01-04

Good Afternoon Family & Friends,Hope you all had a great New Years! WOW 2010!! I can't believe it's already been a decade since the whole Y2K shinagan! Well seeing some of the new years pictures from the family - it looks like you had plenty of fun - that fondu party sounded really yummy! As for our New Years Eve we played Life and Balderdash (so Fun) then my lovely mom sent me some fun little party blowers and poppers and so our appartment stayed up till 10:30 and shot them off. (It was sooooo hard to fall to sleep at 10:30, I felt like an old foggie!)At district meeting this week I had myself and Elder Cason train. Elder Cason trained on making our companionship studies more effective in the mornings. Sometimes it is just hard at 9:00 in the morning not to just play around, but to be serious. When Elder Kenneth Johnson came and talked with us he said that one time (this either happened to him or the prophet/appostles, I can't remember) in a companion study there was a hole in the wall and one day a lady came over and said that every morning she listened to them study together and practice teaching and she wanted to get baptized... haha I wonder to myself if someone was listening to my companionship studies if they would want to convert...I trained on getting more investigators and my training was called "Where's Waldo" mauahaha! Get it? Anyway, our district is not doing so hot on finding investigators and keeping them progressing so I taught on ways that we could do so. Sometimes I think the spirit is offended and can't be with missionaries--because of immaturity. Really I can't believe some of the things that get said in our appartment! So an invitation to repent; to change and be better was addressed and so hopefully everything will be better :) We all did a special fast on it too. Did you know that if you don't pay a fast offering your fast is pretty much meaningless!? -learned that from Elder Williams.It's funny how testimonies of the gospel are often not totally lost, but hidden deep inside. This week we had a lesson with one of the less-active families that we have been working with. They seemed to not be getting anything that we were teaching. But this time Brother Louck had a friend over and Sister Louck invited him in and so this guy sat in on the lesson and it was crazy, every principle that we taught the louck family testified of it! Then at another less-active house; Sister Truelock. She told of earlier in the week how a lady was dissing mormons and how she was like "I could never change, it means so much to me!" Gordon B. Hinkley said that 'if we don't exersize our muscles they weaken'. I think to myself how strong these less-actives can be if they only would exersize their testimonies often!Haha, so funny things that happened this week: We were invited to one of our elderly sisters house. She had said to us to "come and see her snow in her window" so I was like OK, snow right - sounds great to me! [Christmas is no Christmas without snow] So we went over and I looked in her window and ...... cotton balls and vassaline all over her window shapped into Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus (all might I add had halo's over their heads.) I was so bummed! She couldn't make that out of real snow?? Haha, while we were there she showed us all these albums of pictures and she brought out a 'pornagraphous' picture of little baby butts..lol old ladies...what can you do with them??? Yesterday I had some drugs offered to me FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!!! Ya cool huh! But I said no :) Haha, we were talking to a couple of punk kids out on the road and the kid flashed me a little bag of them and asked if I wanted it ... golly! Missionaries and moving people in and out seem to go together like speghetti and meatballs out on the mission! This week we got to help a older sister in the ward move to another same size appartment in her same appartment complex. We were very wrong to think that since she was living single she would not have too much stuff.... Oh how we were mistaken.. we forgot the 'old factor'! Piles and piles of crap! And it didn't help that she wanted everything perfectly PILED into her next appartment... haha silly old California people!Oh and so I got to have lunch with a couple of people this week! Brother Kenn Young from Lake Elsinore called and took me, Elder Cason and Brenda Franklin to an expensive Italian restaurant. It was really cool to find out that Brother Yound actually was one of Brenda boss's at work.. Then also this week my convert Rubi Bonilla and her boyfriend Allo came down from Corona and had lunch with me and Elder Williams. Me and Elder Williams told them that they had to get married SOON!! She was pregnate when she got baptized and so they need to get married! I will send pictures of her - I don't think you have any of them.Well I love you all so much! Stay safe! have a great week, thanks for the blog updates and pictures! Christmas & new Years looked like a blast and CONGRATULATIONS MAGGIE ON THE BAPTISM!!!! I am so proud of you!!!Love Forever Elder McBrideOh PS... They are getting a New Elder McBride in the mission so the mission has told me to have everyone know to WRITE ELDER PATRICK or P. MCBRIDE on their letters :)P.P.S Holy, not to be "of the world" but Brittany Murphey died! All the stars are dying!!