sammission: An awesome week

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the emails that you have sent me. It was a joy reading them! It is so nice to hear about the things happening at home.My family is back in Arizona and my dad just started his new job. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!?! I want to make a shoutout to the BEST older sister in the world, Hermana Caitlin McGrath. Her birthday is in 5 days and she is turning 22 years old, even though she looks like she is 19. FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!

Anyways, if some of you guys don't know, I'm currently training. His name is Elder Curtis and he is from Concordia, Missouri (2 hours south of Kansas City). He went to a very small branch. Him and I are pretty much opposite. He likes to read, draw and do artistic things. I like to play sports. But we get along really well. He is a super sick missionary.

This past week has been pretty cool. Since we dropped all of our eternigators, we have been doing a LOT of finding. It has been really good for Elder Curtis. It means that he will be able to practice his door contacting skills. He has been improving a lot.

We also found some new people that we lined up for our first lesson with them. We had 1 last Sunday and 3 yesterday. All three lessons fell through yesterday. :( But we are keeping up our heads and working hard. We just have to be diligent in all things that we do and the Lord will bless us. I have seen it happen. Elder Kelley and I didn't have very many people to teach for three weeks straight so we were doing a lot of finding. People were rejecting us left from right. It was crazy hard. Elder Kelley just kept telling me to keep my head up and not get too stressed out. We were being diligent to the very end. We were able to find the Cefalo family and because of that, Ethan and Gage was able to get baptized. It was amazing. Diligence is key. I keep telling my son that and I have faith in the Lord that we will be blessed if we work hard and be diligent. It's all going to work out. :)

Anyways, we were doing a spiritual thought at one of the bishops that we work with. He gave us a super sick referral. It is the Maib family. The father is divorced and has 2 kids (a 13 yrs old girl and a 12 yrs old boy). They all are from southern California and they are all nonmembers. We contacted them last week and we have our first lesson with them TONIGHT! I am so pumped. We are going to invite them all to be baptized on July 12 and I am so stoked. It is going to be a solid lesson!

Last Sunday was a very interesting day. We had a lesson with this 12 years old boy. I had Elder Curtis invite him to be baptized and he said no. I started asking some questions to try to resolve that concern. His concern was that he didn't believe in Jesus Christ but he believes in the Greek gods. I was so stunned. That was a first for me. It didn't work out but it was a funny story for us to tell.

Guess what, my district is going to be awesome! One set of elders changed zones so Elder White (the DL of the other district) has 2 areas besides his in his district. I have 3 besides mine plus the senior stake missionaries for the Clinton North stake. We got a new sister in my district. Her name is Sister Kuwahara. She is from Japan. She is a super sick missionary. So far, as a DL, I had two Germans (including my mission father), a Japanese and a bunch of Americans. How cool is that?!? Also, I have a great DM planned for tomorrow. I am so excited to be able to present it.

I also want to let you all know that I know that the gospel is true and with the gospel, we can find peace and happiness in this life. The gospel also blesses families because we know that we can be together for all eternity. It also strengthens families because we have a different perspective. I also know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he was called by God and Jesus Christ to be the first prophet of the final dispensation. I also know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. Without Him, we are unable to return to Heaven to live with Heavenly Father. I also know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and I have seen that happen to so many people on my mission. I cannot deny the gospel, for I know it is true 100%. The people in the Church are not perfect and they are bound to make mistakes but I do know that the gospel is perfect in every way. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and He seeks to make us happy. He has done it in so many ways: prophets, families, Jesus Christ and so many other things. We can see His hand in everything. He is truly our Eternal Father.

Stay strong and I know that you can do it. I love you all!! Love, Elder McGrath