December 29, 2015

December 29, 2014

Hi, everybody. It was so good to see you all on Christmas and to talk to you! I'm glad you all had a good Christmas and that you liked the present. Thanks for the stuff you sent me! The OSU sweaters arrived Saturday.  Thanks for that, they are really cool! :) We spent the rest of Christmas visiting people. We went to D. and W. and had chicken and dumplings, then had dinner with another family a little later. The other Elders were there, too. We visited a couple other families and gave them goodies and got some little treats in return. We basically spent the rest of the week visiting people and spending a little time finding. On Saturday, the other Elders had a baptism that we went to so I could play a musical number. Someone had forgotten to fill the font, though and then the plug wouldn't work, so the whole thing was delayed almost two hours. The people were pretty chill about it, though. We talked to a man that evening whose parents and family are members. He has talked with missionaries in the past but never got around to being baptized he says he wants to now, though, so we are hopeful that we'll be able to work with him to help him get there. We also had a good lesson with the couple I mentioned last time and they came to church again yesterday. Yesterday, we also knocked on the door of an Italian atheist and talked to him for a while. He wasn't very receptive at all to our message, but we had a good discussion with him and were at least able to testify a little bit. It was interesting. Overall it was a good week. I hope you all have a good one, too! Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Schow

December 16, 2014

December 16, 2014

Hello, everyone. I suppose you have concluded by now that I wasn't transferred and that I am still here with Elder Orton. I am thankful that we are both still here. It promises to be a great transfer. It was a pretty good week. We did a little more caroling with the other missionaries, which got a really positive response from people. Now hopefully they will look at the website attached to the candy canes we gave them... We started teaching a couple of new people, which is always good. We hope that we will be able to help them progress. On Wednesday, preparation day, I went with Brother Jastal from the ward and Elder Nelson, one of our zone leaders, to the big Air Force museum by the base. It was pretty cool. There were lots of neat planes. With transfers, we got one new zone leader and I found out that Elder Taylor got transferred into our zone, so I will get to see him sometimes :) Throughout the rest of the week we have been doing more visiting and finding. On Saturday,  there was another baptism in the ward that I got to play a musical number for, which was fun.  On Sunday, we found out that the parents of one of the recent converts in the ward want to take the lessons, so we will be starting that in the next couple of days. We are excited. It is always nice to have someone who WANTS to learn and be baptized. Yesterday we had a big training meeting with half of the mission because Elder Perkins of the Seventy is here touring the mission. We drove all the way to Columbus with the zone leaders and Brother Bristow and spent the day listening to talks and doing role-plays and things. It was fun to see a lot of the missionaries that were there. I also learned a lot. Elder Perkins talked about how meetings should be revelatory experiences and had us each think of some questions that we needed answers to. By the end of the day I had some pretty good answers. It was neat. Well, I'm looking forward to Skyping on Christmas and seeing you all. I wish I could see Britton, too, but I guess we'll have to wait. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

December 8, 2014

December 8, 2014
It was a very busy week. We had lots of visits with people and spent quite a bit of time trying to find new people to teach. It has been interesting using the "He is the Gift" pass-along cards in our efforts. Lots of people will at least accept a card about Christmas. It is tough to transition it into teaching about the Restored gospel, but we're working on it. We have spent some time working on family history lately, per the mission president's instructions. That has been an interesting and neat experience. We are seeing some of our investigators make slow progress, but at least it IS progress, so that is good :) Our ward Christmas party was Friday and all the missionaries were part of the program. I got to play the violin for "the First Noel"  so that was fun. The whole party went over really well. We spent a lot of Saturday setting up for a wedding for a member and his fiancee, who the other Elders are teaching. I got to play the violin on the prelude music of that, too.

It was interesting to be involved in a wedding. Last night we went caroling with the other missionaries from our ward. It was pretty fun and people actually seemed pretty glad to see us. We gave them candy canes with a little paper about "He Is the Gift" attached. We also got to watch the Christmas Devotional, which was really good. I was glad to have a chance to watch it. I wish we had more opportunities to teach people. Actual lessons where we get to teach people are some of the best parts of a mission. We've had a few and hopefully as we keep following up with people we'll have more chances in the future. Having the opportunity to share the message of the Restoration is a special experience, even though it is super hard to be a missionary. Every once in a while we have one of those special experiences that outweigh the difficult ones, though, and I'm thankful for that. I love you all and look forward to Skyping on Christmas. It was confirmed that we get to Skype, so I am excited. It will probably be in the morning or early afternoon. Anyways, I love you all and I'm so thankful for all you love and support. Thanks for the Christmas goodies! I'm glad you liked the buckeyes :) Have a blessed week! 

Love,

Elder Schow

December 1, 2014

December 1, 2014

I am almost out of time emailing today. I'm sorry, but this will be kind of short. It was really a pretty good week.Probably the most notable things were Thanksgiving and the launch of the "He Is the Gift" initiative, which I know Britton mentioned. Thanksgiving was a pretty good day. We had lunch with D. and W. and another meal a little later with the Jastals. We got pretty full, but we had some good visits. We've been trying to use the "He is the Gift" as much as possible with nonmembers so far, though most people aren't any more receptive to it than to our other approaches. I think reactions will improve though as we have some practice. It is a really neat opportunity. Well, I love you all and I'm sorry again this is so short. We had to do a couple of church surveys which took a lot of time

Love,

Elder Schow

November 24, 2014

November 24, 2014

It has been a good week. We have spent a lot of our time finding and have been blessed with some neat new people to teach. We found a couple of teenage boys and a super cool lady named S. We knocked on her door and said "sorry to bother you," and she said, "No, you're not!" But she wasn't mad and we talked to her for a few minutes through her screen door and mentioned some things about the Restoration. When we talked about truths being twisted and lost following Christ's ascension and the death of the Apostles, she got all excited and stepped outside. She said she's always kind of thought that. We were able to teach her a lot on her porch and she shared that she's been doing a lot of seeking and praying lately. By the end, she was pretty emotional. It was really neat and the Spirit was definitely there. Hopefully we can teach her in the future and something will come of it. I really believe it will happen. We had a couple of exchanges this week. I spent time with an Elder in Urbana and Springfield, Ohio. I am really getting a good tour of the smaller cities and towns lately. :) One of our zone leaders also came to work with me in our area one day. Both exchanges went well and were good learning experiences. W. and D. are still getting hung up with the Word of Wisdom. It is too bad because they really have the desire to be baptized. It will work out eventually, though. We had a really good stake conference this weekend. Elder Seldon, and Area 70 was there. He had some great remarks and was funny as well as spiritual. He said several times that Elder Holland calls this "the Church of the Happy Ending" because we know the outcome, which I really liked. I hope you all have a good week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Schow

November 17, 2014

November 17, 2014

One of the interesting parts of being a district leader in a new district is going on exchanges with the Elders in the district. On Tuesday, I got to work in the town of Springfield with Elder Taggart. It was an interesting day. Some plans fell through and it started raining, but it was still pretty good and we had fun. We switched back to our regular companions at district meeting the next day. The meeting went pretty well, I think. I also got to do a baptismal interview later that evening. We've been visiting a lot of people this week  as well as doing some finding, which has at least led to some potential investigators. One is a lady named P. who has been using crutches for 10 years. We are meeting with her tonight and hope we will be able to teach her. We also met an older man named E. who let us in his home and talked our ears off for a while. It was very tough to really get a word in edgewise. He said we could come again, so we will go back and teach him. On Thursday we had zone conference with our zone and the other zone in our stake. It was a really good meeting. There was some helpful training and talks. Later Thursday evening, we had what they call a "ministering night." For me that meant going teaching with a member of the stake presidency to visit a couple of families. It went well enough, though the information I had on one of the families was rather inaccurate. Oh, well. I'm still new here :) The ward had a chili cook-off on Friday night with us missionaries as the judges. It was an interesting experience testing a couple dozen chilis. Some of them were downright weird. It was fun, though. On Saturday, the ward mission leaders daughter was getting baptized and we went to the service. Sister Mecham was playing the prelude music on a violin and they nabbed me and made me play, too. The violin I had to use was purple. It was kind of fun.  All in all it was a pretty good week. I have had a cold or sinus infection or something this week, but I'm starting to feel better. I hope you are all doing well there. I love you all! Have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

November 3, 2014 and November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014
It has been a pretty good week here. Nothing too exciting went on, but we were able to visit with a lot of people and see where they stand. Now we know how we can best focus our efforts. It looks like we need to spend more time finding people to teach. We have some great people to work with now, but none of them are making rapid progress at this point. D. and W. are very close to baptism, but they have been very close for a couple of months :) They just need to kick a couple of bad habits and they'll make it. L. and her girls definitely appreciate the difference that meeting with missionaries has made in their lives, but they're not quite willing to act on it yet. We'll see what happens. A couple times this week, we ended up in the exact right place at the right time, so that was neat. We were walking around in a seemingly random neighborhood at just the right time to see a kid on a bike who we'd met in passing the day before. We were able to talk to him and teach him a little bit. It was cool. We also planned to visit one Sister in the ward and just as we started to drive over there, she called and asked us to stop by. The ward members here are really great overall and we have had some good visits when we have been in their home for meals. One family has a challenge where they have all the Elders see how many marshmallows they can fit in their mouth.  The record is 31 and I got 24. It was silly, but it was kind of fun. Oh, well. On Saturday, it seemed like everyone needed our help. We dug up flower bulbs, moved wood, moved hay, and leveled the ground in a pig pen. Doing work like that is nice because it shakes things up a little. It sounds like you all had a good week back home. It's always good to hear that. I hope this week is good, too!

Love, Elder Schow

I can't really think of anything specific that I need in the Christmas package. :S 

November 3, 2014

Well, it has been an interesting week. Like I said in the letter, I got word on Wednesday that I was getting transferred. Once again I had to pack up all my stuff. I don't know where it all came from, but I have way more than I started with. I'll have to weed out some things. At the transfer meeting, I got assigned to the Huber Heights 3 area, which is way over on the Western edge of the mission. The Huber Heights ward is pretty good sized geographically, so we cover a few smaller communities. Thankfully they are significantly bigger than the towns in Madison Lake. There are two other sets of missionaries here in the ward- two sisters and the zone leaders. They all seem like good missionaries. The ward here is very strong compared to the ones I've been in in the past. We have some neat people to work with. My new companion, Elder Orton is from South Jordan, Utah and has been out on his mission for three months. I have been very impressed so far with how great a missionary he is. We get along well. He and one of the families in the ward played a pretty good trick on me the second night I was here. They pretended to be less active and the dad acted really hostile and was whispering to the wife in the other room that he'd told the last missionaries not to come back. Then he come in the room where we were and acted mad and then said we were always welcome in their home and started laughing. You had to be there, but it was pretty funny. They did a good job acting. We are teaching a few different people including an older Lady named W. and her son, D. Their husband/father is a member and they just have some word of wisdom concerns getting in the way of their baptism. We are also teaching a mother, L, and her daughters, C. and P. I really like it in this area so far and am excited to be here. Thanks for all you emails and for the package. I really appreciate it. The picture of Ella in her costume was really cute. I hope you all have a good one!

Love,

Elder Schow

October 27, 2014

October 27, 2014

Even though the outward results of our work this week weren't impressive, we worked hard and that's what counts. We have really been trying to think outside the box in finding places to find people. Sometimes we have to try the tiniest clusters of houses. We also are working on finding through other means. Hopefully we can get some good ideas. We had a lesson with J.D. this week and are trying to figure out what keeps him from coming to church. We didn't get to meet with A. and D., but A. is making some progress. He has read in the Book of Mormon and said he believes it could be true. I guess he's still not quite sure how he wants to act on it. In his own study of the Bible, he came across John 10:16 and asked us if we thought the "other sheep" could be the people in the Book of Mormon. We said "absolutely" :). That was pretty cool. Like I told Maddie, we taught a brief lesson to a Catholic lady who said she was staying Catholic, but would be willing to listen to us. We gave her a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and she actually seemed excited or at least curious to read a little bit. Even if nothing comes of it in the near future, I felt like it was an important seed that we were able to plant. On Saturday night, we had our branch chili cook-off and trunk of treat. It was pretty fun. The branch president's wife's chili took second place, but she told us afterwards she got it from Wendy's because she was too busy to make here own :) It was kind of funny. We're not sure what will happen with transfers this week, but I guess I just have to have faith that the Lord's will will be done. I definitely know this is God's work, even if it is difficult. I love you all and hope you have a blessed week! Thanks so much for writing and praying and being great.

Love,
Elder Schow

October 20, 2014

October 20, 2014

Being in a rural area is definitely different than what I am used to. Things are much slower here. Thankfully, though, we do have some good people to work with and some good members to help us. J.D. is still doing pretty well. The next step with him is to just come to church. Hopefully he can put it into his schedule. D likes us to visit but gives a lot of excuses. We have had a chance to teach a neat guy named A. this week who has started to read the Book of Mormon and wants to keep reading and pray about it. He is in a rock band and played a hymn for us that he wrote on his guitar. District meeting went really well this week. We talked about Christlike attributes, and I feel like it was uplifting for everyone. We went on exchanges with our zone leaders this week, so I got to spend a day with Elder Shields in the Hayden Run area, which is located in Hilliard, a suburb on the West Side of Columbus. I found out that J, who I was teaching in Marble Cliff has moved into that ward, and the missionaries there are teaching him, so that was kind of cool. I also found out a few weeks ago that M. that I taught in Marble Cliff is getting baptized in a different ward. Pretty neat. We got to go to the temple, which was really nice. We saw the third new film, which was neat. I'm really glad we had the chance to go.

I loved the pictures of Ella in her blessing dress. She was super cute. I'm glad to hear that the blessing went well!

I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

October 13, 2014

October 13, 2014

Well, it has been a pretty good week. Since the people in our area are spread out over such a large region, we have been trying to track down and visit some of the smallest communities on the map. Some of them only have 8 or 9 houses.We hope that doing this will pay off and help us find prepared people. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was when we went to a prison to visit a man there. A bishop in a nearby ward asked us to visit this man and put us in touch with the guy who coordinates the faith program at the prison. We were able to go in and teach the Restoration to this man and his friend, neither of whom are members of the Church. It was a special opportunity to answer their questions and to see how sincere they were. Due to the nature of the visiting program at the prison, we probably won't be able to go back, but there are other people who will. It was a really singular experience. We visited A. this week. She is really good friends with a member, but she is a strong Catholic, so the missionaries have been working with her slowly. We also had a lesson with J.D.. He has been pretty busy, but he is a good guy and has made some progress with prayer.

On Saturday, we got to go to M. baptism in Big Walnut Creek. It was good to see the missionaries and some of the members there, and it was great to see Michael. He was really excited to be baptized. I'm really glad I got the chance to go.

Today we had an activity with our zone. We basically just played a bunch of group games. It was fun. We get to go to the temple on Friday, so I am excited about that. We found out this week that we will be emailing every Monday, even on transfer week, so that will be a little different. I hope you all keep doing well! Have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

September 29th 2014

Sept. 29, 2014

It has been a pretty good week here. On Tuesday a member drove us to the East side of Columbus so Elder Paulsen could go to the dentist. We passed through Big Walnut Creek on the way, so that was surreal. On Wednesday, we had our district meeting. It was good to get better acquainted with the other missionaries. Our district includes the two companionships from our branch as well as the sisters from a branch called Greenfield. Our zone leaders also came to the meeting. They all seem like cool people. On Thursday, there was a mission-wide leadership meeting where a couple of people from the missionary department came and talked to all the district leaders, zone leaders, and sister training leaders. President Daines talked about going strictly by Preach My Gospel in the mission and eliminating all the extra programs and policies that have built up here in the last few years. The two brethren from the missionary department gave us a lot of counsel on how to streamline and improve our work as we prepare to be a technology mission. President Daines pulled a pretty good trick on all of us. At the beginning of the meeting he said, "you've all been told that some day soon we will be getting iPads." He reached his hand into a box "That day is... not today!" and pulled out a book. We were all rather disappointed, but from what they said, the transition to an online proselyting mission will happen within the next couple of months. We have been low on miles this week and have spent a lot of time walking around trying to contact former investigators and people. We had a good lesson with a 19 year old guy named J.D. who lives next door to a member and is his "adopted grandson." He is a neat guy and would have come to church yesterday but got sick. D. came to church, though. She is a nice lady who is probably in her 50's. She has been working with the elders for a while, but never came to church until yesterday. Hopefully she will keep coming. We have met a few other neat people, but haven't really found any new investigators so far. The town we live in has been tracted a lot in the past, which doesn't help things, but once we get more miles we can go to some of our other towns and try working there. I found out today that M., who Elder Taylor and I were working with in BWC is getting baptized on the 11th, which is exciting.

I am glad that things are going well there with Ella and everyone else. RIP, brown car.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

September 22, 2014

Sept. 22, 2014

Well, we went to the transfer meeting on Thursday and I found out my new area and companion. I am now serving with Elder Paulsen (who entered the mission the same time I did) in the Madison Lake 2 area. You got your wish about me getting out of Columbus, Mom. The Madison Lake Branch, which we split with a set of sisters, covers all of Madison County, which is West of Columbus. Our area is half of the county and includes several small towns and a whole lot of farmland. It is a much different area than what I am used to, but it should be a good experience to work here. We live in West Jefferson which has a few thousand people maybe. I am still a district leader. My companion and I are the only Elders in our district, which is weird. Elder Paulsen is from Tooele (can't remember how to spell it), Utah. he seems like a pretty good guy and a good missionary. I've only met a few of our investigators so far. They include a lady named S, a lady named A, and a mother and daughter named D and A. We had a ward activity at the branch president's farmhouse on Friday, so I got to meet some of the members before church happened on Sunday. They seem like great people. One man in the Elders quorum swears I look like John F. Kennedy. That was a new one. I've heard I look like Russell Crowe a couple times on my mission :) I guess I just have one of those faces. On my first day here, we also did service helping a lady set up a haunted forest, which was kind of fun. We basically just moved a bunch of dummies to various locations.

I am glad to hear that Ella is here. She looked really cute in the pictures. That is exciting news. It is strange to be an uncle!

I suppose I will probably have more to say about the area once I've been here a little longer. In the mean time, I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

My swim in the Big Walnut Creek comes to an end (just kidding; we're not allowed to swim!)

Sept. 17, 2014

So, I found out today that I am getting transferred. I am excited. I have enjoyed much of my time here in Big Walnut Creek and have learned a lot, but I am glad to try somewhere new. We will go to transfer meeting tomorrow and I'll find out my new area and companion. I will miss some of the people here, but hopefully we will be able to keep in touch. 

It was a pretty good week. The nine day gaps are always long.

We haven't heard from M. this week. He is still in the hospital. We really hope he is okay. The hospital where he is at is outside our ward, but hopefully some members can go visit him. I hope to hear news that he is getting baptized soon after I leave here. B. is making a lot of progress as well and she and her fiancee are very motivated to make positive changes in their lives, more that they have been since I've been in this ward. We were able to start teaching Imogene this past week and she wants to come to church on Sunday. It is pretty neat. I will miss working with these people.

We had an exchange this week with the other Elders in the ward. I spent the day with Elder Rodriguez in their area on bikes. It was a pretty good day. Exchanges are almost always fun. We had a zone activity today where we played soccer and ultimate Frisbee, which was also pretty fun. Having friendships with other missionaries is always nice. 

I hope that all is going well at home. Hopefully Ella comes soon. I will keep praying for you all and for Uncle Paul as well. Thank you very much for the letter and all the notes. I really liked the little thought from President Hinckley as well. Anyway, I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

Pictures

                                                                Birthday Packages

                                                                    Ethan's Birthday

                                                                     Minion Friends

                                                                       The Turtle

                                                   OSU--The Buckeyes! Lookin' Good!

September 8, 2014

September 8, 2014

It hasn't been a super exciting week, but it has been a pretty good one. We had zone meeting on Wednesday.  We talked about effective study and how to help establish expectations with our investigators. It was a good meeting, and the things that were talked about were helpful. Since then, I have been trying to do better using a study journal when I study, and it has helped me find more things to learn more about. I would recommend it. We had some good lessons with M. and J. this week. Elder Taylor led out in almost all of our lessons since he is almost done with training. He did a good job. M. was in the hospital again this weekend, so we are hoping he is okay. He is there a lot for various things. Besides that stuff and a few lessons with other investigators, we spent a lot of time knocking doors and walking around to try to contact people. It was super hot a couple of days, but we could usually deal with it without too much trouble. 

It is still crazy that the baby is coming so soon. I'm not sure what my prediction is, but it would be kind of cool if she came on the 12th for Lauren's birthday. That is neat that you guys took Cheryl out and that she had such a good time. 

I wish I had more exciting things to talk about, but it was a fairly quiet week. As quiet as things get in a city this size! have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

Sept 2, 2014

Sept. 2, 2014

It has been a pretty good week. We are seeing some good progress with some of the people we are working with. M. is doing well. He is very close to quitting smoking. He has received a lot of support from the ward, which is good to see. A lady named B. is doing well, too. She and her fiancee (who is a member) have been in and out of the Church for a long time, so it is good to see them moving in the right direction. We also have had to opportunity to teach a neat lady named Jamie this week. She is really sweet, but has some health challenges right now. We met the archbishop just by knocking on the door of his house. He agreed to let us bring him a Book of Mormon and we have had the chance to sit down and discuss his church and ours a few times. I'm not sure what Syriac means. I think it is a smaller orthodox church than some of the others we hear about, though, like Greek Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox.

I hope Maddie enjoyed her first few days of school. Junior year can be hard, but it was fun, too. I would definitely prefer to avoid Mr. White, too. I'm glad the picnic went well- it sounds fun. Good job on the 5k to both of you! That is really cool. I'm also glad you all had fun at the fair.Thanks for the quote!

We went on exchanges this week, so I spent part of Wednesday with Elder Dubach on bikes. It was super hot, then it rained just enough to get us soaked :) Not my favorite thing, but hey. We had a few other good lessons throughout the week. Yesterday we went to a couple of thrift stores, which was fun. I got a couple of ties, including one for M. For 90 cents, why not? :) 

I hope everything keeps going well for all of you. 

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

August 25, 2014

August 25th 2014

We had family home evening with M at a members' home last Monday. It went well and I think he had a positive experience. He is doing very well with reading and understanding and he is very close with smoking. Thank you for your prayers. Most of the other people we have been working with have fallen off lately, so I will keep you posted if anything changes. We had several good appointments this week. We had our last meeting with a guy I've been working with for the last six months. He has read a chapter or two of 1st Nephi each week and we have visited and discussed each one with him as well as teaching a few PMG lessons. His interest was always more academic, but we would encourage him to pray and ask if this was something he should act on. He eventually decided that his answer was that we are good people and messengers of God, but that he should stick with the faith that he already has. He didn't get baptized. He never even came to church, but at least he now has some understanding of what our faith is and why it is so important to us. We also met with an archbishop and a priest from the Syriac Orthodox faith and taught them about our view of the Plan of Salvation. They shared insights from their views with us and there were a lot of neat similarities. It was a very pleasant meeting. Thursday we had zone conference with the 21ish people from our zone and the 25ish from the other zone in our stake. (there are two zones in each of the 5 stakes of the mission). It was a good meeting. We talked about trials and goals and some of the upcoming developments in our proselyting. We watched the trailer for the "Meet the Mormons" movie and talked about how proselyting will change once we get iPads. We find out the details about that in September. I asked about musical instruments, and President Daines decided that since the missionary call packet says not to bring instruments to the MTC or the field that they aren't allowed. Oh, well. It was weird to think that Thursday was my year mark. Thank you for the package! I liked the note about the symbolism of the camel. It was pretty neat. We had a zone fun day and played dodge ball. I hope things go well for you all this week. Good luck with the 5k, Mom and Maddie! It is crazy that Ella is coming so soon, too!

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

August 18, 2014

August 18, 2014

Well, it was a pretty good week here in Big Walnut Creek. Nothing super exciting happened, but that's okay. We have spent a lot of time knocking doors and trying to track down old investigators. It is amazing how slippery some people can be! We have tried knocking in a few different parts of our area and figured out what times are most effective to knock there. We spent the evening on Saturday knocking in a nice suburb called Berwick in the southern tip of our ward and found several potential investigators. One of them was a really nice old lady named I. At first she wanted to just send us away because she is already a Christian. But I asked if there was anything we could do for her (like yard work) she thought we were joking at first, but then she said we could come back in a few days and help her clean her garage. She talked to us for almost 20 minutes on her porch about the Bible and different religions. Then she gave us water and we left. It was pretty cool. I hope we get to go back and help her. We had our zone meeting on Wednesday. It was nice to meet some of the new people in the zone. Being around other missionaries can be a lot of fun. We got to meet with several part member families this week, which was really good. They are making some progress. The boss of one of our members is really interested in the church and has come to church 6 or times now even though he doesn't live in our ward boundaries. He took us and the member's family and the other Elders from our ward to dinner at a nice restaurant downtown. It was pretty neat. Hopefully we can help him get his answer about his church and get him into the ward where he lives. M. is doing pretty well. He was sick for a couple of days, so please keep him in your prayers. We got him a couple of bags of dum dum suckers to help him quit smoking and he says they have helped a lot. It is so weird that I hit my year mark in a couple of days. It has been a quick year, but a long year too. Time is a strange thing, especially on a mission.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

Aug. 11 2014

August 11, 2014

Well, I hope everyone has had a good week since the last time I talked to you. Ours hasn't been terribly eventful, but some good things happened. We got a couple of new missionaries transferred  into our ward/district, which is always interesting. Elder Dubach's new companion is named Elder Rodriguez. He came into the mission field during the same transfer as Elder Dubach and me. One of the sisters in our ward also came out that transfer, so there are 4 of us here. Weird. We've been knocking doors in a lot of different areas. It is sometimes tricky to find places that I haven't already knocked in the time I've been here, but there are a few areas that have been relatively untouched. We keep trying to get in touch with people. We'll be meeting with K. tonight, so hopefully he'll be there. J. reads the Book of Mormon and really wants to come to church, but here health is very frail, so most weeks she just doesn't feel up to it. She keeps telling us she'll surprise us one of these weeks though. We have been teaching C. her new member lessons and she is going to the temple to do baptisms this week. She is so excited and it makes me happy to see her grow in the gospel. On Friday night, a couple of members took us and the other Elders out to a Mexican restaurant, which was fun. M. is still doing well. He has read the whole Gospel Principles book now and I think he enjoyed church again yesterday. We are just getting some logistical things worked out and hopefully he will be able to be baptized at the end of the month. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. It sounds like there is a lot going on at home with babies and weddings and stuff. That is always interesting news. If you guys want some more moisture, we can always lend you some from out here. I've been told this has actually been a very mild summer for Ohio, though. Hopefully that doesn't lead to a winter as bad as last one. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I know it's been a while since I've sent any. I need to remember to take more from now on. Anyhoo, I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Schow

August 6, 2014

August 6, 2014

Well, these nine day weeks are always strange. I found out today that I will be in Big Walnut Creek for another transfer. I have outlasted everyone else who was in my zone when I got here. We have had a pretty successful week. M. continues to be solid. He has really enjoyed church both times he has come and is on date to be baptized on August 30th. He has read almost the entire Gospel Principals book during the last week. We continue to find new people and try to stay in touch with the others that they are working with. If I have mentioned names in the past, we are still probably working with them, but it is a slow process. Please keep praying for them. I will try to give more details and also send pictures soon, but I am almost out of time for today. Thank you so much for the birthday packages! I loved all the gifts and the ties are spectacular. I was wearing the orange one in the birthday party picture with the Lees (Q. is Sister Lees son, and he does indeed know what a raccoon is, the weirdo) The raccoon is still very much alive as far as we know :) he was just relocated, so don't worry about him. I hope you all have a good week. I suppose I'll talk to you again on Monday! If you get the chance, watch the new Mormon Message "the  Hope of God's Light." It is amazing. I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

July 28, 2014

July 28, 2014

It was a pretty good week here in Ohio. It sounds like everyone had a pretty good one back home. We had some good lessons work out this week, which was nice. We also met a man named M. who was referred to us by a member of another ward. M. has been in a lot of different churches, but really wants to feel the Spirit in his life. He has read the Book of Mormon before from a research standpoint, so when we first taught him, we challenged him to read it again from a spiritual standpoint. He has started to and he says he has felt the Spirit while reading it. He came to a ward activity this week and to church as well and seemed to like them. He has a couple of hurdles to cross, but I think he has some great potential to make progress. We had an interesting occurrence happen that made us late to one lesson. It involved Q. the priest, our car, and a raccoon. I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice it to say that we were only 5 minutes late and the raccoon has been relocated to a new home. The ward party that M. came to was Pioneer Day themed and it was pretty fun. It seems like most of the people we have been working with are making slow progress. I guess they will get to where they need to be in the Lord's time. We have met a couple times this week with A., so there is some potential there.

To answer Dad's questions as best I can:

1. We still find most of our investigators through knocking doors. sometimes we use the DVD player, but not as much lately. We have had some success with following up with people who we contacted before who weren't opposed to us stopping back by

2. I've been studying a few conference and devotional talks that have been helpful to my testimony lately. One I especially liked and that I felt applied to my life was one by Neal A. Maxwell on Patience

3. The food here isn't too different from home. When the members feed us it is usually pretty good.

4. The thing that surprises me most about people is probably how impolite they can be to us when we are perfectly civil to them. I know that sounds negative, but it is true. I have been pleasantly surprised by some people's reactions, though, so I suppose it balances out.

5. My biggest surprise about myself has been the ability to keep going even when I have to do hard things.

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Schow

July 21, 2014

July 21, 2014 (out 11 months today)

Well, I hope everybody had a good week. Ours was pretty decent here. We were able to find several new people to teach as well as teaching some of those we've found in past weeks. We taught J. again. She is an older lady and has a lot of health challenges, but she loves our visits and reading in the Book of Mormon. She says she feels like the Church is "her thing." We really hope to get things figured out so she can come to church soon. We also visited again with K. K. is a great guy with a rough past. He is very devoted to his family. He finds all the stuff that we teach him a bit overwhelming, but he is determined to get it all figured out. He almost came to church this week. I think he got scared at the last minute, though. Our district meeting on Wednesday went well. Afterwards, we went on exchanges with the other Elders. I spent the day with Elder Clark in their area on bikes. It was actually a really good day for biking. Very cool temperatures, which is unusual for Ohio in July. We had our first interviews with President Daines on Thursday. I really like him. I feel like he did a good job getting to know me. I was able to talk to him about some of the stresses of being a trainer. Later that evening, we had dinner with a member and his boss who is investigating the Church right now. He doesn't live in our area, but he's a very sincere guy and is really cool. He reminds me of Steve Pearce. We went to a new-missionary training meeting at the OSU institute on Friday. It was a good training and it emphasized the importance of following the manuals and programs that the Prophet and Apostles have given us for training. On Saturday we got four separate members out teaching with us. Unfortunately, only one member-present lesson worked out. It was a good lesson though. We were able to teach a nice old lady named A. that Elder Blalock and I found months ago. It was a really good week overall. It sounds like everyone is doing pretty well back home. I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and accomplishing a lot. Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

July 14, 2014

July 14th 2014
Well, I hope everybody had a great week! Ours here was not bad. We've still been doing a lot of finding in hopes of contacting people who will make and keep commitments. We visited a couple times with a neat guy named K. who we met last week. He's a really humble guy and has some good potential. We just need to help him come to church. We had the opportunity to talk to a Catholic lady named G. this week who lives with her daughter and her family who are members. She had some questions about what Mormons think about Catholics and about some of the basics of our church. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and she agreed. She told us not to think of her as a "prospective Mormon" but I hope that reading the Book of Mormon will help soften her heart. Please pray for her and K. and also for a lady named J. We had our zone meeting on Wednesday and found out about a few changes that the First Presidency has authorized in Preach my Gospel, including that we teach people lesson 5 before baptism now as well as after. That will be interesting, but it should be good. We went on our exchange with the zone leaders, which was fun. They have been doing a lot of contacting on bikes in their area. They just ride around and hand people cards and talk to them. We tried it out on the exchange and have tried it a few times in our area since. It hasn't worked out too well for us yet, but we're working on finding out which parts of our area it would be best in. We spent a couple of hours in the other elders' area again with them to find new people. That was pretty fun. Elder Dubach is from Utah and came into the mission with me. He is a funny guy. Elder Clark is from Wyoming and goes home soon. He is a really good missionary. It is crazy how fast the time goes.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

July 7, 2014

July 7, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Well, it has been an interesting week. We were able to have a few lesson appointments work out, which was nice, but we have spent most of our efforts trying to find new people who will meet with us and keep appointments. We were rewarded with a few neat people.

On Wednesday, we had a specialized training with our new mission president, President Daines. We each got to meet him and shake his hand and also meet Sister Daines and their two youngest children. President talked to us all about his goals for his mission and the vision he has for his service here. I think he will be a great President. Since the new set of Elders in the ward are on bikes, we did some rearranging with the areas and our space is now slightly bigger than it originally was when I first got here, which has been nice. It gives us a little bit of unexplored territory to work with.

On Thursday we got to go work with the new elders in their area to help kick-start the work again there. That was pretty fun. They are good guys. The Fourth of July wasn't too exciting for us. We were able to talk to a fair amount of people, and had a nice dinner with some members, but all the fireworks were past our curfew and weren't visible from our windows. Oh, well. :)

I hope you all had a good week. It sounds like you were able to do some fun things. Thank you, Mom, Dad and Maddie for the letters. They were very helpful.  I'm working on thinking of birthday stuff. I love you all!

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

June 30, 2014

June 30, 2014

Hello, everybody. I hope you had a good week. It sounds like the Manti Pageant was a really good experience and I'm glad those who went enjoyed it. On Thursday morning, I went to the transfer meeting. It was a little sad, because President and Sister Nilsen gave their departing testimonies. I got my new companion and trainee. His name is Elder Taylor and he is from Orem. He's a good guy and it seems so far like we will get along pretty well. We also found out at the transfer meeting that a third set of missionaries was put back into our ward, so we have 2 sets of Elders again. That means that our proselyting area is a lot smaller, so we are going to have to do some adapting. We are trying to find new people, but it has been a slow week. We have managed to find some potential investigators, though. We have done a lot of knocking doors and have tried some contacting in a large park in our area. We are looking for new ways to find, though. There's not much else to report, but if you could continue to pray for C. and also for N., and S., I would appreciate it. Thank you all for your support and love. It is always good to hear from you via email, and a paper letter now and then can be a boost. I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

June 25th

June 25th, 2014

Transfer week emails are always strange since there are nine days to account for. A lot has happened since last Monday. Last Tuesday, we had a special training meeting with President and Sister Nilsen. It was one of the last meetings we'll have with them, so it was basically a goodbye. We each signed the table cloth that they have all the missionaries sign. After the meeting, we had an exchange with the Elders serving in Whitehall. I spent the day with Elder Pytlakowski in Big Walnut Creek. He is pretty new, so it was interesting, but he is a very nice fellow. On Wednesday, we found out for sure that Elder Blalock's visa had come. That afternoon, I went to OSU campus to spend a couple of days with an Elder there while his companion came to BWC with Elder Blalock. The mission has been arranging for a lot of missionaries to spend time on OSU lately so they can get practice talking to people and bring some of those skills back to their areas. It was a lot of fun. Elder Peterson and I taught some neat people and I got to see some to the cool sights on campus. The rest of the week went by fairly quickly. We've been working to get back in contact with a lot of people while still trying to find new people. No one is progressing drastically right now, but we'll find some people. Please pray for C. She is doing well, but continues to struggle with some things. Most of Monday was spent getting Elder Blalock ready to leave. I helped a little with the packing and updated all our records. On Tuesday morning, he flew out to go to the MTC in Sao Paulo for a couple weeks. I have spent yesterday and today with one of our zone leaders. I don't know if I'm getting transferred or not, but I'm probably not because I got a call this morning from president saying that I'll be training a new missionary again. We'll see how that goes. It should be fun. I hope everyone has a good week and that things are going well.

Have a blessed one!

Love,

Elder Schow

June 16th 2014

June 16th 2014

 

It was a pretty good week. We were able to get in contact with a lot of people who had fallen off the grid. Also, up until Friday night, we had our "mini missionary" with us, which was fun. On Monday, we found out that C. was moving. We panicked for a minute before we found out she was moving in with another older sister in the ward. It worked out pretty well. We had our zone meeting on Wednesday with 31 total missionaries, including the "mini missionaries". On Thursday, we helped C. move all of her possessions to her new home. Sister Montgomery, the sister she is living with has been very kind to C. It is a win-win-win situation for all concerned. We found a few new people to teach this week and tracked down a bunch of people. We got back in touch with K., who came to church a few weeks back. We almost had a guy named N. come to church, but it turned out he can't come until next week. On Saturday morning we went and did service for a nonmember family who we've been helping out for a while. We helped their neighbor, who is a member, lay a new carpet in their house. That was an interesting experience. We also spray-painted some deck furniture for them. Then, we had lunch with them and had a chance to talk to them about what we do as missionaries. It was cool. On Sunday, I got to play a musical number duet in sacrament meeting. After the members found out I could do that sort of thing, they took advantage of it. This morning we had a fun day with our district. Elder Blalock did a magic show, and we had a lightsaber battle with pool noodles. It was pretty fun. When Elder Blalock and I went to the dollar store this morning to buy the pool noodles, we asked a worker if they had any and he took us to the food section thinking we were talking about edible noodles of some kind. We got it figured out eventually...

Well, I hope everyone enjoys Sun Valley and whatever else goes on.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

June 9, 2014

June 9, 2014

What a week! On Tuesday evening, we had C.'s baptismal interview and she passed with flying colors. We had zone conference on Wednesday, which was fun. It was different because it was the last zone conference that we will have with President and Sister Nilsen. It was nice to see some of the missionaries that were there. We talked to C. later that day and also taught Nancy about commandments to help her get ready for he baptismal interview. We had a lot of good lessons this week, especially with C. On Friday night, N. passed her baptismal interview. She was very excited. On Saturday morning, we went to a "prospective missionary transfer meeting" to pick up our "mini missionary." (We are supposed to call them "prospective missionaries" but no one does.) The missionary we have with us for the week is named Brother Crandall. he is from here in central Ohio and is 17 years old. He is a really great fellow. He gets to spend the entire week with us looking like and acting like a full-time missionary. It's pretty cool. After drving for a long time to drop off a bike in Pickerington, we started to get ready for C.'s and N.'s baptisms. They both went well. C. was so happy. I got to play sweet hour of prayer on the violin for the service and it made her cry. She had told us it was her father's favorite hymn. We had C.'s confirmation on Sunday. It was amazing. N.'s baptismal service was afer C.'s. Her grandpa from Utah baptized her and afterwards confirmed her, since they were planning to leave for Utah before church on Sunday. She was really happy, too. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be a part of both baptisms. We locked in a lot of people to come to church and only had two, but it was okay.Sunday was Elder Blalock's birthday, so we got to have dessert with a couple of families. Today we had a zone fun day with all the missionaries and mini missionaries in our zone (32 people!) We had lunch and spray-painted t-shirts and played ultimate frisbee. It was pretty fun. Elder Blalock just found out that he has his visa, so he'll be leaving at the end of the transfer. Weird. Well, I hope everyone has a blessed week!

 

Love,

Elder Schow

June 3rd 2014

June 3rd 2014
We have had a pretty excting week. C. quit smoking on Friday night and hasn't relapsed, so we are moving forward with plans for her baptism on the 7th. Her interview is tonight. She is so excited! N. is also excited. This week's district meeting went well. I was able to fill the time allotment and I think everyone enjoyed it pretty well. We went to our zone leaders' area for an exchange on Thursday. It was fun, but we ended up staying up until 1:30 in the morning chasing bed bugs. We must have got them all with the permethrin, luckily, and we haven't seen any since. On Saturday, we got to go to a baptism for one of Elder Blalock's investigators from his old area. It was pretty exciting. We took N. and her mom and brother with it. N. is worried the water in the baptismal font will be too tall for her, but we should be able to address that concern :) Yesterday, we had a special leadership training meeting. Elder Perkins of the Seventy was there and spoke to us and so was one of the main business leaders of Wendy's. It was pretty neat. Last night I had to do my first baptismal interview along with four others. The zone leaders are baptizing five people on Saturday. It went pretty well.

Well, I'm almost out of time, but I hope everyone is doing well.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

May 27, 2014

May 27th, 2014

 

It was a pretty busy week. We had a LOT of lessons and where able to get members to many of them, which was nice. We pressure washed and painted the garage of an older couple who live next to some members in our ward. The whole project took a lot longer than expected. We were in the sun for a LONG time and I got pretty burnt. Oh, well. We also helped the Gardner family move. I got to conduct my first district meeting on Wednesday. It went pretty well, though I ran out of material to fill the time. Oh, well. We spent a fair amount of time out knocking doors during the week. People still seem pretty receptive to the DVD tracting, so we've been using that strategy a lot. We are still getting acquainted with the new geographical area that we cover. They gave us more miles for our car, but we just aren't used to having so much territory and haven't used many of them. I'm sure we will eventually. We had lessons with some of the people that the other elders left behind. N. is a cute little girl and she understood the plan of Salvation really well when we taught it. She is excited to be baptized. C. is still working on the smoking and still trying to figure out whether she will have to move. She is so prepared other than those two things. She loves the church and all the members. She came to family home evening at a member's home last night and she really enjoyed it. We also had good lessons with P. and T. We have several dozen other investigators who we are in and out of contact with. As our president says, we fish with a big net, then sort the fish afterwards. I hope everyone had a good memorial day and that things are going well.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

May 19, 2014

May 19, 2014

 

What a busy week! Following transfer calls on Wednesday, we weren't sure if we had a good reason to go to the transfer meeting on Thursday, but we eventually decided to go and it's a good thing that we did! When the transfer was announced, no new missionaries were put into the Big Walnut Creek 2 elders' area. They were doubled out and no one was doubled in. In other words, we found out that their area is now closed. So, we went to their apartment and took all the good food that was left, along with a few other items they left behind. We divded their area with the sisters in our ward, so now we cover about twice as much geography as we did before. This new area included several great investigators. There is a 9 year old girl named N. who is from a part-member family. She is being baptized on the 7th. We also are now teaching a nice guy named T. and a lady named S., who are also both from part-member families.

We visited C. twice and she gave us the last of her cigarettes twice. I don't think she will buy any more now. She also gave us all her coffee the first time and we gave her a substitute called Choffy (made with cocoa beans instead of coffee beans) so she shouldn't have any more problems there either. We have made a plan with her for baptism on June 7th, and she is excited!

We have also been visiting with a lady named P.. She is in the pictures from the social media split, though her name isn't on the for privacy. She came to church yesterday and seemed to enjoy it pretty well. It is different from what she is used to (she is Lutheran) but she certainly has potential.

Now, the trick is going to be keeping all of this going!

I'm glad things went well with the move and everything. I love you all.

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

May 6, 2014

May 6, 2014
It has been a very busy week. We had interviews with President and Sister Nilsen on Tuesday and some training from the assistants. Recently, we each companionship was given a DVD with some Mormon messages on it to use during lessons. Each companionship also had a portable DVD player in our apartments. During the training on Tuesday, one of the assistants told about using the DVD player as a tracting approach. We took it to heart and spent the rest of the week knocking on doors and offering the share a brief video about Jesus Christ. People were SO much more receptive to a video than they ever have been to a "message." The best part is, we got so share our message anyway after the video was over. We found 20 new investigators, which was almost a mission record. Our whole mission broke our investigator record again and found 505 investigators last week, which was pretty cool. We've been pretty busy going to the appointments we have set up as a result of all these contacts. Sometimes the people are there and sometimes they are not, but I guess that's how it works.

A man named K. and two of his children came to church with us on Sunday. He seemed to enjoy it and he plans to bring his wife and the rest of his family next week.

Yesterday we played baseball with our whole zone. It was rainy part of the time, but it was really fun anyway. After the activity, we and the other Elders in our ward had to help a less active lady named Whitney move out, so that took up the whole afternoon. I really think it left a lasting impression on her and we hope she will eventually come back to church. She may try to find you on Facebook.

Since you guys asked, 2-2-5ing basically is tracting around the home of a member or an investigator or someone like that. We knock 2 doors on either side, and 5 across the street. I guess it just makes it more likely that the people we talk to will have some sort of connection to the Church. It often leads us to prepared people.

Mom, thank you for the quote on perserverance.

They haven't given us any details for Mother's day, so I'm assuming I'll be calling. Our church goes from 1 to 4 our time or 11 to 2 your time. I'm thinking maybe I'll call around 5 or 5:30 my time, but I'm not sure. Once we figure things out a little better. We can probably come back to the library and send a short email telling you exactly what is going on.

For the social media split (explained in that other email) you might want to friend Tammy Lee and Mike (Michael?) Winslow on Facebook with both my account and yours.

I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for your love and support.

Have a blessed week,

Love,

Elder Schow

April 28, 2014

April 28, 2014

We had a few good lessons and visits this week, as usual, but there were a few more exciting things that happened. We didn't do any actual tracting last week, but focused more on "2-2-5ing" people that we know. This yielded some good results. On Wednesday, all the missionaries in our stake had a specialized training. President and Sister Nilsen called it an "intervention." There has been some complacency in our mission lately, so they decided to do something about it. There was a lot of talk about accountability and not wasting time. It is really easy to use all our time traveling from place to place and doing the same ineffective finding approaches and visiting the same people who don't make progress. We were all committed to do better with those things and President challenged us to find at least one new investigator every day from now on, or 7 each week. Later that day we had an exchange with our zone leaders and their companion and between the five of us, we found five new investigators. We have found one a day since Thursday. Some of them are really neat people, and they all need the gospel in their lives. Hopefully this new focus will help us get things rolling around here. Carol has fallen off the face of the earth this past week. We think she went to visit her son and forgot to tell us. Hopefully we will hear from her soon. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. It was good but a little dry. As always, we are working to help our current investigators progress. It can be a struggle to coordinate member present lessons and rides to church and things like that, but we'll keep trying.

I hope everyone is doing well at home! Have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

Happy Easter

 

April 21, 2014

I hope everyone had a happy Easter. Ours was very nice here. We took a challenge from our zone leaders to not tract this week so that we could try some more creative and hopefully more effective finding methods. As a result we have done some 2-2-5ing (knocking doors directly around members, former investigators, etc.) and have tried to follow up with potential investigators that we have found. This has brought us some success. We are still working with some of the same people, though progress is slow. C. may or may not be moving soon and is continuing to try to kick her smoking habit. She has made so much progress. We had another exchange this week. Elder Bowler the district leader came into our area with me. We had a pretty good time. Elder Blalock and I each were sick at different times during the second half of the week which slowed us down a bit, but were able to do some things. We even had a surprise member-present lesson when a less-active man came over while we were teaching his neighbor on her porch. He gave some good input. It's funny because he and his family lived in Marble Cliff while I was there and moved here shortly before I was transferred. Easter was good. We had dinner with the Mizers and visited Sister G. in the retirement community. This morning we played baseball with our district, which was pretty fun. I'm almost out of time, but I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Schow

April 14, 2014

April 14, 2014

      This week was a pretty good one. Besides a couple of rainy days, we are starting to get some really nice spring weather. The daffodils are coming up and we hear the trees will be blooming soon. We had some good lessons with our investigators this week and were able to contact a few less-active people. We took some heart-softening cookies to some of them. No one told us that one man was blind, then his cat got outside and the whole thing was very awkward. Oh well. One lady was very comforted that we showed up when we did- her brother's death was imminent and I think she knew that it was no coincidence that we were there. We went on exchanges this week with the other Elders from our ward. The elder I was with and I taught a really spiritual Restoration lesson to a man from Africa. He was really receptive and said that he believes you should never reject someone who is sharing a message about God. The elder I was with is a nice guy.   One of our investigators, Leron, came to play basketball with some of the guys from the ward on Thursday and had a lot of fun, so that was good. On Saturday we and the other elders had dinner with a lady in the ward who hasn't come to church in years. She surprised us and came on Sunday. She even stood up and bore a testimony of gratitude. She's moving to Texas soon, but she says she may look up the Church when she gets there. Overall it was a pretty good week and hopefully this one will be, too! I hope you all have a good one! Happy Easter.

Love,

Elder Schow

April 7 2014

 

April 7 2014

It has been a pretty good few days since I last wrote. On Thursday, we went to the transfer meeting to say goodbye to Elder Loosli before he went home. It was nice to see him and I'll miss having him around. Presdient called two new assistants, so that was kind of exciting. We had a few good lessons and found a couple of new investigators. General Conference was kind of the highlight of the week. There were some really good talks and I enjoyed listening. I even stayed awake the whole time! I especially enjoyed the Saturday afternoon session and the priesthood session. We drove with an investigator couple and their nephew to the Sat. afternoon one and gave them a tour of the church, too. I think they really enjoyed the experience. Carol hasn't quite moved yet, so she was able to come to a session as well. The weather is much warmer lately, but we have had a lot of rain, so hopefully things will mellow out a bit more. That is super exciting news about the baby. It is still weird to think that I am going to be an uncle. I hope everyone there had a good week!

Love,

Elder Schow

April 2, 2014

 

April 2, 2014

Nothing too exciting is happening with transfers. Elder Blalock and I are both staying in Big Walnut Creek and I am glad. We get along well and there are good things happening in this ward. Elder Loosli is finishing his mission and goes home tomorrow, which is super crazy! I will miss having him around. We are probably going to sneak over to the transfer meeting to tell him goodbye, even though neither of us is getting transferred. It has been a long week, but a pretty good one. We have had some good lessons. Many of the people we find drop off the face of the earth, but we have been able to meet with A. and A. and B. and a guy named L. and had good lessons with them. Q. (short for Quenten) has come out teaching with us a couple more times. He wears the pajama pants and flip flops every day except Sunday, when he wears a suit. He's a good kid. It turns out that C. is moving very soon to live with her son's family in London, Ohio. We will be sad to see her go, but we have gotten in touch with the missionaries down there and they are going to help her work towards baptism. We've tried so many things to help her quit smoking, including fasting, but nothing has been the key so far. She is getting some nicotine patches soon, though, which have helped her in the past. We haven't really been able to meet again with E., the British lady, yet, but we hope to soon. I'm looking forward to conference this weekend. It is always nice to have a couple of hours to sit and be edified. Plus, we don't have to wear suits during the months between the April and October conferences. That will be nice because it is starting to get pretty hot around here. Nothing too outrageous happened on April Fools day, but our zone leaders did trick everyone pretty good by saying that Elder Montgomery had got his visa and was leaving and that we were getting a new zone leader. They managed to engineer a special voicemail message that they forwarded to everyone which made it sound pretty legitimate. We were pretty surprised when Elder Montgomery popped out of the trunk of their car today at our zone fun day. It was funny. Thank you to everyone for the emails. Letters, especially paper ones are always welcome. I hope you all have a blessed week!

Love,

Elder Schow

March 24, 2014

March 24, 2014

 

It has been a good week this week. We've found some new people to teach this week, including a British lady, which was pretty neat. We've also been able to teach a lot of good leassons with members. The only teenage priest in our ward came out with us several times. He is a good kid.  He's really cool  and is a pretty good teacher. Elder Blalock has taught him some magic tricks in return for coming out with us. C. is getting SO close to baptism. She tore up her cigarettes and flushed them down the toilet while we were visiting her, but she couldn't keep herself from buying more. Not yet, anywyay. She only smokes a couple a day and is working down to zero. Please keep praying for her. We had an exchange with our district leader and his companion this week, so I got to work with Elder Bowler for a while. It's always interesting to see the different styles that missionaries have. Elder Blalock and I were able to finally get in contact with a part member family that the other elders were working with before we got here. We've tried to text, call, and visit them, but nothing has worked up until a few days ago, when they left us a voicemail saying they missed the missionaries and the church. We visited them, and they showed up on Sunday. It was pretty neat. Overall, things are going well in our area. I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Schow

March 17, 2014

March 17, 2014

 

It is days like today that really make me miss my green suit... Oh well. It has been a good week. We had some good visits with people. On Tuesday morning, we ran into a less-active family who lived in Marble Cliff and moved to Big Walnut Creek about a week before I was transferred here. Elder Cole and I helped them pack up their stuff. I wondered if I would run into them, and sure enough, we did. We visited them later in the week with our WML and he will get their records transferred. We took our ward's only priest out teaching with us. He is a funny kid. None of our appointments or backups worked out, but it was good to talk to him about his mission plans. We got to go on exchanges with our zone leaders on Wednesday, which was pretty fun. We ended up staying up pretty late because the zone leaders kept wanting Elder Blalock to show them magic tricks :) We're still working on finding solid people to teach. We were able to have a good lesson with A. with a member there. We also visited C. on Saturday night. She is sooo close to quitting smoking. She is down to two cigarettes a day. We hope she will be baptized at the beginning of April. I got to meet Angie's sister. We had dinner with her family this week. She actually looks quite a bit like her sister, and her son resembles Bryant and Avery. After church we went home with some members to have dinner at their house. After we ate, Brother Mizer asked what size of shoes we wear. Then he brought out a pair of really nice shoes and gave them to me because they didn't fit him and wouldn't fit Elder Blalock. It was really nice of him. We also went with the Mizers to visit a less-active lady in a retirement home. She was named Sister G. and she was certain that she had seen me before. Oddly enough, several people have told me that recently. I guess I just have one of those faces. Anyway, it was a good week here. I hope it was there as well. Have a good one and Happy Saint Patrick's day!

Have a blessed week,

Love,

Elder Schow

March 10, 2014

March 10, 2014

 

We have actually had some pretty nice weather this week, which has made it more fun to be out and about. After emailing last Monday, we wandered around trying to find someplace where we could get a haircut. Eventually we found a barber shop that was basically empty except for the barber, an African American guy named P. He took about and hour and a half to cut our hair, but we talked about the gospel and the Bible almost the whole time. He said he's a bishop for his church. He was super cool. After he finished our haircuts, he held our hands and said a prayer for us ("Bless them on the highways, and bless them on the byways, etc. etc.") We got a Book of Mormon from our car and gave it to him. It was pretty neat. We had an exchange with the Big Walnut Creek 2 elders on Thursday since Elder Bowler is the district leader. I stayed with Elder McCullough in the Bexley area. We taught a lesson to a really cool guy named B. that Elder Blalock and I found a few weeks back. He isn't willing to commit to much yet, but he's reading the Book of Mormon and is open to the idea that it is additional scripture from God. Elder Blalock and I also found some other neat investigators including a sincere guy named A., a girl named F., and a nice old lady named A. C. is still working so hard to quit smoking. We had dinner with her at the home of the Emmers, who are a great missionary-minded couple. We all discussed the great progress that C. has made. We moved back her baptismal date, but she is going to get there. She said that before she met people from the Church, she never smiled. Now she smiles a lot :). I haven't met Angie's sister yet, but I think we are having dinner with them soon. I have really learned from my personal study out here how important the Book of Mormon is. I have also come to appreciate the New Testament more and have been amazed by how helpful the JST footnotes are. The people of Ohio are mostly really nice. The diversity here is a lot different from Idaho. There are a lot of African American people, which is different from what I'm used to. Elder Blalock on the other hand says it makes him feel at home :). We hope we can continue to improve in all aspects of the work we are doing. Sometimes it is hard to know what to focus on and how to address everything that needs to be done, but we are making progress. Have a blessed week!

 

Love,

Elder Schow