Hello Family!!!
Well, I made it to Australia safely!! Sorry that you had to wait
so long to hear from me. I would have contacted you earlier if I had been able
to. But yeah, I'm here safely and everything is going well!
So Sunday was my last day in Houston and it was great. I was sad
to say goodbye to some of the ward members there. Ronesia came to church which
was so awesome! Sunday night we took her to an investigator devotional which
was super good and exactly what she needed to hear! She started crying when I
had to say goodbye to her which made me cry as well. I really had a special
connection with her so it was sad to say goodbye. But she will be getting baptized
soon and they promised to send me pictures so it's all good.
Monday morning was busy, busy, busy, as I was getting my laundry
done and packing everything up. Since our car was still in the shop Sister
Adams and her companions came to pick me up at 10:00 to head to the mission
office. We got to the mission office about 10:30 where we met Sister Morton and
picked up our passports, visas and travel plans. Then we loaded our stuff into
the van and headed to the airport. We had a little bit of time in the airport
so Sister Adams and I bought lunch, and bought t-shirts that say, "I'd
rather be in Houston Texas."
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| Sister Baker and sisters from MTC headed to Melbourne |
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| Sister Baker & Companion from the MTC |
We flew on United Airlines to San Francisco. When we got to San
Francisco the first thing we did was check the flight boards to find out where
our gate for the next flight was. We headed down to the gate to see if any of
the other missionaries were there but they weren't so we went and found the
arrivals boards to see about flights coming in from Eugene, Oregon. We saw that
there was a flight that had landed about 10 minutes after ours so we headed
down towards the arrivals gates. We came around a corner and saw sisters from my district at the MTC at the end of the hall. We all
dropped everything and started running! It was SO good to see them again! My MTC companion and I both started crying. Haha, pure happiness. It felt kind of like
coming home because I feel like we all became family in the MTC. After some
pictures and chatter we went to get dinner and just talk and catch up on the
past 6 weeks. Then we went back down towards the gate for our flight and we saw
Elder Sargent and Sister Newitt! Another happy surprise! After some more
catching up we all went to find payphones and call home. It was so good to talk
to all of you! By the time we were finished calling home it was time to board
our flight on Air New Zealand to Auckland. Wow, nice plane! Each row was a
group of three seats, then an aisle, then a group of four seats, then another
aisle, then another group of three seats. Sister Adams and I were on row 64 and
everyone else was on row 65, the very back two rows of the air plane. Each seat
has its own personal screen that you can watch movies and listen to music and
everything. Too bad we're missionaries or that would have been really nice to
use ;). About an hour into our flight they fed us dinner. Then we all chatted
and tried to stay up for the first 4 hours because we had heard that's how you
beat jet lag. Then we all tried to sleep. It is hard to sleep on an airplane
but I was able to get several hours of good sleep and then a couple more hours
of broken up sleep.
At some point we passed the international date line. I had no
sense of time at all so I just started thinking Australia time. About 2 hours
before we landed in Auckland they fed us breakfast. I was surprised to get two
meals in one flight. Air New Zealand is awesome! They treated us like royalty!
When we landed in Auckland we all went to find bathrooms and freshen up a
little bit after our LONG flight. All of us sisters had our make up with us
which was good. When we got down to our gate we saw a big group of missionaries
that had just left the New Zealand MTC to go to Melbourne so that was fun to
meet up with them. Our flight to Melbourne was good too. I spent most of the
time writing in my journal.
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| Sister Baker with President & Sister Lifferth |
When we landed in Melbourne we had to go through customs and
everything but that went really smoothly and only took about 15 minutes. When
we were all getting our luggage all of us American sisters each had our 3
suitcases. All the Australians and New Zealanders only had 1 each! I'm pretty
sure they all thought that we were super high maintenance. Haha, oh well. We
met President and Sister Lifferth at the baggage claim and they are amazing! So
loving! We all piled on a bus and took about an hour ride to the mission
office. The mission office shares a parking lot with the temple so we got to
see the temple too! When we got there all of our trainers were there. Elder
Cowser who went to Davis High School was there so it was good to see him! First
we had lunch and then we went over rules and policies. Then they gave us our
companionship assignments. My trainer is from the Philippines. She is pint
size! Seriously I think she's under 5 feet tall. She is a really great
missionary and really has a love for the work. We are VERY different people but
I am loving her! She's hilarious. And she really has a desire to work
hard.
After we met our trainers they went over more rules and then we
had a testimony meeting. It was awesome. Missionaries are the greatest people
to be around because the spirit it always so strong! After dinner they had us
go home to unpack and get settled in and get some sleep! I picked up my bedding
packet at the mission office. It is $275 so I had to go to an ATM and
withdraw $300. Will you make sure that everything is going through okay at the
bank? And let me know. The bedding is super nice. My duna [comforter] is
huge and nice and fluffy!
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| Sister Baker and companion |
My companion and I are serving in the Churchill Park South area.
We cover half of the Churchill Park ward and a set of elders covers the other
half. My trainer and I are both new in the area so we don't have a lot to go
off of yet. We have the names of a couple people that the previous sisters were
meeting with but neither of those people can meet until this weekend so we have
spent a lot of our time stopping by the members’ homes so that we can meet them
and doing a LOT of tracting. Compared to Texas, Australia is hard! In Texas
everyone had some sort of religious belief so it was easy to get them to show
some interest. Not so much in Australia. So many of the people that we meet are
atheists. We get a lot of doors slammed in our faces and a lot of "I'm not
interested, thanks." But it's okay. I know that as we keep working hard
and doing all that we can to be exactly obedient and exercise faith Heavenly
Father will place people in our paths that are prepared to hear the gospel.
We have a really big area so we have a car. My companion doesn't
have a license so I am the driver. On Thursday (my second day here) we went
back to the mission office and they had me take my driving test and then handed
me the keys. It's definitely different to be driving on the wrong side of the
road but I've adjusted pretty quickly and now it seems normal. But I did buy a
GPS because my comp isn't very good with maps and it is super frustrating to
not know where you are going. It cost $75 but it has been totally worth
it.
The members here are AMAZING! So loving! Especially the Islanders!
I am loving them! Church yesterday was great. They had me bear my testimony in
church which was great.
We share a flat with another set of sisters. One sister is from
Perth and the other is from Brisbane. I absolutely LOVE them and I love sharing
the flat with them.
I haven't been able to buy a blow dryer or anything yet so I
have using what the other sisters have. It's not very humid here so I have just
been straightening my hair. I am going to buy a curling iron today though
because none of the sisters have one and it's a lot faster to be able to just
curl my hair.
The accent here is great! I am slowly learning Australian terms.
In the car the Boot= trunk and the Bonnet= hood. Everyone always says "how
are you going?" A jumper is a sweater. Everyone always says, sweet as,
cold as, hot as, etc. You just add an “as” to everything. They also say heaps
all the time. For example "I've got heaps of stuff to do." I love it.
I seriously hope I sound like an Aussie when I get home.
I'm about out of time so I've got to go. The church is true. I
know it, live it and love it.
Love you heaps!!
Sister Baker
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