Mark Receives His Mission Call

Mark is set apart as a Missionary to Dallas, Texas

Kathryn made the tie & Grandpa Metcalf gives him a last minute lesson on how to tie it.

Letter #1

Dear family that I miss so much. The MTC is fantastic. A lot of work but it is easy as long as you practice. Every member gets worried about giving their testimonies when really it just needs to be about faith in Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith as a prophet called of God, President Monson as our prophet today. I love it. I am happy to be here pat of this Army. As a district we chose Nehemiah 6:3 as our theme. It was from from Elder Uchdorf's talk recently. Reading and hearing the talk gave me goosebumps. I have to keep baring my testimony and promising myself how real our gospel is and I will never fail or even get discouraged. I love you family, but too bad for you that you no longer have excitement in the home! Just kidding.

I am here to learn to cause less contention when I get home. This place is so safe from the outside world. It's like the temple, virtually there is not a single drop of negativity. Every once in awhile you have contention clouds brewing but I am learning that arguing is worthless and to just swallow my pride and be humble and follow the prophet. I am never getting married because I am never leaving, Sorry. Is Nicole Pregnant yet? Good news. I do believe I am over my past. As far as being a leader, I think I am really developing. We have Elder Mosca in our district and he is like 23 and a convert of a year. A real power influence. Elder Barton is Steven. My companion is Elder Moosman and he is Dakota Larsen. Elder Moli is the happiest Tongan you will ever meet. Then there is Elder Scott. He is in our district and I think the only physically and mentally disabled Elder here. He is awesome, love him to death, really strong testimony.

Letter #2

So fired up right now. Although it is right before bedtime so I am winding down. Had another AMAZING day. Our district is so awesome. Lots of power and love. I laugh too much here. I laughed so hard today that the spirit was driven away. I do believe God is looking down on us and me personally and smiling. Anything anyone has said negatively about the MTC is an abomination in my eyes. So fun here. I wake up and get up every time my alarm screams 6:05 a.m. Every lesson taught is by a powerhouse. Pretty soon I will be that powerhouse. Before I got my call I talked to my friends who went to Mexico on their missions. They said the Apostle told them they need to be baptizing at least once a week. So I got my call to Texas and let that goal slip by. So much mentality that you can't baptize in the Bible belt. Well we had a lesson today about how the yearly convert rate has dropped about 60,000 a year. Why? Because people come up with stupid and blasphemous ideas that baptisms aren't what's most important and somehow it became politically incorrect to want to baptize as much as you can. As the meeting progressed, so did our/my confidence. Ammon was not any different than me, not at all! I can be just like him and follow his example or even better, become an example ranked with Ammon. He is my example. Pray for him to assist me (with his spirit) on my mission. So I wrote 104 converts on my notes and stared at it. Felling the spirit, I wrote another 0...1040. Elder Mosca saw this and tapped my shoulder and said..."No, Millions...Millions!" I can change all their hearts. So this is what I came up with. Everything I give up is nothing compared to what I do - snowboarding is nothing (0), friends are nothing (0), good sleep nothing (0), dating is definitely nothing (0), I'll even put nothing next to family (0) and my life was of course nothing before the mission (0). Now what do I get in return for giving all that up? "Thy faith had made thee whole."

When I apply that to my mission and add all the spirit and courage of the sons of Mosiah, I get 1,000,000 (to the 6th power). Yes! I'll never come home, sorry mom. We chose Nehemiah 6:3 as our district theme. Apply it to your lives, everything you do. Say to yourself every time someone tries to bring you down. "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

Love your 2nd begotten son.

A great and marvelous work is about to come for in Texas

Send letters to:

Elder Kenneth Mark Metcalf

Texas Dallas Mission

13747 Montfort Dr. Ste 120

Dallas, TX 75240-4497

A quick goodbye & he never looked back!