Friday, February 27, 2015

A Baptism, a Nuclear Plant, and Pigs.

Hey yall! 

It was a good week. A couple highlights from this week were a trip we took to Macon on Wednesday! President is starting a new thing with the greenies and trainers where they go to the mission home and get trainings. It was a good time. It helped my companion out a lot to see all the missionaries he came out with! I was the oldest missionary there.. more and more often there are times where I realize how much time I have left and it scares me! no bueno..  

On Friday we had a neat experience. we were out and about, it was a slow day, and I remembered in conversation with someone last week about a member who lived in a certain house. Well we drove past that house and saw some people going up the ramp into the house, so we pulled over and got the roster out and looked them up. Bingo! It was a lady in her late 70's and her daughter that lived with her. I knew that she was on dialysis throughout the week so before we went in, I told Elder Sutton to make sure he had his oil on him. As we went in we talked for a bit, it was wonderful. I just love visiting old people.. come to find out she had a heart attack 2 weeks ago, and still is on dialysis, so she asked for a blessing! It was just a wonderful feeling to know that I listened to the spirit. 

Saturday we spent most of the day at the horse ranch helping out!  2 of the other elders came with us. One of them had actually met the lady who runs the place before! Small world, she apparently had a Mormon boyfriend up in new Hampshire where she came from.. crazy! But we built us a horse corral! I was impressed! usually you put 4, 20ish year olds on a job and it won't get done, but it was awesome! She was very impressed also.  It just felt so good to be out there and working hard... getting muddy and horse poo all over, and pig blood! (sorry for the graphic words haha) One of the pigs was pregnant and about to pop! So we had to wrangle her up! That was fun! haha. 

Golly I'd be fine with working out there everyday.... but I know that people like Michael Long need the gospel. He is our investigator that got baptized yesterday! It was an incredible service. He didn't want it to be a big huge thing. He is a very quiet, to himself kind of guy, but we had a full crowd! The family he married into is very family oriented, and it was such a spiritual moment when his wife and her son sang "I love to see the temple".  So incredible.   After church, a member was driving us back home but decided to take a detour and drive past his work and the new house his family is probably gunna buy.  He works at Plant Vogtle. a nuclear plant here. That was incredible! Those stacks are huge!! They really made me feel small.   

Michael Long and his Forever Family




Plant Vogtle
(*Mom here - I had to search for what Kevin was referring to and found it quite interesting!  Learn more about Plant Vogtle:  http://www.southerncompany.com/about-us/our-business/southern-nuclear/vogtle.cshtml )

Last night a rain storm came through and on our trailer I could hear every drop! Usually rain helps me sleep, but I just couldn't sleep last night, I haven't been able to for a bit.. just comes with the work I guess. 

Well everyone, I love yall!
Elder Bodily

Monday, February 9, 2015

Greeted With a Gun . . . . And a 91 Year Old Golfer!

First off, I found another source of happiness this week. It came in the form of a 50 gallon drum. The member who lives behind us got it for us. Ah. i love it.  

The joys of simple mission-redneck life.

That's his home for a few more weeks.
He was right when he described it as being in the middle of nowhere!


This week, while Elder Sutton and i were out and about, we were tracting this one neighborhood. The second door we knocked, this old lady answered and came out and talked with us on her porch. She could talk for days if we let her! funny things.. We introduced ourselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she said something but just kept talking. well we went inside and let her talk more and more.. come to find out she is 91. she still lives on her own, drives a 7 series bmw.. and she loved/loves to golf.. she was the Georgia state senior champion many years in a row, and she has done a lot with golf haha.. so we left her with a plan of salvation pamphlet, the next day we went back and we talked and grabbed the pamphlet and said, i read your book, i know where im going when i die now! and that was about it.. i was like, uh.. okay? haha. but we just let her talk more and more. i said something about her reading the book of Mormon and went off on polygamy and "them Mormons" and stuff.. well, i just let it go.. my heart was broken. this nice old sincere lady hates the church and us.. well, i felt inspired for her to say the closing prayer, so we stood up and got by her chair and this frail woman stands up and we hold hands and she prays.. what i heard was one of the most genuine and heartfelt prayers ever.. she was so grateful that we came into her life and that she is able to talk with us, how she is so alone and grateful for us.. and then after i asked her to give the Book of Mormon one more chance, she said something about them Mormons again, and then i said, Ms Dodson,, you know we are Mormons, right? oh she about fainted! haha not quite, but her reaction was priceless.. she still loves us anyways! haha. 

Another exciting moment in our lives! We went to contact a less-active part-member family, the wife had been taught before by sisters, we knock, its about 8 oclock at night, so its dark.. well the door opens and a shirtless man is there, mid 30's and ripped. you could tell he was military. and his arm behind his back.. yeah i already knew.. haha. i apologized for scaring them and it was just us, the Mormons.. he shook our hands after putting a little something into his waistband and said he was gunna go put a shirt on.  we had a very good talk with him, getting to know him and his families situation. well, as we are about to leave, he asked, "are yall allowed to hunt?" ah. i love this man already. 

Yet another great experience from this week, an older gentleman, Brother Garvin, called us up and wanted to take us to lunch with 2 of the other elders. we so rode with him up to Augusta to a place called Ryans. a more southern version of Golden Corral. So good!! afterwards, he took us on a tour through Augusta! it was incredible. he showed us the "Pillar of Prophesy". that was real interesting! go look it up, i aint got time to talk about that today!   
Things are just going good here for us in the country. we are finding new people everyday to talk with and help! i hadn't even mentioned that we spread horse manure in a garden for 3 hours one day! i love getting off the white shirt and tie and getting dirty. :) 

i love you all!! i cant believe i only have 9 weeks left.. so crazy..
elder bodily

This boy can find a fishing hole anywhere!