Transfers

Hola mi familia! Wow, talk about an awesome week! I love being a missionary and seeing all kinds of miracles unfold before my very own eyes. All of these little miracles greatly strengthens my testimony of the Gospel. I am so grateful to be alive during a dispensation and to be able to witness for myself the reality of the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

As you may see, I have titled my email, "Transfers!". Yes, it's true. That time has come and tomorrow is transfers. Last Saturday, I got a call from the Assistants and they told me that President Hiers has assigned me to become a District Leader once again. This will be my fourth transfer as a District Leader! I have been called to serve in the SMITHFIELD SOUTH stake. I am replacing a difficult/disobedient/trunky missionary (I came out to the field with him) and will be with Elder Cook! He is a Spanish speaking missionary but he is from somewhere in the States. He has only been out 4 1/2 months (6 months including MTC time). Also, the Zone that I will be going to has a big reputation in the mission as a "non-producing" zone. For the month of December, they only baptized 6. It was the lowest baptizing zone in the entire mission. When I saw the new roster, my eyes were wide-open. There will be a lot of new faces in the zone. A former AP is going to be a ZL in the zone. In my district, I have Elder Simbeck! I also have a couple of amazing missionaries! One of them served 7 1/2 months as a Zone Leader in the top area in the mission, the Ogden Omicron stake. He is white-washing, training in an area in my district. I will be having an amazing district! I am highly looking forward to the next transfer. 

So, I heard that I will be facing a big challenge in my next area. Smithfield South averages ONE lesson with a member present A WEEK! I will be covering a family stake (10 wards) and a YSA stake (7 wards). I am looking forward to conquering the next challenge. There is a reason why I am going there and I am looking forward to finding out why I am going there. It will be exciting!

My companion, Elder Freitag, will be staying the area and will be TRAINING! President Hiers (pH) was so pleased with the area and told us earlier in the transfer that one of us would train. Since I have already trained a missionary, pH is letting Elder Freitag train. Guess what, there is a missionary from Germany coming in, Elder Freitag is praying that he would be able to train him. This area is doing soooo well! I am very pleased with the area and the members. Hard work does pay off! :) 

I loved serving with Elder Freitag. He is an excellent missionary and has taught me many things that I can apply in my mission and in my future. We spent four and half months (three transfers) together and every single second of it was a blast. Elder Freitag is my favorite companion that I had so far. He is a great man and a great missionary. He is super humble and willing to listen. I loved serving with him! 

Ok, let's move on to the fun stuff now! Erika is doing AMAZING! We had a super sick lesson with her a few days ago. We knew that she has a problem with the Word of Wisdom so we taught the lesson. At the end of the lesson, we asked if there is anything that is holding her back from keeping the commandment. She told us that she struggles with smoking and drinking coffee. We committed her to quit those two. We even made a calendar of how many cigarettes she can smoke a day. It will gradually reduce the number of one pack down to ZIP, a week before her baptism. As far as we know, she is still on for her baptism. I love teaching Erika. She is super humble and willing to do anything it takes to change her life around and she knows that Jesus Christ is the way. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real! 

The Goble family is doing awesome, as usual. We got to sit with them in sacrament and the father, Peter, didn't show up with the family. We were nervous because we wanted the entire family to be there. We asked the mother if he is coming. She replied by saying, "Yeah, he is coming but he will be a little late because he is fixing a suit button for Charlie.". Oh, yeah! It was so amazing to see the father change throughout the whole time and see him keep coming to church AFTER the baptismal service. Elder Freitag and I were a little nervous at first because Peter was the reason why the kids never got baptized when they were 8 years old. He struggled a lot with some of the doctrine. 

Last night, we had an amazing lesson with the Goble family. We taught the Restoration and after we shared the video, I was able to testify of the reality of the First Vision and compared it to Moses (God appeared to him. Exodus 20). It was amazing to feel the power of the Spirit. I truly love that family and I loved every single second of teaching them. They are a great family and hopefully, they will keep on going strong! (2 Nephi 31:16, Luke 4:16. Jesus Christ went to church every single Sabbath! Follow His example and keep the Sabbath day holy!) 

As usual, Cherry is doing amazing. For the past two lessons, we focused a lot on prayer and how to listen to the Holy Ghost. The most recent lesson we had, we followed up on her prayers and how she was doing. She told us that she has been praying more often and we asked her if she noticed any difference. She then told us that she felt more peace and happiness in the house. It was amazing that she was able to notice a difference. The Gospel does truly bless families AND individuals. The Gospel IS for everybody. We need to share it with the people that we know. WILL YOU share the gospel with one of your friends this week? You better say YES! :) 

Cherry is doing so awesome. So, is Draco. He has been reading his scriptures and praying. We weren't able to have a lesson with him the past week because the two appointments we had with him fell through but it's all good. He is progressing and that is what matters! 

A huge miracle happened last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MahRyan told us that she wants to start taking the discussions again. She was able to resolve the whole thing with her mother and her mother finally gave her permission to be baptized! We were able to set up a lesson with her tomorrow night. Unfortunately, I will not be there. I will be Smithfield at the time. Elder Freitag and his son (trainee) will resume teaching her. I told Elder Freitag to have his son invite MahRyan to be baptized. It will be awesome. It will be a great first day for the son because inviting someone to be baptized is scary. If you do it on your first day, it help tremendously with your confidence. I am very excited for Elder Freitag and his son. They will have a few baptisms coming up! (Draco, Erika, MahRyan, and possibly a couple other. There is a couple of kids that told us that they want to be baptized. We are just trying to get a hold of the parents so we can schedule a lesson).  

Another huge miracle happened a few days ago, Robert Hall, one of my recent converts from Tremonton is getting sealed to his wife on Valentines Day! Robert Hall got baptized on February 8th, 2014, three days after I got transferred down to Clinton. They invited me to come watch them. I am so stoked for this. SO STOKED! I literally cannot contain my excitement for the family. They have two boys (one is 8, the other is 6) and they both will be sealed to their parents. I am so happy. The Gospel does change lives! 

Aside from these big miracles, we found some new people to teach, we taught a bunch of lessons and got to know many new people. I love being a missionary. I love sharing the good news that Christ brings. I love, love, love the Gospel with all of my heart. I am so grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father. He seeks to make us happy because we are HIS children! That is why He gave us the Gospel. In order to get the full happiness that the Gospel brings, we have FOLLOW the Gospel. It is simple. Read the scriptures, pray, go to church, keep the commandments (ALL of them), listen to the apostles and prophets speak in General Conference and other ways that we can follow the Gospel. 

I love you all so much and stay strong. You can do hard things! Love you! Have a wonderful week! Love, Elder McGrath

The Hooton family, Elder Freitag and I 

 the Chinese Group that I cover. It is smaller than a branch. Some of the members were still on vacation. It averages between 15 - 25 people attending

Me, Frank, Cherry, Elder Freitag

 Wilson family, I, Elder Freitag

One of the less active families that I was teaching. I wanted to do something different. We were on splits at that time so that is why Elder Freitag wasn't in the picture

picture of the Cache Valley Central Zone. Elder Freitag was late for the picture and because I had no room by me, he went to the other side. haha