Week 100...May 4, 2015
Elder Muir & Elder L at April's transfer meeting in Pitt
Note from mom: This email marks the 100th week of dedicated,
determined & faithful service as a missionary in the Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh mission. We’ve hit triple
digits…a day that was a long time coming, but is finally here. Thirty
days & counting :)
Once again we had a good week.
We got some great & exciting news last week from Pres Johnson. I don’t
want to spoil the surprise yet so that’s all I’m going to say now and then it
will be explained later. I’ll just say
my new favorite hymns are I Love to See
the Temple & Oh, How Lovely Was
the Morning. You might have guessed by now, but details will follow
below.
1. How was your week? What were the
highs/lows? It’s been a good
week. We were able to meet with more members and get things
more organized and we did lots of service. So that has been FUN
and it has kept us busy. I think I will be able to put “moving specialist”
as something on my resume with all the people we’ve moved over the past 2
years. We helped move some more people this week. We are helping
another one move this weekend. They are moving to the Erie ward so he can
continue with orthopedic residency. Also, we helped a family spread 8
tons of gravel onto their driveway. Luckily, the truck spread it out for
us and we just had to even it out and move some of the little piles around.
The weather was good this weekend. However, the weather leads to my low
for the week. It’s not much fun being stuck in a shirt and tie when
everyone else is in shorts & a t-shirt and out having a good time in the
sun. Occasionally the weather gives me a trunky moment…only 4 more weeks
until I can be normal again. So this week was great with lots of service
and meeting members. The biggest low is truly seeing how poor Crawford
county is…particularly Meadville. There are about 10 government
housing complexes just in small Meadville and it is pretty sad to see how some of
the people live around here. The poverty creates lots of drama for the
ward in regards to welfare needs and also just people accepting and
understanding the needs of others. There is lots of random drama here
that I wish we, as missionaries, didn’t know about. Love is the key and if people would make the
needed sacrifices and love like Jesus did many of the problems would be solved.
I bore my testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting because it was my last
fast Sunday in the mission field L.
2.
Do you have any
info regarding our Mother’s Day skype? I think right now we are planning on going to the T family’s (elder that I served the mini mission with
last transfer) house to skype. They told us to come around 1:00 pm our
time (so 11:00 am Utah time). I hope that works out, let me know if that
does not work. When you read this, email me back ASAP to let me know if
that works.
How’s Meadville and
the ward? Meadville and the ward are
good. The ward needs help in multiple ways…happy hearts &
willing hands. I’m glad I’m not the bishop. I love the area, but the problems
and things that the ward is up against are more than I care to know and have the
power to resolve.
5.
Tell me about some
of the members/meals you’ve had recently? We have had quite a few meals this week. One family that was cool to
meet with is the K family. Bro. Lawrence will find this
interesting…Bro. K’s brother was the first bishop in Meadville and helped get
the church built here in Meadville in the late 60’s. It was cool to hear
their stories about the church and the Easter candy and stuff they sell to help raise money to
build the church.
6.
How are things
with you & Elder L? Things are going
great. We are getting along well and have loved being together. The
ward LOVES him because he can play the piano. The ward has not had a
pianist/organist for 5 years since the organist died 5 years ago. So tell
Boris that his piano skills will for sure come in handy on the mission.
7.
How are things
with the investigators?
a. A? She is doing well. We just got her set with
another baptism date on June 13th. She is pretty excited and so are we J. The bummer is her granddaughter, who is 14, went
missing the other day. She ran away from home. They think she is
with her boyfriend who is 18 and is pretty much trouble. We were talking
yesterday and she said they may have found her, but she was not sure.
Hopefully all ends well with her. Keep
her in your prayers, please.
b. RR? She continues to do well. Work is keeping her busy and stuff.
She is still making lots of progress and enjoying things, so I think all is
well with her.
d. Family moving from California? They finally are here. She and her son came to
church and we visited with them a couple of times. She is pretty cool. She is 29 and is ex-navy. Her husband just went back to California for
another 3 years for the Navy. It will be
interesting to see how she adapts here in Meadville. She definitely
likes having the missionaries help her, but I hope soon the ward can do some
good fellowshipping with her.
e.
Referral you got
last week? It ended up
falling through.
f.
Less actives?
I think it is about the same. We are still just trying to figure out who
people are and getting to know them.
g.
List from the ward
that you’re visiting? The visits have
been going well. We have met most of
them, but we have not really been able to sit down and talk with a lot of them.
8.
Any interesting
mission news? (BTW, that’s a bummer about the temple rules change and not being
able to go.) Yes, we do have
some interesting mission news and it’s interesting that you mention the temple
rules change. Here’s where the exciting
news from Pres. Johnson in the first paragraph comes into play. So like I
said last week when I told you about the new mission temple rules…the temple in
Palmyra is just barely over 3 hours from Meadville. Both Elder L and I wrote in
our emails to Pres. J last week that we were quite disappointed about the rules
and we were joking around saying “really, we are so close”. But we came
to terms with it and weren’t too bothered by it. Besides, it didn’t bother me too much because
I would be able to go in 5 weeks at home.
It’s not so easy for Elder L, the closest temple to him is the Anchorage
Alaska temple and that’s 14 hours away.
The next closest is Vancouver BC and that’s 30 hours away. Boy, are we ever spoiled and blessed to have
so many temples close by. I’m not sure I
can even count how many temples are within 14 hours of our home. We need to take advantage of the blessing of
having temples so close to us. So back
to the story, last Monday night I was laying on the couch at like 10 pm and the
next thing you know the phone rings and it is Pres. J. I was rather
confused at the reason why he was calling. When I answered he told me to go and
get my companion and turn it on speaker. In the back of my head I thought
he might be approving us to go, but I thought it was a long
shot. Then sure enough, he gave us
approval to go. We were both quite excited and can hardly believe he’s
letting us go. He said he based his decision on him mapping the route out
and it worked out to be between 3 hr. 15 min & 3 ½ hrs. After talking to a
few people in our area about it they said with a pit stop it is about 4 hours,
but whatever…we are still going and PJ gave us approval. We have to be
back by 6 pm so it will be any early morning and a LONG day. The other
cool thing is the Sacred Grove is across the street from the temple so if we
have time we are going to go over and catch a quick glimpse of the Sacred Grove. Right now we are planning to go next Friday,
May 15th. Our WML is going to
take us. We are planning to do an endowment session so would you be kind
and send me 4 of the male family names that you desperately need help with.
9.
What are 5
positive things from the week? 1) We got approval for the temple. 2) The weather has been decent even
though there were a few cold rainy days. 3) We were able to do a lot of service
and help the members with a lot of stuff.
10. Any good stories to share? No, not really but I am sure I will have one next week.
We are going fishing in a pond with MM family on some of
their property they own. I will take pictures too.
11. How are things with your new service opportunity
at the thrift store? Good, I
guess. We are still kind of figuring out what we’re supposed to do and
things like that, so we will see how it goes.
12. What’s your favorite thing about Meadville? The history and the scenery.
13. What/who stands out to you most from each of your
areas (what comes to your mind first when you think of that area)?
a.
Camp Hill? Sis. B and walking a lot
b.
Lititz? Amish
c.
St. Marys/Ridgway?
The branch president and the Kane parade
d.
State College?
Penn State and Catabus and the B family
e.
Meadville? ER trip with Elder T and the history of the
church/ward here
14. Any other news you want to share? I’ve made it 2 years with only speaking 3 times in
sacrament meeting. However, I get to speak again here in the Meadville
ward on May 24th. I am speaking about missionary work and will be speaking
with a recently returned missionary from another ward in the stake.
Well there is the week, hope you enjoyed it :).
Love you & talk to you soon,
Elder
Muir
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