Feb. 17, 2014
Hello my dear family!!!!!!!
oh my goodness it sounds like your week has been crazy! with a little bit of good and a little bit of bad all mixed in there together. Something I have realized as a missionary is that the bad days and the bad weeks and maybe even the bad months help us to appreciate the good days, good weeks. and good months! This past week has been one of those reminder weeks for me :) It was kinda like whatever we did things still fell apart. So we just kept trying! and eventually on Saturday night some really great things happened.
We were able to have dinner with our investigator Kristina and her family. Her husband has been completly against her joining the church. She told us that she is ready to get baptized but that he is not so keen on the idea. So dinner was the first time we had actually ever met him. We prayed ALL week that his heart would be softened and that we would be able to say the right things. When we first got there he was still pretty stand off ish but as the night progressed things got better and by the end of the night we are pretty sure that he liked us! We were able to answer a lot of his questions and Kristina's mom and uncles questions too. (they were there for dinner as well) As we were leaving Kristina hugged both of us and told us that she really felt like it helped! so we were super excited about that. Then as we were leaving we got a text message from Sister Haataja, our returning member, telling us that she had gained a testimony that night and she wanted to share it with us. We weren't too far from her apartment so we went over and she shared her testimony with us. The spirit was so strong! It was amazing. The whole time she was talking I couldn't help but smile. She is an amazing person. She is working to quit smoking and her official quit date is March 14th! so we are super stocked for her! She recently finished reading the Book of Mormon and said that after she did she felt like Satan was trying to tempt her more and more and she needed to start reading it again. Because when she was reading it she had felt strength and comfort. So she started to read it again! She decided that 1 Nephi 3:7 is her new mission statement :) she's told us that God made the promise that He would help us if He gave us the commandment. and He gave the word of wisdom so He will be there to help her. She is amazing!!!! I love her so much :)
I am trying to think about what else to write home about.... right before Sister Ransom went home I was actually able to get a picture with all 3 of my companions! that was cool. I will have to sent the picture home today. We have zone conference tomorrow and I am super excited for that. We should get to learn a lot of really great things. This week should a really good one. We have some fun exciting things planned.
Oh! I don't remember if I wrote home and told you about Brother Thomas? He is this cute little 90 year old man in our ward. oh my goodness I just love him. So his wife is really sick right now with cancer and she is in a nursing home. So we have been visiting her for the past few months. She is not a member of the church. So we have been begging Brother Thomas to let us come and clean his house for him for MONTHS and he finally gave in and let us. So last week and then again this week we were able to go over and clean for him. He is just the sweetest old man. With a lot of really great stories to share. He served in the army in WWII and fought in the battle of the Buldge. (I don't know if I spelled that correctly... hopefully you all understand....) It's crazy to hear the stories he has to tell. He told us that we would only let us clean his house if he could take us out to dinner so he did last wednesday. He kept teasing people and telling them that we were his new girlfriends :) we were laughing pretty good. He's amazing. He has done soooo much family history it's insane!!! He also has a $50,000 organ in his home that he let me play. It was way cool.
oh yes I did get your package!!! I love it ;) made me smile on a hard day. One of the Elders we serve with asked us that the best part of our week was besides Saturday night and I was like, my mom sent me a valentines day package. :) (even though I am sure that dad sent it too. the pillow case does say love mom on it though... so I might have given her the credit for it) It made the elders laugh. On Valentines day we went to visit a woman in our ward who is in a nursing home and someone had sent her a bunch of roses so she told us to each take one home. So we have two cute roses sitting in a thing of water at home :)
Well. things are good! I am super excited about this week. I know that it will be amazing! because I am determined to make it a good week regardless of what happens. I am still just learning that Heavenly Father is the one who is in control. I don't know how many times I am going to have to learn this lesson.... Maybe some day it will finally sink into my thick head :) but every time I give up the control and just do what I can do and let the rest be what it is I find that I am happier. Because my success isn't based on the outward results. It's based on how I feel about what I have done. If I have done everything that I can then that is all that they Lord requires. It's not an easy lesson to learn but It gives us a better view on our lives and what it means to be successful.
Well I think that is all for this week! I love you all and pray for you always. I know that the Lord is watching over you and that he loves you :) I LOVE YOU!!!!!
love always,
Sister Boudreaux
aka your favorite sister missionary :)
Feb. 24, 2014
Hey!! That is exciting to hear about the new bishopric! I am sure that they will do amazing things! Things here are going good. We had a lot of things happen this past week. Which made it go super fast! I feel like it was just P-day and yet here I am writing home again. :)
Okay so this past week we had zone conference which is were all the missionaries in the zone (plus they bring all the missionaries from the Pierre zone too so there are two zones) come together with President and Sister Anderson and the Assistants and we have a day long meeting with a ton of trainings and things. This past one was AMAZING. I love it!! The assistants to the president (who are the Elders that we share our ward with, they are pretty awesome.) they did a training on how our insecurities and fears and disobedience prevent our investigators from repenting and changing. They had a super awesome visual lesson. They asked an elder to come and be the "investigator", and another missionary to be his "missionary". the missionary was given a jar of change (because the investigator wants to "change") and they were about 15 feet apart. Then they gave the investigator a back pack to wear. They started to ask us what things might keep us from being a consecrated missionary. Some of the things were fear of rejection, not wanting to give up control, social anxieties to talk with everyone, etc. For ever missionary who said something they asked them to come up and the had 4 of them put weights in the back pack. They asked the "investigator:" how he was feeling and if he felt like he could walk over to his missionary and "change" He said ya he felt like he could it would be hard but he could. Then they asked for more ideas and for the next four people they took workout stretch band things and put them on his hands and feet and had the missionaries sit on chairs holding them.. Making it impossible for him to move even if he wanted to. They then had his "Missionary" invite him to change. No matter what he did he couldn't move. He couldn't get to his missionary and accept the change he was offering even if he wanted to. They talked about how we as missionaries effect our investigators ability to change. They then had each of the missionaries at the front give a way to overcome whatever they had said kept them from becoming consecrated and slowly took the bands off and the weights out until he was able to easily walk over and accept the "change" offered to him by his missionary. It was super powerful and helped me to see that there are always little things that we can be working on to overcome to be better. That the Lord can't work through us if we are not willing to give EVERYTHING to him. All of our insecurities and fears. If we give them to Him then He can help us overcome them. But if we won't give those things up then He can't help us to change. Our Mission Presidents wife, Sister Anderson, gave us a training about "non-missionary stuff" about how there is not time for the non-missionary stuff. That we promised to leave everything back home and to put our whole hearts into this work. They are simple things like using slang terms, having conversations with other missionaries or members about things that don't pertain to missionary work. Simple things that pull our thoughts away from what we are here to do. President Anderson gave a training about repentance. He talked about how repentance is directly tied with obedience. I really like it. During it I had the thought that God lives a certain lifestyle.If we want to live with God again then we HAVE to live that same lifestyle. It's not optional. The commandments are how we know what that lifestyle is. God lives all of the commandments and if he can live them then so can we.
This past week Sister Haataja (our AMAZING returning member whom I love with all my heart!!) she told us that she has a quit date for smoking and she wanted a blessing to help her out. We decided to have it on Sunday after church. We are sitting in sacrament meeting right as it is about to start and we got a text from her telling us that her car battery had died. :( we were super sad but didn't know what to do! then part way through the meeting in she walked with our Relief Society President! She had called her and Sister Auger (the RS President) went and picked her up!!!! we have such a great ward. I love them! After Sunday school we were able to be there when she got her blessing. oh my goodness the spirit was so strong! It was incredible. I know that she will be able to make it over this current trial. She is here to stay this time. and I love to see the amazing changes that she is making in her life. This gospel is true and when we let it it changes us for the better. That is the true beauty of the Atonement.
We went on exchanges this past week and it was a lot of fun to spend a day with Sister Johnson. She is one of the sister training leaders and she was sister ransoms last companion. So it was fun to talk with her. She is super funny. :) We got to go to the stake woman's conference on Saturday and it was tons of fun. They had us sing a special musical number with some of the woman in the stake. We did the EFY Medley with As sisters in Zion and Army of Helaman. The RS sisters sang as sisters in Zion and all us sister missionaries sang the armies of helaman part. it was really cool.
This past week Sister Haskell and I totally had a girls night that was tons of fun. We took silly pictures I will send some home. We did a face mask and a foot scrub. it was fun. laughter is the key to a happy mission! that and trust in the Lord :) that's what I have learned!! I feel like so much more has happened this past week but I can't think what else to write home about..... I feel like weeks are going too fast! I don't like it. it's getting way too close to my year mark. When Sister Ransom hit her year mark I remember thinking that she still had forever and I couldn't figure out why she was freaking out! but now that I am almost there I am freaking out too!! not super excited about it......
Well my dear family I love you all oodles and oodles!! Things are going well here. I love the area and I love the people. Life is good and this church is most defiantly true!!!
Love always your favorite sister missionary,
Sister Boudreaux
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