Overdue

It is pretty unrealistic that Nicole is actually having a baby and the child will be kicking and screaming this week... Well maybe not kicking and screaming since I am told that he will have the best mother in the world. Either way it is a strange thing to say that a newborn will be in the family. I never remember Megan being small. Just stuck at age 13 is all. That is so awesome though. NEED PICTURES.

I guess I will have to report on the process of "rebirth" in Texas. The funny thing is that we actually had a convert baptism yesterday and Elder Taylor and I didn't mention him in either of our letters! Sorry! His name is Nicholas and we helped teach and baptize him in 13 days. He is 8 (neither of his parents are members so he is a convert) but comes to church every week with his grandparents and enjoys it. His grandpa baptized him which was touching for all of us. He was very nervous about saying the baptismal prayer correctly so we had Elder Taylor throw on his whites and help out in the font. Not too bad for Elder Taylor. Y'all can tell he is a great missionary since he is baptizing his 3rd week out. Nicholas is a great young man and he is asking us to come over to teach his parents. I think we're pretty good friends. Although every time I walk into a ward activity it takes about 30 seconds before 10 kids jump on me and need help spinning the merry go round at light speed. I love it though. Nicholas and his grandpa have an awesome bond and it probably jumped out 10 times more than before he baptized him. That's what the gospel seems to be all about.

The 3 day leadership meeting was awesome this week but wore us all out. The spirit was obviously there and great things happened as we went out and applied what we had learned. On the 2nd day I went out tracting with Elder Christensen from Hemphill (yes that's right) who has only been out 6 weeks but is training. He was at first overwhelmed being young but wow he was an awesome leader. We were lead by the spirit. Before exiting the church parking lot we prayed for 2 lessons and a baptismal commitment (I have a firm belief in very specific prayers.) We started walking a ways down the road because we were told "all the streets by the church have been tracted 10 times" until the verse in Doctrine and covenants which says something like 'it is not needful to move swiftly while the inhabitants on either side of the river are perishing in unbelief' so I detoured straight into knocking into the closest house. A few knocks later we taught a man who wasn't interested. A few knocks after that we knocked into a lady who let us right in. We did everything we remembered and applied all the new trainings and the difference was staggering. For example at the end of the lesson we had her grandson Nathan read Moroni 10:4-5. He struggled to read through it but at the end I asked "What does the mean to you?" There was silence for about 90 seconds. Finally he answered "God is going to tell me this book is true." to which our reply was "and when you come to know its true, will you be baptized?"
"Yes."
I think that was a good referral for the Elder's area we were in.
The best part about it is that although we may have not been teaching as powerfully by the Spirit in the past, we have been trained and we are doing it now. Move on, move up, move forward.

The next day in training President Smith asked an Elder to meet with him after lunch. President Smith started training once the interview was over but the interview Elder wasn't present. A few minutes later he walked in clearly upset about something. I think naturally we were all wanting to know what happened. However we forgot about it and moved on. In the middle of one of our role plays he raised his hand and said "President, I'm going to tell them what we talked about... My grandpa died and Elder Allen's testimony touched my heart deeply." Clearly the Spirit works whenever he can. It is pretty obvious that missionaries will be less teachers and more instruments.

I suppose it is time to report the big news of the week. Bishop Nielson has been talking up the 24th of July event and that every other year they get baptisms out of it. Naturally we were pretty excited. We got there and some kids and I got ourselves sick on the merry go round then joined in with everyone else for food. We were at Lake Nacogdoches which was a pretty awesome sight (i.e. A lake with boats on it). However the scene and the feel of being there seemed a lot like Deja Vu. Jody was next to us and we started talking about it before the conversation faded. Brother Hughes (my crazy east Texas best friend ward mission leader) sat down and we talked about how I was cleaning the font today and planning Nicolas' baptism. Brother Hughes announced that planning baptisms was his favorite thing to do. At that point Jody looked over at us and said... "How would you like to clean the font a 3rd time?" I looked over to see her serious face and noticed that she wasn't kidding. Brother Hughes asked "When are we going to plan your baptism?" "Soon she replied" "Next week?" "Yes."
Holy cow I cant describe the wave of emotion that put tears in my eyes. She has chosen to be married and baptized this coming weekend and so let the planning begin! I think Bishop may have surprised himself this year by not only getting a baptism but a wedding too. The absolute best part about this week is that one year from next Sunday... Hello Temple and eternal family! She is already planning on the first temple trip for baptisms for the dead... That was probably one of the most overwhelming moments of my life. Sweet. Glorious.

I have more to report but no time to write it. My journals are caught up though!

Love you all.

CONGRATULATIONS NICOLE ON YOUR BABY TONIGHT. I WISH YOU THE BEST AND WILL SAY SOME BIG PRAYERS. LOVE YOU (BOTH)

Elder Metcalf