Oh What a Life It Is.....

Hey family! 

So I am just loving life right now! Lack of sleep and never caught up on anything is pretty fun! Just kidding about that but kinda seriously! 

So this past weekish has been full of interviews in almost half of the zones! It is pretty fun to work the interviews. While interviews are taking place we get to train the missionaries! It is super fun to see missionaries that I have served around and how much they have grown. 

So here is a nice update on the work in Powell! So to start off we had a great lesson last night. We went over to the Pohmer family to teach them. It was a crazy lesson. The girls were all over the place and puppets were everywhere. But the Spirit was there! And they excepted baptism on April 26th! We are super stoked and see the miracle the Lord has blessed us with. Another great think that is happening is we are working with the awesome italian lady named Stefania! She is awesome! She has been taking the lessons for like the past 6 months. So we decided to bring over her baptismal program for an invitation to her baptism. She actually accepted it quite well! So we are really going to focus on helping here enter into the waters of baptism on  May 3rd! The work is going very well! It is definitely different then Delaware but it is a great place! 

I am loving it here on my mission! The one thing lately I have been thinking about is envisioning success. We need to look towards the positive. Worry is mentally practicing failure. We need to envision where we went to be or what we want to do. We have been doing this lately for our area. We all fasted together last Sunday and before we started our fast on Saturday night I asked if we could fast for a specific family. I asked if we could fast for a family with a Husband and wife in their 30's and two kids, one boy and one girl, between the ages of 10 and 12. This family will be looking for a church. So that is what we fasted for and that is what we are praying for. The Lord will provide if it is his will. But this simple thought of this simple, prepared family has driven me the last few days because I am going to find them!

Well I hope you all had a great week! It has been a great week here in Ohio! 

Love,

Elder Baird 

April 10: Life is Crazy

Hello Family! 

It has been one crazy past week and 1/2ish! So the new area I am is Powell! It is a sweet place! We are in a 4 some. My companions are Elders Kujanpaa, Nygren, and Pike! I love them! We get along so well! It is super fun also to live in a 4 pad. We are the only one in the mission and it is super fun! I worked with Elders Kujanpaa and Nygren while I was in Delaware so we already were great friends. Elder Pike and I went to the MTC around the same time so we will actually go home together!  

The work here in Powell is different then in Delaware! In Delaware you can go knocking and have success in a half hour, now in Powell it takes a little longer! But it is an amazing place to be!! 

We are working with this really cool family named the Pohmers. They are friends with President and Sister Nilsen! The crazy thing is Mr. Pohmer works with one of my college roommates dads! Super small world! They are an amazing family! They are totally going to get baptized! They have 4 little girls! They all call me Elder "Bear". They just never would put a "d" at the end! It is super funny! 

We are working also with a few Mexican families that live in our apartment complex! I am getting to use the Spanish from high school with a combination of the Portuguese learned at the MTC! 

All and all it has been a great week! I loved Conference! Elder Bednar and Elder Holland's talks were my favorite! It is great to know we have living prophets and apostles on the earth. Only if people would read the bible and see the Lord has established his church based off the structure of apostle and prophets! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Baird 

April 2: Leaving Delaware But I Did Not Cry

Dear Family!

Well it is true... I am leaving Delaware. It is pretty crazy to say the least! I am going to miss the place so much! This place is like home to me! Never have a met some many amazing people in one place! I have been blessed greatly for having the opportunity to serve here in Delaware! But I guess you know you got to go when you don't need to use the GPS to get anywhere! 

Well let me sum up my week for ya! So this week has been a week FULL of exchanges! From Tuesday to Wednesday we went down to Lewis Center to help Elder Bean and Elder Monahan. Elder Bean and I were together! We got to make a pie and we gave it to the bishop in their ward. Then from Wednesday to Thursday Elder Geist and Caulderwood from Worthington came up to Delaware. It was super fun! We were able to see some awesome investigators named Tina and Wesley! They are so prepared! Then from Thursday to Friday we were down in OSU which was super fun! It is really fun street contacting and talking to people about the church right in the middle of a college campus! Then on Saturday Elder Bean and Elder Monahan came up to Delaware which was cool! We got to do some service in the rain! Then from Sunday night to Monday we went to OSU again with another companionship! Basically we did a Zone tour! It was super fun to able to work with so many different elders! 

Some other great news is spring is coming! It has been really nice lately! Yesterday we got up to like 72 degrees! I am super stoked for spring! 

So the personal insight I received this week was concerning the scripture find in Doctrine and Covenants 1:38. It is mainly talking about prophets and the last little bit that states, "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same" usually to me that means whether God literally says it or if the Prophet says it it is the same thing. But what I learned was you could also take it a different way. That we as member of the church can receive personal revelation for ourselves and the prophet receives revelation for the church as a whole. Prior to that little bit the Lord says, "My word shall pass away but shall all be fulfilled" I think the Lord also is saying that his word will not fail whether it be through personal revelation through the Holy Ghost or through the words of the prophets. Also I believe the Lord is letting us know the 2 lines of revelation, the personal line and the priesthood line. 

Well I hope you have a wonderful day!! 

Love,

Elder Baird 

March 24: Not Much in Just a Few Short Days

Hey family!

Not much has happened in the past 4 days! 

Thursdays was transfers. I am staying here in Delaware which I was really excited about. I got two new companions which makes companions 12 and 13 along with this being my 5th tripanionship.

Elder Motes is from Thatcher Arizona. He was down at OSU in the Zone for the past 6 months so I know him very well! He is awesome! He was one person I was hoping I would get to serve with. Elder Jensen is a greenie. He is from Provo. Elder Motes is training him, so in missionary terms that means I am a mom! 

Saturday was a really fun day. We went on a day exchange with the assistants. Mike Thomas (the coolest guy ever) went down with us. He took us out to lunch then was with Elder Nygren and I the rest of the day. We got to go a baptism where I sung with Elder Campbell and Elder Calderwood. It was a lot of fun. Funny story. So Elder Campbell got transferred to a new zone. That made me really sad because he is like a brother to me. But he came back to baptize the guy. Well Elder Campbell forgot to bring another shirt. So he came out of the bathroom with his suit on over his wet shirt. I could not let him go to a dinner with an investigator and two more appointments with a wet shirt. By parents and grandparents raised me better then that. So we switched shirts and I go to go home with a wet shirt. Luckily we ended the exchange after the baptism and we went straight home so I could switch my shirt. 

Sunday was pretty sweet as well. I realized how much I am going to miss this ward once I leave. Many of the ward members have become like family now. Sunday night there was a mission home open house where you could bring investigators and recent converts. Well we went with Chelsea. It was loads of fun for me because all I did was play the piano. But even better was Elder Kujanpaa played the violin with me. We played for about an hour and half straight. Then President Nilsen came up to us and said, "Elders I need 2 musical numbers." I said "give us 4 minutes" He said, "I will give you 3" Then he walked away with a smile. So Elder Kujanpaa and I created a version of "If you could hie to Kolob" and played for like 50 people! It was so fun! I could have played all night with Elder Kujanpaa! 

So my gospel insight for the week was today. So today and tomorrow I am studying the temple since we are going tomorrow. And it never dawned on me that temple work for the dead was done till after Christ's resurrection. He had not yet opened the way as it talks in 1 Peter 3. Prior to Christ, the temple was used for just receiving personal ordinances.  

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Elder Baird