December 22, 2014
The 2 outside Elders are the Elders that formed the trio with Zach when Elder R left
Pres. & Sis. Johnson with Elder R when they picked him up from State College
Nothing says MERRY
CHRISTMAS like seeing your missionary son exiting the library on the live feed
State College traffic camera…woo hoo for traffic cams in the PERFECT spot. In my email I mentioned that I found some
State College traffic cameras that I was stalking. Mostly I was checking them to see what the
weather was like in State College. One
of the cameras is a bus stop at the University and every so often I would see
the bus that flashes Waupelani Dr. (Zach’s address). I joked with Dave that it would be awesome if
we saw the missionaries getting on the bus.
As I mentioned this to Zach he emailed and said that one of the traffic
cameras I mentioned was at the intersection where the library was. We weren’t sure if it was a live feed, but he
told me to check it in about 1 ½ hours.
Sure enough…an hour and a half later the missionaries walked out the
door and onto the corner of the street.
I guess I know what I’ll be checking out on Monday mornings from now
on. We LOVED seeing him and I told him
to give me a big wave next week J
So I thought I would entertain you with something while I answer your
questions. I know where all of the cameras/bus stops are that you
mentioned. The one on Beaver and Allen is
on the corner where the library is. So maybe if it is a live feed you
will get lucky and see me. I will tell
you when I’m leaving and you can get on and look. You can tell me during our Skype on
Christmas if you saw me. I have
no idea where the one on Tavern is. I
think if you hear the bells from the Salvation Army ringer it might be on
College and Allen. That is a big bus hub over there. Yes, campus is
now dead. It was kind of depressing over the weekend to watch everyone
walking around with their suitcases and cleaning up their apartments. It made me kind of trunky thinking of all the
missionaries that just went home and I can't be home for Christmas, but oh well
at least we can talk on Thursday. I’m going to get going onto the
questions.
PS…your package should be there today. I did not send my SD card home
because I was not sure if you were sending me the other one.
I hope everyone has had a fantastic week.
I can't believe that Christmas is in 3 days. I hope you are all ready and
have a great day as you reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
- How was your week? What are the highs/lows? This week was pretty awesome. Transfers happened and I am back in my area in State College. I have a new companion, Elder C. It is almost Christmas so what more could you ask for. A cool thing happened yesterday at church. A less active lady and her NM investigator mother in law came. It was awesome, we have been trying to get them to church forever, so that was a BIG plus. Another high was a dinner we had on Monday. The lady, Sis. V, that did the greenie dinner for Elder R when he came to the mission did a funeral dinner for the 2 sisters that were going home from our area. Let me tell you…it was hilarious, she went all out. This woman is genius in coming up with crazy things to do for the missionaries. We bought flowers from dollar store and carried the sisters into the house on chairs from outside (like a funeral procession). She had black dishes/balloons etc. (lucky you…I have pictures and videos that I am going to send home on my SD card soon). So that was a fun little thing that we were able to do. However, that all kind of leads into my low. So it is still weird having the sisters that all came out with me gone and home for Christmas. And like I said State College is now a ghost town and no one is around. It was kind of weird and slightly sad watching everyone packing their bags around getting on the mega bus or leaving and I’m stuck in ghost town PA, but whatever…I am over it now.
- How’s the new companion, tell us all about him? Did you know him previously? His name is Elder C and he is from Orem. He has been out 10 months and he is the youngest of 4 kids. He is really into computer programming. Yes, I knew him a little bit before from seeing him at zone conference for the past couple of months. He is good to be with so far and I look forward to working with him.
- How is it being back in State College? It kind stinks at the moment because everyone is gone and it is just hard trying to get the ball rolling again. It is sort of a slow process but I hope once school starts again and the holidays are over we can get things going again. However, I fear that when it gets down to transfers again I’m not sure if I’ll survive another 6 weeks here or not. I might get transferred. I hope I stay in State College at least one more transfer. So it is going good, things are just slow right now.
- What are you doing for Christmas? Who will you spend Christmas with? We’ll be spending it with the B family. We were supposed to go with another family but apparently the dad did not want to have us over because he has college aged daughters and he thought it would be awkward with us over there…whatever, I guess. I thought it was kind of an odd rationalization. It is not like we’re not already around that same aged girls with sister missionaries and we wouldn’t be just with them. So that is where we’ll be for Christmas. I have no idea what is going on for the day I just know where we are going. So as far as a time for Skype, I can't really say. I know that it will be good though because they are a fun family.
- Do you get to Skype? Yes, I can skype. Do you have a time? Not yet. Unfortunately, I talked to the people yesterday and they were not sure what time they wanted us to come over. They said they would call us with a time. I am going to text Pres. Johnson today and ask him if I can text you guys in the next day or so when I find out more info and give you a time. But if not, I will text you on Thursday before I get on and tell you to get on the computer. So you will find out soon, it’s nothing we should be worried about.
- Did you ever get the Christmas package from the ward? Packages/cards from anyone else? Yes, I got the package from the ward and I loved it again. Please tell them thank you for me. I also got some cards from some people. Thank you again to everyone for their support, I feel the LOVE. Holy cow, I was shocked to see how big Preslee is in Jen’s card. She was just a baby when I left now she is big. I can't wait to see her when I get home.
- How are your dinner appointments and things with ward members? They are going well. We’ve definitely been fed pretty good over the past couple of weeks so hopefully it will continue over the course of time.
- What are 5 positive things from the week? 1) I am back in state college. 2) I have my own bed again.
- How are things with the investigators?
- YL?
So it’s been kind of hard to get them to sit
down for a lesson because her husband and son are getting ready to go
back China at the end of the month and she goes back in Feb. So the
ship may slowly be sailing for them.
We might just be planting the seed.
- L & M? They are still super busy. So hopefully once the holidays are over we can get things rolling again with them.
- Any new leads? No, not really. We are trying and I keep hoping and praying that things will get busier and it will not be so stagnant.
- Any success from #sharethegift? No, not really. Hopefully people are watching the video over the holidays, but there are no new investigators from it yet.
- Any interesting news? We lost a whole bunch of sister missionaries with transfers and we have started to close some areas down because there are not enough missionaries coming out anymore to man all of those areas.
- Anything that will make me laugh? Hopefully I can make you laugh when I send home the SD card with all of the funeral stuff on it.
- Any spiritual experiences that you’d like to share? I loved sacrament meeting yesterday. I was touched by the music and the talks that people gave about the true meaning of Christmas. We should be focused on Christ and His gift that was given to each of us and not all of the other things that are out there taking us away from the true spirit of Christmas
Well, there is my busy week. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it. The
countdown is on...T-3 days until we get to Skype. I can’t wait.
Love,
Elder
Muir
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