What a Life

Friends e entes queridos, (Friends and Loved Ones)

This life we are in is a crazy one, but it is wonderful too.

My week here was the best one yet here in Itacibá. We marked a baptismal date together with Andressa for the 25th of March, this coming Sunday. She went to church with us and went by herself to the fireside that we hosted yesterday night in the chapel. Her grandmother is a very devout follower of a certain other religion I will not name and she believes very strongly that we will go to hades for what we believe. She is in uproar since we marked the baptismal date with Andressa. She mocked us as we left her home together to go to church. She ´´warned´´ us all that we would be punished in the judgement day and other such stuff. We are teaching another family on Andressa´s street and they went to church with us. Their grandma is mortal enemies with Andressa´s grandma and they almost started fighting out on the street as we passed by going to church. I found the whole scene quite entertaining, and was happy that all six of us arrived happily at church.

Our fireside yesterday was a success. We had a neat presentation and a speaker from the high council in Vitória. We focused on new and creative ways to share the Gospel and help out the missionaries. It turned out really neat. About 45 members showed up in all. We focused on how sharing our beliefs and testimonies is SWEET. Sweet is the work was the theme. Technically, the theme was Doce É O Trabalho.

We are teaching a young man, 14 years old who is OBSESSED with all things from the United States. That means he wants to know everything about my life and past and asks all kinds of questions about English. I hope that he listens to the lessons and not just to my accent.

We worked with a lot more enthusiasm this week and renewed our commitment to have success here in the ward. The whole week shone because of our extra force. It is so rewarding.

This week was chilly! Chilly by Brasilian standards. I am very happy. The summer has surrendered and fallen down before the rainy and breezy fall.

We had a zone conference and zone meeting this week and everyone in the zone is excited and ready to have a good time this transfer. Elder Rocha and I are getting along very well despite our very opposite personalities. All of us four that live together, Elder Furrows, Elder Dance, Elder Rocha and I are very united. Especially because of our teamwork on the activity two weeks ago and the fireside yesterday night. Só festa.

Funny experience. At church yesterday Andressa sat by my side. One of the speakers was talking about Ammon and told about how he was tied up, mocked, and brought before the king. Andressa leaned over and whispered ´´Be careful that my grandma doesn´t do that to you two!´´

Well, one more week has gone by. Live well!

Have a wondrous week,

Elder Bodily

Not So Good Week

Well well well.

We had a very difficult week here. Basically, we only have one person we are teaching. Andressa. She went to a concert Saturday night that started at 8pm. She left at 6am to pass by her house, get ready for church, and catch the bus to meet us in the terminal. That is dedication. And she is not even baptized yet. Faith, when it is really really FAITH, when it isn´t just words, when it isn´t just a feeling, when it isn´t something wishy-washy that comes and goes, when it isn´t just something good, MOVES PEOPLE TO ACTION, TO SACRIFICE, AND TO DO WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO--REGARDLESS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES. NO EXCUSES.

When we really love God, we will do anything He wants. Read John 14 if you doubt it.

I have an enormous and profound respect for those who have that type of faith. We work with a lot of people who do NOT have that type of faith, nor are they interested in cultivating it.

We went to Cachoeiro again this week. I worked with Elder D. Oliveira there again. It was a neat day. We taught a pastor from another church. We taught a family that hasn´t been to church in a few months. I love it when the missionary work happens the way it is supposed to happen. When we have people to visit, when we find people we can help that want help.

A new American arrived in our zone. His name is Elder Powell. He speaks practically nothing of Portuguese. And his companion does not speak any English. My companion did a division with him and stretched his English abilities to the limit to be able to communicate with him. I am praciticing English with Elder Rocha all the time. He has background knowledge because he actually wants to learn and learned something in school about English. He wants me to speak more English with him. Funny, that that is being a difficult favor. Sometimes I am just telling stories about my life in English and then he tells me what he understood.

There are little mini-libraries in the bus terminals. We donated O Livro de Mórmon to the library in our terminal.

Elder Anderson is the assistant to the president. He is in charge of accompanying and caring for our zone. So... I talk with him frequently now. Neat.

We are reading the Book of Mormon every Tuesday and Thursday night with a family of recent-converts. It has been really rewarding and really neat. Everyone reads and then has to talk about something they learned. Meaningful study of the scriptures keeps our lives on the right track.

I don´t believe that we are in the year 2012.

Be grateful for cars. The bus system here is in upheaval because of the protestors breaking and blocking the roads. We pass a lot of time waiting for buses in terminals, at bus stops, and in traffic. What would take 5 minutes in a car becomes a 55 minute ordeal of walking to the terminal, waiting 30 minutes for the right bus to pass, then entering with 70 other people into the bus like sardines in the heat, then the bus goes, in traffic stopping and going, people loosing their balance, falling, complaining, yelling at the bus driver, etc. just to get off at a stop close to where you want to go, and then walk for 5 minutes to get to where you want. It is an adventure.

Have a good week.

Elder Bodily

Transferencia Tranquila e a Actividade Amazing (Quiet Transfer and Amazing Activity)

Gente,

There is going to be a transfer tomorrow. However, nothing is going to change in our house. All four of us stayed on another transfer. Only four in our whole zone were transferred. My companion played a joke on me and pretended that he had been transferred. He let me think that for about a half hour. Very funny.

I am glad that we are not going to have much change. The last transfer was sweeping in the zone. More than half of the zone was transferred last time.

So, our two baptisms DID NOT happen. Edna fell into the trap of Internet searches, despite our warnings. She then did not express her doubts and they exploded on Friday and she cancelled her baptism. 

Joelma was inviting people to her baptism, sharing parts of the Book of Mormon with co-workers and all, but on Friday night she arrived home and there was a man threatening to kill her son because her son had ticked him off doing something. She became desperate, didn´t sleep and started smoking again! When we went by Saturday morning, it was awful. 

We are going to do everything possible to fix what went wrong, and clear up questions, and strengthen weaknesses.

On the bright side, we had an excellent activity on Saturday night. We organized a dinner, decorated the cultural hall, invited members galore, worked with the ward leadership to organize a tour of our gorgeous church building here in Cariacica and even prepared a fifteen minute skit about the day-to-day life of the missionaries complete with lights, sound, props, and all. There was a huge turnout. We nailed the estimations on how much food to make, the skit went flawlessly, was funny and spiritual at the same time, and the tour was excellently coordinating. Don´t get me wrong, the night was stressful and difficult, but everything turned out great. The Bishop said it was the best activity in his eleven years as a member. Many others said that it was the best activity hosted in the chapel since it was dedicated four years ago. We were very happy with the turnout, the 20+ visitors, and the phone numbers we gathered.

I had a neat experience on the bus on Thursday returning from the zone leader council. A man getting on the bus behind me said ´´Hey Elders!´´ I assumed he was a member, and started a conversation despite the fact that both of us were on foot on a LOADED bus in rush hour traffic. Turns out, he had a member friend years ago, always wanted to get to know the church, and then ran into us in Vitória. The funny thing is, he lives in OUR area in Cariacica. Coincidence? I think NOT!! We talked about a lot of things. He already vacationed in the USA, he loves English, he talked about his member friend, he asked questions about the church and how missions work and everything. It was neat. I got his address and his two phone numbers (proof that he is actually truly interested) and we are going to visit him on Wed.

Tchau, love,

Elder bodily

The Week

Well well well,

I played soccer with the zone and I scored some goals. I proved to my companion that I know how to play. He didn´t believe me.

We climbed the hill in Vitória and I took some absolutely gorgeous pictures of the landscape. Blue skies, bright sun, cool breeze, green hills, blue ocean, glimmering skyline. It almost didn´t seem like the same place as a year ago when it was foggyish, humid, and gray. I really think that Vitória is a neat place.

This week we had some challenges. The people we are teaching aren´t doing as well as we would like them to, so we are searching the whole day long for new people. On Sunday I went to pick up Joelma (mom) and Tailan (son) to walk with them to church. When I got there they were both sleeping. Only Joelma´s other son was home. I had to wake them both up. After 50 minutes of getting ready, Tailan decided he wouldn´t go. Then we walked to the bus stop and after 20 minutes we got to church, over an hour late. But, Joelma saw the baptism that the other Elders had, and she really liked it. Her baptismal date is for this Sunday.

Andressa spent the weekend with relatives out of town. We kept in touch by telephone, however, and it seems like all is well. Her baptismal date is marked for this Sunday as well. She already read 1 Nephi and all of the pamphlets that we have left until now. The only challenge is that she got a job now and it is going to be difficult to find her at home. Just in time for the baptism.

We had a funny experience. There is a member of the church here. She is kind of crazy and really funny. She invited us to come and teach her brother at her house. We went there, but her brother hadn´t arrived yet. She had lost her glasses in her house. After an hour searching for her glasses, she went to the store and bought a magnifying glass and was walking around everywhere holding the magnifying glass in front of her face. It was one of the funniest most random things ever. At first I thought she was joking, but she was not. Desperate, she asked us to pray with her to be able to find her glasses. We did, and that night she found her glasses. Too funny.

I did another division with the Elders in Cachoeiro. It was hot and difficult, and they are having lots of problems, but I think things are going to get better there.

Have a wondrous week,

Elder Bodily

Carnaval

Notícias:

This was the week of Carnaval! There were a lot of parties and drunk people and crazy groups around town. We aren´t working at night here. And we had to come to the ´´downtown´´ of Cariacica to send email because everything is still closed. This weekend everyone is on vacation.

We had one shining day of gladness this week. We met a neat lady who was already taught everything by the missionaries and that went to church four times and really liked it. We are going to try to help her pick up where she left off. Then at night we set baptismal dates with a mom and her two kids. It isn´t going to be easy, there are a lot of obstacles, but we are going to do our best.

We also are teaching a young adult named Andressa. She is really neat. She went to church and loved it and already has a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. She is excited to read the Book of Mormon that we left with her yesterday. She is the niece of the wife of the Bishop. She is on fire spiritually.

Our Sunday was wild trying to pick up everyone and go by bus to church and meet with other in the terminal and everything high speed. Afterwards, almost no one was home in the afternoon. Then we had to go way out to the far end of Vitória to do a baptismal interview. 35 minutes by bus. The interview was with a nine year old girl, the daughter of a member. She knows more about the gospel and the commandments than 95% of the adults that I teach. I was stunned. By some wild miracle, a member saw us waiting at the bus stop and took us all the way home!! 20 minutes by car, without stopping and going.

Brasil is normal for me. Sometimes I forget that palm trees, beaches, city buses, Portuguese, and all things Brazilian weren´t part of my life before the mission.

My companion and I had a great conversation this week. We were at home early by President´s command (remember Carnaval?) and there was a giant party happening down on our street. We just chatted about life, about the mission, about our families, and we looked at a ton of mission photos that we have taken. It was cool. Both my companion and I have strong personalities and we are extremely different, but we are both smart enough to know how to overcome the annoying things and remain united.

Today we are going to climb the hill above downtown Vitória. I went there over a year ago in my first transfer. It is going to be awesome to go back. I sent photos the last time.

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Bodily

Busy!

Family and Friends,

Just so you understand the interesting role of zone leaders, i just spent 48 minutes sending information and receiving information from the mission leadership. I have less than 12 minutes to write this email. But I will type like crazy and take advantage of all those years of typing games in computer class.

So...we officially decided to move our work from where the missionaries have been working forever to another neighborhood. This new neighborhood is a little closer to our house, a little closer to the church, and the members there are excited to finally have the work of the missionaries in their area again. We had success in bringing four people to church yesterday, all from this new neighborhood.

Elder Bodily

Wild Week

Phew!

We had a pretty exhausting week! My companion and I did not have one day working together. Just Sunday! I participated in four different divisions. I worked in four different cities: Cariacica, Viana, Cachoeiro, and Serra. On top of that, we had Zone Leader Counsel in the mission home in Vitória. It was a lot of travelling and a lot of packing my loaded backpack around (toothbrush, shaver, deodorant, shorts, socks, flip-flops, scriptures, pamphlets, etc.)

Tuesday I worked with Elder Henrique from São Paulo. He is a district leader in Ala Estrelinha from our zone. I stayed in the area and we explored several neighborhoods visiting less-active members, old investigators, referrals, active members, etc. We climbed lots of hills and had a good time. Elder Henrique is really positive and talkative in a good way. He makes friends fast.

Wednesday we had the Zone Leader Council, and due to heavy traffic (we had to cross the bridge to Vitória and then pass through the downtown district) we almost arrived late. But, luckily, we arrived just in time for me to play the opening hymn on the piano in president´s 12th floor apartment with a panoramic window view of Vitória, Camburi Beach, and the Third Bridge. Gorgeous. The Council was great. Elder Anderson is a great assistant to the president. After the meeting and lunch, I went with the other assistant, Elder Lopes Silva, to his area on a division (in Serra). This is his last transfer. He was one of the two missionaries that were at the airport with President Pickett to greet me in the airport when I arrived. We walked a lot, had a lot of things fall through, but had a good meeting with some of the leadership of their ward and coordinated the missionary work being done there.

Thursday morning we took a 30 minute bus ride in a bus loaded with people to Cariacica, where we had a Zone Meeting in our chapel. The big and beautiful one. Elder Rocha and I passed information from the Zone Leader Council, gave trainings, set goals, and had a few games and trainings from other missionaries. It was a success. From there, I started a division with Elder D. Oliveira from São Paulo in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim. Cachoeiro is almost three hours by bus from Vitória. Elder D. Oliveira is pretty new. Elder Gneiting was his first companion! We went by bus and then we had a few lessons with their investigators who are preparing for baptism. I stayed the night there in their tiny little house and then we worked until 5pm in his area. Cachoeiro is infamous for being really hot and having no wind. I did not pass sunblock, and so I burned a lot. But, it was fun. Elder Rocha and I did not get back home until 10:30 at night. Exhausted.

Saturday morning we woke up and I went to Viana to do a division with Elder R. Santos, also from São Paulo. This is his FIRST transfer. His SECOND week. We had a neat day visiting a lot of referrals that he and his companion had gotten because they have a lot of the trust of the members. We had a really neat day climbing the hills and seeing the green countryside of Viana. At night, we ended our division in the bus terminal, and I went home completely tired.

Church was great, and then my companion and I talked about everything that happened in our area this week, since neither of us passed a day together in our area, and we got on the same page. It was a pretty busy week, but we feel like we accomplished a lot and that we are happy. Yesterday we visited someone that the missionaries in Vila Velha contacted on the street and he is really interested. A pastor that has been inactive in his church for about 20 years. He was very happily surprised to receive our visit and a Finding Faith in Christ dVD. He was skeptical that the missionaries would pass his address. Happiness!

Have a great week,

Elder Bodily

Itaciba

As always with the transfers, everything has changed completely here in the last week.

The bus ride from Campos back to Vitória was absolutely gorgeous. I have never made the trip in the daylight hours. The four hour ride was full of green firelds, mountains covered in lush green jungle, rivers, blue skies, and a few small towns built up on hillsides.

The transfer happened in a chapel this time. Normally, it happens in the bus station, but I think that from now on President is going to have us do it in a chapel. So, we arrived there in the chapel and waited a long time for the transfers to start. My companion Elder Wilson from Serra went home this transfer! It was too weird. We talked for about an hour and he showed me all the neat stuff he is taking home. He is my last senior companion to leave the mission.

In the end, I got a little bit of a shock. I was called as a zone leader. Half of the current zone leaders were either released or went home, and I was called to be one of the zone leaders of the Zona Cariacica. Me and my companion will be the zone leaders of the missionaries of the Cariacica Stake.

My companion is Elder Rocha, from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. He is pretty neat. He is going to hit the one year mark soon. He and I arrived together here in the area. The ward here is called Ala Itacibá. (Eee-tah-see-BAH). We meet in the big stake center chapel of Cariacica. I think I have already sent a picture of the chapel in a past email. It is the chapel where President Pickett gave his farewell, where we had the Christmas conference, and where I have had several zone conferences. And, this is the area where Elder Bagley, my former companion was run over by the train and lost his leg. Several members here recognized me because Elder Bagley put up photos of us together on his facebook and a lot of the members here are friends with him on facebook.

Cariacica is one of the suburb cities of Vitória. We divide the ward with one other companionship. The other companionship is made up of Elder Furrows (Roberts, Idaho) and Elder Dance (Redmond, Washington). Elder Dance is arriving in the mission. This is his first week in the field. He is really funny. Elder Furrows only has five months or so in the field! The two of them are working really hard to learn Portuguese. They have a 100% Portuguese goal, no speak English never! Meanwhile, my companion wants me to teach him English, piano, and how to write in his journal. He has only written one entry on his whole mission.

We are getting to know the members and the leaders here in the ward. It is pretty exciting to get to know a new area, but it is a lot of work, and it is a slow process. This is the third time in a row that I have arrived in the area together with my companion.

Yesterday we went to church for the first time. We had to almost run to the church because we forgot that we had a meeting with the bishop before the meetings. One detail: to arrive in the chapel from our house, it is a thirty minute walk and a big hill (think Camel Back Park) sits in between our house and the chapel. We walked it in about 20 minutes, power walking. Sweating. But the meetings were good. We were told when we arrived that I would be giving a talk in sacrament meeting and that we would be teaching Gospel Principles. Surprise! It was good. Funny that people always have a really hard time pronouncing my last name. I joked with them that they could just say Elder Bode (pronounced bodge) which means Elder Goat.

Our house is big. It has a hammock, but it is broken. I think I am going to have it fixed.

This next week is going to be wild. We have four divisions and a counsel of the zone leaders. The counsel is going to happen in President´s house!! The first time since I arrived in Vitória that I am going to enter. It is a neat apartment with a view of the beach and ocean.

Elder Dance says a lot of funny things. And all the questions that his companion can´t answer come straight to me. He is a diligent learner and will learn Portuguese very quickly. He also lived and studied at BYU for a year.

Have a great week,

Elder Bodily / Elder Bode

Ao Hospital Novamente (To Hospital Again)

Queridos,

This week was an adventure. A boring adventure. We tried to get things done in the week, but Elder Aranha´s pains did not leave him alone. Tuesday was pure suffering and slow walking and heat, and it made him worse. On Wednesday we went to the hospital again, a better hospital, but there was a problem with his health plan card and that meant hours and hours of waiting and phone calls and waiting for the insurance company to sort things out. Finally, at 6pm, we learned that we would have to wait until midnight for the technical problem to be worked out and to have him be able to enter into the hospital. Super annoying.

So the next day we went and got straight in at 11am. He went in and they did exams of the blood, urine, ultrasound, x-ray, gave him two more IVs, etc. It took until 6pm again. And after the whole day, much of which I passed either standing up in the exam room or sitting in an uncomfortable chair with sassy nurses running around everywhere. We did get to talk about the church with a murse (man-nurse) and a mom and daughter who were sick. They asked lots of questions. The mom and daughter didn´t believe that the Church is a Christian church or that we use the Bible. Thanks to a bunch of false rumors from neighbors. I showed her the Bible I use and my nametag that clearly uses the Savior´s name.

ELDER BODILY

A IGREJA DE
JESUS CRISTO
DOS SANTOS
DOS ÚLTIMOS DIAS

Well, in the end, the doctor said: Well, you won´t die, but we don´t know what is causing your pain, ok? You can go. I almost fainted.

We spent the whole day there, and all they could say is that it probably isn´t life threatening.
We spent a lot of time at home because he was having problems alternating between diarrhea and constipation. That´s probably more than you wanted to know.

In the end, I read three Liahonas (Ensigns), a bunch of scriptures, updated my journal, and slept this week. It has been horrible to stay doing nothing all day. But, in the last two days, it seems that the pain has stopped and his problems have gone away. We are excited to work like crazy this next week.

The zone leaders got permission to do a new year´s activity. We went to their house at 10pm and ate barbecued meat and sausage (traditional party food here, called ´´churrasco´´), salad, rice, etc until midnight. People lit off fireworks and yelled, and it was kind of neat. Then we all slept there before leaving early Sunday morning to catch buses back to our areas and arrive in church. We arrived late, sadly, because Elder Aranha was feeling sick and walking very slow. Therefore, no one was there to play the piano for the first hymn. I walked in and they had just announced the second hymn and sacrament, and I had to walk straight up to the piano, open the book ,and go. Phew!

There were only 32 people in church though. There is a custom here to spend New Years on the beach, so a ton ton ton of people went to the beach (an hour from here) and didn´t make it to church. We gave the lesson in Elder´s Quorum about goals, missionary work, and service. It turned out great.

Funny story. Tuesday night, walking home, Elder Aranha said that I always take forever to cross the street because I look both ways and wait for cars to pass that are way far away to pass. He claimed that you don´t have to wait so long, and don´t even have to stop to look both ways, it´s just a matter of being alert. I said it is better safe than sorry. He insisted on demonstrating his technique, walking out in front of me to cross the next street, making a determined effort not to look both ways or stop. It seemed that the street was empty, he glanced back at me with a smug look and then out of nowhere was almost hit by an old man on a bike. The old man was able to swerve and give a dirty look to Elder Aranha, thus avoiding a collision. Elder Aranha looked back at me laughing and said ´´He almost hit me!´´ And then his face fell, and he realized what had just happened. I laughed and laughed and laughed and he didn´t bother me about looking both ways before crossing the street any more.

Well, I want to send pictures next week. Maybe I won´t have time to do that and write an email, so just warning.
I hope your New Year was great, every one.

Tchau,
Elder Bodily

Crazy Christmas!

I am so tired.

This week we had the baptisms of Rodrigo, Ruan, and Renan. They were confirmed yesterday on Christmas! Their mom wasn´t able to go, so I had to arrange a taxi to pick them up last second. The baptismal meeting was special. The Bishop was there, two friends of theirs from the ward, our ward mission leader, their mom, and Elder Aranha and I. It was calm and traquil. It was good to accomplish. I felt such relief.

The members of the ward gave us an awesome surprise. As we returned home on Christmas Eve a ton of them surprised us and gave us almost a whole supermarket full of food. They hugged us and wished us a merry Christmas and it was really neat. I guess it is a tradition here in Aurora. We spent a majority of Christmas Eve with a woman in the ward who got baptized this year. She also lost her husband this year. She was feeling really lonely and hopeless, so we helped make a little Christmas feast and celebrate with her and a few of her family members and neighbors.

The tradition here in Brasil is to wait until midnight on Christmas Eve and then open all the presents. It´s almost like New Years. There was a ton of noise at midnight, fireworks, and people yelling. This made sleeping somewhat difficult. Christmas morning Elder Aranha was feeling way sick. He threw up, he had diarrhea, feeling horrible and weak. He didn´t eat anything. Well, we went to do phone calls at a members house! It was awesome as usual to talk to the family! Love you family!

Almost directly after Elder Aranha finished talking with his family, he was much worse. He looked dead, and was in the bathroom for almost an hour. At 11pm, the bishop came by and gave us a ride to the hospital. After waiting FOREVER, they let us in. They gave him two IVs to hydrate him. It took until 4AM for the IVs to get into his bloodstream. I was so tired, and there was no place to sleep. I tried to sleep in this ridiculous ´´reclining´´chair, but it was less comfortable than sleeping on broken glass. I barely even fell asleep. Bishop had to leave because he had to go to work at 4:30am. I felt really bad for him, he helped us a lot. So, we had to wait until 5AM for a taxi to come by and then we went home. I showered, and we woke up way late (the first time in over a year that I did not wake up at 6:30 am). And now we are trying to make the most of what is left of the preparation day. I am really tired. Elder Aranha is a little better now.

The week between Christmas and New Years is interesting, lots of people are busy, travelling, or with family. We will see what happens. Hope your Christmases were excellent, every one. Happy New Year!

Elder Bodily