Labour all Thy Days

Richard McGuire

Dear Family,

As always, thank you so much for your letters. I love hearing about you fulfilling your callings. That makes the lives of your missionaries a million times easier. This past week just flew by so fast. It feels like just yesterday I was writing you about my previous week. The words of prophets are true. When you go to work, time just flies by. I had a great week and received a good amount of personal revelation. One thing unique to our church is that we continue to ask questions. Plenty of people that I talk to on the street who are atheists bring up very valid points that the reason why they don't like religion is because it assumes to have all the answers already. The more and more I talk to people, the more I learn that Christ's gospel is for everyone. We are encouraged to ask questions: to study and pray about the things we are learning. We can't receive revelation until we ask ourselves a question. That is how the restoration worked. When apostasy started to happen, people stopped asking questions and religion was used to control a lot of people and wreak havoc. Christ withdrew His gospel and His priesthood because people weren't asking questions or receiving revelation. Then finally, a young boy (young boys are filled with questions) asked God which church he should join. Finally! A question was asked to Heavenly Father once more! The Glory of God is intelligence. Heaven is like a large library and when we ask questions and study, the librarian-the Holy Ghost-gives us the answers from the Heavenly library. There is so much to learn!!!!

Quote of the Week:

Elder McGuire and Elder Wolvers contacting a potential investigator. They couldn't get to the door of the house because people were blocking the way with their truck.

*Man rummaging through his truck as Elder McGuire and Elder Wolvers walk up

Elder McGuire: Do you need any help?

Random rude man: Who the *profanity are you?

Elder McGuire: Pardon me? (I say pardon all the time, I have become a Canadian)

Random rude man: Who the *profanity are you?

Elder Wolvers: We're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

RRM: Don't need ya here (The lower-class in the Maritimes have like a Scottish and redneck accent), beat the feet boys

Elder McGuire: Why would we do that?

*RRM expresses just about every profane word

RRM: Just leave!

Elder McGuire: Why are you upset?

RRM: Beat the feet!

*RRM starts to approach the young missionaries

Elder McGuire: Touch me and you'll regret it

*Incredibly RRM backs up and gets back into his truck and drives away. It was like Abinadi or Nephi: "Touch me not!"

So anyways, don't worry about me. Milltown is an interesting and difficult area, but God protects and loves His missionaries. I feel the presence of the Spirit each time I open my mouth to share the Gospel. At times, it is frustrating for me to hear of the missionaries in larger cities having lots of success and not experiencing the same success. Dad, you sent me this a while ago from PMG CH. 1. The measure of a missionary's success is their commitment to invite others to come unto Christ. Even when people scream and yell profanities at me, I am a successful missionary, because I invite them to learn more about the restored Gospel that blesses not only my life, but my loved one's lives. We succeed when we invite.

We had some great interviews with President Leavitt over Skype the other day. He does a great job of thinking creatively. He expressed that ideally the missionaries in Eastern Canada will move on from knocking to where they use other resources to get baptisms. In other missions in Canada, such as the Manitoba mission, the members do a lot of the finding and missionaries use facebook to contact people. There might be some grand experience behind tracting, but to be honest. I've never gotten an investigator through knocking. I've gotten them through member referrals and Facebook.

                                           I never thought that Facebook stalking would be a missionary skill. President Leavitt has asked that we spend time on Facebook each day contacting people. Very fruitful! Give your missionaries people to look up on Facebook! They love it!!!!

President Leavitt is hilarious because the man is in his late 60s and is schooling all of these young missionaries how to use Facebook to find people. As you may know, we do role-plays as missionaries and President did a role-play with us over Facebook. We then followed up with all of the potential investigators in the area book and now our teaching pool is increasing. God has given us inspired tools that if used properly, will reap baptisms in Atlantic Canada. Now I am planning on using Facebook every day and knocking only when there really is nothing to do. We can even teach lessons over Facebook to people that live far away and Skype them as well. President just doesn't want his missionaries doing mindless things all day. We are here to teach. The members are here to find. I'm looking forward to the future of missionary work, because we had a very productive week.

Speaking of contacting people with technology. For crying out loud people! Answer your phone! I have been thinking about why we haven't been able to get many investigators lately and that is because we aren't following-up with them by making contact with them. Now when we stop people on the street I ask them if they're on Facebook. I think the future of missionary work will be a lot like regular life, but replacing it with gospel centered things. That is what our lives in Heaven will be like. So the other day, we asked one young man, Sebastian if he would help us forSunday afternoon. We usually go tracting with him for two hours and end up with doors slammed in our face. This time we sat down at the computer and for two hours he just gave us people to look up and contact. We got 10 potential investigators in two hours. Two hours of tracting wouldn't have gotten us that. I know there's somewhat of a stigma that tracting builds faith and God wants your life to be hard because then you'll learn. That's not the deal. God gives us challenges absolutely for our betterment. But don't put your head down and take the punches. Get up and solve the problem and have fun and be productive. I look forward to using the different tools we have.

Using the different tools we have is exhausting. You actually have to think about people and their needs! Usually when tracting we do the same door approach for three hours, find no one to teach, go back home and have dinner and then say to ourselves "Woohooo missionary work!" Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach. And that is what we are doing. Pondering over people that members give us and thinking about their needs and how to teach them is real missionary work.

Talking about real missionary work, I know that I have aforementioned that I want new less-actives to work with. I found the ticket. While contacting people using Facebook I thought of how can we get less-actives back to church. Making people feel like they're needed. So there I was calling a less-active named Greg who had given up on religion and was quite rude to me over the phone. Nevertheless, Greg loves computers. So a few days later I messaged him on Facebook telling him "I'm a new missionary and I want to learn how to use Facebook more effectively, can you help me out Greg?" He then set up an appointment right then and there. I feel like I can reactivate anyone now.

I love you all thank you for your letters!!!!

Hurrah for Israel!!!

Elder McGuire

The Law of the Harvest

Richard McGuire

                                                                             Yes mom, I'm warm..
                                                                                       .It's a balmy -2 this a.m.

Dear Family,

It is so great to hear from you all once again! These weeks are just flying by and the blessings still roll forth even in Eastern Canada. Thank you all for your prayers. Please make sure that you are praying for your own missionaries by name, daily. They will see the progress and you will be blessed. To be honest, this week was one of the hardest weeks of my life, mentally and spiritually, I will spare you the details and explain without exuberance later on, but missions are tough. The words on this page won't convince you of that. I remember reading JT's letters and thinking that life was just peachy for him, but                                                       

in all honesty, missions are hard, every day, for two years. And then apparently life gets harder. It's interesting how we don't understand spiritual things fully until we experience them. To explain the atonement is simple. Christ died for our sins so that we could live again. But we don't understand the atonement by the words in the Book of Mormon. We understand the atonement for when we are faced with trials. When we don't know how much harder the Lord asks us to push: live the gospel and deal with our challenges. Moroni said is perfectly: Faith is things hoped for and not seen, therefore, dispute not because ye see not, ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.                

We don't know how we will accomplish living the gospel and facing problems, but this is a false dichotomy: Living the gospel will give us the strength to overcome our trials. Think of Christ in Gethsemane: He knew the God had given Him the strength to die for the sins of the world, the hardest part was enduring the time of matchless pain. Bottom line: Spiritual things are understood by experience.

So with that being said, here's the quote of the week!

*With Brother Little, the ward clerk who happens to be less-active as to why we are visiting him

Elder McGuire: So why do you belong to our church when you think that other churches are true churches?

Brother Little: The Mormon church aligns slightly with my beliefs. I believe that we are descendants of an ancient alien species.

St. Stephen Elders:.......
                                 First package arrived!

   

So yes, this ward, although considered a ward, it functions more like a branch. There are people that have callings that just don't have testimonies. Frustrates me to the guilds. When the ward doesn't step up to the plate that's when missionaries have to carry the load.                                                                         

I am putting together an attack plan for how to fix this ward, because there are a lot of less-actives and I have decided that we need new less-actives to work with. Less-active members are a lot like investigators. If they aren't progressing, then you drop them. I didn't really put two and two together until a few days ago. It's a great thing to be a missionary because if people aren't progressing towards baptism then you drop them and trust that the Lord will provide new people to teach. With that being said, I am now phoning through the ward list and getting to know this ward as much as I can, because once I know all that is going on with the ward then I can serve it better. I want new less-actives to work with and to be honest I want to reactivate three people or families by Christmas. I can do this.

With understanding how the ward is and functions that'll give me a better idea of which members to bring to lessons. We are creating effective time by using the area book and facebook to understand what kind of missionary work has been done here in the past. Just understanding that and getting up to speed with the town makes me feel less-stressed that I can put together a plan to get more people to sacrament meeting. 28 people just isn't cutting it for me. I want a ward, not a branch.

So lately, I am noticing that Heavenly Father is cleansing His sheep. Those that can't get with the program and come to church we won't spend our time with. It's also interesting to see how much I can take on as a person. I can sleep when I'm dead. What I'm trying to say with all of this, is that the ward mission leader is going inactive and surprise. I have a new calling! So now I am printing off and studying just about every word that has come out of Clayton M. Christensen's mouth. There's this great story about this congregation in Augusta, Maine who called proselyting families to come to church and their branch evolved into a large and strong stake. I will establish the church in New Brunswick even if it kills me.

Now as district leader I get the responsibility of training the rest of my district to be better missionaries. At zone conference, President Leavitt was really driving home on using the fundamentals from Preach My Gospel. So I'm going to go over a fundamental a week. It's interesting how not a lot of missionaries are inviting people to be baptized. We are their door to the Celestial Kingdom. I want my district to be extending baptismal invitations more often. Even if we have to ask people on the street to be baptized then I am content with that. They even did that in the Tokyo mission and people agreed to be baptized! Somewhat of a pipe dream, I know, but hey, I am fired up to get things going.                                                                                      

                                                                          Zone conference 5 bx challenge! (5bx is the  exercise that all the missionaries do in the morning and then text their times into President Leavit)  President was showing the ZLs how things are done

     

Speaking of inviting people to be baptized. I woke up Thursday morning and knew that I needed to put someone on date. We were meeting with Jason that afternoon and we were struggling to find a member to go with us (What do you mean you have a job and a life and agency?!?!?!) but nevertheless, we went anyways. Although we only read a few verses from the Book of Mormon, Elder Wolvers and I bore our testimonies about how the Book of Mormon can answer the questions of our souls. Sat their and cried for a little while before I asked Jason and his girlfriend, Wendy, to be baptized. They said yes and we are having a baptism on DEC 20!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!

It's hard for me to relax and sleep at night, but Mom, thank you so much for those oils. They were a game-changer. The fish oil is great at sustaining me and keeps my mental energy up. Alyssa messaged this to me a few minutes ago, that I can't give people testimonies. They have to figure things out for themselves.

Speaking of people figuring things out for themselves. Brother Wood is a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. He phoned us up the other day and was going on and on about how he received answers from the Book of Mormon about the priesthood. He is preparing to be ordained and I am excited for him. He gives us referral after referral (Give your missionaries referrals!!!!!!!!) and calls our investigators up to ask if he can drive them to church (Brother Wood drives a taxi). He just has no problem sharing the gospel with all of the people he drives and I don't know if I've mentioned this, but he referred us to one of our new investigators: Debbie Cheyne.

About our investigators, we're meeting with Debbie this Tuesday with Brother Wood to teach the restoration and invite her to come to church. She wants to come to church but she's afraid she'll be judged for it. Getting people to church is now my entire life. If I have to phone every last member or stalk them on facebook to ensure they are renewing their baptismal covenants, then I will. GAH, "oh that I were an angel and could speak with the voice of thunder crying repentance unto this people!"-Alma 

Scripture:

Ether 12:6

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

I love you all, you inspire me and lift me up when I've been met with additional trials. Fight as hard as you can to live the gospel, no matter what it takes, I promise that your Heavenly Father will bless you.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

We picked up some good service at the library. Indexing their newspapers for their town history and then we are going to personally input them to family search. Lindsay, you would be proud of me

I take it that I'm the 32nd grandkid?

Pictures

                                                 Fruits and veggies juice with vanilla protein powder while I take my multi-vitamin in 10 minutes. That means 40 more minutes of extra study time. I have created time with juice. I am unstoppable

 This woman who's interested in the plan of salvation makes giant wreaths! We're teaching Hazel and her husband, Don later in the week :D

Dropping off my trainer in St. John

Dropping off my trainer in St. John

New Brunswick is different

We went to the chocolate factory!!















                                                                             

                                                                                                             Fight the power

We Invite, They Commit, We Follow-up (PMG Ch. 11)

Dear Family,

It is so good to hear from you all. Thank you for being diligent in writing me and letting me know that you are studying your scriptures. As Elder Holland would say, "This church is a church founded on revelation." It makes no sense to me that God who is infinitely knowledgeable, would confine Himself to one finite book. Personal revelation is only possible with prayer and scripture study. Not praying over the scriptures is like driving a car without having a gps. You all are remarkable. Thank you for your letters.

Quote of the Week:

Elder McGuire (In mid contact)-So what role has religion played in your life?                                      

Potential investigator-I would describe myself as an agnostic Buddhist

Elder McGuire:...

Potential investigator-actually no, more like an atheistic Buddhist

I love street contacting to pieces. I have met and talked with so many interesting people. The other day I had like a 20 minute conversation about baskets with this one woman who identifies native American (Canadian?) baskets and then blogs about them. Yes, Canada is still the promised land.

We had a returned missionary come home to Maine this past week. Elder Peterson, now Kenny, served in the Nevada Reno mission, which I'm quite sure covers Dayton. You'll have to double check me on that. Nevertheless, he is still very fired up to do missionary work and he'll be around for another 3 months before joining the military. It's like being in a trio all over again except this time it's with a very experience missionary. We took Kenny with us to teach Aaron, but Aaron wasn't home and wasn't picking up his phone (Dad now I know how you feel when you're trying to make things happen and no one is picking up their phone), but we stopped by anyways. Aaron's girlfriend, Tony, was there and welcomed us in to talk with us; Aaron was asleep and didn't want to talk to us. We chatted for a little bit and then we started talking about her religious background and her and Aaron. The Spirit was there and Kenny did a superb job of using the Book of Mormon. She said she wanted to sit in on the lessons we'll be teaching Aaron, so woohoo new investigator.

I think Mom you said this in one of your letters, but yes. Any time we teach someone or someone invites us over is a paramount success. This area has strong religious roots, but everyone either doesn't go or doesn't believe in God to go to their church. It's a weird place, but I love St. Stephen. It is pretty much Kanab but in Canada. You can drive through it in 5 minutes and see old shops that have been there for ages.

Bishop Doskas has also called Kenny to serve as a ward missionary and he'll be training our other ward missionaries on how to effectively do member-missionary work. This is so exciting, Kenny really is a tender mercy from the Lord. We met with the young men, or should I say, young man, Sebastian, and did a training on how to start gospel conversations and invite people to learn more about the gospel. I know it is said numerous times that the way to do member missionary work or let people know that you are LDS is to "Be an example." That sounds nice because you don't have to do anything, but live your sweet life. As members of Christ's church we need to open our mouths and be bold. I'm not too pleased with my former self, because yeah for the most part I did what I was told with a few exceptions, but I never opened my mouth and talked openly about my beliefs.

Furthermore, this has probably been the most productive week of my mission. A lot of things I questioned last transfer, but because I wasn't in charge of anything I kind of just went with the flow. Now that I am district leader and that I have the reins I am making things happen. We are using the area book a whole lot more to contact people. People that actually accepted the missionaries at one point. It feels so good to set up appointments in my planner and not write down aimless street contacting. Contacting referrals and working where those referrals are is the most effective way I've found out how to do missionary work. We spent 5 hours yesterday on Union street talking to people and asking for referrals. Finally ran into Don and Hazel the wreath makers (Wreath making is quite the fad around here) and we'll be teaching them the Plan of Salvation later this week.

As DL I feel like even greater pressure is on me to make my area an example for the rest of my district. This is somewhat of a challenge because think of working in an area like Kanab (St. Stephen) compared to the work in Fredericton (Provo). Nevertheless, I am figuring things out and getting things done. I like systems and making a ton of phone calls. Talking with everyone and reminding them to do what we've asked them is critical to missionary work. We Invite, They Commit, We Follow-Up! I can move mountains with following-up with people about their member-missionary work. Contacted like 10 referrals this past week and in the past, I've never gotten referrals. I feel like I'm on fire! The Holy Ghost is very strong in the work here.

We picked up a new investigator from a referral from Brother Wood (He is our best member-missionary)! Think about that, a member referred us to someone and now we are teaching her. Debbie is from Oak Bay which is on the way to St. Andrews. She wants to know the difference between our religion and the JWs and she loves loves loves to quilt. We tried to get her out to our Fall ward activity the harvest dinner, but she's quite the recluse. I am making it a priority to make daily contact with our investigators, ward leadership, and my district members. I have never made so many phone calls in my life. I used to be so afraid of calling people, but now that I know what I'm doing, I love calling people and talking to them.

We also picked up another new investigator from the area book. Former investigators are usually still interested and I'm not even a 10th of the way through our area book. I really feel like I can baptize just as much as they do in South America or Tonga even if missionaries in this mission only get one or two in their whole two years. I am so motivated to do the work this is an unbelievable feeling. Jason is our new investigator and he's gone through some very difficult times. I won't go into details, but just talking with him brings tears to my eyes. He loves the idea that God loves him, has a plan for him, and wants the best for him.

Continually, we are being blessed with success. Your prayers have made Brother Hansen so soft hearted! He came to church in a suit!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAH!!! This is so exciting. He also invited us over for Thursday supper and he wants to tell me why he's at war with God. I feel so blessed and happy, I can't even believe this is real.

Thank you so much for your prayers and letters.

2 Nephi 31:20

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

When we do God's will, we can have hope, or the expectation that God will bless us.

I love you all!

Elder McGuire













                                                                                                                                      Elder Wolvers and I about to show St. Stephen no mercy this transfer
                                                                              

Scenes from St. Stephen

Maine has always got what I need

This is for you Lindsay......

                                                                   The border :D

                                                      Halloween was rad. 4 hours of book work!

                                                                    My two cool companions found dinner in the church parking lot

Soon to be the district that I lead

                                                             Stake conference

Elder Collett had this Facebook idea for filming a TV show related to member missionary work. So we put it together while we were snowed in

The first snow of the season!

Transfers!

Richard McGuire

Dear Family,

Well it's the moment you've all been waiting for, transfers! So I am officially two transfers in to my sixteen transfers and this upcoming transfer should be exciting. I think in this transfer is when I'll be skyping home for Christmas as well. Let me just tell you all the information that you'd like to know. I will be in St. Stephen for Christmas with Elder Wolvers as the Fredericton District Leader. Mind you I am the youngest district leader in the mission and completely surprised but excited to serve in this capacity. As junior companion I thought there's no way that I could have time for leadership responsibilities, but The Lord shapes the back to fit the load. Elder Collett will be headed up to Tracadie which is in Acadia in Northern New Brunswick training a new missionary from Belgium-Elder Snicker.

Already, my district leader responsibilities have begun. Last night I called all of the companionships for their key indicators and to counsel them on what to improve on. It was weird because all of these missionaries are older than me and 

have more experience and to tell them to improve was a new thing for me. For example, last night I called up the Zone Leaders in Fredericton and asked one elder who's going home this week to improve on member involvement with their investigators. Didn't think I could do that, but nevertheless, this transfer will be an exciting one that's for sure.

Quote of the week (Not sure if you all find these hilarious, maybe these are moon jokes in which you had to be there to get them)

(Walking through walmart buying groceries)

Elder Wolvers: Hey there's a great sale on Itchy ban!

Elder Collett: Itchy ban?

Elder Wolvers: Yes itchy ban is like 50 cents!

Elder McGuire: Itchy ban sounds like an unfavorable disease

Elder Wolvers: No it's noodles! *points to Top Ramen

Ahhh adventures in Canadian language

Moving on, we met with Brother Wood a few times this week. We are focusing on preparing him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. Unfortunately, Brother Wood is having a difficult time staying away from coffee. He has the biggest heart in the world and we're staying on him like white on rice because retention is a big part of the work out here. He loves the Book of Mormon and reads it all the time. Although he is new to the church, he is very knowledgable and is always looking to learn more about the gospel. That's what every missionary wants in a convert. We are promised in 2 Nephi 31 that if we feast upon the word of Christ we'll act on that word and then receive eternal life. I'm pleased Brother Wood is so faithful in his reading assignments.

That's a large part of the Book of Mormon. Reading it. Reading it all the way through and then praying about it as Moroni asks us to. The Book of Mormon is not a quote book. It is a book. I have learned so much from it every day and it truly is the largest conversion tool we have as missionaries.

Another large tool we have as missionaries is using the area book. We were snowed in yesterday and we couldn't go out on Friday because it was Halloween. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean we couldn't be effective missionaries! We did book work for 10 hours total and it will probably take another transfer to get that thing whipped into shape. Often at times elders will neglect the area book because it's so tedious to fill out, but we are commanded by the Saviour to keep records. It's my goal to make our member book, area book, and maps in mint condition for the next elders that come to St. Stephen. 

Not only did we fix records and clean the books (which we still aren't done with!) we used the former investigators section to find new people to teach! Seriously, there's more to do than just knock doors. President Leavitt puts it as "Do you want to knock doors or do you want to baptize?" We phoned up a former investigator-Jason-who seems pretty solid and wants to meet with us to learn about the Plan of Salvation! Book work is missionary work. We'll be doing a lot of it because this winter should snow us in quite a bit.

So on another note: Mom your son isn't the brightest light on the Christmas tree. I was getting money out of the atm at the Bank of Montreal for emergency cash (Self-reliance woohoo!) in case the power goes out because of the snow and as I was putting the money into my wallet, I forgot to grab my card. Didn't check back at the bank until a few days later and the atm had sucked the card back up and I didn't get it on time. So my personal debit card is now destroyed. If possible, would you be able to mail me a new card as soon as possible? Sorry for being forgetful. (Oh yes and another thing to send would be that missionary book that's by a Covey, you sent it to JT and I was wondering if I could get that).

I won't tell you about the walking because you all heard about that. We had dinner again with the Hansens, but this time Sister Hansen was sick with the foot, mouth disease thing so it was just with Brother Hansen. We had amazing spaghetti and garlic bread. It felt like I was back in the MTC with all of that food. Brother Hansen is the friendliest guy in the world. We got to take home two loaves of garlic bread and sauce. Man these people know how to feed missionaries. Unfortunately, my spiritual thought with Brother Hansen wasn't the best. I still have to remember I don't know exactly the situation, but that doesn't mean I can't teach and testify. Exed members are just a whole different situation. Please pray that Brother Hansen will pray. This guy could be a huge rock in the area.

A scripture that I would like to share with you all is Alma 32:14-15

14 And now, as I said unto you, that because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word? 15 Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed—yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty
When presented with trials we are humbled and we grow closer to Christ. However, when are not presented with trials this does not mean to sit back and not live the gospel. By small and simple acts of faith, we will grow closer to Christ continually.
Thank you all so much for writing me!!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire