Living the dream

Hey guys, I am writing to you all from the place up in North Ogden. North Ogden is pretty cool. My stake covers a bit of the homes that is on the mountain of Ben Lomond. It is really really cool. When we get to the top of our stake, we can all of Ogden, Riverdale, Roy, Clinton, Clearfield, Syracuse and little bit of Farmington, If the valley was all the way flat, we would be able to see Salt Lake City but there is a little ridge that is blocking the view. Haha.

I came into this area and they had no investigators.. Not one nonmember we were teaching...We had a first lesson with two nonmembers, John and Ashley, and we taught the Five Essentials (a teaching tool we have in this mission). I invited them both to be baptized in August. They had a concern and it was resolved. They had a problem with Word of Wisdom (smoking) so I set the baptismal date for August 23rd, allowing them enough time to quit smoking. John and Ashley were evicted from their apartment because they weren't paying their rent so they are living with a couple of friends, whom the mother was baptized last month and the father is returning to activity. 

We had our second lesson with them last Sunday and that didn't go as well as I planned. We planned on teaching the Restoration with pamphlets. We started talking and they pulled out their tablet and laptop and started doing things on them. It was really confusing because they were evicted from their apartment but yet, they have the tablet and the laptop.. Confusing.. haha.. They got too absorbed into them so we had to get going..

The next morning, the Bowden family (the family that John and Ashley are staying with) called us and told us that they are kicking out John and Ashley because they were smoking inside the house (the Bowden parents were also trying to quit smoking so this didn't really help). It became a mess real quick. Ashley later then texted us, asking for help. We called the Zone Leaders and they advised us to stay out of the situation so we sent a very very polite text to Ashley saying that due to the circumstances, we are unable to assist you with this type of situation because of legal reasons. She then told us to *insert not very nice words here* and she went on blaming the church for her problems and telling us that God isn't real because if God is real, He would help everyone. We just laughed and ignored it. 

So, there. Two dates were dropped and we are back down to no investigators. But I am keeping my head up because "patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting" (Joyce Meyer). I am being patient and doing my best. I also am working extremely hard and trying to build great relationship with the stake leadership. Did you know that my high councilor over missionary work is cousins with the Krey family from Clinton? How crazy is that?!

I know that I will find people to teach. I know that I will find, teach, baptize and get them on the road to the temple. I have no doubt in that. So far, I have two families who will be sealed in February. I have already witnessed a family become sealed last May and it was amazing. I love being a missionary because my commission is to unite families for eternity. Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan. Oh, what wonderful knowledge that we all have. It was all because of one young man's decision to ask God a question. We are privileged to be a part of Jesus Christ's church. I am proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

Stay strong and have an awesome week. I am looking forward to witnessing all of the tender mercies I will be receiving in the next week in North Ogden. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am truly living the dream because I get to represent Jesus Christ as a missionary. There is nothing greater than being a missionary for the Church. I love seeing how the gospel blesses families. 

I hope all is well, and if it's not, say a prayer. It'll get better. Always. Have an amazing week! Love, Elder McGrath

Pioneer Day 2014 Parade. I am on the far left.

 am the very very far left. 

I love Clinton

Hey guys, It was a joy reading all of your emails. It was amazing to see how life is going back at home.

Tomorrow is transfers and I found this morning that I will not be able to finish training Elder Curtis because the Lord has called me to be a District Leader in the North Ogden zone. I will be serving in the North Ogden stake and my companion is Elder Reinhart. I think he is from Aurora, Illinois. He has been out for 15 months. It will be so crazy being DL and senior companion to a 15 months old missionary. I am going to be District Leader over a lot of people who has been out longer than me. It will be crazy but I am so excited to be able to gain revelation for my district and learn a lot from all of the missionaries in the zone.

I already have been a District Leader for three months now and honestly, I love being a District Leader. I have grown so so much from that assignment and I am so grateful for the Lord to give me that assignment. It is the best!!

This past week has been amazing. I love being a missionary!! Elder Curtis and I was able to teach the Detar family last night about the Law of Chastity and we finished teaching them all of the lessons now. Elder Curtis and his new companion will re-teach the lessons to them to help solidify their testimony before baptism. They are on date for August 16 now because Renae and Erikas' uncle will be baptizing them but he will be in town on that weekend. It was hard to let them know the news and they were really sad to hear us leaving but since I will be in North Ogden, I will be able to attend the baptism. :) It will be amazing to see them make a covenant with God and become closer to Jesus Christ.

Oh, man.. I LOVE being a missionary. Every day is just glorious! Last Wednesday, I was able to have an opportunity to go to Zone Conference. It was incredible. Sister Hiers spoke about increasing our testimony and helping others gain a testimony. It was mind-blowing. It was amazing. President Hiers spoke on utilizing our strengths to become the best servant of the Lord we can be. The Assistants trained on teaching skills and it was awesome. I have learned a LOT! 

The coolest thing that happened this week was that Elder Curtis and I were able to go to the 9th ward for sacrament meeting and it was awesome. The speakers talked about personal conversion and it went along just perfect with Zone Conference.

Elder Curtis and I were able to do a lot of finding and we got a bunch of return appointments for this next week. Hopefully, Elder Curtis and his new companion will be able to keep the area going well. I love being able to serve in the Clinton West stake. It was amazing to be able to get to know all of the wonderful people here. I am really going to miss the people here. I am sad to leave the Cefalos, Kreys and many other people I got really close with. The people are just amazing and I am so excited to start serving in the North Ogden stake. It will be glorious! :) 

I love the gospel. I love seeing people progress and seeing their lives change because of the blessings of the gospel. The gospel is true and I know that Jesus is the Christ and He is our Savior. I love you all! Have a great week. :) Love, Elder McGrath

I absolutely love being a missionary. I can't wait to serve in the North Ogden with all of my heart, mind, might and strength. :)

Another great week

Hey guys, It was awesome reading some of your emails. It was great seeing how everything was going back at home. :) This week has been a crazy week! It was awesome though because I love being a missionary. It is the best thing to be in the whole world.

Last Wednesday was my last district meeting of the transfer because tomorrow, we have Zone Conference. I can't believe that I already spent two transfers (three months) as a District Leader. This past DM was my best one yet. I combined it with the other DL, Elder White and it was absolutely amazing. We trained on social skills and how that relates to finding. It was awesome. I love being a District Leader. :)

The funny thing is that we never told the Zone Leaders about the combining of district meeting. They were super surprised and they did the same thing to us for DLT (District Leader Training). They told us to wear pday clothes and it turned out that they had us come help them capture a freakin bull. It was only 1 year old so it wasn't fully grown but man, that bull was freaking smart. It was also 400 pounds. My son was out on splits with Elder White's companion so Elder White was my companion atm. The reason why we had to capture the bull was to get the headpiece off because it was getting too small for the bull. That was the objective: capture the bull and get the headpiece off. 

We spent two hours trying to capture that bull. For the first hour, we tried to lasso the bull but it didn't work out. We came up with an idea to build a trap and we scared the bull into it. It escaped twice and the third time, it worked successfully but it was super scary. One of the ZLs was able to lasso the bull. Elder White decided to do the most stupidest thing in the world but also the most courageous thing I have seen in my life. He jumped into the mini pen we made and got the bull into a headlock and he was able to pick up one of the legs so the bull couldn't move very much. We were able to get the headpiece off and he was safe but man, everyone was freaking out. Elder Pitcher, one of the ZLs, said, "Get the heck out of there, White. I don't want to give you a blessing today." hahaha

Elder Curtis and I were able to see some success this past week. We had a lesson with Erika and Renae Detar (it is a long but amazing story.. so far.. it's bound to be more amazing as time goes on) this past week. and we were able to commit Erika and Renae to be baptized on August 2nd. I tried to get it on August 7th (my year mark) but it didn't happen. Oh well. It will be an amazing baptism! I am so excited. 

Another amazing thing happened this week. In my time in Clinton, I have gone on a lot of splits with McKay Krey (he is 19 years old). He just got his call to the Nevada, Reno mission. It was awesome and he is so stoked for it. I love being to go to mission call opening. It reminds me of my mission call opening. I remember how I felt when I found out that I was called to serve in the Utah Ogden mission (best mission ever) and I was totally calm. I know this is where I need to be.

I absolutely love being a missionary. I have grown so much and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me. I know that God has a plan for all of us and it is perfect. "Trust the Lord with all thine heart" (Proverbs 3:5). He knows all things and He is our Eternal Father. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I love my Savior, I love the gospel, and I love the church.

The church is true. :) Stay strong guys. I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

Hola, mi amigos

Hey y'all! (Notice the Southern accent.. the Cefalos has been having me practice saying y'all instead of you all.. and it is so much fun saying it too! haha) It has been a great week to be a missionary in the Clinton West stake. I seriously love the people here. Members, nonmembers, partmember families, less actives likewise! They are great people. 

Yesterday, I hit my 11th month mark and I can't believe how fast time has been flying. I love being a missionary! Everything is amazing. I love seeing how many people are progressing towards the gospel and how their lives change because of the gospel. The gospel is true and it is what allows us to experience pure and eternal happiness. With the gospel, we know simple things that allows us to have peace and joy in this life to come:

1) families can be together forever

2) atonement of Jesus Christ

3) God is our loving Heavenly Father

4) we have a prophet to lead us to help us follow God and Jesus Christ even better. We get blessings by following God and Jesus Christ. Prophets help us do just that. What an amazing gift that we all have right now. 

Since I am the District Leader right now, I am able to give a 1 1/2 hours long training at District Meeting every Wednesday. Last Wednesday, I was able to give an amazing training on teaching simply with pamphlets. It went super well and everyone was so motivated at the end to go out and teach simply with pamphlets. I love being a DL because I can help so many amazing missionaries become even better missionaries! 

Elder White (the other DL in the zone) and I are going to combine our district meeting and we were able to plan it yesterday. It is going to be an AMAZING District Meeting. It is going to be marvelous. I am SO stoked to present it with Elder White. Elder White is one of my best friends in the mission. We hang out with each other pretty much every P-day. It is a blast! :D

Elder Curtis and I were able to work really hard this past week. It has been really hot for the past week, partly because we were wearing proselyting clothes. I also have been getting an really good tan so that is AWESOME! :D

Last Sunday, Elder Curtis and I were able to meet with a former investigator named Kurt Geiger. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a year before he dropped them. Eight months went by and then, we were able to meet with him. We had this super amazing lesson with him. The Spirit was SUPER strong and I keep asking him, "Do you feel anything today?". He kept saying no but I knew that he was feeling the Spirit so I opened up to Galatians 5:22-23 and talked about it and I pretty much told him that he is feeling the Spirit because I know that he is.. I also told him that since he is feeling the Spirit, God is telling him right now that what we are telling him is true. I invited him to be baptized and he said no. I went to resolve his concern and he told me that it's too soon. I went on talking about goals and baptism. I invited him to be baptized again and he shot it down. :( I think something has been affecting him at that time. We will stop by there again this week and see if there is anything we can do for him. 

We also stopped by this house again. Their lessons keep falling through but I had a feeling that I should stop by again. It was Aaron Prieto's house and I was finally able to meet Jaime (his wife) and Aaron Prieto. We were talking for 20 minutes straight and they said that they really want us to come over. They also mentioned that they really want to be baptized! We have a lesson with him tomorrow at 9am. I AM SO STOKED! :D

I love being a missionary so much! I love being able to share the gospel with everyone. I love seeing how happy they become when they start to apply the principles of the gospel to their lives. The gospel is amazing and I know with all of my heart that it is true! 

I love you all and have an amazing week! :) Love, Elder McGrath

How funny is that! The Cefalos were feeding us and Ethan decided to start doing that! haha

Elder White. He is one of the Spanish missionaries. He is like one of my best friends on my mission. He is a really cool guy!

Another great week

Hey guys, Sorry about not sending a weekly letter. I was super busy last P-Day and it was awesome! Everything is going super well! So, since I haven't sent out a weekly email, I will write the highlights of the past two weeks because I don't have that much time. 

So two weeks ago, we had a lesson with the Maib family. There are three nonmembers in the family and I am pretty sure I told you guys about them a couple weeks ago. Anyways, we had their neighbor, the bishop, come with us to the lesson and it was not a good lesson. We taught really well but the thing is that the father was taking what we say and repeating it but this time, it was twisted. So when we taught about Joseph Smith, he would twist what we say and put some anti-mormonism stuff in there (the Spirit was not there at all...). :/ The bishop apologized for wasting our time but it was all good. We learned something about that experience. We should always make sure that the Spirit was there because the Spirit is the master teacher! 

President Hiers (The Utah Ogden mission president) came with us for a hour to tag along to a lesson and to observe our companionship. We had a nonmember lined up for a lesson with PH (Pres. Hiers) but four hours before, he texted us, cancelling the lesson. So, we freaked out but we were able to find a member family (RSP for the Clinton 21st ward) and we went over and taught them. We were able to get three referrals from them. It was an amazing lesson. The Spirit was super strong. It was amazing!!

Then the following Sunday, Elder Curtis and I was able to give TWO talks in two separate wards. I spoke on Roots and Branches (April 2014 GC talk) for the first talk and for my second talk, I spoke on 1 Samuel 16. It was amazing. I love being able to give a talk because I am able to "teach" a lot of people at once. It is awesome!

We also had a RC lesson with one of our recent convert family, the Cefalo family. They are doing so amazing! The kids are working towards baptism for the dead. We just have to give them a push to get their temple recommend and the parents are meeting with the Stake President to see when they can get sealed in the temple! The father had a previous temple sealing so they have to get that resolved first. Anyways, Ethan (age 9) wanted us to teach Genesis 2 so we changed our lesson plan and taught that instead. Ethan is such a funny kid! After we finished, the father asked Ethan to give a prayer and he said yep. He folded his arms and we all closed our eyes. After not hearing anything for like 10 seconds, we heard, "What am I doing again?". It was the way he said it that made it so funny!

We were also able to teach the Murdock family (they are a less active family) and it was a super spiritual lesson. We planned on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ but the Spirit took it another way. And instead of teaching the GoJC, we taught about the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone of our religion. It was an amazing lesson. The Spirit was SO strong! The mother was crying a little bit and the Murdock family is progressing. They are aiming for the temple and they are reaching there. It is an amazing thing! One of the things I love about missionary work is seeing progression in the people that we teach. 

We also met this Less Active family named the Direen family. They lived in Utah all of their lives except that they lived in SAUDI ARABIA for three years (They lived in a really small city, just north of Oman). I was SO surprised when she said that they lived in KSA. We got to talking about how crazy that place is. We were laughing so hard! It was awesome. We are going to be doing service for them this Friday! I am so excited! They are a really cool family. They have five kids! Sister Direen also told me that she had to wear an abaya and a Saudi hijab or she will get frowned upon. It was a lot more strict down there than it was in Jubail. It was really cool tlaking about Saudi Arabia! 

We were able to pick up a new investigator (hallelujah!). His name is Brandon and he is living with his girlfriend. The WML of that ward (he is their good friend) texted us the next day and told us that Brandon and his girlfriend is splitting up, meaning that Brandon is moving out of the stake so we lost our new investigator. That was really disappointing. Oh well, we just have to keep our head up and keeping working hard. We are working our hardest and that is what's important. The Lord will bless us. I trust in Him. I have faith in Him! 

Last Sunday, we gave a training on missionary work in the 9th ward 5th Sunday combined meeting. We taught the what, why and the how of missionary work. We had everyone that had a kid from the ages of 8 - 18 stand up and we asked them what they could do for missionary work for that week and we wrote it down on the board underneath the How. We had a bunch of bullet points for each of the what, why and how. We bore our testimony of the power of missionary work and we were also able to share a video, I will go where you want me to go. The Spirit was super strong and it was amazing! A lot of members came up to us and told us that we did a great job. 

This morning, Elder Curtis, Elder White, Elder Espadas and I were able to go play golf in Schneiter's Bluff in West Point. Missionaries can play there for free and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. We were able to borrow clubs from one of the WMLs in my stake. 

I absolutely love being a missionary. It is a joy being able to serve the Lord 24/7. I only have 13 months but that is so short. I am looking forward to making every second count! I love being able to share the message I have with everyone I meet out on the street. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it is the only way that we can come back and live with Heavenly Father after we die (2 Nephi 31:21). I love the gospel. I love the Church. I love Heavenly Father. I love life. Everything is just glorious.

Have a fantastic week and stay strong! You can do it! Love,Elder McGrath

Snow and green on the mountains

We got bikes last week.(it was a rental)

One of my WML, Brother Krey. He is one of the funniest members I have met on my mission.