March 24

HI!!!!!!!!!! so I love it here. even though it is the middle of no where. Since the moment that I got here I have felt so much love and support. This ward is great. They are a little different than any other ward I have ever been to but it's wonderful. So I didn't write last week about it but Huron has a ton of people who are refugee's from Burma, they are Karen. Many of them don't speak English but some do. It's been really cool to get to know these people. We have three girls two investigators and one recent convert that we meet with who are Karen. Thankfully they speak English pretty well so they can understand us. The miracles it that 6 weeks ago there was an Elder who arrived to our mission who is Karen and speaks the language fluently. So he and his companion have been teaching these people. Such a miracle. He had no idea when he decided to serve a mission that this would happen. He is from Utah and there are many Karen refugee's in Salt Lake. His name is Elder Zaw and Mom he totally worked and beehive clothing and knows you. It was funny I was showing the elders my pictures of my family and he was like hey I know her. I was like that's my mom? He was like ya she is a supervisor at Beehive Clothing. Super funny. I am just running into people you work with everywhere! :)

So Sister Dennison is my new companion. Oh my goodness I love her! she is awesome. She's from Kaysville I do believe and went to Davis high school. She graduated a year after me but has a summer birthday so she actually just turned 19 last July. We have a very similar sense of humor so we can totally laugh and crack jokes to each other all the time. She is a super cute girl. Oh and the woman who texted you is Sister Gose :) she is awesome. Her son is in a mission right now in Brazil but he had to wait for his visa for a while here in the States. She was having a super hard time with it when a woman in his ward took a picture of him and sent it to her. It helped her out so now she makes sure to take pictures of the missionaries and send them to their parents :)

So we have these cute little Karen investigators. One is named Ma-aye-aye, she is 11. We connected really fast. She has been meeting with the missionaries for a really long time but her mom won't let her get baptized until she is 15. Sister Dennison told me that our two lessons with her have been super good compared to before and she came to church on Sunday and really liked it! (which I guess recently she has really not been wanting to go to church so that was awesome!) I taught her a little bit of sign language which was fun for her and so now we can sign little things to each other. She was one of those people that I just feel really close to instantly. I love her! We also have a 15 year old investigator named Kin Ma who can't get baptized til she is 18. She came to young womans with us on Wed. though and really liked it. So this ward is really like the size of a branch they only have 4 young woman 1 active 1 less active and 2 Karen girls who are shy and so they don't come. So they have asked the Sister's to come to activities  with them. Our goal this week is to get everyone there that we can!!! and to make sure that it is fun. (which is like my specialty. still a firm believer that life is too short to not be silly sometimes!!) so that has been good.

We also have a woman named Amanda that the Elder's referred us to. She is super interested in learning about our faith. Super prepared. So we are excited for that. She is easily distracted though so we have to work to keep it simple and help her to stay on track :) but it should be good to teach her.

Being here and talking with Sister Dennison has showed me that I really have learned so much from my mission. As we talk I find myself telling stories of things and seeing how far I really have come. She is an amazing missionary and I am super excited to serve with her. She has a desire to work hard and I know that as we do we are going to get to see miracles here. This area at times has seen some disobedient missionaries and so it is going to take a lot of strength to keep working hard and stay true to all the rules I know to be right. But there have also been some really great missionaries who have worked hard to build up the kingdom here. So it's will be great!!!!! super duper excited!! :)

I don't know what else to write about. Life is good! I am excited. I feel like I have said that like 17 times. but I am! When I first got here I went and met our ward mission leader, Brother Taylor and he asked me to share my testimony with him. as I shared it I realized how much I really have grown and changed as a missionary. I knew the gospel was true when I came on a mission but now I understand it so much better than I ever did before. It's simple and yet so amazing. Everything connects. My true testimony is that my Savior, Jesus Christ lives. That this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is His church here on the earth. That His authority is found here. There are many wonderful people out there who serve their Savior to the best of their knowledge. They can see miracles through their faith. But they can't have the fullness of joy that is promised to each of us as sons and daughters of God until they hear the restored gospel. I know that to be true with all of my heart. It's the reason that I am still here. It's the reason I get out of my bed every morning at 6:30. It's the reason I go tracting. It's the reason I study. It's' the reason that I have a smile on my face every single day. It's the reason I am happy. It's the reason that I want to be with my family forever. I know that it is true.

I love you all so much. Thank you for the prayers of support and love. They mean the world to me. I feel them. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't ever give up hope. There is always hope through our Savior. Always.

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux

MARCH 17

MARCH 17

so here goes!!! I am getting transferred to Huron, South Dakota!!! were we surprised. ya. but I am super excited!!!!! My new companion's name is Sister Dennison, she has been in Huron her whole mission so far (3 transfers) so I am excited to get to go and serve there. Sister Ransom actually went there after she left Grand Forks. So I am just following her around. :) When sister ransom and I  looked to see where Huron was on the map I teased her and told her she was going to the middle of no where south dakota. well I guess now I am heading to the middle of no where south dakota! :)

 

Saying goodbyes has been hard. I love the people here! I have tons of fun pictures to send home from all the goodbyes I have said. There are so amazing people here. I will for sure be coming back to visit someday! I mean Rapid City is in the same time zone as Utah, it's totally close enough to make a road trip to.

 

This week has been good. Hard but good. The last week of the transfer is always a little bit different. We were able to find a new investigator tracting so hopefully they will get to keep teaching him after I am gone. I have been thinking a lot about my time here in Rapid and I may not have seen any of my investigators get baptized but I have been able to watch two wonderful woman return to activity in the church. One after being gone for 9 years and one after 20 years! They are both doing so well! OH!!!!! Sister Haataja officially quit smoking!!!!!!!! I am so excited. we made cupcakes and threw a little party for her :) we were super stoked.

 

We also had our Relief Society birthday party dinner this past week and it was really cool. They had all the woman write a note about another woman who has touched their life, or been an angel to them. They asked everyone to not include their name or the name of the woman they were writing about. They read these experiences at the dinner and the spirit was so incredibly strong! I loved it!!!!! really great.

 ok. Dad's lesson :) So we have an investigator who's name is Linda and her father recently passed away at the age of 95. We went to her home to visit her not long after and it was comforting to know that I could look her in the face and tell her that I knew exactly where her father was. We were able to open up the scriptures to Alma 40:11 and read about how when we pass away we are all taken back home to the God who gave us life. I could look her in the eye and tell her that I knew where her Dad was and that he is learning the exact same gospel right now that she is. I think that this relates to family history because there are innumerable amounts of people in the spirit world who are learning the gospel. Many of them are just waiting for the opportunity to have their name taken to the temple. They long for those ordinances to be performed. I also thought of when Whitney died. I remember how important it was for me to be able to look at all those girls on the team who were not members of the church and tell them that I knew where she was. That I knew she was with God again and that He would help her. Family History work is important because the plan of salvation is important. The knowledge of this great plan brings a lot of comfort to souls who are searching for answers.

 

 oh goodness I don't even know what else to write home about. Life is good. This church is true!!! I love you all so much!!!! your thoughts and prayers are felt and much needed and appreciated. They help me out more than you will ever know. This past week I had the opportunity to feel the redeeming power of the Atonement in my heart and in my life as I was able to repent and change for the better. It took a lot of courage and strength to get on my knees and finally just give it all up to the Lord. To ask Him to forgive me for my selfish and judgemental thoughts. I have come to realize that how we think about other people has a great impact on our own personal happiness. When we have rude or hurtful thoughts about other people the only person that they really hurt is us. I realized the other day that if I ever want to receive mercy in the great and last day of judgement that I had better be more willing to show mercy to others. If I want to be judge fairly then I had better start changing the way that I think about others. The other day I was thinking about someone or something (I don't honestly remember what or who) but they weren't the most uplifting thoughts. not that they were horrible or anything but not the best. and the thought came to me, would you want your Savior to think that way about you? it was a harsh reality check. but one that I am incredibly thankful for. so that is my question for all of you. the next time a hurtful or judgemental thought pops up in your head take a second to ask would I want my Savior to think that about me? and then change the thought! re-think, re-examine. sometime our thoughts come without us wanting them to but we can always re-think them. We can always take a moment to say I don't really know what is happening in that person's life or I don't know why they are the way they are. I don't know what trials they are facing. but I do know that they are a Child of God just like me. I believe that if we can all work a little harder to think this way that we will all be much happier people. and the world would be a little bit better of a place to live in :)

 

well I love you!!! so much!!!

 

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux :)  

pictures

using my long limbs for something useful :)

 washing windows on the car!  and rinsing my feet from the foot scrub :) lazyness at it's finest!

so these are SUPER old. like from the grand forks days. as in my first two transfers as a missionary! weird right. but I just got them from another sister. This is us after we went up and did some service. The reason that I look like an idiot is because there was a terrible storm outside and I was super scared! like thunder and lightening really close! so ya :) but this is sister ransom and I sister Gogan and Sister orton and the zone leaders elder cunningham and elder burton. (elder cunningham is one of the elders that I now share my ward with)

2 letters March 3 and 10

March 3, 2014

Hello!

So this past week was crazy but good. We spent about 8 hours in the mission home helping them to re-do the transfer board (a huge white board that has these little cards with all the missionaries on it and who they are serving with) we helped re-do the tape on it so make little squares for all the name cards to fit in. it was fun but took a while! we were there Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday! but it was fun to get to spend time with President and Sister Anderson. Not something that many missionaries get to do!! on Wednesday night they even took us out to frozen yogurt :) so that was fun!

We also saw all our typical people. Kristina came to church! so we were super excited for that! We are having dinner with her and her husband again this week too. So we are continuing to pray that her husbands heart will be softened and he will be okay with her joining the church. We also took a recent return missionary sister Stephanie main out teaching with us to see our investigator Linda. So Linda is this stubborn old woman who we love with ALL of our hearts! We have been about to drop her as an investigator multiple times but every time that we do the spirit has told us to wait a little longer. We have got her to admit that she believes in the Book of Mormon and she believes in Joseph Smith but she struggles to think that only Mormon's are saved. She just feels like there are so many good people in other religions. Which there are! So we explained about why we have the missionary program and the spirit world. We taught about how when Christ was here he established his church. In first Corinthians Paul asks a question, he says is Christ Divided? We asked her if she believed that there could be one true church of Christ on the earth. She said yes. Then we committed her to pray and ask if this church was it. She told us she would. She told us she didn't know why she was fighting this all so hard. (we were thinking ya! we don't know why you are fighting so much either!) she is such a good Christ like person. Everything she talks to us about we are like Linda! we believe that!! long story short we made some really great progress with her! She is so cute. She has told me multiple times that she knows God sent me to her because we have very similar personalities. Both stubborn and bold! :) But I love her so much! She is a retired teacher. So we have some really good conversations about that sometimes too. We have an appointment set for this Wed. with her and our mission president and his wife so we are praying that it holds!

So in other news I got super sick on Saturday. Like sleep all day sick. I felt better Sunday and was able to go to church and teach the lessons we had planned. but today I am again not feeling super great. I have no idea what I have. I would call it being miserable :) but I am sure I will get over it soon! Since it's P-Day we are going to get our emailing and shopping done and then go home and sleep!!! which is what I am looking forward to most!! like sitting here writing this i am just super tired. and I keep spacing out when I try to think what else I should write.

This past week we really just did a lot of service which was awesome! We got to see a lot of people and have some good experiences. Yesterday was a pretty busy day and we were able to get a lot of good plans for this coming week. There is a woman in our ward who's grandson is 9 and just moved in to live with her and wants to get baptized! so we are excited about that. we will start teaching him this week! Oddly enough his name is also Kaydin.... I guess I just find cute 9 year old boys named kaydin to teach! :) I really don't know what else to write about. It was a good week but a pretty typical week. All I know is that time is moving too fast. I don't like it. I have been a missionary for way too long. I am in denial that next month is my year mark. People keep asking how much longer we have and I am like... blah stop asking! I don't want to think about it :) This transfer is already more than half way done too! we have two more weeks til transfer calls. It's weird.

Well I love you all and I know this email is kinda random. I apologize. It's what happens when I am sick and trying to remember what I wanted to write home about. Hope everything keeps going good at home!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux

March 10, 2014

Hello!!! oh my goodness I can't believe it's been an entire week! Weird. Time goes way too fast. Expect when you have nothing to do and no appointments. Then time slows down to a crawl.... :) okay so this past week! well let me think. It was good! I got feeling much better! We were able to start teaching a cute 9 year old little boy who really wants to get baptized! so that was nice. We also had dinner with Kristina and her husband again and we can see her husbands heart slowly softening. We keep praying that he will support her and be okay with her getting baptized! She is ready!!! we know someday she will be. but it would be nice if that could be while we are still here :)

So this morning we got to take our mission president and his wife to a lesson with our investigator Linda. Oh my goodness it was amazing!!! He was able to answer a lot of her questions and concerns and the spirit was super strong. it was awesome. something I will remember for the rest of my mission that is for sure! For the first time since we have been teaching her today she admitted that she might get baptized some day. Which is amazing because she once told us that she has NO intentions of becoming a Mormon :) I just love Linda so much! she is the cute investigator that told me that I remind her of herself. That when she first met me she thought it was the 21 year old version of her! She is the one who is a retired school teacher. She makes me smile. She is an amazing Christ-like person. We can just imagine her in white!!!!

So cool story (well I think it's cool you might not...) we have some pictures from our vacation we took of us at this place with a bunch of different big story book replica's so the place is called story book island and it's totally down the street from where I live! This past Saturday we went and did service there (we took down the Christmas lights that they put up. We had to wait til March because every Saturday the scheduled it for was sooo cold we couldn't do it) As we got there I was like Hey! I have been here before. I have a picture of myself  when I was 6 and I swear that I was sitting on a donkey. I searched everywhere trying to find it so that I could take a picture with it again but the woman told me it was removed a few years ago because it got broken :( but that's okay I took a picture on a cute little black horse. It was the best I could do! but I just thought it was cool that a place I went as a child is somewhere that I got to visit and do service at as a missionary!

So this week is also the last week in the transfer. which is weird. this one has gone crazy fast! so next Monday I will be able to tell you what is happening! most likely one of us will be going since sister haskell has been here 4 transfers and I have been here 3. It just feels weird that I have been here for so long already! ahh!! it is kinda scary in all honestly. my mission is going too fast! some days I am like we have to get to work! I am running out of time!!!!! I love being a missionary so much!!!! best experience that I have ever had.

So if we are being honest with ourselves then I would have to say that my time here with Sister Haskell has been pretty hard. She is a great girl and I do love her but we have had our fare share of struggles. But we have made it through them. and we still manage to laugh and giggle together every single day. The other day we were talking about things and I told her you know I don't think that Heavenly Father ever expected the two of us to get along perfectly. I think that He meant for the two of us to struggle. This is what I wrote to my mission president today,

 "I realized the other day that Heavenly Father never intended for our companionship to be perfect. He wanted us to struggle and to learn. Which we have! (done both) I guess I have just realized that life is not always supposed to work out perfectly. He will ask us to do a lot of things that we don't want to or that we aren't very good at. But He asks because He is molding us into who He wants us to become and He knows that these experiences will help us get there. I am so thankful that He loves me enough to mold me even when it hurts, even when I don't want it, and especially when I need it"

Heavenly Father has taught me that His way is not usually the easy way, but it's the way that will bring the most growth and in the end the most joy. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been hard. and it doesn't mean that I enjoyed every minute of it. but it has been worth it. I have grown to see sister haskell a little more like God sees here. and I have learned that while the two of us are different we are both loved the same. Things aren't my fault and they aren't her fault. We both have responsibility and we both need to change and learn and grow together. I guess that has been my major epiphany of the week. well the past 3 transfers. I feel like in my life Heavenly Father is going to ask me to do plenty of things that I don't really want to do but they are the things that will help me grow the most. and that I am thankful for.

I feel your prayers!! and I am so thankful for them!!!!! they mean the world to me. Whenever I feel like quitting or giving up I remember how many people back home love me and are praying for me. I remember why I wanted to be here. and that gives me the strength to keep going. to keep trying even when I don't want to. So thank you!!! I love you all with all of my heart!!!!!

well I had better get going!! but again I love you!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary,

Sister Boudreaux