Every owner of pet chinchillas wants them to be tame enough to pick up and hold. We're no exception. However, chinchillas in the wild are prey for many predators and are conditioned to be cautious.
But all is not lost. With a little time and patience, you can tame your chinchilla enough so that it doesn't run and hide when you approach. The trick is to reward good behavior with a treat such as a raisin. At the beginning, good behavior is something as simple as coming up to you when you sit still near them. Over time as your chinchillas become comfortable with your presence, you reward them for crawling on your hand or leg. Eventually they'll get used to this activity too.
You may wish to someday move beyond taming your chinchilla and enter the realm of actual training. Like taming them, training starts off with simple tasks each of which are rewarded. For example, we've trained our chinchillas to return to their cage at a certain time every night where they'll receive a treat. This is very helpful to us since it keeps us from having to chase them and it also means that we don't unnecessarily stress our chinchillas from such chasing.
We've read about others that have managed to train their chinchillas to jump and roll on demand, but we've yet to see proof of such successes.
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For all of the people who ask how to get them used to you, all you have to do is set in a small enclosure with him/her and she will climb on you eventually. The first time this happens give them a raisin (only one per day as they can get sick, I suggest the chinchilla yogurt drops, they can have two a day). This will cause her to want to climb on you because chinchillas eat a lot. If she nibbles on you, dont jerk away, because you might scare her. If you scare a chinchilla they will hold a grudge as dumb as that sounds. I know for a fact that this works because I successfully made two sisters used to me as well as a seperate chin that wasnt even mine. After about a week or two they will begin climbing on you more, and eventually they will sit in your hands but dont force them to. Try not to scare them because if you have one bad encounter, then all of your progress will be for nothing and chances are you will have to start over, but if they like you enough they will run to you when they are scared. Be patient.