My last week!

Hola familia!

It's my last week here at the MTC and boy am I ready to get out and preach the word. It feels like my MTC experience started out really slow, went really fast, and is now going at a snail's pace. I really have learned a lot here, but I need to get out in the mission field and do work.

There's a problem with that, by the way. We were supposed to get our travel plans this last week, but we didn't. Hopefully I get them soon so I can tell ya'll when I'll be calling. We'll see Last Thursday Me, Elder Katzenbach, and Elder Hood went to the consulate with all of the other Monterreyans to get our visas all finished (don't really know why.) They took our pictures and our fingerprints and then we just sort of sat around. I really liked it though. It was fantastic to see all of the little kids stare at me like I was a god. One little girl on the train couldn't take her eyes off me. It's interesting how they can see the mantle that's been placed on our shoulders more than we possibly ever could. Also getting out of the compound was just fantastic.

Speaking of Elder Katzenbach, did you see the special on missionaries after general conference? Him and his family were featured on that thing. I was also in the choir that was singing at the beginning but they didn't show my face. :'( It really is an exciting time with everything that's going on in the mission field right now. Especially when I compare the color in the missionary audience now with the one in the videos that they show us on Sunday nights. It's dang exciting to have all these new sister missionaries coming out. I talked to a few men (ugh... men) about it and they have a much more negative view of the sister missionaries. Mysoginists bug me. All intolerance bugs me. I've gotten angry a couple of times with my fellow missionaries as they've talked about other religions (Scientology) and how weird they are and also bagging on gay people. One of the guys in our zone said that he wanted to beat up every gay guy he saw and I just about lost it. Nothing is more harmful to the work than bigoted missionaries and hopefully the Lord straightens them out. Elder Blotter went so far as to say that all books which don't have religious significance didn't matter in the bit. Which, as I'm sure you all know, made me quite peeved. Ignorance is a sad state.

There's been a bit of contention recently with my companion. We usually do good, but sometimes he treats me like a complete idiot and as if I don't know anything about Spanish. He always turns for help to other missionaries in the district which really bugs me since I always go to him when I need some clarification. I've really progressed quite a bit and I'm really comfortable with my Spanish. It's gotten to the point where my English is suffering a bit which is extremely depressing. I don't always speak in proper grammar, but from TRC I've learned that native speakers can understand me. It just bugs me when I feel like people doubt my intelligence or knowledge (pride I know) when it comes to doctrine or language. I'm trying to get over it. I was told that the MTC is like a petri dish in that he brings out the best and worst in people. With me it's brought out my love and care for the children of God but also my pride. Prayer is helping.

After reading the letter that you sent me, Mom, and you sent me, Dad, I've decided to pray a lot more for my cousins and Grandma and Grandpa, and not just for you guys (I mention ya'll specifically in most of my evening prayers.) I feel like General Conference had two main themes: obedience and problems in the family. Families are being broken apart everywhere because of the wickedness of this generation and it's really depressing. I forget who mentioned it, but I remember a talk (I don't have my 25 pages of notes with me) where he said that the best way for our families to receive blessings is through service. I've decided to dedicate my mission to helping all of our family members find the love and peace of the Savior in this life and in the life to come. I feel like with that in mind it'll give me a little boost to my efforts to serve the Lord's children.

General Conference was amazing. As I said before, I took about 25 pages of notes because there was just SO MUCH there. My favorite talk was probably President Uchtdorf's in the Priesthood Session. I loved his message about the individuality of spirits and how the Church isn't trying to churn out a bunch of carbon copies of everyone. It feels like everyone (me included) likes to think that our way of doing things is the right way and that any deviation from that is anti-God. The differences between the Apostles exemplifies that. If everyone was Elder Holland that'd be far too overbearing. We all have our different reasons for believing in the Church and for having chosen to follow God in the pre-existence. Some may have had a strong belief in the importance of obedience (talked about last night.) While others may have been strong believers in the moral agency of mankind. I feel like I'm part of that last group. Like Joseph Smith said, teach true principles and the people govern themselves.

I've come to a realization here that I've been blessed with the gift of knowledge of the truth of the Church. I've always known without a doubt that this Church was true. It's been a blessing and a curse seeing as I'm probably going to be held to a higher standard and that it may be frustrating when other people don't have that same belief. What really helped was the talk by Elder Holland which talked about how we only need a desire to believe.

Well I've gotta go. Love ya'll! Miss you tons! I'll get back to you on when I'm going to be able to call you guys.

Love, Brayden (Elder Decker)