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