The Biggest Miracles...

The biggest miracle of miracles happened this week. Oh my gosh. I think i have never had such a happy feeling in my whole life. I got 3 really special phone calls this week. I don't know if you remember Klebione? I taught her in Natal. She was practically mormon, but she is dating a married man. Well i got a phone call from one of the elders over there, he’s a great friend of mine, and he said that he just got out of an interview with her and she just decided to leave everything behind and be baptised. Her house, her money, her college, her boyfriend, everything. She is willing to give up everything to be baptised and follow Jesus Christ. Her baptism was on Saturday. She called me on Saturday, crying and thanking me for the time i spent with her. She told me she loved me and wished that i could have been there. I couldn’t because i had to take care of my area. But i was sooooo happy that i could be a part of her progress and see the growth of the seed i planted. Especially that i could see the growth of a seed i planted while i was on my mission. Sister Pinheiro got to go to the baptism because her area is closer. My area is about 5 hours away. But it was sooo good to hear her voice and to see how happpy she is. and another thing, she was baptised by her son. Her son is 16 years old. It was such a blessing to see his progress too. I’m soo happy about that. 

   The other phone called i received on friday. It was my other child in Caico. Do you remember the family i was teaching there? Sandro and Aline? They were a couple that needed to get married before they could be baptised. When i was there we did everything we could possibly do and they were progressing a lot but they were still a little bit unsure about getting married. We talked a lot with them about the family a proclamation to the world and gave them one. We brought tons of members to their house and we did everything possible and when i left they were a more open to the idea of marriage, but the new sister there helped them a little bit more and they decided to get married and be baptised. When they called they were at their house. They passed the phone to aline and she told me about the wedding. They will get married about 15 of december and then they will be baptised (and then sandro will be the next bishop... i believe) and then they said the other news. Do you remember Vanessa? She is visiting the church, its been 10 years and she doesn’t want to be baptised. Well she decided to be baptised too and she wants me to be there!!!!!  I want to soooooooo freaking bad. She will have to talk to her mom and everything but i am sooo happy that she made that decision. I am overwhelmed with happiness. What a blessing to see this on my mission!!!!! The part that i loved the most is that every single one of them wanted to tell me. I am important enough in their lives that they wanted to tell me. I am sooo happy. 

Well i love you all. Thank you for your prayers. They have been answered a lot lately. I pray for you all every day.

love, sister j. baker 

And i almost forgot some other great news!!!!!! This week we had 2 baptisms!!! A dad and daughter and we are working on the mom. It’s the first time that i will baptise a whole family!!!! What a blessing. Their names are Kleber and Vitoria. It’s sooo cute and precious to see this family. I love the mission. They are wonderful and they will help a lot in this ward. 

  And also i played the violin in the celebration night of the opening of a new chapel in Mossoro and sang. It was cool. A member will send pictures. 

i love you

love, sister j baker

I love kids!

 Something special that happened this week was how much i realized that God and Jesus love the children. They love them so much they are soo pure. Sometimes it’s really hard to baptise children because you don’t know if they will stay in the church because its hard for them to go by themselves. So we try not to baptise very many kids without someone responsible to help them. But over and over again i am amazed with the purity of children and their willingness to hear about the gospel. One day we were walking in the street and we heard a little voice calling after us "senhorita! (miss! miss!)" we turned around and there was a little girl that was about 5 years old. She said "senhorita, are you from the mormon church?" We said yes. Her eyes got really wide she looked behind her and called to her older sister who is about 11 years old. "Come hear! they are mormons!!!" and they both came running. They asked if we could find a way to bring them to visit the church and we said of course, and we would love to come to your house and visit your parents and teach you lessons. When we went to their house it mad me want to cry. Their house has two rooms and a bathroom. It’s about as big as our storage room. It broke my heart. Their mom works her tail off to try and provide for her kids. It breaks my heart. We are going to do everything possible to help this family. 

     My other experience is pretty special too. We went to a poor part of town because there were some recent converts that live there that stopped going to church so we went there and invited them to church. We invited them and their neighbors and we found out that one of their kids isn’t baptised. So this week we baptised her son. But the thing that really touched me was a little girl who came up to me and said that she really wanted to go to church but her mom wouldn’t let her. She said "aunty (all of the kids call us titia or aunty) will you talk to my mom to see if she will let me go to church?" and so i went and asked her mom.  Her mom said that she will think about it. So when we were leaving the little girl called out to us. "tia! come here!" "tia pray that my mom will let me go to church!" The next day when we went, her mom let her go. Heavenly Father sure loves children. I love working with children. 

Well i love you all. Thank you soo much for your prayers. 

The names of my baptisms this week is Yascara and Everson. They are adorable. 

i love you all

love, sister j baker

A note to Momma

My leadership meeting was good.  I am trying really hard to make a difference. ha ha in the meeting everyone was talking about things that we could do better as leaders and how the people we lead sometimes don’t like us and stuff and i just kept quiet for a bit, but at one point i asked for the mic and i started to talk about how we should act and what we should do as leaders. I said that when we ask if there is anything we can do to help isn’t helping. What we really need to do is leave our area and start to help. We have to really want to help and care about the missionaries and everything. I said some really strong words and everyone kept really quiet and President was just nodding his head. Everyone was in awe because what i said was really bold for someone that just started to be a leader. President loved what i said and commented on it. It was great, I felt good. 

   I am good with money. (Momma note~I asked her if we needed to put some extra money in her account to cover travel expenses.) I am learning how to control my money and buy things that i need and not what i want. It’s really good. haha. 

  I love you sooo much. hey my mission is ending really soon and i want to get as much out of these 4 months as possible. So what is one thing that you think i should work on for the last 4 months so that i can be a better person and learn as much as possible?

i love you so much!

love, sister j. baker

This is the little girl that Sister Baker braided her hair for her baptism at the request
of the girl and her mother.