A great week

Hey guys! Thank you for the emails. I love getting emails and thank you! It was another great week in the Utah Ogden mission. Every week seems to by so much faster. It didn't feel like a week has passed. I love being a missionary and helping others come closer unto Christ!

Day 1 (Tuesday, January 21) - Elder Barnes and I were able to visit a couple of people after pday! The first one is Cam. We just started teaching him last Tuesday and he is a pretty cool guy. He is a DJ and he has a pretty cool studio (we have lessons in his studio!). Anyways, he grew up LDS and fell away from the church because he feels like that there can be no revelation because God doesn't change things. He knows everything. Well, the problem with that is the world is always evolving. Revelation allows the Gospel to help the people at the time. There is a reason for prophet (Amos 3:7)! During the lesson, we were able to clear up some misconceptions and teach about the Book of Mormon. After the lesson, he tried throwing some anti-Mormonism stuff at us but most of them were really stupid. Literally everything he throws at us is not doctrine and most of it was found in W. Cleon Skousen's books. We were able to testify of the Book of Mormon and we left after that.

After that, we were able to visit Mark Henning who is a "dry Mormon". It's a term for unbaptized people who is pretty much like a regular Mormon. He goes to church every single week, he prays 2x a day, and he reads the scriptures. He finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants. We tried talking about baptism and it's a "sticky" subject for him. 

Day 2 (Wednesday, January 22) - Elder Barnes and I were able to go to District meeting and the ZLs decided to do it differently this time. We did a round robin thing where we had three stations. They all pretty much talked about obedience. The mission made up a program called Celestial Routines because the majority of the mission need help with obedience and they pretty much talked to us about it. It was a interesting program!

Elder Barnes and I got to see Kevin and he is doing awesome! He wanted to feed us sloppy joes but we couldn't schedule it until today! We are eating at his house tonight at 5pm! I'm so excited!

The best part about that day was that we were able to eat dinner at Robert Hall's house. His future wife made home-made pizza and holy crap, it was DELICIOUS! Apparently, the recipe for the dough has been handed down for generations! It was good pizza. Even my companion, who doesn't like pizza, loved the home-made pizza! It was a good day!

Day 3 (Thursday, January 23) - Elder Barnes and I got a chance to visit Ashley Adams and I have been trying to get a lesson and have it go through for the past 5 1/2 months and it was the first time it happened! Yay! After the lesson with Ashley Adams and the kids, Ashley broke down in front of us and told us her story. The reason why she is inactive, even though she has a testimony of the gospel is because of her ex-husband who is a Marine. Her ex-husband is very anti-Mormon and would not let Ashley go to church. It led to an abusive relationship and Ashley broke off and filed for divorce. She keeps commenting about how she is terrified about her ex-husband because he has connections. She still fears for her life even though her husband lives on the East coast. I feel so bad for her. No woman shouldn't go through that!!! :(

Anyways, the good news is that the WML was there with us and heard the entire story. He is planning on getting the ward involved and I hope it works out! 

Day 4 (Friday, January 24) - It was a pretty slow day that day. The highlight of the day was that we were able to contact the majority of our referrals and most of them answered the door! We were able to set up return appointments. It's an exciting time! :D

Elder Barnes and I got a chance to visit one of the members who is a really close friend of Kevin and she told us everything that Kevin isn't telling us. Apparently, we accomplished a part of our purpose with him and that is bringing him closer unto Christ but the real reason why he isn't keeping his commitments is because he is a faithful member of the Catholic church. He got his conversion through the Christmas mass that he watched on TV. ....... It was so frustrating hearing that because I spent so much time on him and today after dinner, I'm going to be bold and be straight with him (Moroni 8:16 "Behold I speak with boldness, having authority from God, and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear"). We might have to drop him. :( The good thing is that no matter what he does, Heavenly Father still loves him and will keep giving him chances to accept the restored Gospel. I know that he will accept it in the future.

Day 5 (Saturday, January 25) - Last Saturday was a great day in the UOM! That morning, we participated in a service project. A LA couple's house burned down in Bothwell so we helped clean up the debris so they can rebuild the house. The ward helped out a lot too. At the end, we got lunch and a couple ladies brought subs from Which Wich (apparently, nobody has ever heard of it until they ate it. It was pretty good!). They bought so much subs because they were expecting a lot of people but many didn't show up. We were able to take about 5 subs back home with us for lunch for the next 5 days! SCORE! :)

We were able to make some visits with the YSA WML and we visited Sam Adams, who grew up LDS and he told us that he believes in the church but he has no testimony. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he never read it so we testified to him about the power of the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson!

Day 6 (Sunday, January 26) - Not much happened. Elder Barnes and I went to three different ward sacrament meetings and that alone was draining. It was awesome though!

The last sacrament meeting we went to was the Bothwell ward. One guy is going to give his farewell talk in the ward that day so the chapel plus gym was packed. We were sitting on the stage (it was in the very back) because we didn't want to be rude. The funny thing is that the bishop remarked at the end, "Thank you all for coming. I never thought today would be the day that the chapel and the gym is packed the missionaries are sitting on the stage." It was cool!

Day 7 (Monday, January 27) - Elder Barnes and I got to go to Zone Study yesterday and it was more teaching about Celestial Routines but this time, it was games. We were separated into our districts and played a competition. It was a fun competition consisting of pushups, putting on a shirt (the shirt was frozen so we had to "open" the shirt so it was hard) and eat a banana. We had set of missionaries do each portion. We won! :)

The best part about this Zone Study was that we got a chance to compete against the rest of the zone to see who knows their companion the best. We had a series of 20 questions and we give two answers to each one of them. We answer the question for ourselves and our companion. For example: Favorite Book of Mormon person. I would answer Ammon/Alma. Ammon is my favorite Book of Mormon person and Alma would be Elder Barnes' favorite Book of Mormon person. We can gain up to 40 points. Well, guess what?! Elder Barnes and I literally destroyed the Zone! Everybody averaged between 20 and 23 out of 40. We got 31/40!!! Our companionship unity is strong and I think that is what's making this area stronger. We are getting more solid baptismal dates for our investigators. 

I love being a missionary, especially in the Utah Ogden mission! I have grown so much by being a missionary and I am so glad that I made the decision to serve the Lord! Scripture of the week: "And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God." -- Alma 31:5. Read your scriptures!

Have a wonderful week and stay strong! I love you guys! Love, Elder McGrath

Another awesome week

Hey guys! It was another great week in the Utah Ogden mission. Every week seems to by so much faster. It still feels like December and yet, it's almost February. Holy crap, I just realized.. I'm approaching my sixth month mark. Wha?! I'm almost done with a quarter of my mission!

Elder Barnes and I thought up a trick to get rid of the treats we get from a lot of members efficiently. We have a freezer stocked up on treats that we never eat. Every time we open the freezer, we always feel bad because we kinda wasted their money so we devised a way to get rid of them without the guilt. We give them away to families that we teach or WML's family or bishop's family! The benefit is that we get an increase in member trust and we get more referrals out of it! :D

Day 1 (Tuesday, January 14) - Elder Sutton wanted to go to the temple but his companion, Elder Wikley didn't want to so Elder Sutton asked my companion, Elder Barnes to tag along with him. So for a little bit, I got to hang out with Elder Wilkey.

We went to a guy's house in the Tremonton South stake and his name was Alabe (pronounced Al-a-bee) Garze. Alabe is a stud! He has such an incredible conversion story and we got to barbeque some steaks. Alabe makes some mean steaks!

After pday was over, Elder Barnes and I got to go visit the Misrasi family. We got to teach the Restoration using Jenga! It's sorta like this but we do it a little bit different. The kids loved the lesson and they were able to understand what we were trying to teach.

Day 2 (Wednesday, January 15) - I got to do exchanges with Elder Sutton and that was a blast! We got to see Kevin who is going through a lot of challenges, all because he committed to baptism and started to come to church. (Matthew, your tip on this part is so spot on!) We decided to share Hebrew 12: 4-9, which is AWESOME! Read it! It's so good! Kevin understood it right away so it was awesome seeing far Kevin is progressing!

Elder Sutton and I also got to teach the Restoration with Jenga lesson with the Glover family! It was really awesome and Kylar (the 7 years old boy) wanted to buy the game afterwards because he really enjoyed playing the game! haha

That day, we were able to take the Strengths Quest assessment for Zone Conference (if you don't know Strenths Quest, look it up!) It basically assesses you and determines your top 5 strengths. Mine was Futuristic, Focus, Strategic, Significance, and Competition. All of the Elders who know me pretty well was surprised by HOW TRUE those strengths are for me. haha

Day 3 (Thursday, January 16) - After exchanging back to our companions, Elder Barnes and I got to go see Robert Hall! He is still on for February 8th! We got to read a little bit about the Book of Mormon and we also read the Testimony of Joseph Smith because Robert really likes personal stories and we thought it would be good for him!

We got to eat dinner with a family and they have a 17 years old boy who is having doubts about serving a mission and the parents wanted us to change that. We went over and ate delicious burgers! I still crave those burgers! They were so GOOD! Anyways, after dinner, we got to talk a little about missionary work and shared a video. It was a great dinner appointment and I still hope that boy decides to serve a mission!

Day 4 (Friday, January 17) - Not much happened that day. We had to clean our car for the inspection for Zone Conference which was yesterday. It was a disaster but now, it's clean! We had a couple lessons fall through but we got to help out a elderly couple put together four bookshelves! It was pretty interesting. The guy had a bunch of power tools so we were able to put it together pretty fast!

Day 5 (Saturday, January 18) - We had no appointments on that day so we made a bunch of visits and we got to see Tanya Upshaw. An unbaptized mother with two active kids who got baptized in 2012. We were talking and the kids started to talk about this thing they got for Christmas so we decided to go out and have a big snowball fight! It was awesome! After the snowball fight, we invited them to come to church and they accepted! It was awesome!

Day 6 (Sunday, January 19) - Elder Barnes and I were able to attend Ward Council and talk a little bit about Hastening the Work of Salvation! It was awesome!After that, we got to go to sacrament meeting with the Misrasi family! It was so much fun! Sacrament meeting went by super fast! Elder Barens and I were then supposed to teach Dylan (nonmember 16 years old guy) along with his Priests Quorum but Dylan didn't show up! :( But we taught the Priests Quorum on how to teach the Plan of Salvation.

We also got to see Ryan Kendrick that night and we had to push his baptismal date back to February 1st because he is going to be out of town on February 1st. So we have two strong awesome people getting baptized on February 8th! It is going to be a glorious day! I love it!

Day 7 (Monday, January 20) - Elder Barnes and I got to go to Zone Conference! We learned so much in Zone Conference and President Hiers spoke about the Atonement and it was MIND-BLOWING! He talked about the Atonement for about a hour and it was so awesome! My testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ grew as a result from that lecture! It was amazing! Elder Barnes and I got to see the Misrasi and we got to teach them Word of Wisdom and keeping the Sabbath day holy! It was a cool lesson! :)

I love you all and have a great week! I love being a missionary! It has indeed been a great week to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission! Love, Elder McGrath

Tremonton West stake center.

  I love this quote so i put it on the back of my name tag. you can also see my first day dot

my FAVORITE place to eat! it's the hospital! it's so good

Elder Barnes and I putting together bookshelves for the elderly couple

Bothwell, it is part of our area

The snow is melting! I LOVE IT! :)

Another awesome week in Tremonton

Hey guys, It was awesome reading your emails once again. It snowed in Tremonton a good 1 1/2 inches! A lot of members told us earlier this week that we should bundle up for the week because there should be a big snow storm that should put a good 5-7 inches of snow on the ground. The funny thing is that it happened but it was in other areas. It was in the high 30s most of the week! It was awesome! :) When Elder Barnes and I go out to go to the gym at 5:45 AM, we don't even wear a jacket, in January. It's not even that cold anyways! :)

It was an awesome week in the Utah Ogden mission! Elder Barnes and I got to raise our number of baptismal dates from 3 to 5 in a week! We have been working really hard to bring this area to the point where baptisms happen regularly. It's a blast and makes time go by super fast! The best way to serve a mission is to work. When it gets hard, it's so easy to go to the church and waste our time facebooking. But the reality of that is that it makes time go by so slow. 

Here is the day by day updates because a lot of people told me that they really enjoy that because it gives them insight of what a mission is like. I'm not going to lie: the past five months have been the most challenging but most rewarding five months of my life. I rejoice in my decision to serve the Lord every day!

Day 1 (Tuesday, January 7) - It was my fifth month mark. At that day, I couldn't believe my mind that I have already served the Lord for five whole months! It was awesome.

Elder Barnes and I got to go to Logan and do some shopping. Shock. Yeah, I know! ;) I got a sick suit for only 25 bucks at the DI! It was sick! It fits me perfect, I don't have to get it tailored! :)

That night, we got to teach the Misrasi family! We did the 10 commandments with hands. When we teach the 10 commandments using hands to help remember, they retain the knowledge they have learned so much better. 

Day 2 (Wednesday, January 8) - Elder Barnes and I got to go to District Meeting and we received some awesome training. My DL, Elder Wilkey (He is from Manchester, England.), gave us training on how to teach using the scriptures. We applied his training to our teaching and I have definitely seen blessings come out because of it.

Elder Barnes and I got to go see Robert Hall last Wednesday and it was awesome! Beforehand, we had NO idea what to teach but we decided to see where he is at at the moment so we decided to do a mock baptismal interview with him. He nailed each questions and he explained the things so well! To be honest, with some parts, he blew my mind with how he simplified. It definitely helped me become a better missionary after that. It also felt good because I knew that he was understanding what we were teaching him! It felt super good! Because of that mock interview, he was able to solidify himself for his baptism on February 8th. 

Day 3 (Thursday, January 9) - Elder Barnes and I got to go see Kevin. He was talking to us about all of the churches that he wants to explore and how he wants to stay on the strait and narrow path. To be quite honest, I was getting sick of how he was complaining about the strait and narrow path so I decided to share a couple scriptures with him. The first one was Matthew 7:13-14. It talks a little about the strait and narrow path then I had him read 2 Nephi 31:17-18. I remember his reaction after reading those scripture. He said that he knows that he needs to get baptized. He also told us that he needs to truly repent. Elder Barnes asked him if he set a goal to get baptized and he said no. After that, we talked about goals and how it helps us overcome trials and get the blessings. I told him that we will set a goal for his baptism and that was to be on February 15th. He accepted and told us that he will definitely work towards baptism. The Spirit was so strong in there and it was an awesome lesson.

Day 4 (Friday, January 10) - Elder Barnes and I got to do WML visits (where we go out and visit people with the Ward Mission Leader) with the Thatcher-Penrose 1st WML, Brother Roberts! To be honest, we only visited one family and spent two hours getting to know them. We couldn't share a spiritual thought because we had to get going. It was a waste of time BUT we got a return appointment so it wasn't all that bad. :)

The Tremonton Stake has been really bad lately so the DL decided to do a District Blitz in the area. It's basically where all of the district get together and we go out tracting so we can get referrals. It really helps the area because we get so many referrals! It was a blast!

Day 5 (Saturday, January 11) - Elder Barnes and I got to see Kevin and he fed us pizza for lunch. It was so good! We got to teach him the Iron Rod and we read from the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 8. It was a great lesson because he said that he felt that chapter was for him. I am so glad that he is progressing! For the rest of that day, we visited a lot of the Stake auxiliaries and got a ton of referrals. 

Day 6 (Sunday, January 12) - We got to go to a ton of sacrament meetings! It was awesome! I loved every single second of it!

After that, we got to teach a couple new investigators. The first was Dylan. He was invited by his priests quorum to take the lessons because he is not baptized. He accepted so we had the entire Priest quorum, including leaders, as well as Dylan at a lesson. We got to teach him the Restoration. It was an awesome lesson! I highly enjoyed teaching them!

After that, we got to teach a guy named Ryan Kendrick. His stepbrother was a recently returned missionary (he returned last month from the Texas Dallas mission) and he referred Ryan to us. Ryan grew up rLDS (reformed LDS) so he knows pretty much what we're teaching him. We did the 5 Essentials with him and found out that he has been reading the Book of Mormon for quite a while now. He talked like 75% of the time. He knows his stuff. We committed him to baptism on February 1st and that is definitely happening. His LA wife wants to go to the temple and she is so happy that he committed. After the lesson, Elder Barnes said that it was the best lesson he has ever taught on his mission so far (he's been out 21 months.). 

Day 7 (Monday, January 13) - Yesterday was a really slow day. We were trying to contact all of the referrals we got and most of them didn't even answer the doors. :( We also tried contacting some of the ward auxiliaries because we had time and guess what. They didn't answer the doors too. It was a long day but it was fun because Elder Barnes and I were joking around a lot. 

It was a fantastic week in the Utah Ogden mission. I love being a missionary! Have a great week and stay strong! Love, Elder McGrath

First letter in 2014

Hello guys! It was awesome to be able to read your letters! It was awesome to hear about the events that is going on at home! Today marks my fifth month out in the mission. I still can't believe how fast the time flew by. It's scary knowing that I'll be home before I know it!

Day 1 (New Years Eve, Tuesday) - We had to be back at home by 6pm because President Hiers didn't want people to assume that the missionaries are doing bad things on New Years Eve so he told us to be back in our apartments by 6pm. It allows him to be able to say that it wasn't his missionaries when the people call and complain. Elder Barnes and I just played Monopoly and went to bed early.

Day 2 (New Years, Wednesday) - It was really weird because we woke up in a different year. ;)

I got to do exchanges with the DL. His name is Elder Wilkey and he is from Manchester, England. I told him that I have been to London and we talked a lot about England in general and he is a big fan of MLS. He loves Manchester United and he hates Barca! Bad combination ;)

Elder Wilkey and I got to go see Kevin and he is doing really well. He told us that a lot of things are going wrong this week and it was because he went to church. He said it was a sign from God that he went to the wrong church. I immediately asked him if anything changed when he went to the Catholic church. He replied with no. After that, I said that it was because he went to the right church. Satan is trying to stop him from going back. He looked down and said, "yeah... you're right".

We also got to see the Glover family! The father was telling us so many cop stories (he worked during Christmas break) and it was so funny/cool! After hearing tons of cop stories, we got to talk a little bit about setting goals and we set a goal for them to do CPR! It was cool!

Day 3 (Jan 2, Thursday) - Elder Barnes and I got a chance to go see Max Bateman and he told us that he has been reading the scriptures. It was SO awesome hearing that! We got to teach him a little bit about prayer and how it helps us develop a relationship with Heavenly Father!

We got to eat dinner with part member family (father is nonmember and the rest of family is super active) and it was so awesome! The WML of the ward warned us about the father and how he has a distaste for missionaries. We wanted to change that! So we went in with huge smiles on our face and trying to crack a bunch of jokes. I looked over the father after I finished telling a deaf joke and he was laughing. He also cracked some jokes too! It was awesome! We were able to share a spiritual thought with him in the room! Mission accomplished!

Day 4 (Jan 3, Friday) -  We got to see Robert Hall and he is SO solid! We talked a little bit about his marriage with Lori (they are getting married on February 1st and they invited us!) and his baptism on February 8th (which falls in the next transfer and everybody is telling me that I will get transferred after this transfer is over. :(.) We told him about the baptismal interview and he told us that he is a little nervous and he wants to know the questions in advance so he can prepare. What? No investigators that I know of has ever done that. Elder Barnes (who has been out 20 months) was a little surprised. We were excited though! It means that he has a really big desire to get baptized! We tore off the baptismal interview question in our planner and gave it to him. He thanked us and told us that he will prepare. We also told him that we will be doing a baptismal review before the interview. He is so SOLID!

Elder Barnes and I got to teach a girl on Skype. Elder Barnes is the one who set it up. She spoke so quietly and it was super hard for me to hear. I just smiled whiled Elder Barnes was talking the whole time. I helped out a little by explaining a few things from the GoJC! (3rd lesson in PMG) 

Day 5 (Jan 4, Saturday) - Elder Barnes and I got to see Kevin today and he told us more about MORE things are falling apart for him. He had a tough week (please keep him in your prayers! Thanks!).

We also got to teach the Misrasi family and we talked a little about the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the paper object lesson! We have so many object lessons! I love it! It makes teaching 1000000x more easier! 

Day 6 (Jan 5, Sunday) - Elder Barnes and I were SO busy last Sunday with all of the meetings we had to go to. Stake council, ward council, ward correlation meetings, 2 sacrament meetings and teaching the high priest group in the 3rd ward about fellowshipping. It was an exhausting day!

Elder Barnes and I got to break our fast by eating dinner at the WML Skinner's (Bothwell ward) house and guess what? He invited Robert Hall and his future family (:D) over too! It was an awesome dinner appointment! I highly enjoyed it!

Day 7 (Jan 6, Monday) - Elder Barnes and I made a list of all of the referrals we have gotten and made a route so that we can contact all of them. It was awesome! The day went by really fast!

We had a neat experience. Elder Barnes and I had a goal to visit 2 WMLs or bishops every single night to help build member trust. We stopped by the 8th ward WML, Brother Zundel. He had some family over and he opened the door and said, "HEY! Come on in!". (Btw, he loves us! Partly because he has a kid on a mission. He's been out 4 months in the Mexico Tijuana mission) and they were watching the SEC championship involving the Auburn and Florida State(?). We were talking and somehow we talked about popcorn and the Zundel family told us that they don't have any popcorn. We were shocked! Elder Barnes remembered that the South Stake elders got a bunch of popcorn that they don't want and are willing to give away. Elder Wilkey is one of the Elders in the South stake and he told us in last district meeting to go the extra mile! So we decided to do just that. We "broke" (their door was unlocked!) in and stole all of their popcorn and gave it to the WML! He was so happy! Boom, mission accomplished! We sent a text to the South stake elders and Wilkey was proud of us! :D

It was definitely a great week in the Utah Ogden mission. I love being a missionary! I love you guys and be safe! Don't forget to do CPR! I promise you that you will be blessed! I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us and that we are His children. He cares deeply for us and wants us to be happy. He has provided the gospel so we can find true happiness. I know that is true! I love you guys! Love, Elder McGrath