Week 95...Dressed in White & Zone Conf.

Week 95…March 30, 2015 

 Elder T, RR and Elder Muir at RR's baptism

 RR & Elder Muir
 

     Wow, it sounds like you had quite the exciting week.  I can't believe Derek’s call finally came and HOLY COW…he’s going to the mission I picked.  I’m still shocked that your wish came true and you’re going to Germany.  Congrats!!!  Frankfurt, Germany is going to be an exciting place.  It will definitely be hard, but missions are hard.  A mission is one of the greatest learning experiences you’ll have in your life.  It may not be the best 2 years of your life, but it will be the best 2 years for your life.  Continue to study Preach My Gospel and the scriptures.  I’m proud of you and excited for you.  I can’t believe we’ll be trading places soon.   This week definitely goes down as a memorable weekend…Derek's mission call and I had my first baptism.  A celebration is in order :).

1. How was your week?  What were the highs/lows?  It was a good week.  The highs are definitely zone conference and the baptism.  I’ll give you the details in your questions below.  Lows for the week are probably just trying to still figure out the area and Elder T still being sick.  There are still some things that he does that bug me, but like we’ve talked about before, we have to learn how to deal with these people all throughout our life.  So I’m learning patience.  Overall, everything is going good.
2. Tell us all about RR’s baptism and how it went?   Well the baptism was awesome.  She is now an official member.  Unfortunately, the weekend has been an emotional roller coaster for her.  Her mom had a major heart attack a few months ago and on Friday she ended up in the hospital with more heart problems.  Her blood counts were low so they gave her a transfusion.  Come to find out they did a CT scan of her heart and it is pretty much dead from the heart attack.  They are running more tests today so we will see what happens.  Right now things don’t look great, but RR is being a trooper and learning really fast how much the gospel can help her in her life.  OK, on to  Saturday.  Let's just say it was awesome!!!  Elder T baptized her and the talks on baptism & the Holy Ghost were great.  She was super nervous and really excited at the same time.  She ended up having her dad come and a few friends of hers were there also.  So she is on the upward climb, but Satan is definitely trying to get her to falter with the situation her mom is in.  
3. How was zone conference?  When and where was it?  It was awesome!!!!  We had it in Cranberry Township (just north of Pitt).  It was a bitter sweet time because it was the last zone conference I will attend.  The next one is in June after I go home.  It was such a weird feeling when it finally came time to give my departing testimony.  All the missionaries joke around saying they never think that day is going to come but sooner or later it does and it’s hard to say goodbye.  It was fun to be there and share my thoughts and feelings about my mission.  Another cool thing was one of the trainings President gave.  He talked about goal setting and the importance of always setting goals in our lives.  He talked a lot about a bucket list of goals that he had and the desire and motivation that he had to accomplish them.  He shared a few that he had and accomplished on his list… climbing the Matterhorn and Mt. Kilimanjaro.  He also talked about his nephew that was a well known Utah high school athlete.  He played bball and baseball for Mountain Crest high school back in the 90's.  He talked about the goals that his nephew had and how one of them was serving a mission and the importance of doing that.  Sadly, he was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer tumors.  It has spread and it is not looking so good for him.  President tied it into how setting goals for our life is so important because we never know what can happen.  The last cool thing from zone conference was we sang The Spirit of God for the closing hymn and I might say we sounded awesome…maybe like a mini MoTab.  Well enough ranting with that :).  
4. How did your departing testimony go?  It was awesome.  It was weird to have that day finally come.  My mission has changed me so much.  I guess that’s what missions are for.  I’ve learned more about myself in 22 months than in 20 years.  I’ve learned and done things I never thought were possible, but with God all things are possible.  I’ve learned the importance of Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  I know that his hand of mercy is always outstretched and is available for anyone that is willing to come unto Christ.  I have seen it change me and others.  He has always been there for me in my hardest times.  I’ve also witnessed the joy and light He has brought into others’ lives.  His way is the path to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.  I’ve learned that patience and love are 2 very important things and can heal all wounds.  Patience and love are sometimes very hard.  I’ve also learned the importance of the Book of Mormon and the change it can bring about…in my life and others’ lives.  I know that as we live the principles of the gospel every day we can find happiness. 
5.  Who is the family that you hang out with a lot?  It is the  MM family.  Don't ask why there are 2 names, it is sort of complex.  Yes, they are the family that we are with all of the time.  Their daughter, C, is a recent convert.  She got baptized back in the fall.  Her parents were baptized when they were teenagers but went LA.  The kids got baptized and are kind of less active. C is a little younger than I am and she is really the only active one.  She and Robin are best friends.
6. How’s the weather been this week?  Like you said it’s been pretty much a mix of everything.
7. How’s Elder T feeling this week?  Have you been able to stay clear of the bug and stay healthy?  He has been doing well.  I’ve stayed clear of the bug so far, which is a big plus.  Today and last night he was running another fever.  Pretty much his stomach is constantly hurting.  He called the mission doc and Sister Johnson and they are just continuing to monitor the situation and watching if it gets any worse.  We still think the gall bladder is the problem; however, it is not to the point of removal yet.  Even with Elder T being sick we’ve still managed to get quite a bit of stuff done.
8. How are things with you and Elder T?  Things are going good.  We still have our moments, but the more that I get to know him the more and more I enjoy being around him.  Like I said, his home life was kind of a sad one.  His dad died from ALS and he and his mom are the only active ones in his family.  It is kind of sad, both of his older brothers have major drinking problems and kind of cause lots of problems.  To be honest, Elder T was in the same boat through high school but because of one of his friend’s example he became active again.  He is hoping that by his example he can get his siblings back on the right track.  So I just continue to show love to him and be the best example I can be.  
9. Have you had any success with the Because He Lives initiative?  Kind of, it is too early to tell.  Let's just say it is a pretty awesome video and I hope you have seen it and shared it on FB and all of that good stuff.  https://www.lds.org/church/news/watch-and-share-because-he-lives-easter-video?lang=eng
10. How are things with your teaching/investigators?

a.       RR?  She is doing great.  The baptism on Saturday was awesome.  

b.      A?  She is doing well.  She was at church again yesterday and really wants to be baptized.  She and her daughter have a date set for April 25th.  

c.       Less Actives?  Things are going well.  I’m still trying to find some of them.  We are both still relatively new to the area.  There is one lady that has really started to study the scriptures and she takes awesome notes on them and even came to last hour of church yesterday.  

 

12. How was church on Sunday?  Church was good once again.  I gave a talk on the Atonement.  It was pretty good for the little time that I had to put it together.  With that said, that is only the 2nd talk I’ve given in my entire 22 months.  So hopefully I can stay clear of talking again.  Yes, I met a few more people.  Bro. P Peterson is the WML and in the bishopric.  
13. Do you know how you’ll watch general conference yet?  Does the ward have any plans?  I’m still not sure but that is on our list of things to do.  We will probably go the MM family for a session or two then we might go to the church.  We‘re going to ask around.
14. What areas do you cover in the Meadville area? We pretty much cover all of Crawford county.  
15. Are you adjusting to the area more?  Yes, it is still a slow process but I am managing.  It just takes time.  
16. Can you tell us a little more about your area?  What do like about the area?  It is a lot of farm land and so there is a lot of farming.  Maple syrup is also big here.  FYI…a random fact about that is it takes 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup.  I still am not familiar with a whole lot of the area, there’s not much here.  The hardest thing about the area is how spread out it is and how old a lot of things are.  
17. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) Zone conference was great.  2)The baptism was awesome.  3) We had quite a few lessons this week. 
18. Is there anything we can do for you or pray for?  Pray that we can continue to find people to teach and that Elder T can get better.

Well here is a kind of random funny story.  On Friday we decided to go to the edge of our area/mission and try the people over there.  The funny thing about that is…come to find out  the bottom of our area actually goes out of the mission boundaries.  I knew that, but did not know the boundary was as close as it was.  So the way the GPS took us to get around one of the roads was out of the mission :).   Literally the next road over we were back in our mission.  So basically we accidently went out of mission boundaries. 

Attached are a few pictures of R’s baptism.  

Love 

Elder Muir