Wendy's!!!

Hey Family,
  
This has been a pretty good week I guess.  Nothing too exciting happened, but it was a good time!  Our proselyting area is really, really huge, so this past week, we spent a decent amount of time exploring it.  It actually ended up being really fun, and we found a whole bunch of cool stuff!  Bávaro is a huge tourist area and so tons of Dominicans move over here to find jobs in the hotels.  Because there wasn't a church within a good two hours of here before, there were a lot of members who went inactive.  While exploring, we get approached by inactive members all day - wanting to go back to church, which is really cool!  We had a couple that showed up to church, but the house is in a weird place in a guarded neighborhood, so it is not easily accessed . . . but I think we have enough inactives over here to fill up the chapel 100 times over.  So, we will continue trying to help spread the word that the church is here now.
  
Another highlight of the exploring is that we found two awesome shopping/totally American malls that have some great stuff!  So different than where I have served so far.  One of them has a Hard Rock Cafe (which we can't go to) and a Tony Roma's, and the other one has a . . . Wendy's!!!  There are only 2 Wendy's in the country, and the other is in the West mission.  Nobody knew before, that there was a Wendy's here, but now we know exactly where it is and we can enjoy Frosties whenever we are in that part of the area :)!
  
Alvin came to church again this week which was really cool!  He lives kind of far away in this little beach town, so we were only able to go over there to teach him once this week - but the lesson went really well.  He smokes and I am pretty sure that if he smokes, he drinks as well - but those things won't really be a big problem to take care of if he really has faith.  His cousin, the inactive Ward Mission Leader took him to church on his motorcycle and stayed for one of the classes (which was an awesome improvement), but had to take off before Sacrament Meeting to get to work.  So, we will see if we can convince him to stay for the important part next time.
  
 I am kind of getting used to directing and presiding in the meetings.  At first, I was pretty weirded out to be honest, but now, it doesn't really phase me and I am starting to get kind of good at making up on the spot talks when there is extra time to fill :).  Although it is pretty tough, I can tell that this is helping me for my future church service.  A blessing in disguise, I guess.
  
You asked what I meant when I said that the area was too tempting and so other missionaries can't come and visit or anything.  What I meant was is just kind of everything:  pool, beach, girls, clubs, hotels, blowing all of your money, and pretty much all of that jazz.  You also asked why we can't eat at member's homes, and it is because that the president has a rule that we can't because he thinks it is a waste of time.
  
Thanks for the money you sent.  We weren't able to go today to the Manatee park, but we still have the plans to do it.  This area is super expensive and we don't receive any extra money, so I might need a little extra financial support while I am out here.  Yes, we can to to Tony Romas!  I was thinking of trying to do it for my birthday, but that will be a lot of money - so I understand if it isn't plausible.  Sorry, I forgot to get the pic of our house. Take care and I love all of you!

Love, Elder McBride

Cool missionary birthday presents:  Zebra pens, Ties from Pomeroy's (this area is rich and sometimes I feel a little trashy with my 5th gen. missionary ties), Perfect Push-ups, a Yoga book (so I can learn some things), shirts, food, etc.

Me and Elder Timmreck in front of the ward mission leaders house on a fishing dock

Our Tile Ping Pong Court