Nov 11. 18 & 25! Catch up blog!

Nov. 11, 2015

Hola Familia!!

Hello mi familia! How is everyone doing!?

So this week, has been super long. Really tired. My allergies are turning on like crazy too so that hasn’t been fun. And its starting to get hot here which I thought I could do, but man, it gets HOT. 

So this Pday was just another day of missionary work it felt like, we just went around and my comp is saying goodbye to people and what not, because he leaves for home on Monday! So yeah, it is happening. I will be not only leading my sector, but also another one too, with a new comp, so PLEASE pray for me! I need all the help I can get. It’s really stressful but I know I can do it! But yeah, pray. 

Hmm what has happened this week? Another tremblor happened, super strong, at like 4am and they are just really cool! The earth is just shaking super strong and dogs go crazy barking everywhere and it’s just cool, I love them! People have a ton of fear here of them though. 

We had a baptism for one of our investigators, Juan! He is really old, and has a walker thing but he was baptized! It was really good! He can’t really read nor comprehend much, but he was crying saying how happy he was with this, how excited he was to get baptized! So yeah, that was cool!

Mentally, it was a hard week. It is hard living with 3 guys who are all leaving. It’s hard with everyone asking how I am doing, how prepared I am. It’s hard just being a missionary in general. But all is well! Mentally, really hard, but all is well!

We are teaching a guy in English, he want to know English and practice with us, so we got him folletos and Book of Mormon in English for him and are teaching the lessons to him and it’s been really fun for me! We showed him the Joseph Smith first vision video, the Restoration and he totally changed his beliefs, he said he gets it now and how he would have to pray about it! That’s a challenge here, people are never home, never do their homework, their commitments, and never go to church!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 

Above all, never lose faith in your Father in heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend. 

I love this quote. Everyone remember that. Tell it to everyone. We are never alone. We also have someone who believes in us, who sees our eternal potential, even when nobody else can. He loves us so much. SO freaking much! 

So the gospel is cool. Go preach it.  Wish I did it more when I was in high school, given this knowledge and testimony to my friends and just to everyone. So DO IT. Just DO IT, preach it to everyone!!!

So yeah that was my week. I am excited for my next comp hopefully it’s a Latino! And just pray for me! Love you all, miss you all like a fat kid loves cake! 

Elder Carney

Nov. 18, 2015

LIFE JUST GOT REAL!

Well family, excuse my language, but. SHIZ JUST GOT REAL. Haha so I will tell you why. I killed 3 people in my house this week, they all went home from the mission, so it was kind of sad time yet also cool, it was good. They are great guys, really learned a lot. But then at change meeting, I found out who my next comp is going to be...ELDER MASER!!! Yeah, the same guy who is in my group, who is from Colorado, who I was friends with at BYU, who when he got his mission call we were walking up to B9 and I told him how sick it would be if he got called to my mission, and now, we are comps!!! We got lost in Atlanta together with Elder Brown as well on our way to Atlanta, that little adventure! And now, we are not only fresh out of training, we are greenie-breaking each other AND taking on another sector, another part which none of us know the people...so, PRAY FOR US. Lord, help us. Haha I am excited yet still shocked. President said to us after that that is the same thing that happened to him on his mission, so I don’t know why he feels this is right but hey, we are going to give it a shot! Haha his Spanish is better than mine, but yeah, I think it is going to be really hard, really hard, but it can also be really good! I hope! Haha pray for us!!! And it’s also just us 2 living in the apartment together, no one else! 
> 
> So life just got real. It’s going down for real! This Pday, we literally just put on hiking clothes, went to the micro (subway) and got on a train and just adventured, we went to St. Cristobal, hiked it up! It was great, hiking a mountain (sort of..in the city, more of a hill) with 2 stray dogs following us, not having any clue where we are going! It was beautiful, the kind of adventure I LIKE! SO PRAY FOR US!!! Haha that’s pretty much all that happened this week. I love you all, PLEASE WRITE ME LETTERS!!! Or emails, any one! LOVE LOVE LOVE
> 
> Elder Carney

Nov. 25, 2015

TRUCKING 4 JESUS

Hello family! So I just wanted to start out with a story today during PDay at a little supermarket, we were just shopping for food when this gringo man, mid 40os or 50s comes up and starts speaking in English to us, this gringo dude! And after a little chat he told us he had cancer, and doesn’t really know much time he had left. It just hit me, I just wanted to cry as this man, Bill, was telling us about his life story and all the things he learned and appreciates in life, especially know that it is ending. He isn’t Mormon, he was just a normal guy in the supermarket, just another bystander, yet we had NO idea what he was going through. Before all of this, I just was super frustrated. I was frustrated with Spanish, how I just don’t get it, how slow it is taking me it feels like, and just with life, just felt super overwhelmed and just didn’t care, and then Bill told me this and I just welled up. I needed to hear it. I needed a reminder, that people are struggling, that we don’t know. That people have trials, things that we don’t even know about, just people in the store, in cars, just normal people, or so we think so. Yet everyone has a story. EVERYONE. Everyone has their own problems, their own trials, and bill reminded me how good my life is. How precious life is. How at peace he was with him dying, just living his life to the best he could, helping others. I just really needed it. And I feel like we all need to remind ourselves how beautiful life is. How we need to treat others equally, NO MATTER WHAT. Just a super humbling experience in which h I needed. I really needed it. 

So this week was really tiring. I am just really tired. We are taking on another sector on top of ours, which has been really rewarding .We have been super packed, like it’s incredible. Our little garden of Covarrubias, Gran Avendia in Santiago Chile is being harvested, we have a baptism this coming Saturday!!! Constanza, who is 19 yrs. old and she is super cool! So we are excited! But yeah, I am tired! 

This week, has been overwhelming! Haha I have kind of never felt so inadequate with my Spanish, it’s been hard not going to lie. Elder Maser is like, fluent, and I am just the driver of the struggle bus! Haha have been my whole life! Haha love it! No but it’s hard, which is why we can’t compare ourselves to others. Life lessons number 2 this week! One of my favs quotes, COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY. It so true. I can’t compare my progress to anyone elses, just be me. Keep on keeping on. That’s all we can do at some points. SO BE YOU. Boom, life lessons by Elder Carney. 

This week was really good .We are teaching a lot and just trying to love all the people. We had a capilla abierta, an open chapel and just invited a ton of people to come explore the chapel, had stands of everything’s set up and baptismal font and just everything and didn’t really get any people there, but those who came it was really good!!! That was my week! Please pray for me! I love you all. God loves you all. He is right beside us. We just need to reach out and sometimes, let him in, let him do it, let his love encircle us, he is there. I love you all with all my heart. I am doing good, carrying my own cross, my little cross compared to what Christ had to carry. He is the man. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Elder Carney

Funny Story/Josh Groban!! Oct 21,28 & Nov 4 2015

Oct 21, 2015 Well Hello!!

Oct. 21, 2015  Funny Story
Dear Family & friends -
So first things first, how are all of you!? 

This week has been good. I got to confirm Jacqueline, our recent convert with the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting this Sunday, it was super cool! Yes, I nailed the ordination right in Spanish, the blessing after, not so much, but it was great! Super cool experience, I am just blessed. Blessed she even asked me to do it, and just love that family. They are my second family here, love them!!! They remind me a lot of our family, and I told them they always have a place at our house if they come and visit the US, they are just incredible! 

Well, funny story! We were on divisions, so I was with our zone leader, Elder Despain in their zone in Gran Avendia, Los Nogales, and we had this appointment with this guy, and he just keep going on and on telling stories and what not and near the end we were just super tired ha-ha kind of sick of him talking, and then he just started to sing, out of nowhere, and just loudly and staring at us! Ha-ha he had a good voice, it was alright, but he was telling us how he won so many competitions and what not, and Elder Despain was like, ¨You know what, Elder Carney is INCREDIBLE, in fact, I went to his concert, yeah, concert before the mission. In fact, I have a song by him on our phone!¨ and the guy turned to me and I just went with the flow, and was like, yes I write and perform songs. Ha-ha and then Despain pulled up this song on his phone, the one and only Josh Groban, the Don’t Give Up song. And the guy, was listening to the intro with the instruments, then when Josh Groban, or Brad Carney as Despain put in the phone, start singing, the guy just looked up at me SHOCKED: his face was priceless!!! He was amazed! Ha-ha he thought it was me! Ha-ha and he now wants me, or Josh Groban , to sing at his baptism! Ha-ha so that was just funny I couldn’t stop from laughing, so this guy still things I am a prodigy! Ha-ha it was good!

This Pday we climbed Santa Lucia, just a hill in the middle of the city, not really a hill but yeah super pretty, it was cool! The smog was cool too, ha-ha the air here is awful! 

It has been on and off raining and sunshine, hasn’t hit summer quit yet which is super rare here apparently. But yeah, the house of TRUNKY (3 elders leaving this change) is going good! 

(Honestly, it’s been really hard sometimes, to try to focus and just everything, but all is well. I have a ton of support and all that, I did ask president for a Latino comp because my Spanish just feels like it isn’t progressing, all me and my comp is speak English in the street, ha-ha so yeah that’s my little vent sesh, I JUST WANT TO SPEAK SPANISH!!! But all is well!)

This week was good, so yeah, we are working hard and just trying to do our best. It’s hard. Missionary work is hard. Ha-ha it sucks sometimes, not going to lie. But there are moments when it is great. I try to cherish those moments when we have them. Yeah, I dont know what else to say this week! Ha-ha hopefully more stories next week, sorry this email isn’t that good!

That is my life! I am just here in Chile, ha-ha living life and trying to serve the Lord. Nada mas! Mother, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I miss all of you, write me and send me pictures, tell me about all your lives and dreams and everything!!! I miss you all greatly, I hope you know that! DONT FORGET ME!!!
Elder Carney

Oct. 28, 2015  Well What a week!

Hello Familia!

I am trying to think of the things that have happened this past week and I just can’t! Ha-ha for first right now I am SUPER tired. I don’t know why, I feel like everything is catching up to me! This Pday we just did shopping for my comp because he is leaving, buying recuerdos and what not, so it wasn’t really all that much fun ha-ha kind of sucked, but ah well! These next few ones he is going to say goodbye to all his people he wants to say goodbye too, I am just kind of here ha-ha but all is well. Man I’m tired!

Hmmm I have like pink eye or some kind of eye infection, just in one eye, so that’s kind of cool! I got eye drops though and I hope it’s going away! This past week has been good! We have this one family, the two girls want to get baptized and they are just great, I just hope the mother allows them too and she is kind of really firm. But through prayer, everything is possible! 

At times, the mission is just hard. Just plain hard. I don’t know how to explain it, but it just is. This past week has been a little frustrating just with everything at times, with my comp and with the area and people and just myself. But I am here to testify that we need to look inward. I need to knock my little pride down, because it’s not little, I am a prideful son of a gun. I don’t think I show it or express it, but in my mind I am and its awful!!! So I will be working on that!

I don’t know what else to really say this week, I am really sorry! I am tired and my Spanish sadly feels like it’s going backwards, just feel stagnant. Blessings of having a gringo comp to speak English in the street all day! But I know that someday I will be able to speak! Ha-ha isn’t that what faith is for? This week was just the same thing as any other week, ha-ha just living the missionary life! 

I am EXTREMLY sad I am missing fall right now, SO sad! I LOVE FALL!!! And Halloween, they don’t really celebrate it here, I don’t know I will tell you next week how it goes! But yeah, please someone watch a movie for me with Starbucks and snuggle, ahhh  or go for a run with all the leaves and the crisp air. DANG!!! Ha-ha someone do it for me, ok? Well family, I just wanted to tell you all I love you a lot. Like, a lot a lot, and I just love hearing from all of you! Makes my day! Well, my hour and 15 min I get ha-ha to write family. I love you all!!!!

God is good. He hears our prayers. Everything will work out. Hold strong. 

Elder Carney

Nov. 4, 2015

So hello everyone!

Well this Pday we have done nothing but walked around visiting people for my comp and saying goodbye, because he is leaving in 2 weeks. So it has kind of not been fun, at all, but all is well. Just have to do it another week also. Hmm.

Life is going good. Better. 

Our sector is going good. We have a baptism this week for this really old guy Juan. He had a stroke and is regaining his strength but he wants to be baptized! He doesn’t really retain info that well, but he has a testimony with is really cool! So I will tell you all how that goes!

Hmmm Spanish is an adventure none the less. I really  hope I get a Latino comp, because my Spanish it feels is not progressing at all. I hope so! But hey, so be it if I am lost for 2 years, no worries! No things are good

This week has been good. I am really trying to focus more on our investigators who are not really progressing. We have investigators which is good in the first place, but some of them my comp has been teaching for like 8 months, and not progressing. So that has been hard, to kind of remotivate and reamp everything. ENERGY!!! I need energy. It is hard at times, being happy. I love being happy. But when I am not happy, I don’t like that. And this is the gospel of happiness, and I need to be happier! So I’m gonna be happy dangit! 

Other than that, the ward is good. Some incredible people. It’s frustrating at times, because there is so much Gossip. SO much. And I HATE it! So like Pres Uchtdorf said, JUST STOP IT! I need to get better about it myself. I really do. Because everyone is a child of God, and who am I to judge others? We all have our own problems and everything, and that is my Godly council this week, for all of us to work on. Because man I am just done with it! I don’t know why, but people just tell us everything and gossip about anyone and everyone to us, ha-ha I hate it! So yeah. Rant done

I am learning .I am progressing. Slowly. Learning patience. Learning love. Learning to follow Christ, his example. It’s hard, not going to lie. Being a member of this church, being a follower, a believer of CHrist, is hard. It sucks sometimes. But it’s worth it. He has felt our pain. He knows our souls. He is here for us, ALWAYS. We just have to reach out to him. Have faith in him. Show him. 

I love all of you, hasta ver!

Elder Carney

Catch up letters!! 9/30-10/14

Mom Note- I've been out of town recently & not able to update his blog,so here are Brad's last 3 letters!  Sorry!  Don't tell him!!! :)

Sept 30, 2015 Hola Familia!!!!

Hello everyone!!!

Wow I don’t know where to start. Today was Pday, in which my house the other 3 elders we decided to get out of Santiago and we went and hiked this hill, called La Bellena, and it’s called the whale tail. It’s just this hill, outside of our mission (thank goodness we get to leave, our mission is SO small! we can go an hour outside of our house pretty much) and it was AMAZING. I miss hiking and fresh air and just feeling the sun and in normal clothes, AH I miss it!!! It was so nice. So nice to actually exercise and feel like I was doing something, and enjoying it!!! The view was really good, so close to the Andes Mountains and yeah it was just great!!! Then were at the top, and of course we were not going to go down where we came from, so we went down this other half and walked to this river, which I forgot the name of, but we just explored the river and walked in fields and yeah, super tranquillo and beautiful, we don’t get that in our area! Haha turns out the river, the part we were in, we were not supposed to be there, woops. We never saw a sign, we went in a different way! But it was so nice, I felt like I was back in CO adventuring and being myself!!! Haha it was a prime Pday!

Well this week we watched the funereal of Elder Scott, and we were watching it in English at the beginning, then something happened and it was all Spanish after that. It’s just not the same watching stuff in Spanish. Like Mormon messages and talks, it’s just weird because it’s a translator’s voice, not the actual ones! Anyways, it was really good. I just pray I can watch conference in English; they usually allow it for people with 3 or less months in the mission, so pray that I can! I just want to be spiritually edified, not lost and confused and yeah, but if it’s all in Spanish, pray for me as well that I can understand at least something!

Super excited for General Conference, it will be great!!!

This week, we worked pretty hard to invite people and commit people to come to church, and we were so hopeful, hoping to have a really good meeting and what not and nobody came. None of our investigators. So I was kind of disappointed, just so frustrating! SO hard to get people to church. But we will not give up.

The members in the ward are really good, really great people! It’s been a little hard with some though, I feel like I just can’t connect nor understand a lot of them, and they don’t really have mercy on me and how I am trying to learn their language and trying my best but that’s all good! Hopefully their hearts can be softened.

Me and my comp are working hard, some days it’s rough. We have to watch the preach my gospel videos, the district and all that, and it’s just so funny. I love those videos a ton, but they are SO different from reality, from where we are. In the videos it has like, oh we had 9 lessons today and 3 baptisms for this week. Here, yeah, Oh we had all of our appointments fall through and walked for 8 hours and have no baptism! Haha but all is well! Those videos are great, but I can’t wait to be done with my training. And yeah, I am almost only halfway through...rough.

That’s like here! Here in Covarrubias! I want everyone to go read 3 Nephi 11, when Christ came to the Americas. It’s so powerful. But I mostly want everyone to read and focus on Joseph Smith. We had a lesson by President Cook and Hermana Cook about Joseph Smith and the power of it, how it is through him we have the restored gospel, how much he changed everything, the world changed. I am super grateful for Jose Smith and for his sacrifice. I always remember standing in Carthage, in the room where he died, and the window, and just bawling the first time we went to Nauvoo. That is where I gained my testimony in fact. I will always remember it. I am so thankful for Joseph Smith, he was a prophet, and his words have SO much power. READ JSH this week. Do it.

I love you guys!!! Life is good. Spanish is a struggle. Always, Pero estoy tratando! Someday, hopefully I can get it. Right now, just patience. One step at a time. I love you guys!!! Please tell me about your lives when you can! I miss you all like crazy and pray for you daily!!!            

 Love, Elder Carney

Oct 7, 2015  General Conference

Hola mi familia! 

Wow. This week. General Conference. Guess what? I GOT TO WATCH IT IN ENGLISH!!!!! It was amazing!!! Praise the Lord. At first they didn’t have anything set up, because honestly nobody cares and the members can be brutal, but I freaking asked around and asked the stake president and they had a TV set up in English just hidden in a closet, in this little room. SO me and elder Maciel from Uruguay watched it in English!!! His English is pretty good and it’s SO much better in English than it is a translator’s voice. I really needed that spiritual boost, really bad. I screwed up in a lesson and told them, Tenemos conferencia GENIAL which is awesome, instead of GENERAL, but hey, it is awesome, both work!!!

I loved it. I never needed it more in my life. I just soaked up every word in I could get. My favorite talks were from Holland about mothers, man I teared up hardcore, I just wanted to hug you mom! And then Allen D Haynie about being clean, and Neill F Marriott, the women (which I didn’t fall asleep) she did an amazing job, super sincere and I just loved the motto, It will all work out. 

That might be the motto for my life. For every day here and for all that can occur, both good and bad. No matter what, it will all work out. 

The language, man. I just at some points want to give up. It’s so frustrating. It’s frustrating when others don’t understand too. I am here, 19 year old trying to share my testimony, my love for this beautiful thing and I can’t! I feel like I am going backwards sometimes too, like my progress is decreasing and it’s been hard this week. I feel stagnant and I hate that feeling. But hey, it will all work out. All is well. I know I can do it. I will NOT be able to do it without the Lords help, I know at some point, heck might take 2 years, and I will be able to speak with people. For now, just riding the struggle bus! 

One of our investigators Jaqueline is getting baptized this Sunday!!!!! Super excited! She is 15 and she is just amazing. I didn’t do anything, me and my comp didn’t, it was purely God. She is incredible. But my comp extended his mission to train me (just 6 weeks) and he never baptized anyone here, and she asked him to do it and it was really cool, I feel like he was meant to stay here and I am happy for him to have this, he just cried when he found out. 

So yeah, one of our guys in our department (apartment) got changed, Elder Maciel (mi amor) he is the best, love that guy. But now we have a new guy who, guess what, is finishing his mission with not only my trainer in 6 weeks, but also his companion, which means, I am killing (means they are leaving) 3 PEOPLE. 3 people in my house, gone. These are their last weeks. And yeah, that either means they are whitewashing our sector which I will stay in, OR they are cutting the other dudes half of the sector and giving it to just 2 people, me and some other person. Really intimidating. Like super. But all is well! I guess we will see! Heck I’m still clueless when it comes to my sector, but I know I can do anything!!!! We will see!!! 

Well, much love familia! I love you all so much. SO much. Here are some of my favorite quotes from conference 

He understands it all. Perfectly.

It{s for all of us. All who will ask for it.

If you want more, reach up, not across.

HALFWAY DONE WITH TRAINING (praise the lord.)

Elder Carney

SHALOM!!!      Oct. 14, 2015

Hello Familia!!!!

Wow. This week. Hmmm what a crazy one. I don’t know where to begin. We had a baptism!!!!!!!!!!! We baptized Jacqueline Gonzalez, a 15 year old we have been teaching, well God has been teaching. She is incredible. Truly. Like I feel like I didn’t even teach her, she just already knew everything. So she got baptized!!! And my comp did it too, in which he extended his mission to train me and this was his first baptism in the whole mission, and she asked him to do it and so that was an answer to his prayers. Her family, I just love. They are incredible. The mom is less active but has been coming back to church and just, I just love their family!!! So the baptism was incredible, oh and we ALSO got to clean the font beforehand. IN which that thing probs hasn’t been used in like, over a year. No joke. There were dead cockroaches and just filthy. It was disgusting. I was a little mad, haha, just; hmmm this hasn’t been touched at all...so turns out missionaries are maids also. And the font took 10 hours to fill up also. Yeah, but she is incredible!!!

What else. Chile won against Brazil in futbol, sorry not sorry Danny!!! Haha Chile killed Brazil. Guess we know what the true promised mission is.

Oh, the weirdest thing happened. I was walking down the street this past Sunday and I said hola to a guy I was walking past, and saw his shirt that had an eagle and Dakota Ridge Basketball, this polo shirt, and at first I was like, hey cool, Dakota. Then it hit me, I was like, WHAT THE HECK!?!? And it had the D-ridge eagles and everything; I like stopped and just kind of freaked out!!! Like, hey, that’s my high school, in Chile!!! Haha the weirdest thing....so weird! SO yeah, this one old Chilean dude with no teeth is rooting and supporting Dakota Ridge!!! Haha SO WEIRD!!!

The weather has been raining here, and just kind of weird. I don’t know, its throwing me off. My mood especially. But all is well!! It should be super hot, but nope, it’s been the opposite. It’s a lot like Colorado, hot and sunny some hours then next it turns.

This Pday we went bowling as a district and it was super good! Then we went to the mall and stuff in the Oeste Mission and went inside the Nike store...yeah, never again. Gosh, I was so trunky. Just saw Nike shoes and all Nike and normal clothes and I got SUPER sad for a moment, just, I wanted to wear normal clothes!!! And to top it all off, their was track and field, the Beijing 2015 meet going on and with races and everything, I just couldn’t do it. IT KILLED ME!!!

Anyway, it is happening. My house, I have 3 missionaries leaving, I am killing 3 missionaries, they are going home in November the next change, and yeah, my sector is being cut. SO it will just be me, my other comp, and with the other guys sector as well as mine. It’s stressful and intimidating, a lot. But you know, I can do it! I have the Lord on my side. Lost, yes I will be. But all is well!! I am not going to worry about it now.

So I decided my mission, my mission goal, is to submit my will to God. Yeah sounds weird, but I want to change. I feel like I need too. It’s going to be really hard, like an internal battle constantly. But I want to. I feel like I have already changed a little, but I don’t want to go home the same. I want people to see Christ like attributes that I have developed. I know it’s going to be hard, it already is. But I know I can. I wrote on my wall...So trusting my all to thy tender care, and knowing thou lovest me, I´ll do thy will with a heart sincere; I´ll be what you want me to be.

Yeah so that’s my challenge for you all. To do it with me. Because we all can become a little more like Christ, no matter what. Yeah, we will never be perfect, but we can strive to become more like him. To submit our will, our heard hearts, our firm minds, to his. To COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT. I love you all. It’s hard being a missionary. But it’s also amazing. I love it! I miss you all and pray for you daily!!! LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

Elder Carney