Wednesday, July 31, 2013

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