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