Week 57...13 Months & 4th of July

July 7, 2014

 

Brockway 4th of July Parade

Well, we were cleaning the apartment this morning because the new rule is they want us to clean before we start emailing so it actually gets done.  So from here on out it may be a little later than normal.  Good luck driving and be careful.  Off to Walmart now, love you again.

Holy cow this week has been an AWESOME week.  We have had tons of stuff to keep us busy and it seems that the work is really “hastening" here…wahoo!!!  I’m not sure what’s going on, but it is awesome :)

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  This week has been an awesome week.  As I said things have really been picking up.  We have had quite a few lessons and we almost had some investigators at church.  We have been making a lot of progress which is a bigtime high for me.  The 4^th of July was pretty fun and was also a high for me.  We were able to watch fireworks off our deck and we also got to eat with a less active family and watch a bit of a parade in Brockway with them.  That also leads to kind of a low for me.  For some reason lately I have been missing home again.  It seems to hit in the summer when I see everybody out and about with family and having fun.  But overall I have been OK, I just have random little spots where I miss home and being able to go on vacation, relax and have a nice break.  But I am almost there, only 11 more months and I’ll be back with you guys.  Another high was last week when we were emailing we got a media referral.  It was from a member that just moved from Texas to live with his girlfriend in Kane, PA .  We have started teaching them and they almost came to church this week.  He is semi active so there is some serious potential with him.  Another high was that we spent the day in Kane on Saturday trying to contact a whole bunch of old potentials.  Most of them moved, but we found some other people.  
   
2. Did you do anything exciting for the 4^th of July?  Well Thursday night St. Mary's had their firework show.  Luckily, we could see it from the back patio so that was our firework show.  I got some video and pictures of it and I’m putting the SD card in the mail today.  We went to a less active/part member family on Friday after our weekly planning and she had a little picnic thing she invited us to and then we watched part of the parade that Brockway does.  The SD card has some pictures stuff of that too. 
3. How are things with Elder B?  Good, we are continuing to get along and we get lots of work done.  It is fun being together, there’s not a whole lot to complain about.  
4. How was the meet & greet with President Johnson?  They are pretty awesome.  They seem like great people.  They are very overwhelmed with everything but they are slowly starting to get the hang of things and are grateful to be here at this time.  Basically he told us about his family and what some of his expectations are.  So it will be great to get to know them in the last year that I have here in PA. 
5. How’s the weather?  It has been awesome.  The beginning of the week was hot and humid but it cooled down for the weekend.  The 4th was only in the high 60's.
6. How are things with your investigators?
1. S, P & the BF?  They are doing awesome.  We have kind of got the boyfriend set with a date but we will see what happens.  Our branch mission leader came with us and we taught the restoration.  We are seeing them again tomorrow and things are progressing. 
2. Lady’s nonmember husband that moved from Brookville? What’s their name?    They are the G family.  She is a convert from a few years ago.  Elder B (companion for Lititz) actually baptized her at the beginning of his mission.  Her husband worked at Hill Air Force Base at one point so they lived in Utah for a while.  Interestingly enough, they never heard anything about the church.  When they came back to PA things just started falling into place and she ended up baptized.  Her husband is not a member but we are going to try and change that.  He comes to church with her, so hopefully it will all go well. 
3. T & R?  Not much happened with them this week.  We are getting close to dropping them because they are not really going anywhere. 
4. Any new leads, investigators, less actives?  Like I said we got that media referral last week and we have started teaching the girlfriend and she has lots of potential.  We have made lots of contacts with a whole bunch of less actives and hopefully we may start teaching some of them. 
7. Any service opportunities that you’ve had?  Yes, actually we ran into a lady last week at Walmart that is friends with H, the librarian. The missionaries used to help her back in the day and she would feed them.  She has this big garden that she needs help weeding so we have been helping her with that.  She is sort of crazy when it comes to food.  She is very organic and is a health freak to say the least.  She does not like any chemical stuff.  Apparently she washes her hair with baking soda to avoid all the chemicals.  She has some weird views on some things but they are a very religious family.  The kids are all older.  One weird thing is she would not let her children watch Disney movies because she says Disney has magic and other things like that.  She thinks that is bad because magic and all that kind of stuff has to do with the devil.  She has got some weird views on things, but she is super nice.
8. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) We had a lot of dinner appointments this week.  2) Things are slowly starting to roll (more like really fast all of the sudden) 3)  The weather has been nice and cool and not too humid. 
9. Any dinner appointment excitement?  No, but shockingly we had a good week of dinner appointments.  A few of them were last minute, but we’ll take whatever we can get.  Basically we were up by some of the people’s houses and they were having dinner.  We had stopped by and needed something and they invited us to stay.  So we had 3 or 4 dinners which is the best I’ve had in a week here. 
10. Happy& healthy?  Yes, things are going well.  Like I said, with it being summer it sort of makes me homesick, but whatever I’ll be back to relaxing one day. 
11. Did you get the 4^th of July package?   Yes, I go it and I loved it.  I really liked the Paul Cardall CD.  I love hearing I Love To See The Temple.  It’s probably my favorite song of the CD.  The package was great, it didn't need to be anything fancy. 
    
12. Is there anything that you need?  No, I think I am good right at the moment. 
13. Do you have any birthday ideas/needs?  No, not really at the moment.  That is crazy to think that is already coming around again.  That is a scary thought, by the time my bday rolls around I will be down to almost 9 months left. 
14. Any other news that you want to tell me?  I am sending home a little flat rate envelope today.  It has some old cards & letters in it.  It also has the SD card in it.  Most of the stuff you have seen but there is some new stuff.  Like some 4th of July stuff and a few more things.  Unfortunately, you'll be at TREK so you probably won’t get it until this weekend.  

I hope you are driving safe on the road.  Where are you guys at right now?   If you can respond, let me know where you’re at.  Have fun reading this on your phone and good luck with TREK.  Hope all goes well with it and I can't wait for the report.

Love you tons!!!

Elder Muir