Happy Thanksgiving....Already????

This week was both eventful yet uneventful. We had many lessons that fell through but I had some pretty sweet experiences.

We met with the Allen Stake President, a couple of high councilmen, and President Grant from the mission presidency. It was, as I call it, a fun power meeting discussing the missionary work in the stake. It was only my first week here so my companion did most of the talking but it was pretty sweet. It has been an interesting ride to understand more fully how priesthood and church government work. It is an odd thing to hear others declare their opposition to organized religion but in my mind I think, you have know idea what organized is. Thank heavens for revelation.

Monday, last week was quite strange. We did our laundry, emailed, shopped, played basketball and still had time to do stuff. Why is this surprising? Because in my previous are,a we never had any Elders within 40 miles of the 4 of us and everything was too spread out to do that all at once. Hence, my golfing skills died.
We had our 5th ward Bishop offer his services in coming with us to the family we tracted out who committed to baptism but sadly there was no answer even knowing they were inside and the following day they explained "yes, I talked to my friends and they told me that the Mormon religion is not the true religion." Elder Hall and I surprisingly held our cool pretty well. It is quite interesting to see people when they express why the Church is not true (or utterly evil) because they heard or read such and such and then ask them "Well, did you pray about it and ask God?" The answer, after a long pause is always no. Of course the vast majority of people think we're false! Its because it's true.

On Tuesday we had our first district meeting in the area and it was strange not to prepare for it since I had been doing district meetings in Nac for 18 weeks. It was actually kind of a relief to tell you the truth. (then of course later that day, we had to spend a few hours preparing the stake president report.) It was an interesting experience because I was now around totally different people rather than the same Elders I had been seeing for 6 months.
We met with a lady that day who we had set an appointment up with earlier in the week. We began with our "refined Allen approach" of linking Families and the Restoration. After the prayer and the first couple of questions you could see the Holy Ghost working with her. She had many great questions. Those are the best people, the sincere seekers of truth. We placed the Book of Mormon and she was glad to have it.
That night we also met with a man named Tyson. It was the first time in a couple weeks that I had taken total control of a lesson so it was a bit rough around the edges. It is amazing how if we don't keep using are skills, how fast we can lose them.

Wednesday was fun, we did some service in the morning which was nice because our area is tiny and it's all families, so usually no one is home during the day. You know how I am, building and fixing are some of my favorite things! It wasn't long before we were both on the roof of this one ladies house trying to fix a rain gutter.
We met again with one of our newer investigators and the Spirit helped pump him up on the Book of Mormon. Inspired questions are my absolute favorite thing to accomplish in a lesson. It is a process of first waiting and pausing for the Spirit to prompt you, second asking a very short clear question ("Kevin, what wouldit be like for you to meet the Savior?") third waiting for the response as the Spirit dictates then fourth testify! ("that is why we have 3rd Nephi 11. Imagine you and your family just survived a hurricane 10 times more powerful than when you experience Rita and Katrina...")

Thursday we had a ton of planning to do. Planning for our area and the other missionaries. We went step by step through Preach My Gospel planning so we could get every last drop of revelation that we could qualify for.
We have been teaching in every dinner lesson, the Restoration. A line in PMG states that teaching the Restoration will build Faith and trust in all the members to share the Gospel. It works! The Spirit always comes in strong when we hear their testimonies of the First Vision then the timing is right to think about names they are working with.

Friday was awesome, we did a lot of random parking lot contacting. We have dedicated also an hour every night to FFT which is Finding Family time. (of course we ended up finding a YSA girl who wants to know more about the branch though.)

Saturday was sweet, we tracted into a guy who was such a critical thinker that he thought himself into Athiesm. However within 30 minutes of discussion he accepted the Book of Mormon challenge.

Sunday was stressful, no investigators came. We are struggling with our last and only baptism date who hasn't dropped us yet. We are praying for some major miracles. Of course that night is when I met the Anderson's relatives. They were pretty funny. "ya they live on Sugar Leo" "I live on Sugar Leo" "across from their bishop who owned Lins" "that's my bishop!"

Anyway my time is running short, they kick us out of here at noon.

Love y'all
Elder Metcalf