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

Sept 9, 2015 The PURGE!

Sept. 9, 2015

The Purge!!

Hola Familia!!! 

Wow, where to begin...umm this week has been hard. This past week, it has been a rough one, not going to fake it. But you know what, I figured it out. I figured out that I need to be patient with myself. I need to just laugh at myself when I make mistakes, and just love the people. I hit a point last week where I felt like I was just in a rut, I was just so frustrated with the language and I couldn’t say anything and I just hated it, I was really down. And I figured out that I need to just be patient. I prayed so hard, I read the scriptures just looking for something, and I had this companion tell me while I was on divs (divisions- exchanges) for a night in a different area, that I just need to be patient, that the language will come. It’s really frustrating for me, because I love these people that I am teaching! Yet I just sit there, and sometimes I can’t understand crap, and sometimes I can, but I can’t express all my emotions and try to help them, and that really has affected me! But I know that I can express to them my love for the gospel and my love for God and Jesus Cristo. I love it so much. I can express to these people how much potential they have, I love looking at people and just feeling a love that is so different, a love like, ¨Wow, I can help these people. These people, God loves them as much as he does me. He has a plan for them. He wants them to find this plan. He needs me to help them,¨ and it is just amazing. I love it! I love the message, the hope that this message brings to others. I love that I am a representative of Jesus Christ!!! 

Anyways, D&C 122 that was my life this week. The whole chapter, but the end, I love. How all these trails, all the trials that we have, will be for our good. Sometimes I don’t know what the heck that means, if some of the things that people go through or I have been through are for the good, but I can have peace that I can rely on that, that everything is for a reason. 

Also, Ether 12:27 that is my scripture for the week. Love it!!! (Here is what it says:  27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Well family!!! My comp got dear Johned last week, pray for him! He is great! He is just a solid guy and I am super blessed to have him. 

We got a new Bishop!!! I hadn’t even met the bishop in our ward the whole time I have been here, and one lunch we had with the ¨bishop¨ (the old one), and I went in and this guy was SUPER rude to me, and just being a complete jerk. I was so shocked and I was just so frustrated! I literally was talking in my mind like, ¨this is not acceptable. This is the bishop-. I shouldn’t have to try to prove myself or get on his good side. He should love everyone. I should love everyone!!¨ I was SO pissed, and finally, the elders just started laughing and they planned the whole thing, that wasn’t actually the bishop, just a member. It was good! I was just super shocked and mad and I couldn’t understand him and yeah, it was funny! It was good!! 

But the ward is great! Small, but unified. Monday it rained all day and the streets here just flooded. And we were of course out in it, rain doesn’t stop our work! It was cold and we didn’t really get any contacts or appointments, just doors slammed but it was great!! During it, we had a dog follow us the whole time! So we named him Chase, this dog who lives in the streets, he followed us for like 7 hours just walking around in the rain! It was prime! It continues to be cold and rainy! 

Today was Pday and we went out of our mission, we are allowed to do that because ours is so small. And we went to the Musuem of Art and walked around and just hit up the city of Santiago! A section of it that is! It was great! 

Hmm, what else. The purge is this week! Should be fun!!! Haha its this day, on the 11th, Sept 11th and we have to go in the night before at 5, stay in all day on the 11th, until the morning of the next day, because it’s kind of a rebellion day here. People burn stuff in the streets, people die, yeah, fun stuff! But my area isn’t too bad, compared to others areas. Other areas they have tear gas and stuff and yeah! We have to stay inside all day though, so that sucks! 

Life is good! Life is hard as a missionary. But the blessings outweigh everything. I feel so protected and so blessed to be here. God is good. So good! I love and miss all of you!!!!!! 

Elder Carney