P-Day and in my second week!

Things are good!  I got my Christmas boxes yesterday.  I got a little sick with congestion and coughing but I'm doing better and sleeping better with a little help from Nyquil. The language is crazy.  I really like it and it sounds nasal-ly. (is that a word?) How is everything in MN?  Mountains are cool but they don't move too much.  Here is a cool story about our first investigator:

His name is Hol Mon and its last name first in Cambodia, so Mon was who we were teaching.  We were told the day before that we had to teach him how to pray and watch a video about him and prepare to teach him in one day!  It was very stressful.  We learned how to teach prayer and when we saw him right away I just wanted to tell this guy all about God and his love for us and how amazing this gospel is!!!  But I couldn't cause my Khmae was bad and I didn't know enough yet, but we taught him and I bore testimony that I know God is our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is our brother and Savior and this gospel is true and I know that if he prays and reads the scriptures Heavenly Father will testify to him that these things are true....in very slow broken Khmae...but when I was telling him, I told him over and over that I love him and Jesus Christ loves him and knows him.  I knew how to say that well so I said it alot lol.  I would have said more but I didn't know how yet.  After that, things got better and worse.  We had good lessons and not so good on other days.  My companion and I each got to help him pray and talk to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Then in the next lesson, we asked him how he felt as he prayed and he said that he could feel something in his heart and pointed at his heart and we told him that was the Holy Ghost (preahvinnianbor?resot) that's Khmae for Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit spelt in the romanized form and yes the question mark is supposed to be there!

I felt an incredible amount of love for Mon and I just wanted him to know everything about how the gospel has blessed me and my life and family and friends in the church but couldn't, but the spirit did that for me.  We got a video from Mon the next day and he told us that as he was being taught he could feel something and as he prayed it felt good and I was tearing up in class because I knew that by showing all the love I could and expressing the love of God to him in my really small knowledge of Khmae...Mon felt the spirit bear witness to him that we love him and so does Heavenly Father.  I was so happy and excited because I know that once my Khmae gets better I'll be able to teach with a love and power that I could have never even imagined!  I was so happy to get that witness that the language will come if I keep working hard every day and pray for help as I teach.  I want to treat everyone I teach with the same love and show them that I really care and want to teach to their needs and show them that I love them and so does Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was a really spiritual experience for me and I love it. 

Well, that's all I have time to write on here.  Merry Christmas everyone!!  I love you all so much and hope as the Christmas season comes that you take time to remember why we celebrate this day and remember Jesus Christ and how important he is to all of us!

My first week

Things are going really well here.  My first day was crazy!  My companion is Elder Blocker and there are 11 of us Cambodian Eders and Sisters in our District.  The spirit here is strong and always close by.  We had a day of class right when I got here on Wednesday and it was crazy insane because our teacher only talked to us in Cambodian and its really hard to understand sometimes.  I learned how to say a few things on the first day and then more and more after that.  I can bear my testimony and I say all my prayers in Cambodian now and have a lot of things I can say but my grammer and placement of the words is most of the time always wrong.

I am sleeping ok on my taco of a bed and the room is big enough for all my stuff plus some.  I haven't and couldn't even fill all my drawer space, lol.  It was totally new to me to not have an overflowing amount of clothes everywhere!  After 3 classes I taught my first lesson to an investigator on Friday in Khmae and that was scary and hard and I felt like a fool! Haha!  My khmae is getting better and better each day.

The BYU mens choir came and sang for us on Sunday.  I saw my buddy from school and a few other guys I knew. I do like it here but I'm more excited to learn khmae and how to become a better missionary!
"Don't just go on a mission...become a missionary."  Elder Bednar.

I plan on doing just that!!!

Love all yall, Elder Decker!

We went out to Provo and had a chance to visit with Chelsea before we dropped Josh off at the MTC.  Posted by Dad