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