Christmas was pretty sweet. unfortunately my companion and i both got pretty sick which required many bathroom breaks. They asked us to pass the sacrament the following day but i had to take off halfway through the song. Tis the season! the gifts were awesome, still the book is genius and the best gift ever!

ok ok now on to what everyone wants to hear, mission experiences and investigators!

We taught the family that we are hoping to see baptized in January and i was prompted to teach my favorite lesson ever. Keep in mind that i have only taught it 3 times because of how special it is to me. Basically unfolding 3rd nephi 11 by putting us right into the story. "what would it be like to be on the coastline when rita or katrina struck? That is just like what happened to the nephites!" We got to about verse 11 when i asked the mom what she would do if she saw 'a man descending out of heaven and announced he was Jesus Christ.' her response was, "i would probably fall on my face" read the next verse i asked and she went on to read "and when they had heard this they all fell down." at that point the spirit was pretty tangible in the room. a few moments later i bore my testimony about how awesome the book of mormon is.

As i have thought about this during my much thinking time while being under the weather, i have understood just how much value there is knowing the book of mormon is true. When i think about all the times i have tried to get people to listen to our message either through tracting or contacting by using bible references and so on i ask myself why? am i trying to convert others to the bible or the book of mormon?

Christmas dinner, we had a humbling experience with a returning active in the 7th branch who just got out of jail. He had no family and no friends for Christmas so we all went out to dinner. It was like the movie 'A Christmas Story' looking for a place to eat until we stumbled on Golden Corral. We had a long dinner, talked about family, the plan of salvation and other principles. as we parted ways, elder hall and i gave him just a small gift bag, really of things that had been given to us. It may have been his only Christmas gift we suppose. We do know that he has a relationship, a special one with God, but we hope just maybe he will remember a lonely Christmas as a good one with the missionaries.

We are pretty stoked for this upcoming week, I hope we can get feeling better. i will do my best to make my emails longer but for now i am tired and need to write presidente smith!

love y'all. thanks for the phone call it was awesome, especially as i have bragged about hearing a couple of babies slobber on dad's phone

love elder metcalf