Happy New Year's Eve

Hola mi familia! This Christmas has been an amazing Christmas. It was a lot better than last year. Long story, short. Christmas 2013. Ate dinner at old man's house. He kept putting food on my plate. My stomach couldn't hold it all. Threw up in the bathroom.

The GOOD NEWS is that this Christmas, I ate some delicious food AND I didn't throw up so that was amazing! :) A LOT of great things happened this past week. So, prepare for a MASSIVE email! 

First off, Cherry Lui. She is so awesome. She is from Wuhan, China and we have been teaching her for a couple months now and she is progressing so fast. She is doing very well. On December 21, she wanted to feed us some authentic Chinese food and that was her gift for us for Christmas! How awesome was that! 

Last Saturday, we went over to her house and a strong aroma of Chinese food flooded my nose. It felt like I was in heaven, Chinese edition. She cooked a lot of different dishes that originated from China. She then proceeded to explain each dish and told us the name. The name were crazy! I am pretty sure that the names didn't register in my brain. I gotta tell you, those food were AMAZING!!!! It was a TON better than Panda Express. I think I can't even eat at Panda Express anymore. Americanized Chinese food isn't as good as real Chinese food. 

The next day (Sunday), we had a great discussion about Heavenly Father. Cherry had an amazing question about the nature of God. Her biggest question was "Why would God let bad things happen to good people?". It was great that she is asking those questions. I can easily tell that she has a big desire to learn more about Heavenly Father. To answer some of her questions, we read Mosiah 24: 8-16, which talks about how the Lord eases our burdens. What a great scripture! Needless to say, Cherry is doing amazing! She is learning a lot and attending church every single week! :) 

A few days ago, we had a great lesson with the Wilson family. The Wilson family are from Missouri and they grew up in the Pentecostal faith. They are a really cool family. Elder Quintero and I (we were on exchanges at the time) were able to teach them the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was sooo good. Elder Quintero and I did very well. Everything went super well. The Spirit was super strong! The coolest thing was that Michelle (the mother), Jake (oldest son, 16 yrs old), and Shayleigh (only daughter, 14 yrs old) were agreeing with everything we said. I know that they felt it and they knew that they felt the Holy Ghost. I could tell. As we were teaching, Joe (the father) was kind of not paying attention. He was looking intently in the pamphlet, reading every single word in the pamphlet. I guess that was good. At the end of the lesson, we talked about what they have learned and when we called on Joe, he brought up some concerns and the concern is simple. The Godhead. The only thing that is stopping him from believing that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ is the Trinity. He says that he believes that God, Jesus Christ and Holy Ghost are as one, not three different personages. The difficult thing is that there is so much evidence in the Bible, alone, that supports the ideology of the Godhead as three separate beings, unified for a single purpose (Moses 1:39). Our next lesson with the family will be interesting. We will be discussing about the Godhead. We have a bunch of scriptures that supports that fact but it will be a challenge to share the scriptures and ask him questions that will help him teach himself that there is three separate beings in the Godhead. It will be very interesting. 

Right after that lesson, I was kind of disappointed because I was absolutely certain that the lesson was delivered powerfully and it was according to their needs. The transitions were seamless. The questions were thought-provoking. I knew that I needed to keep working hard so I got myself over that blip and kept working. Last night, we went over to the Andersen's house (the Wilson family's fellowshipper. They are really good friends with the Wilson family and the father is in the Bishopric so he's good at teaching. A+). We were able to get into a discussion about the Wilson family. Brother Andersen said that Joe had some "spiritual" experiences in the Pentecostal faith, which is why he is "firmly" rooted but he feels like he can be baptized very soon when this Godhead thing gets resolved. I was so happy. I can definitely see the entire family in white in front of the temple. The only reason why we got a lesson with them is that they are curious to know how families can be together forever. They grew up with literally no family whatsoever. Their immediate family is all they've got. They want to make it last forever so that's why they're curious. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and for His love towards us. I know that because of His love, He has provided us with His plan that allows family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Families CAN be together forever! :) 

That same day, we had an amazing lesson with Erika. Erika is the woman that is friends with a recent convert that our Zone Leaders baptized. Basically, during the lesson, we got to get to know her and her background. She has four kids and she grew up pretty broke. She went through a lot of hard times in her life. As a result of hearing her talk, we showed her the Mormon Message, "Mountains to Climb" and she was really touched by the video. We talked about Jesus Christ and I was able to invite her to take the step and follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized on January 24th. She accepted that invitation and she is now preparing to be baptized on January 24th!! :) 

Draco is an amazing kid. That kid never fails to impress me. He is progressing extremely well. He is coming to church and he even got his mom, Krista, to go with him. If Draco ever decides to serve a mission, he will be a great missionary! I can already see that in him! We had an amazing lesson with him last Sunday and we taught about the Restoration. So, while we were teaching Draco and his family, his little brother, Jayden, was not paying attention during the Joseph Smith part and as we were moving into the First Vision, we asked if there was any questions, Jayden raised his hand and said that he was confused. We asked Draco to tell him what is happening. He then proceeded to explain to him everything that was happening and the coolest thing is that he did an excellent job! Draco is still set to be baptized on February 7th and the coolest thing is that he is so solid! He wants to start working on his baptismal program and he already talked to uncle (who is very active) into baptizing him! I am sooo pumped for February 7th. It will be an awesome day! :)

Last of all, the Goble family!!! Christmastisms are

so much fun! The Goble family are soooo awesome! Yesterday morning, Grace, Charlie, Bella were able to follow enter the waters of baptism and be baptized by their father, Peter. It was an incredible baptism! Zoey Hale, the cousin of Grace, Charlie and Bella, were also baptized too! It was a grand total of four! We tried to invite Marlowe (the other cousin who is 12 and not baptized) and her mother refused to! :( Oh well, it was still amazing! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be there for the Goble family the entire way! They are an amazing family! Now, Elder Freitag and I are planning on working more with the family and trying to get Cole (the 14 years old son) to get the Priesthood and to the Temple alongside with his parents to do baptisms for the dead! 

As you may tell, I had an incredible week in the Utah Ogden Mission! I am loving every moment out here. I love being a missionary. I love being able to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love inviting people to take action on changing their lives for the better. I know that the Gospel can change lives and bring our spirit brothers and sisters closer to Jesus Christ and access His cleansing power. I am so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father for His love towards us. No matter who we are or what we have done in the past, Heavenly Father loves us, no matter what. I know that by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can find true happiness that all of us seeks to have in this life AND the life to come. I have seen it happen to people multiple times. I know, with all my heart, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true!!!

I love you all and stay strong! Have an amazing and safe week. You can do hard things. Love you!!! Love, Elder McGrath

My presents

The real meaning of Christmas

Before opening presents

View from my house on Christmas Day. Do you like the snow?

Christmas Day Speedball tournament. Of course, I won! :D

the story is that we pulled over to help a car that was stuck in the snow. It was very windy and freezing. The car was pretty stuck in the snow so it took us about 15 minutes to get it out of the snow. We had to dig out a lot of snow and everything. We had inadequate clothing. We thought it wouldn't be as cold as it was. We were DYING of cold. You can see in the picture that Elder Freitag's ears were red and my cheeks were red!

The Goble's baptism

Goble's post-baptism party. They are rich!! :)

Cherry Lui took this picture on her phone while we were at her house eating dinner!

Having some fun with Frank Lui (Cherry's son). He is 9 years old.

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone, Thank you for all of the emails that you have sent me. It was so awesome to see how the fam is doing! :) We had some pretty big miracles happen this past week and seriously, I love miracles. Those miracles make up my mission! I love being a missionary so much because I get to witness miracles every single day. Those miracles really strengthen my testimony of the Gospel! 

Yesterday, we had a pretty big activity happen in the Logan East stake. In honor of the Christmas season, the East stake put on a grand event that exhibited hundreds of Christmas créches, a live nativity and a bunch of background music that played Christmas hymns. There was a ton of nonmembers there and it was amazing because we were able to talk to everyone. We should've filled the baptismal font! ;)

The Goble family are super solid. The baptism is definitely going to happen on the 29th and I am super stoked for it! Four baptisms and it will be very exciting! :) The Goble family are doing very well. They are doing everything they need to. On the 28th, they will be cooking us some delicious steak. I am super excited for that. I haven't had a good steak in a while! Also, another really cool thing is that Brother Goble is preparing himself to baptize the kids and he is going through his final interview on the 28th so the Bishop can determine if he is ready to baptize the kids. I think he is ready. :) It will be an exciting day!!!

A few days ago, we had an amazing, super inspired lesson with Draco! Draco's mother told us that she can see that Draco really cares about learning more about the gospel. She sees that Draco is putting forth the effort that she wants to see, all because Draco has been going to church, reading the Book of Mormon and praying every single day. Remember, it is always the small things that matter! That day, we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and man, the Spirit was super super super strong! At the end of the super amazing lesson, the Spirit told us that the time was right for us to invite him again for baptism. We invited him to be baptized and he told us that he really wants to be baptized. The mother asked him if he wants to be baptized in January or February. He chose February 7th as his baptism date. He is soooooooooooooo solid! It is unbelievable! Guess what, February 7th is my 18th month mark. It will be a pretty special day! I am so stoked! 

Last Sunday, we had a huge miracle happen. It is with the Wilson family!! We saw Brother Andersen and we started talking about the Wilson family. He is trying super hard to find a time but he is not able to yet. We told him that we can give it a shot. Right after that conversation, we went to his house and knocked on his door. Joe (the father) answered and was really happy to see us. He immediately invited us in and we started talking for a bit. We talked about setting up an appointment and we set one up for TONIGHT(Tuesday) AT 6pm!!!! The coolest thing is that the entire family seems super open about meeting with us. I cannot wait to meet with them tonight and teach them simple truths about Jesus Christ and invite them to follow Him through baptism!

So, last Saturday, one set of the senior missionaries got us into singing a bunch of Christmas songs during the feeding of homeless/poor people because of the Christmas season. I was pretty shocked when they wanted me to be in it. Who would want a deaf guy in the choir? The whole event was amazing. We sang a bunch of songs and we finally were able to get into contact with this lady named Erica. Erica is a nonmember 40 years old woman whose best friend got baptized in the Cache stake (the Zone Leader's area). Erica is very interested in the Church right now because she needs a lot of hope in her life. She went through some difficult times in her life and she desperately needs the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will change lives. Erica saw that in her friend's life. She wants that for herself. We found a family that wants to feed us tomorrow and we asked them if we can bring a friend that is pretty much broke along with us. They were more than happy. It was amazing to see how Christmas brings out the best in people. Jesus Christ is awesome! He is literally the central figure in all of human history. Without Him, we would be nothing. We would never become like Him. 

We had a few pretty sick lessons with Aaron Marez! Last Sunday, he fed us dinner! We had some great discussions about the Church and Jehovah's Witness (JW). He told us that the Gospel makes sense in him. We were able to clarify the meaning of 144,000 people mentioned in Revelations 14:1-5. Apparently, the JWs believe that the 144,000 are the "anointed one". Blasphemy. Jesus Christ IS the Anointed One. One of the greatest privileges of being part of God's church is that we have a living Prophet who are able to interpret the word of God and clarify doctrine. Without prophets, we would be lost and confused about certain doctrines. This would always lead to building of other churches. That is exactly what happened during the Great Apostasy. Nicene Creed was created in ~325 AD, almost 300 hundred years after Jesus Christ died. Without living prophets and apostles, error crept into doctrine and before they knew it, original truths were corrupted. Therefore, we need a living Prophet today. I am so grateful for Thomas S. Monson. I know he is a living Prophet of God and that he does receive revelation from Jesus Christ for behalf of the church. For those who are wondering about the 144,000 people, read D&C 77:11. Joseph Smith clarifies the meaning. It's actually really cool! 

 We had an amazing lesson with Cherry last Sunday! It had been a while since we met with her and we followed up on her Book of Mormon reading. She said that she read a little bit every day and now, she is in 3 Nephi! What the?! She is doing super well and she is loving the Book of Mormon! So, that day, we were teaching the first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith. The entire lesson shifted from faith, acting on our faith, then prayers, receiving answers to prayers and the Book of Mormon promise. She was asking so many questions. I can see a huge desire in her! It is amazing to see how much the Gospel is blessing her life! She also wants to make some authentic Chinese food for us this Saturday! I am actually looking forward to that. A Chinese native making real Chinese food, no Panda Express. Haha. 

This past week has been absolutely amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunities to serve the Lord. I love the Gospel and I love being able to share it with everyone I come into contact with. I love you all! Merry Christmas and have a blast in Singapore!!! Love you all!!!!!! Love, Elder McGrath

Christmas tree --> presents were from the Murphys, Goble family, Evertsen families and others. A lot of people that we are helping are giving us presents. It's crazy awesome! :) I hope you like the Christmas tree I made! ;)

Surprise party for Elder Coronado!

Week full of miracles

Hello everyone, Thank you for all of the emails that you have sent me. It was so awesome to see how the fam is doing! :) Elder Freitag and I are doing super well in Logan! We are working super super hard and we are talking to everyone that comes within our sight. As a result, we had some amazing miracles happen and it was incredible to see the hand of the Lord in everything we do. I love the Gospel so much! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and for His sacrifice for all of us. He loves us! 

First off, the Goble family is doing amazing. I am really proud of them of how far they have come to this point. They are doing excellent! :) The four baptisms are definitely going to happen on the 29th of December! It will be sooooooo exciting! I am still going to count it as a "Christmastism" because it is still close to Christmas! It will be awesome.

The Goble kids are super pumped for their baptism and they have been attending church consistently for the past few weeks now. :) I love being able to see the change in their life as a result of following the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Draco is doing soooooooooo awesome! Seriously, that kid is a stud. When he makes a commitment, he really follows through. He is reading the Book of Mormon, reading the pamphlets that we leave with him, praying AND attending church. The fact that he is 10 years old amazes me. His maturity level exceeds far above his age. A few days before last Sunday, we had an amazing lesson with him and his family and we committed the ENTIRE family to attend church the following Sunday and we told them that we will be there at his ward! We showed up to the ward and we could not see the family anywhere. We were freaking out because if he didn't show up, that means he would haven't kept the promise that he has made to his mother and after all, he would never get baptized. The sacrament meeting, on the other hand, was absolutely awesome and it was super uplifting so it was fantastic. After sacrament meeting ended, we got up and started talking to the members and talking about some of their neighbors who are not members of Jesus Christ's church. Suddenly, I saw DRACO at the corner of my eyes and it was amazing to see him. We said thanks to the members and went over to Draco and started talking to him. He told us that he is loving church and that his family didn't want to go so he called up his good friend (who is strong in the Gospel), Gideon, who happens to be his fellowshipper. He called Gideon for a ride to church so he can attend church. WHAT?! MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never heard of this happening before. A 10 years old kid going out of his way to attend church when his family didn't want to. Amazing. 

Elder Freitag and I had a great lesson with Aaron Marez. Since he told us that he doesn't want to go through the missionary lessons again, we decided to talk about the Church Organization. We shared some scriptures from the Bible (Primitive Church in the Middle East), the Book of Mormon (the church in Ancient America) and the Doctrine and Covenants (the church nowadays). After reading the scriptures and helping him make the connections between the primitive church and the nowadays church and after showing him my Priesthood Line of Authority, he realized it and exclaimed, "Wow, you guys really do profess to be part of Christ's church and you guys are speaking the truth!!!" Yeah! The LDS Church is the exact same church as the church that Jesus Christ established when He was undergoing His earthly ministry. At the end of this lesson, we started talking about baptism and he told us that he really wants to be baptized. His desire is burning now but he has some pretty big obstacles holding him back. Please please please pray for him. He would really love to have some prayers sent his way.

Max, the 14 years old boy that we taught for the first time last week, is an awesome kid. We had an awesome lesson with him last Saturday and he is a stud. We talked about why he is wanting us to come back and teach him more about the Gospel even though his dad is super anti-mormon and would not let him get baptized. He told us that he really has a desire to learn more and he was asking all of the right questions. We then asked him what he wants to get out of this. He told us that he would like to get baptized if this is what he wants to do. He also mentioned that his dad would let him get baptized if he really wants to and shows that commitment to his father. He is on the right track right now. We had an awesome lesson about Jesus Christ and His Atonement because he had a lot of questions about Jesus Christ and why He died for each one of us. We also invited him to come to church and guess what! He did! He came to church!!! 

Last Friday, we had a huge miracle happen. We were going to one of the Christmas parties in one of the wards that we cover. It is the Foothills 1st Ward of the Logan East stake. At the party, we saw our senior couple missionaries that we work closely with to find and teach people about the Gospel. We went over and they introduced us to the Wilson family. It was my first time meeting them! :) They are an awesome family. The family is:

Father - Joe

Mother - Michelle

son (16 yrs old) - Jacob

daughter (14 yrs old) - Shayleigh

son (9 years old) - Ethan 

The Wilson family is soo cool. They told us that they are looking for a different church. They don't practice their beliefs very much. They are a Pentecostal family. We, along with Elder and Sister Murphy (the senior couple missionaries), got to give the Wilson family a tour of the church building. As we were going around, we talked a lot about the church organization and how it is similar to the primitive church. They marveled at that fact. It was soo awesome! At the end of the church tour, Elder Murphy bore such powerful testimony and the Spirit was super strong. At the end of his testimony, Elder Murphy invited the entire Wilson family to take the discussions. Each one of them accepted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next day, the Murphys told us that the Wilsons told them that they are very excited to start meeting with us and learn more about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. :) MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will be starting to teach the Wilson family later this week! I am so pumped to start teaching the Wilson family this week! :) 

I love all of the miracles that I get to witness on my mission. It really strengthens my faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that God lives and He is our Father in Heaven. He strives to make us happy for all eternity by allowing us to be together with our families for all time and eternity. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ because I know that when I seek to follow the Gospel, I experience more peace and happiness in my life. I cannot imagine my life without the Gospel. 

I love you all and have fun in Singapore! Be safe and take lots of pictures. Don't forget to watch the #HeIsTheGift video on christmas.mormon.org if you haven't yet. It is sooo good! I love you all! Stay awesome! Love, Elder McGrath

Text from Aaron Marez. We gave him a Priesthood Blessing the night before

Christmas party!!!

Elder Coronado and me

#ShareTheGift

Hey y'all!!!! This past week was so amazing!!!!! Last Thursday was one of the best days I have had on my mission. We had two NM L/W (L/W = lessons with a member present. NM = non-member. LA = less-active)  and two LA L/W and all of those lessons went extremely well. 

One of those NM L/W is with Rica. She is from Taipei, Taiwan. She lost her baptismal date, which was going to be this upcoming Saturday because she is going back to Taiwan this Thursday for Winter Break. We committed her to keep taking the lessons through Skype. She was really happy about that. Also, the highlight of this lesson is following up on her reading assignment. We assigned her to read 3 Nephi 11 and she was able to read it! We asked her how she felt when she read it. She then began to describe the feeling as "magical"! We were ecstatic!!! We bore our testimony that she felt the Holy Ghost strongly and we also mentioned that God told her through the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true. She said quietly, "Yeah, He did.". WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! She is becoming more converted each lesson! :) 

We also had a couple of great lessons with the Goble family. The baptisms will be held on December 29th and it will be GRAND! So, what's going to happen is that there will be two convert baptisms, a 8 years old baptism and their cousin is coming up from Texas to be baptized with her cousins! There will be a total of four children following the example of Jesus Christ by entering into the waters of baptism and making the baptismal covenant with the Lord. It is going to be very exciting. I am SOOOOO pumped for the baptism. It will be grand! 

Also, we had a huge miracle happen with one of our less-actives that we are teaching. His name is Dallas Nutt and he served two tours in Afghanistan and Kuwait, respectively. Right after his two tours, he had a brain aneurysm. The brain aneurysm happened about 3 years ago. His wife just left him two months ago. :( But nevertheless, we had an awesome lesson with him last Thursday. We were asking about how he is doing with church, prayer and scripture study and he is doing well on the first two but not on the last one. He seemed really upset about that so I asked him what was on his mind. He completely broke down and told us everything. It was incredible. He said that he really wants to become a better man. We shared the video, "True Christians". After watching that video, we had an awesome discussion about how we need to do the small and simple things, like service and scripture study, outside of church. That is one of the ways we can become a better man. He seemed very determined to keep all of his commitments that he has extended. What a miracle! 

Elder Freitag and I had a sick lesson with Aaron Marez. It all started out with some chit-chat about Christmas and he told us that he hasn't done very many Christmases in his life and I replied with "why?". He then proceeded to tell us about how he grew up a JW. We asked him about his views on both JW and the LDS church He said that there is pros and cons about both religions. He went on explaining about the LDS church. It was only the Word of Wisdom commandment that he doesn't like. He talked about how Jesus Christ drank wine back then and how come we can't. We shared a scripture found in Daniels 1: 6-20. After that, he said, "Oh, I didn't know that the Word of Wisdom is found in the Bible." Well, duh!!! The Gospel isn't new. It existed all the way back to Adam and Eve. It was lost during each apostasy and it was always restored with each dispensation. If you have any questions concerning about what I just mentioned, please feel free to message me on Facebook and I would be more than glad to help shed some light for your understanding. 

Guess what?! Draco and Krista (Draco's mother) came to church last Sunday and ... they loved it!!!! Wooooooooo!!! We taught about Draco last Sunday evening about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he is keeping all of his commitments. His mom, Krista, said that she is impressed with how much Draco is doing to prepare himself for baptism. Yay! 

We didn't have a lesson with Cherry and Frank because the lesson fell through but they came to church! :) 

Last Wednesday evening, we got out of a car and were walking to a member's house because they told us that they have a couple referrals for us. There was this 14 years old boy walking his two dogs. We went over and started to talk to him. We had a great conversation and he told us that he used to go to church every single week and he never got baptized. We asked him if he wants to start going back to church now and he said that he can try it out again. We set up another lesson with him for Saturday. He gave us the address to his house. Then, the next Saturday came by, we looked at the address one more time and guess what, it was the one of the Ward Mission Leader's house. We thought it was a phony address but we decided to try it anyways. As we walked to the house, the WML came up to us and told us the entire story. Long story short, the WML is the kid's stepfather. The real father is working as a mechanic for the US Army and he is serving in Japan right now. He is super anti and would never let the kid get baptized if the kid really wants to. So, we just decided to do the "He is the Gift" message. After the message, we asked him if there is anything we can do for him. He looked on the ground for a second and then looked at me and said, "Can you guys come back next week?". Having never received that answer from anyone before, I was stunned. There was a 10 second silence and then, I said, "Uh, yeah. Yeah, we can definitely do that! Same time, next week?". He agreed to that. Hmm, what a miracle. I was not expecting that at all. haha. 

This past week was super awesome. I absolutely love being a missionary. I love being the Lord's representative. Let us all remember Jesus Christ during this special time of the year and #ShareTheGift!!!!! christmas.mormon.org and share that video with everyone you know! I love you all and enjoy your week. Stay strong and you can do hard things! Be safe and don't forget to do CPR! :) Love, Elder McGrath

Christmas Tree.. Look at the presents. See that picture of #HeIsTheGift!!! :)

I didn't know that Santa was soo old.. ;) I found this while out working.

I am thankful for Jesus Christ

Hey familia! What a great week, even though a lot of lessons fell through! It was truly a week full of miracles and amazing lessons. I love being a missionary so much! I love teaching the Gospel to all those people that needs the Gospel in their lives. I have seen the Gospel change people for the better and the personal relationship with their Savior, Jesus Christ has helped them get through tumultuous times. I am so grateful that we get to live in this dispensation!

Seriously, I cannot believe that it is December 2014.. Time is escaping by too fast. I am super glad that I am making the most of my time. We are always out and working hard. The number of teaching appointments is getting too high. We keep having to find splits to come with us so we can hit two lessons at once but this past week was a little difficult because a lot of our lessons fell through BUT our numbers are becoming amazing and I am so pumped. :)  We have three baptisms coming up. We are hoping for a fourth one because the fourth one could be the Goble kids' cousin, Marlowe. If everything happens the way we want it to be, oh my, it would be absolutely amazing. It would be a grand Goble family baptisms with four of the Goble kids being baptized by Peter Goble (the father)!  Please pray for that to happen! It would be so sick if everything works out! 

First off, Thanksgiving was amazing! We only had one dinner appointment so I was really happy about that! I didn't stuff myself with too much food to the point where I will throw up, like last Christmas. That is one thing I am thankful for. :) We got to eat with the Franckowiak family. It was really cool! The father is a Physicist and a Math teacher! He was telling Elder Freitag and I all about the things that are happening in the field of mathematics. To be honest, things kept going into one ear and out of the other ear. It was confusing but nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed the Thanksgiving dinner!

With Rica, things are going great but we found some sad news. She is going back to Taiwan for Winter Break on DECEMBER 11th, two days before her baptism. Because of that, we will have to push the baptism back to January. I am pretty sad about that part but man, we had a super awesome lesson about who God is. Since she is from Taiwan, she didn't really know anything about who God is so we decided to focus on the entire lesson on Heavenly Father. The Spirit was present during that lesson and boy, it was strong! We were able to connect everything to the Book of Mormon and we talked about how it is the word of God and that is one of the ways that we can become closer to Him. Rica has committed to read the Book of Mormon every single night and I am hoping that will happen! 

The Goble family are doing sooo awesome! We had a lesson with them last night and we decided to re-teach the Restoration to help solidify their understanding of the message of the Restoration. This time, we asked questions that helped them teach themselves. We were able to correct a few points and at the end of the lesson, something incredible happened. After talking about the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise, we asked if anybody had any questions. The oldest daughter, Grace (she is also preparing for baptism), asked us how we came to know that the Book of Mormon. It was a great thing that I was able to testify about how I came to know that it is true. My companion, Elder Freitag, was also able to testify. I never felt the Spirit so strong in the lesson. It was incredible. Grace is only 13 years old and she has the desire. You can see it in her eyes. That is what the mission vision means to me. True conversion through baptism or reactivation that leads to the Temple. 

The lesson with Draco went super well. We talked about the basic fundamentals like Jesus Christ, Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon and baptism. We invited him to be baptized but the mother got in the way. She told us that she will be talking about it with him and see if he really wants to do this. I am praying fervently that he will keep having that desire that he had a few days ago. 

Last Sunday, we had a fantastic lesson with Cherry and Frank Lui. We wanted them to know what Christmas really means so we decided to focus the lesson on Christmas and the real meaning of it. We shared the video labeled, "He is the Gift" and it was amazing. We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we need to remember Him during the Christmas season. Remember: 

"Christ" = Jesus Christ

"mas" = more (in the Spanish language) 

So, obviously, Christmas is the time when we should remember Jesus Christ more. 

I testify that He is the light, the life and the hope of the world. I know that He sincerely loves each one of us. I know that his cleansing power will cleanse us, no matter what we have done in the past. With the Gospel, we can feel pure and clean and power to push through the difficult times. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that by following His Gospel, we can see the blessings of God unfold in our lives. I testify that those blessings are critical. Those blessings contribute to our "never-ending happiness" (Mosiah 2:41). Keep the commands, read the scriptures, and pray! By small and simple things, we can feel His love enter in our lives. I cannot imagine my life without the Gospel. I am thankful for Joseph Smith and that he had courage and determination to usher in the long-promised dispensation of the fulness of times. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and for what He did for the world. 

I love all of you guys. You all are amazing and keep the good work up. Stay strong and you can do hard things. Philippians 4:13, Alma 26:12, Luke 1:37. Have an awesome week! Love, Elder McGrath

Thanksgiving dinner

Wow! What an amazing week

Hola mi familia!!!! Wow! Talk about a fantastic week! Heavenly Father is so awesome and I am eternally grateful for His blessings! I have gotten to see a lot of blessings that happened this week!

First off, transfers end tomorrow. Elder Freitag and I are STAYING together! This will be our THIRD transfer together! We are going to be the only English speaking companionship that is going to cover two stakes. It is going to be SOOO busy but awesome! We have a lot of work that is going on and we can't afford to waste time and that is why I am so grateful to have a car. Elder Freitag and I will have to do a lot of splits because we are picking up investigators left and right! It is so amazing to see how the work is progressing. 

Elder Freitag and I wanted to stay together and keep both stakes soo bad. We even called President Hiers and requested that we stay together. He asked if we can handle covering two stakes one more transfer. We were ecstatic to hear that! I am so pumped to keep working hard with Elder Freitag! 

This past week, I was able to receive a testimony of how we can gain blessings after much tribulation. D&C 58:2-4. For the past few weeks, Elder Freitag and I went through some difficult times when some of our investigators that seemed to be progressing started to drop us or fall off completely off the radar. It was extremely difficult because we came to love these investigators and were rejoicing in their progression but that screeched to a halt when they dropped us spontaneously. It was crazy. 

So, I want to do something different this time. I want to share the biggest, most awesomest (I know that isn't a word but it doesn't matter. :) ) news at the end. So, here are the big news: So first things first, we had a great lesson with Rica. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon. She is still shooting for December 13th for her baptism. A lesson fell through so that was a little difficult but things are going super well! Please pray for her. 

Guess what!!! Facebook finally got useful for us now!! Elder Freitag and I found MahRyan on Facebook now! We both requested to be her friend and she accepted our friend request! We are planning on stopping by tomorrow night with the WML and hopefully, things will go back to the way it was because she has expressed a huge desire to be baptized! She even went to the Bishop on her own and requested to be baptized. Please pray for her also. She really needs your prayers. Also, pray for her mother, Brandy, and that her heart will be softened by the Spirit and all concerns, pertaining to meeting with us, will be resolved. 

We will be eating with the Wilson family! Remember that Pentecostal family from Missouri I told you about a couple weeks ago? It is a nonmember family of five. They are really good friends with a member of the bishopric. We will be eating with them soon and I am so pumped. It will be so amazing!

So, we met with a family. They are living with the Gaines. It is a nonmember family of 5. They have a 10 years old boy, 8 years old boy and a 4 years old girl. They are a family that practice Paganism. It is the oldest, recorded religion ever to be practiced. It is really cool hearing about how they practice it. One of the kids named Draco (yes, Draco. The exact same spelling as the kid from Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy!) started asking us questions about the Church. We answered them all. We asked the mother where he got all of these questions and she said that he has a lot of LDS friends and the next thing she said is that her kids have complete religious freedom. To sum it up: she said that the kids are free to choose their beliefs. It is really cool. 

After that, we asked Draco what he thinks about the Church. He told us that he loves the Church. He also said that he wants to become LDS. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is a cool kid and we are going to start teaching him tomorrow night. We will commit him to a baptismal date tomorrow. It will be awesome! 

Cherry is doing awesome! We had her meet with Becky Mitchell. She goes to China every single year and is a super strong member of the Church. She told Cherry about the Church in China. She even mentioned that you have to be a member of the Church in order to go to the Church. She also mentioned that you can meet with the missionaries in Hong Kong. It's a good thing that she lives in Wuhan, which isn't that far from Hong Kong. I was really nervous because I couldn't read her face and see how she is taking everything because Becky was talking about baptism a lot. When we invited her, she almost dropped us because she doesn't want to be baptized. At the end, she took everything super well. She even invited Becky to teach at her university (she is a visiting professor at USU) and was so happy! We gave her a language study edition of the Book of Mormon (it has three different columns: one in Chinese. one in Chinese (but it shows how you pronounce the words) and the last column is in English. She was so ecstatic to get that Book of Mormon. You can really tell that she is becoming converted! I love it so much!

So, the best news for last! We got to meet with the Goble family last Saturday. It is a really cool family! The parents are awesome and they have 5 kids. Cole is the oldest and he got baptized when he was 8 years old. Then comes Grace (11 years old), Charles (9 years old), Isabella (8 years old) and Mack (4 years old). They are so awesome! We found out in the first lesson that the mother is a recent convert and that she got baptized right after Cole was born. They were active for about 9 years and got sealed in the temple and everything. Then, all of the sudden, a few years ago, they fell less-active. The ward started to work with them and to try to help them. Years passed by, countless missionaries stopped by to start trying to teach them. No success. Elder Freitag and I were the first missionaries to teach everyone else except the mother. It was awesome.

Last Saturday, we invited Grace, Charles and Isabella to be baptized on December 13 but they wanted to be baptized on December 29 because they have family coming up to Logan on that day. Grace and Charles will be a convert baptism while Isabella will be a 8 years old family. Our main focus for that family is to get the kids baptized and the family BACK on the road to the Temple and help them stay active. Last Saturday, we invited them to come to Church and they all committed to come.

The next day, the ENTIRE family came. Luckily, we were able to speak in that ward so we can kinda control how well sacrament meeting goes. It is always nerve-wracking when a speaker talks about some deep doctrine thing and the investigator leaves church very confused. 

I was crazy nervous to give that talk because I wanted to do a really good job. I prayed a lot during the sacrament so I can have some help. Miracles happened. I never spoke so well and I could see that everybody could understand me. I was going to speak on missionary work but since the Goble family was there, I talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It went really well. 

Later that day, we had a meeting with the Stake President, we were sooooooooooooooooo excited to share the news with him. He was absolutely thrilled about hearing the kids accept the baptismal date. When we told him that the entire family, including the father, went to church, he was stunned. He couldn't believe it. He even said, "Pete even went to church?!?" He was really happy about that! 

Last night, we had an awesome lesson with the Goble family. We taught the Restoration and we committed the kids to read the Book of Mormon. I am glad to report that they are doing well. The parents are going to meet with the Bishop to sort out all of the baptism details like who is going to baptize them. There are three Goble families in the stake. Yes, three! They all are less active so the Bishop and the Stake President are a little concerned about "offending" them. Please pray for them. The names are as follows: Peter, Alexis, Cole, Grace, Charles, Isabella, and Mack Goble. ALSO, pray for Deserae and Marlowe Goble. Marlowe Goble is a cousin of Peter and Alexis's kids. She met with missionaries twice and backed out of the baptism right before it happened. Sad.. But, we are going to try to have Marlowe get baptized with Grace, Isabella, and Charles. It will be a grand day for the Goble family. Please pray for them all. It would be much appreciated! 

Man, it was a great week. I love being a missionary so much. I love seeing the blessings that comes from doing hard work in the Lord's vineyard. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and what He did for each one of us. I know that He truly loves each one of us, no matter what we have done in the past. I know that we all have a loving Heavenly Father, who loves each one of us so much! I love love love love being a missionary! I love serving Him with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. He helps each one of us, day and night. I am so grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father! 

I love you all so much. Have a great week. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Remember and be thankful for Him!!!! Love, Elder McGrath

Speedball with my zone!!!

Week full of miracles

Hola mi familia! What a wonderful week! I absolutely love being a missionary. I love seeing the work hasten, no matter where I go. The prophecy in D&C 88:73 is become true. I am so grateful to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading around the globe. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is HIS church. He leads the Church through revelations. Amos 3:7. We all need to become stronger covenant-making and covenant-keeping people. Build your foundation on Jesus Christ. There are soooo many scriptures in the Bible AND the Book of Mormon that talks about building your foundation on Jesus Christ. It is awesome. I love the Gospel so much.

Now on to what happened this week. Man, where should I start..

So, I forgot to include this part in last week's letter. Last Monday (not yesterday), a guy named Ben Smith called us and told us that he is from the Provo MTC and he will be coming with us out on splits from 9AM - 9PM. Well, that happened last Saturday! Apparently, there is only 8 companionships out of 125 companionships that is having a guy from the Provo MTC tag along and observe on how they find and teach. 

Needless to say, last Saturday went super well. We had a lot of miracles happen on that day. It was meant to happen. I was super nervous for that day because I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted to have each door contact be perfect and every lesson taught to be absolutely perfect. Elder Freitag and I planned that day out super well. We talked about what we will follow up on, what we will teach and what commitments will we extend. But needless to say, we weren't perfect but we tried our best. That is what matters the most! :) 

The first miracle I want to mention is the Gaines family. The mother is a struggling semi-active member and the husband is completely less-active. The husband went to prison for a month and we had that lesson. It was a wonderful lesson. The husband's heart is now soft and he wants to make a change in his life. We committed them to make a goal to get sealed in the Temple. They are (well, should) meet with the Bishop tonight. We will see how that goes. Also, right after that lesson, the parents of the two kids (who were present in the lesson but we have never seen them before. I concluded that the Gaines are babysitting) came home. The Gaines introduced us to them and told us that they moved into the house. The 10 years old kid wants to learn more about the church. The mother told us that she is Pagan (what is that? I have never heard of that religion up to that point) but she is willing to let the kids practice on what they believe. We committed the boy to meet with us on Saturday. He wants to learn more. I am excited! 

Also, Ben Smith took us out for lunch and we went to Olive Garden. While eating, we got a call and it was a number that wasn't saved in our phone. We were thinking about answering it later but I just figured, "Hey, let's get this over with so I don't have to worry about calling that person back." I just answered it. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello, this is the LDS missionaries. Elder McGrath speaking. How can I help you?

Person: This is Sister Goble from the Lundstrom Park 3rd ward (Logan East stake) and I have a problem. 

(During that time, I remembered who she was. She was on the part-member list)

Me: Oh, hello, Sister Goble! What can I do to help you?

Sis Goble: Well, I have two kids who are 12 and 10 who never got baptized and umm... we need some help with getting them baptized. 

Me: *pauses for a moment* wait a second, can you repeat that again? (I just wanted to make sure I heard it right and she repeats it again) Oh, yes! We can definitely help you with getting them baptized. When can we come over and teach them so they can get prepared to get baptized? 

We set up a lesson with them on Thursday. Amazing right! WHAT A MIRACLE! I have never gotten nor heard of anyone getting this kind of a call. I am so stoked. I love the blessings that the Lord blesses me with. I am so thankful for those blessings. 

Also, we found out that the Goble kids who are not baptized also have a cousin who almost got baptized (backed out of the baptism 30 minutes before the baptism) who happens to live in the same STAKE but different ward! We hope to invite the Goble kids to invite their cousin to the lesson so she can get baptized with her cousins. It will be a great baptismal service! I am so pumped to see that and make it a reality! :) 

Another miracle, we had a sick lesson with Cherry and Frank Lui last Sunday! We taught Gospel Principles in her ward at that day too. At the lesson, I asked if she had any questions about what we talked about in Gospel Principles. She was like, "Yeah. I wrote it down.". She then proceeded to pull out a notepad that had a lot of writings on it. But the coolest thing was that she didn't have any questions about Gospel Principles. Everything made sense to her. She had questions about the Restoration pamphlet and Book of Mormon we gave her. We only taught the first 1/2 of the lesson before we had to leave. On her own, she read the entire pamphlet, including the list of terms and she has read a little bit of the Book of Mormon. After hearing some of the questions, we helped her connect the dots. About why we needed a restoration, why we need a prophet. She even asked how old was Jesus Christ died? (which is 33 years old by the way). It was an amazing lesson and she is progressing really well. She is prepared! They are so awesome!

We had an awesome lesson with Aaron Marez yesterday. He is motivated and has a huge desire to overcome the challenges that is holding him back from baptism. We taught him a little bit about studying the scriptures because he expressed a huge concern that he isn't getting anything out of the scriptures. We showed him the footnotes and other various scripture studying activities that will help him. He seems excited about everything. And another thing, his MMA fight is coming up in three weeks. After that, he will have a lot more free time, which means that his progression will happen more rapidly! :)

The work is hastening and I absolutely love working hard. I love seeing all of the miracles that make all of the hard times worth it. Those blessings only come through obedience and hard work. I am so grateful for the things that I am learning on my mission. I am so grateful that I have decided to serve a mission. I love being a missionary! If you are thinking about serving a mission, SERVE A MISSION! You will not regret it, I promise! I love being a missionary so much!

I love you all so much! You are the greatest family anyone could have and I am lucky to call you my family! Love you and stay strong! Have an awesome week! :) Love, Elder McGrath

A couple of my favorite pictures!

Logan is amazing

Hola mi familia!! Without realizing it, I hit my 15 months mark last week.

Logan is amazing, seriously... Logan is absolutely amazing. I am loving my time here. I am loving my mission so much. I have grown and changed so much in my short 15 months. I cannot wait to see what the next 9 months will be like. I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. It will be exciting. I love being a missionary.

This past week has been awesome! We finally got back in contact with Paul Warren!! I hope we don't lose him again. We have a lesson set up for this Thursday. I am excited to start teaching him towards baptism, and then, eventually, the Temple. It will be great! MahRyan, on the other hand, is still difficult. We have her Sunday School teachers, the Burtons, working with her and trying to get things back in the way it was going before. The Burtons are really good friends with her. Please keep praying for her! :)

Awesome news, we found out that the Wilson's (the nonmember family of 5 from Missouri) family friends are now back in town and will be inviting them to meet with us and learn more about the LDS church in the next ward activity, which is this week!!!! Honestly, I am so pumped to start teaching them. It will be so awesome! The Murphy family are so cool. Elder and Sister Murphy are the Senior Couple missionaries for the Logan East stake (they are retired so they "went" on a mission for their home stake). They have a great relationship with the Wilson family. I am looking forward to seeing the great miracles that will come from teaching this family. I cannot wait to get them on the road to the Temple and see them sealed for all time and eternity! It will be awesome!

Last Sunday, Elder Freitag and I went to the Chinese Group sacrament meeting and a HUGE miracle happened just after it finished. We went and talked to the Ward Mission Leader's wife and she told us that after us coming to the English class for two straight weeks, there was a girl named Amanda that got really curious about what we do. The WML's wife told her that we are representatives of the Church. She also told her that we teach about Jesus Christ and how He can help us. She also told her that we invite people to come unto Christ through baptism!! We are meeting with her this Thursday! I am so pumped!

Another miracle happened at the Chinese group too. We talked to a potential investigator that came to church after talking to the WML's wife and the Group Leader (kinda like the Bishop) came with us to talk to her. They started speaking in Chinese and said a bunch of things that sounded like gibberish. All of the sudden, they both start smiling and he said in English that he had to get going. He also told us that he pretty much invited her to baptism and she accepted. It turns out that Rica (the potential investigator) had been going to church on and off and never met with missionaries. We told Rica that we, as missionaries, help people prepare to get baptized. She wants to meet with us and we set up a lesson for this Thursday!

What a miracle!!!!!!! I love the blessings that comes from doing the Lord's work This is one of the reasons why I love my mission so much! The work here in Logan is going awesome. I am loving it! Most of our less-actives are progressing back to re-activation.

We finally set up a lesson for Aaron Marez tomorrow. It turns out that he has been super busy in the past two weeks. I am so excited to finally continue to teach Aaron Marez. He reminds me a lot like Robert Hall from Tremonton. Like Robert Hall, Aaron Marez has something that is holding him back from being baptized. Like Robert Hall, he has a huge desire to be baptized. Like Robert Hall, he is keeping most of his commitments. Because of the experience I had with Robert Hall, I can help Aaron Marez and I am looking forward to the lesson. It will be marvelous! :)  

Cherry and Frank Lui are doing so awesome. We taught them the first half of the Restoration and she is taking it all in very well. She and Frank are learning a lot and they are reading the Book of Mormon. They are attending church every single week. They are progressing slowly but at least, it is still progression. They have a strong interest in the Gospel. They are so awesome! 

Thank you for all you do for us. I really appreciate the wonderful emails that you all send me. They are so awesome! You are awesome too! :) Stay strong and safe. Helaman 5:12. We can build that strong foundations by attending Church, praying and reading the scriptures. I love you all and have an awesome week! :) Love, Elder McGrath

A great week

Familia! What a great week this has been! I love my mission so much.

This past Saturday, I was able to attend the Logan, Utah Temple with the Jackson family for their endowment and sealing. Oh, man.. It was an incredible experience. Elder Freitag and I were there as well as the first two missionaries that taught them. We were talking to those first two missionaries and they told us about how Brother Jackson was not interested at all and he would always fall asleep in the lessons. They would go over there every single day at 6pm. They did this for two months and they told us that in one lesson, he completely changed. His desire changed. His mentality changed. He wants to get back active but didn't really put the effort into it. The Lord helped him. The Holy Ghost converted Brother Jackson and that alone changed his life. 

They could not believe that he got re-activated and now, sealed to his family for all time and eternity. It is incredible about how far he has came. I am so grateful to be a part of it. The Jackson family is so amazing.

The biggest thing that I will take away from this amazing experience is seeing the family get sealed in the sealing room. The Spirit was SO strong. Brother and Sister Jackson was so happy. You can see the light bursting from their eyes and it was incredible. After they got sealed, they sat back down and they were so delighted. All of the sudden, their three old son, Aaron, ran up to them. It was so adorable and all three of them sat down on the altar and Aaron got sealed to them. Nikki Jackson was not able to get sealed because of his biological mother (who is Jehovah's Witness). She didn't grant permission. 

While Brother, Sister and Aaron Jackson were on the altar, the Spirit was much more stronger. The Spirit was bouncing off the walls and it was incredible. I will never forget this experience. It was incredible. I cannot wait for my turn to be able to get sealed to my future wife in the Temple. I know that families can be together forever, even after we die. 

Last night, we had an incredible lesson with the Jackson family. We read Alma 29:9-10 with them. We specifically asked Brother Jackson about this scripture and what it meant to them. After that, Brother Jackson told us his entire story about his conversion and how the Temple is the closest he has got to Heaven. He will be attending the Temple every Saturday morning to do the work for the dead. 

After that, we talked a lot about how there is a lot of people out there that don't have this privilege of being able to have the blessings of the Gospel in their lives. This is the reason why we are commanded by Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20) to bring His Gospel to all those around us. At the end of the lesson, he committed to bearing his testimony about the temple and missionary work, also committed to start doing Family History and talk to his friends about the Gospel. 

This is my favorite part about missionary work. Seeing other people become converted unto the Lord. That is what makes all the hard times worth it. This is why I love my mission so much. I have taught many many people and some of them became converted. It is amazing to see them change for the better and lead better lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

The Hillcrest 2nd ward is very concerned about MahRyan and what happened to her. We told them what happened and a lot of people are trying to help her out. The Bishop assigned her Sunday School teachers (they are really good friends with MahRyan) to visit her. Please pray for her that she will be able to start meeting with us and meet her baptismal goal of November 22nd.

So, last Sunday, the Utah Ogden Mission had the Musical Fireside that they held at the Logan Tabernacle. We invited so many people to come and we had our Senior Couple Missionaries (senior couples that is assigned to serve alongside full-time missionaries in the stake they reside in) invited so many people. I am SO happy to report that there was a BIG turnout at the musical fireside. The tabernacle was completely packed. Elder and Sister Murphy (of the Logan East stake) had a NONMEMBER family of 5 come with them. Elder and Sister Murphy said that they should be ready to be taught by next week. I am so PUMPED to start teaching them and help them get on the road to the Temple. 

And guess what, Cherry and Frank Lui came to the fireside. Before that, we had a sick lesson with them. We talked about the last half of the Plan of Salvation and she said that "this all makes sense. I can see a purpose in my life now!"! :D She and Frank is progressing quite well. They are attending Church every single week and they are feeling the Spirit. 

I truly love my mission so much. I love being a missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and what He has done for each one of us. I know that He is our Savior and Redeemer. With His Atonement, we can become clean and prepare to return to live with our loving Father in Heaven and our family for all eternity. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness that it brings by obedience to the principles and ordinances of the Gospel. 

I love you all and have a wonderful week. Stay strong and close to the Lord. :) Love, Elder McGrath