Already 4% done... time is flying by

Texas is fantastic, I think my trainer is the top missionary out here but I can't get it out of him. I've made so many mistakes but it's expected of me so I just laugh. Church yesterday was one of the longest days of my life. We are over 2 wards (Rockwall and Heath) which translates into 10 hours of meetings. I was dozing off pretty bad in correlation and PEC but don't get too nervous, they had to wake up one of the stake presidency who was in the meeting as well when he didn't respond to a question.

We got a new referral last week and when we talked to him for the first time you could tell his head was full of Anti-Mormon doctrine. Lucky for him Elder Johnson set him straight but ended up telling me he is actually a really promising referral. Go figure.

We taught about 20 lessons this past week and I had my first successful split from my companion. I taught Amanda and her family some things about the prophet to get her stoked for conference but her 2 year old is like a stick of uranium because of the noise she creates. After that I visited a part member family who has a 10 year old with a baptismal date but they aren't really coming to church. She was pressing questions about the creation of the earth and how all her christian friends believe that the earth was created in 6 days but she believes that it's obvious it is billions of years old. I responded with saying she was exactly right and gave her my 'testimony' on the subject. I think she was happy about that. When I got home and talked to my companion about it, I was right! Joseph Smith said that the earth was 4.5 billion years old and we talked about the creation and it reaffirmed what I said to that sister. Pretty cool.

A couple days later I taught my first full lesson. yikes. Actually it went pretty well even knowing I would say random things every once in awhile and covered every piece of the first lesson in full detail (60 minutes worth). but it was to an 11 year old and he had water in his eyes at the end so I think that might be a good sign.

Sandy Powers was baptized last Saturday and wow, she was the first convert baptism I have seen in my life I think. Way cool service, she is solid. She bore her testimony at the end as well and really wants her daughters to 'partake of the fruit' so we will have to lend our hands to that great work. She was confirmed in sacrament yesterday and I was asked to be one of the priesthood holders to join with that which was again a great honor. Still, I haven't helped anyone from the beginning to the end so I don't think I got the full effect like my companion did.

I had my second interview with President Smith this week. I got help with a couple of things but he really felt prompted to talk to me about planning and the effect it will have on me and my life. Elder Johnson is one of the best planning missionaries here and President said that is probably one of the main reasons I am being trained by him and that I need to absorb every bit of that skill as I can. Not only for my mission, but the rest of my life. Makes perfect sense though since I can come off really ditzy sometimes.

The wards are really great here, every time I walk into a members house, I can feel like I am back at home. Way different then other homes out here.

During laundry this morning a J-Dub and her kid walked into the laundry facility and placed out some of their doctrine on the table. She said Hi but didn't approach us at all. Johnson was way disappointed because he has power skills to totally destroy any other churches interpretation of the Gospel (in a kind way of course). Not that it's hard by any means considering no one else has the restored Gospel.

I had my first exchange with one of the zone leaders last week too. He had a lot of trust in my teaching skills because he kept calling on me to teach principles to a few people. We went to one guys house and I had my first crazy drunk guy experience on the mission! 'Mormons, come preach to me' he said. Then he proceeded to tell us that he had the truth and we can be saved. Just another guy that believes all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ to be saved with not a lot of effort on his part. Then we taught a blind man name Kenneth. Unfortunately before we walked into his house I could already smell the drugs. When we did start teaching inside his apartment it was instant headache. The smell was so strong. It seemed like Satan was just finding people to waste our time with.

I met a recent convert in Garland who was so euphoric about the Gospel it was awesome. He hadn't had a dream for several years but the night he was baptized he had a dream about his mother and sister who had died giving him a much welcomed hug. He has been dreaming ever since.

Good heavens I think everyone down here has 3 million different versions of the Bible. Its crazy. Just random guys interpreting the scripture and people wonder why there are 22,000 sects in America today. Oh well, the churches here in Rockwall are massive and beautiful and will be great firewood someday. Even Sandy who was baptized said she use to speak in tongues and would go to churches full of rock music and screaming. yes, smart. Texas is in for a big surprise.

My companion and I disagree on one thing though. In the scriptures it talks about hunters and fishers in the last days. The fishers being the earlier missionaries of this dispensation baptizing thousands of people and the hunters being today's missionaries who only average about 6 each. Well I want to be a fisher. Simple as that. Somehow I am going to figure out while I am out here a way to make that possible but of course its not going to be easy... we'll see. I was specifically taught in the MTC that the difference between a hunter and a fisher was your state of mind and your attitude. Everyone believes in Jesus down here, how hard can it be? ha....

-Love Elder Metcalf