A Sweet Week ... Strawberries and Brain Worms

100 Balls for the Easter Egg Hunt

Let the Hunt begin!

HAPPY LATE EASTER Y’ALL!

WOO, it’s been a sweet week!

First things first, turns out that strawberries grown here in Mexico are really bad for you and if you eat them you get worms growing in your brains … or something like that … so I’ve already stopped my short tradition of malts in the morning L  How sad.  I really love them strawberries.

Woo, so this whole last week was called Holy Week and it got pretty lonely here!  Everyone was on vacation and went to the beach or other places and we were left alone walking in the streets with just about nothing to do.  BUT IT WAS AWESOME!  We still worked real good and taught lots of lessons with the few people that were still here. My Highlight of the week was the GIANT EASTER EGG HUNT WE DID FOR THE GARCIA CHILDREN!  Yeah, they are my bros.  These children are our neighbors and are our off road tricycling buddies and I just love them so much that I decided to blow a LOT of money so that they could experience the true joys of an Easter egg hunt.  The problem is, plastic Easter eggs don’t exist here so I had to buy 100 balls and then cut them open and stuff them with candy!  It was epic!  Then on Saturday we went like 3 houses over to the chapel and hid the eggs all over the church grounds.  A half hour later we had 8 or 9 little kids ready to do some looking and finding!   Anywho, it was sooo fun and everyone was so happy and on such a sugar high ... no complaints … no complaints.

I had a goal to finish the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time in Spanish on Easter Sunday and I did just that.  It was even more special because this time around I marked every time it named one of the members of the Godhead.  In doing so I was able to grow closer to God.  I really realized how much the scriptures talk about God and how much He loves and blesses his children.  It was wonderful.  I figured it was good to finish on Easter Sunday in remembrance of the joy and hope I have, thanks to my Savior Jesus Christ.  It was an incredible experience and has boosted my on-going testimony of the Book of Mormon.

The other miracle on that beautiful Easter Sunday was our lesson with Emma. I love Emma. She has such faith and a while back she told us she would be baptized once God had confirmed it with her.  She says that God always responds to her in 3s.  So we waited patiently and kept teaching her and yesterday, Easter Sunday, she shared with us that she received her 3rd confirmation.  WOOOO!  So we set a baptismal date for the 16 of April!  I’m so excited!  And also Papa Palafox is filling out the forms for his baptism.  We set it a week back because of General Conference and so his date is the 9th of April! Miracles are a happening!

General Conference is almost here!  I can NOT wait!    WOOOOOOOOO!   Blessings all around!  I’m so jacked.   Can’t wait to hear the prophet’s voice and hear people talk in ENGLISH!

Love you all,

Thanks for the prayers.   I can feel them.

Elder McClure

Melon Bash

Horse Meat Taco.  Yummm!

Angel fixing my pants!

Man I Love Mexican Fruit!

Making Apple Pie

Fruit, Baby!

Hey guys!

It’s cold today and I loveeee it!

This week was pretty awesome, might I say.  Let me explain.  We got Papa Palafox to say YES! OK let me reword that.  Papa Palafox with his own free will and choice said to us that he is ready to be baptized.  Haleluya!  We set the date for the 4th of April, but we will see cuz that’s a Monday.  It might end up being the 3^rd, but either way, HALELUYA!

Earlier today I was saddened to realize I didn’t take one picture throughout the week.  We were just so busy teaching like madmen that I never even thought to take out my camera and take a picture! But that’s OK because we worked like madmen and also, I took pictures today to make up for it. Pictures of me with my fruit.  It’s FINALLY mango and strawberry season!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Every morning I drink a strawberry banana smoothie and at night I eat me my mangos.  Man I love Mexican fruit.  So don’t worry, I do have the pics for this week now.  Me and my fruit.

Since it was the first week of the transfer, all the district leaders had a leadership training by president and it was wow good.  President is worried about how some missionaries use their time.  So he’s crackin’ down on us and teaching us how every second counts.  I don’t think I’ve been a time waster on the mission, but it’s still a good reminder and now I’m even more determined to use every moment I have to serve the Lord. 

This coming week is a little scary.  It’s "Semana Santa" for all them Catholics here and it’s pretty dangerous.  We have extra rules just to be safe and really I’m in a really nice area, so I’m not too worried, but it’s always exciting.  I’m just glad it’s my last Semana Santa here in Mexico.

It’s really hard to think of what’s been happening, I just woke up from a 2 hour nap and my brain still isn’t in full function, but I’m healthy and happy and doing good.  No complaints, life is good, what more could I want?!

Enjoying some ribs!

A Killer Week!

Saying good-bye to my zone leader.

Brick of nuts and carmel.

Hot dogs!

Waz up my friend!

Wow, it’s so fun watching these weeks fly by!  When things are great time flies, and when it’s hard it just flies by!  It just keeps flying!  AHHH!

We had a killer week to end the cambio!  I worked my bum-bum off and it RAINED and I got SOAKED!  And right now isn’t the rainy season so everyone is thinking the world is going to end!  Just so y’all know I don’t have transfers and I’m staying in my beautiful area called Hidalgo!  We are finding more and more youth to teach and I’m loving it!  They just understand things!  We had 4 investigators at church on Sunday, one of them being Emma who is the bomb! We taught her the Word of Wisdom this week and she was so bomb about it.  She likes her coffee but understood what she has to do and why.  She said she’s done with the whole coffee thing--just like that--no resistance, just pure faith and a good attitude and the readiness to do it.   I love prepared investigators!

What makes me saddest is that we lost 2 amazing sisters today with transfers!  Hermanas Padilla and Mendoza are awesome and incredible missionaries.  I’m gonna miss them like crazyyyy but I’m excited to see who the new ones are and ready to welcome them into the district!  We´ll see what happens.  Our district meetings have always been Monday night but Pres. just changed it so now they are Tuesdays at 9am.   It’s a big change for me and it’s gonna take some getting used to I think. 

We had another area attack in the area of my zone leaders and it was really fun.  I went out with my bff, zone leader Elder Valdez and we contacted like crazy.  We found a new family for him to teach and then returned to the chapel to eat hot dogs.  I ate 4, but it was the only food I ate that entire day so I don’t feel AS bad.  Hahaha. 

Really I’m just loving the teaching right now because of the people we get to visit.  It’s finally starting to really, really heat up here and I got really sunburned this week even though there was lots of rain too.  Let’s just hope things keep getting better and better!

My District.

My Zone.

We're teaching this kid.  He's a nut!!!

Off-Trail Tricycling!

The young adults - my neighors and friends.

Hey Friends!

All be well here in Hidalgo!  We worked our bums off all week long and taught a bunch of lessons and found 4 new people to teach!  WOOOOOOOOOOOOO   That’s what I’m talking about!

We have a few people who are progressing, like Hermana Emma--just like my niece Emma who I love so dearly!  I think just for the name she’s going to have to get baptized!  hahahahah.  No, she’s a wonderful lady and loves to read the Book of Mormon.  Each lesson is just so good and intense that we find ourselves running late to the next lesson.  But it’s worth it.  I love good investigators.  They make me happy!  And you know what else I love?  When after an intense lesson and they understand everything and they’ve been crying the whole time and then afterwards they tell you that you’re an angel.  Man I love it. 

Yesterday I did some insane off-trail tricycling with the neighborhood gangster kids and man we had a blast!  We sure enjoy the kids around here.  They always wanna play!

We had an area "attack" in another area and it was super intense and we taught this lady who’s been inactive for like years and years.  Throughout the lesson she cried the whole time and then we asked her to say the prayer at the end and she told us she hadn’t prayed in a LONG TIME.  Then she prayed and it was the most beautiful prayer I’ve ever heard.  It was incredible.  Wow, what fun it was to be in that lesson!

After that crazy awesome lesson we went with the member who was teaching with us to his house.  He’s a professional massage dude and wow I had the most intense massage of my life.  The good news is my back doesn’t hurt anymore!  Wow, I love massages. 

Anywho, lots of fun and good stuff going on around here.  I just keep pluggin’ along. 

All be well.

Love, Elder McClure

Makin' eggs with my PEPPER!
Riley couldn't get pepper in Mexico so our neighbor sent him a bunch!