With my last conference on the mission in the books it is a little scary to review my notes and recognize the words 'marry' or 'marriage' several times. I think I'll be justified to not ponder that advice for a few more months.

Well this week was pretty awesome. Our whole zone got what we call the contact points while the others did not. It is pretty awesome to see all the demonstrations of faith and be on the receiving end every Sunday night reporting the names of those who now have baptismal dates as well as some of their information like how they were found or any obstacles they are overcoming.

This week with our new investigator, Michael, we had a small miracle to see just how much the hand of the Lord is in His own work. I remember a missionary saying one year ago "He is the greatest micro manager in the world." I bring this up because while we were leaving wal-mart after shopping last Monday and it just so happened that Mike and his son were walking in to fill a prescription. So we talked for a few minutes and he asked immediately when we were coming over again. We didn't have a scheduled appointment with him yet and he doesn't have a phone so that worked itself out perfectly. We went to his home the following day and invited him on a church tour. We beat the member that drove him over by a couple minutes so we ran through the building making sure we were good to go. As the tour began the Spirit was evident. About 10 minutes into it we were overlooking the baptismal font... Yes, he accepted a baptismal date.

Another evidence of the practicality of God this week was helping a less active member move out of his apartment. He offered us his couches (a love seat and sofa) and being the interior designer I have become with mismatching furniture we agreed to take them. 30 minutes before we were scheduled to go pick them up we visited another less active in the ward who we usually see on the weekends. As the conversation progressed we learned that her sofa had just become worthless after some pieces of it broke. In my mind I was a bit taken back by another orchestration of Heavenly Father to help out his children in unique yet practical ways. So we delivered the new couch within 20 minutes of learning of their need.

A couple weeks ago our stake president let us know that he had been called by another one of his 'stake president friends' in Houston that a friend and his family had just moved into the Allen 1st ward with a YSA aged daughter. As you can imagine, the Elders that cover the first ward seemed a bit pressured by a referral from a couple of stake presidents. I felt for them until I got the call halfway through the week that I would actually be the one to teach and conduct the lesson along with one of the Elders from the first ward. I gave Elder Folau a call and suggested he start preparing (3 days in advance). The lesson yesterday went incredible. We taught in the home of one of the YSA branch presidency with President Wright. You could tell how much more influenced the Spirit was with all the preparation. I think something that has helped me out immensely the past few months is understanding that we are not to share a "logical" lesson but an "emotional" one. Our grammar was simple and concise which increased the influence of the Spirit. They were the golden investigators. The dad asked "I just want to know why God would hide a record of this magnitude in the ground for 1400 years..." Elder Folau is a convert from Catholicism and it just so happens that they have a catholic background which greatly increased the openness of the conversation. Let me tell you, preparation brings blessings. Rather then a nerve racking pressured lesson teaching with a stake president to a golden family it was actually quite enjoyable.

Well my friends the revelation is stacking up. Conference is always an overload which never lasts long enough. I am shocked it is my last one but my focus is to apply the modern scripture to the work and destroy Allen!

Sure do love y'all

Elder Metcalf