"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
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