BUENAS TARDES FAMILIA Y AMIGOS

Hola Familia,

   Well, first off congrats to my brother and new sister for getting married.  It was great to see that everything went well and they were sealed for time and all eternity.  Everything is going well here in Tarija, my new area is huge.  The house we live in is free.  The members that own it pay for everything, light, water, everything.  It even has "The Missionaries House" written out front with scriptures and stuff.  It's pretty awesome!

   This week I read a quote in the Liahona that said some things that we learn from the restoration of the gospel/ Joseph Smith's vision.  One of them was that where there is light, darkness flees.  And I loved thinking about that for a while.  That the only way to get rid of darkness is to put light where the darkness was.  It's the same with us.  Whenever we feel like we are in darkness and we don't feel like there is much light around us, we have to find our source of light to make that darkness flee.  The mission for me has been my source of light.  It has helped me push away the dark things and trade it for light.  I know that our Heavenly Father is always willing to help us find that light.  We just have to show him we need it by praying.  I love you guys so much.  I hope that this week you can trade the darkness in your lives for light.

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-Elder Cheshire

NEW AREA, NEW LIFE

Well, I got transferred to another area.  About 7 minutes in Taxi from my other area.  But to be honest, my dream came true.  I was hoping that I could stay here in Tarija.  My new companion is Elder Melgar, if you heard that all of my latino companions that I've had in the mission are from Lima, Perú, you wouldn't be surprised that this one is too.  But Elder Melgar is hilarious and even though we've only been together for one day, I can already tell that we're going to get along super well.  He just barely finished his training so I'm with a newby.  But he works hard which I was hoping for. 
   Not too much happened this week with all the transfers and everything so I don't really have a cool story to tell you guys but I was reading a talk by Brad Wilcox, an institute teacher at BYU that makes a comparison of Grace, with piano lessons.  He says that when a mom pays for piano lessons for her child, she doesn't expect that her kid pays her back with money, she only expects to be payed back with the blessing of seeing her child progress.  And the way the child pays back their parents, is by practicing. 
   This is a very clear example of how we are with our Heavenly Father.  He doesn't expect us to pay back everything, because his Son, our Savior, already did it.  The only way we pay him back is by doing our best, keeping the commandments, and practicing.  I'm so grateful that the price has already been payed, because I, as an  imperfect being, with all of my efforts, will never be able to pay back even a fraction of what has already been payed.  I love you guys and I'm so grateful for your support.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you, He loves all His children.  

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-Elder Cheshire

STRESSFUL WEEK:)

Stressful, but very rewarding.  Luis-Javier was an investigator that first started listening to the missionaries with my other companion and his companion before I came here.  But he was SET on getting baptized on his wife's birthday.  So I've been teaching him for a while.  He should have been a member months ago, but he wanted to wait.  But this week we passed by his house (a few days before his baptism) and they had moved.  And they wouldn't answer their phone.  It turns out they had lost it in one of the boxes during the move.  I was pretty frustrated that all of this was happening because we didn't even know where he moved to.  I was really upset, even a little frustrated with the Lord that he let this happen.  As I was praying in the night time, A thought came to my head saying, "Everything will be okay, I promise you."  I went to bed and when I woke up, it came to my mind again, I prayed and began to pray for this moment that I was lacking faith.

   We called all of his family and they told us more or less where he moved to.  We then decided to call him again and he answered apologizing for everything and told us to come over to talk.  We taught him the rest of the lessons he needed.  Friday he had his interview, Saturday he got baptized, and yesterday he was confirmed member.

   I was reading today a quote in the Ensign that says,  "Even though sin separates us from God, our weaknesses help us get closer to him."  My weakness that I've been working on is patience and this little test of faith really helped me practice my patience, yes, but more than anything come closer to my Heavenly Father."  I hope every one of you can apply this this week.  I promise that you will see the difference in perspective.  I love you all, have a great week!

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-Elder Cheshire

BUENAS TARDES A TODOS

5/29/2017


Well, this week was full of tons of delicious food, including on the menu:

-Cow intestine

-Cow head

Now I don't know about you guys but I didn't even know that there was meat to be found in the head of a cow that isn't brain.  But it exists and it's weird.  But it's actually not too bad.  Although the cow intestine was a little bit harder to make go down.  Definitely a lot more chewy.  Now before you all get grossed out, I'll change the subject.:)

  This week was pretty normal, I don't have too much to share, but this next week we have a baptism for Luis-Javier.  The husband of a member that we finally are going to baptize.  He wanted to get baptized but he wanted to wait until his wife's birthday to do it and it's on June 3rd luckily ( a Saturday)  But I did want to share a scripture that I read in my study this morning in Alma 28:14 that says:

 14 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.

As I read it, it really hit me how true this really is.  There are so many hard things in the mission, but the good things ALWAYS make you forget about the bad.  The same is life outside of the mission.  As we learn to look for the blessings we have (reasons to rejoice) we learn to focus less on the sorrow (sickness, doubts, challenges).  I know that this gospel is what heals us.  

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-Elder Cheshire