10.14.13

Hi all!

Our investigators are all doing really well! We have been praying mightily for them to all start coming to church, and this week we had 4 of them there! It was wonderful! Virginia even came to Sacrament Meeting before attending to a family emergency. I was pretty jazzed, but sad she was having family troubles. Rex, Malinda, and Timmy came too.

 

We learned this week that Malinda is a recovering addict. She has been sober 7 years and has really turned her life around. She was telling us yesterday that she has stopped using swear words because she could feel that crude language and the spirit do not mix. It was a pretty tender experience. I want to write a book about her amazing conversion! 

Rex has also really been softening to the spirit and loved church! When the Stake President asked if he would be back next week he said "absolutely!". I am so thrilled for each of these sweet people. I am blessed beyond belief to be serving with and among them. 

Transfers happened today and I am thrilled to say that I get to spend another transfer here! Life is great!

10.7.13

This week has been good. Kinda crazy, but lots of fun! We had a sisters conference on Thursday which was interesting, but a good time. General Conference was awesome. I loved Elder Oaks' talk, and Elder Holland's talk, and President Monson's talks. And all of the talks. Conference is like Christmas for missionaries! Our investigators are all doing well and we even had two of them join us this weekend to watch conference! So, I thought this week I might just give you a run down/update of our current investigators. I am kinda wiped and can't really remember what all we did this week, so you will have to read this instead. Love you all!

Ian- 21 year old male, VERY Christian background. Showed up at church about a month ago wanting to know more about the Mormon church and has been meeting with us ever since. Ian is pretty skeptical, but also open to feeling the spirit. He puts on a tough front, but really knows that it is all true. He struggles coming to church because his family is super anti. But he always shows up to activities and we have lessons with him regularly. We are praying for his family to soften their hearts!

Virginia- 70 year old female, sweetest woman on the planet. Was searching for God in her life and was invited to meet with us by her LDS neighbor. She is sincerely seeking the truth and LOVES church. We ate dinner with her this week and she told us she is glad to have granddaughters in her house again. She loves the Book of Mormon and is working to rebuild a relationship with her Heavenly Father through prayer. I am so excited about her enthusiasm for the gospel.

Malinda- 40 year old Female, AMAZING. She and her husband, Bob (less-active member) were hit by a truck while on their motorcycle on the highway in June. In the hospital they both received priesthood blessings and have both miraculously reached almost complete recoveries. She says that after she received the blessing in the hospital that she knew that she was truly being blessed by the power of God and she knew that she had to have that in her life. She knows that The Father has kept her alive for a reason and is doing everything she can to fulfill that purpose. She is being baptized November 18th. I cannot wait!

Rex- 75 year old male, a little crazy/hilarious. Requested a copy of the Book of Mormon from mormon.org. He started to read it, but couldn't understand the language so he ordered the Living scripture DVDs online and is going to watch those instead. We have only had two lessons so far, but both have been filled with the spirit. He has committed to be baptized on October 26 and was very pleased that he would be invited to join the church and that God would want him to be part of his true church and that he could hold the priesthood. He is a big sweetheart. 

So, those are the main/ exciting ones. I am probably forgetting someone but will include them next week. I love this work and I love these people with all that I have. I guess I love all of you hooligans too.

Love,

Sister Baker

9.30.13

Hi!

We had a pretty good week this week. We did more missionary work. Surprise! We found 4 new investigators this week which was pretty cool. One in each ward. We have really been praying to build up the area and the Lord has been blessing us for our faith and hard work. I guess not blessing us as much as those people who have been searching for the gospel. One of the people we found this week is Virginia. She is an older lady and has spent much of her life believing in God but not being able to find a church that has felt comfortable to her. She has had a very interesting life and is very interested in the Book of Mormon and the gospel. She is really nice and cute, too! She came to church yesterday and loved it! She said that everything felt good and comfortable, which is what she has been searching for. We will begin the lessons with her this week. 

We also started visiting an older man named Rex. He requested a Book of Mormon from Mormon.org and hee is pretty interested in the gospel. He is a child of God, and I know that the gospel can help him to find the lasting happiness that he has not been able to find elsewhere. One of our favorite ward missionaries, Sister Milburn came with us to visit him and we have been laughing with her for days about some of his more colorful comments about having some nice looking young ladies in his home (for some reason old men seem to really like us...). Sister Milburn always seems to come with us on our more interesting visits and keeps us entertained. She is pretty awesome. 

 Well, besides the normal day to day, Sister Ketring ended up in the ER on Wednesday night for some abdominal pains...  That was fun. She is fine now. We also made some super cute conference notebooks with a member this week. We are having lots of fun in between lots of hard work! We stopped by the house one day to grab something we had forgotten and had a package with a "call me, maybe" note from the UPS guy. That was pretty funny. We are devising a plan to teach him the gospel. 

Our cute friend, Renee recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost at church yesterday. We weren't able to do it last week because of stake conference. It was a beautiful blessing. She doesn't have many church clothes and ha no modest skirts, so Sister Ketring and I each found something we could give her so that she could be comfortable and modest now that she is a member of the church. The joy in that girl's face was radiant and contagious. For as much opposition as she has, her commitment to be righteous and follow the example of our Savior is something special. In a lot of ways she reminds me of Jessi (I miss that girl!) in her determination and dedication to the gospel at such a young age. I know I say it every week, but I love seeing people change their lives to come closer to our Heavenly Father. 

We also attended a baptism for a man I helped teach in Parma on Saturday. He is so humble and converted. This is also where we were able to see Some Peterson folk... We had lunch and the official tour of Nyssa with Grandma and Grandpa Peterson before the baptism. It was so fun! Going back to Nyssa felt a little like going home and it was super fun getting to spend the day with (almost) family! All in all it was a pretty great week! Sorry this email was a little random, but hat is kinda how our week felt. 

To end on a spiritual note, Sister Ketring and I had a really great conversation in the car this morning about the worth of souls and what it means to be a daughter of God. It is a pretty spectacular thing, to have this divine birthright. I am so grateful to know who I am, to have a foundation in Christ that cannot be shaken, and to know that I can always be better through the Atonement of my Savior. I love this work and I love this gospel. Also, I love each of you! Have a blessed week!

Love,

Sister Baker  

9.23.13

Dear Everyone,

We had another fun week here in the fabulous Weiser, Idaho. Missionary work continues to be full of fun and interesting surprises. We had a baptism this week for our cute friend, Rene. It was really sweet but also kinda crazy. There was a funeral going on at the same time, so the building was a little busy. All in all, Rene was on cloud nine and didn't even notice all of the chaos. I have never seen a 12 year old girl so happy! She really is a neat person. In other interesting news, we visited an avid doll collector this week. Her tiny apartment was FULL of life sized dolls that she herself had made along with a collection of other dolls which just happened to be hanging by the neck from her walls. I have seen things I can never un-see. 

Want to hear another interesting story? Last night on our way home we passed a group of people in the park all dressed like pioneers. We decided to stop and talk to them. They turned out to be German Baptists having a church service in the park. We talked to a few of the women who were super nice and invited us to their next meeting. Then one of the men came over (he had a huge beard) and tried to bible bash us. I just bore my testimony and said that we didn't come over to argue religion, we just wanted to see what was going on. We will probably show up to their next meeting just to see what they are all about and try to make friends with the ladies. For some reason after encounters like that I always think of awesome things I could have said. Don't know why I can never think of them in the moment. 

We have had a really good week, though. We taught 34 lessons this week and have two investigators preparing for baptism. It is my favorite thing when people have soft hearts and are prepared to hear and accept the truthfulness of this gospel! I know that it is true. I love to declare it every day. I love the peace and joy it brings to my life and the peace and joy it brings to the lives of those who accept this glad message. What good news it is!! God lives and loves us. Jesus Christ died for me and you and lives again. He is at the head of this church. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. We are led and guided by a living prophet. I am a child of a Heavenly Father who knows me. This is truth and I will never deny it. I am a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it. 

Your Sister,

Madison Baker

9.16.13

We had a zone conference on Friday with Elder and Sister Zwick of the 70. That was pretty amazing. We learned a lot about teaching and learning by the spirit as well as effective ways to teach. It was a really spiritual meeting. Sister Zwick talked about their oldest son, Scotty who is mentally and physically handicapped. She talked about his loving boldness and how we can all learn from him how to invite others to come unto Christ. I was really inspired. 

 

On Saturday we taught one of our investigators about the importance of baptism and she committed to a date. She said that after meeting with us last week she finally prayed sincerely to know if this was what was right. She said that she knows now that it is all true. She feels so strongly that this is what the Lord wants her to do and she cannot do anything else. She came to church for the first time yesterday and absolutely loved it. She is coming to FHE group tonight. We are so excited for her! She has really caught the power of the Holy Ghost. 

We are also teaching a 12 year old girl named Renee. She will be baptized on this coming Saturday. She told us this week that her family doesn't want her to get baptized, but she knows that it is right so she is going to do it. There are some pretty neat people around here! A lot of our week is spent contacting and organizing and trying to get our feet on the ground and build the trust of the members. It is pretty fun/hectic most of the time but the Lord is really blessing us here. Life is good.

Love,

Sister Baker

9.9.13

So, my new companion is Sister Ketring. We have bucketloads of fun together! That is something that I have SERIOUSLY been missing. Just being silly and laughing! I am SO grateful to have sister Ketring as my companion!

Weiser is fun. It is a super cute town and everyone is THRILLED to have sisters after the last elders who served here. Our apartment is pretty nice now that we deep cleaned it ;) We even have a dishwasher!

Don't worry. I will not partake in the Chinese food. 

My experiment with the Spanish sisters was interesting. (Side note: last week Sister Baker tagged on with the Spanish Sisters in between transfers) They had quite a bit of contention in their companionship, so I spent the few days helping them to look past their differences and find confidence in one another and in themselves. It made me happy that I could be an encouraging influence to them. I think we all need a reminder sometimes to just love people and not try to change them all the time. Heavenly Father and our Savior love unconditional and that, to me at least, leaves us no excuse to do otherwise. I am amazed at how far we can go in life when we just love people no matter what. It is a hard lesson to learn, and I am definitely still learning it. But letting go of the way I tend to be so critical has brought me so much more happiness than judging others ever has. 

The town is great! We are working with some amazing people. It took a few days to get our feet on the ground with where the elders left off, but we are picking up steam. Weiser is about twice the size of Parma (still pretty small), but way cleaner and nicer. Everyone is pretty friendly so far and the members are amazing. Church yesterday felt a little like being a celebrity. We also cover the town of Cambridge. It is about 30 miles away and is about the size of Adrian. It is further up into the mountains and is really pretty. We went up there on Saturday and met up with Sister Leatherman who was previously living in the Nyssa Stake but is now living in Cambridge. She took us around to meet some of the ward members. It was awesome!     

I am loving it here! It is definitely a challenge (I feel a little bit like the clean-up crew) but I know that the Lord is guiding us every single step of the way. This gospel is amazing!

Love,

Sister Baker

 

 

8.26.13

My next transfer is in a week from today. We find out where we are going on Saturday though. I kinda really hope I get to go somewhere new. I am starting to feel a little burnt out on this area, although we are finding and teaching new people all the time. This week has been good, mostly really busy. We taught 31 lessons this week, it was insane. I am still pooped. Last Monday and Tuesday we went on exchanges with the sisters from Caldwell which was an adventure. I was in Caldwell with a new missionary. We did some good work in the area. I helped her find 3 new investigators and we taught lots of good lessons. It was fun to be out of my area for a while. Caldwell felt like the big city compared to Parma and Nyssa. I think I am going to freak out when I am back in Phoenix.

We had a really great teaching experience on Thursday with a man named Jesse. He is 25 and has grown up around LDS kids and now lives with some LDS roommates. He has always had a positive outlook towards the church and has even read the Book of Mormon. He read it cover to cover in 5 days!! He had never met with the missionaries before, however, but has finally decided that it is time. We taught him the first lesson and he had some amazing and searching questions. He is sincerely seeking the truth and is very willing to submit to the will of the Lord. Meeting and teaching him helps me to hope that one day some of our friends from high school will one day be ready to accept the restored gospel.

We also taught a girl who was just released from prison about a week ago. At first I was a bit nervous to meet her, but as soon as I saw her, I could feel God's love for her. She has come very far and is very humble and willing to change and accept the gospel. It is amazing how some of our greatest trials bring out our greatest strengths. I know that she will dedicate her life to the Lord and serve him with all of her heart. Her humility was palpable. It was really an amazing experience.

On Saturday we had our district meeting, for which our sweet friend Viola made a delicioso traditional Mexican meal. It was amazing! Since she is pretty physically handicapped, Sister Aamodt and I went to her house Friday night and did most of the prep/cooking. We made barbacoa and re-fried frijoles! It was soooooo good. Also, I learned how to make one amazing roast (with or without the mexican flare).  Needless to say, it was a great week.

I love you and pray for you constantly!

Sister Baker