Week 7...In the Driver's Seat :)

July 22, 2013

Hi Family,

I am glad to hear you are all doing well, I definitely am.  I hope reading the answers to your questions make your day.  I can't wait to hear about your Tahoe trip.  You don't know how much I wish I could be there ,but I know this is where I am supposed to be.  Also tell Alyssa Akagi congrats on her mission call, she will be awesome.  It was sad to hear about Brother Covington.  I feel like that I have cursed the ward because that is the 3rd person that has died since I let…him , Brother Whitlock and Sister Conrad.  I feel that when I come back our favorite row of people at church may no longer be there.  

13^th East looks like it is a nightmare, glad I am not there to deal with that.  Also, I am not allowed to use dropbox so you are going to have to attach them in emails or send hard copies.  I know that stinks but that is rule and we need to be obedient.  It looks like you had fun downtown at the Pioneer Day MoTab concert.   I have heard of Lindsey Stirling,  but not the other guy.  I'm sure it was good but I agree with you that sometimes the are great and other times they are only OK, but oh well.   I got Alyssa W’s stuff in the mail.  They are pretty sweet I really liked them. 

I do like getting all of the quotes and stuff  you send in the mail.  As I said before I really do love Elder Holland’s quote on missionary service.  I better get working pretty hard so I feel that way in the end, I think it is slowly starting to come true for me.  So, I think I heard somebody said there is a Zuppa’s in Lancaster.  You should look and let me know and then tell me so I know if I ever end up there I can go.  I keep forgetting to tell you there is Cafe Rio in DC which is about 2 hours away, so I can’t really go there.  However, sometimes members will bring it back for the missionaries if they go down there for some reason.  I’ve heard of some missionaries that have had it.

Now about Tahoe, don't forget about me while you enjoy your rest and relaxation there.  I'm sure you won't forget me.  Have extra fun just for me.  I am sad I can't be there but I would be more sad if I were there and not here on a mission.  Well keep me updated and have fun in Tahoe (when do you get back?).  I love you miss you and am doing much better. 

Love

Elder Muir

Question/Answers for the week...

1. How are your shoes/feet holding up? Are you getting used to the walking?  They are holding up pretty good, they could be worse but could be better.  Yes, I am getting used to the walking.  I think I could be in the best shape of my life right now. 
2. Have you weighed yourself lately?  No, there is no scale around but when I find one I will let you know. 
3. How was the food this week? What/where did you eat?  The food was great.  We ate at Chick Fil A one day for lunch and we used the gift cards you sent.  But a lot of the time we just eat lunch at home with the stuff that we buy.  But last week we were fed quite a bit for dinner.  Obviously, Saturday night we had the ward Pioneer Day party.  Then a few week nights we had dinner at some members’ homes.  Wednesday we ate at the C family.  They are a big family from Colorado.  They have lots of kids and we had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner.  On Friday night we at an older couple’s home (the M family) and we had turkey and mashed potatoes (my favorite)  They just got back from working in the Fresno mission office.  He was the finance secretary and she was the main secretary.  FYI a random fact they told us was that it costs over 1 million dollars to run just one mission.  That is a lot of money I know.  We ate again at their house last night for Sunday dinner.  We had roast and mashed potatoes (yum).  Also, I am getting better at eating corn and green beans  (I know you are so proud of me right J).  This week we have a pretty good meal schedule also. 
4. What's the situation with car? Did you get it? Do you drive or Elder J?  Yes, we got the car!!! It was perfect because we got it when it was really really hot.  Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of miles left on it, so this week we are really using them wisely.  We got the sisters’ area too so we don't have just our little walk area.  So now we have the people that they were visiting/teaching.  But I think a lot of this week is going to be spent walking in our normal area then if we have specific appointments in the sisters’ area we will use the car.   Unfortunately, we only get it until July 30th because that is when transfers are and the sisters will get it back and things will be back to normal. 
5. How's the air conditioning in the apartment?  Well it is not central air, but at least we have swamp coolers in our room and then in the main living area.  All we need is for it to keep us cool and that is what it is doing, so it works. 
6. How's the new shaver/razor working?  It is working fabulous.
7. How often do you have interviews with the mission president?  We have interviews with the president about every other month.  He sends a weekly letter to everyone with general information.  Then we write letters to him each week. 
8. How was the Pioneer Day party? Did you have lots of people and what did you do?  The pioneer party was fun.  Not a whole lot of people were there, but considering we are in PA with not very many members they had a good turnout.  We pretty much just ate and then sat and talked with some people.  They had activities for the kids.  The bishop brought an air soft bb gun thing that the kids shot and another guy did big bubble blowers.  The YW president got a pinterest idea and the kids made covered wagons with  marshmallows, frosting, graham crackers, teddy grahams and animals.  They were pretty cute and they also did ice cream in a bag.  But we pretty much ate then talked for a bit and then we left. 
9. Are you enjoying your ward and getting to know people? Do you stay for all 3 meetings?  Yes, I am enjoying it.  People are nice and I am slowly getting to know them.  Yes, we stay for all 3 meetings.  Church starts at 1 pm but we get there at 10 am because we go to mission correlation meeting with the ward mission leader and then we either go to PEC or ward council depending on what week it is.  Basically we do everything dad does on Sunday.  We also go to choir for about 45 minutes and then church starts. 
10. Tell me more about the BOM class you did last week.  Well it is a class on Thursday nights that we and the sisters are trying to do. We try to get members and their non member friends to come.  Also, we are trying to get investigators to come when we have them and we try to invite less actives.  Unfortunately,  it has not been a great success so far. There has only been about 2 people there.  But it has not been advertised super great so hopefully if we get the word out more people will start to come. 
11. What were your highs/lows this week?  Highs were… 1) my first investigator lesson was Saturday so that can go in the record books as saying that I did that on dad's birthday.  2) another high has been having the car since it has been so stinking hot. 3) also another high was probably going to the party Saturday and also the BOM class even though there was only a few people there. My low was when we taught that lesson we were not really united in our teaching, but we are now trying really hard to be unified in everything that we do.   
12. Does it make you more homesick when I send a lot of mail/packages? Or does that help you survive? Is it hard for you to hear about stuff we are doing or do you like to hear?  No, I like it…especially the little quotes and I also like getting the random little treats.  But I think we could lay off those a bit but if you have to send packages I don't really care.  I love that Elder Holland quote you sent, it was awesome.   
13. What is Mormon.org time that you mentioned? What do you do and when?  Basically it is when we get to go through and watch mormon messages or whatever is on the mormon channel and look up different talks etc.  We do that once a week and we just go up to the library and get on the computers for an hour. Here is a link on mormon channel about Karen Payne from our old ward/current stake now talking about the amazing story of her life and the kids. http://www.mormonchannel.org/conversations/karen-payne 
14. What/who can we pray for?  Well I guess that Elder J and I can be more unified and also that the spirit can touch the people that we are teaching.  Since Saturday we are really trying to be unified and that is what the zone is trying to get us to do to. 
15. What can we do for you or send to you?  Nothing much, you know what I like. 
16. Have you met anyone new?  Yes, quite a few people since we have the sisters’ area right now.  We have one of their investigators that we are trying to teach.  We had an appointment last week with him but it fell through.  So hopefully this week will meet with him.  He only needs to be taught one more thing and then we are trying to get him to commit to a baptism date in the next few weeks but I will let you know what happens. 
17. What did you find out about the haircut rules?  I found out I can go short but it can't be buzzed and I'm ok with that.  That info leads into a funny story.  So there are clippers in our apartment which means I shaved my own head with a 3 it looks pretty good.  So I think that was a success.  But I am going to ask the lady in the ward how it looks when we have dinner with them again and see what she thinks.  I’ll have her fix it if she thinks it looks bad. 
18. Any ideas for a bday gift for you?  Not really but I will start thinking.  You know what I like and all that.  But one thing I can think of is sending me other cds besides mo tab.  I can listen to any kind of spiritual music so just go down to Deseret Book and look and see what you can find.  Also you can see what Brad has and maybe send some of that. 
19. What are the rules in your mission about sisters & elders being together in cars etc? People keep asking how you can get rides with the sisters. They say it was against the rules in their missions.  Well apparently that is not a rule in our mission because the other set of elders in our district get rides from the sisters in their area too.  I think if it is mission related you can be in the car.  I think they just don’t want you alone with them.  I know they can't go into our apartment and we can’t into theirs. 

Well love you miss you

Love Elder Muir