CRAZY WEEK!!

1/6/14

Happy New Year to all!!! My New Year was fun, and one of the senior couples threw a New Year's Eve party for us missionaries and the people we invited, it was totally awesome! Though it was unique because we had to be home by 8.... hehehe :) Mission Life is such an adjustment sometimes!

We have had such an exciting New year thus far and it's only the 6th of January! It started out with Transfers (I am still here in Cambridge :)) Then we were suppose to go to the transfer meeting, but we had a delightful snow storm hit. The results, everyone was Red Dotted!!! YAY!! You would think that every missionary was ready to spend a day inside. Unfortunately for Sister Hyoung and I, we found ourselves wondering what we could do for a whole day while this blizzard was upon us.... I believe we are now experts. We started with a pancake Breakfast (Which Dad, when I get home... can we eat pancakes...?) Then to Studies. After which we had a first MBM Conference Call. 

Originally when you go to transfer meeting, you get to hear all the departing missionaries testimonies, seeing as we weren't allowed to leave our apartments, we did this awesome conference call and heard them that way. It was a very amazing experience. We were asked to keep the departing missionaries in our prayers as their flights had been canceled, I can only imagine how their families were feeling at that point. After the conference call, we decided to rearrange our whole study room and deep clean. Then we found out we had cleaning inspections the next morning, it was kinda ironic.

The results were amazing, our Apartment is now a delightful thing to be in. Eventually we finished that then played cards for two hours and cooked ourselves a linner... (Lunch time/Dinner time). 

Lately our dinners have been... noodles!! I love noodles, and rice and toast!! Oh and cookies, we have an overabundance of those! Soon afterwards we did a little bit more studying and then just layed in our beds and talked until we fell asleep, to say the least it was a very long day!! But then the next day, it was a go outside at your own risk. The temperature reached a warm degree of -6! I have never felt like my face was freezing, kinda burning off... that was a new experience. I felt awfully bad for the two new Elders because they aren't yet equipped for such weather.  It's been fun though to work and adjust with them. One of them is from Russia! He is a Organ performance major! I mean it is so cool to hear him and watch him play! It has definitely been different serving in Cambridge and I am taking each day as it comes, trying to find the good and taking down the bad. The Lord is really helping me to Love everyone around me, member and non-member. It is one of the best things on the planet to have a knowledge about and also feel.  

Life is cold, wet, and fun. I am creating so many memories with Sister Hyoung and we simply just die of laughter at the end of the day sometimes. We hope to be able to get 2 new investigators this month, it is going to take a lot of work and a lot more faith! I am super excited for it though! I hope you all are having a fun time wherever you may be :) Oh and by the way, Amber Happy Birthday on the 9th!! You are going to be such a big girl ;) 

Love Always,

Sister Boldt

Christmas, Cold, and Fun

12/30/13

Hello all!

Christmas has come and past and it was wonderful! I was very glad I got to see all your beautiful smiling faces and such. It simply just brought me much joy and then I just have Mothers Day to look forward too! So let's see, since we talked not much has happened. Transfers are coming, I am staying here in Cambridge! It will be fun!

The weather has been slightly crazy. For instance, it snowed, then rained. Then Sunny weather it, then back to brisk cold weather. Well and Now it is like raining really hard. I am so confused about how the Winter weather works out here. I expect there to be snow on the ground and its like "Hello there Green Grass!" Slightly awkward. I also have been able to go on exchanges and be in a trio. Those are always exciting and open my mind to a whole new light. I feel like I am learning faster than I can keep everything in my brain. 

We made new transfer goals this week and we are hoping to be able to BUILD ZION! Which is seriously like my favorite concept ever. Who knew that something that is only ever talked about, could actually exist if the people you are around are on board with it? I have found that as I put others first, and see the good in everyone, I have much more fun. It's been awesome! We are headed for some wicked cold weather on friday. With a mighty high of 15 and a low of 1. Apparently also an Ice storm. Who knows! I hope you all are staying mighty toasty and things are going superbly. I truly love my mission!

Love Always, Sister Boldt

Christmas Email!

12/23/13

This is going to be my Christmas e-mail. Well kinda themed around that... with what's been going on at the same time :) Cambridge 2nd Ward... Is suffering when it comes to missionary work. Between us and the Elder's we have found that we are at a loss of what to do for the next week and a half before transfers and we find out what will happen. Tracting has been the main source of filling up our days and because of that we are learning to be grateful for many different things in life.

For instance, I am so blessed to have: A new bag - On Thursday we had our weekly planning session with the Elders. Since sometimes it is a brutal task we decided to start it out with a fabulous breakfast. CREPES!! We were in charge of bringing the crepe mix and I brilliantly thought I will make the mix before and then cook it at the church. Turned out to be a HORRIBLE idea :) By the time we got to the church for our meeting, My planner, Scriptures, White Handbook, Study journal, Preach my Gospel, Wallet and the whole inside of my bag were caked with this delightful egg mixture. To say the least I kept everything but the bag.... I was surprised that I simply just found this hilarious and was laughing, when The wonderful Elders I get to work with asked if they could go get me a new bag. They went to the mall found me a bag and bought it. It was AWESOME!

THE MISSION CHRISTMAS PARTY! - It was totally wicked. We got to attend dos of them because Sister Hyoung was playing for them. The first one was amazing and we were getting ready to leave right after she played. This is where I realized how blessed I was to work with Elder's and to have a car full of missionaries whose faith and reliance on the Lord was very strong. We were hit with a huge snow storm that literally was keeping people in. Stuck places and we were ready to leave. Elder Jones (The driver of the car) was shoveling us out and 6 of us piled into the minivan in hopes that the free way was going to be better than the roads. Turns out, it totally wasn't. We spent the next 5 minutes sliding all over the place when finally an Elder in the Backseat suggested that we say a prayer on whether to continue forward or turn around and go back. We did and all came to the conclusion we should go back and wait it out. It was amazing to see how when we all turned to the Lord with faith, that we received the same answer in unison. 

A place on P-day to do Laundry - The LP Sisters allow us to come over every p-day morning and do our laundry there so that we don't have to pay. It's wonderful. This morning as I woke up I really was just dreading having to haul laundry over there, in the rain, and when Sister Hyoung and I were awake at 3:30 because of being sick. I started out in this awful mood but by the end I realized that there are worse things in life. These wonderful Sisters were serving us by allowing us to come over. Then as we were leaving, I hit what Sister Hyoung likes to call "Sister Boldt Bad Luck".... I was walking on the side walk next to the road, my coat was wet because it didn't get to dry all the way in the dryer and I am just wearing a sweatshirt, when a lovely car drove by, hit the puddle that happened to be right next to me and I then muttered a silent prayer of please don't let this put me in a bad mood, and opened my eyes after I was soaked. I once again just laughed and said who cares? It's p-day! 

Because of all these different blessings in my life, that are kinda the unusual things to be grateful for, I realized that the Lord has created one amazing place for us. At the Mission Christmas party, President Packard asked us to think about one thing we could give up to the Lord, some suggestions were: Being more Obedient, really praying with intent, planning in a way that the Lord allows us too, really being consecrated to the Lord while on our missions, or maybe just changing an attitude, Allowing our companion to be the number 1 sometimes.

 I thought a lot about what I wanted to to give up to the Lord this Christmas, and I took many things into consideration. I finally was studying this morning and read this quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - "We must be willing to place all that we have - Not just our possessions (They may be the easiest things of all to give up) but also our ambition and pride and Stubbornness and Vanity - We must place it all on the altar of God, kneel there in Silent submission, and willingly walk away." As many of you know I am pretty stubborn and like to do things my way, and many times my way is the only way. I read this and realized the one thing the Lord doesn't have of mine, is my will, and I want to, especially willingly give it to him. I chose this Christmas to allow him to take the front seat and guide my life in the way he knows it should be. I am excited to do this, this upcoming year. I would encourage all of you to think about what you could give up to the Lord this year, he has done all for us, and this is just one way we can show our love and gratefulness for him! :)

I love you all and hope you have a very merry Christmas!!!

Love, Sister Boldt

Getting Ready for Christmas

12/16/13

That's okay, I am really bad at replying, and usually writing letters is difficult too:D It's been fun, and there have been some very interesting experiences that have been happening. Sometimes we (the Sister's) have to be really careful about who we street contact just for safety reasons. But mostly it is just fun. We had one guy tell us when we asked what his religious background was he answered with "I am a scientist." That was it, so Sister Hyoung said, hey I know a Scientist that is Christian! :) She is funny! Bundling up sounds awfully familiar. Today as we were doing Laundry we were wondering why there was so many clothes. Then it clicked... we were wearing a TON of layers to keep warm.

Christmas this year is going to be the best. My companion and I are very humbled and honestly there are only 5 families that will be here for the next 3 weeks. Everyone is going home (UTAH) for the holidays. We have found two families that will let us come over to skype, so I am going to need like a skype name and such to figure out to do this who thing! But the Lights and the SPirit of Christmas has hit. I LOVE IT!

I am glad Amber put the lights up on the tree :D She needed to! Cambridge is definitely hard. Everyone wants to be here, yet at the same time, there really isn't too much work yet. We are trying to find our work in unique ways now. It makes our numbers go down, which makes sense but at the same time, we are being uplifted and so are those we come in contact with. President Packard is trying to figure out a way to help this area grow and be successful. I absolutely love him.

Yestereday my Companion played in a musical fireside and she is stellar. But the whole time, President Packard was there and in charge of set up, then he sang, and I had the opportunity to see him behind the scenes so to speak. I realized right then that the life of a mission president is hard. You are over a ton of missionaries, you are over how they work in wards, you have your family there, you are constantly speaking and are in meetings, you have to deal with the complaints going around, and at the same time you have to rely heavily upon the Lord. President Packard has it figured out it seems, and even more than that, he cares about each of us missionaries as human beings first, then as missionaries. It's amazing the Love he has for each of us and how He prays for all of us. I honestly believe I was blessed to come to this particular mission, just for my Mission President. He has changed my life. This Christmas like I said is going to be the best, I get to provide service, eat, be with my awesome companion and skype home. 

Mom is the best, everything she sends me is just what I need, and I AM SO GRATEFUL!!! I need to be better at writing her, because her weekly letter is the best mail I recieve :D

I hope all is well at home and that things are going great!! I LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Boldt

*****Special Shout out to Tiffany and Jordan! Happy Birthday to the TWO of you fabulous friends!!

Freezing Cold Weather :D

12/9/13

Hello All!

This past week has been long and way fun! It has been freezing! I am beyond grateful for the warm clothes we have, and I will never take for granted being in a car area again. Sister Hyoung and I have been dying of laughter constantly as we street contact. Some of the responses we get are pretty dang funny. It's awesome though to see how some people really appreciate what we are doing as missionaries. 

Mom -  Thank you so much for your letters and also the little messages from the releif society! It was hoenstly such and UP to my day and I really really appreciated it!

Today it is snowing, and it has been fun. I am so happy. Sister Hyoung thinks I am a bit crazy for loving the snow so much, but I just keep telling her by the end of being my companion she will love it too! We are teaching an Atheist right now and that is probably the hardest thing I have ever experienced, but we know that as we teach with the Spirit he is getting exactly what he needs too! 

Riding the Subway has honestly been such an experience, we had to go on splits and I had to somehow manage to get us from the Cambridge chapel to the Long Fellow Park.... that was hard. The schedules are just crazy! We had a wicked cool experience this past week. Sister Hyoung was asked by President Packard to play in a fireside that the whole BYU basketball team would be putting on. It was awesome. She played How Great thou Art and the Clair De Lune. Then our President and his daughter sand Savior Redeemer of my Soul. IT WAS MARVELOUS! I was in tears. The spirit was so strong.

I am simply loving it out here and growing to love it even more than I ever thought imaginable. I hope as the Christmas season is hitting we can continue to give more than we receive, even if it is just a simple action of kindness! I love you all!!

Love, Sister Boldt :D

First Whole Week IN Cambridge

12/2/13

This area is HARD. But I am getting to use to it. Slowly, it's a process, that's for sure. It has been freezing and I had probably one of the most funny days ever. Literally probably could have just died of laughing becuase it happened to me. It started out with it being windy and the wind chill brought the freezing cold rain down a little harder it seemed like. Then My shoes were soaked. My booots were drenched and my socks were drenched and we were not going home till late that night. Then we missed a bus and I ate some cheese which made me then throw up. Yeah my body rejects dairy now :D So as we are just having this off day we are leaving the Long Fellow Park Chapel and we're walking when I feel as though I am forgetting something. My bag broke and when I flipped around everything was everywhere getting soaked. I just busted up laughing and without thinking said "Shoot Dawg" My companion was dying of laughter equally. It truly was just a day of learning that I need to be betterpreapred. I have been since then :)

We don't really have any investigators and we aren't really doing member work yet. It hasn't quite picked up here in Cambridge which makes it a hard area. But we are getting threre. We do a lot of finding on the Buses and Subways. That whole system confuses me but I have been guessing a lot on how to get places and I think I am getting the hang of it! My companion is souch a genious at the piano that she gets to play in the Musical Firesides, one is next week and I am excited to go!! :) I am excited for Christmas and hope that the Christmas lights continue to go up, they are a highlight to my day!! :) I love you all and hope you had a Great Thanksgiving! The Lord truly is blessing and watching over all of us, we have many things to be grateful for in life. 

Love, Sister Boldt

Cambridge = WOW

11/25/13

So here I am, in Cambridge. First of all, WOW. I LOVE IT HEAR! Okay but it was very different, I ride a subway and a bus to get to church on Sunday and practically everywhere else. I am totally overwhelmed by how many stops it takes to get everywhere and it's SO COLD! I have been freezing my little butt off! But I love it!

It's cool to see how the Lord knows exactly where to put you and how you need to grow. Cambridge is exactly what I need to make some of my MAJOR weaknesses my strengths. It's awesome. I am enjoying street contacting which I get to do everyday, close to most of the day and my companion Sister Hyoung is stellar at it. She could beat anyone in the mission at it. Also she is an AMAZING piano player. I love her to death and it's hilarious because we are Polar opposites, yet completely and totally alike. We have already had a ton of fun getting to know each other. 

I miss Nashua like crazy but I know that this is where I needed to be. It's been fun and I just can't wait for thanksgiving. I am having an all Organic dinner which will be unique and hopefully tasty. There are so many different people I meet each day now and I never know if I made a difference in their lives, but they always make a difference in my life. I love knowing there stories and where they came from and how they got to where they are today. A lot of them are attending Harvard or MIT which makes me feel super unsmart. I kinda like the dynamic though of being surrounded by all these brilliant minds. It's just really making me realize that I am so excited for college to actually study and work hard :) It's a blessing ain't it mom and dad? :)

I love you all!!

Love, Sister Boldt

YAY!!!!

11/20/13

So this past week has been pretty fun! We have done a TON of leaf raking, and a TON of service! I LOVE IT! I personally wish we could do that all the time because you meet some of the most lively people ever. We were blessed this past week to have the baptism of a 16 year old girl. Sister Murray and I have been teaching her and she is progressing so much. She received the Gift of the Holy Ghost this Sunday and It was amazing!!

We also had T-TEXTS! And guess what, sense this is transfer week, I am doing my p-day on Wednesday. Oh and I am being transferred to Cambridge. Cambridge 2nd ward to be exact. Walking area. Freezing cold weather. Right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.... yuuuuuuuuuup. I feel as though the Lord needs me to be humbled or maybe he is just about to make some of my Major weaknesses a strength. I like to think it is the latter cause I feel like I am pretty humble... I think...  :D It was exciting news! Sister Murray is going to train a brand new greenie. I am so pumped for her! I have been saying my good byes to the families and everyone around here. I know that I am being transferred but it hasn't really hit yet. It probably will tomorrow when I am in Cambridge.

This past week I pondered a lot about what I learned in Nashua New Hampshire. In honesty I learned a lot. But that amount was really strengthening my testimony and building it up. For instance I know without a doubt in my heart that families are eternal. That if we marry the right person, at the right time, in the right place, we can have an eternal joy. Something that the Lord wants to bless us with. I have learned that if Christ is in the center of our lives, and we are doing all we can to be like him, we are on the right path. My testimony of God having a plan for each of us has taken off like a burning fire. I feel like it grows and grows and I understand more and more each day. I love it. I am all packed and ready to go. Life is going to be fabulous in Cambridge and I hear my new companion is WICKED STELLAR and can PLAY THE PIANO LIKE A BOSS!! Maybe I will start playing again! I love you all and I hope things are continuing to go great! :)

Love always, Sister Boldt

MOST AMAZING WEEK!!!

11/11/2013

Monday: P-day as usual, we had fun and went shopping for food, then to the outlets, and then we went to a cool place just for fun. It was like a hike thing. I thought it was weay fun and something different to do on a p-day.

Tuesday: Was equally fun! Oh if I haven't mentioned before, we don't have a car. It's been in the shop for like 2 weeks now and it's cause we got in a minor crash! YUP. So walking has been fun and very busy. We taught an investigator and that was fun. She is 16 and learning lot's. She will be baptized on friday!

Wednesday: We went to Garabed's (Recent Convert) He owns a bike shop so we go and occasionally visit him there. Umm... nothing too exciting happened that day. Oh we ate an amazing dinner with the Candelarios who are so much fun and a great family to be around. 

Thrusday: LONG DAY!! We went and did a ton of service. Talk about super sore. Stacking wood and raking leaves. EVERYONE has leaves to be raked. it's such an arm work out. I love it. Sister Murray is super funny and she and I always jump in the leaves, and she likes to tackle me into them.

Friday: District meeting, more stacking and that is about it.

Saturday: Preparation for the future. I was able to go and teach some fun families and also knock on some doors that no one answered, but then we had a dinner. Yup... so I don't like fish and That was dinner. I thought I was going to be sick. Then I was... I threw up... Not fun. Lobster soup and whatever the other stuff was didn't sit well in my stomach. So I learned that sometimes you eat what is placed infront of you and deal with it because sometimes it's all the people have. Then later when you are sick, you recognize how much you love the people because it truly was all they had to give you :)

Sunday: Matt's Baptism!!! It was grand! I was so happy :) He and Janna want to go to the temple in a year to be sealed. It's amazing and I love the joy that I get from bringing people closer to Christ. Then it was also the primary program. Best DAY EVER!!! Oh and I had the opportunity to teach Bishop Youth Discussion with Sarah, ( she is preparing for a mission), the topic was on preparing for a mission. SO that was way awesome and the spirit was super strong. I love my mission and it's always a testimony to me to know that the Lord called me here and I really am just super excited that I can touch the lives that the Lord knows I needed to touch. NASHUA IS THE BEST!!!

I love you all and hope all is well. I really seriously am looking forward to the winter here. It hasn't hit yet, which everyone says that means ICE is going to be this winter :)

Love, Sister Boldt