Transfers and Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

This next week is transfer week. Some changes about that, we will be doing transfers on Mondays in our mission now, so the P-day will always be on Tuesday after transfers and you will find out if I've moved only when I get there. It's been a seven week transfer due to Christmas, and the next one will be seven weeks due to the MTC adjusting back to a 3 week schedule. In other news we had a great Worldwide Missionary Broadcast this week! It was really inspiring and motivating. 

On thing that really stuck out to me was the importance of letting the spirit guide. I have known always that the spirit is the teacher, but I often try to identify and teach what the spirit is teaching. In take away I realize that I need to be more effective at facilitating learning by asking questions to help them understand the spirit and what it is teaching them. This has been a struggle. I think in my mission I have learned very well how to teach and even teach simply in many ways. I still need to simplify a great deal in all aspects of life and I feel refreshed when I do. i think often what I can do to have the Lord's spirit more abundantly in my life. 

This week we have had three miracles, first while contacting we had just found a solid referral for the Messilla Valley Elders when walking away a van pulled to the side of the road and asked us where our church was and what time it started, they wanted to come! Second, on the very next day, we met Andrew who appeared practically out of nowhere as we turned around from walking a quarter mile down a road with no success. He was hesitant at first but eventually opened up and told us he had been reading the night before about apostles and what they are and what they do. We said a prayer with him in which he asked us to pray for his father who had passed away and he wanted to make sure he was watching over him here on the earth. Third, and again the exact day following, we met Ricky who was dressed exactly as we were only with an added a sweater. After initiating the conversation he abruptly told us he reads from only the King James version of the Bible every single day. He knew that the Book of Mormon was given to Joseph Smith by an Angel but never had a chance to read it. We gave him a copy and he was elated to receive and have the opportunity to read it and find the additional testimony of the simple pure testimony it contains. These three of the Elect were placed in our path as we sought prayerfully to be in the right place, and to have eyes to see those whom the Lord has prepared as well as the words needed to touch their hearts and give them an opportunity to accept the restored gospel.

I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 
Elder McGarry

 Making Pizzas in an outdoor stone oven with a member

Service Project Yesterday :)​

Once Upon a Time

Dear Family and Friends,

There comes a time when you just run out of titles for a letter. This is that time. This week we we have been trying some new things that I have not tried before, and to be 100% honest tracting is one of them. I have not done much of that on my mission because most of the investigators in the areas I have served in were found through members or other more common contacting situations. Then on the reservation I was in a non-proselyting area so tracting was out of the question. Nonetheless I am finding the challenge very, hmmm enjoyable. I feel like my experience selling security systems in Detroit helps a lot with that. More importantly I am finding that prayer helps a lot. We have had a few people tell us that they are catholic and just not interested, but we offer to say a prayer with them and the whole atmosphere changes. Even though they may not invite us back, their hearts and ours are softened as we express our true feelings and desires to our Eternal Father in Heaven. Our biggest struggle this week is going to be finding, or coordinating rather, time to see all of the people that are ready and willing to accept the gospel. Personally I can't say I'd rather have any other problem in the world Being a missionary is so great! 

We did adjust a baptismal date from the 30th of January to Feb. 13th. He felt that things were going a little too fast and wanted to wait a couple of months. We had planned to go over the interview questions that day, and as we did a spirit of peace just confirmed that he was making the right choice, and he knew a lot more than he felt like he did. He then set the day for only two weeks back and we have a clear understanding of what areas his testimony needs to be strengthened in to help him be ready. Don't we all do this though? That is try to tell ourselves in some way that we are not ready yet, or that we don't know enough. STOP IT! Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things. Dispute not because our knowledge is not perfect, but act in faith because unless we do we will never receive a witness and we will never be "ready." That was paraphrasing Ether 12:6 by the way.

I guess this week is really another chance for me to tell you all how much I appreciate your support and love. I have seen nothing but good from this experience of being on a mission, and I continually change and become better from it each day. A few things that I have been thinking about lately: are we lowering our expectations or standards little by little, or are we striving to raise ourselves closer to our potential each day. God's standards never change and we can rely on that. Little by little we steadily and surely draw nearer or father away from him, and a little tid-bit that my companion always says "It doesn't matter where you are at on the path back to our Father, it only matters what direction you are facing." We sometimes overwhelm ourselves by thinking of all the ground we need to cover instead of realizing we are just the vehicle for the Spirit of God to cover that ground with us. After all we are spiritual beings having a mortal experience, not the other way around. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Elder McGarry

 

 

 Me and My comp. heading out this morning!​

 Hottest hot sauce I have EVER tried!!​ The tip of the toothpick is all I had and it burned!

Scriptures

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been really great! We have found a good number of people to teach and are still working with others that are progressing toward baptism! One in particular, we just need to help him make it to church and He'll be ready on the 30th. Hopefully he can endure the sitting with herniated disks that are nearly debilitating. I can sympathize as it has been a situation I am privy to in my personal experience as well as in close familial ties. I do know that if the desire is strong enough and faith is sufficient, all things are possible. I have read in D&C 42 a lot this week that talks about that very thing, of faith and the will of the Lord. I am caused to reflect on the closing chapter of 2 Nephi and the words which were "written in weakness" and how he considers them to be of "great worth." I don't know about any of you, but if I could write with half the zeal and propensity of spirituality that Nephi did I would be quite satisfied. That is neither here nor there though as the things he has written, and by his course of action in his life caused to be written, have literally been more influential in this world than any other piece of writing known to man. How powerful is it to know that the Book of Mormon is the most true of any book upon the face of the whole earth? What a blessing it is to have such a book. 

Scriptures are so important. I have neglected too many times in my life to give as much attention and heed to the council therein as I should. They are literally the result of sacrifice and devotion of so may servants of God, who gave their lives to him, and put him as the first priority realizing simply that God wants what is best his children even more than they do. Many times we can't even realize what is the best choice for us, that's why there is so much uncertainty, and confusion in this life. The only reason we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints to be uncertain or confused is that we have not sought the Lord and his council in earnest. If there is even a glimmer of faith that the Scriptures are true in someone, and they don't turn to them in times of confusion or trial, why would God undertake to show himself to them or to speak to them when they have not even sought to understand what has already been manifest through his revelations to those who have given him their all? I am certainly guilty of the thought process of wanting God to just show me what to do, or to tell me what is true. More and more I realize the truth of God's admonition through James in Chapter one of his epistle. He has said to act in faith and ask for that which we are lacking. Throughout the rest of that phenomenal book of James, God shows a pattern of what we must do in order to receive that guidance. He says we must be DOERS of the word, and not hears only. He says that we must not knowingly do that which he has advised against. This is Sin. He will not lower his expectations. He cannot for he would at that moment cease to be God. Therefore we must simply abide by that which we have been given and instructed in so far. Simply put, we must read and understand the words of God, and repent of any actions or choices that lead us contrary to his word. All things point to the Knowledge and Wisdom of God and his Love for his children is shown in every minute particle of this universe. This path of repentance and seeking the will of the Lord is only to be undertaken through prayer. Sincere and heartfelt prayer and by showing we have a broken heart and a contrite spirit we are giving our will to him who knows who we are and who we are becoming. He will make us to become, if we allow him to and only after we have sought diligently and faithfully in that which we have already been given. Applied to the parable of the talents, everyone reading this has the talent of reading. Is that talent being used in the right ways? and is it being used to draw you closer to God? 

I hope this is a message that makes sense. I have been called to repentance, and I am striving to understand what has been taught through the Lord's Holy Prophets. For me, I have seen over and over how much of a difference reading the scriptures every day makes in my life. I am so thankful for the daily manifestations of the Spirit that come from this simple and divine commandment. It is truly by small and simple things that Great things are brought to pass. So small and simple, that we overlook and doubt the significance of it all too often. 

I am excited for this new week, and I am glad to be a missionary! The area we are in is thriving and I can't wait to see what more miracles are in store. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Elder McGarry

 

 

 My wonderful Companion​, in Old Mesilla 

Me in Old Mesilla :)

Culture and Change

Dear Family and Friends,

These past few weeks have gone by so fast I can barely remember them. But I do know that we had a great Zone Conference down in El Paso Texas this last week! It was fun to caravan down there as a zone and be together with some friends from earlier in the mission. I put together a musical number with three Elders from my district and one from my very first district who is a musical prodigy. We sang Jesus, Lover of My Soul at the zone conference.

The conference was focused on the culture we establish among generations. While foremost focused on the mission generations from transfer to transfer it was also a great representation of how lifespan generations are effected by culture. To me I noticed that we often look at people that have a "vision" of who they want to be and actually achieve it kind of rise above and become role models. This can be either for good or for bad. Those that are leaders have a vision of more than themselves, they share that vision with others and lift them to their level, making what we call a culture or a shared set of beliefs and traditions. I think that this is exactly what I have been wanting to identify my whole mission up to this point. The silly thing is that it was right in front of my eyes the whole time, and I never really noticed it. So the Culture that we embrace as a mission is to preach repentance and to baptize converts. Everything else we do is leading to these things. Christ always taught that if we love him we must keep his commandments. Well the gate is made known and we must enter in by the way, repentance is the path and baptism is the gate.

This time of year is again a time of change. It is just in the air, you can feel it. I love change! I just love that we can change and that the world changes (hopefully for the better, though it's not a common pattern lately). I just feel so much energy when I think about change. I also think it is neat to recognize in the Bible dictionary I was reading lately and goals are directly connected with perfection. Why is it that we can only think about perfection or not even trying. A talk compared it to practicing piano, are the only two options performing at Carnegie hall or failing? No, even the most expert pianist will hit a wrong note here or there. It is encouraging to think that when we set goals they don't have to be make it or break it. It can be a simple point of progress. Maybe we fail this time, but at least we tried. In a teaching moment we have been working to help a few people quit smoking and drinking. It has been amazing to see how up and down things get, but no matter what they keep moving forward. Baptisms will be coming just around the corner. My companion pointed out, insightfully I might add, that the word perfection in ancient Hebrew means progress. 

I want to share a little miracle that happened for me this week. We were teaching a lesson and I felt to invite a sister that had come with us and was sitting quietly to share her testimony on prayer. She shared her conversion story and how she simply asked, "What church should I go to?" not ten minutes later the missionaries knocked on her door. She asked them to teach her son, and a few weeks passed as they got into a routine of every Thursday they would come and teach. After these few weeks she again revisited her query of what church she should go to, and not ten minutes later the missionaries knocked on her door. This was completely to her surprise as it was a Tuesday and she asked why they had stopped. They said they felt really strongly that they needed to come then, and so her answer was made clear to her. I though how neat that was and realized I can do the same thing if I am sensitive enough to the spirit. The next day we were headed out to visit a former investigator and part member family when we got a last minute appointment for an interview with our mission president. We decided we would hurry over and try to contact this family and when we got there they told us that they had just been praying and wanting to go back to church but didn't know how. I love being a missionary!! Best thing ever :) They sat by us at church and I was just elated to have the Lord show me how much he cares not only for me, but for each of his children. Ask and ye shall receive. I have a testimony that those who draw near to the Lord, He will draw near unto them. That is my goal this year. To fully implement the meaning and by effect the blessings described in John Chapter 15. To truly become a friend to the only begotten son of God by being in places that he would be, and doing the things that he would do. 

I love you all :) Have a great week! 

 

Elder McGarry

 Elder Schmitt and me in El Paso

Exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elder Summers​ and me :)