Happy Not-so-Springtime-in-Boston!

This week has been crazy. Well, the last couple of days. Quick recap:

1) Elder Motes and I were approached by some guys on the T, who asked us to do a Bible Study. We had them come to our chapel, taught a Restoration lesson, and set a return appointment for them to come to our chapel and watch some of General Conference. Exciting stuff :)

2) On one particular bus, there were 7 Missionaries. It just kinda happened. We got on, and some guy says, "Oh look! It's the JC crew!" His friend leans over and says something to him, and the first guy says, "Yeah, they know Him by the nickname! We straight!" *FACEPALM*

3) We've gotten 4 media referrals in 4 days. Wild stuff. 

We have so much to do to prepare for General Conference this weekend! We're trying to get into a different member's home for each session, and it's going well. We're also getting investigators and recent converts into peoples' homes, so we have lots of logistics to work out. 

Our district extended 3 baptismal dates this week, which is huge! Hopefully, they all stick and we can see some serious miracles happen this transfer!

Our Zone is going to be handing out copies of the Book of Mormon in front of the musical. Every Friday and Saturday, as well as opening and closing night. It's gonna be absolutely crazy! And guess who got put in charge of the logistics? Yup. Yours truly. It's gonna be nuts, and we should hand out over 500 copies of the Book of Mormon in the next 4 weeks! WOO-HOO!!!

We may also be going to the Red Sox game before the Marathon, so that could be pretty wild, too. We'll have to see about that one. 

Time is short, and my wrists are cramping, so I've gotta go. Have a great week everybody!

-"Eldah" Boone

It's Transfer Week

It's Transfer Week!

     Our apartment got shaken up bigtime this week. With Elder Peterson going home, Elder Woodard getting transferred to Keene, and the ward gaining a set of Portuguese-speaking Sisters, we had LOTS of moving to do. As Elder Woodard and Elder Peterson were moving out, Elder Hermosilla (yes, the one who I was roommates with for 6 months in Waterbury), Elder Stones, and Elder Clement were moving in. We still haven't fully recovered from the moves, but we're doing all right for the time being. Elder Motes-my former roommate-is now my companion. We've both only been in the area for a transfer, and we're both pretty much on the same page already, from being roommates. This next transfer is probably going to redefine the "Work hard, play hard" philosophy, and I couldn't be happier! haha

    We had Stake Conference this Sunday, and we were able to hear from the Temple Matron (who we're related to, by the way-she mentioned her genealogy and how she's related to Daniel Boone. Cool tidbit), President and Sister Packard, our Stake President (the ex-CEO of Dell), and President McQuivey, the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency. We were able to sustain all of these people, as well as Danny Ainge, as the leaders in the Stake, and I remember thinking to myself: Where else can this possibly happen? It really was this incredible experience to be taught at the knees of these people who have and are influencing the world. 

    One of the perks of being in a walking area is that you just lose weight. I hadn't weighed myself for quite some time, and finally decided to hop on the scale and see what the damage is. I've lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks (probably due in large part to not eating all of that cheesey goodness at the Schrivers' house. hahaha). I honestly feel really good right now, and our apartment plans on waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 every morning to run and exercise and whatnot. Maybe I'll start gaining some healthy weight soon :P haha

     Long week, but not a lot to report. Hope y'all are having a great one!

-"Eldah" Boone

Happy St Patty's Day

 March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody!

Unfortunately, the Charles River is too frozen over for it to be dyed green, but the Irish spirit is definitely alive and well! 

I just wanted to share this super cool experience I had this last week. It was on the last bus we were going to be taking for the day. For some reason, my attention was drawn to this man sitting across the aisle and a few seats up. He was reading something, and I noticed that it was the Bible. I felt prompted to ask him if he would be interested in a Book of Mormon. At first, I tried to reason away the prompting by saying that we'd done enough work with no fruit to show for it, that it was just against social norms, and about any other excuse I could think of. But the prompting persisted, and with a phrase from Zone Conference (something about not being afraid of social norms when you contact someone) ringing in my ears, I took a deep breath, pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon, and went up to this man on the bus. I said, "I noticed that you were reading the Bible, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in a volume of scripture that builds on and supports the Bible, proving the divinity of Jesus Christ?" His eyes just got wide and he said, "OF COURSE!" We went on to have an incredible discussion about the origins of the Book of Mormon, family history, and how the Bible and Book of Mormon work together. SO SWEET!!! And thank you, Zone Conference! If it wasn't for that comment about social norms, I honestly don't think I would have had the courage to act on this prompting. But I did, and we are hoping to begin teaching him soon! :)

Note on the guy with the mohawk at Church last week: he was passed on to the Longfellow Park Elders (a single's ward in Cambridge), and he's investigating there. Kinda frustrating, but we're all on the same team...

So Echols (I can't bring myself to call him by anything but his last name) told me about this BYUTV special where they read a letter about a man from Idaho who was going to school in Boston, and invited his entire class (almost all of different nationalities) to attend a Christmas function at the Church, but only one member of his class came. That classmate was baptized shortly thereafter. It sounds a lot like Jian's story. So maybe my first baptism made BYUTV. I like to think that it did, because Jian was something of a miracle in so many ways :) 

So here were some of my thoughts to build on the exemption/sanctification thought last week: I think that more than anything, this path of sanctification is difficult because, of necessity, we travel the parallel road of repentance. Our external circumstances may become difficult, but the inner battles of the soul-of good versus evil that happen every single day of our lives-are by far the most difficult part of this process. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said it best: "Repentance is not easy or painless or convenient. It is a bitter cup from Hell. But only Satan, who dwells there, would have you think that a necessary and required acknowledgment is more distasteful than permanent residence." He also says something about the road to discipleship always running through at least the borderlands of Gethsemane. I noticed the pattern of asking for exemption rather than sanctification in many situations of my own life. I could honestly go on for like a bajillion pages and multiple hours, but I'll just stop there. I've just had lots of thoughts about repentance, justice/mercy, and how they all interconnect, and there's really no good way to just get it all down. There's words from ancient scripture, prophets and apostles, my own musings, etc. But it's definitely enough to get you thinking, right? hahaha

Hope all of y'all have a great week! Love ya!

-"Eldah" Boone

Praying for exemption?

March 10, 2014

Hello everybody-

That's pretty funny that Brother Garner said that Jamaica Plain was too dangerous for the Missionaries-it's probably one of the tamer regions of Boston. (Other than downtown/South Boston). Most of the crazy experiences come from Dorchester, Mattapan, or Roxbury. Every part of Boston seems to have its own nickname-"Lock your Dorchester," "Murderpan," and "Gloxbury." Nothing's really all that dangerous, because folks respect "Jesus people." 

There were some pretty cool things that happened this week. Elder Woodard and I were running across a street in downtown Boston to catch a bus (we had just finished a teaching appointment at the Harvard Medical Library), and suddenly this car starts creeping forward, like they're going to go and run us over! I freaked out, and then I saw our Bishop just laughing his head off in the car. *sighofexasperation* We shared a good laugh at Church on Sunday :) 

Another time, we had a lunch appointment with this Haitian lady, Gladys. She was telling us about her aunt in Haiti. Gladys described her as "As big as the moon, and as tall as the building... AND she had a mustache!" Needless to say, this ward is great :)

Elder Woodard and I also found a pass-along card stuck to a phone pole near a bus stop, with the Spanish Sisters' number on it. Since our phone is new, they didn't have our number, so we called them and played a prank. I pretended to be a Jehovah's Witness named Tyrell, and really had the Sisters quite flustered. They told us about their mystery contact, and I told them it was us. They went from angry to just laughing along with the rest of us. Good times in Boston :) haha

We have 3 sets of Missionaries in this ward, and we all share a teaching pool. We rotate appointments with investigators, less-active members, recent converts, etc. so that we can really build Zion here in the Boston 1st ward. It requires a LOT of communication and openness, but we are really calling on all the knowledge and gifts of 6 people rather than 2. Definitely a huge advantage for us :)

This Sunday was a really great one. We heard talks on parables (I could write an entire email on those, but time's short), learned about honesty, and had a potential with an AWESOME mohawk come to Church! :) But mostly, I found this quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "One’s life...cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.... How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, “Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!”... Faith also includes trust in God’s timing, for He has said, “All things must come to pass in their time.” Faith likewise includes faith in God’s developmental purposes, for “the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.” Still, some of us have trouble when God’s tutoring is applied to us! We plead for exemption more than we do for sanctification, don’t we, brothers and sisters?"

I found this so instructive-how many times do we plead for exemption? Accepting the Lord's will is something so easy to preach, yet so difficult to practice. Not a lot of real insight on that yet, but it certainly causes me to ponder. Maybe I'll have more next week :) haha

Love y'all, and hope you're having a great week!

-"Eldah" Boone

Inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments...

March 3, 2014

Hello everybody!

This week has been a pretty crazy one. Mostly, it has been full of random experiences and lots of hard work (when we weren't sick or having Zone Conference). 

Our first "story" comes from Zone Conference. Afterwards, anybody who wanted to, had the opportunity to stay and talk with President Packard for a few minutes. Obviously, TONS of people took that up, so we had to wait for quite a while before we could leave. On the way out, we were all starving, and we starting saying, "Yo quiero Taco Bell!" (Shout-out to Tyler Miskin and the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Frijole" at RB&G) We pile into the ZL's minivan and Elder Breach starts driving. Seemingly out of nowhere, we pull into a Taco Bell. Elder Breach, who's normally very quiet, turns around and says, "I don't mess around when it comes to Taco Bell; that's sacred!" Of course, we all got home late, but we had some Baja Blast Mountain Dew and some good times at Taco Bell, so it was worth it :)

Story #2 was during Weekly Planning. We were at the church planning, and the Spanish district had just finished up. The Spanish Sisters walk outside, and almost immediately come right back in, with two people from off the street. They got a chapel tour and Book of Mormons, so we'll see how that one turns out...

On exchanges with the ZL's, Elder Breach and I were waiting at a bus stop. Out of the blue, this random Haitian lady who we've never seen before walks up to us, holding a bag of biscuit thingies, and says, "Here, try some-it's good!" Elder Breach reaches in and starts to break off a piece of biscuit, and she says, "No! Take the whole thing!" So Elder Breach gets a biscuit, and as soon as we start to say thank you, she just turns and walks away. Random? Yeah.

Elder Woodard and I have been working hard to set up a network of people in the ward to find non-members at Church activities. We have about a bajillion phone calls to make and people to meet with, and so we're excited for this week. 

One cool thing that I noticed when I was studying this week: in the Book of Mormon, Lehi is promised that "inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land." That promise is re-emphasized SO MANY TIMES throughout the Book of Mormon. Alma (Jr. and Sr.), Helaman, Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, and many others repeat this promise in their teachings to the people. The people are asked to remember that promise all the time. It's a sobering reminder of how we need to remember the promises that the Lord makes to us, and especially the promises that we make to Him. 

The careful balance between remembering (or "[looking] back") and moving forward is beautifully worded by Jeffrey R. Holland: "The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives." ("Remember Lot's Wife") When we take what we've learned and the promises we've made, we can then set realistic goals to improve ourselves to live up to those promises and become better men and women. It's given me a lot to contemplate and improve on, but that's kind of the point of covenants and study, right?

Love all of y'all, and hope this finds you well!

-"Eldah" Boone