9/22

Sister M

Hola Familia!!

Chile just keeps getting better!!! We had half a P-Day this week so that we could go to the ward Independence day celebration on Saturday and holy cow chileans know how to throw a party. First off thanks to this awesome member we were able to wear these amazing traditional dresses called huasos that they wear while they dance the cueca on Independence day!! They're like the Chilean version of a prom dress I'll send pics!! The party started at 12 for us because we came early to help set up and then once everyone showed up this couple that I absolutely love so much danced the cueca and a bunch of other cool dances and they were so good! We all ate this huge meal with this really yummy grilled meat (they grill a lot down here so whenever I walk outside it smells like a campfire and I love it!) rice, potatoes, salad and all this other yummy stuff and then had this traditional drink called "mote con huesillo" which was kind of weird tasting but not bad. Then we spent a couple hours playing all sorts of games outside and everyone wanted to see how the Hermanas did at the games so we all got to participate in jumprope, sack races, three-legged races, tug of war once against hermanas and once against hermanos (we won both times much to the dismay of the hermanos :P) and lemon eating contests, thats right lemon eating contests which is ten times funnier than pie eating contests. And we all did this in our big fancy dresses it was great. Then much to surprise we had a second meal of chutipan and empanadas. After that everyone danced the queca which is this adorable, awesome dance that we wanted so badly to participate in but our Miss. Pres. said we couldn't. Seven hours total start to finish and I think the ward has adopted me as one of their own because even though I don't understand everything it feels just like being in the ward at home because they all tease and joke and love us a ton. It's kind of funny actually the ward competes to be our favorite family by trying to serve us the best lunch and stuff it's great. So some really cool things happened this week but also some not cool things. We met a gringa down here and got to teach a lesson completely in English which was funny because all of a sudden I became the senior companion because my comp doesn't remember English. Then earlier in the week we had a lunch with a member family, the Cornejos, and then all of a sudden Hermano Cornejo pulls out this bottle of beer and starts drinking it and offering it to us because it's "without alcohol". They have this three year old boy who reminds me a lot of Dawson but louder so I kept him occupied while my companion tried to explain that beer is beer and someone asked our MP and he said it is absolutely breaking the Word of Wisdom and so is coffee without caffeine etc. You can't find a loop hole in a commandment and call it obedience because it's not etc. I soon realized that this guy thought he was absolutely right and he had brought out that beer just to prove to us that he was right and he really wanted to have this debate with us and win just to justify him drinking it etc. So the debater in me reared it's head a little bit and all of a sudden my mouth was filled with the spanish words necessary to tell him that no, I don't know all of the reasons behind the commandments and neither did Joseph Smith when he told the brethren to stop drinking and smoking and Heavenly Father doesn't want me to know. He will not reveal everything unto me until after a trial of my faith. I told Hno. Cornejo to exercise his faith and to put his trust in an all knowing God and for the first time in this exchange he was completely silent and for one terrifying moment I thought that I had been to abrupt and he was offended or something and then all of a sudden he stands up and he poured the beer down the drain. I can't even explain the spirit and the celebration that followed!! I remember earlier we had been about to leave before Hno. Cornejo got home and his wife was practically begging us to stay until he got home because he was bringing us empanadas to eat etc etc but now I can't help but wonder if she knew he would do that and was praying for someone to influence him and change his stubborn mind because after he threw away all of his beer without alcohol and all of his coffee without caffeine she was crying and hugging us so hard. Hno. Cornejo promised to live it fully and then he's the one who rented the dresses for us! Afterwards my comp told me that he had done that so many times before but the missionaries had never been able to convince him that he wasn't follwing the WoW and this is the first time anyone beat him!! I love being a missionary. It's really hard sometimes when you know someone knows everything is true and believes everything but wont stinking do anything about it but I have hope that maybe I'm planting a seed that will bloom later when something else happens. I love serving and I almost feel bad because I am having so much fun!! It doesn't feel like work when you can't wait to get out there and find people and you dread any thing that takes you away from that!! Most importantly the gospel is true, please read and pray always because as missionaries it is so depressing to ask people if their doing those things and have them say no. Especially when you know that that is how you obtain and strengthen a testimony. I love you all!!

Hermana (Mandy) Boully 

Sister N

Hola!!

There are weeks that go so fast and others that go so slow it was one of the slow weeks this week. Its probably becuase we didnt have a whole pday last week becuase Hna Diaz my mom my trainer went to another area so we went around saying good bye to everyone monday before she left. Its been a little different ajusting to just being me and Hna Laufau and also since Im done with my training Im taking more and more responsiablitys. The first couple of days we kept looking for someone else when we where walking or in the house it was like wait someone is missing! But its been good Hna Laufau is amazing and she is a great teacher Im learning alot from her. Also we are working on my spanish cuz Im talking more and so I got get better so people understand me!

Its been a good week we have been working alot with the new investigators we found last week and alot look promising we have a couple of casi fechas that they are almost there!

Last week when we where on divisions me and a member contacted this girl and we got to teach her she was really respective to us she agreed to go to church and to the mutual activity. This last week we visited her again and she had read the whole panphlet we left for her she had lots of questions and she had already prayed to know if the church was true it was really cool! Speically because I found her:) We have a date for her to get baptised but we still need to work with her because she wasnt able to come to church this last sunday but i still have hope and faith in her!

Sometimes its hard when I feel like I should know more I should be a better teacher and know more spanish but then I have the good times little moments like hey they actually understood what i said yay!!! Its about doing your best and leaving the rest to the lord! Every day a little better Im so grateful for companions with patients!!

I love you all hope you have a good week!

Hna Nicia Boully!

9/15

Sister M.

Hola Familia!!!

So this week's update is that I've found my soulmate country and it is the oh so beautiful CHILE!!! The U.S. and I had some really great times and in after my year and a half fling we can be friends again but as for right now my heart has been stolen away by this long, crazy country on the other side of the world. 

First off, I'm so glad I went to the Mexico city CCM! Everyone here thinks it's so cool and is always asking me what Mexico is like, plus I got to see a very extreme side of Latin America that is completely different than where I am now. My area is called Talca because that's the city closest to us but I work in this little suburban town on the fringe of Talca called La Florida which is so cool cuz like Bountiful we have a bunch of stores like Linda which is the Chile equivalent of Walmart but the town is still small enough that you can come to know pretty much everyone which is good for us missionaries. PLUS our sector is at the very edge of the town so we get to be right next to these gorgeous hills in this little valley that is covered with trees and orchards and little streams its so pretty and nothing like the crazy packed atmosphere of Mexico City. 

What is crazy about it though are all the little cultural differences. For instance there are dogs and cats EVERYWHERE big dogs, little dogs, types of dogs I've never seen before, stray dogs and it's like a law that everyone has to own at least a dog and a cat. On our first day the nurse gave us this lecture about not petting the dogs but they usually leave you alone when you're walking by, not when you're on bikes though, but more on that later. Also they still drive crazy here like in Mexico and we'll mostly walk but everyonce and awhile we'll take a collectivo which is like a taxi but has a bus route like buses and you just have to pray you don't die while the driver zips all over town, it's fun. It's kind of funny Chile is like right on the border of modern and third-world so you'll see cars and horse and buggy teams on the same street, or flat screen tvs and stove heaters in the same house, it makes things interesting. Also we don't knock on doors here, ever, everyone has a fence and gate around there house so you stand outside and yell Ahlo! and they come out it's soo cool! This means I'll never have a door slammed in my face! I'll just be ignored and I can assume they weren't home rather than they don't want to talk to us. It was so funny one time we tried to contact this house and no one came out but across the street there was a guy sitting on his porch so we went and talked to him and then like ten minutes later a woman walked out of the house we had just tried to contact, saw us sitting there, we smiled and waved, and she hurried and went back inside! It was so funny and worked out all right because the guy was really interested in our message and we ended up teaching him the whole first discussion right there on his doorstep! What else is different... Oh yeah! everyone greets eachother with a kiss on the cheek here everyone which was fun to get used to especially since the Hermanos will try and do it to us and we have to hurry and put up our hand to shake. They also don't say Adios here they say Ciao (which I LOVE) and cuira se which means take care. 

So a bit about the food, it's all pretty much recognizable and stuff that we would eat in the states, occasionally I'll be like what am I eating? but then it will turn out to be good, the only big difference is that the big meal here is Almuerzo in the middle of the day and then at night they take "once" which is just like avocado, tomato, sandwiches with coffee for non members and Ecco for members. Ecco is soo good! Apparently this Mormon made it in Guatemala and it tastes like coffee smells like but is super good and they drink it all the time here. 

I got really blessed and have an amazing apartment that has hot water all the time (hallelujah) and this super pretty view of the valley but as great as it is my favorite part is leaving it! Knowing that we're going out to find people and share the gospel is seriously the best part of my day!! I love it so much I even managed to find two people, one at the airport and one on the plane that spoke English and shared my message with them! The guy at the airport even took a book of mormon!! Unfortunately the guy on the plane just wanted to argue but at least I gave him a pass along card so maybe something will come of that! This past week and this coming week have been and will be a bit hard because of 9/11 and this week is their independence day, so we'll be out all day trying to talk to people and most of them say come back next week and we'll here your message then so it's a bit hard. Also 9/11 has significance here as well because it's become like a National Protest day here and some members were telling us that Obama wants to send prisoners from Guantanamo here so Chile isn't too thrilled with the U.S. right now so on the 11th we had to return home early. Luckily though the thick of that is in Santiago so we didn't even see any of that and it was mainly just in case anything did happen which it didn't! Seriously the people here are so nice most of them want to talk to us just to figure out what two gringas are doing in their town. Also they love to tease me whenever I speak spanish they stroke my arm or hair and say Oooh nuevita, or gringita, but then tell me for my first week I'm doing all right. 

Like the U.S. Chileans take their Independence day pretty seriously so we don't have hardly any teaching appointments but a lot of invitations to parties! We're allowed to go to the ward sponsored one but they have this dance they do called the queca, with cool outfits that we can where but we can't join in. It's kind of sad most of our work is done with less active members because this area used to be a part of Concepcion and there was a mission pres. there that made baptism such a huge deal that a ton of people got baptized without really knowing, understanding, or accepting everything. In our area we have 561 members but only about 50 are considered active. That's why Jefferey R. Holland came down here for like three years because he visited a ward and women were passing the sacrament and being given the priesthood because they just didn't understand everything. It kind of sucks but at least I get to be a part of the group trying to fix it! Our area is the only one with bikes but we share with the other Hermanas in our apartment and we found out the hard way that when you're on a bike is when dogs will chase you and try to knock you off, I've been chased by like six dogs but the funniest time is when we were heading home and Hna. Hobbs starts yelling behind me to go faster and I turn and see this big black bear of a dog (the Grimm seriously) coming out of the shadows for me and we had to book it down the street till he finally gave up and stopped chasing us and then we laughed so hard about it. 

Just FYI my comp and I are pretty much the same person we've decided. Her first name is Mandi, her brother served his mission in Guatemala, her dad in Texas, she has family up in Boise Idaho, she played soccer growing up the list just gets longer and longer. Oh and she's from Ogden Utah which is cool, she's great and thankfully we get along great. Which is a good thing two because the other day she was trying to show us a trick where you light a match by flicking it off the box and it worked except it also went flying straight into my hair and I looked down and saw smoke and we all started screaming and I started basically smacking myself in the face to put it out it was a sight to see. My hair is fine, the match went out before it even got to my hair but I wonder if, when I die I can ask Heavenly Father if I can watch that clip of my life from his perspective just to see how funny we all looked freaking out. So I think that's all I wanted to say, a lot happened this week but most important of all is the fact that I love this place and the work and just everything about being a missionary! I know this church and the word that I'm preaching is true and I get the unique opportunity to watch it change peoples lives but you all get the even better opportunity to live it every day and watch it slowly shape your life! I love you all soo much and I can't believe how lucky I am to be here! 

Con mucho mucho amor

Hermana (Mandy) Boully

Shop talk: Our mission pres. had us change our names on facebook to Hermana so and so and we're supposed to ask you guys to post something saying that any posts during our missions is from you guys not me. Thanks!!

 

Sister N

 

HELLO!!

Its been a good week lots of work and rain the mission! Its been really fun being in a trio we have had so much fun together we are always talking about random stuff and the cool part is we all know english and most people dont know it here so we have a secret laungage. Its also been great because we have been doing alot of divsions like last sunday we all had one member and went out teaching. Its helping me alot to be on my own kinda but i still have lots of work with my spanish some days its so frustrateing when I say somthing and the people dont understand then my comp will say the exact same thing that i said and they understand its like what!! but its comeing!

We are always offering to give service to everyone we talk because we are here to serve. The other day we were walking past this family that we alwasy talk to but they never have time for us to visit they asked us to help them move this pile of dirt so there we were in our skirts and all shoveling dirt into wheel baros and wheeling them to the end of the street and everyone was just watching us and laughing but we got alot of contacts from it and we talked alot with the families around especaily this family they kept asking if i had brothers to set up her daughters with! After we were so sore and tired and i ended up getting a little sick that night but i was better the next day helps me know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us that i was fine and able to work! 

Yesterday we found out that my companion hna diaz is having changes and we were suprised that me and hna laufau are going to stay together  because usally they dont keep two greengos together, but im happy because there is still so much to do in our area. 

I hope everything is going good at home Im doing good here Im always trying to remeber that is only a short time i will wear my placa and i have to make the most of it now and even when things arent going the way we want we got to have hope things will work out and the lord knows best! 

Love, 

Hna Nicia Boully!!

 

 

 

9/9/14

Sister N,

HOLA!

In a far land of guatemala there is a blonde sister that is learning spanish and learning how to be the best missionary and the only way to learn is to make mistakes!

I love being a missionary I still have so much to learn specialy spanish! Im talking more and more every day but every day gotta learn from our mistakes and there have been some funny ones I have made. The other day in a lesson i was inviteing a investigator to be baptised and I accendiently told him he would have the power of god after he was baptised or thats what he got from it. Oops but almost step but step it comes! 

This last tuesday we got to go to the temple with our Ward because two of our recient converts were going through for their first times. One specialy we worked really hard to get his names and datos he was so excited and so where we it was so cool seeing him be baptised and then confirmed. Even if we didnt have baptisms this last week we helped with two in the temple so that counts right? After when we were outside of the temple we were all asking him how he felt and he said "triste" sad because his family couldnt be with him and expirence this also. Made me think of Lehi and his family when he ate the fuirt from the tree life but he wanted his family to partake to. After we where all crying it was a cool experince at least his dad and his brother where happy in heaven! 

We also had a conference by Elder Duncan this last week it was such a good meeting he was focusing on having the Lords vision for our areas that we can recieve revalation about our areas and what we should do. He also taught how we can work better in ours areas. After me and my companions tryed to focus on what the vision was for our area and ended up setting some high goals for the week. We were all pretty nervous about acomplishing them all but we did! We worked a ton this week about finding new people and the members are so great here there where a couple of days were we all had a member and went out and worked in different parts. Thats the great thing about being in a trio we can cover more area and out area is HUGE! Im pretty sure its going to split this next change but we will see what happens! 

I found a scripture this last week in DC about how the lord will go before us and prepare people for us and we found this new investigator that looks really promising! We out looking for new people to teach so we were knocking doors we knocked about 11 before we found this young mom she was so open and willing to listen to us has we talked to her found out she isnt going to a church right now( that in its self is so nice cuz there are alot of churches here) that she didnt like how other churches accepted drinking and smoking has ok and she wanted to change her life. It was so cool hearing all of this like really!! She also accepted being baptised right then! It was soooo cool both me and comp feel that she is ready and will progress! I hope so but not it was still a cool experince! 

This last change it has been raining soooo much specialy this week when it rains here it pours and the roads are like rivers last p day me and my comps went into the city part to go shopping it was pretty funny seeing us waiting for buses every time a car would pass we got soaked!! My skirt was so wet it was falling down! 

oh all the fun experinces on the mission when ever these times happen we think when is this every going to happen again! i love being a missionary cant wait for more experiencees!! 

Love you all! 

Hna Boully

 

Sister M,

9/6

Hola familia!! (for the last time in the CCM!!!)

This is loco!! I just got here yesterday it feels like but these weeks have flown by but come Monday at 8:35 I´ll be boarding an 8 hour flight straight to Santiago Chile!! Our maestro showed us Chile from Google Maps a bit today and (at least what I looked at) it looks a lot like Utah! I'll let you know for sure when I get there! Yesterday we had a ton of meetings about how to teach real investigators and it kind of freaked us all out to realize that the next time we teach a lesson it´s going to be for real. So I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about having to dive into the real world with real investigators and people who talk spanish super fast but luckily our last Sunday here is a fast Sunday so we get to specifically fast for help in those areas. Our maestro today conducted the lesson in what he told us was a Chilean accent and it was funny because he sounded like an Italian speaking really fast spanish. Again I´ll let you know for sure once I get there! This week has been kind of surreal and filled with a lot of lasts, last Tuesday devotional, last role play lesson, last pizza night and today we started packing our suitcases so it feels a lot like the last week before I left Utah. Hermana Pratt told us the first Sunday we got here though that we have to get used to change because it´s going to be a constant thing for not only the next year and a half but the rest of our lives so I'm trying to embrace the new and unknown that lies ahead of me!! In my very little free time I´ve been doing Elder Bednar's challenge (read the BOM cover to cover with only one question in mind and highlight only answers to that question) with a little BOM that a latina Hermana gave me and it's incredible! I'm in 2 Nephi but there has been something highlighted on every single page so far. I am learning so much more than I ever thought I could about things that I thought I already knew and I can't help but think that if I have so much to learn and I've been in the church my whole life then how much more do I need to work to share this gospel with those who have gone their whole lives without the opportunity to learn about it!! I'm so excited to begin the next step of my mission and grow and learn even more!! I love you all and I have such a huge testimony of the truthfulness of the message I am sharing! Hold to the Iron Rod! Tighter than ever! Don't ever be complacent about the gifts of being able to live the gospel! (I´ll stop preaching now) Love you all! My compañera writes *spirit hugs* at the ends of her emails to her family to say her spirit is hugging them and I kinda really like the concept. *SPIRIT HUGS ALL AROUND* Seriously though, love you guys.

Hermana (Mandy) Boully

P.S. my new mailing address in Chile will be:

Hermana Amanda Lynn Boully

Chile Rancagua Mission

Alcalde Eduardo Melero 883

Casilla 2-C

Rancagua 

Chile

:)

 

9/9

Hola From Florida!!!‏ 

Hola Familia!! 

I am here safe in Chile in my new area which is called La Florida (hence the subject line :P ) I have an amazing new companion named Hermana Hobbs and I am going to be her last compañera!! My apartment is super nice and this city is crazy and beautiful all at the same time. Love you so much I'm off to go do the Lords work now!!!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Boully

 

 

 

9/2/14

Hermana N.

Hola From Guatemala!

Another week in the mission and Im still having firsts like this last week was my frist time getting sick from the food or water and also we had a conference from Elder Duncan and our mission president I liked the second one better! It was a great reminder and learning experince how to work better in our areas and how to place and keep fechas for baptims. Pres Caffaro is so great he was a football coach for Snow College and you can tell the way he talks and gives his pep talks. He is also about really doing not trying to do. You can feel the power from both of these men that they are here to help us and they care about the work to and also that they are set apart and do know all that we should do! 

This last week we havent had many investigators who are progressing so we have been working alot with the recient converts. We have been helping about 4 get ready to go to the temple on Tuesday and do baptisms for the dead. Goodness satin is always working or it may just have been the internet but we have been trying to help the recient converts get their familys numbers put in so they could do their work. There has been two times we have gotten together to put them in the computer but both times the internet was not working. Yesterday the bishop brought his internet from home but even that was super slow it took us two hours to get two peoples names done but we did and specialy this one convert was super happy to be able to baptise his dad this next tuesday! we might be going with them depending on our zone leaders if we have good numbers they will let us go so we are trying to work hard this next week. 

Its kinda been a hard week we are excited to start another and have better sucess but we had one lesson that was so amazing that you could feel the spirt so strong. So We had this one investgetdor that we were working with and even came to church he has been praying but hasnt recived a answer yet. The last lesson we taught him his friends came over also to see the "greengas" and it was so frustrateing trying to teach him and his friends were just talking and being stupid after that we didnt go back to teach because of them. This last week we saw this investigators wife at the store and there was a day that we felt we needed to visit him. We showed him a video about Jesus christ and shared a scripture and shared our testimonies about why we were there to help him not to have fun and to make friends becuase we know that the Gospel will help and bless him. the spirt was so strong it was really amazing. 

The mission is all about pushing you outside of your comfort zone streching you and makeing you better. This last saturday at 10.20 we get a call that we are speaking in church yep ten minutes before we go to bed but i was grateful it wasnt the morning of that we had some time to prepare and I survived and i think people understood most of what said but ya makes me want to be better with spanish. I cant wait til I can speak better and understand everything but it will come Im learning alot from the BOM about how the missionaries then through diligences and faith they waxed strong. Im trying to be dilegent with studing and learning spanish specialy becuase Im probably going to be training and getting a comp that dosent know english! Im excited for that and nervous but I know I need to be streched to be better! I know this Church is true Im so grateful to be serving. Its so amazing reading the scriptures I love readying and it feels like a extra treat reading in english and understanding all. I love you all and hope you are having a good day stay save and try to read the scriptures everyday!! it helps!

LOVE, 

Hna Nicia Boully!

 

This last week I felt like a ofical Hna missionary becuase i got my missionary bag that everyone has its really dorky but its alot nicer to carie my stuff in!

Me and My Comps!

 

Hermana Mandy,

Hola!! 

Now don´t be alarmed by my subject line, I get one more email here but after that I´m gone!! It´s funny whenever I pass this huge map of the world in my building it always strikes me just how far away from Utah Rancagua Chile is! It´ll be fun though. We got to go to the temple today!!!! Sadly the Mexico Cuidad Temple is closed for construction so we couldn´t actually go inside but we got to go on a tour with the Latina Missionaries to the Visitor´s Center and to this little bookstore where they had all these cool hand made scripture cases and stuff. The Visitor´s center was super pretty too, they have a Cristus room just like in SLC temple square but it´s a lot smaller. The craziest thing about it though was driving through the city! In our little compound it´s not like you forget you´re in a different country and tons of crazy things are going on outside the walls but you aren´t directly exposed to it either. Mexico cities motto should be A Lot Inside of a Little, a lot of people, buildings, shops, and cars cram packed inside of a very small space. It was the definition of culture shock. We saw where the old MTC used to be and it was literally right on the temple grounds but it was also tiny so we´re glad we´re where we´re at so that there´s enough room for all of us and all the recreational activities we do. Funny story this used to be a LDS highschool and the only way to graduate was by submitting your papers! So I´m learning here that if you feel like you´re starting to get a handle on something that´s when the Lord will add something else to your plate so that you´re constantly on your toes and never become complacent. Our teachers have us teach throughout our stay here but we don´t learn how to teach in one day so so often we´ll learn something and be like "man I really could have been using this sooner!" and I teachers will just laugh, agree, and then tell us to start applying it now. I was told to tone down the debater in me but I don´t have to, Spanish is forcing me to teach simpler. Speaking of which for sacrament meeting we all right talks and then the Branch Leaders randomly pick some people in the middle of the meeting to give their talks and since it´s fast sunday next week I managed to avoid giving a talk and some of the elders were congratulating me on my luck but truthfully I actually like talking! And I actually wanted to give my talks! Oh well at least I got to say the prayer last week.

We had the power go out in the CCM this week which was fine because we all had our little flashlights and were just getting ready for bed but for some reason the elders took this as permission to run outside and up and down the streets in their pajamas. You know how people say that guys grow up and mature a little bit on their missions? Sometimes I wish that process would speed up a little bit. So while my companion was standing on the counter of our bathroom looking at the elders I was standing in the bedroom and some girls in the casa decided to take advantage of that. I was a sitting duck (without my glasses on or hearing aids in) looking off to the side with my flashlight when an Hermana snuck around the open door until she was about a foot away from me in the dark. I turned my flashlight and it was like a scene from a movie where the light landed on her face, she jumped at me, I screamed, my roommate screamed, my companion nearly fell off the counter because of said screaming... Ah good times. 

I remember when Uncle Jared came back from his mission to Mexico and I thought he was weird because he started putting like a half a jar of jalepeños on everything he ate. Guess what I LOVE jalepeños!!!! I never really liked or ate them before because they were too hot but the spicy salad dressing and sauce and pico that they put on everything down here must have built up my tolerance because I literally just ate a small plate of jalepeños as a snack to compliment lunch. Oh another strange thing, I actually lept for joy because we could mop our room (we couldn´t last week). I am celebrating over the opportunity to clean!! Strange things happen while on a mission.

We had these super cute Latinas in our casa that were trying to learn English and would sing hymns with us at night but they´re only here for two weeks so they left this week and it was so sad!! I´ve only known these girls for a couple of days and can´t even really communicate with them but I was crying over they´re leaving!

Remember how I said boys grow up on their missions but not fast enough? The other night an all out war was waged over a comfortable swivel chair in the classroom with another district. Apparently both chairs look exactly the same but the other district´s broke so they switched it with ours. Our elders responded by running into their room, grabbing the chair and the missionary sitting in it, pulled into our room and then took the chair by it´s legs, flipped it over and began to shake the other Elder out of it while simultaneously tickling him in order to get him to release his arm which he had hooked through the arms of said chair. In the words of the poor elder: "All this over a chair!"

Do me a favor, if you can sometime in the near future or next year and five months, go visit SLC temple or even just temple square. We watched an amazing movie about the building of the SLC temple and it made me really want to go visit it. There was this cool part about how Utah means Top of the Mountain and in Isaiah 2 there´s a chapter about how the house of the Lord will be built in the Top of the Mountain.

I´m continuing to work really hard both spiritually and physically. For some reason my companion and I decided to torture ourselves this week by doing an exercise called Crossfit. Basically it´s a great many burpees in a very small alottment of time and the only way I can do it justice in description is by saying we did it on Saturday and my body still hurts. 

Well that´s about it for this week. By this time next week I´ll either be leaving or getting ready to leave and I´ll make sure and include my new address for letters in my next e-mail!

I love you all and I´m so grateful for this opportunity and I´m learning so much every day! The gospel is true no matter what country or language!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana (Mandy) Boully