Monday November 24, 2014

A week of "A-has"‏

Let me start off with talking about one of the greatest highlights of the week: The Cuiellars' Baptism!!!!! So this is a family from the Summerset ward that I had been working with for over a year!!! So the Elders back in March 2013 tried to work with them but they had dropped them because they didn't know what to do with them.  So when I opened the area back in Sept. 2013 there was no teaching record or info of them.  It was when I was going through old progress records trying to get information on stuff that I came across them.  They were written in on only two progress records but a long time ago, but I decided to go and try to contact them again.  I started working with Juanita who is the mom.  I worked with them a ton and then when I left I didn't hear too much about them.  Until a month ago we got a text from the mission office about their baptism(i think i wrote about this a few weeks ago).  This was a testimony to me of how I always need to go through all old papers and information.  What if I would of thrown all those papers out assuming that the area was well organized and the teaching records would of been there(well i guess they never really taught them, we were the ones that started teaching them) they could of been lost forever and would of never came to know the truth.
    Anyways so I went to the baptism and it was so good!!! As soon as I arrived it was packed with members from the ward and missionaries.  I went right up to Juanita and her two kids getting baptized and just hugged them.  Juanita and I hugged for such a long time and just cried to each other.  I told her how proud I was of her and the example that she has been to her family and how strong that she was.  She told me that she has never been this happy before in her life and she told me that there was no way that she would be able to go through her Baptism without me there.  She is seriously an amazing woman, some day I will tell you all about it.  It was such a neat experience to see her get baptized.  When the Bishop was welcoming her into the ward he did something that he had never done before.  He had every that was serving a mission and had ever served a mission stand up, then he had those that were not currently serving to sit down, and then he had all the other missionaries that had not served in the Summerset ward sit down as well.  As I stood there with a handful of other missionaries Bishop Root talked about how valiant we were and how grateful he was to work with us.  It was there that I started to cry! It hit me as I look at Bishop Root and at the Cuiellars and at all the other members in that room how much I missed them all.  That area  and ward had such a huge impact on my life, I could never forget them.  I had an ache in my heart thinking of all the great memories there and it killed me to know I will never serve them as a missionary again.  But I am grateful for the opportunity that I got to go to that baptism and feel the spirit there so strong and to see all the ward members and to hear the impact that I had on their lives.  I promised them that when I get home that one day I will just show up in the church meeting.  That is a promise that I am going to keep!  That is one thing that I am grateful for that I got the opportunity to serve in a place so close where I could come back to visit those that I have served.
   So things are going well with Sally Fogg in our area, we got to see her this week a couple of times because she is off work, but she goes back this week :( She has already read most of 1 Nephi!  You can really see the spirit working on her.  Last night we went with her and her less active husband to Hymns of Thanksgiving.  It is a community event that was actually started by a member in the church where the sing hymns of thanks.  It was really great to be able to bring them there.  Sally always jokes about us that one day we will "tie her down to the floor" to convert because that is what she thought missionaries do before she met with us.  But what she doesn't realize that it is her that is really "tying herself down to being converted".  It has been great to really see the change in her these past few weeks.

   Things are still hard at times in our area, but I came to a realization and committed myself to something this week.  Okay my thoughts are scattered but I hope this will all make sense to you.  This came to me as I was studying for a training that I had to do at District Meeting. Our meeting was focused on "traps" as missionaries.  Mine was on finding vs. referrals and us falling into the trap of waiting and relying on our only source of finding through referrals.  I have decided that this is such a great time of a year where people hearts are soften and receptive to the spirit and listening to a message about the Savior.  Even our stake is doing a two night event where they have a live nativity that is outside with the youth as actors and they bring in live animals, even a camel!!! hahaha Anyways, so here is what I declared to my district and to myself.  That I want to go home with bloody knuckles.  I want people to think that I was in a fight because in all honesty I am, I am in a fight against the adversary.  I want to knock on every single door in our area, even though tracting is not as effective.  But you know what, I want to go home swinging, I want to go home knowing that I tried to bring every single person I could closer to Christ.  I can't just wait until they come to me, I keep saying the area is tough.  But I know that I can't stay that there is no work until I have knock on every house.  So that is something that I have committed to: to knock on every door.  I want to come home so tired!

    Don't worry about me for Thanksgiving, I am going to be well taken care of! We have a Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Desserts, and lots of other people that have asked us to stop by the home on this wonderful day.  I think I might be too well taken care of this holiday season, hopefully you will still be able to recognize me when I get back ;)
   So I had this realization today as I was having personal study of why as missionaries we don't live in the world and the reason for the rules that we have.  They are all there to help us build our testimony.  This is the time in our life's where I have solely focused on spiritually things. I have been able to figure things out and question things while focusing on getting those answers by using spiritual resources(i.e. the scriptures and prayer) and not having the influence of the world.  There has been no other point in my life where things have been so clear to me and I know exactly what I know to be true with out a shadow of a doubt.  I realized how important it is for me to write down my testimony that I have right now because when I go back home that influence of the world will try to start to put its input into my testimony.  I see those that I am working with how the word has shaken their testimonies, it made me realize that if for whatever reason I start to question what I know to be true that it will be because of what the world is trying to make me think.  That I can look back at this point in my life and realize where I should when I was not apart of the world.  That is something that really burned deep inside me today and I just had this overall reassurance of how important my testimony is not only to me but to those around me. I realize how special and precious it is as well and that I need to continue to nourish it when I get home.  I challenge all of you that may be struggling or questioning things about what you believe to "take the world out of the equation". Study it out in the scriptures and talk it over with your Father in Heaven.

   I can not tell you how much my testimony has grown not only over the course of my mission, but so much even more this past transfer.  As I have been rereading the Book of Mormon and studying the conference talks about Joseph Smith, my whole body burns with the testimony that I have of him.  Over and over there is evidence that he was called to restore Christ original church and that there is no way that he himself could of written this "book from heaven".  I also had a realization this week as I was studying talks how important it is for me to know where my testimony is at and to strengthen it before I can help others.  

    If there is one thing that I could be grateful for this time of year it would be the opportunity I have had to be here out serving a mission.  This period of my life has changed my life and has changed my testimony for the better! I needed to serve a mission not only for others, but for myself.  I now know that I will never waver because of the experiences I have had on my mission that have built my testimony to where it is at today.  I am even more grateful for my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ.  Isn't it interesting how Thanksgiving come right before Christmas? That we realize what is good in our lives to humble us and prepare us to receptive to the spirit to remember what our Savior has done for us. Coincidence? I think not.  And last but not lease I so thankful for all of you. For all your love and support that you have given me on my mission, you will never realize the impact that you have had on my mission and life.  It is because of all of you that I am out here and still out here serving a mission.  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Take a moment to not only public express what you are grateful for to those around you, but specifically to your father in Heaven as well.  

Love

Sister Metcalf

Pictures: Juanita Cuiellar and I

All the missionaries that I have worked with them

Sister Broberg and I in Idaho City

Monday November 17, 2014

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This week has been another slow one for us up here in Meridian.  We walked most of the week to help keep us busy trying to talk to people on the street.  It ended up snowing Wednesday night up here and no joke probably snowed for almost 48 hours straight.  It was so nuts!  We really didn't have much planned for Friday so we headed so we spent a good part of the day shoveling peoples driveways.  Man I have never been so sore in my life.  We defiantly slept well that night.  A lot of people looked at us like we were crazy offering to shovel to shovel their walks for free. 

    The ward had a chili cook off which is such a great opportunity for them to invite their friends to.  I don't think that was ever anything that we did down in Simi, but I think it is a great idea.  I feel like in this area almost every ward does it.  Even though the roads weren't that great and it was pretty cold Friday night there was still a really good turn out.  It was also a great opportunity for me to be able to meet more people in the ward.

    A tender mercy from the week was picking up a new investigator.  Her name is Sallie Fogg, her husband is a less active member. The sisters had visited with her before but she hadn't shown much interest.  When I came into the area she has had some events in her life to humble her, she got a priesthood blessing the first week that I was here so I really didn't get a chance to know her.  This week we went by to see her because she has to now stay home due to some new health issues.  While we were talking she randomly asked us when church was and where just in case she ever wanted to sit in the back and observe.  This just blew our minds, no one has ever been the one to bring up going to church to us first, so we talked to her about learning more.  She has really come along ways and we invited her to take the discussions and she agreed.  We taught her the Restoration and it went really well, we committed her to read the Book of Mormon. And when we went by her house Friday to shovel her driveway for her she had told us that she had been reading! From what Sister Broberg has told me she has been taking leaps and bonds this transfer, we really have high hopes for her. We have really been trying to push the work along in this area and its been tough not gonna lie, but it was such a blessing from the Lord to be able to pick up a new investigator.

    One thing I learned this week as well came from a less active family.  They don't as active or don't come to church very often due to their daughter playing basketball.  The don't force her to go to mutual because she claims that their aren't girls there that she gets along with or play sports.  Their whole life revolves around her and her sports, they see her playing in college so they are doing everything in their power to help her make it there.  It made me realize how grateful I was for you Dad and Mom, that you didn't let my life be revolved around sports.  That you helped me see the importance of the Gospel in my life.  That one day I wouldn't be playing sports and their were different things that needed to be a focus in my life to prepare me for that day.  You helped me to start building my treasures up in Heaven then here on earth.  So thank you for helping me to build my testimony when I was young and making me go to mutual to help me to branch out and to be friends with those around me.

   This week we have been going around contacting people and teaching the members the Lesson of the Restoration to talk to them about those around them that would be receptive to hear our message.  It has been a great experience and it really has affirmed to me over and over again how true this message is.  It just burns in my heart and soul, one of the members we taught returned from his mission five years ago and he said to remember the feelings we have on our mission because we will never be able to feel them with that much intensity again.  That really hit me, so I went home that night to write my testimony down and to write the feelings that I had.  I love being out here teaching and testifying to everyone even when things feel like they aren't going at the pace that I would hope.

   I am just trying to enjoy every moment of the mission, snow or shine!

Love

Sister Metcalf

1-So much snow!

2-Us by our car before we went to go shovel peoples driveways...got to bundle up! 

Monday November 10, 2014

Faith has a short shelf life

Dear Family and Friends,

      I feel like at different points of this week that it went by quickly and other times it went by slowly.  The area I serve in is different from the one that I was in previously.  I know one thing that I wanted for the end of my mission was to be diligent and work hard and I feel like the Lord is really testing me.  There is not much work going on in this ward, and it is less than a square mile big so I am really going to have to dig deep and work hard to build up this area and get the work moving along.  Most of this week I spent the time organizing things and getting the area in order so we could more effectively plan and work.  It is funny because I feel like I really don't OCD about things but I guess when it comes to the Lord's work I like it to be organized.  I was a little shocked coming into the area because not much was marked up and not much information was written by people.  Luckily they had progress records from all the way back to before I came out on my mission which was funny to see.  So i went through all of them and wrote down the important stuff on the ward directory or teaching records and then threw out the rest that weren't recent.  TO be honest a lot of them just said about people not being home.  We then went through and redid our white board that way we could see everyone and all the potentials that we have to work with and even went through and created a street list( a list of all the members by street).

    We pretty much walk around a ton because our area is so small.  I think that is one thing that has been hard for me this week that our area is so small and their aren't really many people that we are working with.  We have one investigator but he is a schizophrenic and has actually removed his names.  So staying busy is really hard, I have been trying to figure out how to approach things in a different way here because it is so small and because it has already been worked in so much.  But I am going about it in a positive attitude.  I have so much faith that there is people in this area that are ready to be baptized, and that is something that we want this transfer.  We might have to track the whole area to find them(which we could probably do by the end of the transfer to be honest).  A lot of people have heard about the church before or know of us and so your typical door approach just won't cut it here.  Luckily we have a lot of activities coming up and holidays as well which should help.  I guess this is my big test to really see if I am willing to be diligent and work hard till the very end. 

    This week we met a lot of people, mostly those that are not interested, but Sister Broberg and I just saw that we are weaving out the "tares".  We had zone meeting this Friday which was really good, we actually have 30 missionaries in our zone which is a huge difference from 12 in my last zone. Things are moving along and we are determined to keep the work really picked up in the area.  It has been good serving with Sister Broberg, I feel like we are laughing all the time which is great and helps when we find those that aren't ready to take the next step in their life.

   So here is a little rewind for you, I didn't get an opportunity to write about zone conference that much last week so I wanted to this week because it was so great! The theme of Elder Godoy's address was "Every phase is building the future of you". He really focused on marriage and future families. As missionaries we've all gone through the stages of being a new greenie/missionary. Some of us have been a new leader or trainer. One day we will all be new RMs, new couple, new parents or grandperents, new dead person on the other side (he mentioned how he's pretty sure there is a MTC for the newly deseased). One day we will all be new gods talking classes like 'How To Create Worlds 101'. Elder Godoy brought up the idea that as important as DOING what you're supposed to in what ever phase of life is BEING who the Lord wants youto be. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." No one can be perfect in every phase as Christ was but we each have a level that we are perfect at. An apple is perfect as an apple should be. A banana is perfect as a banana. One should not look at the other and judge according to what they see as perfection (And then he started to go off on the Barney song about apples and bananas. I told you, he's crazy in the best possible way). So we all are given a level that we have to achieve at that time and no more. Just a brilliant talk. He then brought up that the baptisms in the world have gone up 11% across the world and 13% in the United States. How much in the Idaho Boise Mission? A grand total of 31%! Wooh! Just random tidbit he threw in:)

   Things here are good! I read a talk this morning by Elder Eyring, where I got the title of my subject.  This talk was so good and really hit me hard. I really feel like you all should read it! Spiritual Preparedness . You all should read it and really apply to your life, we need to be doing things daily to build our faith, we can't just build it all up and store it for a time that we need to dip into it.  This talk was given almost ten years ago and I feel like it applies to us so much today, it is a testimony builder today that the Prophets and Apostles have been called my the Lord to prepare us.

    I love you and miss you all and hope that you have a great week.  Pray with faith for and expect miracles, I know I am.  Create those miracles and tender mercies in your life.

Love
Sister Metcalf

Monday November 3,2014

"Dropping the little kids off at the pool"‏

Okay so I will start off with transfers, I got transferred to Meridian South :( I was really sad to leave Eagle. The people there are just amazing and the ward there is amazing and the work is going so well up there.  It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone up there that I have grown so close with.  I am no longer an STL any more, i went down to be co-senior companions with Sister Broberg! Yep you heard right, I am serving with the only other missionary that is from Simi Valley, CA hahahaha This is her last transfer so I will be "killing" her off.  I can just tell we are gonna have a blast this transfer and just work it! As sad as it was for me to leave I know that it had to happen in order for me to possible train before I go home.  I think it might happen.  Because since this is sister Broberg's last transfer i will have to get a new companion next transfer. She will be my 12th companion...that is just nuts to me, but I have loved every companion that I have had! So looks like I will be leaving with the lucky #13 companions(my favorite number...looks like the Lord does work in mysterious ways ahahah). I will be back to covering one ward :( And apparently it is small like half a square mile big, but hey I can work with that! I plan on seeing miracles this transfer and sending out Sister Broberg with the best transfer of her mission!
        This week was such a great week of tender mercies I feel like from the Lord.  The beginning of the week started out a little slow, but I feel like it ended with a bang for sure! On Thursday I was leaving the house with a feeling that it was going to be a great day, have you ever had those feelings before? I seriously love them on the mission.  So last week we had received a media referral for a girl who had referred herself. She said that she had taken the discussions before and wanted to refresh her memory.  Well we tried all last week to contact her but was having no success. Finally as a last resort we texted her on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we had gotten a text back from her about her losing her phone but had set up a time to see her the next day.  We met her at the church with our R.S.P. and taught her the Restoration. She is so amazing and so elect. She was just soaking up everything and asking about church on Sunday.  The sad thing is is that we will have to pass her off to YSA because she is 19 :( After that experience I was super jealous of Megan.  I would love to serve in the YSA ward, I agree with Megan that there is just something different about teaching those that are the same age as you.  Yow can just relate to them and be so much more bolder with them.  We are meeting up with the YSA Elders this week to pass her off to them. The lesson went super well and she excepted a soft baptismal invite! Meaning when she comes to know these things are true she will follow the example of her Savior Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God! Sometimes I think I get too attached to people, she is seriously so great!!!
    To top off that amazing day, as we pulled in to our house, Sister Clegg was going back reading through all the texts that the mission office had sent because they had kind of sent a lot that day. As she was reading text one of them was to tell me how the Cuillers for Boise West were getting baptized!!! I had found that family a year ago!!! That just blew my mind, I was so stoked to hear that.  I was overwhelmed with love and tender mercies from the Lord that day.  That sometimes when the going gets tough you keep going and pushing through and the Lord will bless you. Sometimes you don't see it right away, sometimes I won't see them at all in the mission, but I felt blessed that the Lord had allowed me to be even more blessed! It was a testimony builder to me that sometimes others take longer than others, but we just have to be patient and trust in the Lord's timing!
     We had zone conference this week with Elder Godoy, and it was just amazing, he is seriously such a funny guy.  Such a great spiritual experience, I wish I could write about everything that I learned and came away from it, but I don't have enough time :( He focused a lot on Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel which was Christlike attributes. So he focused a lot on us becoming the person our Father in Heaven needs us to be! He was really inspiring. I also had to give my trunk-a-mony or my last testimony in Zone Conference, it was so surreal to me. I started to cry a little bit, it was a little rough. It kind of hit how quickly this is all coming to an end but I quickly reminded myself as well that I still have so much more time left to see miracles and so much more that the Lord needs me to do.

   Yesterday was probably my favorite Sunday in my whole mission! Well Alex(the new investigator came to the family ward on Sunday all by herself!!!!! She came there because she felt more comfortable since she knew us there.  There were quite a few less actives that came out as well as some of the youth brought some non-memner friends!!!! At first the fast and testimony meeting started out a little rough and i was nervous not gonna lie! But then it was amazing! Some of the most powerful testimonies I had heard were given about the basics of the gospel, about Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith which was seriously just perfect.  I ended up bearing my testimony as well, I just love doing that! There were tons of youth that bore their testimony as well, they are seriously awesome. I just know they are going to be great missionaries when they go out!
   So last tender mercy of the week, so as I was packing up this morning which was hard for me to do, not gonna lie. We got a text from Alexandria(the new investigator) just talking about how much she just loved church.  She also said she had been praying a lot about what we had taught her and she said she wants to get baptized! My heart was filled with so much joy! I felt so blessed to of been able to see this last tender mercy from the Lord before I left.  We told her how excited we were for her, I told her I would make it back for her baptism!

    The church is true! All of it, every single bit. Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know it to be true, to the world it doesn't make sense logically but to me it makes sense spiritually. I know that it is true and all the other stuff that people are trying to say about him do not matter. Don't let it matter to you either.  If you know that the First Vision occurred that is all that matters, that means that He was called to be a prophet of God, and that he translated the Book of Mormon.  No one is perfect, but I know that if he wasn't suppose to be a prophet or wasn't "worthy" or did things that don't seem the greatest, God would of pulled him from leading Christ's restored Church.  I love you all and pray for you all! Keep doing what you are doing!

Love
Sister Metcalf

P.S. I know that the title doesn't make sense, but it does to me. It is a quote this week that I don't want to forget hahaha

P.P.S. My new address is

2746 East Easy Jet Drive
Meridian, Idaho
83642

 Slot Cars

 Sister Haas and I where I probably lost my camera

Pre-Trunk Papers

Monday October 27, 2014

What Matters Most is What Lasts the Longest

So since my thoughts are usually scattered on my emails I am going to try to go through my week and remember all that happened.

Monday-after preparation day we went out trying to contact some less actives but were unsuccessful. We had Family Home Evening with a family and two of our recent converts that are teens.  They both have been struggling coming to church so we have been trying to work with the more and more.  We played a game with them called "Catch the Wave Catch Phase" and tied it into opening their mouths more with their friends that are around them and we have found out that we have to play some sort of game with them in order to keep their attention.  We talked to them as well about why they aren't coming to church and why it is important to.  We have decided that we are going to try and do FHE with them every week so if any one has any good game ideas for teenagers that would be great.

Tuesday- So our zone decided to do a little special training that day and do some exchanges where we went out a tried to find people in different areas.  It was pretty good, I went to the other sisters area and we tried to contact a few less actives and knocked on some doors.  We didn't see much success but it was good to just go out and try to find people again.  We were only able to go for a few hours with them because we had something come up for us in the evening.  A member ended up taking us out to eat, which I feel like we did a lot of that this week.

     So in the morning we got a phone call from some sisters that are serving in the Summerset ward.  They called to tell me that Ursula Wilkenson was getting baptized that night!!!!! I was so excited, such a tender mercy from the Lord.  She is one whose story just broke my heart and I had a deep love for her.  I knew that one day she would get baptized but it would be when she decided to.  Her daughter was the one who got baptized back in April I believe.  I guess she wanted it to be a small low key thing and so she only asked a few people to come.  I was the only other missionary that she asked to come, I was so surprised and felt honored that she wanted me there.  Sister Lomu and I were the ones that found her and started to work with her.  It was a tender mercy from the Lord that through out my mission I would run into her from time to time and talk to her about how things are going and how I knew she was going to get baptized.  It was so neat to see her all dressed in white and enter into the waters of baptism.  I got to talk to her afterwards for a little bit and it was so great to see how much the spirit had been working on her and how much she had changed.  She has been one of persons that I have grown close with because I feel like she really challenged me as a missionary.  It is funny that those that are the most stubborn that I have worked with are the ones that I have a deep love for.  She is someone that I hope to keep in contact with for a long time.

    So after leaving the baptism I started to get a pounding headache, but I had a thought of letting my companion drive home but I felt like I would be okay.  Well I guess I got what I deserved for not listening to the promptings of the spirit.  Eagle is about 20-30 minutes away from where the baptism was at and as we were driving home we hit every single red light.  And as time went by my headache got worse and worse.  I started to get really sensitive to light and the car headlights going in the other direction were for sure not helping at all.   At red lights I just tired to keep breathing deeply and close my eyes while trying to focus on the conversation with my companion.  When we were about 5 minutes away I started to get super nauseous I wasn't sure if I was going to make it home or not.  I guess I am a pretty stubborn person because I just pushed through until we got home, but then I ran upstairs leaving all the lights off while I ran into the bathroom.  This is the first time I have ever experienced a migraine and it was something I did not like experiencing on my mission.  I felt horrible I spent the next hour in the bathroom either throwing up or laying on the bathroom floor.  I took some Advil and just laid there.  I felt bad because my companion ended up having to weekly plan by herself.  She knocked on the bathroom door around 10:20 and I just got ready from bed and crashed trying to avoid as much light as I could.  I was determined not to allow me being sick effect my missionary work.  Luckily the next day I felt total fine, a little weak but I was able to go out a work.  Tuesday was a day where I felt the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on my mission in such a short period of time.

  Wednesday- we had district meeting, nothing really too special for that day

Thursday-We did exchanges with the other sisters that are serving in Eagle.  The zone leaders actually asked us to do weekly planning with them because their area had really been struggling.  It was uncomfortable for them I feel like, but i think it was really good.   We found a lot of potentials and people that they could work with in their area.  I really helped them to organize things, which for some reason is something I have really enjoyed doing on my mission.  As heck-it as it can be I love coming into areas and having to organize them, it makes it so much easier for the missionaries that come in after.  We also discovered that they were counting numbers wrong which just blew my mind.  One of the sisters has been out as long as me and has been doing it all wrong.  You could tell they were trying to justify things for their numbers.  We explain what counted and what didn't and how they shouldn't focus on the key indicators but people.  It is not worth it to lie about something like that.  I was really hoping to help the sisters find some new investigators, but we didn't have much luck.  But we were able to meet with some less actives they have had a hard time trying to catch.  We set up some return appointments for them as well, so I felt like overall it was a pretty successful day with them.

Friday,Saturday- These two days just seem to be blurring together for me.  We did some service for some people in our area.  Invited tons of non-members to the ward trunk or treat and did lots of tracting.  We found lots of potentials as well as lots of people that aren't interested.  We try to talk to everyone that is on the street, but not many people are out and about now that it is starting to cool down so we have been knocking on doors.  Not spending too much time doing that, but we park our car and then walk the area trying to contact members and knocking on randomly.  We thought our dinner was cancelled on Saturday, but apparently we had called a different family so we ended up getting a call and having to rush to dinner.  I felt so bad, but that is just how it goes in the missionary world.  The ward trunk or treat was pretty good, they did a chili cook off but kept it outside which I was a little disappointed about because it was a little cold so not many people wanted to stay.  I wish they would of done games and such inside the church like how they do in the homeward.  These two days we ate out as well a lot.  I don't know what it was but members just wanted to take us out to eat for lunch and dinner and we ate out when we had our special zone training.  I can defiantly see how people gain weight up here in eagle.  It is nice and everything to eat out but sometimes it is just too much.  I know what the missionaries mean mom when they say they just want simple meals.  Just trust them with what they want.  Ask them what they want, even offer in-n-out or something to them as well.  I bet they would love that.

Sunday-  We had church for 6 hours again and it was the other ward's primary program.  It was so cute. We saw some tender mercies catching some less actives that we have been trying forever! They were super nice and seem receptive to us.  We also had some people who were HBH(home but hiding).  Those people just make me laugh.  My joke I have been telling people is "that it is Halloween everyday for us because people are always scared of the missionaries". I don't know why some people don't just open the door and tell us they are not interested, other wise we will just come back hahaha  There was even one house where the husband use to be in the stake presidency, we walked to the door and saw him in his office.  As soon as we knocked on the door the light went off, we waited and then rang the door bell and still no one came.  I just laughed as I walked away.

   Overall this week was good, we saw a lot of tender mercies and we are really seeing some of the less actives that we are working with progress.  Brother Van Dongen is just being prepared by the spirit you can just tell that he knows he needs to change but is becoming resistant and doesn't want to commit too much time.  I just know that he is so close to coming back to church.  I am loving the work up here and the people that I am working with even though it can be slow at times.  Today I read a talk about the atonement and it talked about applying it to our lives individually and one person at a time.  It talked about parents and missionaries that every single person counts and matters to the Lord.  This week is transfer calls!!!Where has the time gone, at times this transfer has felt slow and at others it has gone by fast.  I would say to hold off on sending anything to me.  Everything is up in the air when it comes to transfers I feel like.  Next time you hear from me we will no if I will be finishing up my mission in Eagle most likely or somewhere else. 

    Also this Friday is my last Zone conference, they moved it up because Elder Godoy from the seventy is coming.  I am gonna have to give my trunk-a-mony(my last testimony in front of the mission).  Where is the time going? The holidays are around the corner! I am not ready! If someone could tell me how to slow down time that would be great.  I feel like as I have been trying to sprint to the end the time has been going by that much faster!!! 

   I love you all so much! I am so grateful for all your love and support! I hope that all is well with all of you!

Love

Sister Metcalf 

Monday October 20, 2014

"500 houses and 500 Mouses"-Krispy Kreme

Sorry for the lateness of my letter, sometimes the library gets pretty busy and the computers kick you off after a certain amount of time.  So after the first time getting kicked off we decided to go off for our preparation Day and go do some fun things.  We went to go race some slot cars, I will have to send you some pictures next week(i don't have the cord to moms old camera on me to send you the pictures).  

    Things have been going pretty good here in our area. This week has been an up and down week once again.  It feels like this is the week where we did a lot of filtering either by us or by the people themselves.  I guess the Lord is pushing me to increase my faith in him.  If there was a key indicator for the number of people not interested this week I think we would win hahaha Some people were first contact visits, but there were a couple of people who we had been working with that dropped us.  Those ones were hard for me because they were people that I had grown to love and it breaks my heart that this isn't the time for them to come back to church.  We also decided this week that one of our investigators that we had been working with we will probably drop as well.  She just isn't keeping her commitments and she really isn't willing to change at the moment.  She says she wants to reconnect with the religion that she grew up with(catholic) before she makes any decisions.  But honestly I know that we are filtering the people to better focus on those that are prepare and to find those that the Lord is preparing for us.  It reminds me of this video found on the Mormon channel(http://www.mormonchannel.org/) That sometimes the Lord cuts us back and sometimes our teaching pool to better prepare us.  It might not make a lot of sense to you, but to me it does.

    I felt like this happened this week to me with the Lord.  On Thursday we went on exchanges with some of our sisters and I ended up staying in our area.  The night before I was super excited because we had an appointment scheduled from 10am all the way until 8pm at night and a couple of them were with some potential investigators.  Well as the day went on almost all of our appointments cancelled except for dinner and one with our recent converts.  That night I felt defeated, I felt like what the current bush, I was just baffled that this had happened especially because some of our appointments we had are ones that we have at the same time every single week.  It was in that moment where the Lord broke me down and revealed something to me that I had been doing this whole week.  Because to be honest up until that point a lot of our week had been pretty much.  It was during our weekly planning session while setting goals for myself for this upcoming week that I prayed to the Lord to find out what I needed to work on or learn this week.  It came to me that I needed to have more faith driven prayers.  It was in that moment and those next few days during our study sessions that I realized that I had almost been pleading with the Lord/ hoping that these people we were planning on seeing would be home.  I realized that I needed to pray with faith and have the confidence that those people were going to be home and that they were going to let us in.

    Those next two days after that realization totally changed my way of thinking and as I applied it to my life it was amazing to see the changes.  We were able to get a lot of unplanned lessons and to get into some peoples homes that we have been trying to see since I have been here.  I know that it was a tender mercy from the Lord, I noticed a lot of them that he put into our path.  One of them that sticks out to me was on one of our long days.  We went to go visit a less active family that got home from Africa a few weeks ago because they were down picking up their two sons that they had adopted.  When we went to go try them the wife answered the door with a knife in her hand.  We all kind of started laughing because she didn't realize she was still holding onto it.  Turns out that she was making cardboard houses for her kids.  We asked if she needed help and she agreed.  So we got to have a little fun with the kids(ill have to send the pictures next week) and we got to visit with the family and talk to them a little bit.  It was a little stress relief that we needed while still doing missionary work of course, i consider that service hahaha

    So story for the week: so Sunday morning my companion and I went out to our car to head to church and when she opened the door, there was a mouse in there!!! Yep a mouse in our car!!! It was crazy, we were freaking out.  We thought it ran out the car, but to be safe we left a cracker on the floor of the car during to church to double check.  Well after we got out of church(7 hours later). the whole cracker was gone! Like no sign of it missing! No crumbs! We thought that we might not of left it there for a minute.  But that night we set up a mouse trap(which took us like 10 minutes to figure out hahaha) Went out this morning and we had caught it!!!! It was kind of gross, but we hope that that was the only one.  Everyone we have told, our district leaders, other sisters, and the people in the office have laughed at us.  They said that was the first time that they had heard that before.  I guess the Lord gave me a little taste of what it would of been like serving foreign hahaha

    Yesterday in one of our wards was the primary program, it made me think of back at home with our primary programs.  Those kids were so cute, and it is just amazing how you can feel the spirit when little kids sing and speak.  It is also pretty inspired by the First Presidency that the theme for this year was "Families can be Together Forever"

   I love you all so much and am so grateful for your love, prayers, and support.  I hope you all have a great week! Here are some pictures of our last few pdays(1-playing sports in the rain and a ditch turned into a fun puddle to play in 2)fishing, not much luck but I caught 1!)

Love

Sister Metcalf

Tuesday October 14, 2014

This one is probably going to have to be a short one, we didn't get a chance to e-mail yesterday because the libraries were closed due to Columbus day and today we don't have as much time.

  This week has been a pretty good week, we had MLC and received some good training about using the Book of Mormon more when we teach.  We found out that Zone Conference got moved up to the end of this month because Elder Godoy is coming in to do a mission tour.  It is weird because this will be my last zone conference in the mission. Where is the time going? The next day we also got to go to the mission office to watch "Meet the Mormons". It was such a good movie, I would highly recommend you all seeing it. I felt like it was really well done and that it wasn't preachy but it had good underlining messages about each person.  It is defiantly a movie I would recommend taking non-members to.

   A tender mercy from the Lord this week: A few weeks ago I got into contact with a less active man in the ward and we have been working with him every week now.  This past week we went by and talked about the Book or Mormon and read the first chapter with him because he says he doesn't quite understand the scriptures when he reads them.  It was so a great experience to be able to do that with him, you can see the spirit working on him and changing him.  He even watched General Conference last week! We actually had quite a few less actives watch general conference which was amazing to see.  It is so great to see the spirit working on these people and to see them making progression.  While leaving Brother Van Dongen's house(the less active we are working with). He asked us if we would come back next week again, usually we are the first ones to ask him if we can come back next week.  Although we don't see as many baptisms or have as many investigators as we would like I feel so much satisfaction from working with these less active members.  I think of Brother Van Dongen, who is in his 80s and how if the Lord hadn't been hastening his work here in Boise where missionaries are able to work with members more and more, he might of never of been able to find his way back to the gospel.

    Things have been going well in the area, and we are keeping pretty busy, but of course we can always be busier. Our investigators are moving along, they are progressing but very slowly.  I still have been trying to figure out how to get the fire going with them.  Every week is an up and down week I feel like. Some people progressing along and really want to meet with you and then others that want to drop you or aren't interested in meeting with you. For example we had set up an appointment with a less active man to meet with him and work with him.  He seemed really wanting to come back and we were going to see him today, but he called this morning to tell us that he was unsure now. That he had some feelings of uneasiness. I tried to talking to him for a little bit, but you could tell the advesary had been working on him. We agreed to allow him to take a couple weeks to continue to think and pray about it and we are gonna follow up.  Sometimes things would be so much easier if the Adversary wasn't progressing his work along as well.

    I hope that things are going well for all of you. Again so sorry about the short letter hopefully I will be able to write a longer letter next week. Love you!!!

Love 

Sister Metcalf