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