Wait! What? Another Halloween. (week 68)

We have had just the most wet week here in Wenatchee. It just does not want to stop raining. Good thing we have umbrellas and rain coats. We are just glad that it hasn't been snow. That would make things all the more messy. We'll see if we end up getting any of that white stuff this year. I'm not sure if I want there to be any or not. It's fun to play it, but it makes it more work to drive and walk everywhere. At least right now we are having a nice sunny day. Hopefully it lasts for a while. 

This week has been pretty good. Monday was a full day of missionary work and we got to talk to some great people. There wasn't anything that really suck out that happened on Monday. We were hoping to have a lesson with one of our investigators at the home of a member, but we weren't able to get that to work out. We have actually been having trouble getting in contact with her lately. We are going to be visiting her again tomorrow night to see if we can help her out some. 

Tuesday was our temple trip and it was a bunch of fun. We got to ride down with one of the members and the zone leaders and the English sisters that cover the same area as us. We had a bunch of fun both down and up from the temple. We got to talk about a bunch of different things and we went through all of Elder Calls pictures. It was cool being able to go to the temple with Elder Call for a third time. We had a good group of five of us that went to the temple together last year this same time. We got to take a picture together. (Sorry I don't have the pictures today. I forgot my SD card converter.) At the temple I was able to ponder the importance of the temple in the work of salvation. I recently read through a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "Missionary, Family History, and Temple Work". In his talk he associated the purifying of hearts with the work of the temple. He also associated missionary work with the changing of hearts and family history work with the turning of hearts. There is one quote I love fro the talk that summarizes this work of salvation. He says; 

"Preaching the gospel and seeking after our dead are complementary parts of one great work—a labor of love intended to change, turn, and purify the hearts of honest seekers of truth. The artificial boundary line we so often place between missionary work and temple and family history work is being erased; this is one great work of salvation."

I agree in his stating that this is one great work. We shouldn't be separating it into parts. There is so much joy we can find as we participate in the different parts of this work. We can see that this is one great work as we read in the scriptures.

39 "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  -Moses 1:39

The bringing to pass of the immortality and eternal life of man is accomplished through that work of salvation. That is all being achieved through missionary, family history, and temple work. 

Tuesday night I was able to start exchanges with Elder Call. This was our fourth time going on exchanges together. We had a great time Wednesday being able to meet some really great people. I was over in his are and I was able to meet the people that they have been telling me about. It was  a bit hectic and we didn't have as much time as we wanted, but I feel that it was great and we were able to do the most with our time. A guy we talked to showed us up he terrace garden and then gave us two huge handfuls of habenero peppers. We still haven't figured out what to do with them. Our one plan is to make some good salsa. We also got to meet one of the people they had on date that just this weekend moved to Texas. She has loved getting to know the church and is excited to continue learning when she gets back to Texas. We already sent off her information so the missionaries there can get in contact with her. 

Wednesday we also had our district council. We talked about how we can use family history as a missionary tool and how we can get the members more involved in it. What made district council even cooler was that we had it in the Zone Leader's mini-van. The church was under a bit of renovation and we didn't have anywhere else to go so we parked and had it in the van. It was defiantly a new experience. 

We had a very exciting Saturday night as we were able to find some amazing people that were very interested in talking to us. We invited them all to church, but sadly none of them were able to make it. We are going to continue working with them and help them to progress more. We just have to make sure we keep being persistent with them and keep inviting. 

There was one more insight I wanted to share from my studies. 

"15 And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage." -Mosiah 21:15

As I was reading this morning it stuck out to me that the Lord was slow to hear their cries. In an ealier chapter Abinadi prophesies of that happening.

 "23 And it shall come to pass that except this people repent and turn unto the Lord their God, they shall be brought into bondage; and none shall deliver them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God.

 24 Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies." -Mosiah 11:23-24

I thought about how the Lord loves everyone and will not abandon us in our time of need. The important part is to know that our choices can sometimes affect how the Lord will reply to our prays. In D&C it is explained why he is slow to hear their cries. 

 "7 They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble." -D&C 101:7

The people of King Noah who later became the people of Limhi were slow to hear the voice of the Lord. The were given warnings from a prophet and rejected him and did not repent. Because of their slowness to hear the Lord he was slow to answer their prayers. He still answered, but not immediately. We can apply that in our lives by making sure we are quick to heed the promptings of the spirit and do as the Lord commands. When we do so we will find that the Lord is a lot more ready to bless us with the things we stand in need of. 

I hope that everyone has a great upcoming week. We are going to be making the most of ours here. Have a Happy Halloween!

With love,
Elder Boren

a note to Mom:

The weather has been really wet these past few weeks. It just doesn't want to stop. We joke that we have all of the sudden been moved to Seattle. I hoping that the rain clears up here soon. It makes the cold all the more uncomfortable. It hasn't gotten too cold yet, but it is getting there. The only thing that comes to mind that I would need is some more socks. Specifically grey and black. My gold toe socks are starting to get holes in the bottom. Thank you for sending the package.We will be looking forward to getting it this week. I'm glad you had a great stake conference experience. Sounds like there was a lot to learn. I hope you have another great week.

Love,

Elder Boren

All is well (week 67)

Elder Aguirre passing back some papers. Yes the zone leaders drive a mini-van. Our whole district drives around in it. 

We tried to find the bridge that crosses over the Columbia river but thats going to have to wait for another week. Instead we found a bridge over some railtracks. 

Today I don't have as much time to write. We are going to the temple tomorow

 and we were given a shorter time to write today so we can have plenty of time to go out and work today. It is going to be a great time at the temple and it's cool to look back and see that every time that I've been to the temple Elder Call went too. Too bad that's not going to be possible the next time I get to go to the temple. 

This week has been great. We had a bunch of opportunities to do some service and help some people out. We got to go and widen a horse trail. It was fun tossing dirt around and flattening it out. We also got to help some non-members put up some dry wall. The weeks are so much better when we are able to do some service. 

The investigator that we have on-date is doing well. She wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday, but we are going to do our best to make it possible for her to make it next week. We are going to have a lesson with her tonight over at the home of one of the members here. On Sunday however I was able to do the baptismal interview of an investigator of the hermanas. She is an awesome 10yr old and is super smart. Her baptism is Saturday and it is super exciting. 

We have a really great week ahead of us and I am excited for the opportunities we will have to help some more people out. I hope everyone has an awesome week!

With love,

Elder Boren

Another Baptism date set for November (week 66)

We have had ourselves a pretty good week. It seems like it went by way too fast. So here's a quick run down of our past week her in Wenatchee: 

Monday we had a great evening full of teaching people. We were very close to exceding our goal for lessons that day and thankfully we were able to settle for hitting them. We were also able to have a member couple out with us to teach one of our investigators. It was great as we were able to get some feed back from the husband who returned from his mission not to long ago. 

Tuesday nothing too exciting happened. We got to walk around a bunch and we were able to talk to some really great people.

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Aguirre. We had an awesome time and he was able to help me out with talking to everyone. Sometimes I justify myself not wanting to talk to certain people. I'm going to work on being better at that. We have to give everyone a chance. We also had our district council and we discussed the importance of faith in missionary work. One thing that stuck out is that we need to pray in faith and have more specific prayers. Because specific prayers get specific answers. 

Thursday we had interviews with President and Sister Lewis. Interviews are always so great since it is an opportunity to learn and discus our improvement. It was a pretty long morning since interview times very frequently run over. It was also a very rainy day. I don't think it stop raining the whole time. It felt like we were in Seattle. 

Friday we were able to do some service for a member. We helped move somethings out and fix up some other things around her house to get it ready for a viewing. She gave us some pizza that week cooked up and had during our weekly planning. (Hence the pizza in the picture) 

Saturday We did some even more walking. Shouldn't be too surprising seeing that we have a walking area. We were able to find this super prepared kid from El Salvador. He let us right in and told us of how his dad had been receiving the missionary lessons back when they were in El Salvador. We taught him the restoration and at the end he asked us when we could come back to talk to him some more. It helped me see that we need to be ready to yield to the prompting of the spirit and when we do so the Lord will yield us to those that are prepared. 

Sunday we had another great member present lesson. We were able to invitee our investigator to baptism and she committed to work towards the 12th of November. It is super exciting seeing people want to progress and wanting to follow the example of Jesus Christ. 

We are hoping for another really good week and hopefully y'all have a great week too. 

Con amor,

Elder Boren

                                                    Our weekly planning this past Friday

                                                    Mountains! Right in our backyard.

Faith (week 65)

The is so much to learn! This past week I've been thinking a lot about faith and how to improve it. Part of that is due to the fact that that was the focus of ZLC (zone leadership council) and ZTM (zone training meeting). It was also emphasized in general conference. One of the trainings in ZTM was on doubts and how they can be for our benefit. Elder Miles on of the members of our zone lead the training and talked about how our doubts can be a blessing to us. He said that when we notice our doubts we notice the things we need to work on. One we notice our weakness through our doubts we can then move forward and work on turning it into a strength. It helped me understand Ether 12:27 better than before. 

In Ether 12:27 it says, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." 

Those doubts are some of our weaknesses. They are there to bring us to the depths of humility and turn to our loving Heavenly Father for help. When we turn to him he will aid us in turning those doubts to great strengths in our testimonies. I also like what Brian K. Ashton said in his talk about the Doctrine of Christ. He said, "Faith also causes us to stop worrying so much about what others think of us and begin to care far more about what God thinks of us." There is so much we can learn about faith and how we can strengthen it. I think a large part of it is stepping out of our comfort zones and trusting that the lord will help us through. When we are comfortable we won't be be to progress as much. There is still a bunch more to learn from the talks that were given at general conference. I'm excited to read through them now that we can print them out. 

This area is so great and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be up here. The members are great and I'm looking forward to meet more of them. We have been able to find some great people while we are out working. We just have to have faith that if we keep going that the Lord will provide us with people to teach. I've been able to read the talk by President Uchtdorf and it teaches a lot about faith and not giving up. He said, "Faith is a strong conviction about something we believe—a conviction so strong that it moves us to do things that we otherwise might not do. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” We just have to keep going and trust in God. 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

With Love,

Elder Boren

                                          A cool little sign we saw while walking down the road. 

 A picture I got from Elder Flamm. This was me and a few of the other missionaries that went to the sunnyside service project. 

                                         From last transfer when we were about to go out biking. 

I made it to Wenatchee, that apple capitol (week 64)

I made it to Wenatchee. The apple capitol of the world. Sadly I haven't seen much of the apples they talk about. Maybe I need to wait for it to get deeper into apple season. My new companion is Elder Adams. He is from Massachusetts. I'm also sharing an apartment with our zone leaders Elder Call and Elder Aguire. This transfer is going to be a blast.  This area is a walking area which shouldn't be too bad but, will take a bit of getting used to. We have to plan things well so we have time to walk to our appointments. We also serve in a Spanish ward which is exciting. It means we have a lot more people we can work with to help fellowship those we are teaching. 

General Conference was great. We went up to the stake center to watch all the sessions with just about all the missionaries in our zone. Only during the Sundaysessions were we really joined by any members. There were so many great talks and lots to learn. I loved the focus on the basic doctrines and principles of the gospel. As we talked some after the conference we noticed that the talks taught us simply about the restoration, the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I really enjoyed the talk that President Monson gave Sunday morning on the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong and testified that our Heavenly Father has called a prophet today. I had also read through section 121 of the doctrine and covenants and during conference I noticed that a lot of the talk refereed or related to that section. I'm looking forward for the opportunity we have to go back an review the talks that were given this weekend. I think back to the talk that Elder Holland gave back in April about how we need to remember those spiritual experiences and especially what we learn and feel during conference. 

We have had a pretty good week here in Wenatchee. I don't have too many stories to share this time around but, I'll work on getting some. But we have been having some fun as we get to know each other and as I learn the area and the people that live in it. I'm looking forward to an awesome week and a great transfer. I hope all is well with all of you. Enjoy another great week!

With love,

Elder Boren.

                                                    Right before leaving to the transfer site. 

                                             Me, Elder Nielson, Elder Bergman, and Elder Palacios

                                           The Copeland family with Elder Bergman and I

One Last goodbye to the Rocha family. They are awesome!