Dear family and friends,
Hi! I hope you had a wonderful week and weekend. First off, happy belated birthday to Justin Lee - I thought about you on your birthday and hope you had a fun surprise party!
Second, to anyone who is planning on sending a package soon...I would love a GPS before mid-December haha. My companion is most likely going to be transferred, and I would die trying to navigate our massive area via map alone. Take a look on a map to see how big our area is - it goes from Ukiah, CA, all the way down to San Rafael, CA...it's very expansive. We left our GPS behind one day this week and we had to try to navigate some far place via map and it was really hard. So yes, that would be greatly appreciated.
Third, I discovered that I cannot drive because they think my license is suspended!! I looked at my driving record the other day and it has a whole bunch of red slashes through it and circles and such...I need to talk to President Alba about that haha. That's what I get for getting two tickets under the age of 18 in Arizona, I suppose...but oh well. Sister De Rurange is the drive now, and I like it that way.
So a few interesting things happened this week I thought you'd like to know:
1. There are stray cats EVERYWHERE. I get scared out of my mind every morning on our runs because a cat will pop out of a bush or come out of a shadow.
2. Our investigator, Ray Sims, is going to be baptized next Tuesday!! I tried to get a picture with him this week, but somehow it didn't work. I'll give you a picture next week, hopefully. Just know he's hilarious, African-American, a really good rapper (actually, he says, "no, Sister Decker, they're poems."), and I showed him Justin and I's handshake we always do and he LOVES it haha. Now every time we shake hands he wants to do that one.
3. We ate hot dogs and pizza 4/7 days this past week. That's what happens when you're fed by YSA-age people haha.
4. We ate SO much fruit this week, because it's all we ever buy. Our lunch every day consists of this: a PB&J, sometimes nuts, grapes, an orange, a peach, a pear, and some kiwis. Oh and we bring bananas for snacks, too.
5. I lost 5 pounds in 1 month from not eating sugar. Which is good, because I gained 5 in the MTC haha. We originally were not eating sugar for a few investigators to support them in their addictions ("You give up cigarettes, I'll give up sugar") and are still doing it for them. But also, I feel really good not eating sweets and treats! (However...I don't know how I'm going to do when Thanksgiving and Christmas come up...I love those types of sweets)
As for the rest, I wrote it much better in my letter to my mission president this week, so I'll copy that here for you to read on the rest of my week. Just know this: Facebook is an INCREDIBLE hastening tool the Lord has provided for us. I am SO excited and feel SO privileged and trusted to be able to use our iPads to "hasten the work in its time" (D&C 88:73):
I had such an enlightening week. Just on Saturday, it finally clicked in my head how amazing and important of a tool that Facebook is. We now have the opportunity to, instead of tracting doors or contacting for an hour to find a couple of people, look up thousands of people in Santa Rosa and contact them in a matter of minutes. Yesterday on Facebook I contacted 23 people in 15 minutes. And 2 of them responded back right away and I ended up teaching lessons and asking them if we could meet and teach them in person. It is SUCH a blessing to have these 8873s to literally hasten the work and be able to find the elect in our own areas so much faster and much more effectively than it has been in the past. It also hit me just yesterday how much The Lord trusts us to enable us to have such amazing tools.
Elder Martin commented to Elder Johnson something really cool I'd like to share with you: he said to Elder Johnson, "I bet before this life God was talking to everyone and said, 'we're going to have someone create this device that will help hasten the work...' and Elder Johnson jumps up and says to God, 'I will be there and I will help use this device to push the work forward!'" After Sis. Alba's talk in stake conference Saturday night, I feel now more than ever that I was "deployed" to Santa Rosa, CA at this time because I told God I would love to help, and He knew I had the special skills and talents to hasten His work in its time, just as you accepted the calling in Heaven to be the mission president at the time of this hastening before Jesus Christ comes once again.
I absolutely love being a Mormon. A phrase Sister De Rurange uses often that I wholeheartedly know to be true is, "everyone's a Mormon - they just don't know it yet." President Alba, I want you to know that I know this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is true. I just know it. It makes sense, and I can feel peace of mind whenever I read the Book of Mormon, which confirms to me over and over and over that this is the right thing for me to do, that this church truly is Jesus Christ's church with His full Gospel, including the beautiful Plan of Happiness, restored once again through Joseph Smith. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know it is through Him that we can be cleansed from sin.
On Thursday night we were teaching a less-active member, Elizabeth, about the Sacrament. She had attended church that past Sunday, and said how amazing it felt to partake and feel washed clean of her sins. I sometimes forget that the Sacrament is such a sacred ordinance we have the opportunity to partake of weekly; that we can be made "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) every week. What a loving Heavenly Father we have, to restore through Joseph Smith an ordinance like that to the Earth again - an ordinance that because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, can make us whole and clean and pure each and every week. That can make us as clean as when we were baptized. I have faith in Jesus Christ, and know that He truly can take it all away. I am forever indebted to Him, and so serving a mission, putting forth full-time effort to bring children into the fold, seems like such a small way to say thank you. But it's like you said in stake conference Saturday night: "We must give Him everything we have, because He has given us everything He has."
I am trying my best to give it all I've got, with "an eye single to the glory of God" (D&C 4:5).
I also wanted to tell you how my prayer was answered this week. Tuesday morning in my interview with you, I asked you to pray for Ray, that he would not want to slow things down, but speed things up. And you did. Thank you so much - God heard and answered my, Sister De Rurange, and your prayer just that night. We dropped an extra laundry basket and some cinnamon gum off at his place and then he told us that he wanted to have a lesson, so we walked over to the church and taught him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we were talking, he said to us, "You know sisters, I just KNOW that this church is the one for me. I've been reading the Book of Mormon an awful lot lately and prayed and asked God, and now I just KNOW that it is true." He then said that he wants to,be baptized November 19th - not this Tuesday, but next Tuesday. :) He hasn't been smoking for around...1 1/2 weeks now, and he says it gets easier every day. His interview is on Thursday. I know that God hears and answers our prayers. I just KNOW, like Ray just knows.
Elder Martin commented to Elder Johnson something really cool I'd like to share with you: he said to Elder Johnson, "I bet before this life God was talking to everyone and said, 'we're going to have someone create this device that will help hasten the work...' and Elder Johnson jumps up and says to God, 'I will be there and I will help use this device to push the work forward!'" After Sis. Alba's talk in stake conference Saturday night, I feel now more than ever that I was "deployed" to Santa Rosa, CA at this time because I told God I would love to help, and He knew I had the special skills and talents to hasten His work in its time, just as you accepted the calling in Heaven to be the mission president at the time of this hastening before Jesus Christ comes once again.
I absolutely love being a Mormon. A phrase Sister De Rurange uses often that I wholeheartedly know to be true is, "everyone's a Mormon - they just don't know it yet." President Alba, I want you to know that I know this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is true. I just know it. It makes sense, and I can feel peace of mind whenever I read the Book of Mormon, which confirms to me over and over and over that this is the right thing for me to do, that this church truly is Jesus Christ's church with His full Gospel, including the beautiful Plan of Happiness, restored once again through Joseph Smith. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know it is through Him that we can be cleansed from sin.
On Thursday night we were teaching a less-active member, Elizabeth, about the Sacrament. She had attended church that past Sunday, and said how amazing it felt to partake and feel washed clean of her sins. I sometimes forget that the Sacrament is such a sacred ordinance we have the opportunity to partake of weekly; that we can be made "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) every week. What a loving Heavenly Father we have, to restore through Joseph Smith an ordinance like that to the Earth again - an ordinance that because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, can make us whole and clean and pure each and every week. That can make us as clean as when we were baptized. I have faith in Jesus Christ, and know that He truly can take it all away. I am forever indebted to Him, and so serving a mission, putting forth full-time effort to bring children into the fold, seems like such a small way to say thank you. But it's like you said in stake conference Saturday night: "We must give Him everything we have, because He has given us everything He has."
I am trying my best to give it all I've got, with "an eye single to the glory of God" (D&C 4:5).
I also wanted to tell you how my prayer was answered this week. Tuesday morning in my interview with you, I asked you to pray for Ray, that he would not want to slow things down, but speed things up. And you did. Thank you so much - God heard and answered my, Sister De Rurange, and your prayer just that night. We dropped an extra laundry basket and some cinnamon gum off at his place and then he told us that he wanted to have a lesson, so we walked over to the church and taught him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we were talking, he said to us, "You know sisters, I just KNOW that this church is the one for me. I've been reading the Book of Mormon an awful lot lately and prayed and asked God, and now I just KNOW that it is true." He then said that he wants to,be baptized November 19th - not this Tuesday, but next Tuesday. :) He hasn't been smoking for around...1 1/2 weeks now, and he says it gets easier every day. His interview is on Thursday. I know that God hears and answers our prayers. I just KNOW, like Ray just knows.
Pretty amazing, huh?
Well, I love you all so much. I am growing more and more every day, and not only am I bringing other unto Christ, but I feel that I am growing closer to Jesus Christ. When you have nowhere to turn, turn to Christ. He will NEVER let you down. I promise that because as I have been teaching Anthony, and Ray, and Elizabeth, and Matthew, and Michael, and Robby, and the Foley family these past couple of months, I have seen how when they lean on Christ, Christ only helps and lifts them up. When we build our foundation on Christ, we cannot fail. (Helaman 5:12, Moroni 7:45)
Also, for those of you who have troubles understanding why we go to church, see Moroni 6:4-6.
I love you, have a wonderful week! And be a member missionary!!
Lots of love,
Sister Nikole Decker
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