June 24, 2012

How are you all doing? I hope so great :) My week was pretty good. This week I have really gained a renewed desire for the work. It's been amazing.

 

So we have been doing service quite a bit for this lady, and she is not a member. She is an older lady, and the first time we did service for her, she was pretty stand off-ish. She didn't seem appreciative at all that we were helping her. But we have continued to do service for her, and now we have built a relationship with her :) We love going over to her house and she is so appreciative of all we do now. She has become our friend and she is even opening up about her beliefs. The last two times we went over, we were able to share a thought with her and say a prayer as well. She is coming along. In most of my other areas, all the service opportunites came just from members. It's been such a testimony builder to me to see how Lynn is opening up just from us serving her and not pushing anything on her. We are building a friendship with her and now she is trusting us. It makes me just want to go and serve everyone!!!!  Because it truly opens doors. I can't remember if I mentioned this, but the Denver North mission is piloting a program for the church, along with just one another mission. They are becoming a part of justserve.org and it's all about service in the community. So going into the new mission will be fun and full of service! I am excited.

 

We met with -------- this week, and he is doing so good. There was a baptism on Friday night and we called him and asked if he would like to attend. He agreed to come and meet with us beforehand. We hadn't seen him in awhile so we were hesitant about how the meeting would go. But it went great. We talked about baptism because he had never attended a baptism for our church before and he told us that he had been thinking a lot about his own baptism and that he knows it is the thing to do! He is amazing. His dream is to be baptized in Peru where he was introduced to the church and where his family is. We told him that we had been praying a lot about when he could be baptized and we knew he could be baptized on July 7th. We invited him to take the question of when he should be baptized to the baptismal service. During the service he was really paying attention. Afterwards he told us how great it was. He said that after seeing the person baptized with so many family members around he too wanted to be baptized in Peru with his family around. When he said these words, I felt peace and knew that it would be good for his family to see his baptism for they are not members. We are continuing to teach him and the first week of August he has a flight to Peru to be baptized there :) SO that is exciting.

 

On Wednesday this week, we had a specialized training. It was on family history and obedience. It was so good. I felt the spirit so strong. I also had a good interview with President Anderson.. since I won't be seeing him again till a mission reunion or something. I was able to meet my new mission president and I voiced to him that I wanted to train my last two transfers. President Anderson also told him that he would like me to train again as well..so hopefully that happens. I'm excited about my new Mission President and Wife.. they are AWESOME! It's what I need. I need a new boost.. and a new mission.. 

 

Then this week we went on exchanges. I got to go with Sister Kartchner.. my like most favorite companion..and it was JUST what I needed. She goes home in a transfer and we both have been struggling with similar things. We set goals and decided how we can finish strong. It's truly what gave me the desire to be a more motivated missionary. I love that girl. While together, we said prayers for each other and it was amazing. I'm just excited to be here.. and to see the work go forward in this rough area.

 

This week we taught a lesson on prayer and it was awesome. We taught about how the atonement was a prayer.. and what that signifies. I love prayer. I have such a testimony of it.

 

That is my week :) LOVE YOU ALL

 

-SIster Baker

June 3,2013

Hello Everyone :)

SOOOOOO... I'm getting transferred to Parker... I'm not sure.. but I think I might be going to a new mission? But I don't know. There is a part of Parker that is going to now be in the Denver South mission... but I don't know where the boundries are and for sure where I will be. Parker is a rich area from what I know. I guess it's pretty hard to work there. But I'm so excited. Sister Iva is my companion.. she is from Samoa. I love her! She is way cool. We can't open our transfer call paper that says what exactly is happening because it doesn't work on the computer I am on.. So that is all I know. But we are flushing the area together! SO CRAZY :) I'm super excited. I love Salida.. but I need a change in my life for sure. I'm way sad that Sister Hansen won't be my companion anymore.. but that's what missions are all about.. getting new areas and new companions.

This week went pretty good though. Right now we are in Alamosa. There was a baptism down here last night and lots of missionaries went. Then we stayed the night at the Sisters and the zone is having a BBQ for Pday. Should be fun :)

So, our new ward mission leader is amazing. He is really doing great at fellow shipping. ------is still planning on being baptized on Sunday. Too bad I won't be here.. but I think the baptism will surely happen and him and his dad will work together to become clean for life :) I'm so happy with the success that has been had in Salida.

Yesterday in church, there were so many less actives that came and women who stay at the nursing home. It was so fun to see so many people at church my last week there. While sitting in Sacrament, I felt prompted to bear my testimony. I wasn't really sad before bearing my testimony about leaving (I found out I was getting transferred Thursday), but when I got up and looked at the Branch I had to fight back tears. I really love Salida. It's been rough.. as every area has been.. but I truly love so many people there. Sister Cole got up and bore her testimony and talked about me and Sister Hansen as she just cried. It was so nice. So many people that I wasn't even that close with in the Branch pulled me aside and told me what a blessing I have been and how much they will miss me. One member told me that I am a special missionary. So nice. I felt so loved yesterday and just heart broken about leaving. But I know my time is up and that a new area needs me :)

Anyways, that is about it for the week. I feel all frazzled right now because I'm going to a new mission I think and it's just CRAZY :)

But I am just so glad that I am a missionary. I love being here. I know the church is true :)

LOVE YOU ALL

-Sister Baker

so it's confirmed.. I'm going to a new mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 8

My week was really good! It seems like a blur though. It flew by. The days are all blending together and time is going too fast. AHH. Hahha

Sister Hansen and I are starting to go to all the YW activites because there is only one active YW and she is a convert. So we went to the activity this week and it was fun to hang out with the YW girl. She is hilarious.

So on Friday night, Sister Hansen and I were planning for Saturday. We had nothing scheduled in except for conference and dinner. I had the impression that we should do a fast to find people to teach and to also receive the answers we are seeking for from conference. Sister Hansen thought it was a great idea. We said a prayer and felt that we should fast to find 3 new people ready for baptismal dates. We also asked to receive answers to prayers from the prophets. After the Sat morning session, we didn't take a lunch break.. we just tracted for those 2 hours. Then after the Sat afternoon session, we went tracting for another 2 and a half hours before dinner. We taught SOOOOO many lessons. Found 2 new investigators. Invited like 4 people to be baptized. And just felt so good. We didn't find 3 people wiht a date like we wanted.. but as I was pondering whether my faith was strong enough.. I got to thinking about my will vs. the Lord's will. Just because we wanted to see that, doesn't mean the Lord had it in store for us that day. We did see so many miracles and I know that we were blessed for our fast. I received all the answers I wanted from conference and learned an important lesson about the Lord's will. Needless to say, we were exhausted that evening when we went in. It had been a long, good day. We worked our butts off. We met a lady while tracting who I really feel will be baptized. Her name is Beverley and she is awesome. She is about 70.. and when she opened the door she told us that she is searching for a church and that she is really going through a lot of changes in her life. She just sold her business, her husband passed away and she doesn't like the teachings of her church. We taught her the story of the restoration and the spirit was so strong. We invited her to be baptized but she said she couldn't commit right now. She told us that it's so interesting that we showed up because her best friend has been saying he wants to attend the LDS church. I told her that it is not by chance that we knocked her door, but that the Lord wants her to hear our message. 

Yesterday was good. I just love conference. And Elder Holland is the MAN! I love him. He is such a power house. I loved his talk.

When I was young.. conference seemed to take forever to be over. Now... It goes by too fast. I want more! hahah. I love conference and it was much needed. It was so uplifting to hear the great words of the modern day prophets. I feel refreshed and ready to do the work. :) I love being a missionary.

Saturday just made me so happy to be a missionary. IT made me not want to waste any of the time I have left here. There is a great work to be done in Salida and I want to see it accomplished.

Other than that, not much is new. Sister Hansen and I are getting along a lot better. She is funny. She is so innocent.  SHe has opened up a lot and we have good times together. I'm glad I'm training her :)

I love this gospel.

2 Nephi 2: 5-6. I read these and thought of the promised land as being the Celestial Kingdom. We can't obtain it wihtout the hand of the Lord, His atonement. :)

LOVE YOU ALL :)

-Sister Baker

March 18, 2013

Hi everyone :)

I'm doing pretty good myself here. Salida is crazy! It's hippie-ville haha and I LOVE IT. Like, it's unreal how hippie this town is. But everyone here is super friendly.

My new girls name is SIster Hansen. She is 19! Super crazy. She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah.  Yesterday we were both sick.. I think the elevation and weather change is killing us. She has a great testimony and talks a ton for being a new missionary. 

We live in an apt. It's pretty nice, but freezing!!! Like we woke up and our place was 50 degrees even though I had it set to 70. So we need to figure that out haha.

Salida is super small with tons of antique stores and little downtown shops. The branch is crazy haha the average age in the branch is 60.. and there are only 3 active youth. It's weird hah.  But I already love it here. :)

I'm kind of struggling. Opening a new area has been rough. But the branch has been really nice to us! We are super far away from everyone, too, which is hard. THe closest elders to us are about an hour away. Our district meeetings are an hour and 15 minutes away haha. It's crazy! So I just feel kind of lost right now, but I know in due time it will all get better! I know I am supposed to be here, so that is comforting. We also have a senior couple here with us, they are Elder and SIster Chandler.. and they are great! They have helped me not feel so alone.

As for the ------'s baptism.. IT was wonderful :)  When they got baptized, we walked behind the doors with them to put their hair up and stuff before they went into the water, so we got to be watching from the side when they got baptized. -------- went first and when she came out of the water, her and her dad embraced and she started to cry. The spirit was so strong! Then she came and stood by us as -------- went down to the font. When she came out of the water, same thing, her dad and her embraced and she began to cry. It was so wonderful. It was amazing to see it finally happen.  I know that our fast. It was great.  I am so happy I got to witness them finally be baptized. What a great way to leave the area.

I miss Sister Kartchner a lot! We got along so well, it's sad that it only lasted for 5 weeks!

I also got to see Toi which was fun! I love her! It was good to see some people from Pueblo that I love so much. We have a meeting in Pueblo tomorrow and the ------s are coming to see me in town! I'm so excited! They have been baptized for almost a year! It's crazy!!! They can get sealed in May! LOVE IT!

So, that is all the updates. I can't believe how fast my mission is flying by. It makes me want to cry!! I hit my year mark on the 28th. Unreal. What a blessing it has been to serve.

Also, I was reading the other day in Ether about the Brother of Jared. I love that he asks the Lord how to get light and how to breathe. The Lord answers how to breathe in the barges. So, then the Brother of Jared takes the question of how to get light a second time to Lord and the Lord asks him what he thinks he should do. I was thinking about my mission and how I got an answer that I needed to be out here, and now the Lord puts a lot of faith in me to know what to do! I was thinking about how important prayer is and that when we really pray, that is when we build that relationship with Heavenly Father. Then when we follow the revelation He gives us, He puts more faith in us. I just love the scriptures. I am just about done reading the Book of Mormon a second time through out here. I'm learning so much from it.

I LOVE YOU ALL :)

there are signs like this all over town

March 11, 2013

Hi everyone :)

I'm doing so good right now :)

I"M GOING TO SALIDA :) I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!! It just feels right, ya know? Sister K is staying here in both wards and training two new girls. I will go to Salida and have one new girl. We are opening up the area, too. No missionaries were there this last transfer, so should be exciting. Training, flushing, and opening the area. Too crazy! It is kind of stressful, but pretty exciting. We looked up pictures of it and it looks so pretty. Looks like my kind of town. I hear it's kind of a hippie-ville. Can't wait. :) Hahaha. Salida has been requesting sisters for awhile now so I know the branch is really excited for us to come. I pray my new girl is great and that we find success there.

-----'s baptism was AMAZING. So amazing. SO MANY PEOPLE CAME. We have a huge relief society room and it was FULL. When he was baptized the spirit was so dang strong. After, while he was changing, I got to share the first lesson with everyone in the room. I was crying the whole time. I was just so overcome with the spirit. It was such a great moment for me to talk at his baptism.  He told his conversion story and the whole room was just silent. The spirit was so strong. Then, a member in the ward got up and started to cry as he presented the LDS artwork of "fishers of men." The ward pitched in to get it for him. The member read from the talk by Elder Holland called "the first great commandment".. He told ------ that he was now a disciple. It was truly amazing. The spirit was so strong.

The best part of the whole baptism, was seeing how happy he was. He looked different. He looked happy. I asked him if he was happy afterwards, he smiled, and said he was so happy.

I just can't get over how much the Lord is truly blessing me. We are seeing so much less active work done, investigators baptized, the ward becoming more unified, etc. It's just so great.

I have such a testimony of this gospel. I have a testimony of the power of prayer. I've truly come to understand that Heavenly Father is my Father. I know Jesus Christ died so that each one of us could live again. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that obedience is so important in this work. I love that each one of us have different personalities. Through our different personalities we can change peoples lives. What a blessing.

I love this gospel.

LOVE YOU ALL :)
MISS YOU, TOO.

-Sister Baker :)

Feb 11, 2013

So, this week was SOOOOOOO good. Oh My Gosh. Seriously. So good. Dangit, I forgot my planner, so lets hope I can remember everything haha.

Monday, as you know was pday and I found out I would be staying and getting a new comp. Tuesday, we spent saying goodbye to a lot of people and then Sister T packed up. Wednesday, we woke up, packed up the car, and went to transfer meeting. 21 new missionaries came to our mission, with 7 of them being sisters. AMAZING. The meeting was really long due to the amount of missionaries, but it was fun to see so many missionaries that I have served around. Then after the meeting, Sister Kartchner and I left and went back to our place.

Sister K is from Maryland. Well, she grew up in Utah, and moved to the East when she was 14. She has been out 1 transfer longer than me, so she is about to hit her year mark. She is seriously like my favorite companion thus far, and we have only been together for not even a week. I LOVE HER! We are so much alike, yet so different that it just works. She is so cool, and such a good missionary. She has a strong desire to be obedient and to work hard, just like I do, so we compliment each other well! Wednesday night I took her to meet the Arnolds because they are my favorite family and then we had correlation meeting so she got to meet the ward mission leader in Gleneagle ward. Wednesday night we stayed up talking for a little bit about how we both have felt that we were going to serve with each other since we met earlier in our missions. We know that we will only be together for this transfer because we are both training this upcoming transfer from what president has told us and so we talked about the work we have to do here. We both feel like so many miracles are on there way to us. We are excited to see the work move forward. Even Brother Sherwood, the member we live with, said that we are the dream companionship and that so much work will be done!

Thursday, we met with the ------. They are getting baptized March 2 at 630. I can't wait :) They are the cutest. Sister K already loves them! So it's just great! Then we had a lesson with ---- that night. AND OUR LESSON WENT SO WELL!  We watched the restoration with him, and talked about how before Joseph Smith prayed he experienced opposition.  I also talked about obedience. And that's what this is really about(thanks mom;)) So overall, great lesson.  The Lord is truly working through us.

We also went to the soup kitchen Thursday and it was so much fun! It was crazy... we got hit on a lot.. but it was fun! 

Friday was zone meeting and my new zone is awesome. We now have 6 sisters in my zone!!! How cool :) And my new zl's are SO cool. I'm just so excited about this transfer. After, Sister K and I called Sister Anderson, Presidents wife. And we went and saw her. She showed us all the new sisters, and told us how 7 are coming this next transfer and that she thinks a couple of the sisters who are available to train want train. We only have 8 sisters right now that could train. So she said some sisters who train will maybe train 2 people at once!!!! OH my gosh. Scary hahah.

Saturday we got up and a member had us over for breakffast.. then we went to the ------ and helped sister ------- out with the kids because she is pregnant and feeling sick! Then we had our sister missionary class which went so well!

The work is already moving forward with Sister K and I. And... I'm feeling so MUCH better. I feel like I have a sinus cold right now.. but that's nothing. I don't know what Sister T and I had to learn from each other from me being sick.. But I do know that things are getting better and I'm so excited about it. I feel good, I love the gospel, and I'm just happy. :)

Church yesterday was great! We were asked to share our testimonies in sacrament so that was fun to do!

OH man.... you guys have to watch this video on youtube. It's olympus highschool in utah... 80 kids have recieved mission calls. It's so touching. WATCH IT :)

Well, that is the updates.

I love you all :)

-Sister Baker

Dec 3 2012

Hello family :)

How are you all? I hope great! Sounds like everyones week was good.

So this week was pretty good! We did a lot of service and I felt like I had a really successful week. I have been exhausted all week... So I must be doing something right, right? hahah.

So get this........ ----- SAID HE WOULD BE BAPTIZED. How cool is that?!! He has been learning for like 4 months now and his wife, like I said, is a member. He hasn't wanted to commit to anything. But Thursday, we went and taught him. We originally planned to teach Plan of Salvation. BUT.. We changed it halfway through the day and decided we should talk on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been praying really hard to know how to help him because I felt like I got transferred here to help him. Well, I had left him a talk last week to read.. The one by Elder Holland on the Book of Mormon and he told me that he loved the talk and gave me kudos for giving it to him. He said he wished the Sisters would of shown him the talk sooner. He said he almost cried because he felt the spirit so strong. Then we told him that we wanted to go over the pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we opened it up, he said, "can we just go over one principle in this pamphlet? I want to talk about BAPTISM" WOOOOT! We were so happy. We started to talk about it and then he asked why his infant baptism didn't count. We then read Moroni 8 with him and he loved it. He said it made sense. Then he asked what all he needed to do to be baptized!!!! We told him we had like 3 more commandments to teach and that was all he needed before baptism. He said to teach him the rest and he would be baptized. He said he can't see himself going any other path now. I just sat there smiling. He asked me why I was smiling so big and I just proceeded to tell him how happy I am for him! Gosh, the spirit was so strong. Best thing ever knowing that you were supposed to teach someone and that they are going to get baptized. AWESOME! I love it. So we are excited for him. He should be baptized in a couple of weeks! :)

Then, a member in Northgate ward  referred a lady to us. She is about 70 and recently lost 3 important people to her. We taught her on Thursday as well and we taught the Plan of Salvation. She really enjoyed it and said she loved the part about the Spirit World. I told her that her family is hearing the same thing that we were teaching her right then. She liked the thought of that. :) So hopefully we see success with her.

This weekend we had the Creche activity at the church. There were hundreds of nativities set up and they also set up a live nativity outside of the church. Multiple singing groups came and performed and it was just awesome. I wish our stake did this activity. Almost everyone I met that came were not members. Fri and Sat night we were there from 5-9. We met a lot of people and got to enjoy the holiday spirit and show people around. The live nativity was amazing. Live animals and all. Then a slideshow after the performance. It was put together so well. While tracting the last couple of weeks we passed out a lot of flyers for it. We met a guy who went to New Life and wasn't interested but took a flyer. Well.. he totally showed up with his wife and even brought canned goods and stayed for awhile. We got to sit with him during the live nativity and I just pray they felt the spirit and come back. it was cool to see so many people from all over attend. 

This week we also set up the Christmas tree at the mission home with some other sisters. It was really fun to decorate a tree!

We also went to the cannery this week with our bishops wife and she brought 7 non-members!!!! It was so fun! Some of the people who went to the cannery also came to the Creche. Success! We got to talk a little about the church to some of them! The cannery was fun.. made me want to do food storage haha.

So that was pretty much the week! :)

Also, yesterday at church, we got to sit through two fast and testimony meetings which was awesome. First ward we went to they sang silent night and in the second ward I felt very prompted to bare my testimony on the song. When I went up I talked about how I love that the lyrics in the song say, "Silent Night, holy night, all is calm all is bright." I got to thinking about the glorious moment when the Savior was born and the true calmness that must of been there. At the Creche, watching it live... it was so peaceful and calm. Then I talked about being on my mission and how my relationship with the Savior has grown and it is making my life calm and bright. I testified that allowing the Savior in truly allows us to feel the beauty of who he is and the comfort he brings. I hope I helped somone because my heart was pounding like crazy hahah.

The Christmas Devotional was so good. I loved Pres. Uchtdorfs talk. It was great!

Anywho, that was my week.

Pretty sure we have somewhere for Christmas and Christmas Eve!

LOVE YOU ALL :)

MISS YOU ALL :)

Have a good week. Thanks for the letters.

-Sister Bake