A Missionary in Ohio: Eventful week...

Hey everyone!

So this week has seriously been crazy. So much has happened and I'm just glad I'm on a new week! So I'll talk about our gators first then I'll get to the crazy stories that I'm sure most know about now. :)

So Prince and Emily are progressing slowly. It's been frustrating cause we haven't had a good solid lesson in a couple weeks. It's all just been short spontaneous visits that don't do much. And they have problems that keep showin up and slowin things down. We put them back on date for Oct 26 but they still have a lot of work to do and so do we. Prince will go play Soccer and B-Ball with the ward on Tuesday's and Thursday's so that's good there. We went over Sunday morning to watch conference with them but we only got President Eyring's and Elder Oaks talks in, We bounced after that cause they weren't feeling it and were tired and not gettting anything out of it. So we went over to the Sanabria's and finished conference there and then Ate between sessions at the Lecheminant's house and watched Sunday afternoon there. Did anyone else see the fly during Elder Vincent's (I think that's his name) talk? Anyways. We're going to try and get a good lesson in this week but we'll see! Last week was hectic and all over the place and you'll see why haha. Stephanie is doing good. She has a desire but we need to get her out of the crowd she's putting herself in! So that'll take some work but hopefully it'll get there!

So that's it basically for our gators. Now I'll go through the other crap :P at the beginning of the week it wasn't too bad. I started these crossfit exercises with E. Young and Tuesday morning we did one that required a ton of body weight squats and it destroyed my legs... Like I was an old man who couldn't walk. But we were goin to do service for random people and all four of us biked out to Bishop's house which he wasn't there but round trip was like 6 miles. Which isn't bad. But it didn't help my legs to feel better. We went to lunch at Olive Garden which was good. Then that night had dinner with the Rhees family again. They're chill. We went to soccer after that, and I wasn't planning on doing anything cause I hurt so much... but of course I jumped in and after I started running the adrenaline blocked the pain out so I went all out and did decently well I just pushed too hard cause as soon as I stopped I fried my whole legs. So I was sore for like 5 days and my legs would give out cause I had like no muscle in my legs.. It was funny but one of the weirdest things. So now.. Wednesday was one of the weirdest things ever. We had district meeting and the morning was good. Had lunch and we all crashed for a couple hours. Like it was weird. Cause it was unplanned for. We got out though and had a good night. We had dinner with the Lape family which is always good. Then we had a semi decent lesson with Stephanie afterwards. After we ride our bikes home only to fine that our apartment was trashed and none of the lights worked. Our water bottles wall was smashed and drawers were opened etc. And someone left a dump in our toilet. I knew instantly it was the other Hilliard Elders. So I was fine about it but Monahan got pissed, But we called them and they took forever to come over and clean it so I just started to. Then they came over and Mike did too cause turns out he helped. He prolly left the dump too ;) it's ok we did it to them when we put Jesus pics up :P So we talked for a bit and then they bounce. And Monahan was playing with a lighter and burning a piece of paper inside a small box on top of Wicker patio furniture we had. I went upstairs to get ready for bed and didn't know about it. So we crash around 11 but even though we were so incredibly exhausted and our bodies just hurt, we could not sleep (and looking back it was God keeping us up) So Midnight roles around and Monahan sits up and I turn towards him and ask "what's up" and he said he sees a light flickering on the wall. (and the way our beds are faced the outside is behind our heads so we faced the opposite wall) And then right after that it sounded like someone was knocking on the glass window. I was like "Who the frick is here??" Thinkin it was the other Elder's messin with us again. Then Monahan looks out the window and yells "FIRE!" I was just like "What?? are you kidding!?" So he bolts downstairs and I jump up and throw glasses on. He Opened the door and you can just hear the power of the flames and the heat. I start grabbing water and Monahan starts throwing the chairs into the parking lot to get away from the building. (two minutes longer and the apartment would have caught fire too. That's why I say God kept us up) So we were able to kill the flames ourselves but it destroyed the patio furniture completely, warped some of the siding (the flames were 10-12 feet high, right by our heads actually) and the knocking on the glass I heard was the window cracking because of the heat. So our neighbor came out and helped kil the flames and we called the other Elders over. Monahan burnt his fingers pretty bad grabbing the chairs so he grabbed water and all we had for "ice" were our Otter Pops. So he took care of that. We called Sis. Nilsen and she recommended the ER but Monahan was way too stubborn to get any help whatsoever and it's like bro. Forget about the money and get the help you need. So we made a couple calls but no one answered (which we expected, It was midnight haha) So Mike was great in helping us and took us to the ER. That was fun and they told Monahan he has to go to the Burn Unit (which he didn't want to) So we get home about 3:20am and crash at 4am at the other Elders place. I wake up to the phone blowing up from everyone we tried calling and also Sis. Creer raging and on the phone with the apartment manager pissed too cause they drove around and see the burnt chairs everywhere and the damage. So we cleared it all up and got it situated. Thursday the Niu's came down to drop a car off for us. (ha the only time I get a car on my mission is when my companions can't ride so it's a plus sometimes especially now cause it's cold and rainy) They took us to lunch and we did what we could that day E. Young and I let Monahan and Park sleep and we went out and did some stuff. we talked to the Sanabria's to help us feel a little better haha they were pissed of at us for that but whatever, I don't even care.. Friday we went to the Burn Unit in the morning and Sis. Nilsen met us there. It was down at OSU and it was pretty crazy. They Debrided Monahan's fingers and the pain was so bad he almost passed out after he threw up. Well more like dry heaved. Then Sis. Nilsen bought us a little lunch and we went back and after went and painted the trim over a garage and house for the Babb family in the ward and then at 3 met up with Liz and Tommy and went back to the record store and returned the other one I got and got a new one that was right. They then took us to Ted's Montana Grill where we got delicious Bison burgers. :P:D It was fun. It was rainy too and it was cool. Saturday we just spent watching conference at the church and I had too big of a headache to get anything out of it. But before priesthood we stopped by Prince and Emily's to see how they were doing cause more drama came up from Emily about Prince cheatin and etc... then I got pills. E. Monahan talked about how I bring him down and need to be better and how we need to be better at doing the work. etc. So yeah. I didn't get much out of conference this time but I like President Uchtdorf's talks and a few others. So I gotta go back and digest them more. but hopefully the work moves forward with the Prophet's saying we need the member's help. and Thanks for doing work back home guys. It's awesome! but yeah. Sunday was good. after the Lecheminants/G.C. we went to the Miller's for dinner again which was really good and I love that family. They move next week which sucks but hopefully we'll keep in touch. We also went to the Fowler's and said hi and then back to the Miller's and had pie that Mike actually got for them! haha It was way good! :P anyways. So that's basically my crazy week last week. I'll send pictures this time :) So enjoy! Love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Derrek Bowler

So some of the pics are from weeks ago just chilling and such. but most are from this last week.