Week 69...Where in Pennsylvania is Elder Muir???

September 29, 2014

Elder Muir & Elder R (right of Zach) with another set of missionaries

at dinner with the L family upon arrival in State College 

 

Are you ready???  I’m serving in State College, PA…home of the Penn State Nittany Lions J  I can’t believe how similar it is to BYU and Provo.  Their colors are exactly the same and Penn State’s mascot is the East coast version of the Cougar.   And get this…the nickname for State College is Happy Valley.  Pretty ironic, that I get to serve here during football season.  Oh boy, this week has been crazy.  It’s probably been one of the hardest weeks of my life besides the beginning of my mission.  Straight up…I’m brand new to the area trying to train a new missionary and basically I’ve probably had the “deer in the head lights” look for several days.  On Thursday and Friday I thought I might have a nervous breakdown but I managed and I lived to tell the story.  It’s a new week and I feel like my head is finally above water.  I wrote a letter Wednesday and sent it.  I put it up on the wall so it would be there this weekend, but the stupid mailman wouldn’t take it off the wall and I didn’t know where a blue mailbox was.  I finally just handed it to the mailman in person so it will probably be there today and will be a repeat of what I’ve just emailed you…sorry L  Also, the L family (fed us dinner on Tuesday night)  aren’t in my ward.  Around here sometimes people like to feed all of the missionaries at once so that was the case on Tuesday. 

1. What were the highs and lows for the week?  Holy cow this week has been a crazy, hard week.  Let’s start off with the highs.  It is awesome being in a new area but that also brings me to some of the lows.  Doubling into an area is really hard, especially training because you don’t get a lot of input from the training missionary (at least on day 1, 2 & 3).  Wednesday was a decent day because we spent most of the day at DM (district meeting) and the other missionaries tried to show us around the area.  Thursday & Friday were definitely trying days for me.  I almost had a few nervous break downs because I am so clueless and overwhelmed on what to do.  However, we were finally able to meet the bishop, WML and EQ president and they were able to give us some direction of what needs to be done.  The hardest part is trying to figure what people need.  Saturday through the weekend has been pretty good and I finally feel like I am getting a grasp on things.  Another high is that we have had a dinner appointment every night so far.  We will see what happens this week.  Another low is the laundry facilities.  We have to pay for the washer/dryer again and it’s kind of expensive…big bummer.  The facility is part of the complex so they charge you for it.  Rolls of quarters are going to be my new best friend.  Church is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. 
2. How did transfers go?   Tell me everything about transfers...  Boy that was a long day.  We got up at 5 AM because we had to be in Pittsburgh by 9:30 AM.  We thought traffic would be bad in Pitt so we gave ourselves a little bit of extra time.  However, traffic was not very bad so we were about an hour early.  We had the trainer meeting at 9:30 AM  and then we had lunch with the trainers and trainees.  Lunch was Jimmy Johns.  The transfer meeting was at 2 PM.  After the transfer meeting we drove to State College and got here about 6:30 PM. 
3. Who is your new companion?   So my new companion is Elder R  from Murray.  He is 18, so he just graduated and went to the MTC in July.  He is a Visa waiter and is supposed to be going to Taiwan and he speaks Mandarin.  So basically I could lose him any day.  He is hoping to be out of here in a month but we’ll see what happens.  He thinks it should happen from rumors that he had heard in the MTC but he doesn’t know for sure.  He is the middle child in his family.  He is into music and theater.  He was in A Christmas Carol at Hale Theater last Christmas.  So there is a little about him. 
4. How's training going?  Good, so far. 
5. How are you adjusting to the new area, surroundings & companion?  It is going good.  It’s taking some getting used to but I really like the area and everything.  The hardest thing is having a brand new missionary.  Of course, he’s on fire straight from the MTC and I’ve seen the reality of how it really is because I’ve been out a while.  So we’re just trying to stay balanced.  Maybe that is why the Lord assigned me to train…maybe I need to re-establish the basics of missionary work and rekindle my fire. 
6. How's your companion adjusting to mission life?  He is doing pretty well.  He’s not homesick at all.  I think that is partly due to the fact that he has been out since July because he learned a language. The biggest thing is he wants his Visa ASAP.  I don't blame him.  He’s worried about forgetting everything he learned in the MTC, but luckily State College has a big Asian population.  
7. Where are you?  State College.  Our area includes part of the campus but most of campus is a different set of missionaries.  I am right in the thick of Penn State.  What ward are you serving in?  State college 2nd ward. 
8. Is there another set of missionaries in the ward?  No. 
9. How was church yesterday?  Good.  It’s very loud and noisy with all of the little kids.  How's the ward?  The ward is awesome.  A good chunk of the members were born in the same decade as me and they’re the adults in the ward.  They’re all very young and have lots of kids.  Most of them are at Penn State for masters or Phd’s.  So there is a very high turnover rate.  Most of them are from Utah or transplants from somewhere else, there’s not many long time Pennsylvanians. 
10. Do you have a car?  No, we are walking again.  We have bikes but we need to get lights for them today so we can use them.  I will buy the lights and put them on my card. We also ride the bus which is very good around here.  We get monthly bus passes that the mission buys for us.  Unfortunately, I have already lost it.  I thought I put it back in my wallet the other day but it was not there when I reached for it yesterday.  I can't find it in the pant pockets I was wearing so I am hoping it did not fall out somewhere.  I’m hoping to find it in the apartment, but I have looked everywhere there.  There’s a possibility it may be at the bus office lost and found.  I may have to spend $15 to get a replacement for the month.  That will be cheaper than $1.75 a ride.  Hopefully I can find it.  I keep praying that it will show up, but no luck so far. 
11. Is your area new or did you take someone's place?  If so, where did those missionaries go?  So it is kind of crazy what happened with the area.  Like I said last week…there is now a 3rd ward in the State College area.  There is a State College 1st and 2nd ward.  They just made a new Belafonte ward.   The new ward just split off from the 2nd ward.  So we took over the new 2nd ward boundaries.  The old 2nd ward elders took over the Belafonte ward.  The sister missionaries that were in the 1^st ward stayed the same but their boundaries changed.  So to make a long story short, we took someone’s place but they just moved to a new ward around state college.  So that puts 4 units in State College and the surrounding areas.  Three wards and a student branch.  So in total we have 10 missionaries between the wards and the branch.  Crazy!!!
12. I'm assuming you're still in the same zone and same stake (Altoona)?  Yes
13. How many missionaries are in your district?  10, including a senior couple. 
14. How's State College?  It is awesome.  Like I said, it compares it to Provo.  The college campus has tons of students and lots of town homes and apartment complexes.  Do you have most everything as far as national retail chains now?  Pretty much. 
15. How's your new apartment?  It is nice and clean.  It is pretty big and in pretty good shape because sisters had it before us. 
16. How are the members?  They are awesome.  Like I said, they are very young. 
17. Are you teaching anyone?  We have some lessons set up this week with investigators that were left for us.  Was the area/area book left in good shape for you?  Yes, pretty good.  But the hard thing is there were not really any plans on what needed to be taught or anything.  The other missionaries from the original 2 wards were trying to plan for the split and their new area so there wasn’t anything really concrete.
18. Are things good?  Are you happy and healthy?  Yes, now that I am starting to get things under control. 
19. Can we do anything for you?  No, however I think mail would be fun.  You know how I like getting letters. 
20. What can we pray for?  That I can continue to figure out the area.  
21. Any other news/info you'd like to share?  So I found out that as a mission we get to see the Meet the Mormons movie.  We are not seeing it in theaters though.  Pres. Johnson got a link from the missionary department about how they want to handle it.  They want missionaries to stay away from the theaters because they don't want to give the impression that it’s another finding tool for the church.  So we get to see it next Thursday (10/9) the day before it comes out.  So I get to see it before it comes out to the general public.  We’ll meet for our zone training and see it together with the President and do some fun things.  Another funny side note is my football withdrawals.   Saturday was a home game for Penn State and it made me really want to be back home going to a BYU game.  Seeing everybody decked out in their Penn State apparel was rough, but I’m fine.  This town literally revolves around Penn State, especially during football season.  Saturdays are going to be rough for me when there are home games here.  Of course, BYU seems to be doing pretty good and I’m missing it, but someone reminded me that BYU is notorious for blowing it.

     Well there is my week.  I survived the first week of the transfer.   It has been stressful, a bit overwhelming and downright hard at times.  But no worries, now things are under control and I’m ready to take off and run with it. 

PS…you are lucky to be getting this email.  We did not know that there was a 2 hour max limit per day for the computers and neither of us was finished with our emails at the 2 hour mark. Luckily, one of the workers was nice and gave us a little extra time.  Well over and out for this week and I guess I’m officially now a Penn State fan too.  Go Cougars & Penn State!

Love you tons!!!

Elder Muir