Estoy Cansada!!

Querida Familia,

To say I am exhausted would be an extremely large understatement. Our zone is about the only one at the MTC that doesn't allow naps. Our elders take naps but technically they aren't supposed to, they call it "sleeping during the day". Me on the other hand had the grand idea to be 100% obedient. It's all okay though, I will be blessed for it. The struggle is staying awake in class, or firesides, or devotional, or study time, or church, or the temple, or even writing this letter. I forgot my journal today in our residence so I probably won't remember anything that happened this week, but I'm going to try.

For one, the elders are... how do I say this in a Christ like manner... unmotivated? They like to sit around and make up games and write their girlfriends and get mad at us because we tell them that they need to quiet down so that we can study. I love all of them, but that doesn't mean I like them all the time ;) They are great and they are really spiritual when they want to be, sometimes I just want to slap them. Luckily I am used to it because I have 3 teenage brothers, some of the other Hermanas on the other hand cannot stand the elders sometimes. I at least have had practice.  I have decided this week that my christ like attribute I need to work on is Humility. I know there is something I need to learn from each of these people here and that is what I plan to try to do this week.The girls are all great though, we get along really well.

Spanish is coming. I wish it would speed up and I could just be fluent in it already, but i guess that's not how it works. With the gospel stuff, its a bit easier to remember. I can give a lesson in spanish pretty well, but if we veer off the topic, it's harder to know what to say.

I really like that they have us teaching an "investigator" everyday. Each time I go in there to teach, I learn something new. It's quite a humbling experience to realize how much you really don't know about the gospel even when you are studying it almost every hour of the day. It's also a big help because then I get to see what teaching techniques work better than others and how to adapt those teaching techniques depending on who we are teaching. It's still difficult and I'm not quite up to where i would like to be on my teaching, but I'm getting there. Something I liked about our fireside on Sunday was how our speaker said, "stop being nervous about teaching an investigator, it's not about you!". I just need to forget myself and let the holy ghost work. I think it's also important that I realize that it doesn't matter so much about what I'm saying, as it does that the investigator feels my love, and through that they also feel the saviors love.

Hmm... This week nothing really exciting has happened. We had a wicked storm the other night. I wear earplugs so I didn't hear it but the other girls did. We've discovered my branch President wears a wicked toupee. I got all of your lovely letters, thank you! I got a tshirt that says Alabama on it.  Sister Williams is sick, she has strep. There was a double rainbow the other day. One of our teachers Hermana Savage is pregnant. We got a new teacher, Hermano Rhotten, this will be our 7th teacher. They say we aren't changing anymore which is good. They apparently are changing the spanish program in January so that you are only here for 6 weeks instead of 9. So good luck to brayden if he get's called spanish. I learned how to say Jesus Christ in Mandarin. Ill try my best to spell it out wa-soo-zjee-doo... haha, hopefully that makes sense.

Our Devotional yesterday was really good. He talked about obedience and how rules are given so that God has more opportunities to bless us. He also said that being a successful missionary is not about the number of baptisms, but when you bear your testimony to an investigator and you that they know the truth. He talked a lot about the Holy ghost as well.

I love and miss you all so so much and love to hear all of your stories!!! sorry this letter was kind of lame!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker