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)