Week 70.... God is Merciful!!!

This week has been a really great week for Elder Christensen and me. We had a lot of activities this week:

On Monday we had our Zone activity: The Piñata party.

Tuesday we had an exchange where I went and worked with Elder Cox in his sector. It was a really fun day. Elder Cox is a crazy good missionary and I learned a ton from him. While I was doing a baptismal interview for one of his investigators, the guy turned to me and asked me: “Elder, what does God think about suicide?” That really caught me off guard. I never thought that I would have to talk about that. I never thought that that would come in an interview. I sat there for a second and really thought out an answer. I went on explaining that we don’t have the right to judge. God is the only one who can judge. Obviously it is not a good thing... It is very serious, but My God is merciful. While I was saying this I could feel how merciful God is with us. The spirit entered in the room and testified to both of us that God loves each and every one of us and He shows us his Mercy each day. It was a really cool experience for me and for that guy, named Freddy, who actually got baptized a few days later.

Wednesday, we had a World Wide Mission broadcast. It was such a great training. It was a training that come from the mission board itself. We listened to training from Elder Bednar, Elder Nelson, Elder Oaks, and a few other 70´s. It was such a good training and helped me know the importance of missionary work. They taught us how to improve our time here in the field and how we can better each part of the missionary work. It was super good.

Thursday: We had interviews with Pres. Bluth. It was a really great day. Elder Christensen and I were there all day talking with each member of our zone. Setting goals and talking with the companionships. It was a very beneficial day. Also the interview with Pres. Bluth was very edifying. I always have doubts and questions when I go into the interviews with Pres. But when I come out I just feel so clean and so edified. I know that He has the Spirit with him, because He just makes people feel so good about themselves.

Friday was a really good day. Lately we have seen a few problems in our house... the Elders haven’t been as excited and so there has been a bit of a separation. So what Elder Christensen and I did was we planned a prank ;)

Friday we called the Elders to help us with a service. They ran over to help us. We had one of the brothers in our ward dress up as an  sick man. We had to move him into his bed. As we were moving him, his pee sack... (or apple juice haha)… popped all over one of the elders. We had all these things planned, and the end the brother said, “Do you believe in miracles?” The Elders said yes! And then he started dancing and said I’m not sick anymore. We all laughed, and ever since that joke we have been good again.

Saturday: Saturday I learned a lot. I actually wanted to share my spiritual message of the week on what I learned on Saturday. So, we had all these plans to go and visit our investigators. But as you can see with all the activities we didn’t have much time to visit too many people this week.  Saturday was the day we were going to visit everyone. As we got out and started working, we got a call. One of the churches didn’t have hot water so they couldn’t do their baptism. They had to change it to our church. That meant we had to go clean and fill the font. That also meant that we were going to lose our working time. We were like, well we have to do it, so let’s go. We ended up spending a long time cleaning over there and also waiting for the Elders to show up. While we were cleaning I was trying to call out investigators and invite them to church. NOT ONE PERSON ANSWERED! I was so sad. I looked at my comp and said, looks like this week is going to be a bust. We won’t have one investigator in church. We both started feeling bad on ourselves. We both started thinking negatively. As we waiting for the Elders to show up, our excitement and enthusiasm was completely down. When they got there we gave them the keys and went out to work. As we left the church, our heads were down and we didn’t feel like doing much. I asked my comp, well what do we do? We both decided we would at least try to pass by one of our investigators. So we went over to his house. We started knocking on his door…No answer. Called him…no answer.  I said he has got to be here. We stayed there for about 10 minutes waiting for him. Finally he came out. He had been sleeping. We asked Him if he was going to come to church. He replied with a light in his eye, ‘of course!’ As those words left his mouth I could feel the excitement and joy of the work fill my heart. I went from a dark sad Elder Boyer who wasn’t having much success to a bright happy Elder who was excited to be here.

I was reminded of the Scripture... "how great will be your joy if you bring a soul unto Me". I honestly could feel the joy of helping someone come unto Christ. I started thinking how amazing is it that God is so merciful with us that He gives us joy. How awesome is it that each day we can go out into the world and make a difference. Sometimes we won’t feel like we are making a huge difference, but I know we are. Even if it is something so small, we are changing the world. How amazing is it that we have the chance to help bring back Christs’ Lost sheep?

The Gospel is something so amazing to see people learn and accept it, and make the changes necessary to live it, really is a life changer. I have never felt so happy than to see someone accept this message of love.

I invite each of you this week to make a difference in someone’s life. Try to show people the love God has for them. I promise you that the joy you feel will be overwhelming.

I have felt that over whelming joy here in my mission and I know each one of you can also feel it each day!!

Week 69....The Pinata Incident, and the Power of Repentance!!!

This week nothing much really happened. The week went by really fast. Nothing too specific really stood out to me. I have been having a good time here in Los Angeles. I couldn’t be any happier. 

Today we actually had something funny happen, but also pretty sad. I felt pretty bad. So this morning as a Zone, we planned an activity so that we could have some fun and become more united. We made all these plans to have a celebrations. We have this Sister who is from Mexico. So we decided to make tacos and make piñatas and have a FIESTA. So all week, the missionaries have been working on piñatas. We all made really good and funny piñatas.

When we got to the activity we ate these amazing tacos that the Sister had made and then we went outside to break open the piñatas. Well we started going. First off we could not find a bat to break open the piñatas so I went looking for something… anything that could work as a bat. There was nothing in the church. I looked and looked and finally I came across a vacuum tube. It was a hard metal tube so I thought it would work. It was divided into three sections. I tried to pull the sections off but they wouldn’t come off so I thought they were on there pretty good. I didn’t think anything about it. Well I ran out and each missionary went one by one hitting the piñatas. The piñatas were breaking little by little. Finally it came to be my turn. I stepped up there thinking I was going to destroy this piñata. I wanted to get up there and hit it as hard as I could. I got up there and took a hard one hop double handed swing. I was for sure that I was going to crush this thing. As I started my swing… everything went in slow motion. I watched as my hands moved towards the piñata... as I was about to make contact with the piñata I saw one of the end pieces of this vacuum hose start flying off!

 I watched as this vacuum piece went flying in the air right in the direction of Elder Fuimaono who was holding the rope.  I watched as this metal tube went flying 100 miles an hour… I felt like it was 30 seconds long. It flew and hit him right in the knee. He went down immediately. I went over to see what happened. He was ok but he got a huge goose egg on his knee. I felt so bad. But it was also pretty funny after the whole thing happened. I don’t know why things like this always have to happen to me. ;P

Well now for the spiritual part of my week. This week I had really good studies about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I found 2 scriptures that I would love to share with y’all:

Mosiah 3: 7  (Book of Mormon)

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations , and pain of body, hunger , thirst, and fatigue, 

even more than man can suffer , 

except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, 

so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. 

D&C 19: 16

16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, 

that they might not suffer if they would repent.

How amazing is it that we have the opportunity to repent and start anew?

This week as I read more about His suffering in the Garden and the Cross, I really came to know how much love He has for us.

HE SUFFERED ALL THAT PAIN FOR US!!

He suffered so that we could return to our Father. If it was not for Him we would not be able to return. 

How grateful I am to be here in Chile and teach people the power of repentance. Nothing makes me happier than to see people learn of their Savior and everything He has done for them. Seeing them make steps on the repentance process and make the changes necessary to feel God’s presence in their life. 

There is no better feeling than the feeling of missionary work.

 All of that comes from the Power of The Atonement!

our Missionary Pinata!!!

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Week 68... He Hath Filled Me with His Love!!!

Wow! What a great week this has been. Elder Christensen and I have really seen the Lord’s tender mercies this week. It was a really great week for us. 

We have been really down lately. This sector here has been a huge challenge for us. It has been our Goliath. We have been battling and grinding but Satan has been winning. It has been a while since we have had some success.

 At the beginning of the week, we made it a goal that we were going to do everything in our power to find success... That is exactly what we did. No, it wasn’t easy. It called for a lot of dedication and a lot on concentration, but we were able to do it. As the week went on, we spent day after day knocking on doors. We called, looked up lists, and knocked some more doors. We turned over every rock in this sector looking for someone who would be interested in our message. As the week went on it seemed, even with all our hard work, we weren’t going to accomplish what we had set out for. Monday passed, and then Tuesday and even Wednesday. We still had nothing. We had no one who was really progressing. Thursday rolled around and we thought for sure this would be our day... again nothing. But finally after the trial of our faith came our relief. On Friday we went out with the same attitude to find these people. This time we finished the day with the success we were looking for. We stumbled across a part-member family. The grandma is a member but has not gone for a long time. The mom, Jessy, and her kid Sahid (10 yrs. old) are not members. As we talked to them, their eyes lit up with excitement. All they wanted to do was go to church on Sunday. When they went to Church, the little kid loved it. He had so many friends that were members. The teacher gave him a Book of Mormon and he instantly started reading it and marking it up. I wish you all could have seen his face. He was smiling ear to ear from excitement when he left church on Sunday. Such a blessing from God.

Also, that same day on Friday, we went over to a family that we had taught before. They seemed just like a normal family that didn’t really want much. We had left them a little thing to read. When we got there, they were filled with questions about Joseph Smith. They were so interested in what he did, why he did it and how he did it. We helped answer all their questions, and at the end of the spiritual lesson they accepted a baptismal date for the 6th of February. They also were able to come to church this Sunday and they loved it. 

This week in church we filled a whole row with investigators. I was seriously so happy to see these new faces in the church and to see them progressing. It really was a week full of miracles!

As for my spiritual thought this week, I wanted to share something that caught my attention today. I was reading in

20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

21 He hath filled me with his love , even unto the consuming of my flesh.

As I was reading these passages, I was thinking a lot about the hard times we face in everyday life. Why do we suffer sometimes? Nephi, in these scriptures, is telling us something so important. He had been through so much in his time. He had suffered many afflictions in the wilderness and had seen many trials. But, he still was rejoicing in his God. HE HAD BEEN FILLED WITH THE LOVE OF GOD.

I have seen in my life, and in my mission, that when I am down, or when I am struggling; I am just forgetting about God’s love. God loves each of us personally. He knows us. He does not want us to struggle and be miserable. He wants to show us His love and give us His hand.

I hope this week that each of you can find His hand.

He will lift you in the lowest of moments.

yummy Empanadas!

Week 67.... Why do we do all of this???

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I can’t believe we have made it to 2016. I feel like the time is flying by so fast. I don’t know about all of you but time here in Chile is just rolling. I feel like there is never time to even take a rest on a holiday. The holidays come and then they go and it was just like a blink of an eye. It was a really great week for us here in Villa Obispo. 

Elder Christensen and I had a great New Years. We got to eat at a family’s house and then in the night we went out into the street and shot off a few confetti launchers. It was funny because we were the only people in the whole street. Everyone else had left and gone to a stadium where they were shooting off fireworks. So when we left the house to yell and cheer we were the only ones there… it was a literal ghost town. It was still a good way to pass the holidays ;) 

This week has been one of many adventures and many errands. I feel like we have been running all over the place without stopping. Monday was half a p-day. Tuesday we had a meeting with President Bluth in Concepcion, Wednesday we went back to Concepcion to talk to President, Thursday we had a ward party for New Year’s Eve, Friday was New Years, and Saturday we had our Zone Conference which was super awesome. 

I have literally had no time this week to even think about what I was going to say to everyone but while I was sitting here I was reminded of something that really helped me during the week.

So, to start this story off, I need to tell you a little about 

this investigator we have. We have this guy, his name is Pablo. He is a 35 year old single man. The missionaries have been teaching him for about 5 months. I got here when he had about one month listening to the missionaries. We have done so much for this guy. We have prayed, fasted and gone out of our way to help him receive his answer. There was one point where we were in the Baptismal font, the Spirit entered the room and literally almost swept me off my feet. I had never ever felt the spirit so strong. When I asked him to be baptized, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said NO. This guy has talked to our Mission President and even a 70 who came to our Stake Conference. He literally knows everything and he is just waiting until God tells him that it is his time. This last Sunday he came to church. He was sitting alone so I ran up to him and sat by him in sacrament. As we were taking the sacrament I looked at his face and I thought of a question. Instead of interrupting the Spirit, I wrote on a little note with the words:

"WHY DO WE DO ALL OF THIS??" I asked him the question. Anyway, it went on to a good conversation that led to a lot of improvement. 

But, the story I wanted to tell you was later, as I was thinking about that very same question. I was thinking about how hard it is to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ. How much we suffer. How much we are tried. How hard being a faithful member really is. The leaders ask that we give all our time, all of our effort, and what do we receive... money?... no we don’t receive anything physical. I pondered the question: Why as members of the Church of Christ, WHY DO WE DO ALL THIS? Why do we suffer, why do we serve, why do we shed tears of pain when we see others in pain? WHY?

 I was then turned to a scripture that one of my old companions used to share.

 It is found in 1 John 4:19:

We love him, because he first loved us. 

This scripture is something so small, but it says so much. 

WHY DO WE DO ALL OF THIS?? 

It is because of LOVE.... LOVE FOR GOD!!!

I have felt so much love in my life…from my family, from my friends, from all of you guys, but most of all I have felt the LOVE of GOD. I could not imagine how God would feel if I did not succeed. I can only imagine how a parent feels when someone they love so much, their own child, makes a wrong decision or doesn’t succeed in something. I can’t even imagine how God feels watching all his children go through this battle of life. Watching them fall at times, watching them struggle, but always loving them even with their weaknesses. I want to testify to each and every one of you that GOD LOVES ALL OF US; No matter how hard our path, no matter how bad our weaknesses. We have a Father in Heaven that loves us.

I love each and every one of you and hope that each of you can feel HIS love each day.

           

we bought a bundle of ties for $30.00

more New Year's fun!!!