December 16

 Hello!!!
So I completly forgot to tell you last week but this was a shorter
transfer (5 weeks) so last Saturday was transfer calls!! but no
worries we didn't get one :) which we were super excited for!!! I love
sister haskell and we are just starting to really get our
companionship unity down so it will be great to get to spend more time
together! this coming transfer is a 7 week long one so that is a
little different. It ends at the start of Feb! which is weird to think
about. This is also Sister Ransom's last transfer :( I am still in
denial that she will be going home. It's been great to get to see her
as I have been here in Rapid.

So I think that today I am going to cut all my hair off. into an
A-line. I have been debating doing it for a while. It's just so
annoying sometimes when it is long. but then I have been growing it
out for so long! I just can't decide. but I think that I will cut it!!
Crazy crazy I know!!!

oh also side note yes I got the packages! thank you!! they have been
fun to open every morning. The Mia Maids sent me and sister haskell
the 12 days of Christmas too so that has been fun :) I also got the
card from Dawnielle and the package from grandma and grandpa! so thank
you. The young woman sent this cute little paper tree and we put it up
on one of the tree trunks in our apartment and all of our presents are
under it. It's way cute. We are planning on skyping home in the
morning on Christmas. Also I was thinking that we could try to do a
group skype thing if anyone else would like to particpate. I am in the
same time zone as you again so I was thinking most likely some time
between 10 and 11? we will see for sure. I will call mom or dad on
their phones to tell them to get on skype. I am super excited to talk
to you!! I love you all so much!! Christmas season is a fun time to be
a missionary. We get to wish people a Merry Christmas all the time.
The other day we were tracting and we knocked on this guys door. He
told us he was baptist and wasn't super excited that we were there.
But as we left we both just smiled and wished him a merry christmas
and his face lit up and he said Merry Christmas to you too. It was
just a really cool moment. He didn't invite us back or anything but
that simple merry christmas brigthened his day and maybe now he thinks
of mormon missionaries a little bit better than he did before we
knocked on his door.

So this Christmas we as the missionaries have invited our ward to give
the gift of the gospel. We have encouraged them all to wrap up a copy
of the book of mormon and give it as a gift to someone this holiday
season. so I have the same challenge for all of you at home! get a
copy of the book of mormon. pray to know who needs it. write your
testimony in the front cover, wrap it with care, and give it to
someone that you love!!! This gospel is the best gift that each of us
has in our lives. This is the perfect season to share it with those
that we love. I know that the Lord will bless us as we strive to share
His gospel. People notice that we are different. And even in Utah
there are plenty of people waiting to hear of it!!!! And maybe they
aren't a non-member. Maybe they are a less active member who needs
some love. They may need an invitation to come back. To know that they
are loved and wanted in Christ's church. Here in Rapid we have had the
opportunity to work with many less active members and watching them
come back to the gospel has been amazing. It's such a joy!!!! The
other day one of the woman texted us and told us she hadn't had coffee
for 4 days!!! and we were so excited for her!!!!!! It's the small
things that bring real joy. I just love this gospel and I love being a
missionary!!!!!!!!!

This Church is true. I know it with all of my heart. The Lord wants us
to be humble. And when we are we are truly happy. In the past few
months I have had to come to the harsh reality that I don't always
have to be right. (a shock to all of you I am sure) In our last zone
conference Sister Anderson said something that has really touched my
heart. She told us years ago she heard someone say that it's okay to
be right but it's better to be nice and kind. And I have realized that
yes I am right about a lot of things. and honestly I am wrong about a
lot of things. But in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't
matter most of the time. The Lord is always right. and He doesn't go
around bragging about it or being rude. so why on earth should we? as
I have worked to be humble I have realized that I am happier. and it's
really not that big of a deal to admit that you don't always have to
be right. When I let go of that and submit to God knowing that He will
help me, I have been able to over come a lot of things. The Lord loves
us. And sometimes He humbles us because He knows it's what is best for
us. If I had one thought to really share with you this week it would
simple be what Sister Anderson shared

"it's okay to be right, but it's better to be nice and kind.

I love you all with all of my heart!
Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

So this email might be a little short this week. Things have been a
bit crazy! and we had a sweet older lady in our ward sign up to feed
us today and she wanted to feed us lunch. So we have a little bit less
e-mail time so we can make it there on time and still get everything
else done we need to today!

This past week has been CRAZY!!! oh goodness. but good too! As I was
writing to my mission president this morning I was thinking about how
this past week I really felt like I was serving others the way that
Christ would. We have the opportunity to go and visit a woman in the
hospital here last sunday and  then she called us again on Tuesday
night because she needed some help. We were able to do some laundry
for her and arrange for the elders to get her a blessing. Wed. night
we watched as the Elders gave her a wonderful blessing. The spirit was
super strong! Friday we were near the hospital so we decided to stop
in and see her and found out that she was getting to go home! it was
great to get to serve here while she was here and we are glad that she
is home again :) I was also able to shovel the walk of one of our
elderly investigators. Saturday afternoon we ran into an elderly man
in our ward who's wife is very sick with cancer and we were able to
sit with him for a while and just talk. We could tell that it helped
him a lot to get his mind off of things for a bit. He has done TONS of
family history work and had some really special stories to share with
us. These were all super simple things but they really made a
difference to me and my week. I have sticky note above my desk with a
quote from Preach My Gospel on it that says "we need to be Christ like
missionaries, not just do missionary things." As I have thought about
that quote it makes me realize that there are some days when I just go
through the motions because it's what missionaries do. I wake up and
work out and study and all of that because that is what missionaries
do! and then there are other days when I feel like I am serving and
loving others because it's what the Savior would do if He was here. I
hope that as I continue on my mission that I will be able to be a
Christ like missionary, not just go through the motions doing
missionary things.

There are tons other random little things that happened this week but
I don't even have the energy to write all of them. But it's okay
because we survived the week! and this week should hopefully be a
really good one!!! Last Friday night at our ward Christmas party the
bishop dressed up as the Grinch. The part was a how the grinch stole
Christmas theme. It was super cute!! and the bishop was super funny.
They also had a musical talent show which was fun to watch.

As far as weather goes it has been FREEZING!!! as in like wear two
pairs of tights cold!! The other day I told Sister Haskell that it was
frozen nose hairs cold here!! :) but we have been lucky that we have a
car and on the days that it has been cold we have had many different
places to go and people to see. So we didn't have to spend too much
time out in the cold! I still hate it with all of my heart but the
Lord has blessed and watched over us. So I guess I can't complain! and
We have gotten super creative about how to stay warm!! I think I have
inhaled more hot chocolate in the past week than in the last 10 years
of my life! Hopefully it will warm up soon :)

oh goodness I don't know what else to write home about. Life is good!
the work moves on!!! I love it here! This ward is amazing and I love
the people. Stacie and Tyler my converts from Grand Forks might be
coming to Rapid for Christmas so I might get to see them! I am super
excited about that.
oh and I got to see Sister Ransom quite a bit last week because we had
zone conference. which is when our whole zone comes together and
President and Sister Anderson do some training along with a bunch of
other mission leadership. It was really really good! I learned a ton!
I also got to have an interview with President Anderson. He is
amazing! best mission president ever!!!! He thanked me for my hard
work. He surprised me by telling me that any sister in the mission
would be happy to serve with me! who knew? not me hahaha :) He is an
amazing man and I love him and his wife so so much! serving in rapid
is a blessing because we get to see them more often. It's just a
wonderful place to be!!

OH! also random side note so last week we went and played basketball
and it was awesome! so when we first asked the Elders if we could play
with them one of the elders made a comment about how the could use
some cheerleaders. which I was like um... excuse me?? but then after
we played last week that same Elder told me that he took back his
comment that I could in fact play basketball. and I said thank you
elder cook I accept your apology :) so my basketball skills are still
some what intact! and the elders realized that I do in fact understand
the game :) so that was nice.

well I had better get going! I love you all tons and tons!!!! thank
you for the love and the prayers!

Love always,
Sister Boudreaux

 

Apartment

Hello my dear family and friends!
This week has been a good one! we were able to get in with a lot of
less active families and talk with them and set return appointments
for this coming week. We don't have a ton of investigators to work
with currently but I feel like if we work with the people the Lord has
blessed us with then He will bless us with more! So we just keep
working hard and search for the elect!

So while I am thinking about it I wanted to write home about
Christmas. I was thinking the other day and I would really like a new
set of scriptures for Christmas and a case to put them in. The ones I
brought out with me are getting to be super sad looking! in fact the
other day a less active made a comment about how "well used" they
looked..... so ya I think it might be time for a new set! also the
only other thing that I could think of is a second pair of boots for
when the winter really hits. other than that I am not too picky! oh
and mom in our mission because it does get so cold we are allowed to
have skirts that go all the way to our feet they just can't be too
tight. So they can't show the curves of our bodies. and yes I did like
the one you sent for my birthday! it was super cute :)

I always feel like through out the week I think of so many things to
write home about and then I get here to write home and the all flee
from my mind!

The ward here in Rapid is great! We have some really great people. A
lot of them are working hard to share the gospel! so that is exciting!
We are going to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Porter family who
are amazing! Sister Porter is the interpreter in the ward here so her
and Sister Haskell have been close since she got here (which was only
6 weeks before me. We are both pretty new to the area) So that should
be tons of fun! super excited for that. I guess this was the year to
miss thanksgiving right! :) in all honestly holidays as a missionary
are just like regular days. well for the most part. oh! Sister
Arrington wrote me this morning and told me that Jadyn has decided to
get baptized in March when she turns 18!!!!! that was super exciting
news! I wish I could be there for it :( but I am super sooooo
excited!!!!!!!!!!!! I just love that girl so much!

So this past few days I had a pretty interesting experience. the past
few days I have just had these weird feelings and I haven't been able
to figure out what they mean. it's almost like when you are trying to
take a deep breath but can't get enough air. but in a spiritual sense.
and to go along with them I have been having super weird dreams. like
crazy weird. The other night I had a dream where my heart was just
pounding! when I woke up I couldn't decided if my heart really had
been or not because it felt so real. and then I had a dream where I
was awake and talking with Sister Haskell and i looked in the mirror
and I had just been crying and crying because I had mascara all over
my face. and I even had one where I was at a basketball tournament
with Dad and Des and for some reason me and Des got in this huge
fight! (not sure why. but I sill love her!!!! of course) anyways they
were just strange strange dreams and these weird feelings and I was
trying to figure out what on earth they meant. So yesterday after
church and lunch we were trying to figure out where to go and what to
do and this feeling hit me again. So I sat down took a few deep
breaths and prayed. and the thought came to mind to ask for a
blessing. Which I hadn't really thought about because these feelings
hadn't been happening like non-stop or anything and for the most part
I was doing well. Emotionally i had been totally fine. So I wasn't
sure about what to do . So I decided to ask Sister Haskell about it
and she suggested a blessing too. So we talked with the Elders and
they agreed to meet us later that night. So we talked to them and they
just asked a few questions to better understand it and they one Elder
was like so you need some spiritual tums :) pretty much!! but then
they gave me a blessing at it was so amazing!!! In it Heavenly Father
told me that it was a good thing for me to come to him at that time
for that blessing. (which made me feel better about asking for it) and
in it talked about how the adversary had been trying to get at me. it
blessed me with an increase of the spirit. It told me that I was a
very special daughter of Heavenly Father and that I was a sister of
faith. And that as I use my faith to overcome Satan I would also be
able to see many miracles. It also blessed me here in my area. It
blessed me to be an example of the Savior in my words and actions
(which was a good reminder because some times the way I speak is a
little iffy... slang terms just pop out of my mouth sometimes! :) )
All in all it was a really cool experience. and I was very thankful
for the Elders who were worth priesthood holders who were able to
administer it to me.

on a side note I asked these same elders if they play basketball on
p-day (which they do!!!) so I invited myself to go play haha so later
today we should hopefully get to go and play with the Elders! I am
super pumped! one of the Elders was a little skeptical of letting me
play but I was like come on. I am not a typical sister okay! I can in
fact dribble and shoot a basketball. so I will have to let you know
how that goes in my email next week.

well I can't think of anything else to write home about. I am doing
well! life is good! I love serving the Lord. my companion just hit her
half way mark and she was like no!!! I can't be on the downward slope
yet! I am still living in denial of the fact that my mission will ever
end..... I love it too much! but I love all of you back home too!!
Thank you for your prayers! they are felt!!!!! and appreciated!!!
oh!!!! I almost forgot. yesterday at the end of sacrament meeting the
stake president stood up and asked all of the members to start praying
every day for a temple here in Rapid City!!!! and asked them all to
start preparing for a temple!!!!!! and then of course right after he
said that I was the person who was asked to give the closing prayer in
sacrament... no pressure! :) so I prayed everyone could have
missionary experiences and that if it be the will of the Lord there
will be a temple here.  we were crazy excited!!!!!!! so every day we
now pray that they can get one! it would be such a blessing to the
members here. and if they did get one then it would be a great reason
to come back and visit my mission :) well I already plan on coming
back of course. there are way too many people who hold very special
places in my heart to not!!

well I am starting to ramble about how knows what so I guess it's time
to end for this week. I love you all dearly! This gospel is true! I
know it with all of my heart!!!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux
aka Denae :)
p.s. the elder who gave me my blessing had to practice saying my name
like 4 times to get it right before he gave me the blessing. but I get
told all the time that people think my name is pretty! :)

Nov 18

Hello my dear family and friends!!!
Well I made it! :) So monday and the start of tuesday I was packing
and saying goodbyes!
Then Tuesday night we went down to fargo and from there I drove to
Bismark for the night. The next morning we got up early and drove the
rest of the way to Rapid City! It was a crazy few days but I made it
safe and sound!

oh goodness I love it here so much already! it's an amazing place to
serve! We get to go to the mission office to pick up our mail everyday
and we get to see all the cute office couples! I love them all they
are super funny. It's like having 3 extra sets of grandparents here.
They always call Sister Anderson our mission mom and the senior
couples are our mission grandma's and grandpa's :) We also got to go
this past friday to the mission home and help Sister Anderson as she
but ribbons on everyones Christmas presents. They took all the
pamphlets that we use as missionaries and had them bound into this
cute little book! I am super excited about it. We won't get ours until
our own zone conference which is in a week and we are supposed to keep
them a secret until then :) But it was tons of fun to get to spend
sometime with the other sisters who serve here and with Sister
Anderson in the mission home.

It's way different here though because all of a sudden we are sharing
our ward with Elders! and not just any Elders but the Assistants to
the President.(no pressure) One of them is Elder Cunningham who serve
in Fargo for 2 transfers when I was there so I know him pretty well.
He is awesome. And the other one is Elder Edwards and he is pretty
funny too. I am excited to get to serve with them. There are also 8
sets of missionaries who serve here in Rapid!!!! which is crazy!!! in
Grand Forks for the first 6 months I was there, the only missionaries
were us and the Elders and we covered different wards. then the last
transfer I was there the put a second set of Elders in the other ward.
(which was super weird to see 4 Elders together all the time)  Now
it's like I see missionaries everywhere! but rapid is different too
because they have 4 wards and grand forks only had 2. My bishop of my
ward here is Bishop McLaws and he is hilarious! We had dinner with his
family last night and they are super funny :)

As far as missionary work goes we found a new investigator on Friday!
so what was exciting. She is the daughter of a less active woman in
the ward who is working to come back to church. I guess she had been
listening to the missionaries visits with her mom for a while so
Friday I was like let's just ask her if she wants to learn more! so we
did and she said yes!!! so that was good. Plus we have a ton of less
active members and part member families to try so we are excited to
get out and get working! There is a lot of good potential in the area.
So here goes nothing!!!

Also I LOVE Sister Haskell! she is awesome. She is hard of hearing so
it's a little bit different of a companionship than my other ones but
different in a good way. The other night we did all of our planning in
ASL. I was a little nervous but it went really well!! There is also a
deaf man in the ward here and a woman who is an interpreter so
yesterday during church we sat up front and watched her sign. It was
amazing! The other night when we planned in ASL I prayed in ASL for
the first time ever!! it was really special. The spirit is still there
so strong. It's just beautiful to know that even if I didn't actually
say the words out loud I know that Heavenly Father understood what I
was trying to say. We get to do language study every day too and so we
are working on bearing our testimonies in sign language! There is a
deaf woman that they had been teaching and we hope that we can still
get in to see her and teach her too! So I want to be ready when we
do!!!

OH goodness I don't know if there is anything else to write about. I
feel like that is everything that has happened so far. It's much
different but great at the same time. I loved serving in Grand Forks
and I feel like I will love serving here too! I am happy  and healthy.
Things are going well! my new apartment is in the basement of a member
and it's super cool. I took a few pictures this morning and hopefully
I will be able to send them home so you can see them. They have huge
tree trunks in the rooms like pillars. it's super nice. It felt like
home the second I walked in :) Oh other exciting news! I got to see
Sister Ransom too! so that was fun. ok well I think that is all for
now. Life is good! I love you all!!!! hopefully I don't log off and
then think of a bunch of stuff that I wanted to write home about :)

LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL OF MY HEART!!!!

love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

Nov 12

with sister hobson and charity!

 at the baptism!

 Jerris and me!!!

me with Jerris and Christine

 Me with the Rose children! (love their family!!!)

Us with Stacie Tyler and their family!


Hello dear family!
The news is in and I have officially been transferred to Rapid City,
SD!!!!!! I am super duper excited!!!! Not that I don't love Grand
Forks but to be honest I am ready for a change. :) My new companions
name is Sister Haskell. She is hard of hearing and knows ASL!!! she
has a cochlear implant though so she can hear. But still I am super
excited to get to practice my signing skills!!! Also Sister Ransom got
transferred to Rapid too! so we will get to see one another. I will
get on the transfer train (the big 15 passenger van they use for
transfers... well they actually use 2 of them... so many
missionaries!) I get on at 5:30 tonight and I will hopefully be in
rapid tomorrow! That was my exciting news.
The next piece of exciting news is that Stacie and Tyler got baptized
on Saturday!!! they might have shown up 20 min late to their own
baptism but hey! they were there :) then Sunday we were waiting for
them to get to church and we texted her just to see if they were
coming. And she was like sorry I was in the ER this morning for a
breathing treatment because I have been so sick! what?! ya! crazy. but
they made it! Thankfully the opening song was master the tempest is
raging, which is forever and a day long :) they showed up right as we
started the last verse. At the baptism Stacie's mother in law spoke,
who is a very active member of the church and she just said that this
day was an answer to many, many prayers. Stacie's husband also shared
a few words and he talked about how he hasn't been the best Mormon but
that he knows that this church is true. I really hope that through
Stacie and Tyler's example he will be able to become really active
again. I just love them so much! Saying goodbye last night was hard!
but they have family in Rapid and should be visiting there at
Christmas time so maybe I will get to see them!
I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting on Sunday (we had stake
conference the first weekend) and as I was walking up Jadyn turned to
Sister Deem and told her that this wasn't going to be good news and
she looked down at the floor. When sister deem told me that it made my
heart hurt! of course I told the ward I had been transferred. I will
be super super sad to leave Jadyn! she is just an amazing girl. She is
having a little bit of a hard time because her family doesn't
understand why she is learning about a new religion. They just aren't
ready right now to hear it themselves. But she is progressing so well!
she comes to everything! Yesterday we played volleyball with the
Elders and jerris and some other people and she totally came and
played! it was way fun. Then we wanted to have a lesson with her this
week and she wanted to do it before I left. So we are meeting with her
this afternoon before I leave. She will be the last person that I
teach here in Grand Forks!.
Another random side note. Our car got hit on Sunday. So that has been
a real joy to figure. out. It snowed and the roads got icy and someone
slid into it and hit it when it was parked out on the street. We came
out from our dinner appointment and found it. Thankfully the left a
note and it should all get taken care of pretty easily. But I was
like, seriously! I am leaving in two days I don't have time for this!
:) but it will all turn out okay I am sure :)
oh!!!!! so the other day we were doing family history work and I found
something crazy! I was looking into great grandpa Boudreaux's family
because for some reason I just always feel drawn to him. and I could
never figure out why. But then I was looking at some census records
and on two of the records it lists that he has an older sister. But
she is NO WHERE to be found on our family tree. I can't find mention
of her anywhere besides on those two records. so we need to do some
sleuthing family!!! we have to find her!!!!! she is listed as Lily or
Lillian I am pretty sure. it says she was born in Tennessee. but that
is about it. and she is 12 on one of the census record and 22 on the
other so it's not like she dies as a child or anything like that. I
just thought I would share that with you :)
oh goodness I feel like so much has happened in the past week but I
don't even know what to write about. my brain is like mush. somehow I
have managed to get all of my stuff into my suitcases though! don't
ask me how because I have a WHOLE lot more stuff than I did when I got
to grand forks 7.5 months ago but some how I did it!!!
Well I love you all dearly! This work really is true. The Lord loves
us all. He is always there for us with his hands out stretched all we
have to do is turn to Him. This Church is TRUE! I know it with all of
my heart. I LOVE YOU!!!!
Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

Nov 4

birthday at the deems and jerris the elder and us before elder salmon got transfered!

 lunch with the YSA's on pday
color run!

Oh goodness I feel like I have sooooo many different things to write
home about! This past week has been crazy and this coming week will
most likely be even crazier! but things are going good :) The Lord is
with me always! Thank you so much for the letters and e-mails of
support! they really really helped. I can't believe that this transfer
is almost over already! Transfer calls are this Saturday and I am
almost positive that I will be getting one. Which I am ready for!
Sister Deem our bishops wife keeps asking me if I am leaving and I
tell her yes to which she replies No your not! what can I say I have
become a little attached to the Ward and they are a little attached to
me! :)

So exciting news!! Stacey and Tyler are all set to get baptized this
Saturday!!!!! They are just amazing and I love them oh so much! We
went over the baptismal interview questions with them yesterday to
help them prepare for their interviews this coming tuesday and the
spirit was so strong as they gave us their answers. All this past week
I have been super stressed out wondering if I have done everything
that I should have or could have to help them be prepared. I have been
worried that our lessons weren't good enough, that they didn't
understand what we were teaching. but hearing them answer the
interview questions with us clarity and pure testimony just reminded
me that I am not really the teacher. The spirit is. And he is a member
of the God head. Which means that he has the power to change peoples
hearts. To teach truths. To help them understand. All I do as a
missionary is deliver the message to the investigators. The Holy Ghost
is the one who converts them. It's amazing to get to see the Lord use
you as a tool in bringing others closer to him. I am just so
incredibly excited for them! Please keep them in your prayers this
week though! Satan is well aware of every investigator who has made
the decision to be baptized and he will do everything that he can to
stop them from receiving these wonderful blessings. But the Lord is
more powerful than Satan! that much I know to be true :)

this Saturday should be a good day! it's transfer call day so that
should be kind crazy. Then we have the baptisms and then a less active
/ investigator couple invited us over for dinner that night! so we are
super excited :) I hope to leave Grand Forks on a really good
note!!!!!!

This past Saturday was really special as well. We got to go down to
Fargo for the adult session of Stake Conference and hear Brianna Poppe
speak. It was amazing! The whole sesson was on Hastening the work of
Salvation because the first presidency has asked that every stake
throughout the church talks about this hastening of the work for their
adult sesson of general conference. so they asked Brianna to share her
conversion story. She did an amazing job! I loved her story because
she talked about how really the reason she was even interested in the
church was because she had known Brandon (her husband) and his family
for so long and knew they were good people. And that she understood
that even if she decided to never join the church that they would
still love and care about her. She did amazing! I just love the
Poppe's so much!!!!! The spirit was really strong at the meeting.

Halloween was good! We went to the ward trunk or treat on Wed night
which was tons of fun. They had both wards there so it was packed! but
we had a few less actives and investigators come! so that was awesome.
We dressed up as Sister Missionaries :) I totally got my whole costume
straight from my own closet! haha then Halloween night we went and had
dinner with the Deems and Jadyn and then had a lesson. it was a really
great lesson! we share the restoration and watched the restoration DVD
with her. She believes everything that she has learned so far. Her
only concern is that she isn't sure if her Dad will be supportive. Her
parents are divorced and her mom is totally supportive  but her Dad is
a pretty active Lutheran and she is scared to talk with him about what
she has been learning and that she wants to get baptized. She is
worried that she will tell him and he will feel like she is telling
him she doesn't believe what she was raised to believe and what he
believes. So we are going to work with her on that! I am confident
that sometime in the coming year she will get baptized. I dont' know
when but I do know that she is an amazing girl and that she was led to
the gospel for a reason :) teaching her these last few weeks I have in
Grand Forks has been an amazing blessing!!

oh I also got all the birthday packages! except for the calendar. So I
dont' know what happened to that. But with transfers coming this week
if you are going to try and send it to me again I would say to send it
to the mission office unless you think it could get to me by next
Monday at the latest. Thank you so much for all the birthday
greetings!!! they brightened my weeks :)

I know that the Lord gives us weaknesses to help us grow. There are
many strengths that I have been blessed with in life. I have a good
strong body (I may struggle sometimes at taking good care of it but
that is a different story! ;) ) I have a strong mind, mentally I have
always been able to understand what has been taught to me. These are
amazing blessings from my Heavenly Father. And yet emotionally I have
always struggled at least a little. and I was so upset these past few
weeks trying to figure out why on earth this was happening to me. For
the first 4 and half months of my mission I was soooo happy! there
were hard times and hard days but over all I was happy to be here. and
then these past 12 weeks I have just been struggling! not that I
haven't been happy but it's just been so much harder. Getting up in
the morning, doing the things that missionaries do. being patient,
loving kind, these important things have become incredibly hard to do!
and I found myself asking why!! why is this happening. I have been as
obedient as I can. I have worked and worked and done what the Lord
asked of me. Why was this happening. And then last week when I
completely fell apart I read the letter that our mission president
sent out to us for that week. and in it he shared Ether 12 about how
we all have weaknesses and that those things are what keep us humble.
And I realized that this weakness was not a punishment. It's not
something that the Lord has given to be because I was being a horrible
person. but that in considering all the wonderful blessings he has
given me it makes sense that he would also give me things that would
cause me to struggle. Because those things are what keep us humble. I
realized that this current problem was not something that I would be
able to conquer on my own. That if I wanted to overcome it I was going
to have to reach out and ask for help. That is one of the aspects of
being humble. knowing that we need the Lord. and sometimes we need the
help of others. Sometimes the Lord gives us the answers to our
problems directly. And sometimes he prompts us to reach out to someone
else for help. Calling sister anderson last week and asking her for
help was incredibly hard. I hate the fact that I can't solve this
problem on my own. but after I did that I felt so much better. I know
that sometimes the Lord's answer is for us to ask for help. The church
is structured in a way that when we need help there is always someone
we can turn to. That is why we have home and visiting teaching. It's
why we have priesthood leaders! So that we never ever feel like there
is no one that we can ask for help. And sometimes our answer is simply
that. Ask someone else for help.  I know everything is going to be
okay!!!! I love you all so so so much!!!!!! I know this church is
true. with all of my heart!!!!!!

I love you!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

October 21

 pictures!! me and elder salmon he was my district leader for a while
here in grand forks. He was here with me for 6 months! crazy!

 Me eating cake  from my birthday dinner with the deems (this is our
new apartment in the back ground.)

basically just me being me! :)

 sister arrington and I eating yummy birthday treats!!!!

Hello my dear family!!!
so I have like a zillion things on my mind so hopefully I can remember
all of them as I write this!! First off I am super duper excited
because this Saturday we got permission to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!
It's our ward temple day and President Anderson approved us going! so
we are riding out with the bishop and his wife as well as Jerris!
yay!!!!!!!! It's awesome because a few weeks ago when things were
getting hard I turned to Sister Arrington and told her that all I
really wanted to do was go to the temple! and now we are!!!!

Also this past friday we got to go and listen to Elder and Sister
Watson speak. He is an emeritus memeber of the 70. His daughter lives
in the second ward here in town. It was very special to get to hear
them speak! Then the Elders had a baptism on Satruday and they came so
we were able to see them again! The Elders didn't have anyone to play
the piano so they asked if I would. Which of course I said I would!
and so I played the piano for a general authority!!! it was kinda
scary hahaha but turned out okay! and later his wife told me that I
played beautifully. So see Mom all those years of piano lessons came
in handy! I have actually learned a few more hymns since I have been
out here too! Somday I want to be able to play all the hymns in the
hymn book.

ok next piece of information. I want you all to know that I love you
all dearly. But that if you send me a package it has to be sent
through the post office as a priority mail package otherwise they
can't send it on to me without paying again. So as sad as it is I had
to pay almost $20 to have my birthday packages sent to me..... which
is fine! because I am super excited to get them! (they haven't got
here yet but I am sure they will come today or tomorrow...) anyways
just thought I would let you know!!!!!!! if you don't want to send me
something priority mail just ask me for my address where ever I am and
then you can send things directly to me. I hope that all makes sense.
but I am thankful for the birhthday things!!!!!! I just thought I
would clarify that :)

Also Stacey and Tyler are doing well!! We are still planning to have
the baptism on the 9th of November! they are reading the book of
mormon together every night!!! so that is amazing news! Also I don't
remember if in my last e-mail I talked about Jadyn. She dated our
bishops son while they were in high school. (she is Lutheran and a
senior in high school.) So Taylor ( the bishops son) just graduated
this past may and he is at BYU right now. I guess they have talked
about the church a ton and she actually came to church with him once
before he left. Well she came to church again yesterday with Sister
Deem (the bishops wife) and they came to our gospel principles class
and then she went to young womans and she loved it! I asked her after
class if she had any questions and she said she wasn't sure about the
3 kingdoms of glory. So I asked if maybe we could meet with her
sometime this week and explain the plan of salvation to her. Which she
said yes to! so we are meeting with her this wed. at the church and
then she is going to go to young womans! so that is super exciting!!!!
she is a super cute girl too!! oh I just love teaching the youth!!!
they are so strong and amazing.

At our zone conference this past week (a big meeting where all the
missionaries in the zone gather together to hear from our zone leaders
and sister training leaders) they talked about asking inspired
questions as we tract. Like asking people what role Jesus Christ has
played in their lives. Sister Arrington and I have been able to use it
as we have gone tracting recently and it's been really cool! Because
people here are Christian so most of them have relationships with
Christ. We then are able to explain that as missionaries our purpose
is to invite others to come closer to Christ and that is why we seek
to share the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have had a few people talk with us on their porches and then set
appointments for us to come back and meet with them again sometimes
this coming week! so we are excited to see if we can't find some new
investigators out of it!!! :)

also a side note at zone conference Sister Naillon who is my sister
training leader (like a female zone leader, sister ransom was a sister
training leader while we were companions) told the zone leaders my
birthday was earlier that week. So they got all the Elders to sing
happy birthday to me. Which was incredibly embarassing.... It was the
only time that anyone sang to me! which I was pretty excited about
actually because let's be honest having someone sing you happy
birthday is incredibly awkward. Like what do you do. you just sit
there awkwardly until they are done! but then Sister Easter a sister
who serves in Fargo reminded me that this was probably one of the few
times in my life that I would get to have  30 single males sing me
happy birthday! haha Even though most of them are way younger than me.

On a sad note, it snowed for the first time yesterday. thankfully it
has all melted but still. not ok. but we are determined to use it as a
way to get people to let us into their houses!! I mean it's way too
cold outside to not take pity on two cute little sister missionaries
who are freezing!!!!! at least that is the angle I am going to use :)

okay I think that I remembered everything I had wanted to write home
about. Other than that life is going really well here! I am super
excited for these next few weeks. I feel like great things can
happen!!!! I am always excited to hear from everyone at home! I love
you all so much and your love and support mean the world to me!!!!!!!
Stay Strong and know that this church is the true church of Jesus
Christ on earth today!! Yesterday I had an amazing sunday. and not
because everyone came to church or because I have a ton of people on
date to be baptized. In fact I only had one investigator show up to
church yesterday. and we only taught one lesson to a less active
member. But there were soooo many different ways that the Lord showed
me that He loved me yesterday. And they were little things that may
not seem all that important. But then you look at all the little
things they just remind you that the Lord is always with you. Recently
we have shared Moroni 7 with members where it talks about miracles. It
asks the question have miracles ceased? and then says no!! because
miracles are wrought by faith. Before coming on a mission when I
thought of miracles I thought that they were these big huge things!
like how Grandma Boudreaux lived so long after being told her cancer
would kill her in a few months. but as a missionary I have come to
realized that the miracles of God are usually much simplier than that.
The great and marvoulous miracles happen. But the small ones that we
see every single day are what build a lasting testimony of our Savior
Jesus Chirst and our loving Heavenly Father. He is always mindful of
us because we are HIs children. Testifying to other people that they
are children of God is one of my favorite things to do. Yesterday in
our Sunday school lesson I got to look Jadyn right in the eye and tell
her that she was a daughter of God. and that He loved and cared for
her. And it's one of the most amazing things to do! I know that I am a
daughter of a loving Father in Heaven! and as such I deserve to be
treated with love and respect always. and I know these things because
it's what I have always been taught. Because I was raised in a home
with amazing parents who always made me feel like that was true. I
know I have a loving Father and Mother in Heaven because I have a
loving father and mother here in earth. Because in our home growing up
I was shown how woman were to be treated by a father and brothers who
treated me and my sisters and mother correctly. Because the gospel was
important in our home I get to have this amazing experience of sharing
it with others as a missionary!!! AND I LOVE IT!!!!

Stay strong! I love you all!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux
(Denae)

Hello and thank you for all the birthday wishes!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry this e-mail was a day late. The library here closed on Columbus
day. Pretty lame I know. Sister Arrington and I decided that it is the
lamest holiday ever. but oh well! but it means that I got to read all
of your birthday wishes on my actual birthday!!!! so that was super
nice. And the only package I have gotten so far is the one that Sister
Ransom sent to me. Which was a super cute!! she sent me a scarf and a
notebook. Plus a card and some cute pictures of us. But we haven't
checked the mail yet today so maybe something will have come today :)

So here is my weekly update just a day later. Things here are going
good!! Last week we were about to find 3 new investigators so that was
super nice! Plus this coming friday we are going to have an
opportunity to hear from a general authority again! so that is super
exciting. I guess there is a family that just moved into the 2nd ward
here in town and the wife of that family, her dad is a member of the
70 (or he might have just been released from the 70 at conference)
anyway so this friday he is going to come and talk to all the
missionaries in my zone! so that is pretty exciting. It's like a
special thing they are setting up just for us I am pretty sure! I will
give you the full details about what happens in my email next week!!!

Stacey and Tyler are doing good! They are still both commited to being
baptize don the 9th of November! I am crazy excited!!! and we also
have another new investigator named Alisha. We tracted into her a few
weeks ago and taught her the restoration. And then every return
appointment we set for the past like 3 weeks has fallen through. And
then finally last night we were able to meet with her again! and she
is really interested in learning more about the church. In fact part
of the way throught the lesson she was like you know to learn more
about this I really think I should come to your church. Which as a
missionary is an AMAZING thing to hear!!!! Usually it's like pulling
teeth to get someone to come to church. So we are super excited! Pray
that she comes this sunday like she said she would :) She wasn't
really raised in a religion but wants her kids to have one. So she has
gone to Lutheran church and now she goes to the Catholic church but
really I just think she is searching for something. She told us flat
out that she is totally interested in learing about what we believe!!
And she also told us last night that if she finds out for herself that
this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth that she would be
baptized! so now we just need to help her find that witness for
herself!! That was exciting.

Last night we got to go to the bishops house for dinner and his wife
made me a birthday cake that said Happy Birthday Sister boudreaux on
it. I just love them! she is super cute. She told me that when her
kids were on their missions she would always get pictures of them on
their birthdays with members so she wanted to make sure that someone
took care of me on my birthday (well the day before my birthday) and
tonight we are eating with a family out on the air force base and I am
pretty sure there will be cake there too :) so that's good! It's weird
to think that I am 21!!! I feel so old. Which probably makes all of
you feel old too because I am younger than all of you! haha :) also
last night we were able to go to FHE with the YSA's in the ward. They
watched the movie 17 miracles. Which of course makes me cry every time
that I watch it. I am just SOOOO incredibly thankful for the pioneers
and all that they sacrificed for us. The church would not be what it
is today if not for those amazing people. So last night was a good
night :)

I don't really know what else to write about. Things are going good
here! I feel your prayers and support always! Like every other week I
feel like I have so many things to write home about and then I get
here to write them and they all seem to flee from my brain at the
exact same time! I love you all so much and I know that you love me!
getting to read all your birthday wishes today brought tears to my
eyes. I am so incredibly thankful for such wonderful family and
friends. Make sure to tell the youth who come by tonight to bear
testimony! it's the most powerful thing that a missionary has. No one
can tell you that your testimony is wrong. Because it's yours! and the
best way to strengthen a testimony is to share it with someone else. I
want you all to know that I know with all of my heart and soul that
Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He lives today. He is the one
leading and directing our church. This is the only true and living
church on earth today. What a wonderful message to the world that we
have to share!!!!! And what a wonderful opportunity I have to be
called to be His missionary and get to share it. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes!!!!!! Stay strong! this
church is true :)

Love always,
Sister Boudreaux

aka your favorite sister missionary :)

Hello!!!!
Another week has come and gone and here I am writing home to such
wonderful people!! This past week has been an adventure that is for
sure!!! So we called the mission office on monday morning and they
told us the new apartment won't be ready til wed. So we are like okay
we will just wait til then to move. then wed. morning when they called
they told us that they apartment was supposed to be for the Elders not
us. Which doesn't really make any sense because the apartment we had
been living in was in the other ward boundries(2nd ward)  and the new
apartment was in our ward boundries(1st ward). and the elders would be
serving in the 2nd ward so anyway it was a mess and it took like all
morning to figure it out.but they did eventually tell us that we did
need to move. Then we had to actually move! and the new apartment
didn't have any furniture in it, all of the stuff for it was in a
storage unit nearby. So I asked the Elders if they would help us move
:) So pretty much all day wed. was devoted to moving apartments. and
like I said it was an adventure! but we are all moved in and it's
still a super nice place so we aren't complaining!

My other adventure from this past week is embarassing but kinda funny
too. So I hope that you all get a good laugh from it! So I have made
this new commitment to go running right. So the other morning we are
out for a run and it's dark out because its like 6 30 in the morning!
and I totally caught my foot on this piece of sidewalk as I was
running and fell flat on my face. Like literally my face hit the
cement. So I have this nasty scab on my knee that is like HUGE! it
covers about half my knee cap at least, my hands have a bunch of
scrapes on them, I have a bruise on my hip, a bruise on my shoulder,
and an itty bitty little scrape under my eye. some day maybe I will
learn how to be graceful. someday.....
Sister Arrington was all worried about me but then I told her that
falling on my face is a specialty of mine. I tend to do it a lot! haha
:) but everything is good! and we still go running!

Conference was in fact AMAZING!!!!! I loved so many of the talks. We
watched it at the chapel for 3 of the 4 sessions and then for the
Satruday afternoon session we went out to the air force base and
watched it with the Rose family and had dinner with them. they are
pretty much amazing! I just love them so much! two of my favorite
quotes from conference were "doubt your doubts before you doubt your
faith" and when President Monson asked the question "will you falter
or will you finish?"  I also loved how many people talked about
missionary work!!!!! and President Uchtdorf's talk was amazing!! that
one will be one that we for sure share with A LOT of people! I also
loved when one of the seventy talked about how watching basketball on
TV won't get you any better at basketball the same way that just
watching general conference won't make you a better person unless you
do something about it! (it probably stuck out to me so much because of
the basketball analogy.....)  there were just SO many great talks! I
cannot wait to get the Ensign so I can read them all again!

The bright spot of our week is that we were able to re-commit Stacey
to baptism! and that she talked with her son Tyler and he is also
commited to be baptized with her! We asked her to pray about it and
pick the date and she picked Nov. 9th. Which just so happens to be
transfer call Saturdays (both of my other baptisms I have had so far
on my misison have been on transfer call day... weird I know!) So we
are working hard to help her and tyler to be prepared on that date!
We are super excited for it!!!!

Other than that we don't have too many exciting investigator stories
this week.... we are going to be doing A LOT of finding this week! we
need some more people to teach! So that is our real main focus.


Well I think that is all that I have to write home about this past
week! Life is the same old same old here (well I guess not really... I
did move apartments... but you know what I mean!) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!
thank you so much for all the love an support!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

Well the transfer is over and the news is in!!! and I am staying here
AGAIN!!! surprise surprise hahah :) but I know that this transfer is
going to be the best one yet! I am determined to make it so!!!!!! If I
have to spend 7.5 months here then I am going to enjoy it! I guess
there is just something I am supposed to do or someone that I am
supposed to teach here that I haven't yet! so I am on the hunt to
figure out who it is and get things done!

The new work out program is going GREAT! I feel so much better
already. Who knew that going running in the morning would help so
much! also I am trying to not buy ANY junk food! (which is slightly a
struggle but I am working on it!) I feel myself getting skinny already
hahah :)

So this past week was crazy and yet not, all at the same time. We got
our investigator Stacey and her son Tyler to come to the Elder's
baptism on Saturday which was super great! the spirit you feel at a
baptism is AMAZING!!! and she had tons of really good questions.  Her
mother-in-law and husband are coming out this weekend and both are
members of the church so hopefully they will come and watch
conference! Then they came to church on Sunday and she asked us if we
would come by this week and teach Tyler about the sacrament and what
it all meant so that he could understand it better. So that was
exciting! it's amazing to see your investigators and the people that
you love so much progress in the gospel and find the truth for
themselves. the other night when we went to visit Stacey and had a
lesson with her she was on the phone with her husband when we first
got there and she told us that as the was ending the call with him she
said that the sisters where here so she had to go and near the end of
the conversation he was like "well don't you believe?" She told us
that really hit her. And I think that she is one of those people that
I need to teach! I just LOVE her so much! She is praying and we are
praying about a new date for her (because we don't feel she is going
to be ready by the 12th of Oct.) but she is still committed to being
baptized! so that is super awesome!!!

So Dacotah (I found out I have been spelling her name wrong this whole
time! Embarassing!) was going to come to church on Sunday but then she
cancelled. She is scared. So this week we are going to have a lesson
with her about church and help her feel more comfortable about it. I
just  know that if she will really take the time to read the Book of
Mormon and pray about it that she could accept the gospel! She is
another person that I just love so much!!!!

So we have to move apartments this week. That's going to be an
adventure! but that's okay it helps keep life interesting right :) I
am hoping that the new one will still have two bathrooms... I am
spoiled I know! but sharing a bathroom as a missionary can be
stressful! because you only have an hour to get ready! and for girls
that can be hard! anyways I know I should just be more grateful. There
are missionaries out there who are sleeping on dirt floors I am sure
and here I am complaining about having to share a bathroom.....wow I
really need to get a better prespective!!!!! I am excited that I will
get to spend my birthday here in Grand Forks! At least I will be
surrounded by people that I love! (not that if I was transferred I
wouldn't have been around people that I love... but Grand Forks is
like my north dakota home I have lived here almost longer than
anywhere else since I graduated from high school... weird huh!!)

And yes I am excited for my birthday! I cannot believe that I am about
to be 21!!!!!!! I feel so old..... plus I feel like I just turned 20!
It feels like the age change just happened but it was a year ago! A
year ago I was just a normal Sophomore in college living life and now
I am a missionary!!! it's crazy!!!!!

So let's be honest when I first found out that I was staying here in
Grand Forks for one more transfer I cried. Not because I don't love it
I totally do! but because it feels like I have given my heart and soul
to this area and I just don't know what else I have to give!! So
yesterday during the sacrament hymn we were singing and there was a
line that was asking for "courage to accept thy will" and as I sang I
just started to cry and cry. Because that was exactly what I needed. I
needed to have the courage to accept that me staying here for another
transfer was the will of the Lord. I don't know why but I do know that
He wants me to be here. So I have to keep pushing and I have to keep
working. And just have believe that amazing things are waiting for me
in the next 6 weeks! So here goes nothing!

I love you all oh so much!! I feel your prayers! I love your emails
and letters! they seriously help me make it through the weeks. to you
they may seem not all that important but to me they really really are!
I know Heavenly Father blessed me with such amazing people in my life
for a reason. Thank you for all that you do!!!!!!!! I LOVE
YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux
AKA Denae :)

Sept. 23

Hello my dear wonderful family and friends!!!!!!
So another week has come and gone. And next Monday I will again know
if I will be staying here in Grand Forks or if I will be moving on to
a new area! It's crazy to think that I have served here for 6 months!
I am almost a 3rd of the way done with my mission! Strange!!!! I don't
know what is going to happen. Usually in our mission the longest that
a sister serves in one area is 6 months but I am also training Sister
Arrington and it's a 12 week training program. So I guess we will see!
But people have also had 2 trainers in the past so maybe I will get
transfered! We'll see!!! To be honest I love serving here in Grand
Forks and the people are amazing but I am a little ready to go out and
see another part of the mission!

OH!!!! so exciting news! last Saturday Sister Arrington and I got to
run the color run! it was crazy fun! We ran it with Jerris and Sister
Deem(she is the bishops wife) The company that puts on the race is
from Utah and one of the kids who was working it actually served his
mission here and his last area happened to be Grand Forks! so that was
cool :) I don't have any pictures yet but sister deem and jerris took
tons so they will hopefully e-mail them to us and I will sent some
home so you can see them! We wrote in marker on the back of our
T-shirts mormon.org and on the bottom of my shirt I wrote "ask me
about my church!" :) it was a good way for us to get out in the
community and just let a ton of people see that Mormon missionaries
exist! and that we are normal people! what is really crazy about the
whole thing is that we ran the race at 8 in the morning and we left
the area around 9 30 ran home showered off all the color and made it
to the Elder's baptism by 10. That takes skill if I do say so myself
:) (I am still working on being humble... it's a work in progress....
:) )

Nothing crazy exciting happened this past week really besides the
color run. We had a really good lesson with Dakota Ashes where we read
with her from the Book of Mormon. She said she would read from it and
pray about it! She is one of those investigators who is interested in
the message but it's going to take some time to help her realize the
truth for herself. So we keep praying for her and I know that someday
she will accept the gospel! she is just an amazing girl!!!!

OH I also forgot this past wed. we helped the youth out for their
mutual activity. It was super fun. They were having a missionary prep
night and they had a bunch of different stations set up for them to go
to in 10 min. intervals. They asked us if we would be "potential
investigators" that they had to come and tract into. so we were in a
room and they had to come knock on our door. Each time we were a
different person. Sometimes we were rude and yelled at them and
slammed the door. Other times we acted interested in their message. But
after each time we gave them feed back about what they could do better
and then let them try again. It was a really cool experience and it
helped me realized just how much I really have learned out here in the
mission field. It was a good way to reflect back on all the things I
have learned! One of our investigators Jackie (she is 14) was there at
the activity and it was really cool because at one point we could hear
her talking with some people out in the hall and they were trying to
figure out what to say to us and they were talking about what they
would say about the Book of Mormon. Jackie told them that they needed
to invite the people to read it and pray to know if it was true. Which
is something that we had taught her!!!! it was just amazing to get to
hear that little moment to realized that she really has been listening
to what we have taught to her and her Mom. Her and her Mom are waiting
for her step dad to be able to baptize them and he is a less active
member so he has been meeting with the Bishop and the Bishop has
cleared him to be ready at the end of this year. So hopefully they
will be getting baptized in January!!! which is wonderful. I am super
sad that I won't get to be here for them but I know that if I am here
or not it's the right thing for them to do and it will be a wonderful
day. :)

I always have a mental list of things that I need to write home about
when I come to the library and then when I get here I somehow forget
all of them......

The other night I was talking with my mission president on the phone
because I was having a little bit of a rough time and I couldn't
figure out how to get out of this kind of funk I had been in. And one
of my blessings I got from the Elder's a while ago talked about making
sure that I turned to my mission leaders and it named off the mission
president and his wife specifically. So last week when I was having a
hard time I was prompted to call president anderson. So I did and he
gave me some great advice! he talked about how important it is to work
out in the mornings. Which is something I haven't been horrible at but
I haven't been exactly amazing at it either. So he suggested that I go
to a track in the mornings and run. that way I can run while sister
arrington walks (she's not super athletic which is totally fine! but
it makes going for runs in the morning hard.) He told me I should be
going 5 days a week! so I have taken that advice to heart and I am
going to start running 5 days a week regardless of the weather! I
guess it's time for me to put my bad habits in the past and suck it up
and start living a healthier life style. I never realized how much it
can effect your emotional well being and you stress levels but eating
junk and not getting a good workout in can really make a huge
difference. So wish me luck! we will see how this goes!!!!!  THIS DOES
NOT HOWEVER MEAN THAT YOU CAN'T SEND ME CHOCOALTE OR GOOD TREATS IN
PACKAGES. peanut butter M&M's are always allowed.... maybe just
smaller amounts of junk... I don't know.... it's still  a work in
progress, my healthy lifestyle..... baby steps... :) also I am feeling
tons ands tons better so don't worry about me! plus my birthday is in
a few weeks and that always seems to cheer me up :) but for reals. i
am doing good!! also I am well aware that you all have been trying to
tell me for years that I eat too much junk food. The only reason that
I am evening telling all of you this is because I happen to be all the
way up in North Dakota and so I can't see the I-Told-you-so looks on
your face..... yes you were all right! I should be better :)

Well I think that is all that I had to say this week... as always I
love you all!!! Last night in my prayers I was really thinking about
the things I am thankful for and why I am thankful for them. And it
went from just saying I am thankful for my family to being I am
thankful to have a family where my parents are still happily married
and we never had to deal with divorce. and I am thankful for a home
where the spirit was always there. I am thankful to have always had
the priesthood in my home growing up. I am thankful that I got to see
every single one of my brothers and sisters set that great example for
to by being sealed in the temple. And the more I thought about these
wonderful blessings the more blessings I thought of!! and then this
morning as I was reading from Jesus the Christ (which is AMAZING!!!!!)
A line really stuck out to me about how when much is given to people
much is expected. I just realized that Heavenly Father as given me
some AMAZING blessings in my life. And because He was given me so much
He is going to require much from me. And how knowing the Lord trusts
me and that He is going to give me responsibilities is a blessing in
and of itself! The Lord has confidence in me! It's a crazy thought but
one that I am learning to be true! anyways I do in fact love you all
with all of my heart!!!!!! Keep going this church is true and the Lord
loves us!!!!!!!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

aka Denae :)

Sept 16

I love the pictures of baby Brighton!!! she is BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so
excited for a year from now when I will get to see her :) she will be
at the perfect age to start learning to say Aunt Nae :)

This past week has been crazy! but good :) We had majority of our
appointments fall through (typical) but we had set a faith filled goal
to teach 14 lessons! and we saw many little miracles as random people
we tracted into allowed us into their homes and we were able to teach
the restoration to them. They didn't want us to come back so they
didn't become new investigators but it was amazing that they even let
us in, in the first place! The Lord blessed us to teach 13 lessons
which wasn't quite our goal but was still a great accomplishment. Yes
maybe all our appointments cancelled but the Lord reach out in love
and helped us to still have a successful week. We also were able to
introduce many different people to the gospel! Which is a great thing!
Ya they didn't run jumping into the baptismal font but now they have
at least the start of an understanding about what the LDS church
believes in :) so that was good!

We also had zone conferences and we had Elder Snow who is a member of
the quorum of the 70 come and speak to us! it was AMAZING!!!! so cool
:) It ended up being half of our mission who came to Fargo to see him.
I will send home the picture that they took of all of us with
President and Sister Anderson and Elder and Sister Snow. (I look
really tall in the picture! it was a good self esteem boost haha) The
whole conference talked a lot about how we should use members more in
our missionary efforts and what some good ways to do that are.
Something that Sister Arrington and I have started to do is that
instead of asking members "who do you know that could benefit from
this message of the gospel" (because people are super annoying and
always answer well everyone could use the gospel! not the answer we
were looking for....) so we have changed our question! now we are
asking members who they are working with to share the gospel, who
knows that they are a member of the church? Because let's be honest if
we all take a good look at our lives we can think of friends,
co-workers, neighbors, etc who ya maybe they aren't our best friends
but they are people that we interact with who know that we are LDS! We
can all think of someone we have talked to about the gospel. So our
new motivation is to help members continue to share the gospel with
these people. Sometimes the next step is for their friends to meet
with the missionaries! and sometimes it's just to introduce them to
mormon.org, or invite them to a church activity. but there are PLENTY
of little things that we can do to share the gospel. We have two
families in our ward already who have committed to giving a copy of
the proclamation to the family to their friends! We are excited to
help the ward share the gospel!!!

Other than that I don't really know what else to write about. It's
crazy that this is the start of week 5 of this transfer!!!!! I feel
like it just started and it's almost over! CRAZY!! :) Well I love you
all and I know that this gospel is true! Don't ever doubt it!!! (that
I love you or that the gospel is true... both are very important!!! )
Don't forget your crazy daughter/sister/aunt/friend DENAE!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

love your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

Sept 9

My dearest family,
Things are going good out here! I can't believe that we are already
half way through the transfer! Time is going WAY too fast!!!! I have
been here in Grand Forks for 5 months now?! it's crazy!!! but I still
love the ward and the people with all of my heart :)

We were able to meet with both Stacey and Dakota this past week and
they are two of our investigators that I am the most excited about
teaching. Dakota is the one who is a senior in high school. This
wednesday we are going to go and teach her and we are bringing Brianna
Poppe along! so that should be a super strong lesson which I am
excited for. Oh! and Stacey is now officially on date for baptism on
the 12th of Oct. So I can't get transferred at the end of this month or
I will miss it!! :) They are both doing well and I am so thankful that
I have gotten to meet them.

So in the Ensign this month there is an article about a girl who
started out making a list of 100 things that she is thankful for and
then her sister encouraged her to find 1000 things! so she talked with
all of her family about the things that they were thankful for and
with their help she made a list of over 1200 things! so the other day
I started to make my own personal list of things I am thankful for. So
far I am at almost 300 :) but I want to hear what things you are all
thankful for too!! so everyone take time this coming week and write
out a list and send it to me!!!! I am determined to find 1000
things!!!! :) it's really helped me to appreciate all of the small
things in life and to think about very specific things in the gospel
that I am thankful for. I mean their are silly things on my list like
peanut butter and flip flops but then I also have things like knowing
that I am a daughter of God and my eternal family now and in the
future. It's been tons of fun! so get thinking, get writing, and send
them to me! :)

Sister Arrington and I are doing well. We are having more and more
silly funny moments together. I mean this is me we are talking about
here of course there are silly dorky moments :)  The church actually
just came out with this new stress guide which I will be honest when I
first saw it I was like... this is going to be super dumb.... but I
have since repented! I love it! It's been super helpful. It has you
identify different areas of stress that you have in your life and then
you only read about the suggestions for those specific things. So it's
not something that you are supposed to read from cover to cover but
only study the areas that will help you at that specific time in your
life. I think it's amazing :) it's helped our companionship a lot
that's for sure! So the other night (saturday) Sister Arrington and I
decided to have our own little party. So after we got in from teaching
and did our planning for the next day we had an hour before lights out
at 10:30. So we painted our nails, ate candy and chips, and watched
the movie The Testaments. It was great! so much fun :) I just love
being a missionary!!!!!!!!!

Something that I wrote in my journal last night and that I have gained
so far on my mission is how much I appreciate the Sacrament more now
than I ever have before. It's starting to become such an amazing
experience for me. Every week I get to pray and ask for forgiveness
for the mistakes that I know I have made and ask for the strength to
do better in the week to come. I also pray for all of the people that
I have met with in the past week, either less active members,
investigators, or the members of the ward. I especially pray for
those who made the decision to not come to church. As I ask for
forgiveness and pray for others the Sacrament has become one of my
favorite parts of my week! and for sure my favorite part of Sunday.

I am sooooo excited for the baby!!!! I keep telling everyone out here
about her :) I tell everyone out here about my amazing family! People
are of course always shocked that I am the shortest child in my family
and they are in awe when I show them our family picture (well I carry
the picture of all us kids at grandma boudreaux funeral in my
scriptures with me, that one and the one of mom and dad and I when I
opened my mission call) I show you guys off to everyone! :) because of
course my family is the best one out there!!

We are having a zone conference tomorrow (well it's like half of the
mission coming to it) where a member of the 70 is coming to talk to
us! so that should be super amazing! I will write about it next week
in my email home. and we have tons of appointments this week so we
should be busy! it's an exciting time to be a missionary! I am just so
grateful for this opportunity to serve! and I am thankful for all you
back home who love and support me! thanks for all that you do!

Love always, your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux
aka your crazy youngest child Denae :)

Sept 3

Sorry about the mix up last week with you not getting the email!
that's super weird.... because I forward my family email on to Lindsey
and Craig and Craig responded back from it so I know that they got it!
strange... oh well! But I am totally fine! sorry this weeks letter is
on tuesday because the Library is closed on labor day.

I always feel like I have a billion things that I want to write home
about and then when I get to the library I can't think of any of
them.....

OH! I did get the package! I loved it thank you!!! the Peanut Butter
M&M's are always appreciated :) and the music is great! we have been
listening to it a ton! we are finally getting settled in as a new
companionship and things have been going well! This past week we were
able to find 5 new investigators!!!!!!! which is pretty exciting! and
not like 5 eh... investigators but 5 people who we really feel like
will listen to the gospel and hopefully accept it!! so we are super
stoked about that.

So last wed. we were supposed to have a meeting with Stacey and we got
there and her son told us that she was asleep...... so we were like
um... ok... so we left and felt super discouraged. but then thursday
night we had a little bit of time before our co-ordination meeting
with our ward mission leader brother brooksby and so we stopped by just
to see if she was home and she totally was! so we were able to have a
lesson with her that went super well. We shared the plan of salvation
and talked about how her family could be together forever. It was
super special and I think she was really touched. She had been to a
temple open house years about and had also seen her nieces and nephews
be baptized so she had questions about both of those things. We
invited her to be baptized and she didn't get a yes! but just had a
bunch of questions about how it happened. So she has been thinking
about it a lot!!! they are really good signs that she is ready for
baptism!!!! we have another appointment with her tomorrow and I am
super excited for it. A member of our ward just moved in next door to
her (she lives on campus in the family housing while she is going to
law school) so we asked the wife of the family from our ward to come
with us to our appointment. We are teaching the gospel of Christ which
is basically the 4th article of faith and hopefully after we go over
all of that with her we will be able to re-invite her to baptism and
get her on date for some time either at the end of this month or early
Oct!!!!!!

We also have started to teach a girl named Dakota who is a senior in
high school right now. We brought two of the laurels from the ward
with us to her lesson last night and it went super well! We set a
return appointment with her for later this week and I am excited to
get to keep teaching her. She is natvie american and grew up catholic.
She's had a pretty rough life so far and I really just feel like the
gospel could really help her and give her the comfort and strength
that she needs. It was awesome to get to bring the girls from the ward
along too because they were able to invite her to young womans on wed.
and she said that she would love to come! so hopefully she will go!!
We started out teaching her Dad but he hasn't really been progressing
but ever since I met Dakota I have wanted to teach her! so when the
opportunity finally presented itself I got up the courage to ask her
if we could meet with her! and she said yes! so hopefully it will
continue to go well!

I don't really know what else to write about. yesterday was super fun
we got to go play volleyball with the elders and a bunch of the young
single adults from our ward. two of our less actives even came and
played! it was great :) if you ever see pictures of me tagged on
instagram the are from jerris. I think she posted one yesterday of a
few of us when we went out to lunch after.

This week will hopefully be a good one! can you believe that today is
my 5 month mark?! that's right my bright smiling face has been away
from home for 5 whole months now!!!!! crazy! time has gone waaaaaaay
too fast! I only have 13 months left! a year from now I will be
getting ready to go home! i dont like to think about it...

Life is good here in grand forks. I still love the people. I still
love to serve. and I think my love for teaching just grows stronger
and stronger every day. The other day I received a blessing (I had
been denying that I needed one because I was totally fine and then one
night we were feeling super lost about what we should do and so I
called my sister training leader who suggested that I get a
blessing.... so I listened to her wise counsel and got one) anyway so
I got a blessing( but don't worry I am doing great!!! I think Heavenly
Father just has some things he needed to tell me and I was just being
stubborn.... so he created a situation for me to get one :) ) and in
it it talked about how my trails I am facing are so the Lord can mold
me. And that my mission is preparing me for the rest of my life. It
was just super comforting to know that the trials that we face in life
always have a meaning to them. and that if we turn to the Lord during
the difficult times He can use our trials to mold us into the people
that He wants us to be. The potential that we have inside each and
every one of us will never be reached in it's full if we try and do it
on our own. If we want to reach our full potential we must put
ourselves in the Lord's hands and let him mold us into something
amazing. It was just a very comforting blessing and gave me a lot of
good guidance and counsel :) The priesthood is just amazing!!!! I am
so thankful for it in my life.

Well I think that is all I have for now. I love you all oodles and
oodles!!! this gospel is true! I know it with all of my heart. I can't
deny the amazing miracles that I have seen in my life and in the lives
of the people that I have come in contact with. Jesus Christ is our
Savior and our Redeemer and I know He knows all of us and cares for us
dearly!! Keep strong!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux