Week 10 from Camp Hill...Losing Myself in Service

August 12, 2013

Hey Family,
 

            I loved getting your letter last week and email this week.  That’s kind of funny to hear that you are blog stalking Sis. A.  I already knew the info about Sis. A because she has been emailing Elder J, but it was good to see that it was officially documented on her blog.  Micah will be an awesome ward mission leader, tell him congrats!  

            That is cool about Derek baptizing Addison, you never told me about that until today.  I loved all the Tahoe pictures.  I'm excited for the birthday stuff, you are always great about finding fun stuff.  Also, even though the BYU box may be nothing grand you know I like anything with BYU attached to it.

            Yes, it’s the gospel art book that I want and I would love to have you send it to me.  Also, I guess I will forgo the subscription to the New Era and just have you send it to me each month. 

            You asked what my favorite scripture is…well right now I’ve been studying Joshua chp. 1 and have found comfort in that chapter, specifically Joshua 1:9 which was the 2010 YM/YW theme…“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”  Sis. Ann Dibb gave a good talk about it and reminded us of 4 small and simple things that we can do to stay strong and steadfast.  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2010/05/be-of-a-good-courage

·         Joshua 1:5  I will not fail thee or forsake thee…Heavenly Father will hear our prayers if we turn to Him.

·         Joshua 1:7  Be strictly obedient

·         Joshua 1:8  Meditate the book of the law…read the scriptures daily

·         Joshua 1:16  Commit to follow the prophet

1. How has your week been? What were your highs/lows?  This week has been awesome because we’ve been super busy, but it’s also been very tiring.   Well the first high is that we picked up a new investigator and we have another potential that is in a less active family.  We have an appointment this Thursday with the potential investigator.  Also we got an investigator to church yesterday and that was pretty awesome.  I loved getting your package Wednesday night.  (I will answer your questions and write about the things you told me in snail mail).  My low had to do with the weather, it has been kind of dark and dreary and cloudy this last week which was not super fun, but the sun did come out a little.  Also, we helped the investigator that was at church move into another apartment next to where they were living.  That was kind of nasty and gross but I didn't even think about it much and just lost myself in the work.  Also I got the BYU package and I have not opened it.  I hid it in a closet so I wouldn’t open it.  I love anything BYU.  I took a picture of the box in my closet and  I am going to try and email the  picture at the church later because pictures won’t email at the library. 
2. What are the 5 positive things for this week?  1) Getting your letter  2) Having the person at church.  3) At the BOM class we had a good lesson on the tree of life. 
3. Does Elder J have brothers/sisters that have served missions?  2 older brothers have served, one in Brazil and the other in Spain
4. When is Elder J's bday? October 18
5. When we went to Tahoe I realized that I'm missing my shiny black flip flops with the fabric on them. They don't happen to be tucked in a side/front pocket of your red duffle bag? I know I had them in Cancun, but can't find them anywhere...dang!  I can look but I have not seen them. 
6. Do you have a CD player to play CD's in if I send them for your bday?  Yes, we have a cd player
7. What is your favorite scripture right now? 
8. What have you been studying this week?  Lots of the Christlike attributes and True to the Faith and Ensign talks
9. How's the rain? It is sort of fun, I just don't like the dark and dreary stuff that comes with it.  Are you getting soaked?  Sometimes but that is part of being a walking missionary I guess. Usually we luck out to be inside sometimes when it pours to. 
10. When do you think I should send your winter stuff and what do you think you'll need? Probably everything I discussed before I left.  Yes, it can probably wait another month or 2.  It can probably wait until after the September transfer.
11. Have you met any new people?  We finally met with a guy that was active in the church until he was about 6 and then his mom remarried and left the church.  We stopped by the other day and taught him the intro to the BOM.  Hopefully we can start teaching and get him baptized. 
12. How is it going with your investigators?  It is going well, as you can see we got one to church. I don't know how much they understood it, but at least they were there.  We have 2 investigators right now and hopefully a third this week.  The one that came to church is the girlfriend of a less active.  Her boyfriend was active when he was younger and we have been teaching both of them, but we have a lot of things to teach them and to get them back in line and worthy because they are breaking just about every commandment taught in PMG.  Hopefully, they will be touched by the Spirit and we can help them fix it. I was not in Camp Hill yet but the guy stopped Elder J walking down the road and said that he wanted to come back to church and gave him his address.  He is from Harrisburg and lives in another city in our area now.  They are both in there mid 20s.
13. What about dinner appointments this week? Who did you eat with and what did you have?  We had tacos at the T family last night.  Another night we had chicken and then we had hamburgers another night.  We are still averaging about 3 meals a week. 
14. How are the groceries working out? Meg said you should buy some of the Marie Calendar’s fettuccine.  They are good.  It is not fun shopping on a budget but I am making do with it and I might consider that.  I got some bagel bites and I found these instant potatoes that I like.
15. How's your monthly money allowance working? Do you and Elder J share or combine money?  Not really, we just buy our own stuff and share if we want. 
16. How long do you have at the church on Saturdays to look at Mormon.org?  An hour and it can be any day of the week
17. Are there any mission rules that you struggle with? No, not really.  Does Elder J obey most of the rules?  Yes
18. Are you happy and adjusting to mission life? Yes finally!!! There are still hard days; however, slowly but surely things are getting easier and I have seen tons of progress. 
19. Do you have a lot of downtime in the apartment? Depends on the week.  Usually an hour for lunch and in the morning during studies.  We sometimes have downtime when we don't have dinner appointments so we have an hour dinner break. 
20. Did you do anything fun on your last pday? Do you have any big plans today?  No, we are just going to the church and shopping.  After the library we go to the church and I write letters and then play bball. 

Well I love you and I am going to write another personal letter to everyone while I’m at the church.  Also I will respond more to your letter from Wednesday.  I'm going to send a copy of a talk by Pres. Eyring called O Ye That Embark about priesthood service.  You all should read it, hope you enjoy.  https://www.lds.org/liahona/2008/11/o-ye-that-embark?lang=eng You can look it up on lds.org but I am going to send it and highlight the parts that I like. 

Love you forever

Love,

Elder Muir