Feliz Año Nuevo!!!!... almost

Buenos Dias!!!

It has been a great week here in Alabama :) First things first. Muchas Gracias for the Christmas present!!! I finally got it on Friday and I nearly cried it was so amazing. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful testimonies. I feel so blessed to have so many people who love me out there :) and it gets me excited for the work to help all others to have the same happiness that I have. And it was great to talk to my beautiful family on Tuesday!!!! and to top it all off JOSE LUIS GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was a great week :) I have seen a tremendous change in Jose Luis" countenance as we have continued to work with him and I have never seen him as happy as he was after his baptism. I am excited for his membership in the church. He is going to be a great member.

Anywho, Christmas was great. I ate a lot! too much! We had a sleep over in the living room on Christms eve and on Christmas and watched our churched approved christmas movies like Mr. Krugers Christmas and Joy to the World. The members here in Huntsville were so nice and welcoming so all and all, it was a good Christmas. It was hard to get back into the groove of working afterwards, especially because it was FREEZING on Wednesday. It was snowing... and we had to go and tract. It's all well though :) We were hardly outside once we got a ride from a member. Oh! and we have been riding our bikes a lot here and I have had 6 flats so far... I'm pretty sure that's a new record for a week. The elders were a great help though in attempting to fix them all... even if they exploded a few of the tubes ;) Needless to say it has been an interesting week. I found out this morning I am going to be staying in Florence this next tranfer with Hermana Belford!!! I am excited to be working there with the amazing ward and my awesome companion. That means I still won't be working with many spanish people but we are searching them out :) I did get the opportunity to go to the spanish branch here in Huntsville. It was a great experience. I loved it, even if I didn't understand everything that was going on... ;)

By the way, to answer mom's question about playing the piano here, I don't really get the opportunity to do it in my Florence ward, but they definitely needed it in the branch and in other wards and branches. They wanted me to play but.. I really am out of practice... and I was sad because I couldn't help. So Serph and Colby! Learn to play the Hymns!!! You definitely get the opportunity to use your musical talents here on a mission. I don't even sing but Siste r Belford and I sang at Jose Luis' baptism... Sister Belford was Idaho Idol so she has a BEAUTIFUL voice. It was a bit intimidating but I loved the opportunity to sing.. even if it isn't that amazing ;)  

I taught a few spanish lessons here in Huntsville :D one lady said I don't have an american accent but more of like a russian accent. I don't know where that came from but hey! at least I dont sound like an american. I taught a lesson all by myself in spanish! Well it was a less active and he did most of the talking. I just shook my head every once and a while and said "Si" when appropriate. But he was greatful that we came over and he said he loves the missioneras :)

Los Amo Mucho!!!! I miss you all and hope all is going well at home. I'm praying for each of you every day :)

Con Amor -Hermana Decker

P.s. Here's a spanish joke for ya'll

Que hace el pez en el mar???

NADA!!!

And I found a great scripture I relly liked. Moroni 9:6 :) It's because I am working on my dilligence.

Hola!

Buenas Tardes!!! So I don't have much to say today since I will be talking to you tomorrow :D But heads up, I got a surprise call from the assistants on Saturday and they put me on an exchange for the rest of the transfer, so until January 3rd so I am now in Huntsville. I was pretty sad about it at first because I don't get to spend Christmas at "home" with the Florence Ward and my sisters in the Apartment... But after a few tears shed in personal study I decided to study Humility and I just kept reminding myself that the mission is not about me. I am happy to do whatever president asks me to do. I am now with Sister Gehrig who is a German Temple square sister and she is great! She is an english speaker though, but we live with spanish sisters so we will be going on little exchanges so I can get spanish experience as well. I get to go to the Spanish branch on Sunday!!! That's pretty exciting. 

Other good news! JOSE LUIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! He had his interview and everything and his date is this friday! President gave me permission to drive back to Florence to go to the Baptism so I am super excited I get to be there because at first I wasn't sure if he would let me.

Hmmm... not much else left to say, since i get to talk to you tomorrow!!!! I should be skyping ya'll tomorrow around noonish here so... 10ish there. Can't wait to see ya'll!!! Hopefully that time is okay for yall :) hopefully I remember my password for skype...

Love ya'll mucho!!!!! 

Christmas

We have three homes to go to for Christmas day and we are partying with the Martinez family on Christmas eve. I'm still not positive how the call works but I am hoping I can skype home. I just have to find someone with a computer and camera and we will do it at their house. Then you can meet my amazing companion as well :) Can't wait!!

Sorry!

Sorry forgot. I gave a talk on sunday too! That was quite an adventure. I used my farewell talk... haha. I changed it up a bit though but it was pretty much the same. We have not time to write talks!

Love you mucho!

Pictures!!!

Picture

Mas fotos

Hola Hola

Buenas Tardes!!!

Hello Hello!! Can I just tell ya'll how grateful I am for this time of year! Christmas really does bring out a great spirit in the air. People are more likely to let us into their home this Holiday season and most people, at least down here in the south, love that we talk about the birth of Christ. There are nativity scenes everywhere! It is great!! Can't take the Jesus out of the South... if only they all knew the whole story of Jesus!! But I guess that's why we are here right? :)

I feel like my heart has grown tremendously here on this mission. I have never felt so much love for people I hardly know in my whole life. And I love the people I already love 10 times more. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his love. I pray every night that I can learn to love people as much as he does and I know since I am living a better life his love can more effectively touch my heart so I can show it to others. If I can just let others feel how much love I feel from the Lord then that's good enough for me.

Today has been an amazing week even with the tragedy. It is so sad that there are people that wicked in the world. I can't even imagine what those families are going through... It is a horrible thing but I am so grateful mom for the stories of Heroism that you sent me. Made me cry just sitting here reading them. I wish people would pay attention to the good in the world instead of all of the bad. We can take comfort in the fact that God has a plan for us and that death is not the end and judgement will come to the wicked. 

We had the opportunity to go to the Temple this Thursday. I love the temple and learn something new every time I'm there. I had the opportunity to reflect on where I was and who I am becoming. I still have a long way to go but I have seen the effects of the Gospel and the Atonement in my life already.

Tuesday we went tracting and it was FREEZING! My feet where to numb to even walk so Sister Belford told me I was waddling like a penguin. Hopefully I can get boots today so my feet don't fall off. Just a small sacrifice for the Lord I guess :) Keep moving forward. On Wednesday we had District meeting and on the way there I hit a curb and popped the tire... I didn't feel so bad since Sister Albright had popped a tire there a few months ago as well. Some nice man came and helped us put on the spare. Guess he felt bad for a bunch of girls in skirts trying to figure it out.  We've been teaching a lot more spanish people which is great! I love all of them, they are all so loving. Jose Luis, one of our investigators from our one spanish family, finally picked his baptismal date!!!! :D It's the 28th of this month so we hope he pulls through with it. He really is a great guy he just wants to know for sure before he throws himself into anything. Sister Albright left this week. It was actually pretty sad. She is now home in Maryland. We were all sad to see her go but know she is off to more great things :) She is an amazing missionary and I learned a lot from her.

Well that's pretty much it for the week. I'm loving every moment out here even in the hard times. Sometimes your so tired you don't even want to talk, but the Lord provides a way :) Love you all!!! Miss you all!!!! I will see you soon!

Con Amor, Hermana Decker

La Semana Loca

Buenas Tardes!!!!

Wow this week has been a crazy one!! We have pretty much been all over the mission within this past week. We were in Tupelo Mississippi this Tuesday for a Zone Training, and then we were in Birmingham area on Thursday night and Huntsville on Friday and Russelville on Saturday, so we weren't in our own area in good ol' Florence very much at all.

First to answer a few questions and mention things I forgot to mention last week. We still live with the same two girls we lived with last transfer, Sister Albright and Sister Leifson. Sister Leifson came to Alabama the same time I did and Sister Albright is leaving for home this Thursday :( We're all quite sad. She is an AMAZING missionary and we have become good friends so I am sad to see her go. But hopefully we can keep in touch. We also have a visa waiter living with us. She is from Micronesia and is supposed to be heading for Australia as soon as her Visa comes. She is great and is learning English which is fun because we get to help her a lot. The weather here has been amazing up till today. It has been way warm, but today a storm decided to hit. We have been riding our bikes still a lot, which is always good fun. Especially when it decided to rain on Tuesday on our way home. At least it wasn't cold. 

Anywho! My companion and I are doing this thing that one of the 70 gave a talk on, I dont know when. But it's about sanctifying yourself. It's all about if you want to see miracles happening you have to become the best person you can be. Even if that means giving up something that is not necessarily bad, but it's not the best thing to be thinking about or doing on the mission. This really is the Lords time and we have to give our all to it. It's not really a sacrifice otherwise. So I made a list of some things that I need to work on and things I could improve on and I have already seen that I am getting better. It's supposed to be like a 40 day fast of somethings like thinking about worldly music for example and you can see the difference after those 40 days. But by then you probably won't want those things anyways. One of mine was to stop being so sarcastic. I keep telling my companion that mom calls it Scarcasm and so when ever I say something sarcastic, punch me or something. Anyways, just thought I'd share.

I got to learn how to make homemade tortillas this week!! :D Octaviana (our spanish fam here in Florence) taught me how... I am not very good at it, even though there is not really anything to it. It's the putting it on the burner that I always mess up on because they like put there hand on the burner as they are laying it down and I am afraid of it. I love the Mexican food. I wish we taught more Spanish people, just because I love the food so much ;)

We are teaching this awesome Christmas lesson to families in the ward so they have been inviting us over more for dinner, It's great, but I am pretty sure I've put on a few pounds. I'm probably gonna have to buy some new skirts here soon ;) With all this southern food and Mexican food, it's bound to happen.

We ran into a lady this week named Joyce as we were tracting and she let us in right away. When I told her why we were there she just started to pour out all of her life story and how she was having a difficult week this week. Her siblings have recently died this year and she mentioned how hard it was especially this Christmas season. When I told her that we knew that Jesus Christ had sent us here to bless her and bring her peace she broke down crying. When we say that we have been sent there by Christ, they can feel it and they know it. This has happened more than once for us. I love it because when we say that, it reminds me that we really are here on the Lords errand. 

We had our ward Christmas party this Wednesday which was great. Lots and lots of delicious southern food. Gotta love it. Our Spanish Family came which was good. I wish they would just get baptized already! they already act like members.

I mentioned we have been traveling alot. Thursday night we went to Birmingham for Sister Epina (the Micronesian) to teach some people who speak Pompeian. Sister Belford and I were just along for the ride since we live with the Russelville sisters and we needed to be there in Birmingham for the Christmas Luncheon at the Mission home for Friday anyways. The Christmas Luncheon was great too by the way. Sister Holzapfel is the sweetest and an amazing cook. Then we stopped by Huntsville on our way back for Sister Epina to teach more people. Saturday we went to Russelville which is the area that the sisters who live with us are in charge of. But that area is like little Mexico. I have no Idea why they don't have us there. There are TONS of Mexicans there and all these Tiendas at every corner. So I got to speak in a lot of spanish. The President wants us to work in that area too so that the spanish members and inactives don't think that they are forgotten.

Which reminds me... We are getting 3 spanish sisters in February and 8 it march... That is more spanish sisters than there are here right now!!! I didn't know this but actually the few of us that are here are the first spanish sisters in Alabama ever!! The very first one just left a couple weeks ago. So since there are so many spanish sisters are coming, guess who get's to train them... yep that would be every spanish sister here. That means that I will for positively be training by March. It's a bit intimidating because I do not feel ready and my spanish is certainly not ready so I guess I better learn fast. But it is so exciting all of the new sisters who are coming!!! we have tons and tons of 19 year old girls coming here soon. And we only know as far as March. I'm pretty sure I will be training for the rest of my mission.

Well that was pretty much my week. I have been sick the past few days so I have been out of it especially with all the drugs in my system ;) But I just got to keep working. I'd rather be out and about doing the work of the Lord than sitting at home :) 

I love you all!!! Les Quiero Muchisimo!!! Miss ya'll and see you soon :D

Con amor, Hermana Decker

P.S. Sister Albright loves that CD you sent mom of the Piano Guys. She insists that she interpretive dance to it every time it comes on and we listened to it a lot this week since we were in the car so much.

P.S.S. Gracias for the photos!!! Brayden you look like such a stud! I like the hair cut. The sisters here said you already look like a missionary. And Serph, You look so Handsome in your Dance pictures. You always look classy.

And here's a spanish joke for yall

What did one spanish Jaguar say to the other?

Jaguar (hag-war) you :D

Letter to Mama

Hola Mama :)

I just wanted to thank you and pops for all that you have taught me. You raised me to stand strong in what I believe and I would not be here without you. Any bumps in the road were my own fault and they had nothing to do with you or dad. I know that I gave you both a little heart ache in the past and I am sorry for that. I hope to never do that again and I don't plan on it ;) 

If I could ask for anything this Christmas it wouldn't be any of the things I usually ask for. I don't need anything from Santa, but I would love to see your sisters come back to the Church. I see people every day who have fallen away and I can't help but to think that they are somebody's aunt as well, and a missionary somewhere is praying that some other missionaries or some other ward members will reach out to them. I hope that Jenny comes to see the blessings the Gospel has for her. The only thing I can think to help her at this point is to keep loving her. 

Really though, I don't have anything to ask for :) just lots of pictures and ya'lls prayers will make me happy this Christmas. Love you mucho mucho!!!!

Love, Masey

Que Pasa Calebaza

Buenas Tardes!!!

What an eventful week it has been here in Florence Alabama. The days just shoot by here it's crazy! I can't believe It's already Monday again. Well working with Hermana Belford has been great. I love how each companion can teach you something new and how to be a better missionary. Hermana Belford and I are always enjoying each and every moment. I think it's good to have a bit of laughter while we are walking from door to door and we definitely do that. I love finding the joy in each and every moment and I'm learning to have a good attitude about everything. It makes the work that much better.

I haven't been writing in my journal this week so it's hard to remember what happened this week but I will try my best to remember the important things. We have been doing a lot more of knocking doors this week, which may not be the most effective form of missionary work, but at least 1 out of every 10 doors let's us in. The blessing the homes thing really does work however. It certainly brings the spirit into the home and the people can feel it. The trick is to get in the door. I didn't like knocking doors before, but it has become a lot easier and more meaningful when I go into it with Faith that what I say is important and that it can change the life of that person who has their own trials and tribulations. Were not just going around trying to get people into our church. Were bringing the good news. That Jesus Christ lives! That the same church he organized on the earth is on the earth once again and he has once again reached out to his children to help them return to him. Its the plan of Happiness, and who doesn't want happiness in this life!? I just wish people would see that when they see two girls standing on their front door, but all they see are the mormon missionaries coming to baptize them. 

We got to have a family night with our Mexicano family on Tuesday. It was so much fun. We did a Jeopardy game for the third lesson and I brought some Texas sheet cake and Octaviana (the mom) made us some Mexican food which I can't remember what it's called. It was delicious and they made me eat about 6 servings. My companion thinks it's funny to tell them that I want more... and you can't say no to the spanish people. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back 5 sizes bigger. The daughter, Dulce, has really started to open up to us. She's 18 and really shy. But I feel we are getting to a better place and becoming friends. The son Jose Luis had his baptismal interview on Saturday!!! :D .... but he's not ready. The Elder who interviewed him said that he's more ready then some of the people he interviews, but Jose Luis wants to know for sure and have a strong testimony of the Libro de Mormon and of the profetas and he doesn't right now. The thing is, I think he does he just doesn't think he does. But I'm sure his baptism will come soon enough :)

Spanish this week has been better. We got to go to our neighboring area on Wednesday of Russelville to teach the Hispanos there and they were so nice. We plan on going there more because the president told us that our job in this area is to visit the spanish members and inactives to make sure they don't feel like we've forgotten them. We also went to a bunch of the Spanish inactives in our ward yesterday. They all pretty much compose of the Limon family and we finally met the mom of these 11 children yesterday. She is such an old sweet lady. I am in love with the Hispanic food that they feed us!!! And they never fail to feed us. If they know were coming over, they will have food. I'm probably a little to much in love with it, so it's a good thing we have been riding our bikes everywhere... Well Hermana Belford's tire popped the other day so we had to walk all the rest of the way on Saturday. That was quite the adventure. We also got to go to Birmingham this week with the Zone leaders. They pick two sisters every council and they picked Sister Leifson and I since were new so we could get a feel for their meetings and give some input... I just want to say that I am so glad there is not any sister zone leaders because that is too much to handle! OH!!! We know that there are two 19 year old sisters heading here in February :D yay!!! The scary thing is that that means I may be trianing earlier than I want to... hopefully not.

I am loving being here in Alabama. I can't think of anywhere else I would rather be at this moment in my life. The Christmas season is great because the hearts of the people are so much more open to the message of Christ and I love it!! 

Les Extrano y Les Amo!!!! 

Con Amor, Hermana Decker :)

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Transfers!

Buenas Tardes!!!!

Well Alabama is certainly wearing off on me. I think I've pretty much got the "Yes ma'am" and "Yes sir" down. Some members in the ward from out west were making fun of me because I kept saying "Ya'll" but hey I said ya'll before Alabama so... I ended up just changing to saying "ustedes" because they both speak spanish. Pretty much everyday up to Thanksgiving has been warm. Then all of a sudden it gets freezing cold and now it's back to somewhat warm again. The weather here is just about as bipolar as everywhere else I've lived. Alabama and Auburn game was this week. Pretty much a pretty big game down here. If Alabama is playing, your lucky to get anybody to let you into there house. But hey if they win, then everyone is very friendly ;)

So this week has been pretty much amazing. One of our investigators dropped us. That's fine though because she was a little bit scary. She didn't like the fact that our religion talks so much about love and happiness... alright girlfriend were outta here. Our ward mission leader, Brother Egee, and one of the bishopric met with us this tuesday to discuss the fact that not enough of the members are helping us and feeding us. I just thought this was how it was here so I had no complains. They said the ward members need the blessings so they should start to have us over more. Yay for free food! We never have time to make anything real special for meals so it's nice when we get some good home cooking. Still nothing has beat moms home cookin' :D 

Wednesday was transfers. That means I had to say goodbye to my trainer Sister Intriago as she heads back to Temple square. She goes home in about three months back to Ecuador. She was sad to leave but she was also excited to head back to work the Christmas time in Temple Square. We thought for sure my new companion was going to be Hermana Sherwin who came on exchanges here a couple weeks ago, but we were happily surprised to see that it would be Hermana Belford. She is great! I have already learned so much from her and she is pretty much Hilarious. She's a Poly from Idaho Falls, but not one of the Lazy ones ;) I have really enjoyed working with her so far and I am really looking forward to this transfer. She's been out for 15 months and has been working in this one area before here for 10 months! She was sad to go but the Lord knows best I guess. The place she worked before was Birmingham so she has been pretty much in the city for most of her mission and we live out in the country up here. She was in a spanish branch before as well so her spanish is great... We just hardly speak spanish here so she might not get much more practice. The President did tell us however that we should be working with all of the spanish members and inactives in our area and in the Russelville area to make sure they know they have not been forgotten. I think the Lord put us here in Florence to set the foundation for a branch some day. I sure do hope so. And to work with our ONE spanish family. We love them so much! They are so great!! and they love to help me with my spanish, even if it consists of laughing at me every once and a while for how horrible I sound ;) Jose Luis just had his interview with the Presidente and he gave the go ahead so now it's just getting this Hermano to pick a date. Which he will not do! Mexicans just love to take there time with everything.

My brain is probably about to explode because I have so much information to retain. Since Sister Intriago left I'm pretty much in charge of knowing who we need to see and where we need to go. All of this without a car.... There is know way I would be able to be in charge of all this without the help of the Lord. Since Sister Belford has been here we have been tracting hard core! It's been great! but super tiring. For the past few days most of what we have done is knock on doors and bless houses. We have pretty much gone a little to much over our miles limit on our car so we have been biking EVERYWHERE. And our area is not small or flat by any means. For Thanksgiving we biked 5 miles to our first dinner on the most hilly road I've ever seen. I pretty much wanted to die. Sister Belford has been biking since her last area so she has calves of steel and I'm like dying trying to make it up the next hill. But hey, we got to work off all those extra calories on our way back. We first ate at Sister Rhodes. An older lady in our ward who lives our by her self. She is so sweet. We call her mama Rhodes. Then we got to go eat at the Bishops house and they only make healthy food so everything was very filling and still delicious... besides the healthy pie. When I want pie, I want it to be nice and sugary.

The other day we knocked on this one door and said our usual, "The Lord has sent us here to leave his blessing and peace on you and your house." He gave us a look and said, I'll be right back and closed the door. I turned to sister belford and said, "You think he is coming back." Luckily he did like 3 minutes later and came out to talk to us. Long story short, he is in a very dark part of his life. He's about late 20's early 30's and he just started balling when we started talking to him. He said things have gotten so rough, he has almost considered taking his own life. He knew though that we had been sent there to help him and he repeated that over and over again while we talked to him. It's amazing what just telling someone that God hasn't forgotten them and he loves them, can do for a person. The gospel blesses lives :)

So anywho, this week has been an eventful week. From teaching a man with a lumberjack shirt and a hole in his head, to people waiting in there car outside there apartment till we are not in view anymore, doors slammed in our faces, a house filled with at least 50 cats, a black kid who kept saying "That's straight" after everything we said, the Egee's feeding us almost every day, a man who refused to put his shirt on, every primary kid inviting us over to Christmas day, knocking on a door of a Jehova's witness, and pretty much doing none of that in spanish. 

The Field is white and ready to Harvest :D I'm loving every minute of being out here and I only hope that I can continue to learn and grow in every way possible. It has already gone by so fast, I don't want to waste a minute of it. I hope all is well at home and I am so grateful for all of your prayers! God Bless! See you soon! Les Amo Mucho!!!

Love, Hermana Decker

P.S. Muchas Gracias for the package with my backpack, CD's, New sweater, and of course the Pumpkin Bread :)

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Buenos Dias!

Hola!!

Como Estan? Spreading the gospel here each and every day! It's great! We have practically no more miles on our car for the month because... well I don't know, our area is too big I guess, so we have been riding our bikes a lot. I absolutely love it, but my companion on the other hand, is not to happy about it. At one point this week I was in front of her and we were going up this hill, before I knew it I was at the next stop light and my companion was no where in sight... woops. She's a little bit slower on the bicycle, but she did show up about 3 minutes later. The rule is as long as were in sight of each other on bikes, there is no need for being in sound of each other. So whenever she get's mad at me for going to fast, I just say, "Well you could see me right?" I better have some ripped calves by the time I get home since I run every morning and bike everywhere now.

This week has been an interesting week. That's one thing I've got to say, the mission is hardly ever dull. We taught a lady this week the Restoration and while talking with some of the members later about it, we discovered that the lady is a member... you would think she would tell us something like that. She has been going to another church though, so I guess it was a good reminder. She was spanish (Woot a spanish speaker!) and she told my companion that I was very strong for trying to learn Spanish. It's funny how they never direct those comments to me. They think I won't understand I guess. While riding our bikes Sister Intriago told me to go talk to this scary black girl walking down the street. I rode by and said hi to which she just gave me a blank stare and so I'm thinking, okay nice talking to you. But Sister Intriago is a great missionary and keeps talking to her. We ended up getting an appointment with her at McDonalds and we have taught her 2 lessons so far. She's a little bit scary. She's not a Devil worshiper but she thinks God has some different motive besides love and has no desire to find the "happiness" of our message, she just wants the truth. She keeps reading the Book of Mormon so we keep teaching her, but we may end up dropping her tonight if she has some crazy questions again. Our spanish speaking family is finally pulling through with something. The son Jose Luis has his baptism interview with the Mission President this Friday! Yay! Due to different circumstances we can't make a set date with him yet, but hopefully it will be soon. We had District meeting on Wednesday this week. Our District is great, I love them all. Our district leader, Elder Jensen made us a Cheesecake for afterwards and it was somewhat... gross, but we ate it anyway and told him it was delicious ;) I found out that one of the rules is that the Sisters aren't allowed to cook or bake anything for the Elders. I guess it just goes with that saying, the quickest way to a mans heart is through his stomach, so they don't want the Elders falling in love with us ;) 

I'm getting better at just speaking spanish even if I know it isn't correct. I teach more of the lessons now, but sometimes they just stare at me and then look at my companion for translation on what I am trying to say :) Oh well, It's helping me learn right. Sometimes I know I say things terribly wrong because they just laugh at me, but it's no big deal. Oh! We help teach the English class right? Every wednesday, and this Wednesday one of the regular guys who shows up didn't. Later during the night we receive a text and tells us that he is in love with my companion and cannot come because he knows it is wrong (especially since he's married). What! It was actually kind of funny at first, but we had to be serious with him. We just explained why we are here and that he needs to work things out with his wife. He can come next week because my companion is leaving me :( Yup, I am receiving a new trainer this Wednesday as Sister Intriago heads back to temple square. I get to stay in Florence and my new trainer will be coming here, so it's a little bit intimidating because I have to know the area and who to go see and what not, but I am sure I can figure it out... 

Last Friday we received a referral from Salt Lake. Some Sisters from Temple square have been talking to this guy Will who is a student, first semester, here at Florence. We made an appointment with him on Saturday and he is so ready to accept the Gospel! He is great! He is just a big nerdy kid from Tuscaloosa Alabama and got interested in the Church when he came to School. After we taught him the first lesson he said, "I don't know about ya'll but the whole time you were teaching that lesson, I just wanted to cry." He felt the spirit so strong, and he accepted the baptismal date for December 15th and I am pretty sure this one will actually pull through. He came to Stake Conference all the way in Tupelo Mississippi for crying out loud! He's ready. I'm excited for him.

Thanksgiving should be interesting. I am not looking forward to tract that day, but we do have one dinner set up for 1 o'clock. Hopefully more members invite us over so we don't have to interrupt other peoples dinners. But hey, were bringing people salvation right? ;) 

The missionaries here are amazing. I got to go with Sister Albright one day this week to help with her area and we get along great. She's a little bit like me in that sometimes we are a bit to sarcastic for our own good and Sister Intriago has a hard time understanding that I am just kidding when I say things to Sister Albright, or anyone for that matter. So I am definitely learning to be a bit more careful about what I say to people. The ward here is Amazing as well. We have some great families, I just love them all. Words cannot describe how much I have learned already being here nor how much love you can have for someone you hardly even know until you experience it yourself.

So much to tell you all! I just wish I could take you all with me so ya'll could see the miracles and craziness that goes on her in Florence Alabama. 

Les Quiero Mucho! And Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Hermana Decker

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My Thanksgiving gratitude

I am planning to send some pictures next week. Wanted to send them today, but didn't have an area where I could put in my card in the computer I chose. Love you So much!!! Thanks for Everything. Give everyone a big hug for me!

Oh and could you add for what I'm grateful for. Family, Jesus, Mom's cooking :), The Gospel

A week of changes

Hola!!!

How is everyone doing this lovely day! Well I don't know how it is

there, but it is raining cats and dogs here. I lost my planner this

week so I don't have a record of everything we did this week, but, I

will try my best to remember.

We had zone conference this tuesday in Tupelo Mississippi (I think i

wrote Tennessee last time). It was pretty amazing. President Holzapfel

is so powerful its crazy. So crazy news here in the Alabama Birmingham

mission. Our numbers next year of missionaries in the field has

doubled! and not just doubled, we will have 112 Elders, 22 seniors,

and 138 sister missionaries... yes 138 sister missionaries!!! It is

definitely a revolutionary time to be a missionary. That means those

of us who just got here may have to train two sisters just to keep up

with the influx of sisters. Crazy huh!! Mission conferences are gonna

be crazy! We were reminded that if we think there is not enough work

to do here in Alabama, then we are wrong because the Lord is sending

twice as many as now.

President also talked about the "mormon moment". This was before the

election but he said that we should take advantage of the people who

are in the news like Romney, and Jamari Parker, and people like that

and talk about them with people. D&C 88:73 says "I will hasten my work

in its time" and we certainly believe now is the time and so we need

to raise our sights!! Our goal for this month in our zone is 24

baptisms. That's about 1 per missionary for our zone, so we definitely

need to pick it up. He also said that even if Romney doesn't win, the

Mormon moment is not over.

So our amazing miracle lady, may turn out to be not so much of a

miracle... We are just so confused. She was supposed to come to a

relief society activity and said she was sick and then she didn't come

to church. We went to see her at her house and brought her cookies but

her sister in law answered and said they were sleeping and had been in

Mississippi all weekend. Then she promptly shut the door before we

were done with the conversation. Something is just fishy about the

whole thing. Hopefully we can figure something out.

So we are not supposed to talk about politics but, I will say that we

are certainly praying for our country and our president harder than

ever now ;) On election day nobody told us who won so we went to bed

without knowing, thinking the mission President would send us a text.

But in the morning there was nothing. So sister Leifson and I ran to

Mcdonalds just down the street to look at the newspaper and that's

when we found out. It was definitely a shock.

We had Exchanges this week. That was certainly an adventure. I went to

Albertsville Guntersville area with Hermana Oman. She is super sweet

and great and is leaving at our next transfer meeting which is

November 21, so she has been here a long time. We were supposed to

teach in spanish but we didn't teach any in spanish. We didn't do many

teaching at all in fact. We stayed in houses way to long and were

mostly with members. Thus, I have resolved to never get lazy and

finish my mission strong.

The spanish is pretty frustrating. It's even more frustrating that we

hardly teach anyone in spanish at all. But yesterday we had a lot of

refferrals for spanish people... I still have a lot to learn. I feel

like I havent progressed very much since I got here, but I have

resolved to just continue forward in faith knowing the lord sent me

here to this area for a reason and there is no reason I should not be

progressing in spanish as long as I am doing what I am supposed to.

I am certainly learning humility out here. Plus everything else that I

am lacking in my life :) This week has been rough but I am trying to

not let it discourage me. Hard things make you stronger right. That's

why it's so important to get out here on the mission. I know I would

not be the person I want to become without this experience.

I love yall and I hope that everything is well.

Love Hermana Decker!

Miracles!

Buenos Dias Familia y Amigos!!

Let me start off with a quote that President Holzapfel got in his mission president seminar in Florida:

Elder Holland, "Surely there is no more powerful missionary message we can send to the world than the example of a loving and happy Latter-day Saint life. The manner and bearing, the smile and kindness of a faithful member of the Church brings a warmth and an outreach which no missionary tract or videotape can convert. People do not join the Church because of what they know—but what they feel and what they see and want spiritually."

Bah! I am so excited to her the news of Brayden's mission call!!! That is so exciting!!! Mexico Monterrey East!! Yay Spanish! He'll probably know spanish before I can speak it well. That's kind of scary too! I know the Lord will watch over him though.

The days just keep racing past here in sweet home Alabama. I am starting to get the hang of all of this missionary stuff. I'm getting better at talking to everybody and anybody. I am not as timid to knock on a door or hesitant to go up to a house. I am reminded of what President Monson has said, "Whom the Lord calls, he qualifies." I try to remember that as we go about each day. We had Zone training on Friday in Tupelo Tennessee which was an absolutely beautiful drive. There we learned this amazing door approach which only 7 missions are using but each one of them have seen a significant increase in their baptisms and return appointments. It's not necessarily new approach, we find examples of it in Alma 10:11 and D&C 75:18-19, but it is a newly applied approach. What happens is we go knock on the door and tell the people our names and tell them we are representatives of Jesus Christ and he has sent us her to your family to leave a blessing on your home and your family. We then ask if we can go inside and leave the blessing with them, kneel, and as Elders, they actually get to bless the home and family, us as sisters ask for a blessing on their home and family. We then get up ask how they felt and leave with a commitment and return appointment for another day. That way we leave them when the spirit is the strongest. We of course ask them for referrals as we do with everyone and then leave... It's a pretty bold approach, but people have seen that we have been getting about 60% of return appointments on those doors knocked and that is a significant increase. Me and my companion have only done it once so far,but the spirit was so strong as we knelt down and my companion asked for a blessing on the house and family. I know the man felt it too, and even though he said he was not interested in our message, he thanked us for the blessing that we left and I really hope it touched his heart so some day, he will be ready to listen. I like the boldness of the approach and the spirit it brings.

We have been working with a lot of the inactives to try and get them to come back to church. They are usually more stubborn than the investigators are. A lot of them make a lot of promises and then don't keep them. If you aren't gonna come to church than just tell us!! Instead of lie and say you will. But it's still great to see them all. One of the guys we are working with is a druggy who keeps lying to the bishop so he can get money from the church. The bishop knows that he is lying but we are trying so hard to help their family because his two daughters do come to church almost every week. Really, the gospel blesses families, the mission has only solidified that for me because I see the difference each and every day.

People feed us way to much down here! I am going to be ginormous by the time I get back. And we have to eat everything they give us, which stinks because the thing about southern food is, It's either amazingly delicious... or disgusting. But we smile and eat it all anyways. On Halloween one of the members had us come over for some potato soup. Reminded me of home since we always have soup on Halloween. It was delicious. We also found a Muslim boy on Halloween during the day. He kindly listened to our beliefs and we told him ours and we got a return appointment so we'll see where that goes. The thing with Muslims though, is if they want to be baptized they need to have an interview with the mission president because if they go home to their own country after being baptized Christian... They could be killed.

One of our investigators is so great. She is such a sweet woman and always makes me laugh when we go over there. She still has her problems with the Word of Wisdom. We thought of dropping her because she is not keeping commitments but the spirit just keeps telling us to stick with her. We know Satan is working really hard on her. Hopefully we can get some leeway with her. Our spanish family we are teaching... the one spanish family we are teaching... Is seriously amazing. The mom, Octaviana, is so ready for baptism she just can't be baptized till her boyfriend gets divorced to his wife in Mexico and then they get married. She has such a strong testimony though and she told us yesterday she is willing to do whatever it takes to get baptized... we'll see what that means later. Her son is great too. He is 22 and knows he needs to get baptized but is waiting till he knows for a surety that the BOM is true. He doesn't feel like he has recieved an answer yet. He has some issues from his past he needs to clear up as well, but we are hoping his baptism will be sometime this month.

So the other day we were leaving the Library and I smiled at a woman as we walk past her and she says, "Are you LDS!" When I responded yes she gave me a big hug and proceeded to tell us that she went to Salt Lake 3 years ago and to temple square. The sisters there gave her a tour and she said she was balling and just knew everything was true and said about the Temple, "one day I'm going to enter in those doors." Ever since then she has been reading the Book of Mormon and gets online to listen to Doctrines and Covenants, and pretty much has been studying the gospel for 3 years. She has just been afraid to go to church by herself and so when she saw us she said she would come to church if we were there, and she did! Her husband was not supportive before and so he scared previous missionaries away, but now he says she can do what she needs to do. Hopefully we can soften his heart too. Oh Miracles! The Gospel is so true!!

We also get the creepy men who try and hit on us. One tried to as we were at the library the other day. At first we thought he might be interested in the church... we soon realized that was not the case. Sister Albright made it very clear that we could not date and were doing this for 18 months so if he's not interested in Jesus, he needs to leave. He waited till we left the library outside to talk to us again, but I told him we had an appointment and had to leave. It was funny at first but then it got a little creepy after that.

My trainer Hermana Intriago had to go take an English Exam in Birmingham for entrance into BYU. (By the way, she is leaving me half way through my training to go back to temple square :( so I get a new trainer at the end of this month). Anywho, we went down to Birmingham and went on Exchanges friday night. I was with Hermana Belford and most all but a couple of our investigators were in spanish. I hope someday I get transferred there. They have a lot of Missionaries in that area and a good amount of them are Spanish. Hermana Belford's companion came her expecting to do english and the MIssion President handed her a spanish name plaque and said, your teaching spanish. crazy! WE did a lot of bike riding there too, which was super amazingly hard. Who knew Alabama was so hilly!

Don't have much time but yesterday I got attacked by a dog. It didn't bite me but took a few snaps at me and bashed his mouth into my leg before the owner came out to stop it. This was not a tiny dog and I was trying to be the hero because my companion is deathly afraid of dogs... learned my lesson.

Well gotta go, but I love you all and miss yall so so much!! But I am so happy to be here in Alabama as well! This is a great work and it just keeps getting greater! 

Love, Hermana Decker

Joy in the Work!

Buenas Tardes!!

Oh the fun of being on a mission. It really is the best time to be out on a mission. We have so many people interested because of Romney. Some lady asked for the Book of Mormon because she wanted to know what kind of man she was voting for... she of course said no to us coming over later to teach her more, but she said she would surely call us if she had any questions. I want everyone who has written me or emailed me to know that I always read them and very greatly appreciate them! Even if I don't reply. Things are just so hectic here! But good hectic... I have to keep reminding myself.

Oh boy the days go by slow and the weeks go by fast! Here's the basic gist of this week.

Monday was Pday of course. We went to Taco Bell for lunch because a lady in the ward gave us 20 bucks for food (she lives far away so she said she doesn't want to make us drive out there). It's a little bit strange to do normal things I would do at home as a missionary. But it was delicious! We learned something of one of our investigator family that I never wanted to hear. It just makes me realize how much the gospel blesses peoples lives and how ugly life can be sometimes. The thing is, this family is so ready for baptism. They just have some kinks they need to work out before they can be baptized. It makes me sad for them, and yet so much more ready to share the gospel with everyone.

Tuesday we did a lot of knocking on doors... which I just have to mention, I dislike very much. But it's getting better. I'm not apprehensive at all anymore to go knock on the door, I would just rather have appointments. The thing is the knocking on doors doesn't bring many results, but at least we are planting that initial seed. Sometimes, maybe one out of 10 doors that you knock on, the people inside will be interested. Although, most of the time you can't tell if its the southern hospitality coming out, or are they really interested. The baptists are always the greatest (which is the majority of the people down here) they will try to fight with us on the bible all the time and tell us how we are going against all the bible teaches... we never try to fight back but they usually get caught up in their words when we show them what the bible actually says. Suffice it to say, most of them are not interested. One lady we contacted at the door, made an appointment for another day, when that day came she called and cancelled and then while we were at the library, we saw her there. The Lord is not done with her yet ;) We went to this one house the other day and pulled up in front of there house and there door was opened. We said a prayer like we do before every time we leave the car and when we were done the door was closed and they pretended like they weren't home. People think were dumb or something ;)

Wednesday we had a trunk or treat thing at the church which was fun. We had our district meeting as well, which I don't know if I said, but our district consists of 4 girls and 2 guys so it's pretty fun.

Thursday we met a lot of black people. So Serph, I'm working hard to do what you said and baptize some black people ;) We got to go to the "projects" of Florence which some members of the ward are afraid of, but I didn't feel like I was in danger at all. We had an appointment there but she wasn't home. We went tracking near one of our referrals and ended up finding this lady named Trina and she let us in right away without us saying anything but we were missionaries for the church. Her name was Trina and she has three daughters, Keesha, Neesha, and Shamerica. We can't really tell if they are interested or just like our company, but they keep inviting us back, so hopefully it's both. We really learn that we should really talk to everyone because even if they aren't interested they may lead you to someone who is. That's why it is so important to ask for referrals from everyone. We went to this home of this older lady in the ward, who wont let us in her house because she has 20 cats and 5 dogs, so we had to sit out on her porch while we were teaching and there was swarms of mosquitoes outside so my body looks like I have chicken pox. It's great.

Friday we went to a further out part of Florence to talk to some inactives out there who speak spanish. Yay Spanish! Sister Martinez who is in our ward has 9 siblings, most of them in florence and some of them inactive. They live near eachother so we went to go see them and their families. One of her sisters is so sweet but I am so sad for her. She has about 5 kids and is married to a man who is very anti mormon. She wants to come back to church but he is not for it and doesn't want the children to go... she is so sad you can just see it in her eyes and I knew she wanted to tell us something but her husband was in the kitchen so she didn't. The more families I see without the Gospel in their lives, the more I realize how much the gospel has blessed my family and I couldn't imagine not having it.

Saturday we went to do some service. We are asked to do about 2 hours of service each week (obviously thats not a limit) and we decided to go and rake the leaves for one of the families in the ward, because the yards here are COVERED in leaves. Well we ended up just doing the next house and the next house too. By the time we were done, the yards were pretty much covered again, but it looked a little bit better. It has gotten blasted cold in the past few days. Apparently we get the best of both worlds here with super high temperature in summer and pretty cold in the winter. Of course it's not as bad as rexburg but it's cold if your wearing a dress all day. We have another investigator Deedee, who is really great. I love going over to see her except her house reaks of smoke. She wants to be baptized but she has too many problems with the Word of Wisdom so we are working with her on that. She says she liked everything else we were teaching until we got to the Word of Wisdom part. Hopefully she'll pull through.

Sunday we got fed by one of the members and it was a good southern meal. Most of the time I haven't liked the food, but we have to eat it anyway, but yesterday, the Kelleys made a great homemade southern meal. It was nice to go see members of the ward. We atleast know we are welcomed there. They have the cutest daughter too who is 4 and loves to talk. 

The work is going forth! And although somedays I want to sleep in and not get up, I'm loving every minute of it... Or at least I make myself love every minute ;) Spanish is super frustrating but it's coming... slowly. It's hard because I don't get to speak it all the time. But I know I was sent to Florence for a reason even if it is just to baptize that one spanish family, I'm happy with that. And it's a good thing I know english because my companion has a hard time with the Accents :)

I love you all!!! I hope all is well and I thank you so so much for all of your prayers.

Love Hermana Decker

P.S. I'm changing my guess for Braydens call. I'm guessing some asian country like Japan or Hong Kong. Or maybe Germany... 

Greetings from Alabama!

Hola Familia!

Oh my goodness I have so much to tell you and so little time! I don't even know where to start! Well my P-Day is on Monday so be expecting emails on Mondays. Florence is so beautiful, it actually reminds me a lot of Indiana but it's a little bit more hilly. The weather has been pretty nice thus far. It's a perfect temperature, only a bit humid, and it's only rained last night. The mosquitoes love me and so I've been breaking out the Hydrocortisone a lot. We are near a small university, the university of north Alabama so we have a lot of students walking around and in our apartment complex.

My trainer is amazing. Her name is Sister Intriago, and like you've heard, she is a native. She is from Ecuador! She is originally a Temple Square sister (la manzana del Templo in spanish) and she learned english in the MTC because she was supposed to be an english missionary. They sent her here for a bit and now she is with me so she is pretty excited she gets to teach and speak in spanish. She is so sweet and so cute, I feel really blessed to have her. I get to help her with her English and she gets to help me with my Spanish so it works out well. (her english is 10x better than my spanish however). We speak in spanish as much as possible, but actually we teach in both english and spanish so I get to speak both quite a bit. It's kind of hard to switch back and forth but I think it will help a lot in the long run to switch so easily. I however probably won't be learning as fast as some of my friends who are only speaking spanish, but I know in time it will come.

I realized how incredibly shy I am even though I think I am not, but I have already had to learn to open up a lot more. We went tracking my second day here and I had no idea what to say and I didn't want to intrude, but Sister intriago was very patient and just said I just have to open my mouth. I have to remind myself this is salvation were talking about! were not selling vacuums or anything! We do a lot of service, as much as possible. If somebody needs something done, we are there. When we first got here we went to this old southern ladies house to help her put her plants in the greenhouse. I came home with a lot of bug bites and I'm sure some spiders in some of my clothes, but it really does bring a joy to serve these people.

The ward is great, small, but not small enough to just be a branch. Most of them are english speakers but we have a few spanish speaker's too. Oh! I forgot to mention, we have an english class every wednesday in the church, so the first wednesday here was my first experience with spanish. Some of them speak english pretty well, they just need help with pronounciation and some of the grammer, and others cannot speak english at all and we work with those ones. I help with the pronunciation and Sister Intriago does all the explaining :) 

I've come to realize how I like the Spanish speakers a lot more than the English ones. The spanish people are always very willing to open their door and listen to us and most of the english ones either slam the door in our faces (that's only happened once) or are to stuck in their ways to want to listen to us. (maybe it's because I can't understand the spanish speakers, but they seem a lot nicer). 

Hmm, what next.... OH! we have a baptism this Sunday. I obviously wasn't the one to teach the guy, but I'm excited none the less. He is a great guy who has been going to church for a while with his member wife who is in the relief society presidency. The ward has been waiting for his baptism forever! We also have a date for a couple people in a hispanic family. The son who is 22, we are almost positive will be baptized on the date, which is next saturday. We had a lesson with him two days ago I think and it was the most powerful lesson I have been in so far. We had a member of the ward who spoke spanish come with us, Hermana Margarita, who is amazing, and I couldn't understand everything but the spirit was so strong that all of us were shedding some tears and I do not cry easily. He knows I don't speak spanish very well so he was very patient with my testimony and teaching. His mom is supposed to get baptized next week as well but she is living with her boyfriend who she want's to get married to but he first needs to divorce his wife in Mexico, so it may be a long process before she can. 

We go into a lot of houses that are... old and reak of smoke, but the people we teach are always loving and kind. Yesterday we went on knocked doors in a trailer park with a bunch of hispanics and door after door none of them answered. We think maybe they knew we were coming ;) But I know that it was because we needed to talk to this one man who was working outside. When we went up to talk to him he was funny and said he had talked to missionaries before. He has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and after a long process of Sister intriago and him talking back and forth I got the gist of most of what they said, but we think he is really interested and I am so excited to meet with him and his family! He works a lot so I don't know when we can, but hopefully it will be soon. Bah! I cannot even describe the joy this work has already brought me and how much I have already learned. I wish I could tell you all every little detail but it's so hard in the limited time we have. I have to get to work! We also work a lot with the inactive members because we really want to work on "The Rescue" which is what they call helping inactive members come back.

Basically our day consists of working out in the morning, which is hard because sister intriago is short and I am tall so when we run I have to do high kicks or something to get a work out because we run at such different paces. WE study for one hour of personal, two hours of companion (because I'm new, it's usually only 1), and one hour of language study, so it's a lot of studying. The rest of the day we have appointments and tracking.

We have some other sisters living with us in the apartment complex now because they couldn't find a place for them in their town right next to us. So our apartment is full.

Everything is great though! the first few days were hard and I am still so frustrated with the language, but it is getting better. One day I will be able to speak it! Hopefully. Love you all so so much! I hope all is well at home. Oh! if you have anything you need done at the house Mom, call the missionaries! you have no idea how much they love to serve! I hope you are all being missionaries as well. The members are always the best missionaries :) I love the south, love the mission, love my companion, love the gospel, love spanish ;) and love the Lord, so It can't get much better than that!

Love, Hermana Decker

PS.. so glad president Holzapfel told yall about the blog. Make sure to keep up with it. Also, I was able to get on facebook for like 3 minutes to become friends with the president and his wife and become part of the group on facebook. I don't know why, but maybe they will post pictures and tag us or something. OH! and make a mormon profile on mormon.org. We ecourage all the members to do that.

(phew! that was a lot of information there)

Last MTC Pics

6 more days!

Familia!!

Hola! So I got all my flight itinerary (is that how you spell it?) and I will be out of here next tuesday at 4:00 in the morning. Yep that's what I said, 4 o clock. I am super excited and yet at the same time super scared. I believe that my plane is leaving at 7... I actually don't really know what time but it's in the 7 o clock hour. I will get my flight stuff and email ya'll really quick later. The good news is that I will get to call home and talk to ya'll :D The bad news is that I don't really know when but it will probably be in the wee hours of the morning for yall so around 5-6 AM. I do have about an hour layover in Atlanta so I may be able to get in a few minutes there to but we will have to see. Anyways, so october 9th in the morning, be ready for me to call. I don't want to call and have nobody answer like it usually goes with the phone at home. I will get you the specifics on the flights later. But yea, I'm super excited!

I have been speaking in straight spanish for about 4-5 days now and it is so hard. I have been learning a lot more, but I end up just not talking to people because I don't know how to say it in spanish. My companion is probably ready to kill me because she is having a hard time understanding anything I say and plus it takes me about 5 times longer to say a sentence in spanish as it does in english, but I just keep reminding her that this is all we will be doing in a week so she better get used to it :)

So what the coordinating sister is, is basically it's like a zone leader but for the girls in the zone... which only consists of the 5 that are in my room. I basically just oversee them and make sure they are doing okay and talk to them about their companionships and so forth. I have a meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders on sundays and tuesdays nights and we just talk about how everyone is doing and how we can be better leaders and help everyone stay positive and healthy and obedient. 

I love the hair turban thing mom. I wear everytime I shower and my roommates like to make fun of me because I look like a middle eastern or something. The half shirts are awesome too, perfect for hot weather. I LOVE getting letters from ya'll (wink wink). We have a joke that everyone just kind of forgets about you after about a month or a month and a half and I've realized it's not so much of a joke as we make it out to be ;) And Colby! I have written you a hand written letter so stop your boobing.  I want to hear from you all and how everything is going with school and stuff! What's up Brooky? Its been like 2 weeks! ;) Your supposed to keep me up to date with all the drama and stuff in the fam ;) Well since I'm leaving, the last day I can recieve letters is probably monday, So if your going to dearelder anything, do it on Sunday and then anything else will probably need to be sent to my Alabama address. Could you put that address up on my Facebook, just in case one of these days one of my friends decide to write me.

So now to this week. Hmm... Well we sang our farewell song on sunday since we have general conference this weekend. Our elders are pretty much tone deaf so it was sort of kind of hilarious to hear them try to sing. But I was so proud of them for getting up there and singing their hearts out. One of our Elders who is going to Uruguay has been sick for 2 weeks and in his room for a week. We can't decide if it's mostly in his head or what but we just keep praying he gets better so he can get out there and serve the people of Uruguay. We had mission conference on Sunday and it was great. One of the presidency talked about crooked paths and what I got out of the talk was, we many times follow the curvy paths of the world, and God sorrows as we try to make our way down those tough and tiring paths. Those paths aren't easy to go down and yet we pick them anyways. But we can correct those paths and walk on a much easier path, which is the straight and narrow path of the Lord. Later on sunday we watched a talk by Elder Holland entitled "Missions are forever." IT was so great, he is so funny and yet so powerful at the same time. What I got out of that talk was, Your mission is real life! we always say I can't wait till we get back to real life, but this is real. We shouldn't come home to what we think is "real life" or back to what we think is "normal". This mission should change us for the better and I can already see that in my life. Two months and I feel like a completely different person. I am definitely so completely different than I was a year ago. The Lord can change you and make you better, you just have to turn to him and put your life into his hands.

Bray, I got a scripture for you. Alma 61:14. Look it up! I thought you might like it. Alright so I only have 2 minutes left and I want to leave time to send pictures and send you all that flight stuff so I'll probably write the fam a letter later! Love you all so much and miss ya! Les Amo!!!

Con Amor, Hermana Masey Decker

MTC Pictures

More MTC pictures

Whom the Lord calls, he qualifies

Hola Familia!

Como estan? Hows life? Everything is great here. I cannot believe I leave from the MTC in about 13 days. It's crazy! I love it here but I am so excited to get out and serve. I know my spanish is not ready however, nor do I think it ever will be until I get out there and I am speaking it everyday. I also know that I have so much still to learn! We do not have enough time in the day for me to study everything that I want to study.

Well, we do about the same thing every week so for me it's all just repetition when I'm trying to think what to write. Sunday was a pretty eventful day however. So every Sunday we are all supposed to plan a 5 minute talk on whatever the topic is. In spanish mind you, so this is not exactly an easy task. I always do it however because the branch president just calls up whoever he feels should talk that day. This week there was a ton of elders leaving for the field so I was almost positive that it would not be anyone from our district. Guess who gets called up, yep, me. The talk was about repentance and I copied a lot out of PMG, but most of it I tried to do it by myself. So the grammer probably wasn't perfect nor was my pronunciation, but I was greatful and humbled to be called up. After the meeting the branch president pulled me aside and I thought that he was just going to tell me I had done a good job, which he did, but then he extended the calling of coordinating sister to me for the last 2 weeks. So a talk and a calling all in the same day. I am greatful for the opportunity to be the coordinating sister because I think it will help me grow, even if it is only for a couple weeks. I can already see how it has changed me in that I really make sure that my attitude is positive and that I am being kind to everyone.

We also got to watch the dedication of the Brigham city temple on sunday. I really enjoyed it and loved hearing from the apostles, Elder Perry and President Packer. You could really see their love for temple work as they spoke to all of us.

One of our "investigators" , Camilla we have been teaching for quite some time now. She's a 15 year old and she loves the gospel and learning about it. She loves going to church with us and young womens, but we cannot get her to be baptized. We have asked several times but she keeps saying her mom doesn't want her to because her mom doesn't want her to make a decision she will regret, so we don't really know what to say but to have her talk to her which she is to afraid to do. We just keep praying for her hoping that she will get the strength to tell her mom how important this is for her. I love that we get to teach these fake investigators because I know it is helping me a lot. I can come to realize what works best in a lesson and what doesn't.

This week we have been learning about, "teach people not lessons," and it is actually a lot harder than it sounds. Back in the day you just had to memorize the lesson and you were good to go. These days we have to tailor make every single one of our lessons to our investigators which is great because I think it is a lot more effective, but it becomes difficult when we really don't know much about the person. Something we talk about a lot is the importance of the members in a conversion of an investigator. They really are the ones who make all the difference and I would encourage all of you to take that to heart and really try to do your own personal missionary work.

On monday we got to help the senior missionary couples come in. We just helped bring their bags up and brought them to their orientation, but it was so great to talk to all of them. We love the senior missionaries, they really bring a different spirit  to the MTC.

Well, not much more going on here. I had a mini panick attack the other day because I don't know if I'm ready to get out there and speak spanish all the time. It's going to be a bit frustrating for the first few months. Most people I have talked to have said that they finally felt comfortable with the spanish after about 5 months, so that means I only have 3 more to go ;) I'm sure it will come in time. A part of me wants my trainer to only speak in spanish and I'll probably cry myself to sleep everynight because I can't speak with her, but hey I'll learn the language faster. The other part of me wants her to only speak in spanish some of the times, but then I don't learn spanish as quickly, so its a bitter sweet thing.

Anyways, sorry for the uneventful letter. I'm not feeling so hot today so I'm a little bit scatter brained and tired. I love you all and Miss you MUCHO! Take care and remember who you are and what you stand for ;)

Love, Hermana Decker

MTC

From your favorite missionary

Hola Family!!!

Well this week has been pretty good. It's been pretty much the same old same old, but I guess that kind of happens when you've been at the MTC as long as I have. It really is a great experience and I am so grateful for it and the lessons I have learned here. It's so crazy how much someone can grow in only 6 weeks here. I could never grow as much as I have here anywhere else and I can only say that this mission is an amazing experience and it has only been 6 weeks. So boys (ahem.. Colby and Serph), definitely start preparing RIGHT NOW. I guess I'll start by just telling ya'll how my week has been.

Thursday we had TRC and it was a great experience. My companion and I are getting a lot better at teaching in spanish and I feel like our TRC experience wento a lot better this week. We just taught a couple members about the importance of going to church and how we can recieve revelation there. I could feel the love so strong for these people and they really aren't even my investigators. It makes me so excited to go out and serve the people in Alabama because I know I will grow to have the same love for them as well.

On Saturday I had an interesting experience. I think in previous letters I have told you about Elder G and how crazy he is. He's the one who likes to be mean to everyone and we can never really tell if he is serious or not. Well on Saturday I brought one of the letters I had gotten from all ya'll to class to write a quote on the board that Mom sent me. I accidently left it on the table instead of putting it back in my bag and Elder G has a habit of reading things that do not belong to him so he got a hold of it, clearly aware that it was mine since it had my name on it and read it. This isn't the first time he has read something personal of mine, he read my journal about a week ago which was in my bag and he just happened to be going through it. Suffice it to say, I was a little bit angry at him and when I get angry, I start to cry, so I was trying to not explode. He was offended because in the letter it said something about the elders not being fully committed so he freaked out saying that I was writing about how horrible they were and he said some other things but I was too angry to really listen and then he left the room saying something about how he was going to get more baptisms than me. I was pretty livid, and sat there for a moment, then put my head down and just said a prayer that God would bless me to forget the hard feelings I was feeling for this Elder and to help me to handle this in a mature manner and help me calm down. When he came back in I told him that I had told my family that the elders were a little bit distracted and I was sorry if that offended him but I would appreciate it if he wouldn't read my personal things. He was plugging his ears and acting like a child while I was apologizing, but it was really good for me. It really helped me realize that the Lord truly does answer our prayers and he can help us forgive and love others even when it seems imposible. I know that to be true with all of my heart and I am so grateful that he helped me handle that situation. Now elder G is acting a little bit better. I don't know if it had anything to do with me but I he is being a lot more courteous. I love that kid, I just don't always like him ;) The other day he was counting all of his sins on the board and that included mean things he said... he had a lot of marks, but hey he's learning :)

My companion was sick on Saturday again so I had to stay in the residence with her. I took like an hour nap which I know we've been asked not to do, but I wasn't sure if I was being disobedient since my companion was sick and all. There is a lot of sicknesses going around here. One of our Elders has been in his bed for about 4 days now. I am so blessed to not have gotten sick yet (knock on wood).

Sunday was awesome. Sheri Dew came and talked to us for Relief society and she was AWESOME. She talked about the importance of women in the church and how the world doesn't see it. It was really really good. She is such a strong independent woman. Afterwards I got to meet her and she gave me a hug and grabbed my hand and said, "Go get 'em." We taught the branch president the first vision on sunday and I can happily say I got the whole story memorized in spanish.... that's about the only part of any lesson that I have memorized, but it's good because I will be teaching that A LOT.

On Monday I talked in only spanish for a good 6-8 hours in the day. I didn't really get to say much in those hours, but it was really good for me and they really encourage us to do that because it helps so much. That's now my goal, to speak in spanish as much as possible because I still have so much to learn and so little time.

Yesterday we had a devotional which was great by Elder Koelliker of the 70, and I got to sing in the choir. We sang and arrangement of, "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer" and when we sung the spirit was so so strong. Most of the song is quite and then it gets really strong in one part and many people told us that they could feel the spirit so strongly at that part and I know the choir could as well.

I have been studying Humility this week because I feel that sometimes I can be a bit prideful and I would just like to share a bit that I've learned. In Alma 26:12 it talks about how we are nothing and we are weak but through God's strength we can do all things. Phillipians says something similar in 4:13 "I can do all things through christ which strentheneth me." That reminded me of something that President Uchtdorf taught when he said, "Compared to god we are nothing, but to God, we are everything." I know that I cannot do any of this on my own. None of us can go through this life on our own. We need Christ in our life to make it through each day and he will always help us if we are humble and realize that we can't do it by ourselves. I have such a strong testimony of the Atonement and have felt its power in my life, everyday of my life.

For the kids. Keep up the good work! I love hearing about all of your extracurricular activities, so keep me updated. Brayden, I'll write you a letter because I don't have enough time left. Brooky, you should totally try tennis. I think that would be so awesome. Kids, keep up with the piano, it will bless you and others so so much and for the boys, the chicks love it. Eli, keep up with football, you are awesome and I bet you are a beast out on that field. You're like the biggest kid out there, you can take em all. Kate and Sheky, I bet you are the cutest cheerleaders. Mom and Dad, you are seriously the greatest parents ever, and I'm not just saying that. I have realized how blessed our family is compared to so many others and that is all because of you raising us so well in the Gospel, doing things like praying and such.

To everyone else, thank you for your support and your letters. you all have no idea how much it means to me.

Love you all and miss you all!!!! See ya in 17 months!!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker