Another day in Paradise :)

Buenos Dias!!

Well I guess I can say it has been another crazy week, but I think I have just learned that every week is a crazy week on the mission. We had A LOT to do this week. We went on three exchanges with some great sisters. Then we had a zone conference in Madison we had to go to on Thursday and a Mission Leadership Council on Friday. Then of course, the usual preaching of the gospel :) There is never a dull moment here that's for sure. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get home and have some down time... but let's not talk about home ;)

Our investigators are driving me crazy. We have 5 baptismal dates set. All of the hispanic pretty much say yes to anything we ask them to do, but they almost never pull through with it. It's a bit frustrating when they all tell you they will show up to church and then you are sadly dissapointed when NONE of them walk through that door. We even found a ride for one of them and when we came and knocked on her door... nobody answered. It's a bit discouraging to say the least. We are trying to come up with anyway possible to get them to come. We call them and go to their houses, but to no avail. It's getting to the point where we are seriously considering dropping most of them because they aren't progressing and we are running out of ideas to help them... Sometimes dropping them is the best way for them to see that we mean business. It's just hard when you love them all so much and want what's best for them!

Good news though! Our opening our mouth to everyone payed off :) We talked to this one guy outside an apartment complex named Rodolfo and told him that we would have the Elders come over and teach him and they did and he showed up to church on Sunday! So technically we aren't the missionaries teaching him, but we are just so excited to see someone progressing! The other sisters in our branch are having pretty much the same issues we are, so any success in the branch is great! Hermana Hazelgren and I were talking last night and we think that we can probably get together with the missionaries in our area and really plan out how we are going to help this branch and this area. If we work together better, I think we will see more success.

Even though the latinos can't seem to commit to anything, I still love them... probably more than the white people. The white people are rude, but at least they won't play around and say they will do something when they actually wont. We get lots of lessons taught with the Hispanics but not so many progressing investigators. I'm still holding out for the "elect". We'll find them soon :) Not gonna lie, I had a bit of a rough day yesterday. It's just dissapointing and sad that these people won't move forward. But I realized that my attitude was greatly effecting Hermana Hazelgrens and on our bike ride over to our next appointment I just prayed that the Lord would help me forget about myself. When you ask, he does answer :) If anything, I've learned that attitude really does affect the work. If you have a good attitude and keep the faith, miracles follow. Maybe small miracles, but miracles none the less.

Tomorrow we have to train in zone training for Huntsville and Madison. Huntsville zone training is going to be sweet! The zone leaders here are inspired. Our whole topic is enduring to the end, since our mission President is leaving this month :( The Zone leaders decided to make our zone training into kind of an interactive meeting so we are transforming the gym into the tree of life story and likening those scriptures to enduring to the end in some shape or form. We prayed about it and placed each missionary in a different area so they can teach that principle (little do they know that we placed them there for a reason). It is going to take some work, but I think it will help a lot. We've noticed that the missionaries are not focusing as much on Christ as they should. That's why we are here and if their relationship with Christ was better, they wouldn't be having the problems they are having and they would be more obedient. So our goal is to help them strengthen that bond. In Madison Zone Training, our part to train on is Inviting and then Helping. And we decided to go over Elder Holland's talk from last conference "Lord I Believe". We read it together this morning and I'm pretty excited for it!

We have fun here :) I met some crazy Korean lady this week in a trailor park when I was on exchange with Sister Marchetti from Italy. She kept pointing to the sky and saying "Boom Boom Boom". Some drunk Mexican men (not unoriginal by any means) were cooking a pig outside and had us come over and look at it. It rained cats and dogs and we were about 3 miles away from home on our bikes. Some random member who goes to college up here stopped us because we looked so pitiful and took us out to dinner. Blessings! We have a wonderful family who have been taught forever but will not progress, who always feed us delicious hispanic food. They just love the missionaries :) Hermana Hazelgren and I are saving up money we find on the ground to go out and eat!

Everything is so great here. I cannot even express to y'all how much I love this mission and all of the people I have met. It has changed me forever, and it's not over yet! So much more to learn, so much more to experience. Even the hard parts are great! I miss you all and I love you all so so so sooooo much!!! I know I don't write y'all as much as you deserve, especially all of the kiddos, but I hope you all know that I love you LOTS! and I haven't forgotten you! :)

Blessings and Love,

Hermana Decker