We All Need Saving

Dear Family,

Thank you for the birthday wishes! I really appreciate that you
remembered! I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be 20 years old. Last
year for my birthday I was in Halifax and it was a fast sunday. I got
up to bear my testimony about missionary work and a less-active who
had previously denied us coming over then came up to me after the
meeting and said that we could stop by around 3. We didn't have much
going on in Cole Harbour. Just lots of knocking and lots of phone
calls. Not too many people to teach. I was feeling pretty down about
the work there. Then we got a phone call from President Leavitt and he
invited us over for dinner and to make a training video for the whole
mission to watch about our purpose as missionaries. It was nice
because he didn't even know it was my birthday and I got steak and
cake. Tender mercies.

This past week we focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with the
families we visited. We committed three families to read it in 100
days and then write their testimony in the copy we gave them so that
we can then hand it out to a friend of theirs (or they can personally
hand it out.) I'm not much for reading the Book of Mormon in X amount
of days but if anything it keeps people in the scriptures. I think
it's interesting how we need somewhat of the Law of Moses to get us
into the scriptures. We have prizes in primary for memorizing the
articles of faith like candy or icecream, we have missionaries that
are getting cars for serving a mission, there are dinners held for
young women because they beat the young men in who could do the most
member-missionary work. Here's the thing about prizes. Prizes motivate
people to get prizes. Fame among church members gets a lot of people
to serve missions, do their home teaching, or get their kids to church
on time. We like to look good to others and we like to accumulate
things. When the prizes stop people stop. To be honest, I memorized
the 13 articles of faith when I was in primary so that I could get
candy. Now guess what, I don't have the articles of faith memorized.
People need something more than prizes. Fame motivates people, money
motivates people, prizes motivate people. However, none of these
things motivate people like love motivates people. Passion is the best
motivator. We need examples of great theologians if we're going to
properly motivate people to read the scriptures. People need an idea.
A story. As Babe Ruth once said "Heroes get remembered, but legends
never die." Prizes don't belong in the Lord's church.

This past week we were blessed to find two new investigators to teach.
The first one is David from West Virginia. West Virginia sounds like a
beautiful place I'm telling you what. David is very gung-ho about the
bible and the Saviour and he asks a ton of questions. I think that if
I wasn't called to serve in the Maritimes I would have been called to
serve in the south. David just moved up here and we had a great lesson
about the Restoration and focused primarily on the apostasy. He
doesn't think he's worthy to be baptized yet so we'll be working on
that with him. He wants to take us moose hunting. If only we were
allowed to handle guns as missionaries. Anyway, it was a great lesson.

The next investigator we found was Dan. He's an older man that is
involved with the NRA up here in Aroostook County. He taught us the
'Let My Aim Be True" prayer: "Lord, make me fast and accurate let my
aim be true and my hand faster than those who would seek to destroy
me. Grant me victory over my foes, and those that wish to do harm to
me and mine. Let NOT my last thought be, if I only had a gun, and lord
if today is truly the day that you call me home, let me die in a pile
of empty brass…" Amen. Dan had a concern about modern day prophets but
once we showed him in the scriptures how it was all put together he
understood it. He has a very strong testimony of repentance. He has
really worked through a lot of his problems which is really good
because the heavy lifting is already done for getting ready for
baptism.

Carla is now on date for April 9th so we now have three people getting
ready for baptism! The lesson with Carla was powerful. We read through
the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and she was just amazed that
not everyone knew about the Restoration. We had invited her to be
baptized a week earlier and she accepted. I made a really dumb folly
and forgot to select a date. In this lesson she was like "So when
would I be getting baptized?" Obviously she needs a date! She's
excited to be baptized by immersion. We're cooking with peanut oil
now!

Jason needs a lot of prayers right now. He is still meeting with us
but the word of wisdom is a giant roadblock for him. We've been
calling him every day and doing push-ups with him when he gets an urge
to smoke, but I think he needs some more help. He loves the church
videos like Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and The
Testaments:of one fold and one shepherd. He reminds me a lot of Darren
in Newfoundland. Good heart, but just having a hard time living the
commandments. Also if you could pray for Tia because she dislocated
her shoulder and is now in the ER.

Things are coming along in Caribou lou. We get to go all the way to
Halifax this weekend for the French temple trip (Elder Von Trapp is a
French missionary). Thank you for writing me every week everybody!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Elder McGuire