Week 1.... Made it to Chile!! (and speaking of chilly....)

DISTRICT 9D.... "White Ties, Baptize"


Departure Day!

Wow! This week has been a crazy one. I don't even know where to start. Ok, so we first got off the plane in Concepcion. We walked outside the terminal and President Bluth and Hermana Bluth were standing there waving to us. We all got to meet them. They are super nice people. I love them. 

President and Sister Bluth

We then took a bus ride to the Mission office. We had a tour of the place and got all our paper work done. We then went to lunch at the mission home. The mission home is so nice. We had lunch there. It was the best thing I have tasted in 6 weeks. I was so excited. We then went back to the mission office and had interviews. We all passed the interviews haha. It was good to finally meet President Bluth. He is such a nice guy. I cant wait to get to know him better. 

That night we went and stayed in a hotel. We had pizza at night and then slept in the softest bed I have ever slept in. On Wednesday, I woke up and was so nervous. I knew today was the day I started my mission. I was excited, but I was so nervous. I was so nervous that I was sick to my stomach. We made our way to the bus. We loaded into the bus and then drove to the nearest chapel. We had 3 hours of meetings. We talked about the rules, and safety precautions. Then the time came that all of us were waiting for. All the Elders who were going to be training us came into the chapel and sat down. President started calling each person up. The Trainer would introduce themself and then president would announce their companion. After awhile and a bunch of people had been picked, finally this kid stood up. His name was Elder Cardoso. He is from Brazil. After President announced that I was going to be companions with him. He is super cool. He is so funny. Now that I have been with him for a few days, I know how cool he is. He speaks English pretty well. I was super excited about that. After President announced all the companionships, we got all our bags and headed to our areas. Our area is Yumbel. 

Elder Cardoso and I

Yumbel, Chile

Yumbel is a super awesome town. It is super little, but I really love it here. The people are so nice here. There are so many stray dogs. They always come up and try to jump on you. We have to try and scare them, because they are so infested with fleas. Yumbel is about 3 hours by bus away from the mission home. We got to our little house around 7. We walked in and we saw the other 2 Elders we were rooming with. Elder Sheffield from PG, and Elder Dominguez from Uruguay. They are both really awesome people. We unpacked our stuff in this little closet. I hung all my stuff on a rope that they had nailed to the wall .After that we went and tracted. That night I was so lost. I had no idea what anyone was saying. I was so stressed with the language. I went home that night and was like is this really what missionary work is like? I told myself that this was going to be a long 2 years. That night it was raining super hard... so I was wet and cold. We then got back to our Casa and went to bed. That night I froze!! I didn't get any sleep. I didn't bring anything warm so I was just in shorts and a sweater with one blanket. Then I woke up in the morning and took a shower. The water didn't get warm. So I took the coldest shower I have ever taken... after I got hypothermia... haha, just kidding... but I felt that way. I was so mad. I went and asked them does the shower get warm? They laughed at me. They showed me how to make the water hot. You have to turn the gas on outside, and then turn on the sink to light the heater. Then after the heater lights the water gets warm. I had no clue so the first day I froze. Now I know all the tricks of getting warm, haha. Elder Cardoso has really helped me survive out here. He has been here 21 months, so when he is done training me he will be done with his mission. He has given me sweats, sweaters, and blankets to keep me warm. I love him so much. Yesterday we went to church and the church was in a little house. We had priesthood meeting in a shed. That is where I will baptize if I get someone to be baptized. 34 people showed up to church. They said that was the most they have seen in a long time. Church is a lot different. The missionaries do everything here. We blessed and passed the sacrament, we set up all the chairs for sacrament, and we bore our testimonies. I went and bore my testimony... it was hard but it was cool to bear it in Spanish. I still couldn't understand what anyone was saying. Sunday night Elder Cardoso and I went tracting. I have been praying every night for the gift of tongues. Yesterday was the first day that I felt it. I was able to understand what people were saying. I was able to contact people all by myself. I went and asked this one lady if we could share a message with her. She said yes and invited us in. She was so prepared. We taught her about prayer and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong. We handed out our first Book of Mormon. After the lesson I was so excited. My Spanish had been the best it had ever been. I actually felt like I was doing something and not just standing there listening to my companion. It made me so excited to talk to more people. I really love this place, I love my mission already. I love the people here. I cant wait to tell you more about how it is. I only have an hour so this is all I have time for, but I love you and hope you all have a good week. Just letting you know I made it safe here and I love it.

Love Elder Boyer 

Week 5... ONE MORE WEEK until we're Chile bound!!!

 Wow it is crazy I only have one more week here. I'm really going to miss all the people in my district. We have all bonded so much. I'm really going to miss this place, but I cant wait to get to Chile. I got my flight plans yesterday:) I leave on Monday. We get on the bus to leave the MTC at 4 pm, and our flight leaves at 8:30 pm. I'm going to try and buy a calling card so I can call you.  I cant wait to talk to all of you. I am excited. So our plane leaves at 8:30 and we fly straight to Santiago. It is an 8 and half hour flight. That is going to be one long flight :( We land in Santiago at like 6:30 the following morning. Our next flight leaves at 9 am and we fly an hour to Concepcion. Then we get on a bus and they take us to the mission home. We stay at the mission home for 2 nights. Then they will assign us our area and we will go from there. I am really getting excited! I am finally going to start my missionary experience. It is finally becoming real. This last week is going to be so much fun. We are going to have a blast. 

Our District!!

Concepcion South  Mission

So let me tell you a little about how my week went. This week was a really good week. I learned a ton. On of the coolest things I learned this week came from a talk given by Elder Richard G. Scott in last nights devotional. His quote was " To achieve a goal never attained, someone must do something never done before." I loved that quote. I started thinking that we need to take it little by little. I always think of things in reference to football. So I started thinking about how long a football field is. When we look at how long we have to go to score a touchdown it is a long way. But if we look at just getting a first down, that is only 10 yards. A lot of times when you focus on that end goal it feels like you are never going to get there, and you often get down on yourself. I know for me when we I was playing football, when my team focused on scoring a touchdown quickly, that is when we did the worst. Often times we would go backwards. We were trying too hard to get the whole 100 yards in 1 play. When my team focused on the little things, like getting getting the first down, that is when we marched down the field, and before we knew it we were in the End zone. For me right now that is what I have been focusing on. A lot of times missionaries come out and want that immediate change of heart. They want to go to sleep and the next day wake up and be the best missionary that has ever lived. I´ll be honest, that is exactly what I wanted too. I thought when I came out here that I was just going to wake up one day and be the best missionary. It doesn't  work like that. I realized that you have to work at one thing at a time. Focus on those little increments and before you know it you will achieve your goal. Focus on 10 yards at a time and before you know it you will be in the End zone.  The Lord says we will learn and grow "Line upon line, precept upon precept" My senior year football our goal was to win the state championship. We had a quote that I loved. It was "Win the Day"... it wasn't "Win the Championship" it was "Win the day" We took it day by day. Win each and every day and before you know it you will be on your way. My goal as a missionary is to be the best missionary I can be. I'm not going to wake up and be the best missionary I can be tomorrow... It is going to take time. It will go by, and win each and every day. Before I know it these 2 years will be up and I will be able to look back and say. YES, I did achieve my goal. I became the best missionary I could be. I am so excited to get out to Chile and start working towards my goal. I will learn something new each day and improve each day. I love you all so much!!! I hope all of you can take something from this!!!!

I miss each and every one of you. I hope all of you are doing amazing. Love you guys. Stay strong, and work at one thing at a time.

Oh something else that happened this week was on Monday, it was Mexico´s Independence Day. The whole day was super crazy. There were fireworks going off all day. At night is when it got super crazy. Everyone in this whole city was shooting off fireworks. We have a hill right behind us where there are hundreds of houses. So all of us climbed up on the roof of our house and watched fireworks. It was so awesome. We watched people shooting fireworks down the street at each other. It was a real sight to see. Let me tell you, the fireworks here don't compare to the ones we have back in the US. Monday night was super awesome. We had a bunch of people on the roof and we were partying. I am so lucky to get to be here with this great bunch of Elders!

Best District, EVER!

Love you all! Next time you hear from me...I'll be a Chilean!!

Week 4...... Airplanes and Devotionals!

Wow week FOUR flew by so fast!!!! I felt like it was just yesterday that I was emailing you guys, telling you that I arrived!!! I only have 2 weeks left in the CCM and then I'm Chile bound:) There are a lot of planes that fly over the CCM and every time one does, I turn to my companion and say "That is us in 2 weeks".

 

I am getting really excited to get out and actually start my mission. I want to get out there and share with people the happiness I have felt from being in this church. Nothing really new has happened this week. Just the same thing day in and day out. I am still learning a ton. I cant wait for the day when I can speak Spanish well enough that I can just talk in Spanish and not have to think about it in English first. 

So yesterday we had a devotional, we watched a talk by Elder Holland. It was a talk given by him in the Provo MTC in January 2013. I love how he talks. He is probably my favorite speaker. He speaks with so much power and authority!!! He told us that we need to "Astonish People" I love that so much, because I know if you have the spirit with you and are living the right way, you can go in and astonish people!!! The spirit is the true converter, and you literally wont be able to teach if you don´t have the spirit with you!! During his talk I started thinking. He had mentioned that he was once a 19 year old missionary. I started thinking, what is stopping me from being like him. Literally nothing is stopping me. He was once in my shoes. I just have to have the spirit with me and live my life so the spirit is my constant companion and I will be able to speak like him. I love that. He also talked a lot about being converted as a missionary. He talked about how if you want people to read the scriptures more, you read the scriptures more. If you want your investigator to pray more, you pray more!! We have to be converted and do the things that we want our investigators to do. I think that is so true. You can´t tell someone to read their scriptures more if you aren't. The spirit wont be there when you are testifying of the blessings. That talk was such an amazing talk!! I learned a lot from that talk.The spirit hit me so strong while I was listening him. At the end of the talk they sang the closing Hymn in English, and also said the closing prayer in English. It was honestly super weird for me to hear that. All we do here is pray and sing in Spanish. That was the first time I had heard someone pray in English since being home. 

This week has been such a fun week. Elder Woodfield and I taught   some good lessons this week. One cool thing that i did in my lesson yesterday was pray in the middle of the lesson. We always pray before our lesson as a companionship, and ask for the spirit to be with us, but I really wanted to try and say a prayer in the middle for some extra help. So our lesson started of kind of slow, it was honestly quite boring. Both of us weren't  speaking very good Spanish.  Elder Woodfield started saying a personal experience, so I thought this would be the perfect time to say a prayer. While he was talking I just said a prayer in my head. I asked for the spirit to be with us , and that we would know what to say. I asked for comfort and help with the language. Immediately after I said Amen, this overwhelming power hit me. The spirit was so strong. We both felt so much peace. Both of us began to speak Spanish better than we had before. The last half of our lesson was so powerful. Our investigator began to pay attention to our lesson. We talked to her about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. The spirit was definitely talking through me because I try and remember what I said and I cant. I was saying things I don't even remember learning. That experience was such a testimony builder to me!!! I am going to keep praying in lessons, and ask for more help, it really works. I know these investigators are fake right now, but when I teach them... I really feel like they need my help and I really love teaching them!! I wonder how it is going to feel to teach my first real investigator:) I honestly cant wait!!! 

Elder Woodfield and I

P Days are the best days. We wake up and work out and eat breakfast. Then we email until lunch at 12. Then we just go play sports. Today we are doing a district soccer game. So it should be fun. We usually play until like 3:30 and then we go change and get ready. Then we come back and email until 5:30 so it makes for a great day. I love hearing from everybody. 

Keep sending me pictures and updates on the games.

Our soccer team!

Thanks for sending me weekly packages of food. All of my roomates get them too. We share our treats with each other, and have a Fiesta! It's so fun!

Cheers to another week down!

On Saturday, I got to teach a 10 year old boy. He was actually a real investigator. We taught him about prayer. It was so fun acting like a little kid again. We got to color and draw with him. He was such a cute little boy. That was probably my favorite thing. It was funny because I thought I was getting good at Spanish... But, he just kept correcting me and telling me what I wanted to say. I couldn't help but laugh and realize that I still have a long way to go!! It was definitely the highlight of my week!!!

Love you all sooooooo much! 

Week 3.... CCM Halfway Point!

 Wow i cant believe i am already half way done with my MTC stay. I have learned so much in these last 3 weeks!!! Time has flown by. Each day goes by faster and faster. Everyone in my district are super fun. I am making a lot of good friends. 

      The MTC is kind of boring cause we spend all day in a little classroom studying.

I have never studied so much in my life:) I was told you just have to make the MTC what you want it to be... and that is what i have done. I am that Elder who everyone comes to for a joke. It is so cool that i get to be myself here. I thought for sure i would have to be someone i am not, but I'm so happy I get to be myself. This week has been a really good week. The spirit was so strong this week. My companion and I have taught a lot of good lessons!!! The lessons are getting better and better. The language is tough, but I seriously have learned so much!!! It has come so fast. It is crazy how fast the gift of tongues works!!! On Sunday, we had a really spiritual night. We watched a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott. He talked a lot about sincere prayers. So that night, I knelt down in complete silence and offered the most sincere prayer I have even given. The spirit was so strong!!! I love this Gospel. I have learned so much these last 3 weeks. I have read More of the Book Of Mormon than I ever have. The Book of  Mormon is such an amazing book. I never realized how amazing it was until I got out here. I just read it to read it, but then  came across a scripture in Enos verse 4 it says "And my soul Hungered" and I got an impression that I should start hungering after the Book of Mormon. Ever since then I have read and have hungered after the words. It is amazing how much I have learned and how many blessings I have received. (Mosiah 10:3-5) I love it here!!! I cant wait to get to Chile and actually teach real people!!!! I miss all of you so much!!!

  

The cafeteria

The classroom

Computer Lab

The Gameroom

The Bathroom Selfie

The Courtyard

The delicious food....and the reason I have lost 20 pounds!

The Gym

 

The haircut

 Here is my testimony in Spanish. Hopefully it makes sense. I am still not very good.

yo se que este iglesia es verdad. yo se que por medio la expiacion nos podemos ser limpio. La expiacion es muy importante in mi vida. JesuCristo sufrio por nos pecados. Yo aggricido por Jesucristo y la expiacion. Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y podemos vivir con Dios atra vez. Este Evangelio es verdad y nosotros recibimos bendiciones como nosotros segimos Jesucristo Y Dios. En el nombre de JesuCristo Amen. 

Love Elder Boyer