Monday, August 26, 2013

Familia and amigos,

This week has felt like a whirlwind, I feel like p-day was just yesterday in a way.  My companions and I are starting to stay a little more busy.  We have 3 total investigators right now. They are all going pretty well and progressing at different paces.  We taught Joe the first lesson which went really well.  He is just an golden investigator, he does all the things that we assign him right away.  Tonight we are teaching him the plan of Salvation, and we are hoping to commit him to baptism tonight, I feel like he is so ready.  He just needs to take a leap of faith.  We are also going to be teaching Josh tonight as well.  I mentioned a little bit about him last week.  He is really educated and his a big believer in the Bible.  So when we teach him we need to use the bible until we can get him to gain a testimony of the book of Mormon.  He has gone through a few sets of missionaries before and he even said at one point that he was ready to get baptized.  Apparently there was so mix up on something and he still has a grudge of it.  We have been straightening that out for him.  He is defiantly our toughest investigators that we have to teach.  He is a big drinker and he actually asked us if we could teach some of his friends from the bar.  We said that that was fine, but they as well as himself need to be sober.  We have decided that we aren't going to be easy on him, that he needs someone to be tough on him and straight forward.  We got him thinking last week about some changes that he needs to make in his life.  We are gonna teach him lesson 1 tonight and I hope that it goes well.  Our other investigator that we are teaching, Greg, is going well as well.  On Saturday we watched the restoration with him as well as answered some questions that he had.  We felt like we needed to go over that again with him before teaching him lesson 3.  He says he has a desire to know if what we are teaching him is true, which I think a good step in the right direction.  We were worried that he was just wanting us to teach him to just learn about we were about, which he says he wouldn't be meeting with us if he didn't want to know that it was true.  He didn't show up at church yesterday though and we don't know why yet because he came last week and said he was going to go yesterday.

      Other than that everything is going really well.  The members here are awesome, and I love the families in the ward.  There are already some families that I have grown pretty close with that are just always trying to help us progress the work.  Yesterday we had ward council in our ward where the missionary work is slow, I think that we helped them to get motivated to work as well as the Ward missionary leader who has kind of been slacking.  We are going to go on splits this week with some women from the relief society which will be great.  My companions and I are getting along great, there are those moments where one of us is off, but it doesn't last for long.  I can't believe that we only have 2 weeks left in the transfer.  And I know for sure that if I stay in this area that we will lose one of the wards because they are rearranging the wards missionaries will be over in the stake.  We will still be over two wards, but the wards that we have now won't be together.  This is really said to me because I have grown so close to these investigators as well as the people in these wards.  It is going to be hard for me to hand them over to someone else and to trust them. Both the wards will be sad if they lose sister missionaries.  They just love us being in their ward and just working so hard.  I wish I had some cool stories like Megan does, but nothing big happens here, just your typical suburbia area.  We did have a missionary meeting that took up all day Wednesday and then all day Tuesday we spend at the doctor because sister Thompson hurt her foot.  Other than that there aren't that many good stories.  Mainly awkward encounters with less active members that aren't interested or don't want any contact from the church.  I wish I could sit here and type to you all that is happening and about everyone one that is in the ward that I have gotten to know as well as more about my lessons with the investigators.  But today p-day is going to be cut a little short for us since we have to have back to back lessons tonight and we are cutting into our day for that so we can fit everyone in.  I don't know what it is about p-days but those are our most productive days.  It defiantly is tough trying to keep busy during the week from 12 to 5 because everyone is always not home or at work.  It has been hard for us to stay busy with two wards, I can't even imagine what it will be like when we are over just 1.  I hope all is going well back at home.  I Love you and Miss you all.  Thank you all for your e-mails and hand written letters, they really do mean a lot to me.  One thing that I learned last night when we were at one of the families in the wards family night was 3 things to keep a family strong in the gospel:1 kneeling prayer, 2 stand up and serve, 3 reach out and rescue, it was a talk from.

Love Sister Metcalf

P.S. Elise dropped off some krispy kreme donuts this morning. It was so cute and took me by surprise.  Now I really got to be careful that I don't gain 50 lbs on the mission, I feel like all the missionaries that leave soon are all on diets hahaha

Pictures from Monday August 19, 2013

Monday August 19, 2013

Hello everyone,      

I can not believe that it has already been a month, that is just so crazy to me.  I feel like I have just so much to write and I don't know where to begin.  P-day always seems to go by so quickly for me, but I love it, each week we go and play sports with some other sisters and Elders in our area.   Everything is going well here and the members are amazing and feed us every night.  I feel like the lord is continually humbling me with the people that I encounter.  We ate dinner with the Bishop in the 1st ward and they were telling us how they found out that their daughter who is engaged and 21 has cancer.  They moved up her wedding to last week because they didn't want to wait till after her chemo treatments in case her hair started falling out.  The reception is this Saturday and if her has falls out by then the bishop said him and her brothers are going to shave their head which I think is awesome.  We also had dinner with the R.S. president in the 12th ward and her husband and her are just amazing and so spiritually strong as well.  They have two little daughters, their oldest has cute red hair and has ceresal palsy, but she is just the happiest girl I have seen and tells the funniest jokes.  We found out at dinner that their first born was a still born, and just to see how they haven't let these instances shaken their faith in God is so amazing to me.  I made me realize quickly that what I think are big and hard trials in my life are so little compared to these people.  They are so strong in the gospel and so happy and optimistic.      Can I tell you dad the difference it makes to have a ward mission leader that is so involved in the ward and missionaries.  You might not think it makes a difference, but in the eyes of a missionary it does.  With two wards we have one that has a ward mission leader who is in his 70s and has been on 3 couples missions with his wife and he is just on top of everything.  The moment we came in he had lists of people for us to see and when we ask him to do something he does it as quickly as possible.  We meet with him weekly to review people we have visited as well as our game plan for the next week.  It that ward we feel like there is so much more work going on there, that is where we have 2 investigators as well as just a lot more work with the less actives.  In our other ward, our ward mission leader is young and it almost seems like he doesn't care.  Whenever we ask if there is anyone he thinks we could see he never knows and when we ask what we can do for the ward, he asks if there is anything he can do.  It is frustrating at times because we are working just as hard in this ward, but are just going off lists from previous elders.  Side note to mom visiting teaching is important!!!! In this same ward we are going off their ward list and single sisters list and I swear it has not been updated in ages!!!! We have run into so many homes where the women don't live there or they have passed away.  A lot of awkward moments, we even went by house where the lady hadn't lived there in 16 years!!! Visiting teaching is important.  So basically Dad make sure to work with the missionaries and give them lists of people they can go see, less actives, part member families, whatever you feel is important.  Working with the members progresses the work a lot faster than us going out and trying to figure things out.'    Overall this week has been amazing for me.  So remember that man in our ward who I said was a "dry" Mormon, who I just went up to at church last Sunday and just told him we just wanted to meet with him and get to know him.  Well we met with him Tuesday and it was so good, he knows so much about the gospel, I know he is so ready, but there are just a few things holding him back.  Well he agreed to take the discussions with us, which I know was all the Lords doings.  He told us how he has had missionaries over for the past 20 years at his house but has never sat down with them like we have or taken the discussions.  That was just a miracle in itself to me.  He told us at the end of the first lesson that the best way he learns is by what we have assigned him(prime investigator right Nathan and Aaron?).  He is so there and has read the book of Mormon several times as well as other church books.  We meet with him on Thursday and it went well.  We talked to him a little about the plan of salvation because of some questions he asked it was geared that way.  We are going to teach him the first lesson this week.  He says he knows that this is true, but there is just a few things that we talked about that is holding him back which we are going to address.  But mainly we need to increase his faith in Christ.    Greg who is our other investigator, we taught lesson 2 to on Saturday and it went really well.  The bishop in the wared was there because he knows him. He went into detail a little more than we usually do, but he felt like he could handle it because he is an intelligent person.  He is still a little hung up on what happens when you get married in the temple and get a divorce(he has been divorced 2).  The bishop addressed and I think he is starting to understand.  HE also attended church yesterday which was really good.  Side note for everyone that teaches lessons.  Teach people not lessons! Our gospel principles that the teacher taught the lesson on eternal marriage which I was nervous about.  Our class consists of people who are single divorced, members whose spouses aren't active and maybe 2 married people who are the ward mission leaders.  The teacher was asking questions about like for people to comment on how a their temple marriage has blessed their life and what not.  The whole lesson seemed geared towards married people.  I am sure that it wasn't as bad as me and my companions were making it out to seem, but we felt so awkward in their and bad for our investigator because he started giving statistics on divorce rates.  I said a few prayers in there and I have faith in the Lord that the Spirit was a good buffer to those people.    Tonight we are teaching a former investigator and I am a little nervous.  We stopped by their house last week to help do some service to clean up their trailer home and when we were leaving he told us how he invited his neighbor.  We have actually met his neighbor and he also was a former investigator who was drunk every time the missionaries came over.  And we heard from neighbors around there how he calls in a taxi to bring him beer.  We had set up an appointment to meet with him, but had canceled because of certain things we have heard.  So it should be interested.  I am not scared for my life or anything, I know I will be fine and we are gonna be outside with the other investigators wife who is a less active.  I just think it is gonna be a little awkward in the beginning since we canceled on him.  I hope that both of them our sober because if we want them to feel of the spirit they need to be.    The work is really starting to progress, there is so many things I just want to write about, but don't have enough time.   And just so everyone knows I haven't run into Jensa or Elise, I usually forget that I am living in the same city with them.  I really feel like I am in a whole different world as a missionary.   I see the Lord's hand in my everyday life, I hope all of you take the time at night and ponder about how the Lord has blessed you that day.  I was reading in Mosiah this morning about King Benjamin telling his people about the coming of Christ and about the atonement.  It is so good, you should read it, chapters 3 and 4 especially.  Sorry I wasn't able to tell you everything this week, do know that I have ran into people who talk to us about how we are a cult and what not, some funny stories that I will have to tell you when I get home.  Here is my spiritual thought this week, it is a poem that I heard this week, it is really good."I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made- I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed vision, worldly talking, cheap giving & dwarfed goals.My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ.I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till everyone knows, work till He stops me & when He comes for His own, He will have no trouble recognizing me because my banner will have been clear.”

Much Love,

Sister Breanne Metcalf

Monday August 12, 2013

Hello,   

I can not believe that it is already my P-day again.  I will try to write you as much as I can, buttoday I am a little shorter on time.  We decided to go play some sports which was a  lot of fun.  This week is very similar to last week.  A lot of the work we do is working with the less actives and part member families.  This week I taught my first lesson to a non-member, it was shaking at parts, but overall it went really well.  Greg is a referral we got from the bishop, he is a Greek orthodox, but he sought us out because he wanted to learn about our religion.  He is a life coach and has had a difficult passed.  But he is seriously awesome, he is in his late 50s and we plan on seeing him again this week to teach him the plan of salvation which will be very good with him!  The sad part though is that we found out that he does not live in our area, so we are going to have to pass him off to another set of missionaries.  There are some potential investigators as well.  There is one man in one of our wards that is like Brother Brown, he is an active nonmember and helps out in the scouts program.  His wife is not active, but his younger son is.  At first the ward mission leader told us to hold off on him because they did not want to scare him off, but the old bishop and the relief society president told us to go for it so we did.  We are going to meet with him this week.  There is also an older gentleman in our other ward who has taken the discussions and knows it is true but does not want to pay tithing.  He is away till wed. but we hope to see him this Saturday.  He have received a few more referrals which we hope to contact this week.  Things are really going well, and the families in these wards are really awesome.  Yesterday was our first Sunday we had where we had to go to both ward councils.  It was heck it yesterday with ward council at 930 and 130 and church from 10 to 1 and 1 to 4.  Sister Dickey had to speak in the first ward and sister Thompson and I had to bear our testimonies/introduce ourselves in the other ward.  It was really good.  Things have been going really well and I am loving working in this companionship each and everyday.  We all get a long so well.  The only difficult things at times is Sister Thompson is a quieter and shy.  So we will plan lessons on who will speak on what and then when sister Dicker or I turn to her for her part she won't say anything.  She is just looking at the investigator avoiding our eye contact.  It is funny sometimes, but I have learned quickly to jump in and help her out.  I will transition for her from one section of the lesson to another by talking/asking questions and then she will jump in a talk for a little bit.  I have become more and more confident and have been able to help sister dickey out when we are talking to people we are meeting for the first time.  Time just seems to be going by so quickly.  I feel like I have already been out for a while(in a good way), but I know there is still so much more that I need to learn.  Although we have a car, since we live in one of our wards we try top walk around in that one wards area.  We are still meeting up with lots of former investigators, but most of them are not interested anymore.  We really do not track as much, which is nice because that is not very successful. We will start doing splits this week, so we will see how that is going as well.  Things are really starting to come along I feel like.  This week they taught us a new style of teaching, kind of, that they want us to start using.  We have pamphlets and that want us to start using those.  It is pretty much having us ask the investigators a lot more questions and having it become a lot more interactive.  The first time we did this it did not go so well, but the second time we felt like it went really well.  Another thing that our mission is pushing for is to teach the first lesson in a half hour or less.  We haven't been able to do that yet, it usually is about 35 minutes long.  I feel like there is still so much to tell you, but I do not know what all to write.  A little note for mom and dad, I have actually been eating really healthy here.  There first two nights we had salad, which I did it and i did fine ;) Last week I also had Salmon, two nights in a row. hahaha my companions were laughing at me because after the first night of salmon I told them how I don't mind fish, but it would be my last choice out of the meet categories and then when we went to dinner the next night the family said we were having salmon.  Overall it was good, but don't be expecting me to each fish all the time when I get home.  The family I am living with is amazing! I will give you the address that I will be at, but just to let you know the next transfer is September 10th so I don't know if I will be there after that.  We go running every morning with their dog which is super nice.  Speaking of transfers, we found out that we are only getting 8 girls this time, they split up the other girls to go to the other missions because I guess last transfer the other missions only got 1 sister while we got 11.  Well I still have to write my mission president and need to get food.  We are in a hurry because we actually set up an appointment tonight to meet one of the former investigators who the ward really wants us to work with which is going to cut into our p-day time which I am fine with.  I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well.  I can't wait to hear all about Park City and whatever new adventures there are.  Give a hug and a kiss to Mason, Ava, Chase, Celeste, Danielle, and Gunnison!!!  I hope all is well.  Feed the missionaries in your area and help them out.   The Lord's work is going to be moving forward wither we help out or not.  Just remember that Joseph Smith was only a young boy and he was bold about sharing about the gospel.  I just know that I rather be out working along side the lord in the vineyards when he comes and not just waiting on the sidelines(Jacob 5-read it). A little side note, really sad, we met with one of the R.S. President and she told us how there are members in Boise/ our ward that have fallen away and join this group called "mutual" and it is where they all get together and drink and mock the church. And how they are recruiting the weak links in the ward.  This really breaks my heart that not only have these people rejected their testimonies, but they are mocking Christ and I know that they will be judged harsher.  We received some names which we are going to contact and try to help them.  I pray for them to soften their hearts.  Anyways I love you all, keep praying and reading the scriptures.  Read 2 Nephi, its really good and talks a lot about our day.  Hopefully there will be more to tell next week.

Love Sister Metcalf 

P.S. How much time do you get to e-mail Megan, we have two but we usually only e-mail for like over an hour.

here is my address I forgot to add it

1388 W. Crestwood DrMeridian, ID83642

Monday August 5th, 2013

Family and Friends,    

  I loved so very much getting your emails this week and I am going to try really hard to respond to all of them, but it will have to depend on how much time I have left after writing this e-mail.  This first week out in the field has been more difficult than I expect, but honestly I am still loving it so much.  I am learning so much each and everyday.  As you heard last week, my companionship opened up a new area...kind of.  Basically the Elders before us were over 5 different wards and from what I heard so far from the members was that they were feeling kind of neglected.  So we are the first set of sister missionaries in these two wards and the members are super excited, which gets me pumped up.  There is a lot of work to do in these two wards and I see a lot of potential.  We have 45 part member families in one ward and 26 in another, which is just so crazy to me.  We are trying hard to meet up with a lot of them each and everyday.  We do have some previous investigators from that area, but most were last visited in 2011 and 2012.  We are still working hard at it each and everyday.  We have gotten some referrals from members which is really nice and we are hoping to contact them today.  I am just learning to love each and everyday and make the best of it.  Saturday was probably our roughest day, for all of you that know about the key indicators, we had all zeros except for referrals, we had four.  Getting home that night I was just laughing, it was a long day but I didn't feel like we weren't working hard or were unproductive.  It is hard to explain, but I just feel so blessed for being so positive all the time.  I know that this is the Lord's work and I need to rely on his timing.  It is frustrating at times when people are not home or others are not interested.  But honestly my companions and I make it a good time, like when people just slam the door in our faces we just laugh it off or joke about it and move on the next person on our list.   The members here are super awesome and I feel like each time I leave a members house I feel so much love for them.  I can tell that this will be an amazing area, we just need to build it up and really work with the members.          One of the wards I am working in actually just reorganized their bishopric, so that adds a little more trouble in our pathway, but honestly I don't mind it.  I know that I was put in this area for a reason, and that there is a lot of good that will come out of it.  Before I forget, the members I am living with are the Dallings and they are seriously amazing!!! They are so involved in the ward and are so involved in missionary work.  Brother Dalling use to be a ward mission leader so they tell us all these stories of how they have shared the gospel to others.  They are seriously awesome and so willing for the Lord to use them by any means.  They actually didn't even think about housing missionaries until about a week before we came out.  Their stake president called them up and talked to them about it and even after the agreed to in they still did not know if they would have missionaries this transfer or next.  They didn't find out till the day that we came in that missionaries were going to stay there.  They take such good care of us, this Friday is Brother Dallings Birthday and so last night they had two of their older sons over with their wives and kids.  They invited us sister missionaries to dinner and to have cake with them.  They had stake and potatoes, it was seriously so good!!!! I can see why so many missionaries are gaining weight hahaha But don't worry about me, we go running every morning, which I am still not use to still.  I don't think I will ever get use to running at 640 in the morning.        As I mentioned last week, we are over 2 wards and I have met with both ward mission leaders and one of the bishops(will explain why not the other one later) I have learned so much about the members and their stories or backgrounds or struggles, and it honestly humbles me all the time and I feel so blessed for the life that I have and for how I grew up.  I feel so lucky that God choose to put me in a family that was already strong in the gospel and supported me in everything that I choose to do.  I hope to use that strength and love I received from all of you to help others as well.  Remember me talking about Leah from my TRC teaching? Well she E-mailed me this week, she found my blog and found out that no one had written me(HI LEAH!!!!)  Honestly her letter she wrote me was so amazing, words can not describe, it brought me to tears.  She told me so many things that I needed to here and really boasted my confidence.  She helped me see that I am like all the other missionaries and that no one missionary is alike.  I have special talents and abilities to touch others that I wasn't even aware of and she really instilled in me that I am suppose to be serving a mission, but most importantly that God needed me to serve a mission.  I know that there are going to continue to be rough days and that it is even going to get even harder, but I know that as I rely on the Lord he will give me the strength to pull me through.  This is the Lord's work and I am just an instrument in his hands, I am always wanting to just find new investigators or find people to teach.  I have learned to be patient and that every single person I talk to is important, less active and active members.  My purpose is to help others come unto Christ, and that applies to everyone I talk too, not just nonmembers.  I have began rereading the Book of Mormon, and I feel like while serving a mission that I see it in totally different eyes and almost that like it makes a lot more sense to me.  I just encourage you all to continue to pray each and every night.  Know that the Lord loves you no matter what!  I am just trying to soak everything in because I feel like I am going to have to train really soon, we have 23 sister out right now and there are 18 coming in next transfer which is just crazy to me!!!!  Well I must go now, but I love you all so much and pray for you all every night!
Love
Sister Metcalf