Last email of 2013

Hey guys! Thanks again for your emails and I love reading them! It has been a great week in the Utah Ogden mission! Tremonton has been pretty warm this week! It was in the high 20s and low 30s, which is awesome. Single digits isn't that fun ;) And yes, I brought my journal this time! :)

Day 1 (Christmas Eve!, Tuesday) - My DL and his comp came up to Logan with us and we got to go to a bunch of stores. So many sales but most of them were stuff I didn't really need. :/

The BEST part of this day was talking to my family for the first time on my mission! It was really weird afterwards. You actually talk to your family, not the people around you. Nonetheless, it was crazy awesome!

Day 2 (Christmas!, Wednesday) - Elder Barnes and I had a breakfast appointment and we were going inside, expecting breakfast. They showered us with gifts. I got a bunch of gift cards and it was awesome!

We were not allowed to work on Christmas day because it's a holiday and people didn't want to be disturbed. They just wanted to be with their family. So to pass the time, my district and I just played board games and it was a blast.

Then, we had a dinner appointment. The family kept stuffing us with food! After my first portion, they put a huge second portion and said, "Eat up, Elder! It's Christmas!" in a cheerful voice. I was SO stuffed by the end of dinner. Then, they decided to feed us dessert. I'm pretty sure that they gave us a huge portion of a pie. I have NO idea how I ate it all but I felt like crap afterwards. I requested to go to the bathroom. So off I went! I went to the bathroom and puked the majority of dinner in the toilet. UTAH OGDEN MISSION STYLE! ;) What a memorable Christmas! :D

Day 3 (Dec. 26, Thursday) - Elder Barnes and I got to visit a couple of the Ward Mission Leaders and correlated the appointments. We got a ton of amazing fellowshippers for our investigators! The work is definitely hastening! I love being a missionary!

Other than that, it was a slow day because apparently, Tremonton is not the place to be at for Christmas break. ;)

Day 4 (Dec. 27, Friday) - We had a talk and a lesson last Sunday so we spent the majority of the day, preparing it. It was on Hastening the Work of Salvation. We wanted to do a really good job on it so we made a lot of preparations for it!

Elder Barnes and I got to see Max Bateman (excommunicated 60 years old guy) and he said that he wants to go back to the temple and he wants us to help him get there. We talked about scripture studying and how it helps us stay on or get back on the strait, and narrow path. It was a fantastic lesson!

Day 5 (Dec. 28, Saturday) - Elder Barnes and I were knocking on a door and they didn't answer. We were going to go contact some people on the Unbaptized list and we got stopped by the WML's wife. She said that she needs help with moving some boxes. It turned out to be Jessica's boxes (she is an investigator who dropped us a couple weeks ago) and after helping out, she said that she wants to go back to church. She also remarked that she misses that peaceful feeling. For about 15 minutes, we were talking about the Holy Ghost and how it helps us gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. It was AWESOME!

We also got to see Kevin and he is doing awesome! He told us that he prayed for a hour straight. Maybe, he was trying to follow Enos' example! ;)  It was pretty cool. The best thing about the lesson is that he said that he wants to go to church. Remember that he never keeps commitments. He usually says, "I will try...". This time, he said, "You know what, I need to go to church. I'll go to your church tomorrow. I promise.". At first, I didn't believe him. ;)

Day 6 (December 29, Sunday) - Elder Barnes and I gave a talk and lesson last Sunday. It was so much fun seeing a lot of the members get motivated.

The best part of this day is that Kevin came to church!! I was so surprised! It was so awesome! Afterwards, I asked him what he liked about church and he replied saying that he loves how talkative the members are to EVERYONE and he likes it a lot better than the Catholic church. He also said that he wants to come back! BOOM! It felt so good to hear that! So he is going to church and he is also praying. What's left? The Book of Mormon. Kevin believes in the Bible and we need to get him to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Barnes and I are going to try Dropping BoMs (teaching tool) on him and see how that goes.

Day 7 (December 30, Monday) - Elder Barnes and I got to see the Glover family! They are doing so well and you could totally see how much the gospel has changed their life for the better! It was awesome. We got to do a really fun object lesson with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (using papers. It's so difficult to explain!) and they loved it so much! They wanted us to keep doing it again and again. :)

We also got to see Tristan Hart and we got to drop BoMs (again, teaching tool for Book of Mormon) on him and he said that he wants to read. It was so awesome to hear that from him. I hope he follows through on what he said. :D

All in all, it was a fantastic, memorable week in the Utah Ogden mission. It's a great day to be a missionary! I love being a missionary. Happy New Years and stay safe. Love, Elder McGrath

Elder Barnes!

Someone made the nativity in snow! It was really cool.