Laos

Well, I have made it to my P day and Laos. It is has been a long week. The move was intense. We flew over. It was a nice one hour flight that made me aware of the amount of stuff I am picking up. Both my bags were barely under 50 pounds. So I have gained some stuff while I have been in Thailand. Other than that travel, we had one time where they called security on me and Elder Saunders for over staying our Thai visas. Turns out he just misread our passports. So that was scary. Then, when we came into Lao, we had a little problem getting our visas but it is all worked out now. 

So I am now in Laos. It is really interesting. I am no longer Elder Cheney, the missionary; I am Drew Cheney, the English teacher. It is really a huge change. Laos is a communist country so they have a lot of rules that prevent us from sharing the gospel. So we serve. We do a lot of English teaching. I love teaching English. It is really fun but it is not the same as being able to share the gospel with others. I miss being able to introduce myself as Elder Cheney. We have a lot of fun with our English Classes but we cannot talk about the gospel unless we are asked a direct question about it. 

Honestly, the adjustment has been really hard. I was so sad when I stood in front of my first English class and had to introduce myself as Drew Cheney. Also not being able to share the gospel made me really sad too, I have just found so much happiness from being able to share the gospel and now that I can’t share it with everyone it is a hard thing. 

I feel a lot better about things and I feel like I have gotten guidance about what I am here to do. I am only the 23rd missionary into Laos so we are doing a lot of foundation laying, little by little. 

As far as the language, I am speaking Laotian now. It is hard! When I came in a few days ago it felt like my first few days in Thailand. I think the hardest part is going from a second language were I felt pretty competent into a third language where I am pretty bad. The longer I have been here, the better it has gotten though. So hopefully I will pick it back up pretty fast. 

My new companion is Elder Morley. He has been here for 7 months so he came here the same time I came into Thailand. He has about 3 months left on his mission. He is really good at ping pong, or so I have heard. So, he is awesome and we get along pretty well. We are actually sort of in a Trio where my other companion is Elder Smith-Driggs. He is super awesome and fun as well. I say ‘sort of’ because he is listed in our companionship but he just bounces around everywhere that he is needed. So, yeah, there are five of us up here in Laos right now. So the other two are Elder Saunders who came in when I did, and Elder Magill. So I am in Vientiane which is the capital of Laos, and coming from Bangkok I was expecting the capital to be pretty big, but it is not really that way. It is small and reminds me more of when I was back in Sunsai. 

Another fun thing from this week has been the deaf kids. They are also super cool. We teach them and hang out with them several times a week. So I am also learning Lao Sign Language as well (way less useful than ASL, but that is what they know). 

Next week should be interesting and also kind of boring. I will write more about it next week but I think we will have to stay inside our house all week. 

P.S. That is a real active tank in the pictures!

-- Elder Cheney

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