All's well

          Hola familia!

Everything's going pretty well here. I'm getting much better at Spanish to the point where I'm saying my personal prayers in Spanglish (accidentally) and thinking a lot of the time in Spanish. It's becoming easier and easier to teach and I'm getting un poco tired of this place. I really want to get out there and start preaching to the Lamanites in the land of the Jaredites (I figured it out in my cabesa.) We looked up the satellite map of Monterrey a bit more and looked at some pictures. I've decided that even if I'm in the city mission I'll still be pretty dang happy about it. But I'm still hoping for the border!

The Elders are doing pretty well. Some of them don't understand my need to get out there and start teaching NOW, but others are spending half their time dreaming about going to Mexico City (like Elder Blotter and two others in my district) or Monterrey (like the two others and me.) I'm trying to not get discouraged being here at the MTC but at times it's just annoying. We used to be able to listen to MoTab during our TALL time (language learning on the computer) but then our Branch President decided that we might get distracted from doing TALL if we do this. It's actually dramatically impaired my ability to concentrate and finish the lessons in TALL. I've always listened to music when studying so not being able to do it anymore is a real bummer, but I'll get over it. Also, I really wanted to watch the Easter Bible Videos and won't be able to do that anymore...

The devotionals are fantastic although we haven't had an Apostle come yet (here's hoping for tonight!) and I'm singing in the MTC choir. I was really majorly bummed out when I heard that the MTC isn't going to sing in General Conference :''( But the change in pace from all the (occasional) tedium of this place is really helpful. I always feel the Spirit most when I'm singing or listening to spiritual music so it's helped a lot with my spiritual fortitude and whatnot.

I have the First Vision memorized in Spanish minus all the scary Devil parts. I also have Moroni 10:4-5 memorized. It's nice to be able to tell a story without having to look in the Scriptures.

I can't get over how much I love doing TRC. The difference between the actors and real people is getting more and more obvious the more that I learn Spanish. I can truly feel Heavenly Father's love for his children when I'm talking to a real, genuine person. We taught an eighteen-year-old sister from Peru who has only been in the country for about seven months and is going to BYU, and I'll tell you that Peruvian Spanish is the clearest and most understandable Spanish I've heard yet. The other lady we taught was and older sister from Chile and it was extremely difficult to understand what she was saying. She spoke extremely fast, her grammar was iffy, and she had a very strange accent. But I was able to understand about 70% of it and was able to teach according to her needs.

Tell Colby to get better! Here's hoping he doesn't shrivel up like he did last time. That was scary. And remind Brooklyn that I had a hard time with friends too and I turned out fairly ok. ;) Tell all the other kids I love them and miss them and that they should do what they're told and stop causing trouble.

Thanks for the news stories by the way! I'll read them today during laundry (I haven't had time.) It's always nice to get mail. I think I only got that great one from Dad in the last week other than the big one with all the stories and your letter, Mum. Mis amigos at BYU haven't responded to me and I don't really look forward to mail time anymore. It's a bit depressing to see all the others in my district get loads of letters. But thanks ya'll for writing me! I really appreciate it!

And about the resistance bands, heavier to heaviest is probably best. I don't want to come back looking to tiny.

Le amo muchissimo familia!

-Brayden (Elder Decker)

PS: I got an email telling me I get two hours of email time in the field where I can email anyone I want. I don't remember if I mentioned that. So if you give my email out on Facebook that would be awesome, thanks!

Oh the MTC

Hey family!

Thanks ya'll for the Birthday wishes and candy which totally fills one of my drawers (I haven't eaten most of the stuff I brought with me.)

The MTC is going fairly decent. I'm much more better at español now and can improv (with the Spirit) like a boss. We've taught lessons about faith and baptism that we haven't prepared, but because we're prepared with other lessons the Lord provides. We did TRC yesterday which is where you teach actual people from the outside world. I absolutely loved it. There's a dramatic difference between teaching my teachers (who are actors) and actual people with real concerns in their life. I shared your story, Mom, of where you were able to push through the pain of fibromyalgia and run a half marathon as an example of enduring to the end despite our many afflictions in life. I think it really helped a Sister who we taught that had been sent home from the MTC seven weeks in because she was sickly. She was going to go to San Antonio Texas and is apparently expecting to be able to go out in May. It's pretty amazing what that seven weeks did with her Spanish, since she didn't take it in school but spoke it pretty dang fluently after seven weeks. Hopefully I can reach that level of Spanish ability by the end of my time here. The other people we taught in TRC were a little more difficult since they were less cooperative and didn't talk as much, but one was a native speaker from Chile so it was interesting to hear her speak Spanish. The other one was some guy who had gone on a mission. He told me a story that went totally over my head and I just nodded and said "have faith." But it was still good.

I've noticed that I have a bit of a gender bias. I love teaching sisters and being taught by Hermana Coller (my morning teacher.) But I really struggle with teaching men and I don't really like Hermano Fonda (my evening teacher.) I think it's mostly because he has ZERO sense of humor and seems a little too self-righteous. Hermana Coller laughs and makes joke and generally makes the time at the MTC more enjoyable. But I'm going to try and work better on that and look at all people as children of our Heavenly Father.

Somewhere else where my gender bias has peaked through is with my companion and district. They're all really great guys and all, but some are extremely self-righteous and others are just a little too full of themselves. I'm learning tolerance though and hopefully I'll be able to do better. Elder Blotter and I are really doing well teaching together and have some great unity as we're teaching (though not so much as we're planning.) Being a solo guy all my life has made working with somebody else much more difficult than I really expected it to be.

Two years seems like a long time right now. It feels like I've always been at the MTC and always will be, but the idea that I'll be able to eventually leave to the field gives me a great deal of hope. I just pray that I'll be able to get so lost in the work that time starts to fly and I'm able to stop worrying about how long I'll be out here for. It's weird and I've gotten a bit worldsick (and homesick of course.) It's just that my passions and stress relievers can't be used here in the mission field. I can't talk about politics because people in my district get all worked up about how ungodly my political views are and how I should want to control everyone's lives. I also can't read for fun or really make up stories like I used to do to lose myself in those. The book Jesus the Christ has really helped with that. It's one of the greatest books that I've ever read. I've been getting more out of that and the Doctrine and Covenants than I ever did just reading the scriptures dry. It's definitely made me more appreciative of the power granted to Eve and Mary and how motherhood is truly the weapon that crushed the head of the serpent. I don't remember the exact reference, but if you look in that book in the index for Eve it should be in about the third or fourth chapter. God gave women the power to destroy Satan and overturn the Fall. That's why Christ couldn't be born of a mortal man, but instead needed to be born of Deity and a righteous woman. Look it up. It's deep.

Well my times up, les amo con todo mi corazon. I miss you all so much and can't wait to see you again after my work is completed.

Love lots, Brayden (Elder Decker)

First Hola to the familia!

Hola familia!

Thanks for the birthday package! You have no idea how fantastic it is that my P-Day and my Birthday matched up perfectly. I definitely needed this. The junk food was much appreciated and my glasses case was much needed. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I totally forgot that it was my birthday until I logged into this computer here. We were at the temple today doing a session and I had no idea that today was March 12. I had told everyone yesterday that it was my birthday, but for some reason it didn't stick in my mind. The temple was fantastic but it was weird not having you guys (Mom and Dad) to talk to afterwards. The whole sitting and pondering thing was really weird. Also, the screen was much bigger in the ordinance room.

Masey! For some reason it didn't register that the MTC was going to be this difficult to get used to. Maybe you wrote about it in one of your emails but I was just dying in the last few days. We get there and immediately (within two days) we're teaching an investigator totally in Spanish. His name is "Rolando" and the first two lessons were a bit iffy. It's hard to translate all of my thoughts about the Gospel from my Brain into Spanish. But the third lesson was amazing. Me and Elder Blotter (my companion) had prepared a really good lesson on the Restoration and the First Vision and comparing Joseph Smith's experience and questions to Ronaldo's, but instead of teaching that we ended up teaching about Repentance, Baptism, and the Atonement. Something we hadn't even studied! He just asked about it (we had given him a Libro de Mormon and told him to read the guia in the back about anything that he might have questions about. He started asking about being with his family forever (his "parents" had died in a car accident) and how he could do that. We just began testifying to him and everything turned out fantastic. At one point he asked about the ability of the Atonement to make all of the pains that happened to him in the past go away and I just started bawling my eyes out and testifying about the transformative power of the Atonement. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Even though he's not really "Rolando" (the actor is a teacher portraying an investigator he had in the past) I've grown to love him. It's truly fantastic.

Prior to that experience (yesterday) I had been having a really hard time. Elder Blotter and I don't really see eye to eye on much, we have different views about how to teach properly, and our personality's are almost polar opposites. But he's a really good guy with strong faith in prayer and the Church. Most of my faith is based on what I know and not on what I feel so we're able to combine those things to help teach the lessons properly. He also speaks much slower than I do so at times he's more thoughtful with what he says. Yo hablo muy rapido en Espanol y Ingles.

Oh I saw Axel here the other day. He's going to be leaving the same week as me so I'll be able to see him every once in a while. For some reason seeing him here gave me a big boost of strength and happiness that I really needed.

The food is terrible. It's some of the least appetizing food I've eaten in a long time. But I discovered the wrap bar the other day and so that should help me get through all of the coming nasty plates of gunk that they'll be giving us.

My district is awesome. The Hermanas are all strong in the Gospel and so are all the Elders. I've already learned to love them all in the short time that I've been here. It really does feel like a long time though. I swear I've been here for the past two years especially with all of the progress I've made in Spanish and all the stuff that we've been doing.

Oh yeah, I also have to wear a suit everyday! Isn't that fantastic? Our Branch Presidency told us that we had to wear our suits every single day unless they're getting dry cleaned. Which isn't that awesome since I have one pair of slacks that I can wear with the suit. I figure I'll get it dry cleaned tomorrow (especially seeing all the little stains that have gotten on it in the past few days) and that means I'll be able to wear whatever I want. I figure Elder Blotter and I could time our dry cleaning sessions so we don't have to wear suits EVERY day.

Oh! Before I forget, would you send me a "care package" of protein bars from Amazon? They have a weight room here that I go on splits with Elder Katich (in my district) to go use. There are also machines and pull up bars so I've been able to work out whenever I'm in the gym. No me gusta basquetbol and I can't play it with my Vibrams (I was told this by the head gym dude) anyways.

Te amo mucho! I miss all of you and can't wait for the day that I can come home from my mission and tell you all that I finished the work that the Lord sent me to do.

-Brayden (Elder Decker)