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