Fam Bam, what's up! March 23, 2016

March 23, 2016

Fam Bam, what’s up?

Hello family!!!!

So this week, was really good! We are just living life here in Chile, haha oh next week on Tuesday, we have to be indoors all day, we can’t leave because it’s a day where rebellion and everything goes down, like turn up in Chile! Haha basically the purge, for all of you who have seen it! Haha so that will be fun! 

This week, hmmm oh, we had 72 people come to church!!! Yes, 72, that is the most we have had in such a long time, it was super great! Most of them were girls, haha women, what is sad that there is no priesthood in the ward, just sad! Anyways, it was a good week! We are still teaching Stanley, the Haitian that we found and he is just the man!!! It’s hard to teach him in English haha the gospel sounds so weird in English!!! But I love it! Oh sign language is super cool too, haha I guess it counts as another language, but it’s so different, so cool! I really want to learn American Sign language when I am back or something! 

Not sure if you guys have seen, but the new Easter video, He Lives, no, Hallelujah, not sure what it is, but its SOO good! It’s an incredible video, basically saying that Christ rose the third day, that he lives, and that he changes lives, that we can find new lives through him, I just love it, because its true! CHRIST LIVES!!! WE CAN CHANGE, thanks to him. Start new, fresh pages. It’s the gospel of hope, it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, the only true church!!! It’s just incredible to teach!! And its semana santa, haha, or holy week here, people celebrate it and leave town, all that, they don’t have to work for 3 days, so that’s nice for us! But yeah, the celebrate it a week here! What else? Life is just going dandy! We went to the Colo stadium today and also played some futbolito, haha some soccer on small fields, super fun, but yeah, Colo Colo is a team here, a soccer team who are pretty ghetto haha but So famous in Chile, and when games are on for them, it’s kind of dangerous, haha but yeah! I love soccer, man I love it!

God is good. He lives. It was a good week, we are finding people, and working hard, or here they say, caminamos mas que kung foo, haha just another dicho, another saying they have. It’s not Spanish they speak here, it’s really bad, fast and filled with sayings haha, but yeah family, that’s about it! I love you all so much!!!

This is my invitation to you all, to share the gospel, share your happiness with people who you don’t think would accept it, to people who need help, to everyone, because everyone deserves a second chance, everyone deserves to feel the love of Christ. He is real. He lives. Share it. It’s true!!! And if you don’t know it’s true, find out for yourself, ask god. Ask him. Its real! I love being a missionary, even though it is soo hard, and some days it just feels impossible, I love it. I love bringing others unto Christ. So, just come unto him. Let him take you in. I love you all and am praying for you all daily!!!!

Elder Carney

Jdawg iz in the House! March 16, 2016

March 16, 2016

Jdawg iz in the House!!!!

What is up my family!? 

So this week has been good! We did a temple tour with one of our menos activos, (less actives) Ivan, he is just awesome. He is 23 and we found him working with the 23-page list on less active members, haha yep welcome to Chile! But he is just incredible and is changing his life! Also, today for Pday, we went to the temple and it was just super super good. I LOVE THE TEMPLE. So blessed to have temples all over the world, to have one close in our mission, to be able to feel of God’s love for us. I was sitting in the celestial room and just looked in the mirror, and what’s incredible is that everything goes on for eternity. That families truly can be together, that this is not the end. There is another life, we lived with God before this life and we will live with him again. We are preparing to go back home, our real home. And I just love that! I love that we have that. ITS TRUE! This gospel is true. We have the authority of God, to seal families together so they can live with one another, for eternity. I just love that!!! Learning and speaking with all these other religions is really cool, I love learning their beliefs and all that, but everything we do, everything we have, is in the scriptures, is in our religion. It’s just a testament that God lives, that he has a church, and something that I invite everyone to do, EVERYONE, is to pray about it.

Because as missionaries, we can preach all we want, we can stand in the street with microphones and play music like evangelicals and lots of other churches do, but to truly know, you have to pray. You have to ask GOD specifically if these things are true. Find out for yourself. You will receive an answer. He has a plan for every one of his children. He knows your name. He loves you more than you can imagine. Boom. I love the temple. I love God, I am so blessed to be a servant of Jesus Christ. He is our savior! He knows us, he loves us. He lives to bring us home. 

I love you all. Life is good over here in Chile, it’s just a grand old time! I love you and am praying for you all. I}GOD IS GOOD. 

Elder Carney

PICTURES!!!!

1)Yes, we have a hammock...yes we broke it!!   

2) Our Hawaii activity!!

3)Colo Colo is a crummy soccer team here - but cool shirt!!

4) Video !!  Still got it, kind of!!!!

5) Some of the javens (youth) here!  

6) Can't do a back flip anymore, but can still rock the one handed hand stand!

der Carney

March 9, 2016 I Can't do a Backflip anymore!!

March 9, 2019

I can’t do a backflip anymore!

Well family and friends....it hit. I tried doing a backflip for mutual, one of the youth wanted to learn, see me do it, and well...I almost ate it. I can’t do a backflip anymore...I’M FAT!!! Haha so time to break out the P90X abs workout, haha nah...but I was just so sad!!!! So there it is, I lost it. Fat and loving it. 

Anyways, this week was good, it has been an adventure. I am tired! Today for Pday we played soccer, well it’s called bebe, which is little courts, little soccer fields, they are everywhere here! Super cool! And also, one of our investigators came! Victor, he is like 40 and an awesome guy, he destroyed us all but I still have a little something in me from soccer haha, still can hold my own! I love playing with Latinos, they just play so different, so fluid, and then gringos, It’s just a wreck! 

This week was good, we are now starting English classes at the chapel. Something interesting happened, we were contacting and earlier that day we had a zone meeting in which they talked about how we pretty much need to have more faith, pray for miracles- get out and see the Lords hand, see miracles every day! And so I really wanted that, and I was praying for it, that something would happen, and we came across this guy, Stanley, yep from Haiti! There are so many Haitianos here, and people from other countries working because in there countries they don’t pay like anything, and this guy spoke English! Like island English, but it was SO sick!!!! And he brought us to his house, he was excited just to speak English, he has 2 months here in Chile and we are now teaching him!  He has the craziest stories, about Haiti and why he is here in Chile, just such an incredible guy, and we are super excited to work with him, and it’s in English! It feels like we are in the states, this guy is sick!! So pray for Stanley, he is incredible. 

I just love learning peoples stories here, life stories. One thing I have noticed this week, is that we need to respect everyone, need to love everyone. We don’t know what people are going through in their lives, yet people in the world are so judgmental and it’s sad, truly sad. Just have respect, treat everyone like family and friends, take off the masks and stop the judging, we are all children of God, nothing else. Doesn’t matter where people have been, what they have done, everyone and anyone can start new, can feel of Gods’ love, can start again.  And thanks to Jesus Christ we can do this, through the atonement, we can do it!!! I love the atonement, it’s incredible. USE it. It’s for us. I am learning about it every day here, I am in awe for what Jesus Christ did for me, for everyone, he died for me. He suffered and he also was resurrected, for us!! It’s amazing!!!!

Alright family, I love you. I am praying for you all. Please pray for me and these  people I am teaching. GOD IS GOOD, don’t ever doubt that. 

LOVELOVE LOVE

Elder Carney

March 2, 2016 Sunny in Santiago

March 2, 2016

Sunny in Santiago!

Hello family! So this will be kind of a short letter, super sorry! Today, we went paintballing!!! Super sick!!! It was awesome, got some good welts but all worth it! I love P-days! 

Anyways, so we had an activity this week, viaje (Trip) to Hawaii, which pretty much is a Plan of Salvation activity. We all board a plane like we are going to Hawaii, and then the plane crashes (this really graphic plane crash, haha probs scared some kids) and then every dies, yeah? Then they go to the Telestial kingdom, and find out what is there. People who continue in sin, continue to do bad things, all that. This dark room, with just a night light, just creepy, cold. And then Terrestial Kingdom, which is just worldly things, just sports, everything, just not eternal happiness. Then the Celestial Kingdom, which is just super bright, with a big photo, stand up of Jesus Christ, and just peaceful, and just really cool! So we did that activity. Yes, the missionaries. No one else. We set up, did everything! It was so so frustrating, just me and my comp doing everything, finally we got some help and thank goodness, people came! And it was really good! Haha turns out we had 9 people come who we are visiting, which is really good! And then the next day at church, yep, 0 came. Everyone was sleeping. Welcome to Chile! So frustrating!!!

Anyways. This week, I honestly have been humbled. I have just noticed my pride, and just I didn’t feel like myself. I haven’t felt like myself lately. And I read a talk which just pretty much destroyed me, then built me back up. That’s kind of been the way this week has gone haha! But I needed it. I needed to truly, just pray. I just had a time when I just needed to pray, just think, and I felt so much better after. Just trying, telling God, here I am. I know I am weak, I know I can’t do this alone. I truly can’t. I try so much, and I know I have so much to learn, but I need His help. And I’m willing to do it. 

And it was hard!!! It’s hard to just own up to our mistakes, just ask for help! I hate asking for help, but we need to do it! We can’t do it alone in this life. It’s impossible. And we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, a God who loves us so so much, and sees our potential and puts things in our way to make us grow. And we just need to do it! Stop messing around and do it. 

So that is what I learned this week.  Alright, questions! I want everyone to send me questiones, about Chile, missionary work, anything! GO for it!

I just love you all. It was a very humbling week. I am super sorry that I am not going to write more, but next week! I love you all. I am so grateful for you guys, for my family, friends, my life! For God. To be able to feel his love, and to help others feel of it. 

Always remember, we are children of God, he loves us. He will never fail us. 

Elder Carney

Feb. 24, 2016

Feb. 24, 2016

Hellooooo!!

Wow hello family!!!

So this week was good! So we had stake conference, which was very interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean that literally no one from our ward was there, well two families who are super strong, but bishop, counselors, other leaders, no one was there! Haha welcome to Chile!!! Nah, it’s all good. So I have a story! I was sitting there in Stake conference, and just kind of like, really? This is awful. This is just sad. No one is here, I felt like none of our people were progressing, just really kind of frustrated and down, just kind of like, alright, I’m trying to work here, but I feel like I have nothing to work with. Then we got up to sing and I turned around to stretch out, and boom. There was my Chilean family! Familia Gonzalez Turedo. From my last area, my last ward! I was just like, in shock. I was just so so SO grateful to see them. I wish I could have hugged them with all my might, I was about to (but I didn’t!) and I was just so so so incredibly blessed to have seen them! They came to our stake conference, to see me. I was just sitting there, just about to cry, I just haven’t felt so much love from anyone as much as they have shown me. They are angels on earth. That family has my heart. I wish I could be there in the ward to help them, to visit with them, to grow with them, but it pains me that I can’t! I was just thanking God, for all that he has given me, for letting me get to know and be a part of this beautiful family. SO that was just really really cool, and I am just super grateful for them! 

Then we had interviews with President Cook this week, and wow. He is just incredible. He really helped me out. I went in with some questions I wanted to ask him, and he just gave them to me how I needed them. Just really feel the love from him and am super grateful he is our president, it will be weird to get a new one in July! Anyway, God just knows. He knows our struggles, our pains, He knows. And he sends other people to help us get through them. 

Something that we had today was an area broadcast from Argentine with Elder David A Bednar, just for the South America, and he just, wow, incredible! He talked about faith, about how we are vessels of it, just talked about incredible stuff, truly inspired, and as he was bearing his testimony, I just knew that he was called of God, he is a special witness of Jesus Crist, and just awesome! So if you ever have a chance to look up that talk, do it! 

It was a good week. A giant heat wave is here, so like 90 or 100 degrees and it’s just freaking hot, but the work goes on! We have an activity with the ward that we have planned and nobody is really helping us, not sure if anybody will come, but let’s hope! Prayers welcome, trying to help people and find new people, prayers would be great! I am just so blessed. I love this work. It’s so incredibly hard, the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but forgetting about me and just serving God, serving others, I feel like I have found so much, learned so much already, and just am grateful. God is good! He is the best! 

I love you all, have an incredible week and just give thanks for all that we have!!!

Elder Carney

Feb 10 & 17, 2016 Hello FAMILIA!!!

Feb. 10, 2016

Hello FAMILIA!!

Well hello their everyone! Hmmm ok so this week was good. I hope grandpa’s funeral went great, hope everything is all good, and everyone I just miss and love all you all a lot! Well, we went through changes and I am still with my comp, still in my area. It will be good. He is a good guy, we are having more fun together and opening up a lot more, he is a great guy! Yes, a gringo, probs never going to learn Spanish, but in time! Haha well, this week was good. Here is a bullet point list

• a lot of people are moving from our ward, which kind of sucks! But all is well, haha our ward is already small, but it’s going to be smaller!
• Ivan, one of our menos activos (less actives), he is just incredible! He wants to serve a mission, but he told us he needs to just take time and find out if he really believes everything! Just incredible, he is truly coming unto Christ and its only been a month since we found him, since he was praying to find missionaries to talk to again, just really cool!
• I got sick again. Yep, don’t really know what’s happening. I was throwing up and my body just hurt really bad, so that was for 2 days! Haha but I’m good. No worries, I feel a lot better now, and trying to be a lot healthier, not drink soda (literally its soda, not water here, that’s all they drink) and all that! But I feel better.
• We played soccer for pday, on a mini turf field, AH incredible! Haha I love it
• I am now really sunburnt because of it
• The members are just awesome, there are not that many, but the ones there are, are just incredible!

That’s about it for the week. I am sorry! OH AND THE BRONCOS!!!! WHAT!?!? Haha that’s so sick! Well, I love you all, so sorry this is short! But praying for all of you. God is just a homie. 

Elder Carney

Feb. 17, 2016

HUH?!

Haha, so hello family. First, I need to tell you all a story. So we were walking down, middle of the day, walking down a street of blocks (ghetto apartment buildings) and it’s just freaking hot, I was tired, just not really thinking, and this guy who was peeling fruit with a long knife, turns the corner, saw us, and comes charging at me with this knife! I was like, oh this is just a joke, and then he got super close and I was like, well shoot, this isn’t a joke. Ha-ha and I just didn’t even react, just kept walking, and he got like inches away from me and just started laughing and continue walking on his way, eating his fruit. It didn’t hit me for like a couple of seconds ha-ha that I could have just been killed ha-ha! Kinda funny! That was thrilling. I just turned to my comp and was like, what the heck just happened? But I’m alive! Ha-ha just a funny story!

Anyways, this past week was good. I need to tell you guys something cool also. So we have these people in our ward, who are deaf. The guy is married and have kids and the guy and the wife are deaf, but they are just awesome! So we are learning American sign language, ha-ha its super sick! At first, I just thought there was no hope and I didn’t have to learn it, because the other missionaries are going by and live in their sector, but we had an open chapel, where people can walk through and this is this whole tour, pretty cool! And so we brought them there and we had to translate all of it! Ha-ha me and my comp, Spanish sign language, super cool! Super hard at first, but we are learning! It was just really cool to see that the spirit speaks all languages, even hands! Really edifying to see how hard it truly must be, but how they make the best of it! He is our ward mission leader and just incredible. I want to learn more sign language now! So that was just a really really cool thing, that God uses people in so many ways, to help his children out. 

So that was some main things this week. Our ward is good. We had an assistance rate of 35 people this past Sunday. Yep! It’s like a branch here! But really good people. Our young men’s president (who kind of went off the deep end and got back into drugs) is now just incredible, and doing so good. We are working with him a lot and it’s just incredible to see people who have a desire to change, a true desire to stop things and just come unto Christ. It feels rare to see people who have that, but when they do, it is INCREDIBLE! 

That is what I have learned a lot of this week. Just how we need to come unto Christ, we need to let him in. Let him take over. I love doing things my way and doing everything by myself. I am just like that. But honestly. I can’t do everything! At all. We can try so many times but we will keep falling! That is why we have Christ. That why we have this gospel. I really like a quote that I heard from someone, which is 

I don’t walk around happy all the day, every day. I struggle. I have problems. I am human. I have faults. But I walk around with the knowledge that I am a child of God. That this gospel, brings me peace to have that. That is my happiness. 

Something like that. So yeah, we are children of God dangit! How incredible! And this gospel, how incredible! So that’s what I am trying to learn, to just come unto Christ. Let him take over. We can’t do it alone. And he is right there, ready to reach out and help. 

That’s my wisdom for this week. I love you all. God is good. You are children of a heavenly king, who loves you so so much. Never forget that. Peace and blessings.

Elder Carney

Feb. 3, 2016 (his grandpa passed away) Jan. 26, 2016

Feb. 3, 2016

Well,

Hello Family! So yeah just received the news about grandpa. Wow. I guess I should have expected it but it still is hard. I read moms email that she sent me and I just really felt at peace, really felt the spirit and I feel like grandpa knows, and he is just having a great time with his brother and parents in heaven! Haha makes me think of the memories I have with him, how I was the only lefty in the fam! And I remember him yelling at me one time for riding a bike that was way too small for me, and he scared the crap out of me haha! I was pretty young!!  But, I just regret not being able to spend more time with him, spending more time. He was super calm and quiet, just trying to think back on all the memories that we had, which is hard to remember which makes me sad! But I just love him! Him and his jumpsuits!  Haha love them! 

But it makes me think of the plan of salvation. To the people who I have seen who are so firm, so firm in their beliefs, compared to the people who don’t have this knowledge and are just destroyed. I am just grateful to have the knowledge. I don’t know, I feel just off right now, don’t know! Hard, but I know that I will see him again someday! How are all of you guys? 

Also, one of the guys that we baptized, hermano Juan, he passed away too this week which is kind of hard. He was a really good guy and he was old, but he got baptized and was a firm member for the 4 months that he had, he was a saint! Haha. Kind of just a week of dying. Sucks! But this isn’t the only life. No doubt about that. 

I don’t really know what else to say this week! Umm it was good, it has been an interesting journey. I feel like I really need fast Sunday this week, with everything that has happened and that is going on. I really just need to rely on the knowledge that I have, the testimony that I do have, and just grow! I am really thankful to share this gospel with the people here. It really can change your life. I have seen it. God loves all of his children so much! I guess that’s it for this week! I love you all! God is good. There is a plan. No doubt about that. Till we meet again, it’s not the end! Love you all. Praying for you all!

Please pray for me too.

Elder Carney

January 27, 2016

Sick in Santiago

Hello family! Haha sooo this past week kind of sucked! I was sick! Haha on Saturday I actually felt like I was getting better, and then Sunday it just hit me! I was on antibiotics last Wednesday but they were not working. Finally, Monday, I just couldn’t do anything. My body was so week, had a fever, just everything hurt, yeah haha so that was fun. Then Tuesday I got new antibiotics (the nurse here doesn’t really know crap, I’m gonna be honest) and then I just laid in bed, just trying to get better haha so its hasn’t really been all that fun. Being sick on the mission is SOOO much worse than being sick in college, because in college you can just snuggle up, watch Netflix all day, do whatever, well, the mission, you’re in a foreign country, you can’t really watch Netflix, you just lay there. It sucks!!! Haha just want to go out and get rejected haha nah, but just wanted to go outside. Being sick sucks on the mish. 

But I am getting better. I feel a lot better today, so that’s good! Oh but I think I have a sinus infection, but all is well! 

What’s new this week? Well, this area, it’s interesting. The ward should be a branch. It just has NO priesthood, no leadership. Just kind of sad, but the members who are firm are are really great people! 

This kid, Ivan, we found him like 3 weeks ago, he is a menos (less) active, and he is just INCREDIBLE. He keeps asking us about a mission and he is just a homie, he is 23 and he was actually searching for the missionaries for a long time, but could never find them, and finally we should up one day at his doorstep and it was just super cool. He is awesome! 

Hmm what else? Oh I am not only learning Spanish but also Spanish sign language, haha yep our ward mission leader is deaf. So I am just learning, this other missionary here is like fluent, its super cool to see. But yeah, guess I need to learn that too know. I can pray in it, which is cool, but other than that I am a lost puppy! 

This past week was good. Nothing really knew happened, haha just sick and felt like crap. But oh, I was just feeling a little down yesterday, being sick for so long and just feeling like crap, and then I got the letter that Katy sent and the package that mom you sent, and it just made me day. Thank you. I really needed it, funny how God sends us things when we need them, at the right time. 

We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and it’s been good! I encourage you all the read it, start now! Man I am learning so much, but super cool to see! Nephi is a beast, heck all those people are just the best! God is the best. What a guy. I love you all, please tell me about your lives!!!!

Praying for all of you!!!

Elder Carney