A Tearful Goodbye

Every time you feel bad about not going to Lake Powell anymore, take a look at a mountain right outside of your window for me. The flatness is almost depressing in a way.

Well first things first. My companion is presumably infected with strep throat and I do believe I am in the early stages of catching it again... If possible please send amoxicillin ASAP. If I don't get it, great. But I can keep it as back up. The Lifty jacket is my favorite and I wrote Lance about it so hopefully you get in touch soon because the weather is way more crazy down here. One day it was 85, the next it is 45 and the humidity makes it biting cold. The cold down here is way different than the cold in Utah. 45 was super hot when snowboarding, but quite the opposite trackting in Texas.

My companion is one of the greatest missionaries in the entire world for sure. He really set me up to have a incredible first transfer so I give all the glory to him and I am happy to ride his coattails and learn from the best. He made huge sacrifices to get here (his family has been saying he is going to hell since the day he was baptized).

We had a way disheartening weekend, we had so many members and appointments fall through to the point where we were expecting this week to be the greatest week of our missions because what goes down, must come up.

Earlier this week we were doing companionship study (or at least trying) when the next thing we knew, we were 'caught away in a vision' until the fridge clanked and woke us both back up 20 minutes later. We were so delirious that we proceeded to hum and drum the "we will we will rock you" song. Way random but way funny. I think it was Uncle Jeff that told me I would know if I was doing a good job as a missionary if things would sometimes end up like that. I'll consider it a pat on the back. We got a super good referral, a guy from Wyoming whose son was just baptized. The best part other then him accepting us and the Gospel is the fact he has been a ski bum for the past 20 years. Perfect.

Hopefully I can be here to teach some more but this is the last week of transfers... I assume I'll be driven out of here into the lone and dreary world as well so it is very possible that my last day could be next Monday, if you send anything to my Rockwall address, please do it quickly (or the mailbox will continue retaining it void).

We trackted into a lady at a place we call 'Happy Country trailer park'. Not too promising but the point is she had a cockier spaniel which made me sad. Dad, that dog better be alive when I get home. Nothing other than wanting to go back to my old and lazy life is bothering me about home. Its crazy being thrown into the fire like this but if I were to go back home I realize that I would fall into the same lazy routine which makes me virtually worthless so I am happy to stay out and thrust in my sickle! (it builds character).

So I visited a less active guy who is crazy good at inventing things. I told him I would hit up dad about his patent about a casket that is made from recyclable materials and reuse plastics since everyone is going green. He is looking for that 'in' in the industry so maybe I could hook up a multi-million dollar idea. His other products are about to take flight in that direction.

Its crazy to see success like what Elder Johnson has been doing in the richest county in Texas but it goes to show that the field is white already to harvest. No excuses. We have a couple baptisms coming up this weekend which I am way excited about. Elder Johnson and I have been doing tons of splits so I have had the opportunity to teach them on my own and see the growth a little bit (they were way ready by the time I got there). So I'll be sending out some more pictures next week! I gotta figure out how to hook up a camera to the library computer since I have forgotten how to do everything of the world already.

The swine flu is infecting about a third of our teaching appointments which is way sad. Definitely something satanic about that flu I would imagine. Hopefully they get a solid cure out there before it really gets super dangerous. Everyone here trashes on President 'BamBam', it's hilarious but I don't want to talk politics, just thought that was funny.

A family we are teaching finally got their tickets to fly back to Guatemala this coming Sunday which is way sad. We thought for sure our prayers for a miracle of them staying so we could see them baptized here would work out.

My confidence in trackting shot up a ton this past week. Finally learned how to relax (a little). So it is getting lots easier. Whoever said missions are hard is lame. "Do something you like for work and you'll never work a day in your life." I am just making it hard on myself sometimes. Our ward mission leader is at Lake Powell right now, he made me angry when he was telling me how excited he was to go! Lame.

Other then that, send some pictures or something. I forgot what y'all looked like.

Love,
Elder Metcalf