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| Eating Fondeu on our Rosenheim apartment balcony. |
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| Elder Bodily, Elder Fields and Bruder Hungar (the Dave Parker of Germany). |
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| Just a cool valley in Kiefersfelden Mountains. |
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| Going down the Fishbowl back to Kiefersfelden. |
Monday, May 28, 2012
May 28 2012
Well I've got a lot to talk about
this week so I hope you're ready for it.
First of all I'll start with what is
most important. Our appointments with Familie Bobi this week went really well.
We are talking to them about all the commandments they will need to know before
baptism and on Wednesday we brought Bruder Hunger along (he is the Brother Parker of Germany - works really well with the youth of the ward and is that same kind of role model) as we talked about
obedience in general and Bruder Hunger made the lesson. He told about his
conversion 45 years ago and gave a powerful testimony. Then on Thursday we
decided it was good to teach the Word of Wisdom as soon as we could because
that would be their biggest obstacle. We brought Thomas Lübke along who has
been a member for a little over a year. Again having the Joint Teach made a
huge impact and by the end of the lesson Familie Bobi seemed ready to overcome
anything. It's so incredible to see how much the Lord has prepared him to hear
this message and place them on the path that will bring them eternal joy. It
has also been really great to see how much the ward has changed in attitude
towards missionary work. We've been getting so much support and help for them
especially as of late and I am so excited for the things that will come in the
next few weeks here. As far as the rest of the work, Rosenheim is really
blossoming (like a Rose) right now. We had a Mission Wide Finding Day, along
with the Frankfurt mission this last Friday, where all the missionaries spent
the whole day without having any appointments, but simply just tracting. We had
so many instances where the spirit would lead us to apartments where we could
find, almost instantly, lots of potential investigators. Elder Field and I
wanted to work really hard on this day and we ended up finding half the
potential investigators that our District found all together. The Lord is
putting the people who are ready in our paths and it's making the work so great
here. All of our appointments went really well and its the first week where we have
had more Joint-Teaches than regular appointments. Times like these are what
make the Mission so incredible.
Ok, so in the Missionary Handbook
there is a rule that says if you were hit by a car you need to tell the Mission
President as soon as possible. I figured that should be the same with parents.
Yes, I did get hit by a car this last Tuesday. I was riding in the bike lane
and a silver Audi drifted over and knocked me off on to the sidewalk and then
drove off. Don't worry, I am completely fine. I ripped my pants and shirt and
cut up my arm and shoulder, but they have completely healed and now you
wouldn't know any better. It also helps that Sister Covertson (the Covertsons
are Senior couple Missionaries) is a nurse and is in my district. But all in
all it really wasn't that bad; right after my adrenaline was pumping a lot and
I wanted to go run 10 miles.
This last Wednesday we had Zone
Conference which was fantastic. We had about 40 missionaries in our zone. I got
to see Elder Gubler from my MTC district again which was a lot of fun as
we caught up on our experiences. During the conference Elder Field and I, the
Zone Leaders, and the Assistants to the President, and the Elders from
Neuötting gave Missionary Training presentations and then we led various
workshops. We had a testimony meeting at the end of the conference where all
the Missionaries who had their first or last Zone Conference that day were
invited to share their testimony. So Elder Field and I both got to go up coming
from different ends of the mission.
During Zone conference I got to
speak with President Miles and I found out something you would really
appreciate Dad: President Miles went to Olympus High. Apparently when he was
there, there was a Kim Bodily in his class and wondered if you knew him and then he said
that there was a Steven Miles who would have been around your age who went to
Olympus, who is his brother. He also noticed my weight loss (37 pounds) which leads me to my
next point - Mom I can't deny it, I will need some smaller shirts, a size or two down, if
you can send them.
This Friday is transfer calls. I
will find out who my next companion is and where I'll be serving (although I am
95% certain I'll be staying in Rosenheim). Elder Field only has 10 days left on
his mission. It means that we have a lot of dinner appointments with members
this week as they send him off. He has been an amazing trainer for me and I
hope to keep up his ethics of hard work here in the area.
Yesterday, we were able to
apply our first aid skills that we learned as scouts. Actually about all we
did was call the ambulance and a police officer nearby did most the work. We were
driving with Familie Dzierzon to their house for a dinner appointment after
church when an old guy on the side of the road, in lederhosen riding his
bike, ran into a lamp post and flipped over a barbed wire fence and cut his
head open on a rock. When we went to go help he smelt like he had been drinking
a lot. Familie Dzierzon had a first aid kit in the car and the police officer
bandaged him up and took care of him until the ambulance arrived.
Today for P-Day Elder Field and I
hiked a mountain called Wendelstein. Familie Dzierzon had suggested it to us
and they said it would take about 5-6 hours round trip. When we checked the
website at their house it said it usually takes 3 and half hours to climb up
and 2 to come down. The key word though is usually. When you have Elder Field
as a companion that means that's the time you should take if you are crippled.
He led the way and we got to the summit in an 1 hour and 15 minutes. This is
why I've lost so much weight if you didn't know yet. It allowed us to take a
different, longer trail down and still arrive an hour early to our
originally planned train.
Well I will leave it at that for
now. Thank you for the pictures of Rebekah, Tyson, Shams, James and Jake. I loved them and would love to have hard copies sent. I hope you are all doing well. I appreciate your support so much, so thank
you.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs
wiedersehen
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21, 2012
So this week was really awesome.
So this week was really awesome.
Familie Bobi has committed to
Baptism!
They understand how important the
Baptism is so they didn't want to rush into the decision without really
thinking over it and understanding what it means for them, but on Thursday
night they called us and told us that they had decided to be baptized. We have
scheduled June 30th as their baptismal date because we will need a few weeks to
really help them out with the Word of Wisdom, but after that there shouldn't be
anything preventing them from it. They are very happy with their decision and
so are we. The ward here did really well with giving them support on Sunday.
They have told us that they don't want their neighbors or Bobi's parents (who
live close by) to know until after a year or so because they know they would
really try to discourage them from their decision and they don't want to deal
with that right now but rather just enjoy their decision to be baptized in the
true church of Christ. However, they said they have no shame in being members
of this church and they know that they are going down the true path of Christ.
Elder Field will have gone home by the time their baptism comes around so they
asked me to baptize them both. I am super excited for them, so filled with joy,
and so grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given Elder Field and I to
find them and show them the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We couldn't have done
it without direction from Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. Keep Bobi and Evisha
Adejelikovic in your prayers.
As far as other appointments for
this week, they all went rather well. We already have this next week
all filled with appointments. Rosenheim is starting to really shine. We
have this investigator named Frau Grenkl who has been really open with us and
though she says she doesn't want to leave her faith, she has told us she really
likes our message and our church a lot more. We also had an two appointments
with this man named Bruno. He is completely Bayerisch but thinks he is American
because he hates Europe. He is very outspoken and our first appointment with
him he spent about 15 minutes telling Elder Field about how stupid and awful
English people were. Not only that but he wouldn't really let us speak. We
wanted to drop him right away but he said he wanted to read in the Book of
Mormon so we decided to give him one more appointment to follow up on his
reading. When we came back we found out he had read rather far and had a lot of
good questions which we were able to answer. He also found real interest in
that our church believes in being with our spouse together forever instead
of death do us part. His wife died a few years ago and he liked the idea
he could see her again. He is still outspoken and hard to teach because he likes
to go off on random tangents but he definitely made a huge improvement since
the last time we taught him. Overall the work is going well right now.
Other news, I bought my Lederhosen
today. I will be sending pictures here soon.
Elder Field is not sure yet, but
most likely it will be June 26 that he will be Orem. He will keep in contact
with you through email Mom and Dad to clarify all things, but if that day
still works for him to stay over that would be great. I might be dead by the
end of this week though because of Elder Field. He has decided he wants to run
the London Marathon next April so he wants to step up our running in the
morning. I'll let you know if my legs still work by the end of the week.
Besides the fact that I might be running a lot more than I'd like in the next
two weeks, I will still miss Elder Fields when he goes home (release date June
10). He has been an awesome companion
and we have had a lot of fun together. He has taught me a lot and has been
really easy to get along with. I am 2 for 2 with amazing companions
between him and Elder Davies.
In regards to all things German, FC
Bayern surprisingly lost in the Eurocup final (or the Superbowl of
European soccer), but I still have one more chance next year for them to
win it while I'm on my mission. And FC Bayern will have more players than any
other German club team on the Germany National team which will win that
tournament this summer. Something about being in Europe just gets you excited
about Soccer even though I had nothing to do with it before my mission. Also, I
think I am turning German in the fact that mineral water doesn't phase me
anymore. Tell Brother Olsen I will be fine to try it again sometime at his
house when I get back.
Well I hope all is going great for
everybody, I love you all and I am so grateful for your support in everything.
I am so glad I am on my Mission for I can really feel Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ's love stronger than ever. I know this church is true. I know that
through Jesus Christ we can have everlasting joy and for that I'll always be in
debt. I am so glad I can show him my gratitude through my time and work here in
Germany. I hope all goes well.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs
wiedersehen
Monday, May 7, 2012
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| Orchestra Hall in Salzburg, Austria. |
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| Castle in Salzburg. Notice this picture and compare to the large picture in "The Sound of Music" postcard. |
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| Mom, this postcard was picked specifically for you in honor of Mother's Day. Note: that is because mom was "strongly" encouraging Elder Bodily to watch the movie the week before he left on his mission - he watched 3/4 of it. |
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| I decided to get a picture of me with "Toblerone" in the various places I go. |
May 7, 2012 Servüß zusammen!
Well first of all Mom and Dad I will be calling next week for sure at (Utah time) 8:00 or 9:00 am. Thank you for sending the packages, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for allowing Elder Field to stay the night when he gets there in Utah next month. It would just be one night and he is a really great guy, you'll like him. I am going to give him your email so he can contact you. The keyboard in our apartment doesn't work unfortunately, so we put it in the cellar and yes we have a broken washing machine in our kitchen, but we have one that works in our bathroom!
So this week went really good with the work. We were able to find
more new investigators than we had set for our goal and we did really
well with street contacting and dooring. On Saturday in 1 hour we were
able to give out 3 Book of Mormons with follow up appointments (which
just doesn't happen in our mission area) and then gave out another later
on. One of these came in a really cool experience. We had 2
appointments fall out in a row and we didn't have a very good back up
plan, so we decided to walk home to make some phone calls (we temporarily
fixed my bike but it's very finiky, the Ward Mission Leader is going to
talk about it at Ward council first to see what we should do). It began
raining really hard, so we had no one to talk to on the street. It took
us about 30 minutes of walking in the downpour before we could see our
apartment. We were wet and really hungry and ready to get in, but for
some reason the path to our left that lead to about 5 more minutes longer of
walking before we got home looked enticing. I told Elder Field we should
walk that way to change things up. It seemed really stupid at the time,
but we turned the corner and we ran into a guy who was getting ready to
get into his car and drive off. Elder Field quickly started talking to
him and when he found out we had the Book of Mormon he got really
excited because he had wanted to read it. We gave it to him and he said
that after he had finished it he would call us and tell us what he
thought. It was so incredible to see that happen, we hadn't seen anyone
up to that point that had ever been so excited about the Book of Mormon.
Hopefully all goes well for him as he reads and that he will be able to
feel the spirit during that time. I know it was the spirit who lead us to
him.
This week Familie Bobi invited us to this Holiday celebration for
the Greek Orthodox church where they grill a lamb. They aren't active in
the Orthodox church but it doesn't stop them from wanting to grill a
lamb. It was super good and so filling. We had our first reading lesson
with Evisha this last week and though Elder Field and I didn't really
have any idea what to do, she still seemedo ver excited throughout it.
Stefan is currently having a rough period at the moment. He still
comes to church, but he is not sure how reading the Book of Mormon would
help him gain a testimony. We found out he had only really read a page
so we bore testimony that it is Holy Scripture, that through it man can
learn and feel the Holy Ghost, that it helps to know that Jesus is the
Christ and that he lives, and then recommitted him to making that a
priority. Hopefully this week goes well for him and that he will follow
the committment and feel the spirit.
After a long time having scheduling conflicts, we were finally
able to meet again with Jackie Dos Santos this week and were able to
have a good appointment. Even though she doesn't speak a lot of German
she is fairly good at understanding it and her husband and Manuel Cruz
(ward member who speaks Spanish, but apparently fluent Spanish and Portguese speakers can understand each other really well) have been
really good about translating. Jake, we might need you here soon so if
you could get a week break to fly up from Brazil and help us that would
be great! She is thinking over baptism, but she feels a little stressed
out at the moment and is a little nervous about commitment. She believes
the message, but just needs a little time and for us to keep praying for
her.
Mohammed and Ali are still here in Germany so we're still teaching
them until they here otherwise, about whether they need to move back to
Italy or not. Which leads me to my next point...
Congratulations to Walker Johnson and Brandon Nichols who got their
mission calls to Italy, Milan and Russia, Novosibirsk. Walker if
Mohammed and Ali have to move to Italy I would feel fine knowing that
you can help them out. Plus you are in the nieghboring mission of my
mission so we will need to go by the border at some point and trade
chocolate or something. Brandon have fun in Russia. That sounds really
awesome. Cold, but awesome. You are both going to do really well out in
the field. By the way, thank you Sister Pearce for the updates on all
the mission calls. I got your letter this morning and it was good to see
where the people from my class are all going. And yes if you or Jake
could add my name to that group page on facebook that would be
fantastic.
A couple of cool things about Germany this week. Apparently May 1,
or May Day is a holiday that the people actually get off from work. I
found that rather odd. They had a big celebration in town where they had
a number of bands playing and everything. I finally bought myself a
Bayerisch Dictionary. I don't plan on learning Bayerisch German anytime
soon, but I've at least been able to figure out a few principles that
have helped me to understand the dialect better. We went to do some
service for a single sister in our ward and she has pretty much fed us
all-you-can-eat Bayerischschnitzel (different but not too different from
Wienerschnitzel) which might have been my favorite meal so far here.
Something that has been really interesting, but surprisingly good is
apparently the Bayerisch love to put maple syrup on their ice cream.
We've had it a few times and it works rather well.
Mom and Dad thanks again as always for keeping me updated on the
family, ward, etc. I am glad to hear that everything is going well still
for the most part. Amber did tell me about the Behlings and that is
really sad to hear what has happened. I'll be praying
for them.
Hey Bekah and Buddy, I heard you are doing really good with soccer.
That's way cool! Keep up the good work and having fun. You'd both like
it here in Germany because everyone absolutely loves soccer.
I'll close with a scripture I found this week that I thought was
really cool for my mission specifically, but first I just want to
reiterate how excited I am for next Sunday Mom and Dad when I can call. I
have lots to tell you thats better to say in person and mostly just to
really talk to you guys. I hope all continues to go well.
"Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work. Let thy feet be shod
also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and
among many nations." D&C 112:7 I thought the Alpine German-Speaking
mission fit that well being named after the mountains themselves and
then having 5 countries in the mission.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis auf wiedersehen
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