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