Hey there family, well we had transfers this week and it turns out a little change occurred! I will now have P-Days on SATURDAYS. So not Mondays. So email me today or tonight, that would be wonderful as I will be emailing you all tomorrow morning! I got transferred to the mission office, I will tell you about it tomorrow. Love you!
Elder Carney
**Here's the Saturday morning one!**
Well this week started well, we had our last P-Day in Itapetininga, went really well, especially because we went to a churrascaria again, or a Brasilian BBQ, and as always it was fantastic. We had a seriously incredible last two weeks in Itapetininga, we worked so hard and made almost all of our goals and the standards of excellence for the mission, something that never happened before for me in Itape. Unfortunately we did not have a baptism, we had been praying SO SO hard to have one, we came close, we found people who are prepared to be baptized, but it just didn't happen. It was pretty disheartening at times, but we worked hard and were able to really feel a confirmation that our efforts were acceptable to the Lord and that he is pleased with our righteous desires. I really want that branch to grow, it has so many great people and really deserves to one day become a ward. Then I got the transfers call from our ZLs!
I found out that our area closed!!! What in the world!?!?! Haha it was crazy, but closed here means actually whitewashed, meaning we both got transferred and two new missionaries came in! It actually has happened pretty often in Itapetininga, I don't know why, but it has already had this happen several times there, maybe it is just good to switch it up sometimes. I was pretty surprised because I thought I would be transferred and my comp would stay with a new trainer and that maybe i would go somewhere new and train again! Well we both got switched out, and Elder Noleto went to an are here in the capitol to finish his training with Elder MacArthur, an elder who I knew in Vila Sabrina and is super great! And I came here to the mission office! I am now the new Financial Secretary of the mission!!!!!
But I am going to explain how that works because it is not really something very common in the US. So here in Brasil there are almost never senior couple missionaries, who usually work in the office making hte mission function, so here Elders are called to be the entire office staff. Here there are four secretaries, the Secretary of the Mission, Financial, of the Records, and Housing. Here the Secretary of the Mission is always Brasilian because he has to do a lot of official documents and letters and work with visas and everything, the Housing also is Brasilian because he works with housing contracts and just knows more about words and needs for houses that Americans wouldn't know, Records is Hispanic, and Financial is American because they have to communicate with Salt Lake in english. So yeah! I am here now! I am with Elder Barton, who is training me to be the secretary this transfer, and Elder Irineu, the Secretary of the Mission. We live in the same apartment with the other two secretaries, Elder Lima, and guess who... Elder Mussin!!!!!! He is the Secretary of the Records (all the baptismal records, things like that). It has been super great so far, I am really loving it although it has been a huge change. The Assistants also live beneath us and so we work out and cook and do everything with them as well. It has been good. We have regular studies everyday for two hours and then at 10 Am the office opens and we work here until 5 PM. Yep. So my day now is almost completely spent in the mission office. I had very mixed feelings about this, I really just want to work in the field. Haha a lot. But I know that this is where I need to be right now and it has already helped me grow so much. I am responsible for the missionary allowance for all the missionaries, I approve all the purchases made by the mission and President and Sister Martins, I do everything with the cell phones, I am responsible for their health plans, and lots of other fun things. Basically it is a lot and has been really overwhelming thus far! But i know that I can do it. And I am grateful for Elder Barton and Elder Irineu, they are seriously great.
At times I have been very worried about being able to do this. It just is so much stuff to do and I am constantly dealing with the money of the church, sacred funds given by faithful members. So I don't want to mess it up. I know that I will make mistakes but I want to be able to give my best. This also means that I will most likely be here for 4-7 transfers. Most like 6 or 7. Especially because I will be here when the new president arrives, so I will have to train him and help him with the financial side of the mission. So yeah, I will be here a while. We also have a great area, it just is hard because we only get to work in it for 4 hours a day and we are in the city with so many people around us so I want to be able to dedicate more time to them. But that is ok. Well that is basically it thus far, I am loving life, I got TWO packages this week, one from January, and then afterwards my package sent in November for Christmas!!! So thanks for that!!!! And now I will get letters much faster... so that would be awesome to get letters.... that is a hint. Haha just kidding, I have been very blessed in getting letters thus far. Well love you all,have a great week!
Elder Carney
No comments:
Post a Comment