Natal! Dec. 27 & Jan 3 PICTURES

Felipe's Baptism

Here are some pictures!! The first one is the sample photo they sent us, well right in the front middle is Elder Ashford and they got him with his eyes super closed. Well Elder McArthur got creative and using Paint he added eyes to Elder Ashford which you will see in the second photo. THose eyes look familiar??? They are mine! And my glasses, and my left ear! It turned out pretty good didn´t it? Also that third one would be a great one for my facebook page...

Love you all!!

Elder Carney

Dec. 27, 2014-
Feliz Natal minha família e meus amigos! Natal aqui em Brasil é um pouco diferente, não tem as mesmas tradições, mas eles sabem como ter uma boa festa! Haha Christmas here is a little different, but it was so great to be here again for Christmas. This last Sunday we got to the church building and it was one of the first times on my entire mission where I had no one to go get to come to church... it was such a weird feeling! We decided to talk to literally everyone who passed by us and also get to know the neighbors of the church and unfortunately no one wanted to enter in at that exact moment but we got a lot of addresses and will return to visit those people! So we were bummed, we had worked hard that week but in opening the area it had been difficult to find someone to come to church and realyl feel the spirit there. So we went in and in the Gospel Essentials class there was an investigator there!!!!! Her name is Rosangela, she is the Relief Societies neighbor and has been invited many many times before but that day she decided to come to church! It was a miracle. Such a tender mercy. We got to know her and marked an appointment with her that afternoon. There we met her mother, Josefina, who is about 65 years old. We got to know them a little bit and started with a prayer and after we closed the prayer both of them were crying! Josefina told us that her prayer of 3 years had just been answered, she has a really strained relationship with her daughter and they really want to fix things and love each other and she said she just knew that we were sent to help her exactly with that! It was an incredible lesson and Josefina readily accepted a baptismal date. Rosangela seems to have an iceburg as we call it and we don´t know what is impeding her from accepting baptism yet but we are really praying to help her understand and to understand her needs right now. The next time we went there we went with their neighbor and it was a wonderful lesson. Rosangela hadn´t read the Book of Mormon so we read it with them and it was an great lesson, the Book of Mormon is so powerful, I love reading it with people, it brings such a sweet spirit. 

On Christmas Eve we had lunch at a recent converts house, Jorge, it was great. He has a handicap and lives alone, he also used to be a horder before he met the missionaries. He loves having the missionaries over and has such a strong testimony. He also basically designed his house using things he found over the years, it is beautiful! It was a great lunch. Very humbling. He spent a lot of time preparing everything just so he could have us 4 over for Christmas. He really tried to prepare his absolute best for us. I was grateful for him. That night we also got invited to dinner with President Zanforlin, who is the 2nd Counselor of the mission and lives near our area but in the Jaçanã stake. It was wonderful being with his family, him and his wife are super awesome people, it was uplifting to talk with them. 

Oh! Also on Tuesday we had our Mission Christmas Conference! It was so great, it took a ton of planning to do, but the entire mission got together in Sorocaba. The missionaries from the Capital woke up early to get a bus that the mission rented. We got there and it was awesome, President and Sister Farnes gave great Christmas messages and then the office staff took turns reading nativity scriptures and between each reading everyone rose to sing Christmas hymns. Also a new elder played a christmas song on the violin, it was great, he was realyl nervous but did a fantastic job.

Then we had a great group picture which is going to be sent here soon and then we had a great lunch (BBQ!!!). Afterwards we had a talent show and it was great, haha a couple misisonaries imitated President Farnes and used his kids in their talent. It was hilarious. President and Sister Farnes and their kids made a video as well, it was pretty funny.

Christmas was fun, we ate at this great families house and the sister made us SO much food. Haha so so much. It was really good too, It was great to be with them and also there were a ton of non members there so that made it even better! Then I got to talk to you all which made for a very very good Christmas!

Afterwards we worked!! I loved it! It wsa so great beacuse so many people were home and we were able to talk about Christ and really serve him on such a special day. I just loved it. I love being on a mission. It made me sad to think that it is my last Christmas on the mission. I love serving my Savior in this way. I love Brasil and these people. Through this service it has become a sacred place to me. I just love it here. Love you all, have a great week and Happy New Years!

Elder Carney

Jan 3, 2015

I just cannot believe that it is already 2015! Boy did this last year fly by. This week was really good, we were able to work hard and we received a lot of blessings! I am so grateful for how Heavenly Father blesses us. 

Last week as I said I was able to have a pretty cool opportunity to see the baptism of one of my old investigators from Tucuruvi. While I was in the area he couldn´t be baptized as he wasn´t married, but now he doesn´t have anything hold him back, so Felipe got baptized!!! Normally we can´t go to the baptisms in our old areas because it´s far and it would gast a lot of time. But since I live in Tucuruvi and was already at the office that day right before the baptism I was able to see it. And I actually got asked to baptize him! It was really great to be able to bless Felipe and see him make this decision, it was really gratifying to see that. 

We also had a great day at church last week, we can see the members starting to get excited to be involved in the work. Both Josefina and Rosangela went to church and loved it. THe members received them really well. They invited them to a family night on Monday which went really well, haha it was at this member´s house in the middle of the forest!! Our area is in the city but is on the border with the hills/forest on the edge of the city and so we went there and there are monkeys, giant plants, dirt roads, a bunch of stuff that normally we don´t see in the capitol. It was a great experience to see the members receive Josefina so well, she really enjoyed herself and loved learning how to hold a family home evening as she is looking on how to strengthen her family relationships. Also, on Monday we were going to our area (by bus as always) and my companion was talking to a man right around when we were going to get off, so we decided to keep on talking to him about the church and get off a little bit later and go a different route to our appointment. Well we got off and didn´t really know how to get there!! Haha so we saw this young man sitting on the sidewalk in front of his house nad we asked him for directions. We ended up sitting down with him on the sidewalk and teaching him a lesson! His name is Emerson and he is 17, it was great, the Spirit was really strong and he accepted our invitation to be baptized on the 17th of this month! We are eager to keep teaching him and we were able to teach him and his father on New Year´s Day. Heavenly Father truly gave us a little miracle in finding him and having him be right there so we could ask for directions!

We are really trying to build our teaching pool since we opened the area  and we were so blessed this week! We met this couple named Antonio and Fatima, they are middle aged and don´t have any children, just a really great couple. They readily accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon and to be baptized. When we returned Antonio had read the first three chapters! We had marked 3 Nefi 11 for him to read but he ended up reading more! They both are very excited to go to church and are just really caring people. Also we had an appointment and unfortunately it fell through, but we asked for a glass of water from the man who told us that his neighbors weren´t home. He gave us water and we asked if we could say a prayer with him as a way to show our gratitude. He said yes and invited us in and we ended up teaching him and his wife and were able to invite them to church and mark dates with them as well! Heavenly Father really blessed us this week in finding people who are ready to be taught and accept the Gospel! I just loved it. We are realyl praying and doing our best to now follow up with them and help them go to churhc and there feel the Spirit. 

On Friday (yesterday) we had leadership counsel in Sorocaba, it was great as always to be trained by President and Sister Farnes. They are incredible. It was also interesting as we saw the goals that all of the different zones have for baptisms this month of january, I loved seeing how excited everyone was. This time President also invited the district leaders as a way to start of the year realyl united. It was great to be fed spiritually nad now we are psyched to follow up with the zone leaders nad really help the mission as a whole move forward and start off great for the new year.

I am just lovign it as always!! I had a little realization this week on New Year´s that my only full year of being a full time (young) missionary (because I definitely want to serve someday again) had passed!! It was crazy! It made me really sad to think that it was gone! But I also am really happy with the service that I gave this last year and that I was able to grow, help other people, represent Christ, and really consecrate myself to the Lord this whole entire year. I am so incredibly grateful to serve as a missionary right now, it is the best thing I could be doing with my life. It is truly fantastic being a missionary. 

Just to finish it off, we had a funny moment in language study, Elder Farias is learning english and so I was quizzing him on words. Here´s how it went but translated into english.

Me: How do you say "barba" in english?

Elder Farias: Ummm... barbation????

Me: Hahaha no, it´s "beard"!

Elder Farias: How is it? "Bieber"????

Have a great week my family and remember to open your mouths!!!!!!

Elder Carney

Carta Trunky Dec. 20, 2014 & PICTURES

Dec. 20, 2014-
Well unfortunately as this title says I received my "trunky letter" as the mission officially calls it. It was asking me for information regarding my home airport and things like that so that they can purchase my plane ticket. I iwill officially be leaving brasil on June 3rd and getting into Denver on the 4th. I filled out everything and put in your info and cell numbers. The only thing that I was not sure about is if you guys are going to come and get me here in Brasil or not! Have you and Dad decided on anything? If you really really want to come and get me then that would be awesome, if not then that is also totally fine with me! I think we had already talked about this and I had told you that I would be ok with whatever, I think it would be cool to show my mission to you two but I also know that Bradley would probably not be able to come depending on his mission call (if it is international he can´t leave the country as the church will have his passport). I also think it would be cool to just do the traditional experience. Let me know, I thought you had said something about a vacation after I got home so maybe you already have decided, but just send me a quick email to let me know so I can give it to the secretary. Love you Mom! Don´t get trunky!!

Elder Carney

Canteriera Dec. 20, 2014

This week just flew by, there was so much to do, haha but there is always a lot to do so that really isn´t very new! We had a great meeting with President on Monday night, it was the last meeting with the four assistents and so President had us over to the mission home and just asked us about us! It was different, he said he wanted his family to get to know us better and so one at a time he just asked us questions about our families, about our missions, about what we liked most about the mission, our conversion stories, etc. It was really interesting, I loved hearing about Elder Farias, Elder Andersen, and Elder R Cruz. It was great, President is truly inspired. So we had a great night just getting to know each other a little better before Elder Andersen and Elder R Cruz went off to seperate areas. On Tuesday we had transfers and the new missionaries arrived, it was fun seeing them get there and how excited they all were. We went and did street contacts with them and one of the americans, Elder Stott, was super nervous, but he did such a great job, it was fun to see! At the end I told the man that it was the elder´s first day in Brasil and he was really shocked, truly the gift of tongues! We ate lunch with all of them and then took the bus with them to go to the mission office. There we had a really great transfer meeting, although it was so so weird because the missionaries that went home were all really great. There were 14 sisters that went home but it was strange because it was the group of sisters from my group in the MTC!! Ahhh! Really weird, but that´s ok! Elder Matthews went home, that was a big bummer, one of my best friends on the mission, as well as Elder Lima and Elder Costa who both served for 6 months int he office with me and Elder Singleton who was my comp in Itapeva. One of the weirdest parts was Elder Mussin going home! My trainer is officially back in Buenas Aires!!! So Tuesday and Wednesday were just insane as we got everyone off to their areas, talked to the missionaries going home and got them all off to the airport. On Tuesday after the transfer meeting I gave a training to all of the trainers, it was great talking with them and doing some practices. Well i asked Elder Mussin to come in and participate, he had no idea why. I was able to bring him up to the front and thank him for all that he did for me in training me and setting a really good standard for me for my mission and how to fulfill my missionary purpose. It was wonderful to be able to thank him for all that he did for me and help the trainers understand how they can have a positive and truly lasting influence on their companions missions. 

Elder J Silva who was my last companion in Itapeva is also going to be the new mission secretary so now he is living in the same house as me and working with me again, that will be really fun. 

On Wednesday we were finally able to get to our area, I am excited to get to know Elder Farias better, haha after a whole transfer together we hadn´t even taught together, so it was really good. We are excited, our area is HUGE, full of people, and just really good. Unfortunately we are entering in at a time when the members dont have as much trust or love for the missionaries as they could, haha so we are just doing everything we can to help them, build their confidence, and truly serve them. We also don´t have any investigators, we had one who is really solid and could be baptized right now but traveled to a different city and won´t return until february... haha but that is ok, we are starting things off and really working hard to bring other unto Christ! I am excited, it is a great challenge and I know that Heavenly Father wants us to be there right now and that He will help and guide us.

On Wednesday we were trying to figure out who we could visit and which members we needed to meet who were ward leadership, so we started on our way when an unrecognized number called us and I answered and it happened to be a member who was going to go on home teaching visits but his comp couldn´t join him so asked if we would be able to help! We took the opportuntiy and went with him and met several key members and from these members received 7 referrals!!! Heavenly Father truly does answer prayers! On Thursday we also were able to go to President´s house to have a office christmas dinner, it was really great. On the way one of the elders fainted in the bus (it was crazy hot and super super packed) so we got him off and he sat down and drank some water. He hadn´t eaten anything that entire day and it was so hot out with so many people and he´s been sick so that made for a not really good combination! Luckily we were close to President´s house and he could come and pick us up so that he wouldn´t have to get back on the bus. We had a great time with his famiyl with really good food and then we shared what each of us thought as important principles to live by in our lives, and his kids shared their favorite scriptures with us. At the end President gave each of us a tie of his, it was so cool to see, he didn´t tell us the meaning behind each one until afterwards but several of them were his favorite ties or that had an important story behind them. He is a really great man, taught us a lot throught that. On Friday we were able to work in our area again and really start things rolling in our area, haha it has been interesting thus far opening an area. 

Well, it has been a really really good week, I am so grateful to be serving a mission. I love this gospel. I love my Savior. I know that He lives. I know that He suffered, died, and lives again. I know that prayer is real, that we can openly communicate with the most powerful being in the universe, and that He happens to ask us to call Him by the title of Father. I know that our families can be together forever. I know that through faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost we can follow our Savior and be eternally blessed. I love this work, I love helping others change their lives and come to the sweet knowledge that we have received through the power of the Holy Ghost. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas, that we may remember what He did for us, that we may strive to be more like Him, and that we may bring others unto Him. Merry Christmas!!!

Elder Carney

Elder Mussin's  last night

Our Christmas tree

 Elder Farias and I at the temple a couple of weeks ago.

 Elder Gimenez and I with how were dressed that day on our splits in Pirituba last week... haha we were going to an important appointment and it was raining slightly, but then it just POURED, like the heavens decided to open up completely. HAha it was flooding the streets and just raining like crazy, well these people from a mattress store gave us these and insisted that we use them so we walked like this until our appointment, it actually worked out really well!

 Me with four of the sister from my group on their last day, Sister Hauet, Mills, Ward, and Yankura. 

Progresso` Dec. 7-14

Dec. 14- Pirituba

Yet another week of splits, it has been interesting getting to know so many different areas here in the mission and really getting to work along side so many fantastic missionaries! This week President decided that he was going to send us to a zone here in the Capital, Pirituba. It was super great, one of the zone leaders there is Elder Gimenez, who was my companion for two weeks while I was in Ariston. He was by far one of my favorite companions so far on the missionso it was great to be with him again. His companion right now is Elder Lopes, who is from Cape Verde. He is a great missionary and will finish his mission with me, it was cool getting to know him better. I was truly blown away this week with just how many people in that area have problems wiht the Word of Wisdom. It is really common, but it just seemed like literally every single investigator there struggled with that, it made for a very very full week of following up and making goals with tons of people and lots of prayers. There was a certain family that we are working with this week, a mom who has three sons, one toddler and two teenagers. One of her teenagers is now in a wheelchair because a shooting happened near where they live and he was shot three times. It was amazing to see this ladies faith and true desire to change. In some of these areas there is so much around them that isn´t good. She has had a problem with smoking but when the missionaries taught her she was smoking a pack a day and she immediately went down to 2 cigarretts a day. We were praying so much for her and trying our absolute best to help her stop smoking, well she did it!!!! Haha she was baptized today after church. Even though we were only there this week it felt so good to see her do it and stay strong and get baptized. I was able to speak with several other people about baptism and if they are ready or not to be baptized and I was amazed at the faith of some. One young man who has had a lot of struggles in his life thus far just started crying when we talked about repentance and what it means to him. He truly does want to turn his life around and he knows that thorugh the gospel he can. 

It was good working with all of these people this week, it made me really think in these people and how I can help them. They also had Stake Conference this weekend and I was amazed at how this stake truly is focusing on Missionary Work. The talks were incredible and President and Sister Farnes each did a wonderful job as well. It was a priveledge to be there. This morning early we got the transfers from President and found out how it is going to be. Now there will only be two assistents and Elder Farias and I will continue together. That will be fun, we will have an area now, Cantareira, which is right next door to my old area Tucuruvi. I am excited to work in my area and get to know these people. It will be great. Also my old companion, Elder J. Silva is going to be the new mission secretary and so I will be living in the same house as him and wokring with him again, that will be really awesome! I am just so grateful to be receiving so many blessings, I love speaking to so many people about Christmas and serving right now. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. I love my Savior and I know that He suffered and died for us so that we might live again, just as He too lives. Have a great week everyone and remember to open your mouths!

Elder Carney  

Oh also I forgot to tell you a couple important details!! First I am almost positive that my Preparation Day will now be moved back to Saturday again since we will be working in the office and our area normally again and not traveling as much as we have been. So please send me emails before Saturday! It will make me really happ! Haha also I am pretty sure that we can do the following, I can start to skype you all at like 3-5 PM são paulo time! I am pretty sure that would be 10 AM to Noon in CO! I won´t be able to skype you for that long, just the normal time length, but now you can tell me what time in that period works better for you! Tell me a time and I will be on! But yeah, let´s go with that. So just tell me and I will be on then! Also, will we do skype again, that worked out well the last time.

Second we hung up the tree that you sent me mom!! I put up the ornaments and we put on appropriate christmas music and ate some food and all of the missionaries who work int he office wrote the blessings that they have on the ornaments and we hung them up! We also put up the pictures of the families of the other missionaries as well. So that is exciting, our apartment is ready now! Also Elder Farias is really psyched that he stayed with me because he wants to have the stocking that you sent mom, haha thanks! Love you all!!

Elder Carney

Dec. 7, 2014-
Hello there my wonderful family!! Como vocês estão??? Espero que vocês estejam bem. I have had quite a wonderful week here in Sorocaba! Again! President asked Elder Farias and I to come to Sorocaba and work with the elders from the Santana Zone in the Vila Progresso area. They are two great elders that I already know really well, Elder Patterson from Murrieta California and Elder Musick from all over the place (his dad is in the military and I think he is most recently from New York). It was a great week, haha holy cow Sorocaba is hot! It has been just killer hot here but Heavenly father always gives us tender mercies of clouds or the occasional rain at night while we are sleeping. And sun screen, lots of sun screen. This week was a week of perseverance, haha unfortunately not many people felt too keen to let us in this... BUT that is ok, because we taught a lot of lessons at their front door and we were even more grateful for the great people who did let us in. One time we were speaking with a man at his front gate and he seemed pretty hesitant to talk to us, then we found out that he is from Itapeva!! I knew exactly where his old street was and everything (it´s a small city so that really isn´t that hard actually) but he really opened up and we were able to teach and testidy about the Restoration to him. We asked if we could say a prayer with him and he ask us to come in where we met the rest of his three kids! It was a great experience mainly because we invited him to say the prayer as we always do at the first lesson and he did so good. The spirit was really strong, and I think his kids enjoyed seeing their father say a prayer. It was cool. We also have been talking to EVERYONE about the new initiative the church is doing called He is the Present, or in portuguese Ele é o Presente. The church is doing it here in Brasil as well and we are really striving to tell everyone about it. We have had some really sweet experiences as we have asked people who don´t have time to just let us watch a quick video with them. It brings the spirit so strongly. We taught a man and showed him the video and the spirit was so strong in that little apartment room, he really enjoyed it and talked about how he wanted to be a better dad and husband and how he needed to really guide his family to make right choices. We also had other good experiences, one time we got at the house at 9 and the other two elders hadn´t come back yet and they had the keys so we went to do contacts around the apartments where they live. It was great, we ended up teaching and getting to know a neighbor of theirs and it was cool to see how receptive he was! Small miracles like not having the keys!

It was a really good week, we also had Mission Leadership Council, it was really good, so great to see so many friends and also to see how the missionaries help one another with the problems that we have or difficulties that we have as a mission. It was a really edifying experience! Also this last month we broke the mission record for baptisms in a month, we were really really excited. 

Overally I am so grateful to be serving here. I love my mission. I know that the best thing I could be doing right now is serving a mission. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. In what other way could I be more happy during Christmas than being His servant and helping others come to know Him. I love this Gospel. I know that Christ lives. He loves us. He was born, lived a perfect life, suffered, died, and lives again, all so that we too may one day live with Him and our Heavenly Father and our families. I love being here and serving my Master. I am truly grateful to have this opportunity. Love oyu all, have a great week!!

11/10/14- 11/22/14 November Updates

 MOM Note:  Danny was transferred from his area, Itapeva, and called to be an Assistant to the Mission President in Sao Paulo.  Here are updates from the last few weeks!

 

Mudancas!!! - Nov. 10, 2014

 

Well this has been a very different day! It has been pretty strange  being back in the office again but not having to do anything with payments or rent or reimbursements, nothing of that,so that is really nice! So here is the low down: I am actually one of 4 Assistants!! Yeah! Crazy right?? So I had found out I needed to come early and be here today for a meeting with president but I had not been told my area, and neither had any of the others. So we found out that for this transfer President is doing an experiment to help the mission out... none of us will have areas. Yep, that was different news! We will do exchanges every single week. My companion and I (my comp is Elder Farias, one of my good friends here on the mission and one of the most humble elders I have ever met) will be responsible for all of the zones here in the Capital and the other two APs will be responsible for the Interior. So President basically reset the mission, there are TONS of new leaders and he wants to really change the mission culture. So he is having us do an exchange with a set of Zone Leaders each week. We are going to get in their area on Tuesday morning and stay with them until Sunday afternoon! On Sunday afternoon we will come back and have our weekly meeting with President. It will be strange not having an area or investigators,but we will be able to help the elders and their investigators and really get to know them well on these splits.  He said this will be a temporary thing, one transfer, two at the maximum. So yeah! Very very different. He is really excited as he wants us to truly help these elders in ALL aspects of the work and to help elevate and inspire them in all that they do. I am excited, it is going to be interesting and very tiring and hard work, but it will be really good. So yeah! Tomorrow we will have transfers and do all of that,help the new missionaries and train them, then on Wednesday morning i will head off to another area Barueri for hte rest of the week. Also, now it looks like my Preparation Day will be on Monday, not Saturday. So yep, there we go. Last week was really good, we were working really hard to continue what we had been doing. Igor is really firm to get baptized this next weekend and truly understands everything. I had really thought that I would stay another transfer with Elder J Silva and I was happy with that, to me it was going to be fine, but that is ok. I had a good birthday, it was basically a normal day except for the whole traveling thing. Thanks for so many cards Mom and everyone, it was great receiving them all! Well, I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Carney

11/18/14- Jaragua!

Well this last week has been just absolutely crazy, so let´s get started! On Tuesday we went to President´s house to be there to meet the new missionaries, we had a good time and they were a really special group. President commented on that and we all felt that the missionaries who arrived were really prepared, they had a great spirit about them. As president was interviewing them we went and did street contacts with them, it was so awesome! We went to this huge avenue that is in front of where president lives and it was so fun teaching with these elders, several of the Americans did such a great job, haha they were really nervous but did so great! I was grateful to do that with them. Then we went back to the office and Tucuruvi and had the transfer meeting which went really well. A lot of my friends on the mission are now training as they are finishing up their missions, it was fun to see them and we (Elder Farias and I) were able to give a training to the trainers which went really well, the Spirit was really strong and we were all really excited. On Tuesday morning we went to Jaraguá, we were going to go to Barueri but the Zone Leaders are both new in their area so we decided to go to Jaraguá first. It was so incredible! Such a great experience. We were just working so incredibly hard, and the other missionaries in the zone were working like crazy as well. In a week the zone (6 sets of elders) marked 80 baptismal dates!!!! Hahah we were inviting everyone! We were glad to see the elders really encouraging each other and calling each other to share the miracles that were happening. The two zone leaders there are incredible. Elder Marciano is from Rio and Elder Youd is from Missouri, I knew them both beforehand but it was wonderful to work with them. Elder Youd is always happy and excited and Elder Marciano is a great leader, he has a really strong testimony. In one lesson Elder Marciano testified about the First Vision and afterwards the Spirit was so strong. I asked the investigator if he believed all of it to be true and he said "After what he just said I know it is all true." It was so awesome, we were really striving to learn together. I felt like I learned so much working with these elders, it was sad leaving! We also participated in their stake conference which went well. Yesterday evening we had our meeting with President and it went so well, it is incredible how much i learn each time I speak with him, he truly is always teaching, we just have to pay attention. We also were able to have a mini family night with his family, he really wants his children to be involved in the mission and enjoys it when they are able to have missionaries in their home. Now I am in Barueri, I am excited to be here. I am really praying for this zone to get excited and really strive to fulfill their missionary purpose. I love you all, have a fantastic week!!

Elder Carney

 

Nov. 22, 2014
Haha, well sorry about all of this sporadic emailing that has been going on! It looks like for a good couple of weeks I will now be able to have a little more solid schedule, this is the first time the mission has done this whole us not having an area and traveling all the time thing and so we are kind of guinea pigs. This last week was really good. We arrived in the area called Barueri and one of the first things was Zone Training. It was great, in that zone the two district leaders are Elder Irineu and Elder Mussin, my trainer. They are two of my favorite missionaries in the mission so it was great to see them. Elder Mussin is going home in three weeks so it was a great opportunity to see him again. It was a good meeting and wonderful to feel the Spirit there with all of the missionaries. Hopefully we helped them get more excited and really motivated. Then we started the splits, my first day of splits I ended up... staying inside the house!! One of the Zone Leaders is Elder Mckinley, from Dallas, Oregon, and he was SUPER sick. He had some sort of stomach virus and was just trashed, so I stayed with him all day so that his companion could work with Elder Farias. Haha I kind of was his little caretaker for the day, I cleaned up their house a bit, got him things when he needed it, stuff like that. I wanted to really take the opportunity to serve, so that was nice that I was able to do a litlte something for him. He is a great missionary. Luckily the members took super good care of him and while he was sleeping I was able to do some studying and get some good Ensign/Book of Mormon reading in. The next day I left with Elder Sepúlveda, who is from Santiago, Chile. He is a great elder who is really enthusiastic. We worked hard and were able to find some good new investigators. I love working here in the Capitol, there are always so many people on the streets and it is always an adventure. Living in that house and working in half of Barueri is also Elder Singleton, who was my companion in Itapeva, and Elder Johnson, a good elder from North Carolina. They both are super tall and really white and blond, so everyone here calls them twins. It was really good working with them a little bit as well.

Funny story, we were all walking to lunch and there was this woman who was walking really quickly towards us, I think she may have been homeless and she took our hands and kissed each of our hands as she took it, well she was pretty insistent and really really wanted to shake/kiss our hands. It was weird. Well she was eating a banana. And her mouth was full of banana. So we got banana kisses on our hands. It was gross. I happened to have alcohol wipes on hand since a member had decided to give them to me a short time ago! That was nice. Elder Singleton really didn´t want to get his hand kissed by this interesting woman, so he ran away from her and was dodging her, haha so she threw her banana at him! You know, just another day on the streets of São Paulo!

This week it was good working with the elders. I was really pleading and asking for the Spirit to be with me. We were there to help these elders, but we didn´t really even know them or what they/their zone was needing. So even though I don´t know, I know that Heavenly Father does. I was really praying so that we could be guided to know how we could effectively help these missionaries. I felt the Spirit so much this week. We truly were guided, and we were used to help His children learn more about the Gospel. I love it, I just love teaching, it truly is wonderful! But all of it would be useless if we didn´t have the Spirit with us. I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been receiving to help these brothers and sisters of mine learn about the true gospel. 

Today was good, the members who gave us lunch were great, she served a mission in L.A. working in the temple visitor´s center there. It was cool, haha they did a BBQ and even had BBQ sauce!!! It was delicious. But even better, they invited like 14 non-member friends and two less actives!! It was the best thing ever. So we were talking like crazy with them and all of them were really interested to know why we are here in Brasil, things like that. At the end I was able to give a message and I truly hope they felt the Spirit and accept the missionaries when they visit. All of them took Pass Along Cards and promised to call and accept a Book of Mormon as a present. It was great talking with all of them. 

This month President Farnes is have uma "Mês de Gratidão" so I have been trying to really be aware of the blessings that I have been receiving and be more grateful. I love it, it is great to say thank you! Well, have a wonderful week everyone!! I might not be able to finish emailing tonight so I might be able to get on tomorrow. I found out one of my recent converts here in Tucuruvi is having a hard time right now so I might go visit them to see how they are doing. Love you all!!

Elder Carney    

 

 

Tatuí, Sorocaba, Itapeva! 10/6/14 & 9/26/14

This last week has got to be one of the weeks where i spent the least amount of time in my area! It was not super fun, but that happens. On Monday we found out about transfers and already on Tuesday we left early in the morning, passed through Itapetininga (it was fun to see my old area again briefly) and then I spent the day in Tatuí waiting for my new companion to arrive on the van from the capitol. We got into our area at about 10 pm and the next day we worked for an hour or two, ate lunch with a recent convert who also happens to be a saint and wonderful cook, irmã Benedita, and then that afternoon we already had to go to Sorocaba. We worked in the area of some Zone Leaders there (I worked with Elder Carr, he is from my group so that was fun!) and then on Thursday we had Leadership Council. It was really really good, Presidente Farnes is wonderful and he and Sister Farnes taught us so much, I felt very much so edified and that we have the clear directions and tools that we need to help our zone. We returned that day and finally on Friday we were able to have a day of work in our area. It was great, we are talking with literally everyone. Everyone. We have been opening our mouths like madmen and trying to help these people hear the good news of the gospel. On Saturday we had General Conference!!!!!!!1 I loved it. It was seriously so so wonderful, I loved being taught and instructed by the servants of God, His chosen representatives here on the Earth at this time. The talks we incredible. I actually watched in english, I could have watched in Portuguese but it was a nice opportunity to have it in english so I watched it with two of the other elders from our zone. We had it shown at our church building here in our area but the other two areas in our zone have houses that are rented by the church and didn´t show conference so they came here to watch it with us. Elder Godoy gave an absolutely incredible talk and I went adn watched it in Portuguese. His son was my teacher in the MTC, and it was such a great talk, I was glad to hear and be taught by him. I was looking at my notes this morning during my personal study and loved it. President Eyring´s talk on Sunday afternoon was so so great and I loved the talk that President Packer gave about "the old ship Zion." I received yet another powerful personal witness of the truthfulness of the gospel and especially that President Monson is a true prophet of God and that we need to listen to and heed the words we had the honor of hearing this weekend. So many people lived during hte Great Apostasy and other times of apostasy on the earth and did not have the opportunity to be instructed from on high, an today many many people do not know about this opportunity either. We need to remember what an honor it is and acutally apply these counsels in our lives. And then help others to receive this knowledge as welll.
Yesterday during the interval of the sessions we went and were doing tons of contacts and we found this young man and his sister and we had a GREAT lesson with them, it was awesome. They truly felt the Spirit and accepted to be baptized and follow our Savior´s example. We are excited for them,. their names are Rodrigo and Mônica. Also Mom, I got the package you sent me!! THANK YOU! It was awesome and my companion loved trying some of the american food and candy, thank you for that. Also, thank you so so much for the CD´s, we are jamming out to Vocal Point and the new EFY CD as we get ready each morningf now, so thank you! 

Love you all, have a great week!!!
Elder Carney

 9/26/14- Itapeva, chuva, transferências, conferências!

 This last week was just crazy busy! It was insane! But also really good. We were able to go to Sorocaba on Tuesday night (it is a 4 hour bus ride) and we slept there so that we could be there on Wednesday morning for our Multi Zona Conference. It went really well, Elder Albuquerque was going to go to do a bunch of things for the conference but in the end couldn´t so they asked me to do the things for them there and to give a training about referrals and using the church´s referral system... haha except I had never seen the training before so that was interesting! It was Elder Irineu, Elder Mussin, and I doing things there so we kind of felt like we had never been transferred from being secretaries! But it went welll! Mom I remembered that time that you gave me your talk to give in sacrament about the Nauvoo temple because you were sick! But the conference went so well, I felt hte Spirit really strongly and I have been so glad to see the effect it has had on the zone these last couple days in how much faith they are showing and how obedient they are being! President Farnes is truly inspired and I am glad that we were able to be taught by him and Sister Farnes. 

The rest of the week was good, we went on exchanges and Elder Irineu came and did a baptismal interview here for one of our investigators. her name is Cida, she is the sister of a recent convert and she is really great. It turns out that she passed but is really wanting to wait a little more, we felt bummed but also really peaceful about it and she will be baptized here in two weeks. We have been working so hard this week and praying a lot. We had a little miracle in that a recent convert brought her friend to church! I love it when members reach out to people! Speaking of that, on Sunday night we had a branch fireside! it was about missionary work and the branch president had us give a training for the entire fireside! We did pratices with the members, haha they felt a little uncomfortable at first but it was good as they were able to practice and see how it feels to invite someone to come to church, to meet with the missionaries, and to really just open their mouths. It was great and we had some people share really great experiences. These members just have to remember, lmost every single one is a convert to the church. At the end we had someone play the piano and we distributed papers and had every person/family write down three names of people who we can teach and the address/info if they had it with them. It was wonderful. So we ended up getting 42 referrals last night!!!!! We are so psyched! It was a wonderful experience and several members came up to us afterwards asking if we could go on visits with them this week to these people! We are being blessed and we know that as these members show faith they will be blessed ands this branch will grow.

Today we found out about transfers and Elder Singleton got transferred and is going to be comps with Elder Frazier, an elder from my MTC group/district who got to Brasil three weeks ago. My new companion is Elder J. Silva. I am really excited! I have heard he is just the most humble and obedient missionary in the mission and i am psyched! It is going to be good and President called and said we are going to have miracles here, we are really excited. I am also really glad and excited for General COnference, it is going to be so wonderful. I know that God has called  a prophet today and twelve apostles. I know that the heavens are open and we just have to listen what God is telling us. I am so grateful that I will be able to listen to these inspired men and women this weekend. 

Well, love you all, open your mouths!!

Elder Carney

Itapeva! 9/14

9/15/14- This last week has been super full! On Monday night I was able to do a split with Elder Matthews because of some baptismal interviews and that went really well and it was nice to work with my friend for the last time. That Preparation Day we also may have had an ice cream eating challenge between companionships... and yes my competitiveness got to me and yes, we did destroy. Haha it was kind of fun to see which set of missionaries could eat 2 liters of ice cream the fastest... and we destroyed! 6:19. Yep, we felt not so great afterwards but it was fun.

On Tuesday we went to the office for transfers and I met up with my new comp, his name is Elder Singleton and he is from Ohio. He is a tall lanky blonde american, so now there are two tall lanky blond Americans in Itapeva. Haha just about everyone talks to us here to find out about the US, it has been interesting thus far. We left the mission office at about 2:30 PM on Tuesday and got into our area at 10:15 PM that night. It was crazy. We are just super far away from everything out here!! We spent our time waiting in bus terminals and on the bus rides planning for the next day and planning our Zone training that happened on Wednesday and it went really well. There are only two other smaller cities that have missionaries in our zone, but each area is huge and has several cities in the them. We are excited, we really are trying hard to be exactly obedient, we need all the help we can get and we know that as we are obedient we receive the blessings of God. I know that God knows where these people are that are ready for baptism, we need to do our part so He will guide us to them. On Thursday we planned a split with Itararé, the farthest area in our mission and I went there to get to know their area and their needs. It is just tiny there, it cracked me up! But we worked really hard and were able to have some success. I was with Elder Irineu so it was nice to work with him again, he is the District Leader so we were able to work hard and teach each other. 

We have been opening our mouths and talking to seriously just about everyone! Everyone. There are about 90,000 people here in Itapeva and we tried so hard to talk and teach as many people as possible this week. We are teaching well and trying hard. Elder Singleton knows this area really well and is passing along as much information to me as possible so that I can get to know the area quickly. We had a baptism this last weekend, it was really great. A young couple were baptized, their names are Rodrigo and Vanessa and they are so great. It was wonderful getting to know them last week and being able to see the joy that the gospel has brought them. The branch was really helpful and a ton of people showed up to the baptism here. We were really pleased and grateful. They both said they felt so good after the baptism and on Sunday they were happy as well being confirmed.  On Sunday several families here that usually come didn´t come to church for various reasons and there were still 72 people in total at church! This branch could totally be a ward, but it is the biggest in the region so the others are all pretty small!

We invited everyone to come to church this week and on Sunday morning we were everywhere inviting people and passing by the houses of investigators who said they would come with us. It was kind of heartbreaking, not a single one came. We had been praying so so much and everyone fell through. So we came back to teach Gospel Principles class. Now rewind to Friday. We were in a part of the neighborhood we usually don't work a ton in and I saw this little old lady sweeping the sidewalk next to her house, so we did a contact and I felt like I needed to tell her about family history and ask if she new her great grandfather´s name. We told her she could find out through the church and she said to us that that was her great desire in her life, to get to know more about her family. It was incredible. So we told her she just needed to come to church on Sunday to get to know the people there who could help her. So go back to Sunday when no one had come. During Sacrament meeting in walks the same little old lady!!! She walked in and sat next to us and listened and at the end was talking to all the members and we marked a day for her to come to the family history center here and work with some members!! It was a miracle. We were so grateful. Heavenly Father really did help us and touched this little old ladies heart to come and learn more at Christ´s church. It was great. So we did our absolute best and when that wasn´t enough, God blessed us.

It has been good here thus far, we are just throwing ourselves at the work. There is a lot to be done and we are trying our best. The members here are so used to having a branch for so long that a lot of them don´t believe they can have a stake here, we are hoping to help change that feeling and help them really believe and do the things that show their faith. Well, love you all, have a great week!

Elder Carney

 9/8/14-    Well my second week in Ariston went really well. I love this area, and it is just full of hills, haha so many steep crazy hills. And it is covered EVERYWHERE with houses, it blows my mind to see how many people live here. I had a couple moments this week when I could look out on the city and see all the houses and just think about how many people there are here that need to hear the Gospel. 

It was a good week, we worked hard and were trying our best to prepare some great investigators for baptism. One of our investigators, Claudina, is wonderful. Her daughter is serving a mission right now and her other daughter is a less active member of the church. She never really accepted the Gospel and when I got here Elder Gimenez had been teaching her for a while. She has had such a mighty change of heart, it has been incredible to see. She was always really hesitant to get baptized and really nervous and this last week she just had such confidence and peace of mind, the Spirit truly worked in her heart. We are also teaching her sister who lives next door to her (who lives next door to us) and her sister was able to come and see her get baptized. It was such a great baptismal service, it was the day before the year anniversary of their mother´s death. She´s a champ, she is going to be a blessing to her family and I am sure her daughter is going to be happy to find out. She was excited to get confirmed on the anniversary. 

Last week I was able to go on a couple splits, haha I have been able to get to know my area really well because it seems like we always have to go on splits with the other elders here. We went on a split on Saturday with a Young Man in the ward named Kevin, he is great, just really socially awkward and super shy. We went with him and I invited him during a couple lessons to bear his testimony to the investigators and you could tell he was really nervous but he did a great job. I don't know if the investigators will progress or not, but either way it was so good for him. His parents came up to us and thanked us for working with him and on Sunday he bore his testimony about missionary work, it was cool to see. 

This last week was good, we just worked hard and were praying a lot to help this people and achieve the goals we set as a companionship and as a zone. The members here are great, they really help with the missionary work. 

Today I got a phone call from President and I got transferred! I am going to be a Zone Leader in an area called Itapeva. Remember when I was in Itapetininga? Haha well Itapeva is another like two hours away from Itapetininga, even farther away!There is only one other area that is farther away in the mission. So it is going to be very very different from Ariston. I am excited, President told me that he wants to create a Stake there (they are districts that are a part of the mission right now) and so that is our goal in working there. I am excited, it is going to be a challenge but I know that is where I need to be right now. So I will be transferred tomorrow and get there and start working my tail off!

That is about it for this week, just loving the mission as usual. I feel so so blessed to be here, I am eternally grateful to be a missionary.

Love you all!

Elder Carney

9/2/14  Man it feels like so so much has happened since the last time I sent an email to you all. It was a long week, but it just flew by! Haha so the moral of the story of this email is that this area is super great. Just fantastic. Haha I am loving it here. It is kind of just only hills which has been making me feel pretty fit again! Loving that. Last week we were able to work our tails off. On Tuesday my comp had to go to a meeting in São Paulo so I did a split with another elder who is from my group but I don´t know really well, his name is Elder Ihasz. His comp went to the meeting as well and the LZ´s decided we would work together for the day and in my area... which I don´t know at all! Haha it was an adventure! But we rocked it! We just spent the whole day trying to contact old investigators, less actives, and find new investigators. We were so blessed, it was humbling to see how merciful the Lord is. We worked super hard and had a great and successful day. So woo hoo! And Elder Ihasz is great so it was good to get to know him a little better. 

On Wednesday we had a great day and we went to the house of an investigator who had stopped progressing recently and who had already been to church three times and seminary. We went there and I met her and then we called her to repentance... haha we invited her to be baptized and promised her the blessings that she would receive. And she accepted! So that was a miracle! We were really excited for her, her name is Bruna. 

On Thursday we had a Zone Conference with Elder Aidukaitis, who is the 2nd Counselor of the Brazil Area. It was so great. He let us ask him questions and even did some practices with us to show us how to be more effective teachers and better servants of God. It was really uplifting and I felt the Spirit really strongly.

On Friday Bruna was interviewed and then her parents decided at the last minute that they didn´t want her to be baptized, which broke our hearts. So we called some members to go and talk with the parents and they went and the parents changed their minds! So Saturday morning Bruna got baptized and it was such a spiritual baptismal service. We were really happy. On Sunday she unfortunately decided to travel, even after a lot of encouraging and testifying from us and the members, so she is going to get confirmed this Sunday instead. 

After church we had a great lesson with another investigator named Bruno, he had a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation, and it was such a great lesson, the Spirit was present and it was wonderful to see his understanding. We are teaching like madmen here and trying our best and truly trying to offer our all to the Lord. I love working, haha I am so tired, but so happy! I love it.

Well thanks for everything, today we went to the temple and it was such a great experience, very needed and now I feel re energized and rested spiritually.

Love  you all!

Elder Carney

Transferência! August 25, 2014

Well this kind of strange writing email just a couple of days after i wrote the last time!! I am enjoying it here already! On Saturday we were able to get everything ready for Rogerio´s baptism, it was really special. Haha there was a slight accident with the baptismal font, but we got everything all cleaned up before the baptism, so that was great, very grateful that Heavenly Father answers the prayers of desperate missionaries.

The baptism went well, I baptized Rogerio and it was special. The heater is broken for the font so the water is super cold. Haha we have asked for it to be fixed but that hasn´t happened yet so it was another cold baptism. Rogerio was kind of worried about it but afterwards he said he didn´t feel any cold and he felt really warm and good as he went into the water. We were really happy for him, they are such a great couple. They set a goal to be sealed a year from now and invited me to it already... haha we will see but that would be awesome!

Also this keyboard is really bad, so sorry ahead of time if there aren´t any spaces for some words!

So on Sunday we went and it was really good. A lot of people came to church which was nice because I was able to say goodbye to them. Church went well, one of my investigators, Gabriel, the brother of Thaís came and is really firm for getting baptized here at the end of the week. Bummer that I won´t be there, but I am glad that he is staying firm and will start on this wonderful path.

I was able to give a talk on Sunday, I found out at the beginning of the meetings because one of the speakers was sick. So i was the last speaker and when I got up there was 35 minutes left in the meeting... haha so I was just a little nervous but it actually went really well, another answer to a desperate missionaries´prayer. I spoke on the Atonement and Missionary Work and spoke on the examples of prophets from the Book of Mormon who repented and changed their lives and then had the desire to share the joy they felt through the gospel with other people. It went well, I felt guided by the Spirit. It also was sweet to talk about, it is so true, when we apply the Atonement in our lives, we naturally have a desire to share that grandest of all blessings with others. I love the mission for that, I get to talk to others all day about how they can be clean from their sins, be forgiven, and be perfected in Christ so that one day they can be with their families forever. It´s wonderful.

Rogerio got confirmed which was also really great, it was such a tender mercy to be able to stay in Tucuruvi for just one more week in order to see that happen.

After church I took pics with a ton of the families from the ward and my investigators and recent converts. It was pretty hard, I will truly miss that ward. It was hard but super great.

Then I got here!! I met my comp, Elder Gimenez, from Argentina, which reminds me a lot of my trainer, ElderMussin. He is a great missionary. We are in Ariston, which is part of the Capitol still. They are tons of people here, it´s crazy. It is in a city Carapicuíba,which has one of the densest populations on the planet, or at least they say that here! There are so many people here,it is so great as a missionary, I just eat it up! We are teaching a lot of people here and I am really excited. The ward here wants to split really soon and the members are all super excited and want to work hard with the missionaries. Also, we live in the same house as two other sets of missionaries, one of them being Elder Matthews! He was one of the APs almost the whole time I was in the office and is one of my best friends on the mission, so that has been fun thus far. Even though I am only going to be here for a short period, I am really going to like it here and I know that I am here for a purpose.

On Thursday we are going to have a mission tour with Elder Aidukaitis (or something like that, haha his name is difficult to spell), he is from the first quorum of the seventy and is the second counselor in the Brasil Area Presidency.We are all really excited, it is going to be really great.

Well,that is about it, love you all and my P-Day next week is going to be on Tuesday because of the temple! Woo hoo, love you all!

Elder Carney