Special Delivery

What on earth that is pretty unrealistic that Nicole had a baby. I still don't think it actually happened. That is awesome though. CONGRATULATIONS.

This week has been pretty overwhelming. I get an email that says Nicole will have the baby this week, we have a wedding, and then a baptism. I am not sure if it gets much more meaningful than that!

Pretty much the whole week has been pretty giddy. We had the relief society president meet with us on Wednesday night and we missionaries sat back and let them plan out the wedding pretty much. All smiles on my face the whole time. Couldn't believe that it was actually happening! The wedding on Saturday was simple yet awesome. When they got into the vows you could pretty much dang guarantee that I was sitting nearly front row at the edge of my seat desperate to here the words "I do." A big sigh of relief when it actually happened. The whole ward helped out a lot. It was awesome to see so many members put that together and help out. Jody seemed pretty overwhelmed by the support that they were getting. There was even a member who custom decorated a cake and it was glorious. Apparently at weddings there is usually someone that is supposed to give a toast. Nearly scared me half to death that they asked me to give it. It was an honor though and pretty fun to do. I think the word temple came out of my mouth 10 times in a couple minutes.

The next day we were all pretty nervous and anxious. She asked me to baptize her and needless to say the nerves were a bit high. Being fast and testimony meeting, Jody got up and gave an awesome testimony about coming to know it's true. She mentioned how 6 months ago she avoided missionaries and now waits for them to get on over there. Something interesting to note is that she had mentioned how "we didnt have normal lessons, it was mostly conversational." At first I thought 'uh oh' but then I remember in PMG those words and that we are not supposed to memorize the lessons but teach by the Spirit with conversational language. It seemed like over half the testimonies were directed to Jody and her entrance into the gate. Her new favorite phrase is "time and all eternity" she says. It was incredible to see the change in a matter of a couple weeks from 'I wont marry' to 'I am so happy that I know I can be with my husband and family forever.'

It seemed like all the meetings were focused around the Holy Ghost. It was a very unique thing. The way I feel is that He wanted to make himself obvious to all of us.

The baptism couldn't have been more perfect until I got into the water and made probably one of the funniest mistakes of my whole mission. I raised my arm to the square and said "Cassandra Jo Slater....." pause "Cassandra Jo Bennett. (married name) Having been..." Maybe it was a prompted mistake, who knows. She was then baptized.

Later that night we stopped by their home on our way back for 10 minutes. The difference in the home was dramatic. The Spirit was well established and very touching. She then asked the question "Do children have to be baptized?" The reason being she had a 6 year old niece that had passed away. Moroni 8...

Good heavens by the end of the night I was so tired, but I couldn't sleep. Purely incredible to have the privilege of serving a mission to be able to have experiences like this. There is no way I could ever say that I sacrificed to be a missionary. It is quite the opposite. Without a mission I probably would have ended up losing the greatest blessing ever. Talk about sacrifice.

The crazy thing is that we are getting more investigators to church that know its all true yet the traditions of their fathers are holding them back. Although something I have noticed is that as children of God we are meant to act not to be acted upon. To see someone make the choices, such as Jody, enables limitless possibilities. But to hold onto your past is a damming thought. And to think that all we have to do is give ourselves to the Atonement. Why do we make it so hard?

Holy cow (my new nickname, being Elder Met CALF) the mission is extremely intense. Is this really happening? Who knows, but I need to work harder.

Did Nicole really have a baby? That's crazy. I'll believe it in about a year...maybe. That is awesome. That is a very unique thing for you to say mom about how she knows Quinn already... Of course! Not too mention she has some of the finest parents and grandparents in the Gospel.

Happy Birthday!

Love Uncle Elder Metcalf