True Talent!!

Hiiiiiiii!!!! man i've been looking forward to emailing you! :) :) :) 

haha well. this week. haha the BEST part for SURE was a talent show our Relief Society had. haha we invited a ton of people to this activity, and a less active named Fuh Yim came! but anyway, it was such an AWESOME event. they had a ton of food (and i mean good food - my first time eating a salad in Hong Kong! SO HAPPY!) and then they had a talent show. hhaahahahahahha yes the best thing of my life. i couldn't stop smiling. and i was so wishing natalie and sarah were with me. for some reason, the Chinese can't really sing. i love it, it makes me laugh so hard! well, remember how we have a bunch of deaf people in our ward? Sister Chan is a recent convert and gets all her nonmember deaf friends coming to church, etc. the Elders' responsibility is to teach the deaf people, not ours (acc to mission president) but there is that one investigator who doesn't like the elders, so we attempt to teach her. 

Annnnyway, Sister Chan decided to get a group together to sing a song. yup :) and it was about the Word of Wisdom. i didn't even KNOW there was a hymn about the word of wisdom!!! and since signing is much slower, it took like 10 minutes. then Sister Chan decided she wanted to sign it again, but by herself. so we watched a 20 minute signed hymn about the word of wisdom. i was literally smiling the WHOLE TIME THOUGH. hahahaha i just loved it so much! people are awesome! 

now i've gotta tell you more about... HELEN! Man. this girl is SO prepared to receive baptism. Sister Cheung and I prayed about it, and we decided to move her baptismal date up a week, so now it's July 13. (our president doesn't want people to get baptized until 6 weeks after we start the lessons bc the less active rate is so high here) YAY!! anyway, I still haven't had a chance to teach the whole restoration yet, but we got to teach her all the commandments! and she has accepted everything, whole heartedly. she asks a lot of questions too, and it's incredible how we'll turn to a verse in the BoM, have her read it, and then she'll say "oohhh!! mihngbahk." which means "i understand." and then she commits! haha the only thing she had a problem with was fasting. lol! But we all fasted yesterday for her and her mom. 

Please keep Helen in your prayers! she really wants to get baptized, loves church, loves the gospel and has found God! :)  but... here's the prob. since she's 17, she needs her mom's signature. we finally helped her build up the faith to talk to her mom, but she told her mom she's going to church to take piano lessons! (oh! after every lesson, i teach her piano for 15 minutes. SO FUN!! she can play the right hand of "Come Follow Me" very slowly :) so proud!) so, after church on sunday we had a on the spot lesson, and we all knelt in prayer, with much prayer and fasting, that her mom will let her get baptized. ....to be continued until next week! we're teaching her again tonight so we'll see! by the way, Helen called me her FRIEND! wow. that made me happy. i still feel pretty useless here, but somehow she feels that I care for her and want to help her. so happy about that! keep her in your prayers!

Please also keep Ms Cheung (not my companion haha- everyone has the same name, i know!) and her 5 year old daughter and husband in our prayers. they came to our english class on friday (OH! I LOVE ENGLISH CLASS!!!! hahaha it is SO much fun! we taught them about the 4th of July and America last week, so this next friday we're going to have a party and act out some American history stuff.... so excited. haha oh, one of the vocab words i put on the board was Joseph Smith. and then one man said, "who ees joseph smit and why ees he impawtant in american histawy?" hahaha we were all like "great question!" and one Elder explained how he has a part with religious freedom, but we'll explain more later during a lesson :) haha it was great.) so anyway, Ms Cheung came to our english class and I just love her! but she's also pregnant and tired a lot, so it's going to be hard to get her to come to church. but MAN i just want her to gain a testimony of how much this gospel will bless her family forever!! so pray for her to have the faith to continue meeting with us! :) 

I love you all! families are just SOOOO important! We are so lucky to have families and to strengthen each other! 

hey mom, guess what i ate. A MUSHROOM. actually i ate like FIVE. I'm a changed woman. more pics to come! 

LOVE YOU! families are forever ;) really though!!

Love, Sister Bosler

 Me and my companion, Sister Cheung

 First "cheng out". Ate half a cheesecake bc I know they're really expensive :(

 Eating a MUSHROOM!!!!

 Me and Helen!

 anddddd look agh these crazey views

Sister Chan signing the Word of Wisdon song... best talent ever!

HONG KONG!!!

IM HERE!!!!! whoa what?!?! can you believe it?! i can't. man, i really got to make the best of every moment!

Guess where I'm serving?! ABERDEEN!!! WE'VE BEEN THERE!! The church literally looks out over the water where those boats where people used to live in are! but the mission actually split, so we actually serve in.. Pok Fu Lam! But we travel to Aberdeen every day to get to the church and we live in West Point. So we do a lot of traveling! haha almost every bus ride I sit away from my comp, next to a random stranger. hahaha i can't help but laugh at how annoying and awkward I am! haha i have SO much compassion for forgeiners in the states now. haha wow.

well... WHAT TO SAY!!! so much!!!! 

First: airport. 1 sad story, 2 AWESOME ONES!!

1) Once we got to LA, we quickly had to get on to our next flight. well, we all got seated on our plane to HONG KONG, all SOOO excited, but Sister Heaton was just bawling...and bawling. all of a sudden Sister Heaton got up and said, "I'm going home." and walked out of the plane. oh my gosh, we ran after her, trying not to make her do something she doesn't want to do, but ah!! my heart broke and i just started crying! I told her, "This is a once in a life time opportunity Sister Heaton..' and tried explaining how we can get through it. but she turned and left. wow. Sister Tu'avao, her comp, was especially bawling. so i sat next to her and we watched out the window as the workers took her bags off the plane. Man, my heart aches for her and I hope she made the right decision. But that incident helped ME, because whenever I'm down... i just remember how I would NEVER want to give this once in a life time opportunity up. Pray for Sister Heaton!

2) on the plane, Elder Ferrar started talking to a girl from China, and all of a sudden we taught her literally all the lessons, gave her the BoM (the one that I highlighted in Chinese!) aaaaand I even asked her to get baptized and her started crying and said yes! One sister speaks mandarin so she taught a little more and got her info. WOOOWWWW ohhh my gosh. that pumped us ALL UP! can you believe what a miracle that is? China needs to open. people want this gospel so bad! That moment just made me SO happy for her. it was incredible seeing the light that grew in her those short hours on the plane. incredible!

welllll im in HONG KONG!!! 

My companion is INCREDIBLE! her name is Sister Cheung. She's from LA and spoke Canto at home and she speaks SO FAST! haha phew! But she is so incredibly patient (thank you, answer to my prayers!) and SO energetic. i love her mentality. i get super exhausted and overwhelmed already (just adjusting and jet lag...) and she is just a burst of happiness! I love her! hahaha she makes me call people so I always put it on speaker and plan out what i'll say, and then they'll respond and I'll have NO Idea what they're saying, and S Cheung just starts dying laughing, mouthing words to me! hahaha she says calls are her favorite thing now. I'm glad SHE likes them ;) 

She's also an awesome cook! My first lunch we made fish and choi. yay!

i've already had some red meat (freaked out inside), sugar because I couldn't say no, and yeah. goodbye 'karlikale' ;) it's okay though, it'll work out!! that's honestly the least of my worries now.

The night we got the mission, our president (OH HE IS AWESOME!!! he reminds me of a mix between Elder Holland and Jon Bunker!!! haha i love him so much!! his wife IS SO FUN and SO COOL. i love them!) had us pair up with an experienced missionary and go finding. guess who i was paired up with. SISTER MOODY! haha the sister who's blog i follow! she is SO adorable and SO cool! I had so much fun, practically said nothing though, but she was incredible. she gives me hope! every contact she would said "sjaghbkjhbwelwn Baahk JiMuih (thats me) fnklkaneravhenrva" and then look at me and i'd just spit out something like "um I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. When you read it, you receive peace." WOO! awesome missionary huh. ...... 

 

Our apt is ITTY BITTY! Everything just makes me laugh because it's SO different from home! but i'm starting to love out itty bitty apt! Today we exercised on the roof. we room with the STLs and they're AWESOME! we live on the 23rd floor and overlook the ocean (don't know which one sorry), super tall buildings, and super cool jungly looking  trees. love. it.

Well, i'd say the most stressful day so far was for sure Sunday. meeting the members. first, our ward is INCREDIBLE! it's small, about 50 members, but it's a brand new ward (a month old) and our Bishop-- he is the best. I love him. plus he speaks english. But, he gave me 2 challenges. 1) get to know every member. 2) in one month, master sign language.

OHH MYYY GOSHHHH hahahahahaha i'm dying. So i tried getting to know the members, but i'm so awkward it's hilarious. one Recent convert, Casey, is SO gorgeous though and made me a Chinese Name! Baahk Seun Yan. It means faithful gift or something. i'll figure out the characters later. but yay! haha so unfortunately i'm already failing with the first challenge because I can ask some questions, but i can't understand their answers. also, EVERYONE looks the same. I kept asking my comp: have I met her yet??

 

Second challenge. our ward is very unique because we have a ton of deaf people. and we have a DEAF INVESTIGATOR. she's not progressing though because she can't read much either, and literally never really used her brain much so it takes her a LONG time to understand basic gospel principles. she came to church though! yay! so... basically... please family, please pray for me to receive mainly the gift of tongues, but also the gift of hands. thank you. it's also going to be hard bc President doesn't want me learning Sign during language study. so the only time we get is during lunch or dinner. phew! i honestly got super overwhelmed. but, I read Mosiah 2:21 (mom can you paste it in here please? mhgoisaai! thank you!: "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another - I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." and it just pumped me up this morning! The Lord has blessed me with SO much, I can't even believe it! here I am learning what matters most in life. Life is beautiful. this gospel is perfect. Because of God, we can become SO much. We can do anything we put our minds to with His help. I know I will be able to speak and help others come unto Christ. I know because I have faith. I know because He has comforted me every hour of every day! it's even a miracle I can be here. I love Him! 

And here's the most exciting miracle... HELEN! Gou Mui! She is AMAZING and is getting baptized July 20! I am so lucky to be able to meet her. We were teaching her commandments and she had a problem with the second one, because she worships GyunYam, a buddhist woman creature thing. So for 2 lessons, we had ward members come and help. the NEXT day, she told us she's trying to keep it. She knows this gospel is true! it's incredible how in ONE day, she built the faith to try to keep this commandment! She reads the scriptures with so much power. she's always at church, and she even came early to an activity last night to help make sandwiches. man, she's incredible. today we went to lunch with her. S Cheung translates for me haha. Oh Helen is 17 btw! Pray for her! She is so incredible!! :) :) yaaaaaayyy!!!! it's people like her that make everything worth it! A mission is definitely much harder than I expected. But, it's SO worth it. i'm SO grateful I get this opportunity! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! you're all amazing!!! I love you! I have so much faith, I know I can do this!

 Last day in the USA! temple pics!

 My companion!!

 it's so beautiful here! hahaha you'll die at my hair! Dragon Fruit!! SO AMAZINNNG!

 This woman is Yeung Jimuih, the deaf investigator.

 And this is some of towns square i think? idk, i couldn't understand Helen. Buuut, i am on Hong Kong Island!

 

The picture of lunch with Helen will not open. Working on it!

Karli has safely arrived in Hong Kong!!

This letter is from the Mission President's wife, Julie Hawks:

Sister Bosler:
I wanted you to know that Sister Bosler has arrived safely in Hong Kong.  She is anxious to go to work and is excited to be here.  We are grateful for her and look forward to a great mission with her.
Thank you for sharing Sister Bosler with us.

Sister Julie Hawks

I Got My Itinerary!!

I GOT MY ITINERARY!!!! WOOO!!!! We were literally jumping up and down, screaming. SO EXCITED! We leave Monday morning at 4:45  am! then fly into LA and then.... HONG KOOOONNGGGG AHSIHNSKDUDFSNGBKAS so excited. seriously, I'm so ready.

But when I say "ready", I mean spiritually and emotionally. defintiely NOT with the language. haha holy smokes, it's going to be one awesome struggle. I'm SO excited to be immersed in the language though, constantly writing down words I hear, and learning so much from my companion! YEAH! it'll be great! haha and SOOOO overwhelming! it just makes me laugh how little I know... might as well just laugh about it, right? ha..ha.... 

I definitely can't wait to get out there though. I've had teaching experiences this week where my heart has just filled--i'm pretty sure it's almost burst--with the love I have for my Savior. and the desire I have to help others learn of Him...to help others know that there is someone there who knows exactly how they're feeling, who, "in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old." There is One who has "trodden the wine-press alone"...so that we don't have to suffer alone. There is One who loves us more than we can imagine. There's nothing more beautiful that this gospel! I just can't wait to share this with all! 

We had to pretend to teach someone we love, and I just cried. There is nothing I want more for all my friends and family, but to be using our Savior's Atonement. To be studying His life every day and applying His ways to their lives. To be asking Him for forgiveness, communicating to God through prayer, and receiving a remission of their sins... there's nothing I want more for everyone in Hong Kong! yup, everyone! yup, all 7.3 million! ;) Think of the person you love the most. Think of what you'd do for them, how much you couldn't live without them, how much you want to help them in their lives, how much joy they bring you... and multiply that by more than you can imagine. That's not even a portion of the love our Heavenly Father has for us. I'm so grateful He trusts me to help my Asian brothers and sisters come unto Christ! SO READY! the language will come. Moroni 7:33. I have faith. My faith isn't perfect, but i've been working hard. I've been trying. I've been praaaaaying. I know He will provide the way. For "who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." I know those words are true. 

And how do I know these things are true? How do I know the Bible is the word of God? How do I know the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of our Savior Jesus Christ, and testifies of the reality and divinity of Him? How do I know this church is Christ's restored true church? How do I know Joseph Smith is a true prophet? Because I have found out for myself. I have asked God. I have asked again and again. When I have prayed and asked, I never received a voice, or an angel, or anything dramatic of that sort. But as I have tried to live my life in Christ's name, as I have begged God for forgiveness-- He has refined and transformed my life to the point where I know I could not live without my Savior. I have had experience after experience where I've known without a doubt this is true. I have read His Word with much faith, and have been overwhelmed of happiness and love--the power of the Holy Ghost! "everything which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." 

Whenever I read the Book of Mormon, whenever I pray, I all of a sudden want to do better, want to be better, want to serve and love better. Is that not what life is all about? Is that not inspired of God? it all starts with faith. Have the desire, and God will make it manifest unto you. 

I can't remember if I already asked you to do this, but I invite you to read the Book of Mormon, and within every verse, every page, every chapter, search and find ways that it testifies of Christ and apply it to your life. Let it change you! it will! :) Not that you all need to change or anything... ;) haha 

Seriously though, no one gets as many emails, letters, etc than I do. I am extremely blessed to have you all in my life. (ahh literally tearing up right now!) you all inspire me in different ways. each and every one of you as literally inspired me and helped me in my life! I should be sending this email to Tim, Tod, and Scott, too! Because they've all inspired me, also. Make sure Grandma Thomas knows this too! she's one of the most Christlike, greatest missionaries I know. I can't believe she doesn't have her own section in D&C. ;) haha jk. missionary's have the lamest jokes, i swear. Anyway, I love you all. Let the light of Christ in you burn even brighter. 

Listen to Recognizing the Spirit by Elder Bednar. It was INCREDIBLE!

 OH YEAAAAHHHHH!!!! These pics capture Sister Adams' and mine excitement to go to Hong Kong. BOOM!!

 This is me and Sister Tu'avao holding Elder Kevin Page's last letter--came in a pringles box with cool quotes and scriptures haha!

LOVE YOU ALL!!! I can call when I get to the airport on Monday woooo!!!! We get to LA at noon i think? CA time. and our flight leaves SLC at 10am, UT time. idk when i'll call, BUT I WILL!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!! love you :) 

Love, Sister Bosler

LOVE THE PICTURES YOU SEND ME SO MUCH!!!! YAY!!! :) :) :) :) haha keep sending! btw mom, I LOVE YOUR LETTERS THE MOST! minus Tyler's last letter to me. that was the best letter of all. hes the coolest boy ever. but seriously i love hearing about everyone and everything! have fun in IOWA!

PS. i never proof these letters.... 

This Week Just Flew By!!

I can't believe how fast this week flew by! I feel like I just wrote all of you... crazy! So you know how last week I had to go because we were about to teach someone in HK over Skype? They pronounce it "Sky pee!" hehe. Well, it went pretty awful, not going to lie. Haha man... For one, it was hard to hear over Skype, and 2, she was 15 years old in China and speaking sooooo fast. Caught nothing! yup! Okay maybe a few words. But still... anyway, I just started feeling frustrated. And even worse, that frustration turned into apathy! When it ended, we headed over to teach one of our "investigators". And during that lesson, I still had the same attitude, and wow. that was one of my worst lessons. I even laughed during some of it because my ability--or inability--to speak was so ridiculous. HELLO?!??! 

What am I thinking? I can't even stress enough the importance of having faith and inviting the spirit. Faith brings miracles. Faith leads to action. Faith leads to obedience, which also brings miracles. How can I teach our investigators about having faith when I had none at the time? Missionary work is the work of FAITH. If I exercise faith, the Lord will provide miracles. I know that to be true, 100%. 

My prayers that night were pretty heartfelt. I love that time at night to sincerely pray to Heavenly Father, to go through with Him what I had done that day; thank Him for what He had helped me with, acknowledge my mistakes, and ask Him for help and strength to do better the next day. I love setting those goals. He doesn't tell me exactly what to do or how to do, but, I know that when I make a decision or set a goal, I feel good about it. I know that He trusts me to decide for myself and He helps me achieve that. 

So the next day, everything went much better. We taught our first inactive, named Yanni. (She's our native teacher, Chahn JiMuih. I LOVE HER! She cracks me up every day!) It's incredible how much more I can achieve, how much happier I feel, how much more fulfilling each day is when I have the spirit with me! When the night before I plead with Heavenly Father to help me, and the morning of I plead even more with Him! I love Him with all my heart. 

I challenge you all to use your prayer time wisely. Test your faith. See how much God really is involved in your life.... see how much He truly will lead and guide you, but only if you sincerely ask for His help. Prayer is so sacred and so valuable! 

Well here's some fun stuff:

Last night at Sunday night Devo, Sister Kartchner and I performed! Wooooo hoooo!!! And when President Nally said we're both serving in China Hong Kong, we heard a bunch of missionaries gasp.... it made learning Cantonese all more worth it ;) So when we performed, I looked out at all the missionaries, and just felt the Savior's love rush over me. I wanted them all to feel the message of this song so bad! I wanted them to know how much I need my Savior! fam, I am honestly nothing without my Savior. I know what it feels like to be happy, we all do. However... not very many people know the feeling of pure joy. Not many people know the feeling of being filled with the Spirit, being filled with our Savior's love... it's the greatest feeling of all!!! 

The song went wonderful. I'm so grateful Sister Kartchner picked it. BTW it should be on YouTube! SIster Dunn, Mom you met her! Her son is from Fairfield so we became friends. Anyway, she asked if she could record us and posted it on S Kartchner's mom's account! WOOO!! HHaha too bad I had to sneeze during the little private performance though... anyway, I hope she sent it to you! If not, idk the link, but it's titled "Abide with me; 'tis eventide" all lowercase but the A. and you could probably also type in Sister Bosler and SIster Kartchner? hope you got it! 

But after the devo, EVERYONE swarmed around us and thanked us! And all throughout today we keep getting thanked! and when we walked back to class, our district (sisters) swarmed us and hugged us! Wowwww the LOOOVE!!! I love them all!! :)

I love you all! Thanks again for all your love and prayers!

One last request for you all though... Can you please for Sister Kartchner to receive the gift of tongues? Man, whenever I think I'm struggling, I snap out of it because she struggles so much more. So please, that would be awesome. Love you all! 

Pray on! :)

Love, Sister Bosler

MOM i loved your letter so much! I cant believe how busy you are! it made me laugh too, especially how you watered the garden with B1 vitamins. haha love it!!! You sound like you're doing fantastic! How is Dad? haha seriously, keep writing letters like that. I cant believe what a PARTY place our home is. and dad's new car?!?!?! YEAH!! Send pics! pics pics pics!!! 

I miss you and love you! I want to hear how T-boz is doing!@

Um so.... Looks like I can't go to Hong Kong anymore.... I fell off my bunk bed and broke my foot... haha okay lamest joke ever, not even funny. BUT, one elder in our district, Elder Klein, literally tore his ACL! :( He's here 4 weeks longer than us now :( but it's incredible, we all fasted for him and he's already walking without crutches, just 11days after his surgery. when he first tore his ACL 2 years ago, it took him 6 months to fully recover! Wow, fasting works. prayer works.

 MY FRIENDS!!! Sisters from China!! They speak some Cantonese! They are ADORABLE! haha and Sister Tu'avao having too much fun in the background....

 The whole zone!!! LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! There's Elder Klein in his wheel chair last week.. poor guy!

 Beautiful temple! I swear I don't wear that skirt every day. haha but see Mom, now you know how much I love it!

 Sister Chan, my teacher! She put on my NEW NAME TAG!!!! We're not allowed to wear those until we get to HK, but look how COOL!!!! I'll send home the ones I wear now in a couple weeks!

 Not the most attractive face or pose and none of the pictures were turning out... but here's my NEW NAME TAG!!! So exciting.