Missionaries

No mail

Charles Boling — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 22:00:00 -0700

Jonathan flew out to the Provo MTC on August 5th, and is serving in the Sacramento area. Sadly, Elder Boling has chosen not to communicate with his family while a missionary, so we have nothing to share except hearsay. While that grieves us (and I wonder what he told his mission presidents to explain why he would treat his mother to absolute silence!) we have decided that it's not for us to force this issue. If that changes and he sends us something that we can post here, we shall do so! Meanwhile we continue to pray that he will experience joy and growth as he serves those around him.

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Jonathan's Mission Call

Charles Boling — Mon, 11 May 2026 22:57:00 -0700

Jonathan received his mission call today!

He is being assigned to the California Sacramento Mission.

Here is the letter he received.
Here's a map showing his mission boundaries.

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Release & homecoming

Charles Boling — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 21:26:00 -0700

This entry is mostly an excuse to include a couple more photos...

Mom had to stay home to cover Shana's babysitting jobs while she was helping at girls camp, so 3 of us drove to pick Matthew up from the airport and took him to the stake center in Longview, where we met Alexander (who had just dropped his truck off at the repair shop and was heading to work) and Matthew was officially released from his mission by Pres. John Schmit.

On the way home we stopped briefly by one of the neighbors (the kids' honorary grandma), and found the family outside to greet us when we arrived.

He didn't have a usable bedroom yet, so he helped me put the floor back together in the guest room (it was pulled up for construction related to our new well) and cleaned things up so he'd have a place to sleep. He went to bed fairly early so he can get some sleep before getting up at 3AM to drive back to Longview to pick up his brother from work. Tomorrow he'll go with us to Lacey, meeting his 3 sisters who have been at camp, to celebrate a cousin's birthday, and next week he starts work until he leaves for school in 6 weeks. No chance for this returned missionary to get bored!

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Email 100: The End

Charles Boling — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 20:58:00 -0700

As of when this email sent, I have exited the plane, and am in PDX.

His P-Day plans to save vehicle miles by bringing proselyting clothes with them (both P-Day activity and their lesson that evening were in Jennings) were foiled by his somehow leaving part of his clothes at home, so they had to drive back to Welsh anyway -- then their appt. flaked.

Tuesday was teaching; Wednesday was mostly good-byes and packing. Their friend Scott (Mama's boy) took them out to dinner and he had alligator bites & frog legs.

Thursday they drove to another city, said more farewells, and joined the other departing missionaries for a session at the temple (during which he had trouble staying awake because of two nights that had been decidedly lacking in sleep) before continuing to the mission home for dinner and a testimony mtg.

Today he was up at 4AM, better rested than the previous nights (partly because he cranked up the air conditioning at the mission home) and everyone headed to the airport.

It took me over twenty minutes to get through security, because my containers of pennies in my carry-on showed up as suspicious (large hundred of metal). The TSA officer had to untie the bags that the pennie containers were in, and dump them out to make sure that there was nothing hiding in the masses of pennies. Once I got through that, I, along with the three other Elders that had a layover in Dallas, boarded the plane, and our flight was pretty uneventful.

I couldn't believe how heavy his carry-on was: 43 lbs. HIs two checked bags were right at 45. Glad it wasn't me dragging those things around!

He closed with the very "Matthew" observation:

The date on the last day of this year will be 123123

and a quote from his companion:

"Missionary work is so much more pleasant when it's only 90 degrees outside"

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Email 99

Charles Boling — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 19:52:00 -0700

Not too much interesting to report this week. Several appts. fell through, requiring changes of plans and clothes.

This week's interesting meal was eaten w/ a single sister at the church building. Food was, as his companion described it, “chaotic” - there were fries from McDonalds, burgers from Burger King, Chili dogs from Sonic, Blue Bell ice cream from Walmart, and strawberries from who knows where.

Friday was the last District Council of the transfer, and Matthew got to play his tradtional minor ultra-sad-sounding rendition of "God be with you" for himself and two others.

When Matthew came into the area he had been promised that he would speak in sacrament mtg his last Sunday, but the stake president, his son, and his daughter-in-law visited and they spoke instead, preempting the previous plans. Matthew led the music instead.

His next email will be written while he's traveling home.

His eraser sculpture

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Email 98: Trunky papers

Charles Boling — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 09:36:00 -0700

This week continued the frustrating trend of most of the people that they're teaching not showing up to their appointments, and wasting the time of the missionaries and ward members. (In one case, they coordinated with two different families to provide car seats and a ride to church.) Still, they kept trying and occupied their time doing whatever good they could.

This week was also a week of saying good-bye to people in the mission, with only 1.5 weeks left now before two of the three elders in the companionship leave. He got his official travel packet this week.

Being July, it was hot, of course, when it wasn't raining. One day they were so soaked that they went to "Mama's house" and changed clothes and she dried their other outfits while the power kept threatening to go out.

At one of his dinner appts., Matthew "had the opportunity to try gator milk. It's kind of sweet, but not too bad overall." (Editor's note: "gator milk" refers to one of several drink blends -- in this case, the formula being 1 Tbsp lemon-lime Gatorade powder & 12 oz. cow's milk -- not actual milk from alligators.)

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Email 97

Charles Boling — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 09:51:00 -0700

Tuesday, the Branch had a barbecue at the church building. In order for us to earn our food, we had to help clean the church building. Even with how small the buliding is, it took a while vacuuming, because it didn't have any large vacuums.

If you invite a Texan to a barbecue, and they show up and find only hotdogs and hamburgers, they will either laugh, or be offended. Texan barbecues have to have at the very least a brisket, or some chicken and some ribs. Here in Louisana, we had hotdogs and chicken. If there were any native Texans there, they would have been disappointed in the meat selection.

Matthew went on exchanges this week, enjoying a rather fulfilling day of proselyting, and planning ways to keep his trunky companion working. One day they had to modify their finding plans because of something you'd expect to experience in Houston, not a small town: the neighborhood was closed off after a shooting.

A comment about the hot peppers at one of their meals this week:

The spice wasn't bad - it just felt like someone stuck a knife through my tongue.

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Email 96

Charles Boling — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 22:06:00 -0700

I heard that there was a red flag warning in Kalama, so if you see a red flag, notify the authorities - those red flags are probably pretty dangerous.

6 of the 9 pictures that Matthew sent this week featured him hanging out
w/ the Chapmans (The nonmember family w/ "Mama", "Auntie", and Mama's son Scott). They sure do love the elders! Michele wondered if it was a southern hospitality thing, and I jokingly replied "Naw, it's an evil plot to get them to waste all their time there", adding that two of the pictures were at a casino [restaurant].

This week's service at the food pantry included work in the attic.

At least in Kalama, it cools off overnight. Here, cooling off overnight doesn't happen between about April or May and November.

Checking off "Louisiana" items: He visited Gator Chateau, where he saw and held some alligators. He also had dinner in Crowley, the easternmost part of the mission. I told him that he has to get in on a Louisiana crawfish boil before he leaves.

Lots of driving this week. They had an extra zone conference to get to know the new mission president. They also added a 3rd missionary to their companionship (who conveniently just came off medical leave) because Matthew's companion decided last week that he also wanted to go home a transfer early (like Matthew is doing so he can actually come home instead of going straight to school).

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