Aloha!

Buenos Dias!!

Things are crazy as ever here in Huntsville Alabama :) But we love the craziness. We are always all over the place going on exchanges with sisters. Being away from my area has really helped me to grow a greater appreciation for each and every second that we have. Each moment is precious when we are finally in our area. I love going on exchanges though. I think it probably helps me more than it helps the other sisters. I love serving them. There are so many of them who need help and it's so hard to get to all of them! We have the zone leaders calling us telling us of sisters that need to go on exchanges and then we have the sisters calling us telling us they want to go on some, I just wish we could get to all of them tomorrow. We don't know where to go, but the Lord does, so we are trusting that he will guide us to the sisters that need us most.

This week has been a pretty successful week... besides the fact that nobody came to church, but we are working on that! I truly have a testimony now of talking with everybody! We've seen our numbers go up a lot just by stopping to talk to everybody we see. I always thought it was so annoying to have people just stop and talk to you, like on temple square with all of the sister missionaries popping out of nowhere to talk to you, but I guess we are a little annoying and awkward :)  The Lord is blessing us even when we are hardly ever in our own area. We had 6 baptismal dates, but none of them came to church, so now we only have 3. I don't know what these people need, but they will not get off their lazy bums and come to church. Granted, most of them work Sundays, they will take any day they can get to work. We're trying to get them to recognize that if we make time for the Lord, he will bless us. It's discouraging to see all of these people drop through though. I wish they could just see it from our perspective. So many blessings. I know though that there are people out there who are ready right now to make the commitment, we just got to find them.

We had to drop a few investigators and that's always hard, but they were not progressing. Someone once told me out here that the key to  baptizing is dropping. We waste too much time with the people who are not ready, we have to find the ones that are.

I have been praying for the opportunity to do more service and Saturday when we were on our exchanges with some sisters we got to do a lot of service! We helped at this house for feeding people in need and we met a lot of spanish people there. Then we helped this lady who is in a safe house move in some furniture. We left her a book of mormon. She has been through a lot and I hope and pray that she will read it...

On a more not so work related side, here are a few other things that happened this week :) I hit a bird... It pretty much just skydived right out of the sky to the front of our car. The sister that was with me laughed her eyes out she thought it was so funny, while I cried ;) I met a full grown seven dwarf. He was the most interesting fella. He even had a dwarf hat on. I wish I could've gotten a picture. We biked like crazy this week. While the rest of me might be getting fat, my legs are going to be solid muscle by the time I get back!

I hit my half way mark yesterday... Its so weird!!!! I cannot believe that I only have 9 months left! it goes by so stinkin fast it's not even funny. We did some training this week in one of the district meetings on urgency and I pretty much broke down on the missionaries about how fast it goes by. Most of them still don't believe me, but it really does go by SO fast. We shouldn't waste ONE SECOND out here.We have such a limited time to serve the Lord completely with all our time and heart and if we don't make the best of it, we will go home wishing we did more. I don't want to go home like that. I'm determined not to :) I want to go home exhausted.

We get to train for a bit on Thursday at our zone conference. President will be there and everything, so it's a bit intimidating. We get to train on the importance of members. Then we get to train next week in the other zone were over at their zone conference. Then we have Mission Leadership council next Friday and we have 5 Exchanges planned for the next two weeks... Lots to do but I love every minute of it! Hopefully I get to go down this weekend to see Paulina's baptism as well. Sister Stock (my previous companion) just emailed me and said that some of our investigators are getting baptized soon in Florence! Bah! I just love it. Dulce (Jose Luis' sister) has pretty much fallen off the face of the planet :( I just hope she finds her way. Too many problems for the youth of this generation. I just wish that I could help them see what a difference they can make! It took me way to long to figure it out. They could help so many of their friends come to the knowledge. I am a firm believer in that the children will guide them.

I love you all so so so much! Sorry this was a super long letter :) I think I'll step off my soap box now ;)

Love, Hermana Decker