Dec. 23, 2013--Merry Merry Christmas!!!

Greetings from the good ole Leb'nin, Tennessee! Yes it's Leb'nin ... not Lebanon. You'll get corrected if you say it wrong here. Them southerners, they're great.

So hi! What a crazy week. I have a total of zero time so I am going to be real quick.

-Transfer meeting was on Tuesday! I said bye to everyone on Monday. It was SO HARD to say bye to Mat and Tabatha and Jada and Jax (the Shepherds). They gave me a bunch of gifts that are so precious/sentimental! I'll remember them forever.

-One of our less actives we were working with in CV2 went to the temple! That was cool.

-Sister Rawlings is my new trainee! She's great! Fresh out of high school! I'll miss Sister Gibson.

-This week has been AWESOME. We have found heaps and bounds of new investigators and the Lord is just preparing the people here in Lebnin to hear the gospel. We are tracting fools these days! We're only part time car too.

-Lebnin ward is extremely large. HUGE.

-The bishop wears black jeans and cowboy boots to church. YEP.

-We took over the Elders apartment and it is disgusting, so we've been cleaning a bunch!

-The Elders were pretty much working with no one so it was kind of like opening a new area. It has been very stressful but the Lord has literally guided our every footstep and we had a wonderful week! You would never know we had started from scratch!

-I am having Christmas dinner at the Hokansens and will be skyping from their home! They have like 50 children (not really, but it seems like it) but we will be upstairs! We will be skyping at 4, Tennessee time.

-Mama and Papa's 12 days of Christmas package is the best! I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you mama/papa!

-We had crazy tornado warnings a couple nights ago! It was nuts! The sky was green! That happened in Clarksville a few weeks ago too, but I forgot to tell you about it. Tornado's are super eerie.

-Just lots of miracles these days. I don't even know where to start. Maybe I'll remember some when we Skype!

I am so stoked to see your beautiful faces! Maybe the iPhones can FaceTime Bri and Joe and Brance and Aspen while I Skype you!

Lots of pictures to send! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Have a very merry CHRIST-mas! (See what I did there).

Love,

Sister Boren

Dec. 16, 2013--TAB IS BAPTIZED!! And I'm having a baby.

First of all, I got your package on Saturday and I literally cried with tears of joy when I got it! It is so cute! I'm on day 3 of the 12 days of Christmas :) Such a special idea! We have such a good mama and papa! You have no idea how much I appreciate all that y'all do for me. You are amazing. And what a great thing to start off the beautiful day that Saturday was!

This week was straight up nuts. We had Zone Conference, we had exchanges for days, we had transfer calls (Saturday was the longest day ever), we had all sorts of things happen but the most amazing part was that TABATHA WAS BAPTIZED!!! Tears of joy! I smile so big every time I say it. She is amazing. It was truly the happiest day of my whole entire life. The spirit was unreal. 

We went to Tab and Mat's house every day this week preparatory to her baptism. She is so prepared for the gospel it's crazy. She was so excited and kept talking about how much she has changed. Her family literally has scripture study and prayer every night together and lists things they are thankful for on Jada's whiteboard. I'm sorry, WHAT. That's amazing! AND they do their individual studies. The coolest part is seeing how the Lord helps shape people, if they are willing to let Him. The Spirit works in them and helps them exercise their faith and change (repent) and follow their saviors example to be baptized and confirmed! We talked to her a lot about enduring to the end too and she is all about it. She is stoked to go to the temple in a year with her family. Mat has come SO far. This past 6 weeks with him alone have been ridiculously ridiculous (in a good way). MIRACLES FOR DAYS. The Lord provides and it is the most joyous thing. AH! I could talk for hours about them. (Mat's mom came into town to see her baptism and it was so cool! She is so happy for her!) Oh! And it was a double baptism! Liz from the Fort Campbell Branch was also baptized. She is amazing! It made it that much more special having both of them together. 

Saturday was truly the longest day ever. Best day ever, but longest day ever. I don't even remember what happened Monday - Friday. Tabatha was baptized by Brother Moss and then we helped clean up the church and then we went to Tabatha's for lunch and talked about family history (she's taking her ancestors names to the temple when the ward goes right after christmas!). All the while gleaming with permanent smiles on our faces. Then we went to the church so Sister Gibson could do Facebook. While we were there I was joking around with Sister Gibson and told her that President called and she is leaving. Next thing we know he really does call (2 minutes later)! If he calls you personally, that's bad news bears because it usually means you're training. Here's a play-by-play: I answer it and say "Hello! This is Sister Boren!" "Hello Sister Boren, just the person I want to talk to (uh oh) ... will you accept the call to train?" "Uh mmm uh yes." "Wait I'm not done yet. Will you also accept the call to whitewash (taking both missionaries out and putting me and my companion in, kind of like opening but not really) Lebanon?" By this time, if you can only imagine, I am shaking. I wrote down my area on a sticky note and the legibility of my handwriting just explains my emotions. I HAD NO IDEA I WAS LEAVING. I knew I was eligible to train now that I finished my 12 weeks of training but I sure didn't know I would actually be training. That's crazy! After I got over the shock and President gave me some words of wisdom, I obviously accepted. I went and prayed and just felt so much peace. It was a really cool experience. Heavenly Father and I had a nice chat. The Lord has a plan and he works in the most mysterious of ways, but I love Him. I know he will qualify me, the weak, to be able to fill these hefty shoes before me.

So there ya have it. I'm moving and having a kid in the mission all at the same time! Remember how sure I was that I was staying? Yeah that's hilarious. Heavenly Father has a huge sense of humor. 

Sunday was super cool! We hosted at the Festival of the Nativity and it was very very spiritual. TONS of nativities and beautiful art pieces. We were able to talk to a bunch of people and I was able to say goodbye to some ward members! I will miss them dearly. Tabatha and Mat and their family came! They were doing free family pictures and they wanted us to be in their family picture. How cute is that. Hopefully we get the picture via email soon and I can send it to you. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS! Please pray extra hard for me this week :) I'll need it!

Metaphor for the week - Be clay, not a sponge. Let the Lord continually mold you to who He desires you to become (clay) instead of going back to your old ways (sponge) after spiritual experiences. We are continually in the refiners fire!

With heaps and bounds of love,

Sister Boren

PS- Be sure to send stuff to the mission home now and not the Clarksville address. Until next week when I have my new address :) 

Christmas zone conf! I am very festive. 

BEST PACKAGE EVER!!!!!! So happy.

The cute nativity in the package! 

Sister Gibson, me and Sister Stucki. 

Brother Moss with us!

The sticky note I wrote on when Pres called. I was shakin like a dog! 

I love how people love Jesus here.

THIS MORNINGS HAPPENINGS

 Trainer/trainee! Sister Gibson is also training (again) next transfer. 

Hop-town zone sisters! Hopkinsville is the best zone. Headed to Madi zone next!

Only one more I swear! 

Decorated gingerbread people! If you look closely mine is a sister missionary. #teammissions #teamtennesseenashvillemission

This is Elder Weed. He's from beaverton-portland area and probably the funniest missionary ever. Please enjoy this picture!

Dec 9, 2013--TRUST IN HIM

Hello mi familia!

On Christmas day we get to skype for 45 minutes so I don't know how you want to do that! I don't know if we can like skype everyone in or what but just so you know that's whats going on :)

I cannot believe it snowed so much in STG! That's unheard of! Crazy. I loved the pictures :) Dadersh is a stud!

This week. Boy oh boy. What a good week! Trust in God. He has a plan. 

Church was cancelled for us in Clarksville too! There was no power in the building. Which is kind of a huge bummer because we were excited for some investigators to come to church. Next week! Weirdest thing ever though. Who knew church got cancelled sometimes. I didn't know that was a thing.

There was a pretty intense ice storm this weekend so President made us stay in all of Friday. It was the longest day of my life! We were very bored. Read a lot, prayed a lot, planned a lot, made lots of goals. I mean, there's only so much you can do! We had such a great day planned, too! Huge bummer, but Sister Gibson and I do what President says. 

So many miracles this week I don't even know where to start! I'll probably miss some, but that's alright. Miracles:

Tabatha is getting baptized on Saturday and we are so stoked. She is so awesome. I want yall to meet her one day. We called them and told them church was cancelled because the power was out and she was so bummed! They said they had their own little church - watched general conference talks and read their scriptures together and prayed and sang. Such a proud proud moment! She's all spiritually grown up! She had a blessing to help her with not smoking and she said it was so powerful and it has definitely helped her. The priesthood is amazing. Mat was gone for the week and we told Tabatha to sneak a book of mormon in his bag so she tried to, but couldn't fit it. So she told him about it and he was like "if I'm going to take it, I'm going to take the whole thing" meaning the bible, BOM, pearl of great price and D&C. And HE TOTALLY READ! His company commander is actually in our ward so that's really cool. Like I said, everyone here is in the army. It's crazy. 

Tuesday I was with Sister Talbert. She came out with me. She's super shy still and it was a pretty rough day because I was literally like a one man show, but! I learned a lot and it was great. We tracted because all of our appointments and backups fell through. We found TONS of new investigators. It was awesome! We are literally teaching like 1/2 the people on this street called Bedford Dr. It's probably going to be translated. 

Wednesday I was with Sister Johnson! She has 4 months left on her mission and she is an AMAZING missionary. We had a BLAST together. It was so great. Lots of powerful lessons. We found tons of new investigators that day too just from talking to everyone. Miracles! Also, we were able to help a lot of our less actives know how to build their testimony. It was really cool. You can see the change in people and it is amazing. 

We taught Carlos, one of our investigators, the first lesson and he was just all about it. I have literally never met someone so prepared. He has a baptismal date for the first of the year! He is awesome. 

Courtney is super super interested and we are going to teach her the first lesson today!

We tracted into a Ondrea and Chris' house and they are super nice! They are Baptist, but it was so cool to see how they really opened up and were interested in learning more. Chris is very interested in reading the Book of Mormon. When the spirit is there, miracles happen and it is the coolest thing. 

Ray, who is also super golden, had a lesson with us over the phone because he is super busy and he just loves it! We are teaching him the plan of salvation on Friday and we are stoked because he is so prepared. Member referrals are always the best!

We met Gloria and Quaticah who are also super interested and we have return appointments for this next week. The work is progressing!!!! I finally have understood the art of finding people to teach. They key = trusting in Heavenly Father to help us by the power of the Holy Ghost. He is amazing. This IS His work. 

There were just a slew of people who were interested, but those ones are the most prepared to hear the gospel! 

A few of our less actives are coming back into activity again!

Also, another miracle. Sister Gibson and I have very different.. work ethics. I have had to be the motivator and the one to help us get to each appointment. I really like being over the area and I really needed those exchanges I had! So that was really cool. AND when Sister Gibson got back from MLC on Tuesday she was so much more motivated and it was a lot less burdensome throughout the day! It was truly a miracle. She is great though and she really is trying her best. We just have different strengths!

This week is week six! Transfer calls are on Saturday! Crazy. I think I will be staying and Sister Gibson will be leaving. I am almost sure of it. I just have a feeling, but who knows! We will just have to see :)

Trust in the Lord. He will provide. (Matthew 7:7-11 and all he asks of us is... http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment)'

Also, if you ever want a spiritual reality check read Alma 5! It totally lovingly rebukes you and it's awesome. Alma 5:14 - "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" I love it. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! Sorry for my scattered emails. Emailing is kinda stressful because there is just so much that goes on! Just know that all is well, and the work is progressing madly. And I love you.

I love the Lord. He knows us individually and it is the coolest thing. 

Love,

Sister Boren

PS- If you happen to have some spare mittens or hats please send them my way! :)

We had TONS of sisters at our apartment on Monday night because the Sister Training Leaders were going to Missionary Leadership Conference in Nashville that morning!

Sister Johnson and I. The worlds greatest missionary.

All of the trees froze! Everything around looked glassed over. Even the bushes! They looked like the candy land on willy wonka.

Our car was literally frozen solid. We rolled down the windows and had to punch out the ice! It was pretty fun. This was yesterday morning!

Last thing-

Sister Liebel and Allphin taught this guy and he is straight up from the south. 

He told them he was gonna get them "an redneck edge-um-uh-cation (education)" and the window is a "winder". "It's not Lah-faye-ette, its Luff-ay-utt (Lafayette Rd). I just had to share. There's "a mile" and "a mile yonder" apparently if they say "a mile yonder" you just keep going till ya find it and a mile is a mile. They also always say "I'm fixin to leave" or "I'm fixin to make some supper". It's cute. He's hilarious.

I thought you'd appreciate it! You grew up pretty redneck :)

I can't believe brance only got an hour to email when he was out! President just says however long, but we like to keep it 2 hours. Crazy. 

Sorry my brain is everywhere today. 

Love you mama!

Dec. 2, 2013--Hello Hello Hello

Ask me if I love my mission. I LOVE MY MISSION. 

So I forgot to tell you about when I went on an exchange with the CV1 sisters last week. They're teaching this guy named Abdule and he is Muslim so they have to be super careful. He wants to get baptized and he reads the Book of Mormon 2 hours a day and he also recognizes Jesus Christ as a Savior and Redeemer, not only a prophet, which is super cool! He has the coolest accent and he always says "that's deep man, that's deep" "you sistas would cry at some things I have seen" "things of that nature" "is sincere, is from da heart". He is so golden and you really can't help but love him. I thought I'd share that since I didn't last week! Never thought I would get the chance to teach someone that is Muslim.

Lots and lots has happened this week and we have found lots of new people to teach! Miracles galore. 

Thanksgiving was great! We went to the Neilsen's home and had dinner. Then President advised us to share 15 minute thanksgiving messages to families in our area so we did that! We shared Alma 34:38 about living in thanksgiving daily and how when we show gratitude and are continually looking at our blessings, we develop the Christlike attribute of humility. We also shared Luke 17 about the 10 lepers! Twas great. I'll send you pictures! 

We went over to Tabatha's the night after thanksgiving and one of the first things she says to us is "so I called my mother-in-law... and she has a plane ticket for the 14th" (slyly hinting that she is getting baptized, because he mother-in-law wanted to come to her baptism). Sister Gibson and I were so stoked. Tabatha is so excited too! She is just the best. I know I always say that, but she really is. Before she was saying how she can't be baptized on the 14th because we get our transfer calls that day and "God wouldn't let us leave" if she hadn't been baptized yet. Haha, I love it, but now she IS getting baptized so who knows. I get this feeling that Sister Gibson is leaving, which is real sad. We will just have to see! 

I don't have much time left, but I LOVED Dad's pictures from thanksgiving! I probably looked at them for 10 minutes each, haha! Keep being awesome and sharing the gospel with everyone!

Also, did you pick names for Christmas? Who is mine? I was always the one to set that up so not sure if you did or not because of the crazy weekend, but let me know! 

This gospel is so good. It is sooooo goooood. And I love the Lord.

Also, how great is it that we have a Prophet? Do you know what that means! A prophet of God! I didn't realize how SUPER cool that was until I came out here. I mean, I thought it was really cool, but now it's just really really really really cool. I'm a real nerd about gospel stuff now and it is my favorite. I don't think I'm capable to carry on a normal conversation without talking about it. Cool stuff!

Super scattered email, but that is just how it goes. Trust in the Lord and all is well. That is my motto for this past week. 

LOVE YALL! 

Love,

Sister Boren

Bad picture, but this is Sister Sympson, the Orrs, and the Dannenburgs (from left to right). The Orrs are like the CV2 missionaries parents. They're the best! 

Sister Hinds is probably my favorite person in the whole world. She's just the weirdest and it's great. 

Thanksgiving with the Neilsens!

 !

TABATHA'S GETTING BAPTIZED! It is a white Christmas indeed 

CV1 Sisters and us!

November 25, 2013 - YO

A few fun facts and rambles:

- It's snowing right now! Crazy huh. People from STG kept telling me that it gets 10x colder than Utah here, but I think it's about the same as Log-town. 

- Dad's handwritten letters are the BEST! Thanks pops! And thanks mom for yours this week :)

- Dad was asking about food I've eaten that's good (southern stuff) and I really haven't eaten much southern stuff. It's an army town here in clarksville so just a bunch of different cultures. We went to Cracker Barrel with a part member family the other day though and it was sooo good. So good. And Cheddars is super delicious too!

- Dad also asked what P-days are like: We clean from 630-7, eat and get ready from 7-8, study from 8-10, and then usually we go to the library to email around 10, then to walmart, then we go to the church and play basketball (yes, I play basketball now and I'm Sister Liebel's prodigy) or volleyball, or instead of doing that we do other fun things around town! Today was the best pday ever. I'll tell ya about it. Then after all that we eat dinner and go out at 6 to appointments and proselyte! P-days are holy days. Also, whoever said you wear street clothes on P-day was lying to you because you definitely don't. Unless you're playing games or something in the church or going hiking or something. 

- Whenever I say "Hi I'm Sister Boren!" People think I say "boring" and they thing they are the first people to ever think that. It's hilarious, it really is. Even the children say it! Even the children!

- "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard. It's a book and it's amazing. Read it!

- Dad, did you ever do role plays? We do them everyday, all the time.

- If yall see a cute simple watch that works, I would really love if you sent it my way! All of my watches are dumb.

- I hope all of my outdoors stuff is safe and sound :) I told Joe yall could go rock climbing with my stuff if you'd like! But just to put it back if ya could. Take pictures too!

- Have you seen the new Mormon Messages on mormonchannel.org? I love them and we teach with them sometimes.

- We are getting mini iPads in January! Cool huh! I think it replaces our area book and planner. 

I don't have much time! But I do have to share a HUGE miracle!!!

On Saturday we brought Brother Moss with us to an appointment at Mat and Tabatha's house. Bro Moss is super intelligent about church history and doctrine, but also a spiritual giant. Him and Mat got along really well right off the bat. Tabatha really opened up, Matt was able to tell us his REAL concern (he stopped coming to church when he was 18 and looked into a bunch of anti online and didn't have a desire any more) and Brother Moss has heard and seen most of the anti stuff and knows a ton about it so he was able to really help resolve his concerns with us. We talked a lot about how the BOM is evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he saw what he said he saw, and that all of the latter-day revelations are of God and that this church is Christ's restored church on the earth again today. It can all be answered if he just reads the book! Bro Moss went into depth about how all of it matches up. Bro Moss was once very very very less active. And now he's a church history genius. When we was less active, he knew that Joseph Smith couldn't write the book with only having a 3rd grade education level so he looked into a bunch of other conspiracy theories, but all of them could be proven wrong. And then, he just asked God, "which is what I should have done in the first place." I can't even describe how good this lesson was the spirit was so strong and just testifying to them like crazy! THE BOM IS EVIDENCE OF ALL OF IT! I love the gospel. Man. THEN, the best part, Matt said he was going to come to church. AND we set a date for Tabatha for the 14th of December! THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Tabatha was just glowing! So happy that he is showing desire to know truth and do the Alma 32:27 challenge (that's what I like to call it haha). She wants it so bad for her family! AND she wasn't intimidated by a date! That is HUGE! The spirit was working so strongly in that room it was nuts. I love it! We love them so much. Annnnnd! They came to church! Woooooooo! And THEN we went back last night to see how he liked it and if he recognized the spirit there and what not. He said, "I think I'll be coming back to church" with a big grin on his face and Sister Gibson and I just couldn't keep it in. We were so happy. I don't think I've ever been so happy. You just develop this huge christlike love for people and when they come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel, it is simply amazing. 

Also I was in the Primary Program. Weird huh!

I LOVE YOU GUYS! The church is true! 

Love, 

Sister Boren

PS- One month till Christmas. Weird.

I didn't have time to talk about P-day but it was the best P-day ever. I begged everyone to go hiking to a place where it was as terrainious (is that a word?) as it gets in these parts of TN and we DID!!! It was the best day ever. I loved my life.

We found a tree swing and it was awesome.

Nov. 18, 2013--THE ODDEST WEEK

Remember a couple weeks ago when I learned patience? This week I learned humility. All these Christ-like attributes coming at me fast! I feel really inadequate a lot, but I think that's part of being human. 

I don't have much time, but there's not much to report this week! I feel like I just talked to you because I emailed Wednesday haha it's awesome.

One of the people we contacted wants to take the lessons with her son so that is super exciting! 

We weren't able to reach Tab a lot this week, but we did go over there for Jada's 8th birthday! They want to get baptized together! Setting a date makes Tabatha back away, and she straight up told us that that's what made her drop us the first time. It's like walking on egg shells. She's still progressing though! Church was super awesome yesterday, and hopefully really hit home for her. She thinks she has to be perfect before she's baptized, but really it's just the first step! We're all learning. Always. She will come around, and we're right there when she does. The covenants that you make at baptism are so cool! And we just want her to have those, and have the Holy Ghost with her always so that she can have that extra strength. Mat, her husband, is the only person keeping her from taking that next step. It's real hard.

Sister Gibson called like 3 people to repentance yesterday. The spirit was so strong!!! Being bold and loving is real hard sometimes, but when the spirit is there, people's hearts are softened and they are ready to change for the better. And then when they do, they are so much happier! Repentance = change. Good change.

Also, this samoan family in our ward, the Nansen's, met us at this chinese buffet for dinner and they brought like 4 nonmember friends! And they are super bold, it's hilarious. "These are nonmembers and they are coming to church on sunday for the first time. Will you tell them about the Book of Mormon?" UH YES. That was easy. Turns out they've been pretty exposed to the church and one of the girl's dad is a bishop in Utah. What the what. Anyways, they all came to church and really liked it, especially the emphasis we place on the family. Super cool. Members are KEY in this work. 

One of my favorite quotes from conference:

"In 2 Nephi 31 the prophet Nephi teaches us that after we receive the same saving ordinance of baptism that Jesus Christ received and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we must “press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, [and then] behold, thus saith the Father: [We] shall have eternal life.”

Therefore, in order to receive the greatest of all the blessings of our Heavenly Father, which is eternal life, we must complete the appropriate ordinance work and then continue to keep the associated covenants. In other words, we must successfully endure.

Our ability to endure to the end in righteousness will be in direct proportion to the strength of our testimony and the depth of our conversion. When our testimonies are strong and we are truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, our choices will be inspired by the Holy Ghost, they will be Christ-centered, and they will support our desire to endure in righteousness. If our testimonies are weak and our conversion superficial, the risk is much greater that we will be enticed by the false traditions of the world to make poor choices." 

-Elder Richard J Maynes (The Strength to Endure - Gen Conf - Oct 2013)

Keep your covenants and you're pure gold in God's eyes! It reminds me of Character of Christ by Elder Bednar, when you are converted unto the Lord you cannot fall. And whilst keeping those covenants we are as happy as ever. We are on this earth to be tried and tested, but to also to be happy! "Life is to be enjoyed, not only to be endured." (President Gordon B Hinckley) In short, do all you can to find real happiness! The church is true! Love yall!

Love,

Sister Boren

Cute Jada on her "800th" (8th) birthday!  

I almost forgot. On Saturday I was jump roping hardcore for exercise and then I hit the curb just right and rolled my ankle. It popped 3 times and hurt real real bad. Now it's all swollen and I've got this nasty limp. Cursed with clumsiness. It was pretty funny though. "How did you do that?" "Jump roping.." Yep real embarrassing. 

Nov. 13, 2013 - I'm ALIVE!

Hello, hello my beloved family and friends!

I GOT MY PACKAGE!!! WOO! I loved it. The food was very crumbly, but it still tastes good, so I'm happy! Thank you mama!! You're the worlds greatest. I'm glad I could be a part of the wedding, food-wise :)

Wow. What a week. Monday was Veterans Day so the library was closed so we couldn't email. And then Tuesday we had zone conf so we couldn't email. And here we are! 

So Shelbs was supposed to get baptized this Saturday, but we can't fill the font because she was sick and couldn't come to church. AND we're not so sure she has completely stopped drinking coffee. HUGE bummer, but we will keep working with her. 

Frances has rededicated her life to the Baptist church, but she still reads the Book of Mormon and believes it's true so that's real awesome. She's about to hit the hay. We love her, but she's not all there in the head. I wonder what her preacher thinks about the Book of Mormon. Hmmm.

Kathy has a lot of health problems and is very swayed by what Frances does. So we will see about her. It's really sad when you see people's potential, but they don't read and pray and find out for themselves so we have to drop them. 

RAY! Is a new, and quite golden, investigator. He was a referral from a member (THE BEST!) and he has been looking into literally all the churches around these parts. Which is quite a heap of religions. He doesn't feel like he's found the one... because he hasn't... until now :) We taught him the restoration and he loved it. We committed him to baptism, but not a date. It went like this- "We're holding a baptismal service and we have been praying about a date for you. We know that you will be ready by November 30. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized on that date by someone holding the priesthood authority from God?" "You know, I really do have to say no. I really won't be in town that saturday." He is going to read and pray though. He will get baptized. He's so great. 

Reece is still so stubborn. He is a great guy though!  

Tabatha is so awesome! Her little girl is turning 8 today and we're going to talk to them about being baptized together on the same day! So great. They are such an amazing family. Mat is just putting doubts in Tabatha's mind! He's a very less active, but there's still something burning in there. I think he still has a testimony, it's just a little shaken.

Zach is another investigator that we are teaching. He is... an interesting child of God. What weird views he has. Apparently he is a classified sociopath? But! We're teaching him lesson 2 today! The Lord will soften his heart. He's eager to learn! So that's great.

A few less active families came to church this week!! WOO! 

The Lord is truly hastening his work and we can see that here in the TNM (Tennessee Nashville Mission - a hip acronym for us missionaries here).

I've realized that a mission just turns you in to a nerd of sorts. It's great! I love it. The scriptures are my best friends and my knees are permanently callused. 

Zone conference was like a personalized general conference. It. Was. Amazing. Elder Pino presided over the meeting, he's in the quorum of the 70. He is so cute. The spirit was so strong. He shook all of our hands at the beginning of the meeting (there were at least 120 missionaries there) and asked us where we were from and chatted a little bit. It was so cool. He is 100% called of God. He talked a lot about the building up of Zion and how each ward and each family in each ward should have a "vision" for missionary work. Like Elder Ballard said in GC (PS- Can you send me a copy of that Ensign? I would really love it!), "We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." Moroni 7:33, 37. Missionary work is never prideful (Alma 29:9) and never about the "numbers". Missionary work is bringing souls unto Christ and gathering Israel. We can all do that! Just by living up to your baptisimal covenants! That's all you have to do, and the Lord with accept and bless your efforts. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I'm just real passionate about this work! MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING EVERYWHERE. ITS SO COOL.

Elder Pino also talked a lot about our call letter and how special this time is to be a full-time missionary. He then took a missionary up front and acted like he was the stake president and the missionary was returning home and then he took off his name tags. It was reaaaaaall sad. At this point I was in tears because I really don't want that day to come. So glad I have 16 more months of this pure joy! Missionary work is such a blessing. I am grateful for every single day on my mission. There is nothing more happy than this work! Being exactly obedient reaps so many blessings. We also received a new booklet called "Adjusting to Missionary Life" and it is super good. It covers pretty much all of the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual stresses of missionary work and how to overcome them with the Lord. Good stuff!

I love my Savior. I love each one of you and pray for you daily. I am so grateful for your letters and emails, and even just the knowledge of your support. 

Love,

Sister Boren

PS- I'm getting reeeeaal fat. Help. My zone leader has gained like 60 lbs while being here and he always says, "there's just sooo much more of me" and now I feel that way. Except I haven't gained 60 lbs. Let's hope that never ever happens! Sorry. Tangent. 

PSS- Dad I got your second letter ever! If you want mail to come faster this address is good to send to until like Dec 11. It's 1250 Verkler Dr Apt G. Clarksville, TN 37042. That goes for everyone else too!

Grandma shirts for life

 Yay!  Package finally came! (This was like an hour ago)

NOV. 4, 2013--NO TIME NO TIME

HI HI HI!

I don't have much time this week but I read all of your emails and I LOVED them. I know I always say this, but it really is like Christmas hearing from y'all. I will reply back individually next week I swear! Make sure to update me on this week too though :) Also I got Natty's package and I literally started crying when I got it. HA! I loved it so much. Thanks Natty. First package ever!

I have to share a miracle real quick with you!

So on Tuesday we knocked on Tabatha's door (Sis Gibson/Sis Stucki's investigator that dropped them) and no one answered so we walked back home. Then that night she texts us and asks if we came by earlier and we said yes and then she said she had a great story to tell us and to come by Thursday! So we were super stoked. We went to write it in our planners and SHE WAS ALREADY IN THERE!! In the same spot that she said we could come by! We had put her in as a "maybe" appointment for weekly planning and then we go to write it in and on that same time on that same day we had already penciled her in. MIRACLES. Then we went to her house and she told us the great story. Tabatha used to be into some pretty hard drugs and this guy came by trying super hard to get her to buy some drugs and he even offered them for free and she kept saying no. Finally, she slammed the door on him. She said that she just kept walking around her house thinking, "I need church, I need to pray, I need to read, I need the sisters" over and over again. THEN, 20 minutes later, she hears another few knocks and doesn't answer (thinking it's the drug dealer). But afterwards she was thinking, I bet that was the sisters. So she texted us and IT WAS! And it's CRAZY because we weren't planning on seeing her that day, but we felt like we should, even though it was at an inconvenient time. And then that whole miracle happened with seeing her again on Thursday and it was just crazy. We were all in awe and just kept talking about how that was such a miracle and how that was God telling her to get baptized. She already knows it's true! Satan just got to her pretty bad. She said, "I am going away from the thing that gave me strength." She is so golden. She had a date for baptism but that scared her and she felt very pressured. So we are still working with her! She's awesome. Super cool though, huh?

Cannot believe it is already November. Crazy. Time flies!

I love this work. It's amazing. God is so good. The church is so true it's nuts.

Yall should read "A word for the hesitant missionary" by Uchdorf. It talks about the simple things we can do to be member missionaries always!

Make sure to share the good word with someone this week! I love you guys so so much!

Love,

Sister Boren

My mom and sister

Sister Gibson got a Halloween Package

My district! They're the BEST!!

SO COOL. I talk about trees all the time because they're super cool! Sister Gibson thinks I'm weird, but now she talks about trees all the time too! It's great. 

October 28, 2013-He is Simply, ALWAYS There

Hi fam, and friends. Hi.

So this week... man oh man. This week was full of patience! And lots of learning experiences. Yep. 

Tuesday and Thursday I took over Sister Gibson and I's area which was super awesome. I really loved it. Sister Gibson and I get along very well! But her and I have different perspectives of what efficiency is. Anyways, on Tuesday I just blew 66 miles. Straight into the trash can. Not really though, we saw tons of people, but it was just really funny because I had no idea we went that many miles. We went tons of places and NO ONE was home. We stayed positive though! We contacted a lot of RCLA's this week and also found more potentials so that's awesome. On Thursday we committed Shelby, Kathy, Francis, and Angel to baptism on November 16! Woo!! Long story short, Kathy and Shelby are still good to go but Frances and Angel definitely aren't. We are still working with them, but Frances pretty much dropped us and Angel has an interesting situation. Maybe I'll tell yall about it post-mission :) KATHY IS SO GOLDEN THOUGH. Ah! It's hard to just teach Kathy by herself though. She's so great. Shelby just needs to get off coffee and tea and she is so ready. We will be working with them a lot this week!

We've been walking a lot because we have a total of zero miles for the rest of the month, so we have been finding lots of investigators that way! I think we should have a day every week where we walk everywhere and call it a "finding" day. Because it isn't efficient if you have lots of set appointments, but it IS when you're in the finding stages of things! I like it. 

We had our halloween party for our ward this past week! It was awesome! ALL of our investigators and less actives that we invited came!!!!!!! Woo!! One of our investigators even brought her friends family! It was a great turn out. I wish we had more events like this in our ward where we could all come together. It's really great for the missionaries but probably not on the budget :) 

I have had a total of zero monies left for the past week or so (and for the rest of the month of October). So that's the pits. We have $33 a week for all food and other items so it gets tight pretty fast. Oh well! I'm learning how to budget the hard way haha. 

Emails are really hard, especially when you forget your journal because the weeks just fly by and you can't really remember things very well! Just know that I am happier than I've ever been! I've never had such a personal relationship with my father in heaven. He is simply always there. Always. "Be still and know that I am God." - Psalms 46:10. That scripture, beside my patriarchal blessing, has given me so much strength. 

YOU GUYS. The Holy Ghost is so real. He is almost tangible. The spirit that is felt when we are in lessons is unreal. Heavenly Father is so close to us and he yearns for His children to know of His church and I have witnessed that love countless times already. 

God lives and loves. We are sons and daughters of God. LITERALLY! It's amazing! He aches for us when we feel sad, and he rejoices when we find peace and rest in Him. He has provided us with a way to experience eternal joy and progress to become like Him in this life! In and through Jesus Christ! Our Savior and Redeemer who atoned for all sins and, not only that, but helps enable us to do good! He suffered for all pain, sadness, discouragement, fear, nervousness, and grief. He KNOWS how we feel. He makes all unfair things fair. And he does not leave us alone in times of trial and discouragement. I know that Joseph Smith, through divine orders from our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ, restored Christs church on the Earth in this dispensation for the last and final time. I know that angel Moroni appeared to Joseph and revealed to him where the gold plates were to be found and how he were to translate them. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God!!! And it cannot be denied if one repeatedly reads all of it's pages and prays about it. I know that Thomas S Monson is our living prophet today and that he is literally a mouthpiece for God and receives direct revelation from Him. I know that prayer is essential. Not only just the act of praying, but the willingness to accept our answer from Him whether we like it or not! I love this gospel. I see the joy it brings to people. I testify of it's truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, Amen.

There are 3 talks that I want all of you to read (or preferrably watch) and report back to me on them if you did! I know they have strengthened my testimony and can do so to yours as well.

1. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/joseph-smith-prophet-of-the-restoration?lang=eng&query=joseph+smith+prophet+of+the+restoration

2. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng&query=the+first+great+commandment

3. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng&query=book+of+mormon

4. (just for kicks - this one is awesome too) http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/converted-unto-the-lord?lang=eng&query=converted+unto+the+lord

I LOVE YOU GUYS! Hearing from you all is like Christmas! 

Love,

Sister Boren

Just your average greenie hyped up on life!

October 21, 2013-A taste of the SOUTH

HAPPY MARRIAGE TO BRANCE AND ASPEN!! I took my sweet time looking through some of the pics mom sent. I teared up a little bit because I just love you guys a lot! I wish I could have been there, but I'm happy to be here. I thought about you two all day on Saturday. So happy for you. The sealing must have been beautiful! I love that I preach about the plan of salvation and then I see you two making those covenants together and being sealed! It's all part of the eternal plan and it is so so happy. I know you know that which just makes it that much better. The man upstairs is so proud! Ah, I could talk about it all day.

This week has been pretty good! We are seeing the fruits of our labor, which is always just really great. We still need to find lots and lots of people to teach. Slowly, but surely, we are building up our teaching pool.

We are teaching this older lady named Shelby. She is so great. She knows it is all true, but she doesn't really understand the power and authority part of it and why we need the priesthood authority to be baptized. She wants to get baptized though, but she has a problem with drinking tea and coffee. So we gave her a plan so she can stop and we are hoping that she follows through with it. Her date for her baptism is November 9th! But it isn't set in stone yet. Mosiah 7:33 is the scripture we gave her for when it gets really hard! It's a good one. I mean, the whole purpose of the Word of Wisdom is to not be dependent (in bondage) on a substance for everyday life and also so we can always be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost so I think it will help her. Shelby is so easy to love!

We had lunch with a member and a potential investigator (Nelly). It was good, but all of their kids were being super loud and it was hard to have a conversation. We talked about The Family: A Proclamation to the World and how our prophet gave us this 20 years ago, when the family wasn't being tried as much as it is today, which is just a testimony of how the Lord prepares us for the future with prophets. Amos 3:7!

We went and saw Wendy this week too, still having her watch clips on lds.org and reading her scriptures. The language barrier is TOUGH.

One of our less-actives (Sis Jackson) is kind of like a foster parent, but she only takes kids for like a week or less, and she had 3 kids over when we went to teach her so we taught them the restoration. We have this awesome visual with cups, so we did that and taught them and cleared up a bunch of weird rumors. It's hilarious what people think about "the mormons". It was a great lesson though, and they're reading the Book of Mormon chapters we give them. Their names are Dominick, Alex, and Ally. The spirit was definitely there. It's a bummer though because they go back to their foster parents so we gave their information to the church and the missionaries over in Murfreesboro should be contacting them soon. They're about as golden as can be!

Sister Gibson is a sister missionary training leader now so we do exchanges every single week. So Wednesday and Thursday I went to Princeton, KY with Sister Carson (the girl mom and I met at Cafe Rio right before I left). It was great! Kentucky is a BEAUTY. Green as can be and just the best small towns ya ever did see. And Sister Carson and I get along/teach together really well. On Wednesday we went to a Christian care center and talked to this lady about the Plan of Salvation. We saw a bunch of investigators that day too which was awesome. I especially loved visiting Judy and Kristen. We talked to Judy about prophets and cleared up questions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We told her to watch the Prophet of the Restoration! It's a good video that is a good faith builder. ALSO, Elder Hollands talk "Safety for the Soul". That one is also super awesome. The spirit was there and she has so much faith! She will get baptized soon. We went and saw Kristen and read Moroni 7 and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson 3) and it was so powerful. The spirit was so strong and you could tell that she just knows! We committed her to baptism on November 2. OH! That day we also had dinner at a penticostal church. They were super nice to us but kind of offensive haha. It's hard not to get frustrated with people. "Where ya from? Out west?" "Did you go to BYU?" "Do you live in Salt Lake?" HILARIOUS. Yes, no and no. Nice people though. They had this weird presentation on dogs, but it's cool.

On Thursday, I was still with Sister Carson and we went to see lots of people but the BEST was Clarence and Betty! Clarence talks and acts like the main guy on Mary Poppins. His smile is the sweetest thing. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it. He is a preacher for a nondenominational church, just conquered cancer, and is as jolly as can be. The best part of the lesson was when he realized that in the bible it talks about the Book of Mormon and how he always wondered what that was! It's Ephesians 37: 15-19 I believe. It talks about the stick of Judah -- the Bible -- and the stick of Joseph -- the Book of Mormon. We weren't even talking about that, and he just said, "Wait I get it!! The stick of Joseph!! This is the stick of Joseph!" It was. AWESOME. He's still reading out of the Book of Mormon every day and he just loves it. That night we ate probably the best meal I have ever had on my mission from Sister Airens. It was great! It reminded me of moms cooking :) I miss those dinners! They live in the most beautiful place in Kuttawa, KY. Right by Kentucky and Barkley lakes near Land Between the Lakes -- a recreation area here. I loved it. Except what I didn't love was how every single house had the worst stench of cigarette smoke. It was so bad. I had the worst headaches. The ONLY house we went into that didn't smell like that was a members and a recent converts. It was.. great. Positive attitude was necessary.

Wow this is a long email.

On Friday we exchanged back! We went and saw Kathy and Francis and their friend Angel was there too! They are new investigators and just the sweetest ladies in the world. We taught them the restoration! It wasn't the best lesson ever, but that is alright. The spirit was definitely there. They came to sacrament on sunday too!! They felt comfortable and it was a great meeting. We'll see them again tomorrow. That night we went to this house and met a guy named Tony. At first he was like "I don't believe what you believe and that John Smith and all that." "And what's that that you don't believe?" "You know just.." They usually don't really know anything about us. It's pretty funny. So we talked to him about where the BOM originated from (a LOT of people think Joseph Smith wrote the book because that's what their pastors tell them) and also the truthfulness of it. Shared 2 Nephi 25:26. It was good! We prayed and his attitude towards us changed like night and day. The next day he drove past us and waved to us like crazy, it was awesome.

On Saturday we taught people near our apartment on foot. We went to this house that we had given a BOM to a couple weeks previous (he was a preacher for the Baptist church) and knocked their door. We asked him if he read the BOM and what he thought. He was happy to see us again! He's super nice. We're going to talk to him about some of the doctrinal differences in our churches because he just doesn't know anything about us and he wants to for "additional study", but really he's going to pray about it and get baptized. So that will be cool :)

Sunday we saw less actives and also the Cannons. The Cannons are really hard because they talk your ear off about things that don't really pertain to their eternal salvation haha. So we have to direct everything back to the gospel and it is hard. They have 3 kids and getting a set appointment with Chris to teach him is HARD. So finally we just went over and asked him again if we wants to take the lessons and that is why we are here is to teach him. He said he would think about it and we gave him a Restoration pamphlet to help him decide. Camilla wants it so bad! It's hard that way with families. We just keep praying. I can just see how the gospel will bless them and it kills me. 

President always tells us to "see them in white" when we knock doors or see investigators-- meaning see them in white for baptism, and for going through the temple and being sealed. It's amazing how, when you look at it that way, your love grows like mad for them. I love these people!

While I was in Kentucky there were a lot of southern-isms that I was exposed to, such as:

1. The Book of Mormon is sometimes referred to as "da book-a narman". HILARIOUS. We always call it that now and it is quite possibly my favorite thing. 

2. Joseph Smith = John Smith

3. EVERYONE smokes except for active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4. Dinner = Supper

5. Fried chicken. All day long. 

6. NO TEETH. None. Just straight gums and cigs.

7. No need to bathe. Personal hygiene just doesn't exist.

8. Kentucky = where hoarders first began.

9. Everyone believes that it doesn't matter what religion you go to because God governs all of them. I don't think they understand that there are very important doctrinal differences, but they don't really care.

10. Education isn't even a thing. 

11. And so so many others.

I gotta go, but I love you guys. So much. Please photoshop my face into the wedding pics ;)

Love,

Sister Boren

SORRY for the HUGE email. I just kept going. WHOOPS.