Transfers

Hey everyone, It is crazy seeing all of the pictures of you in Borneo! It is really cool seeing all of the pictures of Survivor Island. It's crazy! A big shout out to Maddie on her 15th birthday. Happy birthday. I also want to give another shout out to Dad because I can't believe that I forgot his birthday! Hope it was a great 31st birthday!!!!! :D

Well, as you can see, the title is Transfers. Well, transfers are happening tomorrow! Elder Cook is leaving! He will be transferring to central Logan. He will be serving in one of the Spanish wards over there. My last area will be part of his area, just that he will be teaching all Spanish people over there. It will be interesting. 

I, on the other hand, will be staying in Smithfield. YAY!!!!!! I am so glad to be staying here. There are some really good things going on here! :)  I will be getting Elder Ankney. I have no idea who he is. All I know is that he has been out six months and is from Virginia Beach, Virginia (isn't that where Uncle Clay is from??).

It will be very interesting to see how everything will go this transfer. Rumors are always interesting. It seems like when the mission split is getting closer, there are more rumors floating around. Guess what, President Hiers (my mission president) pulled a huge April Fools joke on the mission by sending out a fake roster, freaking out a lot of people. It was hilarious seeing all of the people's reactions when they found out the truth. 

This next couple months is gonna be crazy!!!

Anyways, on to the good stuff! Shy is doing awesome. Last Sunday, Elder Cook and I had dinner with her and her fellowshipper's family. It was awesome! The last half was amazing. We talked a lot about testimony-building events and the Spirit was amazing! I think it was meant to happen because I could tell that Shy's testimony is growing because of hearing all of these experiences.

After the dinner, we got to teach her about the Restoration and we asked her a bunch of questions about the Restoration. I was really surprised about her knowing her stuff! It was really cool to be able to see her grow a lot and to see her come to this point. She has progressed a lot! I am very excited to keep working with her and see her grow more! :) 

Elder Cook and I were able to witness a miracle happen. We were getting a little disappointed with Isaac (the person that was going to be baptized on April 11) because he dropped off the map. He doesn't want to do anything with the church and we have no idea what happened! 

But, we decided to keep working hard and we found a family that is amazing. The parents are not married. The father grew up as a member but fell away from the church at age 18. He has limited knowledge of the gospel. The mother is a convert and was baptized at age 22. They have three daughters. One is 17, one is 12 and last one is 9. Everyone but the nine years old daughter, Vivian, has been baptized. Vivian expressed to her parents that she really wants to be baptized. 

We found them through a referral from a family. We went over there and we taught them a lesson. They loved it and Vivian accepted a baptismal date of April 25th. We invited them to come to church last Sunday and guess what?! They were there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are a great family and so ready to progress in the Gospel. I am so excited to start teaching a family. I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching families. I taught some really amazing families on my mission and those families make up most of the great memories I had on my mission, like the Robert Hall and his family, the Cefalo family, the Jackson family, the Loftus family and a bunch of other families. I am so happy right now. Everything is going great.

I am loving life. I am loving my time as a missionary. I love being able to share the gospel with everyone! The gospel is true and it allows us to learn about our purpose here in life. We all need to follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in order to find true happiness. I am so excited for General Conference. This will be my last General Conference on my mission. As a result, the mission gave me a ticket for General Conference that works for a Plaza seat! I will be sitting very very close to the podium and it will be a very exciting experience! I will be attending the Sunday Morning session! I am super stoked for it.

Listen to General Conference!!!!! :) Love you all so much! I am so grateful for all of your great emails. I really enjoy reading them and keep on doing great! Good luck on the move and hope everything works out! I am excited for this great transfer!!!! :) Love you all soo much!!! Love, Elder McGrath

The church is true

Hola mi familia!  It was super good to hear all about Borneo and all of the crazy things over there. Have fun hiking today!  This week was a pretty tough week but there were still some highlights! :)

Everardo's (the deaf man that we are teaching in ASL) baptism will be put on hold for a bit. We never went down to Layton last week for the interview. We had some really crazy things happen, involving
leadership in the ASL and the stake not knowing their keys, that should have never happened. We are letting President Hiers fix everything up. Convert baptisms are under the Mission President, not the Stake President. Anyways, let's move on.

A few days ago, we taught Isaac for the first time. He is 21 years old and is from Mexico but speaks no Spanish so it falls on our jurisdiction. :) Isaac is so ready to be baptized. He met with the missionaries and misses how his life was improving as a result. He wants to have the gospel back in his life and start working towards baptism. He set a goal of April 11 for his baptism. He is doing super well. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, attending church, and praying. :)

Shy is doing awesome! She is in Enos of the Book of Mormon. We brought a new fellowshipper and she's as asking her a few questions about the church. It turns out that she has been going to church since last July (that is how long Elder Cook has been out!!) and started reading the Book of Mormon since October. Talk about a prepared investigator! She is a stud and I love teaching her!

Anyways, we were teaching her and she was absorbing everything we were saying. After the lesson, she told us that she wants to tell her family in person that she wants to get baptized. Her family lives in Hawaii. We bore testimony of the truthfulness of this church. After bearing our testimonies and telling her that Jesus Christ will help her, something amazing happened.

She then told us that she knows that the church is true. Before coming to USU (she has a soccer scholarship), she told every one that she is going to Utah. The people always told her to "watch out for the Mormons", "have fun in the Mormon state", "don't meet with the missionaries, they will get you" and a bunch of stuff.  She had no idea what a Mormon is. When she came to Utah, she was a little nervous about the "Mormons". But, over the past few months, her ideas of "Mormonism" changed. She came to know, through sincere prayer, that the church is true.

And she is willing to do anything to become baptized in Jesus Christ's church. After hearing all of this, the Spirit was super strong in the room and I could not stop smiling. She is becoming converted. Conversion is the best thing ever!

I love this Church. I love the gospel so much. I love Jesus Christ. God is truly our loving Heavenly Father and hears our prayers. He lives and desires us to have much joy in this life and the life to come. That is why He has given us the gospel. Let us all strive to be more Christ-like and follow the gospel in everything we do.

Love you all so much! Stay strong. You can do it! Have fun in Borneo! Love you so much, Elder McGrath

Our JEEP!!!!!! It has 4WD so it is super nice! Note, my companion is making a funny face!

CRAZY WEEK

Hola mi familia! It has been a crazy week! I never been this busy in the past few days. All of the meetings in the past couple days are over and there was a lot of problems and they got fixed so now, I finally got some time to write some emails. I don't have a lot of time right now so I will have to keep this a little short. 

I had some miracles happen this week and because of those miracles, everything has been just amazing! First off, Shy is doing amazing! We had a really good lesson with her last Sunday and everything was perfect.

While preparing for the lesson, we had no idea what we needed to do. We taught her everything that needed to be taught but she did not have a baptism date. We need to figure something out but we knew that she felt the Spirit and because of that fact, she knows that the Church is true. We needed her to realize that. 

A training that I received from one of my District Leaders in one of my previous areas came back to my mind. I told Elder Cook and he was all over it! The lesson came and holy moly, it went AMAZING! Everything went perfect. 

We started out by talking about how everything went and how she felt during the entire time. We then talked about Acts 2:27-43 and Galatians 5:22-23. She was crying the entire time and she accepted a date for April 11, a week after General Conference! She is super excited for everything. 

I will need all of your prayers. Shy has a godmother, who is anti. The godmother has been sending her some anti stuff but Shy figured out on her own that all of it is fake! Pray for her so she can have that strength to keep pushing forward and enter the waters of baptism! It will be amazing when she does! She has came SOOOO far! 

I am so excited about how everything is going! I gotta get going now. Everardo (It is Alvarado but I misunderstood the name. It is actually Everardo) is getting interviewed tonight down in Layton. We have to head out now but love you all soooooooo much! I will fill you in the rest of the details next Tuesday about this amazing week we are having and the rest of last week! 

Love you so much! Love, Elder McGrath

What a CRAZY week

Hola mi familia! Talk about a crazy week! A lot of things happened this week. It wasn't the best week I had on my mission. I had a lot of trials happen this week but the rewards are amazing! That is the beautiful thing about the gospel. The Lord chastens His people to help them grow and provide blessings to them. I have seen it a lot on my mission. I still got a chance to see some exciting things happen and I want to share it with y'all!

First off, the lesson in Layton went super well! I was shaking with nervousness, which hasn't happened in like forever. The only reason why I was shaking because I was afraid that Alvarado (The deaf man that I am currently teaching) is not going to understand my sign language. 

The lesson went smoothly and it turns out that I was well-prepared (I studied a ton for the lesson). Alvarado understood me very well. The other missionaries were surprised at my ASL skills. I credit everything to the Lord and His gift of tongues! The Gift of Tongues is real! ASL isn't that difficult to do! It is very easy to learn. I am currently teaching Elder Cook how to teach in Sign Language (he was called Spanish) and says that ASL is a little easier than Spanish! :D The language of the deaf is the BEST, besides English! ;) 

Alvarado is a stud. He is originally from Mexico and was born hard of hearing but when he was growing up, he lost all but 1% of his hearing, which renders him unable to receive a cochlear implant. To get a cochlear implant, you need to be completely deaf. He signs completely but he mouths out really well. Alvarado is dating a girl, who is hearing and knows ASL. They are getting married in August and wants to be sealed in the temple in March 2016. Alvarado is super solid and so ready to be baptized on March 21st. He is super stoked.

A really funny thing happened, on the way back from Layton, my companion, Elder Cook, was calling one of the Elders (Elder Mantell) in the District. Elder Mantell served in Clearfield a few months ago and was sharing all of the Spanish stories to Elder Cook. He translated Spanish to English when Alvarado + his family was visited by Alvarado's girlfriend's family (who is from Australia). Now, we are going to be baptizing Alvarado. How crazy is that?!

I am so pumped to be teaching Alvarado. He is super awesome! We have an another lesson with him down in Layton this Saturday and while we were coming back, we saw a H+M mall in Layton. Elder Cook really wants to schedule a lesson with Alvarado on a Tuesday (pday for us) so he can hit up the H+M store right before the lesson with Alvarado! hahahahahaha

Shy is doing sooo good! She is doing very well and is doing everything that she needs to! Last Sunday, Elder Cook and I gave a talk on the Atonement in one of the family wards that we cover and it turns out that there is a missionary giving a homecoming talk right after us. Shy's boyfriend is really good friends with him so Shy came to the family ward. 

At that sacrament meeting, I gave the best talk I have given in my entire life. I was talking about the Atonement and then, connected everything to baptism. It was super smooth and I was super happy about it. We got to talk to Shy right after it and she told us that she has a lot of thinking to do because she learned some new things in our talks that she needs to ponder about, which is always exciting to hear!

The finding in the area is going really well. We found a couple of potential investigators that wants to be baptized that we might be able to start teaching either this week or next week. Very exciting stuff! I will keep you updated on that! I am very excited to see how this area is progressing. Some great things are happening and some of the wards are very pleased with our efforts. They are beginning to trust us with more solid referrals, which is ALWAYS good! :) 

I love y'all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you! Elder McGrath

Snow

Hola mi familia! I apologize for not sending out an email last week. I was super busy and I was going to send an email during the week but I decided to not do it and wait to do it all on Tuesday! This is going to be a gooooood one! :D

As you can see, the title is SNOW!!! Yep, Elder Larsen (the Area 70) has asked all of the stakes in Northern Utah to fast for moisture. Last Sunday was the fast, the next day, it snowed so much! In fact, it is still snowing. It was SUPER weird because in January, we could see grass but in March, all we saw was snow! How crazy is that?! Gotta love the Utah weather! 

So, we had some pretty big miracles happen! It was crazy! I'll start with my favorite one. Yesterday morning, we got a text from one of the APs and we are really good friends because we served around each other in Clinton (in fact, we were living in the same house! It was a four-man apartment!). He knew that I was deaf and knew a little bit of ASL. He texted me, asking me if I was willing to teach a man, who is completely deaf and only knows ASL. I accepted and he gave me a number for the missionaries.

It was really weird getting a number for a set of missionaries in a different missionary. We called and we were shocked by what is happening. It turns out that there are two missionaries in the Salt Lake City East mission and one of them is not the greatest at ASL and knows a tiny bit but enough to teach a lesson and they have been teaching this deaf dude in Layton, which is in the Salt Lake Mission. 

It is going to be a tri-mission teaching thing. Elder Cook and I will take over and continue to teach him because he lives in Corinne (right next to Brigham City). They are handing over a solid investigator with a baptismal date. His name is Alvarado and he is scheduled to be baptized on March 21st! A deaftism!!!!! I am FINALLY baptizing one of my own kind! ;) 

This Saturday, Elder Cook and I will be traveling across the mission and will be leaving the mission by entering Layton to teach Alvarado (Don't worry, our Mission President already approved of it!). We will be taking a guy from the ASL branch with us to help us teach! I am looking forward to it. I haven't been to Layton yet but I heard a lot of things about it. It will be very interesting! :D I am PUMPED! 

Shy is doing soooooo good! She is definitely progressing! She has been going to church and doing so well with prayer and scripture study. She is almost done with 2 Nephi! She is about to start 2 Nephi 31 and I am so excited for her to get her answer from that chapter. Right now, she is having a hard time getting an answer to see if the Gospel is true. Once she gets her answer, she will get baptized within a week or two and then, will get married to her RM boyfriend. 

I remember a couple weeks ago where we were talking about families and how they can be together forever. She asked how that is possible. We talked about temples and she mentioned that she wants to be sealed in the temple to her future husband!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love how she is progressing! 

A couple more miracles! I was talking to Elder Freitag last night and he told me that Aaron Marez (the MMA fighter that I taught in my last area for 4 1/2 months) is FINALLY preparing to be baptized. He will get interviewed by someone in the Mission Presidency and then, if he passes, he can get baptized! Yay!

Also, do y'all remember Draco from my last area? He is part of a Pagan family that Elder Freitag and I was teaching. So, I found out that he moved to North Logan, which is why he didn't get baptized. Coolest part about this is that one set of elders in my District covers North Logan and I am going on exchanges with them in their area!!! I told Elder Freitag that he needs to get the address! He is working on it and I might be able to introduce him to the elders in his area and hopefully, he will keep progressing!

Miracles are the greatest thing ever! I seriously love them and I am always praying for miracles to happen. I know that we get miracles through obedience and fasting/praying! ! The church is true! I know it with all of my heart! God is great! 

Love you all so much! Stay strong! Love you! Wasn't this email AWESOME? Love, Elder McGrath

On my birthday!