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

"7 days without prayer makes one weak"

Buenas!!!!!!!!!!

So, I just got through reading Brayden's email and pretty much counted my blessings that I am here in Alabama. I can't imagine having to do missionary work the way you are bud. No cell phone? We practically do missionary work from our cell phones. Not gonna lie, it took me a minute to realize that China was actually a part of Mexico. I thought you had legit been sent to China. Mini freak out, but it's all good :)

So this week has been interesting. Can I just say that I absolutely love this branch. Words cannot even express how much I love it. I am going to cry my eyes out when I get transferred. We got to spend some of this week with the members. We had FHE with a single mom and her kids. She must have really enjoyed it because she invited us back for tonight... but we cant go :( We are helping the zone leaders with on of their investigators. Then we had a little get together after church on Sunday at Presidents house. It was great :)

President has been calling us trying to figure out what to do with all of the missionaries since we are getting about 30 plus more this coming week for transfers and he doesn't know the missionaries as well as he would like to. He called and asked me who could be sister training leader since apparently some of us are going to be released this transfer. He basically told me over the phone that as of now, he thinks he is going to send me to a new area to open it for Spanish sisters, and I will be training. He said he wants to put someone there he can trust... I'm not quite sure how I feel about that yet. I love being sister training leader, but it does come with a lot of responsibility. For instance, I have to drive someone down to Birmingham on Wednesday because she is being sent home... no fun at all. But on the other hand, I love the sisters and I learn so much from each and every one of them. I'm not going to get worked up about it though, because I have been changed to new things very last minute so I know how it goes. We shall see what happens next week :) Then he had us go through and rate all of the spanish sisters on their ability to speak spanish, so this transfer should be an intense one. So sad though. I really don't want to leave this branch.

We had zone conference this week! It was so nice to just get to sit there and not have to train on anything and just be edified by president. He is pretty amazing. Our assistants are as well. We are so blessed on this mission :) There was so much information loaded in that my brain felt like it was going to explode. He is really cracking the whip on us finding people. We have some great ideas this week, which I am super excited to do. We are going to have a free lemonade stand and just talk to people when they come up and we are doing a chalk drawing of the plan of salvation sometime this week too. It shall be fun. I will take pictures! 

We are having some issues with our investigators. None of them are coming to church and our numbers seem to just be going down hill. It's crazy because the other sisters in Huntsville are kicking missionary work in the butt. They had 3 investigators at church yesterday and have tons of new investigators. We just told them they could take our job :) They both are newer in this area and haven't been out too long, so maybe that's the trick. Maybe it will be good if I get transferred to get some new missionary blood in me. Some of these sisters make me feel so inadequate. They are amazing and they could do the job so much better than I can. 

Sounds like life is good at home! I bet things are exciting with school starting and everything. I can't believe summer is already over! Thank you for all of the prayers, letters, love, and support. It is appreciated. Love you all MUCHO!!!!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

If you don't have the bread of life, Your toast!!!

Hola!

Did you know that there is only 128 days left till Christmas... Yep I'm counting. :) So I decided the subjects of my emails will now be some of the fun church signs we see down here :) I've started to collect them. Some of them are pretty clever! Life has been great here in good ol' Huntsville! I am just extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work here in the Spanish Branch. It really is a blessing considering there are only 3 spanish branches in all of Alabama and I, out of hundreds of missionaries, get to serve here :) Que bendicion! The branch is so great. I have never seen a set of stronger members than in the Spanish branches. They have a lot going against them and yet they still stick it out because they know the truth. LOVE THEM! I am hoping and praying that I don't get transferred from this area! The members are just to great :)

Well... Let's see what happened this week. We went on three exchanges. It's our last three exchange week for the transfer. Woot! I love the sisters, but moving around that much just wears you out! And I'm already exhausted as it is! :) We went to Athens, Madison, and Guntersville this week. All are beautiful places! Guntersville is probably my favorite though since it's right next to the lake. All the sister are AMAZING! I swear, I don't know why they have me as Sister Training Leader, these sisters could kick me out of the baptismal font ;) Of course there is the occasional correction that needs to be given. Which by the way... I stink at. But! I am getting better! I loved Brayden's article he sent last week on Leadership. That definitely helped me a lot. I guess I just have this notion in my head that if I correct the sisters, I'll be the bad guy. Which may be true for some of them. Some of them pretty much beg me to tell them what they can do better. Those are always the easier ones to work with :) Most of the time we hardly ever need to correct anyone, but I usually make Hermana Hazelgren do it when they do come up. I'm a pansy :) Oh well, Christ makes weak things stronger.

We met an amazing investigator this week. Her name is Juanita and we met her outside her apartment last week and we stopped by last monday to talk to her a bit. She is pretty intelligent which is always a relief. She recognizes the spirit so easily it is amazing. In our first couple of minutes together she recognized us as representatives of Christ and really opened up. We came by with a member later that week, Hermana Lopez (presidents wife) and turns out that they have a mutual friend! And their daughters know eachother. Small world. It's amazing how the Lord is really micromanaging every aspect of his work :) Anyways, we had a great lesson, she accepted a baptismal date AND... she didn't come to church and we can't get a hold of her... Sad day. We are not quite sure what happened, but we are determined to keep stopping by until she opens the door.

OH! Ariel got baptized last week! The lady we found at Steak and Shake. I didn't get to go because I was on exchanges, but Hermana Hazelgren got to go. They said when she got in the font, she started going down into the water before anything was said. Haha. She is amazing. I am so grateful I have been able to see this miracle take place and her life change. I expect great things from this one :)

We had a less than great week this week... For some reason we just had a hard week teaching people. Our numbers were pathetic. It was good though because I have been praying for more dilligence and this week has made me take a step back and really discern where we can improve. Sometimes it takes us being kicked to the bottom to realize we got some work to do :) But this week will be better! It's a bit discouraging though... it makes you feel like a failure as a missionary. I have a lot of work to do that's for sure. You can't let yourself get discouraged though, or your performance gets worse. So I'm trying to look towards the positive. It's hard trying to be the example sometimes. I guess that's where Christ comes in though. We can't do any of this without him anyways.

Happy anniversary mom and dad! I hope you do something fun and get away from the kids for a while. (And going to Costco is not a date!!) Do something nice :) Tell all of the kids I love them. Give 'em big hugs and kisses from me :) Sure do miss them. And good work on the missionary work! I'm so proud :') Keep up the good work! I'll be praying for you!

Thanks everyone for the Love and support and prayers!!! Love you all mucho!

Love, Hermana Masey

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

Fotos!

My watch finally gave out on me :( I was a bit upset. 1 whole year though! pretty impressive

We thought this was pretty funny. You have to say it in a spanish accent though. FUD!!!

Juanitas baptism!!!

Just a couple of sunsets in the trailor park we were in... Y'all know how I love the sky here ;)

Busy Busy Busy

Hola everybody!! :)

Greetings from good ol' Alabama! Have I ever mentioned how beautiful Alabama skies are? Really though, Alabama and Idaho definitely have my favorite skies. Thank you mucho for the package familia :D It was a surprise and definitely appreciated. You should have just seen my face light up when I saw all of those CD's. (Which by the way, I didn't get the Disney one). Hermana Hazelgren is seriously so excited for that CD she's shaking. She LOVES Disney. And the candy was great too! Although I am definitely not going to eat it all. It's good for sharing with the Hermanas :)

Well this week has been yet another fantastic week. Despite the fact that almost every single one of our investigators have been antied or have dropped us, we are still happy! :) We went to Steak and Shake for Sister Hazelgren's Birthday. Good old greasy food :) And as we were checking out I started talking to the lady at the cash register. Turns out she had a friend who was a member of the church and recently was going to buy a Book of Mormon but she figured she could get it somewhere for free. And then we just happened to be there eating out at her restaurant! So we gave her a Book of Mormon and left her with a mormon.org card and left her with our number and took hers then told her where the church was. A few hours later we got a text from her saying she has really been studying the mormon religion!!! We invited her to church (the english ward of course) and guess who was at church this Sunday. Ariel!! (that's her name p.s.) We went early just to make sure she got there and was taken care of and then we let the English sisters take care of her. They said that as she was leaving she said, "I'll be back next week!" and they have an appointment with her on Wednesday. Miracles are out there, opportunities to find everywhere, and God does answer prayers :) We are just instruments in the grand hands of our Lord.

Other than that, our week has been super busy. We had Mission Leadership Council in Birmingham on Wednesday, so we were there most of the day. (by the way, my trainee Sister Child is a Sister Training Leader :') It was so good to see her) President Hanks has dubbed this month of August "Finding Month". Good stuff. I think it will really help the mission focus on finding those who are prepared and finding investigators in general. President really hit on just being yourself. We don't need to try to be anyone but our best self. If you like basketball, talk about basketball! But you can always link it back into the gospel. We call it "spiritual pivoting". It works great! Then we had Zone trainings on Friday. We didn't have much time to plan for them, but that's basically what we did most of Thursday. Both of them went great in both Madison and Huntsville zone. We had some great skits in the Huntsville zone training :) It was a lot of fun... and edifying and spiritual as well!

We also had two exchanges this week. One in Cullman Alabama and the other in Fayetteville Tennessee! The sisters in both those areas are AMAZING. These new sisters never cease to amaze me. I just love all of them! Fayetteville is so amazingly beautiful. It's a lot more country than our big city of Huntsville, but I just loved it there. We rode our bikes down those streets and I was just soaking it all up. Part of their area is Hazel Green (not my companions name) and that is just equally as beautiful.

We went to a members house this week. She is a southern lady who is learning spanish and can understand almost all of it. She asked to be put in the Spanish branch and so she is in it now :) She played her autoharp for us and it was SO beautiful. I could have just sat there for hours. As I was sitting there listening to her play I felt the spirit so strongly. Music is really one of the best ways to touch someones heart and soul. It made me realize how much I love music, so I am definitely coming back and working on my musical abilities :) I've been praciticing my hymns on the piano whenever I get a chance and they are coming along, but I have a lot to improve.

Sorry, that was a lot of information, but that was my week in a nutshell! It was busy busy busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I have learned, and continue to learn, that happiness is a choice ance since I've noticed that, I have never been happier. I have felt the spirit so much stronger these past few weeks and I am starting to recognize it a lot easier. I am so grateful for this mission and I cannot imagine being anywhere else right now. It is so true though, as soon as you figure out what you're really doing out here, they are about to send you home! On Wednesday I will officially be out for a year! Loco!

Love you all so much! Thank you for all of the love and prayers! Miss you!

Love, Hermana Masey Decker