Faith!!

Hey!

You know what? Life is good :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! Seriously though, this is the best thing ever! I want to share with you some awesome thing that I learned this week. So I have been studying a lot about Faith recently. It's going to be really hard to explain all that was going through my mind, but I will try ;) So I totally understand the Faith in Jesus Christ thing. I feel like I have pretty strong faith in Jesus Christ and in his atonement, but I have been thinking lately about faith and miracles and how faith leads to miracles. I understand the concept, it's just the doing it part that is hard for me to get. Like, the fact that I can have so much faith that God is going to help us get a baptism this weekend, but if it isn't in his plan, it isn't going to happen (experienced that firsthand :) ).Well then I'm thinking, we have to have faith that God COULD do it, the question is WILL he. Which brings me to Elder Bednar's talk when he talked about "Do you have faith NOT to be healed.." So then I'm just all confused because really, what's the point in having faith in something that is going to happen if it's not in God's plan anyways. BUT! Me being all confused about this for a couple of months, I was reading in Alma the other day and came across chapter 37 verse 40.

 "And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day."

I don't know if this completely answers my question, but it brought some peace of mind for me :) What I got out of it was, they had faith in one little thing, that God COULD move that spindle. Just starting with that, nothing else, not even that it would point in the right direction, or that it would bring them to the promised land, or he would provide the way to get there. I'm sure they had faith in that, but it all started with that God could move that spindle. THAT was the miracle, and then more came EVERY DAY! So, I realized that I was making it more difficult than it needed to be. I need to focus in my own "spindles". The simple things, like reading the scriptures, obeying the rules, those bring miracles. God has promised that. The bigger miracles will follow. Anyways, I don't know if that makes any sense but it blew my mind! :)  

So, enough of that. Our week was amazing! We did much better this week than last and saw some great miracles. We have been joking all week that our investigator Celia (who's in Madison right now) was going to text us and say, "Hey, btw I want to be baptized!" It was mostly a joke, but we both kind of were hoping it would happen. Well on Saturday, guess what she texted us?! "I'm actually texting to tell you guys that I would like to be baptized :)" Best text ever! I think so!! Who knew a text would bring me so much joy. So Celia is getting baptized!!! On January 25th so that her aunt (who's a member) can fly in and see it. We are pretty happy missionaries :D Plus we had 6 investigators at church and 3 with a baptismal date. Things are good. Life is good.

Not much else is going on. We find out about transfers on Saturday, so I'll let you know how that goes next week. I hope you all have an amazing new year! I will be fast asleep in my little bed while y'all are partying :) Miss you! Love you!

Love, Hermana Decker

Temple Trip

Pics of Temple trip

Temple Trip!!

Pics!!

Our tree!

PICS!!

Our district

Christmas!

Well, I'll keep this letter short and sweet since I will be talking to y'all in a couple day!!! Life is good here :) No complaints... except  for maybe the weather. We have the most bipolar weather if I've ever seen it. I'm not going to complain that it is cold because I know we're not nearly as cold as Grandma and Grandpa. About two days ago we hit a record of the high 70's which was awesome, and then a storm came through the other night and we've dropped back down to high 30's. Que en el mundo! But whatever it's fine :) Except for the fluctuation is making me feel a bit under the weather.

We had our Mission Christmas party this week. It was SOOO fun! Our zone teamed up with the two Bessemer zones and we had dinner, a talent show, devotional, and a movie, Ephraim's rescue (Which is really good by the way, if you haven't seen it.) It was nice to kind of sit back and relax for a few hours. It was pretty much a whole day event because it takes about 2 and a half hours to drive down there and then it was 5-6 hours. It was great to see all of the missionaries there :) I was in two parts of the talent show, not because I have any talent, but I'm good at going along with things :) We did a district talent and then us and the Corinth sisters did a talent. They were just little skit things. I am so grateful for President and Sister Hanks and for all the hard work they put in to taking care of us. They're amazing.

President pulled me aside while we were down there to talk to me (that's always a bit nerve racking!). He told me why I am in Florence. Basically he said it was an emergency transfer, he wasn't planning on moving us, but because of something that went down (still not sure what) he had to transfer somebody in and he couldn't move anybody else because they were all locked in so he picked me. So I should still be in Corinth... except for not, because I know everything happens for a reason :) He said he trusts me so he put me here. Anyways, that's why I'm here! A part of me wishes I knew what happened, but honestly it doesn't really matter. Sister Klein says she doesn't know either so it must have had to do something with her previous companion. President also told me that he feels like I have earned the right to pick if I stay or go next transfer... Bah! I hate making decisions! But, I have been praying about it and I think I'm going to tell him that I would love to experience somewhere else (preferably with more Spanish people) but I will go wherever works best for him and the Lord.

I'll fill y'all in with everything else that is going on on Christmas! We can skype whenever, so I'm thinking probably in the afternoon sometime. What time is Brayden calling/skyping and maybe we can try to do it around the same time!

Mucho amor!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Decker

Pics of Christmas Party with President and Sister Hanks!

At the Christmas party!!!

Pics

I forgot to mention that we had a baptism yesterday as well!!!!!!!!! It is of an excommunicated member we have been teaching. She is Awesome!!! It was so amazing to see all of the support from her family and ward family. I've never seen so many people show up to a baptism.

Your daughter

From: Elamae Campbell 

Happy happy happy!

Hey y'all!

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited for Christmas! I think I have been listening to Christmas music since June or something ;) We took our Christmas pictures and we have our little christmas tree and wreath. Members are already starting to get us some Christmas presents. Bah! I just love being a missionary at this time of year. I'm already so happy to just be a missionary, but add a bit of Christmas to it and it's like... too much happiness :D

This week has been great! There are so many good things happening here! We got to go to the temple on Thursday. I absolutely love the temple. I could just sit in there forever! I'm especially grateful for all of the temple workers who take the time out of their schedules to come to all 6 or so temple sessions that we do as missionaries. They drive long and far to come help us out. Sitting in the celestial room and just looking at all of the wonderful missionaries all around I couldn't help but tear up. All these Elders and Sisters are just awesome and each have given up so much to be here. I feel honored to be serving here with each of them. So many wonderful "kids" (because that's what we are) who would put aside everything for 18 months to 2 years to serve the Lord. It just has to be true!!! Bah! too much happiness and love :D I also got the chance to see Hermana Hazelgren and Hermana Barroso at the temple so that was an extra bonus! I have made some amazing friends out here.

Bethany got engaged! Woot! We called Joe last night because we wanted to go visit them and he was like, "yea, that's fine, but only for a bit because we are heading to Huntsville." Then we talked to him about how he needs to propose so that Bethany can get baptized and he was like, "yea sure." Typical boy response. Well we get there about 10 minutes later and within that time period he proposed! We're not quite sure if he did it before or after we called, but we're just excited for them and she is so happy :) So now we're planning a wedding. Sweet! Which it just so happens that Sister Klein was engaged before she came out so she has already done all the planning and knows what we need to get done. We decided she only got engaged to help Joe and Bethany ;)

We saw Celia a few times this week. She is just amazing. So prepared. She is like the sweetest little thing ever. We love her :) Everyone thinks that she is another sister missionary we are dragging along when she is with us because she already looks like a mormon. We told her that she just needs to be baptized so she can stop trying to explain to everyone that she isn't a member yet. Honestly, we just think that she is scared. It's a big step to make in life! She'll be baptized eventually. She's home right now in Madison with her mom so we are trying to send the sisters over there to visit her.

Our miracle, Pam, got a hold of some anti... blah! I hate hate. Why are people so hateful. She agreed to let us come over eventually so we can answer some questions... but we went over yesterday and didn't answer the door even though she was obviously there.

Our theme for this month is "Book of Mormon Month". Woot! I'm so excited :) We have already made a plan to flood the world with the Book of Mormon. We are just going to give everyone one. We gave one to the bug guy the other morning and then we gave one to the gas station lady. YES! We would be giving out more, but our supply is limited. So until the Zone Leaders give us some more, we're fresh out. Que en el mundo! Missionaries without copies of the Book of Mormon? Yea I know.

Sister Klein and I get along great! She is amazing. I love getting to learn something different from each of my companions. She is definitely a bold one, but she just loves the people we serve. We're still getting used to each others teachings styles and those little technical things that just need some practice to get used to. I can tell she is used to taking the lead, which is totally fine, until I want to talk ;) She's from Queen Creek actually! She says she doesn't know Grams or Gramps though. President told me he is going to have to let me know sometime why he felt impressed to send me back here to Florence, so I will let you know how that goes.

Everything is great here! I can't even express to you all how much happiness and love I feel being here. It's not anything that words can describe. You'll just have to experience it for yourselves! :) Go out and bring someone closer to Christ today. As you do that, you will feel closer to Christ. And be happy!! :)   

Love y'all mucho mucho!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Decker

BuEnO!

Buenos Nachos!

Well let me start off with a couple awesome stories. Primero! So about a year ago this time in good ol' Florence I had to go on a 10 day exchange to Huntsville. While I was there, my dear companion Hermana Belford went out with a member and he gave her a $50 gift card to Cracker Barrel! When I got back she said, "I got $50 to Cracker Barrel! We have to go!". But we couldn't find that dang card anywhere! We looked everywhere! in the apartment, in the car, at investigators houses. We were so desperate for some free food we even prayed our little hearts out to find that card. Lo and behold, we never found it. We figured our faith was enough to find it, but the Lord must not have wanted us to find it and perhaps it went to some poor soul on the streets. Well on Wednesday we were doing Companionship study and I discovered that in my desk the drawer comes out and there is a little compartment there with a bunch of "treasures" left by other missionaries. We found a bunch of junk, some love letters to an Elder ;) and... the card! Crazy! So we took the elders out and a couple of our investigators to Cracker Barrel for dinner :) What I learned from that? The Lord answers in his own time and in his own way, but he ALWAYS answers. The power of prayer is real.

Segundo! Once upon a time, about a year ago again, Hermana Belford and I met this Polynesian lady in the library and of course Sister Belford was like, "Ahh! the one Polynesian in Alabama! I must talk with her." So she did and she was super sweet and we tried to see her a million times, but she got super sick and so we never got to go over :( Well this Friday, we got a text asking for Sister Belford and seeing how she was doing. We didn't know who it was so we asked and it turned out being this lady! Her name is Pam. We told her that Sister Belford had gone home but I had a new companion and we would love to come and meet with her. She let us come over and we taught the restoration and she has a baptismal date for January 4th. UN MILAGRO. 

Both of these stories are just so awesome to me. I have been studying about miracles and faith all this week and I guess the Lord decided to give me a little taste of my own small miracles. We have an awesome God! Which reminds me. One of our amazing members gave a talk yesterday and she shared this scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 64:33 "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I love that scripture because lately I have been thinking, I am doing good, but I want to do what's best and this just reminded me, that the small things really do make the difference.

Other stuff that has gone on this week. We got Christmas decorations! ok so there isn't a lot, but we have a 3 foot Christmas tree that we decorated so beautifully and a wreath on the door. Yay Christmas! I'm so excited! And wasn't that Christmas Devotional amazing! I went on an exchange with one of the sister training leaders in Tupelo. We were standing in line at walmart waiting to check out (we were getting flowers for a member who has been struggling) and we met a guy named Cole and I started talking with him about the Arby fries he was buying. One thing led to another and we found out he has a cute little one year old and some of his best friends he grew up with are members. Sweet! We gave him our information and he said he would love to have the missionaries by. Hopefully the Tupelo sisters can do something with that. Really, you can talk to anyone and lead it into the gospel. I mean, Arby's fries? Some lady at Cracker Barrel heard us talking about the church and she asked us what we were talking about and we told her we were missionaries and she told us "Y'all are Angels". :) Nothing like simple phrase like that to make your night. Oh! and we bought ugly Christmas sweaters! Pictures coming soon.

Our investigators are doing great! We have one, her name is Bethany, who is a girlfriend to a less active who is just coming back to church. She is ready and willing to be baptized, with one small problem... they need to get married. She wants to, it just seems he's not so keen on the idea. Maybe he just wants it to be a surprise, I don't know, but whatever the case, they need to get on that because we have her baptismal date for the first week of January. 

We have another investigator who I just love. Her name is Celia and she's a student at UNA. It's kind of great to be teaching people around our same age, because we can understand each other a lot better. She has come to church countless times, and she loves it. Her aunt is a member and came to visit her a few months ago and she came to church with her. She is frustrated because she really wants to know, but she doesn't feel like she is getting an answer. She's going home to Madison this week for Christmas, so we are going to try to get the Madison sisters to visit with her.

We finally saw my dear Mexican family :) Octaviana and Jose Luis. They are going through a lot right now. Dulce (the 19 year old daughter) ran off and got into trouble and she moved out of the house/trailer and Octaviana is just heart broken about it. Jose Luis kind of got offensive when we came over and I was like, "Why are you not coming to church!" He says they are going through a lot and trying to work through it all. We are hopefully going to get them to start coming again and get Jose Luis to the temple. His only problem... He still doesn't know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Bah! He knows he just doesn't know he knows. 

Anyways, sounds like things are good at home! Love y'all lots and lots and I'm always praying for you! Thank you for your prayers! Abrazos!

Love, Hermana Decker

P.S. Mom, here's an idea for Christmas: http://www.lds.org/new-era/2005/12/idea-list-the-12-reading-days-of-christmas

Pictures!

Thanksgiving with Sister Rhodes

Mr. Hendricks indian wall

Our apple turkeys :)

more

District

Shay and her family

They thought they were coming with me :)

There and back again

Hola Hola!!!

Well, you will never guess where I am... Florence!!! Yep, I'm back. Who woulda thunk??? Not me that's for sure! I was literally shocked when I saw my name and picture pop up in Florence, Alabama again. This was my last guess of where I was going next. I can't even describe to you all of the emotions that were running through me on transfers day, and frankly, I'm still not so sure how I feel about it ;) But I'm here. The Lord knows why and so I'm just along for the ride. I'm excited to be back, I already know the area, I know the ward, the only part that kind of stinks is that we all know there aren't many Spanish people here :( I was hoping to be put down in Birmingham in one of the branches there, but I think this might be my last area. If that's so, I will have spent 8 months in Florence, Al on my mission. CRAZY! I was a little frustrated the first day because honestly, I love this area, but I think I like my other areas better... I know, that's horrible to say. I just miss me my Hispanos! Oh well, the Lord knows best and I know I got people to serve here and I can already feel the Lord working through me to love the people and area as he does. 

So first part of the week was in Corinth still. We had fun. I tried to visit as many people as I could to say goodbye. Shay's baptismal date had to be moved a week because apparently she didn't come to church yesterday. I was sad to say goodbye to her. Rey was sad to see me go. I told him I'd come back for his baptism... when he finally decides to be baptized :p Jesus is being dumb as usual, but he told me we all have to move on and God has a plan for each of us (yea he can be deep sometimes). The worst part was saying goodbye to our boys though (Denise' kids). I'll send pictures of them eventually. They're the cutest! We had a sleepover on Tuesday night. Sister Barroso is awesome. She's going to do some amazing things here. She really doesn't understand how awesome she really is. She really mostly trained me :) anyways, the crazy thing is that we just switched companions with the Florence sisters. I'm now with Hermana Klein in Florence and her companion Hermana Stevens went to Corinth. We're in the same zone so I'm sure will see each other ever now and then.

Thanksgiving was awesome! We played Turkey ball in the morning with some of the ward. Everyone is super surprised to see me back. Some don't remember me :) Which is fine. Then we went to and old black lady in the ward, Sister Rhodes (same lady I ate Thanksgiving last year.) She has like a tradition where she invites the missionaries every year. She is super sweet and the first thing  she says when I walk in is, "My baby's back!" haha, she's great. Then we ate desserts at the Kelley's and another dinner at the Mezas... Suffice it to say, we ate a lot. Everyone keeps feeding us too! Florence will be the death of me.

A member of the bishopbric took us to this cool wall thing this week. Some old man made a wall all made out of rocks and stones in tribute to his great great grandma who was an indian on the trail of tears. It was pretty cool. We helped some member decorate their christmas tree (yay!) and actually watched some of the game. Gasp! I know right, but we figured we weren't going to get anything done around here when the iron bowl is on. So we went over to an investigators and ate treats. We got a new investigator out of it. Woot! Seriously though, wasn't that last 1 second crazy! Not that it matters. Alabama-none, but God is still winning!

We went to FHE last night with the YSA's (which is more like the ysa's and the young married couples). That was fun. We played catch phrase. Best quote of the night was from Elder Reese. "Naughty wolf but domesticated." (his word was bad dog). We had an investigator come to which is even more awesome. Good things are happening here. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store here :) Now if we can just find where all of the Latinos are hiding :) Still haven't seen Jose Luis because we have been super busy, but that is next on the list! apparently he's started to go all Less active. Not acceptable!

Spiritual thought. I was reading in sacrament on Sunday (which by the way we had 3 investigators there) and came across 3 Nephi 18

 19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

 20 And awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

 21 aPray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.

 22 And behold, ye shall ameet together oft; and ye shall not forbid any man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not;

 23 But ye shall apray for them, and shall not cast them out; and if it so be that they come unto you oft ye shall pray for them unto the Father, in my name.

 24 Therefore, hold up your alight that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the blight which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed.

 25 And ye see that I have commanded that anone of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might bfeel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world; and whosoever breaketh this commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation.
First off, prayer. We are commanded always to pray. And ANYTHING we ask the father in Christ's name, if it is RIGHT, he will give it to us. Awesome. Pray in families. Of course. Second, it talks about church, meeting together oft and not forbidding ANYONE. We get some crazy investigators to come sometimes :) And then I love that it says to pray for them! It kind of goes along with that talk in Conference about the Lords game plan. We as missionaries need your prayers, but more importantly, our investigators do. Learn their names and pray for our investigators please. And then we are to be that example by holding up that light and representing Christ. We invite all to do just as Christ did, to come and feel and see. Experience it for self. To gain a personal testimony. I just love the Book of Mormon :D And the power of prayer

Love you all!!!! I hope Sheky got my card. Serph, your pictures are awesome! My companion just laughed when she saw them :) 

Love, Hermana Decker

Transfers!

Hola Hola!!!!

So guess who's getting transfered again? Yep, that would be me. Sad
day! I just love this cute little town of Corinth :( You think that
eventually you would get used to being moved around so much, but you
really don't. Anyways, it stinks but at the same time I am excited for
the change and for the opportunity to serve more of Gods children
somewhere else! Guess who doesn't have to train though? :) Woot! No,
I'm just kidding. I love training a lot. I was kind of surprised
actually that I'm not training considering the length of time I have
left... (We wont go into that). Not saying like, I SHOULD be training,
that's just usually how they send people out. Yo no se. I'm excited to
find out Wednesday though. I will miss my dear dear companion Sister
Barroso. We decided we are getting seperated because we like each
other too much. If we pretended we hated each other we would be for
sure staying together!

This week has been somewhat uneventful besides transfer calls. Nobody
came to church this Sunday :( Rey said he would have come but for some
reason he was in Alabama. Jesus... well, I'm not quite sure what to
say about him. He's being weird. He won't meet with us because he says
it's too cold outside (which is mostly true) and he won't meet us in
his apartment with a member because he says he doesn't want to bother
his roommates. He won't meet us at a local establishment either
because we will talk about church... well duh! I think he's a little
embarrased. I still love his little mexican guts, but we aren't going
to move forward if he won't meet with us! He's still the funny old
Jesus when we talk with him, so I'm just uber confused.

Shay on the other hand is doing fantastic! I love her to pieces! She
is so amazing and I just love teaching her because she just gets it!
Sister Barroso testified to her yesterday in the name of Jesus Christ,
and Shay was like, "That felt good." We asked her what she thought
that was and she was like, "The spirit." She is progressing towards
baptism, we are just working with her on the Word of Wisdom. Patience
is essential when it comes to that. She really needs prayers.

We also have another baptismal date for the 14th of December. Her name
is Vexti and we met her a couple of weeks ago but just haven't been
able to catch her at home. One night we had about 20 minutes left so
we decided to try her again and she was there! We taught the first
lesson and she accepted it really well! She asked some really good
questions and she seems really open. I hope all goes well with her in
the future.

I mentioned last week that we found out one of our investigators,
Juanita, is a member from way back when. She is so loving! Her family
is basically living like a mormon family they just go to the Catholic
church. We found out this week that she loves the Book of Mormon
though. She used to read it when she was little and she said it made
all of her problems go away :) So we've decided to really focus on
that with her family so that they can build that strong testimony of
the Libro de Mormon and then we can help them get to church.

Other things from this week: We helped the Huntings clean out what
they call "The Dooms day room". Taught our good ol' old folks :) I
love old people. Freezed. Apparently one of our days here was colder
than Idaho. Oh! I also recieved my "Do not get trunky" letter. It's
not really called that we just call it that because that is basically
what it says. Every missionary gets one before the beginning of their
last two transfers.

Life is good! I'm excited for Thanksgiving eventhough I have no idea
what I will be doing. (Here's to hoping I get transferred to another
spanish branch!) I am so grateful for this work. Words cannot even
describe how grateful I am for this mission and for the people that I
have met and for their examples and love. I am grateful for this
gospel! For the hope and joy it brings. I am eternally grateful for
the atonement of Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be where I am with out it.
And of course I am grateful for my wonderful and beautiful family!

Mucho amor!!!

Love, Hermana Decker

If ugly was a religion, you'd be shoutin right now

Hola Hola!!!

The subject of this email is courtesy of Sister Rogers :) She is an
older black lady in our ward and always says the most hysterical
things. She is so great. All of these members and their sacrifices and
devotion is so inspiring to me. Hopefully one day I can be just as
faithful and wise and crazy as some of these members are. I have so
much floating around in my brain in what I want to tell y'all I don't
even know where to start!

Well we had many many meetings this week. We were down in Tupelo
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday for zone conference and Saturday
and Sunday for Stake conference meetings. To say that we have been
spiritually fed would be an understatement. There are so many great
things happening in the Lord's vineyard! And can I just say I will
probably never complain about long car trips again. With being Sister
Training leader and traveling all over Alabama, and now being on the
outskirts of the mission and having to go to a gazillion meetings, I
would say I have had my fair share of car trips. Anywho, There were so
many great things we learned these past few days with trainings on
baptism, the holy ghost, strengthening the ward, the atonement, and
tenacity (president loves him some tenacity.) President and Sister
Hanks are amazing and we are so blessed to have them in our mission.

Due to the fact that we had stake conference this Sunday all the way
down in Tupelo, we didn't have any investigators at church this
Sunday. This is the first week since I've been here that we haven't
had anyone at church. We truly have been blessed! And it has nothing
to do with us, but always the Lord. We do however have one of our
investigators getting baptized! Shay has officially committed to a
date! We saw her this week and she was all, "I'm ready." She just gets
it and I love it. She's going around telling everyone that she is
getting baptized :) She still needs to come to church one more time
and she will be out of week this coming saturday due to Thanksgiving,
but we set a date for the 7th of December and she is ready to prepare
for that.

Rey and Jesus.... I don't even know what to say about them. I just
love them and I am always so happy when we get to talk to them but
they will not commit! They're a bit frustrating to say the least! We
saw Rey last night and I seriously wanted to cry. I just wish that all
these people could understand what a blessing all of this could be in
their lives! It just makes so much sense and not only does it have
sense, it's all about hope! Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a
better you. But, president shared a quote this week that I thought
applied well, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same
opinion still." Just read the book. The Book of Mormon. It changes
lives. Nuff said. Agency is frustrating. But I love it! OH! and one of
our members who took us down to Tupelo on Saturday, Sister Cartwright,
said something that I really liked. "God wants us to choose him."
Doesn't that just sum up why we have agency?? I thought it did :)

Our meeting on Saturday night was all about "Hastening the work of
Salvation" and it was the adult session. One of the speakers talked
about having our homes be the way we do missionary work by being an
example and teaching the children early on to be missionaries. I
realized that Mom and Dad, y'all did a pretty darn good job at that. I
didn't realize that we had been doing all of these things on a regular
basis and what a blessing it was until I got here and realized that
not every family does it! FHE, scripture study every night, daily
family prayers, etc... I love y'all. And I'm so grateful.

Other goodness that happened this week and things I learned. One of
the spanish people were teaching is a member! She was baptized when
she was 9. She's so cute, she said she would always tell her parents
they needed to go after they stopped going, but to no avail. Just a
testimony builder to me that the Lord is aware of his Children! I love
all of these beautiful missionaries, they help build my testimony. If
you are ever put in jail, fake crazy because apparently the regular
cells are cold, but if you're crazy they will give you a straight
jacket and put you in a warm room ;) Being a missionary is awesome!

Came across a scripture this week and sent it to president,

Alma 2:30 And it came to pass that Alma, being a man of God, being
exercised with much faith, cried, saying: O Lord, have mercy and spare
my life, that I may be an instrument in thy hands to save and preserve
this people.

That being said, it would be great if my “missionary life” could be
spared, “that I may be an instrument in [the Lords] hands to save and
preserve” these wonderful southerners ;) extension??... No I'm just
playing! I wouldn't do that to you mom! Plus, I'm quite positive they
don't let anyone extend anymore.

Mom and dad, the floors look amazing! I miss y'all and love y'all!
Thank you for the prayers, keep sending them! Grams and Gramps, I hope
you are enjoying Russia!!! Brayden, I have a letter for you but it
got sent back because I didn't put enough stamps on it... I'll send it
again! And tell Eli, I miss his non-filtered voice ;)

Love, Hermana Decker

"She don't got the sense God gives a stupid goose!"

Hola Hola!!!!

The longer I am out here on the mission, the more and more I have come
to understand the infinite love that God has for each of us and each
of his children. And let me tell ya, it has been extremely humbling as
well. I didn't realize how prideful and self centered I was until I
had to take a step back and really rely on the Lord. (I'm sure y'all
are thinking, well yea Masey, we all knew it ;) ) And it's not even a
"Wow, I'm better than everyone" kind of pride, but a "Why am I NOT as
good as others." kind of pride. But the longer I'm out here, I've come
to realize that I really do need to rely on the Lord, and so does each
of us. I was reading a talk by Elder Soares from this last conference,
"Be Meek and Lowly in Heart," and he talks about taking up our cross
each daily. We take it one day at a time. We pray for our "daily
bread" to make it through the day and if we didn't to so hot one day,
we tell ourselves we will do better tomorrow. That's what the gospel
is all about, and that's what missionary work is all about. For
instance, our numbers were not quite up to par this week ;) But we
fulfilled our purpose. We take a look at our numbers and say, "Well,
how can we do better next week." I just LOVE this Gospel and the
Atonement! That's what we are trying to get all of our investigators
to figure out! There is so much hope to all of this!

Well, Jesus didn't come to church this week... We aren't quite sure
what's up. We saw him Saturday night and he said he was coming, but he
didn't. We called him yesterday and all seemed well. We are going to
see him tonight so hopefully we can figure out what's going on. Rey
didn't come either. He didn't have an excuse, he was just being lazy.
He knows it too :) We went to see him and taught him some good stories
about faith and he prayed with us!!!!!!!! Like, for reals this time.
No just reading what we wrote. After much persuasion and tears (nah
just kidding) he finally prayed. He's all embarrased about it, but
he'll get over it. And he's all like, "Well this decision is going to
change my whole life" and we were like, "Well duh!". So he's starting
to get it.

You know what's the worst! When your investigator gets arrested. Yep.
It happened. Shay, our beloved lovely Shay was driving under the
influence. Which by the way, we had just taught her the Word of
Wisdom! She was a bit intoxicated. But! She took the word of wisdom
like a champ! Especially considering she has to give up pretty much
everything on that list besides illegal substances. She was all
gung-ho about it and we made some awesome plans. She was like,
"Alright, cofee and tea first!" She's amazing. We know it's mega hard
to give up all of those things so we are being patient. She is trying
really hard. And hey, we have been praying super hard that she will be
able to do it! and she decided to take the 2 weeks in jail because she
doesn't want to pay the fee... which means none of that for 2 weeks. I
don't know if it's an answer to our prayers, but I do know the Lord
works in mysterious ways :D BTW, why do we not have more soul in our
church?! I am all over that! Shay's girls sang us a song, "Take me to
the King," and Hermana Barroso and I are all for getting some more
Black music in the church ;)

We did have one investigator at church on Sunday. Denise with the 3
crazy little boys!! I didn't have to translate this week, which was
nice because I actually got to sit in on a sacrament meeting, but I
got to entertain 3 little lovely children :) She seemed to like it,
but they couldn't stay for all of the 3 hours because the boys
wouldn't go to class and she didn't want to bring them to sunday
school. Poco a poco!

We did a lot of service this week. We raked the leaves of a less
active, made cookies, and had the opportunity to help down in Tupelo
for "The Week of the Family." Can I just say that Hermana Barroso is a
boss at service. I feel like she was sent to the mission now to help
move the mission in more of a service oriented direction. She always
wants to help somebody. The less active we have been serving has
finally opened up and wants us to come teach her. Before, she was
closed off to any of that. We also met some great people while we were
down in Tupelo. It was a lot of fun! What a great opportunity to show
people that we are normal people and love our family and love to
serve. We got to wear normal clothes too! We worked at the bean toss
the whole time and it was a lot of fun. I just wanted to take all
those cute little kids with me! Apparently the Tupelo missionaries are
teaching a lot of families from it.

Our ward mission leader moved :( It's definitely a bummer because he
was amazing. Better than any I have had thus far. I just wanted to
share a little bit of something he shared with us missionaries at our
correlation meeting on Sunday. He talked about statistics from the
church that said that missionaries have to knock 1000 doors to get 1
baptism. But, when a member invites someone over to their home to take
the first discussion someone will be baptized 1 out of 7 times. That
is a drastic difference if you ask me. It all goes along with the
whole obedience thing. Naaman had to bathe himself 7 times to be
cleansed. Not 6, not 8, but 7. The prophet has recieved revelation for
this day, and his call for all of us is to work together in this work
of salvation as members and missionaries. When we are obedient, we
will see miracles.

Oh and if y'all get the chance. Check out the mormon message "Fork in
the Road" by Elder Holland. I feel like he explains the spirit a lot
more adequately than I can ;)

Les Quiero muchisimo!!! I miss y'all too! Brayden, you're a boss! Keep
up the good work! Mom and Dad, get some sleep!!! Grandma and Grandpa,
I'm so excited for y'all! The new little baby cousin is adorable! I
want to hold him! Congrats Matt Woll family!

Love, Hermana Decker

Happiness!!

HOLA!!!!

Life is splendid in good ol' Mississippi! I love being a missionary :)
There are really so many great people down here. This week has been
fantastic! I am grateful for the little things that just make me smile
every day. Here's about the run down of the week: volleyball and
frisbee, lots of biking, awkward district meetings, wonderful
investigators, cat poop on my companion :) , horses, lost name tags, a
kiss from a little 3 year old (not aloud by the way!), trailers!,
mexican restaurants, dancing latinos, and cheesecake. I love that we
can just laugh and smile about everything.

We went to Tupelo on Monday for our zone activity. We got to wax our
cars, eat pizza, and play. That was nice to just relax with everyone
for a while. Soreness followed, but that's all good. Not to mention,
missionaries waxing cars is more like a government job where about 4
people do it and everyone else watches :) But hey, we're not getting
payed. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go help a member's
non-member friend on her ranch! Now I am officially southern. We
mostly just helped with the horses which I wasn't to excited about
since horses scare me ;) But! by the end, I warmed up to them! Messy
job it is! They lady is fantastic, she should already be a member, her
husband just doesn't like the whole mormon "cult" idea. Afterwards we
went to the members house in Iuka to get all cleaned up so we could go
visit some members out there and I forgot my shoes... I only had to
wear my tennis shoes for a little bit before we found some that could
actually fit me. Curse my giant feet! It's all good though, I just
looked like a pentacostal for a few hours.

We had District meeting on Wednesday and the District Leader asked
Sister Barroso and I if we would give a training on baptismal
invitations since we had the most last week. (We are starting to count
them to illicit more invitations to baptism so we can actually get
some!). Well, I've done my fair share of training in meetings, so I
tried to let Sister Barroso take over for most of it, but I had the
grand idea to liken it to asking people on dates. (Dating and
missionary work should just stay far apart in the first place). But I
thought it was something everyone could relate too. Suffice it to say,
I said something dumb and now the elders won't let me live it down.
It's a blessing to be able to just laugh things off. Oh and I played
the piano beautifully (horribly) because nobody in our district can so
that was something to laugh off too! So there you have it boys, learn
ya some hymns before you get out on the mission!

We are still teaching Jesus. I just love that man! He has such good
intents and he just wants to be better. He came to church again! This
will be the 6th or 7th time, so we know at least he likes church
enough to keep coming. We had a lesson this week and set a baptismal
date finally! He is set for November 23rd. He still says he is not
quite sure if it is something that he wants or is ready for, but we
just keep encouraging him to read and pray everday. It's frustrating
because I think he has recieved an answer, he just hasn't realized it.
He has a hard time recognizing the spirit, which I can completely
understand, it's even hard for me! but, he loves all that we have
taught him... I am just praying my heart out that we can figure out
how to help this man. Our future branch president!

Rey, his son, has started to move backwards a bit. He hasn't come to
church these past couple weeks. He is going through some hard times
right now with a divorce, hardly any work to make a living off of,
friends moving, etc.. But he sees how this gospel could be a blessing
for him and he keeps telling us that he hopes we don't feel like we
are wasting our time teaching him, he just is moving slower. He wants
this though, I can see it in him. For his son, and for his mom and
siblings back in Mexico. Sometimes I wish I could just put what I know
into our investigators brains! But I guess that's what this gospel is
all about, finding out for yourself.

We haven't been able to see Shay this week... She moved this week so
we went over to help her a bit, but we haven't been able to sit down
with her. Everytime we try to teach the Word of Wisdom, something
comes up. Which is frustrating because that's about the only thing
that would be holding her back from baptism. The adversary is a bum.
Also we are working with Denise and her 3 lovely little terrors of
boys. I just love them! Cruise, her littlest, is the one who planted
one on me this week. What can you do when it comes out of the blue?
Nah he just got my cheek, but they're the cutest. I just want to take
them all home with me! Teaching Denise is merely impossible though
with them running around!

We had 4 families of investigators come to our Halloween party at the
church on Wednesday! That was a blessing. Now we just have to convince
them to come to church! I love activities though, because they give
our investigators a chance to come to church in a non-threatening
atmosphere and they can see that the members are just normal people.
They all loved it, so hopefully that's at least a foot in the door.

Yesterday Rey made us dinner :) He had us over and he's all, "Y'all
going to come in?" and we were like, "We can't! Why do you think we
teach you outside all the time?!" He said he was going to have one of
his lady friends over, but she didn't end up coming. So we ended up
eating outside and he invited his dad, Jesus, over, so we had a good
time with some good ol' Mexican food. Apparently Jesus used to teach
dancing so he showed us some of his moves. These are the moments I am
grateful for :)

On Halloween it rained like nobodies business. We went to this place
where we have "potential investigators" who don't know they are yet ;)
We stop by and eat there sometimes. It's called "The Barn" (at least
that's what we call it). So it was a good evening... Besides the fact
I lost my tag. But! I found it again. Prayer works!

I know this area will take off soon. I can see it in the members and
in the missionaries here, it may just be after we all leave. Starting
the Spanish is difficult because they really don't have a foundation
to go off of. We're just praying we can get a rock solid investigator
to start it all!

I love you all! Thanks for the pictures. I can't believe how grown up
all the kids look! Y'all are getting so big :') Mucho amor! Love,
Hermana Decker