February 18, 2014
Lititz
Fire & Ice Festival and Lititz Gives New Meaning to Snow Days
Elder Muir at the Lititz Fire & Ice Festival
Well another week of wild
weather. All I can say is, “where are you spring time, why can't I find
you?” Just think of me impersonating Faith Hill and singing it to
you. Things are downright wintry here. It’s white and snowy here and there are
snow drifts taller than me. All the snow
that has been plowed and dumped is just heaped in huge piles. Lititz
gives new meaning to SNOW DAY. The snowstorms have caused a lot of grief for
the schools. Most of the
schools around here have only had 1 full week of school since Christmas break.
It seems that every big snow storm brings at least one snow day during the week
sometimes two. And if school isn’t cancelled they have late start,
usually starting on a 2 hour delay. Right now they’re scheduled to still be
attending school towards the end of June.
- What are the highs/lows for the week? Unfortunately this week was kind of a slow
week. The weather has definitely
been taking a toll on things. A high is that we had a lot of
dinner appointments this week which is a good. It keeps us from having to make dinner
every night. I don’t know if it’s a
high or low but we made our first crockpot meal this week. Elder B
and I bought a whole chicken and then cooked it in a crock pot and we’ve
been eating off of the chicken throughout the week. My personal
preference is precut boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are nice and
clean and without bones, but the whole chicken in a crockpot was a
successful adventure. A low is that we tried to see D on Thursday but he was busy with
work. He does snow removal for work
right now so we were not able to see him. Sadly, he is really
depressed right now and he is still kind of regressing and not really
progressing anywhere. He has stopped reading and praying for right
now and that’s not good. Another high was the Lititz Fire and
Ice Festival (Ice sculpture and chili cookoff contest) over the weekend. On Saturday we and the sisters decided to
sing on the street corner since it was the fire and ice thing and we knew
there would be a lot of people out. It was fun and we
had quite a few people stop and listen to our singing. We
handed out pass along cards as well. On Saturday night we and
the sisters had dinner together with a lady in the ward. She is a
divorced lady which causes a problem because there was no male in the
house. So she invited her neighbor across the street to come
over and join us for dinner. It was pretty cool and we were able to
have an awesome lesson about charity and love with him.
- Did you survive the wrath of Mother Nature last
week? Yes, we survived but it
put a damper on things. 16 inches
of snow (just Thursday’s storm) later we are finally digging out. It
was ridiculous. I knew it was going to be a doozy. So we
spent our day doing our weekly planning and just played it by
ear. Thursday morning we were pretty much parked because
that is when the heaviest snow was falling. Things kind of calmed
down in the afternoon and then the snow came in again later that
night. We were cleared to drive early Thursday night so we went to
Manheim and had dinner with the W
family. We went out with Bro. W for
a couple of things after dinner and it started snowing hard again.
So by the time we were on our way home the roads were snow covered and
slick. No worries, on our way home we took it really slow and made
it home in one piece. Now we have tons of snow
and it hasn’t really warmed up enough to melt it. Even if (and when)
it does warm up it’s going to take some time to melt all the huge piles of
snow, it’s everywhere.
- Did you lose power again? No, everything was fine.
- Was your car parked on Thursday? Yes it was parked in the morning and then we
ventured out later that night just to get snowed on even more.
- How much snow did you get from this last snow
event (Thursday)? Probably about 16-18
inches.
- Was the hill that your car had a hard time making
it up called "Temperance Hill Rd"? No, it was Kissel Hill road by our
apartment. But I know where that is and we drive up it all the time
when we go out to Manheim. Why do you ask, did that cause a lot
of people grief Thursday?
- Were you able to perform any service this past
week? What about shoveling snow? Yes, we
were able to help Bro. F with
shoveling again. He took us and we helped him shovel the driveway of a
young single lady in the ward. Holy
cow let’s talk about wet heavy snow. The snow in Utah is wonderfully
light and fluffy stuff or maybe I’m just really missing our snow blower
and thankful we have one.
- Did you build a friend for your snowman? No
- What are 5 positive things from the week? 1) We
survived the storm. 2) I am
quite proud of our crockpot chicken. 3) We had a dinner appointment
almost every day.
- Is your cold better? Finally getting better. My nose is still a little stuffy but it
is on the mend.
- Did you go/see the Fire & Ice festival in Lititz? I guess we sort of stumbled upon it when we were downtown the other day. Like I said, we ended up signing on the street corner with the sisters and handing out the pass along cards. There were some pretty cool ice sculptures.
- How are things with your investigators? They are going ok.
1. T (read BOM in 5 days) ? Well we have not been able to contact him at all since we had the one
lesson, so basically same as last report.
2. B ? We pretty
much dropped him because he wasn't really interested and he is moving to
Reading.
3. D, TP, Mandy & Lee? Well we have not really taught
Mandy & Lee in about 2 months so we had to kind of drop them. We keep
trying to stop by TP’s but it is always a bad time for her so she said to text
her and set up a time. We do that, but
she never responds back. So it makes things difficult. We have not
been able to see D in a while. We stop by and talk to him on his door
step but last week he was getting ready to go to work so it was a short visit.
4. A (Puerto Rico guy) ? He is doing good and we are going to see him today. He has not really
been reading at all so hopefully we can get him moving forward in the right
direction.
5. Kenya couple in your apartment complex? He has been
busy with work and so it is hard to meet with him. He has been working a
lot of double shifts. We have been texting back and forth trying to get
something set up but they are always busy. So we just keep trying and we’re
hoping we don't lose them.
6. I Family? Well last week they were on the cruise so we did not get to meet with
them. We were supposed to have something with them last night but they
cancelled at the last minute. Praying that we are not losing them too.
7. Any new investigators? Well we have another former
investigator and his name is J . He
is an11 year old boy and he had been going to church quite a bit a few years
ago. We’re hoping we can get something
going with him. Our biggest problem is his mom is a single mom. She works
a ton and is never home and we don’t feel comfortable just bringing a member
with us to appointments without a parent in the house.
14. What do you think will happen with transfers this next
week? Well I am not exactly sure. I think I
could be leaving, but it is all up in the air until the weekend. My guess
is I’ll either leave or train, but we won’t find out until Saturday. Elder
B wrote the ZL’s for transfer recommendations and said I could leave. But
really it comes down to whatever President and the AP's decide. So I’m not
really sure what is going to happen.
15. How was your zone training? Was the weather OK? Is zone
training in Lancaster or Harrisburg? Zone
training is tomorrow (Wednesday). It is in Lancaster at the church (stake
center) building we go to.
17. Can we pray for anything? Just that
all goes well with whatever happens with transfers. I am not really worried
about it though, I’m good either way.
18. Do you need anything? I am good
right now.
19. Are you happy? Yes, just
ready for spring and summer.
Well there is my week. I hope you all had a fabulous dry and warm
week, unlike me.
Love You,
Elder Muir