Week 71

Hello!! Well this week was good... we had an amazing christmas:) and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I cant believe that 2014 ends this week... this year went by sooo fast. I can't believe that we are already going to be in 2015! That sounded imposible when I started my mission... and now its actually here! 

I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good christmas, and that everyone is doing great! It sounds like everyone had a great christmas. I loved talking to you guys!! It was amazing to hear your voices and see your faces, everyone looks sooo much older!! Dad looks like he has lost weight and grown a beard and mom still looks the same:) and all of my brothers and haley I feel like have changed a lot!! Just a lot older and deeper voices! 

I'm also glad to hear that everyone still has plans to go snowboarding! I'm happy for all of you and I'm happy to hear how it goes and to see pictures!! 

As for how christmas day went it was amazing! I loved singing in the hospital!! We could see how the people enjoyed it! Some had their eyes filled with tears, and they just thanked us a lot! The little kids were amazing. They liked it too:) It was an experience that I will never forget... and it helped me remember what christmas is really about! 

This week we had a baptism!! Her name is Emma Gonzalez! She loved it! At the baptism we sang a musical number for everyone (I don't remember what it is called in English, but in Spanish it is Oh Mi Padre)!! Lots of people came.. we couldnt even fit everyone in the room! haha 

Well thanks for the email:) I am glad everyone is doing good. Have a great week!! and I love you. adios!! 

Week 70--Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!:)) 

I can't believe that it is Christmas again... this year went by soooo fast!! I cannot wait to talk to you guys. I feel like it has been so long since I have talked to you guys... but it kinda has been a long time!! So that will be nice:) Me, Elder Lopez,  Elder Griffin and his comp are skyping at the same place so we can meet all of the families!! So I hope thats ok with you guys:) 

Anyway, this week was good! We found an amazing family!! Their names are Juan, Eva and Rebecca! The Fam. Avila... it was such a miracle that we found them.. were were walking down the street and my comp just said "Why don't we walk down this street??" So, we start walking down it and out of the corner of my eye I saw a husband and wife sitting on some stair steps outside of their house, and we started to talk to them!! Saturday they went to the ward christmas party, Sunday they went to church and to see a baptism!! They are amazing. So that was something good:) 

We also went and sang christmas carols outside of peoples houses with some members last night and it was super fun!! ...and we had lots of success! This week was the mission christmas activity!! It was lots of fun... we ate lots of good food! They gave us some presents, we watched a short little christmas movie and on the way there us and our zone sang christmas hymns on the bus the entire ride to the activity!! haha I hope the people liked it and didnt get too mad! haha;) 

Well, thanks for everything and the emails! I'll talk to on thursday:) I love you all so much! ...and I'm so very thankful for this tme of year and the spirit it brings!! Merry Christmas!!!!

Week 69

Hey mom! Look I'm not sure if I'.m going to be able to write today.. I think they are turning off all of the power in Santa Ana for the day! So if its not true, and later on there is power, I will write you! ...but if not President Spjut will be writting you saying why. 

Yes, I got the package! ...and I'm doing great. ...and I'm pretty sure I will be calling you guys on Christmas Day at 10 am! Well mom I love you so much... and they are going to be turning off the power in like 5 minutes!! haha they will be working on a power plant.. but we will be fine!:) so i will talk to you soon.

Week 68

Hey!!:) 

 Well, it sounds like everyone had another great week!! I can't believe that Gage broke his arm again... How did he break it!? ...and will he still be able to go snowboarding!? haha Being my little brother he probably won't even listen to the doctors and if he he feels like snowboarding he will do it;) haha 

Anyway that is awesome that Haley is going to be in school full time!! It makes her sound so much older. But, I'm sure she will do great! How is jaces elbow doing?? Will he be able to pitch for baseball season!? 

Well... I'm doing good! We had a good week. My new comp is awesome and we get along great!! We now have 4 baptism dates for this month, Jackoline and Joana Campos, Irvin Cerna, and Rosa Elena! I feel good here in this area because its big and we are always finding new people to teach!! The ward is awesome and they help us a lot. I can't even describe to you how excited I am for Christmas... obviously its because I get to talk to you guys because other than that it's pretty much like any other day... just with lots of food and fireworks!! 

Well I am doing great!! We were blessed so much this week after the fast we did!! This Sunday, after we finished our fast, some members took us to contact some people and we found a family Hernandez.. and they are so positive!! It's like they have been ready to be Mormon for a while and they just didnt know it yet!! So that was something good.. and to answer the question mom the family of 5 is familia Lopez! 

As for the question about inner changes... yes we do lots of inner changes! This week we didn't do too many because we have been soooo busy!! But normaly we do lots. But, I like it because I get to learn from other missionaries in the zone! Well thanks for the email. I love you all so much!!! ...and will talk to you soon:) adios. 

elder baker

Week 67

Hello!! Well, this week was amazing. I will start off by saying I love my comp!!! He is not the Elder I am standing by in the picture... I'm not sure where my comp is in the picture, so maybe if you could send it to me i could tell youi!:) Anyways, his name is Elder Lopez from Guatemala! When I got to the mission he was the secretary to President Cordon! Since then he has been the Assistant to President. I have literally learned so much from him just from the meetings we have have in the office throughout my mission and now he is my comp! We get along great, and we have been working really well together! I have learned a lot from him! 

In our area this week we found and have been teaching a family of 5 people!! And they are so positive. They all went to church on Sunday and that was probably the best thing I could have received on my b day...that and the Lord telling them this is true because the same night that they went to church we went and visited them and they accepted to be baptized!! I was so happy. They had a couple of doubts going to church Sunday morning but Sunday night it was like the doubts had just been taken away!! 

As for my birthday it was fun:) the lady that cooks for us asked me what I wanted to eat and she made me fish tacos, and by the end of the night my face, hair, and clothes were covered in cake, eggs, flour, glitter... I was very dirty but it was lots of fun!! I will send you pictures but i wont be able to till next week... I'm really sorry about that! But, I did have a good birthday:) Thanks for all of the emails, letters, and presents!! Mom I loved all of the stuff you sent me! I have the picture on my desk. I'm going to give the cake to the hermana that cooks for us so she can make it. I loved all of it!! Even the old spice swagger because they dont sell that here! So thank you!! 

I'm also glad to hear that everyone is doing so good!! That Riggs b-day went well and that now he is a deacon!! and that the christmas tree is up:)) I'm glad you are all excited for christmas and so am I!! 

Have you seen the "he is the gift" video?? its amazing!! we watch it with lots of investigadores. well i love you all so much! thanks for everything. and have a great week!! adios.

ps...I thought you might like this.. its a christmas tree ornament!!:)  We made them as a mission to put on the mission Christmas Tree! :)

Week 66

Hello!! Well, I'm doing good:) I'm sorry for not sending you very many pictures... I'll send some today!! ...and we took our christmas picture:) so that will make you happy mom!! 

Anyways.. DELMY GOT BAPTIZED!! It was amazing, the blessing that will be for their family is amazing. Her husband is a member that was in-active... but now they are both members and in a year they will be able to go to the temple together!! So that was awesome. I will send the pic of the baptism too. 

Other than that I can't believe how fast this week went!! Elder Toledo goes home on Wednesday... he is excited but also very nervous!!  I can't even imagine how he feels, that will be very weird when that day comes! But he is doing good! I will be staying in my area with a new comp and I will know who it is on Wednesday. So that will be weird, me and Elder Toledo did a lot here in Molino... but I know the Lord has more things in store for me and my new comp! In our area we have two baptism dates for December 13th! It is the mom and sister of Miguel (our convert that got baptized like two weeks ago). They started listening to us after the baptism of Miguel and now they will be baptized and Miguel will baptize them!! That will be a very cool experience for that family! Well thats pretty much it for this week. I'm glad Riggs is excited to turn 12 and that he will be ordained on Sunday!! I will be thinking of him all day long! I am sure he looks great in his new suit! 

oh and mom I got the package!!! Thank you so much. I loved the letters... and all of the stuff that was in it! I love you all so much and can't wait to talk on christmas.. adios!!

Week 65

Hello! Well, I guess I will start by saying I can't believe that Riggs is turning 12!!! He is going to be a deacon... that's crazy. But, I'm so proud of him for being such a great young man! 

I also can't believe that it is now "Elder" Carder!! I am also very proud of him for getting out on the mission! I know it wasn't easy for him but now its so cool to know that NOTHING that he did before matters... he is a new person and represents Christ!! What a blessing it will be for him and his family!! well everyone looks like they had a good week:) Riggs and Jace went camping, Jordan left, Riggs is getting ready for his b day!! I'm just happy to hear that everyone is doing good!! 

I'm great:) We did have a baptism this week!! It was Roberto, so i will send you the pic of his baptism!! But it was awesome and he is going to be a great member of the church! Delmy is still getting ready to get baptized, she has a couple of doubts but I know she will be ready!! 

Something kind of  funny is that Pedro, our recent convert,  wants to learn the hymns! So he put them on a memory card and plays them while he is working... haha his job a a bus driver, so everyone on the bus listens to them too!!  So that is one way to share the gospel:) 

Everyone here is doing good! We are still getting the house all ready for Christmas...the tree and lights and stuff! Last p-day we decorated the tree while listening to Christmas music! Just like at home:) But what's weird is that my comp is now starting his last week in the mission!! He is excited but also very nervous! He doesn't sleep very well at night... but he says he is doing ok:) 

Thats pretty much is for this week!! Thanks for the emails, and have a great week:) adios. 
elder baker

Week 64

Hola!! I can't believe Jordan is already leaving... I am so happy for him. He is going to love it and I'm excited to get pictures of his setting apart. 

That is awesome that the Cardinals are doing so good!! I haven't seen them do super good since the one year they went to the Super Bowl and lost to the Steelers... that was a very sad game. But, I'm happy to hear that they are doing good!!! 

I love the idea of teaching everyone how to snowboard for Christmas!! Just make sure they all have patience and don't get mad or upset easily and I think it will be super cool if they all learn how!! I am also happy to hear that dad was able to go to church again and that he was able to teach the lesson! 
I loved that talk too. So I'm sure it was a great lesson!! 

We are doing good here!! We had two baptisms this week! Oswaldo and Miguel... I will send pics! It was an awesome baptism. And they loved it!! Right now the two baptism dates we have are Delmy, and a guy named Roberto. The dates are for this Saturday and the next Saturday.  

What is really good is that we are still healthy!! The rain season is ending... so now its just getting really dusty and still hot, its always hot, but now its just a little bit more dry. So everything is good here!! 

We are getting the house ready for Christmas;) We actually have a big tree, lights... its going to be fun!! Thanks for the letters, and i love you all!! adios.
elder baker

Week 63

Hello!! Well I am glad to hear the week was good for everyone! Halloween looked like everyone had fun! I can't believe its been a year since last halloween.. time flys!! but anyway everyone looked great!! That is a little sad that Jace's last football game was on the 31st so he wasn't able to do anything for halloween!! But, Im sure he was somewhat ok with it!! I am also very glad to hear that we are back into the tradition of carving pumpkins every year cuz it has been a while!! Now I just have to make sure that we dont get out of the tradition of buying real christmas trees every year!!
hahaha anyways.. im doing good!! 

We actually had a really cool week! The temple was amazing!! I cant tell you how much I love it there!! We had a really cool lesson with an inv. named Delmy... she is the wife of a less active member that we found just looking for new people to teach! We didn't even know he was a member till the end off the first lesson about 2 weeks ago! Anyways they went to church with us last week and when we went back this week we started teaching and she said she had liked church but that its just not for her... and that she just likes her church! We started to talk to her about the spirit and the role it plays in the conversion and she told us she had had a dream that she lost her baby daughter and that it was very hard for her and she didnt know where to look and in her dream we showed up telling her we could find her daughter and we did! So she told us that she had taken that as somewhat of an answer to her prayers cuz we teach that families can be together forever but the world says we loose our kids after we die! We shared some personal experiences and testimoies and the spirit was very strang and then she just started crying... she told us she didnt know why but she just felt so happy even then in that moment she realized our church is true and that would mean changing churches! She chose to be baptized on the 14th of this month. Now we will be able to help activate and less active and baptize his wife! What a blessing for that family. 

Well other than that the week was good!! Today we did a super cool hike to a big cross on top of a mountain, and on Saturday we did some service moving big rocks!! Lets just say... never seen Churanchulas before, and I hope to never see them again!! They are spiders literally bigger than your hand. hahaha 

Well I love you all so much and have a good week!!
elder baker

Week 62

Hi everyone!! Well we had a very good week here in Santa Ana!! and it sounds like everyone at home is doing great too!! 

Today I'm writing pretty early but it was sweet because I got on when Fred was still on so we talked a little bit! 

But anyways... I'm glad everyone is doing good! Jace looked great!! and that's sweet that he was nominated for homecoming. He is such a stud!! I'm glad to hear dad is doing good even though is hurts! I have been praying for him every single night since his surgery! ...and I will keep praying for him. I also cant believe those guys are all leaving on their missions!! That is so cool and they will love it. The mission is the best thing ever!! 

As for our week! I felt pretty good about it!! In our area we put 4 baptism dates!! And we have a date for every week of November!! ha ha its like a little birthday present from God:) and we had 9 people in church!! which is pretty good for us!! but everything is good here! 

Last week we all felt that big earthquake. Sorry I forgot to write you all about that!! But is was super cool... it just feels really weird! and then after that there was a tsunami warning... but luckily that didn't happen!! It just rained A LOT!!! 

Well i love you all lots!! Now I will send the picture of Pedro's Book of Mormon...and this is what it says in English... in the top right corner "Elder Baker a missionary and my friend and Elder Toledo a missionary and my friend" and the rest says " today I received the waters of baptism, after asking my Father in Heaven to guide me down the path to follow him I was able to do it. I respect and admire my brothers that made the effort so that I too had the chance to enter into this narrow path and serve my Heavenly Father. I have faith he will help me. I testify this gospel is true, my wisdom came from doing gods will. amen"

I thought that was pretty cool. Anyways... have a great week everyone!! love you. 

elder baker

Week 61

Hey mom! ...and everyone else that will read this;) Well, I am not sure where to start... its pretty sad about sage... im sure that was pretty hard for everyone. But, you are right, if she was in pain it is better that you put her to sleep! I know everyone will be ok:) I just hope lady and bella are doing ok. ...and before I go on to a better note I cannot believe that Jace broke his arm!!! He is just like me. haha

Ok, and now for a better note... we had a good week! We put a baptism date with Estevan!! ...and Pedro is doing amazing. He wrote something really cool in the back of his Book of Mormon the night he got baptized, that i will take a picture of and send you guys the picture and of course I will translate it because it is really cool... it made me all teary eyed when I read it!! 

We are doing good here in our ward! I love it here and me and my comp are still getting along so that is always good. I think the best news is that I am still healthy!!! haha Mom, did you get the email from Sister Spjut about those diseases here in El Salvador?? Just so that you can feel a little bit better:) 

So thats pretty much it for me! Im doing good. This week we did some service for a lady in our area. She asked us to come cut all of the grass and weeds and plants that have grown about knee high out side of her house... but here they dont ask you to cut it they ask you to chop it... they just give you a machete and tell you to chop it all down!! I never knew how many blisters I could get on one hand!! haha 

Anyways I'm doing good! Thanks for the emails... I cant believe Haley sat in on the surgeries... I'm not surprised she threw up!! haha 

I love you all so much!! and will talk to you soon:)

adios

elder baker

Week 60

Hola!!! Well I cannot believe that Haley got to go sky diving... she is the LUCKIEST girl in the entire world!!! I am 100 percent sure that I will be doing that when i get home!! haha It looked like she has so much fun. And those guys that work there probably just love their job. I know I would!! 

Dad's knee looks kinda gross.. but after a surgery that bad i wouldnt excpect it to look pretty! I emailed DJ and said thanks for taking him some stuff after and he just said... "no problem dude, anything for dad!!:)" haha i love my friends and family so much... and miss you all like crazy!!! 

We had a good week. We had a baptism!!! Pedro got baptized, and it was awesome!! The entire time he was waiting for the baptism to start he was just sitting there reading the Book of Mormon. He just got baptized and he is already in 3rd Nephi!! haha I love that guy. I will send the pic of his baptism!! Estevan ended up not getting baptized... he will! just not yet. He isn't quite ready so we are going to keep working with him!! 

As for changes I am going to be staying here with the same comp!! haha Finally I can say I don't have changes and that I am staying in an area with the same comp!! haha But that prabably means thats I will be here for a while! Cuz my comp goes home next change so that means more than likely I will stay again... just with a new comp!! So that would mean I would be here till the beginning of January. So that makes me happy:) 

We are doing good! I am healthy, so keep praying for that!! I do not like being sick. We are working hard!! I love you all and am thinking about and praying for you. adios!!! 

elder baker

Week 59

Hi everyone!! Well it sounds like this last week was a little crazy for you guys... haha I am so happy to hear that dad is doing so good!! I was nervous for him too. and lots of prayers went out to him!! There were times where just during the day it would cross my mind and I would stop and say a quick prayer for him! But I am happy to hear that all of the prayers paid off and that he is ok!! 

.... I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE HALEY IS GOING SKY DIVING!!!! That is one of my biggest dreams!! I want to do that sooo bad. She is so lucky. Im sure she is going to love it!! But whats more crazy than her jumping out of a plane is that she is turning 18!! She's so old. haha but she looks so good and happy. 

Haha and I love that Seth and DJ took dad some presents... I miss you all so much!!! 

I am doing good. I LOVED conference...it was amazing!! I really really liked one of the prayers that was said. In the prayer the person said "please bless all of the missionaries, their parents, and their grand parents". I thought of you guys when he said that!! There were so many good talks that Im not sure if I have a favorite!! But it gave me some ideas of things I can change here in the mission and some ideas for after the mission too!! 

As for the week we had a good week.. we do have two baptism dates for this week! haha sorry ive been a little bad at giving you updates on investigadores!! Their names are Pedro and Estevan! They are both awesome!! Pedro has like almost finished the Book of Mormon and hasn't even been baptized yet!! So this week should be a good one!! I love you all so much and miss you like crazy. Finish watching the conference cuz it was amzing!!! adios. 

Hey and I heard about some disease that started in Africa that is now in the US... everyone is freaking out about it here... even though it doesn't exist here. Is it really as big of a deal as they make it sound!?

elder baker