Copa do Mundo!!!!!!! 6/21/14

Holy cow, time seriously just flies by, it is just not stopping! It has been really crazy how fast the weeks are going, it seems like yesterday that I was in Itapetininga, when in reality it was in the beginning of March that I left there! How crazy is that? This week was really good. We had a good Sunday last week and were able to eat at Jairo´s house, he is the High Priest Group Leader here and is super awesome, and his wife happens to be one of the best cooks in the ward, and she always makes a ton of food, so that was fun. Church went really well and some of our investigators came which made us happy! On Monday it was Elder Albuquerque´s birthday! We worked hard and I faked that I hadn´t done anything for him and that we were going to just eat like rice and beans when we got back to the apartment at the end of the night... but the assistants bought two cakes for him and we had a little fiesta! So that was fun, haha it is hard to do anything as a surprise for your comp when you are with him 24/7. On Tuesday 4 Americans arrived in the mission, 3 of them are actually from my group and the other one has been out for a little longer than I have!! It was crazy, but two of the sisters were serving in Montana and so it was fun to hear how the mission is and everything. Definitely grateful that I have been able to serve in two missions and that I got my visa and have been able to serve with President Martins. On Tuesday afternoon there was another Brasil game and we had to all stay inside our houses,  but with the transfer President was taking the sisters to their areas in the interior and he had to come back that same night to the office so he told us to stay in the office until he got back, haha so we just studied here in the office while listening to the chaos outside until like 8 pm when he got back and we helped him load materials into his car. It was a pretty uneventful day, I am going to be psyched to work in our area more when the cup is over! 

We also had our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Martins on Thursday, it was so insane to think that it was the last one! I will be able to see them a couple more times, but it was the last time most of the missionaries will see them. It was really good, he emphasized a lot on priesthood authority and also that President Farnes will receive the inspiration and revelation from the same source, that the president changes but the person who is really in charge doesn´t. So that will be crazy when he gets here and the change happens. 

This week we have been working a lot with Givaldo and he was interviewed and passed and will be baptized here in an hour and a half!!! We are super psyched, he is really demonstrating a lot of faith. We are excited how he will be an example for the rest of his family. Also, we were working with Jandira, who also had a date for today but was kind of soft. She has been worried about the "right day" to be baptized and she had the interview and it really helped her see that she is prepared to be baptized and to do this! So she is getting baptized tonight too!! We are super excited for both of them.

We also had a cool experience this week, we taught an investigator in the institute building, his wife is a member and always goes. So we taught him and were teaching about the doctrine of Christ, and we invited him to be baptized and asked if it was a desire of his to follow Jesus Christ and be clean from his sins, haha and he responds "it isn´t a desire of mine, it is faith. I have faith that I need to do this and that I can follow him." Hahaha it was so great to hear those words, so he is now being prepared to be baptized this next weekend! We are feeling so blessed in our area, it is definitely hard, but we are striving to be obedient and to really have faith that we can baptize here, even if we only get to work in our area a little bit each day. I love this church so much, it truly is the church of Jesus Christ and he is at its helm. I love my Savior and I love to have this chance to be a representative of him.

I am glad you are all doing well! Mom, tell Tim and Roxanne that they can use whatever paper or letter to send to me, I am really glad that the letter got to them! I didn't notice that the paper I used was really thin, haha I think I actually bought it in the US! Anyways, hope you are all doing well and I am so glad that Manti went really well, it sounds like it was a fantastic experience!

Love you all! Be missionaries too!

Elder Carney