Last email of 2013

Hey guys! Thanks again for your emails and I love reading them! It has been a great week in the Utah Ogden mission! Tremonton has been pretty warm this week! It was in the high 20s and low 30s, which is awesome. Single digits isn't that fun ;) And yes, I brought my journal this time! :)

Day 1 (Christmas Eve!, Tuesday) - My DL and his comp came up to Logan with us and we got to go to a bunch of stores. So many sales but most of them were stuff I didn't really need. :/

The BEST part of this day was talking to my family for the first time on my mission! It was really weird afterwards. You actually talk to your family, not the people around you. Nonetheless, it was crazy awesome!

Day 2 (Christmas!, Wednesday) - Elder Barnes and I had a breakfast appointment and we were going inside, expecting breakfast. They showered us with gifts. I got a bunch of gift cards and it was awesome!

We were not allowed to work on Christmas day because it's a holiday and people didn't want to be disturbed. They just wanted to be with their family. So to pass the time, my district and I just played board games and it was a blast.

Then, we had a dinner appointment. The family kept stuffing us with food! After my first portion, they put a huge second portion and said, "Eat up, Elder! It's Christmas!" in a cheerful voice. I was SO stuffed by the end of dinner. Then, they decided to feed us dessert. I'm pretty sure that they gave us a huge portion of a pie. I have NO idea how I ate it all but I felt like crap afterwards. I requested to go to the bathroom. So off I went! I went to the bathroom and puked the majority of dinner in the toilet. UTAH OGDEN MISSION STYLE! ;) What a memorable Christmas! :D

Day 3 (Dec. 26, Thursday) - Elder Barnes and I got to visit a couple of the Ward Mission Leaders and correlated the appointments. We got a ton of amazing fellowshippers for our investigators! The work is definitely hastening! I love being a missionary!

Other than that, it was a slow day because apparently, Tremonton is not the place to be at for Christmas break. ;)

Day 4 (Dec. 27, Friday) - We had a talk and a lesson last Sunday so we spent the majority of the day, preparing it. It was on Hastening the Work of Salvation. We wanted to do a really good job on it so we made a lot of preparations for it!

Elder Barnes and I got to see Max Bateman (excommunicated 60 years old guy) and he said that he wants to go back to the temple and he wants us to help him get there. We talked about scripture studying and how it helps us stay on or get back on the strait, and narrow path. It was a fantastic lesson!

Day 5 (Dec. 28, Saturday) - Elder Barnes and I were knocking on a door and they didn't answer. We were going to go contact some people on the Unbaptized list and we got stopped by the WML's wife. She said that she needs help with moving some boxes. It turned out to be Jessica's boxes (she is an investigator who dropped us a couple weeks ago) and after helping out, she said that she wants to go back to church. She also remarked that she misses that peaceful feeling. For about 15 minutes, we were talking about the Holy Ghost and how it helps us gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. It was AWESOME!

We also got to see Kevin and he is doing awesome! He told us that he prayed for a hour straight. Maybe, he was trying to follow Enos' example! ;)  It was pretty cool. The best thing about the lesson is that he said that he wants to go to church. Remember that he never keeps commitments. He usually says, "I will try...". This time, he said, "You know what, I need to go to church. I'll go to your church tomorrow. I promise.". At first, I didn't believe him. ;)

Day 6 (December 29, Sunday) - Elder Barnes and I gave a talk and lesson last Sunday. It was so much fun seeing a lot of the members get motivated.

The best part of this day is that Kevin came to church!! I was so surprised! It was so awesome! Afterwards, I asked him what he liked about church and he replied saying that he loves how talkative the members are to EVERYONE and he likes it a lot better than the Catholic church. He also said that he wants to come back! BOOM! It felt so good to hear that! So he is going to church and he is also praying. What's left? The Book of Mormon. Kevin believes in the Bible and we need to get him to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Barnes and I are going to try Dropping BoMs (teaching tool) on him and see how that goes.

Day 7 (December 30, Monday) - Elder Barnes and I got to see the Glover family! They are doing so well and you could totally see how much the gospel has changed their life for the better! It was awesome. We got to do a really fun object lesson with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (using papers. It's so difficult to explain!) and they loved it so much! They wanted us to keep doing it again and again. :)

We also got to see Tristan Hart and we got to drop BoMs (again, teaching tool for Book of Mormon) on him and he said that he wants to read. It was so awesome to hear that from him. I hope he follows through on what he said. :D

All in all, it was a fantastic, memorable week in the Utah Ogden mission. It's a great day to be a missionary! I love being a missionary. Happy New Years and stay safe. Love, Elder McGrath

Elder Barnes!

Someone made the nativity in snow! It was really cool.

Christmas in Utah!

Hey guys, Thanks again for your emails and I love reading them! It has been a great week in the Utah Ogden mission! Tremonton has been pretty warm this week! It was in the high 20s and low 30s, which is awesome. Single digits isn't that fun ;)

My companion is Elder Kyle Barnes and he is from Page, Arizona. He was born in Japan! His dad was in the Air Force (he is a cop now in Page, AZ) so he lived in Mexico, Germany, Japan and Page! It was really cool! He has been out 20 months so he has 3 transfers left. Tremonton might be his last area. When we first got to the area from the transfer point (where we drop off our comp and pick up our new comp), he was really surprised of how "country" Tremonton was. He served in West Haven, central Ogden, Pleasant View and Plain City so I can kinda see why he was surprised. haha

I left my journal back at the apartment and I really can't do the day by day thing I usually do because a lot happens in a week and I can't remember them all but I do remember some things so I'll do them.

A few days ago, Elder Barnes and I got to visit the Misrasi family and they had their cousins over for Christmas. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the youngest girl (six years old) is a genius. She answered the majority of our questions and nailed the definition of hard words like repentance, baptism etc. She understands everything! It was crazy! The 2 oldest boys committed to baptism in January so I'm looking forward to that!

Robert Hall is finally getting divorced after Christmas and he is going to finally marry Lori! This all means... he can finally get baptized! We set a date for February 8th because he is getting married on February 1st. 

Kevin is .... still Kevin. He still makes commitments but he never keeps them. I already invested so much time with him and I don't want to drop him but I will have to soon. :( Elder Barnes and I will be dropping BoMs on him (it's a way we can make the person have a desire to read the Book of Mormon. We share a few scriptures and testify in a way that's hard to put on paper. It's highly effective! we are going to try this out with him and see how that goes! :D).

Christmas is two syllables: Christ-mas. In Spanish, mas means more. Christmas, obviously, means more Christ. How true is that statement! Christmas time is a time of reflection of our Savior. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has done so much and He asks us to follow His commandments. He is the light of the world. When we have Him in our lives, we can be truly happy in ways unimaginable. I have seen so many people who seems so depressed. They seemed so lost and confused. When they make the choice to attend Church, to read the scriptures, and to pray, they bring that light and because of their choices, they find that happiness. 

Sorry for the short letter. I will try to bring my journal next time so you can have more detail of the Utah Ogden mission (best mission ever!). Thank you for everything you have done for me! MERRY CHRISTMAS and don't forget the real meaning of Christmas! I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

Transfer 3 is officially over!

Hey guys! Thanks for the emails! Christmas is next week! It's SO crazy how fast time flies! This morning we had transfer breakfast (where our zone gathers the day before transfers and when we are eating breakfast, the ZLs announce the news), and I'm staying in Tremonton and will be getting an Elder Kyle Barnes. A lot of people loved him and I'm looking forward to having him as my next companion. My current companion, Elder Vickers, is transferring down to Ogden. 4 companions in my first 4 transfers, all in one area. Dang...I weighed myself a couple nights ago and I gained 20 pounds. Yikes! I need to be more consistent with exercising!

Day 1 (Tuesday, December 10) - Elder Vickers and I got to go to Logan with the Garland Stake Elders and we just shopped at Deseret Bookstore, Wal-Mart and Levens (an amazing tie store. Missionaries can buy ties for 5 bucks!)

After shopping, we got to go see Kevin and he fed us Papa Murphy's (a really good pizza place in Utah) and we had the meat-lovers pizza. It was so good. I only had room for one slice of pizza. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it can help us. He said that he will read it this week and he never said, "I'll try.". He said, "I'll do it."! Unbelievable! I love being a missionary!

Day 2 (Wednesday, December 11) - Elder Vickers and I got to go see Robert Hall and before we sat down to talk, he told us some big news: he is FINALLY getting divorced, meaning that he can marry his fiance and then get baptized! :D We decided to talk about baptism and how it helps us get closer to Heavenly Father! It was a fantastic lesson!

We also got to go see the Glover family and we taught them how to do a FHE (family home evening). We talked about the Iron Rod and played a little game. It was a super fun lesson. The Glover family is SO awesome!

Day 3 (Thursday, December 12) - Elder Vickers' ankle was hurting really bad that day so we had to take it easy. His ankle was one of the reasons why he got transferred to Ogden East which is super close to the Mission office.

We didn't have any lessons on this day but we got to meet with the Stake auxilaries and got a ton of referrals. We have been contacting those referrals for the past couple days! :)

Day 4 (Friday, December 13) - Elder Vickers and I got to see Kevin today and he told us that he hasn't been reading the BoM so it was really disappointing. Because of that, we got to talk about commitments and why we extend them (we might have to drop Kevin because he seems not to be interested in progressing but to have friends who listen. :()

We got to see Sister Sherlene Brown (Elder Zarse and I taught her before she moved to New Mexico and she moved back up!) and she is doing awesome. We talked a little bit about CPR and it turns out, she is doing them! She is doing all three of them! :D It was a fabulous lesson! I'm glad to be finally teaching her! :)

Day 5 (Saturday, December 14) - Elder Vickers and I got to go to the Spanish Elders' baptismal service and I could not understand anything that was going on but I felt the Spirit so strong and it was amazing. The Spirit is so awesome!

Sister Brown invited us to go with her as she visits a family whose house is DECKED OUT with Christmas decorations and we decided to go. Holy crap! The family went overboard with the decorations. It was really cool though!

After seeing the awesome house, Vickers and I got to go see Wendy Head who wants to go through the temple but has a smoking problem. She told us that she bought e-cigs to help her quit smoking and I hope it works! She has been reading the BoM, going to church and saying her prayers daily. As long as we keep the commandments, the Lord will bless us with things beyond imagination!

Day 6 (Sunday, December 15) - Elder Vickers and I decided to go to the 8th ward Ward Council and holy crap! It was GLORIOUS! All we talked about was missionary work! The ward is getting fired up on missionary work and I love it! It's the best!

During sacrament meeting, I had a gut feeling that we were going to speak. I asked Elder Vickers, "Are we speaking today?". He replied, "Nope.". Guess what?! One of the guys in the Bishopric went up to the pulpit and said, "We will have the privilege to hear from Elder Vickers and Elder McGrath today."! I KNEW IT! We just bore our testimony. It was pretty fun!

After that, we went and talked to a Sunday School class consisting of 16 years old kids and they asked so many questions about missionary work! It was so awesome answering those questions!

Day 7 (Monday, December 16) - We got to go see Robert Hall and his fiance, Lori Larsen and guess what?! Robert is getting divorced later this week and Robert and Lori will now get married on February 1st!!! We set a baptismal date for February 8th! It was awesome! We talked about eternal families and the blessings that comes from going to the temple! They were so happy and loved the lesson. :)

We got to eat dinner with one of the WML and we talked for a couple hours sharing stories from the mission. He has SO many cool stories from his mission. He served in the Argentina Buenas Aires South mission! Yes, I told him about you, Dad! :)

'And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end, they are received into heaven, they thereby they may dwell with God in the state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." Mosiah 2:4

I love you guys! You guys are awesome! Have a great holiday season and stay safe! Love, Elder Sam McGrath

Four months now

Hey guys! I highly enjoyed the emails that I have received this week. I got that Christmas present and thank you so much for the stuff! It was awesome! I love it out here in Tremonton, Utah even though it is freaking cold! It was in the negatives yesterday! I remember wearing shorts and t-shirt in the winter in KSA and sweat a little bit. It was awesome. The snow isn't very fun but it is a lot of fun to drive on it. My companion thinks the other way! ;) Don't worry, I'm not driving fast. I have been going the speed limit and don't worry, I got it. My companion is teaching me how to drive in snow.. properly... :D

Day 1 (Tuesday, December 3) - Elder Vickers and I got to go to Brigham City because Elder Vickers need to pick up some prescription for his ankle. He needed to get some pain meds. His foot is having the same problem that got him sent home in the first place. :(

I got to see Elder Gallagher! He was in my MTC district. He is the only other Elder besides me that was in my district who is still serving. The other Elder had to go home for back surgery. :( It was so awesome to see him and we got to go shopping for groceries together. We went to Wal-Mart and Shopko! I saw this waffle maker that was on sale (half off! :D) and it was a nice one for cheap so I bought it. I have used it every single day now. :D I bought a bunch of waffle mix because we don't have flour, sugar, and other essentials for waffle. It's delicious! :D

Elder Vickers and I got to go visit the Glover family and we got to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the teabag analogy. It was a very cool lesson and the kids were in awe. It was awesome! 

Day 2 (Wednesday, December 4) - In ONE day, the temperature dropped 40 freaking degrees. Last Tuesday, it was in the 50s then this day, it was in the 10s.. Brrrrrrr...

Elder Vickers and I got to see Robert Hall and we asked him about the goals for prayer. He DID IT! Woot! He told us that he is gaining a lot of confidence with prayer which is incredible. I remember teaching him for the first time and we asked him to say the prayer. He shot the offer down straight away and when we asked him last Wednesday, he accepted immediately! To be honest, I was shocked! It was an awesome prayer!

Day 3 (Thursday, December 5) - Elder Vickers and I got to go down to Paradise, Utah for the mission Christmas party. Since the mission is so big (270 missionaries! We cover from Syracuse, UT to Preston, ID.), we had the North part of the mission come. It was a blast!

We got to hear from President and Sister Hiers as well as one of the USU (Utah State University) Stake President and his wife speak. They were FANTASTIC! I loved hearing them speak because they speak powerful words and the Spirit is so strong!

After hearing them speak, we got to have a Christmas Dinner (it was weird having Christmas Dinner at lunch on December 5 but hey, I'll take what I can get! :D). We had ham, and a bunch of other delicious Christmasy food that I have no idea what they are called.

After we finished eating, we got to meet the guy who played the old Ephraim in Ephraim's Rescue (a FANTASTIC movie!)! He was a really cool guy with a strong testimony! After hearing him speak about how he became a convert to the Church, we got to see the actual movie! It was so sick! 

Day 4 (Friday, December 6) - It was snowing pretty hard this day and we were out tracting via car! ;) We came across Brother Tolboe (the guy I taught a month ago who kept avoiding us) and he was shoveling his driveway. We rushed to the church and grabbed a couple snow shovels and went and helped him shovel snow. It was really cool to shovel snow. I have seen people with quads with a scraper in front of it. It was REALLY awesome!

After that, we got to help take down the set from the Savior of the World! It was really sad because it was a fantastic play! After that, a woman gave us 20 dollars for dinner. Somehow, she found out that we didn't have dinner that night. We went to Dennys. It was crazy delicious! We spent that 20 dollars quite fast. 

Day 5 (Saturday, December 7) - It was my FOUR month mark! I still can't believe how fast those four months went! I don't like how fast the days are going by.. ;)

We got to see Kevin and we got to teach him an awesome lesson of CPR (Church, prayer, reading the scriptures) using the object lesson (it's with 3 cups of the same size and 3 butter knives). He went off and said how those three things help you develop that solid foundation in Christ. I was stunned when he said that. I was NOT expecting him to get that. He is a genius!

Day 6 (Sunday, December 8) - For this past week, Elder Vickers and I have been trying to be strictly obedient. We both tend to wake up at 6:30am and look at the ceiling for 5 minutes and during that process, we usually fall asleep. I just get up and go straight to the light switch and I find that so much easier to keep that rule. The light wakes you up quite well. Because of doing this, we have seen blessings. We got to see a couple people that we were teaching at sacrament! Sister Brown (she originally moved down to New Mexico but one day, she spontaneously decided to move back to Tremonton) wanted us to come over and teach her! :D

We got to teach the Yin family for the first time! They are from Cambodia! We had the WML (his name is Brother Zundel) and he was awesome! He was a convert himself so he knew how to help them better than us. It was awesome having him there! We got to teach them the Restoration and how we came to have the Book of Mormon!

After that, he invited us to come over to his house and watch the Christmas Devotional on his HUGE flat screen! It was SO awesome! I love Brother Zundel! He is the BEST WML ever!

Day 7 (Monday, December 9) - It was an extremely slow day. Elder Vicker's foot was hurting him again (it was the same pain that got him sent home!) so we had to take it easy. But, we got to see Tristan Hart. He fell off of our radar but we caught him and set up a return appointment! I'm excited! I love you all and have a great week! 

Through joy and peace 

or pain and sorrow

REMEMBER whose 

footsteps you follow!

BE MIGHTY!

Helaman 10: 4-5

Be happy and stay strong. I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

It's December!

Hey guys! It's already DECEMBER! What the heck? It feels like I just entered the MTC yesterday. 4 months. Wow! I still can't believe how fast the previous 4 months has been for me. It's crazy how fast time flies. I am loving it out here in Tremonton, Utah! I'm so blessed to be a missionary because it's the best!

Day 1 (Tuesday, November 26) - We got a notice that our house was going to be inspected the next day and our house is kinda of a disaster so we dropped all of our activities and drove down to Ogden to pick up cleaning supplies at the mission office! We then spent the majority of our pday cleaning up the house and it was SPOTLESS! It was so nice having that house to be so clean and not have to worry about having clean dishes for breakfast. Hahahaha!

After cleaning up our house, we were invited to go to the YSA ward's (one of the wards that we cover) thanksgiving dinner. It was so delicious and there were so much food. Elder Vickers and I were chatting a lot with the people of the YSA ward and they are all really cool. A lot of the guys there shared some really amazing missionary stories. It was a pretty cool dinner. I left the church building with a FULL stomach so it was all good!

Day 2 (Wednesday, November 27) - Elder Vickers and I got to see Robert Hall and we got to talk about prayer. We also talked about how helpful goals are and how they help us reach to the end! We set up a goal for Robert to gain confidence with prayer. This is what we came up with for Robert to gain that confidence he needs: 

-pray by himself

-pray vocally by himself

-pray as a couple

-pray as a family

-pray with missionaries

-pray with a small group.

I feel that the list we made to help Robert gain confidence with prayer will help him immensely! I'm excited to see how it goes. Our landlord told us that we did a very impressive job with cleaning the house and that he wants to do more inspections so that way, the house stays cleaner. Yay..... ;)

Day 3 (THANKSGIVING, November 28) - The Misrasi family (Part Member family. Parents are less active and kids are not baptized. Typical PM family style) invited us over for Thanksgiving breakfast. Oooh! That's the first! Sister Misrasi was got divorced and then married to Brother Misrasi. It's Sister Misrasi's ex-husband's turn to have the kids over at his house for thanksgiving dinner so the Misrasi family just created a tradition for every other year and that is thanksgiving breakfast. We had so much food. I was worried that I couldn't eat everything that they put on my plate. I was so FULL by the end of thanksgiving breakfast so Elder Vickers and I went to the Stake Center and I lied down on the ground, refusing to move for a hour. Too much food! ;)

Three hours after that, we headed over to Kevin's (an investigator that has a baptism date for December 14 which will not happen because he still doesn't keep commitments) and he cooked a 21 lbs turkey. It was a massive "bird". That's how Kevin calls it. It was funny how he calls it!

I'm pretty sure that I have gained so much weight due to all of the food that I ate on Thanksgiving! :)

Day 4 (Friday, November 29) - It was Black Friday so Tremonton was so quiet. Almost everybody went to Logan or Ogden to go shopping. Elder Vickers and I knocked on 75+ doors on that day and nobody answered. It was by far the longest day on my mission. But a MIRACLE happened on that day!

I wanted to talk to someone about the gospel and it was 8:30pm so it was almost time to go home. Elder Vickers wanted to go back home to relax. I denied and told him that I want to at least talk to one guy. I decided to pull into this nearby mobile home park place. We were driving really slow and we saw this one lady pulling out bags of something out of her car. I quickly drove to the curb and ran out to her and offered my help. She said no and we got to talking. Her daughter comes out and grabs a bag. Her mother (the one we have been talking to) wants to introduce us to her so she starts to SIGN to her. I was taken aback. I got focused and started to sign to her. We just did the basic get-to-know stuff and she went inside. After that, I felt something stir inside of me and I felt like I should talk to her more. I asked her mother if we can go in and asked if there was a male who is above 21 years old inside. She said yes to both! It was crazy! So Elder Vickers and I go in and it turns out the daughter and her boyfriend are 100% deaf so we got into a conversation in sign language and a lot of things came back. Elder Vickers was totally lost and was all in his dream. It was great! I loved every single second of that conversation! 

Day 5 (Saturday, November 30) - We got to stop by Kevin and  we just talked about how the gospel blesses us and he told us that he went to a Catholic church last Tuesday! :( It sucked hearing that so I'm guessing that the baptism wouldn't happen. :(

We got to visit an old woman named Wendy Head whose son died in a car accident last year and this is her first holiday season without her son so she feels alone. We just shared "Mountains to Climb" video (amazing mormon message! watch it!) and gave her our number just in case she needs help. It was a pretty cool lesson.

Day 6 (Sunday, December 1) - We got to contact a referral who is Brother Christensen. He fell 12 feet off of the ladder and he broke his back in 39 pieces or something like that. He spoke really quietly. We gave him a blessing of comfort and he said that he felt good after that. We then started to talk about the Holy Ghost. He was like, "yeah, I believe that.". It was pretty cool!

Elder Vickers and I got to go to the 8th ward (one of the wards we cover) sacrament meeting and it started off really slow. No one would go up. I decided, "What the heck.. I'll just go up and bear my testimony." I got up and just did it. After that, people just kept on going up and most of them were talking about missionary work and it was awesome! It was one of my favorite sacrament meetings by far! 

Day 7 (Monday, December 2) - Elder Vickers and I got to go see Jessica Espinoza. She went OFF! She dropped us. Last night, she brough up a concern and went on complaining about how crappy the bishop (he is awesome btw) and how Tremonton has it out for her and that's because of us. It shook Elder Vickers really bad and he didn't talk at ALL for the rest of the day and it was hard trying to see other people after that because I didn't want to do everything myself. I want to bring Elder Vickers into everything I do because I want people to trust him when I leave the area.Nothing much happened yesterday. :(

Thank you for all of the letters! Thank you for the love and support, I really appreciate it! Through joy & peace, or pain & sorrow, REMEMBER whose footsteps you follow. BE MIGHTY! Helaman 10: 4-5. Love you all! Have a great week and stay strong! Be safe! Love, Elder McGrath

So many sheep!

View of Bothwell farms

Elder Vickers in the car!

Me, Eric Hansen, and his son, Mason Hansen. They are AWESOME! They are one of my FAVORITE members in the Tremonton West stake! They love love love the New Orleans Saints. hahaha

Mason Hansen (some kid that's really cool. he loves the Saints from the NFL) and I with the new CoD: Ghosts poster

November is almost over...what?

Hey guys! I loved your letters as usual! I cannot believe that November is almost over. I'm almost to my four month mark! What? I still remember the day I entered the MTC really well. It felt like it was YESTERDAY! What?! How crazy is that?!Tremonton is a wonderful place to be in. I am so glad to be serving here. It's a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission.

Day 1 (Nov. 19, Tuesday) - Elder Vickers and I got to go to the Logan temple and it was so awesome! I love feeling the peace that comes with being inside the temple! I love going to the temple!

After that, we got to go bowling because in Tremonton, missionaries can bowl for free. :D I played 4 games against Elder Vickers and won three out of four games! I let him win a game out of pity. haha.

One of the WML gave us a challenge and that is to visit to the Nelson family. He wouldn't tell us their background because he told us it would blind us when we contact us. We got to go knock on their door and the father answered the door. I smiled and extended my hand and said, "My name is Elder McGrath. What is your name?". He then slammed the door. I was stunned. What is wrong with this guy?

When we returned to the WML's house and reported on the situation, he said that he knew that it was going to happen. He then told us that both parents were returned missionaries and that they know exactly what we are trying to do. They were an active family then an unfortunate situation involving one of the boys in the family and other kids in the church. The other kids in the church didn't really like one of the Nelson boys so they tried to kill him. Yes, they almost killed him. The bishop of the ward didn't really do anything so they got mad and withdrew their records from the church. Since the father works overnight at home doing customer support for a tech company, the family decided to become nocturnal so they can feel like family. So the WML told us to go knock on a door without any background info and it turns out that they have so much hatred for the church and is a nocturnal family. There are weird people out there. haha.

Day 2 (Nov 20, Wednesday) - I got to go on exchanges with Elder Ford (He is from Sydney, Australia and he is the DL. He came out at the same time as Caitlin which was pretty cool! He has the coolest accent ever.).

Ford and I got to go see Robert Hall (we taught him everything and he still lives with his fiance because his divorce papers with his "ex-wife" wouldn't go through) and we were talking about trials and challenges that we have in our lives and we started talking about Jesus Christ and how He helps us. After a little bit, Robert said that because of his commitment to follow Jesus Christ, he has seen so many blessings and the biggest thing is that the divorce is moving along now! It was SO awesome hearing that. We then talked about fasting and how it can "accelerate" the rate of blessings. He committed to fast for the purpose of his divorce going through so he can marry his GF that he lives with so he can get BAPTIZED! We don't have a date set up with him because we have NO idea when the divorce is going to happen so..

We got to see Kevin today and we talked about baptism and how it helps bring us closer to Jesus Christ and how the gift of the Holy Ghost can help us endure challenges and trials in our lives. We got to set up a baptismal date for Kevin to be baptized on December 14th! I'm so excited!

We got to go see the Glover family because we needed to find a fabulous home teacher that will make sure they keep doing the right things. We went with the WML and after the lesson, he has a great idea of who would be a great home teacher!It has been a great day!

Day 3 (Nov 21, Thursday) - Elder Ford and I knocked on almost all of the doors in one of the apartment complexes in the area and it was freakin cold outside. I was so glad that I wore my thermals and had my gloves with me! It was a great day to meet all of the people and I got to see how to be better at door to door contacting and having TTIs (teach, testify and invite. it's one of the key indicators that we have to report to the Mission President).

After that, we exchanged back to our transfer companion and Elder Vickers and I got to go to Savior of the World. It was held by the Tremonton West stake (the stake that I currently cover) and it is basically a musical about the birth of Jesus Christ! It was INCREDIBLE! The Spirit was SO strong in there! I loved every single second of it! :) Not many things really happened on that day! :(

Day 4 (Nov 22, Friday) - Elder Vickers and I got to go to Zone Conference in Brigham City today and we got to be interviewed by the Mission President. When we sat down, he then asked me how long I was in Tremonton, how well things are going, questions like those. After all of that, he then told me that after this transfer, I might be transferring down to OGDEN to be in an area that covers the English speaking stake as well as a DEAF ASL branch. It was so crazy to hear that. It will be nice to be close to the mission office and be able to get missionary supplies easier. I might be able to go to some of the basketball games for Weber State as long as it's on Tuesday days, which might not happen :(.

We got to go see Kevin and as we came into the house, he was cooking up some CAKE for us. Too bad, it was chocolate. ;) After a couple minutes, Kevin went to the fridge and pulled out TWO 2-liter Mountain Dew Voltage (which is one of my favorite sodas. Merinda is the BEST!) and just gave it to us. He was like, "You can have this. I got it for 77 cents at Ridleys (the top grocery store in Tremonton, in my opinion).". It was so awesome! I downed one of the 2-liter that night! Big mistake! I probably gained so much weight from that night! I felt like crap but I slept just fine! ;) Because Elder Vickers hates soda, he gave me his 2-liter and I just gave it to the Spanish Elders. 

Day 5 (Nov 23, Saturday) - We got to go see TWO showings of the Savior of the World production! It was so awesome!

We got to see Jessica Espinoza (the manly female) and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ (again!) but this time, we used the teabag object lesson. She FINALLY understood it and we invited her to be baptized on December 14 and she ACCEPTED! :D

Elder Vickers and I invited a lot of people to come to Savior of the World and we only had one Part-Member family (Robert) come. I even reserved seats for one of my investigators. It was a fantastic seat, right up front and center! Kevin, the name of the investigator, texted me about fifteen minutes earlier saying that he cannot go. I told Elder Vickers to come with me and we'll go talk to Kevin. He was reluctant because he wanted to stay and keep greeting the members that come. Having no idea how I did it, I managed to convince Elder Vickers to come with me. In a race against time, we headed over to Kevin's house and knocked on his door and he went on saying that he can't do it. He feels alone. I kept saying that I will be with him the entire time (Kevin is one of my favorite investigators) but he says that he can't do it. It was heartbreaking so Elder Vickers and I headed back to the Stake Center (where Savior of the World is being held) and we got to see Elder Bengston and Elder Jones (Garland elders) walking and we came up to them to say hi. They had TWO investigators with them so I said, "Would you like amazing seats?". They were overjoyed to have really good seats despite being 5 minutes before. It was usually packed within 25 minutes before the musical begins. It was a blessing to have 4 seats reserved for us and Kevin + his son and it didn't work out for us so we gave those seats to the Garland elders. I have yet to know the results but it was extremely disappointing because I yearned for Kevin to be there and he couldn't. I had a feeling after SotW to head over to Kevin's house. We went over and shared a spiritual thought. When I was looking for a great video to share with Kevin, "Origin" came up in my mind. Boom, it was perfect! After the spiritual thought, he kept on saying how perfect was that video and how he could relate to it. After that, we just challenged him to pray and ask God to see if the gospel is true. It was a great lesson!

^ Sorry for the weird text, I sent that to my mission president and I didn't want to type it all over again. I love copy and paste! :) Watch "Origin"! It's AMAZING! You can find it easily! :) Youtube has it. Gospel Library has it (under Videos > Mormon Messages for Youth > Origin).

Day 6 (Nov 24, Sunday) - It was a very slow day! :( BUT we got to see Kevin for the zillionth time this past week! He loves the missionaries! :D He even told me that when I get transferred out, he would be so sad! I didn't have the heart to tell him that I will be moving down to Ogden on December 18. Not very much happened last Sunday! :/

Day 7 (Nov 25, Monday) - It was a good day! We got to go see Jessica with WML of the Tremonton 7th ward and the WML helped so much with the lesson. He talked about the Holy Ghost and how it testifies to you. We just help others recognize that! She was agreeing with everything so it was a great lesson!

Since Jessica is a manly female, we have to get the First Presidency approval to have her be baptized on December 14. We got the ball rolling by calling the mission president and telling him of the situation. I hope everything works out! :)

After that, we got to go see the Misrasi family! They are awesome! We got to do CPR with the object lesson with 3 butter knives and cups of the same size. I'm sure you guys can find this one online. If not, shoot me a message on Facebook and I'll type out the object lesson and possible include some pics. The Misrasi loves our object lessons! Brother Misrasi astounds his co-workers with the object lessons! It was so awesome hearing that from him!

I love being a missionary! It has brought so many blessings in my life and I'm glad that I made the decision to serve. I know that Heavenly Father loves you so much because you are His child. He cares for you. He rejoices when you are happy. He knows you so well. He loves you so much, the capacity of His love towards you is beyond your wildest imagination. I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

Soda given to us by Kevin

 

Another great week in Tremonton, Utah

Hey guys, Thank you all for your emails. It made my week! I really enjoy reading all of your letters and seeing how everyone is doing. I miss you all but I know this is what I need to do. So far, the past three months have been the hardest three months but it was the most rewarding. I love being able to see the change in people and as they do CPR (church, prayer, reading the scriptures), they begin to have a desire to become closer to Jesus Christ. It's what makes all of the work I have been doing worth it.

The area that we are working in is going dry and it's tough knowing that it's pretty easy to get baptisms in the mission but when Elder Scott left, we have no baptismal dates and some investigators are telling us that they don't want to meet with us anymore BUT I know that with faith, anything can happen. We just need to work harder to find new people that are ready to meet with us.

Day 1 (Wednesday) - We were out all day knocking on so many doors (I lost count of how many doors we knocked!) but we got to teach some people.

The first family is Robert Hall (the guy who is living with his fiance and have been taught everything in order to get baptized. Robert can't get divorced to his current wife because his current wife would not sign the papers.) and we started talking about the gospel and how it blesses us. His fiance came in the last 5 minutes and they told us that they have news. Robert and his fiance have been talking about the commandments and they decided to start keeping the Law of Chastity.They are not sleeping together anymore! Wha?! I was stunned when they said that! I was so happy BUT Robert still can't get baptized because he is still living with his fiance. :(

We got to see Kevin and he invited us over for Taco night last night. It's rare that a nonmember invites the missionaries over for dinner so I was SO excited! :D

Elder Vickers and I got to go see the Misrasi (less active parents with nonmember children) family and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with an object lesson. We did the bowl with pepper (as sin) and had one of the kids dip in the water with their finger (that has soap on it) and after the kid dipped in, the peppers "ran away" from the finger. Try it out! It's REALLY cool! We compared that to baptism and that when we get baptized, our sins get washed away. The kids were astounded and kept asking if we could do it again! It was a great lesson.

And for the last lesson, we got to go see the Egli family (part member family. Jaxson Egli got baptized last month but the mother and the daughter is still not baptized and as a result, we are still teaching them). We started talking about baptism and how it helps us receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The fellowshipper was sharing so many great stories of how the gift of the Holy Ghost was helping him endure the trials of his life. It was great.

At the end when I felt the time was right, I invited the mother and the daughter to be baptized. The mother shot the invitation down straight off the bat by saying that she is not ready and that she needs to solve personal issues which we can't help with. The daughter said maybe. She wouldn't set a date. We concluded the lesson by bearing our testimonies of baptism.

A few days later, Brother Egli (who is a less active) texted us and said that they don't want any more missionary discussions and would be calling us when they want the missionary discussion. :( I did NOT enjoy reading that text.

Day 2 (Thursday) - We got to go see Jessica for the first time in weeks (Jessica is the manly-female) and we talked a little about the the Restoration but we had to cut it short because she had something to go to.

We also got to see the Glover family and we got to talk about how families can be together forever. It was a fantastic lesson and the family said that they want to get sealed so it was a GREAT day! I highly enjoyed teaching them about the temples. :)

Besides those two lessons, we were out contacting people on the Unbaptized List (UBL) and I had someone slam the door on my face! Dang it! It was the first time in three months that someone slammed the door on my face. I wanted to see if I could go without having that happen for two years!

Day 3 (Friday) - We had our zone study and Elder Vickers and I set our baptism transfer goal of 1! Since the area is going dry, we just set up a goal of one because we will have to work towards it! I am hoping to have someone close to baptism by the end of this transfer. ;)

Since the area is going dry, we have been going around, checking out the referrals and seeing if they would like to have us over and we also checked every single name on the UBL. We had no lessons planned on that day (which is rare) but it turned out that we had TWO! :D

We got to share a quick spiritual thought with the Fiveash (part member family) family and the one who got baptized in Clinton wants to have Recent Convert lessons! It was SO good to hear that! I love hearing that phrase, "I want to have lessons!". :D

We got to see the Hansen family (a member family) and they gave us a referral! We talked about missionary work and invited them to invite a family to the Savior of the World (it's like the Mesa Arizona Easter Pageant on a smaller scale! It's this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing it!). 

Day 4 (Saturday) - It was snowing, like snow falling from the SKY! It was crazy! Elder Vickers was telling me that kind of snow we went through is nothing. It's scary hearing that. A lot of people are telling me that the temperature outside (it's in the 30s Fahrenheit) is warm. It's scaring me! ;)

We had FOUR lessons planned last Saturday and three of them fell through :(. It's tough seeing lessons fall through.

But we had one lesson! :D We got to see Jessica (the manly female) and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how Jesus Christ can help us endure our many trials. I know that Jesus Christ knows the pains, sufferings and afflictions that we endure. He knows how it feels. He wants to help us. He reaches out HIS hand for us so He can help us but it is UP TO US that we reach out with our hands to allow Him to help us. I testify to each one of you reading this that He is there and that He lives!

After the lesson, I just took Elder Vickers around and had him meet all of the influential families so it was a great day despite three lessons falling through!

Day 5 (Sunday) - Last Sunday was a fantastic day! Elder Vickers and I got to go to THREE different Sacrament meetings and all of them were fantastic. Going to sacrament meeting helps me feel the Savior's love and as a result, my relationship with him gets stronger! Going to church helps strengthen our faith!

During one of the Sacrament meetings, Elder Vickers and I got to hear the Stake President speak and he spoke on missionary work. He also mentioned that the Stake has awesome full-time missionaries and that they could trust us. He also said that he knows that we work hard despite not having any baptismal dates and that we try to get people to commit to be baptized. It felt SO good hearing that and the Spirit was STRONG!

Every 1st and 3rd Sunday, Elder Vickers and I have a correlation meeting with each one of the Ward Mission Leader (WML) and I texted out a reminder. 6 out of 8 WMLs came to the correlation meeting, which is a record for me! :D We got to talk about each investigators and we also talked about inviting them to be baptized. We also talked about those investigators who are REALLY close and we need to make them take that last step to get baptized! Despite the difficulties, I love working with the Tremonton West stake! It was a fantastic day! 

Day 6 (Monday) - Elder Vickers woke up sick. He couldn't talk so I gave him a priesthood blessing and I had him stay in bed and sleep. It was hard to resist the temptation to crawl back in bed and sleep! But I took a shower to help wake me up and I just read the Book of Mormon and watched all three episodes of The District 2 (amazing episodes!).

Elder Vickers felt better by that night so we went out and ate dinner at Kevin's house! It was SO much fun! He makes delicious tacos. We talked for THREE hours and it was a blast. We were sharing so many funny and amazing stories about life in general. Then after that, we talked about baptism and he said that he wants to get baptized! I had the widest grin on my face! BUT he said that he wants to hold that off for a while and make sure that baptism is what he really wants to do! We told him to pray about it and see what God says. I have faith that everything would work out!

After being with Kevin, I got to go introduce Elder Vickers to one of my favorite bishop in the stake, Bishop Jensen of the Tremonton 8th ward. He is SO cool and down to earth. We talked about the people who are in need of help then we shared a quick spiritual thought with him and his family. After that, since he watches NBA and NFL, he was updating me on everything! It was so much fun talking to him about sports and certain players (like Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and other amazing players). It was a great night.

I love being a missionary! I love being able to help the people around me become closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission! Stay strong in the gospel because I know that the gospel is for ALL OF US. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us despite our flaws. We are not expected to be perfect but we are expected to try our best. He will take care of the rest and I have seen that countless times on my mission!I love you all and have a great, safe week! Love, Elder McGrath

Transfer is officially over

Hey guys! I love being a missionary! Elder Scott is now home in La Verne, California and I got to spend the past couple days with the South stake elders, Elder Ford (Australian) and Elder Sutton (Canadian). It has been a great transfer. It went by too fast. My favorite thing about Tremonton is that there is two types of people: farmers and rocket scientists! My new companion is Elder Vickers. He is from Kansas and he is coming back. He was sent home after 6 months because of his foot (he had to get surgery!) and now he is back. We both will be in Tremonton. I got sick over the separation anxiety and nervousness for the upcoming transfer. Being a missionary is a lot of stress and it is the hardest thing I have ever done but I love being a missionary. Since everyone is telling me that they like the way I have been doing e-mails so I'll keep doing it! :)
Day 1 (Tuesday) - Elder Scott and I got to go to Nibley (South of Logan) to have Zone Conference. Elder Don R. Clarke of the Seventy was there! He gave us so many tips and advice on the 4 essentials to missionary work: Finding, Teaching, Next Ordinance, and Retention! It was SO awesome! I felt the Spirit so strong.One of my favorite things about the Zone Conference is that I get to see a lot of missionaries that I know from the MTC and missionaries that I have met over the past few months.We are teaching a new family called the Makinsons (it's a married couple with no kids, the wife is a less active and the father got baptized in September in Las Vegas). We are now teaching them recent convert lessons. It was a great day!
Day 2 (Wednesday) - Elder Scott had his LAST district meeting and he talked about being the Wild Man (taken after Moses 6 or something like that). When we teach people and they reject us, but if we are bold and full of love in sharing our message, they reject Jesus Christ. If we are full of fear and timid, they reject US! We need to open our mouths and proclaim the gospel (D&C 84). It was a fantastic district meeting and I highly enjoyed having Elder Scott as my District Leader.After the district meeting, we just went around and knocked on a lot of doors. We shared a lot of spiritual thoughts which is so much fun to do!
Day 3 (Thursday!) - It was my 3 month mark! It's so crazy how fast the first three months of my mission went by! I love being a missionary! It is indeed a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission.Elder Scott and I got to go up to Malad, Idaho for a baptismal interview. Malad is so beautiful at night and it's a GREAT place! It also marked the first time I (if I remember correctly) that I was in Idaho in my life! Idaho is pretty cool!Elder Scott and I got to go scare a set of Elders. We acted like we were going to raid their house! Their reactions were SO funny! When we got in, they were arming themselves with knives. Hahahahaha! It was hilarious!
Day 4 (Friday!) - Elder Scott had to go down to Ogden for departing missionary training (advice on getting adjusted to missionary life). The Utah Ogden mission has training for literally everything! It's CRAZY! I got to spend the day with Elder Ford and Sutton and we did a lot of work in the South stake! It was a great day! The Glover invited us over for dinner! We had some delicious steak, Brother Glover makes some mean steak! Elder Scott, the Glover family and I talked for a couple hours. We were talking a lot about religion and it was a very interesting conversation! I loved every single second of that conversation! It was a blast!
Day 5 (Saturday) - It was Elder Scott's last full day as a missionary! We taught 3 lessons so I would call it a successful day!We got to celebrate Sister Misrasi's birthday with her! She turned 32! We talked a lot about how the gospel blesses us. She also told us that when we started coming by, their lives began to change for the better! The light of Christ really do change us for the better. They make us aligned to the will of God and as a result of our righteous actions, we are blessed! Oh, how much I love the Gospel!!!!We also got to the Makinsons again! We finished off the Recent Convert first lesson and they want to get a patriarchal blessing! How amazing is that!We got to bring a member of a bishopric to visit the Hart family (mother is less active, father is not a member. they have a 3 years old daughter!). They got to talk a little bit and guess what?! They accepted an invite to have missionary discussions at a member's home! When we teach an investigator at a member's house, the Spirit is a lot stronger and we have a ton more fellowshippers! :)
Day 6 (Sunday) - It was my LAST day with Elder Scott! :( I helped him pack up all of his stuff and we both went down to West Haven. He got to see his family after two whole years! It was a bittersweet moment for him. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get homesick! I got more motivated to keep pushing through the hard times so I can have that bittersweet moment that I witnessed.In the Utah Ogden mission, all of the missionaries who are leaving within the next transfer will be sharing their testimonies and saying their goodbyes to everyone including people they have taught. I got to go see Elder Scott share his testimony and holy crap, it was AMAZING! It blew my mind! It was a pretty emotional night because I got really close with Elder Scott!
Day 7 (Monday) - Elders Ford, Sutton and I got to hit the gym and we had to use their showers because the drainage at their house don't really work that well! Elder Ford had to go down to Ogden for leadership training and Elder Sutton and I got to do some contacting and lessons in the South Stake! It was a great day!
At the dinner appointment, I received a phone call from the APs and since I really suck with the phone, I had Elder Ford talk to the APs for me and after he came back, he came back with a smirk on my face and told me it was about my companion. That's it. It was excruciating. It was the longest dinner appointment EVER! I was so curious about my next companion. After the dinner appointment, Elder Ford told me that I was training an Elder that is coming back to his mission (he was released because of medical issues). I got SO nervous and stressed. I got sicker and I almost vomited that night.
Being a missionary is extremely stressful but I love being a missionary. I can see countless blessings that came from my mission!I love you all and keep writing me! It makes my WEEK! I love you! Stay strong and be happy! The gospel DOES help us! I think I would never be at this point if it weren't for the gospel. The gospel has changed my life for the better! I love you all and stay safe! You all are the BEST! Love, Elder McGrath

What a crazy week!

Hey guys! I loved the emails that I have received today! I cannot believe that President Christensen mentioned me in his talk during District Conference. Thank you, President Christensen!

Tremonton is indeed getting TOO cold! I started wearing my thermals and it feels like a blanket! I love it! I also bought gloves, scarf and basketball shoes (all at Ross! I'm learning from you, Mom! :D) The gloves and the scarf are just AWESOME! I still can't believe that I'm wearing a scarf, gloves and thermals along with my proselyting clothes in NOVEMBER! Northern Utah's weather is just crazy, like today. For our pday activity, a bunch of Elders and I got to go down (10 minutes past Huntsville) and play PAINTBALL! It was SO much fun! I felt like I was in Call of Duty. ;) During paintball, it started to SNOW like crazy! The visibility was cut so short and by the end of the paintball activity, it was sunny with NO clouds in sight! How crazy is that!?!?!

                                                                                                                                           

Day 1 (Tuesday) - Since it was Elder Scott's LAST real p-day (he went on the departing missionary trip to SLC temple today), I decided to let Elder Scott do what he wanted to do. He wanted to play POKER! He has a lot of poker chips so we just used that. It was weird at first because it was missionaries playing poker. That never happens. It was a blast! We had a lot of laughs and it was a great pday activity.

After pday, we got to go see Faith Reece, who just recently moved in from the South Stake and she was a convert who is attending seminary (and LOVES it) but she does not attend church. We invited her to have missionary discussions at a member's house and she accepted. That night, we talked about the Restoration, tying Church, Prayer, Reading the Scriptures (CPR) in the lesson. The 10 years old girl was there and when we were talking about how the Gospel blesses us. She raised her hand and said, "A lot of people look at me funny because I have a glass eye but I know Jesus Christ loves me." Holy crap! The Spirit was SO strong when she said that. I loved teaching that lesson because it's true. Heavenly Father does know us by name and He loves us very much. He watches over us and He cares for us. He truly wants us to be happy. He has given us the Gospel so we can achieve happiness in our lives. I have seen that so many times in my life, even though I didn't recognize it at the moment but I have been working on recognizing more blessings in my life. I love the Gospel! 

Day 2 (Wednesday) - We got to go to District Meeting and Elder Scott (he's the District Leader) taught us on how to use Facebook more efficiently for proselyting! I have learned so much about how to utilize the power of Facebook more efficiently!

We got to see Robert Hall and Lori Larsen (they both are engaged and living together). Elder Scott and I have taught them everything now and Robert said that he wants to get baptized. :D BUT the downside is that he and Lori (she's a less-active) are not keeping the Law of Chastity so for the remainder of the lesson, we talked about the Law of Chastity and the blessings we are promised when we keep them. It was pretty awkward. Two young missionaries (early 20s) telling adults (well into their 40s) what NOT to do when they are not in the bounds of marriage.

We got to go to the Bothwell ward Halloween party! It was awesome because we got to see a lot of our investigators there so it was a blast. We were able to set up a lot of appointments so it was a success. :D

We got to see the Eglis. Jaxson Egli got baptized on October 12 and we are still working with Kiley (14 years old girl) and Becky (the mother) Egli to get them to partake of the next ordinance, which, in this case, is baptism. They are SO close but they said that they have personal issues that is needed to be worked out before they can get baptized. We were fine with it because we now know that they respect that ordinance and they have to desire to be READY (which is extremely important for true conversion) for that ordinance. We got to teach them about Faith and the Holy Ghost and how they both are linked with an object lesson. It was a blast!

Day 3 (Thursday, Halloween) -  Since it was Halloween, it was a really slow day. We only got to see one person and that is Kevin! We actually brought a fellowshipper for the first time so half of it was them getting to know each other. Kevin (missionaries have been teaching him for SIX months and he only kept ONE out of HUNDREDS of commitments) again said that he is too busy for reading the Book of Mormon! The fellowshippers then started to talk about commitments and why, as missionaries, we extend them. Kevin then realized that he needs to start keeping those commitments we extend so that he can have that relationship he wants with God. It was a remarkable lesson. Not once before I heard him say that! It was incredible! Fellowshippers do help immensely in lessons.

Since it was Halloween, we had to be back in our apartments by 6pm for legal reasons. We just scrubbed our house spotless and I love the house being so clean! It's awesome! :D

Day 4 (Friday) - We got to follow up on some of the 100+ referrals we have. We prayed for help and guidance and this name popped out. We knew that we need to visit him. When we dropped by his house, he was not excited to see us. He opened the door and before he could say anything, we both greeted him by introducing ourselves then he said that he was not interested and went on saying that his dad was the bishop of the ward and he received revelation from God that the church is not true and that he should stop going to church and so he did. We just told him that we just want to be friends. We went on saying why we just want to be friends, not the one who condemns the person to Hell if they don't follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ (some LDS missionaries do that sometimes!). He was really impressed so he asked us for our number and wanted us to come back for dinner! :D This is one of the best feelings a missionary could feel. We DO get paid in blessings (and we also have a great retirement plan. ;)).

Since Elder Scott is the DL, he had to go to Garland to do a baptismal interview. I went to Garland with his companion and contacted some of his referrals. The craziest thing happened. As we finished doing a spiritual thought with one of the referrals (now investigator :D), the father asked me where I was from. I replied with, "I'm originally from Arizona but I moved to Saudi Arabia last year." Then he went on saying that he remembers me from Krazy Sub a couple years ago when he was down in Mesa with his family. What the?

We got to see the Misrasi (formerly Nessen. the mother got divorced then got married to a different guy) family and it was just the parents (we are currently teaching their 13 and 10 years old sons) that were there. We talked about trials and how the Savior can help us overcome those trials we undergo in our lives. It was an AWESOME lesson!

Day 5 (Saturday) - Elder Scott and I got to go to the Stake baptisms! It was incredible! I love every single second of it! I love seeing the 8 years old make the covenant they need to make with Heavenly Father!

After that, we got to help the Murdocks (a family in the Stake)! We loaded up the trailer with all of their belongings which, to my surprise, wasn't very much! We got to have a conversation with the Murdocks and it was a great conversation! They are a great family and I am really sad that they are leaving Tremonton!

Since last Sunday is Stake Conference, we got to go to Stake Priesthood and Adult session! It was really good because they mostly talked about hastening the work of salvation! I think a lot of people took a lot of stuff out of it and hopefully have a desire to help the missionaries because missionary work would never be possible without members! Members are that critical to to the work! :)

Day 6 (Sunday) - It was Multi - Stake Conference weekend and Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke! The President of the Seventy also spoke. It was a REMARKABLE conference. Elder L. Tom Perry bore his testimony so powerful and the Spirit was SO strong in the room! I loved listening to him! :)

After going to a bunch of meetings, we got to go down to Brigham City for the musical fireside held by missionaries in the Utah Ogden mission! It was SO good! I got to see a lot of missionaries that I got to meet there and it was really cool! The music was incredible and I loved it! We invited all of our investigators and people that we are teaching and the Glover family came! We got to sit next to them and it was an incredible musical fireside!

I love being a missionary! I love being able to serve for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jesus Christ do lead this church and through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can overcome many trials and obstacles in our lives!I love you all and hope you all stay safe! Don't forget to do CPR (church, prayer, and read the scriptures)! It will definitely help you! Love, Elder McGrath

It's snowing!!!!

The work here in Tremonton is definitely hastening! We taught 17 lessons two weeks ago and 14 lessons for this past week! The people here are just AWESOME. I love teaching them and helping them get closer to Jesus Christ.

Utah is now getting cold to the point where it is TOO cold! I even bought thermal pants and I LOVE WEARING THEM! They are super comfortable and guess what?! Scott has military grade thermals! That's how much he hates the cold! haha.. The mission office called us a couple days ago and told us to get snow tires and make sure to have comfortable winter clothes ready for today! They told us that it was going to SNOW and guess what?! IT'S SNOWING!!!!!

For Halloween, the mission office told us that we have to be back in our apartments by 6pm. Yes, 6pm! The reason why we have to go back to our apartments so early is because of legal issues. There will be people who will dress up as missionaries and then they will do stupid stuff. People who witness the stupid stuff will then sue the Church for whatever happened. By doing what we're supposed to do, the Church can say that we all were back in our apartments by 6pm so they can't be liable for whatever damages there may be. For my Halloween costume, I will be ELDER SCOTT! Scott will then be Elder McGrath.  But for Halloween night, I'm probably going to do my daily stuff then have a little friendly chat with Scott then start to catch up on sleep.

In between appointments, we do some contacting whether it is potential investigators or following up on the list of 100+ referrals we have. A lot of them wanted to talk at the door. So, Scott and I would shiver at the door while the person is wearing a short sleeved tshirt and is in the toasty, warm house. We request if we can use the bathroom. Here in Utah, people never turn down missionaries when they ask to use the bathroom. Elder Scott and I would ask to use the bathroom 15+ times A DAY! Only a couple of them are actually used, the other 13/14 times, we just fix our hair/tie and wash our hands. It's a really neat tactic of "getting inside the home"! :) Now, it's time for the weekly update on the mission:

Day 1 (P-Day) - We got to go fishing! Yes, fishing in October! We got to go up to Thatcher which is part of the Stake that we cover (our Stake is HUGE) and fish in Salt Creek (you can look it up on Google Maps. My fishing spot was the one by 10400N). Scott bought a ton of Mountain Dew Voltage (which is REALLY good!) and we invited Elder Pitcher who is from Canada and his new son, Elder Jones (he entered the MTC on September 18) who is from North Carolina. We drank a lot of Mountain Dew Voltage while we were laughing and fishing! It was a BLAST!  There was a lot of small trees by the creek so we got to catch a lot of branches! :D Out of the whole time, we saw about 1 fish and that was when we started to pack up and get ready for the rest of the day!
That night, Elder Pitcher had someone who needed to have a baptismal interview and because Elder Scott is the DL, he had to go to conduct the baptismal interview. We had a lesson on the same time so I took Elder Jones who is a newbie and we got to see a new family named the Tolboes. The father works for the railroad. The family is really cool! It was weird for me because I had a temporary companion who was younger (missionary age wise) than me. It turned out good. We talked about the 5 Essentials (our purpose, Jesus Christ and the atonement, next ordinance, Holy Ghost, and invitations. If you want more information on the 5 Essentials, please message me on facebook and I can "teach" you a little more about the 5 Essentials). They wanted a return appointment so it turned out good! :)

Day 2 (Wednesday) - We had an appointment with a new family named the Nessen family. The parents are less active and their kids (Ethan - 11, Jakob - 9 and Layla - 5) are not baptized. Ethan loves video games and is a big fan of Call of Duty and Jakob is a big fan of computers. Boom, I had an instant connection with the guys. Layla is a really shy girl so I couldn't really connect with her. :(. We told a lot of jokes to break the ice. We shared a video (A Secure Anchor) and we had a good time! :) Later on Sunday, the mother texted us and told us that at church, the kids were telling all of their friends about the "funny missionaries" that they got to have in their homes! :D
Elder Scott had to go conduct the baptismal interview for Paul who is in the Tremonton South Stake (I cover the Tremonton West Stake). Their fellowshipper was present. Before the baptismal interview started, Paul had a question: what would happen to those people who never had the opportunity to learn about the LDS church? The fellowshipper then went on a 20 minute tirade on what would happen. It just confused Paul a lot and the fellowshipper would NOT let anyone help. Elder Scott had something to say and the fellowshipper wouldn't let him speak. Eventually, one of the South Stake missionaries stopped him and said in a really pissed off tone and said, "Elder Scott has something to say.". Elder Scott then shared D&C 137. Paul then said, "There! That's the answer I was looking for." The fellowshipper then jumped on then continued on his tirade on the three kingdoms of glory and how they all worked even though Paul already knew them... It was the LONGEST tirade I have ever heard in my life.  Then after the tirade, Scott took him to a different room and did the baptismal interview there. After the whole thing, in the car, Scott said that Paul was GOLDEN! He has a strong testimony of the gospel.

Day 3 (Thursday) - Elder Scott and I got to see Tanya Roderick. She is one of our new investigators that we are going to begin teaching! She is a really cool lady! We pretty much did the 5 Essentials with her and she loved it! We offered her the opportunity to have missionary lessons at a member's home and she accepted! Woot! It is a lot more effective when an investigator is being taught at a member's home because the Spirit is a lot stronger and the member family can pitch in with personal stories and testimonies. Because of all that, Scott and I have been trying to get investigators to come to a member's house and do the lessons there.

Day 4 (Friday) - Scott and I got to see Robert Hall and his girlfriend, now fiancé, Lori Larsen. They are living together and Lori is a less active. Robert is a nonmember. We taught them basically EVERYTHING now. We went over the Law of Chastity and how important it is to Heavenly Father that we keep our bodies morally clean. With this situation, the Bothwell ward bishop requested to see us and told us that we need to get them to UNDERSTAND that the Law of Chastity is extremely important and that Robert cannot be baptized if he is not following the Law of Chastity. Scott and I are planning on teaching the Law of Chastity while making sure that they UNDERSTAND that it is a COMMANDMENT from our Father in Heaven.
We got to see Paul Panasuk. The bishop of the Bothwell ward also told us that he was super surprised that Paul Panasuk even listened to us during our discussions. It was really neat hearing that, especially from the bishop. He also told us that a lot of the ward members were shocked to hear that he was taking missionary lessons. :D The Spirit is changing his heart for the better and that is what he really needs!
Elder Scott knows a guy from the Tremonton South Stake. He served there last year so he knows Tremonton pretty well. We got to eat dinner with him. They got Pizza Plus which is SO good! The father served a couple tours in Iraq as an Arabic translator. Scott is from the country, Jordan. You see where I'm going?! They talk a lot together in Arabic so his wife and I just looked at each other and shrugged. It sounds like gibberish. We talked a lot about the Middle East and the chicken shawarma which I miss SO MUCH! We also talked about how terrible the weather is over there. I had a great time eating dinner with the family.

Day 5 (Saturday) - Scott and I got to go help out at the service project held by the South Stake with raking leaves at a nearby nursing home. There was a lot of kids there so before the whole thing, we said that we will try to create the biggest pile of leaves found in all of Tremonton then we are going to JUMP in it! They got so excited and the whole thing was done in about a hour or so which is extremely good!  After the whole thing, we had a great time jumping in the BIG pile of leaves. It was a great service project! I really enjoyed it!

Elder Scott taught and baptized a girl named Faith Reece and she was in the South Stake. She moved and as a result, she is now in the West Stake. She kinda fell away from the church so Scott and I went and visited her. We asked her if she wants to do more missionary lessons at a member's house. She accepted! So we are going to start her process of reactivation. I'm excited!

We decided to drop by the Glover's house and it turns out that they have family over and they are watching the World Series! They were so excited to see us and let us in. We got to meet the family but IT WAS SO FREAKING HARD to pay attention to what they are saying, not taking quick glances at the TV for every pitch. 

Day 6 (Sunday) - We got to go see the Primary Program for Thatcher-Penrose 2nd ward. It was so awesome. When the sacrament meeting started, the bishop said, "We will now have the primary program and after the primary program finishes, we will have the missionaries give the closing remarks." What?! It was a huge shock! We just went up there and bore our testimony. It was a lot of fun and we got to inspire a lot of people! It was a great sacrament meeting! :)

We got to go eat dinner with a part-member family. The mother is a less-active and the father is a non-member. Their son is going to the Arkansas Little Rock mission!! He leaves in December. We gave him a lot of advice on how to better prepare for a mission and answered a lot of questions about financials, and every questions that a future missionary mom has. It was a fun dinner appointment. 

Day 7 (Monday) - Yesterday was our big finding day! We got to meet a lot of people that was on our list of 100+ referrals. It was a great day! We got to see Tristan and Jessika Hart. We taught them about how Jesus Christ is our safety net and we got to share a quick Mormon Message (A Secure Anchor). It was an awesome lesson. 

I still can't believe it. I might be having a WHITE Halloween! Isn't that CRAZY?! :D I LOVE being a missionary! It is the best job in the world! I love being able to see people change for the better. I love you all! Have a great week! Stay strong! 2 Timothy 1:7 Love, Elder McGrath