Greetings from Montgomery Alabama!

Hola!!!!!!

Wow! This week has been loca! It is so crazy to be in a new area with so many new people and a new companion. Missions are definitely not for those who don't like change. We are changing all the time! Well, most of y'all know I am now in Montgomery Alabama. It is definitely different than Florence. We aren't in the country anymore :) we are right in the city. Not nearly as big as Birmingham but definitely the city. My new companion is Sister Child and she is amazing! She is from Farmington Utah. 20 years old and has never been away from home :) It is definitely an experience for her. haha. A lot of the places we go tracting here are ghetto and she is not used to it. I love it though. The humble are a lot more willing to listen to what we have to say. Well we got here on Wednesday night and we had pretty much nothing to go off of. We are the first Spanish sisters here and our Area Book was COMPLETELY empty. Which means we have no former investigators or potential investigators or anything! We are definitely starting from scratch. And we both have no idea about the area. The first few days were rough! We were just trying to find out where to even go! We have an senior couple in our district, the Astens, and they told us that there were some areas that we were not to go to... apparently some places down here are a bit dangerous and some are a bit sketchy so we can't go there at night. But! We are starting to figure it all out so it's all good :)

We went tracting the other day and found some Spanish people! YAY!! There must be a lot to find here because we have us and the spanish elders here in our ward, the Carter Hill ward. There isn't a branch but they have a Spanish group which means that we go to church with the ward but we have a separate sacrament meeting and Sunday school class, all in spanish :D I love it! There aren't a lot of spanish people in the ward, but we are going to change that! And they are talking about starting a branch here soon, so hopefully we can help with that. I love the Spanish! I am still not quite so strong in my abilities, but they appreciate that we are learning their language. I can understand almost everything, it's the speaking that is difficult. And I really have nobody to lean on to teach so... But it will be great for Sister Child because she will have to pick it up a lot quicker than I did. We are blessed to be in this area! I'm so excited :D

Haha. We were tracting the other day and we knocked on a door and we here a little kid go, "It's white people!" haha. The best part is that it didn't just happen at one house. It happened at a couple other doors we knocked. We are definitely the minority a lot of times around here. It is so different from anywhere I have ever been, but I love it. I did promise Serph I'd baptize some black people for him, so maybe this is my chance :) We knocked on this one door and the guy had a hard time understanding me.I'm going to have to work on my black girl accent around here :)

Training is so crazy!!!!! I cannot believe I am training! I don't feel equipped to train. I just hope Sister Child doesn't hate me by the time were done ;) She is a quick learner so I have high hopes for her. I'm the one who is being trained, not the other way around.

President pulled me a side on transfer day to talk to me for a second. He told me that he had my picture all around the map the past few days and he had even changed it the day before. Something was not sticking. He said that if it was his choice he would have put me in a spanish branch and that he tried so hard, but it just wasn't Gods will :) So I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

I love you all! Miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all is going well!

Brayden! Sisters are better ;) That's all there is to it. And we as sisters love elders like you. Believe me though, it gets so much better in the field. Everyone grows up a bit :)

Colby! Get better!

Love, Masey

Pictures!!!!!!!

1. The kids dancing at the Fiesta

2. El Baile de los Viejitos

3. Pinata!

4. Singing at Fiesta

5. Yo and Sister Stock

Transferred!!!

Buenas Tardes!!!!

Well this week is the week of transfers!! It is definitely an exciting time in the mission and there is great anticipation for the 20+ sisters that are coming to the mission. All of them and 1 elder :) That should be a fun plain ride over ;) Every Spanish sister that is here, whether they just got here last transfer or not, will be training. So that means me too! :) I knew it was coming so it's not a big shock. The big shock (well not really because anything can happen on the mission) is that I am being Transferred!!! The Assistants called last night and said I will be receiving a new companion and a new area... That is a little bit intimidating. That means wherever me and my trainee are, we will both have no idea about the area or the people! I should be more scared than I am, I'm sure it will kick in when the day finally comes, but it's comforting to know that this is the Lords work and he's going to help us no matter where we are. I love the scripture "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I will definitely miss Florence though... There are some great people here and it is so beautiful. Most of my district guessed last week that I would be transferred. I've been here too long ;) The guess was that I will be going to Lorna branch in Birmingham. But we will see!!! I'm excited :D hopefully it will be an area with more Spanish people so I can get more practice. I just hope that I had some effect in this area. 

This week has been strange. Sister Stock was sick all this week. I feel for her, it's horrible being sick on the mission. I don't know for sure but I think that her body is just exhausted. We rode our bikes A LOT last week and I think it wore her out. It was interesting that every time we went out to work she all of a sudden couldn't move anymore :) it was probably the anticipation of the exhaustion on her body. So we stayed in a lot this week. That is the hardest because I was just itching to get out and talk with people. I tried to keep myself busy though. I worked a lot on the area book and read a lot.

We went over to see Jose Luis, Dulce, and Octaviana this week. For some reason we haven't seen them as frequently as we usually do. After Octaviana fed us, Dulce asked if we would go with her to the Tienda and I was thinking like the spanish tienda with food, but she ended up taking us to the mall... that was a bit weird to be there. I did take advantage of the opportunity and asked her about her baptism. She told me she just isn't ready. I know someday she will be but it just isn't now. Octaviana can't progress because she has to marry her novio that she lives with who has to divorce his wife in Mexico and that all becomes a problem when you're illegal ;) BUT! I know one day they will all be baptized and sealed in the temple. It just isn't their time. One day! We are hoping that Jose Luis can get to the temple soon to do baptisms :) That's the ultimate goal, to get them to the temple!

We had a Spanish Fiesta on Friday! That was fun. Not a lot of people came but we invited the Spanish Elders from Russellville and they invited more Spanish people. The Hispanics danced and we watched :) And we ate nachos and us and the Elders sang. It was fun. Toni Meza (the return missionary in our ward) really put it all together. He has been a great help in the work. He really wants the ward to get excited about missionary work and is working hard to put together activities to do that. I hope to be that kind of RM when I get back.

We've decided that Alabama is the best and worst place to serve ;) The best because everybody believes in Jesus Christ and have a love for him... but that also makes it the worst because they have no desire to listen to us. We love all of the religions here! They are all great people! But it's an interesting thing because even though the love God so much, Satan has such a strong hold on their hearts. It's hard for me to even wrap my mind around it! What do we do?

You got to love the accents here :) Sister Stock had a rough day so we decided to go to get ice cream at McDonalds. (nothing like Ice cream to make ya feel better). Some lady cut us off in the drive through line, but it was okay because her accent when she ordered made it all worth it. I wish ya'll could hear it now. "Can I get two hot fudge Sundays with extra fuuuuddge" you gotta talk real slow to get the full effect of the southerness ;) it's probably one of those things where you have to be there ;)

Thank you so much Family for the Saint Patrick day's candy!!! Ya'll must have been inspired because I needed that tooth brush top! I was looking at them last Monday but they were too pricey for my missionary budget ;) 

Love ya'll tons!!!! Miss you too!!!! Next time I email I will be in a new area with a new companion! :D

Con Amor, Hermana Masey Decker

Aloha!

Hola!!!

Sorry I am emailing so late. Today was a bit hectic :) So! Happy news! Apparently the First Presidency has now authorized us to email not only our family, but anybody!!!! And we don't have a time limit for emailing! :) That's pretty exciting, except I don't have many other people to email except for my family, but that's okay :) I would love it if my beautiful friends would email me as well though :) I think it's like for every mission so that's good news for Brayden as well. Wow!!! Brayden is in the MTC! He is going to love it! I can't believe he is there! It feels like just yesterday ya'll were dropping me off :) I don't know his email, but if ya'll could get it to me, that would be fantastic!

The work is going forth here in Florence Alabama! :) I am still loving every minute that passes by, and they seem to pass by oh too quickly! I have been feeling a bit under the weather this week, but I seem to feel better when we are actually out working, so that's what we have been doing! I am grateful for what president has said about learning and that we can't mess up because we are just learning. I know I am not a perfect missionary, sometimes it is frustrating :), but I am learning how to be more effective. I read somewhere, I don't remember where, God doesn't expect immediate perfection, just immediate progression and I hope I am making him proud. It's tough work missionary work is! But I love it!

The weather here is driving me crazy! The past couple days it has been BEAUTIFUL. It rained a little bit yesterday but at least it was warm! Today... it's cold again. You just can't win here ;) We got to ride our bikes a bit more, which is great! I don't like being inside. I like being outside. The problem is my companion doesn't like it too much. Haha. The good thing is we don't have many miles so she doesn't have much of a choice ;) We did have to travel to Tupelo this week for zone training and it just started to pour! We couldn't even see out of the windshield it was coming down so hard. We had to text the Zone Leaders and tell them we were going to be a little late.

I am trying to really submerge myself in the culture down here. The great part is that I get to have two different cultures. The south and the hispanics! I love both of them. I pretty much got the ya'll down. Some of the members that aren't from here like to make fun of me for it :) I got me some good ol' Alabama gear. Roll tide! ;) I love the Spanish culture though! I am trying to learn to make tortillas and I am failing horribly. I just don't have the Mexican love I guess. The Spanish is starting to frustrate me though. We don't speak it quite as much as I would like too. Sister Stock thinks she is a pro at it already so doesn't study it as heavily as I like to :) But! I don't want to blame my circumstances for anything, so I'm just trying to come up with little ways to learn it as best I can. I want to come home somewhat fluent! :) We are having a Fiesta this Friday with the Spanish people from here and in Russellville so I'm excited for that.

We had 2 of our investigators come to church on Sunday and the first person that they met was President and Sister Memory (in the mission presidency), which was just perfect! They just happened to be going in at the same time since he visited our ward this week. They are Becky and Bobby and they have the cutest little boy Jaydon. They are really progressing and I am very happy for them. They have already begun to see the blessing of the Gospel in their lives and I hope that they continue on their journey. They have a baptismal date for March 30th!

Well my dear dear companion :) I have just decided that I need to pick and chose my battles. For the most part I just let things go her way. It makes the work go a lot smoother ;) I don't like to fight. I have found I am much to easy going for her though. Things just don't bother me like they do her :) She thinks I'm offended when I'm not. I am learning a lot from her though and I am extremely grateful that I get to work with her. Preparing me for training I suppose. Transfers is next Wednesday! I swear we just had transfers. I'm a bit torn. I love Florence and I would love to train in an area that I knew, but I want to learn more spanish so... we will see. I will go where the Lord wants :) We have been reading recently the last few chapters of Alma and the first few chapters of Heleman and I have come to realize how strong Pride is. It takes down entire civilizations of people. And on the other side, humility saves whole civilizations. So I have been striving to be more Humble :) 

Sorry that was such a long letter today! If more people would email me I wouldn't have more to say ;) Thanks mom for the shoes and the pictures! I love pictures!  I love you all SO SO SO much! Miss ya'll too!!!! Hasta luego!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Masey Decker

More Pics :)

1. The sky on our adventure in Hayleyville

2. Octaviana made those for us :)

3. Transfers with Sister Belford and Sister Leifson

4. Transfers with Our district leader Elder Coleman and his comp. Elder Christensen

5. Sister Epina! She left for Australia :)

6. My beautiful bruise from falling off my bike (i tried to make it look as bad as i could ;)

and more!

I can't remember what I've sent... but heres more!

1. Another Beautiful Alabama Sky :)

2. Caroling on Christmas in Huntsville! 

3. Sleep over on Christmas in Huntsville

4. Angel moroni on a members tree in Huntsville

5. The Best Mexican family :) at Jose Luis baptism!

Hola!!!!! :)

Buenos Dias!!! :)

Preparation day's are the best because I get to email ya'll!!!! It really is a high lite of my week :) 

Well this week has been great! We got to go to Tupelo last Monday as I mentioned last time. We ate pizza and hung out with the zone. It was great! We were supposed to play in the park but it was freezing so we ended up going back to the Church. We didn't have a volleyball or a volleyball net so our amazing zone leader Elder Del Francia went out and bought a volleyball for us. We still didn't have a net so we just played without one and imagined it was there. It was definitely a stress reliever. Then we went to Tutti Frutti and got frozen yogurt. 

We went to see the Martinez family that night and brought them dinner. She just lost her father and is having a really hard time. Her little son Landon is absolutely adorable. He and I have this joke that one day I'm going to marry Justin Bieber :) He even drew a picture of it for me. I was blue and Bieber was pink. Haha. 

We ate with a member every day this week! It definitely was an answer to my prayers. We had just switched our credit cards over to another company and I couldn't get the money off my card by the expiration date so I was left with no money and we had to use the rest of Sister Stocks cash... I prayed that we would get fed this week and the Lord definitely came to the rescue there! Thank you wonderful members who listen to the Holy Ghost!!

We have Spanish Elders in our district now. They work in Russelville and they are great. We get to get together every week before District meeting for "Spanish Class" and I was assigned to teach por and para. I still don't really understand all of the usages for those still but, teaching it really does help you learn faster. 

We have had some great lessons with some of the members. Sister Rye is amazing. She goes out with us every week to visit Less Actives. I just love her to pieces because she is a single mother of 3, 2 of which are the craziest little boys I have ever met in my life and she still comes out and helps us. Even begs us to let her come out with us. She is definitely a blessing sent from God :)

The young adults out here are amazing help as well. We have a few recently returned missionaries in our ward and they are so willing to help. They are the best to bring because they know how it all works :) They know sometimes people aren't home and what they should say to people and what should probably not be said. Haha. 

Well. My wonderful companion and I are moving along. Haha. She really is great and I love her to death, but she does tend to want to be right about everything and I've caught her on a few little white lies and it certainly is testing my patience ;) I am learning... a lot! It's funny because I told Sister Belford before I left that I can stand all kinds of people, but the ones who get on my nerves are ones that want to be right about everything and see there way as the only way... God works in mysterious ways :D It's great! Don't get me wrong, she is amazing! Just little kinks here in there that we BOTH have to work on. I pretty much killed her the other night. We were biking all day and I have been used to it because I biked all the time with Sister Belford. When we got home she pretty much passed out on the ground.

We have a lot of younger couples were working with. Becky and Bobby is one of those couples. They have a little boy who is 1 named Jaydon and he is the sweetest. They were supposed to come to church yesterday but Jaydon got sick so they couldn't come :( They are having relationship problems (they're not married) and they are hoping to salvage their relationship for their sons sake and they know the gospel will help. We have high hopes for them :) 

One of our spanish investigators, Gina, likes to call me Nina Becker. She refuses to say sister. Haha. She believes all that we teach her but she doesn't believe in Joseph Smith. With her background all intertwined with people of the Church, I know the Lord has been preparing her. 

Well, sorry that this letter was all everywhere! :) OH!! it snowed this week here! None of it stuck, but everyone freaked out a bit :) Today it is warm though. Getting ready for tornado season :D

I love you all so so so so so much and miss ya'll tons! I hope all is well!

Love, Hermana Decker

Hi

Hola mama!

Thanks for the shoes!!!! I haven't recieved them yet, but I am grateful that you are always looking out for me :) I'm glad Brooky and I will match. I will think about that every time I  put those shoes on! :)

Sounds like the family is acting like they usually are. haha. I miss all of the kids so much!! And my wonderful parents. We just read this morning about the Mothers of the Army of Heleman and It made me realize how grateful I am for my amazing mother and that I can trust you :)

So here's the real run down of my companion! :) I still love her to death but I figured at least my immediate family can get a little taste of what it's like here. Haha. Well last week she rebuked evil spirits out of our apartment... it freaked me out a little bit to say the lease, especially because I didn't feel anything... but whatever makes her feel better. But, I did tell her it  freaked me out and then I told president in my weekly letter. He had her call her family. I guess he thought that would make her feel at peace. Which is great because she needs it. 

This week I told her that I like to fast dinner and breakfast and she flipped out at me. She said that she had never heard of such a thing and that it felt "utterly wrong" to do that. And that it was weird. I have held my tongue on a lot of things she says like how I can't say "Awesome" because it is too casual, but after she said that I was like, "Nuh uh, you have no right to freak out of me about that." Anyways :) I ended up having to fix the problem. Turns out I still have a lot to learn :) But i did feel like I was the bigger person in that situation.

Sigh... Good to get that off my chest. My companion is strange, but that's okay! Strange people are great!

Love you mucho!!!! Miss you :D

Love, Masey

and mas!!!!

1. Some of the Limon family in the Florence Ward

2. I got my presents finally! :)

3. Selena and her friend