August 23rd, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Last Monday, we were able to go to the Gateway building and have a FHE
lesson with Elissa and her family. I enjoyed seeing everyone interact
in Chinese and Elder Liu did a great job leading most of the lesson on
the plan of salvation.

In Zone Conference the main thing I feel I learned is that I need to
be more conversational in my teaching. I shouldn't just teach
principles, but I interact with those I come in contact with. I have
been applying this more in more than just teaching situations and I
have found that it has helped me to be less "robotic" or rote in my
encounters with others.

We were able to get ahold of Freida again. She was busy preparing for
a class she had to teach at OSU, but we were able to still talk for a
few minutes. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon last time we
visited her and we brought her a Swahili copy this time so she can
read them side by side.

Thursday, I went on an exchange with Elder Gardner to Lewis Center. We
got to teach Lora. In that lesson, I was trying to apply what I had
learned in zone conference by being more conversational. We were able
to help resolve a couple of her concerns while helping her come to
those conclusions. At the end of the lesson, Lora said how she liked
that we were very down to earth. We also had a lesson with Dominic and
his kids. It was interesting how different each of their interests in
the gospel was. Teaching such a varied family was a good learning
experience.

Saturday, we had another exchange with Elder Gardner, although this
time I was with him and Elder Janson in Powell. During studies we get
a call from President Daines asking for our help in preparing for the
mission activity. When we got to the mission home, we did an "Olympic
relay" to test the difficulty and timing of the different legs of the
relay. Afterwards we help fill water balloons for an hour. Next, we
had to tract down two large propane grills and several cornhole sets
from members. We basically drove all around the ward all day. In the
end, we only had about an hour for proselyting on the exchange. I am
sure Elder Janson's feelings weren't hurt, he is quite trunky and is
ready to be home.

At church, the three of us were asked to bear our testimonies in a the
Gospel Doctrine class. The lesson was on the stripling warriors, so
Sister Weidner wanted us to bear our testimonies as examples of modern
day stripling warriors. It was interesting to hear the different
backgrounds we came from yet how we have all be prepared from our
youth to be where we are today.

Yesterday was my 200th day in Powell, it is crazy to think how fast
that has passed. We got to go to both mission activities because we
helped set up everything and pack everything away for Monday's
activity. Monday was tiring though, we were out by 7:30 hauling things
into and out of the trailer, and we stayed through 4:30 when we got
everything put away. Also President Daines said we aren't friends
anymore because I hit him in the junk while playing whiffle ball. It
was partially his fault though because he was taking photos while
standing behind the pitcher. Oh well, it was a fun day.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission