Hello!

Well, i know i already said this once or twice but man this area is hard. I love love love love the people and the members of the ward and the investigators that i have and the recent converts of others but man it is really hard to baptize here.  I just want to have a baptism every day and i haven’t had one in 2 weeks. and our baptism for the next week fell through because he didn’t go to church. Man it’s rough. It is really hard to get new investigators here because everyone lives in an apartment. and you can’t really walk into an apartment complex because there is a gate around it and you have to be invited in or the security guards won’t let you in. So thats rough but we are getting help from a lot of the members. I have faith that if we work unceasingly that we will be able to get a lot of people but right now it is just hard. but we do have a whole family.  Iam so excited to teach them! We have marked their baptism for the 12 of april. There is a boy and a girl 17 and 13 and a mom and a dad. I want to baptize the whole family. I cant wait. I have been praying sooo hard for a family. I want to baptize a family. Please pray that i can baptize a family. That is what i live for is the families here and i haven’t baptized one! I want to baptize families. So pray for that please. 

   This week was the zone conference. We have zone conferences every 3 months. It was really good and really well thought out but i came away thinking man i need to work soooo hard. ha ha sometimes its good to come away feeling like that. it gives me motivation. I sang at the conference in front of the president and his wife and all of the missionaries in our zone (natal capital) and thats a lot of missionaries. but it was really good. I made a lot of people cry. I just hope that it is because it was beautiful and not because they were all in pain. I saw a lot of people that i really miss at the zone conference. I saw sister cieslak my comp in Alecrim and i saw elder Chagas and elder Harris from my district in Currias. I love love love my zone and district here though. The elders are great and i love the sisters too. 

    Ha ha so there is an investigator that we are teaching right now (the one whose baptism fell through his name is Adisson) and he is sooo funny. man! He calls me janice joplin. I dont know why but he does. and he just makes us laugh the whole time. He is a bit of a scorpion (scorpion means a boy who has a crush on the sister missionaries and snake is a girl who likes the elders.) but he is really good. This week i did a division with sisters in Potengi i went there for 2 days and a sister came here. when they went to visit Adisson the first thing he asked was "where is Janice?" ha ha i thought that was funny. 

 

Here in Brazil they do the normal stuff for easter.  What i am going to do is teach people about the resurrection.   It is soo cool. there is a video that you all have to watch.   I pass out a ton of cards with this video on the back.  Everyone needs to pass this video along on insta and facebook and twitter and stuff.   It is great I don't know in english but here it is in porkandcheese and you all can figure out how to get it in english.   www.elevive.mormon.org   
(Momma note:  Here is the link to the video.   http://www.mormon.org/easter  #becausehelives  It is a powerful short video about the Savior!~Momma Baker)

Ha ha well i love you all! Pray that i can find more investigators!! Who is excited for general conference?!!!??? MEEEEE!!!!! i am sooo freaking excited. Pray that i can get a ton of people to conference. 

well i love you 

love, sister baker

And here is another instagram picture from Barbara!  Doesn't it make you want to squeeze her face!  I miss that face but I'm glad that she is serving in Brazil and that Barbara gets to squeeze it!  ~Momma Baker

um só fé, um só senhor, um só batismo

Well kids, here i am in Green City, Cidade verde and lemme tell ya. It is named green city for a reason. it is sooooo green. how pretty! i love it! how neat. my new area is actually really hard. It's rich and the majority of people live in apartments or a house with a giant gate around it. so its really hard to get ahold of people to talk with them. when we mark a time with the people to visit them they don't come to the fence so we have had a really hard time having lessons let alone baptisms. so i decided that we need to work a lot with the members. i am planning on a barbeque or something with all the young men and women so they can all bring a friend and we will get a ton of new investigators. It's a good thing that the members here are so good. They will probably save us. Speaking of members, you will never guess who is in my ward here in Cidade verde...... BARBARA!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh when i went to church on Sunday and i saw her and her family i almost died!!!! I screamed and ran to her and we hugged for like 10 minutes. nossa!!! It was so exciting. 

   A couple good things about my area is that there is an açai place where you put as much açai as you can fit in one bowl for 10 reis. Which is siiiick! and the members are really really good. I have already made so many friends. and also on Fridays and Saturdays there is a bar that plays live music so i get to fall asleep to live music. That's on the bright side. Also i really love my comp. She is a sweetheart. We have a lot of fun. 

    Some things not so good about my area is that there are tonz of churches of satan. we have an invesigator from the church "bola de neve" roughly translated to "snowball" yes you heard right the church is called snowball. i guarantee that this church is not the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth i can tell you that. they have a surfboard for the pulpit and they love to sing and dance in church. an apostacy if i have ever heard of it. we also have an ex-investigator who is a pastor of a church that he created (ps is you created it, it isn't the church of christ) i kind of had a little argument with him. i should have calmed down but i didn't. Don't worry it wasn't a real argument, he just thought that Jesus, God and the Holy Ghost are one person and they're not so i gently explained that they aren't one person that they are indeed 3 different individuals and my comp explained as well but he wouldn't listen, he would talk over us. So we decided to just listen for like 20 minutes to him rambling on and on about all of the conversations that he has had with the Holy Ghost about money and stuff and it was not the Holy ghost he was talking to i can tell you that. and so after 20 minutes i said, so you have expressed to us what you believe, can i express what i believe and he was like yeah sure so i started to explain and the second i started he interrupted and interrupted and for those of you who know me, you know that 1) i like to be right 100% of the time and 2) i don't like to be interrupted so i raised my voice just a little bit and said "excuse me sir, but we listened to you, i would like to express what i believe now!" and so he said alright and then i tried to explain how they are one in purpose, but 3 individuals and when i said that he started to yell over top of me again and so i got really mad and just continued to talk and talk and talk and said everything that i needed to say and then i bore my testimony and we left. Now every time that he sees us he yells "they are just one!" and we yell "in purpose!" yeah, maybe i shouldn't do that.... it just makes me a bit mad sometimes.... i will be more calm now. 

   Also... breaking news did you know that the americans that built the mormon church are running from the government and they are escaping to Brazil and mexico? wow! I didn't know either! oh my gosh. i got mad sometimes this week. 3 different people said something to that effect about the "mormons" i really hate that nickname. It never means anything good. Everyone needs to use the real name of the church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It says everything right there. It says that this is the church of Jesus Christ and that these are the latter days and the saints are people who are following Christ. So that's what you need to do. 

    I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was good. I talked about the restoration of the church of  Jesus Christ and how we have all of the same things in our church that Jesus taught in his church. It may or may not have been lesson 1 in preach my gospel that i have given more that a thousand times, but don't blame me! They called me 15 minutes before church started while i was picking up investigators. 

  Also we went on a hike to the sand dunes. It was soooo fun! I have pictures, but i forgot my cord to send them so you'll just have to wait. 

Anyway, i love my mission. i love you all 

the church is true, the book is blue

I love portuguese and everyone should learn it.

I love you. kisses! 

love, Sister Baker 

Have fun being married to Satan!

Momma note: "Have fun being married to Satan!" is a quote from a movie.  If you know Joci you'll probably laugh at this statement!  At least we know she is still Joci!  ~Momma Baker

Well fam, you guessed it, i taught a lesson to satan this week. No this is not a metophor for i killed it, its a metephor for i really am 80% sure i gave a lesson to satan. Remember last week when we baptized that young man Edivan? Well his mom is not a very nice woman. We passed by his house the other day to give a message to Edivan but he wasn't there and it was just his mom. Well she started yelling at us. She said all sorts of crazy random stuff about how we are trying to take her son away and how her son has to obey her rules and stuff and how he was already baptized in the catholic church and so she screamed at us until we left her house. Well Edivan is really important to us so we passed by hoping to get to talk to him without his mom and a miracle happened and he was in front of his house so we talked to him really fast about how no one forced him to be baptized and how he felt so good about being baptized and how he has to receive the Holy Ghost the next sunday. So we were trying to talk to him and his mom comes around the corner with dark cold eyes. I swear she was not herself and she starts screaming at us and we tried to talk to her calmly and tell her that we weren't taking her son away but as soon as we invited the spirit in she started throwing a fit.  She broke down sobbing and screaming that we were taking her son away and stuff. She grabs her 25 year old son and shoves him inside screaming the whole time and screaming at us and he is trying to explain and we are trying to explain and she is just screaming and when she turned the corner she started hitting her 25 year old son screaming at him and then running back to the door to scream at us and then running back to scream and hit him and run to scream at us. It was horrible!  As we walked away the only thought that was in my head was "have fun living with SATAN!"

Well i don't want to write anymore. We just got a call from the President (just now as I'm sitting here)  and i have been transferred to Cidade Verde because of an emergency.   There is a sister who has problems with anger issues and she needs to be transferred here.  So well thats that.  I can' t concentrate any more. I really really reeeeaaallllyyy liked this area  and i don't want to leave.   A lot don't want to leave.  I really loved my comp and i don't want to leave.  I can't think about much anything else.  Well. i love you all.   Pray for me!   I will be happy and fine but it'll be a long day.

 ps i went to McDonalds. That was sweet and we ate the last of our açai. 

i love you all

tchau

A quick note to mom~

mama i love you '10 much i don't have any time left to say anything else but i loved your email and I love you.   I did see Jakes call and i cried a little bit and maybe wet my pants.   I will find the people who need me.   I love you. love, sister baker 

 (Momma note Joci's best friend Jake just got his call to Santa Maria Brazil!  She's very excited to say the least.  His mission is about 2,500 miles from her mission.  Also her best friends Sophie was called to California, Breanna was called to Australia, Alyssa was called to Cincinnati and Jessica is waiting on the Stake Pres interview.   What a sweet blessing all of these friends are to Joci and what a blessing all of these friends are going to be to the world!  ~Momma Baker) 

Alyssa, Jessica, Jake, Sophie, Breanna and Joci (picture)

McDonald's is a happy place!

The last of the Acai!

With love from Alecrim

New Companion Sister Cieslack,  Sister Baker and a lot of Acai!

Saying gooodbye to Sister Lencini

So fam i got transfered! wahoo! i was super sad leaving and when i said goodbye to everyone i cried and everyone cried. that was rough. my investigators cried. the members cried my comp cried and i cried. it was rough but i am starting all over here in Alecrim.

Alecrim is completely opposite in everything. In currais it was dry dry dry here in Alecrim it is soooooo humid. So humid that you feel it in your eyes and the pressure on your chest. I like it, not going to lie. Currais was totally a town. A little baby town and Alecrim is more of a city. There is soooo much information going on all the time. Alecrim is close to a beach. The área of the elders is a beach, but our área doesn't reach the beach. i am glad because we cant even enter the sand on the beach and that would be such a tempation. But if you go to the second floor of a house you can see the dunes. It's really pretty. i am in love with my new área. and my new comp is awesome. I love love love love her.  Her name is Sister Cieslak (pronounced c-s slak) she is sooo motivated to work work work. She is the sister training leader here, which is kindof like a zone leader but just for the girls. but this means that she has a ton of responsibility.   So we are busy busy busy all the time.  I love it so freaking much.   Man its good to work hard.

Well i have a couple of stories already. First miracles are really real.

Well before we leave the house we have to have a livro de mórmon in our hands. I gave mine away in the bus station so i had to grab a new one but the house was all out except for one old moldy one that was tattered and torn. i didnt want to grab it but i did anyway.  In a lesson we read the dream of lehi about the tree of life so i opened my livro de mórmon and guess what was inside. 70 reis. wow!!!!!! we were so excited. and youll never guess what we did with 50 of the 70 reis.   We bought 5 kilos of Açai. yup thats right 10 pounds. of açaí. yum. i sent pics.

Second story. we are teaching a cute little old man.  His name is Miguel.  He loves to tell us stories and stuff so we just listen a lot of the time because thats what he needs.  He will be baptised next week and we are super happy about it.   He is adorable.   He is super depressed.   Its super sad and i never see him smile so the other day we decided to sing a couple hymns for him.   His face just lit up. We sang several hymns and when we were done with the lesson and ready to walk away he called out after us and said "you two look like two angels. thankyou" it was soo stinking cute. It made me so happy to maybe be a little angel in someones life.  I love that.

Well i think thats all.  I am working as hard as i can.   This time is soooo short.  I have to use every single minute.   I am so grateful for my mission.

I love you all! be good!!!

love, sister baker

This is a sweet note from Joc to me.  It is just so her so I wanted to share it. ~Momma Baker

I am sooo happy to hear from you. You sound great. I am soooo happy mama. i love my new área. This is going to be a great transfer. I am loving it already.   I am so excited to work hard. i am loving working hard with Sister Ceslak. It has been really hard for me to be a leader here because i am learning so much and i am lost half of the time but i am catching up really fast an i am soo happy to be able to start all over and learn more and use my time on this short short mission wisely.

 I am so grateful for a God who knows exactly who i am.  I have had 2 people tell me they can really feel the spirit when they are around me. That made me feel good. I didn’t realize. I am trying sooooo hard and I can see all my flaws that sometimes i forget i have some good attributes too.   i sure love you. i sure love to hear all about your life. Always tell me more.   I love you soo soo much.

love, sister baker

Will I stay or will I go?

Well kids, i feel like i am running out of time here in Currais Novos i'm almost 100% sure that i will be transferred this week. That's a bummer.  I have really really grown to love the people here. It will probably be harder to leave these guys then it was to leave you guys because there is a possiblity that i will never see any of these people again. That is so sad. Its my first transfer out of an area so i have no idea what to expect. But today will be great i feel and tomorrow as well. Everyone here is doing something for me before i leave. Everyone wants to give me some kind of present or make a delicious dessert or something before i go. Yesterday i ate something called Cartola. lemme tell ya, thats good stuff. Cartola is fried bananas with a choclate syrup thing on top with cheese and sweetened condensed milk on top. It sounds gross but its really good. ill make it sometime alright? Well we have 2 baptisms marked for next week that i will never get to see. That's sad, but i guess i cant do anything about it. also Sebastiao will get to go to the temple the next time the members of the ward here go. He will do baptisms for the dead. I would love to see him in the temple. He really has come a long way. I will miss him so much as well as his wife even though she didn't accept the gospel. she keeps saying "who knows maybe when we move to sao paulo to be with our kids i will be baptised" and i keep saying "why not now!!!" i get frustrated with her sometimes and i just have to remember to have patience. Its the hardest when they know its true and they still dont want to accept it because they think they are too old or they want some sort of big sign that says that they need to be baptised. We try to explain how the spirit works and that maybe two missionaries knocking on your door is a sign but they just have really hard hearts. What do you do? That's rough for me. The people who come so close and get a testimony and love the church and you testify and you know that the words coming out of your mouth aren’t your own because you don’t speak portuguese as well as you are sounding and you feel the spirit so strong when you are testifying and they just harden their hearts. That happened with Lucrecia (wife of Sebastion) i testified with all my strength and words were just coming out of my mouth and i knew that it wasn’t me talking it was directly the spirit. And Lucrecia felt the spirit and recognized it was the spirit so she got up and left the room. I was not very happy. That as hard.
Its a fridged 75 degrees here. Everyone is using coats and jackets.  Mom I use the blanket you made me every night just so you know!

Well i am kind of teaching someone from taiwan. (I think its taiwan) she only speaks english and whatever language they speak over in taiwan. So i get to help out a bit. Thats been weird. I don’t like speaking english. I talked with duiji (served a mission in colorado duiji) in english the other day and he thought it was so funny how i talked in english. He said that i have an accent now. A brazilian accent and that my english is horrible. great! Now what! I cant speak english! How am i going to communicate with my family? But i thought it was funny too. When you speak just portuguese for 6 months i guess it starts to take affect. Funny.


I think I'm leaving Currais because i have been here for 5 months and one person leaves almost every transfer so that they can show the next person around the area and they usually don't leave people together for more than one transfer so 3 is really rare and so i will leave or sister lencini will leave but i have been here longer so the only reason i would stay here is if i was to train a newby and i only have 6 months on the mission so I don’t think i will train. but who knows. I will be sad but i will have a really good next area.

I loved hearing about sacrament meeting.  (Momma note: In sacrament meeting someone in our ward talked about an experience with his 4 year old son skiing for the first time.  The boy said, "Dad I'm scared but I'm trusting you."  He then related that to us and our Heavenly Father and how just like his son, we can say "Father I am scared but I'm trusting you" and we can point our skiis down the hill and try hard all day with a smile on our face.   I shared that with Joci in my letter with my feelings.) I like that comparison. I feel like that all the time. I feel like that right now. The president of the mission visited us the other week and we each had interveiws and he said that i would be a senior this transfer probably. I am scared but i just have to trust in the Lord. I am excited as well i am always excited for new things and i am always excited for an opportunity for a challenge.


Well that's all i got. Pray for me. I have been a bit depressed about leaving Currais the last couple of days.  This might be really hard for me.
Give grandma and grandpa a hug for me both sides of the fam. I miss them.
Well i love you. i am praying for each of you. if you need anything lemme know.
i love you all
tchau!
-sister baker