Aug 19

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!
So the news is in! and I am staying here in grand forks! but sister
ransom is leaving :( She is heading to Huron,South Dakota (which is
basically the middle of no where.....) And I will be training a new
missionary! which is exciting but also slightly terrifying! Like if I
am not a good trainer I could mess this girl up for the rest of
forever! it's a lot of responsibility... Sister Ransom keeps telling
me that I will do fine but it's going to be a new adventure that is
for sure! I don't know who my new companion will be yet because she is
flying into the mission today! then tonight President Anderson will
interview all of the new missionaries and assign them to a trainer! so
next week I will write home and tell you all about her! Sister Ransom
and I are super sad that she is leaving. We cried and cried Friday
night when the call came. I joked around and told her that we should
call President back and tell him that as much as we appriecated his
offer we would like to decline. :) of course we didn't! We knew that
our companionship had to end soon but it's still bitter sweet! But I
know for me to learn and grow more I need to have a new companion. So
here goes nothing!

The baptism was AMAZING!!!!!! The Elder's who serve in the second ward
came and they and sister ransom said it was the best baptism they have
ever been to. Brandon (the husband) had his entire family come into
town to support Brianna because none of her family would come.
Brandon's sister Amanda sang the song Savior, Redeemer of my soul. It
was beautiful! Then his parents gave the talks on baptism and the gift
of the Holy Ghost. It was just such a wonderful service because it was
all focused on how baptism was just the first step to them being
sealed together in the temple a year from now. Brandon's Mom at the
end of her talk just said that she was so excited for the day when
Brianna would become a part of their eternal family. And his Dad
started to choke up at the end of his talk which got all of us crying
too! Then the baptism itself was just so wonderful! Brandon got to
baptize her and after as they were standing in the font he just gave
her this hug and you could just tell how happy they both were. Sister
Ransom and I got to stand on the side of the font and watch so we got
to give her a hug as she came back up before she got dressed. We were
all 3 just crying! It is one of those days that I will NEVER forget as
a missionary.

Oh other than that I don't even know what else to write about! Life is
crazy :) this past week has kept us  on our toes for sure! As I was
sitting at the baptism I just had this overwhelming feeling that that
moment, sitting there with Brianna, that was why I decided to come on
a mission. That was why I left my schooling, my home, my family, and
my friends for 18 months. So that I could see other people enjoying
the same blessings and happiness that I have had in my life through
the gospel.  Serving the Lord is the greatest blessing ever!!! It's
the hardest thing I have ever done without a doubt but I have had some
of the happiest times out here on my mission!!!

I am crazy excited to hear that I will be having another niece! And
they both will be the perfect spoiling age when I get home :) Glad to
hear that no one has yet to forget about the coolest  aunt (aka me) :)
Humility is still a Christ like attribute that I am working on :) But
really it's great to hear from everyone each week! Even when they are
just short e-mails they make my day! And I love to see the pictures
that you send! They always make me smile. Speaking of pictures! I am
hoping to send pictures from Kaedyn's baptism and Brianna's baptism :)
plus maybe some random other ones too. We had had a few great
adventures recently that of course we documented!

Life is good here :) I am happy to get to stay in Grand Forks! The
work here is just starting to take off and I am glad that I will get
to help it! I love the people that I get to serve with all of my
heart. I also love all of the wonderful people at home with all of my
heart as well!!!!!! You are in my prayers always. Thanks for the love
and support!

Love your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux

Aug. 12

Hello family!!!
Grand Forks is great :) Brianna is still getting ready to be baptized
on Saturday and I am incredibly excited for it! I am more excited for
it than I have been for anything else my entire mission! In our lesson
with her this past Saturday she had a ton of questions about the
temple and it's exciting to see how her and her husband are already
looking to the temple and the covenants they will be able to make
there a year from now. They are just amazing and I love them with all
of my heart!!!!!

I got the T-shirt from the Priddis's and I LOVE IT!! Tell them THANK
YOU SO MUCH!!!! (I will write to them too and let them know) It fits
great so no worries :) Sister Ransom was like I want one! haha so it
was a good one. I didn't look to find any family names on Mom's side
of the family because they are like all done back to where I can't
find anyone anymore! Dad's side are like just there! waiting to be
done! :) so I guess I am a little lazy you could say. :)

Things here are going good. Still just the same old same old. Sister
Ransom and I have now been together for 17 weeks! we were joking with
one of our less actives the other day and told her that after you
spend 24/7 with a person for that long you either get to the point
where you are BFF's or you want to kill them in their sleep.
Thankfully we have reached the BFF point :) But transfer calls come
this Saturday so we will see if I am going somewhere else or if I will
get to stay in Grand Forks. It's VERY unlikely that Sister Ransom and
I will both get to stay here for another transfer (which is fine we
are finally ready to change) so we will just see which of us get's to
go and which of us get's to stay! Things with the ward are just
continuing to improve! We love the people that we serve and it's been
great to develop some amazing relationships with many of them. We also
have had a bunch of new families flooding into our ward which has been
nice. It's good to get some strong members to help us in the
missionary efforts.

Wow this email is pretty short and boring. This past week wasn't
anything crazy exciting. It was just a typical week. This coming week
should be a little more exciting. There are a lot more things
happening. OH I guess there was some good news from church yesterday!
so there is this part member family where the Husband is the member
but he has been less active recently. He and his wife and her
daughter(who are not members) have been coming to church recently and
we have been trying to set up a time to meet with them but it hasn't
worked. So we invited them to come to our gospel principles class
(which we teach) and they said ok they would come. and then after
class we invited his wife to come with us to relief society. She
decided that she would and sat next to us. It was great because she
totally opened up and we were able to start to develop a good
relationship with her and she told us that she wants us to come and
teach her and her daughter the lessons because they want to be
baptized!!!!! The thing about it that is so amazing is that Sister
Ransom was prompted to invite them to Sunday school and then again to
invite her to relief society. Had she not followed those promptings I
don't think that Amy(the wife) would have felt comfortable enough
around us to tell us those things. Now we have a much better
relationship with her and have a better foundation to build on as we
help her learn about the gospel and come closer to the Savior. What
can I say! we need to listen to our promptings!!!!!!! :)

This past Friday this less active woman we visit asked us if we would
like some old Ensigns because I guess she has been getting them on and
off for years and has this HUGE tote full of them. Some of them
haven't even been opened! so we said sure! and looked through them. We
found the conference addresses when President Howard W Hunter was
sustained as prophet, same with President Hinckly and President
Monson. We also found some super cool ensigns about Joseph Smith, The
Salt Lake Temple, Jesus Christ, and The Book of Mormon. We also have a
bunch of them that have memorials for some of the apostales who have
died. It was great! and it gives us something else that we had study
in the mornings. We already used stories out of them in lessons.

I think that is everything for now! The work is going great! I am
doing great! the Lord has been blessing us and I am just so thankful
for that! I hope everything is going good at home! I love you and miss
you and pray for you always!!!!!

Love your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux :)

Aug 5

Hello everyone!

Things are still going good here in Grand Forks for Sister Ransom and I. We have about two weeks left in this transfer and so we are doing everything we can to have great success and make tons more great memories in these next two weeks. Brianna Poppe is still doing amazing! She is the most prepared person I have ever met. We have really developed a strong bond with her and her husband and I can't wait for a year from now when they can go into the temple and be sealed together for time and all eternity. They are just amazing!!!!

 

We had some super sad news this past weekend that an Elder serving in our mission passed away from some heart problems. It has been super sad but I know that the Lord is watching over his family and that he is continuing his service in the spirit world.

 

We also had a crazy trip down to Fargo last week because one of the sisters there is going home :( she has been sick and has some other things going on so she is leaving tomorrow. Basically this e-mail is getting like super duper depressing. sorry!!

 

On a happier note I have officially survived 4 months in the mission field!!!!!!! Crazy to think that I have been gone for 4 months right?! I feel like I just started my mission! time flies out here. Before I know it I will be hitting my 6 month mark and then my year mark and then I will be on my way home! it's just super duper strange.... But I am loving it! more than I could have ever imagined. Things have been hard but it's so worth it. I have had so much fun as a missionary! I am pretty sure that we have like a laughing fit every single day. it's good times :)

 

I don't really know what else to write today. I am super boring. Things are just the same old same old. Oh I know! so this past week sister ransom and I set a goal to teach 14 lessons. (which may not seem like very many but it is for us! we work incredibly hard for every single lesson.) so we set a faith filled goal that we would make it to 14. by Friday night we were at 9. so going into Saturday we needed to have 5 lessons. We had 2 appointments set. So We worked and worked all day and it was getting to be later in the afternoon and we still hadn't found anyone. Finally we were out tracting and this girl let us in and we taught her the restoration. one down two more to find. Then we called one of our less actives and asked if she would be home and if we could stop by and see her. She said yes. two down one more to go. We went to one of our appointments and as we came out sister ransom told me to call a different less active and see if she would be home (we had like an hour of time to fill) she was and said we could stop by!!! so we ended up finding all 5 of the lessons that we needed!!!! It was just another testimony builder that this truly is the Lords work and if we will set faith filled goals and work to do everything that we can He will help us. It was a great day that's for sure :)

 

um... that's about all I can think of right now. we played basketball and volleyball this morning with some Young single adult guys from the ward and the elders and jerris (the most amazing recent convert who I seem to write about a lot... so hopefully you remember who she is) if you ever see random pictures of me on instagram those are from Jerris :)

 

oh I was doing some family history the other day and found A BAZILLION names that are ready to have temple work done. If you follow the Powers line to the Pendegrass family starting with John Pendegrass there is temple work to do. and if you follow the Boudreaux line until you find Eliza Burns and go to her parents following the Romero line there are TONS of names ready for the temple. and if Mom and Dad don't want to do all of those names then I suggest that everyone else get going on them as well. That's why we have such a HUGE temple worthy family right?!! Be a missionary!! do family history work!!! these people are just sitting on the other side of the veil WAITING for us to find their names and take them to the temple! so do it!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 

Oh I have also started to think about things you could send me for my birthday :) (why yes even as a missionary I have started to count down the days. What can I say I just want to make sure that none of you guys forget!! :) ) Some new undershirts (maybe some cute fun colors! the ones from the shade store fit the best) if you find any cute cheap flats (or if you just want me to buy them myself and just put the money on my card that works too) also my skirts are already starting to wear out. so if you find any cheap cute long flowy skirts send them my way! maxi skirts are actually allowed here in our mission too as long as they aren't too tight. If you find any of the cute ear warmer head band things those are also super nice when it is cold out. oh! and Mom will you make me a cute calendar from Oct to Oct with family pictures and stuff? they are allowed! I found out :) and from Oct to oct will by the last year of my mission. I think that is all I can think of for now. If I think of anything else I will let you know :) those are just some ideas! You don't have to get me like EVERYTHING I just thought I would let you know what would be useful to me. Of course a bag of peanut butter M&M's are never turned away either :)

 

Well I love you all! and miss you all! I love to hear about what is going on in your lives and I love to see pictures! I forgot my camera this week otherwise I would send some more fun pictures home from this past week. Life is great here in Grand Forks and I still love being a missionary more than anything in the world! This gospel is true! I am so thankful for the loving friends, family, and ward family, I have back home who offer me such great support! Thanks for all the prayers! I pray for you too and know that as I faithfully serve the Lord will bless you as well. :) I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

 

Love your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux