Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Power Of Good And Evil

Olá.. September is pretty much.. What the?? I can´t even believe it. It is almost October which means conference!!!! YAY!!! Out in the field here we LOVE conference. Irmã and i have had a countdown for the last 25 days.. We are so excited.. For the Saturday session we are probably going to a members house to watch conference and then on Sunday we are going to Benfica with our zone to watch conference at the chapel there.

Last week i meant to mention that i got your letters from Park City. Thank you so much. I loved hearing from the whole fam! I am glad you all had fun.. It sounded like a blast.
This past week was long and crazy of course because there is not a normal day out here. Irmã Mortensen and i went to another church.. it was weird and different and i definitely didn´t like it. Everyone prays out loud and they all sounded whiny. We went because our bishop met a girl from this church and invited him to hear their message.. he said i will listen if you listen to my message and then he sent us to go meet them.. ha ha We tried to have a lesson with the church afterwards but it led to them not letting us read from the book of mormon and fighting us with scriptures from the bible. sooo yeah.

Yesterday at church was definitely an adventure. Randomly Buneca showed up and then tried to leave because she said she didn´t feel good inside the chapel. So she went outside and started talking to herself. So Irmã went to talk to her and said are you okay.. she said i am talking to the devil. He said i shouldn´t go inside. I don´t want to be here.. long story short, Buneca said the devil told her to break the chairs in her house and all the dishes too.. so she did.. We tried to give her, well not we.. but a priesthood holder tried to give her a blessing and she wouldn´t have it.. we couldn´t force her to do anything so she left and still have the devil in her.. looopy.. I honestly cannot comprehend being so low that Satan has that much influence in your life.. This week i have been reading in Moses.. The story of Moses walking with God face to face.. when God leaves, Satan tries to tell Moses to worship him.. Moses knows better not to follow him, but the second he has just the slightest doubt he sees the gates of hell open.. The powers of Satan are SO real. It is insane. Sometimes i really miss the Utah bubble. Culture shock is sinking in for reals.

There is a family in our ward who was baptized at the beginning of the year who´s daughter was taken away from them because of their living conditions. They have 3 girls total but only one was taken away and the government is saying that they have to wait at least 6 months until they can talk about her returning back to their home.. It is so sad. The poor mom just cries and cries whenever we go visit her. I done blame her so i cry with her. They are trying to stay humble and rely on the lord. They said ever since they were baptized they have dealt with a lot of opposition. But they are strong and can make it through this. It is hard to watch the situations people have to go through. I want to help so badly, but all i can do is pray from them.

We didn´t have a baptism this week. We worked so hard, had so many appointments, tried to baptize two people.. one didn´t show up for church and the other still said he wasn´t prepared. Irmã and i met with him in our chapel until 10:45 last night hoping we would have an 11pm baptism(it has happened before), but our investigator said when God tells him he is prepared, he will be baptized. sooo.. we are just going to continue to pray.

President Torgan is doing big things in this mission and other missions are hearing about it.. they want to know what the secret is.. We had a huge conference with 4 other zones this week in Benfica. I am extremely blessed to be able to serve here with President and Irmã Torgan. They are very special people. They know exactly what they are doing and how to do it with the help of the lord. I know the revelation he is getting is from God. There is no way the things here could be done by man. no way. Sorry this is a little shorter than usual. I am out of time. I love you all. Take care.

XOXO

Irmã Boshard



*Posted By The Boshard Family

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The work is growing more & more

How is it kickin in Utah fam?? Ohhhh i love you all.. Thanks for the updates on life. Life here in Odivelas is great. I love this city so much. It is getting chilly here and i am about ready to start buying my winter clothes. weird.. Today I forgot my list of things i wanted to tell you in my apartment so i am sorry if i forget things and leave out details..
Oh, one thing there is a member in my ward who was an Elder in Porto when Brother Meeks was the mission President.. His name would be Elder Viera to brother meeks.. He told me to tell brother meeks hi for him.. Small world isn´t it??

Yesterday we had a baptism!! It was a wonderful woman named Irene. She is the mom of 4 kids and two of her kids have already been baptized.. one of which i was able to see.. Her son is Bruno.. he is 9yrs old.. This mom has been through a lot in her life and seriously needs this gospel. She has quit smoking and drinking cafe. She told us the other day that is a blessing from god that she has more money to buy food for her kinds instead of buying cigarettes. I love this girl..

We had another investigator marked to be baptized yesterday but it fell because of SATAN.. ughh.. This boys name is tomas.. He is 12 years old and came to church with us last week. He loved it. He got a duty to god book and was already working on it during the week. He was so excited to go to church again with us and to be baptized, but one day we showed up on his door step and he was a completely different person. He was not excited to see us and said i don´t want to be baptized anymore. I don´t want to got to church.. It is too early.. blah blah blah.. I sat in his living room and cried. his mom was all for signing the papers for him to be baptized but tomas just doesn´t want this right now.. My heart breaks for these people. I want them to feel the love of the savior and the happiness i feel from this gospel.

We have a bajillion new investigator this week. The work is growing more and more everyday. President Torgan has an incredible vision for Portugal. I love it! these next few weeks are going to really pick up..

I have officially had my culture shock with the gypsy culture. One new investigator we have she is 18 years old, has two kids, is homeless and lives in a car with her boy friend. Wow.. i was just speechless. What a sad life.. She and her boy friend and kids came to church yesterday and loved it!! We want to invite them to be baptized but they need to get married first. so the plan this week is to figure out how to get all this done asap. Everyday i thank heavenly father for blessing me to be born into the gospel, born in america and born into an incredible family. I don´t know how i would function any way else.

My companion is a rock star.. I love her.. She helps me all the time with the language and we just laugh and laugh together. Heavenly Father truly knew who i would need out here in this work. Irmã Mortensen is a doll.. mom- Irmã is from Miami.. But long story short her family lives in Texas now. I will try to send you more pictures of us and our investigators.

The language is still hard and i am not fluent, maybe next week.. ha ha or in a few months. I learn things everyday and i am always making improvement, but with patience and time some day i will speak fluently. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much. Later :)

XOXO

Irmã Boshard



*Posted By The Boshard Family

Monday, September 12, 2011

HA HA HA....

Hiii-

It´s me again.. I feel like i was just here emailing you about last week.. Man.. The missionaries say time picks up every transfer and they are so right! I am already in my 3rd week of my 2nd transfer... AHHHHHH.. I honestly don´t even know where to start with this last week. My sweet fossil bag broke and i died! I was so sad. Remember how much i loved that bag? Now i use the cute bag carol gave me from Nordstrom and i love it. Thank you Carol.. Don´t worry Tanner, I am not using a backpack.. Never will.

Monday the zone leaders called an emergency zone meeting on pday! We went to the office in Benfica and talked about love for our investigators.. It was sad because obviously it is a big deal if we are having a meeting about this subject. One of the zone leaders thinks i have this immense amount of love for the people here (which i do) but he asked me to talk for a bit at our meeting (in Portuguese..gahh) why i love them and how we can all better love our investigators.. It went better than i thought, but dang.. I am still struggling with the language.. At the office i found some lovely packages! Mom.. thank you for the package from Whitney´s wedding. I loved it. Loved the pictures and the letters and candies.. Those jelly beans were amazing.. What are they?? Good job whoever picked those for the wedding. mom.. I cannot believe you took that twilight poster to her wedding!!! oh my gosh.. ha ha you should´ve cut out jacob and edward. ha ha ha Whit´s wedding was beautiful. You are glowing whit! I am so happy for you. Drew. thanks for the picks of Isla.. She is adorable.. She has this smile that looks suspicious. ha ha i can´t quite describe it. ha ha My dear XANGO friends.. You are too kind to send me that package. Oh my gosh.. You are all so thoughtful. The toys are amazing.. treats.. delish and thanks for the letters. I cannot believe how much fun we all had working together.. It just was not normal. ha ha

Okay- so this week.. Our zone leaders felt like everyone in our zone could have at least one baptism. So everyday they called to see how we were doing and who we were going to mark. It was kinda overwhelming because everyone we were trying to invite to be baptized, it was´t going so smoothly. We were teaching a girl Alina. She is 12 and is also taking lessons from the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have been teaching her for the last 3 weeks and wouldn´t come to church with us until she talked with her JW professor. So we went to her house on Saturday and she said i talked to my professor yesterday. I have my religion and i am staying with it. I don´t want to take you lessons anymore.. They way she was talking was so scripted.. It was sad. I testified and testified and Irmã testified but she wants to be a Jehovah's Witness.., Yuck! I am so sad for her.. but we warned her.. it´s on her now and we did our part to invite her to come unto Christ. So- we lost an investigator which was really sad.

Also this week we tried to meet with 2 investigators we wanted to baptize on Sunday. Everything we did wasn´t working. I have never worked so hard out here and felt like i was doing nothing to fulfill my purpose. We could never meet with one named Ari because her dad doesn´t like the church.. and the other, Gardet, never had time. It was so frustrating. So Irmã and i fasted. We were in some need of extra help. Finally we met with Gardet on Friday and invited him to be baptized on Sunday.. (yes i know that was fast.. but if it´s the lords will, we will do it!) Gardet said, i don´t know.. that is too soon.. and the recent convert teaching with us said, no.. it´s late.. you should´ve been baptized yesterday.. It was awesome! I love the recent converts here. Long story short, Gardet avoided us after that, didn´t showe up to our appointment and didn´t come to church Sunday and wouldn´t meet with us again.

It was Saturday nightish and we had an appointment with and investigator who was a reference from the elders in Lapa.. So we met with this guy Manuel. He was telling us that he went to church like 10 years ago in Cape Verde and has a book of mormon and wants to go to church on Sunday with us.. Irmã and i felt the exact same thing.. all week we were looking for someone who could be baptized and wha la, Here he is.. so we invited him to be baptized the first time we met him, in the first lesson for the next day! He said yes! we were thrilled and so grateful to heavenly father.. It was amazing.. It was like one of the stories you only hear about but no one knows the person who actually baptized someone that fast. ha ha So Sunday morning comes, and Manuel isn´t in church. We called him and he won´t answer. We called him like 7 times in 2 hours. Finally he picked up the phone, yelled at me not to call back and then he turned off his phone. Sacrament meeting was starting and i had to speak. I cried throughout my entire talk. I was so sad and frustrated we were given this amazing miracle to baptize someone and then.. he doesn´t want it anymore. Church was over and that was it.. We didn´t have anyone baptized for this last week. I felt like the biggest failure and i didn´t fulfill my purpose. I know i was extremely blessed to baptize my first 7 weeks here. But to go one week without.. broke my heart. It was so sad. I haven´t felt this yet.. I´ve never not seen sucess.. but i just have to keep moving forward and do better this week.

I am glad to hear Park City was fun. Mom- I am sorry you lost your ring.. I hope you find it.. You need to just take off all your stuff in one place and leave it so you don´t lose your nice jewelry. man.. that's rough mom. Boomer, how is high school? I want to hear all about it. Hannah how is your tooth and Seminary? dad, I am glad you are well and happy.. Your hair is completely white.. what the heck happened.. and i stressing you out too much?? ha ha Mom.. How are you? How is JetBlue? Drew you sound happy and well.. don´t be having any more kids yet.. Tanner.. you are great and i love you. I am sorry you are so busy all the time.. Isla is a beautiful baby.. Oh i love you all. Thanks for your support. Take Care my fam..

XOXO

Irmã Boshard



*Posted By The Boshard Family

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pictures!


August 2011 They city of Loures, it's a part of my area and Odivelaf and lots of apartments here. I took this as we were going to teach a family.


August 2011 Zone P-day we went to Alemeda to play frizbee at the park with the Lisboa zone, not everyone in the zone could make it but we still had fun playing in the rain. Elder Dacosta, Olson, Walter, me, Chrtste, Irma Joslin, Spurlock, Roundy, Rose, Rodriguez, James, Fillerup.


August 2011 Luciano's baptism (left to right) Diamontino, Luciano, me, Irma Joslin Luciano is the one we had a hard time getting a hold of and taught him one lesson over the phone and then the night before his baptismal interview we found out where he lived and taught him on his doorstep all of the commandments.


August 2011 Ivo's baptism (left to right) Bruno, me, Ivo, Irma Joslin, Marlane, Sofia. Marlane was baptized 2 weeks before, Bruno was baptized the next week. Sofia is 7 years old, all cousins


July 2011 Doris & Bruno baptism – It was windy and really sunny outside


July 2011 Irma Jolslin and I at a church in Campo Paqueno for a district meeting. These are hand painted tiles and this is funny because this is on the side of the LDS Church


August 2011 Edson's Baptism! He was elect. Me, Tenda (a member) Edson & Irma Joslin


July 2011 First District Meeting Elder James, Me, Irma Joslin, Elder Fillerup – We are the coolest district ever! We have a lot of fun together

"I don't know why Heavenly Father blesses me so much"

Olá! My wonderful family.. I adore you and i am so grateful for your emails. This week was crazy! I didn´t get to meet my new companion until like 11pm on Monday night.. i waited to meet her ALL day. It was the longest day.. Her name is Irmã Mortensen. She has been serving in Porto for the last year and now finally came to Lisboa! She is incredible. I don´t know why Heavenly Father blesses me so much. Irmã Mortensen is from Florida and goes home in November. She has got this language down, and i am learning a lot from her. She is calm, cool and collective.. Just what i need. She and i have been stuck in some fun situations this week. We couldn´t find the bus one night after a lesson and we needed to get home so we walked in the rain for an hour and walked through an Afrian village where some guy was making fun my my accent and awful Portuguese. He laughed at me the whole time i was trying to contact him.

I never remember what i tell you the week before so sorry if i repeat anything.. Weeks go Irmã Joslin and i met a girl named Inês. She is dating a less active in our area and has come to church a few times. We taught her for the first time last Sunday, Marked her for baptism on Tuesday and she was baptized on Saturday!!! She was elect! She had already been reading a little bit of the book of mormon and knew most of the commandments. When i gave her the invite to be baptized she wouldn´t even let me finish and she said yes! She cried all throughout her baptism. She was happy. I love the happiness the gospel brings to peoples lives. How could you ever not want this gospel in your life. It makes sense, it´s true.. and well, it is just true!

We had another baptism marked for yesterday, but it fell. It was sad. The lady that was supposed to be baptized it like 40 years old living in a 5 year old body.She makes no sense. She has a major fear of water and we were working with her all week to help her overcome this fear. She even told us she didn´t believe in god, just so she didn´t have to go through with the baptism. We showed her exactly how the baptism would go and she was so excited. It´s like night and day with Madlena. The next day was her interview for the baptism and we didn´t feel like she was going to come, so we walked to pick her up and she rolled her eyes when she saw us. ha ha she said sorry i can´t make it to the interview. My cousin is coming to pick some things up and i need to wait for him. We said, no problem.. We can wait.. Oh that made her mad so she walked down the street, threw a tantrum and came back and said, my shoe broke. I can´t be baptized. ha ha she then walked in her apartment building and we waited for her for 25 minutes and then decided to go knock on her door. She wasn´t there and every other door we knocked on looking for her, she wasn´t there either. I am pretty sure people were lying for her so we just left. We went back to her apartment the next day and asked if she would come to church and she said yes.. I will be there. I am sorry about yesterday.. I still want to be baptized.. yadda yadda.. well, yesterday was church.. and she didn´t come. She has only been to church once and she needed to go to church again before she could be baptized. It was sad. We did everything we could to help her and prepare her, but in the end she used her agency and decided not to be baptized. My heart aches and hurts when people skip out on this amazing experience. She needs to be baptized. Everyone needs to be baptized! Gahh

To make yesterday even better.. Irmã Mortensen and i were walking under a metro and yes, we got pooped on!!!!! IT was SO GROSS.. I dry heaved forever. ha ha ha ha It was in Irmãs hair and on our shirts and skirts.. it even got on my bag.. I was so grossed out. Never did i think that would happen. And we got on a bus to go visit a member and well, we found out that we were out of our area because we got on the wrong bus. Ooops.

Right now we have 10 new investigators. It is incredible We are teaching a mom of 2 kids we have already baptized. She wants to stop smoking so badly.. She was down to only one cigarette yesterday. It was incredible. We are also teaching a mom and her two boys. They were taught years ago by The Elders but were never baptized. Two members of our ward each brought a friend that wants to hear more about the gospel. Can you say miracles are happening right before my eyes.. oh my gosh! I still love it here and that is why i didn´t get transferred. There is still more work for me to do.

I am off to go do some grocery shopping and then Zone Meeting tonight. I hope you are all having fun in Park City. Tell everyone hello.. I hope you got my letter and pictures.. I will have more for you later.

Stay Well my family XOXO

Love, Irmã Boshard



*Posted By The Boshard Family