Week 25...BRRR, Holy Bertha It's Cold!!!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Well to start off I'm in the last week of this transfer.  I feel like I have big things in store for the upcoming transfer.  Also, I will be skyping or calling in just 1 month from today.  I’m sure you are screaming now that you just read that J

1.   How's your week been?  What are the highs/lows?  Well we had a great week this week, we tracted quite a bit and we found a few potentials that we are trying to teach soon.  I still don’t really love tracting and it is not the most effective way of contacting, but hey at least I was out doing it.  Another high was that we finally got to talk to this investigator that we have not been able to contact since I have been here.  We finally got in to talk to him Friday night after many failed attempts.  We have another appointment with him on Friday.  A low is it is freezing cold and I am not looking forward to the cold windy winter.  Another high is that we picked up a new investigator.  He is the future son in law of a less active lady.  Unfortunately, they don't live in our area so hopefully they will move into our area.  We technically are not supposed to teach them if they are not in our area.  The less active lady (future mother in law) lives in our area but the daughter and the future son in law don't.  So we told them they should try and move into our area because where they are living right now is only temporary.  That was a pretty cool experience.  He (future son in law) said the closing prayer and the spirit was really strong in the lesson.  Hopefully all will go well this upcoming week.   

2.   What are 5 positive things from this week?  1)  I finally finished reading Alma.  2) I know you’re going to be impressed by this next statement.  I’m starting to eat and like chili.   Since it is starting to get cold here lots of people are making chili for us for dinner and I actually like it.  My guess is you’ll see me eat it when I get home.  3)  The youth activity we planned went much better than I thought it would.  We have been really diligent in our efforts and worked hard in preparing for it. 

3.   How's the weather been?  Looks like you've had a cold spell?  Any snow?  Holy Bertha has it ever been cold.  The highs have been in the 30's the past couple of days and lows in the low 20's to high teens.  No snow yet, they keep saying it is going to snow but we have not had any yet. 

4.   How's the teaching going?  Good as you saw in the highs we finally have a few investigators that we can actually teach. 

5.   What kind of service opportunities have you had?  Well, we still play pool with the old guy.  In Manheim we have raked leaves in a little park and painted some stuff.  On Saturday we are going to help put up a Christmas tree in the town square. 

6.   You didn't answer how your interview with the President went last week, did you forget/skip over it or do you not want to talk about it?  Sorry, I thought I did.  I was just running out of time and I must have accidentally skipped it.  It went well, he talked about the things that Elder Arnold talked about when he was here.  We need to make sure we are trying to use the stuff he taught us.  The interview  went well. 

7.   What's the youth activity that you've been planning?  When is the activity and did you and the WML come to an agreement?  Basically it was kind of a missionary night for mutual.  We had good plans for it that we kind of changed up a couple of days before the activity and the WML did not really like the idea of the way we had it planned.  We planned it the way President taught us, but the WML said it is not President’s job it is his job to make the approvals etc.  So pretty much it was just 2 differing opinions on the way the activity should have been done, but it went well and I think the youth liked it.   

11.  How's C (old guy) at the senior center?  Is he a member?  How did you find him?  He is doing well.  No, he is not a member.  A few years ago the missionaries went into the place where he lives and asked if there were service opportunities for them to do and they were introduced to C.   It has just been a standing appointment ever since. 

12.  Any new investigators?  Yes, a less active lady's future son in law.  So we will see how it goes with him.  The first lesson went really well and hopefully we will be able to continue teaching him. 

13.  Who are you teaching?  I have told you a little bit; however, we have been trying to teach this one lady (the less active I keep talking about) a lot. She is way cool and I am not quite sure how long she has been a member.  She has had a rough past and has tattoos and things all over but she is super nice and way funny.  I’ll tell you a story about her in the “what will make you laugh” part of your questions. 

15.  How are things with you and Elder D?  Things are going well, I really like him.  He’s pretty much an Idaho farm boy, he started working on farms when he was 12.  That is the kind of stuff he wants to do for a living.  He is the second oldest child and he has an older sister that is going to have a baby in April.  He also has a younger brother and  2 younger sisters.  Overall, we are doing well and I can't believe it has been 6 weeks we have been together. 

16.  Are transfers next week?  Do you think you two will stay together?  Yes, transfers are next week.  I am not exactly sure what will happen.  Elder D may be transferred, but most likely he will stay.  By this time next week I will know what is going on. 

17.  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  Have you finalized what you are doing?  We and the sister are going to the D family’s house for our big meal.  There are going to be a few families there from the ward and it should be fun.  I will take pictures and then send the SD card home.  We will just be visiting members and things and then maybe be lucky enough to have a Thanksgiving nap. 

18.  Do you have a DVD player?  How will you watch 17 Miracles?  Yes, we have a portable DVD player. 

19.  How's the lady with all of the personalities?  We don’t really visit her much.  She is a once every transfer visit.  She has a really good home teacher that lives by her so we leave it up to them to take care of her. 

21.  What do you do on Pdays in Lititz?  We go to the library and email then we and the others play volleyball at the church. 

24.  Give me something random that will make me laugh?  You’re going to love this, we had a less active lady (the one I mentioned above) that we have been trying to get to church forever and she always has something come up.  She finally got there yesterday, but it wasn’t before Satan really tried to stop her.  She was already to leave, but she needed to take the dog out before she left.  She ended up tripping in a pile of dog poop and got it all over her skirt.  To make matters worse, she broke the heel on her shoe and she ran out of gas on the way to the church.  We thought she would never show up because she missed sacrament meeting.  But lo and behold she ended up making it for the last 2 hours.  It just goes to show you how hard Satan tries to wear us down and stop us from doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Conversion is a continual process and Satan is always chipping away at us.  . 

Quick plug for Mormon messages…there is a good one on the Mormon Channel called "Wrong Roads" by Elder Holland. http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2714780496001 You may have seen it, but I encourage you to watch it again because it is really good.  Love and miss you, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

 

Love you,

Elder Muir

 

Elder Muir at District meeting and interviews with President

 



 Amish Country

 

 

 Fall leaves at a member's home

 Sunset out Elder Muir's kitchen window

 

Horse & buggy parking at Target

 

***I borrowed a couple of the photos from a senior couple missionary serving in Zach's mission.  They go home in January and wanted to get a quick road trip in to see the Amish country before they left.  Beautiful scenery!!!

Week 24...Oh Boy, It's Been an Interesting Week

Hola…

     Well, your package finally arrived on Monday (last pday) and must have come while we were out.  It was waiting on the doorstep when we arrived home.  You weren’t kidding about it being a huge box.  Everything survived and the Granny Bread is not moldy J  Thanks for everything in it!!!  The boots look fab and they look like they should work.  Also, thanks for the new PMG book.  All is well here and everything will be put to good use. 

    I’ll preface this by saying, boy this has been an interesting week.   I am beginning to learn that people are sometimes difficult to deal with when it comes to church assignments and callings in a ward.    I’m definitely learning humility and patience as we work with people in the ward.   It’s difficult when everyone doesn’t agree on the same thing and everyone’s not on the same page.  I'm sure that everyone deals with this to some extent.  We are trying to do our best and do our duties to the best of our ability.

1.    What are the highs/lows for the week?  Oh boy has this been an interesting week.  1)  Highs were having interviews with President.  2)  Also, I was glad to finally see your package because I was getting a bit worried about it this time last week.  The videos you sent on the SD card were pretty sweet too.  3)  We also did pretty good on our less active lessons this week.  We went over our goal that we had set.  4)  A low happened in our coordination meeting with our ward mission leader.  We have been trying to plan a youth activity and everyone is not on the same page with ideas.

2.    What are 5 positive things that happened?   1) We had a less active guy show up at church yesterday.  He had not been to church in 10 years and he was on our do not contact list.  He basically showed up on his own free will, so that was good.  2) Also I ate taco salad at a member’s home this week.  3) I am almost done with Alma in the BOM.  4) I finished the book Our Heritage and it was pretty good. 

3.    Did you get Aunt Merri's pckg, gpa Lewy's letter, Sis. Beuhner's letter?  Yes to all of them and THANK YOU!!!  I got Aunt Merri's & Spencer’s stuff a couple of days after I got here.  I got grandpa's on Friday and I got the Buehner’s on Saturday. That was so nice of each of them.  I’m so blessed to have so much support from home, thanks again to everyone. 

6.    Were you ever able to see the video on the SD card?  Yes, I ended up watching it on the computer.  I think our cameras are 2 different formats so it won't read on my camera but it will on the computer.  It was quite the adventure going on a grand tour of the house.  It was great to see and hear you.  Megan's room turned out good.  I can't wait to see whatever surprise that you said you had in store for me.

8.    How's the weather been this week?  It has been up and down, right now it is pretty nice.  Yesterday it rained and was overcast all day.  It really has not gotten cold yet. 

10.   Have you been playing pool with your senior friend?  What's his name and what's his story?  His name is C and I'm not really sure what his story is.  I know he has a couple of kids, but I don't know much about them.  I know he has one son that lives in Virginia and he comes to visit him occasionally.  Really he is just a lonely old man in an assisted living center and we enjoy visiting him. 

11.   What happened with the service in Manheim that a ward member was setting up?  Well we started it on Friday and hopefully it will be a permanent thing.  What did you do?   This week we raked some leaves up in a park, but I think it is going to be different every week.   

12.   Any good mealtime stories?  Well, one family fed us taco salad last week and I ate it...that's progress for me:)  It was good but I am not really a big fan of lettuce. 

13.   Have you met any new members/families that you enjoy?  Yes, there are a few more families that I’ve met.  The  H Family is where I ate the taco salad at.  They are a cool family with 3 sons.   One son is out at UVU right now and he’s thinking about going on a mission.  They also have one son who is a priest and one who is a deacon.  She is in the primary presidency and they are a super nice family. 

14.   Any new investigators?  No

15.   Any contact with your investigators that dropped you?  No, right now according to their friends in the ward we just need to let them be.  But the friends are still trying to keep a relationship with them and will maybe invite them to some Christmas stuff. 

16.   What kind of national restaurants/stores are in your area that you can go to?  Target is a store that’s obviously nearby.  I'm not really sure what is around restaurant wise, I will have to look and keep you posted. 

22.  Are you enjoying Lititz?  Yes, but it definitely comes with its own set of challenges and struggles. 

23.   How are the driving skills coming on the narrow windy roads?  They’re coming along but I’m definitely not looking forward to driving on them in the snow.  They are not really fun to drive on in the dark because there are no street lights and it’s very dark. 

24.  Anything we can do/pray for?  Please pray that we can find people to teach and be diligent.  Also, that we can get our youth activity planned and we can all come to an agreement that everyone is happy with :)

25.  Anything on your Christmas list?  Maybe some Christmas CD's. I would like the David Archuleta MoTab CD and maybe some other MoTab Christmas stuff.  Also maybe a Christmas tie and I was thinking maybe you could send me an orange tie.  We can watch 17 Miracles so that might be an idea.  Also, if possible could you send the CDs before Christmas because I want to listen to them during the month of December rather than for a few days before Christmas. 

Sorry, some of this is so scattered.  I was running out of time to do all I need to do, so I will include more in a snail mail. 

Love you and miss you J

Elder Muir

Week 23...5 Months!!!

Letter from November 5, 2013

 Hi Family,

      Well today is the 5 month mark, only 19 more to go.  It’s already been an interesting morning here.   At 7:00 am we got a text from our investigator (the family we've committed to baptism in December) saying that she was dropping us because her husband isn’t totally on board with everything right now.  So we are pretty much starting at square one again trying to find people to teach.  We were really sad for their family, but that is missionary life for you.  We are trying to just keep positive now.

       Luckily, we have a busy week ahead.  We have a zone teaching and that will be good.  I’m glad to hear that you’ve been doing things with and for the missionaries.  You have no idea how much that means to us when people help us out.  Make sure Boris continues to do splits with them as much as possible.  You will learn so much and also continue to study the PMG manual. 

       Sorry the letter is short, I have to run and get ready for the day.  Hopefully I will get your  package  by the time you get this letter.

Love you,

Elder Muir

P.S.  How is Steve doing?  Better, worse or the same?

 

Email from Monday, November 11, 2013

3.    That's good news about the free haircuts again, how many and how old are all of the girls in the haircut lady's family?  Well there are 6 girls and they range from 18 to about 5 or 6.  The parents have both previously been married so it is Brady Bunch style.  The youngest girl is theirs together. 

4.    What are your highs/lows this week?  Well obviously our investigators dropping us was disappointing.  In turn, it caused us both to have a little bit of a nervous breakdown on Friday because nothing was really going on and we have been struggling to find things to do.  Also nights have been miserable with it getting dark at 5:30 pm now.  It is really hard to get anything done the last few hours of the night.  A high was a dinner appointment that we had last night.   We ate at divorced lady's house and she tried finding a priesthood holder to come so we did not have to take it home and eat it, but she couldn't find anyone.  So instead she decided we would eat in her screened sun room outside on the porch.  It was cold and windy but they had a portable fire pit they brought in and we stayed pretty warm.  The best part was that we roasted marshmallows for dessert. 

5.    What are 5 positive things this week?  I am almost finished with Alma and I hope to finish the BOM again by the end of the year.  We taught the priests class yesterday in church.  We were not planning on teaching, but we had to go in and make an announcement and the leaders were not there.  The bishop was supposed to teach but he was busy so we decided to teach.  Also, we had a dinner appointment ever night this week. 

6.    Any service opportunities so far in this area?  Well right now we play pool with this 92 year old man at a senior center and if they need help setting up tables and chairs for events we do that for them.  But so far I have only played pool with our senior friend.  However, starting Friday we are going to be helping around Manheim too.  I’m not sure on details, but a lady in the ward knows someone who works for the city so she lined it up for us.  So I will keep you posted on what we do. 

7.    Sounds like you are still using the GPS for driving.  Does your car come with a GPS?  Do you use the GPS that we sent with you?  I'm not using my GPS right now, just using Elder D's.   But I will eventually use mine and no, the car does not have one. 

8.     How are the ward families?  Still enjoying the families?  Have you met any new families?  They are good.  I am continuing to get to know them and build relationships with them.

9.    How was your zone teaching last week?  What is zone teaching, is it something that you went to or that you taught?  It is a monthly meeting with the zone and the zone leaders do training on what the zone can do to improve.  It went well, we went over chapter 1 of PMG and it was just a reminder of what our purpose is as missionaries. 

10.How's Elder D?  Are you two getting along well?  Yes, we are getting along well and we are doing good together. 

11.How's the weather been?   It’s been cold and windy the past few days.  Tomorrow I think it is supposed to snow.  I will let you know if it does. 

12.Any new investigators or teaching opportunities?  Unfortunately no new investigators, but we have a few less actives that we teach. 

13.What's your favorite thing about the mission?  Least favorite thing?  I’ve loved gaining a stronger testimony of all of the simple doctrines of the gospel.  Dealing with all the physical and emotional stress is definitely my least favorite. 

14.What have you learned the most so far from your mission?  Better question is what haven't I learned J.  I’ve for sure learned  how powerful and important that the atonement is. 

15.Have you had President interviews or are they upcoming?  They are on Thursday

16.What happened with the text and your investigator?  What did you mean when you said, "not everyone is on board right now"?  Well we were teaching her husband too and he did not really like right everything that was taking place because he felt rushed and when he was younger he had bad experiences with religion.  So he was not on board with it right now.  We knew in the beginning that he would take a little extra work.  Luckily they have some friends in the ward and some that just moved out.  We talked to the ones in the ward and they are going to try and invite them to some stuff and keep in them in contact with the church.  So we are not completely writing them off yet, it is not completely a lost cause. 

20.Can we pray for anything (besides the fact that we always pray for you :)  Pray that we can find people to teach. 

 I love you and can't wait to see the giant package. 

Love you all and miss you!

 Elder Muir