Week 26: Happy Easter!!!

Hola a todos!

Working till 1:30 in the morning!

So, we really don't have any investigators that are progressing, but we have been trying really hard to look for new investigators this week.  We found a good amount, and we are going to be teaching them this week.  Wish us luck! We have one investigator, that has had all of the lessons 4 years ago with the Elders. She couldn't be baptized because she has a smoking problem, but she knows that the church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true.  But in all of this time, she has not been really progressing very much.  Hermana H. made the decision about a week ago to leave her as an investigator, and use the time to teach others.  The truth is that I didn't feel like it was right, but I ignored the feeling.  The very next day we were walking to an appointment, and I felt like we should take a different route. We were walking and I looked to the side and sitting right there was Alejandrina!! We went over to talk to her, and she started telling us that she has the desires to change, to be baptized and everything, the only thing is that she wants to know that it's what Heavenly Father wants for her. I feel like honestly that it was an answer to me that we need to keep teaching her.

I have been pondering a scripture this week that is in Proverbs 23:7 that says, (sorry, I only have my scriptures in Spanish) "Porque cual ese su pensamiento en su corazón tal es él."  Or in other words, what we think of ourselves is how we are.  The most important person that needs to have a good opinion of you, besides God is YOU!  When we recognize our worth and potential, that is when others are also going to recognize and see it also.  

I have a little compromiso (I don't remember this word in English ) for all of you (I looked it up and it is commitment).  That if there is a time when you are thinking negative thoughts about yourself, you need to say 3 good things.  It may seem silly, but do it.  And if you don't have these negative thoughts about yourself, do this when there are negative thoughts about others.  Think of the good things that they have to offer.  I know that when we do this, we can develop charity for our brothers and sisters.  And when we have charity, we can develop the other Christ-like attributes.

Happy Easter!! And prepare as much as you can with questions for General Conference this week :)

Love Hermana Boice

I saw Hermana L. at our Zone Conference with President Egginton!!

Week 25: #Hallelujah #FlyingsolobutwithmycompanionandtheSpirit

Our new district, sister trapped!!

This was my first week with my new companion Hermana H! And my first week directing the area.  I was honestly really worried that I would forget what bus to take and where this person lived, but I have truly seen the Lords grace in my life.  He has truly strengthened me in my times that I have had the need of strength, and knowledge.  We have found a couple new investigators this week, so I hope that all will go well with them, and hopefully we will be seeing them at church soon. Yesterday the 4 of us left church and had an hour to do something before we ate lunch with the bishop, so we decided to get onto a bus and sang songs out of the hymn book.  No one really paid much attention to us, but we had a good time.  

If you haven't seen the new Hallelujah videos, you need to see them.  You can find them on followhim.mormon.org .  This is the time to remember Jesus Christ, and the time to act and follow him, so that we can find a new life.

And I don't remember what this is called, but it's super good....
 like creme bruleé.  :)

Today, we ate with our new investigators Miguel and Monica.  They are both very nice, and are really focused on centering their lives in Christ.  Right as we were ending the lesson, there was an interesting turn of events. Right as Hermana H. finishing bearing her testimony, the 8 year old son of Monica came over, leaned on the table, and it broke.  It was a bit of a surprise.

I love you all, and want you to know that I am so grateful for my Savior, my Redeemer, my Friend, Jesucristo. Y yo sé que él vive.

Les amo mucho!!

Hermana Boice

Week 24:Cambios, Happy PI Days, and 1 year to go exactly!

Our last Sunday together (And Hermana L. and I matched. :)

Well, we received our cambios (exchanges) yesterday! Hermana L. now is Reforma, which is right next door to Tlaquepaque, and is my sister training leader!!!! I am so very excited for her, and I know that she is going to be amazing and help so many sisters, me included!  I am going to be staying in Tlaquepaque, and my new companion is Hermana H., she is from the same generation as Hermana L.  I am excited to have a new comp and be able to learn a lot from her.

A little bit of sad news :( Keyla and Antonio moved from our area.  They were living with Keyla's brother and mother, but things went a little bad, and now they don't want to live there anymore.  Antonio's grandpa left him his house for them to live in, but the sad thing is that not only is it not in our area, but its in the other mission.  The good news is that both of their jobs are still in our area, so we can still see them.  I hope that they can get married soon so that Keyla can be baptized. This family is truly a blessing, and I am so glad that we found them.

My new comp Hermana H.!

On this day, I officially have one more year in the mission, so I will see you all next year!  This month has been a really weird one with the weather.  It started getting really hot, and then the next day, was freeeeezing.  There was a part of Guadalajara that snowed.  It was super bad because it was so cold, and it was raining also.  Now its back to being hot. Who knows how it will be next week.

Also, another huge thanks to the Karatassos family for their Easter package! It literally made my week when I received it!!  Gracias gracias gracias!!!

And Happy PI day! Eat a pie for me, we only ate Tacos and Chapalita here!

Love,

Hermana Boice

Week 23: Rrrrrrrrrrrrollen el errrrrrrrre

I think one of the biggest things that happened this week was on Monday.  We were in the house all talking to each other, having a good time.  And I started to talk and my tongue actually rolled on the R's!!!! I am officially a Mexican because I have all the things I need to talk in Spanish! Whoo hoo! Orrrrale!

This is the limit of our mission, the other side is the Guadalajara mission

(I thought the face of the guy photo bombing was funny too.)

I don't remember what day is was, but 4 of us were on a bus heading to eat at a members house. We are started to get off and I was the last one.  On the steps I slipped a little, bent a little forward, fell to the next step, then fell backward and landed on the person behind me.  All people on the bus and outside saw it.....it was a little embarrassing.

This week has been a lot of walking, walking, walking.  As of about 3 weeks also, it has been sooooo hot! I have no idea what I am going to do when its summer, because techincally it is still winter.  I sure that the Lord will give me strength!

I would like to share my scripture that I am ponderizing this week.

 Its in Isaías 55:8-9: 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

We need to always remember to be humble and accept the will of the Lord whatever it may be, because he can see the big picture, he can see what we need to learn, and what we need to experience to reach our potential. 

This may be my last week in Tlaquepaque, I really dont know.  We have exchanges this next week, I will let you know where I am going to be! Have a good week everyone!!!

The sunset we saw last night!

Love, 

Hermana Boice

Week 22: 5 Months and 5 New Investigators....

We went to eat at Keyla´s restaurant!

This weeks was awesome because on Friday, we received 5 new investigators in the morning!! But don't worry, we don't have any pride on our part, because it was completely the Lord. Usually in the mornings, we don't have lessons. We walk from plan to plan and never find the people.  We spent all of this morning talking to people in the street and knocking on doors.  I said a little prayer that I will be able to know who we need to talk to.  First, we saw a lady and her husband standing in the street, and I felt that we need to talk to them.  She told us to go across the street to her brothers house, because he likes to hear these kind of things.  So we knocked on his door, and right from the moment he was very excited to see us.  His name is Andrés, and he asked us if we can come back to teach him more.  Well, we told him that was the perfect question.  

After, I felt the need to knock on a green house in a privada.  A woman, Julia, told us that she was busy, didn't have time, and we just kept on insisting, promising blessings for her family.  She let us in and we taught her, her two girls, her mom and dad, and her nephew.  And all of them were interested to hear more.  We will be going back to teach them this week.  It is truly amazing how the Lord prepares us. Julia lived in the United States and had contact with the missionaries there, and has a Book of Mormon, and her mom Sixta went to the church many years ago. We are super excited to teach them!

A couple funny stories....well, first yesterday I ate pig skin. It was very strange, but not too bad.  We were in a bus this week and it was full of a looooot of people. We were trying to move forward and the bus started moving, so I fell backward and smacked a lady in the face. She was not very pleased to say the least.  Yesterday two men from another religion (I don't really know, but they celebrate the Sabbath day on Saturday) came and we chatted with them......well, I think it was a little stronger than just chatting.  He had some questions for us about why we celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, and wanted us to give him a scripture that says we should. There were other things, but we have an appointment with him next week, and we are preparing with our Bible knowledge!!

Love, 

Hermana Boice

It was raining a bucket this day, it was amazing!!!! (5 month mark)

My first churros in Mexico! It only took me 5 months to find them!!

I want to learn how to do this when I get back home!

Week 21: Goodbye Typhoid, Hola Root Canal!

So remember when I had to go to the dentist a few weeks ago because my teeth were bothering me? Well, the pain started becoming unbearable about 2 weeks ago.  I felt like the side of my face was throbbing, and it was super hard to talk in our lessons.  We went to a dentist in the ward, and she referred us to another dentist in the area. We went to him this Thursday and he took an X-ray of my teeth.  Turns out, the last time that I had a cavity, it was really deep in my tooth., and when they filled it, the filling was touching my nerves.  so this whole time there has been some friction going on, killing my nerves.  Or at least this is all what I understood in Spanish...haha. So I had a root canal right there, was super fun!!

So an update on one of our investigators Keyla!! Well, she is still not married with Antonio, but they are both doing everything possible to get married, so that she can be baptized. I hope that in the next 2 weeks they can do so that Hermana L. and I can see her getting baptized!!! They are both amazing.

Earlier this week, we had to go back to the doctor, for a check up on my 'Typhoid'. We brought my blood results and asked him to explain them.  He started to do so and came across the result of Typhoid (which was normal) and we could see from his face that he had made a mistake.  But he went on saying that everything was normal, and at the very end he said that I had Samonilla.  We are pretty sure that we won't be going to him again.  Its amazing how many people are dishonest! 

But ya, that happened, and I hope that I won't have to have open-heart surgery next! I hope that I will have more to talk about this next week! We were in the other mission when we went to the dentist so we took some pictures and enjoyed the time that we had.

Con Amor,

Hermana Boice

Week 20: Happy Valentine´s Day and False Alarm...Maybe!

Happy Valentine´s Day Everyone!!

Well, we are thinking that I actually don't have Typhoid! About 2 weeks ago the doctor said that I had Typhoid from a call from the lab with my blood results.  After, we went to get my results from the lab, we took a look, and it looks like Typhoid is a negative.  We have an appointment tomorrow with the doctor, so hopefully we can clear all of this up.  But I am feeling normal and have been working.

We were able to go to the temple on Thursday with a member that got her endowments out.  She is a cute old lady, and super happy to get her endowments. That day we left the house at 10:30 to go, talk to her and help her get ready.  She wanted us to come back at 1 to leave to the temple, so we couldn't make it to our lunch appointment at 2.  We were in the temple until around 8pm and then we finally got to eat.  We were starving all day!!!

A bit of sad news.  One of the members of our ward passed away on Saturday morning. She was an amazing member, and did so much work for the temple. She submitted thousands of names, and did the work for more than 1,000 people.  We like to think about how many people were waiting for her to thank her on the other side.  On Sunday, we only had sacrament meeting, and everyone left to see her burial. After this, we did a Heart Attack to some members of the ward and taped lots of hearts on there doors with little notes.

That is all for this week! Hopefully I will have more stories next week!!!! 

Con amor,

Hermana Boice

Now we have more hermanas than elders in our zone! Awkward!

One of my new favorite things to eat! Salsa with jicama and mangos.

Hermana T. has a selfi-stick