November 30, 2015

Hey everyone!

This week was interesting, to say the least. The day before Thanksgiving something really cool happened. One of the really big buildings at KU was getting old and the foundations were rotting away so they demolished it. Half of the town went down to see it so we went too. It was really cool I will try to include a video or two of the actual event. Thursday was of course Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. First we played in a turkey bowl that the three wards here set up. It was a lot of fun except I was very sore the next morning. Then we had been invited to a big luau Thanksgiving by one of the Samoan families in the ward. There was a tone of good food and they did a whole dancing program. It was a lot like the football team's luau. After that we played volleyball and basketball with them for a while.  Let's just say they get serious about their volleyball. To end the night we went over to another family in the ward who had signed up to feed us. The food was absolutely delicious. They cooked some of the best turkey I have ever had. It was very flavorful and not dry at all. And the. We ended the evening play board games. This family is serious about board games and they have some really fun ones. We are going back at 4:00 today to play some more. Yesterday though the week kind of went a little south. Elder Jorgensen and I were waiting for the other elders to come pick us up for church and they came in and said hey your bikes just got stolen. We went outside and sure enough they were both gone. They had seen the guy riding away on Elder Jorgensen's but did t realize it was his until they got to our house and saw that they were gone. It was a streak of bad luck we had done everything right they were locked up and we were right there in the house but some bum thought he needed it. Pray that he try's to sell it at a pawn shop or something.  We called the police and they came and got all of the information like serial numbers and stuff so if they try to sell them they will come up stolen. One of the members in the ward works for the police department and knows the officer that we talked to and she is pretty confidant that they will both turn up pretty soon. I hope she is right. 

Much love,

Elder Boyer

November 16, 2015

Hello everyone!

This week has been interesting. The highlight was definitely Friday when we got to have our interviews with President Bell. My first one in Garden was just a couple weeks after I got to the field so I was still kind of shell shocked, but this one was different. We talked about some things that I was having trouble adjusting to here in Lawrence and he gave me some great instruction. I think sometimes missionaries sugar coat a lot of what goes on out here but I don't want to do that, so I'll be totally honest  missions are hard and there are days that you just want to give up for one reason or another. As I've said before, things don't always go your way and you have to live with it. Sometimes you can do everything you think you are supposed to but you won't see success. It's at that point that you really have to trust that the Lord is letting you struggle for a purpose and if you keep on moving and don't give up you'll learn something valuable.

"Never Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up."

- Jim Valvano

- Elder Boyer

September 28, 2015

Nate Williams and I at the MTC PROVO!

Hey everyone,

I hope things are good at home. We have had a pretty good week here in Garden City and we are planning on an even better one next week. Whitney, one of our investigators, is progressing quickly towards baptism. She told us that she felt a sense of urgency to baptized and she definitely felt that it was what God wanted her to do. The week was full of miracles but it was also pretty slow. I know the Lord wants me to learn something from this experience, I just haven't quite figured it out yet. Friday was an amazing day though. We had Zone Conference, which is a big meeting with all of the Zone where President Bell and the Assistants do trainings and different workshops and things. I learned a ton and received a lot of revelation about how I could make myself a better missionary and be a more effective servant of the Lord.

Sadie, I need a favor, one of the members here is taking a college math class, it's basically 1050 and he's asked me to help him, could you please talk to Fawcett and see if he has any materiel that you could send me that might help me make sure I'm teaching the stuff right?  If there is please send it ASAP. 

 Tell Big Cam hello for me, it's word to think that he is home now. Sundays are pretty normal. One of us and one of the zone leaders goes to ward council and the other two go out and wake people up for church. Then it's just church as regular. I got up bore my testimony last fast Sunday because Jason, the one who got baptized, wanted to see me do it, but they haven't asked us to talk in church or anything.  As far as staying in shape I'm down anywhere from five to ten pounds from what I came out at. It all depends on how much we bike everyday. That's cool you got to hear from Corb,  how's he been doing out there?  I guess I'm probably closer to him geographically than you guys probably are, I don't know.  I haven't had to play the piano yet because there is one of the young men in the ward who plays, he is a lot like me when I first started out, pretty reluctant and pretty nervous but it comes with time.

September 7, 2015

Pres. Bell taking a selfie at a Sister's baptism

It's been a good week here in Kansas.  The work is moving along quickly and there is never a dull moment. The investigator I talked about last week is going to be baptized on the 19th. He is really ready. Yesterday he told us that his family wasn't very happy with his decision but he knew that the church is the only true church and he wasn't going to let their opinion change his decision. He's been making great strides towards baptism and his testimony grows everyday. Last night we had a super powerful lesson in a member's home. It was an incredibly spiritual experience. Speaking of dinner in a member's home, the member that we had dinner with grew up in Rawlins, WY and knows who Jeremy is. He said that Jeremy was a few years older than him but he knew they called him Uno. Also the wife's grandpa is Glen Shaw's brother, I guess it really is a small world. This week has been full of miracles and priesthood blessings.  We have given four or five blessings to people this week. There is one member who is from Dodge City who is in the hospital here in Garden and we visit her and have given her a couple of blessings. She is recovering from a stroke and is doing well. It just goes to show the power of the priesthood and how incredible it really is.
I did get kind of homesick for football Saturday when a couple of the houses we visited had it playing; I had almost forgotten it was opening weekend. I also got kind of homesick for my jug, the member we ate dinner with last night had a big mug he was drinking out of and it made me miss mine a little.  This week we have like three dinners out in Holcomb, which is where the events in "In Cold Blood" took place. It's kind of weird but I'm pretty excited to go out there.

August 31, 2015

Hey everybody,

This week felt insanely fast. We had interviews with President Bell on Friday. That was a great experience. He is such an amazing guy. He's not really what I was expecting. I thought when I read that he was am former Air Force Colonel that he would be way different I thought it would be like  military and serious stuff but he's totally not. As soon as I got off the plane he dropped me in big bear hug, he's just such a loving man he's one of the greatest people I've ever met. I learned a ton from him in interviews and then last night was the mission president's devotional. It was one of the coolest meetings I've ever been to. A bunch of recent converts and investigators got up and bore their testimonies; it was just so special. There were a bunch of recent converts and less actives there and the spirit was just so strong you can feel that everybody was learning something. We had a really cool experience earlier Sunday, so we had an investigator who is actually a neighbor to one of the guys we got a date for baptism. But, they were trying to talk to their sweet talk to this investigator and he told us that he would come to church next week if we could get him a ride but he wasn't going to come yesterday.  We said sounds good we'll get you a ride and we didn't think too much of it until we saw him walk through the door Sunday. Elder Murphy had to translate for the meeting so I saw was in your in sacrament try to answer all of his questions and at the very end he just looked at me and he said, "you know I think you got me this is really really special I feel really good I just feels something about it feels right." And then we showed him a picture of the temple and told him how he could be sealed forever instead of just made for till death do us part and he's like you know that if I ever get married again that's where I want to be married. And then after that he went home because he had to take his daughter back to her moms, his ex-wife, but he came back to see the end of church for the linger longer lunch the ward was having and he was sitting at the end of the table with his daughter and a member just randomly walked up and started talking to him and ended up talking to him until the end of the lunch.  At the very end of the lunch the member invited him over for a barbecue with the missionaries probably the coolest thing that happened this week we're going to keep in contact with him this weekend keep teaching him and he feels like it's right. He called us today when we were in Walmart shopping for groceries with questions about The Book of Mormon and he was just totally open to learning about it and he's excited about it is a very strong interest hopefully soon we can invite them to baptism so we can take that next step in coming closer to the Savior and accessing the Atonement. 

Everything's going good.  Tyson has a meat processing plant about 20 minutes away in Holcomb, in fact most of Garden City works there, if you walk up to house and see rubber boots and knife sharpeners you know they work at Tyson.  There's feedlots out here too and they are absolutely huge, there are four or five big ones all within 30 minutes of Garden City. They are all like the size of that one Grandpa and Grandma showed me in Yuma. 

 

 

8/17/2015

 

Hey Everybody,

It's been a really good week again this week. A lot of our appointments fell through but each time we were able to find someone else to teach and have a spiritual experience with.  I have gained a testimony of God putting us where he needs us when he needs us there. We were able to have another lesson with Juan the husband that I talked about in my last email. He is really starting to feel the spirit and is progressing quickly towards baptism.  We also do a lot of work with less active members and a lot of them are coming back to church. It's great to see the change in their lives that just going to church each week can make. Last night one of our appointments fell through but the neighbors were outside and we felt like we should talk to them. We walked over and said hello and right away the wife knew we were missionaries and started looking for our name tags. We asked her how she knew we were missionaries and she said she had been a member since 1982. She told us she still reads the Book of Mormon and all the other stuff the missionaries gave her, but she doesn't go to church because her husband is Lutheran and they don't attend either church because they can't agree on one to go to together. Her husband restores old cars as a hobby and he had a really cool looking Ford Galaxy in his garage, and a restored Ford Ranchero parked across the street. They were moving another Ranchero into their back yard so we helped them push it around and get it put away. The husband was truly grateful for the help and seemed like a pretty good guy. We will have to see where it goes. 

8/10/2015
This week has been crazy, we left the MTC at 2:30 Tuesday morning and
were in Wichita by 1:00 in the afternoon, Kansas time.  After they
took the pictures you saw they sent us out with some more experienced
missionaries to get our first taste of real missionary work. Later on
we listened to a talk to by Jeffery R. Holland and had interviews with
President Bell.  We finally got to the mission home about 9:00 at
night, all in all we went for roughly 18 without sleep. The humidity
is insane, it hit me as soon as we got off the plane.

Wednesday we had orientation in the morning and then had a transfer
devotional where we got our trainers and all the departing
missionaries bore their testimonies. My trainers name is Elder Murphy,
he is from Safforrd, Arizona. He has been out about eight months now I
think. We get along well. We are serving in Garden City, which is in
the west you can see it on the mission map. We are on bikes so we bike
anywhere from 10-15 miles a day.  Our zone leaders live around the
corner from us and there is also a pair of Spanish speaking sisters in
Garden.  It gets hot here,  I come home every night and my shirt is
stuck to my chest with sweat.

Last night we had a lesson with a family who we met on Friday and it
was incredible. The wards here does what they call sports night where
anyone from the ward who wants to, gets together to play dodgeball and
other games. While we were there a couple's car broke down in the
parking lot and one of the members grabbed them and started doing a
church tour. Elder Murphy and I were able to set a second appointment
and visited them last night.  They speak Spanish so I can't say too
much but I can pretty much tell what they are talking about and I ask
Elder Murphy after lessons to clarify thins I'm not sure on. They are
totally ready to be baptized. They committed to be baptized as soon as
they find out it is true. We left them with an invitation to pray and
are sure they will know it is right as soon Asa they pray. We are
going over there for another lesson with them on Tuesday.

There are few things they wanted us to make sure you knew back home.
First, the best way to whip packages is through the postal service to
the mission office like you did that first one, and then they can
forward them, they can't forward them if they are UPS or FedEx.   My
mailing address is 606 Long Boulevard Apt. B6 Garden City Kansas.  I'd
did get the package, but apparently we did not need to send bedding
they gave all the news missionaries bedding when we got here. The coat
does fit.  I got the debit card but I haven't had to use it yet,
members feed us almost every day.

Hope everything thing is good in Coalville, keep me posted.
Much love,
Elder Boyer