Transfers

  

Well, I got transferred again. I started the transfer off really angry in my other area it was really hard for me because nothing was going the way that i wanted it to, so one day i just decided to have a good attitude and it changed everything around. Finally we had really good investigators, i was feeling like i was really making a difference, i was loving my investigators and i felt like the Lord was really working through me so i was sure that i was going to stay in Cidade Verde because finally things were working out.  We had a family (a dad and 2 kids) that i had prayed and worked so hard for that would be baptized the next week and also a sweet lady and her daughter that we were teaching she said that there was nothing that would stop her from being baptized and another family i was super excited. Well the call came for the transfers and i wasn't even worried at all because things here were going really good.   And guess what, i was transferred!  I was about ready to cry.  Everything that i had worked for was going down the drain. I wouldn't be able to see the baptism of that family that i had fasted and prayed for and my other investigators that i love so much. But i kinda just swallowed my pride and went with it. 

   

 Well heres news about my new area: you know a couple weeks ago when i went to do a division in another area. I don't know if i told you all... but yup thats my area.   Its a pretty great area. I'm excited about it, but the sister that was here before me is a little bit different.   She has some mental problems a little bit and was mentally ill for a couple weeks so there hasn't been much work done... but miraculously we had a baptism.  Potengi is my area.  It’s great.  I am happy.  My comp is just one month younger than me on the missh so she is wonderful and from Africa and speaks portuguese de portugual. It’s sick. (awesome)  I’m very happy.   My companion is an angel sent from the heavens above.   I am the senior companion which doesn't mean much of anything, so that i get to carry the cell phone and i am terrified of the cellphone.  I don't like it!!! it might be because i can barely understand  a single word in portuguese on the cell phone, but yeah whatever i'll get over it.   I looooove my companion.   She is from AFRICA!   Her name is sister Rodrigues.  Man i love her.  she could possibly be one of my best companions so far.   I love her guts. this is going to be a great transfer.   We just have to work our guts off because there wasn't a single baptism marked for the next 3 weeks. I have a lot of work to do but i think i will love it. 

The family that i taught was baptized yesterday.  I'm really happy that they were baptized and i will count it as my baptism even if i wasn't able to be there. The name of the man that we baptized is John.  He suffered an accident several years ago so he has the mental capasity of a child.  He would need to be baptized, but he has had sins in the past, so we baptized him.   He is really great and wants to marry me.  Crazy old people. 

Well i love you all!  Have a fantistic week! 

love, Sister J. Baker

A note to Mom:

 Thanks so much mom. That was a really sweet letter. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for sharing with me. 

    You know i love to hear about your life and about the kids. You all are soo important to me. Thanks for everything. You know i feel really close to you as my mom and as my best friend and i am soo grateful that you are in my life and will always be my mom.  That is such a blessing to me. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me. It sounds like things are changing and staying the exact same at the same time at home. 

I would like to challenge you and the kids and dad to help the missionaries more at our house. Invite them to have a family night you call bring a non member family or something, anything. Because the members make the work easier or harder.  So have Zac and Al leave with the missionaries one day or for an hour or something. Do anything for the missionaries. It means everything to them! I’m serious. Giving them cookies or bread or anything. They will love it. Get a relationship with them. 

    I love you soo much mom. Thanks for everything you do for me. I  love love love love you. 

Be good. Remember i love you. Thanks for your prayers i will pray for you. Pray for a family for me to baptize. 

love, sister baker

Sister Morais and Sister Baker

Sister Baker, new companion Sister Rodrigues and Elder Harris

Sister Morais and Elder Harris

Ups and Downs!

Note from Momma:   I love Joci's honesty.  I love that we always know how she is feeling, the good and the bad, the happy and sad!  I really love Sister Baker! ~Momma Baker

    You know on the mission there are ups and downs. It’s really weird. You can feel on top of the world one minute and then feel like you are walking in the hot sun and wasting 1 and a half years of your life the next. It’s a bit crazy and it’s got to be satan. ha ha. But really, this week was awesome and dumb. I had some really good experiences and others not so good. 

     

One thing that was really cool was i got to feel the spirit really testify in some of my lessons. we met a really sweet girl. Her name is Edivania. She is 18 years old. When we gave her the first lesson about the restoration of the gospel i felt the spirit so strong. Sister Oliveira started out the lesson with how God is our loving Heavenly Father and she explained about prophets and apostles and the ministry of Christ on the earth and then i got to explain about Joseph Smith and the first vision and how he restored the church that Jesus established on the earth. When it got to the part of the first vision i used the words of Joseph Smith. WOW. The spirit just came. She started to cry and i teared up a bit and at the end i told her that the feeling that she was feeling right then was the Holy Ghost testifying that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. She said that she knew it was true. It was such a good experience for me. 

Another great thing that happened was that Jose Rosa was baptized!!!! wahoooo!!!! I am sooo happy about that man. He is really an elect person. He is inviting all of his friends and family to church and loving the gospel and everything. It’s so great I’m really happy about it. 

  

 Then the next second i feel trunky and i start thinking that i don’t even make a difference here and that i’m not working hard enough and that i need to be better and that i will never be good enough and that everyone says that i got called here for a reason and that everything happened so fast for a reason but i don’t even know what that reason is!!! Man! That’s hard. But then i look at all the people i love and i feel a bit better. i just got to tell satan to get the freak out of my head!! ha ha. 

  

Well another exciting thing is that i saw a spider the size of a small rock!! (it was as big as my fist) crazy man! 

   

Well thats all. I feel happy for the most part. and i am loving the people i am serving with and i love my comp and my recent converts and my area and my investigators. I just have to have a happy attitude. 

I love you all. I feel all your prayers. 

Be good

love, sister baker

I'm not sure what some of the pictures are but most of them are just Joci being Joci,  ie climbing the walls and doing push-ups? and jumping on the bed!  Ha ha!  You gotta love her!  ~Momma Baker

The biggest cashew tree in the WORLD!

Sister Baker, Sister Brown and the biggest cashew tree in the world!

 Well, we lost a lot of the investigators that i was really excited about which is a real bummer.  We went to the house of that family i talked about last week and they said that they thought it was great what we were doing and all but they had no desire to be baptized because they didn’t want to make a commitment they didn’t want to keep. we talked and talked and tried soo stinking hard to change their mind, but if there isn’t even a desire to make the commitment of baptism, then there isn’t any way that we can convince them. So they don't want our help anymore. but there is this other man with 2 kids who is an elect.  Really really.  I think i talked about him a couple weeks ago.  We did a contact with him on the street and i also invited him to be baptized on the spot, but he was in the area of the elders, well he doesn’t want to be taught by the elders, he wants to be taught by us because, well, sisters sometimes just have something about them ya know? ha ha.   But anyway so we are teaching him and his kids and they should be baptized within the next week or so. I am so excited for that because he is so excited about the temple and i can see him and his family in white at the temple right now.   They could go through the temple about the same time i leave. man. what a wonderful blessing.  I think that is sooo cool. and also there is another man who prayed to have an answer if this church is true, and he got an answer and will be baptized on Sunday.  Man i am so excited. I was loosing hope about this area because is is sooo hard and my comp has a problem with her foot so its hard sometimes because i want to just keep going and keep going because i can rest when i get home, but she has to rest because of her foot so i am learning patience. but i prayed really hard and i am doing all that i can and we fasted that we would have people at conference and we did we had 4 people so I’m super excited.   Anyways conference was good. it was a little hard because it was all in Portuguese without emotion really fast with a strong accent. So it was a little hard to understand.  I just had to concentrate really hard but i did it. it was all good. 

    oh! we went to the biggest cashew tree in the world. It was really neat.   I liked that. It looked like a giant forest, but it was only one tree. ha ha. We have some really cool members of our ward that like to take the missionaries to all the tourist sites, so we have been able to go to a couple really cool spots.  We passed by the beach, but we aren’t even allowed to go near the beach because of all the people unmodestly dressed.  So thats a bummer but we could look and man it is beautiful.   It was such a temptation.  I wanted to go sooo bad. 

You know sometimes i think that this whole mission thing is just like pull a place out of a hat, but then sometimes i feel like i am really making a difference and that i am really doing my job and i am supposed to be here. That is a good feeling. 

But wasn’t conference great! It was fantastic. you know i must be doing so good and being so happy and having success because of all the prayers. When i don’t want to do anything and i am frustrated and i want to take a nap instead of trying to get in contact with investigators there is something inside of me that just pushes a little bit and i can continue on. That has to be all the prayers. because at that point, Jocelyn Baker can’t do it anymore and she would cry and sit down and yell or something, but then all the prayers kick in and then Sister Baker can do it. You know? I feel so not alone with you all supporting me at home. I feel soo blessed and i thank God every day that i have a family that is supporting me at home. 

Thank you all for everything.    

Well, things are going soooo great. I am loving my area now. It just takes a lot of work ya know. ha ha conference was great! 

Well i love you all! Until next week. 

love, sister baker

Here are some answers from last weeks letter:

What song did you sing at the Zone conference?  

I sang "Mais perto quero estar" in Portuguese.  (Nearer my God to thee)

Is Sister Brown your companion?  Where is she from?  

Sister Brown isn’t my companion but she is in my district. She is from Orem, Utah.   My comp is Sister Oliveira.