June 8, 2015

We had some good visits this week, including a few with some
less-active members. We are seeing progress with a couple of them,
which is encouraging. I could see them returning to church fairly
soon. The overall membership of this ward is fairly small, but the
percentage of activity is unusually high compared to most of the wards
around here. It's an interesting dynamic. Also, a convert who was
baptized a month or so before I got to the area had his baby daughter
blessed in sacrament meeting, which was pretty neat. We got to stand
the circle, which was really cool. I've never had the opportunity to
participate in a baby blessing before. Besides the visits, we did a
lot of walking again, but also some biking. Friday, we got done
late having dinner with the bishop and his family and went to ride
home on our bikes, but got caught in a thunderstorm. Just as the rain
was getting super intense, we got to a little shopping plaza and took
shelter under the overhang of the goodwill store. We were stranded
there for a good half hour before bishop Kurtz showed up in his truck
and rescued us. Soon after we got home, the power went out, so we just
went to bed pretty quickly.
    Yes, we did get the iPads this week! We had our zone training
meeting Wednesday and they handed them out and had us set them up.
Since I (and several of the other missionaries) go home fairly soon,
we got used iPads that are owned by the Church. It quickly became
apparent that the one I was given didn't have the correct safeguards
on it and didn't have the Church's special software. It was basically
a regular iPad and I had to give it back and wait until Friday to get
a different one :( it all worked out though. I am using the iPad to
email right now because all the computers are taken at the library.
     K. is ready for her baptism this weekend, and all of the
details are falling into place. We are very excited for her. It is
something she really wants. We are going to try to do a lot of finding
this week, so hopefully we will come in contact with some new people
to work with. I hope you all have a good week this time around. Sorry
about your eye, Mom. I bet that hurt :( that's really cool that Maddie
found all those ordinances and that so many were performed. As Spencer
W. Kimball said, family history and temple work and missionary work
are all the same great redemptive work. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Schow