It Is Well With My Soul

Exchanges in Corner Brook once again :D Elder Siepert from Oregon

First snow of the season

A less-active gave us carn bif ash with toutons. Toutons are the
newfie version of frybread. Dough fried in pork fat covered in
molasses

Dear Family,

Another week gone just like that. Thank you for writing me. It was an
eventful week. The weather is becoming more horrific and we are still
having lots of success. Our little twig is growing every week.
Whenever we don't have miracles occurring in our lives it is because
we are not doing the basics that are creating the miracles. Daily
scripture study enlightens our minds and increases our memory so that
we have a clear idea of what to get done in the day. Consistent prayer
invites the Spirit and gives us direction of what we should do.
Partaking of the sacrament enables us to reflect on our actions from
the previous week and commit to doing better. In an interview, the
Rock was asked how he became so successful. He replied that every
morning he just commits to himself that he will be better than he was
yesterday. The gospel is a marathon not a sprint.

In a recent conference address, Elder Lawrence gave the talk "What
lack I yet?" He describes how asking our Heavenly Father what we must
do to progress invites simple revelation to improve. After listening
to this talk I decided to ask the Lord what I needed to do better. I
didn't get an immediate response, but the next day while I was peeling
an orange the thought came to me "Don't be so indecisive." There's a
parable about a donkey eating hay. They donkey couldn't make up his
mind of which bale of hay to eat so he eventually died. I realized
that sometimes I'm that donkey. I know that the Spirit works with us
at our own pace. It did for me.

This past week we began with a huge miracle. We were out contacting
old potential investigators and formers when we had the prompting to
go check on some potentials in Windsor. We had gotten a referral for a
particular house, but the lady that was supposed to be there was
actually this awesome young couple, Brandon and Hedder! Brandon is a
tattoo artist with gages. They have two kids and have very strong
faith in the Saviour. We had a great first lesson and they really
believed in the apostasy. I love those lessons where we teach the
Restoration and then just use the Book of Mormon to answer all of
their questions about religion. They had even accepted to be baptized
but unfortunately they looked up more about the church on the internet
a few days ago and we lost them because of anti. So close!

We did find another great new investigator named Shane. Shane is 18
and living on his own. He let us right in and we taught him about the
restoration and put him on date for January 23rd. He comes from a
rough background but he turned his life around and now loves following
the Saviour. The lesson was very simple but the member we brought,
Sister Borden bore a great testimony about the church and even invited
him to come. Members in lessons are so key. Shane is so great. He said
that when he finds out that it's true he'll serve a mission. BAM!

Darren is doing decently. He came to church, but he doesn't seem like
himself lately. He understands the law of chastity and the word of
wisdom, but addictions are just rough to kick. I appreciate all of
your prayers for him. They really are making a difference. Follow-up
follow-up follow-up. Donna came to most of our lessons with him and
bore her testimony about her conversion. She's so great. Recent
converts are dynamite in lessons.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Ye Must Be Born Again

Dear Family,

Elder Hardesty, Donna Scott and Elder McGuire

I have to express appreciation for your prayers this past week. They
made all of the difference. It was a crazy week. Perhaps one of the
hardest of my life, but I know we are making a difference in
Newfoundland. Our small twig got another leaf! Donna was baptized this
past weekend. It didn't come without any opposition though. I know
that this church is true because we face so much opposition. If we
didn't have to deal with the adversary so much it wouldn't be true.
Many people wonder why we have trials or why we have to experience
pain. The answer is found in 2 Nephi 2:2. All of our afflictions will
be consecrated for our gain. It's similar when you're working out, no
pain, no gain.

only in the GF dub

We began the week focusing a lot on Darren. We saw him multiple times
throughout the day to give him support as he gave the axe to smoking.
He tried to quit cold turkey so that he could be baptized on Saturday.
Unfortunately one of our previous investigators, Helen, went rogue and
came after all of the members. Helen went over to Darren's house and
was tempting him for all of Wednesday trying to get him to smoke. We
stopped by and the situation was intense. Helen's mindset must have
been "if I can't get baptized then no one else can get baptised."
Darren just wasn't himself when we dropped by Wednesday afternoon. He
said he didn't feel up to meeting and that he'd see us on Thursday for
his baptismal interview. Helen finally got him to give in and have a
cigarette. GAH! I just wanted to punch someone or something so bad.
Elder Hardesty and I both went down that day. We said a prayer and
talked things out for about an hour before going to visit Donna. We
had to move Darren's date back to January 20th. So he's still going to
get baptized, but just not this year. Mum was always right. A
milkshake and a good cry fixes most things.

The next day we had zone training which was a blast. All of the
missionaries in Newfoundland met in our small apartment chapel for 4
hours while we trained on the Power and Authority of our calling. Lots
of motivation and pump up speeches. The Sister Training Leaders did a
training on Charity and Love and the Sister Training Leader Trainers
(Basically the Sister APs) came up from Halifax to train on working
with the YSA. The zone is very motivated. It's exciting that
Newfoundland is just on fire right now. We have a very experienced
zone so they don't need to be trained on much, but they just need to
be inspired. I love those missionary meetings. After zone training
Donna had her baptismal interview and she passed with flying colours.
Donna had a great week, but Elder Hardesty and I were just hit left
and right with large amounts of depression and mean people. Not a fun
week proselyting wise, but if this was how it had to be I wouldn't
have it any other way.

Zone training was a blast. We packed 20 missionaries into our small
apartment chapel

We then made our trek to Corner Brook with our Grand Fallians. It was
a gong show trying to coordinate housing for all of the members and
then members in Corner Brook not being willing to put up our members.
We had called members for three hours when finally we called President
Edwards and he said to just get a hotel room. So we got a hotel room.
I'm reminded of Nephi. As the Lord liveth and as we live [we will not
go to Corner Brook without all of our members for this baptism]. Donna
loved her baptism. Unfortunately she had to be baptized three times
because her feet kept on kicking up and she was deathly afraid of
water. Elder Hardesty and I both had to be in the font to hold her
under. But yes. Donna Scott is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. I know this was sent from Grandma McGuire.

Thank you all for your prayers! Keep praying for Darren!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scenes from the 3 hour car ride to Corner Brook

Love,

Elder McGuire

We(Elder Hardesty and I) were both in the font and had to baptize her three times it was a
lot of work but it is finished!

Grand Falls Twig just got another leaf! :D
(Sis. Scott at her baptismal interview)

One for the scrapbooks!

Elder McGuire gave the talk on Baptism
All of the elders sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee"

Happy Moments Roll

Makin' fries

New missionary on the rock

Dear Family,

What a great week! It was an eventful one and hectic, but it was still
a great week and this next one will be even better. Thank you for your
letters and for your prayers. It's great that so many of you are doing
your own missionary work. I think when we make sacrifices for the
gospel is when we are more inclined to share it with others. For the
parents, sending two sons on missions is a huge sacrifice, which is
why you're such great missionaries.


I've heard from a few people and witnessed here, but people leaving
the church over things they've read on the internet is the most
ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. There is always answers to
gospel questions we have if we just simple ask, seek, and knock.
Through sincere study and prayer, the mysteries of God are discovered.
Lately I have discovered the answer to one of my questions.

I was reading in the old testament the creation account. The very
first commandment given to man is to "multiply and replenish the
earth." Basically to have families. Looking at the footnotes for this
verse I encountered that the word "replenish" is actually not the
right word. Replenish as we currently understand it means to re-fill
or to fill again. This didn't make sense because the earth hadn't
already been filled with humans, it needed to be filled. I thought
well that makes sense, the bible has many errors in translation
because of the apostasy. I thought that the Pearl of Great Price would
shed some light on the verse. In the Pearl of Great Price I noticed
that replenish was too used. I thought that this couldn't be right. If
Joseph Smith really was a prophet wouldn't the Lord inspire him to
change 'replenish' to 'fill?' I let the matter go for a few days, but
it really bothered me. Even the institute manual didn't give a
satisfactory answer. It wasn't until I was reading through History of
the Church that I found a lead to the answer. Joseph Smith used the
1828 edition of the Webster's dictionary when he was translating the
Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price. This is a tool to
understanding the meanings of words in modern scripture. How does the
1828 Webster's dictionary define the word 'replenish?'
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/replenish So boom. There
is always an answer to those that diligently seek. Joseph Smith was a
prophet of God. I know that he is. Every time I read the Book of
Mormon my testimony of the restoration grows stronger. I testify that
there are answers to honest questions.

This week we were blessed to find 4 new investigators. Both were two
old Newfie pentecostal couples. They're a dime a dozen around here.
The first was Abe and Winnie. We met Abe street contacting a few weeks
ago while he was sitting on a park bench. He is from the bay so his
accent is really thick, but we managed to get his information and give
him a pass-along card. We tried following up the past few weeks but we
could never catch them at home. Finally we dropped by just before
taking our supper break and they let us right in. We taught the
restoration and they are committed to reading the Book of Mormon.

The next two came as a surprise while we were knocking. Elder Hardesty
and I like to "drag-net knock." Meaning we will identify those that
said to come back on a street and then knock the houses around them.
It's good because it always results in finding people to teach. We
were knocking around an old potential investigator who wasn't home and
we knocked on the door of Oswald and Lorraine. They were just about to
go to the Pentecostal tabernacle for church when we knocked on their
door. We didn't say much to convince them to learn more, it was mostly
just bearing testimony that we wouldn't go talking to strangers on a
cold night if what we didn't preach wasn't true. They let us right in
and we taught them the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon.
They had a lot of questions about the Bible so the Book of Mormon came
in handy.

Our science project jk. Actually a man gave us canned moose to snack
on. I love Newfoundland

I really really really need you all to pray for Darren. He is
struggling to quit smoking and his baptism is this Saturday. If he
doesn't stay clean this week then we'll have to set a new date.
Addictions are so hard to overcome. He believes in the church and
wants to get baptized, but it can't happen if he's still breaking the
word of wisdom. It's crunch time so I'm pretty stressed out about him,
but through prayer and Christ all things are possible. The next task
will be to get him the aaronic priesthood because he wants to baptize
his two children, Erica and Buddy.

Donna is doing better than ever. She is so excited to get baptized and
then go out teaching with us. We finished teaching laws and ordinances
and she wants to go to the temple so she can get baptized for her
grandpa. She asked me to baptize her. I thought it was the biggest
tender mercy in the world because it reminded me of Grandma McGuire
who shares the same first name. Getting these two baptismal candidates
to the temple is going to be a struggle because we live so far away
from Halifax. We'll get there. Stay tuned for pictures from the
baptism!!!!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Question of the week: How many of the 12 apostles went to Harvard?

I don't know if I mentioned the Thamas's. They are a new couple from
Ontario that just moved in to Gander (About an hour away from Grand
Falls) and they gave us like all of their church books. Great way to
make missionaries happy :

Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters. I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed
conference and watched all of the sessions. We are the only church
that believes God speaks to us again by way of prophets. It's
significant because we can understand exactly what we are supposed to
do in the next 6 months on a personal level. The church continues to
be strong. We are growing remarkably. The field is white already to
harvest. All of this because a 14 year old saw God.

One of the greatest Canadian Saints was Hugh B. Brown. He gives a
fiery talk called Profile of a Prophet. Look it up, it's a great talk.
It is essentially Hugh B. Brown proving the Joseph Smith was indeed a
prophet and that the church of God has been restored. My favourite
line from the whole thing is when he is practically yelling "I SUBMIT
TO YOU THAT JOSEPH SMITH WAS A PROPHET OF GOD!" We could look at many
aspects of Joseph's life and conclude "welp he said this, must not be
a prophet." That's not really how it works. It comes down to the Book
of Mormon. Perhaps I have told this story before, but this experience
is how I gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is still a good
idea to read the book and pray about it. As Elder Anderson said "When
was the last time you read the Book of Mormon?"

In the middle of February on a cold Canadian night in downtown Halifax
(Eastern Cole Harbour) Elder Henderson and I were knocking doors.
After not much success (there's never really much success in tracting)
we came to one door that smelt of marijuana and cigarettes. I knocked
on the door and a man came out trying to brush us off. Being
persistent I tried to explain to him what our purpose was, really why
we were knocking on his door. I explained the Book of Mormon and
Joseph Smith and asked him if he had ever heard of or read the Book of
Mormon. He replied that the book was garbage, that we should throw it
in the trash, stop wasting our time, and look for some actual facts in
life. Normally I don't pursue these people who have read unfavorable
material regarding the church, but this time was different. I took a
deep breath of cold air, squared my shoulders, looked him in the eye
and bore the most ferocious testimony I could muster: "This book is
not garbage, it is its own evidence, it is the word of God, and you
will never even begin to understand that until you have read it and
asked God if it is his word!" He brushed us off and closed the door.
Later when we were getting into the car I felt an overwhelming sense
of being alive, warm, and peaceful. It was that moment that I knew the
Book of Mormon was true. I still know that it's true. It is the word
of God.

I felt impressed to share that story with you again. This previous
week was an excellent week. We had a few appointments fall through and
different things happening in the members' lives so they couldn't come
to lessons, but nevertheless we had a good week. We found four new
investigators. Missionary work is a lot like an escalator. You always
have to be finding when you're not teaching. The first was Rob. Rob we
met knocking (knocking works on a occasion) around a referral we got
from former investigator we met. He is pentacostal but has a hard time
believing in God. He thought the First Vision was powerful. To quote
him "So some guy actually saw God?" What more evidence of God could
anyone want? He's reading the Book of Mormon and we will follow-up in
a few days.

The next investigator is Colleen. Colleen was actually a referral from
Helen. She is her daughter who lives on the other side of town.
Colleen is also pentecostal. There are so many pentecostal people
around here good gravy. Much of our first lessons are just an
explanation of the restoration and then testifying of it. She
explained that we had 10 minutes to share with her what she believed
before she had to pick up her kids from hockey and so we had to move
through that lesson. The Spirit was strong and she's going to read the
Book of Mormon.

Then the highlight of the week was finding Brittany. Elder Beacham and
I actually street contacted her about two weeks ago. We had a bit more
time to explain the restoration but she kept on bringing up in the
first 20 minutes "So what do you guys actually believe?" Gloves came
off and we got to the Book of Mormon and the first vision. Then we
spent the rest of the 40 minute lesson answering her questions using
the Book of Mormon. Everything from the Fall to the trials we face and
why bad things happen to innocent people. Powerful first lesson. We
invited her to be baptized on November 21. She is married, has a
house, a job, and a husband that works in the oil rigs off the coast.
#kingdombuilder

Our other investigators are coming along. Helen unfortunately dropped
us. We had an allstar lesson with her on Wednesday and she was giving
up smoking and it was just phenomenal. Then Thursday morning we were
supposed to teach her but she texted us with all of these concerns
about the church and how she doesn't want to quit smoking and on and
on and on. GAH. So she dropped us, told us that we shouldn't come by
anymore and that she wants nothing to do with our religion. Such a
bummer because she was two weeks away from being baptized.

Darren is making an effort to quit smoking. He came to 3 of the
sessions and also to the priesthood session. He really enjoyed it.
Some of the talks were definitely for him. He thought the whole event
was just incredible. It's good for the members and investigators here
to see that we really are a worldwide church. Donna also came and
loved it. She said that she knows Thomas S. Monson is a prophet.
Conference was the best.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Bruce R. McConkie wrote the previous intro to the Book of Mormon, but
in terms of the new one I'm not sure.

Question of the week (More of like a search): Find in the Book of
Mormon where it mentions that the complete Book of Mormon has a
creation of the world account. The race is on!