First Area and Companion

8 October 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Decker,

We are pleased tell you that your wonderful son, Elder Decker has been welcomed by the Thailand Bangkok Mission and has been assigned to serve in the Rangsit, Bangkok North Zone of the Thailand Bangkok Mission.

The missionaries arrived happy, healthy and well prepared from their MTC experience.  Sister Johnson and I hosted the group in our home and we were able to share experiences and a fine meal together while feeling the strength and conviction of their testimony. They are very valiant and carry with them a strong spirit and desire to serve our Heavenly Father.

I have sought the direction of the Lord and have chosen one of our finest missionaries, Elder Logan Kalaiwaipono Ellis to be Elder Decker's  training companion.  I believe this companion will help your son to get a great start as a missionary and to experience the joy and vision of missionary service.

Sister Johnson and I thank you for your support and ask that you continue to write weekly letters or emails of encouragement.  We promise to love and care for your son like one of our own, and to do everything we can to help him succeed and prosper as a missionary in Thailand.  We know that Elder Decker and your family will be richly blessed by his service here.  Please pray for all of the missionaries and for the wonderful people of Thailand.


Sincerely,

President Kelly R. Johnson
Thailand Bangkok Mission

Safe Arrival

05 Oct 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Decker,

We are happy to report that your son arrived safely in Bangkok late last night, clearing passport control early this morning. He spent what was left of the evening in a hotel room with his companion, where he will also stay this evening. He is in good spirits and is anxious to begin laboring in the Lord's vineyard in Thailand. We are thrilled to have him as a missionary in the Thailand Bangkok Mission family.

Elder Colby John Decker will join other newly arrived missionaries, together with Sister Johnson and me and the Assistants to the President, at Lumpini Park for a morning devotional. Lumpini Park is the site where then Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the land of Thailand for the preaching of the Gospel in 1966. Elder Decker will have the opportunity to dedicate and consecrate himself to this most wonderful work.  The new missionaries will be trained by Sister Johnson and me, and later oriented by the Office Couple, Elder and Sister Grange, and the Assistants to the President. New missionaries will have their first experience street contacting in the area followed by dinner at the Mission Home.

Your son will receive his first assignment tomorrow morning. Preparation day will be on Monday and he will be able to email you each week.  I am sure he will have much to share regarding his experiences in Thailand, missionary activities and his first Sunday in his assigned area. Your expressions of encouragement and spiritually uplifting email correspondence will be of great support.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions during your son's term of missionary service.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Johnson

Thailand Bangkok Mission

Last Email in Merica (week 9)

This is my last email in America. It's crazy that I'm about to leave tomorrow. I'm excited to serve in Thailand. Also, General Conference is awesome.

Elder Decker

Pics:

The white guy with blue eyes is Brother Omer and the Hawaiian one is Brother Yuen and the tall one is Brother Tirrell who were my teachers. Sister Khao is from Thailand and she also taught me. Then there's Elder Simpson who's the homie and he's going to Nicaragua.

MTC Pics

Last Week of MTC!!! (week 8)

Sawaddii Khap everybody! This week was a pretty good one. We got our flight plans Friday. We're traveling for like 30 something hours. For some reason we're flying to Chicago than Hong Kong so we backtrack like 5 hours. But I'm pumped. I finally might get some good food like Mcdonalds or something.

This week has been like any other week at the MTC but it's going by slower. It rained and we all had to run to the residence halls. It's gotten really cold here. I gave a lesson in Priesthood the other day and it was cool. We also fasted because we're going to miss Fast Sunday next month. We went to go see a talk by Elder Holland called "Open Your Mouth" and it was really good. He talked about how if you don't talk to people Satan has a hold on you and about these missionaries in the Czech Republic in the 1930's and how much Preach My Gospel is different from back than. He also did some yelling. I love Elder Holland.

Monday we had a skype TRC and it was pretty cool. We taught Phii Tan and he lived in Bangkok and he was just a little older than us. He said we will probably see him in Thailand. He made us read some scriptures in Thai and I felt like a little kid trying to read Thai. But it's coming along. The Thai people are so nice and friendly. He laughed at us a couple of times because we talked like a falang and it was hard to understand him. Tones are difficult.

My time here at the MTC has taught me to recognize the Spirit and be humbled which I needed. It's felt like I've been here forever but also it went by so fast. It's weird. I got my Thai name tag and it's pretty legit. We can't wear them here. My name is pronounced Elduh Deguh. The script on it is hard to read cause the church uses a weird font. Anyways love y'all and miss y'all!

-Elduh Deguh

I don't have that many photos this week but one is of my Malay friend that hoops and the other is some M & M's someone gave me. 

Week 7 (Give em Heaven Elders!)

Hanlo Everybody! The days are flying now. The new Thai missionaries came in and I was having flash backs. Elder Simpson, the homie from Vegas, got put into the room down the hall from me so it's pretty cool. It seems like forever ago since I got here. We get our flight plans Friday. We had a lesson yesterday about not getting caught up in thinking that happier times are ahead but to live in the present. I guess it's kinda true but I don't even remember what actual people are like.

Elder Quentin L. Cook came last week and it was cool. We had 3 apostles in a row. He talked about loving your companion, the people, the Mission President, and the Lord on your mission. If you do those things you will have a successful mission. On Wednesday, we had another companion swap and I had the other Zone Leader, Elder Bunker. We talked to this kid investigator named Phii Ben and he wasn't as interested as my others. I haven't talked to him before but I like him and you could feel the Holy Ghost in the lesson which was pretty sweet. I don't know why they keep pairing me up with Zone Leaders but it's cool.

I play soccer a lot now and it's pretty fun. I'm not as bad as I thought I was. We play Viets vs Thais and we usually lose but mostly cause they cheat. All my Indonesian and Malay friends left last week. There's this Elder from Jamaica that gives hugs at night before lights out and he's pretty cool. I've became close friends with the people here.

On Sunday the District President, President Mehr, gave a talk about his wife passing away a couple years ago and how God will comfort you when you pray. I met him when me and Serph met the other week, which by the way was really sweet. He sounds like an African now and he didn't get as dark as I thought he would. He's grown a lot in two years and I look up to him even more now. I hope I can be a missionary like him. We watched Ephraim's Rescue for movie night and I really liked it. It was pretty funny.

On Monday we had a Skype TRC with the Stake president in Thailand and it was kinda intimidating at first because what would two young missionaries who hardly speak the language be able to teach the Stake President. It went pretty well and he's an awesome person. His expressions were so funny. He told us that in November they will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Missionaries in Thailand. My teacher heard it when we were talking to him and they had a conversation in Thai and he said he was jealous. I had no clue what they were saying though. 

When we were walking back from the temple this lady in a grey truck gave some missionaries a Book of Mormon and than yelled at us "Give em Heaven Elders!" I thought it was funny. It's crazy to think I'll be leaving this spiritual bubble in two weeks but it's time. I love this work and I can't wait to preach the Gospel to the people of Thailand. Love ya and miss y'all!

Elder Decker

One of the pics is the August 3rd group and the other is the Malays and Indos that left.

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MTC Week 6

Aray Dii!! Another week down at the MTC. This week has been a pretty good week. It's starting to cool down here which is nice. BYU going for two at the end of the game was a big thing last saturday. I thought it was funny. 

This week we had the opportunity to hear from two apostles. Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke to us. Elder Christofferson gave a talk about Repentence and how being trusted is more important than being loved. Christ loves everyone but he doesn't trust everyone. It made me reflect if I was someone he could trust. Elder M. Russell Ballard talked about if you learn to stop focusing on yourself, and start focusing on Jesus Christ and others, you'll be a more successful missionary and person. He also said in the beginning of conversion, the investigator's feelings are more important than what they know. He also told us we were the best missionaries in the history of the church which was cool. 

We saw 3 new segments in Meet the Mormons and there was one about an Italian family who lived in Vegas and feed food to the homeless which was really cool. We had Skype TRC yesterday and it was pretty cool. We talked to this Thai Mom who lives in California. Her Daughter kept on getting on the screen and saying hi. She went in front of the camera and we said Sawaddii to her and she responded the same and it was so cute and then we said Sabaay Dii and she didn't know what it meant haha. and then her Mom picked her up and said "She doesn't even speak Thai." and i started dying. Oh yeah and my companion asked her how often she has kids and i couldn't breathe after that. All the other people were skyping in the same room and it was really loud and hard to focus but it was good. Idk if i'm ready to speak Thai though haha.

Our district helped the Senior Companions into the MTC. They were so funny and something I didn't know was that they were scared and nervous too. Also, they pack a lot of stuff. There rooms are also really nice. Thanks for the pumpkin bread. Oh and the primary kids sent me letters and they were the highlight of my day. One of the letters said Remember the Godhead and it was so true. They also asked if I liked to play basketball and if i did was it fun. That was pretty much my week. I can't wait to leave for Thailand and teach the people there. Love y'all and miss y'all.

Elder Decker  

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Week 5

Sawadii Khap! Another week down in the MTC. Over halfway down. When i got the slip for Serph coming here I thought I had a meeting with the District President and was in trouble somehow. I didn't know until someone told me to read the first line haha. Anyways I'm excited for Thursday. Good news is we got Chick Fil A for dinner the other day. 

President Maynes came in last Tuesday and talked about Joseph Smith and the first vision, the restoration, and the translation of the Book of Mormon. Than Sunday Brother and Sister Norby bore their testimony about Christ in the Mission conference. Brother Norby was a Senior Missionary in the Belgium airport when it was bombed. He has a bunch of scars now and walks with a limp but he bore a really powerful testimony. He said when the time to perform comes the time to prepare is over. Than later that day Chad Lewis spoke to us. He was a NFL football player for 9 years who played for the Eagles and BYU. He talked about how he got hurt in the NFC Championship game and couldn't play in the Superbowl. He dreamt about playing in the Superbowl his whole life. But he wished he was still on his mission in Taiwan. Now he's the NFL ambassador to China. He showed a lot of pictures of the people there and the people he baptized and it made me want to leave for Thailand. He gave a really good talk.

We taught TRC's and this time it went pretty good. The spirit was in both lessons and we could understand them a little better. The lesson was on Revelation through reading the Scriptures. It was really cool. The lessons with the investigators are going okay. some are good some are bad. A lot of Thai words sound the same but have different tones and vowel lengths so it's gonna take some time to learn. We learned about how to say time in Thai and it's really the dumbest thing. Thailand has 24 hour time and it's seperated into watches like in the military and there's a different way to say the grammar for each one. Oh also after 6 P.M. they read 7 as 1, 8 as 2, and so on until midnight.

On Monday we had a companion swap again and I got a zone leader. He's really cool and chill and funny. His name is Elder Higginson and we taught a lesson to a "Less Active Member" who was really one of our teachers, Sister Khawmxxnooy (No clue the spelling), and she started to cry in our lesson and I didn't know what to do. She said she had to work on sundays to get money for her family and we told her that she'd be more blessed going to church than working and that taking the sacrament is really important. Than she said why are we giving up two years of our lives and not working and we told her that we were serving God and wanted to spread the Gospel that we had to everyone who didn't have it. It was probably the coolest experience I had at the MTC. 

We got released as Sacrament coordinators and my companion became a district leader. So I'm now companion to the district leader which makes me almost important haha. But I love it here it's finally cooling down. Sometimes I don't like this place though because we have to stay on campus but I only got one month left. Me and my companion are getting along really well. I'm really blessed. He's so cool and we have good chemistry in the non weird way. Like sports chemistry but in lessons instead. We also ball on the court. Anyways I love this work and love all your emails. Love y'all!

Elder Decker

I don't have any pics this week. 

Week Number 4

Sawadii Khap! Another week down here. Thanks for the packages Matt and Sarah Woll fam and momma! It came in a time of need. I had to ask some of the Elders here what some of them where. I've never seen DayQuil before. The struggle to stay awake is real here. The 2nd Counselor in my branch falls asleep all the time. I always ask my teachers if I give them 10 dollars will they get me some food but they never do. The wraps are just ight. When I was learning the numbers in Thai, for 8 I kept on saying ocho instead of baad but that's pretty much it. I forgot all my Spanish here it's all Thai in my head. Oh I also knew the investigator was fake and now we call him Bi Da or royal father cause he's our teacher.

During one of the lessons when we were learning script, one of the teachers who's from Thailand named Sister Khawmxxnnooy (I have no clue how to spell it) said it only took 12 minutes to learn the vowels and I said 12 minutes just like her and it might've sounded wrong cause i did it in an accent like but she didn't hear. I didn't mean to do it. Brother Yuen the other teacher in the room started dying though. I'm starting to learn Script. It comes from Sandscript and it has a lot of dumb rules like English like silent letters and two consonants together makes a different sound and there's implied o's and a's between them. It's hard. Also there's no space in between words so it's like reading Hashtags but you don't even know the words so you can't seperate it. #thislanguagerocks. Learning this language has humbled me which is good because through humility comes conversion and my testimony has grown a lot. I know I can't learn this language without God's help. We were talking to some of the Khon Thais or native Thai people here and they talk so fast and I had no clue what they were saying. But it was pretty cool. I keep on seeing people that I know here. 

We had a companion swap yesterday and it went alright. I was with Elder King and he's pretty cool. Our lesson didn't go too well. They did it to prepare us for our mission in the field. Our lessons with my actual companion are going better. It's weird feeling the spirit when I'm talking in Thai. Our investigators all are getting baptized. Brother Yuen is really good at acting. One of our investigators (Braaduh May is how you pronounce it) is scared of water because he can't swim so he didn't wanna get baptized. I tried hard not to laugh and told him the water was nii noy or small. My companion didn't understand what he was saying though and I didn't know he didn't till after. We taught some return missionaries for TRC's about receiving revelation through prayer and it went way better than last week. Idk the comments they had cause they wrote it in some bad Thai handwriting but hopefully it was good.    

Elder Juan A. Uceda talked to us about not seeing the investigator as a number but as a person. He also told his own conversion story and how it affected his life. A lot of times missionaries go to teach an investigator and they teach lessons. You teach people not lessons. He also said teaching is not talking. So you have to be doing things and not just talking. It made me reflect on what i teach to my investigators. If you want me to respond to you use email cause I don't really want to write a letter haha.

How is Serph doing. Is he super dark? It feels like I been here forever. We watched a weird pioneer movie called "Legacy" it had really bad acting but it was pretty cool. Another cool thing is the Malaysia Missionaries have to lie when they get into their country because missionaries aren't allowed there. Some of the first Vietnamese missionaries are in our zone and their language sounds cool. Anyways love y'all and miss you.

Elder Decker

The Missionary Squad on some construction equipment. Everything is under Construction here. ​

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Week 3 at the MTC :)

Another week down in the Training Center of Missionaries. It's crazy school is starting up soon. It feels like I'm in school already. These days are so long but going by fast. 800 missionaries left this week so it's pretty empty. The lines are short which is great. Food is still bad but they had a bomb hawaiian plate thing Monday. 

We started to learn script. It's so hard. They look like a bunch of squiggly lines and all the sounds sound similar. All the Thai teachers are teaching us now which is cool. Brother Saunders is my favorite he sounds funny when he speaks Thai. I'm starting to learn the language better though. We teach two investigators now and will be teaching them for six more weeks. We also taught some TRC's which are members that want to feel the spirit. I had no clue what they were saying and it was pretty bad. I don't really know how to small talk we only learn Gospel words in Thai. I also hit 10 straight three's in basketball.

All the Phii Thais left which was kinda sad cause they were the homies. They gave us a bunch of gifts and squirt guns. Nobody is safe now. Every night before quiet time the whole floor goes into a room and has story time. The Nashville tribute band came here on Sunday and played for us. They were pretty good even though they're older people. Elder Holland was in town last Tuesday and everyone thought he was gonna talk to us but he didn't. Bonnie Oscarson the Young Women president came in instead. She talked about putting your trust in God.   

For movie night we watched two visitor center videos. They were about Joseph Smith translating the book of mormon. It's only shown in the visitor's center in Philadelphia i think i forgot which one but it was really good. It was the story through Oliver Cowdery perspective which was interesting. I love the MTC but i'm ready to go haha. Seeing all these people coming and going is kinda sad cause i miss seeing actual people. Tell Serph i said wassup. He can visit me if he wants it would be nice cause every day is kinda the same. 3 weeks down and 6 more to go. I love this work and can't wait to serve the people in Thailand. Miss y'all. 

-Elder Decker

Utah is great but idk what to take pictures of anymore. 

This one is me and Elder Kekeoha (Idk how to spell it) at the temple​

 

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The person holding the camera is Elder Brinkerhoff and he has the best stories and he likes to share them a lot.​

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Week 2 at the MTC

Sawadii Khap! The days are starting to blend together. I can't tell the days apart anymore.  It feels like I've been serving for two years but also feels like I just wrote to you guys yesterday. I'm sorry to hear you guys are at the beach. You must be having such a hard time. I'm about to have a stomach of steel by the end of the MTC. We got taco bell which was pretty good. Thanks for the donuts too I gave one to my teacher/investigator and the other missionaries on my floor. 

My companion is from Portland, Oregon and played college ball at SVU for a year. He's really chill and cool and seems like he doesn't get annoyed with me. We went to the temple last Tuesday and it was really cool because it was filled with a bunch of missionaries. There is 8 people in my district. All Elders. My companion and I got called as sacrament coordinators. It's a pretty big deal. We tell people to pass and stuff. Neil L. Anderson gave a talk the other day but we had to go to the overflow because it was packed which was disappointing. He gave a talk about keeping the flame inside you after the MTC. It was pretty good. I found out that the guy in 17 miracles, Levi Savage the main character, served a mission in Thailand. 

Sundays are pretty long but I like it because we don't learn language in it. You have to write a talk every week because the District President randomely calls people to talk after sacrament. I'm starting to get better at the language i guess. It's still hard to understand and say the tones right but it'll come. The phii thais are leaving or the older thais are leaving Sunday so we'll be the older group than.

My teachers are pretty cool. It turns out the fake investigator we were teaching is actually gonna be our teacher. I was hoping we'd never see him again because we messed up the baptism part haha. His name is Brother Omer and he's pretty cool he laughs at my jokes so i like him. Our other teacher is Brother Yuen and he's a hawaiian and he's also pretty cool. They talk mostly in Thai. We're gonna start teaching two lessons a day so I'm super excited. Learning this language is really cool because I'm learning more about the simple truths of the Gospel. I can't wait to leave to Thailand. 

Thanks for all the prayers. Miss y'all. 

Elduuh Decker

Elder Cody Aguiar from our stake (Phillipines)​

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My Samoan homie that wears guava guavas​

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The full body shot you wanted​

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The District​

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Funniest Person here​

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MTC Week 1

Sawadii khap! Sad to here about the Brooklyn situation. Here at the MTC, the teachers whenever it's getting tough say Suu Suu or keep fighting in english. So let's talk about the MTC. It's not as much of a prison as I thought it would be. There are guards but there isn't that much supervision. Prison food is probably better though. My district is so cool. One of the missionaries in our district is Elder Kekoua (I think) and he has me dying all the time. My companion's name is Elder Holland. Not the apostle one though. He's played basketball at southern virginia and is a ginger. He's funny and we get along well even though i ball him up in the gym.

The first couple of days were really hard. I'm not used to waking up this early. 850 missionaries came in that day and there are 3000 missionaries here so it's packed. Sometimes we have to rush to eat because the lines are so long. The first day we got put into a classroom and started learning Thai right away. I thought this language was gonna be hard but not this hard. There is 5 tones and if you say the tone wrong you can be saying the word wrong. Like dog is the same word as mom but a different tone. Oh yeah another thing at the airport they pulled my carry on off the thing and checked it. i have no clue why it was filled with scriptures and books about Jesus. Anyways I didn't have a companion till the end of that day because they had to split the missionaries because there was so many. The older Thai group is crazy. They been here for 7 weeks and they all came into our rooms at night. The whole day other missionaries were saying welcome to the MTC to us all day and it got annoying. someone put glow in the dark stars in the room which was cool and there's a voice at night that says lights out. 

the next day we learned how to pray in Thai. a lot of gospel words aren't in the Thai language so they say like for God it's phraphupencaw which means like holy person who is the main boss. The prayers are so long and there's a specific order you got to say it in. i also can bear my testimony in Thai. We have to learn 300 words, 50 phrases, 2 verses, the baptisimal interview questions, the missionary purpose, and the first vision in Thai by Monday. than we start learning thai script. Anyways the food is bad the only good food we had here was Chick fil a. The third day we had to teach a fake investigator named phii cee or PJ in english. we read a script because we hardly know any thai. we have a lot of time on our own for personal study and language study and companion study. I thought we were just going to be in a classroom all day. My teacher is named brother Yuen and he speaks thai pretty much the whole time. Our first lesson with the investigator went really bad. we didn't know what he was saying so we couldn't answer his questions. I felt really bad because i wanted to talk to him but i couldnt. everyday we teach a lesson except sunday and tuesday and each time we got better and started to understand a little of what he was saying. 

i play basketball during excercise time. a lot of these elders played ball but i still be ballin. the other missionaries here kept on saying just make it to sunday because people leave in the first couple of days because its really hard. sunday was awesome. we have the biggest branch in the mtc with over 100 people. our zone has a bunch of elders going to southeast asia and some going to vietnam. Elder Holland spoke to us in a devotional. Also not the apostle one his son. he talked about Joseph Smith. it was really good. I was in the Choir and there was like 1700 other missionaries, the biggest in the history of the MTC and we sang praise to the man. My favorite part of the day was Sunday night when you can watch movies. we watched Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" and it was the best talk i ever heard. he talked about focusing outward and not inward. it helped me out with my studies because i was focused on me learning the language and not doing it for the people in Thailand that needed me. i love it here and miss you all. Choog Dii khap!

Elder Decker