"She's just a regular girl!"

Momma Note:  Sister Baker didn't write a general email today so I am sharing parts of letters that she wrote to her dad and I.  ~Momma Baker

Sounds like a good week in good ole salem. I miss that place ha ha. You know i realized this week that i forgot what its like to walk in the streets of salem and to drive a car and to not be dying of heat every second of every day and not walk on cobblestone streets but i thinks thats just part of the game. But also i really like it because i feel like i have been here forever. I understand the culture and everything, its great because i understand slangs and jokes and i can joke with stuff and understand. It’s awesome. I am debating never come back and dying of missing you guys. haha. It’s really strange. This week was good. I have a story to tell you and you are going to have to share it with everyone because I didn’t write a message to everyone first and so now I don’t have time to send a big email to everyone. but hey. Here’s the first story. So when i went to church on Sunday, I forgot my nametag on accident and just because i am blonde with blue eyes all the punk kids at church are crazy for me. ha ha So when i got to church i didn’t realize that i forgot my name tag but i was sitting minding my own business and one kid says "Hey she forgot her nametag! She’s not a missionary! She’s just a regular girl!!" and they all started attacking me! Trying to hug me or kiss me! and i had to run! I ran but i couldn’t run very far and i ran into a corner and they all came after me! So the two elders in my ward had to hold them back!!! In the moment i was scared but after i just started to laugh! It was suuuper funny! I’m not kidding! They were all running after me!! ha ha but now its all good. I just can’t ever forget my name tag again. ha ha It was an adventure.

    Something that happened that was spiritual is that i was able to help other missionaries this week. That is something that i learned this week. You know every week we have goals that we have to meet so this week what i tried to do was finish my goals fast so that i could help others finish their goals and you know it was sooo much better and i felt so much more successful when i was helping other people. That is something that i will always have to remember. You know? and also we were all trying to meet our goal of baptise 26 people in our zone this month. and there were just 7 people left to baptise so we started to leave the house and help everyone accomplish their goals and stuff. We weren’t able to because there were a couple people that didn’t want to and they stayed in their house or they didn’t want to rush anything and we weren’t able to accomplish our goals but i learned that we won’t ever be able to accomplish everything on our own. We have to work together to meet our goals and if one person doesn’t want to meet the goals it will ruin it for everyone else. If we want to make it back to our Father in Heaven we all have to want it and we all have to do everything possible.  If one person doesn’t we wont accomplish our goals. We could do something really great but it wont be what we wanted. If one person in our family doesn’t want to make it back to Heavenly Father then it will ruin it for the rest of us. So let’s all work together so that we can all accomplish our goals. I love you all sooo much you are all wonderful!!!!! Thanks for your prayers and support. You are my heros!  Sometimes i think its harder back at home than it is here for me. I love you all sooooo much!

Mama, i love you more than words can tell. Keep being you and doing everything that you do. You worked soooo freaking hard this week. I can’t even imagine!!! Holy cow! I think you are suuper woman!

love, sister j. baker

ps i love you

A note to Dad:

I’m glad that everything is going well at home. i sure am praying for you guys. i missed you all a lot this week. but im good and happy ha ha. 

The mission life is good. I sure am trying really hard. It’s hard work right now. We tried to baptise sooo much this week, but it didn’t go right and we didn’t baptise anyone. But we helped everyone else so thats good. I am learning a lot this transfer. I hope i made someones day this week. Something i did this week was help the sisters that live with us. They were suuuper depressed and stressed out and so i went and helped them in their area. I love it when other missionaries confide in me. There are a couple sisters that when something goes wrong i am the first person they run to and i like that. I am trying really hard to help them. but i know that i could do more to help them. and i will.

Well it sounds like everything is suuuper great at home that you are having a great week. Pray for me. I will continue to pray for you all. 

I love you so much daddy. Thanks so much for all you do for me and for taking care of my applications for byu. I love you a lot.

love, sister j. baker