Amor!!!

Hola hola!!!

It has been another glorious weeks here in Huntsville Alabama. Pretty much every day is like a roller coaster with so many things going on! We have had some pretty epic storms here, no tornadoes (thank goodness!!) but some of the most amazing lightning storms I have ever seen. It's amazing how something that scares so many people can be so beautiful at the same time. I guess it's all in how you look at it, which greatly applies to our missionary service as well.

A couple of things from this week. We had zone training this Tuesday... Elder Munns (our zone leader) was in the hospital for surgery on his elbow, so that left Hermana Hazelgren and I along with Elder Emmanuel in charge. It didn't go as great as we had hoped. I felt like we chastised the zone more than we showed our love for them. I had to make up for it and gush about them at the end before we ended. Our other Zone training in the Madison zone went significantly better. I likened our missionary work to a hospital (since we had been in there for a few days visiting with Elder Munns) and how we are the doctors and nurses. We would expect the best from those doctors or nurses for our own injuries as well as our suffering loved ones so we should be those kinds of missionaries to the people here in Alabama. There are some people who are "bleeding out" and we need to find those people and end their suffering before we try to help those with a little scratch. 

Proselyting work wise, this week was a bit rough. We had a day where pretty much nobody was home, which is always the hard days. It always makes me stop to think "Are we missing something?". We stopped to pray many times to help us get direction, but it was just one of those days I guess. We found out about some depressing news about our miracle family I've mentioned previously. We had the other sisters go and visit them while we were on exchanges, trying to keep daily contact, and the mother told them that we have to stop coming by. Turns out that the "esposo" (which 99% of the time is not their husband but Boy friend) doesn't like us coming over and beats her and her daughters frequently over it... It is a very sad situation and there really is nothing we can do about it but pray for them. She told the sisters that she is trying to get away and that she loves what we have been teaching and loves church and hopes to be able to return some day, but not for now. It's definitely an eye opener to how awful the world really can be sometimes. I really hope that at least those kids find the gospel soon. They loved church last week and Sophia (the 10 year old) asked straight out what she could do to be baptized.

On a lighter note, we went to see one of our investigators on Saturday, who will hopefully be getting baptized this Saturday!, and a 15 year old black kid walked up to us and asked if we had any pamphlets or anything. We ended up talking for a while and he has had a pretty rough life. He used to live up in Chicago area and has been in some rough crowds, been shot at a couple times, been stabbed in the knee, and is not trying to fix his life up. We called up the Elders who are over his area (in english) and talked to him right there and he agreed to go to church the next day. He went and it turns out he loved it!!!... Well not the first two hours :) But he says he wants to join our church!!... but not get baptized because he has been baptized, but we can work with that! :)

Muchisimas Gracias for the Birthday package!!! It was amazing and so perfectly timed. And the flowers just brighten up our apartment :D I have got to lay off the candy though! Next month I will have 6 months left (don't want to think about that) but we have deemed it (or all the sisters have deemed it) 6 months to skinny!!! But that wont start till next month so I guess I can finish of the sweets you sent ;) It was a great day. We went to the Taco bus for dinner "El Cazador" and I got a DELICIOUS burrito. The Zone Leaders bought me some presents (more candy) and Hermana Hazelgren made me an AWESOME card and bought me Diet Dr Pepper. haha. The other spanish sisters made me cookies. Then we had interviews with president Hanks and he shared some wise council. He is really a great guy. Really funny and easy to get a long with. Here is a couple of scriptures he has shared with us:

(3 Nephi 5:13) "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

And our "unofficial mission logo" (because we're not allowed to have one) (2 Nephi 31:20): "…Press forward with a Steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men."

Thank you so much for all of the love, prayers and support. Sounds like it has been pretty rough up there Brayden! Keep up the good work!! (p.s. love how you said "comparted our testimonies" haha, you have definitely been speaking lots of Spanish!)

Blessings and Love,

Hermana Masey Decker