5.26.2014

May 26, 2014 Oi There!

It´s been a pretty great week over here in Natal. It either hasn`t been as hot or I´m getting used to it. Hmmm.. I don´t know.

But Sister A and I are helping people get married left and right. It´s pretty fun. You see, Brasil does this thing where people live together forever without being married. So we´re helping to form eternal families. Love it! 

Ok so once upon a time we did another Family Home Evening with "I" and her family. They´re pretty fantastic. So we/they invited R again and we were thinking it would be super great to have the spiritual thought about faith because R needs to understand faith. But we didn´t end up putting in our request for one reason or another. And when we had FHE, guess what the spiritual thought was about??!!? You guessed it! FAITH! Boo yah! After I explained to the twins in the family (the ones that shared the thought) about what just happened. It was the Spirit, that´s what. Seriously that was fantastic. So now R understand faith, he just needs to act on it. This dear tenderhearted investigator of ours has been reading the Book of Mormon like a champ, going to church, and knows the Church is true. But he wants more time before he gets baptized. It´s unfortunate because he can´t progress anymore without this ordinance and he already knows everything he needs to to be baptized. And he´s still in love with Sister A. That really needs to stop. Oh R, bless his heart. He´s going through a lot of changes iin his life and is struggling to recognize the Spirit. So that´s what´s up with him.

D is getting batptized this Wednesday!! Woohooo! Love her. We´re also starting to teach her dad this week. It´s going to be awesome! Her dad E was asking her why she wanted to be baptized and it was so sweet to listen to her explain why she wants to be baptized. The youth here in Brasil are super spiritually-minded and firm in the faith. 

I think the best moment this week was during a lesson with our investigator, C. We met him a few weeks ago on the street and he´s working to turn his life around. He´s really smart and actually used to be a missionary for another church. So he´s traveled to a lot of places and speaks English. But during the lesson when he was explaining something (I don´t even remember what he was explaining) I just got this overwhelming feeling of love for him. The only way I can describe it is that I was able to feel a sliver of how much Heavenly Father loves him. It was like Heavenly Father pushed everything else out of my mind except how important C is to Him. I´m really grateful I was able to have that experience because I know that Heavenly Father loves us much more than we can comprehend and more than I was able to feel.


And now it´s that time of the email! Answer Mama Baker´s questions time!

Portuguese is coming along. Hurrah for remembering verb conjugations! They´re getting more natural. That´s what I´m talking about!

Church was good yesterday. The Stake President brought the smackdown and called everyone to repentance. It was pretty sweet.

Anything interesting? We walked 12 miles on Wednesday and I´ve discovered that I´ve lost about 15 since being in Brazil. I wonder it they´re related in any way...

Hardest thing that happened this week- R won´t set a baptismal date. Love that man, but he´s a little stinker sometimes. Patience is a virtue I get to learn every day over again.

I´ll try to send photos.

That´s pretty much the lowdown of my life. 

Remember who you are and what you stand for! 
Follow the prophet!

Love you!

Sister Baker

5.20.2014

May 19, 2014 I Live in the Trunkiest Casa!

Let me explain. Trunky -- you´ve got your trunk all ready to go home. So once upon a time the mission office is in my area. That means that every six weeks the sisters that arrive spend a night with us and all sisters that go home spend a night with us. That being said, it´s a trunky monkey casa. Sister A and I got to work with two different sisters two different days this week that we´re going home. One sister even missed her flight and that´s why she was with us. Mama Baker- I don´t even want to think about how you would feel if I did that. Ha. But it wasn´t really the sister´s fault. Anyway. Trunky casa. That´s what´s up.

Remember D? Good. So she´s pretty much the cutest thing. She says she always thinks of me when she eats goiaba because she was there the first time I had it and thought my face was funny. So D´s mom had been sick with cancer and passed away last week. Her best friend L is a member and has been having a hard time, so we´ve stopped by every once in a while to pray with her and stuff. But D´s mom N wouldn´t let D be baptized because N didn´t really understand the church. Now D is living with L who is like her aunt. So we´re about 95% sure she´s getting baptized this week! I say 95 because we have to get permission from her father. We already got permission from him the first time we talked to him, so I don´t see why he wouldn´t allow her to now. And now N will be learning the same things as D on the other side! Can I get a hurrah for the Plan of Salvation?!

Also remember R? Well he´s a rockstar. We met him last week and he´s already read from the beginning of the Book of Mormon up until the middle of 2 Nephi. He accepted the invite to be baptized this coming Sunday, and now we have to help him realize that he´s receiving answers to his prayers. He loves the Book of Mormon (clearly) and really liked church yesterday. Today he´s going to family home evening again. Yay for R! He´s also a little bit in love with Sister A. We and a member explained yesterday that missionaries don´t date on their missions. Sister A has a problem attracting what we call ´scorpions´. It drives her nuts. Eh, it drives me a bit nuts too. I mean we´re preaching the gospel here! Ain't nobody got time for that. 

In other news:

I made my oh-so-famous pretzels for a "I", a member, when we were at her house for lunch. It was so funny because her oven kept going out and she was like I want to try this American bread!! So funny. We´re having FHE at her house tonight. 

I bought a dress that looks so Brazilian and I looooove it. No pictures this week because I left my camera at a member´s house. I didn´t want to walk home in the dark with it.

According to my pedometer that I used for the first time, Thursday we walked 8.2 miles. 

We are using one of the office elder´s phones now. President was not super happy with them that they didn´t tell him that we were robbed. Also President said that since the dog that ripped my skirt wasn´t sick and is a domestic (angry) dog, I don´t have to get rabies shots. Because that would stink. A lot. I´m sure you know how I feel about shots. 

Time for... Answer Mama Baker´s Questions that I haven´t already answered!
I did notice the questions are in bold! Much more convenient. I appreciate your thoughtfulness :)

I also got some SAH-WEET capri, 80s looking spandex shorts. They´re pretty rad. 

That´s all for this week, folks!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!!

LOVE YOUUUU

Sister Baker

5.14.2014

May 14, 2014 Oi, Oi, Oi!

 
Mother's Day with the Bishop and his cute family


Yummy Shrimp sandwiches!

The little shrimp still have their eyes on them!  Oh well, it was still delicious!
Yes, that's an avocado.  They are REALLY that size!

These feet were made for walkin'!  Still a bit swollen, but there's a start of what will become a famous Chaco tan line.  This is the "before" picture.


Oi, Oi, Oi!  That´s fun to say fast.

So it´s been a pretty snazzy week. 

I´m emailing today instead of Monday because of transfers. Gotta love those! But good news, I´m staying with Sister A. Whoohhoo! I mean not really any surprise there. Although we never actually heard for sure what was happening with us from our leaders. But I guess no news is good news? Maybe? Eh. And why we didn´t hear anything about transfers you may ask. Well, it was because...

Our phone got stolen! Yeah buddy! First robbery on the mission! It was pretty low key to be honest. We were walking on this big street Sunday morning to take people with us to church, but this street didn´t have houses or anyone on it. Yeah not a good idea. And apparently Sunday is the most sketchy day of the week. That´s pretty sad that the Lord´s day has turned into sketchy-sketch day. But anyway. Homeboy rode up on his bike and demanded our phone. And that was that. 

In other news, we started teaching an awesome investigator named R this week. We were teaching a part-member family in their front room that´s open to the street and he was sitting outside listening. After the lesson we started talking to him and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! Whooooo. Monday night he came to a family home evening at the house of some members and the spiritual thought was on the Book of Mormon. At this point we haven´t really taught him anything but about baptism but he was just looking through the BoM and thinking and reading. We could just see the wheels turning in his head. We marked a chapter for him to read and yesterday during our lesson he said he had read the chapter we marked, the introduction, and all the way up to 1 Nephi 15. Boo yah! He asks really good questions so we can tell he´s actually thinking about what we´re saying. Yeah. So that´s R. The bomb.com



Then after the lesson last night his family´s terror of a dog ripped my skirt. It ripped a few inches above the knee, so I´m going to see if someone in the ward can fix it. So that´s a thing. I mean I can sacrifice a skirt for someone´s eternal salvation. It´s all good. 
The first skirt casualty--naughty doggie!

Because it´s a new transfer I have a different planner and can´t remember everything else miraculous that happened this week. #struglife. 

So now it´s.... Answer Mama Baker´s Questions Time!


We had I think 10 missionaries stay with us last night. 5 new sisters and their trainers. And they´re all off to their new areas today.

We shop at little grocery stores. Nothing the size of Walmart. Everything here is on a much smaller, local scale. 

That´s all folks! 
Remember who you are and what you stand for!!

Love you!
Sister Baker

5.12.2014

May 11, 2014 Happy Mother's Day Skype!!!




May 5, 2014 Once Upon a Time

The entire world calls me either German or Barbie doll. Yep. That definitely takes some getting used to. There was even this guy on the street that stopped, pointed at me, and asked ´where are you from´ in English. That one threw me for a loop. But yeah. I get called a boneca (doll) at least 2 or 3 times a day. And now the whole world thinks that Sister A is Brasileira. It´s pretty funny and I think she enjoys it. 

So let´s see... what all happened this week??

We had all sorts of miracles in finding and talking to people on the streets. Brazilians are way funny. And for the most part they´re patient when I have no clue what´s going on. Which isn`t all that often. But anyway. We started teaching this guy J who rocks. We went back for an appointment, but he wasn´t there. So we started talking to his neighbors then all of a sudden he shows back up at his house and we teach him too. That was a tender mercy. He´s funny because every time we talk to him, he´s like I´m doing everything you´re asking me to do because you´re my teachers. Haha. So that´s J.

Want an update on D? The girl we were teaching? Well here ya go. Her mom doesn`t want to talk to us. Whenever we go to her house, she automatically walks into another room and won´t set up appointments with us. Yup. Pretty sad. But things are going to happen in the Lord´s time. And D is still super awesome. 

And in some non-missionary-work business, we had a rat in our house. He was just a little guy, but oh how I hated him. We named him Earl after the Dixie Chicks song saying that Earl´s gotta die. And Earl did die. It was kinda sad to see a crime scene, but at the same time I can sleep better now. 


That´s pretty much what´s going on in this neck of the woods. Not a whole lot else to report. 

Remember who you are and what you stand forrrrrrrr!

Love you!
Sister Baker