Being a missionary is awesome

Hey y'all, It has been a wonderful week in the Utah Ogden Mission. I am loving my time here. A lot of great things has happened this past week and a lot more will definitely happen this week. I am pumped about the work and I am LOVING my time here! 

First things first, last Saturday, I was able to return to Smithfield to watch Sawyer enter the waters of baptism. It was an amazing baptismal service. It was really cool to see him again and make the baptismal covenant with God. Sawyer has came a long way to come to this point. He was definitely a prepared investigator. :) 

The Stark family is doing just awesome! They came to church last Sunday and loved it. The ward was amazing. They are so welcoming and are willing to help with anything at any time. It was a really cool experience to see. Courtt and Chad are very excited for Saturday and they are progressing very well. I am so pumped for this Saturday. I cannot wait to see Courtt and Chad enter the waters of baptism.Today, in our lesson with the Stark family, we got to talk a little bit about Temples and it was super good. We committed them to do baptisms for the dead. They are wanting to do it. I am so pumped! 

The Fairbourn family is AWESOME! We had a sick lesson with them yesterday and it went super well. We taught the Restoration and it was one of the smoothest lesson I had on my mission. The Fairbourn family is just purely awesome! They are very excited for June 20th and the father is holding it out strong! He is doing well with the Word of Wisdom. By June 20th, he will be worthy to baptize his two kids, Emma and Hayden. It will be an amazing experience to witness. I love teaching them! 

The finding efforts (finding efforts = finding people to teach) is going extremely well. I am very happy with how amazing everything is going. Heavenly Father is giving us blessings after blessings. It is an amazing time to be a missionary! :) 

Last night, we were supposed to meet with Katelynn but it fell through. :( Katelynn is part of an inactive Jehovah's Witness family and the entire family is a nonmember. Katelynn has told some of the people in the ward that she really wants to be baptized. So, we are trying really hard to get into the house to start teaching her and help her get what she wants! 

But last night, we had a miracle. A huge miracle! Last night, we received a text from one of our Ward Mission Leaders informing us that we have a lesson with Austin this Thursday. My companion, Elder Aston, was really shocked. He then told me that his previous companion have been trying really hard to start teaching Austin but with no luck. This alone was a huge blessing from Heavenly Father! 

Austin is a 12 years old nonmember with less-active parents. Austin has been wanting to be baptized but the parents were getting in the way. The Phelps (the senior couple missionaries assigned to the Morgan North Stake) has been working with the parents and has invited the family to start meeting with us and they accepted! We have our first lesson with them on Thursday! Very exciting!!! :D

Tonight, my companion and I have a lesson with Junior. He is a 9 years old kid that wants to be baptized. His sister is turning 8 next month so we are hoping that we can invite them two to be baptized together. I am very excited to start teaching them tonight. I am so excited for this lesson. 

So many good things are happening! Everything in Morgan is going excellent and I am enjoying my time as a missionary immensely. I love my mission!!! I love being able to knock on doors and testify of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us so much and is always willing to succor (to lift) us in times of difficulty. He knows our struggles and can bring happiness into our life. He can get us out from the rock bottom into the highest point of our life. I know that after Jesus Christ was crucified, He was resurrected and that He lives! He is there for us when we need Him. Turn to Him and follow His words found in the holy scriptures. Mosiah 2:41. 

I love you all so much! Have a great week and stay strong.Love, Elder McGrath

Morgan is amazing

Hello, Wow, it has been a really good week. A lot of things has happened and this area has so much potential. It seems like every member I visit always has a nonmember referral. Yay for being down south in the mission. Morgan is a very beautiful place. Morgan is actually the main town in Morgan. I cover a lot of little towns like: Peterson, Stoddard, Mountain Green, Milton, Enterprise, Croydon and a bunch of other little towns. There is a lot of members here and a lot of nonmembers as well. A great ratio. :) 

My companion, Elder Aston, is a stud. I love being with him. He suffers from the Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome. He is a great missionary and he doesn't let his disability get in the way. He is a very humble guy and a great teacher. He is also hilarious. Sometimes my stomach hurts from laughing too hard. I love serving with him. 

Last Saturday, Elder Aston and I had a baptism. Elder Aston and his last companion taught a 9 years old girl named Crystal. I came into the area and on my first day here, we went over the baptismal interview and the next day, we had an interview for her. It was really cool. Elder Aston found her through a recent convert. It was a really cool story to hear! Elder Aston and I taught the second lesson to this two guys named Courtt and Chad. They live all the way out in Croydon (a solid 20 minutes of driving) and they are awesome. Courtt is 15 years old and Chad is 12. 

So, Courtt is taking seminary right now (so he can get a hour off of school), which sparked his interest in the gospel, which is how we were able to start teaching him. He, along with his brother, Chad, started meeting with the missionaries last Monday and committed to be baptized on May 30th. When we taught the Plan of Salvation, Courtt had a lot of questions about the Spirit World because his uncle committed suicide and Courtt was wanting to know if he would accept the gospel there. We talked a little bit about agency and temple work. Courtt mentioned that he wants to do baptisms for the dead! It was amazing. 

A really cool thing happened at a dinner appointment last Sunday evening, we were eating dinner and this girl told us that there was a boy in his seminary class that was being baptized. We asked if it was Courtt and it was. She told us a story about how Courtt stood up in front of the class and told everyone that he is getting baptized on May 30th. Everybody, including the teacher, was super shocked because they thought he was a member. Crazy. The Lord definitely prepares people. 

It is so much fun to teach Courtt and Chad. I cannot wait for their baptism on the 30th. It will be awesome.

Elder Aston and I are also teaching the Fairbourn family. They are a really cool family. There are three kids and one of them is not above 8 years old. Emma and Hayden are the ones that is preparing to be baptized. The father is trying to overcome the problem with the Word of Wisdom so he can baptize his two kids, Emma and Hayden.

Elder Aston and I talked a lot about setting goals and the things that we can do to help us stay on path to achieve that goal. We set a goal for mid-June and he is committed! Since I am new, he told me a little bit of his story. He wasn't very interested in the gospel but he let Emma  and Hayden take the discussions. When Emma and Hayden asked him to baptize them, he was touched and wanted to do it. Because of that, he wanted to be a part of the discussions and it was a really cool experience to hear. The Fairbourns are a great family. 

Elder Aston and I are teaching a part-member family named the Baugh family. They have two kids who got baptized a couple months ago. They are a really cool fatmily. The mother (Lisa) wants to be baptized but the thing that is holding her back is the fact that she is living with her boyfriend! Aghhh!!!! They told us that the reason why is that the insurance will go up 700$ if they get married and they can't afford to do that. The reason why Lisa needs that insurance is because she has a brain tumor and the insurance basically keeps her going. Her boyfriend is searching for a better job so they can get married and when that happens, Lisa would be able to be baptized. We are hoping that it will happen soon so Lisa can get baptized and then on the path to the Temple. 

This upcoming Saturday, I will be able to head back to Smithfield for a couple hours because Sawyer is getting baptized!!!!!! It will be amazing! I am so pumped for his baptism!! :) 

Other than that, there are a bunch of potential investigators that we are trying to contact and helping the members invite their nonmember friends to meet with us. It is going super well! A lot of great things are happening in Morgan. I am loving my time so much here. Morgan is amazing and so beautiful. The people here are awesome and I am so glad that I am going to spend my last couple transfers here. What a great area! :) I am LOVING my mission! 

I love you all so much and stay strong. Keep on pushing on. Love, Elder McGrath

Bye Smithfield

Hola mi familia! It has been a good week!!!!!!!!! A lot of great things happened and it is very exciting! :) I love Smithfield so much. It will always have a big part of my heart. I love the people there so much. I loved serving there.

Transfers are happening tomorrow and the Lord has decided that I should go to one more area before I finish my mission. So, I will be transferring from up North all the way down to Morgan, Utah. It is literally on the border of the mission. It is very isolated from rest of the mission. If you look it up, you can see that Morgan is surrounded by mountains.  I will be covering the Morgan North Stake and the Morgan Stake; total of 20 wards. It will be my biggest area. My companion will be Elder Aston. He is from Preston, Idaho. He came out as a trial missionary but now, he is a normal missionary. I have heard fantastic things about him. People told me that he is like this wonderful soul that has such a great desire to serve God and this soul is inside a crippled body. He has a lot of physical disabilities. Some missionaries told me that he is an awesome teacher so I am very excited about that!!

One last thing before we start the exciting stuff, I want to give a shout-out to my most amazing mother. She went through all of my crap and still is that person I can turn to when I need someone to talk to. She is a wonderful mother and I was one of the four luckiest kids on Earth to have her as my mom. I hope you had an awesome Mother's Day!

So, the people that we are teaching in Smithfield are progressing very well. It always feels super good to enter a struggling area and then to leave it strong.

Sawyer, as usual, is doing so awesome. He was super busy during the past week but we were able to set up a time to Skype with him this Saturday. He is scheduled to be baptized on the 23rd and is very excited to get baptized. I will be coming up to Smithfield to see him get baptized. As we were talking to him on the phone, he told us that he went to the San Diego Temple (the temple that looks like a castle) and took a pic of him and his girlfriend in front of it. He made it his profile picture on Facebook. He is very excited to become part of the LDS church! :)

Elder Ankney and I found a part member family to start teaching!! We were out knocking on doors and we got a text from one of our Ward Mission Leaders about this family wanting to meet with us. It was the Clark family. We went over immediately and started talking to this family. They informed us that they want us to help them get their 9 and 8 years old kids get baptized. We are always willing to help out with that kind of stuff. :)  We were able to set up a time to have a lesson for the NEXT DAY!!

The next day, we went over and had a WONDERFUL lesson with them. They are an awesome family! At the beginning of the lesson, we were talking so we can get to know them a little bit more. After 5 minutes, the 8 years old daughter barked at us, "Let's get talking. I want to get baptized." I love that phrase. ;) The lesson went super good! It was awesome! I am glad that we can start teaching them.

Vivianne Soffe is still doing good. She got to go to church last Sunday and she loved it. She has her own set of scriptures and tries to read it everyday. She is homeschooled so her now re-activated mother tries to read it with her every morning. It is awesome!!! Tristen Wiser is doing amazing. He is now preparing to get the Priesthood in a couple weeks. He already chose who he wants to ordain him to the office of a Deacon.

The Memmott family (a Less Active family we are teaching) are doing soooooooo good! Last Sunday, the entire family went to church together as a family for the first time in a long time! We were also there with them the entire time. It was incredible! I am so happy! Mandy is doing awesome! She is working towards church but is doing good. She is progressing but not as fast as I would like. At least, it's still something!

I love Smithfield so much! It was truly a great area. It was a joy to serve here. I am so grateful that the Lord has given me an opportunity to serve here in Smithfield.

I love you all! Enjoy your time over in Saudi Arabia and stay strong! You all are so awesome. I really enjoyed the Skype call we had together last Sunday. Love you all sooooo much! Love, Elder McGrath

Another great week

Hello mi familia, We had a great week here in Smithfield! We had a huge miracle happen this past week and we had another experience that has contributed to my testimony. I love sharing the Gospel so much. I would say that one of the biggest things I have learned on my mission through my own experiences as well as others is that when we live the gospel to its fullest, then we begin to see all of His blessings. As a result, our testimony grows. 

All of us have a testimony, whether great or small. We all are at different points on the testimony spectrum. When we strive to strengthen our testimony through scripture study, prayer and church study, our testimony strengths; however, if we lack on doing those simple things, our testimony weakens. Those small things are crucial to our testimony.

Onward to the fun stuff. I will start with the biggest miracle of this past week.Two weeks ago, Elder Ankney and I received a call from one of the elders covering the northern part of Smithfield and he asked us that if we could go with his companion to teach an eternigator (an eternigator is an investigator that has been investigating the church for many years) named John. This happened because he had to go interview someone for baptism. We reluctantly agreed because we were super busy at that point. We had a lot of stuff that needed to get done that night. 

We met up and went to the lesson. A half hour into the lesson, I had this strange prompting that I need to invite this person to be baptized. I shrugged it off because he was an eternigator and was invited numerous times. A couple minutes passed by, the prompting came again but stronger. I decided to just follow it. I invited John to be baptized on May 30th and he flat out said no. I was taken back and stunned for a second. My companion took over and I got to thinking, "Why did I ever get that prompting if he was going to say no? ... Oh, well. I did what I did. He has his agency and I have mine." 

We left the lesson and a week passes by. I was sitting in one of my favorite less actives' house (The reason why she was my favorite less active is that she is super chill and fun to talk to and teach!). She is super receptive and just has a hard time going to church. I felt a buzz in my pocket so I pulled the phone secretively and saw the text. The text informed that John is now preparing to be baptized on the 16th of May and then, they thanked me. I was so confused and happy at the same time. I just put the phone back in my pocket with a smile on my face despite being confused. 

The next morning, Elder Ankney and I went to the gym and started doing our workouts, the Smithfield North Elders walked into the gym and we got the whole story of what happened. The next time they went to John's house, they started with a prayer and John spoke right away. He told them that the deaf elder (me) dropped the baptism bomb on him and he was a little pissed at the deaf elder. But during the week, he was thinking about it a lot and ultimately decided to pray about it. God answered his prayer for the first time and is now wanting to be baptized. He chose a date two weeks earlier than when I originally invited him for. 

This was a great testimony-builder experience to me because the Lord knows His sheep. He prompts us with promptings that are confusing to us at first. But if we follow them, we will see why we received it later on. What a great experience to have on my mission. I know that I needed to be there at that day, at that moment so I can invite John to be baptized. What a wonderful experience that I was able to experience. 

Another great thing that happened this past week was the lesson with Shy. She is doing so awesome. She is heading to Hawaii for the next couple months and gets back in town in the end of June. Towards the end of the lesson, we asked her if she is planning on going to church in Hawaii, she told us that Brady (her boyfriend) and her already looked up the information for the ward and the church is right next to her grandma's house. She had no idea. She is a little nervous but we talked about how that it is important to keep attending church. It is a good thing that Brady is heading over there in a month to help Shy talk to her parents about her baptism. Brady and Shy are planning on teaching Shy's family about the gospel. What an amazing thing! :) 

Elder Ankney and I found a couple new people to start teaching this THURSDAY! :) One of them is Uriel. He has been in Utah for 10 years and has never met with the missionaries in the past. He is a Catholic and wants to find a new church to start going to. He has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and he told us all that in the door contact. We told him that the best church is right next to him (the LDS church is literally right next to him) and that we would love to help him learn more about the church and help him follow Jesus Christ. He was all over that! :D I am so excited to start teaching him this Thursday.

The second one is Audi. One of the Smithfield North elders found him and referred him to us. We are going to start meeting with him this Thursday as well. Elder Ankney and I are sooo pumped for this lesson! :D

Also, another big thing happened today. Do y'all remember Aaron Marez? The eternigator that I was teaching when I was covering the Logan Central Stake. I saw his mother-in-law in Wal-Mart today and we started talking. She told me that Aaron is preparing to be baptized in the next couple months and that he just got interviewed by someone in the Mission Presidency and is now waiting for approval by the First Presidency to be baptized! It was GREAT news to hear!!

The majority of our less-actives are doing well. Some of them are going to church and some of them are still struggling with them. 

So, as you may know by now, everything in Smithfield is going WONDERFUL! I am loving my time here and as a missionary. I love seeing God's miracles in my life and on my mission. I know that God lives and that He loves us, no matter what. We are His children and that when we do the things that He asks us to do, we will come back and live in His presence forever. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He has atoned for our sins and with His help, we can do it. 

I love you all so much and talk to you on Sunday. Have fun with the heat over in Saudi Arabia! :) Love, Elder McGrath