Called to Serve: Week 22...Howdy Yinz!

Monday, November 4, 2013

(Italics added by Kristen)

Howdy Yinz…(Yinz is Pittsburgh slang for you, you guys, ya’ll)

I just thought I would say I'm glad you liked all of the birthday stuff I sent last week. I figured you would and I'm glad you liked the video. As soon as I saw it I thought it was a perfect birthday present.

Well as you heard in my letter things are well here. It looks like things are going well at home too. I’ve finally started meeting some people in the ward and I’m excited to get to know them even more. Bonus…I still get free haircuts. A lady in the ward cuts the missionaries hair. I got a haircut on Monday.

I’m not a fan of Daylight Savings time…yay to getting the extra hour of sleep, but no bueno to getting dark at 6 pm. I’m not kidding when I say that people go to bed at 7 pm here and it makes it a big pain to get anything done the last few hours of the day. By the way, I drove for the first time in 4 ½ months. It was fun. Let’s just say that PA farm roads are not fun, they are very windy and narrow.

So first things first, yes, I know Tracy's niece, the J family. (Our friends from our last ward that now live in Houston sent a message on FB saying that they have a niece that lives in Lititz, PA. She said they were probably in the same ward as Zach and they are). She and her husband are both ward missionaries and I had dinner with them last Monday. They are awesome! Since they are ward missionaries I see them at all the correlation meetings.

(Zach sent a letter to my parents asking if they knew a couple that served in the Johannesburg South Africa mission and then were called to be Mission President of the Durban South Africa mission. My parents did serve with them in Johannesburg and they recently returned in July from serving as mission president. Their home ward is in Lititz, PA). I have not officially met the V family (South Africa mission president) yet, but I did have dinner with their daughter and her family last week. They live in the ward too. Her husband is the EQ president. They are a great solid family. Now on to the questions.

1. How was your week? What are your highs/lows? Well, unfortunately this week was kind of a slow week. Not a whole lot of stuff happened. But one high is that a less active guy and his girlfriend moved to Colorado and we and the Elder's Quorum helped load a huge moving truck full of all of their stuff. The girlfriend is Catholic and was very touched with all of the help from our church. She said Catholics would never do help, they would just say good luck and nice knowing you. So that was cool seeing how impressed she was with the service from the ward. A low was we spent all afternoon Tuesday at the doctor’s office for Elder D to get an ingrown toe nail removed from a podiatrist that is in the ward. That was quite the treat, he let it go for a few months and it finally got infected. So he finally gave in and got it fixed. Another low is our investigators with a baptismal date had to cancel for our lesson on Saturday. Hopefully we are able to reschedule for some time this week. We saw the lady for a second yesterday and she said she had been reading the BOM. We were glad that she had been reading..

2. What are 5 positive things from the week? We found out from the zone leaders the other day that we should be getting iPads some time at the beginning of the year. Apparently we also get to keep them when we are done with our mission. But supposedly we have to pay for them but that is still unsure right now and so that is a detail that is still being worked out. All I know is that we get them some time at the beginning of the year. Another positive is we did a serious deep clean of our apartment on Halloween night. The bathroom and kitchen are now nice and sparkly. They shine like the top of the Chrysler building, Svetlana would be proud J So that is how we spent our Halloween.

3. How are things with Elder D? Things are going well with him. We are really getting along well. To answer one of your questions from last week, he is the district leader and he had a semester at BYU-Idaho before he came on his mission.

4. How are things going with your investigators (family of 3 committed to baptism)? Well as you saw in the beginning we did not have a lesson with them this week. So that was a bummer and we are trying to get something set up for this week. I know she works at a gym and I'm not sure what he does. They are both in their late 20's or early 30's. Not sure if I already told you this but they have some friends from the ward that they know well. Hopefully we can keep progressing with them.

5. How many meals do you have planned for Thanksgiving? You mentioned you already have 1 meal lined up. We have 2 so far and I am not sure why they are signing up so early that is just what is happening and I'm ok with that. So I will keep you posted on what happens.

6. How's the haircut lady and her family? Do you have dinner appointments with her/family? The haircut lady is awesome. They are a good solid family. It is a family with a whole bunch of girls. We have dinner with them tomorrow and I think they feed us pretty regularly.

7. Glad to hear that you've been driving, scares me a bit with the windy, narrow roads. Be careful!!! Who is the official driver or do you take turns? Ok, I’ll be careful J It doesn't really matter who drives, so we just take turns. Also the car we have is a 2012 Chevy Malibu. I will take pics for you.

8. How's the weather been? Looks like you may have had rain last week. It was sort of warm last week but now it is cold and windy again. It rained a bit on Friday morning.

9. Have you heard anything from Camp Hill? I have texted Elder F a little and emailed him a bit. Things are going well there I think.

10. Are you adjusting to your area and do you like Lititz? Yes, to both.

11. I looked on Google earth at a few things in your area (Lititz & Manheim, PA). Just wondering what the huge parking lot with some buildings is near Sporting Hill and Lancaster Junction near Manheim. It is where they have a big car auction every weekend. I have heard it is one of the biggest car auctions in America. Google Manheim car auction and you can probably find out something about it.

12. Are you becoming familiar with the area? Yes, finally starting to get my bearings, but still need the GPS to drive.

13. What's your favorite thing about Lititz so far? Well the fall leaves are very pretty so far, pictures to come soon. Also the scenery is beautiful.

14. Tell us about some of the families/members you've met. The J family (Tracy's niece) is a good family, I really like them. He is going to medical school. The D family is also a good solid family. They are one of the families that we are having Thanksgiving dinner with. He is a dentist. Also, there is the H family. He is an oral surgeon and is the EQ president. She is the V family’s (South Africa mission president) daughter. They have great kids. The I family is the one that cuts our hair and we have dinner with them tomorrow. So those are the families that I’ve met so far and they are all great families that are solid in the gospel.

15. How was the ward Halloween trunk or treat? It was pretty great! We and the sisters went dressed up as normal people in our normal clothes. We almost got our investigator family there. We were able to get a less active family there and so did the sisters.

16. Any good food that you've tried/eaten/bought? A couple of weeks ago at a lunch appointment I had fried eggplant…yes, I just said FRIED EGGPLANT!!! It was OK, I would not make it just to have, but I survived.

17. How are your meals with members? Do you eat with them often? Yes, they feed us often. This week we have a meal every night. Next week we are pretty full too. Guess it won’t be long before Mel’s prediction comes true and I become the “fatted calf”.

18. Any people that you have really clicked with yet? All of the families that I just told you about I really like. So hopefully I will continue to build a good relationship with the ward.

19. How's the bishop? He is a character, he is very theatrical…literally. He runs this theater down in Lancaster. The family is very liberal and they have Obama stickers all over their van, but he is a super nice guy.

20. Anything you want to tell us that I forgot to ask? Well we met this schizophrenic less active lady on Friday night. It was very odd. Apparently she has 47 spirits in her head and 7 are evil…no bueno.

Well over and out! Love you and miss you.

Love,

Elder Muir