August 22, 2011 letter

Hello,

     Okay so I don't have a email from y'all this week so I guess that I will just write back to the email of last week.  So...yes I did sprain my ankle.  I was injured...injured bad.
     OH MY GOSH RYAN!  Ruined the bathroom on the airplane huh?  That's bad news man.  So how old are you now Ryan?  Like 30 or so?  Dang kid you are old.  Well...I know that I am late...but I hope that you had a happy birthday.
     Oh goodness...so dad...in a wheelchair...at Disney World.   HA HA HA HA.  It's really weird that y'all went there.  Reading about it reminded me of the choir trip that I took to Florida my senior year.  Good times good times.
     It took 4 hours to get through the canoe trip?!  Where in the world were you?  That's slightly crazy.  This whole "not allowed to swim" thing is getting kind of old.  Like, I never really liked swimming anyways but at the same time...it is SO hot here.  For a while there we were chasing the record for most consecutive days over 100.  We only missed it by two.  We still might beat the yearly record of days over 100.  It is so crazy.  I really don't even care how gross I look any more.  Hopefully people will start having some mercy on us and let us in.
     Good news.  We don't have to part our hair anymore.  Bad news.  We are not allowed to play guitars at member's homes anymore.  Not even if you are just playing hymns.  Don't ask me why.  It doesn't make sense at all to me but whatever.
     I have decided that I need to stop playing basketball and tennis for awhile.  They are both kind of driving me insane.  I never get to write any letters on P-day because we are always playing basketball for like 4 hours.  Then on top of that we play tennis every morning at 6 am and I am kind of tired of waking up a half an hour earlier than the rules say I have to...so...I think that I am done with that.
     Okay so here is an account of last week and the week before that.  So we had that Stake President Report the other week where the Stake President called out like 3 or 4 of the missionaries in our zone.  Pretty much saying that they were lazy and they needed to be transferred out of his stake.  So last week we had 2 elders that were transferred mid transfer and then this week is actual transfers.  I don't know if I will be leaving or not.  I have been here for six months and am the senior zone leader.  So either they will transfer me out somewhere random and have Elder Olvera (my companion) take over the zone; Or they will leave me here and put him somewhere random.  I don't know what is going to happen.  I will let you all know Sunday night.
     Last week we got a sweet referral from the Spanish sisters that live within our boundaries.  His name is Mike and he is awesome.  We started talking to him about truth and how he is always searching for more truth in his life.  Well...we can help you there.  We talked to him for an hour or so on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he was just dumbfounded.  He was so excited to get a copy.  He said that he would be baptized if he found the Book of Mormon to be true.  Well...that sounds good to me.  He can't come to church for the next few weeks because of work but he is already requested to have Sundays off.  We were so excited.  Finally someone who actually wants to listen and will set solid return appointments with us.  It is a true blessing.  My companion and I have been fasting that we would be able to find someone that could get baptized in the next month and then the next day we got Mike as a referral.
     On a more non-missionary note...the other day we were on exchange.  Elder Littlefield was with me and it was like 110 outside.  We took our lunch break at about 1 o'clock and decided that we needed to find a shaved ice place.  Well...we found one...a HUGE one.  The thing is two stories!  And the snow cones are about that size too!  We both got 64 oz snow cones.  They call them Texas Blizzards.  Anyways...the snow cones were a great idea to cool us down...but then the sugar crash came.  I think that I almost passed out a couple of times when we went back out to tract.  Moral of the story is...when it is hot in Texas...just grit and bear it.
     The same day we were on exchange we saw this old man.  Now when I say old...I mean OLD.  Like 90's to 100.  So don't take offense Grandpa.  Anyways...this old man was in the middle of the road just riding his bike around in circles very slowly.  I thought that he would have toppled over because of how slow he was going but he seemed to stay up some how.  He had those big, bright yellow headphones with the antenna on them, complete with booty shorts and a pink tank top.  If only I had my camera.  This man deserved an award.  Remember it is like 110 out and this guy is just riding in circles in the middle of the road.  Took us a couple of honks but eventually he saw us (notice that he didn't hear us, he saw us) and got out of the way.
     To tell you the truth I don't really remember anything about this last week.  I remember getting a letter from Grandma and from my good friend in Vegas that just got baptized...but other than that it was just a blur.  I am not doing so well with the journal thing either. I think that I am like two months behind or so.  I need to step it up, otherwise I won't remember any of my mission.  It'll all just blend together.
     Okay well I love y'all very much and I cannot wait to hear from you next week.  I promise that I will start writing in my journal more so that I have more stories to tell y'all.  Okay...love you bye.

-Elder McNinch

August 8, 2011 Letter

I might have to be doing some packing soon here too.  I don't know if they are going to keep my in this area for very much longer.  I have been here now for six months so...I don't know.  Well, now you have to tell me...how was Patrick's first plane ride?!?  Did he love it?!  I wish that I could have gone with y'all too...BUT at the same time I don't...because it is much more humid there than it is here.  I has been soooooo hot lately though.  All of this week we have had over a hundred degree temperature.  It has actually been that way for about a month or two months now.  We break records here like every day.  It's kind of ridiculous.  Yesterday I think that it got up to like 110 or something stupid like that.  110 in a suit is not fun at all.

     So yesterday we had one of those Stake Presidency Meetings again...ya know....the one with our stake president that used to be the chief of police for Dallas?...yeah.  so this meeting was more just a grilling session.  He went through each of the wards and was just like, "Well from this report we can clearly see that the ward is giving all of the support that they can so it's clearly not their fault.  The fault has to lie with the missionaries.  You can see that they are not teaching very many lessons, yet they say that they are having support from the ward in teaching, so I have to ask...what do they do all day?  Are they even working?"  Elder Olvera and I didn't even know what to do.  When you get bad news about your missionaries it just makes you feel terrible.  So now we have to make a concerted effort to fix the wards that are having problems along with making sure that our area doesn't tank.  Fun stuff.

     I haven't gotten the package yet but I am pretty sure that it is in the mail.  If you sent it to the Beltline address then it would be getting here today.

     OOOO man I miss Brother Strobelt.  His testimony is amazing.  Tell him to shoot me a letter sometime.  I'd love to hear from him.

     Well this week wasn't very exciting.  Just the same old same old.  I did however sprain my ankle last Monday.  It was pretty bad too.  I'll have to send y'all a picture.  I can walk again...so that is good.  tracting was a pain in the butt.  I had to get crutches from the mission office.  Pretty lame though...no one had pitty on me.  I think that we had more slammed doors when I was on crutches than when we are on foot.  Anyways...love you very much.  Tell Grandma I adore her letters.  Tell Grandpa that he has to give me a ride in the Disney bus when I get home.  Tell aunt Enner that I love her.  Tell Murry that I still listen to the Christmas CD that she gave me and it's August.  Tell Jowo that he...well he is just awesome.  Tell everyone else you see there that I miss them a whole bunch.

 

love ya,

 

 Elder McNinch

July 11 2011 Letter

So...

     The work here is going great.  I love the members in the ward.  Transfers are coming up and I don't think that I am going anywhere...the mail man is being dumb again.  They aren't forwarding mail anymore so send it to my address that is on Beltline Rd.  Sometimes I really just don't like the postal service...

     So it has been super super hot here lately.  We have been in the hundreds for the past 3 weeks with over 70% humidity.  Slightly ridiculous.  All of my shirts are getting really nasty.  Like nasty nasty yellow pit stains.  I don't think that my garments are white anymore either.  Suprisingly I have not pooped my pants yet.  Most misisonaries say that they pooped themselves before their yearmark at least...well I am still going strong.

     Didn't really do anything for the 4th of July.  Just played some basketball like any other pday.  A member invited us over to play games and guitar for the day but we didn't get to go out there to play.  Mostly because my comp didn't want to....just waiting for the Lord to show me what I am supposed to learn from this experience.  I don't know...it's interesting.

     I sure do miss y'all a bunch.  I got a letter from Randy Klabacka the other day.  Do y'all hang out with them much anymore?  How are they?

     So dad jacked himself up again huh?  Sweet  What did he tear this time?  I love the cat bus story ha ha ha.  Oh man...  So Ryan is going to the encampment huh?  those were always so much fun.  He's going with Matt?  Tell Matt that he is a butt.  I have gotten one lousy letter from him the entire time that I have been out here.

     Kylie's husband is a baller.  Tell him that I say hi.  How are the Kochevar's doing?  Do you see them much?  You have to tell Kylie that they other day I saw this girl that looked just like her and I went up and was like, "Kylie!!!  Why are you in my mission?!?"  Then it wasn't her....yep.  That's the life of a misionary.

     Sorry that y'all aren't coming to the best city in Texas for your choir trip.  You'll be about 3 hours south of me...wiod huh?  Too bad you can't come see me! ha ha ha.  Our mission president is way awesome.  He is really humble about everything that he does.  reminds me a lot of his dad.  Like father like son I guess.
     I have been having some crazy dreams lately.  Like dreams about a bunch of futrue events and things happening.  They really kind of scare me.  They are super detailed and they aren't very happy.  REALLY wiod.  Most of them have y'all in them but then others are just about my friends.  Like I see each one of them and they are all grown with families and terrible things are happening to them.  Not much of a good night's rest.

     Really I am okay though. I really hope that I get to take a nap today.  I am beat.  These past 5 weeks have been killer.  The work is going great but I am steadily going insane.  Have a great week.  Talk to you next time.  BYE

LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Elder McNinch

August 1, 2011 Letter

   So you spoke in Sacrament meeting huh?  I had to speak last week on missionary work.  I decided before hand that I would just let the spirit guide my talk...yeah...not a good idea.  I don't even know what I said.  I got some compliments on it though so it couldn't have been that bad.  Elder Olvera did really well...probably because he prepared...wiod how that works.  How are the missionaries in our ward?  Are they weird?  Cool?  Apostate?  I never knew how many missionaries don't do what they are supposed to.  It's sad really.  We had this kid that just got home from his mission in our ward come out with us last night.  He feels so weird.  I don't know what I am going to do IF I come home.  I don't even think that I'd want to go out with the missionaries...it might make me cry.

     So...funny story for this week...  We went to go and see this man that apparently has moved into the ward from Africa.  Well, we are going there on specific assignment from the Bishop to figure out some confidential matters that I cannot express over email.  Anyways, we go to his apartment and he answers the door...WAY heavy accent.  Turns out that he is from Ghana, not that it really matters, I thought that he said Kenya.  His accent was just really hard to make out.  So we start talking to this man about his journey to America and why he came here.  He goes through the whole story and then proceeds to tell us that his son who was 25 years old was just burried last week.  My companion pipes in and says, " Well, congratulations!" I looked at him like...WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU THINKING!?  The African man was in complete shock and awe.  He repeated himself again saying that his son had been burried the week before and again comes my companion with," COOL!"  So I had to repeat what the African man was saying to which my companion's face went completely red..." I thought you said MARRIED!!!!  I AM SOO SOO SOO SOO SORRY!!!"  I was dying laughing.  That's probably one of the worst mix ups that I have ever seen.  I almost peed myself when we got to the car from how much we were laughing.

     I talked to my mission president about Brent taking us out to dinner.  He hasn't responded yet so I don't know.  Tyler is really far away so I don't know that that will happen but hey...it's worth a shot.  So I have now been in this area for about six months.  That is the longest that I have ever spent in any area of my misson.  The people here are awesome though.  Honestly if I left after this transfer I would kinda be upset.  The investigators that we are teaching are awesome.  We had 3 investigators at church yesterday and two of them were black.  Yeah, that's right!  One of them we have been teaching for a while now and the other we just started teaching maybe a week ago.  So funny though.  The guy that we have been teaching for a while was making sure that the new guy knew where all of the classes were and how to read the hymn lines and everything.  It was was awesome.  Then after Sacrament he asked us if he and his wife could make dinner for us one night this next week...uhh....YEAH!

     This was the third week in a row that my companion and I have had to teach in Gospel Principles and Elder's Quorum.  Pretty rough lessons if you ask me.  Especially in the Gospel Principles when it goes through the Restoration.  The line "...their creeds are an abomination in my sight" was tough to explain to a bunch of non members.  Luckily I had the talk that Elder Oaks just recently gave to our mission on my mind and so I paraphrased what he said.  Have to admit that I would much rather do that than have to teach the primary about Chastity again.

     This week went really well over all.  We talked to a lot of new people and set a lot of return appointments so that should yield in a lot more people to teach.  Other than that there isn't much else to say.  Tell Kasidy that she owes me a letter from DECEMBER!  Tell Jordan when he gets home that he is old.  Tell Ryan not to poop his pants this school year.  Tell Patrick that he is going to get married to this little girl in my ward because she is the cutest thing that I have ever seen.  Tell Dad that although taking pictures of mom when she is not ready for a picture is fun, taking them when she doesn't know you are is better.  Tell Shannon to stay off the sidewalks and stick to the streets (if she ever drives again).

 

LOVE Y'all,

 

Elder McNinch

 

2854 Beltline Road #293-T

Garland, Texas, 75044

July 18, 2011 Letter

HERRO!!!

 

     Chinese kids!  That's so cool!  Why didn't we ever do that when I lived there?  Man...so you went to go see a jumanji play?  Where in the world did they hold that?  The district at Green Valley Ranch?

     I am glad that ryan had a good time at high adventure.  Arrowhead is the best place ever!  Tell him to get the upper tombstone campsite.  It's definately the best one!  We went mountain boarding at the scout camp too but that was only because Shane Mitchie and Derek Dramise brought it.  There is a guy here in the 3rd ward that has a mountain board.  He uses it every Saturday.  He has this huge parachute kite that he takes to the park and he uses it like you would use a windsurfing board except that it is a parachute and a moutain board.  I want to try it out but...I am on a mission...and with the luck that runs in this family I would probably break something.

     Speaking of missionaries getting hurt...did you hear about the missionary in Guatemala?  The one that got mauled by a lion?  Ooooo man...that would suck.  The kid was being really stupid though....so yeah.

     Definately let me know how the dinner goes with the asian kids and the misisonaries.  I would love to see our family with a couple of asians.  Take a picture for me.  Send me some pics!!! and yes for my one year mark I would love some new g's at least...I will send you all of the sizes next week....I am running short on time right now...we have to do something fun for elder sinclair's last day here.  We are all betting that he is going super far out east.  Think that he is going to Oklahoma or to the Louisiana border.  So I made it past the transfers...I have a feeling that I am going to be here for a while.  At the end of this new transfer I will have been in this area for half of my time in the mission field...weird huh?

     Wow...so brother savage came over?  How was that?  I miss that guy.  You should tell them that I say hi.  Have y'all seen Natalie at church or anything?  Does she even talk to you?  Ha ha ha oh dear...we'll see how this next year goes with the letters.

     My dreams are just getting more weird...last night that I had I really weird dream.  About some girl in the ward that was chasing my through the hallways of the church and I had a gimp leg and couldn't run very fast away from her...scary stuff...I couldn't find my companion anywhere.

     So the area is doing great.  The ward is really stepping up to the plate.  We are going to have some sweet success here soon.  I just hope that I don't go insane before we reach that point.  I have been here for a long time and so it is really hard to tract somewhere that I haven't already tracted.  Weird cuz I've never had that problem in my whole mission.

     Tell sister Walton that we have a missionary in this mission that is from Uruguay.  His name is Luis Martin Cabrera.  Okay well nothing much to report on this week.  At the end of the month I will probably be sending home a memory card full of pictures!  You should be proud....okay love you much...BYE!

 

-Elder McNinch