A Saviour is Born

Dear Family,

American Thanksgiving in Canada. Yes we can cook

Thank you for your letters and pictures of food from your
Thanksgiving. A digital picture can only go so far, until you box up
the leftovers and send them to me I won't be able to appreciate all of
the food you made. I'm glad that you had a great Thanksgiving.
Gratitude is the tool we have to work on our humility. Through
humility we are able to increase in knowledge, love, faith, hope, and
obedience. President Eyering admonishes us to write down every night
15 things we are grateful for from the day. The Lord blesses us every
day. I've been studying a lot about hope this past week.

Isn't a meal without Sweet Baby Ray's

Hope as defined in Preach My Gospel is the expectation that the Lord
will fulfill His promises to us. If we keep the commandments we will
prosper. It is the law of the harvest. What we reap is what we sow. If
we do all that we can to live the Doctrine of Christ. Exercising faith
unto repentance then the promise is clear in 2 Nephi 31:20: "Ye shall
have eternal life." I expect the Lord to bless me for working to find
people to teach. The Lord has to bless us. It's in His character. I
know that when we are obedient we can expect the Lord to bless us.



This week was a solid week. We began the evening by picking up a new
investigator, Emma. Emma is from PEI but going to school in Moncton. A
member who was a recent convert invited her over for our visit. That
is how member missionary work is done. It's not easy. but it's the
most effective way to find people to teach for the missionaries; when
the member does the inviting. That was a great tender mercy to begin
the week with. Later that night we taught our investigators Joey and
Kayla. Joey is so solid. He plays the guitar in a rock band and
already believes the church is true. It'll now be just a matter of
having them live the law of chastity (getting separate apartments or
getting married) and then they can get baptized. We taught them the
Plan of Salvation and it was such an easy lesson. I think it's harder
for me to teach interested people than it is to teach uninterested
people. Nevertheless, they are making great steps towards being
baptized. The Plan of Salvation invites a lot of questions. The
Restoration is our foundational message, but the Plan of Salvation
sparks the most questions.

Hard hard work every day. My new record for people I've talked to in a day

The next day was zone conference. It was great to be with all of the
missionaries across Maine, New Brunswick, and PEI. Most of the meeting
was focused on improving our follow-up and a special initiative
President Pratt cooked up. Le Tour de Fois (Faith). For this current
week we will be doing a blitz week. No meetings, no extra studies,
just good old-fashioned hard work. The goal is to talk to 300 people
and work for 30 hours. The current mission standard is 140 people and
10 hours. I normally talk to about 350 people and work for 20 hours.
It'll be good for the mission. There's special prizes every day for
who can hand out the most Book of Mormons, teach the most shorts (10
minutes restoration lessons), church invites, member present lessons,
and baptismal invites. We've never done a competition before in the
mission, but I think it's needed because last year around this time
the mission just died with no motivation. The grand prize is yet to be
announced. The zone leaders and APs are going to see who can get 1000
contacts. Numbers, numbers, numbers, I know. We had a big discussion
about it at zone conference and the mission just needs to do this to
help keep the motivation through the winter. I'm pumped.

The next day we had to do an emergency visit to Beresford at the
request of President Pratt. I won't go into details, but there's just
been some disobedience in the zone that only a surprise drop in visit
could fix. We got up at 5 and drove three hours to the north end of
the province near Quebec. For the rest of the day we made a transfer
plan, a weekly plan, and a daily plan, cleaned the apartment, did
studies, and then hit the streets looking for people to teach. We were
in the heart of Acadie so the people only spoke French, but we just
needed to be there so that the missionaries would work. It was an odd
day trying to speak French to people, but we found Jean-marc to teach

The members in Grand Falls got me a moose mug :D

who came from a rough past, but has been reading the bible for a year
and was interested in the Book of Mormon. The French work gets a bad
rap for being difficult, but it really wasn't that hard. We got two
referrals from a less-active and taught two lessons. Amazing things
happen when you have a plan and work hard.

Once back in Moncton we found a new investigator, Kathy. We had met
Kathy about a week ago street contacting. I think I may have written
about her before, but she's the one whose sister is a member in
Ontario. She's had a lot of death in her family so we taught a short
restoration and then used the Book of Mormon to answer her questions
about the Plan of Salvation. Just a solid first lesson. She doesn't
know if she wants to be baptized just yet with her Catholic
background. It was a very spiritual lesson. She cried when she heard
the First Vision. One of the more solid lessons I've had with a new
investigator.

Sunday was just a solid day. We found Donat (Doh-nay, it's French).
Donat is the real deal. He was an active Catholic until a few weeks
ago he just couldn't get real answers from his priest so for a whole
week he did a ton of reading on the internet about religion.
Incredibly he didn't find any anti-mormon material and once he found
mormon.org he just was engulfed in the website. He requested a Book of
Mormon and we were stoked when we realized that someone wanted to have
us in on a cold New Brunswick night. We had a solid first lesson, he
gave us two referrals, and asked to be baptized. He'll be baptized the
23rd of January!!!!! He's the most solid Acadian I've ever met. Vive
L'Acadie!

It was a great week in Moncton. This next week is going to be eventful
with the blitz we're doing. Elder Tincher and I stocked up on protein
so we don't have to take meal breaks (relax it's only for one week).
It'll be a stretch, but I'll be happy to report to you next week about
what happens.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

D&C 82:10

Pictures from Grand Falls--Transfer back to Moncton

Grand Falls in the Fall

Elder Hardesty

Last teaching appointment taking Sister Borden to. One week she went
to 14 investigator lessons. Awesome member missionary right there

Last visit with Donna :/

Our apartment in Moncton is shared with the Dieppe elders. Elder
Tincher is my new comp cleaning the kitchen and then we have Elder
Leroy from Belgium and Elder Ostermiller from Utah

Rick's new companion, Elder Tincher from Alpine, UT

The Dieppe Elders

Baby Girl the best cat in the world

Jack the pentecostal brother (We'll get him baptized one of these days!)

Sister King ding-a-ling putting on a right nice feed before I left

Sister Borden :D

With Humble Hearts

Grand Falls in the Fall

Dear Family,
Thank you for writing me once again! I've gotten to know you all a lot
better on my mission. It's nice to hear from you and what's going on
in your lives and in your families. I hope that you all have a good
thanksgiving this Thursday. Canada has a different Thanksgiving. We
had it about a month and a half ago. I don't know if we'll get fed on
Thursday by some member that takes pity on American missionaries but
we'll see how it goes. It's good to be back in Moncton. Very often we
don't have a chance in life to do something twice. I have a second
shot with this ward and with the area so I'm excited about that.

We are promised an incredible blessing with the atonement of Jesus
Christ. He is our saviour and just as Alma declares he knows our pain
and our suffering. His remedy for our suffering and sins is the
gospel. It is through the gospel that we become stronger and better
people. We can change our lives. Christ has felt as we have or may
feel. He knows the solution. It is called the Doctrine of Christ.
Faith is applying correct principles to our lives. It is taking the
will of God and making it ours. When we exercise faith we avoid
difficult problems like addiction, debt, and ignorance. We would not
understand how to overcome those problems had Christ not atoned and
then taught the remedies through prophets. Although we may make
mistakes, we can repent and lead better lives that are more
fulfilling. Repentance opens up a better life. I know that Christ is
the way to salvation. We can experience spiritual and temporal
blessings through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This past week was rough on me emotionally. It was very difficult to
say goodbye to our little twig in Grand Falls. We had most of Monday
and Tuesday to have some final appointments so that was nice. Donna
was pretty sad to see me go, but I'll make sure to visit everyone
there again. In our final lesson we talked about the Montreal Temple
Rededication and she was very excited to go. Getting a recent convert
to the temple is so key, even if you live far away from it. The
recommend holding members got to see the broadcast in Corner Brook
which doubled as the temple for the rededication.

See ya later Elder Hardesty

We had a nice Newfie dinner Tuesday night which was so much fun. As
the Newfs say "Some shocking good me duckie!" or "Some shocking good
me old trout!" All of the members there are just so great. We had
supper with Sister King and Sister Borden. It was a serious meal.
Moose roast, potatoes, turnips, peas, and plenty of gravy. Newfies
know how to make a great feed.

I was pretty upset with Darren when we showed up for our last lesson.
Helen was there when we got there and they were both drinking. It
wasn't a good environement for a lesson so I pulled the plug and said
we needed to go. Darren didn't say the nicest things to me which was
not how I wanted things to end. Put so much work into teaching him I

Grand Falls is my second home

sure do hope that he gets baptized. In general it was just hard to
leave Grand Falls. But I will go back one day and visit with everyone.

After a flight from Deer Lake to Halifax I got to spend the day in
Cole Harbour which was nice. It was good to see lots of people that I
knew and get some proselyting in. I was a different missionary on
those streets this time around. We then had to get up early to travel
to Moncton with all of the new missionaries so that they could get to
their areas. Once we dropped my stuff off, we hit the streets street
contacting. I really took the Newfoundland hospitality for granted.
Both Newfies and New Brunswickers have about the same level of
interest in the gospel but the New Brunswickers aren't the kindest
about saying no. We did get so much work done though. Over the past
three days we talked to 350 people.

Moncton has so many options for proselyting. We started to contact
people on the universite de moncton. Everyone's first language was
defintely french but they were still YSA and we found a lot of great
people. The first guy we found was Ibrahima from Senegal. He was
interested in learning about prophets. I love how open all of the
college students are. We also found where all of the student housing
was so that was a blast to knock. Another lady we found was Kathy. Her
sister is actually a member in Ontario so she wanted to know more
about what she believed. Our current investigators are Brady and Joey.
Brady is very solid. He was a media referral from a while ago that
wanted to have a better relationship with God. He is gay, but is
seriously one of the most solid people I have ever taught. He's
getting baptized in the next couple of months. Joey is the cousin of
the ward mission leader. Catholic but not really active and he's
getting baptized in December. We're getting things going here in
Moncton.

Elder Tincher is awesome. He's from Alpine, Utah, played Football and
Lacrosse in High School and is a serious worker. We both just hit the
streets and work as hard as we can. We're going to see miracles this
transfer.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Ye May Know the Truth of All Things

,https://www.facebook.com/cbcnl/videos/10153304812092174/
We were in Corner Brook for Newfoundland Conference this weekend.
Thought you all might enjoy this

Dear Family,

Some shockin good me duckie

Thank you for all of your letters. Some of you wrote a lot! I try to
respond to everyone that writes so if you ever write me, I can
guarantee a response. I really appreciate your prayers as well. I know
whenever we get discouraged that prayer is the best place to go. There
have been a few times where I've gotten so fed up with the world and
prayer is right there to heal the frustration. I think sometimes we go
over the deep end sometime with being formal in our prayers. Honestly
we don't want to get too lax with the language we use, but some of the
best prayers I've had were being as real and genuine as I could. I
bear testimony of the power of prayer.

Our church holds some very unique doctrines compared to other churches
and philosophies. We believe that God continues to call prophets who
guide us through modern revelation. Whenever we have a concern about
the church it's important to study the concern. It's more important to
review our testimony of the church in general. Any objection to the
church basically hinges on whether or not Joseph Smith and his
prophetic descendants were and are prophets that receive guidance from
God for the whole world. To prove himself as a prophet called by God,
Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. If that book is true then
God has once again called a prophet and his kingdom is on the earth.
Throughout my whole mission I have encountered people every day who
have read unfavourable material about the church. Were it not for my
testimony of the Book of Mormon I would not be here. I know that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and I especially bear testimony that
Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called by God.

This previous week was an eventful one. We found a new investigator
and put him on date for January 23rd. We used to teach Gerald but he
went missing and didn't seem to have like any real intent, but now he
wants to make some changes in his life and get baptized. He's the
biker ex-hells angels guy if you remember from my previous emails.
January 23rd is actually his birthday so that worked out perfectly. We
now have three prospective priesthood holders on date to be baptized
for the 23rd. It would be great if I could remain her in Newfoundland
for that long. Most of our lesson with Gerald focused on Jesus
Christ's sacrifice for us. How he is indeed our saviour and that we
can be forgiven of our sins if we follow Him. I was on exchanges with
Elder Sortomme (again haha, this one was like our 5th exchange
together) and he bore great testimony that really softened Gerald's
heart.

The other new investigator we found was Crystal. Crystal is married,
has three kids, and works as a paralegal. I'm grateful for all of
those days in the office because we were able to have a chat about law
and stuff to break the ice. We actually knocked into her family the
other week in a freezing rain storm and she invited us back. She comes
from an anglican background but doesn't really go. We taught her the
restoration and invited her to be baptized. She isn't sure yet if she
wants to commit to a date. We did get her to commit to come to church
and read the Book of Mormon. We are finding so many great people to
teach. I love Newfoundland.

This past week we had Newfoundland conference. This meant getting all
of our members out to Corner Brook so that we all could skype into St.
John's for the conference. Those trips take so much out of me. The
coordinating of rides and housing and food and blah it's just hard,
but we got it figured out. Kind of something crazy that happened, but
the Corner Brook building got broken into. The guy like smashed the
Branch President's office with a jack hammer attachment and was using
all of these butcher knifes to try and get into the Family History
Centre. We are pretty sure he was looking for tithing money because
the clerks office was also ripped apart, but we don't keep money on
site. The building did get put back together for the meeting. It was a
great conference. Lots of talk about finding people for the
missionaries to teach and sustaining our leaders.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire

Strengthen Thy Steaks (Newfie steaks!)

NewFoundland is beautiful!

Who's ready for another Canadian winter?

Dear Family,

Thank you all for writing me. I can't believe that it's already

snow on the ground

November. By the end of this year I will have spent every day of 2015
being a missionary. 2014 and 2016 won't have that same title. I've
learned a lot this year and I've grown personally in so many ways. I'm
grateful for all of the letters that you write to me every week.

Whenever I hear that you're praying for me or that you put my name on
the prayer roll at the temple it makes me feel so blessed. I hope you
all had a safe and fun Halloween.

Lately I've been studying about the pre-earth life. No one is born
with a blank slate. We all have different personalities, different
views, different likes and dislikes. Some of us take well to finger
painting while others are better at making people laugh. Our Heavenly
Father has blessed us with different talents. God is the father of our
spirits. He wants us to become like Him in every way. To accomplish
this He sent Jesus Christ into the world to save us from sin on
conditions of repentance and obedience. We learned a lot before we
came to this earth to receive a body. Our entire existence will be a
process of developing our talents and becoming better. The glory of
God is intelligence. In other words, light and truth. Light and truth
forsake the evil one. I know that through faith, repentance, baptism,
and guidance from the Spirit that we are able to learn anything and
become more like our Heavenly Father. That is His purpose.

This past week we were on visits to St. John's to work with the
Paradise Elders. The St. John's district has just been a challenge to
motivate and train my entire time I've been here, but this past
transfer the Paradise Elders whitewashed (both of them were new to the
area) and they needed our help to get their area going. This meant a
four hour drive on a P-day and three days out of our area. It was a
great exchange though. I got to work with both of the elders and we
got a lot done. Between working with them, making phone calls back to
our own area, and forgetting my thermals and winter coat, we were also
asked to present a training about finding with power and authority to
the Mission Leadership Council. I was worn out by Wednesday night, but
it was such a fulfilling three days.

Elder Dudley and I went contacting at Memorial University for two
hours on Tuesday afternoon. The very first contact the lady was
interested in meeting. University students are a bit tougher to

contact than your standard Maritimer because they know how to express
themselves and they can see through poor presentation. We picked up
Brook as a new investigator for the Paradise Elders by simply
testifying of the Book of Mormon and explaining how it blessed our
lives. Another situation we were contacting students right after class
had ended and one guy totally brushed us off. The standard "I've
already heard all of it I don't want to hear it" garbage. Not like
that hasn't happened to me thousands of times before, we moved on and
kept talking to people.

We had walked through the end of campus and we were making our way
back when this same guy comes bursting out of a building and yells
"EXCUSE ME!" That's normally what we do to stop people for a chat. He
said that he had half an hour and we could give him our best shot. So
we taught him the restoration. His name was Nicholas and he was very
agnostic, but the Spirit just prompted him to give us a shot. He
really liked the idea that there was an apostasy. He saw so much
corruption in other churches that he gave up on Christianity and moved
onto Buddhism. I love teaching university students because they have a
quick wit. Nicholas put together the rest of the restoration once we
explained about dispensations and the apostasy. He was really seeking
the truth. We'll see how things turn out for the Paradise Elders.

We then taught one of the investigators that the Paradise Elders had
been teaching. Sah from Sierra Leone. His sister and mum got baptized
a few months ago but he decided not to. For the longest time he would
not tell the elders why. Elder Hansen and I went to see him and he was
complaining about how itchy his face was. We asked him what was wrong
and he explained that he has leprosy and that he didn't see the need
for priesthood authority with baptism. We gave him a blessing for the
leprosy and then taught about why the priesthood is so important. It
was a powerful lesson and we put him on date for November 28. The
Spirit was so strong. It was one of the best lessons I've ever been
in. It made me feel really close with the Saviour because he healed
lepers.

I know that God's authority and power is once again on the earth. I
have witnessed miracles this past week.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire