Email from Catarroja

Hola, familia!!!!!

How is my wonderful family doing????? Wow, I can't believe all that is happening in our family right now! It's so wild! Man, I am so excited for these babies, it's just unreal! I can't wait for them :) I hope you are all doing well and loving life!!!!!

This week was crazy, but so good! Like I told you last week, it was Fallas, where they build giant statues and then burn them! It's crazy! All week there were fireworks everywhere! Seriously, all day there were just fireworks. It was insane--people were throwing them under our feet, they were there during lessons, there were cannons going off--it was wild! I think it was the craziest cultural thing I've ever seen haha. It was so fun though! I loved it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them burn, because they do it at midnight :( But that's okay, we had fun seeing them and still being part of it! Gotta love Spain--they party so hard haha!

Well, things are really good--we were so blessed this week and were able to teach so many lessons! There were so many people in the street and we were able to talk to so many people, and they were all so much more open than usual! So that was a huge blessing! We are teaching SO many people right now, it's crazy! I have never taught this many people in my whole mission. It's so fun though. The only problem is that none of them are really progressing. They are all standing on the edge of the font looking in haha. We are just praying and fasting and working our hearts out so the Lord pushes one of them in :) But things are good--we taught Cristobal and Susana and they aren't progressing, but at least they let us come once a week. We are still really good friends with them, they are just running from the gospel a little bit. But I know they will get baptized someday. Carmen is the same way--she knows it's true but is too afraid to get baptized. We are teaching Maria Angeles and she's still trying to quit smoking. Ricardo had to move, but Juan is still here, and he is going to get baptized--he's so prepared. We are just trying to help him come to church cause he has to work a lot. Same with Marcia, the mom of a recent convert--she wants to be baptized but works every Sunday. See? All on the edge of the font haha. But it's so fun. We are just doing everything we can and praying for miracles like crazy. I know the Lord will bless us--we are in the fourth watch of the night, and miracles will come.

Remember Vanessa and Enrique? The young Spanish couple? So we are teaching them the lessons and they really like it. Enrique is a priest in the Catholic church and is super, super Catholic but likes listening to the lessons and comparing it with his church. Vanessa grew up totally Catholic but doesn't believe it. They are seriously our best friends--we have SO much fun with them--ah, I love them so much. So usually--well always, we invite people to be baptized in the first lesson. But with them it's been different, cause we started by teaching them English, then we've slowly broken the ice by sharing little things with them, and now we are actually teaching them. And we've wanted to invite them to be baptized for SO long, but every time something happens--the phone rings, or something. So finally this week we said we are inviting them to be baptized NO MATTER WHAT! So we taught them about the atonement and then talked about baptism. Then we asked them to be baptized. They were like, "Oh, but we're already baptized!" We were like, "No, but in our church with the right authority." When we said that they both freaked out, talking over each other about how they love us so much, and they love everything we taught them, but they are Catholic and aren't going to change. Vanessa even cried, because she was afraid we would stop coming if they didn't get baptized. I started laughing and just told them that we love them so, so, so much and we are just here to invite, and that doesn't change the relationship we have with them. It was so interesting, because the Spirit was SO strong there, because we were saying how much we love them and were testifying of the Savior. Even though they didn´t accept it, I KNOW they will accept it someday and there is a seed planted. I know they will think about it and that it will never leave them alone. They are reading the BOM, and I know they will accept the gospel someday. It was weird because they said no, but I left just as happy as if they had said yes. Just having the opoprtunity to teach the gospel to people that I love so dearly is the biggest blessing in the whole world. That is something I've learned this week--that teaching the gospel to people I love is the most wonderful opportunity in the world, even if they don't accept it now.

Well, we are expecting miracles :) This week I have just been savoring every moment. Just letting go and loving everything--even when we were in the pouring rain with no coats or anything and SOAKING! Loving every rejection, every lesson, every person with all I have, because these moments are so sacred and it will be over before I know it.

This week I learned an amazing lesson. The past few months I've been pretty sad because I felt like I hadn't had that much success on my mission. But this week I was reading when the Savior is suffering in Gethsamane and says, "Not what I wilt, but what thou wilt." And it occurred to me that it all comes down to letting go of our own will. The Savior had the strength to do the atonement because He let go of His own will and aligned it with that of His father. That's what gave Him the strength. When we let go of our will and align it with our Father's, it gives us strength. When our will is aligned with His, all the frustration, bitterness, anxiety, and struggle disappears, because we trust the Lord enough to know that He is in charge and knows what's best for us. It doesn't take away the pain completely, but it takes away the struggle. It's like that moment when a teenager realizes that fighting against their parents only brings trouble, but once they let go and humble themselves and put themselves on the page of their parents, they have more privileges, they are happier, and they have more confidence. It's exactly the same with us! We just have to let go of our will and align it with our Father's--that gives us strength, confidence, and true peace, because we know that He is our Father and will give us the blessings that will benefit us the most--in His time and His way.

Anyway, that was seriously a life-changing realization for me. I am so grateful for the struggles I've had the past few months--if I would've had lots of baptisms, I would never have learned the precious lessons I've learned. I have never been this close to my Father and my Savior and felt of their love more in my life. He knows us perfectly and knows what will benefit us the most.

I feel so much peace, and I know that I have done everything I can, and now it's in His hands. If He chooses to bless us with baptisms, I would be overjoyed, of course. But if not, I have so much joy in the lessons I have learned and the refining it has done for me. Either way I will have peace and joy :)
Wow, sorry to ramble on so much! Thank you so much for being the most wonderful family in the whole world! I can't wait to see your faces! I love you SO, so much!

Hermana Boyer

Fallas!!!!!

OH MY GOSH, I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT MATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, I am seriously dying! I have full-body chills and I am crying haha! Ah, that is the best thing I have ever heard! And we are totally neighbors!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, that is the happiest thing--I am so, so, so happy!!!!!! Wow, I can't believe it. Everything I've heard about Portugal over here is that it's absolutely gorgeous, the food is so good, and they have so much success cause the people are so open! Ah, I'm so excited for you, Matt! And I'm SO happy we will have time to play before you leave :)

Wow! How is everyone doing? I hope you are all doing well and happy! I can't believe how much is happening around there! So crazy! I am so excited for these babies I can barely stand it :) Huge shout-out to Dad for your birthday on Wednesday! I hope you have a wonderful day because you deserve it :) Also, thank you so much, Lindsay and Annie, for the letters--I loved them! Thank you!

Well, this week has been pretty crazy--we've been working so hard. I don't think I've ever had a week where literally everything we planned didn't happen haha. But it was really good!

Here is some of what happened this week:
- Remember Juan and Ricardo? The two men from Paraguay?? Well, this week we went and taught them the Restoration, and we were talking about baptism, right about to invite them to be baptized, and Juan interrupts and says, "So when is the soonest we can be baptized?" Haha! We were like, "Well, we were just about to invite you for the 28th!" They were so excited and accepted, and they are so excited to get baptized! It was incredible--we were like floating after :) The only thing is that they didn't come to church, so they can't get baptized on the 28th, but they will definitely get baptized the first part of April :) It was the best--such a miracle!!!!!!!!!!

- We had a mission tour and Elder and Sister Olsson from the Seventy came. They are from Sweden and are the sweetest people in the whole world. It was a wonderful conference. I had the opportunity to speak, so that was fun! Not every day you speak in front of a Seventy :) It was a wonderful opportunity, and I was really grateful. It was a really special day with them.

- We had an incredible miracle in the ward--a family of three that the elders have been teaching since JUNE got baptized on Saturday! The whole ward was so, so excited and so happy. We were so excited for them, and it was such a miracle. It's not very often you see a whole family--dad, mom. and child--get baptized. So that was awesome. I sang at the baptism, so that was fun too :) It was a really special day for our ward. And Cristobal and Susana came to the baptism, so that was really good! We are excited about that. We are going to see them tonight and talk to them about it more :)

- This week is Fallas in Valencia! It's a holiday here that is seriously bigger than Christmas. It's just in Valencia. They make huge giant sculptures and have them up for a week, then they burn them at midnight on Thursday. The whole month is about noise and fireworks, so all night there are cannons and fireworks and walking down the street kids throw fireworks under your feet haha. It's wild! But it's super fun. Today we went to Valencia and saw it and it was crazy! I loved it.

Things are good--this week we couldn't see many of our investigators, but this week we will and they are doing well. We are finding people and just plugging along, working harder than ever! This week and the last few months, I have been learning so much about peace. I have been realizing that the Lord wants us to feel peace--He never wants us to feel bad, stressed, anxious--none of those feelings are from Him. I've been noticing that the happiest people are those that have so much faith and trust in the Lord, that they always feel peace, even when things are hard. I have been striving for that my whole mission. And I've become different--I used to get stressed so easily, and now I don't. I am just realizing that the Lord does everything He can to make us feel peace, we just have to let that touch us--let the Spirit give us the peace we seek. This week I had a wonderful experience where I felt true, sweet peace from the Lord. I have been praying to keep it with me and it's been so wonderful. I think that really is a talent--something I'm trying to develop--to feel peace and feel the Lord's love, even when things are hard and not going how we want them to. But the Lord wants us so badly to feel His peace--that's why He sends us the Spirit, the Comforter, whose job is to give us peace. Anyway, that's what I've been learning this week :)

Thank you for being the most wonderful supportive family in the whole world! I love you SO, SO much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

Email from Catarroja

Hello, my wonderful family!

How are you??? Wow, Dad was telling me all the crazy things happening these next two months! What the heck--so crazy! Okay, I am SO EXCITED FOR YOU, MATT!!!!!!! I'm going to be freaking out all week for you. Ah, I seriously can't wait--I'm dying! Please, please, please film it for me and send it to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, I'm so excited. And for these babies!!!!!!!! Ah, I'm so excited I can barely stand it. Huge shout-out to all the birthdays this week! Caleb, Lizzie, Dan, Joe!! And Dad next week! I hope you all have such good birthdays and know that I love you!

Wow, this week was super, super good. So I just have to say, saying good-bye to Hermana O'Neill was one of the hardest things I've done on my mission! It was crazy how hard it was! First of all because we are seriously best friends--like for reals this time, cause I know y'all make fun of me haha. But also cause we've been through SO much together, and also because she is my daughter! I felt like sending her off to college--without me to be with her and all by herself! And did I tell you she's training right now? So awesome. On Tuesday we were together the first half of the day and we literally--I literally mean that we cried all day. It was so crazy! Guys, I don't cry very much. But I think I've cried more in the past transfer than the rest of my life haha. Getting to the end of your mission brings out so many emotions! But it's good haha. But yeah, saying bye to her was so hard. And cause I won´t see her for so long. But we are going to be bffs when she gets home :)

But . . .Hermana Reid is amazing! She is from Pleasant Grove, and she is doing SO well. She is a gymnast and has 6 siblings. She is very, very shy, but she doesn't let that get in her way. Bless her heart, she is so brave. It scares her so much to talk to people, but she's been testifying to people in the street, inviting people to be baptized, and she even bore her testimony in front of the whole ward for the first time in her mission (she has 8 months in the mission). And she did it SO well! I was so happy for her. She is seriously doing awesome. She is teaching me so much about obedience and faith. I know we are going to see incredible miracles together.

This week was miracle-filled! I have never taught so many people my whole mission, but the past two weeks they've been in kind of a rut. But this week they all shot up! It's amazing.

- Maria Angeles has quit gambling for two weeks now and is working on smoking, and she's doing great! She came to the ward party this week and just loved it and was the life of the party!

- Cristobal and Susana are back! They are normal, brought their whole family to the ward party, and they are the best. We are going to invite them to be baptized tonight. 

- Carmen is back too! She is praying about baptism--she wants to be baptized but has opposition from her family. But she's doing awesome.

- We taught the Plan of Salvation to Vanessa and Enrique--that liberal Spanish couple--and they loved it! Vanessa said it made so much more sense than the Catholic church :) And she said she loves Mormons now and that she is proud to have Mormon friends, whereas before she thought we were polygamists and everything. Anyway, they are doing great.

- We went to see Juan, an awesome investigator, but we just can't see him much. We saw him, and his friend was there who has had all the lessons and wants to be part of the church! What? So awesome.

- We were walking to the ward party and talked to a girl who turns out is a member and was praying that the Lord would help her have the courage to come back to church--then she found us! So amazing. She came to the party with us, came to church, and now we are going to teach her husband.

Basically, the work here is going great. I know the Lord is pouring out blessings on us and will continue to do so. I'm so grateful for His mercy on us. This morning I was reading about the people of Alma and how they were doing all they could to be obeident, but the Lord says He saw fit to try their patience and faith. That brought me so much comfort knowing that even though they were doing all the right things, their faith was still tried. Just because we have trials and things don't go how we want, doesn't mean we aren't doing the right thing and the Lord isn't pleased with us. Then a few verses later it talks about how the Lamanites came and the people got so scared, and Alma tells them that if they put their trust in the Lord, they won't be afraid. So it says they stopped fearing and prayed. Wow. I am going to do that. Stop fearing and just pray. This morning something hit me that should have hit me like years ago: When we put our trust in the Lord, nothing can go wrong. How powerful is that?? So I decided I will put every ounce of faith and trust in the Lord and nothing will go wrong. He knows our needs perfectly, He sees the end from the beginning, and we can have full assurance that He will bless us according to His perfect justice and mercy.

Anyway, sorry I always ramble. But those are my thoughts. Things are really good. I'm just soaking up every moment and never passing up an opportunity to testify, invite, and love. I know every second of these next five weeks is so, so, so precious, and I'm trying to savor every part of it. I love my mission with my whole heart and soul.

I love you so much and am so incredibly grateful for your love and support. Thank you so, so, so much for your love and prayers--I can't thank you enough for being the most wonderful family in the world! I LOVE YOU!

Love, Hermana Boyer

Just Call Me a Grandma

Hello, wonderful family! How are you doing??? How has your week been? I hope you are all doing well and are super happy and healthy! I pray for these babies about to be born every day that you all will be healthy! Man, I'm so excited for those little babies :) I can't believe Matt's papers are in!!!!!!!!!!! Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am freaking out; I wish so much I could be there when he opens it! Okay, my guess is SPAIN!!!! of course :) That would be so magical! But ah, I'm so excited I can barely stand it!!!!!!!!!!!You have to write me as soon as you know! Ah, so fun!

Well, this week has been good and this weekend has been crazy! So Hermana O´Neill is leaving me! We are so sad, it's not even funny. She is actually going to train in a different city called Lleida! Isn't that crazy??? She is so so nervous, but I know she will be amazing. She's so ready. She is such an incredible missionary. We are so sad to leave each other, though. I don't think I've ever had this hard of a time separating from a companion, mostly because we are such close friends, but also because I've been there with her from the beginning and she really is like my daughter in a weird mission way haha. I'm so sad. We have both cried over it because we are so close and we have been through so much together. It's so sad cause I won't see her until after she comes home in over a year, so it's hard. But I´m so grateful to have been her companion. She is honestly one of the most amazing missionaries I've ever seen, and she only has two transfers in the mission. She is so obedient, works so hard, has so much faith, testifies so strongly with the Spirit, and is so fun! She and I just laugh all day every day, even when everything goes wrong. It's the best. I seriously just adore her. Ah, I'm so sad.

Wow, I seriously can't believe it's my last transfer. It makes me sick haha. It's just such a weird feeling knowing that you are about to switch lives completely and this is my last chance my whole life to give the Lord every minute of every day. But I am just ready to work harder than ever and give it every ounce I have. Now I am officially the oldest hermana (mission-wise, not age-wise) in the mission! Isn't that wild? That's why I say just call me the grandma of the mission haha. It's crazy.

Well, things are good here. It was a wild week! I was in Barc for concilio, then we had preparation day, then we had a zone meeting in Valencia, then I went an hour south to Gandia to be with an hermana there! It was wild! So we are teaching so many people and they are all right on the edge of progressing a ton, but they all have something holding them back haha. So we are just praying our hearts out for all of them that they can overcome these obstacles. It's so fun to have so many people, we are just trying so hard to get them all progressing. But we also found some awesome people that will progress fast. So things are good. Everyone's just going along slowly, and we are just praying our guts out that they all of the sudden shoot up and just start progressing a ton. But here's a huge miracle: we saw Cristobal and Susana yesterday! We went by so Hermana O´Neill could say bye to them. They were so sweet to us! They said they missed us so much and the house was so empty and sad without us (really the Spirit), and they showered us with food and gifts and things and even drove us home so Cristobal could get my boots and glue them together. They want us to teach them again! So that's a huge miracle!!! I am so excited. If they could get baptized before I leave, I don't think anything in the whole entire world would make me happier. Seriously, I would give anything to see them baptized.

Well, things are good. I don't feel like I have ever had my faith stretched so much haha. It's crazy. I feel like I'm just right at the water's edge like Moses leading the children of Israel and the whole army behind them. I just always imagine how Moses felt when he got almost to the edge of the water and had no clue where he would go. But President Pace always talks about that moment when the thought came to him, "You can part the Red Sea." And he did it! So amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just feel like right now I'm at the water's edge, on the verge of freaking out because my time is running out and we have no one super close to baptism. I have never wanted to reach my goal more. I feel like I've never worked or prayed for anything more in my whole life. It's everything to me. But I just know that the Lord is going to pour out miracles on us. I just know that all of the sudden all these people will progress and we will find people that will be baptized soon. I think the Lord is just stretching me so much so that I grow and appreciate the miracle even more. I'll be honest, it scares me so much--just the idea of coming home and feeling like I failed, but I know that if I give it all, the Lord will make it what He wants and that's all I can do. But I know the miracles will come. The Lord always pushes us the farthest before we see the greatest miracles. I just know with all my heart He is here with me; He walks by my side every moment of every day. I feel like I've never been so stretched with my faith, but I also have never been closer to the Lord. I know He is there, and I know He will bless our efforts. I know it with all my heart. I guess that's what I've been learning in my studies, that the Lord always, always blesses the efforts of the righteous. So I know that He will bless our efforts, because we are giving all we can :)

Sorry that wasn't a very spiritual insight or anything cool, but that's just what I'm learning right now. I'm so grateful for who the Lord is making me, because I'm realizing that this goes even farther than baptizing and seeing success here in the mission, it's about making me who I need to be for the rest of my life. The Lord sees it all and I just have to trust His vision :)

Thank you so much for all your support and love! I am so grateful to have the most amazing family in the world. Seriously, I can't thank you enough for all you do for me.

I love you so, so, so much and hope you have the most wonderful week ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

P.S. If anyone has advice about the last transfer, I would be very happy to hear it :) Even if you didn't serve a mission! :)


I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to send pictures! We have taken millions this week haha, so here are some!

This is Cristobal and Susana! Aren't they just the cutest? I adore them with all my heart.

This is Carmen who we are teaching, the one who knew she knew Hermana O´Neill before this life and let us in to teach her! She is so sweet and always calls us the daughters she never had :) The smaller one with dark hair is the member named Paqui who is her best friend :)

This is Maria Angeles! She is doing great, working on quitting smoking!