Week 16: It's Bond, Elder Bond!

Hey everybody! This has been a super exciting week in my new area! I miss Canal so much, but I'm really liking it here in Worthington! I'm hoping that the adventures continue and that I grow to love this area as much as I did Canal! Here's a quick run through of the week:

Wednesday was our P day and it went by fairly quickly. Nothing much happened during the day, but we ended up hanging out with the youth for their mutual activity. We played capture the flag in the dark and that was a hoot! I said my goodbyes to the members and then we went back to the apartment.

Thursday was a very depressing day at the start. We met with one of the families in the ward one last time and said our goodbyes. After that we headed to the Dublin building for transfers. We got there and I ran into my main men Elder Horsley and Elder Thomason. We talked for a while and then I remembered that I needed to find my new companion Elder Bond. I am pretty sure my name will not ever be pronounced right in this area since we have Elder Bond and Elder Bohn. Pretty funny! After looking around for a while I found him and we loaded all my stuff up into the car and headed over to Worthington. We got there and we unpacked my stuff and went over to visit some older ladies in the ward. When we got there we played some dominoes and then we met with a ton of other members. Apparently the ward consists of 70% young  newly married couples, 25% old couples, and then 5% normal middle age families. So it's super exciting here!

Friday we did our weekly planning and met with some more members and shared some quick messages with them. Things went pretty good and I'm hoping that the ward likes me. Everybody has been super nice and so missionary orientated. (Maybe because they all were missionaries like literally a couple years ago) I am really enjoying my time in this ward and it gets better and better.

Saturday was just another day in the mission. We met with a couple other members and shared more messages with them. We went over to the bishops house and he is super nice and has an awesome family. Other than that nothing too crazy happened.

Sunday was awesome! The ward is pretty decently sized and everyone is super nice. We got to pass the sacrament again this week and that was a lot of fun. We also got to give a little training to the members that teach classes in church to make sure that they are teaching correctly. It went pretty well and we had an awesome discussion. After that we met with a couple more members and then went over to the bishops house to watch the youth devotional. We had some BOMB brownies and got to hang out with like all 12 of the youth. 

That pretty much wraps up this past week. It was a lot of fun and I am loving it here. I'm excited for all the other peeps that I'll get to meet!

Miracle of the week:

We were able to schedule a lesson with an investigator and shared the message of the restoration with her. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and we are just super excited to see what happens with her.

Funny moment of the week:

When we went over to the bishop's house to watch the youth devotional they had their dog running around. Near the end he was feeling very playful and we wouldn't let anyone pet him without trying to gnaw on their hands. As soon as he would see my hands he would jump to try and nip them. Even when I put my hands in my pockets he would just bite my leg, pants, sweater, and feet. He was such a fun and friendly dog!

Love,

Elder Bohn

Week 15: Jeepers, it's the Fuzz!

Hey everybody, this is going to be a super short email because this is a busy P day! I hope that you all are doing amazing!

Here's the quickest run down of this week:

Monday was a normal P day and we did some normal P day stuff so it was pretty fun.

Tuesday we had our District Leader come to our area and we had training visits which was a lot of fun. We found a couple new people and met some... interesting people.

Wednesday we had our District Council in the morning and after that we had the Zone Leaders come by and have a training visit with us. That was a lot of fun, especially with where we went that night. While down in the War Zone, we found a group of kids, maybe around the age of 5. They asked us what our job was. We told them we worked for Jesus and offered them a pass a long card. They were pretty funny with their questions. 

Thursday was an alright day, we just spent the entire day getting in contact with investigators which didn't really go anywhere. But it was a decent day with the members we visited.

Friday went by really slow because of weekly planning. But we got to meet with one of our more interesting investigators, Rusty. He was a hoot n a holler to meet with. Picture an old timey prospector. That is exactly who he reminds me of. My favorite saying of his is, "I felt like a snowball in a pail of coal". I'll have to tell more about him at a later time. While out knocking, we just weren't having much luck. All of the sudden a police car pulled up. He asked us who we were with and if we were those "Mormons". He said there had been complaints that someone was knocking and ditching. He said it was getting late and asked us to call it a night. So we kindly obliged and headed home. 

Saturday was such an amazing day! We got to meet with a ton of members and share quick messages with them. I LIVE for member missionary visits!

Sunday was so much fun with all the people we got to meet with. I managed to get one of the less active youth to start going to church again. She said that she only went because I told her I'd give her a high five, but she still went so it's a win. After that we met with several members which went absolutely splendid.

Monday was a slow day. I was in the P day mindset, but P day is right now, not on Monday, with transfers. But it was all good, we helped a couple move some of their stuff and had some good member visits.

Tuesday went by really good, up until the end of the day. It was a normal day with knocking and meeting with members, but it all came crashing down at 9:15 pm. Looks like its goodbye Canal Winchester and hello Worthington! I'm excited and sad at the same time. I'm sure I'll love it up there!

Miracle of the week:

This past week we were able to find so many new people to teach. It was just amazing to see, especially since the week before it seemed like we knocked for hours everyday to no avail. But now we are seeing the fruits of our labor!

Funny moment of the week:

On Wednesday night we got to go on a church swap along with the Zone leaders. We got to attend a service at the World Harvest church! Oh. My. Goodness. That was just wow! You all need to look this church up to get a little taste of what we got! It was a mix between a pop concert and a Ted talk! It was so interesting to see! I will probably write a separate email describing my experience there and send it at a later time for times sake.

Thank you all for your love and support! I love you all and couldn't do this without you! 

Love, 

Elder Bohn

Week 14: God does answer our prayers!

Hey everyone! Things are definitely going here in Ohio! Thank you all for your love and support! I ate a banana for the first time since I was little. I am still not a fan. But it was offered to us, so I took it and ate it. I have been commissioned to make some origami for one of the primary teachers. That is going to be fun!

Here's a quick run down of the week:

Monday was by far my favorite experience that I've had out here. We went down to Hocking Hills in Lancaster for our district activity. We spent pretty much our entire day there just messing around and having fun with our district. After that we stayed with the Lancaster Elders for the night for training visits on Tuesday. It was really awesome going on a hike here, and it was a huge blessing that the weather permitted it! 

Tuesday we had our training visits in Lancaster. I got to go with our District Leader Elder Wiggins. He is an absolute stud! We met with a couple members and tried to set up some return appointments with our investigators. Near the end of the day we decided to go knock for a little bit. As we were going around we just started talking about how well we work together with everything. He told me that he feels so invigorated with me when we tract. Normally he would just go knocking and he never really cared too much for it, but with me it was just so much better. I felt the same exact way! We both hope that we could possibly be companions in the future. I would love being with Elder Wiggins, that would be an amazing transfer!

Wednesday was a very slow day overall. We had our District Council in the morning and tried to figure out something to do in the afternoon. We ended up just meeting with a couple members and did some planning for our trip the next day.

Thursday was nonstop good times with our Circleville trip. Opioid central is always a hoot n' a holler! We got to meet with tons of members down there and a couple investigators. At the end of the day we met with a less active member and moved some of his furniture downstairs to help him get ready for moving out.

Friday was a nice snow day filled with service. We got about 3-4 inches of snow, so naturally there was a snow day for the schools. We took advantage of the snow and decided to go shovel peoples driveways for a couple hours. We hope that our service was able to brighten some people's day! After that we had our weekly planning and went tracting for a couple hours. Overall it was a cold and busy day.

Saturday went by incredibly slow for the most part. We helped clean the church in the morning which went by pretty fast. The rest of the day we were planning on meeting with a member at the end of the day and we would just knock doors for an hour or 2. After that we had a little miracle which will be found at the bottom of the email.

Sunday was absolutely amazing as always! Sacrament was filled with wonderful talks and amazing testimonies. Me and Elder Neddo got to teach a restoration lesson to the young women for the second hour which went really good. After church we visited with as many members as we could in the area and had very spiritual and powerful lessons on the atonement and restoration. Sundays are always the best day out on a mission!

Funny moment of the week:

When we were in Circleville we were meeting with one of my favorite members. He is such an interesting guy! We were over meeting with him just having a normal conversation then he looks like he's just had some major epiphany in his mind. He then looks at us and says, "well are you boys gonna share a message?" We said of course and shared a message about the atonement with him and he loved it. Then he said, "That was awesome! Now give me another message!" So we laughed and gave him another one. He just kept asking us to give him message after message and we even skipped lunch that day to give him several messages. Eventually we did leave to make our next appointment. That guy is such a clown sometimes!

Miracle of the week:

On Saturday we were getting done knocking in the afternoon and we were about to head over to a family's house to meet with them, but right before we go to head over they texted us and cancelled on us. We both got worried because we didn't know what else to do and we did not want to knock for 2 more hours. We decided to pray about what we should do and we asked Heavenly Father to guide us on where we need to go. After the prayer we felt prompted to go meet with another family and a recent convert. We head over to the family and they start talking to us. We started talking about missionary work and the dad started talking to us about his mission experience and basically told us what we needed to hear about finding people. We were both feeling just unsuccessful because we put so much time into finding this past week with no success. But he told us that as long as we do our part and serve the Lord, we will be blessed. I know that he was truly inspired to tell us what he did. I am grateful that God does answer our prayers!

Love,

Elder Bohn

Week 13: An Average Week in the Life of a Missionary

Hey everybody! Well, of all weeks I've had out here this is one of them! Overall this was an average week in the life of a missionary, but it was still a blast!

Here's a quick run through of this week:

Monday was a very relaxed day for me. We had nothing crazy during the day and we just sat around for all of P day. It was a much needed break from normal missionary schedule.

Tuesday was a hoot and a holler! We had our training visits with our District leader and his companion in our area. I got to spend the day with Elder Ashby and we had a blast! We did quite a bit of knocking and finding all around in our area that didn't really go anywhere but it's fine. After that we met with a couple members and called it a night. When we all got back to our apartment they stayed the night with us and we stayed up pretty late talking about life before the mission and a bunch of random stuff.

Wednesday was by far the best day of the week because of President! We had our interviews with President and Sister Stratford during our District Council. I love them so much! They are truly called of God and have such a strong spirit. I feel nothing but Christlike love emanating from them. After our interviews we did some finding and met with a couple members. Whenever we get to meet with members here it brightens my day. They are just the best!

Thursday was just super slow and very dull. We had a lot of planning today because we just decided to do our weekly planning on Thursday instead of Friday. It was just a lot of nothing until we met with a couple members and called it a night.

Friday had it's good and boring moments. We started off our day on a quest to find some Postum for my MTC companion Elder Thomason because they needed some for an investigator. Long story short we couldn't find any and got called "Utah nerds" in the process. It was pretty fun though. Nothing much happened until that night we got to meet with 2 families in the ward and share Ether 2 and 3 with them. They are my favorite families to meet with and they always are happy to see us and spoil us with food. At one of the houses Elder Neddo got to play the guitar a little bit and he was pretty darn good!

Saturday is always one of the best days while on a mission, and this day was no different. We started off the day with some more recycling service and got some delicious Subway afterwards. Nothing much happened for a while after that until we met with some more members and had nonstop good times. Saturdays always go by so fast!

Sunday was SUCH an incredible day! We heard some amazing testimonies during sacrament, then talked with some members about firearms after church. Then we met with so many members and talked about the restoration with them. The spirit was just so strong in all of the lessons we had. Sundays are always the highlight of the week for me!

Miracle of the week: 

When we had our interviews with President he told me about how the ward is really opening up to missionary work because of what me and Elder Neddo are doing. They enjoy meeting with us and hearing the messages we have which is a complete turn around from when I first came out here. He told me that he is going to try and keep me and Elder Neddo together so we can continue to strengthen the Ward and our relationship with them. I was just so ecstatic that the ward loves us as much as I love them and that President wants me and Elder Neddo together next transfer!

Funny moment of the week: 

When we were on our training visits we were doing our companionship study with all 4 of us. As we were reading the handbook together we all had different accents that we would read in. It was by far the best companionship study I've been in by far! We couldn't even focus half the time because we were laughing too much!

Love,

Elder Bohn