Hi Family,
A little about my new area: Harrisonburg is kind of like Waynesboro
except there is a lot more housing and the ward is smaller because it’s been
split. The area is very pretty and the mountains are always in sight, so
another reminder of Idaho. My area is half of Harrisonburg (mostly the James Madison
University campus), Elkton, and Broadway. We don’t have a whole lot of
investigators but we are in touch with a guy named William Ingram who ordered a
Book of Mormon online. He has read to the part about Lehi’s Dream. Two other investigators
are the children of a convert. Their
names are Madison and Matthew Huffman. They are having issues because parents
got divorced and now when they are with their dad they hear about the gospel
and when they are with the mom she is trying to get them to second guess what
they learn and how they feel about the gospel.
My comps are Elder Moon and Elder
Quiambao. Elder Moon is from Utah and Elder Quiambao is from Washington but
originally from the Philippines so he knows and speaks Tagalog. So, mybotee (that
means “good” in Tagalog)!!
This week was a weird blast. Last Monday
we bought a lot of food from a place called Sharp Shopper which is a cheap
Mennonite market where there is a lot of variety for dirt cheap. So we bought a
lot of food. Later, our discovery was
that most of it was expired or about to expire. Elder Quiambao was not happy
about that. But, Tuesday really made up for getting gypped at the Sharp Shopper.
Tuesday: we had our last interviews
with President Perry. The church was locked and the locks had been changed so
our district just had our meetings on a bench outside. Like Joseph Smith in a
way. So President Perry had good things to say about me. He said he considered me a service missionary
because I can fill any role he gives me such as leadership or building up an
area. (He told Elder Quiambao that I am
a good leader but can also be a follower). I got a picture with President Perry
and I gave him one of my original ties (the green one with silver stripes
because I wore it to my first interview with him and he really liked it). He
liked it a lot. We had to wait a while
to see which missionaries we were taking back to Harrisonburg. We took the
Franklin Elders back and one of them, Elder Dolby, was joking around about the
women in Harrisonburg. Franklin is the outcast area in the mission but they do
good work up there.
Wednesday was slow, but then the
Huffmans took us to a place called Kyoto, which is a Japanese grill where they
prep the food in front of you. They urged us to get Filet Minon (expensive,
tasty, delicious steak). The tricks the chef did were good too and my favorite
is that he spun an egg and juggled it on the spatula and then broke it on the
spatula.
On Thursday we went to an interfaith
conference where many other faiths come and have lunch together. Our church was
hosting and so our trio split up between tables. All they asked me at my table
was about being a missionary and if it’s mandatory and how long we serve. It
was interesting. Our stake Patriarch
gave a presentation on the Restoration from a logical college class point of
view. Not very many people asked questions but at least now they know stuff
about the Restoration. That night we had a lesson with B. Huffman’s kids,
Madision and Matthew. B. Huffman is a convert and is divorced from his inactive
wife. So the mom of the kids is trying to get them to second guess getting
baptized. Madison tore her Achilles tendon
two months ago, right before her scheduled baptism, which wasn’t good either.
We did the Restoration cup lesson and afterward we played some golf on the golf
course behind us. Matthew hit me in the head with a club, I think because I was
going to hit his ball. Whatever. We lost a couple balls that night but it was
fun.
On Friday, it was Graduation for JMU
so a lot of parties were going on. A lot of traffic, too. Bummer on graduation
night, there were no really crazy parties to see but that’s a good thing. I
just wanted to see a frat party, but from a distance. We also set up a couple
of times to play basketball with these potentials but they ditched us both
times. The first time we waited and I was so bored I asked two kids about 5 and
9 if they wanted to play two on two. So Elder Moon and I played with them. My
team mate would just grab the ball and travel and try to shoot. The second time
they ditched us these college kids came up and played 4 on 4 with Elder Moon,
Murdock, Trammel and Dolby. They got schooled and said a bunch of curse words.
The guy who swore the most was Methodist. It was interesting. I also saw a guy
climb a pole, so challenge accepted. I have been doing a set workout from the
workout book I got for Christmas. I do
the workout 4 days out of a week and I do Tae-Kwon-Do on the off days. So, I’m pretty boss right now.
On Saturday night we went to a BBQ
and played soccer with some kids and stood really still by some hummingbird
feeders and they flew around me. It was crazy. The soccer didnt help for fast Sunday
because I was really hungry, but I got through it all right. Be blessed, my
family and I will get pictures to you soon.
Love,
Elder McClure
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