January 27, 2014

These week has been a pretty good week.  Things have been starting to pick up more and more in our area.  We taught a less to a lady this week who was actually raised in the church and was sealed in the temple but then when she was 26 her husband past away.  I don't think she had a very strong testimony before and was confused and ended up removing her name from the church.  Her parents are in our ward and she wants to come back.  She talked to us about how she has been to a lot of other churches and there is just something different about ours and how she has a testimony of the power of the priesthood.  We planned on teaching her the Restoration and only got through a couple of points.  It was actually funny because my companion was suppose to talk about prophets and priesthood but when it was her turn she ended up re talking about what i talked about and just testified and just looked at me.  Luckily my training with Sister Roberson had prepared me to carry the lesson and end up teaching most of it.  I didn't get far before our investigator told us all of her concerns and began asking us tons of questions.  If took the lesson off track but i felt like that is what was best,we ended up talking a little bit about the plan of salvation.  It is crazy how the spirit works, At first I was wanting to try to bring the lesson back on topic but for some reason felt like it was best to talk about these things that were on her mind.  She asked a lot of really hard questions, I was so nervous because my companion just froze and had no clue how to answer, I just said a quick prayer in my heart knowing that I needed the guidance of the spirit.    Towards the end we talked about prophets and things and she talked to me about all these other great men like Martin Luther King and how she sees them like prophets as well and asked my feelings on that.  I sat there for a minute trying to gather my thoughts because I was afraid to offend her but I knew that I had to be bold, no matter how how it came across.  I told her that I agree that there are great people out there that are close to God and are helping other to come to know him but I told her that the big thing that sets them apart is the Priesthood.  Overall I felt like it went really well and I give full credit to the spirit, there is no way I would of been able to get through that meeting if I hadn't been in tune with the spirit. She wants us to come back and teach her this week, so we plan on finishing up the first lesson with her.  She has a desire to be baptized again, but with her I feel like i need to start with the basics with her and help to gain her own testimony.

    Yesterday was a pretty cool experience for me, we had a youth come to church yesterday, I had met her once before back in October but hadn't really seen much of her since then.  She went to church yesterday  for the first time and loved it.  Later that night she went to BYD(Bishops Youth Discussion), this is actually a cool thing that our ward does, each month they have a "fireside" where the bishopric is in charge and they just have a discussion with the youth on various topics, last night was on the theme for the year for the Youth "Come Unto Christ".  It was so awesome to hear all these comments the youth were making, it made me think how much further these youth are along spiritually then I ever was.  It is crazy to see how the Lord is preparing the youth now.  They are spiritually stronger, but they also are having to face so much more challenges with the adversity as well.  The spirit was so strong there and the girl actually made some good comments as well.  I talked to her after wards and she talked about how different she felt there and how she felt like she belonged in a sense.  We talked about how she had felt the spirit and everything and asked me how she can learn more.  It is just crazy how the Lord prepares people for you.  We plan on teaching her this Saturday at a members house.  I am excited to begin teaching her she seems like an awesome girl and a lot of the youth know her, members are the way to go with finding and preparing investigators for the missionaries.  

  Interesting stories from the week: we had a big mass exchange this week which went pretty well, we learned how to better work with members and auxiliary leaders.  I thought I was already doing a pretty good job since I have been in my area for 5 months, but I came away with wanting to do a few things a little more differently.  The Lord is always constantly show me how to change and improve to become a better missionary.  After the meeting President came up to me to talk a little about sisters on bikes and how apparently I have started a trend about it, he says when it becomes summer time that we will think about it, but nothing for sure yet.  He did ask me how I felt about Sisters serving up in Idaho City, I told him I thought it would be awesome and how I would be willing of going up there.  He is thinking he might send sisters up there just for a transfer in the summer time.  He doesn't think the area can sustain just one set of missionaries for just their ward, right now elders cover it with one other ward and just go up there twice a month.  A lot of people are hoping to go there, probably because it is the only "different" place in our mission hahaha So we will see, maybe President is thinking of sending me up there, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.  This week we had a Less active/part member family take my companion and I out to Tucanos.  It is an all you can eat Brazilian restaurant and was sooooo good.  I swear the members treat us too good here, I have probably gained 10 pounds these past two weeks.  Anyways so it is a place that is super awesome where the people just walk around and offer you to sample the meat, talk about prime time!! Such good meats there, I did try Chicken heart.  I wasn't going to but the waiter that had it convinced me to saying how he had to eat weird things on his mission and this is probably one of the few opportunities I had to so I did it.  It was okay, I wouldn't recommend it though.  Mom you would be so proud of me, I did service this week at the bishops house to help him out.  Just applying those principles I learned from our meeting about gaining the members trust.  Anyway he is 29 and has a young family of 4 kids so we talked to him Saturday about what we could do for him, we ended up going over and helping his wife out and I ended up ironing probably 20 shirts.  I was just laughing thinking of you and all the times that I had to iron dads shirts, I guess you prepared me in more ways for a mission than you ever thought of.  Well I am running out of time, sorry I wasn't able to tell you everything exciting about my week.  I also found out from the Elders that are now covering my old ward that a less active that I had been working with finally came to church yesterday! I was so excited to hear this, he hadn't been to church in like 50 years! Things like this make all the hard times and difficulties in my mission worth it! Things are really starting to pick up in my area which makes me think that I will be transferred out this next transfer :( I kind of want to stay one more and spend my birthday in this area. 

   Anyways, love you all so much and thank you all for your letters and prayers.  I am so grateful for all of you and for the knowledge I have that we will be together forever.  Keep up on your scripture reading and your daily prayers and praying for missionary opportunities.

Love 

Sister Metcalf 

January 21, 2014

Malo e lele

(try to say that one, it is a mouth full when you try to say it correctly)

Sorry I wasn't able to email yesterday, with it being Martin Luther King Day the only place that was open was the Family History Center and it was flooded with missionaries.  I got on for a little bit and then me and my companion decided that it would be best for us to just come back today to email.  Don't worry mom it was approved for missionaries to email today.  So it looks like I am back on the bike again and training.  It has been going really good so far.  My companion's name is Sister Lomu, she is from Tonga.  It is funny because the one of the Senior couples that works in the office predicted to me that she would be my companion and that is what happened.  She is so awesome, it is crazy how similar we are.  She is the 5th of 6 kids, she has two brothers and 3 sisters.  She is 23 and was the town librarian in her town.  Her parents are divorced and are both less active, same with the rest of her family.  Years ago her dad got offended by someone in the church and is a strong headed person, even though the person apologized he didn't want to go back or for his children to.  She didn't go to church form 2001 till 2012 when she finally told her mom that she needed to go back to church because she felt like there was a part of her missing.  When it came to high school she wanted to go to the church school but her dad wanted her to go to the government school because it was better and she tested into that school. I learn something new about her family everyday and I grow a deeper appreciation for her.  She is such an amazing example to her family as well as to me.  She makes my hard times in life see so little.  She pushes me to want to be a better person.  I feel like the Lord couldn't have put me with a better companion at this point in my mission.  I know she is going to be a great missionary and I feel so lucky to be able to train her.  The only complaint is, and she warned me about this, is that her feet smell.  She doesn't like to wear socks with her shoes, mom if you thought my feet were bad this is a whole other level.  I went out and bought a plug in air freshener.  So any valentines ideas is some refills for fabreeze notables air freshener.   But seriously she is awesome and I love her.

    This week was a pretty good week for us.  So we met with Max on Friday, he is such a good kid and knows so much.  We taught him part of the commandments, the easier ones to teach.  This week we are teaching him the law of chastity, I have talked to several missionaries about how to teach this to a 9 year old.  I am pretty sure I have figured in out.  Anyways after we met with him this last week, his mom talked to us afterwards saying how she is wanting to wait until her husband is able to baptize him which she said might not be until August.  I was a little sad to hear this but understood.  WE talked to the bishop and he says to give him sometime to talk to the mom about allowing someone else baptize him because it sounds like the dad won't be able to for a while.  So right now we are thinking March 1st.  This week has been a pretty good week with us, we have been visiting with a lot of less actives, a lot not interested, some saying we could come back and a few that are so close to coming back to church.  It has been an adjustment going down to one ward, but I feel like it really is for the best.  We can better focus on the part member families and the less actives as well as build even stronger relationships with the members.  We actually picked up 3 new investigators last week which was just a miracle within itself.  The Lord hears prayers, I just wanted my companion to have a good first week and help her enjoy the mission life.  Sadly one of the investigators that we picked up we have already taught twice and we both don't really see it going anywhere.  She believes that all churches are good, everyone has similarities and differences.  When we taught her the restoration we talked about prophets and the priesthood power and she knows that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of our church but there are also Popes and whatever else for other churches.  She doesn't think that the Great apostasy happened with the whole priesthood thing and we tried to explain to her about the priesthood being taken off the earth.  She believes that it is possible that Joesph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, but when we asked her to pray to know if this event truly did happen she straight up told us that she has no desire to really to  .We will continue to visit her.  I'm not giving up hope on her, but I don't see her progressing to baptism in the next month which is fine, she will get there she just needs love and time.

   With us being down to one ward I have been able to visit with members more and more and build a stronger relationship than I already have with them.  We have a couple potential investigators that the members have talked to us about as well as we have met a couple of them.  I feel like the work is beginning to pick up in this area.  I still need to continue to keep digging a little deeper and working a little harder each and everyday.  I believe it that the less actives and the part member families are where the gold mine is at.  One of the part member families we visit are the Trow-bridges.  The husband isn't a member, they are the ones that had the grandchildren blessed a few weeks ago.  He has signed up to feed us a couple of times this month already.  He has always been so willing to feed us and I tried to get him to come to church by saying that if he really wanted to feed us that he had to come to church to do that to sign up.  I was hoping that would get him, he ended up making a few phone calls that same day to find out who he needed to call.  He is such a giving guy and is always willing to help others, especially  the missionaries, he even talks about wanting to house them.  I can just see him dressed in white being baptized.  I know that he knows that it is true and I have been praying to know how I can help him, it is all in the Lords timing.  I have grown a deep love for these people in the Boise West area.  I really don't know if I want to leave, this is such a good area and the members are always so loving and willing to help out in anyway that they can.  I have loved getting to know the youth and children in this ward, they are all so cute and tell me how the pray for me each and everyday with their family. It is going to be difficult to leave them all, it feels like I am apart of their ward.  It was hard to give up my other ward and to say "goodbye" in a sense to some of the members, I had grown close with some of them.  I think it was harder because I had built up all this potential work in the area and then had to hand it over to other missionaries.  That is just the way of life, but I know that as long as I helped those along to just take one step closer to Christ that I was successful and I know that I was.

   I can not believe that I am already one third of the way done with my mission.  It is just blowing by so quickly!!! I just want to cry when I think of how much so little time I have left out here, I am trying to give it my all each and everyday.  I don't want to waste any effort or anytime out here.  If I am sacrificing a year and a half of my life to the Lord than "I am all in".  Just like what we all said before Megan and I left for the MTC.  Megan and I remind each other of that all the time when we write each other.  I hope you all have that same determination as well with your missionary work, that you are all in.  Because in a sense when you entered the waters of baptism you promised the Lord that you would be all in.  Don't let your testimonies waver, if you feel like that is beginning to happen work on it.  It takes time and effort, read your scriptures, pray, go to church.  The Lord is just waiting to bless your life, he has promised you that so hold him to it.  Life isn't perfect, but I have learned from my companion that I have now that I wouldn't give up my trials in life for hers.  She encourages me to be a better person and not get down about the little things.

   Know that I love you all oh so much!!!!  I hope that all is well with all of you!  Thank you all for the sacrifices you have made for me to serve a mission, I hope that you are all treating your missionaries well.  Open your mouths and just invite your friends over for dinner, you don't need to invite them to take the lessons, but have the meet the missionaries and see that they are normal people.  Do your visiting teaching and home teaching.  That was the focus on our ward conference on Sunday as well as becoming a Christlike friend and starting that within the home.  I pray for you all and I ask the Lord to forward my blessings to all of you, I hope that you are receiving them all.

Love

Sister Metcalf

P.S. I might be biking in the summer, I told president that I would be willing to do it. A lot of elders were excited to hear my willingness and are already offering to take my car. hahaha  I kind of want that experience of biking, so stay tuned for that.

January 13, 2014

I seriously feel like I am in the movie Ground hogs day, so this was the last thing that I would of expected to happen to me for this transfer.  Turns out that I am staying in my area and will probably will be going down to one ward.  Apparently there is more work that the Lord needs me to do here in this Boise West area, I just need to dig a little deeper and really push myself to work even harder.  I will be training a new companion, just one this time.  Both of my companions are going to different areas.  That was totally unexpected for me.  It is funny when I felt like I had have my fair share of training that the Lord likes to tell me otherwise.  Just shows you how the Lord is the one in control.  I feel like both of my companions will just do amazing and blossom so much more as they go to different areas.  They grew so much while they were with me and I can't wait to see them again and see even more how much they have grown.

    Everyone in the ward is glad that I am staying, I joke with them that they can't get rid of me.  I have really built that member trust these last few months and I feel like that has been so key with the missionary work here.  Because the areas are smaller we aren't able to really tract as much and find success, but as we work with the members that is where we will see the success.  This week has been pretty good in our area, we actually picked up a new investigator this week from a member.  We had dinner at the members house and their neighbor was there, the members asked us to teach the plan of salvation because they felt like that was what was best.  It went really good and she agreed with a lot of what we had taught.  She agreed to let us start teaching the lessons to her which is exciting, we invited her to church but she didn't come which was a little disappointing.  Things with Max have been going well, we are still hoping for him to be baptized on Feb. 1st so I am excited for him, he is just so excited.  The lesson with him was great and kind of funny because we tried to do an object lesson where you try to fit a hard boiled egg in a jar and it doesn't fit, but when you but a match in the jar it get sucks in(conversion by fire-Holy Ghost).  Well the second egg we had was smaller and could fit in easily so we had to do it quick to make it look like the fire sucked it in and that it didn't just fall in.  It was kind of funny, but it all worked out in the end.

   So it is funny how I was telling everyone that I was good and not going to get sick because Tuesday I got the stomach flu.  Not the greatest and I hated being stuck at home.  I ended up staying at a members house so my companions could go out and work in our area and the member took really good care of me.  Apparently the flu has been going around like crazy, especially in our mission with the missionaries.  Luckily I was just out for a day.  I was still achy the next day but just pushed through it.  There have been some missionaries that were home for a whole week, so crazy.  I am so glad that I am not in a third world country, that would be so tough to deal with while being sick.  Other than that this week has been a pretty normal week.  My companion I had in the MTC went home, she was released honorable.  The medical staff thought it was best for her.  It is tough to see companions you have go home early.  I worry about Sister Roberson, but more importantly her companions.  The trio that she is in now, one of the companions is staying and the other is leaving.  I feel so bad for the one staying, she came up to me and just started crying.  I talked to her for a little bit and just hugged her.  Sometimes I wish I could just take the stress off of others and just take her back, but I know that her companions will learn and grow so much from each other.

        Other than that nothing really new, our mission is still continually growing.  We get 25 new missionaries this transfer which will bring up the total to 192.  Next transfer we should be getting 17.  I still can't believe how many are still coming in.  Well sorry that this is short, I love you all so much.  I hope you know how much I love you and miss you all. He Lives!

Love

Sister Metcalf

January 6, 2014

I can not believe that it is already 2014! Okay so let me just tell you that this year in Boise Idaho for the first time ever that had a big potatoe drop in downtown! Yep you did not read that wrong, instead of a ball like in time square they did a big patatoe.  hahaha I would not expect anything less from the people in Boise Idaho.  Jensa and Elise did you watch it or go to it?  I plan on coming back to see this tradition continue.  Before I forget, in one of the wards I am serving in, there is one person in my ward who knows our cousin Kent.  He served in the same mission with him at the same time.  He trained Kent's trainer(so I guess Kent is his grandson in missionary terminology).  If any of you talk to him as him if he remembers a Jesse Claus.

  This week was a pretty good week and a lot of last minutes changes happening.  We were suppose to go on this big exchange on Wednesday, but one of my companions got sick.  So I ended up staying home with her and sending out my other companion got out with some other sisters.  It is funny how the Lord works, I never wanted to be like a mother to companions telling them what to do or when to get up and what not.  But here I was helping her out and cleaning up after her throw-up.  I rather not do that again until I have kids, I don't know how you did it with us mom.  Jensa, remember that one time that you were baby sitting the Virzi's and you took them out to eat and they just threw up all over the place, I can't even imagine.  Anyways I have decided that I rather work myself to the bone before I spend a full day at home.  It is funny when you are out knocking on doors and no one is answering or wants to listen and you are tired and just want to go home and nap.  Well being home all day with companion, I didn't nap, was so boring!  It was probably the longest days that has ever felt in my mission.  I did get a chance to watch the DVD that Jensa sent me.  I loved it so much and to see all of you! I am glad to see that the dance parties are still happening and that the kids are still bouncing off the walls!  Watching that video just made me smile.  Know that I love you all so much and am so proud of all of you!  Anyway I did lots of personal study and just wanted to go out so badly.  I never want to go through that again, knock on wood that I don't get sick or one of my companions.  So far I have been keeping pretty healthy and eating veggies at members houses of course.  I was feeling a little sick the other day, but I just kept pushing through and not thinking about it and just made sure that I got a good amount of sleep that night.  I am feeling better today.

   This week was pretty good for us with missionary work, each day I am looking for miracles each and everyday and as a mission have been doing thankful prayers every night which I feel like help me see the blessings each and everyday.  We taught Max, who is 9 the plan of salvation and it went really well, we still have him on date to be baptized for the 1st of February.  Working with the less actives have been good and we have been receiving more and more referrals each and everyday which has been nice.  In one of the wards I am working in the missionary has really picked up, we have a couple potential investigators that we hope to pick up these next few weeks.  One is a grandson of someone who wants to get baptized and the mom has finally agreed to allow him to.  We should start teaching him in the next week or two.  There is another family that I have been constantly trying to work on that a lot of members in the ward know but they have been to hesitant to talk to them or to push them too far.  We had dinner with one of the families this week that know them and I had a good talk with them.  They decided that they need to be bold with them and are going to invite the family over for FHE this next week or two and have us be there.  I feel like I am becoming more and more bolder these past few days which has been nice.

   Yesterday I went on an emergency exchange with one of the sisters that serves near me, she is currently serving with my companion from the MTC and it has been hard on her.  There were some issues yesterday so Sister Winder asked her who she wanted to be with for the day and she said me and just started crying cuz she know I would work hard and she feels pretty close to me that she could talk to me about everything that is going on.That really touched my heart, she is such an awesome missionary and I hope to serve with her one day. It was seriously so nice to serve with her, she has been out just one transfer longer than me.  I felt like we were able to just run with missionary work.  We found 4 new investigators in just one day!!! It was so crazy, we had such a good day and taught 6 lessons, which is totally rare.  As much as I love training it was nice to be able to serve with someone that is experience and who I could trust and rely on fully that knew what they were doing.  I know that if we were to serve together that we would just tear things up.

   It is crazy how much you learn and look at things differently on a mission.  There is constant struggles and I have been reflecting on that a lot this past week of the difficulties.  I know that this time in my life on my mission is a point where the Lord is trying to shape me to become not just a better missionary but a better me.  Some times are easier than others because I fully align my will with the Lords and allow him to make the changes in my life and then there are other times that are a little more difficult because I am resisting the changes that he wants me to make.  I learn more and more each day how to be less selfish.  This is the only time in my life where I can fully dedicate my life to the Lord and be the most selfless person.  There is a reason why I have each companion, there is something that is to be learned and they is something in my life that needs to be changed.  I have been trying to focus more and more on that when the difficult times come.  

  I feel indifferent right now with transfers coming up this next week.  Some times I am ready to leave the area and feel like there is nothing else for me to do and then there are other times where I don't want to give up all the hard work and I want to see the fruits of my labors.  I have decided that like with everything else on my mission I am leaving it up to the Lord to what is best for me.  I have really loved this scripture that I have come across in Genesis 19:17. "Look Not Behind" I think I might of talked a lot about this last week but I have really been trying to apply that more in more in my life.  We can't change the past or change the things that have happened to us.  We can allow them to shape us to make us better or we can allow it to tear us now and for us to just dwindle on these things.  This is one thing I love so much with the Gospel.  To our Savior, our pasts do not matter to him.  When we go through repentance He remembers them know more, we learn and grow from them.  The savior only cares about the person that we are going to become.  I am trying to apply this to my life right now, that the Savior does not care the missionary that I am, but He cares about the missionary that I will allow myself to become.  As long as I am giving it my all and showing him my willingness and obedience that is all that He cares about.  I read an article in the Ensign about President Joseph Fielding Smith.  It is funny how both mom and dad sent me that story about him not baptizing one person on his mission and just planted seeds.  I feel like that is the Lords way of telling me something.  

    Know that I love you all! Know that I am giving it my all and am never giving up! I am so appreciative each and everyday for the scarifies you all are making for me to be able to allow me to serve a mission.  I love reading your letters each week. I challenge all of you to say a gratitude prayer once a day.  It is amazing how much it changes your perspective on things and how much more appreciative you are of things as well.

Love

Sister Metcalf