The Day After...

¡Hola Familia!

Glorious things are happening/have happened here in Monterrey! So let´s get started:

I had the opportunity yesterday to learn at the feet of a holder of the Holy Apostleship, Elder Jeffrey R Holland. Jeffrey R Holland. The Man. The Apostle. The Legend. And I did more than just learn at his feet, I got to shake his hand. And guess what? He stroked my face and talked to me. Here´s how the conversation went:

Elder Holland: ¨Looks like you got some sun there¨ *Strokes my cheek under my eye* ¨That´s good.¨

Me: ¨Yeah! It is...¨

Very exciting. And like always, I didn´t really no how to react to the whole thing. I was a bit stunned and I´m not very good at talking to people in the first place. But yeah. He stroked my face.

We then heard from President Walker, Sister Walker, Elder Gutierrez (Area Seventy), Sister Johnson, Elder Johnson (Jefe of the Church in Mexico and Seventy), and then finally Elder Holland. Elder Johnson told us about how when we teach with the Spirit our words are scripture and that we are not to teach if we don´t have the Spirit. There was also a big theme of the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the end) throughout all of the talks.

Elder Holland then got up and said: ¨Well I´m going to change everything that I was planning on talking about.¨ He then felt like he could talk at a higher level with us than with others and that he was impressed with the theme of our mission being the Doctrine of Christ. He then talked about how much missionary work has improved over the years and then gave this lesson on a white board:

The World                                             ^

The Old Church                                      l

The Restoration                                      l

The Doctrine of Christ                              I

(Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost) l

The Life of Christ                                   l

The bottom (The life of Christ) was the theme of the talk. And I can´t really do it justice here, but let´s just say it was really intense. It was Elder Holland after all. The point was that we need to live the life of Christ in order to teach with the power to astonish. His challenge to us was to leave each lesson having astonished our investigators. And how do we do that? By following the Lord´s invitation to ¨Follow thou me¨ and live like he did.

What does this mean? Well, he said, it means that we´re going to face the same rejection, hatred, disgust, and trials that he faced. He said that ¨The path to Salvation leads through Gethsemane¨ and as servants of Christ, we accepted with our call to suffer where he suffered, cry where he cried, walk where he walked, and go where he went. So when times are hard, remember that that´s the whole point. Life is hard. The Gospel is hard. Missionary work is hard.

Well, I was obviously astonished. And I also received an additional testimony of Elder Holland´s position as a prophet, seer, and revelator. It´s because of him and his teachings in General Conference that I´m out here today and hopefully it will be because of him that I´ll be the best missionary I can be.

Also, he´s a funny, emotional, and overall real person. His presence is, well, astonishing. Some of the effect was lost with having to have the translator speak after every sentence or two, and some of the intricacies of the message were lost to my Mexican friends, but he kept his rhythm and the power flowing.

And on that note, we will for sure be having a baptism this Saturday for Juan Carlos. Yesterday, when we saw all of the missionaries in the mission, we talked with some of the old Juarez 2 residents and they were pretty shocked to hear that Juan Carlos was going to be baptized. The wife, Rosalinda, and the kids are already members but he never wanted to listen. But one day, when me and Elder Diaz were teaching Rosalinda (she was less active) he came in, sat down, and started to learn. And from then BOOM! Speedy progress and true conversion. We taught the Word of Wisdom and that day he quit drinking alcohol. Just like that. From about 3 beers a day to nothing. And he hasn´t fallen in the last 3 weeks. He truly is ready.

It´s hot, I´m flush out of money and had to pull out 500 pesos from my personal dinero, and I´m always tired, but I feel like this Saturday it´ll be another testament of the divinity of this work. So yeah. I´m going to try and live more like Christ everyday and put my shoulder to the wheel.

Thanks for all the prayers and I love you all! Even the kids. Who never write me. Ever. Hint, hint.

Love ya´ll!

-Brayden (Elder Decker)

Another Hola from Monterrey!

 Howdy howdy everyone!

Well it was really fantastic to talk to ya´ll (except Masey) yesterday! I feel like even though we talked mostly about food the whole point of calling home is to be able to hear your family´s voices and let them hear yours. It gave me an extra boost of energy (something which I´m lacking right now) and also confused me with all the English. Learning Spanish has really given me an appreciation of the English language, weird as it is.

So I´ve discovered something weird while of been out here in Mexico: Mexicans are universally tone-deaf. I don´t know if it´s part of the curse of the Lamanites or something, but these people can´t really sing. They sing loudly and passionately, just not... on key. I haven´t had the opportunity to play the piano yet here for a congregation or anything, but whenever I´m at the chapel I try and play the piano while I´m waiting. I´ve already lost some of my pizazz which kinda worries me. Hopefully one of these areas doesn´t have a piano player so I can contribute somewhat. But I am conducting the congregation of missionaries this Wednesday when the jefe of the Carribbean Area Elder Anderson comes to speak to us. Very exciting.

So we had a funny little run-in with Elder´s from another zone that borders our area. We were visiting a less active in our ward that we were asking to come to a teaching appointment when suddenly Elder Stark and Elder Hood (from my district at the MTC) walk up to the open door. Turns out that we were in their area and they were a bit angry. We´ve had some issues with members from their ward boundaries going to our ward since our Chapel is closer to their homes so we had to go to the Stake President to fix it up. And we lost a progressing investigator to the other missionaries :( But the work's the same wherever and with whomever it is done.

So we have eight baptismal dates right now and we´re pretty sure about... Juan Carlos, Gimena, Fatima, and sorta with Celia. The problem with the last is that she´s moving at the end of the month and we can´t find her! It´s kind of an issue. Juan Carlos is the wife of a less active and is progressing more than all of the rest, Gimena is the sister of members and is really excited to be baptized, and Fatima is the daughter of a less active family from Veracruz that we stumbled upon while looking for a reference. They´re not in the ward directory so it was a bit of a surprise.

 We´ve also been chewed out for not having enough street contacts. Elder Diaz and I don´t particularly like doing them since the contacts either end with ´´No, I´m a Catholic¨ or ¨No, you guys aren´t Christians¨ or, my favorite, false addresses. But we´ve been commanded by the Lideres de la Zona, so we will go and do.

 So the weather here is a bit whacky. It´s been either unbearably hot; rainy, hot, and humid; or rainy, cold, and humid. It´s messing with my brain a bit.

 Thanks for the prayers and well wishes! Tell the kiddos to write me or give me their email addresses so I can write them. I have a lot of time in this here cyber cafe. I´m praying for you guys every night and can´t wait to come home from a successful mission.

 Love you all!

-Brayden (Elder Decker)

A bit more...

I discovered a bunch of talks on the iPod the other day, to I listened to two by Elder Bruce R McConkie during some down time. He talked about how we as members of the church are entitled to receive personal revelation and become prophets for ourselves and for those whom we have jurisdiction over. He specifically talked about the ability to dream dreams, see visions, speak with angels, and view the face of God. He said all we have to do is study the word, be obedient, and ask in faith and we could receive all of these things. He quoted Joseph Smith and said that 5 minutes gazing into heaven will teach you more than you could ever find out by reading about it. He also said that if we receive these things, we'll be able to declare things that we know with our spirits, not just our intellect. There was also a whole lot about the superiority of the spiritual over the intellectual.

 I'm going to put that to the test. See how it works out. I think it's called "Seeking Personal Revelation" or something and was given at BYU during the days of David O Mckay. Thought it was interesting. Wanted to share it.

Love ya'll!

-Elder Decker (Brayden)

Hola from Monterrey

Hey family!

So it's been a bit crazy this week (per the usual) but I'll start with the happy.

So this Sunday I'll be able to receive a phone call from ya'll in the Chapel at 6:20 Monterrey time. That's 4:20 Vegas time. It's limited to 40 minutes and here's the number: 011-52-81-88613903. Can't wait to talk to all ya'll!

Four converts were baptized yesterday! Sadly, none of them were mine and Elder Diaz's. But in the end it's all the same and doesn't really matter who baptizes who. Ah well. We've been told that this is the highest baptizing ward in the mission due to the strength of the members and everything, but I think it's the other area that has so much of the success. We currently only have one person attending sacrament, her name is Celia and I've never seen anybody so excited by the Church. That is other than her ten year old daughter Perlita who never comes... And we may not be able to baptize them seeing as they're moving at the end of the month. All in the Lord's time I guess. The family has committed to come to church (all 5). But they need to come to Church twice in order to be baptized. But I did have the opportunity to teach the first part of Lesson 2 (finally) so up to where we came from and why we're here. They're all really receptive and seem to believe everything, but it's hard to get them to keep their commitments... Ah well.

So we're preparing for the visit of Elder Anderson (not the Apostle) from the First Quorum of the Seventy and the boss-man of the Carribbean Islands. He's going to come talk in our zone conference which will be pretty cool.

I still have to fight feelings of dread whenever we go up to doors. Once we start talking (or allow the Spirit to start talking through us) it's much easier. I do need to work on expressing more disappointment with the investigator's who fall through on their commitments. PMG tells me to be devastated and tell them how important it is. Elder Diaz usually says "está bien" like most of his responses. To everything. Also, it's hard to ask inspired questions sometimes. It all falls to having faith that the words that are spilling from your mouth are inspired by the Spirit. Which is hard when it's another language. There's also the bit about how much you should share with investigators. Both Elder Diaz and I have said "Padres Celestiales" in our lessons. I blame one of our videos.

The Spanish is progressing quickly. It's hard to convince the members that I do in actuality understand them now. They still think that I can't speak so they usually direct their questions to Elder Diaz.

Speaking of whom, we're getting along much better now. Apparently there's a custom here that "suyos son mios y mios son suyos" I explained that en los Estados, "Mios son mios y suyos son suyos" and it went smoothly. Oh, English, "What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours". Yeah. We're making jokes and having a much better time proselyting than we did before. I think a lot of it was just me getting used to the mission. And being tired all the time. I fall asleep every week in Church. Also whenever I sit down. It's kinda bad. Oh well.

As to the problems with the Elders not having much to do during the day, I don't really know how to fix that. We aren't allowed to door contact either, only street contacts and referrals. What's really essential is that we get a bunch of referrals from the members and work with less actives. We also eat at 2 in the afternoon with a family, not at night. We don't really teach until around 4 o'clock. Unless there's somebody who has lost their job or works at night. We've gone many days where all of our meetings fall through because of work. Hmm... I don't know with Vegas. The Elders sometimes set up booths in street-markets and such.

Congrats to Colby for getting his license! And Eli for being baptized! I'm missing quite a bit. Sad that Great Grandpa passed away, but now Grandma and Grandpa have the opportunity to join me and Masey here in the Mission field! Exciting times!

Love ya'll and can't wait to talk to you this Sunday!