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