Boomeranging back into blogging

  I've had a lot of thoughts lately about opening up my blog to something a little bit different than my mission. Shortly after I arrived home from my mission I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Since that diagnosis I have been in different treatments and I have had many experiences and I've noticed there isn't much of an online community or conversation around MS, so I would like to change that. My posts will most likely be sporadic, but I knew I needed to start somewhere. 

Below is a video of a ted talk I prepared for one of my university courses last year. I know it’s a little cheesy and isn’t executed or prepared perfectly, but I really want to get a large chunk of my story out there in preparation for more posts concerning the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis. MS is a rare autoimmune disease that affects around 2.3 million people worldwide according to the national multiple sclerosis society. According to the same source, MS is more than twice as common in females and symptoms usually begin between the ages of 20 and 40. I was first diagnosed with MS in 2017 when I was 21, but I had been experiencing symptoms for years prior to that time. 

I’m just a Canadian university student living in America trying to start a conversation about a rare and unknown condition, thanks for following a long with me! :) 

Baby Kisses Are Sweet!

Well folks, it sure has been a great week!

I just love missionary work. People keep reminding me that I'm going home soon and Sister Romney and I are just pretending we are oblivious to that fact. A big piece of my heart will lie in Alberta forever.

 This week, as always, we had lots of adventures. I got to go to Fort Saint John, BC for probably the last time in my life, so that was fun! I went on exchanges with Sister Anderson, who I knew back in Kingsway because that's where her home ward is. She is a killer missionary! Because of unique circumstances, she has been able to serve in 3 missions now, but she'll be back in Florida soon, I'm sure. I finally got pictures by all of the cool things, even though it's taken forever! I loved spending time with her. We got to teach an English class where people actually came, so that was exciting. I miss English class! There was a word in hangman I put that took them 24 letters of the alphabet to figure out... the only letters not guessed at the end were x and r. The word was River. It was pretty funny! Anyway, that was a good exchange. I'm going to miss all of the missionaries I've served around. Especially my companion. I love sister Romney to pieces!

On Thursday we had district meeting and we talked about finding and to have varied door approaches when we are tracting. That's something I have been trying to work on my entire mission so it was super nice to get some training on that! Afterwards, we had a lunch appointment and we learned that pumpkin seed satisfy chocolate cravings, which was great to know, because we eat a lot of chocolate.... but we've also been working out a lot. So it's not that bad!

On Friday we planned, as per usual. Then we saw a bunch of awesome people. It sort of ended up being our less active day. We saw a lot of them today. It was good! We were able to attend part of a combined ward Valentine's activity and we had a blast there, so that was good! We got to see this cute, cute baby that I love, who always tries to kiss us! Haha!

Saturday in studies I was plowing through Alma... I'm super off track to finishing the Book of Mormon by the end of my mission, but I do believe in miracles! I have been thinking about my final temple trip in Edmonton next week and I really want to take a family name with me.  That would be super special. Saturday was super busy, we went from going out to the eastern part of our area in the morning to going to the western part in the evening. It was a little hectic, but it was a good productive day.

 On Sunday Sister Romney gave a talk about how the truth helps us to be better people, and a brother spoke about how the truth sets you free. They were both so good and this gospel really does have the fullness of truth and I love teaching others about those truths because they are so so precious! I also took a bath Sunday night, that was the best! Sometimes it's just in the little things, especially
when you're stressing out all the time. We set some high goals for this week, including handing out the remainder of a box of book of Mormons that we have in our car. High high hopes, but I'm expecting miracles, remember? Haha! I'm excited for this week!

I honestly don't know how February is passing by so quickly! Yesterday we got to have an incredible lesson with Leah, a new investigator we have. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved and readily accepted it all. We have a child's baptism on Saturday that she really wants to come to, and she wants to come to church. We are so excited for her and her cute family! I have never ever taught someone so prepared for the gospel in their lives!

Yesterday we had bible study with the deaf lady again, I'll send a picture of how our lessons go. My companion is so Canadian! Haha! ;) We also got to see a lady recovering from brain cancer. She is a champion, I think her life is legitimately comparable to Job's right now. We had a great dinner appointment out in the middle of no where, and they loved us too! And then we went tracting by our place. We accidentally knocked on a door we knocked on last week... Oops! That was embarrassing! That was really our entire week!

 I've been working super diligently trying to read the remainder of the Book of Mormon, I have just under half the book, and I have one week to finish it. So, we'll see how that goes.... I just read about the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and their story, it is one of such faith and humility. Do you know what anti-Nephi-Lehi means? Well "Anti" means "one of'". So anti Nep0hi-Lehi actually means one of Nephi and Lehi. Super cool!

Anyways, that's my week, tell me about all of yours! I get to go to Peace River today, so I'm excited about that too!

 Love and miss you!

Sister Baker ❤🍁🇨🇦

"Please bless that the sisters don't eat too much food" *ends prayer* "Well, you can eat food, just not ice cream, cuz then you'll get fat." ~ 7 year old Weaverly

Harry Potter and the Cure For Eternal Hiccups

Hello friends and family,

Sorry my email was so crappy last week! We had some crazy meetings in Edmonton and a broadcast where our schedule had some minor changes and meetings with Elder Echo Hawk of the 70 and his sweet wife! I learned so much. It was spiritually exhausting! Then on the Friday morning, we rode tripped back the 5 and a half hours with the Elders again. They stopped at every touristy thing. They are good eggs though. We like 'em!

I guess I'll be better about this week and tell you about our lives...

So on Tuesday we had exchanges with the Valleyview Sisters and I got to go with sister Brooks. She is an incredible missionary and I always love exchanges with her because she is a fellow Canadian. And what's better that two Canadians hitting the streets together? So that's exactly what we did! The temperatures dropped again this week and its been cold, but Sister Brooks and I tracted our toes off and met a lot of awesome people! While we weren't super successful in finding those prepared at this time, it was and experience that helped us grow. As President Pattison says "tracting is good for the soul!" and it is. Fun fact... we had pizza three times on Tuesday. In Costco all of the samples were pizzas, then the Elders made us a pizza while we played board games with them during PDay, and then our dinner appointment gave us pizza! It was a good pizza day! Wednesday was mostly full of, you guessed it, tracting!

Thursday morning we drove to Valleyview with the Browns, the senior couple serving here in Grande Prairie, for a district meeting and to exchange back! It was a fun meeting. Then we stopped and got Crooked Creek donuts on the way back. I was pretty happy! Sister Romney and I went to our dinner appointment at our ward mission leader's home and brought him some Crooked Creek donuts. We also cleaned their chicken coop with them and helped to feed their horses. They are a fun family!

Sister Purnell tried to cure sister Romney's hiccups too. It didn't work though.  Fun fact: Sister Romney has had incurable hiccups since she was 13! She asked a doctor about it once and he laughed at her. But seriously, every hour she gets at least a couple hiccups. They are so cute, but they get louder when she's hungry. So, solutions for eternal hiccup are welcome here! Haha!

We also had English class Thursday night and for the first time ever we had a student! Yay! Vivian is from Mexico and we tracted into her a while ago and invited her but she never came. Then a member who works at her daughters school told her to come and she did! It was awesome! Members really are so crucial to missionary work. Basically nothing happens until members do something. Then we - you guessed it, tracted. It was pretty cold.

Friday we did some weekly planning, then we randomly got the go ahead to move.  The Elders came over and loaded things into their temporary truck and we got a lot of the big things over to our new apartment! It was super good! We got to see a less active member and talk to her about Christ-like attributes, I love studying those! Then we had a yummy dinner out in this little place called Bezanson.  We then went back to our apartment to get the Elders to help move us some more. They brought the Tagalog Elders along too. It was awesome!  We owe them all brownies!

On Saturday, we got to go to this super cool YSA activity and it was Harry Potter themed. Fun fact... neither I nor my companion has read the Harry Potter books or even seen a whole movie, so we were so lost! But we got sorted into Gryffindor, ate a yummy lunch, made wands and had two non members come! Then we went and did missionary work for a while before going back to the church for a missionary correlation meeting! It was good! We had dinner at this sweet family's house. Then we went tracting because we still had time. We were so not dressed for tracting. It was super cold. We knocked on a lot of doors though, and even got a return appointment out of it! Then we went home and soaked our feet in warm water because they were literally frozen.

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and I realized it was my last fast Sunday as a missionary! So crazy! We had some great testimonies and lessons at both wards we attended. Iit was good! Lots of people randomly offered to feed us dinner too so it's been a good meal week! We had some lessons fall through, but we had a yummy dinner with an awesome family who gave us more elk jerky! Yum! So good! Then we tracted, we were better equipped this time but it was still cold and most people were watching the Super Bowl so they got a little mad at us for interrupting them. The Elders were invited in by someone so they watched the last bit between teaching this man about the gospel. So I know that the Patriots won through a huuuuge comeback in the final minutes of the game! Tell me if I'm wrong.... haha! We had Sisters stay with us for the night and I felt bad because we literally had zero furniture. It's all at the new place!

Monday we helped this sweet lady clean her house and ate lunch with her. Then we called some people to stopped by, tracted an entire street and actually had a lot of success! Then we ate dinner and had a really good lesson with some awesome investigators, Breanna and Kyle.

I'm working through "my plan" which transitions missionaries back to normal people, apparently, so that's a bit sad. I am going to miss my mission so much! You learn a life time worth of lessons in such a short, short period of time! But on the bright side, I shouldn't be too big of an awkward cat when I get home!

That's really all that happened this week. It was -42 yesterday morning, and today there are extreme cold warnings, but that's about it!

 Today I think we are eating Baloot. It's a Filipino food. A half developed duck egg. Should be interesting. Then we are having a taco party though, so that will be fun!

 Have a good week! Remember your worth!

Sister Jessica Baker ❤️🍁🇨🇦

The Week in Pictures

Trampoline Sickness With a Side of Poutine

Hello friends and family!

I hope you've all had an awesome week!

I sure have! So dang much has happened. I'll just go day by day and give you a low down!

Tuesday was the craziest day! We had transfer calls in the morning and I was told that Sister Romney was to come to Grande Prairie with me! My speck was correct! I definitely screamed a little.  I was super excited! And Sister Priestley was told she was going to Beaumont to finish training with Sister
Fernandez (if you know Sheena Fernandez, from T.O, that's her!) So we were pleased with our final transfer calls! Then we spent a lot of our PDay at a trampoline park owned by two cute member couples and we had a blast! :)

After that, the day got pretty bad! At dinner I started feeling super sick so we left dinner and went home. Then we went to the hospital and basically, long story short, I ended up throwing up. If you know me well, that's kind of a big big deal. Throwing up is my worst fear (1) and (2), I haven't puked for over 8 years prior to that night... :( So I ended up with some weird 24, 48 hour flu and it was the worst! Moral of the story....your plans to make it through your whole mission not being sick are not God's plans to help you grow!

On Wednesday, we drove the 5 hours down to Edmonton for transfers and I just slept the whole time. That was good. Then while I was waiting for Sister Romney to get out of a meeting, I chilled with all the missionaries that were going home. I'll be in that next round... That's weird! Then we went to another Sister apartment so I could sleep before a leadership meeting Thursday morning. Then we made the forever long drive back up to Grande Prairie. It's been a super fun week though! Sister Romney is from SLC, Utah. She's such a sweet heart!

 The two of us have already had so many adventures, mostly because I'm still a lost puppy and I don't know how to get anywhere at all! We did find a poutinerie though, and that was super good. It was pretty authentic! We also have been house hunting, like, all of yesterday and today, so that's been fun! We get to find a new apartment and we've found some super cool ones! I'm excited to move into one of them!

 That's really about it for this week! It's been a blast. My new companion is great! I hope you all are doing great!

 We have a General authority, Elder Echo Hawk, coming for a mission tour and special leadership meeting on Thursday. We are all getting ready for that!

 Spiritual dose of spiritual-ness:

 2 Nephi 2:24 "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."

I just love this scripture. God has this great infinite wisdom that we could never understand and He knows what He's doing. There is a purpose behind His every action and it's not up to us to change Him or His actions, but to change our reactions.

Love you all! Have a good week!

Sister Jessica Baker ❤️🍁🇨🇦