Ahem, ahem...HELLO??? Anyone out there???

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Is anyone at there?-there-there....Is anyone reading this?-this-this....

AHEM, well ANYWAY, I'll do it anyway, if not to just kill some time.

Yeah, I'm back. I've been back for a couple of months. Actually, almost three! WOW! I can't believe it, you know it seems like its been so much longer...time goes by slow in the regular world...on my mission three months went by like THAT! (finger-snap)

I've adjusted I suppose. My current life consists of working at Utah State on the Moving Crew almost everyday til around 3, then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to Institute, then Saturdays and sometimes Fridays are reserved for social activities with friends. It going pretty well I would say. I'm just chilling until I move to Logan in the fall and start school at Utah State. I'm pumped to LEARN AGAIN! Yeah, I feel pretty dumb...3 years without higher learning...

On the upside, I just started Twitter again! Turns out I got an account way back in November of 2008, but hardly ever used it. Now that I'm back and its huge I decided to finally give in. For a long time I said I wouldn't, that I didn't like it or whatever but hey, I haven't got much else better to do so I figured I might as well. So look me up! I'm "@EvlConservative" or just type in my name, Cameron Decker. I'll be there.

Anyway, time to waste time somewhere else. Nice catching up with you, make sure to comment so I know someone out there actually read this. If not, well, I doesn't really matter because if you aren't reading this anyway I don't have to tell you what happens if you don't read it, cause you are reading it. Make sense? If not...just leave a comment. Dang Blog.

This is goodbye...

So my friends, family, I'm running out of time to do this. The last few days have been super busy, hence the no posting...but I thought I should have one last goodbye post before I leave. This is it. I have two more days left and I can't believe it. I never thought this time would finally come. But it has and I couldn't be more excited. Honestly, I'm going to miss people and it's going to be hard for a while, but I don't think I can say I'm sad to leave. I really want to leave. I can't wait. You know I love you all, but it's time for this part of my life to happen. So thank you all for everything. I've learned so much from all of you and you've helped me to be where I am today. I don't have much to say except WRITE ME!!!! Haha please, if you can. I'm not saying write everyday...just occasionally every once in a while. It would be nice to hear from you. Here's my MTC address in case you don't know it:

Elder Cameron James Decker
Mexico Veracruz Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604

Now this is my address for when I get to my mission, around the first part of May:

Elder Cameron James Decker
Mexico Veracruz Mission
POB 30150
SLC, UT 84130-0150
USA

Now THIS one is for all you SUPER AWESOME NICE people who want to send me a package (when I get in the mission. Use the Prove MTC address when I'm there):

Elder Cameron James Decker
Mexico Veracruz Mission
Altamirano 27 entre 1 de Mayo y Carranza
Col. Flores Magon
91700 Veracruz, Veracruz
Mexico

So once again, thank you all, I love you, and I'll see you in two years!

Elder Cam

Things are getting crazy...

Okay so basically I just want to talk about how crazy these last days are getting. I'm having to juggle work, picking up everything for my mission, going to the temple, visiting friends, packing up my room, UGH! It's getting so crazy! I'm especially worried about the visiting friends one, because I want to see them all one last time, but the problem is most of them either live far away (mostly in Logan) or are really busy here, so it's hard to please the ones who expect you to see them a ton when you have so much going on and you have to go to them far away because they have school and can't come down but you're busy too but they don't understand that and think you're ignoring them and AHHHH!!!! See what I mean? It's hard! So I want to have some kind of REAL farewell party and try and get most of my good friends together one last time, but I'm not sure everyone can come....blech, it's a tough situation. It makes me really wish my farewell was the Sunday before I leave, because then it would be really simple, an actual farewell instead of the "farewell" I had a little while ago.

So I just want everyone to know, I love you all and I'm really trying but just go easy on me, my lifes really crazy right now. One more week from today and I'll be gone...

I'm out of things to write...

So...............I don't really know what to talk about right now.....nothing is really happening now.....except the preparation of course....uhhh, today I went to Wal-Mart and spent $175, that's interesting right? I went there to buy the rest of the stuff I needed for my mission. Did you know there's a whole section devoted to travel-sized toiletries?! I stumbled upon it in the, I don't know, personal care section of the store, you know, with the shampoo and toothpaste and shaving cream, over there. It was quite handy, I bought a lot of travel-sized things, figured it would be easier to...travel with. Except...oh shoot, I might need more mouthwash than that....that bottle was tiny...I bought two of somethings, and maybe that adds up to just one regular-sized thing, but they were tiny and cute and I couldn't resist. Tiny little deoderants...how cute :) So that was fun, spending a ton of money (Not), and add that to the piles of stuff I bought at the missionary mall last wednesday, and we're looking at quite a hefty sum. It makes me feel bad because I've always tried to be the child that costs my parents less than everyone else, and now I'm costing them more than everyone else...it's rough. But of course it's for a mission, so it's worth it.

Oooo I got something! Wait, that might take to long, and as you know I'm trying to cut back on these novels so people will actually read them. I guess I'll save it for tomorrow. That means you have to come back and see what I've got up my sleeve... ;) See you tomorrow!

Salt Lake City and The Laws of Attraction

So yesterday I went down to Salt Lake with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law. We went to the Temple. It was a really great experience. All I can say is that I LOVE the Temple! It is the nearest you can get to heaven on earth. It's really quite an amazing place, inside and out.

After the Temple we went to "The Roof", the fancy restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith building overlooking the Temple. WOW!!!! It is the fanciest, nicest, best tasting, awesome dinner buffet EVER! Everything was SO good that I basically ate til I was bursting. That's how you have to eat too, because it's so expensive ;) You gotta get your moneys worth ;) The dessert buffet has so many things to choose from I almost had a heart attack trying to choose. And the atmosphere was fantastic, with the fancy furniture, the great service (they re-filled your glass with water like RIGHT AFTER you took a sip, it was pretty funny), the awesome view, and of course the food. It was pretty great, thanks Dad!

So my next topic may surprise some of you, but I just had to mention that while we were at the Roof I saw the most BEAUTIFUL girl I've ever seen in my life! She was stunning! Haha I know some of you are like, "Cameron is into girls?" Haha I know, I've never really been open about it (to most of you...), but yes, it's true. I am only a man ;) But really, I almost didn't want to leave because...well, you know how there's different levels of attraction for each person? There's the people you aren't even remotely attracted to, the people that are just neutral, not good not bad, the people you find somewhat attractive, and then there's to ones that make your mind explode when you see them! I mean really, it's not often this last one happens to me, but I remember I was walking and I saw her and I was literally taken aback. I remember thinking "Holy Hannah!" Don't ask me why this is what I said to myself, but I just remember feeling like I'd been punched in the stomach and I was out of breath, it was pretty crazy...

Anyway, sorry to blab about it, I know it's a weird thing to share with the world, but I guess it was significant to me. After all, I really don't get out much, let alone see attractive women with any sort of regularity. I mean really, I work at a plumbing supply shop, I can count on one hand the number of girls near my age I've seen come in in two years (5), and the number of attractive ones is even lower (2). All I see all day is old fat plumbers waddling in...and then I go home. So like I said, I don't get out much...hence the significant hottie-spotting experience. Hmmm...looks like I've got about a week to fill up that "canteen" if you know what I mean ;)

Things get better, and things get worse.

I am fully confident that now that my mission is getting so close, my life is being divided in two ways. The first is that Spiritually and Emotionally and basically every other way I can feel myself getting stronger. I start to take note of the reasons I'm going and realize that I really believe in them. And it seems like everyday I come up with more and more reasons. Last night was a great night in that I was coming home from Logan with friends and when I got home, I got out of my car and just looked up at the sky. It was a clear winter night and it was an awe-inspiring sight. I continued to look up for about ten minutes, all the while contemplating the vastness of God's power and creation. During that time I had the wonderful feeling that even though God's creations are vast and great, he was still right beside me, all the way. I felt that even though I was leaving all my family and friends, my BEST friends, my Heavenly Father and Brother Jesus Christ would ALWAYS be by my side. They were the only people I would be allowed to take with me, and I felt an incredible feeling of closeness to both of them at that moment. I realized that I'd always been getting close to them my whole life, but never really noticed how close we were until now. Maybe it's because I truly was closer then than I ever have been.

At the same time, however, I can feel the opposing side trying to pull at me. I know that he (Satan) realizes I'm so close to beginning a journey where I will lessen his power, and strengthen God's Kingdom, and I know he does NOT want that to happen. So he tries to pick at my weaknesses and flaws and get me to come down from the point I've been raised to, he wants me to fail at the last moment, to strike out in the bottom of the 9th, and get me to fail my task, or least send me on the task weakened (as none of my weaknesses would stop me from going on a mission). Fortunately, I feel closer to God than ever before, and I know he's got my back, so I keep on going and I don't look back.

I was once told this would happen by a good friend of mine who is now on a mission. At first I thought maybe that was just HIS struggle, at the last moment before his mission. But now I realize that he was right, that the adversary IS trying to thwart me now, because he knows its going to be a lot harder once I'm officially a missionary. So now I'm going to take the advice that missionary gave, I'm going to flick him right off my shoulder and keep on pressing on.

Life in these United States....of Cameron.

So today will probably be a jumble of topics, I don't really know where I'm going with this, so we'll so what happens.

Alright, well I guess I'll start with how interesting my life has been for the past...8 months, about. That's how long it's been since I've graduated and the time where so many interesting things have happened with my life. I believe I've grown more since I've graduated than I have in all of high school combined (emotionally and spiritually. Not physically or mentally...) and so much has happened to me to shape who I am to be. For the first few months after high school I was basically a world traveler. I calculate that I was somewhere different exactly every other week from June to mid-August. First it was Lake Powell on my Senior Trip, then to EFY Rexburg with my buddy Mike (if you don't know our story of how we got lost on that trip, ask us about it sometime), then at the end of June I went to Havasupai with my ward's Priests (that's a beautiful place), next I went on a little camping trip with the entire side of my Mom's family, then camping and fishing with my Dad and brothers in the Uintahs, and finally I ended it with my finale trip, Peru for two weeks to pick up my brother. I still can't get out of my head how awesome that trip was. In many ways I feel like it prepared me for my mission, being away from home and in another country as I way. It was incredible.

Then the next few months til now have just kind of blurred by, nothing really big happening, just the same old schedule broken by small spurts of joyous times, my mission call being the biggest of those. During those beginning months (August & September) I said goodbye a lot though. I said goodbye to one of my best friends in the world when Jordan moved to Alabama. Then a few days later said farewell to a good friend in my ward who'd become a great example to me (Godspeed Elder Jorgensen!) then a few weeks later said goodbye to one of my greatest and longest friends, Patrick Ulrich, who also left for his mission in Philly. And then the next Sunday, this is the last Sunday in September, I said goodbye once again to a missionary friend, this time it was my good buddy Monk, or Jake Saunders. So I had said a lot of farewells in that short period of time. I've said a few more since then but that time was just filled with them.

But besides goodbyes and mission calls, it's all sorta breezed by, me wishing I'd been gone before now on every passing day. Don't get me wrong, I've had a LOT of good times with friends over these months, but as I've mentioned before, I feel like I'm just wasting life away, getting lazy and comfortable, and that's kind of scares me. But I finally get to get started exactly two weeks from today. Writing my last post reminded me of how much I really am going to miss people. I never really thought about it until Monday, not even the day before at my farewell, because it technically wasn't, me having 2 1/2 weeks left then. But now I realize that there will be a fair amount of homesickness involved, despite all the times I've told myself that there won't be, because I'm so ready to be out there. But there will be. I can only hope that I get over it soon enough. I'm also determined to have a really happy attitude starting when I first get out. I think some of the other missionaries need someone like that to look up to when they miss home, and as someone who has the perspective I do (that in 2 short years we'll be back to our families and friends for a lifetime), I think I can provide that comfort. Or at least I hope so.