Email from Madrid

¡Mi familia¡¡¡ ¿Como estan?

How are you all??? Thank you so much for your emails and letters and pictures! I can´t tell you how happy they make me! I seriously love them with all my heart! Ah, family- I can´t tell you how much I love you all! I am the luckiest missionary in the world to have so much support and love! Thank you a thousand times over!!!!!

Wow, life is happening! It´s real that I´m going to BARCELONA!!!! AH!!!!!! I have so many emotions about it, it´s crazy. It hasn´t been real until the past couple days. I am SO excited!! But so nervous haha! We leave for Barcelona on Tuesday morning at 6 am! There are only 3 of the North Americans going to Barcelona, and then a few natives. So it´s going to be SO sad to say goodbye! My whole district is staying in Madrid, so I won´t see them until after my mission! I am so sad to say goodbye to them! They are like my Spain family! (no one compares to you all, but in Spain they are like my family :) It´s odd- I feel like I´m leaving on my mission again because the MTC is like my comfort zone and all these people have been my best friends and family for the past 6 weeks. And since I´m one of the only ones going to Barcelona, it feels like I¨m leaving again! It´s really funny. But ah, I´m so excited to see Barcelona, it´s unreal. I have been in love with that city for so long, I finally get to see it! I can´t wait. I´m super nervous though cause my Spanish is not very good and these are REAL PEOPLE!!! But it´s going to be awesome, no matter how bad I am :)

So this week- let´s see, the park! The park this week was very cold and very wet haha. We got SOAKED!! But that´s okay cause we have the burning light of the Gospel! haha just kidding, I¨m really not turning into one of those missionaries. So my companion in the park was a native! Ah! It was such a different experience cause usually I¨m the one doing all the Spanish speaking, but this time I was the awkward mute standing there grinning with a Book of Mormon in my hands, having no clue what in the world was going on. It was awesome. But my companion´s name was Hermana Herrera and she´s from Barcelona! She´s been in the church for just over a year, so she wants me to convert her family! So awesome! We had so much fun talking even though my Spanish is no bueno. We laughed a lot though. We placed 6 copies of the Book of Mormon! (Here we have to say copies of the BOM because it´s a serious source of contention whether or not it´s Books of Mormon or Book of Mormons.) Anyway, so that was awesome and we got 2 referrals! I am so happy, but I didn´t really have anything to do with it, so I can´t take any credit haha. I thought I understood Spanish until Saturday because they speak SO FAST! I could barely even understand haha. But that´s all right. But one really cool thing- there was a woman on the metro that we talked to and she said her sister is taking discussions. My companion gave her a Book of Mormon and bore her testimony about the BOM. I couldn´t catch all of it, but I just had this feeling to bear my testimony about my family. So I told her this book has changed my life and brought so much joy to my family. This light came into her eyes and she said that she has had problems with her kids and she would read this to help her family. BOOM! I was so happy. Even though my testimony was super simple and compared to their Spanish, super super slow- I knew it meant something to her and that was worth all the feeling gone in my body from cold and soaked to the bone. I was able to help one person with my broken Spanish, and that´s all I need! It was awesome.

So I feel like lots of random things happened this week, so I will just do random little stories:

- We taught the Law of Chastity to our investigator Ana yesterday! Before we taught, I was so nervous and didn´t think I´d really enjoy teaching it. But it ended up being one of my favorite lessons! We just laid it out for her cause she´s moving in with her bf and it was awesome! It was crazy- I´ve obviously always respected and understood the Law of Chastity, but never had a special love for it cause I didn´t think about it very much. But as I taught about it, I realized that I love this law! It is so inspired and I got so passionate about it! I bore my testimony to her that my family can be together forever cause my family has kept the law of Chastity and it was amazing to realize the blessings that have come from it. It was an awesome experience.

-Last week we went to Sol- the center of Madrid. It was just us 3 (my companions) and 2 elders in our district and one of the teachers that is like our BFF. Imagine a black Chad Cannon that is a total spaz and that´s him. haha. But he´s awesome. It was super super fun- we did some shopping (Mom, I got dry shampoo!) and we got Madrid´s famous Churros and chocolate! They are SO good. It sounds weird, but it's so good. We also got some really good candy and postcards and things. It was so fun! I love Sol cause it's so classic European. I think we are going back today, so I´m super stoked.

-Today was our last day at the Temple! I can´t even tell you how much I love that Temple. The only thing that kept me from staying there forever is that next time I´m there, I´ll be there with Mom and Dad! I´m SO excited about that. I kept imagining my investigators that we have now in the Temple and it was amazing. I´m so excited to help people experience the joy in the Temple- thát´s the reason why I´m here!

-My teacher on Saturday nights was Lisa Tate´s companion! So crazy.

-The natives are our BFFs, even though we can barely talk to them haha.

-One Elder at lunch starting insulting a bunch of the paintings and artists from the Prado. I didn´t realize how passionate I am about art until I stood up from the table and yelled at him and walked away haha. Oops. It was kind of an Anne Shirley type moment haha. It was so funny- I don´t remember ever raising my voice at anyone but I did at him haha. One of my teachers loves art as much as I do and she told me she was so glad I yelled at him and to do it more haha. Oh gosh.

-My district is the best thing ever. They don´t believe me when I say how much I love them and that I really do write home about them- so here you go haha. They are honestly the best in the world. I can't tell you how much I will miss them! It honestly hurts me haha. Hermana Shelton, Elder Rawlinson and Elder Schwenke are all going to BYU hopefully and they´re all from UT county, so I´ll see them again which is good cause they are the ones that I am closest to. They are honestly the best, I can´t say it enough. But all the elders are awesome and I will be so sad to leave them.

I think that´s about it! So it´s going to be a mellow thanksgiving? I hope that it´s good! Mom and Dad, I hope you have fun in St. George! That´s crazy that it´s going to be so split up. I really hope it´s good though! Thank you a thousand times over for all you do for me, I love you all more than you even know!
I just want to leave you with my testimony!

Yo sé que este Evangelio es verdadero. El Libro de Mormón is la palabra de Dios, y que si leemos este libro, cambiará su nuestras vidas. Yo sé que my Jesucristo es mi Salvador y que Él murió y sufrió para mis pecados. Estoy muy agradecida por la Expiación y que puedo obtender pardón por mis pecados. Dios verdadamente es nuestro amoroso Padre Celestial y nos ama mas que sabemos. Le amo mi Salvador con todo mi corazón. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

I´m sorry- I want to say more, but I don´t have time! But that´s my simple Spanish testimony for you all! (PS- pecados is sins and pescados is fish, so a couple of times I´ve said that I know Jesus Christ truly suffered and died for my fishes.- oops haha) But I love you all so much! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Love, Hermana Boyer :)

Here are some pictures!

The first is 2 of the elders in my district- Elder Rawlinson and Elder Schwenke (the ones we are bffs with) in front of the Prado! yes, we meant it to be awkward :)

The second is Hermana Knell, Hermana Shelton, Sister Statham and I in front of the Prado!

The third is Hermana Shelton and I eating churros y chocolate!!!

The last one is Hermana Statham, me, and Hermana Shelton in front of the Temple today.

I got these from Hermana Shelton´s camera, that´s why they are random. But I thought you´d like them!
If you or Mom get the chance sometime, could you print these off and send them to me? We don`t have color printers here haha. Thank you so much! Love you!
Hermana Boyer