Lord Increase Our Faith

Dear Family,

Thank you for your prayers and for your letters. I love being a
missionary. Every day is hard, frustrating work, but it's the most
important work we could ever be involved with. It is the same for the
apostles and the First Presidency. To be living and breathing the
gospel is such a surreal experience. We are probably the most prayed
over group of individuals in the church. I actually think it's neck

I love Grand Falls

and neck between us and general authorities in terms of prayers (not
that it's a competition). The Lord can do anything he wants with his
army with the amount of prayers that are said. Thank you for the faith
that you all have.

I want to tell you a story about a famous scientist, Thomas Edison. If
 you go on relative finder you will discover that you're probably
related to him. Thomas Edison tried over 2000 times to make a light
bulb. Over and over again Thomas Edison failed to make a light bulb.
At the end of his search he finally invented the light bulb. Wouldn't
it have been discouraging for Thomas to give up after the 1008 failed
attempt? That would have been terrible, we wouldn't have light bulbs.
Thomas Edison and his story of inventing the light bulb is a story of
faith. He had faith that one day he was going to invent the light bulb
and it was going to profoundly affect the human family. He saw in his
mind's eye a light bulb. That is faith. You do not see presently
yourself as a millionaire or a world-class pianist or an understanding
parent. By the world's standards you are a failure. To have faith
means to rely on God constantly. When we disconnect ourselves from the
doctrines and principles of the church then we disconnect ourselves
from salvation and miracles. You want to know the most unique thing
about our church? We have faith. Steven Covey said that a behavior
effective people have is that they start with the end in mind. To have
faith is to start with the end in mind. The end is the celestial
kingdom. When we have faith we see the end, we see us creating the
light bulb, or playing with the Boston Symphony, or most importantly
returning to live with our Father in Heaven, exaltation. So don't
hyperventilate when issues arise surrounding the church. Keep the end
in mind. If you ever lose faith then miracles will leave. It's a
simple equation. Miracles=God's teachings + us. The plus sign
signifies faith. If you get distracted you'll never invent the light
bulb.

We had a wonderful week in Grand Falls. We are beginning to teach so
many people that we  really have to make our finding time count
because we don't have too much time to find with all the teaching
that's going on. We found three new investigators this past week and
we have hit the mission standard three weeks in a row. The first two
we found were Dennis and Ellen who are some serious newfies. They come
from the northern bay where the english language hasn't progressed
past the 16th century. Elder Cox and I couldn't understand 80% of the
conversation because it was too quick and lax and there were words
that we haven't used for years thrown in there. Nevertheless Dennis
and Ellen are great. A member in Grand Falls was talking to them at
the Walmart and Dennis was complaining about how no one from the
Pentacostal church ever comes to visit anymore. Sister Borden told
them that she could send the missionaries to come see them. Bingo.  We
stopped by later that night and taught them about the Book of Mormon.
They really like the idea of more scripture beyond the bible. I'm
going to have to work on the bay language though because it is so
thick that I had to pray for the gift of tongues.

The next new investigator we found was Tina. One of my favorite ways
to find is to write down a route of stop-by visits to do in an hour or
two and then walk between doors talking to people in the neighborhood.
It's honestly the most effective way I have found to find because
sometimes street contacting and knocking don't pay the bill. We were
buzzing apartments when Tina let us in and we walked down the hallway
to meet her. Tina is great. She comes from a Catholic background and
has a hard time with gambling. It was a very short 15 minute visit
because we had more teaching to get done, but we testified that
baptism would help her change. I will not leave Newfoundland until
there is a branch in the town of Grand Falls-Windsor. This is probably
the most successful I have ever been on my mission.

We were teaching up a storm throughout the whole week. We set up
lessons back to back so when we brought Sister Borden with us we could
be more effective with our time. One of our investigators Helen is
just a rock. She contributes more in church than the members and she's
working her way through the Doctrine and Covenants. She knows the
church is true and she wants to be baptized it's just the hurdle of
addictions that we need to help her overcome. She was telling us the
other night that she wants to go to the temple in Halifax and I am
just amazed at how great the week was.

I feel as Alma did when he said 'Of my own strength I know that I am
nothing.' I think I have come to a realization in Newfoundland that
I've got nothing to lose with being bold with people. The assistants
came up from Halifax Wednesday morning at 2am. It was grueling to
drive on the road in the middle of night. Don't worry we didn't hit
any moose. We picked the assistants up from the airport and then had a
three hour power nap before working in Gander the next day. Wednesday
was a hard day because if you try and do a 16 hour work day running on
three hours of sleep you are going to have a rough time. Nevertheless
we persevered.

Lastly one of our other investigators Darren is coming along nicely.
We fasted for him this past week that he'd progress and our lesson on
Monday went really well. He was less stubborn and he was asking great
questions about the Book of Mormon. The key to any investigator's
success is follow-up follow-up follow-up. We had close to 20 teaching
appointments this past week. 4 times the standard in the North America
North East area and we are set to do it again. Tender mercies are
abounding and I attribute that to the Lord and to your prayers.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

http://www.byutv.org/watch/90be2679-e6eb-4039-afa1-fee5477b0c20

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng