Hey mom I'm not going to write a big email today because im short on time but i want to tell you all a cute experience. We baptised a man named Francisco this week. He is 70 years old and i think its wonderful what happened with him and his family. The gospel first started to change the life of his son. his son was baptised a year ago. He had to change everything. Stop drinking and leave the ladies and everything and he was all alone in the church but then he started to bring his dad to church. He had to move his whole entire life becuase he was doing some things that weren't right too,  but he was determined and decided to change. So this week he was baptised and his son baptised him. It was really special.
Well i love you all. I get to talk on skype to you in 10 days.....
i love you
love, sister j baker


Hi mom! My week was good. We had a productive week. I went to the Christmas conference in Natal, which was fun.
I got 2 packages. You guys sure spoil me.
I hope that everything is going well with grandma and grandpa. I sure love them too.
Thank you for the money i will buy something really special for all of us.
I love you a lot and i hope that everything is going well for you. Thank you for your prayers and support
love, sister j baker

Homeward Bound

Momma Note:  My emotions are so mixed as I am writing this blog.  I didn't think that I would feel this way.  I thought I would only feel excitement about having my daughter home.  I am so excited that I can hardly breathe!  I am also sad that her mission is almost over.  My heart hurts for her because of the people she has to leave and the mission that she has loved is almost over. There have been so many sweet blessings.   I am also so grateful for the blessings that our family has received while Joci has been on a mission; the peace in our home, the family prayers, the many times we felt promptings to pray for Joci, the closeness to her even though we are thousands of miles apart, the joy of seeing the mission through her letters, praying specifically for people in Brazil,  getting the weekly emails, going to the temple often to pray for Joci and an investigator, and seeing my daughter grow into a more beautiful person through serving, learning and growing as a missionary.  Seeing her love the gospel with her whole heart and doing hard things with a smile on her face.    Understanding a little bit from her letters about her relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and her love for the people in Brazil.  It has been such a privilege to be the mother of a missionary.  I am so grateful that she has taken the opportunity to serve a mission.   I am grateful for the person that she has become through serving a mission.  She is so beautiful on the inside and the outside to me.   I am grateful for the things that our family has learned and the blessings that we have received.  I am so grateful for Sister J. Baker, for the lives that she has touched and for the people in Brazil who have touched her life. I am grateful for her testimony and the way she has learned how to live her testimony.  I am grateful for the gospel.  I know that it is true.   I am grateful that she has had the opportunity to share the light of the gospel.   I love that Sister J Baker is a missionary for a few more days.  I also love that I will get to hug her very soon.  I love that I will see her smile face to face and hear her contagious laugh.   I love that she will be home. ~Momma Baker

Hi mom. well, this will be the last email. I’m ok. I’m going to be fine. I haven’t cried yet this week. Alright i lied. I bore my testimony in the leadership council and in the zone meeting. because its tradition to do that. I am giving a hug to everyone. That’s been rough. It’s going to be hard to leave a lot of people. 

I have a question, when am i going to get released? (maybe we can forget about that part. or just get it overwith?) 

I have all my bags packed. I’m going to go to Natal tomorrow. 

I can’t wait to see you guys. But it’ll be hard to leave.

i love you 

love, sister j baker

Well. I’m on my way home. I leave Mossoro tomorrow and then i will leave Natal on Thursday. This sure has been an adventure. I can tell you one thing i sure loved every second of it. Everyone needs to serve a mission. It’s the best thing in the world. 

    I am sooo grateful for everything I learned on my mission. You know i left my house thinking that i would change the world and I changed the world of a couple people, but the person who changed the most was me. I would like to share with you a couple of things that i learned. 

    First i learned what is really important. Sometimes we are so caught up in everything that we forget what is really important. We forget that social media and going out with friends and new clothes and nice things isn’t all that important. I really learned that the things that are important is my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ and true friends. That is what is more important. 

    Second I always new the church was true because i prayed and Heavenly Father answered my prayer, but now i know the church is true because i studied and prayed and learned and now i know the background and the why its true because of logic and because it all makes sense. That’s a really beautiful thing. 

    Third i learned that i can do hard things and I can do it with a smile on my face!

    Fourth i learned how to listen to the spirit in the way that the spirit talks with me. I’m still working on this one but there have been so many times on my mission that i didn’t listen to the spirit but after i realized that it was the spirit. I learned that the more i listen and follow the spirit the second that he talks with me the more i can receive these promptings. 

    Fifth. I learned more in depth about the atonement. Something that i always knew but that i came to know a little bit better on the mission is that the atonement makes it possible to be clean again, but even more it makes it possible to learn and grow from sin or mistakes, leave them behind and become a better person because of sins and mistakes. What a beautiful gift. Something so dirty like a sin can change us and make us better because of the grace of God and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

     Sixth i loved these people. I loved with my whole entire heart. I love my investigatores. I loved the members. I loved my recent converts. I loved the language. I loved the other missionaries. I loved the drunk people in the street that we always tried to help. I loved people that gave us a cup of water when we were thirsty. i loved everything. And something that was really special to me is that was able to feel Heavenly Fathers love for me and more importantly for every single one of these people, just a little bit. 

    Seventh i learned that i’m more happy when i’m obedient.

    Eighth i learned that there is a huge difference in going to church and living the gospel. Being converted makes a whole lot of a difference.

And a whole lot more but I’m out of time here in the internet cafe. I loved my mission and i am soooooooooooooooooo grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all. I can’t wait to see you all here in a couple of days. Thank you for your love and support and for always helping me out when i needed it.

 I love you all

love, sister j baker

No Pday

February 29, 2016

Sorry I'm a little late posting this and there was no post last week.  Sister Baker got kicked off the computer early last week so there was no main letter and my letter was all about details answering questions about school for when she gets home.  Sister Baker is loving her mission and although she wants to see us and give us a hug she wants to stay on her mission more than anything.  It's probably a good thing that she already has her flight plans or we may never get to see her!  ~Momma Baker

This pday wasn’t even a pday.  I didn’t get any time to p. 

Alright i’m done joking. That wasn’t even funny. 

Here’s what we did today.

First we got up early went to the courthouse because we have 2 investigators that are going to get married!!!!!! yay!!!!! Their names are Maria and Gregorio. they are 71 years old. Talk about the cutest wedding ever. But sadly it will be on april 2nd. So i wont be able to see it. Yes i already thought about asking presidente to let me stay until then, but i think my mother would have a heart attack so i think i won’t. But man i would like to. But i don’t think it would work out either way.  Then we traveled to Natal because of the leader council and also sister Hernandez has to renew her visa. So now we are in Natal havin a party. kkkk.

This week has been good but hard. We worked a lot, but we weren’t able to baptise anyone. It’s really sad to see when someone wants to  really really wants to but someone else doesn’t let them. For example Ester and David want to get baptised but they tell us that they don’t because they like their own church, but actually what happened is that their mom is from another church that doesn’t like our church and their mom brought them to her church and baptised them a couple weeks ago. So she thinks that it would be a huge embaressment to let her kids get baptised in another church (principally our church) so she told them to tell us that they didn’t want it anymore. It makes me sooo mad!!!!!!!! I just want to grab them and baptise them secretly, but you need the moms signature on the paper, so thats not going to work out. 

   and also Jessica. She is wonderful. I love her to bits. She loves the church, she knows its true and she wants to get baptised, but well her husband said that she could get baptised in any church other than our church. So that makes her sad. and she could do it but i think she is a little scared of him and also she doesn’t want to ruin her marriage. 

   There are varias people that won’t get baptised because of other people. It makes me sooo sad. I want to help them but they kind of have to help themselves. 

   Also i just don’t want my mission to end.  ha ha 

I love you all

love, sister j baker 

GH com forca

Kkk so this week was good. Finally carnival came to an end and everyone came back home. sadly,many people came home drunk and didn’t want to go to church and other people were scared to get baptised so they ran from us... but other than that its awesome. This week was sad because we had 4 people suuuuper excited for baptism and at the end of the week we didn’t have a single one. I’m sad about that but we still worked really hard and we were able to have 9 investigatores at church which means that next week we could have a lot of baptisms. We will try our very hardest to baptise a lot of people. I’m excited. and also we tripled our goals of lessons taught and new investigators. I think we are the first sisters to do that. Wahooo!!!!

 This week we had interviews with Pres. Soares. It was really good. He said for me to work really hard. So I’m working. 

  Also it was valentines day yesterday. They don’t celebrate valentines day here. They celebrate Dia dos namorados which is boyfriend/girlfriends day, but its in June. There is an american that lives here and he gave us oreos for valentines day. That was cool. His name is Brad. He is married to a brazilian and lives here and teaches a school.

   The cutest thing happened this week with one of our investigators. He will be baptised on Saturday. (Luiz Neto) I think i already talked a bit about him. Well, at church we showed him the baptismal font where he will be baptised and we explained a little bit about how it would happen, where he would enter and everything and we asked him if he was excited. He said yes. We asked him if he was nervous and he said "yeah, I’m nervous for my baptism, but I’m more nervous to serve my mission!" HE IS 12 YEARS OLD!!! I thought that was soooo  cute that he was already thinking about serving a mission. Man i love that kid. He is soo cute. He plays guitar too. He showed me how good he plays. I just want to put him in my suitcase and take him home!!!! ha ha

  Well i love you all have a great week full of safe fun and adventures. 

i love you

love, sister j baker 

Then Sister Baker sent this home:

Hey i have something to tell you and dad....This week was interview with Pres. Soares and well, i asked him if i could  stay for a bit longer. He said that he would think about it and call me. so yesterday i got a call from him and he said that he would let me stay until April. They will change my flight plans this week and send it to you. I hope that you don’t get mad at me! I know that you are all looking forward to me coming home but i only have one time to serve a mission. I might as well serve as much as i can

i love you

love, sister j baker

Followed quickly by this:

i love you guys a lot. 

ummmmmmmmmm.

I’m just kidding.

I’ll be home in 4 weeks.

That girl!  I'll tell ya! ~Momma Baker

This week Mark and I got to meet Sister M. Baker from Joci's mission.  We also saw her family again as well as Sister Emily Brown's mom and Sister Hernandez' parents. (her comp now)  It is amazing the closeness that we feel with these families.  We talked for hours and feel like they are all family.  When I told Joci she was elated because she loves these Sisters so much.  

Roberto and Lydia Hernandez, Megan Baker, Kristen Brown, Jen and Mark

So this  week was good. Have you ever heard of CARNAVAL?! Vish!!!!! Everyone leaves the city to go to a party and all of the jovems go on a camping trip because carnaval can be suuuuper vulgar so lets just say the bishop had to help pass the sacrament because this town is EMPTY!!!!! 

Also i went to help in the area of the sisteres. We did splits Thursday until Sunday.  I went there to help out. It was really good to learn from the sisteres there and help them out.  Also i worked in my area too. I love my area. I don’t ever want to leave. There are soooo many people that i love here and i missed them soo much when i went to the sisters area. Just imagine when i go home. Man. Time is passing by. freaking fast. I have to love it. Just live it up. ha ha. 

I will tell you more stories when i get home. I love you!

love, sister j baker

A note to mom:

My week was good. I’ll tell you a bit more about it in my big email. You all are crazy!!!! Are you ready for me to come home or something?!?!?!? Vish!!!!!! 33 days!!!!! You’re sooooooo trunky! hahahahahaha 

I’m sooo grateful for the mission because now i know why the gospel is soo important. I knew before, but i just didn’t know that i knew. and now i know. It’s soooooo good to understand everything. I want to help everyone understand it. I love it when i am teaching someone and they start to understand. It’s soo good. I love the mission. I’m so happy that you know and your testimony is strong in this.

Lesson of GOLD

The Stewart Family, Sister Hernandez and Sister Baker

If I said everything that went wrong this week it would look like my week was horrible. But it didn’t even seem horrible. Just the list of all the things that went wrong is really long. But me and Sister Hernandez lived it up anyways. Sister Hernandez got sick and threw up like 7 million times. I guess the flies are transmitting diseases. But its all good now she stopped throwing up. It rained like every freaking day this week, and so of course Sister Hernandez and i got a cold. If you attached a hose to my nose, you could put out a fire with the liquid that is leaving my nazal cavity. And also our baptism fell through and a bunch of other stuff but we just laughed it off and had a good time and yesterday we finished our week with a wonderful lesson of GOLD.  The spirit was sooooo strong. 

So Fernanda, the pres. of RS brought her two nephews to church and we marked to visit them after church at Fernandas house.  We were so sick we almost didn’t go. But we decided let’s just go visit really fast and then we can go home. So we went. When we walked into their house it was so cool. We both felt a strong connection with them and we started to joke and play with them like we had know them for years. They remind me a lot of my brothers. They are a little bit younger than my brothers when i left for the mission. So we joked with them for about an hour when we asked if we could teach them a message. They accepted and we said a prayer. The second the the prayer started there was the spirit very strong in that house. We taught about the restoration of the gospel and they drank it all up. They asked questions and made comments and understood everything. When we taught about Joseph Smith and said the first vision, man it was one of the coolest moments. The spirit was loving it and testifying a whole bunch. Then we each bore our testimonies. When we bore our testimonies the spirit was suuper strong. Fernanda bore her testimony and she started to cry a lot because she joined the church with the same age as them. Then i told them that i knew the church was true not because of logic, but because i asked God. I said that everything in the church makes sense and i could explain it with logic, but that’s not how i know its true. I know its true because i felt it. Then we invited them to be baptised and they accepted. Then the oldest bit his lip, looked down and covered his face and started to cry. and we said i hope that in a couple of years that you both can share this same message with other people and change their lives. I hope that you two go on missions and they said that of course they would and they would do everything possible to go on a mission. Man. what a blessing. They felt the spirit so strongly and everyone in the whole room had tears in their eyes.

 It was a really special experience. I love those two boys. I wanted to hug them soo badly. 

I am sooo grateful for the gospel. I am so grateful that i can share it. 

i love you alll

love, sister j baker 

January 25-It rained and rained and rained...

January 25, 2016

Sooo it rained the whole entire week and it wasn’t like a sprinkle. It was a whole down pour. Man it rained. One of the coolest parts of this week was when we were teaching a lesson in the street and it started raining so we ran under a tree and finished the lesson under a tree. It was really cool to hear the first vision under a tree while it was pouring rain. Soooo pretty. 

 I think its starting to hit me that i will actually go home one day and it freaks me out. I don’t know how to be a normal person. I just know how to be a missionary. Sometimes i find myself thinking that everyone wakes up and 6;30 and walks in the street all day and preaches the gospel but then i realize that they don’t and I won’t do that here in a little bit and then i start to freak out and i have to sit down on the street and drink a coke. It’s rough. I’m not going to lie but actually my companion says that i am dying better than any other missionary she has met. We work every single day all day so that’s good. I’m not going to finish my mission until i get to the airport in Salt Lake. 

This week it just rained a lot. We met a really cool family. We started to teach them and also we went to a training to all the missionaries in the whole world and i learned a lot. but thats about it. I love you all have a great week. 

love, sister j baker