Mission Address

Washington Yakima Mission
1006 S 16th Ave
Yakima, WA 98902

Monday, September 29, 2014

Divisions week 8

Hola,

This past week I went on my first divisions. I was with Elder Seville in Cienaga de Flores. The area is shared with the zone leaders so we had lunch with them. The food here is great. I still haven't really gotten much of a taste of the spice Mexican food is known for. During divisions we had an appointment that was on the far side of the area so we had to walk for an hour to get there. When we got to the house of the investagator no one was there. So we turned around and walked another hour to get to the main part of the area. Cienaga is suppoed to have bikes because of how big the area is but the are broken which means more walking. The people here are just amazing. It's interesting listening to the convestations my companion has with the members and our investgators. I'm trying to get more confident with my spanish but I'm not talking quite as much as Elder Torales. Lots of the people here are really firm in their faith. Most of the time for contacts we offer to help strengthen their faith and not change it.

Elder Torales and I had a good lesson with an investagator couple on the restoration. They are both jehovahs witness and are interested in learing more about our church since the don't really understand most of the doctrine taught in their church. They had losts of questions for us as we discussed prophets and about christ with them. It was good to know that we could clarify the teachings of the bible for them and also introduce the Book of Mormon. We have alos recently been looking at the list of members in the area and finsing the ones that are less active. By doing this we are opening up lots of opportunities to teach since most of the less active families we run into are only part member families. That means we can set up opportunities to teach and try and prepare the families for the temple. 

-Elder Boren


This will be the last mission blog entry for awhile as Dylan will be coming home tomorrow. With faith and love he will be able to return to the field in July. We ask at this time for your love and support. - Sherrie

Monday, September 22, 2014

Week 7 "Real De Palmas" first week in Mexico

I'm so glad to know that my son is having a great start to his mission. I know he will struggle at times with the language, but I'm glad that he is studying hard to learn. The area will be a challenge as well. He will grow to love Mexico over time and feel it's his second home. We just sent him a small care package as a test to see how long it takes and if he gets it. We love our missionary-Mom


Hola,

Well I'm here in my first area in Monterrey. My new companion is Elder Torales. He is a native to Mexico and doesn't know any english. That means I really have to put to use my knowledge of spanish. I'm also going to be working on teaching he english while we are companions. Should be a fun time teaching him some phrases and words. Over all he is a great Elder and its going to be a good time working with my papa. Another thing is that the trainers here are refered to as Papas and the trainees are hijos. Its just really reandom to be considered Elder Torales' hijo. He has said a few times to members this -"Este es mi hijo amado, Escucalo". Which he is refering to the first vision. 

Every branch in our zone is assigned with two sets of elders. The other companionship is Elder Fransen (The other elder from the Allen stake) and Elder Gravley (One of the elders from my zone in the MTC). Every day we have lunch at a members house with the other companionship. That means that I have a chance to speak english once a day. The food hasn't been much of a shock yet. I think the food is great. I just have to get used to the portions that they give to eat. They don't seem to mess around when it comes to lunch here. Another thing I have found I like here are there burgers. I have had burgers at members houses twice already and I think they are the best thing ever. I've never thought that putting avocado on burgers would taste good. 

Real de Palmas is not what I imagained when I found out that I would be serving in Monterrey. The buildings are so close to gether and each sector has so many people. If it wasn´t for Elder Torales I would defiantly get lost here. The people here are great though. I may not be very good with my spanish but I can understand them pretty well. Most of the time Elder Torales does the talking. I save most of my talking for the lessons and the times that I am asked questions. I hope that I will eventually be able to get a hold of the language. We have quite a few investagators right now. We are working with the daughters of a recent convert to be prepared for baptism the first Sunday in October. We also have another investigator who we challenged to baptism. He doesn't know what his thoughts on baptism are now but we invited him to pray for an answer and to also find out if what we taught him is true. Our missions has a goal for a baptism a week so we have to get working towards that goal. It may seem like a big goal or something that would be hard to accomplish but in fact it's not all that hard. We just have to put in the effort and achieve all the other goals that the mission has in place for us to succed. I've just got to work on gaining more confidance with my speaking of spanish and then I think I will be a better teacher.

The daily study cycle has been great. I've been reading a chapter in spanish each day and also a chapter of Jesus the Christ. Having this time to study in my day is great and really helps me strengthen my knowledge of the gospel and my testimony. My reading in spanish my not be perfect or all that fast but I know that in the long run it will really help when I am teaching lessons. I think having the hour a day to study is a great blessing and is a great way to start the day.

siempre y para siempre,
Elder boren

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Arrival in Monterrey Mexico

Never before have we received so many missionaries at one time. We received 15 Latin missionaries and 12 american missionaries. It was quite the experience to make preparations for all of the missionaries with opening new houses, choosing who would be the trainers, and setting up the rooms for orientation. We are very excited for the growth that these missionaries are growing to bring to our mission. -President Swapp


Dylan and His new Companion.
Missionaries from America
 Waiting for their Companions

Monday, September 15, 2014

Hi All:

We hope that you are all having safe travels.

What a treat it was to have you as members of the wonderful 149th branch.  You added so much.  Your Mission President's are fortunate to have you coming their way.

Wishing you all the best.
Love, President Shallenberger
Brother Slingerland
Brother Dowdle



Wednesday, September 10, 2014

week 5, Travel plans are set

He got his flight to travel to Monterrey Mexico on September 15. He does have a layover in Dallas. Wish I could go see him. He seems to be doing well.


Hola,




                                                    Pinata Time 

It has been another good week here at the MTC. As you may be able to tell from the subject line, I got my flight plans Friday. My lay over is in DFW airport. I have a two hour lay over then I fly into the Monterrey airport. should be in Monterrey by 4:00 on the 15th. Its exciting to find out what the flight plans are. 

On Thursday we had skype TRC which is where we skype with another member who speaks spanish. It was interesting. I wouldn´t consider it as nice as the usual member TRC. It was still a good experience and we got to teach another practice lesson. We ended up teaching about the importance of the book of mormon and how we can use it in our lives. The person we were talking to lives in Orem but is from Chile. Luckily she didn´t speak chileno. On Thursday we also had out last lesson with Cristofer. It was an nice lesson that was mainly focused on answering any questions that he had about baptism and any of the worries that he had with being baptized. Then on Friday we had our last lessons with Ester and Emilce. Our lesson with Ester was about commandments and the blessings that come from following them. Also on Friday we got a list of who we are teaching for this last week. This last week is different because each member of the district is playing the role of an investigator for two companionships. I am the investigator for Elder Voss & Weenig and Elder Bradshaw & Ruddy. Elder Grange and I get to teach Elder Bradshaw, Elder Weenig, Elder Stirling and Hermana Leonard. The lessons I have been teaching and been getting taught have been going well. This way of teaching allows me to see what I can do better as a teacher.Friday night we had a zone wide race before quiet time. It was for all those who wanted to have a nice sprint race. I ran and got fourth among our district. It was fun and a good way to stretch out my legs. Hermana Toone from our district got some string and cups in the mail so she could make home made phones. They seemed to work well and it was amusing to our teacher. 

Fast Sunday was nice this past week. We had lots of time to read and study while we were out of meetings. We also had our mission conference on Sunday where we got to hear all of the MTC presidency speak. They all gave good talks based around missionary work. OurSunday night devotional speaker was Richard I. Heaton. He gave a very similar talk to the one he gave last time. He had some more recent converts come up and talk about their conversion stories and how they found god. It helps you realize that god helps prepare people before your even go to teach them. Our Tuesday night devotional was from Brother Sitati from the Seventy. His talk was based on the things we should try to remember. He said that we need to make sure when we begin that we have some sort f ending in mind so that we can plan and aim for that ending. It helps you figure out where you are going and what choices you need to make to get there. 

Mom:
Thank you for the picture book. Nice to have pictures from home. 

I hope that the package gets here at least by Saturday. If it doesn´t they are just going to send it back to you. Good luck to Riley with his game tomorrow. Hope he does well. ¿Jakob knows Spanish? I wouldn´t expect him to know Spanish as well as English. Is the football team not playing who they usually play for pre-season?
Thank you for all the Frozen lyrics. I have two more songs that I would like to get lyrics to is you wouldn´t mind. The first is "I can go the distance" from Hercules. The second is "Strangers like me" from Tarzan. 

Siempre y para siempre,
Elder Boren 

                                             Elder Berryhill in his fort


I don't correct his spelling, this will be kind of like a diary for him to back on when he gets home. -sherrie

Friday, September 5, 2014

4th week at the MTC....chugging along

Dylan is getting closer to when he will be out in the field. -MOM aka Sherrie




We decided to block in one of the other elders while he was in the shower. He was able to crawl out the side once he was finished. (Just like his Dad)




Hola,

It's been getting a bit busier with the lessons this past week. We have Cristofer, Ester, Emilce and two member lessons ( Thursday only ). The lessons with our investigators are going well. We have been teaching them all sorts of things and learning how to teach better and help them understand the lessons. This last Thursday we had an amazing gentleman for our Member TRC. He had served in Guatemala when the MTC was a six month period in Salt Lake. He was such a great man to teach. Our lesson for the members was on humility and its importance in our lives. Brother Chamberlin loved our lesson and at the end gave us an Articles of Faith card that was in spanish. He told us it was to help us understand the language and we could use it to memorize the Articles of Faith wherever we are. While talking with him I found out that he had served a couple mission in the DTM ( Dallas Texas Mission ). I was able to say where I was from and he could actually understand where little Melissa Texas is. Teaching the TRC lessons on Thursday is just so much fun and I wish I could teach more member lessons while I am here. 

One of the Elders in our zone had started using his clip tag as a phone to trick other missionaries into thinking that he had a phone. He tried the trick on our branch president and the president got confued and asked who he was talking to on the phone. He then stepped up his game and make a cardboard cutout of an Iphone so that it would look a lot more realistic. He is a great Elder. We have started doing more practice and trying out different ways to learn things. We have done practice door approaches which allows us to practice talking in Spanish. We are going to be doing a lot more practice like that in the upcoming week. 

We had our fourth sunday here at the MTC. It was a nice enjoyable day that we were able to take and relax for most of the time. Elder Grange and I had to get up a little earlier for the zone leader meeting though. Which wasn't too bad. Just meant we had to rush ourselves at breakfast and hurry up to the meeting. During our meetings our actual branch presidency members were there so we had some other presidency members fill in the spots. One of them was brother Monson who is President Monsons nephew. It was nice to meet him. We also got to eat lunch with him and talk for a while. Since I'm on the topic of nephews one of the other zone leaders here on west campus is Orson Scott Cards nephew. Elder Grange and I talk to him quite a bit when we have a chance since he has been here for the same amount of time as us. 

Its so surprising to realize that we only have a week and a half left t the MTC and then we are off to the mission field. I can't wait to meet my mission president and the people of Monterrey. 

Blaze seems to have some good luck getting on the cardinal couch on the first football game. I hope he enjoyed the game. How is Jacob liking band this year? Did Riley enjoy going to the temple and doing baptisms? I know that I enjoy being able to go to the Provo temple every week and enjoy my time there. Did Jakob spend time with friends at the football game or at someones house? Seems like he is enjoying his time as an exchange student. Where is Sanger? I have never hear of the team before. 

I did enjoy Blaze's picture. Tell him thank you. The seminary classes have zone leaders? Sounds a bit weird to me but might be different than the zone leaders I'm thinking of. Have Jacob and Riley gotten the letter I wrote them? And thank you for getting me the pictures. Its nice to have something from home.

I went to the consulate about two weeks ago so by the time I have to leave I should have my visa. So I should be leaving September 15th

Love,
Elder Boren
another Jamba Juice run. Some good looking guys!!!
Elder Berryhill got a picture of Dylan. Not sure if he is trying to be mad or just funny.


Side Note-- He asked about where Sanger is. Its a small town by Denton, TX. Our Melissa football team played against them last Friday and we lost. Blaze our youngest son sent Dylan a picture that he had painted of the Melissa cardinal. Jacob our second son is enjoying band, but he is super busy.The other one is Jakob our exchange student who is living with us for the school year. He is from Sweden. He is fitting right in.

 -Sherrie Boren