Two Blondes in the Ghetto

Hola mi familia!!!! 

Que pasa??? How are you all, my wonderful, beautiful family!!!!!! How is everything?? Is everyone super busy with all the March stuff that happens? I bet it's super crazy! I'm so sorry Mom and Dad, I forgot to tell you Happy Anniversary!!!!!! I am so excited for you!!! I really did think about it on the 19th and realized I never said anything last week. But that is the best, and I'm glad you got to celebrate :) And I´m so glad your birthday was good, Dad--that makes me so happy :) And shout-out to Matt--thank you so much for the letter! I loved it so much!

Just a couple just so-you-know type things: Next week are transfers, so we have P-day on Tuesday--so don't think I died or anything if I don't email you on Monday! haha. And also speaking of transfers--I´m pretty positive that I´m peacing out this transfer, so if any of you were thinking about writing me this week, write to the mission home, not my address here!!! 

 
Yes transfers!!! I have been here for 3 transfers and it's super uncommon for people to stay in their first area for longer than that unless they are training, so it's looking like I'm going to leave my precious Badalona! I'm not sure yet--we find out on Saturday--but it's in the back of my mind and it breaks my heart every time I think about it. These people are everything to me and leaving them just makes me so sad! But I will tell you for sure next week :)

This week was really good! Hermana Anderson and I just have a blast and work super hard all the time. She is amazing! She is seriously a super star--she is the perfect missionary I swear! She is super hard-working, always serving everyone, so smart, and so good at what she does. It's incredible. I'm so grateful to just watch her work and learn so much from her. She's also super funny and we just laugh so much together--it's a blast! We are also both blonde, so we just get the dumbest comments all the time haha. People always yell at us in English the dumbest stuff haha like, "Hello beautifuls" or last night, "I love you please!" It's so dumb haha. But we just laugh it off and embrace the weirdness.

So unfortunately, Monica did not get baptized this week. We couldn't get a hold of her and when we passed by every day like 3 times she never answered. Someone told us she was in the hospital, so we went there and they told us she was there, but went home. We don't know haha it's super weird. But we are still hoping for her.

But--we had an awesome miracle this week! The elders have been working with this family who the parents are super inactive and they have a 15-year-old daughter that loves the Church, but isn't baptized. This week she was the only one that came to our English classes, so we taught her. We ended up getting in this discussion about baptism, and she said she wants to get baptized so badly but just doesn't feel ready. We talked her through some doubts and she said she wants to serve a mission so badly haha! But it was such a good discussion and she came to church, and now we are working with the elders to get her baptized. She is going to get baptized and we are so excited!!! It's the best because it reminds me so much of being a counselor and I forgot how fun it is to be with girls that age! It totally brought out the counselor in me and I love it so much!!! She is so cute and I´m so excited for her. We just gotta get her parents on board now.
This week was really good cause we got a ton of new investigators! We found lots of new people just by contacting and by going through the ward list and passing by people we don´t know. So we will get those people progressing and it will be great!!

Yesterday we were going through the ward list passing by people and we knocked this lady's door. She came out and just kind of laughed. She was like, "Oh Hermanas, I knew it." It turns out she has been through the temple (which is saying a lot cause very few of the members here have been through the temple), and she has the strongest testimony, but she has been inactive for 20 years cause she got offended!!! She is the best and was so happy to see us and told us she would come back and everything! Huge miracle and we are so excited. She is the best!!! 

We just had some weird things happen this week--the two of us just have the craziest things happen to us, I don´t even know why, but here are a couple:

-We were walking in a hurry and my bag was at my side, and it knocked off the mirror of a car. Oops haha!
-We witnessed a store being robbed by an Indian guy.
-We were trying to get in the apartment of an inactive woman and we were riding up the elevator and he went into the apartment--so we lied and said we had to go upstairs and find our friend. Then we got in the elevator and didn't know what to do, but while we were in there, he came in and rode down again with us. It was so dumb!!! We were laughing so hard haha.

- Hermana Anderson grew up going to Balboa too, so she totally understands how it is to be by the beach and always having Balboa memories!!! We had to travel to a city a little outside of badalona and the entire train ride we were along the beach and just looking at it smelling the salt air. We both cried haha. Legitimately.
Anyway, it's a funny time here but so good!!! I love it so much and wouldn't trade this for anything.

This week I have been thinking a lot about weaknesses because as missionaries your weakneses are in front of your face all the time. I read a talk by Elder Scott and he says that every time God talks about weaknesses, it's with mercy. That meant so much to me and I realized that God truly did give us weaknesses on purpose and that He doesn't condemn us for those. We are so lucky to have such a merciful, loving Heavenly Father who forgives us time and time again for our little dumb mistakes all the time.
This work is real! I love it with all my heart!! I love you all so much that every time I think about you all I just am overwhelmed with love. Thank you so much for everything!! 

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

Feliz Dia de St. Patrik!!

That sounded pretty official huh? Just kidding, I don´t think this day actually exists in Spain; I haven´t seen anything green really, but who knows!!! But spring is here and it´s GORGEOUS!!! I love it so much!!!! How are you all???? This week sounds like it was SO FUN!!!!! I am SO jealous of all the time you all had together!!! Ah that sounds like the biggest party ever with the Linscotts and Anna and Beth at home!!! Ah, thinking about it makes me miss you all so much I can barely stand it! I love it--bowling, Austenland (are all of my sisters now officially converted to that movie now cause I hope so :), Shivers, ah I´m so jealous!!! I hope it was so fun!!! Huge shoutout to Dad tomorrow!!! I hope your birthday is SO wonderful, because you deserve the best day ever. I hope all the other birthdays this week were really good too!!!!!!

Well, this week was a little . . . weird haha. It was good, but just a little weird. But we had a lot of laughs and it was a good time.

So bad news first: I am not going to get to see Cesar baptized, and I´m pretty sad about it. So I am probably getting transferred in 2 weeks (which i can´t think about without getting teary!!!!), and he just isn´t ready right now. This week we tried everything we could to get in contact with him--I seriously was outside his piso planning the route to climb up to his 4th story window--the only thing that stopped me was that I was in a skirt) but we just couldn´t! So when we met him he told us that his wife left him, but we knocked on his door and a lady answered and said she was his wife. We have tried to keep going back, but she´s super cold to us and won´t even open the door! He texted us and just said he is so sorry but he has to work out some stuff before he can keep meeting with us. Not gonna lie, the last time we tried I cried when we left his house because we´ve worked with him so hard and he is seriously my pride and joy--I´ve been there through all his struggles and seen him progress so much. I wasn´t crying cause I was sad for myself, it was just how sad I was for him because he has such a strong testimony and he´s so close, but Satan is just such a jerk. But that´s okay--I know someday he will be baptized :)

Other bad news--we taught Gloria this week, and she just didn´t understand anything. She just kept saying she loves her church (some evangelical church) and that she doesn´t get why ours is the only true one. So we had to drop her--it was really sad!

But here´s some good news!! Monica (the one the bishop told us to go visit and he thought she was a member but she´s not) is doing really well! We taught her the Restoration and she liked it, and it was a really good lesson. It was such a funny lesson--she lives with her brother and he smokes crazy hardcore tobacco (I swear it´s weed but whatevs), so we literally can't breathe in the lessons!!!! We were sitting there and I had tears streaming down my face from how strongly the tobacco was affecting me haha! She left the room for a second and I opened the window and threw my head out the window and got a huge gulp before she came back haha. We were coughing so hard (we have super bad colds again haha) and could not stop sneezing that finally I started laughing so hard that I just couldn´t stop and Hermana Anderson too. She was trying to teach and kept laughing but passing it off as a cough. It was so funny. At the end monica told us her brother smokes 20 cigarettes a day and was like "Oh my, WE just smoked 20 cigarettes." It was unreal. Gonna die of secondhand smoke, but hey, it´s worth it for Monica :) Hopefully she will get baptized this week!

Other good news--we had some awesome breakthroughs with some menos activos this week. There´s this one famliy that is super lazy and they just don´t come. We always try to visit them, but the whole family is never there. Finally we visited them and they were all there! We were going to share something else, but got the impression to share D&C 90:24--I swear the words were changed for them--it was crazy how hard it hit them and how strong the Spirit was. We set goals with them as a family to read, pray and go to church, and they were all super stoked to come and change and it was awesome! There´s this huge family of a mom with 8 kids and then her sister, who was a missionary but has been inactive for 10 years. They've all been super inactive but we've been working with them so hard and yesterday we had 6 of the kids in church and the sister! Woohoo! it was awesome.

This week we also had a mission tour where Elder Kearen from the Europe Area Presidency came and it was super good! He is amazing and gave us some really good tips for our mission. It was really fun cause the mission met in 2 halves--so we got to see half the mission and itw as the biggest party ever! I saw Hermana Tyler and it was the best!!!

Well, life is good! Hermana Anderson is amazing, and I´m just trying to soak in everything I can from her cause she is so amazing and is an incredible missionary. We have so much fun together and laugh a lot. She is super cool and I´m so lucky to work with her. Life is good and we are just going to keep working for some baptisms up in here!

Okay here´s a shout out to Joe today for my spiritual thought--I got a letter from him this week and it said the coolest thing!!!! Sorry Joe, hopefully you don´t mind. But this is what he said, "I hope and strive to be a portal through which the Lord can get to them so they can have the confidence--building assurance that the Creator and Ruler of the universe is aware and deeply concerned with every detail of their life." Awesome huh! I read that to Hermana Anderson and she was like, "Next prophet for sure." I love that, because we are SO lucky to have the Gospel and to know about our relationship with the Creator of the universe! The King of Kings! We just have to help others see that and help them realize that He loves them. I have been thinking about that a lot this week and really striving to do that.

I love you all so so so much and thank you so so much for all that you do!!! Have a wonderful week and know that you have an hermana in Spain loving you and praying for you!!!

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

P.S. When is Easter? Yesterday in church we were talking about the Resurrection and we were like, "Wait, is it Easter today?" That´s how out of touch I am haha. Don´t worry, though--I remember that it´s the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox--Brad Scott would be so proud! :) (P.S. I don´t know when the spring equinox is and I can´t see the moon cause of all the buildings haha)

This is Norma and Orlando--some menos activos from Honduras that I just love so much! Check out Orlando--he is exactly like Uncle Jim, it´s crazy. (He´s the younger one, not the really old one) haha :) But he reminds me so much of Uncle Jim it´s super funny.

This is Rosalia and Kerrlly in their bar. Aren't they the best? :)

Miracle Madness

Hola mi familia!!!! How are you all????? Wow, it sounds like Butternut is going to be such a party this week! I´m so jealous that Anna and Beth are there and the Linscotts are coming!!! That is so fun!! I´m so jealous--I hope you all party it up so much!!!! Ah, I miss you all! I hope that this week is so fun and you get to spend some great laughs together. Happy birthday to Joe and Lizzie this week!!! I hope that you have wonderful birthdays!!!! I will be thinking about you two :)

Ah, this week was so good!!! It was crazy cause we only had 3 full days to work in our area this week! Since Hermana Anderson is Sister Training Leader, she has to do exchanges and this week she went to the Islands for 2 days!!! In our mission, for exchanges the leader goes to the companionship and they are a trio, so the companion of the leader is sort of . . . companionless haha. So I went to the Barc hermanas and just followed them around for 2 days haha. They have 4 people in their piso, so they just let me follow them around and took turns having me come to their citas haha. It was really fun though! It was super fun to spend time getting to know other hermanas and hanging out with them. But when we got home to Badalona we were so happy! I missed it so much and I was SO glad to be working in our area again.

Man, we had the craziest miracles this week!! Okay, get this--so we looked through the ward list and wrote down the address of everyone we don´t know and are going around finding them and figuring out why they don't come. So we did that and we were passing by someone and he wasn't there, but we decided to knock the piso anyway. So we were knocking doors and this lady opens it named Gloria (yes this is our Gloria #3!) haha. But she was super sweet and let us in and we were freaking out! So we talked to her and she was super receptive. She is strong in another church and was concerned why we say we have the only true church and why we have the Book of Mormon, not just the Bible. We turned to a RANDOM page in the Book of Mormon to show her how the footnotes work and that it goes along with the Bible, and we looked up the reference for a random scripture--the reference was Acts 3:21--one of the only scriptures in the Bible that actually says the word RESTORATION (well, in English it's restitution, but in Spanish it says restoration) and talks about why there was a restoration!!! When we read it, Hermana Anderson just straight up laughed. Craziest miracle ever! So from that we bore our testimonies and said--look, it says right here in the Bible that there is a restored church, and we have it!!! She was like, oh wow, that makes sense! And she came to church yesterday! Woo hoo!

Other crazy miracle--the bishop texted us and asked us to go visit a new member that moved in named Monica. We got to her piso and it turns out she is not a member, but had been going to church in Barcelona with her cousin. WHAT??? So yeah, she's getting baptized on March 22, no big deal. She came to church too.

Pretty much, the Lord takes care of us, that's all.

We are so busy here in Badalona! We passed around a calendar for eating citas for mediodia and for FHEs at night, and we are so busy! We eat at members' houses almost every day, and it's the best! It's showing in the amount of references we're getting, our relationship with the members, and on our hips haha. I swear, if I eat like this for the rest of my mission, they're going to have to roll me off the plane. But it's so fun!! I love hanging out with the members! The family home evenings (is that what they're called in English?) have been awesome. From them, we had 2 huge breakthroughs for 2 families with inactive teenagers. Ah, so good! We are just partying it up and getting people to church. We are teaching on average 10 lessons with inactives every week, and it's so fun. They are one of my favorite things to do!

Cesar is doing well--except he couldn't come to church cause he randomly got called in to work. When he told us on the phone, I threw my planner and had a little freak out sesh about what a jerk Satan is. So we will get him this week if I have to go to Barcelona and work for him while he goes to church. To answer your question, Mom--we didn't think he was married--well, he told us his wife left him, but when we passed by his house last night, a woman was there who said he was his wife. We are super confused, and he owes us an explanation when we see him tomorrow.

So yes, life is so good! Last Monday we went to Placa Catalunya, or the Ramblas! It's this huge strip right by the ocean in Barc that sells all these fun things and it's this huge famous market. It was SO fun! And we got to wear jeans!!! The Elders brought an investigator, so they told us we could wear jeans so he didn't feel weird. Good news everyone: my jeans still fit :) It was so fun and we just had a party. I was gawking so much at how pretty Barc is that I accidentally almost got sold some weed haha.

Life is so good! This morning I was reading 1 Nefi 11 when Nephi has his vision, and I realized that there are a few times when the Spirit is testifying of Christ and uses exclamation points! I realized that the Spirit obviously loves testifying because it's his job, so when Nephi was actually there he got to use exclamation points! It made me so happy, and I realized that I always need to be testifying with exclamation points, because we have the true church! We are luckiest people that live on the earth right now--we got to own it! We are so blessed, and this Gospel is the best happiness we can ever have!!!

I love you all more than you will ever know, and thank you SO much for all your prayers and love and everything! I have the best family in the world, and I am SO grateful for all of you!!! I love you so much!!!

Love, Hermana Boyer


Hermana Anderson and I both really liked the same skirt and shirt, so we bought the same ones, and this is us matching :) haha


This is Hermana Anderson and I at Placa Catalunya right in the middle of Barc! There are all these crazy fountains, statues, monuments, and shops, and it's so cool. We had so much fun!

Fish Soup for the Soul

Mi hermosa familia!!!!!

¿Que tal???? How are you my wonderful family!!!!! How was your week?? How were the birthday celebrations in Texas and Cincinnati??? I hope they were super fun! Happy birthday again to Melba and Luke and this week to Caleb and Dan!!! I hope that they are super fun days :) This week I was the most spoiled missionary in the world!!! Mom--your packages were the best thing of my life!!! Seriously I can't tell you how happy they made me! A box full of chocolate and a bunch of CDs :) Thank you so much Mo too for burning those! We cleaned to Disney this morning and it was the happiest thing of my life :) THANK YOU!!!!! Also, thank you so much Hansens for your Valentine letter!!! I got it last week but forgot to thank you! The Mr. Darcy valentine is hanging in my room and I love it so much!!! And thank you Mo for the letter!!! All spoil me so much! OH! And the valentine package from the ward!!! I died I was so happy at the valentines from the whole ward! Whoever headed that up, tell them thank you a thousand times over cause it made my whole life--I could not stop smiling. I think it was Emily Ott--so huge shout out to her for me :) That seriously made my week.

Okay--and if I wasn't spoiled enough!! Yesterday Hermana Anderson and I were greeting outside the chapel and we see this huge minivan pulls up and we're like, "What"? Only two of the members have cars, and they are definitely not minivans haha. Then this mom gets out and 4 kids and we were like, "That is a Utah Mormon family for sure." It was the Marshes!!! It was the happiest thing of my life! I could not stop smiling how happy we were. They are the CUTEST family!!!!! And--they gave us the biggest care package of my life haha! Chocolate, lotion, French jam, peanut butter, everything a missionary needs. We were so happy that Hermana Anderson literally almost cried. They are the cutest family and we were so happy! We sat by them in church and they were just so cute I couldn't get over it. The ward loved them and just embraced them--quite literally haha. It was the craziest surprise! I had no idea they were coming haha. Michelle took a picture of us hugging and she said she'd send it to you, so I don´t know if she did haha. But it was the best thing ever. 

This week!! Okay, first of all I have to say, Hermana Anderson is AMAZING. She is an incredible missionary. She works so hard, but so smart. She always thinks of the perfect person to pass by and she's so creative in using members and less actives to find people to teach. She's super bold, but super loving and everyone loves her. She is so down to earth and we laugh together all the time. She has taught me so much and I'm so lucky to work with her, because I have learned a TON. We have so much fun, but we are working harder than ever and seeing so many miracles. I swear she has like Spirit goggles that she just knows exactly who to talk to on the street and stuff. It's amazing! And I love that Lindsay and Mo know her aunt!!!! Oh my, we were laughing about that, and Hermana Anderson was super happy to hear that. That is so crazy haha. Connections all over the place.

This week pretty much everything with our investigators fell through--Gloria was our golden perfect investigator, and she dropped off the face of the earth--won't answer her phone or anything. We are super sad. Same with Barry. But that's okay cause we have Cesar!!!! He is progressing so well, and he loves the church so much!!! He has the strongest testimony already, and he just radiates with the Spirit already. He is my pride and joy!!! And he's getting baptized on March 22! Holla!!! He told us this week that he left his soccer team behind and that he is going to come to church now and for ever. I literally almost fell out of my chair--I asked him like 3 times to make sure I understood. Biggest miracle ever. Prayer works. That´s all. Yesterday he couldn't come cause it was his daughter´s birthday, but he told us that next week he is coming and that he will come for the rest of his life. I love him; he is the best!!!!!

Also, we had TONS of menos activos this week! (Less actives--sorry, I'm at the point where I can't find some English words anymore, and I'm perfectly fluent in Spanglish.) But we had so many miracles with them--praying with them on the street, breaking through groups of gypsy boys to get to their pisos, all the good stuff.

Biggest miracle--do you all remember Rosalia--the one who owns the bar and was Relief Society president but is super against the church now? Well we went to visit her this week and she was alone, and she just broke down and told us everything. Man, with the stuff that happened to her, I´m surprised she even let us in her doors. Literally. When we left the bar, I just cried because of how painful her life is, and I just felt so much pain for her. But we talked her through some of it, and she said that she's willing to start a new life with the Savior as a part of it, and she's going to try reading a few verses every night. This doesn't sound like much-'but for us this was the biggest victory ever, and we were so happy. It was a HUGE miracle and huge wall broken down.

Okay, so fish soup. This week we ate with Eva, one of our menos activos, and she fed us soup with all these clams and OCTOPUS GUTS. No joke. When she left the room, Hermana Andersen spit it out and dumped a bunch of it in her napkin. I literally was planning out where I was going to throw up. Then, we ate at Rosalia's bar on Saturday and she fed us fish soup. We are talking 3 slabs of straight up fish. 3 WHOLE FISH!!!! The things we do to bring salvation to people :)

Basically this week was amazing, and we saw so many miracles with less actives. Also, the elders had a baptism for a Nigerian girl and at the end, her friend from Nigeria who was baptized a few weeks ago gave the prayer (in English). She was at the pulpit, eyes open, hands in the air, praising the Lord and Hallelujah-ing all over the place. I looked up, looked at the Elders and they looked at me and nodded and we all died laughing. The best was that everyone else had their eyes closed all reverently cause they couldn't understand what she was saying cause it was in English!!! Best thing of my life. Gotta love it.

Ah, fam--this Church is true! This morning I finished the Book of Mormon and once again, I was overwhelmed by how true Moroni's Promise is. I have always cherished this book, but until my mission I never appreciated the power that it brings into people's lives. I testify that this book can change lives and that no one can be converted without it. It brings a light to the countenance, a change of heart, and a firm love of God. It´s true. Read it. Pray about it and you will know. I love this book, and I know for myself and because I've seen firsthand the power that it has brought into these people's lives.

I love you all so much it hurts!!!! Have the best week and know that you are SO LOVED!! I love you so much!!! 

Love, Hermana Boyer :)


This is Hermana Anderson and I with the Marsh family!!! We were so happy!!!


This is Hermana Anderson and I with Martina!! She is menos activo BFF and it was her birthday last night, so we had a party for her!!!

Sorry, you wanted more pictures of Hermana Anderson, but I haven't taken many this week! But today we are going to Barc with the Elders, so I will take lots of pictures :)