SHAKE DOWN for the 17th

What a Shake up 

The Final Countdown just got a MAJOR shake up....

I'll explain more in a bit ;)

Thursday:

SO wow Thursday feels like an ETTTTERnity ago. For real tho. 

anyway Thursday we has our last weekly planning session for this transfer. Hard to believe starting next Week I'll be on my last planner... Have I really been in Ohio for 2 years! 

#nottrunky

so actually before Weekly Planning we went to work at the Daily Bread again and we were going to stay and work on the  Sleeping Bag Project again (its insane thinking we did that last MONTH) but unfortunately they had to cancel it so we just went home and weekly planned. 

Then Bro Stanley picked us up so we could see a Self Referral named Sabrina. 

Sabrina is AWESOME, She told us her story of finding the Church when we got there so I'[ll sum it up.

She was using her phone and over and over the Mormon.org ads kept popping up on all the sites she visited. this kept happening for about a week or so till finally She tapped it and called the Sisters. She got a hold of a sister in the Visitor's center in LONDON ENGLAND (So jelly) who told her all about The Book of Mormon. She immediately asked for one and asked to know where are church building was at. at this point The Sister Missionary had sent us the referral and we called her to set up a time and place. Fast forward back to Thursday. 

We took Brother Stanley with us and she was so excited to meet us and accept a Book of Mormon and accepted our invitation to Baptism! oh and she's coming to church next week. 

People be awesome

After Sabrina we saw Maxine who from hard work and diligent saving has proven to Ohioans that YOU CAN GET A CAR IN THIS STATE....

and she was super excited about it too :)

On to Friday (obviously this is gonna be another novel :P)

Friday:

we kicked off the morning after studies by going to help Brother Baber again moving around stuff in his house and at his departed (dead... past... what would be best here? no clue) mothers house along side the Zone leaders and some missionaries they were on exchanges with. We all pitched in and after finishing Brother Baber treated us to Golden Corral  for lunch :)

Then we had to work on the Progress Record (and next week I'll be starting My Plan....)

before doing some finding since we got canceled on by Eddie due to Bedbugs (yeah I ain't messin' with those things) after Finding we had some Dinner and called it a night 

Saturday:

We had our usual morning routine before Brother Kelly Picked us up and we went and saw Brother Sig Miller again (aka almost 100) as well as Sister Hampton and a few others 

that night we had Dinner once again from Anthony and once again it was the BOMB 

and that ended the night.

Sunday: 

Sunday started with Ward Council and then straight to Sacrament where we were having Fast Sunday  so it was, well, Fast Sunday and y'all know how that goes. The rest of church was pretty much same ol' same ol' but since it was 5th Sunday we had our big combined meeting and talked about the Gospel and using technology appropriately 

or as a missionary basically not at all lol

we did some walk and talk finding on our way to see Brother Baber for dinner and then heading home in time for call ins and leadership calls...

so in order for you to understand this madness you need to understand a few things 

First: Lima ward is HUGE like literally and I mean literally it's 140 square miles and it was split between 3 areas one of which was a biking area that only covered about 20 square miles leaving 60 square miles for the other 2 areas

Second: these 3 areas had 3 apartments starting with Delphos you moved west 20 mins and hit Lima bike's apartment in Lima and then continuing west yet another 20 mins you'll reach the Sisters Apartment in Bluffton 

oh and to reach the edge of the border on either extreme you have to go from the apartments out in the respective direction another 30 mins 

and that's not counting the vertical travel as well in  these MASSIVE areas

OK so now visualizing this all let me explain as best I can what is happening for my final transfer

-President Brown calls

-Elder Worthington talks to President first

-Elder Worthington was released and is no longer District leader 

-President asks to talk to me

-Me mentally: (flippin called it)

-President: "Elder Bone, I'm calling you to be District leader of the Lima District."

-Me: "Yes President"

-President: "however some things are of neccesity changing here in the Lima ward"

-Me: cautiously "like?"

-President: "well, The Delphos Apartment is being closed (i.e. the Zone leaders) and they will be moving into the Lima Bike apartment" 

-Me: "ok"

-President: "The sisters are being taken out of Lima and you'll be taking there car and Apartment and Area. 

-Me Mentally: (YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES) 

-Me Actually: "Ok President"

so at first didn't seem too bad but it got worse

Elder Alder who was one of the Zone leaders is going home so I knew at least one of the Zone leaders was changing 

Nope 

President is OPENING SHOTGUNING 2 new Zone Leaders and I'll be OPENING SHOTGUNNING our area with a brand new comp

this is MADNESS
(NO... This is SPARTTTAAAAAA!!!!)

But the week isn't over yet! 

Monday:

so at district meeting we were all trying to figure out what to do with this absolute craziness

basically I got flooded with all the information from all the district and I was like halp!

but I am trying to have faith that this will all work out 

that night we got more "information" that really just confused the tar out of all of us because Elder Gledhill 

yeah Elder Gledhill from Medina is now the AP Gledhill weird

anyway Elder Gledhill told the ZL's that the new Zl's were going to live in Blufton (far east area) and work in the delphos area (far west area) and that I was to stay in the Lima Bike Apartment (central) and work in Blufton (far east area)

at which point we told them that is a TERRIBLE idea since that would make the ZL's and Myself needlessly commute for 20-30mins every day just to get into our respective areas

so hopefully our advice makes it to President Brown so that doesn't happen 

but regardless

I AM SHOTGUNNING A WHOLE DISTRICT
and I only have 6 weeks left

this is gonna be a bumpy ride! 

Love you all!

pray for my sainity XD

Elder Bone

OCM

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

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 

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!