Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of God.

Hola hola! :)

 

This week has been fantastic! (I think I start all of my emails like this)... But it doesn't make it any less true! Really, you can't have a bad week when you have the Gospel in your life. We should walk around with smiles on our faces everywhere we go :D Corinth is wonderful. I kind of like the little town feel. We are constantly seeing people that we know and know us. Everybody waves at everybody around here. It's great :)

 

We had a lot of success this week in finding a lot of people. I have found when you have a full day planned with appointments, the Lord blesses you even if those appointments fall through. We had two days this week where we had an appointment for every hour of the day. Not all of the people who said they would be there were there, but we ended up finding people anyways. Let's start out with the best news. We had 2 investigators at church yesterday. Jesus and Rey!!! Father and son :) It makes me happy to see them coming to church together. Rey was super nervous when he came in. I can't imagine being the only latino in a room full of hard core Americans, but he did a good job. They only stayed for sacrament meeting, but we are making progress! Rey said he would have stayed but he came with his dad, so Jesus wanted to leave. He said "This was the most important meeting right"... "Yes"... "So I've stayed for the most important meeting and I can leave now." He's a funny guy. He said he will eventually stay for more meetings but he is taking it slowly. They both are. It's a bit frustrating, but I need to be more sympathetic and see it from their point of view. I translated again. We actually got some equipment now, so I don't have to sit next to them and whisper in their ear. I sit out in the foyer and translate from there. I'm not going to say I did the best of job, but the spirit speaks all languages so I hope they at least felt that. The ward members think it's awesome that we have Spanish people coming to church :)

 

We saw Rey after Church and he said he liked it he was a lot of new things to take in all at once. Understandable. He is really great though. He told us that he wants to take things slow because he doesn't want to run before he can walk. He wants to make sure he can do the little things, like daily scripture study and prayere, before he commits to the big things, like baptism. What he says makes sense. We talk about baptism almost every time we are over there so he knows that's our goal right now, he is just going to take a bit more time and that's fine. Some people need that. I know if he continues doing these things he will recieve his answer and it will probably be, "line upon line, precept upon precept," but it will come.

 

Other investigators. We have had a couple people commit to baptism. Which is fantastic! None of them will set a date though... We are teaching a Lesbian couple, Law of Chastity should be fun when we get to that. They're sweet and they love what we are teaching, but it's kind of hard to tell them that they need to split up their family in order to be baptized. They have kids and all. Oh the world. Our other investigator Luis we see EVERYWHERE, I mean everywhere. We taught him in a laundry mat the other day because we saw him waiting for his laundry. He is always in our path and he knows and we know it is not by coincidence. He is super Baptist, but I think slowly he is starting to see the blessings he can recieve from the gospel. Sister Barroso and I were talking and we can just see his little Guatemalan self in a 12 year old size baptismal suit ;) 

 

Other than that, I LOVED the Relief Society General Broadcast. I feel like their focus on Covenants was exactly what I needed to hear and exactly what my investigators needed. They need to see the importance not only of baptism, but the covenants that go along with it. Gospel truths will always trump any other manner of trying to convince someone of something. Our ward mission leader is awesome, so I think that our missionary work in the ward will start to take off. Maybe not when I'm here, but soon. 

 

I'm tired, I'm happy, I'm in love with this Gospel, I'm excited for things to come, I'm grateful, I'm healthy, and I love all of you!!!

 

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

I'm running out of cool subjects...

Aloha!!! :)

Hey y'all! I hope everything is going well at home. I read Brayden's email from last week a couple of minutes ago and by the end I just kept thinking... I will never complain about my mission again! It is a blessing to be state side. Sure we got cockroaches crawling out of who knows where, but I can handle all that stuff. Blessings. I am on the best mission in the world! :) ... no offense Bray, but it's the truth. Gotta love the southerners. I've learned two new languages here, Spanish and southern. Well, kind of three because the black folk down here have a language all of their own too. Too much fun :) We really do sometimes have too much fun I think. Sometimes our apartment gets kind of crazy with 4 sisters ;)

Anywho, this week was AMAZING. First to answer some technical questions of mom. Sister Barroso and I try to speak spanish all the time together, but it's hard when you're not immersed in the language and you live with English sisters. Our apartment is a bit small but we make it work. We live with the other Corinth sisters (english ones). One of which was one of my sisters in Huntsville, so that's fun. We all share one bathroom, which gets interesting, but we make it work :) The ward is fantastic! We just wish there was more spanish speakers, but what can ya do. And we have 6 missionaries in our ward. The Elders live in the Tennessee area of our ward and they're english as well. Our area is one of the biggest on the mission! Wooo... hope that answers all your questions mom.

Well, let's start with the best news. Jesus came to church!!!! (haha, gotta love it.) Alright, you have to say it the spanish way or it just sounds a bit blasphemous. But he did! We found him a couple weeks ago outside and started talking to him and we've been teaching him, trying to get him to understand that yes, all churches are good, but why settle for just good? Anyways, I drew him a beautiful map to get to the church (it was quite beautiful, he said so himself) and he came!! I was so happy :') A little back story (sorry this is going to be all over the place). We are teaching this other Mexican, Rey (we'll get to him in a minute), but we were teaching him the other day with the one spanish speaker in our ward who doesn't want to deport our investigators, and we told him we were having some other people come to church for the first time and so he didn't have to worry. Then I said, "Do you know Jesus?" and he says, "yea, that's my dad"... CRAZY! It's not by chance that we happen to be teaching both of them and they are our most progressing investigators. Anyways, they got daddy-issues, so Rey didn't think he would come, but Jesus came and Rey didn't. So we had our only little Mexican guy in our very English ward, so guess who had to translate, this girl! I have taken pride in the fact I've been out over a year and haven't had to translate yet, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The spirit is a life saver, that's for sure. I just hope he was feeling the spirit more than trying to understand what the heck I was saying. The ward was super friendly and I think a little surprised we already got a Spanish speaker to come to church. One of the members came up and said, "Congratulations, y'all are doing work!"... I think it's funny that some members really don't know how hard we work. But anywho, happy day for us.

Now to his son Rey. He was out with his friends Saturday night, so one thing led to another and he didn't get back home until 10 in the morning. We told him he needs to get new friends. He's a great guy and he wants to be baptized, he just wants that feeling that this is what he is supposed to do and he is taking it very seriously, which is great, but he has got to get his priorities straight. He's still young so we can't just expect him to change over night, but he has a sincere desire to and he is coming to church next week. He promised. He shared his experience of getting over the border... I am literally at aw at what some of these people do to have a better life. I straight up told him, he came here for a better life and the better life is the gospel. I wish y'all could just meet some of these people here, their stories and personalities are so much better than what I can write. I just love them all so so much!

In other news. We got to go down to New Albany to a senior couples english class to have a dinner with them. That was fun. They have no spanish missionaries in that are but they are dying to get some. I went on my first exchange this week not as a sister training leader :D That was fun. It was with Sister Murray, who has been a Sister training leader from the beginning just like me, so it was fun to be with her. She's the sweetest. We got dropped by some investigators which is always sad, but what can you do. We are just working our butts off to start our little spanish group here and hopefully with Rey and Jesus that can be the start. I would love to see one of them baptized, just so they can turn around and baptize the other. Maybe fix there relationship problems ;) I love it here though. Trying to get used to actually being in a ward and not a branch. It's difficult sometimes, but I know I'll look back and be grateful for those times.

I love you all mucho and I hope all is well!!!

Mucho Amor!

Hermana Masey Decker

fotos!

1. Our bike adventures :)

2. Temple with my beautiful comanera

3. Temple with president and some sisters in our district

4. Sister Wells and I found a friend this morning. Her name is Duke (we thought she was a boy) but the sisters are in denial and say her name is Masey

No God, No peace. Know God, Know peace.

My dear dear family and friends,

This week has been so spiritual and at the same time, so draining. I don't know what is up but I have been more exhausted lately than I ever have on my mission. I guess I'm just getting to the point where it's all catching up to me. Seriously though, I'm falling asleep everywhere, and in studies, which usually only happens to Hna Hazelgren ;) It's no bueno. But what can you do. I am definitely planning to take a nap today... but we know how that usually goes. Too much to do!

We had the AMAZING opportunity to go to the Temple this week! It was AMAZING! (did I say that already?). We got to see the new video. Wow! that's all I can say. Wow! I loved the emotion behind it all. That's not something you got to see in the old one. May have shed a few tears or so :) I love the temple. I love what president Hanks talked to us about it too. "Sometimes we go to the temple looking for some new and great insight… and perhaps the greatest insight that lies right in front of us all along is that the temple is really about us making promises to God, that we will comport our life in some small way to be similar to the life the Master lived while he was on the earth." He's a smart guy he is.

We also had a general authority come and speak to us yesterday! (this would be why I am emailing today). And we got to go back to Huntsville! That's where we met. My old stomping ground. I sure do miss that place. And I got to see all of my Sisters and Hermana Hazelgren which was such a blessing. Sure do love them! Elder Erich Kopishke from the 70 came and spoke to us. Him and his wife are from Germany and his wife is just the cutest, most energetic person you ever did see. I wish I had her enthusiasm about life. His training was 6 hours! So we were there most of the day... well all of it because it takes 2 and a half hours to drive there. He is an inspired man. Truly called of God. It's so amazing how he can be talking to a whole group of people and know exactly what I needed to hear... I guess that is mostly the spirits doing, but he created the environment to allow the spirit to dwell with us.He talked a lot about having dreams and desires. "Do not lose your dreams!" He said. He shared Ether 12:19 and told us our dreams, when made a reality through our faith, will make us glad. He told us to "Stop walking down the street waiting to see what happens." It was definitely something I needed to hear. I don't know why but this new area has been a struggle for me. We are doing the work and things are happening, investigators are progressing, so all SEEMS to be great. I just feel so out of it. I'm not quite sure why. It's never really happened on my mission. Ever since the beginning I've been ready to go, but lately I'm doing the work, but I feel a bit inadequate. I know, I have got to stop feeling sorry for myself. I just need to get back in the game with the arrows pointed outward, forgetting myself, all will be well. And it's good to have a dream. Every morning from now on I'm going to wake up and just dream of that golden investigator family going through the temple and ask the Lord to help me find them that day. That was Elder Kopishke's invitation to us. Remember our dreams, work for them, and ask the Lord to make them a reality.

Corinth is great! It has definitely been a great experience for me to be serving here and it has only been a short time. Already I am learning a lot and I have seen the blessings of having spanish missionaries here. There are quite a few Hispanics in our area. Our investigator pool just keeps growing! It's fantastic! Our investigator, Rey, is doing great! The elders used to stop by every once and a while and talk with him and help him with service, which really opened his heart I think to listening to us. He speaks english well enough to hold a conversation but he prefers Spanish. He wants to be baptized! We have met with him a few times now and he won't commit to a set date, but he told us last time that he doesn't want us to feel like we are wasting our time with him because he really loves what he is learning and he is actually keeping commitments! That's always a plus. He didn't come to church last Sunday because he was waiting for a text from us and we forgot... bad on our part. But next week he will come! He may take some time, but it is really a breath of fresh air to meet with him because he has so much DESIRE. Which is what Elder Kopishke talked a lot about. He just doesn't want to jump into it. He wants to be sure he is ready to commit.

Other investigators. Last week I mentioned our run in with the less active members Reina and Enrique. Enriques wife, Anna (who is not a member), just had a baby! We brought them some cookies and a little gift and he seemed genuinely happy to see us. He asked when we were coming by to see them next and if we could bring the Joseph Smith Restoration movie so we could watch it with Anna and his little sisters who are not members either. We are hoping to get their records over here soon. We have great hopes for them though!

Hermana Barroso is doing amazing! She really came pre-trained. Her Spanish is phenomenal! It really is. She doesn't realize how advanced she is in the language, but she could probably be training right now and be better off than some of the other sisters I have worked with in the past. I keep getting amazing trainees they probably train me more than I train them. First Hermana Child and now Hermana Barroso. I think God is trying to teach me a bit of humility in all of this :)

Mucho amor to all of you! I miss y'all! Thank you so much for the package! It was cute :) and thanks to Eli for the drawing! It's hanging up by my bed.

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

Fotos!

Servicio! at the graveyard. These are like legit soldiers from the civil war. Cool huh?

Exosure to the "son" prevents burning

Sweet home.... Mississippi?

Well we aren't in Alabama anymore. I would be lying if I said that I don't miss Alabama. It's not like it's super different here, but I think I just miss Huntsville more than anything. The people are a bit more friendly in Mississippi. That's what we heard anyways. I guess it could be true but I just moved from a big city to a little town so, usually people are more friendly in the smaller towns :) It's pretty here. It actually reminds me of some of the small towns I've been on exchanges in like Athens and Cullman, so it's not really anything new. The ward is great! We just got a new ward mission leader (woot! We actually have one now) and he seems pretty on top of things. He just retired from the army so he's pretty hard core. I'm excited to work with him. The Bishop is about as southern as you can get :) I love it. Our area is HUGE. Luckily they called Elders to work in part of it, Savannah Tennessee, So we have six missionaries covering our whole area. Not too bad.

There are actually quite a bit spanish people here. I was pretty excited about that. The problem is finding them. They are all hidden within all of the Black and White people. Another problem is that most of them are already part of a church. No bueno. We only have 2 people in the ward that speak spanish as well... So there goes our whole ward retention for our investigators. One of the ones who speaks Spanish (another retired army guy) straight up told us he would be happy to help but he doesn't do illegals. He will deport them if he finds them... Problem is almost all of our investigators are illegal! Bah! It makes me sad :( I understand that yes they should be legal, but if I have learned anything from this mission is to have compassion on them. They have some of the toughtest lives I have ever heard and they are going through all of this to make their lives better for their families. Of course there are those who are over hear partying it up and looking for hand outs, but the majority of the ones I have met are hard working, family oriented people... I'll step off my soap box now. My point is, we don't have much ward support in the spanish area. That's where the spirit kicks in :) I know most of the ward are great people, so if they can just love our spanish investigators, I hope they can feel it.

So we have spent the past few days walking around, trying to figure out the area :) It's been fun. We have met some really great people. The best part is that almost none of the spanish people have talked to missionaries before because we are the first spanish missionaries in the area. It's a cute little town Corinth is. We have quickly learned that it's "Cawrinth" that's how you say it ;) We are living with he english sisters which is fun. One of them was one of the sisters I was Sister Training Leader for, so we are already pretty tight. Sister Wells and the other is Sister Saville. Hermana Barroso is my companion and I am telling you. The Lord just keeps giving me prepared trainees. I have basically nothing to teach her. The same thing happened with Hermana Child. They are just amazing. All these new sisters are training me! The only thing she struggles with, and I have no idea why, is having confidence in her spanish ability. She speaks better than I did when I was out 6 months. She went to the Mexico MTC. She is a little aprehensive about teaching too, but those little things can be easily overcome. She's amazing. OH! and we share one bathroom and a car. Fun huh?!

So that's about our week in a nutshell. I might have shed a few tears when I left Hermana Hazelgren, but I will get to see her in a couple weeks because we have a general authority coming, Elder Kopishke, and we are meeting in Huntsville. Woot! Sister Leifson got transferred out of Sister Training Leader as well and is serving in Tuscaloosa in the YSA branch. They just opened up that for missionaries. I'm a bit jealous ;) It was nice to see all my friends at transfers. When we see eachother, it's like we haven't even been apart. It's kind of weird to have all this time to one specific area now. I'm so used to planning around exchanges, I feel like we can actually accomplish things in our own area! I'm pretty excited.

Cool story. So we were tracting yesterday since one of our appointmens fell through and I saw a "dish 500" (spanish tv) which usually means a spanish person lives there, but I have learned that's not always true. Anyways, I was like, "let's just go knock it." So we did and turns out it is spanish people from Guatemala, and not only that, THEY'RE MEMBERS! They used to live in Utah and were baptized there and loved the branch there. Long story short, they moved to north carolina, the branch president there wouldn't help them financially because they're illegal (which I still don't understand why that matters) and so they decided to stop going and then they moved here. Its a mom and her children. The boy whose now like in his twenties just got married. This mission has really just testified to me that the Lord really is just Micromanaging every detail of our lives. We thought we were lost before we found that house, but the Lord knew exactly where we were :) So I'm excited for them. If we can just get some solid spanish families to help us start the spanish group, we will be ok. Prayer and fasting really helps!

Love you all!!! I miss you tons and tons! Give all the kiddies a good smooch on the cheek and hug for me. Especially Colby and Serph ;) Que dios les bendiga!

Con Amor, Hermana Masey Decker

Service at the graveyard

Humpty Dumpty just needed Jesus

Hola Hola!!!!

Sorry about not getting to write yesterday. The Library was closed and we all 10 of us had to share the Computers at the church. No bueno! But we got permission to email today :) Guess who is getting transferred? ME! Not like I didn't see that one coming already. But anyways, President told me this week when we were with him on Tuesday that I "might" be leaving and I "might" be opening a new area for Spanish sisters and I "might" be training. Then Saturday night we were waiting for the call from the assistants to tell us our transfer instructions and President called. He told me that the assistants would kill him for telling me where I was going before transfers but he did anyways. I am going to Corinth Mississippi! Back to an English ward. Woot. I'm not quite sure why he wanted to tell me himself, but he seemed pretty adamant in making sure I knew he wasn't releasing me as Sister Training Leader for any other reason other than he needs to give other sisters opportunities to serve. So, to Mississippi I go tomorrow with my new trainee :) 

Huntsville is AMAZING! Our branch is just full of people who have the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. I feel so eternally blessed to have had this opportunity to serve here. They all will hold a special place in my heart forever. We went to the Lopez's last night for dinner (branch president) and we have a dinner tonight with the May's. When they found out I was leaving they said, "You will always have a place to stay when you return..." :( Suffice it to say, I am sad to leave. I love my companion. She is amazing. An amazing sister training leader and companion, and an amazing friend. I will miss all of the Spanish people too. And I LOVED working with all of the sisters! They are all so amazing and have made a great impact on my life. They are wonderful examples to me and have sincerely helped my testimony grow. I feel like as soon as I got this Sister training leader kind of figured out, they release me. That's usually how it works right ;) BUT! I will go where the Lord will send me :) He seems to know what he's doing. Everything has worked out thus far! 

So Sister Hazelgren and I both ended up taking that girl down on Tuesday to Birmingham. It was all very rushed. She didn't know she was leaving until Tuesday afternoon and had to pack everything. We went down to the mission home and ate at olive garden with mission president. Basically our goal was to make her feel like a million bucks. We wanted to make sure she knew that she had served an honorable mission no matter how long she had been out and it was just her time to go. Mom, you're right. There are so many missionaries out here, especially sisters, who have these feelings of not being good enough... heck! me included. I just wish I figured that out sooner so I could have helped the sisters more. All went well with her though. We got to sleep in the mission home in the Apostles bed room :) Hermana Hazelgren was pretty excited about that. 

The branch is exploding! We had 10 investigators at church on Sunday! They weren't all our investigators but still! That is phenomenal. I am so excited for this branch to start seeing more baptisms and get excited about missionary work again. It is hard for them because they are so few, but they have never lost their faith. I am inspired by them. It's about time we had some investigators at church too. With 6 missionaries here, we would expect that every Sunday. 

Thanks for the emails. Looks like the boys had fun at the game :) Alabama won just so ya'll know ;) Oh! and mom, I'm pretty sure that's a legit quote. I've heard it more than once on the mission. Pretty cool huh? :D Bray! You look so skinny and blonde! Seriously though. I just look fat and happy ;) Sounds like you're doing some great work there. Keep it up. I should be sending pictures soon. LOVE YOU MUCHO! Thanks for the prayers. Continue to pray for me! I definitely need the prayers. I will continue to pray for you.

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

P.S. Sister Hazelgren here!! (its me writing... typing) Just wanted to say hi and that I love your daughter like crazy. I've been taking really good care of her making sure she doesn't eat cereal for all three meals and letting her borrow some of my socks when the leprechaun in our apartment steals hers. We have one you know. Anyway, hope all is well, con mucho amor,

Hermana Hazelgren

p.s. (within a p.s.?) Roll Tide

mas!

1. Elder Emmanuel! he is leaving us :(

2. Frisbee game

3. Lopez family (minus ashley)

4. Byrd Springs district

y MAS!

1. "You're a wizard Hermana Decker"

2. Our fouled mouth grandpa, Bob :)

3. Goliath!!!!! The massive tree in Bob's backyard

fotos!!!

1. Our spoils! (we picked that all up from the ground!) Panda! I think yes :D

2. District picture with the ZL's

3. The may's (from argentina)

Our attempt to find more people