Miracles in Smithfield

Hey family!!! Oh my! What a week!!!!!! Gosh, I swear that these little miracles that happen every day make me sooo happy! I love being a missionary so much! A few days ago, I hit my 18th month mark. I cannot describe how amazing the past 18 months has been for me. It has been an amazing mission so far and I cannot wait to make every second count for the next six months! 

Last Tuesday, we had a pretty sick lesson with Gideon and he is a stud. He is just going through some hard times. He lives with his stepmom and father. His real mom is an atheist and teach atheism to Gideon BUT Gideon wants to learn who Jesus Christ really is. We are hoping to teach an awesome lesson on Jesus Christ tonight and invite him to follow His example and be baptized! I will keep you updated next week! 

Elder Cook and I had a couple pretty big miracles happen this past couple days that I would like to share with you today! The first one is that we are having a baptism this Saturday!!!!! Yes, this Saturday!!!!! :)  I know, I was not expecting it. At all! So, yesterday afternoon, we received a call from the Elders in Wellsville, Utah. The first thing they asked was that if we want a baptism this Saturday. That is and always will be an amazing question to hear over the phone. Only in Utah, we receive calls like that! :) 

So, what happened is that there is a YSA (we cover Smithfield South and Smithfield YSA stakes) guy named Garrett Thurston that has been taught in Wellsville. The reason why is that he has a bunch of really good friends who are strong in the gospel down in Wellsville. Because of that, he has grown a lot and really wants to be baptized this Saturday! 

All that was crazy! We told some of the members in the YSA ward that Garrett lives in and they were in complete shock. They told us that they never had a baptism in that ward. Ever. And we are getting basically a free baptism in the ward that never has any work! AWESOME! :D 

Another crazy thing that happened happened a couple nights ago! So, Elder Cook and I was eating dinner with this active member family and we were talking. One of the daughters, Taylor, in the family mentioned that she is in the YSA 1st ward. Because of that reason, we started talking about some of the people in the 1st ward. 

During the middle of the conversation, Taylor told us that there is a RM named Brady and he is dating a girl from Hawaii. Her name is Shyani (nicknamed Shy) and she is a nonmember. Brady has been taking Shy to church every single week for the past three months. We were absolutely bewildered! This is literally the perfect situation because we hear a ton of stories like these from YSA missionaries and most of the time, it turns out really well. Shy is here in Utah because she got a soccer scholarship! Yep, she is on the soccer team! 

Right after dinner ended, we went over to Brady's house and Brady answered. As a result, we did a normal active member conversation and asked for referrals. During that time, Shy was walking by and Brady saw her. He immediately called her over and introduced her to us. We got to talking about church and she told us that she has been meaning to call us but she has too many RMs friends and they all teach her (YAY FOR SERVING IN UTAH!) and she wants to learn more. 

We asked if we can set up a return appointment and Brady told us that we could do it right there! Elder Cook froze out of shock. I froze up too but after a couple of seconds, I broke out of it and accepted the invitation! 

The lesson went extremely well and Shy ate everything up. She, however, only has ONE concern and that is Joseph Smith. After teaching Joseph Smith, we gave her a soft commitment to be baptized (the soft commitment is: After you know that these things are true, will you be baptized?) and she accepted gladly! We then talked about the Book of Mormon and how she can know that Joseph Smith really is a prophet by reading the Book of Mormon. After that, we invited her to read it. She replied with that she has.. What?! That is literally the first time anybody has told me that they are already reading the Book of Mormon before meeting with them the first time. Shy is in 2 Nephi. She is awesome!!!

Those are some big miracles and I am so happy that they happened! I love all of the miracles. They all are sooooooooo awesome! :) Seriously, I thank Heavenly Father for all of the miracles and for sending me on a mission to the Utah Ogden Mission (#1 mission!). 

I love you all and stay strong! Have fun in Tabuk! Love you so much!!!! Love, Elder McGrath