Dear family and friends,
Hi!! Hope you all had a wonderful week! Shoutout to Bruyn Decker and Justin and Mom and Dad for the letters! Thank you, I really appreciate them!
Ok. So crazy thing: another transfer is gone! Where does time go?
Transfer information: staying in Vacaville!! I am still a Sister Training Leader (STL). And I am training again!! Baby #3! Haha I am excited to bring another new missionary into the mission field :) Training new missionaries is always so humbling and so much fun. I love helping people grow and become leaders themselves. I realized this transfer that a strength I have developed on my mission is learning how to help people desire to be leaders themselves. It's neat to see, for example, my first "baby" Sister Petersen, who is now an STL herself and is changing and growing SO much on her own mission. I love being out here and becoming more like Christ! It's the best.
Highlights from this week:
Destiny!! She is so elect. A member of our's, Kelsey, took her to the temple and Destiny got to go inside the front part and clean the waiting room and kitchen area. She has anxiety and depression but said inside the temple it all went away. I know that is because the priesthood power of the temple is real - it truly is a house of God. It made her so excited to be baptized so she could go inside and help other people in the Spirit World feel the peace she feels in this Gospel!
Alex!! He is the less-active member we are working with. He is doing amazing!his testimony is growing, slowly but surely. We had a legitimate spiritual "CPR" (church, prayer, and reading the scriptures - the spiritual essentials to survive) lesson with him this week. He kept texting us crazy stuff throughout the day that got consistently negative and sad, to the point where he was questioning the existence of God. We called him and asked if we could meet, and he said yes. We met in front of the church and sat outside on the grass. I have never felt God speaking through me like that before, but I was praying so hard for God to use me as His instrument and I felt this amazing, calm feeling come over me and decided to simply open my mouth. As I did words came out that Alex needed to hear - the same thing happened to Sister Kwan. We talked with him for a loooong time, especially about faith in Jesus Christ, since we discovered that he doesn't have much faith in Christ. He believes in Heavenly Father, but not Jesus Christ. It is amazing to see, though, how if you have a desire to know if something is true, that God will let you know! Slowly but surely, as he prays to God, God is letting Alex know that Jesus is his Savior and that God loves Alex so so much.
I also know God is our loving Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ is His Beloved Son. Without Christ, the resurrection of our bodies to come back to God's presence to be judged would not be possible. We would not be able to be clean from our mistakes and would never live with God again. But because of Christ and His atoning sacrifice, we are able to come back to God physically and spiritually.
If you aren't sure about that, go to the source of ALL truth: God. And if you aren't sure about God, go to that higher power you believe in - that higher power IS God, our Heavenly Father. And he loves YOU. Very, very personally, at that. In His eyes, "You are magnificent." Remember the beauty that can come from the ashes (The Butterfly Circus).
To end this email off, I wanted to tell you some funny quotes and stories from this week/transfer with Sister Kwan:
-Quote from Sis. Kwan:
"That car is horrible. They don't know how to drive! It is poopooing! Look at it!!!"
*Big diesel truck with exhaust coming out whenever he pushes the gas pedal.
-I tried to give away pumpkin bread in a bag while we were contacting this week as a creative way to get people to talk to is...no one took it haha. I asked, "Why won't anyone take the bread?" Sis. Kwan: "Because it's creepy! They think you poison them!!"
-While teaching how the Gospel blesses families, Sister Kwan said, "Imagine if you had no family and no parents. Imagine if God said to everyone, 'You is all BABIES!!' What would happen then?" Hahahahaha I ended up dying laughing...so did Alex, who we were teaching.
-Whenever I got negative with myself or others, Sister Kwan would always remind me, "Think of the goodness, Sister Decker! The goodness."
I have learned a LOT from Sister Kwan. I am so sad we only get to spend 6 weeks together, but I am happy for the fun times and the growth we had together! "Look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed towards the future" (Jeffrey R. Holland).
Haha life is so good. I am so happy. I am so grateful. In these two weeks before Thanksgiving, I invite you to write one thing you are grateful for every day and put it somewhere where you will see it. :) You will see that you have LOADS to be thankful for!
Have an absolutely terrific week, everyone! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Nikole Decker
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