The Lords creation is without words. The Island of Madeira is incredible. You can see the ocean from every angle of the island. The island isn´t super big. I went to Funchal for a zone meeting and it was and hour long bus ride of beauty.. freak. I love it all. Our zone has 8 missionaries and we have all heard what a privilege it is to serve here.. We are so grateful to represent Christ here.
This week i had my first run in with someone who has done research about the Mormons online.. and he speaks English so it made things worse because i could understand what he said. He is an investigator the missionaries have been teaching for about 4 or 5 weeks and he is not very intelligent because he said that we are preaching a false Christ and our church is built on sand and not a rock because God changes his mind. For example when the black people couldn´t hold the priesthood.. yadda yadda.. this guy said our church is a mask and the devil is behind it.. and i cried and cried and we left his house. I felt so sick to my stomach. It was awful and i never want to feel that way again.. But we returned to his house because we feel like he needs to be baptized.. so we returned and he said i am sorry for yesterday.. I am not the first person to say these things to you am i? and i said.. yep.. he said, welcome to Madeira.. ha ha ha We found 26 new investigators this week and had over 40 other lessons with investigators.. it was incredible.. We are planning on baptizing them all.. don´t worry.
Yesterday i met our ward of maybe 10 or 13 active members.. It was kind of a shock for me. Heavenly Father has send me here to truly help with the Less Actives and baptisms. I love the ward though.. They are so welcoming. I will be speaking and teaching many classes this transfer.. I feel bad for those who have to listen to my Portuguese.. ha ha I met a young man who just returned home from his mission last week from Manchester England.. I said, oh my gosh.. do you know Elder Rodgerson? He freaked and said YES.. I was his zone leader this last transfer.. He loves Trace and said he the hardest working missionary in the field.. Doesn´t surprise me.. Trace is a machine.. So you should tell the Rodgersons that Trace is very loved in England.. but that is no surprise.. The Elder i met is Elder Dandast.. i hope i spelled is name right.. Small world right???
Our contacts were interesting this last week.. we did find 26 new investigators.. But One night Irmã Dias and i were walking on the sidewalk and a man says.. Hey. I see you around all the time i want to know your message.. (he was drunk) and we talked to him and prayed and testified of course.. and then he saw his friend Fransisco, and called him over (he was drunk too) and we prayed with him and taught him on the street.. and right after we said the prayer and i opened my eyes there was a man standing right in front of me, nose to nose (he was drunk too) and said, hey, i want to come to church with you.. where is your church? and bam.. we found 3 drunk men wanting to know the message of Christ. It was fantastic. I love doing this everyday of my life.
Saturday night Irmã and i found a new investigator, her name is Conceição on our way home for the night and we invited her to church and she said she would come, but everyone says they will come so we didn´t expect to see her in church... but she came and we were thrilled. During sacrament meeting she saw two investigators receive the Holy Ghost and she said i want that.. Can those men put their hands on my head today? I said not today but after you are baptized you can receive the holy ghost and i explained to her baptism and everything about it.. and she said i want to be baptized.. when can i be baptized and we said next Sunday.. she said okay.. I am being baptized next Sunday.. WHAT THE HECK.. i was speechless.. She is elect and a miracle that was put right into our hands.. I love Conceição.. She is incredible and will be an incredible member..
My companion is Portuguese, clearly, and we would love to eat like Americans on Christmas. Can you send us some American chocolate?? Like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.. She would love to try them.. I speak very highly of this treat some times.
I hope you all enjoy the pictures.. that is just a small fraction of what i have on my camera.. I am sorry i slacked in this area for you all.. but no worries.. I will send more next week and for the rest of the mish.. I got a message dad´s email couldn´t receive my 3rd transfer pictures.. so please forward that to him for me.. I am out of time or else i would try to fix it.. I love you all and i hope you have a great week. I am off to eat lunch by the ocean..
Happy Holidays!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
p.s. i hope this email makes sense because i wrote it super fast. mkay. bye.
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Transfers!
Today is transfer day...and...............I am serving in the Land of MADEIRA!!!!! OH MY GOSH IT IS GORGEOUS HERE!!!! It is surreal. Last night at 10pm i got a call from the Office Elders and they told me i needed to pack my bags and be ready to catch a flight to Madeira this morning. So i packed and couldn´t sleep, obviously, and then i caught a flight, alone, flew for an hour and a half and now... I am here in Madeira. I cannot believe this is where Heavenly Father needs me to serve. I am so so grateful to be here. It is a privilege to serve on the Islands. WOW. It is warm and humid and GREEN. Yeah- I am at a lost for words. I am so happy.
My companion is Irmã Dias. She is from Portugal and yes, she speaks Portuguese. I am going to help her learn English! I helped Irmã Dos Santos last transfer with English and she was making incredible progress. I have realized i should never teach English because i don´t even know English myself. ha ha All the missionaries who don´t speak English have the opportunity to learn English in the mission. It is a great place to learn because as we all know through the spirit we will have the gift of tongues.
We didn´t have any baptisms last week, unfortunately. Admilson was marked to be baptized yesterday but he said that he is too afraid to leave the catholic church. We have been teaching him for 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks. He is 22 years old and has a testimony but won´t act on it. It is so frustrating at times to see progress, yet someone won´t take the next step and be baptized. He asked if he could still come to church and if we can still teach him.. so hopefully he will be baptized soon. I am sad i won´t be in Almada to see it. One day, opposition will leave the earth and i can´t wait! until then, we will continue on, right?
Irmã Dos Santos and i found an ELECT investigator last night at like 9:20pm right before we were going home. She has already been to church, she was taught by the missionaries and asked if she could still be baptized.. OH MY YES!!!!! With transfers and other missionaries she must have been forgotten, but what a blessing we found her and should probably be baptized this week. But i won´t be there.. i have work to do here in this land of paradise!!!
So funny story.. last night when i was packing, i found my camera cable in my suit case.. What the?? Where did it come from because i am pretty sure i do not remember packing it ha ha However, i am very sorry i didn´t bring it with me today. I have not unpacked my suitcase yet. SOOO.. next week, i will email you pictures! YAY!!
Okay i finally have the email address for Leonardo Carvalho. He was a missionary when Brother Meeks was the Mission President in Porto. Can you give it to Brother Meeks for me?? Thanks!!! xico335@gmail.com
I hope you are all well and I love you.. Stay strong. I will pray for Grandma Jacobs.. I am hoping for the best.. you must let me know how the surgery goes and what happens. Tell her i love her and i am thinking about her.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
My companion is Irmã Dias. She is from Portugal and yes, she speaks Portuguese. I am going to help her learn English! I helped Irmã Dos Santos last transfer with English and she was making incredible progress. I have realized i should never teach English because i don´t even know English myself. ha ha All the missionaries who don´t speak English have the opportunity to learn English in the mission. It is a great place to learn because as we all know through the spirit we will have the gift of tongues.
We didn´t have any baptisms last week, unfortunately. Admilson was marked to be baptized yesterday but he said that he is too afraid to leave the catholic church. We have been teaching him for 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks. He is 22 years old and has a testimony but won´t act on it. It is so frustrating at times to see progress, yet someone won´t take the next step and be baptized. He asked if he could still come to church and if we can still teach him.. so hopefully he will be baptized soon. I am sad i won´t be in Almada to see it. One day, opposition will leave the earth and i can´t wait! until then, we will continue on, right?
Irmã Dos Santos and i found an ELECT investigator last night at like 9:20pm right before we were going home. She has already been to church, she was taught by the missionaries and asked if she could still be baptized.. OH MY YES!!!!! With transfers and other missionaries she must have been forgotten, but what a blessing we found her and should probably be baptized this week. But i won´t be there.. i have work to do here in this land of paradise!!!
So funny story.. last night when i was packing, i found my camera cable in my suit case.. What the?? Where did it come from because i am pretty sure i do not remember packing it ha ha However, i am very sorry i didn´t bring it with me today. I have not unpacked my suitcase yet. SOOO.. next week, i will email you pictures! YAY!!
Okay i finally have the email address for Leonardo Carvalho. He was a missionary when Brother Meeks was the Mission President in Porto. Can you give it to Brother Meeks for me?? Thanks!!! xico335@gmail.com
I hope you are all well and I love you.. Stay strong. I will pray for Grandma Jacobs.. I am hoping for the best.. you must let me know how the surgery goes and what happens. Tell her i love her and i am thinking about her.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Monday, November 14, 2011
WARNING.. This email will be super boring
HI THERE!
WARNING.. This email will be super boring. I don´t have much to report on. So- I am thrilled this last week has past and we have a new week ahead of us. There was too much drama and other things this week i can only tell you about when i come home. ha ha Last Monday Irmã Dos Santos and i went to Cristo Rei.. It was pretty dang cool. I have lots of pictures i need to send. By the way sorry i never send pictures.. I will work on printing some either today or next week. Irmã and i found a guy at Cristo Rei, he spoke English and yes, I contacted him at Cristo Rei. It was awkward talking about the gospel in English. I felt like i didn´t know what to say. I am more comfortable teaching in Portuguese ha ha. Well, Long story short this guy lives in Lisboa which is not our area, but he loved the first lesson and i made sure the Elders will pass by.
This week will be my 6th month mark in the mission. Have a i been gone 6 months?? I have no sense of time. It feels like i just left home.
This is the last week of the transfer and i am pretty sure i will stay.. My area has a lot of work to do and i need to help strengthen my ward. I don´t know how though. I pray everyday to do what the lord needs me to do, yet i still struggle to find ways to do exactly what he needs of me.
Today I went to the hospital again.. ha ha so fun. I love Lisboa so it is not a problem. When i had the ear infection weeks back, the doctors put me on a medication that i shouldn´t have been on so i had to go in for a physical exam and a blood test today. I am TOTALLY fine, we´ll get the results this week.. i am telling you this because i am filling space in this email ha ha... and we left our house at 10am this morning and returned to our area at 3pm. Oh the joy of hospitals. So in the end of the story, no worries..
We didn´t baptize this week, probably because of all the drama we dealt with.. actually- no it definitely was our fault we didn´t baptize because we didn´t try harder to dunk people in the water. Remember Ian? I talked about him last week.. we tried to baptize him again this week but his mom will not give permission and Irmã Dos Santos kinda gave her a chat about his salvation and yet she won´t budge. It is so hard when we get attached to special people who we know the lord has prepared for us, yet people still have agency and that affects salvation.
To end this very boring email i will leave you with my favorite scripture i found this week. John 14: 26-27. It is about the Holy ghost and the peace we feel because of it´s companionship. It is not peace from the world but peace from our Lord. Which is SO much more important than anything else. I am glad to hear everyone is doing well. I love you all so much and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.. I can´t believe it is already this time of year. I feel like it should still be summer. p.s. Transfers are next Monday so i will try to still email you if i have time. mkay?
I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
WARNING.. This email will be super boring. I don´t have much to report on. So- I am thrilled this last week has past and we have a new week ahead of us. There was too much drama and other things this week i can only tell you about when i come home. ha ha Last Monday Irmã Dos Santos and i went to Cristo Rei.. It was pretty dang cool. I have lots of pictures i need to send. By the way sorry i never send pictures.. I will work on printing some either today or next week. Irmã and i found a guy at Cristo Rei, he spoke English and yes, I contacted him at Cristo Rei. It was awkward talking about the gospel in English. I felt like i didn´t know what to say. I am more comfortable teaching in Portuguese ha ha. Well, Long story short this guy lives in Lisboa which is not our area, but he loved the first lesson and i made sure the Elders will pass by.
This week will be my 6th month mark in the mission. Have a i been gone 6 months?? I have no sense of time. It feels like i just left home.
This is the last week of the transfer and i am pretty sure i will stay.. My area has a lot of work to do and i need to help strengthen my ward. I don´t know how though. I pray everyday to do what the lord needs me to do, yet i still struggle to find ways to do exactly what he needs of me.
Today I went to the hospital again.. ha ha so fun. I love Lisboa so it is not a problem. When i had the ear infection weeks back, the doctors put me on a medication that i shouldn´t have been on so i had to go in for a physical exam and a blood test today. I am TOTALLY fine, we´ll get the results this week.. i am telling you this because i am filling space in this email ha ha... and we left our house at 10am this morning and returned to our area at 3pm. Oh the joy of hospitals. So in the end of the story, no worries..
We didn´t baptize this week, probably because of all the drama we dealt with.. actually- no it definitely was our fault we didn´t baptize because we didn´t try harder to dunk people in the water. Remember Ian? I talked about him last week.. we tried to baptize him again this week but his mom will not give permission and Irmã Dos Santos kinda gave her a chat about his salvation and yet she won´t budge. It is so hard when we get attached to special people who we know the lord has prepared for us, yet people still have agency and that affects salvation.
To end this very boring email i will leave you with my favorite scripture i found this week. John 14: 26-27. It is about the Holy ghost and the peace we feel because of it´s companionship. It is not peace from the world but peace from our Lord. Which is SO much more important than anything else. I am glad to hear everyone is doing well. I love you all so much and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.. I can´t believe it is already this time of year. I feel like it should still be summer. p.s. Transfers are next Monday so i will try to still email you if i have time. mkay?
I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, November 7, 2011
Not Much To Tell...
Hellllo my eternal family,
So this week, honestly i don´t even have that much to say.. sorry. For starters I had a baptism yesterday. yay.. Her name is Joana.. a mom of 3 and she is from cape Verde.. i think.. Her baptism was set for 6pm last night and she wasn´t at the chapel and she wasn´t answering her phone.. so we obviously left everyone at the chapel to go find her.. we went to her house, she was there with her daughter and said i can´t be baptized because i just got home from the hospital. my daughter is sick and needs to stay inside, blah blah blah... We prayed, got her ready and her daughter ready and She was baptized at 9pm last night.. I am learning patience for reals out here.. Wow.. waiting on people.. well you all know.. just isn´t my thing.. BUT the lord is teaching me that this is his time and not mine and things will happen according to his will. So the baptism was great, i baked an incredible cake and had to leave it in the oven while we went to look for Joana and Yes.. i knew this would happen.,. the elders ruined it!!! my poor little cake. It was depressing but still SO good.. It was like a Brownie cake. yeah.. yum.
Yesterday we were supposed to have 2 baptisms.. but one fell because of the young mans mom. UGH. So we met Ian last Sunday at church. He was there with a friend and said he loved church.. so we thought... OH yeah, baptism. We tried to call him during the week and his phone was turned off. we didn´t have his address and we had no idea what to do. Magically through the power of prayer ANYTHING is possible and we got his address through the vine and went to his house on Saturday to teach him the first lesson and invite him to be baptized the next day.. this is the life of missionary work. I love it. BAPTIZE. When we invited him he said yes instantly. The mom said yes and everyone was agreeable. So- yesterday morning we got a call from a friend of Ian and they said you need to call Ian because his mom won´t let him be baptized today.. We called she said, no it is too soon. After a 15 minute long phone call she still said no. She we tried everything.. we passed by house and she was sleeping and couldn´t talk to us.. we talked to ian at church and he still wanted to be baptized but not with out the permission of his mom.. clearly. duh. SO long story short.. He will probably be baptized this next week.
Other than this, i´ve got nothing.. I am sorry.. Today for Pday we are going to Cristo Rei.. It should be pretty amazing. I am sure. It was zone pday but then it was cancelled.. So It will be just Irmã and me.
The weather is getting pretty cold and i still need to buy warm clothes.. like everything.. boots, coat, scarfs.. i should have just brought this stuff with me. I don´t know what i was thinking. Oh man.. Remember i talked about that guy Leonardo Cavalho.. He served a mission when President Meeks was in Porto.. Well Leonardo gave me his email but i forgot it today. shoot. I am sorry. Tell Brother Meeks he wants to get in contact with him and next Monday i will remember to bring his email with me.
I am so grateful for all of you. I love you, i love this gospel. It is true. I know it with all my heart. I am grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. It is not complicated. We have commandments for a reason. Keep them! Read the scriptures.. We teach so many people about OLÁ. Orar- pray, Ler- Read, Assistir na Igreja( I bet i spelled that wrong. Sorry)- Go to church! We have to do all three of these things to stay close to the Lord. It is so simple.. so do it. We are working towards eternal life people. Take Care my loved ones!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
So this week, honestly i don´t even have that much to say.. sorry. For starters I had a baptism yesterday. yay.. Her name is Joana.. a mom of 3 and she is from cape Verde.. i think.. Her baptism was set for 6pm last night and she wasn´t at the chapel and she wasn´t answering her phone.. so we obviously left everyone at the chapel to go find her.. we went to her house, she was there with her daughter and said i can´t be baptized because i just got home from the hospital. my daughter is sick and needs to stay inside, blah blah blah... We prayed, got her ready and her daughter ready and She was baptized at 9pm last night.. I am learning patience for reals out here.. Wow.. waiting on people.. well you all know.. just isn´t my thing.. BUT the lord is teaching me that this is his time and not mine and things will happen according to his will. So the baptism was great, i baked an incredible cake and had to leave it in the oven while we went to look for Joana and Yes.. i knew this would happen.,. the elders ruined it!!! my poor little cake. It was depressing but still SO good.. It was like a Brownie cake. yeah.. yum.
Yesterday we were supposed to have 2 baptisms.. but one fell because of the young mans mom. UGH. So we met Ian last Sunday at church. He was there with a friend and said he loved church.. so we thought... OH yeah, baptism. We tried to call him during the week and his phone was turned off. we didn´t have his address and we had no idea what to do. Magically through the power of prayer ANYTHING is possible and we got his address through the vine and went to his house on Saturday to teach him the first lesson and invite him to be baptized the next day.. this is the life of missionary work. I love it. BAPTIZE. When we invited him he said yes instantly. The mom said yes and everyone was agreeable. So- yesterday morning we got a call from a friend of Ian and they said you need to call Ian because his mom won´t let him be baptized today.. We called she said, no it is too soon. After a 15 minute long phone call she still said no. She we tried everything.. we passed by house and she was sleeping and couldn´t talk to us.. we talked to ian at church and he still wanted to be baptized but not with out the permission of his mom.. clearly. duh. SO long story short.. He will probably be baptized this next week.
Other than this, i´ve got nothing.. I am sorry.. Today for Pday we are going to Cristo Rei.. It should be pretty amazing. I am sure. It was zone pday but then it was cancelled.. So It will be just Irmã and me.
The weather is getting pretty cold and i still need to buy warm clothes.. like everything.. boots, coat, scarfs.. i should have just brought this stuff with me. I don´t know what i was thinking. Oh man.. Remember i talked about that guy Leonardo Cavalho.. He served a mission when President Meeks was in Porto.. Well Leonardo gave me his email but i forgot it today. shoot. I am sorry. Tell Brother Meeks he wants to get in contact with him and next Monday i will remember to bring his email with me.
I am so grateful for all of you. I love you, i love this gospel. It is true. I know it with all my heart. I am grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. It is not complicated. We have commandments for a reason. Keep them! Read the scriptures.. We teach so many people about OLÁ. Orar- pray, Ler- Read, Assistir na Igreja( I bet i spelled that wrong. Sorry)- Go to church! We have to do all three of these things to stay close to the Lord. It is so simple.. so do it. We are working towards eternal life people. Take Care my loved ones!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
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