Buenas Tardes!

Hola!!!!!!!!

I love being a missionary! There is nothing else to it :) I just love it. I had a dream last night that they sent me home early and I woke up in a panic! Definitely not ready to head home quite yet :) Alabama is just so beautiful and amazing. The skies are more blue here! De verdad! I love it. We always talk about how the clouds are like toy story clouds :) so perfect.

Well, my calling took full effect last week. This week we have our first meetings so we will see how those go. It's a bit overwhelming but president said that it's good that we are overwhelmed. It brings us to our knees :) I have been on my knees a lot this week.  I am so grateful for this opportunity to work here in the Huntsville area and to work with all of the sisters here as well. I have learned here on the mission that our prayers are always answered. Maybe not how we expect, but they are always answered. Each transfer is an answer to a prayer for me as each one teaches me something new. On our drive back from Montgomery this week, I remembered that I recently had been praying for an experience to help me grow as a missionary that would help me be a better disciple of Christ and lo and behold :) Here I am as a Sister Training Leader. It's amazing how the Lord works. I feel so much love for each of the sisters that we are over. I never thought I could feel so much love for people I hardly even know, but as I pray for more charity I can feel it take effect in my heart.

We went on two exchanges this week. One with some Sisters in our area. One of the sisters has been struggling... She seems to just be struggling with teaching. She gets stuck when she starts to teach, it's like her mind goes completely blank and she doesn't know what to say and then she gets frustrated and then she breaks down. Her companions (she is in a trio) are amazing companions and show so much love to her and I know she can feel that. She is such a sweet girl and is willing to learn. We ended up just trying to get her to teach simply and had one of her comps pretend to be an 8 year old and that seemed to help a lot. We tried to get her to understand that it's not a bad place where she is at because she can turn it all over to the Lord. We have weaknesses to make us stronger. I hope we helped. I learned a lot from the exchange about myself and about missionary work. 

I also got the opportunity to drive back down to Montgomery! A 3 hour drive!! President wanted us to go down though because it's our old companions and they are both new. Two greenies in an area :) fun.  They are doing great! They have come out ready to work and they are getting to work. They still struggle with the language but they are trying so hard and are not afraid to just open their mouth. I can see their testimonies being strengthened by the help of the Lord. They both are amazing missionaries! And they have a baptism next Saturday for Paulina who is progressing so much! Hermana Child and I found her. I LOVE THE GOSPEL! When we found her she was quite, wouldn't make eye contact, her husband had just left her and she had no job, never smiled. I saw her on Saturday morning while we were down there and it's like she has made a complete 180! She finally found a job and she is just so happy! She even said she was going to church eventhough she worked a 12 hour shift through the night. She's amazing. She is so excited for her baptism. I just wish I could be there to see it! But, I got a lot of work to do up here in Huntsville :)

Hermana Leahman ( Hermana Hazelgren's old comp, who I went on the exchange with) mentioned how she just loves it down in Montgomery because of the energy. So many things are happening! Huntsville needs a little bit of a kick start. There's not as much excitement for the work here as there was in Montgomery and I've been trying to figure out what the difference is. And it's not just the missionaries but the branch as well. It's not the people because I know the missionaries up here are amazing and I love the people in the branch! I was reading this morning in Matthew 12:25 Which talks about "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:" and I don't think that this district or area is divided against itself, but that it could use more unity. I think that is what made the difference in Montgomery. We were all working towards the same goal and praying for the same people. Hopefully I can help... not sure how quite yet :)

I have started to realize that this calling will probably change me more than anybody else. It's like a teacher learns more from a lesson they prepare than their students. It is definitely a humbling experience to be called and I trust that the Lord knows what he's doing :)

Hermana Hazelgren is a blast. We laugh so much! It's great :) I love her! It's crazy because we are so different. She is a gamer and is in love with the Avengers. Everything in our apartment is avengers! But she is so sweet and loving and it's been fun. I have learned that if you are not enjoying your mission you are doing something wrong. We are supposed to be having fun! a happy missionary is a working missionary, that's all there is to it. And the time goes by so fast! I'm almost to my half way mark! Crazy!

I love you all so so much! I am so grateful for your prayers! I can feel them each and every day! I hope you can feel my prayers as well :)

Con amor,

Hermana Masey Decker

weather update ;)

So I forgot to mention! (not that it's that important but I wanted to tell yall anyways ;) ) So Saturday night there was a HUGE thunderstorm, like more intense than I have ever experienced before. It sounded like bombs were going off in our front yard! it was crazy! anywho :) Thats all..

Pictures

So this isn't from my camera, but from sister kims (the Korean). She sent them to us and I forgot my camera. These are the girls in my district in Montgomery :)

Greetings from HUNTSVILLE!

Hola!!!

So to say this week has been a crazy week would be a complete understatement. This week has been beyond crazy. As you can probably tell from the subject of this email I have been mid transfer transferred to Huntsville Alabama! I didn't do anything wrong, I promise :) I don't know if you heard but it's kind of a big deal out here in the mission field, they have a new sister leadership position. Basically they are sister zone leaders (that's what president said they are, but you will never hear them called that). I have officially been called to the position... So now I'm here in Huntsville with sister Hazelgren! We are in charge of the Huntsville and Madison zone. What we do is we go to the now named "mission leadership council" (previously known as Zone Leader council) and we help train the missionaries but our main focus is going on exchanges with the sisters in our zone. President said that we are the first ones called in the whole church! as every other mission seems to be waiting until the actual transfer to call their sisters. It definitely has been a very humbling experience.

Like I said before I am with Sister Hazelgren and she is great! She is so full of energy and loving and she has only been here for about 10 weeks. But she has been called as a leader as well! They put us together like they put zone leaders together, with a missionary that is well seasoned as well... But we only have so many sisters here :) So, I get to finish her training and we get to be in charge of these 2 zones. Bah! it's so crazy, but so exciting! It is an exciting time in the church especially for the woman. Did you notice that a sister prayed in General Conference for the first time ever? And we were on the phone as leaders with Tracy Watson (head of church proselyting) and he said that a big change is about to come forth. There will be a big announcement June 23rd that will change 200 years of missionary work... That is a little bit intimidating.

I knew the calling was being made, but I just thought, "That stinks for the sisters who get called to that position." And here I am. But I am so excited to get to learn from all of these sisters! I only hope I can help them as well :) We met with president on Wednesday and he personally gave each of us Sister Training Leaders (that's the official name) a personal blessing. It was so powerful! We really have no idea what we are doing, but we are going to work as hard as we can to do the best we can. President said to not worry about making mistakes because that is how we learn. I am grateful for that because I am sure we will make a few :)

I was so sad to leave our little Spanish group in montgomery though :( We had finally just gotten our feet on the ground and ready to run. Sister Child is now with another brand new sister so she was scared out of her mind, but they will do so good! nothing like being thrown into the thick of things to help you learn spanish :) I can't wait to hear that their group has turned into a branch. We still have our baptismal date with paulina! So that is so exciting! We moved her date up to the 4th and I'm almost positive she will go through with it. There are some great members down there who have helped tremendously!

We just changed this morning, and we came straight to the library, so I don't even know where we live but I am so excited to work here in Huntsville in their Spanish Branch! Sister Hazelgren's mom is from Puerto Rico so she speaks really well. Hopefully I can learn a bit from her. OH! I had to give a talk yesterday in our spanish sacrament meeting! It was a bit terrifying and I know my spanish was far from perfect, but I talked on Tithing and I thought it went as well as it could have :) 15 minutes of speaking, so not too shabby.

I am so grateful for all of your prayers and love! I definitely need your prayers now more than ever. I don't feel like I am ready to be a leader in any sense of the word, but I trust in the Lord enough to know that I'm not supposed to do it on my own. It's only when we feel overwhelmed that we truly understand how much we need the Lord and then we can see him working in our life as we accomplish things we wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I love you all so much! I hope that all is well. I sent Eli a birthday package, but it might get there a little late. Tell him I love him and give him a big hug and kiss for me!! :D

Con Amor, Hermana Decker

P.S. Mom, could you send me some skirts?? Possibly some with pockets? If that's not too much to ask.

And, There is a great cd in spanish. The artist name is Marcella Gandara... I think. If you can find it could you send it to me :)

y mas

 Our Zone leaders

 Sister Child was ready for the storm :)

Buenos!

Hola!

So I forgot my planner in the car :( Which means I got to remember everything that went on this week... I have such a horrible memory. This week has been crazy! (Which has been pretty much every week on the mission) but it really was. On Thursday president called us early in the morning to warn us that our area was going to have considerable weather conditions for tornadoes and we needed to be safe today. We barely got done with weekly planning when they told us that our proselyting day was over and that president wanted everyone to be inside. We went over to the Astons (a senior couple in our district) because we live on a top floor and they wanted us in a bottom one. So we stayed there from about 3 till 8. The zone leaders were there too because their house would just be torn apart by a tornado. Good news is that no tornadoes came through. I think a couple did in Mississippi, but it mostly just stormed pretty bad here. President is so great, he really does have our best interest at heart. 

Yesterday we had a musical fireside! It was great! Sister Kim put it all together and had us help make some videos and such. I sang in the ward choir and we had a lot of solo songs as well. We had a pretty good show up, about 120 people. President and his wife came and got a few pictures, so I'm sure they will be up on the blog ASAP. 

We have been working almost pure spanish now! We have found out where most of them live and have been trying to focus on those areas. It's great! I absolutely adore the spanish people and wish I could just be immersed in their culture. I still struggle with my spanish but I know enough to at least teach a lesson and carry a conversation. Pretty good considering I have been in an english area for the past 5 months. Sister Child doesn't know how lucky she is to teach almost only spanish people. We still are in the ward so we help out with the members and the Less actives, but the majority of our investigators are hispanic. We had fast and testimony meeting yesterday with our spanish group, and I don't know what it is, but the testimonies of our hispanic members, brings such a strong spirit and at least for me, I feel it so much stronger. Maybe it's because they are all converts and have to be so strong because there is only so many of them. The active latinos, are very active and very strong. We just started a temple prep class for them with a lady in our ward who speaks spanish and we are working on getting them to the temple. We need strong members if we are going to transform this group into a branch. 

One of our investigators came to church Sunday!!!!!! Her name is Paulina (i mentioned her last time) and she is so excited to get baptized. She doesn't know a lot about God or the gospel, but that can be easily taught :) She keeps asking us and mentioning her baptism, so we are so excited for her. We are holding out for May 11th, because she has to come to church 3 times before she can get baptized (mission rules). We have a new group leader. He is from the high council, Hermano Toronto. He is a fire ball! We are so excited for him to be in charge. He really is going to help to move this work forward. After the meeting on Sunday he pulled sister Child and I aside and told us that during the meeting he had a distinct impression that we were going to help move this group into a branch. He said there is something special about us sisters and we are needed here at this time. The spirit was so strong when he told us that and I just hope that I'm not transferred out so I can help out this group! I love all of the members so much! Carmina, one of the members from Vera Cruz, has been coming out on team ups with us to help us teach. She came out to help us with Paulina and she is exactly what Paulina needs. She is such a strong woman! She will be an excellent relief society president some day :) Her favorite phrase is, "Que Padre!" :) I love her!

Bishop read a book last night at the fireside, "The touch of the Masters Hand". I have heard of the book but I have never read it. For some reason the story touched me a lot more than I thought it would. I think it's because I can relate a lot with the violin in the story. If you haven't read it, I would recommend getting it. The Lord and his atonement, really does help us to be so much more than we are. Without him, we are nothing. That is so vital to understand as a missionary. We CANNOT do this work without his help, because it is HIS work. 

Well, I hope I remembered everything. I love you all SOOOOO Much!!!!!!! Thank you for all of your support and prayers :) 

Con Amor, Hermana Masey Decker

mas!

Elder Bentley and Elder Palmer in their apt.

I bought Elder Palmer some stuff for his B Day :)

Elder Palmer and I

Pictures!

1. Sister Child cooking

2. At the temple

3 At the temple

y mas!!!!!

more of paulina's kids

Heya!

How yall doing! :)

Everything is fantastic here in Montgomery Alabama! Conference was amazing! I absolutely loved every single talk. They truly are inspired servants of the Lord. I tried to go about every talk thinking, "How can this apply to me," rather than, "I hope this person is listening to this talk." It really helped. Even the marriage one mom ;) Our companionships are a lot like a marriage and I figured if I applied the same principles, our companionships should be a lot better. The words of the apostles and prophets are truly inspiring and very applicable to my current calling. I loved, as always, Elder Holland's talk. He has such a power behind his words and they truly touched me especially since I have been praying for increased faith. Elder Uchtdorf is always one of my personal favorites :) He just knows how to make you feel good about yourself. And I loved Sister Daltons talk. "What e'er thou art, act well thy part." :) She is amazing. I was sad to hear she is being released, but she definitely has done her part!

We have been working our little tails off here! We met with our stake president yesterday, President Millington, to discuss with the spanish elders and spanish sisters in Prattville about the spanish work in our area. Like I mentioned before, we are in a "Spanish Group" which means we run under the bishopric of the ward. They told President Millington that they do not have the capability of caring for the Spanish people because of the Language barrier. So.... We are starting a branch!!! I am super excited to be a part of the establishment of the Branch. The problem is that we only have about 5-10 active members and only about 1 of them has the melchezidek priesthood, so we have a lot of work to do. They said they are going to take some people out of the wards around us to be the leaders for now, but I don't know if I will even be here when they actually start the branch. 

We had interviews with President this week and he basically told us we need to be focusing on the spanish people here. We are to work with the spanish people which means, we got to find them and baptize them :) This week we found a whole apartment complex full of Hispanics! The problem is that a lot of them don't actually speak spanish... They speak some dialect from their little pueblos in Mexico and Guatemala. It's always fun to get a blank stare from them as we start talking to them in spanish only to realize that they have no idea what were saying. BUT! We have 2 baptismal dates set up right now!!! One is a woman we recontacted that has been taught by many different missionaries. Her name is Maricruz and she has had many different baptismal dates but just didn't follow through. We have been examining her teaching record and it looks as if her husband, who works in Tennessee frequently, may be the hold up. Hopefully we can touch his heart. The other date is with Paulina. We met her tracting. As soon as Sister Child said, "We are representatives of Jesus Christ," She let us right in. Her husband has just recently left her alone with no job and 3 kids. It is heart breaking to hear the sadness in her voice. She certainly has been prepared to hear the word.

Everyone here knows, even the english missionaries, that the hispanics are "yay sayers". They say yes to almost anything we ask them to do... Whether they do it is another thing entirely. BUT! I have faith! We are going to get a baptism this transfer! :) Our amazing District leader, Elder Bentley, has really been hitting us hard on inviting EVERYONE to baptism. It really has made me start to think, I can't put my own personal judgement on whether somebody is ready or not. As missionaries we are always so scared that they will say no, but what if they don't? Only God knows :) We are here to invite others unto Jesus Christ by helping them get to Baptism so they can start that spiritual journey through their life! BAh! I love this work :) It transforms people and I love that I have the opportunity to see that happen every day. 

Training is difficult. I don't feel like I am equipped for the job :) I know there are so many other missionaries who could do a better job than I could, but it certainly has taught me humility and really relying on the Lord to help me. I hope I am making a difference in Sister Child's experience here. I just know that so many missionaries have made such a difference in my life and I hope to be able to do the same for others! I don't know if Sister Child feels like I am a good missionary, but I've come to the realization that it doesn't really matter what anyone thinks but God. We went on exchanges this week and I think she enjoyed being with the other sister more. I'm trying so hard to be the best I can, I just hope that I am helping. Every missionary has their strengths :) I'm just trying to remember that. I just know I LOVED my trainers. I hope she feels the same...

Everything else is great! I'm loving the spanish that I get to use a lot more often now :) I still can't speak too well, but enough that they understand me ;) I read your email mom about Colby and Serph helping out Brooklyn. It almost made me cry :') I have some pretty amazing brothers :D Love y'all to death! 

Gracias for all the love, prayers and support!

Love, Masey

Happy Easter!

Hola Everyone!!!!!

Everything is going fantastic here in Montgomery :D I absolutely love it here. I think the bigger city kind of feel gives me a little bit more energy. It's weird though because it's a bigger city, but it's not like we have a bunch of skyscrapers or anything, it's just TONS of people and TONS of houses. Which is great because I'm actually meeting people who have never talked to missionaries before which was completely different in Florence where everyone had met a missionary before :)  I feel more comfortable when we are in the rougher part of town than when we are in the rich part of town. Rich people won't listen to us.. And they all pretty much go to church. We try to stay away from the really sketchy parts though. Apparently there's a street called Smiley court and as our District leader, Elder Bentley says, "When the local homeboys are afraid of an area, you probably shouldn't go there." So we steer clear of that area ;)

We have been tracting like nobodies business. I love it. Sister Child is having to get used to it :) haha. But we have found a lot of great people that we have started to teach. We have finally gotten our feet on the ground I think. We are starting to learn the area more and finding out where all of the members and less actives are. Hopefully within this week we can start seeing more of them. We have a few investigators that seem promising. One of them is Gene. He is an older man who has many health issues. He loves God and wants to know more of his purpose in his life, but he is not churched which is excellent.

A couple of other investigators we have are Salvador and Maria. We have blessed their home (although he wasn't there) and we have been able to come back and teach the first lesson to both of them. Salvador has met with missionaries before and went to english class for a long time until they stopped it apparently. He remembers a lot of the story of Joseph Smith. He says he feels like him because there are so many churches and they all say different things. We committed him to baptism and he said he would if he came to know that these things were true but he wants to know first before he sets a date. Fingers are crossed for him :) We have talked with the elders and hopefully we can work together to help him and his family to baptism.

They are our only spanish investigators right now. (We need to get to the trailer park!)  If we go a day without teaching in Spanish, I feel a little bit bummed. I miss my Spanish family in Florence :) It's crazy to have to teach most of the lesson in Spanish! I've found though that I can communicate fairly well with the natives. It's strange to have to be the one in charge and translate things. I don't like being the leader, but I am definitely starting to learn how to be a better one. I hope Sister Child doesn't mind if I mess up a bit with her ;) I'm sure by the time I'm on my way out I will have trained TONS of sisters and then I can get the last one right ;) All of the missionaries here have been so helpful. Elder Bentley is an excellent District leader and Sister Kim (Temple square korean sister) and Sister Houston have really helped us figure out the ward. I still have a lot to learn, but I hope that I'm helping these missionaries and people here as much as they are helping me!

We started to ride our bikes this week. I LOVE the bike. But I think I love it too much because I tend to kill my companions on our bike rides ;) haha. I guess I haven't realized how much muscle I have built in my legs. I'm just gonna say that is the major factor in my 20 lb weight gain to make myself feel better about myself. President says to take it slow at first on the bike, or our companions will hate us. So I've tried to enjoy the restful bike rides ;)

President Holzapfel called me the other day and asked to talk to me privately. I thought something horrible had happened and almost had a heart attack. But he just said that my old companion Sister Stock and her companion are having struggles. Apparently they don't get a long at all. He wanted my input on Sister Stock, so I was very frank with him :) I hope I helped... but I'm glad i'm not the only one who had struggles with Sister Stock ;) She definitely taught me a lot though.

I had to give a talk yesterday in the English Sacrament meeting. Sister Child gave it on the Atonement and they just told me to talk on something eastery... Whatever that means ;) I studied a lot on the life of Jesus and his resurrection and ended up giving it on Being witnesses of Jesus Christ. It went pretty well actually :) I didn't really write out the talk at all, I just wrote down some points of the Resurrection and such and used a talk in the March 2008 Ensign by Elder Christofferson and it ended up flowing pretty well. I've never felt so calm giving a talk in my life! That was 100% the Holy Ghost right there. I love being a missionary :)

I hope all is well!!!!!!!!! I love you all so so so so so SO much and miss you all MUCHO! Hugs and kisses :) 

Love, Masey

Brayden! Enjoy the MTC! Just think. You will never have the opportunity again to just be edified by the good work of God and have all that time to study and learn spanish! Enjoy the Journey! Every minute of it. You'll be a lot happier if you do ;)