June 16, 2014
President, Elder Muir & Sis. Topham at zone conference
Altoona West Zone
Elder Muir, Elder G, Elder H, & Elder M at stake conference
Hola Family…
What’s up with the family? Sounds like
things are good back at home. That’s crazy that there’s already been a
fire on the mountain in Draper…sheesh! It is very wet and green here, so no
need to worry about a fire here J Did you get the mailer that I sent and did dad get his Father’s Day
card? It’s been a good and extremely
busy week here.
- How was your
week? What were the highs/lows? It has been a good busy
week. The downside is we spent a lot of time driving to Altoona and
State College for Zone Conference (ZC) and Stake Conference (SC).
That took up a big chunk of our week but such is life, at least we were
driving & not walking. I’ll start off with ZC, it was a big time
high. The trainings were great and I learned a lot. SC was
very good as well. The talks that were given were awesome. It was
long 2 days since it was about a 2 hour drive each way for both ZC and SC.
But the talks that were given were awesome. We had an area 70 there
and on Sunday he gave an awesome talk about the sacrament and the
importance and sacredness of it. It made me think of how important
the sacrament is to me and made me realize that I need to recommit myself
to taking it with the seriousness & reverence that it deserves. On
Saturday night the theme was "Hastening the Work". That seems
to be the theme ever since the church did the missionary broadcast last
year right after I left. The Lancaster stake had the same theme at
their stake conference a couple of months ago. The church is
definitely making a big push to hasten the work and involve members in
missionary work. Remember Elder M (the elder
from Huntington, PA that was serving in our Draper ward a few months
back)??? Well, his sister gave a
talk in our stake conference in Altoona.
She is a recently returned missionary and she talked about the
importance of member missionary work. It was very good and much
needed I think. Lows for the week were J dropping us
and yesterday we had to get up at 4 am to make it to Stake Conference.
In reality, we didn't really need to be up that early, but whatever…we are
making memories, right J
- How was your
zone conference? Where was the zone conference at? Zone Conference
was awesome. It was at the chapel in State College. Holy cow…that
town pretty much lives and breathes Penn State. I thought Provo bled
pretty blue for BYU but Penn State is so much bigger it takes it to a
whole new level…allegiance and fans are out of control here. It was a very good Zone Conf. The
zone leaders talked about how the area books can/need to be better
organized so all of the areas have similarly organized area books. President’s
training was also really good. It was different but it was very
good. We split off the elders and sisters, elders with President
& sisters with Sis. Topham. We had training on overcoming addiction
and the power of the Atonement. The mission (church in PA) has always
had a struggle with pornography and things like that so President decided
to do some training on that. It was very good, he talked about the
scientific data about how it is natural for the body to have that desire
and how it is part of the brain function. Then he really focused on
the evils of it and the destruction it can cause. In the end he tied
it all into the Atonement and how we can use the Atonement to fix our
lives, realign our will with God and become clean again. It was a
great conference. We and the DuBois elders spent Wednesday night at
some other elders’ apartment who live a bit closer since we had to be
there by 8:30 am. It was weird seeing President doing his final zone
conference and bring in the reigns in preparation for his departure.
From what it sounds like Pres. Johnson should be a great person.
Attached is a picture of me, President and Sis. Topham at the zone
conference. After the ZC they let all of the missionaries say good
bye and get a picture with them. They also had some time in stake
conference for a departing testimony.
- How was your
stake conference? Like I said in the highs, it was awesome.
I was just 2 really long days. I
won’t ever take for granted having our (Draper) stake center right across
the street. Driving for 2 hours is
no Bueno. But it was totally worth it, the talks and everything
were awesome. The theme was "Hastening the Work". We
are really trying to get members and missionaries working together.
So that is the gist of stake conf.
- Who were the other 2 Elders in the picture that was texted? Elder H and Elder M. They DuBois area missionaries. Sis B took the picture and texted it to you. We rode with their family to stake conference.
- Where was your
stake conference and how long did it take you to get there? The Saturday night
session was at the Altoona stake center and the Sunday session was at a
convention center in Altoona. It takes about 2 hrs to get to
Altoona. Like I said before, on Sunday we had to get up at 4 am in
order to get to stake conference. Getting up that early was a
bummer. We were supposed to meet the B family at their
house (in DuBois) at 6 am for a ride and it takes us some time to get to
DuBois. However, we didn’t leave
their house until about 6:30 am. The
main stake meeting started at 10 am, but the B family was told
that they had to go to a meeting for their daughter that was baptized last
year at age 9. However, the meeting
ended up really being for converts, oh well. We still were an hour
early, so we just hung out for a while. Also, another fun thing was
that they brought food for a picnic lunch afterwards and they brought
enough for us and we got to hang out with them.
- Are transfers
next week? Any gut feelings on transfers? Yes, transfers
next week. I am not really sure what is going to happen. I
have the feeling that Elder G is out. He has been here just under 6
months so we will see what happens. We’ll get transfer calls on
Saturday so I will know by Monday’s email.
- How was the weather this week? I saw another flash flood warning for you area on my phone earlier in the week? It has rained a lot, but I don’t think there was any flooding.
- How are things with the investigators/members?
- T ? What about R l? (I put his name on the prayer roll this week) Well he is doing good. We had
a lesson scheduled for last week but he cancelled, hopefully this week we
will see him.
- J? (Glad to hear she is doing better and that you're meeting with her again) Well, that ship has now officially sailed. Stupid Friday, the 13th. She called us a couple of hours before our apt. and basically dropped us. She said she was not really interested anymore and so right now we are not teaching her. We may stop by here in a few weeks and just see how she is doing and keep the lines open.
- Any new investigators? No, not really we
keep trying but last week we were pretty busy and did not have lots of finding
time.
- What about less actives? They are slowly being taught but we are having a hard time contacting them and staying in contact with them.
- How are the members? They are doing
great. We are continuing to try and get to know them more so we can
work with them and help them do their missionary work.
- Any service
opportunities? Last week at the senior center we got to help out with a dude’s 102nd
birthday party J
- Can we pray for anything? Please pray that we can continue to find and teach people.
Love
you!!!
Elder
Muir
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