Vinte Anos (Twenty Years)

Beleza! (Beautiful)

This week we found a woman who has a desire to be baptized.  We have already taught her twice, though she couldn´t make it to church since she is travelling out of state this weekend.  She is neat.  She is pregnant with her and her husband´s first child, and she wants to be a good mom.  She is motivated by this.  Her name, for future reference is Jánia.  

I may have already mentioned that the Area Seventy of the state of Rio de Janeiro lives in our ward.  He and his family are going up to Utah for General Conference tomorrow and staying for over a week.  I am so jealous!  So strange to think that they will be there so close to home!

Irene, our investigator that cancelled her baptism also cancelled the family home evening we were going to have with her and the former mission president´s family.  We are seeing her tonight to see if she wants to continue, or some other option.  I am hopeful.

The coconut man missed church yesterday.  No one we are teaching was at church yesterday.  Basically we have a blank slate, despite the fact that we work all day long all week long to help people progress in the gospel.  However, we had a really inspiring meeting with the mission president, his wife, and half of the mission (missionaries from Vitória, Vila Velha, Viana, Serra, and Cariacica).  The meeting was phenomenal and both Elder Bagley and I feel recharged to go out and thrust in the sickle.  Also, last night, due to the meeting, Elder Anderson, Elder Gneiting, and I were all reunited for the first time since Provo where we were all roommates!  That was almost five months ago!  Elder Gneiting is working nearby too.  Very neat.

I am going to turn 20 on Saturday.  This is crazy.  Twenty marks the beginning of being old.   Then again, I am happy to be done with the teenage years.  And as a birthday gift I get General Conference in an air conditioned building!  And hopefully investigators galore watching with us!  I am excited.

I went on another exchange to Serra, ate in the bishop´s high rise house again, and talked with a man named Paulo who was fishing in the bay.  Just another week in Brasil.

Have a good week all.

Boa semana. (good week)

Elder JOSHUA BODILY

Semana Longa (Long Week)

Oi gente.This week was quite interesting.  We are teaching a man who is a vendor of coconut milk.  This is quite common on the streets here in Vitória near the bus stops.  He always has way too many coconuts.  Therefore, this week I ate coconut with a spoon directly from a coconut, and drank coconut milk directly from a coconut with a straw.  Here it´s called water of coconut.  This is a better name because it tastes like some strange flavor of Propel, nothing like milk or even close.  This man came to church for the second time yesterday!   Progress!

I started a habit with Elder Souza, one of the other missionaries I am living with.  We are running in the mornings.  We live quite close to the water´s edge and the port (most of the city of Vitória is an island.  We live on the island, the mission office is on the island, etc.)  Anyway, we are running along the pathway next to the water´s edge.  Palm trees, cobblestone sidewalk, barges entering the port, little crabs on the path, the whole bit.  The road is called Avenida Marechal Mascarenhas if you want to look at it.

I conducted the baptismal meeting for the baptism of an investigator of Elder Rossi and Elder Souza´s yesterday.  I also played the piano, and was a witness for the baptism.  It was a little crazy, but we got thru and there were no glitches.  Well, that´s a lie.

Our investiagator Irene was all set up to be baptized yesterday, but backed out on Friday.  Despite a powerful lesson with us, and the wife of the former mission president of the Brasil Curitiba Mission, she still backed out.  We hope to reschedule... :?  This was very disappointing, especially because her reason is pretty silly.  Perhaps she has a deeper issue.  We hope to help her overcome whatever obstacles she is facing.  We have a family home evening with the family of that former mission president and her tonight.

On Tuesday I went on exchange with Elder Souza.  On Thursday and Sunday night I was on exchange with Elder Rossi.  We had a full and successful day on Tuesday, an awesome experience.  However, Thursday was without any appointments, just looking for people to teach.  We found only one person all day.  This was difficult.  Always interesting and refreshing to work with different missionaries, though.  If sometimes, a challenge.

Good news!  Various times in this email my brain has been saying a Portuguese word, and I am having to force the English.  Just a little, but this is exciting.  It´s already starting to happen in spoken language.

We are downtown right now, from here we will go grocery shopping, go home, clean, and hopefully relax a little before another week starts.

Tchau everyone.
Elder JOSHUA BODILY

downpour

So.

This week things are back to normal, as in, our local LAN House (computer kiosk) is open.  No more Carnaval.  It rained almost everyday this week.  Yesterday and Saturday it was super wet.  Even with umbrellas we were drenched several times each day due to the wind and water splashing off of roofs and us having to walk in ankle deep water and traverse staircases that were acting as waterfalls on the hills.  Also, just like on the movies I got splashed while walking on the sidewalk by a bus passing through a big puddle (or mini-lake, as you prefer) on the road.  I laughed.  It feels really weird, like jumping into a pool sideways.  Dramatic thunder and lightning displays.  Today the sun is out again.  I prefer rain.

Elder Gneiting, my companion in Georgia got his visa, and arrived in Brasil on Thursday.  President let him call me.  Two of the people we were teaching in Portuguese (a mom and son- Fátima and Luca) made considerable progress.  Luca was baptized and Fátima is going to be baptized on the 20th!  Also, a woman that we found who spoke English got baptized.  Finally, after 6 months in the States, he got his visa and is here.  It´s good to know that all the labor, time, and effort that I and the thousands of other missionaries contribute each hour of each day has at least some tangible yet exceptionally delicious fruit.

Yesterday was Stake Conference at the Stake Center a 30 minute bus ride from here.  It was interesting.  President and Sister Pickett gave talks.  The Elders that we live with had a baptism afterwards.  On the bus from there to our lunch in downtown Vitória, there were two Dutch women who were a classic image of confused tourists.  They spoke British English with heavy Dutch accents, but no Portuguese.  They were lost.  We helped them, along with a random Brazilian who spoke broken English with them...which, ironically they understood better than my flawless English.  If I do say so myself.

A strange woman started walking with us on the street when we were on our way to the chapel to have a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader.  She asked if she could come in to the church.  We said of course (one of the members teaches a drama class in one of the classrooms this particular night of the week).  She invited us to her house for pizza and pop.  I think she was crazy.  

That´s all of that story...especially because she didn´t know her address.

We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday with a woman named Irene.  She lives alone with her dog in a tiny house that she re-modeled herself.  It is incredibly well kept, complete with garden, painted walls, and all kinds of handy home improvements and annexes that she does herself.  She is incredibly well-versed in scripture and always very passionate-she likes to talk.  She always feeds us something when we visit.  

I saw two wild monkeys the other day.  Crossing the road.  No joke.  Little tiny monkeys with little manes around their heads.  I was in shock.  It was super neat.

We are helping a man who just a few months ago was way deep into drugs and all that.  However, he has stopped and begun cleaning out his house, cleaning up his life, and attending church (we met him when he attended church of his own accord).  It is going to be a tough road for him, still.  He still smokes a lot.  As he sat and cried in front of us in fear that his 12 year old daughter doesn´t want to live with him anymore until he fixes his life, I realized how truly blessed we are when we follow the commandments, seek things spiritual before physical pleasures, and trust God- living life with love and Christlike attributes.  He has wasted SOO much time with things of no value to the point that he could lose what is most valuable to him.  

My companion is an interesting folk.  He worked in a mortuary before the mission, wants to go into a career that involves drawing, and has the most cluttered desk I´ve ever seen.  I like working with him though.  P.S. He can´t sing worth a lick, so I pick rarely sung hymns to sing at the start of companionship study.  This makes it even more difficult to sing, and I get a smile out of it.  He´s a good sport.  

Have a joyous week and be grateful for AC ----->,

 

 

Elder JOSHUA BODILY

Carnaval and Transfer

Hello Everyone.

 

Tomorrow is Carnaval, so we are using the computer of our Bishop.  This means that all four of us are taking turns to email on ONE computer.  There is still one more after me.  We have been here over an hour and a half already.  Everything is closed, you see.  There are no internet houses open in all the city.  We even trekked to the Centro to check the internet houses, and not a one open.  We have already wasted so much of the preparation day!  So frustrating.  But the Bishop´s house is really nice.  It´s actually in a high rise in the Centro.  Anyway...

 

The transfer happened.  Elder Hein went about half a mile away to the mainland in Vila Velha.  Elder Rodriguez and Elder Brito went way far away.  I am companions now with Elder Bagley.  He is an American, from a small town Hemet, California an hour outside of San Diego.  He speaks nearly flawless Portuguese, though.  Everyone we meet thinks he is Brazilian.  And that´s not an exaggeration.  He is coaching me on pronunciation.  He doesn´t like to speak English almost ever.  Elder Anderson is now companions with a Brazilian (non English-speaking) though, so I cannot complain.  He teaches very well.  We get along, but he is very quiet.

 

The other two in the house with us are both Brazilians from São Paulo.  I am learning how different Portuguese from São Paulo is from Portuguese from Fortaleza and from Salvador.  Everyone has different expressions and accents.  One of them is a brand new Elder with less than a month since entering the CTM (MTC) in São Paulo.

 

We have gotten lost a few times as I have guided the group of us four to lunch.  Embarrassing, but eventually we found the destinations, even though we had to call and have one of the members find us and escort us to their house.  What can you do?

 

I played Monopoly Deal in Portuguese with the other Elders in the house.  I won.

 

The weather has been cloudy, breezy, and rainy here.  A welcome break from the burning sun.  I barely even perspired one of the days this week.

 

Believe it or not, tomorrow will be 6 months since entering the MTC for me.  I will be 1/4 through with the mission.  2 months in the MTC, 2 months in Georgia, and 2 months in Vitória.  I´ve already had 7 companions!

 

Have a wonderful week everyone.  I have a host of beautiful photos, I wish I could send them all.

 

Abraço,

Elder JOSHUA BODILy