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