A great week

Hey guys! Thank you for the emails. I love getting emails and thank you! It was another great week in the Utah Ogden mission. Every week seems to by so much faster. It didn't feel like a week has passed. I love being a missionary and helping others come closer unto Christ!

Day 1 (Tuesday, January 21) - Elder Barnes and I were able to visit a couple of people after pday! The first one is Cam. We just started teaching him last Tuesday and he is a pretty cool guy. He is a DJ and he has a pretty cool studio (we have lessons in his studio!). Anyways, he grew up LDS and fell away from the church because he feels like that there can be no revelation because God doesn't change things. He knows everything. Well, the problem with that is the world is always evolving. Revelation allows the Gospel to help the people at the time. There is a reason for prophet (Amos 3:7)! During the lesson, we were able to clear up some misconceptions and teach about the Book of Mormon. After the lesson, he tried throwing some anti-Mormonism stuff at us but most of them were really stupid. Literally everything he throws at us is not doctrine and most of it was found in W. Cleon Skousen's books. We were able to testify of the Book of Mormon and we left after that.

After that, we were able to visit Mark Henning who is a "dry Mormon". It's a term for unbaptized people who is pretty much like a regular Mormon. He goes to church every single week, he prays 2x a day, and he reads the scriptures. He finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants. We tried talking about baptism and it's a "sticky" subject for him. 

Day 2 (Wednesday, January 22) - Elder Barnes and I were able to go to District meeting and the ZLs decided to do it differently this time. We did a round robin thing where we had three stations. They all pretty much talked about obedience. The mission made up a program called Celestial Routines because the majority of the mission need help with obedience and they pretty much talked to us about it. It was a interesting program!

Elder Barnes and I got to see Kevin and he is doing awesome! He wanted to feed us sloppy joes but we couldn't schedule it until today! We are eating at his house tonight at 5pm! I'm so excited!

The best part about that day was that we were able to eat dinner at Robert Hall's house. His future wife made home-made pizza and holy crap, it was DELICIOUS! Apparently, the recipe for the dough has been handed down for generations! It was good pizza. Even my companion, who doesn't like pizza, loved the home-made pizza! It was a good day!

Day 3 (Thursday, January 23) - Elder Barnes and I got a chance to visit Ashley Adams and I have been trying to get a lesson and have it go through for the past 5 1/2 months and it was the first time it happened! Yay! After the lesson with Ashley Adams and the kids, Ashley broke down in front of us and told us her story. The reason why she is inactive, even though she has a testimony of the gospel is because of her ex-husband who is a Marine. Her ex-husband is very anti-Mormon and would not let Ashley go to church. It led to an abusive relationship and Ashley broke off and filed for divorce. She keeps commenting about how she is terrified about her ex-husband because he has connections. She still fears for her life even though her husband lives on the East coast. I feel so bad for her. No woman shouldn't go through that!!! :(

Anyways, the good news is that the WML was there with us and heard the entire story. He is planning on getting the ward involved and I hope it works out! 

Day 4 (Friday, January 24) - It was a pretty slow day that day. The highlight of the day was that we were able to contact the majority of our referrals and most of them answered the door! We were able to set up return appointments. It's an exciting time! :D

Elder Barnes and I got a chance to visit one of the members who is a really close friend of Kevin and she told us everything that Kevin isn't telling us. Apparently, we accomplished a part of our purpose with him and that is bringing him closer unto Christ but the real reason why he isn't keeping his commitments is because he is a faithful member of the Catholic church. He got his conversion through the Christmas mass that he watched on TV. ....... It was so frustrating hearing that because I spent so much time on him and today after dinner, I'm going to be bold and be straight with him (Moroni 8:16 "Behold I speak with boldness, having authority from God, and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear"). We might have to drop him. :( The good thing is that no matter what he does, Heavenly Father still loves him and will keep giving him chances to accept the restored Gospel. I know that he will accept it in the future.

Day 5 (Saturday, January 25) - Last Saturday was a great day in the UOM! That morning, we participated in a service project. A LA couple's house burned down in Bothwell so we helped clean up the debris so they can rebuild the house. The ward helped out a lot too. At the end, we got lunch and a couple ladies brought subs from Which Wich (apparently, nobody has ever heard of it until they ate it. It was pretty good!). They bought so much subs because they were expecting a lot of people but many didn't show up. We were able to take about 5 subs back home with us for lunch for the next 5 days! SCORE! :)

We were able to make some visits with the YSA WML and we visited Sam Adams, who grew up LDS and he told us that he believes in the church but he has no testimony. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he never read it so we testified to him about the power of the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson!

Day 6 (Sunday, January 26) - Not much happened. Elder Barnes and I went to three different ward sacrament meetings and that alone was draining. It was awesome though!

The last sacrament meeting we went to was the Bothwell ward. One guy is going to give his farewell talk in the ward that day so the chapel plus gym was packed. We were sitting on the stage (it was in the very back) because we didn't want to be rude. The funny thing is that the bishop remarked at the end, "Thank you all for coming. I never thought today would be the day that the chapel and the gym is packed the missionaries are sitting on the stage." It was cool!

Day 7 (Monday, January 27) - Elder Barnes and I got to go to Zone Study yesterday and it was more teaching about Celestial Routines but this time, it was games. We were separated into our districts and played a competition. It was a fun competition consisting of pushups, putting on a shirt (the shirt was frozen so we had to "open" the shirt so it was hard) and eat a banana. We had set of missionaries do each portion. We won! :)

The best part about this Zone Study was that we got a chance to compete against the rest of the zone to see who knows their companion the best. We had a series of 20 questions and we give two answers to each one of them. We answer the question for ourselves and our companion. For example: Favorite Book of Mormon person. I would answer Ammon/Alma. Ammon is my favorite Book of Mormon person and Alma would be Elder Barnes' favorite Book of Mormon person. We can gain up to 40 points. Well, guess what?! Elder Barnes and I literally destroyed the Zone! Everybody averaged between 20 and 23 out of 40. We got 31/40!!! Our companionship unity is strong and I think that is what's making this area stronger. We are getting more solid baptismal dates for our investigators. 

I love being a missionary, especially in the Utah Ogden mission! I have grown so much by being a missionary and I am so glad that I made the decision to serve the Lord! Scripture of the week: "And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God." -- Alma 31:5. Read your scriptures!

Have a wonderful week and stay strong! I love you guys! Love, Elder McGrath