Graduations, Leaving Laos and Merry Christmas

The inflatable Christmas tree

Parent note:

With the ending of their English classes and their impending move back to Thailand, the Elders spent all of their time with the members and didn’t have time to E-mail. Elder Cheney did send some pictures of Graduations, a trip with the members that he and Elder Saunders rode their bikes to, as well as some time bowling and other activities with the members. I will also attach the URL to a video they made, saying good-bye to their Lao friends.

Here are the pictures he sent this week in place of his email.

Fried Frog provided by the English class 

Elder Saunders at the Member activity

A gift from a class member

Riding with Elder Saunders to the Branch Activity

Elder Cheney at the Branch Activity

Here is the link to their video saying good-bye. You will have to copy it into another window.

https://youtu.be/XAOJgmNfSfs

Please keep in mind the missionaries have served VERY differently in Laos, following the direction to "show" of Christ since they can't "teach" of Christ in this Communist country. So please, no comments judging the video. (They are not swimming - it's the members with one of the other missionary's camera.) No black name tags, they use white nametages in Laos. 
They have loved teaching English every day to government-selected groups (hospitals, deaf children school) using all sorts of techniques. Elder Cheney has especially loved teaching the deaf children. 

Sad News

There is a lot going on today and I don’t have a lot of time to email so I am sending these audio recordings that explain what is going on. 

Excerpts from audio files:

12/15

There has been a lot of stuff going on today.

I have been out in the field exactly one year today.

The Elders in Lao got some pretty rough news today. I emailed last week about the property that the Church bought. It was one of the only properties available to buy because most people don’t want to sell to Christians. It made it really hard but we found a place where we could have a church and then it turned out they made a rule that there couldn’t be any churches in the area where we bought the building so our church can’t be a church. Now it’s just a random house that the Church owns. So that has been pretty rough news, just because it’s going to take a while to find a new spot. It’s a pretty hard time for the members and for everyone.

Last day with the deaf kids.

And then, today, we got some even worse news.

So, when we come here to Lao, we get Visas to be here through the Lao government, through what is called an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which basically tells the government that Deseret International Charities will donate this much money, will build this many bathrooms, will build this many water tanks, teach this much English, and in return the Lao government will give us Visas to be here. So those MOUs need to be renewed every two years and the Senior Missionary, Elder Carter, has been working really hard to renew those; to write new drafts of this MOU and send it in and it keeps getting shut down. They won’t accept our MOU that we write out and we’ll go back and he’ll write a new one, maybe increasing the amount of English we’ll teach or the number of bathrooms DIC will build, things like that. Then he will send it back in, and Elder Carter has written about 35 drafts of this. Keep in mind that this is about a 30 page document. So, it’s a lot of writing. So far it’s been shut down on all fronts.

So today, we got the bad news that by the end of the year all of the Elders will be leaving Lao. Most likely it will be this next week that we will all leave because we have been finishing up all of our classes and there is nothing else going on. We need to be out by the end of the year. The only way we could stay past the end of the year would be on tourist visas and we would not be allowed to teach or do any service. So it would be really unfruitful to leave the Elders here in Lao when we don’t have a church and we don’t have any English to teach.

This has been a rough thing for us. We kind of knew this was a possibility but we never thought it would happen. We never thought it would be this bad. We don’t know all the details yet but two of us are leaving tomorrow because two Elders are finishing their missions early so they can be home for Christmas so two of us will go out and replace them and the other four of us will be out of here on the 22^nd or 23^rd.

It’s been a really sad morning. The thing that is the most terrible about it is that the members here in Lao are the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life. When people become Christian here in Laos they face a lot of adversity. They kind of get pushed to the bottom of society. It becomes hard for them to find work, their family disowns them. Tons of bad things happen to these members. Because of that, they have some of the most amazing faith that I have ever seen in my life. There have been members who have the roofs stolen off of their houses, members who have been kicked out on to the street, lost their jobs, all sorts of things have happened. Just because they have decided to become Christian. Now, at this time when we haven’t had a church, it’s been way hard for them, not being able to go to church. They’re still facing this same adversity but they’re not around the people that help strengthen them up. I’m just way worried about all of these members. The church building isn’t going their way and we don’t know how long that’s going to take and now the Elders are leaving and I’m just worried that the members are going to feel that they are being abandoned.

All of the members here are the most amazing people and I’m really saddened by the fact that I’m going to be leaving them this soon. I’m really saddened that there aren’t going to be any missionaries here to get to experience these members and their faith.

It’s been a really rough morning for all of the Elders as we got the news and had to go out and tell the members. There’re just a lot of people here in Laos that are just special people. They are truly the elect, and the people that God needs, to build the church here in Lao. I’m just really sad to be leaving them way sooner than I planned on.

Going back into Thailand is going to be hard but it has benefits. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from the members here that I can take back to the members in Thailand and help strengthen their faith. Also I can devote myself to fulltime missionary work which will be really nice. I’m going to miss it here. We had a lot of things planned. Such as spending Christmas with the members. I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be here for Christmas unless we can really talk President Johnson into it. I don’t know, Elder Saunders’ and my Visas expire on the 27^th and everyone else’s expire on the 31^st except for Elder Blocker who’s expires on the 17^th. So he’s most likely going to be one of the two who’s going down tomorrow. I don’t know, the transfer isn’t until the 29^th this month but from what I’m hearing we’re all going to be moving out a bit before that. So, that’s what’s going on. I don’t know how much time I’ll have for email on p-day. We’re just trying to set up as much with the members as we can. So that might cut out p-day and everything.

12/17

So we had a bit of an update today.

Everyone is still going out of Lao but we’re on a little bit different schedule. Elder Blocker’s visa expired on the 17^th, which is today, so we just got back from dropping him off at the bus station. So he’s going back to Thailand.  He’s going to be serving in Bangkok for the rest of the transfer. As for the rest of us, we will all be able to stay here until the end of the transfer.  The day of transfer is the 29^th but Elder Saunders and my Visas expire on the 27^th so we will have to leave a little bit earlier on the 26th.  So we’ll be able to have Christmas here and enjoy that and then we’ll be leaving.  So we all get a little more time here and we’re happy that we get to spend Christmas here and get to enjoy that.

For the rest of today we are going to visit a lot of members.

So that is the update.

--Elder Cheney

Hmong Festival

This week was another week of teaching English. Nothing too exciting. We ended up spending a lot of time with the deaf kids. Other than that, brother Meeno, the one I talked about a few weeks ago, left back to Australia to go to school again, so we said good bye to him. 

Elder Saunders and Elder Smith-Driggs went to a different part of Laos for some DIC (Deseret International Charities) business. They were visiting schools and presenting bathrooms that DIC constructed. They had a good time, but it left us a little short of teachers all week. 

Since we did culture week I have found myself a lot more similar to a Lao person. I don't really use the AC anymore and I eat a lot more Lao food now, it is kind of funny.

Today we went to a Hmong festival. Hmong are a mountain tribe up here in Laos. They have their own language and culture and everything. So we went to that and it was a lot of fun. The main attraction at this festival is a game you play where you throw a ball back and forth underhand. There is really no point to the game except to talk to people and get to know them. Everyone at the Hmong festival was dressed up in really nice traditional clothing. It was a pretty fun day and we got to learn some new culture stuff. 

Our investigators are still doing good. We call them and they are all still reading there scriptures and praying every day. They are just waiting for a church building.

We are trying to do as much as we can here for the members while we wait for our building. The government makes it really hard. We can't really teach people or even share spiritual thoughts in people’s homes for fear of getting in trouble. Sometimes we can, when everyone in the house is a member. We have been starting to see that toll take place on the members. We got the church deed this week but now the government sent us a letter saying that we couldn't have a church there because it is too close to a university. This was way sad news to get because we thought we would be having meetings there this Sunday, I had to just go home and read the scriptures for an hour or so to get over it. So now we are back to a stage of not knowing when we will have a building. It is a little frustrating but I am sure when we do get a church it will be great and the member’s faith will eventually be strengthened because of this trying time.  

Well that is all for today

-- Elder Cheney

ฉะนั้น, หากเจ้ามีความปรารถนาจะรับใช้พระผู้เป็นเจ้า เจ้าก็ได้รับเรียกมายังงาน
เอ็ลเดอร์ ชีนีย์


ແລະ ຈົ່ງເບິ່ງ, ຂ້າພະເຈົ້າບອກພວກທ່ານເຖິງເລື່ອງເຫລົ່ານີ້ເພື່ອພວກທ່ານຈະຮຽນຮູ້ກ່ຽວກັບປັນຍາ ເພື່ອພວກທ່ານຈະຮຽນຮູ້ວ່າ ເມື່ອພວກທ່ານຮັບໃຊ້ເພື່ອນມະນຸດດ້ວຍກັນ ພວກທ່ານກໍຮັບໃຊ້ພຣະເຈົ້າຂອງພວກທ່ານນັ້ນເອງ
ແອວເດີ ຈີນີ

Zone Conference, Teaching English

This week was another great week. We taught a lot of English, like usual. Other than that, not much else happened. It was a pretty uneventful week.  Last Sunday we went to church in Nongkhai (a city in Thailand). That was good. We are still not completely sure when we are going to have a church, but it could be as soon as this Sunday. Things are looking good in that regard.

One good thing from this week, that was awesome, was we were able to teach some investigators over the phone. Our investigator, Brother Don is still reading in the scriptures, and last time I talked to him before I called him this week, I gave him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ over the phone this week and he understood the Gospel so clearly already, it was amazing. We barley had to teach anything. We also were able to introduce and commit him to keep it, so that is good. He will probably be ready to get baptized the first week we have church.

Our other investigator, Sister Tawn, Is still reading and praying every day, but she asked her parents for the 4^th time if she could be Christian and they again said no. So she is at an awkward spot where she is 18, and old enough to make her own decisions, but she wants to move forward with the support of her family. She feels prompted that she just needs to wait, to keep praying and reading every day for a while and then a path will be opened for her. I feel it is a good decision for now. We will see what happens with that.

Last Friday and Saturday, we went over to Thailand for Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun. It was Christmas themed, so that was a lot of fun. We were going to email on Friday but it ended up taking us several hours to cross the border and we ended up not having time.

Sunday, we went to church in Nongkhai. It was amazing. A bunch of members came and we had a great meeting. It was Fast Sunday and it was a great meeting, filled with the spirit. 

That is all for this week. 

--Elder Cheney

ฉะนั้น, หากเจ้ามีความปรารถนาจะรับใช้พระผู้เป็นเจ้า เจ้าก็ได้รับเรียกมายังงาน
เอ็ลเดอร์ ชีนีย์

ແລະ ຈົ່ງເບິ່ງ, ຂ້າພະເຈົ້າບອກພວກທ່ານເຖິງເລື່ອງເຫລົ່ານີ້ເພື່ອພວກທ່ານຈະຮຽນຮູ້ກ່ຽວກັບປັນຍາ ເພື່ອພວກທ່ານຈະຮຽນຮູ້ວ່າ ເມື່ອພວກທ່ານຮັບໃຊ້ເພື່ອນມະນຸດດ້ວຍກັນ ພວກທ່ານກໍຮັບໃຊ້ພຣະເຈົ້າຂອງພວກທ່ານນັ້ນເອງ
ແອວເດີ ຈີນີ