An awesome week

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the emails that you have sent me. It was a joy reading them! It is so nice to hear about the things happening at home.My family is back in Arizona and my dad just started his new job. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!?! I want to make a shoutout to the BEST older sister in the world, Hermana Caitlin McGrath. Her birthday is in 5 days and she is turning 22 years old, even though she looks like she is 19. FELIZ CUMPLEANOS! 

Anyways, if some of you guys don't know, I'm currently training. His name is Elder Curtis and he is from Concordia, Missouri (2 hours south of Kansas City). He went to a very small branch. Him and I are pretty much opposite. He likes to read, draw and do artistic things. I like to play sports. But we get along really well. He is a super sick missionary. 

This past week has been pretty cool. Since we dropped all of our eternigators, we have been doing a LOT of finding. It has been really good for Elder Curtis. It means that he will be able to practice his door contacting skills. He has been improving a lot. 

We also found some new people that we lined up for our first lesson with them. We had 1 last Sunday and 3 yesterday. All three lessons fell through yesterday. :( But we are keeping up our heads and working hard. We just have to be diligent in all things that we do and the Lord will bless us. I have seen it happen. Elder Kelley and I didn't have very many people to teach for three weeks straight so we were doing a lot of finding. People were rejecting us left from right. It was crazy hard. Elder Kelley just kept telling me to keep my head up and not get too stressed out. We were being diligent to the very end. We were able to find the Cefalo family and because of that, Ethan and Gage was able to get baptized. It was amazing. Diligence is key. I keep telling my son that and I have faith in the Lord that we will be blessed if we work hard and be diligent. It's all going to work out. :)

Anyways, we were doing a spiritual thought at one of the bishops that we work with. He gave us a super sick referral. It is the Maib family. The father is divorced and has 2 kids (a 13 yrs old girl and a 12 yrs old boy). They all are from southern California and they are all nonmembers. We contacted them last week and we have our first lesson with them TONIGHT! I am so pumped. We are going to invite them all to be baptized on July 12 and I am so stoked. It is going to be a solid lesson!

Last Sunday was a very interesting day. We had a lesson with this 12 years old boy. I had Elder Curtis invite him to be baptized and he said no. I started asking some questions to try to resolve that concern. His concern was that he didn't believe in Jesus Christ but he believes in the Greek gods. I was so stunned. That was a first for me. It didn't work out but it was a funny story for us to tell. 

Guess what, my district is going to be awesome! One set of elders changed zones so Elder White (the DL of the other district) has 2 areas besides his in his district. I have 3 besides mine plus the senior stake missionaries for the Clinton North stake. We got a new sister in my district. Her name is Sister Kuwahara. She is from Japan. She is a super sick missionary. So far, as a DL, I had two Germans (including my mission father), a Japanese and a bunch of Americans. How cool is that?!? Also, I have a great DM planned for tomorrow. I am so excited to be able to present it.

I also want to let you all know that I know that the gospel is true and with the gospel, we can find peace and happiness in this life. The gospel also blesses families because we know that we can be together for all eternity. It also strengthens families because we have a different perspective. I also know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he was called by God and Jesus Christ to be the first prophet of the final dispensation. I also know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. Without Him, we are unable to return to Heaven to live with Heavenly Father. I also know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and I have seen that happen to so many people on my mission. I cannot deny the gospel, for I know it is true 100%. The people in the Church are not perfect and they are bound to make mistakes but I do know that the gospel is perfect in every way. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and He seeks to make us happy. He has done it in so many ways: prophets, families, Jesus Christ and so many other things. We can see His hand in everything. He is truly our Eternal Father.

Stay strong and I know that you can do it. I love you all!! Love, Elder McGrath

Photo of a rainbow

A weenie dog at a dinner appointment

Our house. We live in the basement.

My son (Elder Curtis) and me

My companion is pregnant

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the emails that you have sent me. It was a joy reading them! It is so nice to hear about the things happening at home. I can't believe it. My family is finishing up their time in Jubail tomorrow! They will be moving to Saudi Aramco which has a super sick compound! I also want to give a shout out to one of my my awesome cousins, Adri. She got her mission call to BULGARIA SOFIA mission! You are going to be such a fantastic missionary! 

So, I got some exciting news for you all. As you can see, the title is my companion is pregnant. It's missionary lingo. I have been called to be a trainer. I will be a FATHER! Elder Simbeck, since he was my previous companion before my son, is the mother; therefore, he is pregnant. It's due tomorrow (packages with gifts are always welcome JK JK!). So, I will be staying in Clinton and be a District Leader and a trainer. I have no idea who I will be training. I find out tomorrow. So what's going to happen is that I will be going to the mission office and find out who my son is. I am so excited to be training a brand new greenie. It is going to be a blast. Btw, for those of you who want to know, Elder Simbeck is going to the Lorin Farr stake which is in Central Ogden. 

So, l found out why I got sick last week and that was food poisoning. I think I got it from eating out at a Chinese restaurant. Food poisoning sucked because I wasn't able to work hard. It lasted from last Monday to Saturday and it sucked. I was not able to work at all during those times and not many things happened so I apologize for the short email. I learned a lesson there: take advantage of every minute you have when you are well because when you lose it and realize how you miss it, you will wish that you took advantage of every minute. I made a new resolution and that is to work EVEN harder. Harder than ever and I will be with my son. Elder Simbeck and I have told a few people about this and they are so excited to have a brand new missionary in their awesome stake. 

Elder Simbeck and I held a stake mission fireside last Sunday and it was absolutely amazing. We had a huge turnout! So, we had three recent converts (2 was LA before coming back to church. the last one was a nonmember) speak and they were absolutely amazing. They all talked about missionary work and how important it is. They also talked about how crucial members are to the work and how they need to help us out. I also noticed something really cool: we sang an opening song and it didn't have that much conviction and right before the mission fireside closed, we sang a closing song and it was amazing. A lot more people sang and it was louder and overall, it was AWESOME. I think the fireside motivated a lot of people to help out with missionary work because they were able to see how missionary work affected the speakers' lives. I am expecting to see amazing things come out of the fireside. 

So last email, I said that Anthony Adams got on date for June 21st and I was sick so I didn't explain what happened! So, I will be able to now. So Elder Simbeck and I went over there and we were planning on teaching the Restoration. We went in and since it was the first lesson, we got to know him and he was talking. I asked him what he wants in life (the reason I did that so I can be able to tailor the future lessons to his needs) and he said he wants to be a good man. I instantly knew what I needed to do. I opened up to Galations 5:22-23 and we talked about the Holy Ghost and then we talked about the GIFT of the Holy Ghost. We then talked about baptism and how we can get the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I also mentioned that with the gift of the Holy Ghost, we can gain its fruits. We can have him guide us to do what's right. After that, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. But later that week, we found out that he is going on vacations for TWO whole weeks in California so he can't come to church. That means that he can't get baptized on June 21st. :(

Good things are going to happen in the next few months. I am going to drop all of our eternigators (eternigators are investigators who are not progressing) and focus on finding people that actually wants to learn and progress. We are going to be in a huge finding mode and it will be amazing. I can't wait to work hard and have fun with my son! It's going to be a blast. I am expecting miracles to happen. Philippians 4:13.  

I love you all and stay strong. The Gospel is wonderful and I love it so much! Love, Elder McGrath 

Elder Simbeck and me at a dinner appointment

Great week

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for the emails that you have sent me. It was a joy reading them! It is so nice to hear about the things happening at home.

I want to make a shout-out to my YM leader back in Saudi Arabia, Daniel, for becoming Jubail Branch newest Branch President. You are going to do excellent. Don't be nervous. Romans 8:31. God is with you!!

I have been sick yesterday and today and I apologize for the short email. I'm not feeling very good today.

This week has been a great week. Two of my recent converts (Robert and Lori) from my last area and the husband got the priesthood. They both have done baptisms for the dead and last Sunday, something exciting happened. They both got their patriarchal blessing!! I am so happy for them. I love seeing the change I see in people! :) They are planning on getting sealed in the temple in February 2015!!

Another amazing thing is that Gage just got the priesthood last Sunday and Gage and her older sister, Kaitlyn, (13 yrs old) are going to have an interview tonight for their temple recommend so they can baptisms for the dead. It is so awesome!! I love it when RCs progress, even after baptism. It is amazing.

Everything is going so well. We were able to get a new baptismal date last Tuesday night. Anthony Adams for JUNE 21ST! I will explain what happened next week. 

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

My zone!