February 15th, 2016

Dear Family,

I really enjoyed district meeting this week. Elder Johnson, our new
district leader, taught about ways we can work with members better. We
should bring members who would be best to fellowship, not just those
who would be the easiest to get based on availability. Sometimes as
missionaries we end up bringing the same members to lessons because
they are always available. It is so important that we prayerfully
consider who to bring and then help them realize how they can be part
of God's work. Elder Johnson also taught how we should change our
mindset from "members help us with the work" to a mindset of "we help
them in their missionary efforts".

Now that we are a little ways passed transfer week, we have had some
more time to go out proselytizing. We were able to do some tracting,
contact a couple referrals and reach out to some less active members.
I enjoy teaching with Elders Marvin and Winkler. They are good
examples and care for those we teach.

This week, the three of us made chicken bacon pesto pizza. It is a lot
more work than I remember. Also, our kitchen is really small, which
doesn't help when there are three cooks. It turned out really good. I
was glad to eat our pizza again, but I probably won't make it again
while on my mission. Has the menu at home changed very much in the
past few months? What are some of the new recipes you have tried?

Thanks for the package! Both my companions really liked the muffin
mix. Elder Marvin really loved the sour fruit snacks.

A few days ago, we were walking down the driveway of a referral we
were contacting. Elder Marvin stumbled a little on some ice and caught
his balance. I told him to watch his step, then not even a second
later, I landed flat on my butt. I hit my right wrist and elbow, the
right side of my tailbone, and my head on the ground. Luckily there
was a tiny amount of snow to lighten my fall. When I fell I also lost
my CTR because it flung off my finger. There was a lot of light snow
so it probably fell into a snow drift. We have checked back a couple
times to look for it, but the snow won't melt. Hopefully I am able to
find it.

At church we had fourteen missionaries. Normally we have 6-8 because
there is our trio, the trio of Powell sisters, as well as President
and Sister Daines. This week the Worthington and Dublin wards had to
join us because their building had a plumbing problem. There was raw
sewage flooding into the baptismal font. So we got to have our zone
leaders (Elders Bauman and Brown), our sister training leaders
(Sisters Rogers and Lonnecker), and an office couple (Elder and Sister
Hartung) at church with us. Our gospel principles class had all of the
missionaries except President and Sister Daines. This was definitely a
different experience at church.

I feel like I have been slacking on my studies a bit this past week. I
don't want to get too comfortable being a technology specialist that I
lose sight of the importance of studying the doctrines of the
missionary lessons. My primary purpose is a missionary, so I will try
harder this week. I have noticed a difference in my attitude this
week. Not reading your scriptures for even a few days can have a very
drastic impact on your effectiveness and attitude.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

February 8th, 2016

Dear family,

I'll start off with transfer news. Elder Taylor is staying in Dayton
YSA 2 and I am now in Powell 2. I work in the office as a technology
specialist (most people call us tech elders) with two awesome
companions Elder Winkler and Elder Marvin. Elder Winkler and I are
both junior companions and Elder Marvin is the senior companion.

Elder Marvin is from Los Angelos, California and Portland, Oregon.
This is his last transfer and then he is going home. He is really
funny.

Elder Winkler is from Orem, Utah. He has two transfers left and will
likely stay a tech elder with me until he goes home. Elder Winkler and
I are second cousins. I found this out while doing family history work
in my first transfer, but I haven't ever had a chance to talk to him
about it. Now that we are companions I have had a little more
opportunity to tell him about it. He is related through Mom's side of
the family. His mom is Renee Rowley (Winkler), who is my Mom's cousin.
The shared ancestor we have is James Aitken/Mary Stoker. It's a small
world, I guess.

Time is moving so fast here. I am on day five, but it feels like I
have only been here two. This area is the one I have felt the least
stressed in. I like that I am able to use the talents that I have
developed to help the whole mission. Another difference is that I get
to see a lot of what is going on behind the scenes. We work closely
with President Daines and his assistants, Elders Lloyd and Peterson. I
usually only see the "business" side of President Daines, but now I
get to see the personal side. I have learned more about him in the
last three days than I have in the past nine months.

I have been learning a lot about how members can be effective in
missionary work. I invite you to ask the missionaries over so they can
inform you how you can be involved as a family to help strengthen the
ward. I can promise you that as you become member missionaries you
will not only help friends come closer to Christ, but you as
individuals and a family will draw closer to Christ. Will you invite
the missionaries over this week?

By the way, our address is:
Elder Aaron King
4884 Emerald Lakes Drive
Powell, OH 43065

But we are really close to the mission office, so you can just send stuff to:
Elder Aaron King
19 Clairedan Dr
Powell, OH 43065

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

Tech elders and assistants working side-by-side during our busy
post-transfer week

January 25th, 2016

Dear Family,

In district meeting, Elder Taylor and I were given the chance to give
a training on strengthening new and less-active members. We prepared
really well for what we were going to teach and during the lesson we
both felt prompted to share something that was extra to what we had
prepared. I really felt the spirit as I bore my testimony of the
experience I shared. Looking back on the situation, the comment from
the worldwide broadcast about the need to put things into our
spiritual treasure chest before we can draw from it is really true. If
we don't make the proper preparations, then we don't give the spirit
anything to bring to our remembrance as we teach.

Going into the worldwide missionary broadcast I did go "expecting to
be taught the mysteries" as President Smith, the mission's first
counselor, put it. With this being the first worldwide mission
broadcast in over a decade, we were expecting some new doctrines,
policies, or something. Instead, the apostles taught simply the truths
we already knew. I feel like the training was a good reminder that the
gospel we share with others is full of simple beauties.

I really liked Elder Oaks' talk. He said we do more than offer to make
bad men good and good men better. The fundamental purpose of our
missionary work is that men cannot be saved in the highest kingdom of
glory without the doctrine of Christ and the temple. We don't help
them settle for a lesser kingdom. Other churches cannot get them to
this highest kingdom. As missionaries, with priesthood authority, we
are the only ones entitled to teach these principles. This definitely
helped remind me of the bigger picture that as missionaries we are
helping them to get to more than just baptism.

We got new phones this week. They are the same kind of phone, but we
switched providers from Sprint to AT&T. President Daines was probably
really happy about that because he worked as an executive at AT&T
before becoming a mission president.

Elder Taylor and I have been walking way more than usual this week. We
have been out contacting on the campuses all day most days this week
because both Sinclair and UD are back. On Saturday we walked about
five miles just to contact two referrals. The weeks that we don't have
the car are quite the workout!

Brother Chatterton gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the
difference between testimony and conversion. He used the story of
Peter denying Christ three times as an example of having testimony but
not being converted yet. He also made a really profound statement
about envy that has stuck out to me. He said envy is looking at what
someone has and trying to get it by taking a shortcut. When people
have a stronger testimony, it is because they worked for it. We can't
just sit back and be envious of their testimony. We need to work hard
to develop our own. We also must have a sure foundation in Christ.
That is the difference between testimony and conversion. Step by step
we must be building that foundation daily by reading our scriptures
and praying. But it is more than just going through the motions, we
must be actively trying to strengthen our relationship with our Father
in Heaven.

God is our Father, and that means we are His children. Remember that
relationship when you pray each morning and evening, at meal times,
and in your heart constantly. Think about the relationship a child has
to a father and prayer will become more meaningful. We don't try to
change His will. We look up to Him for guidance and ask Him to help us
follow His will. The Savior is a great example of demonstrating that
He knows this relationship. In the Garden of Gethsemane He pleaded
with the Father in prayer to remove the bitter cup, then in an
ultimate act of submission as a child to his father, was willing to
follow His Father's will in continuing on with the atonement. I know
that the Savior has borne our trials and He will give us the strength
to follow the will of the Father. Jesus Christ descended below all and
faced more than we could ever imagine. As a result, He knows us
perfectly and knows how to succor His people. Remember that each of
you are Children of God, and He wants to see you succeed.

Another statement that was made by President Smith after the broadcast
has helped me better understand the Savior. He said that when he was
in some leadership position in the church, he had a project he was
working on and didn't know how to accomplish the task. He asked
someone higher up for some advice and they told him to study the
atonement. That wasn't the answer President Smith was looking for, he
wanted help with the task he was assigned. He didn't know how studying
doctrine could solve his problem. President Smith was confused, but
willingly obeyed. As he studied the atonement, he came to feel more
love for those he was working with and that helped him see the
solution that would benefit all involved. He said don't look for
specifics on how to do things, study the doctrines and the rest will
come. This experience has got me to realize that we don't have to have
the answer to every little question and we don't need to know exactly
how things will work out. We study the atonement and Christ's
teachings to better understand the Savior and His sacrifice for us;
after that, the rest will come. I know that trials will keep coming,
but stay true to building your testimony of the Savior and strive to
be like Him. As you do so I know that having a foundation in Christ
will help you all withstand the winds of trials that the devil will
send.
--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

January 18th, 2016

Dear Family,

We had district meeting on Wednesday. The training focused on how to
ask members for referrals of friends they know who might like to hear
a gospel message. We worked on learning ways to get people interested
in missionary work instead of just asking them who they know.

Our focus for this week has been to find more people to teach through
street contacting. In he training last week about planning, someone
mentioned how they were setting hourly goals. We decided to try that
this week.

Elder Taylor had the Sunday school lesson this week. It was the lesson
from chapter 3 of the Gospel Principles manual. The lesson was on the
war in heaven and the necessity of Christ as our savior. I think Elder
Taylor did a great job teaching and here was a lot of good
participation in the class.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

January 11th, 2016

Dear Family,

We were able to have interviews this week. It was good to get some
direction on what I could do to improve as a missionary.

In Zone Training this week we talked about planning. We did our weekly
planning for the week at the zone conference. We received a bunch of
training about how to reach out to more people and how to be effective
with our time. There were also a lot of basics that I got to relearn
since I got have gotten used to doing things the same way for the past
eight months.

I have been going through the ensigns in gospel library and have
started from the beginning (1971) and reading interesting talks and
articles. The prophets and apostles back then are a lot more bold and
have some really good messages.

Not much to write about his week. It has been kind of slow. Sinclair
is back for the semester today and the University of Dayton gets back
at the end of the week, so things should be picking up. I will send a
bunch more photos because I completely forgot last week.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

Dear Family,

The weird Asian food of the week is beef Jerky. But it isn't just
normal jerky. It has a hairy texture to it. It looks and feels like
eating tarantula legs.

We went to the Air Force museum again since Elders Taylor and Bunker
have not been there yet. I did family history work most of the time.
As we were going to various parts of the museum, we kept running into
lots of members. There were some groups that came down from Michigan
and a lot of them had BYU hoodies or beanies. I haven't seen that much
BYU apparel in a group of people since being in Utah; usually it is
Ohio State University clothing you see.

This week we had the car, so we went to visit a lot of members. Elder
Taylor was sick from the food we ate the night before, so we had to
turn around a few times so we could make it to a bathroom. He looked
like he was in enough pain that he might pass out. Luckily he started
feeling better so we could go out and do some missionary work. We were
able to visit a less active member that has been returning to the
church over the last few months and wants to prepare for a mission. We
had the opportunity to do some service. We were in our proselytizing
clothes, so they didn't want us to do too much dirty work. We got to
put spackle in the nail holes on their wall. It may not have been a
lot of work, but it was good to serve again. I haven't had much
service to do since Danville.

We had zone training this past Wednesday. The materials they asked us
to study were the exact same as last zone training and the meeting
felt like last zone training. They are really focusing on goals and
accountability. Elder Taylor and I haven't had too many times to teach
together since our entire teaching pool is away for the holiday break.
In the roleplay we taught together, Elder Taylor was having moments
where his mind would just blank. This let me know that we really need
to practice in companion study so this doesn't happen in a real
teaching situation.
I was so tired that night for some reason that I just fell asleep at 7 pm. Oops.

We went to go contact on UD again just to see if anyone had come back
after Christmas. There still was no one on campus. We started walking
toward the bus stop, but we just missed the bus by a minute. We
decided we would just keep walking towards the next stop since we
didn't want to just stand there for thirty minutes. As we walked
another bus passed us, oh well. I guess we will just keep walking. We
weren't paying attention to the time and another bus passed us. By
this point we were close enough to our apartment that we figured there
was no point getting on the bus only to get off two stops later. We
ended up walking all the way from the University of Dayton to our
apartment, which was about five miles. It was a nice stroll through
the neighborhood.

I am glad to hear that you enjoyed New Years with Ron and Janalee. As
a missionary we go to be at 10:30pm, so there wasn't much for us to
celebrate. Some missionaries set an alarm for midnight, celebrate for
a couple minutes, then go back to sleep. Holidays for missionaries
just tend to be normal work days, so I wanted to sleep.

There was a day this week where we had gone through our plans a little
faster than we anticipated. In order to stay productive for the next
thirty minutes before our next appointment, we decided to grab a
couple trash bags and just walk down the road outside our apartment
picking up litter. It was a small act of service for the people living
here, but the joy I feel in serving was so much greater. I think when
serving others we usually get the better end of the deal because of
how it makes us feel.

I found someone in the branch with really similar hobbies as me. He
does the same kind of "hacking" that I did at work at PerfectSearch.
He has a really nice computer that he uses for operating system
virtualization and to help him prepare for different certification
tests. It was nice to connect with someone that speaks my language. It
has been a long time since I have talked that in depth about
computers.

Sunday it was our companionship's turn to teach the Sunday School
lesson. Elder Taylor hasn't had his ADD pills for several days because
his prescription ran out, so I offered to teach the lesson by myself.
The lesson was on our Heavenly Father and how we can come to know Him.
This was the fullest I have ever seen the gospel principles class
since coming here, so I wasn't really nervous until I got into the
classroom and was actually about to teach. Overall the lesson went
alright. Brother Dibble, the first counselor in the branch, said that
I set a high bar for others to follow. I tried to keep things as
simple as possible because the last lesson we taught, about the
millennium, we went into too much detail for a class that is really
about gospel basics. The gospel is really simple and sometimes I think
we complicate things for ourselves.

Dear Family,

So as you already know, we had transfers this past week. Usually the
Christmas transfer is small since it is only 5 weeks, but this one was
just as big as all of the other transfers I have attended. Elder
Monsen is now with Elder Stevens who he was in his district while he
was in the MTC. Elder Taylor is my new companion and I am driving
again (although both he and I would prefer if he drives so we might
talk to the assistants about changing that.) Elder Teames, our
district leader, was transferred so now Elder Bunker is the district
leader.

Elder Taylor is an awesome companion. He is from Cache Valley, Utah.
He has been in the field for six months. This is his second area. So
both of us spent six months in our first areas, Elder Taylor is just a
transfer behind me. He is a hard worker and I can tell we are going to
be able to do some good work while we are together.

President and Sister Cross took us to Thai House for dinner after
transfers. When you order your food you choose how spicy to make your
food on a scale from one to five. Sister Cross said she got a three
one time and it was too much to handle. I decided to order a three
anyway since I eat a lot of spicy ramen. I couldn't taste any heat
from the volcano chicken I ordered. I kept adding more of the chili
paste, but it wasn't getting any spicier. I am wondering if I have
built up a tolerance to spicy food. Sister Cross said she would bring
us back so I can try ordering a dish with a spice of five. The same
thing was happening when a Elder Monsen and I were at Linh's Bistro
last week. I tried some of Elder Monsen's chicken that he was having
trouble handling the spice. I couldn't taste any of the spice there
either. I am sure the family is happy I am not cooking at home right
now since I tend to make a lot of spicy dishes.

On Friday, we and the other elders had the chance to do some service
and help out with Toys for Tots. We were in an electrical company's
warehouse full of giant black bags full of wrapped presents. We would
open the bags and look at the tags on the presents and sort them into
different piles in the warehouse. The tags said things like "boy's
clothing - size 4" or "girls toy - age 3". It was kind of disorganized
at first, but we managed to make it work. I enjoyed being able to
serve, that is something I have missed about Danville. This week
should have more service projects because of the holidays and we have
some members that are planning on inviting us to help them with their
volunteer group.

That evening we had a branch Christmas party at Brother Dibble's
house. He is a counselor in the branch presidency. I enjoyed the time
we had to get to know a few more members of the branch. We ended up
getting home a little late because of how far we were from our
apartment and because we needed to drop the other elders off first.


Sunday we got to sing in the Christmas program. We and the other
missionaries agreed to sing a quartet back when Elder Teames and Elder
Monsen were here. We knew there was a possibility that any of us could
leave, but we were committed to it anyway. We asked brother Beckert,
the other branch councilor, to sing with us since Elder Teames was the
only musical talent we had in our group. You would think I have some
musical talent or something for how often I get roped into choir
performances. We sang the primary song "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus."
Elder Taylor wasn't too happy to sing with us on such short notice. I
had also committed us to teach the gospel principles class. We
definitely didn't give him a break for his first week here as the new
elder.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission