Sister Breanne Metcalf- Boise, Idaho Mission: Monday April 14, 2014

There were a lot of success for the week here in the area that I am serving in, which was nice for the first week of the transfer. There is a part member/less active family that we usually do family home evening with every Monday night, the sisters have been doing that with them for the past six months. This last week we focused on teaching them a cute little lesson on the plan of salvation, but directed it towards their 8 year old daughter. At the end when we talked about the 3 different kingdoms we asked her/ her parents what we need to do in order to live with our father in heaven again. The nonmember dad said baptism, and they gave answers like church, prayer, reading the scriptures. Which are all things that we are trying to get them to do. It was kind of funny, we talked about their daughter getting baptized and the mom mention how they want the dad and daughter to get baptized at the same time and how they want her brother to do it who lives in CA. When we asked them to set a "goal" for that they were thinking the end of August. My companion and I talked to them about not waiting that long, but we also know we need to get them back active again. They use to come all the time a year and half ago. Well yesterday they came to church!!!!! It was seriously such a miracle and I was so shocked, because they haven't come in forever. They stayed for all three hours. I seriously have no clue why they aren't active, they were making comments in the gospel principles class and both of them made really good comments in Relief Society and Priesthood. We are seeing them tonight and we are hoping that we can keep them on the path to continually coming to church.

Another miracle this week is that we contacted a referral that was given to us, i met of mentioned it before. It is a mother, daughter, and son from Bosnia and her coworker who lives in Star has been working on them but she lives in our area. We finally met with them this week and had a really good talk with them. We picked them up as new investigators, they just seem so golden and so well prepared by the lord. She talked about how she wants a church to raise her children with good morals and standings, she had talked about how she works around about 90% members and she just loves the type of people that they are. With our first visit she asked what it would take to get them baptized, we talked about the Book of Mormon as well and extended a soft baptismal invitation as well, which they accepted. We are shooting to have the baptism in the middle of May. I really have high hopes for this family.

On Saturday I got to go back to my old area to my investigators baptism. It was for Emily, and it seriously was so good. I loved that girl so much and was so sad when I had to leave that area. It was so nice to have gone back and to see how much she had grown even more. She seriously was so shy when I first met her, but she seriously has gotten so outgoing and has gain such a strong testimony of the gospel. We got to talk for a little bit before the baptism and I just told her how proud I was of her and she told me how awesome I was and how grateful she was for me teaching her. The spirit was so strong at her baptism, not gonna lie I cried a couple of times. I knew that my Father in Heaven was proud of both of us and I just felt so blessed that I got to come back for her baptism. Sadly though when I talked to the sisters that are serving in that ward, it sounds like all my other investigators have gone off the deep end. This was so sad to hear, I wanted to cry. The adversary had gotten to two of the youth I was teaching and by not getting any support at home at worn on them. I hope to stay in touch with them after my mission and pray that they will find their way back to the church.

This week we also went on exchanges with two of the sisters that we were over and it was a lot of success. One of the newer sisters who I was with is kind of struggling with some stuff that is going on back at home. I really feel for her, but it was a great opportunity for her to open up to me and for me to help her with what she was going through. I feel like I worry so much more for these sisters out her, I want them all to succeed so badly. It is such a blessing that I have been able to build a trust and friendship with them that they feel like they can open up to me and talk to me about their struggles.

I found out the other week that my first investigator, Joe Rarick and his wife are planning on getting sealed in the temple at his year mark. I was so excited to hear that he was doing so well. I was nervous a few months ago because I had heard that about a month after his baptism he lost his job, and then his wife and him had some troubles and kicked him out of the house. The advesary was working on him hard because he seriously has such a strong testimony. He stayed faithful through it all and kept going to church. Things are good between him and his wife and she is actually active again in the church!!! I hope he keeps strong because I would love to be able to be there when he goes through and gets sealed to his family! These are the types of people I love to find, it is not about the number of baptisms. But it is about finding those people that will help build up the kingdom of God and stay strong in the church.

Sister Hatch and I are really fired up about our ward, we have been talking a lot about how we can build up the ward and strengthen the members. How we can help them to reach out to those last actives and to their nonmember friends. We talked about building up the ward for our investigators so that way when they are baptism they will stay and that the ward will hold on to them instead of letting them fall to the waste side. We really both got fired up and we had a meeting with the stake high councilor over missionary work. That meeting showed us the indication of how the stake is doing with missionary work and members being missionary minded, which doesn't seem to be going so well, which got me fired up even more. As a district we discussed how we want to do a Stake BBQ. An opportunity for all the members to reach out to their less active friends and nonmember neighbors. The stake president approved it so now we have to jump on the ball with it. It is gonna take a miracle because we have 5 weeks to plan it and get the word out and we know that us missionaries are gonna have to be the driving factor for the success of this. I have faith that it will be successful.

Hope all is going well back at home, I love you and miss you all! I appreciate all the letters and emails that I get from all of you! I pray for you each and every night as I hope that you do for me as well. Still some struggles out here in the mission field but I try not to let that get me discouraged. I still can't believe that I hit my half way mark this week! Where has the time gone?!

My challenge to you this week is to share this link/ video with everyone!

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

Seriously is so good, I love it! And I love how well the church is putting out these videos, they are such a good source of sharing the gospel, all you have to do is post it on Facebook. I love you all so much! Hope that you have an amazing week and am so excited for Easter this Sunday, may we all remember what Christ means to us in our lives and Remember what He did for each and everyone of us. I know that my Redeemer lives and Because of Him.... (you fill in the rest)

Love

Sister Metcalf