October 17, 2011 Letter

Hey!

Sub for Chap huh? That must have been interesting. I don't think that I could ever take a foods class. That's about as fun as sitting in the High Priest's Group....well...actually...sitting with the High Priests is hilarious. I will have to tell you about our High Priest Group in Garland. Oh dear it was great.

A new Footloose? Are you serious? That's so weird. Man, everything is changing. Jordan is home. Zach is home. Mitchell is coming home. Jessica is prego. Goodness. I don't even know what is going to happen next.

So this week was pretty uneventful. Both I and my companion have been sick so we are trying to work through it. It's kind of funny actually. We will be at a door and totally pretending like we are fine. You know, all bright eyed and what not. Then after they shut the door were like coughing up our lungs and sniffling. It makes us laugh.

 

Glad that Zach is doing good. Is he weird or the same? I bet you that Jordan is a lot different. I can't wait to see them again. Well...I can...but you know what I mean. I got a letter from Rachel the other day. That girl is hilarious. Do talk to her much? you should. She always talks about Aruba in her letters to me.

 

Oh dear, Sister Borden. I love her! Ha ha ha. Ask her about the hair spray incident she had. It was totally my fault but I had forgotten that I had left it there. Kaitie told me about it in one of her letters.

 

Speaking of letters...Shannon...I thought that you were going all high tech on me and going to email every week? What's up now sis? Where is the love poopsie?

 

Living with the Barnhouse family is amazing. Yes Dad to answer your question it is Greg and Diana Barnhouse. They are so funny! Brother Barnhouse kind of reminds me of Syl. Like a young version of Syl. Just that type of humor. Sister Barnhouse is the nicest lady in the whole world. She is also a bomb cook! Holy Bible her cooking is great. Both of them can cook. It's like watching a tag team wrestling match but it's in the kitchen and you eat their opponent at the end. In short, " It's d best!" - Nacho Libre

Other than that there is not much to report on. We taught a lesson at a dinner appointment the other day and the investigators didn't know that we can't hug girls. The mother surprise attacked me so I kinda just gave her an awkward pat on the back. Then I saw the terror in my companion's eyes as their 15 year old daughter came in for a huge hug. He shriveled up, tucked his arms in, and squealed like he was about to cry. It was hilarious! I about peed myself.

 

Anyways...missionary work is as grand as ever. I love being a missionary.

Love,

Elder McNinch

October 3, 2011 letter

Dearest family,

Yes yes yes. We had 4 investigators at church last week and had 5 come to sessions of General Conference (I would write more about general conference but I do not have nearly enough room on one email to tell y'all how much I loved every minute of the sessions) One of our investigators is from Zimbabwe. Her name is Yolanda and she is getting baptized on Saturday the 8th! So exciting. She came here to come and take care of her kids that she hadn't seen for five years. Now when she was in Zimbabwe she had taken the lessons from the missionaries but she left before her scheduled baptismal date. It was the only day that she could get her ticket that would work with her visa. So she left and came here...Now she's going to be baptized here! Ha ha ha. I love that miracles that you see on your mission. My companion and I have been praying really hard to find someone who is prepared so that we can show the Zone that it is possible to find, teach, and baptize in a rich area. Then Yolanda sent her information through the referral center in Salt Lake and we got it the next day.

Awesome.

So that's Yolanda. She is awesome.

Next cool thing that happened this week was the quicenerra (forgive me if the spelling is wrong. If you didn't figure out what I am talking about by now it is the party for a 15 year old Hispanic girl) so the people that we are teaching invited us to go to the party. Well...I knew that those parties were kinda crazy and most of the time they ended when everyone passed out from consuming too much alcohol...but still they persisted...so we went. It was Saturday night right before the priesthood session of conference. We went into the ballroom and...yeah. The music was alright...just not the music video that was playing on the rather large flat screen in the middle of the room. The family invited us to sit down at their table and they could clearly see by the expression on our faces that the music video was inappropriate. Ha ha ha. so they went and turned it off for us which was cool. Let me tell you that the food was amazing. That came next. So so so so good! Then came our time to shine. We walked out to the middle of the dance floor and set a chair in the middle for the girl, Mariah. Asked her who she would like to give the blessing and she pointed to me...great...about 100 non members...priesthood blessing by the spirit...great.

The blessing went well. We then started teaching right off the bat. We started teaching about the For Strength of Youth and what it means to be pure...pretty much just taught the Law of Chastity to everyone that was there. We told them who we were and what we do. We left them with 100 pamphlets and our name and phone number. After we finished they gave us a standing ovation. Ha ha ha. It reminds me now of Elder Eyring's talk about speaking at the university and being told that he wasn't going to be able to be a witness of Christ at the ceremony. I had my doubts about teaching at a quincenerra but it turned out great. They loved it.

Yes yes yes it is more than fine that missionaries play my guitar...just let them know that if they break it my heart will also break and then they will have to buy me a better one.(guitar not heart). Ha ha ha glad that y'all got to watch the video of the Ver Hoef girls. Aren't they the cutest girls ever!?! That was so much fun.

I did not get the g's yet but I sure hope that I do...sometimes packages are stolen off of the porches here. So yeah...the guy who steals that package is in for a rude awakening. No electronics in that one buddy. Just a bunch of underwear. Joke's on you now!

Tell Shannon that Homecoming is dumb.

Tell Dad to not get any more of those Cataracts. Those are bad news.

I am so pumped for the Star Valley temple! You know that we are going there when I get back!

I'll make a list of the songs that I want from choir and I will send them to you. That way there is no mistake. Okay? Okay. Love y'all very much...BYE!

-Elder McNinch

September 26, 2011 letter

Hey!

2000 referrals! You gotta be kidding me! That's so sweet! And I would definitely have to agree that Blue Bell is the bomb! That stuff is a missionaries best friend. So so so good!

So I am short on time so I will give y'all a recap of the best day of the week...yesterday. so the Sunday started off and we had a whopping 4 investigators at church. That is like unheard of here in Frisco. My companion and I were asked in the last Ward Council meeting," So...what is going on here? How are there this many people that y'all are teaching?" I seriously think that that was the best question that I have been asked on my mission. Well besides the famous," So...how do I go about getting baptized?"- David Vasquez, Longview, Texas. It was awesome. Sacrament meeting was great. A little awkward but great. So it was awkward because one of our investigators is 18 and happens to be a very beautiful daughter of our Heavenly Father. No...I am not attracted to her but she is beautiful nonetheless. So we are walking in to the chapel in a line. Me, my companion, Logan (who happens to be friends with this girl we're teaching), then the girl that we are teaching. Somehow before we sat down my companion wandered off and sat next to another investigator, and the girl and Logan switched spots. So now I am sitting right next to her and all three of us are in the middle of the pew in between two families. So there is no chance to change seats or anything because of the family blockades of about 8 children each on either side...so here I am...sitting next to an attractive young woman...without a companion. Great. You have no idea how many double takes I got from the members that were looking around the congregation. After the meeting I had to go around and have Logan introduce her as his friend as to be certain that rumors did not spread. I AM NOT A FLOOSY MISSIONARY!

 

Sacrament was great. It was the primary program so all of the investigators loved it. Sunday pressed on and we had a pot luck for the 3rd ward after church. We had 4 investigators show up to that as well...which was awesome. The members were just swarming them, showing them around the building, introducing them to the other members, again...awesome. After the pot luck we were supposed to go to a Ward Mission Leader Training but when we got there it had apparently been cancelled and no one told us. We went to ask a man that was in the gym where everyone was and he introduced himself as Elder Roberts. So instead of going to a training for 2 hours we got to meet a member of the Seventy...not too shabby of a trade. We then had an extra hour of time to go out and work that we had not planned for so we decided to go by all of the people that we had invited to church but didn't come. We stopped by this one family...knocked...no one...knocked again...still no one... My companion says, "I think that we might have to drop them Elder." Just then the door springs open. She is so excited to see us. So we chew the fat for a minute or two and then she says," I need y'alls help." ...uh okay... "My daughter's quicenerra is coming up and we don't have anyone to pray over her at the beginning, would y'all mind doing that?....uh...NO, we would LOVE to do that! So we got it all arranged and everything and then my companion asked do you want us to do the blessing at the beginning? "Yeah, that would be great. After the blessing, if it's not too much trouble, would y'all mind speaking on purity? That's the whole theme of her party this year." ...Uhhhhhh... NO, we'd LOVE to speak about purity at a bithday party about purity in front of about 50 kids. We asked her if it would be okay to bring a pamphlet for each of the kids that they could take home. She LOVED the idea1 Said that we should definitely do that. Ha ha ha so on Saturday after conference we are going to give a blessing and teach 50 or so kids about the For Strength of Youth pamphlet. Ha ha ha. It'll be so fun.

 

Welp...that's all folks...love ya!

- Elder Michael McNinch