Tremonton is AWESOME!

Hey guys, It was awesome to hear from all of you guys! It made my day! As the title says, Tremonton is just purely awesome! The people here are super kind, open and the best part is that when people turn you down, they do it gently! It's extremely awesome for me to be able to say that I had no doors slammed in my face! 

Elder Scott is from Irbid, Jordan and has been to Wadi Rum, Petra, Amman and the other touristy sites. He moved to Richmond, Virginia when he was 11 years old then his parents divorced (his mom is British and father is Jordanian). When he was 17 years old, he then moved to Coolidge, Arizona. He was in Corey Hansen's ward! How crazy is that?! Small world... This transfer is Scott's last transfer, meaning that he will go home in 5 weeks. All of this means that I will get a NEW companion at the end of the transfer.. This is too crazy! I know Scott's name is not Jordanian. It's because he changed it. He told me his name! He has a really long name. I can only tell you one name and it's Muhammad. He was baptized at the age of 17 and he is 22 years old now. 

Because Elder Scott is from the Middle East and I lived in the Middle East, we call ourselves the Two Arabs of Tremonton! There is another Arab but he's from the US. He lived in Dubai for 11 years and his name is Elder Prince. He is a really cool guy. Scott can speak Arabic fluently and Prince and I can't speak a lick of Arabic. All I can say is Salam Alaykum (which means hello is Saudi Arabic).

Some of you are wanting more information on the iPad situation! The mission office put so many restrictions to the extent that I'm tempted to jailbreak it so I can have some freedom. The downside of that is that they will find out easily because they track literally EVERYTHING we do on it. Every picture, letter we type in, EVERYTHING! It's crazy. We don't have Safari on our iPad, we use a special monitored website. It's like they don't even trust us.. We have the Area Book and it's all in a database back in Church Headquarters. When you transfer into a new area, you just sync up the area book then the database will know to save all of the info on your old area book and sync on the area book for the new area book you are in. Every missionary in the mission has their own iPad so we don't have to leave behind our iPads back in the house when we transfer out, like we do with phones. One of my favorite things about the iPads is the videos we have on it. We use the app called Gospel Library 3 and it has a ton of videos so we download them and show them to people. Scott and I found a fantastic video about Jesus Christ and how He can help us in our lives. After dinner appointments, we show it to them then Scott shares his conversion story then I talk about my deafness and how Jesus Christ helped me get through the ordeals that you go through while being deaf. Every time we do this, the Spirit is SO strong and the family starts crying. People really begin to appreciate what Jesus Christ has done for us and as a result, they become closer to Jesus Christ! Boom, that signifies to Scott and I that we successfully completed our purpose as a missionary for those family. Our purpose as a missionary is basically, in my terms, help others become closer to Jesus Christ. Alright, some of you guys really like how I do my letters as a journal, I'll keep doing it! :)

Day 1 - We had our Zone Study that day. Zone Study is pretty much where you set goals together as a companionship, district and as a zone. Scott and I talked about each investigators and we have 3 people who are going to get baptized and 9 people who are pretty close to baptism so we set a goal of 5 baptisms for the transfer. It's going to require dedication to achieve it but with the way things are going in the area, I think Scott and I can achieve it! Our entire zone set up a goal of 21 baptisms.  

After doing zone study, I have been going around and introducing Scott to the influential members, ward mission leaders, and bishops. All of the bishops are really excited to meet Scott and they all love him. He's a fantastic missionary and I'm happy to be his companion!
My favorite thing to do in front of other people is to say Salam Alaykum to Scott and he replies in Arabic. After finishing the super short conversation, we look over to this people we were talking to and pretty much every single time, they are left in an awe. They then usually ask us if we know how to make bombs. The question gets old fast but I can't make a joke about it because it can be a tad sensitive subject to others. There is a time and a place for those kind of the jokes. 

Day 2 - Scott and I taught Sister Brown the Plan of Salvation with an emphasis on faith in Jesus Christ and the fellowship family pitched in with a lot of personal stories and it was AWESOME! The Spirit was so strong and she loved the lesson. 

We also got to teach Tristan Hart and Scott and I had no idea what to teach. We went in and Tristan showed us his emergency kit and it was a HUGE kit. It turns out that he loves conspiracies. We then read Moroni 9 together and taught him about being prepared spiritually! It was a really cool lesson to teach!

Day 3 - General Conference baby! We were going to down to Pleasant View to catch the Front Runner to Salt Lake and we missed so I had to floor the car (don't worry, i only went 8 mph above the speed limit!) on the highway to try to catch the Front Runner in Clearfield. We missed it by a minute! We could see it going off. We had to call one of the members that is going to Salt Lake and ask them to pick us up because we can't take our car outside of the mission. :( 

Because of the craziness that has been going on, we missed the first Saturday morning session so we sat in the Tabernacle and watched the first session but I was really distracted because they also showed the ASL part and I was trying to understand it. I really did forget a lot of ASL. :( 

As Scott and I were heading to the Conference Center package drop off room (we can't bring in backpacks into conference center), I saw Kaeli and Adri walk towards me and I was STUNNED! I couldn't believe it! It was so awesome to see them! It made my day!

Day 4 - We drove down to Ogden so the APs can drive us down to Salt Lake. We made it in the nick of time and it was so awesome to get to know the APs, they are such awesome people! 

Elder Pitcher (one of the elders in the zone) wants me to hurry so we can go play basketball in Brigham City so i have to hurry up a little bit!

We went to the Sunday morning and afternoon. Because this is Scott's last GC during his mission, he got plaza tickets so we got to sit up super close to the front! It was SO awesome! I had a balcony ticket and Scott had the plaza ticket so we went down to the plaza and one of the ushers stopped me and told me that I had to go up to the balcony. Because I REALLY wanted to sit up close, I played the companion rule card. I told her I HAVE to be with my companion at ALL times. It's a CHURCH rule! She then let me past and it was so awesome.
The coolest thing is that after GC, the Apostles and First Presidency were walking back to the side door, they were waving at us and since we were so close, Henry B. Eyring and I made eye contact and I smiled, then HE SMILED! :D

Day 5 - This day marked my second month that I have been out on my mission! holy crap, has it been that fast! We have been following up on the 21 referrals that we got from the bishops and we got to see Jaxson Egli (a 9 years old kid) and do his baptismal interview! Guess what?! He passed so he will be baptized on this Saturday! I am so excited! 

I love you guys and stay safe! I hope you like the email! Have a great week! I love and miss you all! Love, Elder McGrath