Week 83...19 Months in the Mission

January 5, 2015

Well this week has been an adventure.  New Year’s, a new church time, and now today marks 5 more months left in the mission (technically less since I fly home on the 3rd).  Also thanks for the info about the Berrys and the sister missionaries on Nightline, you’ll have to keep me posted.  So I guess on to my New Years adventures and the questions. 

 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  Well this week had its fair share and highs and lows.  The worst part of the week was probably Saturday with the freezing rain and ice.  It was a very cold & wet day.  However, the upside is that we stopped at a members’ house and they let us dry off and ended up feeding us, so that was a plus.  Church is at now at 1:00 pm which is kind of a bummer, but we all have to take our turn.   It takes up a huge chunk of the day and I would rather have it in the morning since we are up early anyways and then we could have the afternoon to work, but whatever…I only have it for 5 more months at max and if a transfer is involved the time might change.  A high was definitely exchanges.  I stayed down here with Elder J Jackson.  It was a slow day, but we had a good time together.  Eating at Texas Roadhouse on New Year’s eve was fun (they had some college games on and it was weird seeing TV again)
2. What did you do for New Year’s Eve?  Did you get my package?  Did you take pics?  Did the Martinelli’s survive?   So let’s start off with the Martinelli's…yes, they survived and yes, I got your New Year’s package….thank you.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures, but we can still take some. They just won’t be on the night of New Years.  President said we could be out until 9 pm like normal, but we came in around 8 pm because it was turning kind of crazy and we figured that most people would be downtown and wouldn’t want to talk to us.  We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with one of the gift cards I got.  After dinner is when the adventure began.  We took the bus back downtown and had plans to go to the CATA (bus office) office to get some free hot chocolate and cookies that they were serving for all the people downtown to get warm.  But little did we know that there was a 5K going on at that time. I guess I had heard about it a little, but I did not realize it was at that time.  So we waited at a transfer station for another bus because our normal bus route was whacked out.  All of the sudden busses just stopped coming and by the time we said lets walk to downtown the 5Kcame around the corner and up onto campus. I then realized the buses had been stopped so we hurried to try and catch it at another spot but we barely missed it.  We called dispatch to see if we could get the bus anywhere else and they said “nope, things are stopped downtown” because of the festivities so we just walked home instead.  We arrived home and decided to stay in the last hour, thinking that it might be smarter and safer.  Now you have the New Year’s adventure 
3. Is State College starting to fill with people again?  Yes, slowly. So hopefully we can get the ball rolling forward again and get things moving.  Luckily, school starts this Monday on the 12th and things will be back to normal.  It’s crazy to think I only have a month left after this semester is over.
4. Any mission things going on this month?  Interviews at the end of the month. 
5. How are the meals & members?  Any fun dinner appts. since the funeral?  They are going good, last week was kind of slow but now that people are getting back into town things are starting to pick up.  The lady that is in charge of the calendar is good at making sure our week is full. 
6. How are things with the investigators?
1.  YL & family?  Were you able to meet with them before they left?  Yeah, we saw her and pretty much that ship has sailed.  She has a project for school and is super busy, so I think she’s done with us.  So we may stop back one last time to say goodbye.
2. L & M?  Still nothing new with them.  I hope to meet with them this week.  I really want to get her going again and meet with her. 
3. LA lady & NM investigator mother in law?  We have not seen the less active at all.  Right now the mother in law wants to hold off on the lessons because she has a lot going on in her life at the moment. 
4. What about the contact you made and were hoping to have a lesson with?  No we have not seen him we keep trying but he is never home. 
5. Any new leads or opportunities?  No not really, but the ward finally gave us their rescue list with 15 names on it. There are a lot of part member families on there.  So maybe we can get pick up some people from that.  We also have a husband of a less active who has taken lessons before but was not really interested.  However, on Saturday we walked to their house in the ice storm to help them move some couches.  He was really impressed that we walked all the way to their house in terrible weather to help them. 
7. How’s the weather?  Well, it has taken a turn for the worse.  Mother Nature has given us the cold shoulder and I think we have turned on the freezer for the week.  Yesterday it was windy and 50.  It was much nicer the day before.  Not sure if you saw any of the cameras but we had a nice ice/slush storm with rain on Saturday.  It was quite a mess and to top it all off we were soaking.  We were out in the pouring rain, freezing rain and ice.  Not so fun and it was rather cold and miserable. Another day for the memories of the good ole Pennsylvania weather.  Luckily, we stopped by a members’ home on the way back home to get warm and dry off.  We ended up staying for dinner and ate French toast with them.  Let me tell you an ice storm and rain makes the roads a slushy mess. Add cars to it and it’s not so fun to walk in.  Today it is freezing cold and super windy, so let the misery begin.  I’ve heard we have your freezing temps coming our way and the temps with the wind chill will be in the negatives this week L
8. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1)  With the cold weather coming this week, it is quite nice to have a bus to get onto to stay warm and get to places without having to walk.  2) I have set my 2015 goals (it is slightly weird planning goals for when I get home). 
9. What families do you enjoy being with in your ward?  Sis. V’s  is a fun family to be with.  The B family is a fun new family that moved in over the summer and they have a little boy.  A funny side note is that his mission president was Pres. Cottrell (my old mission prep teacher) from our stake. 
10. Anything that we can do for you?  No

14. Any funny stories or adventures that I’d like to hear.  I feel like your emails are getting shorter and shorter…throw me a bone.  I need enough to last me for a week.  So Elder C  and his district at the MTC came up with a great new code word for when you have a bad belly.  It is Jeremiah 4:19-21.  You will have to read it for it to make sense, but I think you will all get a good laugh out of it.  Also, this was a few weeks ago but I think it was pretty funny.  One of the sisters was getting a drink in the drinking fountain and I kind of scared her standing there and when she put her head up she accidently sprayed the water in her mouth all over my face.  It was all an accident and was pretty funny.  

Well I hope you were sufficed by that epistle and it was long enough for you.  Thanks for everything and I hope you all have a fantastic week as I freeze here in State College. 

Love,

Elder Muir