Crazy week

Hola mi familia! Talk about an AMAZING week!!!!! This week will easily go down as one of the best weeks of my mission! A lot of amazing things happened!

Transfers are upcoming this Thursday. I found out that I will be staying with Elder Cook in Smithfield. I will be staying as a District Leader. The best part is that my entire district is staying. Nothing in my district is changing. The reason for that is because we are doing so well. I really mean that, the entire district, including us, are doing so well. The Zone has a goal of 11 baptisms in the month of March and there are three districts in the Zone. My district already had 6 baptisms (Elder Cook and I had two, the Hyde Park Elders had two and Smithfield Central Elders had two), the other two has 0 baptisms. The Zone Leaders and President Hiers isn't very happy with the other two districts right now but they are very happy with mine and that is why we all are staying!!!!! I am sooooo happy about this! #BestDistrictInTheMission

So, we had an amazing lesson with her last Sunday. We were following up on the commitments she made the week before (yay for following up! :D) and we were asking about how her prayers was going. She told us that everything is going good. I hate it when people tell me "good.". It isn't enough so I asked if anything happened as a result of her praying. After that, a moment of silence took place. It was getting a little awkward and in my mind, I was kicking myself for asking that intimidating question. 

All of the sudden, she told us that she was praying and asked God to see if the Book of Mormon is true, she told us that she felt this "super strange" feeling. As she was telling this experience, the Spirit got super strong in the room. She also told us that she was thinking about the prayer that she experienced and all of the sudden, she made a connection. That "strange" feeling was the Holy Ghost!!!

After talking about the Holy Ghost and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we invited her to be baptized on February 28th . She was a little reluctant at first because her parents are kind of anti but we talked about it and resolved it. She is now preparing to be baptized on the 28th!

But, she still wants to tell her parents and she is extremely nervous about it. So, please please please pray for her! It is a very good thing that she is dating a strong RM that will help her through this trial! :) So, that was an amazing lesson!!!! :)

Elder Cook and I were able to witness a miracle baptism. Garrett Thurston was able to take upon himself the name of Christ and enter the waters of baptism. Approximately 85 people came to the baptism to support Garrett. Needless to say, we were very shocked.  We had to bring in a lot more chairs but the more, the merrier! :) 

Right after the baptism, we raced to the Brigham City Temple and we were able to witness one of my recent converts that I taught for six months in Tremonton get SEALED for all time and eternity. I cannot express the joy that I have felt during the sealing. I was so happy to be able to see a family I taught follow God's commandment and make covenants with God. 

Right now, we are trying to find more investigators to start teaching and we are planting a lot of seeds right now. I am hoping to see more miracles happen this next week. I will definitely share the miracles I witness next week.

Have an amazing week and have fun! Stay true! Love ya guys! Love, Elder McGrath

Elder Cook and I went down to the Ogden temple to do baptisms for the dead with some of his recent converts. It was super awesome!

Garrett's baptism (sorry it is really blurry. the girl taking the picture doesnt know how to focus a picture)

The sealing of the Hall family!

 Transfer breakfast this morning!

Miracles in Smithfield

Hey family!!! Oh my! What a week!!!!!! Gosh, I swear that these little miracles that happen every day make me sooo happy! I love being a missionary so much! A few days ago, I hit my 18th month mark. I cannot describe how amazing the past 18 months has been for me. It has been an amazing mission so far and I cannot wait to make every second count for the next six months! 

Last Tuesday, we had a pretty sick lesson with Gideon and he is a stud. He is just going through some hard times. He lives with his stepmom and father. His real mom is an atheist and teach atheism to Gideon BUT Gideon wants to learn who Jesus Christ really is. We are hoping to teach an awesome lesson on Jesus Christ tonight and invite him to follow His example and be baptized! I will keep you updated next week! 

Elder Cook and I had a couple pretty big miracles happen this past couple days that I would like to share with you today! The first one is that we are having a baptism this Saturday!!!!! Yes, this Saturday!!!!! :)  I know, I was not expecting it. At all! So, yesterday afternoon, we received a call from the Elders in Wellsville, Utah. The first thing they asked was that if we want a baptism this Saturday. That is and always will be an amazing question to hear over the phone. Only in Utah, we receive calls like that! :) 

So, what happened is that there is a YSA (we cover Smithfield South and Smithfield YSA stakes) guy named Garrett Thurston that has been taught in Wellsville. The reason why is that he has a bunch of really good friends who are strong in the gospel down in Wellsville. Because of that, he has grown a lot and really wants to be baptized this Saturday! 

All that was crazy! We told some of the members in the YSA ward that Garrett lives in and they were in complete shock. They told us that they never had a baptism in that ward. Ever. And we are getting basically a free baptism in the ward that never has any work! AWESOME! :D 

Another crazy thing that happened happened a couple nights ago! So, Elder Cook and I was eating dinner with this active member family and we were talking. One of the daughters, Taylor, in the family mentioned that she is in the YSA 1st ward. Because of that reason, we started talking about some of the people in the 1st ward. 

During the middle of the conversation, Taylor told us that there is a RM named Brady and he is dating a girl from Hawaii. Her name is Shyani (nicknamed Shy) and she is a nonmember. Brady has been taking Shy to church every single week for the past three months. We were absolutely bewildered! This is literally the perfect situation because we hear a ton of stories like these from YSA missionaries and most of the time, it turns out really well. Shy is here in Utah because she got a soccer scholarship! Yep, she is on the soccer team! 

Right after dinner ended, we went over to Brady's house and Brady answered. As a result, we did a normal active member conversation and asked for referrals. During that time, Shy was walking by and Brady saw her. He immediately called her over and introduced her to us. We got to talking about church and she told us that she has been meaning to call us but she has too many RMs friends and they all teach her (YAY FOR SERVING IN UTAH!) and she wants to learn more. 

We asked if we can set up a return appointment and Brady told us that we could do it right there! Elder Cook froze out of shock. I froze up too but after a couple of seconds, I broke out of it and accepted the invitation! 

The lesson went extremely well and Shy ate everything up. She, however, only has ONE concern and that is Joseph Smith. After teaching Joseph Smith, we gave her a soft commitment to be baptized (the soft commitment is: After you know that these things are true, will you be baptized?) and she accepted gladly! We then talked about the Book of Mormon and how she can know that Joseph Smith really is a prophet by reading the Book of Mormon. After that, we invited her to read it. She replied with that she has.. What?! That is literally the first time anybody has told me that they are already reading the Book of Mormon before meeting with them the first time. Shy is in 2 Nephi. She is awesome!!!

Those are some big miracles and I am so happy that they happened! I love all of the miracles. They all are sooooooooo awesome! :) Seriously, I thank Heavenly Father for all of the miracles and for sending me on a mission to the Utah Ogden Mission (#1 mission!). 

I love you all and stay strong! Have fun in Tabuk! Love you so much!!!! Love, Elder McGrath

Endure to the end

Family, It has been an awesome week! I love being out here! Smithfield is an awesome place and I love serving here so much. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be out here. I love being a missionary sooooo much! I have seen so many amazing things happen on my mission!

So, we had a few things happen this week and they all were miracles!! Gosh, I love miracles so much! They make up for all of the difficult times I had and will have on my mission! The miracles is what I will remember most! All of the hard times I had in the past is beginning to fade in my memory but all of the good and memorable times I had during my life will always stay. That's life! :)

The lesson last week with Jackson Potter went ok. The parents are holding him back from letting him be able to partake of the ordinance of baptism so we told him and his family that we will stop by occasionally and share spiritual thoughts. We hope that those spiritual thoughts will soften the parents' hearts and let him be baptized because he really wants to! Please pray for him!

Brindley Lundberg is a stud! Last Saturday, she was able to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. It was an amazing baptismal service and the Spirit was awesome! The coolest thing is that Brindley's entire family (including extended family) came. Some of the family is not active in the church so it was really cool to teach the Restoration to them during the baptism. For all convert baptisms, missionaries give a presentation of the Restoration while the person who got baptized changes. Brindley and her family are doing super well! :) 

Last night, I was able to learn a huge lesson about the blessings of enduring to the end, no matter how difficult it is!

This past week has been a little difficult week for me. I had some problems to take care of because I am a District Leader and a lot of those problems have been putting a lot of stress on me. Because of all of those stress, I was really looking forward to getting a break and just relax a little bit for P-day. Then Monday came, I was a little excited for Pday to come so I could get to chill a little bit. I knew what it was almost here so I decided to work really hard as usual so the time will go by faster and I would feel a little bit better. I did and these two big miracles happened as a result. If I didn't make the choice to work hard, I would have never got to witness these miracles! I am sure glad that I did!

The first miracle is Gideon Brown. He is a 12 years old boy living a trailer park! We found him while tracting the trailer park. His parents are less active and Gideon expressed a desire for us to come back. I am not quite sure if he wants to be baptized but I know that our lesson with him tonight will change that! It was crazy how we were able to have a first lesson with a potential investigator a couple days after a baptism!  I am pretty excited for this lesson tonight! I have a really good feeling about this! :) :) 

An even crazier thing happened last night! So, in the beginning of the transfer, Elder Cook and I created this split schedule where splits can sign up and the catch is that they have to find the lesson. They have to set it up and prepare the lesson! The coolest thing about this split schedule is that the Stake President has made it a requirement that each prospective missionary go on splits with us at least twice! There are 53 prospective missionaries in the stake that is leaving in 2015! 

For the past few weeks, every single splits has fallen through. Last night was the first time it happened. The WML and this split (both in the same ward) set up a lesson with a NONMEMBER! When we found out last night, we almost fell to the floor! We were that shocked! I had to ask again to make sure I was hearing it right. We were expecting less active or member lessons but nonmembers! But needless to say, we were so stoked for the lesson.

The lesson went super well. It was this 9 years old girl named Jessie. She told us that she wants to be baptized and we were able to commit her to be baptized on the 28th! It was a very exciting lesson! Jessie is a stud! The ONLY thing that might be holding her back from being baptized is her father. Her father is an Atheist so please pray for Jessie and Gideon! 

I had those two miracles happen because in the last hours before pday, I decided to keep working hard! The last few bits is always the HARDEST but the most rewarding. That is why the last few weeks of school sucks but the reward is summer. When we all endure to the end, that is when the Lord blesses us the most! (3 Nephi 15:9) 

I love you all soo much! Stay strong! Thank you so much for all you do! Thank you so much for the emails. They are awesome! Keep it up! Love you! Love, Elder McGrath