Last Week

I am now banished to the far reaches of the mission, East Texas! I'm in a town called Nacogdoches (not misspelled) and the area is massive. We cover 2.5 counties and needless to say the bike has only seen a little action lately. My new companion is only 6 weeks younger than me in the mission so President has put a couple 'greenies' together to thrash the nation of this rather large area. No problem. His last companion apparently wasn't very solid at leadership so we are excited to be together and there are good attitudes all around.

Elder Braford was made the designated driver which has increased my testimony of the existences of angels and heavenly protection. "car...car...CARRRR!!!" ahh its fantastic. Lots of laughs. "people...people...PEOPLE!!!"

It took me about 7 hours to get here from the transfer meeting. Elder Williams (senior missionary in the office) drove us out and was laughing about Nac-a-nowhere for a while. We got dropped off about 2/3 the way here and were picked up by some members who drove us (me and the new Spanish Nac-a-baptize Elder) the rest of the way. I made one of the most terrible mistakes of my mission and left my backpack in a town called Lindale. Let me tell you how much of my life and soul is in that thing. My studied out preach my Gospel, my journal that hasn't missed an entry in 6 months, and my scriptures. wooopps. But the zone leaders found it and I get it back on Wednesday. Not having those items drained me of a lot of study power sadly. Still got in a lot of studying but I needed my reference notes and marked up scriptures! And now the reason why I left my backpack in the middle of east Texas... I forgot to say a prayer in the morning before leaving the Nesmith's in Frisco. Wow, a simple, yet monumental mistake! That's a testimony grower.

I have been more diligent on writing down anything that I may believe is personal revelation and it is helping out a lot. #1 being that the very first action I complete every morning is, you guessed it, prayer. Before I even have time to think straight I have to be automatically on me knees praying for guidance and help. I'm lost without it! (like a back pack left in Lindale).

#2 was to stop fearing man! "fear God fear God fear God" is what runs through my mind now. The first night I was here on Tuesday was a fun one. We went to Walmart to contact in the parking lot. The very first lady I had the chance to "raise my voice of repentance" to called security on us and we were kicked out nicely. Ahhhh....Anti...Not so glorious.

We went to a town in our area about 40 miles east of Nac-a-nowhere (imagine being in the middle of nowhere and then going to the middle of that). Apparently it has had a history of running missionaries out of town. It was pretty exciting. Of course, really, the people were nice. We smiled when thinking about how to explain to our contacts how to get to the Church building a 'few miles' away.

We went up to the north part of our area on Thursday (imagine the middle of the middle of nowhere and go to the middle of that) to find some less actives. All of which didn't exist. We shared miles and took the Spanish elders with us so they got a lesson in. We nearly died on the highway with a thousand U-turns and stops. Eventually our efforts become futile and we got a picture at the town sign.

We went to a park on Saturday to do some contacting. Right when I got out of our car fear started to fight its way into my system. I walked around aimlessly before asking myself "do you remember who you are?" so I 'ate the frog' and looked for a really hard contact to make so the ice could be broken. Needless to say the Nacogdoches cops weren't too interested in the message.

We are in a college town so there are tons of students our age. The harvest is great and very few seem to worry about their eternal salvation for the time being. It was a guided moment though when I approached a group of students explaining how families can be together forever. Eventually it filtered down to a girl that we were talking to. She wanted to know more considering she and her husband had just had 2 miscarriages.

Most of the investigators I have yet to meet. I'm relying on a lot of Elder Braford's knowledge of the people and it seems to be getting us through just fine. We met with a lady who teaches Sunday school at her church yet loves our discussions. She asked "why doesn't my church teach this?" and is now teaching the plan of salvation in her Sunday school class. well, its all truth...

The ward is fantastic. Really good people and a few awesome mullets. The Bishop is on top of things with his effort in the "rescue." The leaders are solid and are working hard to activate the other 500 people.

The new area is awesome and I look forward to working here for what I hope will be a long time. Lots of room for personal growth (just as soon as I get that backpack back). It was interesting to see the town for the first time and have it seem very familiar.

Well wish me luck in Nac-a-baptize

Love Uncle Elder Metcalf

address:
4100 North Street #D-109
Nacogdoches, TX 75961