Talofa!! :D

Hola!!!!

Well everything is just dandy here in Florence Alabama. The sun is shining today which is good. I swear that it just rains ALL the time here! But it's okay :) I'm working on not complaining about silly things. I love the rain ;) 

I had the opportunity this week to go down to Birmingham on Tuesday for a District Leader Training with Sister Leifson who lives with us. They usually invite some of the sisters so that we can be represented or whatever :) Sister Belford says they keep inviting me to those kinds of things because they're preparing me to be a trainer... I think President just likes me ;) Anywho, it was great! I learned a lot and met some more of the Elders from around the mission. I really love the missionaries here!!! They are all so great! All the Elders are just the greatest little brothers. They have such a desire to serve the Lord and really take care of us Sisters. I wish ya'll could just see them all out here in those meetings. It is certainly a sight to see. It gives me comfort that there are good kids out there trying to do what's best.

After the training they just decided to have Sister Leifson and I stay there for an exchange so Sister Leifson went with the Hoover sisters and I went with the Altadena sisters. We were in a trio which was interesting, but it worked out great. They are smack in the middle of Birmingham so they have a lot of Spanish down there and work in a Spanish Branch. They are both such awesome missionaries and I could learn a lot from them, and I did learn a lot from them. They are a little bit quieter then some of the missionaries but I found a power behind everything that they say. They are obedient and they love the people. Both of them have been changed to Spanish, one when she first got here, and the other about 3 transfers in. Their spanish gives me hope for my own ;)

Oh! real quick, funny story... well I thought it was funny, but it might be one of those you have to be there things. Jose Luis works on construction (shocker I know) and his employer hasn't been paying them. He owes Jose Luis like 1500 dollars, which is ridiculous, but anyways, as we leave one night from their trailer I say, "Espero que les pegen!" Which I should have said, "Espero que les pagen." which means, "I hope that they pay ya'll." what I really said means, "I hope that they hit ya'll".... Spanish is a beautiful thing :)

Speaking of Jose Luis, He received the Priesthood on Sunday!!!!! We are super SUPER excited for him :D I hope someday he will have the opportunity to baptize his family :) That would make this mission all worth it. It's been amazing to see his progression and it gives me hope for everybody else.

We have been teaching Anosia, whose from Haiti, and she came to Church on Sunday. That was exciting! :) She loved it and said she is going to make all the kids come next week. She said we can come wake them all up :) The kids are so great, I love them all.

So President Holzapfel took us out to dinner on Saturday night. He was in the area and asked if we could come out with him and his wife. They told us that there are 4 spanish sisters coming out this transfer and 16 in March!!! that's crazy!! As we were talking he basically gave me the option on what I thought would be best for my situation. He said, would it be better if you got transferred to a spanish branch or stay here and train for a transfer and then get transferred.... I told him I didn't know, that I loved the area but needed more spanish practice. Ultimately he said that he thought it would be best if I stayed here and trained for a transfer... so we have a pretty high chance that I will be training next transfer which scares me to death, but I would rather be training my first time in an English ward... Especially since I will be training for the rest of my life!!! It's never set in stone though, things change, so we will wait and see what happens. All I can do is trust in the Lord that whatever happens, happens for a reason :)

I love you all so so so so much!!! Los Quiero Muchisimo!!!! 

Con Amor, Hermana Masey :)

Spiritual Thought

So, have you seen the new mormon message!! It made me cry it was so good. I think it would be good for the boys to watch :) Here's the link http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng It's the Earthly Father, Heavenly Father one.

And I don't know if I already told you about the mormon.org profile, but check out the mormon.org/chance video. I think you'll like it especially mom :)

Love you!!!!!!!

:D

Hola mom!!

I finally read all of the testimonies in that folder you sent (Which by the way thank you so much!!!). GRACIAS!

And tell Brayden he's fired! ;) Yea, just tell him that as long as the music is about Jesus, we're pretty much allowed to listen to it. Some David Archuleta would be nice ;) No worries though, I'll get it when i get it. But since he still hasn't sent it, could you possibly send my boots that are out in my room?? They would be helpful for the cold... eventhough it's starting to get warmer.

Tell everyone I love them and give them a big hug and kiss from their favorite sister!!! :D

Te Amo!!!! Thanks for everything! Your the best momma!

Les Amo mucho!!!

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! :D

So this week has been a crazy week. We went in to send our numbers in last night and we were like, "Whoa! What happened?". It was more like a "wow I'm exhausted, this week was so busy"and then you go in to put in numbers and realize that they're a bit low.... If anything, Sister Belford has taught me that numbers don't matter. Everyone says that, but she has taught me that you can be fulfilling your purpose as a missionary and not be bringing in tons of numbers. That's what happened this week.

Hermano Limon passed away last week... I may or may not have mentioned that... but anywho. He has 11 kids (not all of them active but most of them living within our ward boundaries and making up basically half of our ward) and so we spent the majority of the week helping with consoling the children and grandchildren and helping with funeral arrangements. They are all spanish, but most of them speak pretty fluent english, but the fact that the funeral was all in spanish and we just happen to be spanish speaking missionaries helped out a lot. I got to lead the music and helped with the kids in their little musical number. It was really a great experience. All of their family came together and we got to see all of the less active members of their family which was great. They have over 100 members of their family all together!!! and none of them have ever passed away! The funeral was great because they have a bishop as a member of their family, (a son in law) and he talked all about the plan of salvation. They really needed it. It was certainly a sad moment in their lives but the funeral was actually really full of hope. It wasn't sad at all. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have that this life is not the end. And not only is there a life after this, but a life to be enjoyed with the ones we love :)

Besides that this week. we tried to see a couple of less actives. One of them had his daughter come out to ask us if we could help them get food... We brought them what little extra we had... he still never came out to talk to us. But at least we helped his daughters :) Another one had her grandson come out and tell us she was not there, even though we had just saw her go get the mail. But hey, its still all good :D I love the little excuses that people come up with. We just want to help you!!!

I think I mentioned the little Haitian family we met about a week ago. Well, they have a baptismal date for February the 9th!!! There's 3 kids that  can be baptized and the mom. I don't really think they understand the full concept of baptism yet so who knows what will happen, but we'll see.

We had Interviews with the president this week in District meeting. He talked to me a lot about training... that was not very comforting, but it is something I have been worried about lately. I know I will either start next month, but for sure in March. It's a bit intimidating because Spanish is still... well it's coming poco a poco. Plus, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. But he said something I liked. We're all still learning. You wouldn't get mad at a child who is learning to walk and after a few steps fell. You would be happy that they took those few steps.

Dulce, the sister of our recent convert Jose Luis, has been having struggles this week. We have been focusing on her a lot this week because we know she is ready for baptism. We really had a talk with her about why we are there and her relationship with the Lord and her Heavenly Father. It was a really good talk and I think it really got her to start thinking. She doesn't have a very strong self worth so we are trying to help her build that up and realize that she is a daughter of God and he only wants the best for her. She is struggling with some basic teenager problems but also has been caught doing things at school she shouldn't and so now she is expelled. She has been having issues with this guy and we are just trying to figure it all out to help her grow closer to her Lord and savior. I think we have in some part, but she still has a ways to go. In the end, she said she would think about baptism. I just hope that we can help her. I have really grown such a love for her family. Her brother has changed so much!! He is so much happier and has even started thinking about helping others by having us go visit them :)

Well, that all I have time for this week. I'm loving the mission, I'm loving the people, I'm loving Alabama (Even though it snowed this week!!!) and I'm loving all of the amazing missionaries. Pretty much, I'm just full of love for everything and everyone! It's great :D

Love you all! Miss you all mucho!!!!!!!!! Hasta Luego!!

Love, Hermana Decker

Hey Ya'll!!!

Hola Familia!

I still cannot believe that I am out serving a mission! I forget I am until I look down and see the black plaque I get to wear every day. When people said missions were hard, they really weren't kidding! I just have to remind myself each day that each one of those people who said it was hard, said it was worth it and that it was one of the best things of their lives. I have my up days and my down days. Mostly my down days is just the fact that I am frustrated with myself. I am trying to learn to be patient with myself, but I just want to be the best missionary now! and it's frustrating that I am not :) I have to learn a lot of people skills and how to get people to trust me and it's just hard. But! I do not feel sorry for myself, I know what I got to do and I am ready to do it. There is nobody to blame for when I'm feeling down, but myself. 

So just to answer a few questions. We do drive most of the time. We've rode our bikes a couple times but we are mostly in the car and I have to drive because my companion is from Ecuador and does not have an in state license. Sister Intriago is from the Temple Square mission, but they send those sisters out into the mission field when they feel prompted to. They are usually only out for a couple transfers so she will be leaving me soon :( I don't really understand it all. She is from Ecuador, she is a convert and was baptized when she was 15. Her parents are divorced and her step dad and step siblings are not members. We actually don't eat very often at members houses, which we were actually just complaining about ;) so we make a lot of our own food... and I honestly don't know how to make anything good without a recipe so I feel bad because my companion always makes food and gives me some and I only know how to make a good plate of spaghetti, peanut butter and Jelly and a delicious bowel of cereal ;) The sisters we are living with are with us for good. Which is fun because they are really great girls, but they are english speaking so I find myself speaking english alot. Most of our investigators are in English too, so I really need to start pushing myself to learn this spanish. Sister Intriago helps a lot. She usually only speaks in spanish to me which is good, sometimes frustrating, but good :) We do live in a two bedroom apartment, and we have two bathrooms which is good. It's not like a super nice apartment, but it is just find for a few missionaries. We are able to listen to Music and the president said that we pretty much just follow the rule that we listen to music that is uplifting and brings our thoughts to the Savior and he leaves the rest up to us. I asked for CDs because we can listen to music in the car. We mostly just listen to it then and then when we're getting ready in the morning and on pDays. I am feeling okay. I am still a bit tired, but getting used to that. I think I have an ear infection but I am not totally positive. It hurts, especially when I touch it, but it seems to go back and forth from hurting to not hurting. I talked to the Mission nurse and she said if I get any other symptoms or if it doesn't go away I should call her. It's been like 3 days so I will probably call her tomorrow.

It is such a great time to be a missionary!! So many people have so many questions and so many people are starting to hear about the church. Some guy at the library last tuesday (where we write our email and watch mormon.org videos (the mission pres wants us to watch about 2 hours of videos per week to share with people)) asked us for an ensign... that was a strange request. He didn't want anything else though. We've had quite a few people ask us if we're voting for Romney for president. We are not supposed to talk about politics so we usually say something like, "We are not here to talk about Politics, but he is part of our church!" That kind of implies it right there ;) We know the field is white and ready to harvest!... maybe not in some parts of Alabama though. We knocked on a door yesterday and found this hard core Baptist guy... He was not friendly. He was trying to tell us how wrong we were and how the Book of Mormon is so evil and that he believes Joseph Smith is in Hell. Right when he started to talk I knew we were wasting our precious time at that door, I bore my testimony of the Book of mormon and joseph Smith and I was ready to go, but my companion was pretty hurt, especially by the Joseph Smith comment, so she kept trying to talk to him. Finally I held out a mormon.org card and said it was nice talking to him. He of course didn't take the card but at least it ended the conversation. It really hurts your heart to know there are people out there who do not understand and don't know what they are missing out on! There are so many blessings from this gospel and I just want everyone to experience the same blessings in their lives and the lives of their families. I told Sister Intriago to not worry about it, but it bugged her for a while. Pres Holzapfel said that we are not here to find the people who already have their religion, we are here to find the ones who are ready and willing to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Knocking doors is getting a bit easier. I still dread it because of people like the previous guy, but it's not as bad as it sometimes is. I love when we get to go to houses where they have  children. The kids just bring a special spirit to the house and I love involving them in the lessons. I remember something we learned in the MTC from the Primary General president. She said, "The way to the parents hearts is through your love for the Children." And I can definitely attest to that. They will love you if you love their children. We actually had a "Sisters Training Meeting" in Birmingham on Thursday and all of the sisters are asked to either teach something or bear their testimony (we have about 20 sisters). I was asked to teach on how we teach children in the lessons. That meeting was great. It definitely gave me the extra boost I needed. And President Holzapfel is the greatest! He is extremely smart, he has his masters I think in New Testament... Er old Testament in some like Hebrew and some other language. And his wife is the Cutest! she is so fun and energetic. She has her masters in New testament and Greek i think. They are a perfect team out here and we are so blessed to have them. Some lady from one of the Newspapers came because she was writing an article on Mormons in the Faith section. President Holzapfel chose two companionships to come talk to her and he chose ours! She wanted to know what we believe and what we think about the age change and all of that.

Bah! I have so much to say and not enough time. To keep it brief because I only have 10 minutes left. We had our baptism yesterday for Terry. It was AMAZING, cannot wait for more! We sang as the sisters and it was horrible ;) Sister Martinez, a member in the ward, is the greatest. She brings us food a lot and really looks out for us. She is like our mom out here. We got to go to the other's sisters area on saturday and talk with alot of people. We were hoping to find more spanish over there but we really didn't. We wanted to go find this one spanish speaker but we kept getting lost so we decided to just go home, but had extra time so we called the sisters and they said to go see this lady named Sherry and I know that we were not supposed to find the spanish speaker because we needed to go visit this inactive lady. She didn't want us to leave by the end and I think she desperately wants something but doesn't know what.

Okay. Still so much to say but thats all I got! I love you all so much and miss you so so so so much!!!! I love you all and am so excited to hear where brayden is going. Im Guessing Argentina!!! Ahhhh!!! so excited for you bray!! it really is the best! And I will get to see you about a half of a year earlier!! Serph and colby, you better be getting ready!

Love, -your favorite sister missionary ;)

Hello Again :D

Hey Everyone!!

This week we have been having some crazy weather!!! I know weather is what you talk about when you don't have anything else to talk about, but not this time. It's one thing to be raining outside and it's another to be walking and riding your bike in it. We had relatively nice weather at the beginning of the week. I could go running outside without a jacket but it was pretty humid. Then Wednesday morning it started to rain and it has rained every day since then!!! Wednesday it rained ALL day and we had the brilliant idea to ride our bikes. At least it wasn't cold outside but after about 5 minutes on the bike, it just started to come down and we were soaked. You have to put all of your stuff in your backpack in a ziplock bag so it doesn't get ruined, luckily we had done that in the morning. We were on our bikes all day and even soaking wet it was a successful day :) We saw a few of our past investigators we hadn't seen in a while... didn't get to teach them but at least we made contact :) We met this Haitian lady as we knocked on some doors. She was definitely our miracle for the week. She was so happy when we prayed for her and her family and said she had just moved here and was looking for a church to go to. She has 4 kids and they are great. They even came and prayed with us. One of them is 15 and he reminds me of Serph. He's got the laugh, picks on the younger siblings, loves his clothes. I haven't heard him scream like a girl yet though ;) She didn't end up showing up to church on Sunday, but she said she would be able to come next week, so we will see. Sunday it was nice and warm in the morning and then as we are knocking doors at and apartment complex, there's a crack of thunder and it starts to pour! I swear it dropped 20 degrees because it was freezing after that and we were not prepared. We were on our bikes again so we had to ride all the way back home to get some warm clothes. It was a waste of our precious proselyting time, but that's what you get when you're not prepared. That's kind of like our life in a way. Everything can be sunny and beautiful and out of nowhere a storm can hit. If we're not prepared we lose sight of what's important and have to backtrack to help ourselves.

We started teaching this lady from Venezuela. I love their accents!!! We just hear Mexican accents all of the time and they are not quite as pretty as people from like Venezuela or the Dominican Republic. They just have a sing song inflection to their voice and it is beautiful. I hope to one day learn it, but first I got to work on the learning spanish part ;) I was determined this week to have an all day of Spanish! It didn't quite work out as I had planned because we had district meeting and our district only knows english, but the rest of the day we did :D We were helping the sisters in Russelville which has like a mini Mexico so we got to talk to a lot of people there in spanish.

We went to this one trailor in the trailor park where Jose Luis lives and he had guitars on the wall. He let us play them and it was great! I miss having a guitar to play. It's amazing how music can really touch a persons heart. He wasn't really interested in what we had to say before I asked if we could play the guitars but after, he said he might come to church. Music is a beautiful thing, and we all know that I am certainly not the best guitar player around but it was nice to see it work on him :)

If I have learned anything from Sister Belford it is how to really love the people. She really has taught me that we don't always need to be in a hurry and so what if our plans don't work out as well as we wanted. Numbers aren't as important as the people we are working with. We went over to this members house in Russelville who only speaks spanish and lives by herself and her two little kids. We just talked with her and played basketball with her little kid and folded origami stuff because he loves it. Of course we need to remember our purpose and help others come unto Christ, but that can be done in many different ways. We left her a talk by president Uchtdorf and talked about it a bit, i think its called, "your happily ever after" and we were on our way. I think we fulfilled our purpose that day with that family even though it didn't count as one of our numbers we get to report to president.

I love the people out here in Alabama. Our ward is great and all of the members are so helpful. On Saturday we had to change our plans completely when our zone leaders told us it was mandatory to go to the adult session of our regional stake conference. Luckily the Russelville sisters were already going so we caught a ride with them over to Tupelo Mississippi. There we met with President Memory of the Mission presidency. I hadn't met him before but he talked to us about when peter is standing with Jesus on the sea of galilee I think and they are probably talking about their ministry together and the good times, and Peter is to concerned about the past and how he denied Christ that he isn't really paying attention. Finally Peter says something on the lines of "I said I would always stand by you and I was the one who denied you." Christ tells him, "I don't remember that"... We to often dwell on the things of the past after they have been done with and we have done all we can to fix it and we miss the present and the beauties of what is happening now and the good things in our life. Jesus doesn't remember it so neither should we. That was definitely something to dwell on as we start a new year.  I certainly know I have a lot to improve on but it's not going to help to look back and things I can't change.

I hope all is well with all of you. I hope ya'll know that I love you and I pray for you every day!! :) Sorry this letter is super long, so many things to say, so little time! Sorry if it's all over the place :b 

Love you all!!! Sending all my love from beautiful Alabama!!!

Hermana Decker

Hey Yall!!!

Hola Hola!!!

Como estan??? Everything is going great here in the beautiful state of Alabama. The big game is on tonight (Alabama vs Notre Dame... is that how you spell it??) anyways, so president told us if we wanted to we can switch our preparation day around so that we aren't going out tonight, but earlier in the day. So that's what were doing. We're going out for three hours this afternoon and then coming back. You really can't mess with football hours down here, nobody will even let us in the door unless we are coming to watch the game. President must have let us do that because he's worried about to many elders watching the game. Anywho, enough about football. 

Well I made it back to Florence :D Its great to be back where I'm familiar with and with the people I love. Wednesday we had transfers. Technically Sister Belford and I were just exchanging back and not getting transfered so we weren't allowed to stay for the meeting. We went to see some spanish people in Birmingham instead since sister belford worked down there for 10 months. Then we had to go back and pick up the Russelville sisters to bring them back to Florence. Sister Epina left us, but sister smith is with us now. She came to Alabama at the same time Sister Leifson and I did so Sister Leifson and Sister Smith are both pretty new to the mission working together. President must not trust me enough to let me go with a newbie yet. So far every transfer somebody has died (or gone home) with me. First sister Intriago, then I was with Sister Gehrig and not Sister Belford is dying at the end of this transfer. Apparently I just kill everyone off. After Transfers we went with some of the Elders to this Mexican buffet (yea apparently they exist). As we are all eating, and there are 6 of us, one of the workers there comes up and says a man who just left payed for us... the tender mercies of the Lord :)

I got to see Jose Luis for the first time since his Baptism!! He seems so different, you can just see it in his face. He is so much happier!! It's so great to see the blessings the Gospel can bring to people, I just wish more people would realize it. WE talked to him about the priesthood and he was hesitant but he did ask, "so I'll get to baptize if I receive it?" So I think the fact that he could baptize his family might motivate him. He talked with the Bishop on Sunday and Jose Luis told him he is only learning little by little and the Bishop told him so is everyone. So he is going to be receiving it next week!! :D I think he is sad that there is not a spanish branch around here. He misses a lot of the classes because he just can't understand anyone. We have a translator in sacrament meeting but it's not the same. He is thinking about moving to Huntsville just so he can go to the spanish branch there.

ON Thursday we had a conference call and President talked about the importance of the white handbook and had us read the WHOLE THING in companionship study... that was a lot of spanish reading. but it was great because I saw all of the things i need to improve on. 

I have been eating like crazy ever since I've gotten back. We made dinner with one lady in the ward named Lupe. She is part of the Limon family that is about the only spanish people in our ward. We made sopes and they were delicious! Then Octaviana (Jose Luis' mom) made us food, I don't even know what it was called but it was delicious as well. Spanish people know how to cook! And they LOVE talking about food.

The work is really moving forward. We had 15 new missionaries come in this transfer and that is just the beginning. Next transfer there are supposed to be even more and then march we are getting 8 new spanish sisters alone. Its Crazy!!! I am so excited to see all that happens in the future!

Love you all so so much!! Thank you for all of the support and prayers, I could not do it without ya'll!!! 

Love, Hermana Decker

P.S. Sorry if I haven't written anyone back recently! these past few weeks have been crazy!