Happy Memorial Day!

Hola familia!!!!

How are you all!!! I realized this morning that it's the end of May! Summer is here! Are you all so stoked! I hope you have such a fun Memorial Day at the cabin! I am so jealous, I miss the cabin like crazy! I bet it's gorgeous up there. Don't have too much fun without me :)

This week was really good and crazy!!!!! Hermana Findlay is a Sister Training Leader, so she travels a lot. So this week we did two intercambios--with our roommates! It was really fun. Hermana Porter is one and she's from California and Polynesian, so she´s super chill and way fun. She´s training a little Italian who is the cutest thing ever! Every day she makes us MOUNTAINS of the best real Italian pasta I have ever had! It´s so yummy and we love it haha. So it was really fun. On Saturday Hermana Dorgia, the Italian, came with me in my área and it was hilarious! (Sorry it keeps auto-correcting to Spanish, so if there´s random Spanish words--that´s why!) But I don´t know my area hardly at all, so we got lost FIVE TIMES!!!!!! One time we took the bus all the way to the other side of the city and had to walk 2 hours back haha. Luckily we both just laughed super hard (did I mention it was pouring rain during the 2 hours?). It was super funny. Later in the day we ended up in a random field out in the middle of this pueblo somewhere cause I couldn't find a house haha. As you all know, I am the WORST with directions haha. I kept thinking about the time when I told Joe that Sweet Tomatoes was right by Zupas and then we drove around SLC for 2 hours looking for it haha. Such good times!

Anyway, it was funny. But cool intercambio miracle! I was with Hermana Porter in her area and we were just sitting on the bus, writing cards. All of the sudden this lady comes up behind us and starts rubbing my back. We both thought that the other one of us knew her haha. At the end she said, I'm Christian and I need some direction in my life, and we gave her our number and she got off. THEN. . . an hour later we are walking and get a call--from this lady! No one EVER calls us!!!!!! She said that she wants us to teach her entire family and that before she saw us on the bus, she prayed with her sister over the phone that God would send them angels to help them through their trials. Then she saw us (she didn't even see our name tags before she started talking to us) and said that she knew we were the angels God sent her! It was the craziest miracle of my life. Unfortunately, they live in the Elders area :( But I will make sure she gets baptized! So crazy!

So right now we have Alexander, who is the 16 year-old of menos activo parents that has a fecha! We are so happy! He is the best! We decided to make his baptism on June 14th so that we have time to get his 2 little siblings on board and reactivate his dad to baptize them. So good! I'm so excited. We also have another part-member family that we are working with and both the kids are progressing super well! We want them all to get baptized together :)

This week we also had a Specialized Training with President and Hermana Pace. We had to travel to Lleida to get there on train. It was really good though! I absolutely loved it.

Yesterday at church was a little crazy cause Hermana Findlay had to leave yesterday for a conference in Barcelona and she´ll be gone til Wednesday! So I was companion-less at church haha! But we have this girl named Jessy who was baptized 2 months ago and she is the BEST. She is from Ghana, but grew up in England so she has the best accent ever. She is seriously like our best friend. We visit her all the time. She is super active--in the RS presidency and all! So she was my companion all day and will be tomorrow :) So it´s a wild adventure! Today I am just with my roommates, so that´s nice :)

One of my favorite people in this area is a little tiny Spaniard woman who we met in the street and her husband just barely died. We go sing to her every few days and she is SO sweet. She can barely talk, but we just love her so much and she says that our coming is the only light in her life right now. It´s so sad, but we´re just so grateful to be able to help her a little bit. She is the sweetest thing in the world and I just love her!

Sorry this email is so scattered! This week was just kind of all over haha. But really good! I love Zaragoza. I love the city and the people and everything! It´s super different, but I love it. I´m getting more used to things, which is good. I already love the people here so so much!!!!!!! Absolutely love them. I have been talking to a lot of members and realizing that church attendance has gone down a ton cause we have very few priesthood holders that are active in this branch. So I've been thinking and praying and I have a whole bunch of ideas for how to reactivate them so that this can be a ward! In ward counsel this week I´m going to present my ideas to the Branch President and see if we can´t get things going in this branch! But I love these people so much already. They are so sweet and faithful. They are super spunky and it´s funny haha. But I love them so much already and I can´t wait to really start helping them and getting this branch on fire. All they need is a little push and a little animo and we can do that :) So things are really good and I´m going to do everything I can for this little branch that I´m already in love with :)

This gospel is so true! Thank you so much for living your testimonies and for your examples of faith. You are all my heroes and I look up to you more than you even know! I hope you all know how amazing you are! I'm so grateful for this gospel--I love that it´s true everywhere--even in this little tiny branch where only 2 people have to pass the sacrament, the Church is so true and the members have the strongest testimonies. I love this gospel and it´s spreading! I´m so grateful to be a part of it.

I love you all SO SO SO much!! Have the best last week of school ever! I hope it´s magical :)

Love you!
Hermana Boyer

P.S. Does anyone have any ideas for Family Home Evenings that you've done that are really good? I have some but I've exhausted most of my ideas and am looking for more--for all ages :)

Sthuff in Tharagotha :)

My wonderful beautiful family!

I wanted to name this email Thkinny in Tharagotha because of Mom´s student that said "thkinny!" when Mom was trying to get him to say "thin" haha! But I decided that´s it´s not really applicable because I am still carrying around the hospitality of Badalona on my hips! haha :)

But how are you all!!! How has your week been?? Summer is coming! Are you all stoked! I am so excited for you that you get to do all sorts of fun things soon :) Huge shout-out to Emmy for her birthday this week! Tell her that I love her so much and give her a huge hug for me :)

So Zaragoza! Basically, I love it here. So much. This week was kind of weird because it was my first time away from Badalona and it just felt like a long intercambio or something. At first I missed Badalona so much, and I still do, but I love it here! Let me tell you a bit about Zaragoza :) This city is beautiful! Imagine moving from the ghetto part of LA (but a little less ghetto) to a nice east coast city. That´s what it´s like haha. Here it's super mellow and there are actually trees and grass and fresh air! It´s so nice. It´s a big city, but the buildings are a lot smaller and there´s so much space! it´s gorgeous. Also, it´s mostly Spaniards here! In Badalona it was pretty much all South Americans haha. But here it´s mostly Spaniards or Africans. It´s the best mix ever. And I´m out of Catalunya, so all the signs and everything are in Spanish instead of Catalan! It's kind of nice :) 

 So I am in this tiny little branch! And I absolutely LOVE it already. There are about 90 people in the branch and it´s mostly Spaniards! There are a few Africans and South Americans, but mostly Spaniards. It´s a totally different feel from my old ward, because there it was all really sweet South Americans with absolutely nothing. But here it´s all Spaniards who are well-off, and they are really sweet--in a totally different and spunky way haha. It's so fun though! Yesterday I absolutely loved church! I loved meeting everyone, and they were so sweet to me. There are 2 sets of Elders and us in this branch. Our roommates and 2 other sets of Elders are working in the ward, which meets in the same building. So it´s kind of cool. But this branch has SO much work to do, and I´m so excited I can barely stand it! I am going to get this branch to a ward before I leave--I am determined. There are SO many people to reactivate and baptize! I am so excited. Here the missionaries are so much more needed because it´s so much smaller. We have ward council every week after church and they won´t even hold it if we can´t come. It was awesome though--the branch president makes a list of all the people that didn't come that day, and we go through in branch council and decide what to do to get them there next week. SO awesome! I love this work so much.

So yesterday I got to give a 10-minute talk! I was actually so excited! They asked me to get the members excited about helping us. So I got up there and spoke about how we need to work together cause we´re a team! I asked them to be a friend to everyone, have the courage to invite, and pray. I told the story of Sara Waldo, Joe! You are officially famous here now :) But it was funny cause I got up there and said, "Hola todos!!" super excitedly and everyone laughed. I learned after my talk that no missionary has ever had that much enthusiasm from the stand haha. I´m so excited to get these people going and we are going to get this branch growing so fast! I´m so excited I can barely stand it. I already absolutely love these people.
This morning we had the biggest miracle! So there are 2 families we are focusing on--one is Tatiana and her familily. She just got reactivated, and her husband is less active. They have 3 kids that aren´t really interested, and they aren´t members. But we´ve been working with the oldest who´s 16--Alexander, and he came to church yesterday. This morning, Tatiana texted us to tell us that Alexander decided at church that he needs to be baptized--THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! Best thing ever! We don´t know if it can for sure happen this week cause we haven´t planned anything--but for sure next week if not :) We are so excited and hope that this gets the rest of the family going! The other family is Tatiana´s friend named Rachel, and she is being reactivated and her kids are getting taught! Her son is friends with Alexander and they do everything together, so we are hoping he will get baptized too! We are so excited for these miracles! It´s unreal. I´m so happy!!

Some of you asked about my Spanish! It´s getting better haha! I can say anything I need to, I just am still working on some grammar. But yesterday I didn't ever look at my notes from my talk, I just went for it and it worked out! I was so happy. I actually feel really comfortable in Spanish now and I can understand pretty much everything, unless it´s a really strong accent or really fast. But I love Spanish! In this mission we speak Spanish whenever we aren´t home, and at first I didn´t like that, but now I love it! I love Spanish and it´s so fun to speak with the theta--the accent--and I just love it :)

You also wanted to know about Hermana Findlay--she is amazing! She is the sweetest thing ever. Sometimes she´s like a Disney Princess with how sweet she is haha. She is so fun and we laugh a lot. She knows how to work really hard and she´s super duper obedient--like to the very minute and little details. So that´s awesome! We have already seen so many miracles and I know we will see so many more. This week we found 8 new investigators! The normal is like 4 or 5. We are so excited! We are going to tear this place apart :) But she´s so fun and we know a ton of the same people, so it´s super funny. She lives right off 45th and 13th east haha. Who knew??? It´s also been super fun living in a 4-hermana piso! The other 2 hermanas are from California and Italy! It´s the best. We don´t see them throughout the day really, but we party at night and it's way fun :)

Well fam, I sure love this work. I know it´s true. Heavenly Father is so aware of us, our every need. I know that He answers every single prayer and that He will never, ever forsake us. This work is incredible! We are a team and it´s moving forward! There is an energy and excitement about this work that´s just rippling through the earth--it´s incredible! I´m trying to transmit it through this computer to you haha :) But you all already have it! You are such incredible examples of living the gospel and living your testimonies. I look up to you all so much! I love you all SO, SO much and thank you so much for all you are doing! I love you, and have the most wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Boyer

P.S. If the Conference Ensign comes out from this last conference, could someone send it to me? I am super excited to read it in English haha :) But no hurry or anything, just whenever :) Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

This is me with my homies Sergi and Kevin :) Pretty much my besties :)


Here is me with Laura and Denise, some girls our age who are seriously some of my best friends. I love them so much!


Here is Hermana Findlay! Isn´t she the cutest!!!!


This is me with one of my favorite families from Badalona--the dad is not a member, and we worked with him so much. They are the best and I love them so much!

My New Home

My wonderful family!

How are you all?? Thank you SO much for making time to talk to me on Saturday! I loved seeing your faces so much! I could barely stand how wonderful it was to hear your voices and see your faces. I'm so sorry it was so fast and crazy! But I loved it so much and it was wonderful. I just love you all so much it hurts! How are you all? Thank you so much for all the letters and packages you have sent for my birthday! I got them today :) You are all so wonderful and I absolutely loved them :) Thank you SO much!!!! I am officially the most spoiled missionary in the entire world.

Well, I got transferred! They tore me out of my Badalona home. Right now I'm in. . . .. .

Zaragoza!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pronounced Tharagotha) :) It is a beautiful city in between Madrid and Barcelona--the farthest city west in the mission. It's 3 hours away from Barc. It's beautiful here! I love being away from all the buildings--this city is a lot more mellow. And my companion is Hermana Findlay! Guess where she's from. . . . Holladay! Right?! She went to Cottonwood, so I didn´t know her before the mission but isn´t that wild? I knew her from the mission before and I was super excited to be her companion! She is so cute and fun. She is also a Sister Training Leader, so I´m just super lucky to learn from all these amazing Hermanas! And I am now living in a 4-Hermana piso! So there are four of us and it´s already a party haha. I´m super excited!

 

Well, I wish I could say I left Badalona with dry eyes, but I think I cried more this weekend than in my whole mission put together haha. Every goodbye I had with the members, less actives, and investigators, we just cried together. I had no idea that I had made any difference in these people´s lives, but when I was bearing my testimony on Sunday all the members and I were crying together. Who knew? Sunday was seriously such a hard day. After church I had all these kids hanging on me telling me not to leave, people hugging me and crying, me trying to give everyone all the gifts I had for them, trying to take pictures with everyone--it was so crazy. I swear, goodbyes are the most exhausting thing ever haha. But it was wonderful.

 

This weekend was super sweet and super crazy because we ran from house to house giving gifts and pictures and cards and saying goodbye and bawling our eyes out and it was wild haha. But it was so special, because I got to say goodbye to most of the people here. The Lord was so good to me and we ran into all the people that I prayed I would get to see before I left. Such miracles! It was so special and I just love these people so much, I can´t even tell you. They seriously mean so much to me--my heart just swells when I think of them. They all just showered me with gifts and food, and I was so humbled by them, cause so many of them have hardly anything to give. It was a wonderful weekend and so humbling and sweet. We also ate at like 3 members´ houses a day, so I think I gained weight just in this weekend haha. (But thank you so much for the P90x--now I have it and I´m definitely going to use it!) :) But it was really sweet. This morning was crazy because I lost some of my stuff on a bus and my suitcases were huge and it was raining, and it was wild. I was seriously sobbing as I left haha. Not because I wasn´t excited, but just because these people are so special to me and it´s so hard because a lot of them I might not ever see again. But I´m so grateful for the things I learned in Badalona and those people will be so close to my heart forever.

So . . . Sonia´s baptism didn´t exactly happen haha. So Saturday was WILD because Friday night Sonia told us there was a small chance she would get called into work on Saturday. So we got the baptism all ready--all the talks, refreshments, everything. Then at 11, she called us and said she had to work until 10 that night, and then Sunday morning she was going out of town. It was super sad--we were kind of devastated haha. And then we had Mothers´ Day calls and transfer calls on our minds, so it was crazy! But it´s okay. I know that Sonia will get baptized, and maybe it just wasn´t her time yet. We did everything in our power to get her baptized this week, but I think the Lord just wanted to teach us something, and that´s okay. I just have to remember that this is His work, not mine and that it´s His timing and how He wants things done. But I love Sonia so much and can´t wait to see pictures of her baptism :)

 

Well, life is good. This week was crazy, not sleeping, trying to pack, running around, crying my eyes out with every person I said goodbye to, but it´s wonderful. It´s all part of this experience. Now I´m going to give Zaragoza everything I have and just go for it. I can´t wait for the people I will meet here and the things I will learn. I love the mission so much! I love loving with all my heart. That was probably the cheesiest thing I´ve ever said--but it´s true haha. :) But thank you all SO much for all you do for me--I love you all more than you know! Thank you for all your love and support and prayers! I love you all so much :)

 

Love, Hermana Boyer

P.S. Here is my new address, because I won´t get mail from the mission home as often:

C\ Clara Campoamor 18, 8b

Zaragoza 50018

Spain

Use this address for letters cause I will get them way sooner! But packages have to go to the mission home :) Love you!

Mountains and Miracles

My wonderful family!!!!!!! 

How are you all??? I hope you are having a wonderful Monday! Especially in HAWAII!!!!!!!!!! That sounds so fun I´m so jealous! I hope that it is such a fun week. Joe and Marianne Congrats!!!!! You are free!! haha that is seriously the most exciting thing ever! Congratulations! I wish so much I could´ve been there for your graduations! I hope that you have the best week in Hawaii and just soak up the freedom :) And Matt I hope you had the best birthday ever! I was thinking about you on Saturday hoping that it was magical. I´m sad we couldnt celebrate together, but I hope it was good :)

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You are all so so sweet I am so grateful for your love and support! I had the best birthday ever :) I am so lucky. So here May 1 is a holiday, so nobody works. So the whole ward- 170 people went to the mountains about 1\2 hour away and we just played all day! It was from 8am to 6pm! So we called President a few weeks ago to ask if we could go because it´s a whole day out of our area, and he said no. Then he went to a conference in Germany about working with the members and he called us back and said to go. Yay! It was teh best thing ever! I seriously was so happy I could barely stand it. I got to be with all these people that I just absolutely adore and just play all day with them. It was so fun cause we rarely get to just play and have fun with the members, usually we are teaching, eating, or something like that. But we hiked- yes I got to really hike! I can´t even tell you how happy I was to HIKE!!!!!!!!!! (well like the mile that everyone thought was this crazy big hike haha), played volleyball, had food given to us every few minutes, ran around with kids, and just got to talk to people. It was seriously the perfect day I can´t even tell you! I didn´t think anyone knew it was my birthday- which is how I wanted it- but at lunch time they called me over and all of the sudden they brought me a cake that the Elders bought and everyone sang! It was so nice, I was super embarrassed, but I felt loved :) Everyone kept giving me random treats and presents for my birthday, they seriously are the sweetest people in the whole world. Then that night we had to do weekly planning for 2 hours, but we made it fun by eating mint ice cream- the only mint ice cream we´ve found in Spain! Miracle. and then it was Hermana Anderson´s one year mark, so we burned a shirt on our balcony haha :)  And I opened Mom´s package, which was the sweetest thing in the world! It was a great day :)

Oh and Hermana Anderson gave me a bunch of my favorite candy and got balloons and all this stuff- she is the best :) And yesterday we were eating at a family´s house who we eat at all the time and all the sudden they bring out this cake and candles and sang to me! I had no idea it was going to happen- it was the cutest thing ever. And they bought me shoes that I had seen that I loved, but didn´t buy. I was so excited and was so touched because that family has hardly anything, but they bought me shoes for my birthday. They are so sweet and I was so touched and humbled. So I am being well taken care of here, don´t worry! :)

Okay I¨m sorry I have talked WAY too much about myself! Okay yesterday we had the biggest miracle of my entire life!!!!!!!!! Okay so Sonia is getting baptized this Saturday! I can´t even tell you how excited I am. So investigators have to come to Church twice before they can be baptized. She came to Conference, but has had to work the other Sundays. We have been praying like CRAZY i seriously mean crazy that she could come this Saturday so she could get baptized on Saturday before I leave Badalona. So on Saturday night we were at her house and she said she could for sure come and we were so excited! We went over on Sunday morning to pick her up. . . and she said that she had been called into work and couldn´t come. We were so sad- I cried on the way back to the church because that means I wouldn´t be here for her baptism and it broke my heart cause I love her so much! But then! As we were walking into church I went to silence the phone, but I got the feeling to leave it on. 5 minutes later right before the meeting started, she called and said that her boss just called her and told her she didn´t have to come!!!!!!!!!!!! Best miracle ever right?! I was so grateful I just went around and hugged everyone even though they had no idea what was going on haha. I was in awe the whole day at how this is the Lord´s work and we just have to stand back and watch it happen. It was incredible!!!!!!!!! She came to Church and loved it :)

Other miracles: There´s a menos activo woman who loves the Church but has been away from it for a long time cause of work. We have been praying forever that her schedule would change and it did! She came to church yesterday for the first time in 4 years and was so grateful to be back she was in tears all day.

Another one: We had a FHE with a young couple this week who were both missionaries, but have been inactive. We showed them Because of Him, and they both decided to come back and to change. They are going to come back and be super strong, we just know it. 

One more:we were eating at a members´house who are an older couple with no children. we asked them who they know that we could teach and she said that her step sister lives really close, but she has never talked to her. So we went to visit her and she said she didn´t want to get to know her other family cause it would hurt to much. But we went and got Gloria- the member- amyway, and she said she wanted to go visit her and fix things with her family. So we went and the two sisters met for the first time! At first it was awkward and there were some tears (lots of stuff has happened in this family taht we don´t know about), but then all of the sudden they started hugging and crying and are going to eat lunch together from now on! Hermana Anderson and I just stood in the background crying together at how sweet it was. I think that´s the thing I lvoe most about missionary work is uniting families together. There´s nothing sweeter than bringing families back to the Church, into the Church, or helping them reunite. I feel like I´ve been blessed with such an incredible family that I want to help everyone have families like mine. I am so grateful for you all! I love you so much I can´t even tell you! Thank you for all you do for me a million times over!!!!!!!

I can´t wait to see you this week on Skype!!!!! So Saturday works better for you all? That´s totally fine with us- can we do it at like 11:45-12 ish your time? Just cause we have the baptism and it might take a sec to get over there. But we should be for sure good to go if you can all be tuned in around 11:45. Is that okay? Wait- we are still 8 hours apart right? Cause we had daylight savings too. So we should still be 8 hours apart I think.Maybe someone should check just to be sure haha. if we can just do it like we did last time, that would be awesome. Skyping is a lot easier for me. If you can just add me on the call, then  I can accept it. someone be tuned into email so that if there´s a problem we can communicate that way. I´m so sorry that it´s so crazy this weekened with all the things going on! I hope that it works out I´m sorry it´s so busy! But I´m so glad that so many of you will be there! That will be awesome. I can´t wait to hear your voices! I miss you all so much! I´m so excited I can barely wait. I love you all so so so much!!!!!

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

This is Sonia and her family!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much I can´t even handle it :) Sonia is the shorter, darker one. :)

This is me in the mountains with one of my favorite people in the world :)

On Monday a few weeks ago we went to the Gothic part of Barc and it´s so cool! This Cathedral is incredible- I almost fell over when we went outside cause it´s so pretty! It was built in 1200! What the heck! I was freaking out. And there was someone playing Pachebel´s Canon outside it while we were eating gelato- not a big deal.

Books and Flowers (from April 28)

My wonderful family! How are you all? I hope everyone´s Spring is beautiful and wonderful :) Congrats Joe and Marianne on graduating!!!!!!!!! That is the best thing ever I´m so excited for you!!!!! 

I am so so sorry to hear about Scott Linscott. I feel so awful about it and I can´t even imagine what you are feeling Luke and your family. I am just so sorry and I will pray for you and your family so hard in every prayer. I am just so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, even though I know it´s still so hard and so painful. I hope that you know how much we all love you and your family and we will pray for you so much.I love you all so much and am so sorry for what you are going through. I will pray for your family and that they can feel comforted and overwhelmed with love.

This week we had a holiday here called St. Jordi and it´s the cutest thing ever. It´s the day that Cervantes (the guy who wrote Don Quixote- is that right Melbs?) died, so in his honor they have a day to celebrate fairy tales! So all the women give books to the men, and the men give roses to the women. Hermana Anderson got me a rose just so we could celebrate haha :) Isn´t that the cutest holiday ever? I just loved it. Except it´s not fair cause I would way rather get abook than a rose, but whatever haha.

Anyway, this week has been really good! We celebrated Easter on Monday with a family in our ward and it was really fun! Here they make a Mona-  chocolate cake and you decorate it with funny things. So we made one with feathers on it and all sorts of things. It was really fun! 

Our area is really good! I just love these people so much it´s unreal. Sonia and Yessenia and Oscar are doing really well!!!! They are the best family I just love them! They are progressing well and we are so excited cause Sonia can come to Church this Sunday and get baptized the 10th! We are so excited. Yesterday we taught them the Word of Wisdom and she just has to get over her coffee liking, but she will be okay. :) They are the best, we see them almost everyday and they are reading so much and we just love them so much! They are the best miracle ever.

We are also teaching Erasmo, that friend of a member that is super duper prepared. In our cita with him this week he said he had some questions about the BOM and we were nervous about it. But we got there and he had read to chapter 10!! And his questions were like how can he apply Lehi´s dream to his life and things like that. Yep. I told you. Most prepared person ever. We are way excited about him!

We had the best menos activo miracle again this week! I seriously feel like my calling in life is menos activos, and I am totally fine with that. I absolutely love it. We passed by this woman who is really nice and wants to come back, but is scared. Her husband never wants to listen to us and is always on the computer. So we decided to get up in his grill and we asked him if he could look up Because of Him on his computer for us :) So the 4 of us watched it together and the Spirit was SO strong. (Ps- if you haven´t watched it yet, WATCH IT. I promise it will change you life). But the Spirit was so strong and then afterwards the husband (Antonio) put his head in his hands and just was overcome with emotion. He looked at us and said "I was in the Bishopbric of this ward, and I used to hate it when people left the church- I have no idea what I´ve been thinking." Then his wife too said that she was in the RS Presidency! We told them we need them in this ward and they have got to come back. They hugged each other and decided together that they are going to come back and change their lives. It was amazing! I was so happy I just floated around the rest of the day. It was incredible.

This ward is incredible. I love it with all of my heart, I can´t even tell you how much these people mean to me. So they are going to divide the ward in a month, so the Bishop has asked us to visit all these families and strengthen them so that when the wards divide, both the wards are strong. It turns out all the families he wanted us to visit we had already been visiting and they are already progressing. It´s been so amazing to watch this ward strengthen itself and there´s a huge excitement about getting everyone at their spiritual best for the division. It´s amazing! I love love love working with families and bringing them back and helping them become stronger. IT´s the best!

I´m so excited- this Thursday the whole ward is going up to the mountains for the whole day and we´re doing all these games and activities and all these things! We have been wanting to go, but President didn´t want us to. Then he went to this huge conference about how important it is to work with members, so he called us back and said that we could go! We are so excited cause the whole ward is going and tons of investigators and it´s going to be the best day ever!!!!! I am so so so stoked it´s unreal. I love these people so much it hurts.

Well, life is really good! I am really happy and I love the work. I love my mission so much and I´m so grateful to have the opportunity to watch people change. I love being able to represent the Savior and have His name on my chest. I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything, even though it´s so humbling. Thank you so much for all your love and support!!!!! I love you all so so so so much and I pray for you so much. Just know that how much I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Boyer :)

Ps- About Skyping for Mother´s Day, President said we can do it anyday. So it just has to be in the morning sometime to make it work with the time change. It sounds like that weekend will be crazy, so we can do it on Monday or whatever works. Just tell me which day works the best for you cause it´s super flexible on this end. Just let me know and we can figure it out on Monday for sure. Love you all so much!

Way Better than the Easter Bunny

Hola familia!!!!!!!!

How are you all!!!!!! How has your week been??? I hope that you had a wonderful Easter! I hope Mom and Abby had wonderful birthdays with lots of fun and celebration! How was everyone's Easter? I hope it was good!!!! So in Spain today is actually Easter! Here it's super different than at home. The whole last week was Semana Santa--Holy Week--and they all have school off and work off and it's a holiday the whole week! Friday is a huge holiday and today is the biggest! It's all Catholic and they have all these crazy processions in the street with people that are wearing KKK looking hats haha. It´s a little crazy! But people don't really do much, they just are with their families and everything. But tonight we are going to have two family home evenings with 2 families, and they are going to make us the traditional Easter chocolate cake, so that should be fun!!!! Yesterday was really fun! Hermana Anderson and I celebrated Easter by making chocolate-chip pancakes before Church in the shape of bunnies :) We tried to dress all springy even though it was raining here haha. But it was a really good day!

This week was so good!!!!!!!! SO many miracles happened! We are teaching 2 families right now and we are so happy! It's the biggest miracle ever. So we have Sonia and her family, who are from El Salvador, and her son Oscar and girlfriend are living together and can't get baptized. But they are still progressing and coming to Church and everything! But Sonia is doing so well! She absolutely loves everything we teach them. The bummer is that she has to work the rest of the Sundays in April, so she can't get baptized until May, but that's okay! She is still progressing and we just love that family so much!

The other family we contacted on the street, and they are from the Dominican Republic. We are teaching the mom, Lucrecia, her mom, her daughter, and 2 of their sons!!!!!!!! The only problem is that the dad is a Spaniard and doesn't want them to go to church. But we are working on becoming friends with him by melting his heart with brownies and stuff :) But the family is the best and they love all we teach them! We are so blessed!

Okay another HUGE MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember Jakeline? Who is 14 and her parents are super inactive and who was too scared to get baptized? Okay, so the 3 of us went and got ice cream this week, and we are sitting on a bench in the park, and she all the sudden leans over to us and whispers "yo quiero bautizarme." I laughed and then looked at her and was like "WAIT WHAT!!!!!!!!!" and we all screamed and were freaking out! She wants to get baptized! We were so happy, and I seriously just floated around the rest of the day not even touching the ground. She is getting baptized this week and I am SOO excited! Best miracle ever!

More miracles:
This weekend, Hermana Anderson had to go to the Islands, because Elder Evans was there and had all the mission leaders fly out for a special meeting there. So on Friday I went with an Hermana in Barcelona and we had a lot of fun. On Saturday, Marielos--the cute girl we found that is just here from Honduras and is coming back to the Church super strongly--came with me and was my companion all day! It was so fun! She is so cute and was so excited to be a missionary. So all of our citas fired, and I got a prompting to go visit this family that we hadn't seen for a while and that never come to church. They live super far away, and I knew getting there would be hard for Marielos. But I decided we had to go anyway. So we went, and it took us almost an hour to get there. We walked in and they were eating, but I just invited them to church, told them we loved them, and left them with a prayer. Then..............we're sitting in sacrament meeting, and guess who walks in???? THE FAMILY!!!!!!!!! They haven't come in SO LONG!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana Anderson and I looked at each other across the chapel (cause we were sititng with different investigators) and freaked out! I was so happy, I seriously thought I would explode. Then.............I´m sitting there freaking out and then I look at the door and our family of 8 that hasn't come to church in years walk in! Almost all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just have to tell you that I sat in the back row and just cried. I watched them all walk in with all these kids and I just cried. There can´t be a better feeling in the world than watching families who have been missing the gospel in their lives come back and feel the Spirit again. This family has had so many problems, and they used to be so strong, but they've just struggled so much. And they are coming back! I was so overwhelmed with joy that I just grinned the whole day and seriously was probably the happiest I've maybe ever been. It was the best miracle ever. Way better than the Easter bunny :)

So pretty much life here is good :) Hermana Anderson is amazing; we have so much fun together, always laughing and just seeing so many miracles. Here's a funny story for the week--a lady the elders just baptized is absolutely NUTS!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and her name is Loli haha :) She has two eyes that both look different directions, no teeth except for one screw, and just curls that go everywhere. She says what she thinks and it doesn't matter haha. But at a baptism the other day she was telling us two how she has scars on her stomach. She throws up her shirt to show us--everything--and before we could stop her, the elders walk in and are like "whoa, what the?" And Loli was so startled she yelled "Oye!" and started running with her head backward and she tripped over a bag and went sprawling with her crazy eyes looking every which way and her arms flailing all over!! It probably doesn't sound that funny, but I seriously laughed so hard that I was sick. I layed in my bed and laughed for like an hour before I fell asleep. Gotta love the weird stuff too.

Well, family! I sure love you so much! This morning I read all the accounts of the Resurrection and I was just overwhelmed with love for our Savior! He lives! He is alive, and this is the hope that we have that we can share with everyone--that He lives and that He loves us. We can live with our families in eternal glory because the Savior walked out of the tomb. This is the testimony I am trying to share with everyone, and I'm just so grateful for our Savior! Okay--if you haven't seen the Mormon Message "Because of Him"--watch it right now!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right after you read this email! I am serious- it will change your life. I´m serious please please please watch it right now; it is so amazing. Dad--you will especially love it.

I love you all so so so much and just feel so lucky to have the best family in the whole world! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Boyer :)


P.S. I know it´s kinda early, but I get to talk to you all soon on Mother´s Day!!!!!! I´m so so so excited! Hermana Anderson and I were thinking that Sunday is going to be super hard to figure out schedules, cause we would have to Skype at night right when you will all be at church. So we were thinking of asking President if we can do it Saturday--how would that be for everyone? Tell me your thoughts. I love you all so madly!

This is Hermana Anderson and me in our Easter outfits :)

This is Jakeline when she told us she wanted to get baptized! Best day ever :)

6 Amazing Months!

Family!!!!!!!!!

How are you, my wonderful family!!!!!!!!!!! How has your week been???? Is it just gorgeous spring there with all the flowers and everything?? I hope so! It's starting to get super hot here! Good thing I´ve got my 2 short sleeve shirts :) Haha no I bought more today and I love that it's getting hot! Woo hoo! How is everyone!!!!!!!!! Huge shout out to Mom and Abby this week! I hope you have the best birthdays ever!!!!!!!!! I hope they are magical and I wish I could celebrate with you all! I hope they are the best. Also, I am freaking out about Matt!!!!!!! Oh my heck that is the best thing ever! I officially feel famous being the aunt of the future SBO pres of Oly! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is the best thing I have ever heard!!!!!!! And Lizzie--good luck with elections this week. I know you will be amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is my 6-month mark on the mission! So weird, huh? I feel like I am still super new here and just barely got here! It's so weird. It's definitely not a cause for celebration, cause time is going too fast, and it freaks me out!

This week was really good up here in good ol' Badalona :) Remember our miracle family of Sonia last week? They are the best!!!!!! We see them almost every day, and it feels like we've known them our whole lives. I love them so much! So we found out that Yessenia and Oscar aren't married and they don't have nationality here (it can take up to like 10 years to get it here), so they can't get married. So they can't get baptized, but they can still progress!!!! But they came to church and are doing really well! Sonia is the best, and she is getting baptized on the 26th! If you think about it, pray for her that it happens! But she is super solid, loves the gospel, loves the Lord, reading the Book of Mormon, and pretty much I just love her so much it hurts. I am so excited and we are so grateful for them--they are the best miracle ever!!!!!!!!!!!

Also we have Irasmo, who is a reference from a member, and we've been teaching him in the home of the member. He plays soccer with a ton of guys in the ward, his family is LDS, and his girfriend is LDS--so pretty much he's getting baptized!! He is so good and committed himself to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon haha. He is so good, and I know he will get baptized. It´s a huge miracle!

This week we found a woman named Marielos. Let me tell you about her. She moved here from Honduras a month ago to find a job. She was baptized 20 years ago and was really strong, but went inactive for a while. But she is here, and she found us and is coming back so strong! She is preparing to go to the temple, and she is the best! We have been visiting her a ton this week, and she is so cute! We are so happy for her, and she is so strong. The other good part is that she lives in a piso with 5 other women who aren't members, and we are teaching them! Every time we go there is another woman there that we teach haha--it's crazy! So we are working with them, and it's awesome :) Except there's one that is a little cray-cray and told us how she healed a woman, and she goes around blessing prostitutes, and she casts demons out of people and pretty much it was so blasphemous that in the middle of her sermon to us, I straight up burst out laughing and had to turn it into a cough, sneeze, dropped-something-under-the-table to hide my face type of thing. It was crazy haha. But the other ones we will convert :)

We have been spending tons of quality time with the members, and I love it so much!! I can´t even tell you how much I love these people. They are like my family here in Spain, and I have been here for so long that I am so comfortable in their homes and feel like I've known them my whole life. We eat with them all the time, and I just love them more than I can even contain. On Saturday we had a Relief Society activity at the house of a sister who lives in the mountains, and it was so pretty! We got there early and decorated and cooked and everything, and it was so fun! I seriously love these people so much, I can't even tell you how much these people mean to me. They do so much for us and can't stand when we are cold or sick or hungry haha. They do so much for us, and I just can't even tell you how dearly I love them!

Today we went to Tibidabo again--that cathedral castle that looks over Barc--and it was so pretty! Basically I just love this city so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty much, I love life. I love these people. We are seeing so many miracles, and the Lord is blessing us. Hermana Anderson is amazing, and I´m so lucky to learn from her. She is seriously perfect--she has no faults! It's unreal. We have so much fun and she is amazing. I love life! I´m so grateful for my mission, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I´m starting to realize that my time here is so precious and so short, and I´m going to live it with no regrets--serving with my whole heart and doing everything in my power to serve the Lord. This week my motto has been to shower everyone with love. It´s been amazing as I've opened my heart to just love as much as I am capable how much it's helped me more than the people. It´s amazing how close you feel to the Lord when you just love with everything you have. Thank you all for your love and all you do for me! I love you all so so so much and am so grateful for you!!!!! Have the best week ever, and I hope it´s magical! And Happy Easter on Sunday! I hope it's the best :)

Love you!
Love, Hermana Boyer :)