August 15th, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Elder Janson has been helping out Elder Long, the Vehicle Coordinator
with inspecting cars at Zone Conferences this week. So Elder Long has
been picking him up in the morning and we don't see him until the
afternoon. It has been weird going from a trio back to two and
switching back and forth. We never had any of that kind of
inconsistency in the other tech elder trio I was in. We also lost
Elder Liu for church on Sunday so he could help a Chinese family that
was attending one of the OSU branches. Life has been anything but
normal, but it has still been a fun adventure.

We had a lesson with Brother Rinehart this week. He has been
struggling with his commitment to come to church each week. We helped
him to see what he gets out of church to help motivate him to attend.
We could do a better job of helping other members fellowship him so
that he has others encouraging him.

In District Meeting, I really enjoyed the roleplay we did where we
taught the restoration simply in 2:30, but we also included reciting
the first vision. It was challenging, but fun. Elder Belnap, a newer
missionary in our district, did great and I can see he is growing in
his teaching ability.

We went over to help Brother Carson again this week, and we were able
to gain some more insights as to what challenges their family is going
through. Brother Carson seems like he is still progressing and his
testimony is staying strong despite the hardship. I am glad to see
that hard times are not shaking his faith. I can tell that strength
will bless his family as they see his example.

On Friday, we were asked to help with an "emergency move." Brother
Clawson, a member in the Worthington Ward needed help moving his
mother down the street in the same apartment complex. They needed to
be out of the apartment by noon and we started at 10am, so we needed
to be quick. Elder Janson was off with Elder Hartung moving some of
the mission's furniture in the storage unit, so it was just Elder Liu
and I to help them move. I am thankful they had a couple of movers to
get all of the heaviest furniture, but their time was limited so they
didn't get it all. Overall, it took about five hours (we sure missed
that noon deadline) to get everything moved. I have never been so
exhausted after helping someone, but I was glad we could help them
out. Brother Clawson is the only member of the church in his family,
so this gave us plenty of opportunities to share about what we do as
missionaries and why we like to help people.

Saturday, we helped the Von Niederhausern's pick up an upright piano
from someone in Powell. We showed up at the address, but we beat the
Von Niederhausern's there. The person who lives there is a man named
Scott. He was drunk and we had quite the conversation with him while
we were in his house waiting for the members to arrive. We tried to
share a gospel message with him, but he didn't really want one. He was
curious about our service as missionaries though. The members took
about fifteen minutes to show up so we got plenty of time to chat with
Scott. He definitely is interesting.

Driving the piano back, Brother Von Niederhausern took a turn a little
too fast and the piano fell over, shattering the back window to the
truck and it also left a big dent in the truck. The piano fell on the
piano bench, so that thing is toast. What is worse is that the truck
isn't even his, it is his brother's truck. Luckily, they got the piano
for free though, so the cost to repair the window will be about the
price they would have paid for the piano.

We finally got a ward mission leader, Brother Rappleye. I am really
excited to have him as the ward mission leader. He is really caring
and brings a lot of experience as he has been on the high council for
the past six years. Now he also gets to attend church with his family
so people can stop asking Sister Rappleye if her husband is less
active.

At church, we had a visitor that I was really surprised to see. His
name is Brother Meteer and he was my teacher in the MTC. He looks
really different now and I wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't
introduced himself in priesthood meeting. He was passing through on
his way to an internship. I never thought I would see him in Ohio. I
am so glad we had the chance to catch up. It was the highlight of my
week!

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission