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

Batismo

E aí gente, (And there you have it folks)

 

All went well with the baptism. Andressa was more than ready and the baptismal meeting was really simple and spiritual. A lot of the leaders of the ward were there because the baptism happened between the church meetings and a leadership meeting. Elder Rocha did the baptism. This is a bad picture of us three before the baptism. Elder Rocha´s pictures are better, and I am going to copy them. Andressa´s mom, cousin, aunt, and neighbor came to see the baptism. It was neat.

 

Now we are asking ourselves, What´s next?

We had a good week and we taught many different people, but we gained few new investigators.

 

We went to Cachoeiro to do a baptismal interview. I got to go inside the new chapel there. It is very fancy, though small.

 

We are excited for General Conference. It´s funny, this will be my last general conference on the mission. Also funny that the first I saw in the MTC, the second in the stake center of Estaca Vitória, the second in the stake center of Estaca Vila Velha, and this one I will see in the stake center of Estaca Cariacica. There are three stakes here in the greater Vitória region.

 

I found a sheet of paper on the ground in the church that had a whole bunch of dates and events and history about the church in the state of Espírito Santo. Fascinating. The first missionaries arrived in Vitória in 1965. The first branch, made up of one family had been officially established only a few years before. From there, things blossomed and now there are three stakes. The first baptisms were realized in the ocean, just off the beach where the mission house is now. All in less than 50 years, it went from having one family to having 15 wards and a mission headquarters. And that is ignoring all of the progress in the state outside of Greater Vitória. (Cachoeiro, Guarapari, Linhares, São Mateus, Nova Venêcia, Colatina, Guaçuí, Aracruz, etc.)

 

I also learned that the Caricica Stake (in which I am serving right now) was established in 2005. It is a very new stake.

 

It is really interesting and rewarding to be part of the history of the church here. So many people are having the chance to hear and accept the Gospel.

 

Elder Rocha and I have become good friends. Healthy friendships make life very pleasurable and protect against depression. What a blessing it is to have all the friends that I have, here in Brasil, and at home.

 

Have an awesome week. The next time I send an email to you will be on my 21st birthday! (I´m olllddd! I´m like the crypt keeper!)

 

Elder Bodily