Howdy

well we only have like 10 minutes because were going to the Texas fair in Dallas today for P day, apparently the schools all have a day off down here for the fair, its huge. this year i think the big hit is 'fried butter' don't ask. don't worry Matt, they will be serving fried oreos as well! i got to read all of your emails too so thank you for that. i miss st george getting freezing and the first thing that always came to my mind was "yay! i don't have to mow the lawn for a few months!" although i bet dad was disappointed that there would be no more character building for a few months either.

we helped a 14 year old girl named Hayley get baptized in between sessions on Sunday. her dad has been a convert for a year (the one that looks like mark hadley) and just went to the temple so it only took just over 2 weeks of teaching to commit her. being 14 we weren't too sure how well she would take the Gospel in her life but much to my humblement she bore an awesome testimony about the Gospel and the church. elder Johnson and i contribute a lot of it to her young women's group. the fact is that missionaries only teach lessons and direct the rest of the conversion to the proper ward functions and leaders. if members would step up their level of love like what they talked about in conference the difference would probably triple the conversion rate. but that goes to show that missionaries are only full time and once you know the Gospel is true, you gotta scream it! i thought of one of my interesting analogies the other day, when i was working at park city a kid wrecked on a 45 foot jump right in front of me. he was seizing and probably dying. from the time he wrecked until patrol got on the scene to assist him and call for a life flight was about 10 minutes. he suffered 10 full minutes of his brain starving for oxygen and there was nothing i could do about it because i didn't have the knowledge to help! well i don't know what happened to him but now you know why i went to school to become a certified EMT to gain that knowledge, and believe me, it was used while working at brianhead. the moral of the story is that we all have the best knowledge of all time to heal and save peoples lives/souls. what do you think God will say to us at judgment day when we didn't raise our voice or give aid to this without the real and true healing and saving power of Jesus Christ? i never realized how important and substantial this work is until i was outside of my comfortable life. what a honor it is to be here serving others. just remember that it is better to share and be rejected then to never share at all. and i came up with that because while my comp was getting his haircut a lady started talking to me about who i was and why i was in Texas. of course i gave her the usual rundown but i never asked her if she wanted to know more or if we could stop by and share our message. wow, the regret and frustration i feel simply sucks... i am a full time missionary for crying out loud and i let fear of man come before God! do not make the same mistake.

as far as conference goes elder holland, elder scott, and bro callister of the 70 really brought it home and threw down how it is. callister destroyed the jehovah's witnesses which my companion was sooo stoked about. when elder holland sat down i just said "yessss..". that is who i want to be and will be. to stand before God at the judgment bar and confidently testify that the Book of Mormon is true.

gotta go, sorry

love you all
-elder metcalf

sorry if that was too preachy, my memory is shot as you all know so i cant really remember what else happened this week. i'll just let you read my journal i have been keeping everyday since i left when I'm home. we had lots of investigators watch conference and it all really helped them want to know more or if we could stop by and share our message.