Dear family and friends,
Hey hey hey! It's been a psychotic but wonderful week here in Vacaville :) Happy Valentine's Day on Saturday!
Shout out to Dad for the letter! Love you, Dad! And happy birthday to Camille this week on Wednesday! I love you and miss you :) Card coming your way. It will probably be late. #struggleisreal
Well, Monday and Tuesday were absolutely insane haha. We had to start AND finish packing and moving our old apartment. There was heaps of extra stuff in that apartment so we ended up donating most of it to the local homeless shelter for families called "Opportunity House."
Tuesday, Sister Holguin and my companions left early to head to transfers for their new companions. It was sad to say good bye to Sis.
Ngawharau :/ She is one companion I have had who has taught me SO much about humility, quiet dignity, laughter, hard work, diligence, and patience. After they left, our zone banded together and deep cleaned our old apartment and threw away or donated all that was left in it.
THEN, we had to organize the other apartment. Haha. Craziness. We had barely finished and then Sister Belnap and Sis. Holguin's companion, Hermana Hancock, showed up and we unpacked and went grocery shopping and did companionship inventory.
Sister Belnap and I get along pretty well - our teaching is kind of rough right now but we both know the doctrine. We just need to figure out how to switch off. It's such a wonderful change to not have a new missionary haha. I LOVE training, but it is a nice change to have a sister who knows how to teach the doctrine really well. I know God needs me and Sister Belnap to be with each other my last transfer in the field.
Sister Rachel Belnap. Haha she is a puzzle - I keep trying to ask her about her but she keeps saying "I don't know." She is from Ammon, Idaho (near Idaho Falls) and is 21. She comes from a HUGE family - she has 13 siblings, but also has 8 step-siblings! So 21 siblings all together. Whew. She went to BYU-I before this and is planning on going back. She's been out for a transfer less than me - so I "die" in 5 weeks, she dies in 11 weeks. It's fun being with a companion who knows the ropes of missionary work.
She is SO good at working with members, at being straight up, and at asking inspired questions. She makes me laugh all day, too haha.
Sometimes I don’t fully understand her jokes, but the way she tells them cracks me up anyway. It feels good to laugh :)
Every day since we've been together we have hit the high expectations!! (20 contacts, 3 lessons, and 1 baptismal invite). It feels so good to be working hard. All of our investigators except Max and Arely and Dulce have dropped us...agency is hard sometimes haha.
So we are working our hardest to find new people to teach, and especially striving to work with members so they will refer their friends and family. It is amazing how essential we all are to this work.
Without the members friendshipping our investigators, when the missionaries leave they find it hard to stay active. But when the members are involved in lessons, activities, rides to church, etc., our investigators have friends and a support system going on. Sister Belnap is a great example to me of involving members in the work. I am stoked to be working with her!
Highlights from this week:
1. Max Bloom! He is progressing so well! He came to church again and loved it :) He is so funny - whatever part I sing for the hymns on Sunday, he follows - literally. Like, the same octave haha. Singing super squeaky high when I sing the soprano part. Man, Max is awesome haha!
2. DULCE came to church finally!! We were seriously considering stopping teaching her because she just would not keep commitments, but Sister Belnaps's bold, straight-up personality really helped her! In our lesson on Friday with her, Sister Belnap told her that she wasn't doing much to find out if this is true or not, and Dulce pondered that a little and said, "Okay, let me give it a try." And NOW she came!
3. BROTHER WIXOM came to church in the 5th ward!!!! Wow! He has not been to church in a loooooooooong time! Will Wixom - Alex's older brother who we have been teaching - talked with the bishopric and decided the best course of action to be active again was through his home ward so he could also take his 2 daughters there. He told us he was going to come, and yesterday we had dinner at their house. Will was gone with friends, but after dinner Alex and Bro. Wixom stayed for the lesson (and Sis. Wixom sat in the kitchen and listened) and we talked about enduring to the end. Sis. Belnap (again, being super bold and awesome like she is) told Bro. Wixom that he was leading his family off the strait and narrow path described in 1 Nephi 8 and that he needed to lead them back. That really struck Bro. Wixom and he was pretty moved by it. At the end, we committed him to attend church with Will the next day and he gave a very small maybe. But look: he CAME!!!
Miracles in Vacaville! I know I was supposed to come here to help the Wixom family come back into the fold. They are all so amazing.
I know that this is the Lord's work and I am grateful to be doing His work in the California Santa Rosa Mission!
I wanted to end with my testimony of our mission's "High Expectations." It has changed my whole perspective and outlook on life. Without the expectations President and Sister Alba have in me and the other missionaries, I would not live up to my potential and would not have the drive to be bold, be diligent, be loving, be a missionary. Why? Because this is the hardest thing I have ever done.
But it is also the most rewarding and the most exhilarating.
Seriously, though - I finally see a glimpse of my potential, and now I want to live up to it. I know who I am! Matthew 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I want to leave you with something called "Fellowship of the Unashamed" by President Henry B. Eyring in the First Presidency. It will be one of the pictures attached. I didn't feel this way before my mission, but now I do!
*Attach picture of it*
I love you all! Remember how much God loves and cares for you this week, especially with Valentine's Day on Saturday :) Show your love for God and help someone come closer to His Son!
Love,
Sister Nikole Decker
P.S. Pic: Me and Sis. N wearing our turquoise necklaces!
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