Aloha

Hola mi Familia!

Como estan? Everything is going great here. Lots of hard work, but it's getting a lot better now that I've kind of got the schedule down. So this week my dear dear companion hurt her leg pretty bad. We were playing kickball and someone kicked the ball towards her. She just put her leg out to stop it and the next thing we know she's on the ground screaming. We thought she was faking at first, but then she was bawling. The elders gave her a blessing to calm down because she couldn't even tell us what was hurting. As the boys carried her over to the little shed/room area they have outside, she passed out. Anywho, the paremedics and security all came and it was quite the scene. No worries though, she's okay. We went in yesterday for an MRI (which we got to leave campus for, booyah) and all she has is a bruised bone or something. But on saturday I was in the residence all day again, just studying and reading.

Last Thursday we did a little thing called Teaching Resource Center which is where we actually teach real people... in spanish. It was really intimidating especially since the first people me and my companion taught were kids our age. They just volunteer to come in and then we teach them. It was really scary, but a really good experience because we certainly needed to rely on the spirit. We do that every Thursday now, which I'm super excited about. OH and we saw a guy from "The District 2" here. It was pretty cool.

We do service every Thursday morning at 6 AM, just cleaning the buildings and such. This week we got to use some ghost busters looking vacuums. We got some pictures so hopefully when I get out in the field I can send it to ya'll.

We have now officially gone through 6 different teachers. They just keep changing. First we had a subsitute, then we got our 2 real teachers, and now they are leaving because school is starting, so we have 2 other new teacher, plus a teacher who teaches only on mondays because the Hermano can't come Monday afternoons. We think we keep scaring them off or something. It's good though because it keeps us on our feet and we get to experience a bunch of different perspectives.

Yesterday the fire alarm went off when we were all getting ready in the morning. Someone had somehow set a burrito on fire in the microwave. Gotta love the smell of smoking burrito in the morning. WE all ended up outside, some had to jump out of the shower so they were just in their towels, it was quite the site.

Learning spanish is coming along pretty well. I still have a ton left to learn but I quite enjoy learning it. It's really hard because we are all learning at different rates, so the teacher is teaching things some of us already know and I find myself having a hard time paying attention in class. Apparently they were supposed to give us a test over the phone before we came in to see where we were in spanish and they didn't do that for a couple of us, so we are all now in beginner spanish. But it's all good. I find that learning spanish is a lot easier when you are trying to learn it with the gospel. Like reading your scriptures in spanish, or learning how to teach a lesson in spanish. My companion is getting a lot better, but it's hard when we go into teach our investigators because I feel like I'm saying more then she can.

So this week I have been reading a lot about Charity and Love. There is a great section in preach my gospel called Christ Like attributes. I would highly recommend doing the Charity and love one for a FHE or something. It has great scriptures and teachings in there and it has really helped me. I try to pray everyday that I will have the love that Christ has for others so I can be a more effective missionary now and out in the field. Not only a better missionary, but a better disciple of Christ as well.

I have also been reading "Jesus the Christ" which is amazing. A bit hard to understand at times but great none the less. An "Our Heritage" which I absolutely LOVE. Sometimes I have to stop myself from reading that one because I just end up reading that for my whole personal study. I love reading the stories of the founders of this church and the early pioneers. It is really a humbling experience to read of their stories and the sacrifices that they willingly made for this church. It makes 18 months of missionary work look like a piece of cake, and I am more willing and more fervently ready to go work for the lord when I read of their sacrifices.

I am also working on being 100 percent obedient in all of the rules here. It's sometimes difficult because apparently our Branch President is one of the strictist ones here. But it's great because we get more opportunities to be obedient in the things he tells us to do. It's also good especially if my mission president in the field is strict because I will be used to it.

Thank you so much for the packages and letters. You have no idea how much it makes my day to get things from ya'll. Thank you mom for the clothes too, they were cute. Thanks kids for the package and for the beautiful CTR ring.

Could you please send more pictures of the family :) That would be greatly appreciated. Also Julie Johnson sent me cookies but she didn't have a return address and I would like to thank her, so could you get me that. Gracias.OH and apparently we can have backpacks so I think I will buy one here because they are cheap.

LES AMO!!!!

I miss you all so much!!!!

Love,

Your favorite sister missionary, Hermana Decker :)