Pushing Against Rocks and House Hunting

Hello family and friends!

You guys look like you're having a blast and a half! I miss you all like crazy! It's cooling down a bit here! My companion, Sister Bahtishi, is from Arizona. She's been wearing what I constitute as a winter jacket for weeks already! ...I'm still in t-shirts. Haha!

 

These week we've been traveling to surrounding cities a lot! We've been Halloween house hunting along the way! We love seeing all of the decorations! We've been meeting with less active members a lot lately and trying to emphasize the importance of home and visiting teaching! If you have an assignment... do it! And be sincere about it! Watch the new Mormon message, "Reaching Out With Love" I think it's my new favourite! But the point is to try harder and keep going.

"Latter-Day Saints Keep on Trying" was a general conference talk a little while back and it totally applies to reaching out to those around us! Someone spoke about it on Sunday at church and they gave a story about a man who encountered a rock on his path, when he inquired of the Lord what to do, he was told to push with all his might! He pushed and pushed everyday for years and the rock never budged. The man fell to his knees in agony and confusion and asked God what the point of pushing was when the boulder never moved! Heavenly Father told him that he was never asked to move the boulder, only to push against it. He told the man that now he was strong. He had muscles and he was prepared for future obstacles! I love this story! I can think of so many times when I've pushed and not recognized the outward results, but the results were really personal, preparing me for future things to come!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/latter-day-saints-keep-on-trying?lang=eng

 I also had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting this past Sunday! My first talk on the mission! It was based off of an article from the 2005 General Conference from Elder Bednar entitled "Becoming a Missionary". How ironic, haha! But.... we should all be working to become a better missionary. It is an obligation, it is what the Saviour expects!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2005/10/becoming-a-missionary?lang=eng

 

I'm excited for Halloween! We carved pumpkins in FHE and it was a blast!

 That's about all I have for the week! Love and miss you all!


 Sister Baker

Ready For a Change?

Hello friends and family!

Well this past week was so full of meetings and such! On Tuesday we played football for p-day (preparation day) and I got a touchdown... Just saying. Haha! Anyways, Wednesday we had a zone conference where we switched zones. It was different, with so many people I haven't met. They talked about some awesome things and gave some great insights on how to be more effective as a missionary. We were encouraged to find some things to "put on the alter of sacrifice" or give up. Some of my things I need to give up are being judgmental, not being Rudy on time, and using the words "shut up" and "suck". What are some things that you can give up to become more obedient and Christ like?

Then I went on exchanges (where missionaries change their companions for a day or two to work in other areas) and left my area for the first time! It felt so weird to be in a family ward!  There were older people and kids and you have to teach them all! It takes a lot of patience, that's for sure! I had a blast with sister Rush though. We all live together anyways so I don't really need to worry about not seeing her much. Ahaha! ...but it was an awesome 24 hours with her.

We have been getting busy! There are a lot of less active members that we've been reaching out too. Parents are always trying to get their kids back on track with us, it's so nice to see their love and concern, that they really care about their kids.

We had a YSA (Young Single Adult group 18 - 30 yrs group) meeting yesterday with all the other YSA missionaries. This age is such a crucial decision making time in everyone's life so it's cool to be a part of it.

I'm giving a talk in church next week, so that's crazy! Anddd ....hmm what else... Ooo! We've been getting more meals, so that's appreciated! We ran out of money on our allotment cards for the month already so it's been nice! The ward is so awesome at being involved! Don't forget to invite people you know! You are the biggest source of investigators! Talk to everyone and invite people to meet with the missionaries! You never know who's ready for change!

Love you all!

Sorry I don't have pictures this week!

Sister Baker

Gratitude For Dinosaurs

Hello Friends and family!

 

I've already been emailing for a while so I'll keep it brief!

This past week we said good bye to some amazing Elders! Elder Song went back to Vancouver and Elder Nemeth went to Manchester, England... I don't have the pictures from his goodbye.

 

Then we had a district meeting in a new district! BAH, Sister Neal and I have been in the same district since the MTC! But now we have Mandarin Elders in our district. Elder Nemeth's companion got ANOTHER Brit ahaha so 100% of his companions are British. That day we also met a new investigator... Yes, he is a dinosaur... everyone needs the Gospel.  Haha!

Sunday Night we went to Bishop's and a bunch of his wife's family was over! It was crazy but great! So we did get turkey dinner! Yum! Yum! We then challenged them to write a thank you card for someone they appreciated and gave them the materials to do it! It was so sweet!

 

I challenge you to write a thank you note to someone you appreciate this week!

On Thanksgiving we had a gratitude booth set up on a busy intersection downtown with a bunch of the Elders... We had someone playing the piano and we gave out free hot chocolate, and a few Books of Mormon! It was soo successful! We'll do it again for sure! That night our house went out for dinner at Red Robins... good burgers and endless yam fries.  What more could you want?!

 

 

Well my time is just about up for this week!

Have a  fantastic week!

Love you all!

Sister Baker

Silly String and An Inheritance

Hello friends and family!

 

How amazing was General Conference?! The new apostles have given some great talks in the past like, "Your Four Minutes." Make sure you look some of them up! 

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/your-four-minutes?lang=eng

 

Some of the missionaries in our zone are leaving tomorrow so I don't have much time to write today.

 

The Castle Downs Elders put peanut butter on our car door handles so we decorated their car with pink steamers and eyelashes. Then we silly stringed them after a lesson last night. Who says that missionaries can't have fun? Hahaha.

 

We were supposed to teach English class with the Londonderry Sisters since the language Elders all went to the priesthood session of General Conference, but then no one showed up. They must have known we were teaching! Haha.

 

So yesterday was transfer calls. Since I'm still training, I'm staying for at least another transfer (6 weeks) with Sister Bahtishi but the Elders in our ward are both leaving... And no new ones are coming to the area. Sooo, Sister Bahtishi and I will inherit all their work, investigators and such. We are going to be very busy! 

 

 

Sorry I don't have much time this week but I love you all and hope you watch General Conference! 

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions?cid=HP14GC&lang=eng

 

Love always,

 

Sister Baker. 

Converting a Missionary?

Hello friends and family!

This week was interesting. We had an interesting encounter this week that tried to reverse our roles. There's a lady who seems to think converting missionaries is a smart idea... She's been inviting us to her church and house and shared some interesting videos with us... Anywho, it's always an adventure out here!

We've been teaching about individual worth and charity a lot!  Remember you're divine worth and purpose and help others recognize their own! I have a commitment for you all! Provide an act of service this week and email me the results! Small or big.  You choose! Seeing someone's smile makes it all worthwhile! Also read the article in the Ensign (church magazine) titled, "Faith, Service, and a Loaf of Bread".  It's a really touching story about a young man in Armenia. 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/10/young-adults/faith-service-and-a-loaf-of-bread?lang=eng

Women's conference was amazing! I'm so excited for general conference next week, although sad to hear of the passing of Elder Richard G. Scott.  He was an amazing example and an incredible man. At this the time of his passing, I encourage you to watch the Mormon message "Expressions of Love"

...and remember to always show your love for those around you as he has to his wife. 

Also please watch the general women's conference if you haven't yet, even if you are a male, President Uchtdorf's parable is relatable for all!

Or read it here...

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/a-summer-with-great-aunt-rose?lang=eng

We biked to the stake centre for the general women's conference since we are out of kms on the car, but it was another adventure I suppose! 

We had a new missionaries follow up meeting and our MTC (Missionary Training Centre) house was reunited! So happy I was able to see them all last Friday! Ignore my strange arm, ahaha! That's really my update for this week! Excited to hear from you! (Email: jessica.baker@myldsmail.net)

Love from Sister Baker 

Kneescaps, Rainforests and Police Officers

Hello friends and family!

Wow the week was great! I absolutely adore all of the members in Kingsway YSA! I made cookies from scratch and forgot a whole cup of flour the first batch. My cookies may have boiled. Oops!

Hot chocolate and donuts!

Ahaha... anywayssss, I went to a foot doctor because I've been having problems with my knee since the MTC and I was told my kneecap is slightly off of my knee. Anyways, the doctor was super cool and diagnosed me with patela-femoral syndrome which basically means I've always has this problem and it's just wearing on me now. It basically means my ankles are pressured inward and my feet are flat and its pulling the bottom part of my leg and knee cap inward. But it is fixed by propping my toes up and straightening my ankle, so he offered to give me inserts to correct it for free (they're actually super expensive so his charity is well appreciated)!

While I was there I met a sister Riddely whispered in Ontario a very long time ago and knows the Nabrotzky's from Walkerton and the Jakob's... so woah small world!

While we were on the south side we went to the bookstore which was SOOO cool. I love church bookstores. There's so much cool stuff! We've been getting a lot more dinner appointments so yum yum in my tum! 😄 I extended my first invitation to baptism on Sunday and now we have a baptism scheduled for December 12 hopefully. It's always so great teaching her!

The other night we had dinner with Hugh, a recent convert and a bunch of other YSA. I felt like we should talk about opening our mouths to share the gospel, so after the dinner (of delicious homemade sushi and dumplings) I got all of them to write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon.  We then raced to hand them out to someone in the neighbourhood. They all loved it and had a blast and we handed out one of them! And everyone else knew who they wanted to give it to once they came back unsuccessful. Such a good experience. They realized that inviting their friends was WAY easier than getting doors shut on their faces 😝

We went on exchanges for the first time this week with our sister training leaders but it's funny cuz we're all already in the same 4 man flat so nothing changed all that much. We cleaned out our contacts list and area books and played pool on Friday and ordered tons of pizza from Papa Johns and a giant chocolate chip cookie that was delicious!

 Funny story.... We went to an arena (like we often do) to find people to talk to.  We started talking to one lady and the police all of a sudden were standing right behind us. It was a tad unsettling because when we walked away they followed us for a bit so we just left. It was interesting to say the least. Maybe we should have shared the gospel with them! We found a rainforest in the city when we couldn't find parking by the library and just ended up paying for it. 😒 But it was all fun!

Until next week

Sister Baker

Using a Different Kind of GPS

Hello friends and family!

This week was busy as usual but I've been trying to recognize the simple miracles in life. We had a pretty amazing experience yesterday. We bought a treat and rolled up a short story ("The Room by Joshua Harris... READ IT!) and were planning on dropping it off at a former investigator's house that night. We located her intersection on our map (we aren't blessed with GPS yet) and made our way over there. At 8:45, after over half an hour of desperately looking for her house we were exhausted, exasperated and just grumpy. It was evident that her house was not on the intersection we thought it was. We stopped, turned off the music, and said a prayer for direction. We tried some new tactics and then decided to call another Sister for help. After some rough possible directions, we tried again and found the house with ease. Heavenly Father is always listening. With His help we were able to deliver the treat to her doorstep and break a previous investigator's silence. We are so grateful for all that we have been given.

(Watch the YouTube video telling the story of "The Room" by Joshua Harris set to music. Beautiful!)

Earlier last week I made banana bread for the zone leaders, and succeeded quite well. I have included a photo of my success ;)

We adventured a lot this week. First Sister Bahtishi got us lost in an industrial park after claiming she knew a different way home from the institute! We drove around for an hour before finding our way back.  Our conservation of km's is going quickly... That is why we have been bussing even more this week. But buses are a great way to meet new people though. We've also found that YSA like to congregate at local sports arenas so we've been finding them there as well! Yesterday in particular we set out to take the bus to visit a member who just moved in to the ward. Unfortunately the buses aren't very reliable and we had a late bus that caused us to miss the following one. Smart old me determined we would be less late by walking than by waiting for the next bus. And so walk we did! For about an hour and a half. I had grossly misjudged the distance. I suppose I paid sister Bahtishi back for getting us lost the day before because we must have walked at least 5 or 6 miles, if not more. It's all in the adventure of it I suppose!

I hit my one month mark on Saturday! It feels so weird. Like I should have hit it a long time ago.

We had a conference with Elder Golden on Thursday and that was amazing. He had us all shake his hand and introduce ourselves beforehand. He is a man with an amazing spirit and his wife is such a
sweetheart! We went to the institute BBQ kickoff and I met a fellow from the cast of "My Latter-Day Life". It's a YouTube show that was created in Edmonton. Zachary Ayers from back home is in it and I had been watching the show for months before I even got my call! Speaking of Zach, I ran into him at the YSA world wide devotional (which was also really great). It was strange to run into someone from home, but kind of neat. Brother Nelson (our Kitchener stake clerk) was also visiting his parents with his wife and baby girl this week, so it was neat to see them at church on Sunday.

We told some Elders that we could see them being characters from Toy Story (Ham and Buzz). And they responded by saying that Sister Bahtishi would be Mrs. Potato Head. And I would be Mike Wisowski's crazy girlfriend from Monsters Inc. Do I seem like a crazy girlfriend to you?! Hahaha it was quite funny though. :)

That's really it for my week I think. Sorry I don't have many pictures but, yeah.

Love you all lots.

Sister Baker.


Also. It rained a ton!
Andddd Londonderry sisters sticky attached our mirror.