Thursday, January 5, 2017

December 26, 2016 and January 3, 2017

December 26
I was just really happy I didn't cry. (After talking to us on Christmas) I didn't feel like crying at all this time so it was pretty dope. It was actually really distressing to talk to you guys, the other time just stressed me out even more. SO this call was a 7. Even though David thinks he's pretty cool, talking to everybody else was fun. There's not a whole lot else to say, but I have a whole lot of socks, (ward members gave them lots of socks) so we're doing good. I'll send some pictures that will show how our Christmas went. I have like 5 pounds of chocolate so pray for me.
 I want to share with you guys that I learned in personal study this week.
I was reading in Genesis 39. Here it is talking about Joseph after he was sold in Egypt by his brothers. He was bought by Potiphar and made his servant. Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and that everything that Joseph did prospered. When he realized that he made Joseph that master of his entire house, he entrusted everything to Joseph. Verses 4 and 5 from Genesis 39 say

4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
 5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.

So after he gave command of everything to Joseph, his house prospered and was blessed. Everything Potiphar had was blessed. Now what can we learn from this? We know that everything in the scriptures testifies of Christ and his role for us. We can learn that if we give everything that we are to Christ and let him work with us, He will bless us and make us much more than we could ever make of ourselves. We just have to trust him. A goal I set for 2017 is to choose some Christ-like attributes and work this year to develop them more. I'm going to invite everyone to do the same. Email me and tell what attributes of Christ you want to improve this year! 
Love you guys a whole lot!!
Elder Cheney






January 3
So we had changes this week and I got a new companion. His name is
Elder Eyre from good ole Draper Utah. He's been out for about 1 year
and 5 months. We're getting along pretty well, he's a really funny
guy.
We were with the Olivares family. We got there kind of late because of
a problem in a different sector but we got there and ate some tacos
and it was really fun. After we ate they brought out a million
desserts because they had divided the family up into teams (they have
7 kids) and they each made a dessert to do a competition and we were
the judges. I ate a ton of cake. We had to go at 11 to get back to the
pension and after we got all the calls that the sectors were ok I went
to bed so I didn't quite make it until midnight. I think I fell asleep
at like 11:40. So the party ended a bit early for me too.
This week was really long, with a bunch of meetings and a bunch of
buses and going back and forth from Viña. I'm pretty tired but it's
okay because we have one more training tomorrow that we have to give
and we have to wake up early. But after that we'll have a normal
change. We had a ton of changes in the zone, 7 missionaries got
changed out of the 12 that we had. Two sectors had whitewashes so they
don't really know what's going on haha.
Even though I'm really tired we were able to get a ton of work done in
these couple of days that Elder Eyre has been here. We've found a
bunch of people to teach but I'll you guys about a couple of the main
ones.
Maria José: she's the teenager that we've been working with forever.
We taught her a lesson pretty in depth about the apostasy and the
importance of the authority of God (the Priesthood). SHe understood
really well, she's really smart, and we talked about the baptism and
she committed to get baptized the 14th of January. We're going to have
to help her out to feel good with the decision and support her, but
she's super ready for it. Her main problem is that she has panic
attacks sometimes, so we're going to pray that she can feel calm with
the choice.
Denis: She's a lady that we found contacting houses and she let us
teach her at the beginning and she said only because she respected the
fact that we left our houses to preach the word of God. We talked to
her, showed her the book of Mormon, listened, and testified a lot. Her
husband works on a boat so she only sees him once every year. It's
really hard for her and she feels alone. We gave her the Book of
Mormon and promised that she'll feel the comfort that she needs and
her eyes lit up. It was awesome to see the Spirit testify of what we
were saying. At the end she said that she wants to listen to us
because she feels the need of more spirituality in her life and she
needs God. So that was a really cool lesson.
In honor of the fact that this is the most tired I've been on my
mission (it's a new record every week) I'm going to share a scripture
that president shared with us from Isaiah:
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.
I know that if we put our trust in God and keep the commandments, even
though we feel tire, weak, fatigued, that God will give us the
strength to do what he asks of us.
Love you guys a ton!
Elder Cheney





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