It's been another week that suddenly came up with a lot of new opportunities and ended with the highest teaching we have ever done in a week. I don't think I have ever had this much fun in my life. I am not sure what President thought when he thought of putting Elder Upchurch and me together since we are probably the biggest goofball companionship in the mission. Well maybe just because we are having too much fun out in Nac-a-baptize.

We had a zone leader come down on exchanges with us and there were times that I was laughing so hard, I started wiping away tears from my eyes. One time it even crept into one of our lessons that we had tracted out. We were teaching this lady and it was a decent lesson, good unity, power questions, testifying, etc until Elder Upchurch asked "What happens to the people when the authority of God is not on the earth?" Her response set me off laughing way too much, "They go to hell!" Then the worst part was that Elder Upchurch couldn't teach because he started to laugh but lucky for us we had a level headed zone leader that was able to take over.

We started going through nightly planning with a lot of question marks over our heads. For example "Who on earth is Cobe? I have him scheduled at 3 tomorrow." to which my companion responds with "No idea." It wasn't until about 11:00pm at night thatl it finally clicked to where he lives and what we taught him. Lucky for us the Spirit occasionally gets past our questions.

It is really interesting how much fun finding has become. Not too mention our confidence is nearly rock solid. We have been getting in more doors in one week then 4 months in my old area. There is something about a strengthened testimony that basically has me expecting to get into doors. Several times in the past 2 weeks the very first door we knock on, we get in to. It almost seems like the Spirit is saying "it's about time Metcalf! I've been waiting to use you for months now."

We had a lesson last night with a way cool family of 6 that we were for sure about walking away (with the help of the Spirit) with baptismal dates. We planned a lot for the lesson that we were teaching and still had some butterflies going into the lesson. A few things stood up against the spirit though, the hot sun, humidity, distractions like dogs jumping into trash cans, etc so when the baptismal commitment rolled around it wasn't really solidified and although we are more then sure they will be baptized we cant officially say they are committed. The good news is that their best friends is one of the councilors in the Bishopric. Elder Upchurch was a bit bummed out since the date we committed them will be the last weekend of his mission and he wont be able to be there.

The biggest and best event last week though was the lesson with Jody (mom of kid's that were baptized) We watched Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon and she said she was floored on how firm his conviction was. We started talking about 'goals' and she knew exactly what we were aiming for, the baptismal commitment. She said something along the lines of "I know what you are doing, is it the baptismal thing? ...I've actually been thinking about it a lot lately." "Will you be baptized on June 20th?" Elder Runyan (we were on splits) then read a baptismal scripture then handed Jodi Ether 12:6 to read at which point she immediately started to cry. Anxiety and confusion completely left the room when she accepted the 20th as her date. It was funny this morning too when we were on our way to golf we stopped at the gas station she worked at and she made sure that the 20th was still ok.
Glory.

Records continue to be broken, I look at each new week and its like a mountain of what seems like challenges. It is way stinkin' sad that a third of this thrill ride is almost over. Good heavens, its like I have learned maybe one one hundredth of what I am supposed to. How the heck am I going to meet my goals? In other words "Lord, how is it done?"

I must say how much I love Nac. There is something quite relaxing about having to dust off my shoes every morning and understanding the accents around here. I am quite happy being banished from the rest of the mission as well, it's almost like we're left here alone with some sickles and expected to harvest a quarter million acres.

Now if I could just figure out how to get more investigators to Church...

Love Elder Metcalf