Baptism in Smithfield

Hey everyone! Wow, what a good week that Elder Ankney and I had. We saw a lot of great things happen this week! :D

Sawyer is doing awesome! He is still solid for May 23rd but he leaves to California to go to Disneyland with his girlfriend (who is active in the church and we found Sawyer through her) on Friday. It is a good thing that we have iPads because we will be having Skype lessons with him. It is so great to be part of this great work of salvation and to see how fast everything is changing. The Lord is definitely hastening His work! D&C 88:73

Shy is doing super well. She is getting a little excited for Hawaii and we will be also having Skype lessons with her when she is in Hawaii. Yay for serving in a YSA stake! Teaching the majority of our YSA people through Skype because they are at home in a different state. :) 

We also have seen something really cool happen this week. One family that Elder Ankney and I are teaching has been coming to church three weeks in a row! The family consists of a husband and a wife. The wife, Anne, took her name off the record because a bishop asked her to (I got so pissed when I heard about that) and the husband, Dave, is not a member (his brother is a Catholic priest so he asks a bunch of questions concerning to apostasy) but the great thing is that they both are attending church. Everything has been going super well with them. :) 

Elder Ankney had a really interesting lesson with Tristen Wiser (the 19 years old man that we are helping to get the Priesthood). He is a smart kid. The only reason why he has been held back (gospel-wise) is because of his autism. But he is very high-functioning so it is really fun to teach him. Last lesson we had with him, we talked about the Plan of Salvation. In the beginning, we asked him what he knew about the Plan of Salvation. In 10 minutes, he went over the entire Plan of Salvation and it was good! We were shocked the entire time. We had to do something quick but we ended up deciding to go "deeper" in the Plan of Salvation, which is ALWAYS fun!!!!! We read the last six verses in Abraham 3 and we had a great hour-long discussion of the Pre-Earth Life. I actually learned some things from Tristan. He has a lot of great comments. 

And finally, I try to save the best for last. :) Last Saturday, Vivianne Soffe was able to enter into the waters of baptism and was baptized by his grandfather. It was an amazing thing to witness. The baptismal service was fantastic and the family was super happy about everything. The family is doing very well. I am so grateful to be a part of their great journey. I love being able to see people I teach to follow Jesus Christ's example and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood. It is an amazing thing! 

Everything in Smithfield is going wonderful. I am highly enjoying my time as a missionary here in Smithfield. I am loving it! I love the Gospel so much and and I am so grateful to be part of His church here on Earth. I know that when we strive to live the Gospel, we will get blessings. Heavenly Father is always trying to find excuses to bless us. I know that He loves us so much!

I love you all and stay strong! Keep up the great work over there in Saudi! I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

Vivianne's baptism

Utah is crazy!

Hola mi familia! I am very glad that everything is going super well in Saudi Arabia and hearing about the new company and the house. Blessings... :) 

Everything is going wonderful over here in Utah. A lot of great things are happening! I am so happy about that. Even though Smithfield is a difficult area to work in, we are seeing success here. The Lord will never give us a trial that we cannot overcome, He gives us something that we can overcome. We will always have success if we do our very best and do all that we can. The Lord will ALWAYS take care of the rest. He always does. I have seen it countless times on my mission. 

Last week, we broke the record for numbers in this area. YAY!!!!!!!!! Last night, during the meeting with the Stake President in the South Stake, as usual, we shared our numbers with him and he was surprised by how high they were. I was a little confused at first because I would get higher numbers in Clinton, Central Logan, and Tremonton. But for that area, it was super good. My companion and I were shouting for joy in the car after the meeting. A lot of good things are happening! Hard work brings blessings. 

Shy is doing so good. She is almost done with the Book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. She has been going to church consistently and she has such a huge desire to be baptized. She is a little nervous about talking to her family about getting baptized. We talked about trusting in the fact that the Lord will help us when we need Him but we need to trust in Him, which is pretty much about faith. We talked about the story found in Daniel 3 and she loved it. She is doing super good. It is very exciting to see how everything is going with her. She is going back to Hawaii in a couple weeks and gets back in the end of June. I hope that everything will go well.

Sawyer is doing awesome. He is very motivated and has a big desire to be baptized. He absorbs everything that we teach him so that is always amazing. We originally had him scheduled to be baptized on this upcoming Saturday but that will not happen. He texted us last night and told us that he prayed about his baptismal date and he had a feeling that he should be baptized on the 23rd of May (the Saturday after getting back from his vacation in California). He is doing very well. He is reading the Book of Mormon, praying and attending church. I love to see my investigators progress towards baptism. It is an amazing thing to see how far they have progressed. 

Vivianne is doing awesome! She is definitely going to get baptized on this upcoming Saturday. She is very excited for her baptism. Vivianne's mother was telling us that she is very, very excited! It is a great thing to hear. Vivianne and her family are doing very well. We were able to eat dinner with them a few days ago and have a great lesson afterwards. They are so awesome! I really enjoy teaching them.

Elder Ankney and I also started teaching a family in one of the family wards we cover. They just moved here from California a month ago. It is the McGrath family! No joke! And no, we are not related. Most of their extended family is from Wisconsin so I am pretty sure that we are not related by blood. Still, it is cool to start teaching a family that shares the same last name as I. So, the McGrath family is a part-member family. Every one is a member except the father and the 8 years old daughter. They want us to teach all of the discussions to the daughter and we are hoping to help both the father and the daughter to get baptized. We will see what happens. I am very excited to start teaching this family! 

The less active people that we are teaching are progressing slowly but still, they are progressing so I am happy with that. Smithfield is going super awesome right now! I am highly enjoying my time here and loving my time as a missionary! I love every second of it! 

I love all of you guys so much! Have a wonderful week and enjoy spring in Saudi Arabia. Love you all!! Love, Elder McGrath

 Wow, there are plenty of people to teach! ha 

A baptismal date x2

Wow, talk about a gooood week! Elder Ankney and I are tearing it up in Smithfield right now. We are seeing a lot of success and excitements going on in Smithfield. We are going to start meeting with a couple new nonmembers this week. Hopefully, the third one will happen. A lot of amazing things are happening.

We didn't have a lesson with Shy this week but she is doing awesome. She is still attending church, reading the scriptures and attending church. She is doing super well. She even came to the musical fireside, which was awesome! :D

Vivian is doing amazing. She is only 9 years old and she is doing awesome. Her mom told us that she is motivating her family to read the scriptures every single day so that is awesome! :D We had the best lesson ever with her yesterday. She is now solid for the 25th of April. Her family is feeding us dinner tomorrow which is always good! I love seeing investigators progress towards baptism!

So, another miracle happened a few days ago. Elder Ankney and I met with Sawyer for the first time. The lesson went super well. Sawyer grew up as a Christian and has read the Bible many times. He has a strong belief in Jesus Christ. Sawyer is also a 20 years old man who is from Southern California. The coolest thing about the lesson with Sawyer is that when we were teaching him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he kept saying that it all makes more sense now. He understood about the apostasy after Jesus Christ and the need for the restoration of the gospel and the priesthood. After discussing the restoration and helping him understand everything, we were able to invite him to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. He accepted a date to be baptized on April 25th. 

So far, Elder Ankney and I have two people preparing to be baptized! :) Yes, Vivian and Sawyer are going to be baptized on the same day. It will be so awesome! I am pumped for the 25th. It will be a crazy awesome day! 

Elder Ankney and I also started to teach David and Anne again. Elder Cook and I started teaching them but they weren't ready and they were getting a little mad every time we bore our testimony. But, the Bishop of the ward told us that they want us to come back. I was a little confused but nevertheless, we stopped by and we set up a return appointment and did some service for them. The service took a long time because it was such a huge service project that we had to do all ourselves but it went soo well. I felt soo good after doing the service (Mosiah 2:17. Service is awesome!).

Some of the less active people that we are teaching are doing well. Tristan (the autistic person) is doing so well. He is going to invite his alcoholic mother to the lessons to help her overcome her addiction. He is going to be such a good missionary.

Everything in Smithfield is going super well. I love seeing all of our investigators progress and the fact that we might start teaching a couple new investigators. God is great! I love how He blesses us when we work hard.

Love you all soo much! Stay strong. You can do it! Love, Elder McGrath

Proselytizing in the snow in April!

General conference was awesome

Hey everyone! I hope that you are having a great week! I am really glad that you are enjoying your new house in Saudi Arabia! By the way you are talking about it, it sounds like an amazing house! What a blessing! :) Saudi Arabia rocks!

Smithfield has been going super well. As you may know, I got a new companion, Elder Ankney. He is a great guy. He has been out only 6 months and Smithfield is his second area. He came out when he was 18 years old and he is 19 right now. He is from Virginia Beach, Virginia (where Uncle Clay is from). His trainer is in my second area, Clinton, right now. So, that is pretty cool. 

Elder Ankney and I have been seeing some success in Smithfield right now so that is always good. I love seeing miracles unfold! I know I say that too much but I see it every day on my mission. I love being a missionary so much!

We were not able to have a lesson with Shy this past week but that doesn't matter. She went to General Conference down in Salt Lake and went through Temple Square with her boyfriend (who is a RM) and his family. I hope she loved it! She went to the Sunday morning session! :D

On that note, Elder Ankney and I were able to attend the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. Since this is my last General Conference on my mission, the mission gave me a General Conference ticket for plaza seats (floor seats). 

Elder Ankney and I really wanted to sit super close to the front so (facing towards podium), we were on the far left side, 3rd row! It was amazing. I loved hearing Elder Bednar, Elder Christofferson and Elder Cook's talks. They all were so awesome! All of the talks in General Conference are absolutely inspired! i have learned so much from their talks! 

Vivian is doing very well. She is still preparing for her baptism on April 25th. The family is already talking about who will baptize Vivian. It will be amazing! The family is awesome. You can tell that the parents are really trying to learn the Gospel and they are asking some really good questions. So, that is fun! :) 

Elder Ankney and I started meeting with this less-active guy. He is 19 years old and he is a highly functioning autistic person. He is THE nicest man you will ever meet with. He told us that he loves the church so much but since his mom is an alcoholic and doesn't take him to church, he has a hard time with church. We had an awesome lesson with him and we asked him if he knew anything about Joseph Smith. He then proceeded to tell the entire story of Joseph Smith. He even included the part with the Satan trying to stop Joseph Smith. I was very surprised. At the end of the lesson, he gave the most amazing prayer ever! The best one I have heard on my mission. Period! The Spirit was sooo strong. I could tell that he has a real relationship with God (why does the mother not take him to church? I have no clue. This kid will be an amazing missionary!). 

I gotta get going now. Time's running a little short but I really love being a missionary. Even though it is the most difficult thing I have done, it is the most rewarding thing I have done. I have seen God's hand in people's life. I know that God lives. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our older Brother. He is the one that we need to follow. We follow Him by having faith, repenting of our mistakes, being baptized (taking the sacrament if we are already baptized), receiving (and listening to, if we already have it) the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! I know that if we do those things, we will be able to live with God again and that families will be together forever! 

I love you all so much! Stay strong! Love, Elder McGrath