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