Weeks 5 and 6

 We are loving Ohio! It is so green and beautiful - (and humid - but I think I am getting used to it.) One thing I had to check off my list when I got here was find somebody to cut my hair. When I mentioned this to the Institute Director, he immediately said, "My wife will do it!" So, on out last P-day we went to their house, I got my hair cut, (she is great!), and then we walked out their back door and down a lane to see our first covered bridge in Ohio. (We found out they covered their bridges to protect the wood from the elements.)

To my delight I rediscovered that some of my ancestors were early pioneers in central Ohio. They settled in Monroe and then Knox, county in the early 1800's. We went to Bird Cemetery where my fourth great grandfather, Abraham Jackson, was buried.

At church I sat by a young woman in Relief Society who also had ancestors who settled in the central Ohio area. We opened our family search app and sure enough, we are cousins through Abraham Jackson. She said that if you have ancestors from Central Ohio, you will be related to most people who originated from that area. So, during the day I found several people in the two Young Adult wards who were related to me. My second great grandfather, Jesse Taylor Jackson, joined the church here in Ohio shortly after the church was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and followed the Latter-day Saints to Utah. The rest of his Jackson relatives stayed here.  

This past Wednesday night we held an "intra-institute" class. (We begin the full schedule of institute classes the end of this month.) This is the Facebook post inviting the Young Adults to attend. 

We love the Young Adults, and we enjoy spending out days here at the institute! We are one block from The Ohio State University and the campus has really gotten busy this past week. You can feel the excitement in the air as classes begin tomorrow! Right now, there are about 30 YA's in the next room having a game night for Family Home Evening. 

We have "set up shop" in our office and look forward to our daily study time. But what we love the most is being available to the students and the missionaries who serve here on campus. We have candy bowls to "entice" them to come in and visit. Below is a picture of the adorable sister missionaries we get to see on an almost daily basis. We participate with the OSU missionaries in a weekly district council meeting and with the entire mission in a weekly Sunday night devotional held on Zoom. Every day is an adventure as we never know who is going to walk into the building!

As you can tell we have bundled two weeks together. We have been very busy with the youth, the members, and the missionaries. We especially enjoy and love our Sabbath day schedule attending two wards and our weekly missionary devotional. This last week's devotional we had one of the stake patriarchs speak. What stood out in his message to us is that Satan is bent on destroying anyone who might have a testimony today. In D&C 10:33 the Lord lays it out clearly: "Thus Satan thinketh to overpower your testimony in this generation, that the work may not come forth in this generation." But we can testify that these youth and missionaries that we have today are the very elect, held back to counter the adversary. They are powerful, have authority, and are armed with truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The work here is moving forward at a very rapid pace. Many are committing to and being baptized every week. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We invite you to open your mouth, share your life with anyone and everyone you meet. People are hungry for truth. You have it. Spread it around.

Weeks three and four

 

We are here! After a week in Colorado helping my siblings clean out my mother's house, we left for Ohio on August 1st, 2022. We stayed in Kansas City, MO on Monday night with our nephew and his wife, Ben and Courtney Cullen. Tuesday night we arrived in Ohio at our apartment in Columbus.

We are thrilled with our apartment especially compared to what we lived in as young missionaries in Europe.  We have two  bedrooms, and two bathrooms; if you are ever in Columbus, Ohio please let us know so we can put you up.

Wednesday morning we attended our first zone conference in New Albany, Ohio. Here we are, eating lunch, with the senior couples and our mission president and his wife. President Horgesheimer is leaning up against the blackboard on the right. He is full of energy and enthusiasm and continually preaches the "doctrine of Christ" as found in the scriptures. We are so impressed with the young missionaries and these wonderful senior couples. They are full of faith, dedication, and enthusiasm to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wednesday night we attended our first institute class taught by Spencer Knowles, the institute director. (I took a sneaky picture of half the room from the back). These students are amazing! They have such insights and knowledge that they shared that evening. 

We spent the rest of the week moving into and organizing our office and getting to know some of the students.

Our institute building is a block from the east side of The Ohio State University campus. It is an ideal location for the students here (especially for parking!).

On campus, in the student union building, our first missionary encounter was with Brutus Buckeye, the OSU mascot. The facilities on campus are quite stunning; lots of money makes for beautiful grounds and buildings (thanks to the sports programs).

We went to the 11th floor (top floor) of the library and enjoyed the nooks around the room with the panoramic views of campus and the city.

Coming from drought-ridden California, all the greenery and moisture is welcoming. We were glad to see that all the clouds in the sky were not smoke 😁.

On our way back to the institute those clouds literally burst on us as we waded back through puddles.

Speaking of bursting, The Great Ohio Columbus mission is flourishing! We just picked up part of the Detroit mission which includes the Cleveland, Ohio area - 18 new missionaries. Missionary and member activity is in high gear; especially through social media. We have a Led-to-light initiative that brings in hundreds of referrals every month. Check out our link that we have on a pass-along-card:  led-to-light . There are pictures and videos on that site that I have not seen before. Here is a picture of the pass-along card:

We have had the opportunity to hand these out to people we come in contact with as we have been running errands and getting things setup here. We met our maintenance team for the Marble Cliffs Commons (Elder Perona likes the name), James, Kyle, and Denny. We are working on them and hope to send a referral to our young missionaries. We also met the couple who have their apartment door across from ours. Actually, we opened out downstairs door as we were going to out, and they were there. They looked at us and said, "are you the new missionaries?". With that introduction it made it easy to talk with Lai and Lam.

Meeting people and talking is not a problem for us. We love people and love to talk! The missionaries assigned to the campus and institute are perfect for this responsibility. We hope to get them as many referrals as possible. 

One of our roles is to work with your sons and daughters, to look out for them, help them with their trials and being away from home. We will be visiting with them for apartment checkups (we check-up on more than the apartment). We hope to be a "parent" or "grandparent" for them to come to if needed.

Elder Perona bought some treats to put on our desk at the institute in hopes to make it more inviting for students and young adults to feel comfortable dropping in for a chat. We also have a refrigerator and freezer in our office where the missionaries can store "their" food apart from the students and young adults. With the treats and the fridge, we hope to get lots of traffic. We already have had inspiring discussions with some young adults and missionaries.

The workings of the Lord are very apparent here in this mission. We love the Him, we love the gospel of Jesus Christ, we preach the Atonement, and feel the Spirit almost all the time. Our hearts are full of love and we plan to spill it out to all we meet.