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