Pictures

 

Here are most of my pictures, sorry it took so long.

So the first few are my district, then there is one with my Branch Presidency (President and Sister Wilkins, Brother and Sister Wilkins, and Brother and Sister Monson), then with my teacher Hermano Wiest and then Hermano Reading. Then with friends and my district.
 (I think I am missing a few I'll email him and check and put more up if he sends more on his next P-day! - Layne)

Turkey and Beans!

Hola todos!

So the subject is turkey and beans because thats what you get when your a Spanish missionary covering a both English and Spanish branch haha I had a great traditional turkey and stuffing dinner in the afternoon with a less active family and then a dinner that night with Jaime (hi-may), who is basically a member missionary who feeds us all the time. He made us some weird meat stuff and lots of beans- it was delicious! He is from El Salvador and lives in this tiny basement but he lives missionary work and talks to everyone about the gospel.

And I know they say that Turkey makes you feel tired, but this year, it sounds like it set off some lovey dovey hormones haha but congrats to Parker and Rachel on their engagement and also Meesh and Joe!!! its about time...hah and also, Im so happy for my dad and his new calling!! He has always been an example for me to follow and I hope I can develop the love and diligence he has in serving the Lord and His people.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but our mission has a goal of 400 baptisms this year. President Jergensen said that the Lord told him at the beginning of this year that there are 400 souls prepared and ready to be baptized in 2012. Needless to say, we have been working our tails off to find those 400 souls so they can accept the gospel and enter into a covenant to follow the Lord. As of right now, we have 323 total baptisms this year, so we have 77 more to go if we are to reach the goal the Lord has set for us. We have 117 baptismal dates set for december so it is attainable, but most of those dates need to follow through! Im asking for prayers so that these wonderful people cannot be tempted away from their commitment, but rather hold firm to it so they can receive a remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost! Elder Arellano and I have 3 investigators with a date. One lives on the outskirts of our area which is about an hour away from our apartment (we live in our own apartment btw) but she is moving into Perry(city where we live) tomorrow, so we should be3 able to have more time teaching her and guiding her to baptism! The other 2 just moved from Massachusettsto Perry. They are the parents of the mother of the family of 4 that we just baptized on the 17th of November. They are progressing so well and Saturday night, we took home a huge jar of coffee and tea as they agreed to live the word of wisdom haha it took some persuasion but we agreed to bring back a lot of hot chocolate to replace the coffee ;) Things seem to be getting better each and everyday and I am so grateful for the gospel knowledge that we have as Latter-Day Saints. I talk to so many people each day who are visible struggling with addictions or afflictions and I try to share the only message that will redeem them but they are so quick to ignore the truth. Satan truly has grasped so many people in this world, by way of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. If only they would wake up and let the "scales of darkness fall from their eyes" so they could see the truth, which is Jesus Christ and His Plan of Happiness and Redemption, which is only made possible by His infinite atoning sacifice! The way is stait and the path is narrow. He is the way! So always remember the invitation that is constantly extended by Him who is mighty to save, "Come, follow me." I love you all and pray that you will seek to do good continually and pressforward with steadfastness in Christ, feasting upon His word and His truth. This church bears His name because it is His church. Les amo y cuidese!
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Elder Seth McGinn

8515 Douglas Ave. Ste. 19

Urbandale, IA 50322

Is this Iowa? Nope, its heaven!

haha this is from the movie "Field of Dreams" and its pretty sweet because my work here in Iowais to make it "heavenly."

but Hey everybody! Que tal? Iowais flat as can be. Its pretty weird without mountains around but I'm getting by okay. I know there is a lot you want to hear but I dont have much time so I will be as specific as possible. My new companion and trainer is Elder Arellano, a native Spanish speaker from San Miguel,California (up by Pasa Robles and San Luis Obispo). He is great and we are working hard together. Our area is the Perry, IA area, just about 40 miles West Northwest of Des Moines. We serve in the Perry Branch which is pretty small haha its crazy because we cover a lot of area, mostly corn and soybean fields and there are few active members here, I would say we had about 40 or 50 at sacrament on Sunday. The weather is great for November. We had a baptism on Saturday of a family of four haha all the other Elders were giving me a hard time and joking that I already had 4 baptisms without doing any work haha it was my companions first baptisms and he has been out for 18 months. but I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at the baptism and the Spirit was very strong there. Yesterday, we had a general authority come visit our mission: Elder Don R. Clarke from the Seventy. We met with half the mission in Des Moines and he trained us on how to be better all-round missionaries and it was awesome!!! I learned so much and have a better vision for the work I have to do. I love you all and promise to send a better email next week and lots of pictures but I need to run! The gospel needs to be taken to the four corners of the Earth and everyone needs to have the opportunity to hear it! Love you all and Happy Thanksgiving! Im grateful for all of you in my life and pray for each of you every day. Read the words of God every day and thank Him for all the good things in your life, then ask him to help you with all the bad things in your life. He listens and will help you when you ask Him to. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, I promise! Love you all!
--

Elder Seth McGinn

IowaDes Moines Mission

8515 Douglas AveSte.19

Urbandale, IA 50322

Week 9- Greenie Time

Dear Family and Friends,

Elder McGinn has officially landed in IOWA. He is now in the field and the field is white.

He is so excited to finally be in DES MOINES, IOWA.

He called his mom and dad this morning at about 6:30am from the airport in Salt Lake City.

He reports that all is well. He is staying healthy and loved his time in the MTC.

He mentioned that he really looks forward to being back in a ward family. He has missed

being a part of a ward family.

A ward is the group of people that we meet with every Sunday at church. It is determined

by ward boundaries. It depends on where you live on what ward you go to. You can go

to lds.org or mormon.org to learn more about wards.

He said to send his love to you all and he wants you to know how grateful he is

for your prayers.

We will look forward to getting his next letter on Monday, November 19, 2012.

His preparation day will now be Mondays.

Our love to you all and thanks again for all of your support,

Kevin and Tori McGinn

 

Continue to keep him in your prayers!!

Week 8- Travel Plans are Great!

Hola todos!
We got our travel plans finally!! I have a flight to Minnesotaat 8:40am on Wednesday the 14th and then fly down to Iowaand my arrival time in Des Moinesis about 3:00pm. So a week from today and I will be in the "field". Im stoked! This also means that I only have a week left in the MTC! That is precious time I have to keep studying the doctrine, mastering the Spanish language, and enjoy "free" meals 3 times a day haha so this week has been awesome! We got to meet with a girl who just moved to Uruguay to Utah in March. She had never been to America before and her English was terrible but her husband is going to school at BYU. This was amazing because Elder Pena and I had been preparing a lesson about sacrifice to share. We were able to talk about the sacrifices in her life and discuss the sacrifice that Abraham was asked to make with his son, Isaac. We discussed how our Heavenly Father had literally sacrificed his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for us, the rest of his children. We discussed how part of this life is learning how to sacrifice and use the Atonement of Christ in our lives to cleanse us from our sins and imperfections. The sacrifice that Heavenly Father and Christ want us to make is one of a broken heart (humility and compassion) and a contrite spirit (sincere and real intent of righteous desires). Our goal in this life is to become like Christ. He never judged, sincerely loved all others, forgave everyone, and most importantly, served all those around him. He has atoned for us and has set the example for us to follow. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, have faith in him and follow his example of baptism and continually doing good one to another. My plea is for everyone who has a sincere desire to be good and do good, to pray to their Heavenly Father, read his words in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, then to pay attention to how they feel when they do these things and what they can then do to bring others these feelings of peace and joy. The Church is true. Joseph Smith was called of God and is his prophet in these latter-days like Moses was in his day. We have the authority from God to perform the saving ordinance of baptism. So come and be baptized, be born again into a new person who has a desire to be like Christ. All we can do is strive to be like him and to do our best, but if we do this, He promises to take care of the rest. Lets take His yoke and His burden upon us, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Love you all! Ciao!
-Elder Seth McGinn

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Elder Seth McGinn

MTC Mailbox #216

IA-DMOIN 1114

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

Week 7- Blessings from Heaven

AY!!Comoandan? (Hows it going)

It has been another great week here in the MTC! Elder Peña and I have continued to work hard and grow closer to Christ! Elder Brandon Fish (B-Fish) came into the MTC a week ago and it is great to see him. He is on the same floor as me in our classroom and we have the same schedule so that means we have gym time together which is a lot of fun! Im also way excited for Churro to be coming in today! He is going to be a great missionary and it will be fun to take some pictures all together! About pictures, they have removed card readers from most the computers so its really difficult to find a computer to send pictures on. My plan is to send home my memory card after my first week in Iowa. I have 2 memory cards so I can pop the other one in and then you can see a bunch of pictures from the MTC and from my first week in the field. I will be off to Iowa in about 2 weeks from today, but I havent gotten my travel plans so I dont know all the logistics yet.

Anywho, lets get to the good stuff! This week we have helped our investigator Dakota overcome his smoking addiction. I think what helped him most was when I talked about my grandpa (thats you PaPa!) and how he had made a new years resolution to stop smoking. PaPa had been smoking for as long as I could remember, but had the will and mind power to stop because he wanted to take better care of himself and show his family love by quitting this deadly addiction. In this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe Joseph Smith to be a prophet, who is someone whom God reveals his will to for the sake of all his children. Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, through Joseph Smith, revealed a code of health for his Children to live by. This is called the Word of Wisdom. This is what many people in the world would recognize as the thing that sets Mormons apart from other people. In the Word of Wisdom, God teaches and instructs that strong drinks (alcohol) is not meant for the belly, but for the washing of bodies. Also, that tobacco is not for the body or belly either, but as an herb for bruises and sicknesses to be used with judgment and skill. It goes on to say that hot drinks (interpreted by our prophets to be non-herbal tea and coffee) is not for the body or belly as well. The Lord then promises that as we avoid these harmful substances and use the crops he has given us wisely we will receive "health in our navel and marrow to our bones" and also that we will be able to "run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint." This is a health code that all should live by so that all can receive these promised blessings. I know that as my grandpa has quit smoking, he has become healthier and physically and mentally more able. Dakota has not smoked now for 3 days and he says that when he thinks about smoking, he has feelings of nausia and disgust. Our bodies know whats best for them. They (our bodies) are a creation from our Father, in his exact image, for us. Let us treat them as the wonderful gift and blessing they are! I love you all and know that this Church is the Church of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Joseph Smith, He restored the fulness of his authority, teachings, and ordinance for all of us in these days. We need to strive to be more like Christ everyday, becoming more patient, humble, and loving to ALL around us. We can know how to do this by reading His words in the holy scriptures and also by listening to the words of his Prophets on the Earth today. I promise that as we set time aside to heed these words and counsel, we will feel the love of Christ in our loves and will be able to spread that love by serving and helping those around us! You can hear these messages by going to LDS.org and listening to "General Conference October 2012" talks. Please do so and know that I think of you all often and pray for you daily! I love you all!

Keep on Keepin ON!

-Elder Seth McGinn
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Elder Seth McGinn

MTC Mailbox #216

IA-DMOIN 1114

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604