Week 59...Helping Hands in Kane & Interviews

July 21, 2014

Hi,

 

It’s been another awesome week.  Lots of good things have been happening.  I got your letter with the pictures from Tahoe & TREK.  It looks like you guys had a great time.  I LOVED seeing all of the pictures.  Sounds like this past week has been pretty busy for you too. 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs and lows?  This week was an awesome week and many great things happened.  The best part was that we had 3 investigators at church yesterday.  It was awesome, Dad's bday (July 20^th) brings miracles.  So Dad… there is your birthday present, I got some investigators for you.  Last year on Dad’s birthday I had my first investigator lesson.  Dad’s Bday brings good luck out here in PA.  Another high for the week was the Mormon Helping Hands service project.  It was pretty awesome and both the city of Kane and the branch were very impressed with everything we were able to get done.  Another high was interviews with President Johnson.  It was fun meeting with him and getting to know him a little better.   After interviews we had exchanges and I stayed up here in St. Marys.  Elder B went to Dubois.  The low of the week was probably Friday.  It was kind of a rough day as we were trying to get weekly planning done.  Basically, I was worn out and I was ready for the week to be over.  Things have been crazy busy around here so when Friday rolls around I’m exhausted and ready to be done. 
   
2. How were interviews with President Johnson?  Interviews were awesome.  He seems like a very nice guy and I can't wait to get to know him even more.  He seems like he will be fun to work with. 
3. Have the mission/rules changed much with the new mission president?  No, not really.  It’s all pretty much the same.  The only difference is that the music rules have a few minor changes.  Basically, he says just go by what the white handbook says. 
4. How was your Mormon Helping Hands in Kane?  It was AWESOME!  We had a much bigger turn out than they expected.  They Kane city council was very impressed with all of the hard work and effort that was put in and they were happy with all we were able to get done.  We had one group of people painting a pavilion, another group (my group) helped clean out a spot where a building was overgrown with weeds and another group moved a whole bunch of bricks and rocks.  Like I said, the branch was and city were both impressed with how many people we had there and how fast we were able to get it all done. 
5. Was the church in the picture of the Brockway parade that you sent the LDS church? I thought the church was in Ridgway.  No, it was just another church.  PA seems to have a church on every street corner.  The LDS church building is in Ridgway. 
6. I would love for you to take a picture of the front of your house and your kitchen etc.  I can do that.  I just was trying to get a few pictures of the apartment before I sent that package to you. 
7. How are things with you and Elder B?  Things are going good.  We still have our ups and downs with differing opinions on how things should be done, but we are still trying to work on that.  Companionships are a good place to learn about compromise.  Overall, things are going well. 
   
   
8. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) We have been fed pretty well lately.  2)  Our attendance numbers continue to grow for sacrament meeting (123 attended yesterday).  3)  They weather has been decent this past week, it only rained on Saturday.  4)  We had the 3 investigators at church. 
9. How are things with your investigators/less actives?
   1. S, P, G & J ?  They are doing awesome and they were all at church yesterday.  They continue to progress. 
   2. The G family?  They are doing great.  She continues to come to church and the ward is giving her a lot of support. 
   3. The family living with the B family?  Their names are Skye and Nathan.  We are seeing them again tonight. 
   4. Boyfriend/girlfriend media referral from Texas living in Kane?  Their names are S & S.  They are doing great.  He is a less active and she is an investigator.  We are seeing them again tomorrow. 
      Any new leads with investigators/less actives?  No, not really
      Any other news...exciting, funny, noteworthy or such?  We found a really cool thing this week.  We were cleaning the apartment last week and we found a book about the church and its growth in western PA.  It goes through a whole bunch of the growth of the wards, branches and stakes in western PA from the time of the pioneers.  It talked about some of the first missionaries in western PA and get this… we are related to him.  Jedediah Grant was one of the first missionaries here in PA.  I thought it was really cool that we are related to someone that was a missionary and played a vital role in establishing the church here in PA.  Some other interesting things I found were that Orrin Hatch was raised in Pittsburgh and that is where his mother is from.  Random fact… Elder B showed me on lds.org where you can request the patriarchal blessings of deceased ancestors.  I thought that was kind of a cool thing.  I know it’s kind of random, but it might be kind of cool to get some, especially if we have prophets or apostles in our genealogy.  We also have a new branch mission leader.  He is from the Ivory coast and has 13 kids.  He has lived in PA for quite a while.
   5. Anything that you need from us?  Do you have my Priesthood Line of Authority.  If you don't it is OK I can do a mail request through lds.org. 
      
      
      Well, that is our awesome week of miracles.  Hope to hear from you soon.
       
      Love you,
      Elder Muir