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