December 27, 2011
HEEELLLLOOOOO-
I was so glad to see you all on skype on Sunday. What a blessing to have technology and be in Portugal on an island and be able to talk to my family in America. Whoa. Thank you Heavenly Father. Isn´t the Dantes Family incredible?? I am so grateful for them. They fed us SO well and let us just hang out with their family all day. Mom- I will ask for their address and get the info to you. The mom is Fatima Dantes. You can probably find her on facebook, but she doesn´t speak English. Her son Timóteo Dantes speaks English (obviously, because you talked to him) but i am sure you can find him on facebook. That family is incredible and it is such a blessing to know them. Irmã Dias and i don´t know how we will thank them for everything they do for us. Every Sunday they feed us too mom. They always bring food to church for us and we take it home and eat it for a week. ha ha Irmã Dantes is a really good cook.
So- Sunday after church was incredible because we had two baptisms at the beach in Caniçal. It is really close to Machico. No one was there, it was calm, kinda cloudy, not too cold, a little windy, but a perfect day for baptisms in the ocean!!!!! Oh you will love the pictures. I am so happy for these people who have a desire to change their lives. We baptized Fabio a few weeks ago.. do you remember me telling you all about him?? Well, yesterday we baptized his dad, José! It was kinda a battle to get José to stop drinking wine, but finally on Saturday he committed to live the word of wisdom. Yeah- we cut it close. The other baptism was Maria José. She is the mom i told you about last week that should´ve been baptized with her daughter, but her daughter would not commit. She is kinda agnostic and has been difficult to meet with. So.. We just need to continue to pray and find the elect. They are here, we just have to be diligent in finding them.
I loved all of your faces when i said i have bed bugs.. yep. It sucks. Irmã Dias has it too, but mine is bad. It looks like i have a disease on my hands, arms and legs. ha ha ha ha I´ll have to take some pictures and send them to you.. you´ll laugh.
Wow- I can´t think of much to say because we chatted so much on Christmas. I am grateful for all of you. You are all looking SO good. I hope you have a great New Years. Take Care my loved ones :) Make it a goal this next year to never miss a day of reading your scriptures and saying your prayers NIGHT AND DAY. okay.. i love you, i love you.
XOXO
Irmã Kenzie Boshard
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
December 19, 2011
Christmas is this week?? No seriously.. How?? It was just summer.. oh wait.. it still is summer here on Madeira.. kinda.. Jelous? You should be. I am a missionary and i love my calling.
I am so glad to hear all of you are doing well, and your Christmas plans sound great because we GET TO SKYPE!!!! Yeah... i know. I am really excited to see all your faces because i thought i would just hear voices, but noooo. Okay. so Christmas day we have Sacrament meeting at 10am.. then afterwards a member is bringing a computer to the chapel for Irmã and i to skype. We don´t have Christmas plans with anyone in our ward so it might just be irmã and i chillin on Christmas.. Time for our chat, probably 45 minutes.. I will most likely be calling you before your sacrament meeting because when i call from here it will be about 5 or 6 am your time. most likely 6am.. I am sorry this is not set in stone, but you can all just roll out of bed.. OR is it better if i call after church.. aww man, i don´t know.
Last week i went to Lisboa for my residency card and i got to hang out with my MTC buds.. it was such a fun surprise.. I had no idea we would be doing our cards together.. While i was there i got my Christmas package from Grandma Boshard, cards and treats from all my wonderful friends and family.. The Nylunds sent me amazing chocolate from Sweden. Thank you.. I will make sure to get thank you cards out.. don´t worry, but I wanted to make sure they know i got their packages.. Mom.. I am still waiting on the Christmas package, but i hope it will come sometime this week.
The work this last week was full of opposition and our two baptisms fell. It was the mom and daughter we found last week or the week before. Anyway, I am kinda impatient with Satan.. He really works hard on the people out here.. The mom returned to smoking, the daughter didn´t really want to talk to us and they said it is too soon, we can´t do this, it hasn´t been enough time, yadda yadda.. Satan Satan Satan.. The moment we start teaching people about the gospel or we mark someone to be baptized, Satan is ticked and puts doubts in their mind and well, we just have to work a little harder.. We always warn our investigators about opposition and Satan and the doubts and all the rest.. but we are really in the last days and need to more firm in all that we do. We need to pray for all the people in the world to have an open heart and mind. To recognize the voice of the lord when we show up on the door step. We need to pray to help these sweet investigators fight off the temptation of Satan. My heart breaks when baptisms fall. Obviously, you all know i am a cry baby and so sensitive to the spirit, i had a difficult week with the opposition. I love seeing the change in peoples life, the light of Christ and the desire to follow the teachings of our savior. I should have no need to worry because we are going to try and get them baptized again this week.
Never be afraid to open your mouth and share the gospel. Internalize the basics of the doctrine and the spirit will guide you to the rest. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the gospel and the have the opportunity to leave you all and share the gospel with the Portuguese people. I never took thought to be diligent in studying the Scriptures before my mission. I read them because everyone said, read your scriptures.. Well now that i am here in the mission i know why we read the scriptures. I know why we pray before and after studies, i know why it is a commandment to read, pray and go to church.. We are learning of eternal principals, we will only take our knowledge with us after this life. Start now, don´t wait until tomorrow when you have an extra 5 minutes. Act today. You will see the blessings pour out in your life. I see them everyday in mine. I say this all the time, i need this mission more than this mission needs me. I have gained some much more than i feel like i can offer someone else.. but yet i have been blessed to bless the lives of others.
I love you all so very much.. I hope you all have a great week and i will see you on Sunday.. It´s a date :) LOVE YOU XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Christmas is this week?? No seriously.. How?? It was just summer.. oh wait.. it still is summer here on Madeira.. kinda.. Jelous? You should be. I am a missionary and i love my calling.
I am so glad to hear all of you are doing well, and your Christmas plans sound great because we GET TO SKYPE!!!! Yeah... i know. I am really excited to see all your faces because i thought i would just hear voices, but noooo. Okay. so Christmas day we have Sacrament meeting at 10am.. then afterwards a member is bringing a computer to the chapel for Irmã and i to skype. We don´t have Christmas plans with anyone in our ward so it might just be irmã and i chillin on Christmas.. Time for our chat, probably 45 minutes.. I will most likely be calling you before your sacrament meeting because when i call from here it will be about 5 or 6 am your time. most likely 6am.. I am sorry this is not set in stone, but you can all just roll out of bed.. OR is it better if i call after church.. aww man, i don´t know.
Last week i went to Lisboa for my residency card and i got to hang out with my MTC buds.. it was such a fun surprise.. I had no idea we would be doing our cards together.. While i was there i got my Christmas package from Grandma Boshard, cards and treats from all my wonderful friends and family.. The Nylunds sent me amazing chocolate from Sweden. Thank you.. I will make sure to get thank you cards out.. don´t worry, but I wanted to make sure they know i got their packages.. Mom.. I am still waiting on the Christmas package, but i hope it will come sometime this week.
The work this last week was full of opposition and our two baptisms fell. It was the mom and daughter we found last week or the week before. Anyway, I am kinda impatient with Satan.. He really works hard on the people out here.. The mom returned to smoking, the daughter didn´t really want to talk to us and they said it is too soon, we can´t do this, it hasn´t been enough time, yadda yadda.. Satan Satan Satan.. The moment we start teaching people about the gospel or we mark someone to be baptized, Satan is ticked and puts doubts in their mind and well, we just have to work a little harder.. We always warn our investigators about opposition and Satan and the doubts and all the rest.. but we are really in the last days and need to more firm in all that we do. We need to pray for all the people in the world to have an open heart and mind. To recognize the voice of the lord when we show up on the door step. We need to pray to help these sweet investigators fight off the temptation of Satan. My heart breaks when baptisms fall. Obviously, you all know i am a cry baby and so sensitive to the spirit, i had a difficult week with the opposition. I love seeing the change in peoples life, the light of Christ and the desire to follow the teachings of our savior. I should have no need to worry because we are going to try and get them baptized again this week.
Never be afraid to open your mouth and share the gospel. Internalize the basics of the doctrine and the spirit will guide you to the rest. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the gospel and the have the opportunity to leave you all and share the gospel with the Portuguese people. I never took thought to be diligent in studying the Scriptures before my mission. I read them because everyone said, read your scriptures.. Well now that i am here in the mission i know why we read the scriptures. I know why we pray before and after studies, i know why it is a commandment to read, pray and go to church.. We are learning of eternal principals, we will only take our knowledge with us after this life. Start now, don´t wait until tomorrow when you have an extra 5 minutes. Act today. You will see the blessings pour out in your life. I see them everyday in mine. I say this all the time, i need this mission more than this mission needs me. I have gained some much more than i feel like i can offer someone else.. but yet i have been blessed to bless the lives of others.
I love you all so very much.. I hope you all have a great week and i will see you on Sunday.. It´s a date :) LOVE YOU XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Me and Irma Dias
Irma's at the beach
Beautiful Christmas day at the beach
Baptisms on Christmas day
There is nothing better than being at a baptism on Christmas day!
Irma Dias and me
"Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill and cannot be hid..."
This is a beautiful family
Christmas Eve dinner at our apartment in Madeira
Merry Christmas
Sitting on my bed with this beautiful, colorful wrap that was a gift from Irma Dias' mom. She also sent me a Portugal pen!
This is my district, yes they are goobs! The finger M's are for Madeira
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Happy Holidays
Hi there,
I got your letter Hannah and your stickers mom from Thanksgiving.. Loved it.. I will save them for next year.. ha ha Thanks for always thinking of me and sending me thoughtful cards and gifts.. I love you!
SOO.. clearly i am emailing you and i am not in Lisboa.. So sad.. We were all so excited to go to Lisboa today.. I had talked to 3 different people about the chirtsmas party and it was all planned that we would fly to Lisboa today, but this last week they changed it and President and Irmã Torgan flew to Madeira and we had our own little christmas party here. Funny Story.. The office Elders forgot to call the Zone Leaders and tell us we were having a christmas party here and on Wednesday Irmã and i were getting ready to leave our house for some appointments and we got a call from the district leaders saying.. you will never believe what is going on right now.. President and Irmã Torgan are in Funchal and a member had made a feast for us and they are wondering where are the missionaries.. ha ha We hopped on a bus and arrived and hour and a half later, we had a christmas party and feasted.. ha ha President and Irmã were in the chapel forever waiting for us.. I felt so bad.. ooops those poor elders that forgot to call us.. How do you forget to call an island and say.. hey your mission president is flying out to see you.. Any way, we sang christmas songs, ate good food, President gave inspiration and it was nice..
This mission is full of miracles and i am so grateful for all the things President Torgan is teaching us.. one thing that we have to remember everyday is, be humble, repent EVERYDAY and do the will of the lord.. So one night this week Irmã and i were doing some contacting and it wasn´t going super well, so we stopped at a corner to pray and repent for whatever it was we did wrong and fix it so we can find investigators.. right as we were going to pray Irmã Dias saw a woman sitting on a bech and said we should talk to her.. I said let´s pray and talk to her after.. Right as we were starting to pray this woman got up and was walking towards us. She said excuse me, i am sorry.. I would love to talk to you.. She began to cry and was explaining how hard her life is right now and needs a change.. we sat on a bench and talked with her forever.. in the end we made an appointment to meet with her again and she said can i bring my daughter? She is 19 and i think she would love your message.. so We met with them this week and everything went smoothly and we marked them to be baptized next sunday!!! We are so excited.. A cute little family.. Every time i have a baptism.. i think, my mission is complete.. I´ve found they elect.. but then the week after Heavenly Father places someone else in my path and the cycle starts over again.. This work is such a blessing!!!
That is crazy Lauren will be home next week.. I don´t want that to be me.. Bahhh one year.. I pray that is goes extremely SLOW.. (sorry mom). What about Amy.. I know she leaves in a month or so right?
Until next week!!! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
I got your letter Hannah and your stickers mom from Thanksgiving.. Loved it.. I will save them for next year.. ha ha Thanks for always thinking of me and sending me thoughtful cards and gifts.. I love you!
SOO.. clearly i am emailing you and i am not in Lisboa.. So sad.. We were all so excited to go to Lisboa today.. I had talked to 3 different people about the chirtsmas party and it was all planned that we would fly to Lisboa today, but this last week they changed it and President and Irmã Torgan flew to Madeira and we had our own little christmas party here. Funny Story.. The office Elders forgot to call the Zone Leaders and tell us we were having a christmas party here and on Wednesday Irmã and i were getting ready to leave our house for some appointments and we got a call from the district leaders saying.. you will never believe what is going on right now.. President and Irmã Torgan are in Funchal and a member had made a feast for us and they are wondering where are the missionaries.. ha ha We hopped on a bus and arrived and hour and a half later, we had a christmas party and feasted.. ha ha President and Irmã were in the chapel forever waiting for us.. I felt so bad.. ooops those poor elders that forgot to call us.. How do you forget to call an island and say.. hey your mission president is flying out to see you.. Any way, we sang christmas songs, ate good food, President gave inspiration and it was nice..
This mission is full of miracles and i am so grateful for all the things President Torgan is teaching us.. one thing that we have to remember everyday is, be humble, repent EVERYDAY and do the will of the lord.. So one night this week Irmã and i were doing some contacting and it wasn´t going super well, so we stopped at a corner to pray and repent for whatever it was we did wrong and fix it so we can find investigators.. right as we were going to pray Irmã Dias saw a woman sitting on a bech and said we should talk to her.. I said let´s pray and talk to her after.. Right as we were starting to pray this woman got up and was walking towards us. She said excuse me, i am sorry.. I would love to talk to you.. She began to cry and was explaining how hard her life is right now and needs a change.. we sat on a bench and talked with her forever.. in the end we made an appointment to meet with her again and she said can i bring my daughter? She is 19 and i think she would love your message.. so We met with them this week and everything went smoothly and we marked them to be baptized next sunday!!! We are so excited.. A cute little family.. Every time i have a baptism.. i think, my mission is complete.. I´ve found they elect.. but then the week after Heavenly Father places someone else in my path and the cycle starts over again.. This work is such a blessing!!!
That is crazy Lauren will be home next week.. I don´t want that to be me.. Bahhh one year.. I pray that is goes extremely SLOW.. (sorry mom). What about Amy.. I know she leaves in a month or so right?
Until next week!!! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, December 5, 2011
Happy Holidays From Madeira!
Happy Holidays!!! On the island of Madeira.. It feels like summer to me. It is sunny most days and when it rains it is not too cold. It definitely does not feel like December.. I feel like it should be snowing any day now.. This is weird..
So- sorry Drew i didn´t get the chance to respond about the missionary in your ward from Portugal.. What is his name again and where did he live in Portugal?? Details.. Thanks :) oh yeah.. my zone leaders have a package for me and i think it might be the one you send me.. They said i can get it this week.. We´ll see, but thanks for being so thoughtful.. I love you!
This week was a week of miracles.. seriously. My mind is blown at how the Lord works with missionaries. Saturday night last week we met a drunk on the side of the road and invited him to church.. well he came to church last week and brought a friend with him.. The friend is Fabio.. Fabio had some questions after church.. said he loved the feeling of peace during the meetings and would like to return.. He talked about his mom that passed away and it has been rough, so we talked about eternal families, you know the routine and well we instantly made an appointment to teach him and the following Tuesday we taught him and marked him to be baptized on Sunday (yesterday). Tuesday night, he gave up drinking, smoking and coffee, cold turkey people.. and never returned to it this week.. It wasn´t even a temptation for him. He is SO elect.. and was baptized yesterday.. He actually received the Holy Ghost yesterday too because on Friday he is moving to England for work and won´t be returning to Madeira for a while. He can´t wait to meet the members in England start his new life there.. Seriously.. I was so grateful to be and instrument in the Lords hands to help change Fabio´s life.
Yesterday we also baptized João.. yay!! 2 baptisms!! João has been in depression for the last 6 months and it was a blessing to find him in the road last Sunday night.. He had attend church years ago with the Elders and was excited to find us and return to church with us this week. João is quiet and timid but truly loves the lord and wants a new path in life. Right after he was baptized he walked out of the font, he slipped and fell and hit is head on the stairs.. His head started bleeding, i gasped extremely loud and was so worried. He was starting to feel pain but said he was fine. Thankfully our Zone leaders were there to help us and they cleaned up his head and said it was deep and that he should be okay but we should go to the hospital because we don´t want anything bad to happen if he goes to sleep. So- after the baptism we drove to the hospital and waited for an hour and a half and thank heavens João was alright and his cut wasn´t seriously deep.
I will never stop talking about how grateful i am for this mission. It is such a blessing in my life to be of service in the Lords hands and teach others about his message. What if i extend my mission and stay here forever??
I love Irmã Dias.. She and i have a blast doing this work together.. We have the same vision and purpose here, the work comes easy.. (some days.. Of course you know it is not perfect out here in the mission field) but She and i are ment to be serving together in this time. I have so much to learn from her.
Okay- a few questions and favors...
Mom and Drew- can you find Alyssa Mortensen on facebook for me and get her address? She and i were companions in Odivelas and i need to write her and send her some pictures... Will you check on her too.. Make sure she is doing alright for me.. She returned home just a few weeks ago from the field i need an update on her. But not that i am a creep.. She´ll understand :)
Did you get my postcards? I hope so.. I thought they were so cool.. the material of cork.. I found then at Cristo Rei in Almada.
I love you all.. as always.. you are my family and all! I hope you are all having fun prepping for the holidays.. We get to chat soon.. Already.. Man.. Okay.. apostasy.. I can´t think about that..
Take care! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
P.s... I may or may not email you next week because we are flying to Lisboa for our Mission Christmas Party and i don´t know if i will have time to shoot you all an email.. so... be patient.
p.s.s My new favorite scripture is Alma 12: 35 Read it. Love it. Live by it.
okay.. i re-read this email and i need to clarify that João´s cut was NOT deep when the Elders looked at it the first time.. man.. sometimes i type so fast.. sorry..
What is it with me and hospitals.. man, i am curse aren´t i??
*Posted By The Boshard Family
So- sorry Drew i didn´t get the chance to respond about the missionary in your ward from Portugal.. What is his name again and where did he live in Portugal?? Details.. Thanks :) oh yeah.. my zone leaders have a package for me and i think it might be the one you send me.. They said i can get it this week.. We´ll see, but thanks for being so thoughtful.. I love you!
This week was a week of miracles.. seriously. My mind is blown at how the Lord works with missionaries. Saturday night last week we met a drunk on the side of the road and invited him to church.. well he came to church last week and brought a friend with him.. The friend is Fabio.. Fabio had some questions after church.. said he loved the feeling of peace during the meetings and would like to return.. He talked about his mom that passed away and it has been rough, so we talked about eternal families, you know the routine and well we instantly made an appointment to teach him and the following Tuesday we taught him and marked him to be baptized on Sunday (yesterday). Tuesday night, he gave up drinking, smoking and coffee, cold turkey people.. and never returned to it this week.. It wasn´t even a temptation for him. He is SO elect.. and was baptized yesterday.. He actually received the Holy Ghost yesterday too because on Friday he is moving to England for work and won´t be returning to Madeira for a while. He can´t wait to meet the members in England start his new life there.. Seriously.. I was so grateful to be and instrument in the Lords hands to help change Fabio´s life.
Yesterday we also baptized João.. yay!! 2 baptisms!! João has been in depression for the last 6 months and it was a blessing to find him in the road last Sunday night.. He had attend church years ago with the Elders and was excited to find us and return to church with us this week. João is quiet and timid but truly loves the lord and wants a new path in life. Right after he was baptized he walked out of the font, he slipped and fell and hit is head on the stairs.. His head started bleeding, i gasped extremely loud and was so worried. He was starting to feel pain but said he was fine. Thankfully our Zone leaders were there to help us and they cleaned up his head and said it was deep and that he should be okay but we should go to the hospital because we don´t want anything bad to happen if he goes to sleep. So- after the baptism we drove to the hospital and waited for an hour and a half and thank heavens João was alright and his cut wasn´t seriously deep.
I will never stop talking about how grateful i am for this mission. It is such a blessing in my life to be of service in the Lords hands and teach others about his message. What if i extend my mission and stay here forever??
I love Irmã Dias.. She and i have a blast doing this work together.. We have the same vision and purpose here, the work comes easy.. (some days.. Of course you know it is not perfect out here in the mission field) but She and i are ment to be serving together in this time. I have so much to learn from her.
Okay- a few questions and favors...
Mom and Drew- can you find Alyssa Mortensen on facebook for me and get her address? She and i were companions in Odivelas and i need to write her and send her some pictures... Will you check on her too.. Make sure she is doing alright for me.. She returned home just a few weeks ago from the field i need an update on her. But not that i am a creep.. She´ll understand :)
Did you get my postcards? I hope so.. I thought they were so cool.. the material of cork.. I found then at Cristo Rei in Almada.
I love you all.. as always.. you are my family and all! I hope you are all having fun prepping for the holidays.. We get to chat soon.. Already.. Man.. Okay.. apostasy.. I can´t think about that..
Take care! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
P.s... I may or may not email you next week because we are flying to Lisboa for our Mission Christmas Party and i don´t know if i will have time to shoot you all an email.. so... be patient.
p.s.s My new favorite scripture is Alma 12: 35 Read it. Love it. Live by it.
okay.. i re-read this email and i need to clarify that João´s cut was NOT deep when the Elders looked at it the first time.. man.. sometimes i type so fast.. sorry..
What is it with me and hospitals.. man, i am curse aren´t i??
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)