10-19-09

Sorry I didn´t write too much last Preparation Day, we were in such a hurry, but we did get to do something super cool. We hiked through the forest above our city to see a waterfall! It was like nothing I´ve ever done before, I wish I could send you pictures. But it was like hiking through a rain forest, so cool, with members of the church, they used machetes.

This week has gone really well, my Preparation Day is Monday. We had Zone Conference last week, which was cool. President Lovell brings our mail with him to Zone Conference (which is every 6 weeks).

There is so much to talk about. My companion and I are getting along well, he’s cool. My Spanish is coming along, but it is still pretty tough. I am being patient- the people here talk soooo fast. It is crazy, but I can already understand much more than last week, the Lord is teaching me and helping me, and I really have felt His help here. The cool thing is that I have had experiences like Scott, like when teaching, where God really helps me speak much better Spanish than I know, and the people understand perfectly a story I tell or something, but then later after the lesson my Spanish goes back to where it was, not as good! But I have definitely felt help from Heavenly Father here. Like at Zone Conference, President Lovell taught in Spanish for over 2 hours and I understood 90 percent of it, I was able to learn all that he wanted to teach, because of help from Heavenly Father. Other times I don´t understand much, the people speak sooo fast here. But I am being patient and doing really well. It is really cool to be on a mission, an awesome experience.

A lot of the people here don´t really want to talk to us. Some people listen but they don´t keep their commitments (like being at the appointment they said they would be at), which is difficult. But I know that the Lord prepares people everywhere, and there are people here that we will meet who really are searching for the truth. I wish that I could write so much, but you can be happy knowing that I am keeping a great journal, and that you can read everything when I get back.

My momita is great, and her family is so nice. We are going to buy fresh made empanadas from her today! They are good. It hasn´t rained too much here so far. It is summer here, but the mornings still have been really cold! Very cold. But I am sleeping really well and doing great. My companion and I are working really hard and we are going to find someone amazing this week to teach about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. I am learning so much about missionary work here, and my testimony is as strong as ever, I just love this church and the happiness it brings me to know that it is true.

I am trying to think of some cool stories to tell you. We are going to clean the apartment today, because it is dirty and I am buying cleaning stuff. There was a baptism this week and two people were baptized.

One funny story is that when I got here I heard people call me a gringo, and I thought that meant a new missionary, because we call new missionaries greenies in the States. So I introduced myself like two times in the first couple days here as, I am gringo. What the word actually means is white man, or white boy. So I found that out and that is funny, I was saying, I am white man. But I only did it twice.

Pictures from the MTC

Scott sent pictures this week, but I don't think Brian is able to send pictures (at least through e-mail). So here are a couple Scott sent of the two of them.

10-12-09

Hola! ¿Como estan? I hope that all of you are doing really well. I am doing well, and now I´ll let you know how the last week has been. It has been good, hard, but good. The trip was so long, and by the time we got to Osorno I was so tired. The mission president and his wife are so nice and it was good to meet them. The first night we did a lot of orientation stuff and then we stayed the night in a hotel.

My first area is called Calle Calle, which means street street. I am in a town called Valdivia. My companion´s name is Elder Bryan Reeder, and he is from Mesa Arizona. He is soo cool and a great trainer. I am learning a lot from him. So this first week has been hard just because I can´t understand the people here. But it is getting easier. They just speak so fast, and I guess the speak the fastest Spanish in the world here, and they don´t pronounce very much, so it is really hard to understand, but mostly just because I am not used to it. But it is getting easier. We have a momita, who makes us lunch everyday and she and her family are members of the church, she also does our laundry and the church pays her for this. They are so nice. The food here is good, the bread is good, and we have eaten soup and pasta and meat this week.

So I have a cool story from the first week, from the first day. It is hard to understand people, but my first night we were tracting and I wanted to try to listen to what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. And then I just saw this guy and I felt like we should talk to him, and there were plenty of other people around. But we talked to him and it went well and he wanted to come to church with us this week, which sadly he didn´t, but a lot of people missed church because the time changed that night. But we are going to talk to him today, and hopefully it goes well. It just shows me that God really does direct us. I have had a lot of good experiences this week along with the hard ones. Some people are nice here and some are not just like in other parts of the world. But we found a family and taught them a good lesson the other day and we are going to see them again soon.

But I guess I don´t have much time today so I will write more details next week, but I am doing really well, I am learning and learning. I really like testifying of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ.

I am sad that I don´t have much time today, we are busy but I love you so much and am so thankful for you.

Love, Elder Brian Sheahan

10-08-09

We got an e-mail today from Brian's mission president, Presidente Kenneth D. Lovell, telling us that Brian arrived safely in Chile. He is serving with Elder Reeder (from Mesa, AZ) in the Calle Calle Ward in Valdivia (about an hour north and west of Osorno).

Writing Brian in Chile

I will try to post info on writing Brian in Chile next week. Have a great one! :)

09-29-09

I am doing great. Today is my last preparation day at the MTC. This time has really just flown by and I feel like I really just got here, but I have learned so much and loved it here a lot. So this week we got our flight plans, and I had a little scare. Dad, I thought that I was going to come to Florida in a month and see you. I'll explain. We got our flight plans and it said that we were going to Chile and then in November that we were taking a flight back to Miami Florida. I was really confused. Everyone in my district had this ticket back to Florida and I didn't know why. No one did. I started worrying. I was thinking, what if they needed Spanish-speaking missionaries in Florida and so they transferred us there. We couldn't figure out why we would be flying back to the US a month after we got to Chile. But then some members of my district went and asked the travel office and it turns out that it was all okay. To go to Chile we need this extra ticket. Because we don't need visas to fly to Chile, but if we are in Chile for longer than three months then we do. And so since we are staying for longer and don't have our visas yet, we have to have proof that we have a ticket out of the country within three months if we aren't able to get our visas. They just cancel the ticket once we get our visas. I was pretty scared, I guess they call it a ghost ticket or something like that. But anyways this week has been really great.

I fly out from the Salt Lake City airport on Oct 5 to Los Angeles. We go from LA to Santiago, Chile. We get to Santiago the next morning. Then we wait for a few hours and leave the Santiago airport and fly to Osorno, Chile. So the whole trip takes around 30 hours is what I have heard. I am on a different flight than Scott, I think he flies from SLC to Texas or Florida and then to Chile. But we should be in the Santiago airport waiting for him when he gets in. He gets in to Santiago while I am waiting to fly to Osorno.

Well, I want to write more, but I am running out of time.

Elder Welling and I had a great experience at the TEC this week. We have been teaching there in Spanish for the last two weeks and this week we taught a lady in Spanish. We taught her about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our simple Spanish. But the cool thing was that we really felt the love of God during the lesson. It felt great and she was touched by the message. Our Spanish was simple, but good enough, good enough to have the spirit of God there and that is what teaches the heart what truth is. It was a great experience. We still have a ton of Spanish to learn and more to learn about being missionaries, but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are with us and that is what we need. It was soo cool.

I am excited to be going to Chile! So excited and nervous at the same time. I hear that they speak very, very, very fast there.

09-22-09

A couple of excerpts from last week's e-mail:

This week has gone awesome for me. I can't believe that in two weeks I will be in Chile! I have been going to choir, and so hopefully for General Conference they will send a missionary choir! But if not that is okay, I am getting really excited for General Conference (when we get to hear from the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, the twelve apostles, and other leaders of our church). Yeah, Elder Holland (one of the twelve apostles) came last week. It was so cool! I loved it. He is such a great speaker. When he was speaking, I could really feel God’s love. I just loved hearing about his mission from him and how it meant everything to him. I just want to make mine mean everything to me. I am loving it so much so far. Spanish is still coming well, we have learned all of the tenses now and we are working on teaching the second lesson this week! It is a lot of stuff to know. But it is coming.

It isn't really like school here, because I love all of the things that I am learning, where at school that isn't always the case.

Tenga un buen dia!