Muddy Cars, Giant Mushrooms and Office Chairs

Wow! What an incredible week! We did sooo much!

First off, on Tuesday we got a car wash! And then we nearly got stuck in the mud at an investigator's house! It was insane! But we made it out although we and the car were all muddy! It was a bit of a wasted car wash!

On Wednesday we volunteered at the food bank and then ate dinner at the Hatch's. It was a blast! Jamie made banana cake for an Elder that we saw in Edmonton the next day and he packed us an entire lunch for Edmonton. It was nothing short of a feast! He's a blast and we really want to help him and his family work towards the temple someday soon!

On Thursday we woke up super early to go to Edmonton for a meeting! We took the scenic route through a wildlife reserve and we saw tons of wild bison, and some geese. Nothing too extraordinary though. We had a great meeting where the mission president stood right beside me and my companion during a role play.   It was a tad hard to focus on the role play... but he's awesome and he role played with us afterward while everyone else resumed the meeting. We learned about relating scriptures to people as soon as you see them. Then we had exchanges, where you switch companions for 24 hours, although ours consists mostly of driving a lot!

On Friday we saw some miracles! So Sister Bramwell came to Cherry Grove with me and we went and volunteered at a big volunteer appreciation event. We got to do floral arrangements and a young girl helped us by running them to tables. Then we switched back in little Vilna, where the worlds largest mushrooms are, see pictures.... and then we went back to volunteer for the actual event. While we were there, an usher came and told us there were two young girls outside who wanted to talk to us! When we went out we discovered that one was that girl who had helped us earlier with the flowers! And they invited us to go to Bullerama with them the next night! It was so cool! The Spirit definitely prompted her to come back and talk to us again!

Saturday was insane! Jamie's wife got baptized! She has been investigating for 8 years on and off! Sooo many missionaries have been a part of her conversion and we got to be part of her baptism! It was SUCH a privilege! I was super sick in the morning... well all that day, with a nasty cold, but somehow I managed to give a decent talk at her baptism! Her whole family was able to come and it was awesome! Then we helped someone out with yard work. The weather has finally started to warm up and it's beautiful! Then we went to the rodeo with those two girls and we had a blast! There are some crazy videos, but the bulls mostly won. We're having dinner with those girls again tonight!

On Sunday there was a really great speaker who said some pretty awesome things! He said "If you drift away, it's not because Heavenly Father forgets who you are, but because you forget who you are."  He also said "Learn to solve problems yourself, but not necessarily on your own,"  and he told us that "We can disagree, but don't be disagreeable,"  "Be humbly righteous" and "Obedience is not an option." He just had so many awesome one liners. He's a convert and his son is heading out to his mission soon. Plus he straight up complimented us in the middle of his talk! It was sweet! Delaney also got confirmed this day so that was pretty sweet! The Holy Ghost is so cool!

Yesterday, Monday, we helped out with more yard work and had dinner with the Relief Society president. Working with the auxiliaries is so essential! They are the ones staying in this ward for a long time, not us! We also hauled a chair up our three flights of stairs, but yay to a not broken study chair! Well, that's about it for my week!

I hope that you all have a great week and that you guys tell me how your life has been! Miss you all!

Something I studied this week was Elder Holland's final talk from conference... so remember tomorrow what you learned today!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/tomorrow-the-lord-will-do-wonders-among-you?lang=eng

Love from,

Sister Baker 

Push Ups For Donuts and Cake Pops

Well this week we have seen Delaney a lot! She is the one preparing for baptism and we're trying to support her as much as possible. The adversary can make things hard on those who are sincerely trying to be better.... We saw her a lot this week!

Wednesday is always a lot of volunteering. We went to the food bank and they all know us there now. One man even expressed more interest in talking to us about the church! Then we helped a couple peel wallpaper. That took a while!

On Thursday we had a district meeting where we talked a lot about the way we present our message. That subject is always fun. We need to be excited and positive about missionary work if we want people to be interested! Then we did some service at a farm where we built a barbed wire gate with the elders while they were out here. The less active members we were with decided to motivate us by throwing horse poop at us. It was all fun and games though! Then we went back to the church for Delaney's baptismal interview... which she passed! Yay! She asked me give a talk on baptism at her baptism, so that's an incredible privilege! In ward council we talked about less active members who need more support from the ward. It was great to see them all so excited to help these families. Hopefully they can accept the outreached hands. Look around and see if there's someone struggling who you can help. There's a great video I love called "Reach Out With Love" that I've probably already mentioned before.  Kind of humorous too!

MORMON MESSAGE - Reach Out With Love

On Friday we ate dinner at a couple's house. Their name was on our fridge, it said "Call when you need a dinner," so we called and they invited us over and even sent us home with leftovers! Turns out they lived in southern Alberta and always grew up around Mormons, although they aren't interested in joining themselves! They bought a little cake from the store and we were all trying to guess what it was. We think it's Mr. Potato head... let me know if you have any other ideas!  Haha!

We got a nail in our tire and had a slow leak that we had to get fixed on Saturday. So we drove out to Bonnyville and went to Kal Tire to get it replaced. We had a spare tire on there so it took us a while. We stopped at a really cute diner on the way home. They had delicious cake balls and cupcakes. It was a super cute place. I loved the jukeboxes.

Then on Saturday night we had the opportunity to go to a Filipino house warming party. The family are great missionaries so it was a really neat opportunity to talk to some less active members, non members, and advertise for our English class! They really want to help! We did get roped into karaoke though. We sang "Wannabe" from the Spice Girls which was sooo weird as a missionary. And then "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. We listen to that one all the time so that was fun!

On Sunday we ate redneck tacos which were super delicious. Then we shared a message about tithing for all the kids and we used candy to help. That day in sacrament meeting we had some great speakers. One of them said that our greatest possession is our testimony and someone is trying to take it from us. And that is so true. We need to fit for our testimonies but it is sooo worth it! She also said that faith is knowing that there is an answer and that we'll get it in due time. They also talked about how the Lord is looking down and saying "I'll explain it later" to us every time we get stumped.


That night we put the hot water from the shower on to get some humidity in the air while my humidifier gets fixed! It made the apartment sticky and hot! It didn't stay on for very long though!

Yesterday we had a meeting on the army base where we talked to a lady about a space for English class. She really wanted to help and even offered free advertising! We're really hoping everything goes through for the English class so that we can help the community as much as possible.


Sister Christensen and I both have a pretty bad cold/ flu thing so we've been resting a lot the past two days. You don't really get a day off as a missionary but it's amazing how you're strengthened. We had a great lesson with Will, our loud army guy, who didn't even hesitate when we invited him to be baptized. So that was pretty promising. :) We had awesome dinner with a bunch of gingers! There's a family that has 5 boys and 3 are ginger. They all have the best stories and hurt themselves a lot! They're a lot of fun!

This morning we taught seminary. It was our first time with the Cherry Grove class.  Apparently they were jealous that the Cold Lake kids get us once a week! I guess you could say we're the cool missionaries. ;) Then we ate lunch with some members. It was good!


Well, lots of early mornings this week... wish us luck! At least it's warming up!

Something I've loved this week is a story called "Push-ups for donuts." It's such a powerful lesson. I invite you all to read it!

 Have a great week,

Love always,

Sister Baker

April Fools With a New Companion

Hello friends and family!

Wow what a crazy week! I had to say goodbye to Sister To on Wednesday, which was really sad! I am going to miss her a lot but she'll make such a difference in St. Albert too!

My new companion is sister Christensen! She is a powerhouse! She is so bold and talks to everyone! She came out with Sister To, so that's cool too! We're both excited for a busy transfer! Sister Christensen is 22, from Soda Springs, Idaho and a business graduate from LDSBC (LDS Business College), and a twin! She has another set of twins in her family too, so that's pretty cool! We got to know each other lots on the three hour drive back to Cherry Grove.

We've been sooo busy the past few weeks, and this week has no different. We've had a bunch of lessons and sooo may service opportunities! On Thursday, we were given a ton of really expensive
designer clothes from an investigator who owns her own store! She told us to go through them ourselves and then donate the rest when we volunteered at No Orbiting Trends, so that was pretty sweet!

On Friday, we collected a ton of info for a bunch of service opportunities and for a place to hold English classes, so hopefully we get responses soon! It was also April Fools this week, so I half-heartedly attempted a prank by smearing ketchup all over my hand while she was in the shower. When she got out I yelled "Oooowww!" and said I think I got a paper cut, opening my hand to reveal a bunch of red. She seemed pretty concerned and I had her for a second, but ketchup stinks and I was laughing way too hard!

On Saturday, we got to watch General Conference! It's so nice to hear the prophets and apostles speaking to us directly, the words that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would want to tell us! I went to conference with 5 questions and most of them were answered! It's amazing how the Spirit tells us exactly how we can improve our lives. I hope you all had a chance to watch the conference! I think this was the day it was 20 degrees! It was beautiful!

Yesterday, we volunteered everywhere! We went to the family centre where we were invited to a volunteer night, and then the Humane Society where we got to see Kiki (which is what they named the cat we brought in a few weeks ago!).


We've been working with an older man who used to be in the army and studied a ton of subjects. He's been coming out to church lately and he knows most of the members.   He even came to General Conference! He has such great questions and I always love lessons with him! The member we brought to help with his lesson said something so great! She said that aging is like a toilet paper roll; the closer we get to the end, the faster it goes! It was funny!

Well that's about it for our week! Right now it is not 20 degrees... it is snowing, and the snow is sticking! :( We'll get spring one day I'm sure! But for now, I hope the weather's nicer wherever you are!

Have a good week! Love you all!

Sister Baker ❤️

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