Week 82...Bring on the New Year 2015

December 29, 2014

 Best Christmas present ever :)

 Elder Muir Skyping on Christmas Day

 

     Wow, I can't believe the year is coming to an end and Christmas is over.  I feel like we were just welcoming in 2014.  Only 3 more days and I can say I come home this year.  I thought that day would never come but it is 3 days away.  I hope you all had a great Christmas.  It was so good to see and talk to you on Christmas.

1. How was your week? What were the highs & lows?  Well this week was kind of a slow week because of Christmas and everybody is out of town.  State College literally revolves around the school.  With no students in town this place is pretty dead.  So that has been kind of a low.  There really aren’t a lot of people to talk since they are all home for the holidays.  I am hoping that with the New Year people are starting to come back and things will get back to normal.  One of my highs has been all of the caroling that we did throughout the Christmas week.  The people we visited and sang for loved it.  So that was fun to feel the spirit of Christmas through caroling.  We went with the other missionaries in our area.  Obviously another high was talking to you…it was awesome to hear all about what’s going on.  Really the low is probably just how slow things are.  But as people start to get back in town I hope that things will start picking up again.  I just need to remember to give it some time.  
2. Tell me about the rest of your Christmas day with the B family?  It was a good day.  After we skyped we munched on leftovers from the night before.  And then we just talked with them the rest of the day.  We finished by reading Luke 2 and then went home. 
3. What else did you do on Christmas day?  Not much, we were at the B family’s house until about 7 pm and then we just went home.  It was a pretty low key day. 
4. How’s the weather?  Looks like you’re still dry and cold but not freezing.  It has been rather warm.  Friday and Saturday were sunny and in the high 40's.  It didn’t feel like it was the day after Christmas.  On Friday I felt like we went back to fall.  It felt more like October/November weather.  I thought I should be seeing fall decorations instead of Christmas. It was rather odd.  It still does not feel like a few days after Christmas.  It is sort of cold today but there is no snow on the ground.  It was quite nice actually.  Maybe we are in for a mild winter here.  I hope, at least while I am here in a walk area.  Before we know it we will be spring and it will be getting warm again. 
5. How are things with you and Elder C?  What new things have you learned about him?  Do the 2 of you work well together?  Things are going well with him.  Yes, we are working well together.  Unfortunately, we have not had a lot of lessons to practice our teaching together. 
6. What are 5 positive things from your week?  1) Obviously talking to you guys on Christmas.  2) Yesterday the talks at church were based on Elder Holland’s last conference talk and I really enjoyed that.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/are-we-not-all-beggars?lang=eng
7. How are things with your ward?  Right now a lot of them are still out of town, but overall things are going well.  We are ready to start the New Year by getting the ward mission plan out.  So hopefully as we get that out people will set some goals for their family and we will start to see success with the members and missionaries working together. 
8. How are things with your investigators?
1.  YL and family?  The husband and son leave at the end of this month permanently to go back home to China and YL goes home in February.  I have not seen them since before Christmas.  We’re hoping this week we will stop by and be able to get in and have a lesson.  
2.  L&M?  They are still the same.  We have not met with them.  We hope to meet with them at the end of the week. 
3. What about the LA lady that brought her NM investigator mother in law to church last week?  Well we have not seen her lately but we have texted back and forth a bit.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of family drama going on right now.  So it is kind of hard for them right now.  So we just continue to keep them all in our prayers and hope for the best. 
4. Any new leads?  Possibly, we tried this old contact on Saturday and hopefully we can have a lesson with him tomorrow.  So we will see where it goes. 
9. Have you done any service lately?  Any Christmas caroling etc?  Yes, we spent a lot of the week caroling.  We went on Monday and Tuesday night for the last couple hours of the day.  On Christmas Eve we went during the day after district meeting. We went to a senior center and caroled walking through the halls.  We were supposed to carol again at another senior center that night but we ended up getting there too late so we were not able to do it.  The other few days that we did it we just went around to members of the different wards in State College.  We did all of this with all of the missionaries in State College.  It was pretty fun.  
10. Any fun plans for pday?  We are going to the church to play games in the gym. 
11. Is there anything we can pray for?  Continue to pray that things will start picking up and we can start finding new people to teach and the old ones will continue to progress. 
12. Anything that you need?  When you send your New Year’s package could you please throw some hand warmers in.
13. Any spiritual experiences you’d like to share or things that you’re studying right now?  Well I am studying the New Testament right now and I just finished Mark today.  It is very interesting to read.  I love being able to read about Christ’s life and the many things that he did and how he lived his life.  I was amazed when I read Elder Holland’s talk Are We Not All Beggars and thought about what I had studied about Christ’s life.  Jesus loved the impoverished and disadvantaged in an extraordinary way.  He grew up amongst them.  It has also been interesting reading about the old Jewish law and law of Moses and to see some of the similarities in the things that we practice.   

I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year!!!

PS…mother if you look at the camera in about an hour or so (the College and Allen camera)  you can check to see if you can see your favorite missionary getting on a bus to go back home.  Just thought I would make your day :)

Love,

Elder Muir

Week 81...It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December 22, 2014

 Elder Muir with Elder R, Elder R & Elder J before Elder R's departure to Taiwan
The 2 outside Elders are the Elders that formed the trio with Zach when Elder R left

 Pres. & Sis. Johnson with Elder R when they picked him up from State College

Nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS like seeing your missionary son exiting the library on the live feed State College traffic camera…woo hoo for traffic cams in the PERFECT spot.  In my email I mentioned that I found some State College traffic cameras that I was stalking.  Mostly I was checking them to see what the weather was like in State College.  One of the cameras is a bus stop at the University and every so often I would see the bus that flashes Waupelani Dr. (Zach’s address).  I joked with Dave that it would be awesome if we saw the missionaries getting on the bus.  As I mentioned this to Zach he emailed and said that one of the traffic cameras I mentioned was at the intersection where the library was.  We weren’t sure if it was a live feed, but he told me to check it in about 1 ½ hours.  Sure enough…an hour and a half later the missionaries walked out the door and onto the corner of the street.  I guess I know what I’ll be checking out on Monday mornings from now on.  We LOVED seeing him and I told him to give me a big wave next week J

So I thought I would entertain you with something while I answer your questions.  I know where all of the cameras/bus stops are that you mentioned.  The one on Beaver and Allen is on the corner where the library is.  So maybe if it is a live feed you will get lucky and see me.  I will tell you when I’m leaving and you can get on and look.   You can tell me during our Skype on Christmas if you saw me.    I have no idea where the one on Tavern is.  I think if you hear the bells from the Salvation Army ringer it might be on College and Allen.  That is a big bus hub over there.  Yes, campus is now dead.  It was kind of depressing over the weekend to watch everyone walking around with their suitcases and cleaning up their apartments.  It made me kind of trunky thinking of all the missionaries that just went home and I can't be home for Christmas, but oh well at least we can talk on Thursday.  I’m going to get going onto the questions. 

PS…your package should be there today.  I did not send my SD card home because I was not sure if you were sending me the other one. 

I hope everyone has had a fantastic week.  I can't believe that Christmas is in 3 days.  I hope you are all ready and have a great day as you reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

1. How was your week?  What are the highs/lows?  This week was pretty awesome.  Transfers happened and I am back in my area in State College.  I have a new companion, Elder C.  It is almost Christmas so what more could you ask for.  A cool thing happened yesterday at church.  A less active lady and her NM investigator mother in law came.  It was awesome, we have been trying to get them to church forever, so that was a BIG plus.  Another high was a dinner we had on Monday.  The lady, Sis. V, that did the greenie dinner for Elder R when he came to the mission did a funeral dinner for the 2 sisters that were going home from our area.  Let me tell you…it was hilarious, she went all out.  This woman is genius in coming up with crazy things to do for the missionaries.  We bought flowers from dollar store and carried the sisters into the house on chairs from outside (like a funeral procession).  She had black dishes/balloons etc.  (lucky you…I have pictures and videos that I am going to send home on my SD card soon).  So that was a fun little thing that we were able to do.  However, that all kind of leads into my low.  So it is still weird having the sisters that all came out with me gone and home for Christmas.  And like I said State College is now a ghost town and no one is around.  It was kind of weird and slightly sad watching everyone packing their bags around getting on the mega bus or leaving and I’m stuck in ghost town PA, but whatever…I am over it now. 
2. How’s the new companion, tell us all about him?  Did you know him previously?  His name is  Elder C and he is from Orem.  He has been out 10 months and he is the youngest of 4 kids.  He is really into computer programming.  Yes, I knew him a little bit before from seeing him at zone conference for the past couple of months.   He is good to be with so far and I look forward to working with him.
3. How is it being back in State College?  It kind stinks at the moment because everyone is gone and it is just hard trying to get the ball rolling again.  It is sort of a slow process but I hope once school starts again and the holidays are over we can get things going again.  However, I fear that when it gets down to transfers again I’m not sure if I’ll survive another 6 weeks here or not.  I might get transferred.  I hope I stay in State College at least one more transfer.  So it is going good, things are just slow right now. 
4. What are you doing for Christmas?  Who will you spend Christmas with?  We’ll be spending it with the B family.  We were supposed to go with another family but apparently the dad did not want to have us over because he has college aged daughters and he thought it would be awkward with us over there…whatever, I guess.  I thought it was kind of an odd rationalization.  It is not like we’re not already around that same aged girls with sister missionaries and we wouldn’t be just with them.  So that is where we’ll be for Christmas.  I have no idea what is going on for the day I just know where we are going.  So as far as a time for Skype, I can't really say.  I know that it will be good though because they are a fun family. 
5. Do you get to Skype?  Yes, I can skype.  Do you have a time?  Not yet. Unfortunately, I talked to the people yesterday and they were not sure what time they wanted us to come over.  They said they would call us with a time.  I am going to text Pres. Johnson today and ask him if I can text you guys in the next day or so when I find out more info and give you a time.  But if not, I will text you on Thursday before I get on and tell you to get on the computer.  So you will find out soon, it’s nothing we should be worried about.  
6. Did you ever get the Christmas package from the ward?  Packages/cards from anyone else?  Yes, I got the package from the ward and I loved it again.  Please tell them thank you for me.  I also got some cards from some people. Thank you again to everyone for their support, I feel the LOVE.  Holy cow, I was shocked to see how big Preslee is in Jen’s card.  She was just a baby when I left now she is big.  I can't wait to see her when I get home. 
7. How are your dinner appointments and things with ward members?  They are going well.  We’ve definitely been fed pretty good over the past couple of weeks so hopefully it will continue over the course of time.  
8. What are 5 positive things from the week?  1) I am back in state college.  2) I have my own bed again.  
9. How are things with the investigators?
1.  YL?  So it’s been kind of hard to get them to sit down for a lesson because her husband and son are getting ready to go back China at the end of the month and she goes back in Feb.  So the ship may slowly be sailing for them.  We might just be planting the seed. 
   
   
2.  L & M?  They are still super busy.  So hopefully once the holidays are over we can get things rolling again with them. 
3. Any new leads?  No, not really.  We are trying and I keep hoping and praying that things will get busier and it will not be so stagnant. 
4. Any success from #sharethegift?  No, not really.  Hopefully people are watching the video over the holidays, but there are no new investigators from it yet. 
10. Any interesting news?  We lost a whole bunch of sister missionaries with transfers and we have started to close some areas down because there are not enough missionaries coming out anymore to man all of those areas. 
11. Anything that will make me laugh?  Hopefully I can make you laugh when I send home the SD card with all of the funeral stuff on it.
12. Any spiritual experiences that you’d like to share?  I loved sacrament meeting yesterday.  I was touched by the music and the talks that people gave about the true meaning of Christmas. We should be focused on Christ and His gift that was given to each of us and not all of the other things that are out there taking us away from the true spirit of Christmas

Well, there is my busy week.  Hopefully you enjoyed reading it.  The countdown is on...T-3 days until we get to Skype.  I can’t wait.

Love,

Elder Muir