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.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

OK who's speeding up time?

This week is already over... like I feel like we JUST had Wednesday but sure enough here it is again.... 

But we did have a lot happen at least so things are still going well 

back from the top....

Wednesday:
(NAILED IT!)

SO after emailing we got to mob together with the Sisters and met up with the St. Mary's district so we could all play Soccer and have some fun at a park in St. Mary's area
oh and I got a mission Buzz cut again from Elder Alder. probally my last mission hair cut :P

that evening we had dinner with Brother Baber and did some contacting till 9

Thursday:

SO I'm a dummy and totally grabbed the wrong planner...... 

One day I will get this thing right 
(and that day will be June 15th..)

so Thursday we had weekly planning 
yep such a surprise XD 
ummmm 
man this week flew by so quick I can't seem to keep the days straight 

OH we also worked at the Re-Store and got to demo stuff 
it was a lot of fun shattering glass and breaking crap with large tools of destruction 

we ended our evening with the Jones who made dinner of really good stuffed green peppers 
yummm
:)

Friday kicked off early as we had to get ready and dressed for Zone Confrence whcih then took all day 
it was fun though and we learned alot but we didn't get home till like 7:45 so we didn't have much time to do anything besides more street contacting 

Saturday:
We went out with Bro. Kelly again and saw a few people but mostly did some stop by's 
and we had dinner at Anthony's again. That man can COOK


Sunday:
We had Church 
big shocker XD
and Brother Baber fed us dinner :)

Monday:
district meeting went off with out a hitch and we had our exchange with the ZL's so that was fun 
and then they stayed the night and we all played a game Elder Alder has called Betrayal at the House on the Hill 

It's lots of fun and we are gonna play it for Preperation day today since we all be broke and out of miles lol


Tuesday:
Elder worthington and I got to do some gardening with Bro. baber and then we got to have dinner with Bro Tomas at the Subway of Pizza called Rapid Fire 
like we need more people to make things like it 
build your own personal pizza's 
its awesome 

well that's all yall caught up! 
got ta jet

love ya! 
Elder Bone
OCM


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

it's WEDNESDAY ALREADY?!

SHESH time is just like speeding up toward the end 

I guess that's what happens when your having such a good time 

now nobody get too mad but I didn't bring my planner so I'm going off memory 

and those of you who know me well enough will know how well that's gonna go

so here goes nothing! 

Thursday:
We weekly planned and got to email as you might have seen the novel that hit your inbox last week

.... that's about it 

Friday... what did we do Friday.... 
ummmmmmmm

well Must have not been THAT memorable 
moving on 

Saturday we went to a funeral for a member in our ward's mother 
well he's the sorta member I talked about before 
but His mom past away at 95 and pretty much was up and kicking till the end 
so it wasn't to sad of an affair

Sunday was Easter and we all had a good time for that. 

Monday was a lot of service at a care center and helping a member with his yard a bit 

Tuesday we.... 
it was yesterday... what did we do yesterday......

shesh brain it was YESTERDAY

ummmm 
 I think we just did some stop by's 
OH
and we found this amazing like oaisis park in the middle of the city I'll send some pictures 

but that's about all I've got for this week

Hope you all have a good one!

Elder Bone
OCM 

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Stayin' Busy in Lima City

HOLY COW what a WEEK 

man Ok lets start from Wednesday right about the time I sent my last email
(feels like a month ago with all the stuff that fit in between!)

So Preparation day we all finished emailing and then we drove up to Findlay Ohio to meet up with the Zone for Steak and Shake (man I am gonna miss that place when I go home) 
anyway we all meet up and have some lunch before going to this warehouse off the main road. 
we walk in and this super nice lady is like "you all need to sign the 'it's not our fault if you die' disclosure" and we are all like "Elder Fransen what is this place?!" because up to this point he had kept us in the dark... 
about Glow-in-the-Dark Dodge-ball!
so we got to play dodge-ball and, like always, cuz I can juke and jive all day I was last man standing 3 times....
but since I can't hit the broadside of a barn my team lost those times XD

that was our first hour of play, the second was spent playing soccer. but since the entire field was enclosed by a net the ball never really went out...

I think we *might* have gotten just a *bit* too competitive at that part.... 
but what else are you to do when you have 5 high-school/college level players in the zone..

by the end of it we all drove home happily exhausted. 
we finished off the night with some street contacting at the square

Thursday:
I told you it was a busy week
granted Thursday was probably the slowest day just cuz of weekly planning that takes up most of it because I still don't know the area super well yet
that evening we were with Brother Stanley who went teaching a Returning Member with us.

Friday:
SO I had my Second to last interview with President Brown. which went well, lots of laughter and lots of president Brown telling me I was going home soon and me telling him that I'm the last batch of missionaries that's been on there mission longer than he's been (by like 4 days but if twins can argue over 4 mins I can argue over 4 days XD)
but the day however didn't really start there 
It started out with us being picked up by the St. Mary's elders and them driving us up to Findlay's chapel at like 11 am cuz our usual ride (the Zone leaders) were already there to set up for the interviews
well we got there at like 11 and our district didn't have interviews till 2:30
so if you do the math that is approximately a bunch of time to kill
so we did some studies and had lunch and worked on the Progress record till Finally we had our interviews and our district meeting that I DIDN'T have to lead! (#districtmonkey)
(knowing my luck I'll get called the last transfer just to spite me XD)
after our district finished we went to dinner at Culver's 
Like I didn't even know Ohio had those 
still as good as I remember it from CO tho
we drove home from there and it was like 6 or 7 so we just kinda did some contacting at the street square till nightfall 
all and all a good day

Saturday:
Saturday morning was pretty uneventful but the afternoon is when things got fun
Apparently there is this super nice guy that lives in Columbus but comes up to Lima on occasion to play his church's organ. 
he also likes to take Mormon Missionaries out to lunch when he does come up to Lima so that's how I got to meet Mike from the Christian Science church

for those of you who like me never heard of the Christian science church think if Joseph Smith was Female, founded the church in 1860 and instead of the restoration of all things she just had a realization that Christ's miracles were accomplished by God's version of Science

so like its cool and all but seems a bit 
*puts on Sunglasses*
"Derivative" 
(maybe 3 of you will get that reference) 

but he took us to Lunch at a nice Tex-Mex place and Menchies for Fro-yo 
which is pretty awesome

but Mike is working on there version of The Joseph Smith Papers for there founder so he knows a lot about both church's histories
after lunch we walked to an older member of the ward's home 
Brother Sig Miller will be turning 99 some time this year so yeah definitely been around the block a bit XD
we just visited with him for a little bit before walking home so we could bike to Anthony's place for dinner 

Quick background on Anthony. a couple of days before this we were biking around town and we got a call from a weird number (we still haven't figured out the story behind the old owner of the phone number. basically it must have been someone else's number that the missionaries had saved and then had there number switched... 

regardless Anthony was a less active member that had pretty much vanished because he was at a care center for the last 7 months but he reached out to us out of the blue and offered us dinner 
pretty cool guy :)

after Anthony's we headed home.

Sunday:
We had ward council and then Sacrament where I was reminded that I only have 2 more Fast and Testimony meetings till I go HOME
crazy how time flies 
oh and like everybody loves President Uchtdorf so at least all us crazy Mormons are united on that front
(bout died laughing because google corrected Uchtdorf to Hasselhoff and I almost left it XD) 

Gospel Principles was on the Atonement which was fitting for the Beginning of Easter Week

Elder's Quorum was Elders Quorum 
it was on Daughters of our Heavenly Father
you do the math XD 
it was entertaining if not enlightening 

after that we went with Bro Bowen (second Councilor) and met with another Returning Member who unfortunately keeps her home at somewhere in the range of 90 degrees so in about 10 seconds both myself and Brother Bowen were fighting the sandman. some how Elder Worthington was immune to this problem but Bro. Bowen and I had a good laugh about it after the fact XD

pretty much the rest of the day was spent finding sooooo 

Monday: 
we are almost halfway done I promise XD 
Monday kicked off with District meeting yet again like not too long ago we had one... XD 
it was lots of fun, one of the sisters gave a great discussion on the Easter Week and how it lead up to the moments in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb that meant that we are all free
if you haven't watched the #BecauseHeLives video in a while do so it's amazing
Elder Worthington then gave a pretty good discussion on an MTC talk about seeing the End from the Beginning
It made me think a lot about Ends and Beginnings 
I am almost to the end but at the same time it will soon be the beginning of a new chapter or even a new book (judging by the long-winded nature of these emails possibly a spin-off series is required) of this portion of my Life
I've had a lot of Reflection on life lately 
missions do that to a person

After we had district meeting we went to the Lima Care Center with the Zone Leaders and helped out there for a bit
Elder Alder and I went ahead and cleaned out there bird cage and Elder Frandsen and Worthington did some Cleanup on the outside 
service is bomb
anyway after that we helped out the Ward Mission Leader by doing his Lawn and then he helped us out by having Missionary Correlation that evening 
so win win 

Tuesday:
we started off after studies to go to Daily Bread again. I really enjoy helping out there it's lots of fun and a good way to just help 
I've really come to understand more fully King Benjamin's Council:

     "When you are in the service of your fellow man ye are only in the service of your God"

after that we met up with Eddie who's a Self-Referral. Elder Worthington knew him but I hadn't got to meet him till now but we had a great time talking about the Plan of Salvation and what it means to him. we also got to share a Book of Mormon with His friend and taught the Restoration to him. 

a couple reschedules  later and we headed home for the night 
on our way back home we were biking by and some guy yelled at us to stop
so we did and got to meet Gavin and taught him the restoration 
and he's coming to church this week!
#awesomepeople
then we got home and relaxed for the evening 
after all we needed plenty of rest for tomorrow's.....
\
TEMPLE TRIP!!!!!!
and not just any temple trip 
a district temple trip... 
to the Indianapolis Indiana Temple! 

so since Lima district is so far West we get to actually pick which of the temples we want to go to and since we had a very nice member taking us we all decided on the Indianapolis temple.

But man did Satan try to stop that trip! 

we had just crossed the state border and we hit a construction zone and... 
BAM! 
out goes one of the tires 
we limped to the nearest exit and inspected the damage 
it was a really REALLY flat tire so we busted out the spare donut and made our way quickly to the  nearest Goodyear
thankfully they were super nice and got us in quick.
we sure looked like a strange sight though with four 20 somethings in suites and ties and 3 sisters in dresses and skirts 
but after that detour we got back on the road (A different road) and bee-lined for the temple 
as we were pulling in to the parking lot they called to see if they should hold the session so we ran in to get there in the nick of time

I had forgotten how much I missed the Temple 
we are so lucky to have them all over the place in Utah 

after our session and a million photos of the grounds... "do not appear as a tourist.." 
eh we tried... sorta

we had lunch at a nice place across the road before beginning our LONG ride back home 
where we got to stop at the Indiana and Ohio state signs before finishing off our journey to good ol' lima 
or so we thought because half way home we had to turn back to Van wert where the member that took us lives and get the Zone leaders Phone 
but we still got home by 9:30

TL:DR
Glow in the dark dodgeball
lots of new stuff happening
Presdiental interviews
awesome surprise investigators
great district meetings 
TEMPLE TRIP TO INDIANA
basically life is awesome and I love you all 

Peace out!
Elder Bone
OCM 

p.s. 
photo spam will commence shortly 
I apologize for your inboxes 
XD


















That's All Folks Have a good week! 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Lost In Middle America

Welcome One and all to this week's in-depth study into the life of a missionary who is serving in Lima Ohio 

Our Broadcast today will include many different events of the week

including helping others
teaching the gospel
&
learning from the best

now we continue 

Life . In . Middle . America

The Thursday started out with some weekly planning 
here we see Elder Worthington and Elder Bone carefully planning for the area 
lets zoom in on the scene...

"So Elder Worthington how can we help Tessa Moore get to Church this week with her Daughter?"
"well Elder Bone this week is conference..." 
"Oh right...."

"Elder Worthington"
"yes Elder Bone?"
"How are we going to watch Conference?"
"That is an Excellent question Elder Bone. of which I do not have an answer.."

 *DING DONG*

"That must be the Zone leaders" 

We now will follow our Four Missionaries to there meeting place a wonderful Restraunt..
   
Thai Jasmine

there our missionaries met with the sisters and had a great lunch before going to there group service opportunity at..

The Daily Bread

"Why Hello Randy"
"Hello Elders it seems you brought company this week?"
"these are some of the other missionaries from our Congregation"
"well you arrived just in time we are making some Sleeping Bags for the Homeless and we are just about to start another one"

The Six Missionaries busied themselves with sewing and tacking the bags together.

Our Six missionaries then split up and parted ways so they could be about the Work in there respective areas

Our two got on bicycles and went to see a referral they had received earlier...

This concludes this weeks broadcast come again next week to 

Lost . In . Middle . America

Ok so that format takes WAYYYYYYYYYY to long
it's fun, but takes way to long

so run down
referral is legit we are hopefully seeing him again soon as he had to reschedule our return appointment yesterday (along with everyone else)
Friday:
We did a lot of stop by's and a lot of finding 
Saturday:
did some service for a cool sorta member (LOOONG Story) and then watched conference at the chapel and during the intermission painted Easter eggs with the district because reasons :P
we then had second session, a pizza party before priesthood session and then went home 
Sunday:
we had both sessions of Confrere followed by dinner at the cool sorta member's house XD 
monday:
contacting contacting contacting 
Tuesday:
everybody canceled it was really gloomy day

and that's the week 
any questions?

lol

love ya all! 
Elder Bone
OCM 

Photos next week sorry I need to go now 
email took way to long