Elder Jeremy Ashton Boyd

WARM REGARDS FROM A SLIGHTLY LESS WARM ELDER,

And just like that my fellow sheep in the flock, we have surmounted Satan, and hoisted the flag of salvation- I think that was the nerdiest way I could have possibly introduced another PDAY. But like, the good nerdy? Like, YEAH I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and I make gospel applications wherever I can BECAUSE I can. Go, Team Jesus. ANYWAYS, it hasn't even been a week since I talked to Y'all, and yet so much spiritual spectacular-ness has occurred, I just can't wait to amuse you all with the happenings of this ever so enthusiastic Elder. MISSIONARY WORK ROCKS. And with that statement of truth.. we enjoy the world-renowned CHALMETTE CHRONICLES- involving the eighth chapter of our righteous installment. *yeet*

Straight up, this Gospel is true and the book is blue. I have oft pondered this week, a question of the soul, "what is success?" And more applicable to my personal and present situation, "what is success as a missionary?" Well Y'all, I ain't claiming to be your everyday Isaiah, but I think success is truly summed up in these beloved steps: 1. Establish principles to guide your life. 2. Don’t make exceptions to your standards. 3. Be loyal. 4. Live so that the Lord can guide you. 5. Serve others. 6. Smile. 7. Don’t complain. 8. Always have a Church assignment. 9. Worship in the temple. 10. Follow the Savior’s example- Elder Richard G. Scott. See? It's that simple. Haha, "simple." Some of you may be thinking, "GREAT, another ten things I have to remember?? Weren't the commandments enough?" Well, as a representative of Jesus Christ, I can tell you that this stuff works. 10 steps to ensure your salvation. Its just a blueprint, an outline of sorts. But according to our spiritual origin, this is the guaranteed pattern to achieve, "success" in the Lord's standard. That's the secret to success- there is no secret. This really helped me this past week- love and obedience are the key ingredients for a successful spiritual recipe.

Alright Y'all, we had an experience and a half this week. We traveled on a magic school bus of sorts as we flashed back into the historical whirlwinds of grandiose supremacy. We volunteered at the Chalmette Battlefield this weekend, and needless to say, I feel more like a founding father than I did before. Father Boyd has a nice ring to it, don't ya think? Anyways, it was the 203rd commemoration of the Battle of New Orleans- and so naturally, being the APUSH graduate that I am, I seized the opportunity and took my position as volunteer extraordinaire, guardian of the monument. Yes indeed, they trusted us to guard the 122 steps to Orleanian ecstasy. It was truly an honor if I do say so myself. Although the uniform wasn't as, "colonial" I feel like I fulfilled my calling as an integral player in the history of the bodacious bayou. It was awesome. I love the history down here- it isn't exactly like Princess and the Frog, but some parts get pretty dang close. See the pictures attached- the cemetery is just as gnarly, and I just couldn't believe my eyes. THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT LOUISIANA. REPRESENT.

In terms of our proselyting efforts this week, our investigators are still being less than cooperative, so we've been blessed to find a new teaching pool this last week. We had a plethora of tender mercies as we embarked to achieve our lofty goal of EIGHT new investigators this week. I felt the Lord's hand guiding us CONSTANTLY this week. Elder Orison and I went tracting ( the sentence of the week) and as we walked through the valley of death, Elder Orison and I simultaneously received the strongest prompting that we needed to direct our efforts to the mega-ghetto on the other side of the road. The coolest thing was, before my mission.. Elder Boyd would've been all, "HECK NO. YOU WOULD NOT SEE ME WITHIN FIVE FEET OF THAT GRAFFITI" but I feel as though I've developed such a firm trust in the Lord, that graffiti is only an obstacle in the way of salvation.Long story short: we found the most bubbly and expressive woman who just, "LAHHHVES the Bible" and sneakily read her a scripture from the Book of Mormon, and when she said she loved that Bible scripture... BOOM PLOT TWIST LADY, MODERN REVELATION. She accepted the Book of Mormon and we shall visit the bubble this coming week. And we went to this apartment complex to search out the lost sheep (less actives) and ended up talking to like 70 people at once, and set up an appointment with two of them? Despite the worldly chatter, the spirit penetrated their hearts and made his presence known. It was gnarly.

ANOTHA ONE: Yesterday we decided that the most effective use of our time was tracting.. typical, I know. So we tracted this street for an hour, with less than fruitful results concerning the playoff game- but we decided it wasn't time to wrap up just yet. We were inspired to travel a few streets down, and lo and behold, not only did we find this excited investigator, but we gave a card to this sweet bystander, and after a few minutes, she came BACK and asked if we could pray for her. Apparently, her grandmother had recently passed away, she recognized our spirit, and asked if we could offer up a prayer for comfort. So we went to a nearby field prayed. A FIELD I TELL YOU. IT LITERALLY SAYS IN ALMA 33 THAT WE CAN PRAY IN FIELDS. I LIVED A SCRIPTURE. It was the coolest experience ever. Because we were setting a worthy example, she recognized us as representatives of the Lord. And I'm sure you all will be proud to know, we met our goal this week. Great diligence brings great reward, and although this week was hecka hard and grueling at times, the Lord blessed us immeasurably. Dang, I love this Gospel. WE ALSO got our first three referrals this week- bless up. Thought I'd include a big mama paragraph about missionary work so Y'all would know that I'm just living it up out here and feel so humbled to serve a mission and be apart of such interesting experiences. :)

In regular news, the people are going nuts for the Saints out here. Makes proselyting a bit difficult..but hey, wouldn't you wanna be a LATTER DAY Saint? Oh yes, Elder Boyd is still dishing out the puns like its nobody's business.

The weather has been rather bipolar lately.

We had like 30 people at church yesterday which was sincerely SUPER SICK. It's crazy what things bring you so much happiness when you're on the Lord's errand. Above all else, I can tell y'all that what brings me most happiness in life is this lovely Gospel and my loved ones. I am privileged.

What else.. we ate couscous this week- yes, I am the next Iron Chef thank you.

All in all, it was a pretty good week- hard, but a good hard.

Thank Y'all so much for being the best children of Israel there ever was. REMEMBER TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. This coming week is getting prepared for MLK Day, which they celebrate pretty hardcore down here, so I'm pretty pumped for that. I'll be singing in some interfaith, interracial, choir of sorts, so tune in next week for more on that. I know this Gospel is true. I know Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer, and I know he LOVES YOU. AND I DO TOO. SO KEEP ON BELIEVING, KEEP ON TRYING, HEAVEN AND I ARE CHEERING YOU ON YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND FOREVER. Lots of Louisiana lovin' coming your way!

With substantially significant and spectacular amounts of sincere appreciation and love,

Elder Boyd

Happiest of New Years from the Happiest Place in the World (maybe an overexaggeration?),

Wow, it seems like it was only last year that I was writing to you all. THAT'S BECAUSE IT WAS- BOOM- SPACE WARP- ANOTHER YEAR BITES THE DUST. I'm sure you're all quite tired of hearing, "last year" jokes- but as Marjorie Hinckley once said, "the only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." Basically, giggles make the world go round, and your choice of emotion is your own exercise of agency. So choose to laugh. Pretty please? It makes life so much easier. And with THAT MOTIVATIONAL CONGLOMERATION OF SISTER HINCKLEY AND ELDER BOYD'S QUOTE-PALOOZA, we endeavor to enjoy our first 2018 edition of the CHALMETTE CHRONICLES! *woop, woop.*

Y'all this week was cold. Straight up. But that doesn't mean we didn't thrust in our sickles with every ounce of might, cause no Louisiana standard of freezing could stop this Elder from harvesting the field. Even if the harvest is frozen over and refuses to open their doors. BUT, I feel very fortunate to spend an entire year immersed in the work of our Lord and Savior, and I am DETERMINED to make the most out of each sub 20 degrees today. And I know what you're all saying, "Elder Boyd is a wimp. 20 degrees? I'd walk that in my underwear." Well, let me tell you, disbelievers, I don't know how, and I don't know why, but 20 degrees in Louisiana is NOT Washington warmth. Maybe it's an acclimation deale-o- but these people down here be treating it like the 2nd Ice Age! Anyways, we still had some freaking awesome-tastic experiences, so please, read on if you feel so obliged.

First off, I'd like to take a moment to say: hearing about President Monson today (yes, missionaries receive the news too..) brought upon some conflicting emotions. My, "childhood prophet." yes, we have reason to mourn the loss of one of the greatest disciples our dispensations has enjoyed. He was a man who truly emulated Christ in all that he did, was an inspiration to all, and quite frankly, one of my favorite people in the world. Although I never met him, I felt his love for the people of the church. He truly loved everyone. And however sad it makes me, I can't help but adhere to the ingenious words of the Doctor of Seuss himself, "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." We should have joy- we lived in the same dispensation as one of the Lord's loving and most treasured prophets. We have deeply admired his sacred counsel and benefited from his jolly nature. As President Eyring lovingly states- he has only, "completed his mortal ministry." This news has only cemented my belief in the Lord's plan for all of us and his perfect direction of his church. The plan of salvation has chilling reality, and I know we each have an individual part in this great production. I love Thomas S. Monson. I love our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We're all gonna be okay because after all, we are in his hands. His perfect hands. And he will not leave us comfortless.

ANYWAYS, our investigators have been a wee bit temperamental this week- be we're still finding miracles everywhere, and I know that each occurrence is a tender part of his plan. SO yeah.. about that baptism we were supposed to have on the 30th.. we tried meeting with "T" to teach him some more, SEVERAL TIMES, this past week- but to no avail. We have no idea where he is. Every time we try calling him, it says he can't accept calls. So basically he's disappeared, and although we were kinda bummed we didn't get to see him in white, we know it's all in the Lord's timing. We've been really struggling with follow up appointments lately- magically, whenever we return- even though we conveniently watch them go in- they aren't home. We always rationalize righteously, as I like to call it- "maybe they have a secret tunnel under their house that directly leads to the nearest volunteer opportunity. Oh, maybe they are deep in prayer about the Book of Mormon so they can't come to the door because that would disrupt the spirit conducive atmosphere." Find joy in everything. The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away the days hoping for better ones ahead. Make the better day, today. We did some crazy winter tractiing- made me feel like one of those, "tough missionaries." But every potential investigator we found just hasn't been home for the follow-up- so we have learned a great lesson in diligence. With all these disappearing investigators, we've focused more on the less active hunting this past week. We've traversed over tempestuous flat-lands to uncover the hidden gems in the field.. but the gems were pretty good at hiding because everyone has either moved out of Chalmette or is once again just not the most adept at answering doors. However, the joy that we found wasn't in increasing our investigator numbers, but in being submissive and showing our willingness to press forward in the face of opposition. In turn, we had some great studies, some incredible learning experiences, and increased our companionship unity. There's a blessing in everything if we will only look with spiritual eyes. But we TOTALLY HAD SOME RADICAL FUN AMIDST IT ALL-

So you know how it's quite typical to commemorate the new year by doing a certain number of something? Well, us being the macho men that we are, decided to flex 2018 times. I have never felt so prideful in my life, haha. I still feel sore from extenuating my biceps- but boy, was it worth it. I'm quite excited to dedicate an entire year to serving the Lord, how awesome is that? Way cooler than flexing 2018 times- let me tell you. When we had branch coordination this week, usually our Branch Mission Leader enthuses in the local Saints game- but this time we found a DVD of General Conference from a decade ago and watched that instead. Golly gee do I love the general authorities of the church. Although we had quite a hoot commenting on the facial expressions of the majestic tabernacle choir, the talks were just as bomb.com. ALSO, tender mercy, half the congregation at church on Sunday were investigators! YES, MISSIONARY WORK! Okay, maybe the total congregation was like.. ten.. but still that's such an awesome sight to see!

This week wasn't absolutely gnarly in the scheme of experiences, but I am absolutely feeling the Lord's hand and spirit in my life every single day. We started the Mission Book of Mormon reading challenge this year, and I gotta tell y'all, that book is so flippin' fantastic. I'm highlighting the Gospel of Jesus Christ this go around and learning so much about the spiritual applications involving the doctrines and principles of this church. If you haven't made a new years resolution, once again, I strongly, "exhort" you all to read the Book of Mormon. I know that as you do you will feel the power of the doctrine changing your spirit to align on the path to discipleship. Exaltation is the goal, discipleship is the journey. Read the Book of Mormon every single day, and you will be one step closer to that ultimate goal. I'm personally making a resolution out of identifying weaknesses and stomping them into oblivion and becoming larger in stature. I know that together, and through the merciful hand of our Father in Heaven- and if this scrawny white boy can achieve Nephi status, you can read the Book of Mormon every day! :)

Well, that about sums up the happenings from the bayou tundra. I seriously feel like I'm on Hoth, dodging taun-tauns (crazy Louisiana drivers) and striving to convert the Empire- but without the snow. And this spiritual Jedi ain't giving up soon, so stay tuned as the ginger strikes back. I hope y'all have an infinitesimally joyful and glorious week of substantially spiritual experiences and awesome recreational fun. Keep praying. Keep enduring. Soon enough, we can enter into the rest of the Lord, but I don't know about y'all, I wanna feel worthy of that rest. So DO HARD THINGS- I know the Lord will bless you for it. Y'all have a stellar week, ya hear? I love each and every one of you- your souls are so precious to me. Thanks for being crazy cool cats. You make the world less, "cat"astrophic. Remember what I said about puns? LOVE Y'ALL AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK. ELDER BOYD LOVES YOU!!

With a gargantuan amount of warm love that overcomes the bitter cold of the bodacious bayou,

Elder Boyd