December 15, 2014 Last Transfer…Just Do It!

That’s the new motto folks. Sister Leonard and I have decided.

So the past few days have been... interesting. Basically all that happened was
that we’re renewing our teaching pool because it’s pretty week. And when I say
pretty week I mean we only have 1 real investigator. Here in Brasil, that’s
rough. Just about everyone and anyone will listen to us (which is a blessing),
but we haven’t found anyone that is willing to come to church with us (which
is rough).

That means that I don¥t have a lot of exciting news to report in terms of
baptisms or anything.
Buuuuuut....

Luna had her baby yesterday! (from what we know)

Edigar still can’t say my name. Now he calls me "Baby". Not even "Sister
Baby". Just "Baby". I try to correct him, but he has a hard time remembering.
He’s also going to church in a suit. He’s so snazzy.
So, so snazzy.

Cesar bought a white button-down shirt for church. He’s just rocking it!

So even though we¥re not having a lot of success in terms of finding,
teaching, and baptizing, our recent-converts are staying strong!

It’s fun being comps with Sister L. She’s a hoot. She’s also decided that
she’s got "a little more than a year in the mission" as opposed to going home
this transfer. Ha. So she’s going home sometime this next year.

Ok so funny story. We were walking down the street, (you know, like we
do) and there was this teenage boy just staring us down. I don¥t even know
what he was thinking but his face looked like he smelled something bad. It was
super hot so it could have been us, but I don’t think so. He was too far away.
But as soon as we were there walking by his side he started making sounds like
a turkey. I think he was trying to speak English. Apparently he thinks English
sounds like a gobbling turkey.

Tomorrow super early in the morning we’re going to be going to Natal for our
mission-wide Christmas conference. Every zone is presenting a skit so today
we¥re getting together to practice ours.

But really, not a whole lot happened this week.

Here’s to a fun-filed new week! Full of firmly committed investigators and
baptisms!

Love you all!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Sister Baker

October 20, 2014 Batismo! Batismo! Batismo!

Heyalll. That´s short for hey y´all. For all you haters of the word y´all, it´s super useful because there doesn´t exist a different word for the plural form of "you". #justsayin´ It´s one of the magical inventions of the south that I´ve adapted. 

But in other words, this week was pretty fantastic... because.... RONALDO GOT BAPTIZED! 

Ok. I just love this man. He´s so great. He looks a bit scary, but he´s just a papa teddy bear. By that I mean he´s just a loving dad.

So this is what went down. 

Ronaldo was progressing very well. Reading the Book of Mormon. Praying for a response. (which we all know he´ll get! :) ) Living the commandments. Going to church. 

Except that... Mama Bear is super duper exceptionally catholic and just happens to trip up the spirit that likes to testify of the truths of the restored gospel. Oh, Irene. She´s just a hoot. She basically marked Ronaldo´s baptism then a day later was like, "he doesn´t even know what he wants, he´s already been baptized in the catholic church!" And we´re like, "whoaaaaa. deep breaths. Let´s talk this puppy out." Ronaldo was saying to us that he didn´t want to be baptized because he hasn´t gotten an answer about the Book of Mormon and he doesn´t know if the church is true. And Irene doesn´t listen/believe anything we say so if was a bit rough to resolve that one right then and there. So this is what happened. We called in the troops. Just kidding. Not troops, but other missionaries. Everyone that is baptized has to be interviewed to make sure they´re prepared. So we called in the elder to interview him. Ronaldo and the elder went to into another room to talk, while I, Sister Adriane, Irene and another elder chit-chatted. And then after a while Ronaldo and the elder came back. Ronaldo, "let´s go drink some tea? To commemorate my baptism?!?!" (don´t worry. the kind of tea that´s not against the word of wisdom) But we were all like, "Wooohooo!" 

And Ronaldo got baptized yesterday. And he LOOOOVED church yesterday. I even gave a talk about the Atonement. He said something about his blood feeling different. Haha. I think that´s his way of describing the Spirit. But his baptism was awesome with tons of members! Bishop baptized him. You´ll see in the picture the difference in size. Ronaldo is super tall and bishop is short, so Ronaldo kneeled in the water to be baptized. And next week? Dom do Espírito Santo! Gift of the Holy Ghost!

Also, this week I went on an exchange with Sister Fleming, from Alabama. She´s awesome! 

That´s the lowdown on my life right now!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Spread the gospel!

beijos e cheiros,

Sister Baker

December 10, 2014 Você ouviu a fofoca do céu??

Hey erryone!

Hope the Christmas season is starting off all good in the hood with you all! Because things are just rocking along here in Caicó! About three million things happened this week, you know, killing off Sister Adriane and all.

So here´s what´s up. 

I planned a surprise farewell party for her snd boy, oh boy it went over well! Let me be clear, planning any sort of surprise with someone at your side 24/7 is quite the challenge. But we involved basically the whole ward and she felt super loved. Mom, I think you got that video of all us missionaries singing random songs. We did a trunky hymn mash up. That is, the super trunky verses of the hymns all together in one song. I didn´t know what was going on, that´s why I looked lost. The other missionaries in our district planned it while we were out and about doing other things. But one lesson I learned in that ordeal- DON´T GET MIXED UP IN LIES. Goodness. It´s rough. I got myself all tripped up trying to cover up Sister Adriane´s surprise party. Luckilly she didn´t notice anything. Whoohoooo! #sucesso 

And yesterday afternoon I officially killed her off and she´s in Natal right now. Tomorrow morning she´ll be home sweet home! 

But now it´s new transfer info time! 

So... I´m still here in Caicó! Yay! Love this place! I had a few ideas of what would happen with my new companion. I had a few ideas of who might come here, but as usual, the Lord has other ideas. He does what no one else would think to do. So my new companion is Sister Leonard. She´s from Dallas, Texas, a blondie, and a hoot. SHE´S ALSO GOING HOME THIS NEXT TRANSFER. I didn´t believe it when the ZLs called. I just didn´t believe it. She was way over yonder in Alecrim (my last area) and was only there for one transfer and now she´s here! So we´re killing ourselves off here in Caicó! Last night I got to talk to her a wee bit on the phone and the first thing she said was, "Você ouviu a fofoca do céu?" Aka, "Did you hear the gossip from heaven?" (aka, revelation.) Yup, this transfer´s going to rock and we´re going to baptize! Two blondies in a Brazillian city makes for a good time. 

I still can´t believe we´re companions. . . 

But on to some other news!

Edigar´s doing great! He´s already going out with us to teach his friends. He´s inviting everyone and anyone to be baptized. 

Conselho da missão was really good! We´re focusing a lot of retaining our recent converts. All too often people are baptized and then they gradually fall away or abruptly stop coming. Of course we don´t want that to happen so we´re following up on our recent converts a lot better. And I learned with Edigar and Cesar that it´s super important to teach recent-converts immediately after baptism the importance of missionary work and get them involved. Will Edigar or Cesar go less active?? NOT ON MY WATCH. They´re already out and about, serving the Lord! Tonight Edigar´s going with us to teach his friend that he invited to be baptized. :) #lovehim

All in all, it´s been an awesome week. Even though I´m with Sister Leonard now there´s no way I´m going to get trunky. I´ve already decided. Haha. There´s too much work to do! 

Love you all!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Sister Baker

December 1, 2014 This week I´m thankful for....

Hey erryone!

Once upon a time I totally forgot it was thanksgiving! That is, until I got a bunch of emails about thanksgiving and saw all sorts of flyers about black friday. Can you believe that black friday has made it all the way here to Caicó?! Well.. it has. It´s a bit funny and at the same time I just shake my head.

BUT. Let us be grateful!

Número um: I´m so grateful for referrals from members! Last week was Edigar´s baptism, as you all know. And this week Cesar got baptized! A few weeks back a member brought him to church and Cesar really liked it. He accepted a baptismal date and we started teaching him and whatnot. Except that a few days later he just fell off the face of the earth. That´s when we started to teach Edigar. Oh! I just love Edigar! But this week we were over there teaching him and Cesar just showed up out of nowhere. He was like, "I´m going to church this week and I´m going to get baptized." And we´re like, "Oh yeah you are!" So that´s that. Cesar even stopped drinking during that little break that we weren´t teaching him. And when Edigar found out that Cesar was getting baptized... Oh. My. Lanta. I´ve never seen an elderly man quite that giddy. It was just great. So here´s the thing. Referrals from members are amazing! I just get so stinking excited to get any sort of referral because that means that this person has already been being prepared to recieve the gospel. Sometimes it doesn´t work out in that exact moment, but it´s more likely that it will work out than it won´t. Ok. I hope that makes sense. I think I´m forgetting English now...

I´m grateful for... Inspired leaders! This weekend was stake conference and boy oh boy it was awesome. Saturday night was all about the O.M! That is, OBRA MISSIONARIA! That is MISSIONARY WORK! The members here in Caicó are amazing. They love and care so much for other people. A member of the stake presidency spoke about how last year there were 150 baptisms in the stake and the majority of them are already less active. I could just see how that got him so sad and how he wanted so much to help those people. So the stake presidency is pushing a lot for the rescue of these members. I´m pretty excited to see how they exactly want us to work with this. Our bishop here is so so so great. I know the next ward counsel we have he´ll just lay out exactly what he wants us to get done and we´ll do it. Go and do, folks! So, yay! Inspired leaders!

I´m grateful for... recent converts and less actives. In particular, Simone, Franciele, and Marlon. Simone is such a champ. She´s the one that called us from the street to find out when church started because she was wanting to return. Yeah buddy. So she´s been wanted to have a family home evening for a while and it didn´t work out until this week. And this family home evening was awesome! She invited everyone and anyone and we did the same. So we had a good turnout! Cesar and Edigar were there, as were other recent converts and few of Edigar´s friends. I love me some noite familiares!

And last and most of all, I´m grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. Right now I´m reading in 3rd Nefi when Christ visits the Americas. It´s interesting how there´s so much unrighteousness and evil among the people before he comes, Christ calles them to repentance, some of them repent, and the wicked are destroyed. The Christ visits the people who are prepared spiritually for his coming and ministers to them. It´s a huge wake up call for all of us that soon Christ will be coming to the earth again and we need to be prepared. We need to seek His teachings and do what He says so when the destruction comes we will be spared. I know He lives and loves all of us! When we do what He says we are blessed beyond our knowledge. Then when that happens we have the obligation to share it with others! Hurrah obra missionária!

Well that´s the way the cookie crumbled this week. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ! Currently this internet cafe is freezing beyong belief so I´m feeling a bit at home :)

Love you all! Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Sister Baker

November 24, 2014 Amighty Exchanges!

Alrighty folks,

This was the week of the almighty exchanges. Went on an exchange with dear sweet Sister Pires from Campa Boa, Rio Grande do Sul and then another with Sister Lopes. Sister Lopes already lives in the same apartment with me, so that was fun. But she´s from Florianopolis, Santa Catarina. SO MANY BRAZILLIANS!

All these exchanges means that Sister Adriane was gone almost the whole week too. So THAT means that it´s left to yours truly to take the reins and take care of our area. 

Big news número um!

EDIGAR GOT BAPTIZED!! Whooohhoooo! Oh Edigar. He´s so great. And the ward loves him because quite frankly he´s hilarious. He just talks and talks and talks. And whatever comes out of his mouth is always super random. But he´s already an awesome missionary. One night we were walking by a street close to his house and we heard his voice. (That´s not too hard considering he talks super loud.) But we heard him inviting everyone and anyone to come to his baptism. We heard him telling his neighbors how much he liked the church, how excited he was to "tomar banho" (take a bath), and be born again. Awh. So precious. I love me some recent converts. They´re generally the best member missionaries. But Edigar´s baptism was awesome! And he´s excited to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this next Sunday.

We´ve also started teaching Edigar´s man friends. They´re also way up there on the age totum pole, but they´re super great. We only taught Manuel one time and he walked all the way to church with us. It´s a pretty long walk but he didn´t complain or anything. He was just super excited to go to church and talked our ears off the whole way there. We even had to cross a busy street. Oh. My. Lanta. I´ve never seen a man that old run. But I can say to all of you now that I know that the elderly still have got quite the spring in their step. 

In some sad news, Edigar´s other friend Antôntio didn´t make it to church this week. He went to the house of a recent-convert and waited there for a ride to church (he doesn´t have the same amount of springy step that Manuel does). But they waited there for a half hour, then Antôntio went home because he got sad waiting. Bah. I just about cried. NOOO. My homeboy Antônio! Next week my friend, next week. 

But yesterday at church was just a really good day. We´ve been teaching a woman named Maria for two weeks and last week she couldn´t go because she had to accompany her mom to the hospital. But yesterday she went! She has a little baby boy and the members just envelopped their little family with love. When little Mateus started to cry, a member would take him out into the hall to calm him down so Maria could pay attention during the classes and sacrament meeting. High five for involved members!! Love it! 

That just makes me think of that general conference talk from a while back called, "First Observe, then Serve". Take a look around, find what needs to be done, then do it. Irmã Lindalva (the sister that helped out with baby Mateus) didn´t ask Maria if she wanted help taking care of her crying baby. She just saw what needed to be done, and helped out Maria. And the effect was that Maria really really really liked church yesterday. She was able to feel the Spirit and take the sacrament. Aaaaaaand that´s what it´s all about!

Well folks, here in Caicó we´re just keep on keeping on. It´s great. Life is good. Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We need the saving ordinance of baptism to return to Heavenly Father. The priesthood has been restored!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Sister Baker

November 17, 2014 Milagres Sao Reais

Hey ya’ll.

I hope everything’s going well in your neck of the woods. In Charlotte I hear
we¥ve got some rain, and it¥s probably pretty drizzly in Oregon. I mean...
It¥’s Oregon. Gotta love it :) Not gonna lie, I miss me a good sweatshirt every
now and then. But you want to know how it's going here in Caico? I’m sure you
do!

It’s HOT and SUNNY. Pretty normal. Haha. It’s hot and sunny pretty much every
day here. And it doesn’t rain a whole lot. In fact, Caico (and from what I
understand a big part of Rio Grande do Norte) is going through a pretty rough
drought season. It’s causing a lot of people to go without water for days and
days at a time, and wreaking havoc on the farms. So the Brazil Area Presidency
asked all the members here in Brazil to fast for rain in the places that are
going without, and for the rain to stop where there are a lot of floods
happening.  We started our fast Saturday afternoon, and ended Sunday
(yesterday) when we had lunch. It was cool to feel united with all of Brazil
for a really important purpose. And now, who wants to know what happened
yesterday???

IT RAINED!!!

Yesterday, about 5 or 6, we were walking to the church to talk to Bishop, when
I felt a little somethin¥somethin¥ fall on my arm. I was so happy to 1. see
that it wan¥t bird poop and 2. see that it had started to rain!!!! Not to
mention the fact that the rain caused me to slip and fall pretty hard and hurt
my bum, but it¥s all good in the hood. IT RAINED IN CAIC”!! And I¥m confident
that it¥s going to rain more this week. Help out those struggling crops and
fill up those resevoirs, ya know.

In other news, we started teaching this man named Edgar. He¥s pretty stellar.
He¥s actually Cesar¥s neighbor (the man that went to church last week
unexpectedly). We had some trouble reaching Cesar at home because he was
always leaving to go to work and whatnot, so we started talking to Edgar
outside on the sidewalk. Actually, I shouldn¥t say sidewalk. It¥s actually a
sand-walk. The conversation started out pretty typical. We started explaining
about the church and he just sat there nodding and saying, "I know". Hmmm. Not
exactly a good sign.
Generally means that the person isn’t understanding anything. So we tried to
help him understand, but it just wasn’t working. I didn¥t even know what to
do, but I got a little frustrated thinking, "Oh great. We lost a half-hour
working talking to this guy that doesn’t even understand and doesn¥t want to."
Yeah I woke up on the sassy/bad missionary/ungrateful side of the bed that
morning. But then sternly called myself to repentance and was like, "Whooooah
buddy. Stop that right now! Where is your faith?!?! If you don¥t believe that
he¥s going to accept what you¥re teaching, than of course he won¥t! You gotta
belieeeeeve young grasshopper." So then we taught Edgar about baptism and he
just like lit up. He got so excited and was like, "I want to go to your
church! I want to go take a bath!" (sometimes that¥s how people describe
baptism by immersion) So my homeboy Edgar was super stoaked to go to church
and to "take a bath." We arranged for a member to pick him up Sunday morning,
but when the member passed by noone was home and everything was all locked up.
Weird. So then we passed by and the neighbor said that Edgar was so excited to
go to church and got impatient waiting that he found someone to give him a
ride to church. AHH! And when we got to church, we saw dear sweet Edgar
sitting there in elder’s quorum, soaking everything in. How precious. He
didn’t even drink coffee yesterday because we told him not to. Like we didn’t
even teach the Word of Wisdom or anything, we were just like, "hey. don¥t
drink coffee. it’s bad for you." and he didn’t because he remembered what we
had said. So that was awesome!!

And the Relief Society threw an awesome baby shower for Luna! I think she’s
going to have her c-section this week, so a bunch of women in the ward donated
diapers. So it was more like a baby diaper shower.


I¥m loving it here in Caico. The people here are awesome. It¥s just a great
place to preach the gospel!

This morning a read President Uchtdorf’s talk from April General Conference,
Don’t Sleep through the Restoration. It’s so true! Don’t be asleep during
these amazing days that the Lord has given us to prepare the earth for the
Second Coming of the Savior! We’ve all got to do our part and then we’ll be
happy. It’s pretty simple. Serve the Lord = happiness!

Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Love you all!
Sister Baker

November 10, 2014 Então

(clearly I need to think of clever titles, but that´s fine)

Sooooooo.

This week just flew by! I´m feeling alot better. Not melting down in the street and things like that. So that´s always a good sign.

But on the realzzzz. This week really flew by. I´m trying to think of what all happened this week...

OH YEAH! 

So remember that one family that we taught? The family of the 4 Forrozeiros? That one locally famous band? 

Yeah. So we went back to teach them this week and ended up meeting the little sister, Hortensia. Just to recap, there´s mom and dad: Marcina and Jorge, and the 4 kids. One doesn´t live there and we don´t know him, the middle two boys are in that band, and baby Hortensia. Actually the youngest two are twins. So that´s pretty cool. 

But we went there are started off teaching the plan of salvation, which went over pretty well. Sometimes the Restoration doesn´t go too well with hardcore Catholics. But they were all paying attention, asking questions, and stuff. It was great! And then Mama Marcina started asking questions about the prophet, so we start talking about all that good stuff. It was just a really good lesson. Caught everyone´s attention. Especially Hortencia. So the next day we taught Marcina and Hortencia the Restoration (everyone else tuned out) and it was PERFECT. The Spirit was so strong. We brought one of the young women in the ward with us, she just so happens to know the family, and her testimony of the Book of Mormon was awesome. Hortencia was just sitting there soaking it all in. The look on her face was like, "Whoa. This all makes sense. How strange..." And at the end of the lesson, Marcina was just like, "I´m so confused!" And we´re like, "Why are you confused??" And she´s like, "Because it makes sense!" It was quite precious. But Marcina isn´t very willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, whereas Hortencia is reading and praying. She´s really awesome. We´re just working with those strong cultural ties to the Catholic Church. Hortencia said to us Saturday night, "You know, I really like you guys. And I think your religion is awesome. like really awesome. And I mean, I like it a whole lot more than the catholic church. And I see myself being a member of this church in the future. But for now I´m just going to stick with the catholic church." But don´t worry guys, she´s golden and totally getting baptized. As soon as she understands the principle of faith she´ll be asking when she can be baptized. She´s just really great.

Aaaaaaand. Yesterday Marlon and Franciele recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost and were confirmed members of the church! They were both so excited! Ok. The young women in this ward are fantastic. Even though Franciele is only 13, one of the young women got permission for her to go to seminary. And now that young woman, Shohanna, is bringing Franciele to seminary every single night. And she´s loving it! She even bore her testimony to us! Going back a bit to their confirmaitons: they both recieved beautiful blessings from the Bishop. That day bishop confirmed 5 other kids that were baptized, but Marlon and Franciele´s blessings were so different and the Spirit was really strong. Franciele´s blessing talked about how she would continue to learn and progress in the gospel. She would be a great leader in the church and one day marry in the temple. And Marlon´s blessing talked about how he would be a light to everyone around him. How he would one day serve as a full-time missionary and help thousands to know the gospel. Whoo. Pretty amazing promises for a 13-year-old and an 8 year-old. But it was so satisfying to see that happen yesterday. Definitely one of the tender mercies of the Lord. I´m excited to see them continue to progress and learn and lead and share the gospel. This family is already clinging to the gospel. Mama Simone went to the CES devotional last night and they asked if we could do a family home evening at their house. Yep! They asked us! I´m just so happy!! Love that family!

In other news, it doesn´t feel like it´s getting around Christmas time mostly because it´s super hot here. It´s messing with my brain. I´m not exactly sure how to handle it, but Sister Algayer (one of the sisters in the other ward that lives with us) has a mini Christmas tree and lights that we´re going to put up. Yay! Christmas! I´m super excited to learn all sorts of awesome Nordestino Christmas traditions!

But that´s what´s happening in this neck of the woods! Or should I say... the Caicó desert!

Remember to live the gospel, then preach it!!

Love you all!

Sister Baker

And! Remember who you are and what you stand for! (how embarrassing... I almost forgot.)