Who I am, Where I am, and what is this blog?

Hello, My Name is Elder Parker Bone. I am a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I am currently serving a LDS mission in the Ohio Cleveland Mission I will be serving for two years and will be returning home in Summer of 2017.
I will be emailing my adventure in Ohio to friends and family and this blog will contain those emails.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

A new Call

Sunday Night....

Elder Fifield and I are Planing for the day tomorrow

The phone rings.....

"It's President" Elder Fifield says with panic in his eyes

"Hello President Brown, how's your evening" he responded as neutral as he could to the ringing phone.

I overhead the start of the conversation "Elder, please take the phone off speaker"

I quietly left the room

A short while later Elder Fifield came in to our room,

He wordlessly handed me the phone

My shaky hand lifted it to my ear

"Yes President Brown?" My heart pounding in my chest

"Elder Bone I have an Assignment for you from the Lord"
"You have been called to serve as a district leader in the Solon ward"

It took me a minute to compose myself enough to say "Thank you" 

"That will be all, good Night Elder"

Missions, one call and everything changes.

Gotta love theatrics XD

But yes that is what happened I Have been called to serve in the Solon South area with Elder Kitchens. I am also going to be serving as a District leader for the Solon District
some changes are soon to be a foot.

but before I get to all that.....

ON to Last week!

(By the way thanks for all the support this week, It is always a nice boost to get emails from home)

So we had some fun on Monday
The Best Buy in our area had a Oculus Rift Demo and I totally checked it out and it was EPICly expensive
but SO COOOL 
I have a video of me Geeking out (and banging my head on a desk after getting a little too close to it :P) but it will have to wait as it is too big of a file

Tuesday:
Had a lot of cancels but did have a dinner so that was a positive!

Wednesday: Why is that day of the week still so hard to SPELL 
Kicked off the day with Elder Fifield's Bike having a popped tire, so we went to "Richard's" Sporting goods to get a tire tube, we got home and inflated it and found out that it was a road bike tire. by this point we were running late for our appointment so we borrowed Elder ogle's bike to go to our appointment. after that we went back home to catch a ride to Correlation meeting. after Correlation we taught Bryan and kinda dropped him as he didn't want to progress. Then we had dinner and went back to "Richard's" to exchange the tire and fix Fifield's Bike

Thursday:
ZTM was AWESOME we learned alot about the real Purpose of the Restoration and just how powerful the message we share with families is. we then went on exchanges with Elder LeFevre and it went ok, didn't get anything done but no one died so there's that.
 
Friday:
weeekly planing is so looooooooooong
after weekly planning we went down to Akron to meet Jake, an awesome guy that loves to talk (like most of Ohio) we boldly proclaimed the truth of eternity and the possibility of Eternal marriage with the power of God though the preisthood. we did as taught to Invite, Promise and testify and the Spirit was there and I am sure if he Reads the book of Mormon he will Join the Fold. Missionary work is Amazing

Saturday:
helped out Brother G again, learned this time how to short a breaker that we didn't know where it was (we were working in the garage when the 2 live wires connected and the power got tripped 
2 minutes later we went to the house to find 1/2 of the bedrooms lost power)
after that we met with Sister Ann and she spun us some tall tales of mysical food that I will never get to try now :P

Sunday:
pretty much church 
contact
see begining of letter


Monday:
morning breakfast with the ward
district meeting
a ward family Barbecue that we got invited to
and we taught the Bland's right before they move

Thats the week! 
Love you all!

Elder Bone
OCM

Ephesians 1:10

hat in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Monday, May 23, 2016

That moment when all the missionaries around me are rapidly typing and I don't even know what the subject line should be... maybe this will be the subject, Or I don't even put a subject #rebel

from the top

Monday: 
Played some Monopoly after cleaning up
dinner at a members
cancel
went to bed

Tuesday:
District meeting 
went out with a member to visit a high potential Part member family
got there Guy canceled at the door
went to see a less active member instead
lesson went badly 
walked around 
knocked doors 
got a few curse words and some not nice gestures 
had some dinner 
walked around 
got swore at
went to bed

Wednesday:
woke up
walked
had lunch
cancel  
cancel
knocked doors
had dinner
cancel
went to bed

Thursday:
Weekly Planned
taught a guy about the Preisthood
cancel
cancel
had dinner at a members
taught a guy about the book of Mormon
went to bed

Friday;
did some record updating 
cancel
lunch
taught someone about reading
fought exhaustion trying to teach about sacrament
taught why we baptize
had dinner at a members 
went to bed

Saturday:
helped a family
learned new skills
moved a couch
went to bed

Sunday:
went to church
had lunch/dinner at a members 
taught someone about church
went to bed



while on the outside looking in at just the actions of missionaries it may seem like a miserable 2 years of bitter enduring
but actually from a Non-linear Non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of love-y smile-y... mission-y Stuff
for those of you non-Whovians I can translate:

My mission is not the greatest 2 years of my life because I am doing what I want to do when I want to do it.
My mission is great because when I don't want to get up
when I don't want to knock on that door
when I don't want to say HI
I do
and when I do I feel the love of God in my life
when I try my best to do what is right and fall flat on my face He is right there saying try again  in a kind loving way.
My mission isn't about the actions of others its about the Change I feel, its about the love I try to have for Ohio and it's people.

there is so much I have felt and felt those things in ways that are hard to explain.
I have seen personalized mercy appear when I am about to give up and give in 
I have loved every second of my mission especially the hard ones because I am learning 
I am growing 
and I have seen a change that I would never seen without the service I render here in Ohio


I love you all so Much and I hope you know that
Elder Bone
OCM



Mosiah 2:22

And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. 

Monday, May 16, 2016

a long week

where not a whole lot happened but first...

CONGRATS TO MY BROTHER for getting his Eagle Scout! 
Quite the accomplishment Bro!

Monday: played some B-Ball tell *someone* got hurt and limped home... 
Ow
But we did teach and AWESOME lesson to Andrew who we literally had just talked to the sunday before calling the fam! he was really excited to learn more about Christ though the Book of Mormon so keep him in your Prayers!

Tuesday: some calls, some teaching and some other stuff :P
actually we taught Andrew (no not that one) at which point we found out he doesn't live in our area though so the Zone leaders will be teaching him now.

Wednesday:
Tried to teach a Flat-earth Society member about the Book of Mormon, seemed he was interested at least will keep you posted (and yes he is VERY adamant about the earth being flat wait till he reads Helaman 12:15) 
after we had a quick meeting with our Ward Mission Leader we saw brother Luevano again and had a good time talking about how things are going with him! 

Thursday:
Weekly planning/district meeting CCCCCCOOMBO of long hours of sitting..
basically a really long day, we had district meeting on  Thursday for Mission President Interviews and President Brown says HI! 

Friday;
Exchanges with Elder Bradshaw and as my mom taught me and I (sometimes) apply if you don't have anything good to say say nothing at all
...

Saturday:
FIFIELD'S BACK!!! 
it was only a day but man was it a long one
anyway once we changed back we went and helped Brother Gestenslager out with some Home improvement, he's taught us all kinds of stuff about the million and one tools he has in his garage as we helped him out. after that we had a great Dinner with the Booths before heading on home.

Sunday;
STAKE CONFRENCE!!!!
also 
Elder Perkins of the 70 was there and it was AMASOME <-- New word #dealwithit
the less Amasome thing that happened was it started snowing and continued snowing ALL YESTERDAY
LIKE ITS MAY OHIO MID MAY FO REAL
anyway had to dig out some of my winter gear a fair bit earlier that I thought I was going to have to. 


Love you all! 
Elder Bone
OCM


Doctrine and Covenants 88:118

And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

Monday, May 9, 2016

So basically talked to half of you already yesterday...

But just to cover some bases

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all mothers! 

Played some B-Ball on Monday

District meeting kicked off Tuesday, which was followed by A LOT of walking and lots and lots of rain.

Wednesday we went Hunting High and low and knocked every door we could. Nada... 
UNtil we had stopped for lunch and I was just like tired of the rain and the cold but we still got out and started walking and we walked into Andrew and had an awesome contact with him, we are teaching him tomorrow so wish and pray us luck! 

Thursday, More walking after planning like walking to Akron and back kinda walking ~2 miles there and 2 miles back.. twice. We both just were like "well we don't have any plans so might as well walk to our finding spots and talk to people along the way" 

Friday:
Canceled appointments aren't fun, Last second cancels are the absolutely worst, so more walking for us just trying to find some Elect.

Saturday:
see Friday


Sunday:
Mothers day!!!
We went to the stebels for calls and to wish a Happy Mothers Day!

Love you all!

Elder Bone
OCM


Matthew 10:32

 32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him wilconfess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Monday, May 2, 2016

A new Transfer has begun

and things honestly didn't start out the best

Monday:
..... I can NOT wait to use a proper keyboard again, the ones these libraries have are way to small so I keep hitting all the keys i'm NOT trying to hit #Exgamerelderprobs
ANYway
so we emailed as usual before having some fun as an apartment playing Frisbee until someone decided to run full speed in to a VERY solid picnic bench.. ouch. After we patched up elder Fifield we played the new Star Wars monopoly which is like WAY better than standard monopoly (think a cross between Settlers and Sorry, IT'S really fun) That evening we had planned to take our awesome solid investigator, Jason, to the ward FHE... well we got there and at first he was kinda hesitant to say he wasn't interested anymore, while we asked what made him change is mind, the reason walked up right behind us... 
basically his neighbor is an atheist because of the friend dying he blames a god he doesn't believe in anyway. what was really funny though was when he was shouting at us and said "GO BACK TO UTAH and worship Brigham Young!" (lets just say that's the clean version of our conversation) at which point we calmly explained He's dead and we don't worship him at all. which is when the Man (tempting to say child due to his behavior, people get weird when religion gets involved... ) basically surprise bear hugged Jason and whispered lies of the devil in his ear and walked off with him. that's the just of it. He also said something about how he had more faith in the bird poop on the deck railing than he did in Christ.. like I said people get weird when trying to avoid religion and more specifically the Spirit.
So because of that episode we went to Kyle's in hopes to take him to the FHE but instead we just taught him more about why god lets bad things happen to good people.

shesh if I did every day like this my mom would be Estatic.. XD

Tuesday:
Didn't have district meeting because we had Zone meeting instead later in the week so we tried to contact down in North hill Akron and just find new people to teach but again no dice :P
we had dinner at the Joses' (i'm sure there is an accent in there somewhere but heck if I know where) They are a nice family but they've been out of town off and on for months so they are finally settling back down for now.

Wednesday:
walking, knocking, waallking, knnnoooocking, no dice

Thursday:
ZTM on Planning effectively.. yep that's about the sum of the day..
Elder Taylor came here again and I discovered elder Holt was a gamer too Hahaha we are everywhere!
 
Friday:
Did some service for a hoarder... so.. much... trash... like we are talking old phone bills before I was BORN. Oh well, hence the reason I LOVE minimalism in materialistic endeavors... My hard drive and flash drive clutter doesn't count XD

Saturday: 
two words
Stress and rain
Stress due to problems with the Tallmadge north Elders and well try riding a bike in the rain and you can understand that one.

Sunday:
Church and since we didn't get to it till now Weekly planning :P such a long day inside but church was good :)

Love you all and Happy Mothers day Mom.... well I'll see you then anyway..

Elder Bone
OCM


Second Corinthians 7: 9-10

 Now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.