August 26, 2009

Dear family,
It´s been a good week. Right now I´m in the city of Concordia. (See the attached pictures.) We´ve been here since yesterday morning. We lose a lot of sleep in my area because at least once a week we have to travel here which means waking up at 3:45am and taking a 2 hour bus ride. I think this is the 3rd time in this last week that we´ve had to take this trip. I need a nap! :)

Let´s see what happened this week. Wednesday we found a cool guy named Rafael. We taught him the first lesson and he was really excited because he said he has a neice and nephew who are members and he can start reading the Book of Mormon and helping them to be active in church again.

Thursday I can´t remember anything really, Friday we travelled here to Concordia to do divisions and I went with a super funny/weird Peruvian Elder. It was fun and we had to kind of end a fight between a lady and her mom that she takes care of (just a fight of words don´t worry).

The next day when we got back to Federal (our city) we remembered that we had an activity in the church for el día del niño (kid´s day), yes it´s a holiday here. We had forgotten but we were supposed to help so we went and it was actually really good. (The sister that wrote Mom the letter is who organized everything.) I´ll have to send pictures. I´ve got some pretty funny pics of my comp because he basically is a 10-year-old kid trapped in an adult´s body so he was doing everything with the kids haha. It was a lot of fun. 40 kids came, but only half went to church the next day.

Sunday was pretty normal, they assigned me a talk for next Sunday. Monday was actually a pretty rough day. I don´t know why but it was just one of those days where EVERYONE rejects you or isn´t home.Anyway so then yesterday morning we came up to Concordia again and we did divisions with the zone leaders. It was pretty fun. We just taught a new convert and a less-active family.

And that brings me to today. Pday! We played soccer today and like always the latins play way better than the "yankees". I´m still learning the rules haha. Well so that was my week wrapped up. So school already started again!? And Brad is starting seminary and high school?! What in the world?! When did this happen? Where does the time go?

Well I´m glad it sounds like Mom and Dad you had a great time in Puerto Rico, and Mom, out of all those foods you mentioned I don´t think they have any of it here. There are 3 main food groups in Argentina: oil, noodles, and meat. Ok well have a great week everyone! Have fun starting a new school year!! Chao.
Love,

Elder Boice

August 19, 2009

Hi Family,
We had a good week. Sounds like Mom and Dad you are having a good time in Puerto Rico. I guess the summers almost ending huh.

Kind of funny, today I realized we went just about the whole winter taking cold showers. Well a couple of months at least. We had an electric water heater for a week but then it broke. Now it´s kind of starting to warm up outside so the cold showers aren´t so bad.

This last week the weather was really weird. There was a couple of days where it got HOT! We were out in short-sleeve shirts. Then Sunday morning we walked to church in the heat, and when we walked outside after church it was cold again. Then next thing you know a couple hours later it started raining and the rain turned into hail the size of marbles. Weird...

So anyway, yeah it was a pretty normal week I guess. One notable thing I just remembered is on Saturday I saw 2 carpinchos!!! That was the first time I had ever seen one so it was kind of a shock. It was like seeing a giant hampster about the size of a dog. (I don´t know what carpincho is in english sorry). A weird animal that doesn´t exist in the states I don´t think. (Editor's note: the picture above is of a family of carpinchos. Wierd and cute!)

Well one thing actually that was really cool was the last couple days. We´ve changed how we teach a little bit and now we ALWAYS challenge everyone to be baptized. It´s suprised me and I think our faith has grown because the last 2 days we´ve commited four people to be baptized, and one of them is a catholic school teacher.

I´m really excited to keep finding and teaching new people. One thing I really like about this province of Argentina (Entre Rios) is that it´s easier to get into people´s homes to teach them because it´s more rural and calm I guess.

Anyway, I can´t really think of anything else to say about the week right now. Sooo, I guess I´ll end here. I hope you all have a great week! I love you and I´ll write again next week! Chao!
Love,

Elder Boice

August 12, 2009

Dear Family,
I hope everyone´s had a great past week. We sure had a good one here in Federal, Argentina. (side note: my companion says his family looked for Federal on GoogleEarth but it´s not there cuz it´s too small. I thought that was funny. See if you can find it.) haha

Well this computer is really slow so I haven´t been able to look at the emails you sent me this week yet, so I´m just gonna start writing about my week while I wait for them to open.This last Friday we went to the wedding of a family we´ve been teaching and then on Saturday the family was baptized! Well 3 were baptized, the parents and one of the daughters.

The baptism went really well, my companion baptized them and the Relief Society made a couple cakes and we made some brownies for after the baptism. It´s a really cool family so it was really great to see them baptized. On Sunday they were confirmed, and I did one of the confirmations, which was the first time I´ve done that so that was a cool experience.

We had a good experience on Sunday night as well. When we had planned the day the night before we decided to just knock doors all Sunday night. I felt like we should go to a certain part on the map, so that´s where we went, and started knocking. Out of the 3rd house we knocked came a really nice lady and we asked her if she had talked to the missionaries before. She told us that she was catholic but that her dad was the branch president here in Federal a long time ago. She said that he must have sent us to her house because the day after was the anniversary of his death (I don´t know how many years ago).

So anyway, she talked to us about that for a while and then asked us really who sent us to her house. We told her we just had felt like we were supposed to go to that part of the city. “What a bunch of coincidences,” she said. She works out of town so she´s hardly ever in her house. Well so even after all that we couldn´t make an appointment with her but she said she´s gonna come by the church so we´ll see.

Let´s see, then yesterday we travelled up to the city of Concordia early in the morning to have a district meeting and do a baptismal interview. The lady I interviewed was really….. different. She was funny because she comes from the kind of religion that shouts and stuff a lot. She was really cool, but I found out she needs to stop smoking. She was so fed up with smoking and all the problems that come with it that she gave me her cigarretes and ash tray to throw away for her. If she quits smoking this week she´ll be baptized next week. I think she´ll do it.

Well so right now I´m looking at the pictures of the martial arts graduation ceremony. Way cool, and I´m really glad that letter from the member here got to you. That was really nice of her. (Editor's note: An Argentine lady named Veronica who is really impressed with Cooper wrote me an amazing letter, thanking me for raising such a wonderful son!) We´ve been teaching a lady that works in her house with her. That lady isn´t doing so great right now when it comes to getting baptized, but yeah the hermana Verónica is really cool and helps out a lot. She´s pretty young, like 29 or something I think. And yeah she speaks a little bittle of english. The basic stuff they teach in school here as well as some random words that the elders have taught her, haha. She´s really great though and I´m sure she would appreciate it.

The other day she wanted help because she has to plan an activity for the primary for el día del niño. I told her I couldn´t really think of anything good but that you wrote a whole book about things like that. And she said What your moms famous!? Maybe you could even send her the book even though its in english, haha.

Well so it looks like Brad and Dad are pretty much studs. (Editor's note: they both just received their green belt in Roshindo last week.) Hey so you´re going to Puerto Rico mom and dad? Have a great time, I bet it´ll be lots of fun.

Ok well that just about brings me to the end of this week's letter. I love you family! I´ll try to send a pic of the baptism from this last week. (Editor's note: it's the picture shown at the beginning of this letter.)

Love,

Elder Boice

August 5, 2009

Hey family,

Sounds like everyone had a fun cabin trip. :) Right now I´m looking at a bunch of pictures that dad sent me from the cabin. It´s taking super long to open the pictures cuz I´m on a way slow computer, so I´m gonna write about my week while I wait for the pictures to open up one by one.

Let´s see, there´s a few people we started to teach this week. Our branch president came by our house one night because he had found some people that wanted us to teach them. The first person is the nephew of our branch president. He´s 8 years old but his parents are less-active so they want us to teach him before he gets baptized.

The other person that wanted us to teach her is a lady named Cecilia. We had already taught her before, but she didn´t show too much interest until now. There´s a family in our area who´s 19 year old son Diego went to Buenos Aires for a couple months and recently came back with her. She´s like 30 and has 5 kids, so it´s kinda weird. Needless to say they have lots of problems and it just got to the point where they both want to change. It´s a really sad situation because this lady just seems trapped. So we´ll see what happens, but I really like teaching them just because the gospel changes people, and if they let themselves change it´s gonna be a really big change.

Let´s see. On Sunday we talked to the father of a family that won´t let his children get baptized. If you looked up stumbling block in the dictionary I´m pretty sure you´d find his picture in there. He said as long as he is alive and walking upon the earth his children won´t be baptized in the church because they have to follow the religion they were born into. Oh well... It was an interesting experience though. I´ve met so many stubborn and hard-hearted people on my mission, I just don´t understand it.

Well so then yesterday we had a zone conference. It was really good, one of my favorites actually. I started feeling kind of sick afterwards, I think I must have eaten something bad for lunch, and so I decided to stay in the zone leaders´ apartment that night (we were in a different city about 2 hours away). So I just kind of layed there on a mattress for a few hours and then at night I ended up throwing up. Gross. I felt way better after that though, haha. I felt really bad though, because out of ALL the places I could have thrown up, it HAD to be like the one place in all of Argentina that has a carpet floor. Their apartment has somewhat of a carpet floor, and I´m not joking it may be the only carpet I´ve seen in all of Argentina besides in the mission home. So anyway that was a bummer.

But so this morning we traveled back to our city and I feel fine now. I don´t think I was sick I think I just ate something bad. Luckily it happened yesterday though because today´s P-day so we didn´t lose any time to work. Yep so now we´re finishing up P-day.

Oh I got some mail at the zone conference. Some from Mom and from Tracey and Tanner. Gracias! It sounds like they´re all doing well. Sounds like Tanner is learning spanish really well. I´m sure he´ll be more prepared to learn spanish than I was if he serves a spanish-speaking mission.

Oh and mom asked me how we wash our clothes here so I guess I´ll answer that.Basically I use a plastic bucket that used to be a trash can. I cleaned it out so I could wash in it. I put my clothes in the bucket, boil some water, pour detergent into the bucket with the clothes, pour in some more water, mix it around a little bit, then leave it there to sit. I never find time to actually wash a bunch of clothes, so I usually end up rinsing some out every night and hanging it up to dry for the next day. In order to hang our clothes up to dry we just put the clothes on hangers and hang them from the window curtains.

Yep thats pretty much it. Ok well I´m out of time now, but I finished looking at all the pictures, thanks dad! Have a great week everyone! I love you all!
Love,Elder Boice

July 29, 2009

Hey family,
So it sounds like everyone´s at the cabin right now? Cool, I hope everyone has fun. Fishing? Roasting marshmellows over the campfire? Horseback riding? A parade filled with saltwater taffey? Tons of kids running around? I hope everyone has a great time as always. I have lots of good memories from the cabin.

Well so I´m thinking back on the week trying to remember what happened. I´ll start out with a funny story: We wash our clothes by hand in this area. My companion the other night had a funny experience. We usually let our clothes soak over night or over a period of days in a bucket and we rinse the clothes out as the days go by just because we can never find time to just wash. Usually we wash clothes at night when we get back to the house. So my companion finished rinsing the last clothes he had in his bucket, and he poured out the dirty water into the sink, and what do you know! A stiff mouse came falling out and landed in the sink. I was in the other room so I came running when I heard "Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!"Haha

Let´s see. We had a pretty good week actually, even if my companion was scarred from the mouse incident. One really cool thing is we got a reference of a family to teach. It´s a family of 16 people. One of the daughters is a member with her family, but her other 13 brothers and sisters aren´t members. Some of them already want to be baptized but their dad won´t let them. I don´t know why that always happens in this area. I think this is like the 4th case of a parent that refuses to let their kid get baptized. But anyway, it´s a HUGE family, and they all live in the same tiny house. SO many kids running around.Besides that I can´t really think of a lot.

Oh yeah and for mom, there´s a member in our area that wrote you a letter, and so I mailed it for her. Let me know if you get it, cuz I still don´t know what it says. Oh also right now I´m making a DVD of pictures to send you, I don´t know when. I can´t really think of anything else to tell about this week. Last night a member family called to have us come over to give a blessing of health. That was cool I guess and doesn´t happen too often. The dad is the 2nd counselor but we had to help him out because he wasn´t really sure how to give a blessing. I can´t remember how much I´ve said about the branch here. There´s only 3 priesthood holders in the city (active that is), and they´re the branch president and his 2 counselors. The 1st counselor is actually only 18 years old, Pretty cool.

I really like being in this area where the church is so small. It´s lots of fun even though it can be hard to get things going for lack of active members. Well ok that´s all for this week. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week and a great time at the cabin!!
Love,

Elder Boice