week 91

We have had a pretty good week here in Quincy. The weather has been getting a lot warmer and we have been more consistent with having sunny days. The wind is still a bit strong and we have still been having some pretty cloudy days. Thankfully we had a very sunny weekend. I can't wait until it starts really warming up.

We have been keeping pretty busy here in Quincy. We have been working with one of the members here and her friend. It has been a great experience so far as we have been teaching her. The member is also really good at helping with missionary work. We have the lessons at her house and she has been taking time to make sure that there is another man in the house so we can teach. Working with the members is great fun and We are trying to find more ways to get involved with them. Missionary work is just so much more effective when we work with the members and we are able to teach their friends. Most people are willing to talk to the missionaries when introduced by their friends rather than having the missionaries knock on their door. 

We have been able to quite a bit of walking in our area. We have decided to let the other Elders have the car more frequent. It gives us time to talk to some of the people we see as we go places. It also gives us the chance for a few more adventures. One of those being us trying to find a short cut from one neighborhood to a little trailer park on a country road. We crossed a little canal and though that we just needed to walk over a little hill and we'd be there. We were wrong and it turned out that the hill we were climbing was the main canal for the area. So we had to walk down a bit before we got to a bridge we could cross. Thankfully it was still faster than taking the usual way to get there. 

Elder Bown and I had a great exchange this Thursday. We went out to a little town called Sunland that one of the members told us that we should try. It wasn't what we expected and turned out that only a third of the house were owned by regular residents. The other percentage is people who come during the summer for vacation. Later that day we got to visit the Williamsons and talk to them about Easter. We had another member and his son with us to help fellowship the the Williamson boys. 

Today for our p-day we have some great plans. We are going to go golfing close to the river. We had some members that lent us some clubs and Elder Bown was able to buy some lefty clubs at the thrift shop. Then one of the members is going to get us into the Gorge amphitheater for a tour. We also plan on doing some other sightseeing around the area. We have discovered that Quincy is more of a tourist attraction than we though. 

I hope everyone has a great week. I know we are going to.

Con amor,

Elder Boren

One exchanges with Elder Bown we went down to one of the towns on the Columbia river. Turns out it isn't much more than a vacation community. 

                                                        A cool river side tennis court

                                                               Leaving Sunland

poem was shared form a member (week 90)

Quincy is great and I'm really glad I get to serve here. This week it got a little chilly again with all the wind that comes through town. It will probably be another month before all the wind dies down. It looks like we might be getting a bit of rain this week but, hopefully we don't get dumped on too much.

This weekend we had a great zone training meeting where we talked about the importance of helping our investigators keep commitments. It was great as our zone leaders lead a discussion on how we can better help our investigators understand the commitments so they will be better prepared to keep them. Our main goal should be helping them to see for themselves the blessings that come from doing what we are inviting them to do. We also need to make sure that the promises that we are extending correspond to the individual. We had some great role plays where we were able to practice extending invitations that were tailor fitted and then following up and getting a good understanding of why they didn't keep the commitment. I loved the role plays and they really got me thinking about how I can take it and apply it to my own missionary work. I look forward to being able see how it affect the work these coming weeks. 

Here is a poem that was shared with us by one of the members. 

Invictus 

"Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever Gods may be

For my unconquerable soul

"In the Fell clutch of circumstance

I have not wined nor cried aloud

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody but unbowed

"Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade

And yet the menace of the years 

Finds and shall find me unafraid

"It matters not how straight the gait 

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul"

-William Ernest Hemmingway

I like this poem because it shows that no matter what we decide what becomes of us. 

There wasn't anything else too exciting this past week. I hope the pictures I sent will make up in the lack of writing material I have. I hope everyone has a spectacular week and enjoys their time.

Con amor,

Elder Boren

                          We went and did some service walking dogs at the animal shelter.

                                               Elder Klossner being walked by the dog

I've decided to take time and make a good breakfast every morning

                                                            Our sleeping quarters

Our Kitchen

                                      This is the what we see every time we come in

                                  Maybe I'll add pictures of our study rooms next week.

                Elder Bown, ELder Klossner and I with other members of the zone behind us

                                                            Elder Klossner and I

Another of the two of us

                                           Everything set up to watch General conference

                                            Elder Davis even brought some muffins to enjoy

Elder Bown played the piano before it started

We had a blast (week 89)

This past weekend was a blast. Who doesn't love all those great general conference talks? Before I go too far into my email I'm going to apologize for not including pictures these past few weeks. Some of the computers here don't want to accept my card and I haven't been the best at taking pictures. I'll do better this next week.

I loved all the general conference talks this weekend. I loved the Sunday afternoon session and maybe thats a large part due to the talk given by Elder Joaquin. The four of us elders here were not expecting a talk like that. I also loved President Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session. I loved the way he lovingly extended a commitment as simple as reading the Book of Mormon Daily. It carried so much power and I hope it plays a great effect in helping people gain a testimony of this gospel. I think that talk will be a great one to share with others. I also really liked the talk given by Elder Quentin L. Cook to close out the conference. I thought about the importance of gaining experience, practicing and putting in those 10,000 hours to become and expert. I though it would be amazing if we could put in the time and effort to become experts of the gospel or better yet one specific principle of the gospel. I look forward to the time we have in the coming months to study these talks and truly ponder the meanings. 

This past week we started working with this great investigator. She is a senior in high school and really wants to make sure she finds the right path and is able to draw herself closer to God. We were able to get her invited to the home of some members for the Sunday afternoon session and she loved it. She told us that she got her questions answered. We are going to meet with her tonight and we are looking forward to the progress we get to make with her. 

This past week was also our trip to the temple. That was such a sweet experience. Like always I was able to find members there from previous areas and that was a blessing in itself. I also found so much peace being able to attend the temple. I love being able to take time and have great prayers there. I look forward to having the opportunity to attend more frequently. 

We are looking forward to another great week and I hope everyone has a great one as well. Que les vayan bien. 

Con Amor,

Elder Boren

Elder Klossner my new companion (week 88)

We had ourselves a pretty good week here in Quincy Washington. Transfers were Wednesday and now I'm with Elder Klossner. I also found out that Elder Enderton got transferred up to Oroville and is in a tri-pan. His second area. Elder Bergman got transferred to Moses Lake and Elder Sanchez got transferred to Yakima. It's cool being able to see everyone at the transfer site and hear where everyone is getting moved to. A cool fact while we are at it is that Elder Klossner and Elder Enderton went to the same High School. This is going to be a great transfer.

Elder Klossner is a work horse and I am glad to work along side him. Elder Klossner is from Holiday Utah, which is a suburb of Salt Lake city. He loves to play rugby and is hoping to play in college. He has been out for 6 months now and is doing great. 

So we had zone conference this past Friday and it was great. We had the opportunity to learn From Elder Uceda of the 70. One thing that he taught about was the meaning in Matthew 28:19-20:

19 ¶ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

He taught about the meaning of the words teach in these two verses. He taught us that in verse 19 the word teach comes from the Greek word Matheteuo which mean make disciples. So that verse of scripture is teaching us that we need to go forth and make disciples of the people we meet. The word teach in verse 20 comes from the Greek word Didasko which means to instill. So there is a lot more than just teaching people. We need to make disciples and instill the gospel in their lives. A large part of the conference was Elder Uceda giving deeper meaning to scriptures that we use frequently as missionaries. He taught us that our invitations need to be exhortations. He told us that we need to Talk less and Do more. In conference we also made a list of tools to use in scripture study to give the verses more meaning. Here is the list from our conference:

Di-sect/Define/Analyze words -> Dig Deeper.

Cross Reference

Ask, "What were things like back then?"

Give yourself examples

Notice your feelings

Apply it to yourself

Look for words of action

Stop frequently

Ask why there is a specific word

Be worthy to receive revelation

Find repetition

Ask others, get their input

Be passionate

Don't Be Satisfied with the first answer

Find something you can do now

Read over again

Stop and Ponder

Have real intent

Love what you learn

Find ways to repent

It was a great conference and now we get to go and apply all those teachings to our missionary work. 

Something I forgot to write about last week is how this cool Mexican guy made Elder Wright and I fish tacos. They were really good. And yesterday investigators of the other elders made us some goat for breakfast. That was pretty good as well. 

We have had a great week and we look forward to having another great week. Hope everyone back home does as well. 

Love Y'all

Elder Boren

Baptism and Transfer week (week 87)

I don't know how but, Washington threw even more snow at us. And then it all melted in a couple days. Almost as weird as the snow in Texas. The weather here has been rather good other than that freak snow. It has been off and on cold. What comes next is the crazy wind that the members are telling us we need to watch out for. 

I almost forgot to tell y'all about transfers. So Elder Wright is going to be transferred to the Mission Ridge Spanish area. My old area. He is going to be replacing Elder Enderton and serving with Elder Palacios. I'm going to be recieving Elder Klossner who is coming from Othello 3rd and 4th. My first area. Other than that there aren't really any changes. I'm looking forward to another transfer. 

So before I move on I want to extend a shout out to the awesome sisters serving in the Melissa 1st and 2nd wards. They sent me an email asking me who I knew that they could invite to learn about the gospel. You have some great missionaries serving back home. 

I am so grateful for the ability I have to serve as a missionary. There may be days where it is harder than most but, it is all worth it when we get to see the difference it makes in the lives of others. I am so thankful for the opportunity we had to see that this past Saturday at the baptism of the Williamson family. I was able to see that change in Derek and it was great. As we met with them I could see the repentance process working in him and ultimately the great joy he felt at his baptism. The baptism went really well. When everyone was first showing up the bishop didn't think we'd all fit in the relief society room where the font was so we went to the chapel. Then we moved back to the same room and like magic we all fit although it was a little more cozy than the chapel. It was such a great baptism and it is really going to bless the lives of that family and the many more people they influence. They are already shooting for a goal of getting sealed in the temple and it is exciting to hear. I love being able to see that change. 

We have been doing really well here in Quincy and we are working on finding more way to get more involved with the members and help them become more involved in missionary work. We have been thinking up ways to work more with the youth and we have seen some success already. We are going to continue doing so and we hope to see the Lord's hand in it.

This week is going to be awesome. We have transfers Wednesday and zone conference with Elder Uceda Friday. I hope y'all have a great week as well.

Con Amor,

Elder Boren

 The Williamson Baptism Saturday (Left to right; Me, Derek, Sylvia, Dave, Ken, Elder Wright)

                                         Dinner at the Hodge family farm. They have horses.

                We went and walked dogs at the animal shelter. Elder Davis loved this dog.

Slowly warming up (week 86)

Quincy has been doing great. It is ever so slowly getting warmer. Although every once in a while it gets cold as a good amount of wind blows through. I'm ready for when I'm able to just have a short sleeve shirt on. 

We have been able to find some wonderful people that have great potential and we look forward to being able to help them move towards a lasting conversion. With our recent zone conferences I have been able to see that the mission is being greatly affected by the increased focus on our purpose as missionaries and the importance of teaching repentance and baptizing converts. We have been able to see more people progressing towards conversion and we are doing better at reaching our goals for helping people to enter the waters of baptism. I am looking forward to the many more blessings that are in store for us and we keep that focus through out the mission. I have noticed that I have been able to understand at a greater level the importance of our purpose and how it drives us to do what we do as missionaries. Everything we do as missionaries should and needs to be focused around our purpose to help others. We need to ask our selves what we can do to help those we are teaching to progress. Then that affects our studies and how we prepare to teach. It can also greatly affect how we teach. When we understand our purpose we will better be able to discern the needs of our investigators. We will be able to see what it is that we need to teach so they can feel the spirit and be guided through that repentance process.

This week has been pretty great. Lets see if I can think some of the highlights or at least some of the things I can share with all y'all. 

Tuesday is usually a day with lots of service for us. We go to the food bank for a couple hours and we usually help bag things that they have there. This week was a lot of fun there. We went an hour earlier than the other companionship and we started talking to one of the other volunteers as we worked. He started to show a great interest in knowing more about our church and we were able to share with him the answers to his questions. His wife is also very interested in doing family history so we are going to hook here up with the family history consultant here in Quincy. After we had some lunch and tried by some investigators we went and did some service at an assisted living center. We usually play a board game with them and get to know them. Later that day we got to visit a wonderful member family and talk about missionary work with them. It went really well. Then we went with another member to visit some members that live out a little far. It was a good day. 

Wednesday we had district council which was great as well. Thursday we did service at Habitat 4 Humanity. We many did some cleaning and helped bag some clothing. Later that day we visited the Williamson family and they are doing great. They are all ready for this Saturday and have their interview this Thursday. It is going to be great since he has a lot of family in the area and just about all of them are members. It helps a lot with getting fellowship for them. 

Saturday we had the adult session of Stake conference. We didn't have a dinner set up that night so we decided to go to a burger place in Euphrata before the meeting. 

                                           Doing some service at the local Habitat 4 Humanity

 Sister Williamson is from Indonesia and she gave us some cools shirts from over there

                                   Driving our to George, Washington on a nice sunny day

A beautiful day and a nice field with almost no snow. (From Left to right; Elder Bown, Elder Davis and Elder Wright)

tentive baptism set for "w" family March 11th (week 85)

So this week has been pretty good out in Quincy. It may have snowed for a large part of Sunday but, thankfully it didn't stick to the ground. We are also ever so slowly moving towards the warmer weather which I will be thankful to have again.

This past Saturday we had a great ward Fiesta. The turn out was phenomenal. We had 147 people show up for it and we still had more than enough food. Although I don't think we would have been able to fit too many more people in our little gym. It was a great activity as we were able to get a lot of the Spanish speaking members there. There were many people who came who hadn't been to church in many years. We were also able to get a good amount of left overs to enjoy. 

Elder Wright and I have decided that we are going to work with Elder Bown and Elder Davis to try and do a weekly family home evening at the church to extend some fellowship to the members that haven't been to church for a while. So any ideas of things to do for family home evening would be appreciated. 

So update on the Williamson family. They are the ones that we have been working with towards baptism. As of this past week we set a baptismal date with them. We are shooting for the 11th of march. It is really exciting and the whole ward is looking forward to it. I'll make sure to keep you updated.

Sadly we weren't able to find any new investigators this week. We've been having trouble being able to return to teach these people we meet. It is a little rough but we have plans to get back in with them and find even more people to work with. I know there are plenty here in Quincy even though it may seem like a little town. This week I thought a little about how missionaries at times will say that they have knocked out an entire area. I don't really think someone can knock out an entire area. There is just too many people to talk to. Even if we talk to someone at every house we still haven't talked to the other people who happen to live there. I think once we understand that it makes it a whole lot easier to go and knock doors that have already been knocked.

 I really enjoyed the zone conference we had. This time around we talked a lot about the importance of teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It seems as if there is some sort of theme in all the meetings we have been having lately. I can see the need we have to learn more about the importance of teaching repentance and baptizing converts and also our purpose as missionaries. When we understand that we will better be able to see where we can improve personally and how we can better help those we teach progress. This past zone conference made me see the importance of Chapter 1 of preach my gospel. No wonder it is at the beginning. I look forward to being able to learn even more and applying it to our missionary work. We already decided that we need to be better at helping people know our purpose so we are going to do that. There was lots to learn in our zone conference as there almost always is. One thought that I loved was this "Changing behavior without involving the Savior is not repentance". That was a thought that really made me think about the importance of our purpose as missionaries. That being to invite others to come unto Christ through his gospel. We can invite people to change but, when we don't help them involve the Savior it doesn't have as much of a lasting effect on them. Another comment that was made is that, "we need to record the things that have not been said but, that we've felt". That is an important part of taking notes during meetings. We can get a lot more out of our meetings when we do so. 

After this zone conference I thought a little about what someone would need to do to be prepared for their mission. I know that I've suggested reading and studying the scriptures but, there is much more that we can do to be ready. The one thing I though about was the importance of understanding the gospel and applying it in life. And more specifically understanding repentance and working to do so every day. It helps having a better grasp of that as we go and invite others to repent and involve the savior more in their lives. Another thing that I think is important for being prepared is gaining a testimony of the gospel and its restoration in the latter days. We need to go through the same process that we invite others to go through. That being read, ponder and pray. With that greater conviction it is a lot easier to share the gospel. 

Also this past Friday after our missionary correlation with Brother Erickson, our ward mission leaders, he loaded us up with a bunch of little toys from the dollar store. Now we have pop guns, lots of metal puzzles and some candles. Who knew you could have so much fun with the stuff you can buy at the local dollar store. We will never be short of things to do in our apartment. 

I have one request from everyone who reads my weekly email. I'd like for everyone to send their favorite scripture. It would also be appreciated if you add why it is your favorite. If you can't pick one send many. 

I hope everyone has a great week and we will be working to make sure ours is as well.

Love Ya'll

-Elder Boren

Look at all the oats

                                     We filled up bags of oatmeal at the food bank this week