If You Are Tired About Hearing About Your Missionary Work- Nov 18

Hey family!

First of all I just love you guys! You guys rock at missionary work!

So this week our stake here had stake conference. It was so good!! I love stake conference! We were invited to the Saturday night adult session. It consisted of an amazing representation from the awesome Delaware ward! We had the father of one of the families in my ward speak. He just recently came back to activity and his son, daughter, and wife were just baptized within the last 6-7 months. He did amazing! There was not a dry eye in the chapel. Then a sister missionary in our ward named Sister Bettridge spoke. She did amazing! Then we heard from a branch presidnet who committed to Elder L Tom Perry that he was going to make the Marion Branch (One of the oldest branches into the church and a branch Elder Perry served in while on his mission) a ward in 1 years time. After him we got to be instructed by no other that President and Sister Nilsen. By the way they are the most amazing people ever. Then we heard from President Welch (the stake president). Then the Sunday morning session also conisted of recent converts my age to the church, a future missionary, the temple president and his wife, and the stake presidency. It was a wonderful meeting.

These have been my thoughts this past weekend. When it comes to missionary work we need to first understand the Atonement. Has the Atonement blessed your life? Has the Atonement changed you? The Atonement of Christ can change all people! Never judge people when it comes to accepting the gospel and letting the Atonement of Christ change them. As we pass judgements upon who we believe is ready or not, the Lord is preparing them. If you have been changed, blessed, touched, and cleasned through the power of the Atonement, why are you not sharing that power? We need to do as Peter directs and share the hope that is in us! Do not fear that which the Lord has asked you to do. Yes it can be scary to share the gospel, and it can definitley it can be awkward (ask the guy that answered the door with no clothes if that was awkward).But our fears can be swept away by the very message we share. If you believe in the Atonement, then put it to the test, and share it. You do no one a favor by not sharing with them your beliefs. Last conference the hastening of the work was compared to in importance and magnitude to the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do we understand that fully? I can not say I do but I am tryin to. The Lord is hastening His work with or without you. "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people and bring save it be ONE soul unto me how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father." You can find one! I know that there is one person for every single person that reads this that is being prepared just for you! I can promise you that. Find that person and invite, teach, and testify the doctrines and principles of the gospel that you know to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Well family concerning our missionary work, we have had great things happen. As a mission we are shooting for 500+ baptisms this year. Pray for us that we may obtain our goal. We were able to teach and meet some new people this week which is always fun. We have a few people close to baptism and I hope that they enter into that convenant soon, but first off prepared.

Love you all!! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Baird

Baptisms This Week- Nov 11

Hey family!

So it was another crazy week! Honestly not to much to report.

So we had Lucinda's baptism this week which was amazing! She was baptized on Sunday by Bro Bowman and I was able to confirm her on Sunday. It was so cool! Pictures will be coming next week. I promise! I was also able to play a special musical number that was a combination of Sweet Hour of Prayer and When Faith Endures. It was really fun to do! There were definitley some last minute things we forgot but since this is the Lord's work it all worked out!

Also on Sunday we had the Primary program which was awesome! We actually had 4 investigators at church. The primary program was so awesome! It made me laugh and cry. It also made our investigators laugh and cry.

We have also been doing a lot of exchanges this past week. We had exchanges back to back which was crazy. The missionary life is always crazy though. I feel far behind yet I know with the Lord's help all will go well!

I hope all of you are doing well on the Book of Mormon challenge! I am learning so much by going through it again. Everytime I read it again I feel as if I am reading a different book! I can tell you it is truly the  word of God given to us as anothe witness of the reality and divinity of Christ.

Well sorry for the shortness of email it was just another normal week (besides the baptism). Nothing too exciting but I promise something will happen this week that I will tell you about!

Hope yall have a good wek and I will be sending some letters your way this week!

Love,

Elder Baird

Friends and Family Challenge- Nov 4

Hey Family!

Well this week has been insane! Things happened I never thought would/could happen but all in all it was another awesome week! Here is a decent break down of the week!

So monday was just regular old monday. Nothing to major. Just had dinner with a member and taught some lessons. Tuesday was different. This week was zone conferences. Our zone was assigned to the one on Wednesday, but we recieve car checks to make sure our cars are nice and clean. Well Elder Niu (The man in charge of cars) asked us to help check cars. So we helped majority of the day check cars! It was pretty fun! Then Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was so awesome! We learned about working with members, how to plan effectively, and not stereotyping someone. We also talked a lot about faith! Faith is one of the most pivitol things in the gospel. So simple to define, but yet so hard to but into action 100% of the time.

My mission president challenged us all to do something. He challenged us as a mission to read whole the entire Book of Mormon by Christmas! So as a mission he asked us to read 10 pages a day from the Book of Mormon a day to do so. We did not have to start over we could start from where we were.Then he asked us something else and this is where you come in! He asked us to challenge our family and friends to do the same thing. So family will you read the entire Book of Momormon from now till Christmas? You can start from where you are at or just begin again! Hope you will all do it! I know if you do it you will be blessed emensly! So you should just do it!

Well Wednesday night was crazy. I met some interesting people and had some interesting experiences. Needless to say we went to the hospital 3 times this week to go see people from the ward. And wednesday was one of the those nights. Thursday was just another thursday. Full of knocking and service. Friday was weekly planning and then we went to Lewis Center (An area in our zone) do an exchange. The exchange was fun. Saturday we did some knocking in Lewis Center. Elder Campbell and I ran across a dog I want to buy. It is called a Lindaburg! So cool!

Well up until Sunday we had no sucess finding anyone to teach. Well finally Sunday night when I was about to give up on knocking we ran into this lady. It was kind of awkward at first becuase we went to knock at her door and she was behind us and had just been on a walk with her daughter. Well we taught her about prophets and the Book of Mormon. She said she has been wondering about prophets and why God would not have one today and whey they would not continue to write down the word of God! It was amazing! So we are having some members, the Bowmans, take over a Book of Mormon. Well we ran to the Bowmans to give them her name, number, and address. We found out that the Bowmans had been fasting for missionary opportunities! It was so amazing!

Speaking of missionary opportunities and missionary work. There is a member in our ward that is friends with Lucinda (the girl we are teaching that is getting baptised this saturday) and she bore her testimony about how happy she was to see her find the gospel. Then the Thalmans (who we "set up for success" meaning we find someone to bring a Book of Mormon too) bore a testimony about the experiecnce his wife and him had when taking over the Book of Mormon. The ward is getting more pumped up about missionary work!

Well I love yall! Hope you accept the Book of Mormon challenge! Do some missionary work!

Love,

Elder Baird