Eyebrow sweat!

Not much to say this week! Sister Pickett and I walked most of B-Ham this week.  Met lots of interesting people, knocked lots of doors, and shared the blessings of the gospel! We are looking for the people who are ready to hear our message. I know this message will bless them, and I just want to share it with everyone!

Funny story:

Did you know your eyebrows could sweat? I didn't either! That is until we popped in on an investigator this week, and she happened to be cooking dinner.  "Sientanse" she said, and then after we sat put down food in front of us.  I should not have poured her salsa all over my Cane Asada. I should have known better! At least everyone got a good laugh as I was crying from the heat :D

I know that Christ is my Savior.  He is there for each of us.  When we teach people, we aren't telling them anything new.  They already knew all of this when we lived with our Heavenly Father before this life.  And when we help them learn about Christ, it's not as though He suddenly starts blessing them--He has been there all along walking right next to them.  It's more like we help them to recognize that He is there, and that they want to follow him.  Our message helps direct them closer to him.  I know it has done that for me, and I am so grateful.

Everyone needs a mustache! especially when making invitations for a baptism! Montse is doing very well.  Thank you for keeping her in your prayers! She is a strong member!

Well, that's it! love your guts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks y'all!

Words don't come easy...

Everytime I sit down at the computer at the end of the week I think two things:

1) What. It's already been a week? What the????

2) I have no idea what to say.

If nothing else is apparent from my e-mails and mismatched thoughts, crazy pictures, please know that I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve in the Lord's work.  I am so grateful for how I have been blessed  with family and friends who support me in this.  I have learned so much, and have seem the hand of the Lord in so many lives, especially mine. I know our Father in Heaven loves us so much, he sent his son for us. No one else could have done what Christ did.  No one else could have made that sacrifice that he did.  And what amazes me even more, is that he didn't have too. He chose too, because he loves us. Sometimes I get homesick, sometimes I get discouraged, but I am doing this because I love the Lord.

And honestly, this is much more of a blessing than a sacrifice. This week Montse was baptized, and it was so special.  

Pre- story:so it takes an hour and a half to fill the font.  We got done with exchanges, booked it to walmart to buy some refreshments because long story short we were having a really difficult time communicating cause our phone was dumb so we didn't know who was bringing what (Thanks Mom and Dad!), then booked it to the church.

We had an hour and 40 minutes :) perfect.  

Negative-there are black gates covering the entrance of the font so we can't close the drain to fill up the water.  And we don't have the key to those padlocks. 

I tend to be a very task-oriented person, which sometimes can be irrational.   My initial response is to grab a chair, and I'm about to hop over the glass and into the font to close the drain, so Sister Pickett could start filling it up. I guess my plan was just to hang out there until somebody rescued us, because I probably couldn't have climbed out without breaking something.  Luckily, as I'm mid step to jump over, my darling Sister Pickett has the bright idea of asking someone in the Family History Center for help. Much smarter. 

Anyhow, the service started, and everything worked out. Montse was glowing, she was ready. She has been through a lot this year.  A member gave a wonderful talk, and then we had the service.  We came back and I sang "Mas cerca Dios de ti" as the musical number (Nearer my God to Thee).   My favorite part of all of it though, was when Montse gave her testimony at the end. I don't remember exactly what she said, but I remember what I felt.  It was the Holy Ghost, telling everyone in that room that what she said was true, and that he choice to be baptized was what Heavenly Father wanted for her. She quoted the Book of Mormon, and expressed her desire for a better life for her and her daughter.  I know that the promise she made to follow Christ at baptism, and the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost she received the next day will bless her.

It was a beautiful way to start of Easter, and remember the sacrifice of our Savior, so that we could be clean through him.

Easter day, we tracted (hence the 'Jesus Loves You' pic), and had an Easter dinner of whatever we could find in the cupboards  (rice from dinner with the sisters, cream of chicken from someone who moved out of the apartments here, and a can of tuna complete with Tony's creole seasoning and a bag of frozen veggies i found in the freezer....not too bad!).  Definitely not the Easter I've had before, but one of the best.  

I love my Savior, and so grateful for the change he has made in my life.

I love you all!

Hermana McClune

April 9 - Happy Birthday Mexican Style

 The Members in our branch are so kind and loving. They decided to show me the real way to eat cake.  I was blowing purple and green out my nose for a good 3 days.  Love it!                             

Thank you so much for all the Birthday love

Thank you so much for all the Birthday love! I had the best birthday ever!!! I got to spend a lot of it in a training with our Mission President, and then we got out and got to work.  We had some awesome lessons that night.

What a week! Sister Pickett and I are exhausted.  We totaled that we were in a total 15 hours of meetings not including church.... but despite that we worked out rears off to get everything done and complete our goals.  It paid off.  We saw miracles this week!

We are starting something in the mission called "unplanned invitations" where we invite at least 10 people everyday that we run into to learn about our message.  We recieved that training Wednesday, so Thursday Sister Pickett and I decided to test it out.  We got 8 straight up solid rejections. Ouch.  Rough stuff.  We had 20 minutes to kill though before an appointment, and so we entered the gold mine of Walmart. We found 3 solid families and set appointments with them.  Miracle!  I know the message we have to share will bless these families.

Next week, my dear little investigator is preparing for baptism! She has such a strong testimony and wants to be the Mom and person that the Lord wants her to be. She knows that baptism into this church will bring her a lot of peace and guidance.  Look how cute the baby is! (I think she is about to sneeze!).  Please keep her in your prayers!

Sister Pickett is a beast.  Love that girl so much! We both feel so blessed to be participating in the work of the Lord, and sharing the blessings that we have with everyone we talk too!

Okay, I know I'm a huge dork and this e-mail is super jumbled.

Just know how much I love and pray for each of you.  I have such a strong testimony that Jesus is the Christ.  He suffered in ways that no one else could, so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again.  Our message to the world is that his church is on the earth again today, that it has been restored through a prophet of God.  The gospel has blessed me in more ways than I can count, and I want to share those blessings. I love the Lord.  I am so grateful for his sacrifice for me, personally.

Happy Easter.

Love y'all's guts! 

Hermana McClune

So hard to say goodbye. Onward!

Howdy Y'all! Such a good week! 

It was very hard to say good-bye to Sister Nuckols. We had such a great transfer 

together! I will miss her dearly!  My New companion is is Hermana Pickett!!!!!!!!! 

We were together at the MTC!!! I am sooooo stinkin' excited! She just jumped into

being a STL and has been running. We are going to see miracles in 

Altadena this transfer!

Exchanges are always an adventure! This last Tuesday the Vestavia Hills Sisters were

driving us to go get our car (To my legs great relief) that had been in the shop.  When

she parked, she realized there had been a trench dug out of the asphalt just big 

enough for the tire...and long story short we were stuck. A car dealership/body shop

is a convenient placed to need a tow though!  We were immediately rescued! 

And of course, we immediately gave out Mormon.org cards.  

Different kind of rescuing....but all good!

(Hermana Barralaga, Hermana Togerson, Hermana Layton, Herman Klein, 

Hermana McClune in massive shirt, Hermana Pickett, Hermana Grillone! At futbol 

friday night)

So one of our investigators gave me the most amazing T-shirt ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT's massive! And it

has a huge Super Man sign with the letters above that say "CHRIST DISCIPLE"  Only in the 

south.

Love it!

Friday Nights we have English class, and then after we play futbol! It's a great way to show 

people the church building and connect with members.  I also get to work on my soccer skills....

which suck! This week I only hit the ball twice. 

It's hard shifting from a volleyball player to a soccer player.

When the ball is in the air, my immediate response is to use my hands, rather than waiting for

it to get at a level where my feet can get to it

Hermana Pickett and I (for the time being) Also really hate pancakes.  We had this bright idea

that we would cook enough pancakes for 26 missionaries for a zone activity today. In our 

non-existent spare time.  Luckily, we finished before the power went out! 

We had several flash flood warnings last night, which consists of our weather radio alarm going off 

and scaring me half to death.  The little stream down a ways has completely flooded the path. 

Welcome to the South, if you don't like the weather, stick around!

This is also kind of what my desk looks like after our hour of personal studies each morning.... 

I'm trying to finish Jesus the Christ by Easter. I am so grateful for my Savior and His sacrifice.

ALL IN ALL, life is great here. I loved conference and the spirit I felt during that. I feel so blessed 

that we have a living prophet, to lead and guide us today.  Life is very different than the biblical times,

and while I love the guidance I receive from them, I am so grateful for the the guidance from Heavenly

Father through his prophet for today.  That guidance has made a big difference in my life. I would not

 be the person I am today without the guidance of the prophet, Thomas S. Monson. 

We had a few families come with us to conference, and I was so excited to share with them some of

the biggest blessings in my life. Our Heavenly Father love us so much!

I loved Elder Scott's talk on loving people to be their best selves, and President Uctdorf's on 

gratitude. I have so much to be grateful for!

Like all of you :)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love yalls guts!

Hermana McClune

March 31, 2014

We biked and biked and biked this week! Birmingham has some of the biggest hills ever.  

So one of our investigators moved. It's only like 7 miles away right? So we went over there and have been contacting and all that good stuff.

We didn't know it was in an area where we are totally not allowed.  Now we are only allowed in the day and only to visit her. Rough stuff! Rough neighborhood!

We also had an Family Home Evening at President and Sister Hanks' house.  There was such a feeling peace there.  And of course I brought apple crisp.  President approves of our good ol' Wenatchee apple crisp.

The pic with all the good lookin' missionaries is our district. We had our last district meeting of the transfer.Sister Nuckols is getting transferred :( I'm so sad! It has been such a blessing to serve with her.  I'm definitely going to Arizona to visit, but its good that we will be at BYU together :)

We are teaching a wonderful family. They are so wonderful! The Mom has such great faith and is praying to know if what we teach is true, and if this is the direction the Lord wants for her.

Have a great week! Thanks for all the love and prayers! 

Love, Hermana McClune

March 3, 2014

Buenos Dias!

 

I don't even know how to wrap up this week. It was everything good wrapped into one!

 

I love working with the hispanic people.  They are so humble and loving.  We learned how to make tortillas (I got a nice little burn, it'll be a cool scar!) and muscaduras (little cookies to dip in your coco de Honduras). 

 

Yesterday was my first time attending church in Spanish on my mission.  It was great!  Not that it was a direct plan, but I was hoping to just kind of sit back my first day and observe.  Still be proactive of course but I wasn't planning on bearing my testimony during testimony meeting. As I looked around though, I thought :"Don't get to comfortable Sister McClune, there are about 20 people in here, and we got an hour to fill of testimonies".  That doesn't leave a lot of options of who can bear their testimony haha it was great though! I probably say a lot things wrong still, but I'm getting there. They help me :)

 

There is so much power in their testimonies. They have been through much more than I can ever imagine. They have sacrificed so much. When they bear their testimony of the love and power of our Heavenly Father, and the truth of Book of Mormon that was translated by a prophet of God in these days, there is no doubt that they know.

if you pay attention to nothing else. Pay attention to this part: 

 

There will be times, at the end of a lesson, when we ask them to pray.  Often times they are nervous and a little uncomfortable.  They often pray for our families and friends back home with great love and sincerity.  I think about their lives: they have broken families, are in a very foreign environment, and scraping to get by every day.  Yet despite all that, they pray for us. 

 

That really just hits me.  It's really impossible to explain. 

 

I want y'all to know how loved and appreciate you are by people who have never met you.  They are grateful because of the hope the gospel brings into their life.  I wouldn't be out here if it weren't for the great love and support I have from so many different people.  Thank you. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Las Quiero!

Hermana McClune