Miracles All Around!!!

Well Hello Family,

It has been another amazing week here in Xenia Ohio. With amazing miracles from the Lord. He truly gives miracles to those that have faith and our obedient to his commandments. So here are a list of miracles from this past week!

#1- Angela has a stove! This Xenia ward is absolutely amazing!! They have taken the Gilbert family under there wing. There was a member that had a stove that they did not need. So Tuesday we moved it into her house! She was so excited!!! 

#2- So on Tuesday we went and contacted as many former investigators as possible! Well we went to a few great former investigators. One said she would love to take the lessons again. And the other one was a great experience. The lady's name is Billy. As we were walking up to her door she walked out and said that it was not the best time. She told us how her friend had died just last night and how her mother is not in the best health either. She then asked if we would pray for her, her friends family, and for her mom. Well we asked her if we could pray right now. She said she would love that. So Elder Prettyman offered this beautiful, Spirit directed prayer. Which during the whole thing she just cried. After the prayer she looked at us and said God sent you to me. Then she gave us all hugs and told us to come back in a few days so we are trying again today.

#3- So this Saturday we have 5 baptism and this is also a miracle. It is Angela and her two kids along with her two nieces. Her nieces were the ones we were not sure of, because they live out of the mission and we have to get parents approval. Well we got parents approval on it yesterday!!! So all of them are being baptized on Saturday!!

#4-We had 9 people at church!!! 6 of Angela's family. Then we had a parent member family we are working on and the husband came. Then we had a 2 girls that have investigated the church a little bit come and we set up times to go see them! It was so cool!!

#5- So we were eating lunch at the church on Sunday and that morning we ask Heavenly Father to help accomplish our weekly goals. Well a member of the other ward came up to us while we were eating lunch and said that he felt impressed to tell us that there was a guy outside just sitting in his truck and that we should go talk to him. Well we went and it was one of our investigators that we lost contact with!!! His brother is a member and was meeting with the bishop!! So we invited John into the church and gave him a chapel tour. It was so awesome!!!

Well the Lord has definitely blessed us with many miracles. But miracles do not just fall at our feet. They take faith and determination. Along with these miracles have come trials and road blocks and disappointment. But the miracles always come till AFTER the trial of our faith. It is a pattern found in life and a pattern found in the scriptures. So days the trial never seems to end and it may not till after this life. But there will always be a miracle after our trials if we endure them with faith. Faith to overcome, faith to believe,faith to grow. And believe you me the miracles are so much sweeter when you look back and see the journey that you overcame.

Well I love you family!! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you out here in the Ohio!! 

Love,

Elder Baird

This Work is Awesome!

Hello Family!!

It has been another wonderful week here in the Xenia Ohio! Unlike Utah apparently, we have had a lot of rain! It has basically rained everyday here. So basically I love it!! 

So Angela's family is amazing! We are teaching them the lessons of course but Angela is a boss! She had us teach one of her friends last night AND she just texted us that she has another friend that will come to church and we might be teaching after we email!! Her family is doing awesome!! We love going over there. We actually go over there everyday and teach her!

 But one thing I have learned is as soon as we teach someone, the adversary is right there. Angela has definitely been going through struggles but she is so strong!! She is truly a saint. She takes in children that need help and cares for them. Yet she has no stove cause it broke and she has no car but somehow it all works out!! The Lord definitely provides a way to overcome the trials and sturggles placed in our way. Prayer is also very important to overcome the hardships of live. But there has to be a goal. Where there is no goal, there is no journey! 

This week we got some awesome new investigators. One of the investigators answered the door and said, "Elders. Mormons. How are ya??" It is was crazy!! The Lord is blessing us here is Xenia with many miracles and blessings. 

So the visa thing. So I went today to see if the fingerprint machine in the Xenia Sheriff office was working. The lady asked what for. I told her for a visa.  She said that they did not do those fingerprints here. What?! Why was I not told this last week?! Oh well! This must be the Lords way of making sure I am here for Angela's baptism. 

So here is another awesome story. So I have been missing playing the piano and singing a lot. I totally sing A Capella, however you spell that, with the companions but it just aint the same. So we went to a nursing home. Which by the way my grandmas will never be in they if I can help it! Grandpa you will go there if you don't behave yourself. They make it seem nice but all the old people say that they don't care about you and are not helpful. Well we went to one. And we walk in on a sing along thing. Well they asked us to sing because the organist playing was a member. Well I sang I need the every hour for the old people. So that was really fun!!! 

Sent you some pictures. One is how much we love golden bears, next is a picture of our new plates in our sweet car! Last is a picture of my study desk !

Well I love you all! Make sure to do some sort of missionary work this week!! 

Love,

Elder Baird

Ya'll Thought Last Week Was Awesome!

Hey family!! 

Amazing week so far!! No doubt the best week ever!! The Lord is sending the miracles and it is awesome!! So we got 6 new investigators this week which was the best!! But here is a wonderful story of faith and miracles concerning our dear friend Angela's family.

So on Tuesday I went on exchanges with one of the coolest missionaries Elder Decker who happened to be in my same BYU ward so it was so fun to talk to him about all the people we knew. That picture of the stranger is him! So we had an amazing day which was fun!! But while I was gone Angela was having some doubts concerning if she was ready to be baptized. So Elder Prettyman, Elder Beutler, and Elder Furniss (Elder Decker's companion) went and helped her out. Then on Wednesday we went and I was able to also help address that concern and answer any other questions she had. So while we were there 3 of her daughters were their listening and asking questions. That was so cool but it gets better........ we leave and in the middle of daily planning we get a text that says how many people can be baptized one day? So somewhat jokingly I replied with 7 cause that is how many people are in her family. She then replied call me. So we called her and all 3 off her daughters there wanted to get baptized!!!! Then we went over to explain baptism the next night and put 2 of the daughters on date and Angela on date for July 20th. Well we did not stop their we went back on Saturday and taught lesson one to all the daughters and put 1 more on date to be baptized with her sisters and mom, the other daughter said she will be baptized when she knows it is true. Then we invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and they all said they would. Then we invited them all to church!! Now here is the hard part about church. Angela does not have a car and she has 7 kids and herself. Well we have this amazing couple in the ward named Theo and Alex. Seriously they are the coolest! Theo just got back from a mission to California. They have 2 cars. So they brought them to church. But not only was there whole family of 8 there but they brought 2 friends!! We saved two rows in the middle pews. You should have seen the wards face when we walked in with 10 people that were all non members!!! It was absolutely amazing!! The Lord truly has been blessing us with great miracles. But these miracles come from faith and hard work!! Lots of prayer and fasting as well. But the Lord rewards those that have done all that they can to hasten the work!  It has been amazing to see how the Lord openly blesses those that serve him with all their heart. This is for Nick Ryan, and Scott you will know when your whole heart is into it when almost every night you dream about teaching people the gospel and wake up worried that you did not hit all the points in the lesson! I love being a missionary!! The field is truly ready to harvest like the picture I sent you. The Lord is truly quickening his work in an ever spiraling world of dismay. Their is missionary opportunities all around you!! 

So Nick and Ryan go into the MTC this Wednesday!! You guys are going to rock!! Scott when do you go in?? The MTC is the best!! Just don't drink the juice and be weary of the soups. Also the first 4 days are the longest days of your life but if you can get past Sunday you can get passed anything. Also I got this awesome wedding announcement from like the coolest people ever! Congrats Cami and Christian I love you guys!! 

Well as you can tell it is definitely summer time here in Ohio with the corn fields ranging from knee high to over my head. 

I have not been able to get fingerprints yet but we are trying today to see if the Xenia machine is fixed. But that is not something we missed that is just something they added. Some of the Brazilian missionary friends did not have to get fingerprints at all. The sad thing is is that I am LOVING Ohio!! It is really going to be hard to leave this place someday whether that be in a few weeks from my visa or two years to go home. Either way I realize that the Lord is totally in control of His work. So when I have done I Lord needs me to do here I will go to Brazil. But until then I will work my heart out here in the Great Ohio. The only mission named by name in the scriptures by the way! 

Well I am looking forward to another great week! Have fun getting ready for the family reunion!! You all are the best!!! 

Love,

Elder Baird

Elder Baird and His Companions :)

Best Week in the mission EVER! (6/24)

Hello wonderful family and Friends!!

So if you did not watch the churches broadcast GO WATCH IT NOW!!! It was absolutely amazing!! And it brought forth miracles for us! 

So this week was awesome as you can tell by the subject line. So we have this amazing investigator named Angela. Well Angela has 5 daughters and we taught her daughter last week when she came to the baptism. Well this Saturday there was another baptism and Angela was able to go to this one. I actually played a special musical number for this one. It was fun to see the Lord's help when composing a song for an investigator about to be baptized. Well she loved the baptism then she came to church. So in sacrament meeting  I was sitting by her and they announced the meeting going on Sunday night. She turned to me and asked what is that tonight cause I want to go. So I explained it to her and she went. Well we walked out after the meeting and she told us, "I loved that! I was praying the whole time about getting baptized. Well I can't imagine myself anywhere else. So I want to be baptized as soon as possible" WHAT?! I was so excited had to refrain myself from hugging her! But that is not all. So a little back track, Friday night she called us up and said I want you to give my daughter a blessing so of course we went over. Now we had only met one of Angela's daughters the rest were not to interested. But after the blessing we had an amazing lesson with all the daughters. We just addressed questions and concerns and Angela was helping us teach them! So fast forward back to last night have she told us that she wanted to be baptized asap. She then said, "And I want you all to teach my girls and I want them to go on missions just like all the other girls I saw tonight!" We could not believe it!! We feel so blessed and loved by our father in Heaven for the opportunity to have such an amazing investigator and an awesome miracle!  All this came by faith and prayer as we discussed last night. I too was praying the whole thing like Angela and my prayer was definitely answered!

I got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Roberts!!! It was awesome cause animal circus cookies were in there!!! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Also this week we had Zone conference which was actually more like a mission conference cause it was all the Zones that will be in the new mission in a week! It was so awesome! President Nilsen is a boss!! I learned so much at Zone conference and got to see Elder Hogan which was awesome! So I am sending you a picture of the best Lemonade drinks ever! It is a mission thing. President ordered one for every missionary at Zone Conference! 

Visa news this week!! So I got a package that said they need me to get finger prints from the police department here and send them back to finalize my visa. So to me it sounds like they are at least looking at my visa. But the sad news is we just went to the place you get the fingerprints here in Xenia and there printing machine is broken and we hopefully be back up next week. So we are going to try Beaver Creek tomorrow. So I take this as good news right now. 

So something I have been thinking about lately before the broadcast last night was this thought I had on Tuesday morning. "Missionary work is one of the best ways to fulfill your baptismal covenants." And the talks from last night definitely let us know that last night. If you read Mosiah 18:8-10 and the Sacrament prayers you will see how all of those are fulfilled when you are lost in the work of the Lord. I don't think members of the church really understand how important they are in the work! We need your help in a desperate way! This meeting last night should be the driving power influence that last October's conference was for all missionaries that were effected. The work is now in the hands of the members truly. They will set the pace. Tracking well at least here in Ohio is dead. Honestly it is not successful. It has been found that 60% to 70% of member referrals will end up in a conversion. Tracking is not near that statistic! So I hope the members of the church catch the wave and realize the work is truly in their hands. 

Well I love all of you and pray for all of you! I am so excited to see what happens in the up and coming months and years in missionary work. The Lord is ever hastening his work in so many ways! But no longer can missionary work be thought of something that only missionaries that have been called do, but it is something EVERYONE in the church needs to do! If I have an investigator that is talking to people on the bus about the church, helping us teach her kids, and helping us reactivate a less active. Then why can't you. 

Love,

Elder Baird 

An Amazing Week of Miracles all through Prayer! (6/17)

Hello Family!! 

Lots of miracles this week. So to start off I got two amazing companions I am in a tripanionship again!! And one of my companions was a Elder I was hoping and praying would be my companion. His name is Elder Prettyman! He was my Zone Leader and now he is my district leader and companion. He is amazing!! He only has a transfer and a half left. I am learning a lot from him. My other companion is fresh from the MTC. His name is Elder Beutler. He is pretty awesome too. So here is a break down of the week from last time I emailed you:

Wednesday:

We went to a Zone Fun Day. We went to a member's ward in Piqua. This house was so cool it had a lake to go fishing, volleyball, tire swings, a bunch of grass for frisbee, football, and soccer, and wait for it..... they had a........ LLAMA!!! It was the coolest llama ever! Then after Zone Fun Day we went to the great city of Columbus for Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We had two investigators at the concert and they loved it. I loved it so much!!! They did a wonderful job!

Thursday:

Well this was transfer meeting. I did get to see my mission dad Elder Francom, but sadly he is going to a Cincinnati Zone meaning he will be in the Cincinnati mission come July 1st. So I got my new companions and we also got a new car!! Then we got to work as usual.

Friday:

We did weekly planning. Friday's are such long days and we have to do weekly planning which is great to do but it takes a long time!! A long time that we could be tracking!! So then we went back to work. That night and during weekly planning we decided we were going to change this area and zone. We wanted and desired to make the work sky rocket here in Xenia. So we prayed and planned for Saturday. We planned about a 3 hour chunck of time for just tracking.  We also set a goal of 3 new investigators. Since I have been out the most I have gotten in a week is 2. So we planned to get more investigators in one day then I had done in a week. Well we went out and right before we tracked a street we prayed for 2 investigators from this street. So we went tracking and found a husband and wife. We were so excited. We continued to try to find our 3rd investigator. Well that night the Sister missionaries in Beaver Creek had a baptism planned and we were planning on taking one of our investigators. So the time came we had to go meet our investigator and we still had not found that 3rd new investigator. So we went to the investigators house at 645 because the baptism was at 7. Well we talked to the investigators daughter and we found out that she had to leave and take one of her friends to the hospital. So we felt like we should go to the hospital. And then the daughter said that she had her mom and the phone and that she wanted to talk to us. Well come to find out our investigator took a less active member to the hospital and we decided to for sure go to the hospital. Well our investigator's daughter also wanted to go to the hospital to see her mom. We went to hospital and gave the less active member a blessing. Then our investigator was so sad that she missed and asked her daughter to go to see and tell her how the baptism is. So we took her daughter to the baptism. Well when we left the hospital it was probably 720 and the baptism started at 7 and we would not get to the church till 730. We knew the baptism was going to be over or almost done by the time we got there. So we planned on taking her anyway and giving her a chapel  tour and a lesson. When we got to the church we heard a prayer being given and then we knew it was over. But to much of our disbelief it was just starting!! The sisters forgot to fill the font so they had to wait an extra 30 minutes to fill!! We were so excited!! So our investigators daughter went to the baptism AND  we had a chapel tour AND gave the first lesson!! So we got our third investigator right when we thought we would not!!

Sunday:

So we decided to try for 4 new investigators yesterday. One reason was because we knew that we had a family referral from another pair of elders that set up a return appointment for us. So we thought that we could find 2 and the family would be at least 2 new investigators. So we went tracking for 2 ish hours. Before we started tracking we prayed and we felt to ask for 1 new investigator from the street we about to track on. Well right before we had to go to dinner the last house we knocked we met this awesome catholic guy. We taught him the first lesson and he said he felt the Spirit and told us to call him this week to set him up with another appointment. So we got 1 new investigator. Well we went to our referral appointment at 730 and we still only had one new investigator. We went to the appointment and taught this awesome guy named Hui. But he did not want his family to hear the message until he did. He is looking to believe and have faith in Christ. It was an amazing lesson and we got one more new investigators! Well yesterday we got 2 amazing new investigators,and I know what you are saying you did not get 4 you only got two. Well also throughout yesterday we got 5 member referrals! And we met a kid that wants our help to stop smoking. I believe that we got our 4 new investigators we just have not met them yet and they don't know that they are interested yet! 

Well it has been a great week!! I am so excited for this transfer!! I love you all!! Don't forget to read and PRAY! All these miracles came from the many prayers we gave. But make sure you a praying with realism and the spirit. We could have prayed for 4 investigators or 30 investigators from one street but we only prayed for one on the street we tracked on Sunday cause that what we felt was the will of God and it was! Have a great week! And congrats to Daniel and Chandler also to Kyle and Sarah! 

Love,

Elder Baird 

Elder Baird is not in Canal Winchester anymore but not in Brazil either

Hey Family,

So the subject line is the crazy news for the week. So I am no longer in Canal Winchester with Elder Francom and Elder Miles but I am also not Brazil!! So on Thursday we (Elder Francom, Elder Miles and I) were doing a 24 hour exchange with our zone leaders. Elder Miles and I were with Elder Loosli one of our zone leaders and we were eating at a members home. While we were there we got a call from Preside Nilsen. So he left a message cause we were in the middle of a lesson with the members. Well when we got out of the lesson I listened to the message and it said Elder Baird will you call me as soon as you can. My first thought was, "MY VISA IS HERE!!" But I did not let my hopes get to up there. So I called him back, and he said that he needed my help and I said I could help him. Then he proceeds to tell me that he needs me to go to Xenia (My new area east of Dayton Ohio) tomorrow morning. And I respond of course I will president. I need to go because one of the missionaries that was here went home because he was very homesick and did not have the desire to work. So we went home early from 24 hour exchanges so I could pack and we met the assistants at the church building Friday morning. So in a nut shell I was emergency transferred out of Canal Winchester and was sent to Xenia. Now I was really sad about this at first. I loved Elder Francom and Elder Miles!! Elder Francom was the best dad ever!! (Dad is mission talk for trainer) Elder Miles saw me when I was talking to president and he said my voice said happy but my face said sadness. He thought that I was being told that my visa had been denied. But I love Xenia! The members here are AMAZING!! Coming to Xenia has been an answer to prayers and fasting that I did not expect. I have been praying and fasting for a Brazilian Investigator with the main desire and purpose to not loose my Portuguese. Well the Lord took that desire to not learn Portuguese and answered my prayers. I have met 5 people in the ward that speak Portuguese and all of them are willing to help me! Xenia is not the greatest, pretty place. But I place called Beaver Creek in our area is!! You would love it here mom and dad! It is so beautiful. Dad I did see an Aspen dental in Ohio. Maybe you could move here.

Well the work here in Xenia is the same as Canal Winchester and the work in Canal Winchester and Xenia is the same all over the world. We are inviting people to come unto Christ. I have been able to meet one investigator. She is absolutely amazing!! She has great faith and a spectacular testimony. On Saturday she said she would be baptized which was so exciting. But there is a catch to this. She has to tell her father who is a preacher. She is almost positive he will tell here to get out of the house. But she knows it is true so she is making that sacrifice.

Oh my companions name is Elder Hogan. He is from Bountiful Utah. He is pretty awesome! We get along great!

My new address is 1790 Deer Creek Drive Suite #5 Xenia, Ohio 45385.

It is insane to hear and see pictures from the Tornadoes in Moore! It is awesome though that you guys got to go down and help! To answer some of your questions: Visa: Nothing! Pictures: I was going to send you some today cause the computers in can had a way to do it. But the computer here I am using does not so maybe next Monday or I might just send my memory card. Package: I want home baked goods, temple bag, and anything you think I would need.

By the way I am sending you all some stuff. We went to a cool hippy town today so I am sending gifts from a asian hippy shop in Ohio.

Well I love you all!! Hope you guys don't get hit by a tornado!!

Love, Elder Baird