Week 103…May 25, 2015
Palmyra Temple Excursion
Palmyra Temple
Elder Muir at the Palmyra Temple (notice the stained glass in the front doors)
Stained glass windows of the Sacred Grove
The Sacred Grove
The Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission at iPad training
(Elder Muir is dead center about 6 rows up right behind & between the Asian & African American elders)
We
had an exciting & busy week here in Meadville. It was a busy Thursday/Friday
since we were in Pitt on Thursday and NY on Friday.
Well i guess onto the questions.
1.
How was your
week? What were the highs/lows? I think you can probably figure out what my high is for this week…the
Palmyra Temple and iPad training. It was awesome to see all of the
missionaries in the whole mission and talk to the ones that I’ve been
companions with and others that I’ve served with. It’s weird to think
that I am not going to see a bunch of them for a while. Of course the
temple, as you are about to read about in the next question, was awesome.
2.
How was the
Palmyra temple excursion? Well it was an awesome experience. We left at about 6:30 am and got
there around 10 am. We were scheduled
for the 11:00 am session. We went with our WML and his wife, the bishop
and his wife and also a few other people. Wow, you are not kidding about
how awesome the new videos are. The creation is much
better and there is so much more emotion than the previous videos. It’s interesting that we had iPad training and
I went to the temple in the same week.
There were a lot of similarities and the things we were taught in our
iPad training gave me a lot to think about during the endowment session. I loved the garden and how much emotion there
was in all of that. I liked how real Satan was and how they portrayed him
as he is in reality. He makes things
look normal and OK. The other thing that
I noticed was Satan was constantly at Adam and Eve’s side…always watching them,
which in reality that is how he is in our own lives. It is just our choice whether or not to give
into his temptation. These are a few of the things that we learned about
at the iPad training. In our training we
also learned that Satan is very tricky & deceptive. Everything we are tempted with is usually
when we are alone. We discussed the setting of the garden when Adam and Eve
were both tempted to eat the fruit. When they were tempted to eat they were both
alone and not together. Which in reality, that is so true, it is usually when
we’re alone that we do crazy things. That is why we have companions on a
mission and more importantly, why we have eternal companions. Well onto the rest of the adventure… after the temple we
went over to the Smith family farm, which also is part of the Sacred Grove.
It was awesome being able to wander around in the Sacred Grove and ponder the
things that took place there. We also went over to see the Grandin press
shop and had a little tour of that. I ran next door to a little shop and
bought Meet the Mormons. It was
great, it was originally $8 but missionaries get a discount so I got it for
just over $6. At that point we were totally off schedule and leaving an
hour late in order for us to get home on time. We drove by the Hill Cummorah
but did not get out. We didn’t end up getting back home until around
8:30ish pm. Traffic on I90 at the toll stations was kind of busy through Buffalo
and at the PA state line because it was rush hour and we also stopped for
dinner and got gas. Also, they kind of just took their time after. We
were trying to get home as close to 6:00 pm as possible, but when we go with
someone it kind of turns into their schedule. It sounds like there are a
lot of missionaries that go to the temple and end up getting back late because
they are trying to see a bunch of stuff and members kind of take their own time.
We really needed to be at the earlier session at 9:00 am but that meant leaving
much earlier.
3.
How’s the
weather? It has been great, there have
been a few rain storms here and there, but overall good.
4.
Did you get your temple
recommend issue (renewal) resolved with the mission pres? Not yet, but I am getting a new one at my interview with PJ, which looks
like it is going to be on Thursday.
5.
How did your
talk in sacrament meeting go (May 24th)? It was great. I was kind of worried that I
wouldn’t have much time to write it because of how busy our week was, but it
ended up working out and everyone loved it.
6.
How are things
with the investigators?
a.
Is A still
progressing towards baptism? Yes, we have her date set for June 13th. Her interview scheduled for Thursday.
PJ is coming up to do it on Thursday and then she just needs to wait it out at
that point.
b.
RR? She is doing well. She is still busy with work and continuing to make
progress and stay faithful. So hopefully she will keep moving forward.
c. B? She is doing well
too. We taught her the WOW (word of wisdom) last week and it was good
timing because she was planning to quit smoking the next day. We had no
idea that she was planning to do that so it was a nice tender mercy.
- CS (Daytona convert)? We haven’t really seen him since a few weeks ago, he is pretty busy. We really have only talked through text. He was going to come to church yesterday, but he slept through his alarm so he did not make it. He said he’d be there next week. His parents are not members and I don’t know what their interest level is, if any.
7.
How are things
between you and Elder L? Things are going well. We both continue to work hard and we’re trying
to get the ward back to its full potential and get people back to church.
8.
Any other news
to share? One random cool thing that Sis. Johnson said from
their iPad training that they had a couple of weeks ago made me think of you
and things you’ve said in the past. She said we are here to shepherd people, not
police them in regards to people making mistakes and choices that may
not be aligned with the Lord’s will.
9.
Any good meal
appointments? Not really, we
had 3 or so this week but nothing really exciting.
10.
Do you know what
your schedule will be like next week for transfers? We head to Pitt on Tuesday and then go to the transfer
meeting. All the departing missionaries need to be at
the mission home by 4:00 pm for dinner. Afterwards we will do President interviews and
have a devotional/testimony meeting. Wednesday morning we’ll get up and head to the
airport.
Another week and next week will be one step closer to
home…one more Pday. I can’t believe it’s
coming to an end.
Love you,
Elder Muir
No comments:
Post a Comment