Monday April 28, 2014

"It's been an up and down week".."Isn't that a normal week for a missionary?"‏

This week just seemed to fly by so quickly for me.  On Monday for our preparation day our zone combined with another zone to hike table rock, it was fun but super exhausting.  If you are to ever come to Boise for a long enough trip I would encourage all of you to hike it, it has such an awesome view at table rock.  Monday night we met with one of our investigators who is a part member family.  We extended a baptismal date to him for the beginning of June and asked him to pray about it.  Well he likes to make snarky comments to us all the time, just a little back round information for you. So when we extended that commitment to him he kind of laughed and said well the Lord won't tell me that that isn't a good day for him to get baptized.  He said he would have to make a phone call because his wife's brother who lives in CA he would want to do it.  So will find out tonight how all that went, they did come to church again this week for the third week in a row, seriously a miracle.  It makes me so excited when I see our investigators and the less actives that we are working with walk through that front door.

   On Tuesday we went on exchanges, so I actually wasn't in our area, it was nice to go and see how the sisters that we are over are doing in their area.  Really didn't get a break though, the sister that I was with had only been out for a few weeks so I felt like I was training all over again.  I helped her a lot with planning and figuring out where to go even though that I really don't know their ward.  She really did take a lot from it as well as seeing that she knows a lot more than she takes credit for.  I rode the bus for the first time on my mission and I seriously loved it, I wish that I could do that more often.  It was such a great opportunity to talk to so many people, it really helped me to push myself out of my comfort zone.  We then ended up walking around in the ran for 4 hours, the sisters were low on their miles and so I tried as well to help them figure out how they can best use the miles they are given each month instead of just driving around like a chickens head cut off.  Ran into quite a few people in downtown Boise that really aren't too found of the church and had some really skewed views of everything, but it was funny how I asked them if they would like to really find out what we believe they just denied it.  I love running into people who think that they know what we know, but they have never really want to learn about what we know. We had dinner with a family who lives at top of this hill and their backyard view is a gulf course, it seriously was so nuts.  I will send pictures of it.  I am pretty sure that we ended up walking 6 miles that day, i didn't mind so much but it would of been nice if it wasn't raining and people were walking around that we could of talked to instead of knocking on doors.

   Wednesday we went on splits with the Relief Society and it was really good, the people that I went to go see are less actives that we are already working with but it was good to go by with a member.  One of them that we saw was actually someone that the sister that I was with visit teaches.  I got to help her make a connection with her because she said she was having a hard time with that previously.  Sister Hatch and I are really trying to work hard at getting the members to get more involved in missionary work and having them be more involved with the less actives we are working with.  We are gonna start "assigning" members to be stopping by the less actives or investigators when we aren't there.  I think this will be good because this past week I have been really struggling trying to figure out how to help those progress that are really just stuck in a rut or are sitting on the fence with things.  Thursday we had a good lesson with one of the investigators we are teaching who had her names removed.  She is so ready to finish her interview with the Stake President but for some reason she is holding back and we cannot figure out why.  I have been praying and studying for her like crazy and I hope the Lord leads me to what she needs before our next visit.  I had a little tender mercy from the Lord this night as well, everyone that we had planned to see were not home or had cancelled.  We were trying to figure out where to go and my companion had now clue.  I just said a little prayer in my heart and this less active who I had never met before but had come across her name plenty of times popped into my mind. I decided to go out on a limb and go see her.  She ended up being up and allowing us to come in and visit with her.  She use to be super active, but when she moved into the ward 8 months ago with her daughter that is kind of when things dropped.  They went to church once and felt like there were not a lot of kids.  I feel like that is one of the biggest struggles that we are trying to overcome in this area.  That so many less actives prejudge the ward because it is a little older and there is no youth.  Which is funny because if all the less active youth would come to church there would be a good amount.  This ward is so amazing even though it is small, and many people do not give them a chance.   We have just been bold with people about the purpose of church, and although the social aspect is a plus it should not be the soul reason that determines whither they go or not.  There is only 33% of the ward that comes to church, so we defiantly have our work cut out for us in this area, which is good because it is keeping us busy.

    On Friday we went on exchanges again and I left the area again because the first few exchanges I ended up staying in the area and my companion left.  Things were pretty good, but I saw that it seemed like the sisters were visiting people just to get lessons.  One lady that they see is an atheist.  I had a really good discussion with her, but basically I asked her if she had a desire to know that God exist or if she would pray to know if He is really there.  She said no and she was content with her life.  When we left I told the sister how they can still stop by maybe once a transfer, but not once a week because really I didn't see any potential there.  I said how that we aren't here to just stop by and share a scripture so we can put a tally mark under our lessons, but we are here to help people progress in the Gospel or progress to the Gospel.  That they need to better focus on those that the Lord is preparing rather than the ones that are just easy lessons.  I have really learned on my mission that those investigators that are solid and make it to baptism are the ones that you really have to work hard on.  Which I like because that means that they really had to work for their testimony and I can walk away feeling confident that they will remain solid in the Gospel.  

   Saturday was a pretty hectic day with us because we were trying to get things organized for our stake BBQ that we are putting on in less than 3 weeks.  The stake president decided that he wanted to do a family history twist to it which I think will be great and it is a non-threatening event for people to invite their neighbors and friends to.  It is also a great way to use family history more in missionary work, I feel like I don't use it as effectively as I could on my mission with finding people. Sunday we had a pretty good day as well, it was fast Sunday because next week is Stake conference and the week after that is Mother's day.  One of the less active families(mother and daughter) we are working with have been coming off and on these past few weeks and I stopped by and actually visited with the daughter who is 15.  We had a really good conversation about seminary, church, and prayer.  Yesterday she got up and bore her testimony for the first time, I was so proud of her.  She seriously has grown so much and really is the reason that her mom comes to church.  Last week she actually came to church by herself.  It is so great to see the ward growing little by little and seeing the people that we are working with come to church.  Overall this week has been a pretty good week, some ups and some downs but that is normal in the missionary life.  Thank you all so much for your love and support! I love you and miss you all and hope that all is well on your end.  Continue to reach out to those that you home teach and visit teach as well as to those neighbors and friends around you, continually inviting.

Love 

Sister Metcalf

Monday April 21, 2014

On the downward slump :(‏

Can you believe that I hit my half way mark already?! This is just crazy to me, things are going by way to fast for me.  Things have started to move along in our area, we just got a new ward mission leader this last Sunday because our other one got called up to be the Elders Quorum President.  Sister Hatch and I are really trying to build up the ward in numbers and strengthen the members.  Lots of contacting and reaching out during the week to less actives.  This week the Wilson's( part member family that is less active that we have been working with) came to church again! Two weeks in a row, we are hoping that it isn't because it was Easter, but that it is because they are trying to get back into the habit of things.  We are seeing them tonight and are going to focus on repentance and baptism with them.  We are hoping to extend a baptismal date for the Dad and their daughter who is 8.  I think the previous sisters had gotten into a routine of just going over and "visiting" with them.  One thing that has stuck out to me with working with less actives is that as missionaries we don't want to be seen as visiting teachers or home teachers.  We are hear to call them to repentance and to bring them back to church.  I feel like sometimes the missionaries, including myself are trying to build up the relationship too much with them, that is the members responsibility.  Yes we should make a connection with them but I see that sometimes the less actives just expect from missionaries visits as just visits and not trying to help them to progress in the gospel.  I really have been continually working on being bold with everyone.  Kind of an inspiring story from this week, we had dinner with a family the other night and both of them are active members.  They told us how they were both inactive for 18 and 34 years.  I asked them what got them to come back to church and they said how for 3 years their home teachers and visiting teachers would come by every single month.  They always shared a message and invited them to church every time.  One day the wife woke up and starting getting ready when her husband saw this he asked where she was going and she told him church and asked if he wanted to go and he went.  Since then they have gone to church every single week.  The spirit really touched my heart about not giving up with people.  Sometimes it gets frustrating when we don't see people progress or we feel that our work has gone to waste.  But that is not the truth at all.  I love the story of Abinadi, where he calls the people to repentance and gives up his life for the Lord and he probably thought that he had done no good.  But Alma was one among them that went on to convert hundreds of people.  It just showed me not to give up on everyone, and I guess that applies to everyone back home to not give up on those less actives that you visit and home teach.  You are planting seeds and you never know where it is going to go.

    Sadly we weren't able to see our Bosnian family due to sickness in their family and her crazy work schedule.  We taught a lot more lessons this week which was nice, we are keeping pretty busy but we can always be busy as all missionaries would say.  We had a Leadership training meeting this week where we talked about planning more effectively at night.  It was so good and I felt like it was needed, I feel like the Lord is really whipping me into shape and when I think that I have gotten good at something he shows me where I need to improve.  I was the lucky one who Sister Winder choose to go out with for the night, a little stressful but we had a successful night.        I actually had a meeting already set up with the bishop that night to go over the ward directory, so she got to sit in on that and really see how we as missionaries work with the bishop.  We then went to go see a less active family that the bishop had mentioned, and had a really good visit with them.  The spirit was so strong and I shared a message on Easter of course and committed them to come to church and they agreed.  Sadly they didn't keep their commitment, but there was quite a few less actives that we did get out to church.  It might of been due to the fact that it was Easter but we are really going to stay on them to make sure that we can keep them coming.  I love sitting there in sacrament meeting a see the congregation grow, even if there are just one of two people that come in.  Slowly it is getting bigger, but there is still a lot more people that are out there in Boise that need to be sitting in those pews.

  

 This week we also went on exchanges with some sisters that we were over, I was sister Pratt, she is so awesome I love her.  We had a great time, she is an awesome missionary.  There always seems to be some event that happens to us when we are on exchanges together.  Last time is when we got roped into cleaning out that small fish pond.  This time we were driving to one of our appointments and all of a sudden we saw this little boy running around on the street with no clothes on.  We just started busting up laughing, she turned to me and just said you really do cover the lower class people in Boise.  I seriously love the area I cover, there is never a dull moment here.

    Yesterday Easter was really good, we had dinner with a family in the ward whose husband is less active.  They invited over a couple of their friends as well, there was a lot of good food and we also go to dye Easter eggs with their two little kids.  We were able to make some visits to some less actives that night as well.  It was a little tougher day during the afternoon because a lot of people were either not home or they had family over.  Overall it was good and I was so grateful to be out their sharing the message of the Savior on Easter.

   Nothing really too exciting from this week, the work is continually moving along and I am continually learning and growing and being shaped into the person that the Lord needs me to become.  I love you and miss you all and I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter.

Love

  Sister Metcalf

Monday April 14, 2014

There were a lot of success for the week here in the area that I am serving in, which was nice for the first week of the transfer.  There is a part member/less active family that we usually do family home evening with every Monday night, the sisters have been doing that with them for the past six months.  This last week we focused on teaching them a cute little lesson on the plan of salvation, but directed it towards their 8 year old daughter.  At the end when we talked about the 3 different kingdoms we asked her/ her parents what we need to do in order to live with our father in heaven again.  The nonmember dad said baptism, and they gave answers like church, prayer, reading the scriptures.  Which are all things that we are trying to get them to do.  It was kind of funny, we talked about their daughter getting baptized and the mom mention how they want the dad and daughter to get baptized at the same time and how they want her brother to do it who lives in CA.  When we asked them to set a "goal" for that they were thinking the end of August. My companion and I talked to them about not waiting that long, but we also know we need to get them back active again.  They use to come all the time a year and half ago.  Well yesterday they came to church!!!!! It was seriously such a miracle and I was so shocked, because they haven't come in forever.  They stayed for all three hours.  I seriously have no clue why they aren't active, they were making comments in the gospel principles class and both of them made really good comments in Relief Society and Priesthood.  We are seeing them tonight and we are hoping that we can keep them on the path to continually coming to church.

    Another miracle this week is that we contacted a referral that was given to us, i met of mentioned it before.  It is a mother, daughter, and son from Bosnia and her coworker who lives in Star has been working on them but she lives in our area.  We finally met with them this week and had a really good talk with them. We picked them up as new investigators, they just seem so golden and so well prepared by the lord. She talked about how she wants a church to raise her children with good morals and standings, she had talked about how she works around about 90% members and she just loves the type of people that they are.  With our first visit she asked what it would take to get them baptized, we talked about the Book of Mormon as well and extended a soft baptismal invitation as well, which they accepted.  We are shooting to have the baptism in the middle of May.  I really have high hopes for this family.

     On Saturday I got to go back to my old area to my investigators baptism.  It was for Emily, and it seriously was so good.  I loved that girl so much and was so sad when I had to leave that area.  It was so nice to have gone back and to see how much she had grown even more.  She seriously was so shy when I first met her, but she seriously has gotten so outgoing and has gain such a strong testimony of the gospel.  We got to talk for a little bit before the baptism and I just told her how proud I was of her and she told me how awesome I was and how grateful she was for me teaching her.  The spirit was so strong at her baptism, not gonna lie I cried a couple of times.  I knew that my Father in Heaven was proud of both of us and I just felt so blessed that I got to come back for her baptism.  Sadly though when I talked to the sisters that are serving in that ward, it sounds like all my other investigators have gone off the deep end.  This was so sad to hear, I wanted to cry.  The adversary had gotten to two of the youth I was teaching and by not getting any support at home at worn on them.  I hope to stay in touch with them after my mission and pray that they will find their way back to the church.

   This week we also went on exchanges with two of the sisters that we were over and it was a lot of success.  One of the newer sisters who I was with is kind of struggling with some stuff that is going on back at home.  I really feel for her, but it was a great opportunity for her to open up to me and for me to help her with what she was going through.  I feel like I worry so much more for these sisters out her, I want them all to succeed so badly.  It is such a blessing that I have been able to build a trust and friendship with them that they feel like they can open up to me and talk to me about their struggles.

  I found out the other week that my first investigator, Joe Rarick and his wife are planning on getting sealed in the temple at his year mark.  I was so excited to hear that he was doing so well.  I was nervous a few months ago because I had heard that about a month after his baptism he lost his job, and then his wife and him had some troubles and kicked him out of the house.  The advesary was working on him hard because he seriously has such a strong testimony.  He stayed faithful through it all and kept going to church.  Things are good between him and his wife and she is actually active again in the church!!! I hope he keeps strong because I would love to be able to be there when he goes through and gets sealed to his family! These are the types of people I love to find, it is not about the number of baptisms.  But it is about finding those people that will help build up the kingdom of God and stay strong in the church.

    Sister Hatch and I are really fired up about our ward, we have been talking a lot about how we can build up the ward and strengthen the members.  How we can help them to reach out to those last actives and to their nonmember friends.  We talked about building up the ward for our investigators so that way when they are baptism they will stay and that the ward will hold on to them instead of letting them fall to the waste side.  We really both got fired up and we had a meeting with the stake high councilor over missionary work.  That meeting showed us the indication of how the stake is doing with missionary work and members being missionary minded, which doesn't seem to be going so well, which got me fired up even more.  As a district we discussed how we want to do a Stake BBQ.  An opportunity for all the members to reach out to their less active friends and nonmember neighbors.  The stake president approved it so now we have to jump on the ball with it.  It is gonna take a miracle because we have 5 weeks to plan it and get the word out and we know that us missionaries are gonna have to be the driving factor for the success of this.  I have faith that it will be successful. 

   Hope all is going well back at home, I love you and miss you all! I appreciate all the letters and emails that I get from all of you! I pray for you each and every night as I hope that you do for me as well.  Still some struggles out here in the mission field but I try not to let that get me discouraged. I still can't believe that I hit my half way mark this week! Where has the time gone?! 

My challenge to you this week is to share this link/ video with everyone!

 http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694   

Seriously is so good, I love it! And I love how well the church is putting out these videos, they are such a good source of sharing the gospel, all you have to do is post it on Facebook. I love you all so much! Hope that you have an amazing week and am so excited for Easter this Sunday, may we all remember what Christ means to us in our lives and Remember what He did for each and everyone of us. I know that my Redeemer  lives and Because of Him.... (you fill in the rest) 

Love

Sister Metcalf

 A marque at a local church, kind of a smart saying

Helped some one that has an antique store move some things and found this sweet gem!

 1- Elder and Sister Olsons last day, they were our office missionaries and I loved them to death

 2-Me with Sister Gibbions and Sister Olson, they work in the office

3-Some of the amazing sisters I serve with

 1-Baptism of my investigator from my last area, Emily!

2-Emily and Sister Hess(the RSP, who was the reason for our success) after the baptism 

Monday April 7, 2014

I seriously cannot believe how fast this transfer has flown by! I am half way through in my mission transfers wise! Transfer calls came in on Saturday and I am staying and my companion is leaving. I was so shocked! We had only been together for one transfer, I feel like I barely know the area. I am a little stressed and worried because she had been here for 6 months and just knows everyone. She is from Utah, i know her pretty well and have been on exchanges with her and I know that she is a hard worker which I am excited to go out and work hard.  I am actually super impressed and amazed by her cuz she actually has stuttering problem but still decided to come out when as a missionary all we do is speak to people.  She is super bold and has no fear which I love, I know that she is going to push me to be a better missionary. But I know that everything will be fine and it is what the Lord wants.  My new companion is Sister Hatch, she just became and STL and has been a transfer out longer than me.  We will be Co-STL's together which will be nice, but I feel a little stressed that I have to train her on a sense of all that we do.  Do you know she will be my 9th companion in 9 months?! That is just so crazy to me, I feel like I can't keep a companion.  Well I guess I have been in 3 trios and have been training a lot back to back to back. I think the Lord knows that I don't like change very much so he has been giving it to me a lot on my mission which I know is good for me.

   So sad news that I keep forgetting to tell. So one of my first companions I had when I first came out and was trained in a trio, Sister Thompson, went home a few weeks ago.  I was so sad to hear this, we were in the MTC together! That is two sisters from my MTC district that have gone home early.  Also last Saturday I got a phone call from Sister Roberson and she told me that she was going home :( She actually left last Monday.  I got to see her before she left which was really nice.  When she called to tell me she was going home I started crying. I am seriously so proud of her and for her staying out for 7 1/2 months.  I told her how proud I was and how much she had grown and how she had been successful.  I was sad to see her go, but I knew that she was ready and needed to come home.  I just hope and pray that her parents were supportive and everything.  So this now makes 3 of my companions that have gone home early.  I have learned so much from them when they were my companions and was so sad to see them go.  We actually have been having quite a few sisters that have been going home early, and it is so sad to see. I guess with the wave coming out there are gonna be a few that go home.

   This week was a slower week with us with all the meetings, transfers, and General Conference.  We had Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday, it is where all the zone leaders and Sister training leaders get together to discuss different types of things in the mission.  It was really good and President really inspired me to work harder and keep pushing.  Last month was a pretty good month for our mission with finding new investigators as well as baptisms.  He talked to us about how if we spend 50% of the time with members(active and less active) and 50% with investigators and 100% of the time finding then we will double our baptisms.  This week I get to go back to my old area for the Baptism of one of my investigators I was teaching, Emily.  I am so excited for her and so excited to see old faces and hear how the other investigators are doing.  We also had zone meeting this week as well, Sister Allen and I actually went to another zone meeting of the sisters that we are over because they asked us to do a training.  It was pretty great and we did some really fun role plays with them.  Wasn't general conference just amazing this weekend! I loved it so much. Saturday Morning session was probably my favorite, Elder Holland just started it off with a bang! I just got so much out of conference, I just want to re watch it over and over again and reread the talks! My new favorite speaker is Elder Corbridge, I thought he was amazing pretty much teaching the first lesson and bearing his testimony of Joesph Smith. I wish we had conference more then two times a year.  I truly believe that things like General Conference, Zone meetings, district meetings, ect are needed as a missionary because you just are re-energized to go out and just take on the world. I hope that all of you got the chance to watch it.  

   I love you all so much!!!! Sorry for the short email this week.

Love

Sister Metcalf

 My New Companion

 On my birthday

With Sister Roberson

March 31, 2014

Okay so I took Nathan's advice and took notes through out the week in my planner of things that had happened, but this week we had weekly planning and we do new planners for each month. Well today i grabbed my new planner, but then I left my old planner at home! So that planned failed, but I am going to try to do my best to remember all that has happened this week.

   We visit a part member family each Monday night and do family home evening with them. The dad is not a member and has taken the missionary discussions before.  He told us he knows he needs to get baptized, but they don't go to church.  They use to go all the time a year an half ago, but i don't know why they don't now. Every time we talk to them about they have an lame excuse why, I just need to be bold with him. I almost just want to drop them, but my companion has been seeing them for six months and doesn't want to just yet. We have been trying to make little commitments to them like nightly family prayer and scripture reading hoping that that will lead to them coming to church. We will see what will happen there.

   On Tuesday we went on exchanges with one of the sisters that we are over and I ended up going to their area. IT is crazy how different the areas are just within Boise, such a small city but you have all these different areas.  Anyways we ended up doing service most of the day, we weeded someones yard for like 2 hours, that is something that I do not miss doing back at home with you mom.  But it was a great opportunity for me to talk with the sister that I am over and see how things are really going.  After that we went to another service project, apparently the ward had a service auction or something and somehow someone bought two hours of the sisters time to drain a fish pond.  I didn't think that it was going to be such a big deal but, that water had been sitting there for 3 years!!! There were some dead fish in there with toys, you name it and it was in there. We brought a drain thing, but couldn't use it because their were so many leaves that it kept clogging it up.  We ended up doing all by hand, i wish that i could describe the smell to you, the closest thing that I could describe it is putting all the animal droppings from a petting zone and condensing it down to a water form of 3 feet and letting it sit there for years.  Luckily we were blessed and we didn't get sick! I have been converted to never getting a coy pond in  my backyard.  The rest of the night went really well, we went to go see one of their investigators that is on the verge of dropping them as well as a less active that they haven't been able to get in the door with.  It is so amazing how much more bold I am able to be when I go on exchanges, I don't know what it is.  I am bold in my area, but I wish i could be even more like when I go to other areas.  It's hard to explain, but I am pretty sure Megan understands what I am saying.

     Thursday we had a Sister's Conference that was really good! It was kind of long, but all the things that were discussed was needed. Each companionship of STL's were assigned to train/talk to the sisters on a subject.  Sister Allen and I talked about Companionship unity, Companionship Inventory, obedience dealing specifically with music, and how to build up your companionship.  It over all went really well, i had an elder in our district write us a song about companionship unity which me and my companion sung in the beginning.  The girls really liked it.  Later that night we saw one of our investigators, Caleb.  Things are going well for him, he has gone to church these last two weeks and is progressing well.  We invited him to be baptized and he said yes.  Just like Megan said, we now have to help him truly investigator and come to a surety that this is the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is tough to teach him at times because he is at a lower reading/education level then he should be at, but I know that they Lord will make up the difference and the spirit will help him with that.

   Overall things have been really good this week. My companion and I are continually working with less actives.  We did end up getting dropped by one of our investigators this week, it was hard, but I knew it was for the best.  I had a feeling that this wasn't her time.  She did say that we helped her grow closer to God and to start going back to the Catholic church. I almost wanted to laugh when she said that to us.  But she told us that is what she is familiar with, it is hard to have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.  I can see her joining down the road and I know that we have planted some seeds that will be nourished down the road.  Right now I just have a drive of finding new investigators, I know that there are people out here that are being prepared and I just need to find them.  My companion and I set some really good goals this week and have the faith that we can see miracles.  I feel like I need to build up the comradery in the ward with missionary work. When we told the Bishop that we have the faith to have a baptism by the end of June, he didn't seem too thrilled or show much faith in us.  But I haven't let that get us down! 

   My birthday was really good this year, it really was like any other day in the mission field but with cake and ice cream.  The sisters that I lived with decorated the apartment and baked me a cake and for lunch our whole district went out as well as a few other sisters that I have grown close with, it was pretty good.  I was really hoping to find a new investigator as a birthday present to me, but no such luck.  Thank you for all the letters, packages, gifts, and testimonies. It made my birthday even better. Yesterday in PEC all the men auxiliary leaders sand Happy Birthday to me, it was pretty great.  My companion did a good job the whole week and the day of telling everyone how it was my Birthday.

  Funny story for the week, on Saturday we had a baptism in our ward for a girl who had turned 8 and she had asked us to go.  When we got there everyone was rushing around.  We found out that no one had cleaned the font so when they had filled it up it was super gross, will hair and gunk floating around.  SO they had to drain it clean it as quick as they can and then fill it back up.  People were rushing back and forth from the kitchen to try and fill up the font.  The funniest part is that the city was flushing the city water by there so the water still came out yellow.  We just told the little girl that it was like getting baptized in a river like Jesus hahahaha And the water was still super low so the dad had to dip her back really far to get her all the way under.  Defiantly an event that I will never forget.

   Hope things are going well on everyone else's ends.  Know that I love you and miss you all! Keep being that example to those around you.  I pray for each and everyone of you every night! I love you and keep praying for me, i need it! Love you!

Sister Metcalf

March 24, 2014

I feel like this has been a week of miracles.  My companion and I are continually trying to be come even more obedient and purify our hearts and I truly believe that the Lord is seeing our efforts. One of the goals I have set is to walk around more from place to place because it is nicer out.  There are more people out and about roaming around because of the spring weather.  I have been trying to talk to everyone I see, a lot of them not really interested in what I have to say, but I haven't let that get me down.  I know I am successful when I invite and they have their own agency to choose for themselves.  About halfway through the week we got a text about a referral and to call a member in the Star stake.  This member in Star has a coworker that he has been working on for sometime now and they have had a lot of gospel conversations.  He had her and her son over for dinner last Sunday and had the missionaries over as well, they taught her the first lesson and she said she wants to continue to learn more.  She lives in our stake boundaries, she lives in a different ward but feels more comfortable being taught by sisters.  It is spring break this week,so she is out of town with her son, but we have an appointment to meet with her on the 30th.  She really seems promising and the member in star feels like she is a golden contact.  

      The next day we got a phone call from a member in one of the other wards in our stake who teaches seminar at the local high school.  There is a 18 year old foreign exchange student from Italy who has been going to the seminary building for lunch for the last few weeks and has been having some really good discussions with some students and teachers.  The member who called us challenged him to go to church yesterday and he came.  We got to meet him and talk to him for a little bit, he only ended up staying for the first 2 hours of church, I don't think anyone told him that it was three hours long so I think it was a little too much for him.  But I had a good talk with him and gave him our number and he says he is thinking about learning more.  I don't know where this will go, but I trust the Lord that all will work out.  The only thing that I am worried about is that we literally have no youth in our ward to be his fellow-shipper, my companion and I have been talking about what to do about this situation.  We are thinking of going out and contacting some of the less active young men and having them get involved in this.  I think that it will be a great opportunity for them and hopefully help them to gain a testimony of their own and start to become a little more active in church, which hopefully will help their families to become a little more active as well.  It might seem like a long shot, but anything is possible in the Lords work.  We also got one of our investigators to come to church yesterday and the LA family he lives with came as well, it was such a blessing to see!!!

   I got a text from the sisters that are serving in my old area and one of my investigators agreed to be baptized in the second weekend in April, I am just so excited for her! She is such an amazing person, i feel so blessed to still be able to see the blessings from my labors in my old area.  Now I just need to help "harvest" the work in this area that I am in now.  I know that it is going to take time and a lot of patience.

   We had a missionary fireside last night for the stake and that went pretty well, we had a decent turnout, like 70 people.  Pretty much the size of our ward, but I hope what we had to say really touched their hearts.  Each of us missionaries in the district bore our testimonies on a gospel principle, we sang the EFY Medly of "As sisters in Zion" and "We'll Bring The World His Truth".  We then had a recent convert come and speak about his conversion story.  It was so amazing.  He is from Sister Allen s old area and he talked about how he thought he was happy with his life, living the lifestyle that he was living.  How he got a divorce from his wife and she had the kids and he kept living the bachelor lifestyle and still felt like he was happy with his life.  One day he decided that he didn't like how things were going, he knelt down one night and prayed that Heavenly Father out of desperation and it was the first time since he was a child that he had prayed.  He asked that God would give him a sign that He exists and that He knew who he was and put him on the path he needed to be on.  He feel asleep and in the morning woke up and felt like nothing had happen and he just gave up hope on things.  Later that day he heard a knock on the door and he felt like he should go open it, but at the same time he didn't want to open it.  He fought with himself for a minute debating wither or not to open the door.  He finally decided to and there was two Mormon missionaries at the door and he knew that God had sent them to him and he listen to their message.  He said for the first time in a long time he felt a peace in his heart and started to feel a sense of happiness.  He continued to take the discussions, a miracle of it all was that his wife who lived across town was also taking the missionary discussions as well as their children.  He did not know that at the time, but they both accepted it and a long while later they ended up getting remarried and sealed in the temple.  His story was so amazing, but what he said at the end really touched my heart.  He said this message that we as members have to share is not ours to give, it is the Lord's.  He has blessed us with this knowledge and He has asked us to share it with everyone.  He used the analogy of giving some candy to one of his sons and asking him to share it to with his brothers and sisters.  He talked about how he would feel if he saw that his son was keeping that candy all to himself and wasn't sharing it.  Or if his son was deciding who would like the candy and who wouldn't.  We can not choose who and will not accept the message we have to share.  It isn't our message and gift to decide that,it is Christs.  He is the one that paid the price for us and He has given it to us freely to share with everyone.

   Overall things have been going really well, and I feel like I am constantly been busy! It is hard trying to keep up with everything when you are on the Lord's errand.  I am so grateful for all your love and support for allowing me to serve a mission.  There is no other place that I rather be! I love you all! Don't forget that what I really want for my Birthday is your testimonies either handwritten or typed.  I already got Ginnys, and I appreciated it, it really touched my heart and means a lot to me. I promise to have a longer email next week, i need to do better taking notes during the week of things that have happen. I love you all and pray that the Lord is contiually blessing your lives! Share your testimony with everyone around you, it is a gift that God has given you!

Love 

Sister Metcalf