Called to Serve: Week 30...Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

Week 30 December 30, 2013

Hey good to hear from you. I can't believe it has been almost a week since we skyped, I loved it as did you.

What are the highs/lows from this week? Well obviously I think a high for all of us was Christmas and getting to talk to you. Another high was the stake had a youth activity Friday night at a rec center and we were able to get a less active family’s youth there. So I was a glad to hear they went. We are making progress with them. There last name is Ivie, I'm not sure if we are related at all, maybe distantly. It was good to get the kids there. Another high is I am almost done with 3 Nephi, I have 2 chapters left. A low is since we have like no miles left we have been doing a lot of walking around town. In the process of doing that I slipped on a chunk of ice and landed on my butt. I am fine, it just hurt really bad and was quite the sight. Again, I AM FINE… no injury, just to my dignity. I guess you could say another high was our 5th Sunday lesson that taught went well. I feel like December and this transfer has dragged a really long time. I think partly it is because of the holidays and the anticipation of Christmas.
How was the rest of your Christmas day? What did you do for dinner at the F Family? Well dinner was interesting, we had Tilapia (fish)…not my idea of Christmas dinner but at least I ate it. It was not half bad, but it definitely would not be my first choice. The rest of Christmas day went well. After we left the S family we went to visit Claude for a minute then went back to the F family. At the F family we decorated some cookies and then had dinner. After we played Catch Phrase for a while and then we went back home around 8ish and just hung out at the apartment.
Who else did you visit on Christmas? No one else really. We stopped to drop a card off to Claude and we chatted with him for a bit.
What are 5 positive things from the week? Well I think Christmas definitely was fun. We got some less active youth to the stake activity.
How is the tri companionship? It is good, we all get along well. I probably would not be jumping up and down wanting to be in one again but if I was put in another one I would do it. The drawback is adding a 3 person just makes things hard when you try to balance the teaching out and things. Overall, it is good I guess.
Who is the new Elder? Elder S Where is he from? Las Vegas How long has he been out? 18 months he came out with Elder B. Introduce us to him? Well I don't know tons about him yet, but I know he likes to fly and has flown a plane before. He was in Ephrata before he came here. Hopefully next week I will know a little more about him.
Where does he sleep? Well unfortunately we don't have a 3rd bed so Elder B gave him his bed and now Elder B sleeps on the floor on some couch cushions.
Do you like being a tri companionship? Like I said it has its pros and cons. I am just rolling with the punches and luckily it is only for 2 weeks. They are fun it just makes things difficult sometimes when we are teaching. 2 is just a good number to have.
How are things going with your investigators/teaching? Well lately it has been kind of slow because the month of December is kind of a hard month. With the holidays everybody is busy and out of town. So I am hoping now that the holidays are over we can get things rolling again. I have not seen Mandy & Lee since the first of December when they came to church that one time.
How's Claude? He is doing well, like I said we went to visit him on Christmas and he seemed to be doing well then.
How's the weather? It has been all over the place, rainy and cloudy the past couple of days. It snowed Thursday morning and then it was sunny and nice that afternoon. But temp wise it has been in the 30's and 40's.
Any good/funny stories this week? Not really. Christmas was pretty fun when we were playing Catch Phrase. It got quite intense.
Have you met any new people? Well we picked up a former investigator that we are starting to teach. His name is W and he is from Kenya. Hopefully we can make some progress with him.
Do you change times for church or do you stay the same? We change to 11. But meetings start between 8:30 and 9 am each week so we will still be there pretty early.
Did you do anything at the S family on Christmas? We sat and talked for a little bit after we finished talking on Skype, but they were headed to a movie so we did not have much time with them.
Are you doing anything for New Year's or do you just hang in your apartment? Well New Year’s Day we have a normal day, but on New Year’s Eve we have to be in by 6 pm and then we pretty much get to clean or find whatever else we can do in the apartment.

So a couple of things in reply to your letter. I was not expecting you to get released from RS, I guess you will have to keep me updated on where you go from there.

Now, something I always forget to tell you. Remember that day that I cashed my last check before I left for my mission and the teller said her brother (Elder D) was in the Pittsburgh mission. I keep forgetting to tell you that I met him right when I got out here because he was in the other ward that met in our building in Camp Hill. It turns out that he replaced me in Camp Hill when I left. So I know him quite well.

Also President told us in his email today that he heard who our new mission president is. The bio comes out in the church news in January. I will copy a little chunk that President had in his email. Below is an excerpt from President’s email.

“We are excited to inform you that the First Presidency has called your new mission president and his wife. Their names are Bradley and Rosemarie Johnson and they will begin their service near July 1^st. A short biographical sketch of them will appear in the Church News in January but they have agreed to let you see a sneak preview”:

Bradley Kent Johnson, 57, and Rosemarie Miller Johnson, 56, from the Providence Utah South Stake.

Brother Johnson serves as High Priest Group Leader in the Providence Utah Fifth Ward and is a former Bishop, temple ordinance worker, stake mission president, stake executive secretary and missionary in the Switzerland Geneva Mission. Retired Chief Administrative Officer & CFO at REI. Born in Logan, Utah to Vere Hodges and Winifred Amacher Johnson.

Sister Johnson serves in the YW Presidency in their ward and is a former stake Relief Society president, stake YW counselor and ward Relief Society President. Born in Logan, Utah, to Ivan Valaire and Ruth Nelson Miller.

The Johnsons have eight wonderful children (four boy & four girls) – ages 16 to 34. They returned to Utah last year after living in the Midwest (Minnesota & Wisconsin), New England (Massachusetts & Maine) and Washington state. They love classical music, hiking, biking, reading and the gospel. Both are very excited to be in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission.

Well I am glad to hear from you and glad you had a great Christmas. Happy New Year and talk to you next year.

Love,

Elder Muir