Gratidão 8/2/14

Yet another great week here in Tucuruvi! Time is just flying by!! I seriously cannot believe that I have already been here in the office for four transfers, it is the same amount of time that I had in Brazil when I got called to work here! It just blows my mind! Well this week was definitely interesting, we had an American who got his visa come on Tuesday and with that came a whole bunch of changes! One of them was Elder Matthews got transferred from the office, he was on the Assistants and has been here since last December and is going home in November so he was really excited to get back to his area full time. It was a bummer for me because he has become one of my best friends here on the mission but it´s all good, he is going to BYU after his mission so I will see him again in the future. Then another crazy thing happened with the transfer... I am training the new financial secretary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha so my life changed, now it means that here in six weeks I will be out in the field again! And done with any form of payments/reimbursements/rent/who knows what else that I do here int he office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha but that brings me to my subject line. I am so so grateful to have worked here in this area and in this calling. i truly need to be grateful for all that the Lord has blessed me with and how much of a blessing this area and the office has been for me. So yeah. But I am training Elder McArthur from Star Valley, WY to be the new finance guy and it will be awesome, he learns really quickly and now I am just getting to shown him how to do everything and then let him go at it! So it´s been good thus far. This week we had to travel a bunch to do payments and get documents signed for the Church, so it was a little tiring but really good. I almost say Elder Mason Davis too!!!! They went to the Federal Police on Thursday and we went on Wednesday, which would have been super fun but that´s ok! Then today we got permission to go to the Zoo here in São Paulo which was way fun, President Farnes and his family decided to come and join us, so it was a fun day there with them. It was great fun and good talking to his family. 

Now for the best parts of the week, I am just amazed at the faith that some of our investigators have. Lygia is doing great, she is truly wanting to be baptized. this week we were talking to Thaís about her baptism and Lygia told us that she was wanting to get baptized this weekend too! It was great, she also understands really well the principles of the gospel, it has been awhile since I have had an investigator who has such a good grasp on the gospel. Her family is awesome and they were interviewed this week and Lygia, Thaís and Gabriel are going to be baptized tomorrow after Church. We are really excited for them and the ward is as well. We are having troubles finding new investigators and are really trying to find new ones, we cant teach anyone until we find them, so we are striving really hard to open our mouths and talk to all of the people that are on the streets. We also have been blessed with some super solid member referrals, it´s been hard to get referrals here in Tucuruvi but when we get them the people are really solid investigators/ soon to be members. I am amazed at how the Lord truly blesses His servants, so many times it feels like we are just guided to these people who are so perfectly prepared to receive the gospel. 

This morning during personal study I was reading in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon and I was reading in the 7th chapter and it talks about the wickedness of some of the rulers of the people and at the end about a king named Shule who ruled in righteousness. It ends with this verse:  

27 And there were no more wars in the days of Shule; and he remembered the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days.

I loved it. I had a though about the fact that he had remembered all the blessings that the Lord had given to him and his fathers and people. I thought about how when we remember all the blessings that we have been given by God, we are more humble and grateful and with that we are more obedient and righteous. So I was reminded once again about the importance of gratitude in our lives. I need to be so grateful for this Gospel and all the blessings that come with it. The Lord has blessed me so much in my life, He truly does take care of us. I am humbled and amazed at how merciful He is to us as His children. 

Well, super psyched for another week, just gotta love the mission! Have a good one family!

Elder Carney