May 16, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

In Zone Conference, I really enjoyed the roleplay where we were bold
with investigators about keeping commitments. Elder Low and I had the
opportunity that night to apply what we had learned as we were direct
with Bill, a less active member, about coming to church. He initially
has decided he wasn't going to stake conference because he didn't like
the previous stake conference he attended. As we related the teaching
to his level and helped him understand the importance keeping a
commitment we make he had a change of heart and agreed he will come.

Saturday, we had exchanges with our zone leaders. I really enjoyed
going out to work with Elder Petersen. I learned a lot about street
contacting and how to be more real with people. Elder Petersen is a
great example of a diligent leader. I really admire his sense of
urgency he has in the work.

We were able to have a lesson with Jonathan Blake. The topics we
covered were really similar to what we covered the first time, but the
outcome was so much better this time. We had the first lesson on his
porch and second lesson we had in a member's home. It was amazing to
see the contrast between the two. Jon really seemed to benefit from
having another perspective than the missionaries. This has helped
build my testimony of the importance of having members at as many
lessons as possible.

Another change with the first lesson and the second lesson is that Jon
kept the commitment to read in the Book of Mormon. I could see a
difference in his attitude from the first lesson to the second. His
heart had definitely been softened from only believing the bible, to
seeing that there is truth in the Book of Mormon.

Stake Conference had some really amazing talks. I think my favorite
was the genealogy talk. I had never thought to pray before I do family
history work, but it makes sense. Sister Daines also made a comment
that really stuck out to me and I have been trying to apply more. She
said "When we stop pleading for our own will and start pleading for
the Father's will, that is when miracles happen." That talk tied in
really well to Elder Corbidge's talk which mentioned not falling into
the trap of living a church-centered life. We need to be
Christ-centered, which involves turning outward. President Daines
talked about working with members. The members pray for the
missionaries and the missionaries pray for the members. But it really
should be a combined effort and that we should be praying together,
not just praying for the other group.

Thank you for the package. The muffin loaf is delicious as always, thank you.

Sorry the email is a bit later in the day this week, we just got back
from the Columbus Zoo for our district activity (pictures coming
soon). Have a great week everyone!

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

May 2, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Brother Weidner in the ward asked us to help his daughter and
son-in-law move. They are moving from right near our apartment to the
Powell sister's area. The daughter wasn't there when we showed up, but
we were able to help the son-in-law, Steve. He is a really cool
person. He is an entrepreneur and has worked with a lot of the same
kinds of organizations I worked with back home. He works with software
and medical companies to set up kiosks for places like Walgreens or
CVS, although they do a lot more than take your blood pressure. He was
working on having on call doctors that would be able to talk to you
from a tv screen. I just imagined a tech support room full of cubicles
with doctors sitting there taking calls from patients. There is a lot
of interesting technology coming out these days.

Saturday, we had a couple service activities planned that fell
through. We were already low on miles since that was the last day of
the month, so we had to plan a lot of tracting. In the evening, we
spent 3 hours in the rain on the same road. There were a lot of people
that were nice and talked with us. Usually people just slam the door
and we move on, but there were quite a few that we were able to have
some good conversations with. One lady had just seen the Book of
Mormon Musical a couple days before and was really excited to actually
talk to some "real elders". That was an interesting conversation, I
think that play is doing some good for the church's publicity, but it
really misinforms people on what our church really believes.

Sunday evening we had our District Fireside. The theme was "Finding
New Life in Christ".  About sixty people showed up. Most were members
from the three wards, but there were a few investigators and friends
that came with those members. Everything came together really well.
All of the musical numbers, speakers, and video presentations worked
together so perfectly and it was a really spiritual meeting.

Since this week is transfers, Elder Low and I knew we would be too
busy to teach the Carson's. So, during ward coordination, we asked the
sisters during to teach a lesson to them this week. At the fireside, I
uses the Carson's mentioned that they like sisters teaching more
because they relate to Alyssa better. So I guess our main progressing
investigator may be taught by the sisters now which is kind of sad. I
am not sure if the sisters are allowed to come into our area to teach.
The sisters will be asking President Daines to see if that would even
be allowed. The sisters feel really bad about the situation and didn't
want this to happen, but the Carson's have already said something.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

April 25th, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

I really enjoyed the service project at OSU planting trees. As half
the mission, we planted over 400 trees on campus. It was a great
learning experience and even helped me learn some skills that helped a
few days later. Elder Low and I had the opportunity to plant some more
trees while we worked alongside a part member family. We were able to
help the Goodson's plant another 25 trees.

In District Meeting I enjoyed learning about how to better face
rejection. Elder Gardner, our district leader, said to be diligent,
remember covenants (including the one to come on a mission), and
things will work out. Part of continuing to find when we could get
discouraged is that we need to do the will of the Lord when the Lord
wills it. The Lord is seeing if we will be like Alma and go back to
Ammonihah even when we know we will likely face rejection. It is
interesting that we had this training when we did, because the night
before we had about an hour of tracting where every person we talked
to would barely give us the time of day and would slam the door in our
faces.

We met one of the potentials, Chad, that we found in the Area Book. He
had some stones out on his driveway and we offered to come back and
teach him while we helped him build his patio. He is a really nice
individual that left his previous church recently and is really
excited to learn everything about our church. We were able to have a
great conversation with him about how the gospel blesses families and
the message really connected with him. He wants us to teach his family
too, so I am really looking forward to that.

In ward council this week, our ward mission leader was able to get
some input for the Focus 15 family list. He has been trying to get the
quorums and auxiliaries invested in thinking of individuals and
families that need some support and fellowship. This week we were
finally able to see some progress and I was really impressed with how
well the council was working together to find ways to engage the
people we were discussing. Everyone was participating a lot more once
we moved from calendar items and we're taking about actual people. I
hope to see this list fill out more and I am excited to see what comes
from all the action items that were made.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission