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| Rebecca's baptism. |
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| Ward Mission Team: E. Bodily, Bernd (Assistant mission leader, Wolfgang Teply (Ward mission leader), Georg (Assistant mission leader), and Elder Smith. |
Monday, August 26, 2013
President Miles gives a really great talk about mission work.
August 26, 2013
Servus!
Well this was an eventful week. I
was able to get a companion to work with in my area. On Friday we had Zone
Conference where Elder Mielacher's family dropped him off and President Miles
interviewed him before handing him over to work with me. He is a nice humble
guy from a city called Linz which is about halfway between Wien and Salzburg.
The story behind him is that his family had planned that he would take over his
grandfathers shop when he returned from his mission and they decided to start
it early, but the MTC wouldn't let him in until his assigned date, but he was
free to begin his mission here in Austria. He will be here until October 3rd when
he will head to the MTC in England. He is good and ready to work. It is
interesting though working with him from the perspective that he is the first
missionary in his family and has had no MTC experience so it is interesting
trying figure out what needs to be explained and taught, but things are going
well though.
I was glad though that I got to
serve with Elder Martin and Reading for five weeks and that they are still my
roommates. We were all very different from each other but that is what made it
fun and we learned a lot and did some good work together.
So Rebecca was supposed to get
confirmed yesterday in church, but she had a really bad fever that morning and
so we talked with the bishop and she will get confirmed next Sunday instead and
it will be ok. We took some Swiss bread to her yesterday and she was sad that
she couldn't be there for the confirmation, but she is really excited for next
Sunday.
We were also able to get in contact
with Ambrol again. He had been lost for awhile, but we were finally able to
reach him again. He had been super busy with work and had always forgotten to
call us back or wasn't home when we came by, but we have an appointment for
tomorrow and he seems really excited still.
This last Friday we had Zone
conference and it was great. A lot of it was based off the New Missions
Presidents broadcast and working on applying that into our work. Since
President Miles was in Wien that weekend he decided to visit one of our wards
that Sunday, and our ward was the
fortunate one. He gave a really good talk about the mission work and it seemed
to really excite the members because afterwards they seemed to want to talk to
us about our work a lot more.
Well I will have to wrap it up here,
but I hope you all have a great week. I love you all a lot. Take care!
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs
Wiedersehen
Monday, August 19, 2013
Rebecca's baptism this week and everything went perfectly, except. . .
August 19, 2013
Servus!
We had Rebecca's baptism this week and everything went
perfectly. Well... there was a problem with the baptismal font in that no warm
water was coming out so during Sacrament meeting my ward mission leader and I
had to take large pots of hot water that we either got from the kitchen sink or
boiled and poured them into the font to try and even out the water temperature.
It was still a little bit cold, but it was at least bearable. Elder Smith was
able to make it up from Innsbruck to be able to perform the baptism and it was
a very good experience for him. The program itself went very well and at the
end Rebecca gave a really wonderful testimony about how much the gospel has
helped her and appreciated how much closer she has drawn to Christ. I will make
sure to send pictures rather than try and wait until I send the memory card
home. Next Sunday will be the confirmation in Sacrament meeting.
Also more news on my companion situation. It is not likely
that Elder Naegle will ever be able to make it back and is currently serving in
the Salt Lake mission and waiting for reassignment. President Miles however
called me last Friday and told me that there is a young man from Linz (which is
about half way between Salzburg and Vienna which is also the city where Elder
Naegle served when he had his visa problems) who received his mission call to
the England, Leeds mission; however, his visa is taking a little longer to
process and so instead of pushing his mission date back they are going to just
send him straight into the mission field here and have him serve here until his
visa to go to the MTC arrives. President said he will be working with me until
then. His name is Elder Nielacher and his dad is the Stake President of the
Salzburg stake in west Austria. He will be here this upcoming Friday when we
have Zone Conference here in Wien. That means I will work with him for a week
before transfer calls come which probably means I will get an additional
companion since Elder Nielacher can leave at any time. I will have spent 5
weeks with Elder Martin and Reading which I think was actually really good for
me; we learned a lot from each other and got along great and did good work.
However, it will be nice to just focus on my own area now. Also it will be a
great experience since this will be my first native companion which is uncommon
since most native missionaries serve in Switzerland due to no American visas in
Switzerland.
That's about all I have time for this week, but this
upcoming week should be really good. I hope all is well back at home.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs
Wiedersehen
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
We call him the professional "professional".
August 12, 2013
Servus!
So I am pretty short on time today because the Wien 4 Elders
have a member from their ward that wants to take us to lunch soon and so I have
to wrap this together pretty quickly.
However, this Sunday will be the baptism for Rebecca. She is
doing really well and everything has been organized and is prepared for it. We
will have the baptismal interview this week sometime, but we have already gone
over the questions with her and everything should be fine. Since Elder Smith
was one of her first missionaries (and longest at that) he will be coming back
for the baptism and she asked him to baptize her so he will be staying over
Saturday night. Rebecca asked me though if I would do the confirmation and I am
very honored for that opportunity.
President Miles told me this week that most likely I will be
finishing the transfer with Elder Martin and Elder Reading since we are already
half way in and it doesn't look like Elder Naegle will be coming back. Things
are working out though well enough. We are getting into a good system of
planning out all our work so that our appointments don't conflict and that
things work as good as possible. The three of us are having a lot of fun
together though. Both of them are probably the two most different companions from
me that I have ever had and they are also complete opposite of each other, but
it somehow works out really well that we get along and have a lot of
adventures and do good work together.
We are working together to help one of their investigators
prepare for baptism named Andreas. We call him the professional "professional"
because he is a very successful business man who owns his own company and is
very proper with everything he does, but he is very sincere and is really
excited for his baptism that will be in September. He is completely ready. The
main thing we are waiting on is for him to return from his month long business
trip and then things will be good to go.
I hope you
all have a fantastic week. Sister Bice loved your visit last week. (Sister Bice
returned from her mission and lives in Washington, Utah where Elder Bodily's
grandpa lives). Mom I am going to wait a little longer on the package before I
send it, but I am sending my SD card home in a letter today. I hope all is
well.
Love you
lots.
Elder
Bodily
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Still in a threesome with the Wien 4 Elders.
August 5, 2013
Servus!
First of all happy birthday Dad! I
hope you have an absolutely fantastic day. Thank you for everything you have
done for me and the great example that you are.
Well I won't have a whole lot to write this week. On Tuesday
my health got a little worse and so Sister Miles referred me to the doctor in
Frankfurt who is over all the missionaries in Central Europe and he got an
appointment for me with one of his assistants in the Austria region that we
went to the following day. The diagnosis was that if I had I not gone into the
doctors like I did and had not been resting and treating my body as well as I
have, the chest and sinus infection that I had would have developed into some
severe pneumonia. However, the doctor prescribed an antibiotic for me and it
seems to be working well. The doctor told me though that I had to stay away
from the heat and sun until at least Sunday in order to let my body rebuild and
so I have been following the doctors orders in the apartment the whole week.
Hence, there isn't a whole lot to say this week. But I am doing a lot better
now. I was able to go to church yesterday on splits with my ward mission leader
and then go to an appointment with an investigator and then an eating
appointment with the Wien 4. My body is still slightly achy, but its feels
better than last week. You can sleep easily now mom.
I should find out between today and Wednesday as to what the
situation with Elder Naegle is and whether he can come back to Austria from
Ireland or not. For now though I am still in a threesome with the Wien 4
Elders. All three of us are completely different from each other, but it works
out really well and we have a blast together. This week so that we could let
the Wien 4 Elders go to some of their appointments we arranged babysitting
times with the Elders from Wien 5 and Wien 2 so that Elder Martin and Reading
could get some work done and have fresh air. I should be here for awhile though
mom; if Elder Naegle is not able to come back they will try to find me a companion
from somewhere else or just keep me in a threesome for this transfer until I
get a new companion next transfer. Either way they probably won't white wash
the area.
Yesterday after church I was able to meet with Rebecca and
she is doing well as always. We pushed her baptismal date back one week because
the original week was the Temple week for the ward so not a whole lot of
members would be there. This way it works out better, but it's still coming up
soon, the 18th of August.
I hope all goes well for ya'll this week. I love you very
much.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei
mit euch bis aufs wiedersehen
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