Transfer Calls Are In!

Hola friends and familia!



What a crazy week! Again! Mission life is ALWAYS an adventure!

Well we got transfer calls yesterday and sister To is indeed leaving me! She's going to the North stake though, where Kingsway is! She'll be serving in St. Albert, a little city just north of Edmonton! She is so loved by the people here in Cherry Grove! I've learned a lot from her in these past 7 weeks! I've been blessed to have a companion as weird as me! So we took quite a few pictures this week to compensate!

On Wednesday we taught seminary. It was a lesson on missionary work really, and we committed those in the class to hand out a Book of Mormon. We talked about how the Book of Mormon is a second witness and helps to prevent the teachings in the Bible from being skewed. It's just such a cool book! Then we were able to go to the food bank again! We knew some people volunteering there and when lunch came around the husband said his wife packed us lunch! She had packed 4 extra sandwiches for him because she knew someone would need it! She also is the most prevalent supply of food in our fridge currently. She's so charitable!



On Thursday we taught seminary too! Then we drove out to St. Paul to have a district meeting and the senior couple in our district is so sweet! They made lunch for all of us for after the meeting! We talked about working in unity and being equally yoked. :) We did a role play where we both testified for every principle in a lesson. We really need to just testify about the Saviour all the time! We took a
district picture but I don't have it yet... sorry! The weather was still pretty bad and there were quite a few blizzards this week!

On Friday it was nice and dreary out! We made plans to go contacting and we had a bunch of appointments set up with new people and we were so excited! But as the day progressed everything fell through and we got countless rejections all day! It was really tough!


It helps to know that as a representative of Jesus Christ that we won't only experience His joy, successes and love, but also His sorrows and rejections. Luckily He has given us the Atonement. We know that His suffering far exceeds ours. We never have to go where He did. What a blessing!



Then Saturday, the weather shifted. It was bright and sunny and warm out! Everyone wanted to talk to us and we saw a lot of success! We scheduled more appointments and everyone was much nicer. :)

Then we went to help out at the Relief Society dinner. We had make your own Hawaiian haystacks for dinner and then delicious RS cake for dessert! We had to add two extra tables from what we originally set out because sooo many people came! Lots were visiting for Easter too! The broadcast itself was incredible! I'm so looking forward to General Conference this weekend! It mostly talked about charity and service, especially for those right in our own communities! They talked about the "I Was a Stranger" refugee initiative. It should be really influential when it starts up! 

Link to I Was a Stranger site:
https://www.lds.org/refugees?cid=HP_SA_26-3-2016_dPFD_fCNWS_xLIDyL2-1_&lang=eng


Then we had a good lesson with an investigator afterwards and we talked about the talk "You Know Enough," which I absolutely love! If you haven't read it, read it. Especially if you feel as though you are struggling.


https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/you-know-enough?lang=eng



Sunday was also so great! I love Easter and I love fast and testimony meeting! We had soooo many people come to church, the gym was even full! Everyone comes out here for Easter! We had one investigator come that really enjoyed it. Sister To and I can see him being quite influential in the church. It's exciting to see what will happen with him. :) We talked about the Atonement in Sunday school... talk about perfect timing! So that was really great as well. Delaney is still preparing for baptism soon!


We went to the Hatch's for Easter dinner afterwards, they're such a great family I love them! There's a picture of sister To with them, since she's leaving. :(

We then went to a farewell for a sweet couple who is going over to Ontario for their mission next week! Keep your eyes open for Dennis and Marlene Hatch. (Most of the Ward has the last name Hatch, or Burgess here).



On Monday we got the transfer calls. Sister Christensen will be coming to Cherry Grove with me, I'm excited to meet her but will definitely miss Sister To! Then we went to a sweet widows house and she fed us delicious food. I love her! She has a door mat that says "Go Away!" and she's quite sassy! She gave sister To a big WET kiss before we left! Then we volunteered at the Orbital Trends store and a less active cut our hair for us! It feels so nice to have all the dead ends off! Then they fed us moose steak! That was really good!



It's been a fantastic transfer! Lots to come in the future though, for sure! Have a great week! Thanks for all your love and support!



Love always,



Sister Baker ❤️

Kitty Troubles and Blizzards That Just Won't End!

Kumusta friends and family!

Wow what a long, fun week! First off, we did not get to herd sheep... I know, it's sad.  :(



Last p-day (preparation day - like a day off to get personal stuff done), we treated ourselves to blizzards. Then it proceeded to blizzard... Just our luck! And it continued to blizzard until, oh yeah... now! It hasn't stuck too much, but the snow just won't go away! So that's been an adventure!

On Wednesday, we taught seminary and went to the food bank like usual. That's always fun. Y'all know I LOVE community service! That being said, justserve.org is now up and running it's to be used as a missionary resource as well and it's like kijiji for community service. :) We are to have 10 hours of community service now as opposed to the 4 from before. I'm excited!

On Thursday, we trekked out to Edmonton. The roads were quite bad that day! It's a nice 3 hour drive. Throw some slow semis in and it's an adventure too! We had a really great zone training meeting, helping us to become better teachers. We talked about asking inspired questions, and using the scriptures. Two things that I've really been trying to work on! We also talked about how the small things matter, like smiling more. :) We also talked about how we need to listen to the Spirit and then speak, not just saying the first thing that comes to mind... also a struggle I have! Haha!  It was really good! Then we got our mail... finally! We never seem to get any out here in the boonies.

On Saturday, we had a cottage meeting and invited a whole bunch of investigators and only one came! But it was so good! The 4 members there taught most of our Easter message. They used all of the things from ZTM (zone training meeting) that I was trying to improve on myself, so that was really awesome to witness! We ate some good food there too! We were late to dinner that day. Because there was a kitten in our apartment!

...Well, it was in the lobby. It was real scrawny and mangy. We tried to let it out, but it did not know what to do. So I scooped it up with one hand and brought it back in. It was satisfied until sister To tried to take pictures. They it turned out pretty humorous. Sister To took pictures instead of helping. :P We got the cat to the humane society and order was once again returned to our lives.

On Sunday, we went to a member from Chile's house and had completes (hot dogs). They had Chilean mustard and everything, sided with home made fries. They were soooo good!

We get to teach seminary twice this week since the teachers out of town, so that's fun. We also find out what's happening with transfers on Monday. Sister To will probably be leaving. This was her first area and she's been here for 6 months. I just did the same thing, so I know it can be hard to leave!

We met so many new people who are so prepared to hear the gospel and we had a really good Plan of Salvation lesson last night too. We have lots of new appointments this week so we will be stressing Easter and the Atonement a lot. This season is so perfect for sharing the gospel. Try to share the new Easter video with someone this week!

Love you all lots!


Sister Baker


I guess I should explain this one.... we got a new toilet.  Yeah! Such a seemingly small yet happy pleasure!  Haha!

Smiling More and Falling Off Cliffs

Hello friends and family!

 I'm going to apologize now for the lack of pictures. Please adept these silly ones from the library currently because that's all I have. Sorry... Haha!

This week has been an adventure. We've laughed a lot! It really keeps you're spirits up when the works a little slow! I've been working on smiling more as well. It shows people how happy you are to be here.

 We saw a young woman on Tuesday who literally fell off a cliff the day before while she as snowboarding! She didn't break anything but was really bruised and on crutches. :( but we get there and we all share some laughs and then I'm really awkward, like normal, and all of a sudden sister To is laughing so hard she's crying and she can't stop! It was really hilarious. But the young woman definitely needed the happiness, so it was really good! Haha!!

Then we volunteered a lot this week. We went to the food bank on Wednesday, a value village type store on Thursday and we cleaned someone's clothing store on Saturday. It was a week of service. I love community service so much! I hope I can keep up with it when I go home. :)

Speaking of which, I have been out for just over 7 months! Ahhh! Where does the time go?!?!
I love all the people here in Cherry Grove. We got to meet the young women on Friday when we attended their fireside meeting at girls winter camp. It was really fun! They're so supportive of each other and of the investigators that were there.

We tried to go street contacting. People make it really evident when they're from another faith. Haha. It's quite interesting. Some people see the name tag and go out of their way to avoid us.



In other news, the weather's been a bit better. We had a random snowfall the other day but other then that it's been warming up. :)

We're trying to start up an English class soon. There are a lot of Filipinos here and some have asked us if we could do that. So hopefully I'll be able to tell you all about that in the next few weeks. My
English isn't exactly good enough to teach a class. If you know me, you'd know all about my nonsensical talk, but it'll be an adventure!

Lots of people build their own houses here. It's really neat. They do everything themselves. Some of them are really fancy! We got to go to a house with a magnetic stove top and a fridge with its own Twitter account. It was pretty neat!

Yesterday we finally met with a young man we've seen everywhere! You know when you see someone a lot you're supposed to share the gospel with them. That same night we met with a less active family and when we realized it was just the kids, Sister To asked if we should still share the same repentance video we had planned. I thought about and felt prompted to go ahead with the video. After the lesson, the young woman we brought with us informed us that the girl was struggling with
the exact things the video was talking about. We are so inspired as obedient missionaries! I'm so blessed to be able to help so many people.

This week we'll get to go down to Edmonton for a zone meeting and the on Saturday we get to herd sheep down in St. Paul! We're very excited!

Talk that I love this week is "The Challenge to Become" by Dallin H. Oaks.


https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/11/the-challenge-to-become.p1?lang=eng

 We love he new Easter videos "#Hallelujah" and "Follow Him" also check out the worlds largest virtual hallelujah chorus and the YSA face2face with Elder Holland.

#Hallelujah - Easter Video



Follow Me - Easter Video

World's Largest virtual Choir with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

YSA (Young Single Adult) Face2Face Fireside with Elder Holland

 That's really all I have to say!

Hope that you have a wonderful week! Love you lots!

Sister Baker

Buffet Busting and Bison

What a long week!


Sometimes the amount of things that happen in one week is just insane! But hello friends and family! I miss and love and pray for each of you each day.  I hope that you're doing well.

 Can you believe it's already March? I can't! I've almost been out on the mission for 7 months! That's only two months away from halfway! I am not prepared! But it's still nice and cool here. We've been getting some snowfall as of late!

I guess I'll start with Wednesday night. We had called a former referral, and he said he wasn't that interested. But that night I felt like we should walk downtown. So we drop the car off that the
apartment and walk over and I felt like we should go see him since he works at a movie store in town. When we met up with him,  he told us about some crazy experiences he had that led him to believe that atheism wasn't for him. And we were able to set up an appointment for this week. It was pretty great! Then on Thursday we went down halfway from here and Edmonton to meet the sister training leaders for exchanges. It was an adventure. I got to bring sister Lytle up here for a day. We lived in the same apartment in Edmonton and split off a lot when Sister Rogers was sick. It was crazy to be back with her! We encountered some toilet trouble while she was here and we're still patiently waiting for repairs! Haha! ...but it's always fun! We got to teach seminary again on Friday and we talked about Esther and standing up for our beliefs and being an example. Then Sister Lytle and I talked a lot together about how we should always be repenting and trying to be better and follow
Christ and how to ask imported questions on the way down to Smoky Lake to meet the other sisters!

 When Sister To and I were reunited we stopped by some people in Bonnyville.  We were getting back in our car when we saw a Filipino lady walking down the street and decided to talk to her! She's nannied in Hong Kong and is now here and she is so sweet! Hopefully we'll be able to meet with her sometime! Then we went out for Chinese buffet because we were starving. It hurt (so full)! But it was so good!

We had the privilege of attending a funeral on Saturday morning of a sweet older lady related to half the ward. It was the first funeral I ever attended and it was really touching. Life is so precious! This ward is so sweet. So many people came and supported the family. :)

On Sunday we were able to see the flip side because we taught sharing time in primary. That was an adventure. We played "sisters say" and talked about prophets. We made senior primary do some role plays about certain prophets and they're all too funny! We've been getting a lot of compliments and thanks lately for bringing the Spirit with us and it's really neat how close I'm able to feel to the Holy Ghost and how I am constantly and consistently being guided by him.

We got to go on a tour of a bison farm yesterday! That was neat! The biggest buffalo you see is Hughie. He's an 8 year old bull. I learned quite a bit about them. Enjoy the pictures. :)

An article I love this week is "Lord, Is It I?" By Pres. Uchtdorf, we could all do well to ask ourselves if there's anything that we need to change in our lives. :)


https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/lord-is-it-i?lang=eng

 I also got to see a sneak peek of the new Easter video," Follow Him". It is so good! Watch last year's "He Lives." I also love that video. :)

He Lives

 Have a wonderful week, I love you all!

Sister Baker

Pony Love and Ice Hearts

Hello friends and family!




Thank you so much for always putting up with my meager little emails!


This week has been a blast! We went on another adventure at Cold Lake provincial park. We saw lots of ice fishers and there were so many woodpeckers out. We had a blast... and took more pictures.

We taught a lesson in the middle of a high class clothing store, so that was a little different, but interesting. The Plan of Salvation can help anyone. Who doesn't want to know where they came from, where they're going, and what it takes to get there? It's a message everyone deserves to hear.



We taught the little seminary class here in Cold Lake and I got to know some of the youth. That was fun. We talked about how sometimes we seek to please others before God. It just doesn't work in the end. Then we volunteered at a second hand store where everything is two dollars.  It's dangerous! I like clothes too much! But we had fun. All the funds go to a women's safe house so that's really neat. :)



I met a couple who write, direcs and act. They made me miss acting.  They're a young couple and they've travelled everywhere.  They're so loud and lovey and I love them. His family lives in Ontario, actually. It's funny how small the world can be.



We got to see ponies on Friday. I was excited! They're so cute!

On Saturday We went to a winterfest and we made ice hearts inside an igloo. #canadianeh  It was such a fun family thing with a free bbq and an ice slide and a campfire and such. It was so cool! There was even pony rides! Too bad. I'm too big to ride! Haha!

On Sunday we had ward conference and the stake came to visit. We had a big potluck and boy do people know how to cook here! I've probably gained so much weight. Ahaha! In church we learned about how virtue is a power. Christ used this power in his own ministry, in the story of the woman with an issue of blood.  He knew someone touched him because virtue went out of him. Check out the bible video of that experience. :) Virtue is a power that can flow in and out of us. Virtue is also the spirit of life. No wonder it's so closely tied to chastity. Cool thought of the day I guess. :)

Jesus Heals a Woman of Faith

I just love the church! I love the organization and love that is felt in our worldwide community. I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time since being out and I grow to love the stories more and more each time I read them! My testimony has grown so much in these short 6 months. It's incredible! I hope to continue to improve and progress for the rest of my mission. :) I can't wait to start the BOM again. So much power comes from it. Near the end there's a verse in Moroni that says "perfect love casteth out all fear." What an awesome promise. I hope each of you can realize Christ's perfect love for you and strive to love each other a little more each day. The article "You Know Enough" from the 2008 general conference has been a great source of strength for me as a missionary. I don't need to know everything. I just need a testimony of its truthfulness.


https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/you-know-enough?lang=eng


I love you each.  Have a wonderful week.


Sister Baker