I AM ALIVE!! 9/23/15

I AM ALIVE!!!!!

Sept 23, 2015

Hello familia and friends!!!

Well, we had an earthquake here!!!! An 8.5 and guess what, we didn’t even feel it!!! We were in the streets rushing to get to an appointment because we were super late (I hate being late!) and we totally missed it!!!! I was so mad when we saw all these people going crazy and yeah freaking out and we were like, what the heck is going on!!! All these dogs barking and people freaking out. And I missed it!!! But, right after, we felt replicas (aftershocks) and they were so sweet!!! It is the weirdest feeling!!! And these last until today too, they will keep lasting. Just moments throughout the day everything will start to shake and it’s sweet! For like 3 nights straight they woke me up though, although that is easy with all the dogs barking, Chileans fighting in our department area and how thin the walls and windows are! So yeah, super crazy!!! Sadly people died and that is never good, but yeah!

Well it was the 18th of September this week and it was super crazy! It is like 4th of July in the states, and all these people just dancing the quaka (their national dance) and empanadas FOR DAYS!!! I like the emps with quesso, but the others ones, gosh, SO many. So much meat. We had a party at the Capilla and it was really good! Our investigator family came and it was really great!!! They dance a lot here, super weird dances but cool! 

This past week was super slow for us. Everyone just doesn’t care when it comes to the 18th, they just want to have fun and party! So we didn’t teach like, any lessons. But we still got some and yeah, it was a good week! 

Spanish, of course, yeah. Sometimes I just feel like I will NEVER learn this language, and how long a journey I have. But other times, I feel like I can do it. It is coming. Step by step. Spanish is so hard. Chilean Spanish is hard I should say, because some Chileans (especially those without teeth) I cannot understand ANYTHING!!! Just kind of smile and say yes! Haha but yeah, day by day. 

 

So a cool thing happened. An investigator asked me to pray in English, and so I did it and I like, couldn’t speak English!! I kept saying, y and con and por favor as filler words and it was just insane!!! I was low key freaking out haha so excited!!! That means something is working. But it was just the weirdest feeling. So weird!!!

Our sector is good! Man, it is so hard getting people to come to church. So hard. And with how much Chileans work, they just work their lives away, and it’s so sad. 

Anyway, I have a challenge for all of you. Read joseph smith testimony, read the introduction en el libro de Mormon, (The Book of Mormon) it is amazing. The book has so much power. The testimonies have so much power. We have this book, that can change people’s lives, and yet we don’t share it! We don’t share it with others, and why not!!!! Open your mouths, share your testimony, bring others unto Christ, let them feel of this happiness, This amazing, beautiful happiness!!! 

Boom. All is well here. I am taking it day by day. God is good. Carpe the crap out of life. 

Elder Carney 

9/16/15 THE PURGE! What a week!

9/16/15

WHAT A WEEK!! THE PURGE

Hello Family!!!

So last week we had what I call the Purge! Which is really the 11th of September here, where it’s like a rebellion and all that. Anyways, nothing happened in our area which kind of sucked. We heard gunshots and sirens, nothing else, which that stuff is just normal. It was funny, were teaching lessons outside and these gunshots went off close to us and we just kept teaching haha, just funny! But we came in the night before the 11th and just deep cleaned everything and then the next day we just chilled. I read a lot of ensigns, the English ones I could find, and played cards, banangrams, flew kites which are super popular here, people like fight kites, played ninja with the other elders, had bro and pillow talk which was just a heart to heart and yeah, it was kind of nice to have a break not going to lie! SO nothing happened which I am sad, but all is well. I guess God protected us even though we wanted to see some action happen!

Haha well, it happened. This lady whipped it out. Yes, I am talking about breastfeeding. We were in the lesson and I was sharing a scripture about prayer, and I look up, and there is one of her 3 year old kids just going at it! Haha I just laughed a little and I kept going! It was too bad, just funny! Also, I saw a grown man pee in the street, yes, they just pee wherever they want to! No idea why, but a lot of people do it, right by the street, I don’t get it. 

There are drunk guys everywhere, EVERYWHERE and some of them are super funny and loving and just want to express their emotions, others are very mean and we have just had to ignore a lot of words they say to us and what not. But it’s just sad, to see drunk people, people just wasted at like 3 pm, just super sad.

Spiritual moment; So we have this family, the dude is named Jorge and him and his family, of 3 little kids and his wife live in this super small house thingy, and they only have one chair for their table, and so me and my comp shared their one chair while the father and everyone sat on the ground to hear our lesson. This man is just awesome. He works all day, and lives paycheck by paycheck pretty much and here he is, sitting on his cold cracked floor, in a small room, wanted to hear from two young people. Him and his whole family. The little kids opened the fridge and they had nothing in it. They had a chicken on the table and that was it. The room is like a closet, the walls are cracked and stuff, they have one other room with one bed where it looked like all of them slept, and it was just super humbling. This man sitting on the floor, giving us his chair, giving us his time and it just made me realize how blessed we are. I am so blessed. Blessed to have a full fridge, a chair, a bed to myself, a house that is insulated back home, just everything. 

Alright, we were also on divs so I went to a different sector with Elder Diaz and we went to this menos activos house, this dude who has been inactive from the church for a long long time. And he was a really nice dude, and it was about the atonement and about repentance. Later that week I was just struggling, I had a couple days of just begin so frustrated at myself because I couldn’t understand everything or say anything, I felt like I wasn’t helping at all. But then this lesson came and I feel like I needed it more than the man did. I got to share my testimony about the atonement and about forgiveness and help this man. The man was asking me questions about how to forgive and what I have done and I just felt like I actually made an impact on this man’s life. I felt the spirit so strong, it was unreal and I just felt like I made a little impact, even if it was just little, on this man’s heart. It was what  I needed, if that’s all I could do, if that’s all I can do, impact this man, that’s all worth it. I loved every second of it. Also, at the end, he was just like, WOW I am receiving revelation from Joseph Smith right now! And he kept calling me joseph because of my nose and how the light was hitting me. My dang nose! Haha but hey, it’s a compliment to me to look like joseph smith the man! But it was just really cool. I remember that during the hard times.

There have been quite a few hard times here not going to lie. I get so frustrated with the language. I screw up almost every word I can’t understand everything I just get so frustrated and put that upon myself. But always I keep trying. I think about the happiness that I have, the knowledge that I have that others don’t. And that’s not how it should be. Everyone deserves a chance to be happy, yet this happiness is not temporal. I have learned that the spirit is the teacher; the spirit is the language, not the language itself. I am learning just the have faith in that. Faith in God in everything. Faith. Something we talk about so much yet never focus on with all our heart. That is going to be one of my goals. 

I love you all!!! I hope you all are great and I just miss all of you!!!

Elder Carney

9/9/15 pictures!!!!

Sept 2, 2015 The LONGEST week of my life!

Sept 2, 2015
The LONGEST week of my life!

Wed. Sept 2, 2015

The LONGEST week of my life!

Hello Familia!!!!!

Wow. I don’t really even know where to start...ummm it was probs the longest week of my life. SO long. But hey, 1 week in the field down, BOOM. Wow, what a week. Where to begin? There is dog poop everywhere, literally everywhere, and yes, I step in it. Graffiti is everywhere. It is getting freaking hot, and it will only get hotter. The water here is nasty, makes me appreciate Colorado water so much. Side note, digestive system has taken some beating, need to get used to tons of oil and soda. Umm, my feet just hurt by the end of every day. Some guy hardcore bible bashed us. I asked a lady who was already baptized to be baptized again, had no idea she already was. YEAH! That has been my week.

We wake up every day at 7:30, because Chileans stay up so late working and go to bed late, so we go to bed at 11:30 pm. I live with 3 other Elders. They all have like 20 plus months on their missions, and yeah! Its starting to get really hot here, and the sad part is it will get SO much more hot, this is just spring. 

I had an interview, super short one with Pres. Cook and it was good! Super short, and not that much depth, but yeah! Ummm stories:

Turned a corner, a dog literally got hit by a car, and was lying in the middle of the street, in a pool of fresh blood. This cute little dog, just dead. So that was scarring...nah, but I was really sad.

First lunch at a members’ house, and they always have bananas or apples after meals, and I was showing them the thing where you split open a banana in half just by ripping it, and I ripped it but half of it FLEW over the members head and hit their cabinet, so that was cool! I just kind of sit there and try to comprehend everything that they are saying, but I can’t. So that was a fun way to start off! Haha, nah it was funny!  They were really good!

I challenged this lady to be baptized, who already was, and my comp just laughed and laughed and I had no clue! It turns out it was the other girl we were teaching who wants to get baptized! I was so confused during it! 

As for Spanish, man. I am getting humbled. I go through waves. Some days I feel good and such, then others, I can’t speak crap. I try to comprehend everything, yet Chileans speak so fast!!! SO fast. But I can comprehend a lot more than I can speak, so counting my blessings. I just need like, 1 year! And all the people in the US or elsewhere English speaking, BE GRATEFUl!!!! Haha I miss it! We actually taught this lady in English, as I was in another division doing splits for a day with a Zone leader, and it MADE my life!!! So happy about it. God was looking out for me, I needed it! 

Oh my first Sunday here was good! All Spanish! And here, you get up during sacrament and introduce yourself, the new missionaries! So I did and it was great! Here is the thing. This mission is hard. This mission is not like Brazil. The average members every Sunday are like, 50. And that’s normal in Chile. It’s just so sad! People were baptized without having a clue what it even is! And now we are building it back up, trying to retain people!

One day we were walking and just got rejected, SO much. All day, just nothing. It was hot. I was so mad at myself with the language, I felt like I couldn’t say anything and I have this message, this beautiful message and I can’t even speak it! SO after bottling in everything all day, I was just done. I just said a pray in my heart, to just let me find one person. Just get into a house. And at last, we met Pablo! What a gem. I love him. We are now teaching him. God listens to prayers.

The people here don’t go to church because of work. They work SO much, so long. And they get paid like nothing. People are living pay check by paycheck. It’s been humbling. Some of these houses we go into, are very humbling. So small. Some dirt floors. Some don’t have bathrooms. Tin roofs. Man, I am just so blessed. I am blessed to be out here teaching. The mission is hard. It’s exhausting. But these people, they are so loving. I love these people, even when they yell at us, reject us, almost everything. 

I love my family! I miss all of you greatly. God is amazing. The spirit, amazing. God cares and loves you. He has a plan for every one of his children. 

Peace and Blessings!

Elder Carney