Has the Day of Miracles Ceased?

Dear Family,

Thank you all for your letters, your prayers, and own missionary-work. I would like to share some interesting dreams with you that I had this past week to get my letter going. The first dream I had was I was back in St. Stephen with Elder Wolvers and we were tracting on the infamous Ross St. (it is pretty much the Ammonihah of St. Stephen) and we were passing the sacrament to all of our contacts. You know, why not? So that woke me up with a smile on my face. Another strange dream I had was I was at a zone conference and we were watching the clip from Thomas S. Monson with his famous quote "Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together..." and then I get up and start dancing in front of everyone to the tune of "We're all in this together!" from High School Musical. I think my conscience is fighting against my desire to be like Paul and put away childish things. Thought I might let you know about those funny dreams.

This was seriously the best week of my mission. I felt like I was serving in Brazil or something. We had an excellent mission leadership council talking about finding. We are always talking about finding. That's mostly what we do all day but there is a better way to do missionary work than just knocking or street contacting for nine hours a day. It was Elder L. Tom Perry who said "The way we do missionary work has to fundamentally change." I think members do more missionary work than they think. I know that you are working on someone. You have this delicate process and have thought out how you are going to bring up the gospel. What are you going to do when these people tell you 'no' after your hard work of being nice to them and talking about the gospel? On occasion we put the cart before the horse. We climb the wrong mountain. We start digging another hole for a fence post when we've already got one hole half dug. None of this makes any sense. Clearly we need some pleasantries and normalities before we invite someone to learn more, but if we are procrastinating invitation there is just no point in doing missionary work. It is so hard to invite someone to learn more. It just is. It will always be hard. This is Heavenly Father's work. Satan doesn't like that. He knows that if he can stop us from inviting then he can stop us. Heavenly Father's work will move forward. It just will. The question is "Are we going to be apart of it?"

We had a jam session with Brother Chatham, a less-active member who can really shred. And Elder Henderson, my new companion who I already live with stole my camera and was taking pictures of me during a leadership call we were doing.

I've been studying about real intent, agency, and accountability lately. Do we actually believe what we believe in? Do we seriously want answers to our questions? Or do we just sit on the sidelines doing Christlike things, but not actually being Christlike. Do you go to seminary or do you actually go to seminary? Do you read the scriptures or do you actually read them? Whole-heartedly not returning without the plates and getting an answer to your questions. Even in missionary work. Are we actually convinced that we can invite someone to learn more about the gospel? Or do we fall into this trap of 'I just have to be an example and then people will join the church.' If missionary work worked that way all I would do each day would be a fever-strut and not actually talking to anyone. Just sitting down, watching the world go by. Not even talking. Just be an example. That's so easy. Heavenly Father demands more. He knows we are capable of more. Wo unto him that say All is well in Zion! Invite and follow-up.

Another thing that we are afraid to do is account. Why are we afraid to be accountable? Because that is how most things get done in the church. Satan knows this. We are afraid when someone bears their testimony to us. Sometimes we feel like we don't need to be preached to or have someone bear their testimony to us. Reasoning out all of these excuses to get out of things besides the atonement. Sometimes we don't want to account to people that we have done nothing. That we haven't done our home teaching. That we don't hold family prayer or scripture study. That we just don't want to go to church. But accountability is how others will help us. There are three laws to accountability that I have observed. Observation-just looking at people or what they are saying, that is how we'll know how to judge them and then help them. Follow-up-this is where we proactively check up on people. Asking questions like "Have you done your home teaching this month?" "How is your family home evening going?" Then the highest law of accountability that we can live is returning and reporting. This is where we proactively report our labours to a church leader and to the Lord. This demonstrates our real intent. If we actually did something. I have more thoughts about this so I think I'll just write a talk about agency and accountability and send it to you all. Running low on time so I'll just paste a part of my letter to President Leavitt to you.

We were blessed with significant miracles this past week. We went through our potential investigator forms to see who was actually interested in learning more about the restored gospel. Out of the pages and pages of potentials written down, we only determined three people who actually showed genuine interest. We used the criteria from the training "Real Potentials, Real Investigators" from Back to Basics to weed out those who had real intent. We then applied this principle of judging who we think will progress to members (who will actually do missionary work), who will actually progress as part-member families, unbaptized children, less-actives, overdue priesthood ordinations (Brother Moses got us a great list from LCR-personally I wish we had access to LCR), and potential missionary couples. Then after we discussed most of the ward we attempted to set appointments with each of these identified people to teach them the missionary discussions. It relieves a lot of stress to see the next week fill up with appointments rather than just stopping by. Elder Corbett isn't a fan of the phone or setting appointments so he didn't enjoy our four hour weekly planning session, but we have member appointments and that is what matters. Actually discussing finding was great and judging who we think will progress brings forth miracles. We found one new investigator, Lana, the other week and invited her to learn more. She came for a church tour, Terry's baptism, church, and is committed to being baptized on the21st of February. She is going through a difficult spot with her family-single parent and living on her own while her kids are with her boyfriend. However, she has just begun to become more religious-reading the bible, praying, and now going to our church. To quote her during the church tour "I was actually looking for a church to baptize me." I feel very blessed and I feel like we are making progress. I still want to go through each former and discuss with Elder Corbett or now Elder Henderson if these formers were actually investigators. 

I love you all!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Elder McGuire

They had compassion on them (Mosiah 20:26)

Richard McGuire

Dear Family,

I want to make it absolutely clear that your prayers bring miracles. Whenever we experience success it is a miracle. It is a miracle when we get further into a conversation, it is a miracle when someone gives us their name or Facebook, it is a miracle when a member refers us to a friend who is ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to express my gratitude for your prayers in my behalf. They do not go unanswered. Thank you for being as Lehi who cried mightily to the Lord in behalf of the welfare of his people. Sidenote: I think I might be turning into a maritimer because I look back through previous letters and notice that I'll quote some scripture passage wrong or something, but hey it's the thought that counts. We had a very productive week from lots of viewpoints: key indicators, personal contacting, interacting with members. Still no one to teach, but I realized that my frustration could be resolved by two things: realizing there are four parts to the Work of Salvation and there is always something we can do to improve the circumstances we are in, always.

The Work of Salvation means four things all surrounded by ordinances. Baptizing, retention, activation, and temple work. I had lost sight of the ordinances the previous week and when we lose sight of the goal we don't know where we are going. Baptism is the ordinance a lot of missionaries flip out about. That's pretty much the goal. That's where we want every non-member to get to. However, when we are only working on 25% of the Work of Salvation we are not going to be as successful. Therefore, we work on helping members do missionary work, we do service, we reach out to less-active members, we do family history and go to the temple. These four parts keep us balanced and less stressed.

My second point. There is always something we can do to improve the situation we are in. We can always work harder, work smarter, do something different, tweak something, change something, or invent something. Nephi and his brothers tried several different ways to get the plates. However, the principle was to get the plates. Surely as the Lord live and as we live, we will not go back to the tent of our father without the plates. The principle is diligence. To never quit. Never give up or give less. Don't return without the plates in hand.

I realized that I am not working as hard or as smart as I could. I could be calling more people in the car. I could be calling people over lunch. I could be setting up more appointments with members and less-actives rather than just 'stopping-by.' There is always a way to do things better. The way to do things better is in the scriptures. We had some great experiences this week.

So we put together a transfer plan or a plan to accomplish for the whole transfer for finding new investigators. After much thought we came up with more than 15 points of finding and a SWOT analysis of where we are as missionaries in Cole Harbour. We have since enacted this plan and we have a very solid potential investigator whom we found through fulfilling the plan.

We found Lana at a gas station filling up on gas and making conversation with the cashier. Lana is a single mom in her 30s who has been through a ton. She really likes the idea of prophets and continuing revelation. There are prepared people everywhere when we have a plan. Lana friended us on Facebook and on her profile page she has been posting quotes from Elder Oaks without even knowing who Elder Oaks is! She even wants to come to a baptism for the sisters' investigator this Saturday. Sidenote: the sisters found Terry through a member referral and Terry has a job, isn't on welfare, has a family, and functioning mental capacities!. We are blessed. There is not doubt in my mind that faith precedes the miracle.

Our Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan before this life. He had a large plan called the Plan of Happiness, but he also had to plan how bears worked or how a river is supposed to flow or how fire is supposed to burn. Heavenly Father has a plan and it is real. The gospel is so real and makes so much sense it just blows my mind when people reject it.

Another story that I thought I'd share with you is about Brother Chatham and Brother Frank. Brother Frank, our assistant ward mission leader passed away this past week. It's amazing how fragile life is and how fast it goes. We were just in coordination meeting with him last week and he was putting together the digital mission when the next day he has a heart-attack. That man was a character. He reminded me a lot of you Dad. Always making jokes, always serving others,  telling you you're really not that smart. We were talking about self-reliance just the other week and I made the comment 'Don't teach a man to fish, fishing is not that hard.' He straight up told me "Elder McGuire, that doesn't make any sense." What a funny man. More than 500 people attended his funeral. He touched so many lives and was in the high council for years. He made lunch for a lot of apostles that would come and visit over the years. Elder Perry even wanted his tomato soup recipe. Really going to miss that man.

He was a very faithful home teacher. He pretty much home taught the whole ward because no one else would. One man he home taught, Brother Chatham, wouldn't even let him in the door for 10 years. So Brother Frank would wait each time every month on the door step until he had to go pick his wife up from work. Then 5 years ago Brother Chatham finally let him in to talk. They talked about everything. He challenged Brother Chatham to take the missionary discussions and he declined every month for 5 years. Brother Frank told us his goal was to sit in the celestial room with Brother Chatham. Now this goal is my goal. Brother Chatham doesn't even believe in Jesus Christ but he came to church yesterday and said he is going to try and read the Book of Mormon. He's also reading a ton of intellectual history political stuff about mormons which doesn't have the best agenda. Nevertheless, we will keep trying. Brother Chatham and I will sit in the celestial room together or we will sit in the Spirit World together. I will not return without the plates.

I want you all to know how much I love reading your letters. 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Elder McGuire

...and then an ice storm knocked out the power.

The Beatings will continue until Morale Improves

Picture Timeline---Guess what happened?-----again!


Hey Hey!!! It's Juicing Day!!

We don't even feel the cold!  See how happy it makes us?

 I'm going to stay here and count my ties.

You just------

Delicious!

There are no vegetables here in the winter.  You guys are crazy!  I will have none of it!

 I'm going to stay here where it's warm!

I like to juice.  You're going where?  Should I?

 Did that just really happen?  The door handle froze and broke off?

 No worries, it's a balmy -9.  Stereo still works!  Woohoo!

Slight detour to admire some drums

KChaw!  Seriously?                      There isn't a living soul crazy enough to be out on a day like today.

You have no idea how cold -9 really is until you've been locked out of your car and you have to walk a mile to get help.

HELP!!!

Not to worry, Smoki's is within walking distance.

What did I tell you boys about going out to hunt for vegetables this time of year?

I knew we were going to be o.k. all along

Home and warm =)

Only three more months of winter!


 https://www.dropbox.com/s/axqd5yl98tx50cr/MVI_4125.MOV?dl=0

Climb the Right Mountain

Richard McGuire

Dear Family,

It is so good to hear from you. On occasion plenty of people don't realize that missionaries are real human beings. We are not baptizing machines that convert people. We are regular people just like you who are sharing the gospel full-time. It's this interesting thing behind the principle "God won't give us more than we can handle." Heavenly Father at the end of the day is still our father. He loves us and He wants the best for us. He won't give us more than we can handle, but we have the capacity to give ourselves more than we can handle. Complexity is a tool of the devil. It's just Satan that's all. We look at the church as this laundry list of things to do and think "how is this going to fit into my life?" This church is not a part of our lives, this church is our lives. We think of this so-called thing called 'life' as larger than Christ's Church. This is incorrect. Life is not larger than Christ's Church. Christ's Church is our life. You may be thinking "that is so easy for you to say, you are a missionary and you live and breath the gospel because that's all your time is filled with." This is false thinking. We covenant to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. Whatever you do, whether it be work or family time needs to contribute to the Kingdom of God. I would love to just write a talk dispelling myths in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are not a social club. We are not the 'mormon club' as I have heard it termed. Thinking of the church this way comes from all of the extravagant ward parties where less-active, new members, and part-member families aren't even invited, the weak ward councils who only talk about activities, and the members who are afraid to tell other people they believe in the Church. The members who are afraid to tell other people they are a mormon. God will prune His vineyard (Jacob 5). 

I don't know how many of you saw Brother Ridd's devotional talk last night. In Nova Scotia it starts at 9. It was amazing. He spoke of understanding real intent. It reminds me of Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-46 (By the way, it is not D n' C, it is Doctrine and Covenants). Plenty of people are called. Plenty of people are members of the church. Plenty of men hold the priesthood. Plenty of people take the sacrament and plenty of people wear the temple garment. Plenty of people do mormon things. However, how many of us actually partake of the sacrament. How many of us are worthy to actually hold the powers of heaven. How many of us actually are worthy to enter the temple. How many of us actually belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Kobe Bryant (yes this is for all you Lakers fans out there). "Know your why." Do you actually believe that Christ died for your sins? Do you actually believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet? Do you actually believe the Book of Mormon is true? Do you actually believe that God is real? That there is a God? Many are called, but few are chosen. Those are just some of my thoughts about that talk. Will you all go and read it?

This past week I was stressed out. I have been making a few mistakes with over complicating things. In my studies I was all over the place. Studying from 10 minutes of this and 10 minutes of this and 10 minutes of this. It's just too crazy. I was also stressed out because I have been on my mission for five months and haven't taught a real accountable investigator or baptized anyone. I took this morning to examine my expectations about serving as a missionary in Atlantic Canada. This reminds me of a talk that Elder Bednar gave "That we might not shrink." He speaks of a man with cancer whom he associated with. He explains 'John, it's not about having enough faith to be healed. Do you have enough faith, not to be healed?' What it comes down to is having faith. It's not about having faith so that God will conform to our will. It's not about reading our Book of Mormon and expecting for our marriage to work out or our kids to stay active. It's not about paying our tithing and thinking that we'll get money in the mail. It's about none of that. It is believing that Christ COULD heal us if we had cancer. He COULD bless us with a happy family. It's believing that Christ CAN. So my conclusion. Do I have enough faith not to find anyone for two years? Do I have enough faith not to baptize anyone? What if it doesn't happen? That is okay. We didn't find anyone to teach this week, but we worked our guts out. 

We had plenty of difficult conversations. I was reading through a talk by Elder Bednar (I need to shake his hand in my life) called 'And none shall offend them.' Unfortunately I missed the mark of his talk. His talk is pretty much a discourse on why being less-active is a CLM. My young and stupid brain thought 'okay all I've got to do is just lay down the hammer with the less-actives and then God will bless me.' God is not a vending machine where we put in scripture study and out plops a successful career. We just can't go after our vain ambitions.

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President Leavitt also came over on Friday to view our weekly planning. I am trying to add an audio clip of his visit so you can listen to that. I love President. He does a great job at reproving people and then showing an increase of love. There are people here to teach. We will find them. I just need to relax and not stress about the situation. I learnt a lot this week about just being empathetic towards everyone and understanding why people are the way they are. Even when we mess up God still loves us. It's like a teenager who wrecks a car, but still gets a roof over their head and food because the parents still love them. Okay, maybe that wouldn't happen, but you see my point.

It will happen. We just have to actually believe that Christ CAN make it happen. Do you actually believe in what this Church teaches? Why?

I love you all!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL! 

Pictures from Cole Harbour

Spring cleaning on New Years! This is what we do when it's not safe to be on the streets

 Minus 25 means giving away free hot chocolate and Facebook proselyting

Look Ahead and Believe

Richard McGuire

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters. It is pleasant to hear that you are in the Book of Mormon and serving others. Thank you for your prayers and for your own commitments to do missionary work. Many people look at missionary work as a calling. Missionary work is not a calling. Yes, I am called and set-apart as a full-time missionary. Missionary work is a life-style. Often we go to church and hear all of these things we need to do or get done. This is not the correct way to look at the gospel. The gospel is a lifestyle not a checklist. We may study the scriptures for an hour, but we live the scriptures 24/7. The gospel is not some laundry list of things to get done. We often forget of the concluding principle of the gospel, enduring to the end. Studying the scriptures is not something to get done, family home evening is not something to get done, home and visiting teaching is not something to get done. These things are the minimum. Our scripture study, seminary attendance, home teaching, temple attendance are never done. The gospel is not something we do on Sunday. The gospel is a lifestyle. Christ is never done. His work will go forth nobly and independent.

This past week was filled with challenges and spiritual understanding. President Leavitt introduced me to a new way of setting goals. You could look this up online I'm sure it's around somewhere. I have a vision of the person that I want to become, then I create some goals to accomplish that vision, then I create some plans to

accomplish those goals, and then I review these three things each day and make adjustments as needed. Elder McGuire's vision for 2015 is "The Lord can do this and I can help." To accomplish this vision I found five goals. These five goals come from Elder Bednar's talk "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary" which he gave at the MTC several years ago. I am still ironing things out with the plans. Thus far I plan on studying Jesus the Christ and setting a focus for each day to become more Christlike. I'll put the rest of it together later and then send you a photo.

One thing I like about this is the monitoring factor of the cycle. It's workable and focused and I can make adjustments. In the past I would write down a million goals and never accomplish any of them. Simple is better. Nephi puts it this way "I glory in plainness!" One thing that I am learning is that I need to work with specific people.

I learned this in the past week as I was fasting yesterday. In the past I would always fast "to find a prepared family to teach." Well that's a nice idea. However, this is the same trap that plenty of churches fell in to during the great apostasy. Fasting for overarching concepts makes us feel engaged when really we are not. The Saviour said: "They draw near unto me with their lips but their hearts are far from me." Therefore, I changed my fast to fasting for Brother Hatton. Brother Hatton is catholic and the rest of his family are members. He participates in church and even helps the primary children with Faith in God. However, he expressed to us the other evening that he will never become a member.

Like most catholics out here, he is content, he doesn't want anything more in life. People are just content. Nephi states (And I just love this) "Wo unto them that say all is well in Zion!" It is not all well in Zion when we fail to be Christlike. Sidenote: Interesting how in Come, Come Ye Saints the concluding refrain is "All is Well, All is Well."

However, I know that fasting and faith brings forth the blessings of Heaven. This is not the time to sit down and do nothing. Put it all on the altar! I am confident Brother Hatton will progress. We will find new investigators as we focus on specific people. I will not write to you about the knocking we do. I will write about how people are progressing. It's just not enough to make vague statements.

Another thing that I am learning is to help district leaders that are struggling. A large challenge that the church faces is lack of training. All of these leaders hounding on people for not doing missionary work or doing their home teaching when they don't explain how to do these things. I will be up front about this. We know that being one with the ward council will accomplish the vision of being one i.e. the hastening the work broadcast.

Certain companionships failed to talk with each member of the ward council. Initially I flipped out and attempted to reprove. This is not how the Saviour chastised people. He explained the principles-the commandments-and then stated "Come, Follow Me." Jesus Christ instructed and explained. Edify and uplift as Mom would put it. I am committed to give more training and less rebuking.

I learned an interesting skill from President Glanfield, the first councelor in the Stake Presidency. He expressed to just ask "why." Over and over again until it becomes comfortable asking people why. Why gets us knowledge. The Saviour asked to the woman caught in adultery "Why weepest thou?" He didn't say "Did you stub your toe?" "Did your dog get stolen?" Why promotes discussion and always opens up something that we can testify of. Another thing is to ask "Will you?" Will you is the ultimate invitation. It allows people to exercise agency. We fall into this trap that Satan sets. "Would you like to?" "Do you want to?" No. None of these promote agency. The war in Heaven was fought over agency. Agency is a gift. It is knowledge. Will you all read "Will you?" from lds.org? Excellent talk :)

I know that as we read the scriptures, Heavenly Father will bless us with understanding to apply to our lives.

I love you all

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Elder McGuire