Elder Bodily Outta Here!

Saying Goodbye to Elder Bodily

Tuesday: Started off by going hard for Elder Bodily's last day. We called all of the people we were teaching to mark with them as well as all of our interested people. Once we had taken care of that, we spent the time packing and cleaning up for Elder Feliciano to get here. It was a pretty quiet but busy day. And we ended it by making hot dogs, because Brother Horta had just given us a pack of like 30 haha. 

Wednesday: Big Day! First things first. I met my grandpa! That is to say, I met Elder Bodily's trainer, and we took a picture together to show 3 generations of missionaries. From there, I found Elder Feliciano. We all said hi to our friends and went home! Elder Feliciano served 8 months in his home in Mozambique, then went to the MTC, and now he's been here. He has 18 months on the mission, and I'm excited to see the new ideas he brings to this area! We had to hurry home, because I had some ribs in the oven. When we got back, he said he wasn't hungry right then. So I may or may not have impulsive eaten all of them. Then when he finished unpacking and asked where I put them, I felt really bad. But we didn't have much time to mope as we went to service after that. We signed the proper forms for him and got busy putting bags of potatoes together. We had English class after that and randomly got called in the middle of it. But when we tried to return the call, whoever it was had blocked us. 

Thursday: We woke up and realized that we didn't have the key to the chapel to meet Augosto. We called the Zone Leaders and Spanish Elders and finally were able to rush down to get the key and got there just in time for our lesson. Only for him to let us know he wouldn't be going to the chapel. Oh well. We still had a great lesson over the phone, and Elder Feliciano was excited to meet, Augosto. Later in the day, we had a member lesson set up with someone in the English group. And it was sooooo nice teaching in English. But it's much easier finding people to teach who are Portuguese speaking. I sometimes wish I could find in Portuguese and teach in English, haha. Anyways, after that we had some more English classes. We also had a lesson with Reginaldo and shared the rest of the restoration with him. It was great, and I loved seeing Elder Feliciano in action. He teaches very straight forward. By watching him, I've realized that because I was born in the church, I skip around the restoration a little bit, because I'm worried it will sound weird. Elder Feliciano is a convert at the age of 17, so he says everything with a confidence that comes from having heard this all as something new before. It was really cool. 

Friday: So I was studying a general conference talk from April 2005 by Thomas S Monson. I was thinking about how God allows us to have consequences for our actions as a part of the gift of agency. If the bad things people did didn't have consequence, our choices wouldn't matter. That's why He doesn't always directly interfere with the world, but He does inspire people through small and simple prompting of the Spirit. A spiritually in tune person acting on a small prompting can achieve great things to help others, but the problem is that a lot of times we don't recognize or act on the promptings. But imagine the good that could come from a world where everyone was worthy to receive and act with spiritual promptings! How would our lives change? We had district counsel today and started off with some get to know you questions. We were supposed to say a trait we admire in our companions. When it came to us, Elder Feliciano spaced on my name, haha. Hard question when you've only known someone for two days, haha. But district counsel went great, and afterwards we met a member and her son, Rosalyne and Ryan. They were really special; it was our first time meeting someone in a park! While we were getting to know Ryan, he pointed at a boy and said, "That's my friend," and so we asked his name. Ryan said, "I'll go ask him," and ran over and came back and told us. A little while later, the mother of the boy came up to us and said gruffly, "Why were you asking for my son's name?" Whoops! We worked it out, but I can only imagine her fear as two 19-year-olds in suits and ties talking to an old lady and a 6-year-old in a park learned her son's name. 

 

Saturday: So, they updated the rules for the mission so that we are finally able to wear floral ties which

The dreaded floral tie

means I finally put on my favorite tie. Every day I would get ready and go to pick a tie and start to grab that one, then stop myself and say quietly "not yet" haha. I've been studying the Old Testament a lot lately, and today I was thinking about why the Jews were so frustrated with the taxes of the Roman's. It seems such a normal thing to us. Well, in Deuteronomy, it makes the Jewish laws clear. They have very specific rules on tithing and helping the poor. It was seen as a duty to God and a sign of devotion. The Romans coming in and demanding taxes almost was a mockery of the Divine, almost like the Roman's were demanding devotion to them instead to God. It was an interesting study session. Elder Feliciano has been talking about how we need to start calling all the people that the missionaries stopped teaching in the past. I wasn't excited about it, but out of his first 4 calls, he had 3 responses and was able to set a lesson! It made me think about how important it is to be implementing a variety of strategies in sharing the gospel. On Saturdays, we have Walk in the Light devotionals with various people from around the world. This week was with Ty Detmer, a BYU quarterback and Heisman trophy winner. When he was sharing his conversion story, something struck me. He made the comment that if your testimony isn't growing, then it's regressing. That's why slothfulness is a sin, because God wants us to keep moving forward, and if we are not doing the simple things to grow our testimony then our progress will not only stop, but will begin to go backwards. After the devotional, I was talking with a guy we are teaching named Kleber, and he said he was planning on going to our church tomorrow. I had to explain to him that they were limiting the amount of people who could go, and he wouldn't be able to unless he attended with us next week. But we are also only allowed to bring one person per week which means we can't bring him and Francis or Augosto. It's definitely very frustrating that I have to tell more people on my mission that they can't go to church than I have invited to church. But we have to have patience with these things and trust that the Lord is providing the means for these people to receive the gospel. 

Sunday: We went to the chapel for a lesson with Artur only for him to have already gone home. So we ended up calling him and doing that instead. He is still doing great and asked about Francis which is an awesome sign that Francis will be accepted into the ward well after we leave. I've been studying a lot in Preach my Gospel, and I was thinking about someone we are teaching who wants to feel the Spirit that other people talk about, but doesn't really care about reading the Book of Mormon. I was directed to Moroni's promise, that if anyone reads and studies the Book of Mormon and prays about it with the intention that they will act on the answer they receive, they can receive an answer that it is true. I was thinking about why God would inspire that promise; what's in it for Him? Well, He's our Father and loves us for one. So this scripture is providing an incentive to pray, (receiving an answer), and that means He will be able to hear from us and have a personal relationship. But why does it take time? Why does it take continual study? Well, the whole reason He wants us to read the Book of Mormon is because it will show us how to live our lives in a way that will bring the most joy. That means studying and abiding by its precepts. He wants us to be able to learn the Book of Mormon's teachings so we can be happier and return to Him. It's a win win for Him. We are happier, and talk to Him more. One funny thing that happened this week is that I made pasta twice. The Portuguese word for pasta is macarrão; the word for monkey is macaco, and the word for car jack is also macaco depending on how you use it. Anyways, over the last couple days, I have repeatedly talked about cooking monkeys and car jacks. 

 

Monday: Today a girl Elder Feliciano was talking to was sharing things a Jehovah's Witness was telling her about our church, none of which are true: we don't believe in the Bible, talking about how we don't believe in the second coming, we don't worship Christ, to which Elder Feliciano responded with a picture of our name tag showing that it was The Church of Jesus Christ. It was a funny experience, but we are glad because she wasn't taking him seriously. It's weird how people actually say all this, when if you wanted to know the truth you could just ask literally any member.

Elder Feliciano didn't know how to use chopsticks, so I was showing him how using butterknives.

I went to get a haircut and the guy just started buzzing it off with no warning. It will grow back, right?

October 2020 General Conference

 Tuesday:

Started off the day by getting a ride to the Firestone to pick up our car. The guy there said that he called us, and we didn't answer. We asked him what number he called, and he read off our number but changed the 3 to a 4. It felt good to get the car back, until we had to give it to the Haitian Creole Elders two hours later. We got to work inviting people to general conference. Over the course of the week, we sent messages or wrote letters to 91 people about general conference. And 5 people responded. 

Wednesday: 

The sisters asked us if they could borrow our car at 8:15 AM. Because sisters and elders aren't allowed to drive together, we meet half way in between, so that the person without the car doesn't have to walk as far. But first we had to wake up early and have the Haitian Creole elders bring our car back, then we dropped them back off, only for the sisters to cancel and say they didn't need it anymore, haha. We had service to do after that. I don't think I need to say anything more than it was as fun as always seeing real life people other then quick drive-bys. After the food bank, we got a call from Brother Horta; we talked about getting him in contact with some people we were teaching to help fellowship them. He was really willing and went on to say he had been thinking about what we could do to help get in touch with other members here and introduce them to our friends we are teaching. We suggested that on Mondays we have a family night where the sisters and we can invite the members and their families along with anyone we're teaching, to have some time to study the scriptures together, play some games, and maybe play some get-to-know-you games. He then let us know he would be there to help us for anything. It's so awesome to have such a great guy in our corner, and we are really excited to implement his ideas. 

Thursday:

We had our weekly lesson Augosto and extended the invitation to be baptized. He was really excited, and expressed that it was his intention but, he was just waiting for God to issue a personal calling to him to be baptized. We took that opportunity to remind him about General Conference, and invite him again. After that, we had a call with Francis. He answered and each time just said "oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi," until we hung up. Maybe it's just a bad connection? We hope he doesn't start dodging us, but if he does, he does. It's not our job to control peoples actions just try to give them the chance to listen. After that ,we worked on delivering letters for a bit aaaaaand the unthinkable happened. A big truck parked in front of our parking space, and while I was trying to squeeze in I scraped the side of our car. It's not too bad, just the paint, but I took a hit to my pride as I can no longer say that I've got a clean record. After that we had an English class. Our Thursday classes are extremely advanced, so we mainly just practiced talking in Portugese, and one of them asked our favorite movies. Elder Bodily was explaining his, The Count of Monte Cristo, and encouraging them to watch it. I searched it on facebook to see if I could find a picture of the cover to send to the group and the first result was the entire movie just uploaded onto Facebook hahaha. Poor Elder Bodily, so close yet so far. (As missionaries, we don't watch movies for the 2 years we are serving.)

Friday:

We had my second ever zone conference which is so awesome. It's pretty much my only opportunity to talk to missionaries outside of my district, so it was super refreshing. I loved hearing from President Mavromatis. Elder Bodily brought a guitar brother Horta gave to us and preformed a musical number. From there we all got a group picture and went home. I had one interesting experience with the gift of tongues, and it's not what you think. A lot of missionaries have stories of when they were talking and all the sudden they spoke words they didn't even remember and gave the perfect message. I'm going the other way. We were having a lesson, and Elder Bodily did something that annoyed me, and because it was late and I was tired, I spent the rest of the lesson getting angry about it. I fixated it in my mind and the Spirit immediately left. Even though I dropped it, I felt the Spirit's absence. I couldn't understand as well; I could barely respond; and my communication was horrible. In time, I repented and humbled myself, and like putting on a pair of glasses, everything became clearer. It didn't get easier, I just had what I needed to communicate in the lesson. God's blessings are real, and so present that often times we don't even recognize them or take them for granted. But we need to be worthy of the Spirit in order to be blessed. 

Saturday: 

So, first session of General Conference... wow... it was awesome. If anyone reading this hasn't watched it, I'd encourage you to do so TODAY. I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies my mom sent me, and they were great. We went in between sessions and gave some away. In the second session, I was taking notes on Elder Utchdorf's talk in a journal my grandma gave me. On the bottom of each page, it has a scripture. Right as Elder Utchdorf was talking about patience through our burdens, and how we will be uplifted through our challenges in the quarantine, I got to the edge of the page where Mosiah 24:15 is shown. "The Lord did strengthen them, that they could bear their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." God isn't going to take away our problems every time, but He will strengthen us, and uplift us. 

Sunday: 

After the first session of General Conference, which let me say was another awesome one, we went to drop some cookies off at the Salem Portuguese Elders' apartment. We got about 20 minutes in and Elder Bodily asked, "Did you grab any cookies?" So we had to drive all the way back to get them. By that time traffic picked up, and we got caught driving for an hour and half so we ended up watching conference at their apartment. I can't lie, it was nice to have an excuse to be around other people. During conference in the Sunday afternoon session, several speakers spoke on covenants made in the temple to prepare for missions and life. These covenants are referred to as an endowment. Because I left while the temples were still closed, I never received my temple endowment (something missionaries do in preparation to serve missions). I'm one of about 10 missionaries in our mission who hasn't gone yet. This conference, there was a big theme of unity and faith during hardship. And, Elder (Jeffrey) Holland did not disappoint. A thought occurred to me during his talk that helped me to think about why God allows us to have trials, and doesn't immediately answer our prayers every time. I love going to the gym, I like training, practicing, and most importantly, getting stronger. THE most frustrating experience you can have at the gym, is an overzealous spotter. Your spotter is intended to watch you press or lift a weight. And if you fail, help you track it rather than crush yourself. When you are in the middle of a set, and a spotter takes the weight before you are done, it is extremely annoying. Not only do they deny you the satisfaction of finishing strong, they deny you the growth and increase of strength that comes with activating your muscles. No one wants an overzealous spotter in the gym; it would take away the whole point of going to the gym. So why would we want an overzealous spotter everywhere else. If God always did all of the heavy lifting, we would never get the chance to get spiritually ripped. It was a great talk. Unfortunately, right in the middle of it the, Salem Elders got a phone call. The lady on the other end was not very technologically savvy. So we spent the rest of conference trying to tell her how to flip her camera back around and click the link. Then as soon as we finished helping her, Elder Bodily and I had to rush home for a lesson with a member. We didn't finished the last couple talks, or get to see the new temple assignments.But we have that to look forward to this week! One exciting thing happened after that. After months of hard work... I finished first place in diamond league for duolingo, haha. Funny how having an hour of language study a day can help you learn a language. 

Like my second week or something?

Ok another pretty standard week, but I've come to the conclusion I'm gonna either be a master chef or a mad scientist after this, because Elder Bodily and I are fiends in the kitchen. Anyways...

Tuesday 

Tuesday was a day of random lessons. Deborah N loves learning but has a hard schedule so she kind of just calls us whenever haha. Then after that we had a random lesson with a guy named Campos. Both lessons went really well, I definitely enjoy improving and searching the scriptures to ask questions than I do teaching a lesson with specific points to cover. After that, we had a great lesson with Pedro M talking about the commandments, and he really understood. Finally, we got a call from our ministers asking if we wanted one of their extra pans. Elder Bodily asked if they have any pans with like "really high walls to keep oil and stuff in" to which I commented "that's called a pot."  

Wednesday 

Wednesday we finally had zone conference, and it was so cool seeing everyone in person. It was a big success, and I enjoyed myself. It was weird seeing President Mavromatis in person though, haha. After that, we had our beginners English class, to which no one showed up, and I may or may not have lost my patience haha. Just because we had 3 people kind of say they were desperate to learn English, and we spent a week deciding on a time, sent like 7 confirmation texts and everything then when the time finally came the guy who wanted the classes the most said, "I'm working right now I can't go," and his wife says, "He works on Wednesdays; can we switch to Tuesdays?"  Oh well, she actually ended up joining later on and we talked to her for 15 minutes and she's really nice. We have another lesson on Tuesday. After that Elder Bodily and I made a little video to send to the EFY in Brazil to show them what missionaries do during the quarantine. 

Thursday

We had weekly planning on Thursday, still a lot to do to prepare this area for the the next missionaries and progress is slow because of the virus, but at least there's plenty to do. Pedro O hasn't been able to meet with us to prepare for baptism, so we talked to him about changing his date, and he still has yet to get back to us. 

Friday

We started the day with a long voice call lesson with Augost that went GREAT. Elder Bodily ended up talking for most of the time this particular lesson, and Augost kept saying "Oh I agree, Jeffrey," and "Thanks Jeffrey" etc. That cracked me up a bit haha. It's weird having someone refer to me by my first name, but he met us through Facebook so that's why. Next, we invited Deborah N to church to which she was excited. She's awesome, does all the work and wants to get an answer. From there, we had another in person district council, for which Elder Bodily and I made some banging cookies. Next Elder Bodily finally had our first argument, I'm surprised it took 3 weeks haha. It was on whether or not reading out loud in Portuguese helps your accent. Finally we had one more lesson, we called and he declined. His message explaining why said (translated) "I'm in the bathroom, call me in an hour." Which made Elder Bodily and I question what he ate that put him out of commission for the next hour haha. 

Saturday 

We had another 4 hour trip to find a place to do our car's state inspection, but each place once we got there said, "we don't do it here, but they do it at..." we came home empty handed. I've seen the worst driving in the past week of my entire life, which is saying something consider I see myself every time I drive. Anyways, from there we came home and got our master chef on making fried rice and had some lessons.

Sunday Funday

The day of the Lord! We did the normal stuff, taught sunday school, had some lessons aaaaaaaaaand after only 3 weeks in the field, I finally had a member meeting go through! We met someone named Sister Vilme, who was so sweet and such a blast to talk to. It makes me excited for the end of the quarantine where I can hopefully meet the members and get to know them a lot better. 

1. A meme me and Elder Bod squad made, that you wont understand fully unless you have been in meme culture for the past 3 or so years. 

3. The fried rice me and Bod Squad made  

2. The mess afterwards

 

Reassignment!

Hello everyone, took me a while to get to it, but here’s my second email "back" haha. Today is Saturday June, 27, and it's been a busy week. Two weeks actually, since I wrote my last email. First and foremost, my reassignment came! I’m headed to Boston Massachusetts where I’ll have the opportunity to continue speaking Portuguese; Boston has a large group of Brazilian immigrants. My mission president is President Mavromatis from Recife Brazil. I’m so excited to have a Brazilian mission president even before I’m in Brazil, haha. I leave July 14th; just a couple weeks away.

First Group Email!

Hello everyone! Today marks a week and a half "in" the MTC. You know, I always said I was gonna be bad at writing emails and no one believed me; they always said I would feel differently once I left. Well, they were both right and wrong, because I both have a lot I want to say and have no idea or incentive to say it, haha. Maybe it's because my entire family is here, and I can still see them frequently. 

My "classroom"

Today is easier though, because I can get away with giving a quick run down of what’s going on in the MTC/CTM. The way it works is we have a zoom call at 10:30-1:30 every day with Irmã Gabriella. In this call we learn a lot of basic Portuguese. It’s mainly review for me, but there are certain things that are new simply, because I learned more by talking when I was in Brazil rather than reading books. For example, I now know what ^ and  '  do, haha. 
From there we have a two hour break; this is when I do my companionship study. My companion’s name is Elder Bailey, a strapping young lad. He decided to go right after high school instead of waiting a year like me. He and I are getting along really well; helping each other with Portuguese and having hot seats where we ask each other questions to learn about one another. He for example, is an avid skier who loves all sports (especially basketball), hanging out with friends, and if he were to perfectly befriend any land animal it would be a cougar or a grizzly bear. You learn a lot about a person based on what animal they would have as a pet if they could. He’s a big hiker and camper, and I’m hoping we can meet up sometime and do something like that on P day. We only live 30 minutes apart, so that shouldn’t be too hard to do. From there we have another block from 3:00-6:00 with Irmão Santos. That lesson we practice a lot of Portuguese and have mock lessons with "Marcos" AKA Irmão Santos in a polo shirt. 

Our district with Irmão Santos (top right corner)