6.17.13

Hello Family!

Today is transfer day. I am staying in the Nyssa area, therefore I am officially in the Idaho Nampa mission. I am excited to be training a new sister in Nyssa. I am pretty bummed for Sister Dickey to be leaving to Boise though. It feels a little like saying goodbye to a best friend. We are spending the next few days in Boise before our new missionaries arrive so it will be fun. We visited the state capitol today and toured around downtown Boise. It is a beautiful city and I am a bit sad that I will never have a chance to serve there. 

I am so blessed to continue the work in Nyssa. The area is really thriving! Viola was baptized on Saturday and it was beautiful. Two men had to help her down into the font but when she went down into the water to be baptized her body moved more freely than I have ever seen it. She came up sobbing tears of the spirit. She bore one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. She is one of God's elect. She is a wonderful friend as well. We made tortillas with her after church yesterday. It was delicious and a blast! I am loving the work here and am so excited to continue it with a new missionary! The Lord is really blessing His children as this gathering of Israel continues. Continue to keep up the wonderful member missionary work!!

Your Sister,

Madison Baker

6.10.13

Here is the story of the week!

Over the last month or so, we have been attending the stake lds family services addiction recovery meetings. At these meetings we encountered a man named Glen who is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for 7 years. He had been previously attending regular AA meetings but was not feeling the support that he needed there. A friend introduced him to the addiction recovery program and he said that ever since the first meeting there it has felt like home for him. We invited him to take the discussions about three weeks ago and he agreed although he was somewhat hesitant. After a few lessons he attended church after which he declared he was "pleasantly impressed" and he has attended again since. In our lesson with him this past week, his change of heart was visible. We were greeted at the door by a clean shaven, humble man with a fresh hair cut and a clean shirt. It was a pretty drastic transformation from the scruffy guy we had been teaching. He shared experiences with us about prayers being answered over the previous week and spiritual experiences he had had. We extended a baptismal invitation and he readily accepted. The only road block was his chewing tobacco addiction. Good thing we met him in recovery class so we had some suggestions for him! We challenged him to stop chewing and although he knew it would be difficult, after receiving a priesthood blessing form our ward mission leader and a ward missionary, he sent all of his chew out the door with us. This was a pretty humbling moment for everyone involved. I have never had to face a situation like this before and I know that my faith was tested a bit in having to ask someone to give up their addiction right then and there. The atonement is a powerful thing. It is also pretty funny when two sister missionaries walk out of a house with about 20 cans of dip. I am daily amazed at how this gospel changes people! Miracles happen every day.

I love you and hope that life continues to be peaceful and happy! I have loved coming to know the Book of Mormon and knowing of its truth. I know that it really is the word of God and the most correct of any scripture. It is amazing to be able to say this now, as before my mission I did not have this firm testimony. I love this gospel! I also love you! Give everyone a hug for me! LOVE YOU

6.3.13

Thank you for the cake! Haha we couldn't figure out who it was from because it passed thru like 4 different members before it got to grandmas house. So that was a fun mystery! I got the package, it was really fun! I love the skirt and wore it yesterday, as well as the earrings and the necklace from marisa! It was so fun! I was so excited to see so many happy birthday emails today! 

It was a really good day yesterday. We had 5 investigators at church, one of which we have been having a bit of a hard time with but he really felt the spirit and said that a lot of his questions were answered. The best birthday present of all was Art's baptism on Saturday night. After he was baptized, he bore his testimony. His tears and accent were so thick that you could hardly understand him but the spirit spoke over it all and testified of the healing power of the atonement. He is truly a converted man. President Cannon was there as well as about half the ward. I was able to sing "Be Still My Soul" and afterwards the spirit was even stronger. Several members bore their own testimony of baptism and the atonement afterwards. It was a beautiful and life changing experience. I am feeling very humbled as I am able to teach so many wonderful people. I am so grateful to have been raised in this gospel. It is the way and Christ is the light. I love you and hope you had tons of fun at camp! Tell everyone I love them and pray for them always. 

I love you!!!

5.28.13

Hello!

It sounds like life is pretty good at the home front lately! I love hearing the reports on all of the returning and departing missionaries from you each week. Things here have been pretty rad as well. We get to go to the temple tomorrow so that will be fun. Sister Dickey and I have taken to matching for district meetings and such, it annoys the elders so it is pretty funny. Last week we went on leadership exchanges (where you trade companions for 24 hours) and then we met back for a big meeting the next day. We wore pretty much the exact same outfit but convinced everyone that it was on accident because we spent the night apart. It is the little things that entertain as missionaries...

We are teaching a new investigator named Dotty. She is 79 and has lived all over the world. She is super funny and sweet. Yesterday in our first lesson she told us that the Mormon bible is the true one because people cant change it and make different religions like with the regular Bible. We taught her that she was right but that the Book of Mormon was another testament of Christ and did not replace the Bible. She liked that because she loves the Bible too. I am really excited to keep teaching her and to also learn more about her interesting life. In other news, Brother Green, Viola, and Art all have baptisimal dates! I don't know if I told you about Art, but he has been waiting for 15 months for 1st Presidency approval to be baptized. Sister Dickey and I were filled with joy when we recieved the call from President Cannon letting us know that he is now able to be baptized. His service will be held this Saturday and I know that it will be a wonderful occasion. This work is an amazing blessing in my life. I have finally found happiness and I know that I can never let this feeling go. 

I love you all!

Sister Baker

 

5.20.13

Hi Everyone!

Things here are pretty good. We had Brother Toombs and Frankie's baptism on Saturday. It was really beautiful. There were so many  people who came from the ward to support them. I sang Lead Kindly Light as a special musical number. It wasn't too bad I guess. Frankie and Bob were both so sweet and so excited. Bob had to take his hearing aids out for his baptism so he couldn't hear the prayer. He just stood in the font and plugged his nose the whole time so he would be ready to get dunked. It was pretty cute. When he came up he looked at the little kids sitting in front of the font and asked "did that make ya smile?" Frankie was so sweet too. He came with a fresh hair cut and the biggest smile i have ever seen on anyone's face. I love watching the joy that the gospel brings to people!
In other news, Viola has a baptismal date! She will be getting baptized on June 15th. She came to the baptism on Saturday to see how everything happens and she loved it. We have been helping her plant flowers in her yard over the past few weeks. We have been having the best conversations and are really getting to know her. She is truly an amazing person and is very in tune with the spirit. I really love her! She is going to teach us how to make tortillas. I am really excited! Life here is great! I love the gospel and I love this calling. I am learning and growing everyday. Love you and I am glad that everything at home is good!!

Have a happy summer!

4.29.13

Hello All!

The work here is still going strong. We found 6 new investigators this week and are planning a baptism on May 11th for two of our investigators in Vale, OR. It is pretty exciting! One is a 14 year old boy named Frankie, he has taken all of the lessons and has been waiting for his mom's permission to be baptized (which we got last week). He is a really sweet kid and he loves learning about the gospel. I am so glad that he will finally be able to continue in his eternal progression by being baptized. 
Our other Investigator who will hopefully be baptized on that date is an older man named Bob, he is 86 and his wife is a member, she is reaching the end of her life and they want to be sealed in the temple. When we extended the invitation to be baptized on May 11th he said he would try to stop by. We know that he wants to be baptized and most likely will be but he needs to build his faith a little. He said that if God was watching out for him that He would keep the ground squirrels (some form of vermin that pray on gardens) out of his garden. So we prayed with him for that and hopefully our prayer will be answered and help him have a faith building experience. 
I am doing missionary work, eating delicious but fattening food at members and nothing but health food at home, seeing lots of farms/old people/cute houses/cows/pigs/chickens/dogs/prairie grass, talking about the gospel with investigators and anything pertaining to ridiculousness or sarcasm with my companion. She is super funny and sarcastic. It is great. We get along quite nicely. She is kind of like Jared but a girl and with less rage. Life is good out here in the country and I am starting to love it a little-lol I dont know how I will feel when I am back in civilization again... Anyways, keep me posted on your life and such! Love you mucho!!

Madison

4.22.13

Helloooooooooo!!!

Glad to hear that everything is going well at home! Everything here is great as well. Still allergic to cats, but I prayed that fewer people would have cats that we visited this week and it has been working out pretty well. lol Guess God answers even silly prayers :). 

We are teaching a lot of people and always have a lot of lessons and visits, but we only have one progressing investigator currently (please pray that more of our investigators will begin to progress). Her name is Viola, she is in her 50s and suffers from R.A. really badly. She was married to an LDS man when she was young for several years but it ended badly and she has not had anything to do with the church since. She lives around the corner from grandma and the last missionaries in the area found her. She is reading the Book of Mormon and sometimes we just read along with her. She says that the BoM answers all of the questions she has had about the Bible her whole life. She believes that it is true and thinks that she will be baptized eventually but does not want to be pressured. I know that she will be ready soon though! I love this work! 

I have started reading in the Old Testament as well as starting the Book of Mormon over for my personal study, there is so much that we can learn from the scriptures that I never realized before!! I feel like in my life I have always had times where I just need to be quiet and listen and learn and I have times where I can be bold and outspoken. I feel that right now is a time in my mission and in my life to be quiet and to learn all that I can so that I when the time for me to be bold comes I will be ready. I love teaching but most of the time I feel that I learn more form the people and lessons than they do. I guess that is just a side effect of missionary work. 

You asked about my days, so on a regular day we wake up and run and study and get ready and then go out to work. We usually have a dinner with members around 5 or 6 and then we work some more until 9 and then go home and plan for the next day and go to bed. It is pretty structured but changes every day because we are always somewhere different. We only sleep somewhere else when we are in Vale (usually only 1 or 2 nights out of the week) and we stay with a family there. They are the Romans's and they have 5 little kids and a baby  on the way. The remind me so much of our family when everyone was little and cute and crazy! We will be staying with them tonight. On p-day, we do normal studies and stuff in the morning and then we clean our apartment, get ready and drive to Ontario, OR to shop and email and play B-ball with the elders in our zone. It is pretty fun and relaxing.  I love you and send my love to everyone else too!

Your Sister, 

Madison Baker