Week 2

From: Collin Boren
Date: Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 9:21 AM
Subject: 2 Weeks

Talofa lava!

O a mai outou? (How is everyone doing?)

How is everyone? How was the 24th? Were the fireworks good? How about the parade? Dad I'm glad that you got the hay stacked and I'm sorry about your tire. How is Jake doing? I miss him a lot! Mom what did you do to crack your ribs! I'm going to have to whip you if you do that again! Andrea how has hanging out with Chanse and the family been? Angela told me that you did horrible in bowling lol! She said that you got a 64! What? You're also lucky I'm not there to beat you in ping pong! LOL JK! I hope the farm is doing well and I miss it a lot! I wish sometimes I could take a break and go for a tractor ride or something but for some reason they won't let me ha ha.

I have done a lot here in the MTC lately. We have done lots of things and we study and go to class all day! I'm starting to get more used to them, they aren't as long as they used to be. This week our districts goal is 'Exact Obedience'! They have been hammering us hard on the subject and my teacher showed us a tuesday night devotional talk by Elder Holland. It was probably one of the best talks I have ever heard and the best talk I have ever heard on missionary work. You could tell he meant every word and it was a very amazing opportunity he had. He was the first of his family to go on a mission so he had no idea how to prepare. He said when he first walked off the plane he felt sorry for his mission president, because he knew that president had a lot to work with. He said every good thing that has ever happened to him has come because of his mission. He said that he wouldn't be anywhere near where he is today without his mission. In his powerful testimony he stated so many times my mission was EVERYTHING TO ME. A couple of times he would stop in the middle of the sentence and start to say whoever is thinking about leaving there mission, don't! I won't let you, I'll do whatever I have to make you stay. I'll talk to you all day today and tomarrow if I have to to make you stay. He the church won't feel bad if one missionary leaves, but it will ruin your life knowing that you could have finished your mission and thinking what if...? Anyways It was a powerful testimony and it helped me a lot! We have been getting a lot done in our companionship studies! We have been reading preach my gospel and all the scriptures in the chapters and it is helping us to learn together what we need to do to become better missionaries. Every night I read a page in the english preach my gospel and a samoan preach my gospel and my companion is making sure I am pronoucing my words correctly and explaining to me the meaning of words. Then we read a few pages in Jesus the Christ and since I have read a lot of it I can explain to him the meaning of the passage. It is good to help each other and I know that a companion is necessary in this work, even though it is a pain sometimes. I've realized that two testimonies are much more powerful than one and we are learning a lot from when we teach. We are starting to get to just know what the other person is going to do and then we help solitify what the other person is saying is true. We have had really really easy investigators and then we have had pretty hard ones. It's good to get to practice on all different sorts of personalities. We had our first TRC last week and that was a teaching experience that we have in a room that looks like a living room all by ourselves. It went pretty well, then we had a language task and I understood some of the things the lady was saying but I had a hard time picking it up lol. But I know if I keep trying that I will get better. I have learned a lot already here in two weeks! I am so thankful for everything you have all done for me. You all helped me to become a better person and helped me be able to be here. I know that this is where my Lord wants me and I am going to try my best to prepare for my mission here. I know that if I do it his way and be humble that he will help me touch the lives of the people in Samoa. I know that the people there will probably touch my life as well. I know that I was called by God to go there and for some reason I am suppose to be in that particular mission. Thanks for all of your prayers! I can feel them, especially when I'm learning and I've been able to learn quickly. I want you all to know that you are in my prayers and I want nothing but the best for you! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for anyone of you! I mean that! You all mean so much to me! Sorry my letters probably seem really scrambled but I am trying to get everything written before the time limit expires. Anyways the language study has been coming along pretty well! I have learned so much here compared to before! It helped though since I worked on pronouncing words that I didn't have to take too much time to get that down. The hardest thing so far is the sentence structure. There is two different structures. One for is you have a subject and an object that is doing something, and one if you need a preposition in it. In a way I like it but it's also hard because you have to get two different sets of pronouns down! Which is hard. We have a program called TALL, which helps us listen to native Samaon speakers and we get to practice our pronounciation. It is very helpful! My testimony is growing too! Ha who knew that spending all day everyday on the gospel would do that! It's nice to get to learn so much and when I read the scriptures it seems like so many things are popping out and screaming at me! LOL it's awesome! I know that my Savior lives and guides this church today! I know that our prophet Thomas S. Monson was called of God! I know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I need to live up to that! I love you all and wich you the best! Love u

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Elder Boren