Week 8: Olympic Swimming!

Hey everybody! I am missing you all so much, especially this past week with Christmas. I had such an amazing week and I had a lot of fun! I hope you all had an amazing week and that you have an awesome New Year's! 

Here's how this past week went: 

On Monday we had District activities for P day which was something I will never forget. (No matter how hard I try) We had an epic lip sync battle with between the Elders and Sisters. I'm pretty sure that the Elders won that battle but that's my opinion. After that we did our white elephant gift exchange. The rule was that you couldn't spend money on your gift. Me and my companion gave away a food processor and a mixer that a member gave us. It was pretty fun. I got a neat picture of a picture of our mission president's dog named Biscuit. On Tuesday we did some knocking for a couple hours and went caroling at the end of the day. That was a lot of fun even though I'm terrible at singing. Holy Moly Christmas was so much fun! We spent it over at a members house and we had an epic Nerf war with the kids. We had to go to District Council though, so we rushed there and got back to the members house as fast as we could. We ended off the day at their house by setting up a trampoline and playing cards with them. It was a lot of fun being with them and I'm grateful for their willingness to have us over. The next couple days were pretty slow cause no one wanted to talk with us. The only standout moment was on Friday when we met a guy who said Jesus appeared to him in him living room. He said that Jesus was blue smoke and he doesn't have a form which was interesting. After that we had an Elders Quorum activity where we ate a bunch of pizza and playing board games. On Saturday we had the cleaning Elders come and help us clean out our apartment which was pretty fun. On Sunday after we got done with Church we met with a couple members and had a couple lessons. Overall it was a very enjoyable week. Christmas was absolutely amazing and I look forward to the adventures that await!

Funny moment of the week:

On Sunday night me and Elder Horsley were walking into our apartment and we saw a whole bunch of puddles outside in the grass and we both got a really bright idea. We decided to pretend to be Olympic swimmers for a minute, just in a puddle. It may have been cold, it may have been stupid, it may have been obnoxious. Where was I going with this? Its whatever, it was fun!

Miracle of the week:

One morning we were going out knocking and we were trying to decide where we should go and so I looked around on the map and said a silent prayer to be guided by the spirit. I then picked a random area on the map and then we went there. We knocked around for like an hour and we had no success. When we were about to head back to the apartment we saw a lady out on her porch. We walked up to her and started talking to her about the Book of Mormon. She said that she has been looking around for churches to join for her kids and she had heard of ours before. She told us that she had tried to find us before but never could. She said that she would give our church a visit in the future and she was happy that we talked to her. I was so happy that we were able to find her and talk to her!

Love,

Elder Bohn

Week 7: Oh, That's a pig!

Hey everyone! I have been having a wonderful time here in Ohio! Everything has been super fun and the people are super nice. Thank you all for your love and support and thank you all for the 12 ties of Christmas. I have quite the collection of ties now! I hope everyone is having an amazing time and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holiday week! 

Here's a quick run through of the week:

So on Monday it was our P day and me and Elder Horsley decided to get Nerf guns for some odd reason. We went back to the church and had some fun with the guns while talking to family. After that we went to a member's home and talked to them on their doorstep for an hour and almost died of hypothermia, but it's fine. The next day we spent a lot of time out knocking even though it was 20° F out but it felt like 10° with the wind chill. We met some new people that seemed interested and it was a lot of fun. Following that we met with some members and taught them lessons and got to know them some more. We got to one house and 30 minutes into us going in and talking they told us that they were having a problem with bed bugs and they were getting the house cleaned for them. We both had a mini panic attack and got out of there as fast as we could and we got home and threw all the clothes that we were wearing into the washer and dryer. We both showered and hoped that we wouldn't get bed bugs. (Everything is fine now, I think we're good). On Wednesday we had quite a few member support visits throughout the day and did some knocking. We found 3 new people so it was a really good day! On Thursday we had District Council and interviews with the Mission President and his wife. It was awesome being able to talk with them, I'm just sad we didn't get to talk longer. After that we met with some members and we got a whole lot of food from them so that's pretty awesome! Friday was an amazing day! We did a lot of knocking in the morning and didn't have too much success. In the afternoon we made a whole bunch of gifts for members and investigators. After finishing the gifts we dropped some off to people for a couple hours. At the end of the day we had a meal with a family we knocked into and found. They were super nice and they have the cutest kids in the world! Saturday was quite the adventure. We spent a couple hours in the morning in the apartment getting everything ready for the cleaning Elders to show up. After waiting for a while we found out that they forgot they had scheduled us so they would come again next Saturday. After that we delivered some more of the gifts to people and had a very emotional experience with a guy we visit with a lot. We ended the day by meeting with another family in the ward. Sunday was just wow! This day was the best day of the week honestly. We met with 9 members and their families and shared a message about finding peace in Christ this Christmas season. Everyone loved the message and the connection between the ward and missionaries is getting stronger! This week was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the adventures this next week brings!

Miracle of the week: 

When we were dropping off the gift bags to random members we decided to knock on the door and give it to the member personally instead of ringing the door bell and running. He answered and we found out that he was going through a really rough time. He told us that us dropping by was a miracle and blessing for him. We shared him a message about the video "Spiritual Whirlwinds" and expressed our love for him. I know that the spirit directed us to knock on his door. It was a sad, but very spiritual experience that I will never forget.

Funny moment of the week:

I got to feed a pig! On Sunday we went over to a member's home for lunch and I looked out the backyard window and saw the back half of the pig. I looked at it and thought, "That is a weird looking dog" until it turned around and I was like, "Oh, that's a pig". We got to feed the pig which was pretty exciting. I never expected to see a pig out here, but I thought wrong!

Love, 

Elder Bohn

Week 6: Someone pulled a gun on me!

Hey everyone! Everything is going absolutely amazing over here in Ohio. I'm having lots of fun, reasonable success, and I am loving everyone I run into! Time is flying over here, so I'm complaining but I'm not complaining at the same time.

Here's a quick run through of everything that happened this week:

So on Monday night last week me and Elder Horsley went over to Lancaster to do training visits with the Lancaster Elders, Elder Lyman and Elder Wiggins. We stayed the night and then I went with Elder Lyman in the morning. We went around and visited a couple members before having our companion study. In that companion study he said that we would be decoding where to go based entirely off the spirit. So we looked at the map of the area, sat down and prayed about where we should go. We came together and we had two areas that were right next to each other. After that we prayed to see what neighborhoods to visit in those areas. We came together and found that we had picked 3 of the same neighborhoods, so that's where we would be knocking for the day. We had a lot of success down there. We found 5 potentials and we found 2 new people that they would begin teaching. It was an amazing experience going on that training visit and it strengthened my testimony about being led by the spirit to where we needed to be. The next day we had our Christmas Zone Conference and that was a blast! We did a service project and we played lots of games. After that we did a quick training on the handbook and we are now going to be implementing the new rules which is pretty exciting. I got to meet a lot of new people and I felt the Mission President's love as he talked to me individually at the end while we were all leaving. The next day nothing too much happened except for we finally got to teach a family that we've been trying to teach for a week so that was a lot of fun. We got to help a family move some stuff out of their house into their garage for the moving truck that was coming the next day. We also got to sit down with a couple members and have really good conversations with them which was fun.  On Friday we went down to Circleville. We had a member drive us down there and we visited a couple people and we had a lot of fun. We met with one member, and that visit really took the cake! I'll tell you the whole story in the funny moment of the week at the bottom. After we got done we knocked a couple doors down near the apartment and then that was it for the day. On Saturday we helped get the family from Thursday all moved out and loaded up in the moving truck and then had lunch with a couple members. Nothing else really happened until the end of the day when we got to sit down with the a mom and her son and we really connected with the son. He has never really gone to church and he never liked talking to us so when we talked with him for around 3 hours about random things and got to know him it was honestly amazing. It was a really good day. On Sunday we had 6 new people come to church and one of them was a lady we gave a bible and taught her the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the day we went over to a members house and had dinner with them. His nonmember son was over so it was okay. It was good being able to sit down with him and talk to him.

Overall this was a really good week and it went by super fast. I look forward to the next 2 years of this incredible journey!

Funny moment of the week:

Alright, so it all began in Circleville. (Everytime I start a sentence off with "We went to Circleville" it is always is interesting). We stopped by a members home and when he went to open the door he still had the chain on the door so it opened about an inch and Elder Horsley said, "Try again" and he looked at us and closed the door. We all started laughing and he opened the door for us and we started talking. The member that drove us was Bro. John and he was in the Navy and taught gun safety classes. The member mentioned how he just bought a gun and asked if we wanted to see it. We said yes so he ran upstairs all excited and he came barreling down the steps like a kid on Christmas with his gun in his hand. It was waving and pointing all over the place and me and Elder Horsley had no clue if it was loaded or not so we were close to ducking for cover. So he gets down the stairs and shows us that it wasn't loaded and that there was indeed no bullet in the chamber. So that is my story on how a member pulled a gun on us! 

Miracle of the week:

After our fun in Circleville we came back to Groveport and knocked a couple doors in our area until it was time to the apartment. As we were getting ready to head back a number popped into my head: 3243. I kind of ignored it but it wouldn't go away. So I told Elder Horsley that we should try to find that house. So we started walking down the neighborhood we were stopped at and about 5 houses in we found 3243. I was already shocked that we found the house but the person was walking out of the front door as we were getting there. We talked to him for a little bit and he was uninterested in our message but he was still very nice. That was a pretty awesome experience in following promptings.

Love, 

Elder Bohn

Week 5: Limited Amount of Miles!

Here's a quick run down of what happened this past week:

This has been a pretty exciting week for me here in Ohio. The real fun began on Tuesday when we had to make the trip down to Circleville. Just some information, to go to Circleville and back is around 50 miles and we only have a limited amount of miles to use each month so going there takes a toll. So we get down there and honestly everything is going great! I got to meet a lot of super awesome members and investigators down there. One of them was Ralph, he's a funny guy. He loves a lot of things about the church and he can't get enough of Conference talks. He will post them all over Facebook and even show US the talks. However he isn't too interested in joining but it's whatever. At the end of the day we pulled into the local library to do companion study and once we were done the car wouldn't start. We just kind of looked at each other and just said, "Uh oh". We called the Assistant to the President missionaries and they eventually got down there and gave us a new car and said we'll deal with the old one tomorrow. Then the next day we had to drive all the way back down to Circleville and deal with the car. Once we got down there a tow truck came to take the car and he looked at it and said he'll try jumping it. He jumped it and it started right up. However, he told us to get this to an Autotune immediately and don't turn off the car or the car was toast. Apparently the battery was completely fried. Over the course of an hour we were able to get a new battery in the car and the APs got it to the dealership to do a check on it. Remember me talking about how we have a limited amount of miles to drive? All the miles we used getting to Circleville and back both days are going on our record. So yeah, we blew through almost a third of our miles in 2 days. Good times in the Great OCM!

For the rest of the week nothing to eventful happened. We had a couple service projects to do which were fun and... interesting. We met with a lot of members and they have been super nice. Now that I actually know a lot of them it's not as awkward so I don't feel like a complete newbie. We also had the Ward Christmas party on Saturday. That was fun but it felt a little bit depressing cause everyone looked like they would rather be watching the Ohio game that was on. Church was a lot of fun, again not being a complete newbie makes things a lot easier. 

Funny moment of the week:

We ran into Jones again this week! It may have been on accident or on purpose. No one knows! But he saw us and he was like, "Oh no, the 18 year old scholar Elders again". He actually remembered us which was awesome but he was busy so we couldn't talk with him. Just seeing his face when he opened the door was the best!

Miracle of the week: 

One night we pulled into a trailer park and decided to knock around just to pass the time because teaching appointments canceled on us. As we were knocking around we were sure no one would be interested. As we were knocking I said a little prayer asking to find at least one person that needs to hear our message so that they can have a little more comfort in their lives. As we were knocking we met a lady named Abby. She had recently lost a loved one and she was unsure about if she would see them again. We just talked about the Plan of Salvation with her and that she would be able to see her loved ones again. Seeing her face light up after hearing that made my day. We left her our number and we will probably go and visit her again later this week.

Love,
Elder Bohn

Week 4: Everything is real!

Hey Mom! Everything here is going super good! It's been a lot of fun, but it's been a lot of work. It feels super weird being out in the field knowing that everything is real. Here's a quick run through of the week so far: 

Day 22: So our day started at 3:30 am as we started getting ready for the journey to the airport. We got on the bus that takes to the front runner. After we got on the front runner we had quite a ways to go before we got to the trax for the airport. On the frontrunner we met a guy who's best friend has a granddaughter named Sister Piippo serving in Columbus. After that he gave us a gift card to get breakfast at the airport. He was so nice to us! After we got on the trax, the airport came not too long after. We got to the airport and I saw James Moleni when checking in luggage, and we were both happy to see each other. After that we got to the gate for Atlanta and I ran into Aunt Dee. She showed us where the McDonalds was and then we said goodbye and that was pretty hard. Once we got on the plane it was a pretty uneventful flight to Atlanta. Once we got there we rushed to get to our gate for Columbus and got on without any issues. And cue another uneventful flight to Columbus. When we got off we headed to the baggage claim and met our mission President and his wife, the Stratfords. They were super nice and gave us the quick run down of what will go down tonight. We all piled into a van after that and drove to the mission home and we had dinner and and interview with President Stratford. We met our companions and we went straight to our areas and apartments. My companion is Elder Horsley and he is super awesome! He is super nice and very outgoing. Once we got to the apartment I got unpacked and got ready for bed. I'm excited for what's going to come while I'm here.

Day 23: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! How is yours going? Cause mine is going really good. We went to 3 members houses for food which was pretty awesome. We went to the Perez Hernandez Family at 1 for Thanksgiving lunch which was delicious. After that we went to the Knowles' family for some home made pie. That was pretty good and they were super nice. When we got done there we went to the Scoggin's house and had some more pie. They had a lot of people over so it was pretty crazy but it was a lot of fun. 

Day 24: Today we did some more missionary like stuff. We had a training conference call at like 10 am so that was fun, not really. After that we did some door knocking and we met a guy named Jones. He was pretty interesting to say the least. He talked about how he's been to 17 churches and he's not a member of any of them. He said he saw some KKK looking people in the church parking lot and that we are a cult with our "magic underwear". He talked about how we still believe in polygamy and that we are just weird for leaving our homes for 2 years to go on missions. It was funny talking with him and answering his concerns and questions. After that we went over and visited a couple more families. We went to the Bishop's house for dinner and that was a lot of fun. They were all super nice and welcoming. After that we went to the Martin's house and they were very nice. That's pretty much it for what happened today.

Day 25: This morning I got a grocery shipment from my angel of a mom. It was unexpected, but amazing! Besides that amazing start to the day it was just  another day in the field. A girl was getting baptized today so we met with bishop right before to update him on everything that's been happening this past week. After that we went and got lunch at McDonald's and went out and did some more knocking. After no success we did some companionship study at the church and went out to do more knocking. We found a person and talked to him for a while and we left him with a pamphlet about the restoration. We don't know anything about him but we gave him our number. At the end of the day we went to a parade that the Ward was in and passed out Light the World cards to people. 

Day 26: Today was my first Sunday in the field! It was like any normal Sunday except everyone knew I was a greenie. I got to say the opening prayer so that was pretty exciting. After that everything just went as normal. We did some more knocking throughout the day to no avail. At the end of the day we met with the Kunz family. We just visited with them and talked about questions they had. Their daughter Jade is a rambler. She talks a lot about anything. I don't know who that reminds me of. And that's pretty much it for what happened this week.

Love,

Elder Bohn