March 17, 2014 Happy St. Patrick's Day

Some of the best YW this side of the Mississippi! Goodness I love those girls! We take them out with us all the time!!

 

We love to make silly faces!

Really bad lighting, but Sister S and her daughter. Raine is the bomb-diggity and wanted to come tracting with us! :)

Hey there erryone!

It's been another great week in the OSM. I love it here. It's going to be so hard to leave! Bah! I don't even want to think about it. But everyone is always bringing it up. I guess it's to make me feel loved, but I either get sad or become a trunky monkey. Not good either way!

So Takena ward is trucking right along. I think the members are still a little bit in shock that they have both elders and sisters, and get to put us both to work. But we all work well together and get stuff done. We're all still struggling with finding people to teach, though. I think I talked about that last week. But any finding done by our own efforts is next to a waste of the Lord's time. It's like every time we think, "let's go tracting or street contacting" the Spirit says, "stop wasting time". So we've almost taken a stand on no tracting. I mean unless the Spirit tells us to go knock on a specific house. But that's different. So for us that means more planning and a lot more effective member missionary work.
We've been teaching the members a lot this week. Sometimes we teach the actual lessons, and sometimes just talk about the roles of members and missionaries in the work of salvation. It's great to see the enthusiasm of these members! I just love it! They are so eager to do the Lord's work, but just need direction. I mean, that's really all of us. Even as missionaries we have to rely on the Spirit 100% because it's not our work to do. And when we think we know what's best, that's when the problems happen. So in these lessons with members we've been leaving them commitments, like most missionaries do. But we've been following up with the families! Growing up I remember the missionaries asking us to do stuff, and I would want to do it, but just forget. And we never had missionaries call back (to my knowledge) and see how everything is going. So I definitely think that has thrown the members for a loop. But I'm excited to see what will come of it!

We also had stake conference this week. That was AWESOME. Seriously. The Lebanon stake rocks. And I even got to see some members from Sweet Home! That was great. The whole thing was about hastening the work of salvation. There were several recent converts that spoke and were not only inspired with their remarks, but inspiring. I especially liked what was said about family history. I don't know a whole lot about family history, but that's definitely something I want to get into when I get home. There's also a snazzy music video on lds.org called "Find Our Cousins" that Sister Palm-Palm and I ADORE. It's a bit cheezy, but it will get stuck in your head in a good way. And who doesn't like cheese?! We've showed/talked about it to some members and they love it. One sisters watched it after we left from dinner and sent me a message on FB about how much she loved it and is so excited to get to finding her cousins! The Spirit of Elijah, folks. It's amazing!! Soooooo, go find your cousins!

There's one famiily that we're teaching. I just need to bring it to the attention of everyone of how fantastic this family is. #forealz Sister T is less-active, married to a non-member, and has 3 sons. Seriously the cutest family and such fantastic kids. After our first lesson (the Restoration) we asked the kids if they had any questions. The oldest son said, "I just have something to say. That. Was. Awesome!" So this week we taught them about prayer and the song "A Child's Prayer". They even have a piano and Sister P plays well so it was great. Music brings the Spirit so strongly! And those boys are just wonderful. So close to the Spirit. Bah! I just love 'em! And after we leave every time Sister T texts us to thank us for coming. She's awesome.

Let's see... any fun details from this week?

We met a less-active in the ward who was baptized because he lost a bet. Yep. You heard that right. He had been meeting with the missionaries for a long time so one of the missionaries bet that Bro G couldn't bench press more than he could. And Brother G lost the bet. So here we are working with them. Their family is great, though. We're going to be doing family home evening with them next week and I'm super stoked!

There's a member of the ward named Sherm S. We refer to him as "my boy Sherm." He's always looking out for us sisters and doesn't care for the elders. He's in charge of the building maintenance and we share it with a few other wards, so there are missionaries in the building pretty frequently. He's always getting on their case about locking us out when we have district meeting, not inviting us to meetings they're having, etc. It's pretty entertaining. And he always goes in for a hug. Sister Palm-Palm and I just stand there awkwardly like "No... Stop. Sherm. Stop. No. No hugs." Oh bless his heart. But he just bends over backwards for us. #sisterperks

Also, I just love the Book of Mormon. I want to study it all day erry day! Want to know why it's so great?! Well I'm SO glad you asked! You can ask the missionaries! They can help you!

Jokes. But seriously. The Book of Mormon's primary purpose is to teach and testify of Jesus Christ. It teaches the gospel of Jesus Christ so simply and plainly that even children can understand it. Go pick it up and read it. It will change your life.

Well, that's all for this week folks.

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Preach the gospel!

Help hasten His work!

Sister Baker