Called to Serve: Week 65...15 Months in the Mission :)

September 2, 2014

You’re in luck…I’m finally emailing you today. Sorry we are kind of late but this is the only time we had to fit it into our day.

Holy cow…where is time going? It’s the beginning of September and fall is slowly coming into the picture here. This Friday marks 15 months in the mission. I can't believe Labor Day has come and gone and school is in full swing for everyone now. I look back and wonder where the time has gone. I never thought I would be this far or make it this far, but I have survived and I’m doing well. It’s crazy to hear about all of the people that you said are starting to come home.

This week was so much fun and we’ve had lots of good things going on. Yesterday we had some good times. We took a road trip to the Kinzua Bridge. The 339-acre Kinzua Bridge State Park offers visitors a chance to walk the Kinzua Bridge Skywalk. Located in McKean County, this park is the home of the newly reinvented Kinzua Viaduct. The Viaduct, once known as the longest and tallest railroad structure at 2,053 feet long and 301 feet high, was partially destroyed by a tornado in 2003. In 2011, the engineering masterpiece was reinvented as a new pedestrian walkway where visitors can stroll 600 feet out on the remaining support towers, peer miles out into the Kinzua Gorge as well as peer down into the partial glass platform at the end of the walkway. Picnicking and trail opportunities are available. The Kinzua Bridge Scenic Byway is a designated shared use hike/bike corridor. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/kinzuabridge/index.htm

I have pics that I will send and I will send the SD card home that has more pictures on it. Look it up on google and it will tell you all about it. Onto your questions…

How was your week? What were the highs/lows? This week was pretty awesome. We have lots of good things happening. We even broke out of our mold and had a fun Labor Day/P Day. The first high has to be our lesson last night with S & N. We thought we were in for the long haul and commitment to baptism would be a long process with them but we set them with a baptism date of October 18^th at last week’s lesson. We both thought October was really pushing it and that it would take some serious work to have them ready by then. We thought it would be a rough road to get them there. However, last night during our lesson we started talking about things and the proximity of their date and they both really want this. S has had a really rough past with her family and feels this is the step she needs for starting over and getting her life back in order. We’re hoping they will be married around that same time. The sad thing is I may not be here for wedding or baptism if I get transferred. However, that’s beside the point, I just hope to teach and do my job right so the spirit will confirm their desire to be baptized. Continue to pray for their progression towards baptism. Bonus…S & N came to church again this week. Another high was we were able to help the S family on their farm last week. I got a few pictures of that. We got a lot of work done and we helped dig a hole to fix their well for their water. We took a road trip yesterday for Labor Day. We figured we had new miles and we couldn’t email so we decided to literally go to the top of our area and we visited the Kinzua Bridge. As you can tell from the info I gave above it’s a cool little place. It’s now a national park. When you send me the other SD card I will send it home with a bunch of pictures of it and a few videos. Google it and you can probably find lots of info on it. Also a low was the text we got from J and the gang Sunday morning. We had them committed to coming to church and they texted that they were not going to make it. Thank goodness for a new month because on Sunday we were out of miles and after church we walked about 10 miles and my legs were killing me.
How are the district meetings going? How are you handling the new assignment as DL (teaching, responsibilities etc)? It is going well and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be trying to prepare & make lessons every week. I am handling it fine. My biggest problem right now is trying to get exchanges done with the Brookville elders. They keep postponing it because they have things that disrupt it. So hopefully I can do it next week.
What are 5 positive things from the week? 1) We had 2 investigators at church. 2) We had a fun Labor Day. 3) It is a new month so we have our miles back. 4) I’m still adventurous sometimes on my food choices.
How's the weather? Did you get lots of rain yesterday (Sunday) & today? It has been nice, but it’s been really really humid. It rained quite a bit over the weekend. There are dark clouds out there now and it looks like it’s going to rain. However, the rest of the week is going to be OK I think. Looks kind of chilly for this Saturday with 65 for the high. It did not rain yesterday, it was just humid. As I am writing this it is pouring rain out there and it looks like a hurricane.
Have the leaves started changing colors yet? Yes, a little bit. Slowly changes are starting to take place. It is kind of crazy to think that it is that time again. Before we know it snow is going to be on the ground. I hope I’m out of here by then because I hear this area is supposed to have a bad snow year and this area is known as the “icebox” of Pennsylvania.
How are things with you and Elder B? Overall, things are going well. We have our few little disputes on things but nothing major has gone down. We are doing well together.
Any mission news/events going on or coming up? Zone conference is next Thursday but really that is it. After that I only have 2 more ZC’s to go.
Any service opportunities this week? We helped the S family on the farm by fixing a hole in their well for the water to the house. This week we are going to help someone clean out their garage that has lots of old vintage stuff. It’s a guy that we found while tracting.
Meal excitement or disturbances :) Oh you will be impressed with this one... while we were up at the S family’s last week helping out we had dinner with them. They made us stuffed peppers…yep, I had one and I actually liked it. I am really expanding the variety of my food menu.
Are you still on for your upcoming baptisms? Yes and no, we’ve had to push the dates back on a few of them
How are things with your investigators?

1. J and anyone else left in the gang? Is he still set for baptism? We are still teaching J and his LA fiancé P. We are also still teaching L too. We have not been very consistent lately with them because we have had a hard time contacting them. J has got a lot of work to do before his baptism because he is not officially divorced from his wife until December so that’s a bit of a problem. In turn, he can't get married until he’s divorced.

2. S? I’m not really sure what’s going on. We have not had a lot of contact with her now that school has started. We are going to have a lesson tomorrow with her.

3. What about her boyfriend, A? Same, we have not seen much of him.

4. Ice Cream lady? We had a little lesson with her this morning. We found out she was excommunicated and so we have to wait for the branch president to take the lead on that one. .

5. Victorian House lady (name & situation there...not sure what you're doing with her)? She is someone that lives next to the G family . They told us to check and see if she needed any service done. Her name is B . She did not really want us to teach her so we offered her our service. She thought that is what we did as missionaries, but we kept telling her our main purpose was to teach. We were able to get a little group of people from the branch to help clean the house because she can't really do it on her own. She can't get around because of a stoke she had a few years ago.

6. Any new leads or prospects? We have been teaching the granddaughter of an active member that is in her 30's. We are just taking it slow right now because she has a lot on her plate and we’re not really seeing progress so we will see where it goes.

How did you end up on miles for August? We survived…barely J We had .2 miles left but that was on Friday so we had to walk a lot towards the end and get rides to a lot of places.

Can we do anything for you or pray for anything specifically? Please pray that N & S can be prepared and make their baptismal date of Oct 18th.
How are your clothes/shoes holding up? Do you need shirts or pants? Shirts and pants are fine. My shoes are starting to go again, especially the inside sole. The water from the rain makes them fall apart quickly and get holes. I bought some insole things yesterday but I think they are too small. I will keep you posted on how they work..
Anything exciting/depressing or otherwise that you'd like to share or vent? Well Sunday was pretty awesome. The entire block meeting was all about family history and temple work. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to do more family history and temple work. It was cool seeing all of the new features that family search has. They talked about not only taking the names to them temple and doing the work but getting to know the people. We need to know their story and life (kind of like we have done with the people that we trek for at TREK). At the end of the 5^th Sunday lesson they announced that the branch is going to do a 48 day challenge for getting a name ready for the temple. They chose 48 days because that is when some recently re- activated people are going to be sealed. The best news is that N & S, our investigators, want to take part in it. It was an awesome sacrament meeting and combined 5^th Sunday.

Another adventuresome week is in the books. Tell Meg to check her email, I just sent her a little happy birthday note. She should get a bday card in the mail today.

Love you tons,

Elder Muir