A great week

Familia! What a great week this has been! I love my mission so much.

This past Saturday, I was able to attend the Logan, Utah Temple with the Jackson family for their endowment and sealing. Oh, man.. It was an incredible experience. Elder Freitag and I were there as well as the first two missionaries that taught them. We were talking to those first two missionaries and they told us about how Brother Jackson was not interested at all and he would always fall asleep in the lessons. They would go over there every single day at 6pm. They did this for two months and they told us that in one lesson, he completely changed. His desire changed. His mentality changed. He wants to get back active but didn't really put the effort into it. The Lord helped him. The Holy Ghost converted Brother Jackson and that alone changed his life. 

They could not believe that he got re-activated and now, sealed to his family for all time and eternity. It is incredible about how far he has came. I am so grateful to be a part of it. The Jackson family is so amazing.

The biggest thing that I will take away from this amazing experience is seeing the family get sealed in the sealing room. The Spirit was SO strong. Brother and Sister Jackson was so happy. You can see the light bursting from their eyes and it was incredible. After they got sealed, they sat back down and they were so delighted. All of the sudden, their three old son, Aaron, ran up to them. It was so adorable and all three of them sat down on the altar and Aaron got sealed to them. Nikki Jackson was not able to get sealed because of his biological mother (who is Jehovah's Witness). She didn't grant permission. 

While Brother, Sister and Aaron Jackson were on the altar, the Spirit was much more stronger. The Spirit was bouncing off the walls and it was incredible. I will never forget this experience. It was incredible. I cannot wait for my turn to be able to get sealed to my future wife in the Temple. I know that families can be together forever, even after we die. 

Last night, we had an incredible lesson with the Jackson family. We read Alma 29:9-10 with them. We specifically asked Brother Jackson about this scripture and what it meant to them. After that, Brother Jackson told us his entire story about his conversion and how the Temple is the closest he has got to Heaven. He will be attending the Temple every Saturday morning to do the work for the dead. 

After that, we talked a lot about how there is a lot of people out there that don't have this privilege of being able to have the blessings of the Gospel in their lives. This is the reason why we are commanded by Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20) to bring His Gospel to all those around us. At the end of the lesson, he committed to bearing his testimony about the temple and missionary work, also committed to start doing Family History and talk to his friends about the Gospel. 

This is my favorite part about missionary work. Seeing other people become converted unto the Lord. That is what makes all the hard times worth it. This is why I love my mission so much. I have taught many many people and some of them became converted. It is amazing to see them change for the better and lead better lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

The Hillcrest 2nd ward is very concerned about MahRyan and what happened to her. We told them what happened and a lot of people are trying to help her out. The Bishop assigned her Sunday School teachers (they are really good friends with MahRyan) to visit her. Please pray for her that she will be able to start meeting with us and meet her baptismal goal of November 22nd.

So, last Sunday, the Utah Ogden Mission had the Musical Fireside that they held at the Logan Tabernacle. We invited so many people to come and we had our Senior Couple Missionaries (senior couples that is assigned to serve alongside full-time missionaries in the stake they reside in) invited so many people. I am SO happy to report that there was a BIG turnout at the musical fireside. The tabernacle was completely packed. Elder and Sister Murphy (of the Logan East stake) had a NONMEMBER family of 5 come with them. Elder and Sister Murphy said that they should be ready to be taught by next week. I am so PUMPED to start teaching them and help them get on the road to the Temple. 

And guess what, Cherry and Frank Lui came to the fireside. Before that, we had a sick lesson with them. We talked about the last half of the Plan of Salvation and she said that "this all makes sense. I can see a purpose in my life now!"! :D She and Frank is progressing quite well. They are attending Church every single week and they are feeling the Spirit. 

I truly love my mission so much. I love being a missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and what He has done for each one of us. I know that He is our Savior and Redeemer. With His Atonement, we can become clean and prepare to return to live with our loving Father in Heaven and our family for all eternity. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness that it brings by obedience to the principles and ordinances of the Gospel. 

I love you all and have a wonderful week. Stay strong and close to the Lord. :) Love, Elder McGrath

Great week in Logan

Hey everyone, It has been a wonderful week in Logan. It has been a roller coaster
ride and it was indeed crazy!! I am loving my mission!

This week was a little tougher than usual.

First off, we met with Mahryan and she told us that she wants to be baptized. We taught an amazing lesson and invited her to be baptized. She accepted a baptismal date of November 22 and she was willing to work towards that goal. She was very solid then last night, all of the sudden, when we were out finding people to teach, her friends (Mahryan's fellowshipper) texted us and told us that Mahryan wants to cancel taking the lessons right now. This means that we lost the date and Mahryan. We tried calling her friends to see what happened. They haven't responded yet but I have no idea what happened. I thought we were doing a really good job with her. Crazy..

We almost hit the Standard of Excellence (only 1/8 of the mission hits it a week) but we didn't hit the amount required for baptismal dates. Other than that, we exceeded all of them, even with some of them, it was over double. So number-wise, we are doing really good.

Also, the Jackson family will be going to the Temple this Saturday. I am soooo pumped about that. I have been temple-sick and I am super stoked for it. It will be so awesome! Brother and Sister Jackson will be getting endowed and sealed in the Logan temple and it will be great. They came so far and I am super glad to be a part of their journey, even though it was for a few months.

Elder Freitag and I had a sick lesson with Cherry and her son, Frank. We talked a lot about God and who He is. Cherry and Frank have no idea who God is before they came to Utah. A lot of things we talked about helped her understand what a God is and why He is our loving Heavenly Father. It was pretty amazing to see the light in their eyes when their minds click on the idea of a loving Heavenly Father. It was pretty amazing. The WML of that ward told us to not to invite them to be baptized and I was super tempted to invite but we needed to keep that member trust, especially if it is a WML (Ward Mission Leader).

Janey is coming along quite well. We had a great lesson with her but she has a hard time understanding English. She told us that she wants to take the lesson in Cantonese to help her understand better. Good thing we cover the Chinese group. We found a couple guys that are Cantonese speakers and they will help us translate. It will be a neat experience to see what happens. I am excited!

Things are going pretty good this week. I am super excited for the temple. I love the temple so much. I know that it is the House of the Lord. It is really His house. I am so grateful to be able to have a temple recommend. :) I love you all and stay strong! Have a wonderful week.  Love, Elder McGrath

An awesome week

Hey guys! I had an awesome week! I love being a missionary so so much! I love seeing all of the blessings that comes from the Lord. Blessings are way better than anything. Obedience brings blessings! Be obedient in all of your doing!

So, Paul didn't come to church this past Sunday and the baptismal date was dropped. We decided to drop him for a couple weeks so he can realize how the gospel affects his life. We are praying for him and having faith in the Lord that He will help Paul realize the importance of the gospel.

Since Paul's date was dropped, it was very disappointing. We have nobody on date and things were going tough. Elder Freitag and I decided to fast. We decided to fast for miracles. We needed them...
Badly... 

Sunday afternoon came by, we left the last sacrament meeting we were in and we were heading to a weekly appointment we have with each WML. We visited with Brother Jacobson of the Hillcrest 2nd ward and he told us that last Sunday, there was this girl, Mahryan (She expressed no interest in meeting with us a few weeks ago), and she went up to the Bishop, asking what she needs to do to be able to enter the waters of baptism. The Bishop told her to meet with us and we will be meeting with her tomorrow at 8pm. She even said that she wants to be baptized before January 2015 so we will be inviting her to be baptized on November 15th! I am SO excited!!!!
 
Tonight, we have two first lessons! The first one is with Cherry Lui and her 9 years old son, Frank Lui. They want to meet with us and learn about the Church. They both are from Wuhan, China! They are studs. I cannot wait to meet with them. Elder Freitag and I will be meeting with them tonight and we will be inviting them to be baptized! I have a great feeling that they will accept a baptismal date! :)

Tonight, we are also meeting with Janey and she expressed a great desire in the Church. We texted her and she wants to meet twice a week. She has a great friend in the ward and he actually happens to be the leader of the Chinese Group. His name is Brother Watterson and he speaks perfect Mandarin Chinese! He served a mission in Taiwan and his father was a Mission President in Taiwan! He will be an awesome fellowshipper!

Everything is going super well. I am so glad that miracles happened. I KNOW that it all began with faith. Elder Freitag and I had faith in the Lord that He will bring miracles. We demonstrated our faith by going without food and water for two meals. I testify that He did bring miracles. I know that this great work of salvation is real. I encourage you all to share the gospel with your friends. You will not
regret it. You will rejoice when they choose to accept the gospel and decide to make covenants with our loving Father in Heaven.

I love you all and have a wonderful week! Stay strong! :)  Love, Elder McGrath

Hello from Logan

Hola familia! It was an amazing week! I love being a missionary so much! It is so awesome! This past week was the last week of the transfer. Wha?! This transfer has gone by so fast. It is so crazy! Where is the time?! 

So, I am staying with Elder Freitag! He is going District Leader and I am helping him out with his new responsibility. I am guessing that I am doing well on my special assignment. I am looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me! I am pumped! 

SO! GOOD NEWS! We finally got something going again with Paul. He is now on date for October 25th! Oh, I am so excited for him! It turns out that he lost his kids (meaning that he can't see them anymore) and because of that, he is very sad about that. We came over yesterday afternoon and we started off with a prayer. After that prayer, the Spirit just took over. It is the most spiritual lesson I have ever had on my mission. Everything I studied in Personal Study that morning, I used in that lesson. We talked a LOT about Faith. I learned that morning that Faith has three degrees: hope or belief, action and power. Faith starts with hope or belief that something will happen/is there and we act of that faith. We see much power that comes from faith (for example, fasting/prayer). I shared that with Paul and he loved it! We emphasized faith in Jesus Christ and we used the Mormon Message, "Mountains to Climb" to show the example of faith in Jesus Christ. We invited him to act on his faith by being baptized. He accepted October 25th as his baptismal date. He has a huge desire to show his faith. We will be going to church with him! I am SO happy that the Spirit took over. I am so grateful for the Spirit. It has helped me so much on my mission. Please keep him in your prayers! He is doing super well! 

Mahryan and Brandy are not interested at this point but they are going to church every week. They can literally get baptized this Saturday. But they are not wanting to meet with us. We are keeping them in our prayers.

So, last week, I told  you about London's friend and how she is a German-speaking Chinese girl. Well, we got to meet with her last Sunday. Her name is Jaime and she is a STUD! Also, she is a super genius. She went to the top prestigious university in Germany and she is now studying here at USU. She is really cool. We had a really short lesson with her because we had the lesson at the church and it was right before sacrament meeting so we just walked down the hall to go to sacrament meeting with her and her friends. It was awesome. She said that she felt the Spirit and wants to come back. In our next lesson, we will definitely put her on date. I am so happy about that. 

Also, we have a first lesson TONIGHT with a man (Darion) who plays starting wide receiver for USU football and his fiance, CeCe. They both are Pentecostal and they are from Florida. CeCe requested to meet with us and they are so awesome. We gave CeCe a copy of the Book of Mormon in our first door contact and she told us that she read some of it. They can be very solid investigators who will get sealed in the temple! I have much faith in Heavenly Father that he will help! 

Nikki Jackson and his family is still going STRONG! WOOT! They are still planning on being sealed in the Logan Temple on November 1st and I am so excited to witness the entire thing. It will be so amazing. I love the Temple so much! 

Also, one last thing, I gave a talk in the ASL branch last Sunday! It was so cool and because I suck with my ASL skills, I had a translator up with me and she translated for me. It was so cool. I can now say that I gave a talk in the ASL branch (and leave the translator part out. ;) ). 

Elder Freitag and I had an awesome week and I am looking forward to a even more awesome week this week! Thank you all for the letters and stay strong! Love you all! Love, Elder McGrath

An amazing week

Hey guys, Thank you so much for the awesome emails. It was so awesome to be able to be updated about things happening at home! This past week has been absolutely amazing! I have seen so many miracles happen this week! This week also has been a roller coaster too! 

First things first, Meet the Mormons! It was an AMAZING movie. All of the missionaries in the Utah Ogden mission was able to watch the movie. It is only a hour and half and it provides an amazing opportunity for all of us to do missionary work. We can bring our nonmember and/or less-active friends to the movie with us. Meet the Mormons features six different individuals from all different walkways of life. There is: The Bishop, The Fighter, The Humanitarian, The Candy Bomber, The Coach AND the missionary mom. It is AMAZING! It is a very awesome movie and it was well made. I highly recommend it! 

Also, General Conference was this past weekend. It was AMAZING! I love being to hear the Lord's prophet and apostles speak to all of us. I know that the talks that was given was inspired of God. I LOVED Jörg Klebingat, Robbins, Quentin L. Cook (Priesthood session), Uchtdorf, and last of all, Bednar! Their talks were absolutely amazing, especially President Uchtdorf. Remember, "Lord, is it I?" All of us have our indifferences and we can't overlook ours while "judging" others. I also loved Elder Robbin's talk about which way are we facing. We need to be facing towards God at all times. He is our Eternal Father and He loves us so much. He desires for us to be have pure happiness in our lives and He has provided a way for us to do that and that is through the Gospel. 

I pray that all of us will be able to apply principles that we have learned during General Conference into our lives. I know that if we apply the Lord's advice into our lives, we will be blessed and become more Christ-like. 

Something has happened with Paul and I don't know what happened. He was a golden investigator and all of sudden, he started not talking to us anymore, appointments have been falling through and we had amazing tickets for General Conference and guess what, he bailed out! :( Please pray for him! 

Despite of that hardship, many miracles has happened so that is why I love being a missionary. I know that no matter what difficulties happens, I will be blessed if I get through the hardship. Same principle applies to everyone. We all will face hardships in our lives and if we endure to the end, we will grow and become better. Hebrews 12:4-9 - God gives us trials because we are His children.  He gives us trials because He loves us and wants us to gain experience. Remember Elder Bednar's talk in April 2014 talk about the load. 

We found a family who tried to get their son, Constantine, baptized when he was 8. He turned 9 last July and we are going to start teaching him tomorrow night. Please pray for him. I hope everything turns out awesome.

We also found a 15 years old girl named Miya Autry. She is a freshman at Logan High and she plays on the volleyball team. Her parents are less-active and her father is kinda anti. She wants to start meeting with us and since her father wouldn't let us inside the house, we found a really good friend of Miya who would be able to have the lessons at her house. :) AMAZING! 

We also started to get to know Cherry Lui. She is from Wuhan, China and he has a 9 years old son. They both are so awesome. We taught her two weeks ago in Gospel Principles and gave her a Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet. When we went over to watch the Sunday morning session of General Conference with her and this amazing member family, the Larsen family, she told us that she read the entire pamphlet and is now reading the Book of Mormon. We talked to the Larsen family yesterday and they said that they think that Cherry will finally accept the offer of taking the missionary discussions this week. We hope to get a first lesson with her and invite her and her son to be baptized. ALSO, she loved the talk where the speaker talked about baptism. It was awesome hearing that! 

We FINALLY were able to talk to Mahryan and her mother, Brandy, and they said that they are "too busy" to start meeting with us but they will be going to church. This Sunday, they will be going to church for their 3rd time in a row. Maybe, we might be able to start having the lessons right after church or something. Please pray for Mahryan. 

The Shira family in the Hillcrest 1st ward in the Logan East stake invited their nonmember friend, LeAnna, to watch General Conference with the family and she went! The Shira family told us that LeAnna has a lot of questions and is kinda interested in learning more. We are hoping to contact LeAnna and start building a relationship of trust and friendship with her so we can start teaching her and get her on the road to the Temple through baptism! :) 

We ALSO have another nonmember who is kinda interested. His name is Quinn Griffith. He went and watched all of the Sunday sessions with an awesome member family. Quinn and the member family are doing lunch next Wednesday (not tomorrow, the next one) and the member family says that he is pretty interested and they will invite him to meet with the missionaries. Please pray for Quinn!

As you can see, the work is HASTENING over here. That is why I love being a missionary. I love seeing the fruits of my hard work. Elder Freitag is an awesome companion and he never complains. We work super hard and we are always arriving home, super tired. We are talking to everyone, asking everyone for referrals and sharing the gospel with everyone we see. I love being a missionary so much! Everyday is just glorious! :) 

I love you all and stay strong! You can do hard things! :) The church is true! Love, Elder McGrath

Our sick car.

An amazing week in Logan

This has been an awesome week to be a missionary! I love being a missionary so much. Every day has been so awesome! First off, thank you so much for the prayers. I really appreciate them. I can see the effects. Thank you.

Paul is progressing extremely well! We had two amazing lessons with him and he is so ready to be baptized on October 18. He went to church and he even took his two kids with him. He is reading his scriptures and praying every night. I am marveled by his progression but I know that the Lord has a hand in it. Paul has been learning everything through the Holy Ghost.

Last Saturday, Nikki Jackson was able to be baptized by his father, Ron Jackson. It was an amazing baptismal service and Nikki bore amazing testimony at the end of his baptismal service. I love being able to see people, like Nikki, follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God.

Today, Elder Sutton and I was able to travel to Tremonton and visit some of the recent converts that I have taught in my first area. I served in the Tremonton West stake for my first six months of my mission. I was able to see a lot of people and wow, a lot of people really missed me. One of my investigators that I taught was really happy to see me. He really opened up and told me all of the drama that was happening in his life and I was able to provide some tips but it was really good.

Some of my other recent converts are doing fantastic! I have a family (the Hall family) that is getting sealed in the Brigham City Temple this February and the Cefalo family getting sealed in the Salt Lake
City temple in February as well. Nikki Jackson's parents are getting sealed in the Logan temple this upcoming November. All of these recent converts is taking temple prep classes.

The biggest joy I have seen today while visiting some of my recent converts was that Robert Hall and his wife have finished The Book of Mormon many times and is on 3 Nephi. Also, I found out today that Robert has baptized his 8 years old son a couple months ago. What a joy to see people that is still progressing. They are going to the temple shortly and I cannot wait to rejoice with them in a few months.

We have a ton of potentials in this area and a lot of things are panning out. There is this Chinese girl named Cherry Lui and she has been going to church for the past 2 weeks with this family, the Larsens. The Larsen family is so awesome. They are very missionary minded. They invited Cherry to come over and watch General Conference with them. They even asked if we can come and she was more than happy to allow us to come watch with her and the Larsens. It is so awesome!

Last Sunday, we had three people come up to us and tell us about their nonmember friend that is becoming pretty interested and will be watching General Conference with them. They all think that their friends will be interested in learning more about the Church and becoming baptized! I have a great feeling about October I think the work will explode! It will be an amazing month. We already have a baptism lined up and a ton of nonmembers who are interested. I think we will have a lot of baptisms for the end of October and November. I am so excited!

I love Logan so much. It is such a great place to do missionary work. I love being a missionary so much. I really enjoy every moment I have here. Stay strong and I love you all so much! Have an awesome week! Love, Elder McGrath

I love my mission so much

Hola mi familia! Thank you so much for all of the emails. It was so awesome to read about how everything is going back at home in Saudi Arabia! I still remember the craziness of Saudi National Day! The citizens of KSA are absolutely nuts when it comes to celebrating the creation of the nation!

This week in Logan has been so awesome! We had some lessons fall through as usual but we had some pretty awesome miracles. Thank you all so much for the prayers. It really helped! 

Do you guys remember about that investigator that fell off the face of the earth, Paul? Guess what, we finally found him! It turns out that he just lost his phone and he found it in the Lost and Found that morning when we saw him. We had to ask a member to let us into the USU dorms so we can knock on his door and see what's up. College dorms are absolutely crazy! USU is so crazy! Some of the students are crazy cool and it was so good to see Paul!

This morning for P-day, the zone had a basketball activity and my companion and I invited Paul to come and guess what?! HE CAME! We got to play basketball for like 3 hours and it was so much fun. Paul can ball! He is really good!

This Saturday, I will be having my first blacktism (I am not trying to be racist but that is what the mission calls it when black people get baptized; a blacktism.). Nikki Jackson will be getting baptized by his father, Ron, this Saturday! On November 1st, the Jackson family will be sealed in the Logan temple for all time and eternity! I am so excited to be able to go with Ron and his wife to be endowed and witness the family be sealed. I am so excited to go back inside the temple. President Hiers made this rule a few months ago: we are not allowed to go to the temple but in order to go, we have to take a recent convert. I am not a big fan of this rule but it really helps us have that motivation to bring our recent converts to the temple. I haven't been to the temple in a few months (last time I went, we were going with the Loftus family to be endowed and sealed) and I am temple-sick. Wait, let me "re-write" that.  I am SO temple-sick, my apartment is literally almost FIVE BLOCKS away from the temple!!!!! I love temples so much!!!!

Speaking of temples, the Ogden Utah temple got dedicated last Sunday and it was so, SO amazing! I was able to go to a couple sessions. Jeffrey R. Holland, David A. Bednar and  Henry B. Eyring spoke and they talked about temples. Henry B. Eyring shared a personal story and he was crying. That story hit me in the heart. It was so amazing! personally LOVED David A. Bednar's talk! He talked about temples and that as the things of this world are quickly tearing families APART, the temple is strongly sealing families TOGETHER by the power and authority of the priesthood. Second, as the world is struggling in constant confusion, in the temple we are able to gain knowledge and wisdom about so many different things. We are also able to feel the Spirit so strong in the temple. We can feel His love for us so strongly in the temple. I know that the temple is the house of the Lord. It is really HIS house. What a wonderful opportunity AND privilege we all have to be able to go in and make covenants with our loving Father in Heaven. Oh, how much I love temples.

Elder Freitag and I are currently working with Aaron Marez and that guy is a stud. He totally looks like wolverine. He even has the facial hair and hairstyle. We have a lesson with him tomorrow and I hope that I will be able to take a picture of him. We talked a little bit about the movies and man, Aaron is a huge fan. He is awesome! He is a nonmember that has met with missionaries before but the issue with Law of Chastity held him back from being able to get baptized. Good news is that he is finally getting married to his fiancee whom he has been living with for the past year THIS SATURDAY!!! Aaron does want to be baptized and I am hoping that Satan will not interfere with this. So please, pray for Aaron Marez (pronounced Ma - rez). 

Also please pray for the following people, they really need your prayers:

Gay Burge

Miya Autry (she REALLY wants to be baptized but her father, Cory, is the ONLY one that is stopping her from being able to get baptized! :() 

Aaron Marez

Paul Warren

Nikki Jackson

Ron Jackson

Lyndsay Jackson

Dan Hall

Marc Leager

Mudrow (pronounced Mu-dro) family

CJ Pink

Amber Lui

Renae Zhou

Tiger (yes, that is a real name) 

Tiffany Jones

Ryan Jones

Taylor Baysinger

Sister Bigelow (pronounced Big-a-low) 

Mahryan (pronounced Ma-rya)

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! I love you all so so much! You all are so awesome. Thank you so much for all you do for me. Have an awesome week and stay strong. You can do hard things! I love you all! Love, Elder McGrath