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.

OCTOBER 14th-Trusting in the Lord

Hello family and friends! Thank you for your emails. I love love love hearing from you.

This week has been good. Still finding people to teach. Missions are hard, but all is well! There isn't much to report, but I will do my best!

Last Monday was a 1/2 p-day because we had zone meeting and zone p-day on Thursday. We saw lots of less actives and also this Chinese lady that we always drop in and say hi to. There is definitely a language barrier, but we showed her the Mandarin-Chinese lds.org and she is going to watch some of general conference. We went and saw the Gaitens too. We found them knocking doors and made a return appointment. It was probably the most awkward moment in mission history. But that's what you do as missionaries, embrace the awkwardness! It was great, but they aren't interested.

Tuesday we had Sister Brady with us because the ZL's and Sister Missionary Training Leader's had MLC. Threesomes are always super weird, but it was great! She is awesome. I'm not sure if I ever told you this but we have skills every Tuesday Thursday. It's pretty much doing lots of role plays and helping us progress as missionaries! It's great. We don't start proselyting until about 1 or 2 though. We saw less actives and also this girl Sarah. Made a return appointment with her for this week! Then we were asked to help the Young Women with their member missionary activity. It was super cute! They all had name tags and they "went to the MTC" and "had p-day" and gave us referrals. It was awesome! We taught them about PMG and the importance of it. Members are so key in missionary work, it's crazy. So much success comes from working with the members!! Give the missionaries your referrals :) and go with them if you can! I know that helps us a ton.

Wednesday we helped some people move, visited less actives, and also went to the Cannons to visit Camilla and Chris. Both investigators! They're great. We're hoping to set a baptisimal date for Chris this week. It's super hard because everyone has a problem with the Word of Wisdom here! They just need to trust in the Lord! We have this stop smoking workshop and it has like 12 steps you do for 7 days and it is guaranteed that you can stop smoking if you follow it to a T. Cool huh? Super cool.

Thursday we had zone meeting and zone pday in Hopkinsville!! SUPER fun. President and Sister Anderson were there actually. They're great. Our spiritual cups were just overflowing. For Zone p-day we went to DQ and played tennis and basketball! It was a blast. Seriously. I love tennis. My District Leader plays so it was so fun. And Sister Liebel taught me how to play basketball so I am professional now. We also saw April Catlaw that night! A really good potential we have right now! She's super nice. Can't wait to visit with her again.

Friday we went to a fair in Princeton! Just proselyted in the booth! It was good. We were stationed right outside the Cadiz Baptist Church so that was super hilarious. We went with the ZL's and this super sweet old man in our ward Bro Angel -- his last name is literally Angel. We met other missionaries there! Including Sister Carson that mom and I met at Cafe Rio in STG! Super cool. That night we saw LA's!

Saturday was just the same! Lots of less actives! And lots of appointments fell through.

Sundays are always crazy as a missionary. But it was good! That night we had supper at the Wheelers. It was.. SUPER GROSS. Fake salmon flavored patties. The weirdest. They're the cutest though and so missionary minded, I love it! Great people. We also saw a potential and the McMillans (less active).

Wow. Sorry for the travel log. I just started and couldn't stop haha! But now you know what I do! Missions are great. It was a pretty good week! we have quite a few potential investigators so we have set some high goals for ourselves this week and I'm excited to exceed them :) That's cheesy, but I'm so serious right now. 

Missions/life is all about trusting in the Lord. He will truly help us through everything. Gaining that trust is only obtained by CPR (church, pray, read) and living what you have been taught from church, scripture, and personal revelation.

I love you all!! You are great examples to me. Thank you for always being there for me growing up and for all of your prayers. We have the best family ever!!

We did service in the morning, so we brought clothes to change into for afterwards because we had an appointment. As I am changing I realize that I definitely forgot shoes. Kiddin me! So I had to wear my bright tennis shoes to our appointment. It. Was. Hilarious. 

Clouds are super pretty here. This is in Hopkinsville. Its very very green here and I love it! This picture doesn't give it justice!

Also, we drive a super nice car. A new jetta! And long story short it's a full-time car! Neat huh!

Also, also, I finally lost my toe nail! I thought about sending a pic but then I decided against it :) you are welcome.

Love,

Sister Boren