Thursday, February 12, 2015

Hearing from an Apostle of the Lord - Jan 26

Hello my wonderful family! 

This week has been full of ups and downs. It has been a rather emotional week! 

First off, I got transferred. Did I know it was coming? Pretty much! But man it was hard. The emotions of being released as a branch president and being transferred from Coshocton I think was a small trial run for in 10 weeks when I am released from being a missionary and when I leave Ohio. In other words I will be pretty emotional. So make sure there is lots of food in the house so I can eat my sorrows away. But we are not going to talk about that anymore because that is a very long time away (at least I wish it was!)
I am still in leadership. I am a zone leader again. The better news on transfers is I am still in the same zone and stake as Coshocton. That means I get to go back "home" to Coshocton on exchanges and I still get to work with President Birch. I love President Birch! He is an incredible man! 

The highlight of the week was last night. Last night we had our Quad Stake Missionary Fireside. President Daines wants to make the firesides different then they have been! So we are doing Musical Missionary Firesides. Well Elder Pike and I with Sister Myers are basically the musical fireside council with President Meldrum (a counselor in the mission presidency). Well we had it all planned out. Then came the best call ever. We were told that Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles would be presiding and speaking. So that meant that we had to change it. up. It was amazing last night. We had two choir numbers and 2 special musical numbers. We heard from President Daines and a recent convert. 

Elder Christofferson was amazing! He taught plain and simple doctrines. I was hoping for a discourse on how we can be translated or where really Kolob. Well once he started to speak the Lord rebuked me. He let me know very clearly that the Apostle was not hear for me or us as missionaries. He was here for those that were new members and most importantly for those that are not members yet. Well with that back drop can you guess what he spoke on? Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and repenting. The highlight thing that I learned was this. That the ordinance of baptism covers all sins past and future. That it covers prospectively and retrospectively. The way that is possible is if we repent and partaking of the sacrament. I just love that concept that proper baptism with the right authority has a cleansing effect and take effects on all sins if we but access the Atonement through repentance and the sacrament. The other awesome highlight of yesterday was the way how the choral songs worked out. At the end of December Elder Pike and I had not heard back from Pres. Meldrum. So we decide to plan it out and see what Pres. Meldrum thought. Well the two that both Elder Pike and I felt strongly about was the songs, "Come Follow Me" and "Come Thou Fount". When we called Presidnet Meldrum about our idea for choral songs he said, "You would not believe it but those were the two I was looking at doing. I found music for them today." Now if you know anything about those two songs you will see that they were perfect for the topic Elder Chirstofferson spoke on. Coincidence? I think not! The last highlight of last night was that I got to shake hands with every key holder on the stand. I actually got to shake Elder Christofferson's hand twice. It was a wonderful night! 

Hope you all have a great week! My new address is 1570 Crystal Court Apt A Newark Ohio 43055. 

Love,

Elder Baird  

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