December 17, 2008

Hola Familia,

This transfer just ended, so that´s why P day is on a Wednesday this week. The last week was a good week. We got some good work done, but the exciting part is that we have a baptism tonight. In fact it starts in about 2 hours so I gotta make this fast!

Let´s see, tomorrow I´m gonna send some packages home for Christmas but there´s no way it´ll get to the States before Christmas. But just so you know, it´ll be on it´s way so be on the lookout!

Today we found out the new transfers. I thought I would just stay here but nope! I´m leaving Santa Fe so I won´t be here for Christmas. Oh well. Santa Fe is pretty bad on Christmas I guess just cuz there will be drunk people everywhere the next day, but apparently my new area is even worse cuz it´s like the party city of our mission. I´m going to a city called Gualaguaychu, right on the border next to Uruguay, and aparently they´ve got the whole carnival thing really big there. So I´ll let you know but I might have to stay inside for like a whole week lol.

Ok well I need to go now. We made a cake for the baptism and we have to go decorate it then run to the church for the baptism. Oh but Mom you asked me if I am senior comp yet. I´m surprised you asked that but the answer is yes, I´m gonna be senior comp now. Super wierd, I haven't even hit 9 months in the mission yet. Basically it´s cuz theres a lot of new Elders coming into the mission right now. I can´t remember my new comp's name, but he´s from Canada lol.

Ok, I´ll write again on Monday to tell you the plan for when I´ll call on Christmas!

I love you all,

Love,

Elder Boice

December 8, 2008

Hey family,

Not much time left to write right now. But I had a good week. A little frustrating cuz we have so many people to teach and we´re having a hard time doing it. But overall I would take that anyday over not having people to teach at all. Obviously the frustration is worth it.

This last week we had interviews with the President which was good. Haha sometimes I think interviews can be really different just depending on what mood the President is in. It was a pretty relaxed interview for some reason.

I don´t know what happened to the last week. We just kinda ran around trying to teach. We have a family that we tried to teach every day this last week but it just never happened. Oh well.

This last Saturday night we had a stake dinner, and the chorus sang and we watched a movie about Christ. It was really good, and we had 10 investigators that came. Ya!!

Ok well I have to go now but I hope everyone had a great week, and is enjoying the Christmas season. Love you all!, and I´ll try this week to decide on a time that would be good to call home on Christmas.
Love,

Elder Boice

December 1, 2008

Hey family,

sounds like you had a fun Thanksgiving heading up to Utah, or la fabrica, as the members say down here lol.

We had a good week down here for sure. I was about to say there was no thanksgiving turkey but I was wrong there was. We had a Zone Conference this last week and they made us turkey and mashed potatoes. That had to have been super expensive too. Cuz you can buy an amazing steak down here for a few pesos but the only place I ever saw turkey was when we went to Wal-Mart down here and it was SUPER EXPENSIVE! But anyway, that was a realy fun zone conference and a really tasty turkey.

But besides that this last week, we taught, gave a blessing in a hospital, and it rained a lot. It rained a little this last Friday, but on Saturday it started to pour! It started to flood a little bit. There were some streets where the water was up to your knees, but it only lasted a little while, then the rain stopped and everythings fine now.

We also had a super great lesson yesterday during the siesta. We taught a big family and we taught them at a members house. A tip that should be passed on to future missionaries is to Do a KNEELING prayer at the end of a lesson, and have the investigator do it. We had quite a few teary eyes at the end of that lesson, and I think we´ve got some more baptisms coming up soon.

Also in about 45 minutes from now we´re gonna be heading over to the church to have an activity. My comp and I and another companionship we live with planned an activity that we´re gonna be doing at the church. Pioneer night!! Haha. Actually the other companionship planned most of it but our branch is gonna combine with their ward for the activity. Hopefully it turns out well.

Alright I´ve got to go now. So have a great week everyone. And Calvin probably has finals coming up so good luck Calvin!! And have fun during the Christmas season everyone!! It´s the most wonderful time of the year! Woohoo!
Love you all,

Elder Boice

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Family,

So I had my first baptism this last week. That was way cool. But I think I actually liked the confirmation on Sunday even better than the baptism. Even though there was food at the baptism ;) just kidding

Haha, but yep so that´s pretty much the exciting news for the week. Besides that, not much I don´t think. Encounters with cucarrachas, the weather heating up, running at night to get home on time. haha. I guess I can talk about the baptism a little though. We have a meeting every week with our ward mission leader so we were gonna plan the baptism with him. But he didn´t show up again so my comp and I just planned it. Lol seriously, people that go to church in the states have no idea what the condition of the church is down here. And vice-versa. It´s sooo different. Today I was talking with some other Elders whose bishop went and visited Utah. And it blew his mind when he saw what the church is like in Utah. Now he wants to move there haha.

But anyway. We asked members to speak, bring food, etc. We asked 2 members to give short talks and we had a back-up as well. But at the last minute they all couldn't come of course, so my comp just spoke. It was a good experience though and we had a few members come. My comp and I brought a cake that we made and the wife of the guy that got baptized brought some cake and soda as well. Funny note: the 2 baptisms I´ve seen here in Argentina, more people always appear afterward exactly when the food comes out. All in all it was good.

Today was fun too. We celebrated Thanksgiving as best we could. We had a turkey bowl. Some Elders bought a small rugby ball (you can´t find footballs down here), and we had a football game on the beach of the Paraná river. Right next to a little villa shack that someone had built. After we went to a restaurant. And I mean a REAL restaurant. Way expensive!! Well not if you convert the price to dollars but for here it was way expensive. I had a steak and french fries.

Soooo... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! And be sure to eat some pumpkin pie for me :D

And I´ll talk to you next week! Let me know how Thanksgiving was. Oh but that reminds me! I wanted to ask (Mom) if you could tell me how to make cinnamon rolls. The other day I remembered cinnamon rolls and it just sounds amazing. Ok have a great week!
Love,

Elder Boice

November 17, 2008

Hey family,

I only have about 15 minutes then I have to be out of here so we can start working on time. Usually we do internet early in the morning but today we didn´t so now I´m super short on time. I had wanted to email Brad and Calvin too but sorry gonna have to wait til next week! I would email Bo too but I actually don´t have his email address. Does he have one?

Well I had a good week though. Actually a really good week. My new companion Elder Gilbert is really great, and after my last comp I really appreciate having a comp that works and is obedient and everything. And since I´m short on time, I´ll just talk about the highlight of the week.

My highlight was an appointment we had with our investigator Gonzalo. I sent a picture home of him, he´s the one that just got married. So we taught him a lesson about baptism because he´s ready now, and he was going to pray about it that night but he didn´t. Said he couldn´t find time alone to pray. So when we found out he didn´t pray, we talked to him, and it was kind of funny cuz I shared a funny old Chinese proverb with him. At least I think it is, I have no idea when or where I heard it. But it goes something like, "If hungry man waits with mouth open for eternity, eventually roasted peiking duck will fly into his mouth. But it could take a long time." I changed it a little to make it Argentine, but he got the gist of it. Basically you have to make time to get things done. If he wants an answer he has to go get it.

So what we did is we kneeled down with him then and there in the room with his wife to pray. And Gonzalo said a great prayer. And the Spirit came into the room and afterwards we asked him how he felt and if he thought he received his answer. He said yes. So he´s gonna get baptized this Friday. Yeah!! Our branch has a temple trip saturday so we´re doing the baptism on friday. So that´s my good news for the week. :)

Well I´ve got to go now. Chao familia. Love you. Stay strong and have faith :)
Love,

Elder Boice

Attack of the Cockroaches

Ok, these pictures are seriously disturbing, but hilarious at the same time. The first photo says "I Love You" in Spanish, spelled out in dead cockroaches. That one made me laugh out loud for 5 minutes. Sooooo disgusting. I'm so proud of Cooper for having such a great sense of humor about it all!

Adios to Elder Cepeda 11/11/08

Dear Family,

Sounds like things are going about as expected in the States right now. That´s sad to hear about the people marching against the Temples in California. Ridiculous actually but yep just fulfilment of prophecy, it has to happen sooner or later.

The stuff I hear from people down hear about the United States always annoys me, I don´t hear much, but whether it´s in favor or against the States, it´s always just completely ignorant.

Well down here in the Southern Hemisphere things are starting to heat up. I can´t wait til summer starts…ugh….that´s a joke by the way, summer hasn´t started officially but I´m already sweating all the time no matter what I´m doing. Including now typing on a computer lol.

Well this last weekend one of our investigators got married which was great. It was fun throwing rice and everything. We´ve been working with this investigator, Gonzalo, for a while. He´s been “juntado” with a lady in our ward and they have a kid, so they´re making progress, at least they´re married now and the hermana isn´t a concubina anymore. Haha we´re hoping he gets baptized soon, he doesn’t want us to rush him though.

Also yesterday early in the morning my comp Elder Cepeda finished his mission and left, so the last couple days I´ve been sticking with the other 2 Elders until my new comp gets here tomorrow. My new comp´s name is Elder Gilbert, I found that out about an hour ago. I guess I don´t really have too much exciting news about the last week. We had to waste a lot of time doing little chores and stuff before my comp went home…and his last day we just went around talking to the members.

Here´s something that might be funny or fun to read though. I just keep forgetting to talk about it because it´s an ongoing battle here. So that you know, ever since I got here we´ve been AT WAR. With all the cucarachas that live in our pension. Our kitchen is old and not very well taken care of, so it´s the main battleground. Although lately the cockroaches have been steadily pushing the line of battle further into the bathroom and occasionally breaking through the lines and attacking in the bathroom, study room, and our bedroom as well. We´ve had our victories, and they´ve had theirs, lol.

At first we were becoming accustomed to it and we began to live in peace with each other. But about 5 days ago my comp and I finally went and bought a can of Raid bug spray, and since then we´ve spurned to anger the cockroaches and war has spread across the land (or at least in our pension). I´m not joking, ever since we bought that can of bugspray and started spraying stuff, cockroaches have started coming out all over the place. I have a higher kill count than Rambo.

This morning, cuz it´s P-day, we finally cleaned out pretty well the kitchen. Haha, actually it was really funny cuz when I walked into the kitchen this morning there were cabinets and trash all over the floor, and more dead cockroaches laying all over the place than you want to know. Haha apparently our Peruvian comp had woken up in the middle of the night and he had a battle in there. I counted all the carcasses in the kitchen and I won´t tell you the number except that it was in the triple digits. We cleaned up and made a big pile of them, I have some pictures haha maybe I´ll send some. Then later this morning right before we came here we were standing around waiting to go and I felt something in my shoe and I had to throw it out. And you can already guess what it was. Haha

Well this is a long letter. And I wrote the whole thing with a group of kids playing Grand Theft Auto on the computer next to me, really loud and really annoying. But in summary: The Church is true. And no matter where you are there are problems. Whether they be political or pest-related. Haha well I hope that story brought a smile to someone´s face. Until next week, love you all. Always stay strong in standing up for what´s right.

Love,

Elder Boice

Coop and Comp 11/4/08

YAY! I just got some pictures from Cooper! He said this is a photo of him and his new companion. Pretty dazzling duo, eh?

They're currently serving somewhere in the Santa Fe, Argentina region. I'm not sure if they're standing at their house or where this picture was taken. I'll ask and find out!

Hola Familia,

It was another good week here in Argentina. It started with my birthday this last Monday. The day after was funny because for some reason the birds of the city didn´t like me that day. I went through 3 white shirts that day “porque me pegaron dos crapcitos” or in other words I got pooped on, changed my shirt later, then got pooped on again and had to change my shirt again haha.

We had interviews this last week as well which was good. I actually ended up having interviews twice this transfer because of the emergency transfer. This week was a little disappointing because we lost 2 people that were going to be baptized. Well we didn´t really lose them. One just said he didn´t feel ready and the other I´m not exactly sure what happened. We´ve been teaching a guy named Juan Carlos, he´s probably in his late 60´s. He was actually found right before I got to the area, so I wasn´t there when we found him.

But basically the story is that he was planning on taking his own life the night that we found and talked to him. Since then we´ve taught him basically everything and he was going to be baptized this next Saturday actually. But then he told us that he wanted to stop for now. He has a lot of problems with family in that they basically don´t support him in anything, and he said he feels like he wants to learn to write and to read better. Well I guess it´s easy to say that I´m still not really sure what the source of the problem is but we´ll keep working with him. He has really grown to love the church in that it´s like a family and the members really care about him. He seemed really sad when he told us he couldn´t progress any more for now, but members are passing by and so are we, so he´ll come around. In good news, we had a Stake Conference in Church yesterday, and we had 13 investigators come. Basically just because we have awesome members.

Oh so I´ll tell you a little more about what this area is like. It´s probably pretty typical for around here. There are lots of normal streets and stuff with pavement, and Argentine houses that are small and all connected. But you can round a corner and all of the sudden it looks like you just walked about 50 years further into the past. Dirt roads and cement houses with metal sheet roofs. Open sewage running through a little ditch in front of all the houses. Then you can go to certain parts of our area and all of the sudden you walked 50 years even FURTHER into the past. You´re walking down a little dirt road past horses and chickens and goats ( and of course dogs cuz we´re in South America). The houses are little shacks made of trash and chapa (scrap metal). This is where the people live whose job is riding around in their little horse-pulled carts and stealing trash that´s laying around.

Oh and I have something funny I wanted to talk about real quick. The other day we were eating those little Halloween candies that you sent me for my birthday. You know the ones that are like little wedge shapes and are orange yellow and white. (Editor's note: Candy corn is one of Cooper's favorite candies....it's funny that he can't remember the name of them now!) And there´s a Peruvian Elder here who has never seen them before. So he started taking them apart by the colors to eat them. And then I saw him later eating weird-looking pancakes and I realized that he put a bunch of the separated pieces of the Halloween candy in his pancake mix and made Halloween pancakes. Haha

Well on that note have a great week! I hope all is well besides the election madness that is going on right now. Good luck with all that! Love you all,
Love,

Elder Boice

-PS Pday is the 11th next week because of transfers

Happy Birthday Cooper!!!

Today is Cooper's birthday!!!! The big 2-0! Here is the letter he wrote this morning:


Querido familia, (Dear family)
I had a good week. Did you? Oh, and thanks for wishing me a happy birthday everyone!

I started out the week doing divisions with one of the zone leaders. Divisions are always fun, I got to sleep in a different pinch (apartment) with other Elder. And one of the Elders, Elder Monson, was there and I was with him all through the MTC so that was fun it reminded me of the MTC a little bit.

When I was with this other Elder we went to the hospital and gave 2 blessings of health. We were only going to give one but there was another lady in the same room that wanted one too. It really doesn´t matter if you´re Catholic...if you see the Mormon missionaries give a blessing you´re gonna want one too. Or at least that’s how it seems. ha ha

We also had a special zone conference this week where Elder Civic, a Seventy from Buenos Aires, came and spoke. It was really good, and really fun because there were like 5 zones there. I got some really good advice from the conference. Also afterwards I was able to pick up some packages! From you (mom) and from Lauren. I opened up your package that night and it was awesome! Lots of good food and fun stuff. I know it wasn´t my birthday when I opened it but you didn’t say I had to wait. Lauren told me I had to wait to open hers, so I had to look at it for a few days before I opened them this morning. And it was awesome!!!! SO THANK YOU FAMILY AND LAUREN FOR THE AWESOME GIFTS!!!!

Ok, back to the week. I have to hurry cuz I´m almost out of time to write and everyone wants to play soccer today. Friday we blessed a house and gave another blessing. That was the first time I gave the actual blessing in Spanish instead of just anointing. Giving blessings is always an awesome experience. It´s not often you get to be the mouthpiece/instrument of the Lord in a way like that.

Oh also I had to go to the hospital Friday. Don´t worry!! I was trying to decide whether to mention that...but I don´t see why not, it wasn´t bad enough to be one of those things you leave out of the email ;) I was walking and hit my head on a low roof, I´m too tall for this country! And it started bleeding cuz I hit pretty hard. We were only like 20 feet from a members house so we went in and I cleaned it off. But we went to another member to see if she had alcohol or something to clean it off. And she wanted us to go to the hospital to have them do it. So they cleaned it off and gave me the gotitas (glued it shut). Phew the last thing I wanted was stitches.
Oh PS, a free public hospital in Argentina, especially in Santa Fe, is a scary thought, but I didn’t need anything serious so it was fine. Don’t worry I would never go there for anything serious, eek.

Saturday we were going to baptize someone, but she changed her mind earlier this week so we need to work with her some more obviously. The other Elders we live with baptized a super cool guy though. He´s from the Czech Republic and basically lives in a hole in the ground in a field. He´s a stud though and it was way cool to hear his testimony in a mix of broken Spanish and English.

Yesterday was fun too, we did a choque de fuerza, where the whole zone concentrates on one area for the afternoon, and we found some great people. Yep so it was a great week. And today is P-day and my birthday, and I got to open presents this morning. Yay! And thanks for the pictures you emailed me. Matt actually emailed me some pictures too. Thanks Matt!

Ok well now I have to go. I´m gonna write the President a letter, then mom I have something to email you. And then we´re gonna finish pday, work tonight, and I´m gonna try to cook a cake the Lauren sent! Thanks for everything family, Love you!
Love,
Elder Boice

October 20, 2008

Hola familia mia,

Well I had a great week. I hope you all did as well. Sounds like Brad and Dad had a fun scout activity and Bo had fun at Bridgette´s party. Thanks for sending me emails everyone!

Well so this Tuesday I left Paraná on an emergency transfer and went to Santa Fe (city across the river). So I´m not too far right now. Actually this Thursday I´ll be back in Paraná for the day because we´re having a really big special Zone Conference, a bunch of zones are gathering in Paraná because Elder Civic (a Seventy) is coming. So that should be really fun. And also that´s a couple days before my birthday so hopefully I´ll get the stuff you sent when I´m at at the conference. :)

But back to this week. I can´t really remember what I said last week in my email, but now I´m in Santa Fe in an area called Barranquitas. It´s a tiny area, and my companion is Elder Cepeda (and he´s not so tiny). Haha chiste.

But yeah my comp is from Argentina so it´s super fun and I hope I´m able to have latin comps the rest of my mission. I´m improving with the language (I hope), but what helps the most is just learning how he gets along with the people. We had a good week and a great Sunday.

Oh yeah, my comp has something wrong with his back, so we have to walk super slow everywhere. And I´m also going to kill him this transfer. Haha and I don´t mean that literally, I mean it in missionary terms, meaning he goes home at the end of this transfer. PS yes he´s a little trunky.

Yep so I met a lot of the members in our branch. We have about the same number as my last area, except this is a branch and my last area it was a ward. We have a couple people we´re getting ready to be baptized, so that´s awesome. But I think the most amazing thing that happened this week was yesterday. We had 10 investigators in church! That was amazing! The most we ever got in my last area was 2! (and that was conference weekend). So that was super exciting, but my comp said the most he has seen here was 6 one Sunday. So we´re gonna have to work hard to keep the momentum going. It seems like a great branch. We actually have a ward mission leader here, and even a ward missionary. How cool is that! Mucho exito está por venir. (A lot of success is about to come!)

Well, I hope everyone has a great week. I´ll be sure to have a great one here. :) Oh one more thing that I just remembered cuz I thought it was funny. My comp is gonna be going home to España, because his family moved on him during his mission. hmmm, kinda sounds familiar, jk. But for some reason a song from Spain popped into my head yesterday so I sang it for him. Haha, Mom do you remember teaching me that song that the little kids would sing on your mission? You taught it to me when I was a little kid, and yesterday I remembered it. You know the one, "Yo tengo moco..." (Editor's note: Yes, I remember! It's a song about boogers that kids in Spain would sing when I was on my mission there! I thought it was pretty funny and when I taught it to Cooper as a little boy he thought it was hysterical.)

OH! one more thing. I need to know your new phone number, and the name of your new ward, so I can give the information to the offices. They said thats all they need, and the new address but I already have that. Ok ttyl family,
Love,

Elder Boice

October 13, 2008

Hey mom. I´m in a cyber doing email, so before I read everything from the last week I thought I´d send you an email. P.S. this computer is the slowest computer ever! I´m pretty sure it´s powered by a hampster in a wheel and the hampster is on the brink of biting the dust.Oh also right now a guy is putting all the photos from my camera on a couple DVDs and I´m gonna try to send it home as soon as I can.

Hi Family,


I hope everyone had a great week. I guess I´ll tell you a little about mine. But first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAD!!! Have a great one!





Ok onto my week, haha. It was mostly a regular week, teaching lessons and everything. But we also tried to do an activity for an investigator on Thursday. The investigator didn´t show up so that was kind of a failure. But we reorganized it for the next day, and that worked out. We were able to teach a little lesson and watch the Restoration movie with our investigator, and also the bishop and his wife came, as well as another hermano (brother) in the ward.





This investigator is a girl that we can´t teach in her house because she lives with the grandparents of her marido (husband) and they don´t want to have anything to do with us. Also the Bishop went and bought some food and snacks so we could eat something afterwards. I thought it was super funny the kind of stuff he bought as snack food. There were a couple normal things like little ham and cheese sandwiches and the Argentine version of bugles chips. But then there was a ton of other weird random stuff that people just don´t eat in the states. I tried some pickled cow tongue, and you know what?, it really wasn´t bad at all. Kind of surprising.





We also had interviews with the President this week which was great. It´s always uplifting having interviews with him. But ALSO! Yesterday, no, Saturday, I found out that I´m leaving this area tomorrow morning. I´m getting emergency transferred to Santa Fe, into an area call Baranquita. That should be super fun! I don´t know anything about it except a member told me it´s a pueblito, that should be awesome. Also my companion is an Argentine named Elder Cepeta. Woohoo! I´m gonna learn Spanish! Hahaha.





Alright well next week I should have an interesting email since I´ll be in a totally different area. It´s only about an hour and a half away I think but apparently it´s gonna be super hot there in the summer.





Ok gotta go. Love you all! Until next week!


PS I hope Bo is feeling better now.
Love,


Elder Boice

October 6, 2008

(Editor's note:

I forgot to post Cooper's email from last week....sorry about that! I was bummed because it was so short.) Here's what he wrote:

Hey Mom. Sorry I just wrote a big email and when I went to send it myldsmail email goofed and logged me out and the email was lost. So sorry I don´t get to write it again we only have so much time.

But in summary: General Conference was great and we got a couple people to go. Wow I´m kinda bummed I couldn´t send that email. Well in answer to your question we have zone conference once every 6 weeks, and we have one probably within 2 weeks so yeah maybe I´ll get your package then. Thanks for everything Mom. Oh and for Christmas: hehe. I was thinking about buying a multitool before I came on the mission and I never did, but it would have been really useful. But I still remember what it is called. It was called the Leatherman Ti.

Ok well I have to go now but thanks for emailing me Mom and I´m sorry this week´s email never got to you! I guess it will be remembered as the unknown week of my mission (on your blog at least). Tell all the family I love them, and I´ll talk again next week!
con cariño,

Elder Boice

Sept 30, 2008

Editor's note: It's now spring in Argentina! This picture shows the Rio Parana near Cooper in spring. It was compiled from data collected by the MODIS sensor aboard the Terra satellite. Rio Parana (running north-south through image center) appears brown from the sediment in the water, and eventually drains into the Delta del Parana and the Rio de la Plata Estuary. Where the Rio de la Plata empties into the Atlantic, the brown, sediment-filled river water mixes with clearer ocean water and creates swirls and cloudy formations.

Visible in these image is Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, located where the Rio Parana meets the Rio de la Plata. Higher resolutions of the image show just how big the city is. Another city visible in the image is Montevideo, located on the opposite side of the Rio de la Plata. Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay. Higher resolutions of the image show how heavily cultivated this region of Argentina is — farmland is clearly recognizable by the square and rectangular patterns of vegetation on the land. Uruguay, on the other hand, is not so heavily cultivated.

Now....on to Cooper's letter!

Dear Familia,

It seems like it´s been a long week for some reason. I guess it was a day longer than normal since last Pday but it still just seems like it was an extra long week, I don´t know why.

It´s spring now, and it´s starting to show. Yesterday it rained a lot and although there basically wasn´t a winter here it really feels like it´s spring now! Ha ha and I have a pair of shoes and a pair of pants that are covered in mud now. I´m expecting that we´re gonna get some good rain the next few months. Which is really good because it hadn´t rained in a long time and that was creating problems in the campo (countryside) because the cows we´re running out of grass to eat! Or at least that´s what the people keep saying.

So this last week. It was the last week of the transfer. But before I tell you what the new transfers are, I´ll tell you about the week. We were able to teach a few lessons. I think we´re probably teaching more and more lessons each week here. One lady said she got her answer that the Book of Mormon is true. We got another person to start coming to church, so now we have a couple investigators coming to church and progressing. Also on Saturday we had a stake service activity and we got to go. We cleaned up a bunch of trash around the Wal-Mart in the city haha. Maybe I´ll send some pictures of that after I send this email.

Ok so on to the new transfers! I was actually really surprised. Because...I´m staying here! Everyone was saying they thought I would go somewhere else and so I thought so too but no. I´m gonna stay in my first area a little longer it looks like. So obviously I still have work to do here. And I´m staying with this same companion as well. But all in all I´m happy I get to stay here because I don´t want to leave this area without having baptized. I don´t want to be just another missionary that came and left here without baptizing. So my conclusion is I still have more to learn from this area, I still have more to learn from my comp, and I still have yet to baptize. So I still have much to do!

Oh also Elder Hollan, who I´ve been living with basically since I got here, is staying here as well, and he´s gonna be training an Argentine, so that should be fun. I´ll be living with an Elder younger than me and I get to work on my accent living with an Argentine.

Alright well that´s pretty much all I have to say for now. I hope everything´s going well. I hope that Mom and Dad are liking their new jobs and I hope Calvin, Bradley, and Bo that you´re all making good friends in school and doing well!

Ok well I´ll write again next monday! ¡CHAO FAMILIA, QUE TENGAN SUERTE! I love you all, ttyl.
Elder Boice

Sept 22, 2008

Hi family,

How´s everything going in Vegas? Everythings good down here. And thanks Mom for sending me that email about the missionaries in Bolivia. That´s pretty cool, haha I wish I got to flee a country in civil war. haha Just kidding.

Yeah I wouldn´t have even known there was anything going on in Bolivia except that an investigator had the t.v. on one time when we came in and she turned it off and said Bolivia was in civil war or something. The biggest civil unrest that goes on here in Argentina is just people refusing to work. Oh wait a second they do that every day between 12 and 4 and call it the siesta. He he just kidding.

Actually there has been a paro for a while in the registro civil. Which really stinks for the mission work. Because hardly anyone is married here. And you can´t get baptized without being married, if you're just living together "in sin". And you can´t get married without the registro civil! I´m not really sure what the deal is actually but we are probably gonna have to figure it out soon because we have a golden investigator but she isn´t married.

So this last week... We had a good week. Not too much to report except for this golden investigator we have! I can´t remember if I´ve mentioned her yet. But she came to church again yesterday. We actually went to pick her up and go with her but she had already left. ¿Qué tal eh? We´ve taught her a couple times and she basically is just completely receptive and loves it. Her marido (husband except they're not actually married) is a little tougher though, he´s durito (hardened) haha. But they´ve been reading everything we leave them with and the husband/marido has been asking questions about it and listening now. I think if people just listened it would be almost impossible to not convert, but there´s just so many people here that can´t listen. But yeah we finally have someone that is on their way to baptism.

So basically we´re doing great! That´s the biggest news for this week I guess. Besides that, I don´t think I´ve ever mentioned about how it is to live with a Chileno Elder... It´s pretty fun and it´s interesting to see the way he does things different. It´s also super funny to listen to him sing songs that are in english. I guess I´ll be able to learn about living with a Latino once I have a latino comp though...

Lets see, besides that, we lost our hermana (sister) that used to wash our clothes so it´s been back to the bucket. Oh and I have a question. What is your new address in Las Vegas!!?? I´ve had a dvd of pictures that I wanted to send home a long time ago, but I still don´t know the address to send it to. Also I´m supposed to tell the mission office if my family changes address, email, telephone number, home ward or stake. So could you tell me all the new things so I can get it to the mission office? Thanks!

Oh and one more thing Mom. Next p-day is on Tuesday because we have transfers! Love you bye! Ok well until next week. Have a great week everyone!

Love you all.
Love,

Elder Boice

(Editor's note: The picture of the painter is NOT Cooper. I just wanted to add an image that went with his letter! I guess it sorta looks like him...)

Hola,

Un dia loco! (Crazy Day) Yeah, normally I will never email this late because P-day ends at 6:00, but today was really crazy and we didn´t have time to do any normal P-day stuff until now. (Editor's note: 5:00 pm Las Vegas time)

I don´t think we´re gonna even have time to do groceries tonight, but we got permission from the President to do email at night. We spent all day today fixing up our old pension. The dueño (the owner) wanted us to do a bunch of stuff to fix it up, so we spent a lot of this last Friday and then all day today painting and fixing it. And then my companion and I sprinted down here to the closest cyber so we can do our email before the day ends.

It was a success though, and now our old pension looks way better than the brand new one we have now! Let´s see, I have to be short cuz we have to leave soon to get home on time. So Calvin I´m sorry I won´t have time to fill out your Personal Feedback sheet. Maybe I will fill it out next P-day, so let me know if you still need it!

Well I had a good week. And we´re all glad that we´re done with this whole moving thing (we hope), cuz it made a lot of problems for us! Besides fixing up a little house, we were able to do some missionary work too, that´s always good ;).

We found some cool people this week. First we found a lady that lives with a member lady in a house right across the street from the church. That was cool because apparently she´s gone to church a few times. Also we found another lady right on the side of a pretty bad neighborhood. That is awesome. We had stopped by a few times trying to get a cita (appointment) and on Saturday we went in and taught the first lesson and showed her the movie of the Restauration (is that how it´s spelled?). (Editor's note: Coop just spelled in Spanglish! That's a great sign that he's really thinking in Spanish now!) And she had the reaction that we always want. She said she felt something she couldn´t explain, that it was really great. So we took it to the scriptures, bore testimony, and slam dunk! She came to church the next day with her little kid. But that was awesome because she is the second person that we have got to come to church ever since I´ve been here. And she´s coming back next week and seems really great.

Also something funny I wanted to mention. There´s something about being a missionary...where, you could talk to someone for like 30 seconds and before you know it they are telling you all their darkest secrets and personal problems... and it happens all the time to us. I think part of it has to do with the fact that people are more open down here in Argentina, but still. Even if people have no desire to hear the Gospel they just trust us I guess.

Ok my time´s about up and its´time to go run back to our pench! I love you all. Have a great week, and thanks for all the emails!
Love,

Elder Boice

September 8, 2008

I told Cooper that our new Bishop at church served his mission in Argentina, as well as the new Young Men's President! Our last Bishop was FROM Argentina and our former Stake President served his mission there too. Seems to me that Argentina is the training place for great spiritual leaders! Here was Cooper's reply:

Wow what can I say, I guess Argentina is the place to be. Well I´m gonna give you a quick summary of my week, cuz I´m almost out of time to write and I still need to write to the Mission President.

Well, we had interviews with the President earlier this week and that was actually really fun, and it´s fun to get to know the President a little better. He´s not quite as intimidating now haha. He´s really great though and of course always has great advice, like mission presidents are supposed to.

Hmmm, I don´t think I have any really amazing or fun stories this week. But we were able to get into a lot more houses this week and teach, and that´s been awesome. We´re starting to teach a lot more and we´re getting more members to come with us to our better citas (appointments).

We´ve pretty much spent the transfer so far mostly in 2 little areas of apartments/homes. Not really sure how to describe it, but they´re pretty humble areas. One of them I never even knew existed last transfer but we´ve found some receptive people there. It´s probably the armpit of our area in terms of where you would want to live...but hey if the people want to hear the Gospel we´ll spend all day there!

Well yep nothing more to report this week. Good lessons, good people=good week. Sounds like things are going well at home. Haha and that´s weird to imagine 4 chairs at the dinner table. Weird I bet you feel super outnumbered by the Longs now! haha.

(Editor's note: I send Cooper some Spanish "word of the day" emails, and this was his comment on today's...) Haha yesterday´s word of the day was "equipo" and it just reminded me of a funny phrase. Yesterday my comp and I were talking about an investigator and he said something about "como es difícil enseñar a una persona cuando le falta algunos jugadores en la cancha." Haha anyways, I just thought that was funny. (Translation: it's hard to teach a person when they're one person short of a team.....meaning, they're not "all there.")

Thanks for renewing my driver´s license! That´s cool that you got the house looking good. Our new pension here still doesn´t look very good. There´s just no time to do stuff like that when you´re a missionary.

Ok, well until next week! Keep being awesome!

Love,

Elder Boice

September 1, 2008

September 1, 2008

Dear family,

It´s been a good and crazy week. I guess I´ll start by talking about the new house/pension we are living in now. And I´ll try to send some pictures I took when we were moving.

(Editor's Note: I asked him what that silver lever was above the oven on the wall to the left of the missionaries in the picture...it looks like a toilet lever. He said he never did figure out what it went to!)

Well first of all we are true Argentines because when we moved we took EVERYTHING. Right down to the toilet seat. When we got to the new house (with all of our stuff in a big truck) we found out that the new house wasn´t exactly finished like they told us it would be. There was supposed to be a hot water heater, but that wasn´t hooked up. They didn´t clean up the house, and the front door doesn´t stay shut on its own. Also the water didn´t work, but we got the water to work the second day we were there.

Also one of the bide´s dissapeared somehow. lol, idk figure that one out. Apparently the water in our new neighborhood doesn´t work so well, the tank above your house just slowly fills up at night. And the water pressure in the house just comes from the fact that the water is on top of your house. Go gravity! So yeah we´ve been trying to be really careful with our water cuz it runs out kind of easily. We started doing dishes using two buckets but then we got lazy and now we´re just doing it in the sink like normal.

Oh and one thing I want you all to do: Next time you take a shower, be thankful for how awesome it is! haha. We have shower heads instead of the bucket shower like in our last pension. But the bucket shower is so much better!! Here the water is freezing cold cuz we don´t have hot water so there´s no way to take a hot shower. And there´s not really any water pressure, the water falls out about 4 inches from the wall haha. So umm yeeahh, we´ve kind of stopped taking as many showers...I´m pretty sure this is day 4 without a shower for one Elder here because he can´t stand the cold hahaha.

Ok that´s enough about our house, it really is nice though cuz it´s bigger. That´s the reason we moved, just because it was a 2 man pinch and there were 4 of us in there.

Alright on to the actual mission work! We found some great people this week. One guy we found we taught him a lesson with his son (who is 8, yes!) and they were really receptive, and he even said that he never is home the hour that we came to his house but that day something told him to come home from work early. Oh and his son Jeremias (how awesome is that he´s named after a prophet, totally should be Mormon). Jeremias had cut out the picture of Christ in a pamphlet we left the Dad when we met him, and he had pasted it on the wall in his room. How cool is that! Well, he also lit a candle under it like a little Catholic kind of thing but it´s a start haha.

We also taught another lesson in the home of the 1st counselor who lives with his viejito dad. He´s a little old guy (viejito) that´s pretty sick, but we taught a lesson to the lady that takes care of the dad. And it was a great lesson. We watched the Restauracion (Restoration) video to finish the lesson. Also there´s something thrilling about getting off the bus to get home in time and sprinting the last few blocks to make it in the door with 30 seconds to spare. Haha life is different as a missionary.

Oh and one other thing I just thought was funny and wanted to mention was I saw a car that had a little kid´s bicycle tire as a steering wheel. Just thought someone back home might get a kick out of that. Haha I´ve seen more than one car with a lawn chair as the drivers´s seat too.

Ok well that just about wraps up this last week. I´m gonna try to send some pictures and I need to write the President.

Love you all!
Love,

Elder Boice

New pad in Parana

Dear family,

I´m emailing Mom while I´m writing this as well, but this will be my big summary of the last week. Well the first week of this new transfer is over now. It´s been a good hard week and today is super crazy. We´re moving today, what do you know just like you guys just did! haha, yeah so we are switching to a different pension that´s bigger and super nice! It has 2 bathrooms (with bides), I have no idea how you spell that but that´s probably how it´s spelled in spanish. sounds like buhday in english... (editor's note: the correct spelling is "bidet")

Anyways, yeah it will be really nice cuz it´s a lot bigger. We even have a hot water heater so we´ll be taking real showers!! How awesome is that! I´m guessing moving for us is a little easier than it was for you guys though. We packed up our whole pension and all our stuff this morning in about an hour and a half. And we called a flete (a big truck) to come but it didn´t show up so we called another guy and he said he´ll be here at 3 so about in an hour. Then we´ll throw everything in there, drive to the new pension, and throw it back out into our new home! Oh yeah except we don´t have the key to the new pension yet so that could be a problem since we´re moving in about an hour. Here's another lovely photo of my area:

In other news, my new companion´s name is Elder Tolman. He´s from somewhere in Utah, I can´t remember the name of the city or town though. Which is super funny cuz he is like the classic Utah kid. Before the mission he had a lengthy mullet and was mighty proud of it. His favorite thing is motocross, he has a family of 8, and the other day I asked him what his first name was...and he told me it started with a C. What do you know? So I guessed, Colt, Colby, Cody, Colton...it was Cody. haha I thought that was funny. Ok I´m done teasing him though haha. He´s a great worker and we´ve been working really hard. And he knows how to work with the members too which I think we have been lacking here.

Oh yeah that reminds me. Something I wanted to tell Lauren cuz I know this will be passed on to her, hehe. I still haven´t been able to send the letter I wrote last P-day, sorry! So you´re gonna have to wait another week and get 2 at the same time. Just so that you don´t wait all week wondering why you haven´t gotten a letter, there is one it´s just delayed! Ok ttyl I love you!Ok, end of message to Lauren. I´m probably not really supposed to do that, I´m not sure. I guess it´s fine as long as it´s being relayed through you Mom.

That also reminds me, it´s been 3 weeks since I´ve gone to the grocery store because we never have time. I have just gotten cereal and milk and bread a couple time at the kiosko by our house. Hopefully we can go today but honestly right now it´s not really looking like it.

Well, I don´t really know what more to say about the week. We accidently locked the other Elders we live with out of our pension and that turned into a crazy night and I ended up riding with my comp in the back of an old pick up truck and then running to the church to get to a cita on time. (cita=appointment). We set up a few really good citas this week but they all foj´d us. (nos fallaron=they failed us). It´s especially dissapointing when you get the members involved and the members go out of their way to do something and then the investigator doesn´t show up.

Ok well I´m out of time so I´ve got to go now! Have a great week everyone! Hopefully next week won´t be as stressful (for me and for all of you). I love you all, good luck with starting school. Start it right and make good friends!
Love,

Élder Boice

Doggone Dogs! 8/19/08

Well so today is the last day of my second transfer. Which means tomorrow I´m technically not a Nuevito (Newbie) anymore!! Your first 2 transfers generally you are with your trainer. I think I should find out the new transfers in a few minutes from the Zone leader. But I´m predicting that I stay here in this area and my trainer goes somewhere else. Also I´m hoping I get a latin comp (companion) cuz that would be really cool and be really helpful with my spanish. I mean my "Casteshano"...haha that still cracks me up. I need to get rid of my Shankee accent still.

But all in all it was a great couple transfers. Even though technically I was only in the country for half of the first transfer. We worked really hard and were dissapointed that we didn´t have any baptisms during the transfer. So I guess we´ll just have to change that this next transfer. Transfers are every 6 weeks. And the zone leaders just get an email and we´re all here gathered in the cyber cafe, waiting to hear.

So a little about my last week. We had zone conference this last Wednesday!! Yeah I love zone conference! And at the end of Zone Conference they give us mail which makes it even better! So I got 2 packages from Lauren and I think 3 letters besides that. That was pretty much awesome!!! Then the next day was my companion´s birthday. So that night we made him a cheesecake that the other companionship we live with bought. (I don´t know where they found it but it was awesome). So that was fun.

Then the next day one of our Zone Leaders went home, so we said goodbye to him. Also my dreams are usually in spanish now. And yesterday I got bit by a dog and it ripped my pants! Dag nabit! That´s the second time I got bit by a dog here! The first time was by a crazy tiny little dog that had a muzzle on but still managed to get me somehow. And last night a big dog came out of nowhere and bit me in the calf and put a hole in my pants. But don´t worry it didn´t break the skin, and the first tiny dog only did a tiny bit. You know why it didn´t? Cuz being a missionary comes with lots of blessings! Yep so my pants are looking kind of bad now, I´ll probably do a really ghetto sew-job and they´ll be good as new.

Well it´s South America so there´s always random dogs roaming the streets. It´s really hard to tell which dogs have owners and which don´t. The funniest thing is how they keep their dogs on the roofs. That´s always funny to see except it doesn´t really seem weird anymore. I guess if they dont have a yard it´s a way to keep them in one place if they decide they don´t want it roaming the streets for a while. Actually sometimes I´m not sure how they get their dogs up there. Sometimes they have stairs that get up to their roof from the inside of their house I think. Thats if they have a nice house. There are some nice houses in Paraná.

HAHA (Editor's note: I told Cooper that our dog Blaze...who is sometimes lovingly referred to as "Pooter" is shedding a lot because he's not used to living in Las Vegas heat, so Tom wants to shave him). Yes! You should shave POOTER!! But be sure to leave him a sweet mullet. I mean a ferocious mane.

In more good news though, yesterday I finished reading the Book of Mormon out loud in spanish. I wanted to do it in one transfer, and guess what, I did it in 5 weeks! Our mission president during zone conference said he wants us to read the Book of Mormon as a mission in 90 days. So I just started over again this morning. I´m sure I´ll get more out of it this time. This time I´ll be marking it up more since I have more time.

Wow, that is really weird you´re living in Las Vegas now. Um for a care package I could probably use some deodorant and liner socks. They don´t have the normal kind of deoderant I used back in the states, so that would be nice to have. I don´t know if you know what kind I used, Calvin might remember...And yeah we have to pay a little bit when we receive a package just because the Argentine government found an excuse to get more money.

And yes I got Lauren´s care packages! She sent 2 and they were super awesome. There was a ton of cool stuff in them. Besides the letters which is always the best part, I think my favorite part was the cereal. The other Elders loved the cereal and the skittles too, probably because that was the only part I could share. haha. I can´t remember everything that was in it, but lets see there was also a cook book, flashlight, socks, foot powder, a cool tie (that I´m wearing right now), some stickers, a bunch of cool stuff.

So you didn´t see Lauren again before you left? That´s ok, you´ll see her again even if it´s about a year and a half from now... haha. Wow so Will and Adam are back?! That´s so crazy, I bet they will be so different by the time I see them again. So I guess Will must be excited for the next batman movie to come out. I think it´s funny now that I´ve been out for long enough all the movies that come out I´ve never even heard of before. Like one Elder said that another Mummy movie came out.

Wait so before I forget, my new comp is Elder Tolman, and I have no idea who he is, I just found out. So he should be coming down here tomorrow and I´ll let you know how he is next week when I email. My new comp is American, oh well. That reminds me though. Just a dumb missionary thing. Every day someone has to pick a hymn to sing in our pinch (apartment) someone will say "How about number 210, Busca con fe?" (Search with faith)...cuz in the spanish hymn book there are only 209 hyms.

Wow so Calvin is going to BYU next week? That´s crazy! and awesome! Well that´s about all for now. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Boice

August 11, 2008

Cooper said he wanted to send a picture of the beautiful scenery in Parana.....
nice.

Here's this week's letter from the best missionary in the world:



I can´t believe how fast the transfer is going by, do we really only have 9 days left of this transfer? Well so it´s been kind of a hard week. Actually my comp and I have been having kind of a tough time with investigators the last few weeks. I don´t know why we´re having such a hard time getting people to church. We focused all this last week on trying to get our investigators into church but just couldn´t. I´ll let you know when we figure out what our problem is. There´s plenty things we can improve of course, but we really have been trying hard.


In less depressing news, I´ll tell you all about some of the funny little things you notice in Argentina. For example, the other day we were talking and I realized that they don´t have parking lots in Argentina. Except for the Wal-Mart here in the city, that is the only one I´ve seen.


Oh and another thing here that is super funny...! I can´t remember if I´ve talked about this before, I don´t think I have... Every medical problem here is related to blood pressure. If an Argentine is ever feeling sick he blames it on his pressure. "¡Ay, me bajó la presión!" (Oh! My blood pressure dropped!) The other day we were at a part-member-family´s house, and the mom was talking about how her sister recently died. And of course the initial cause was that her pressure rose too much.


Oh there is one other thing that happens all the time. You always hear people talking about having an "ataca de igado", attack of the liver. Apparently if that ever really happened you would die (according to an Elder who´s dad is a doctor in the states). So we just think it´s funny that they use it as an excuse for anything.


Ok well I can´t really think of anything else to talk about, it wasn´t that eventful of a week. I guess our water wasn´t working for a while, it´s kind of a gamble sometimes if the water is going to work. But we were fine. Yep so everything´s going well here, we´re just trying to pick up the ball so we can start having some more success here again. We´re going to a restaurant at noon to celebrate for an Elder that goes home next week, so that should be fun.


Ok, I´m gonna teach you how to speak in Vos. But you have to be careful it´s a little tricky. What you do is for conjugating present tense you drop the R and add an S and put an accent on the last syllable. Ejemplo: "Tenés que doblar a la derecha."For command you drop the R and add an accent. Ejemplo: "¡Vení vos!" or "¡Andáte!" or "Mirá, soy Catolico. No te puedo atender."

Yep it´s always very classy when it´s used. It´s just a lazy way of conjugating, just kind of a "whatever" way to talk I guess. People use it to talk to kids, dogs, strangers, their wives. It´s on all the advertisements you see too. "Querés coca-cola" Apparently Argentina and I think Paraguay are the only countries that really use it like that. Kinda wierd.

I love you all!
Elder Boice

Chef Cooper 8/4/08

Hey Mom. Man I´m really bummed I missed you last week. I guess we did get to the cyber cafe earlier than usual. And sorry, looks like we did it again. It´s 11:00 here so I guess it´s only about 7:00 there.

Wow that´s so cool Lauren got her "mission call" to teach in China. That's gonna be such a cool experience. I don´t know if Lauren is gonna try to go to your house again this morning, but you´re gonna have to tell her when you see her that she is gonna have to take me on a trip to Asia when I get back! I bet Matt is excited for her too. That sounds like his stomping grounds. That would be really cool if Calvin did that too, is he actually considering it?

Ok, I´m gonna answer that list of questions that you sent me:

1. (Do you get a lot of mail?) I´ve only gotten 1 batch of letters so far, but there were 18 of them. 17 Dear Elders and 1 actual letter. Yeah that was more than average. Even though I have no idea what average is. All I know is I got a lot and it was awesome.

2. (Do you read all of your letters at once or do you use your incredible military self-control to space them out so they last longer?) Haha yeah I opened all of the letters the night I got them. Usually the dear elders continue on to the next piece of paper so I just HAD to open them all.

3. (Do you have someone who cooks and cleans for you? A lot of the missionaries who went to Argentina when I was on my mission in Spain said they did.) Someone who cooks for us? and does our laundry? What in the world? Haha no actually someone does do our laundry now. We used to wash our garments by hand and take the rest to a lavanderia (laundrymat), but a couple weeks ago an hermana (sister) in our ward told us she would wash our laundry for free for us. We just have to buy the soap. So that´s really nice. She does it all by hand too. We don´t have someone cook for us though lol. If anyone in our mission has that then I haven´t heard of it. My companion and I get fed once a week though, sometimes twice by the members.

Speaking of which, cooking can be pretty fun actually. We make some pretty darn good meals here. Yesterday we made steaks with mashed potatoes. We marinated big steaks all night and they were awesome. The best part is a big steak here is only like 6 pesos (2 american dollars). Also I learned how to make empanadas. And my companion said he thought they were the best empanadas he´s had in Argentina. Also for lunch today me and another Elder are gonna make French toast. And I made some home-made whipped cream/cool whip last night. It´s basically like vanilla frosting so it´s gonna be way good. Probably gonna be super unhealthy though. Haha sorry Elders probably get a little too excited about food here. On to the next question.

4. (Do Argentines pee in the street like Spaniards do?) I haven´t seen any Argentine´s pee in the street. I´ve heard stories though...but I´ll spare you from that.

5. (What's the worst food and best food you've eaten so far?) The best food I´ve had was probably a chicken milanesa sandwich that we ordered after Interviews with the president. It was from Rey de Milanesa (Milanesa King) haha. And I can´t think of anything for the worst food. We almost always cook and we haven´t made anything too bad yet.

6. (What American restaurants do you have there?) McDonalds is the only American restaurant they have here in the city. Actually there is a Wal-mart here in the city too. But they do have a chinese/argentine buffet here that we went to one time. The owners are chinese and it´s really funny to hear spanish with a chinese accent.

7. (When is your next transfer?) Next transfer date? The 20th of August I think? Oh and next P-day will be normal like today, on monday, but the week after it will be on Tuesday.

8. (Do you need anything?) Hmmm, the only thing I can really think of is liner socks. I know we have some so if you could send some that would be awesome. My feet are getting a little beat up. Thanks for making me bring mole-skin!

9. (What food do you miss the most?) Nothing comes to mind. I take that back. The one food I miss most is real cereal. All they have here is copos de maiz (corn flakes). They do have a few American cereals but only the really sugarry kinds and it´s super expensive.

10. (How are your shoes holding up?) My shoes are doing great. In fact I just poilished them 2 days ago. Oh could you send me a shoe shine kit? I´ve been borrowing my comps and I can´t find one here.

11. (Have you been wearing that money belt I bought you where you can hide the money inside in case you get robbed?) No I haven´t been wearing the money belt. We know how to hide our money. But hey maybe I will if I go to a more dangerous area.

12. (Since it's winter there, do you get snow?) No we don´t get snow. It hasn´t really been cold at all this winter. It´ll probably be a little hot today. Some days we have gone out in short-sleeve shirts.

13. (Lauren's sister, Brookie, wants to know how to start up a missionary conversation with her friends...what do you suggest since you're now the expert?) Way to go Brookie! Haha I don´t know I think that could be harder than starting up a conversation with a total stranger like we do. I guess an easy way to start talking about it could be just to mention or start talking about something you did for a young women activity or at church and then let that lead into a conversation about the church. And you could share a little testimony about how you came to know that the church is true or how it´s blessed or helped you. And don´t foget to leave a commitment like a true missionary! haha. Invite her to come to church or to come to your house and listen to the missionaries. And don´t be shy or embarrassed about it. I really regret not being forward enough with my friends. I regret not sharing enough with them. That´s gonna be one of the first things I do when I get home. But Brookie that´s awesome that you´re making the effort! Way to be a studdette.

14. (Have you made your famous spaghetti yet?) They don´t have spaghetti sauce here but we make plenty of noodles with different sauces.

15. (What kind of cereal should I send you?) What kind of cereal? hmmm, I really don´t know if I can remember the names of any. How about oat bran, grape nuts, honey nut cheerios? OH, I found an amazing cereal when I was in the MTC and Baltimore though. It is called blueberry muffin tops. so good! But seriously if mail costs by the weight I don´t want you to have to spend a ton of money to send a box of grapenuts or something. It´s really not a big deal and I don´t want you to waste money. And we usually hide our money in our little white rule book that´s in our front pocket behind our plaque. It would be really weird to have that stolen unless someone stole your shirt.

Wow I really liked reading about your adventure to Rexburg! I think that´s funny that you ended up taking the exact same shuttle that I took when I went there. Well at least I think it is. I was there in the late fall so I´m sure everything is much prettier there now. Sounds like you taught some great classes, and I´m sure everyone loved them. That´s funny I can imagine all the missionary moms wanting to brag about their sons on missions. I hope you didn´t make up too much stuff about me. lol.

(Editor's note: I told him about a missionary who was really worried about learning Chinese when he got called to serve in Taiwan and so he woke up extra early while in the Missionary Training Center and when he arrived in Taiwan the Mission President said he was more prepared and spoke better than any other missionary!) Wow waking up every morning at 5 in the MTC is really impressive. I bet my spanish would have been way better if I had done that. Speaking of the language though I´ve been reading the Book of Mormon out loud and I´m trying to read the whole thing in one transfer (6 weeks).

At first my throat would hurt when I would read because I wasn´t used to speaking like that for an extended time. Now it´s fine though. The other day a Bishop of another ward told me I have the "don de la garganta", gift of the throat. And yesterday I went on divisions with another missionary that had been out about 8-9 months, and the people we talked to wanted me to talk cuz they said I had a better hold of the language and they couldn´t understand the other elder so well. But don´t tell any missionary moms that, cuz it might be their son. But yeah I´m being really blessed with the language. Other Elders always ask me what I did to speak so well for the time I have in the mission. Maybe some of your spanish rubbed off on me after all Mom!

Well Mom I need to go now because I´ve been on the computer way too long!!! But tell Calvin that that´s awesome he is an Elder now. And if Lauren comes, give her another hug from me and tell her I love her. And thanks for all the pictures. And you´re pretty much amazing Mom. I don´t know how you do all this stuff. Thanks for being such an awesome mom! You´re all always in my prayers.

Love your missionary,

Elder Boice

P.S. (I´ll try to send some pictures next week)

July 28, 2008








Querido familia,

It´s been a good and interesting week. It started out with my companion receiving his Death Call. Your "death call" is when the mission home calls you about 3 months before you go home and they ask you the nearest airport to your house and your parents´email address and some other stuff for when you go home. And my comp couldn´t believe it when he got his death call. He wanted to go home a few weeks early to be home for his sister´s wedding, but the mission decided to send him home a full transfer early, which is weird, and kinda stinks.


Something funny that happened this week was someone tried to burn us by shooting fire from an aeresol can and a lighter under their door at our feet. That was pretty weird. Don´t worry though we weren´t standing close enough for it to touch us. They just ended up burning their floor.


Also yesterday I gave my first talk in church in Argentina. It was one of those talks that you find out you´re giving about 5 minutes before you give it. I tried to tell a joke when I started the talk. But it didn´t work. Haha I don´t know if they didn´t understand the joke or they didn´t understand my accent, but I at least got a couple sympathy laughs from the back. Anyways, that was humbling. I´m really trying to work on my spanish. I´m reading the Book of Mormon out loud, that´s my game plan right now to work on the accent.


In other news, we had a lot of success finding new people this week. One thing we do in our mission is we try to "program" people as soon as we can, a lot of times when we first meet them. Program means we commit them to be baptized on a certain date, usually about 4 weeks out, if they have come to know that it´s true by then of course. It just depends on if they actually complete their commitments to read and pray and everything.


But we have a weekly mission newsletter and part of it shows the areas that led in baptisms, programados, personas en la capilla, etc. for the week. And this week my comp and I led in programados for the mission with 21! Yeah! haha. Well it´s a start, now we just have to turn that into baptisms. I hope the moving is going well and it´s not too stressful.






Thanks for sending me some email this week Mom. Thanks for Michael´s address, I wrote him a letter last week but couldn´t send it so I´ll send it tomorrow now that I have his address. And yes I mailed Max a letter, he should be getting it soon I would think, maybe this week? I usually start writing around 10:30am here. That´s usually about when I write I think, mas o menos.


And thanks for getting all those letters to Lauren. I kept wondering if you had gotten that box of letters I don´t think you ever told me. Haha and about being District Leader in the MTC, I was only District Leader for the second half that I was there, and I didn´t say anything cuz it´s really not a big deal in the MTC. And I was afraid you would go tell people how great that was cuz that would be kinda embarrassing. I don´t think it´s really a big deal in the mission field either actually. Haha so feel free to put your socks back on. (Editor's note: I told him I found a letter from the MTC Mission President who had congratulated him for being made District Leader and that I was sure he was knocking everyone's socks off for being such a stud muffin.)


Also I actually did have thoughts of Kamas Utah when I realized it was pioneer day. And that´s really neat that the ladies in the ward had a dinner for you! That´s so exciting that Will and Adam are coming home soon. That would be so fun to be there to see them come home!


Ok well I´ll probably only be on for maybe 20 more minutes so if you catch me then great!, but if not have a great week and I´ll talk to you next week hopefully. I love you! P.S. if Lauren is coming over there today then be sure to tell her I love her and give her a big hug for me!!!

Love,
Elder Boice

(Editor's note: Cooper must have gotten to the cyber cafe an hour early today because by the time Lauren and I got to my computer he had already written and left. DANG!)

July 21, 2008

Well it´s been another good week in Argentina. We had interviews with the Mission President this week. So that was good. It´s fun to be able to talk one on one with someone who will probably end up in the Quorum of the Seventy or something.

It seemed like this week was slow-going for some reason. But we did have some real success. We taught some good lessons to good investigators, and got a good investigator to come to church yesterday. He showed up holding a pack of cigarrettes so we´ll have to work on that, haha.

He´s a really funny guy though just because he has a pretty typical life for a guy his age living here. He´s 30, lives with his parents, doesn´t really do anything, just mostly wanders around and plays soccer. My comp always asks him, "¿Como está el dia? ¿Dando vueltas por la calle?" He´s a great listener though and he´s always really into it when we teach him.

We´ve actually got some good investigators now that we´re teaching, so that makes things a lot more fun. I´m trying to think of something interesting that happened during the week. All that really comes to mind is cleaning our shower a few days ago. We have a bucket shower, which is basically a bucket attached to the wall that fills up with water and has a heat coil inside to heat up the water. And then a little spout/shower head thing that you turn and the water comes out.Ours has been leaking really bad,(by the time the water is heated up a fourth of it is gone), so a couple days ago we decided to fix it.

We got Elder Ritchie to rip it off the wall cuz he played football. Haha ok we didnt just rip it off we unscrewed it. But when I started to turn it sideways to reach the screw that holds it to the wall, all this nasty brown and black water and stuff came pouring out of the top. Pretty gross. So first my comp cleaned out the bucket and scraped out some of the rust. Then I tightened the shower head where it was leaking and put some sealing stuff around it. Now it´s good as new!Lol well I just thought that was funny because now we know why the shower water always smells so bad. I guess we have been cleaning off with the dirtiest water we have.

I´m not really sure what else to say for this week. Haha I know! I can give some motivational words to Cal, Brad, and Bo for why a mission is so awesome. Especially in South America! There are many great reasons:

1.You never have to load and unload the dishwasher (cuz you don´t have one).

2.You don´t have to learn how to use a clothes washer or dryer! (cuz we don´t have that either).

3.You get to choose whatever you want to eat, all the time! (cuz you get to make it). Actually all that stuff is way fun. Haha maybe it wouldn´t be so fun if I was living down here permanently.

Oh and Mom in one of the DearElders I recently got from you you said that it must be really pretty down here since I´m right on a river. You´re such a joker Mom. Haha jk. Well, I haven´t really seen much of the river here because my area doesn´t touch it. But I´m pretty sure on Google earth the river would look kind of a brownish yellow color. I don´t think I would eat a fish here to save my life.I should take some pictures of the little streams and rivers in my area though. They´re all completely filled with garbage and sewage. I need to just take a picture though because when I say filled I really mean it, it´s everywhere. I always think about how beautiful this country would be about 100 or 200 years ago, before all the industrialization and commercialization got to it.

I´m sure there are beautiful areas all over Argentina. But from what I´ve heard Rosario is the armpit of Argentina. Maybe that´s why the Argentine consul at the MTC forgot to mention Rosario.Well that´s about it for today. I´m out of ideas of what to write about for now.

Oh but for Mom, Lauren says not to forget to tell you that you are amazing, which is true! And I hope your hand starts to feel better Mom, sorry about that. (Editor's note: I broke my hand a year ago and fell on it AGAIN 2 days ago...I'm such a klutz.)

For Dad, I hope your new job is going well. And good luck with moving and everything. I know it´s got to be stressful. But you´ll be in my prayers.

For Calvin, keep up the good work, congrats on all the scholarships and being an adult now, haha. And I can´t wait to find out where you´re gonna be living and what classes you take and everything at BYU.

For Brad, I´m sure you´re having fun playing videogames and everything, have a fun summer! In Las Vegas...hehe. We moved to Carlsbad in the summer before my 8th grade year. And I thought it was way fun starting over at a different school and everything. I missed my old friends but it was fun and I was glad we moved. Remember there´s a reason for everything.

For Bo, thanks for writing me a letter! It sounds like you have been having fun at Legoland and everything. I´m always suprised at how well you write. I hope you have a fun summer too! They go by faster the older you get so enjoy it!

Mom I´ve been waiting to see if you are at your computer, but I guess not. Don´t worry I know you´re super busy. But one thing I wanted to ask is can you please tell me Michael Montgomery´s address? I don´t have it written down anywhere with me. Thanks!
Love you all

Love,

Elder Boice