Almost a Gnu Year!

 

 

December 30,  2013

 

Hello Everybody; I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Mine here in Ohio wasn't bad. It was actually quite good. The very best part was the 45 minutes that I got to Skype with my family on Christmas day. It was so good to talk to them/you and have the opportunity to see them/you face to face. Our Christmas Eve was nice. We spent it with the Davis family from our ward. There was good food, and Brother Davis took a couple of pictures of us that he texted home to our families. After we went back to our apartment, we watched Mr. Kreuger's Christmas on the little portable DVD player that we use for proselyting and training purposes. On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our packages. Thank you so much for the stockings you made for Elder Cole and me, Mom. They were great and the stuff in them was great too. I really liked the tie. After Skyping, we spent Christmas by visiting people and having dinner with a family in the ward. We finished the evening by drinking lemonade with a recent convert in our ward who is always good to talk to. The day after Christmas, I think I had the flu or something similar. We didn't get a whole lot done proselyting-wise on that day and Friday. I felt much better on Saturday and we were able to have a good day of working. The weather has been fairly warm the past couple of days, which has been nice for the bikes. We were able to have some good lessons and make some progress this week with some of our investigators. We are working on getting people to church so they can start to progress faster. We will get them there. Elder Cole and I went this morning and worked at the bishop's storehouse for a few hours putting bags of food into big plastics totes and stacking them on pallets. It was pretty good. The couple that took us to the storehouse also took us to Wendy's at the 4th Wendy's that ever opened. It was pretty much just like any other Wendy's, but hey.

I hope everyone there had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

Have a blessed day,

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

December 16th 2013

 

         This is a photo that Brother Henricks took of Elder Ethan Schow's District on the temple grounds in Columbus, Ohio

December 16th 2013

It has been pretty cold this week and we have had some fairly heavy snowfall on a few of the days, which has made biking difficult or impractical at times. We just have to do the best we can. We spent some time shoveling walks in our neighborhood, which at least gave us something to do. We've found a few neat people this last week. Last Monday, we were in Walmart and met a guy named Jeremy who stopped us and asked where the nearest LDS church is. It turned out that his wife is a member and they live in our ward! We visited him later in the week and he is interested in learning about the church and being baptized. It was pretty cool. We also found a couple of other neat people that we are excited to start working with.

We had a good exchange with our zone leaders on Wednesday and they gave us some good advice about missionary work and working with people. It was fun to work with them and their companion in their area. Being around other missionaries is usually pretty fun.

Yesterday we went tracting in an apartment complex near ours. We found a guy who told us to come back this morning. When we came, expecting him to not be there, we found him and his wife at home and were able to teach them a brief lesson. They want to know more, too. They are very close to our apartment, which is good. Hopefully our weather will level off again soon and we will have an easier time biking. Biking in general has gotten a little easier as we've gained more practice, but the snow still puts a damper on things. We went a couple of miles yesterday, to contact a referral from church headquarters, but they didn't live there! We were able to visit a less--active guy though, so the pedaling wasn't wasted. Anyway, I don't have too much else to report. I hope everyone back home has a wonderful Chrismas season and I will make sure to figure out the details for calling home by next week so we can work that out. Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

December 9th 2013

 

We have gotten some snow here, perhaps 3 or 4 inches. It made it so we couldn't really go out on our bikes on Friday. It is pretty cold too! We have to be careful not to get frostbite as we ride around. Some days are better than others, but we live in hope that we will eventually be granted a car. We had the opportunity to do a lot of finding this week, as our teaching pool has become a little stagnant. We have found a few promising people. One lady, D, seemed really interested and planned to come to church. She didn't end up coming though. We are working bit with a great part-member family. The father, whose name, funnily enough, is John, came with us to the Christmas devotional last night. I think he enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too, even though it was pretty different from past ones. (Did you notice the wide-eyed man in the choir again, Dad? I only saw him once.) I'm glad you heard from Brother Henricks. He is one of the most helpful people I have ever met. This week was a little interesting. I got a flat tire on Thursday when we were several miles from our apartment. We had to walk back. Initial examination of the inner tube led to the discovery of several small tears, which I patched. After pumping it up again, it went flat again, so I tried a can of spray sealant, which ended up bursting the tube and leaking sticky stuff everywhere. We called upon Brother Yearsley, a stalwart member of the ward to drive us to get a new tube. Finally I got it fixed. We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday morning. It was Polar Express themed and there were pancakes. It was pretty fun. There was much mourning with the Ohio State loss, though we haven't talked to too many people about it. Elder Cole is a good guy.  It sounds like things are going reasonably well back home, and I am glad you guys are doing well. Thank you for your letters.

I love you all and hope you have a good Christmas season

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

Happy Holidays

 

December 2nd 2013

 

 

Well, it has been a pretty crazy week. We went to transfers on Tuesday and I found out that the missionary that I'll be training is named Elder Cole. He is from Mesa, Arizona. He is a really nice guy and we well be able to do some great work together. Being on bikes is a lot different from being in a car, especially when there's snow, but it hasn't been too bad most of the time. It has helped us focus our planning and finding on specific areas and has allowed us to find several new investigators. We were able to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving lunch at a restaurant with a couple from our ward. It was quite tasty. We also had a smaller Thanksgiving dinner later in the evening. The second meal was Elder Loosli's fault :) He is still in the ward, by the way, just in the southern end of it. He and his new companion Elder Cook are now the third set of missionaries in our ward. We set up our little Christmas tree in our apartment last night. It is pretty festive, as you can see in the pictures. I don't know on the GPS. Elder Loosli could plug his into the wall if need be. In the mean time I think we are ok. I'm so glad that you guys enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Grandpa Wayne told me about it. Sorry this letter is a little shorter than usual. Things got pretty busy with email today. I'm glad that Britton is doing well.

I hope you all have a great week and I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

 

Baptism and White Squirrell

                                                      Baptism November 23rd 2013

                                                                    Zone Fun Day

November 23rd 2013

So, we had a baptism this week! D.got baptized on Saturday and was confirmed Sunday. I was able to perform the baptism and succeeded on my first try. I think she was really happy with the whole thing, which is really good. Her baptismal service was kind of small, but I don't think she minded. Our ward mission leader confirmed her Sunday morning and Elder Loosli, Bishop Lybbert and I stood in the circle. I'm glad you received and enjoyed the text message picture after the baptism. It was really nice of that lady to send it for us.

We saw a white squirrel this week, which was pretty exciting. It is in the picture. There is also a picture of a church that is in our area. The name is pretty impressive. We also found out that we are losing our car for this transfer, which means we were on bikes yesterday and from here on out. It is super cold, but I guess we will have to deal with it and also try to get a lot of rides from members. It also might help us get into more doors. ("Can we please come in? it is sooo cold out here!"). I found out today that Elder Loosli is getting transferred somewhere else and I will be training a new missionary starting tomorrow. That is going to be really weird. I still feel so new in some ways. Our area is also going to be smaller because we are getting a third set of missionaries in the ward.

It sounds like things are going pretty well in Idaho. That is neat about Curtis's farewell and all that stuff. That's cool about Lauren and Cam's Christmas tree, too. We have a tiny Christmas tree in our closet that we will have to set up after Thanksgiving. I hope things go well for Britton as he goes to Mexico. He will do great.

I love you all there, and I love hearing from you guys.

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter and Pictures

 

November 18th 2013

 

Things have gone pretty well here in Ohio for the last week. It is cold sometimes and not so cold sometimes. It is crazy that it is already almost Thanksgiving. We don't know what is going to happen at transfers, but we'd certainly like to find out! They are moving another set of Elders into this ward so there will be a third set of Marble Cliff missionaries. It's possible that I'll stay in Marble Cliff and still be in a different area. It's also possible that I'll get moved somewhere entirely different. Probably the strangest possibility is that I might have to train a new missionary. Weird. We still plan on D. being baptized this Saturday. It should work out and be great. We had our primary program yesterday. It was really nice. We are teaching a variety of other people. The trick is going to be helping them turn into progressing investigators. We are still working with several part-member families, but haven't been able to get appointments that work out with them lately. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to be with the zone leaders all day while Elder Loosli worked with their companion. It was great to be around them. They are awesome missionaries. I had to go with them to a meeting with the new stake president and President Nilsen. They had me tell them about D.. It was a neat experience to see what zone leaders do.

That is really sad about Brother Call and Brother Wellard. I hope their families are okay. I also hope the roof works out. I haven't talked a whole lot to Jesse and I haven't heard from Brigham at all, but I hope things work out for them. The popular brand of GPS around the mission seems to be Garmin, but I don't think I need one yet. Hopefully things are going well for everyone there as you get ready for thanksgiving. Tell Maddie thank you for the letter and good luck with finals and cabaret. I will write a response to her letter a little later today.

I love you all. Good luck with everything and as they say here in Ohio, "Have a blessed day."

Love, Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

 

Veteran's Day

 

Nov 11th, 2013

 

Aloha! (or some such greeting; whatever you like)

 

Hello and happy Veteran's day. It seems like everyone is doing pretty well, which is good. It is getting colder here in Ohio, though we have had no snow in earnest yet. We just had our stake conference yesterday. Elders Cardon and Olsen of the seventy came to reorganize the Columbus stake presidency. They gave some good talks, especially about hastening the work of salvation. The outing to Idaho Falls sounds pretty neat; I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. As far as Christmas goes, Mom, it would be nice to have a jump rope to use in the morning for exercise. Currently our exercise mostly consists of lying on the ground and lifting hand weights. Some cardio is definitely in order. Besides that, it might be wise for me to get a GPS at some point later in my mission. I don't need one for now; Elder Loosli has one and that's all we need for our companionship. Just a heads up. We have a conference issue of the Ensign; I just need to read it. Christmas packages should be sent directly to missionary apartments if possible, right after transfers. I'll let you know if my address changes. We got some exciting news this week: we are getting a third set of missionaries in the Marble Cliff ward next transfer. It will be interesting to see what happens with that. Of course, I could get moved somewhere entirely different. We'll see. Things are going pretty well with our investigators. We moved D.'s baptism to the 23rd in order to give her (and us) more time to prepare. We are meeting with several other people including a guy named E. who has three kids and an older man we just met named A. Also, we are starting to teach M., the nonmember wife of a less active man named J. It is neat to be able to teach these people. I do enjoy teaching people most of the time, especially when I can tell they want to hear what I have to say. I wasn't there for the first official appointment with M. because I was in Scioto area on an exchange. I got to spend the day tracting with Elder Young, who arrived in the mission the same day as me. It was nice to talk to him and to get some experience in another area. We had to walk around in a rainstorm though because Scioto's car was in the shop. Not too much else exciting has happened around here. things are going well though and I hope things continue to go well there. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

Salutations!

November 4th 2013


The week has been fast in some ways, but very slow in others. I don't think I need anything winter specifically. It is not too cold here yet, at least this week hasn't been. D's baptism has been moved to the 16th because she wants a couple of family members to be able to be there, but she is still moving along well. We had a good lesson with her on Friday. We weren't able to meet with M this week because of some problems with P's phone, but I think she is still fine. P has been in the 2 lessons we have had so far. They are kind of taking the journey together since he hasn't bee active for quite a while. C is a really great guy, but his progress is pretty slow. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while, but he has a few big things to work through. We only saw the one black squirrel and when I asked Brother Henricks about it, he said they are pretty rare. If I see another one, I will be sure to take a picture. I will try to get some good acorns.  I'm glad you guys enjoyed your getaway. That's really cool about all the shops and the pins and the temples. We haven't had another chance yet to go to the temple here. The calamari thing wasn't anything too impressive. A family took us to Olive garden and it was on an appetizer plate they got. Like I told Maddie, it just tasted like fish sticks :) Transfers is a couple days before Thanksgiving so departing missionaries can be home for it. Zone conferences include several zones. Ours was on Tuesday and included our zone (which is about 20 people) and 3 other zones. I'm not sure how many zones are in the mission but I think probably around 8. Zone conference was fun and I learned a lot. President Nilsen dropped a book on my head (long story) but it was all good. :) We went on an exchange with the zone leaders and their companion Elder Park. It was good to work in their area and it was pretty fun too. They are good guys and there is a lot I can learn from them. I don't know if you guys have heard anything about Stewart Silver, who is a missionary from here in Columbus who went to Idaho and was injured recently? He is from Upper Arlington (Which is partially included in our area) and his family said in the newspaper that the best way that people can help the Silver family is by talking to the missionaries. So far not a whole lot has resulted from it, but maybe things will start happening. Those are probably the highlights of the week. We are having a "zone fun day" a little bit later today as a reward for getting investigators to church and that should be fun.

I love you all. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

October 28th  2013

 

We usually email between 12 and 1:30 here, Mom, which I guess would be 10 to 11:30 there. If you get on during that time, I think I am allowed to email back and forth. I forgot today, but in the future, I can send a message when I first get on the computer to let you know I'm on.

It has been a good week in many ways. We didn't find many people, but we had some really good lessons with the investigators that we have. We had two lessons with D. this week. For one of them, she had us and a couple of members over to her house for dinner. She even came to the Halloween party and brought her niece. She is progressing really well and will be baptized soon. We also had a good lesson with M., whose husband P. is a less-active member. He has an amazing handlebar mustache. They made us breakfast on Sunday and came to Sacrament meeting. We were going to make them breakfast first, but they said no :) We are working with a few other good people, but it is tough to get appointments very often. We had the opportunity to go downtown to the Nationwide Children's Hospital on Friday to give a blessing to a little boy with a lot of health problems. I was able to anoint him and Elder Loosli gave the blessing. It was a good experience. We saw a black squirrel this week, which was exciting, I suppose. It was nice to get letters from you guys, and from a couple of other people as well.

I am glad things are going well there, especially with the trees. I didn't expect those to be taken out so soon, but I guess it is a good thing if they were dangerous. I guess the lack of leaves is a plus. We have done plenty of leaf raking and leaf blowing here for a lady who needed service. We also mowed her lawn. I guess David is right about this being an "adventure," but it's probably not in the way he thinks. It was good to hear from Britton and I am glad he is doing well. I'm also glad that your trunk or treat and primary program went well. Our trunk or treat was an overall success, though they did the trunk or treating inside because it was cold outside. Elder Loosli and I gave out pass along cards instead of candy in hopes that the kids will share them with their friends.

I hope all things are going well there,

I love you all

Love, Elder Schow

Due to Privacy issues I am posting Ethan's emails but leaving out the whole names of investigators.  I am just using first initials.  Thanks

October 21st   2013

 

It is strange that I have been out for 2 months. It hasn't seemed too long in some ways, but in other ways it has been a huge expanse of time. I did get the package. Thank you so much for that. Mail is always very welcome and I also needed that new belt. I activated the new debit card this morning. The candy was good too :) Thank you for the news about Highland. I have wondered how they are doing. I'm glad everything went well getting Britton to the MTC. I sent him a letter last Monday, so hopefully he got it on Thursday or Friday. That's too bad you haven't heard from him yet, but I imagine you will soon. I did send Aunt Susan a thank you. I am really glad things are going well for the family and all of you. Our trunk or treat is this Saturday too and we are trying to get investigators to come to it. Several of them who haven't come to church yet have shown interest in the activity, so that might turn out pretty well. It has been pretty cold this week, but there have been some warm days as well. Our ward mission leader thought we needed to know two important bits of news, so he told us that (1) the government shutdown is over and (2) there is a new Harry Potter movie in the works based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them. You guys probably know all about it, but it was news to me :) Things are going fine with our investigators. D. is still working toward baptism. She came and watched a baptism with us in one of the other wards on Saturday. We see her later today to teach her another lesson. Hopefully we can keep her on track for November 9th. We are working with a couple of part member families. One of them we found on the ward list and tried to contact. They told us they would be busy for a month because they were getting married, but after that month we got in contact with them and they have been pretty solid. One of the other families we found by accident. Their records weren't even in the ward. He was baptized when he was younger, but he doesn't really remember much about the church. Our goal is to help her get baptized and reactivate them. They have a baby boy who is only about 7 weeks old.

We got to go to a special leadership training last night with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy. All the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and District Leaders got to go. I got to tag along since Elder Loosli is the District Leader. It was really good. Elder Robbins taught us a lot about the relationship between Responsibility and Agency and how there is no room for excuses of any kind in any situation. He said that when we shift responsibility, even if a problem wasn't our fault, we give up any control over possible positive outcomes in the situation. It was really profound and I am going to have to try to apply it to my life. Things are still sometimes hard, but they are sometimes really good. I hope things go well there at home. I love you all. Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

Hello, everyone.                                                              Oct. 14th 2013

We got our transfer call and Elder Loosli and I are both staying here, which I think is a good thing. Our library was closed today, but the zone leaders let us mosey into their area to use theirs. They are here too. I forgot to mention before, but we went on exchanges witht them a few weeks ago and I found out that Elder Doerman was in American Fork's marching band the year before my freshman year, which I thought was cool. The house looks great! You guys did an amazing job. I hope its still there when I get back so I can see it in person. I bought a used disc golf disc to use on preparation day if I ever get the chance, but I haven't got to use it yet. The guys in the ward had a tournament on Conference Saturday, but we couldn't get an investigator to come so we didn't go :) I can't think of much specifically for Christmas yet, but I'll keep it in mind I suppose. I knew Jesse had arrived, but I haven't heard anything from Brigham yet. That is really exciting that there will soon be at least 3 Elder Schows in the field. Tell Britton good luck for me if he doesn't read this and I will try to send him a paper letter to the MTC today. I loved the pictures of the cats from Dad. They are super funny.

As far as investigators go, Elena, the one that was close to baptism dropped us last Monday right after I emailed you. It was kind of a surprise, but I guess it happens. We are not too upset about it, though is was disappointing. We had been planning the baptism for this last Saturday. We will probaly try to visit her in a couple of weeks. We have another investigator named D. who is working for baptism in early November. She is really nice and really enjoys learning about the gospel. She has a few things to work through, but she is willing to try. We are working with a few other people, but none that are progressing very quickly. We went out to dinner with an inactive member and his new wife the other day. Their names are P. and M.. We had knocked on his door a few weeks ago since he was on the list, but he said it wasn't a good time and to call him in a month after he got married. We called him and they took us to dinner. He asked us to teach a lesson to his wife and we have an appointment with them on Monday. It was really cool because he was the one who suggested the lesson, not us. There are a couple other similar part member families that we are trying to work with. They seem like some of our best prospects right now. It is tough to get people to church, but we are working on it. One thing we do here in the mission to help people get there is to bring them breakfast on Sunday morning. We took some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls to D. yesterday, but she was still 40 minutes late to church :{ Oh well. Things are still sometimes pretty hard, but they are getting better and I am getting better. Things keep working out so far.  Mia has sent me a couple of postcards and Chelsea sent me a letter. Grandma Redd sent me a letter too. I hope everything is going well back home and with Paul and everybody. Grandma told me about the blessing. I love you all so much. It is really good to hear from you. The leaves are starting to fall here, but no snow and not too much wind.

Happy October to everybody,

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

October 7th 2013

Hi everyone, It is good to talk to you again. I did get the last vaccination done at Walgreens, Mom, so that's out of the way. Just so you know, there's something wrong with my debit card. At least it wont work. Maybe its not supposed to? Anyway, conference was really great. We watched all of the sessions at our church building except the priesthood session, which we watched at the home of the member that fed us dinner that night. There were some really excellent talks and it was nice to sit down for a while. I don't think I had a particular favorite talk, but there were a few that I really liked. We had three of our investigators come to a session of conference each, which was pretty good. Other than conference, our week hasn't been too exciting. We've just been tracking down former and potential investigators and knocking a few doors.

I'm glad that everything is going well there from the sound of things. It must be pretty busy getting Britton ready to go. I wish him luck and I think he will do great in the MTC. That's exciting that the house is almost done. I'm sure it looks great. Transfers are on the 15th, which is unusual since it's a Tuesday. We'll see what happens with that. I hope Paul is okay. It's good that he was able to have the blessing and everything. Thank you for that scripture, Dad. I will remember it.

This lady we were talking to showed us what a buckeye tree looks like and let us take some of the buckeye nuts. They are kind of cool and I'll have to send a couple home at some point. They are poisonous though so don't let anybody or any animal eat them.

I wish you all all the best. When you get Britton's MTC address, could you send it to me, please? I am going to see if I can send the rest of my pictures.

I love you all!

Elder Ethan Schow

The night before Elder Schow left for Ohio

This smacks of Elder Ethan's sense of humor!

More old MTC pictures

Looking good Elder Schow!

September 30, 2013

Thank you all for the emails! Thank you for that talk, Mom and for the letter. I'm glad that Britton's farewell went well and that's great that he actually used the LOTR reference. I wondered if he really would. I will make sure to pray for Paul. I hope his blessing goes well. That's neat that Matt got married and that you guys are almost done fixing up the house. The weather here hasn't changed too drastically, but the leaves are starting to turn a little bit. It has been nice having a car this week though because we can go places faster and go to more places too. We've done some more tracting and some following up with former investigators and less active people. We've only gotten a few return appointments, but we're working on it. I had a cool opportunity this week to do some street contacting on OSU's campus. There are six missionaries who basically spend all their time doing just that, but on Wednesday (I think) we had a special new missionary training at the Institute building and we got about 20 minutes to go out with one of the experienced OSU missionaries and talk to random people about the gospel and try to get their contact information. I didn't get any phone numbers, but I did talk to a half-dozen people and gave most of them pass along cards with Mormon.org on them. I still have trouble talking to people, but I'm getting a little better at it and that experience really helped. On Friday we met a lady named R. while tracting and made an appointment to talk to her on Monday. On Sunday morning, we went to take some French toast to a part member family that was planning to come to church. They didn't answer their door, which was dumb, but as we were walking back to the car with the uneaten French toast, we got a call from R. asking if we had a church service and whether she could come. Fifteen minutes later, she and her son were at the church for Sacrament meeting. It was really neat that the Lord provided someone else to come to church when our first option evaporated. We have done a little bit of cooking, but no culinary masterpieces. Mostly just chicken and then rice and noodles out of a package. Usually we have dinner with members, but we've had a few empty spaces in our calendar this week, so we have had to eat what we had in the apartment. Yesterday I made some soup out of what we had in the cupboard. It wasn't bad. I've had some letters and emails from some friends, which has been nice. Still haven't heard from a few people though. I hope everyone is doing well there. Most everything is okay here. I love you all! Thanks so much for your support and prayers.

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

Letter from September 23rd -- Marble Cliffs

First of all, I haven't had that other vaccination yet, I need to figure out how to go about doing that.

That is really great about Britton's farewell. Good luck, Britton! You will do awesome.

Boo to Century for winning Bridgerland. But congrats to Highland for getting 2nd.

If you want to send that New Era article, Mom, I would read it. Thanks a lot for the letter also. Could you send me Brother Pierce's address at some point? I'd like to send him a letter.

That is also great about Lauren and Cam's house. You will have to send me pictures. I am sending my pictures, but they all have to be in almost separate emails since they are so big. I have adjusted my camera so future pictures should be smaller.

Elder Loosli has been out for something like 17 months, though he pretends otherwise. He does not know Kristy Tupper as far as he can remember.  We found out today that we get a car for the rest of the transfer, which will be nice because it's starting to get cold. We will pick it up when we finish emailing. Brother Henricks took us to a Japanese restaurant earlier where they cook your food right in front of you. It was pretty cool. I'm not sure what the biggest surprise of my mission is so far, but it could be that time can pass so slowly and yet so quickly. The days are long but the weeks are short. So far I am most enjoying the people. Most of the people that we actually talk to for extended periods of time are really interesting and neat. Our investigator who is close to baptism is named E.. She is from Mexico and is really enthusiastic about the gospel. She has come to church about 8 times and really just needs to set a baptismal date. It is too bad that her son M. isn't too interested in the church. He is 17 and likes the activities, but not the gospel. We'll get him eventually. We have another investigator named D. who came to church this week. She came once before I got here, but she got lost this time and tried to get into the temple before finding her way to Sunday School. We are also working with a man named C. who has been investigating for a really long time. We'll see where things go with him. None of our other investigators are that far along yet. The only real culture shock is from seeing some of the poorer areas. Some of our neighborhoods are pretty wealthy, but some are really not. We've had quite a bit of rain, and some thunderstorms. That sometimes makes bikes inconvenient, but now we have a car, so hey. We went on a 24 hour exchange with the zone leaders in their area, which was fun. They are good guys. We helped them find some new investigators who actually came to church. Elder Cutler stepped on a ketchup packet after we ate at a little restaurant and ketchup sprayed all over my clothes, but I was wearing was one of my cheapest, ugliest ties, and my pants and shirt washed okay so it was all good. It was pretty funny.

I hope you guys are all doing well, I love you all and hope everything you are doing works out.

Love,

Elder Ethan Schow

In Marble Cliffs area--Columbus Ohio

                                                    In Marble Cliff -- Columbus Ohio

 

 

 

                                                        That's our Elder Ethan Schow

                                                                     
                                                            

                                                                      Working hard!

                                             If you know Ethan's cartoons well.................

MTC

 

                                                          The rest of the MTC District

The Map of the World

                                            You have to have a picture of this at the MTC!

Even more pictures from the MTC

                                                                          The District

 

Elder Ethan Schow and his companion

 

                                                                      Roomies

 

 

 

 

Some belated MTC pictures

 

 

 

 

                                                               More MTC pictures!

                                                      Sisters in Elder Schow's District

 

Sorry I forgot to send that last week. Anything sent to the mission office will forward to me though. Also, I forgot to wish Lauren a happy birthday last week, so happy birthday, Lauren!

That is great that the remodel is going well and it sounds like everything else is going pretty well too. That is also great about Curtis's call. I will make sure to keep Paul in my prayers. I didn't write yesterday because our preparation day got switched to Tuesday this week so we could go to the temple. We didn't get to go to the temple though because of a mix up that resulted in Elder Loosli's recommend being several miles from where we needed it to be. Oh well. Maybe we will get another chance to go. Our apartment is really pretty nice though it certainly has a "lived-in" appearance. The old set of missionaries left quite a bit of food and other assorted random supplies (like foam swords, elastic monkeys, and old shoes) so we haven't had to go grocery shopping yet, though we will later today. We have talked to a lot of really neat people and our ward seems really great. We have an investigator who is getting pretty close to baptism, which is cool. We have done a lot of knocking on doors, which hasn't been fun but hasn't been terrible. The luau last week was pretty fun. That's neat you saw me in the pictures. I'm trying to send more pictures, but this computer is a Mac and I'm not sure how. :S Brother Henricks said he saw mom's blog. He is a super cool guy. He gives us rides all the time along with an 18 year old guy named Cameron who lives in his house. They are both great. We started biking this week because we are in one of the few bike areas of the mission. Biking is sometimes hard, but it isn't too bad and is sometimes kind of fun. I bought some little plastic clips in the MTC to make sure my pants don't get caught in the chain. Members feed us dinner most nights ( no Little Caesars yet, not sure if one's in our area, but we did go to some place called Chipotle), but sometimes we have to cook for ourselves. Last night our dinner appointment cancelled, but a random inactive guy invited us inside for some soup when we knocked on his door to visit him. It was white bean and kale soup and was actually pretty good.  It hasn't been too bad. later last night we had to move some extremely heavy couches for a member. I'm glad everyone is doing well. Keep up the good work I guess for everything you guys are working on :)

I love you all so much. Thanks for the emails and everything. Letters would be welcome.

Hello!                                                                                                        9/9/13

It is so great to have a chance to talk to everyone. Since I have limited time, I'm going to respond to all the family letters here in one place. Ohio is very nice and the trees are quite beautiful. We arrived safely on Wednesday afternoon after one layover in Atlanta, Georgia. I got to sit in the window seat on both flights, which was super cool. We stayed at the mission home overnight. My mission president and his wife are really nice. The next day we had the transfer meeting and found out companions and areas. My companion is named Elder Loosli and he is from Chester, Idaho. He's a really nice guy and we're getting along really well. He's the one with me in the one picture. My camera has taken really huge pictures so I can't send a lot now. I forwarded some of our MTC district from elder Pawson though. Our area is called Marble Cliff and includes the temple, which is tiny. The temple president and his wife are in our ward. They asked me about Bro. Bartschi and I said he's in our ward and we love him. We've been working hard (mostly) and have taught some great people and met some super awesome people both member and nonmember. Our area is one of the few without a car, though the sisters who share our area have one. We haven't actually biked yet though because Elder Loosli's bike was in a different area for a couple days. The members give us lots of rides. Our apartment is pretty good and has a lot of stuff in it. I'm almost out of time, but I love you all so much and miss you. I will try to write more next week when I know the library computer drill a little better. Thank you for your emails.

I love you,

Elder Ethan Schow

 

 

                                          This is Elder Ethan Schow's Trainer and Companion
                                                         Elder Loosli

 

MTC Pictures

                                                           Top Picture:  MTC District
                                            Bottom Picture:  Provo Temple w/MTC District

A short paper letter to ad to the email from earlier

                                                                                         8-28-13

Dear everyone,
       I figured I would write this paper letter after the email because I might not get another chance to write before going to Ohio.  There is not really much more to tell (He sent an email earlier in the day that was already posted), but I did get my laundry done without incident.  Also, I am getting really good at making fry sauce, which may or may not be something to be proud of.  P-day was nice.  It was good to have a chance to relax.  There are missionaries arriving, which I guess means I am a veteran.  The week has been really short and the days have been long.  Hopefully things keep going well.  Our Alaskan district members leave early Monday morning, so we will probably be with the Ohio people from the other district for the last two days.  At least, that is my suspicion.  I hope things are going well there and I hope you guys are happy.          

                                                                                       Lover, Elder Schow

The Three Amigos

 

                                                     The Three Amigos at the MTC
                                             Elder Schow, Elder Vincent, Elder Larsen

First P-day

Hi, Mom :)

I have received all the dear Elder letters and the package :) Thanks! I haven't got anything from anyone else yet. Hopefully I'll get something from a friend today or tomorrow or something. The week really has gone by fast, though the days seem slow. Some days have been really good, others have been a little hard. Overall though, I really like it here and I am having a good experience. We got to go to the temple this morning. It was nice, though it was hard to get up even earlier. I've had a cold or something for the past few days so that's been a little tough as well. I've been taking medicine, so hopefully I'll get better. I've been using a poweraid bottle, but since it would cost to send me one, it would probably be cheaper for me to just buy one. It was really great to see Brigham on Sunday and fun to sing in the choir. I also have seen Bryan Grigg and an Elder named Mckay who was in some classes at school with me. I recognized an elder from my mission prep class as well. Last night at devotional, I got to see both Jesse and Brigham and talk to them for a few minutes in the hallway. We sang in the choir for the devotional, which was broadcasted to several of the international MTCs because Elder Neil L. Andersen was the one who spoke. We didn't get to see him up close, but it was still neat that he was there. I also saw Audrie as a Usher, but from a distance during the talk, so I couldn't say hi. Jesse and Brigham got some pictures of us; I didn't have my camera. I think they will make sure they get circulated. If I still have some computer time later I will try to send some of my pictures. That's neat about Lauren and Cam's house. I hope it turns our well.

 

Elder Hendrickson and I have done a lot of role-play teaching, which has gone pretty well so far. The "investigators" (some of whom are actual nonmembers, but we've only taught members we're pretty sure) are really good actors and it makes for a really good and sometimes spiritual experience. All the Elders and Sisters in our district have become good friends and we get along really well. I found out that actually only Elder Hendrickson, me, and Elder Macarilay are going to Ohio. Elder Clark (our awesome district leader and roommate), Elder Pawson (also awesome room mate), Elder Pope, Sister Dotson, Sister Lind, Sister Harrison, and Sister Guerra are all going to Alaska. Some of the people in another district in our zone are going to Ohio though. A funny thing happened the other day. I call it the miracle of the multi-tool. My brand new belt broke! The leather that was screwed into the buckle snapped. Luckily though, Alaskan missionaries are supposed to bring multi-tools on their mission. Elder Pawson's leatherman had just the right tools to fix my belt and it seems like it will last me a while. I don't think I need a new one. No wonder God put me in a district with Alaskan missionaries :)

That sounds like a good talk and you will have to tell me about it. I'm glad the animals are doing well and that Elly likes new foods :) I love you guys so much and I'm really glad I got the chance to email you. I will probably send a snail mail letter later today with anything else to say that I can think of. I will also try to send those pictures and maybe another email later.

Bye for now.

I love you guys so much

Love, Elder Schow :)

Ethan's First Letter MTC