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.