Here is his Letter form 1/9/12
I am doing well and am able to walk 6 miles. I know this because we tried it out after driving 250+ miles in the first week so we took a day, drove out to an area, parked the van and went walking around contacting less-actives and investigators. Nothing really came out of it, but at least I know I can walk 6 miles. I am not quite back up to 100% though, I still hurt when I laugh too hard, but it doesn't stop me from laughing or making people laugh, and I can't sleep on my stomach or stretch out to much.
After a Zone Meeting in Lancaster, about 15 miles away, we get a call from the sisters asking who left there coat at the building. It turned out to belong to one of the Zone-leaders and as they went through the pockets, they found their car keys. We had Pic 2, the Zone-Leaders, and half of the companionship from Reynoldsburg with us in the van. so we drop off Pic 2 and the half of Reynoldsburg at the apartment and they wait around for for one of the members to come and pick him up while we meet the sisters half way so we could get the keys that the Zone-Leaders left behind. That day was not very good on our miles because we ended up driving 109 miles. Also, this last Saturday, we lost our van so we are no longer the mission soccer Moms.
This week, we met up with 2 former investigators and and the lessons went well, we met with one of them three time already and he was excited when we set up a date for baptism on Feb. 18th and two of the lessons went for two hours, which is quite uncommon, and they were one right after another on consecutive nights. I think that this is partly due to our keeping our commitments to our Zone-Leaders and President that we would extend baptismal dates in the first lesson and partly to getting to bed on time. Also Pic 2 had a baptism this Saturday for a man who was blind when they met him, but is slowly getting his sight back. They got a referral from a woman in Califoria who met him on World of Warcraft and when he lost his sight she sent a referral because she thought that it would give his life some purpose again because he just sat around his house after he lost his sight because he could not do much. I am very happy for him and from those who have watched him and knew him before, the have seen the change that this gospel has made in his life.
This past little while, we have been trying to get to bed on time each day and on the days that we get to bed near 10:30, I have noticed that we have a lot more success the following day than we do on days that we get to bed after 11:00.
P.S. The van was traded for a Ford Fusion so I am still in a car area.
And now 1/17/12
Hello from sunny Ohio,
OK, so it is not so sunny here, it finally snowed . The worst part of an Ohio winter so far is not the temp, the snow, or the humidity, it is the wind. I have finally figured out what a scarf is for because the wind kills your face. the snow is gone now and it has been raining, but in between it snowing at the beginning of last week, and it raining now, we have had nice sunny weather that is awesome when you just open the blinds and look out the window at every thing covered in snow from the comforts of a nice warm apartment.
This past week, we have met with an investigator that is really solid. His name is Mike and he wants to be baptized and is on date for Feb. 18th, his wife, Jamie, is interested in learning more, she has read about 120 pages into the Gospel principles book and is reading the Book of Mormon. Mike has been friends with a member of our ward since his childhood and has investigated the church before without much interest, but this time, he is very interested and is reading scripture and studying it, cross references and all that stuff, as much as he can. I am very excited about him and his wife and after every lesson with him and during the lessons, I just want to hug him and do back flips because he is wanting to change so much and he is truly "hungering and thirsting after righteousness" and explaining things to us like he was quoting right out of Preach My Gospel.
We are also working on setting up a new program that involves working a lot around our members and the area surrounding them. The program is called "2-2-5 Fearless" and is a momentous undertaking that we devote any free time that we don't have appointments during the morning and even into the afternoon, the less productive hours, to setting this up and getting it started. Mainly it involve working around the members houses and working with the people around them to be able to establish a solid contact area where members are right by to fellowship with them and things like that. that is the general idea of it and I will explain more later.
Love you all,
Elder Rawlings
Now for yet another week I forgot to post. :) 1/23/12
Hello Everyone!
Things are going great out here in Ohio although the weather is being very funny. It snowed this week and we were grounded one morning for about an hour and last night it was raining and there was no snow left on the ground this morning. I am trying to figure out if it is spring or winter here and it is reminding me of "Monty Python and the Holly Grail" with the seasons "and summer gave fall and winter the slip and went right on onto spring" or something to that affect. Also, Elder Reed and I are not the only ones that came out at the same time to end up in the hospital for some reason, Elder Bodily went to the hospital and had to have his appendix taken out a few days ago and is now recovering from that. It seems like those that came out with me are all ending up in the hospital for one reason or another. Elder Saunder was also in the hospital at the MTC for some reason so we all seem to be going for one reason or another. Elder smith is wondering when he is going in and what for.
On a happier note, the assistants showed up to our district meeting two weeks ago, President Nilsen showed up last week, now we are wondering if President Monson is coming to this weeks district meeting. The funny part about President Nilsen showing up was that he was suppose to be at another building for interviews and he accidentally came to our building and gave a little message that help out where Elder Turner was struggling to get the message across. Any way, that is a funny story about our wonderful district meetings.
Mike is moving along and progressing well and is looking forward to baptism but is struggling a bit with giving up smoking. This Sunday, one of our recent converts, Robert, was called to teach the Gospel Principles class and he shared about his story about quitting smoking and the whole lesson seemed to be just for Mike. I am very excited about him and the progress that he is making. We are also excited about a less active member who was at church this Sunday who has not been to church for many years. she showed up after church for an appointment she had with the bishop so she was not there for church, but just to see her in the building was a wonderful thing.
2-2-5 Fearless is driving everyone in the apartment off the walls. We have been doing it for hours and days on end and we still do not have everything done. We have been figuring things out for our selves as to how we think it should be done and then when the assistants show up to look for a baptismal suit and they look at our stuff for it we learn that we need to redo the maps that we have done and that we have been making it more complicated than it needed to be. Also, we need large maps to put on the wall that we can put pins in that show where members, investigators and former investigators live, and our area is so large that we don't have maps that cover our entire area so we still need to find maps of the lower half.
Well, that is all that I have for now. Love you all and hope you get feeling better.
Love, Elder Rawlings
And now we are finally into Feb. Letter dated 2/6/12
Hello every one!
As Mom figured out and I also forgot last letter, this week was transfers. Elder Turner left the area of Canal Winchester after 10.5 months and is now somewhere in Cincinnati. I am still here and am enjoying the company of Elder Fulmer as me new companion. Elder smith also got a new companion with Elder Welch. Elder Fulmer is the new District leader and also Elder Wholegreen's dad served in Canada.
This week has been great. After transfers, Elder Fulmer and I went out and found a new investigator and a very promising potential investigator who just opened the door and was very open to talking with us about the gospel but is out of town until next week so we will give him a call when he gets back.
Also, Mike is moving towards baptism very well, he is still struggling a bit with smoking, but he is doing well. Also, Pick 2 just had a baptism this weekend for Aminada who they have been working with for a while now. The work is picking up in Canal after transfers witch is quite unusual but very good. I am looking forward to this upcoming week because we already have a number of people lined up for lessons witch never really happened before so I am very excited.
Anyway, I am loving this area and loving the people and the work. Love you all and will talk to you again in a week.
Love, Elder Rawlings
And we are almost caught up Feb 13th
Hello Everyone,
Where is the new comp from? West Valley Utah, in fact, all four of us in the apartment live within a 25 mile radius of each other
How long has he been out? 10 months
Do you guys get along? we get along very well
Has the mood in the apartment changed? The mood has changed very much and defiantly for the better. We spent the fist little while cleaning the apartment and getting rid of all the "inside jokes" and crap that Elder Turner and Elder Brooks had built up for the past 9 months and were just cluttering the apartment.
This past week week has been great. We found Four new investigators in one day. Two were from a former investigator who we were finally able to get a hold of again who seemed golden when we found her the first time, and the other two were from a part member less-active family. also we got a great member referral for one of their friends. Things are really starting to pick up in this area.
Sadly, Mike has moved his baptismal date back. He is not quite sure if he will be ready by this Saturday and we have moved it back to March 3rd. I am actually glad because I knew that he was really struggling with quitting smoking and I was not sure if it would be enough time after quitting for him.
I am sorry for the short letter, but I am not sure what to talk about. Things in the area are going great and we are having more success than we have had before. Also, we are having more doors slammed in our faces than before so I guess it evens out.
We had one guy that we knocked on his door and he just asked us if we had a pamphlet that he could read and he sent us on our way. That had to have been the strangest door I have knocked on in a while.
I love you all and I hope that things go well for every one. Tell Grandma happy Birthday and that I love her.
Love Elder Rawlings
P.S. Coming up this week is another Zone Conference, lets hope we don't find any other health problems at this one.
The reason for the comment about Zone conference was it was the last zone conference was when he went to the instacare and the whole surgery trip home began.
And now a drum roll please, we are at the current letter. 2/21/12
The Red indicates questions we have asked him
1. How are the investigators doing?
Mike is coming along fine and yesterday we found three new investigators. We found them because there dog was out running around in the neighborhood and we had to return it and find out if the owner was interested in the Gospel. When we went back for a return appointment, the owner, his wife, 10 month old daughter and his mother were there. The mother turned out to be a missionary for her church and asked some tough questions. She will be difficult to get to listen, but her son and his wife seen interested in the lessons.
2. What member family made you feel the best this week?
This week I would have to say that the member family that made me feel the best this week would be Rich Arnold and his family, his brother lives in the ward so I could not just say the Arnolds, or the Conners. Both of them are doing great when it comes to missionary work and they are always warm and inviting.
3. What was your most interesting or best meal of the week?
The most interesting meal this week occurred when an investigator invited us to a deer roast that his church was having. I was very nervous and I now know what investigators must feel like when they are starting to come to our church the first time. It turned out well, every one there was very nice and had heard a lot about us and was interested to know who we were.
4. What new programs do you have going to help find people?
Other than 2-2-5 fearless we don't really have any new programs to get new investigators. Mainly what we have been focusing on is getting our investigators to church and using 2-2-5 to find new investigators. One thing that we have been doing to gain member trust and to build that relationship to the ward is we have been baking cookies and taking them to members and it has defiantly been paying off because we now have all of our meals booked out 3 week into the future.
5. What was the funniest thing that happened this week at the apartment with the 4 of you?
I'm not quite sure what the funniest thing that happened at the apartment was this week, but I will keep the question in mind for the upcoming week and I will let you know what goes on. This week has actually been one of the rougher weeks in the apartment as both Elder Smith and I adjust to having someone other than out trainers as companions and as some of the frustrations have come up. It has not been bad but it has been a little rough as we grow and learn from different people.
Other than small disagreements, Elder Fulmer and I are getting along great and we are able to work together well. Also, I am not really sure what I would like for my birthday this year. I will think about it this week and let you know.
Love Elder Rawlings
