A week of changes

Hola!!!

How is everyone doing this lovely day! Well I don't know how it is

there, but it is raining cats and dogs here. I lost my planner this

week so I don't have a record of everything we did this week, but, I

will try my best to remember.

We had zone conference this tuesday in Tupelo Mississippi (I think i

wrote Tennessee last time). It was pretty amazing. President Holzapfel

is so powerful its crazy. So crazy news here in the Alabama Birmingham

mission. Our numbers next year of missionaries in the field has

doubled! and not just doubled, we will have 112 Elders, 22 seniors,

and 138 sister missionaries... yes 138 sister missionaries!!! It is

definitely a revolutionary time to be a missionary. That means those

of us who just got here may have to train two sisters just to keep up

with the influx of sisters. Crazy huh!! Mission conferences are gonna

be crazy! We were reminded that if we think there is not enough work

to do here in Alabama, then we are wrong because the Lord is sending

twice as many as now.

President also talked about the "mormon moment". This was before the

election but he said that we should take advantage of the people who

are in the news like Romney, and Jamari Parker, and people like that

and talk about them with people. D&C 88:73 says "I will hasten my work

in its time" and we certainly believe now is the time and so we need

to raise our sights!! Our goal for this month in our zone is 24

baptisms. That's about 1 per missionary for our zone, so we definitely

need to pick it up. He also said that even if Romney doesn't win, the

Mormon moment is not over.

So our amazing miracle lady, may turn out to be not so much of a

miracle... We are just so confused. She was supposed to come to a

relief society activity and said she was sick and then she didn't come

to church. We went to see her at her house and brought her cookies but

her sister in law answered and said they were sleeping and had been in

Mississippi all weekend. Then she promptly shut the door before we

were done with the conversation. Something is just fishy about the

whole thing. Hopefully we can figure something out.

So we are not supposed to talk about politics but, I will say that we

are certainly praying for our country and our president harder than

ever now ;) On election day nobody told us who won so we went to bed

without knowing, thinking the mission President would send us a text.

But in the morning there was nothing. So sister Leifson and I ran to

Mcdonalds just down the street to look at the newspaper and that's

when we found out. It was definitely a shock.

We had Exchanges this week. That was certainly an adventure. I went to

Albertsville Guntersville area with Hermana Oman. She is super sweet

and great and is leaving at our next transfer meeting which is

November 21, so she has been here a long time. We were supposed to

teach in spanish but we didn't teach any in spanish. We didn't do many

teaching at all in fact. We stayed in houses way to long and were

mostly with members. Thus, I have resolved to never get lazy and

finish my mission strong.

The spanish is pretty frustrating. It's even more frustrating that we

hardly teach anyone in spanish at all. But yesterday we had a lot of

refferrals for spanish people... I still have a lot to learn. I feel

like I havent progressed very much since I got here, but I have

resolved to just continue forward in faith knowing the lord sent me

here to this area for a reason and there is no reason I should not be

progressing in spanish as long as I am doing what I am supposed to.

I am certainly learning humility out here. Plus everything else that I

am lacking in my life :) This week has been rough but I am trying to

not let it discourage me. Hard things make you stronger right. That's

why it's so important to get out here on the mission. I know I would

not be the person I want to become without this experience.

I love yall and I hope that everything is well.

Love Hermana Decker!