I've got a story for you (week 5)

Hello Everyone!

Elder boren over here, or down here. It has been another full week, full of excitement and interesting adventures in Warnbro Australia. I have finally gone through my first full week while out on the mission, plus some more time. Every day has been one to remember, and my companion would always say, "Never a boring day with Elder boren"  which has become quite true. Even directly after sending those emails last week, adventure was waiting for us, I just had to stumble upon it.

Speaking of that, I believe it is story time, and golly what a story we have today. After the emails from last week, and going shopping, as well as playing with some of the elders in the zone (We played some touch rugby) we returned to our flat to finish off the day. While my companion was taking one of his famously long showers, I was doing some cleaning around in the house and finishing up some laundry. I noticed a console on the side of the wall, and it had been flashing for some time, so my curiosity took hold. I had committed a grave error. Upon investigating the console the alarms for our flat went off, so much so that the walls were in every sense screaming at us. Due to the intense noise and finding out we can't return to the flat without tripping them off again, we had to retreat to a safer area.

After a time of waiting for support from the housing agency, we decided to call for aid from our zone leaders. We then risked the noise collecting some things and waited for the zone leaders to pick us up. We stayed at their flat for the night which was good fun. After a rough night sleep we had to return to our area, and found that the system was still active. We then decided to do some travelling around. Visit some of the investigators we had, as well as do some tracking. It wasn't tell 3 in the afternoon that we were able to walk back into our flat. We now have the code for the system in case it goes off once more. That is the end of that wonderful story.

We also got to meet with a brother of one of investigators that we were trying to work with, and we discovered that he was very prepared to hear the gospel. He openly told us that he broke up with his girlfriend, because he didn't feel right doing such actions before marriage. So he's now living the law of chastity without ever hearing about it. He is very open to feeling the spirit, and he's looking for more of it within his life. On a follow up meeting with his brother we found that the two of them read the scriptures together, which is awesome. We have both of them on baptism dates, and we'll continue to work on them.

Speaking on those two while doing some visits to our investigators and heading over to their place, we noticed some people at their door talking to them. Having no idea who they were we investigated and walked over. After a bit of talking they came out and told us that they were Jehovah's witnesses. So we talked for a bit longer, and soon left them be. We then returned the next day and talked with the brother, and he was un-phased by them. Now we have an appointment set with them on Tuesday. (Our Tuesday).

Also this week by bike broke so, we had to do walking all this week, which wasn't too bad. It was all for the better as I got a nicer bike from it and we got to do some exploring as we went around.

This was stake conference and we were able to go to both the Saturday and Sunday sessions. Both of which were a bit of a drive. The talks given were awesome for both days, and I was able to take notes through out both of them. It was awesome as well because I was able to meet a missionary from Scotland, which was just amazing. He has become a god friend of mine just from these past  three days. Also from that I met with some members who were also from Scotland that were looking for them. It was just a great all around Scottish experience. I'm going to keep in contact with him throughout my mission, as he is only 6 months in.

We also had zone conference which was just as good as stake conference. President fife spoke at both conferences and all of his comments and talks were great. We were able to meet up with a number of other zones as three zones gathers for the conference. I was able to meet some missionaries and see the ones I came here with.

Also to finish off I saw a kangaroo last week, and just yesterday I saw two camels and two llamas. (We saw those because there was a circus near the conference). So beat that Florida missionaries.

Hope everything is going okay back at home. I saw the reports of the hurricane from one of the members. I was worried at first, but when they told me which direction it was going, and that it wasn't heading home I was relieved. Stay safe, hopefully it doesn't get worse, by all accounts it shouldn't. Pictures on the way by the way.

Let me know what's going on over there in the land of the free. The emails you send me are quite dull, that's not the life you all live. Give me the thrill of a texas life. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Love,

Elder boren  

In the land down under (week 3-4)

Hey Everyone

I have finally arrived here in the land Down under. After a day and sometime I have landed in Australia and the place I shall be serving for the next two years of my life. So far its pretty nice here in Australia, the weather is cool but not overly cold, it's actually quite nice over all, though my companion takes it as cold. Then again he's from Florida. So far it has rained on me twice here, two days in a row, though I'm pretty sure its rained everyday. Only we were caught in the rain twice.   

Now I have been assigned my first area and first companion, my trainer. I am serving in the Warnbro area which is a small town not far from Perth. I've been told its one of the smallest areas in the mission, and I can understand why they say it. There's a few neighbourhoods within it, but its no huge area, we bike around or take Public Transport to get everywhere. We sometimes use the Zone Leaders to drive us around cause they have a car.

The flat is pretty nice, but in Australia they don't have insolation so we can't have the a/c or heater on all day. Only whenever we get home can it be on. So it can get pretty cold in our flat, though it's not too bad, its just the cold tile floor. I have nominated myself has the dishwasher as my companion doesn't believe in cleaning the dishes all the way, hopefully i'll be able to teach him while I still have him.

Speaking of my companion he is elder Daniels and as far as we know i'll be his last companion as he has only 2 transfers left on his mission. So far he has only served in 3 areas and had only 10 companions including me and the mtc companion. We found out that me and him have a lot in common as we both aspire to be writers once we return. And were both small skinny nerds, so things are going swell with me and him. He is also the district leader here, with the zone leaders also in our district as well, so you could say I have friends in high places. We even had the zone leaders over for dinner, where we had the traditional roost Sundays. 

So far the missionary experience has been pretty nice overall. It's been good to meet up with people here in aussie land. There are only a few full blood Australians around, as most are from the islands around here and New Zealand.  As such the area here in west Australia is really growing in development as the nation is starting to build up. Its quite nice all around, glad I'm not in the city or banishment, yet.

I haven't been able to teach a lesson yet, but we've been doing some tracking and visiting trying to work on some investigators and inactives around in our area. Though I've been able to get a lot of practice with my trainer and we've been working together in preparation of the up and coming lessons. So far I've really grown to love the people down here, most of the ones that open their doors to us, and the members are real nice, and their accents are great. Though there is only one true aussie in the ward, and hes the best.

Hope everything in going well up there in the usa and all around. Let me know how things are going, I would love to hear about it all. Theres not much I would like or nothing I could really think of. Getting those church history tracks would be great if it was possible, but over all some mail and such would be awesome. I'll be writing around this time every week so keep that in mind.

Hope everything is going well with you all.

Here are some pictures I was able to get. Elder daniels is my trainer, him being the skinny dark spiky haired missionary. Then there is Elder Aldus that is one of the zone leaders who stole my camera and took at selfie. The other elder is Elder Torrie he is the other zone leader. They came by on Sunday as we were having roost Sunday at our flat. I'll go into more details in the main email. 

Love,

Elder Boren.

I'll be leaving Monday to Austrailla (week 2)

And so my last full week here at the MTC is over. I shall be leaving
for Perth, Australia Monday at 3:20 Pm. I'll arrive at Perth on
Wednesday. We'll be flying out there during the night, so hopefully we
can just sleep through the whole thing. I'm also the travel leader for
the Perth missionaries heading out. There's 10 of us, four of which
are apart of our district. I wanted to head out as soon as I got the
info, but I'm glad we didn't cause Elder Bendar decided to visit on
Sunday and do a Q&A for us on the talk Character of Christ. We also
got visited by Jenny Oaks Baker, and family on Sunday. It was a
concert devotional. Then this last Tuesday Elder Sitati of the seventy
came by with his wife and spoke to us. All of them were great
devotionals

We finished up with our TRC's from last week, and got new ones. Last
time we were pretty sure that they were already Mormon and are just
pretending to be investigators. This week we got two new ones, and we
believe they're 100% investigators. One were totally certain as she
pulled the middle finger out, and swore during our discussion (never
at us). Our first lesson with her we just talked with her trying to
get to know her. She liked us because we weren't pushing down another
lesson at her, but rather talking to her. We knew a lesson wouldn't
work as she has probably been through it all at byui as well as her
parents. The second lesson we decided to do a discussion based lesson,
where we'd just focus on read a scripture and talking about some
things it says. This went a whole lot better then the first. She was
actually sad when her timer to kick us out went off, we only have 25
minutes with her. All in all she's an interesting investigator.

It's been a pretty good week as of yet. I was able to find a
replacement alarm clock, as a elder left it behind when they left to
the mission, I also got a bunch of candy from them. Now we are the
eldest elder in the residence. The weird thing is that we've been
pretty quiet in the residence, but this last night was the loudest
from us yet, but it was fun. During my free time (while we're waiting
on teacher, ponder time, and at night) I've been doing some writing.
I'm working with the elders, creating a character for each of them,
cantered around a small town. It's been pretty fun coming up with
ideas and such. No need to make up names as I just use their own
names.

Other then that I don't think there's anything else to report. Haven't
got a email from Riley yet, so I don't have his email. Also I would
love it if I could get Alderedge and TC email, that'll be swell. Hope
everyone is having a good week so far. I'll see you all later in
Australia.

Love,
Elder Boren


Jacobs email jacob.boren@myldsmail.net

Learning the ropes (week 1)

                                                          This morning at the Temple

Hello everyone,

I'm here at the mtc sending you this email. So far it has been a great
week. There has been so much that has happened since i left not too
long ago. It has been full of fun times and some not as fun times.
Overall i would say that it has been a good week. I have less then two
weeks before i depart out towards my mission. Now lets go through the
events since I've arrived.

Day one- The first day was an interesting one. I was waiting at the
airport for sometime before we would begin loading. As i was waiting i
met with another Elder, He'll be heading out to around the same time
as me, though he'll be learning Spanish, and he's going to Florida. So
far I've seen him once since we parted ways back at the airport. I
then was transported to the MTC were I found my room, and meet my
first companion, Elder Nelson. Then we went through the weekly welcome
for the MTC and met my branch, zone, and district.

Day two- On day two went went through our classes meeting with our
teachers, it was also then we would find out that our P-day won't be
until a week. I found out there was another Elder Boren in the MTC,
and he has the same first name as me, which is weird as I get his
email and some of his mail. He gets more emails then me. I also got a
package of donuts from some relatives I didn't know I had. I don't
have the names on me, but I'll get them to you. I thought it was for
the other me, but it had my mission, so it was certain.

Day three- this day was a long day with a lot of empty gaps and mainly
class time, that won't change until the next week, or this week. Now I
know how to get around and what's needs to be done as the day
progresses.

Day Four- This day was like until Friday. Almost the same with
schedule, with a few differences. As I go along I get more used to the
system of it all, making it easier as time progresses.

Day five- This day would probably be the best day out of the days that
I've been here at the MTC so far. The earlier part of the day was
centred around church. Afterwards we had ponder time which we were
told to not study, but rather relax. We didn't have a class to go to
during, but the next week would be more open for relaxation. At night
we are able to hearing from people speaking at the MTC. This Sunday it
was brother and sister Priday. They had really good talks. One of the
best parts of the day was after the talks we had time to watch a talk
of our choice or two movies. We were told to watch the character of
Christ by Elder bednar, and it was a life changing talk. If you can,
find it and read/watch it. It is truly amazing.

Day six- This day was the first true day of MTC training. On this day
we would finally begin our practice meeting with investigators or
Trc's as they are called. One of them fell through for some reason but
we were able to meet with the other. It went well by my accounts. We
also had some worrisome news, as one of the elders in our district was
having family issues and would be leaving the next day. We also found
out that another elder had a shoulder problem which also forced him to
return home.

Day seven- This was another relaxing day, but not as mild as Sunday
was. We had only one class this day, normally we would have two, and
we get to hear from someone else later at night. We also didn't meet
with the investigators as it wasn't scheduled.

Day eight- on Wednesday it was back to the daily grind, but this time
we had another companion among our companionship. So we are now a
trio. This happened due to the Elder leaving the day before. This day
was also one of our best day, so far, with the TRC's and it was a
great experience, one of them we were able to set a baptismal date
which is pretty good.

Day Nine- Day nine is our Pday so every Thursdays, I don't know if
this'll carry on for my mission but it'll stick until I leave, which
will be on a Wednesday morning. Today we were able to do laundry as
well as emails as I am doing now. We also went to the nearby temple
for a district endowment session. It was okay, didn't really go that
well for me. I also lost my CTR ring which is a bummer, cause I really
liked that ring. Wish I still had it.

So that was my week here in the MTC plus a little bit extra. I'm
interested in how I'm able listen to the music from the USB. I was
told to burn it unto disc and use a CD player, if there is another
way, do share. If the cd is the way to go I would love to get those
church history discs to listen to. If you have any questions send them
my way. I will be sending mom and dad a email over some things I'm
missing and could use.


I'll see you later