Eu fiquei! Transferência! August 23, 2014

Yet another week full of craziness! Last Saturday we went to the center of São Paulo to this street called 25 de Março which is FULL of shops and things like that and even more full with people. I went with Elder McArthur and the other elders told us some horror stories of people getting mugged and stabbed and stuff like that on this street and that we needed to be careful because we are two tall blond Americans who stick even more out because we are missionaries. But we had both been there before and we were careful and gratefully none of those things happened to us! But I bought some super cheap ties and also got to go to the open Market that is close by and we tried some pretty crazy fruits that they had there! One of the ladies at one the stands started to talk to us and ask questions about what we believe and the entire time we were explaining the gospel to her she just kept shoving samples of cool fruits at us, it was super delicious and we got her address for the missionaries to teach her! So it was a double blessing! Then we got back and cleaned and finished of our Preparation Day with a nap! On Sunday Thaís was confirmed and it was really sweet, she started to cry and a bunch of people got emotional as well, she has a really sweet spirit. Rogeiro also came to church! I don't know if I have already talked about Rogerio (actually yes I have, see the letter from June 7th), but he is one of our investigators. I will talk about him more later in the letter. So then I was just completely convinced that I would be leaving. I had told President that the Church preferred that I train for 6 weeks but that Elder McArthur was ready and I would go wherever he wanted me to go. SO I thought for sure I would leave and I said a couple "goodbyes" to some of the members of the ward and then the next morning I found out that I am actually going to stay for three more weeks!!! Which made me glad and bummed at hte same time, I was looking forwards to getting back to my area full time, but I know that it will be good to finish training well. Well transfers happened and as always were insane, super busy, but they went well and Elder Barton went home (he was my comp who trained me here in the office) and I was able to visit our recent converts with him on his last night in Brazil in our area. 

Elder Albuquerque is training now as well, he is training an elder named Elder Curtis, he is a great missionary and is from Georgia, so for the next three weeks we will be working in trio. Haha it is kind of complicated, I train Elder McArthur during the day but he isn´t my comp, he works with Elder Machado after the office while I work with Elder Albuquerque and now Elder Curtis as my companions. So that´s exciting! And even more exciting is what happened the night of transfers, we went to Rogerio and Julianas house and it was so great, Rogerio told us he was ready to be baptized! We have been inviting him a lot and really encouraging him to take a step of faith. Well he decided he really needed to be baptized and that he came to a realization that he believed everything that we did and it had really touched his heart! Then he bore his testimony to us and it was just powerful, simple, but powerful. It is truly a miracle. He was a espirita, which is a religion here that doesn´t believe in Christ, it is really popular in all of Brazil and is just not so great. Well he didn´t believe in the Bible, and especially not the Book of Mormon and was actually pretty hardened against the church and the missionaries because of experiences that he had had in the past. We started to teach him because he decided to participate in on lessons that we had with Jandira who we were teaching in their house! well he has just taken a 360 turn. He is seriously so so prepared and it is such a tender mercy of Heavenly Father that I stayed here in this area and that I will be able to see his baptism. He is going to be baptized tonight and we are all really excited for him. 

It was a crazy week but also really good! I love you all and have a fantastic week1 Share the gospel with someone (or everyone)!

Elder Carney


 Hey well I just got a call from President... I got transferred!!!!! There is a missionary who is having a lot of problems with his knee and is really struggling, so President is going to have him come to the office just for two more weeks to kind of get a rest and I am going to be with his companion and be in the Ariston ward! Haha so that is kind of crazy! haha but he also said it is only going to be for two weeks and then I am going to be transferred again!!! Crazy! President said I could leave tonight or tomorrow so that way I can see Rogerio´s baptism. Kind of crazy! So it looks like I will be having a P-Day on Monday again! So... talk to you all on Monday!

Love you!

Elder Carney