I am thankful for Jesus Christ

Hey familia! What a great week, even though a lot of lessons fell through! It was truly a week full of miracles and amazing lessons. I love being a missionary so much! I love teaching the Gospel to all those people that needs the Gospel in their lives. I have seen the Gospel change people for the better and the personal relationship with their Savior, Jesus Christ has helped them get through tumultuous times. I am so grateful that we get to live in this dispensation!

Seriously, I cannot believe that it is December 2014.. Time is escaping by too fast. I am super glad that I am making the most of my time. We are always out and working hard. The number of teaching appointments is getting too high. We keep having to find splits to come with us so we can hit two lessons at once but this past week was a little difficult because a lot of our lessons fell through BUT our numbers are becoming amazing and I am so pumped. :)  We have three baptisms coming up. We are hoping for a fourth one because the fourth one could be the Goble kids' cousin, Marlowe. If everything happens the way we want it to be, oh my, it would be absolutely amazing. It would be a grand Goble family baptisms with four of the Goble kids being baptized by Peter Goble (the father)!  Please pray for that to happen! It would be so sick if everything works out! 

First off, Thanksgiving was amazing! We only had one dinner appointment so I was really happy about that! I didn't stuff myself with too much food to the point where I will throw up, like last Christmas. That is one thing I am thankful for. :) We got to eat with the Franckowiak family. It was really cool! The father is a Physicist and a Math teacher! He was telling Elder Freitag and I all about the things that are happening in the field of mathematics. To be honest, things kept going into one ear and out of the other ear. It was confusing but nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed the Thanksgiving dinner!

With Rica, things are going great but we found some sad news. She is going back to Taiwan for Winter Break on DECEMBER 11th, two days before her baptism. Because of that, we will have to push the baptism back to January. I am pretty sad about that part but man, we had a super awesome lesson about who God is. Since she is from Taiwan, she didn't really know anything about who God is so we decided to focus on the entire lesson on Heavenly Father. The Spirit was present during that lesson and boy, it was strong! We were able to connect everything to the Book of Mormon and we talked about how it is the word of God and that is one of the ways that we can become closer to Him. Rica has committed to read the Book of Mormon every single night and I am hoping that will happen! 

The Goble family are doing sooo awesome! We had a lesson with them last night and we decided to re-teach the Restoration to help solidify their understanding of the message of the Restoration. This time, we asked questions that helped them teach themselves. We were able to correct a few points and at the end of the lesson, something incredible happened. After talking about the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise, we asked if anybody had any questions. The oldest daughter, Grace (she is also preparing for baptism), asked us how we came to know that the Book of Mormon. It was a great thing that I was able to testify about how I came to know that it is true. My companion, Elder Freitag, was also able to testify. I never felt the Spirit so strong in the lesson. It was incredible. Grace is only 13 years old and she has the desire. You can see it in her eyes. That is what the mission vision means to me. True conversion through baptism or reactivation that leads to the Temple. 

The lesson with Draco went super well. We talked about the basic fundamentals like Jesus Christ, Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon and baptism. We invited him to be baptized but the mother got in the way. She told us that she will be talking about it with him and see if he really wants to do this. I am praying fervently that he will keep having that desire that he had a few days ago. 

Last Sunday, we had a fantastic lesson with Cherry and Frank Lui. We wanted them to know what Christmas really means so we decided to focus the lesson on Christmas and the real meaning of it. We shared the video labeled, "He is the Gift" and it was amazing. We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we need to remember Him during the Christmas season. Remember: 

"Christ" = Jesus Christ

"mas" = more (in the Spanish language) 

So, obviously, Christmas is the time when we should remember Jesus Christ more. 

I testify that He is the light, the life and the hope of the world. I know that He sincerely loves each one of us. I know that his cleansing power will cleanse us, no matter what we have done in the past. With the Gospel, we can feel pure and clean and power to push through the difficult times. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that by following His Gospel, we can see the blessings of God unfold in our lives. I testify that those blessings are critical. Those blessings contribute to our "never-ending happiness" (Mosiah 2:41). Keep the commands, read the scriptures, and pray! By small and simple things, we can feel His love enter in our lives. I cannot imagine my life without the Gospel. I am thankful for Joseph Smith and that he had courage and determination to usher in the long-promised dispensation of the fulness of times. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and for what He did for the world. 

I love all of you guys. You all are amazing and keep the good work up. Stay strong and you can do hard things. Philippians 4:13, Alma 26:12, Luke 1:37. Have an awesome week! Love, Elder McGrath

Thanksgiving dinner