Week 15...Starting the New Transfer

1. What are your highs/lows this week?  One of the highs was transfers even though it was sad to see Elder J go, which also made it kind of a low as well.  It will be great to work with Elder F and get to know him.  Unfortunately the week was kind of a slow week in teaching and everything else.  Seems like we are starting out new again and have to start a new routine/schedule.  But definitely another high was teaching the M family.  We taught them about the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end).  I also loved getting your mail/package on Friday.  Also, another high was stake conference yesterday.  We watched it from our church building while it was broadcast from the stake center.  It froze up a couple of times so we missed bits and pieces.  I liked it because there was a big focus on member missionary work.  President Topham spoke and gave a good talk about why it is so important to have member missionary work.  Well that is pretty much this week in a nutshell, hopefully this week will be more productive.  Also we are getting some ward missionaries to help the ward mission leader and hopefully that will help us out even more.  The thing about the transfer is that I’m now the person that knows what’s going on with our area.  Introducing Elder F to all the people and giving the history about each situation isn’t my favorite, but eventually he will get to know the area and it will get easier with each day.  I’ve decided I don’t like being in charge, I would rather be a minion, but I know that’s not how it works.  I have to remember it will be the same for me when I’m transferred…starting all over again. 
2. What are 5 positive things that happened?  We were able to make contact with this guy that Elder J and I tried to contact all summer. Elder J taught him before I got there but they had to drop him because he wasn’t progressing.  Elder F and I got in contact with him the other day and hopefully we can maybe get somewhere with him.
3. Tell me more about Elder F?  Well, things are good.  He is from Mesa AZ and is the oldest in his family and he has been out about 7 1/2 months.  I definitely got used to Elder J, the problem is, every time you seem to get comfortable the Lord likes to change things up.  Elder F likes to do kind of funny, off the wall, weird things and sometimes he makes situations really awkward.  He likes to do that for some reason.  He is into theatre stuff and did that in high school.  One awkward situation was during the BOM class nobody would ever give answers to anything so he would stare people down and make them give answers.  Also another weird moment was last night at dinner with the T family we were having a lesson and people were getting off topic and not focusing, so to get their attention back he whistled really loud.  Also he has really weird sarcasm and jokes.  He has some weird little quirks, but don’t we all.    Now onto his good traits…he really wants to teach and find people and that’s great.  There’s not a lot happening in this area so he really wants to improve that and so do I.  Overall, we are doing pretty good and I’ve got at least 5 weeks or longer to get used to him.   Also he thinks walking everywhere and not having bikes is very unproductive (he has been in a car area his entire mission) so we are trying to get bikes.  So maybe we will get bikes for a little bit before I leave the area.  There is someone in the ward that has one fixed for us and someone in another ward that wants to give us one, but that one needs to be fixed.  So I will keep you posted on what happens. 
4. Are the two of you adjusting and getting to know one another? Yes, I think so.  The first couple of days is an adjustment.  It takes time getting used to each other but we are both getting adjusted.  It is definitely different because Elder J and I finally had a system/routine down and now we have to kind of change things and make a new system that works for Elder F and me. 
5. Is Elder F obedient, diligent, fun, hardworking, easy going etc?  Yes
6. Where did Elder J go to? He went to the zone just north of Pittsburgh.  Was it hard to say goodbye to him?  Yes, it was weird saying goodbye but most likely I will see him again at some point and I have his email. 
7. How did you get to the transfer meeting in Harrisburg?  The sisters in our area took us. 
8. Are there mission vans that take the missionaries to areas that are across the mission?  No, you just take mission cars that missionaries use and you get rides from missionaries going from side to side. 
9. Why is your area a walking area instead of biking?  It can be either or it just depends on if you get bikes from the ward members or not. 
10. Why didn't you have a car if Elder J was the district leader?  Because not all places have a car and our area is small enough that we don't need a car and District leaders aren't always in car areas. 
11. Where is the new sister in your ward from? Is the other sister the one from the MTC or is she in the other area in your district?  The new sister in our ward is from Florida.  She came from the other ward in our district, she is the one that was in the MTC with me.  Her old companion is training a new missionary.
12. Do the other Elders in your district (B & T) ride bikes or drive? Why do they have bikes?  They have bikes because somebody in their ward bought bikes for them. 
13. Do the sisters in the other area of district drive a car? Yes, because they have a big area. 
14. If the F family and T familys live in the sisters' area, how do you get to dinner at their homes? Do you walk or do they pick you up?  They pick us up.  Most of our dinner appointments are in the sisters’ area (the majority of the ward is there).  So our dinner appts. usually pick us up. 
15. How's the weather been? It looks like last week you had quite a bit of rain one day and it was quite hot for a few days and then fairly cool. I bet it was fairly humid with the rain. The temps looked like a roller coaster...up and down. Have you had rain?  It rained this morning but now it is sunny.  Thursday we got a big rain storm and yes it was very hot and humid up until that point.  But lately it has been around 70 give or take a few. 
16. When you placed the BOM on your own a few weeks ago...how did you do it and where were you at? Have you heard anything from her or made contact again? I know you said you were handing out free books and she said sure, but what were you doing? Were you at a store, a fair, on the street corner?  We were tracting doors and we had a district goal of trying to give out 16 BOM's so we were just knocking a few doors and I happened to give one out to her and she took it. 
17. How did you find out about Elder F being your companion early (before he did) and how did you know he trained your MTC companion?  The Sunday before transfers we were talking to the zone leaders about transfers a bit and finding out what the ride situation was and where we needed to meet and they told me then.  I knew he trained my MTC companion because each transfer President sends out a sheet with everybody's picture with what area they are in and who their companion is.  So I saw their companionship on that sheet. 
18. Who was the baptism for that took place a few weeks ago with the other Elders? I'm assuming they are in another ward? Did you meet the person that got baptized when you did exchanges?  They baptized the daughter of a less active lady.  The girl is 10 years old.  Yes, they are in another ward.  No, I did not meet her before because I have only been on exchanges in that area once and they had not started teaching her yet. 
19. How is the M family...what's going on with them?  Not much is going on with them, but we had another good lesson with them talking about the doctrine of Christ and we focused on enduring to the end. The spirit was strong and hopefully they will become reactivated soon and be more committed to make the gospel a part of their lives.   
20. How are things with Franky & Sally making any progress? What about their friend?   Unfortunately, we have not been able to teach them again because I guess the kids still have lice.  We were on our way up there on Saturday and they texted saying they still found some lice on one of the kids.  So I hope we are not losing them but they’ve been really hard to make contact with lately.  I have no idea about the friend because she may be in a different area now but like I have said she was just always at their house so she was hit and miss.  So they are all a work in progress and I hope we can help them see the blessings that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer them.   
21. How are the F family & T family?  They are doing well they are keeping busy with school and sports and work and all of that good stuff. 
22. Are you still cutting your own hair? No, I have only done it once and last Monday night we had dinner with the hair cut lady so I got it cut then.  It was a much needed haircut because it had not been cut since July so my side burns and all that were a mess. Plus it was super hot with my hair that long. 
23. Are your shoes holding up? Yes, but not for much longer.  I'm hoping they will make it through this transfer and then I will go to a car area.  I was thinking you should send me my other black shoes in the closet so I can wear those out too before I buy anything new. 
24. How are your feet holding up?  They are doing pretty good, I got one blister the other day but that is the first one I have had in a while. 
25. Do you keep track of your mileage?  No, but I figure we average about 10 miles a day. 
26. How many districts are in your zone?  3, I think we are a smaller zone
27. Did you get a new zone leader?  No
28. Did you get my O'Fish'al 100 days package? Was there too much reading material in it?  Yes, I loved it.  The picture of the flooding at University Mall and BYU stadium are crazy. 
29. Have you met anyone new?  The guy I was talking about in the highlights so hopefully we can make some progress with him.
30. Any progress with the church referral from the guy in jail?  No
31. How's the BOM class coming? Do you have more attendees now? Who teaches it?  It's coming along ok.  Some weeks we a few people but the majority is usually missionaries.  The missionaries rotate teaching. 
32. How's the ward doing? Do you have any fun upcoming events?  The ward is doing great.  I can't think of any big activities coming up.
33. Do you have any Rita's Ice nearby?  Yes, but I have never been.  I have heard from people that have been to Utah and had sno cones that Rita’s Ice is better so maybe I will try it out one day. 
34. Is there anything we can do for you?  I was thinking you should send me the brown belt in my drawer that goes with my Levi's and also I could use on more pair of gym shorts.  You could send my black ones like yours. 

     Also, I got Aunt Merri's package (thank you Aunt Merri J)  It was sent to the mission office and it was not priority mail so they could not forward it.  So the zone leaders got it at their monthly meeting in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago and I got it from them yesterday.  Also, I got letters in the mail from Rina Hansen and Teresa Bell the other day.  It was sure good to hear from them, tell them thank you.  I’ll send snail mail with pictures tomorrow.
 

Love

Elder Muir
xoxoxo

P.S.  This was a portion of Elder Muir's letter that came this week after his email (letter is dated Monday, 9/16/13)

Hello Family...

     I loved getting your email.  I was hoping after we went shopping I would be able to come to the church and email back and forth and check to see if you responded to my email.  I also wanted to send some pictures.  But unfortunately when we got to the church the internet was down so none of that happened...sorry. 

     We went to WalMart for our normal Pday shopping excursion and a lady from another ward saw me and Elder F.  She came up to us and bought our groceries and gave us each a $25 WalMart gift card.  Unfortunately for the sisters, they weren't at WalMart yet, so we were the only ones that received her generosity.  But the sisters showed up just as we were finishing and the lady bought all of us lunch at McDonald's.  She was a nice older lady.  It made me think of the times when you've bought stuff for the missionaries when we were out and about and when I delivered the groceries to our missionaries.

     Tell Jake Standford CONGRATS on his mission call.  That's crazy about the Lake Tahoe Ironman, sounds like lots of loops and back and forth for the course.  It would be cool to be there to see it, but it would be a nightmare to get around. 

     I have not been able to read the articles in the September Ensign that you were talking about yet.  We don't get a hard copy of the Ensign until zone conference.  I will keep you posted on the details of zone conf (Friday 9/20).  Maybe we will find out more info about iPads & FB etc. since missions are starting to use them now.

     Also, Happy 20th Anniversary yesterday (most likely).  Hope it was wonderful, I can't believe it's been 20 years.  Well, I love you and miss you :)  Also, I still haven't heard the reason for gpa Lewy's new truck.  Thanks for the pictures.  It is so weird seeing the traffic light at 13th E. and 132nd S.  Well got to go.

Love,
Elder Muir