Email from Badalona

Me in my city! Finally got to see Barcelona! This is at the fortress we saw on our first day :)


This is us with our ladies we did the service project with us. Aren´t they the cutest???


Hermana Tyler and I with smoothies from the street- our favorite :)


The view from the fortress- so pretty! Barcelona is gorgeous!!!!

P.S. - We are going to Park Guell today- a super famous park so I will take lots of pictures there!!!! Sorry I don´t have that many from the field yet!!!
Te Amo MUCHISIMO!!!!!!!!


Buendia famila!!!!!

If those of you that speak Spanish were confused that this isn´t Spanish, you´re right!!! That was Catalan haha. Yes, I am in the middle of Catalunya! I thought I had learned the wrong language when I came here and all the signs looked super different and the Spain flag was nowhere to be found. Catalan is a region of Spain with a totally different language that´s a lot like French and the people are super independent from Spain- the Catalan flag is on every building haha. It´s wild. Everyone speaks Spanish, but they love Catalan- one lady wouldn´t take a picture for us the other day cause we didn´t ask her in Catalan haha. So good.
Anyway, how are you all???? How is Christmas for everybody?? I hope that you are all super busy with performances, concerts, decorations, all the goodness! Ah, I love Christmas!! I hear that it´s super cold! Man, that´s so crazy. Has anyone gone skiing yet? Please tell me it´s the worst ski season yet and that I´d hate it if I was skiing right now :) haha. but really.

This week was really good! I realized I didn´t tell you that much about Badalona last week! So it´s a little southeast of Barcelona, but we are close- I can see the Sagrada Familia from my balcony. :) But our area (the Hermanas) goes from the coast to an area called Sant Andria. So the coast is beautiful, Mediterranean, super rich area that you picture Spain being. I love it there! Then the more inland you go, the more ghetto it gets haha. Sant Andria is super sketch, we only go there when it´s broad daylight haha. But it´s fun, I love it. It´s a wonderful place I love Badalona!

Our ward is so amazing I can´t even tell you! I thought I was coming here to serve them, but they are so good to us. We get fed almost everyday! They are so sweet cause they feed us, and the 2 sets of other elders in our ward too. They are so wonderful. The food has been SO good! It´s pretty much all South American food and man, it´s tasty. Guess what- I ate a whole fish! And I kept it down! I was so happy. It wasn´t that bad either! So don´t worry, I am being taken care of! The other day we were fed 2 HUGE meals in one day and we seriously had to roll home. We did our planning lying on the floor cause we were so full. I had the biggest food baby of my life. She asked me what I thought about something and I was like, "I´m too fat to think" haha it was so funny. I literally don´t think I´ve ever been that full. So now we try to just have one eating appointment a day haha. I love the time we spend with the members, they are so sweet and fun and they are really patient with my Spanish. I love this ward!

Okay speaking of our ward, I should not have complained about "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" last week haha. The ward choir director came up to me and gave me heaps of music to play for the ward Christmas dinner haha. They are all super hard- most of them are arranged for MOTAB haha. So they are crazy, but I practice a lot and I´m trying my hardest! It´s really fun to be able to help them and share the tiny piano talent that I do have with them. Yesterday I also got to play in Primary, which was so fun! I love it.

This week we did a service project where we took people in a nursing home out on a field trip around Badalona! I was with the sweetest old lady and ah, it was so fun. It made me miss Grandma and Canyon Creek so badly. It was so fun! We got proposed to by one of the old men countless times. It did a lot for our egos as frumpy sister misisonaries :) haha

So José´s baptism is on Saturday!! Woohoo!!!! He is so ready, even though he has lots of doubts. We just try to see him really often and strengthen his faith. He has friends that I´d like to have a word with because they talk him out of everything we say haha. But he´s solid and he knows it´s true. I am so excited for him! Keep him in your prayers cause he needs all the support he can get! His wife and daughter are members, but they are in Ecuador, so he can´t talk to them much. But I´m so excited for him, he´s such a sweet man and we have a fun relationship with him.

We also taught a lady named Lucracia this week. She doesn´t have a job and she came into the lesson and cried to us and was feeling awful. We taught her the first lesson, and her whole countenance changed. She was filled with so much hope and it was amazing! She had a peace about her that was so special. It was amazing! And I got to help teach and I was able to do it! Ah, so amazing, I loved it.

We mostly spend our time teaching, contacting, and visiting members and less actives. We have gotten a lot of references, but we keep getting stood up haha. But that´s okay, we don´t have a lot to teach now, but we will! I am determined to find people to teach. Our goal as a zone is to have a white Christmas- baptism white! So excited! It´s happening, no matter what.

Well, I really love it here! We are working super hard to contact all the time and ask for referrals and find old investigators. It´s kind of hard cause this area was just barely opened by my companion, so we are finding people to teach. But I know that if we work as hard as we can, the Lord will bless our efforts. I know it. It´s so exciting to find people to teach and I know that we will be blessed.

Oh- you asked to hear more about Hermana Tyler! Ah, she is the best. She is so fun. She can laugh at everything, and we laugh a ton. That is so good because this work is hard and if you don´t laugh, you will cry haha. But we laugh so much, and we have so much fun talking- she loves hearing stories about our family. My favorite thing about her is the way she relates to people. Every single person she talks to, she has an inside joke with, or teases them, or something and everyone just adores her cause they feel like they are her best friend. She has that with kids, with the guy at the store, every member, the people we meet on the street, it´s amazing. She is so awesome! We get along perfectly, I just love her! I seriously couldn´t have a better trainer- she is so patient with me and she pushes me, but never too much. She is perfect for me, I´m so grateful for her!

This work is so good! Christmas is such a fun time to be a missionary cause people´s hearts are more open! This week I read an article in the December Liahona that was incredible. You should look it up if you have time- Dad and Mom, you should read this together, it´s absolutely beautiful. It´s called "A Child is Born" by Bruce D. Porter and it´s on speeches.byu.org.

But my favorite quote from it is "He knew life from every angle and every side, both above and below. He who was the greatest became the least- the Heavenly Shepherd who became the Lamb." The Savior was born to heal our hearts, to bring us the peace we all seek. He gets it- He has seen every side- from being God, to seeing the lowliest person on the street. He was born at Passover so that His blood would be dripped on a wooden post so that all the bad in this world would pass over us. I love that so much! This time is an incredible time of hope to us all that we can find healing and peace in our Savior, who descended below all things for us. Born in the lowliest of places when He came from a palace. Ah, so amazing.

I love you all so incredibly much! Thank you for everything you do!!!!!!!
Love, Hermana Boyer :)

PS- Okay so I´m still trying to figure out how the Christmas thing works. We Skpe at members' homes, we just need to figure out whose. So I don´t know what time yet- I would guess probably the late afternoon here, so probably late morningish for you. But I´m so sorry, I don´t know yet- but I will figure it out this week and tell you next Monday. But one elder suggested Skpe Premium, which allows you to have as many people on as you want, so that would probably work. I have a Skype account, but I can´t remember the password or anything, so maybe you could make one for me and then send me the password- You can use my email jennie.boyer3.@gmail.com. Or if it´s easier, we can just talk on the phone. I´m so sorry I don´t know more! I´ve been asking around, but nobody really knows, so we will definitely work it out this week. I´m sorry though cause I know you all need to plan your schedules and everything. I will work it out I promise!!!! I can´t wait to talk to you all for a wonderful, blessed 40 minutes!!! Love you!