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!)