SNOW!

Hey family!

Well it was another stupendous week here in Ohio! It is so beautiful here I think my favorite color of leaves is golden, especially when the setting sun hits them just right it looks like the trees are on fire. Yes my friends it did snow this past week in certain parts of the mission. Maybe a few centimeters but still it snowed! I love the cold! A few nights this week we have made some hot chocolate after coming in from tracking in the cold. Tracking in the cold is a lot more fun because if you get the door to open you get blessed with the feeling of warm air coming from the house. It makes pray even harder at every door that they will answer. It is lots of fun!

Here is a nice run down of the week:

So first off we have been trying to find out ways we can get the ward involved in missionary work. Unless you are like my mom and you take the opportunity to do missionary work, most member wont just go out and do it for whatever reason. So a few things we are doing is setting up members for success. First we have 100% member presents and make sure a member is with us at every lesson no matter what! Next we go to members and ask them if they would be willing to take over copies of the Book of Mormon to people that are interested. Almost every member says yes, so we give them 2-4 copies of the Book of Mormon, then we hit the pavement and go knocking in their neighborhood and we don't quite knocking in their area till we find the same amount of people interested in the Book of Mormon as the amount we gave the member. Next we were trying to figure out how do we get the youth involved. Well we thought and there are a few areas in the mission that have done competitions between the young men and young women. Basically certain points go to certain missionary efforts i.e. pass along cards, pamphlets, Book of Mormon, teaching with the missionaries, having a friend at any church activity, etc. So I was trying to think of a name for this competition. Well It dawned on me that it is November next month so we are calling it No Shame November based of Romans 1:16. Then we decided to have a massive fireside on November 24th where members can invite their friends to learn more about the church. We are going to count this as the hail mary play for the competition and if they get someone there they get lots of points. We talked to our Bishop yesterday and he is all for the idea!  We are also going to put an article in the Delaware Gazette and Post stuff around the small college campus in town. We also might start a Bible Study class! Which I would love to do. But we will see how this all plays out.  

So here is an awesome update on an investigator. Her name is Lucinda and she is just awesome! So when it comes to teaching people, if they actually hear the 2nd lesson, the biggest worry is what I call the 3 stumbling blocks. Those three points are Tithing, Word of Wisdom, and Law of Chastity. So before I teach these I heavily teach the importance of a testimony and the blessings of obedience to God's laws. Well we taught tithing and she accepted it and is paying it. Then we taught word of wisdom this week and she accepted it. When we taught word of wisdom we were just planning on teaching that and nothing else but I felt impressed that we also needed to teach Law of Chastity so we did. And she accepted it. She knows that they will be hard but she knows the Book of Mormon is true (she is in 2 Nephi 3 now). So she accepted a baptismal date of November 9th! 

Well I finished the Book of Mormon again! I love the Book of Mormon and it is still true! I don't remember if I told you I read the whole Book of Mormon in the MTC and marked everything to deal with the Atonement which was just awesome! Well I read this Book of Mormon to understand faith. I learned a lot about different kinds of faith and gospel principles (such as diligence and humility) that are complementary doctrines to faith. Now I reading it again to understand the Spirit.

Well I am doing awesome! I hope you are all doing well! Go do some missionary work and read Preach My Gospel and do the activity on page 126! Did it yesterday and it was an eye opener!

Love,

Elder Baird