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