Week 46...Adventures in Ridgway

April 21, 2014

1. How was your week?  What are the highs/lows?  This week was quite an adventure.  I will start off with sort of a low for the week, but it turned out to be quite the adventure.  On Wednesday night we decided that we needed to get some air in the tires.  All was going well until we got to the last tire.  Instead of putting air in the tire I accidentally broke off the pin that keeps the air in. Suddenly we are losing air in the tire quite rapidly.  I thought to myself “oh dear, nice mess I’ve gotten us into”.  To make it worse, it was about a half hour before the night was over and we needed to be in and we now had a flat tire to change.  We proceeded to call our fleet coordinator and told him we just gave ourselves a flat tire.  He said, “I guess you better get out the spare and change it and get the tire fixed tomorrow”.  Luckily, Elder G  knew what he was doing and I learned some important skills about changing a tire.  So we got the flat fixed and we were on our merry way J  It wasn’t the best way to end a night, but we survived and it was probably the most memorable ending of a night so far in the mission.  The next day we had zone training and it was good.  We learned about how to resolve people’s concerns when they have committed to a baptism date but they run into problems as the date approaches.  We are in a pretty small zone here.  I don't know very many of the missionaries yet but I’m excited to get to know them.  We drove down to our zone training with another set of Elders.  On our way we drove through Punxy and drove passed the library where they keep the ground hog, Punxsutawney Phil.  Good heavens…I think they worship ground hogs there. They have statues of ground hogs all over the place.  A high for the week was last night’s Easter dinner.  It was really good, we had ham and homemade funeral potatoes…mmm!!!  We also had the resurrection Easter rolls that we’ve had before.  The ones with the marshmallows that melt and leave an empty hole in the roll (tomb). They were delish.  Best of all, they sent us home with a bunch of the left overs.  The people we had dinner with are awesome people.  We may go over later this week and help them plant some of their garden because the dad has a lot of health problems.  For the spiritual thought we watched the Because of Him video.   Hope you guys have had a chance to watch it.  http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694
2. Did you get the Easter package?  Did it survive and did you like it?  I'm sorry, I forgot to put the Friendship bread in...AGAIN!!!  Yes, I got the package and it survived.  I was wondering about the bread…but oh well, I’m sure I’ll get it someday.  I really liked the package…thanks!!!  I really liked the little egg thing about Christ’s last week, the Atonement & the resurrection.  I also really liked getting the little notes from you, dad & grandma.  I wish Derek and Megan would have written one, but whatever J 
3. Do you live across the street from the cemetery?  Is it a house or an apartment?  Are you getting used to it?  Yes, I live across form the cemetery.  It is a house that has been turned into an apartment.  Yes, I am getting used to it. 
4. What are 5 positive things from this week?  1)  We got a new investigator.  2)  I learned how to change a tire (boy…that was a treat).  3) Easter dinner was delish and we got a whole bunch of left overs.  4) The ward clerk gave us a whole bunch of Easter candy from Walmart and 5) We have been able to reactivate two families. 
5. Are there any retail/national chain restaurants in your areas besides Wendy's?  No, not really. Subway is really the only other thing.  I will keep my eyes peeled for any others. 
6. What is the name of your district/zone?  We are in the Brookville District and the Altoona West zone.  We are part of the Altoona stake.  Altoona is about 85 miles from St. Marys and it takes us about 1 hour 45 minutes to travel.
7. Where do you meet for your district meetings?  We rotate between our building and the Brookville building because we have to give everybody their fair share of eating their miles up.  For us to go to Brookville each week would kill our miles.  It’s about 40 miles one way and takes close to an hour to get there. 
8. What city/town is your church/branch in?  Is Ridgway a town?  Yes, Ridgway is a town.  The church is just outside of Ridgway. 
9. How far is your church from your apt?  About 20 or so minutes. 
10. What time is your church now?  9:30 am
11. Have you had President interviews yet?  No, they are on April 30th. 
12. How is your area?  Are you getting used to it yet?  It is great.  Yes, I am getting used to it. 
13. What cities/towns does your area include?  Kane, Mt Jewett, Brockway, St Mary’s, Ridgway and Emporium.  Like I said before, our area is one of the largest in the mission.  We cover 4 counties.  All of the towns except St. Mary’s and Altoona are less than about 3,000 in population.  I’m about 50 miles from the border of New York and 150 miles south of Niagara Falls and about 85 miles southeast of Erie, PA (Lake Erie)
14. How are things with you and Elder G?  What does he like besides Star Wars?  How old is he?  Does he know the new mission president?  Things are going great. We are getting along just great, no problems at all.  We are having fun together.  We are both hard workers and we want to get work done and be effective in our responsibilities.  He likes mountain biking, Legos, snowboarding, fishing and of course, Star Wars.  Basically, he is an outdoorsy kind of guy.  He doesn’t know the new mission president but apparently his parents are going to their farewell because his mom works with someone that is in the MP’s ward.  He turned 19 in March. 
15. Tell us about your investigators or who you are teaching?  Well we don't have a large teaching pool right now.   We mostly teach less actives, but the few that we have are pretty awesome.  We just started teaching a new lady that we got this week and her name is J.  She has been Catholic most of her life but she has gone in and out of activity.  She is an older single lady.  She understood what we were teaching up until we got to Joseph Smith.  She has some problems with all of that but we are slowly getting her to read the BOM and she seems like she has good potential.  So we will see where it goes.  It is interesting to hear from her about all the problems the Catholic church is having.  We have another set of investigators that we are teaching that have a baptism date for the beginning of May but they have not been able to make it to church because their car is having problems along with some other things.  So their baptism isn’t going to happen that soon, oh, and they also need to get married too J  Slight problem, but hopefully they will get baptized while I am serving here.  They are very nice people and their names are T & R.  I have only met him because she was at work while we were there. 
16. What do you like best about your area so far?  I like the scenery and the branch seems really nice.
17. Do you do any service in this area?  We help at a senior center again.  We play different games with a bunch of old people.  Speaking of the senior center, I need my social security number because in order to push wheel chairs around they need to do a background check on me…ya, don't ask me why I need a background check for pushing wheelchairs around, but I do.  So in order for me to complete my volunteer application I need the number.  Not sure how you want to go about sending it.  Elder G said his mom sent pieces of it to him in different letters.  So I need it at some point and you’ll have to let me know how you’re going to do it…thanks!
18. What members have you really clicked with so far (besides Branch President)?  The B family is really great.  They are a nice young family that moved from Vernal about 6 months ago.  Their oldest kids are twin boys that are Megan’s age.  I haven’t been able to go to their house yet because her husband drills for oil for his job.  He works for 3 weeks on and 3 off.  He gets back on Thursday so hopefully I can get to know them a little better. 
19. What is the Branch President's family name?  The K family
20. How are the meals going (still far and few between?)  Pretty much
21. Have you heard from Elder B?  Yes, we email back and forth a little bit. 
22. Are you healthy & happy?  Yes

Well there are my Ridgway area adventures for the week, never a dull moment.

Love you and miss you…3 weeks J

 

Elder Muir