April 24, 2011 - "Don't you kinow I've had _______ since Easters?" - Nacho Libre

Easter.....

I won't forget this Easter.  We finally got Rolan & Aracelli to church this week!  So this is the first time in my whole mission where I had investigators at church!  Crazy that the hardest thing to do is to get people to church, but... it is.  So Easter got started off with a bang!  Both Rolan & Aracelli liked church. Even Elders Quorum where we had a random debate about the price of chicken (complete with chalkboard diagram); Rolan got a kick out of it.  After sacrament, and the whole meeting members were really good about talking to them, and inviting them to the other meetings.  We didn't even have to show Aracelli where Relief Society was!  You also know it's going to be good for them when their son comes & goes from Primary without a fuss.  Jose' (their four year-old) is a good kid anyways, but to have him come away happy is icing on the cake!

Elder Klein & I are excited for this family, and they are on date for the 14th of May.  We are going to convert our excitement to work & make sure that they make their long awaited (& delayed date).  We just need to get them to church 2 more times, and go over the plan of Salvation with a few commandments alongside. 

Now it being Easter people feel the need to go to church.  It was funny to go proselyting, and see people ready go to church, or in their Sunday Clothes with a post-mass Corona!  Seeing some Hispanics in Sunday Clothes is an odd thing...

So this week I have exchanges with the Zone Leaders in the Scioto area (Elder Klein is the district leader).  So if Dave was ever in Grove City knocking doors; I'm on his old stomping grounds doing English work on Wednesday!

I did get your Easter packages this week.  My slow weight gaining problem is not going to be helped...  You sent me my weakness.  I weakness that is almost impossible to overcome!  Thank you though; our money supplies are low this week.

Oh, yeah last week I mentioned that was going to purchase a GPS.  I did do that, with my own expenses.  I kinda, forgot, to, grab, the, receipts....  On P-days & District meeting days we had over to the Spanish South Apartment in Westland to work-out & study.  In the scurry of grabbing things this morning I failed to grab those.  So I will write down what I bought & where so that you can know how broke I am!  Thanks so much for keeping a running tab!

I'd like to know how Mom's talk went this Easter.  I got an overview of it but, I need the second hand accounts now!  Dad, I know you compared me to Peter in you last letter but that is blasphemy.  After reading D&C 10:69 there is a key word whosoever.  Whosoever endures to the end I will build upon my church (more or less).  Now, please, this isn't a jab at anyone's age, but you’ve been enduring to the end a bit longer than I have.  So...  by the definition of D&C 10:69, the church isn't built on me, it's built upon the members that continue to keep their covenants until the end. 

All in all this week has been different.  It feels like a brand new area, despite living in the same apartment.  It's defiantly weird heading over to the East end of town and searching out "Little Mexico".  All-in-all it's good.  Spanish is coming piece by piece, and I can't wait for my moment when I realize that I know the language, but as for now.  It's time to put my nose back in the book & get it down!

I love you all, and hoped you had a Happy Easter.
Para Siempre,

Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission  

(P.S. it's raining.....)

April 18, 2011 - "A Long Awaited P-Day"

This past week has been crazy!  To preface all of this it was transfer time, and Elder Mcllellan from Spanish East made his way home to Vegas this week.  To say I didn't move would be a lie.  While I am inside the same apartment, my area now covers almost all of Columbus (excluding the Northern 1/3).  President closed Spanish East, and gave all of their area to Spanish West (Me).  He also opened Spanish South, placing Elder Ramsey of the old Spanish East area, and moved in Elder Nelson from Cincinnati.  Spanish South basically took Elder Klein and I's "honey hole".  So the bulk of Hispanics that live in the city are in Spanish South's area. So they've picked up most of our investigators & potentials.  We managed to keep Aracelli & Roland despite the fact they are in Spanish South's area.  Other than that we are really starting from scratch since what's leftover really isn't progressing.

The funny part about all of this is that next month President is going to open Spanish East again...  I have a feeling I will be in that apartment...  It's also funny because Spanish South hasn't had an apartment since transfers on Thursday.  So they’ve been chilling in our apartment for the past few days.  So our front room is basically a mess from their stuff, and the stuff we acquired from an investigator.  They are finally getting their own apartment today; complete with new beds.  We also hit up Elder Duff (Senior Housing Missionary (Old Truck Driver) (Hilarious old "bum"))) for new beds.  I cross my fingers because my bed is more of a "taco shell".

This transfer made for an interesting week, but just how things played out besides this fact were interesting too!  One of our investigator's husbands got deported back to Mexico (It was "La Migra" rounding people up at his work).  She decided that she wants to head back so she can be with him again.  She has been selling her stuff for dirt cheap, but there was still a full apartment when it was time to go.  Her "friends" wanted to take the keys to the apartment to "take care of it".  Cynthia saw through their ploy.  We had taken Hermana Lucero with us to an appointment, and they got talking about how to take care of all of this stuff.  Hermana Lucero wound up with the keys, and promised to sell as much as she could to help Cynthia.  As missionaries we tried to stay out of it as much as we could.  Although Cynthia insisted that we take what we needed.  I felt guilty doing it... but I knew that I would be hurting the situation by not taking anything.  Hispanics are so giving.  I had another case this week where a family gave me the shirt off their backs.  We tried to plant a seed with Cynthia.  We gave her a Book of Mormon, and sent her on her way.  Her home is in Michoacán so she has quite a bit to work through to get home.  I pray every night that she'll make it home and see her family.

Now I mentioned an experience where Hispanics gave me the shirt off their backs.  We were with the Zuniga family for dinner before Elder Mcllellan headed off for home.  They fed us cake and other goodies; which in itself was an amazing act of Charity.  But before we headed out brother Zuniga gave Elder Mcllellan a Futbol jersey.  One that he had played in for a league, but bore the semblance to a real Mexican team.  I was slightly envious, but if anyone, Elder Mcllellan deserved it.  Then Brother Zuniga started showing us more jerseys.  I was intrigued.  Then he started handing the other three Elders Jerseys.  I was completely blown away by his generosity!  You come to love the people, but with people like this you can't help but love them.

Aracelli & Rolan are coming around.  While they didn't make it to church this week, and Elder Klein I were devastated.  We had two great lessons this week, and it really seemed that we've just become great friends!  We skulked from meeting to meeting, and during Hermano Parkus's lesson on Honesty (Blech) we got a call from Aracelli!  We scurried out to the foyer to answer.  She told us that she had a miscarriage threat the night before and spent the night in the hospital.  (By the way she's pregnant)  She told us this isn't the first time, that's she's had a miscarriage before...  She was also feeling sick, so we gave a blessing to her since we had taught about the priesthood already.  I anointed, and Elder Klein blessed.  Although during the blessing she bolted to the bathroom to vomit, and came back.  Elder Klein was a little confused on what to do, but I figured that since the anointing was good, we just needed to do the blessing again.

The work is having its ups and downs.  Essentially Spanish West is a new area, so I will be buying a GPS to get around.  I figure it will be a good idea to get it now rather than later.  This week has been crazy but it's finally settling down.

Love you all
Para Siempre,

Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission

April 11, 2011 - "It Rains Every Monday"

Monday, April 11, 2011

“It Rains Every Monday”

Here I am again!
Like it says in the subject line it's raining, pretty sure it has rained at one point every Monday.  Besides the rain the weather has spiked up!  Earlier this week it was mid sixties.  Yesterday it was a toasty eighty-five!  This St. G boy is going to have a fun time in the humidity!  In fact it's funny; yesterday we walked out into a good layer of fog.  Not something I'm too used to seeing back home, but it's common place here.  More and more I miss those Red Rocks, and planes keep become Sky West connections, but the love of the people keep me here.

Yesterday was a fun day.  (As I tell this story I know it was Sunday).  After a long fast we went over to Brother Navarro's house for a fish fry.  The catch of the day.... Walleye!  Now, being a trout fisherman my whole life I took for granted how easy it is to prepare those little morsels.  We all had the pleasure of de-scaling our meal.  One fish would take about twenty minutes of going against the scales with a spoon, but it was a nice change.  Elders Klein, Ramsey, and Mcllellan all got to tango with the spines on the back of the fish, but I came away scot free!

Now like our Native American Friends, Mexicans believe in saving all they can.  While Brother Navarro is quite Americanized, he hasn't deviated from that philosophy.  So the whole fish got fried!  Fins, spines, head, eyes, only exempting the organs.  Obviously the Missionaries got the honor of eating the head.  I wish I would have gotten a picture!  While the cheeks were good, there wasn't much to save from those other parts of the fish.  Fins were also edible!  They tasted more like potato chips.  After chasing every little corner of the fish to find the meat, I came to the conclusion.... They (the members) took all of the good body pieces, giving the "honor" to the missionaries.

This week I also had my first exchange with Elder Ramsey.  He is from Arizona, and has been out for about 6 months.  We went to the East end of town.  Now you'd think that Elder Ramsey, though he's the Junior companion to Elder Mcllellan, would be driving.  Not so!  Something is up in the mission office, so yours truly was driving.  I'll make Uncle Dave happy by saying we dragged Broad Street from the East end of town, to come back to the West!  So my first driving experience wasn't even in my own area!  Elder Ramsey did enlighten me on how to prepare fish.  We were making Tilapia (spelling?) and he put lemon pepper all over the fish.  Then we added pickled Jalapenos to the dish.  Little did we know that these chilies weren't normal.  We baked it, and ate.  Overall the food was good, but the supernaturally hot jalapenos did us in!

On Saturday I went to the temple.  It was in Spanish.  Oh boy...  I could get through most of the session okay, but they talked in vosotros form.  Riley will be talking in this form when he comes back, but Hispanics rarely use this.  So, hearing people talking this way was difficult.  This form is used in the scriptures, but it’s one thing to actually listen to this form of speaking.  It's a good thing I could do some parts of the session in English, but I've learned so much, some things have slipped my mind. I needed quite a bit of help at a certain point...

Now those trading cards.  Elder hall sent me one.  He has been sending them to all of his friends serving in America.  So, to return the favor, I'm sending one back!  I'd like to send one to Elder Coby Johnson, but I failed to get the mission home address from him.  Like every week I am begging at the feet of the master for more.... So... Please?

I love you all, and as soon as I get through all the letters I got from leaving the MTC, arriving to the field, and the ones that have just come.  I will make an effort to get each of you a letter!  I love you all and hope the best.

Para Siempre,

Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission

April 3, 2011 - We Saw Austin on TV!!!

We caught a glimpse of Elder Ipson along with his MTC Companion, Elder Ragan in the KSL Special for the 50th Anniversary of the Missionary Training Center that was aired between General Conference sessions on Sunday afternoon.  They were sitting across the table from their other two roommates, Elder Foster and Elder Reid.  Austin had mentioned in his letters in February that they had seen KSL's cameras at the MTC for several days, so we waited patiently for Conference weekend, hoping to see him.  And we did!  Several of our friends and family also saw him too and called, or e-mailed, or posted to Facebook that they had also seen him.  General Conference Weekend was special to us just knowing that Austin would be watching and listening to the same speakers and music as we were.  So, yes, we're a little weird:  we paused the TV and took a photo so we could remember the moment........

Elder Reid & Elder Foster sitting across the table
from Elder Ragan and Elder Ipson.
Lunch looks good at the MTC!

Elder Ragan and Elder Ipson
Dining at the MTC Cafeteria.

Elder Ipson & Elder Klein - Columbus West

Elder Ipson and Elder Klein at the Columbus Temple
March 31, 2011



Serving in the Columbus West part of the Mission



April 4, 2011 - "It's Fo-You!"

Here it is! The culminating event! The day we get to take off jackets!  Now that General Conference is over the jackets come off, and humidity combines with heat!  Although, the weather out here has been shifty.  At one point it seemed liked spring was right around the corner, but winter had second thoughts.  It's finally coming out of the snowy slump we had at the beginning of the week, and now I can go out side without a sweater underneath.  It's funny, yesterday was such a beautiful day, and carried over to this morning.  We received warning from an English member that a storm was coming in.  I woke up to find everything nice and dry, but as companion study progressed so did the rain!  It was coming down even harder than STG rain I've ever seen,but it multiplied...  I think I might drown....

You've asked where I do my laundry, well we actually have a washer and dryer in our apartment!  Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.  I've found that resolve stain stick has been my saving grace to my clothes so far.   Without it, well... A few things wouldn't be quite so white...

Now that picture that dad sent me with the Dixie State Herald Trumpets.  I am not in that picture.  I see people I know though, but I'm not one of them.

It's fun to hear about T and his solo driving efforts  I remember my first time going to school alone.  My knuckles were white, and my eyes wide!  I was scared that first time around all on my own, but I learned really quick if you just look out for everyone else you will be fine.  It's the moments I wasn't that got me.

This week was rather bittersweet. Appointments fell through, even when we'd confirmed the appointment and lined up members to come with us.  In fact we got a few of the college students that live up in the Hilliard area to come to see Luz, our 16 year old investigator.  (we were in the south part of Columbus)  Despite our efforts and a few phone calls, there we were on Kingsford street with members, and a bucket of apologies.

We also had a member lesson with Rolan y Aracelli set up with the Parkus.  ((Chilean family) BTW the rice and fish is hot, and tomatoes and lettuce are chilled) They canceled on us, and we haven't been able to make contact with them.  Aracelli sent us a text, to tell us she wouldn't make it, and since then nothing.  We've even head over to hers and Rolan's apartment 3 times.  Nothing....  So the word of the day, perseverance!

On a brighter note we did get Jose' to the Saturday afternoon session of Conference!  He seemed to enjoy it.  It was in Spanish I didn't get a thing.  I could probably list off all the words that I got, and still have plenty of time to finish the email!  It's also funny because Jose' brought his cousin Braulio.  Now every normal family has a drunk, or an equivalent.  This is Braulio.  Elder Klein & I are pretty sure that he showed up drunk.  Now he wasn't out of line, but he was quoting scriptures as if he were Paul himself!  So I was pretty disgruntled that the drunk came away from that session of conference with more than I did... 

Needless to say, conference was amazing!  It seemed like we were getting rebuked from all angles this time around, and those that usually are passive speakers pounded the pulpit to splinters!  I was buckling up for Elder Holland, to find out I was getting a bear hug.  This is not the Elder Holland I heard in February!  Needless to say it was amazing to hear from those called by God to spread his word.

The one that reached out and grabbed me was Elder Bednar's talk on personal revelation.  Lately that has been my theme in scripture study.  I can study any topic, but eventually I wind up in personal revelation.  I think I was supposed to be getting a message...  I had an eye-opening-chuckle when he talked about how you can receive revelation for yourself.   He goes on to list these marvellous manifestations as to how we can receive revelation, and at the end of the list, was thoughts.  I find it interesting that he put it in that order.  In addition he only mentioned that divine communion was less-common.  I'm not going to take the Martin Harris approach & beg for a witness, but rather take the study I have done, and with inspiration, find the mysteries of the kingdom.  (D&C 63:23 (I know it's in D&C 63) 

So there isn't a day that goes by that I don't see a police car.  Law enforcement, and emergency vehicles are constantly on the run here.  It's funny because last week I saw two ambulances cross each other!  Neither of them really heading towards the hospital.  There is a Brain Regan joke about Log trucks.  Well there is now one about ambulances!  A simple phone call would have sorted all of this out!

Now the best event of them all!  Elder Klein & I were on our way to a dinner appointment, and we saw mom with her two children walking along the sidewalk.  While driving by we took a glance, and their skin made us think that they might be Hispanic.  So, we pulled the car over, and went to talk to them.  Obviously two guys in a suit getting out of a car to talk to you is pretty odd, and the mom was a bit weirded out.  She tried to ward us off with "I don't know English", seeing through her ploy we deployed our Spanish.  Little did we know that she didn't know Spanish either!  You might be guess Portuguese, Italian, French.  None of the above.  Try Arabic!  This family is from Iraq, and have been here in the states for about a year.  Her daughters speak wonderful English.  You'd think that they'd been born here!  Our message was simple families can be together forever.  As we relayed our message to her daughter, her eyes lit up!  She was excited to here that she could be with her mom forever!  She talked to her mom in Arabic (if that is their language....) and her eyes lit up the same way, and in her best Englished asked us if that's what her daughter had told her.  We replied the affirmative, and left her with a Together Forever video.  That light in their eyes, to hear such a joyous message, lasted in me.  Even though appointments may fall through, I can remember that, and know there is a purpose to be here.  I hope the best for the missionaries we handed them off two.  (We figured English missionaries would be better since the daughters speak English (Spanish Elders don't teach in English very well...))

It has it's ups, and downs, but I know I wouldn't be growing anywhere else!  I will send a card home soon.  There are only a few pictures, forgive me, but there isn't a large amount of time in the field to take pictures!  Until next week.  I love you all!  Para Siempre.

Love,

Elder A. Ipson

The Great Ohio Columbus Mission