Alamo

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I am to excited to even express in words that my new area is Alamo Navajo Reservation in southern New Mexico. I am serving still in the same zone, which is pretty cool, but we are 2 hours away from the nearest set of missionaries in our zone. Oh well though because it is beautiful out here. My new companion is Elder McUne! He is from Lebanon Oregon and he grew up on a farm, that's very pertinent I know ;)

 

Before I go into too much detail, I want to say that Anthony's Baptism was fantastic. Elder Hardy performed the ordinance, and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. (I now have the chance to go to three Temple Sealing Ceremonies (You get to go for families/couples that you are part of the Baptism of) if the times comes before my mission is over, Neli & Jose, Melissa & Martin, and Trisha & Anthony. Super Stoked!!!) I also got to do the confirmation for Anthony last Sunday. That was pretty amazing. I am going to miss Sage area a lot. I made a lot of friends there and I love the people. Donald should still be working towards Baptism with Elder Hardy, hopefully soon!!!

 

As for Alamo, I am very humbled and grateful for the sacred trust that I have been given among these people. I have only been here one day but I already know I am going to love the people, though it will be hard because I hear they have a tendency to be very stubborn. Also reading the Book of Mormon takes on a whole new meaning. Especially "..go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites..."

 

Work is going great. It is getting pretty hot in New Mexico and that is not the greatest, but I can't complain. We really have it very easy in the mission. My reading has brought me again to Jacob chapter 5. I can't help but realize how much evidence there is that this truly is the last time the Lord is going to nourish his vineyard. We are in the last days and the Lord has call many to labor and also has commenced to nourish his vineyard and to give it much care. Each of us have been called to labor. The thing that stood out to me in the transfer meeting was that one Elder going home said "It is not enough to be an active member of Christ's church anymore, you have to be a proactive member." Each of us have also been nourished, and therefore we have no excuse but to bring forth good fruit or to be "hewn down and cast into the fire." My prayers are continually that I may have a softened heart to the point that I may be humble and hear the Lord's voice in all things. I pray that you may do the same and that thereby we may bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and truly be purified as he is pure. I love you all and hope that you have a great week.

 

 Ayóó'ánííníshní

Elder McGarry

Anthony's Baptism

I25 South, and the First Mountain to the south west. Alamo is way behind that mountain. To be continued... :)​

Contemplate and Ponder

Dear Family and Friends,

I am going to get this cleared up beforehand this time. Transfers are next week and therefore I will not be e-mailing on Tuesday as I would normally. I will look forward to communicating on Wednesday from 1:00-3:00 PM. 

We had a wonderful Baptismal service on Saturday. Melissa and Martin were both very excited and happy to be able to have this experience. Martin did very well with the Ordinance for his first time. He also blessed the Sacrament for the second time this last Sunday. Melissa is doing great! She has come so far in learning to read better from the scriptures and being able to quit smoking.

This week I am prompted to share a message on contemplation. This is something that I do often, though I have much room to improve as the Lord would have me become better in all things. The most influential part of Christ's visit to the Americas for me is 'recorded' (In very small detail for the reason that much of it could not be put into words) in 3 Nephi 17. After having taught them much Christ invites the people to go home and ponder and pray for understanding. I have always enjoyed the ability to ponder things and reason. Like it says in Isaiah 5 or so, "Come now and let us reason together..." I am going to be so bold to say that all revelation comes from pondering. Enos called to recollection the words that his father had often told him and those words "sunk deep into [His] heart." I have found that my heart has often been hardened in many ways to the whisperings of the spirit, often times because of ignorance. I have seen the blessings of praying for a change of heart as it talks about in Alma 5. A mighty change of heart is what a prophet of God invited us all to have. In praying for that I have still been ignorant of the many ways that the Lord blesses me, but I have seen changes in myself and also the people that I have prayed for. So after having prayed for a mighty change of heart, I now realize that I have many things that I need to change about me and most of those will only come through careful and conscious contemplation and pondering on the words of life. As we treasure up the words of life from the scriptures and contemplate over our life the Lord shows us and truly grants us understanding. So many people are just simply slaves of their habitual thought patterns. That is very dangerous because the adversary just wants us to become numb to the decisions that we make. If we are unaware of our agency then there is no way to even begin to choose what is right without some way of seeing light shed on our course of action. This is an important thing for many to understand because it is still a choice to allow ourselves to become numb to out choices. Millions of choices we make every day could be out of alignment with what God wants for us to be able to reach our potential. That is why the Holy Ghost is such a powerful gift. We may not know the plan all of the time, but if we rely on that spirit of truth and consciously make the choices the Lord would have us do, that is being led by the spirit. So that is the pattern I am trying to follow. I hope that each of us can become better at recognizing the spirit and being truly led by the hand of the Lord. 

 I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

 

Elder McGarry

 

Melissa's Baptism

Some cool Graffiti, in NM​ it's everywhere!

 

Love

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so blessed to have such a great family. I love each of you and I'm so glad I got to talk to you, it made my whole week! All I can say is it seems like I just talked to you last week for Christmas but it really has been five months almost since then I guess. I love you all so much and I hope that you make a smooth transition into this summer. 

I am learning so much about being a missionary. I have to be even more bold and simple every day. I am so glad that last night we had an extra Elder from Alamo here with us in a temporary trio. We also had a young man and recent convert named Adrian with us so we got to go on splits for a little while which has been getting harder to coordinate with the ward members as of late. I am hoping that with summer things will slow down and the people that are around and not on vacation or something will be able to go out with us more frequently. 

The biggest thing that my companion and I are working on is our "opening your mouth" aspect or OYMs. We have seen miracles already in committing to talking to 20 people every day. Often times it is the last person we talk to that is the one that is ready. We often get into the mindset of getting to the place we need to be next or maybe that it's too late to go talk to people but each time we do it anyway we have seen great things happen. There is a talk that we listen to frequently that Henry B. Eyring tells of when our bodies scream for relief and we can't think about anything but taking a rest the thing we need to do is remember our Savior. Did he take a rest in the moment when he was at the very lowest point of any moment in the history of this world? He looked outward and pushed through the very greatest of all tribulations for each of us. So my personal goal is to ask and look for the ways that I can be of service even more so when I don't feel like I can. I love my Savior. I know he lives. 

One more aspect of missionary work is referrals. We have been asking more for them than ever before and it is amazing. As we learned in Zone training, the seed of Abraham is all around us but we may never know it until we ask. There are people prepared and ready all over the world and we as missionaries can't always be where all of those people are. So in comes the Holy Ghost and members. You all know what networking is. The biggest example is social networks, but I'm talking more about on a very real and personal level with people that we truly interact with every day. Well some people are good at it some people aren't. That how life is, and I can say honestly that we can all be fantastic network facilitators for the spreading of the gospel if we rely on the Holy Ghost. That is why we get those little promptings to say hello to someone who looks like they are having a bad day at work. The problem is that so many of us don't fully realize the importance of the influence we can make. I can say that I often don't remember fully the charge to bear one another's burdens and mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. When that is my focus I know that it touches my heart to help that person with everything that I can muster. That is when the Holy Ghost enters in and I can give an invitation to allow that person an opportunity to accept truth and knowledge from on high. Referrals are not a scary thing, though I have even seen them that way at times. They are a privilege and an opportunity to share great blessings from our father in heaven with someone who has not realized them yet.

My spiritual high for this week was when we went over the baptismal interview questions with Donald. He is like a spiritual giant. I can't even express how much I have grown to appreciate his story and his life and his friendship. I looked into his eyes as i sat next to him in church this last week and I immediately felt a great sense of calm and serenity as well as excitement and joy.  I saw a glimpse of Eternity and the love that our father has for each one of us. That same love that I feel for each one of you and each of the people that I have met in this area and served with so far. Melissa Segura is for sure getting baptized this Saturday by her husband Martin. Donald is not one to really plan things in advance because then he over thinks it and gets scared. But he is more ready than anyone I have ever met to be Baptized and he might just surprise us this weekend too. We'll get an interview set up and wait and see :) I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! I can't wait to hear from you!

 

Elder McGarry

 

Swap point from Exchanges with Elder Cannon in Valencia Area​

Who says it doesn't rain in Albuquerque? ​:)

 

Fasting = Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so happy to announce that I have the best Mother in the world, indisputably. I want to wish you and all the other Mothers that have chance of reading this a most blessed mother's day. I can testify, and I'm sure many others can, that Motherhood is one of the most divine callings given in this world. We see the degradation of it and the family as a whole more and more every day. But thankfully we have words of prophets and if we choose to truly remember WHO we are, as a very simple phrase says Children of God, then we don't have to fear anything. A great talk was given in Women's conference on the defenders of the proclamation to the world. There were so many great talks given on the family in conference and I know that they were inspired for our time, and our day. 

A mighty miracle happened this week at church and I want to shift gears to my testimony of Fasting. Henry B. Eyring nailed in so I won't go into too much detail on it other than to say Read Isaiah 58. Such powerful promises. We know through repeated examples that prophets are guided through much "prayer and fasting." So again I won't go into great detail of why fasting is so important but know that it is. So this week Donald came to church. I know big deal right? Well he has been an investigator for 13 years! I have been praying for him since I got here nearly 7 months ago and it always is the same thing. He wants to be there but he doesn't come. We finally got him to commit to baptism on March 28 back in December. That was great and then the day cam and went. But there was something different. The day before the 28th he said I'll let you know tonight about tomorrow. He was serious. We had to tell him that he had to come to church two times first and he said he would just think about it. Well He came to Church! That was the beginning of a great miracle because he said he'll do everything he can to be there next week. The other miracle that came from fasting was Randal found a job. He has been looking for over 6 months and within a week of a special fast that we had for him he found a job! I know that fasting is a key to shedding light on darkness. It literally is like the morning breaking forth from the night. There is nothing that can stop it when the time comes as God has designed so beautifully. I am very humbled and grateful for the Lord and his many blessings. There are baptisms coming in the next couple of weeks. I will keep you updated. 

I love you all so very much and hope that you will continue to take steps to the peak of the mountain of life. The only way to reach the potential that God wants for us is to listen to him, in all things that we do. I know he guides and directs me in so many ways. I hope you have a great week!

 

Elder McGarry

Donald​ with a Bug A Salt gun. It shoots salt at flies and kills them :)

Our district meeting plus the Sister Training Leaders