Week 9... Abinadi, Spiders, and Service!!!

Wow this week has been a really good week. No baptisms, but it was a really spiritual week. This week I was reading in the scriptures. I was reading in Mosiah where it talks about Abinadi.  Abinadi is seriously so amazing. He would have had to have so much Faith. I want to be like Abinadi. He testified of Christ even up until the moments of his death. He was getting burnt by fire and he was still testifying about Christ. Abinadi seriously has been my model this week. I have thought a lot about how he would think about things. It has really helped me this week.

 I was also reading in Alma 5:27, it says, "Have ye walked keeping yourselves blameless before god? Could ye say if ye were called to die at this time within yourselves that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?" It later says “Have ye been stripped of pride? Have ye been stripped of Envy? If not ye are not prepared to meet God!" That scripture really helped me a lot this week. We have to live every moment preparing to meet God. We all have a lot to work on, but with the help from Christ,  we can be made clean. We should live every moment and be able to say "I am ready to meet God", " I can walk blameless before God" Those scriptures really helped me this week. I know if we put all our trust in the Lord we can be made into the people God wants us to be. That is my spiritual thought of the week. I love you all so much.

So, I have noticed that I haven’t really been giving good detail in my emails. So I am going to spend time giving some details. So right now we are living in a little house. Elder Cardoso (Brazil), Me, Elder Sheffield (Pleasant Grove) and Elder Ehlen (California). All the missionaries in my house are so awesome. We do a lot of fun things to make the mission a fun experience. When we have spare time, we have nerf gun wars. We open all of the windows and doors and run around shooting each other with nerf darts. It is really fun. Also we have been catching all these bugs that we find in our house and we put them in a jar. So far we have caught over 30 spiders. We watch them fight each day. As a missionary, you find a lot of little things entertain you now that didn't entertain you before… haha. 

 I seriously love my city I am serving in. I am in a little town called Yumbel. There are seriously more dogs than people. The dogs here are super crazy. There are a lot of homeless dogs. They have all these diseases and are nasty. We have to always have a rock in our hand or act like we do. The dogs always come up to attack us, but we have to scare them off. The people here in Yumbel are so nice. We have been doing a lot of service lately. Doing service is seriously the best part of the mission. I forgot how much I miss work. The other day we spent a few hours shoveling rocks into a truck. It honestly wasn't that bad, but the next day I felt like I couldn't walk. Haha, it is crazy how fast you lose everything. I was so sore from working. At home I worked all the time, but out here in the mission, we haven’t done much physical labor. 

 Elder Cardoso and I have a lot of investigators. They are all so good. They just need to come to church. They cannot progress unless they come to church. That is the hardest part. They have all accepted a baptismal date, but they are too busy to come to church on Sunday. Some work, some play soccer, some visit family, some live in the campo, which is about 30 minutes away. We have been teaching them the importance of coming to church. This last Sunday we invited this family of 4 to come to church: Mom, Dad, 14 and 11 year old boy. This Sunday the 2 little kids came to church with all their friends. 

We had like 8 teenage boys come to church… it was so awesome. After church we asked them what they thought. They said “baptize me”. These kids are seriously so good. It is sad because their parents aren't making the right decisions. We want to help them, but their parents don’t really like us. We told them to keep coming to church, and then we can baptize them in a few months. 

So, I posted some more pictures this week. This family is so good. Sergio is the dad, and  Martin is the little kid. Martin is my favorite kid here. This family wants to be baptized, but Sergio works every Sunday, and the parents aren't married. So we have to work on these few things, but they are super good.

 Also, we have been doing a lot of service this week. I’m still trying to work out when I have spare time, haha. We found tires that we lifted up for exercise. I am still losing weight. I eat and feel full, but my weight continues to go down… haha. 

 Hope you all enjoy my pictures. Tell everyone hi for me. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving this week!

 Love you guys!!!

Elder Boyer 

Week 8... Trust in the Lord!!

Not much time this week!! But I will make it fast. I love you guys a ton. 

One thing that I learned this week was more about being humble. I love the scripture Mosiah 3:19. I have read this scripture a lot, but this week it really stood out to me. It talks about how the natural man is an enemy to God and will be forever, unless we listen to the enticing’s of the spirit. I really began to think about that this week. Doing the normal worldly things is the natural man. I read a talk this week entitled "The Consecrated missionary" This talk really hit me hard. It gives an example of a missionary who isn't being obedient. The mission president says he needs to be more obedient. The missionary replies," You are not just asking to change my behavior, you are asking me to change my nature." The Mission President replies," Exactly" That really stood out to me. If we are obedient because our companion is making us, we are only changing our behavior, and when we get home, we will fall back into our old habits. If we are obedient because we love the Lord and we are obedient regardless of what our companion does, then we have changed our nature. I related that to the scripture because, the natural man will always be in our life unless we have the spirit with us. We can only have the spirit if we really put all our focus on God and rely on him. The second part of the scripture says this. If we listen to the enticing’s of the spirit and become as a child; submissive, meek, humble, full of love, putting all our trust in our father like a baby relies on his father. Sorry, this is all over the place. It is hard for me to try and express what I want to say in English. Everything I am learning is in Spanish. I know that if we put all our trust in the Lord, and do his will we will become the people that God wants us to be. I know the Natural man is a huge part in the world today. But if we put all our trust in the Lord and become that as a child we will be blessed, and we won’t fall to become a natural man.

I love you all so much. Have a great week.

Elder Boyer

Service Project

Week 7.... Humble yourself!!

Our mission logo...

This week was a great week. Not much really happened but it was still a great week. Elder Cardoso and I are working really hard. We are finding a lot of new investigators, but we can’t seem to get our old investigators to progress. It's been really tough, but I know it will work out. I cannot tell you how fun missionary work is. Going into people’s houses and bring them the message of the restored gospel is seriously the most amazing thing. It can be the worst of days but as soon as we walk into someone’s house, my whole mood changes. Even though a lot of people aren’t accepting us right now, it is so fun to tell them about the blessings that I have received because of this Gospel. This week was a great week. I get better and better each day with Spanish. I can actually start talking to people without having my comp. right by my side, haha. In the lessons,  I was able to tell people about personal experiences. I am improving so much… Not only in Spanish, but also in the Gospel. There is not one day that goes by where I don’t learn something amazing. My spiritual thought this week is to humble yourself. That is one thing I really learned this week. A lot of times I think that I know the right way, or that I know how to do things. I know that if we humble ourselves and really listen to what the Lord wants us to do, that is when we will receive and experience things that we wouldn't have if we would have done it our way. For example, my companion has told me to Read the Spanish Book of Mormon for my morning study. He said it would help me to learn Spanish. I told him no, because I wanted to learn the things in English. I have been doing this the whole time I have been here. Finally after saying a sincere prayer, I was reading in the chapter heading of Ether 12. The quote says this. "God gives men weakness so they can humble themselves".  I really began to think about that. I really started to study about having humility. Having humility is not a weakness, it is actually a strength. I began to work on humbling myself and really started listening to what the Lord wanted. I started reading my Book of Mormon in Spanish every morning. My Spanish has improved so much this week. It is amazing the blessings that come once we humble ourselves. So my thought this week is, we all have weaknesses, if we humble ourselves before the Lord and really want this change, the Lord will make our weak things become strong. 

Mom-  To answer your questions: We stay in our area everyday besides Tuesdays. On Tuesdays we go to Los Angeles for Zone meetings.  There, we make goals and talk about our investigators it is really good. We have a zone conference with the President every 3 months. He is actually coming to do interviews on Thursday so I will get to see him. I don’t get to see him too much. Today, I am actually in Concepcion. Elder Cardoso is having an ingrown toenail removed, so I will get to see Presidente, and I will pick up my package. I cannot wait to see what is in it. 

Everyone else, I love you guys so much. Sorry I don’t have a lot of time.  Keep emailing me and sending me pictures.  I love it!

Love you guys have a great week.

Elder Boyer 

Week 6.... "Dulce Trabessuras" (Trick-or-Treat)

Wow, the weeks keep going by faster and faster. This week was a super good week. Elder Cardoso and I worked super hard. I can’t believe that I have made it to my first transfer already. That is so crazy to me. I am almost 3 months into the mission. I seriously love it so much. There is no other place I would rather be. This week was Halloween. Down here in Chile, it isn’t that big of Holiday. 

 We were dressed up as missionaries… haha.

 No, but this week was just a normal week. Nothing really too exciting happened this week. I continue to grow and learn new things each day.

 I watched this amazing video the other day. I don’t know what it is called, but I think it was something like “The Atonement, Missionary Work." I encourage all to go watch it… It doesn't only pertain to missionaries: 

 (clink on link)

Missionary Work and the Atonement

In this video it talks about how sometimes life gets hard, and all of us, being human, expect it to be easy. Elder Holland and President Eyring give 2 great talks. All of us expect life to be easy, but it was never easy for Christ. How can we expect it to be easy when the greatest of all walked the same path and it was not easy for Him? My favorite quote from this movie was something like this, "At times we will feel like everything is going wrong, or is so hard, at that moment we will be standing shoulder to shoulder with Christ, experiencing some of the pain he felt."  That quote has really helped me this week. The times where it gets hard are the times I feel like Christ is further away, but in reality he is even closer. That makes me so happy to know that when we are having our worst days, Christ is always standing shoulder to shoulder with us, and lifting us back up.

 I hope you can all watch this video, it has really helped me a lot!

Sorry I don’t have much time this week. I really missed Halloween. It was not the same down here in Chile. Not very many people dressed up. I did get a little bit of candy, but it was crap candy. Nothing like at home where they give out chocolates. All I could think of was all our family festivities... I really miss those times with the family.On Halloween, I was out trackting, these teenage kids walked up to me and asked me how to say "dulce trabessuras" in English, which is Trick or Treat. I told them, and then they said something to me in really fast Spanish. I was like, “Si”, cause that is what I usually say when I don’t understand. My companion yelled No!!! They then pulled out all of these eggs and started to throw them at us. It was really funny. They chased us all the way down the street. Apparently, they had said, “can we throw eggs at you?” And me, not understanding said YES!! I’m an idiot, haha. I didn't get hit by the eggs, but my companion did. It was a fun night. 

I hope all of you had a great week.  I miss you guys a ton.  I’m glad that all of you are doing great. I pray for you every night. Love you all.

Love, Elder Boyer

Week 5.... My First Baptism!!!

Elder Sheffield, Roderigo, Marcia, and Elder Boyer

HEY!!!! How is everyone doing? This week was a pretty good week for me. Probably one of the best weeks I have had here in Chile. This week, I have really improved my ability to speak in Spanish. It is so hard to learn a new language, but with the gift of tongues, I know I will be able to do this. This week we had a ton of activities because it was Stake Conference. On Wednesday, we had a talent show night with the Ward. It was fun to see everyone's talents. On Thursday, we had a movie night. We made some popcorn and watched Ephraim's Rescue. For those of you that have not watched this movie, I suggest that you do. It is such a good movie. One thing that really helped me this week came from this movie. Ephraim goes around the handcart company and is giving everyone blessings. The people are immediately healed by the power of God. One of the ladies comes up to him and says,"you must be a Holy man." He says "I have more doubts than I know how to count." The lady looks at him confused and says "Then how is it that you do so much good?" Ephraim says, " I TRY". I think that is so awesome. A lot of times, we have hard times, and a lot of doubts, but I know if we continue in Faith, and continue to try... The Lord will bless us. That really helped me this week when I struggled with my Spanish. The rest of the week was a good week though. Oh Yesterday, I got to baptize a Sister. She wasn't my investigator, but I got to baptize her because I am still in my training. I was so excited to get to baptize her. I was so nervous at first though. This sister was scared of the water, so I had to get in right on the first try. I was stressing saying the baptismal prayer in Spanish. When I finally got in the water and started the prayer, I felt so good. The spirit was so strong. When I pulled her up out of the water, the smile on her face was so amazing. I realized that this is what I am going to be doing for the next 2 years. Bringing people to this gospel and bringing happiness into their lives. It was such an amazing experience. I can't wait to have one of my investigators baptized. We are getting really close. We have to keep working with the people here.

 We have some really good investigators....

Anyways it was a great week. It is amazing the miracles that happen while you are on your mission. You really begin to see the power of God. It was such an amazing experience. This week was such a good week for me. I had no clue Spanish was going to be this hard to learn. I thought it would just come easy. I am working so hard. I am improving little by little. This week I gained a lot of confidence. I still feel pretty lonely at times, but I always look at the positive side of things. Things are just going up hill though. Anyways, we had return and report last week. I got to see all my buds from the CCM...it was sick!

Have a great week. I love you all.  

Elder Boyer

Return and Report Luncheon

Week 4.... No Pain, No Gain!!

This week was a good week. I think I am finally getting used to things. I finally feel comfortable with everything. Honestly, each day that goes by, I love my mission more and more. I never thought a mission would be this hard. I always thought before I came out here that we would work so hard, but we would see results of our hard work. Right now, Elder Cardoso and I work hard everyday...

 ....we try to be exactly obedient so we can receive blessings, all of our hard work hasn't paid off yet. Elder Cardoso and I will find a good family, and teach them the first lesson, they seem super interested, and then it will fall through. It gets super discouraging. We work so hard, and aren't seeing results, it makes for a hard time. I know if we continue to work hard and stay obedient something good will happen. I never thought a mission would be this hard. The mission is so full of up and down emotions. I feel like a teenage girl sometimes... haha. I can have a super high moment where I feel on top of the world, and then an hour later have something happen that puts you in the dumps. That's a mission though. I just got to work through the hard times. I honestly love my mission though. I am changing so much. I love the quote that Nike has. It is "No pain, No Gain"... that quote is so true. 

I applied it to missionary work and life. If we aren't having hard times, or being discouraged, we aren't gaining. The times we feel the most pain are the times that we gain the most. I think that is why I have improved so much out here, because this is honestly so hard. I have already had experiences that have forever changed my life. I am only 2 months in, but I feel like I have improved so much since I left. I don't think I have ever been so happy in my life. My advice to you this week is when you are having hard times, turn to the Lord and he will lift you up. We must experience misery before we can know happiness. When times get rough, don't turn AWAY from God, turn TO him. His hand is always outstretched.

 2Nephi 20:4. Remember God is waiting, and wanting to help us. Turn to him and he will reach out his hand and lift you up.

 Remember " NO pain, No Gain"!!

 I love all of you so much. I hope all of you are doing great. Have a great week. Also if you have time send me some pictures I love receiving pictures. 

Love you all so much.
Elder Boyer

Mi Casa

Elder Hernandez, modeling the kitchen

Breakfast of champions...

Our Dining Room...

                                         

Our Study Area

                                       

the map of our area...

The Bedroom

My closet....

The Bathroom...

Ummm, so there's this...

                                                     

Our Laundry Room.... ;D

Lunch time!!

     

Roasting mallows with these Elders!