Buenos Dias!

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A restaurant called La Mantana and it's close to our house and really cheap!

September 28, 2015

Howdy Y’all, 

This week has just been wonderful!   We worked and taught and finished up our cambio with a high number week and we are excited to get back at it with this new cambio! 

I had the chance to work in my area this week with my Zone Leader, Elder Peterson from Alpine, Utah and he’s a super stud!   He taught me a ton and helped with a few situations that we had here with some people.   What I love most about him is he doesn’t  act like a stuck-up ZL.   He’s humble and just wants to work and feel the Spirit and wow just his humility makes me want to learn from him even more.   Sad to say we just got word that he’s getting transferred  tomorrow-- so good bye awesome ZL Elder Peterson.

The next day I got to work with Elder Galindo in his area on interchanges and help him with the work he is doing there.   He’s a stud and one of my best friends on the mission.   He is also getting transferred tomorrow so I will be welcoming someone new in my District tomorrow and I’m excited for that.  I heard a rumor that President is giving us one of the BEST so that we can get the work going here in Ajusco.   I love that rumor! 

Ajusco Pride is a big thing going on right now.  A few days last week and all of this week has been super crazy with parties and parades and fireworks and fun!   I even found a stand that sells drug rugs!!!!   I’ve been wanting a drug rug for years!!!!   They cost about $6.... should I do it!   I’ll think about it.  I also have to buy new shoes because mine are destroyed!!!    But yeah, I think we have to be in early every night this week because of all the drunk dudes roaming the streets.   I love Ajusco! 

Awesome story ... we have a menos activo (less-active member) that we’ve been teaching and she and her 2 teenage daughters are members, but her husband isn’t -- BUT he pays tithing and lives all the commandments!  Soooooo, anywho, their daughter went missing for 2 days and they had search parties trying to find her and all and by a miracle they found her!   Well right after that, he came to Church and bore his testimony about the truthfulness of this Church and we are teaching him tomorrow! This could be the baptism I’ve been working for!!!!!!!! And in the process the family could be super reactivated and I might just be able to go to a sealing in the Temple in a little over a year from now!   OH BOY!  I’m happy.

This week we also started English classes and it’s looking like it’ll be really fruitful.   I hope, hope, hope!

But, yeah, I’m doing GRRRREAT and just pluggin’ along.   Christmas is right around the corner!

Teaching English.

Taken from my roof.  (Mexico City)

"THAT is Obedience!"

September 21, 2015

Kinda need new shoes!

Mexico's Independence Day

 

Zone Conference.  This is when we started to feel sick.

3-day stay in the hospital from food poisoning.  

Hey Y’all,

This week I have been filled with thanks as I have seen many blessings added into my life.

This week was awesome!  It started with Mexican Independence Day and I ate a bunch of tamales and had a sweet zone conference and went to the hospital!   Anywho, I’ll start with the zone conference!  It was fantastic and the assistants informed us of new rules in the mission.  We can only listen to MoTab now and we can only go to the temple at one time at the very end of our mission!  So that kinda ruins my temple excitement, but hey I’m cool with it-- rules are rules.   And then Prez taught us much about how we make the decisions in our mission and in our life.  I think he paralleled with the talk “The 4th Missionary” and it was fantastic.  He talked about obedience, too;  and then asked all who went to the Mexico City Temple Cultural Celebration to raise their hands.  My comp and I didn’t, of course, and were the only ones in the room who hadn’t gone.  Then President Mecham asked me why I didn’t go and I responded that I didn’t have investigators to take and so I couldn’t go cuz that’s the rule.  He then started tearing up and said “THAT is obedience.”   He then told me and my comp that he was SURE we were going to baptize because of this obedience and also promised us he’d find a DVD of the production and we would watch it with him in his house.   Soooo pretty much that made my life and I am very happy that I had done what was supposed to be done and wow, I love Prez.  

Later that beautiful Independence night my comp started throwing up and the other 2 in my district started doing the same.   A quick phone call with Sister Mecham let me know we needed to go to the hospital.  It was late at night and lots of parties going on and so we had a super fun taxi ride down the mountain getting to experience the real Mexican Independence Day!   It was awesome!   Anywho, us 4 ate Mexican pizza on Monday and that’s what made them sick.  I don’t know why I didn’t get sick, but wow I sure was blessed!   3 days in the hospital was pretty great as there is a restaurant there and us missionaries can eat real well.   So yeah, I was lovin’ chocolate milkshakes and club sandwiches while my district ate dried toast and terrible soup.  WOW I was blessed!   

The rest of the week went pretty normal.   We taught and tried finding new people because we just lost like everyone (investigators) we had, but it was a great week and I’m super content.   As a zone we are trying to find at least 4 new investigators in every area every week ... 4 newbies every week.

So that’s our goal and we are gonna  BAPTIZE! 

My week was awesome and I’m sure happy to be here at this time.  

  

WE ARE GONNA ROCK AJUSCO!

My new planner.  Reminder of home!

Making tamales.

View of Mexico City.  We can see the Temple.  We have some of the best views in the world!+

The Awesomeness of the Mexico City Temple Re-dedication!

 September 14, 2015

Making tortillas!!

A fun preparation day!

We hiked and explored a pyramid!!

This week has been Grrrreat!  We are talking 15 lessons for the week!  That is a record in my time here in Ajusco!  Wow, look at us go!  I feel very blessed to have had 15 in our area!  Little by little baby.  This week was filled with lessons, great views, and spiritual experiences which make it just about the best week you can ask for!

Some of the awesomeness that took place this week is the Temple Re-dedication of the DF (Mexico City) Temple, a priesthood blessing that I was able to give and a funeral that I attended.  First off is the re-dedication.  Wow!   President Eyring and Elder Holland were the ones to show up and they were amazing. (Just like always.)   President Eyring couldn’t help but beam the entire meeting and it was so much fun to watch!  He just couldn’t get that huge smile off his face!  Anywho, it was so fun to hear them speak in English and then hear the Spanish talks and understand all that was said!  And yes, the Hosanna Shout was pretty sweet too!  The thing that stuck out the most was in the dedicatory prayer how President Eyring blessed this land to where we would progress as a nation in missionary work.  That is like music to my missionary ears!  Wow!

Also on Saturday we went to visit a sister whose parents are really old-- like old, old--like 97 years old.  Her mom was sick and asleep in bed and asked that I give her a blessing.  I willingly agreed and gave her a very simple blessing.  Long story short, she passed away about 18 hours later.  With the things I was directed to tell her in the blessing I gave, I know she slipped away very peacefully and is now having a grand old time in the next world.  So yesterday we went to give support to her daughter who called us to tell us the news and we let the branch members know.  By 6:00 in the evening the whole branch was there and we held the funeral right there in the house, as we all gathered around the bed where the body laid.  It was a very sweet moment and it was so wonderful to see us as a branch in unity.  After a beautiful service we all headed outside to the lawn and that’s where the fun began!  As the van pulled in and the dudes got ready to take the body away all the extended family got in a huge fight and there was like 20 on 20 just beating each other’s faces in.  I don’t know what sparked it, but probably just a lot of emotion and maybe someone was a little offensive.   As a branch, we just stood off a distance and watched a brawl for a good 10 minutes--fists, crutches, and words were flying and it was so sad to see after such a wonderful service, but quite interesting to watch none-the-less.  I feel blessed for these experiences I have had and how I am learning little by little what I like, what I don’t like, what I want, who I hope to become, what I hope my family is like, and what my family isn’t like. 

Today we went to a “sick” pyramid in our area that has caves in it and so we hiked it and explored and just had a grand ol’ time.  I felt like a Lamanite while I was on top!

Love ,

Elder McClure

Wow! That Went Quick!

Nothing like an evening snack of moli. 

My new district!!

September 7, 2015

Well I must say this week went by real darn quick!  That’s the thing I love about the mission! Each day can feel like eternity and then before you know it, it’s another week and you’re all like “wow” that went quick!

It pains me to say that not much is happening with the actual mission work, as in investigators and baptisms and all that.   Really we have just about none of that, but we are helping some menos activos (less active members) and stuff like that and it’s still rewarding in its own way.  I love giving service--it makes for a good morning or a good day!  And what makes an even better day is going to the temple for the second time!  Man I just can’t get enough of it!  On Tuesday my comp had to go to immigration and so I hung out in the mission offices for about 6 or 7 hours and did a puzzle of the Nauvoo Temple. I was told by the office elders that no one had ever finished it before and so I made it a goal to be the first!  With about 6 hours of hard work I came SUPER close to finishing ... but still didn’t actually do it.  It kinda bummed me out, but hey it’s like the same as all my other goals.  I think I need to get better with the whole goals thing.  Maybe I should start thinking more realistically ... who knows.  But yeah, so that was a ton of fun!  Then we worked hard trying to find people to teach and then on Saturday we took off for the temple!  It was the last day of the open house and so we just had a blast!  I saw Elder Marsh, my old district leader there and that was a wonderful reunion.  He’s one of my heroes on the mission.  And really as I struggle trying to think up a plan for district meetings (Riley is responsible for training his district each week) and stuff, I always just think "What did Elder Marsh do that I can copy?"  So yeah I’ve had some pretty stellar district meetings that weren’t even my own creation!  I love that kid! 

We had special changes this week as Elder Bravo had to go home for knee surgery.  It was hard to see him go, but guess who we got?!?! ELDER JARRETT!!!!  He’s the same generation as my first son and was with me in Iztapalapa!   I love the kid and it’s so great to have him here!  What a great addition to our little Ajusco gang. 

Really it’s been a good week.  I can’t complain.  Things are slow, but hey at least I’m not to the point that the other elders here are at ... they are contacting cows, goats, and dogs.  I’m still on humans, so really we are doing good! 

Loves all around!

Elder Miller & Elder McClure enjoying the Temple Open House a second time.