Week 66...Pressing Forward with Faith

September 8, 2014

Hello, this week has been a pretty good week but things are starting to slow down a little. However, we still are making do with what we have and it gives us a chance to get back to the basics of finding people.  Overall, things have been pretty status quo yet we keep working hard.  I see that you have been pretty busy and I'm glad you are all enjoying yourselves.  I can't believe I am down to 9 months left at this point.   Did you get a text picture from Sis. Won Friday night? 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  This week has been a pretty good week.  Yesterday a high was the lesson we had in priesthood.  We talked about the First Presidency message from September’s Ensign.  I thought it was very insightful in preparation for marriage (when it comes) and when I return home and start into real life again.  It’s important to make sure that I am not only prepared physically for a loss of a job or a natural disaster etc. but also prepared spiritually.  I thought the it was interesting when it asks the question “are you square with the Lord?”  I like that the message it stressed self-reliance is both a temporal and spiritual thing.  Another high was our lesson we had at a member’s home with N & S . They still seem excited to be ready for baptism on Oct. 18^th and they seem even more gung ho on getting married. However, that leads into a little bit of a low.  We went back for a lesson on Saturday and they told us that their parents now want to plan a big shindig for the wedding and get a bunch of people there.  So now, apparently they are not going to get married until June of next year.  I don't think they realize the importance of baptism since they are putting all the emphasis on the wedding.  So we are going to keep working with them and see what we can do.  They still want to get baptized; they have just pushed it out quite a ways now.  Another low was S  dropped us.  Her mom does not want us meeting with her anymore because all her mom knows is all of the anti Mormon stuff.   S has been trying to keep it going but her mom finally pulled the plug on us coming over.  So currently we are not teaching her, but we have been texting scriptures to her so we at least have some contact. The bottom line is we don't have anyone with a date anymore L. 
2. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) This upcoming week we have a dinner appointment every day except Wednesday.  2) Last night we were out and about walking to a place and we had the choice of either getting home really late or not making it to our destination.  Luckily, while we were walking to the place some members of the branch picked us up and took us there and on the way back the librarian’s husband picked us up and took us home.
3. Did you get the "Rise & Roar" Cougar package?  Do I need to ask if you liked it?  Yes, I got it and I loved it!!!  Do I need to say more? J Yes, I have heard the results of the game.  It sounds like we are doing well from the score we had this past game.  Texas must not be very good this year.  Hope we can keep it up. 
4. I read in the St. Mary's news that there was a shooting hoax at the St. Mary's high school last Tuesday right around when you were emailing.  Do you see or hear anything?  I'm glad it was just a hoax and no one was injured.  Yes, I heard all about it.  I did not hear about it until later that night from some people.  But I'm glad all is well.  People are kind of crazy here and the police have always got something crazy going for them it seems. 
5. Do you get more miles now that you're a district leader?  Nope, we still get 1300 miles.
6. How did things go with the guy you met tracting that has the garage full of vintage items?  Did you help him clean the garage this week?  No, he cancelled on us last minute.  Hopefully we are going to see him on Wednesday.  We are not cleaning his garage, we are just going to try and have a lesson. 
7. Is your zone conference this week?  Yes Do you have to do anything for the conference?  No Is it in State College? Yes Take the camera and get pics of the crazy Penn State stuff :)  I will try.  Unfortunately as you drive through State College you don't really go through campus at all but I will see what I can do.  
8. How are things with the investigators? 
1. S & N ?  Like I said, they are doing great minus the fact that they have now postponed the wedding until June.  Hopefully we can get things straightened out and get things to where they understand why baptism is so important and hopefully move it earlier than next June. 
2. S & A?  That is on pause right now until her mom has change of heart and is willing to let her meet with us again.  The sad thing is she has great potential but her mom is just making it difficult on her. 
3. J, P & L ?  That is slowly starting to fade.  I’m not exactly sure what is going on.   J no longer has a baptism date because he is not officially divorced from his ex-wife until December.  So he can't marry  P until then.   So right now he is on hold and they have not really been coming to church either.  So they are slowly fading but we are trying to get it to stay afloat.   L has been super busy so hopefully we can get her set with a date in our lesson tonight.  We will see how it goes.  
4. Ice cream lady?  We can't really do much with her because she has been ex communicated. 
5. What about B?  We are done with her for now.  We just stop by every little while and see how she is doing.  She is pretty busy right now so we have not talked to her in a while.
9. How are things with the members?  Are you still connecting with them?  Any fun stories or memories about them?  They are doing great.  The relationship between the members and missionaries keeps getting better and better.  Unfortunately, I think my time is dwindling with them but I am pleased to say that I think the relationship is much better than when I first got here.  Did you get the picture Sis.  W sent on Friday. 
10. Is the weather decent?  Yeah, you can finally tell that fall is slowly in the air.  It was kind of humid again last week.  Saturday was rainy and cold but yesterday was awesome…sunny and low 70's. 
    
    
11. What are you teaching in district meetings?  How are things with the DL assignment...still good???  Things are going well.  Basically for my lessons I am just teaching parts of PMG.  I am still trying to get the hang of it and figure out what works and what doesn't work for lesson plans.  Assignments are going good, I’m just trying to get everything collected from the district for the month of August so I can report it to the ZL's for their monthly meeting with the stake president. 
    
    
12. Is there anything that you need or that we can help with?  Can you please send me the other SD card back so I can send you the one I have right now with pictures from Labor day. 
13. Are you happy & healthy?  Yes, I think I have a little cold or just fall allergies…but I can't tell which one. 

As you can see things have slowed down a bit, but we are making the best of it.

Love you,

Elder Muir