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

The week of miracles!

Tremonton is the BEST! This week was a heck of a roller coaster ride! There was some investigators who are NOT progressing and when they're drunk when we come by for an appointment, they disagree with literally everything we say and start bashing the church. It was really heartbreaking but the best part of this past week was that Elder Scott and I taught 17 lessons (we had 20+ lessons planned and some of them fell through), which is the HIGHEST amount of lessons taught. :)

Day 1 - We got to see Paul Panasuk and we basically got to know him. He doesn't like religion very much because he claims that people use religion to control the minds of many people. We just said that we believe in our message and you don't have to take our word for it. You can just ask God and we know that he will give you an answer. He was taken back a little bit and was a little intrigued in why we said that. We explained a little bit, touching a little bit on the Restoration. 

Day 2 - We got to teach 4 people on that day. :D  The first one was Melissa Espinoza. She has a hard time with the idea of a God and that He sent His son down to Earth to administer His work here on Earth and to atone for our sins. She forgot that we were coming and that she has company over. She wants to reschedule. I quickly asked her if we can share a really quick spiritual thought. She agreed, reluctantly. We went inside and shared a quick Mormon message called Mountains to Climb. We bore our testimony of our Savior and how He has helped us. Melissa and her friends were crying with tears of joy! The Spirit was so strong and the whole lesson took about 10 minutes! Just like that, short and simple! 

The second one was Ethan Nessen and his family. This guy is only 10 years old and he wants to get baptized but his biological father wouldn't let him. We shared a quick Mormon message, the one about the scorpion and the sting. It basically teaches us about obedience.It was a pretty cool lesson we taught!

The third lesson we taught was with the Glover family. We taught them about sacrament and the importance of taking it (3 Nephi 18: 5, 7, 12 are really good scripture about sacrament). They are so awesome. I love being able to teach them! :)

The fourth lesson was with a new investigator, Tanya Upshaw. We did the tea bag object lesson that correlates with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (the object lesson can be found here, fourth paragraph). She was SO surprised by how the tea bag flew to the ceiling. 

Day 3 - We were doing some contacting. We have 100+ referrals.... We are trying to get in touch with ALL of them. We came across the Erickson family and the father is a BIG TIME hunter. He has this sick crossbow that can be found on the market for at least a couple grand. He has this fake deer with a target. The best thing is that he let us shoot it. It was SO awesome. The cross bow has a scope and all of the awesome features that would make the crossbow super powerful. I shot and was super close to nailing the outer side of the bulls eye. My Arab comp, Elder Scott missed the target completely. Guess what?! I shot better than the Arab! haha. 

We got to see Kevin and when we came in, he was FLAT OUT drunk. When we came in, he started claiming that there is no God and that all of us are fools. It was really heartbreaking to hear all that but I know that he didn't mean it because he was drunk.. :(

Day 4 - Mica, who is a 9 years old girl from the Glover family, got BAPTIZED! WOOT! The entire Glover family and their relatives came and it was a flawless baptismal service! I highly enjoyed being there. One awesome thing is that Mica's younger brother (Kyler), who is 6 years old, gave the closing prayer and he did an awesome job! The best thing about that is that he VOLUNTEERED to do that! :D We did a lot of service for one of our WML and the picture is on FB. You can find it on my Facebook page.  It was a blast!

Day 5 - The bishop in the YSA ward that we cover called us the night before and asked us if we can give a talk. We stayed up to midnight the night before writing our talk, we have no copy and paste because it's on paper :(. I talked about the importance of asking questions and a lot of people approached us afterwards and told us that we did a great job. :D We got to see Tanya Upshaw and we taught them CPR, using the object lesson. I'm sure that you can find it on the internet. They were telling that the object lesson is impossible but we proved them otherwise! :D 

Scott and I got to see the Glover family! They are SO HAPPY! I'm so happy to be able to change their lives for the better!  We basically taught them Lesson 5 (L5) found in Preach My Gospel (PMG) which talks about Laws and Ordinances. We talked about Patriarchal Blessings, Sacrament, and a bunch of other ordinances! 

Day 6 - We got to see Robert Hall and it was a great lesson. We taught him Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. He told us that he feels the Holy Ghost when he prays! :D He is such a great guy and I love being able to teach him!  

We also got to teach the Nessen family and we talked about Jesus Christ and how the Holy Ghost is important to us. We also talked about Heavenly Father. The mother started crying and told us her experiences of when and how she felt close to Heavenly Father. It was a great and moving lesson! I LOVED teaching them! They are an awesome family!

Kevin FINALLY started to keep his commitments. He is starting to read the Book of Mormon! :D We basically talked about 2 Ne 2. He apologized for being drunk when we came by. He told us that he threw out all of his alcohol! :D :D :D I'm so happy for him!

I love being a missionary! It's the best job in the world! We get a great retirement plan and we get paid in blessings! ;) This week was definitely full of miracles and blessings!

I love you all! Have a great week and don't forget to pray! Love, Elder McGrath

It's already halfway through October?!

Hey guys! It was so awesome to get a lot of emails. It was so great to hear about what's happening back at home. I'm glad that you're enjoying Rome! Don't forget to eat some pizza for me! :) 

This past week was FULL of miracles. Yes, miracles! A lot of investigators are progressing and some of them are SO close to baptism. Scott and I might have to up our baptism goal of 5 for this transfer! It's going THAT well! It's a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission! Tremonton is getting a little chilly now and every day seems to be really cloudy so I miss the sun that Arizona and Saudi offers! 

Update from mission office: All Christmas packages must be mailed to the mission office by November 30! Be sure they mark “Christmas” on the package so we can save them for distribution at our Mission Christmas Event.

Day 1 - Scott, Pitcher (an elder who is covering Garland), and I got to go down to Brigham City to play basketball for 3 hours and it was a blast. We have an elder who is 6'6" and he played HS in Michigan. He is INSANE at basketball and he can dunk all over the place. It was crazy fun! 

After doing our p-day stuff (shopping, basketball and cleaning up the apartment), we got to go see Kevin and his son, Dylan (who is never there) happened to be there and he wanted to say hi to us, which is a miracle! It was an awesome day!

Day 2 - We did an exchange and I got to be with Elder Pape who is from Kentucky. He is 20 years old and he has been out for 10 months. He's a stud! He is a big fan of end of the world stuff so we talked all night about end of the world stuff. I had a great time with him.

Pape and I got to see Robert Hall and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the teabag analogy (look it up, you should find it easily!).  He loved the lesson and he was SUPER surprised of how the teabag analogy works (his eyes popped out, which was a little funny). 

The most disappointing part of this night was that the rest of the appointments fell through because they weren't there or their kid was sick. It was really disappointing! 

Day 3 - We got to see the Glover family! They are SO awesome! We did the baptismal review with Mica so she can be ready for the baptismal interview. She is so ready for baptism. She remembers everything including all of the hard words (repentance, atonement.. etc). She's a genius! The coolest thing was that her father (he is a cop for Brigham City) is expressing a lot of interest in religion lately. He was a less active and he wanted nothing to do with the church when we first came but now his heart is softening!

Scott and I got to visit the YSA ward bishop and he is a STUD! His name is Bishop Martineau. He invited us to participate in the YSA ward Pinewood Derby! It's on a Tuesday, PERFECT! I'm pumped for it! Bishop Martineau is a great guy and he laughs at all of our lame jokes. He is a hilarious guy with a great sense of humor! 

Day 4 - I got to do another exchange but this time, it was with Elder Sutton. He entered the MTC last month so I'm older than him! He is from Edmonton, Canada and he loves basketball so we mostly talked about the NBA and the teams. He loves the Dallas Mavericks! Whaa? We were debating on which team were better! 

Sutton and I got to go visit a lot of the stake's auxiliaries and the Primary President for one of the ward invited us to go to her backyard and her husband was skinning PIG! It was disgusting. There was a tub full of guts from pigs. It was so disgusting yet interesting. 

We also got to see Kevin and we shared a video called A Secure Anchor (found in Gospel Library 3 under Mormon Messages for Youth). His heart was touched and one 10 years old kid was there and Kevin went on explaining to the kid what the video clip was about. He also talked about me and the trials that I went through. It was so quiet, so quiet that if a pen would drop, it would be super loud. It was a very moving lesson. It was a great day!

Day 5 - Jaxson Egli (9 years old kid who lives in Thatcher, Utah) got baptized! It was a great baptismal service and I'm glad that I got to be a part of it. Scott and I are still teaching his mother and sister who are not yet baptized. They are SO close to baptism! It was a fabulous day!

Scott and I were heading towards McDonald's for lunch (it's cheap so that's why we eat there) and on the way, I was thinking about one investigator (Paul Panasulk) and guess what, he happened to be there! We talked and set up a return appointment! What a miracle! 

During tracting, we came across a neighborhood block party and they invited us to participate. One 10 years old kid told us a black joke and his mom told him to cut it out. His face turned red and as a result, we felt really bad. To avoid an awkward situation, Scott and I told a black joke (What do you call a black guy flying a helicopter? A pilot, you racist!) The entire block party erupted in laughter! After that, we started telling funny stories and right before we headed out to go home, we shared a spiritual message with a Mormon Message on our iPads. The iPad makes spiritual thought so much easier because we just show a video then talk about it. They gave us a bunch of referrals so it was awesome! It was a fantastic day! 

Day 6 - Scott and I got to go to 3 sacrament meetings today and since it was fast Sunday, we bore our testimonies in all 3 meetings. A lot of members came up to us afterwards and told us that we did an excellent job and some even gave us some referrals. Getting so many referrals is one of the perks of being an Utah missionary. 

We did a lot of correlation with ward leaders so we can work together better to help their ward and they gave us so many referrals so Scott and I have a lot of contacting to do! The work is truly hastening!

Day 7 - We had zone conference all day so we only got to teach a couple people! 

The first one was Jessica (the manly female). We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and since we didn't have a tea bag with us, we had to use the pamphlet to teach her. She was super quiet and just listened to us. Scott and I were worried that she wasn't listening so we asked her a lot of questions pertaining to the lesson, she answered them all correct! :) 

We got to see Alex Espinoza (the 14 years old boy with Asperger's) and we showed him a video and he didn't even watch it. He just kept on talking to us about tacos (he's having tacos for dinner last night). Alex LOVES food and he talks about it all the time. Because of what Alex was telling us about tacos, we were STARVING for dinner after that lesson. 

Mica had her baptismal interview last night and she ACED it! She is now getting baptized on October 19! I'm so happy for her decision to partake of the next ordinance.

I love being a missionary! It's the best job in the whole world and we get paid in blessings and miracles! I love and miss you guys very much and I hope you all stay safe! Have a safe trip in Rome and eat some pizza for me! :) Have a great week and don't forget that I love you! Love, Elder McGrath

Tremonton is AWESOME!

Hey guys, It was awesome to hear from all of you guys! It made my day! As the title says, Tremonton is just purely awesome! The people here are super kind, open and the best part is that when people turn you down, they do it gently! It's extremely awesome for me to be able to say that I had no doors slammed in my face! 

Elder Scott is from Irbid, Jordan and has been to Wadi Rum, Petra, Amman and the other touristy sites. He moved to Richmond, Virginia when he was 11 years old then his parents divorced (his mom is British and father is Jordanian). When he was 17 years old, he then moved to Coolidge, Arizona. He was in Corey Hansen's ward! How crazy is that?! Small world... This transfer is Scott's last transfer, meaning that he will go home in 5 weeks. All of this means that I will get a NEW companion at the end of the transfer.. This is too crazy! I know Scott's name is not Jordanian. It's because he changed it. He told me his name! He has a really long name. I can only tell you one name and it's Muhammad. He was baptized at the age of 17 and he is 22 years old now. 

Because Elder Scott is from the Middle East and I lived in the Middle East, we call ourselves the Two Arabs of Tremonton! There is another Arab but he's from the US. He lived in Dubai for 11 years and his name is Elder Prince. He is a really cool guy. Scott can speak Arabic fluently and Prince and I can't speak a lick of Arabic. All I can say is Salam Alaykum (which means hello is Saudi Arabic).

Some of you are wanting more information on the iPad situation! The mission office put so many restrictions to the extent that I'm tempted to jailbreak it so I can have some freedom. The downside of that is that they will find out easily because they track literally EVERYTHING we do on it. Every picture, letter we type in, EVERYTHING! It's crazy. We don't have Safari on our iPad, we use a special monitored website. It's like they don't even trust us.. We have the Area Book and it's all in a database back in Church Headquarters. When you transfer into a new area, you just sync up the area book then the database will know to save all of the info on your old area book and sync on the area book for the new area book you are in. Every missionary in the mission has their own iPad so we don't have to leave behind our iPads back in the house when we transfer out, like we do with phones. One of my favorite things about the iPads is the videos we have on it. We use the app called Gospel Library 3 and it has a ton of videos so we download them and show them to people. Scott and I found a fantastic video about Jesus Christ and how He can help us in our lives. After dinner appointments, we show it to them then Scott shares his conversion story then I talk about my deafness and how Jesus Christ helped me get through the ordeals that you go through while being deaf. Every time we do this, the Spirit is SO strong and the family starts crying. People really begin to appreciate what Jesus Christ has done for us and as a result, they become closer to Jesus Christ! Boom, that signifies to Scott and I that we successfully completed our purpose as a missionary for those family. Our purpose as a missionary is basically, in my terms, help others become closer to Jesus Christ. Alright, some of you guys really like how I do my letters as a journal, I'll keep doing it! :)

Day 1 - We had our Zone Study that day. Zone Study is pretty much where you set goals together as a companionship, district and as a zone. Scott and I talked about each investigators and we have 3 people who are going to get baptized and 9 people who are pretty close to baptism so we set a goal of 5 baptisms for the transfer. It's going to require dedication to achieve it but with the way things are going in the area, I think Scott and I can achieve it! Our entire zone set up a goal of 21 baptisms.  

After doing zone study, I have been going around and introducing Scott to the influential members, ward mission leaders, and bishops. All of the bishops are really excited to meet Scott and they all love him. He's a fantastic missionary and I'm happy to be his companion!
My favorite thing to do in front of other people is to say Salam Alaykum to Scott and he replies in Arabic. After finishing the super short conversation, we look over to this people we were talking to and pretty much every single time, they are left in an awe. They then usually ask us if we know how to make bombs. The question gets old fast but I can't make a joke about it because it can be a tad sensitive subject to others. There is a time and a place for those kind of the jokes. 

Day 2 - Scott and I taught Sister Brown the Plan of Salvation with an emphasis on faith in Jesus Christ and the fellowship family pitched in with a lot of personal stories and it was AWESOME! The Spirit was so strong and she loved the lesson. 

We also got to teach Tristan Hart and Scott and I had no idea what to teach. We went in and Tristan showed us his emergency kit and it was a HUGE kit. It turns out that he loves conspiracies. We then read Moroni 9 together and taught him about being prepared spiritually! It was a really cool lesson to teach!

Day 3 - General Conference baby! We were going to down to Pleasant View to catch the Front Runner to Salt Lake and we missed so I had to floor the car (don't worry, i only went 8 mph above the speed limit!) on the highway to try to catch the Front Runner in Clearfield. We missed it by a minute! We could see it going off. We had to call one of the members that is going to Salt Lake and ask them to pick us up because we can't take our car outside of the mission. :( 

Because of the craziness that has been going on, we missed the first Saturday morning session so we sat in the Tabernacle and watched the first session but I was really distracted because they also showed the ASL part and I was trying to understand it. I really did forget a lot of ASL. :( 

As Scott and I were heading to the Conference Center package drop off room (we can't bring in backpacks into conference center), I saw Kaeli and Adri walk towards me and I was STUNNED! I couldn't believe it! It was so awesome to see them! It made my day!

Day 4 - We drove down to Ogden so the APs can drive us down to Salt Lake. We made it in the nick of time and it was so awesome to get to know the APs, they are such awesome people! 

Elder Pitcher (one of the elders in the zone) wants me to hurry so we can go play basketball in Brigham City so i have to hurry up a little bit!

We went to the Sunday morning and afternoon. Because this is Scott's last GC during his mission, he got plaza tickets so we got to sit up super close to the front! It was SO awesome! I had a balcony ticket and Scott had the plaza ticket so we went down to the plaza and one of the ushers stopped me and told me that I had to go up to the balcony. Because I REALLY wanted to sit up close, I played the companion rule card. I told her I HAVE to be with my companion at ALL times. It's a CHURCH rule! She then let me past and it was so awesome.
The coolest thing is that after GC, the Apostles and First Presidency were walking back to the side door, they were waving at us and since we were so close, Henry B. Eyring and I made eye contact and I smiled, then HE SMILED! :D

Day 5 - This day marked my second month that I have been out on my mission! holy crap, has it been that fast! We have been following up on the 21 referrals that we got from the bishops and we got to see Jaxson Egli (a 9 years old kid) and do his baptismal interview! Guess what?! He passed so he will be baptized on this Saturday! I am so excited! 

I love you guys and stay safe! I hope you like the email! Have a great week! I love and miss you all! Love, Elder McGrath

Transfer 1 is finally over

Hello everyone! It was so great to hear from you guys! As the subject says, today marks the end of my FIRST transfer! This morning, we had our transfer breakfast and they announced who is going to be transferred and who is staying. Elder Zarse is heading over to Central Logan to serve as a Zone Leader. In the mission, it's typical for trainers and trainee to stay together for 2 transfers! :( I am REALLY going to miss being with Elder Zarse! He has helped so much and now, he's heading over to Central Logan. I'm staying here and will be receiving another trainer. His name is Elder Scott (who is from Jordan) and I'm going to meet him for the first time tomorrow! I'm really nervous because I will have to show him around here in Tremonton. Over the past transfer, despite our challenges together, I came to love and trust him as a companion and now, he's going to be gone! :( It's going to be a rough couple weeks for me! :( I wish I can have Elder Zarse to be with me one more transfer! 

Day 1 - We went over to Kevin's house and the night before this day, right before we went home, I had this feeling that we should go over to Kevin's house and just talk to him. It turns out that he is forced to kick his son out that same day and is in need of help. A thought came to my mind that I should ask him if he wanted a priesthood blessing. He accepted straight off the bat! We gave him one and went home afterwards!  

On this day, we came by to teach him a lesson. Kevin told us that the priesthood blessing was the one he really needed and he is finally having a great day! It's so awesome to see the power of the priesthood right in front of me! It was a great blessing to be able to give him a priesthood blessing! Kevin is getting better but he just needs to keep his commitments that he is making. If he does that, then he will see many blessings in his life! 

Day 2 - We got to teach Sister Brown (who is a less active) at the relief society president's (Sister Richardson) house. We talked about 2 Nephi 4: 16-35 which is an amazing chapter. After the lesson, Sister Richardson took Elder Zarse and I out for dinner at Subway. We talked and laughed a lot. It is going to be a good memory of me and Elder Zarse! I'm going to miss him really bad!  

We also got to teach Alex (the 13 years old kid with Aspergers Syndrome and has the attention span of 5 seconds). We had to teach and reteach and reteach. He only gets the first part of a sentence then he loses focus. So we have to teach him in short phrases and then ask him a question about the short phrase. It's a big pain in the butt but it's all worth it! 

Day 3 - In the morning, we went to Zone Conference and they surprised us with iPad minis! It was all a big surprise! It's so awesome but the downside of being the first missionaries in the Area with an iPad is that we have to digitalize the area book which is a lot of data entry! Because of the work involved with the Area Book, we only got to teach one lesson on that day!  

We got to teach Robert Hall (new investigator) about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We also talked about the Book of Mormon and he was taking the lesson really well. He was very enthusiastic about the whole thing! He even came to church last Sunday with his girlfriend, which is AWESOME!

Day 4 - We got to go to 2 baptisms on that day! The first one being a Stake Baptism. We got to see a 8 years old girl get baptized and confirmed! It was really awesome and a great experience to see! 

We also got to go see the Spanish Elder's baptism. They baptized a 60 years old Mexican lady. The whole thing was in Spanish and I could NOT understand a SINGLE thing but I felt the Spirit really strong in there. I'm really glad to see it!  

We also got to teach Fabian (he has a genetic disease which leaves him completely hairless) about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. He took it really well and Elder Zarse told me that I did a really good job teaching him, which is AWESOME! He told us that he is moving to Ogden this week which really sucks for us because we can't keep teaching him anymore! :( 

Day 5 - In the morning, we had Dikson Silva's baptism. Dikson is from Rio de Janiero, Brazil and he has been taught by ward missionaries. We also taught him two lessons in the span of a whole month and he wants to get baptized before he moves back to Brazil (which is today). He is a great guy and really has a big desire to follow Jesus Christ. He also told us about how the gospel has changed his life and he told us a couple really awesome experiences!  

Elder Zarse and I got to teach the Tremonton West Stake YSA ward. We got to teach the ENTIRE ward, pretty much because it was combined, both women and men! We taught about Love thy Neighbor which is really awesome! I think we both did a really good job because everyone was so attentive and we got a lot of laughs. It was a great time! In the end, we even got referrals at the end! It was awesome!

We got to teach Mat Joel (investigator) about the Plan of Salvation and after listening, he wants to come to CHURCH, which is awesome! We gave him instructions on how to get to church and he is willing to come on Sunday! :)

Day 6 - Nothing really much happened yesterday because Elder Zarse went down to Ogden for Leadership Training (also, he was told that he will be Zone Leader yesterday :(). I taught two freshman age teenagers on Facebook about the Book of Mormon. I answered their questions about 1 Nephi. I also taught them why it is important to read the Book of Mormon! They were responding very awesome! It was a good couple online lessons that took about a couple hours to do! 

I apologize for the short letter. Elder Zarse is leaving tomorrow morning and I want to spend as much time as I can with him. Next week, I hope to write a longer email! I love and miss all of you guys so much! I love being a missionary for the Utah Ogden mission! It's the biggest blessing in the world! Love, Elder McGrath