Monday, May 6, 2013

Mennonite food, Kyoto, Last Interview, Interfaith Conference, JMU Graduation, and Basketball: May 6, 2013


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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