Tuesday, October 27, 2009

From Moroni

Dear Family


How is everything going? I am doing well. The weather here is so warm I am use to it starting to cool down by now but here its warm all year round. This was my first week working with Elder Challis. He works hard and does not waist a lot of time. This week went okay we received a lot of addresses but we were not able to get into very many homes. There was this one man that we talked to on the street right outside his home he seemed like a really good man and he wanted to hear about the gospel but when we passed his house to share a message his wife did not want us in her house she said she has a religion, that she believes in the Bible and that she does not want to hear the gospel and she does not want us in her home. Yesterday we attended the church of another religion because the man agreed in we attended his church he let us into his home. It was the first time I have attended another church and the experience was a little weird. Also I had the opportunity of eating pig skin for the first time which sounds a little gross but it tasted alright but I don't know that I will eat again just because of the fact thats pig skin. I think my Portuguese is coming along well but I still have a lot of room for improvement. But I am doing well I am slowly moving forward and improving.


I hope everything goes well for everyone this week and Have a happy Halloween.
Elder Boren

From Eliza

Dear Family,
Sister Christensen and I are doing great. We had a great week, even despite the fact that a lot of our investigators have dropped us. It seems like we don’t have any investigators left, but we did find a new investigator, and still were able to teach a lot. Over all it’s been a good week. We do service for this woman named Jutta (Uda). She has a used clothing shop called “Resale Trends.” But she can’t say her “R’s,” so according to her it is “Wesale Twents.” I love helping her out. We inventory the clothes, and put them out on the racks, and organize the racks. I just love her. We help her out once a week. We are starting to do service at the Brazos Food Bank, which I think is a soup kitchen. We also are trying to get in with the American Cancer Society. Hopefully we can start helping them.
Today we are going to carve pumpkins with our zone. We were going to do it for district meeting this Friday, but the zone leaders said that district meeting is for spiritual renewal and uplifting, not for carving pumpkins. So it’ll be fun to do it today.
Well, I hope you all are doing well. Have a fun Halloween. Always, Sister Eliza Boren

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

From Moroni

Dear Family


I am doing well. Transfers were today. I am in the same area but I have a new companion Elder Challis. he is from St George so his family does not live far from where you are. Elder Baker will be serving in Anapolis this transfer he arrived in the CTM at the same time I did so there will be 4 out of the 9 Americans in our group that will be working in Anapolis.
Right now I have not been teaching a whole lot of people. This area is a little tough. Its in the middle of the city where all the big stores are or downtown. But I don't know things might be a little different with Elder Challis. My companion does most of the talking I can help teach some of the lessons but I can't do a whole lot else. One thing I have trouble is in Portuguese when they ask a question they state it as a fact and I am listening for a who, what, when, where, or why so I have a hard time understanding their questions sometimes.
Sunday it rained really hard and one of the roads washed away. It was where the irrigation runs underneath the street. the water just completely washed everything away included a store.


I'm doing well and I am learning a lot. I get really nervous so I don't talk a whole lot but I am learning to talk more and I am learning how to speak portuguese but I am learning really slow. I have a hard time speaking some words correctly and I feel overwhelmed or like its impossible but I will eventually learn how to speak portuguese. I wrote some letters but I dont have any money to send them right now. I feel bad because I have not responded to any letters I have received.
The people here are really nice; one member that has helped us a lot is Andrade he was taught by the missionaries and I think that he has been a member for more than a year. He has a strong testimony. One thing I wish I'd brought with me is pictures I don't know why I did not think to bring pictures with me. Make sure you put lots of pictures in the next package you send
love elder Boren

From Eliza

Dear Family,
Sister Christensen and I are doing great. We did a lot this week. We were not able to get in with our best investigators that I was looking forward to teaching. But we will meet with them this week and hopefully they will start progressing. We were, however, able to get in with a lot of members this last week, and a few less active members, and their non-member friends. We started teaching Cameron, this less active member, and his girl friend, Faith. And we taught Candice and her non-member roommate, Rachel. Both of which we are way excited about. And Seth Gibbs, also a less active member, came to church with his non member girl friend. I was filled with joy when I was Seth walk into church. We’ve been trying to visit him and get him to church for a little while. Heavenly Father is just so good. I feel like all the little things that we are doing, that the leaders in this ward are doing, and that peoples families are doing are not wasted. There are many people, who are lost, but God knows what they need, and little by little he is bringing them back into his fold. I don’t know if Seth is ever going to come to church again. But he came, on his own. It’s so true that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. God takes the little things that we do, and makes amazing things happen. I hope that all these less active members will start to feel of God’s love and come back into His fold.
I also heard some great news about Yuki, from the College Station 1st ward, that made me happier than anything. But I’ll tell you about that later. It is a long story.
Dad, I have a question for you. We were talking about the Free Masons, and I remembered you are part of a group, and I was thinking that is the group you are a part of. Are you a Free Mason? And what do they do? And why are you a Free Mason.
Mom, you talked to me a little about my home-coming talk earlier, and when you wanted me to give it. When again do you want me to give my talk? And I don’t know what the topic is. If you want me to give my talk right when I get home, I want to know ahead of time what my topic is, so that I can be prepared.
I got my trunky papers. Those are the papers about my flight home. I fly home on Nov. 18th.
Well, I’m glad you all are doing great. Thank you so much for writing my and keeping me informed. Thanks for being so awesome.
Take care. Always, Sister Eliza Boren