Week 26

Hello!!! Ok, thats awesome about Jace and that he wants to try out for baseball!!! and the has played so many sports this year!! I love the pictures of you guys at the park!! You  all look like you are having so much fun:) 

To answer your question...yes Elder Sutton is still here with me!! ...and we still have so much fun together!!!! haha But, it makes time here go by super fast and fun. That is sooooo crazy about how many people went through the temple for the open house!!! I'm sure it helped the missionaries so much in Gilbert! I can only imagine how awesome that would be!!!! 

As for this week, it was super good:)  Estella and her kids are good!! They weren't able to go to church last week, so coming up to this Sunday I was praying soooo much for them and that they would be able to go. Saturday, in the morning, two of her sons came to the youth activity we do in the chapel, and after the activity we walked them home and Estella was there. So we asked her if they were going to be able to go to church and she said yes!! We taught her all week and she seemed super excited!! So Sunday morning we walked to her house to pick her up, and she wasn't there. Neither were her kids!! It was a little upsetting... but then I just got this feeling like everything was going to be alright and that I didn't need to stress... so we just started to walk to church and when we got there they were already there!!!!!!!! I literally got the biggest smile on my face. she just said that they were waiting for us and just decided to leave cuz we were a little late!! But, she really liked it!!!!

So, we had a good week!!! We went to San Salvador twice because my comp got his visa and so we have been working with that a lot!! It kinda sucks... we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to get there... yeah after this change I will have 6 months in the area!! haha thats crazy..if i have another change here I will be here for two general conferences!! 

Thanks for the emails!!! I sure love you guys! 

This pic is my two best friends in the mission! I love them!!

Week 25

Hello!!! Ok, first, sorry about last week. Right after I sent the email I had to get off!! So, I wasn't able to reply back. I'm very sorry. Second, to answer your question about the changes, I AM IN THE SAME AREA AGAIN!!!!!!! ...with the same comp, haha! I am still in my first area!!! At the end of this change I will have 7 months in the mission and 6 months in this area!! haha   I was happy when i found out!! I didn't really want to leave!! I like the area and the zone!!!! So I am happy that I am here again:) 

Lets see... this week we had an amazing lesson with a new lady named Estella... that we found when we were knocking doors!!! We taught her lesson 1 about the restoration and came back to teach her again the next day. We started the lesson with asking her if she was able to pray about the first lesson and she said that she had prayed... and that after her prayer something weird had happened. She said that after the prayer she just started to cry for a long time and she didn't know why because even though she was crying she felt good!! So we explained to her that she was feeling the Spirit and that that is an answer she was receiving. Then after we started to teach lesson 3 and she loved learning more about baptism!!!! Then at the end of the lesson she saw my comps oil container and asked what it was for... we explained it was for blessings and she asked us to give her a baby a blessing!!! It was so spiritual. Then after, we invited her to say the closing prayer and in the middle of the prayer she just started crying so hard!!! ...and she was just thanking us for always coming back to teach her!! 

So that was a good experience of the week!:) 

I'm doing good!! Yes, I got your package. Yes, I got the blanket from Mayce, ...and sorry again for getting off so quickly last week!!!!!

Thanks for the emails and I will talk to you soon!!!:)

Week 24

Hello!!!:) I'm glad to hear once again that everyone's week went well!!!! ...and that the temple has been probably one of the biggest parts of your lives latley!!!!! hahaha I'm sorry that the Super Bowl sucked... I wanted the Broncos to win too!!!!

Well to answer your questions... changes are this wednesday!!!! ...and I still don't know if I will be changed... hahaha so I guess that will have to wait till the next wek!!:) Sorry.. 

This week was alright... me and Elder Sutton got to do changes again!! ...and you know that is always fun!!!!:) We met this guy that had a pet squirrel... that was crazy!!! It was doing back flips in its cage and stuff!!! We took some cool pictures!! I will send you some:) 

I will tell you right now that my comp is really starting to bother me.. he doesn't want to work, he can't ever be on time to stuff, and he told me that if he is in this area another change he isn't going to work at all!!!! ...and I'm just like bro, you have a month and a half in this area, I have a little more than 5!!! haha But, I just kinda force him to work!!!

Lets see... we had a cool experience this week!! We had our ward activity this Thursday, and we had a a new girl show up that we had never seen before!! So we started talking to her and she doesn't live in our area. As we started talking to her I literally felt so bad for her!!! She has a very messed up life.  She cuts her self, she is depressed,  she doesn't have friends, nothing!!! So we started to talk to her about her Father in Heaven and the love he has for her!!! We told her that her body is a temple, and that we were there to help her!!! Then after we talked to her we said that we could talk to the missionaries in her area so they could visit her and she said she only wanted us to and that she would come to our area every time so we could teach her!!!! ...and on Sunday she came to church!!!!!!:) It was litteraly amazing!!!!!

Well I love you all so much! ...and I love getting the emails!!!!!! Talk to you soon!!!!

elder baker

Week 23

Hi everyone!! I am glad to hear about how great everyone's week went!! ...and I am beyond happy for Megan. I prayed for her this week and I'm so happy for her!! ...and I am happy that my sister Haley is being a little missionary!!! I am beyond jealous how much you guys get to go to the temple. It looks amazing!!! ...and so does my family when they are standing in front of it!!!! I love seeing the picture with the missionaries... 1) they are both white and 2) I know they are talking english... hahaha I'm a little jealous!! ...but I would

NEVER want to switch missions even if i could... I love it here!!!!!!

Sooooo we had our 2 baptisms on Saturday!!!! It was awsome:) I asked a member to baptize one of them and my comp baptized the other!! It was amazing. Lots of people from our branch showed up!!! ...and I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.. just like Haley!!!! haha they gave me about a thirty second heads up that I would be giving it!! haha but the baptism was amazing!! We confirmed them members at church the next day!!!! I loved it.

On Thursday Elder Cooke, from The 12, came and talked to us!!!! It was amazing. He was so amazing to listen to!!!! I could literally sit there and listen to him talk ALL day. It was soooo cool!! He is such an amazing person with a VERY strong spirit you could literally feel it when he walked in the room!!!! ...and then afterwards when I thought the day couldn't get any better... it did!!! WE GOT FREAKING TACO BELL!!!!!! I didn't even know that existed here!!!!! I was in love.... When God created this world he must have known I was going to be serving the Lord here so he put a Taco Bell in the country just for me:) haha it was amazing!!!!!!

Well this week was super good!!! ...and I can't believe I'm starting my last week of the change!!!! I love you all and will talk to you soon!!!!

elder baker

Week 22

Hello!!!!! I'll start with your email... I am sooo jealous that you guys all get to go to the Gilbet Temple!!!!! It looks soooo beautiful!!!!! I am so beyond excited for Megan and her decision to be baptized!!!!! I literally screamed YES!!!!!! when I read that:) That is so awesome!!!! 

Haha I loved all of the pictures of Fred!!! He looks so good and happy!! ...and I'm also very happy the boys got to go through the temple and have that experience!!!

Lets see.. I had a good week!!!!!! We have two baptisms this saturday!!!:)))) I can't wait for that!!!!! ...and we've just been working super super hard latley!!! I litterally feel like we don't have enough time in the day to get evrything we need to done... but in some way I know that that is a good thing!!! ...and I'm having fun!! ...but being that busy really makes time fly super fast!! This week went by soooo fast!!! I can't believe its Monday again... 

But, I need to tell you guys about the two girls we are baptizing on Saturday!!!!! So we got home last Monday from p day and we had a message from one of our members saying they had two people that wanted to take the missionary lessons, so we went over that night and taught the first lesson!! I can honestly say it was probably the most spiritual lesson of my entire life... it was literally hard to talk sometimes, and at the end we had Ingrid, the investigator, say the closing prayer and in the prayer she asked for the strength to be baptized this month and started to cry, it was such an amazing lesson and the spirit was so very strong!!! We have gone over everynight this week teaching all of the lessons and we invited them to be baptized on the 25th and they said yes!!! The cool thing about the other girl is that she can't hear or talk... but, she can read lips when we talk !!!!! So when we teach her the lessons she is just watching our mouths and knows what we are saying!! They are both amazing and I am sooooo happy for them!!!!!! Their names are Ingred and Idalma:) 

But, for my stories this week I have two short ones.... I found a dead moth in my food while I was eating, and there was a freaking rat in our house!!!!!!!! hahahaha I freaked out a little bit...

Well that is pretty much it for this week!! I love you all so much!!:) 

elder baker

Week 21

What’s up!!!! Well it's been another week in the dirty old south... with all my Latin buddies!!! This week was super good!!! We had our activity for the youth and they loved it!!!! They were telling us how excited they are for the next week!!! We played a bunch of water games, and ate pizza!!! It was super cool... and I got to wear normal clothes!! So that made it 100 times better:)

We’ve got some super good investigadores right now!! We have been working a lot in El Coco which is SO far from where we live... but we are having a lot of success there!! Me and my comp are doing good!! We still get along super good!!! But, I'm starting to get nervous that I might get changed from the area after this change because I've been here so long.. I really don't want to!!! I love the people here. I just can't believe how fast time is going. We are starting week 6 of this change and I feel like yesterday we were just starting it!!

So everyone here is telling me that it is snowing like crazy in the U.S.!! Is that true?? Cuz if so, I will cry!! I am not there to go snowboarding!!! haha But, I’m not sure how people here know about it....

I also heard that the Colts and the Patriots were playing!!!!! You should have seen how upset I was when I got told they lost....

I can't believe Fred already left!!!! He is in freaking Africa... that’s so weird!! But he has an American comp... so I told him to enjoy that while he can;) I bet the house is just super quite and boring!! hahaha but don't worry we will be back to drive everyone crazy:) hahaha Gilbert won't know what's coming to them!!!!

I'm doing super good!! I'm having fun! I still have lots of work to do on my Spanish but I can see it getting better!!! It definitely makes the mission more fun the more you can speak your language!!!!

So my story for you guys... someone tried to take my tropical goons bracelet and my watch when we were working... I just looked at him and was like, "bro, you are not taking my stuff..." and he kept telling me to give it to him!!!! ...and I just kept saying, "NO!! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!!!!" So he grabbed my hand to take it and I punched him in his face!!!!! ...and we just took off running......

Ok, I didn't actually punch him or run... I just said no and we walked away!! But, that would have been cool though;) love you guys!!!!!!

elder baker

Week 20

Hey Mom!!! Ok first... I cant believe he is going to freaking London !!!! I literally just told all of the elders here how sick his flight plan is... but its also a VERY long flight!!!! hahaha

Anyway... I had a good week. Me and my comp are doing good!! We are pretty good friends, and that makes time go SO fast!!!!!! I can't believe me and him have already been together for 5 weeks now. I am glad to hear Fred is all ready to go and excited !! And OF COURSE he had a lot of girls show up to his open house... hahaha!!  

Your question about the spanish.. I learn new stuff every week!!! But its hard to say what it is that I learn.. my spanish has definitely gotten better with Elder Hernandez because he can not speak English!!!! 

Something else that is super cool is that on the 23rd of January, Elder Cook of the quorum of the 12 is coming to talk to us!!!! Im am SO very excited for that!!!!!! That will be so freaking cool. I can't wait.... and its with the other mission which means that Blake Murphy will be there!! So I am going to email him because we need to take a picture together!!!! 

I am doing good!:) I'm healthy!! We went to the furthest part of our area this week for the first time.. it took us about 40 min on a bus!!! Its the last city before Guatemala named El Coco!! I felt pretty close to Mitch!! haha 

I miss you guys tons!!!!! I still can't believe we skyped on Christmas... thats crazy to me and I would do anything to do it again!!!! OH... we found out who our new mission presidents are going to be!!! They are white!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha They come in June. So that will definitely be a big change in the mission!!!! But it will be cool. Well I love you all tons!!!! and I will talk to you soon!!:) 

Oh and something cool about the work we are doing here... this saturday me and my comp are doing an activity in the morning for the youth in the ward!! We are playing volley ball and throwing water balloons!!! haha it will be super fun!!!!! 

 Well love you all tons!!:) 

elder baker