Tuesday, January 20, 2015

"Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening and Good Night"

Wow! This will be the last time that you all will hear from me on my mission. Words cannot express how I am feeling right now. Everything is so surreal to me at the moment. 

     This week was a really good week for us lessons wise and we went on a couple of exchanges with some sisters in our zone because one of them has a concussion(nothing too serious but has to stay home), but we got a lot of work done in both of the areas.  

  I don't have much time but I want to tell you the highlight from my week, it was on Sunday.  We had 9 less actives at church!!! We filled up a whole pew, I cannot tell you the feelings of joy that I had that day.  It was in that moment where I didn't want to leave, I am going to miss moments like that.  We had Sister Dilworth and Jeff Hitesman come out, I haven't really written you about them too much but they are ones that we started working with when Sister Broberg and I were together.  They finally both made it out to church along with the McEvoy family and a less active youth we are working with and an older lady as well.  I think I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time! They all had such good experiences there, I hope that they will all come to church next week as well.  It was crazy at times and hectic trying to get everyone to the right classes, but it was all worth it in the end.  I wish I could just bottle up the feelings I felt that day and hold onto them forever.

     So I don't really have much time, lots of emails that I had to read today but I just wanted to tell you all what these last 18 months have meant to me.  It is hard for me to write this all on paper, but I feel like a way that a close sister missionary said it sums it up. My missionary experience was so sacred! I have learned so much about myself on my mission and have grown so much spiritually and temporally.  I wouldn't change the experiences I have had these past 18 months for the world. I wouldn't change one companion, one area, one convert, one less active, one tough day for ANYTHING! Each and everyone of those has played a part to where I am today.  Before leaving on my mission I thought I already had a pretty strong testimony of the gospel, but it has grown so much on my mission.  My testimony burns so strong inside me each and everyday, it is something that no one will ever take away from me and something that I can never deny.  To be honest I was a little timid to talk to those about my beliefs before leaving on a mission. I feel like if there was any Apostle that I could relate to it would be Peter.  He was still unsure of his testimony and wasn't deeply rooted.  But then he had an experience with Christ that truly converted him and he became one of the greatest Apostles known to man.  That is what my mission has done to me.  It has truly converted me to the Gospel, God, and Christ.  I hope to be one of Christ greatest disciples.  Elder Holland has said it perfectly for me. 
"When (Christ) comes, I so want to be caught living the gospel. I want to be surprised right in the act of spreading the faith and doing something good. I want the Savior to say to me: “(Sister Breanne Metcalf), I recognize you not by your title but by your life, the way you are trying to live and the standards you are trying to defend. I see the integrity of your heart. I know you have tried to make things better first and foremost by being better yourself and then by declaring my word and defending my gospel to others in the most compassionate way you could.”

He will certainly add: “I know you weren’t always successful with your own sins and with the circumstances of others, but I believe you honestly tried. I believe in your heart you truly loved me.”

     On my mission I have come to know how much God truly knows me and how aware he is of me and my situation.  He knows what I need and what trials need to be put into my life to push me to become the person that I need to be.  One of my favorite scripture stories that I have come to love on my mission is the story in the Book of Mormon of the Jaredites [Ether chapter 6(To read the story click here) ] when they are traveling over to the Americas.  It talks about them being in the barges and them being pushed along by the storms and the winds and how they cried continually to the Lord, but that is what was needed to push them to the promised land.  If they would of been on a calm sea they would of never of moved forward.  That is the same for our lives as well.  If we don't have trials or hard times in our life we will never progress we will never be pushed forward to "our promise land" to where and who our Heavenly Father needs us to be.  But most importantly is in verse 10 that they had light continually in the darkness, we have that light continually as well.  It is the light of Christ.

    The one thing that I am most grateful for on my mission is the relationship that I have built with my Father in Heaven and my Savior.  I would never be this strong if I wouldn't of gone on my mission.  My mission has humbled me so much, as most of you know I am a very independent person and I don't like to rely on others.  My mission has pushed me to get on my knees and to rely on my Father in Heaven because in times of need I had no one else to turn to but Him.  I couldn't just call any of you to talk to know what to do or to help me when needed or for you to just listen to me in my times of struggle as well as my times of joy.  My first resource was my Father in Heaven.  He, as well as my Savior have become so real to me on my mission.  I have grown an even deeper love for them.

    I have missed you all so much and am excited to see all of you and to see how much all of you have grown and changed as well.  But know that it will be bittersweet for me. It was hard reading some of your letters, to be honest I started to cry a little bit, it has started to hit me a little bit that I will be leaving in less than a week.  I don't think I am ready for this part of my life to end.  These 18 months were not just the best times of my life but FOR my life.  I am not ready to take off this name tag to stop being a full time missionary, but I know that it has to end at some point.  I promise that I will try to make it to the airport, but if my mission President offers for me to extend, I just might take it hahahaI know that this is where I was suppose to serve, I know that this is where the Lord needed me to be.  People laugh when they here others being called to Boise, but know one will ever know just how special and sacred it is to serve here.

     I just want to end with the testimony I have of this Gospel.  I know that this is the true church that contains the fullness of the Gospel.  That through a 14 year old boy, Joseph Smith, the Priesthood power, that power and authority to act in God's name, was restored through him.  It is by that same power that we can preform saving ordinances that are essential for entering into the Kingdom of God like Baptism, and that Families can be Sealed together forever.  I know that we have a Father and Heaven who loves us and knows us so perfectly.  We also have a Savior of the World who Lives.  Jesus is the Christ! There is so much more I would love to say but it has come to that time for me to sign off.

   I love you all so much, be safe! I hope to better explain what my mission means to me to all of you in person. I am going to miss everyone here that I have met on my mission, I know that I will be able to see them again, but it won't be the same without my tag on :(

Love

Sister Metcalf

    Last time from The Great Idaho Boise Mission

Monday January 12, 2015

"Timing is Everything"

So let me start off with some pretty exciting news, well at least to me it is.  This week was the week that I was grateful that I extended for those two extra days, everyone else laughed but it is paying off.  So earlier in the week I got a call from the sisters that serve in the Summerset ward that called to tell me that Henry Cuiellar (his wife and two kids got baptized a few months ago. They are someone that I had found in that area) is getting baptized!!! And it is going to be on the 25th! I am so excited for that, but I am more excited for him and his family.  Such a tender mercy that I will be able to see one last one of my investigators enter the waters of baptism before I leave.

    The other exciting news is that Elder Russell M. Nelson(random fact did you know he is 90! Ya I wouldn't of guessed it either) is coming to visit the mission!!! On the 24th at 8:00! So if I would of left on my scheduled day I would of for sure had missed him.  I can not tell you all how excited I am to meet an apostle of the Lord, I was really hoping to meet one on my mission and the Lord pulled through right towards the end.  I mean I would of been find not seeing one, but I am just that much more excited. On the bright side if I have a heart attack at least he could be my surgeon hahaha 

    This week was a pretty good week for us with teaching opportunities, I feel like the further and further I have gotten along in my mission the more I see the Lord's hand in everything and the tender mercies.  Things with Amber are going so well, we talked to her about Baptism and she decided that she wanted to pray about the day when she wanted to get baptized.  She is really grasping onto everything.  One of the main obstacles is getting her to church, it is weird because she has that strong desire to go.  She knows that she needs to go to receive the blessings, but with work she is a nurse at an assisted living home and she is at the bottom of the totem pole.  So she has to work Sundays, she says there is a slim chance that she might be able to get it them off since there is going to be a change in supervisors. A part of me wanting to write her boss and tell her how important it was for her to have Sundays off so she could go to church. I ended up leaving it in the Lord's hands hahahaha She is just so great and so prepared, I am excited for her.

    So this week we had zone meeting and it was really good, they talked a lot about building up the mission and how we can fruther along the work in the Great Idaho Boise Mission.  So the zone leaders challenged all of us to from that point on until Sunday night to go and try to find a new investigator.  They then had us go pray about it in our companionship's to get a confirmation of it.  So fast forward to later that night, all of our plans fell through for the 8:00 time frame, this I feel like is sometimes the hardest time to work as a missionary.  Everyone we tried was not home or was busy.  We pulled the car to the side of the road trying to figure out where we should go and what we should do.  I said a little prayer in my heart and instantly Rebecca's name popped into my head.  Rebecca is someone that Sister Broberg and I had tracted into over a month ago with "He is the Gift". We had seen her one time previously but nothing had really come of it.  Well we stopped by her place and she allowed us right in. It was so amazing to see the Lord guide everything so perfectly for us.  She started talking to us about her feelings towards the church, a lot of it were misconceptions of things.  She told us how her main issue was how we "worship Joseph Smith", I think that is a common what that I hear out here, but then she added about how he is even on top of our temple.  That I had never heard before, she said it was something that someone had told her, we explained to her who it was a tried to give a simplified version.  It lead us into to talking to her about the Book of Mormon and if she had ever read it before, she said she had not.  We explained about how we believe in both the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  That had shocked her, she said she never knew that.  We introduced the Book of Mormon to her and invited her to begin reading which she accepted.  She said that she wanted to learn more and for us to straighten out all these misconceptions she has heard about our church.  It was such an amazing lesson. I am excited to begin to teach her before I go home.  She is having surgery this week though, but she wants us to come by before she goes, so that is a positive.

     Another tender mercy was that the McEvoy family made it to church this week! I can't even tell you how excited I was to see them walk in the door, the joy I felt was unexplainable.  They were gonna go to their old ward because one of their good friends was having their baby blessed at 11.  Well we stopped by Saturday night to try to invite them to 9am because Sister Smith and I were speaking and she said that she wouldn't miss it. I was bummed that we couldn't sit with them but we promised her next week that we would.  And next week they plan on staying for all three hours.  In church my topic I focused on was us as members being the "light of the world". One thing that my mission has helped me with is giving talks, that is for sure.  I can easily free hand my talks now and just talk, it is such a weird feeling.  I am so use to just reading what I have written down, but I love just being guided by the spirit of what I should talk about.  Is it weird to say that I kind of like giving talks now(don't get any ideas and sign me up for talks anytime soon). But that is one thing that I am grateful for.

    Well it's that time again. I can't believe I will only be e-mailing you one last time before I go home.By the way next week is Martin Luther King day so you might not hear from me till Tuesday since the Libraries are closed. Anyway, where has the time gone?! Seriously. I love you all so much!

Love 

Sister Metcalf

Monday January 5, 2015

"Don't look back, look towards the future"

This week was a pretty good week for us, we have had some obstacles that have been placed in front of us with those that we are working with but we are slowly trying to figure those things out.

    We saw Amber St.George this week and she is doing really well and is progressing well. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week(Click here to what that is) and it went really well, but of course Satan was trying to throw everything at us with distractions. I can't even tell you how many times while teaching that something has happened to distract from the spirit.  Anyways so when we first starting teaching her we were unsure about her living sitiuation.  Well this week we found out that her "roommate" who is a less active member she is dating, although she hasn't admitted that to us. But they are living together so that will have to be something we will address, but we are unsure how it will go because I know they are not ready to get married(they have only known each other for 7 months) and I don't think she is financially stable to move out or be there by herself.  Plus the baptismal date that we had for her is not going to workout, she has to go to court that day for some legal stuff with her ex-husband.  Nothing seems to be playing out right now, but I know that it is all going to be in the Lord's timing and I just need to trust in that.  She is an amazing person though and is so strong after all that she has been through and she really is just trying to find that path for her boys to be raised the best that they can be.  We are hoping to start figuring out some of the pieces to this puzzle this week, hopefully all will go well.

    So update on Sallie Fogg, things are progressing with her, a little slowly though.  She is still reading the Book of Mormon but still isn't ready for church. I can feel her starting to pull back and it is hard and sad to see. I have been praying to know what we can do for her to help her.  Her husband has been playing a big part in it as well.  We talked to him this week and he still has some hard feelings towards the church from the past and isn't ready to let them go.  We tried talking with him but he is very stubborn, his heart is too hard at the moment.  The sad thing is that I he is influencing his wife I feel like.  So again trying to figure all that out as well.

    The McEvoys are doing pretty good, sadly they didn't make it to church this week.  Her kids were up all night throwing up.  I think we might of found the problem as well.  We went over like two days before to help them clean and organize some stuff and we worked on her food pantry.  Well turns out that they have mice.  I swear I can't get away from those things, I feel like in every area that i have been in I have had to deal with them or help someone clean them up after them.  So we helped them start to figure out that, nothing too big but I am pretty sure it played a part in her kids sickness because they had gotten into some of their food and we had to throw a lot of it out.  So i am determined this up coming week to get the family there.

   Another lady that I started working with when I first came to the area has decided that her news years goal this year is to make it to church and for her daughter to come with her. So each Sunday I am going to be texting her each Sunday and saving her a seat.  I feel like sometimes you just need to get people to church one time to feel the spirit that is there and to start making the connections there with other.  But that is the hardest part sometimes is getting them there the first time. 
     We have gotten some less actives that are starting to come more regularly and that is exciting to see them to become more active.  We got a gospel principles class started this week as well so things are progressing along in this ward.  I found out the other day how many converts this ward had 5 years ago from part member families in the area, there was quite a bit.  It also made me realize that that resource has probably been exhausted so I just need to continue you talking to everyone I see and tract even more and try different ways of finding new people in this area. "If you do the same thing that you have always done, your gonna get the same thing you always got" So if i keep trying the same thing I have been trying where there is not much success then that is what I am gonna get until I start using other resources more and more.

    New years Eve and day there really wasn't anything too excited going on, I am a little excited for the Holidays to be over because lots of people kept telling us how busy they were and to come back after the Holidays.  I also love this time of year because people have set new goals for the new year, I just got to find those ones that set a goal to go to a church.

   Okay so a little sad news for the week, to be honest this news was bitter sweet. It was exciting to hear, but it was probably one of the most heart breaking things to hear as a missionary.  So remember back to my first area when Joe Rarick was Baptized? Well I had only written him twice on my mission and life for him has been up and down with everything but he has always remained strong in the gospel which has been awesome.  Last time I wrote him was back in September with his year mark coming up I was seeing how things were going and if his goals were still the temple.  He was taking the temple prep. classes, but wasn't sure when he was gonna go yet. His wife wasn't ready to go through and be sealed just yet.  Well this week at District Meeting I was talking to my zone leader who had served in that area, we got talking about Joe and I asked him if he could find out for me how he was doing.  So he I got a text from him a few days ago to tell me that Joe had gone through the temple back in November. I was so excited for him, and then I started to cry.  I was sad that I could not be there with him for that experience, that I couldn't see the change that he had made this past year, to see the different steps in his life.  I know that most missionaries don't have that opportunity to go to the temple with their converts in their mission because it is so big.  But we can in ours, to be honest I am mad a little at me because I should of written him again,I had thought about how he was doing a lot last transfer.  But a big part of me is pretty upset with the Elders  in that ward for not letting me know about him going through the temple.  I know there is nothing I can do about it now, but it was just hard to hear that the one convert I could see go through the temple on my mission I missed. I'll have some after my mission I know that, and I want to try and be there when him and his wife get sealed.  When I ran into my mission president at a baptism he didn't really seem to care, that was kind of harsh for me.

   Well sorry to end on such a sad note, but I hope all is well with you! I love you all so much! 

Quote I heard at church that I loved "You can't build a home in Zion and have a vacation house in Babylon" 

Okay and just one funny quote from my ward mission leader.  So we were talking to his family about their new years goals and his youngest son said that he wanted to try to work on his singing talent because he has a deep voice.  His mom told him he should do the ward choir with her, my ward mission leader response was "ward choir only works for African Americans" bahahaha so funny, okay all you might not think it is funny or that it doesn't make sense, but in the context of everything it was funny.

   Love you all!!!!

Love 

   Sister Metcalf