Week 8! WOW! TODAY is my 2 month mission birthday! :D This work, this week has been FANTASTIC! YEEEAAAH! 

   We had ------>17<-------- lessons this week, that's a lot! Next week we have goals that will take us over 20 if we get everything done. I have faith that we can do it, but we're SERIOUSLY going to need God's help. This past week I've been SUPER happy, cause I realized that this is the greatest work anyone could do in their life EVER. and I get to do it when I'm 18. Dang, God must have SOME trust... I continually realize how i need to improve (esp Spanish...) but I know that I can do all things with God at my side. 

Speaking of improving, I've really been working on some stuff... Heavenly Father is really blessing my Spanish efforts, I'm learning things fast. Sento el poder de Dios en todos me obras cuando puedo por ayuda. Este es solomente mediante el Espiritu. Nessitamos el Espiritu mas in nuestro vidas para recibir los bendiciones nessitamos. Dad, google translate. ;) 

   I've been working on Spanish, but REALLY working on submitting my will to God's, and loving the people. Probably my greatest challenge here is focusing on my purpose and NOT thinking about GIRLS. Why do they have to be so awesome? I thought when you went on your mission there suddenly appears a shield between you and those temptingly fantastic beings we call girls. In seminary, whenever we talk about temptations, girls are ALWAYS mentioned, to be funny, but really though. MY WORK HERE IS THE ETERNAL SALVATION, I don't want to be thinking about marriage right now. That is not my purpose. In the MTC I gave up writing friends, and all of my last letters are out of my life now. I hoped that would fix all my problems, but then I start stressing out about what they thought about the letter and other such nonsense. I've been praying, asking for Heavenly Father to take away my weakness, and make me only think about how I can help those I serve. I want to be the best missionary I can be... everybody who happens to encounter this blog, please pray for my focus, specifically. I've always had a lot of trouble, but if you and God help be, We can accomplish anything, even the aligning of my will and FOCUS with God's. 

   I've had some trouble loving some of the people. The people who ask stupid, random questions (ie, how tall do you think the tower of Babel is?), but I'm trying. I need to further realize God's love for each of these people. 

   Now off to the fun/ funny parts. ;) First off, Thursday is HALLOWEEN, my first Halloween I won't be trick or treating (don't judge), and WE GET TO WATCH A MOVIE, MAYBE TWO! And we're having a zone wide party :) So, the movie that we're almost SURE we're watching is Nacho (FREAKING) Libre! OH YEAH! We'll also carve potatos :) good times. :) I'll talk about that party... next Monday after it happens... ;)

   Oh yeah, so we were on the way to a part member family's apartment. We had just turned a corner in the courtyard when we see this little fat Mexican kid, walking his bike. (looked EXACTLY like Chancho (fun fact: the english translation of that word is literally "fat kid")) We and this Chancho are walking on colliding courses. He sees us, starts freaking out, says "leave me alone!" struggles to turn himself and his bike around, struggles still more to get on his bike, swerves around, panicked, and leaves. I must confess, I TOTALLY thought he was joking... so I called out to him as he struggled to get on his bike: "los misioneros, NO!" (the missionaries, NO!) ...... We felt SUPER confused, until later, then we couldn't stop laughing. haha Good times. ;) Oh... Chancho. ;) "Wait! We just need to borrow some SWEATS!" This work is kinda fun. You've just got to take everything with a joyful heart. :)

   We've got interviews with the Mission Pres and his wife tomorrow. I... kinda can't wait :) I love them. :) 

Please pray for me, and if you happened to make to many pastries, or have some deer jerky you don't want, feel free to send some. ;) Actually, vegetables too. :) 

oh yeah, stake conference happened. All about member missionary work. 

the 3 H's of member missionary work are:

House: GET OUT OF IT. Get involved, coach soccer teams, get to know non members

Happiness: nobody has ever wanted to be like somebody who wasn't happy, we know why we're here, and where we're going, we have the greatest reason in the world to be happy.

Hypocrisy: DON'T DO IT. Be the same, amazing person that you say your church makes people be. The gospel of Christ is ALL about being a better person. Be the best person you can be. 

Have an amazing week. Remember who you are. :) don't drink and drive!

SWEET week as a whole. Made all our goals except 1 (contacting referrals) and exceeded in most. OH YEAH! Yesterday was a hard day though... We expected like 5 people to come to church... how many came? ...zero. We had no lessons, though we had appointments and we visited loads... and a drunk Jehovah's Witness gave us back a BoM, said it wasn't anything like the bible, not true, and... S word... Plus I was sick. Not my best day in the field... anyway, yeah. I'm glad today's P Day so I can regroup my spirits...

Saturday I got to PLAY THE SAX DURING A LESSON! It was SO sweet. I played 3 hymns, 3 at the beginning, 1 at the end. I'm probably going to do that more for this family. They had an alto sax cause their son is learning to play. They enjoyed it and it TOTALLY brought in the spirit. 

We had a pretty good lesson. 

There are A BUNCH of people who are totally ready for baptism, just haven't committed yet (that seems to be a problem for Mexicans, my Mexican trainer said that, so it's ok). The challenge it trying to convince them that the change is worth it. 

I love this work. My Spanish is advancing like a Liger advances as a magician cause of it's inbred skills in magic. My Spanish is NOT a natural thing, The Spirit has been helping me a bunch, but it's advancing quickly. I give all glory to Heavenly Father for my Spanish. Maybe a bit to my AWESOME trainer, Elder Sanchez. 

So we went up and knocked on an investigator's door and someone from within yelled "Come In!" so we did. There was a man watching a really weird movie. He was old... and white... this was not the right house. We just stood there, like... hi... When he saw who we were, he got up really fast and practically pushed us out the door. All that we had the ability to say was "I don't think we're in the right house..." as he pushed us out the door. He was like "Yeah, me neither, go teach someone else," slightly rudely, but we can't really blame him. Two Mormon Missionaries just walked into his house, not who he expected. 

After we got out the door and down the steps, we COULD NOT stop laughing. The investigator's house was next door, and we continued our evening. Good times... HAHA

So another week of missionary work, up's and downs, rights and wrong doors. This gospel is true, and the best thing in this world. Stay fantastic, stay sweet, love with all your heart, and don't eat not completely cooked fish, or you'll get sick like me. ;)

Elder Decker

Blog time from Poke! But really, I'm in Jackson Wyoming! The grand, beautiful ski resort... pretty much. ;) I'm not teaching real people, or rather my new, AWESOME, comp, Elder Sanchez, is and I, after finally figuring out what they're talking about, insert a little thing here or there. Spanish is hard. They talk, here, either SUPER fast, or with weird accents. Weird accent being: not from Mexico City. 

Pres. Brinkerhoff is super cool! Sister Brinkerhoff has taken a particular liking to me. She said that I remind her of her sons. *FIST PUMP* She's super funny though. She says to us "keep your hearts locked" which is fine and dandy, but she also says after "but keep your eyes open." She's funny. Haha 

We had a meeting for the the new missionaries and their trainers. It was good. I got to see my Poke house bros again. (the guys at the CCM going to Pocatello) That was super sweet. 

In the Mexico City airport I placed 2 LdM (BoM in Spanish) to 2 very nice families. *FIST PUMP* I love this work so much!

This work is AWESOME but pretty hard. Nobody's ever home, so lessons are hard to come by and there hasn't been a baptism in this area for Spanish yet this year... We're going to do it though. WE WILL. 

Elder Sanchez is MUCH more like me than my last comp. He really wants to and likes to work hard. He's more diligent than ME, and I've been trying to be diligent this whole time. He's also a native speaker of Spanish and has super good English, so he's been a huge help to me in learning Spanish. I didn't have that shock of suddenly being depressed about how little I knew Spanish like so many other Missionaries do. I never was very good at the CCM so I already knew I wasn't good. Actually, I've come to realize that I understand MUCH more that I thought I did. It's SWEET! 

The work here is HARD work. NOBODY has time for lessons cause everyone has like 3 jobs. People who have the ability to come to church are even fewer, but we're trying to find those lucky ones and trying to convince people that coming to church is worth talking to their boss about. The people haven't ever really gone to church cause... well... they're all catholic... 

Actually the Catholics are EASIER to teach cause they're all non practicing and have little knowledge of any church, so their super humble and open to hear our message. They've never been taught that Mormons are "of the DEVIL" and other nonsense. 

Everybody is SO nice. I forgot to bring my camera to the church, so right now I have no pictures for you but hopefully... this is for you mom/dad... SOMEONE... could get some google images for you. and put them on the blog. It's super mountainy, the Tetons are right outside town, and there are pine trees ALL over them. Way better than those brown mountains the guys in Idaho get. ;) GO JACKSON!

Oh, yeah it's snowing already... 

We had a really nice lesson with a guy 2 nights ago. He and his family were SUPER receptive to our message, took a LdM, Plan of Salvation pamphlet and prayed for us at the end of the lesson. That's not common. Unfortunately, his schedule is: work in North Dakota for a month, come home for 2 days. I have faith that he can become converted through personal study and prayer though. 

This work is the best work EVER!

Love you! I'm praying for you!

Elder T. Decker (funny story one of the trainers is another Elder Decker, he REALLY wanted to train me. 

Alright, this past week, I've made some changes in how I'll be serving my mission

     first, and most influential is: I will not be writing to my friends while on my mission. Yes, it's nout, but I really feel that it's what Heavenly Father wants me to do, because that's what I was focusing on, and it's definatly not the right thing. I love ALL of you but, I know that this is right. I'd love the get the occational note of support or the very occational care package, but I probably won't thank you until I get back home. When sending things, know that what I want most is a picture. That's what I miss most, seeing your wonderful smiles. Let my parents know if there's anything crazy that happens and they can let me know (ie mission calls, wedding announcments, other crazy awesomeness.) Remember that I love you and am still praying for you, but I KNOW that in order for me to be the best I can be, I need to make some sacrafices, and get more focus. ESP during this time, I want to only live through faith in Christ (galatians 2:20). If my plaque hasn't been made yet, that's my new scripture. "If we want to be something that's never been before, then we need to do something that's never done before. I have to chose to follow the influence of the spirit.

     next, life is like highschool, and a mission is like being in the band. each instrument is unique and has it's own advantages and deficiencies, and each reads music in a different key or clef. Each missionary has his own strengths and weaknesses and knows what to do, through the spirit, a different way. Saxes are usually off key, bassoons are ALWAYS off key, clarinets could get louder, trumpets could get softer, french horns could stop ripping, and nobody really likes piccilos. The awesome part is that you can change your natural instrument through self mastery. Adjust your mouth to change the pitch into in tune, play harder, phay softer, and traning to find the notes, ... idk what a piccilo could do... God is the director, and when we follow him, read the notes, and adjust ourselves, true beauty happens. As we change ourselves and follow God, we can be sucessful. I need to ajdust my ombisher a bit...

REMEMBER GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND WOOT!!!!!

look up "no regrets" by Chad Neth on lds youth music. it's how I feel.

remember who you are, I LOVE YOU. God be with you till we meet again.

p.s. some people may be getting "last letters" from me
oh yeah, last week I became a zone leader, and this week the investigator ASKED us if he could be baptized. felt pretty good. love you