Oi Familia, friends, acquaintance, or random people on my blog/email list,
Como vai? I hope everything is going good! Mom and Dad it is so cool that you got iPhones maybe I will just take one of yours when I get back :) Everything here at the MTC is going well! I am really excited to leave and go to Columbus Ohio!! It was such a great week and I shall tell you why!
Birthday:
I had a great birthday here at the MTC actually! It really helped that Mom and Pookie prepared some party favors and cupcakes (Which my district loved by the way). Also we really did not celebrate till thursday cause we were all bummed about not getting our reassignments. But then we really celebrated it by having the whole floor sing me happy birthday! I also got letters/packages from Grandma and Grandpa Robert, Grandma Baird, The Hicken Fam, and I think that is it hopefully I did not miss anyone. Plus I got to hatch new missionaries. And there is ice cream on Wednesday because that is the day that new missionaries come but I told all the new missionaries they were having ice cream cause it was my birthday. All and all it was a good 19th Birthday!
O Homen que pasa esperança:
In portuguese this is basically saying, "The man that gives/passes/speaks hope". This man is name Brother Pinho, he was our sub because our English professor went to Washington. Irmão Pinho is a Brazilian and was born in Brasilia. So we asked him a lot of questions about Brazil and the Portguese language. It helped so much!! But that was not the only amazing thing about him. He also served his mission in Curitiba. So we asked him a bunch of questions about Curitiba (the food, weather, members, language, and much more!). Literally anything and everything he said was hope! The best news and hope is he said that visas are going to start picking up again. He said that visas are slow during fall and winter, but they pick up spring and summer. He made us all so excited to finally get to Brazil! He was so awesome! He also taught so well with the Spirit. He promised us if we only speak Portuguese for the first 2-4 months in Brasil that we would be comfortably fluent with the language. But he said we have to study and speak only Portugese every day.
Skyping Brazilians:
The same day we had Brother Pinho was when we got to skype Brazilians! Elder Forsyth, Elder Merrill and I skyped Irmã Ririe's first comapnion with her husband and father. There was two cool experiences here. First when we got on skype it was very difficult for them to hear us and us to hear them, and one point their video radomly turned off. We thought this was going to be a disaster! Well right when we started to teach them everything worked out. Then we had no more computer troubles. The other cool thing was that I could understand them!!! It gave me hope that I can do this whole language thing! The Lord has been truly blessing me and helping me with the language.
Talking to President and Sister Nally:
On Sunday night Elder Forsyth and I had the privelage to sit by President and Sister Nally during dinner. It was so fun talking to them and I told them to tell Kaitlyn hello from me! I talked a lot with Sister Nally and we talked about the age change. She said two cool things to me. First she told me that Elder Nelson said that this was the msot amazing announcement in his life. Now remeber he has been alive for some important annoucements. She also said that the brethern were not expecting this reaction. She said our generation has truly stepped up and answer the call of a Prophet. It was so amazing to talk to her!
Zone Leader:
Well this Sunday Elder Forsyth and I got unassigned as Zone Leader. I loved being Zone Leader because I got to help everyone in the zone and get to know them. But what I loved most about being zone leader was the opportunity I had to work so close with my Branch President, President Hodges. He is one of the most amazing man I have ever met!! I will truly miss him!
Thoughts on Leaving:
I am totally excited and ready to leave. I am of course going to miss the packages from Grandma and Grandpa Roberts and Pookie every week but I am stoked to go. I am really going to miss the moutains though. Utah is so beautiful right now and to think I wont see the mountains for two whole years actually makes me sad! So I made sure to take pictures of them so I can look at them when I fell homesick or sad! They really make me happy!
Book of Mormon:
I don't know if I told you this last week but I finished the Book of Mormon in the celestial room last Tuesday. Guess what?! It is still true!
Last cool experience for this week! On Thursday we had something called In-Field Orientation. One of the last thing we did was we watched a video of the church's progression since the 1830s. I felt the Spirit during that video on this is an important work. But then on Sunday we had a meeting called the Departure Devotional. In this devotional President Nally called every country/state that missionaries were going to and when your place of mision was called you would stand. While this was going on that same Spirit overwhelmed me. As I sat there seeing everyone stand up, the Spirit testified to me the sacredness and importance of this work. The Lord is truly hastening his work, there is no question about this. Missionaries are pouring into the MTC with about 600-800 each week. There is an excitment like none other concerning missionary work. And the best part about it is this work is not going to slow down or stop. Nothing is going to stop this work. And the longer I am here on my mission the more I grow to love the work and see the importance of it.
I love all of you hope everything is going well. I have to go and finish packing!
Love,
Elder Baird
PS. Idk if I need my other suite in Ohio yet Dad. I for sure let you know when I get there.
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