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