Elder Cheney Takes on Mexico (and Fresno)

Feliz Navidad!  Sorry not much time this week! But this week was really good! We had a ton of miracles!  We were able to meet with Kat and Neil. We actually gave their baby Ari a baby blessing with our bishop! We then extended a baptismal date and a wedding date. They are now praying to know if this is what they need to do! So please pray for them! We met with a member Sister Flores, we were able to teach her in Spanish. But her son Angel isn't baptized, she wants us to teach him and help him be baptized! We have also been doing the 12 days of Christmas for 4 families in our ward. And we have been dropping off things everyday. But let me tell you this! Some of those little kids just spy like no ones business. I hit the doorbell and booked it and they still opened the door before I got out of sight. It's super fun though! I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas! I love y'all so much! Have a great holiday. Remember the Christmas story and John 8:12, Jesus Christ is the light ...

Hola mis amigos! Hows it been? Haha sorry it's been a while! But for anyone fo you that are still following my mission story I thank you haha! It's been a crazy ride! And it doesnt stop there! So about 2 weeks ago, my comp and I were doing some work on the computers when we got a call from the President. He said he had a new assignment for me. I was like here we go again but I was excited! He told me that I was going to be opening a new area in the north of the mission but while training a new missionary! Who! Is learning spanish but we are assigned to a english area.......  Fast forward..... I picked up Elder Peine who is from Ohio. We had a great training from president, someone handed us some car keys and we got a address and 2 hours later we were at our house. Not knowing anyone, anywhere or anything. But with the grace of God we got to work. We started trying to get to know all the members. We started with the leaders and worked down.  It's been a great couple of weeks...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Hola mis queridos amigos! Oooh boy if you know me you know that I LOVE Christmas! It's the freaking best, best food, decorations, feeling, spirit! And most of all the reason why we celebrate, CHRIST!  These past few weeks have been awesome! Elder Peine and I have just been working super hard to find new people and to meet with the members and to help them. And it's even better during the Christmas season! Last year I missed the lights and weather, but this year I get it all! Yes Dad, I am cold...... even though its California. I am cold.  But anyway, cool story! We are sitting in our apartment, and we were doing companionship study when all of the sudden the missionary version of Santa shows up! The Zone leaders show up with all our packages from home. So it was a happy day! But I also got all our stuff for the 12 days of Christmas we are doing for 4 families in our area. I am just bouncing off the walls with excitement hahaha! N...

Hola mis amigos! How is everyone doing this week? Well this week was fantastic in the central valley, sunny California! This week was a quick one for me. It started off with the birthday of my favorite person ever! My MOM! Happy birthday!! I am so grateful for all the amazing things she does! I am very lucky to have a mom like her! Y'all wish you had a mom like mine!  Then we just had a great week full of visiting people and trying to stay busy during these crazy times! Especially when 4 elders in your zone get quarantined because they have covid and then your sister missionaries start getting sick! So my missionaries are dropping like flies, but we are still working hard!  We have seen some great miracles!  With Eduardo, we have been teaching him a lot. He told us he wants to have a temple marriage and he is ready to do whatever it takes to have that! He wants his family to be eternal! That was amazing! He also came to church yesterday. Did I mention that the church fina...

Que honda!?! Thought I would switch it up on y'all today! How's everyone doing this fine week? Everything this going swell here in the central valley, sunny California. We have seen many miracles and have done many things! First off, east coast beast coast. I had exchanges with the Woodward Park elders. I went with Elder Heid who is from Fort Mill South Carolina. It was super cool to get work with him. We may have even gone to In and Out....... California isn't too bad. We then saw some super cool miracles. They had no lessons planned for the afternoon. But I decided let's call your members, and we set up 2 lessons for a couple hours later. Which does not happen in this area! But the lessons went super well. Elder Heid is such a stud! We also had interviews from President and some training from the assistants. That went really well. I love president Gillespie! He is super quiet, but super awesome.  We also can now knock doors!! So we went contacting. Super cool experien...

Hola mis amigos! This week was a fast one! We had the baptism of Axel. He is such a great little kid. We had his baptism at his house cause he has a pool! It was just his family and us missionaries and the bishop. Small but super awesome. He just kept laughing and laughing as he got into the pool because it was cold and because of excitement! They also fed us Pozole after and I was a happy little Mexican missionary.  Service miracle! We had just left a lessons in were driving down the street when we passed a members house. This couple is older and the husband has health problems so the wife does all the work. We stopped and said hi! She told us how she has missed the missionaries so much and prayed for us this morning. We saw her sweeping up leaves from her sidewalk and we helped. She almost cried! What would have taken her an hour took us 5 minutes. She thanked us and said she prayed that someone would come and help her and it happened to be us!! Super cool! We have been teaching ...

Hola mis amigos! How's everyone doing this fine day? Hope everyone had a great conference week! There was so much that happened that I cant really remember what happened, but I truly just want to testify of the fact that we have prophets and apostles that live today! They love us and guide us in the way that God wants. Let God prevail. Allow his timing to happen. I have learned so much on my mission. I am so excited to share my experiences with each of you. Please if you are going through a hard time, know God loves you and I love you! If you wanna talk I am here every Monday at  Dustin.cheney@missionary.org  or if you wanna mail me a letter and we can be pen pals it's Elder Dustin Cheney, 1814 N Echo Ave, Fresno, CA 93704. But honestly God lives and loves you! Love y'all, Elder Cheney

 Dustin is doing well and wanted to share these pictures with you. He is doing a lot of work in the Church vineyards (the actual vineyards, not metaphoric : ) and has picked a zillion grapes. They are still teaching when they can, and have a baptism coming up this week. Thanks for your support!

 Long time no write!! Hola mis amigos!! Ok, so I know I am really bad at writing. I don't know what happened these past few weeks or months but it's been hard to just write a solid email. So I am so sorry to all of yall! But honestly if you are still reading my emails after 19 months I am impressed! You're the true MVP!  Well I will just give you a run down of area and what I am doing.  So I am in an area called Echo, I am one companionship of 3. We have 2 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters in this ward. That is because it is Spanish speaking, so we cover a lot more ground. But I am in the middle of the city of Fresno. My zone covers the mission offices. I am actually the zone leader over the offices and the assistants to president, so I get to see my old companion Elder Teuscher quite a bit. Oh also I don't think I mentioned that. We had transfers and my comp Elder Teuscher got called to be assistant so I have a new comp, Elder Hunter. My zone is pretty small compared...

This week I just have a bunch of pictures, some here and the rest at the blog at www.elderdustincheney.blogspot.com.   Thanks so much for supporting Dustin. Missionary work in quarantine looks very different these days!  For anyone who would like to, Dustin asked if we might pray with him at 7:30 each morning California time. The missionaries would appreciate prayers that they will be inspired in their attempts to share the Gospel in this new way of doing missionary work, and that they might be able to feel and share the joy of the Gospel and the love of our Heavenly Father with those they teach.  Thank you! Mama Cheney