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

Natal a Vespera (Christmas Eve)

So.

This week we were supposed to have three baptisms. Three teenage brothers. However, last second, with the font already filled and everything, their mom got called to work an emergency shift. She is not interested in the Church, but she wants to be present for the baptism. Therefore, we moved the baptism to Wednesday. It will be neat!

It was rough to get the three brothers to church. We had to go with the ward mission leader to pick them up. They forgot to get ready, and so we got to church an hour late. First time that´s ever happened. Then the ward mission leader´s wife got mad at him for that and forbid him to use his car for the rest of the day, so I paid for all three of the their bus passages, plus mine, plus my companion (umm...Elder?...I forgot money...again.)

It is raining a lot. Summer is rainy season here. It´s great because the clouds block the sun.

I am now living with two missionaries from São Paulo and one from Argentina. Things are going well there. We all get along. And the two new Elders are CLEAN! Miracle! It is so pleasant to walk into the bathroom and be surprised to see that someone other than yourself has cleaned the mirror or squeegeed the floor. Or see that there are no dishes in the sink. 

Christmas is next week! I don´t believe it! Celebrate! Remeber our Savior!

The following week I am going to give a detailed account of the week. I am tired of sending tiny emails like this home. I´m sure you are too. If anyone reads these at least.

Natal, Natal, ta Chegando (Christmas, Christmas is Coming)

So...

This has been a crazy last few days. So our Mission Christmas Conference was yesterday. EVERYONE on the mission arrived in the stake center in Cariacica. It is an enormous and beautiful chapel. It was my third or fourth time in the chapel. I saw Elder Anderson, Elder Gneiting and past companions: Elder Wilson, Elder Salvador, Elder Vieira, and Elder Collins. It was neat. 108 missionaries. We had presents, skits, and lots of neat stuff. I got a tie, a glass, a cd of mission photos, and photos with lots of my missionary friends. Then the transfer happened after. 58 of the 108 missionaries were transferred, that is more than ever on my mission. I sat on a bench with Elder Anderson, Elder Gneiting, and our three missionaries that we are training. That was neat. Because we are training, we were not transferred. Only 17 of 54 companionships stayed the same. There are now Sisters in our zone. That is new too. Zona Campos.

Except, everything went overtime and went late. We went to the bus terminal in Vitória and learned (it was 7:30pm) that the next bus to Campos would be leaving at 7:30 am. We had to have the secretaries come to the bus terminal and pay to store all the bags at the luggage storage station and then us and two other elders went to the secretaries house in Vitória to sleep (lucky that I know my way around in Vitória super well). the Sisters went to Jardim da Penha on the other side of Vitória to sleep. We slept without pjs, pillows, etc. On old matresses on the ground. Very similar to my first days in Vitòria when I slept on the ground in the same house 11 months ago.

Then the trip. We got to Campos around noon. We had to help one set of Sisters get on a bus that was already rolling out of the bus station and another to cross the road, get on a city bus, go to the other bus station, and get on a bus there that was already rolling away. And between the four sisters they had 9 or 10 gigantic bags. It took all 8 of us to make everything work. We got permission to send email today. PS. Our lunch today fell thru. So, it has been crazy. We are now living with a brand new Elder and an Elder from Argentina that Elder Hein trained (Elder Hein trained me too). Their names are Elder Cunha (new) and Elder Melivilo (Argentina). It will be interesting.

I can´t believe that December is practically half over. One of the former secretaries who met with us when we arrived in the airport in Vitória on our first day went home yesterday. Reality check. Every day an adventure.

I am so grateful for the Gospel and for the peace and confidence it gives. Any other source than Jesus Christ is incomplete.

Have a good week,

Feliz Natal e Boas Festas

Elder Bodily

Dezembro Chegou (December Came)

Amigos e familiares,

I just started writing this email in Portuguese and so I had to erase everything and start over. Our week this week was pretty normal.

We had stake conference yesterday and Saturday. An Area Seventy came from Rio Grande do Sul to visit us. He talked about the need for missionares. We discussed ways to help young men, young women, investigators of age, and retired couples to go on missons. He said Brasil needs at least 600 more missionaries. For some perspective, our mission has 108 missionaries. It was a spiritual meeting.

The new missionary training program includes a few online supplements. That is why I have almost no time to write this email. I was doing the online courses.

We found a man named Salvador who has gone to church twice with an older sister in the other ward. He is about 45 and is not married, doesn´t have kids. He wants to get baptized on Christmas Eve! White Christmas! Next week, everyone on the mission is going to get together in Vitòria and we are going to have a Christmas celebration. Neat!

We are going to visit WalMart today. There are only two on the mission. One in Vitória (some of you may recall that I already visited there in January, almost a year ago) and one in Campos. Fun!

More next week, I promise.

Love,

Elder Bodily

PHOTOS!!!! FINALLY!!!

Fasting and Baptism

Hello:

Well, one more week that didn´t go as expected. In the end Jorge Luis, the son of Jociara did not get baptized because his dad, who lives five hours away in Rio de Janeiro, found out that he was going to get baptized, and refused him to get baptized. Even though he passed his interview and went to church on Sunday. However, we were blessed with a baptism this week. We fasted on Saturday to be able to have a baptism on Sunday if it was the will of the Lord.

Remember Rafael? The one we couldn´t find at home last week? We found him Saturday night at last. And he told us that he has been feeling very strongly that he wanted to get baptized THE NEXT DAY. He didn´t want to wait. I won´t lie, it was extremely stressful to organize everything, filling the baptismal font Saturday night using buckets to speed up the process, calling the ward leadership to warn them, and arranging for his interview to happen Sunday morning. But, somehow, everything turned out. It wasn´t your regular baptism. By that I mean planned, peaceful, awesome. However, it was very satisfying to see everything happen and to see him get confirmed in the meetings.

Elder Aranha is very dynamic, but he takes three medicines that give him that sleeping disease, not insomnia but the opposite. Where he falls asleep in lessons suddenly, and he has extreme problems waking up in the morning. He goes to bed early every night. Sometimes he almost falls asleep walking on the road. President has advised me to let him rest more than normal, but not to the point that it takes away from our work. Let´s just say that I am trying to find that balance. Elder Aranha is really neat though, always complimenting me and giving great input in lessons (when he is not passed out) ;)

I had my hair cut. Again.

The stoplights here are neat. A majority have a little counter next to the light that shows how many seconds the light will stay green or red. When it is red, there are little messages that run underneath the light saying annoying little things like share the road with pedestrians, smart drivers of motorcycles wear helmets, don´t be in a hurry, etc.

I played soccer with the other three elders and our ward mission leader. I was very able to keep up and compete. Looks like ten years of soccer experience weren´t for nothing. I was sore all last week.

Have a good week. Hope Thanksgiving was great.

Elder Bodily

Emergencia (Emergency)

Well,

Everything changed this week. 

Last Monday we explored downtown Campos.  It is really neat.  Big buildings, churches, bustling marketplaces, plazas full of people and shops thriving with activity.  I took some neat pictures.  And downtown is right on the river.  They already have some Christmas decorations up in the city.  Which is strange because normally Christmas in my mind is connected to cold, not sun and sweat.  Elder Collins bought a memory card and started going crazy taking pictures.  Campos is actually bigger than Vitória alone.  Except, Vitória has a lot of gigantic suburb cities just as big as it is (Serra, Vila Velha, Cariacica, Viana).  It was a neat way to spend the day.  I wrote some letters to some investiagators and baptisms from Serra.

We taught a neat lesson to Rafael reviewing the Restoration.  He was on fire...except after that we have not been able to find him home.  And he didn´t go to church.  Not good.

The two Brazilian Elders who live with us are studying a lot of English.  Some of the funny phrases they have said since then are:

´´You are a feet!´´

´´Are you a door?´´

It is too funny with their strong accent and their complete innocence, not knowing or understanding what they just said.

Then everything changed on Thursday.  After lunch we were at Joçiara´s house we got a phone call from the mission office.  Elder Collins was emergency transferred.  We had to go to the other side of Campos, talk with the zone leaders, then go to the bus station and buy tickets for the bus from Campos to Vitória at 2:00 AM!!!  Elder Collins was devastated, and I was super stressed.  We went downtown for him to buy some souvenirs, and then ran all over the city getting ready for the trip.  He packed, barely said goodbye to anyone, and then we got a ride from a member to the bus station.  We sat there for almost three hours waiting for the 2am bus.  An annoying taxi driver kept pestering us and singing to us.  I think he is crazy.  He thought he spoke English.  I was just really tired and wanted him to go away.

We arrived in Vitória at 6am, took a taxi from the bus station there to the mission office and then waited there for over an hour and a half for President to arrive and tell us what was going on.  Results:

Elder Collins is going to TRAIN a new American missionary that just got his visa.  He will be working in Vila Velha.  I am going to ´´train´´ Elder Aranha.  Elder Aranha arrived here in the mission before I did, and he was in my very first district when I first arrived in Vitória.  However, he was struck with extreme depression and soon after went home early.  He served a short term mission in São Paulo (he is from there) and has been on medication.  He is here to give it another try.  He already has six months experience on the mission, but I have been designated his trainer.  More specifically, he is from São Vicente, São Paulo.  He is short, always laughing and telling jokes, and energetic.  He has a lot of energy. 

We took the 5pm bus back to Campos after hanging out with the secretaries in the office the rest of the day and helping them do their office errands.  We arrived just in time to sleep after the exhausting and very sudden change.

So, we left to work the next morning.  Things are going slowly, but are going.  We missed a lot of key appointments because of the emergency transfer.  However, Joçiara and her two youngest children went to church.  Her son Jorge Luis (8 years old) is going to be baptized next week.  He is hilarious.  Joçiara said that before we arrived and started reading and studying and helping them, he was a trouble-maker.  Now he is helping his mom a lot more and loves the church and the missionaries.  He said that he wants to choose me to baptize him.  Even though he can barely say my name.  It usually comes out of his mouth slowly...  Elder... ... ... uh...  Buuuu oooo dee leee.  Or if he doesn´t take time to think about it it seems more like Elder Blah-lee or Elder Bolly.

In other words, in one week, everything is different.  I like Elder Aranha, but I am pretty sad that Elder Collins left.  We will be companions for at least 12 weeks because the training of new missionaries and their trainers is a 12 week program.  For some perspective,

I stayed in

the MTC for                    9 weeks

Athens 2nd ward for        4 weeks

Paper Mill Portuguese      4 weeks

Vitória                            11 weeks

Serra-Sede                     18 weeks

Anchieta                         12 weeks.

I am glad though.  Elder Aranha has a lot of good ideas, teaches with mastery, and has the fire and excitement of a new missionary.

And Ala Aurora is excellent.  I really like it here.  I think we will have a lot of success.  It is neat to be a ´´trainer´´ even though my ´´new´´ missionary is not new.

People are starting to put up Christmas lights here.  In Vitória there was a huge 40 foot tall white plastic Christmas tree with awesome lighting and ornaments next to the bus station.  I will spend Christmas with Elder Aranha.  PS.  Aranha means ´´spider´´ in English.  Elder Spider.

I played the piano yesterday in church, but I didn´t know how to play two of the hymns very well, so I used the smart piano setting where it plays the hymn for you.  You just have to decide the beat by pressing whatever key you want to the beat of the music.  It did not turn out very pretty.  I had never used it before.  But it was still better than trying to play All Creatures of Our God and King on the fly.  What can you do?  The second one was better. ish.  I really confused the music leader because she barely knows how to lead the music when the music is normal.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Eat turkey for me!!!  And candied yams! 

Elder Bodily

Campos, minha cidade meu amor (Campos, my city, my love)

Dear all,

 

This week flew by. In general, things went very well. I finished the Book of Mormon again. We had four people in the chapel with us yesterday. Two are referrals from the first counselor in the bishopric (24 years old, served a mission in Recife). Two are old investigators from past missionaries. One of the old investigators has been taught by at least 4 sets of missionaries. His name is Rafael, and he is 20 years old. He LOVES to read and learn. He has already read the Book of Mormon up to Ether, already read Gospel Principles, and is reading various church books. We had a really neat conversation/lesson with him. He has committed to finally take the step to be baptized. On December 3! He came to church after working until 4:30am and getting home at 5am. And to get to church on time he had to walk from his house, leaving at 7:45. He was almost dead, but he was there!

 

We are teaching a woman named Joçiara, who is mother of three children. She already had a baptismal date, but things didn´t work out. That was in March. We ran into her and made friends with her. She is a single mom. Her dream is to get married to someone in the church, go to church every Sunday with her husband, and have one more child. She is 29 years old. She knows almost everything about the missionary lessons. She has the goal to be baptized, and her kids love the church. One of them went yesterday (Jorge Luis, 8 years old). We will try to set a specific goal with her this week.

 

It is heating up here. Eeek.

 

Elder Collins is hilarious. And a neat missonary. We make a good team. He likes to talk. He is taller than me and looks older than me, even though he is 19. And, he weighs 225 pounds. So, everyone thinks he is the senior until they hear us both talk. Funny. 

I am officially the pianist in Ala Aurora. No one knows how to play in the whole ward. They are thrilled to have a piano player, if only for a small time.

 

Side note, Elder Collins has a version of Risk called War. It is Portuguese. So every night for 15 minutes we play a little. I am the second strongest out of us four. Just in case you wanted to know.

I cleaned the shower this morning before studies. It took 40 minutes. I used a sponge and probably a half a cup of liquid dish soap. Thick black mold and hairballs. I don´t even want to think about how long it has been since someone has cleaned it. Our house is so old and so dirty. Elder Collins is tidy, but the other two Elders in the house with us are...uh...not so tidy. I killed a cockroach last night. I saw a lizard on our floor a week ago. Gotta love it.

 

I think we are going to explore downtown Campos today. And Elder Collins is going to buy a new memory card since his last companion borrowed his first card, lost it, and lost all his photos. All the photos from the first 6 months of his mission.

 

Thanksgiving doesn´t exist here, so I think that it is legal to start listening to Christmas music now. 

Have a good week,

Elder bodily