Missionary-Minded Members

Hey family!

Well, its been another great week! Its good to hear that Blake was good and safe down in Tampico with that hurricane. I love that guy! Its great to read his, Jordan's and Dallas' letters each week. I got lucky with some great friends! Just to echo what they were saying in their letters, its all about the Work of Salvation! Saving people from their worldly troubles, addictions, sicknesses, stress, and giving them hope for peace in this life and eternal life afterwards!  I am learning more and more about how our mindset, or the way we view "missionary work" needs to change.  I always thought of it as we, as members, need to help the full time missionaries with their investigators. That was good and it worked, but Heavenly Father expects more of us! We as members of the Church are the ones who should be finding, befriending, and testifying to OUR friends and neighbors. Then, the" full-time missionaries" help us with OUR missionary work :) You see how that works! Its great because instead of 2 or 4 missionaries and 25-30 helpers in the ward, we get 25-30 missionaries (members of the Church) and 2 or 4 helpers in each ward (the full-time missionaries). I hope that makes sense! Anyways, that's my addition to Blake and Jordan's rant on the Work of Salvation haha

 

Last night, we met with Pres. Pence, the Des Moines Stake Pres, and with Pres Jensen (our mission pres.). These are the men with the priesthood keys in this work!!! It was a great meeting as we made some great plans to reach the stake goal of 214 converts this year. We are 100 short right now, but we know we can reach it as WE help the members, instead of them helping us. They know way more people than we do anyways ;)

 

The 5th branch is doing great! We had a bit of a crazy sacrament meeting yesterday b/c we had a recent convert almost faint right before we took the sacrament. We think it was hypo-glycemic problems but we ended up helping her out to the foyer and giving her a blessing right there! It was sweet and she is doing much better today! We are teaching Rosario and her family still, a nine year old named Angel, a husband of one of our best members, and a sweet young couple named Juan and Delila :) Teaching is the best and I'm trying to lose myself in these peoples lives so that we can help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and feel the joy of our message. I love being a representative of Christ! It is hard and I fail everyday in some way or another, but the important thing is that I am learning the importance of daily repentance and just continually trying to improve. "The only true failure is when we stop trying." I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's kingdom on the Earth. That is bold to say but I know it is true with all my being! I invite all of us to come closer to Christ through learning more about Him. I love you all and hope you have a great week this week!!! Enjoy the fall weather :)

Love Elder Seth McGinn

 

pic:My companion and I..Elder Andreasen aka Andre the Giant jaja