Pics!

Willie's baptism and Sis Horrocks

August 27, 2012

HELLO FAMILY

how are you all? hope so good! :)

well.. the girl i'm training is named sister horrocks. she is super cute. We get along great.. and she is an AWESOME teacher already.. so that's is good. 

Training is hard. I feel indadequate about a lot of things and I hope I'm giving her the experience she needs. I'm excited for the rest of training though. I can already see myself learning a ton in just the last couple of days. :)

WILLIE GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY :) oh my gosh. best baptism of my life. HE LOOKED SO GOOD. He was glowing. We had a HUGE turn out of poeple too, people are finally loving us!!!! And loving our investigators. We are making a difference in the ward as sister missionaries and that right there means so much to me. . The spirit was SOOOO strong at his baptism. The talks were amazing. Lately, we started having talks at baptisms on temples, too. It's great to get new members excited for the temple. It's awesome. I gave the missionary moment I cried the whole time that I was talking because I'm so proud of Willie. He has made an amazing cahnge in his life' and I spoke about his change and how the gospel changes us. It was great. I got compliments on how I spoke. I'm getting better at sharing the gospel and I love it.  I love being a missionary for days like yesterday. Words can't describe how good it felt at the baptism.

Well.. not much went on the rest of the week. Transfer meeting was long. 18 new missionaries came into the field.

Sis Mack is home! She wants to come see you guys. I think she might be in Utah for conference. she asked for your info. I'll send it to her today :) I miss her dearly. 

Oh, it's been cool to see already why Sis Horrocks is here. She is already touching people who I have been working with for five months. The Lord works in such great ways. He truly knows us.

LOVE YOU ALL!

-sis bake

have a good week

August 21, 2012

Hello Fam :)

How are you all? HOpe so great!

So I knwo all of you say how good I am at writing letters, but I don't think this weeks will be much of anything to say. Haha. This week was CRAZY long and I felt like we didn't get anything accomplished, YET, I've been so tired, it's unreal. I don't know what is wrong with me, or why I'm so tired, but I'm trying to overcome it. I just pray that I can overcome it during training cause I want to be the best trainer that I can be. I know I'm training this new girl for a reason, and I just hope all goes well. I'm super nervous, BUT also super excited.

I'm really going to miss sister brady. It's been really cool to see her come out of her shell this transfer. I think that is why we were together.  I found out how much I love myself. I'm happy with who I am. I'm not perfect, and I still have so many things to work on, but I have found out more who I am this last transfer. At the beginning of this transfer I got a blessing that said these six weeks would be the happiest six weeks. And truly, they have been. I've never been so tired, and so emotionally drained. But, I've also never learned so much about who I can be, and the person that I want to become. So that has been a great blessing. I know I needed to be with sister brady, and i'm grateful for her. I truly am. The Lord knows what He is doing... I need to remember that. Hahah.

------ is doing great :) He came to church this week and loved it!  I love that people in the ward love him and are making an effort to support him. He is super excited to be baptized on Sunday. I'm so excited too!! I know I was meant to meet him. He means so much to me! I'm so glad he is happy now. His daughter wants to learn now. He told us that he talked to his daughter about the gospel and he said it was the BEST conversation he has ever had with her. She is coming to the baptism. I pray she feels the spirit. ------ said he hopes she feels what he feels cause he knows it will change her life. What a good guy!!!!!! Man.. I love the gospel.

Funny story of the week..... Sis Brady and I were eating lunch.. just chillin in our apartment and I look down at her foot and yell " you have a cockroach on your foot!!!" she freaks out and sends the roach flying through the air. It almost hit the ceiling and flew the span of the room. Then we had to smash it and it wouldn't die. We were laughing so hard. Our apartment is so sketch. They are getting us a new one though!!! :) yay!!!

I forgot my planner so I'm trying to remember other events of the week. Weeks are just a blur here. It's crazy. I can't believe I'm about five months out... Can you believe that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????? I can't! After training, it'll be  Thanksgiving. Time is flying. I love Pueblo so much! I'm so glad I get to serve here.

I'll write better next week. Wish me luck on training.. So scared to meet my girl!!!!!

MIss you guys!

-Sister Baker

August 13, 2012

Hello fam :)

How are you all? Hope so great :)

Monday, for p-day, we just went shopping. It was fun. We went to hobby lobby and got stuff to make hair pieces for my new short hair! I really love my new hair. It's soo nice and easy to do. It'll be fun for awhile. I'll probably grow it back out, though. Everyone here loves it! I get compliments on it all the time.

Then Tuesday we got to teach at the R.S. activity that night. We taught about object lessons with scripture study and I told everyoen about the scripture bag game we played when I was younger. Everyone liked the idea :) So that was fun to do. Then we drove up to Springs because Wednesday I had to go to the Train the Trainers meeting... AHhh. It was fun to be in Springs.. we stayed with Mack and Sis. Folwell. Mack and I stayed up late talking. She is so great! I'm so grateful to now have her as one of my best friends. It was just so good to see her for a while! I'm sad she is going home.. cause she is my rock out here, but hopefully I can be best friends with the girl I train and that I can be a rock for her as mack was for me.

Wednesday, as I said, I went to that meeting. Sis folwell and I drove to it since we are both training and Mack and Sis brady went out together .The meeting was SO long.. But good. I'm scared but excited to train. After the meeting we came back up to Pueblo and I got a blessing since I have really been struggling with the fact that I may be training and what not. I felt so much better after the blessing. Missions are hard .You get so used to areas, and people and then when things change, it's hard. But I guess it is what a mission is all about!

Thursday we met with----- :) The motorcycle man! HE IS AWESOME! I love him so stinkin much! Haha. He will be one of my fav converts haha. Then I felt sick like all day.... so we slept for some time :/ It was a bummer. I hate feeling sick out here because then I feel so bad cause I'm not acomplishing my purpose.. but sleeping was much needed. I had body aches and everything.. it sucked!

Friday, we had another kind of zone conference thing. Then we went to dinner.

Saturday.. We met with ----- again. Satan is hitting him hardcore. He said he wanted to hold off on his baptism. We talked to him about the gospel and what the Holy Ghost does for us. By the end of our lesson he couldn't wait to be baptized again :) So exciting. he is going to be a great member of the church. 

Sunday... exciting news on sunday... -------  CAME TO CHURCH :) And he LOVED it!!! Everyoen was so nice to him and he is excited to become a member :) I'm so happy to have found him!  

The coolest thing about being on a mission is I'm learning to control my emotions. It's so great. I understand how to turn to the Lord now when I'm upset. I love seeing myself change. I'm still me... just a refined me. It's awesome. A mission is hard... but I'm so grateful and happy to be out here. Seriously.. I know I needed to come here. It's changing my life.

So that's the basics of this week. Love you all so much :)

-Sister Baker

HELLO EVERYONE :)

SOOOOOO...

I have 2 big things to tell you all.

1: i'm training. :) I'm nervous, but I know that I'm ready to take it on. I'm excited to meet my new girl! The end of the transfer is the 22. So after that I will be with her for 2 transfers. I'm pretty sure that I will be training in Pueblo, so that means I will be here for at least 7 and a half months... isn't that crazy? I love it here though. My ward is my family, and I'm so grateful for that.

2: I cut ALL my hair off. No joke. I have a pixie cut. And I love it :) It's different for sure. I dyed it really blonde, too. But hey, I figured i'm on a mission and now is the time to have fun with my hair cause I have no one to impress. I have got a lot of compliments on it though. I'll attach a picture of it :) I got it done for free, too. SO that's nice :)

Okay, so as for my week. We saw a lot of miracles this week, which is AWESOME :)

Monday, we didn't do much for P-day, but it was a nice relaxing day. 

Tuesday, we had zone conference. It was good. They talked a lot about having good planning sessions and being obedient.  I love zone conference, it leaves me with a new desire for the work.

Wednesday, we were able to meet with ------- :) He is SOOOOOO amazing and so prepared. I love the guy so much! We taugh him lesson 2 ( plan of salvation) and he soaked it up. He told us that he had always wanted answers to the question of why we were here and where we are going after this life.  He is so excited about the gospel. 

Thursday, we did some planning and then went and saw ------. I love that lady so much. She is really stuggling right now and we had the elders come give her a blessing.  She really loved the blessing and it just strengthened my testimony once again on priesthood power. I love the priesthood.

Friday, we had district meeting and it was great!  Then we visited some people and helped clean the church. it was great to help clean the church  and our Relief Society president was so grateful that we helped, so that felt good. Then we went to dinner and it was at the hawkins, and that's where I get my hair done. So that's when I chopped my hair off!!!!!!!! So crazy :)

Saturday, we did a lot of service in the morning painting a house, then we went to lunch at the relief society presidents house and got some relief society stuff done, so that was good. 

Sunday, was a good day :) Went to church. And we had to teach relief society. 

 Last night, I was thinking about how the week was rough and I was so tired, BUT we accomplished a lot and saw so many great things happen :)

CAN YOU BELIEVE I"M TRAINING? WOW. Wish me luck for when it happens.

I love the church so much.

President Anderson has asked us all to start a mormon.org profile. So now i'm extending the invite to all of you :) DO IT. It gets missionaries a lot of referrals and you can chat with people about the gospel and share your testimony :)

LOVE YOU ALL :)

Have a good week :)

-Sister Baker

With companion, Sis. Brady

Pixie cut!

Lovin' the mission!

Hello familia :)

How are you all?

This week has been crazy. A lot has gone on! It's so crazy how fast weeks are over on a mission and then you can't even remember what happened in the week. haha. Wow. I can't believe I've been out for 4 months on Saturday. Can you believe that?! I'm almost a fourth done with my mission..... Crazy.

So Monday, we went to Garden of the Gods. It was fun! It's like zions national park. It's super pretty. We had a whole slew of us go up. We ended up only being able to walk around for like a half hour because we had to go pick Mack up and she was pretty far out of the way. Even though we weren't there long, it was a fun P day. :) It's fun to get out of Pueblo for a bit. Hahah.

Tuesday, I got surgery on my toes ): You know how I have always had ingrown toenails? Well, they got bad out here. My Bishop is a podiatrist or whatever and so he did the "surgery" for free. So nice of him. It was the most painful thing I have ever gone through. They had to put 2 needles each in my toes because the first needles didn't numb it enough. The needle felt like it was going all the way through my toe and I could feel the fluids going through my toe. My big toes were the size of a fist. So gross. Then he cut out both sides on each big toe. One side, the nail had grown like 1/4 an inch into the skin. SO NASTY. I've been in pain all week and been having to wear sandals. My toes got infected and I've been on medication. They seem to be getting better now. Hopefully they heal in the next few days. It was a rough surgery but I think once they heal it will be great!

Also on Tuesday, we had interviews. It was good to talk to President. He gave me soem great advice on how to make the transfer better. I cried to him a lot, because I've been struggling, but things this week were actually A LOT better.

Wednesday, we did lots of planning, some service, and then taught a less active sister and her boyfriend who isn't a member. The lesson was SUPER spiritual, but I failed on truly commiting him to baptism. There was a lot of people at the lesson, and for some reason it felt kind of uncomfortable asking him to be baptized.  We did a fast yesterday for his heart to be softened. Hopefully we can teach him again, and recommit him. I love teaching about the restoration. It's so amazing.

Thursday, we did some service for someone else in the ward. We did lots of painting. My toes were hurting a ton, and that is when I found out they were infected and had to go back to the doctors. So it wasn't that eventful of a day. We then went to Amandas and we watched the video, prophet of the restoration. That video is so amazing. Amanda really liked it! Her brothers girlfriend, who isn't a member, sat in. Hopefully she felt the spirit and will have a desire to learn.

Friday, we had district meeting. It was soooo good. I have my district leader the chapter that you gave me dad, the bold and testifying missionary. What book is that from? .. Anyways, the whole meeting was on how to be better testifying missionaries. He let me talk about the chapter since I was the one who gave it to him. It was awesome! My district leader, Elder Ellsworth says to thank you dad for the chapter, because he loves it so much! He copied it and everyone in our district got a copy and was challenged to read it to become better missionaries. Sister Brady and I were struggling this week finding people, but after the district meeting on being more bold, Sis Brady and I found 5 new investigators. 3 on friday and 2 on saturday! Amazing!! We have been taking a different approach when meeting people, and it's working. I love getting excited to go out and tract. That's what it's all about! I'm so excited to be a bold and testifying missionary this week and fulfill my purpose! Then on  

Friday night we went to the Hawkins for dinner. It was so fun. They have friday night pizza night and their WHOLE family comes. We ate, had smores, and played some games. It was fun to feel part of a family. We played a game with them and Sis Brady and I schooled everyone :)

Saturday, we attended a baptism and I gave the missionary moment again. I felt the spirit so strong during it. What was cool was, the girl who was getting baptized(her name is amber) she had heard me give the missionary moment before and she asked me specifically to do it because she said last time I was just a light when I gave it and she felt the spirit so strong. It was awesome to know I affected someone like that. There was a lot of non member at the baptism and it was cool to see so many of them pay attention to what I had to say and the spirit that comes with testifying of Joseph Smith. Man, I love being a missionary. It's so great to see myself grow!!!!

Sunday, we didn't do much. I rested for a bit cause I've been so tired walking around all week, and my feet have been killing me. We taught a couple lessons and that was about it. A former investigator that I told you about, he came to church yesterday!! SO cool. Hopefully he keeps coming.

Sis Brady adn I have been getting along a lot better this week.  I think we are really learning from each other. 

Love you ALL :) Hope your week went well! :)

-Sister Bake

Hi family! How are you? :)

Sooooo....... This week has been so hard. ): I'm trying to stay positive, but I just want to break down every two seconds. It has been super rough.

I got a new district leader, and he is so awesome. He has been in my district my whole mission thus far, and has become one of my best friends. He gave me a blessing on Thursday because I couldn't stop crying becasue of how hard this change has been on me. The blessing was truly amazing. I was given so much strength and courage from it. In the blessing he told me to study the scriptures tirelessly. I've been trying to do so, and been trying to take a lot from my studies. SOmething I've been sharing in homes lately is 3Nephi 17. It talks about Jesus Christ healing the multitude. In the verses it states that He WILL heal us, not might heal us. It talks about how the multitudes faith is sufficient and so he can heal them. I love that the multitude just needed faith and in return Christ promised he WOULD heal them, and not just some of them, all of them. Then a couple verses later it says how the mulititude is crying. I thought to myself that when we act upon our faith, Christ heals us, and in return we become more Christlike. The multitude now has compassion and comfort and so many things that each one of us needs to have. It was a great chapter. It taught me about the relationship I not only need to have with my Father but with my Savior, too. I love the scriptures.

It was cool to see how my blessing has really given me a lot more courage. 2 more sisters are coming into the mission next transfer and only 4 of us could train. So, maybe I'll train in pueblo. In my blessing it stated that these next 6 weeks will be the happiest 6 weeks ever according to my faith and that times are hard but they are unlocking potential that previously couldn't be accessed. What a great blessing. I keep trying to look at the positives, but it's hard. It's a big change from me and Mack who had SOOOO much fun together. We worked so well together. I miss her.

Today, we are going up to Springs to Garden of the Gods. Amanda, my convert is going with us and so are some elders and we are meeting up with Mack and S. folwell. SHould be fun.

Transfers meeting was fun, got to see a lot of missionaries that I already love so much!! It was hard to say goodbye to Mack. I just cried and cried. She was exaclty who I needed to be with and she taught me so much. I pray I can learn from S. Brady as well.

Not much happened this week considering all the changes and such. Friday though, we went to the Hawkins for Pizza friday and it was so fun! They have a big family and their home feels like home. They have so much love in the home and they remind me of all of you, so it's good to go there every once in awhile to hang out. Also, I had a cool experience firday. We got a referral and when we stopped by she wasn't home. I felt we should tract the street. We did a couple houses and I just felt like we needed to find someone of the street. The last house we knocked was a girl named Jessica. She was so cute and we just talked for a moment and she accepted to be baptized. We had an appointment with her yesterday and she wasn't home, which was a bummer. But I know that whatever the reason, she was the person we needed to talk to. I love experiences like that.

Saturday, we did service at this lady's house.  Then we were able to see a inactive family. They haven't been out in years, but they let us in and we talked with them for awhile. They said we could keep coming back. They have 4 kids I think that could be baptized. I think this might be the time to reactivate them and get their kids to become members. It woudl be awesome to see that happen!! I felt accomplished after being allowed in their home and welcomed to come back haha. yesterday was a rough day. We had church and then not much else to do.

That's my week. I hope this one is better. I love you all so much. I cried with all the letters this week that you guys sent because I'm just struggling and I love getting to hear from you. .

Hope you havea good week. Miss you!!!

-Sister Baker