Oi,
Another week has passed and the two week transition is over. My roots are down and things are much more smooth than even a few days ago. You might say that I am back in my groove.
News: the MTC is sending a choir to sing in the Priesthood Session...and....I applied and didn't make the cut. I have been Super Super disappointed about it. To make matters worse, Elder Anderson got in and he sings and hums the music all the time because he has to memorize it. I had my worst day on Monday, and that was also the day we found out who was in the choir. It made things that much worse. I have been playing accompaniment for Elder A and the two other Elders in our district that got into the choir when they practice singing their parts. I just pretend I am going to be going as well. I still get sad if I think about it too much. It would be nice just to have a day away from Provo too. But, that it the only really negative thing that has happened since I got here, and it's not really negative, just a missed positive. Sigh...
So...Elder Anderson and I still get along very well. I think that of all the Elders I have met he is still my favorite. I would not choose to have anyone else as my companion. How often do you find someone who is hilarious, smart, un-socially awkward, and who still can crack down and work and be a spiritual inspiration? We sometimes have been accused of sounding like a married couple however after having conversations like the following at the dinner table:
Elder A (to Elder Rose): "Yeah, we (Bodily+Anderson) go running every day."
Me: "Yes, but we don't always run the same distance."
Elder A: "You do like running every morning, Elder Bodily, don't you?"
Me: "Yes, I enjoy it. Don't you?"
Elder A: "Yes of course, but we don't have to run if you don't want to."
Me: "Are you saying that because YOU don't want to run every day or because you want to run and you don't want to make me feel like I have to?"
Elder A: "Because I want to run. Thank goodness you want to run."
Me: "Agreed."
We have both begun to find out a lot more about each other however. For instance, he sleepwalks and sleeptalks like NONE OTHER. Last night was the worst. He has conversations with people in his dreams. First around 2 am he was trying to translate a phrase into Portuguese for one of the Elders in our district. "Que...que...umm...por, no para...no wait, por...no no no, para. Yes, para. ... ... TEU AMOR! Yes, that makes sense... that's it.... <snoring>"
Then at 3:30 in the morning: "Hey. Hey... Elder Florman (an elder that does NOT room with us, but down the hall). Elder Florman...? What time do you have? Oh. 6:37 am? Oh no, we are going to be late for choir rehearsal. Wait...what time do you have? What time? I don't have my watch on. I'm naked without my watch on! Ugh."
*At which point he jumps out of bed from the top bunk, wanders over to our desk, picks up my alarm clock, opens the door to the hallway to let light in to see the clock, then sets in down, vaults back up into his bunk (narrowly missing my face with his foot before I dodged), and promptly begins snoring. *
I lay awake a while after that trying not to be freaked out.
The sword has two sides however. We both quote movies quite often. One day after quoting Medusa off of Rescuers, he said "Elder Bodily. It seems that most of the movie characters you quote are old women." Good heavens. I have scarcely ever laughed that hard in my life. He has a knack for getting to know me.
Portuguese is no problem. It takes time, but it comes quickly and easily and I am still easily the most proficient in the class. Teaching language is hard and tiring. Especially after studying linguistics and having experience learning both Spanish and French, it is hard to explain to others who don't have the same background. Portuguese object pronouns, subjunctive tense, and past participle just aren't easily explained to people who scarcely (if at all) grasp what those things are in English. I found out by talking with him that the Portuguese is stressing Elder A a lot lot lot more than he has been letting on. I am starting to pick up his personality and the signals for his emotions. But as we talked I assured him that since I feel ZERO stress about learning the language, I will help in any way I can. He specializes in the social aspect still. Making teaching un-awkward and smoothly connecting thoughts (once we move from Portuguese introductions into English teaching). I am so excited for week six when teaching will go 100% Portuguese. It is no wonder people here feel overwhelmed with the language because it's basically a breakneck pace crash course.
No visas. Though two Elders in the branch just got theirs. They come few and far between. It's a BIG problem for Mexico, Bolivia, and Brazil right now and missionaries bound for those countries are piling up here. We are past capacity. Fun fun.
Times up
Tchau,
(Elder) JOSHUA BODILY
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