Tuesday, November 3, 2009

From Moroni

Dear Family


How is everything going? I am doing well. This past week I have had the opportunity to teach the first lesson in english to an investigator. He has only been studying english for two months but he understands us really well. He says he knows nineteen different languages and he has been studying the Bible in Greek. But he left town for the weekend so we only taught him once. Sunday we only had about 29 members at church and our ward has been going down hill for a while now if it continues they might divide the ward into the other wards. We have chapel there are only three chapels here in Anapolis and most of the branches that don't have a chapel to attend have more active members than we do so these nest few weeks we are going to be with the members and less active members a lot more. Overall everything is well.


I hope everything goes well for everything this week it sounds like well and I hope that it continues.


Love Elder Boren

From Eliza

Dear Family,
It’s nice to hear how you all are doing. That is way cool that Isaiah is so involved in things. And I’m glad Nephi was able to get the camera for his birthday. I can imagine how much fun he is having with it. I hope you all had a fun Halloween. Normally we, the missionaries of the Texas Houston Mission are given rules for each holiday, like be in your apartment by dark, etc. But this time we were not given any rules. We even asked Elder Beck, the assistant to the president, if there are any rules for us, and he said “no.” So we worked all day like normal on Saturday, and then at night when everyone was trick-or-treating we met up with the elders in our district and played games all night. The CS sister came and hung out with us as well. And then we went home by 9pm like normal, and went to bed early. So Halloween was fun for us.
This week as a pretty sad week for Sister Christensen and I, though. We only taught 1 member this week and were not able to get in with any of our investigators. We spent the whole week tracting and talking to people on campus. We also had a zone meeting this week and went to the temple. And the temple trip took most of the day. Saturday night and Sunday morning I was feeling pretty down about the sad week we had had, but then church was really good, and we got a lot of things set up for this next week, so I’m feeling much better now. Yesterday was a really good day.
Last week was also hard for me because I started thinking about the fact that I am going home and I started getting nervous and scared about it. Every now and then I’ll realize how close it is, and usually I just don’t think about it, instead of dealing with it. But this week I really started thinking about it and, according to Elder Wilcox, started “freaking out.” On Thursday when we went out to eat with our Zone, after we went to the temple, we were talking about it, that we are going home, because Elder Wilcox goes home the same time I do. And Sister Ireland said “I would feel nervous and excited and scared and not ready and sad and excited and confident and trunky, all at the same time.” Then Elder Wilcox said “yeah, they have a term for that------it’s called Freaking out.” And that is how I have been feeling all week.
But this week is over and This next week is going to make up for it-----we are going to teach all our investigators, find new people to teach, teach lots of members, baptize thousands, and be focused and work hard. I’m not going to “freak out” about going home this week...hopefully.
Anyway, I’m glad you all are doing well. Thanks mom for the info on my home coming talk. And thanks dad for the info on Free Masons. I actually have another question for you about that. One of the elders in my district, Elder Lemly, has been wanting to become a Free Mason for a long time, and he is wondering if you will invite him, or hook him up, to become a Free Mason? He’s pretty new out on him mission, I think about 3 months out.
Well, take care. I miss all of you and can’t wait to see you. Always, Sister Eliza Boren.

Monday, November 2, 2009

From Braedon

hey everyone,


so things are here are going ok. we had a really great week of teaching and
such that was booked with appointments, but it was all for naught because
absolutely noone came to church. not even a lot of the members hahah. the flu
has hit a lot of people down here this past week. like not even joking, about
70% of the people weve been visiting have come down with it. and the other 30%?
well, they had to shower, and they take long ones, i mean like 3 hour/all church
long showers. lame. and the even lamer part is that we had people who wanted
to come to church but couldnt, because the people that were their rides were
'showering' or sick. bah humbug. our ward only had two investigators at
church...super lame. but its alright because we had some good news last night
too. morales, sofias son, wants to start coming to mutual every wednesday. im
stoked about that, because hes already opening up to the church a ton and i
think mutual will help a lot too. sofia is really excited about it too, shes
just dying to get her family to come to church with her. theyre all warming up
to us a lot. we had everyone except the husband join us for a lesson about the
plan of salvation last night, and they were all pretty involved. so thats
progress with them and im glad. also, abner, a less active, has a sister that
just moved in with them and weve visited with her a bunch these last two weeks.
well, she wants to come to church this sunday. im really glad too. abner, his
bro eddy, and their dad are all members, but not active. abner is coming more
frequently, but the dad and eddy havent been for a long long time. i think that
having the sister go will hopefully get abner and eddy and the dad back into it.
i sure hope so at least. also, yesterday alejandro found a job opportunity that
looks pretty good. if that works out, then betra, his wife, should be able to
drop her sunday shifts and the whole family can come to church. they still
havent come because she works 30 minutes away and gets off at 12 on sundays, so
he has to leave to pick her up at 11:30 and doesnt get back til 12:30 and then
she cleans up and such until 1ish, then theyre just lazy and dont come for the
last hour. but yah, hopefully that excuse is done away with and they can all
come. hermana sanchez still rocks hardcore (she read like 15 chapters when we
just left her one...she loves the book of mormon) but still hasnt been able to
get work off. we still see her a couple times a week, but less frequently than
before because right now she cant progress. politron and his wife rock. we see
them a few times every week, and every monday we bring investigators over for
dinner/fhe and its gone really well so far. de los monteros are helping out a
lot too. we have an fhe set up with them to help get some converts excited
again about church and then help them get into the temple. also, were working
with this sister lazaro that has a husband that isnt a member. were going by
every wednesday to teach english and then also teach the husband. i really hope
that we can help him out. so yah, the ward is getting into the mission work a
lot more. yay for that. what else. halloween wasnt anything too special. i
made caramel apples with chocolate drizzle. ill be honest, i was disappointed
with their appearance...i wasnt able to see my reflection in these ones.... :(
but they still tasted really good and nobody else really knew. so yah, i made
those in the morning, we did a bunch of work, then we had to come back by dark
(around 6:30) because halloween in san diego isnt exactly the safest of
situations. so we came back, and our complex missionaries had a mini party with
candy, catch-phrase, settlers of catan, and monopoly deal. that was pretty fun
i guess, but it wasnt anything extravagant. what else...i think thats about it.
i saw pictures of the boys, but i didnt she ashtons, dads, or moms costume, only
brolins and averys. those were pretty rad though. and the pumpkins looked
really cool. i really wanted to carve one this year but the people with cars
didnt want to and it would be pretty hard to carry a pumpkin a couple of miles
back from the store on a bike, so i didnt do it this time around. today ill
probably just play some ball and kick it. oh yeah! i forgot. so the filming
crews have been doing stuff in our church these past two weeks. well, that
means the head honcho of missionary work, and i mean all missionary work, not
just san diego or cali or the US, but i mean the whole world missionary work,
has been hanging out. let me tell you, thats intense. hes way cool, but if you
slip just a little he'll let you know. luckily he deals mostly with just 'the
district' that theyre filming and not so much with us. but still, its been cool
having him around. he knows what hes doing. also, this next transfer the
church is sending down people to train every single companionship in the entire
mission for 3 days straight. im guessing that is connected to the expansion of
filming and salt lake wants to make sure everyones on the ball before the
filming expands more. so that will be fun. what else...how much snow is their
in the mountains? has is snowed in the valley yet? i sent you a halloween
card...hopefully you got it before halloween but probably not. hope you enjoy
it. well, i gotta get to writing president, but im happy to hear that everyone
had a good halloween and that all is well. thanks for everything. i love you
all!!!!!
elder roney


p.s. i wrote 'bonjour' as my subject because one investigator speaks french,
and the sisters speak a little bit of french and i speak enough to say 'hi,
whats up, ok peace out', so weve been studying french so that we can teach him
without confusing him hahah. fun stuff eh? those two years of jr high paid
off.

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