Dear family and friends,

I am always torn about what I should write because there is so much that I would like to say. That being said, I'll start with Thanksgiving day. We had a wonderful time with members and ate a ton of food. We started out with traditional thanksgiving turkey dinner, then we went and had Chili Rellenos with green chili(New Mexico specialty), then finished off the night with some amazing homemade Calzones (See Jon, I get a little taste of Italy here even!) We also had some little cards that Elder Christensen and I made to give to people with a little scripture. It was a great day.

We have a very productive week. We are pretty sad that Manuel is not progressing anymore. He is the one that was doing a World Religion class and chose to learn more about our church. On a more positive note, we have a baptismal date with an investigator named Donald Pitts who has been investigating for Nine Years. The Lord has really been working with him and we felt prompted the last couple of times to give him a little push. The power of the Spirit is so amazing and it's a beautiful thing to be a part of. The date is out four months, but it is a step to the right direction. Another amazing thing that has happened is we were out contacting this last week and found an older gentleman named Alex. He is really open minded and when we met with him for the first time last night, he said that he wished that he had more power or authority to act in the name of Jesus Christ. The spirit guided us to him at just the right moment and that is a miracle in itself. We are so excited to learn and grow with him and help him accept the ordinances and principles of the restored gospel. The blessings are so limitless if we rely on the Lord. Another investigator Named Timothy is working to quit smoking. He has been working so hard and even pushing himself more than we would have thought he would. We are going to work toward a baptismal date this week.

My favorite thing I've learned this week, or the thing that sticks out to me the most right now, is D&C 121:45 "Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God" How do we as imperfect beings gain confidence to be with God? It is only through Faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice that we can be cleansed from sin to have that confidence. When Virtue is the garnish of our thoughts we have no desire to do evil, but as Alma 13 talks about we look at sin only with abhorrence. The work is good and not without struggle by any means. Friday last week, we had plans fall through over and over, but we kept a prayer that we would be guided to where we needed to be. Let me tell you, prayers are answered we ended up trying by a family that we have missed the last two weeks and found out that recently the husbands father had passed away. They are a middle aged couple and they were in pain and had a lot going on especially right after Thanksgiving. We were able to teach a beautiful message about the plan of Salvation and bear strong testimony of the plan in it's perfection. The wife has never sat to listen to our messages before now and this time she even accepted an invitation to read Alma 40 which talks about the resurrection and eternal life. My companion and I are so grateful for the area we are in and the people that we are able to serve.

Sorry this one is a little more surface deep I guess I'd say. There is a lot going on and what I'm doing is more in the forefront of my mind so anyway, just like the Moroni, I feel that my written words are insufficient. I love you all very much and continue to pray for you. Scripture for thought 1 John 4:8 "For he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is Love." This is one of my all time favorites and can be applied to any circumstance. Act in Love and you will not regret or look back wishing for change. This I know to be true.

Have a great week!

Elder McGarry

 The elders from our apartment. We had an epic rubberband fight last night!!! P day shenanagins

Thanksgiving dinner at a members house. 

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 :)