Called to Serve: Week 34…Wintry Weather & Miracles in the Mission

January 27, 2014

Howdy Family,

I am glad you liked the envelope with the pictures and the letters. The stuff seemed to get there really fast this time. I sent it on Tuesday. That is really weird; I thought you would not get it until Saturday. I’m sorry to hear about Steve, please tell them that I say hello and that I’m thinking of them and keeping them in my prayers.

Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my camera this morning but I have some more pictures from last Pday and my exchanges last week. I went on exchanges and got some pics of the frozen snowy Susquehanna River. I will email them to you next week.

Well another month pretty much gone by and can't believe February starts on Saturday. I will be at 8 months in a week and a half. Friday (1/31) is a monumental day, it’s hard to think that is the year mark of getting my call. It seems like it was just yesterday.

What are the highs/lows for the week? Oh my goodness this week has been amazing. So many good things have happened. Miracles are happening and all of the sudden everything seems to be falling into place. We have met so many new people and we have the opportunity to teach them. I’m not sure what’s going on, suddenly all of our hard work is paying off and we can see the Lord’s hand in our work. Maybe the Lord feels sympathy for us because of all this crazy weather that we have been enduring. This week many people opened their doors to us and we were invited to teach quite a few people from our old teaching records. These are people that were taught a few years ago. So here are the other highs from the week. First of all, I was able to go on an exchange with the zone leaders in their area. It was pretty fun to get out and around to see a new part of PA. Even though a lot of their plans fell through we still had fun and were able to make do and come up with other ideas to complete our day. The day I was on exchanges with the zone leaders, Elder B and Elder T contacted these people that were in our records from a while ago. We have been meaning to contact them, but we could not find their address and haven’t had time to see them. However, Elder B finally contacted them on Thursday and they were super nice and receptive. They seemed to know who the missionaries were and Elder B said they were GOLDEN J Even better, it’s a family. We have a return appointment with them tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully they will be interested and let us teach them. On Friday night we had a lesson with D and that went really well. Also, we picked up another guy from Puerto Rico and he also has been taught before. He is kind of wishy washy, so we will see where it goes. If that’s not enough, we decided to do a BOM class. We started it on Wednesday and it went well. We had a few people show up. We are doing it with the sisters so hopefully we can get a good crowd coming out to it. Last week 3 people came and we hope it continues to grow. So overall it was a great week and we have a packed week this coming week. The overall low has probably just been the cold weather and snow which I am getting tired of. I really hope spring is shortly around the corner.
How's the weather been this week? Oh boy has been all over the place. Cold and snowy last week and then it warmed up a tad this weekend. But it has been crazy to say the least. Our WML said usually this part of PA does not get this cold and snowy ever. I guess, according to him, this winter is breaking records. So pretty much it is has been much different than your balmy January weather and it sounds like this week isn't going to be much better for us. More subzero temps coming for tomorrow and Wednesday.
How was the storm last Monday/Tuesday? Did your car get parked? It was quite the storm, it snowed pretty much all day Tuesday. We ended up with about 10 inches of snow. The car was parked for most of the day Tuesday. We able to drive in the morning a little bit, but not much because the storm was just starting to roll in just when we got started. So we came back and had lunch and then we went out and shoveled around our apartment complex for like 3 hours. Unfortunately, it was so snowy that it basically just covered all of our work back up. So we shoveled for a while and then we went back and cleaned the apartment. Later that night we drove into downtown Lititz and contacted this guy that used to be an investigator a few years ago and luckily we ended up picking up him as a new investigator. We walked around to try and contact a couple of other people. While we were driving back to our apartment we were going up a hill and had a little trouble. Unfortunately our car does not have 4 wheel drive. We were almost to the top of the hill, but our tires could not get any traction so basically we were just spinning. Luckily, there were 2 dudes behind us and they came and pushed us up. On Wednesday it was nice and sunny and we had blue skies. This gave everyone the chance to begin to dig out. So there you have it…the story of the blizzard.
In your last email you said it was scary driving home in the fog from Harrisburg. You didn't tell me that you were safe and made it home in one piece...I'm assuming that was a given and that everything was A OK even though it was scary. Yes, we made it home in one piece and everything is A OK and hopefully it will always be like that.
Was the man that paid for the pretzel factory tour a church member? No, he was just a random guy that knew who Mormon missionaries were and decided to pay for all of us. So he was just a super nice stranger.
Did you get my package on Thursday? Can you use the sweaters and the new BYU shirt? Yes, I got it all. It was lovely and I can use all of it. Thanks!
How did your interview go with President? Interviews went well. He talked a lot about making sure that we set goals and then plan around those goals. Basically it was just making sure that our planning is going well and we continue to work hard and be obedient. He related a scripture story about the people of Ammon when they were at a critical point in their spiritual lives and laid down their weapons and gave up fighting. Elder Richard G. Scott gave an amazing talk during October 2013 conference that centered around this scripture story ( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/personal-strength-through-the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng President taught us that we need to do our part in being obedient and be committed to the covenants and promises that we make.
How are things with your investigators? Amazing, as you saw in the highs.

TP, Mandy & Lee ... Right now we have just talked with them for a few minutes after we stopped by D’s . But hopefully tomorrow we are having TP and D over to the W family (Primary president) for dinner and then a lesson.
D... is doing awesome and he’s making progress. We had an amazing lesson with him on Friday and Bro. W was there with us. We intended on talking about the Plan of Salvation but it turned into a lesson about trials. Unfortunately, he is still not coming to church. But he still is reading and praying, so that’s great! It hard because he wants a “for sure answer” if this is the right thing for him. Really he wants a giant “sign” that says this is what you should do as his answer. We told him the spirit works in a still small voice, not giant “signs” and that the spirit he feels reading the BOM and meeting with us is his answer. Basically, it just Satan’s way of trying to keep him on his side. Also, he doesn't really have a job right now. He’s applied with a company and he has had a couple of interviews and he just desperately wants/needs a job. The lesson was so good and the spirit was so strong that he started to cry a couple of times. I shared the scriptures in Ether 12:6 and 27 and those were very helpful to him. 6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that ^afaith is things which are ^bhoped for and ^cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no ^dwitness until after the ^etrial of your faith. 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them. So please pray for him and that things will continue to move forward with him.
W... Well, basically he has been really busy and not doing much that we’ve asked of him, so we have pretty much dropped him. We have one more appointment set with him for Sunday and if that doesn't spark a fire with him we are officially going to drop him.
M... She is sort of wishy washy and we tried to meet with her the other day but she said she was going out of town. So we will see what happens. It is hard because there is no man in the house, so we have to find people to go with us each time and that makes it hard to get a set lesson with her.
Claude... He is doing great. He is still enjoying us playing pool with him and I love it too.
I family... Unfortunately, we were not able to meet with them last week because they were sick. We are planning on going over tonight.

Any new leads/investigators? The family that I was talking about in highs is a great lead. Like I said above, I have not met them yet, but they sound great. Pray that they will be receptive to our message.
How are your meals? Do you still eat at members' homes each night? Tried any new food lately? Meals have been good. We’ve finally been starting to get meals back on the calendar. It has been kind of slow for the past month or so. We’re hoping it will pick up again. On a sidenote, I tried asparagus a few weeks ago and this is hard for me to admit, but I kind of liked it. I know you probably are jumping for joy right now.
What food are you sick of? What food are you craving? I would love some of your Chex mix, that sounds good about right now.
Do you need anything? stamps, labels etc.? No, I am doing pretty good on all of that. I haven't been sending a ton of letters out lately.
Can we pray for anything/anyone? Pray for D . Please put his name on the temple roll. I really want things to get going with him. Really just pray that all of these new people will allow us to share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
How's Elder B? He is great and we continue to work well together and apparently it is working because we have a lot of people to teach right now. So, we are getting along great and we both enjoy being with each other.

Well as you've seen I have had an awesome week!!! Hopefully this coming week will be the same and all of our appointments will happen. Thanks for everything and I love you and miss you!!!

Love,

Elder Muir