1 year down!

Aloha! :)

It has been another busy week this week! You just can't get away from it out here ;) But it is great, it has really taught me the importance of hard work. I never realized that I wasted so much time when I was home until I got out here and we are always on the go. We went on 3 exchanges this week. Even though Hermana Hazelgren and I have been together for almost 3 transfers now, it probably only adds up to about 2 considering how many exchanges we go on. This week we have 3 exchanges again. We are trying to get all of the sisters in before the end of the transfer and there are a couple we want to go on a couple of exchanges with so we are always on the road :)

Our first exchange this week was in an which is here in Huntsville so we didn't have to travel too far. These sisters are so great and so loving, but they need a lot of direction even though one of the sisters has been out as long as I have. The sister I was with pretty much handed me the GPS and said "all of our investigators and less actives are on this, what should we do?". So we went and did :) As we were riding our bikes back from one of the less actives we were visiting, I had a strong impression that we needed to stop and knock some of these doors... and I tell all of the sisters I love tracting... but I'm not particularly fond of it ;) so after fighting it for a little bit, the words of President Monson came into my mind, "NEVER ignore a prompting". So we stopped, locked our bikes, and we walked down the street. Funny thing is, we passed every door we could have been knocking and ended up finding a women outside washing her dog. I know the Lord guided us to that woman. We prayed with her and she broke down crying. Her life is basically in ruins right now. So many bad things are happening in her life and she has just been praying for a sign from God to let her know that it will all work out. And then we showed up :) We left her with a Book of Mormon, testified of how it would change her life, and she said she would definitely read it. Like I said last week. The Lord is preparing people. He knows who is suffering and sometimes we are the instruments in his hands to help heal these people.

Our other exchanges were great as well. Our miracle woman we found last week, Ariel, continues to amaze. The English sisters said in the first lesson with her, one of the first things she asked was, "So I've been praying about it and I think I want to be baptized... What do I need to do?" :D They taught the first and second lesson in the first visit and she has a baptismal date for this Saturday. Did I mention that she bought a quad?? Yes, a quad. And she has been reading "True to the Faith" and wants to do family history so she can do baptisms for the dead. She's Amazing, simply amazing!! 

So the Spanish work is moving forward slowly, but at least the English work is bolting ahead! :) We are just trying so hard to figure out what we can do to help out here. Our branch is great! We actually had a baptism of an 8 year old whose mom has a very inspiring story for her baptism 3 years ago. She pretty much put us in charge of the baptism so we made programs and everything. It went great! He looked so good in his little white suit :) I absolutely love this branch. They are all such strong members and most of them have close to nothing. Yet they are faithfully at church every Sunday when they could be working. I LOVE the children as well. We always have so much fun with them. I wish we could just teach children all day, but I guess I'll save that for after the mission. I have noticed there is great power in the children though. One of the best ways to someones heart is by loving their children.

The work continues. The adversary keeps working and so we continue to work :) I wish these latinos would keep some commitments though ;)

Love you all!!! Miss you tons!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker