June 17

Hello parentals/anyone else who reads these wonderful emails that I send home :)

Things are good here in Grand Forks. Slow and steady but still great. We are working every week to slowly build up our numbers and so far each week we have been getting a little bit better. This past week we had a really good week and P-Day could not come soon enough! I am sooo incredibly tired :) and I would just like everyone to know that it is PERFECTLY okay for missionaries to take naps on Pday. so all you out there who told me that I would have to give up my nap time were in fact wrong! We take like 2 hour long naps every P-day :) oh and also we are allowed to take naps during our lunch and dinner. So in reality I can take a nap everyday! and it's amazing because missionary work is hard and I sure get tired! but I love every second of it :)

Nothing terribly exciting has happened out here. Life just kinda goes on. The work moves forward and we move with it! I did get a package from Melani two weeks ago and one from Dawnielle last week! and it was great to get both of them! Dawnielle sent me this super cute quote book which I love! it's nice to have a specific place that I can put quotes and things that I love. Just a reminder though that if you are going to send something to me that it needs to be through the post office or if you use any other it has to be priority otherwise the mission office can't send it on to me for free. If you want to send it any other way that's fine just ask me for my address where I am currently and you can send it directly to me but if you send it to the mission office and they have to send it on to me make sure that they can forward it on to me for free or basically we pay for the shipping twice :)

BUT I LOVE THAT YOU ARE ALL SENDING ME THINGS! it's fun to know that the people back home love me and miss me and remember me :) not that you all need to start sending me things just know that I do in fact appreciate them tons and tons!

so it's mesquito season up here in North Dakota. and the mesquito's here are NOT like the ones at home. They are evil. and they are ALWAYS out. No matter what time of day it is. like pretty sure that I have over 30 mesquitos bites. I stopped counting once I got to 20 but I am sure that I have gotten at least 10 more. It's not fun.

This past wednesday we have a few different lessons and all of the people had dogs. and It was soooo great! they were all so cute and friendly. and of course they all loved me because I am such a great dog lover :) they made me miss my doggies back home but also helped me to have some good puppy time :) I know I am a dork but what can I say I just love dogs! one member was giving us a ride and she had her two bulldog puppies with her (they are like 5 months old) and they are the CUTEST things that I have ever seen. and I am a massive push over so of course I let them sit on my lap and give me kisses and so by the time she dropped us off back in town I was COVERED in dog hair. good thing it was dinner time and we could go home and change hahaha. not sure why I just took the time to type that out for all of you but ya know I did so now you can read the random part of my letter about the dogs that I met on my mission. :)

It's great to hear that things are going good at home! Like I said things are going good here too! except the other day these people yelled at us and told us that we look like we are amish. Which I took slight offence to like, excuse me! I have better fashion sense than the amish. :) But of course we just laughed it off. Whenever we are walking around bored Sister Ransom and I always re live the funny things that people yell at us as we are out walking. It's good times :)

Our zone here has been doing really good lately. The past two weeks in a row we have taught more lessons than any other zone in the mission. (which has like NEVER happened in this zone.... it's kinda struggled in the past.....) but it's been doing really great these past couple of weeks! it's exciting to get to see the growth that is happening here.

Well I honestly can't thing of anything else that I need to write about. Life is good. Church is true. The Lord loves us. Sister Ransom and I have seen the blessings that come as we faithfully serve the Lord and do the best that we can to keep our will aligned with his. I know that the only reason that we have had success these past few weeks is because we are constantly striving to do the will of the Lord. Also this morning Sister Ransom shared something with me out of Preach My Gospel. It's in the lesson that we teach about the Gospel of Christ. The very last principle that we cover is enduring to the end. In there it basically says that as long as we are working to follow the commandments and be like Christ that everything will work itself out. And that over time we will come to be Christlike people. That it's not a check list of things that we have to do everyday but that it's constantly working to be a good person. It's knowing that we won't be perfect in a week or in a month or even in this lifetime but that as long as we never give up and just continue to follow the commandments to the best of our abilitiy we have the promise that we WILL recieve Eternal Life and find joy and happiness. Also we talked about how life isn't supposed to be unhappy. Living the gospel is supposed to bring us joy and peace. Not just at the end of this life but along every single step of the way. That's my current thought of the day. Hopefully it makes sense :) but I love you all with all of my heart! and I know that this Church is the True church of Christ again restored about the earth. and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. That he would have never sacrificed so much if he didn't know that the work he was doing was a calling from God. We watched the Joseph Smith movie this past week and it always makes me cry. Partly because it just re afirms my testimony that he was a prophet of God. and that this church is The Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days.

I love and miss you all!! Keep smiling, Keep working, and Keep loving those around you!!!

Love your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux