Dear family and friends,
Hi!!
So first off, thank you Mom and Dad and also the Wood family for sending me letters this week! I love getting letters :) It's my favorite thing! I can't promise I'll write back super quick, but I appreciate each and every one.
Here's my mailing address, by the way, for those who may not know it:
223 Cadloni Ln #C
Vallejo, CA (I don't know the zip code....maybe Google Maps it to find out that haha)
Okay, so I'm going to be honest and tell you this week was HARD, but it was lots of fun and very rewarding! We picked up 2 new investigators this week and are planning on teaching 4 more people this coming week who hopefully will want to learn more.
So biggest highlight of the week: I received news about the Foley family! For those of you who do not know or have forgotten, when I opened my call, my good friend Jenee Hjelmstad was there and said, "My family lives there!" She has an aunt named Natalie Foley whose husband passed away a long time ago. She has three teenage daughters named Amanda, Shannon, and Lizzie who are all AMAZING :) When I got to Santa Rosa, I put their address in my GPS and they lived only 5 minutes away from me! I received permission from President Alba to start teaching them, and so Sister De Rurange and I began teaching them. There is no way missionaries would have been able to get in the door any other way
- their family is SO busy, and loved the church they attended. But God knows His children and had a plan :) So we taught them until I eft the area, and passed the family off to the AP's (assistants to the president - those elders covered that area). And Elder Page, one of the AP's, informed me on Tuesday that the Foley family has attended church multiple times, now, and LOVES it! They are going to be setting a baptismal date with them this week!!! :) I am so excited for their family. I know that the Foley family is a part of the reason why I came here on a mission. I am forever grateful to be a part of their lives and to have helped begin the process of bringing them to the Savior.
So, aside from that, hi from Vallejo! I love it here! Many missionaries always say that this area is sketchy and scary. In some areas of the city, I can see how that is true. But mostly, I just see how amazing, humble, and teachable God's children are here. And in Napa and Benicia, two other areas we cover.
We had a wonderful week! Sister Harmer is just growing and growing, and it's been neat to see her confidence growing in herself and her ability to follow, teach with, and be guided by the Holy Ghost. She is amazing! She knows the doctrine very well and is great at memorizing scriptures to pull from during lessons. She is also very sweet and sincere with everyone who she talks to. I admire her a lot and look up to her. I feel that if anything, training has helped me glean my companion's strengths and try to do better in certain areas. For example, she is just so bold in certain areas that I struggle to be bold in. She connects the Book of Mormon into almost every conversation we have with people on the street! She also does not hesitate to invite others to come closer to the Savior.
I learned something fun about her: she wants to be a wedding planner!
Well, I learned that about her the first week haha, but it's been fun to talk with her about her hopes and dreams :) She also enjoys hiking, as do I! And, she is enjoying running a little bit more, so that's been good for us both. Running feels so amazing in the morning!
Okay, so here are some highlights from the week:
Monday:
-A lady in the Lake Herman ward chopped all my hair off and I love it!
#shorthairdontcare ;)
-We bought bagels. And I love them haha. I am a bagel fanatic.
-I love soy and almond milk! They're the best :)
Tuesday:
-Had the coolest lesson with a man named Steve in a park. It was great to talk with him and share a little about the Plan of Salvation with him, especially since his wife had passed away a few months prior.
-Elder Page was at our district meeting, and he gave me news on the Foley family in Santa Rosa - the Foley's have come to church a few times. They love it! They are going to set a date with them, so pray that they will accept it and be able to make that date! :). President Alba, have you met them yet at church? They are the most amazing family. I love them so much. My friend Jenee (Natalie Foley's niece, and one of my best friends from college) is so excited for them. When I opened my mission call the first thing she told me was that her family lived there and she wanted me to teach them. And now, they are being taught and will hopefully get baptized soon :) Ah it just makes me so excited!! I KNOW that the Foley family is one of the reasons I came to this mission.
Wednesday:
-Had an AWESOME picnic dinner with 3 less-active sisters in our ward.
One of them gave us a referral, so we called, and set up a return appointment with him for next week :)
Thursday:
-Had the BEST lesson with Fletcher! He invited himself to church and to read the BoM and to invite his girlfriend to meet with us as well.
He is pretty much awesome and elect. Except, we got a ride for church on Sunday and he didn't come! It was a bummer. But he has lots of potential. It just means Sister Harmer and I have a bigger opportunity to teach and help his faith grow.
Friday:
-Served at The Table, a soup kitchen in Napa. It was fun, had a good time :) I love helping out. The only hard part was that Sister Harmer was chopping onions and I cannot take onion juice/smell, so my eyes were a waterfall the whole time. But it's all good. We ended up feeding 178 people who wouldn't receive a meal otherwise.
-I invited people to be baptized in Spanish. Quite a feat. Sadly, they shut me down and tried to bash. That's when "Lo siento, no entiendo"
comes in handy haha. But it was a cool experience, nonetheless!
Saturday:
-We "blitzed" our area as a zone and ended up getting 3 return appointments from it! Wahoo! Also, we received 3 referrals :) -Matt Saxton! Such a sweet young man :) He is a less-active member in our ward and we taught him a really cool lesson about Jesus Christ. He shared his conversion story and it helped make him excited to come back. He told us he is ready to take steps to come back and wants to be better.
Sunday:
-We worked really hard to get our investigators and less-active members to church (REALLY hard!!) and had rides set up to pick them up and NONE of them came :/ It was a bummer. Church was sooo good, too!
Sister Alkema, a lady in the ward told us this amazing story if how the Holy Ghost comforted her in a time of need. When she had her first baby boy, she was very young (20) and very naive. She had her baby boy
9 weeks early and didn't realize how dangerous that was. He only weight a little over 3 pounds. But as the nurses started rushing around and making frantic comments about the baby, she realized that her baby boy was in danger and her heart started rushing and she started to cry. She prayed to Heavenly Father, "Heavenly Father, I feel like I would be a really good mom, please don't take him away. I will make his life count." Immediately she felt this peace wash over her, and shortly thereafter the nurses were able to stabilize her baby. After that, she has truly tried to make her little son's life the best it could be :) She is such a wonderful example to me! But even though we couldn't get anyone to come to church, I feel confident in our abilities and we are praying for guidance and strength to help us bring Heavenly Father's children back to Him.
It's been great to work hard and get our area back into shape. The members really recognize that we are here to work and are trusting us with their friends. We are doing our very best. I feel great about the work I am doing with Sister Harmer.
I had one sad experience this week, though. My heart kept aching throughout this week - literally, though - because of what some other missionaries have been sharing with us about the missionaries who were in this area before. They told Sis. Harmer and I about how the past missionaries did nothing in the area the whole time they were here last transfer. It hurt my heart a little not to hear that specifically, but to have Sis. Harmer hear when she is so fresh in the field all about the disobedience of other missionaries and how our area is so disorganized and disheveled as a direct result of disobedience. It makes me want to protect her from it, but it's hard when people will always say to us, "We're sorry you got put here. It must be hard working from nothing." I just want to say, "You know what it IS hard, but nothing that is easy is worth it. However, things that are hard...things that are hard are ALWAYS worth it." There is so much going for this area, President Alba! The members are amazing, the people here are wonderful. We are finding people to teach, slowly but surely, and we are so happy :) This area is definitely the hardest area I've served in for several reasons, but I am growing to love it more and more. The field is white ALL over, including in the Napa 4th YSA ward! It reminds me of something my brother Bryce says that really helps me when I get discouraged: "Life is hard, but we can do hard things!" That is so true!
"The great the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." Remember that this week. I love you all, choose the right! Remember that you are magnificent!
Love,
Sister Nikole Decker :)
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