Sept 24, 2012

Hello family :)

How are you all? I hope so great.

Well.. This week started out really rough. Sister Horrocks and I were beyond sick. lets just say having only one bathroom was rough. I think we had the flu. Along with that, we have still been super tired.. so It was a rough first few days of the week. We called our mission mother, sister anderson, and she advised to stay in until completely better because the sickness we had wasn't a good one! So we did stay in for awhile. But we do feel better. Still tired. But better. The doctors called and said that our results came back fine. Kind of disappointing because it would be nice to have something to cure us.. but oh well. :) I'm glad my body is doing better.
I was saying a prayer one morning and I thought.. "I'm actually grateful that I was sick with sister H." The reason? Because I love her more now. I feel like us being sick together allowed us to get to understand each other more and be able to serve one another. Our relationship became better from it. It's nice to look at the blessings that come in times of trial. :) So that's great.

Thursday we went out finally! I hated being stuck in our apt for so long. Oh my gosh it was aweful. As a missionary you get so tired and all you want to do is sleep.. but then when you are sick it's like you feel so bad for resting. Hahha. It's crazy. But Thursday we went and saw -----and we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. She started to cry as we taught repentance. It was a good lesson. It made me look at the steps of repentance differently. I think sometimes we are repenting but if we make any sort of step backwards.. satan wants us to feel we haven't done any better. Repentance is simply striving to rid ourselves of the sin and not do it anymore. Too often we feel we have to be perfect in the process.. but we really dont. Then we saw ------- and also taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was also a good lesson. I am so excited for her to be baptized :) She is awesome. She gets baptized on sunday!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! :)

Friday we had district meeting on the subject of the atonement. It was really good! We also went to the Chile Festival with her and her boyfriend friday night! HOW FUN :) They close off a whole street downtown and set up booths and have green chile's burning and cooking and everyone is eating them and buying them! I tried jalepeno peanut brittle and chile frozen yogurt. The frozen yogurt was sick but the peanut brittle.. oh so good. It's crazy what they mix chile with at the festival. They have tons of booths and tons of food. Some members gave us some chile's and we are just loving eating them! So stinkin yummy. Everyone down here is proud that I love spicy food. Green chile is HUGE down here. So going to the festival was fun.

Saturday, We got to go to Springs to hear Elder Holland, Presidnt Gonzales, and Bishop Davies speak to us!!! HOLY GOOD.  It was soooooooooo coool. He was walking around the chapel we were in and just tearing it up! I love him. It really made me stop and think about my work. He talked about how this is a way of life. We never go back to normal. Sister Horrocks gave me a really good compliment. She told me that as Elder Holland talked about this being a way of life that she thought of me. She told me that I'm a missionary who is myself and how cool that is. I was grateful for her saying that! I have a lot of things I need to work on as a missionary and this week I'm working on being up and studying on time. So far.. the Lord is blessing me and I'm doing so much better. I love how much the Lord strengthens us when we ask. Elder Holland made me think about how we as missionaries get into routine. This isn't a routine. There is always so much to learn. I surely needed to have him come speak to me. I'm grateful for it.
While in springs we went to lunch with the sisters and went to this ice cream place with the biggest ice cream cones covered in cookies.  Also.. My hair is dark now. I hate it. But i'm trying to grow it out. And I thought I would maybe like dark short hair. But i seriously hate dark hair on me. I want blonde again. So hopefully I'll be dying it here soon. Haha. I can't wait for long hair again! Holy crap.
Then when we got home.. I felt prompted to go see a family. We had a really good visit with them and hopefully we can get them active in the church again!

Yesterday, we had stake conference and bishop davies came and spoke. ------- came and I think she liked it. We then gave her a church tour and showed her the baptismal font. SHe said how excited/nervous she is! I'm so happy for her :) I love her! Then we saw ----------  and he is good. We are planning to go to the temple with him here soon! I love the man! He reads his BoM all the time. It's so cool. Then I of course saw the Hamler family and cried when I saw them! It was so good to see someone I know! I chatted with them awhile. They are the coolest. I love them so!

Well that was about my week.
I love being a missionary. I love the work. I love the Lord.
THanks for everything everyone :)

Ps. I'm moving into a house on the 1st of OCTOBER :) YAY!!!!!!!!!!! CANT WAIT! IT's so cute.

LOVE YOU ALL!
-SIster Baker :)

Sept. 17, 2012

Well.. This week has been a bit rough. Sister Horrocks and I are still feeling pretty terrible. We went to the doctors on Friday and should have the results back either today or tomorrow. We are tired, our bodies ache, we are nauseous, we are just all over the place. We got blessings of healing.. and I have felt somewhat better.. but last night and today my stomach has been killing me and I have no strength. I hope that they do find something wrong with us so that we can know how to solve what is wrong. :/ Anyways.. that is my sad story of the week.

So, for good news. A lot of good things happened this weekend.

------ got the Priesthood yesterday :) He is doing great. He loves coming to church and like during sunday school you can see him reading ahead and really wanting to learn. Hopefully we can plan a temple trip and go up with him and some members of the ward. That will be fun! I just love him! He is so great.

On wednesday, it was raining all day! But, Sister Horrocks and I had scheduled to tract.. so we still did. I felt like a true missionary out in the rain knocking doors. Hahah. It turned out good though! We met a guy , he has a desire to learn. He had a date for the 30th but didn't make it to church. We have taught him twice now and he seems to really be enjoying it. he's working on his prayers and so hopefully things with progress with him too!

Then, our bishop referred us to teach this lady. She came to church yesterday too! She wants to learn more and we are hoping that she will be baptized soon too!

THEN! Brittany whatley.. my friend in the ward.. gave us a referral, too! WOW!!!! I've never had so many referrals. It's great. Although Sister Horrocks and I feel like complete crap.. and have been struggling... We are trying to push forward... and blessings are coming. 

Guess what family! I ate bear this weekend. The hawken family shot a bear... and they made soup and bear jerkey and I ate it. I didnt like the soup.. but I liked the jerkey. I can't believe I ate it hahahah.

Nick wrote me this week. I just love that kid. :) He is such a good missionary. His letters lift me up. They really do. He is so great. I can't wait to hang out with him after I get home from the mission.. it'll be fun to see how we have both grown.

Also, ------ that I have been working with.. she came to church last week and this week. How great! I love seeing people come out!!!!!! I love serving the Lord.

I'm so grateful for the gospel, and the church. I'm so lucky to have a testimony and to see it grow daily. I'm so grateful for trials I've had. They have made me stronger. I love the plan of salvation. I love the Book of Mormon. I know Joseph Smith was called to be a Prophet of God.

I'm so grateful for a loving family.

LOVE YOU ALL!

MISS YOU ALL, TOO :)

-Sister Baker

September 4, 2012

Well, my week has been good :) Here is an update.

This weekend, Friday and Saturday, I got to go to a sisters conference. There are 16 sisters in the mission and we all got to go to the mission home for the night. It was pretty fun :)  It's weird that I'm one of the older sisters in the mission now. The end of this month will be 6 months out.. a 3rd done. I can't believe it. I only have like a year left. How time flies.

At the conference we had a therapist come talk to us hahahah. cause us girls are crazy. We think we need to be perfect. It was nice to have her come. She has us lay down and do breathing exercises and talked about how we are good enough. We don't need to be perfect. It was a good reminder. Then we talked about our purpose, getting along with our comps, and dress code. It was a good update for sure. I was so happy that I got to see Sister Brady. I miss her. hahah. Crazy... I KNOW!!!! But she is one of my best friends now. She truly is. 

At the sisters conference we were talking about what the covenants we have made do for us. And I raised my hand and began to cry as I talked about how grateful I am for temple covenants. Never before have I really thought about it. It was like a moment of bearing testimony and in return finding a testimony. I talked about how I would of never been able to come on a mission if it weren't for Christ and now, after going through the temple, each of us is endowed with power from on high, and having that knowledge is what gets me through each day. I love the church :)

I also bore testimony there of how we can each learn something from our comps. I talked about sis brady and started to cry once again. I'm grateful the Lord knows me, and knows what I need in my life. What a blessing.

GUESS WHAT! ------- got confirmed this week.. it was so good.. adn then he bore his testimony :) :) :). How great it was! He looked at us when people were bearing testimony and said how is heart was full. Then he kept fidgeting and finally got up.  He thanked everyone from the pulpit and said how grateful he was for the sisters and that we chose to go back to his house. He talked about how happy he was that he let us in cause his life is so much better now.  

Yesterday was Labor day, so we had to have a work day. We tracted a lot but had little success.

 Love you all :) Have a good week!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Baker