Hola hola!

Howdy familia!

It´s been a pretty crazy week. We have a bunch of new investigators, a few we dropped, and I had the opportunity to remind a priesthood holder of his responsibilities to his family. Loads of fun!

Firstly, the Spanish is progressing quite nicely. I'm definitely understanding the language much more better now and so can teach more effectively and get to know everyone better. It's truly amazing what one can do with the Lord's help. I still have trouble with the mumblers, fast speakers, and when they talk about anything not Gospel related, but it's gotten better.

Let's just say it's been a little interesting with Elder Diaz. I'm seriously freaking him out with the way I teach and how blunt I am sometimes. He's what I like to call a "lesson 1" missionary in that whenever I get off lesson 1 in the first visit even a little bit he starts to freak out. I tried explaining to him the importance of following the Spirit, but he's pretty sure he knows what the Spirit is saying. So I've had to sacrifice some of my beliefs about teaching for the sake of unity. Hopefully I chose the right course of action, but if I freak him out every once in a while, all the better. ^_^

Speaking of freaking Elder Diaz out, I had a really strong prompting to talk to an inactive-for-fifteen-years endowed return missionary whose family we've been teaching. HIs wife is baptized, but his kid is not, and the wife is a bit of the ''If it ain't in the Bible, it ain't true!'' types. He has a strong faith in the Church but his wife kinda wears the pants in that relationship. At the end of the lesson, my heart racing because I obviously don't like to put myself out there, I went up to a man 20 years my senior and asked if we could talk with him outside. Elder Diaz --> O_O <-- I told him straight up, "You have a testimony, you know this Church is true, and you're the endowed priesthood holding head of this family, so act like it!'' But in a bit more friendly of a tone. Elder Diaz about died and later told me never to do that again while the member (convert of one year) told me that the Spirit truly spoke through me.

So yeah. It's been fun.

We also have a wonderful family with baptismal dates for May 18. They're hesitant (they say they want to learn more) but seem to really be accepting the Gospel. The mother went to church on Sunday and really liked it but was really confused about baptisms for the dead (oh, Sunday School) since we've only taught her lesson one. I haven't taught past lesson one yet, by the way. And Lesson 2 is my favorite... But I'll teach it eventually!

I ran out of money today, so if you noticed a charge on my debit it's because I needed food. Correction, I thought I ran out of money today, but we actually got our monthly supply today (YAY) and Elder Diaz forgot. Ah well. We spend all our money on taxis and  buses since our area is so huge. We've got the biggest ward population wise in the mission. 500 people. I don't know how that compares actually with Vegas...

Oh, the sunscreen and sweat destroyed one of my shirts. It's yellow. Yay. All the other's also have little black stains on the bottom of the back from my backpack so... yeah. I'll have to wear them and that's the way it'll be.

Love ya'll oodles and oodles. So exciting that Eli's being baptized! Wish I was there.

Adios y les amo!

-Elder Decker (Brayden)