Week 38...Transfer #7 and A "Taste" of Spring

 Elder Muir hanging and playing pool with Claude at the senior center

 Elder Muir on Zachary Dr. in Manheim, PA

Elder Muir, Elder B, Bro. F, Sis. F, Sis T & Sis D

The F family hosted the Elders & Sisters on Christmas day  

February 24, 2014

Howdy,

      I thought I would send you a quick email before I get to your questions.  Also, here are a few pictures. The first one is me with Claude playing pool at the senior center.  Another is our district with  F family.  We ate dinner with them yesterday.   The last one is me on Zachary Drive out in Manheim.  I figured I had to have a picture of my own Drive J  BTW, I did get the package you sent with the chocolate hearts, glad that all worked out.  

     Sounds like you all had a great week.  Glad Bro. & Sis. B were able to talk with Colleen and talk about their mission.  I am sure they missed them and I know all the missionaries out here miss them.  I wished I would have had more contact with them than just when I came out.  Elder M (AP) is awesome, he is so funny and a great missionary.  Well I guess onto answering your questions about transfers.

1. What happened with transfers?   Are you staying or going?  We both are staying.  I was quite surprised, I thought for sure that I would be leaving even though I have only been here 4 1/2 months (3 transfers).   This will be the longest I have been with a companion (Elder B and I are on our 3^rd transfer together) and the longest I’ve been in an area (I was in Camp Hill 3 transfers and this will be my 4^th transfer in Lititz).  So there you have it, we are both staying put. 
2. What's the scoop on your area for transfers?  Tell me what you know...  Well transfers is really taking a hit on our district.   Everyone but our companionship was affected in some way, shape or form.  Sis. T is leaving and she will be training someone.  So Sis. D will be getting a new comp (most likely it is someone from the Pittsburgh side of the mission).  They are both driving to Pittsburgh tonight.  The ZL's are in our district and we are getting a new ZL’s, so that is another change.  The other sisters that are in our district will be getting another companion which makes them a trio.  So that is the scoop on transfers.  So onto another 6 weeks here in wonderful Lititz.  I’m good with it and it means you may have some more Wilbur Buds coming your way soon. 
3. What are the highs/lows this week?  Well a big high was yesterday's sacrament meeting.  The YW were in charge of the sacrament meeting program.  Instead of doing New Beginnings as a Wednesday night activity they decided to do it as the sacrament program.  It was awesome and very cool to see all of the YW participate.  Basically they had all of the girls up on stand and they said the YW theme together and then they had each class president go over what it says about each class (Beehive, Mia Maid & Laurel) in the personal progress book.  It was cool to hear what each of them meant, I hadn’t ever read about that before.  After all of the YW sang the 2014 mutual theme song Come unto Christ.  They did a great job!  After the song they had some of the girls talk about each of the 8 values and what each of them meant.  It was amazing to hear about the program that the YW have to help them grow into divine daughters of God and I love seeing it in action.  I hope that I can one day find a wife who has completed her personal progress and lives her life according to those values.  So basically I thought it was cool the way they did it in sacrament meeting instead of as a normal Wednesday night activity.  So Megan, way to go on your personal progress…keep going at it, it will help you find an epic husband.  Another high was Zone training, I will explain more about that in the question below.  Also we were able to do a lot of finding this week.  We have a few potentials that we are trying to go back and see this week.  Hopefully we will see some success from some of our finding because are teaching pool is kind of tanking right now.  We have not been able to have a lot of lessons this week.  Another high was we took advantage of the warm weather this weekend and we and the sisters decided to sing in downtown Lititz again on Saturday. 
4. What are 5 positive things?  1) Well I was able to run again this morning.  2) We were able to place quite a few BOM's this week.  3) I am continuing to eat asparagus as people feed it to me.  4) I invited Danny to be baptized.  5) And…drum roll, you can actually start to see some of the lawn again. 
5. How's the weather been this week?  It has been pretty nice this week.  There have been a few cloudy days and a little bit of rain, but most of the week was in the 40's. 
6. How was your zone training?  It was awesome!!!  We learned how to do better role plays that would allow us develop better lesson plans.  President talked about how to be better at answering questions people have using the BOM. 
7. Did you learn anything new/interesting/exciting at the training?  Like I said, we learned a new and improved way to role play.
8. Did you see Elder J (current AP and Zach’s 1^st comp) at the training?  No, he only comes to zone conference.  He and Elder M  were busy dealing with transfers and getting that done.
9. When does Elder B go home?  Does he have 1 or 2 more transfers after this upcoming one?  He has 2 more, he goes home with Elder M and President at the beginning of July. 
10. How are things with the investigators?  Well if we could meet with them it would be wonderful, but this week we have not really met with many of them. 
1. A?  Well we had a lesson set with him for Tuesday but he was not there.  We keep trying to go back but we seem to not be able to catch him. 
2. Kenya couple (apartment complex)?  We have stopped over a couple of times but he is super busy with work and working lots of double shifts.  So he is never home, he said he would text us when he is available so we will see what happens. 
3. T?  We dropped him because he’s not really interested anymore. 
4. D & TP?  Boy this is a story.  We pretty much have dropped both of them for right now.  He is not really motivated to do much right now and not really reading at all.  He really has the winter blues and he is sort of depressed.  I was on exchange with a member of the ward and we had a decent lesson with him and tried to set him with a baptism date of March 29.  He would not give us a definitive answer so I told him to pray about.  Elder B and I were planning on giving him the drop talk this week but we stopped by yesterday just to see how he was doing.  He said he did not really have any motivation because of the winter, cold and snow so he said he would call us when he is ready to meet with us.  So right now we are putting our teaching with him on hold.  So this is where it gets sort of interesting.  Later after we left  D’s we got a text from Sister W saying to either call her or stop by.  So we called and she said she just got an angry call from TP (she and TP are decent friends).  Apparently TP doesn't really like it when we just randomly stop by to visit D.  Apparently it causes drama between the 2 of them.  She said she would rather we either text her or have an appointment already set with him.  The problem is she never responds to half of our stuff that we send her.  So dropping by is sometimes the only way to contact him.  Sister W agrees with us that maybe we need to give them a break and she also knows TP doesn't respond to most of our texts and is kind of flaky to begin with.  So we were quite surprised to hear about this and we’ve decided we’re just going to put those 2 on the back burner for a bit.  So that is our drama with them.  Pray for them that they’ll have the desire to continue to learn and that they’ll feel the spirit.   
5. J (11 yr old boy)?  We have talked to him a bit but we haven’t really had a formal lesson.  So hopefully this week we can meet with him. 
6. Any new leads/investigators?  Well like I said above we did a lot of street contacting last week and we were able to get a few people to say we could come back.  Our biggest lead is a media referral that was given to us from some Wisconsin missionaries.  It’s a guy they were teaching there and he has moved back with his parents in PA.  He was set with a baptism date and has been to church a few times in Wisconsin.  So hopefully we can get things moving with him and get him baptized. 
11. I family?  They have been out of town and busy for the past little while so we have not had a lesson with them for a while.  We have something set for tonight so we will see what happens. 
12. Any fun upcoming activities?  Stake conference is coming up next month.  The missionary couple that is overseeing the Philadelphia temple construction is coming to speak at stake conference.  That should be interesting.  We also have a ward talent show coming up. 
13. Can we help or pray for anything?  Pray that D Danny will want to be taught here again in the near future and things will pick back up again with him. 
14. Are you happy/OK with how things will be for transfers?  Yes, I am happy.   It would be nice to see more of PA but I can’t complain with the situation I have here in Lititz.  It’s an awesome place with great people that are willing to do member missionary work. 

I think this quote by Elder Scott goes along great with what you said about your RS lesson yesterday from Pres. Monson’s talk.   He says, "Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Prov. 3:11–12). He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain."  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/trust-in-the-lord?lang=eng  I think that statement is very true, especially as a missionary.  You can be doing everything right and be exactly obedient and be doing everything good you could imagine, but there still has to be trials and hardships because God knows we can handle them and he needs us to grow and learn.  Those growth times are the times that I have grown the most on my mission.  Remember “there is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone.”

Well I hope that made and brightened (2 for 1) your day.  So we’re onto another 6 weeks with the Lititz ward and continuing the Lord’s errand of missionary work. 

Love you,

Elder Muir

Week 37...Lititz Fire & Ice Festival & Snow Days

February 18, 2014

Lititz Fire & Ice Festival and Lititz Gives New Meaning to Snow Days

Elder Muir at the Lititz Fire & Ice Festival

 



Well another week of wild weather.  All I can say is, “where are you spring time, why can't I find you?”  Just think of me impersonating Faith Hill and singing it to you.  Things are downright wintry here.  It’s white and snowy here and there are snow drifts taller than me.  All the snow that has been plowed and dumped is just heaped in huge piles.   Lititz gives new meaning to SNOW DAY.  The snowstorms have caused a lot of grief for the schools.  Most of the schools around here have only had 1 full week of school since Christmas break.  It seems that every big snow storm brings at least one snow day during the week sometimes two.  And if school isn’t cancelled they have late start, usually starting on a 2 hour delay.   Right now they’re scheduled to still be attending school towards the end of June.

1. What are the highs/lows for the week?  Unfortunately this week was kind of a slow week.  The weather has definitely been taking a toll on things.  A high is that we had a lot of dinner appointments this week which is a good.  It keeps us from having to make dinner every night.  I don’t know if it’s a high or low but we made our first crockpot meal this week.  Elder B and I bought a whole chicken and then cooked it in a crock pot and we’ve been eating off of the chicken throughout the week.  My personal preference is precut boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are nice and clean and without bones, but the whole chicken in a crockpot was a successful adventure.   A low is that we tried to see  D on Thursday but he was busy with work.  He does snow removal for work right now so we were not able to see him.  Sadly, he is really depressed right now and he is still kind of regressing and not really progressing anywhere.  He has stopped reading and praying for right now and that’s not good. Another high was the Lititz Fire and Ice Festival (Ice sculpture and chili cookoff contest) over the weekend.  On Saturday we and the sisters decided to sing on the street corner since it was the fire and ice thing and we knew there would be a lot of people out.  It was fun and we had quite a few people stop and listen to our singing.  We handed out pass along cards as well.   On Saturday night we and the sisters had dinner together with a lady in the ward.  She is a divorced lady which causes a problem because there was no male in the house.  So she invited her neighbor across the street to come over and join us for dinner.  It was pretty cool and we were able to have an awesome lesson about charity and love with him.  
2. Did you survive the wrath of Mother Nature last week?  Yes, we survived but it put a damper on things.  16 inches of snow (just Thursday’s storm) later we are finally digging out.  It was ridiculous. I knew it was going to be a doozy.  So we spent our day doing our weekly planning and just played it by ear.   Thursday morning we were pretty much parked because that is when the heaviest snow was falling.  Things kind of calmed down in the afternoon and then the snow came in again later that night.  We were cleared to drive early Thursday night so we went to Manheim and had dinner with the W family.  We went out with Bro. W for a couple of things after dinner and it started snowing hard again.  So by the time we were on our way home the roads were snow covered and slick.  No worries, on our way home we took it really slow and made it home in one piece.   Now we have tons of snow and it hasn’t really warmed up enough to melt it.  Even if (and when) it does warm up it’s going to take some time to melt all the huge piles of snow, it’s everywhere.
3. Did you lose power again?  No, everything was fine. 
4. Was your car parked on Thursday?  Yes it was parked in the morning and then we ventured out later that night just to get snowed on even more. 
5. How much snow did you get from this last snow event (Thursday)?  Probably about 16-18 inches. 
6. Was the hill that your car had a hard time making it up called "Temperance Hill Rd"?  No, it was Kissel Hill road by our apartment.  But I know where that is and we drive up it all the time when we go out to Manheim.  Why do you ask, did that cause a lot of people grief Thursday?   
7. Were you able to perform any service this past week?  What about shoveling snow?  Yes, we were able to help Bro. F  with shoveling again. He took us and we helped him shovel the driveway of a young single lady in the ward.  Holy cow let’s talk about wet heavy snow.  The snow in Utah is wonderfully light and fluffy stuff or maybe I’m just really missing our snow blower and thankful we have one.
8. Did you build a friend for your snowman?  No
9. What are 5 positive things from the week?   1) We survived the storm.   2) I am quite proud of our crockpot chicken.  3) We had a dinner appointment almost every day. 
10. Is your cold better?  Finally getting better.  My nose is still a little stuffy but it is on the mend. 
11. Did you go/see the Fire & Ice festival in Lititz?  I guess we sort of stumbled upon it when we were downtown the other day.  Like I said, we ended up signing on the street corner with the sisters and handing out the pass along cards.   There were some pretty cool ice sculptures.   
12. How are things with your investigators?  They are going ok. 

1.      T (read BOM in 5 days) ?  Well we have not been able to contact him at all since we had the one lesson, so basically same as last report. 

2.      B ?  We pretty much dropped him because he wasn't really interested and he is moving to Reading. 

3.      D, TP, Mandy & Lee?  Well we have not really taught Mandy & Lee in about 2 months so we had to kind of drop them.  We keep trying to stop by TP’s but it is always a bad time for her so she said to text her and set up a time.  We do that, but she never responds back.  So it makes things difficult.  We have not been able to see D in a while.  We stop by and talk to him on his door step but last week he was getting ready to go to work so it was a short visit.

4.      A (Puerto Rico guy) ?  He is doing good and we are going to see him today.  He has not really been reading at all so hopefully we can get him moving forward in the right direction. 

5.      Kenya couple in your apartment complex?  He has been busy with work and so it is hard to meet with him.  He has been working a lot of double shifts.  We have been texting back and forth trying to get something set up but they are always busy.  So we just keep trying and we’re hoping we don't lose them. 

6.      I Family? Well last week they were on the cruise so we did not get to meet with them.  We were supposed to have something with them last night but they cancelled at the last minute. Praying that we are not losing them too. 

7.      Any new investigators?  Well we have another former investigator and his name is J .  He is an11 year old boy and he had been going to church quite a bit a few years ago.  We’re hoping we can get something going with him.  Our biggest problem is his mom is a single mom. She works a ton and is never home and we don’t feel comfortable just bringing a member with us to appointments without a parent in the house.

14.  What do you think will happen with transfers this next week?  Well I am not exactly sure.  I think I could be leaving, but it is all up in the air until the weekend.  My guess is I’ll either leave or train, but we won’t find out until Saturday.   Elder B wrote the ZL’s for transfer recommendations and said I could leave.  But really it comes down to whatever President and the AP's decide.  So I’m not really sure what is going to happen. 

15.  How was your zone training? Was the weather OK?  Is zone training in Lancaster or Harrisburg?  Zone training is tomorrow (Wednesday).  It is in Lancaster at the church (stake center) building we go to.

17.  Can we pray for anything?  Just that all goes well with whatever happens with transfers. I am not really worried about it though, I’m good either way. 

18.  Do you need anything?  I am good right now.

19.  Are you happy?  Yes, just ready for spring and summer. 

Well there is my week.  I hope you all had a fabulous dry and warm week, unlike me.

Love You,

Elder Muir

Week 36...Wacky Weather Doesn't Hamper Our Efforts & Success

Week 36…February 10, 2014

1. How was your week?  What are the highs/lows?  Well I guess the first thing is I have a cold all of the sudden.  Saturday I started getting a stuffy nose and a little bit of a cough and yesterday I woke up and I didn't feel great at all.  I still went to church and did our other duties but I felt cruddy most of the day.  So last night a snow storm came in and I decided to take it easy and just lay down for the night.  We figured there wasn’t much for us to do because it was not smart/safe to drive so we decided it would be better for me to rest and see if I could kick the cold.  So that’s what I did and I feel a tiny bit better today but I still have a yucky cough. Another low was that  D & TP were supposed to be at church yesterday but they did not make it.  We stopped by D’s after church and he said both of them over slept.  So our fingers are crossed for next week.  On the up side though we did have a less active lady that we’ve been teaching at church.  She came to church with her granddaughter.  Unfortunately, she only stayed for sacrament meeting but at least she made it to church.  Another high was that we picked up 2 new investigators.  One is from an old media referral, he asked for a BOM a few years ago.  We called the guy to see if he was still interested at all and he said that he had a couple of questions about the BOM.  So we were able to set up an appointment to go over and answer his questions.  The crazy part is that we called him Monday night and we visited him Friday night and he read the BOM over that 5 day period.  Two thumbs up for him, that is quite impressive in my book.  He said we could come back and visit again, so hopefully he will go somewhere.  The other new investigator is somebody that Elder B street contacted while I was on exchange a couple of weeks ago.  We did not get much done with him at the appointment.   We really just got to know him a little better. 
2. What are 5 positive things from last week?  I survived the ice storm.  We found 2 new people to teach.  My Chex mix made it in one piece which I was quite happy about. 
3. Did you survive the ice storm last week?  Yes, luckily most of the storm came in the middle of the night and by morning it was just plain rain.   The plows were able to work through the morning to get the ice of the road and by mid afternoon we were back in business
4. Did your power go out?  It did in the middle of the night and it came back on early Wednesday morning around 5 AM. 
5. The news coverage showed a lot of downed trees, did the ice cause any damage near or around you?  Not really around us.  Down by the church there were tons of trees and branches down.  There was just little stuff down by our apartment. 
6. Was your car parked on Wednesday?  No because by mid afternoon the roads were just wet and no ice. 
7. Has the weather settled down and are you back to normal?  Yes, it is still cold and last night we got a snow storm.  Also, I think later this week we are supposed to get some snow.  But I am hoping we are on the home stretch to warmer weather and no more snow. 
8. How's Elder B and how are you 2 getting along?  We are getting along good.  Sometimes we don’t always agree on everything, but I think that is pretty normal.  So overall things are good, 
9. Did you get your Valentine's Day package full of love (one of the sacks is for Elder B)?  Did you get the BOM study guide & February picture?  Yes to all and I loved it. 
10. I LOVED the snowman you built last Monday, it is huge.  However, we're all wondering how in the world you got the head on top?   We also liked your creativity creating his face.  The eyes look like frosting tub lids (true or false). The nose looks like a shoe polish brush (true or false) and the mouth looks like a wrapper of some sort (true or false).  We also loved the missionary nametag...nice job on Elder Frosty :)  The top layer was not super hard because the head was pretty small.  The hardest part was the middle ball.  It took the two of us and another dude that lives by us.  He was building another snowman.  Yes, the eyes are Tupperware lids and the nose is a shoe brush.  The mouth is this otter pop thing we found in our freezer.   
11. How much snow did you get this past week?  Do you still have snow on the ground?  We still have quite a bit.  None of it really melted from last week’s big storm.  There’s also still a little bit of snow left from a couple of weeks ago and last night we got about an inch or so.  (2/13/14 Update…the storm that pounded through last night/today dumped a good 10 inches on them and closed the school/library/rec center & shopping centers again)
12. How are things with the investigators?
1. How are things going with D & the clan?  They are doing well.  We saw  D on Thursday.  Unfortunately, he has not read in a while so right now he is kind of back sliding.  Hopefully we can get him moving in the right direction again and get them all to church next.  We tried to have a lesson with TP but we just ended up talking to her for a little bit because things were kind of chaotic when we got there. 
2. How about  N & M (Kenya couple)?  They are doing well.  We had a great lesson with them and invited them to be baptized.  But their hang up is they said they’ve already been baptized and they think they don't need to do it again.  We told them to continue meeting with us and to read and pray.  We’re hoping to get another lesson set up for this week. 
3. What about A (Puerto Rico)?  Not much has changed with him.  We had a short lesson with him this week and we are going back tomorrow. 
4. Are you still visiting withM?  We dropped her because she told us she was not interested when we called her the other day.
5. How’s the I family  doing?  We have not seen them for a few weeks. Last week they were getting ready to go on a cruise and this week they are on the cruise.  So we are heading back there next Monday. 
6. Any new leads or have you met anyone new?  Like I said above, we picked up 2 new investigators. B is the one that we weren’t able to have much of a lesson with, but we were able to get to know him better.  The other guy is  T. He’s the one that read the BOM in 5 days and we met with him and answered some questions about the BOM. 
13. How are the members doing?  Any fun stories that you've had with them?  They are doing well and have really caught the missionary spirit.  They are really trying to help us in any way possible, they’re great. 
14. Any adventurous meals/stories?  I can't believe your still eating asparagus...I consider it a tender mercy of the mission:)   I ate taco salad again the other night.
15. Any big plans coming up in the ward or mission?  Zone conferences/meetings or activities?  Well the monthly zone training is coming up next week.  President will be there so it will be fun to see him.  Transfers are 2 weeks from tomorrow and I have been here about the right time to be considered to be on the chopping block so we will see what happens.  Yesterday the ward had a fun little activity called a linger longer.  They did a lunch/dinner potluck after church and we sat around and had a good time with the ward. 
16. Anything else you want to tell me...maybe something that will make me laugh/smile?  I had to laugh at the heart that Svetlana sent in the heart attack.  She’s going to haunt us forever. You'll never have to worry about me neatly folding my laundry and keeping things clean.  Boris, on the other hand, you may have to worry when he leaves home. 

Well that is my week of wacky weather and success in the mission.  Things are moving forward and progressing and we are keeping busy.  I’m glad all is well with you and hope you’re all doing well. 

Love,

Elder Muir

 When Mother Nature doesn't allow you to drive to your local convenience store you walk :)

The is a major street in Lititz before the plows came through Thursday morning (2/13/14)

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