A Missionary in Ohio: July 7, 2014

Hey!

Me, E. Peterson, Bullock, and Simkins

So that's fine about the whole job thing. Can I get his email or something to ask him? and it's understandable about the car thing hopefully we'll figure that out. haha I need a break from the bike as a mode of transportation haha. What about a phone? haha We'll figure it out I guess. It's just crazy everything is starting to come fast. I just hope it all works out. Maybe I'll just find a wife who can help out. haha jk

This past week seemed to go fast but when I look back it seems like events that happened seemed like months ago. So this past week wasn't too shabby. The beginning of our week was super brutal. I hit a wall cause everything like died in our area... and stayed that way for a couple weeks. So it was all just starting to take a toll on me mentally and spiritually and physically and yeah. So Tuesday was kinda alright a lot of our appointments fell through and then just a massive storm rolled in which was not conducive to a bike area. So that day was kinda shot. Wednesday we drove up to Columbus to meet President and Sister Daines. They seemed tired and shell-shocked but I'm excited to serve with them. I'm not gonna really have a chance to develop any sort of relationship with them cause it'll be a "Hi-bye" situation. But they seem really great. I realized something that I never thought would happen but when I thought about the fact that the Nilsens are gone it kinda hit me that I kinda miss them. I dunno. They've helped me and taught me a lot of things that are very valuable to me and the life I want to live. So it's kinda interesting but after that things started to get a little better. I went on Exchanges with E. Peterson in Fairborn and that was pretty fun. I love the kid and I'll prolly kick it with him when he gets home. He gets home a month after Alec. Which is weird... But anyways.. We lost contact with Richard and Tina until Thursday. Which scared me cause I fasted for them last week and I was kinda leery about it cause it seemed the past few times I'd fast for someone they'd drop us. Happened every time in Big Walnut Creek. But it turned out to be ok. We got in contact had a couple decent lessons. They came to church and I hope it was good for them. We have dinner with them at the Bishop's house tomorrow. But a funny story is we got a Foosball Table from Richard and Tina and now our apartment is a cozy little man cave :P haha E. Bullock is really good at it and I get worked over and I'm competitive so I keep playing haha. Another funny thing that turned out to be really cool is we got Ali (one of our gators) to come to church. Which he never plans for anything and he works the night before and gave us permission to wake him up cause apparently it's impossible and so I was like shoot. Challenge Accepted! So we bought him a RedBull Saturday night and right after our regular church meetings we went over with Duffy Young to wake Ali up and I've never had to go to such great lengths to get someone to church. Like honestly. We dragged him out of bed multiple times and he kept going back to bed. He doesn't remember any of it cause he's asleep and then after he finally woke up he's like "oh hey guys!" haha it was funny. So he downed the RedBull and got dressed and we went to the YSA ward cause he's 22 so it worked out. And then after a couple people bore their testimony Ali is like "can anyone go up?" so we said yeah of course! and he went up and bore a pretty solid testimony! It was one of those "Is this really happening moments?' So that was cool. We were also fasting that day and I ended up getting really bad migraine and couldn't stand. So that put me out for a little bit and then last night we went and Talked to another one of our gators Neva to see how they're doing and we met her son who got baptized in 2012 and get this. He went to High School with Pebbles!! haha Small freaking world!! So he's a cool kid. and I'm excited to try and help him get active again. He has a good head on his shoulders and is out here to take over his Mom's contracting business. So yeah. Everything pretty much got a little better at the end of the week and after this last fast I feel pretty good. It was a good recharge and I have renewed energy to finish strong! Only got 2 months left! It's nuts! But here are some fun pics too :) Love you all and thanks for the support!

Love,
Elder Derrek Bowler