Melbourne Missionary Moments - 6/3/13

Hello Family!

Well, this week has been really good. I am getting used to all things Australian and getting lost in the work here.

Sister Baker and  Sisters in her Flat

On Monday after we emailed we went to the shopping centre. We email from the library here in Narre Warren. We were with the other sisters in our flat. It is fun to have other sisters to spend time with and be in the flat with. I love both of them so it's really good. The shopping centres here are crazy (and yes, it is spelled centre here - it's weird). Anyway, the shopping centre is huge and has all the stores like you would expect in a mall but then there's grocery stores and everything connected too. It's different but I like it. I bought a blow dryer that had a diffuser with it so now I can do my hair curly. The blow dryer was $34 dollars so not too bad. Some things here don't seem too expensive but then some things are WAY expensive. Like hairspray. It's like $7 for a LITTLE can. Ridiculous. I will be using a lot less hairspray than I used to. Monday night my comp and I went to visit a bunch of Sisters that are on a list that the RS president gave us. They are sisters who haven't come to church in a long time. She wanted us to check on them and find out if they were interested in having Visiting Teachers assigned. We saw a few of the sisters and they were nice but said that they really weren't interested in the church any more. It's sad to see that happen to people. Hopefully we can help some of them to find their testimonies again.

Tuesday we didn't have any appointments so we spent the ENTIRE day tracting. It's weird to knock doors here because it is something we never did in Texas. A lot of people are rude and close the door in our faces. A lot of them are nice but give the "We're really not interested" answer. We did find a couple people on Tuesday though. One is named Jessica. She is 24 and super cute. She is Catholic but doesn't feel really dedicated it. She is getting married next year and is really interested in the temple and sealings. We get to teach her this week so we are praying that her heart is open and that she is accepting of the message. We also had dinner with some members on Monday night. They are an older couple (probably in their 60s). They made eggplant casserole for dinner.

Narre Warren Zone

Wednesday we had a zone meeting. It was super good. We set goals for our zone for this month and talked about the importance of having faith to be able to accomplish our goals. We also found out that this transfer is only going to be 4 weeks instead of 6. So we only have two more weeks of the transfer which is crazy. After Zone Meeting was over we all went to Hungry Jacks for lunch. It is a fast food place that is everywhere down here! I would say it's a lot like a Burger King. My companion and I ended up being there for almost 2 and a half hours GQing (golden questioning) people and we got some awesome contacts for people who we have appointments with this week. After that we went to the Narre Warren train station and did finding there. That was really successful too. We are slowly building our contact pool and hopefully some good investigators come out of it. It's hard to both be new in the area and trying to find people to teach. After that we had dinner with a family in our ward. They are a super awesome family. They have a girl living with them who is not a member. She wants to start meeting with the missionaries though so we get to start teaching her this week. Her name is also Jessica. They made a super good dinner- roast, au gratin potatoes and pumpkin. I've never eaten pumpkin like that. They kinda shred it up like you do a squash. It was SO GOOD—one of my new favorite foods. 

Thursday morning we had weekly planning. After that we went to an appointment with one of the new contacts we met. He was super sick (looked awful) so we just left him with a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read.

On Friday we did a lot of tracting again. One of the most annoying things about tracting is that a lot of people here have these screen doors where they can see us but we can't see them. It's really quite awkward. I never know where to direct my eyes or my voice and I have no idea who I'm talking to. It's annoying but oh well. We also visited the sweetest old lady in our ward. She is a widow and has the best attitude about life. She wants to do missionary work and help in any way that she can. The world needs more people like her. 

Saturday morning we taught Craig. He has been meeting with the Sisters that were in the area before us. Sister Lifferth came with us to the appointment. President and Sister Liffereth are really awesome and try to spend a lot of time out teaching with the missionaries. It was great to have her with us! Although Craig has been taught all the lessons by the previous missionaries we found out that he doesn't even know who Jesus Christ is or why he needs a Savior in his life. So we are basically starting over with him from the beginning. We taught him about the Godhead and left him with some scriptures in the Book of Mormon to read and we asked him to pray about it. He really has a real desire to learn so we are praying hard for him. Saturday was raining super hard most of the day. But we still went tracting and just got wet. We felt like we really needed to tract a particular street so we did and it was definitely a good choice. We have return appointments for this week with 4 different people there which is exciting! We never have that many people who are willing to meet with us.

Sister Baker and Companion

Sunday was a wonderful day. After church we had missionary correlation. It was good to finally meet the ward mission leader (he had been in America since we got here). He just got home from his mission like six months ago and he is super gung ho about the work and really willing to help us. After correlation we went out tracting for a couple of hours and then we went back to the flat to have dinner. Then we headed up to Wantirna to the mission president's fireside. They do the fireside to bring investigators and less-active members to. They talked about Jesus Christ and the spirit was really strong. They also had two recent converts speak which is really helpful for investigators to hear about how others came to the gospel. Then Elder Gui sang Savior Redeemer of My Soul. It was amazing. I love that song and I think half of the people there were crying. So yeah, it's been a busy but great week! 

Our flat is pretty big and pretty nice. We have a washer which is really nice. But no dryer so we have to hang dry EVERYTHING.

Enjoy your summer weather there. It's just getting into winter here.

Beautiful Australia!

One thing I learned this week: the moon is backwards here. It gets smaller from left to right instead of from right to left like it does there. Never thought about that before but it makes sense. Also as I've listened to people talk I've learned that the letter R is basically non-existant here. Instead of saying Car Park they say "caw pawk" and stuff like that. It's sweet as. ( <-- see what I did there :))

Anyway, things are going well. I am loving Australia and I am happy.

 The church is true. Heavenly Father loves us SO much.

Love you HEAPS!

Sister Baker

Melbourne Missionary Moments - 5/27/13

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."

Sister Baker and sisters from MTC headed to Melbourne

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. 

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! 

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

My Visa is HERE! - 5/17/13

So my visa came so I am flying out on Monday [May 20, 2013] . I am supposed to be at the mission office at 10:30 and then we are going to leave to the airport. Our flight leaves Houston around 3:30 and then we fly to San Francisco. Then we fly from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand. Then we fly from Auckland to Melbourne [arriving May 22, 2013]. So be around on Monday so I can call you from the airport.

Anyway, so yeah I'll call you on Monday. So be around! I love you!

Love,

Sister Baker

Houston Happenings - 5/13/13

Hello Family!!

Last Monday after P-day we went to see the family we have been teaching. The mom and son are SO ready to get baptized but the parents need to get married first. She doesn't have her birth certificate so she has been calling the Mexican consulate every single day. We left Monday telling her to keep praying for a miracle to happen.

Tuesday was super busy! We went to teach the seminary kids in the morning. We talked about the importance of scripture study and shared D&C 11:21 with them. It's something I've really come to learn here on the mission. You have to obtain the word, aka study, before you can declare the word, aka teach. AS we study each morning, we do our part and then when we are teaching we are given the words we need to say. If we didn't do our part in the morning by studying, we wouldn't be given that blessing of knowing exactly what to say. We were able to visit several less-active members of the ward Tuesday afternoon and help them to regain their faith and have a desire to come to church. That night we spent a lot of time finding. We were talking to everyone we saw and really focusing on finding new investigators. It was really successful and we made appointments with a couple of new people for this week.

Sister Baker and Companions
 at Zone Conference

On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference all day. It was absolutely incredible! President and Sister Ashton are such amazing people and I learned so much from them. We talked a lot about how we can increase our faith and reach our goals. THSM (Texas Houston South Mission) has a goal to baptize 1000 people this year. For the first couple of weeks that I was here we were encouraged to pray to be able to baptize monthly. Then President Ashton met with Elder Nelson and a couple of Seventies and they promised him that as we increase our faith and pray to see miracles that each companionship can baptize weekly. It's been a big change and requires us to exercise a lot of faith but we are seeing the Lord put people into our paths and we are beginning to see things happen. I know that it will take a little bit of time for this change to really take effect but I know that soon we will be baptizing every week. At Zone Conference we talked a lot about faith vs. doubt and about things we can do that will help us to baptize weekly. It was an incredible day and we were very spiritually fed.

Thursday morning we had our weekly planning session in the morning. Then we were able to go out and try to contact referrals. That night we met with Ronesha. We told her that we had really been praying about her baptismal date and we knew that she could be prepared to be baptized on May 18th. She quickly agreed and the spirit was really strong as we taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked about the baptismal covenants with her.

Friday was a REALLY long day because my companion was sick so we were home basically all day. It was really hard. I didn't know what to do with myself. I hated not being out teaching. I spent a lot of time just studying the scriptures. I am really loving reading the Book of Mormon and I learn so much from it every day!

The car after the crash.

Saturday one of my companions went to another area on exchanges so it was just two of us. We were able to teach a lot in the afternoon and we met a new family that is interested in the gospel. We get to teach them this Wednesday and I am really excited about it. After dinner we were on our way to an appointment when a truck backed into our car and crunched in the front. So instead of going to our other two appointments that night we had to spend a couple of hours filling out forms and getting a police report. Fun, right? I'm just glad that no one got hurt. 

Just a peacock wandering around
the neighborhood

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was great! Church was really great. Unfortunately Ruth and Daniel were our only investigators that ended up coming. We don't know why Ronesha didn't come. A sister in the ward went to pick her up and she won't answer. We tried calling her and we tried stopping by last night but we never got a hold of her so I have no idea what happened. It's really frustrating to not be able to get her to come to church. We’re pushing her baptism back a few weeks now until she can come to church a couple more times and show that she really has a desire to be there. After we called home and had dinner we felt like we needed to go see the Ruth and her family. Saturday we had fasted for them and prayed that there would be a miracle. Well, Sunday night we found out that we did get a miracle. Ruth told us that someone from the consulate called her and said someone had canceled their appointment so she will be able to take her spot so now she only has to wait 3 months to get her papers instead of 12 months! And she found out Sunday that she got a job so now she will be able to pay for her papers! Miracles!! Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers!

So I'm pretty sure my visa came and that I'm flying out next Monday (the 20th). I'm kind of freaking out! When I got on the computer today I got on my missionary portal and my flag was changed back to Australia! Just yesterday it was still the Texas flag! Then I got an email from Elder Mitchell (one of the Elders from the MTC) and he said that all the visa waiters in Oklahoma got their visas and that they are flying out next Monday, the 20th. Then I just got an email from Sister Adams saying that her flag changed too! So yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm leaving soon! I'll let you know more as soon as I can! Ah! I'm really excited but at the same time I am sad to be leaving Houston! So yeah, that's that.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers. It means the world to me!

All my love, 

Sister Lauren Baker

P.S. So the lady that was driving the truck that ran into us on Saturday, guess what her t shirt said?  "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That." It was awesome. I loved it. :)

Houston Happenings - 5/6/13

Hello Family!!

Well, no visa yet. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE it here in Houston but I'm getting anxious to get to Australia, especially now that Annie and Lexie [Lauren’s cousins] are going. PRAY HARD that my visa comes soon. 

This week was busy, as usual. It's crazy how fast a week flies by when you're on a mission. To answer Dad's question, yes our area only covers one ward. Actually it only covers half of the ward. We have one half of the ward and the Elders have the other half. Last Monday night we had dinner with a part-member family. The dad and 8 year old daughter are both members but the mom isn't. She comes to church every Sunday but she has never been baptized and is still active in her Baptist church as well. We taught them the Restoration and challenged all of them to read the Book of Mormon daily and then to pray about it. We are praying that her heart will be softened and that she will have a desire to be baptized.

Sister Baker and Companions

Tuesday we had appointments all day and we were super busy. We got to visit a couple of the less-active members and encourage them to come back to church. We also saw our family and taught them again the importance of reading the Book of Mormon daily. The mom and son are so ready to get baptized. They come to church every week and they read and pray every day. The mom just needs to get the paper work so that she can get married. There's not much that we can do now except for encourage her to get the papers that she needs. 

On Wednesday we met a girl who is 23 and has 3 daughters (a 7-year old and 5 year-old twins). She is awesome! She is super friendly and nice and has a sincere desire to learn. We also met black lady that seriously reminds me of Whoopi Goldberg. She was raised in a Baptist church and is slightly crazy but she has a good heart and really has a love for the Savior. We were able to teach her on Thursday and Friday. She talks A LOT so it is hard to get through our planned lessons with her but that's okay. She is sincere in wanting to understand and it may take a little bit more time with her but I can picture her in white at baptism.

Every Thursday we spend the morning/early afternoon doing weekly planning. The rest of Thursday we taught some really good lessons and were able to spend a good amount of time finding people. We also had dinner with Ronesha at a ward member’s home. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she was so willing to commit to live it. I love Ronesha. She is scheduled to get baptized on the 18th. Unfortunately she didn't make it to church this week because her car wouldn't work so we are praying really hard that she come this next week so that she can still be baptized on the 18th.

Friday morning I woke up with a bad cold and didn't feel great all day but you basically have no choice other than to keep working so I just took ibuprofen and faked a smile. Friday morning we had a Zone meeting. We talked about the importance of getting investigators to church and practiced inviting them to church. It was really good. Friday afternoon we went on splits. I went with one of the sisters in the ward and we were able to contact a lot of people and get a lot of referrals. Friday night we were able to see some former investigators who we have been trying to get a hold of since my first week here. We were able to read the Book of Mormon with them and set up a return appointment. Hopefully they will be ready to accept the gospel now since they weren't ready when they were taught before.

Saturday morning I felt better than I did on Friday but I had NO voice. Like, I literally could hardly talk. So needless to say, my companions had to do most of the teaching. We had our first lesson with with the 23-yr old mom. It went really well and the spirit was really strong. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was exactly what she needed to hear. At the end of the lesson the spirit was right and we were about to commit her to a baptismal date. My companion literally had said, "As representatives of Jesus Christ, we have a special invitation for you..." But then one of her 5-year-olds ran into the room and said "Mom, Trinity (the 7-year-old daughter) just threw up all over her bed." Argh! So frustrating. That seriously happens all the time. We're about to commit them to baptism and something crazy happens. Alan [Lauren’s cousin and former MTC trainer] warned us in mission prep that it would happen and he wasn't kidding. It's so frustrating. Seriously, get out of the way Satan! Anyway, so we had to leave so she could take care of the mess but we have an appointment with her tomorrow and we are going to extend the baptismal invitation tomorrow.

Sunday morning my voice still sounded retarded but not as bad as Saturday. Church was great! We had 5 investigators come which was awesome! After church and our meetings we went back to the apartment to do our studying. We had dinner with the ward mission leader and his family. After dinner we went to see Akin. He didn't come to church even though we had talked to him on Saturday night and he said he was planning on it. He wasn't home Sunday night so we haven't been able to get a hold of him. We are hoping to be able to see him sometime tonight.

I was hoping my cold would be gone by this morning but unfortunately it's not. But that's okay. I think it's on its way out. Hopefully. So yeah, we've had a busy but really successful week.

Send me hand written letters! My comps get mail all the time but I never have anything in there. Hand written letters are the best!

Well I'm about out of time so I've got to go! I love you all! Can't wait to talk to you on Sunday!! I know that Heavenly Father is very aware of us and that He helps us through our trials. In Mosiah 24:14-15 it says,

 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs; even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

We aren't promised that our trials will be taken away but that we will have strength to bear them.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Baker

Everything here is so GREEN!

Texas Update - 4/29/13

Dear Familia: (is that Spanish for family? I think it is. I REALLY wish I knew some Spanish because we run into people who only speak Spanish ALL THE TIME and I just have to stand there and feel like an idiot because I can't say anything to them.)

Anyway, this week has been really good. I am kind of freaking out right now because I have felt really strongly all week that my visa is coming soon. Then I read in your emails that Annette said something about Lexie's visa maybe coming and then I just got an email from Annie saying that her visa came and that she leaves a week from today. So yeah, I'm basically freaking out and we are going straight to the mission office after this to find out about mine. Ah, freaking out. Breathe. 

Alright so update on the past week:

Monday was P-day so after we finished emailing and laundry and grocery shopping and all that fun stuff we went to the mall to pick up my companion’s birthday present from her mom. It was a Texas necklace from James Avery. Everyone here is OBSESSED with James Avery. I'd never heard of it before I got here but it is a silver jewelry store. They have some really pretty stuff but way out of my price range, especially on a missionary budget. Monday night we went to dinner at a members house. He works for Carabbas, the Italian restaurant (he is pretty high up in the business) so he brought spaghetti from there for everyone. It was so good! We also got to teach Ronesha on Monday. We taught her the restoration and she is progressing towards baptism. Unfortunately she didn't come to church again yesterday (so frustrating when we do so much to try to get them there) so we have to push her baptism back to May 11th. 

Tuesday morning after studies we had district meeting. I had to give a talk on the Atonement. I learned so much in preparing for that talk. I ended up using a poem that my companion wrote in the MTC. She's a really good writer. Here's the poem:

My Lord, My God, My King

By: Elizabeth Ricks

Oh my Lord, my blessed Savior

I ask thy help my faith won't waver.

Help me to be who you know I can become

Take my burdens make my sins undone.

I dedicate myself to thee and thy work,

Conveying thy love, a diligent clerk.

Help me to speak of thy words and will,

Sowing forgiveness, helping the restless be still.

Peace you grant and freely give,

You overcame death that we all might live.

Gentle and meek you condescended,

The beggar, leper, and sinner defended.

Bold as a lion you fight for us,

Brothers and sisters, children less than dust.

To thee we praise and thank God's lamb,

Everyday strength helping us to stand.

Beautiful words, huh? Anyway, after district meeting we had district lunch at Red Robbin to celebrate two birthdays. The rest of the day Tuesday was FULL of appointments and we had a lot of successful lessons. We also went to see one of the less active members of the ward. We are trying to get him to come back to church but I think it will take some time.

Tuesday night around 8:30 we went to meet some other sisters and I went on exchanges in Mission Bend (another area of Houston/Sugarland). I worked all day there on Wednesday with a different companionship. It was a great day! We were really successful and it was really helpful for me to see how another set of missionaries works and learn from them. I came back to Memorial Wednesday night.

Thursday is weekly planning day every week so we are always in the apartment until about 2:00. We had to make both our weekly goals and then also do our monthly goals for May. It took a lot of time and a lot of prayer but we figured out what Heavenly Father wanted us to set our goals as. To reach the goals it is going to take A LOT of faith and hard work but I know that Heavenly Father will help us. There is no one that is as invested in this work as He is. Thursday we had some good appointments and lessons. We saw the familye have been teaching. The mother and father have decided to get married so they are trying to get paper work and everything for that. She can't be baptized until they get married so we are just kind of waiting at this point. Hopefully they can get the paper work because both the mother and son are SO ready to be baptized. 

Friday we met with several of the active members during the afternoon and it ended up being really successful. We got a lot of referrals from them and ideas of who we can see/teach. We also had some great appointments with our investigators and were able to see a lot of LARCs. (Less Active/ Recent Converts)

This is during the storm on Saturday.
 It doesn't show it super well but there was A TON of water.

Saturday morning after studies we went to help clean out the apartment of one of the men in the ward who died last week. It is a small, one bedroom apartment but he had a lot of stuff so it took a long time. We were there for most of the morning and into the afternoon. He had a piano and SO much piano music. Everyone said that he was really musically gifted. After we finished that we went out teaching. We taught Kathy the Word of Wisdom and keeping the Sabbath day holy and she committed to come to church! While we were in that appointment is started POURING rain. Like seriously more rain than I have ever seen. It was crazy! We went to dinner at a member’s house. When we came out of her house after dinner it was still pouring rain. We were going to try to go to Ronesha's for our appointment that night but the roads were starting to flood and we aren't allowed to drive through standing water so we weren't sure what to do. The zone leaders called us and told us that we were to go back to our apartment and call it a night. So we ended up being inside and done for the day around 7:00 pm. I've never seen such a crazy storm. Roads were flooding all over Houston. Apparently a couple sets of Sisters flooded their cars and ruined  them because they drove through standing water. :/  I tried to take some pictures so you could see how much water there was but it's hard to tell because it was through the car window.

By Sunday morning the storm was all cleared up and it was beautiful yesterday! We had to be at the church at 7:30 for Ward Council. Then church starts at 9:00. Kathy came to church which was great! Unfortunately none of our other investigators showed up. Even the ones who had members picking them up didn't come. Frustrating. But we do all we can do to get them there and ultimately they have their agency to decide whether or not they are going to come. After church we had missionary correlation. Then we went back to the apartment and had lunch and did our studies since we don't have time in the mornings on Sundays before our meetings. We had dinner with the family of one of the bishop's counselors. After that we had our first lesson with a new investigator. He is GOLDEN! He is someone that has definitely been prepared by the Lord. He is from Nigeria. He was raised Muslim but has been Christian since he was 21. He is going to school to finish his PhD right now. Yesterday we taught him the Restoration. He was super excited about everything and committed to read The Book of Mormon and to pray about it and he also accepted a baptismal date for May 25th!

So yeah, this week has been good here! Sounds like everything at home has been going well too! 

Well I am running out of time so I've got to go. I love you all so much! I will let you know as soon as I hear anything about my visa. I can't wait until it comes! I will be very sad to leave Houston but so excited to go to Australia! 

Me and my companions
 at the investigator devotional last Sunday.

The church is true. Heavenly Father loves us and answers our prayers. Christ's atonement gives us the enabling power to do things that we would never be able to do on our own. 

Love you all from Houston and back!

Love, 

Sister Lauren Baker

Week 2 in Houston

April 22, 2013

This week has been great! I am seriously LOVING Houston! We've been seeing a lot of success this week and have had many opportunities to teach and I just absolutely love it! There is no better feeling than sitting in a lesson and bringing the spirit and seeing it change someone's life.

Monday was P-day and we spent the day emailing, doing laundry, washing the car, and grocery shopping. That night we went to a ward member's for dinner and had FHE with them. After that we went to see one of the Recent Converts in the ward. He has brain cancer and the family is having a really hard time right now. But we were able to teach them about temples and they are working towards being able to go to the temple in a year to be sealed together as a family.

Tuesday morning after we finished studying we had district meeting. We talked about obedience and miracles. Our obedience shows our faith and faith will bring miracles. That's what my companions and I are focusing on this week. We are trying to be exactly obedient so that we can see miracles happen in our area. We are making it a goal to have one baptism every week. It will be difficult but it's possible if we do our part and exercise our faith and leave the rest up to the Lord. After the district meeting we went to lunch together at a place called Sweet Mesquites (classic Texas BBQ). The elders in my district are really awesome and I learn a lot from them. Tuesday afternoon we were able to see the Vasquez family and teach them about prayer and following the prophet. We are only teaching the mom and her son now because the dad is not interested. He has serious Word of Wisdom issues and is not willing to try to change. The mom and son are awesome though! They are both so ready to be baptized. The son is going to get baptized this weekend if his dad will agree to it. His mom is ready to be baptized but she has never been legally married so she can't get baptized until they either get married or she moves out. We were also able to teach  another son on Tuesday. He is 9. He is getting baptized next weekend if all goes according to plan!

Wednesday morning after studies we went to the mission offices for interviews with President Ashton. He is such an incredible man! He makes me feel so good about myself and the work we are getting done but he also makes me want to work harder and be better. I talked to Sister Morten (the one in charge of travel) while we were at the offices and she said that as of now they still haven't heard anything about our visas. I'm really not all too concerned about it because I am LOVING Houston. I am willing to stay here as long as the Lord needs me too. But I'm also really wanting to get to Australia. I just trust in the Lord's timing. He knows better than I do and He has put me where He needs me.

On Wednesday we started teaching a woman who is 52 and the classic crazy cat lady. We have taught her the restoration and the plan of salvation. She has been really receptive to both lessons but is not in a hurry to make any kind of a change in her life so we are praying that she will have a desire to come to church and to commit to a baptismal date.

On Thursday we got to meet with Ronesha. We had already taught her the plan of salvation and we planned to teach her the restoration but she hadn't read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left her with so we changed plans and decided to read it with her. We read 3 Nephi 11 -  When Christ comes to the Americas. The spirit was so strong as we read with her and her heart was really touched. She accepted a baptismal date and she is going to be baptized on May 4th! I really love Ronesha. I have had a connection with her from the beginning. She is really serious about changing her life and I've seen such a change in her already.

Friday and Saturday were both really busy and we taught a lot! We were way busy all day! Wherever we went we ran into more people to talk to and to share messages with and it was so awesome to see Heavenly Father placing people in our paths. 

Last night (Sunday) we went to an investigator devotional. Missionaries bring their investigators the devotionals and the speakers are people who have joined the church recently and they share their testimonies and conversions stories. The girl who got baptized last weekend, spoke and she did awesome. The spirit was really strong and I know that many of the investigators that were there were really touched. I also got to see Sister Adams from the MTC there which I was super excited about!  

Sis. Adams and Sis. Baker at Investigator Devotional

So yeah, we're busy 24/7 and I love it! Houston isn't at all what I expected. There is tons of diversity and people from basically every ethnicity you can imagine—lots of black people, lots of Native Americans and lots of Hispanic people. I'm finding that it would be really helpful if I knew some Spanish.

Oh yeah, so I’m not sure if it was the Sweet Mesquites that we had for lunch or the dinner that we ate at a members house but I'm pretty sure me and my companions got food poisoning. We all got sick. Tuesday night in the middle of the night I got up and threw up. First time I've done that in 10 years. Not a pleasant experience. I felt a little bit sick all day on Wednesday but not too bad and by Thursday I felt fine. 

Also, Texas is starting to rub off on me, I've started saying y'all. Don't know how that happened so fast! 

I know that this church is true. I know that Houston is exactly where Heavenly Father wants me to be right now. He needs me as a missionary to prepare his children for the second coming. I know the Book of Mormon is true. My testimony of it has grown so much in the past two weeks. I have learned so much and felt the spirit so strongly as a read from its pages daily. I have seen it make such a huge difference in the lives of investigators too. I challenge all of you to pray and ask again if the Book of Mormon is true. You can't ask that question too many times and renew that testimony. A testimony of the Book of Mormon is essential because if the Book of Mormon is true then everything else is. It holds everything together. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I know that he is very aware of each of us and is in all of the details of our lives. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can receive strength to do things that I could never do on my own. I am relying on the atonement every single day while I am out here. I have thought several times this week about how much serving a mission is going to prepare me for the rest of my life. It will make me a better wife, a better mother, a better teacher, a better disciple, etc. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve and the growth it is allowing me. 

Love you all to the moon and back!

Sister Baker