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