04-19-10

Sorry, this is going to be really short today. We are in Punta Arenas for zone conference and interviews. We had to take a three hour bus ride this morning and we are still feeling a little bus sick. My companion, Elder Sanford, threw up! We are going to be here in Punta Arenas until tomorrow night. Then we go back to ¨the hole.¨ It is nice to see other missionaries again, because it is a foreign experience for Elder Sanford and I.

This week went really great. Antonio is doing well. He is getting too busy with work, but he is still doing good. His mom is warming up a bit, she actually prayed about Joseph Smith the other day and said that she felt an answer. But then she says that she is never going to change from being Catholic! Crazy!

There is another Antonio, I can´t remember if I told you about him and his family, but they are amazing. We taught them the best two lessons this week, and they are reading the Book of Mormon as a family after lunch and really understand things so well. They are so cool to teach, and to think that the first time that we knocked his door he didn´t want to talk to us at all. And now they are all praying about the Book of Mormon. It is Antonio and his wife Elizabeth and their 25 year old daughter Karen. They are soo cool!

It is getting really cold here, we have to sleep in many clothes and we have a natural gas heater in the house that works pretty decently, but soon it will be getting so much colder and so much darker here. I guess there isn´t much sunlight in the winter down here. Oh no!

Más fotos

Brian served with this elder for a day on
an intercambio, when they exchanged companions.

Elder Sanford, I believe

Elder Brian Sheahan

Elder Sanford and Elder Sheahan getting pumped up to go out :)

04-12-10

I am doing fantastic. This week just flew by. At first, it was going really slow. We knocked doors and tried so hard at the beginning of the week with little success. But later in the week, we were able to teach more lessons.

One of our investigators is really progressing, and he is sooo cool. His name is Antonio, and he is 29. He comes from a Catholic family, but the family only goes to church once a year or so. Anyways, the first time we met with him he was just so ready to listen to the gospel. He really has been having a harder time in his life lately he says. This last week we taught him three times and we were able to teach him the restoration, watch the DVD of the restoration, and share with him the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is so amazing, because he is reading in the Book of Mormon and he and his mom came to church yesterday! He said that he really liked church. He says that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We have invited him to be baptized, but he said no. We are pretty sure he would have said yes if his mom hadn´t been there. Her name is Silvia. She is Catholic and doesn´t want to change. She listens every time, but says that she doesn´t want to change and never will. The hard thing is that she just doesn´t have a desire to change right now. Pray for them!

The other Antonio is good, but we haven´t been able to teach them this week, which is sad. He left town on business. We have an appointment with his family tomorrow. We did see his family in the street the other day and they were really happy and excited to see us. :)

So yesterday, we were knocking doors with a brother from the ward, Brother Santana. But anyways we knocked on this door and this little old lady opened up. She was about 4 feet tall, and probably about 80 years old. We asked her if we could share a message with her, and she beckoned us in and said, "Oh, you want to converse.". She led us to this little empty room and then shut the door. She was a little cuckoo, so we explained to her that we wanted to talk with her. And she was pretty crazy, and kinda of out of reality. I asked her how many kids she had, and she said that she couldn´t remember. And then she said, pointing at my companion and then at me, "You must be the son of the English, and (to me) you must be the son of the marine." It was pretty funny, she thought that we were her sons. Sadly she really couldn´t make much conversation, and so we gave her some free laminas of Jesus Christ and left real quick.

The Tender Mercies of the Lord

04-05-10

I hope that you all enjoyed Easter and General Conference. We stayed here to watch conference instead of traveling to Punta Arenas, which is three hours away. We weren´t able to see priesthood session because they don´t broadcast it live on the internet. And Sunday morning we only saw the last talk because of some technical difficulties with the internet. It finally got fixed, but we ended up having to move to another room where the internet was better. So what I saw of conference, I loved. I am really looking forward to the magazine though, so I can read what I didn´t get to hear.

What I loved is how most of conference was focused on how to protect and strengthen our families. It was sooo cool to hear all the prophet's and apostles talks. One talk that I really liked was about how we need to make good judgments and the steps that we need to take to do that.

Things with Elder Sanford and I are going great. We are working hard, and we have found some really cool people. We are hoping to invite them all to baptism this week.

One man that we found this last week is named Antonio. The first time we knocked on his door, he was pretty contentious and didn´t want to listen to us. But then we talked to him a bit about his family and then shared with him the thirty-second version of the restoration. He agreed to let us come by another day for 15 minutes.

So we went by the other day and we taught him and his wife, Elizabeth, about the restoration, and it was amazing. They understood so well and at the end, they said that they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon that night. We are going back to teach them tomorrow, so we will find out how it went. Antonio was really active in the Catholic church for the majority of his life, he even helped out with the youth program there. But then something happened with him not agreeing with a bad choice that a priest made, and they got in an argument and he stopped going to that church.

It was just such a good feeling to see someone excited to hear about the restoration and understand it all. Please keep Antonio and Elizabeth in your prayers.

Well, I hope that everything is amazing for all of you. It isn´t horribly cold here yet, but it is getting colder each week and it gets darker earlier and earlier. I think it will start getting pretty cold in a month or so. I don´t think that it gets that much colder than it does in Montana, the only thing is that I haven´t ever had to walk around all day during the winter before.

Love,
Elder Brian Sheahan (the no-named elder, because no one here wants to risk mispronouncing my name, or they don´t know how. I know how it is Scott.)

03-29-10

Torres de Paines

Sorry that I don´t have a ton of time to write today, but things are going really great. It is getting colder here, and in the winter it will be way cold. I am serving in a city that is three hours from Punta Arenas, it is called Puerto Natales, and because we are three hours away from the zone, we never go to zone or district meetings, so we are a little alone out here. There are about 22-25 thousand people who live here. Our sector is huge! It is surrounded by mountains and also the sea. It is really pretty. You should google the Torres de Paines. We are really close to these amazing mountains that have some great towers jetting out from them. They are really famous, so there are tons of tourists here. We are hoping that one preparation day, we can go see the torres of paines. We'll see.

My companion, Elder Sanford, is from Paul, Idaho, I think. Mom, the one from Uncle Neal's ward came with me in my group to Chile. Elder Sanford is great and we get along well. He is really funny, and is a great guy.

The only thing that is hard here is the amount of work to be done. We don't have any investigators right now and the branch here has over 500 less actives. The attendance at church yesterday was about 35.

One cool thing that happened this week is that we met a tourist here named James. He is 18 and from England. Right now he is traveling alone through South America, for about 4 months. So anyways we talked to him in the street on Saturday and invited him to church on Sunday, and he eagerly came. It turns out that he has a really good friend who's Mormon. He was actually meeting with the missionaries in England about 2 months ago before he left, and said that he went to church a few times there. And so he came to church with us before he had to leave to go to another city, but he was a really nice guy and he really enjoyed coming to church with us. He left after sacrament meeting to get ready to continue on in his trip. The cool thing is how we ran into him and got to talk to him, answer his questions, and invite him to church. It is interesting how the Lord puts people in our path.

03-22-10

1st of all, guess where I'm going?

To the bottom of the world, to a city called Punta Reinas. It is the city that is the furthest south in all of the world and in my mission. And I get to go there for winter! I heard it is cold! There are penguins there! I also heard that it is really pretty. I take a plane from a city called Puerto Montt on Wednesday. My sector is called Puerto Natales, and it is far away from the city to the east, so I will only be going to district/zone meetings on the days that I have intercambios. My new companion´s name is Elder Sanford. He has a cambio or two more than me in the mission and he is from Idaho. I am excited to meet him.

This week went by very quickly. Brenda is doing well. She came with us to the district conference that the branch went to by bus. That was cool, but she finally told us that she doesn't believe much in Jesus Christ. She is beginning to understand more about the church, but now she needs to understand why she needs Jesus Christ and gain faith in him. She is doing great other than that, but she waited a while to tell us that. We always go and teach her with members, so sometimes we think that maybe she likes the church just because of the social aspect, but we´ll find out more. We are going to teach her tomorrow.

Paola is doing not as well. She still doesn't want to come to church, but we are still meeting with her. She is putting the visits farther and farther apart. She understands sooo well, but the Lord will keep working with her heart. Hopefully she can come to church this week and then to general conference the next week. She is such a great person too, so keep her in your prayers.

I am excited for general conference. I think I will have to travel by bus or something to see it from my new sector.

03-15-10

This week went by really quickly. Sadly, Paola told us this week that she doesn't want to get baptized. She doesn't want to get baptized now for a few reasons. Mainly it is because that she doesn't want to go to church every week. She doesn't want to make that commitment. Paola loves to play soccer on Sunday and visit her family that lives out in the country. She also talked to her parents about the church, who really confused her with a lot of things they've heard about the church that aren't true.

Our other investigator, Brenda, is doing really well. She came to church again for all 3 hours this Sunday. She is still working on her testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ, but she is doing well. The great thing is that she has lots of questions and listens when we teach.

We had a cool district activity this week about the pioneers. It was so cool to see the Chilean members all dressed up like pioneers. The did a really good job with their costumes. We did a little mini pioneer trek up in the mountains here. And they had a program to remember the pioneers. I played the flute for two songs.

I personally can´t believe how fast the time is passing. I can´t believe that I already have 7 months in my mission. I feel so lucky to be a missionary. I was thinking about my life this week, and all that the Lord has given me. One thing that I really am grateful for is the testimony that He has given me of the truth of these things. About the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and everything. I know that the church is true with all my heart. I can´t even begin to tell you how much I value the feelings and answers that the Lord has given me about this church, His church. It means everything to me. It means that our family can be together forever through sealings in the temple. It means that I can be free of sin and have the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life and be soo happy in every moment. I just know with all my heart that our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, appeared to a young man named Joseph Smith to restore Their church.

Más fotos

¡Felices Pascuas!

03-08-10

I am doing very, very well. Here in San Pablo we're working really hard. We had five people come to church this Sunday.

We're teaching a lady named Paola. She's about 38 years old, and is a single mother. She has a son named Fabian who is 7 and will turn 8 in a month. She is doing so well and doesn't have anything that is keeping her from getting baptized, only nerves. She understands really well and is so smart, and she always reads more than we give her in the Book of Mormon. She has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. Her baptism date is the 3rd of April, the Saturday of General Conference. It might move up a bit, because she might wait to get baptized when her son turns 8 later in April. She is sooo cool. Keep her in your prayers. The biggest thing keeping her from getting baptized is keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She loves playing soccer and plays in a league on Sundays. We are talking to her about it, but it is something that will be hard for her to give up. But the blessings that come from joining the church are immeasurably greater than the enjoyment she gets from playing soccer. She really understands the apostasy, and the need for a restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ. She has a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. And the thing is is that she really wants the gift of the Holy Ghost in her life and a remission of her sins. She is amazing. We have been teaching her for about 2 weeks.

We are teaching a lady named Brenda, 33, who is also a single mother with a son. Her son is 4 years old. She came to church this Sunday, and she stayed for all 3 hours, which was a surprise. Brenda is still working on her testimony. She has a baptism date for the 10th of April, so let's pray for her and her testimony!

Elder Salguera and I are getting along very well. He teaches so well, and I'm learning a ton from him. I can't believe that we only have 2.5 weeks left together. It is sad. These six weeks are just flying by.

One thing that is funny is that some people here keep saying that they feel little aftershocks. They have happened, but nothing very noticeable here. And one sister at church got people thinking that they felt one during the last hour of church, but there was nothing. The people are a little crazy about the earthquakes. This one sister keeps telling me that she has felt aftershocks like every day, sometimes more than once a day. They're funny.

One thing that I am really learning about the the Holy Ghost is that it works a lot though our thoughts and actions. If we pray for the Holy Ghost and live worthy of its guidance, God will send us thoughts to answer our prayers. Then we have to act on the thoughts He gives us. At the same time we have our agency, and so sometimes it is only when we act on the inspiration the Holy Ghost gives us that He answers our prayers. Like when I'm not doing all I can do, like when I am praying for miracles for our investigators, if I am not studying for them, being 100 percent obedient, preparing a lesson for them, etc. etc., my prayers won't be answered. But after I have done all that I can, then God can let miracles happen. It's something I have seen with learning Spanish, I asked for the gift of tongues, and then I had to study and pray and try with all of my heart. Then after time and study and lots of effort, God has helped me learn this language at an unbelievable pace. He will always magnify us and help us, and a lot of times He just wants us to use our agency and act. And then in the end after our efforts He will bless us or inspire us to know how to change and improve. Then it is our turn to act again. And again. The power lies in our agency, our obedience, and our action. That is what allows God to bless us.

03-01-10

Hope that all of you are doing well. I am doing great.

So about the earthquake, haha. I guess it was like a 5 or 6 here where I am. The epicenter was in Conception, which is north of us. It was a 9 there, which is big. The day before we had intercambios with the zone leaders, and I stayed here in San Pablo with one of them. It was sooo hot and sunny this day, and we walked and taught all the day long. When we got back to the house we were dead tired. When I got to bed I was exhausted beyond belief.

At about 4 AM, I remember waking up, in a half awake state. My bed was rocking back and forth a lot, and the thought that went through my mind was, oh, must be an earthquake, but it will just be a little one and it will stop soon. And with my bed rocking back and forth, I fell back asleep for 1 or two minutes, I guess. The earthquake here lasted like 2 minutes, and I woke up again for the last 5 seconds of it. Which when I was conscious felt like I was riding my bed through the ocean. And then it stopped, and I woke up my zone leader, and he had slept though all of it. And then we went back to bed.

The only thing that I have to say is that I sleep like a rock in the mission. I sleep very deeply. Where I am at, only a few of the highways got damaged. And none of the buildings. We didn´t have electricity for half of the day, but it returned at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. The only thing that happened here is that things fell of the walls or off the shelves, that's all. Today there was another problem with the electricity, but it was fixed.

I was a little worried about Scott, when I saw all of the damage in Santiago and heard that people had died. But I knew that he would be okay. Like Whitney said in her email to me, the Lord protects His missionaries.

There was a young couple, my mission leader and his wife that went to get sealed in the temple this week in Santiago. They called me yesterday to tell me that they were fine and that they had seen Scott at the Temple. They said he and I are just alike.

Well, the members of the church here better realized the need to be prepared for disasters like this. Some were prepared and others not. It just goes to show that we really do need food storage and supplies in times like these.

Hope that you all are having fun and doing well. Get prepared with food storage and such!

02-27-10

I am just writing you to let you know that I am safe and sound from the earthquakes here in Chile. My mission president wanted all of us to write our families to let them know. From all the news here there is quite a bit of destruction, but all more north of me.

I hope that Scott is okay, he is in Santiago where they had an 8.3 earthquake. He should be protected though, as a missionary. Here where I am at it was a 5. I was sleeping very deeply and woke up with my bed rocking back and forth. From when I woke up it only lasted for like 20 seconds, it wasn´t much here thankfully. Only a few of the highways here got damaged.

02-22-10

My email just got destroyed again, which was weird, the program just quit by itself, ;(. The computers here in the south aren’t that good, and especially in a little town like San Pablo. I'll write next week!

02-15-10

Happy Valentine´s Day yesterday! Hope you all had a great day.

This week went by quick, and Wednesday I met my new companion, Elder Salguera. He is really cool and we get along great. He is from Nicaragua, and he really works hard.

One thing that I have really realized this week is that it's always great to seek improvement, but not perfection. The thing is is that honestly a lot of times before I wanted to be perfect, and I was picking and thinking about everything that I wanted to change and improve. But that's not the way to do it. We can never become perfect in this life at anything. And so I am really learning to seek improvement in things, but not to stress myself out when I make mistakes.

Another thing I have realized is that how we need to focus on others if we truly want to be happy. Always thinking about yourself really ends up bringing you down. What I am saying is that Jesus Christ never once put himself before other people. He was always serving others. As He was completing the Atonement, He thought of every single one of us, and he suffered individually for every single one of us. I am learning that as we focus our thoughts more on others, we are happier. I was thinking too much about how I wanted to improve, and not thinking enough about the people I'm serving. I am starting to study every day for at least half of my study time for the people we are teaching, and that's helping me be much happier.

This week we will have the baptism of Fernando. He is eight years old and so amazing. His mom is not an active member of the church, and we are working with her too. She came to church this week with him. Her name is Marcela. Please keep her in your prayers. Fernando is such a good kid and he's funny too. He remembers everything that we teach him, which is nice because many adults can´t do that. He is so happy and doing great.

02-08-10

I am going to be staying in San Pablo this transfer, and I am getting a companion from El Salvador. Apparently he is a huge dude, like a giant Tongan. I don´t know his name because my companion forgot it. But transfers are Wednesday. I´ll tell you more about him next week.

Elder Munoz is going to Valdivia to open a sector. It will be sad to see him go, he is a great missionary and I liked serving with him a lot.

I want to write you all so much more, but my companion has to pack his bags, which is going to take a while, and we have to finish it today. So I will write more next week.

02-01-10

We are traveling today, on a trip for the zone, so while the zone leaders are sending some forms in, I'm typing you an email. We are going to see some cool sights. That’s all I know.

This week went really well. We found some amazing people to work with. We’re teaching a little boy named Fernando. We call him Fernandito, it means little Fernando. He is eight and is going to get baptized this February. His aunt is a member. He is so funny. I like teaching him. Yesterday we asked him about Joseph Smith and he asked us which one, because there is a cartoon he knows called Joseph Smith too. Julio is doing really well, he’s going to a professional to get help. He hasn´t drunk again, and so if he's doing well in two months he can get baptized. And this week Claudia, an investigator, she got her answer about the Book of Mormon!!!! It is so cool, she has been praying for a while now, and she said that she has felt a difference in her life since she started meeting with us. And the other day when she was praying about the Book of Mormon, she said that she had an amazing feeling of happiness and a really warm, uplifting sensation that she knew was from God. I don´t know exactly what her sensation was, but she really and truly was praying to know if it is of God. She has been reading the Book of Mormon with the women from church here during the week. We are still working with her, hopefully she will accept a baptismal date this week. We are meeting with her tonight.

Things are going amazing here. I taught Sunday School again yesterday, and it went so well. I taught about how Cain fell and about agency. It went so well. It is cool to teach Sunday School, we switch off every week. It is interesting to see how Cain was the son of Adam, a prophet. He obviously was raised in the truth and yet he had his agency. He chose to follow Satan, even when he could talk directly with the Lord. I talked about when Cain had to make a sacrifice, but he decided not to do what the Lord had asked- he gave a sacrifice of fruit instead of a sacrifice of the first of his flock. But we talked about how we sometimes do that too. The Lord has given us commandments, but sometimes we don´t obey and we think it is okay to do less than what He has asked. And that this is what Satan wants. And like Cain, when we trick ourselves into thinking it's okay to not keep a commandment 100%, we are going to fall and be miserable like he was. It’s interesting, you probably had the same lesson yesterday.

I want to write more, but we are leaving!!!

PS Next week there are changes! I think I'll stay here in San Pablo.

Inspiration

01-25-10

My companion´s name is Elder Freddy Munoz from Santiago, Chile. He has been on his mission for ten months. He was originally called to go to Venezuela, but he had to serve in the Santiago West Mission for seven months because there were problems with his visa and paperwork. And finally the country wouldn´t let him in and so the church sent him here to the Osorno Chile Mission permanently. We get along really well, and we sure work hard. On Sunday nights we are exhausted and all we ever want to do on preparation day is sleep. He is the district leader here and he does a great job. I like speaking Spanish all the time, it sure helps to have a native companion.

I am getting plenty to eat here, actually this week I completed trying pretty much one of each of the candies here that look good to me. I wanted to do that, and now I am eating healthier. But my momita makes the most amazing soup and homemade bread. We have great lunches here!

I am living in one of the prettiest places on Earth. You would not believe how many rivers with blue water there are. It is just so green and amazing here. San Pablo is a small town. Probably 4,000 people. But the craziest thing is that they have the hugest plaza in the center of town. With a fountain, tons of trees, a place to have shows, and to top it off they are building a building bigger than most buildings in Missoula for the government of this little town. The people of Chile sure use their taxes for building things. In our branch, there are about 30 people that come regularly.

Elder Munoz and I are teaching two people that are interested. A man that we are helping overcome his addiction to alcohol, and a single mom and her son. They are progressing, but Julio, the drunk, is still working on getting over alcohol. He is going to get professional help. The other day he said the prayer in our lesson, and he asked so sincerely for help with overcoming his addiction to alcohol. He said, ¨Heavenly Father, please help me, I am trying to be Mormon, and trying to give up alcohol. He hadn´t drunk for a while, but then a week ago he fell into it again. But now this week he is going to start working with a professional. He can´t remember too much because he has drunk his whole life, it has ruined him, but he really wants to change. It was so sad to see him the day that he started drinking again. But now he is doing better. The mom and her son are still working on their testimonies. She just needs to read and pray more.

Nicole, to answer your question about how my faith has grown in the past five months, I think that it has grown the most from being obedient. You should read a talk called “But If Not.” It is great. I am just being 100% obedient, so that I am ensured to have the blessings that Heavenly Father wants to give me. That is how I have learned to speak Spanish as quickly as I have. He wants to bless us, and if we are obedient He will bless us. In 3 Nephi chapter 27, it says that everything we ask for will be answered. I know that is true, we just have to be patient and obedient. Patience is the key. I really feel that Heavenly Father wants to give us so much, and will if we believe that He will and are obedient to His commandments.

01-18-10

Here are a couple of excerpts from Brian's e-mail last week:

I am doing fantastic. This week we had intercambios (exchanges) with members of our district, because my companion is our District Leader. I stayed here in our sector, and my companion went to another city. I got to serve with Elder Piereson from Provo, Utah, for a day. He is just starting his mission and has been in Chile for two weeks. We worked really hard and had a great day, I wish that I could tell you about it all.

San Pablo is cool. I taught Sunday School last Sunday, which went well. Elder Munoz and I also did a special musical number. He sang and I played the flute for “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” Next week I will tell you more about San Pablo and all.

01-11-10

I think I lost my email and I only have 30 seconds left. So I love you all soooo much, soorry, I´ll write a ton more next week. I am doing amazing, and I hope all you are too.

01-05-10

Hello. I am doing so wonderful. San Pablo is gorgeous. Wow, Valdivia was ugly compared to this. San Pablo isn´t that big, probably like 5,000 people. In the center there is this huge plaza with a fountain. And so many big trees, like a little park in the center of town.

Well, today, for preparation day, we moved. We had to move today because well the lady we are renting from needs her house, and she advised the missionaries weeks ago. SO we moved to a nice, little new house in the new part of town here. We rent from members. Man it was hard work moving all of the furniture…the church owns all the furniture for the missionaries. Crazy! It took all day. But now it is time to do missionary work.

The members here are amazing. I will tell you more next week. My companion is crazy nice and we get along very, very well. He is cool too, Elder Munoz. Remind me to tell you a story next week, a good one!

I am learning so much about myself, what a blessing it is to be a missionary. For example, today I could have had a bad attitude because we basically didn´t have a preparation day this week, and we moved furniture into a truck and packed all day. But I am fine. Attitude is everything. You gotta love life, even the hard days. ;)