There's No Place Like Home

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

This is my last email! I don´t believe it! We had a whirlwind week with much to do and organize and plan. We worked hard and sweated. Elder Dantas was a perfect last companion. The ward really reached out to us and gave us their love. All four of us (2 sisters and 2 elders) were transferred. The ward had a family home evening just for us. It was special.

 

I did my last street contact with a little old lady at a bus stop. She rejected me. I smiled.

 

On Sunday I had a special experience. Andressa from Itacibá came and watched the church meetings in Glória and left me a present (chocolate!). But that wasn´t the best thing. She brought her boyfriend. You´ll never guess who it is. It´s a 19 year old that I did a contact with on the street in Itacibá last transfer. The Elders started teaching him, and three weeks ago he got baptized!!! I remember writing down his address because he said that his house was the color of pumpkin. He wrote me a note and talked about how grateful he was for me having talked to him on the street that day. I would add as a side note, that day was horrible and I fell asleep thinking it was a failure. He wrote that his biggest dream is to serve as an Elder, and he is already planning for next year when he will be eligible to leave. We took pictures, and it was a sweet experience.

 

That´s why I smiled when the old lady rejected me. Because you never know.

 

You´ll never guess where i am right now or where I will spend the night. I am in the LAN House next to the house in Vitória. It was here that I started my mission! We are going to sleep at the house too! Elder Dantas is with the zone leaders. I am with Elder Anderson and Elder Gneiting. We had our last interviews with Presidente Araújo this morning and now we are free to do as we will. We are going to Serra! I´m excited. I feel weird. But very happy. Everyone is so excited to be going home!

 

I know I will miss Brasil so much. So much so much. But it is time to go home.

 

My bags are packed. Tomorrow is the transfer. Tomorrow night we are going to be sleeping in a hotel near the beach. Then Wednesday night we head to the airport to catch our plane to the United States of America. Thursday night I will be back in Boise.

 

I love the Lord! And I love my mission. It was an excellent and rewarding experience from start to finish. I have learned so much. I have so much to be thankful for. I feel like I am in a tug of war between the love of Brasil and the love of my home.

 

Things I will miss from Brasil:

farofa

açaí

PORTUGUÊS

of course, the people

paçoca

the love of futebol

música

my missionary friends

churrasco

cangica

hugs, everyone is always constantly hugging

the greenness

this beautiful metropolis they call Grande Vitória

my scripture study time

pudim

sucos naturais

bananas off the tree

lunch for free :)

big lunches, small dinners

Things I will be happy to have back:

family (JAKE!!!)

the temple

free time

a car

a computer

friends

root beer

MILK as we know it REAL MILK

snow

internet

MUSIC!

a bike

time to be alone (not always with a companion 24-7)

English

small lunches, big dinners

Dairy Queen

Walmart

air conditioning

hot water to wash your hands with or to do dishes with

BYU

time to exercise, time to run

real clothes!! other than Sunday attire!

 

See what I mean? A tug of war!

 

Did I mention that a member gave me a ride to the mission office for my interview with President? I arrived in high style in a white Volkwagen van. That´s right, almost the Mystery Machine.

 

We are in the final stretch. The end is near.

I am excited to see and talk to everyone again.

See you in a bit,

Elder Bodily (for the last time)

O Fim Em Vista (The End in View)

Dear all,

What a wild week.

We are no longer teaching Fernando´s family. They decided to stop inviting for a time until ´´their lives calm down a bit.´´ We´ll see.

Joelma is 19 and has many friends that are members of the church. She went to church yesterday for the fourth time and we taught her two times this week with two different members. She has already been to Institute, she went to the ward activity on Friday, and she is reading and reading about everything. Her friend from the Ala Ibes (the ward with which we share the chapel) was baptized last week and she was there. However, for now, she is still in the investigation mode. We challenged her to be baptized on the 18th of August. I start to get dizzy when I think that that day I will not be in Brazil anymore.

Weverton. MWAhahaha! We tracked him down. It took some detective work and some good timing and some searching too. However, we found him and his house. We had always taught him in his brother´s house. We went to visit him with the Elders Quorum President (who will be leaving for his mission in Recife on August 23rd). It was an excellent visit, but this time he did not invite us back, and left his decision clear. This brought much closure to my life.

Jorge said he would go to church. He was not there yesterday.

Debora is 55 and she lives with her daughters, some sons-in-law, and some grandchildren. She made goals with us to stop smoking. She has been consistently diminishing her use of cigarettes and today is the first day that she is going to try to smoke NOTHING. She is going to do it. I know. She has been smoking since she turned 12. She is more than ready to change, and just needed the Spirit and some friends to help her. She accepted the baptismal date on 18th of August.

Elder Dantas received his patriarchal blessing yesterday! We had to continue calling and calling until we finally managed to mark a time. He almost gave up because we literally had to call 20 times over the past few weeks, but I kept bugging him and bugging him to keep trying. Finally, yesterday after church we met the patriarch in Itaparica and after a little more than an hour Elder Dantas emerged all awestruck and wide-eyed. I was so happy for him. It was a great experience for him.

I had another Festa Junina this week. This is a party that is supposed to happen in June. Remember that we had the party in Itacibá during my last week there. Our ward here in Glória is running a little late. It was neat. Lots of good tasty traditional Brazilian food. I am going to miss the food SOOOO MUCHCCHHCHH! And Joelma was there with her friends. It was great.

Last week was neat. We went to the docks and took pictures of downtown Vitória from across the water. There is a taxi service by canoe (is that how you spell it?). It runs between our neighborhood, Paul and the downtown Vitória. We tried to climb the hill that we live on, but...well...I´ll tell that story later. Let´s just set we met some not so friendly neighbors and we thought it best to descend quickly.

We are going to the chocolate factory today! í´M SO excited. I am wearing my brown pants, and a brown tie. It will be great!

Have a wonderful week. Next week will be my last email.

Elder Bodily

Homecoming

Elder Joshua Steven Bodily will be reporting on his mission on

Sunday, August 19, 2012. 

Time:  1:30 p.m.
Place:  Amity Stake Center (corner of Amity and Cloverdale)
            12040 West Amity Road; Boise, Idaho 83709)

Everyone is welcome to come.  We will be holding an open house from 5 to 7 at our home, 3039 S Canonero Way; Boise Idaho 83709.  We look forward to seeing all of you there!

Menos Uma Semana (One Week Less)

Dear all,

This week was quite difficult. We worked a lot and we sweated out every hour.

Fernando and Leidiane are basically stopped in their progress. Lots of excuses and lots of challenges. We are going to be there tomorrow to talk with them and give them the force and strength that they are going to need to make it to baptism. They did not go to church on Sunday.

The visit from Elder Jairo Mazzagardi was really neat. I got to see a lot of friends from the mission. I was the pianist as usual. As part of the fireside, he announced a few hymns that were unplanned. Thank goodness I knew how to play all of them. I only messed up a few little times. He talked to us for almost three hours and it didn´t even seem like it. No one wanted the time to end. I saw Elder Rossi for the last time. He was my last companion for those who forgot. It was very spiritual the whole time.

Our visit to the Convent was marvelous. It was a blue sky, bright sun, cool breeze day. We met members from the church from Vitória, Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, and Minas Gerais. I also met four Americans. Two from Pittsburgh and two from North Carolina. Tourist sites are always interesting. I remember all the times that I would eavesdrop on the foreign tourists when we visited national parks before the mission. This time I was the foreign tourist and I understood the foreign tourists speaking in English. 

Jane is doing well. She got her nephew to give her a ride to church, and is preparing to be independent from the missionaries. 

Jorge avoided us the whole week. I hope that is not his final answer.

Weverton is still hiding from us. Two weeks ago that he went to church and we never saw him again.

We are going to take pictures, write in our journals, and clean the house today. I am excited. Next week we are going to tour the chocolate factory here in Vila Velha. The company is called Garoto, owned by Nestle. It produces chocolate for all of Brasil and Portugal.

Have a wonderful week.

Elder Bodily

Busy Weeeeeek

Meus queridos  (my dear "friends")

 

We had the baptism of Jane this week. Remember how she had a stroke and lost most of the strength in one half of her body? That made things interesting. The process of helping her down into the font was slow and calm. Step by step. A recent convert of the Sisters here in the ward baptized her, but I was dressed in white and in the font too to help her down the steps and then to hold her legs under the water. It took three tries, but we finally succeeded. And instead of being scared or frustrated after being submerged three times, Jane was calm and happy. Did I mention that the President of the Relief Society also helped her down the steps and got her dress wet?

 

She was confirmed on Sunday. After church, some members invited her to lunch. She made new friends and when we visited her in the afternoon, she was more talkative than I have ever heard her. She smiled and laughed and was a much happier Jane. She is a strong and faithful woman.

 

We had a marvelous lunch at a members house today. We cut our hair. And we are going to the Convento da Penha, the prime tourist site of Vila Velha. Things are a little rushed.

 

We worked hard this week, but we had little to show for it. We started teaching a family of six that has been taught by the missionaries many times. They received us really well and we succeeded in establishing trust and friendship with them. We hope to set goals and see progress in them this week. For future reference, the parents are named Fernando and Leidiane.

 

We taught Jorge again. He said that he is going to decide this week if he wants our help to be baptized or not. He said he knows that God will answer his prayers, but that he has to put forward more effort. He said that he isn´t putting forward effort yet.

 

We are working hard. We feel that Jane is not the last person that we will baptize this transfer. Jairo Mazzagardi from the area presidency is going to speak to us on thursday and we have interviews with President Araújo tomorrow (last time!)

 

I had some funny experiences this week,

Talking to a drunk man that tried to teach us the ten commandments.

I had a division with Elder Salvador (who was my first junior companion in Serra, now he is my zone leader).

Probably my last division.

I left home without my nametag and didn´t notice for over an hour, that was weird. I felt so strange afterwards. That is the first time on the mission that that has happened.

 

Until next week. I know, I still owe you photos, but this lan house charges R$3 per hour, two times the normal price. Wish us luck on our outing to the convento!

Love,

Elder Bodily

Ficando Velho Em Vila Velha (Getting Old in Vila Velha)

Dear all,

I was not transferred very far from Itacibá. Now I am in Ala Glória (yes, the translation is Glory Ward) in Vila Velha. My companion is Elder Dantas, from a small town called Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. He is 24, and has a little less than six months on the mission. I am the district leader of the Distrito Glória. It is just us, and the other two missionaries that share our ward: Sister Dias and Sister Zeller. This is the only ward on the mission that has both Elders and Sisters. If you have good memories, you will recall that when I was in Anchieta, Sister Dias was in my district. I sent a picture at that time. Funny that Sister Dias is in her last transfer as well. Most of the time, all four of us have lunch at the same house. Ala Glória is a really neat ward. There are a lot of ex-missionaries here and the members are all really friendly and neat. The ward is comparatively small in geographical terms. Especially since it is divided into two halves, one for us and one for the Sisters.

So, this week was pretty much just the back-breaking work of getting to know the area. Lots of walking, lots of getting lost. Even though my companion has been here in the ward since he started his misison, he still gets just a bit lost sometimes, and doesn´t always pick the fastest route. However, he is really a great companion. He is humble, clean, organized, calm, and hard-working. He is the only member of his family that is a member of the church.

We live up on a hill, and you can see a little bit of downtown Vitória from up top, and you can see the Terceira Ponte (Third Bridge), and some skyscrapers from the neighborhood of the mission office. Ala Glória is on the mainland, just across the water from Ala Vitória (remember that Vitória is an enormous island), where I started my mission. There are a lot of hills in our area, but Vila Velha usually has a nice clipping breeze from the ocean. The gigantic chocolate factory of the chocolate maker Garoto is in our ward, across the street from the chapel. It is a touristic point here. I will surely be visiting and taking advantage of the ten minute all the chocolate you can eat without drinking water session that comes after the tour.

We marked a baptismal date with Jânia, about 45 years old. She had a stroke about 8 years ago and it has left the left side of her body almost useless. However, we got an Irmão to give her a ride to church, and she was ready and waiting. Her sister was baptized thirty years ago and is inactive. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is determined to be ready for her baptism on the 21st of July.

One complaint: We had to walk for half an hour to get to this LAN House and then, it was all full of little punk kids playing online games and cussing, so we had to wait to use the computers. Now we have to walk back and buy groceries and then we will be able to relax.

Funny stories to tell next week.

Love,

Elder Bodily

Por Do Sol Em Itaciba (Sunset in Itaciba)

Dear All,

What an interesting week it has been. We have come to the close of one more transfer here in Cariacica. We received news on Friday that all four of us are being transferred. Elder LeFoll, Elder Dance, Elder Rossi, and I. So, my time here has ended. Tomorrow at 3:00pm we are going to be in the transfer meeting in Vila Velha.

This is going to be my last transfer on the mission. My last six weeks. This makes me think a lot and feel kind of strange.

This week was hard again. However, over the weekend I had two experiences that were really amazing.

First, on Saturday night the ward had a Festa Junina, a tradition here. It is kind of like a square dance country themed dance and dinner that originally was a Catholic holiday focused in Saint John, but that now has nothing to do with that. The turnout was huge. There were people from the Estaca Vitória (Vitória Stake). Surprisingly, I ran into someone I know other than some members from Vitória and Serra. Her name is Malu, 22 years old. Over a year ago I was passing in front of her house and we stopped to talk to her and offer her our message. She was with her boyfriend, had a nose piercing, dyed hair, and it was raining. We ended up returning and teaching in her home four or five times. But, with time, we lost contact, her and her mom never went to church, and we never again found them at home. Then Elder Salvador and I were transferred from Serra.

Turns out, the Elders saw the record of her I left, went by her house, found her at home, and she was baptized. She is going to be serving a mission in December. Her papers are all ready and she is wating until she has one year as a member to send them. Fruits of the labor. It was neat. I recognized her, but she was completely different. I was grateful for the opportunity I had to talk to her, take a picture with her, and get her email address. I am still baffled. I can´t wait to see where she goes on her mission!

On Sunday, we had an investigator Edson that went to church again. He is not married, and he lives with a less-active member Erica that is returning to church. They both are about 24 years old. It was pretty normal.  It has been a while since we have been to their house, because he wants to be baptized but only after they get married, which is going to take awhile. Plus, they were out of town for over a week and I didn´t even know they were back. He got up in fast and testimony meeting, in jeans a black t-shirt and gave the best testimony of the meeting. He told the story of how Elder Rossi and I went to their home, taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and challenged him to read and then pray and ask the Lord about it all. He said that the instant he finished praying, he felt an overwhelming sensation of happiness and relief, and that when he woke up the next morning, it continued. He continued reading, and the feeling continued to grow. Many other members that bore testimony afterwards said that his testimony remembered them of their conversion and rekindled those feelings. We too bore our testimonies. We are leaving the area, but we are leaving seeds planted.

I am tired, but happy.

Have a good week. Wait with eyes peeled for the transfer news.

Elder Bodily

Novos Comecos (New Beginnings)

All,

 

What a joy this Sunday was! Our family of four was NOT at church! Guilherme, the future Elder was NOT at church! In fact, NO ONE WAS AT CHURCH! Joyful.

 

The family of four is not doing well. They are all discouraged and out of it and they said they didn't have money to catch the bus to church. We visited them after church and we discovered that their excuse was not valid, that they haven't been reading, studying, praying, or living the commandments, and that they have been avoiding us and cancelling appointments just because. Our lesson gave them new hope. We left them with the Book of Mormon in their hands, and told them to read together the moment that we left. We will see. We are only going to go back on Saturday.

Guilherme got a new job selling coconut water on the beach. In Vittoria. And so, the whole week, we have been out of touch with him because he always says that he will be at home tomorrow, but tomorrow never arrives. He was selling coconut water yesterday instead of visiting the church.

So, what I want to communicate isn't sadness or disappointment, but simply the news of what has been getting in the way of their progress.

 Elder LeFoll and Elder Dance have been trying to scare us the past few days, but they have failed three times.Maybe because they always call us mysteriously and ask us where we are so they can hide in the dark at the end of the day to try and startle us.

There was a fireside put on by the Relief Society last night that was pretty neat with speakers and a musical number by the missionaries. We sang Brilham Raios de Clemcia aka Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. The Relief Society President in our ward is awesome, and she is only 23 years old! Everyone respects her as if she were 50.

I bought a towel with the emblem of my chosen Brazilian soccer team, Corintians. They are pretty neat. Look them up!

Andressa received a calling! She is a ward missionary now! She is excited and is still really active and is now coming to church in dresses that are much more elegant and modest. Progress. We read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with her this week together with her two cousins and her mother. They are respecting her and the church a lot more after seeing the wonderful changes that she is making in her life.

We ran into Mara on the street. Remember, her husband is not letting her go to church. She told us that she thinks that her husband will accept visits from women in the ward, so we talked with the president of the Relief Society and got her visiting teachers, and I am pretty sure they went to visit her yesterday. We hope to see her and Victoria confirmed.

Have a good week.

Elder Bodily

A Vida Louca (The Crazy Life)

Dearest all,

I just read my cousin´s email. She is serving as a missionary in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. She said that it is really cold there. Let´s just say that since I left the frigid winds and ice of Georgia in January of last year, I have not had that sensation. It doesn´t even sound like we are serving in the same country! Hilarious.

Just in case you wanted to know, I sweat through my shirts every day.

This week I did a division with Elder Henrique in Estrelinha, a ward in Vitória that belongs to our zone. Elder Henrique has been the district leader there since he arrived. He arrived in Estrelinha the same day that I arrived in Itacibá (January, five months ago). He is from São Paulo. We had lunch with a lookout over the bay. It was a French lasagna with chicken and then a peach flan for dessert. It´s always interesting to mix things up and get things done. The past three divisions that I have had with Elder Henrique have all been here in Itacibá.

Yesterday was a very hectic day at church. Only one person that we are teaching came to church. We had to give the class in the first hour. Everyone was together-- Relief Society, Priesthood, Young Men and Women. We had a lesson about seeking out the less-active members and presented the organized manner in which we will be coordinating the visits to all of the less-actives in the ward. The travelling assistants were supposed to be there to give half of the class as we had arranged, but they got caught in traffic and only arrived in time to see the AMEN. So we had to wing it a little.

Then, the other two Elders (LeFoll and Dance) forgot to turn off the baptismal font for their baptism and it overflowed into the bathrooms and the hall, so we had to use the whole time of Gospel Principles to squeegee the water down the drains, scoop water out of the font to pour into the sinks, and dry everything. The teacher of Gospel Principles seems to have offended various investigators and members that were in the class making jokes about matchmaking and marriage.

Then, the baptism of the other Elders arrived in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. Again. Then we had to arrange the whole baptismal meeting when the mission leader dropped the bomb on us that he had not prepared anything and would not be able to attend the baptism. All in all, an interesting Sunday in the church.

However, after church we made a special visit to a less active family together wit hthe bishop and the second counselor of the stake. It was really simple, but also spiritual and neat.

Our family of four did not go to church. They were supposed to get baptised yesterday, but they started drinking coffee again, and that complicated the situation. We are going to see what will be their destiny this week. Pray for them and us.

We have an investigator named Guilherme that is 18, and wants to be an Elder one day. He is changing his life. He was out of town this past week, but he is progressing really well. He asked for a priesthood blessing after reading about blessings in the Word of Wisdom pamphlet. He is a great person.

Once again, my time is short and my companion is in a hurry, so I will leave you for now.

Love,

Elder Bodily

O Sexto Templo (Our Sixth Temple)

Yesterday we were able to watch the dedication of the Manaus Brasil Temple. Elder Quentin L. Cook conducted and Presidente Dieter F. Uchtdorf dedicated the structure. It was a really neat experience. There were a few speakers including President Cláudio R. M. Costa, Area President of Brasil (he visited our mission in August or September last year). We arrived in the chapel around 8:20 and the dedication started at 10:00. There was a prelude being broadcast. It was music from the Tabernacle Choir and video shots of the exterior and interior of various temples. Mexico City, Panama City, Curitiba, Apia Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Helsinki Finland, Twin Falls, Oquirrh Mountain, Draper etc. Really neat. It showed a lot of the baptistries, ordinance rooms, celestial rooms, the grounds, etc. The video repeated three times in 90 minutes, but I watched it the whole time.

 

 

 

On Friday we had a visit from an MTC instructor from São Paulo. Remember the story from general conference a few years ago about the leader who always went to pick up the young man for church, but the young man always tried to get away? Then the leader went after him even to the beach and entered into the water to grab him, even though he was wearing his suit? The man who came to visit us was that boy. He has been a stake president, a bishop two times, a seventy two times, and now works in the MTC. His talk was to all the misisonaries serving in Greater Vitória. I have never seen someone who captivated a group so completely for so long (he spoke for over two hours). Teaching is truly a gift and a skill that is so valuable. He talked about various subjects, from less-active member visits, integrating new members, diligence, Preach My Gospel, finding new investigators, referrals, etc. My head is still spinning from all the learning. I was taking notes practically the entire time.

Our family of four seems to be doing good and if all goes as according to our plans, they will be baptized on Sunday. We marked a baptismal date with a young man (18 years old) who wants to serve a mission. Hopefully he is willing to make the sacrifices to be able to.

We had a division with the assistants to the president. This time Elder Buttars came to my area. If you have really sharp memories, you will remember that I wrote this about Elder Buttars in the MTC:

 

Get this. I finally ran into someone from Boise. He is in the district that stole our teacher. So. He is from "Boise" or rather, Meridian. He lives near Linder and Cherry. He attended both Meridian and Capital High Schools. He took Spanish all through high school and speaks almost fluently. He studied Portuguese over the summer, and had several Portuguese friends so we is picking things up quickly. He is going to MY MISSION- Vitoria, Brasil. [PS I would add that I only know of 5 or 6 other missionaries out of the 2200 here at the MTC headed to my mission].

Then things get weirder. The suit he brought for his mission? The same exact suit as mine, bought at the same JC Penney during the same sale- this is a pinstripe suit, not some generic black suit. And! The first time we saw each other wearing the same suit, he was wearing a tie that I have! They are different brands, but they are literally identical. Candy cane looking ties. We basically have a lot in common. Strange. He sings tenor in choir. On top of everything else. And his last name starts with a B. You get the idea.

It was an interesting week. We have lots of work to do.

 

Have a joyful week,

Elder Bodily

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

One more week has gone by, and I am very glad that this last week is over. It was not a very fun week.

 

Monday and Tuesday we had many people to visit, like I said last week. However, as we visited them, very few showed potential, fewer accepted return appointments, and little changed. Wednesday was quite difficult. We worked in three separate neighborhoods, and still found very little to do. The highlight of Wednesday was the Family Home Evening with Erica and her family. Erica is 23 and her mom and sisters are members of the church. She has been inactive for about two years, but now she is full of desire to return. She organized the whole Family Home Evening and it was suprisingly spiritual. I say surprising because her nephews, son, and the neighbors were all making the most noise and the biggest mess and being punished by the sandal of Erica´s dad (not yet a member). We left edified, impressed, and full of refreshments. MMM.

 

On Thursday and Friday we had our zone meeting, in two parts. In order to save on bus tickets, we met with the Elders from our zone working in Cariacica, Viana, and Vitória on Thursday. Then on Friday we travelled to Cachoeiro to meet with the Elders and Sisters from Cachoiero and Guaçuí. The two meetings were a success. It was good to take care of yet another responsibility. I gave a training about working together with and fortifying members of the church. We had an activity centered on how well you know your companion that turned out to be pretty entertaining. I think we all learned some funny things about each other.

 

Thursday night the ward had an activity. The point was to invent new lyrics to a song and then present your new hybrid song on the stage together with karaoke music. We, as missionaries, were the judges. There were some pretty funny and some pretty ridiculous songs. All of them were based on Brazilian songs. The new lyrics were about callings, speaking in church, food storage, families, etc. There was some controversy about our decision as judges, but quite a few non-members were present. There are always a few members who do an excellent job of inviting friends to the activities. Even though most of them do not live in our ward, we were able to pass their information to the other wards and stakes responsible.

 

Friday after the meeting we met with President Araújo, who was on his way to Campos for a stake conference. Then we did a division with the Elders in Ala Cachoeiro II. I worked with Elder Caceres. Elder Caceres is from Argentina. He arrived on the mission when I was in Serra, and our wards shared the chapel there in Serra. I did a division with him a year ago in his area in Serra. Funny how things change, but stay the same.

 

Saturday and Sunday we pounded the pavement trying to make things happen, but we had little success. The family of four (Élsio and kin) did not go to church and we did not find them at home even though we took a bus way out to see them. And they didn´t answer their phone. So, we don´t know what is going to happen.

 

Sunday was Stake Conference. There was a special broadcast from Salt Lake City for stakes in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo. Walter F. Gonzalez from the Presidency of the Seventy (whose native language is Spanish), Elaine S. Dalton President of the Young Women, Elder Neil A. Andersen (he spoke in Portuguese), and President Thomas S. Monson all spoke. It was really neat.

 

Next week is the dedication of the temple in Manaus! All the Sunday meeting have been cancelled and in their place, they are going to broadcast the dedication. I had to renew my temple recommend with President because it expired last month. This will be a neat experience, but no investigators can come...which adds a complication. The temple will be the sixth in Brasil after São Paulo, Campinas, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Recife.

 

Wish us luck for the new week.

Beixo,

Elder Bodily

As Familias Podereo (The Families Roots)

Dear all.

This was a rather difficult, yet interesting week. Elder Furrows was transferred to Jardim da Penha, President Araújo´s ward. He is going to be the next Mission Secretary. Elder LeFoll arrived. He has about 8 months of experience and just became a senior companion. He and Elder Dance get along very well. Elder LeFoll is from Hartford, Connecticut.

 

Seven missionaries were transferred in our zone. All of the companionships that were having difficulties changed in some way and now are doing much better. This is good news. We are happy to announce that the zone has had at least one baptism every week since the 11th of March. The work goes forward. It is interesting to see with a larger perspective that when one companionship or district is having hard times, other are having a lot of success and everything ends up pretty balanced.

 

On Thursday we had a miraculous day. We had the whole day open, and we decided to do something different. We visited all the addresses we had accumulated from contacts on the street and all the addresses of less-actives and we tried to visit all of them. We found nine new people to teach and we taught seven good lessons. It was a success. And we even had time to buy pão doce (sweet bread) and the bread store.

 

We had another Zone Leader Council this week. The mission is now going into a huge focus on reactivating less-actives and inactives. Just for you to see an example of why this is important, Ala Estrelinha, one of the wards in our zone has 130 members that are active and over 600 inactives. So...I think this is a good idea. Our ward has about 300 inactive members. We are continuing to have a lot of success here with fortifying and helping those that were not so active in the Church.

 

Mara and Vitória are in a hard spot. They had to go out of town again and her husband is as bad as ever. The member visit scheme was not as successful as we hoped. They have still not been confirmed.

 

Felipe is a returned missionary that we have been visiting since January because it has been quite a while that he hasn´t been to church. Yesterday he finally went!

 

But the highlight of the week was yesterday. We showed up to church and surprise! There was a family of four there that we had already taught several times in weeks past, but who never went to church. We visited them after church and the visit was especially spiritual. They loved the meetings and the classes. Their family is made up of a married couple Élcio and Luciana (about 35 years old) and two children Alexandre (10) and Tainá (8). We marked a baptismal date for all four of them. Their baptism will be on the 17th of June. Élcio gave us all the cigarettes he had in the house. They all said many times that they feel happier than ever and that they want to continue to feel even better. It was an excellent end to a long week.

 

We´ll be heading off to Cachoeiro again this week and we have a TON of people to visit. It is going to be tiring and hopefully very rewarding.

 

Dal was confirmed yesterday. We passed by his house and we gave him two ties.

 

These pictures are of Dal and his wife Renata. And of Elder Furrows with us before he was transferred. (He is the baldish one.) 

 

 

Speaking of transfers, we showed up over an hour late because the traffic stopped literally. It was horrible. We had to get off the bus and carry the suitcases to the chapel. But, what can you do?

 

Pray for me to have more patience.

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Bodily

Seasons...

Well well well.

This week we had one baptism. We were supposed to have two.

Adailton - everyone calls him Dal - was baptized yesterday. He has been married to his wife for nine years. His wife was born in the church. He suffered from various addictions and vices and had to overcome almost impossible barriers in order to arrive at this point in his life. Of course, his wife cried a lot. It was a simple meeting. So simple that we forgot to take pictures! Dal is doing very well and is feeling energized and excited to have finally taken this step. They have five children, two of whom are already baptized.

Joelma. Oh, Joelma. Joelma was not baptized yesterday. We spent the week visiting her every day and reading with her, reviewing the lessons, bringing members to her home to get to know her and fortifying her in general. She has been one month without smoking, drinking, etc. SATURDAY, the day before her baptism she had a relapse. Again. She couldn´t even get out of bed when we went to pick her up to go to church. Joelma is miserable and embarrassed and disappointed.

Mara and Victória also had a hardship this week. We were visiting them for the second time in the week on...Friday I think. We had a good spiritual lesson, and then as the prayer ended, Mara´s husband Jorge arrived and started a rampage out of nowhere. He started yelling and said all the Portuguese swear words known to man and said quite politely that we were a nuisance and that our presence is very irritating and that he never wants us to ever return to his house and that the church is from Hades and many other pleasantries. At the time, he was pushing his motorcycle up the little hill to the shack that he keeps the motorcycle in, and my companion asked if he wanted help. He responded that he wanted us to disappear from off the face of the Earth. Both Mara and Victória were almost crying and said sorry to us a million times as we left.

Summarizing, we have a new challenge. We already arranged to have Mara and Victória come to another member´s house nearby to meet with us and have a lesson together. They still have not been confirmed, being that they didn´t go to church on Sunday. I hope that it had nothing to do with Jorge, but I think it had everything to do with Jorge. Ay ay ay.

Andressa was at church yesterday. She is still active and full of recent convert fire.

Transfers are Tuesday. I will stay here with Elder Rossi. Elder Furrows from our house is being transferred.

It was Elder Rocha, Elder Furrows, Elder Dance, and I.

Then Elder Rossi, Elder Furrows, Elder Dance, and I.

Now Elder Rossi, WHOKNOWS, Elder Dance, and I.

One by one the leaves fall.

It has been super rainy and cold the whole week. I have never sweated so little in one week! It´s a miracle!

We had a funny experience this week. We were at a lunch with a family of members. The grandma of the family loves to talk and talked a whole bunch the whole lunch. She has this creaky old voice, the classic voice of an old woman, almost the voice of Yzma. Anyways, she asked to be excused and went to the bathroom and to get ready to go run some errands. We went to have the closing prayer before leaving. Elder Furrows started praying and this mysterious sound of a door rattling around started. It continued for 20 seconds or so and then came this loud old woman voice from the grandma:

HELP! THIS DOOR DOESN`T WANT TO OPEN ANY MORE. SOMEONE HELP!

The prayer ended and everyone started laughing so hard. My stomach hurt so much.

I have never stayed in an area for four transfers. This will be the first time. And the last. There are only two more transfers of my mission left. Elder Rossi will either be my last or my second-to-last companion.

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Bodily

Rainy Season

Last night it rained a lot and flooded lots of different homes of the members in the ward here. There was so much rain that big puddles formed on our balcony. One of our investigators, Dal, that is going to get baptized on Sunday had his house flooded too. Lots of fun stuff. The water rose a half meter in the low parts of town. Vila Velha and Cariacica are going to have complications. Some principal roads also flooded in Vitória.

Here are some pictures that I took this week.

This week we have two baptisms planned. For Joelma and Adailton. I started teaching Joelma in February. I started teaching Adailton last week. It just goes to show you how some people progress faster than others.

I would like to share a little about how I feel.

As I have been working here in Brasil over the past year and a half, and don´t forget Georgia for two months, I have come to grow a lot. These months have been absolutely loaded with sweat, soreness, and stress. In other words, lots of hard work and much physical, emotional, mental, and spirutual exertion. Despite all of the difficulties and the changes and the hard things, I have certainly gained more than I have lost. I have what many others do not. I have an absolute certainty that God loves us, that he cares about us, and that we are here because of Him. I know that Jesus Christ came to the Earth and sacrificed everything for us so that our way back to the presence of Heavenly Father could be opened.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by Jesus Christ through His chosen prophets and servants. I know that every sacrifice that we make to be able to serve God with loyalty, dedication, and commitment is worth it. The options and choices we have in this life are ours to make, but we must make the right decisions if we want to be with God again.

I feel good. I am at peace. I know that these things are true.

Have a good week,

Elder Bodily

Friends and Family,

Well, with Elder Cook it was pretty neat. We all got to the chapel on time. It was a bit of an organizational nightmare with our Zone Meeting, lunches for everyone coming from out of town, and catching the right buses to Jardim da Penha. We rehearsed the hymn that we would be singing- 163 in the Portuguese hymnbook, called Ide Por Tudo Mundo. It doesn´t exist in the English hymnbook and is incredibly difficult to play. The whole mission was there and we must have sung it through fifteen times. Then I continued practicing and talking with past companions and friends. Then came the time for silence and prelude. For about twenty minutes we continued silent, and I played prelude. Then Elder Cook arrived and went up to the front. After he sat down, he looked at me and mouthed ´´KEEP PLAYING!!´´ So I kept playing three more hymns while he organized with President Araújo and then as all the missionaries formed a line to shake his hand, Sister Cook´s hand, and Elder and Sister Godoy´s hands (Area Presidency of Brasil). I kept playing, and then Elder Cook and Sister Cook came over to the piano as the hymn was ending and then shook my hand and asked me where I was from. Neat, huh?

Elder Cook gave a little introduction and then we sang Called to Serve. After, Elder and Sister Godoy spoke. Then Sister Cook got up and said, I wonder if Elder Bodily could come back to the piano? Then we sang Hark All Ye Nations in special parts. GOOD THING I KNOW HOW TO PLAY THAT HYMN. So, I´m already thinking, wow, I am participating a lot in this meeting.

Then Elder Cook got up to talk. It was all a really spiritual and fascinating meeting, and the talk of Elder Cook was the focal point. He talked about how the Lord feels about the missionaries that truly devote themselves during this time to his service. He talked about our duty as missionaries too. He taught us about D&C 31 and talked a lot about his role in the development of Preach My Gospel. Then he read the last two paragraphs in Preach my Gospel that talk about retention and activity in the church, and revealed that the words there are from a letter that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wrote to him years ago. (PS, did you know that Elder Cook and Elder Holland were companions in the mission field in England??) Then all of the sudden he said, ´´I´m probably going to scare him to death, but I´m going to call Elder Bodily up here to the front.´´ I almost fell off of the pew.

I went up. You have to understand that Elder Cook was speaking English and there was a translator, so it was like ´´phrase in English by Elder Cook´´ and after ´´phrase in Portuguese by translator´´. He said, reactivation is just as important as baptism, isn´t it? Then he said, of course it is. I was just standing by his side wondering what on Earth was happening in front of everyone in the mission. Then he said, your mission president gave me a booklet with some of the informations of your mission and by far the zone that has the most reactivations up until now this year is the Cariacica Zone. Then he turned to me and said, Elder Bodily, you are the zone leader of which zone? I replied, Cariacica. Then he said. Tell us what you´re doing there to have all these reactivations, and then pushed me in front of the microphone.

Then I fainted and fell over backwards. Just kidding.

I talked a little about our zone goals, but complimented the missionaries of the zone and how their love for the wards and their members made a difference in the work, not only reactivation but baptisms as well. Then I was sent to sit down.

He finished his talk, I played absolutely perfect the special hymn 163, and then as he was leaving President Cook said over the piano, Thanks so much Elder Bodily, you did great!

All in all, an unreal experience.

Mara and Victória were baptized. It was awesome. Andressa, our last baptism catches the bus at the same bus stop as them, so they all went to church together. The baptism was really neat. Their home teachers were presented to them, there was a special musical number, and I had the privilege of baptizing Mara (the mom of Victória). I have some pictures included.

Elder Rossi and I get along really well and we work hard together.

We taught a crazy woman this week who said that she dreamed that we were in a state suffering, so she prayed for us the next three days. We taught a crazy man who doesn´t believe in God, but was intrigued by a man he saw on television who ate glass cups without it doing him any harm, and thought that that was proof that God exists. If you don´t understand this line of reason, don´t feel alone, you aren´t the only one.

We had a neat and spiritual experience. We were walking down the street trying to find an address when I asked for directions from a man on the street. When he replied he said, Can you pray for me? We said, in fact, we can visit you and your family right now, can we? He agreed and we went there and shared some scriptures. Neat, we will see what happens there. I think we are going to have another baptism this week, we´ll see.

Love,

Elder Bodily

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