I have so much love for this work and I never want it to end. - 8/18/14

Melbourne Mission Moments - 08/18/14

Man. Can someone please do a Google search for me and figure out how to stop time. I hate how fast the time is going. I have so much love for this work and I never want it to end. Seeing pictures today of Annie at home made it a little bit more real for me how close the end is getting. I don't know why people get trunky. If anything, knowing that my time is running down makes me want to work harder, to really use every second that I have.

Monday was a pretty typical P-day, just getting our emails and shopping and things done. That evening we went to have dinner and family home evening with a part-member family in the ward. The father is a recent convert and his daughters are not yet members. It was a really good night and the Family Home Evening was really good. K is 15 and she has been taught most of the lessons. She came to church yesterday and we are looking at the possibility of her being baptized this weekend before Sister W goes home.

Just a bit of fun with wigs!

Tuesday we went on exchanges. I worked in our area with Sister M (from England). In the morning we had district meeting. After the meeting, our zone leaders asked me how I was doing. I felt a little overwhelmed and they offered to give me a blessing. In the blessing, I was told that the health challenges that I have been facing were of no coincidence. I was also told that Heavenly Father loves me and is proud of me for the way I have served Him. The blessing was perfect. I felt really at peace. After our meetings, we all went to lunch together. It was our last time to see Sister B before she went home. Saying goodbye to her was hard but I know that it is what she needs to do to get well again. After that Sister M and I went to buy some flowers to take to a woman in our ward. When we got there, she just cried. She told us that earlier that day she had been praying that Heavenly Father would help her feel loved. And we were an answer to her prayer. I always feel so grateful for Heavenly Father's trust when he uses me to answer someone else's prayer. After that we went to do some finding. We knocked on a door and a man answered and invited us in. M and S are a young Sri Lankan family who are Muslim. We were able to have a short lesson with them about eternal families and we set a return appointment for the following day. Then we went to go see one of the recent converts, K. After that we went to help the RS President clean the house of a sister who is moving out of the ward. The house was already empty so we were doing all of the heavy duty, get it ready for the new owners, cleaning. I love cleaning. Weird, huh? But honestly, it's kind of therapeutic. When we finished with that, we had to run to our meeting with our Ward Mission Leader. Sister M was amazed at our ward mission leader. He truly is amazing. He does so much good and truly fulfills his calling.

Wednesday morning I woke up with a terrible cold which is always really fun... especially as a missionary...NOT, but we made it a bit of a slow morning and I just pushed through it. We had our lesson with M and S and it went really well. We taught them the restoration and at one point M asked, "Why doesn't everyone believe this?!" Haha good question! After that we had a bit of free time and we decided that we would run in to the store to print a picture for a member. When we went in, we were stopped by B and his mum N. N is our investigator J's cousin and B is actually a member! It was crazy running in to them but it was such a blessing! After that we went and had dinner with a great Maori family in the ward. After that we drove to Deer Park to start exchanges with the sisters there. I got to spend the night there and work Thursday with Sister R. I love Sister R so much! We truly, truly LOVE our time together. She is one of the sisters that I was in the MTC with. And we come home together too!

Me and Sister R

Exchanges in Deer Park

Thursday we had such a good day. We started by going to teach one of their investigators named E. She's is Burmese. We taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized. It was such a good lesson and the spirit was strong. After that we had a lesson at the chapel with one of their recent converts and her non-member cousin. When we went to the chapel, Papa Stirling was there! He is the K's grandpa. Seeing him brought back so many memories of the Ks! He asked where I was serving and told me he was going to tell the Ks to come visit me. Cute huh? After lunch we were able to do some tracting. The weather was beautiful and we had some good success. At one door we met a lady from Chile. She didn't speak a lot of English but I told her the name of the church in Spanish and she was really excited. We sang I am a Child of God and she was in tears. It was really tender. After that we met up with the other sisters to exchange back and Sister W and I came back to Tarneit. We had dinner with J and her family and it was so good! After that we went to hear A open his mission call. He is going to the New Zealand Wellington Mission!

Friday was relatively uneventful—just a lot of following up with people and trying to do some finding. That night we drove to Deer Park to do exchanges with the other Sisters there. I was able to work with Sister K all of Saturday. We started the day by doing service for an old lady in their ward who is from Syria. After we got her whole garden weeded, she invited us in and made us pizza for lunch. It was the best pizza I have ever eaten! After that we went back to the flat to change and get ready to go to a baptism. The father of a family got baptized. His wife and kids are all members and he finally decided to be baptized as well. It was a beautiful baptism! J's partner, Henry, came because he is good friends with the brother who got baptized! After the baptism we went to do some finding. Then we switched back and Sister W and I drove to Melton to help the sisters there. They asked us to help them with a musical item for their ward talent show.

Me and Sister K - More exchanges in Deer Park

Love these Sisters! 

Getting my Tongan on!

Sunday morning we had ward council. We only had 3 new investigators so far for the week so we went out to do some finding. We were able to find 1 new investigator before church. After church, we quickly headed out to do some more finding before our dinner appointment. The very last house that we knocked on was a new investigator! It was a miracle! We had dinner with a member and then we went to J and H's! It was a really good night.

Today we have our Sister's P-day which should be really fun! I am feeling a lot better and just loving the work.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Baker xx