A Missionary in Ohio: January 27, 2014

Hey guys!

So, Dad all I'm going to say is thank you. Like truly. Thank you. This past week went by a lot better than last. Which I'm really glad. Even Biking in the crap weather didn't really bug me any more. It kinda like whatever. Even though this past week had some crazy weather. This has prolly been one of the worst winters Ohio's had in a while. Today and tomorrow are supposed to get down to -30 or -40 with the wind chill and all that. So I don't know what they're going to do. Yesterday and the day before that we got a total of like 8" of snow. And it's not all that bad. But people here don't know how to drive in snow. I'm from the friggin desert and love driving in snow. haha but yesterday (for the second time in less than 6 weeks) they cancelled church....again.... Ha I was so frustrated because we had like 6 people planning on going. Which is a ton! We had rides set. Plans made and everything was gonna work out perfectly except it snowed.... Sometimes I'm tempted to just do my own little sacrament in our apartment.. Haha.. If only that wouldn't be frowned upon. :P

So now for the good stuff. This past week was probably one of the better ones I've had (Success wise) Things are getting a little better here with E. McC? Still don't talk much but now I just don't pay much attention to it. I just do my thing and I know I'm just fine. Throughout the week we were blessed to find a lot of people. Who are all fairly solid. I don't know if I mentioned Franchesca and her kids Isaac (13) and Kaley (8). But this past week we were finally able to get in and teach them the restoration. Now this is the family who's entire family are Jehovah's Witnesses and she grew up only knowing that. She never got baptized there but that's all she knows still. Anyways. We went over to try her right before dinner at the Gardner's (who are all actually from Holbrook, AZ... cray) But we taught the Restoration and had them focus on the spirit. It was probably one of the more spiritual lessons I've been in. Isaac wasn't there for the first part because he was actually at the library down the road I guess researching our church cause he was afraid we were a cult. But he walked in right at the story of Joseph Smith and we back tracked a little and he was actually really focused and they both liked it. Kaley was just reading a book. Ha they have amazing potential and they were gonna come to church but oh yeah... It was cancelled. Haha. Her family has already started to try and get her to stop investigating but I'm not letting this go! haha after dinner at the Gardners we went and saw Tim Jennings with Bro. Nelson (EQ Pres) and that was a really good lesson about the Atonement. Wednesday I went on Exchanges with E. Hatch it was pretty good. It was cold and the steam from my breath froze on my eyebrows and eyelashes. Not the first time it's happened but I got pics. I think that's what I'll try and get done today. Throughout the week we were able to find a lot of good people. While I was on exchanges E. McC pretty much stopped a guy from shooting himself because the government doesn't help them out a lot and they don't have enough money so he's been starving for 4 days yeah. This past week God has pretty much led us all over the place and everywhere we've gone it's been for a specific reason. And when I'm not paying attention to the spirit, E. McC is and vice versa. So it's been really good. I'm now figuring out out the spirit works haha. and it's a continual process but I'm glad for the learning. It helps a ton! This past week we've been trying to rally up a bunch of people to help us clean the Oldfield's place. I'm like kinda nervous about but it is so bad. It really breaks my heart. And we called Sis. Oldfield yesterday to try and push the cleaning to Thursday (We were gonna do it tomorrow but tomorrow is gonna be the coldest day of my life.) but she asked if we could still stop by because here 6yr old son loved seeing us and was excited to have us over on Tuesday and it's just really cool. They have bugs crawling in their food as they eat and the kids still don't pay much attention to it. It's like they're used to it. Which is sad but they still are resilient and find ways to enjoy life. There is so much I learn from these little kids and I'll always learn from them. Even when I'm a dad. Couple funny things about this past week. We ventured out and tried to ride out bikes in the snow quite a bit of it I might add. Because E.McC just gets super antsy and can't like relax and accept when stupid stuff happens. But surprisingly I learn stuff from him. Anyways. I was just laughing the whole time in the snow cause it was almost entertaining. Sliding everywhere. It was super ineffective because we only went like a mile in 45mins. haha but the funniest part was when we were crossing an intersection and they way the city snowplowed the roads it made the curb seem a LOT closer than it really was. I just thought "oh I'll just wheelie and be fine and won't slip out" turns out I wheelied (sp?) right into the curb and flipped over my handlebars and just ate snow... Haha I was just laughing and all the people driving just waved and smiled and were prolly thinking "stupid Mormons" hahaha But then the best part is, is E. McC was giving me crap and he's like "I now know where the curb is" and then he went and did the exact same thing I did. And it was just funny. haha It's times like these where I wish I had a GoPro. Even riding in the snow looked cool. But aight I love you all and miss you all! I'll work on pics. some will be from Huber Heights. Just a heads up.

Love,
Elder Derrek Bowler