Are you gonna call it twenty-sixteen or two thousand sixteen?

The question of the year if you know what I mean. (Honestly I dont even know what I mean because I am so weird. Nothing has changed lol.) But for real HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We rang in the New Year with matching nighties, pigtails, pizza, Monopoly, bed hopping, and pillow fights. How white girl? It was a night to remember that's for sure. I remember last year I tweeted "I hope my 2015 will be like Taylor Swift's 2014" because she really killed it and became herself. HOLLA! I hope that I can continue finding myself this year. I now have less than a year left here in the mission and I have an idea of what I am doing (kinda lol) and the language is getting there. Honestly I can understand almost everything in the lessons when it is churchie and probably like seventy-five percent of the time outside of church talk(50% is probably more honest haha). But honestly this is the best decision of my life. I know I am just going to keep growing. Sometimes I get anxious to get home just because I want to see how BLESSED my life can be fully living the gospel on a day to day basis. I think we all know I was a little "flojo" or what my fav Bishop Greg Madsen would call "slack-tive" in the church. I have learned so much here and seen so many blessings as a full-time missionary, now I just want to get home and be a full-time member so I can see the blessings of the gospel in my life. But that being said, I am grateful that I still have a year to learn and grow even more. 

This week while we got ready we listened to this talk https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox_his-grace-is-sufficient/ and omg drop what you are doing right this very second and go read it. Honeslty one of the most EYE OPENING talks of my life. Wow shoutout to my mom for the practice lines haha. Honestly though this week I have been thinking A LOT about how I am practicing my faith and showing Jesus Christ that I am thankful for all He has given me. We were sitting in a lesson and we were talking about our attitudes. We were teaching in lessons because my Heavenly Father loves me enough to have put me in an area where there are a couple people who lived in the states before. So we were talking about having a positive attitude and we shared in Philippians 2 13-16 which reads

 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

And that second verse HIT ME! "DO ALL THINGS WITHOUT MURMURINGS." Wow I just thought about all the negativity I had been vibing. I LOVE the mission but we all have our moments. But when I read this I realized that part of it is my reaction. There are always going to be problems in our lives. Things that we can CHOOSE to complain about. But really if we look around and see all the BEAUTY we realize there is so much more to be JOYFUL about! Just like verse 15 says we are truly a LIGHT for the world. I love the analogy of a candle for sharing our light. When we use a candle to light another candle the first candle doesn't lose any light. It is the same way when we share joy in our lives. When we share our happiness, our joy, our light, we don't dim our own light we only make the world a brighter place. Oh and how bright it could be if we were all just a little more willing to share our lights. But instead the world to tends to act like lobsters/crabs when they are trying to escape from tanks. The other crabs pull them down and stop them from getting out. We should support each other and REJOICE in the success of others. I love you all so much and hope that each and every one of you can look for ways to uplift others around you!

All the love,

Hermana Bossard xoxoxoxoxo!