Week 29...Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas...

 

Hey sorry this is so late, we were out earlier playing hockey at the church so we flip flopped the day.  Some people from the ward were playing something called Swedish floor hockey at the church.  A member of the ward went to Sweden on his mission and they used to play this all the time on pday.  So this morning we were invited and since it is a school break, a whole bunch of kids from the ward came.  It was super fun.  It is pretty much like regular hockey.  Also it sounds like you have had a crazy week of weather. 

I am glad you got the package and I am glad you liked it.  I figured you would enjoy it all, especially the photo Christmas card.  Tonight Elder B and I are going to deliver some secret Santa donations (from the ward) to some people in the ward that will help them out with Christmas gifts.  It is amazing what the spirit of Christmas can do to lift the spirit of others.   

1. So how has the week been?  It has been pretty good, things have been busy.  I just can't believe that it is 2 days until Christmas and I am waiting to Skype with you.  I thought this day would never come.
2. What are your highs/lows this week?  A high was definitely getting the package from the ward.  I was very excited to get all of the letters from the people in the ward.  For some reason I got sort of emotional as I was reading them.  I loved seeing how much love and support the ward gives to the missionaries and their words of encouragement were very touching.  Tell whoever put them together thank you, I really appreciated it.  Another high was going caroling around to people.  It really was cool seeing the reactions of people and all the nights that we went the weather was nice and warm.  Another high was playing hockey this morning.  A low was that towards the end of the week it started to get hard to have lessons because everybody was starting to go out of town for Christmas. 
3. What are 5 positive things that happened?  We have been doing a lot of Christmas caroling to people.  We went with the sisters a couple of times and then last night we went with some members.  It’s been really fun.  We went to random houses and we also went to people in the ward.  I went on exchanges again this week.  That was fun because we had a whole bunch of lessons planned and the elder that came with me was somebody in my district when I first got to Camp Hill.  So it was fun to spend the day with him and see him again.  Also, since I am in the choir we performed in the sacrament meeting program yesterday.  
4. How's the weather?  Was is really that warm yesterday?  Yes it was warm, but unfortunately it was rainy all day so it was not really great. 
5. What's with the brown curtain behind Elder D in the "helium" choir video? Have you signed your name on it?  I need a picture :)  BTW, I haven't seen any pictures of this apartment.  Those are our curtains that cover the door to our back porch.  I think they are just some old sheets.  No, I have not put my name on it yet. 
6. How's your health been?  Are you feeling good?  Good, I have not been sick yet since I came out.  I am hoping it stays that way. 
7. Have you done any things to celebrate Christmas this past week?  Like I said we have been caroling a bunch. 
8. How are the dinner appts/members coming?  They have been going well.  Things have been hard since everyone is busy with the holidays now. 
9. What families do you love spending time with?  I enjoy spending time D family.  I also like the W family.  I don't know if I have told you about them at all, but they are a cool family.  She is the primary president.  Also each Sunday Sis. W brings us lunch and leaves it in the fridge at the church. 
10. How are things with the investigators...TP & Mandy & Lee?  Well, unfortunately we have not been able see them.  They have all been really busy with the holidays.  We saw TP once for just a minute because we went caroling to her last night.  So hopefully things will get going with them here soon.   
11. What about D?  He is doing well. Fortunately, he is still reading and praying.  He has had some questions so we were able to answer them at our last appointment.  He is progressing slowly, but at least there is progress. 
12. How is Claude doing?  He is doing well.  We played with him on Wednesday for the first time in a couple of weeks.  He has been busy doing other things. 
13. How are your pool skills?  Do you play fun games?  They are coming along.  Not many games.  We really just hit the balls in and whoever hits the 8 ball in at the end wins.  He’s in a wheelchair, so it takes some time for us to get him lined up and in place, but we have a good time.
14. Any Christmas day update/plans?  Not much update, Skype is still on.  I think I may move my time up a little bit, so plan on somewhere between 10 and 11 am for the call.  We (us and the sisters) are still going to the F family for most of the day.  But they don't have enough computers for all of us to use at once so we are going to the  S family because they offered a while back for us to use their stuff if  needed.  They are an awesome family and he is in the stake presidency.  So we will pretty much be hanging out at whoever invites us over for the day.  Right now I think the plan is to go to the F family for breakfast and then the sisters will stay and use their computers and we will go to the S family and use their stuff.  We will stay with them for a bit and then do some visits and go back to the F family’s house for Christmas dinner.
15. What are you doing for Christmas Eve?  We are going to the D family with the sisters like we did for Thanksgiving.  They’re a great family.
16. Can we do anything for you?  Just make sure you have your beautiful face at the computer on Wednesday.  I am sure you will because I think you are as excited as I am. 
17. Do you usually have enough money on your church debit card or do you run out before the month is over?  Usually I do pretty good and I can make it to the end of each month.  I range from about $5 to $20 left at the end of each month.  I just have to budget and make sure I am spending wisely and it all works out. 

Well I hope you are doing well and I can't wait to talk on Wednesday.  So I guess I’ll see you on Wednesday. 

Love you,

Elder Muir

Christmas In A Box

Twas the week before Christmas and what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A package from our Elder with an SD card of pictures and a video to hear :) 

What do you send a missionary for Christmas?  It has to be inexpensive, small, portable, disposable, spiritual and within the guidelines of the "white handbook".  After much consideration, we narrowed it down to 25 small, inexpensive things.  A little Christmas tree would take up a whole box and I knew it would just be thrown away, so we went with the inexpensive, disposable & portable type and sent a 4 ft. paper tree with paper ornaments totaling out at .58 cents :)  Along with the tree were 24 small packages the Elders could open.  Each package had a little surprise...candy, ties, recycled MoTab Christmas CDs and Christmas greetings from family members (along with some holiday pictures that included Flat Zach).

Remember when I said that Zach is really good at taking pictures of things that we sent him?  He's hasn't let me down yet...here's his latest SD card with pictures of his "Christmas in a Box" that we sent him. 

 The 4 ft. disposable Christmas tree :)

  Christmas photo shoot with Flat Zach making his holiday visits

 Flat Zach with Gma Bonnie & Gpa Lewy

 Flat Zach with Gma Karen & Gpa Walter

 Flat Zach hot tubbing (oops) with Ryan, Kyle & Spencer

 Flat Zach in the Eagle's nest with the Muirs

 Flat Zach with the Muirs in Palm Desert

 Flat Zach spending Thanksgiving with the Johnsons in Mesquite

 Flat Zach with the Ivies

 Flat Zach with the Hegewalds

 Flat Zach with the Southards

 Flat Zach with the Jensens

 Flat Zach with the Jones'

Week 28...Zone Conference & We Were "Grounded"

Howdy...

     I know you asked about Christmas day plans in your questions so I thought I would get that off first in a separate email with some ideas on how the phone call will work.  So first off, what are your plans for Christmas day so I can know a time frame of when to Skype?  I do get to Skype.  I know that we will be with one family pretty much all day long.  So really I can do it anytime.  I was thinking since I have Skype that you could set me up an account and send the info instead of me figuring out stuff at the family’s house. That way I can just use that username & password the rest of my mission (if I can use Skype at other places.)  So let me know your thoughts on what you want to do. 

     First off, the family I am Skyping with is the F family.  Apparently they have been having  the missionaries over for Christmas day for a while.  They are in their 50's and they are empty nesters.  I will probably  Skype you around 11 or 12 your time.

     They have all the equipment, I just need the account info and instructions would be great.  The white handbook says we can talk about 30-45 minutes, but President said he does not care…just to be wise.  Most people go about an hour and half.  So I will be looking for your Skype instructions.  PS did you get the picture email with your Christmas clues?  Well I need to finish the questions. 

     It sounds like you had a great time this weekend at the Eclipse concert.  Speaking of that, could you send me their hymn CD that I left in my room?  Also, they have a Christmas CD that I would like.  It is not the colorful cover Christmas CD, it has a night scene with the star of Christ’s birth in the sky.  Since it was a Student Life event did you see Michelle or anyone else that you recognized?  
 

1.   How are things going?  Things are going well, I can't believe it is almost the end of the year and Christmas is less than 10 days away.  I can't wait to see all of you and hear from you.  I think that maybe my best Christmas present ever.  I am beginning to realize that it’s a prized possession to have family close by.  Like your poem said, that is the greatest gift of all. 

2.   How are things with you and Elder B?  Things are good.  He is teaching me a lot and we are really starting to unite as companions.

3.   What are the highs/lows for this week?  Zone conference was definitely the highlight of the week.  It was good to see Elder J and his awesome Irish companion, Elder M.  The training and messages that were given at the conference were amazing.  Also the mission video they showed was awesome and I can't wait for you guys to eventually see it.  A low was that we did not have a whole lot of lessons this week because a lot of people cancelled on us at the last minute.  Also Saturday night we got “grounded” for the first time this season.   Some people call it “called in”, others call it “parked”, either way once the storm rolled in we had to park our car for the duration of the storm.  Without our car we can’t do a whole lot so we ended up just cleaning our apartment.  Another high was a baptism that the sisters in the other ward had yesterday.  The kid is 17 and has been coming to church for a year.  He is neighbors with a member and their daughter invited him to something church related a year ago.  At the time, the mom did not want him to be baptized.   But out of nowhere this past week his mom approved for him to be baptized and he was taught everything in a week.  He was totally ready because he had been going to seminary every day and church every week. 

5.   Were you able to have your singing extravaganza last night that was postponed from last week?  Yes.  What kind of activity was it?  Well it was supposed to be an activity where people would invite nonmember friends but none of the NM friends were there last night.  Some people were going to come the week before but other commitments prevented them from coming this week.  Basically we had some YM /YW & some families sing and a quartet and then we sang. Afterwards we watched the Christmas devotional from last week with the people that were there.  What did you sing and with who?  We and the sisters sang the Nativity song in primary book. 

6.   Boris wants to know if you have a "How's My Driving?" bumper sticker on your car like the missionaries in Utah?  Nope

7.   How are things with your investigators and less actives?  TP, Mandy, Lee & DK?  Any new contacts with anyone?  Well we did not see any of them this week.  DK cancelled on us last minute and Mandy had to work all week.  We are hoping this week we can teach all of them. 

8.   How was your zone conference?  Tell me about it?  Were you able to see Elder J (new AP who was Elder Muir’s trainer)?  How's he doing?  Oh my gosh,  zone conference was the best thing ever.  It was awesome to see Elder J.  He is doing great and we loved seeing each other.  His companion is Elder M from Ireland and he is hilarious.  Now zone conference was great, President and the APs had a great training on how to teach better and like the Savior taught.  After we broke into zones and the zone leaders did training on how to get investigators to church.  At the very end we watched the mission video.  It’s a video that missionaries contribute pictures to throughout the year and they make a video and show it at the end of the year.  I have a copy so we will have it when I get home.  Also, they handed out little temple recommend cases like the one that I have now, but this new one has a picture of Pittsburgh and it says Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission on it.  They also handed out Christmas cards that the First Presidency sends to all of the missionaries. 

9.   Looks like you had another storm on Saturday, how was it?  Did you have freezing rain?  Are you freezing? It was pretty normal.  We got about 4 inches or so of snow.  It came in late afternoon and then went into the night.  There was some freezing rain but for the most part it was just on the cars.   Scraping the ice off the cars on Sunday was not fun.  Like I said before, we got “parked” Saturday night but overall it was pretty normal. 

10.  Dad wants to know if you've used his big coat yet? Yes, I wore it on Saturday. 

11.  How are the members doing?  Have you visited with any recently?  They are doing great and they are really trying to looking for member missionary opportunities. 

12.  How come your dinners are slow right now? They have picked back up again and this week is pretty much full.  What are you doing for dinners/groceries?  I eat bagel bites a lot and homemade BBQ chicken pizza is a favorite.  Also, I do chicken and rice stir fry and then other random things I find. 

13.  Where is your favorite place to eat out in Lititz/Manheim?  Honestly I don’t eat at a lot of local stuff.  A lot of the stuff is just chain fast food.  However, there is one place called Panera Bread (like Great Harvest and Kneaders) that is really good, but I’ve only been there once.

14.  What's your favorite thing to cook right now?  What are you sick of eating?  Really, anything I have I will make. 

15.  Can you tell if you're gaining weight now that you have a car?  No, I don't think I am.  I just control how much I eat. 

16.  How are your feet?  Has the humidity helped your cracked heels?  Are they doing better?  They are doing pretty good.  Humidity is definitely helping my skin but it also makes it really cold now.  Let’s just say my skin may freak the first few days I’m back home. 

17.  How are the 25 Days of Christmas going?  What's your favorite surprise been so far?  The pictures are my favorite.  By the way I don’t have a family one for the month of November in the book.    Are you still doing one each day?  Yes

20.  Any spiritual experiences you will share?  The baptism that took place in the other ward yesterday was a neat experience.  It strengthened my testimony to know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us, no matter what happens and how long it takes.  Seeds are planted and eventually hearts are softened.

21.  What did you guys do at your ward Christmas party?  We had dinner and then they had a program of sing alongs and members of the ward singing. 

Well out of time, love you and can’t wait to see you in a few days. 

Elder Muir

 December 2013 Zone Conference...Lancaster Zone (Elder Muir is on the right side)

Photo courtesy of Sis. Topham's blog (MP wife)

Elder Muir at Wilbur Chocolates...Yum!!!

***Because my son doesn't believe in taking pictures of nature/scenery (only himself...which I love and his paper Christmas tree, which I've already seen because I sent it to him :) I have to stalk the local news channel and rely on the local pictures that are sent in.  The pictures below are from local PA residents in his area (some are great photographers :)

Recent snowstorm on Main street in Ephrata, PA (part of Elder Muir's district)



Ephrata snowstorm

Buchanon Park

Manheim, PA...one of Elder Muir's areas

Loading groceries into the Amish buggy