It's a girl!

Sister Baker and new companion Sister Pinheiro

Well family, it turns out i am with child. Yup I’m training a greenie. When you are called as a trainer you get to be a "mom" of a "child". Yup so not ready for this life of responsibility. ha ha. The work here is getting better and better. I have the same area. We marked several baptisms this week. One being of a sweet girl who just happens to be from the religion that persecutes us the most. Its really great. She said that if God tells her that this religion is true, its got to be true. and she will be baptised. You know i wish other people would have the same train of thought because most people think that no matter what their religion is true. They aren’t even willing to ask God for an answer and if they do they aren’t willing to change their way of thinking. Wow. How sad. I’m really happy that this girl is willing to change. 

   I have some other news. I now have had 3 investigators who have killed someone. WHAT THE CRAP! but this guy is good. He feels remorse for what he has done. It will just be a bit of a process to get this kid baptized. He wants to be baptized too. Wahoo!!!

   So other than that, not many things have happened. This week was great. and its getting better. It’s just hard because i barely know what I’m doing and i just have 8 months on the mission and i am opening an area and i have to train a child who is suuuuper homesick. Just this. but thats ok because i am happy. The work is hard but it’s happy.

   I love you guys 10 much. Have a wonderful week. 

love, sister baker

Daddy!

Wow. I am sooo pleased to have soo many prayers in my behalf. you know i have gotten a lot closer to my heavenly father as well. its a wonderful thing. 

man i want to go out on the boat with you. hey go out on the boat just because and take a picture of me with you and then take a picture of you and the picture of me out on the lake. alright!? ha ha. 

I get to speak in church sometimes but usually its like "hey the person that was supposed to give a talk didnt show up. ask the missionaries!" ha ha its funny. but i dont mind. I just share an experience or what i studied that day or something. ha ha. Well im glad you are doing great. 

So one thing that I haven’t gotten used to is all of the homeless people here. I walk down the street and see like 3 people sleeping under a tree or they found an old couch and thats their home. its really sad. but what can you do about it? It’s really sad. 

Well daddy. i love you. I think you are wonderful. Thank you for everything. hey put my comps name in the temple the next time you go. Her name is Sister Pinheiro. She is really homesick and wants to go home. I will try and help her. If you could pray for her that would be great. 

i love you

Momma!

I stayed. I’m a trainer. It’s all a bit crazy! but its a good crazy. 

 I loved to hear about your class it sounds like you like your job. I am excited to see you work. You know when i get home it might be a little bit before i have a job and everything. I thought maybe i could come into your class and help you. That would be sooo fun for me to see you work. It sounds like you are just doing an awesome job. You were born for it. I’m so glad that your brain is getting better. 

  Man that crazy that all my friends are leaving!!  I got the wedding announcement for Kaylee in the mail the other day.  I hope she’s happy. 

Well i was thinking the other day about how much i changed in the past 8 months. I am a completely different person. So many things have changed. I don’t even know how it happened or when it happened but i am a completely different person. I’m soo happy about that. 

Wow. Everything is changing over there too. Grandma retired. wow. All the kids are growing up. It’s awesome. Man i will do 9 months in a little bit. That’s crazy. 

I did get the package. Wahoo.  And the mascara and the makeup wipes. wahoo! Thank you 10 much. 

Well thats all i have. My comp is suuper homesick but i guess i just have to be patient and help her. 

I love you 10 much. Thanks for everything.

love, sister baker

There must be a story about this, Joci has a thing about sock monkeys
SHE IS TERRIFIED OF THEM!

Sticky notes from Momma Baker

Yup

                                                         
                                                                    Monday May 18, 2015

Well good news people my week was a lot better. I have a lot of new investigators with amazing stories. I will tell you a few.

Socrates is a 55 year old man who is really fancy. He is rich and lives the big life. He was invited by his friend who helps build temples to go on a tour through the United States to see some of the temples there. He went to temple square in Salt Lake City and loved it. He talked with some of the missionaries in temple square, one being Brazilian and he thought that the church is really interesting and he wanted to know more so he wrote on the little paper "i want to know more" when he was at temple square. So the other day we received a reference from.... temple square! Wow! That doesn’t happen every day people. So we called him and made an appointment with him. When we went to teach him he wasn’t home. We called him and he didn’t answer. So i was hungry so i felt like i wanted to go to the giant grocery store that is bigger than any Walmart i have seen to buy an apple. When we were walking in the front of the store a car pulled up and a man started talking to us and he was like "hi I’m Socrates!" and we were like hey we’ve been looking for you! So we went to a table and sat down and he started to tell us his story and how he has been drawn to this church for some reason. and there you have it. He is wonderful and it built my testimony that God is preparing people for me to teach.

  Gildo and his wife and two other people that we are teaching right now. Gildo reminds me a lot of my grandpa Roger.   Yes Gildo wears kaky pants and blue striped button down shirts. He looks like he should be in England and he is a professor and fancy music. Get this people!!!!! He is a musical therapist and wants me to help him with is work!!!!! Woah! but he is awesome and goes to church all by himself and i think he is the next bishop of the ward.

 There are more stories but that’s all I’m gunna tell for right now. I love you all. You are all wonderful people. 

Peace and blessings.

I love you and i pray for you. 

The church is true

the book is blue and ill see you in a little less than10 months

love, sister baker

Here is a little excerpt from my letter:

Hi mom! How are you! I sure am good! I am happy and i am doing better. Transfers are tomorrow and if I am transferred I’m going to cry. ha ha. but i think i will stay here. 

I loved your letter today. It was good to read i felt so happy hearing about everything.

I am so happy about the work you are doing at home. You are being such a good missionary. Work a little harder on the C family.  They need the gospel in their lives.

I love soooo much mom. Thank you for you example. I am doing so much better. Thank you for your prayers. I am learning a lot better how to listen to the spirit. This is something i needed to work on and get better at. 

Hey pray that i will be able to baptise a family.

I love you

love, sister baker

Skype is a good thing!

It was a fun day yesterday getting to Skype Joci for Mother's Day!    So here's the scoop about the things she said on our Skype talk.   Right off the bat she told us her news that   Joci and the other 3 sisters in her house all have lice!  An investigator shared!  The whole time Joci was scratching her neck, which made me scratch my neck.  I am sure that I got lice too or at least sympathy lice!  In the letter she says that she complained too much.  She was just a little discouraged because she has been transferred 3 times in the last 4 weeks and lately each time she has an investigator that is ready for baptism she gets transferred the week or day before.  She was sad because she didn't get to hug them or see the light in their eyes as they come out of the water.  Right now she has one investigator, but she has been there for one week!  She really wants everyone to listen to the good news of the gospel, but she is a little frustrated that no one will listen.  She said she has to walk an hour to get to her new area so many days they ride the bus.  The people she is serving now are "very rich".  She absolutely loves her companion and the sisters she is living with.  She gets to live with Sister Brown from Orem!   She thanks everyone again and again for their support and example.  We all tried to cheer her on and even gave a "GO JOCI" cheer which she said was dumb (with tears in her eyes!)  Ha   She was skyping from the Bishop's house.  People kept coming in and telling her goodbye.  It was fun to see and hear her portuguese.  She said she thinks in Portuguese and dreams in Portuguese and can understand everything that everyone says and lead out a discussion in Portuguese.  Right now she is working on not having an american accent when she speaks portuguese.  She definitely has a portuguese accent when she speaks english!  Also the Bishop's wife came in and spoke to us and asked Joci to translate.  When the Bishop's wife was finished talking, Joci turned to us to translate and started talking in Portuguese.  It took her about 10 seconds then she started laughing at the look on our faces because she realized that she was speaking the wrong language to us!  Too cute!  The Bishop's wife said  "thank you for sending her to us, she is a love!"  Saying goodbye is always the hardest part.  It is when we hang up that we think of everything that we wanted to tell her or ask her, but the important things are always shared, the love and support for each other.  Just 7 more months til another Skype but who's counting?    Joci didn't write a big letter to everyone this time just individual letters to each person in our family.  Here's a little bit from a couple of different letters.  ~Momma Baker

Momma!

Thank you soooo much for everything. The skype was perfect. I complained a little bit more than i should and i know that my mind goes blank when i start to talk to you all and i have soo much to say and then i just forget about it all and get overcome with emotions and i forgot to bare my testimony. It's always very important to bare testimony when you talk with people, especially your family. Man it was good. I'm sorry i complained but when i saw you all i just wanted comfort and i knew that you all would be comforting me from there. Sometimes i just am strong for just enough time to receive comfort. Man.  I miss you guys. I miss every single one of you. You all mean sooo much to me. 

I think i got rid of the lice. One of the sisters here has a lot of experience with lice so she will check my head every day to see if i really got rid of them, but it turns out it was just the start. I didnt have the actual lice on my head, just the eggs, but its still gross and I will look every night.

I wont be writing a big letter to everyone about my week because i talked to you all yesterday, but i just want you all to know that i am doing better and i will try even harder. Sometimes you just need to talk with your family and everything is good. 

I was thinking the other day about what kind of a person and what kind of a missionary i was when i was in Alecrim, the first transfer after Currais. And i realized that i am a completely different person. I have grown a lot. I guess i had to be pushed a little bit out of my comfort zone and that made me grow a ton. In alecrim i was scared to talk to a lot of people and i just kind of followed my companion around, but now i am completely independent. I do things the way that i think they need to be done.  I look to God for strength and i have learned how to rely on people for help and not to rely on people to do it all. I have become such a different person. I love that. I guess that i learned something. I was reading in Ether today in chapter 8. When they were all in the boats riding across the ocean. It said that God sent a giant wind and it started to blow them to the promised land. Because of the giant wind they were tossed across the water they suffered through tempasts and storms and they were swallowed in the waves a couple times because of this giant wind but they continued to be blown to the promised land.  I thought to myself how many times does God send a wind in our life and all we see is that we are being swallowed up in the waves and we are passing through storms and tempasts and we dont even see that the wind is blowing us to the promised land. That made me think of my situation. I am being blown to the promised land now and all im seeing is the storm but i need to focus on the wind that is pushing me. They were in the boat for almost a year. When they arrived on the promised land they kissed the ground and gloried God. I will arrive in my promised land and i will recieve success, but i have to be pushed there first. 

Well i love you. Tell each of the kids how much i love them. 

You mean so much to me. 

love, sister baker

Good news dad! I think i got rid of my lice! so turns out it was just the start and i had just the eggs and not the live lice so we went threw almost every strand of hair yesterday and got rid of it all. but we will keep looking every day just to make sure. how gross is that!!! man im glad to get it over with.

I loved to talk to you too. You are so great. Man it felt like time passed soooo freaking fast and i didnt even have time for anything. I didnt get to say things that i wanted and i didnt get to bear my  testimony i just complained. Dont worry about me. I will get over this. I will find someone who is prepared for the gospel and they will listen. I have been thinking about the talent that i have been given to sing  and i realized that i havent even been using it. I haven't hardly at all. I need to start singing for people. It really brings the spirit it. So i am going to try this this week. i might feel like a fool, but its a talent that God gave me and he will take it away if i don't use it for good. So well, im going to sing for people. How embarassing. ha ha. 

Im sorry about the testing. that can be a real goober. You are such a great guy. Thanks for your example.

I love you soo much dad. thank you for everything you do for me. It was soo freaking good to see you.

i love you 10 much

love, sister baker

I think this is tapioca?

Sister Brown and Sister Rodriguez

Sister Brown

We told the McKee's to drop in for a quick Hi!  When she saw them she said in
Portuguese, "My other family!"

Play by play of the craziest week of my life!

Note from Momma:
Another transfer after 3 weeks, a melt down, witnessing an assault, member missionaries needed, tough stuff and sweet blessings!  This just in the life of one missionary!  The missionaries need our prayers and our help that is for sure!  Every missionary has their own trials and experiences.  Jocelyn always says it like it is, no sugar coating.  I am glad about that.  I am glad for the person that she is and for the experiences she is having.   ~Momma Baker

Monday night:

We decided to go for açai with the elders in the district over so we went, and we saw a park with roller coasters and stuff. It was 3 reais for 1 turn on each ride so we chose the boat that swings. It was sooooo fun. sister c silva started to get sea sick so we started screaming to stop the ride. it was hilarious. 

Tuesday:

We had a water fight with the elders. that was really 10 fun. the elders here are great. we decided to do a really cool night to help the ward and our investigators

Wednesday:

i found out that my investigator killed someone and he asked us for money to run from the police. We said no. 

Friday

We did an activity for the ward to help wake them up and get them excited. Only our investigators showed up.

Saturday: 

I talked with the bishop about our sweet baptism on the next day and he said that she couldn’t be baptized because he didn’t want her to be a less active. She had been going to church for years and her mom and grandma and aunt are members. Her aunt is active. Her grandma is a little bit less active but is returning and her mom is less active. We believe that she could bring her whole family back to church but the Bishop said no. I called the President to see what he wanted me to do and told him the whole situation. He thought it was very sad and he had already heard about a lot of things that were going on in the ward and so he transferred me and my companion to another area. We will leave in just a little bit to go to Natal. Aula natal area Natal. Wow. 

Sunday: 
I talked with the Bishop and apologized if i had offended him and told him that he had to tell Anny clara that she would not be baptized.  I smoothed things over with him a little bit because for some reason the second that i met him he was mad at me. i only saw him one time in the 3 weeks that i have been here. He never introduced himself and he hasn’t been to church because of work and stuff. 

Long story short. This area is really great i love my investigators and the members of the aula just need a little bit of help that’s all. and i think that what will help the most is taking the missionaries out of the area because then the members will have to do a little bit of work. because right now its pretty hard here. But really i don’t think they realize. I’m sorry if i talked bad about them. I didn't explain everything because it would take a long long time but man this week was crazy. Just know that i am really excited to have another chance to help people in another area. 

Peace and love and blessing.

i love you all have a good week.

love, sister baker

A bit of Joci's letter to Dad.  

Oh daddy. that is really good advice. You know sometimes i forget completely about home about everything and sometimes all i can think of is home. This week was realllllllllyyyyyy hard. Did you ever have a really hard area or a really hard ward over in japan? how many people did you baptise?

man. dad the food here is fantastic sometimes and sometimes really dull. ha ha. but dont worry i will make you some brazilian food and you will love it. Even the hot dogs are different here. i will make you a hot dog. you will love it. ha ha but have a great night with mama in tuchanos. 

i can hardly wait for mothers day. i cant wait to just talk to you. that will be soooo good. 

i am also really scared too. i am being really honest right now, my english is poor. really bad. i have to start practicing. i am serious. i am really embarassed. I don't know how to express myself in english. i am a bit worried but you just have to laugh at me. 

i love love love love you. and i am sooo happy to talk with you all. 

i love reading letters as well. ha ha. you know that song "rainy days and mondays always get me down." well, its the opposite now because rainy days means thats its a bit less hot. im not saying that its cool or anything, just less hot. and mondays are pdays and i can talk with you guys. what a blessing. 

i sure love you. you are a blessing in my life.

A bit to Mom:

oh mama, you sure are great.  I'm sorry you were so sick.  I'm glad you are feeling better.

Your week rocked, it sounds like. You are being such a good missionary. Remember that you don't have to be afraid or timid about sharing the gospel. If you share it with love, they won't be offended. I have to learn to do that on my mission so much. I have to learn how to be bold. It's really sad and really great sometimes. You know the saddest thing that i have had to do is tell someone that because of the choices that they are making and because they aren't willing to make the decision to be baptized they aren't promised the joy of the celestial kingdom. That is really hard. but the thing is i have to tell them. I don't want them to get to the judgement seat and Jesus say, "i sent you 2 missionaries to help you enter into the celestial kingdom but you didn't listen to them and because you weren't baptized you cant enter" and them say " but they didn't tell me my salvation was at stake!" so thats something hard about my week. 

Man, my week was the craziest week of my life and in will tell you more about it in my big email. 

I would love love love a dvd of meet the mormons.

and also i love you.  i love you 10 much

I’m so glad that you had a great week and i love your stories about your class. I think that is so cute.

You are such a good teacher and i think that you made a good decision to teach again. Wow school is almost over! How do you feel about that!!!!

Just know that i love you and thanks for everything you do.

Man this week was very hard. It was the first time that i had a break down. A full on break down on the mission. This week was not very good. I won’t tell you too many details but just know that your prayers helped a lot. Don’t worry i wasn’t ever in any danger. This ward just needs a little help.

I was transferred because of the ward here. They aren’t treating the missionaries very well. We have been going without lunches and so we have to pay for ours and we don’t have very much money. The ward here doesn’t like missionaries and doesn’t help us. They have had this problem for several transfers. It has gotten really bad. There are tons of people here that are less active because of the ward and well the missionaries are doing all the work of reactivation and helping the investigators feel welcome and everything and the more we stay here helping the ward, the more the ward depends on us even though they don't like us.   So the president thought it would be better to take the missionaries out of the ward so that the ward has to stand on their own feet and so they feel the absence of the missionaries and start to help out. yup. My week was hard. 

Ha ha im fine because my comp is great, my house is great and i love my district. 

Momma Note: This is another sweet little miracle for our family.  It is a little testimony of family prayer and that we truly can be united in prayer as a family even though we are miles apart.   When I learned that Joci had a melt down I was curious about when it was because of an experience that we had during the week.  When she said it was Saturday I instantly felt gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who knows His children and is aware of each of our needs.  This is in part what I shared with Joci in response to her experience.  ~Momma Baker

Wow!  I want you to know that it was Saturday as we were going to Grandmas that all of the sudden I knew we needed to pray for you.  I told the family and because we were just talking and laughing on the way down, Zac said wow mom that's random.  I said I know but it came so strong!  So we did pray for you.  Heavenly Father loves you so much.  He knows you and knows when you need extra help.  Even though we are so far away I still feel when you need something.  I am so grateful for that.  I love you so much Joc.  Thanks for the details.  I am going to thank Heavenly Father for a wise mission president.  I am also going to thank him for the spirit and the prompting to pray for you on Saturday and for the sweet connection of family through prayer and the spirit.  Keep on keepin on my amazing missionary!  You are an inspiration to me! 

From Joc in response to my letter:

Wow. im so grateful for you listening to the spirit. You are wonderful and i am so thankful for your support and your help. It was good to be comforted. 

The mission president is an inspired man. I just hope that i can be guided to find the people i am supposed to over in my new area. Its going to be hard in my new area because usuallly there is someone that stayed in the area during the transfer so that they can show you around but we are opening an area which means that nobody is there. There aren’t any investigators in our area, there isn’t anyone who knows where they are going. It is just completely new. It’ll be an adventure that’s for sure.

Well I'll talk to you on Sunday.  I love you until Sunday.'
I love you so so so sooooo much!
Love,

Sister Baker

Adventures in Potengi

Monday April 27, 2015

 Well this week was quite the week. Many things have happened in my house that i live in here in Potengi. One of the new things is that we found a cat in the street one day. It was raining and the cat was all sad so we brought it home. Well remember how much i hate cats. This cat is no different. It was a moment of weakness ill tell you that much. Well the first 4 hours were so fun. She was all sad so we cleaned her and everything and held her and petted her and then after 4 hours just wanted the stupid cat to shut up and stop wanting to be held and petted. Well, it peed on my dress and on my favorite pajama shirt, it pooped on the broom and peed on Sister Rodrigues's bed and I almost killed at the end of the week because i was so tired of this stupid cat. Don’t worry we gave it away to an investigator and i didn’t kill the retched thing. 

     The second new thing is that our house is almost on top of the rail road tracks and the train passes every three hours starting at 6:00 in the morning. The house shakes like we are having an earthquake. It’s hilarious. Wahoo (she said sarcastically)

    But on the investigators side of things... we have an investigator that has a real problem with smoking. and its not cigarettes, its a pipe. She smokes a freaking pipe people. She is almost 70 years old and she smokes a pipe. It’s been really hard to get her to stop because every time we try and talk to her, her son comes in and says that its going to be really hard to stop because she’s addicted. And we are all like "believe me! we know she’s addicted!  You’re not helping" and then he goes off about every other thing other than the problem at hand that maria is addicted to smoking a pipe. He talks about how his brother needs to come talk with us and that he doesn’t think drinking coffee is a sin and how his brother gave him all sorts of scriptures to have us read that wil tell us that our religion is wrong and stuff and we are just interested in helping Maria stop smoking her stupid pipe. That’s rough for us right now. Also we have 2 other investigators that need to get married. and he proposed on Saturday!!! wahooo!!! So that’s good news. they have an amazing story. They were both super hooked on drugs and selling drugs and drinking and stuff and one day she got pregnant. So she made a promise that she would leave the life of drugs and stuff if the baby lived, well the baby lived and she left just like that and now he is trying to stop as well. They are really strong and they will be baptized but it will take a little work. 

      Well, the mission is really hard people. But i love it any wheysssss. Sometimes i want to curl up in a ball and cry but i love it. 

Oh. One of my recent converts visited me in potengi. Remember luana? She is the sweetest person and i love her. She visited me. Made my whole day!!!!

Well i love you all. Have a good week and i’ll talk to you next week about MOTHERS DAY!!!!! wahhoooooooo! amen.

 Love,

Sister Baker