What was in that cup, Ron?

I have been destroying the word 'Glorious' for the past month now. The first night I was out in the mission field, a lady that we met with was committed to baptism and gave me great advice that I have remembered since. 'You can go through life looking at everything as a miracle...or not' something like that anyway. So everything in Frisco is Glorious. It's pound time this transfer, I have no more silly excuses for being sick and now tracting will become a glorious experience. You can tell right off the bat who is going to be interested compared to who is not. The ones that are pretty obvious have become a lot more entertaining to practice skills with (I am starting a huge push in developing skills). On Friday morning we tracted in a wealthy area (eh, this whole dang town is brand new-average age is 35) and we met a couple of really good people. It is quite amazing how I learn all of these simple lessons that are easily looked over on my part. A simple change in attitude and God grants you who he needs to be taught. We'll see as time goes on.

While we were tracting we ran into a sweet brother that was doing pest control. He has been off his mission 13 months, been married for 4, and his wife has been pregnant for 3. They call themselves 'good Mormons' and offered us Wendy's before our next appointment. Of course we talked about the usual marriage stuff at lunch and the wife was a little bit frazzled because of the whole baby in the stomach thing. John was his name and he proceeded to tell me that the RM's that don't want to get married anytime soon after the mission are the first to go. Which being interpreted is, 'oh goody'. I guess the good news is that I will be almost 24. Wow, didn't realize I was getting that old (and less mature.)

Later that night we were biking in the Texas cold (its a different kind of cold here, 30-50 with the biting humidity is about 5 in Utah...maybe) and doing some drop by's and decided we 'needed' to stop by wally world for thermals and hand warmers. On the way there, I had a feeling we should finish out knocking the street from the morning. My companion was stoked and we finished with, of course, no success whatsoever. The fun story of practicing skills was asking why a church was called 'Celebration Covenant Church' to which a certain man was attending. He responded 'I don't know' and my reply was 'Well because its all about Celebrating the Covenant! But our Church is call the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because we're all about Jesus Christ.' (he didn't seem to thrilled and sent us on our way) However, the obvious blessing is that we fulfilled our end of the promise and the Lord fulfills his. Always.

On Sunday we were supposed to have some GOLDEN investigators at Church. They have been going to a different ward for a month now but live in our area. We got a call telling us how incredible they are. However, they did not come to Church because they wanted to say goodbye to all their friends at the other ward first. Well, the Lord doesn't ever give up so they came to the Christmas devotional at our building and we got to meet them. "Lucky" for us the Bishop and his counselors were there doing tithing settlement and met them as well. Glorious. They are a husband and wife from Brazil who met a member while eating at some random restaurant and the waitress invited them to the trunk or treat clear back in October. Since then, he has felt led by God to His church. They cried during the Christmas message and the Spirit took us all powerfully and I should mention that the feeling was oddly similar to the feeling that we should finish out tracting. They are literally GLOWING with the light of Christ. We had a nice discussion with them about Prophet Monson and some famous Mormons (founder of Jet Blue who is starting Azul in Brazil - who he knows) and by the end they asked 'so can you teach us? When? We will feed you dinner this Wednesday!' To which my quiet response later was... Glorious. Glory to God. Definitely its these experiences that make the mission what it really is. It makes the mission hard though realizing in a sort of cynical way that you only know them and get close to them for a matter of weeks... then its gone. Time slips by.

Can you believe its the start of the 3rd transfer? 14 more and you will have no more blessings! Although from the sound of it, life has been a little bit more challenging. Maybe they'll keep me longer until it all stabilizes out. I would rather stay here and have you all just come down. Home prices are way low too and I haven't seen too many mortuaries around with 'Quality Service with Dignity'.

Well the members continue to destroy me with sugar and there are times I cant get rid of it kind enough and have to partake of the terrible fruit. Then my memory dries up and is digested with all the nasty glucose. We have new planners and I cant quite remember all the other goodies this past week.

Another highlight was writing in my planner to ask you wonderful family members to send me a Mannheim Steamroller CD. Then suddenly my mind was filled with the calm reassurance... "You have a Wal Mart in your mission." and now I enjoy the Christmas spirit all that much more. Glorious. Our zone leaders tried to one up me with Transiberian Orchestra but it's about a tie.

The sad realization of Texas is that everyone is so set in their ways that I came up with my own quote... you ready for this?

'They are all running to Heaven, yes. But it might take a while because their leaders have them all on treadmills.'

The Christmas spirit is growing strong and soon it will all be over so I am trying to soak all the goodness in which makes things exciting. Take it easy with the Christmas gifts mom!

We have another meeting with the Church historian Cris Erekson this week and I am super stoked on it. He said he has a special article just for me that will destroy the Bible. As much as bashing won't get you anywhere, defense will. I read my patriarchal blessing very often and it's hard to fathom reaching that potential but it is promised so I will give it my best! We'll see... (although I try not to read the paragraph about finding my wife too much - scary)

love you
Elder Metcalf

PS - Yes I'm wearing my retainer and I'm not sure how much good its doing because my mouth is going to need braces when I get back anyway. I'll be happy to keep wearing it though and hopefully not have to wear the braces for too much longer when I'm home. I look forward to the chick-deflecting railroad tracks.

I might have forgoten to mention that transfers are Tuesday and I'm staying and only 3 missionaries from our zone are leaving. Sad story but exciting to see who the new ZL and DL are going to be. We have a feeling that it will be the AP that is getting replaced because our zone isn't doing to Hot. I like a challenge though.

Not too homesick at all but letters are still gold.

I will be looking forward to training Braden.