Dina had the best baptism ever! And yes, I should clarify a bit on that, just like Jody had the best baptism ever or Felipe and Vanessa did because it was their baptism.

It was a pretty powerful experience. For the talk on a baptism we had a former Bishop draw tears from half of the crowd of 50 or so people. Then a couple of Sisters sang the best song ever "I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain..." and she was then baptized by brother Slavens. Following the actual ordinance, President Smith who came in behalf of President Wright, spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Extremely spiritual. About halfway through the talk he looked directly at Dina and said that tomorrow when she would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, she would feel it immediately. I wish I would have remembered the exact words because the next day she was confirmed. I was asked by Dina to do the confirmation and I felt very impressed about specific promises throughout the day leading up to the ordinance. She approached me during the break between sacrament and class and said to me 'Elder Metcalf I just wanted to let you know I felt it when I was confirmed yesterday, I felt the burning when I received the Holy Ghost.' Tell me that is some superior evidence of Heavenly Father's love.  In my journal I wrote just how grateful I was for His love for me as well as Dina's outstanding example with her choices and that I could be a part of this event.

Monday evening we had a remarkable lesson with a YSA who we started teaching a couple of weeks ago. We followed up with his reading and praying then taught the plan of salvation in about 20 minutes. It is amazing to see his recognition of the spirit because he has all but borne his testimony that he knows its true. The difficult thing is that if his mom found out he was meeting with us or even that he had a book of mormon in his possession then he would be kicked out of his home and disowned by his family. He said something that indicated his faith that he would be ok with that because he knows that he would be doing what God would want him to do.

I had a bit of a scare this week when I had a difficult time getting a hold of Mike who is getting baptized in June into the 5th ward. I was worried that something or some concern was causing an avoidance however much to my relief we finally got a hold of him late in the week and his testimony of the church and the book of mormon is still strong and outstanding, He just wishes his wife would quit having so many concerns and get into the church with him. He came to church yesterday and brought his granddaughter Alexis who absolutely loved everything about church attendance. She is 6 years old and while she was in sharing time during primary she wrote a note to her teacher Sister Deaver and said ' You are the best teacher ever.' Now there is no chance that with that 6 year old angel in the home they will be on board with coming to church a lot more consistently throughout their lives.

Another random highlight this week would of course go directly to Steven. Tuesday night the same storms that wrecked Missouri went right through the middle of our mission. There were tornado sirens everywhere screaming at us. We were supposed to exchange back from Greenville but the assistants soon informed us that every missionary needed to be inside immediately. We had some missionaries locked down in members homes until 10pm until this massive thunderstorm gave some mercy. The location we were at in Mckinney was clear but you could look south and see lightning bolt after lightning bolt destroying downtown Dallas. It was awesome! Our branch mission leader had us at his house until we were given the clear to get home while the storm was more calm then usual. Of course he detoured to In-N-Out on the way back and we picked up a shake then we got home and were safe and sound.

Sure do love Y'all!!! take care and it is great to hear the missionary work.

Elder Metcalf

Holy Cow (in remembrance of the birthday card mom got me) I am 23 years old! I actually forgot about my birthday yesterday until studies when I checked the phone.  That was a bit strange. It was great though, to be in the mission field adding an extra year is quite an honor.

 

So anyway Dina's baptism was rescheduled until the 28th of this month which was a bit heartbreaking. She is still golden but something with coordinating schedules messed it up until a couple weeks later.

 

Another big piece of news was a man that we tracted out when Elder Davis first got here accepted a baptismal date and came to church on Sunday. The lesson with him setting the date was awesome, I thought for a moment the Preach My Gospel training DVD film crew was on us. It was one of those lessons that made all the tracting worth it. We found out he has been reading the Book of Mormon 5-10 minutes everyday and knows it to be true. He actually apologized that he didn't read more often. I had a huge smile on my face. So we set the date, the spirit was strong and we left. He really enjoyed church on Sunday as well.

 

I cant believe I am going to write about this but... on Tuesday Elder McHardy and I waited 90 minutes in line for a special event. The grand opening of the first In-n-out in Texas. We talked to about a thousand people while in line but I think I felt the spirit while sinking my teeth into the double double. So we became the first Texas Mormon missionaries to eat there. Yes... that is going to be one of my spiritual highlights.

 

On Saturday we had a very unique contacting experience when Elder Davis and I were trying out a new technique. We throw a baseball around near other people then talk to them. While at the park we ran into an interesting organization, The Allen Jedi's. Apparently it is some religious organization that is making it's way to the states. Needless to say when the contact began their mediclorines jumped off the scale when they felt the spirit. Their light saber didn't stand a chance against our sword of truth.

 

It was an awesome week, the investigators that needed to come to church, came. A great birthday present.

and our zone is on 7 straight weeks of perfect contacting...

Sure do love y'all

Thank you for the gifts!

 

Elder Metcalf

Well now that the trunkiness is over I can get back to work! Just kidding, it is always motivating to hear familiar voices on the other line. An interesting comparison was after we were tracting on Sunday and a born again christian was trying to save us from the church of the devil, we then went to church and saw many friendly faces. A couple of nights ago I was reading my patriarchal blessing which I try to at least do weekly. Something in the lines spoke out to me and I was prompted to ask myself a question. What does the gospel mean to me? I thought it strange and it took me some time to come up with a singular answer, but it was a powerful one that taught me a lot. I wrote "The gospel of Jesus Christ has created and improved all of my eternal relationships." I thought it was a pretty powerful teaching.

 

Monday we taught a couple that is living together and it was interesting what happened. I read and asked questions from 3rd Nephi 11 and the spirit was pretty strong. We had a member from the singles branch with us who particularly loved it because he was at one point caught in a hurricane on his mission seeking refuge. It was another great example of how we can seek all refuge in all the storms of life through the Savior. After that we went to family home evening in the branch and basically socialized with a few non members whom I have known for a while. Now remember that socializing to a 20 month old missionary is quite a contrast to anything else...

 

Tuesday was one of the oddest days of my mission but one of the best as well. We had an assistant exchange and both of them came to our area at 10AM so they could see a normal day in the great city of Allen. We had a phenomenal district meeting with 10 missionaries there and 10 spiritual experiences that were very faith promoting. For example, Elder Folau in the area next to ours was out in a rain storm last weekend but they wanted to tract and contact so he said a prayer that the rain would stop. It did. After talking to several people they began to cross a street but it started to rain heavily again so they turned around and headed in a different direction. It stopped raining when they did that and eventually they contacted a man who has already taken the lessons and was still interested. After that it started raining again. Elder Urqhart and I then split off and went contacting when about an hour into it he got a call from president explaining that he needed to get to the airport ASAP to pick up a returning missionary. So we raced to the DFW airport which was a super trippy experience. So many airplanes all really up close to me... We picked up the missionary and took him to the office. President did something simple and remarkable after interviewing him, he pulled out $20 and gave it to him so he would have something good to eat the next couple of days. Awesome.

 

That night we also taught Dina who proved to be one of the best investigators ever. We taught about 13 commandments in 40 minutes which was one of the best lessons ever. When we got to tithing I said my 'missionary speak' by introducing it "one of the greatest blessings of members of the Church of Jesus Christ is contributing to the growth of the kingdom of God..." she then stopped me and said something like 'oh no worries, I am already committed to pay a full tithe.' At the very beginning of the lesson she told us she had to say something. She began by saying how much she has been transformed by the message and that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. Something else she said was when she was at work and really thirsty she bought a mountain dew and took a sip of it, then she realized it had caffeine and threw it away. Remarkably she was no longer thirsty.

 

Wednesday we had a zone leader council in Dallas which is always fun. Elder Rice from Nac is a zone leader above me in Mckinney so we carpooled down and had a lot of fun together. Somehow he convinced me to go to moon's lds bookstore after the meeting and I ended up buying a Porter Rockwell CD... well purchased...

 

Thursday we had our monthly zone council and the missionaries really seemed to love it. We had 3 focuses, revelation through the Book of Mormon, setting and keeping dates, and obedience. Elder Davis and I used Elder Holland's talk Safety for the Soul which really set a tone for the meeting.

 

Friday we had a return appointment with a family that Elder Davis had set up with. The funny thing was when we got to the door and it dawned on me that 2 months earlier I had set something up with the husband that didn't work out but he had something set up with the wife. We got in and taught. It was awesome and funny that I already had been in the home.

 

Saturday Dina was interviewed and passed with flying colors. The district leader was in awe. He asked, for example, what does Joseph Smith mean to you and her response was something like 'he is a prophet that really clarifies what the bible and gospel are.' True indeed. We exchanged back and drove past a couple interesting buildings, they are building and In n' Out which is almost done, a wakeboard park, and just finished cabellas.  I think Allen is where its at!

 

Anyway Sunday was full of church, a couple investigators came. we tracted, ate dinner and talked to our families then hung out with our Bishop until numbers came in. Fantastic.

 

I sure do love y'all and it was great talking to you!

Elder Metcalf

Well yesterday I had an interesting lesson taught to me during personal studies. I was reading Helaman chapter 6 where the Nephites really get nasty which I thought was interesting because of the chapter preceding in vs 12 about having a solid foundation. During this, it was super windy. I was watching the wind ravage a tree outside but not a single leaf fell off, even a couple of the ones that were turning brown already. I suppose the lesson I was getting from this was even knowing the attacks are constantly coming and it feels like I am a single leaf on a tree, as long as I am attached through the Gospel, no wind strong enough will bring the tree or me down.

 

Early this week I was feeling this so called 'wind' when we went to some return appointments. Monday night we had back to back lessons where the questions revolved around anti Mormon literature. One of the ladies had some papers in her hand during this defense but sensing insincerity I bore my testimony and basically didn't make too many more comments. After all this time I am still dumbfounded that people hear our invitation to read and pray yet they rely on human wisdom and interpretation to determine their choices. Elder Packer's comment in conference comes to mind, something like 'if you want it easy, this is not the church for you.' Anti situations oddly enough create a climate for my testimony to grow because we are a people that receive answers directly from the Lord and need not worry about the sometimes ignorant interpretations of man. I say this with respect though because there are good honorable people out there who have been taught all their lives that we are 'of the devil' and it is not necessarily their fault for being trained to hate us but is a tradition of their fathers.

 

Tuesday was different, I drove down to Plano on exchanges because a missionary in our zone had to get staples pulled out of his head he received earlier in the week. The doctor was actually the Bishop from the Frisco 2nd ward so it was fun to reminisce. That night our dinner forgot about us even after we reminded them but it was interesting because we ended up at one of their daughter's homes in the 2nd ward and for some reason it just seemed like we needed to be there. It was something that felt like an orchestration of the Lord that cant quite identify the result yet.

 

Wednesday was super busy which was a lot of fun. We had an incredible experience with a man we have been teaching for a while who we didn't think was progressing too well. We went over to his home in the afternoon and he went inside, grabbed his 6 year old granddaughter and a Book of Mormon and came back outside. He asked for me to pull up a good chapter from it so I flipped the pages until 3rd Nephi 11 felt like a winner. He then gave the Book to his granddaughter who then read half of 3rd Nephi 11 all the while the family was listening to this angelic little voice. Every couple verses our investigator stopped to explain what was happening. The spirit was strong and it was awesome.

 

Thursday we met with Dina and taught the 3rd lesson to her and her family. This time we didn't have a stake president or a Bishop with us so the intensity was down yet high because we would handle all the objections. Dina is still super golden and came to the branch on Sunday. I asked her family if they wanted to join the church when she did but they weren't at that point yet so I used Elder Bednar's analogy about how she was like walking into a room turning on the light switch while they are more like waiting for the sun to rise. I thought it was rather clever...

 

Friday we went on a weird exchange. Unfortunately there are a couple of struggling missionaries who needed help on the same day so we altered 3 companionship's to make it work. Amidst this confusion my companion accidentally took our phone to Bonham, 50 miles away, so I didn't have communication with anyone via the cell. It was great! We met with Summer and her family and also felt it appropriate to take her oldest son who has yet to be baptized to the library to play checkers and some other shenanigans. Later that evening we received a text saying that her son was the best he had ever been. I ordered some 11 X 17 pictures from the distribution center for their home and they were super excited on that. Sadly, I also was working with a minor flu which I think I am getting over. I went to our apartment for a few minutes to get rest but then felt too much of the itch and pushed on through the evening. The spirit is the best medicine.

 

Saturday I met Elder Oaks and Elder Rasband... Yes it's true! They were in the region training the Bishop's and stake presidents and President Smith coordinated the opportunity for the entire mission to be addressed by them. I found Elder Jones my 2nd son from Kanab and we caught up on everything we could while being respectful. Elder Oaks' message was incredible. He referenced conference talks he had given which was quite unusual yet awesome. He also added some things to them that he said he couldn't in a general conference setting. He gave and expounded on 3 clusters of information on why we are the only true church and so on. He and Elder Rasband took a picture with the mission and took the time to shake our hands and greet all of us. Studs. I had a bit of a quiver in my voice when he asked how I was doing and when Elder Rasband asked where I was from. I was surprised they actually asked me something but thank heavens this wasn't my first GA or Apostle experience (Mom and Dad, did I ever mention I met Elder Holland while working at KCSG?) so I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

 

Sunday we had a couple investigators at church. Dina and Huson (whose parents are Muslim). It went very well. It just so happened we ate dinner at the friend of Huson's home so we got to teach him the Restoration. Another orchestration of the Lord. Seems to happen a lot as a missionary...

 

Anyway, I will be talking to you on Sunday and writing Monday!

Sure do love y'all

Elder Metcalf

 

p.s. we have a brother Simpson in our ward, does grandpa know a Robert L Simpson who recently passed away but was a general authority?

     I also met a Gale Swanson that knows uncle Rick