week #14 - Book of Mormon on broadway - - Sharing the gospel

This week has been pretty eventful! As a district, we were downtown
Saturday and Sunday night while the Book of Mormon on Broadway was in
town, sharing pass along cards and info about the real Book of Mormon.
People were pretty responsive and wanted to take pictures with real
Elders. It was a blast! Met the lead actor for the play! And there was
a great guy named Steven "Streets" who is an Irish Catholic man who
plays the trumpet and sings. He's dedicated his life to performance.
He was pretty interesting, but a great guy and an even better
musician!

Also, as I hit my official three month mark on Wednesday, all the
Elders and a few members went to Sloopie's Diner here on campus. We
did a challenge that is between missionaries here. It's three giant
pancakes with chocolate chips and peanut butter. I tried last transfer
and couldn't finish, but I got it down in twenty minutes this time!!
Elder Yeates had four bites left but puked in a trash can that we went
and grabbed for him a little earlier.

Our most progressing investigators, including the ones who were on
date, dropped us this week. It was a pretty difficult time, but it's
been such a blessing to have those trials to build my faith. I'm not
saying I want people to not get baptized, but I know that the Lord is
trying to see how hard we are willing to work even though we are
getting discouraged.

Transfers are next week and I'm really hoping that I get to stay at
least another transfer here at OSU. The people and the missionaries
here are absolutely amazing.

Daniel is now off to the Provo MTC to prepare for his mission in Tempe
Arizona, and the Springers (the senior couple here at OSU) go home
this upcoming Wednesday. I'm so sad to see them go, but I know their
family misses them.

I've been studying a lot of Elder Holland's talks recently. There's a
lot of great things that I've been able to take from the words of one
of my favorite Apostles. I'd encourage you all to look into a few of
his older talks. One of my favorite quotes: "Some blessings come soon,
some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who
embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." (“An High Priest of
Good Things to Come" Jeffrey R. Holland October 1999).

I love and miss you all! Thank you for the emails, packages, and
especially the prayers.

week #13 -- Fully trained missionary in two more weeks!

Only two more weeks, and then I am done being trained! It honestly
isn't that bad, but man it'll be nice to not have that title anymore.
This last week has been pretty eventful!

We will start with the negatives, or blessings in disguise. Everyone's
most progressing investigators dropped them this week, including Elder
Yeates and I. All we can do is pray, and love these people regardless
of their decisions.

Elder Yeates and I continue to work hard! It's pretty fun coming home
at the end of the day, dripping with sweat, to an apartment that is
warmer than the temperature outside. I can't wait till they turn the
AC on. I'm not going to complain because I know a few missionaries who
will never have that luxury, but man the humidity here is crazy! It
seems that the people on ca,OSU are very open and receptive, but
laziness and the stress of school doesn't allow them to fully endure
themselves in what this gospel has to offer. We keep on praying and
fasting for opportunities and for the faith and strength to continue
our endeavors.

Elder Daniel Lucas leaves on his mission tomorrow! We will miss him
dearly. I had the opportunity to make make district ties for all the
elders in our district. This consists of going thrift shopping for
nasty ties, making them skinny if necessary, then taking a dress (from
the thrift shop) and cutting it up to fit and wrap around the old
ties. It's a fun tradition that Elder Segle left last transfer, and I
decided to pick up. It takes time, but fun little traditions make
missionary life that much more exciting! The sisters were upset though
because it was a pretty cute dress... Oh well.

Yesterday we did a mission wide service project. We planted over 450
trees here at OSU. It was a great time! That's why I'm emailing today
as well.

We visited the Jack Nicklaus museum and the Woody Hayes Football
Shrine today! I'll be sending some pictures of those places. It's
awesome how much there is to do on Pdays around here on campus. I just
hope that we end up going golfing sometime in the near future!

Oh! Almost forgot! The Book of Mormon on Broadway is here in Columbus,
and this week sometime we decided that the OSU missionaries will go
down during the showings, and allow people to take pictures with real
missionaries, and pass out book of Mormons, cards, etc. Itll be a fun
finding activity for sure! Don't mind my triple chin, but it was a fun
picture to take that took like five tries.

I love you all, and I keep praying for all of you.

week #12 -- 2 new investigators this week!

Another busy but amazing week! There will be more pictures this
transfer as well, so hope you're all as excited for that as I am! My
new companion loves pictures haha.

We have two new investigators on date for the 7th of May! They are
great. Kevin and Daniel are roommates and we are teaching both of
them. It's amazing how he gospel really does soften the hearts of
those who are prepared. We have decided that as a district on OSU that
we need to be contacting at least 100 people a week. That's pretty
intense considering the rest of the mission has a standard of about
40. Elder Yeates and I have chosen to contact at least 150 people a
week. That is sharing the gospel with at least that many people,
regardless of whether or not they choose to listen to or meet with us.

Elder Yeates and I have so much fun while we are working. It makes it
easy to enjoy what we do when it hardly seems like work. The members
love us here, and they are very willing to help out. College students
have a busy schedule, but it's amazing what they make the time to do
here to help out the missionaries. I hope I'm the same way when I go
to college because it really does make a huge difference.

We got to go to downtown Columbus with Chris (a member) and go see the
hockey stadium and the AAA baseball teams stadium. We took some pretty
sweet pictures and selfies, even though it's been raining all day
today. Yesterday it was snowing, and the day before that it was
snowing while it was super sunny out (there's a picture of that as
well).

Thank you all for the support, the emails, and especially the prayers.
I know that this gospel is true, and that the Lord wouldn't have me be
anywhere else at this point and time. I am so blessed to spend the
next two years of my life dedicated to this work.

week #11 -- Lots of the new investigators and General Conference

This week has been crazy busy! Lots of the new investigators and
General Conference.

We have two investigators who are on date for the month of April, and
they are progressing pretty well. Meeting with college students
multiple times a week is proving to be difficult, but it's so quick
pace around here, that the days just fly by between appointments. I
can't believe that I have already been gone for going on three months,
yet I feel that I've been out here for forever. It's not a bad thing
though, it's so great in Columbus. Our P-Days feel like they keep
getting shorter and shorter, hence my emails are getting shorter and
shorter.

I thank you all for the letters, packages, and emails. It's such a
wonderful thing to come home to after the long days that we tend to
have here, so thank you!

I got to say that I love my new companion. It's great that the Lord
has blessed me with some wonderful companions to allow me to succeed
out here. Elder Yeates loves our investigators and this work just as
much as I do, and it makes it easy to work hard and have a good time
doing it.

If you all haven't listened to conference, I encourage you to find and
listen to, read, and study the talks that were prepared for us by the
general authorities. They really do love us so much, and only want
what is best for us.

I love you all so much. You continue to inspire and motivate me to
work hard to bring God's children back to Him. I love Him, and I pray
that I can see everyone as He sees them.

Til next week!!