Monday night we tracted out a street that yielded some results but I have to admit the best door was the one that we left a note saying "Hey, we want to buy your desks please call..." The home had 2 huge desks sitting out on the porch. Since we're all the way out in Nac-a-nowhere we cant request sweet items like that. So he called us back and we got massive desks now. We threw away one of our couches just to make room.

We had a lesson that night with a lady who is dating a guy that works on oil rigs. We seemed to teach the lesson well but we kind of had the impression that she may be taking the lessons out of some boredom. Regardless, we are in the door and testifying with members. She couldn't get to church because of a vacation to meet parents but we think she has great potential with the right members.

Tuesday we had some appointments set up but most canceled. Elder Bhiel (one of the spanish elders) was super sick so I sent my son out on exchanges with his companion because of his really bad cabin fever. I spent the time making about 25 phone calls and talking to some excellent referrals. One guy (appropriately named Ron) is engaged to a member. He was telling me that "ya, I want one of y'alls mormon bibles. I tried to go to church last week to meet y'all but couldn't make it cause of work. I know my fiancee is what ya call a less active but she wants to be active again and from what I've heard about the church, I like it." He works on oil rigs so its been a bit of a hassle trying to set up an appointment. Needless to say I am itchin' to get out there.

That night we met with Tyler who seemed to have some concerns. As we read and likened 3rd Nephi 11 to him for the whole lesson, the concerns dissolved away. It is a very interesting thing when investigators actually read from the Book of Mormon that there doesn't seem to be much of a problem. The spirit was strong and he requested his baptism on Halloween. The teenage ideas for the baptism were a little less then sacred but funny nonetheless. I suggested that everyone show up in white.

Before that lesson we taught a young man that we had met right before conference. As we were talking to him he said "can we just skip all the awkward smalltalk?" So we said a prayer and got right into the true nature of God. Elder Jones and our ward mission leader who was with us could tell he was getting way into it (it is interesting some of the reaction you get when you explain that God has a physical body.) Just as we were moving into the next principle his mom opened the door and was livid mad. She promptly kicked us out with a less than happy tone. That definitely created some tension. We were all scared out of our minds.

Wednesday was probably the most eventful day of the week. We met with the whole zone and had a training in the morning and then Elder Cabrera, our zone leader came on exchange with us for the day. We started off right and got some BBQ at a gas station off Highway 21. We then headed up to Garrison to start knocking on some doors before dropping off a free bible referral. We met a guy who seemed to want to 'tell us the real truth' first but actually turned out to be pretty cool (just on a lot of pain killers.) We then tracted into a family who after a brief conversation at the door let us in. I felt inspired to use the cups lesson which miraculously got the kids to leave their video game and watch what happens to truth when Apostles die off. We only had 30 minutes which worked out perfectly so we could come back.

Thursday was fun. In the morning Elder Cabrera still didn't have a ride back to Longview (75 miles away) so we skipped out on planning and went out contacting. Man it was a tough crowd to teach! It was a more difficult battle to fight off discouragement. We taught the Restoration to a couple whose apartment manager tried to kick us out. It went well. That night we zipped over to another referral from the Spanish elders. He explained that he was no longer interested because of contradictions with the Bible but after we got him talking we discussed the priesthood, origins of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc before we ran out of time, he invited us back next week. It was pretty cool. If i can ask the right questions as inspired by the Spirit then people teach themselves.

Friday was more difficult knocking which tested my Faith and tried my charity but the Lord rewarded us because we got a call to go to the hospital to give a baby a blessing who's father is not [yet] a member. When we showed up the baby was fussing around. After the blessing he was laughing and wanting to play and when we left he began to cry again. You cant help but wonder if he really wants a true Gospel centered home and knows it at 10 months of age.

We had happy hour at the Bennetts and Elder Jones did a fantastic job teaching from 3rd Nephi 27. Interesting part was when Jody read a scripture on prayer and I flipped open my planner to show a scripture that nearly replicated the one she had read only this one was from the bible. It was cool because I wrote down the reference 12 hours earlier.

Saturday for some reason was a bit stressful because of the many appointments we had scheduled. I said a prayer to calm down and it helped out a lot. It may be a blessing that my watch band broke again so I wouldn't keep looking at it. Sadly, half the appointments fell through even knowing we had confirmed them that same day. The highlight was a lesson with a man named Lewis who let us right into his home. He had been given a Book of Mormon by Elder Cabrera and was reading it. He shared an experience he had as a kid when right after a heavy rainstorm he saw a white dove land in front of him. After some thought about what to read with him that may correlate with that experience we read the first 8 verses of 2 Nephi 31 then I quoted the song "when I am baptized" He was stoked.

Sunday was sweet. We tracted alot in a white rich baptist area so I have nothing to report other than someone accepted a Book of Mormon because they were part American Indian.

Elder Jones has done an awesome job. He even got an 11 year old to come to church with us and went to pick him up with a member while I reported in PEC. It has been fun.

Love y'all
Elder Metcalf