Hey guys! I absolutely loved reading your emails and it keeps making me smile! I love hearing about how everything is going and the progress of the Jubail Branch. A primary! That's so crazy! I never imagined it to grow and become an excellent branch (it already is ;))! Now to the important part:
Day 1 - The bond between Zarse and I are becoming better everyday! I really enjoy companion study because we both teach other awesome things about the gospel. I honestly learn so much during personal and companion study. On your mission, you pretty much learn doctrinal topics at warp speed. I love it. Last Wednesday, Zarse and I wanted to understand the Plan of Salvation better. We drew what we know and then, we found several scriptures pertaining to the Plan. We then found scripture verses relating to them then we linked them all together. It is absolutely a brilliant plan and because of this experience, I feel so blessed to be a child of our loving Father in Heaven. He really does love us and He gives us blessings and miracles every single day. We may not notice it because we are not looking for it. It's right there in front of you. You need to open your eyes. :)
Last Wednesday night was the BEST! Zarse and I got a call and a family named the Theurers wanted us to come over and have dinner with them. Zarse wrote it down as Thyers so I thought it wasn't my relatives. As Brother Theurer picked us up, I sat shotgun and he immediately said, "Hey, I don't recognize you. What's your name and where are you from?" I answered his questions and told him about my great grandmother. He asked me what was her last name. I replied with Stucki and he literally freaked out. He kept saying that we might be related. He went on and talked about how the Theurers and Stucki grew up in Tremonton. Later that evening, after dinner (we had enchiladas which were absolutely delicious!), Brother Theurer pulled out his family history book and showed me the picture of the family. I was NOT expecting that all. I saw a picture of me when I was about 4 or 5 years old with the entire Stucki family. I even read great-grandma's and grandma's biography. Grandma mentioned all of her kids and gave the birthdates and everything. Everything checked out and it was a CRAZY night! I was so happy that I got to see them! They also told me that we both live on the SAME farm that my great-grandma grew up on. I was really meant to be here in Tremonton. My family is so far away in Saudi Arabia and I have cousins in Pocatello, Idaho and Draper, Utah as well as some family influence here in this beautiful town!
Day 2 - It was a super slow day, partly because we wasted too much trying to find our investigators on facebook and teaching random people on facebook. Nothing much really happened but we also had a dinner appointment. The majority of my dinner appointments (I think all but one) served some kind of meat. I'm guessing that the citizens living in Tremonton has this weird love for meat. I always got ribs, pork and mashed potatoes. I'm beginning to love them and you're not going to believe this! Almost all of the families that we ate dinner with served chocolate as a dessert. It was hard eating all of it at first but it's getting easier and I'm beginning not to mind the taste of chocolate. This all sums up to the fact that I may like chocolate. :)
Day 3 - We got a random call from a dude and he said that he was baptized at age 8 but fell away from the church in his teenage years. He said that he has been coming to church for a while and wants to start having missionaries come over and teach him about the gospel! Zarse and I were ecstatic about this blessing. We didn't find him. HE FOUND US! He even went through the efforts of contacting the bishop to get our phone number. He is a great guy! We taught him later on in the evening. He was very curious about the Book of Mormon and how we came to know that everything is true. We basically taught him about faith and reading the Book of Mormon diligently. We also talked about Moroni 10: 3 - 5. He was receiving everything really well and you can easily see that he has a desire to "know the truth of all things". It was a fantastic evening and I really enjoyed teaching this guy. His name is Elias or Eli for short.
Day 4 (LAST DAY OF AUGUST WOOT!) - Zarse and I did SOO much service here in Tremonton. We literally wore our p-day clothes all day! It was a nice change from having to wear church clothes all day! Apparently, a lot of people are moving out of the town and as a result of this migration, people are moving in. The first family we helped move in is named the Fiveash family. The father and his oldest daughter got baptized about six months ago. The others are accepting the gospel but they don't feel like they are ready to get baptized. The father served two tours in Iraq and got a purple heart award. He is getting money from the government because he got some sort of PTSD or something like that as a result of serving two tours in Iraq. He is a really cool guy! When we were helping him, we had a STRONG member presence from the TP1 (Thatcher-Penrose 1st) ward and I'm glad that a lot of the ward came to help. We unloaded and brought into the house so much furnitures and clothes. The U-Haul (the vehicle which they used to transport everything over to their new house) was literally FULL! We unloaded everything in about 40 minutes. That's how well we all worked together. It was a great opportunity to get to know the Fivash family as well as members of the TP1 ward. It was a great experience. Also, the Fiveash family moved to this awesome part in Tremonton called Marble Hills. Marble Hills is on the mountains. You can see all of Tremonton, Brigham City, even BRIGHAM TEMPLE! It was so cool!
We also helped Jessica (the manly female who was born with both XY and XX chromosomes) move. It was just me and Zarse who showed up. As a result of this, we have to move ALL of the furnitures ourselves. We were so exhausted. I was so exhausted to the extent that I made sure I did everything before 10pm so I just went to bed a half hour earlier. We are going to move some more on Tuesday and we know that some extra people are going to be there which will be fantastic. Also, one of the guys own a sub shop here in Tremonton and he is going to give free SUBS to everybody that shows up. CHA-CHING!
Day 5 - We attended ward councils in the morning, which were kinda boring because they talked mostly about people that I haven't got the chance to meet yet. We attended the YSA (Elias was there!) and FV1 (Fairview 1st) wards. Zarse and I got to bear our testimonies. We both pretty much taught a topic briefly so we can try to count it as quality gospel conversations (one of the key indicators that you report to the ZLs). I taught the Restoration while Zarse taught the Plan of Salvation. It was really cool. A lot of members approached us and told us that the idea of teaching to members and investigators at church is an ingenious idea. :)
We also got to teach Fabian (the guy who can't grow hair. At all) today about 2 Ne 31 and how we need to be baptized in order to reach the Celestial Kingdom. He took it really well and he is reading the Book of Mormon on his own. He even tells us about what he read. Now, because of what we talked about, he wants to get baptized. We need to finish teaching the rest of the lessons in order for him to get baptized. It was an AWESOME day!
Day 6 (YESTERDAY!) - Some appointments fell through on this day so it was a tough day but we got to meet Max Bates. Max is a really cool guy and he was born and raised in the gospel. He made some bad choices which resulted in excommunication from the church. As a result of this excommunication, he got addicted to smoking and drinking. He lost his family, job and a lot of money as a result of this addictions. He told us that he really believes everything in the gospel but he just don't live it. He also told us that he WANTS to live but the physical addiction he has are too much for him to handle so he succumbs to the temptations. I really want to be able to help him with his problems and help him get back on the track for salvation.
I love being a missionary. It is the best thing in the whole world. It makes my day when the people we teach care about us and begin to have this desire to change their heart for the better. It's an awesome job and I am honored to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I love you all and have a great week! Love, Elder Sam McGrath
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