Greenie

Dear Family and Friends,

Because of Transfers I had to e-mail today, Lucky me :) Can I please just be a greenie again? We have had some super solid missionaries come into the field his week! It's going to be awesome to see how they move forward from this point and through their first 12 weeks of training.

This week we taught Buddy, our investigator who has set his own baptismal date he wants to do it so badly. We have had to adjust it a couple of times because of how much he works and has to reschedule the teaching. We finally got to teach about the Word of Wisdom and at first he said how the only thing that would be a concern is the tea. He drank instant iced tea daily, and by the end of our lesson he asked us to follow him back to see if the tea was against the Word of Wisdom (having been around herbal tea which is ok, we felt it was worth checking into). When we confirmed that it was not kosher he immediately told us to take it and dispose of it. He has so much Faith it is unreal sometimes. The Baptism will be in the not too distant future now that they are finished harvesting on their farm for a little while. 

Other than that we are in a mode of finding investigators and trying to follow up and visit with some others that have been hard to get in with lately. If at the very least I can have Green Chile when I come home next year, then I'll be mildly satiated, but not entirely satisfied. I've been trying to get my date extended but it doesn't seem to be an easy task anymore. I'm just gonna catch some greenie fire and burn myself out. That's the best thing any of us can do, sprint to the end :)

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

 

Elder McGarry 

The Alamo Bro's -Minus two; one who happens to be my son, he didn't come to the transfer site, and another who is going home today

Elder Roll, a Super Stellar Missionary From Seatle Washington. He went home today as well :( On to bigger and newer and brighter things :)

quick update

Dear Family and Friends,

Just a quick update this week, lot of miracles happening throughout the mission. We have a conference call every Tuesday night where everyone is able to unite in testimony and prayer to share miracles and receive training from President Guffey. It has really created a sense of being united with the rest of the mission. It's really cool.

We had Peter's Baptism last week! He already has two names of his ancestors that he'd like to take with him to to baptisms at the temple! We have another Baptism tonight at 7:00, more pictures from that to come. We've been greatly blessed! Another great blessing is many of the people I have taught and served throughout my mission are getting ready to go to the temple too. Lisa, the first person that I helped teach before she chose to be baptized already has been to the Temple! It is so great to be a part of this work! Nothing better! If you're not already, reach out to those around you through simply going about doing good. Example can be a powerful missionary tool, but inviting can also create opportunities that we may least expect. As I've heard it said, it's never a bad idea to be the "fat penguin" to break the ice on those gospel questions. Plus church media makes it so easy these days!! 

Look at LDS Pamphlets in the App Store. Also the brief 2-3 minute videos on the Mormon.org channel of YouTube are super simple and very effective. Have a fantastic week!!

I love you all!

Elder McGarry

 Peter's Baptism

President and Sister Guffey with us at the temple

Learning by Choice

Dear Family and Friends,

I had a really awesome opportunity to sing in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday. It was cool because we have a Julliard graduate professional violinist in our ward that is in charge of all the special Musical numbers. She asked me to do a musical number and with her help and another sister on the piano we performed a version of Joseph Smith's First Prayer arranged by Rick Graham. It is done to the tune of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and I think it is one of the coolest arrangements I have ever heard. Anyway, that was a fun experience for me. 

I come to learn by more and more experience that people just don't choose to be obedient, including myself in many ways. A scripture that comes to mind is James 4:17 which mentions (paraphrasing), to him that knows to do good and he does it not, to him it is Sin. We learn from the first example of disobedience that this world has known that God's plan is a merciful one, yet a just plan as well. God instilled the possibility of doing wrong when he instructed Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He had instructed them as to what would happen if they chose one path or the other. On one hand they would live forever in the garden without learning, without feeling, without growing. On the other hand they could partake of the fruit and immediately feel the absence of God's presence, and consequentially they would become mortal and subject to sickness pain and death. That is the process of Learning. I believe that the fruit was not instilled with some magic substance that immediately gave them knowledge of everything that was right and everything that was wrong. Instead by their choice, they were able to learn what God had explained would happen by choice. It is no secret that the Jesus Christ, or Jehovah as he is referred to in the old testament, was chose before this world began to be the Savior of the World. It is only by our choices that we are able to learn and grow, and also to recognize right from wrong. This is what made the necessity for commandments. So that by living in the light of that which is true we can gain an understanding of who we are. I like the quote "There are two important days in a persons life, the day they are born, and the day they find out why." We are instructed sufficiently to know good from evil in the circumstances we are faced with, and from that point we grow from grace to grace until we are able to gain a fullness of the knowledge God is ready to give us. This is the pattern each and every day of learning by choice. I felt that I needed to share that today. I love you all!

The baptism this Saturday will be great! Peter is learning quickly and accepting the Gospel with an open heart. Thanks for all your prayers and love, I feel the strength and benefit that these simple things bring!

Have a great week!

Elder McGarry

 5th ward Quad :)

 Radiator Springs?? Not quite ;)​

Freedoms

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has included a lot of traveling, and a lot of miracles. We have been greatly blessed to be in the company of President and Sister Guffey. I can't help but notice the great sense of reverence that has swept the mission, in great deal I think because of the many evidences of the Lord's hand in this transition. It's fun to witness that and quite a testimony builder of the Lord's Revelation through Prophets and Priesthood keys. 

We didn't get a lot of time to teach or find in our area, but of what we did get chance to do we are glad to see progression. One young man we are teaching named Peter has been making huge steps. He will be preparing to be Baptized on July 16th. HE sought and found the church on his own, asked his friend if he could go to church with them and has been attending since that time about 6 months ago. We only ran into him because he decided to come to the singles ward a few weeks ago. Sadly the member had never thought to introduce him to the missionaries... I can understand some timidity but I hope that we are a little more bold than that with inviting people to receive the blessings of the Gospel in their lives. Just a thought. The other person we are working with for Baptism on the 16th is Chris, and he has been investigating for about a year now. He has made so much progress lately and even started teaching us out of the Book of Mormon and wearing a white shirt to church of his own accord. It's amazing to see these visible changes, but more importantly to see the changes in behavior, desire and attitude when someone personally experiences the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

I am looking forward to the next two weeks in preparation for these two events as well as a big mission transfer. We'll be losing a lot of great missionaries then, but we'll receive more just as the Lord sees fit. 

Lately I've started reading the Infinite Atonement with my spare time... haha not. I am amazed by the perspective and unfathomable comprehensive coverage that the Atonement brings into life. There really is no other thing that has a comparable level of value to all of creation. The better we understand it, the more enriched our lives may become by the enabling power thereof to have freedom from "the bands" which may fall upon us. I am grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the great freedoms we enjoy in this wonderful land of America. A big thanks to those who also made great sacrifices to defend those freedoms. In the Book of Mormon I am just reading Alma 47-49 about Captain Moroni and the promise to those that keep the commandments of God upon this land, that they are blessed in all things both temporally and spiritually. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Elder McGarry

 

The second chapel ever built in Texas​, the Douglas chapel is where we had our last Meet the President Conference. 

 

From the Parking Lot of UTEP Sun Bowl we can see quite a bit of Mexico. It's pretty close!