6 months! Updates!!

Note from Mom:- after lots of computer issues & 3 new computers :), I am finally able to update Brad's blog!  Here are the latest from January!!! 

1/21/16   6 Months!!

Shalom familia! So wow, 6 months, kind of crazy. Feels like 6 months but also it doesn’t, just weird! Still feel like a baby but whatevs! Alright so to celebrate 6 months we burned ties, I am going to download pictures on Dropbox if you guys want to go and look at them, all that! I am just going to do kind of a bullet point summary this time, just of my week and all that!

• Shaved my legs on the spot for 6 months, feeling sexy and free
• Also got a haircut by a Chilean, ha-ha got a good sopapilla
• Working with an excommunicated guy who is really awesome and wants to come back, he hung a missionary over the balcony ha-ha but he is a homie so all is well!
• We are pretty much the presidents of the young men’s
• the young men’s are just all over the place, those kids don’t have any example or respect or anything 
• The young men’s pres. is now off doing drugs, abandoned his family, and there are no counselors so that’s us!
• There is no priesthood in the ward, like no men who have it, who are worthy, which is kind of sad
• I miss normal clothes. 
• we are working with a lot of menos activos, trying to get them to come to church and come back
• We live in the ghetto; did I mention that? It’s fun have some ghetto homies, we cool
• My comp is good, I’ve had to step it up big time and kind of take lead on everything, its tiring and stressful but all is well
• I am sick and think I have strep throat, so that’s fun my throat just kills me
• OIL, just oil. I can’t do it. that’s all the food is
• Got sick to the stomach too this week, that was a heck of a lot of fun, just glad I didn’t crap my pants during lessons
• the show goes on
• I really miss boating, not sure why, just a random thought
• Its freaking hot here. frosty the snowman would be dead in a second
• I will never learn Spanish, all gringo house. It’s been fun though
• A kid threw a rock at me from a car, almost got nailed in the head, but #protectedbygod
• Just living life here in Chile. 
• I keep having dreams of Colorado, don’t know what that means, I think it’s the promised land
•  

That was pretty much my week! Ha-ha am tired, just feel sick but trying to put off the natural man and just truck for Jesus. Everything is well here! I am learning new th8ings every day, just trying to get this ward into shape. Its going to be hard these next months’ because everyone leaves and is on vacation, so like nobody is home! But all is well! I miss all of you, like crazy! Please write me! I am praying for all of you and I guess that its, ha-ha just know how much I love all of you and especially God! He is the man with the plan. 

Elder Carney

1/13/16- God.

God. Is good. Haha sorry no big letter this week, just thought I should let you all know that god knows. He is our homie. He is our friend. He will never abandon us. Oh and yeah, 6 months in the mission. WHAT IS LIFE!? Love you all!!!

Elder Carney

1/6/16-  Hello from Las Acacias

Well hello family! So I am officially in the ghetto! Haha literally, its probs the most ghetto sector! Haha there are these things called blocks, and its just run down apartments, and they are EVERYWHERE in my sector! So we printed off a list, using this program from the church, and it’s of everyone who was baptized in the area, in our sector, and yes, 22 pages, front and back full of names and addresses. 22 pages. Over 1,000 names. Just in our little sector! So we have to go visit these people and see if they even live there, and we have passed by some people who said they moved out 10 years ago, 10 years ago! Holy crap! So that’s what we are doing, visiting these people on the list, trying to update it for the system and trying to find menos activos, trying to find new people, and it’s been going good! It’s a lot of work. All of our day, well we do a lot of contacting. a lot. The work here was kind of nothing when I came, kind of dead, so we are just going to go HAM with this list. 

We are finding some new people; I hope everything will work out. We are going to be working a lot with menos activos here. There are just so many. We found a guy though, Matias, he is 26, has 3 kids already, divorced, and we met him Friday, he told us he wants to change and come back to church when he was a little kid, he remembers it was good, and he came Sunday! Showed up by himself! It was super sick! He was surprised how weak the ward was though, how no one was there ha-ha we had 50 people or so, which is, well alright! 

This past week was good. It’s been tiring. It’s been a new adventure. I feel super cool though talking to all these Flaite people, all these ghetto people ha-ha it’s a whole different language. If you can, look up Libro De Mormon in Flaite, (Book of Mormon in Flaite) or something on YouTube, it’s a returned missionary who does it and how these people talk ha-ha super accurate. So yeah! My new comp is good. He is super chill. but a good guy. He is kind of quiet, so during contacts and all that, it’s made me step up, try to connect with the people, which it’s been good! As for Spanish, shoot living in an all gringo house, it’s impossible. But all is well. Guess I will never learn Spanish ha-ha! 

So yeah life here is good. I miss all of you a ton! Just trucking for Jesus over here. It’s a new world, ha-ha I will come back a dilincuent after this area ha-ha no but all is well. I miss you all, oh still haven’t gotten the Christmas packages but all is well, maybe next week ha-ha I hope! Make sure the address is sending it to our mission office, and not the CCM. Send letters and all that to San Bernardo, our mission office one! Alright love you all. Tell me about your lives! 

LOVE YOU ALL. 

Elder Carney

12/30/15  New Year 2016, New Area, New Everything!

Hello family!!! Wow sooo skyping with you all went like super-fast and it made me really sad, and I ended it and I just couldn’t think straight for like an hour or 2, it was just so weird seeing you all and I just love you all so much. Sooo I am now out of Covarrubias and in a different zone and area and comp and everything, called Las Araucarias and the ward, my sector is called Las Acacias, and man...holy ghetto...yep! Its literally near La Pintana, we live in la pintant with is one of the most ghetto parts of the mission! Haha so cheers. Let’s hope I don’t die over here! Nah everything will be good. But man.so on Monday night, that was my last night in Covarrubias and the Family Gonzalez Turedo, my second family, I just love them. They threw a going away party and invited other families and a lot of people and they all went around and said things to me, about how I didn’t know any Spanish in the beginning (literally every single one told me that!) and how far I have come and just, it was incredible. It was like all the bad things, all the long days, all the rejections, all the frustrating moments, all the doubt, everything bad just didn’t even matter anymore. Nothing. I love that ward. I love that family. A big piece of my heart is with that family, and to not be able to see them or go over to their house, to help them, makes me want to cry. I love them, it’s incredible how much one person could love someone or a family on the mission. I am still pretty sad about it, but I know I need to be somewhere else. I love them so much. But all is well. 

So yeah now I have a new comp, his name is Elder Massey from Utah, he is a super tranquillo and chill guy, doesn’t really talk much but I think it could be good. He is a good guy. Only had a day together, but yeah another gringo. I guess I am meant to be with gringos, which makes me kind of sad. I really want to increase my Spanish, and I still can with a gringo but it’s just different. But yeah, the ward, hmmm heard it is one of the hardest in our whole mission...so that should be fun. Looks like a lot of contacts! but I am excited!! 

My heart is hurting still from leaving all those beautiful people, and to what I have to come into, going to be hard, but all is well. All is well. I love you all so much, so so much, and happy new year!!!!

Elder Carney