The funny life of a missionary. There are 4 missionaries using the computers here and we all got severely distracted from emails because of an odd reason. A new revised version of "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" was posted on newsroom.lds.org. We all thought it was a bit humorous that we got an outstanding kick out of it. "Woah! No way they put that scene in it!" just to name one of the comments. So anyway, now I must refocus and give the weekly report!

The zone is doing outstanding and the Lord is helping us understand where improvements and praise are needed. Last week we had a concern come up with 16 baptismal dates and only 5 of them came to church on Sunday. So the district leaders and us put some ideas together fairly quick the following day and the plans were carried out. We had almost all of them at church yesterday. It is an awesome thing to be at a point where you can start to feel the 'rush of ideas and pure intelligence' as Joseph would describe. Although I would more than consider myself still in the infancy stage of recognizing revelation, I can tell I am improving! I think one of the biggest reasons for that is keeping post-it notes and a pencil next to my bed and every time I am praying and have a question that I feel *click* and get some answer I write it down. The results have been outstanding. It is fun to see a few jumbled words written on a 2 inch card turn into a lesson designed for a struggling investigator. Such I suppose was the setting for the translation of the Book of Mormon when they wrote on the worst paper ever and couldn't even afford food.

Monday night was hilarious, we went to FHE in the YSA branch because they always have non-members there and the presidency encourages us to go. The funny part is watching two missionaries trying to get to know the members and non-members while maintaining a professional appearance and avoiding females. We had one non-member there who I have developed a good friendship with. When he first showed up he wasn't really liking the Mormon scene but now he wants to come to church yet his mom wont let him. Definitely a big seed has been planted.

Tuesday after our district meeting we had one of the branch presidency members come out with us and we struck out like 10 times until we got to Michael. We tracted him out last week and he kept his appointment. I have been practicing teaching so incredibly simple and clear and was so happy walking away from that lesson with a sigh of relief to see that it is actually working very well. That night we had one of the most intense lessons of my entire mission when we went over to the home of our 9 year old baptismal candidate. I said 2 words of concern of 'church attendance' to her mom and sat back and listened to how crazy we were. Believe me, I was nervous after the can of worms that had been opened up. We had our Bishop meet us over there and when he knocked at the door I had the 'i'm saved' feeling. Eventually he took over the conversation and really smoothed things over and met her needs. That's why he is Bishop right? I think in some ways it may have been inspired because she now has a decent relationship with the Bishop.

Wednesday we had everything cancel. We were on exchanges and I experienced some interesting things. When we exchanged it was the first time I had met this Elder that would be coming with me since transfers. At first I had this weird impression of him but caught myself and quickly repented. Come to find out, this missionary had a very unique and challenging story. He and his family had been less active for years barely making a survivable income. The young man had something happen to him and randomly asked for a blessing from one of his neighbors. A miracle occurred. A few years went by and while sporadically attending church a thought came to his mind while praying, "Go on a mission." When he told his family his intentions his father stood up angrily and said "Absolutely not!" It wasn't long before they were all sealed in the temple and he had his call to Texas Dallas.

Thursday Elder Hall called me up because his companion was seeing a dentist in McKinney so we made a lunch date out of it. It was pretty hilarious to see how we reacted around one another, I mean come on after 5 months with this one person at my side we practically finished each other's sentences. We talked about our zones and the troubles we were experiencing and then it hit me... Holy cow I am an old missionary. We had a lesson that night with one of our long time investigators. We had a goal to invite her to church which was intense because she just had a death in the family. A very bold promise was made "As you come to church, that question of 'why' will be answered." She had the funeral on Sunday and is on for this one.

Friday was fun but I was stressing out for Saturday, getting prepared to train 12 Bishops, 12 Missionaries, a stake President, and a high councilman. We also had a baptism as well so we spent a chunk of our day making sure it would all go smoothly. Again it was another situation that was "We really need to tract to get a stronger spirit in my soul." It worked and we had some miracles.

Saturday we trained the missionaries and the Bishops and it went extremely well. Most special is being with President Wright the Allen stake President, he is super inspired. We had the baptism for the 9 year old afterwords and it was one of the strongest times during a baptism I have felt the Spirit. It was exceptional. They took us out to lunch after as well. That night the Plano stake had a giant youth blitz. They volunteered us to take 3 priests out but we had no appointments! I remembered at the beginning of the day I prayed the day into the hands of God. We had a couple of extremely good lessons with the Plano priests that night that came out of no where.

Sunday we had a couple really solid investigators at church, one of which should be baptized in a couple of weeks. We are starting to get things rolling again but so far it is just some small steps.

Sure do Love Y'all

Love Elder Metcalf