Thanksgiving Miracles

Hey everybody! Hope you all had a great week! We sure had a good one here in Iowa City. First off, birthday shoutouts to Adam Fender (my favorite nephew ;)) and to Lindsay McGinn (my favorite sister-in-law ;)). haha I love you both so much and I miss you. Lindsay, thanks for your charity in marrying my brother haha he definitely married up and you two are perfect for each other! I'm super happy that you are going to start a family together too!!!! Also, a big thank you to Granny & Papa for the awesome sweater they got me for Christmas! I got it right in time because the snow is already falling.

 

This week was great, though! Sarah passed her baptismal interview so she is set to go for this Saturday :) Then, on Friday night, we were going over to teach Sarah about Thomas S. Monson, our prophet and president of the Church, when Helen (one of the Jones' other friends who we are teaching) got in a car accident. So we followed Rocio Jones and Sarah to the hospital and Helen was okay, just a little shooken up. So we went back to the Jones' to teach about the prophet. We taught both Sarah and Helen and we followed the promptings to watch President Monson's talk from the General Relief Society meeting in October. It was so good and the Spirit was very strong. We closed with a prayer and as we were about to leave, Helen stopped us and was like "I've got 2 things on my mind...First, I think I have received my answer to my prayers about if all this is true or not." We were stoked! Then before anybody could shout for joy she said "wait, dont say anything." She then reminded us of our last lesson in which we were trying to set a baptismal date with her. She was being really stubborn so Brother Aaron Jones said "Helen, what if something were to happen to you and when you got to God's presence, He asked you why you just didnt get baptized and kept pushing it off." Well, she told us that the second thing on her mind was that and how the car was totaled in the accident and that the airbags didnt go off. She said she could have easily had very bad injuries. So she recognized it as an obvious sign from Heavenly Father. We know God works in mysterious ways and as scary and frightening as this accident was for Helen, it was what she needed to realize that her priorities needed a little rearranging. So she is now preparing to be baptized and become a member of the Church she loves in December! I feel very humble to be here in Iowa teaching people about why they are here and who they are (children of God). Its something special and eternal, meaning we will take it with us no matter what happens here on Earth. Jesus Christ lives and He loves us. He has called and works through His prophet on the Earth, Thomas S. Monson! Its so sweet. I love you all and have a great Thanksgiving! -Love, Elder McGinn

 

 

 

ps picture of Elder Bates and I bowling on Pday!

 

 

Keep it Rollin'

Hey everybody :)

Its been a great week out here in Iowa City! We had the director of training from the MTC come and train us on how we can better HELP people pray, read from the scriptures (esp the Book of Mormon), and come to Church (esp Sacrament meeting). It was sweet and we are going to train on that tomorrow at our zone training meeting. The work is progressing!

So this week, we had a hard time getting in contact with Ricardo and he didnt make it to Church but we got a hold of him last night and have a lesson set up with him later this week. He works a ton and is never home haha classic. But on another note, we had dinner on Tuesday with some members, the Jones', and they brought two friends! We got to know them over dinner (we ate some fufu which is an African dish lol) and by the end of the night, Helen and Sarah had both agreed to let us teach them! We taught Sarah the next night and she loved the Restoration, accepted a baptismal date for Nov 30th, and wanted to come to Church. We also had a Church tour with her and the Jones' Saturday night which was sweet and she loved Church on Sunday :) We taught Helen on Friday at the salon she works at with Sister Jones. We watch mormon messages with her and taught her about prayer. It was great and she said she was coming to Church, but didnt come. But its all good cause the Church is still true :)

Im grateful for the Church in my life b/c it has helped me reach my goals and fulfill my deepest desires. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ really is the "fountain of living water" and when we turn from the other worldly fountains we can drink from to this fountain of the Atonement of Christ, we will never thirst and will be truly, profoundly satisfied! I wish all of you a happy veteran's day and a great week! Love you, Elder Seth McGinn

A Better Way

Hey everybody :)

Its been a great week out here in Iowa City! We had the director of training from the MTC come and train us on how we can better HELP people pray, read from the scriptures (esp the Book of Mormon), and come to Church (esp Sacrament meeting). It was sweet and we are going to train on that tomorrow at our zone training meeting. The work is progressing!

So this week, we had a hard time getting in contact with Ricardo and he didnt make it to Church but we got a hold of him last night and have a lesson set up with him later this week. He works a ton and is never home haha classic. But on another note, we had dinner on Tuesday with some members, the Jones', and they brought two friends! We got to know them over dinner (we ate some fufu which is an African dish lol) and by the end of the night, Helen and Sarah had both agreed to let us teach them! We taught Sarah the next night and she loved the Restoration, accepted a baptismal date for Nov 30th, and wanted to come to Church. We also had a Church tour with her and the Jones' Saturday night which was sweet and she loved Church on Sunday :) We taught Helen on Friday at the salon she works at with Sister Jones. We watch mormon messages with her and taught her about prayer. It was great and she said she was coming to Church, but didnt come. But its all good cause the Church is still true :)

Im grateful for the Church in my life b/c it has helped me reach my goals and fulfill my deepest desires. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ really is the "fountain of living water" and when we turn from the other worldly fountains we can drink from to this fountain of the Atonement of Christ, we will never thirst and will be truly, profoundly satisfied! I wish all of you a happy veteran's day and a great week! Love you, Elder Seth McGinn

After All We Can Do

Hola everybody!

I just want to let everybody know that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. A good question to ask yourself is what that means and more specifically, what does that mean for you! If you dont know, don't be embarrassed to ask someone who does. I would suggest that you first ask God, your Heavenly Father, by praying to Him. Find a private, quiet place. Imagine picking up a telephone and talking to the individual who loves you more than anyone else you know and who knows everything about you and wants you to be happy :) In order to find peace and joy in the sometimes intimidating world we live in, we need to know who we are and what our purpose is. Those soul-searching spiritual questions can only be answered

through soul-stretching spiritual answers. They must come from a source that provides those kinds of answers, namely directly through God himself or through His words that He has given to worthy, honest men we call prophets. Those words are found in the scriptures: the Bible and the Book of Mormon, along with Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. The last thing I will say about this is that the more we learn about the nature and character of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, the more we learn about ourselves :)

 

With that said, we are seeing miracles here in Iowa City "after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) We have been working hard to find people to teach in our area but we  have struggled. In the last two weeks, we have only found 0 new investigators in our own finding efforts (knocking doors). But, we've received 3 member referrals and of those 3, we are now teaching 2 of them!!! Ricardo is one of them and the first time we met him in person was at Church yesterday. He is from Veracruz, Mexico (near where Blake is serving right now) and has been in Iowa for over a year. He enjoyed testimony meeting as we translated it for him from English to Spanish and then we were able to teach him about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ afterwards. He loved everything we taught and really connected with Joseph Smith because he, too, has always wondered why are there so many churches and which one is the right one. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to prepare to be baptized as he comes to feel and know that it is true. So sweet!!! So remember that we are not justified by merely accepting Christ as our savior but we are redeemed from our mistakes, weaknesses, and struggles as we try to LIVE like Christ :) We tried our best all week and did everything the best way we could to no avail haha but in that labor, we qualified for the trust of our members and the Lord, so they blessed us with a prepared person like Ricardo! I hope you all have a bright hope for the future that lays ahead in your life :) Love you all!

-Elder McGinn