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