May 19

oh my goodness it has been a crazy week! but a good week! but crazy!!!! so this past Friday we had zone conference (where president and sister Anderson travel the mission with the Assistants to the president and do trainings for different zones of missionaries. they are basically amazing experiences) and it was really cool because President and Sister Anderson this past month went to a Mission Presidents seminar and they general authorities who gave the seminar wanted all the mission presidents to train on the doctrine of Celestial Marriage. It was amazing how they presented the training. so amazing!!! They talked about how as missionaries we are always helping people to focus on the next step in the plan. what is the next ordinance that they need to receive to help them get back to live with God again. and as missionaries when our missionary service is over our next step is Celestial marriage. It's finding a worthy spouse and being married in the temple. They focused on their own marriage and talked about the qualities that they loved in each other. we were able to talk about how we should be working now to have the qualities in ourselves that we want in other people. They also talked about how Satan is attacking the family. And it is important that we understand that we are the rising generation and that as we go home and being our own families that Satan will be attacking us. That it is imperative that we keep our families strong. and the strongest families come from parents who have made and kept those sacred temple covenants. it was just amazing!!!!!! oh my goodness so great!!!!

okay so miracle of the week!!! so Sister Maisey and I have been trying really hard for the past 3 weeks to find ANYONE who will listen to us. and so this past Saturday we were out tracting. We went to one street and it just didn't feel right so we turned down another one. we knocked a few doors talked with some people, they weren't too interested but they accepted some pass along cards. Then we saw this lady walking up ahead of us. and we knew that we needed to talk with her. but we were walking behind her. so we kept walking hoping for an opportunity to talk with her. and as she turned a corner she saw us and said hello and asked how we were. we respond back but then go nervous. she kept walking and so did we. we knew that we had totally messed up. the spirit let us know that we had NEEDED to talk to her and we hadn't. so then we were like ah! what do we do?? so we decided to walk around the block the other way and see if we could see her again. Verbally committing to Heavenly Father that if He led us to her again we WOULD talk to her. we turned a corner and there she was coming towards us. Sister Maisey was like "Hey! We just really felt like we needed to talk with you." we then shared a brief version of the restoration and asked if she would like to learn more. she really liked what we had said and was excited to hear more but she was going out of town for 5 days. so we have a return appointment with her this coming Saturday!!! she set the appointment and gave us her address and phone number! crazy!!! we even said a prayer with her standing on the sidewalk. it was crazy to think that when we do all that we can the Lord will lead us to those people who will listen. We have to be brave enough to open our mouths but if we do He will help us. it was such an amazing experience!!!!

Other than that I don't know what else to write about from this past week. it was long but good. one of those weeks you never think is going to end and then it does and you are like wait what? Gabby and Sammy are still looking good to get baptized this coming Saturday! so that is exciting!!! I love them both so much! it's amazing to see how people change as they have the gospel in their lives. They are simply two young girls who just had never been taught these things before but now they are just so excited!!!! I love to hear them pray! their prayers are so sincere and well thought out. I love it!!!! and I love them! and as hard as it is I love being a missionary!!! there really isn't anything else like it. It's the hardest thing that I have ever done but it has changed me for the better. I know that my service as a missionary will bless my family for the rest of my life and into the eternities. Before I came on my mission I always wanted to marry a return missionary. but now I want to marry a return missionary who served the Lord with all of his heart the same way that I have tried to. I want someone who is willing to stand strong with me in this gospel no matter what comes our way. Because there really are only two options. Serve the Lord or quit. and quitting never really brings anything productive. it just makes it twice as hard when you decided to work again.

Well I love you all dearly! It's crazy to think that I have been gone from home for so long!! but I have loved every single minute of being a missionary. I miss you all but know that the Lord has me where I need to be. As I talked with President Anderson in my interview Friday night we talked briefly about when I go home. He encouraged me to think of the missionary that I wanted to become when I first came out on my mission and then do everything that I can in my time left to become that missionary!. Just yesterday I was thinking about the moment when I will get to see all of you again and the spirit just whispered to me that that moment will be great but how much better will it be if I continue to work hard now. which I will!! because there is only so much time left and I want to do with it what the Lord would have me do.

Thank you all so much for the love and support! it really does make a world of difference to me. your prayers are felt and appreciated!! and know that I pray for you often! and give thanks for all of you.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux

May 12

Hello from Huron! It was so good to talk to you and dad yesterday! so things here are going good! slowly picking themselves up. Yesterday Sammy and Gabby came to church which was awesome! they have really enjoyed it both weeks that they have come and we are super excited for them as they continue to progress to baptism! (and lasting conversion) :) Their mom who doesn't speak much English stayed for our gospel principles class and it was awesome because we have a woman in the ward who was able to translate it for her so that she could understand what was being taught! So that was good.

This past Saturday I got to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity. I was on an exchange in Brookings (we trade companions for 24 hours) and so me and Sister Jaramillo got to go Saturday morning and help build a house! It was tons of fun. I used a nail gun and everything! I will send home pictures :) I guess this past week was the woman's build week across the country so they got as many woman as they could to come out and build! Plus the exchange itself was tons of fun. Sister Jaramillo just makes me laugh so much! I love her to pieces.

Things are going good here. We have been able to see the tender mercies of the Lord as we have been doing our best to work hard and find those that need us. We were able to find a less active who hadn't been reached out to for a while and she recently got custody of her 11 year old son. we are going over to visit with them tonight. so that could be promising. Sister Maisey and I are doing great! we are laughing and having a good time. It's been crazy to hear about Grand Forks and all the people there and what has been going on since I left. but fun too! it's fun too because we have both been out for so long that we have lot's of fun stories to swap. It's basically good times :)

This past week I feel like the Lord has again just been teaching me to let things go. To give everything over to Him. I must just be too stubborn for my on good! Because I feel like I have learned this lesson time and time again and yet it just keeps coming up. Maybe someday it will sink in :) until them I guess I will just keep on learning! But it's amazing to see the difference when we let go and give ourselves over to Him. I have found that many times things that I am worrying about or fearful of are things that with His help I can overcome. Sometimes we flounder around trying to work things out and we forget that He is there for us. That He has experienced all of these things already and that He knows how to help us. Like it teaches us in Alma 7 the Lord knows His people and their infirmities. He knows how to help us if we will be humble enough to give things over to Him. I was so impressed in last conference when President Eyring talked about how he has served around two different presidents of the church and he says"I have seen that as a counselor to two living prophets of God. They are individuals with unique personalities. Yet they seem to share a consistent optimism. When someone raises an alarm about something in the Church, their most frequent response is “Oh, things will work out.” They generally know more about the problem than the people sounding the alarm." I love the thought that things will work out! isn't that just so comforting! things will always work themselves out. we just have to have the faith to put our trust in the Lord! and remember that He see's that bigger picture that we don't.

well I know this letter is short but I don't know what else to write about. things have been good. we are doing well. I love serving the Lord!!! I love you all too!! I hope that your weeks are amazing and that you can know how much I love you and pray for you!!

Love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux

sister Jaramillo and I! and the woman of the build!

using a nail gun!!!

getting ready to go build a house!

May 5

happy easter!

and mural fun

Hey! so this past week has kind of been a haze of I don't even know what happened. But here I am sitting down to write to you again! oh so first things first we are set to Skype home next week at the Gose's house next Sunday at 6:30pm our time which would be 5:30pm your time. also as much as I want to see everyone and talk with you all our mission president has stressed to us that this is the Mother's day call and that our Mom's should be the most important person that we are talking with :) also I will be skyping again on an ipad so just keep that in mind :)

Ok so now that that is taken care of how is everyone doing? I love you all so much! this past week I have felt your prayers oh so much! I know that the Lord was helping me that is for sure! it's been a good week though and I know that things will pick up here. The greatest news ever is that Sammy and Gabby finally came to church!!!!! and they loved it!!!! it was the first time that they had come so we had to move their baptismal date back a few weeks just so we can help them get used to coming to church. I am super excited for them. They are the cutest girls ever! Sammy is 9 and she just has the sweetest spirit to her. What can I say I just love to teach children!

so I don't know if I wrote home about this but Sister Haskell (my companion) wrote to me and told me that Sister Haskell's (the woman in our ward who we helped return to activity) grandson Alex got baptized!!!!!! which is such exciting news!!!!! filled my heart with happiness that is for sure.

So Sister Maisey is here and we are doing great! She came from Grand Forks so she gave me updates on all the wonderful people there :) which was nice. last pday sister dennison and I went on an adventure in the rain. I told her that it was her last day here and even if it was raining we had to do something fun! so we went and took silly pictures in the rain :) I will send them home today hopefully if I don't run out of time! then Tuesday I spent the day in Brookings because sister dennison road the first transfer train and sister maisey came on the second train (15 passenger vans that they use to transport missionaries in our mission. because our mission is HUGE!) so sister dennison left at like 2 and sister maisey got here at like 8. long day! but it was good.

Church yesterday was such a good experience. The spirit was very strong in all 3 meetings. Huron is a very small ward but they take care of each other! it's a family. and I love it so much!! I love these people with all of my heart and they make me so happy inside! They are so strong in the face of trials and it just gives me courage and strength to face what the Lord wants me to face. Missions aren't easy but they are so incredibly worth it!!!

well I know this is a super short email but I can't think of anything else to write about! this week has just been kinda crazy! but I am doing good and I love you all dearly :) thank you for the love and support! it is felt and needed and appreciated! greatly :)

oh I was going to ask if maybe you could send me some piano music? like some of the stuff we used to listen to on Sundays? but if/when you send it there is no need to include candy I the box. I might have gained some weight on my mission...... and I still have Easter candy to eat! :) if not no worries but I just thought I would ask!!

Well that is all for today! I will make sure to send the pictures! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! and I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ! I believe that with all of my heart and soul.

Love always your favorite sister missionary

Sister Boudreaux   

April 28

so this past week we had transfer calls. and Sister Dennison and I were NOT supposed to get one! we were so sure of it. until Elder Casey (the assistant to the President) called us. Sister Dennison is getting transferred to Wahpeton, ND. and Sister Maisey is coming to be my new companion but she is coming from Grand Forks! she is actually who replaced me there. so she can fill me in on what is going on up there!. so ya. we might have gotten the call Saturday at like 3 in the afternoon. and then we might have cried for like an hour. But the more that I have prayed about it the more I know that this is the will of the Lord. it's been hard but I know that it will be okay! So the other day we were walking (because our car only get's so many miles a month and we have almost run out because of unexpected trips to out of town cities we had to make that we weren't expecting) and we were talking about how pretty much everything has fallen to pieces to which I was like well at least we still have each other! ya.... false.... Sister Dennison told me that I cursed us. But I know that this is right. it's a hard pill to swallow but I know that I need to!! and that as long as I am searching for the good and working hard I can find happiness and learn something from anything that the Lord asks me to do. (at least that's what I keep telling myself)

I am doing my best to find the good and to enjoy the last few days that we have to be our silly goofty selves together! We are going to have some fun adventures today for P-day :) I think that in all honestly my brain is still in shock because I was so not expecting us to get a transfer call. but it came! crazy crazy. but that's a mission for you! things never ever go how you think that they will. but I guess that is what helps us to grow so much.

This past Friday was a bit of a hard day and Sister Dennison and I were walking and didn't really have anywhere to go. so we had prayed and felt like we should go and visit one of the woman in our ward who is going through a hard time right now. she is trying to decide if she should stay with her husband or not and it's been crazy. she is such a strong woman. but she said something that really hit both sister dennison and I. she said that as long as we are trying to do good then we can know that when hard things come that it is what the Lord has in store for us. if we are doing good and it's still hard that's okay! it means that this is something Heavenly Father wants us to go through. that really hit me because I think that sometimes we think that as long as we are doing good we will be blessed. there is an article in the ensign this month about a woman with a gumball theory that she talks about. I really really loved it! she talks about how when she first joined the church she had this mindset that things were like a gumball machine. you put in a quarter you get out a gumball. you obey you get blessings. and while the Lord is always blessing us and helping us it doesn't really work that way. Life isn't like the gumball machine. She goes on to talk about her trials and how she left the church for a while but came back and learning that the Lord is always blessings us just not always the way that we see. I feel like that is the lesson I am currently learning. that missions and life are not like a gumball machine. that we don't just put in a "quarter" and get out a blessing. the one part of the article that really stood out to me was when she talks about how the things she had to work the hardest for in her life were the things that she treasured the most. The blessings that come so easily to us aren't always the ones that we treasure. but the things that we have to work for. those things become so precious to us. so I have been trying to tell myself these two things! that life is not a gumball machine and that as longs as I am doing good things that that is what really matters! that if I am doing good things and things are just getting harder that that means Heavenly Father needs me to grow a little bit more. It means that He believes that I can! so as hard as this is I know that everything is going to work itself out. I have to believe that!

I just want to share my testimony with you that I know with all of my heart that this is the true church of Jesus Christ on earth today. If it wasn't than I wouldn't still be here. I would have given up a long time ago. Missionary work is hard and being an enduring member of the church is hard because salvations is not a cheap experience. that is something that I read in a talk by Elder Holland that keeps me going on the rough days. to remember that when we go through persecution and hardships for what we believe in and know to be true to always remember that we are standing with the greatest life that has ever lived upon the earth. He knows us. He love us. I know that with all of my heart. I believe in miracles. I know prayers are answered. We got to do a missionary night this past week with our ward that we called a day in the life of a missionary. and at the end we got to share our testimonies. I just remember talking about how being a tool in the hands of the Lord has got to be one of the most fulfilling things I have ever experienced in my life. knowing that I can help others come closer to the Savior if I am humble enough is such a great knowledge.

well I love you all so much! thank you for your prayers and support!!! they are much needed and much appreciated!!

Love always

Sister Boudreaux