Loon Lakes and Llama Meat

Hello friends and family!


I hope that you've had an awesome week! I've definitely kept busy!

On Tuesday I got to eat llama meat! That was an adventure! It just tastes like beef!

Wednesday was adventurous! We worked at the food bank like usual in the morning, then we had some spare time after driving out to Loon Lake, Saskatchewan... so they wanted to take pictures at a lake and a memorial site while we waited! They're too sweet! So there's lots of pictures this week. Haha! Sorry!

Thursday was very busy! We taught seminary, then drove to St. Paul to go to the chiropractors before our district meeting. That was my first time going.  It was interesting to be cracked and pulled at. Then at district meeting we wrote letters to ourselves when we finish our missions. That was hard! Haha! Then I had a doctor's appointment and got some good allergy medication. The smoke has been pretty bad here from the forest fires. We had the chance afterwards to go to the community centre.  We found a car full of members of the ward outside and they said that they weren't allowed to hand out backpacks they had brought for Fort Mac kids inside the building. So we went inside and cleared it all up and got the backpacks to the front desk. I hope that they all got given out to the kids. :)

On Friday we went and saw our Filipino friend in the hospital who's missing part of his skull from a car crash. He's so strong and positive! Then we went back to the food bank to keep it open 24/7 for
Fort Mac residents. That was cool.  To hear their stories is so awesome! The pastor of the food bank there let me play on his 6 string banjo and that was fun! I didn't get a picture of the banjo but there is a picture of me playing the guitar at a members home. I miss it! Haha!

Then we volunteered at the community dinner at another church, and they put me on desserts.  They all looked so good! We love the community! We received a referral (or someone who someone else thinks might be interested in learning more about the church) from a grandfather in Salt Lake City.  He asked us to stop by his grandkids, so we hope to start teaching them all soon!

On Saturday in rained! But it was so good! We got to do some crazy things! We got to go tag, vaccinate, and castrate calves at a members farm! I got to operate the needle, that was fun! Then we all bbq'd and found lots of potentials teach-ees there! An investigator came too! We call him "shirtless" Will, for obvious reasons! He started some whip cream wars with some of the people there. Sister Christensen and I found it humorous until we got whip cream on our noses too! It was fun, even when it started pouring and we got soaked! Then we went to visit a part member family who was camping nearby and lots of members ended up being there! Then we ate at the Calders, and they ended up having a big Filipino party, so that was a surprise, but fun! We advertised our new English class! Hopefully we'll be starting it up this week!

On Sunday we were asked to teach 3 primary classes and sharing time because so many people were away! It's funny though, because we had enough visitors to make up for all the people we lost! We just taught sharing time but Sister Christensen also gave a talk! It was quite fun! Then we taught a bunch on Sunday.

Yesterday was a miracle though.  We taught the most lessons I think we've ever taught in one day, and we still went to St. Paul (1 1/2 hrs away) for a chiropractor appointment. We ate dinner at another party. This time there was a family and both sets of parents came, one from El Salvador. They only spoke Spanish so we showed them "He Lives" (video) in Spanish.  We did the same thing for the Filipino party on Saturday except in Tagalog. It's such a good video and it testifies so much of the Saviour! Then they gave us chocolate cake from New York. The whole cake! And it's really good so far!

We taught a really good lesson with Will, our 60 year old body builder investigator and he's loving the word of wisdom.  We read Ether 2 and 3 with him and he loved that too! Then we helped his son, who's another investigator and who's building his own house and we read Jacob 4 with him. I love that chapter and I recommend you all to read it. The Nephites were writing this book for us.  They wanted to teach us about the Atonement and we need to utilize the Book of Mormon and make sure we're teaching others!

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/ether/2?lang=eng


https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/4?lang=eng

I read an article this week called "Preparing Gifts for Your Future Family" in the January 2014 New Era and it was just so good! So read that too if you have the chance! I hope you've all had a great week and that you'll have another good one!


https://www.lds.org/new-era/2014/01/preparing-gifts-for-your-future-family?lang=eng

 Love always,
Sister Baker ❤️

 World's largest perogy.  There's even a street named after it!

Rusty Nails and Exploding Watermelons

Last week was pretty crazy, sorry about that! But I'll try a little better today!

On Wednesday, we worked at the food bank. Tons of donations came in, again! Then we helped out baking at the daycare. That's always fun! And then we learned about modesty at Young Women's and made paper doll figures!


On Thursday, we ran around a bunch and then had a lesson with Will. He's a nuclear physicist and has a degree in psychology and he's super fit, and a military buff. He's also 60! So he's pretty cool. We love him! A young man preparing for his mission came with us to help in the discussion, so that was good! Will is committed to live the Word of Wisdom. He said his doctor wanted him to quit drinking coffee anyways! Haha! So that was great!

On Friday, we helped clean a sister's house who just had a baby. Then we went out to a farm to help a family build some fences. The guy helping us was wearing a white shirt, dress slacks and shoes, a vest and tie. And he said that was his casual wear. Pretty funny! Sister Christensen may have stepped on a rusty nail though. Thank goodness for tetanus shots!

On Saturday, we did the Cherry Grove highway cleanup. Cherry Grove is so clean compared to anywhere I've seen. There wasn't that much to pick up, but we all together did around 17kms or something like it, on both sides, so about 34kms of work. We were tired! But then we went and moved and sanded a bunch of shelves at the daycare after eating Mexican food with a few families for lunch! We finished by staining the shelves as well. Then we went to a Little Britches rodeo meeting with a member who's the president of the committee. It's basically Cherry Grove's claim to fame. Haha! It's a cute little rodeo grounds. Sad, I'll miss it! I'll need to come back to visit and see that!

On Sunday, we had a recently returned missionary speak as the high council travelling companion. He spoke what seemed like forever! But it was really good. He was super relatable because it was the anniversary of the Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. All the talks were on the Priesthood, so that was nice. Then we had dinner with papa Hatch and his family and we came up with the brilliant idea to try to explode a watermelon with rubber bands. So we made plans for FHE the next day. We had a fun Book of Mormon reading with a part member family and talked about the Apocalypse/Second Coming. They have a great setup. We agreed to go to their place if anything like that happens anytime soon! Haha!

Yesterday, we cleaned this sweet sister's home for her. She has pretty severe disabilities, so it was a duration change with the help of the Relief Society president.

That's all for this week!


Love you all!


Sister Baker

Fort Mac Relief Efforts

Hello friends and family!


What a crazy week! I'm righting this while waiting for a house to pass us on the highway! It fits right in with the week! I got a massage from a lovely member this morning and now we're running to get an oil change in the next city before we go help with the Fort Mac relief effort.

Okay, sooo that's a good place to start, Fort McMurray is pretty crispy right now. We've been trying to keep up with it as much as possible. I know that the church didn't get burnt down in Fort Mac, though most things around it did. We fasted for the city and it rained on Sunday up there. Yay! Also, it was supposed to double in size and it didn't, so that's pretty cool! Fasting works! Speaking of relief for the city, we had a council here in Cold Lake with all the churches in the area. It was really cool! One of the pastors knows us, actually, many other church leaders know us, but one looked around until she found our number. She knew we were important, that was cool! Anyways, we're all working together instead of each doing our own things, and we're working with the city as well. There is so much support for the evacuees and it's super awesome to see! We have 300+ evacuees in just the Cold Lake/Cherry Grove area alone, so it's good that we are organized!


Haze from the fires in the air...

 Last week got pretty hot here. And we don't have a/c sooo we jimmied a portable one into our window. It doesn't open the way the a/c is built. So yeah, we're creative people!

On Thursday we had a district meeting and we helped with a service project in St. Paul. We watched a farmer gut and chop a pig. Then we got to see all his piglets and pigs. It was fun.

 We had the opportunity to go to a "Watoto" concert.  They're from an orphanage in Uganda, Africa. They were so sweet! They are awesome dancers and so entertaining. An older couple we visit invited us. :)  We may or may not have shed some tears... and we got the album and t-shirts and met the kids. It was a blast! Check them out!

We're still teaching seminary. We brought the kids donuts one morning.  It was fun! I love the youth in the ward They're too sweet!

We helped out by volunteering at the Ronald McDonald run on Saturday.  That was fun! We got stripy socks and Golden Arches and handed out prizes.  It was a blast!


We also helped move a bunch of sand and it was quite a workout. That was at the daycare where we also helped the kids make cute pendants for Mother's Day!

We got to see our families on Sunday! After talking to my mom, I skyped the Nabrotzky's for a bit. Nice to see how well everyone is doing at home.

That's really been my week! Hope you have a good one! Love you all!

Sister Baker

At the Beach With 8 Cow Wives

This week! Well, how about I just explain the pictures because I don't have much time!

I forgot to say that I tried escargot on Monday! It was... Different. Not a favourite, but not the worst!

On p-day (preparation day) we had dinner with the girls! They had a whole date planned for us. After dinner we shared a message and then made dream catchers from the driftwood on the beach!

On Wednesday, we were invited to YW's (Young Women - ages 12-18) for a Johnny Lingo Luau! We watched the movie, ate fruit, and learned how to be an "8 cow wife" through the 8 YW values. We had mini games for each one! I loved them all! We actually had a fast for the youth this past Sunday. :)

JOHNNY LINGO - 1969

 

We had a heat wave! Our car read like, 34 degrees on Sunday! We also went to the beach on Saturday with an investigator who just moved from BC. It was so nice that we took a few pictures after!

On Sunday we got our nails done by some youth... it was a blast! Then Sister Hatch tried to do some of my family history for me! It's not easy stuff! While I was in the other room for 2 minutes, Jamie tied up his grandma, then my companion! This is why you don't leave you're companion!

That's about it! Do something nice for your mom on Sunday! Love you all!

Oh. Readddd "But If Not..." From general conference a few years ago. :)


https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/but-if-not?lang=eng

Sister Baker. :)