Examples of Ammon

Hola :)

Well things are the same old same old here in Alabama. Watched the broadcast yesterday! That was pretty exciting :D I guess now the missionaries will be able to start using the computers more for proselyting. We have to wait until they get around to our mission but it's pretty neat. Using facebook and all. But, it doesn't really apply to most of our investigators considering almost none of them have the internet let alone facebook. The whole thing with the Church doors always being open, I don't know how they will do that, but I guess we will find out :) I'm glad that they called for a lot of help with the members. We really could have a lot more success if the members were involved. Our little branch is just suffering and I don't know how to help it. We have a branch mission leader but he never does anything and they never have ward council or anything. Hopefully we can get some baptisms to excite the branch more about missionary work.

The work here seems to be going kind of slow lately. We have gone from 6 baptismal dates to 0. None of our investigators are keeping commitments so we have no progressing investigators either. Our investigator Alejandra who we were so sure about, didn't show up to church. It just breaks my heart that none of these people really understand how this Gospel could change their lives! They struggle with so many things and I wish they could just see how it could all be better if they would just accept our invitations. I am really at a lost at what to do and it makes me feel like I must be lacking something because we aren't seeing success like I would like to. Although, I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning and I have just finished most of the stories of Ammon and his brothers Aaron, etc.. In Alma 26 it mentions in vs 27   Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to^aturn back, behold, the Lord ^bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with ^cpatience thine^dafflictions, and I will give unto you success. And it goes on to tell of their afflictions and then Ammon says:30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the afruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are bmany; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

It brought me back to the Christ like attribute I have been working on, patience. Maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something :) And they were just working towards, "saving some" and look at all the blessings that followed. There is always so much to learn from the missionaries of the Book of Mormon. 

Other than that, things are good :) We went on two exchanges this week. One with the sisters in Guntersville and another in the Winchester ward in Huntsville. They are great sisters. I always learn something new from each exchange I go on. We did a lot of spanish work in Guntersville. They have no Spanish investigators and they were double transfered in and one sister is brand new and the other has only been here two transfers. That's pretty much how all of our sisters here are now. I don't know how they do it. I was worried to train when I had already been here 4 transfers. They are all amazing. And to answer your questions mom, I don't know Sister Alison Spensko... there are so many sisters here now it's hard to keep up. And Sister Wilding's old companion went home due to sickness... at least that's the rumor. I haven't heard anything else.

We went to a specialized training for the Sister Training Leaders on Tuesday in Birmingham. That was intense! President Holzapfel is just amazing and so is his lovely wife. He pretty much just threw down the hammer. Basically we are going through a phenomenon because we have increasing missionaries coming, but our baptism average is going down for the first time, and it should be that we are increasing... He wanted our opinion on it, but we are just as baffled as he is. We are so sad that he will be leaving this Saturday :( He is really one of a kind. But we are excited for President Hanks to get here! We know he will have a lot of great things to bring to the mission.

We're still trying to figure out this whole Sister Training Leader thing :) It definitely has been a blessing to me as I feel I have grown a lot, I just hope I have been a blessing to others as well. That's why we're here, to bless other peoples lives and I hope that our hard work and patience ;) will bring some fruits to our labors.

Thanks mom for the skirts!!!! They have been such a blessing :) I love you all and I miss you tons! Thank you for all of the prayers and support that you send my way. I miss the kiddos like crazy and I hope that they are all doing well. I hope you're enjoying bryan head too. LOVE YOU!! Send my love to everyone.

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

Happy Fathers day!

Happy Fathers day to Dad!!! one day later, but it still counts :) I hope you got the letter I sent! Sounds like the work is certainly moving forward in good ol' Las Vegas! That is so exciting to hear with Austin and his baptismal date and with Brett! Ya'll are doing some great missionary work :) I'm going to have to step it up to catch up! I really hope that Brett continues to come to church! That would be so awesome if Serph got to baptize him. Your faith and testimonies and hard work in the work of the Lord is an inspiration to me to work harder and more effectively.

Well things are going here. It has kind of been a rough week. You get them every once and a while I guess. We have gone from 6 people with a baptismal date, to 1 and that 1 didn't come to church on Sunday so we have to move her date again. It's a bit frustrating when everyone keeps telling you that they will come to church and work towards baptism and then not put the work in to do something about it. I guess that's where we come in though. We need to help them out better. President has been telling us that we as a mission are doing better at inviting, we are just not doing so well in helping our investigators keep those invitations. I'm going to work harder on that this week.

This week was transfers. We now have a total of 9 companionships of sisters that we are over. I love them all to death, but it is kind of a lot of work :) We have 2 exchanges planned per week which means we won't be in our area as often, but hopefully that will push us to work harder in our own area with the investigators here. I think it's important for us to remember that all of these people here are not "our investigators", they're the Lords. It's hard to get some of the sisters to see that. They don't want to "share" their investigators with anyone. But, we're all working for the same goal so it shouldn't really matter which missionary is teaching them. Yes we should do everything we can to help that person and love them, but we don't have possession over them.

We got to go to Presidente Lopez's house yesterday for a "dia de Padre Fiesta". It was a lot of fun. We got to know the branch a little better and eat a bunch of different kinds of hispanic food... so much food. Hermana Beck (the other Huntsville sisters) is going to help me go on a diet this week ;) I'm gaining way too much weight. We ended up stuck their pretty much all day... Our ride back to the church didn't leave until the evening. But it was still great. I got some good spanish practice in. Which by the way, Brayden is going to speak 10x better than me when we get home. Where he is, is probably where I am right now... and I have been out 10 months. In my defense though, we are not completely submerged in spanish all of the time ;)

Other than that it has been a pretty slow week. We went on an exchange yesterday with the Athens sisters, saved a dying bird, taught a bum, baked cookies for some construction workers by our apartment, Met a millionaire who is living in a trailer park and has cancer and is related to Bruce Willis (that was an interesting one), and made banana pudding with Hermana May (a member in our branch who is AMAZING at cooking). 

Yep that's about it. It's hotter than hades here. The humidity is pretty horrible and the bike doesn't make it any better. You feel like you can barely even breathe! But it's all good :) The work of the Lord must go on! We just have some nice sweat marks to prove we've been working hard. 

I'm excited for the broadcast on Sunday! It should be pretty epic! Our stake didn't head the council of letting the missionaries watch it live so we have to watch a rebroadcast at 7... I'm kind of dissappointed with that, but it is what it is.

Love you all so so so much!!!!!!!! miss you! Thank you for all of the Love and support. Sure do love ya'll!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

Photos!! finally :)

1. We stole the elders bike parts :)

2. Sister Marchetti and I got SOAKED

3. Our tree of life for our zone conference

4. At the temple

5. :)

6. Our Huntsville Spanish District from last transfer

mas fotos

 I made my own finger brace

Elder Tolman, He bought the same Alabama T-shirt as me 

I am not wearing a backpack

Paulina's Baptism!!!!!!! and her cute kids :D

Biking, Eating, and Preaching

Hola hola!

I just want to thank everyone for the support and love! It means more to me than you even know. I feel your prayers every day and I could not do it without you!! :) Gracias!!! This week has been so great! Our numbers weren't the best, but I think that we fulfilled our purpose none-the-less. We have fun along the way too.

We did our monthly zone training on Tuesday and that was so so so great! I just absolutely love the Zone Leaders that we work with. They are such good missionaries and inspired missionaries. Many of the Huntsville zone told us that the training was one of the best trainings that they have ever had. It was so spiritual and I think it really helped to rejuvenate the missionaries and their faith. We really tried to focus on their relationship with Jesus Christ and how that is really the basis of everything. I think too many of us out here on the mission forget that. We're out here to serve in the LORD'S vineyard. We need to rely on him. We got some great missionaries who have really strong testimonies. We had a little part where we bore our testimonies and you could just feel that power in that room. I hope to be as great of a spiritual giant as some of these missionaries out here who are about to go home. I can already so such a change in myself I just hope it continues. 

We got to go the the temple this week! It is such a blessing to have the opportunity to have a temple so close that we can go to quarter annually. I love just being able to get away from everything and all of the worries and receive some revelation. I try to work on a Christ like attribute every week and I have gone over some points pretty hard, like: diligence, humility, charity, faith. But I have skipped over some. One of those being patience. I guess I just thought I was a pretty patient person.. (and humble to i guess ;) ) anyways, I've come to realize that I need to work on patience. It's not just being able to wait, but being patient through adversity, with other people, and mostly myself. It was kind of a break through I guess because I have trying to figure out what I am lacking. 

So guess what! I am staying in Huntsville for another transfer with Hermana Hazelgren as Sister Training Leader!! Woot! I'm pretty excited :) I just think I am so blessed especially considering that there are only 3 spanish branches on the mission and hundreds of missionaries, and I get to be in one. Pretty darned blessed :) We have SO many missionaries coming this transfer! It's so crazy because there are so many new missionaries! And we are expected to take care of all of the sisters... It's quite a big task. I am the oldest in the two zones that we cover if you don't count the temple square missionaries who aren't used to a proselyting mission. Hermana Palmer who is older than me, is leaving this transfer. I'm kind of hoping they send us some older sisters ;) I LOVE the new sisters but I love not being in charge sometimes too and it's a treat when I get to go on an exchange with a sister who has been here longer than I have.

We had TWO investigators at church yesterday!!!!!!!! my patience payed off ;D I was totes excited (as brooky would say). One of them is named Alejandra and she has been taught pretty much all of the lessons, but hasn't been to church, but we finally got her! She just has to come 2 more times and she works every other Sunday.. And she needs to get married (like every other Mexican here!!!). The other was Julia and she has the cutest 2 little kids ever. She's hard to read, but I hope she enjoyed it.

I just love all of the little hispanic children! Whenever we see a little animal, Hermana Hazelgren always says, "Can we keep it?". Whenever I see a little hispanic child I say "can we keep it?!". Hermana Hazelgren reminds me that would be kidnapping ;) But I just love them. I wish we could just work with the kids all day.

I am excited for this next transfer! There is a lot to do and I hope that I can do it better next transfer than I did this transfer. Live and learn I guess you could say :) That's what the Atonement is for, isn't it? I absolutely love all of the sisters here and for all of the things they have taught me thus far and I hope that I have left some good with them as well and blessed their lives as they have mine. It is an adventure here on the mission :) I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Love you all!!! Thank you for everything!!!!!! Miss you!!!!!!!! 

Blessings and Love, 

Hermana Masey Decker

Another day in Paradise :)

Buenos Dias!!

Well I guess I can say it has been another crazy week, but I think I have just learned that every week is a crazy week on the mission. We had A LOT to do this week. We went on three exchanges with some great sisters. Then we had a zone conference in Madison we had to go to on Thursday and a Mission Leadership Council on Friday. Then of course, the usual preaching of the gospel :) There is never a dull moment here that's for sure. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get home and have some down time... but let's not talk about home ;)

Our investigators are driving me crazy. We have 5 baptismal dates set. All of the hispanic pretty much say yes to anything we ask them to do, but they almost never pull through with it. It's a bit frustrating when they all tell you they will show up to church and then you are sadly dissapointed when NONE of them walk through that door. We even found a ride for one of them and when we came and knocked on her door... nobody answered. It's a bit discouraging to say the least. We are trying to come up with anyway possible to get them to come. We call them and go to their houses, but to no avail. It's getting to the point where we are seriously considering dropping most of them because they aren't progressing and we are running out of ideas to help them... Sometimes dropping them is the best way for them to see that we mean business. It's just hard when you love them all so much and want what's best for them!

Good news though! Our opening our mouth to everyone payed off :) We talked to this one guy outside an apartment complex named Rodolfo and told him that we would have the Elders come over and teach him and they did and he showed up to church on Sunday! So technically we aren't the missionaries teaching him, but we are just so excited to see someone progressing! The other sisters in our branch are having pretty much the same issues we are, so any success in the branch is great! Hermana Hazelgren and I were talking last night and we think that we can probably get together with the missionaries in our area and really plan out how we are going to help this branch and this area. If we work together better, I think we will see more success.

Even though the latinos can't seem to commit to anything, I still love them... probably more than the white people. The white people are rude, but at least they won't play around and say they will do something when they actually wont. We get lots of lessons taught with the Hispanics but not so many progressing investigators. I'm still holding out for the "elect". We'll find them soon :) Not gonna lie, I had a bit of a rough day yesterday. It's just dissapointing and sad that these people won't move forward. But I realized that my attitude was greatly effecting Hermana Hazelgrens and on our bike ride over to our next appointment I just prayed that the Lord would help me forget about myself. When you ask, he does answer :) If anything, I've learned that attitude really does affect the work. If you have a good attitude and keep the faith, miracles follow. Maybe small miracles, but miracles none the less.

Tomorrow we have to train in zone training for Huntsville and Madison. Huntsville zone training is going to be sweet! The zone leaders here are inspired. Our whole topic is enduring to the end, since our mission President is leaving this month :( The Zone leaders decided to make our zone training into kind of an interactive meeting so we are transforming the gym into the tree of life story and likening those scriptures to enduring to the end in some shape or form. We prayed about it and placed each missionary in a different area so they can teach that principle (little do they know that we placed them there for a reason). It is going to take some work, but I think it will help a lot. We've noticed that the missionaries are not focusing as much on Christ as they should. That's why we are here and if their relationship with Christ was better, they wouldn't be having the problems they are having and they would be more obedient. So our goal is to help them strengthen that bond. In Madison Zone Training, our part to train on is Inviting and then Helping. And we decided to go over Elder Holland's talk from last conference "Lord I Believe". We read it together this morning and I'm pretty excited for it!

We have fun here :) I met some crazy Korean lady this week in a trailor park when I was on exchange with Sister Marchetti from Italy. She kept pointing to the sky and saying "Boom Boom Boom". Some drunk Mexican men (not unoriginal by any means) were cooking a pig outside and had us come over and look at it. It rained cats and dogs and we were about 3 miles away from home on our bikes. Some random member who goes to college up here stopped us because we looked so pitiful and took us out to dinner. Blessings! We have a wonderful family who have been taught forever but will not progress, who always feed us delicious hispanic food. They just love the missionaries :) Hermana Hazelgren and I are saving up money we find on the ground to go out and eat!

Everything is so great here. I cannot even express to y'all how much I love this mission and all of the people I have met. It has changed me forever, and it's not over yet! So much more to learn, so much more to experience. Even the hard parts are great! I miss you all and I love you all so so so sooooo much!!! I know I don't write y'all as much as you deserve, especially all of the kiddos, but I hope you all know that I love you LOTS! and I haven't forgotten you! :)

Blessings and Love,

Hermana Decker