Week 27...New Companion & Winter Wonder Land

We made it through another transfer and I have my new companion, Elder B.  He was the ZL in Harrisburg.  So he was my ZL when I was serving in Camp Hill and I know him quite well already.  I spent the day with him and his companion yesterday in Harrisburg and we had a fun time.

1. How are things with you and Elder B?  Tell us about him?  He is from Mapleton, UT and he’s been out for about 18 months.  He’s the second oldest in his family.  He has an older brother and a couple of younger brothers.  He went to BYU-I  for a year before he came out on his mission.  He wants to be a mechanical engineer.  He is really good at yo-yoing, I will have to get a video and send it to you. 
2. How come you spent the day with him and his companion in Harrisburg on Tuesday?  They needed our car to help get the missionaries around for the transfer.  So I spent the day in Harrisburg with him & his companion and we came back to Lititz around 7 that night.  Also, one of our sisters got transferred and we gave them a ride up to Harrisburg in the morning.  The new sister was coming from Pitt so we had to wait for her to get in. 
3. Is Elder B the new district leader or is he still the zone leader?  He is the district leader now. 
4.  Was it hard to say goodbye to Elder D?  Where did he go?  He is a zone leader out in Altoona now.  Yeah, I was sad that he left because we were just starting to get in the swing of things together.   
5.  What are the highs/lows for the week?  Well this week has been kind of a crazy week.  Transfers just makes things hard because I was gone all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday morning was spent with Elder B unpacking and things like that.  But a couple of highs are that we had another lesson with D and we taught him the word of wisdom.  It's going to be a lot of work to get him to kick those habits, but he is continuing to read the BOM and understands it quite well.  We are making slow progress with him, but at least it is progress.  Another high is we were able to watch the Christmas devotional last night (watch it here)   https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2013/12?lang=eng The missionaries in our district braved the weather and roads and went to the church to watch it.  We watched it over the Roku Mormon channel.  I really liked Sister Wixom's talk/story and also Elder Nelson's talk.  It was a weird format but I liked how they did it.  Another high was we had our ward Christmas party on Friday and there were a lot of families that invited nonmember friends.  Unfortunately, we did not have any investigators or less actives at church.  But now that we have transfers out of the way and a normal week this week we will get the ball rolling again. 
6. What are your 5 positive things for the week?  We stayed in one piece and survived the storm on Sunday.  We had our ward Christmas party Friday. 
7. How has your weather been?  It looks like you got quite a bit of rain this past Friday and then it appears that Mother Nature unleashed on your area yesterday (Sunday).  Is there snow on the ground?  Yes, as you saw from the pictures we got snow.  It was nice for a few days then things went south fast.  It was while we were in church that the snow began to fly.  After church it finally started sticking to the roads and we were sort of late for our 2:00 pm dinner.  The roads were very slow and go.  You are going scream when I tell you this...but I drove the car in the snow without 4 wheel drive and I didn't even have to text you and tell you I made it safely.  Don't worry, I drove very slow and no damage was done and I'm still in one piece :)  They decided to cancel our activity (singing) that we were going to have before the Christmas devotional.  However, our ZL's knew how to set up the stuff to get the devotional at the church, so at about 7 pm we ventured out to church and watched it because we had nothing else to do and we really wanted to see it.  Sounds like the East got pounded with weather as I'm sure you heard.  There was a deadly 50 car pileup on the PA Turnpike, one of the main freeways in PA that is north of me.  But we were all safe and made it home alive. 
8. What's the status with your car in the snow?  If the weather is really really bad we have the same rule as below.  So it just depends on how bad things get and it sort is based on our best judgment, but if conditions are terrible we have to stay in or walk everywhere.  Can you guys drive when there's a storm?  The missionaries here get their car "grounded" during snowstorms and they have to walk. Do you walk much anymore or do you always drive?  I drive most of the time because our area is very spread out. 
9. How are things going with the investigators?  I put their names on the temple roll?  Things are going well but things are slow.  At least we are making progress with them.
10. How are things with TP, Mandy & Lee ?  Too bad about the probation thing, hopefully things will work out.  Heavenly Father has a plan for everybody :)  Unfortunately, they were not at church and we didn't meet this week because their work schedule was just too crazy, so hopefully this week we can get something set up. 
11.  Did  Mandy & Lee move into your area or are you just teaching them anyway?  Right now they still don't live in our area but they may move in.  So we are just continuing to teach them. 
12.  How are things going with D? Tell us more about him...age, status, his life, is he married?  Did he quit the lessons before?  Things are going well with him.  He is in his 30's and is not married.  He is TP’s ex-boyfriend, but they are not together anymore as of a few months ago.  He lives just down the street from her.  He’s had kind of a rough past.  He was in the army as a cook and became addicted to pain pills and was very very crazy.  He’s now trying to clean up his life.  He didn't quit the lessons before, we had just lost contact with him until a couple of weeks ago and we started teaching him again. 
13.  Any new investigators or prospects?  No, unfortunately. 
14.  How are things with the members?  Things are going well; they are really trying hard to do missionary work.  They stake presidency has challenged everyone to have a lesson in their home by the end of the year.  Any fun or not so fun experiences?  No, dinner appointments are pretty normal, run of the mill right now.  Our dinner appointments have kind of slowed down and not many people are signing up to feed us.
15.  Dinnertime experiences?  No, not really… things have kind of died off for people feeding us lately. 
16.  How are the 25 days of Christmas going?  Do you like it?  Yes, I like it.  But just a piece of info…I know you were just thinking of ways to help me but I don't need you to send me copies of the Joy to the World DVD.  I can order those from the office and get loads of them.  Other than that I love the countdown and love opening each little surprise, thank you! 
17.  Do you have anything that you need or want for Christmas?  I know I told you a couple of weeks ago and you may have other plans for them to come to me, but I want an orange tie and we can watch 17 Miracles so I would like that.  But for the most part I'm good. I'm just ready for Christmas to talk to you. 
18.  Any fun plans for Christmas in your ward or in the town that you get to go to?  Well we had the ward party Friday and last night we were supposed to have a singing show that we were singing at and a few other people were going to do something, but they postponed it until next week because of the weather last night. 
19.  Anything else you want to tell me?  Can you get me Preston Akagi's mailing address?
20.  When is your next zone conference?  Does your zone meet in Lancaster at your church?  We have one on Friday, Dec. 13^th if the weather is good. We meet together with three zones (Lancaster, Chambersburg, and Harrisburg) up in Harrisburg. 

Well I love you and miss you and thanks for everything you do. 

Love

Elder Muir

P.S.  Unfortunately, I didn't get around to getting any pictures of Thanksgiving.  I wish I would have.  The boots you sent are awesome and I'm wearing them right now.  Also, the new sister that we got is from American Fork and she trained the sister missionary from Lori's ward in Mesquite.

 Elder ???, Elder B (new comp) & Elder Muir in Harrisburg on transfer day.

Evidently they are sporting the latest fashion in missionary attire :)

 Snow outside the Elder's apartment

The Elder's car (without 4 wheel drive :)