Week 67...Zone Conference

September 15, 2014

Another crazy week is in the books.  I can't believe we are starting week 6 of transfers again.  By this time next week I may have my bags packed and ready to go onto a new adventure.  But right now I’m just enjoying Ridgway while I can since I could be on the final countdown.  I’ve been in St. Marys/Ridgway Branch for 4 transfers now (been here since April).   But we will have to wait and see what happens next week.  We get transfer calls on Saturday.  I got the SD card and watched the videos you sent and saw the pictures. Holy cow…you were a basket case doing the ice bucket challenge.  I’ll have to admit it was pretty darn funny. 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  This week has been pretty hectic.  Between exchanges and having zone conference all day on Thursday it was pretty hectic.  One of the highlights was exchanges.  I went down to DuBois.  We exchanged Tuesday night and I stayed the night in DuBois.  We got up Wednesday morning and got to work.  It was kind of a boring for the first part of the day because the DuBois elders still hadn’t had their Pday so I basically had Pday with them.  However, later in the day we did some service at a bakery in DuBois.  You may have noticed it in your quest for birthday cakes when you were searching the internet.  The owner is a dude from Israel named U.  The elders help him all the time and I got to help this time.  I cleaned the dishes from all the cakes and everything that he used in preparation and baking.  It was quite the project and I was quite wet by the end of it.  After we ended up going to mutual with the youth and they went geocaching.  It was pretty fun.  Later we exchanged back and we all spent the night in DuBois and the next morning we got up and went to zone conference in State College.  Zone conference was awesome!!!  The low has probably been the change in the weather and unfortunately are teaching pool is starting to go down the drain and it is time to start from square one again.  
2. How was the zone conference?  It was awesome.  The main focus was family history.  The training by the zone leaders was all about family history.  We were all given the little booklets called "My Family".  I don't know if you have seen or heard of them but they are pretty cool.  Basically it’s a grandiose family pedigree and it goes back to your own great grandparents.  It asks for information about them and you’re able to record different stories that you can find or memories about them.  The church wants the stories entered into Family Search.   It is kind of like the TREK idea where you pick an ancestor then research their story and get to know them.  I think it is very cool because the emphasis in the church is not just to get the names to the temple but to really get to know who your ancestors are.  They want us to be able to put a name with a face and about their life.  So over the next month or so the entire mission has been invited to research our ancestors and fill out the book.  Each of us will be collecting stories about our parents, grandparents and great grandparents.  So I am wondering if you can help me by asking both grandparents to send me stories about them and their parents.  I hope you have seen these books, if not you can order some online and do them or you can do it on family search and click family booklet on the main page. You can also order them from the LDS store for $1.00.  If you can help me get some different info on people that would be great.  I will write both sets of grandparents too and hopefully I can get this accomplished and get to know our family line better.  Our goal is that hopefully it will help in our finding efforts because lately this is a big push that the church is going for.  We also talked about the rules that Pres. Johnson is putting into place.  He is pretty much just sticking with what the white handbook says.  So that adds a few changes from the rules that Pres. Topham had.  Well that is a snippet from the awesome zone conf.  Only 2 more ZC’s to go…I can't believe I just said that. 
3. What are your feelings about transfers?  I think I am out here.  However, I won’t be sure until Saturday.  But like I said, I have been here 6 months and so Ifeel like it is my time to go.  Also, I was talking with Pres. Johnson on the phone this morning and he said that I could get transferred.  He was not implying anything he was just saying it is a possibility.  I am kind of ready to go even though I will miss the Ridgway branch a lot.  They’ve been really good to me.  We’ll see what happens, I will know more next week. 
4. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) Zone conference 2)  Exchanges 3) we had chili at the S family’s  house for dinner.
5. How are you and Elder B?  We are doing great.  We still haven’t killed each other so I think we are doing well J 
6. How's the weather?  Boy, the weather has turned quite chilly over the last few days.  It has only been in the high 50's and low 60's for the past few days.  There has been some rain which has made it even colder.
7. Any service opportunities this week?  We were up at the S family’s house all day Saturday helping him clean out his barn.  And like I said before, while I was on exchange in DuBois we did service at a bakery and I washed the dishes. 
8. How are things with the investigators?
1.  S & N ?  Are things still progressing towards baptism?  They are doing OK.  I don't think they really understand what our purpose is for being there and the importance of baptism and Heavenly Father’s plan for them.  I think that it is more of a social thing for them.  We will see how much longer it lasts but right now we are kind of at a stale mate with them.  It’s  kind of a bummer, but we are just trying to figure out what they really need to get them back on the right track. 
2. S &A?  Not much going on with them.  We got the address for A  but the person that answered just slammed the door in our face saying “we’re not interested”.  We still keep texting  S but right now we still can't teach her because of her mother.  
3. Ice cream lady?  We are going to see her tomorrow.  We need to see what President W  wants done with her since she has been exed.
4. Anyone else that you've been meeting with?  No, like I said we are kind of dead.  I am starting to run out of ideas but we are trying our hardest.  I’m not sure if that is a sign that it is my time to go or what but things have definitely slowed down. 
5. Any new leads/finds?  No, not really.  This week is going to be a lot of finding opportunities and back to basics for us.  
   
   
9. Any exciting meal news?  You said you had quite a few lined up...  No, pretty normal food lately.  We did have farm fresh picked corn at the S family’s  that I picked on Saturday.  It was really good. 
   
   
10. Any DL news or news on the district/zone?  No, not really.  We are going on exchange with the ZL's tomorrow.  We are just splitting up and staying up here in Ridgway because Altoona is too far away for it to work out to stay overnight. 
    
    
11. How are you doing on money?  Good, with birthday cash I got and gifts cards I have been doing pretty good. Meals are staying pretty steady to where we have about 3 a week. That helps on the wallet not having to always buy food.  Thank you to everyone for your support and love.
12. Are you happy?  Healthy (how's you cold or allergy)?  It is doing ok, my nose is still kind of stuffy.  I am not sure if it is allergies or what.  Hopefully, I am on the tail end of whatever it is. 
13. Do you need anything?  No, not right now. I am going to hold off on anything until I find out what is going on with transfers. 
14. Can we pray for anything?  Keep praying that all will go well with whatever happens in transfers and that we can start finding more people.
15. What about the shoes?  Do I need to send you something or can you wait until you’re transferred and maybe you'll be in a bigger city where you can get some.  LMK what you need :)  Let’s just hold off until I figure out what is going on with transfers. 

It’s has been a busy week with lots going on.  Take care and I hope you all enjoy reading about my missionary adventures.

Love you all,

Elder Muir

PS…Mom let me know if you have any questions about the family history stuff that I want you to send me.  Thanks!!!

 September 2014 State College zone conference
(Elder Muir is 2nd row left of center to the right of the sister in the orange sweater)

 Immaculate Conception Catholic church in Brookville, PA

(picture taken from Pres. W's drone)