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

2nd Snow Day, No Driving, and Snowball Fights: January 28, 2013

Hello my peeps,

Elder McClure had a very bizarre week as usual. We had a very warm spell at the beginning of the week but then it got really cold. It started snowing on Friday and there was a lot of it - about 2 inches.  It was fun!  We can't drive in such weather so we got to walk.

At the beginning of the week, we got to see Tiffany – a past investigator - and she still wants to be baptized, but has an issue with smoking.  I whipped into action to decide what to do and what she needs to give us and it just needs to happen. She is an awesome lady and we got to meet her little baby. Adorable!  We also helped get an investigator’s son, Rayquan, to mutual on Tuesday so he could play basketball with the other teenage members. While we were at mutual, a member really chewed out Elder Mathias in front of everyone for borrowing their sewing machine and not leaving it in the church. Elder Mathias didn’t get mad about the chewing out, but that it took place in front of everyone.

Wednesday, the snow came so the Zone Leaders told us to stay inside.  We hung out at the Lewis's house during the snow storm and just joked around and talked. Brother Lewis is really funny and quotes the same movies I do, just not as much as I do. 

The next day we were able to have dinner with a less active family and they had a snake which they let me hold as well as feed it a mouse before we left. The end of that night was sledding on the ice to get home. We also got to see a 6' 7" less active named Sam Escate. And we got him to church the next day! It was cool since he hasn’t been to church in more than a year.

Well love you all and know I love you. Enjoy this update!

Elder McClure

Cold Weather, a Snow Day, and a Very Big Bear Dog: January 22, 2013

Hi Everyone,

I had a pretty good week this week. It seems that mostly everything fell through on us with our appointments, but it snowed so we had a fun day because of it. Mainly the week was composed of teaching a few people, which was nice. We taught this man named Jamal on Thursday night.  He is a contact we got through these members, the Tettos. It was good, but Jamal had the perspective of the gospel being an intellectual thing instead of a spiritual thing. We had to tell him to pray to know the gospel is true, pray to know the Book of Mormon is true. We just struggled a lot to get him to know for himself. It was frustrating, but he will come around soon. We got pizza out of the deal and since Elder Mathias is gluten intolerant the crust for his pizza looked really weird.

Later, started snowing really hard in big, puffy flakes and it was snowing the whole day and it stuck. That night we also played around with glow sticks and light saber stuff. We had a lesson the next day and we couldn’t drive so we walked and had a snow ball fight on the way. It was hilarious and fun. The lady we taught named Jen said she was comfortable in her false church. Jen, the church is true!!!! We also taught Doris, who is an investigator with a lot of faith; she’s a really great lady.

Sunday was fun because the 2nd counselor, B. Lewis, got up to speak on honesty.  When we would ask rhetorical questions,  Marcus, a recent convert, would go "Yeah," and “Oh, I’m not the only one.”  It was funny. We spent all of Martin Luther King day playing Magic at the King’s.  They had gotten even more cards than they already had so Elder Mathias wanted to trade for some cards and stuff. It was crazy. When they were trading, I wrestled with their dog and played with this lovable/vicious cat named Chompers that bites your hand randomly. I found out that Elder Mathias has .68 cents on his MSF card which sucks, so I had to pay for his milk and cereal. I’m doing good even after paying 2 weeks ago for $48 worth of Elder Mathias’ stuff and mine.

On Saturday  we cut wood for a less active family.

That’s actually about it! 

Love you all,

Elder McClure

Exchange to an Old Area and a Really Fitted Shirt: received January 14, 2013

Hey, people I care about,

This week hasn’t been very full and we have had a lot of free time which we tried to use see people. One of them is this lady named Dorris.  We keep trying to make appointments her with so she can be baptized, but she keeps having conflicts with doctor appointments at the same time. It’s crazy!  She has lung cancer, so she really wants to get baptized before March because that’s when she goes in for surgery.

We had a exchange with the Wakefield Elders, so I went back to the first area in which I became a missionary. It was really interesting.  The Wakefield branch has gotten smaller since the last time I was there. We got to teach a few people and see a few things. The really cool thing is my first baptism - Nan Seeley - is going to the temple soon and Elder Carter (my trainer) is going to be the proxy to seal her to her husband. Really cool! The exchange was a little annoying due to Elder Nelson constantly doubting me when I would tell him who I had seen and stuff, but I didn’t let it phase me. We came back to Lawrenceville and on the way we saw a huge pile of wood even Brother Harter would be astonished at.

Well, during the rest of the week I got to finally wear this really tight shirt Elder Mathias made for me.  It is pretty nice because it doesn’t become untucked when I raise my arms. We also got to talk to this former investigator, Candace Daniel, and she still wants to be baptized. It’s really awesome.

We had a really funny conversation with our recent convert, Marcus, and he’s a little scared of getting a Patriarchal Blessing but he'll do good. I love his black accent to death. It’s been fun overall, but still a struggle here. Still proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles so it’s entertaining.

Love y’all,

Elder McClure