Monday, May 23, 2016

I am probably not going to be writing for a long time next week so I just wanted to express my feelings about my mission since I will be home next week.  These have seriously been the best two years for my life.  They have been hard, I have been rejected, had doors slammed on me, been spit on, had drinks thrown on me and many other things..  But I would not change it for a thing in the world.  I have been able to follow the Saviors footsteps in this time.  I have not experienced almost any of the things He experienced but I have never felt better than in the moments that the Spirit confirmed to me that I was doing that right thing and that I was doing what the Savior would do if he himself was personally ministering to the people of Lima, Perú.  God loves these people and I do too.  I have learned that no matter what we do, God will always love us.  We are his children and he desires that we all be saved and return to his presence.   I can now say without a doubt is that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and that He loves me and paid the price for me so that I can one day return to God's presence.  I know without doubt that Joseph Smith, a young boy of 14 years saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.  They really did talk to him and called him to be a prophet of God.  I know that today we have prophets and apostles that still talk with God and receive revelation to guide us through this life that can have many challenges.  

These past two years have saved me.  They changed the course of my life and eternity forever.  Also the life of my future family.  It is so comforting knowing that families are forever.  I am grateful to have great grandparents, grandparents, parents, friends and many more people in my life that have had testimonies of the gospel.  I am also grateful that my future children will be able to have the gospel in their lives, and their children and like that a chain of members of the church throughout time and all eternity.

Bello Horizonte

Bellavista

Zarate

Santa Cruz

Jorge Chavez

5 wards but countless numbers of people that i have met that have impacted me greatly.  I feel that on my mission I have been impacted way more by the faith and testimony of these people.  I am grateful for all of my companions that taught me something new and helped me grow spiritually.  

I love you familiy and I am so grateful for you and all my friends as well.  To all the people that have helped me grow throughout my 20 almost 21 years of life.  

Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la unica iglesia verdadera sobre la faz de la tierra.  Yo se que Dios es mi Padre Celestial y que Jesucristo vino aca al mundo, sufrio, murio y gracias a el y su expiacion todos podemos ser limpios y salvos.  Jose Smith vio a Dios y a Jesucristo.  Presidente Thomas S Monson es un profeta de Dios.  Las escrituras contienen la palabra de Dios.  Se que Dios contesta oraciones y escucha atentamente a cada uno de sus hijos.  Se que el sacerdocio es un poder real.  El poder de Dios que el da a los hombres para ayudar a llevar a cabo la inmortalidad y vida eterna del hombre.  Se que los templos son las casas de Dios.  Las bendiciones del templo son reales y podemos ser sellados a nuestras familias para siempre.  Amo a Jesucristo.  Amo a Dios.  Amo ser misionero.  Amo mi mision y estoy muy agradecido por haber tenido la oportunidad de servir al Señor por 2 años.  

I love you all family!!  Thank you for all your love and support.  See ya soon!

Love, Elder Baker

Monday, May 16, 2016

This week was VERY busy.  Monday was not p day but that day a lady was coming to the mission to make suits for Elders and my comp needed a new one so he went and got one so all morning we were there doing that.  Then on Wednesday we had our normal district meeting.   On Thursday we had a conference multi zone and that took all day long.  Like we left at 8 o clock and got back at like 730 at night - but it was a great meeting.  On Friday it was p day because we had the opportunity to go to the temple!!!  It was so great.  It had been a while since I had gone and it was so nice to be able to go.  I am defnitely going to be taking advantage of having so many temples close by when I get home.  On Saturday we had a contacting activity where the whole zone went to the sector of certain Elders and contacted for two hours with them.  We found a lot of interesting people so hopefully they are there when the Elders go back and they can have some appointments with them.

Other than that this week we were just trying to find new people to teach and we knocked on A LOT of doors.  It was wild how many we knocked on.  My knuckles hurt from knocking.  Just kidding I always knock with my pen here so my pen totally broke but oh well.  One little success story was ____.  He wasn't going to come to church with us this week because he was going to go to his church but my companion had a talk on Sunday and we told him that and he was like ok.... I will go with you guys.  And while he was at church his heart was softened so much!  Some doctrine he didn't agree with before finally made sense to him.  It was a really good day to have him go to church so in these next weeks we are going to do everything possible to get him baptized.

Anyway, that is a quick letter from this week but just know that I love you all!!  Have a great week!

Monday, May 2, 2016

This week was great!!  The guy that I told you all about last week, who is in the wheelchair, is named _____.  We taught him the Restoration and he liked it a lot.  He had A LOT, and I mean a lot, of questions.  So that was definitely fun to teach.  Anyway, we quedamos for him to come to church with us and  he said that he couldn't because that is when he goes to his church.  So we talked to him a little bit more and with the help of the spirit he agreed to come to church with us on Sunday.  It was a good meeting at church because they called a new bishop that day.  So it was a spiritual meeting because there were a lot of testimonies given.  He is in a wheel chair and when we were heading back to his house to drop him off he said, "Next week, I am coming alone!"  So that was a really good experience.  We have a goal for him to get baptized in this month.

For a long time, with Elder Clark and now with Elder Pearce we  have been teaching a guy named ____.  He wants to get baptized but there are some things impeding that. His pareja and grandchildren are members.  But we thought they were all members because they all go to church.  We were talking to the grandma on Sunday and she just randomly mentioned that she wants her grandson to get baptized and that he wants to get baptized.  So I said perfect!  This Saturday he is going to get baptized then.  That will be good.  

For us this month is looking like it can be pretty good with a couple baptisms.  We have some people that need to get married so we are hoping that they can make that choice so they can be baptized.  

I love you all.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Hello family!!  I am here in Jorge Chavez still and my new companion is Elder Pearce.  He is from Herriman Utah.  It is crazy that this is my last companion!  I seriously can't believe it.  It is weird to think that I have such little time left.  But it doesn't really feel like it.  It has not sunk in.

So I will start off with a funny story.  We are in our new room and we haven't had water for these past couple of weeks.  So three days ago we got a therma put in and the next day my companion was showering and POP.  All the lights in our whole house shut off.  So they get back on later in the day.  I was showering this morning and POP.  All the lights in the house shut off again.  So basically now we have hot water but we have to shower with all the lights off and everything unplugged from now on.  But I am so glad to have hot water now.   It was soooo cold but now it is all better.  

This week it was good.  It is always a lot different having to show your companion around but normally everyone gets to know the sector pretty fast.  But We did have a really cool  moment this past week.  We decided to knock on doors in a part we normally don't try.  Normally while knocking on doors we get a couple people that want to listen  but this time we knocked on about every single door and almost every single person accepted another visit.  It was awesome.  So this week should be a very good week because we have citas with all of those people so hopefully they are home and still willing to listen.  

Last night we had a very cool activity.  The whole mission and all the stakes were invited to the institute building for a family history activity.  There was  A LOT of people.  Missionaries, converts, investigators, and members were all invited!  It was so great to see.  They are making a very big push on family history because they are going to construct the new temple.  They are going to construct the new temple in Los Olivos!!  That is about 15 minutes from my sector right now and is so much closer than the current temple.  It is outside of our misison but just by a little.  That will be cool to go back and visit some day.  

We had a really good lesson with some people this week.  One of them was with one guy that we found and started talking to and he had some knowledge about the gospel.  We started explaining things a little more in depth and he understood and was excited and is going to pray about it.  Hopefully he actually does it because he was a really cool guy.

Also we had a lesson with a new person.  He contacted us when we walked past his house.  He is in a wheelchair and started talking to us but didn't want to accept an appointment.  We asked why and he said that it is because he goes to another church.  We saw him yesterday in the street wheeling his wheel chair and I went up and asked if he wanted me to push him to his house.  So I was pushing and we asked him how his church meeting went and he told us what he learned and we told him what we learned and by the time we got to his house he was very grateful and accepted a visit from us.  So today we are going to have that with him so hopefully his heart will be opened.  

SERVICE BRINGS MIRACLES.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  

Monday, April 18, 2016

So this week was wild!  We were running around a lot because Elder Clark had trainings and interviews and went to the temple so we weren't in our sector a whole lot but I was in a lot of interchanges.  ____ still isn't sure about getting baptized so that was a bummer but we are going to keep visiting her so hopefully pretty soon here she can get baptized.  It is weird taking out appointments with people because now I know that Elder Clark wont be there and that it will just be me.  

Wow, so in our new room I have to get used to cold water.  It comes out like a waterfall but it is freezing, we are hoping that we can get hot water soon here.  It is nice though, good room.  To answer your questions mom, no I don't have a new bag or scriptures.  Scriptures I won't be able to get because I can't go to the temple but I have a triple, the only thing I am missing is an old testament so I can wait until I get home.  The bag I am trying to coordinate with the offices to try and get a new bag so hopefully soon.  Camera, Elder Clark is going to give me his camera so I will use it for 6 weeks and then give it back when I get home.  

We were the zone of excellence in March so this morning we had a breakfast and played games with President and Hermana Larson.  It was such a good breakfast.  It was definitely a lot better than what I normally eat.  PANCAKES and french toast.  Pancakes are so good.  Hopefully the zone can keep up the good work.  

So I don't have all the time in the world today because Elder Clark is going around saying bye to converts but I will be able to write more next week.  I love you family and hope you have a good week!

Monday, April 11, 2016

[So that you understand his letter - their apartment was broken into in the middle of the night a few days ago]

So this week was definitely interesting.  Haha.  So ya, we had in our house like an open area up above where you could get in.  Like we lived in a garage and the first wall had a big door to open up for cars but that is always locked and then another normal door to go in.  But when you get in there is a little patio area that is there that does not have a roof up above so in the middle of the night someone, or a bunch of people, i don't know, jumped down in and decided to take some stuff.  They got my camera, bag with my scriptures in it, wallet and my monadero which is like a little pouch with change in it.  We were asleep and at 6 o clock in the morning we hear, "Elderes, elderes, elderes, elders" over and over and over again and we woke up and a member was in our room saying, "your door is open."  So we got up and saw that my things were gone so that was a bummer.  We looked out in the patio area and on the wall there was a footprint and the marks of hands on the wall.  When they left our room they left the door open so that is how we found out.  So we had to take all of our valuable things out of the room and put them in another missionaries room. 

Above my study desk I have a really big picture of Jesus Christ.  So we think that maybe in the middle of the night he was grabbing stuff then looked up and saw a picture of Christ, got scared and ran out. 

I learned a really good lesson from all of this.  Like I said, we had to take all of our valuable things out.  As I was looking for my valuable things to put them in a suitcase I realized that the things I consider valuable have changed.  I wasn't very concerned about the watch I had in there or a couple other things that you could maybe sell for some money.  But I was more concerned about Book of Mormons that I had marked up before, journals, study journals and things like that.  Ya, bummer I lost the other things like a camera but what I want back the most are the scriptures.  That is what I miss.  So that was a good reflection time for me.  It was good to see what are the things that are most valuable to me now.

After that the week was stressful because we had to sleep in the room of other misisonaries.  Also the days were full of walking up and down the streets looking for a house that was renting rooms.  We found one on the last street we tried of the day so we were exhausted after.

Yesterday, in Perú were the elections.  So it was different because we were not allowed to contact people and we had to be in our rooms at 630.  It was actually really calm and not dangerous, at least where we are.  They narrowed it down to the two last candidates so there are more elections in May or June, so we will see!

Other than all of that it was actually a really good week with a lot of success!  We had a couple of investigators that we are teaching tell us that they want to get baptized.  That was exciting news.  Also, we are still teaching ____ and her daughter _____, we are hoping that they get baptized this week.  They are so cool.  But we think that she likes to play games with us because sometimes she really wants to do it and other times not so much so this will be a very important week for them and us.  We are just hoping and praying that everything goes well so that they can get baptized this week.  Today we found another room and we are moving in later today so that is good.  But it will be tiring because it is on the 4th floor of this house.

Anyways, I hope that you all have a wonderful week!  I love you all!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Holy cow.  There is going to be ANOTHER TEMPLE IN LIMA!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously when they announced that it was such an amazing feeling.  To know that I have been working here and now they are going to build another temple.  I think everyone wanted to just get up and run around, I know that I did.  There were so many good talks in the conference - it was inspired.  Some of my favorite speakers were Elder Duncan, Elder Arnold, Elder Owen, President Nelson, President Uchtdorf, President Eyring, President Monson, Sister Oscarson and Elder Holland.  But they were all good.  One of the things I liked the most was that HEAVEN IS CHEERING YOU ON.  So any time that we get sad or down we just need to remember that the heavens and all the angels are cheering us on so that we succeed.  Yesterday, today and forever.

Each time that we had an investigator in conference it seemed like the speakers were talking to that investigator.  Even some of the investigators said that.  They all really liked it.  It is a good thing that we had Saturday and Sunday in church this past week because this week we don't have church on Sunday.  The presidential elections are coming up in Perú this Sunday so we aren't allowed to have meetings.  So Sunday should be a weird and interesting day.  

This week we had a bunch of new investigators and some of them were really cool.  One of them was with a guy named ____.  He is about in his 20s and is passing for some tough problems in his life right now.  He has a kid and is separated from his pareja.  We saw the aleluya video with him and it was awesome.  He loved it and we talked to his mom after who is a member and she said that he was really happy.  We left and he started talking to his mom about that he liked it and wants to keep listening so hopefully we can help him out and help him get things turned around in his life. 

Also, with ____ she is doing good.  She is listening to us and went to conference so the progress is slow and steady with her.  We just are focusing on helping her keep her commitments because she doesn't like to read that much.  

We had interviews with the President this past week.  Elder Clark and I had to go around to all the rooms in the zone and make sure they were clean.   It was surprising that they were pretty clean.  It took a long time to do it though because we had to go around to all the rooms.  After that we were just at the interviews.  I had mine before that day because I had to go in a little while ago to renew my temple recommend.  

Basically after this weekend I am just happy because we got to watch conference.  It was so heavenly listening to the prophet, apostles and other general authorities.  They were great.  And the talks helped me out a ton.   I hope that you all have a wonderful week.  Choose the right!