Fried Chicken and Fighting Satan

Hey, y'all!

This week was kinda nuts but full of miracles!

One of our members asked if I would help her with some ideas on how to

help her son improve in school. He's struggling with reading and

spelling, so I was able to talk with her for a couple of hours and

share a few ideas that have helped my students. It was so neat!

On Thursday, we found Jose. He is our miracle story. When we first met

him, he was kicking around a soccer ball with his neighbor. He felt

bad about his past and told us that he wants to change. We went back

on Friday to teach him, and he seemed a little more comfortable with

us but still hung his head and didn't smile. He looked down and out.

He seemed quiet, and as we talked to him more, he opened up about his

struggles. He didn't believe that God was there.We taught him about

the nature of God and testified of his divine worth. We could see a

change in him after our lesson. He offered a prayer and asked God for

relief and help. On Sunday, we went by again to teach him. He told us

that he didn't have a purpose here and wanted to end his life. We

shared "Like a Broken Vessel," and he said that he has felt like that

before. Our hearts were crying for him. We felt strongly to call on

someone to give him a priesthood blessing. When we checked on him this

morning, he said he had slept all night and felt happy! MIRACLE! God

is so good!

I would share more with y'all, but there's nothing that can top that.

Have courage and be kind. There is power in the Book of Mormon. Read

it every day. Pray morning and night. Find someone to help each day.

Love God and obey His commandments.

Friiiiiied chiggin' by the great Ms. Dada

💕 & 🐴

Hermana Boyson

ONE YEAR!

What a wonderful week! I can't even get my thoughts straight because this week has been so full of so many great things!

On September 7th, I hit my ONE YEAR MARK! Holy smokes! It was a really great day. One of the sweet families in our ward invited us over to celebrate their son's birthday and to celebrate my year mark. I am so grateful for the past year and for all of the blessings I have received from a Heavenly Father who loves me and gets me from where I am to where I need to be by giving me challenges. I have met so many amazing people and have been able to bring others closer to Christ by sharing His gospel. 

This story will get ya. We went to help Guillermo, Carlos, Diego, and Ever get to church, and on our way we stopped at Mauricio's. A few days before, we had a really frustrating conversation with him. Tobacco is ready to be harvested, so a lot of people are working overtime. It pays well, but the work includes Sundays. And if they don't work Sundays, their pay gets significantly decreased. Well, Mauricio told us that he was basically choosing work over church for the next few months because he needs money. We had a heart to heart with him, but he wasn't budging. He didn't even care to pray with us before we left, so we shook his hand and went home feeling pretty defeated. We knocked twice and on the second knock we heard his voice on the other side of the door. He asked who it was. "Las hermanas" in a somewhat perturbed voice. When he opened the door, he was standing in front of us in his white shirt and tie! We asked if he was coming to church, and he said yes! When I asked him if he had work, ad he said "I could've, but I didn't want to." I almost started crying! We were so happy! He made a huge sacrifice to come to church, and I am so grateful for his example of true sacrifice for God. 

Wow. Yesterday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Clayton who spoke in the April 2017 General Conference. He spoke to us about how we can help people come unto Christ by teaching them from Christ's words, how repentance is a joyful choice, and how we can be better leaders by being more accountable. We heard for Elder Taylor who served as a mission president for the Texas Dallas Mission. Their wives spoke to us as well and bore powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon, of Joseph Smith, and of the doctrine of Christ. 

"There in the Garden of Gethsemane, He began to pay the price for our sins and our sicknesses, our pains and our infirmities.  Because He did, we will never be alone in the those infirmities if we choose to walk with Him." -Elder Clayton

I love this gospel. I know Jesus Christ lives. He is the Savior of the world. I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me perfectly and knows me personally. I know that the Book of Mormon is God's word and that Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. I know that families are eternal, and I know through Jesus Christ, all things are possible.

💕 & 🐴 

Hermana Boyson

Shelby Squad. 

Don't mess with the GKLM. New missionaries and their trainers. 😎 

The cheesecake of all cheesecakes for my ONE YEAR celebration. 

Adios, rooster 🐔 🥘

This day is bananas 🍌 

Flat Tires and Failed Firesides

Well, this is pathetic.

This week in Shelbyville was pretty uneventful. A stark contrast to
last week, so maybe we're in for a treat next week.

On Thursday, we had to opportunity to receive training from Elder
Wakolo, our area Seventy. Wow. It was amazing. That man knows the
scriptures. It was one of the most spiritual experiences on my
mission. Hermana Fluckiger and I walked out of there overwhelmed. It
was humbling.

We had a really neat experience yesterday with Mauricio, a less-active
member. We felt like we needed to get him to the new member fireside
in Louisville, but he just flat out didn't want to go. Honesty at its
finest. :) Hermana Fluckiger felt really strongly that he needed to
share his testimony, but he just wouldn't budge. After 30 minutes of
begging, we found Guillermo sitting on his bike outside of his
apartment. We had a lesson with him on The Restoration. We invited
Mauricio to share his testimony, and we both felt the Spirit so
strongly. God works in mysterious ways, and He always works things
out. Even though Mauricio didn't get to the fireside, he shared a
powerful testimony with us, maybe something he wasn't sure he had.

We had two exchanges this week. Holy moly! Sister Cook and I had an
eventful night. Janie, a recent convert, drove us to Downtown
Louisville in what you would call a "beater." Sister Cook and I tried
some people in the area. With no luck, we headed to their apartment.
We got home at 9:00 when I realized that all of my stuff was still in
Janie's trunk, and she lived 20 minutes away. Well, on her way home
her car started shaking and making a really loud noise so she was
parked at a motel only two miles away from us. When we got to her, her
car wasn't making the noise or shaking. She started up her car to
drive it around the parking lot and when she backed, Sister Cook found
her back tired completely shredded! She had a blowout and didn't even
know it! What do you get when you put three girls together who have
never changed a tire before? A stranger from Michigan to the rescue.
He was an answer to our prayers. Thank you, Andrew! Janie got a spare
put on, Andrew got a Book of Mormon as payment, and I learned that I
had no idea how to actually change a tire. You learn something new
every day! :)

Hopefully this week will be more eventful. We're really trying to find
the elect, those who are ready to hear the gospel and act on the
things we teach. We know that they are here.

Loveyouins!
💕 & 🐴
Hermana Boyson

Exchanges with the hermanas from La Grange.

Sister M&M, Sister Moore, Sister Draper, Sister Fleming from the mission office, and us after MLC with Elder Wakolo

Our cute group of missionaries with Elder Wakolo. 

A snapshot from our video lesson with Eulises. My companion is always smiling ☀️ 

I walked out of the bathroom to find this. That's a knife in his hand. 

Trios, Trials, and Torrential Rain ☔️

Okay, first things first. This week has been a circus....But! We've had a lot of cool experiences. 

We are now in a trio! Her name is Hermana Hamilton from Logan, UT. She's a great missionary and has talent with the language. She has a great desire to learn. I must say that there's a reason it says many times that missionaries come two by two. Three is company. The upside is that we now can teach in any situation without having to worry about it having another woman there.

I am finally getting over a sinus infection. Two and a half weeks is a long time to be sick as a missionary. I finally got on an antibiotic, but it made me really sick. Like throwing up at church sick. The doctor switched my Rx so now I'm feeling a lot better! 

We found a lot of people to teach. We were able to find and teach two sets of four men/roommates. This week we started teaching eight males. Eight. Ever, Carlos, Diego, Guillermo, Jovani, Carlos 2, Manuel, and Eulises. Carlos and Diego are the sons of Ever, and Guillermo is Hever's nephew. Jovani, Carlos 2, Manuel, and Eulises all work together. Are you getting all of this? Ahh they are all fun to teach! Eulises has been our investigator for awhile, and we just happened to show up on a night when all of the hombres were home. We were able to sit around the table and introduce the Book of Mormon and talk about Christ's church. It was incredible as the Spirit filled the room and testified to all of us the truthfulness of this gospel. 

Finding the other 4 amigos happened in a weird kind of way. We had met Guillermo and Diego outside one day and we were able to share the message of the Restoration with them. Whoa...I'm getting ahead of myself, here's the backstory. We had dropped by to talk to a less-active and asked these two if they knew a Mauricio. (We were in a hurry and didn't have time to really talk to them.) So after hearing their reply of no, we took off to his apartment. Our purpose in going there was to get him to a fireside.  After a lengthy discussion with him, he still didn't want to go. We started leaving, defeated and a little confused on why we felt so prompted that he needed to share his testimony. We even told him about our promptings and still he didn't want to go. Right before we left, he pointed to the two people we had asked earlier about him and said that they wanted to learn about Christ. We both were a little frustrated at him and them because we had just talked to them and they said they didn't know Mauricio! How could he know they wanted to talk about Christ?? He then told us that as we were walking back to the car he said a quick hello and they said they would like to talk to us. At this point we realized we would not be going to the fireside and went and talked to them.....they of course were interested. So during the lesson several times, Mauricio was able to share his testimony and at the end...it was amazing. He shared the purest sweetest testimony and The Spirit pierced our hearts. Needless to say we set up a return appointment and then met everyone else and were able to reteach the Restoration with Diego's father and brother as well as his cousin Guillermo. The Church is true everyone! The Church is true. 

Something really neat happened. Last night we had nothing...we had nobody to teach and just went out walking and knocking doors. Our appointment fell through so we decided to just start walking. Within 3 hours, we had found four different people to teach and had taught and testified many many times. It was amazing! Each of these people were very kind and genuine. This week, we will be able to share more with them and we are really excited! God truly blessed us.

💕 and 🐴 

Hermana Boyson

Exchanges with Hermana Hamilton (who is now our companion!) and 🐴

Reading books with Callen and Stella ❤️ 

The Stucki kids are the best kind of kids. Hashtag fam goals.