February 26 - Temple Trip

Dear family and friends,

Hey hey hey! Such a good week, like always! Full of miracles!

Shout out to Justin, Mom, and Dad for the letters this week :) You are all the best! Love ya tons.

I kept better track this week so my email isn't lame haha.

Alright - Monday! (Last Monday, not this Monday) So much fun!! After I emailed, our zone went hiking up a little trail to a beautiful overlook of the hills in the country of Vacaville haha. It was fun to do something as a zone. I'll attach pictures!

Later Monday night, we taught Ty, this amazing lady we met the other day. We tried to meet Lisa (Lisa dropped us :/ Sad day. Not ready yet) and met her neighbor named Ty! Ty needed help with groceries so we helped her out and then she asked if we could say a prayer with her. We did and also left a blessing on her home, and she wanted us to come back. When we finally did (Monday night) she said she was too tired but somehow by a miracle let us in! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she is so excited to read and pray about it! She has a sweet little boy named Regaughn (pronounced Rayjohn) and has a boyfriend who is away for 3 months in a mine for his work. She is such a miracle! 

Then I kept having this potential family with 2 YSA-age daughters keep coming to mind, so we went by and saw them! And guess what?! They were home, but busy haha. BUT! We talked to 4 guys standing on the other side of the road and one ended up being a former investigator of our's! His name is Mateo. He speaks Spanish and English, but is more comfortable in Spanish so we are giving him to the Spanish sisters to teach. Ha he and his friends were drinking and smoking so we taught about the Word of Wisdom...it went great! They had lots of questions so it was fun to answer them. Miracle again! And we got the high expectations Monday night :)

Tuesday was fun, too! Well, kind of stressful, but good. I was on exchanges with Sister Eyden and all of our plans kept falling through haha. I felt fine about it, because that is what happens in missionary work, but she kept stressing out BIG time and it started to rub off on me. Finally, we sat down and had a talk about attitude and stress. I shared how I cope with stress and keep a good attitude, and hopefully it helps her - she is a pretty new missionary - she's been out 5 months. And this is only her second area. But aside from that, we worked our hardest and reached the high expectations together! 

It's amazing to see how when we put our minds to something and have faith in the promises, that they are always fulfilled! We're teaching more lessons than I ever have before my ENTIRE mission. It is exhausting to work this hard, but I feel SO happy and so grateful to be a part of this mission. I have felt God's hand in my life immensely, and felt Him (still feel Him) molding my life, attitude, personality - everything - to how He needs it to be. It hurts so good haha. There is no comfort in the growth zone, and no growth in the comfort zone. I am glad to be continually pushed and invited to reach a little higher and work a little harder. It is helping me see my potential and more importantly, to see other people's potential that God has for them. 

Wednesday we spent the day in the country of Vacaville, which was fun! We taught Max again! Yay! He missed church last Sunday for basketball practice...ouch. So we taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Oh goodness, he is a character haha. He wore leopard pants with a raccoon tail to our lesson...hahaha. We took a picture together (also with his friend John) so you can see him. He is so much fun and brings a sweet spirit to our little ward. We also taught this less-active sister, Alex, who lives upstairs in quite literally a barn! It was super smelly haha. Smelled like dog pee, cat litter, and horses and cows all in one. But I am so grateful we went over and talked with her, because all she needs to come back to activity is an invitation!

Thursday was also psycho. I had my last meeting with the stake presidency and mission presidency here in Vacaville. It is such a special privilege to sit with all the leaders in the stake and in the California Santa Rosa Mission and talk about how to be better together. I am so thankful for the stake president, President Bennett. He truly is a man called of God to do the work of salvation here in the Vacaville stake. 

Alright, Saturday Sister Belnap and I followed a prompting to talk to Blake, one of our new investigators. I am SO glad we followed that prompting! We dropped by and he was happy to see us. He asked us TONS of questions - his roommate is Catholic and very anti-Mormon and he became very concerned with some things he was hearing from his roommate. I am so glad we went over, too, because it made him excited to come to church! Also, he wants to meet with us more often and find out for himself. He shared a really neat experience that he had at church with the Holy Spirit. He said he was sitting in church last week and someone got up to speak. While they were speaking, he just felt a calm overcome him and he was so thankful he came! Then he told us he feels it whenever we meet, too. It was also good because we found out he has several addictions that he wants to shake - especially to alcohol. We talked about the 12-step program and it really touched him that our church offered a service like that for free. Moral of the story: follow promptings by the Spirit! They are ALWAYS worth following, even if they don't make sense at the get go.

And Sunday Blake came to church and loved it! He told us, "I just feel like all you teach is true!" He is amazing. We also had 2 less-active members in the ward bring nonmembers to church. That was really neat and such a blessing - they already have an automatic friend in church! 

As for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week...it has been psycho. It has been a really, really hard week. Our zone has been so close to all reaching the High Expectations every single day and as a result, Satan has been working really hard on us, too. 

I had an intense day yesterday being pulled between 2 different companionships that are really struggling and also trying to work hard in my own area. But I am alive! At the end of the night, my companion, Sister Belnap, and I said, "Well, neither of us died today, so that's good." Haha but God is so loving and merciful no matter what. I am grateful for that!

Also, We've all been feeling really inadequate and like we just can't do enough, so I am SO thankful for the temple trip we had today! It helped all those negative feelings fade away and I feel so happy now :) I had such a feeling of peace come around me when I walked into the Celestial Room, and I know that the temple truly is the House of God. All that really stuck out to me about the temple was the place of refuge. I love in Isaiah how he constantly talks about coming to the house upon the hill for refuge. I know that the house Isaiah speaks of is the temple. And I know the temple is the House of the Lord. 

Guess who I saw at the temple, too?! Kristen Parker! Haha good to see you, Kristen, thanks for coming!!

I love you all, have a marvelous week :) Talk to you on Monday haha.

Love,

Sister Kolee Decker