Week 90...FROZEN Solid with the APs!!!

February 23, 2015

       Note from mom...we're down to

  Days

So you’re probably wondering what on earth my subject line has to do with anything.  Well I hate to sound like a broken record…but, we are frozen solid here in State College.  We had exchanges with the APs over the weekend.  I’ll explain more later.   Wow, that sounds like an exciting day on Sunday.  I would have loved watching it all.  I will email some pics here in a moment.  Unfortunately, I have been bad at taking pics lately.  Luckily our zone has a Google drive with a whole bunch of pictures on it so I am going to snag some from there.  

 Elder Muir waiting for the bus on Valentines

 Whiteout at the bus stop

 Pday at the church with State College district

 Altoona Zone Conference

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  This week was a pretty awesome week.  I guess I will start off with the exchanges with the AP's.  Exchanges were pretty awesome.  I went with Elder V.  He came out the transfer before I did, so he has about 8 weeks left.  He is an older missionary, I think about 26ish.  He was less active for a while and got into drugs and all that jazz for a while, but now he’s on a mission and is an amazing missionary.  That is beside the point though.  The reason exchanges were so good is because we had a lesson with CC.  The lesson was great.  However, we didn’t do much after that because Elder V didn’t realize we were a walk area.  He thought we had a car so he didn’t bring much in the way of cold weather clothes.  We didn’t completely finish our lunch break because we had to leave early for our lesson that we were having with CC.  So after the lesson we went to Panera Bread and finished our lunch break and just sat and talked and got to know each other a little more.  After lunch the APs had to head back to Pittsburgh because the weather was not the greatest.  The exchange was nice because I didn’t have to stress out over the schedule for the day and things like that.  Another high was church yesterday.  It was awesome because it was Ward Conference.  The theme of the conference was Blessings of the Restoration.  A stake presidency member gave an awesome talk about the restoration and talked about Joseph Smith and his honest search for truth and how it ultimately changed the world.  It made me think of all the blessings that I have in my life because of the restoration and the blessings that I am trying to share with others here in PA.  I also loved the priesthood lesson.  It was on President Uchtdorf’s talk,  Lord is it I?   https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/lord-is-it-i?lang=eng.  Instead of relating it to Judas betraying him we studied about Peter and his denial and still used the penetrating question Lord is it I? As we discussed the talk it made me think about the things in my life that aren’t in line with the Lord’s will.  I thought of things I could do to realign my will instead of judging others for their problems.  So I thought Sunday was an awesome day.  I don't think there are many lows this week other than I still think the cold is just plain awful. 
2. How’s the weather been (besides miserable)?  Any stories, sobbing, venting or other intervention that you need to tell?  It has been just about like you explained.  Being in a walk area makes things rather difficult because it’s just too cold to go out and do anything.  This week almost seems worse than last week because there were so many consecutive cold days.  There were a lot of nights this week that we came in a few hours early because after the sun goes down it turns frigid.  Even during when the sun was shining it was really cold.  But we went out and just hurried inside.  On Wednesday as we were waiting for the bus to come home for dinner there was another sort of windy whiteout.  It was miserable…again.  Mom, if you would have been driving in it you would have probably pulled over.  The month of February will likely rank among the coldest ever. Sub zero temperatures were recorded on the 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th and 20th. Monday night will probably be the 6th.
3. Is the library open yet?  No, it’s not scheduled to open until next Monday.  It will be closed for 2 weeks.  Luckily we have the campus library to use.
4. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) I survived another week of the cold.  2) The APs came on exchange with us.  3) We have another prospect for a new investigator. 
5. Tell me something that will make me laugh out loud :)  So on Saturday we decided to go out to lunch with the APs and we were waiting to get on the bus.  There were 2 girls standing outside waiting to get on with us.  Let me tell you, we were lucky if it was 15 degrees outside and they thought it would be a good day to wear the super short spandex volleyball shorts.  They were both shivering and nearly frozen.  They were complaining that the bus needs to be there faster.  I thought to myself, maybe if you had some clothes on you might be a bit warmer…but whatever.  Also Bro. B was talking to us at church yesterday about an article that ranked colleges.  Evidently it’s been a topic of discussion on the buses (he’s a CATA bus driver).  Penn State is in the top 5 for drinking party schools.  He said BYU was #1 for sober schools.  I guess everyone on the buses thought it was odd that BYU was in the top 20 party schools.  No one could seem to fathom that.  Bro. B  tried explaining as he overheard the people on the bus talking about this.  He basically told them you don't always need booze to have a good party.  I thought it was pretty funny. 
6. How’s the teaching/finding going?
1. CC?  She is doing well.  We had another lesson with her on Saturday.  We taught her the plan of salvation.  I was with one of the AP's and we determined after the lesson was over that her knowledge of the gospel is not fantastic.  She gets off on random tangents that only slightly have to do with what we are teaching.  But hey, we are at least meeting with her and so I would call that progress. 
2. Single mom with 2 kids (new investigator from WML)?  I guess she is not really interested.  I only half believe that because all 3 of them seemed to be really interested when we taught them.  She said the kids thought it was weird.  Which I don't get because they seem to be the ones that really liked it.  But the mom kind of runs the show and you do what she wants.  So our WML is still going to be friends and continue planting seeds, but right now they don't seem to be interested. 
3. Any new prospects/leads?  Well last night we got a text from a guy in the EQ presidency.  I think they were out visiting some people.  The text said that one of the less active part member families has a wife who is not a member.  Evidently she is interested in taking the lessons and wants to feed us.  She is a Muslim from Sierra Leone.  He was too, but he joined the church.  So I guess when I go over for dinner I might get some crazy food.  Hello to more Fufu.  We will see where it goes.  Right now we just need to do some more follow up. 
7. How are things with the ward members?  Things are going great.  The ward loves us.  That’s a big plus for us, so hopefully that will continue.  I hope that I can stay here for the rest of my mission because of that. 
8. Do you need anything?  Maybe some more hand warmers, but I think other than that I am good right now.  I am trying to be low key at the moment since transfers are in 2 weeks and I don’t want to pack extra to my next area if I’m transferred.   I have tried to con President into letting me stay here until I go home so we will see what happens. 
9. Can we do/pray for anything?  Pray that our teaching pool will continue to grow and that the people that we are teaching and may teach will progress. 
10. Can you use all of the gift cards that I sent in the Vday package?  Yes, I have used the Chili’s card already.  We used that for Friday night dinner.  Let me tell you for a Friday night I have never seen the Chili's servers so bored and not knowing what to do with themselves.  I think it was partly due to what Penn State calls THON. It’s basically a big dance party for 48 hrs. They are raising money for children’s cancer research.  If you go to thon.org I think you can find out more about it. 

Well there is my frigid week.  Take care, thanks for all you do :)

Love,

Elder Muir 

Week 89...Cold Weather, Warm Hearts

February 16, 2015

State College is starting to feel like one GIANT ice pop and we’re not going to thaw out anytime soon.  Boy these past few days have been slightly miserable.  In fact, the Schlow library where I usually email had a frozen pipe that burst last night and ruined over 1,500 books.  They were closed today and the schools were on another 2 hour delay.  On Sunday, we saw high temperatures around seven degrees with lows of 12 below zero and wind chills making it feel like it was 30 below.  According to the paper, this morning the wind chill was 23 below.  Let gpa know that I’ve finally frozen.  I think it is time to Let It Go :)  Luckily our awesome week offset the miserable weather and made it not so bad. 

 

Also, that is fun that Mike and Sara came up to visit.  That is crazy about Jane going to Pittsburgh.  If she were going a month earlier I would still most likely be there.  Any idea where she will be or where she is staying or anything like that? 

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  This week has been awesome.  This is the best week I have had in a while. We finally had an investigator lesson and the last time I had one was before Thanksgiving when Elder R was here.  It was rough being here during Christmas when campus was a ghost town.  We had a few lessons when I was in the Bellefonte trio, but they were with people that the Bellefonte Elders were teaching (so I don’t count that).  We picked up 3 new investigators… a single mom and 2 kids.  This is the referral from the WML.  It’s pretty awesome and we’re super excited.  Zone training was a high on Wednesday and it’s always great to learn from Pres. Johnson and the zone leaders.  The biggest low was having to deal with the frigid cold air.  Luckily, even though the weather has been frigid, the members’ hearts are warm.  We haven’t had to be out in it too much.  With the subzero temps and wind chill we couldn’t be out walking around much.  We had to either be on the bus or in a member’s home and the members totally came through for us.  We were inside most of yesterday and today looks like it will be the same as well.  A low was finding out we didn't get iPads at zone training.  It was a bummer, but whatever.  I am not too sad. 
2. How were exchanges?  Who was your comp?  Exchanges went well.  Elder  M came down from Bellefonte and we exchanged Wednesday into Thursday morning.  Wednesday was the night we had the lesson with our referral so Elder C was not there.  It was an awesome night and together we taught a great lesson. 
3. How was zone training?  It was great, President talked about obedience (like everyone else does in their mission).  It seems like obedience always seems to be an issue.  I guess that's what happens when you get teenage boys and girls just out of high school.  So that was a big topic of discussion and Sister Johnson talked about the parable of the sower.  She talked about how we are all seed planters and we need to find the people that are ready with hearts that have good soil.  We need to teach those that are prepared.  The zone leaders talked about teaching the Savior’s way.  During the ZL teaching all the missionaries had the chance to give a little talk if they were called upon.  They were asked to talk about what they thought the Savior’s way of teaching was.  A lot of people talked about how we need to teach with love and compassion and really care about the people we are teaching.  So there is the synopsis of zone training. 
4. Last week I asked about service and you said nothing other than your “regular weekly service”.  What’s your regular weekly service?  We work at the catholic version of DI.  It is called St. Vincent De Paul.  We sort through clothes and hang them up etc. 
5. How’s the weather been this week?  Have you noticed the bitter cold temps or are you just used to them and you stay bundled up?  It has been fine until yesterday.   Most of the day the wind-chill was below zero and at that point we were instructed to stay inside all day besides going to church.  However, for some reason the 1st ward and Bellefonte ward cancelled their meetings.  We were the only ward that had church.  After church we rode home with the Bishop B family (they had me over for Christmas).  We hung out with them while they prepared dinner and then we ate with them.  We were able to stay warm and talk with them for a while.  It was fun.   On Saturday (Valentines) around dinner time a snow squall came through and it was a white out blizzard.  We were on the bus heading to our dinner appointment.  We got on the bus by our house and drove for a few minutes and all of the sudden we hit a wall of snow.  The bus drivers were on the radio chatting back and forth with base and pointing out what to watch for.  It pretty much came out of nowhere.  I’m happy to report that we made it to dinner and we had a great V-day with a new family that just moved into the ward.   Currently right now it’s around noon (EST) and it’s around zero outside and that’s without the wind chill. 
6. Did you hear anything about a big nasty pileup on I-80 near Bellefonte on Tuesday or Wednesday?  Yeah, I saw something in the newspaper at the bus stop but I didn’t take the time to look at it.      
7. Investigators & Teaching…
1.  CC?  She is doing well.  We had another lesson with her on Saturday.  The lesson went well.  We talked about the restoration and watched the restoration movie with her.  Unfortunately, she has been kind of sick so she has not been able to make it to church. 
2. Friend of WML that he invited to dinner on Wed?  That was fantastic!!!  After we had dinner, they came over and had dessert with us and we taught them lesson 1.  She is a single mother with 2 kids (14 and 11).  We had an awesome lesson and the spirit was really strong.  The kids are pretty awesome and they asked lots of good questions.  I have not heard what they thought yet, hopefully they liked it and they will continue to meet with us. 
3. Any less actives?   CC is really the only less active person we are teaching. 
4. Any new leads/referrals/prospects?  Right now only the one from Wednesday. 
8. What are 5 positive things from the week?   1) I am surviving the cold.  I have not had to be out in it too much.   2) The ward is really starting to catch the idea of missionary work and hastening the work of salvation.  3) I got a little V-day package with some candy from Sis.  B (Camp Hill area) because I sent her a letter the other day. 
9. Any good stories that will make me laugh?  Who would have ever thought that YOU would be the garbage gut that missionaries would dish their food off to?  So this is a good story.  After emailing last week I wanted to go into some of the shops and browse through the Penn State apparel.  I really had no intentions of walking out with anything, but then I got back to a wall of t-shirts and saw the wrestling section.   I thought it would be fun to get a Penn State wrestling t-shirt since both the coaches are in our ward.  All of the sudden I saw a shirt that said Cael Knows Wrestling  (Cael Sanderson is the head coach and Olympic gold medalist) and I was sold at that point.  I bought it for $10.  Also, when I was taking my sweatshirt off the other day my name tag decided to scratch my forehead and leave a nice line going down the middle.  So now I have a nice scratch going down my forehead, but whatever. I will send you pictures next week. 

Well, there you have it… the exciting bitter cold, wintery, freezing week of Elder Muir. 

 

Love

Elder Muir

Week 88...Investigators Wanted!!!

February 9, 2015

Well it sounds like you had an interesting week of bad luck, luckily my week was much better than yours.  It seems that you’ve had lots of breakdowns since I’ve been gone.  I am going to come home to all sorts of new stuff.  Speaking of new stuff, did you decide if you are going paint my room?  Bonus…we finally taught a lesson after a few weeks with none (I will explain more in the questions).  Well onto the questions. 

1.       How was your week?  What were the highs & lows?  This week has been a pretty awesome.  First things first…we finally had a lesson—YaY!!!  I know that is not a lot, but that is the most we’ve had in a few weeks.  It’s all thanks to our WML going out with for a couple of hours on Saturday instead of having our weekly meeting.  We we were able to get in with a single LA woman that came to church the week before.   We thought she would be a good person to visit and it worked out great.  We also saw another less active guy.  We did not really have lesson with him, but we just stopped by and said hello and chatted for a bit.  Another high was I finished reading True to the Faith.  Now I am reading Jesus the Christ and actually enjoying it (and I’m able to stay awake J).  Glade to hear that your talk went well and that you’ve also been studying about Peter.  I forgot to mention last week a few other things about Peter.  So first of all, I found a cool definition in the BD about him and a thought from a chapter in the NT that I read.  BD part:  Peter was one of the greatest of men. It is true that the New Testament recounts some mortal weaknesses, but it also illustrates that Peter was one of the greatest of men. It is true that the New Testament recounts some mortal weaknesses, but it also illustrates that he overcame them and was made strong by his faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord honored Peter by selecting him to hold the keys of the kingdom on earth (Matt. 16:13–18), and it was upon the holy mount that Peter received these keys from the Savior, Moses, and Elias (Elijah) (Matt. 17:1–12). Peter was the chief Apostle of his day; and after the death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Savior, it was Peter who called the Church together and acted in the office of his calling as the one who possessed the keys of the priesthood (Acts 1:2). It was through Peter’s ministry that the gospel was first opened up to the Gentiles (Acts 10–11).  As I studied and pondered that information I was especially touched by the first few sentences because it talks about him overcoming his weakness and eventually becoming the chief apostle. The Lord saw Peter’s potential.  Yet, when I was reading the story about him denying Christ it gave me greater light about the Atonement.  At the last supper they all wondered who it would be that would deny Christ and none of them thought they would be the one.  Peter thinks nothing of it until the cock crows and then reality hit and he feels sorrowful.  As I’ve had the opportunity to work with people and evaluate my own life I feel like that can sometimes be us.  We tend to think, oh nothing bad is going to happen to us, we won’t ever lose our faith or deny our beliefs.  We are living our life on the straight and narrow, but then Satan has a way of getting a hold of us.  We get caught up in worldly things and peer pressure as Peter did and then we deny the things we know are true.  One last thing that happened this week that was really cool.  So we were walking around last night and we got a phone call from one of the University sisters and she said, Thank You!!!  I wondered why she was saying that.  Then she proceeded to tell us that a member of their branch told them they saw us walking around somewhere recently.  I guess wanted to that person wanted to "break a commandment" (not sure what they wanted to do).  But when that person saw us the thought came that they shouldn’t do that.  So the moral of that story is that “angels do bear us up” and the days that we think we are just aimlessly walking around can have a big impact on someone else.   

3.       Have you been on exchanges lately?  No, I am going on Wednesday and here in State College. 

4.       Did you see a gas station that burned down last Tuesday on Atherton?  Yes, sort of.  I was at the library and I heard the fire engines leaving to respond.  We were downtown for most of it and when we rode the bus back home we saw them still cleaning it up a bit.  There weren’t any more flames, but they were still spraying it a bit.  We pass it every day on the bus so it was pretty crazy.  They had tons of fire engines there.  There were 3 fire companies and 2 more were on standby.  They had at least 8-10 trucks there. 

5.       Looks like your weather has been pretty dry this week, but just cold.  How are things?  Are you surviving?  I saw the letter that you sent to gpa and he laughed about the lasting memory he’s made on you.   Good times!!!  Yes, he has made a lasting impression on me.  I thought it would be funny to send it to grandpa.  I was going to write about it in the email but then I remembered that there are other people that read this besides you so I opted to send him a letter J.  Yeah, the weather has not been too bad this weekend, it was in the 40s but cloudy so it was a nice little heat wave.  However, we’ve also had our share of cold.  Mother Nature can't make up her mind and seems to have a vendetta against the east.  Nothing like you temps at home though. 

7.       Any mission news? We have zone training on Wednesday.  I kind of get the vibe that maybe we’ll get iPads, but I have no idea.  Things have been implied that it could be that but no one really says much.  So I don’t know if it is a secret or what.  I will know more next week.  The reason everything seems fishy is because the day and time randomly changed and even the location.  Now it is here in State College and before it was in Altoona.  I am not getting my hopes up.  So we will see what happens. 

8.       How are things going with the teaching?

a.   Any new investigators?  No

b.   Who are the less actives you’re teaching?  We are teaching a less active named  CC.  She has been inactive for about 15 years, but the WML visited with her a few weeks ago and got her to come to church last week.  She is one of the people we saw on Saturday with our WML.  Other than that we really aren’tteaching a whole lot.  We have a lot of people we are trying to see and hope to see so we will see what happens. 

c.    Any new leads/opportunities?  Hopefully this upcoming Wednesday our WML is having someone over.  He invited his neighbor to meet with us and she said we could have a lesson then.  So she maybe a new prospect.  Pray that things will work out so we can teach her. 

9.       How are things with the members?  Who have you connected with and who do you like to spend time with?  Things are going well.  I’ve really connected with the D family, he is our WML.  They’re a pretty cool family.  He’s a young guy with a baby that was born a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  Also another family is the B family.  They are pretty funny and cool.  His mission president was the Cottrells in our stake that taught my mission prep class. 

10.   Any good mealtime stories?  We had another greenie dinner.  One of the new missionaries in Bellefonte just finished his training so Sis. V  wanted to throw a greenie dinner for him.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures.  All of the missionaries in the district were there so I should be able to get some pictures from others.  We had tree frog something or another.  We also had some rolls stuffed with something kind of like a pot pie.  I think the frog stuff was spinach tortellini.  It was all really good. 

11.   Any stories that will make me laugh?  So yesterday for sacrament meeting the talks were from Pres. Eyring’s talk Continuing Revelation.  The guy that was speaking is pretty funny and to preface this he is a theater major…so he’s dramatic.  He shared a funny story about when he was sitting in his family’s new car waiting for his wife in the store.  They had lots of stuff going on in their life…he had just quit a job to go to grad school and a bunch of other stuff.  He said he felt hopeless.  So he decided to lay the chair back and he started to pray asking what he should do with his life. He finally sat back up and as he did  the car alarm and all of that jazz starts to go off.  He was startled and was like whoa…what kind of sign is this?  Anyway, it was pretty funny and he gave a really good talk. 

12.   Give me something for the journal…a random memory?  So the Chinese sister that is a Temple Square missionary came to the greenie dinner.  She was not really digging the food.  She had been eating a little bit, but then when Sis. V was not paying attention she said to me…do you want mine and then she dumped it in my bowl.  Luckily, I liked it and ate it for her. 

14.   What are the 3 coolest things about State College?  Penn State is what makes State College, hence the reason why the town is called State College.  Another thing is you can drive 10 minutes out of State College and you will run into cornfields and farmland.  Originally, Penn State was an ag school like Utah State was when it first started.  Also, there are Amish people around here.  Not really in our area, they are more north in the Bellefonte boundaries.  

15.   What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) I did not freeze.  2) We finally were able to have one lesson.  3) I finished True to the Faith. 

Well, there’s my week.  As you can see it was a pretty decent week.  Love you

Elder Muir

 

Week 87...20 Months in the Mission & Groundhog Day

February 2, 2015

 Elder C & Elder Muir at interviews with Pres. Johnson

 State College district at interviews

 Elder Muir's State College apartment

The Elders' study area and Elder C didn't want a photo

 

No one celebrates groundhog day like the Pennsylvanians in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Well, it’s been another good week for the record books.  The handlers of Pennsylvania's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, said the furry rodent has forecast six more weeks of winter.  As you now the weather has been quite crazy.  However, today is not too bad.  The forecast for this morning was supposed to be a messy, slushy & icy commute, but we woke up to nothing and some blue sky out there.  Most of the storm came in yesterday afternoon and evening.  Of course, the schools are all closed and the public library is closed until noon again…so here we are up at the campus library.  We have our shopping done and we are going to the church after we’re done emailing.  The Bellefonte elders came and picked us up for shopping today because it takes forever with the bus.   I’m surprised that you didn’t have a lot of questions in this email. 

1.  How was your week?  What were the highs & lows?  This week has been a pretty good.  The biggest highs were Tuesday night and yesterday.  First off, Tuesday was awesome!!!  We were able to go out with all the ward missionaries and the bishopric and went on splits with everyone.  I hooked up with the bishop and unfortunately we struck out with the people that we stopped to visit.  However, all of the other people had good visits and we even got one of the less actives to come to church yesterday.  So we are making progress with the less actives.  Unfortunately, we were not able to have any lessons this week which I was kind of bummed about.  We had appointments set up, but the people cancelled on us.  Also, I slightly had a meltdown on Friday due to the fact that we have no investigators right now and things are kind of at a standstill.   I was kind of frustrated about that, but I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and I just need to be patient and wait and hope it all works out.   

2.  Did you survive the cold this past week?  How much snow this time?  Yes, I survived the snow and cold.  Really it was not too cold, it pretty much just snowed.  The only time it was really cold was when the wind would blow.  It was not snowing last time I looked outside.  I thought today was supposed to be another bad day, but not a stitch of snow today so far.  It all came yesterday.  On the ground we probably have a least a foot.  If you look on the mission blog you will see some pictures from interviews and you can see some of the snow banks from the plows. 

3.  What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) I survived the snow.  2) I have almost gone through a whole gallon of milk in one week making smoothies.  Normally I buy a 1/2 gallon and usually I am desperately trying to get that used before it expires, but this week I have used an entire gallon.  3) We had a dinner appointment every night this week. 

4.  How are things going this transfer?  Things are going well.  Bellefonte has a new missionary and the other set of missionaries in the district are now in a trio for some reason.  The university branch has 2 new sisters.  I know one of them, she was in Lititz when I was there.  But she goes home in March so she will only be here one transfer. 

a.  Members?  Things are going well with them.  We continue to build trust with them and get to know them better.  They are all great and want to help us anyway they can. 

b. Meals?  Any good stories?  I don't really have any good stories from dinners, but like I said we had a meal appointment every day this week. 

c.  Elder C?  Things are going well with the 2 of us.  

5.   How are things going with the ward mission plan& your teaching?

a.  Any new teaching opportunities?  No, not yet but things are slowly starting to             unfold and we have things moving in the right direction for our good (at least with less actives).  For example, the ward missionaries, the bishopric and we went out to visit different less actives.  One of the groups got in with a less active lady and she ended up coming to church because somebody that visited her gave her a ride.  So hopefully we can start teaching her, but we are still working on trying to find new investigators. 

b.  Any service opportunities?  No, not really.  There may be some people moving out so we may be able to help with that in the future. 

c.  Less actives?  Like I said, things are slowly building and hopefully things are going to pan out.   We just need to follow up now and try and get appointments set. 

6.   Can we do anything for you?  Watch for a Valentine Day package soon?  Any requests?  You should send some Chex mix please.  Currently, I think I am doing good.  But if I think of anything I will let you know. 

7.   Are you happy?  Yes, sometimes I just wish it would stop snowing and be summer already.  Because like you said, it looks like we are in for a long few months of winter.  Other than that, I am happy. 

Sorry it so short and sort of a boring week.  I can't believe that this week is my 20 month mark.  Only 2 more transfers after this and I will be home. 

Love,

Elder Muir