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| Swiss bread - made it myself! |
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| Elder Bodily, Elder Hyatt and Elder Young. |
Monday, October 8, 2012
New companion Elder ? still in Provo, Utah.
Oct. 8, 2012 My new companion straight from MTC - Elder ? don't know the name yet - he's still in Provo!
Well I guess I should start off with letting you know Mom
that I am completely ok. I am not sure what caused the stomach sickness, but
it's gone now. And you would be proud of me because when I said that I cleaned
our apartment when I arrived in St. Pölten, I really meant it. That included checking under and behind
furniture for everything and had there been mold or anything we would have seen
it. However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace some of the wash cloths and
or other things just because of the fact of how sick the Elder here before me
was. I will get that taken care of.
However, there is some big news this week. We had transfer calls this last Friday. As guessed I am going to be staying in St. Pölten, but Elder Root is going to a place called Ravensburg in middle southern Germany. It's close to the intersection between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and is apparently really beautiful so he will enjoy it a lot. We were thinking that we would be staying one more transfer but I guess not. Even though he has been the companion that I've spent the least amount of time with so far I still had a lot of fun with him and we became great friends. I hope all goes well for him there. As for my new companion... well I don't know who it is yet because he is still in Provo right now. President Miles is having me train again and so I am going to Munich this Wednesday for the trainer/trainee dinner where I will get assigned my new companion there. I am very excited to train again and this time it will be more exciting and interesting because instead of just finishing the training like I did with Elder Root, I will actually get to work with them straight out of the MTC. I will let you know next week who my companion is.
As for other transfer information:
Elder Young is going to go be one of the Zone Leaders for Munich zone. I think he will be perfect for the job. The funny thing is he is replacing my old zone leader Elder Melville and Elder Melville is going to Rosenheim. They just switched places which doesn't happen all too often.
Elder Davies is coming to Vienna so he will be in my zone and he is also going to be training so I'll get to see him at the dinner and then we will be riding the train back together afterwards. I am very excited to see him again.
The rest of my district is staying the same.
This week was a rather interesting week. A lot of it we spent in Vienna. On Monday morning we came up for a zone p-day together, because St. Pölten only has 6 priesthood holders, we usually have to pull someone from another ward in the stake to take the branch president spot. Our branch president, President Sztrazcany lives in Vienna and he wanted us to come visit him and his wife sometime so after P-day we went that night. He lives on the complete other side of Vienna so it took a while to get there, so by the time we were done we decided to stay the night with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon. We went to District meeting the next morning and right after I did an austausch to work with Elder Bassett in Vienna and stayed Tuesday night there. The next day when we went to exchange back Elder Root and Elder Moon took the wrong train back to Vienna so it took a little longer before we austausched back. I got back to St. Pölten on Wednesday at 5. Thursday and Friday we worked in St. Pölten and then Saturday we had to take a train back to Vienna to watch the Saturday morning session of general conference (at 6 at night) in the stake center. For convenience we stayed the night with the Zone Leaders, Elder Cox and Elder Sievers, and then watched recordings of the Priesthood and Saturday afternoon sessions and then watched the Sunday morning session live (by the way we will not be able to see the Sunday Afternoon session so I would love a copy of the ensign if you send a package around Christmas). After getting out of conference we missed the train that we needed to take so we ended up overnighting with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon. Which leads us to today. We decided to do our P-day here in Vienna so hence I am sending this from an internet cafe from downtown and then after we plan on going and getting those giant Cordon Blues that I sent you pictures of before.
I absolutely loved conference this weekend. I've never enjoyed in the past as much as I have now; I find it one of the most refreshing experiences to hear from the general authorities. The thing that really stuck out to me is with President Monson announcing the lowered age limit for missionaries, and then Elder Nelsen and Elder Holland's talks I really feel like they are putting more trust and responsibility in the missionaries. There is so much that goes into becoming a good missionary, but what it really boils down to is how great is your desire to serve the Lord and how much are you willing to give to him as his disciple. The mission has been something that I have been looking forward to my whole life. Now that I am here I've found it the greatest, most enlightening time of my life. But I know there is always a little more I can do and that I can always improve. My hope is that I can continue to work and grow so that I can be one of those missionaries that the Lord truly trusts. I want to be the kind that can take on Elder Nelsen's challenge and address all those concerns that the people would have, whether by the knowledge I have already been giving or more importantly by learning to humble and hearken unto those bits of insight manifested by the Holy Ghost. Most of all I want to show the Lord that I truly love him by giving my whole might, mind, and strength to this work.
I know that those men who spoke on Saturday and Sunday are called of God. I know that they are disciples of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
I hope all is going well for everyone. I am excited to see what new mission calls may come here soon because of President Monson's mission age declaration. I love you all and wish for the best for you.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs wiedersehen
However, there is some big news this week. We had transfer calls this last Friday. As guessed I am going to be staying in St. Pölten, but Elder Root is going to a place called Ravensburg in middle southern Germany. It's close to the intersection between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and is apparently really beautiful so he will enjoy it a lot. We were thinking that we would be staying one more transfer but I guess not. Even though he has been the companion that I've spent the least amount of time with so far I still had a lot of fun with him and we became great friends. I hope all goes well for him there. As for my new companion... well I don't know who it is yet because he is still in Provo right now. President Miles is having me train again and so I am going to Munich this Wednesday for the trainer/trainee dinner where I will get assigned my new companion there. I am very excited to train again and this time it will be more exciting and interesting because instead of just finishing the training like I did with Elder Root, I will actually get to work with them straight out of the MTC. I will let you know next week who my companion is.
As for other transfer information:
Elder Young is going to go be one of the Zone Leaders for Munich zone. I think he will be perfect for the job. The funny thing is he is replacing my old zone leader Elder Melville and Elder Melville is going to Rosenheim. They just switched places which doesn't happen all too often.
Elder Davies is coming to Vienna so he will be in my zone and he is also going to be training so I'll get to see him at the dinner and then we will be riding the train back together afterwards. I am very excited to see him again.
The rest of my district is staying the same.
This week was a rather interesting week. A lot of it we spent in Vienna. On Monday morning we came up for a zone p-day together, because St. Pölten only has 6 priesthood holders, we usually have to pull someone from another ward in the stake to take the branch president spot. Our branch president, President Sztrazcany lives in Vienna and he wanted us to come visit him and his wife sometime so after P-day we went that night. He lives on the complete other side of Vienna so it took a while to get there, so by the time we were done we decided to stay the night with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon. We went to District meeting the next morning and right after I did an austausch to work with Elder Bassett in Vienna and stayed Tuesday night there. The next day when we went to exchange back Elder Root and Elder Moon took the wrong train back to Vienna so it took a little longer before we austausched back. I got back to St. Pölten on Wednesday at 5. Thursday and Friday we worked in St. Pölten and then Saturday we had to take a train back to Vienna to watch the Saturday morning session of general conference (at 6 at night) in the stake center. For convenience we stayed the night with the Zone Leaders, Elder Cox and Elder Sievers, and then watched recordings of the Priesthood and Saturday afternoon sessions and then watched the Sunday morning session live (by the way we will not be able to see the Sunday Afternoon session so I would love a copy of the ensign if you send a package around Christmas). After getting out of conference we missed the train that we needed to take so we ended up overnighting with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon. Which leads us to today. We decided to do our P-day here in Vienna so hence I am sending this from an internet cafe from downtown and then after we plan on going and getting those giant Cordon Blues that I sent you pictures of before.
I absolutely loved conference this weekend. I've never enjoyed in the past as much as I have now; I find it one of the most refreshing experiences to hear from the general authorities. The thing that really stuck out to me is with President Monson announcing the lowered age limit for missionaries, and then Elder Nelsen and Elder Holland's talks I really feel like they are putting more trust and responsibility in the missionaries. There is so much that goes into becoming a good missionary, but what it really boils down to is how great is your desire to serve the Lord and how much are you willing to give to him as his disciple. The mission has been something that I have been looking forward to my whole life. Now that I am here I've found it the greatest, most enlightening time of my life. But I know there is always a little more I can do and that I can always improve. My hope is that I can continue to work and grow so that I can be one of those missionaries that the Lord truly trusts. I want to be the kind that can take on Elder Nelsen's challenge and address all those concerns that the people would have, whether by the knowledge I have already been giving or more importantly by learning to humble and hearken unto those bits of insight manifested by the Holy Ghost. Most of all I want to show the Lord that I truly love him by giving my whole might, mind, and strength to this work.
I know that those men who spoke on Saturday and Sunday are called of God. I know that they are disciples of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
I hope all is going well for everyone. I am excited to see what new mission calls may come here soon because of President Monson's mission age declaration. I love you all and wish for the best for you.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs wiedersehen
Monday, October 1, 2012
October 1, 2012 AWML and church
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| Thomas Luebke Assistant Ward Mission Leader knows what we like! |
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| WWI and WWII memorial church in Trannsten. |
Pile of Greatness! Oct. 1, 2012
Pile of Greatness
Servus zusammen! October 1, 2012
Thank you all so much for the
wonderful birthday you helped me have! It is really a crazy thought to think
that I am now twenty. I remember looking up to people at this age and thinking
wow, they are very mature, big, wise. Well, I am not sure how mature or wise I
am, and I definitely don't feel tall working with Elder Root, but hopefully
that might come throughout this next year. I received most all of the packages
on the 27th before my birthday. Apparently the mailman didn't want to take all
of the packages back to the post office so when we weren't there to answer the
door he just left them and so we came back that night to find a pile of
greatness waiting for me and Elder Root (yes I did share). Well these last two
weeks I have been having some stomach problems and two Thursdays
ago and on Friday it got to the point that I had to stay inside. However,
with a bucket by my side, Elder Root and I still made it a really good
birthday. We ended up being able to listen through the CDs that you sent and I
got to read in some of the books. Overall, I felt really loved from all of your
birthday wishes and support and I am very grateful that I have such an
amazing family and friends.
As far as the work goes, we are
making baby steps to success. Elder Root and I were able to give out our first
Book or Mormon out as a companionship (the first Elder Root has been able to
give out in St. Pölten) last Saturday and we are hoping to meet with the guy
this week. We are spending typically 7 hours a day just finding, which is our whole day after you
take away meals, studies, and Elder Root's training program. However, even
though we haven't had a whole lot of success in the sense of progressing the
work right there and then, we can tell we are being really blessed. The Lord
seems to bless us with all the energy we need and we just feel happy and
accomplished in how much work we have put in. However, I do think we will be
able to see some big things coming this way for St. Pölten. I really believe
so.
Would you believe me if I told you
that I broke the Word of Wisdom on my mission? We went to a members house to do
some service and she had us for lunch. Her husband is a non member. They have a
grape harvest in their backyard and they use it to make a lot of grape juice.
The thing is you have to be careful that you don't let grape juice become
fermented which is what her husband likes to do. She meant to pour us some
regular grape juice and after a big sip, Elder Root and I realized there was
something funny with it. She tried some, and then realized she accidentally got
her husbands grape juice. Oops. As long as we didn't drink it from there on
we're ok, right?
I got a call this week from the
Mission Secretary telling me that I am supposed to get a Drivers Liscense. I
have no idea what's going to happen with that, but I will keep you updated.
Well I have to go, but I love you
all. Thank you for supporting me so much on my mission and during this time
with my birthday. This was a particularly good week and next week when were not
rushed to go to Wien (Vienna). I'll be
able to tell you more of what's been going on. Love you all.
Elder Bodily
Monday, September 24, 2012
Finally met up with Elder Stapleton - Sept. 24, 2012
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| Finally met up with Elder Stapleton (friends since third grade) on transfer from Rosenheim to St. Polten. |
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| I also ran into Elder Terry finally on last transfer who is another missionary I knew before I came on my mission. |
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| The "Blue Man Group" in Lederhosens. |
Postcard: I've arrived in St. Polten Sept. 24, 2012
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| I've arrived in St. Polten. It's about 40 minutes west of Vienna. Austria is quite different from Germany so far as the stores, shops and train systems. It doesn't have mountains like the Rosenheim area, but has a lot of rolling hills and forest. Elder Root will be fun to work with. I do think we will see miracles here if we are patient and work really hard. |
Guitar Birthday card too much fun! Sept 24, 2012
September 24, 2012
Servus Y'all! Guitar Birthday card too much fun!
First of all, Mom and Dad thank you for the guitar birthday card. I got that three days ago and had maybe a little too much fun with it. We don't get mail on Sundays or Saturdays here and so anything that would have come then usually comes on Tuesday. If it makes you feel better Mom I have gotten a letter from you and from Madi that both said Trauson strasse (without the t) instead of Trautson strasse so I think anything sent under Trauston strasse should get to me. I am also glad you got the package I sent. I sent that before I left Rosenheim so I figured it should have come soon. As for the CD that you sent back in July it arrived in July but it showed up in this Postzoll (I don't know what it translates to in English) that we had to go to retrieve it from because they had some questions about the contents. It's not a problem, it happened before in Rosenheim, but the difference is last time they sent to a Postzoll in Rosenheim whereas with the CD in July they sent it to this Postzoll in a city we had to ride our bikes an hour to get to and so we had to wait till P-Day, but by that time they said they would already send it back. There shouldn't be any problems here though. I don't think Austrians are as suspicious about other people's mail as Germans are.
Thank you everyone though for the birthday wishes, that means a lot to me. It is really hard to believe I am turning twenty this Friday. I am as old as Brittney when she got married and Amber when she moved out of the house and that's just a strange thought to me. Thinking back on my 19th birthday last year doesn't seem that long ago at all. The time really does go by quickly on the mission. I am already over a third of the way done with my mission. My hope is that I can continue to make the rest of the time just as great as it has been so far.
Well at this point I have just about everything taken care of for my Police record and getting me registered legally in Austria. I won't actually get the police record until this transfer is over with because they have to do all of the important business stuff with it before they get to me. Speaking of which there is only this week and next week left in this transfer. That has to be the fastest transfer I've been through yet (well I guess I'll have to wait until it's over to really say that), but it really has gone by way fast.
This last week we had an Austausch with the Zone Leaders and so Elder Root went up a couple of days to Vienna and Elder Cox came back with me to St. Pölten. However, we accidently got on the one train during the day that went in the direction of St. Pölten without stopping there. Instead we went to a city called Linz which was an extra hour and a half pass St. Pölten on the train. Then we had to take a train from there back to St. Pölten for another hour and half. I have just had a lot of train time this transfer. However, after the missed train we did have a fun Austausch. If Elder Stapleton had been a Zone Leader just one more transfer we would have been working in St. Pölten for a couple of days together. But I have been able to see him a couple times since I got to the Vienna Zone.
On Wednesday we had a lot of problems with our shower drain. It was spewing out the food that went down our kitchen sink so we had to go to the store and get some stuff to take care. Let's just say it wasn't one of the most fun things I've ever had to deal with, but we got it taken care of finally. On Thursday Elder Root and I got really sick. We think it had to do with cleaning the shower drain somehow. However, we got better the next day and we're able to work again. On Sunday we had Stake Conference and so the night before Elder Root and I went up to Wien to stay the night with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon so that we could get there on time the next morning. In Austria they have two stakes which are the Wien and the Salzburg stakes. The Wien stake is pretty much all of eastern Austria so all 5 of the Wien wards plus the St. Pölten, Wiener neustadt, Bruck, and Graz wards/branches.
For the most part this week we didn't get a lot of time to actually work, because we were either taking wrong trains, fighting showers, dealing with some ward issues, being in Wien, being sick, etc. So we are really hoping to make this next week one of our most productive weeks yet. Elder Root is doing well. He understands German very well for someone who has been in the mission only as long as he has and he is very easy to work with.
Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and support this week. There are just a few more things before I need to go: Elder Braden Nickle you are in my prayers. I hope doctors figure out soon what's going on so they can take care of it. Buddy I heard you did really well with fishing. Good job bud and maybe we can go with your Dad sometime when I get back. Well I should probably get going, but I hope you are all doing well. I love you a lot and I hope that this next week is really good.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs wiedersehen
Servus Y'all! Guitar Birthday card too much fun!
First of all, Mom and Dad thank you for the guitar birthday card. I got that three days ago and had maybe a little too much fun with it. We don't get mail on Sundays or Saturdays here and so anything that would have come then usually comes on Tuesday. If it makes you feel better Mom I have gotten a letter from you and from Madi that both said Trauson strasse (without the t) instead of Trautson strasse so I think anything sent under Trauston strasse should get to me. I am also glad you got the package I sent. I sent that before I left Rosenheim so I figured it should have come soon. As for the CD that you sent back in July it arrived in July but it showed up in this Postzoll (I don't know what it translates to in English) that we had to go to retrieve it from because they had some questions about the contents. It's not a problem, it happened before in Rosenheim, but the difference is last time they sent to a Postzoll in Rosenheim whereas with the CD in July they sent it to this Postzoll in a city we had to ride our bikes an hour to get to and so we had to wait till P-Day, but by that time they said they would already send it back. There shouldn't be any problems here though. I don't think Austrians are as suspicious about other people's mail as Germans are.
Thank you everyone though for the birthday wishes, that means a lot to me. It is really hard to believe I am turning twenty this Friday. I am as old as Brittney when she got married and Amber when she moved out of the house and that's just a strange thought to me. Thinking back on my 19th birthday last year doesn't seem that long ago at all. The time really does go by quickly on the mission. I am already over a third of the way done with my mission. My hope is that I can continue to make the rest of the time just as great as it has been so far.
Well at this point I have just about everything taken care of for my Police record and getting me registered legally in Austria. I won't actually get the police record until this transfer is over with because they have to do all of the important business stuff with it before they get to me. Speaking of which there is only this week and next week left in this transfer. That has to be the fastest transfer I've been through yet (well I guess I'll have to wait until it's over to really say that), but it really has gone by way fast.
This last week we had an Austausch with the Zone Leaders and so Elder Root went up a couple of days to Vienna and Elder Cox came back with me to St. Pölten. However, we accidently got on the one train during the day that went in the direction of St. Pölten without stopping there. Instead we went to a city called Linz which was an extra hour and a half pass St. Pölten on the train. Then we had to take a train from there back to St. Pölten for another hour and half. I have just had a lot of train time this transfer. However, after the missed train we did have a fun Austausch. If Elder Stapleton had been a Zone Leader just one more transfer we would have been working in St. Pölten for a couple of days together. But I have been able to see him a couple times since I got to the Vienna Zone.
On Wednesday we had a lot of problems with our shower drain. It was spewing out the food that went down our kitchen sink so we had to go to the store and get some stuff to take care. Let's just say it wasn't one of the most fun things I've ever had to deal with, but we got it taken care of finally. On Thursday Elder Root and I got really sick. We think it had to do with cleaning the shower drain somehow. However, we got better the next day and we're able to work again. On Sunday we had Stake Conference and so the night before Elder Root and I went up to Wien to stay the night with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon so that we could get there on time the next morning. In Austria they have two stakes which are the Wien and the Salzburg stakes. The Wien stake is pretty much all of eastern Austria so all 5 of the Wien wards plus the St. Pölten, Wiener neustadt, Bruck, and Graz wards/branches.
For the most part this week we didn't get a lot of time to actually work, because we were either taking wrong trains, fighting showers, dealing with some ward issues, being in Wien, being sick, etc. So we are really hoping to make this next week one of our most productive weeks yet. Elder Root is doing well. He understands German very well for someone who has been in the mission only as long as he has and he is very easy to work with.
Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and support this week. There are just a few more things before I need to go: Elder Braden Nickle you are in my prayers. I hope doctors figure out soon what's going on so they can take care of it. Buddy I heard you did really well with fishing. Good job bud and maybe we can go with your Dad sometime when I get back. Well I should probably get going, but I hope you are all doing well. I love you a lot and I hope that this next week is really good.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei mit euch bis aufs wiedersehen
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