Monday September 29, 2014

Reading Megan's e-mail, I feel like we had somewhat similar weeks.  We actually did really well with lessons this week, we got 18 total lessons, which is one of the highest weeks since I have been serving here in Eagle.  We got into a couple of less actives that we have not met before, but it has felt like a long week to me.  The days seem long and the weeks seem longer.  I feel like I am just tired all the time and worn out. I, like Megan, am dragging my companion along for the ride.  I mean I have done this type of thing before, but it feels harder this time around.  Maybe it is because I just came from a companion where we were both equally yoked.  And going back to being the one that does all the work just feels harder this time around.  My companion doesn't like to talk much, I am the one that usually has to do most of the teaching and small talk. She also doesn't like to contact people, I try to get her to do some door approaches but all she does is just say hello and then looks at me.  I try to stand there for as long as I can but I can only take about 8 seconds of awkward silence before I just take over.  It is a little frustrating.  I am trying to keep the fire going in Eagle, but my tank is low and a lot of our potentials that Sister Haas and I found have either been progressing slowly or didn't pan out.  So we are back to square one, but this time I am on my own to try and find us some investigators and potentials.

    I love the people in Eagle though, I have really grown close to the members in these two wards that we are over, I feel like they have really helped me out.  They bring me that comfort and relief when I need it.  The Lord is always sending me tender mercies my way and I am so grateful for them.  One of the miracles this week was with one of our investigators Nick.  We hadn't been able to meet with him for the last few weeks because of the wedding, but we finally got to see him this week.  Him and his wife's whole family(who are members) have really been struggling, and he told us of this experience that he had.  He has been looking and applying to jobs for weeks and this week he applied and then got a rejection letter from dominions. He has always had a hard time praying, but this week he decided to pray.  He asked God for his help and guidance in his life and later that day he actually got a call from Dominions for an interview and then later that day got a call for another interview.  So he is starting to recognize that God is aware of him and truly cares about him.  That might not seem like a big step, but to me it is such a huge step! Slowly he is progressing, but I just know that he will be baptized.

   So on Saturday I had one of the saddest and worst experience in a sense on my mission.  So there are two teenagers that were baptized here in our ward over the summer.  We have really been working with them teaching the new member lessons and trying to keep them strong in the church cuz they have been struggling the last few weeks.  It is just them and their mom that live together, their mom doesn't really care much what they do.  She is depressed a lot and just drinks when she gets home from work, a really sad situation.  Well their house went into foreclosure and on Saturday the ward helped them move out of their home and into a new house that they will be renting.  No one had ever been in that house, so no one knew how bad it was going to be.  I have never seen a house so dirty and disgusting in my life.  They had three dogs that were indoor dogs and they literally peed all over the carpet and pretty sure there was so diarrhea on there as well.  It didn't look like the house had been clean in years.  There was rat poop everywhere! And I mean everywhere.  There was even 10 mice that were caught in mice traps just laying there.  I guess they had just bought the mice traps a few days ago, normally they would just run around.  There was food hid in places and forgotten about that were moldy and had rat poop in it.  It was so sad to see the kids bedrooms to see how much feces and mice were in their rooms.  I felt like I couldn't breathe the whole time I was there.  Everyone was in shock and just felt sick to their stomachs.  They had no ideas that the kids had been living like that.  I wish I would of had my camera in order to take pictures.  I think the women in the ward are really going to rally around their mom and the kids to make sure the new place they are in stay clean.  There were some young men there and I think that was a great example to them of why you should do your chores every single week.  Some of the closets we just left alone, we were afraid to find out what rodents were in their.  We just moved stuff out, we didn't do any cleaning, we figured we would just leave it for the bank to deal with.  I feel like it is going to be one of those homes that you see on those reality tv shows where the houses are being auctioned off and the outside looks nice, but when the person walks inside they are going to be shocked.

    The women's conference was so great on Saturday, I just loved the focus on the temples.  I loved how they focused on how it is a place where we make covenants with our Father in Heaven, not a place to just get married.  I felt like that was good because I felt like when I was in YW whenever we talked about the temple it was about getting married there.  I think it was good for them to know that we go to the temple to make more covenants with our Father in Heaven and then we get married. I am so excited for general conference this weekend and to hear from the Prophet and Apostles.

   Know that I love you all so much and pray for you all! I hope you have a great week.  I attached one of the new Mormon Messages.  It is one of my favorites, no good deed goes unnoticed! 

You Never Know

Love

 Sister Metcalf

P.S. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Monday September 22, 2014

Well this week has kind of been one in the slumps I feel like.  Remember Andrew, the 15 year old boy that we had set a baptismal date with? Well I guess he got overwhelmed and was having panic attacks and he dropped us.  That was hard for us.  Sister Haas met a couple of potential investigators this week while on exchanges, but I haven't met them yet.

   We also had a Sister Conference this week, and it was really good, but kind of long.  Sister Haas and I taught about teaching for commitments.  We kind of broke things down about how there are about 400,000+ people in our mission and only about 200 missionaries.  So that means that each missionary is in charge of 2,000 people. That is 2,000 whither they be non members or members that we are suppose to invite to come closer to Christ.  And the way that we do that is by extending to them commitments.  So out of the number of weeks that we serve in our mission we as individuals should be extending 25 commitments individually, meaning 50 as a companionship.  That information was so powerful to me.

   A little miracle this week is that we knocked on a less active mans door on Thursday and set up an appointment to go back to visit with him and his wife on Saturday to teach them the Restoration.  When we went back his wife wasn't feeling well, she has Polio so she sits in her chair a lot in another room.  We ended up visiting with him.  He talked about how he grew up in the church and how is brother is very active.  He said how his brother was just in town visiting a few days ago and asked if he had sent us.  We just laughed and said how God works in mysterious ways.  We started teaching him the Restoration and when I started talking about How the Gospel Blesses Families and asked him what he remembers being taught growing up.  He asked me how I have come to know that the Gospel is true.  I bore my testimony of it and then he in return told us of certain experiences where he knows that the gospel is true.  Really cool stories, he says how he still believes but just got out of the habit.  He then said how he got into other habits of the word of wisdom and doesn't want to go back to church with them.  We talked to him about the blessings of him coming back to church and he talked about his wife.  We really see a lot of potential there.  I love seeing the hearts of the people change.  He kind of got emotional with us and said he hasn't been that way/felt that way in a long time.  It was totally the spirit working on him.

   So transfers happened this past week and I guess it just doesn't seem real yet.  But Sister Haas got transferred! She went down from being an Sister Training Leader, President Winder has been trying to route people in and out of leadership positions. We seriously thought that we were going to be together for 3.  We had really been building up the work here in the Eagle area and we have really been rolling the balls on things and we both just felt that this put a halt on everything.  I am training a new STL, her name is Sister Clegg.  She is actually a Spanish speaking missionary, but has served in English for the past two transfers. She was in my old district in the Boise South area.  

    I feel like this weekend has been a world wind for me.  One of the sisters that would go out with us, just left on her mission and gave her farewell talk.   She is so great, I got kind of emotional during her talk. It was hard to say goodbye to her, she told us that she truly felt like we were both suppose to be serving in her ward so that we could get her excited about going on her mission.  As well as yesterday as we were driving around saying goodbye to people and taking pictures I lost my camera!!!!!! It seriously was in a 30 minute time frame when I lost it and it we were only at 3 different places.  We stopped off at some peoples homes and in between we saw this cool water mill thing so we decided to take pictures.  When we got to the next house I realized it was gone so we retraced our steps.  We were gone for maybe 5 minutes and when we went back to look it was gone.  It was a little heart wrenching to me, not losing the camera but my card that had the last 7 1/2 months of my mission on it.  We said a prayer and kept looking but couldn't find it.  We even went back this morning to give it one more shot.  I think someone must of been walking by and saw it and picked it up.  I hope that they were a member or know a member that they can give it to.  I still have hope that it may turn up, but I feel like the realistic side of me has just given up and is just wanting to move on.

   These past few days have been a struggle for me, but I know that that is just how it is in missionary work.  Sorry that this is short but know that I love you all! and I hope all is well with you!

Love

Sister Metcalf

Monday September 15th, 2014

"Because of Him"

I feel like this transfer has just flown by, this is the last week of the transfer and I seriously can not believe it! I feel like since I have been up in Eagle that every Sunday has been either a mission farewell or homecoming. Seriously every week, I guess we see it more too because we cover two wards.  It is kind of awesome to see all these youth go out and come home, but it does get a little tiring even as a missionary hahaha 

    This week has been a pretty good one, nothing really too exciting.  A lot of appointments cancelled on us, I think the adversary is really trying to test us a lot this week.  We have been trying to meet with Andrew the last few weeks, the one I told you about that we set a baptismal date.  We haven't been able to teach him the last 2 Sundays and he hasn't come to church either.  We have young men texting him and even going to his house to pick him up.  We believe that it is his family that is holding him back.  When ever we stop by to talk to him and it is just him he is excited to see us and is wanting to meet with us and go to church and what not.  But whenever his family comes outside or is with him you can see him just tense up and he doesn't really talk much to us.  His step mom(who is a less active member) is wanting to talk to us this week, we don't think Andrew has really been communicating with them about his desires to join the church.  All we can do is pray and leave it up to the Lord's hands.

     One highlight of the week is that I got to go and witness a wedding on Saturday, it is the second one on my mission.  Sister Haas and I have been working with a family whose daughter just turned 18 and her now husband. We have been teaching Nick(her husband) but it had been a little bit slow these last few weeks because of the wedding and everything, but we are hoping that it will pick up again.  We helped decorate for the wedding and went to watch it, it was kind of a smaller low key thing.  It was great to see, but after seeing a marriage in the temple, it just isn't the same.  It just hit me so strong how important it is for us to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity! That the blessings that are promised there are so important.  I think it hit me even harder todaywhen I heard about Brianna husband passing.  That was so hard to hear, but I know that she has such a strong testimony and is such a strong person and it brings comfort for me to know that they were sealed in the temple.  

   A lot of our focus this past week was on our fireside that Sister Haas and I put together for the two wards that we are over. It was called "The Night of the Savior", a fireside strictly about the Saviors life and what it means to ustoday.  We had a pretty good turn out and a couple of nonmembers came as well.  We had three different rooms that were about 15 minutes long based on three different videos.  The first video was Christlike attributes (https://www.lds.org/youth/video/christlike-attributes?lang=eng) in there we had a member talk about the different attributes of Christ and what His life and example means to us.  We talked about how we can obtain those attributes as well. The second video was None Were With Him(https://www.lds.org/youth/video/none-were-with-him?lang=eng). In this room we had the member that were in charge of this room talk about the Atonement and what that means to them.  And how it means so much more than just Christ taking upon him our sins, but our infirmities, challenges, struggles, pains,ect. The final room and my favorite video was Because of Him(http://easter.mormon.org/ ). We had a girl that is preparing to go on a mission conduct this room. She talked about the Resurrection of Christ and how because of Him we can have new beginnings.  She has an awesome story about how she fell away from the church and then came back.  She is one of the girls that goes out with us every week, I just love her and I just know that she is going to be an amazing missionary. But that video, I seriously feel like I feel the spirit so strong each and every time that I watch it.  Overall the night was a great success, the members were talking about how we should do something like that again sometime.

   Well it is time for me to get off, sorry this email is a little short this time.  I love you and miss you all.   Make sure to be doing the little things each and every day, read your scriptures and pray every day.  It  is when we stop doing the little things that Satan is able to get a better hold of us.  That is something that I have definitely gain a testimony of while I have been out.  That Satan lives and that he knows what are weaknesses are and he knows how to use them against us.

Love

   Sister Metcalf

   

Tuesday September 9th, 2014

Light the Fire

I feel like each week that I write all of you that I say how it was a week of miracles, and honestly I feel like this week was a week of miracles as well.  I guess as a missionary you are always just seeing miracles and tender mercies from the Lord.

    So last week we had Zone meeting and Sister Haas and I were asked to train on our mission vision.  It is something that President and Sister Winder put together, that says that if as missionaries we do "a,b,c...." then we will see "x,y,z".  It is really good and really helps you as a missionary see what your focus needs to be on.  So we went over that with everyone in the zone.  We asked them where are some areas that they want to serve as missionaries and why that is? Eccentrically they responded that the areas that they want to serve in are ones that they have heard from other missionaries are good areas.  We talked about what other peoples "visions" are of Eagle and what our "vision" is as missionaries here serving in Eagle.  We talked about not letting other missionaries views effect our views of the area that we are serving in.  How your area, mission, companionship,ect. are what you make it and they attitude that you want to have towards it.  We talked about the potential they we have in this area and how we can feel it, how this area has surpassed the work that it was seeing the previous year.  I shared a scripture that I had found in my personal study D&C 31:3-5.  This is the only part in the scriptures where I have seen the phrase "the field which his white already to be burned".  I talked about the analogy of a fire, how once a fire starts that it can't be stopped.  How growing up in California, it is always the places that are the driest or that have been in a drought where the fire usually starts.  We came up with a phrase that we need to "Light the Fire" in Eagle.  How we need to start the fire and have the rest of the mission catch that fire as well.  That we can make Eagle the place where people want to serve.  We set some goals for this upcoming month on finding so many new investigators.  The zone really has enthusiasm and are excited for this upcoming month.  The goals that we set, we totally believe they are doable.

   At the end of our zone meeting our zone leaders had us all go around and say one thing they have learned/or an attribute that the other missionaries have that the really admire.  It was really great, a lot of people that I haven't served around talked about how bold that they hear that I am.  That I am not afraid to tell it as it is, but I have the love behind it as well.  They talked a lot about the enthusiasm and fire that I have for the work and they can feel the spirit in the room.  That really touched me, i felt this was a really good thing for us to do to go around and to build each other up.

   Sister Haas and I have been really taking that momentum that we felt in zone meeting and get the fire going even faster in our area.  Last week we actually picked up 4 new investigators.  It was such a tender mercy from the Lord.  It actually is Pam and Matthew, who i believe that I mentioned last week.  We helped them move in a few weeks ago, Matthew is just so smart and is very knowledable when it comes to religion and he is only 15 years old.  I feel like they young men just need to sweep him up.  Pam said that they are looking for a church to go to.  Her good friend is a member of the church and she has gone a couple of times and knows a lot about the church.  She says she believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but she is kind of a person taht kind of excepts everything.  We just need to make the connection with her.  Her daughter as well we are starting to teach, who we will probably pass off to the YSA missionaries and then her boyfriend who is visiting from Korea.  I feel like he is so prepared, he doesn't know much about God, but it wanting to learn.  He talked about how kids back in Korea are starting to pull away from God and he doesn't think that is good.  We are really hoping to prepare him as much as we can these next few weeks and then pass him off to the missionaries in Korea when he goes back.  At the end of our lesson with them, he actually asked if he could pray and he prayed in Korean, it was such a neat experience.

    So since today we went to the temple,it is our p-day, so yesterday we were out working.  At the beginning of the day we both thought it was going to be a long one, but honestly I feel like it is one of the most successful days that we have had in a while.  We were out contacting some last actives, and tracted into some of their neighbors that were around them.  We knocked on an older woman's door name Lydia.  We talked to her on the porch for about 10 to 15 minutes about various stuff and questions she had about the church and she said how she greatly appreciated the efforts that we do.  We asked her if we could share a message with her and she allowed us to come in.  We taught her the Restoration, and it was a lot harder than we thought.  She is a catholic and is a talker as well, so she had no problem interrupting us.  She asked us a lot of questions and I guess had some issues with the trinity and how Peter is "the rock". She believes that he passed down the priesthood through the popes.  She kept asking us questions right when I was reciting the First Vision, so it was a little hard for her to feel the spirit.  We talked about various things like why the Popes are called Popes and not Prophets and about baptism by immersion.  She said we can come back again to teach her a little bit more, we plan on going back we aren't sure how receptive she is at this point.  Maybe the Plan of Salvation will have an effect on her.

   Later that day after dinner, we decided to knock on a few houses around there.  One of the houses that we knocked on this older woman open the door a crack and her dog was barking like crazy, she asked who we were and kind of seemed like she was in a bad mood.  We introduced who we were, but thought she was going to turn us away.  She told us to hold on a minute and then she came outside to talk to us.  Apparently a few months ago she went down to temple square and just loved it! She said how it was the highlight of her life and just how good she felt down there and how nice the sister missionaries were.  She asked us what we were there to "sell" her and we just laughed.  We told her our purpose as missionaries and bore our testimony of the Book of Mormon.  We gave her it as well as the the Restoration pamphlet, which she was grateful to accept.  We asked her if we could come back later this week to teach her  and she agreed! She said how she was Episcopalian and that the nearest church was in Meridian.  She asked in nonmembers could come to our church and we said that visitors are more than welcome.  She talked about how she was thinking of making a change in her life.  It was just a miracle to me how prepared she was by the Lord, you never know who is in your area, neighbors or friends that are prepared to receive the Gospel.

   So this last Saturday i got to go back to my area for the baptism of Ann Johns!! I don't know if you all remember me talking about her.  She was probably one of the hardest persons that I worked with in Boise South, I seriously love her so much.  I was always nervous to know if she would make it to baptism or not because she never felt worthy.  When I saw her on Saturday, we both just started crying.  She told me that the reason that she was there that day was because of me.  If it wasn't for me pushing her and helping her she might of never made it to that baptismal font.  She said how she needed me as a missionary, I was what she needed.  She means the world to me and it was so great to see her in white.  After she came out of the water she just kept repeating "I Did it" and just started crying.  You could just tell that she was glowing.  The spirit was there so strong and I feel so blessed to of been able to been placed in her path.  She has effected my life as much as I have hers.  I wish I had more time to give this story justice, but just know it was such a great experience.

    Today we got to go to the temple and it was amazing, I love going there! I hope all of you that can try to go to the temple as much as you can.  It is such a great place to be.  I am just loving it out here in Eagle!! Things are going so well and things are really starting to pick up!!!! I hope all is well back at home. Know that I love you and miss you all!!

Love

Sister Metcalf

 Sister Haas and I at the Temple

Eagle District

Ann Johns and I 

Some of the missionaries that have worked with her in the past year and half

Wednesday September 3, 2014

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. A (missionary's) faithful one hundred percent"

I feel like there is so much to write and so little time.  I can't believe that it has been quite a bit of time since I have written you, I feel like so much has happened in the past 9 days.  Would you be upset if I was to say that I probably could of made it until next Monday to e-mail all of you? I mean I love all of you, but I feel like we have been so busy that the weeks just fly by.  So Monday was Labor day and the libraries were closed, and then yesterday we had Mission Leadership Council, so we had to push e-mailing to today.  So I will try to catch you all up. Oh and a heads up next week I will be emailing on Tuesday because we are going to the temple that day!!! I am seriously so excited!!! 

   Okay so I will start off by telling you about all the fun I have been having, because missions are fun :) These past two p-days Sister Haas and I have been going out and doing things, which has been great.  Normally our zone just gets together and plays sports at the church indoors. First off our zone only has 12 people in it and then when half the zone doesn't show up it isn't as fun.  Plus the weather is only going to be nice for so long before the cold winters, so why waste the good weather in doors.  So last week after email we decided to go biking in downtown Boise. Julie, who is the Dumas'(the people we live with) daughter took us, it was her last Monday with us before she was heading off to school.  It was so neat to kind of see the sites and see Boise, we kind of just bike around and she would point out some cool spots and sites to see.  We would stop every once in a while and park our bikes to walk.  One of the sites we saw was called Freak Alley it is an Alley that is graffiti-ed up and each year they have a competition and paint over the old ones. We also had ice cream that is shaped like a potatoes. It was pretty cool, whenever you all come through you should stop by, it is called West Side Drive In. Apparently it is a must in Boise, and I guess it was even showed on the food show of that one guy that travels around the U.S. eating at famous food places.  I felt like it was okay since we were biking around everywhere ;) I also ended up seeing my trainer later that Day when we biked by BSU. It was so good to see Sister Dickey!! I seriously loved her, but it was also weird to think that we were serving with each other a year ago! The time is just flying by!!!! It is funny because I seriously cannot call her by her first name, all the missionaries that I serve with I feel like will always be Elder and Sister to me. It made my day though to see her.  So this past pday we went up to IDAHO CITY!!!! I was so excited to make it up there! We were planning on doing something else with the people we lived with, but that morning they asked us if we wanted to go up there because they both had the full day off work and we wouldn't be e-mailing so we would have more time.  Plus it was the last day of the season to really go up there.  After Labor day things start to slow down up there.  I can finally say that I have been to every city on my mission. hahaha It was so much fun. It is a small little town kind of stuck back in time.  They have a few main streets that you can walk up and down that are a boardwalk. There also had a shootout skit that we watched which was pretty fun.  We just walked around looking in shops and museums and had some of their famous ice cream and ate at Trudy's which is where all the locals eat. And I guess people drive all the way up there from Boise just to eat lunch.  It is a small little town, not much to see but I love it. I will have to take you back up there sometime when we come back to visit.  I learned something new was I was up there, that there are people that actually still pan for gold up there! crazy, but seriously I feel like these past two p-days have been some of the greatest on my mission.

   This week has also been pretty good for missionary work as well.  I believe I told you about Andrew last week in my weekly e-mail. This past Wednesday he went to mutual and we had a few young men pick him up and take him.  And then this past Sunday we taught him The Plan of Salvation and it went so good!!! We taught it at the family's house of the kid who is fellow shipping him.  It seriously made all the difference, all though we should of prepped the kids a little bit more, they kind of started talking about deeper stuff more than they needed to, but they were great.  Seriously Andrew is such an awesome kid, he can just tell and feel the difference when he is around members and at church.  He told us how this feels right, we asked him what he felt like was the next step for him to make good choices and Fellow his Savior.  He talked about how he didn't want to smoke or drink like his parents do, and then he paused for a minute.  He then said that he wanted to get baptized into the gospel!!! We were so excited we invited him to pray to see him he would be baptized on Oct. 11 and he agreed! Now the last hurdle that we have to get over is his parents permission.  They okay for us to teach us, but we don't know how they will respond about baptism.  There are so many people out here in Eagle that the Lord has prepared. Sister Haas and I can just feel it, we are just needing to light the fire here and really getting things going.

  We also found a ton of new potentials this week as well, it is crazy how receptive people are out here.  I mean everything isn't easy, i mean we have been talking to everyone and I mean Everyone. I would say we probably get about 20 rejections before we get some that is willing to let us come back and from those probably half of them aren't really interested.  But Sister Hass' and mines' motto is that everyone needs the gospel and we are the only ones that will need to give them the opportunity to learn about it and accept it. There has been a lot of hard work and sweat these past few weeks, but it has been great and it has all been worth it and it will continue to be worth it! 

  One of the miracles from this week was finding Scott and Jill.  So this past week we have been going out with some of the girls in the ward and stake that have their mission calls or they are waiting to get their calls.  It really has been a cool experience to take them out and help them to see what missionary work is like.  I kind of wish that I would of done that before I had left to get a kind of idea and feel of what it would be like.  It has been great for them to get excited and see how much fun missionary work is as well as that it is not easy work.  They have seen when it is like when we have appointments or when people allow us in as well as when no one is home or no one is interested and knocking on doors with us.  On Saturday night we went out with one of the girls and the appointments that we had feel through so we were trying to contact some less actives but were unsuccessful.  It was about 830 at night and we decided to go knock of a few more doors.  There were only a few people that looked to go home, my companion and I were deciding between one last house to knock on before calling it a night.  She had asked me which house we should go to and I wasn't sure, so we started to walk to one house, but then I felt prompted that we should actually try their neighbor. So I told my companion and the other girl and we walked over.  We knocked on the door and the lady asked us right away if we wanted to come in, I was so taken back by it.  We ended up talking to her for a little bit and then asked her if we could sing her a song before we left and she agreed.  As we were singing her husband came home.  We were a little taken back by how he would react, but he was so stunned afterwards and just kept saying how cool that that was.  We found out that his parents were members but went last active when he was a newborn.  We talked to them for a little bit and they had told us that they have had missionaries stop by before but they were always Elders.  We asked them if we could come back and they agreed.  It was such a cool experience not only for Sister Haas and I, but for the other girl as well.  That the spirit will prompt you to go and do something and how important it is for us to act on it.  Sometimes it doesn't always turn out the way that we want it to and the Holy Ghost is just testing us to see if we will listen, but sometimes those people are prepared or we are needed to plant another seed to be harvested later in life.

   Other highlights from the week is:

Zone conference: we talked a lot about becoming a consecrated missionary and the difference between consecration and sacrifice.

MLC: thought we were gonna get ipads or facebook because President Winder had all the District Leaders come, but it was a false alarm.  It was so good though, we talked about being unified as a mission and raising more leaders up in our mission.  To be honest I don't think I will see those things on my mission and I am kind of grateful. I am not ready to use worldly things just yet.

   So we went back to go see that family I had mentioned last week that were less active and starting to go to another church and the mom kind of hit us on all sides about questions.  I just want to tell you that I have a testimony that the Lord knows each and every one of us individually and that what matters to us matters to Him.  It was crazy how through out the past week how those questions that the wife had asked us had been answered through out the week through other members and the conversations that we would have.  We ended up having dinner with the family last night and teaching the family the Restoration.  We didn't really answer any of her questions cuz last time that she told us that she rather that we only talked to her about that, I don't think that her family knows.  But the lesson went so well, I know that the spirit was there whither they were receptive to it or not.  I am not going to lie, it was a little scary and at times I wanted to pull back.  But I just couldn't, I was as bold as I could be with them.  I looked her in the eye and told her that although there are other good churches and men out there, they do not hold the Priesthood, that no other church can claim to have it and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church that has the fullness of the gospel.  You could tell that she was upset with me and started to glare at me.  But to be honest it felt good, this is what I have been called out here to do.  I am here to call people to repentance and to declare the truth whither they like it or not.  I talk to the kids about how their testimony is between them and their Heavenly Father and He is the only person that we can turn to to find out spiritual truths.  That we shouldn't turn to others to find out the answers, and that when they have received their witness and testimony that they need to strengthen.  And just like Joseph Smith, no one can take away from their testimony.  I feel like that was one of the most powerful lessons that Sister Haas and I have been able to teach together.

    I want you all to know that I love this work so much, and each day I am grateful to be out here serving the Lord and giving others the opportunity to come closer to our Savior.  That is my purpose out here, that we are just relaying the message that Christ has continually extended to everyone: to "Come Unto Him".  I know without a shadow of a doubt that Joesph Smith saw what he saw.  That our Father in Heaven and Our Savior appeared to him in the Sacred Grove to answer his humble prayer.  That he was told that although those other churches were good and had bits and pieces of the Gospel, they did not have the Priesthood Authority of God.  It is by that same authority that people are baptized and that families can be sealed together forever.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today and that he is here to lead and guide the people.  I know that our Savior lives and it is through him that we are able to return to our Father in Heaven.  I know that although the Book of Mormon was written by men(prophets of olden time), it is the word of God.  Read your scriptures and pray everyday...EVERYDAY!! I love you all so much and I am so blessed to be able to have your support out here serving a mission.

Love

  Sister Metcalf