January 27, 2014

These week has been a pretty good week.  Things have been starting to pick up more and more in our area.  We taught a less to a lady this week who was actually raised in the church and was sealed in the temple but then when she was 26 her husband past away.  I don't think she had a very strong testimony before and was confused and ended up removing her name from the church.  Her parents are in our ward and she wants to come back.  She talked to us about how she has been to a lot of other churches and there is just something different about ours and how she has a testimony of the power of the priesthood.  We planned on teaching her the Restoration and only got through a couple of points.  It was actually funny because my companion was suppose to talk about prophets and priesthood but when it was her turn she ended up re talking about what i talked about and just testified and just looked at me.  Luckily my training with Sister Roberson had prepared me to carry the lesson and end up teaching most of it.  I didn't get far before our investigator told us all of her concerns and began asking us tons of questions.  If took the lesson off track but i felt like that is what was best,we ended up talking a little bit about the plan of salvation.  It is crazy how the spirit works, At first I was wanting to try to bring the lesson back on topic but for some reason felt like it was best to talk about these things that were on her mind.  She asked a lot of really hard questions, I was so nervous because my companion just froze and had no clue how to answer, I just said a quick prayer in my heart knowing that I needed the guidance of the spirit.    Towards the end we talked about prophets and things and she talked to me about all these other great men like Martin Luther King and how she sees them like prophets as well and asked my feelings on that.  I sat there for a minute trying to gather my thoughts because I was afraid to offend her but I knew that I had to be bold, no matter how how it came across.  I told her that I agree that there are great people out there that are close to God and are helping other to come to know him but I told her that the big thing that sets them apart is the Priesthood.  Overall I felt like it went really well and I give full credit to the spirit, there is no way I would of been able to get through that meeting if I hadn't been in tune with the spirit. She wants us to come back and teach her this week, so we plan on finishing up the first lesson with her.  She has a desire to be baptized again, but with her I feel like i need to start with the basics with her and help to gain her own testimony.

    Yesterday was a pretty cool experience for me, we had a youth come to church yesterday, I had met her once before back in October but hadn't really seen much of her since then.  She went to church yesterday  for the first time and loved it.  Later that night she went to BYD(Bishops Youth Discussion), this is actually a cool thing that our ward does, each month they have a "fireside" where the bishopric is in charge and they just have a discussion with the youth on various topics, last night was on the theme for the year for the Youth "Come Unto Christ".  It was so awesome to hear all these comments the youth were making, it made me think how much further these youth are along spiritually then I ever was.  It is crazy to see how the Lord is preparing the youth now.  They are spiritually stronger, but they also are having to face so much more challenges with the adversity as well.  The spirit was so strong there and the girl actually made some good comments as well.  I talked to her after wards and she talked about how different she felt there and how she felt like she belonged in a sense.  We talked about how she had felt the spirit and everything and asked me how she can learn more.  It is just crazy how the Lord prepares people for you.  We plan on teaching her this Saturday at a members house.  I am excited to begin teaching her she seems like an awesome girl and a lot of the youth know her, members are the way to go with finding and preparing investigators for the missionaries.  

  Interesting stories from the week: we had a big mass exchange this week which went pretty well, we learned how to better work with members and auxiliary leaders.  I thought I was already doing a pretty good job since I have been in my area for 5 months, but I came away with wanting to do a few things a little more differently.  The Lord is always constantly show me how to change and improve to become a better missionary.  After the meeting President came up to me to talk a little about sisters on bikes and how apparently I have started a trend about it, he says when it becomes summer time that we will think about it, but nothing for sure yet.  He did ask me how I felt about Sisters serving up in Idaho City, I told him I thought it would be awesome and how I would be willing of going up there.  He is thinking he might send sisters up there just for a transfer in the summer time.  He doesn't think the area can sustain just one set of missionaries for just their ward, right now elders cover it with one other ward and just go up there twice a month.  A lot of people are hoping to go there, probably because it is the only "different" place in our mission hahaha So we will see, maybe President is thinking of sending me up there, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.  This week we had a Less active/part member family take my companion and I out to Tucanos.  It is an all you can eat Brazilian restaurant and was sooooo good.  I swear the members treat us too good here, I have probably gained 10 pounds these past two weeks.  Anyways so it is a place that is super awesome where the people just walk around and offer you to sample the meat, talk about prime time!! Such good meats there, I did try Chicken heart.  I wasn't going to but the waiter that had it convinced me to saying how he had to eat weird things on his mission and this is probably one of the few opportunities I had to so I did it.  It was okay, I wouldn't recommend it though.  Mom you would be so proud of me, I did service this week at the bishops house to help him out.  Just applying those principles I learned from our meeting about gaining the members trust.  Anyway he is 29 and has a young family of 4 kids so we talked to him Saturday about what we could do for him, we ended up going over and helping his wife out and I ended up ironing probably 20 shirts.  I was just laughing thinking of you and all the times that I had to iron dads shirts, I guess you prepared me in more ways for a mission than you ever thought of.  Well I am running out of time, sorry I wasn't able to tell you everything exciting about my week.  I also found out from the Elders that are now covering my old ward that a less active that I had been working with finally came to church yesterday! I was so excited to hear this, he hadn't been to church in like 50 years! Things like this make all the hard times and difficulties in my mission worth it! Things are really starting to pick up in my area which makes me think that I will be transferred out this next transfer :( I kind of want to stay one more and spend my birthday in this area. 

   Anyways, love you all so much and thank you all for your letters and prayers.  I am so grateful for all of you and for the knowledge I have that we will be together forever.  Keep up on your scripture reading and your daily prayers and praying for missionary opportunities.

Love 

Sister Metcalf