I have come to really know how much the Lord has blessed me in my life and continues to bless me.

January 6, 2013

Servus!

Well, this is it. The last email.

It's a really, really weird feeling to think that the mission is going to come to an end. I am really going to miss my Germans and Austrians and the experience I have had to serve my Heavenly Father. I hope that I can continue to have the same faith and hope from the spirit that I have been blessed with here for the rest of my life. I can definitely say it's been the most accomplished task of my life and I hope to take what I learned from here and use it for the rest of my life. I have come to really know how much the Lord has blessed me in my life and continues to bless me.

This week we had New Year's Eve which here in Austria is something crazy. There are so many fireworks being shot off and people running around it . . .it feels like a war. We celebrated the evening with a member family who the dad then took us after midnight to go to the downtown area where even thirty minutes later it was still going crazy. Don't worry we were safe, but it was just interesting to see all the excitement going on.

After New Years though we got back to a rather regular work routine. We got to meet with Cxxxxx for my last time and the appointment went absolutely fantastic. It went on for a long time and we covered a lot of different topics. She has really been thinking about baptism a lot and she had felt like she wasn't yet ready or worthy enough yet based off what she knew, but we then went over the baptismal questions with her and she answered positively to all of them and she felt really happy about the fact the she could be ready soon. She told us the she would pray about when exactly she should get baptized and told us that next time we meet again she would have an idea. However, she would like her 11 year old son to get baptized now as well and start to hear the basic form of what we teach as missionaries. She hopes that he can be baptized soon with her. It was such a spiritual lesson and a good last appointment for me with her. She is going to keep in touch and let me know how things go with the baptism when it comes around. 

It was sad to say goodbye to all the members yesterday at church, but I am glad I was able to be with them for as long as I was and feel like a part of the ward. What was great is one of my favorite families from the ward, the Zxxxx,  that moved to Salzburg half way through my time here, happened to coincidently come to the ward to visit. It was a really cool small blessing for me because they had been one of my favorite families from my mission and he had helped me a lot when I was sick, and it was cool for them to be there for my last Sunday and testimony and to be able to sit with them during sacrament.

I hope all is going well for everyone. I want to bear my testimony that I know this church is true. I know that we have a Heavenly Father and a Savior Jesus Christ who is our light and can bring us everlasting life. I know that the work I have been part of is the work of the Lord and it has been one of the greatest blessings in my life to come and have this experience to let my testimony grow, to share it with others, and help others and myself come closer to God and to feel his love. Thanks to everyone who has helped me get to this point in my life and helped me through this when times have been hard and been happy with me and when the times have been great. I have had a lot of great influences given to me in my life and that has been one of the best ways I have felt God's love. I love you all and I am happy to see you soon.

Elder Bodily

Gott sei mit euch bis aufs Wiedersehen (Das wird in 4 Tage sein)