Tuesday, October 22, 2013
This is the letter we received in the mail Saturday to let us know where he had landed
Hello Family,
Well…my new area is
Lititz, PA. It’s in the heart of Amish
country, our area borders Lancaster. In
fact, we go to church in Lancaster which is about 8 miles south of Lititz
(about 15 min.) Lititz was voted the “Coolest
Small Town in America”, according to the welcome sign when you enter the
city. http://www.lititzpa.com/index.php The best news is I have a
CAR!!! I haven’t been out much yet, but
we visited the Lititz Springs Park. I
sent the package with my shoes and things today and I got your BYU stuff
yesterday.
Good news about laundry…it’s
free. We have a washer/dryer in our
apartment. We share the area with the
sisters. We are the Lititz/Manheim North
area and the sisters are the South area.
So I officially tried a whoopie pie. I got one at a Menonite food stand and let me
just say they are “amazing” and they only cost $1. I know this isn’t tons of info for you, but I’ve
been here less than a day. I’ll have a
better idea of what’s going on and more info on Monday.
Love you,
Elder Muir
Elder Muir's new home away from home
Lititz Spring Park
1. Introduce us to Elder D… He
is awesome! I haven't been with him a long time yet but I think he will
be good and we will be good together. He is from Blackfoot ID and he has
been out about 9 months (since January). He has been in Lititz since the
end of July. He is the first child in his family to serve a
mission. He has an older sister and a few younger brothers and
sisters. He worked on a lot of potato farms before he came out on his
mission.
2. What makes Lititz, PA the "coolest small town in America"? I am not really sure why it is (I plan to
find out), I just know that there is a sign that says that when you come
into town. What cool things have you
seen, tasted and done? I have had some good whoopie pies from an Amish
stand. I have seen a few horse and buggies and there are lots of Amish
farms out here. Also, lots of corn fields and cows. I am in the
heart of Amish territory, so I will have to get tons of pictures and send
them to you. The Target parking lot has a spot for horse
buggies to park, so I will get a picture. It is definitely is cool out
here. It is mixed with small town farm country, yet there is still a big city
feel to it. Lancaster is the big city, Lititz is on the outskirts of
Lancaster.
3. Do you miss Camp Hill (CH)? Yes, I do miss it, but I am excited to get to know the ward here and make
the same memories that I had in the Camp Hill ward. I know at some
point in time I will go back and visit all of them and who knows I could end up
back in that ward for some odd reason or another.
4. How is the missionary work going in Lititz? Tell us about your
investigators. The
work is going good, lots of less actives that we are trying to see. But we
do have a few investigators. That leads me to a really cool experience
that we had yesterday with a family (3 new investigators). So this is how
the story goes…Elder D and his old companion were street contacting a couple of
weeks ago and met and talked with this guy. They started talking with him
and he seemed interested in what they had to say. The man said they knew
a family from the ward that recently moved to Virginia. His wife also knew
a lady from the gym that is in our ward and she gave her a BOM for Christmas
last year. Elder D and comp ran into them again a week or so ago and
finally set up an appointment to meet with them for yesterday. The wife
said this is where she thinks God is taking them so she is going with it and
willing to listen. We finally met with them yesterday after church and
they are pretty much golden. We
started talking with them and she said she wanted to be together with her
family after this life. Elder D and I were both like “wow, this really is
a miracle”. So they are very open and are really solid and hopefully they
can get baptized. We committed the mom, dad and a 9 yr old son with a
baptism date of Dec. 21. I feel like that is going to happen and they might
be the reason I came here to this area. Also, the Elders just had a
baptism here on Saturday. Technically the young man didn't need to be
baptized because he has Down Syndrome. He is 15 and his family is all
active and knew that the baptism did not need to happen. But he wants to
pass the sacrament so he needs this to do that. His 8 year old sister got
baptized on Saturday so they did it together. It was a really cool
experience.
5. What about the members? What families have you met that stand out so
far? Well I have not met
tons of them yet. I met some at church yesterday and have heard a lot
about them. Unfortunately, last week we did not have tons of dinner
appointments. I met one family last week helping them put up a big
mirror. They moved in at the beginning of the summer and they are from
Las Vegas. They are the D family. They
are a good solid young family. We are having one of our Thanksgiving
meals with them. I have met a few others here and there but I don't
really know much about them yet. There are some other good solid families
but I haven't really met them yet.
6. How big is the ward (bigger or smaller than C H)? Boris tells us that
you drive to Lancaster for church, is that true? Do you and the sisters
share 1 ward? Yes,
we drive to Lancaster for church. It is only like 15 min. from where we live.
We and the sisters are both in that ward. It is the Lititz ward. It
is a pretty new building too, it was built of couple of years ago. It is
the stake center for the Lancaster stake so it is huge. It is the new
style and design (it looks like a Utah church), I will send pics. Also, it is a pretty
big ward, about the same size as Camp Hill, but there are a lot of less
actives.
7. How big is your area? It is
pretty big, but a lot of it is boonies. I really have only 2 big towns,
Lititz and Manheim. The area is split into a north and a south, we have
the north and the sisters have the south. I will send you a map of
the area.
8. How was packing for the transfer? Were you able to fit everything in
the luggage? Did you have to leave anything behind? It was not fun! The biggest pain was trying
to get all of my sheets and bedding stuff to fit. It was hard to get the
blue blanket nice and condensed. But luckily everything doesn't have to
be nice and neat until I come home (meaning I didn’t have to fit it all into
the suitcases for the airplane). So no, I didn't really leave anything
behind.
·
How's your apartment?
Bigger or smaller than CH? It
is about the same size, I will have pictures for you when I send the SD card
home soon.
·
How was the transfer? Where
did you meet for the transfer and how did you get to Lititz? We met at the Harrisburg stake center and had a
transfer meeting there. Then Elder D was there and we drove our car back
Lititz.
·
Are the fall leaves in full
color? Sort of, it’s finally getting
cold enough to make them change.
·
Are you adjusting to the
transfer, move & new surroundings? Are you happy & healthy?
How's your cold? Everything
is wonderful and I’m adjusting fine. I’m really enjoying it and I feel
good things are going to be happening here. Also, I feel that I am going
to be here for the long hall because President usually leaves you in drive
areas for about 6 months so I don't think I will be moving anytime soon. I
will eventually get used to it. My cold is fine, it just lasted a day or
two.
·
How's the weather? Is it
cold yet? Do you have anything specific you need in the winter box? Well we had a cold snap all last week. It
was only in the mid 40's to 50's all week and windy. Luckily, I had a
car. I think later this week it will be in the 60’s to low 70’s, but definitely
things are getting colder.
·
Have you had any contact with
the members in CH? Do they know where you were transferred to? No to both questions.
·
Where are the other
missionaries from? How many missionaries are in your district? Well, the sisters in our ward are from Boise
(nearby) and the other is from Kaysville. The others in our district are
the ZL’s , they are from Tooele and Payson. There are sisters for that
ward too and they are from St. George and Payson. So it’s just like
in Camp Hill, there are 8 in our district
·
How many miles do you get on
the car? 1000 a month
·
Do you still do your
shopping/email in Lititz on pday? Yes
·
Are you doing anything
exciting for Pday today? Not
today, usually we will go to the church and play volleyball with the
district. However, since it is the end of the month no one has miles to
make it down there. So we are not doing it today.
·
Any plans for Halloween?
Any cool things happening for Halloween in Lititz? Wednesday is the ward Trunk or Treat so we and
the sisters are going to go. We are dressing up as normal people and
wearing normal clothes. For the actual night of Halloween we have to be
in by 6 pm and we get to do a
deep clean of the apartment and then we have the night to relax. Our apartment is desperate for a clean in
general.
·
Have you seen any horse &
buggies on the streets yet? Yes,
a few. Like I said before, Target
has a spot for them to park. I will get a pic and send it.
Well I love you and miss you and if you get this here in the next
few minutes I might have some time to talk for a minute.
Love Elder Muir
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