December 11, 2017

This week I went on vacation to a place called Salamanca. Just kidding it wasn't really a vacation I left friday morning to do companion exchanges with Elder Ccarita from Peru. It was pretty fun. It's really hot there, I think I got two shades darker.

While we were there we taught a lady named Ruth. She has parkinsons but she sat to listen to us and we shared the message of the Restoration. She loved it, she was actually tearing up by the end. She said she really wanted to know for herself. She had actually been praying that God would help her out so that she could find the truth. She's very humble so it was awesome to be able to teach her. 

Then saturday we had what is called a Capilla Abierta (Open Chapel?) The whole zone was there and pretty much what happened was that we open the chapel put up some stands and give tours and talk about basic stuff like the restoration, baptism, the plan of salvation, etc. I was in the room with the baptismal font and me and Elder Navarro spoke about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was pretty fun, a couple people came in off the street, but it's a pretty small town so we had a good turnout. 

Actually to get ready for the Capilla Abierta we went to a radio station and we announced it. It was pretty cool, the first time I've ever been on the radio haha.  Then we went to church in Salamanca on Sunday because we were there pretty late saturday. We finally got back to Los Vilos at like 7 yesterday and it was like coming home. 

After we got back we were able to teach Tamara. She has a cousing Damari and they are going to get baptized soonish. We just have to confirm the dates, but their Grandma is awesome and brings all of her grandchildren to church. So maybe they'll get baptized the 23rd, right before christmas. But this week we'll make sure of that. 

This week I was reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and there's an interesting phrase "exception of persons." It says that God doesn't make an exception of persons or in other words that everyone is equal to God. But if we are not obedient to God we can lose out on many blessings. In Alma 28:13

 it says "And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression..." So if we don't know the commandments and we don't keep them, unknowingly we will lose many blessings, that's why in verse 14 it says 

"And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life." We have the responsability to share the Gospel with everyone so that they can have the same blessings, and those blessings only come through obedience to the ordinances of the Gospel and the commandments. 

Love you guys a lot!!!!!

Elder Cheney