Week 51...Open the Flood Gates & Elder Holland's Visit

May 27, 2014

Hello…

Hopefully, you realized yesterday that you wouldn’t be getting your email because of the holiday.  Boy has this ever been a crazy week!!!  Elder Holland comes to visit the mission and our area had serious flooding.  It was quite the week, to say the least.  And to add to it, as I am sitting here typing/emailing it is pouring rain again.  Unfortunately, we walked down to the library and of course we didn’t bring jackets so we’ll be soaked when we get home.  It was sunny and only partly cloudy when we went out.  Pretty much it never stops raining here.  We seem to get a good storm in here about once a week. 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  Holy cow this week was busy, crazy and WET!!!  To start the week, we finally got our new tires and we got the safety & emissions done on the car.  We did the tires last Pday down in DuBois.  While the tires were being done we hung out with the DuBois Elders.  We went to a lake and messed around on some hiking trails by the lake. It was a lot of fun.  So we spent a few hours screwing around with them while we were waiting on the car.  We can finally put a big check mark next to “car repairs”.  Another high was the BIG CRAZY rain storm.  I will tell you more about that here in just a minute.  Obviously, Elder Holland’s visit on Thursday was a super high.  He is amazing and super funny.  Another high was on Sunday we were given a list of all the people that don't have home teachers in the branch/area.  We’ve been asked to compare our notes and  see the people that are listed as no contact and things like that.  We were able to start calling some of the people Sunday after church and we ended up getting to appointments set up to see some of them today.  After we are done emailing we are going to go up to Kane and try to see them.  We’re hoping it goes well.  Another fun thing is last night last night the APs stayed overnight at our place.  One of the Aps is going to go on an exchange with us today and the other AP is going to visit another area.  A low was Wednesday morning I woke up feeling rather crummy and I felt like I was going to barf.  Luckily I did not.  I slept for most of the morning and later on we went to help someone from the ward with a flooded basement.  Even though Thursday (Elder Holland) was a complete high, being out all day long was exhausting. We left at 6:30 am Thursday morning from DuBois and we did not get home until 10:30 pm.  The meeting was awesome it was just a super long day.  It was great to be able to see all of the missionaries at the meeting.  I was able to see a bunch of the missionaries that I came out with.  Another crazy thing this week was the thunder that we had with the storm in the middle of the night (Tuesday night into Wednesday morning).  There was some pretty crazy loud thunder that shook the house.  I swear it was right over the top of us.  The room would light up and then we would immediately hear the thunder boom.  It was pretty crazy and on top of that it was POURING rain.  Another low is I am officially broke for the month.  Unfortunately, here in this area we don’t get fed nearly as much as we did in Lititz and the money doesn’t stretch very far when I have to stock up on food.  Also, that reminds me…when we were in Cranberry for Elder Holland’s meeting we had to eat out twice that day.  I put lunch and dinner on my credit card that day.  I’m sorry the Chinese buffet was kind of expensive and we would not have eaten there if we had known it was that expensive.  An elder that we were with had been there before and he said it used to be cheap.  So can you please pay my card.  Luckily, the month is almost over and I will have money again. 
2. Did you get flooded on Wednesday?  Where we live in St Mary's the flooding was not bad, we live up on a hill.  The low points in St. Mary’s near a little stream got flooded out, however, St Mary's didn't really have much flooding.  Some people did have to pump water out of their basement.  The bulk of the damage and severe flooding was down in Ridgway and Johnsonburg were the Clarion river runs. 
3. Did the church survive the flood?  The church was fine there was not really much water around that area. The place that got hit the worst was Ridgway.  The main road into Ridgway was shut down because it was flooded out.  As you heard on that news the river got up to over 20 feet at one point.  I don't know if you saw the picture of the Sheetz gas station and Rite Aide, but those stores were under 4ft of water.  It was a mess.  Both of those places are completely gutted and supposedly Sheetz is going to be shut down for a while.  You may or may not have seen pictures of them.  On Wednesday we were helping some people clean up some flooding in their basement and she showed us some pictures of the flooding in Ridgway. She added us to her friend list on FB and tagged us in the pics  she had so we could have pictures of the adventure.  So if you go to my FB you may be able to see if you can find the pictures (I think she said she would do it for us).  There was so much water in some areas that 3 of the main roads were shut down.  We were finally able to get to Ridgway on Saturday and we wandered around looking at the damage and HOLY COW…one street of houses was under 4 ft of water.  It was crazy!!!  We walked around a bit and tried to help.  We talked to one lady that said she was rescued by a boat to get out of her house.  It was crazy to say the least. 
4. Did you make it to see Elder Holland on Thursday?  Yes, we left Wednesday night and stayed the night in DuBois.  It was an adventure trying get to DuBois because all of the main roads we normally use were shut down.  We had to take the back roads and we even had to go on a dirt road.  We had been on it a few times before.  We were glad we made it down and made it to the conference.  PS…we have found a few dirt roads that are pretty fun to be on J 
5. How was the conference with Elder Holland?  Holy cow, it was awesome…a highlight for sure!!!  He is crazy funny.  He acts totally different than he does in general conference.  They are very serious in conference but when they are out and about they are hilarious.  He has quite the sense of humor.  He practically attacked one missionary that was sitting on the front row, it was really funny.  His message was about how you can get your areas exploding and reach its full potential.  He also talked about the miracle of a mission.  He said a mission is higher, holier and more sacred and eternal that anything that we’ve ever done.  It’s the most important thing we can be doing at this time.  We are engaged in saving the human soul.  It is the purpose that the Savior came to the earth and gave His life.  It opens the possibilities of eternal life.  He talked about what you’ve been telling me for the past year and months leading up to my mission.  A mission is mostly for the missionary and helping them develop their own testimony and firm foundation for the future.  Conversion is not a one time event it is a lifelong process.  Even though as missionaries we are here to convert others the ultimate conversion should take place in yourself.  He said if you only convert one person on your mission that convert should be you.   He made a comment about how a lot of RM's will go less active (LA) when they get home because they were not fully converted on their mission.  He then made a funny comment that if he finds out we go LA when we return home he would ring our necks.  The funny part was he said... oh wait I can't really say that because that is a threat and we don’t make threats.  Basically it was an awesome conference and I wish you all could have been there to share it the joy and excitement.
6. The St. Mary's newspaper made it sound like there would be a Memorial Day celebration at the cemetery, did you see the celebration?  There was stuff going on all over the cemetery.  We just heard the 21 gun salute.  They did have a parade that happened but we were on our way to Walmart at that point.  I wished we would have known about it, but we didn't.  So we didn't really watch it, oh well.  We were able to see this little thing in the square about fallen soldiers that was cool. 
7. Has the weather cleared up and stopped raining?  It looks like you've been quite warm the past few days.  Yeah, the weather has been decent today but it has poured a bit too.  It is hot and humid again but night time is nice. 
8. Sis. Berry made mention about a book they give to their missionaries called "Adjusting to Missionary Life", did you get one of those books?  It ranks how you’re feeling as a missionary into zones...the green zone, yellow zone, orange zone and red zone.  I hope you’re in the green zone :)  Yes, I have one.  It comes in very handy sometimes.  It has some good information.  And yes, I am in the green zone most of the time J 
9. How are things with the members?  Good, we’re still trying to build solid relationships with them and get to know them better. 
10. Have you had any service opportunities this week?  We tried to help some of the of the people that got flooded out in Ridgway but by the time we got down there on Saturday they had most everything under control.  We were able to help some people in the branch suck water out of the carpets and move some furniture because they got a couple inches of water in the basement. 
11. How are things with your investigators/Less actives?
1. S?  We are not sure where she is.  Apparently she and her boyfriend got in a fight and left and went somewhere.  We’re not sure where they went yet.  We have a few ideas so we are going to try and find her today.  For right now she is MIA.  
2. T & R?  We have not seen them but we have been texting them a little.  They are doing good, they’re just super busy.  We have plans to go there Thursday and have a lesson with them.
3. Daughter in Law of active lady?  We were supposed to see her this weekend but she has not been feeling very good so we were not able to see her. 
4. The less active family that you talked about in branch council?  They are doing awesome.  She is only a couple weeks away from being re activated
5. Anyone new that you've found or are working with? Hopefully the people that we find in Kane today will start meeting with us. 
12. Can we pray for anything/anyone?  Pray that we can start moving forward again and start picking up our teaching pool. 

One last thing, on Saturday when we were on Ridgway we saw this helicopter (picture attached)  land.  It was life flight coming from Pitt to get someone that fell into the Clarion river.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture…you know me and the news/emergencies :)

 

Sounds like things are well with you all.  I miss you and love you all.

Love,

Elder Muir

Below are the pictures that Sis. F posted to her FB page.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the people that were affected by the flooding.  We hope that as the community rallies together that their lives will be blessed and they will see miracles in their life that help them build their faith and testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  It's our reaction to adversity, not adversity itself, that determines how our life story will develop. 

 View of Ridgway (Sheetz is in the foreground of pic)

 Sheetz

 Rite Aide before the worst of the flooding 

 Rite Aide after the worst

 Rescue teams evacuating Rite Aide customers

 Rescue teams

 Carnival grounds

 Cennis van...notice the van on the left and then on the right (almost submerged)

Week 50...Still in St. Mary's for Transfer #9

 May 20, 2014

 Sunset overlooking the cemetery which is across the street from our apartment

 Panoramic of our Pday hike near the apartment

 Elder Muir on the Pday hike

     Well plans falling through and rain all week = No Bueno and wanting to curl up in a little ball and cry.  All I can say is Holy Cow this has been one long hard week.  There was a few times where I wanted to just give up and cry, but each day that we wanted to do that we somehow ended up laughing ourselves out of it.  Also, I was just emailing Elder J and he is getting transferred so he is not the AP anymore.  He will be training again.  I am not surprised that Elder Bramwell is now AP. 

1. How did things go with transfers?  Are you and Elder G both staying?  How did things shake out with the rest of your district?  Elder G and I are both staying.  Only one sister is leaving from our district. 
   
   
2. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  Holy cow this week was kind of a low week.  There were a few highs but not many.  One high is that Pres. W  (branch pres.) is AWESOME.  Also, I have learned never to give up on anyone.  So that leads me into quite a story that plain old makes me sad.  We had branch council yesterday and towards the end it was time to give our report.  We have some less actives that really need some fellowship from the ward. Our goal is to hand them off to the branch and have friends for them and boy did that open a can of worms.  So these people have a track record of getting evicted from their apartments because they cannot keep them clean and things like that.  They also have a track record of being sort of lazy, however in the 6 weeks that I have been here I have never seen the apartment messy or seen them being really lazy.  They truly have a desire to be sealed in the temple and become active again.  But in branch council yesterday most of the people (besides Sis. B  and Pres. W  and us) don’t have good things to say about them because of their past.  The council was basically saying how they are useless slugs and are beyond rescuing.  At this point Elder G and I really  felt sad.  We tried to express how much progress they have made and that is not how the Savior would act.  I thought to myself this is the time the Savior would embrace the downtrodden and help them bear their burdens.  So after branch council we were invited to stay in President W’s office and he agreed with us and was on our side.  He can see the changes they are making.  So my point is this…never give up on someone even if they seem hopeless.  Pres. W  and we were almost in tears in his office after everyone left.  So I learned a lot yesterday.  Also another low is we literally spent all week trying to get the car situation figured out.  That was an absolute nightmare.  On Saturday it was just awful.   All our plans were falling through and even our backup plans were not working.  On top of that it was pretty much pouring rain all day long.  We’ve had about 3 inches of rain this past week. At the end of the day I literally wanted to just cry and ask why this was happening to us.  But fortunately, by the end of the day Elder G and I were making the best of it and laughing.  Well there is kind of sucky week for you, but new transfers are here and it’s a new week…YAY! 
   
   
3. How are things coming along with your car?  Have you resolved any of the issues (emissions/tires/dent)?  The tires should be getting fixed today.  The dent is getting fixed on June 2^nd and we are hoping to get the emissions taken care of when we go to the meeting with Elder Holland on Thursday.
   
   
4. What are your plans for this Thursday with Elder Holland?  R u going the night before?  We may stay the night in DuBois, but if not we are leaving at 7 am so we can be there by 1:30 and have time to get our car inspected and all that jazz. 
5. The sleepovers in DuBois for the exchanges sound like fun?  Who were the Elders that you stayed with?  Are they in your district?  Yes, the sleepover was fun.  Elder H  and M is who we stayed with.  I know them, they are the other elders in the district
   
   
6. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) My studies have been good.  2) I am happy to be staying in St. Marys with Elder G and 3) I learned a lot of good lessons this week to apply to life. 
7. How are the members?  Have you met any new people?  What members have you connected with?  No, haven’t really met new members.  My goal for this transfer is to really get to know members better. 
   
   
8. Did you go to Kane this week?  How was it?  No, we didn’t go because we ended up going down to try and get our tired fixed, but that didn't happen.  Now we may not have the miles to get up there this month so we will see what happens. 
   
   
9. How was the weather?  Did you get a lot of rain?  Any flooding?  We got tons of rain but no flooding that I saw. 
10. How are things with your investigators/LA?
1. J?  We straight up lost her.  She has been discharged from the place she was at and she never answers at her apartment. Her phone is disconnected. 
   
   
2. T & R? They have been super busy and so we have not really met with them.  Hopefully we will get back with them. 
3.  S?  She flaked on her lesson.  We had one scheduled for Thursday but she was not there. 
   
   
4. Less active daughter in law of the active lady?  We were going to teach her yesterday but she had to cancel.  However, on the upside, she has been at church the past 3 weeks. 
5. Any new prospects?  Yes, we have a lot of less active lost names that we need to track down and see if they are still there and interested in visits.  Hopefully we can see good results from that. 
   
   
11. Any good dinner appointment stories?  No, not really. We didn’t have any dinner appointments this week. 
12. What kind of plans do you have for this week?   Obviously we are traveling to meet with Elder Holland on Thursday.  We are also going to help the S family on Wednesday with their yard and their garden. 
    
    
13. Are you happy & healthy?  Yes
14. What's your favorite scripture/story right now?  I just got into Alma again where it talks Alma and Amulek.  That story is awesome and I found it very applicable to my week.  I’m always impressed how Alma waded through all of his rejection and tribulation.   Alma and Amulek listened to the angel. They responded to the call of missionary service, and they preached repentance. They stood tall in the face of adversity and imprisonment. They are heroes whose lives are worthy of emulation.   Also the very next chapter (Alma 9) talks about how if the Nephites don't get their act together the Lamanites will destroy them and sure enough it happened.  The sad part is that in the beginning of the BOM the Lord laid it out to the Nephites saying "if ye keep my commandments ye will prosper in the land" he told that to them multiple times.  But stupid pride got in the way and really destroyed them, literally.  That is exactly what is happening today in the world.  I love the BOM and the things that I’ve been learning. 
    
    
15. Is Elder J still the AP?  No, as you saw above he’s training again.
    
    
16. Is there anything you need?  I would love for you to send me your yummy CHEX mix in the next package. 
17. Can we pray for anything?  Please pray that the branch will give us support and not give up on the people we are working with. 
    

There you have it, another report in the books on a kind of crappy, hard week in the mission.  However, on the bright side, the sun is shining and we are finally getting the tires done today on the car. 

 

Love you tons,

Elder Muir