March 28, 2016

Here are a couple of comments from another email before we get to the one he sent for everybody.  I had asked Daniel if he was able to focus more on the Savior and less on candy and Easter eggs:
Turns out we still focus on eggs, a couple members gave us chocolate eggs, and a less active made us these carrot things with chocolate in them, I'll send a picture later. Oh wow I really wish I could eat some Ham and cheesy potatoes right now.

Wow, that's crazy about Heather,(a dear friend who is battling cancer) tell them I'm praying for them. I can't even imagine that. The scripture I'm going to share with you guys today is Alma 7:11-13. And I'll talk more about that in the main email, but it is a blessing to know that we always have someone to confide in that knows exactly what we're feeling, and He knows how to comfort us. 

And I'll send some pictures of food.

Also we were teaching one of our investigators and she can't get baptized because she's not married and she doesn't want to get married because she thinks marriage is pretty much slavery. And it made me pretty sad so thanks to you and Dad for not making marriage look like slavery.  So glad our marriage doesn't look like slavery ! : )

Here is the main email:

Hola everybody!!

This week was really great, especially with Easter!

To start off this week for some reason the water didn't work on Tuesday morning. But there is always an upside. The upside was we didn't have cold showers. The downside is we didn't have showers.

Turns out there are more cow skulls lying around in the street than you think, so I'm pictured with another one. This time I was brave enough to pick it up. 

This week Chile played Argentina in soccer. About an hour until the game we developed some sort of disease that made no one want to talk to us. Seriously, if we tried to talk to anyone they would say "the game!" and run to their house. We didn't have too much success haha. 

For Easter the Ward Mission Leader gave us some chocolate eggs and a less active gave us this foam carrot filled with candy, so it was pretty awesome. 

If you guys could keep praying for Marta that would be great because she is having troubles going to church, something always happens and she's not able to go. Also pray for my Spanish. 

This week we have been talking to a lot of people about the Atonement of Jesus Christ (because of Easter). A scripture that I love is Alma 7:12. Scriptures are more powerful when you read the out loud so I want you to read this out loud:

"And He will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people;  and he will take upon him (Your Name)'s infirmities (pains, trials, afflictions)  so that his bowels will be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor (Your Name), according to the infirmities (pains, trials, afflictions) of (Your Name)."

I know that Jesus Christ suffered for each one of us. He suffered so that He can help us. He knows your trials, challenges, and pains perfectly. He knows you perfectly. I know that if we accept Him and His Atonement we can receive help and strength to bear our trials. Put your trust in Him and He will help you.

Bueno, hope you guys are all doing well, I'm praying for you!

Love,

Elder Cheney

March 21, 2016

So this week wasn´t anything too exciting, but there's some good stories all the same.

First, there is a picture of my hand with cuts on it. There is a reason. Our can opener is not very effective and as a result if you want to open a can you have to suffer a little. But there is always tuna inside to reward you. There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere. 

Next, our zone leaders made these scones things with manjar on them. The actual scones were pretty burnt, but they were covered in manjar, which is pretty much carmel, and powdered sugar so they were pretty good. There is a picture with the chef, Elder Benitez from Paraguay.

Then there is a picture of me with a giant cactus. It does not have any significance, it's just a really tall cactus.

Finally we had a really good luch with the familia Severino, which is pictured. They made us these little pizza things that were super good and of course like a pound of rice and some chicken. It was a pretty great day. During this lunch there was some bread, but it was on the other side of Elder Gonzalez. So I had to get him to pass it to me. But I tried to be real smooth and point to it with my eyes. He thought I was pointing to his salad, so he started eating a little faster. So I pointed again. He ate a little faster. And I did that like three times until he was inhaling the salad and I had to ask him with words to pass the bread. 

Actually, not finally, we have an investigator named Marta that is really great. She has desires to follow Jesus so if you guys could pray for her that would be awesome! And pray for us to find new people to teach!

This week we have new cards that we are passing out for Easter and the Semana Santa. They have a picture of Jesus and a link to a video. The video is only 2 minutes long and its super awesome, everyone should go watch it right now with your family. If you want to watch it in Spanish go to siguelo.mormon.org or in English it's something like followhim.mormon.org but my Mom can fix that. (That is actually the right website!) But go watch it!!! 

Other than that hope you guys are all well and everything is good!

Love, 

Elder Cheney

March 14, 2016

In a separate email he commented about Dustin's prom pics, and the answer to the riddle he sent a couple emails ago:  "Tell Dustin he is too precious, and the answer is 50 because the monkeys stole them."

And here is his regular email!

¿Cómo estamos?

This week went pretty well! Got some funny stories and what not and there were spiritual experiences so that's all you can ask for I guess. 

To start off I want you guys to send me some recipes because I'm getting sick of cereal and tuna. It's great but a little old. And the catch is that I have a blender and a microwave to work with. So let's see what you got.

First, there's a funny saying in Chile when it's cold. It's "Hace helado." Which pretty much means it's making ice cream. Just thought you guys should know that and next time it's cold say "it's making ice cream."

So I know that bus drivers aren't always the best and sometimes we can be a little critical, but the bus drivers here literally have no regard for their own lives, or anyone inside the bus. It's kind of like the bus ride in Harry Potter 3 (I think). That's the best way to put it. It's a different experience every single time, but always interesting. 

Also this week we did an exchange of companions for a day because my companion had to go to Viña (which is not Olmué). I was with Elder Beard, who has been on his mission for 6 weeks longer than me. It was pretty funny because we kind of walked around and talked to people but we don´t have a lot of experience so it was interesting to not have a  Latino to fall back on. Overall it went well and we didn't ruin anything, so it was a success. 

Every night we're supposed to be back in our house at 9:30 sharp. We were talking to some people and lost track of time and it was like 9:20 so we started booking it back. We ran like 2 km all the way back. Also we passed by these people that we had promised to drop off The Family: A Proclamation to the World. So we stopped super quick threw it at them and kept running. Even with that we made it!

There should be a picture of this giant tarantula that we saw when we were walking. There's no story but it was just chilling on the road. And it was big. 

This week we watched a video from Elder David A. Bednar. In the video one of the points he talked about was praying with faith. He said "If we pray for something and then we are hesitant to act or don't act at all, that was a pray of belief, not faith." I thought that was really cool because we can pray all we want to develop some attribute, do well on a test, or whatever thing but if we don't work towards that we aren't showing any faith. We're just asking Heavenly Father to do it for us. Faith requires action and we can ask for strength to act and do, but we need to do something. This reminds me of a saying "Pray like it all depends on God, but act like it all depends on you." That pretty much sums it up, we need to do our part and then trust God. 

Love,

Elder Cheney

 

 

March 7, 2016

This week was great! We know the area a little bit better so we have more purpose haha. We are still searching for more people to teach so pray for us, but we are getting settled in. We have a couple people that we have appointments with and I`ll let you guys know how that goes.

So everyone knows the song an icecream truck plays when it goes around a neighborhood right? Well Olmuè has the gas can truck. It drives around playing the exact same song as an icecream truck but it sells cans of gas haha. The first time I heard it I was so pumped to get some icecream. It was a big let down haha. 

I was going to send pictures but I don`t have an adaptor. I`ll have to send them next week. Anyways I found my go to food from now on. It`s a sandwich with avocado, cheese, and tuna. It is seriously the best thing ever. Everyone needs to go make one right now. 

Another food that we had this week was Pastel de Choclo, which is pretty much mashed corn with some hidden gems. It kind of looks like cornbread but inside there is a hunk of chicken, bone and all, just hanging out. But the thing that you have to watch out for are the olives. There are just full size olives chilling in there and they are strong. Over all it was a pretty enjoyable experience though haha. 

If you can`t notice a theme yet there is a lot of food in this email. We went to a member`s house for lunch and we had lunch like normal and everything and I was pretty full. Then she brings out a giant watermelon. She gives me a quarter of this watermelon and I have to eat the whole thing. It is definitely top 5 hardest things I have done in my life for sure. I was so full after that I could barely walk. 

Besides all the food this week it was actually spiritual too haha. I scripture that I read that I love is Alma 38:5. It says, "As much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and in your troubles, and your afflictions." I know that everyone has challenges and trials in their life. I also know that God can help us through these challenges. He is there waiting for us to put our trust in him. Sometimes we need to humble ourselves and put our trust in God to help us. Then we can be delivered from whatever we are facing, or maybe we will be helped though the adversity, but He will be there with us. 

Love you guys!

Elder Cheney

March 1, 2016

Daniel arrived in Vina del Mar!  Here is a note we got from his mission office a few days before the email from Daniel.  It is funny, especially given what Daniel told us about his arrival in the mission (see his email below : )

Dear family Cheney,

Your son has successfully arrived to the great mission Chile Viña del Mar. We are so excited to have him here with us and for the great opportunities he will have in bringing souls unto Christ.

Please accept these pictures of your son in front of the famous Flower Clock of Viña del Mar and your son with President Díaz and his beloved wife. Also included is a picture of him in front of the Valparaíso/ Viña del Mar lookout.

We hope you have a fantastic day!

Here is the letter Daniel wrote:
  
 
Hey Guys!!!

So we left for Viña tuesday. They dropped us off at this one spot and gave us a Book of Mormon and the address for the mission home and said "Good luck!" It was a little scary and we had to ask a lot of people for help with the directions and to give the Book of Mormon to someone but it turned out all right. 

 

Yikes!  So as a mom, I'm thinking, wow, that is some introduction to the city.  Good luck?!!

 

I arrived in my sector Wednesday night. I am in the Olmuè sector and the Olmuè ward. My companion is Elder Gonzalez and he is from Columbia. He's a great guy but he speaks little to no English so looks like my Spanish is going to have to improve pretty quickly. Haha it's fine though I can understand 90% of what he says so we're good. It's the rest of the Chilenos here that I'm worried about. They talk so fast haha. 

So as missionaries apparently we walk a lot. It's ok though because I stopped sweating so much, but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm dehydrated. It actually isn't that hot probably in the high 70s and maybe in the 80s around midday. We do walk just about everywhere and our sector kind of looks like a desert.

 

Also, my English is getting worse and I'm not sure if my Spanish is getting any better haha. If this keeps up I'm not sure how I'll write. 

We are both new to the sector so we arrived Wednesday night literally not knowing anybody. So we walked around met some members and other people. In 2 weeks we'll have a better set up but until then we're working to meet people and have lessons. 

The biggest thing I have noticed here is that whenever we talk to people about religion, attending church, reading the scriptures, or praying, their excuse every single time is "I'm super busy." They always say there is something going on or in a little they will have time for religion. This doesn't make any sense to me because God should be all we have time for. Our relationship with God and our Savior should be the focus point of our lives and everything else should be an appendage to that. If you really think about what it means, eternity, paying the price of right now isn't a sacrifice. So this week I want to challenge you guys to make Christ the center point of your life. 

Everything is great and I'm looking forward to working here in Olmuè! Looks like my pdays will be on Monday from here on out. Also if you guys can send me your favorite scripture or quote that you have! Much appreciated!

Love,

Elder Cheney