Monday, July 28, 2014

Almost Hit By Lightning ~ and They Made the News!

Well another week has come and gone. This was a good one. Not too much happened though, but what did happen was awesome! 

Wednesday we went over to Ridgeland for their Pioneer Day Celebration. That was a blast! It was my first Low-Country Boil.. wow.  That was amazing!  Why haven't I had this yet!?!  



This whole week its been the Beaufort Water Festival here.. We were able to volunteer selling t-shirts Thursday and Friday!  Well, Friday it stormed.  Hard.  The links attached talk a little about them.. That's my companion on the left side of the screen, in the first one, and then us in the second one too!  We made the news! haha.  It was incredible.. I was soaked.  We all were!  Lightning everywhere!  It struck probably 30 yards from where we were.   It hit a boat's mast. 





************(Kevin's MOM here:  these are the links to the two news reports on the weather at the celebration he and his companion were at.  They are right at the beginning of the one clip, to the left of the screen - if you hit pause, you'll see them.  The second one shows them carrying a broken white tent away - again, pause as soon as you see that on the left side and you'll see Kevin's goofy grin!)*************

http://www.wtoc.com/clip/10408272/heavy-rains-flood-portions-of-downtown-beaufort

http://www.wtoc.com/clip/10406987/beaufort-water-festival-ready-for-bed-races

I suppose the highlight from this week was again church with the Marine Recruits.  Recruit Tanner Jones is always growing so much.  We went over the commandments and he was already understanding and everything.  His friend is doing most of the teaching.  We also had a new recruit come to church with us.  He isn't a member,  but wow...  he is incredible.   He expressed his emotions of going to boot camp and looking for something.... and needed guidance in life.... and he understood the reasoning for the Word of Wisdom and all the commandments!  We also went over the baptismal interview questions for Jones, and yeah.. he is ready!  He told his mom and the other nonmember recruits who have stopped coming to church that he is converted!  It's awesome.   

Well, I tried to make some peach cobbler on Sunday..... it didn't quite work.  I always knew I wasn't a chef.. oh well haha.   



Today we went to an old fort here on one of the islands!  It was kinda crazy.. not too much to it.  Just over 100 yrs old.. oh well haha!





Well, I love yall!  Till next week!

Happy Birthday shout-out to Jet on Saturday!
Elder Bodily

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Another week in Paradise ~

This week came and went. I'm really not quite sure where it went..... I guess into the past. 

(As his mom, I noticed the sister missionary standing very close to Elder Bodily . . . )

Main things this week I guess were church on Sunday at Parris Island. Recruit Jones is still coming strong!  We have talked with him a little bit about baptism and all, but we didn't feel quite right yet about inviting him.  Well, yesterday, during Sacrament Meeting, he opened up the Book of Mormon and was reading. after, he came up to us while getting a drink, he said,  "I've started reading, and I'm game."  I was like, whaa?  Haha  It was incredible!  And then after church, we were talking with him and setting up when, and his buddy, whose a member and a huge help, came over, right as we set August 10th.  His jaw hit the floor haha.  

I am continually impressed and changed every week at church with the Marine Recruits.. The spirit is so strong there.  

Another amazing thing that happened this week, we got a call from a less-active early in the week that we hadn't met before.  Well, this week we have grown really close to him. He is awesome. Bro Hankins has been through a lot.  We were humbled when he asked for a blessing and then he was in tears and gave us hugs.  

Funny experience this week as we were visiting another less-active man.. well... he fell asleep as we were reading scriptures with him.  The weather has been changing a bit, storming more, and he was sleepy. I don't blame him haha.   

So Saturday we had a once in a lifetime opportunity.  We had dinner with a family, the wife is active, the husband, not so much, but still very nice and open.  After dinner he asked if we wanted to go on a drive around the plantation.. the next 2 hours still feel like a dream.. It was incredible. the 8,000 acre private land is owned by the 4th richest company family in the nation.  In that 2 hours, we saw probably 30 deer.  It was just incredible. Also, he showed us the boss's boat... that thing cost $60,000!  The tower in the picture is for remote controlled clay pigeon throwing.. lucky...   





I'm sure we had experiences I'm forgetting about, but that happens. 

love yall!
Elder Bodily






Monday, July 14, 2014

Moving and Meetings

It was a long week.  On Tuesday and Thursday we had meetings.  Tuesday was zone conference with President Cottle in Savannah!  So that was pretty awesome.  I was able to go back to an area I have been before.  It felt good!  And to see people that I haven't seen in awhile was just amazing! Good memories.. and then Thursday we went to Hilton Head for Zone Training.  It's always good to get together with other missionaries!  This week we also helped a family move.. 3 times...  I'm not sure if the first time was last week when we re-organized their garage, then this week we packed everything up into the U-haul...  I guess it wasn't much packing up, and putting stuff in the U-haul...  Oh well.  3 full loads and 8 hours later, we were finished.  A couple days later, they called again, and had all the loose articles and knick-knacks.  That was another load... and another full storage unit.  Their lease was up on the house, so they had to move out.  So all their stuff is in storage as they wait on applications for homes.  And then guess what happens... yup.   We will help them move back in..  It was good to be able to serve them though. 

 As in harmony with our training at Zone Conference about recognizing miracles, I'd like to share a couple experiences we had this week.  The first one comes from church yesterday with the recruits on Parris Island.  Wow.  They continue to amaze me and I continue to grow a love for them more and more each week.  One of them, Recruit Jones, was brought to church last week by another recruit, a member and a return missionary from the Tucson Mission.  Last week he was open and asking questions and it was very spiritual for the 2 hours we were together. and then yesterday, talking with him, he said that he is really close to accepting it.  He expressed emotions of how he felt the spirit all week, even during the hard drills, and that he felt a peace in his heart. He was asking questions about baptism and about serving a mission!!!  That was just jaw-dropping.  We hadn't talked much about that at all.  His friend that brought him is actually his rack mate. so they sleep in bunk beds, so I know there is work being done there!  It was just so incredible.
The other comes from a lesson we had with one of our investigators.  We had only met Roscoe last week, and he was open to talking, a little bit.  We left him with a pamphlet and just said we'd come back.  Well, we went back this past week. He was out on his porch with his wife, but we first tried to talk to his neighbor, another person we met.  Well, when we got back to Roscoe, he had his bible out and was ready to talk.  His first words were, pointing to the Book of Mormon, "I do not believe in that book, and I WILL NOT read it." Well.. long story short, we put a Book of Mormon in his hands, had him read from it with us and also from the bible, since that is his background and life, and by the end he was understanding  and he said he would be doing some hard praying about it. WOW! it was incredible. 

Yesterday at church, one of the young men was here for the first time that I've been here.  He is one of the few strong priests.  He's been up in DC and then EFY at Southern Virginia University this past week.  But I have been dying to meet him, well, because he plays lacrosse!  It was awesome. We were able to talk about it, cuz he knows SVU, USU, and is going to a byu camp this next week!  haha.  He's so chill haha. 
Another cool thing this week.. so it was Chik-fil-a day on Friday.. so you already know, free food is good food.  Of course we had to dress as cows though!  No prob.  We have a friend that works there so that's always a bonus..  I gained probably 5 pounds just from CFA this week.. 4 times in a week isn't exactly healthy.. but hey, missionary work, right? :)  




Another cool thing this week, we went and walked around a thing called the Sands.  It's this boardwalk thing where you can fish from it and just look out and relax.  It was a good contacting time, but man, it was a beautiful view.  I saw little fins in the water and everyone says they are dolphins!  That's pretty cool.  Once I go fishing, I should be catching a little shark!  That's pretty normal around here. 














Well, I love you all!  have a good week :) 
Elder Bodily


Monday, July 7, 2014

4th of July and a whole lot of moving

What a week its been. I gotta try and keep this short, but there are a few experiences I want to share quick.. 

I have just completely fallen in love with the Marines. We attended the graduation ceremony on Thursday morning. That was just completely amazing. The 13 weeks they are here, all comes down to this moment. It was incredible the moment they said the word "Dismissed" and moved in formation, and then it just went wild.  The families ran out, the marines run to their families. They worked so hard for it, and now they have completed. We even saw one guy standing in formation, lean over and puke a couple times, but still kept standing there..  

And on Sunday, church was incredible. We had a new member recruit come, and he brought 3 of his friends! He is a returned missionary from the Tuscon AZ mission. He was really cool. Such a great RM. Doing missionary work still.  One of his friends had lots of good questions, and after testimony meeting he came up to me, and he said, yeah, I think I'm really interested in learning more.  The spirit was so strong there.. my words can't even begin to explain the emotions felt there.  I never want to leave here.  I have fallen in love with the Marine Recruits. 

The rest of this week was filled with moving people.  Wow. we moved 3 families.  So much stuff.  I am just thankful no one has had a piano yet. 

We had success in finding some new people to teach this week!  In the last couple months, they have had like 7 baptisms, so our pool is almost empty, but it is slowly being filled. I am grateful. 

Well, by the pictures, it was a good week. I found me a Holand jersey in a little Mexican tienda!  It was awesome!!  Funny thing, the day I bought it, Holland beat Mexico..  Whoops. Haha.  Oh well.  And on the 4th of July, I had to dress up in the most American stuff I had. so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREEDOM.  Cuz we don't know the birthday of America, because the Jaredites weren't that good at records.. :) 

I love you all! Till next week! 
bye bye