Healing Miracle!!

Hello Family!

Well I love y'all! So life is just crazy as ever which I love! I am going to be honest this week was not the best but oh well! It only can get better from here, mainly it consisted of lots of dropped appointments, angry baptists, and lots of driving. But there is always amazing things happening on a mission even when it seems like there is not!

So first amazing thing was an old investigator named Carol. Her husband is an inactive member and her step sons just got baptized about 6 months ago. So about 2 weeks ago her husband asked us to come over and we taught a lesson where many tears were shed. Last Monday we went over again. Now Carol has had serious arm trouble for quite sometime. She says it feels like the feeling when you hit your funny bone but it is there always. She had to wear a weird arm band and she never can sleep. So while we were over there her husband suggested we give her a blessing. So we did. We left on a great note. Well the week went by and her husband texted us on Friday and said we should go check on Carol so we did. And she was healed. She does not have to wear the arm band and she can sleep peacefully at night. She was extremely grateful! She truly had a different light in here eye then she had before. She said her husband told her, "God took a step towards you so now it is your turn to take a step towards Him." She agreed about that. So we are hoping she will truly contemplate the step of baptism.

Another amazing thing was we got to go to the temple! Oh how I have missed the temple! The peace felt there is like no other peace you can feel on this earth. It has a special spirit! And every time I go with a question it is answered! Try to go to the temple as much as you can it is so awesome!

Also a cool amazing thing was we got to see a lot of the Zone. So as zone leaders we get to go to other areas in our zone or they come to our area and we help and train them. So at the beginning of the week we got to have some elders with us in our area. Then we went to there district meeting which is held on OSU Campus' institute. Lastly on Friday we went down to a place called Dublin to work with those elders there. It is so fun being able to help missionaries learn and grow!

Lastly to end the week we played disc golf with some old guys in our ward this morning. Apparently we play with them every Monday which I am so excited for! It was so much fun! Everyone needs to try it! It was a blast!

This week I have start reading the Old Testament. My thoughts on it are it is so weird!! But it is one of the standard works I don't understand as well as the others. But the scriptures are so awesome! I love reading them and it seems I can not get enough of them! I wish we had forever to just read and ponder them! 

Well I love all of you! I miss yall like crazy!! Hope you guys have a good week!

Love,

Elder Baird 

A Pretty Awesome Week!

Well Good Morning Family!

To Begin: Happy Birthday KAYLA! Also How is everyone this fine Monday Morning? Life is great here in the Ohio! I love every minute of being here with knowledge of the work I get to partake in. What a wonderful time to be a missionary with all the excitement of the progressing of the work.

So this week was pretty awesome! As a Zone we were working to break the record of 39 new investigators found in our zone. So we prayed with faith and worked with diligence (and used a little bribery) and the Lord provided us with 50 new investigators as a Zone breaking the mission record of 41 as a zone! I love how if we have faith all things are possible! We are now really striving for people at church! It is so important that we get people to church to see the ordinance of the sacrament.

Another great highlight of the week was Elder Tolley and I did a chapel tour with two of our investigators! It was the best chapel tour either of us had given. What made it awesome was 2 things. One was we had an amazing member sister Bowman there to testify and teach with us. Second was the spirit of the chapel. There is something called Spirit of place where there is a special spirit in certain places and the chapel is definitely one of them. I was able to use my talents and play an arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives while our 2 investigators pondered the impact of Christ in their life. Well after I was done there was not a dry eye among us. We then took them to the baptismal font and invited them to be baptized. To which they both accepted!

The last great highlight of the week was a baptism on Saturday! One of our investigators named Sarah was baptized. I came at the tale end of it because of transfers but it was an amazing baptism. I love the spirit found in the ordinances of baptism. President Hinckley actually said that he feels the Spirit the most at a baptismal font. Baptisms are pretty awesome!

Well we have a full week ahead of us with exchanges and hopefully more baptisms and blessings. Today we are going to reward our hard work last week with going to the Delaware county fair so that should be fun!

Love you all!

Elder Baird

I am in Delaware...not the state though

Hey Family!

How is everybody? I hope all is going well in wherever you are reading this. I am doing great and loving the Ohio.

So as you already know I was transferred to a Zone Leader position on Thursday which is a great opportunity. I absolutely love the work and am excited for more responsibilities. It gives me the opportunity to work with so many missionaries and see how they work! I already love it. Delaware is pretty awesome! The ward is huge compared to others I have served in. Which is amazing! Also the apartment, in the words of one of the assistants Elder Nygren, is pretty posh! I am already loving Delaware and the people here. 

So I have not talked about much concerning the missionary efforts and successes I have had so far just a lot about stuff I have learned. So here is the fruits of laboring with in Zanesville. So Elder Tate and I were working with and excommunicated member and his family. I love that family to death! Well we taught him a lot. We helped him gain a desire and took him from wanting to be baptized at the end of the year to being baptized on September 6th. Well before I left Zanesville Jake asked me to baptize him. I love that guy to death we got a long so well! As you know I was transferred on the 5th, but I was able to talk to President and he gave me the green light to drive to Zanesville and baptism my good friend Jake! So that was an amazing thing I was able to do! Truly out of anyone so far I have seen the greatest conversion and turn around within is Jake. I learned that we as missionaries are not just called to find people that have never joined the church but to be willing and able to bring the lost back into the fold! We need not forget the ones that were once found for the ones that were never found. We have to equally work with all. 

So dad wanted to know more about leadership council. Well first we went to a chapel in Powell and president and sister Nilsen along with the assistants trained us on how to give chapel tours. Then we went back to the mission home to hear from a guy here in Columbus that has a pest control business and all he does is knock doors. We basically got tracking training which was so helpful!! Then we had a delicious lunch and lastly we heard from president. I learned so much at the Leadership Council.

The other exciting thing for the week was we had a mission wide luau today! One of the office couples, the Nuis know how to have a pig roast. The reason being is Elder Nui is Tongan. So we had a huge pig roast today and played a lot of fun games and had a relaxing time. It was so awesome!

Well family I love you all greatly! I hope everything is going well at home! You guys all rock! Go do some missionary work!

Love,
Elder Baird