District D-Day, Henry Rescheduled Baptism, Solar Panels, Faces Leadership, and Carving Pumpkins: October 21, 2013

Hey family,

This week was one of the more unexciting missionary work ones. For P-day we had most of our district over because it was Columbus Day so most of the libraries were closed and ours was open. We mainly played games like Munchkins and Magic. Scratch that; that was all we played. We murdered Elder Martineau's character pretty bad. Then we helped this less active couple understand how to use their VCR.  It’s weird that they still have one.  They wanted us to set it up to record things on VHS tapes. Weird. We also saw 2 other less active members and watched a lot of Mormon Messages on a DVD that we have and sang at least 15 different hymns while Elder Barlow tried to find the tune to half of them and butchered the songs.

We did have some good things happen like we got in contact with this referral named Theodore who lives up this really steep hill. We had a lesson with Shirley. She described what she read in the Book of Mormon which was pretty good and she even remembered most of the names which was brilliant. We talked about the Holy Ghost and she was excited to read chapter 8 in 1 Nephi about the Tree of Life.

We had a fun busy moment of volunteering at Faces, then we went with B. Manry to his house to put solar panels on his roof. Fun. Then we went to make baptismal programs for Henry's baptism.  When we stopped to invite one of the Yankeys to be a witness, President Yankey told me that Henry postponed his baptism for Nov. 10th because he was going to a funeral that day and that just really threw me for the rest of the day. I won’t be here on November 10^th! 

The next day we were knocking on doors to contact an investigator and referral and all of a sudden Henry pops out of the laundry room so we talked with him and rescheduled it for October 26 so I could be there. It was awesome and totally a miracle from Heavenly Father to help this man all the way to baptism!  I was so happy that I’ll get to be there.

Not much for the rest of the week other than tracting and trying to contact people. We ran into an atheist and we taught the Restoration lesson twice on his doorstep till we found out he was an atheist which was awkward but we still counted it as a lesson because he was open to us coming back. We were asked at Faces who was the head Elder and I said I was so they made me the leader over the Faces handout Saturday morning because our church was in charge of it that day for the month. It was pretty easy aside from finding things to do for college kids that popped up. The people loved it and our members loved helping out. They kept making jokes about giving big cakes to people and it’s just craziness right there.

Yesterday our branch president, President Yankey, got released and now B. Ludgate the younger is the branch president. It’s been a crazy month for him with what’s been going on.  Later that night we carved pumpkins at a Methodist church and I carved Jesus saving Peter from the water when he was about to drown. Most people didn't know what it was, but I did the best I could. They were for the shut-ins in Farmville. That night Elder Martineau beat Elder Barlow twice at Magic and Elder Barlow just got super mad and was making lame excuses for why he lost. I had made a complex deck for him to use. Well that’s all for my second to last week and I'll be home soon so look for me in Idaho.

Love you all,

Elder McClure

High Bridge, Humorous Pictures, Transfers, Rain Walking, Magic and Getting Henry Dunked: October 14, 2013

Hello people,

The 2nd to last real email from Elder McClure so I'll make it worth your while. Last p-day we got together for a district p-day to play games at the chapel and walk the high bridge. We played like 3 rounds of Uno until the rain lightened up and the Buckingham elders got there. Same old same old with the bridge. We tried walking up to the vultures (they sit on the bridge all the time) really slowly to go touch them, but Elder Fish always scared them away so we couldn't get it done.  Then we took funny pictures of me and the other two Elders: E. Lundell and Hansen were taking a lot of posed pictures of their muscles. Also we threw rocks off the side into the river to see how far they would go.

The next day we tried to get appointments and clean the church but both fell thru so we tracted and tried to see people. The Burkeville Elders came up to do an exchange, to trade Elder Hansen for Elder Smith.  It took time for them to switch because the Chappells drove them up to switch in Buckingham. We also got to prepare Henry for baptism and give back-to-school blessings for the kids in a family.   

We cleaned the church the next day so we had fun doing that and setting chairs back up and we had a very long walk around in the rain. Some middle school girls were walking behind us and singing "Under my Umberella" and I started singing it to fit Elder Martineau's name in it. It was pretty funny.

We had transfers and we got our third comp., Elder Barlow, who’s a nice guy but plays a lot of Magic. Basically the rest of our week was walking long distances in the rain (a really nice misty rain going on) and talking to people.

On my 2 year mark, October 12, we went to Macados for dinner.  I got a Sherlock Holmes sandwich which was pretty good.  After dinner we got Henry interviewed for baptism. We brought Elder Mathia and Hansen with us and that made 5 elders with Henry which made him kind of nervous. But he passed. Awesome!!! Now we are getting ready for him to be baptized on the 19^th, this Saturday.  It will be my last baptism. Sorry for the shortness of this email but I have like 3 elders on my back to finish so we can go.

I love you all!

Elder McClure

Service Crazy Work, Deep Clean, Last Zone Meeting, Crazy Dre, and General Conference: October 7, 2013

This week was pretty big for me with service and spiritual experiences. We didn't do a whole lot for P-day but we did talk to this guy named Alex in the college housing about some of his questions.  He wanted to know about the Kingdoms of Glory so we discussed and described each one. Last time he tried to get out of seeing us but we made a point to come back. We also another appointment with Henry, but that fell through. He actually disappeared the whole week so I'll keep up with ya’ll on “Where’s Henry?”

We had a good amount of service this week.  We broke up some rotting walls that were piled on top of each other so we could find the good boards and the nails in them. This was a service project for B. Goodwin.  While we were there, we met one of his friends that he has helped get over his addictions and given a Book of Mormon to. We also did a deep clean of our apartment for the first Tuesday of the month and inspections were the next day so we made sure to do a good job and it looked a lot more empty. We also split logs for a member, Sister Seamster.  It took a lot of effort, using a splitting mal and a sledgehammer. I used the heavier one. We did the first bit dressed up and came back later in the week to split the rest.  We split like crazy to get the job done. I was going crazy at it to hear that good crack when you get it really nice in there. I got some gnarly blisters afterward and they still hurt now. Before and after splitting the wood, we helped out at Faces with lifting and getting bags full of food. It was a pretty intense day. I passed out that night.

We also had some good lessons with our investigators like Shirley.  We read the Book of Mormon with her so she will find more interest in it.  While we were reading, stink bugs were flying around above us and were just going crazy. It was funny seeing her smack them as hard as she could. We are teaching this guy named Dre. We went over and he was smoking and saying that he needs some religion so we can talk to him. Well, I started off with the Restoration, relating to him that the church has been restored. He cuts me off and tells us about a stream you go to after you die that is like limbo between heaven and hell. Really bizarre, but it got worse.  Then he says some of the angels hate us because we have souls and they have black hearts and black eyes and are really scary. He also told us that Satan now has an invisible car and he drives people over to tempt Dre to do bad things. Some weird stuff! We made a return appointment with him, too.  I wonder what that will be like. We also saw one of our investigators, Shawn, who had gotten out of jail on bail. He was so much more humble and had read to Jacob in the Book of Mormon which made me super happy.  I was also happy because he personally wanted to see us.

Also this week I was at my last zone meeting and they asked me to bear my final testimony. At first when I was speaking I made an old man impression because I was the oldest one there (of the missionaries). Then I got very emotional about how much my mission meant to me with all the blessings that have come to my family. I read the scripture that I had chosen for my plaque back home and it made more sense than just a scripture I had chosen. I was very glad that the out pouring of the spirit came from Heavenly Father to help me help others.

General Conference was probably the best thing of the week but like all day Saturday we were stuck in the Burkeville chapel instead of ours since we have no signal. It was really hot in there and it made it hard to stay comfortable and take notes of conference while we were in this heat that was making us sweat. We had fun with the Burkeville Elders while we were there. Before the first session, we got there earlier than them so we tried to break into the library to get the television so we could watch it. I tried picking it with two paper clips and also turning the handle with a paddle, but neither of those methods worked. It got opened properly with a key later. We really enjoyed conference even though there weren’t too many huge rebukes happening, especially from Elder Holland and Bednar. My favorite speaker other than President Monson is President Utchdorf. Funny thing is that the night of Saturday was Octoberfest for the college kids so we came home from watching conference to see kids drinking and walking around the streets drunk after we had been spiritually fed by the Prophet. Different world.

Well not much else to say but that you only have to wait another 3 weeks to see me. Love you all!

Elder McClure

 

Hard Hat Workers, Zone Conference, Blitzing, and Baptisms: September 30, 2013

I had a fun week which starts and continues with service, as usual.

On Monday our big service project happened.  The food pantry we often help at is called FACES (I don’t know what that stands for).  There are ramps to help handicapped people get in the front doors from the parking lot.  The ramps and one nearby part of the parking lot are super messed up and so it makes it hard for old or handicapped people to get into the food pantry.  Our service project was to help them by demolishing the old ramps and the one small area of the parking lot so new concrete can be poured for better ramps.  Our team (E. Chappell, E. Martineau, me, B. Manry, and the Ludgate father and son) started by tearing up the parking lot area, which was really easy since it was so damaged and had been laid badly in the first place. The ramps were concrete so we banged on them with sledgehammers and then used a jackhammer to get them destroyed.  It took a lot of work to get this done, but we finally got all the concrete up and heaved it into a pile.  After our work, Sister Chappell fed us delicious food.

The next day we had some set appointments with people like Rashad and Shirley, but not until the afternoon.  In the morning, we helped E. Chappell dig out the places for the new ramps so they would fill up better with cement.  We also cleaned up around that area.  When we were done, we left to get dressed to keep our appointments and what do you know, they fall through.  So - we changed again and went to help Elder Chappell pour the cement and smooth it out which was fun.  (Lucky me, I was wearing my p-day velcro pants). We didn't get too messy. After the concrete was finished, we walked the streets of downtown Farmville and handed out some pass along cards. It was fun. Then we got fed by these less active members, the Davis couple. It was a pretty awkward meal, but we did get to hear a lot about the family vacation they were on last week. After we left the Davis house, we got ahold of Henry again and had a lesson.

On Wednesday we had zone conference and we showed up a little late, but the Farmville branch missionaries are always fashionably late. The whole meeting was a lot of leadership training shoved into a time period of 9am to 4pm.  We speedily went over stuff we had already heard before.  We role played after each topic and sometimes I would remain silent so Elder Martineau would talk more. One of the funny role plays was E. Fish committing an investigator to come to Christ by having him get out of the chair and walk over to the picture of Christ. After the meeting it took us a while to get home so we went to the youth activity to make a small catapult which got diverted by my showing them how to juggle and also keeping a broom balanced on the tip of my finger.

On Thursday we basically got fed by members and caught up with Rashad to answer more of his questions. We also had some fun volunteering at the Faces Pantry where we sorted the food.  This lady named "Brenda" (don’t know her real name) was playing the funny antagonizing game about our church.  She kept saying funny stuff to me (Brad) and Elder Martineau (Bob) playing the game, “What is your mental condition?” It was weird.

On Friday we finally got our blitz for our area which was sweet. We got food from Cook Out and we all rode in the transfer van together to drop the Elders off at their spots. We placed them in random areas.  I stayed with Elder Hitesman and Nelson to go to this one area which was out there. We met some nice people and a couple of Jews as well. They are more prominent out here. It’s quite fun and we enjoy talking with some people. Now we have a bigger handful of people to go see in our area. Afterward, we got to eat at our branch president's house (Pres.Yankey). We ate pizza and they showed this video of "What does the fox say?" Interesting.

The great thing about Saturday was the baptism of the Ludgate couple (B. Ludgate's parents. It was a cool experience and it was very warm and awesome to see families coming closer under the gospel. Plus our mission president and his wife came and sat behind us so during the beginning, I look back and there is our mission president. Fun stuff! I also found out that another baptism was happening that day:  Tyesha in Lawrenceville whom I had taught a long time ago.  Her son Raquan baptized her – he had gotten baptized only 2 months earlier. That was sweet, too. We also were able to teach Henry by reading with him the Book of Mormon and geting him to come to church.

On Sunday we went to church fasting and hungry. Henry came and some other people for the sisters to teach. Testimonies were long and one member got up talking about being converted then went totally off subject recounting stories of his childhood. Gospel Principles was really funny because Willie Lee kept sounding his opinion. For example, how we are like the JWs and describing what televisions were like in his day and how old they were, etc.  The topic was on missionary work. Everyone was trying to keep a straight face, even the teacher, Eddy Hurt. Funny stuff. The Chappells did a missionary moment afterwards in the 3rd hour. For the rest of the day we ate at the Chappell’s and looked at old pictures of them. We made a map which took some doing and was a time consuming effort but it got done.

 Well, love you all and have fun!

Elder McClure

 

 

Fall Thru Appointments, Awesome Lady, Service, and Fun District Training: September 23, 2013

Hello those who rely on the correspondence I give,

Crazy week in Farmville. We had a couple of appointments last week that we were pretty pumped up for but they fell through due to weird circumstances. We had an appointment at a college apartment to teach some guys: Alex, Ryan, and some other guy.  It fell through, which was really disappointing. We had an appointment with Henry and he wasn't there. Between the appointment with the college guys and Henry, all the appointments we had set up the week before fell through.  We got into this cycle of playing stalker and going by our investigators’ places a couple of times to see how they were doing. One investigator named Shirley was also hard to pin down but she kept the appointment with us and it was a really good lesson.  As we taught her about the Restoration she said, “Why doesn’t everyone know about this?  Why are people still in the dark?”  She told us that she had wanted to be rebaptized into her old church - she was baptized into a church as a little girl, but when she was 30 years old she felt herself more committed to Christ and wanted to be rebaptized as a way to show this, but they wouldn't let her get rebaptized. We told her she can be baptized, but she would first have to come to know that the gospel we preach is true and then join the church after that knowledge. She’s a really nice lady.

On Wednesday we had district meeting in Farmville so everyone in the zone came up to our chapel to enjoy the fun there. I gave a training on commitments. After I trained on it, everyone was bored or quiet so we did a funny role play of having to commit your partner to do something like: "Will you adopt 300 cats? Will you wear your shirt inside out?” or “Will you make a blanket out of bacon?" Then we committed each other to baptism and practiced explaining why this was a big change and why it was important. Later that night we were with the young men for mutual and they were being taught how to cook with a microwave. I even ate some microwave cooked bacon. It was okay.

We had a big service day on Thursday.  We went to the food pantry twice to volunteer – we fill up bags with food that needy people can take home.  After working at the food pantry, we burned scrap wood at a member’s house, then put away books at the library and stuff like that. It was pretty entertaining for us and time consuming.

 On Friday we brought the Chappels with use to teach another lesson to Shirley to go over what we had just talked about the last time.  We got more questions out of her, which was good. Our other appointments fell through but our branch president came out with us and got us two big containers of ice cream. It was nice and now we have a lot of temptation in the fridge.

 Saturday was a fun/crazy day. We started out serving at the food pantry early in the morning.  On that day, we put the food in a cart then went out with the person to help load it in their car. We met one of the sister missionaries’ investigators named Dakota and she was clinging onto Sister Brunty like a best friend would and it was funny. Dakota called Elder Martineau “Elder Marshmallow” so that’s a funny nickname for him now. While we were pushing carts around there was a young woman that was funny but was also playing the devil’s advocate about our church. Like she was criticizing how we won’t drink coffee by saying, “Well, air is also addictive.” I told her my first name and she said she would call me Brad. She didn't believe that I could juggle so I got a few potatoes and one upped her by juggling them. Everyone was amused that I was juggling and stopped for a second to watch. It was entertaining. We got free strawberries from the food pantry and then went to Richmond so Elder Martineau could fill out a form.  We tried to see people for the rest of the day.

 Sunday was good and we were able to get Henry to church. We visited with him after church and taught him the 10 Commandments.  Between our conversation of each commandment, he would ramble about his childhood and stuff but he is making progress toward geting baptized.

 Love you all!

Elder McClure

Lots of Lessons and Service, Mustaches, Talking to College Kids, and Rambling Henry: September 16, 2013

This week was better compared to last week. We were able to get a lot done.

On Monday we had some fun doing pottery and getting messy then had to rush to get home to have the Chappells take us to go shopping.  Then we had to go teach George, then went to email, and it was a pretty exhausting day biking up and down hills so we could do what we wanted. It was fun though. Just killed my calves.

Tuesday was a bizarre day since the sister missionaries and Sister Chappell took the senior ‘s car to go to a Sisters Meeting in Richmond.  We and Elder Chappell borrowed about 3 different cars to get around. We went to go to pick up and burn wood at a less active’s house. The first vehicle we borrowed to do the service work was a truck and the fan belt broke.  We had to borrow another car to go get a new belt and also go to teach some appointments (which fell through).  Once the new belt got put on the truck, we got it back to get wood from someone else.  We loaded it later split it while wearing our proselyting clothes and surprisingly we didn't get dirty. We then had to borrow another car to get dropped off at Robert’s house. He wasn't drunk this time and was good and sober. However, his conversation was a little odd.  He talked about how the college girls were all clones since they seem too much alike. He also shared some conspiracy theories and talked about guns. Robert told us, after we asked him about coming back to the church, that he will not go back because of the memories and other things. He said he won’t pray or read scriptures either. He’s a good guy though.

We had district meeting and what happens before is called zone portion where the zone leaders will tell us what’s up and what to do. One thing that week was a big contest to see who could get the most investigators.  President Wilson said he would do splits or tract or companionship study with them. I didn't care much for this idea because it sounds like just a big game and I want to find people to strengthen our area, not try to impress a mission president.

During the last zone meeting, one of the sisters made a comment that we should wear mustaches and ask the question, "How mustache you know your Savior?"  So this district meeting I wore a cheap mustache held on by tape and used mustache puns after the meeting. It was funny. Going home after the meeting was pretty hard cuz it makes Elder Martineau tired to make the long ride back and when he’s tired that makes it hard to work. Later that night we played bowling with the youth, Elder Chappell, and B. Boyle so it was a good game.

Thursday was mainly service.  In the morning we went to the food pantry to stack food and sort things and get ready for the afternoon. We got free eclairs out of it and got to talk with some of the owners. B. Manry went with us.  Later, he also went with us and B. Chappell to go burn more wood at B. Goodwin’s and lift stuff. It was hot!  I was finally able to get all the wood out of the tall grass and into a pile.  Afterward, we taught a lady named Mary who believes in everything we do, but goes to another church and it’s annoying. Then we did the afternoon part of the service at the food pantry. We got there and the other Farmville missionaries were there in service clothes and we were all dressed up. It was funny.  The guy in charge said it would be better if everyone would go down the line and put food in the bags themselves, but I took charge and formed the cycle way of doing it like I saw them doing in a food pantry last year. It went by pretty fast and was really fun. We got to talk to some college kids while doing it.

Friday was weekly planning and service.  One service project was putting a ton of books away at the library. It was a big stack turned in by one lady because there is no limit here. Too many books!  Mainly children’s books.  The cool thing was by the end of the day the zone leaders came to help us find investigators in this apartment complex called Sunchase which has a lot of college kids in it. Usually that leads to rejection but we were able to find a few. Elder Hitesman and I went to one side and on our second door ran across this guy named Marty. He’s an older guy and told us after we asked for his religious background that he does big jumps from church to church. He even let us in his house - he told us that we were the only other people to enter his house for a year, like not even his wife is allowed in. It was pretty cool. Elder Martineau and Kennedy got rejection and some interested people.  One was Sam, a college girl.  Her Mormon boyfriend was there that night so they were able to teach her and also a group of college guys that we are meeting tonight. It was pretty cool!  We went to Cook Out and played Bang! at home.

Friday was slow since we hung out a little too long with the zone leaders before they left. We tracted again at Sunchase and got a lot of awkward looks.  We met a lot of Catholics who were not interested, but we got a few potentials from it.  We were finally able to get a hold of Henry (who had a baptismal date when I first got here) and we talked with him. He’s older, like 84 years old. We tried to teach him the Law of Chastity but he went off about the government and some other kinds of things.  Elder Martineau was zoning out half the time and not talking so I was trying hard to get him on track. We set a baptismal date for him for the 12th of October which was the exact day I entered the MTC a year ago. Pretty crazy stuff, right?  Time flies!

Sunday was funny mainly because of all the characters in Gospel Principles who talk a lot and have funny rambling things to say. Henry came to church and he sat next to me in Gospel Principles. We were able to get more dinner appointments after S. Gavillan pointed it out and people coming out with us on splits were going to feed us before the appointment. After church we went to go see people in the unknown section of the area book. One guy named Brent was a former pastor and wasn't interested but he gave me a book called "Eagle in the Sky" since I told him I wanted to go to medical school.  The book is about doctors in the Civil War. Elder Martineau said a prayer really slow and halfway through it Brent said, “Amen!” Later the Chappells fed us and I like it when people feed us because I get to know more about them.

Well that’s it for this week and love you all.

Elder McClure 

Lessons with Investigators, Drunk Less Active, Service, Wacky Things: September 9, 2013

Farmville....fun, fun, fun in the sun!

This week has been a pick-up week from last week and Elder Martineau's previous transfer. We’re on bikes in this area so we get to ride around all day and have fun going fast down hills.

Wednesday was a fun day to begin with. We had fun doing service for the library by putting some books on the shelves and afterward we got to ride around with Elder Chappell to see some people like less actives in the branch. We also had the opportunity to meet a guy named Robert. He is a less active college student at Longwood and while we were talking with him, he was getting the most drunk he could while talking with us about how he fell away and what started that process. He was very coherent the whole time, so it was funny.  In the end he told us he had gotten drunk to see what our reaction to it would be and also because he hadn't gotten seriously drunk in a while. He was drinking Everclear which is like the strongest stuff around here. It was crazy. We also got to have dinner at the church with an awesome member and that ended the day.

The next day we got to do service for a member named B. Goodwin.  We cleaned out his backyard and burned old wood and moved old metal. He showed us his cool gun collection and a bunch of Civil War bullets that he had found with his metal detector. It’s funny that they are white instead of grey or some other color. It was pretty cool. This week we also got to do some service for Sister Seamster by cutting up a tree for her and carrying the logs around.  We had fun with the ax chopping the limbs off some of the trees. We also did service for this food bank with a bunch of college kids filling up bags and setting them up for the following Saturday to give out.  We had to load a van and this kid was calling out the number in a southern accent. It was pretty funny.

Mainly the people we taught this week were Tina, Arlene, Mary S., and Shawn. Mary and Arlene are stubborn old ladies sticking to their old ways. I had even asked Arlene what she would do if she found out that this church is true and she said, “Just accept me for the way that I am.” We have also been setting up appointments with the other investigators.

We did find this lady when we were tracting.  She had gone inside her house right before we knocked, so it seemed awkward but by knocking anyways we got a return appointment for the next week so we were super excited for that.

We also had zone meeting and that was pretty fun talking with the other Elders. One of them was actually bad mouthing Idaho and asking me what there was to do there. He was a punk and those elders are the worst. I don’t like punks. We had fun after the meeting trying to see people and doing things in Farmville. It’s been fun biking except for going up a lot of hills and having no mail.  I know I’m coming home soon, but I would really enjoy some letters!  Hint, hint! 

Well have fun everyone and I’ll be more detailed next time.

Elder McClure

Death/Trio, Transfer Calls, Goodbyes, Midnight D&D, Funky Farmville, Church in a Shopping Center, and the High Bridge: September 3, 2013

Hello Family+Peeps,

Sorry for the wait because of Labor Day. I was laboring too much, ha!

Last week was all over the place due to what happened on P-day. For P-day we all got together and played more chair soccer and I was not going to let another knee pop out of place. We had a lot of fun doing activities while we were waiting for Elder Dotson and Elder Newkirk to come - Elder Dotson had to get his hair all together and eat lunch. We played more D&D during which we finished our quest.  The sister missionaries were also there so it made me feel even nerdier because of that occurrence. Elder Dotson had to leave so Elder Weiss and I went down to say goodbye and pick up Elder Newkirk so he would have a companionship while he waited for transfers. We played volleyball when we got back to the church. We went over to the Bells to eat and Leah freaked out Elder Newkirk by knowing his first name and also Elder Dotson's. It was weird that she found out Elder Swann's because he said she would never know it. We ended the night taking some food from the Mac house to our apartment for Elder Newkirk to eat.

On transfer call day we didn't do anything too important but we did go to Lineweaver and Elder Newkirk almost got pinned (left outside the elevator doors) which was funny. We also helped move some furniture for the sisters’ Broadway apartment. We all gathered around the phone that night to hear our transfers.  Elder Swann got called to be with Elder Hardy in Culpepper (Elder Hardy is one disobedient son of a gun) and I got sent to Farmville with Elder Martineau who is just done getting trained.  I was just so mad from getting moved before death to a new area especially because the new area is on bikes so it’s super lame. Good thing I have a bike though. We spent all of the next day saying goodbye to the members, doing service for this member in the Harrisonburg 2^nd ward (the guy checked me out), had a last district lunch where we ate things from our fridges and had a couple of laughs, and just tracking people down. It was a rush around saying goodbye but we got it done. We especially got to say goodbye to Joe and William Ingram. I love those guys!  They are the best.

The Wednesday night before transfers, we and the Franklin elders and Elder Newkirk played board games all night, which took forever, and by the time we finished the last game it was already time for the Franklin elders to leave so that was pretty sad. I was so exhausted the rest of the day.

Transfers were nice; we got there just in time and President Wilson was telling us keys to success and talking a lot. We found out there are a lot of sisters from Meridian here now. It’s a fun place to be if you have to be away from Meridian. We came to the senior couple’s car and loaded up all my stuff into it. It was nice to be able to say my final goodbyes to a few elders like Elder Harris. It’s been fun seeing them at least one more time. We drove back to Farmville and now let me tell you what is in Farmville. It has a college in our area, all the necessities, hills that kill, a set of sisters and a senior couple named the Chappells. We have a small, inconsistent teaching pool and all the miles in the world. Elder Martineau is a nice guy but gets on the weird side of things way too often sometimes. We live in a house and I get my own bathroom to myself. No shampoo though, so I washed my hair with hand soap until Monday. Things we did up until Monday include seeing a less active, cutting a lawn, almost falling asleep in a lesson with recent converts, helping sisters about the area, and trying to see some people.

Church was fun – they hold church in a bought out store in a shopping center. It looks really nice inside but when you look at the chapel part it looks like a Baptist church. I have a lot of fun saying it’s like Win-Dixie.  I taught Gospel Principles since Elder M had gotten used to teaching it alone and I wanted to teach it together. It was a very quiet class.  It was fun having church there and the Norrises fed us for the rest of the day and played games so we had some fun with them.

My legs have hurt at nights from all the biking up hills.  My cardio also sucks at this point. It’s getting better, though. On Labor Day we went to the high bridge trail where we walked in the hot sun to the high bridge, then across it, and then back which was super hot. It was funny how all the butterflies were landing on us. Then we got groceries and PVC pipe and played Bang! with the senior couple and sisters. 

That’s all I have for this week. Love you all,

Elder McClure

More Confusion, Trading Comps, Weird Occurances, Rich Housing, and an Awesome LA: August 26, 2013

Really weird and funny stuff all in the same week!

Last Monday Elder Swann and Elder Burbank left to go to Charlottesville which left me and Elder Gonzalez together.  We had fun playing more D&D and also seeing Joe and Junior Romaro after a crazy problem that arose. We exchanged back and stuff like that at the end of the day. 

The next day Elder Swann had to do emailing and shopping because he had been gone so we did that. We met up with our investigator named Donna and we basically talked to her about what she expects from us. She said through the 3 basic lessons we taught her, she learned to stay away from evil people. Okay. And during us teaching the Restoration she told us that she told her husband that she was talking to Jesus more since we have been stopping by.  She also told him that she saw him (her husband) as her brother. It just seems like she isn’t making the connections with the gospel that we’re teaching.  We had to leave after this truck came to take their mattress away. We also got to see Robert Eshbaugh and he’s coming closer to remembering things we teach him. Now we are going to test him with candy involved.

We went to visit an LA named B. Yohannes and he lives in the poorer apartments where all the Arabic people live.  All of a sudden he wants us to talk to this Arabic lady named Mariam.  She lets us into her apartment and B. Yohannes translates for us. Then Mariam brings in a Cuban couple and another Arabic lady. It turns out that she thought that we were welfare workers and people from JMU to help them get classes. It was weird.  B. Yohannes explained to her that we were missionaries and the other Arabic lady got really disappointed when she found out we weren’t welfare workers. Bizarre. 

One day we drove around in this rich housing development on a hill.  It was nice!  We tracted some rich apartments in that area and the first one was a black brother who has been to medical school so that threw me off – I didn’t expect to meet a member so quickly in that area. 

Another day we spent a whole day in Broadway to check out some apartments for other missionaries to stay in. One was nice and in good condition and the other smelled like smoke with gross stains all over and the doors not attached. Bad!  We met a lady named Halo. We also checked up twice on a member named B. Eshbaugh. We didn’t catch him the first time but the second time we were able to sit down with him that day. He was so depressed and drunk. He felt really bad about himself and we assured him that everything would be okay and that we were there for him. Before we left I gave him a priesthood blessing and I felt so much love and compassion from Heavenly Father and the Savior for this man and I could feel my own love being poured out to help B. Eshbaugh with his life and to give him happiness. We also made way with his alcohol addiction.  We asked him if we could get rid of his alcohol and he said yes so we poured it out into the dumpster. He gave us really long hugs and said he loved us. 

Saturday was funny because at the end of the day we had a farewell dinner for Elder Dotson at a place called the American Indian restaurant. I only got a brownie and some drink called Luscy which was an herbal milky drink with no alcohol. It was really funny to drink.

Sunday was good and Joe bore his testimony.  Ray Hurstler came to church to track Elder Moon down to get his Book of Mormon back from him so I gave him Elder Moon’s email address. It was crazy. After church, we helped B. Eshbaugh by talking with him. We visited with Joe in the evening and found out his mom didn’t like the baptism since she thought we testified of Joseph Smith more than Jesus Christ and that we joked around too much, too.

Well, love you all!

Elder McClure 

Long Days, Primary Teaching, Barriers, Extra P-day Time, and Too Much Finding: August 19. 2013

Hey people of my past existence,

This week was long, hard, and seemed like rejection was at every turn, but we kept the faith and our spirits up.

We had a service opportunity on p-day to help set up a booth in the carnival since Sister Hartman recruited us to help out. It was weird putting a bunch of PVC pipes together and other things. The game we set up was a dime toss for cups; it was a fund raiser for the Special Olympics so Elder Swann thought there would be a bunch of special people around it, but there weren’t. We spent a lot of time setting it up and helping run it but we saved the time we used on our P-day to use on a different day. 

We have been teaching this lady and it’s been getting kind of weird teaching her. She will half listen to what we have to teach, especially like the gospel topics, and randomly she’ll say interesting things.  For example, while we are on the topic of baptism she will say that her church is having a picnic and she might get baptized into it. She also asked if missionaries could go see her daughter for the sole purpose of getting the church to move them out of where they are living and provide them a free house to live in that they just happen to have with a swing set.  This is a fantasy, especially if she doesn’t want to actually change her life to accept the gospel. 

We also got to take some youth out on splits with us. This time we took Aspen.  Unfortunately, the day just fell through but we did get to see S. Howdyshell and all her puppies. We also got to take Joe Michael and Delilah out on their first splits with us to go teach Robert about baptism. It was a good lesson but Robert is very distracted all the time and has trouble listening, although he thinks he can learn everything on his own. Which is difficult for a 9-year-old. We brought B. Aidukaitis with us to help teach him and we are slowly making headway with the little guy. We have to teach so simply with him, like on the Primary level, so he can understand. 

Our District meeting was mainly about eternal life and stuff like that - how to obtain it and also to help our investigators obtain it. The Spanish Elders and us used our 3 saved-up hours of p-day time after the District meeting to play a fun game called soccer tennis which is kicking a ball over tennis nets to the other side.  When the ball stops bouncing on the other side then you get a point. 

We have a lot of time on our hands to try to find people so we go to see potentials in the area book most of the time to help things move along. We found one lady that was kind of interested but she’s more of an old lady so we’ll see what happens. We also got in contact with a referral the Spanish Elders gave us a long time ago.  The referral had actually read half of the Book of Mormon so it was pretty cool to finally get a hold of him.

We have hit barriers with our three baptismal dates. Matthew and Madison's mom has now refused to let them get baptized due to misunderstandings that Madison brought up to her about the other life and them being together as a family. It’s been crazy. Robert can't be baptized until he can fully know what baptism means and what he has to do after baptism to stay strong to the covenant he made. We are working on it. 

In Sacrament meeting I gave a talk on the importance of families and how a mission has improved me to prepare for my own. They told me I was going to be speaking for a while but someone from the stake high council showed up to give a talk as well, so I had less time to talk, but it was okay. We had dinner at Joe’s house since she saw how empty our dinner calendar was.  I burned my lips on a tortilla with hot sauce on it. It was crazy.

Well, love you all and have a fun week of school coming back. 

Elder McClure

Knee Pains, Awkward Things, Baptism Dates Set, Stress, and Awesome Ordinances: August 12, 2013

Hey people, 

I had a great, spectacular week which started with Monday. We played more D&D except with the other two elders as well. We lost the boss fight and the person we were supposed to save was killed so we had to walk back empty handed. But Elder Gonzalez was being funny - when Elder Burbank’s character threw milk at a person, he came in and says, "She did that for a reason because you’re butt ugly. You’re all butt ugly, every one of you." Funny. We played chair soccer and in one of the scraps I fell over and my knee was dislocated for a couple of seconds so I sat out for a little while. I played a little bit after and even scored a point with my bum leg. Plus Elder Zimmerman hit me in the face twice with the soccer ball one after the other so it gave me a bloody lip. All I could do was bend over and laugh. We got fed by the Walkers.  Their son is a less active returned missionary, so that was awkward.  There was some funny conversation, though.   

Tuesday: We were going to have a lesson with Donna, but she cancelled. We went to see Ian Benson to talk about Preach My Gospel but he thought we were going out on splits.  He was all dressed up and ready to go, but we just talked about Preach my Gospel. I think he was a little disappointed.  Later, we went to Lineweaver and there was this guy walking around with a guitar carried like a club. I told him he had a nice guitar and he just nodded.  We found out he was a mute although he said, “Mormons” when we gave him a card. He asked me to play the guitar so I strummed a few chords and he took the guitar from me and rocked out with facial expressions and all. Then he motioned for me to help him up and it was a little hard for me because my knee was still sore from being dislocated.  When I got him up, he pointed at my arm and said, "Poquito," which means “little” in Spanish so I guess he thought I was a weakling. It was funny to hear that. Later that day we taught Joe about the 10 Commandments and everything so he could be ready for baptism. We made a funny joke about 10 Commandments with an iPad.  Afterward, Elder Newkirk came to interview him and we had to race to Robert Eshbaugh's to be in time for our appointment to teach him.  Our lesson with him was a very simple Plan of Salvation. We then got to try the best kind of fudge afterward and it was really good. B. Eshbaugh made it himself. And then we went home.

Wednesday: We had district meeting at the church.  Elder Swann trained on desire to preach the gospel and Hermana Myers trained on the same thing. We had a district lunch at the church with the whole district so it was fun. Hermana Olsen was quoting the Nacho Libre song “Incarnacion” with facial expressions and everything - pretty good. We went crazy that day finding people to go to an appointment with us so we stole Elder Zimmerman to go to Donna's to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She literally couldn’t stay awake and it was hard to teach her. We also saw Sister Briggs and her roommate was there. We went over some scriptures from her class. We had a short lesson with Jessie (a recent convert) and he wants to get the Melchizedek priesthood before he goes into basic training. We had dinner with the Weilers and their daughter is so funny and loud. After dinner we drove to the hospital to see Beverly Layman, an investigator who had just had surgery.  While we were there visiting her, we found out that one of the members, Sjaan Smith, was also in the hospital so we went to see her, too.  We had to wear gloves and yellow coverings either to protect ourselves from something or protect Sister Smith from us. 

Thursday: We did weekly planning and tried to set 3 investigators for baptism. We saw Matthew and Madison Huffman. It had been a really long time since we had taught them because they have been away on vacation for a month and half. It was awesome because Matthew was being really serious about the lesson and afterward was willing to set a date on being baptized.  Madison also wants to be baptized. We also saw Robert again and taught him the gospel and he is also ready to be baptized! All three of them have to ask their parents if they will be allowed to be baptized. After teaching lessons, we had dinner with the Jeppsons and I love their kid Hunter for being all over the place and just running rampant with craziness. 

Friday: We had to help get Junior's truck unlocked – he locked the keys in it – and B. Liskey helped. We finally came to the conclusion to force down the window instead of prying the door handle open. We did splits with a cool guy named Stephen Bennett. We had dinner with the Romaros, Stephen, and Ian (a youth). We had a lot of fun but it took two hours because Jo forgot to cook early. 

Saturday: Last opportunity for the McDonalds monopoly game so I bought a Big Mac, large fries, and a medium soda. When my order was ready an old guy took mine instead of his own so I had to wait even longer to get my burger. I was trying to help out Elder Newkirk because he was missing just one sticker of each color. The best thing I won in the game was a $10 EA sport card. Best prize yet. After lunch, we tried potentials and this one lady named Anastasia came to the door, and when we asked for Anastasia she said, “No Anastasia here” and wouldn’t speak English, only Russian.  The awesome part of the day was Joe’s baptism that night. One of the members was late so we waited a long time for him to come. People gave long talks while we waited, and Joe gave an awesome long testimony of his conversion. It was like a 2 hour long baptism, but it was so great. Afterward, we went over to Delilah's to eat and one of the guys at the baptism backed into our car and put a medium sized dent in it. 

Sunday: Church was good and we got to stand in the circle confirming Joe a member and giving him the Gift of the Holy Ghost which was done by Stephen Bennett.  He was the one who gave Delilah a Book of Mormon, thus converted her and, through her testimony, converting Joe.  Kind of a cool story! We had dinner with the Bennetts and saw Sister Smith again in the hospital to check up on her. 

Well, that’s my week. Love you all,

Elder McClure 

August 5, 2013

On the first day, Elder McClure came to the computer and checked his emails. And the emails were good. 

So this week was full of all kinds of fun and havoc:

On P-Day we did something I have never done before:  played Dungeons and Dragons. We created our characters; I’m an elf wizard named Yozu - I know, super nerdy for y’all’s taste but we are bored and boredom brings weird things. The rest of the day we helped B. Liskey pack up his stuff because he is moving across town. He accepted our nerdiness. 

Tuesday was the busiest day yet - one appointment after another.  We taught Donna, William (RC), Robert, had dinner with the Bradys, taught Joe and saw a less active. The lesson with Donna was the restoration.  We taught about the Restoration and she seemed a little distracted, but she’s also dyslexic.  We got the lesson across okay to her but it was hard for her to understand. Our lesson with William was him teaching us the Restoration.  It was weird having a lesson from a recent convert’s perspective.  He added a lot of the teaching styles Elder Moon and I had used. Our lesson with Robert was mainly him bashing with us on points of the Plan of Salvation.  He doesn’t believe most of it , although the scripture about the three kingdoms kind of stumped him and his friend. He dropped us so I’m glad we didn’t bash too much. The lesson with Joe was awesome as usual and he is just the greatest guy. He chose B. Liskey to baptize him since he received revelation through a dream that B. Liskey should do it. It’s been awesome to teach him and see him grow in the gospel. 

The rest of the week was basically finding people to teach.  We also had a lot of service to do which is fun.  A couple of the things we did:  moved B. Liskey to his new house with a couple of other guys and helped rake up these grass mound rows for the Hartmans.  While we were raking, these little bugs were pestering the heck out of us and bouncing off my face; we also got bit by horseflies. They are nasty. We tried to see people but it’s been a little bit difficult to get things done. One cool thing about the week is that we met with a less active named B. Eshbaugh and he has a son about the age of 9.  After we taught B. Eshbaugh, trying to help his believing, we asked if his son was interested in learning so we are now teaching his son and have taught him the Restoration.  He’s a smart boy so we’ll see how it goes.

We also had Zone meeting this week and there were some changes to how we do things.  Now, we have to three-way call sisters in the district with the zone leaders on the other line instead of just one of us calling one of them.  A lot more complicated.  My comp can now call and text while I drive so that’s better because we can now set appointments in the car. After the meeting, we ate at this restaurant which gave us a huge basket of fries that took 4 elders to finish. We did Walk and Talk and it was okay; we found a couple of potentials.

I bore my testimony at church and made them laugh.  I said, "I was having a battle with whether or not myself to go up and bear my testimony or stay sitting down and then it hit me that I bear my testimony all the time during tracting but I usually get the door slammed in my face so I’ll enjoy this a little bit more." That’s what got the laughs. We also taught Joe after church and we had a lot of people sitting in on the lesson, like 10 people, so it seemed more like a classroom setting. And we taught Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, and tithing. Man, that tithing one is an awkward one for people to grasp.

Well, love you everyone and have fun with life!

Elder McClure

July 29, 2013

Hey people from around the U.S.,

Fun week kick off. We played corn hole and chair soccer last P-day and it was really fun. Except for the part of hitting a sister on the chin with a Frisbee.  Oops.  I made up for it by letting them borrow my Joseph Smith CD to enjoy. 

We had two great lessons the next day which was pretty nice. We taught Jordan in the morning and the Liskey family was there.  We taught the Restoration; even though he knew about some relevant things like the Book of Abraham and the Celestial Kingdom, he doesn’t know about the Restoration. Then that night we got to teach a man named Joe who is kind of dating this convert named Delilah.  He’s been an atheist but after a long time of attending church with her and getting a real desire for the gospel by feeling the spirit, he is very interesting in learning and wanting to know. Delilah bears a pretty strong testimony as well so it’s incredible. I am so happy for the both of them.  We scheduled a baptism for another investigator, Joe, for August 10^th.  It’s so awesome getting him on that road. 

Wednesday is our new day for district meetings now.  We have a big district since we have 5 companionships and one is a trio so it’s pretty big. Elder Newkirk had us put up our numbers and talk about them and how to improve our areas.  We also talked a lot about the Atonement. Afterward, we went to Chick-Fil-A and there were a lot of people there, like usual. They really like their chicken in Virginia! We also had a lesson with this lady named Diana.  Her husband is really mean and adulterous and abusive so we had a member, B. Hurd, come with us when we had the lesson with her. We are going to find out a way to help her.  She wants to be baptized when she comes to know the gospel is true. 

We had interviews with President Wilson and we were late actually due to getting the Franklin elders who should have come to our apartment but who are always going to Bridgewater. The interview was pretty good and President Wilson just asked me about my family back home and how I am doing in the mission. I asked him if there was any way I could be helpful to Elder Swann with his language study.  

The week has been good. We also found out this Asian guy named Justin Wang we have been teaching is actually moving very soon so we’ll have to pass him off to the Missouri Elders now. Justin is a great guy and he'll get baptized.  We had a lesson with a less active and she was wearing a dress and kept pulling it up to go over her legs every once in awhile and she flashed Elder Swann her underwear like a bunch of times. It was just crazy. 

Last Saturday we got to live the missionary dream by tracting in the rain. We did Walk-n-Talk and Elder Swann and I found a guy before the little sprinkle but after teaching him the big rainfall came. The whole time we were tracting, people were saying “No,” and “Not now, we’re already Christian” and then telling us to stay dry but not letting us in. It was annoying. It felt good but I got cold after a while so we went home to dry off.  Elder Swann had to dry off all of his stuff, but I was pretty prepared for the rain and put everything in my pockets. 

On Sunday we got ice cream cupcakes, a very spiritual lesson afterward with Joe, and we went to see a less active that is going through a hard time. B. Eshbaugh is having a lot of hard times in life and asked us to come by. We are really thankful for that trust. Also we had a lesson/fighting for her salvation lesson with Jennifer Campbell last night and we basically came to say that you have to try it to know it. Her husband and kids are weirded out by us coming by; they go into other rooms to avoid us.

Well, love you family and friends.

Elder McClure

July 22, 2013

Hello aliens to my mission field,

Well this week was transfer week so we had Elder Moon say good bye to people all over Harrisonburg. Not really, but he did use most of our allotted miles so we have to play it cool for a week and a half. So during those three days we were able to teach Joyce twice and our neighbor's (Delilah’s) boyfriend which is sweet cuz he used to be an athiest but now he’s interested and has already read like 16 chapters in 1 Nephi! Elder Moon pawned two copies of the Book of Mormon to this mentally handicapped guy named Ray Hersler who had the 1830s edition of the Book of Mormon. The first thing Ray said to us when we met him was, “If I was dressed up like you guys, I would preach that evolution was a fact.” Elder Moon offered to trade one of the Books of Mormon we hand out, but that was a no go.  Then he offered a New York World Fair edition.  Ray still said no.  Then Elder Moon groveled and said the New York edition was rarer then the 1830s edition.  After talking to B. Liskey, it turns out that’s true, so it’s a good thing Ray didn’t trade for it. Funniness there.  On the last night of our companionship Elder Dalby and his greenie came by and he burned a tie and then we had the Jeeps side by side with us sitting on top of them posing like models. It was hilariously funny. 

Transfers were different due to the fact we had to sing 8 different songs before the trainees and trainers came out. President Wilson announced the names of the companionships and I got Elder Swann who is a visa waiter for Brazil and speaks Portuguese. So if he gets his visa with me then I’m in trouble and will need another companion. 

I’ll wrap things up for the week. We finally got to teach this guy named Justin Wang and he was referred to us a while back. He’s a very nice guy and he works a lot in the Chinese restaurant near here and is the only English speaker there so he has to take care of the English-speaking customers. We found out that he leaves on August 5th to go to Missouri for college so we might have to fast teach him if he’s ready. We helped move a less active lady out of Lineweaver Apartments. It was the grossest experience touching this dirty smoke smelling couch while going down disgusting hallways and elevators. We also have been teaching more people consistently that we have had a hard time getting a hold of. A cool experience was when we were tracting this neighborhood and it was really hot.  We met this guy in the first house and he spoke only Spanish so Elder Swann whipped into action and talked it up the best he could so we got a referral for the Spanish Elders!  Cha-ching!  The last door we knocked on was this guy named John and he had talked to missionaries in the Dominican Republic so he’s interested, plus he lost the Book of Mormon they gave him so he was super glad to get another one and learn more. We sweat a lot that day. 

We have a lot of fun though because Elder Swann wants to do or knows how to do the things I’m really interesting in doing like parkour, playing guitar, and making jokes. One incident that just killed me was when his bracelet broke while we were on this doorstep. We gathered the pieces and he put them in his pocket and started singing,"I got a pocket, got a pocket full of beads." It’s been really fun with Elder Swann. 

I love you family and friends and random people i allow to see what I do in a missionary week.

Elder McClure

July 15, 2013

Hey people of all lands, 

While I am typing this, the library's AC is off so the whole building is hot. It was a fun week for Elder McClure which started right after I sent my last email – I spent the rest of that P day playing Risk and owning other Elders.
                                                           
We spent most of Tuesday trying to see people and eating ice cream outside with a member.  A fact:  I love ice cream!! We then picked up Junior (Convert youth) and went to S. Rexrode’s house. Since she was single, we brought Junior to get inside. We had some really good barbeque chicken pizza and ice cream sandwiches. The really cool part about going over is that she has a lot of doctrinal books that she will be giving away in September so we literally spent an hour sorting through these books and picking the ones we found interesting. I picked the Discourses of Brigham Young and the Great Apostasy and a couple others as well. Then we met the other elders to hang out at an ice cream place (the day just revolved around ice cream).

Wednesday was district meeting so we met in the primary room because ladies were in the usual room.  We played around with the microphone the kids use and I sat in a little chair.

It was Thursday and Friday where we had most of our fun. Thursday was National Slurpee Day where you get a free small Slurpee from every 7-11 you go to.  I got 4 while E. Moon got 5 that day because he got two from the same 7-11. We also helped the Huffmans move out of their house into a new house not too far away. Bro. Huffman had a lot of things in the basement and it took two truckloads that day and also the next day.

Friday: it was free Chick-Fil-A day so free meals to those who dress up as a cow.  Elder Moon and I wore patches on our shirts made from Elder Quiambao’s cut up pants and went in. We also wore headbands. It was funny to get a free meal by coming in with spots on us and headbands. We helped out the Huffmans again.  B. Huffman’s first daughter from his first marriage was there and I got to know her and had the impression to give her a Book of Mormon.  She gratefully accepted it and wanted to learn about her dad’s faith. That was cool. We had another deep doctrine lesson with Jordan.  We brought B. Herric and he just unloaded with his worldly and religious knowledge of everything. It was pretty cool!  He explained things like the Book of Abraham and the trinity.

I’m pressed for time but want to tell you that William got the Aaronic priesthood.  He was ordained by brother Custer and it was sweet. B. Liskey has a whole plan for missionary work to happen and he’s already recruiting William into it which is awesome. 

So transfer calls are different now. We only get called to let us know if we are staying or going and we will meet our comps and new areas at transfer meeting. It’s very mysterious. Elder Moon has been called to leave and be a district leader somewhere else so I am now taking over this area. It’s going to be another situation where I take over an area, but I have more handle on this area and will enjoy it.
Well, love you all and have fun this week. 


Elder McClure