July 29, 2013

Hi everyone :)

How are you all? I hope oh so good :)

I'm doing so good right now! :) Life is good. Missionary work is great. 

So guess what happened this week.... I got my "death letter." This letter is the letter that says when I'm going home, what will happen the few days before I go home, how to make goals for life after the mission and so on. OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO WEIRD. I was like freaking out haha. I had gotten a call on Tuesday? And the mission office asked if I wanted to go home September 30th or November 11th. I feel like I'm supposed to go home in September so I told them that is when I wanted to go and she talked to me about scheduling my flight and what airport I wanted to fly in to. It was funny because Monday night I was telling Sister Jones I should be getting a death letter soon and then Tuesday I got that call. Then Wednesday I got the letter. I felt like in a daze when I read it. All of a sudden going home became real. It was weird. As I read over the letter it lead me to reflect on my mission and how far I have come and how fast the next 2 months will go. I can't believe that I'm actually a missionary still and that it's almost over. I'm such a different person now. I am so grateful I have this chance to serve. Best thing I have ever done. I'm glad the Lord continued to prompt me to come after I tried to fight the promptings so many times.

Yesterday, there was a new member fireside and I was talking to Brother Pulsifer (the High Councilor for missionary work whom I just love because he reminds me of you dad) and we were talking about me going home. He has a daughter serving right now, too, and we were talking about how the mission changes the missionary more than anything. I talked to him about how I was inactive before I came out and I felt like an idiot in the MTC because I didn't know what anyone was talking about. I then bore my testimony to him about how I finally have a testimony and about how the atonement is real. He then said, "Sister Baker, the first couple weeks of your mission, you needed your mission. After that, the mission needed you. GO YOU. You are a strong woman. Parker needs you, and so do the other Sisters here." It was like the nicest thing ever to hear someone say that.  After talking to him and going home, I was writing in my journal and I had such an OVERWHELMING feeling of peace. People keep asking me if I feel stressed and keep wondering if "I've done enough as a missionary" and last night I felt peace that I have. I have of course made mistakes along the way of being a missionary, but I feel that I have become who Christ intended me to become out here. It's great to look back and feel accomplished. I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that gives us that comfort to allow us to know we are doing enough. 

We did some more service this week at both the farms and it was awesome :) I love being on the farm. Okay.. so I would never want to actually live on a farm.. but it's fun for like 5 hours a week. I shoveled up poop this week and everyone there says I'm an expert lama herder because I always catch them when we have to take them out hahahhaah. Ya... I'm a pro farm girl.. what can I say ;)

We had a lesson with the -------family this week. We taught the girl who just got baptized.. and HER DAD SAT IN :) It was so great. He totally was listening to everything, too. We made a point to talk a LOT about families being together forever because we were teaching the plan of salvation. It went so well. SIster------- text us afterwards and said he loved us :) Making progress!!!! YAY!!

We saw Moises this week, too. He is doing so great. He is like the most prepared person ever. He moves Saturday, but I will still be keeping in touch with him. So grateful I got to teach him.

 RIght now we are on the search for more people to teach. It's a rough area to find.

Oh, also, this week we had interviews. I LOVE my new mission President. He is amazing and so in tune with the spirit. It was funny, we started the interview and he goes, "Sister, I hate to say this, but you're going home soon!" So we talked about staying focused on my mission but also having goals for back home. HE let me get online and look up my schooling just to see where I am at. It was cool to get on and see what classes I had taken and stuff because I couldn't remember anything because well I haven't thought about it for 16 months haha. So he is being so cool and I just love him.

Well, that was my week. The church is true :)

LOVE YOU ALL

-Sister Baker

July 15, 2013

This week has been pretty dang good.

 

So most of you know, but I am training, and it's going pretty good. Her name is Sister Jones. She is waiting for her visa to Brazil and we are starting to become friends. I told her of my struggles when I first got out and how the Lord helps us grow in ways that we could of never imagined!! It's so true though. I have had so much growth since I have been on my mission.

 

So Parker stake is AMAZING. Saturday morning we had breakfast at one of the members of the Stake Presidency's homes. The whole zone came and we all got to know each other. Some wards in this mission have 4 SETS of missionaries in their wards. Right now in Parker, a lot of wards have 2 sets. There are 12 SETS of missionaries in this stake. It's amazing. Then on Sunday, we had a big meeting with all the missionaries, the stake presidency, the bishops, and all the ward mission leaders. We talked about allowing the work to move forward here and how we will utilize the members to do that. The meeting was at 6.. yesterday I was in meetings from about 6AM to 6PM.. It was insane. But so beneficial. The work is moving forward here. We had that meeting in the morning, then we met with the ward council, then we met with the ward missionaries, and then we had a meeting with our Bishop. SO GREAT. Our Stake Presidency is making it so that our ward mission leaders are basically making our schedules. The ward mission leaders are supposed to fill any gap we have in the day with meaningful appointments. This will allow us to have at least 20 lessons a week and constantly be busy. It's so cool. I've NEVER been in a ward or stake sooooooo on top of things. I feel so blessed right now.

 

Sister Jones and I have been busy EVERY day this week ALL day. It's been such a blessing. We have had appointments and meetings and just lots of things to do. We are starting to implement a family mission plan here so we are meeting with all the members of the ward. The stake also provided every companionship with a thumb drive that has 4 presentations on it. The presentations are for JustServe.org, mormon.org, family tree, and pathways program. So we can start showing these to members as well to help them do missionary work. We have so many "tools" to use and now we get to see the miracles start coming by implementing them.

 

So at the front of our planners there are all these finding ideas. Our mission president committed us all to using all the finding ideas. So Sister Jones and I have been doing that. One of them says to go to funeral homes and get our names on the clergy list. We found a funeral home in our area and were super skeptical to go in. But we felt we should. So when we went in, we were so welcomed. Turns out the owner, who greeted us, is a less active member. She was so excited we dropped in. She said other churches have tried to put things in the funeral home but that she didn't accept. But she gladly accepted our help and told us we could put cards in there for people to call us if they needed help. It was truly a miracle. :)

 

Also, this week I have had such a renewed desire to work hard and be obedient. Sister Jones and I have been getting up and just trying to make sure we do everything right. I see the Lord blessing us for doing so.

 

Yesterday we had an amazing lesson with ------. We taught it with the Elders because technically he is supposed to be in the ward they are in. Anyways, he hasn't been coming to church a ton, so we taught it on obedience and the Sabbath day. we were all nervous because we didn't have much time to coordinate our lesson plans together. But the Spirit just took over. I felt the spirit so strong in the lesson, stronger than I have in awhile. I'm not sure what is going on in his life, but I was able to promise him that if he will go to church every week that all the things that are going on in his life will be sorted out. The spirit was SO strong. It was so powerful. The other 3 missionaries there then testified of my promise made and it was so amazing to have all of us testify to him. He committed to coming to church and he is getting baptized in Peru on the 4th of August :) :) I'm so excited and happy for him. It's a miracle. He is so ready. We are getting all the details sorted out with the mission president in Peru.

 

This week I have just felt so good about life. I feel like these next few weeks I have are going to fly by and that I'm going to enjoy my last bit here if I work hard. I feel at peace, and I just have been able to look back on the growth I have made. I'm so blessed to be here. I'm so blessed to have a testimony. There is no greater gift at this time than to know what I know.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL :)

 

-SIster Baker