February 20, 2017

I still almost fall asleep here after lunch. It kills me if we have a
lesson or have to study I'm always on the point of dying.  (After I asked him if how he was able to stay awake.  This is a kid who struggled to stay awake through four years of seminary and every single family night his entire life.  My only kid who could fall asleep at the dinner table and land his face in his plate.  Seriously.)

The sun is starting to set earlier and when the sun goes down it's
kind of cooler but it's still pretty hot during the day. I got so
burned Tuesday because I went to Viña and did straight contacts so we
were outside for about 6 hours and I forgot to put on sunscreen. But
good news I don't think I have cancer.
This week I was making some brownies and the oven was kind of weird.
But I go to check on the brownies and I crack open the door and it
bursts open and a ball of hot air came out. It burned off some arm
hair and got my eye lashes but besides that I walked away unharmed. At
least the brownies were really good.
Also a member bought us rootbeer this week so I was really happy
again. It's such a great drink.

Marlen is doing great, she's got the date for Friday. Also there is a
marriage in the chapel Friday so we're going to have to figure
something out. But she's super ready for her baptism, she likes to go
to church to learn new things. She just has to pass her interview and
then hopefully I'll send some pictures the next week.
We taught a kid Juan Pablo and he's pretty cool. I asked him what he
would change in his life and he said that he's done stuff that he's
not proud of so he wants to leave it behind. We taught him about
baptism and the gift of the holy ghost and he liked it a lot. He's
willing to get baptized, but the problem is going to be going to
church because he lives a little bit further away. But he's a cool kid
so we'll be teaching him this week.
That's pretty much what happened this week, love you guys a ton!!!

Email to his dad:
 I have a little story about Charity. We were walking around with my companion and a member had just given us a couple of ice cold melons.
And it was a pretty hot day so we were looking forward to eating them.
We passed by a guy and we started to talk to him and it was pretty apparent that he didn't want anything to do with us. But I felt like I should give him my melon so I gave him my melon and we walked away.
That was about a month or two ago and about a week ago we saw the same guy but we didn't recognize him. He saw us and said hi to us and shook our hands and everything like we were old friends and I was super confused. Then he said the melon was really good and I remembered that it was the guy that we gave the melon to. The guy probably isn't going to get baptized, but a little act of charity made it so he has a good image of the Church and the missionaries in the future. Little acts of service and charity can change the perspective of somebody.
Love you too dad!! Have a good week!

February 13, 2017

Hey you guys gotta send pictures! I'm forgetting what you look like!

(I told him that I got an email from Elder Ewing's mother, who has been reading Daniel's blog ) NO way!! I'm pretty sure that my trainer trained Elder Ewing too.
Elder Gonzalez? That's sweet, if it is who I'm thinking of I've talked
to him a couple times, but I've never been in his zone. He's a pretty
cool guy. I knew my blog would make me famous one day.

(Regarding Cosmo our dog, who now has arthritis and needs to lose weight) That guy is getting chunky haha. But at least he'll be slower to steal food and he'll start dropping weight. I was going to ask you about him cause I hadn't heard anything in awhile and I thought he might have died. (Wow, can't you just feel the love. . . )
Yea I'm already planning on trying and doing family history work when
I get home. There really isn't time now, but I think I can get an hour
or two a week when I get home.
I would say that I'm pretty happy. This week we had a dessert
activity. It was actually a competition and me and my companion
entered. We made some sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting to blow
the Chileans minds. They came out pretty good, but we're not going on
top chef anytime soon. We didn't even win an honorable mention in the
competition so I bet they were all pretty jealous of our cookies. But
there was a bunch of really good desserts out there. And we played
simon says so it was really funny.
A miracle we had this week was with the cousin of Maria José. Her name
is Marlen and she's known the missionaries for a while because her son
got baptized almost a year ago. But she hasn't really participated
because she has been pregnant and worked a ton. But right now she
already had her baby and she has a break to take care of the baby (I
don't remember what that's called). But anyways, she went to church
yesterday and then we passed by later in the day and we saw the
baptism of Jesus from the bible videos and she accepted to be baptized
the 25th of February. She is pretty nervous but, she wants to do it
and Maria José is going to help us a lot to help her feel ready for
the baptism. So we're going to be working with her for the baptism!
We're teaching a couple of other great people, but that's about it.
We're doing pretty good, this is the longest I've been in a sector, so
it'll be pretty tough to leave. But I still have like a month to enjoy
here.
Love you a bunch!!
Elder Cheney
P.S. Shout out to Zack Bellomo, that guy is a homie

February 6, 2017

My birthday was really cool, we had a dinnerish thing with a family
and we shared something and then they sang happy birthday and gave us
some ice cream and queque. My companion bought me some doctor pepper
and we had some sushi and completos (not all in one day, it was more
of a weekend kind of deal.
We had changes this week AAANNNNNNDDDDD we're staying here another
change. So I'll be here in Huahhuanlí 4 changes or about 6 months. I'm
pretty happy, I wanted another change here. They changed the way they
do it and now they call us Sunday in the night and then we have to
leave monday.
To celebrate the changes today this morning we made a whole mess of
french toast like Dad always makes it with the cream cheese and with
the jelly in it. It was really good and everyone liked it. Then we
played a bit of dodgeball. It was a good day, we still have to go
clean up our pension, but that's about it.
I'm doing really good, my healthy eating went to pieces this weekend,
but we're back on it today.
I hope you guys are doing really well, I love you all!
Elder Cheney