I'm with the Zone Leaders/Massive Boundary Changes received 9/24/2012

Hello people of planet Earth,

This week has been very crazy and so I’ll try my best to describe it.

Last Tuesday Elder Drexler (my greenie) and I were split up.  Elder Drexler went to Meadowbrook to be part of a biking trio companionship and I was put into a trio companionship with the Zone Leaders. The first few days were strange because Elder Caldwell (one of the Zone Leaders) was on exchanges for two different days.  We also jumped from place to place in the zone to go to zone meetings. In doing so I got to meet some fun people whom the Zone Leaders were teaching. One lady is named Kim - she just had her baptism last Saturday and it was awesome! Her family was there and they were really touched by the service.  However, one of her uncles and his family reacted negatively because he was offended by the statement that our church is the true church.  He also thinks that our church encourages dominion over women because Kim’s boyfriend performed the confirmation after the baptism. We had to stall for the confirmation since the boyfriend (Jared Rhodes) forgot a white shirt so his family had to go out to buy him one.  It ended up costing them $50. Crazy.

Another person I met with the Zone Leaders is Donald Carter.  His dad is a member and is just a powerhouse and knows the gospel is true. Donald is getting baptized this Saturday, which is amazing. He has a bunch of scary faces tattooed on his arms from his past. 

We also taught a lady named Desiree Divine (it sounds like a stripper name but she’s nothing like that).  We taught her about the Restoration.  The member who introduced us to her was bringing in all this deep doctrine (we were trying so hard to get back on subject) but in the end it all worked out for the good. 

The mission had some boundary changes last week:  the Meadowbrook area took half of Belmont and all of Oak Grove.  Now Belmont is half of Belmont and half of Chesterfield.  The Swift Creek area is the other half of Chesterfield and most of Colonial Heights.  I know that doesn’t make any sense unless you’re here, but trust me, it’s insane. Every missionary is still going to be working in his assigned area until transfers, though.  Elder Caldwell is leaving in a week and so we have to deal with that and Elder Coburn leaves very soon, as well. They are so fun and we are just focused on doing the work.

Well, other than that we went to a ward party and we played volleyball with some of the youth members and I totally spiked it and said, "Gird your loins" in doing so and it was hilarious.

Have a good week and I will get back to you on what will be happening in the future with transfers. 

Elder McClure

Less Actives, Less Actives, Less Actives. . .email received September 3, 2012

Hi Family!

Well, this week wasn’t all too exciting due to the fact that we just went by to see all the less active people on the ward roster to help out our bishop and we found that 33 different people plus spouse or kids have moved. Crazy!  We talked to two out of all the less actives and they were nice to us and two wanted their names removed from the records. It is just so sad to see these people deny the blessings and deny the Holy Ghost just to be lazy. They are promised so much more.  

We talked to the husband of one of the less actives and we bashed for 2 hours on their front porch while it was raining…and it was Fast Sunday, which killed us because we were so hungry. First they bashed on the picture of Jesus - in the Bible it talks about His ascended form but we were showing a picture of what he looked like before that. We then got into it about the Book of Mormon and the Apocrypha, which we were basically told is half true and half false, so not worth translating. We had to explain to them that Joseph Smith translated the gold plates into the Book of Mormon, not writing it himself, not riding in the boat with Nephi and Lehi, not being in Jerusalem, etc. Also they wanted to know what tribe Joseph Smith was from. Like I would know that, let alone share it with them.

The other part of the week was the same kind of thing, then coming home to talk with the other elders and then breaking out into a Nerf war that is two against one, me being the one. I got shot in the eye a lot and so I hid the guns.  Whenever they are talking all tall and whatever, I pull a gun out of a secret hiding place and shoot them.  Being with Elder Capson is getting better and I always try to treat him better since Elder Swanson is kind of a bully to him. Other than that just trying to stay busy and also I am the designated driver so I drive us everywhere.

Oh - got a cool letter from Rick Twelves from the MTC and he’s going to the California Arcadia Mission where they speak Armenian. Pretty cool!  Well I love you all and will keep you updated on my mission.

-Elder McClure