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