Utah is COLD

Tremonton is awesome! I love the members here because they feed us too much food but the good thing is that Zarse is a vegetarian so he requests a least some servings of vegetables/fruit with each meal. His plate never include anything associated with meat/pork, it's just all vegetables/fruit. Because of him, I have been eating A LOT more vegetables and fruits. I'm beginning to like peaches. I had a couple servings of peach pie topped with whipped cream. It was crazy delicious! 

Day 1 - I did exchanges with Elder Marasca who is from Brazil! He's crazy cool and an amazing missionary. I loved teaching with him. After hours, we were talking about Brazil and Saudi Arabia and how the cultures are different compared to America. 

I was in Marasca's area and we had a dinner appointment with his Stake President. It was a blast because he's not an uptight, weird president. He was really cool and told a lot of hilarious stories from his childhood. I had a great time eating dinner with him!

After visiting the Stake President, we went to a lady's house and we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can become closer to Jesus Christ. The Spirit was super strong in there to the extent that the investigator was crying! We set up a baptismal date with her and she accepted without giving any thought! We were stunned by how fast she accepted the invitation. A lot of people just hesitate then accept. This experience really strengthened my testimony of the Holy Ghost and how it can testify to the people that we teach. It was a really awesome experience!

That very same day was Elder Marasca's pantiversary. I don't know what they do in other missions but every six months in the Utah Ogden mission, the person burns an article of clothing. Six months in, you burn a tie. A year in, you burn a shirt. 18 months in, you burn paints then right before you go home, you burn a suit! Basically, we call 6 month mark, tieversary and so on.. I think you can figure out how we name the event now. It was awesome and I took some pictures of Marasca's pantiversary. You can see his pants being burned in the pictures. It's awesome.

After having a great day, I bumped my head into a sign post! I know, it's embarrassing. ;). Upon reaching Marasca's home, we got out talking and Marasca asked me if I need help bringing my stuff in. I declined and turned out and bam, I hit my forehead on a sign post that was right behind me. I didn't even see it! Right after that happened and I felt blood streaming down my face, we got back in the car and went straight the hospital. The doctor said that I got really lucky that I didn't need any stitches. He just glued it up and waived the fee. 

Day 2 - I had my second exchange in the row on this day but it was with one of my ZLs. His name is Elder Thorn and he is from Michigan. He's 6'6" so he's pretty tall and he played HS basketball. He's really cool. He is serving in Brigham City so I got to travel there. Brigham City is AWESOME! His area is right by the Brigham City temple so you can always see it. It was awesome. 

We got to teach a 18 years old kid who got into a horrible car accident. He's in a wheelchair so we taught him about the Atonement and how Jesus Christ knows how he feels (Alma 7). He really liked it and wanted us to keep coming over. It was awesome hearing how he enjoyed our lesson.

After teaching the kid in the wheelchair, we got to see a guy who needed to be taught one more lesson in order to be baptized and he was ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS. It took us almost 3 hours to answer his questions and to teach him. It was a good thing that he was a cool guy so I enjoyed teaching him. 

Day 3 - After taking our shower and doing Personal Study, the electricity went out meaning that nothing worked! We both were starving so we took some stuff to the Stake Center and cooked there and did our Comp study. It was nice having something different in the morning. It was awesome! 

We got to teach Jessica (the manly female) the Plan of Salvation. After teaching her and answering her questions about how life sucks for her and why Heavenly Father put her on Earth with all of her challenges. I felt the Spirit when I was answering her questions on why we have challenges and used my deafness to connect with her. I think she felt it because she then had a smile and wants to get baptized! Woot!  The Gospel is changing her life! It's awesome! Other than teaching Jessica, it was a slow day! :(

Day 4 - KRAMER GOT BAPTIZED! It was awesome seeing Kramer get baptized. I had no idea how to prepare for a baptism so Zarse taught me how to do everything but he forgot to make sure that the baptismal font is being filled with water (it takes 2 hours to fill up the font to an appropriate level). Oops. 

After seeing Kramer get baptized, we got to go visit the Broamas family. They have quite an unique background. They are an old couple but the father is Presbyterian and his wife died a long time ago. Right before his wife died, they both made a promise not to change religion so they can be together in the after-life. The woman is LDS and his husband died a long time ago but she's really old and can't go to church. She requested the Church to bring her sacrament and they haven't been doing that. We had to talk to the bishop and make sure he understands the situation. We got to teach the Broasmas about the Book of Mormon and taught them how it is important to us and how we can gain a spiritual witness.

Our stake (Tremonton West Stake) had a stake-wide hoedown. We got to participate and we contacted a lot of people and got some referrals. We also got to talk with the members and increase our bond which is always a good thing! :) 

Day 5 - I gave two (yes, two) talks that day in two different wards. It was on being truly converted. I just used Elder David A. Bednar's talk on being converted unto the Lord (It's AMAZING! Read it, if you haven't yet). A lot of people came up to us after sacrament meeting and told Zarse and I that we did an incredible job and inspired them to align themselves with our loving Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and their teachings. It was awesome being able to be a positive influence as a missionary. 

We got to go up and do some contacting up in Marble Hills. Marble Hills is a place on top of the mountains and you can see all of Tremonton and most of Brigham City. You can even see the temple in Brigham City! It was crazy awesome... and cold. It was in the 50s and it was really windy. I was super cold and Zarse was laughing on how cold I was. He said that he is excited for me to experience Utah winter. Really? I'm not looking forward to the cold! ;)  

We got to see Wes and Shelby Hamm. Wes is in the Army and did a tour. He was stationed in Kuwait so Wes and I talked about the Middle East and how it is alike. It was shocking to hear that it's pretty much the same. We both talked about Saudi/Kuwait for about a half hour while Zarse was standing there bored (he had no idea what the Middle East is like). I love being able to connect with people and just talk about stuff we both have in common with. It's the best way to get people to trust us and want us to come back teach them the gospel. 

Day 6 - We got to see Dixon Silva who is Brazilian which is really cool! He is leaving behind his family because of financial reasons. He is having a hard time finding a job here in America so he doesn't have to rely on his wife for money. He wants to help fund the family's needs. He is a really good guy! We taught him about prayer and how he should ask Heavenly Father if what he wants to do is right. We also taught him about the Holy Ghost and how he can find the answer to his prayers through the Holy Ghost.  

One of our WMLs had us come over and begin teaching this part member family and we basically did How to Begin Teaching part in PMG and taught them our purpose and what our goals so we can set expectations for each visit. It's to help them know why we are here. It was awesome. They felt the genuine love that we had for them so they gave us a bunch of cereal boxes because the father works for the cereal factory and can take home three boxes after each shift. We have too much cereal. I'm not complaining.. 

We got to do refresher course with Mica Glover to help her prepare for the baptismal interview for this week. She is ready! If the interview goes well, which it will, she will get baptized on Sunday afternoon because her aunt is getting married on Saturday. We wanted to do the baptism as soon as possible so Sunday Afternoon is the best day for her. 

It's a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden mission, even though it's getting too cold! ;). I love reading all of your emails so keep them coming! I love you all and have a good week! -Elder McGrath