May 30, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

In Zone training meeting, one of the main takeaways I got was that I
need to find new ideas for working with members. During weekly
planning I realized another way we can boost the efforts of working
with members is to work with more members of the Ward mission. There
is a ward missionary I haven't worked with yet since getting to Powell
that I would like to try involving more.

Another thing that really stuck out from zone conference is the need
to have a "one last door" mentality. That idea reminds me of the quote
from President Monson's talk in conference that we need to "choose the
harder right instead of the easier wrong." I have seen going to knock
one more door or keep working for that five more minutes help find
someone that is ready to hear the message we share.

We had an interesting call into the office this week. A man named Bob
Hawthorne called into the mission office and had some questions about
some verses in Ether 3. Elder Low and I were not the first ones to
speak to him. Sister Long, the mission secretary, answered and gave us
the phone saying he was possibly an investigator. Once we got on the
phone with him, we read the scriptures and he seemed to think we
taught that God is a spirit. He kept saying we believed that doctrine
and we kept telling him that we believe he has a body. He wouldn't let
us get much in and kept telling some different stories from his life.
He went to the office of the first presidency, to Hugh Nibley, and to
some other notable LDS figures and he kept getting conflicting views
on whether on his question: Did the Premortal Christ have a physical
body, or was he a spirit? Much later on in the call we found out that
he was excommunicated twenty years ago because he was causing a
commotion over this question and wouldn't let it go and wouldn't
follow the council of church leadership. Now he thinks it is his duty
as a priesthood holder (even though he is excommunicated) to teach
this doctrine to everyone. Now that we knew he wasn't a member and
that he was just trying to change our mind, we figured it was about
time for the call to be up. Overall, the call was about one hour and
twenty minutes long.

Elder Low and I, along with several nearby companionships, helped
moved all the furniture in the garage of the mission home back inside.
We started at 8pm and got done around 10pm. There was a lot of beds
and dressers that we needed to carry back up the stairs to the upper
floor. We also moved all of the bunkbeds from the ping pong room back
to the main sleeping area in the basement. Though, President Daines
found a defect in the new basement carpet, so we will have to move all
the basement furniture out again once they order replacement carpet.
That probably won't be for another month or so. We ended up staying at
the mission home for another hour passed when everyone else was there
because a missionary we gave a ride needed to meet with President, so
Elder Low and I spent some time verifying the accuracy of the
assignment histories on the transfer board. After taking those elders
back to their apartment, we didn't get to our apartment until passed
11:30pm.

This week we lost two elders from our district, Elder Henderson and
Elder Hartley. They both went home Saturday. Now their companions are
left as companions serving in both the Lewis Center and Polaris areas.
They ended up going to both blocks of church yesterday. I am going to
miss them, they were both really awesome missionaries.

Thursday, Elder Low helped with shuffling mission vehicles from the
office to the mission home. President needed some vehicles temporarily
because his family is in town. It took several trips between Elder
Low, Elder Long, and myself driving vehicles back and forth. It is
interesting how many times this transfer Elder Low and I have been
separated because we needed to drive an extra car somewhere. First it
was when we needed to get a car repaired, next it was to take a car
from a closing area from the mission home to the office during a
mid-cycle transfer, and now there were several trips that day where we
lost one another at a red light or stop sign. I am glad President
trusts us. I also got to drive President Daine's GMC Acadia. That is a
nice vehicle.

Elder Low and I Helped the Knight family move furniture and boxes out
of their office. They are moving to Arizona and wanted help moving
their stuff from their insurance company. The Knight's gave us a whole
serving tin full of pulled pork from their daughter's high school
graduation party that they gave us. It will probably feed us for the
next week. They are an awesome family and it is sad that they will be
moving in a month.

Elder Low and I have been getting along better, there is certainly
less contention between us. The main thing that I have been trying to
work on the last couple weeks is involving Elder Low in weekly
planning more. He was really involved the first week or two in the
area, but he has been more content to stay in the background
afterwards. We talked about this during companionship inventory and
part of the problem is that Elder Low doesn't like making decisions,
big or small. Often during planning, when I feel I have been talking
too much, I ask Elder Low for his input on a decision to help him get
more involved and invested in planning. I have tried open end
questions like "which potential do you feel we should visit at this
time" or giving him choices between a few options in the area like
"would you like to tract street A, B, or C?" Usually, I get a similar
response back of "I don't know."

I would like to help him be involved more so that we are working
together as equals in our efforts. I can't be the first to have gone
through this problem, maybe there is something that helped another
companionship that was going through the same thing. I just need to
find out what.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission

May 23, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

In District Meeting, I learned that I need to get back to using the
Book of Mormon more in helping investigators to answer their questions
themselves. With a Book of Mormon challenge starting again, I have
been seeing lots of insights on the Savior and I am excited to help
others learn of Christ as well.

Jonathan, one of our progressing investigators, has read the same
chapter in the Book of Mormon four times because it isn't clicking for
him. We have been trying to help him focus on paying attention to how
he feels more so than trying to absorb all of the information. Sister
Daines' comments at the zone conference comparing investigators to
babies has been helpful. When babies first get solid baby food, they
usually spit it out because it is a new experience for them and they
are not used to it. We need to work with Jon and assist him in the
learning rather than just giving him something to read and hoping he
gets everything out of it that he needs. Like a baby, you will need to
coax them into trying it more until they come to enjoy the food and
even ask for more.

From the Zone Conference with Elder Zeballos, the two main principles
I have been working to apply are pondering and likening. Sister
Zeballos made the comment to ponder both before and after prayer. I
have been taking some time before starting and I don't get up
immediately after saying amen. God definitely answers prayers when we
give Him time to respond to us. This way, I have noticed prayer can be
more of a two way communication and less of a list of requests and
thanks. This has improved more than just my prayers, the effects are
carrying over into my studies where I am getting deeper understanding
and I am better able to see connections that I can liken to my life
and the lives of our investigators.

--
Elder Aaron King
Ohio Columbus Mission