Christmas in Uvalde, Texas!

Elder Matthew McNamara

Today December 30, 2013 counts 50 days until Elder McNamara returns…….but who’s counting???

Excerpts from recent letters:

December 2, 2013

Hello from deep within rolling hills of Uvalde Texas, where the dogs chase your car and where they have barns that are specifically for driving through to get your beer!!!!! LOLOL

That is right!! A huge thing here in Uvalde is what is called the Beverage Barn. It is a drive through convenient store and they mostly sell beer. I thought it was a smart idea and they seem like they are doing okay business wise, but they are just to expensive for me!!!

Well what a great Thanksgiving Week we had. It started off with a great P-day. Got a good game of Monopoly with the Sisters in. Then Tuesday we went by everybody we could think of to try and set lessons with them for the rest of the week. That didn't go very well but we did get a couple of lessons out of it. Then Wednesday was the Border Run. Elder Skidmore was picked up and My New Companion came in. His name is Elder Aguirre. He is from Chesapeake, Virginia and has been out for 13 months. So far we have been getting along great! We have been doing a lot of planning and still have a lot to do. We have some great plans for this transfer.

Thursday we went to the McFadin's home for Thanksgiving. That was a fun 45 min drive there and then we stuffed ourselves for a couple of hours then had to go home cause the Sisters had another appointment and we were their ride home. We then just hung around our apartment for the rest of the night because we were not allowed to go out and work. All in all it was a fun day. The Turkey Bowl was awesome!!!!! I played as a wide receiver for a while then when I got to the point that I couldn't breathe when I ran I played all-time QB. Which means I played QB for both teams since there was an odd number of people. That was a lot of fun. My team won every time!!!!! It was Great!!!

That is all we did for Thanksgiving.

December 16, 2013

Hello from the city that is surrounded by adventure but there is none in it!!!! LOL  That's right Uvalde's slogan is "Surround yourself with Adventure" Quite a funny!!

Well what a boring week it has been..... Nothing exciting happened. We knocked on a lot of doors and talked to very little people. Got to travel to Del Rio this last Thursday for Interviews with President Slaughter. Del Rio is a much larger city than I thought it was going to be. Interviews went great but right before interviews there was a small group of missionaries that were there that day and President Slaughter sat down with us and just answered some of our questions about the gospel and studied with us from the Scriptures. That was a lot of fun. President Slaughter is quite a smart man!

This week is going to fly by so quickly. We have exchanges plus Christmas Conference. Also the Ward Christmas Program that I am performing in. That is going to be fun....... :-o I was asked to sing the tenor line of hymn 212 Far Far Away on Judea's Plains in a Quartet. I haven’t sang tenor in like forever and so it was difficult trying to learn the part. I am so used to singing Bass. Also I will be doing an Organ Solo in Christmas Conference on Thursday which I am excited for!!!

We have started volunteering at the local pound this last week. We will be going in Wed. at 8pm to put all the dogs into their inside kennels and then spraying down the outside kennels. Then on Friday's from 10 am to whenever we get done we will be walking dogs. It is going to be so much fun!!!!! The pound has 9 dogs and 2 cats. 

 (Note:  Mike and Kim were curious about this – how walking dogs would help proselyting, but in his phone call on Christmas Matthew said they have more people come up to them and ask them questions about who they are when they are walking dogs, than when they aren’t!  We didn’t even think about that!)

Today was Day 658 which means only 66 left which means on our D&C Countdown I read D&C 66 today!! I am enjoying the D&C learning about the beginnings of the church.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!

December 23, 2013

Hello from Uvalde Texas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope y'all have had a great week!!! This last week was a busy one!! We had lots to do and not enough time to do it all!! We traveled to San Antonio Wednesday Night and stayed over so that we could be to Christmas Conference at 8 in the morning. I was chosen to be a Car inspector so that is why we had to be a the church so early. Christmas Conference was amazing!!! We have lots of talent in the mission!! I am sure that some of the videos people took and pictures will be on Facebook or something soon!!

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday night!! That was a very good event! We had a ton of investigators there!!! The food was great and the Nativity was great!!!

My plans for Christmas are not that much. We have 2 dinner appointments for tomorrow Christmas Eve, but none for Christmas Day. We will most likely just be at our apartment chillin’. We can't work unless we have appointments. So far no appointments.

December 30, 2013

Hello!!!!!!

“And then it happens! You find yourself in a place that's as close to far away as you'll ever be. A place where you can get reacquainted with the things that matter. Where traffic jams are called parades. Team meetings are held at the swimming hole. And the biggest stress of the day is the decision between buttermilk biscuits and corn bread. Take a drive to Uvalde this weekend and rediscover what makes U.......you!”

That is how the locals describe Uvalde County in one of their map things that we have. I thought that it was just funny and thought I would share!!! LOL

Well I feel like there is not much to tell since we talked on Wednesday night. The work as continued and we are in the processs of finding some solid people to teach. We met a couple of people last night that seem like they have good potential so cross your fingers that we get someone who is committed to learning the gospel!!!

Also something that I forgot to mention is that at Christmas Conference we found out that Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve will be visiting the mission on January 10th. I am super excited. I have been re-doing the Atonement study we did as a mission last year and his talks are some of my favorite ones.

We don't have any real plans for New Year’s except continuing to preach the Gospel. Tomorrow night we can't work past 5pm but other than that we will continue life as a normal missionary!!

I think that is all from this side of the grape vine (or dead grapevine seeing as it is winter) LOL.

Hope y'all have a great week and a Happy New Year!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Elder McNamara