Kidneys...By the Way

Hello Everyone.

Another week has passed and it has been an adventurous one.  I got to go on splits with the Elders who work the University of Georgia campus.  Sadly, it was on a day off from school so virtually nobody was on campus.  It is a really big campus and pretty nice.  That was fun.  Got to see the stadium which seats 92,000 where Idaho State University played Georgia a few weeks ago.

Elder Arnett and Elder Mortenson went to a Leadership Training in Lilburn two days in a row last week which meant that I was left behind in Athens.  It ended up that one of the four Spanish Elders was assigned to go to the meeting too, so I took his spot.  We were on bicycles.  Yay, right?  And it was raining the first day.  So, imagine me on my first day of bicycling, wearing a rain coat that is too big lent to me from the mission home's closet, riding down the white line of a road with cars going by as it rains, I am sweating, and I am humming Let Us All Press On.  Quite a picture.  The weather got really nice within a few hours though.  The biking was nice, but when we would bike somewhere for an appointment and no one was home (this happened several times) it was especially painful.

I got to exercise my Spanish skills, you see.  The Elder I was with entered the MTC in April, so while he is definitely comfortable with Spanish, he wasn't an expert.  This put on some pressure.  Most of the people we visited with and talked to spoke only Spanish.  It went really well though.  I still spoke a Portuguese/Spanish jumble, but by the second day I was more or less fully in Spanish mode.  It was a very challenging, very engaging two days. 

We taught a fabulous first lesson to a woman named Sharon.  She had LDS friends several years ago that she worked for.  She was happy to see us when we knocked on her door.  She even offered to make us lunch when we came back for our appointment.  I am very interested to see what happens with her.  She is out of town for the holiday this week so our next visit will be a week from today.  It was very nice to finally sit down and teach a lesson since we have had to be focusing so heavily on simply finding people to teach for so long.  Very happy about this.

John Bytheway came and gave presentations this last weekend in Lilburn.  Youth from all the stakes in the mission were invited (President King organized the event) and all of the missionaries were also invited.  So on Saturday morning all of the missionaries in Athens (13 of us) piled into a 15 passenger van.  Two members (who owned the van) drove us to Lilburn.  It was a fun trip.  There are some excellent missionaries here in the area.  John Bytheway gave a very nice talk to us missionaries alone and then we had a pizza lunch followed by the hour and a half presentation to the youth.  It was fun to break routine.  I got to shake his hand too in case anyone cares. 

Then the drama began.  Elder Mortenson started experiencing incredible pain in his lower left back.  He was in tears, we had to stop at a gas station and let him walk around.  We gave him a blessing in the van.  He was really really distraught.  So we dropped him off in the emergency room with Elder Arnett when we arrived back in Athens.  I went back to apartment complex and retreived our car and I carpooled with the Spanish Elders so they could drop me off with our car and then they all drove off in their car.  That didn't make sense, but it's beside the point.  I got there and he was still waiting for treatment (EMERGENCY room, yeah right), but the pain had subsided. 

They gave him an IV, and pain meds (which made him considerably loopy), then took him to get a CATSCAN.  Turns out, he has a kidney stone in his left kidney.  This entire process took about 3 hours.  Then we left the hospital, Elder Arnett driving (because Elder Mortenson's pain meds are narcotics and made him crazy and he would fail a DUI test if he had to take one).  We got his prescription filled and went home for dinner.  It was a wild day.  He is still waiting for the stone to pass.  Still on the medication whenever it starts to hurt him.

Elder Mortenson and I had the chance to go out one night and do work with a member while Elder Arnett went down to a suburb of Athens with anther member to teach a lesson.  Turns out the Sister we were with is one of the funniest people on the planet.  We were in her car.  She is about 50 years old and lives alone.  We visited four different people with her (two of them were scheduled appointments) but they all fell through.  So we were driving all over town with her.  For instance, there was a road we were on with four speed bumps.  Every time, her poor little car would scrape them no matter how slowly we traversed them.  She laughed so hard every time it scraped.  We went so slow over one that we stopped moving before we rolled over it.  She kept saying "I am a looooww rider" and cackling.  After we cleared all the bumps she said "I'm going to have dents for days under my car!".  She also said hilarious things like "Oh, and my oldest son is Pentecostal.  Yeah, he is kind of way out there.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some."  Followed by cackling.  So basically we were laughing all night with her though we ended up, sadly, without much that actually worked out.  However, we returned to one of the homes where we had an appointment earlier that had fallen through on the way back to the Sister's house.  We found them home, re-scheduled, and found out that the Sister we were with used to work with the lady with whom we'd had the appointment and they liked each other.  It was kind of cool and made the night worth it I think.

I saw Elder Gneiting (the one I traveled down here with who was my MTC roommate) at the John Bytheway event.  We are so excited to be here.  It has been a long two weeks.  Yet is has been amazing.  What a whirlwind.  Thanks to those who have written!  It is a blessing!

Have a fantastic week.

Elder JOSHUA BODILY

A Week in Georgia

Hey y'all.                                                                                                                                                              Monday, November 15, 2010

After arriving at 3:00 pm on preparation day last week (Monday) I had to wait until this Monday to finally email.  So here it is.  There is lots of news, as you could probably imagine.
First.  Five facts about Georgia.

     1.  People are really serious about church here.  There are more churches here than in Utah.  I had read that about the South (more churches per capita than anywhere in the USA, but only now do I believe it.  Lots of variety in belief, lots of passionate believers.
     2.  People use pine needles instead of bark.  Yes, pine needles.  And not just here and there.  I haven't seen any bark.  Just pine needles.  This whole town could go up in flames because it is decorated with tinder.
     3.  Fire hydrants here are metallic silver with neon green tops.  Interesting.
     4.  The autumn weather here is absolutely gorgeous.  It has literally been between 60 and 75 degrees this entire week.  Today was the first day that it rained.  A light drizzle, but still not cold outside.  Beautiful autumn leaves on all the trees.
     5.  People really do say "y'all" as much as you think they do.  True.  Its not "How are you" or "How are ya?"  It's always always "How're y'all?"  And it's possessive too.  As in "How was y'all's dinner?"  Also true.  No exagerration.
                I am in Athens, Georgia home of the University of Georgia.  I am serving in the Athens 2nd Ward, which is essentially the west half of town.  It is a really pretty area.  It never occurred to me, but Georgia is mostly full of trees.  Deciduous style.  In those places where the forest has not been cleared away, it is so thick that I don't think you could walk through it and if you did, it would rip your clothes and scratch you up.  They aren't really big trees in height or width, there are just a lot of them.
                I am in a threesome because we came in on week two of a transfer.  My companions are Elder Mortenson and Elder Arnett.  Let's just start by saying that I have so far been immensely blessed in the category of companions.  All three of my companions have been aces so far.
                Elder Mortenson is the senior.  He has been out fifteen months, he is from Lindon, Utah.  He crochets.  He has made three beanies already this week.  He is teaching Elder Arnett and I how to do it.  (He is making them for Christmas gifts for his family, you see.)  He is a self-described drama queen.  Basically, he is absolutely hilarious.  At the same time, he is very motivated and dedicated to the work we are out here to do.  He has an excellent old lady voice and tells good stories.  He plays piano quite well and is super good at making sure we are working effectively, but also having a good time while doing it.
                Elder Arnett is a little quieter like me.  He has six months in the mission.  He went to the MTC the week I got my call letter...weird to think about.  He is from Gilbert, Arizona.  He likes singing, but not as much as Elder Anderson.  He is very nice and very level-headed.  I enjoy being around him.  Which is probably a positive thing seeing as we have to live together.  I am very very happy with my companions.  We have a car with 1500 miles a month because Elders Mortenson and Arnett are zone leaders.
                We live in an apartment on the second floor.  It has two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and laundry room, and bathroom.  It is a little bigger than my Wyview apartment.  Very nice.  Has a tiny balcony overlooking a gorgeous parking lot.  Love it.  Actually, it is in a very pretty area.  There are a lot of trees surrounding the complex, and in order to get to the apartment you have to go through a gate (type in a code and all that) and then drive around a small lake that Elder Arnett calls Walden Pond.  It is beautiful.  We went running a couple mornings ago--after I persuaded and convinced both of them to do it.  We ran past the lake and it was all steamy and awesome.  They never want to go running again though.  It's okay, it's quite chill in the morning time.
                I flew from SLC to Dallas to Atlanta.  I sat next a lady while waiting at the gate to board who, with her husband, owns the Tupperware franchise.  She was quite an interesting character.  I sat next to a really nice but long-winded LDS lady on the flight to Dallas.  I had an aisle seat.  On the back row.  And the window in our aisle had a perfect view of the jet engine.  I got to chat with folks waiting to enter the lavatory, however.  Then we had a fast layover in Dallas where we ate lunch and tried to use the pay phones, but the first minute cost six dollars in change and a quarter every minute after that and none of us had that much change.  So...that was a little disappointing.  The flight to Atlanta was not full, though all the window seats were full.  I had a middle seat next to two of the missionaries I was travelling with.  One was Elder Gneiting who was my roommate at the MTC.  One was Elder Nickel from my branch.  The other was some other Elder who is waiting for a visa to...get this.  PARIS.  He is the first French speaking Elder to serve in Atlanta so far as the mission president was aware.
                We met President King at the airport after searching for about twenty minutes.  He is an awesome individual and yes, his wife is Michelle King the famous KSL 5 News Anchor for any of you familiar with Salt Lake City area news anchors.  The assistants to the president took us out to dinner at a place called Atlanta's Best Wings where I ate my first ever BBQ wings and fried okra.  Interesting... 
                (Sidenote:  I have eaten dinner at five different houses.  And I have done super well at eating things.  I ate spanish rice, black-eyed peas, mushrooms, salad with tomatoes in it, chili (first time ever), apple crisp (the hardest thing to swallow all week), etc.  Also, one of the meals was with an older man whose children are long gone and whose wife is not a member.  She was at work the whole time.  They live in a beautiful townhome.  Really, I wanted to live there.  It was very stylish and comfortable.  And to our surprise, this Brother apparently has a PhD in food science and spent several years at chef school.  He also worked in a five-star restaurant for part of his schooling.  So, he didn't even eat with us.  He simply served us a five-star, five-course meal like a waiter.  We talked with him as he cooked our filet mignon steaks, warmed our butternut squash soup, served us our salads with three cheese balsamic vinegar dressing, Italian olives, parmesan cheese, and green onions in them, a twice-baked potato, etc.  Amazing.  And he offered to go out teaching with us whenever we needed him.  I like him.)
                I got assigned here.  There are three Spanish elders and a Brazil visa waiter who live in our apartment building.  I was acquainted with the visa waiter at the MTC. 
                It's been good.  A lot of tracting because both Elder Arnett and Mortenson are new in this area as am I (go figure) and the missionaries before us didn't leave too much to go on.  It has been scary, but not as hard as I thought.  Meeting nice people who are interested makes up for the scariness.  Also, many people are religious (as I said above) so they are at least interested in hearing who we are, even if they don't want to talk to us past that.  No one has been super rude so far.  However, it is a relatively common thing to just yell thru the door "Who is it?" and it sometimes develops into whole thru the door conversations.  At yelling volume.  Odd. 
                I have given a blessing to a lady in the hospital who had a terrible skin lesion but who is now recovered, taught a lesson to an awesome lady who came to church yesterday and whose boyfriend's kids are planning on being baptized soon, met a lot of good members.  PS I had to speak in church yesterday on how missionary work can strengthen our testimonies of Christ.  I received the assignment on Saturday night and it was for a ten minute talk.  I had a bad headache Saturday too.  And church starts at 9:00am.  So it was interesting, but turned out really really well.  So much I could keep saying, but I have to go.  Here is the address to send mail to.

Elder Joshua Steven Bodily
1150 Cole Drive SW
Lilburn, GA 30047

Please mail, I've had nothing since arriving in Georgia!  I am having fun.  It is good to be here.  So many stories already. 

Tchau for now,
Elder Bodily

Safe Arrival

We received this photo and the assurance that Elder Bodily made it to Atlanta yesterday.

His new address is:

Elder Joshua Bodily

Georgia Atlanta North Mission

1150 Cole Drive

Lilburn, GA  30047

FINAL WEEK

Hello hello.

 

So much this week.  So much.  This is the last week that I will be in the MTC.  I have scarcely two and a half days left.  I have received a temporary reassignment to the Georgia Atlanta North Mission.  I will be there until my visa comes through.  Then I will fly to Vitoria.  It is pretty unbelievable.  I hadn't really thought about or imagined serving an English speaking mission.  Now I will.  There is word that Atlanta has a large Brazilian community, and so it is possible that I will get to use my Portuguese a little bit, but Georgia isn't Brazil.  I am excited to "graduate" the MTC, and am excited for Georgia, but I am still most excited for the time that I will actually get to Brazil. One other Elder in my district is going to the Georgia Atlanta North mission as well.  We will be companions on the plane rides over.  Another two Elders in our district (including Elder Anderson!) were temporarily reassigned to the Virginia Richmond Mission.  All the rest have been temporarily reassigned to the Alabama Birmingham Mission.  Except, of course, the three who were called since the beginning to the Portugal Lisbon Mission.  There are 26 missionaries leaving the MTC on Monday that are destined for Brazil but have received temporary reassignments.  One is going to Billings Montana.  There are three of us total going to Georgia, about 6 total going to Virginia, and then the rest (a big majority) headed to Alabama.  It is going to be quite the adventure.  I have almost no idea what to expect. 

 

Elder Anderson and I played horseshoes the other day just to change things up during gym time.  I had a couple awesome throws.  I won one game, then he the other.  That tends to be how everything happens when we compete.  Pretty balanced.  It was a good time.

 

Temple walks were banned for a time because of missionaries leaving trash behind there and organizing meetings with family members during their time to walk around and study on the temple grounds.  However, just in time they were re-activated last week.  Elder Anderson and I found an isolated spot up on a hill overlooking the temple and wrote in our journals.  (We cleverly brought towels so that our slacks would not get dirty nor wet.)  It was peaceful and invigorating.

 

On top of everything else, another apostle came to visit us.  No one knows when the stream of apostles will end, and it's too bad we are leaving before the next devotional, but how could you have picked three better devotional speakers to go out on?  It was M. Russell Ballard this week.  We sang the most beautiful arrangement of Precious Savior Dear Reedemer by Brett Stewart (you should look it up) in the choir.  He spoke on becoming master communicators and taught that we communicate with much more than just words.  We communicate with behaviors, feelings, service to others, body language, and the Spirit we bring with us.  Even though the Spirit is what witnesses to people of truth, we have to effectively convey that truth and be well-practiced in delivering the message of Jesus Christ and His Church before the Spirit can confirm and testify of the truth of it.  It was an inspiring and down-to-earth message at the same time. 

 

I had a good experience in Priesthood Meeting on Sunday.  Elder A and I were the only ones sitting on the front row, so to "reward" us we were asked to give the opening and closing prayers.  Naturally, our branch being a Portuguese-speaking branch, the prayer had to be in Portuguese.  I gave the closing prayer without too much difficulty (we learned the basics of offering prayers in week one, and have branched out from there).  As I went to step off the stage, the Branch President (a native of Porto Alege, Brasil with a heavy accent when he speaks in English) grabbed my sleeve quite literally and pulled me back.  He said "Elder, your Portuguese is beautiful.  You are surely ready to go.  When are you scheduled to leave?"  I responded next week.  He replied, "You are well prepared."  Then, a member of the District Presidency who was visiting last Sunday (a former mission president in Brazil who is, of course, fluent in Portuguese) said, "You are more than ready for sure."  I'm pretty sure those comments were coming from reliable sources.  Made me feel good, to say the least.

 

I cannot belive that this is my last email from the MTC.  This time next week I will be in Georgia.  My preparation day (email day) will probably not continue to be Friday.  We will see what happens.  New companion next week too!  Everything is going to change and I am going to feel just as new at this as I felt the first day here.  Joyful how that works.

 

As always, I appreciate your mail and your thoughts.  I will try to have fun if you will all try to have fun.  I'll write from Georgia as soon as i can!  Until then,

 

Have a lovely week--  Elder JOSHUA BODILY

tchau tchau