Hola

Y'all know that saying by Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times"? I feel that pretty sums up a typical day
of a missionary ;) With so many things going on around us, you would
think it was the worst of times. Satan works harder on us as
missionaries than ever before, and on our investigators like nobodies
business. But! We have the gospel. What is more better than the
wonderful assurity that no matter what happens, no matter what we do,
Christ's grace is enough to save us all and to bring light in
darkness. That's why I love being a missionary :) I have never seen
the grace of Christ work so much not only in my life, but those around
me. So I'm grateful for that.

You know what else I'm grateful for? Service. Nothing softens a
persons heart more than service! And it doesn't just soften the heart
of the recipient but of the one giving the service as well. Sometimes
I'm in a bad mood (I know crazy right) but as much as I want to throw
myself a pity party, service heals a hardened heart. Everytime I feel
that way, I think of what President Hinckley's dad said to him,
"Forget yourself and get to work." And it is so true, when you lose
yourself for Christ sake, you find yourself. Anywho, we have been
serving this one Less Active, who was pretty much forced into being a
member by her crazy ex and now, she told us she would like us to come
back sometime and teach her! Elders have been trying forever to teach
her but she wouldn't have it. Service. It opened her heart to hear
more because service is the gospel. All this teaching is just a branch
off all of that.

Jesus came to church again! (I never get over how funny that sounds ;)
) This guy is a crack up. I wish y'all could meet him. He is the
funniest little ol' mexican you will ever meet. And he's the cutest.
He's progressing slowly but surely. This week we really focused on
doing the daily stuff like reading and praying. Seriously, if
investigators would just do that, we would have baptisms out of the
wawzoo... (I don't know if that's how you spell it). I don't know if
we can pound it into his head anymore than we already have. He is just
waiting for his answer, but he doesn't understand, you gotta read the
dang book! Really though, power of the Book of Mormon, it's real.

Rey is being a drama king ;) No not really, he's going through some
rough stuff right now financially so instead of coming to church on
Sunday where he could be healed by Jesus, he decided to go to the gym.
Haha. He is getting closer to baptism though, I can just feel it! We
had a really good lesson with him yesterday. We talked about 3 Nephi
13:33, seeking first the kingdom of God. Oh! he also came with us this
week to a members house to eat dinner and watch the restoration. Note:
starting a spanish branch in a room full of gringo americans is like
trying to... well, it's hard. I havent been down in the south enough
to come up with a good analogy ;) It's a good thing we got Christ and
his spirit on our side ;) And can I just say that Satan is a bum! He
tried to throw everything at Rey so he couldn't come with us to that
members. But he made it! Anyways, he's getting there. Soon.

Shay came to church! Woot! I don't know if y'all remember her. We have
been teaching her for a while, but it has been hard to meet with her
and get her to church because she works all the time. Can I just tell
y'all that the scriptures are awesome! First with Rey and the 3 Nephi
scripture and then Hermana Barroso and I had an idea to make a little
card for Shay with some scriptures on it. We put James 1:5 and then
Alma 26:12. We left it on her car at work and then we went over
Saturday night to visit her and calm her nerves about coming to church
and she said she loved the scripture. She didn't get out of it what we
were intending for her to get out of it, but that is what is so great
about the scriptures, everyone is touched by the words of Christ in
different ways. And it helped her get to church. And she loved Church!
It's a little hard because she's black and everyone else is white. She
brought that up as a bit of a concern but we really do need to get
some diversity in our church! I guess that's where we come in with all
of the Latinos and black people we keep bringing :)

We are also teaching this cute little american chica named Denise.
She's the one we helped push her car. Her novio is from Mexico and she
has the cutest little balls of energy of boys I have ever met. I want
to take them home with me. Sister Barroso has to kindly remind me that
we can't :) We went over there this week and we hear from inside the
house, "Is that my friends!". It was the little 5 year old Cesar. He
came and sat by me while we were teaching the lesson and wrapped his
arm around mine and said, "You're my friend." Heart breaker! They were
supposed to come to church yesterday but they thought their car would
be out of the shop and it wasn't. Speaking of Children! We had our
primary program yesterday. I wish the little kids would just do
sacrament meeting every week. They bring such a strong spirit! Not to
mention, I don't have to translate when they do ;)

Can I just say how much I love this area. I love the little small town
feel, and while I miss being in a Spanish Branch, I love the people I
have met here. We have met so many amazing people and I have made some
great friends. I know that's not our main purpose out here, but you
can't help but love the people you serve and the people you serve
with. Love :) I just can't explain the love you feel as a missionary.
And it's not our own love, it's the love of Christ working through us.

Thanks yall for the love and support! I can feel your prayers and
love. Wish I could have been there with y'all for Grandma and
Grandpa's farewell. Sending my love your way!

Love, Hermana Decker.

P.S. Just read this in our letter from President Hanks this week. What
a powerful quote!
"This is hard work. It is the hardest work you will ever do. That's
why I say this is the most important work you will ever do..."Plan
right now! Plan right now for the stories you will tell your children
about your mission. Live right now in every way to look them in the
eye and put them on your knee and rock them on your lap and tell them
as I'm telling you, that you loved every day of your mission. That you
worked your head off! That you've never worked so hard in your life.
That you were tired and sweaty and dirty and hungry and you knew how
Paul felt and you knew how Peter felt and you knew how Mormon felt and
you knew how Moroni felt...Live now for those generations...You live
right now in a way that you can pierce their hearts and touch their
lives." (Elder Jeffrey R Holland

"I'd rather be an optimist and a fool, than a pessimist and right"

Hola Hola!!!

Como estan!!!!?? Well fall has officially hit Mississippi. It is
FREEZING! I know I know, I'm being a baby. It's not that cold and I
know I could be somewhere where it's snowing (like Russia ;) Sorry
Grandma and Grandpa) so I wont complain. Still, it has been pretty
cold. Dear Sister Wells has a hurt arm so she got the car all this
week and Hermana Barroso and I were on bikes. I LOVE my bike... and
that's no joke, I really do :) But I'd rather not ride it in a skirt
at night in 30 degree weather. But WO is me. I've done it before I can
do it again :p I do love this time of year :) I love fall clothes,
smells, changing leaves, pumpkins, etc. And Christmas is almost
here!!! Woot!

President told me in my interview about a week or so ago that he had a
lot of appreciation for the difficulty it takes to start a Spanish
branch. Well… me too. We really are searching for that one person who
can be the back bone and they really need to have a strong strong
conversion. Not just have a testimony of these things, but be truly
converted to all of it. I have met too many people out here on my
mission  that have a testimony of the things we are teaching them, but
they aren’t living it! It’s like what Elder Bednar said, “A testimony
is knowing what you live, and conversion is living what you know.” I
know that one is out there, it will just be the finding them that we
will have to rely on the Lord for. I have hope for the future of this
area! It’s like President Hanks said, “Someday, 10 years from now,
you’ll come back and there will be a whole Spanish ward here and you
will be able to say, ‘I started that’.”

Jesus came to church this week again! This will be his 5th time at
church :) I just love him! But I wish he would just get baptized
already. I honestly don't know what his worry or doubt is because he
won't open up with us as much as I'd like him to. He is so humble and
wise, but he won't commit! (which seems to be a problem with all
Latinos... marriage to one will probably never happen since they can’t
commit to anything;) ). So we are trying to figure it out. One of our
members has been super helpful in all of this and all of the members
are always very loving when he comes in even though he doesn't speak
much English.

His son Rey didn't come to church this week :( apparently his alarm
didn't go off. He and his dad basically are the same person. I think
they love having us come by and love the word, they just don't
understand that this is the REAL DEAL! I give props to them though for
coming to church all these times even with my horrible translation ;)

We have 3 baptismal dates! Woot! All are English. One is with an
investigator named Shay. She is just so adorable. She is a true seeker
of truth and loves the spirit that we bring into her house. She is
going through a lot right now and her home isn't really helping with
her progression. There are too many bad influences. She is a young
mother and she and her husband have a not very well paying job and
it's just all drama drama drama. We had a really good lesson with her
last night though and we told her we are going to help her get to
where she wants to be. We will do all we can and the rest is up to
her. Our other Baptismal dates are with an aunt of a less active named
Gladys, and the other is with Chrystal who is not happy with the new
pastor at her new church. Chrystal has the cutest family so I hope
they will feel the Gospel touch their hearts.

We went to transfers this week to pick up Sister Wells new companion.
ister Schendiman from Sandy Utah :) She's great. It was fun to see
everyone there. Hermana Hazelgren is still Sister Training Leader but
they moved her to Lorna in Birmingham (now she's been to all 3 spanish
branches that lucky duck) and get this, her companion is Hermana
Child! :D My two old companions. I just love them. They will be the
best Sister Training Leaders ever!

Other than that we raked some leaves for a blind less active, I went
on exchanges in Tupelo with the beloved Sister Murray from Pittsburgh.
She has been Sister Training Leader since I was called so we had fun.
She's great! We had a missionary just come home from New Zealand! He
has a funny accent now :) ... I hope I don't come home with a funny
accent.

Eli, I love you too and I will be expecting those hugs when I get
home! Kate, you are the cutest little pink lady ever! Serph, you look
like a stud! Grandma, I love your sense of humor! Thanks to everyone
else for all you do! MOM! I didn't forget your birthday! I have a card
that I had since last week I just sent it today though :( sorry! But I
love you and Happy Birthday! And my only request is possibly pumpkin
bread :)

Les Quiero muchisimo!

Love, Hermana Decker

I'm so proud (happy) to write y'all!

Buenas!

 

How is everything?? Can I just tell y'all how much I love the south? I love it with every fiber in my being. Even the many uneducated yet loving people ;) My heart is just full of so much love for all of them. I love that I get to learn 2 languages while I am down here: Spanish and Southern. "Let me AKS you a question", "Kill it" (basically means, "get out of here"), "Fixin' to/Fittin to/Finna", "He was in the pin (jail)", "buggey" (not shopping cart), "Let me carry you home" (take you home), "That tickles me", "make you so happy you want to jump up and slap your grandma", "more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs", "___-er than the dickens!" Y'all didn't think you sent me out here to learn two languages did ya?

 

Well this week was crazy, just as always. OH! first off. We got transfer calls and guess who is not moving!? Me! I get another 6 weeks in beautiful Corinth which I feel eternally blessed for because there is so much work to do here, and so many amazing people! So, I am a happy missionary. So let's see, where to start. Well Rey and Jesus came to Church again! I just love them so much. I wish they would just get baptized already! But the Lord's time :) We taught Jesus this week about revelation and how he is going to get his answer through the holy ghost and how sometimes just the fact that the "seed" is growing, can be an answer. He may be from a little pueblito in Mexico, but he is a deep thinker. He pulled out some Bible on us and told us that he doesn't want to plant the seed in barren land because then it wont grow. He wants his "land" to be fruitful. Basically, he knows the seed is good, but he doesn't feel good enough. We taught him about the atonement and I just wish these investigators could see how much the Lord loves them, even though they aren't perfect! Nobody is! I have found though, the more we focus on Christ and his love, the more our investigators progress. Which makes sense. I have progressed most in my life when I felt his love most.We saw Jesus again on Saturday and we invited him to pick his own baptismal date but we want to shoot for next month. He said he would so *crossed fingers*! His favorite word is "a lo mejor" (maybe)... it's frustrating ;)

 

Rey is almost the exact same as Jesus. We saw him this week with an english member, which was awesome! at first... then he started going in to Cortez and Columbus and I could just see Hermana Barroso saying "please no" behind the pamphlet she was holding. I just kept looking at Rey and mouthing "sorry". The member just talked a bit too much and Rey doesn't speak very good English in the first place so it just started going crazy. You got to love it. I think the lesson was good none the less. We saw him again last night and we finally got him to pray with us! Granted, I did have to write it down for him, but PROGRESS! I feel like a proud mother :) Both him and Jesus are so close, I can just feel it! And I'm excited for them :D

 

Oh, by the way, we are in a trio now. Our dear love Sister Saville had to go home :( The mission just became to overwhelming for her and with her anxiety issues, she couldn't handle it. We are sad to see her go, but I know she will be happier at home. The Lord needs her at home anyways. Everything happens for a reason. So we have adopted Sister Wells! It's fun, but it takes some getting used to in lessons and all. She understands a lot of Spanish which is good because that means she is not totally lost.

 

Cool story! My dear beloved companion and I decided this week to be more exactly obedient. In Zone Training they talked about being so obedient that you even stop at stop signs on your bike... which sometimes we just blow through if there is nobody there. So we put it to the test! That same day we went to see one of our investigators and decided against it because they looked a little wasted in the house and went to our back up. On our way there we saw a car broken down and a young short girl with the hood up. We decided to go talk to her and see if we could help her. Turns out she is American but her ex and fiance are hispanic so she knows Spanish! She said someone was going to come help her, but we waited a bit just to make sure, and when they didn't show up we pushed the car off to the side (yeah, were buff ;) ). She said she was just going to walk home but it was dark and we were in a rougher part of town so we told her we would walk her home. We talked a bit and she was so impressed with us she said we could come back and teach her :D And it's perfect because she knows both Spanish and English AND her church just split up. Three lessons learned: exact obedience brings miracles, service softens peoples hearts, and the Lord will guide us. I love being a missionary!

 

The work is moving forward! We found a family this week! They seem prepared. I found out a family we had taught in Huntsville just got baptized! So many blessings and so many miracles. 

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! Miss you!!!!

 

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

Olo!

Y'all know what one of my favorite scriptures is? 2 Nephi 2:25, "Adam fell that men might by, and men are that they might have joy!" Isn't that just great! Men are that they might have Joy. That's our purpose. I teach that everytime we teach the Plan of Salvation, but I think sometimes, I myself forget that. There are so many simple joys in this life. If I'm not smiling and laughing, something is wrong. I'm not living the way God would have me live. So many simple joys! For instance, have you seen the blue skies of the south :) There something to be seen. Or the fact that everyone waves to you down here. People, even when they have just told us they are not interested, always say, "Y'all come back, ya hear!" The opportunity to listen to the Prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having the restored gospel on the earth today! Mexican Tiendas ;) Southern accents. Little Mexican men. Southern AND Mexican food! the best of both worlds :) We had to drop off a note at one of our investigators and their front porch was covered in cockroaches. Gross. But Hermana Barroso decided to take one for the team. Haha, she was dancing the whole way up there so one of them couldn't crawl on her. I had a good laugh about that. There are just to many things to be happy about, there is no need for sadness :)

 

Well, I had all that I wanted to tell y'all written out on a paper, and I forgot it at home, so we'll just go off of memory. Wasn't conference just wonderful! Seriously, those men and women are inspired. No doubt about it. LOVE THEM. I went over some of my notes this morning from Saturday morning session and I noticed a common thing, at least for me. Covenants and ordinances=blessings. Living the gospel just makes us happy! We have to go forward with faith! Like Elder Dube said as he quoted Elder Holland, "Faith is always pointing to the future."... (something like that.) And it's so simple! Just like Elder Bednar said when he talked about tithing. The gospel brings significant but subtle blessings! Bah! I just loved it all. Why wouldn't anyone want to be a part of something so great! And it was perfect because we have had a lot of our investigators, including Rey, talk about how they have received so many blessings from their faith in their church. That is wonderful! But there is so much more!!! Why wouldn't anyone want more blessings?! I just don't understand it I guess. Our covenants we make bring so many more blessings and make us so much more Christ like. That's what it's all about, isn't it? I guess I never really focused so much on the covenants as I should be. That's what I'm going to change because of conference :) Blessings! Don't you just love President Uchtdorf. Every time he talks I am just mesmorized. I loved his, "Doubt your Doubts, before you ever doubt your faith." He's a genius, that's all there is to it. And thanks grandma for all of the other quotes! 

 

Rey and Jesus came to church!!! Every time they come I just get so excited. I can't imagine being in their position. Having to come to church where hardly anyone speaks your language. But the members were great! We watched conference in another room so they could watch it in Spanish. (We had headphones, my spanish is improving, but there is no way I could understand conference language quite yet). They seemed to like it. We tried to really pound it in them to pray before they came so they could feel the spirit and know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet today. They are having struggles with the whole idea of prophets today. We had lunch in between and a lot of the ward members were so great with them. They speak a little bit of english, so they can understand a bit. One of our members is just so supportive of us. His daughter is serving a spanish speaking mission in Califronia and he promised her he would try to learn Spanish so he came in for a little part of conference while we watched it with Rey and Jesus and he bore his testimony after :') it was so simple but so powerful. He's wonderful. He invited them over for dinner after church, but they couldn't come. Still, A for effort! We need more members like him. Most of them just don't know what to do with us and our Spanish.

 

I let our Spanish less active cut my hair last Monday (the family I wrote about a while ago). It was our plan to try to get her to come back to church. She didn't come to church, but I got an interesting hair cut ;p the sacrifices we make for the work! She did it super fast, bless her heart ;) I'm going to get it fixed today by one of the english sisters investigators who works in a salon. Simple joys ;)

 

Did I already mention that I love President Uchtdorf :) Grandma sent me some of his quotes: "You are stronger than you realize. You are more capable than you can imagine." and "Your destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we stand up, dust ourselves off, and stride forward." I was talking with Hermana Barroso this morning in our companionship study about the atonement. I know I have felt the atonement greatly previously in my life, but it's amazing how much I have felt it just here on my mission. I'm not making any huge sins, but just the day to day ones and I know that I have many MANY weaknesses that I need the help of the Lord with. I have had to learn to be very humble. Especially since the people I am supposed to be training are better missionaries than I am, and they speak better Spanish than I did ;) But if I have learned anything out here, it's that, the gospel is for imperfect people. I am full of imperfections, and thats why I need this gospel. That's why everyone needs this gospel! What the atonement means to me is that sometimes, at the end of a day, I'm going to come home and say, "I didn't do so hot today... but that's okay, I'll just try harder tomorrow." Progression, it's all about eternal progression :) I may not be the smartest missionary, or the most prepared, or the most spiritual, or the most energetic, or the most fluent, but I have started to see those things as a blessing, because I have had to learn to turn to the Lord and let him make up for all that I lack.

 

Sorry, this letter is a bit long today! The other sisters write forever, so I've had a bit more time now days than I usually do :) The work is great. It is going by way to fast! I can look back and see all that has been done, but like Elder Dube's mother said, "Don't look back. Lood forward and see all that we have left to do." :) and there is a lot! Love you all!!!!!!!! Miss you!!!!!!! God bless!!!

 

Love, Hermana Masey Decker

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)