Dear family and friends,
I can't believe yet another month is almost past - I hit my 10-month mark this Friday, July 4th!!
By the way, Happy Early 4th of July!! I am so thankful for this country and the religious freedom we enjoy. Without it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Christ's restored church in its fullness - could never have been restored. But we do enjoy religious freedom, and God's kingdom is once again established for the last time before Christ comes again, never to be shaken (See Daniel 2:44-45).
So this week was basically awesome. All weeks are awesome, though...but this week was super cool because...we had interviews with President Alba!!
I always look forward to those interviews :) I wish I had more than 10 minutes to talk to him. I really do look up to him so much! He is like my dad away from home (don't worry Dad, no one can replace you though)! He always has so many great insights and is so kind and willing to help. I am thankful he is my mission president - he has helped me to really challenge myself and step up to the plate. President Alba has helped me to truly become who God wants me to become, and I am so thankful for his guidance and his help.
Well, I love it here! You know, the usual. We DID have a surprise yesterday - a less-active member (Aja) that dropped of the face of the planet the past 2 weeks came to church! It was so good to see her :) She had a wonderful time, and even offered to give a talk at the veteran's home in Yountville (it was the Napa 4th YSA ward's turn this week to speak). She is going to Louisiana for the next few weeks, so we are sad about that, but she told us we can keep in touch via Facebook and make sure she is still reading and praying and attending Sacrament Meeting there.
Cool story: last Monday Sister Harmer and I faced our fears and decided to have faith by knocking on this HUGE mansion house. Lo and behold, this man opened the door and welcomed us right in (we checked to make sure there was a woman as well, don't you worry!). As it turns out, this man, Drew, is a nonmember, but lives with a member family! The wife is less-active and the husband is coming back into activity. We ended up sharing a little thought with them, and they want the missionaries to come over for dinner and teach Drew! It was neat to see how when we are filled with faith, God will make all things work out for our benefit.
We also made a ward mission plan (finally!) with our ward mission leader, the Elder's Quorum president, and the Relief Society president. I'm excited for it - everyone was really gung-ho about it. We're really focusing on reactivation and made a game plan on how we are going to accomplish it. Reuben Bosch, the recent convert who attended the half-mission conference a couple weeks ago, received the calling to be the Elder's Quorum secretary, and he is stoked for that! He also really stepped up yesterday at church and made sure everything was ready for the Sacrament. It is really neat to watch him grow and progress in the Gospel.
This man in our ward said something that I had never thought about! He said, "Yes, maybe the fields ARE white to harvest, but Heavenly Father is holding back a little to help us take care of our own people before we bring in more." Hm. I never thought of that before.
The more I thought about it, the more I recognized that that is so true! We have about a 60% inactivity rate in our church (according to Bro. Bosch...I don't know how accurate that is). President Alba told us once at a zone conference that in his home ward in Georgia, the home-teaching and visiting teaching rate is almost 100% every single month. Guess what the ward's activity rate is? Almost 100%. Please do your home teaching and visiting teaching. Even if all you can do is leave a note on their door simply inviting them to come back, it is worth the effort. Home teaching and visiting teaching in the church is to help us to all be "nourished by the good word of God" and to "meet together oft" (See Moroni 6:4-6). God wants us all to be happy and healthy, physically and spiritually. Do your part to help labor in His vineyard!
Speaking of reactivation, Sister Harmer and I received a call from President Alba this week with a special assignment he would like us to take on with the stake president in the area - working on reactivating this group of 28-38-year-old people who have kind of hit a dead-end in their life. I am so excited to help President Judd (the stake president here) with this assignment! Sister Harmer and I have really been helping to break down barriers with the less-active members in the Napa 4th YSA ward, so I'm sure we can help the same way with all God's children in the stake. I realize that it helps that we are two 5'1" and 5'3" sister missionaries, so maybe that has something to do with it haha. This new assignment will keep us EXTRA busy :) I'm stoked for it!
Oh! I just remembered the coolest experience. I was thinking of different things in my life that I could improve on on Friday morning while I was getting ready for the day, and started thinking back to sins I've committed that I wish I wouldn't have. I recognized that I shouldn't do that, so I said a prayer to Heavenly Father asking to reconfirm that I have been forgiven, and to help me overcome the blues I was feeling because of my thoughts of these old mistakes.
That morning in my studies, I was reading in Mosiah 23, and verses 9-10 jumped out at me: "But remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance; Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of the truth."
:) God answered my prayers so directly with that scripture. It brought me peace, and really helped me relate with Alma the Elder and his story. He knows he had done bad things that were "abominable in the sight of the Lord," but after sincere repentance, God forgave him and "made [him] an instrument in his hands." I know that that is the same with me, and with all my fellow brothers and sisters here on Earth. He will forgive us and help us to become His hands on Earth.
Facebook work update: We are teaching this awesome girl named Merenda from Canada! She is getting baptized on August 16th and is super excited :) We passed her over to the elders there, so now we'll just do fill-in lessons with her via Skype. We're excited for that!
Funny/awkward moment of the week:
Sister Harmer cracks me up. She is great at keeping the Spirit in lessons even when weird things happen, like a weird experience at dinner the other day. So, some members in our ward, the McAffee's, fed us dinner. They invited their home-teachers over, and one of their home-teachers is married to a nonmember. We shared the Restoration principle as our dinner message at the end of dinner.
Sister Harmer says during this message, "And my companion Sister Decker is going to share what happened in Joseph Smith's ow--"
During that sentence, one of the home-teachers (as a disclaimer, he was also really old) slaps her calf! Haha it was weird...she looks up confused and he says, "Sorry. Mosquito." And holds up his hand with the mosquito all smashed on it.
I almost lost it, but Sister Harmer kept her cool and we finished the lesson.
Other random facts:
1. Every morning when we go outside to run the sprinklers are on and we have to run on the sidewalk next to them, but they're the kind that turn, so we always end up getting soaked and I always end up laughing uncontrollably. It's been a month, and it happens every day without fail. Some things just never get old.
2. I realized especially this week that the best remedy for EVERYTHING is to laugh about it! Just smile! It's okay to be happy and to show your emotions.
3. Sister Harmer and I had a "movie night" and popped popcorn and watched the old school Johnny Lingo on our iPads. It's actually approved to watch, no worries! Has a Church stamp on it. Quote of the movie: "If she thinks she is worth 8 cows, she will become an 8-cow woman." Be an 8-cow man/woman this week! Lol.
4. I am pretty sure we are only teaching 1 white person. We are teaching a lot of African-American people, a couple Filipino people, a Fijian, and a Chinese young man. It's the BEST. CULTURE! Yay! Of course, white people are culture too...just a culture I'm used to. OTHER CULTURES BESIDES MY OWN! Yay!
5. We keep contacting the same family with this really sassy mom because we can't remember what people look like. Each time she says something really sassy to us and then we recognize her and it's really awkward. Oh well. God knows she really needs someone to share the Gospel with her. It does take about 7 times of coming in contact with the Church before people take the lessons. If that's the case, only 4 more times of contacting her before she wants to learn! Haha.
6. We have an unusually large spider population in our apartment. Sister Harmer squished one yesterday morning, I squished this really juicy one (sorry for the visual) yesterday evening, and this morning there was one on the floor when I was taking a shower! I always feel really vulnerable when there are bugs in the shower...but oh well. I squished it and it's gone now, so life is good!
Anyway. I love you all! Make good choices, and remember: live fully, love deeply, and laugh often this week :)
Much love,
Sister Kolee Decker
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