Yes, Finally! Woot!

Elder Marini May 08

Elder Marini June 08

Hey from Wooster again!

This past week has been the best week in Wooster so far for me. My companion and I are pounding the pavement, and doing alot of less-active work. We were able to get 3 less-active members to church, and 1 of them was one that we’ve been working with for months. The lord truely does bless us for our hard work.

We’re doing whatever it takes to gain the trust of the ward. We have a vision of what this ward could be, and we’re building that foundation right now. Me and Ritchie are getting along good so far, having alot of fun, laughing alot and meeting alot of interesting people. Wooster is pretty diverse. Theres alot of rich people, a good amount of dark skinned people and some rednecks. So we can talk to whatever class of people we want, all within a few miles of us. Then theres also the Amish too.

The lord really does bless everyone, all we need to do is put our trust in him that the spirit will guide us.

Write me letters, i get lonely every once in a while.

i love you all.

Well folks, my 5th transfer has officially started. I’m past that 6 month mark and i’m doing good.

my last companion i assume is safely back in his beloved utah home, and well im glad hes gone.

My new companion also comes from Utah (3 in a row!) from the Ogden area and so far its going great. We’re working hard, and trying to make the ward turn around. We’ve had alot of fun, and i’m looking forward to working with this guy.

Other good news. A girl i helped teach in st.marys was just baptised over the weekend. The branch really got together, and the baptism went through. I’m really happy to hear that all went well.

Otherwise, the work is good, i would love your letters and whatnot.
-Elder Marini

these are the group pics i just got from the zoned out activity. im in the canton,tallmadge,youngstown,

hey, sorry its been awhile agian. heres my writeup.

This past week has been better. The comp has been working a little bit more and we had a really fun mission activity on thursday. They call it “zoned out”

they did half the mission on tuesday, and then our half on thursday. So in our group it was our zone (canton) with 3 other zones on the east side of the mission and most of the kirtland sisters. We all met at 9:30 at the John Johnson home/Hiram Chapel in Hiram, Oh. The first half of the activity we were in our prosyliting clothes, and they split us up into our zones, and threw some sisters in as well. They set up so that we’d spent a half hour at an activity, then rotate to another, with 4 total . Our first activity was a tour of the John Johnson Home, which i had never been too. over 30 sections of the D&C were written there, and thats where Joseph Smith was when the mob ripped him out of his bed, took him outside and tarred and feathered him, and then the next morning he preached from the front steps. It was pretty spiritual to walk around the different rooms.

Our next activity was a game where the zone was split in half and it was basicly a trivia game. It was fun, and we got to move around alot. THen we played a prophet/apostle jeopardy game, where our side lost 2000 to -450. oops. it was still alot of fun. We then did a scripture chase game, and i did terrible.

After those 4 things, we all met for a bbq lunch and changed into gym clothes/casual clothes and spent 3-4 hours outside as a zone competing again another zone in games.  THe first game was a relay which used all 16 missionarys. some of the parts were a bike race, 3 legged race, singing race, dizzy football passing game and a bunch more. I did the Sardine eating. I had to eat a sardine as fast as i could and then yell for the next guy to start a footrace. our team barely lost that.

After that we went to dodgeball and Canton zone Destroyed the Akron zone. 30 minutes of dodgeball. So much fun.

then we did a couple other small games, including human foosball.
It was so fun to talk with alot of the elders and sisters and just have an extra day off. Everyone loved it, and i’ll never forget it.
We finished off the day at White Castle in South Akron. Those are some disgusting, delicious little burgers.

The week otherwise was decent. its a hard area to work here, thats for sure.

Keep writing me, i love you all

Hey, this one will probably be short.
Well, its almost week 3 in wooster. My companion is way trunky, i guess im getting used to it. He’s got a ton of stories, so at least i’m entertained.  Wooster is almost the exact opposite of st. marys for an area. In st. marys, i loved the branch, and they loved us back, but i hated the small towns and the distance.  Here, i love the city, and the places, but the ward kinda sucks and they arent the greatest missionarys. Oh well, i’m working on a plan to change that.

We’ve been having alot of fun, working still pretty hard, but man its impossible to get new investigators it seems. We had a good 4th of July at a place called Mohican State park. Sat around with the elders from Ashland, and kicked back to enjoy a bbq.

We’re headed off to Canton today and tomorrow, It’ll be nice to be in a big city again.  I sent some pictures in for the site, so look for them. And always, write me whenever.

Elder Marini is now serving in Wooster, OH. We will fill you in when he next writes. I updated the Contact Tab above with this new address:

2740 WINCHESTER WOODS APT H
WOOSTER OH  44691-5300

-Timmy

We got news today (6/23) that Elder Marini is being transfered! He finds out Wednesday where he will be going. He said he will try to get online to let us know soon after he finds out. This will mark his first transfer! Each transfer is a period of 6 weeks. This is his third transfer in his first area. It also is interesting that his current companion, Elder Nordin, is also getting transferred. This double-transfer is called a lot of things, depending on the mission. In my mission, we called it white-washing. In Cleveland, it’s called shotgunned. The reasons for this are varied. In my experience, it generally means the current set of missionaries have been getting into some trouble, or the members of the Church in the area are not happy with them. This is not the case in this situation. When Elder Marini let the members know, they were surprised and upset by it. I am thinking it may have to do with Elder Nordin’s current medical situation and he might be moving closer to a specialist in the mission that can better help him out.

I will update the blog with his new mailing info when he lets me know. Meanwhile, please use the mission office address:

Elder Marini
Ohio Cleveland Mission
2070 W 117TH ST
CLEVELAND OH 44111-1640

Thanks,

-Tim

Good times in Ohio. Lets go through whats been going on. Kirtland Trip this last saturday: It went really really well. Kerry and his Wife enjoyed it alot, and i think it really gave them a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith. On the way up i had some delicious Cracker Barrel Breakfast (a tradition for long car trips with kerry) I had the sampler platter, heres what was in it. 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, cheese hashbrowns, grits (not sure i liked them) baked cinnimon apples, biscuits and gravy. Needless to say i wasnt too hungry for the rest of the day. I really enjoyed the Joseph smith Video, the Kirtland video and we had some pretty cool Sisters give the tour. We saw the whitney store, whitneys house, the visitor center, the temple, and a few other houses. It was a good way to spend the day. we left at 7am and didnt get home till just a little after 11. The spirit is so strong there. Transfers are next week, and i’m thinking i might be out of here, hopefully we get a baptismal date before i go. I’ve been struggling with the companion, but hey, just go with the flow. Life has been really good, i still havent gained weight. I hope i get transferred into the city, or even maybe the “jungle” which is east cleveland. I love the country, but i’d love to be back in civilization sometime. I’m going to miss this branch for sure though if i leave. They’ve been really good to us, despite their distance and numbers. I’ll be getting pictures for the website sometime in a couple weeks too. This church is true, and going to Kirtland really reinforces it. I love you all, and i hope you keep writting me. Love, Elder Marini

Sorry for the delay.. I will do my best to get the latest pics online! Thanks for your patience!

-Timmy