorry for the lack of pics... the comp I´m using isn't letting me load some of them, like the pics of the baptism. :( I´ll try again next week!!

"Emergency" Transfers

Hoolaaaa de Bahía!!

No worries fam, there was no emergency. Just emergency transfers, which basically means they just need to do a transfer of a couple missionaries in the middle of one of our normal transfers. So I´m in La Falda now, a little branch in Bahía. We traveled here on Friday. Presidente lives in our area and we get to eat lunch with him every Wednesday. Oh yeah. :) I actually traded places with Hna Kroska, so now she is in Mar del Plata with Hna Saunders. It was good to see her for a little bit!

My new compy is Hna Chesler. She´s from West Virginia, but her fam just moved to Utah. She´s 22 and graduated from BYU-I just before she came here. She´s awesome. I love her already! We´re gonna have a blast. We´re the only missionaries in our area, which means we have the house to ourselves. It´s fun. She´s a really great missionary and I´m learning a lot from her!! :)

In other news, I actually have a washing machine now which means my clothes are finally really clean!! Haha, the simple things in life.

I´ve met a few of our investigators here. There´s a family of a mom and her two daughters that are SUPER solid. The daughters are set to get baptized this weekend and we´re praying for the mom too. Just a couple things to work out first. There´s also this 14 year old kid, Augustín, that they´ve been teaching. He hasn´t really seen the need to get baptized but yesterday we had a super good lesson with him and he´s going to really pray about it. He wants to find an answer. It was actually a miracle that we found him. They had been looking for him all week, coming by, calling. Nothing. So we decided to not go by for awhile. But yesterday his dad had seen us walking around and he rode up to us on his motorcycle and told us Augustín was home so we went by and found him!!!

The more I do this work, the more I realize it is impossible without God. You have to have His help or your will not get anywhere. We see little miracles happen all the time. We´re guided to the right place at the right time and hearts are touched, certainly not by what we say in broken Castellano, but by God Himself. I testify that this is His work. This is His truth and His Gospel in its fulness and everyone needs it. It is important for everyone because we are all God´s children and He wants us all to come home.

I love you all SO SO MUCH!!!! BESOS!!!

Hna Chipman

Linda Mar del Plata! Chao!!

Linda compy. She´s so good. Gonna miss her!

But my new compy is pretty great too. Isn´t our little rama cute? :)

Leaky roof! We had a MASSIVE rain storm yesterday. Like blizzard rain.
Luckily we made it back to our casa right before it hit.
And good thing we had some buckets!!

Meanwhile, this was happening outside. The roads just all turn to rivers in the rain.
Maybe we should invest in a raft. :P

The weekly dog picture. :)

Pioneer Dayyyys

Well hi there mi querida familia!!! I sure do love you all!!

Now, what all happened this week...

Presidente and Hna Parreño were here for interviews!! Gosh, they are just the best. I definitely know I was called to this mission just for them. I can´t wait to visit them in Spain after all this! ;)

This week we´ve mostly been trying to find people to teach, which means lots of walking and lots of talking to errybody. This always makes for funny stories though. For example, we knocked on this door looking for a contact we´d made earlier and another girl answered. I start going off in Castellano asking all sorts of questions. She responds and I did not understand what she was saying. Haha, that´s still pretty normal so I asked one of my questions again and she just looked confused. I´m like, dang it!!! I can´t even speak this language! Meanwhile Hna Saunders is thinking, ok this girl is not speaking Spanish. German maybe?? Haha, yeah that went right over my head. Eventually we got on the same page and found out she´s from Denmark and speaks English. Then we had a nice little conversation in English. :) Haha, my favorite though was we knocked on this door and about ten seconds later we see this finger poke through the letter flap and then disappear.... So what did we do?? Knock again of course! No shame. :)

I think the most exciting thing this week was the opportunity we´ve had to live like pioneers. For the majority of this week we´ve been without running water and this is common during the summer in Mar del Plata. When it´s hot out all the people go to the beach or fill up their pools or wash their cars, then they all go home and shower and there´s not enough water pressure to fill our water tanks. Since we live on the second floor, we have zero water. But down below there´s a nice little water spicket, so we just go downstairs with our buckets, fill ´em up, and take bucket showers. So fun, haha. We´re actually kind of used to it now. But we´re in the process of looking for a new apartment, on the bottom floor, with a washing machine, haha. Good times in the mission field. :)

That´s all for this week! I love you!! Make good choices and read your scriptures! :D

Con mucho amor,

Hna Chipman

Making pizza with Luci! They´re moving this week. :(

FHE night with Nico and the Riquelmes!

9 meses (months) for me compy!! :D
(explanation: her companion has been on her mission for 9 months, thus the joke)
;)

Where´s mine???

This pup comes to church erry week! :)

Gonna miss these two. SUCH a cute couple. They help us so much!

Who wants to shower?? ;)

Feliz Año!! (SIN alcohol) ;)

Hey fam bam!

Was New Years really this week? Seems like FOREVER ago! We had ourselves a fun little time, even if we couldn´t stay up until midnight (not that we even wanted to - we´re always SO tired!). We had some facturas and vino SIN alcohol. :) Haha, we were looking all over for something similar to sparkling cider and we kept having to ask all the shopkeepers for vino (wine) or cidra (cider) WITHOUT alcohol. No worries, we found it. Also, in lots of Latin countries they have this tradition where in the last 12 seconds of the year they eat 12 grapes and make 12 wishes while doing it. We just set our clocks to midnight and pretended. :) I think I only got like 7 grapes in my mouth. Next time I´ll use smaller grapes. Well, we knew when it was midnight because we heard all the fireworks going off, for hours it seems like. I remember having a dream that night with lots of guns in it...

Oh!!! It "snowed" this week!!! :D We had a massive, random hail storm. Luckily we were in centro and could easily find cover to wait it out. The weather has been super weird. It´s been cold! I was wearing boots and tights this week!! But today it´s back to good, ole hot. Looks like it´s summer after all. :)

This week I´ve been thinking a lot about commandments and what a blessing they really are. Too often we view commandments from God as restrictions or obligations that keep us from being happy, but that couldn´t be farther from the truth. Commandments are really INSTRUCTIONS FOR HAPPINESS from our loving Heavenly Father. He KNOWS what will bring us true happiness, and what will not. He´s given us the answers because He loves us and wants us to be happy more than anything. What we think will make us happy, may actually not, but if we listen to our Father and obey His commandments we can be 100 percent sure that we will always find true, lasting happiness waiting for us. With this New Year and all the New Year resolutions I invite you to make it a goal to be more obedient to the commandments. Pick a commandment that´s a little difficult for you to keep and focus more on obeying it, and I promise you will LOVE the results. :)

Love ya fam!!! You are my sunshine... besides all the sunshine we have today... ;)

Con MUCHO amor,

Hna Chipman

How we celebrated New Years - SIN alcohol. ;)

Closest thing to snow we´re gonna see!!

What happens after every rainstorm.

Santa made it to Argentina!! :D

This one is for you Dad. I found a friend for Hersh and Molls!!

2015 - one full year in the mish!

CHEERS!!

Ringing in the año nuevo. :)