Aug 11 and Aug 18

Aug 11

Hello family!!!!! 

ok so more news. Aprille is for sure getting baptized on Aug. 30th. and it's going to happen in Salt Lake (she's going to do it in her brother-in-laws ward) so!! if you are free that weekend I would HIGHLY encourage you all to go and meet her! I told her that maybe THIS Boudreaux couldn't be there but that I would do all that I could to get some Boudreaux there :) I don't have the address or time yet but once I have it I will let you know! she is seriously such an amazing person. She came to church again yesterday and loved it. She is just soaking up the gospel!! it's so amazing to see. I love it!! missionary work is seriously the most amazing thing EVER!!!! watching others change their lives to be closer to the Savior is such an amazing thing. ah! it's great :)

ok so in more news we found 3 new investigators this past week! they are the children of a recent convert. They just came back to live with their mom. They are a girl who is almost 12 and twin boys who are about to turn 9. They are so excited to learn! They all want to be baptized too! we are working with them slowly just so that they can see how important everything is and really understand what baptism means. It has been really cool to watch their Mom open up about her testimony of the gospel and why she wants her kids to learn about the LDS church. so that was a bright spot in our week!

oh goodness I don't even know what else to write about. Oh! we got a car! well for at least the rest of the transfer (3 weeks) so that was super exciting! we did a sweet we got a car dance on Saturday to celebrate how excited that we were :) there might have been a song that went along with the dance....

I guess I just want to end with my testimony. These past few weeks have been hard. but the Lord has been with me. every single step of the way. We watched the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration movie the other night with a family and in it Joseph is teasing a man that sometimes the Lord brings us low before He can raise us up. I love that thought. many times the trials and things that we are asked to face in life are there so help us come low. To help us remember just how much we need our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Humility! it's a beautiful thing! but it's not always so easy to become. and it's not really all that fun when you get humbled. but this whole tummy issue has been just that. A way that Heavenly Father has taught be something new about humility. I have had to turn to others and ask for help in ways that I have never had to before on my mission. I have had to listen to the Spirit (and my companion) telling me to rest when all I want to do is go out and work! I have had to be humble enough to pour out my hear to the Lord and know that He will make it alright in the end. I know Heavenly Father knows and loves His children. Yesterday in our Sunday School class we were talking about covenants. There is a man in our ward who is a convert of just over a year. He talked about how he was super nervous right after he got baptized because he didn't feel like he knew as much as all the other men in his Priesthood class. His wise bishop took him aside one day and was talking with him about this. The bishop just reminded him that we are all children of God. and we all get to learn and grow. I love that thought! we are all God's children. and He wants every single one of us to come back to Him. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to learn and grow. He doesn't care if we are baptized when we are 8 years old or 80 years old! as long as we make that special covenant with Him and do all that we can to keep our end of the promise He is pleased. I love this gospel!! so much! and I love all of you :) Thank you for the prayers and the love

Love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux 


aug 18
well. it's been a crazy week. and I don't even know what to write home about.

We got to go to Martin's cove this past week with our investigator Aprille and her husband. It was really nice to get to go out there. they are some of the funniest people ever. I love being around them. They always make me smile! The senior missionaries out at the cove are super awesome too! they took us on a tour of the visitors center and told us all sorts of cool stories and different things. I enjoyed it a lot! 

We also had 3 investigators come to church on Sunday! so that was really good. Aprille came and then PJ and Brayden two of the boys that we are teaching came with their mom as well. The boys told us that they LOVE this church! so that is a good sign :) 

oh goodness I know this is like the lamest email ever but I don't really know what to write home about. my brain is like mush recently. I love you tons and I am excited to see you all too. It's hard but I know it's for the best. 

I love you all dearly!

Love always

Sister Boudreaux 

July 28 and Aug 4

Aug. 4, 2014

This past week has been a little bit crazy! but good. I might have gotten a little bit more sick... and we might think that it's not allergies... but i will hopefully be going to the doctor soon and it will all get worked out! I got a Priesthood blessing and was blessed that I would recover quickly and get back to proselyting. so that is the plan!!! I might have been stuck inside for a little bit this weekend... and I got super bored! Missionaries not working is never a good thing! :) but sister Bentley was able to work it all out so that she could still get to our appointments. and things are still going really well in our area! so there are blessings all around!!!!

ok as far as a package goes um... no I don't really need a new CTR ring. if I really want one I can get it when I come home. currently I have been told that I have to eat a BRAT diet (Banana's, Rice, Apple Sauce,s and Toast) hopefully that will change soon! (I might have bought some crackers to snack on too) so hopefully I will get it figured out. I am sure there is a simple answer. so I don't know about a package. if you feel the desire to send one that is fine but if not I am okay with that too :) I might actually be sending home some old study journals and things sometime in the next few weeks. 

ok so this past week. We got to see Aprille twice! and her husband sat in on one of our lessons! which is awesome. She is seriously such a great person! I am so glad that I got to meet her and teach her. She was telling us about how she pulled out this huge book of her genealogy that her grandma had given to her and inside were some amazing stories! (she comes from pioneer ancestry but her mom decided not to raise her family in the church. So that is why she is now an investigator and not a life long member) so she starts reading these stories to us. and her however many great grandmother used to go and play with Joseph Smith's little girl! They lived in Far West and inNauvoo. She has an account of them watching the prophet and his brother ride off to Carthage Jail. It was really cool to hear about! She's amazing! She loves the Book of Mormon and we are just so excited to get to keep teaching her. :) 

We had some really great lessons this past week with some less active families as well. We are doing this program called Home Primary. Basically the Primary gives us names of kids who haven't been for a while and we go and teach the Sharing Time lesson to them. It's been a lot of fun! and funny enough I have been teaching quiet a few 5 year olds :) what can I say! they are my people :) I sure do love getting to spend time with them. We have a super awesome ward out here. I seriously love it! Church yesterday was perfect! Exactly what I needed. Don't you just love when you have had a hard week or something and then you get to go to church and BAM! you just get hit with the spirit and you know that everything is going to be just fine. It's like these special messages from Heavenly Father. The peace and comfort that comes as we get to partake of the Sacrament is something that I literally can not live without. There are many times that I tell myself just make it to Sunday!! Sunday is the best day ever because we get to take the Sacrament :) I love it!!! 

I am trying to think if there have been any crazy adventures that we have been on recently. I feel like the major one has just been staying healthy! (sister Bentley got some food poisoning this past week... ya it's been a little crazy around here!) but our ward members and our Sister Training Leader have been taking such good care of us. It's been great. 

I love you all tons and tons! I know this email is super short but I don't really know what else to write about. I was joking with the other sisters that I must have lost like 17 lbs in the past two days! since I can only eat like rice. but hopefully soon I will be back to eating like a normal person. The good news is that it is most like that I am NOT allergic to peanut butter!!!! so I am super excited about that. Not that I am currently allowed to eat it again but I am still excited that there is a possibility that I may someday get to eat it again :) 

Well I love you!!! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! they mean so much to me!!!!! 

Love always your favorite Sister Missionary!!

Sister Boudreaux 

July 28, 2014

oh goodness this past week has just flown by! I don't even know what happened! So last monday we packed some and said a lot of goodbye's which were incredibly hard! I miss everyone there already. Huron has a very special place in my heart that is for sure. Then Tuesday we cleaned our car, house, and PACKED! which took forever. then a few last goodbye's Htoo Say Paw was hard. She is the Karen girl who is 13. We are pretty buch BFF's. I might have given her my CTR ring when I left. but she told me to be her friend on facebook when I get home :) so I will for sure be looking her up. Then that night we drove to Brookings. The transfer train was supposed to get there at 8:30. but then didn't get there til 10:30. so then I was like that's okay I can just sleep on the train. eh false! they asked sister maisey and I to drive a car behind them. so ya. it was an adventure! we stopped in Sioux Falls for the night and had 9 sisters staying in 1 apartment. the next morning we woke up at 5:30 and got ready so we could head out by 7. then I rode in the 12 passenger van (aka the train) for the next FOREVER. the first part of the drive, from sioux falls to rapid, I rode with a lot of misisonaries who were on their way home. the second half of my ride from rapid to casper, I rode with a lot of new missionaries! so the two rides were a little bit different. We did stop in Rapid for a little bit and it was like being back home :) I finally got to Casper around 6:30 so pretty much a full 24 hours later :)

ok! so I made it here! and Sister Bentley is awesome! I love her. She is from California (a town just north of LA) and she's great. We actually are only about a month apart in age. and oh my goodness Casper is different than Huron! when we went to church yesterday I was like... there are so many people!!! it was weird. :) and there are 3 church buildings here! crazy! we however don't have a car. but that's okay. that combined with all these weird food allergy things just mean that I can loose weight before I come home :)

ok so our miracle of the week. Her name is Aprille. and she is AMAZING!!! so incredibly prepared for the gospel it's not even funny. So her mom is a less active member of the church but she raised her kids to not like the church. But just recently Aprille's daughter who is 19 joined the church! she lives out in Salt Lake and is actually currently engaged to a return missionary. this past Christmas someone gave Aprille a copy of the Book of Mormon and recently there were just things in her life pointing her to the church. She was a referral from the church headquarters and has been amazing to teach. She is set to be baptized at the end of next month. She came to church yesterday and loved it. Every time we meet with her the spirit is so strong. She is so prepared!!!!! and it's because of the different members of the church that she has interacted with in her life. Today when we left we were even talking about her going to the temple a year from now. like seriously she is so ready!

things are going really well here. I am excited for the new area. funny story. so we live with some members and they are from the Sandy area. The pulled out their old year books and guess who we found? Grandma Hatt!!! :)  I forget sister whitlock's maiden name but she was in the same class as grandma :) also there are like missionaries everywhere here! it's crazy. not like Huron with just us and the Elders. :)

well I guess that is all for now. They still dont' know what I am allergic to. Slowly they just keep eliminating things from my diet. I pretty much just hate food now. Which is sad because you all know me. Food and I used to be bestest friends. but I guess I will finally start living a healthy lifestyle! :) I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us. This past week I had many opportunities to feel the spirit working through me. It's one of my absolute favorite feelings. There really is nothing like it. There are so many lives to touch here and people to help. I am excited to get to it!

Well I love you all dearly. I don't even know what to ask you to sent to me. So far I know for sure that toast with honey on it does not upset my tummy. but I have a lot of honey from Bro. Taylor my ward mission leader in Huron. I guess as I figure out more things to be able to eat I will let you know! but for sure no peanut butter, cheese,. or carbonation. uplifting letters are always nice though. :)

Love you all!!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary
Sister Boudreaux 

 look I made home made brownies!!!! from scratch! they were really yummy too. 

 this dog is named burger king. and we are bestest friends

worlds largest pheasant... welcome to huron south dakota!

July 21

oh my goodness this week has been crazy!!! hopefully I will remember everything as I am writing. first off the transfer call came! I am going to Casper, Wyoming. My new companions name is Sister Bently. what is crazy is that Sister Maisey is getting transferred too! she is going to Gillette, Wyoming. They have decided to send a second set of Elders to the area. so we are running around like crazy people packing and cleaning our house and our car and getting everything ready to leave tomorrow. The ward was not too happy to hear that they are loosing their Sisters but we just keep reminding them that transfers are inspired of the Lord! Plus there aren't as many sisters in the mission as there used to be so I think that some areas are shutting down. It was funny though because one of the woman in our ward has been wanting us to teach her husband and he is slowly progressing to the point that he was going to start taking the lessons but he isn't super comfortable with the elders so she was super sad that we are leaving. She joked that she was going to kidnap us and leave us in her basement so that we could teach her husband :) She's like can't you just see it! national news two sister missionaries go missing! we were laughing pretty hard. but all joking aside I feel like her husband will get there someday. I told everyone they will just have to pray for sisters to come back!!!

in other news I found out this past week that I might be allergic to peanut butter. worst thing that I ever did hear. for the past month or so I have been having these really weird feelings and I get sick and I get super tired and just weird stuff but I had no idea what it was so I just pushed through it because eventually it would pass and I would be fine. Well the other night I finally called the mission nurse and she told me that what I was explaining was an allergic reaction. and that the most likely culprit is peanut butter. which peanut butter is basically like my favorite food. I eat it with pretty much everything!!! so now I have to stop :( and I have to keep a journal of what I eat and see how different things make me feel until we can figure out what it is exactly that is causing everything. so it's been a little crazy with all of that happening!

we also had Htoo Say Paw one of the recent converts in our area who went to girls camp this past week. She is 13 and I love her! she's the cutest girl. She always makes me smile. We are pretty much best friends. :) she got sick the morning that she was supposed to leave though so she couldn't leave then. but there was someone else going up to camp a few days later so she got to go with them and stay for 2 nights. it was an adventure figuring everything out! but she went and had a really great time.

Last week in district meeting we were challenged to give away 2 Book of Mormons this past week. Sister Maisey and I really wanted to! but like I said our week was kinda of crazy with just random stuff coming up left and right! but we placed one on Tuesday when we went out contacting and tracting and then on Friday night we found a miracle. We had finished dinner and we were trying to decide what we wanted to go do. We had planned tracting and contacting. We stood outside and felt like we should walk towards one of our recent converts houses. So we went off that way. We walked for a while and none of the houses felt right to tract into. We got to a park and Sister Maisey's like well let's go talk to people at the park. Keep in mind that every time we have gone to this park to contact people the only people we manage to find are people who don't speak English and pre-teens/teenagers. but we decided to go. as we are walking we are almost to the other end of the park when this man says Hello to us. Before I even know what was happening I turned to him and started talking to him. We bore testimony of the restoration and talked to him about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he has been going through a lot of hardship recently and that he was looking to become more religious. He then asked us if we know a certain member of the church. the certain member happened to be our ward mission leader! (who happened to be who we had just had dinner with ) he told us that they were good friends. So he already had a built in fellow shipper! we gave him the Book of Mormon and committed him to read Alma 7 about the Atonement. He told us that he would. As we walked away it was just one of those moments that was so awe inspiring. to know that the Lord hear our prayers and led us right to someone who needed the comfort and support of the Gospel and give us the opportunity to bear testimony to him and introduce him to the message of the restoration. I really hope that when the Elders get here that they can work with our ward mission leader to start teaching his friend!!

oh! so we had zone training meeting this past week too and they church has come out with some pretty cool changes! they have made some adjustments to preach my gospel. There are 5 lessons in preach my gospel that are taught to people. 4 of them were to be taught before baptism and one after. Well they have changed it so that all 5 lessons will be taught before someone can be baptized. Which I think is super helpful. Because lesson 5 is the Law's and Ordinances. So it's where you talk about the Priesthood and Auxiliaries, missionary work. Celestial marriage, service in the church. family history work and the temple. This way teaching people about those things before  they are baptized will help them to see what the real result of them joining the church will be. It's not just to get baptized, it's to be an enduring member. It's to make it to the temple. To have an eternal family. To receive all of the ordinances necessary for us to return to live with Heavenly Father again someday. so that was cool to hear about!

We also talked a lot in Zone training meeting about family history work! which at first a lot of the missionaries were like really? how is that supposed to help us? we have been told that our work(right now as full time missionaries)  is for the living not the dead. But it was super awesome!!!!! we talked about the doctrine behind family history work and about the Spirit of Elijah. there are many people in the world today who are being effected by the spirit of Elijah and they don't even know it! The Spirit of Elijah is what prompts people to want to know more about their ancestors. There are many people out there who do family history work, who want to be connected to their families. but they don't know why. well we do know why!!! they have that desire because families are central to the plan of salvation. Because having an eternal family Is the only way back to Heavenly Father. It's because families are divinely ordained. so as missionaries we need to search for those people who are being affected by the spirit of Elijah and help them to understand why they are having these desires. They also showed a video by president Eyring that was super powerful. In it he talks about our ancestors who are on the other side of the veil and how they are looking to us for help. How we are their hope. at one point he talks about how when we come face to face with them someday we want to be able to have them look at us with a look of happiness and gratitude and not a look of disappointment. But the one part of what he said that really hit me was that we are their hope. We faithful members of the church. the ones who understand the plan of salvation and why we have temples. We that have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are their hope.

ok. I don't think that I have anything else to write about from this week. like I said things are a little crazy! but I am excited for what is ahead. I know that the Lord is with me always. He reminds me of that day after day after day. Often times I have to tell myself that there are people out there who have things a lot worse than I do! and that there are faithful members of the church who have gone through trials much worse than mine! Especially I  like to consider on the suffering of our Savior as He performed the Atonement. There is a verse in Doctrine and Covenants about it that always hits me. It's when the Prophet Joseph Smith is in liberty jail. The Lord speaks to Joseph about all of these horrible things that could come upon him and that he should know that if they do come that they would be for his good. and then the next verse is the one that always gets me. It says something to the effect of "the Son of Man has descended below it all. Art thou greater than He?" our Savior lived the perfect life. He loves everyone perfectly. and yet he was crucified. He went though so much. More than we can even comprehend. He descended below the depths of Hell. are we greater than He? no. so we will be asked to face hard times. but the beauty of the Atonement is to know that He will be next to us helping us along as we are called to face them. He did it along. and because He did, we don't have to.

well my dear family and friends I had better get going! Lot's to do on this crazy p day! but I love you all so much!!! thank you for the prayers and the love and the support!!!

Love you!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux

July 14

Okay so this week my email might be a little bit shorter. This past weekend there was a crazy storm that came through and I guess it caused some damage to the library so it's closed. So we are emailing really fast from the church! So not as much time to reply :) what's funny is that the storm came through on Saturday morning between 5 and 6 am. it rained like 3 to 4 inches here in town. People had flooding. I guess the lightening was crazy bright. I slept through the whole thing :) Sister Maisey work up. She thought the lightening was me taking pictures of her. I woke up and just thought it had rained a little! then we started to hear the crazy stories. It was pretty funny. What can I say I love my sleep! it's important to me :)

So this past week we finally found a new investigator!!!!! we are super excited. They were a referral from our bishop. They are a family here in town and we met the Grandmother this past week. We shared the Restoration with her and the spirit was super strong! She told us that she is excited to read from the Book of Mormon. we have an appointment to go back and see her again tomorrow! so we are excited about that.

This is also the last week of the transfer! CRAZY!! I can't believe it! This transfer has gone so incredibly fast!!! it will be exciting to see what happens. I am trying to think if anything else crazy has happened this past week. It was a pretty typical week. We got in to visit a lot of the people that we usually see. We have for sure felt the hand of the Lord helping us along :)

Oh I got to speak in church yesterday! I was asked to give a talk on chapter one of Preach My Gospel, My Purpose as a missionary. It was really nice to get to study that chapter and look for ways that I could explain what my purpose as a missionary is to the ward here. It was also interesting because they have decided to start having Elder Zaw (he is the karen elder serving here) translate the talks so that the karen members can understand more about what is going on in church. It was a new experience to have to pause every so often so he could translate. you know me I talk a million miles a minute! so it took some good self control :)  I really enjoyed the talk.I talked about our purpose. in Preach My Gospel it states that "our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. (in the MTC they make you stand and recite your purpose so that you have it ingrained in your head!)  I used some of the paragraph's in Preach My Gospel in my talk as well.. Specifically how it talks about why the Gospel is essential. It puts it really well. Basically it says that the purpose of the gospel is to help us be clean enough to return and live in the Celestrial Kingdom. The second half of my talk I focused on the first part of our purpose, inviting others to come unto Christ. I shared the song Come Unto Christ, the mutual theme for the year. I think it was one of those experiences where the talk was really for me more than anyone else. it just helped me to remember why I am here. and what I am doing. That through all of my actions, words, and deeds I should be inviting other people to come closer to the Savior.

okay well I had better get going! I can't think of anything else exciting that happened this past week to write home about. but I love you all oodles and oodles!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux

July 7

I can't believe that it is already time to write home again! It feels like I was just here writing to you all. This past week went by so incredibly fast! Last Monday we went out to DeSmet SD which just so happens to be the home of Laura Ingels Wilder :) We met the Sisters from Brookings there and went and saw some of the different buildings and stuff. I have never read the books or seen the TV show so it wasn't super exciting for me but maybe when I come home I will read them and it will mean more. :) It was fun to spend some time with the other sisters doing something fun. We actually met in DeSmet so that we could go on exchanges. I was in Brookings with Sister Jensen. We came out together so it was really fun to get to be temporary companions. This transfer is actually one of the first times that we have seen each other since we got to the mission field so it was fun to catch up and get to hear each others stories from our different area's and such.

The rest of the week was pretty typical. Lot's of faith filled tracting! :) We may not have found any new investigators recently but it has been a really great experience to get to open our mouths in anyway that we can to testify. In the Book of Mormon it talks about raising a voice of warning! we are doing our best to do that here in Huron. I know that there are people who are ready to receive the gospel here! We are just still searching for them. I know that the work we have been doing is making a positive impact on the community. And there really are tender mercies of the Lord everywhere helping us to know that we are doing His will and His work. As long as we can go to bed at night knowing that we did our best that day that is all that matters!! :)

The 4th of July was tons of fun! so much better than last years :) President gave approval for us to watch the parades and the fireworks! so that gave us a few more things to do in our pretty empty day. Although I do have to say that parades in small towns are NOTHING like the parades back home. The one in Huron was so quiet. like no one yelled anything, no music really. It was a little different. but the big thing out here is the candy. We got to go out to Wessington Springs and watch the parade out there too with the Bishop and his family. Oh my goodness they got SO much candy!! their parade was a little more lively :) they were fun to watch. The next part of the day might have been my favorite part of the 4th. two words. turtle. racing. Everyone in the community catches a turtle and they race them on the 4th of July! The kids race them and they do it in 3 age groups. We named the White's turtle speedy. He did really well. :) we raced for all 3 of the age groups and qualified in each one to race for the grand champion. After the races we drove with the whites out to the lake to set him free back out into the wild :) while we were there we got to talk with a few different people in the community too which was good for the work! After we let speedy go we had dinner and then fireworks! all in all it was a fun day. we got to be out in the community here in Huron and out in Wessington Springs. The more we are seen the better! we also got to visit with a woman in our ward who has been really sick recently. It was good to spend some time with her and just feel the special spirit that she has with her in her home. She has some of the strongest faith of anyone that I have ever met! She is a truly special woman.

Yesterday we were able to show the Mormon's Next Door presentation to our ward. It's the presentation we saw about a month ago in Zone Training Meeting that is all about who we are as LDS people and how what we believe correlates with how we live our lives. It's really cool.  We were going to have one of the Elder's read it with me while Sister Maisey clicked the buttons on the prezi but then the Elder got pretty sick. So I read all 19 pages of it myself! which was okay :) when I got done one of the older men in our ward told me that he wished he could read as well as I can :) it was a very nice complement! We are excited to see how maybe this tool can help our members as they are working to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors.

Other than that I can't think of much else that has happened recently. Things are going good! Life just keeps going forward faster than I would have ever imagined. It was so good to see the pictures of all the grandkids! they are all getting soooo big!!!!! I love and miss them and all of you tons and tons!!! I know that the moment that I get to be with all of you will be an amazing one. and I know that the harder I work now the better that moment will be. Yesterday as I was sitting pondering during the sacrament the spirit just hit me so hard with the fact that my family loves me. I have always known that but they witness I received yesterday was so powerful. I bore my testimony yesterday about how important families are. I know that I would not still be here on my mission if not for the love and support of my family. I know you are all excited for me to come home and I am excited too. but I am so much more excited to get to serve with all of my heart until that day comes. I love you all so much!! I feel your prayers and love!!! You mean more to me than you will ever know!! Thank you again.

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux

 Happy 4th of July!

Speedy the turtle.

June 30

Hello! so this past week was kinda of boring. I don't have any super exciting things to send home. But it was good. Well it was a little hard. but still good! the hard weeks seem to be the ones that you learn the most from. and I learned that you just keep going!!! It was actually pretty amazing this past week we have been sharing the scripture from D&C 84:88 with people about how angels are all around us to help us and lift us up. Well this past Friday night I was really having a hard time. I took a few minutes to myself to just pray. and after I finished praying I realized that our Sister Training Leader Sister Jensen was supposed to be calling us. As she did call and talk with us it was amazing to see that she was the angel that Heavenly Father sent to me that day. She was just able to help me talk things through. As we talked I just had the strongest spiritual impression that the reason that I work so hard and keep trying even when I want to quit is because the work that I am doing is true. It's because the Gospel is true. I know that with all of my heart. Is it hard? Ya!!! but is it worth it? YA!!! Life is never going to be easy. It was never designed to be easy. But we always have the choice to be happy. and to learn from things. This morning Sister Maisey and I were talking about things we have learned from our missions. and I just realized that one of the most important things that I have gained from my mission is an itty bitty little taste of what our Savior must have gone through. To understand what it's like to be rejected by people when they really have no idea who I am and what they are really rejecting. to know that the sorrow that I feel for these people and for the world are nothing compared to what He felt. To know that as hard as it is for me to forgive and move on that that is exactly what He did! The world teaches us to be bitter and seek revenge. to make things "fair" well we were never told that it would be that way. But we were promised that all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Is it hard to live a life as a dedicated follower of Christ, especially in the world that we live? Ya it is. but it's the only way back to our Father in Heaven. Christ and His example are the ONLY way. There is no other way. Is it hard? of course. it's going to take everything that we have. everything that we are. to make it back there again someday. God askes that we give our whole soul to Him. and He promises that if we do He will give us greater joy than we can ever imagine. I don't want to get to the judgement bar of God and have Him look at me and tell me that I could have become more. that I didn't reach my full potential. That is one of my biggest fears. But as we know we must have faith not fear!!! so I continue to trust in the Lord. I have faith in the pattern of the gospel. Faith that if I strive every single day to do my best that it will all turn out okay in the end. :) I guess that's what I have learned on my mission and just something that has really hit me this past week.

Yesterday we had a cool experience. we had just finished dinner and prayed to know where to go. We had thought about tracting and so we prayed to see if that was the right thing. A less active of ours came to mind but we hadn't really been in to see her for a while. But it felt right! so we went to her apartment. we get there and she is in the shower. so we leave and as we are walking away I am just so confused by this prompting. It was to go and go now! and then we went and she was in the shower? wouldn't the spirit have told us to wait until she get's out? but then as we were walking across the parking lot this lady stops us and is like oh I didn't know there were girl missionaries. Which is actually something I have heard a lot on my mission. so I figure she is just another person who has talked with Elder's in the past sometime. eh wrong! come to find out she is a member! she just moved back to Huron this past week. We were able to go up with her right then and meet her and her boyfriend (who is not a member) it was really cool! she's a cute girl! she joined the church about 8 years ago here in Huron. I am excited to get to know her better. She even invited us over for dinner this weekend! :) Just a tender mercy of the Lord. If we are wiling to listen to the promptings that He sends us  He will lead us to where we need to be when we need to be there. :) so what I learned is don't question! just act :) ( I have learned this lesson a lot as a missionary... it's an important one!! )

well other than that life is pretty much the same old same old. Remember the story about how I fell on my face running last Oct? I still have a really funny looking pink mark on my knee. One of the girls in the ward saw it yesterday when I moved my skirt and she asked what it was. oh ya know I just fall on my face on a regular basis. :) but it does make people smile when I talk to them about it so I guess it all turned out okay :)

That's something else that I have learned about being a missionary and really about life. you have to laugh!! if you can't laugh then you will never make it through. I was talking with Sister Anderson (President Andersons wife) and she just told me she loved how happy I am. I told her that life is too short to be grumpy all the time! she laughed and said that is true!

This week feels like it was the longest week of my mission and yet it went by SO fast! it's crazy. but good things are happening here! and amazing things are coming! I can feel it!!!! I love you all so much!! sorry for a totally random letter. my brain just feels like it's not fully functioning today. hopefully next weeks will be a little bit better :)

LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Love always,

Sister Boudreaux :)

June 24

ok. so this past week has been crazy and amazing and crazy!! so hopefully I can get it all into one email!! and it will make sense! so first off my official release date is Oct. 16th. just so everyone knows. and now that everyone knows we are no longer talking about it. :)

so this past wed. a tornado came through Wessington Springs a town about 14 min away from Huron which is actually where our Bishop lives.  Bishop and his wife were assigned to be a ma and pa on trek so they weren't home to be there with their 4 daughters when the storm hit. Sister White shared her testimony this past Sunday in church and it was amazing. She talked about how Wed. night she just felt as if she needed to call her family and see how they were. She got a hold of her oldest daughter, who is 13, and found out about the tornado. She told them to get in the basement in a room with no windows. She spoke of how after getting off the phone with her daughter she got on her knees in her tent and prayed. That was all that she could do. Pray that her family would be okay. With the path of the tornado our Bishops home and his veterinary clinic should have been destroyed. But they were both completely fine. Homes just around the corner from their home are completely gone. But theirs is just fine. As I have pondered on this experience I know that it was a miracle. I know that because our Bishop and his wife were where the Lord needed them to be that angels watched over their family and kept them safe. Wed. night our Bishops wife also got a phone call from Brother Farmer who, the elders quorum president in our ward, telling her that he was already in Wessington Springs to pick up her girls and bring them to Huron. He didn't have to be asked, he was simply there. This ward is a family. They take care of each other and it is such an amazing blessing to get to be a part of it and to serve here.

On Saturday Sister Maisey and I went out and got to help clean up the Bishops yard of debris. It was crazy to see the different things that you could find. I found a card from a Pictionary game, ribbon still in the package, cold and flu medicine also still in the package, a Disney princess bike bell, just random things! pages from a cook book. pieces of a letter. It's crazy to see in real life what a tornado can do.

So the reason that you are getting this email a day late is because yesterday we were able to go out and again serve and help clean up. All of the missionaries from the Sioux Falls stake were able to come out and help. There were about 40 missionaries and at least 10-15 members. We put on our Mormon helping hands T-shirts and we went to work! we were assigned to work in what they call the south gulch which is an area off the side of the highway across from town. it has a HUGE hill that lowers down into a valley type area that they keep cows in. There were HUGE pieces of metal and debris and many trees that had fallen over that we worked to haul out of the gulch. It was hard work but it was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of missionaries that I have served with in the past. One of the things that really stood out to me was the fact that we were doing incredibly hard work. Work that really no one else wanted to do and yet we all did it with a smile on our face. I don't think that I heard one person all day complain about it. Where else would you find a group of 18-26 year old young people who would be willing to serve so selflessly and with a smile on their face. :) it was truly amazing. And it was amazing to see what an effect it had on such a small community. We were able to do something for these people that would have been very hard for them to do themselves. it was amazing!! such a good day. a day that I will never ever forget. and don't worry I have LOT"S of pictures to send home :)

so when the tornado hit Wessington springs it then came up this way but thankfully it didn't touch down anywhere near Huron. The sirens did sound for over a half an hour and we went over to a members house so hide in their basement if we needed to. So we were safe!! but there was a CRAZY storm! I think another huge miracle from this storm is that no one was seriously injured. The sirens had been going off for over a half an hour in Wessington springs before the tornado came and all the people had listened to them. They took head of the warning and they were all okay. It's the same for us today. The prophets and the scriptures give us MANY warnings. and they have been sounding for a while now. If we head those warnings then we will be okay. but we must head the warnings.

This past Sunday our sacrament meetings was one of the most powerful sacrament meetings I have been to in a very long time. The spirit was so strong. as I mentioned above they had the people who had gone on trek share their testimonies. We had our Bishop White and his wife go and then also Brother and Sister Gose (she is who always sends you pictures of me :) ) went as ma's and pa's and then we had two youth go. To hear their testimonies was truly amazing! I just love this ward and these people.

okay well I think that was everything that I wanted to write about. As far as I can remember. The rest of the week last week is kinda a blurr. But there were many miracles seen and felt. This work is true! and I know that the Lord is always mindful of us!! I love you all with all of my heart!! thank you for the love and support! I know that the Lord truly has given us angels around us to help bear us up.

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux

the elders made a pyramid... because they are elders :)

 just a few looks at the damage.

 sister Jaramillo :) she serves in Brookings and she always makes me smile :)

 jump for joy! haha we were like we have to do something crazy! we are all wearing jeans so we can!!!!!

 all the sisters

 yellow shirts everywhere!

 taking a break for a min.!

 me by the Wessington springs sign!

 all the volunteers after a LONG day of work :)

 sister Johnson! she is amazing. she was my Sister Training Leader in Rapid!

 sister spencer my MTC companion!