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