Week

Elder cook was awesome! And there was a twist in which I was called up to the front. I am going to send photos next week and lots of details.
This week I got cheated out of my time.
Mara and Vitória are going to get baptized!

April Showers

Meus queridos (My Dear Friends),

Today it is raining. I am going to buy a new belt today. This week Elder Quentin L. Cook is going to visit the mission. Wednesday, to be exact. We have to organize the travels of all the missionaries in our zone to the fireside. That means four missionaries from Cachoeiro and two from Guaçuí, a city two and a half hours AFTER Cachoeiro. What a puzzle!

So, the transfer happened.

I am now companions with Elder Rossi. You may remember that I lived with Elder Rossi in March of 2011 in Vitória. (When Elder Bagley was my companion.) He is from São Paulo, São Paulo close to the temple. Downtown for real. He is really excited and ready to work. We now have four Sisters in our zone. Two in Cachoeiro and two in Guaçuí. Elder Rocha went to Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro to train a new missionary from Santa Catarina.

We had a Zone Leader Council on Wednesday in the Mission Home. It was really good and spiritual too. I started to feel old when I realized that there was only one other missionary of all the zone leaders that will go home before I will. Reality check.

Yesterday we went to the baptism of the Elders in Marcílio de Noronha in Viana. It was really neat. Things work really well in the ward there. Elder Rossi served there last year after leaving Vitória. Two people that he baptized were present in this baptism. It was really neat to see them reunite and feel some of the spiritual rewards of the mission.

We had a neat experience this Sunday. Last week I stopped a lady --Mara-- on the street in front of a supermarket and invited her to receive our visits and to learn more about the church. She gave us her address. I went there two times last week with Elder Rocha and two more times this week with Elder Rossi. We marked a baptismal date with her and her daughter --Vitória--, and we are also working with her husband (they are legally married!! miracle!!) and their neighbor too. While the husband, Jorge, disappointed us, Mara and Vitória went to church and loved it. In the sacrament meeting, Mara leaned over to me and said ´´Who knew that day when you stopped me on the street that I would end up here?´´

Did I mention that Mara stopped smoking and drinking coffee since our first visit, not because we taught her to, but because she felt she should?

Did I mention that Mara said to a whole bunch of people yesterday at church that she will be getting baptized?

Did I mention she is elect?

Just a comment: In general, it has been my expierience that women are much more spiritual than men. There are so many families that I have met on my mission that have as a spiritual leader in the home a woman. The women spearhead the scripture study, the prayers, the church-going, and discipline of the children much more than they should have to. If there are any men who are slacking on the spiritual side of things, they should suck it up and be real men. How many mothers and wives, and even daughters, crying because they have family members who are not doing what they should be doing spiritually?

Things are going pretty well here. I can´t complain too much. Except for the fact that all the water coming out of our faucets is brown. Poor Elder Furrows. His WHITE clothes were in the washer when we discovered this. We´ll see what the problem is.

Have a good week,

Elder Bodily

Transfers

Dear all.

Once again I am in the stress mode of transfers. Elder Rocha was transferred from here and I will stay. I will be with the other two at home, who also stayed. Tomorrow Elder Rocha leaves and I will bring the new companion back here. This will be my third in Ala Itacibá. You never know what to expect in transfers. This transfer is going to be 5 weeks. Normally they are 6 weeks.

I threw up in the house of an investigator this week. We had just taught about the Word of Wisdom. Then I excused myself to the bathroom. I don´t know what it was, but it passed.

We´ll see what is going to happen with a new zone leader here. I don´t know if he will be a zone leader already or if I will have to help him learn how to be a zone leader.

We taught a lot of people this week. We had a lesson with an investigator together with Andressa. It is always interesting to teach lessons with recent converts. I hope to have success with the rest of her dynamic family.

Elder Quentin L. Cook is going to make a visit to our mission on April 25th. I am going to be the pianist. Pretty neat.

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Bodily

Celebraceo (Celebration)

This week I was very loved! Two little surprise parties from members here in the ward, a package with souvenirs from Campo Grande (where my companion is from), plus a tie and a bunch of cupcakes from our baptism Andressa! All because of my birthday. Neat.

I went to Cachoeiro yesterday. Again. We got back at 11:00 at night. That meant we had to wake up early to make all of the phone calls we missed to our missionaries last night. Things are wild this week.

We had interviews with President Araújo. He is happy with the work that we are doing and gave some new tips for us to confront the challenges we are facing. We have to help one companionship in our zone move houses. President gave us a ride from our chapel to the mission office to pick up the keys of the new house. We got to ride in his pickup in the air conditioning. I didn´t want to get out.

I did a division with Elder Anderson. Funny that we have had a lot of opportunities to see each other and work with each other on the mission, even serve in the same ward for a few weeks. They had two miraculous baptisms in their area this Saturday. A couple that they are teaching, after weeks of indecision, called them and said they wanted to be baptised that very day, Saturday. They were interviewed, and baptised that night! Always fun to remember the good old days with Elder Anderson.

I ran into Alvino the ward mission leader from Serra, and my good friend while on the divison with Elder Anderson. He gave me some updates and we took a picture together. Neat to see that at least a few people remembered my name! Alvino was there by chance, visiting his relatives and saw me passing from the window of the house and called my name. Way funny.

We were not blessed with a very spiritual week this week. This week was just blood, sweat, and tears, and a LOT of sweat. My feet have fungus and are splitting open. My companion was hit by a car- low speed, he rolled over the hood of the car. His leg is aching. We walked a lot, had almost 85% of our appointments fall through.

On the good end, Andressa opted to miss the wedding of her cousin to go to church. She is really focusing on the right things and we are happy with her progress.

That was the week.

Hope EAster was great for all.

Abraço (hugs)

21

I am now 21 years old. It is my birthday today. Conference was great. My companion and I get along great. We speak very frankly about the things that we don´t like and like one about the other. And then we fix what is wrong. Now the only thing that is lacking, is people to teach and baptize. I spoke too soon. While the summer is fading, it alternates between blazing hot and rainy. It is starting to cool off though, and by 5pm it is not so hot. Just when the sun is up.

This week we visited a lady that I had talked to in the street and she got so excited to learn about the Church. She said that she has always wanted to learn more about the church and always has had curiosity about the misisonaries. I just happened to talk to her on the street and invite her to recieive a visit from us. When we went, she got very excited and happy when we presented her with a Book of Mormon. She loved the message we left and we are going to go back tomorrow to visit her. Her name is Sandra.

That´s my good news moment! Thanks for your birthday wishes! It is a good day today, p-day, I like the missionaries that I am with and we have a good area. I hope you all have a week to remember. Don´t forget the value of the conference messages! Review them! I have to wait for the magazine to arrive here (I expect to wait two months), but yáll can check it out online.

Tchau!

Elder Bodily