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 

Long Days, Primary Teaching, Barriers, Extra P-day Time, and Too Much Finding: August 19. 2013

Hey people of my past existence,

This week was long, hard, and seemed like rejection was at every turn, but we kept the faith and our spirits up.

We had a service opportunity on p-day to help set up a booth in the carnival since Sister Hartman recruited us to help out. It was weird putting a bunch of PVC pipes together and other things. The game we set up was a dime toss for cups; it was a fund raiser for the Special Olympics so Elder Swann thought there would be a bunch of special people around it, but there weren’t. We spent a lot of time setting it up and helping run it but we saved the time we used on our P-day to use on a different day. 

We have been teaching this lady and it’s been getting kind of weird teaching her. She will half listen to what we have to teach, especially like the gospel topics, and randomly she’ll say interesting things.  For example, while we are on the topic of baptism she will say that her church is having a picnic and she might get baptized into it. She also asked if missionaries could go see her daughter for the sole purpose of getting the church to move them out of where they are living and provide them a free house to live in that they just happen to have with a swing set.  This is a fantasy, especially if she doesn’t want to actually change her life to accept the gospel. 

We also got to take some youth out on splits with us. This time we took Aspen.  Unfortunately, the day just fell through but we did get to see S. Howdyshell and all her puppies. We also got to take Joe Michael and Delilah out on their first splits with us to go teach Robert about baptism. It was a good lesson but Robert is very distracted all the time and has trouble listening, although he thinks he can learn everything on his own. Which is difficult for a 9-year-old. We brought B. Aidukaitis with us to help teach him and we are slowly making headway with the little guy. We have to teach so simply with him, like on the Primary level, so he can understand. 

Our District meeting was mainly about eternal life and stuff like that - how to obtain it and also to help our investigators obtain it. The Spanish Elders and us used our 3 saved-up hours of p-day time after the District meeting to play a fun game called soccer tennis which is kicking a ball over tennis nets to the other side.  When the ball stops bouncing on the other side then you get a point. 

We have a lot of time on our hands to try to find people so we go to see potentials in the area book most of the time to help things move along. We found one lady that was kind of interested but she’s more of an old lady so we’ll see what happens. We also got in contact with a referral the Spanish Elders gave us a long time ago.  The referral had actually read half of the Book of Mormon so it was pretty cool to finally get a hold of him.

We have hit barriers with our three baptismal dates. Matthew and Madison's mom has now refused to let them get baptized due to misunderstandings that Madison brought up to her about the other life and them being together as a family. It’s been crazy. Robert can't be baptized until he can fully know what baptism means and what he has to do after baptism to stay strong to the covenant he made. We are working on it. 

In Sacrament meeting I gave a talk on the importance of families and how a mission has improved me to prepare for my own. They told me I was going to be speaking for a while but someone from the stake high council showed up to give a talk as well, so I had less time to talk, but it was okay. We had dinner at Joe’s house since she saw how empty our dinner calendar was.  I burned my lips on a tortilla with hot sauce on it. It was crazy.

Well, love you all and have a fun week of school coming back. 

Elder McClure

Knee Pains, Awkward Things, Baptism Dates Set, Stress, and Awesome Ordinances: August 12, 2013

Hey people, 

I had a great, spectacular week which started with Monday. We played more D&D except with the other two elders as well. We lost the boss fight and the person we were supposed to save was killed so we had to walk back empty handed. But Elder Gonzalez was being funny - when Elder Burbank’s character threw milk at a person, he came in and says, "She did that for a reason because you’re butt ugly. You’re all butt ugly, every one of you." Funny. We played chair soccer and in one of the scraps I fell over and my knee was dislocated for a couple of seconds so I sat out for a little while. I played a little bit after and even scored a point with my bum leg. Plus Elder Zimmerman hit me in the face twice with the soccer ball one after the other so it gave me a bloody lip. All I could do was bend over and laugh. We got fed by the Walkers.  Their son is a less active returned missionary, so that was awkward.  There was some funny conversation, though.   

Tuesday: We were going to have a lesson with Donna, but she cancelled. We went to see Ian Benson to talk about Preach My Gospel but he thought we were going out on splits.  He was all dressed up and ready to go, but we just talked about Preach my Gospel. I think he was a little disappointed.  Later, we went to Lineweaver and there was this guy walking around with a guitar carried like a club. I told him he had a nice guitar and he just nodded.  We found out he was a mute although he said, “Mormons” when we gave him a card. He asked me to play the guitar so I strummed a few chords and he took the guitar from me and rocked out with facial expressions and all. Then he motioned for me to help him up and it was a little hard for me because my knee was still sore from being dislocated.  When I got him up, he pointed at my arm and said, "Poquito," which means “little” in Spanish so I guess he thought I was a weakling. It was funny to hear that. Later that day we taught Joe about the 10 Commandments and everything so he could be ready for baptism. We made a funny joke about 10 Commandments with an iPad.  Afterward, Elder Newkirk came to interview him and we had to race to Robert Eshbaugh's to be in time for our appointment to teach him.  Our lesson with him was a very simple Plan of Salvation. We then got to try the best kind of fudge afterward and it was really good. B. Eshbaugh made it himself. And then we went home.

Wednesday: We had district meeting at the church.  Elder Swann trained on desire to preach the gospel and Hermana Myers trained on the same thing. We had a district lunch at the church with the whole district so it was fun. Hermana Olsen was quoting the Nacho Libre song “Incarnacion” with facial expressions and everything - pretty good. We went crazy that day finding people to go to an appointment with us so we stole Elder Zimmerman to go to Donna's to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She literally couldn’t stay awake and it was hard to teach her. We also saw Sister Briggs and her roommate was there. We went over some scriptures from her class. We had a short lesson with Jessie (a recent convert) and he wants to get the Melchizedek priesthood before he goes into basic training. We had dinner with the Weilers and their daughter is so funny and loud. After dinner we drove to the hospital to see Beverly Layman, an investigator who had just had surgery.  While we were there visiting her, we found out that one of the members, Sjaan Smith, was also in the hospital so we went to see her, too.  We had to wear gloves and yellow coverings either to protect ourselves from something or protect Sister Smith from us. 

Thursday: We did weekly planning and tried to set 3 investigators for baptism. We saw Matthew and Madison Huffman. It had been a really long time since we had taught them because they have been away on vacation for a month and half. It was awesome because Matthew was being really serious about the lesson and afterward was willing to set a date on being baptized.  Madison also wants to be baptized. We also saw Robert again and taught him the gospel and he is also ready to be baptized! All three of them have to ask their parents if they will be allowed to be baptized. After teaching lessons, we had dinner with the Jeppsons and I love their kid Hunter for being all over the place and just running rampant with craziness. 

Friday: We had to help get Junior's truck unlocked – he locked the keys in it – and B. Liskey helped. We finally came to the conclusion to force down the window instead of prying the door handle open. We did splits with a cool guy named Stephen Bennett. We had dinner with the Romaros, Stephen, and Ian (a youth). We had a lot of fun but it took two hours because Jo forgot to cook early. 

Saturday: Last opportunity for the McDonalds monopoly game so I bought a Big Mac, large fries, and a medium soda. When my order was ready an old guy took mine instead of his own so I had to wait even longer to get my burger. I was trying to help out Elder Newkirk because he was missing just one sticker of each color. The best thing I won in the game was a $10 EA sport card. Best prize yet. After lunch, we tried potentials and this one lady named Anastasia came to the door, and when we asked for Anastasia she said, “No Anastasia here” and wouldn’t speak English, only Russian.  The awesome part of the day was Joe’s baptism that night. One of the members was late so we waited a long time for him to come. People gave long talks while we waited, and Joe gave an awesome long testimony of his conversion. It was like a 2 hour long baptism, but it was so great. Afterward, we went over to Delilah's to eat and one of the guys at the baptism backed into our car and put a medium sized dent in it. 

Sunday: Church was good and we got to stand in the circle confirming Joe a member and giving him the Gift of the Holy Ghost which was done by Stephen Bennett.  He was the one who gave Delilah a Book of Mormon, thus converted her and, through her testimony, converting Joe.  Kind of a cool story! We had dinner with the Bennetts and saw Sister Smith again in the hospital to check up on her. 

Well, that’s my week. Love you all,

Elder McClure 

August 5, 2013

On the first day, Elder McClure came to the computer and checked his emails. And the emails were good. 

So this week was full of all kinds of fun and havoc:

On P-Day we did something I have never done before:  played Dungeons and Dragons. We created our characters; I’m an elf wizard named Yozu - I know, super nerdy for y’all’s taste but we are bored and boredom brings weird things. The rest of the day we helped B. Liskey pack up his stuff because he is moving across town. He accepted our nerdiness. 

Tuesday was the busiest day yet - one appointment after another.  We taught Donna, William (RC), Robert, had dinner with the Bradys, taught Joe and saw a less active. The lesson with Donna was the restoration.  We taught about the Restoration and she seemed a little distracted, but she’s also dyslexic.  We got the lesson across okay to her but it was hard for her to understand. Our lesson with William was him teaching us the Restoration.  It was weird having a lesson from a recent convert’s perspective.  He added a lot of the teaching styles Elder Moon and I had used. Our lesson with Robert was mainly him bashing with us on points of the Plan of Salvation.  He doesn’t believe most of it , although the scripture about the three kingdoms kind of stumped him and his friend. He dropped us so I’m glad we didn’t bash too much. The lesson with Joe was awesome as usual and he is just the greatest guy. He chose B. Liskey to baptize him since he received revelation through a dream that B. Liskey should do it. It’s been awesome to teach him and see him grow in the gospel. 

The rest of the week was basically finding people to teach.  We also had a lot of service to do which is fun.  A couple of the things we did:  moved B. Liskey to his new house with a couple of other guys and helped rake up these grass mound rows for the Hartmans.  While we were raking, these little bugs were pestering the heck out of us and bouncing off my face; we also got bit by horseflies. They are nasty. We tried to see people but it’s been a little bit difficult to get things done. One cool thing about the week is that we met with a less active named B. Eshbaugh and he has a son about the age of 9.  After we taught B. Eshbaugh, trying to help his believing, we asked if his son was interested in learning so we are now teaching his son and have taught him the Restoration.  He’s a smart boy so we’ll see how it goes.

We also had Zone meeting this week and there were some changes to how we do things.  Now, we have to three-way call sisters in the district with the zone leaders on the other line instead of just one of us calling one of them.  A lot more complicated.  My comp can now call and text while I drive so that’s better because we can now set appointments in the car. After the meeting, we ate at this restaurant which gave us a huge basket of fries that took 4 elders to finish. We did Walk and Talk and it was okay; we found a couple of potentials.

I bore my testimony at church and made them laugh.  I said, "I was having a battle with whether or not myself to go up and bear my testimony or stay sitting down and then it hit me that I bear my testimony all the time during tracting but I usually get the door slammed in my face so I’ll enjoy this a little bit more." That’s what got the laughs. We also taught Joe after church and we had a lot of people sitting in on the lesson, like 10 people, so it seemed more like a classroom setting. And we taught Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, and tithing. Man, that tithing one is an awkward one for people to grasp.

Well, love you everyone and have fun with life!

Elder McClure

July 29, 2013

Hey people from around the U.S.,

Fun week kick off. We played corn hole and chair soccer last P-day and it was really fun. Except for the part of hitting a sister on the chin with a Frisbee.  Oops.  I made up for it by letting them borrow my Joseph Smith CD to enjoy. 

We had two great lessons the next day which was pretty nice. We taught Jordan in the morning and the Liskey family was there.  We taught the Restoration; even though he knew about some relevant things like the Book of Abraham and the Celestial Kingdom, he doesn’t know about the Restoration. Then that night we got to teach a man named Joe who is kind of dating this convert named Delilah.  He’s been an atheist but after a long time of attending church with her and getting a real desire for the gospel by feeling the spirit, he is very interesting in learning and wanting to know. Delilah bears a pretty strong testimony as well so it’s incredible. I am so happy for the both of them.  We scheduled a baptism for another investigator, Joe, for August 10^th.  It’s so awesome getting him on that road. 

Wednesday is our new day for district meetings now.  We have a big district since we have 5 companionships and one is a trio so it’s pretty big. Elder Newkirk had us put up our numbers and talk about them and how to improve our areas.  We also talked a lot about the Atonement. Afterward, we went to Chick-Fil-A and there were a lot of people there, like usual. They really like their chicken in Virginia! We also had a lesson with this lady named Diana.  Her husband is really mean and adulterous and abusive so we had a member, B. Hurd, come with us when we had the lesson with her. We are going to find out a way to help her.  She wants to be baptized when she comes to know the gospel is true. 

We had interviews with President Wilson and we were late actually due to getting the Franklin elders who should have come to our apartment but who are always going to Bridgewater. The interview was pretty good and President Wilson just asked me about my family back home and how I am doing in the mission. I asked him if there was any way I could be helpful to Elder Swann with his language study.  

The week has been good. We also found out this Asian guy named Justin Wang we have been teaching is actually moving very soon so we’ll have to pass him off to the Missouri Elders now. Justin is a great guy and he'll get baptized.  We had a lesson with a less active and she was wearing a dress and kept pulling it up to go over her legs every once in awhile and she flashed Elder Swann her underwear like a bunch of times. It was just crazy. 

Last Saturday we got to live the missionary dream by tracting in the rain. We did Walk-n-Talk and Elder Swann and I found a guy before the little sprinkle but after teaching him the big rainfall came. The whole time we were tracting, people were saying “No,” and “Not now, we’re already Christian” and then telling us to stay dry but not letting us in. It was annoying. It felt good but I got cold after a while so we went home to dry off.  Elder Swann had to dry off all of his stuff, but I was pretty prepared for the rain and put everything in my pockets. 

On Sunday we got ice cream cupcakes, a very spiritual lesson afterward with Joe, and we went to see a less active that is going through a hard time. B. Eshbaugh is having a lot of hard times in life and asked us to come by. We are really thankful for that trust. Also we had a lesson/fighting for her salvation lesson with Jennifer Campbell last night and we basically came to say that you have to try it to know it. Her husband and kids are weirded out by us coming by; they go into other rooms to avoid us.

Well, love you family and friends.

Elder McClure

July 22, 2013

Hello aliens to my mission field,

Well this week was transfer week so we had Elder Moon say good bye to people all over Harrisonburg. Not really, but he did use most of our allotted miles so we have to play it cool for a week and a half. So during those three days we were able to teach Joyce twice and our neighbor's (Delilah’s) boyfriend which is sweet cuz he used to be an athiest but now he’s interested and has already read like 16 chapters in 1 Nephi! Elder Moon pawned two copies of the Book of Mormon to this mentally handicapped guy named Ray Hersler who had the 1830s edition of the Book of Mormon. The first thing Ray said to us when we met him was, “If I was dressed up like you guys, I would preach that evolution was a fact.” Elder Moon offered to trade one of the Books of Mormon we hand out, but that was a no go.  Then he offered a New York World Fair edition.  Ray still said no.  Then Elder Moon groveled and said the New York edition was rarer then the 1830s edition.  After talking to B. Liskey, it turns out that’s true, so it’s a good thing Ray didn’t trade for it. Funniness there.  On the last night of our companionship Elder Dalby and his greenie came by and he burned a tie and then we had the Jeeps side by side with us sitting on top of them posing like models. It was hilariously funny. 

Transfers were different due to the fact we had to sing 8 different songs before the trainees and trainers came out. President Wilson announced the names of the companionships and I got Elder Swann who is a visa waiter for Brazil and speaks Portuguese. So if he gets his visa with me then I’m in trouble and will need another companion. 

I’ll wrap things up for the week. We finally got to teach this guy named Justin Wang and he was referred to us a while back. He’s a very nice guy and he works a lot in the Chinese restaurant near here and is the only English speaker there so he has to take care of the English-speaking customers. We found out that he leaves on August 5th to go to Missouri for college so we might have to fast teach him if he’s ready. We helped move a less active lady out of Lineweaver Apartments. It was the grossest experience touching this dirty smoke smelling couch while going down disgusting hallways and elevators. We also have been teaching more people consistently that we have had a hard time getting a hold of. A cool experience was when we were tracting this neighborhood and it was really hot.  We met this guy in the first house and he spoke only Spanish so Elder Swann whipped into action and talked it up the best he could so we got a referral for the Spanish Elders!  Cha-ching!  The last door we knocked on was this guy named John and he had talked to missionaries in the Dominican Republic so he’s interested, plus he lost the Book of Mormon they gave him so he was super glad to get another one and learn more. We sweat a lot that day. 

We have a lot of fun though because Elder Swann wants to do or knows how to do the things I’m really interesting in doing like parkour, playing guitar, and making jokes. One incident that just killed me was when his bracelet broke while we were on this doorstep. We gathered the pieces and he put them in his pocket and started singing,"I got a pocket, got a pocket full of beads." It’s been really fun with Elder Swann. 

I love you family and friends and random people i allow to see what I do in a missionary week.

Elder McClure