"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

Batismo!!!!!

  After so much work and sooooooo much work and even more work, we FINALLY had a baptism. We baptised a cute girl named Leticia. She is 13 years old and she is the sweetest person i have ever met. I love her whole entire family. They have adopted us. When we go to visit them we arrive at there house and they welcome us in and give us hugs and smells and food. (im going to get fatter) She lives with her grandma who calls me her granddaughter. I freaking love them. She is so sweet because almost everyone in her family doesnt want her to be baptised (other than her grandma) and starts telling her all of the bad things about the church and making up lies about the church and stuff so its been a journey for her but she has a really strong desire do what Heavenly Father wants her to do. She comes to us with these questions to see if its true or not and to see if she is doing what is right. She is teaching her family to pray and read the scriptures. she is a wonderful girl. I am so proud of her. and she is so happy in the church.

    Im not going to lie, its really hard in this ward because everything is disfunctional. Not everything, but its so small that i have to play a big part of the ward. I taught the young men and woman´s class on sunday. its our responsibility to do a lot of stuff. It’s hard because i know how it should be but its good that im trying to help them out. Another thing that is difficult is that sometimes the bishop is really hard on us. when we make a mistake or have someone to baptise that is under the age of 12 he gets mad at us. but i know that he has the best interest at heart for this ward. But now we are all workin together. The members are helping us our and the bishop and his wife visited a couple families with us the other night. Its still hard and it feels like i am walking up a hill pulling the ward, but they are getting a lot better. i have a real strong desire to help this ward. 

    Let’s see... what else happened this week. we found a couple new families to teach. its a real miracle because we have mom, dad and children to teach. this doesnt happen very much. in this ward there are 2 complete families. We need more families, but Heavenly Father is blessing this area and i hope that we can baptise these families. 

  I love you all so much. Thank you soooo much for your prayers and support. 

i love you!!!

love, sister j. baker

An Unexpected Spiritual Experience!

October 12, 2015

 This week was good. Heavenly Father is working a lot in our area. Miracles are happening and i am starting to live by one rule. "ever tried, ever failed, no matter. try again, fail again, fail better." I am failing better and better every week. ha ha. One thing that i learned in conference that came back to me right now is the very first conference talk. I had one question that i asked before conference. you know how you are supposed to write down a couple or questions and they will be answered in the general conference? Well i did that. The only one that i really wanted answered was this: "Is Heavenly Father proud and happy of the work i have done so far on my mission?" and the first talk answered that question. I received the answer that yes. He accepted my work. I can still do better there is a lot more to learn but He is satisfied with the work that I have offered Him. Man i am a failer but one thing that i haven’t done is give up. Sometimes I really wanted to but i didn’t and i think thats one of the biggest things i have learned so far. The mission is perfect. 

    I will share a spiritual experience that i had this week. that was a slap in the face for me. yesterday we were walking in the street with the Elders and we were on our way to visit a less-active member. Then out of nothing 2 drunks passed in our front. This is very common so we didn’t think much of it. The one was sooooo drunk that he had passed out and the other drunk was carrying him on his back. We looked at them and walked right on past. Normally i cant’ do anything about it because, well, what would i do? and i was kind of impatient because we needed to finish visiting people or we would reach our goal that day. But my companion said "hey let’s go help them!" and i was all like "No come on! what can we do?" so me and 2 other elders sat on the curb while my comp and another elder went to talk to them to see what they could do. The next second we look over to see the one elder trying to help carry the passed out drunk. This elder is suuuper skinny and doesn’t have much strength but he was trying to help and all three of us looked over and had the same impression at the same time "what are you doing sitting on the curb. You are representatives of Jesus Christ. Go help!" So we all got up and went over to help the one elder was much bigger than the others and he went over and picked up the drunk man in the fireman’s carry and started to walk in the direction of the man´s house. He didn’t walk just a little ways. He walked for about 7 minutes carrying this man on his shoulders. The drunk man started to throw up all over the elders back until his pants and the back of his shirt was covered in throw up. But he kept walking until we reached the mans house. We left the man there. After that we continued on with our day. but that experience stayed with me that whole day. How many times do we pass someone who needs our help? How many times do we feel a prompting of the spirit and we ignore it. Now that whole street saw what the missionaries did for a drunk man that they didn’t want to help. We will go back to that street and everyone will be a lot more receptive to the gospel because of my companion who listened to the spirit and the elder who did something that Jesus would do. I am very grateful that they listened and the next time i will listen too. 

   I am sooo grateful for the miracles that are happening every day in my area. I am trying to be a little bit more like Jesus every day. I fail every day but then the next day i know that i can fail a little bit better. I love you all!!!! Have a wonderful week and look for a way to help someone this week. 

   Thanks for your love and support! I love you all!

love, sister j. baker

My Last General Conference on the Mission!

What!? Yup you heard it. That was my last general conference on the mission. It was suuper cool. i watched it in English. i dont know why, but i just wanted to. things are going good here in Caico. It’s a little bit (a lot a bit hot) sometimes i feel like i’m burning up here. My companion uses an umbrella. I understand why she uses it, but I don’t want to get hit in the head or look like Jehova´s witness anymore. But I’ll get over it. That is something you’ve got to learn on the mission. You’ve got to learn to live with the differences of other people. 

   I am really grateful and really blessed to be teaching a beautiful family. They are wonderful. They need to get married but I think that they are progressing a lot. This is such a blessing to me to teach mom, dad and kids. This gospel will bless their lives forever. I think its just a matter of time. 

   My district here is suuuper cool. I freaking love the Elders and Sisters that i am working with. They help me everyday and they support me and help me and I am true friends with every one of them. I love it. 

    So i really liked conference and the new 3 apostles are amazing. They are a good choice. It’s strange not to see the apostles that passed away sitting on the stand but I’m sure that we will grow to love and support these next three with the same love and support that we showed to the other three. Conference helped me a lot. I learned that I need to be a little bit better, but that for God I’m good enough as I am. Man its hard to be perfect. ha ha. I want to be a bit better but it’s nice to know that God is proud of the work I have done so far on my mission. 

  Well that is all I’ve got right now. I love you all.   Have a wonderful week and be safe and happy. Thank you for your prayers and support.

I love you all!

love, sister j. baker

Momma Note:  Sister Baker had to write an essay as part of applying to BYU. The essay is "What is one of the most difficult things you have ever experienced or done?  What made it difficult and what did you learn?"   She sent a rough draft to us.   It was so touching and shares her testimony so well I wanted to include it on her blog. I have so much love in my heart for this sweet Sister missionary. ~Momma Baker

 Here it is:

Imagine, if you will, a dry desert.  The sun is hitting you in the face, burning your skin, burning your eyes, burning your brain!  You leave your house and start to walk on the dry dirt streets.  Within a couple seconds your feet, your ankles, and up to your shins are a shade or two darker with dust.  Your throat starts to dry up.  You would ask for a cup of water, but you're scared of the condition of the water you will receive.  Sometimes you ask yourself, "What am I doing here?  When can I go home?"  But then you arrive at a house and they welcome you in.  You sit down, and  try to express in a language that is not your own, the love you have for your Savior.  Tears are in their eyes as they receive a message so important and so special that it will change their lives forever.  And after a year you realize that the hot sun beating on your face, the lack of water and the dirty feet isn't what make this mission difficult.  What makes it difficult is the thousands of people who refuse to accept the beautiful message that is so dear to your heart.  That's the hardest part.  And you learn that the sacrifice you have made is minimal compared to the sacrifice of He who this message is about, Jesus Christ.  For every drop of sweat that drops from your brow, He sweat a million drops of blood.  No sacrifice that we make can pay Him for the beautiful sacrifice He made for each one of us, even for those who don't accept Him.  This is what I have learned serving my full time mission in Brazil, Natal.