Two awesome baptisms

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the emails that you have sent me. It was a joy reading them! It is so nice to hear about the things happening at home. I want to make a shout-out to my Dad who will be working in SAUDI ARAMCO! Woot woot! He is a stud because Saudi Aramco is a very prestigious company and very difficult to get into but my awesome Dad did it. 

So this week was absolutely amazing. Many miracles happened. :) Ethan and Gage Cefalo got baptized! :D It was an amazing baptismal service. I was able to give a talk on the Holy Ghost, be a witness and do a missionary presentation. It was so much fun. I love being able to teach everyone at once about the Holy Ghost as well as the Restoration. I love being a missionary. When Ethan got baptized and when he came up, out of the water, he flashed two thumbs up and he had a huge smile on his face. It was so wide. It was so awesome. Ethan is so funny. He makes me laugh a lot. haha.

So, an awesome thing happened. Last Sunday, when we went over to teach Lesson 5 to them about Priesthood and temples. They told us that they already set an appointment up to talk to the bishop. Gage (who is age 12) is getting the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday and Brother and Sister Cefalo is meeting with the bishop this Sunday to see what they need to do to get sealed to each other in the temple. We are also taking Gage and Kaitlyn (older sister but she went LA but she is active now. :) ) to do baptisms for the dead in a few weeks. I AM SO EXCITED! I love it when I see a family progress and they will soon be an eternal family. I love the gospel. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And I love temples so much. Through temples, families can be together forever. 

So, Elder Simbeck and I had a sick lesson with the Detar family. We taught the Plan of Salvation and that answered ALL of the twins' questions. I was able to utilize the Stay Posi training I received from the AP's (point out their progression. ask positive questions. help them see the growth in them) and it went amazing. I reinvited them to be baptized and they said yes. I set a date for June 21st and they said yes. BUT the mother said, "Hold on.." then she went on explaining that the twin girls barely know anything about the gospel. After she finished, I pulled out my scriptures and turned to Acts 2, the part where the Peter and the apostles are talking to the people and one of them asked, "What shall I do" and Peter responds by saying, "Repent ye and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Then, the people got baptized the same day. See, they started out not knowing very much but they had faith and they got baptized the SAME day. They were able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I then compared that to John 14:26 with how the Holy Ghost can help us learn because "he teaches us all things and bring all things to remembrance." After that, I went on explaining about how we can help them gain that basic understanding of the gospel before baptism and then, when they have the gift of the Holy Ghost, they will learn even more. I reinvited them again. They said yes and the mother again shot it down, using a different excuse this time. The girls really want to be baptized but the mother is holding them back and I HATE when that happens. That is a common problem in the Utah Ogden mission. Please pray for the Detar family (Jennifer, Renae and Erika. Jennifer is the mother.)! But it was a great lesson. I really enjoyed teaching that lesson. 

A really cool thing my companion and I learned about in Companionship Study this week was about Helaman 5:12. I also got to thinking about the rock of our Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ. I also read, 3 Nephi 11:39-40 and I also read 3 Nephi 18:12-13. This was during Personal Study over the span of three days. It talks about the doctrine of Christ being our rock, not just Jesus Christ. If  you want more information, read this. It was just something cool that my companion and I have learned in the past week during comp study.

I love you and stay strong! Have a wonderful week! :) Love, Elder McGrath