Alright, so dad really floored me by announcing that our new mission president has been assigned, so forgive me if the distraction alters my small writing ability.

This week was pretty interesting. Just to mention a few events that happened...

We got a text from our recent convert family that said 'I no longer want to be a Mormon.'

We had a appointment this morning that said 'I would leave my husband to make baptism happen.'

We had a very excited family committed to church that disappeared when the member went to pick them up.

Our baptismal candidate for Saturday has not come to church the past 2 Sundays.

The funny thing is that I could go on but I actually seem to be happy. Lots of prayer has taken care of things.

We went over to our recent converts home sometime after she sent the text and when we got there she began to ask "Well why did y'all come over?...OH YA I forgot to tell you that my home teacher already fixed it and I am happy to be a Mormon still."

The wife of the husband is teaching him the importance of the church, one step at a time, and he will come around.

The Bishop said that it is probably better to get the young girl baptized Saturday so that she may have a record for her lifetime.

We have an appointment with the family tonight.

All in all I guess you could say that I am worrying less and less now. The more efficient I work with the Lord, the more awesome experiences he provides. People often use their agency to make choices that hurt a lot, but usually the Lord works them out before I can make a dent in resolving the concern. It is just some cool examples of what Dan Dalton would say "The Lord is working harder than all 50,000 missionaries combined.

Tuesday of this week was concrete evidence of that. We had a stacked day with no room for error. We taught a lesson at the start of the day on a doorstep in ten minutes, the spirit was there and she committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We showed up to district meeting 30 seconds early. Once that was over we ran over to our appointment with Bob (the miracle who only goes to his mail box once a week.) We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had a great discussion. We then had to create an entire stake president report in about 2-3 hours, something that normally takes 2-3 days. We collected all the information, reviewed it twice and just like that had 5 copies of a 14 page report. We had a dinner that let us make the copies. After that we rushed to a meeting with a 9 year old girl who's mom wants her to be baptized. We taught an excellent plan of salvation lesson in 20 minutes and when she closed with prayer, she basically repeated back the plan. Then we ran to a members house where we needed to have a fairly quick appointment so we could be to our stake president review on time. What ended up happening was the member we were with kept talking and we eventually committed them to baptism, making us one minute late for the meeting. Let me begin by explaining walking into a meeting with a stake president, a mission president, one of his counselors and 2 high councilors late was not the best situation to be in. When I gave my excuse President Smith laughed and said "That is the best excuse I have ever heard!" and President Wright said "Look brethren, we'll cancel this meeting if you're going to go out and set dates." We then proceeded to have the best SPR we ever had.

Another story was when I was in Farmersville on exchanges. I spent the night up there with the Elder I was exchanging with and had the worst night of sleep ever, it seemed like. I kept praying for some help. Now what I am about to say may or may not be an answer to prayer! BUT the Elder forgot to turn the alarm clock on... So we woke up late, got ready and had a quick study and planning session. We made interesting plans which included one hour of simply making phone calls in the afternoon. One call that was made was with a family that agreed to have us over that night. When we got to their home and started teaching, the spirit was strong and pretty soon it dawned on me that they were all active members of the church. Or so I thought. Elder Frost let me know as we walked out that the 15 year old son had yet to join the church. My entire questions and thoughts were basically geared towards him! He seemed to love what we read too, 3rd Nephi 11. His dad bore a power testimony as well on baptism. They want the Elders back as soon as they can for another lesson and dinner.

Well I am excited for the mission experiences I still have left. Now if I could convince my family to forget about signing me up for school and come down to Texas, pick me up and tour the mission for a month.

Love y'all

Elder Metcalf

Happy Valentines Day!

As I sat in Sacrament meeting yesterday tears began to form in my eyes as I pondered on one question. "What if I didn't make the contact?" Katelyn and Sage, our miracle from the ice storm came to church yesterday and are preparing for baptism in March. What a substantial blessing to have. Surely this is evidence of a loving Heavenly Father. We taught them on Tuesday and you could tell she was pretty excited. When we got there, and got to know them, she had made the best cookies I have had. We taught a quick, yet powerful, lesson on the Restoration. She even completed the reading assignment we had left her at the first initial contact and immediately knew why she needed to read it. We are super excited but please pray in every prayer for these people. They are awesome! and as any missionary knows, you get attached fast.

We had a member come out with us nearly the entire week, he studied with us, ate with us, planned with us, etc... He is in the branch presidency of the singles unit and was determined to help us find 20 singles to teach this week. What ended up happening was miracles. Monday night Elder Hall went to FHE to help members out with referrals while I went out with this member. We were in an apartment complex working, finding and praying intensely. Finally the member said, "lets go to the other side." On the way down we met a man named Bob at the mailbox who we made a short, powerful contact with. He agreed to have us in his home a couple days later. We showed up at the right time and taught him the Restoration. The spirit really touched his heart. Later, he told us with a loving look on his face "I only go to that mailbox once every 3 weeks." During our 2nd lesson with him he explained at the end of our lesson "Its true!" It was interesting though to follow up with his reading. He said "Guys, I don't think I can do this." After some inquiring and discerning he thought we had committed him to read 90 pages of the Book of Mormon in 48 hours and he apologized for only reading 23.

Another miracle is when all 3 of us were together searching out singles at a apartment complex in McKinney. We were knocking doors like crazy but Elder Hall said pointing at a door "Let's knock this one." We went to it, he knocked and a older man answered the door. After some conversation he let us come in to talk to his 22 year old daughter. Before starting the lesson we invited him to come in and listen. What happened was one of the stongest Restoration lessons we have ever taught! Towards the end I asked a question "What is your desire, 1-10, to know these things are true?" They both responded with perfect 10's.

A huge highlight this week was having Elder Ringwood of the 70 visit the mission. He was incredible. He gave great talks on Faith and consecration. A very heart warming reassuring thing he said during zone conference was something like this, 'Sacrifice is not enough. We need to consecrate ourselves to the work. Then you will be able to see miracles' (then he looked at Elder Hall and me) 'like meeting those prepared in the soup aisle at wal-mart.' Pretty awesome! It is great to have a testimony that this is the Lord's work.

Sure do love y'all

Elder Metcalf

Talk about awesome.

We had some crazy weather this week that nearly crippled the work but had a weird effect on my companion and me. The funny thing is that I haven't consistently contacted 10 people per day since my last area. It just so happens that the absolute worst week of the year, as far as weather is concerned, Elder Hall and I happily bundled up and went out amongst the elements and made at least 10 contacts each per day. The weather was awesome, how perfectly bad it was. One day it snowed, melted a little, then turned to ice, melted some more and turned to more ice. Then the next day snowed a few inches on top of that. About the 3rd day into it, my companion slipped and fell a few times and as I was bragging about my incredible skills of balance, the humility struck as I took off after a couple of people to contact. So it was a lot of fun. Something I have learned about myself is that I thrive in situations that are challenging.

Our efforts were recognized by the Lord and we were richly rewarded for our Faith. On Saturday we were contacted in a apartment complex and after the 2nd door knocked I noticed a girl about my age pulling up and parking. Elder Hall referenced later that as she was parking she was looking at us a bit differently than most. As I approached her, I had in mind to introduce the Book of Mormon and hand off a card (not too much of a fan of contacting girls my age). She opened the door to greet me but initiated the conversation by saying "Oh ya, I have studied with y'all before." As the 10-15 minute conversation ensued we learned that she lived in Utah and took the lessons there. We asked if she had read the Book of Mormon and her response was humble and grateful, "I have felt great reading it." We asked her if she was baptized at that point because it honestly felt like a MTC role play where the investigator was so awesome the role play almost didn't make sense. Her reply to that question was "No, not yet." She committed to baptism right there in the contact but we couldn't set a date because she wants her husband to be on the same page. Fine by me! We are excited to return tomorrow and witness miracles. I am sure Satan is already on the ball with this one so send your prayers loud and clear for Katelyn!

Another awesome moment was during stake conference. It was a broadcast to 76 stakes in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. We had the privilege of having Elder Jensen, Elder Ballard, President Monson and his daughter Sister Dibb speak to us. During Sister Dibb's talk which was on virtue she related a story that was about a girl. Sister Dibb had asked where this girl was from and the girl responded "From the great state of Texas!" Sister Dibb went on to relate that she grew up in a small town and my mind immediately thought, "I wonder if I know where it is?" As soon as I wondered that, Sister Dibb gave the account of this girl and her Faith being strengthened by the small branch of Nacogdoches. Awesome.

We had made some interesting ways to help motivate the missionaries this week. Obviously we weren't allowed to drive, so one day we invited them all over to come and play some games if they got at least half of there contacts on the way over before they froze to death. Another day I grabbed a couple missionaries while my companion and their companions were practicing a musical number for zone conference and we went to Domino's to get some pizza while getting some more contacts on the way over. I have noticed a drastic difference throughout my mission that the longer I go without having experiences in which the spirit can use me, the unhappier I become. Vice versa, the more experiences I provide for the spirit to use me, the more my joy increases. I have always thought of the spirit as if I am learning a language. The more I throw myself into situations where I need to use it, the more acquainted and familiar I will become with the tongue of angels.

We had a couple in the ward brave the snow and pick us up for dinner at their place. The great part about it is they invited their next door neighbor over. She came, we taught the restoration and the Book of Mormon. She is now investigating the church, just like that. Thankfully we have the Faith of members who in Texas have no idea how to drive on this stuff but are making small sacrifices to make a teaching opportunity possible!

Keep up the good work. Thank you for the support.

Love Elder Metcalf