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