Semana (Week) 34: Antonio and Diego got Baptized!! 8 Meses en la Mision!!

The Baptism of Diego!

What a week!!!  Well, we had our two baptisms this week, Antonio and Diego.  Antonio received the priesthood and now has a temple recommend also so that he can go to the temple!!! Things were a bit crazy getting everything ready for the two baptisms on Saturday and Sunday, but everything went well.  On Saturday, we also had our Talent Night in the church.  I guided the activity, told a couple jokes (everyone laughed) and we sang (but wasn't really that good because we didn't practice).  But it was a really good weekend! 

The Baptism of Antonio!

This week we found a new investigator, Martin.  We were with a less active, Dolores, and he showed up when we were starting the lesson.  We taught the Restoration, and the Spirit was really strong! He told us that he believes that everything we taught him was true.  He told us that he drinks a lot, but he had gone 4 days without drinking.  He was about to go to a bar to drink, when he felt that he should go to the house of Dolores.  That was when he found us.  He knew that it was a answer from God that this is the path that he should go.  The bad news is that his lives at the bottom of the mountain, so we have to climb a lot to get to his house, but sacrifices right?

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5)  I was really pondering this scripture and the things that caught my attention were OUR, our transgression, our iniquities. We talk to investigators and help them to understand that we all pay for our own actions, because it wouldn't be fair if they paid for someone else, but Jesus suffered everything that was "ours", and we are really in such a great debt to him. I really feel a greater love for my Savior, and a greater gratitude to him.

8 Months!!

Today I completed 8 months in the mission! How crazy time flies when you are having fun! Have a good week!!!

Love,

Hermana Boice

A really big looking cockroach that I found!

Semana (Week) 33: 2 Bautismos!

This week we have been planning for the 2 baptisms that we are going to have this Saturday! One is Antonio, who has come to church for years but never got baptized because he stays in Acambaro 3 months and then in Mexico City 3 months.  But, we had a really good lesson with him yesterday about his desires to be baptized, and he really does have the desire.  It was planned that he needed to leave this Saturday to go to work in Mexico, but he made the decision that he will stay till Sunday for his confirmation. The other is Diego and he is 9 years old.  All of his family are members, but he didn't want to get baptized because he didn't feel like he was obedient.  He really is a sweet kid.  We had a lesson with him, and he told us that he was sick.  During our lesson, he politely said to me, ¨Excuse me for a moment, I need to go puke.¨ He is so funny...this kid.

We found this in the street, something look familiar?
 I really don't know what Jesus has to do with the birds they are selling,
but whatever works for them right?

I have learned a skill very useful from the mission and I learned about it when we went shopping in the market. Everything that is in the market doesn't have a set price, you can bargain anything. I have never been a good person to bargain. But slowly I have learned from Taxis that want to charge us triple, to be able to do it.  We were shopping for clothes and with everything that we bought, it would be 850 pesos, buuuuuuut, we got everything down to 550.  People like to charge me extra because I am American, but I am Mexican on the inside!! Ha ha!

This week we have really worked so hard because we have had divisions almost every day with members.  The poor members that have to go with me, because I am still learning the area.  One young woman was with me and I took a wrong turn, and we ended up traveling 3 times farther than what we needed too, oops!

Love you all!! 

Hermana Boice

We found this awesome looking ancient church, and now they use it for an arobics class.......

WEEK 32: The Einstein and Indiana Jones looking Witch Doctor Hippie......

Hola a todos!!!!! 

Well, this week has certainly been an interesting one! First off, this last Sunday we had our Zone Conference in Morelia but with all of our bishops and leaders from the ward counsel.  It was super awesome!! They talked about how the goal of the stake is to have a temple, and so we need to "Pressure" the Work, and double the numbers that we have.  Now, we have the goals of 15 investigators in sacrament meeting, and 50 lessons with members present every week!!!  Haha, no pressure....but we are going to work as hard as we can!

This last Thursday we had an activity for Mothers Day in the church.  We all ate and there was a little show put on by Priesthood and Primary, and then after we watched some short videos from the Church.  Now, there is this man that we have meet 2 times before in the street, and he is super crazy!! He looks like Einstein, dresses like Indiana Jones (minus the hat), is a ¨Doctor¨ and is a hippie.  One of the times he saw us and he called to us ¨Cousins!!! You are my cousins, and these are my cousins, we are all cousins!¨ He also gave us these colored rocks that are for necklaces, and said that they will tell us in our future and protect us or something like that.  After the activity, my comp teared up a bit because we felt the spirit, and he came up to us and started to tell us not to cry, because we need to enjoy life.  He couldn't comprehend that sometimes we cry when we feel joy.

So I am officially now the pianist every Sunday, because no one knows how to play.  We found out that we actually have more than 40 towns in our area.  We went to one that is about an hour away in Iramuco.  There is a really big lake next to it that is pretty.  We have a couple future investigators that we are going to visit this week over there.

That's about it for this week! 

Love you all!!

Hermana Boice

Semana (Week) 31: Feliz Dia de la Madre!

Happy Mothers Day!! Thank you mom for everything that you have given me, and your big example to me! Love you!

Our New District!!

Cool looking catholic church in Morelia.
The amount of Catholic churches here are like Mormon chruches in Utah.  :)

I feel so poor right now! Because Acambaro is really far, we need to travel every week to Morelia, like 1 hour 30 min, and then back again.  Also, we have a lot of little towns that are from 40 min. away to hours.  So we take a lot of buses.  And they are the nice buses too that look like airplanes from the inside.  Lots and lots of pesos! Hermana R. told me when I got here that we have like 4 or 5 of these towns.  We found out the other day, that actually we have 38!! Probably the farthest part of our area is El Tepozán, which I think is part of Queretaro, and its probably like 2 to 3 hours. Our area is HUGE!

BOM for the Japanese man.

3 funny stories from this week.  One of the members has wanted to give a BOM to a family that she has worked with for a while.  The problem is that he is Japanese, and only speaks English, not much spanish.  And so that is where I come in... haha.  But we just decided to leave a BOM in English and Spanish at his work with our number, and see what happens.

Another funny story, we were walking in the street, and were talking about the references that we received.  Hermana R. said, ¨Hugo vive aquí!¨But I thought she said ¨Jugo¨(Juice).  And I started looking around ¨Donde? Donde? Quiero Jugo de Fresa!¨ Just a small misunderstanding.

The funniest thing that happened was yesterday, by far! We were heading to Morelia for our Zone Meeting, and we climbed onto a bus that looked like it was ours.  As the bus was getting read to leave, some people told us that we were in the wrong seats, because they were numbered.  But we told them that we didn't have any numbers on our ticket.  So we decided to ask were the bus was going and what do you know? It was heading to Mexico City! Good thing we asked.  The District Leader called us as we were on the right bus and we thought we would be funny to joke, and tell him that we were on the bus to Mexico.  And he took it seriously.  Just about when we were about to tell him that it was a joke.....Ëlder, Elder......are you there? It was a joke! Elder!!!  The signal went out.  We were able to get a hold of him 10 minutes later.  Thankfully he only contacted the Zone Leaders and not the AP´s.  But ya, we learned our lesson and repented.

Have a good week!!!

Hermana Boice

I finally bought a Mexican dress! It was my dream!

We "accidentally" climbed a big hill and got lost, but has a nice view!

Week 30: Las Escaleras y 7 Meses!!!!

Completed 7 months in the mission field!

Hola from Acambaro! This week feels like it was super long because we did so many things and many things happened.  But that usually happens when you are new in an area. Frist off, Acambaro is awesome and suuuuuper big.  It is kinda like Guadalajara in some parts, except that its not as flat. And there aren't many buses either, so we walk all day long  There is one area that we usually go to everyday, and the streets are super steep.  We are really building up our muscles.  Although, I am a little jealous when I see 4-wheelers and Mopeds. I am super happy to be here, also because its the land of bread! There are bakery's in every corner and the bread is super delicious.  I also found out that I am the first missionary that is guerrita (or in other words, white girl with blonde hair) in the history of this area, maybe that is why I get so many weird looks.

The people here are awesome too! We have members that are so supportive and help us bunches. We have some investigators that have a lot of potential, also. Two of them that accepted a baptismal date this week for 28 of May.  One experience that I had this week was really special.  We have one investigator Saul.  His family are members but he isn't, but he has been attending church for 4 years!!  the reason that he never got baptized is because he has a smoking problem.  We had a really powerful lesson with him.  I felt that when I talked, it wasn't me.  I knew that it was the spirit.  I am really so glad to be here, and have had so many special experiences.

I'm not this red...its a filter on the camera that is really vivid!!!

So we have a touristic place in our area that is called ¨Las escaleras¨ or the stairs.  We have a mountain in our area that has stairs that lead up to the top, and they are many! This morning we climbed it with a member.  We were up there for about 3 hours it really has a nice view! Although I forgot that I have a fear of heights, and almost had a bit of a panic at one point when the stairs were really narrow, but I made it and we survived!! There are lots of pictures!

Just want to leave you all with my scripture for the week (don't have it in English) in D&C 6:20; ¨Sé fiel y diligente en guardar los mandamientos de Dios, y te estrecharé entre los brazos de mi amor.¨

Les amo mucho! Tengan una bonita semana!  

Hermana Boice

We found this awesome looking house, and found out that in the back, it is the place for Alcoholics Anonymous.