Hey Hey - Email Received June 25

Hi Family,

Well, I hope you enjoy this email. So this week was so boring and terrible from the fact that we had to stay inside or do things around the heat which got really bad last week.  So we tracted less than usual, but we still did a lot of tracting, and we were also able to get some referrals from our members to see some people.  Elder Corey is still freaking out about dogs and how one is going to get him some day.

I've been practicing the guitar and getting better. Elder Corey says you get the ladies by playing the guitar. Well the grossest thing we did this week was cleaning out the fridge of all the expired stuff and there was a big, gross bag full of different far-over-freezer-burned chicken. Nasty.

Well, this week we don’t have anything really planned but the next week we are going to mountain bike at Bell Isle in the James River and it’s going to be sweet. Oh, we also talked to a Less Active who used to be in the Navy Seals and he told us for like 2 hours about his life before and also his time in there. Like hand to hand combat, how to kill people really quick, and also the sniper shots he has taken. If anyone invades the South they got another think coming from all these veterans.

Well, take care and have a good time this week on the outside.

Love,

Elder McClure

Email Received June 11: Powhatan, Boy!

Dear People whom this email may concern,

This week was an interesting one. On Monday I went to a tri-zone basketball game and had a lot of fun. I played twice; some of the people are really good at playing basketball and I was just good at defense. Afterward, one of the elders made a bunch of homemade pizzas and they were scrumdidlyumcious. Pizza just fills me up in all the right ways.

The next few days were up in the air - finding new investigators and also teaching people but, like Wakefield, most of our appointments weren’t home or they were busy. We were able to have a lesson with this one guy named Don Whitenook and, like usual, Elder Corey took over the entire lesson on the Restoration and didn’t let the guy really talk till the end or ask questions so it was just him droning on and on and I was waiting for my chance to add my testimony, but we never got to that. But Don was able to read 3 chapters of the BOM which was sweet and we really felt good about him. We were able to do service two days for a member family, the Wards, by putting mulch on the flowerbeds and other things as well.  It was just really fun and tiring. We also got to go to the Farmers Market and check out some stuff there like this one stand sells this frozen yogurt called Sorbet which is the Holy Grail of Sorbet. Pretty weird and we also were able to volunteer at the library to clean up the kids section and that was a combination of fun and weird.

Friday and Saturday were fun because on Friday we went to zone meeting and I got to meet the people in the zone and they are really nice people. I really like my zone leaders and they are really funny. The lesson was on obedience because a lot of missionaries seem to not follow the most basic of rules. Terrible for them.  After the meeting, Elder Cooley and I blitzed (tract for a day to help another area) Clover Hill while walking for 5 hours. We met some cool people like this kid who offered us goldfish and then we taught him the Restoration and this lady with a healing broken back was really nice to us and charitable. I really liked that.

The next day the whole upper half of the mission volunteered cleaning up the James River so me and a small band of missionaries went and walked all the way to these areas to help clean up and one of them was a run down building in which people have drunk parties or where hobos live. And it was dirty!!!! We did a lot of hard labor and took a lot of cool pictures of us cleaning up and scenic pictures that you all can get next week. We then came back to Powhatan and helped clean up a bunch of cut down trees. Then we got cleaned up and went to two graduation parties that had 5 separate graduating Mormon girls who are all going to BYU Idaho this Fall; super exciting.

Well, Sunday was pretty hard but we got a fun talk by one of the members about wisdom we receive from God and how we use it.  He worked Karate Kid in there and it was interesting. We also went to a member’s house, Brother Noe, and he decided he was going to sell me this really nice bike he restored and it’s the bomb and it’s red. My time with Elder Corey is okay but frankly he just gets on my nerves sometimes and he has done this to other elders as well. But I’ve got to deal with it for 4 more weeks til next transfer call. I miss you all and hope that you are all doing fine. Please write back or send a letter!

Love,

Elder McClure

Email Received June 4

Hi Family,

Well, transfers happened this week and I was able to see most of the members and have a picture and have them write in my journal one last time. So at transfer meeting, I got to see Elder Beck and he had changed from my last encounter with him. He seemed down. The new guy taking over the area with elder Pickup is from Canada so they will have a fun time there making fun of him. So I went to Powhatan and it took an hour drive to get down there with all my luggage in a red truck. Pretty cool and we had a fun time making the move.

Well, Powhatan is an even more rural area than Wakefield. So our few days here were driving around and seeing a few LAs and members. One of the less actives has a potty mouth and a knack for offensive jokes and he had the grossest cat with fleas and mange all over it. They called it Max. Go figure. We were also able to find some new people to teach which has been really hard here according to Elder Corey. Two of them are brothers we talk to outside their house.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and scheduled a return appointment. Another was this guy named Don and he lives in a trailer and is physically disabled. He has been down from his wife leaving him out of the blue and doesn’t really understand why she left. So I came in with the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy and told him about all the struggles they had gone thru in there. He was pretty interested and had lived above missionaries in the past. So pretty cool.

Church was fun. The ward consists of more older people than young. Our ward mission leader tried to convince us to stop Exchanges with other missionaries, but it’s been enforced for it to happen so we had to tell him that it was necessary for it to happen. The people were really nice and open with me. They have more priesthood here and they play basketball every Saturday, so that’s cool. One of them reminded me of Braden and he was wearing a black shirt with tennis shoes. He had the floppiest hair I have ever seen. He was cool though.

Elder Corey is a pretty chill guy, but he’s from Utah so he thinks he has to be living out his purpose to its fullest extent or he feels completely worthless or like a total bad guy. But he doesn’t really follow the smaller rules all the time. He’s really good at playing the guitar and we have two guitars at the apartment; one was lent by a member who’s also good. E. Corey is a good singer but pushes it a little too hard sometimes. Just a good time/ bad time kind of feeling I have about him. Oh he’s the district leader, but I’m the senior companion so we are equals in the companionship. The people in our district are the Assistants to the Mission President and the zone leaders so nobody is really under Elder Corey’s supreme authority.

Well, I’m learning the guitar by chords and also the Coldplay music I have but it’s still a little complicated. Right now we are going to have a tri-zone basketball game. Really fun!  The apartment really is a Bachelor pad from it being a converted Verizon store. I’ll send pictures of it so you can get a good idea about it. Hope to hear from you soon! 

Love you all,

Elder McClure

Email Received May 30, 2012

Hi Family,

Guess what? I’m being transferred! Guess where? Powatan, baby! They call it the Bachelor Pad because it is so cool. My companion is Elder Corey and he is the district leader so this is number 4. We are in the same district as the assistant to the president and from me being with district leaders, I feel that I might be one too some day. Pretty sweet.

I have been having a good week so far. My last Sunday in Wakefield I wore the revelator knot so I can feel cool. Not a lot of people at church due to the Memorial Day weekend. Pretty amazing. I am also sending home a big box full of books for me to use in college. I am sending more tomorrow.

Funny thing:  Elder Pickup is training a newbie and so that will be even less sleep lost from me being the one that knows EVERYTHING about our area. So I’m going to draft a document that tells everything about Wakefield so E. Pickup and the new companion have some help. Right now, I’m getting to see people for the last time before I go and people have really taken a liking to me more than I thought. Maybe because I’m a contrast to Elder Pickup’s robotic personality. I really care for these people and they have seen that from me.

I love you all and I need letters! No one has written me in over a week. Well I love you all and have a fun last week of school and if you’re out of school, go party till you drop. Have a good week!

Love, Elder McClure