December 11 - I know Christ is our Savior!!

Hi from Vacaville!!

Shout out to my family for the packages and letters. Thank you so much!! We have our little Christmas tree up with decorations :)

Also, shout out to Dad - happy birthday!! Sending you a card today - sorry it will get there late, but I am so grateful you are my dad :) This week especially I just see how much you have done for me and am so thankful for your example of hard work and dedication.

So last week and this week were AWESOME.

We did service for the Festival of Trees on Saturday - it is this totally nonprofit organization that donates all the proceeds to the homeless shelter called Opportunity House, this shelter is unique because they don't just shelter the homeless, they focus on helping families down on their luck find jobs, get educated, and become contributing members of society. We helped set up and decorate all these beautiful Christmas trees! I'll send pictures!!

Monday evening we decided that we wanted our week to be the best week of our mission, so Tuesday we worked suuuuper hard and went on splits from 7-9 that evening. Not only did we get two members to come, but had Kelsey Andrews, a recently returned missionary, bring our investigator, Destiny! Destiny LOVED it. She is basically already a member and she hasn't even been baptized yet haha. Her baptism is in less than 2 weeks - on December 20th. She shared the neatest thing with us the other day. She told us that when she first started meeting with the missionaries, Sis. Nickolette told her about the temple in Oakland. She was curious about it, so she Googled the temple and the first picture that popped up was a wedding picture of a couple kissing outside the temple. She said she felt this overwhelming pull to it and the thought, "You HAVE to go there." This is what has helped her balance her doubts. Also, we left her with a quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Her family felt good about her venture into the church at first, but now that her baptism is approaching and they realize she is committing to it, her family is becoming less supportive and her grandmother even shared some anti-Mormon material with her.

Interesting how if there is truth, then Satan will work even harder to keep people from it! What I love about Destiny is that she still feels great about her baptism. We asked how she is feeling and she said, "I feel great about it. December 20th is perfect. I want to do it for Christ before Christmas." She is so amazing :) We also taught about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and were a little nervous, but she is totally fine and already lives them! She is so ready for this :) I am so grateful and privileged to teach her the Gospel and see God's hand working in her life. Keep her in her prayers that she will be protected from the adversary!

We also got Desire to come with us on splits, and she is a recent convert in the ward. She absolutely loved it! We had two amazing lessons with our investigators Janae and Dulce about the new Christmas video "He is the Gift" and ended up sharing the Restoration with one of them - Dulce. Dulce and Arely both accepted the invitation to be baptized and we are excited to help them start progressing.

As a Sister Training Leader, I go on exchanges during the transfer with the sister I am over. I had a wonderful exchange with one sister, Sister Majors. We had a pretty intense experience. We were waiting to exchange back Tuesday evening and decided to tract (knock) a few doors. The 1st door we knocked was this sharp-looking middle aged man. He seemed super excited to talk and pulled seats up onto his porch. As soon as we sat down, the Spirit put this thought into my mind: "You need to leave." I looked over at Sis. Majors but she was just smiling at him, so we started talking. Turns out he is a Born-Again Christian. Nothing against the religion, but it was a pretty sad experience.

This man first told us we were wrong. In every sense. That God and Christ are the same. He said "You're at the top of the ladder balanced in between two buildings, and you have decided to move the ladder to the wrong building." My heart burned within me and God let me know right there that this is true. That Christ is God's Son. That this is TRUE.

I wanted so badly to keep the Spirit with me for comfort so I just said to him, "With all due respect sir, I am not lost. I may be young and like you said, 'truly sincere,' but I do know and can testify in Christ's name I know this is true with all my heart. I do not appreciate a fellow Christian like yourself trying to force me to believe something I know is not true. Thank you very much for your time." Sister Majors added her simple but powerful testimony and we got up to leave. He got this look of annoyance on his face but when we said good bye we could tell he felt rather dumb for trying to pull our religion down. Interesting how many different churches, including nondenominational Christian churches, Baptist, Jehovah's Witness, Catholic, Born-Again Christians, etc. lash out specifically against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It strengthens my testimony of this Church's truthfulness and divinity because it fulfills all the prophecies Christ gave that His true Church and His followers "shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (St. Mark 13:13). Not only that, but we are the only Church on the Earth whose organization is like Christ's original organization. And more importantly than walking where Jesus walked, we strive to walk as Jesus walked.

I have never gone to a service in our Church where we bashed on another religion, because Christ never taught us to be contentious. In the Book of Mormon Christ actually tells us, "The spirit of contention is of the devil" (3 Nephi 11:29). And if we are all trying to follow Christ, why pull others down? Christ himself said in Mark 9:38-39: "And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not is: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me." Moral of the story: be kind. I am here to preach the Gospel of Christ, not bash with people about conflicting beliefs.

It just makes sense. A friend of mine once emailed me and said, "If anything else, this doctrine just feels right. Nothing else even makes nearly as much sense as this does." He also said, "Our church may not have all the answers to all the questions, but it does have enough answers to inspire faith."

I want each of you to know that I have a testimony of this Gospel. I know it is true. I am grateful that as a mission, all the missionaries have been reading the 4 Gospels in the New Testament together because it has strengthened my testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is truly Christ's Church on Earth again before His 2nd Coming. I love the scriptures and know that the Bible is the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. I also know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. I know Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and restored Christ's pure Gospel to the Earth again. I know that this Restored Gospel blesses families in every aspect. I know the temple is a house of God, and am so grateful I was able to go earlier today in the pouring rain :) I know Jesus is my Savior and He is the Son of God. I know God and Jesus have two separate bodies but are one in purpose. Why would we even have bodies if God was a spirit who could shift forms? God put us here to experience life and make choices to help us become more like Him. If He was a Spirit or was two or three Personages at once, then so would we be. But we are not. "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:26-27). If God were just a spirit, what would be the point of receiving a body?

To become like Him? No, not if He is just a spirit. But God has a body. It says so in Genesis, and prophets of old saw Christ and Heavenly Father as well (Exodus 33:11, Ether 3:6-16). Satan rebelled against God's plan and because of that never received a body. If we were not here and if we were not Resurrected through Christ our Savior and His gift He gave us of His life, we would go back to being spirits forever and be like Satan - disembodied and miserable. But because of Christ, we have overcome the Fall - we will all be resurrected and receive our bodies back, perfect and glorified like Christ's and Heavenly Father's. And if we follow His Son, His Son will lead us to our Father and we will be forgiven of our sins and enter into the rest of our Lord. I know this without a shadow of a doubt.

Matthew 10:39: "He that findeth his life shall lose it: but he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." I have given up my will to Christ's and have found myself. I know who I am and I am God's and Christ's. I love Them and am grateful for them. For those of you who might not have seen the Christmas video "He is the Gift" yet, check it out on christmas.mormon.org, YouTube, or Facebook with the hashtag #sharethegift.

One more cool story: last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting, and guess who got up to bear his testimony? Alex!! He is the less-active member who has been struggling so much since I have been here but is now doing so so so much better! He wrote it down and bore the sweetest, most sincere testimony of missionary work, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and God's love. Then right after, his older YSA age brother, Will, bore his testimony!! I ended up bawling haha. It was so amazing to see their progression from no testimony to a simple, powerful one that they wanted to share in front of the congregation.  :)

I had interviews with President and Sister Alba last Thursday and they went super well. I will miss them so much. They are like my mom and dad away from home and I have so much respect and love for them. They both told me thank you for my example and it just warmed my heart :)

I'll end with some funny stories from the past couple of weeks:

1. Sister Ngawharau calls the trunk of the car the "boot." I have been trying so hard not to say boot. The other day, she asked where her scriptures were. I replied, "Oh, you left them in the boot." Noooo!!

Haha I am turning into a Kiwi. Oh well.

2. Kelsey Andrews funny story:

-She went to look for a volleyball for FHE -Opened the door and Devan, a member, was standing the dark hallway.  She hit him with the door.

-She was sooo surprised to see him she yelled sooooo loud and slammed the door.

-All we heard was a soft, "Ow" from Devan haha

That sister has some strong lungs haha. Louuuuud scream, too.

Sis. N and I get along wonderfully! She is amazing and hilarious and so much fun to be companions with. She has such a sweet testimony of the Gospel and I love learning from her example every day. Pray we'll be able to get her tummy situation figured out. Her stomach has been in pain on and off the past 3 weeks, and she gets results for tests back tomorrow.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and remember that God loves you!

If you have any doubts, remember Destiny: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

Love,

Sister Kolee Decker

P.S. I got pretty sick yesterday and Tuesday from getting my Flu shot for the mission this year...bleh. I feel much better now, though! Yay!

P.P.S. Christmas is only 14 days away!

December 1st - 15 month mark!

Dear family and friends,

Kia ora!! Vacaville YSA is going great! We had 3 investigators at church on Sunday! Hooray!!

Okay. Weird. On Thursday this week I hit my 15-month mark! I am so old  haha. It is odd to now be one of the old missionaries - I feel like I  just came out! I am stoked for a second Christmas in the field - there

is nothing like serving Christ full-time two Christmases in a row :)

This week was really, really great. It was super humbling - I love being a trainer; I learn so much from Sister Ngawharau every day! This week she taught me that we need to focus better on helping our

investigators to truly progress. We had a great weekly planning and mainly focused on daily contact with all our investigators!

On the down side, our whole zone got sick this week! It was rough...I ended up catching a prety bad cold/fever Saturday, but Airborned it up and am feeling much better now.

I am becoming a Kiwi. Woot woot. I have started accidentally slipping into what I think sounds a New Zealand accent but Sis. Ngawharau always catches me and says, "You sound like a Britain." Haha I sure

love her.  Sis. Ngawharau is getting so much better at contacting and at teaching! We taught an incredible lesson to our recent convert Harrison and she taught so simply and powerfully. She is an incredible

missionary - I learn so much from her humble example!

This week I gave a talk in church about the Restoration and I learned SO much from it! It helped me understand more about why there is opposition in all things. I love 2 Nephi 2 where it talks about it:

"Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other" (vs. 16). More and more out here I

realize how beautiful and amazing the gift of agency is - and how incredible that Joseph Smith chose to act and follow through on his action. Sis. N and I were also asked to give the third hour combined lesson on Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching, so we did, but focused on the "why" in a more spiritual manner. We talked about the worth of every soul using D&C 18:10 and showed "The Butterfly Circus," then asked how it applied to doing our teaching and fellowshipping. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson :) I have never felt so strongly about the divinity of home and visit teaching - we truly are God's hands here on Earth, and home and visiting teaching proves God's love.

Exchanges this week were HUMBLING. I went with Sis. Rodriguez, and she knows her people well even after just two weeks. She did an incredible job leading out the area, and is a wonderful example of following the Spirit. She is so amazing.

Great scripture I found going over MLC notes: D&C 101:16 "Be still and know that I am God." So good.

Sis. Ngawharau's first Thanksgiving was a very unconventional one! We ate with our Bishop, but his wife wasn't feeling well enough to cook, so they took us to Hometown Buffet for dinner haha. It wasn't too bad, and the experience ended up being amazing - we met an inactive member from Dixon, an inactive member from Vacaville, and two solid potential investigators! We also were able to help a homeless man get some dinner. :)

Funny story of the week:

We went to help this super old, tiny lady named Dolores carry her food to her car and she said, "Oh I parked at Marshall's." That was about1/4 mile away from where we were haha. So we walked over there then she yells, "Darn! I actually parked outside the restaurant." Hahaha so we walked all the way back and helped her climb into her HUGE truck with her food. She ended up giving us her address and told us to come by and share more.

When we went by, we met her husband Raymond. He started telling us a

story: "When I was young, my dad always ate my butt out for not working hard enough. Then when I started working, my boss ate my butt out for not working smart enough. Then I got married, and my wife started eating my butt out for messing everything up. So now I have no butt!" He turned around and he had absolutely no bum hahaha.

Anyways, I love you all! The church is true and God loves you :)

Love,

Sister Kolee Decker

P.S. Pics: thanks Mom for the Thanksgiving package!! And thank you Mom, Dad, Camel, and Kristen Parker for the letters! :)

November 24 - Sister Ngawharau...try to pronounce it haha + Happy Thanksgiving

Dear family and friends,

Happy birthday to Bryce, Keri, and Alexandria!!!

Hi! So heads up: we are not going to have p.day next week until Wednesday, so no letter until then!

I don't have much time, so I am just gonna send my letter I wrote President Alba this week :)

Dear President Alba,

Ah man! My whole email I just wrote to you deleted!! Okay, round 2.

Kia ora!! This week was good!

Sister Ngawharau got sick from Wednesday-Saturday (and very sick Wednesday and Thursday night) but got on some antibiotics to fight an infection the doctor found in her intestines. The food is hard on her stomach, but I am trying to eat healthy and have our dinner's feed us fresher food so her stomach settles a bit.

She is doing AWESOME!! She is an amazing teacher and teaches with simplicity and clarity. She has such a sweet, simple testimony, too.  She gets pretty nervous before lessons and contacting, but once she starts, she does great. We get along very well, too. We are ALWAYS laughing and having fun together - the ward also told us Sunday that they love these new "scripture of the night" texts we have been sending out to investigators, less-active members, and active members.

We set a new date for Destiny for December 20th. Her family has been going through so many medical problems lately! Her sister, her mom, and her grandpa all were in the hospital the past 3 weeks and things are finally cooling down enough for us to start solidly teaching her again. Sister Nickolette bought her a set of scriptures and Destiny has been carrying them everywhere :) Her YSA brother is also interested in learning more, now!

We have been receiving many referrals lately, too, and had a "ward blitz" on Wednesday that helped us set up appointments with inactive members we hadn't met before. The work is picking up here in Vacaville! We are trying our hardest to reach the high expectations every day and I feel so happy :)

I love this work!! I know it is true.

Sister Ngawharau led out the area on exchanges this week and did great! Her and Sister Rodriguez were on bike and they had a blast!

Sister Majors and I had a good time, too. We laughed a lot, which was good. Sister Majors was pretty hard on hereelf sonwe set some goals and made plans to help her overcome the negative and think more positively. But she is truly amazing and I love her very much! She is a wonderful sister and servant of the Lord.

I love you President Alba! Thank you for MLC - it was wonderful this week. I learned SO much from both you and Elder Nielson. Thank you for your time and love! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

I love you all! Have a happy week!!! Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Nikole Decker

November 17

Hi! Hope you had an absolutely brilliant week! I sure did!! It was pretty crazy, though!

Monday was preparation day and then that night Sister Kwan and I helped out with our YSA FHE - Nerf dart war haha. It was painful but fun! We had two less-active members and an investigator attend, so we were happy about that :)

Tuesday was transfers day and I literally spent the whole day in Santa Rosa in meetings to prepare the trainers for the new missionaries.  That night we had a delicious dinner and devotional and then the new missionaries went to a hotel to sleep and I was with a temporary companion, Sister Miller, for the evening. We both had served in the Redwoods YSA ward so we visited a few people (including the Foley family! We taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the AP's - assistants to President Alba - and it was powerful). We also talked to Anthony MacIntyre!! Do any of you remember him from my first area? It was so good to hear from him - he is reading the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time now and blesses and/or passes the Sacrament weekly. He is thinking about getting his Patriarchal blessing soon, too :) So excited for him!!

Wednesday afternoon after more meetings I got my new "baby!!" Her name is Sister Rahera Paku Ngawharau (pronounced Na-fa-ro with a rolled r like in Spanish) from New Zealand! Fun facts about her:

-She is 6'2"...I am 5'1" haha

-She loves kickboxing, touch (a New Zealand sport like rugby but no tackling), and basketball

-She is a convert of 3 years and the only member in her family.

-She uses different words for lots of things:
   *Trekkies for sweatpants
   *Boot for car trunk
   *Jandals for flip-flops
   *Torch for flashlight
   *Chur chur for "cool cool"

-She is whipping me into shape! We do ab workouts every morning. So. Stinkin. Sore.

-Super relaxed and funny. She has a great sense of humor and we laugh often.

I'll leave a video with you so you can hear her sweet accent haha. She is such a great missionary - I am so happy we get to be companions!!

A lot of our appointments fell through this week, which was hard because I wanted Sis. Ngawharau to get right into teaching, but we had an AWESOME lesson with Alex this week! He has been struggling to understand the Atonement and Jesus Christ and this week he made us dinner and we ate a member of the Bishopric's house, Brother Day. It was a powerful lesson and he finally got a glimpse of what the Atonement is all about! Yay!! :) Sis. N did a great job, too. She is amazing, I already love her to pieces!

We had to move Destiny's date to 12/6 because of health problems in her family, but she is still doing great, too! Sorry this is short - I'll be more detailed next week! Shout out to Bryce and Keri for birthdays (well, next Monday and Wednesday...but happy early birthday!) Love you!!

Love,

Sister Nikole Decker

November 10 - Baby #3 on the way!

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

October 27 - A week full of short hair!

Dear family and friends,

Hi!!

This week has been a week full of short hair. #shorthairdontcare

First off, Mom, I don't know if I told you, but your short hair is so cute!!! How do you like it?

Second, Sister Kwan kept asking me for two weeks if I could chop her hair. Finally, Monday night, I did a test-cut of about 3 inches of her hair and after that, she said, "Okay, I call someone to cut for me."
Haha. Cutting hair is harder than you'd think!
#whereisjeneewhenineedher So we called a member of the stake who cuts hair and Sis. Kwan got it cut cute and short on Wednesday at lunchtime! Yay!

Next on the short hair list: Holly Yoho from Napa YSA! We had a tri-stake FHE activity and I got to see Holly, since the Napa ward and the Fairfield ward joined the Vacaville ward for Monday night FHE.
Turns out, Holly also chopped her hair off! It is so cute! She is so fun :)

Also, a girl at church yesterday, Irene Bonner, came up to us and told us we'd inspired her to chop her hair off again haha.

Everyone chops their hair off after they spend time around me ;) Haha nah, but for some reason this week everyone was cutting their hair.

Highlight of the week: I got to Skype in for Holly's baptism on Saturday!! <3 She looked so happy and excited. She was smiling super big and said she just felt GOOD inside. She is such an amazing, sweet girl. And she brought 5 nonmembers to her baptism!! Her grandparents, her parents, and her mom's best friend. SO amazing - she gave her grandma a Book of Mormon and her grandmother is enjoying it. Already a missionary! So proud of her!! I am also so grateful for modern technology so I could still be a part of her special day.

Other random fun things that happened this week:
-Sis. Kwan and I sang all 9 verses to "Follow the Prophet" in companionship study just because we can. It was great. Learned about Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Jonah, Daniel, and prophets today! Very informative and fun.
-Sis. Kwan ate oatmeal for breakfast on Thursday and it just killed her stomach for some reason. In our prayer to end companionship study she said, "Dear God, I am sorry that I had to take time out of studying to poopoo, but thank you for letting my body poopoo so I can feel better and do your work." HAHA :) She is the best. By the way, don't tell her I told you that story...ha.

Guess what else happened this week? It rained!!! Fall and winter are coming in, which means 6 months of rain...whew. I may need to invest in a better raincoat. And new boots. I found out last winter my raincoat does squat. And my boots are rather grungy now from two winters of use. But the rain was fun - Sister Kwan and I contacted people outside when it started to POUR. I love the quote, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it is about learning to dance in the rain." So I was having a good ole' time getting soaked and Sis.
Kwan next to me hates rain haha. She was all grumbly the whole time.
It took away from the happiness of the rain a little bit, but when the rain stopped, there was a HUGE double rainbow across the whole sky :) Tender mercy of the Lord.

My studies have been so loaded and awesome this week! I made some goals for the last part of my mission that's coming up, and as I prayed to know how to accomplish them, I was surprised to receive an answer by a thought that popped into my head soon after: "Make your daily personal study count." So I was able to make some great goals and plans to help my personal study turn from a basic baked potato to a loaded-with-goodness, heaven-worthy potato. ;)

As I've been striving to achieve my goals, my study in the scriptures and other Church materials has deepened and widened - I have been feeling more patient, loving, understanding, and obedient. I know that the promise in the Book of Mormon is true about studying the scriptures daily: "...Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do" (2 Nephi 32:3).

We have started teaching a few new people this week and they are awesome! Destiny - a 19-year-old young woman who is so open and willing to learn. She came to church on Sunday and loved it!

Also, we started teaching this sweet 20-year-old girl named Dulce who is also super open and kind. She has the strongest faith in God, even through some traumatic experiences in her life.

I know this Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is evidence of the Restoration of Christ's original church on the Earth once again.
If you want more lasting happiness than anything else in the world, come and try this out. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ you will feel something new and amazing enter into your life. You can have full access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He and God love you. You matter to Them. They want you back!

Have a good week, everyone! Be safe this weekend!

Love,

Sister Kolee Decker

October 20 - Found a family!!!!

Dear family and friends,

Hi from Vacaville!!

This week just BLAZED by! The weeks go by so stinkin' fast haha. I love being out here and serving the Lord and His children in Northern California. I will always have a special place in my heart for the people here...but I don't think I will ever move here because it is so expensive haha. Unless my future husband and I are super wealthy ;)

Ok. So highlights from this week!

Found an awesome family - a married couple, Sonya and Joe, with two teenage kids! They are super funny and open to our church. Sonya used to be Jehovah's Witness but feels it is not true, and they have been searching as a family for a new church to join. Sadly, we have to pass them off to a family ward set of missionaries this week...haha we can only teach YSA age people. It's a bummer but they are so prepared and I am excited to see where they go!

We get fed SO well here! This is the best I've been fed for a loooong time. And our ward mission leader, Justin Gray, gave us the most giant apples I have seen in my entire life haha. It took all my might to eat just one today! I have pictures I'll send of them.

It felt SO amazing to take the Sacrament this week! It was my first week in a normal Sacrament Meeting service since this new transfer - two weekends ago it was General Conference and last weekend it was stake conference. So this past weekend was amazing. I don't know how people can go inactive and not feel the effects of denying themselves the Sacrament. I realized yesterday how powerful that ordinance is - partaking of the bread and water each week to renew our covenants with God and to receive remission of our sins and remember His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that this Church truly holds the priesthood authority of God - the authority to baptize, give the gift of the Holy Ghost, give blessings, bless and pass the Sacrament, and all other ordinances needed to help us go back to Heavenly Father. I felt a literal lifting come off my shoulders when I partook yesterday, and I know that you can feel that every week too if you come to an LDS Sacrament Meeting service. Come join with us :) There's nothing like it.

I went on exchanges with a new sister in our mission, Sis.
Christianson, this past week and it was so neat to see how prepared and willing to improve she was coming out and still is today. I have such a testimony that the prophet today is inspired, and that having sisters serve at 19 and elders at 18 is inspired. I am now serving with many elders and sisters from the graduating class of 2014, which is kind of weird but also really cool that right after high school these men and women come out and consecrate their time to God.

I know this is God's work and that this Church is truly His and our Savior's church on the Earth today to help us have the saving ordinances and support we need to come back to Them someday. I know that the Book of Mormon is convincing evidence that God has called another prophet and restored His church to the Earth in this last period of time before Christ comes again.

I had such a good, spiritual week! Sister Kwan and I had a rough patch, but we are working through it and working hard to bring souls unto Christ in the Solano YSA ward!

Also, to let Dad and others who have asked know about Holly and Thierno and the 5 other investigators with dates back in Napa YSA ward, there are 5 of them getting baptized this weekend!!! I am so stinkin' excited for them! President Alba is letting me Skype for the baptism and I am so excited and happy to be able to be a tiny part of their special day!

Shout out to Dad and Mom for the letters this week - thank you!

I love you all very much and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Nikole Decker