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