Monday, January 26, 2015

Hola familia,  This week was a great one!  And it ended with the baptism of Alexis!  It was great!  He was a Cornelio, or,  someone who just accepts everything and doesn't really have any problems and they get baptized.  His baptism was on Saturday.  It was kind of irreverent during the talks and everything on baptism but when I took the first step into the water, it was like the spirit just punched me.  It was so strong and I knew that everything we were doing was right.  And that Alexis is a child of our Heavenly Father.  The spirit was really strong.  Afterward, he is really shy, but he went to bear his testimony and got shy and I had to go up and help him.  But it was such a good experience.  Oh, and the water in the baptismal font was green.  You could see to the bottom but it was green. 

  

Also, we found this couple that is like 28 and 25 years old and have a little girl that is 3.  We have always talked with them but this was the first time we entered into their house.  The thing I remember most from the lesson was the word WOW.  They kept saying WOW the whole time, with every single thing we read.  It was such a powerful lesson, we just talked about the family, just that and it was powerful and they loved it.  We really think that they are going to progress.  It all depends on the Dad in the family, but, he read the Book of Mormon and he said that he thinks that Joseph smith did a good thing and he likes everything he has seen.  So this week we are going to work really hard with them.  

Another thing, Elder Carlos A. Godoy came and talked to us this week.  To our whole mission.  From the seventy.  He is in the area presidency in Perú.  And he is from Brasil.  His wife and he came and talked to us and it was powerful.  Seriously when he walked in the room you could feel it.  It is incredible how close these men are to the spirit.   He talked to us about why we are here in the mission and what our purpose is and the importance of what we are doing.  He spoke in Spanish and his wife spoke in Portuñol haha.  

Love you all.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Hello family sounds like you all had a good week.  It is nice that you got to go up to grandparents house for grandpa's birthday.  Save some cake for me please.  I am going to start out this email by saying, I. AM. FRIED.  I got absolutely roasted today.  We went and did the bikes again by the beach and mom, the tops of my knees look like yours after a day watching softball for you.  I can feel the heat coming off of my body.  

This week we have a baptism!  The twelve year old is going to get baptized.  We moved his date up a week.  He is going to all the activities and everything and church and he likes it all so it is great!  He is really shy and really little but he is awesome.  I am excited for him.  Also, last night we placed a baptismal date with a senior couple.  They have 88 and 83 years.  When we were teaching them I instantly just started to love them.  Because, I thought of the grandparents that I have and how much I love them and how much I would want someone else to treat them with love.  They are old and fragile but they accepted a baptismal date for the 14 of Febrero so hopefully they will be able to come to church and listen to us.  They had a son that died because of alcohol so they liked the fact that we believe families can be together forever.  That is a major thing that I think we take for granted sometimes.  Literally we have the priesthood power in our church to seal families together on earth and in the life that comes.  This isn't all we have, we have a life after this that we can live with our families.  

We originally went to this house to contact their daughter because she said that she wanted the missionaries to come teach her.  She wasn't home but we taught the parents.  Her boyfriend is a member so hopefully we can get her to progress and listen because that would be a big help for her parents.  

What else what else....  Oh, my companion and I didn't have a change so we are still here working hard.  I am glad that he didn't have a change.  One change is so short to do all this work with a companion.  The people grow to love the missionaries that are in the area.  So I am glad that he got to stay.  Also, it is very weird, Elder Apaza finished his mission!  It is crazy, my trainer is gone and in his house.  He called me the night before he was going to leave.  I will miss him, he taught me so many good things and most importantly how to work hard and be a good missionary.  

This week we have President Godoy from the 70 coming to talk to us.  The mission will be divided in two and my group is going to go on Thursday.  I am so excited.  These men are literally men of God and the spirit is so strong with them.  It will be good for us and we will learn so much.  

That is about all that I have for this week.  Can't think of any more things to exciting to report.  But I hope that you all have a wonderful week!!  Choose the right.  I love you all.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Hello wonderful family!!  How is everyone doing?   No I did not get a new comp.  Cambios (transfers) are mañana and we find out who goes and who stays tonight so we will see.  I think he  will probably stay one change more but who knows?  He has three changes here so he might go.  

From this week, hmmm what can I say?  Ohhh so this past week I have been praying and praying that we could find a new person to teach.  Someone that is ready.  And two Sundays ago, the 4th, we got a reference.  This kid is 12 years old and his sister is a member.  His mom isn't but she wants him to be baptized.  So we taught him the first time and he didn't really have a knowledge of anything.  But he learned some things pretty quick.  He is kind of shy but is breaking out of his shell with us.  Anyway, he likes the church and he had gone to church before but now he is really learning things!  He has a baptismal date for the 31st of January!  He is awesome, he is 12 but he looks like he should be in primary haha.  

Then we were walking in the street another day and this guy contacted us.  He said hi to us and then we contacted him and when he was little he remembers that the missionaries were in his house but he never listened because he was really little.  He basically invited us to come to his house and teach him.  We went to his house yesterday but he wasn't there.  We are going to be passing by this week and hopefully we can make progress with him.  Also, he was with a girl and a kid so I hope he is married!  He looks like he is about 25-ish.  We will see with him!  Let's hope he will listen.  

Anyway, that is the most exciting things from this week.  We almost got robbed again. too.  Sorry mom, but we didn't so you don't have to worry.  This is a story to spice up this e-mail a little.  My companion was talking on the phone in the street (which you shouldn't do) because we were trying to contact a reference.  Then three guys came up and I didn't have anything valuable on me so I was just thinking, "our cell phone, again, seriously?"  Then my companion just bolted off sideways in a little speed walk and the guys saw that there were people around so they said, "we were lying we were lying, we don't rob!"  Uh huh, suuuure.  But ya, that is that.  And we are good and nothing happened.  

Another exciting thing, I now have weights in my room so that is cool.  Elder Piña is leaving and I bought his from him haha, for 60 soles.  Here just a pair of weights is like 90 soles and I got a pair of weights and a bar so it was a good deal.  Love you all!!  Have a wonderful week.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year for everyone!!  I hope that you all had a good week, sounds like a crazy week!!  This week here was crazy too.    The work was kind of slow here just for the holidays still and a bunch of people left town but they are all coming back now so hopefully it will start to pick up again.  

I will say this about New Years Eve.  When it hit 12 o' clock and became the new year, holy cow.  I wish I could send you all the video.  The amount of fireworks there were and things burning in the street, it was unreal.  Everyone here has fireworks, and it isn't like the fireworks that we have in the street and that, no, everyone has huge aerial fireworks that they just launch.  They were literally all around us in every direction for miles and miles.  I really want you all to be able to see the video, it is crazy.  But that was our New Years.  It was the same rule as Christmas with how late we could be out.  OH, and here, the people make all these human sized dolls and burn them in the street, and they just burn a bunch of their old stuff.  So it is just like one big fire here on new years. 

Then new years day I wil say this line.....  DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN??  No, it didn't snow here in Perù it is still very very hot and getting a lot hotter.  But as a zone we had permission to watch FROZEN on New Years day.  We watched it in Spanish but I was still singing along with all the songs.  And everyone was laughing, it was funny because I knew every word to all the songs still haha.  Only thing is the movie and the songs were in Spanish.  Also, on the 31st as a whole mission we got to watch the movie Meet the Mormons!  Wow, that was a powerful movie.  Is that in like all the theaters over there?  It should be?  The movie is not here.  Internet, movies, nada.  Because we tell members to search for it to watch it but they can't find it.  Maybe in time it will come.  But holy cow, that was such a good movie.  

We are already in the last week of this change.  Next week I could have a new comp.  Who knows, he has three changes here so he might have one more or he might go, we aren't sure.  All I know is that I really want to train someone.  That would be so fun I think!  So If my companion goes, I am hoping for that!  

Our church time in this ward is at 2.  From 2 to 5.  Then we have ward council after.  So I don't really like Sundays that much anymore haha.  We have two hours in the morning to teach, then we have lunch, then we go get people for church, then we have church, then we got out of ward council at 645.  So we just don't have a lot of time to teach on Sundays now.  So that is a bummer.  

In our sector we don't have anyone with a baptismal date.  We have one girl who has been an investigator for 1 year.  She comes to all the activities and comes to church every week but she doesn't have permission to get baptized.  She is 16 and doesn't have permission until she is 18.  So hopefully we can work with her mom, who loves us by the way, to have her be able to get baptized.  She says that she just wants her daughter to be stronger in the church before.  Then we have another lady that didn't want to get baptized because she sees bad examples around her in the church.  But she comes to church and has all the lesssons.  But someone told us yesterday that she wants to get baptized so we will see, hopefully yes. That is our sector right now and hopefully we will be able to find a lot of new people this week.  

I hope that you all have a wonderful week, remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures.  I love you all.  

Monday, December 29, 2014

Ok, I am going to start off with Christmas.  I forgot to tell you something.  Ok so I told you all how they shoot off the fireworks at midnight and all that.  But during all of that the sky lit up and it was seriously like almost daytime.  It was so bright.  The whole sky lit up.  Anyway, I think some electrical tower got hit by a firework or something and it exploded and there was a big flash.  I am telling you this story because it is funny.  People after were saying that it was the end of the world or that it was from aliens.  And there are all these pictures of the flash and people say that there is a figure in the flash and all this stuff but it is just funny because they think ET is here or something.  

It was so great to talk to all of you on Christmas!  It was weird, kind of like a dream.  Like this is my life here in Perù and to see all that and the snow and everything it was kind of like this is real?  Like you just get focused here in the mission field and kind of forget about your bed at home and cars and snow and all that stuff.  But it was great to talk to you all.  If you can, send me some snow because it is only getting hotter here.  At about 10 in the morning, or 930, it is already burning hot.  but hopefully I get a nice tan.  

This week teaching was kind of slow. and I am expecting the same type of thing this week.  Everyone is either out of town or they are buying gifts or they are "busy".  So we didn't get in a lot of houses this week.  And these past couple days we have been trying to make appointments with people and they all say oh ya, after the parties.  So I am thinking that it will be difficult to get in the houses.  but hopefully we can get in some.  

Yesterday though we had a great lesson.  We went in the house and one of our investigators, who is 27, was sad.  Like normally she is all happy to see us but we could tell something was wrong.  And then I remembered what mom told me at the start of my mission.  I just need to smile.  (that was back then because I couldn't speak spanish.)  Now I can speak spanish but I just started smiling like really big.  And I kept it the whole time.  And every time she would look at me she would start smiling.  Smiles are contagious.  The spirit was really strong in this lesson.  We talked about the Book of Mormon.  And when we left she was a lot happier.  You could see it in her face.  It was awesome.  

And last night I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the first time.  Afterwards I did what Moroni tells us to do.  I prayed to know if it was true.  And bam, my chest just caught fire.  I already knew that the Book of Mormon was true and that it is the word of God.  But this is part of enduring to the end.  We always need to ask and read and pray and go to church because this is what builds our testimonies.  Knowing that the Book of Mormon is true changes everything for everyone because it means that everything is true.  This gospel really is for everyone.  And I am glad that I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands for these two years to help people find the truth.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week and a happy new year!!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Hola familia!!  How is everybody doing!  First thing first, I got fried.  So I will be tan and beautiful for skype on Thursday.  Yes, skype on Chirstmas at about 3 o clock.  3 o clock my time so I believe that is about 1 o clock your time.  It will be weird talking to white people in English haha.  That was not supposed to be a rude comment but ya...  

It was a lot harder to find people in their houses this week.  They are all running around buying stuff, out of town or working more because it is Christmas time.  So hopefully this week they will all be in their houses.  

Tuesday we went to the temple with the ward.  It was awesome.  We helped in the baptistry.  Just as witnesses.  We can't do baptisms or baptize in the temple as missionaries.  It was awesome though because we brought a recent convert from this area.  It was her first time at the temple and so it was cool to see.  The spirit was so strong.  And she loved it so that was cool. Seriously the peace inside the temple is unreal.  You step inside and BAM everything from the outside world is gone.  You can relax, pray, think and it is just the best.  But ya, we went and we probably had about 20 people that went.  Not as many as the other ward but I think just about everybody went in so it was a good experience.   

Thursday we had our Christmas activity of the mission.  It was with half of the mission because our mission is too big so we had to split it in half.  But we got there and I PLAYED BASKETBALL!!  I was rusty.  I was still dropping threes but not at the highest rate haha.  It was a little rough.  I am going to put the blame on the fact that the hoops were about 9 and a half feet.  But after that we watched all these little videos.  Then we had dinner and then we had our skits.  Each zone had to perform a skit and so we did ours and it was pretty good.  I am going to try to send it and mayble Blake can translate or something.  And my voice isn't really that high, I had to talk like that for the skit so don't judge.  

Really this is the best time of the year.  Before the mission it wasn't as easy to focus on Jesus Christ during the Christmas season.  But now as a missionary I have his name on my chest every day.  I can't think of anything better to do than to be his missionary in this time.  Also it is the best time of the year because everyone comes together.  Like here, a ton of people have their displays of the birth of Jesus Christ.  Maybe not everyone has the same beliefs about him but everyone recognizes how important He is.  The first and best gift of Christmas from our Heavenly Father.  He is the reason why we celebrate Christmas and I love being a missionary and being able to testify that He lives and is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.  

I hope you all have a wonderful and Merry Christmas this Thursday.  Remember to do something for someone else in this time.  I love you all.  Talk to you on Thursday.

Monday, December 15, 2014

This week was good, we found a couple of new people that seem like they are really interested.  One lady was walking past us in the street with her aunt and her aunt comes up to us and tells us that she got baptized a month ago.  So we started talking to her niece and she was really excited and wants us to come to her house and teach her so hopefully that goes well.  We have an appointment later on in the week.  

Then this one day we were walking in the street and there were these ladies pushing a cart with a bunch of chairs and struggling so I went and asked if they needed help and they said yes so we took there cart really far for them and it was really hot.  But they have family members that are members of the church and the one lady told us that we can come back and visit her in her house.  Everytime we passed by she wasn't home but one day we found her husband at home.  And he is funny.  And he started talking to us and told us how he changed his life and how he is open to listening to us.  So that was cool.  And we play soccer every Thursday and he is going to come and play soccer with us.  So hopefully that family can progress and we can help them. 

Then one more person.  Her name is Alexandra and she is 22 and has a little baby.  She has a fecha in January to be baptized and so she came to church this week and she said that she really liked it a lot.  She was going to leave after sacrament and go home because she said that her baby has to eat because she has a schedule so she was leaving and we were kind of like noooo because to count as an asistencia you have to stay all three hours.  So I kind of looked at the relief society president and she ran over and was like I can take care of your baby!!  And bam that was that and she stayed at church and said that she really liked it a lot.  It was awesome.  And the ward is going to the temple on Tuesday and she might come with us so that would be super awesome.  

Perú has Christmas trees in their house.  Some of the people at least.  But everyone has a little display of the manger and the birth of Jesus.  Well at least all the people we visit.  But all the little cribs in the manger are empty right now.  No baby.  On Christmas eve when it turns Christmas, they all put the baby in the manger because "that is when he was born."  So that is pretty cool.  

On Christmas here I guess Santa doesn't know when you are awake.  Everyone here stays up and parties and at midnight they drink hot chocolate and eat food and everything.  I think they eat turkey for Christmas so hey, I might get my Thanksgiving turkey.  

Haha, that is my report for this week.  We have our christmas party this week with the mission.  Well, half of the mission.  We have too many people to have everyone there at one time so there are two days.  But Elder Bean and I have it the same day so we get to ball together.  I am going to dunk on somebody.  

Love you all, choose the right.

Love, Elder Baker