Elder McGuire in the Maritimes: Take These Things Hence

Monday, July 27, 2015

Take These Things Hence

Dear Family,

Thank you for your exceptional letters. I love to hear from you
especially from your studies in the scriptures. Thank for your prayers
in my behalf and putting my name on the prayer roll. Grand Falls is

One final goodbye from Brother Harlow in Bridgewater. Very solid
recent convert of only three years

being blessed tremendously by the Lord. I believe that in parts of the
world where the church is small, the Lord spends extra time there. In
my patriarchal blessing it states that on my mission I will see many
miracles and have much joy. I believe that I am in that point of my
mission thanks to your prayers and own faithfulness. Thank you to me
each week.

A question is posed in the 9th chapter of Mormon. Why do miracles
cease? Think of a time in your life where you experienced a miracle.
Where the unthinkable happened in your favour. Why did that occur? God
is not some mystical being that grants miracles because He wants to be
random. God is a God of order. A logical God. A loving God. The reason
why miracles occur or do not occur is because of faith. When we have
faith we rely on the teachings of Jesus Christ. His teachings are
given to us in order for the power of God to be made manifest. Christ
worked miracles because he had God's power. God's power is available
to us when we have faith, when we rely on Him. To rely on God means to
rely on the principles of the gospel. The teachings in the scriptures
if followed will produce miracles. The moment we disconnect ourselves
from Christ is the moment power withdraws herself. We are but branches
to the vine. Stay connected to the vine.

Before I went to the temple a few weeks ago I went with the question
of "What would thou have me learn in Grand Falls?" I am gaining an
appreciation for missions. They are two years in the Lord's

All set for church :)

university. I have learned that although knowledge is important,
people skills are what will get you places. In Cole Harbour I learned
how to study. In Bridgewater I learned how to find. This past week in
Grand Falls I learned what I will need to learn while I am here. That
is to follow-up. In a report that the church gave about

recent-converts, a staggering statistic was given. 85% of new members
will remain active if they have friends in the gospel. That means they
have daily contact with those that keep the commandments. If friends
withdraw themselves then only 8% of new members will remain active.
How important is it to be friends with recent converts and less-active
members? With the 6 members in Grand Falls they each require
consistent follow-up. We are really the only ones that hold them
accountable to gospel living and standards. Follow-up follow-up
follow-up. In the past I was lax with follow-up. I would follow-up
with investigators because they were investigators and they were
expecting me to follow-up but with members I never really followed up
on the commitments I would give them in dinner appointments.

We met with one of our investigators this past week, Gerald. Gerald is
a total Newfie. He is 6'5 and loves his Harley. He goes on trips all
over Newfoundland to watch icebergs come in from Greenland. We had met
with him my first week here and the lesson went well. This time around
we got another member involved for our return appointment. We decided
that we needed to teach about baptism by reading 2 Nephi 31 where
Nephi explains why Christ was baptized and why we need to be baptized.
We began reading it and all of a sudden Gerald cuts in 'Why do we need
to be baptized?' Then Sister Borden jumped in 'Do you want to go to
heaven?' Gerald said he did and then we committed him to September
5th! It comes down to keeping commitments at this point. The classic
we-knocked-on-his-door-and-he-became-the-branch-president story you
will hear missionaries often tell. Just for the record I did not

Zone training just about to start :D

accept his invitation to ride his motorcycle down the street into the
sunset though it was tempting.

I love being a zone leader again. Despite the stresses of making sure
everyone knows what they are doing and that they do it, I love
teaching and training about missionary work. I would love to be the
mission prep teacher in a few years wherever I'm at. We had our zone
training this past Wednesday at the Hotel Gander in Gander which is
about 1 hour from Grand Falls and 4 hours from everyone else in the
province. A zone training is different than a zone conference. A zone
conference is led by the mission president and the assistants whereas
a zone training is just led by the zone leader. I had the sister
training leaders do the first training on teaching for understanding
which went well. This zone doesn't have too many investigators to
teach, but nevertheless it was a good training and the missionaries
liked it. We had to hotel then cater for lunch :D For my training I
focused on faith and diligence in finding people to teach. After
studying through faith in preach my gospel chapter 6 I had an idea of
what faith is all about. We have to stay connected to the scriptures
and preach my gospel consistently. When we disconnect the Lord will
not bless us with miracles. He can not. Miracles occur when God's
power is exercised and God's power is obtained by applying the
scriptures. The zone was motivated to work harder. It will take some
time, but I think I know what I'm doing this time around

Zone training was held at the hotel Gander. Keeping it classy

.

Now for a story that goes in my top 5 best mission stories. The story
that gives the reason for my letter. We have 6 active members in Grand
Falls. We have 40 less-active members in Grand Falls. Of those 40 we
get the privelege of setting up disciplinary councils for 5 of those
40. The branch president asked us to go and visit an excommunicated
member who is going to jail this next week. Already my adrenaline was
pumping. We gave him a call and set up a time for 8pm on Friday night.
He was very happy that we wanted to meet with him. Our initial plan
was to go in there and make sure he had a Book of Mormon and commit
him to read it while he was in jail. Then at 7:38 we get a call from
him and he is drunk to the gills. He still wanted us to come over and
we needed to give a good report to the branch president. So that's
when we threw our lesson plan out the window and commenced Operation:
Black Falcon. We drew up a blueprint of his apartment. Where he was
going to be sitting. Where his line of vision was. Where we would be.
Where the kitchen was. Where the sink was. Where the alcohol was. At
7:55 we made our trek to his apartment. We knock on his door. It
swings open and he gives Elder Cox a huge bear hug. He then looks at
me and is so sad because I'm not Elder Gibb, the previous elder that
was here. We sit down with him and there are beer bottles everywhere.
Elder Cox distracts him and I offer to do his dishes. All of a sudden
he gets up and raises his hand looking so mad. Then he starts to just
cry hard-core "That's the nicest thing anyone has offered me in my
life!" I then start to do his dishes while he and Elder Cox talk about
Elder Gibb, his 'main man.' While in the midst of doing dishes I am
grabbing all of these beer cans from the fridge and pouring them down
the drain. Then Elder Cox convinces this guy to go to bed so that we
can both do one final sweep of the kitchen. We find more beer and
cigarettes and throw them all out. As Christ cleansed the temple we
cleansed this man's apartment. TAKE THESE THINGS HENCE!

I thank you for all of your prayers.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

More pictures!