Learning what makes a missionary. week 13

Nothing very different has happened this week. Just teaching people and helping to come to a knowledge of their Heavenly Father's love for them.

We had a great Zone Training Meeting this past week and learned from our zone leaders what we need to do to become the 4th missionary. Since you probably are unsure what the 4th missionary is I explain it. The 1st missionary is someone who goes on their mission and ends up going home. He doesn't benefit from it and regrets his decision. The second missionary is similar to the first. He isn't obedient and would be rather be doing his own thing.. The third is obedient and does what he is supposed to but isn't changed by the mission. The fourth missionary is successful and is changed. We listed in our meeting some of the characteristics of the fourth missionary. Obedient & worthy, Sees own weakness, Sees own potential, Fearless, Truly happy, changed, and compelled by desire. That's what we need to be. We need to be willing to lose ourselves in the will of the lord. It is only by losing ourselves in the will of the lord that we are able to find our true potential. I forgot which talk that's from but it is so applicable and is so true. We also did some role plays on how to adjust our teaching to our investigators needs. We shouldn't be teaching lessons, but teaching people instead. When we show people that we care about them they will be more willing to make those changes in their lives.

I went on exchanges again this week. This time it was with Elder Etter. He is from colorado and a bit of a quiet elder. But when it comes down to sharing the gospel and teaching people he is not afraid to talk about the gospel and tell them what he know to be true. We didn't get in to teach anyone but we were able to talk with plenty of people and hopefully they will be able to teach them more as time goes on. I like exchanges but sometimes it becomes too much when I go on exchanges so often. They are a great learning experience and help us notice what we could be doing better. I'm going to have another exchange this week with Elder Call the district leader. For once I am going to be in my own area so it won't be so weird. 

This past Sunday we had a lot of the less actives we have been working with at church. It is great to see them all there. I think we had a total of four less actives come to sacrament. We are just going to have to keep working with them and help the see the blessings that come with weekly church attendance. I hope we will be able to get them all there again this next week and hopefully more of the less actives we have been working with. Even better if we can get some of our investigators to church. It has been such a struggle getting them there with harvest right now. It should be ending in the next week or two so we should start seeing some more success when the people have more time that we can come teach them and that they can attend church meetings.

We meet with the youth pastor on Thursday but he had forgotten that he had set the appointment with us. We still got to sit down and talk with him before he had to jet. We really got to know him and he is a really great guy. He said he isn't trying to convert us and just wants us to feel welcomed in Othello. He served in the Army and he knows what it like to be away from home and family for so long. He also said that if he got a confirmation by the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet that he would sign on the dotted line and get baptised in a hurry. He is reading the Book of Mormon so we are going to keep meeting with him every Thursday and help him feel the spirit. I hope we can help him gain that testimony.

The end of the transfer is coming up and it is crazy to think that I've almost been out six weeks. Time seems to fly and it seems like we are having weekly planning every other day even though it is only every Friday.

I was able to get the Halloween package and Thank you. Elder Turley also says thank you. I will probably be best if you send the christmas one to the mission office. Make sure you send it early so they can forward it.

Love,

Elder Boren 

Meeting new challenges (week 12)

It has been a bit of a crazy week. On Tuesday we started our nice long exchanges and didn't exchange back until Friday morning. It was so different not being with my actual companion or working in my actual area. I was with Elder Baker and we worked in his area which is an all Spanish area and includes those people who speak Mixteco. We didn't talk to anyone who spoke Mixteco which I'm glad because I have no idea what those people are saying. I don't think Elder Baker knows much of what they say either. Elder Baker's area is a biking area and we used bikes Wednesday but that same night some goat heads got in the front tires of both of our bike so we had to walk all Thursday. Wasn't to bad especially since the weather has been perfect as of recently. Looks like its going to be getting colder soon. Not looking forward to that. It was a good long exchange and I was able to learn more about patience with Elder Baker.

This past weekend has been where most of the excitement for the week has occurred. General conference being the main reason it was so awesome. So many great talks and so much to learn. I really liked Devin Durrant's talk and his suggestion to ponderize a scripture weekly. My scripture this week is D&C 12:8 "And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care". Its a great scripture and taking time to ponder it daily will really etch it into my mind. I love the scriptures everyone else has picked. Hopefully the boys are going to be ponderizing a scripture as well. I think it would be a great way for them to really learn more scriptures. So many other amazing talks and so much I can learn from all of them. I can't wait until the next ensign gets here and I can take some more time to study the talks some more. 

This past weekend Elder Turley and I ran into the youth priest for the Nazarene church while we were trying to contact a referral. He was a really nice guys and let us into his house. We started talking about religious views and what we believe. When Elder Turley and I said that we believe that we need to do works to be saved and we can't just rely on faith the guy started to preach at us. It got really uncomfortable since we were sitting at his house and there wasn't very much we could do. He was telling us that we didn't have to do anything to be clean of our sins. All we could do was wait for him to finish and testify of what we know to be true. We left him with a Book of Mormon and he said he is going to read it in 6 weeks and wants to meet with us each of those weeks. He also left us with some scriptures to read and told us to be ready when we come back to his house this Thursday to talk to him. If he just tries to preach at us and doesn't read and pray with a sincere heart we are just going to have to drop him. I could tell the spirit didn't want me to be there and that there was no way he was going to feel the spirit. We just have to see how things work out on Thursday. He said he was going to make us food which is nice though. 

Yesterday morning after we got out of the morning session we came out to find on of the back tires on our car flat. One of the members helped us put on the spare and we got the tire fixed this morning. One of the members said a lot of the tread looked low but when we went to the tire place they said all the tires were good so I hope we don't get another flat anytime soon. Yesterday we talked to this kid who told the bishop that he wanted to change his life. We meet him at the church and talked to him. Right now all his motives are messed up; such as thinking being a member will bring him money and girls. Hopefully talking with him and having him read the scriptures will change that for him.

This week we are meeting with the Goddard family again and are going to have dinner with them. We are thinking the plan of salvation is going to be something that will really apply to them and give them the urge to learn more. 

Hopefully everything is going well back home. Make sure the boys aren't slaking off. I hope they watched all of conference. If they didn't they should defiantly take some time to read or listen to them this week. Love you mom. Really loved Elder Hollands talk on mothers.

If you are still going to put together the flash drive with music would you mind throwing some of my pictures on there so I can use them for planner covers. Thanks a ton.

Love,

Elder Boren

Dylan and Elder Baker

Busy, Busy week. ( Week 11)

This week has gone by so fast. We have had some very busy mornings with zone conference and some of the missionaries in Othello getting sick. We haven't been able to work as much in our spanish area but we are seeing lots happening in our english ward. The members here are amazing and I don't think I can say it enough. They really do help us out a ton. 

Zone conference was great and it was a great time to learn more about what we can do to become better missionaries. The focus has been family history and service. They really want us to focus on families because they are so central to our heavenly father's plan for us. Our work here on earth doesn't stop with us getting all our ordinances done we also have to help those who have not had the opportunity to do so in their lives. The idea of focusing on the family and inviting those we come in contact with to learn more about their ancestors is much less threatening and more people are open to it. I think it is a great way that members can share the gospel with friends. I invite you to find a way to invite someone to learn more about their ancestors and help them feel of the spirit that is associated with family history work. Service is also another non threatening way to share the gospel. We have started looking for more opportunities to serve people and show that we are here to help and we really do care for them. Even if they won't listen to the message of the restoration we can still serve our fellow man. Eventually they will ask about the church and we will be able to teach them more.

Elaine's baptism was amazing! Elder Turley was able to perform the baptism and it was also his first time baptising someone. She has such a great testimony of the gospel and knows that this is what heavenly father wants for her. She is separated from her husband and has had problems with her relationship. Her husband eric has agreed to meet with the missionaries in Moses Lake so we are hoping for the best. Elder Tanner and Elder Baker have also been working with her parents but forgiveness has been something they struggle with due to the problems in Elaine's marriage. They are open to most of the teaching behind the gospel and we are hoping that they can overcome this problem in their family. We are going to be starting up the recent convert lessons with her. I am excited to see how much more she can grow now that she has been baptised and received the Holy Ghost.

I went on exchanges twice this week. Once with Elder Baker while Elder Turley was on splits with the assistants to the president and a second time while he was on splits with Elder Pullman who is the district leader for Royal City. They were both great experiences although we really didn't get to teach anyone. With Elder Baker all of the appointments fell through and we ended up walking around trying find some people to talk to. With Elder Gabruel we spend most of our day knocking on doors and talking to people. We went and walked a family's dog for an hour which was some good time to talk while also serving. We had a good lesson outside the door of one of their recent converts whose son has been having trouble dealing with the death of his brother. He has trouble accepting the fact that there is more after this life and that there is a plan for us. 

We have started teaching the Goddard family this week. The father is very inactive and hasn't been to church for over twenty years. We have been told they haven't been open to talking about the gospel in the past and don't want anything pushed onto them. We were able to get in and teach them the restoration simply. It was great to teach them and see the potential they have. After teaching the father said that he had never heard the gospel taught in a way that made sense to him and was reasonable. I think it echos the importance of teaching simply and not getting lost in the details. When we teach simply and really apply what we have to say to them the spirit is able to testify and they are able to feel that it is right. 

This upcoming week looks like it's going to be a little crazy. Elder Tanner and Elder Turley have a lot of zone leader things to take care of so Elder Baker and I are going to go on splits from tuesday night to thursday or friday morning. I'm not going to be able to work in my area much but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. 

I have studied a little more about prophets with general conference this upcoming weekend in mind. The role of the prophet is so important here on earth and we need to head his words. In D&C 1:38 it says, "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants,it is the same." I think whenever we listen to the words of a prophet or an apostle we need to listen as if our Heavenly father himself were talking to us. We have a great opportunity to hear from all the different leaders of the church this general conference and we should take a moment to realize that they are all speaking for the lord and expressing what he feels is important. We are going to be watching the Conference from the Othello stake center. 

I hope everyone is doing well back at home

Love,

Elder Boren

Baptism of Elaine

Missionary Living arrangements.

Zone Conference September 2015

The Lords vineyard week 10

Othello is a cool place. The harvest has been in full swing the past week and most people are very busy at work trying to get everything harvested. Watching all the harvesting here is pretty cool. I have seen them harvesting stuff from onions to potatoes to beans. Since it is harvest season right now we have gotten a bunch of fruit. We have a big bag of apples in out apartment and the others elders have more and some Asian pears in their apartment. One of the members Brother Gentry gave us a box full of stuff from his garden for us to share with the sisters. It had a bag of fresh tomatoes, a bag of fresh grapes, the bag of apples, and two cartons of fresh eggs. The gardens people have here are amazing and they are able to grow so much stuff in them. I think dad would be very jealous of the stuff they are able to grow here. 

The members in the wards here are great. We have dinner scheduled for every night which is nice for us. We usually take care of our own lunch during the day. There hasn't been anything weird they have feed us yet. That may have to do with the fact that the English ward feeds us the first half of the month and the Spanish ward feeds us the second half. One of the family's we had dinner with feed us steak. They are an awesome older couple in the ward. They are the Bouck family and they said they have a son that lives in McKinney. They also have other children that Elder Turley knows really well from his ward back home. It has been really easy for us to find members to go out and teach lessons with us. There is one member from the Spanish ward that comes out with us all the time. He is a convert and really likes being able to help us sharing the gospel. 

The apartment set up here in Othello is that Elder Turley and I have our apartment and Elder Baker and Elder Tanner have an apartment around the corner and The sisters have an apartment around the corner from them. Elder Baker and Elder Tanner have the washer and dryer so we go to there apartment to take care of laundry. Elder Baker and Elder Tanner will usually come to our apartment if Elder Turley and Elder Tanner have zone leader business to take care of. Since Elder Turley is one of the zone leaders we had to go to the other districts district counsel as well as ours. We have had lots of meeting this week that have taken up most of our mornings after our studies. We also had some service time at the county fair here so that also took up some of our usual proselyting time. Service at the fair was fun though. I helped make elephant ears which are these giant pieces of fried dough. We didn't really get to spend much time other than serving. 

We are getting an investigator ready for baptism this Saturday. Her name is Elaine and she have lots of faith in the lords plan for her. She has been going through a tough time in her life but she knows how important it is for her to get baptized. She has member friends that live next to her and they have been a large part of her involvement in the church. I am so excited for her growth in the church and to see her take these steps. The family that has been her fellowship have offered to take her to Salt Lake with them to go see General Conference. It would be a great experience for her and she would get to see the prophets and apostles in person.

There doesn't seem to be much I need right now. It turns out most of the elders here use flash drives with church music to listen to and they trade their music around. It would be nice if you could send a flash drive with a bunch of church music and mission appropriate songs. If I find anything else I need I can send an email. It hasn't gotten too cold here yet. I'm only able to email on p-days and we usually do it in the mornings at the stake family history center. 

Hope the week goes well for everyone back home. 

Love,

Elder Boren

Othello, Washington (week 9)

Well I've made it alive to the mission. The flights were a bit boring but I got to talk to some great people both on my two flights and on the layover. I'm told that most of the American people in this area are members so that makes for bigger wards and more people to help the work. When I arrived The APs picked me up and the airport and I got to be with them until the next day where I got to meet with President Lewis and go to my new area. The APs are great guys and really show their love for all the missionaries in our mission. They kept going on about me and making songs. I did some service Saturday with the APs as well. We spent time at a park pulling staples and nails out of pavilions so that they could be repainted. 

President Lewis is a great. He is a big fan of tennis and has been following the US Open. When we had lunch with him at the mission home he got me up to date on how the tournament is going. Pres. Lewis has a son serving in Chile right now and told us some stories his son shared with him. President Lewis has only been here for two months so there wasn't much he could tell me about the weather and the seasons here. I can tell that President Lewis has lots of love for mission work and this mission. 

President and Sister Lewis drove me out to my first area which is about a two hour drive from the mission home. My first area is Othello Washington. This area is right on the border of the mission and some of it extends into the other mission. My companion is Elder Turley and he is from Mesa Arizona. He is a great elder and is actually one of the Zone leaders. They split up ZL companionship's because they have so many new elders entering the mission that they are not able to have the Zone leaders in the same companionship. In our area we cover an English ward and a Spanish ward. We are able to teach in both english and Spanish which is a bit weird compared to Mexico where we were always speaking Spanish. Elder Turley says that my Spanish is pretty good and that it shouldn't take too long to get me to a good level. 

We just had Stake conference here and Elder Johnson of the seventy spoke to us. He is a great speaker and really focused on the importance of the sabbath. He talked about how we should be looking at what we should and shouldn't do as opposed to what we can and can't do on Sunday. He also spoke on how we all have a purpose to why were are somewhere or why we do something and that there are no coincidences. I look forward to being able to serve in this area and get to know the members more.

I hope everything is going well back home and that everyone is getting along.

Love,

Elder Boren

Dylan's companion Elder Turley 

President Lewis and sister Lewis

Today was the day that Dylan Boren flew out of Dallas and into Yakima, Washington. We are super excited for him. It has almost been a year since he came home from Monterrey Mexico. During that time he had 4 different job which included: Target, Rainy Day, Mimi's Cafe and Brookshires. He also attended Collin college in the spring. He kept himself busy. I enjoyed having him around and helping me out with my daycare. I look forward to the weekly emails that we will receive. I hope he remembers all the spanish he learned at the MTC and high school.

                                          Cody and Jacob saying goodbye at the airport.

                                            We took Dylan out to dinner one last time.

Brotherly love. Just missing Riley who was at seminary

His friends wishing him good luck. The one in the blue is Matt Smith, he leaves for Colorado in October for his mission. The other one is Galen Drake. He just got back from his mission to Brasil.

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