Week 38: Freedom!

Hey everybody! This has been the week of weeks! We finally became a Phase 1 Mission on Tuesday which means that we can go and basically do normal missionary work with heavy restrictions and guidelines. But the main point is that we are free!

Here's a quick run through of this week:

Monday we had yet another average P day. We did all of our normal P day stuff which was pretty boring. Overall it was a pretty good day, we played a lot of basketball which is a hoot!

Tuesday was the best day of the week! It was just nonstop good times all day long! We dropped off a couple copies of the Book of Mormon in the morning and did a comp study with the Cleveland elders. At the end of the day, since it was Tuesday, we went and got some Teriyaki Express in celebration of Teriyaki Tuesday. After dinner we got a text from the APs saying that there is going to be a surprise Mission zoom meeting in 30 minutes. We then rush back to the apartment and hop on. The news then changed everything! More will be mentioned in the miracle of the week.

Wednesday we had interviews with President Horgesheimer in the morning which was awesome. We talked about moving forward with being in Phase 1 and I told him how excited I was to go street contacting in Cleveland. He said that he wants to go street contacting over at the University with us one day! I'm pumped, it would be an honor and a privilege to go contacting with President! After interviews we decided to stop by the Kirtland Historical Site and walk around while exploring, Two site sisters, not from our mission, walked up and started talking to us. We talked to them about what missionary work was like in isolation. Right when we were about to walk away like 6 more of them swarmed us. It felt like an interrogation with all the questions they were asking. They wouldn't let us leave until we set up a virtual tour of the site. So we got their area email and we will be trying to set one up today for p day. After that it was a pretty average day, we called some people and that was it.

Thursday we had the privilege of having Elder Christofferson have a zoom meeting with our mission, along with a couple other people. They talked with us for an hour about overcoming fear and what we should teach as missionaries. Later that night we decided to go street contacting on Cleveland Clinic and I came to a shocking discovery: I don't remember how to street contact! It was fine though, absolutely no one wanted to talk with us. It really brought me back to the good old days! 

Friday we had our District Council which was really good. There were a lot of really good trainings and the spirit was super strong. After that we played a little bit of basketball and got some Sonic. When we got home we had a couple lessons and did weekly planning. Overall it was a really good day.

Saturday we did some more street contacting over at the Euclid beach. There is a pretty nice walkway along the beach and it's a really good spot to talk to people. We talked to a bunch of people and one guy we talked to seemed pretty interested in meeting with us so it was sweet. That night we had a couple more lessons and had our missionary coordination meeting. That pretty much wrapped up the day. 

Sunday we had like 5 meetings we had to go to. We had branch council, branch devotional, YSA planning, Ward outreach, and our weekly mission wide devotional. It was a long day, but it was really good overall. 

Miracle of the week:

So our mission finally got shifted into a Phase 1 Mission. This means that we can meet people in person, street contact, and knock only specific doors for specific people. The only catch is that we have to be socially distanced and wear masks. So we are all pumped! We also can have in person District Council which is a game changer! We are all so excited to be out of isolation and gradually returning to more traditional stuff!

Funny moment of the week:

We were on one of our meeting calls on Sunday discussing members we should reach out to and we got to one guy. The only information that the Branch secretary had was this, "Yeah, he really liked the Euclid ward, but they told him to go to the YSA branch. He went inactive". I just started busting up laughing in the middle of the call. Luckily we were on mute so they didn't know. It's just nonstop good times here in the YSA!

Love,

Elder Bohn

Week 37: Training Visits and Marinara Miracles!

Hello everyone! It has been nonstop good times here in Cleveland this week. We had Zone Conference and we had training visits with the Zone leaders, so there wasn't a dull moment, or that many at least.

Here's a quick run through of this week:

Monday we had another average P day for the most part. We did our shopping and I found my new favorite tie at TJ Maxx, so I was a happy camper. Afterwards, we played some basketball at the church and called it a day.

Tuesday was another average day for us. We had a couple lessons and called a whole bunch of people and set up quite a bit of lessons.

Wednesday was more or less the same exact thing as Tuesday.

Thursday morning we had Zone Conference which was absolutely amazing! We talked about the Missionary Purpose Triangle and we helped the Zone leaders by teaching it in a mock lesson. One other thing we discussed was how we should pray to invite and recognize the spirit during lessons. The overall theme of this conference was K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stupid. It's a pretty solid theme. That night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings because every Thursday they do the buy one get one deal. While we were there in line a lady started talking to us and said, "You guys are Mormons right? The Mormons are an interesting faith". We talked to her a little bit longer and then she asked where she could get a Book of Mormon. We told her that we would love to get her one. So we got her name and number and since she's not exactly YSA age the Cleveland 3rd elders are going to take care of it. It was super awesome to talk to someone in person though and have them be interested. Looks like Buffalo Wild Wings is a divine place!

Friday was the same as Tuesday and Wednesday with the activities. It consisted of lessons and reaching out to members, so I can't complain. I also got bored and decided to make a leather wallet which is pretty sweet. It's ridiculous the hobbies you pick up in isolation.

Saturday we had a training visit with the Zone leaders. I spent the day with Elder Tolman. It was funny because I spent a day and a half with him before coming to Cleveland because he was companions with Elder Erickson for 3 weeks. So it was a fun reunion. For lunch we got some Taco bell and had a good ole time. After lunch we had a couple lessons and headed over the church. We were supposed to have a missionary coordination meeting with the Branch mission leader and the 2nd counselor in the Branch presidency, but it ended up being cancelled after we waited for 20 minutes for it to start. After that we played basketball and had some Little Caesar's which is the bomb! The Zone leaders ended up staying the night because it was too late for them to drive back to their apartment so the fun continued! 

Sunday morning the Zone leaders just went downstairs and did a training visit with the Cleveland 3rd elders. While they were doing that, we had a couple lessons in the morning that went well. Afterwards we hopped on our Branch devotional and had some lunch. I also got bored again and make a leather key chain just because I could. Every Sunday night we have a mission wide devotional call and we got to meet the Horgesheimer's family which was pretty neat. Other than that, nothing else really happened.

Funny moment of the week:

So on Friday night the Sisters sent a message into our District chat saying to pray for them so that they could somehow have marinara sauce before Monday. Everyone said that they would pray for them and then the next day rolled around and we were on our training visit with the ZLs. My favorite quote goes along the lines of "sometimes we pray to move mountains, but don't be surprised when God gives you a shovel". With this in mind we decided to go deliver some marinara to the Sisters by ding-song ditching them. We also taped a pass along card to it for fun. This will forever be know to us and the ZLs as the Marinara Miracle. Don't be surprised if they make a movie about it.

Miracle of the week:

One day we were with the Cleveland 3rd elders, they were telling us about a guy they got on date but then he just stopped responding to them. They were concerned that he got nervous or anxious because of the commitment and they thought he wasn't interested anymore. Eventually he did call them back and it turned out that he was just in the hospital and he was still good for getting baptized. We were able to set up a time to interview him for baptism and everything is good now. We are very excited for the Cleveland 3rd elders and their investigator!

Love, 

Elder Bohn

Week 36: District Leader, Who?

Hey everyone, what an interesting week this has been! We had a mini transfer on Wednesday, but Elder Parker and I both stayed. However, Elder Allen's companion, who was the District Leader, left and he is now with a reassigned missionary. Which brought about the fateful phone call telling me I was the new District Leader. Wish me luck! The work is going forward, slowly but surely, but it's going forward!

Here's a quick run through of the week:

Monday we went and shopped at some thrift stores and hung out at the church for a while. We played basketball and called it a day.

Tuesday was just another average day. We set up some lessons and played basketball at the church.

Wednesday was the day of transfers, we said goodbye to Elder Yukihiro and he got shipped off to my old stomping grounds in Worthington. When the Cleveland 3rd elders came back we met Elder Allen's new companion, Elder Black. He's a reassigned missionary from Chile. In the afternoon the housing coordinator came by and dropped off an entire apartments worth of stuff because next month the mission is opening another apartment in this building. However they decided that it would be a fun idea to just store all the stuff in our apartment until then. It's fine, it's whatever. Other than that nothing too crazy happened.

Thursday we had District Council that went pretty smoothly. Afterwards we had a bunch of member lessons that went really good. It was a pretty busy day overall!

Friday was just another average day. We had our weekly planning session and we listed out every single member in our area book and we are going to contact them all this week. 

Saturday was yet another average missionary day. We did some Facebook work and set up some lessons. We had a missionary coordination meeting and played some basketball to wrap up the day.

Sunday we did a lot of painting in the morning and joined our Branch Council call. Following that we had our Branch devotional and the speaker talked about feeling the spirit and receiving revelation during hard times. The rest of the day we called a bunch of members and set up lessons. At the end of the day we had our weekly mission wide devotional call. President Horgesheimer's old Bishop talked about prayer and how to receive answers to our prayers. It was one of the most spiritual devotionals I've had out here, it was phenomenal!

Funny moment of the week:

Well, to be short. Missionaries on Facebook have single handedly destroyed the Church's Facebook page. I'm not sure how it works, but somehow the Church has a negative rating on Facebook because of the missionaries leaving positive reviews on it and the Facebook Admins thinking we are spam accounts. Its tragic, but horribly funny!

Miracle of the week:

A member of the Cleveland 3rd ward bought all 4 of us pizza because we did a Come Follow Me lesson with him. That was some delicious pizza! It was much needed this week!

Love,

Elder Bohn

 

Week 35:And thus begins the reign of the Horgesheimers!

Hey everyone! This has been quite an eventful week! We said goodbye to the Stratfords and we got to meet the Horgesheimers. I am so excited to be serving with them for the this next year and a half!

Here's a quick run through of this week:

Monday was just another average P day in the life of a missionary. We went on a quick walk after going grocery shopping. After that, we went over to the church and played basketball.

Tuesday we had a bunch of lessons planned and it was going to be an awesome day, but then all the lessons cancelled. So we ended up just improvising and just found other stuff to do. Facebook work is only so much fun. To end the day off we got some teriyaki from this restaurant down the street, it was pretty dang good! Then we had a video call as an entire mission and we got to talk with the Horgesheimers. They are so nice and they are super ready to go to work. This is going to be a good time!

Wednesday we had District Council which is always a hoot. It went pretty good and we had some good trainings. Throughout the day we managed to set up 7 lessons for the rest of week which is awesome! At the end of the day we were on a branch coordination call and apparently we ran out of our unlimited data from the church so we couldn't be on the call. It's just nonstop good times!

Thursday we had a bunch of lessons scheduled which is fine and dandy, but we don't have high speed data anymore. So we were pretty much camped out at the church for most of the day for lessons. 

Friday we got to have interviews with the Horgesheimers in person. We met with and talked with them as a companionship for the sake of time. They are such spiritual giants and they just pump you up and get you wanting to get working! After meeting them we cleaned the apartment and did some Facebook work.

Saturday was quite the day for us! We had such a good time! We called a bunch of members and set up lessons for this next week and had really good studies. At the end of the day we watched fireworks in the penthouse and ate some Panda Express. It was nonstop good times!

Sunday we had our branch devotional in the morning which went pretty good. We had companionship study with the Cleveland 3rd Elders and ended up talking a lot about random deep doctrine and read some scriptures together.  

Funny moment of the week:

We were doing Facebook work one day and Elder Parker came across a post on a Christian Facebook page that was pretty wild. Someone was asking a question about sinning. In the comments someone asked the question, "Is it bad to take pills and get fat?" If that wasn't weird enough someone replied to that comment saying that if you do take pills and get fat, you should be stoned because your body is a temple. I love Christians on Facebook! They are so kind and insightful! 

Miracle of the week:

While we were watching fireworks in the penthouse, some random guy was up there. We were just sitting watching the fireworks and we invited him to come sit by us and watch the fireworks. We started talking and we introduced ourselves and got to know each other. His name is Rhetta (I'm not sure how to spell it) and he is from Saudi Arabia. We talked about what we were doing in Ohio and just life in general. When we were leaving he said that we would have to meet up sometime and talk some more. He didn't seem too interested in the gospel, but he seems like just an awesome guy to be friends with. It was awesome getting to talk to people in person again!

Love,

Elder Bohn