Crazy Exchange, Mission Split, Baptism Date, and the Silence: received February 25, 2013

Hey People,

Great turnout this week for Elder McClure. Tuesday was a hoot with Elder Zollinger being really funny when we went to see people. He knew half of them and we got fed almost every meal while he was here. It was crazy. We even played basketball with the young men in our shirts and ties. Elder Z would make a weird noise every time someone stole the ball and it was super hilarious. He got to telling me all his stories about Lawrenceville of crazy people or a guy with a poop bag from stomach cancer. Plus, this week I got 3 letters:  Grammy, Mumu, and the Divver Family - shout out! It was so awesome getting letters from family and the Divvers.  E. Low has a new nickname - it's The Silence (from Dr. Who).

We had district meeting and I trained on the topic of Purpose, helping us being more successful missionaries. It was a little disorganized but I made my point. The rest of the week we went to see potentials and tracted around them.  We met some crazy people. The struggle down here right now is members getting sick and not being able to feed us or talk to us.

We had the craziest day on Friday; we had a lot of lessons scheduled and a dinner, but they all fell through. But we tracted and met a family of six that right off the bat were interested in coming to our church. The lady, named JoJo, even asked how long she would have to be a member before she could do what we as missionaries do. At the end of the day we saw Tiffany at Arby’s and we talked to her. She is awesome and still keeping commitments and working on smoking. She even set her own baptismal date on March 23rd.

We have tracted so much that my legs are getting really sore by the end of every day. We have met a lot of fun people to talk to and also a few immodest or crazy people. Church was good too.  We tried really hard to get Tiffany to church, but all rides fell through.  JoJo’s family didn’t come either. We'll work on them, too. However, we had 3 nonmembers come for Sacrament meeting to hear President Tetto’s talk.

We’re looking forward to a men’s breakfast this Saturday.  B. Rogers is trying to establish the "Principle of Leftover Bacon" by bringing 8 pounds of it. Really funny.  This guy named Marcus said, “You know what I’m saying” in a conversation 96 times. Crazy! Plus a lot of animals are following me lately. Oh, and I found out the Virginia Richmond mission is getting split!  It won't happen until July 1, but I don't know where I'll be after that happens.

Well, love you people!

Elder McClure

 

 

Valentine's Day Conference, Small Fruit of Tracting, Sleepover

Hey people!

This was a good week for Elder McClure. We still had the really quiet days, but we have been doing a new style of finding where we go through the potientials in the areabook and pay them a visit. It’s really interesting just going around. We've been brought to a lot of weird places. One place had graffiti of "dis the hood" which was a little humorous. We have been doing anything to be creative so we have just done a lot of tracting.

We found 2 new investigators today: One in Broadnax - the last house we tracted into. We contacted this guy named Brian Brown. He let us in and started going off on how the churches aren’t doing what they are supposed to and this and that while this old black sitcom is playing on the TV right beside me. It was funny and, the best part, he’s still interested in the gospel! He has a very old house. The second person who let us in was a lady and she was pretty cool, too. When we were tracting around her house, we saw a florescent pink house like the one I lived by in Oregon – they both look terrible.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day we went to sleep over at the Hopewell elders’ apartment again so we could make it to the zone meeting.  It’s hard to get a ride because all the members are teachers and busy in the afternoon. So anyway, we went to the Valentine’s Conference and it’s all about companion study and being unified. Stuff like that. Sister Perry had a training on color coding personalities. She gave a lot of hearts to the elders and sisters – the hearts were supposed to go on cupcakes. It was funny. We stayed after for Elder Low to get his temple recommend interview because he is leaving soon. We got a ride home with Brother Lewis and he played this CD with the Monty Python round table song while Elder Low tried to drown it out with silence and scripture study.

We also had dinner with a less active family - the Hardys.  They tried to feed a pregnant mouse to a snake. It was a little crazy from the snake not eating the mouse until way later. The Hardys nicknamed me Elder Curfew because I kept saying “It’s almost our curfew.” It was funny.

Church was also really small, even at 5 minutes before the meeting started, but that was from the ice and snow that happened the day before. Then the second sleepover was when the Wakefield elders came to spend Sunday night and the P-day with us.  After P-day, Elder Zollinger and I stayed in Lawrenceville and Elder Low and Elder Atkinson went to Wakefield.

Elder Z. and I went to the Pearces and played the headband guessing game. Then the Pearce’s dog Dominic, a wierd combo breed dog, tried to hump my leg and I so was not having it. We left and we went to a pizza place and stuffed ourselves with Stromboli. Elder Z just tells all the funny stories about Lawrenceville and I actually had my first energy drink with him which gave me no buzz just as I had guessed.

Well, have a good week and I will update you again next week.

Elder McClure

Transfers, New Companion, Valentine's Party: received February 11, 2013

Hey Everyone,

Elder McClure speaking. This week was one of great change and hardship. Elder Mathias’ time in Lawrenceville, after his 10 ½ month stay, has come to a close. He was pretty excited still. Monday he went all out to buy more magic cards and I bought a certain Sister missionary, Sister Miller, a funny Valentine’s card with a pinwheel that actually spins. We went to say goodbye to all the people in South Hill and Emporia. Elder Mathias was pretty glad to say goodbye and everyone was glad they won’t have to make gluten free food anymore for the missionaries.

We had a fun last few days. On Wednesday night we had a sleepover with the Hopewell missionaries – it was really just to get a ride with them to transfers. They had the craziest companionship - Elder Starks and Elder Bedford - just arguing and fighting, even while driving!   We got to go up and had transfers. There were 23 new missionaries there and a lot of people training. Some of them were my good friends from a while back. It was nice to see them again. I had to wait for Elder Low so that we could catch a ride on the transfer van back to Lawrenceville.  I stayed with Elder Starks and Elder Roberts until the van was ready to go, which was really late. I could not believe how late it was - we were almost stranded there except President Evan was up there doing work so we got a ride down with him, but we were out way past our curfew.

Elder Low is a very quiet, Utah missionary and doesn’t show too much emotion and not into talking with members. I know he has a talent for playing the piano. Well, I’m the senior companion, but Elder Low has 3 more months left in the mission. His next transfer is his last. Crazy, right?  In his last area he was there for 11 months before coming over and the areas are side by side. On the first morning in the apartment, he threw away some medical supplies, food, and other things he deemed as junk even though they still could be useful..

All of our appointments have been cancelling since he’s been here and we are just trying to be effective.  But it’s hard to be effective in this area unless you tract for large amounts of time, so that’s what we did. The rest of the week we helped an investigator with painting boards.  This was after a difficult lesson where he stated he was born again.

We had a Valentine’s party organized by a member so we just had snacks and played games. I made a Jello pudding cake just to see how it would taste. It was pretty good. I put two candy canes on the top so it made a heart. It has been very silent in the apartment due to Elder Low constantly studying in his free time.  Unless I turn on the CD player it’s like death in the apartment.  However, it’s cool that he is serious and really studies the gospel as we’re told to do. 

Anyway, I’m dying for some letters!  Love you guys,

Elder McClure

Fried Twinkies, Wood Finishing, Transfers, and Silliness: February 4, 2013

Hey people,

This week was a little more bizarre than usual. Last Monday we got to watch Madagascar 3 thanks to the permission of the Zone Leaders and we enjoyed that a lot. The next two days were a little slow from Elder Mathias eating some frozen hashbrowns in the morning which gave him stomachaches for two days. During that time he read some books he got for free at the library while I took some store brand Twinkies, covered them in pancake batter, and deep fried them. They were super sweet and tasted like a funnel cake. It was a fun experience.

We got to teach our two top investigators: Doris and Tiffany. Doris so wants to come to church to feel the spirit and meet the people. It is really cool seeing someone of her faith coming close to baptism. The lung cancer makes it hard for her to come. The power went out during the week so we got some members to help Doris and Tiffany with some things they needed, like some kerosene for their kerosene heaters and some food because they couldn’t cook anything. It was really nice for us to be able to help them  and to see the local members help out so willingly. Tiffany is also amazing.  She gave up smoking, which is very hard to do.  When we talked to her about the law of chastity we knew it would be hard for her to keep because her boyfriend is living with her. She talked with him about their relationship and eventually kicked him out. Woman power!

We got some wood finishing stuff for Elder Mathias's staffs that he is making for the Kings so we had the window open and a fan to air out the fumes while that is going on. Turns out in the state of California that stuff can cause reproductive harm if you ingest it. Weird. On that same day, we also did some work for various members in the area.

On Friday we had zone meeting and after that we got to talk with our Zone Leaders about how they can improve on some things.  It was really awesome and I could feel the spirit in the room - everyone learned so much from this experience. We did the same thing with Elder Nelson, but he didn’t learn to much from it. So, I guess Zone Leaders listen better.

The church attendance was so small this Sunday that classes had to combine and stuff like that. It has been a very weird how many people don’t show up because of the flu going around.

Okay, the thing you have been waiting for: Transfers. I am staying in Lawerenceville and Elder Mathias (Methuselah - the biblical name of a long-lived man) is leaving to Virginia Beach after 10 1/2 months in Lawerenceville.  I’m getting Elder Low, a piano savvy guy and hard worker, so it will be fun. Not much snow this week but we’ll see what happens in the next few days.

Well, have a good week and everyone expect something in the mail.

Love you,

Elder McClure