Thanksgiving (And THE GIFT)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been so amazing. Last Friday we had a cone training in Rio Rancho with Elder Corbridge from the first quorum of the 70! How cool is that? it was a very powerful meeting and I learned a lot. They even introduced THE GIFT, a Christmas Initiative that the church is doing this year and I'm SO so so excited about it. But I'll get to that in a second. The message that Elder Corbridge shared was about the things we don in life and about the opportunity costs involved. For those that don't know what that means it is that when we choose to devote our lives to something, a career, a hobby, a talent or anything we do it at the expense of everything else that we could choose to do with the time spent doing the thing we are doing. That is the cost involved. Now the question is, Is there One thing that is more important than everything else? Well we all know where I'm going with this so I'll skip the elaborations that he gave (Which were very insightful) but the truth is Yes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is more important than anything else we could do with our lives. And the best part is, there isn't ANY opportunity cost! Not only do we not have to sacrifice anything (save our sins) to devote our lives to this one thing, but we are promise that if we do then the Lord will bless us with more than we can receive. We have this opportunity of life. We are given this beautiful experience to learn and grow and the Gospel is the way that we align ourselves with the one true source of knowledge and truth. As is says in Isaiah 55:8-9 our thoughts are not the Lords. He knows and understands so much more and as we align our thoughts with his and our will with his we are able to accomplish all the things that are necessary and even desirable in our lives. He guides us in all things through the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things. That leads me to THE GIFT.

As the gospel spreads we all have an important duty to share it. This is Christmas the church is giving everyone a very simple and powerful way to do that. They are launching a Christmas Initiative this Friday that is awesome. It brings the focus of the holiday back on the true meaning of it all. Our Savior, the greatest gift this world has ever received. If you are looking for a way to make this Christmas more meaningful and memorable, I urge you to think of someone that can use this gift, our Savior and his atonement  more fully in their life and to share this message with them. I promise that it will not only brighten your spirits but you might just save a precious soul of our Father in Heaven. He is The Gift and we need to give that gift more freely now than ever before as the world around us is spiraling downward.

The miracle we had this week was found in a soul named Jonathan. This is a new investigator that we found and he is committed to be Baptized. We are working on a date, as he has a few things we need to sort out. He has such a powerful testimony of prayer and in his life about a year ago, he hit rock bottom. He didn't see a reason for hope or anything worth living for. He was arrested and needed a way out. He shared with us that as he turned his will over to the Father through out the process of the Last year he not only turned his life around, but it is going better than he could ever have imagined before. He sought us out and I am so thankful for the Lord in bringing our paths together. He truly does work miracles. I wish and pray that I could only share the power of Jonathan's testimony but mine will have to suffice. I Know that the Gospel is true and it is expressed through the simple concept of Love and Charity. As we learn to Love more fully, our natural course is to follow the principles of the gospel by helping those in need and seeking to right the wrongs we have done to those around us. If you take only one thing from this e-mail, take this: 1 Corinthians 13: 2-3(The whole chapter really) without Charity we are nothing. Take that into this season of thanksgiving and truly KNOW that Charity never faileth. The gift is very real and The Savior's love is sufficient for All men who are humble and submit to his will. That is my testimony.

I Love you all very much, and I hope you have a Fantastic Thanksgiving. Eat a lot and remember the blessings we all have. 

 

Until next week,

Elder McGarry

  Lunch at Zone Training :)

Hot air balloon in the Sunset as we walked out of Zone Training!! COOL :)

 

Beautiful skies

Dear family and friends,

First of all, every single sunset here is SO Beautiful! The pictures I post do no justice to the real beauty and richness of color but the one with the Sandies (Watermelon) Mountains and a big cloud over the top... My companion and I are pretty sure that Jack's bean stalk leads to the top of those clouds and there is a goose laying Golden Eggs! Anyway I'm so happy to have such a beautiful planet to live on. All things both great and small Testify that there is a God and when we allow our eyes to be opened we truly see the beauty in everyone and everything around us!

This week there have been some amazing things happening. We invited a couple of people to be baptized and two accepted!! Another, the guy from the military, said he's not ready or not sure yet, but he is still making progress and we are seeing a lot of growth. Our biggest miracle this week is Lisa. She was raised catholic and she and her family have always believed in God. We met her on Saturday when her cousin came down from Arizona to introduce us to her. We had the most powerful little testimony meeting in Lisa's home, and after which we shared the message of the restoration, gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read pray and find out for herself if it is true. She (And ME TOO) is sooo excited she said. I even cried, and I'm not even ashamed to admit it. She has such a powerful strong spirit and the Lord is working miracles in her and in our work. The sad part is she is not in our area like we originally though, so we are going to have a lesson today to introduce her to the sisters who are in her area. It is sad but I know that the Lord will continue to work miracles in all areas and all over the world so I am just excited to see what is next.

Faith: I have studied this each morning this week. Faith one of the most important things we can obtain. Without faith, the red sea would not have been parted. Without faith Nephi would not have been able to obtain the plates. Without faith Alma and Amulek would not have been delivered from the prison where they were spat upon and ridiculed continually. WITH faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we can obtain all that our Father in Heaven has. I love the power of Third Nephi Chapter 7:18 where the faith of Nephi is so powerful that all he had to do was Testify and the people had no power to disbelieve his words, because of the greatness of his faith. I think that this is even greater than moving a mountain by faith. How is it that we can begin to have the faith that it would require to bring such a change into the very being of another person. We all have our agency, but along with that we have the knowledge of what is true and right, as well as those things contrary to truth and right. And only by learning line upon line putting our faith in Christ and following his example can we grow to any measure of profit to him who we are eternally indebted to. He only wants us to ask, and he has faith that we will. As a closing thought on faith, the book of Hebrews explains: We understand that Faith is the very creative power used to form this world. If God didn't have faith that His word (Jesus Christ) could create the world he would not have taken the steps to even begin doing so. Faith is power and I hope that we can all continue to nourish and grow our faith no matter where we are at right now.

​ I love you all and thank you for your support and strength. I hope that as we go throughout this week we can all focus on the blessing of this life and let those manage our thoughts rather than the challenges we face. Challenges come and go, as I like to say "Circumstances never come to stay, they come to pass, and it is up to us to make the best of each and every moment." ​

 

-Elder McGarry

 

Miracle Month

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm a day late this week because of Veterans Day yesterday. While I'm on the topic I want to sincerely thank all of my friends and family who have served our country defending our freedom. In particular my Dad who has been a great strength in my life and I'm so grateful to be called his son. If any of you forgot to thank those people you know who have served in the military I urge you to take a moment to do it today. They have sacrificed more than we know to stand up for all of us and allow us to have the lives that we do.

This week has been so great! In zone conference we set a goal to make this month a Miracle Month. Our God is a God of Miracles, but we only obtain anything through faith. Anyone that understands faith knows that it requires effort. Ether 12:12. Faith is a requirement for Miracles. Throughout this chapter is states over and over that none of the scriptures would have been fulfilled without this faith. In verse 27 we all know that if we humble ourselves and come to God in faith he will make our weaknesses into strengths. The biggest thing that I took away from Zone Conference is that I can teach people and "Give them a Fish" over and over. But until we learn how to fish we will be as it says in James 1:22 "...hearers only, deceiving your own selves." We are striving to teach this to our investigators and less-actives alike and it has been very effective. I think the principle that i think of is best described by a quote I heard at the MTC "The study of doctrines will do more to change behavior than the study of behavior will ever do." I wish I knew who said it.

The work here is going SO well. We have two new investigators just from this last week! The Lord is working in the hearts of men all around us. One in particular is a young man just older than me named Manuel. He has been in the Army for four years and when he deployed to Afghanistan one of his comrades gave him a book. You'll never guess which one! (It was a Book of Mormon *in case my blonde mother needs to read through this Quickly(LOVE YOU MOM, I miss our laughs)) So he's had this book for four years. Now he is going to school and taking a world religion class where he has a final project to either write a paper on religion or investigate a religion to find out more about them. This may be taken as coincidence but I know that the Lord does work by small and simple means and those that are willing and have faith to ask are blessed. We made it very plain that we are Missionaries and as such we Will be inviting him to make commitments and exercise faith in the things that we teach him and he is progressing so well. The Lord is great and I'm so grateful to be able to be part of this great work!

I hope that all of you are doing well! I'm glad to hear that a lot of you are and thank you for your letters and your support. I look forward to this next week and can't wait to see how it turns out for all of us. Pray for Miracles exercise Faith, and the Lord promises that you will see them.

Love, 

Elder McGarry

Photos from Albuquerque

Dear Family and Freinds,

This week has been so tremendous! Where to start?

My Trainer is Elder Christenson, and guess where he's from??? LOGAN UT! He knows the Triplets from swimming. He went to Mountain Crest and his little brother is a Champion swimmer I hear. We are in the Albuquerque South Valley, Los Lunes Zone and I am in the Sage area. Our area is HUGE and we live in a house on Gun Club Road. Haha I got a big kick out of that. The mailing address is: 2015 Gun Club Rd, Albuquerque, NM 87105. We keep telling people that in Utah and area this big would have at least 8 stakes with as many wards per stake! So there are plenty of fish! As for P-Day it is on Tuesday and we are in the same time zone so I will be e-mailing from 10:00 to 11:00 or pretty close to that time every week.

My companion and I get along so well. He has only just finished training and now he is training me so we are both still learning so much but He is such a good example and he is a very hard worker. Our Ward is good. There are definitely "Clicks" that people hold onto so it's proving to be a struggle to get people to fellowship less-active and investigating individuals. But we are trying our best. The ward mission leader just got changed and actually we won't find out who the new one is until Sunday. I got the chance to bear my testimony on Sunday and introduce myself to the ward and that was a great privilage.

The work is rough. Many people are Catholic and they don't really give us much chance to explain what our purpose is but the Lord has surely lead us to a few people that we are hopeful for. There is one girl who is set to be baptized in January, Her dad won't let her so she has to wait until she turns 18 and I have only met with her once but I can see that she is really determined to do what she knows is right. There are so many people that fall through for appointments and that has been the hardest thing for me to cope with. Yesterday we had a member out to visit an investigator with us and they called and said that they have to reschedule. Then we went on a wild goose chase through our back-up list without much luck. Finally we found Brother Smith. He has been struggling while his wife was in the hospital and it was a powerful meeting where we shared a scripture and spent some time offering the comfort of the spirit. We are going to go to the hospital later this afternoon to give his wife a blessing as well. After Brother Smith we went to Brother Dixon who is in for surgery today. Elder Christensen and I were able to give him a blessing also. The biggest thing that I learned from this is that even though some things don't work out the way we plan, the Lord always has a purpose. People are suffering all around us and it's our job to reach out and "bear on anothers burdens." It was a great end way to end what started out to be a discouraging day.

I love you all so much and thank you for your letters. I am grateful for the stories the pictures, and the strength that you all give by taking the time to share parts of your lives.

​Love​

Elder McGarry