McClain Mission

Week 53 Inbox McClain Mission McClain Easton Attachments Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 9:33 AM to me What an incredible week out here! We finished off the transfer with some incredible news out here in Delano and some big miracles. To start off, Johnathan accepted a baptismal invitation for September 18th, so right before I leave this mission! He is a high school boy who reached out to us about a month ago and has such a strong, sincere desire to come closer to his heavenly father and savior Jesus Christ, and it has been such a honor to help him come closer to what matters most. We had a few lessons with him this week, we usually teach him at a park by his house that is a short walk away. On the way there a couple little houses with tarps connecting them, and this week there were a ton of chickens and dogs running around outside one of them. Always odd things going on here in Delano haha. This week we also had a wars fireside, a sunday night program with a few speakers to talk about the te...

week 52 Inbox McClain Mission Notes McClain Easton Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 12:33 PM to me Rookie year baby. I was thinking today. Very few players have gone straight from highschool to the league. Most go to college first. I stand with the elite company of Kobe and LeBron right now. Even Michael Jordan went to college first. So I don't want to get ahead of myself, but... Well I guess it's not the same haha. I was set apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a year ago today! A lot of crazy things have happened since then. I have spent 1 month in the home MTC, 6 Months in Santa Clarita, and 5 in Delano. When I opened my call last May, I never would have imagined myself here. And I can honestly say, I would not trade this experience for the world. It may not be the beaches of Costa Rica, and honestly Bakersfield might fall pretty low on a list of destinations in the US, but it has a piece of my heart. This week was definitely interest...

Week 51 McClain Mission Mon, Aug 16, 2021, 9:25 AM to me Hey everybody!! Just finished up with a wild week, some great stuff and some crazy stuff to report. On thursday this week had exchanges with elder Szymanski from McFarland, but for what feels like the first time I actually got to stay in the area for exchanges. We taught a bunch of good lessons early in the week, and we are seeing a bunch of our friends progressing and enjoying reading the Book of Mormon. Our area has been seeing some awesome success! This week we found a few new families to start teaching, which was such a big blessing. Then onFriday, we headed down to Bakersfield for a mission wide conference with Elder Renlund from the quorum of the 12 apostles. It was an incredible experience to learn from him, shake his hand, and feel of the spirit. So special to think he has the same job as Peter, James, John, and ancient apostles to lead the church, and most of all, to be a special witness of the Savior Jesus Christ....

Date: Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 9:05 AM Subject: Week 38 This week was absolutely, indescribably incredible. On Monday night, I had a little talk with my companions about how we needed to be working harder. Being a missionary companionship is very much a team effort, so though I was doing what I could, we needed to step it up as a team to do more. At first, their reactions to me wanting to do more were pretty mixed, but eventually they settled in, and we got way more done this week than we have been doing before. This week we found 7 new people to teach! We got a call on Thursday at lunch from a former investigator who we had knocked about 5 times last transfer (about 2 months ago) asking us to come over and teach her and her boyfriend, and they want to progress to become baptized members of the church. Then yesterday at church, we had a handful of our friends there, and towards the end of the meeting someone walked in, and handed me a little pass along handout card. It had the ch...

Mon, Jul 5, 2021, 9:01 AM to me I realized this week, I was always so sad growing up when July 1st hit because it feels like school is suddenly just so close, but that definitely something to celebrate out here on the mission that I don't have to worry about that this year haha! We had a great week this week, super busy teaching lessons all over the place. On Thursday we had a Lesson with the meza Castro family, a couple that are our strongest friends, closest to joining the church, and we brought the morales family along. After the lesson they picked about a hundred apricots off the tree in their front yard. Dont remember ever trying apricots besides the dried ones, and they were awesome, so that was a big score. For dinner on saturday, the member that fed us made a Costa Rican meal after I told her about my original assignments, and I was pumped to see some fried plantains. Looking forward to more of that! We had some fun service opportunities this week as well. with the fou...

Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 9:01 AM to me Crazy week up here in Delano! Had the chance to go on two exchanges and both were out of the area, so I spent all of Tuesday down in McFarland and then all of Wednesday in Wasco. On Tuesday I was with elder Robison, and we had a Lesson with their friend Alejandro, who speaks some wild spanish so elder Robison was excited to bring me along for that, he said he usually ends up teaching by himself but was excited to have someone that can speak Spanish with him! He told us his whole life story even though I had just barely met him, and long story short he is working so hard to come closer to God, learn more about the book of Mormon, and give his attention to the missionaries because we are working to give our time to God. He had such a pure desire to become better. And we got some El Haurache Loco Fish tacos, absolutely the best. Finished the night off getting a picture next to the store from the movie! Then Wednesday I headed down to Wasco with the z...

Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 6:04 PM to me Hey everyone! Shorter email this week, just wanted to share a thought. Yesterday we sung Lord I would follow thee in our English program, a hymn, and then in Spanish we sang señor te sequiré which has a slightly different meaning. It directly translates to Lord, I will follow thee. Growing up singing this hymn, I always wondered why we say would. We say would because we are presented with various opportunities throughout our life to choose to follow him, but those opportunities are in the future and unknown, hence "would follow thee." However the Spanish version really stuck home with me. We know these opportunities to choose to follow the Lord will come, and we can choose know that we will follow him. So ask yourself, "would I?" Or "will I?" Yesterday we also shared a special musical number - families can be together forever. What an incredible truth. Brought me so much joy! Mission life was a blast this week! Had ...