Hola, mi amigos

Hey y'all! (Notice the Southern accent.. the Cefalos has been having me practice saying y'all instead of you all.. and it is so much fun saying it too! haha) It has been a great week to be a missionary in the Clinton West stake. I seriously love the people here. Members, nonmembers, partmember families, less actives likewise! They are great people. 

Yesterday, I hit my 11th month mark and I can't believe how fast time has been flying. I love being a missionary! Everything is amazing. I love seeing how many people are progressing towards the gospel and how their lives change because of the gospel. The gospel is true and it is what allows us to experience pure and eternal happiness. With the gospel, we know simple things that allows us to have peace and joy in this life to come:

1) families can be together forever

2) atonement of Jesus Christ

3) God is our loving Heavenly Father

4) we have a prophet to lead us to help us follow God and Jesus Christ even better. We get blessings by following God and Jesus Christ. Prophets help us do just that. What an amazing gift that we all have right now. 

Since I am the District Leader right now, I am able to give a 1 1/2 hours long training at District Meeting every Wednesday. Last Wednesday, I was able to give an amazing training on teaching simply with pamphlets. It went super well and everyone was so motivated at the end to go out and teach simply with pamphlets. I love being a DL because I can help so many amazing missionaries become even better missionaries! 

Elder White (the other DL in the zone) and I are going to combine our district meeting and we were able to plan it yesterday. It is going to be an AMAZING District Meeting. It is going to be marvelous. I am SO stoked to present it with Elder White. Elder White is one of my best friends in the mission. We hang out with each other pretty much every P-day. It is a blast! :D

Elder Curtis and I were able to work really hard this past week. It has been really hot for the past week, partly because we were wearing proselyting clothes. I also have been getting an really good tan so that is AWESOME! :D

Last Sunday, Elder Curtis and I were able to meet with a former investigator named Kurt Geiger. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a year before he dropped them. Eight months went by and then, we were able to meet with him. We had this super amazing lesson with him. The Spirit was SUPER strong and I keep asking him, "Do you feel anything today?". He kept saying no but I knew that he was feeling the Spirit so I opened up to Galatians 5:22-23 and talked about it and I pretty much told him that he is feeling the Spirit because I know that he is.. I also told him that since he is feeling the Spirit, God is telling him right now that what we are telling him is true. I invited him to be baptized and he said no. I went to resolve his concern and he told me that it's too soon. I went on talking about goals and baptism. I invited him to be baptized again and he shot it down. :( I think something has been affecting him at that time. We will stop by there again this week and see if there is anything we can do for him. 

We also stopped by this house again. Their lessons keep falling through but I had a feeling that I should stop by again. It was Aaron Prieto's house and I was finally able to meet Jaime (his wife) and Aaron Prieto. We were talking for 20 minutes straight and they said that they really want us to come over. They also mentioned that they really want to be baptized! We have a lesson with him tomorrow at 9am. I AM SO STOKED! :D

I love being a missionary so much! I love being able to share the gospel with everyone. I love seeing how happy they become when they start to apply the principles of the gospel to their lives. The gospel is amazing and I know with all of my heart that it is true! 

I love you all and have an amazing week! :) Love, Elder McGrath

How funny is that! The Cefalos were feeding us and Ethan decided to start doing that! haha

Elder White. He is one of the Spanish missionaries. He is like one of my best friends on my mission. He is a really cool guy!