CHRISTMAS IN URUGUAY

Christmas Day was really special. It really inspired me to hear all of your voices. I love you all so very much.
We have been loving the Christmas season, and Elder Carlock and I have gotten really close. I should hope so, especially because we are going to be together another change! Well, 3 changes with the same comp. It will surely be fun and very interesting. I’m grateful for it and count it as a blessing. He’s a great guy, and we work well together.

We had a miracle last Sunday at church! This woman who we had met on the street came to church! She just came in and sat down and enjoyed all of the meetings. My companion talked to her in the chapel after church and invited her to be baptized. She has had some difficulties in her life and accepted the invitation. We are going to visit her tonight. Well see what happens!

Attached are some pictures of the adventures of the past few weeks.The first is that baptism of Alisia. She is the little woman with wet hair and glasses and a tan sweater. The big family is the family that shared the gospel with her and invited her to their house to listen to us. The second picture is the navidad blanca activity. There were 5 baptisms, and two more Saturday. We had 15 baptisms in the zone this month! IT was a MIRACLE! We hope to keep improving. The changes have brought some interesting and excited missionaries to the zone. Well just have to keep positive and have faith!
The third is Miguel, who was baptized at the activity. The fourth, our Christmas Eve dinner. It wasn’t finished before we had to go, but they were able to give us some that was cooked as we headed out. The fourth is a picture of the family’s farm house that is just barely inside our area.
Well, I gotta go!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your support! I know this is where I need to be, and we keep moving forward. Hopefully I’ll be telling you about even more miracles next week. I know the Lord works along side us. KEEP THE FAITH!
Love your son and missionary
Elder Boyce
K.C.

Making room in our hearts

I got the package. I opened it today because our pday is today. Christmas will be just a normal day of work, except the phone calls of course! The phone calls are to last for 40 minutes, so I won’t get to talk as much as in the past. Anyways, since Christmas is a normal day, I opened my packages and stuff. I’m waiting to open my birthday one till my birthday comes. THANK YOU so much for everything. All of the wonderful thoughtful pictures, and the ties and shirts. My companion Elder Carlock was really grateful for the tie you sent him. He’s wearing it now. Needless to say, it’s been pretty busy down here! There were four baptisms in the zone this past weekend, and WE HAD ONE! Alisia was baptized last Saturday. Its amazing how much her life changed and how much her heart opened to the Lord. After the baptism, she had the opportunity to share her testimony. She stood in front, held out her arms and said. ¨I feel like a little baby. I’m a new Alisia.¨ She expressed her love for Heavenly Father, and the wonderful experience she has had in the changes she’s seen in herself. It made me feel so happy and excited to keep moving forward. I love this work! She was confirmed at church yesterday, and just beamed and radiated happiness. The ward was amazed by how much she had changed. Everyone was touched. One of the ward missionaries German, was able to baptize her.

Last week, we had our mission Christmas Conference. The whole mission gathered in the church like last year. We all got there, and President Da Silva talked to us as a whole mission about the things we have been learning about the past months in the council meetings. It was great to have the opportunity to talk to everyone. Afterwards, we talked about the verse in Luke where it says that Christ was born in a manger ¨because there was no room for them in the inn...¨ We talked about making room for Christ in our hearts and souls and letting him enter in. It was a very powerful meeting. We took a giant picture of the whole mission. We also got to meet his son William, who just got back from his mission in the other half of Uruguay. He bore his testimony of the work and how we need to just love the people. His daughter also shared her testimony. The missionaries heading home also shared their testimonies. Two of them are the sisters that came with us. IT’S SO CRAZY! We all came together in the airport. We took a big picture of our group too. I’m going to miss them. It gets harder to say goodby each time a group goes because I got to know them longer. It was a very special meeting.Well, we continue to march forward. We have 7 baptisms planned this seek for the 23rd. We are going to have them all together in one church as a stake activity. We have been getting everything together. It’s going to be sooooooooooo special! I CANT WAIT!!! We have a guy getting baptized. Raul´s nephew Miguel. We’re excited for him.

Trust

Dear Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family, and the NEW PARENTS!!!!! Well, needless to say I was just stunned by the amazing pictures you sent. Dianna and Nate sent me some, and I can just tell that Nate will be photographing every second of his new son’s experiences. They truly are amazing and I felt like I was there and I could reach out to touch him. Congratulations Nathan and Dianna! I’m sooooo happy for you! This is truly as Mom said an answer to lots of prayer. Give him a little hug and kiss from his uncle K.C.! I love the name as well. Noah. It’s a very awesome name! I knew you guys would know just what to name him. I love you guys so much! Thanks for the pictures. I hope all is going well and that you are enjoying the new life as parents.Things are just fine here on the mission front. We had a busy week, lots of lessons, and even the ward Christmas party! It was really fun, but it ended up starting really late and we could only stay for a few minutes. I took some pictures of the members and some of our investigators that came. They all enjoyed themselves. The members made sure to give us a few sandwiches and saved us a couple of pieces of cake! It was GOOD! This ward really takes good care of us, and I really love working here. Of course, when we have more potential for success, el diablo se mete la cola en la puerta, but we are just keeping positive and praying for success. We have a miracle baptism this weekend. This amazing humble woman named Alisia. I told you about her a couple of weeks ago. She is just overcoming smoking, and has begun to make LOTS of changes in her life. We came to her house the other day, and she was busy in her front yard cleaning like crazy and washing everything. She even came to church in the cold rain yesterday, and was one of the first people there! It’s amazing to see the dedication that the people have when they feel the true power of conversion. It’s been a real humbling experience to be able to teach her. Teresa hit a bump and has decided not to listen for a while. Needless to say that left us with a big shock, but we encouraged her to pray and think. I was a little upset, well really upset, but we prayed and asked the Lord if we had done something wrong. We both felt the comforting spirit of the Lord and one night as I was sleeping, this thought just popped into my head. ¨Teresa will be baptized.¨ I don’t know when, but we continue to pray for her and fast for everyone. We have met lots of amazing people, we just have to trust in the Lord and trust in ourselves. I love this work. I love this time of year. I am so happy to be here teaching the gospel. I really am surprised how fast it’s going by, and the wonderful blessings it has brought. I would not trade this time out here for ANYTHING else. I love you. I am so thankful to the Lord for all He has given me. I sometimes feel that this is what keeps me going. I have to share these blessings with others. Have a great Christmas Season and may it be filled with happiness and the spirit of Christ. KEEP THE FAITH! Love your son and missionary, Elder Boyce (K.C.) P.S. That little boy has HUGE cheeks! I just wanna squish them!

Navidad Blanca !

The Christmas season is here, and we are pushing for it to be a very white one. Last week, we had some really interesting meetings. We had a leadership conference, and also we had a Zone Leader Council with the Area President Elder Arnold. He is a very amazing man, and has a very powerful way of conveying the vision of the work moving forward. It was quite an intense experience. He got us fired up for Navidad Blanca. We are trying to convert ourselves to the doctrine of baptism and the need to invite EVERYONE or rather challenge everyone, to be baptized. The more we have invited this past week, I have felt an interesting spirit that has helped my love grow for the people and a desire to help them know what their Heavenly Father would have them receive. Whenever I think about what my life would be like without the gospel, it just hits me hard how blessed we are to have this knowledge. I could never thank my Heavenly Father enough for ALL He’s given me.
Elder Carlock and I are getting to be really close. He’s such a funny kid and has a sense of humor that’s easy going. We both take the work seriously but at the same time, we have fun doing it and know when to laugh at ourselves a little bit. We have passed through a couple of trials together and in the recent days, we have found a few awesome people to teach. All of them have accepted the invitation to be baptized, or at least said they would think about it. It’s amazing how many people don’t know they need baptism or that they CAN get baptized! It has really helped people open up and find what they have been looking for. I’ll have to tell you about how some of them are doing next week.
But, we have two set baptisms for the 18th. Teresa and Alisia, two people I have told you about. Teresa finally accepted the invitation after we kept inviting her to make the decision. She feels more firm than ever and is inviting all her family and friends. It’s going to be a great baptism! Alisia as well has been coming to church every week and has a little problem learning, but her faith is really strong and she has changed a whole lot.
It’s remarkable how fast these people change when they make the connection to Gospel truths. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to be sharing these things all day every day!
I love you all! Things are going great, and we are excited for NAVIDAD BLANCA!

Thanksgiving Popsicles

November 30, 2010

Thanksgiving for us consisted of eating a few popsicles that were orange flavored and.... well…. I guess that’s it! Just doing what we usually do! It was a nice day, and we’ve been working hard. This area and the zone have been progressing nicely and the missionaries are focused, working hard, and having fun! Its fun being a zone leader, although you know how I can be sometimes. I can get a little frozen up when there is a lot to do or lots of pressure, but such it is. I feel like I’ve grown a whole lot. I feel like I really love the people I work with. When I remember whose work it is, it just makes it even more special. Sometimes getting all wrapped up in mission stuff, we can forget why we are doing what we are doing. As I was thinking about this the other day, I felt prompted to read in John 21 I believe when the apostles eat with the Savior on the shores. Christ asks three times to Simon Peter if he loves Him. Peter answers three times, the last being the most powerful, that yes he loves Him. Then said Christ, ¨Feed my sheep.¨ It just hit me really hard. I felt a very strong love for the work and my testimony grew of the importance of this work. We gotta just go out and BAPTIZE so everyone can receive the blessings the Lord has prepared for them! Peter’s love for Christ is reflected in the life long service he rendered. I hope I can develop that same capacity of love for Him.

It’s been a great week. We continue to help our investigators progress and learn from the gospel. Many people are coming to church, but it just gets frustrating that so many people aren’t married! However, we’ve found some people who will be able to get baptized this month. Hopefully I will be telling you more about them in my next email.

Hoping for a White Christmas

November 23, 2010

Well, it seems like all of the new missionaries in the zone have gotten settled into their new areas, and it has brought NO shortage of miracles! The work has been progressing so well, and we are looking to having a VERY white Christmas, even though we won’t be seeing a single snowflake.
We have been working as Zone leaders a lot closer with the stake leaders. We have a representative from the High Council who is the Mission Leader. He has been helping us out a whole lot making sure that we all have communication. We hope to have a stake baptism activity with Christmas. It will be very beautiful to see so much white! I think we will plan some sort of other things after the services that have to do with Christmas. We are planning on doing it on the 23rd, Joseph Smith’s birthday. Just to make it even more special!
Last week was quite a challenge, but the Lord blessed us with some really amazing people to teach and guide. There is a family who is part member. The wife, well partner, is waiting for her husband’s divorce papers so she can marry him, and get baptized. She has a super strong testimony, and has been waiting patiently for months and comes to church every Sunday, with her daughter and husband, who is a member. But anyways, they gave us a reference. A woman who has gone through a whole bunch of trials in her life. She recently lost her second wooden house to a fire, but her children were alright. But that’s not the half of what she told us. It’s a story too sad to relate, but she came to the family’s house for the lesson. We just listened, and through her tears, she just related all. I couldn’t understand at all what she must have been feeling, but the husband shared the scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 121. We talked about Jesus Christ and how he suffered all pains and sins and that through Him, we can be healed. After the prayer, there was a huge calm that came over the whole room. There were a few families participating. I felt so humbled by the experience. I thought ¨How did He do it?¨ Its just SOOO MUCH weight to carry! But, as He said, ¨Glory be to the Father, I partook of my preparations...¨ The next day, we talked about the Gospel. She has a lot of faith in God and Jesus Christ. She accepted the invitation to be baptized. She said she felt like something entered into her heart and broke the chains binding her. She slept better that night than she had in years, and felt an overwhelming peace. She felt as though it were God saying ¨Enough!¨ It was a remarkable miracle, and she came to church yesterday, with a leg cast, and her son, who also wants to get baptized.
We also found another family who is part member. The wife had just been thinking of her children and the world they were going to grow up in. She was a little worried. We knocked on her door. Her husband answered. We went in and shared about how the gospel blesses families. They were really happy, and excited to receive us. After the discussion, she expressed feelings that now was the time for her to return and for them to build their family on the principles of the Gospel she had heard years before. It was really touching.
The Lord has been blessing us so very much. Just when we think we can’t go any further, we turn the corner and find that the Lord was there all along. Like it says ¨Be still, and know that I am God.¨

Time is Flying

November 16, 2010

It’s hard to believe that it’s been six weeks since I arrived in Montevideo! Time is just flying. Every time I look, there is another month flown by. The best part is that more and more I really feel like I’m trying to take advantage of this time, though I still have so very much to learn. Well, I guess that’s the purpose of life huh?The work continues to progress very well here. We have a few investigators that have been coming to church very regularly. They have overcome quite a few trials of testimony, and we continue to PUSH forward. As President Da Silva quoted from a scripture, ¨If the Lord is with me, then who can be against me? ¨ I continue to try to adopt that motto as we continue in the work.The mission has seen amazing progress these past few weeks and months. The Area Presidency sent a letter to all missions pushing for a Navidad Blanca, White Christmas. They are inviting us to work super hard so that this holiday season, we can share the gift of the Restored Gospel and invite MANY people to be baptized. We are of course hoping that this fire will continue on into the next year and that we lose whatever fear we might have of inviting people to be baptized. That’s something we have been trying to get over as a mission. Recognize and have a HUNGER for baptizing. It’s starting to work. We are seeing many miracles. IN our area too!