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

SNOW!

Hey family!

Well it was another stupendous week here in Ohio! It is so beautiful here I think my favorite color of leaves is golden, especially when the setting sun hits them just right it looks like the trees are on fire. Yes my friends it did snow this past week in certain parts of the mission. Maybe a few centimeters but still it snowed! I love the cold! A few nights this week we have made some hot chocolate after coming in from tracking in the cold. Tracking in the cold is a lot more fun because if you get the door to open you get blessed with the feeling of warm air coming from the house. It makes pray even harder at every door that they will answer. It is lots of fun!

Here is a nice run down of the week:

So first off we have been trying to find out ways we can get the ward involved in missionary work. Unless you are like my mom and you take the opportunity to do missionary work, most member wont just go out and do it for whatever reason. So a few things we are doing is setting up members for success. First we have 100% member presents and make sure a member is with us at every lesson no matter what! Next we go to members and ask them if they would be willing to take over copies of the Book of Mormon to people that are interested. Almost every member says yes, so we give them 2-4 copies of the Book of Mormon, then we hit the pavement and go knocking in their neighborhood and we don't quite knocking in their area till we find the same amount of people interested in the Book of Mormon as the amount we gave the member. Next we were trying to figure out how do we get the youth involved. Well we thought and there are a few areas in the mission that have done competitions between the young men and young women. Basically certain points go to certain missionary efforts i.e. pass along cards, pamphlets, Book of Mormon, teaching with the missionaries, having a friend at any church activity, etc. So I was trying to think of a name for this competition. Well It dawned on me that it is November next month so we are calling it No Shame November based of Romans 1:16. Then we decided to have a massive fireside on November 24th where members can invite their friends to learn more about the church. We are going to count this as the hail mary play for the competition and if they get someone there they get lots of points. We talked to our Bishop yesterday and he is all for the idea!  We are also going to put an article in the Delaware Gazette and Post stuff around the small college campus in town. We also might start a Bible Study class! Which I would love to do. But we will see how this all plays out.  

So here is an awesome update on an investigator. Her name is Lucinda and she is just awesome! So when it comes to teaching people, if they actually hear the 2nd lesson, the biggest worry is what I call the 3 stumbling blocks. Those three points are Tithing, Word of Wisdom, and Law of Chastity. So before I teach these I heavily teach the importance of a testimony and the blessings of obedience to God's laws. Well we taught tithing and she accepted it and is paying it. Then we taught word of wisdom this week and she accepted it. When we taught word of wisdom we were just planning on teaching that and nothing else but I felt impressed that we also needed to teach Law of Chastity so we did. And she accepted it. She knows that they will be hard but she knows the Book of Mormon is true (she is in 2 Nephi 3 now). So she accepted a baptismal date of November 9th! 

Well I finished the Book of Mormon again! I love the Book of Mormon and it is still true! I don't remember if I told you I read the whole Book of Mormon in the MTC and marked everything to deal with the Atonement which was just awesome! Well I read this Book of Mormon to understand faith. I learned a lot about different kinds of faith and gospel principles (such as diligence and humility) that are complementary doctrines to faith. Now I reading it again to understand the Spirit.

Well I am doing awesome! I hope you are all doing well! Go do some missionary work and read Preach My Gospel and do the activity on page 126! Did it yesterday and it was an eye opener!

Love,

Elder Baird 

Some of Elder Baird's Work!

A Baptism and General Authority in One Weekend!

Hello family!

Well it is getting so beautiful here in Ohio! Leaves are changing and the temperature is dropping fast! I love the fall!

So here are the awesome highlights for the week. So Tuesday was transfers and we lost Elder Tolley which was really sad but now it is just Elder Peters and I. After transfers on Tuesday we had two elders spend the night with us because their apartment was not ready quite yet. Well we had an amazing night with them. The 2 missionaries that were with us were Elder Patch and Elder Marler. Elder Patch went to Timpview (He actually knew a few people I did like the Naylors) Well Elder Patch played volleyball for BYU. He is 6'8". He was so awesome! He is one of the nicest, most genuine people I have met. He went with me that night. We were able to see some investigators. One was Lucinda and Tabby. Tabby had an amazing experience with prayer the past week. She now knows that God is really there and listening. We met with her on Tuesday and she was at 1 Nephi 16 and by the time we talked to her on Sunday when she came to church she had read all the way to 2 Nephi 5. We were so proud of her because reading and coming to church has been a struggle for her but now she is doing both very well!

Well the rest of the week was pretty much normal awesome missionary work. Did some finding and taught some investigators, served some ward members, but majority of the week was spent preparing for the baptism of Breinna which was absolutely amazing.

Breinna is the deaf girl that got hit by the car last Saturday! She has the strongest testimony of anyone I have seen. Her mom said the first worry when she got hit by the car was we would have to reschedule to baptism. Then she kept telling us that not even a car can stop her from getting baptized! Her faith compares to no other person I have met on my mission.  A small 9 year old girl understood the priesthood when we gave her a blessing. She said she could feel the power of the priesthood help her be healed. It was a beautiful baptism on Saturday as her father was able to baptize her. She shared her testimony with all of the people there. Needless to say I don't think there was a dry eye in there. Her mom could barely interpret between the tears. The spirit was so strong as she gave a powerful witness of the divinity of Christ, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the power of the priesthood, and the reality of our Father in Heaven. She was also confirmed Sunday morning in Sacrament.

Then Sunday we had a random Leadership council with all the Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and Sister Training leaders. Well it was a total surprise but Elder Lynn G. Robins of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. He taught us for 3 hours on agency and responsiblity. Life lessons were definitely learned as he taught us the principles and the doctrine surrounding these 2 complementary gospel doctrines.

Well I got my package this week so thank you so much! I am doing very well! I have heard nothing concerning the visa this week. Oh well! I am loving it here to much to be worried about where I am serving the Lord, as long as I am worthily serving Him that is all that matters!

Love,

Elder Baird 

A Week of Highs and Lows

Hey Family!

So don't be to worried about the subject line. I am now basically back to my usual happy, healthy self aka back to a high.

So this week was by far a role coaster. So here is a quick run down then I will explain

Monday- Pday so always good

Tuesday- One of the most amazing days of my mission

Wednesday- Pretty good

Thursday- Stomach flu

Friday-Stomach Flu

Saturday- Investigator got hit by a car so that was a low but we gave her a blessing.

Sunday- Pretty Good.

So we will start with the lows. Well Elder Tolley and I had the stomach flue for like 2 days straight and then had awesome effects from it on Saturday. But we are all better now and happy. I don't think I have been that sick for years (This did not even compare to last Christmas) Thursday I slept all day so I slept probably for 36 to 40 hours from Wednesday night to Friday morning. You think being sick is not fun at home. But believe you me being sick at home is fun compared to being sick on a mission for a few reasons. One reason is that on a mission you know you are on the Lord's time and you feel like you are wasting it by being sick. Therefore you try to push through it when sometimes you just can't and your body needs a break. The other reason is when you are sick at home you all the Lost, Chuck, movies, and Netflix you want to watch. The only thing you have to comfort you while you are sick on a mission is James E Talmage's Jesus the Christ. Which is a great book. On Saturday our investigator who is a little 9 year old deaf girl was hit by a car on Saturday. But we were able to run over to the hospital and give her a blessing. As of now she is all fine just some bumps and bruise and a lot of road rash. She was scheduled to be baptized on Saturday and her dad sounded like it was still happening as of yesterday. I have never seen someone so excited for baptism like her! She starts jumping and screaming and she gets a big smile on her face at even the mention of her baptism.

Now the good days. Were were able to meet with many of our investigators. We have 2 investigators that are very close to being on date! We invite them to be baptized every lesson and every lesson they say they are willing. We have been heavily stressing the importance of church, praying and reading or what we call the spiritual CPR. Well finally they are grasping on to reading. One of them said as I read I can actually feel and change within me. This past week we discussed the tree of life. The Book of Mormon truly does change lives! I have seen it on my mission. I absolutely love teaching! It brings me so much joy and happiness when I see others feeling the Spirit. As a missionary I try to truly make sure those I am having enter into a covenant with the Lord  through baptism understand the covenant and are at some point of conversion. For me I want my investigators to know the Book of Mormon is true. There are many missionaries that just baptize for numbers and frankly that is so easy! Just by the way you word and talk to people you can get them to want to be baptized BUT are they converted? Do they have a testimony? Are they ready? If not, then why would I want to allow them to enter into a promise with God I know that they will break because they don't understand it?

Now for one of the most amazing days of my mission and my life. I absolutely love being a Zone Leader. Just one of the many reasons is the opportunity to go to Leadership Council (when all the Assistants, Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and President and Sister Nilsen get together and discuss the mission and we are trained). Well this past Tuesday was Leadership Council and it was being held a secret on where we were going. So we showed up at the church near the temple at 6:30am and took an hour or so car ride to Amish Country! We went to the homes of 3 Amish families that joined the church around a year and half ago. All of the families have now been sealed in the temple. Now these 3 families are your modern-day pioneer saints. I could not help but cry (as did many missionaries) as they shared their stories. The first one to join the church was Raymond. He came in contact with the church through a member who bought from the two businesses he owned. He read the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks and about 100 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants in 3 weeks. But it was not till the member felt inspired to share with him that one day he will need to preach the gospel to his family just like Paul did. That hit him hard. He had many different spiritual experiences following that. But in the Amish country they do not share those types of experiences. At the time he was running 2 businesses so he would do all the work he needed to then meet with the missionaries till 12 30 or 1 in the morning then do it all over again. He soon did some missionary work of his own and invited his friends and neighbors to hear. Well Levi and Paul (his friends) were at first very hesitant but they listened and become converted as well as majority of there children. All of them KNEW that the gospel was true and that is all that mattered to them. All 3 families have been shunned by the whole Amish nation. This includes there families. Levi has not seen nor heard from his mother in over a year and he has only seen his dad on buggy passing by. Paul has been shunned by some of his older children. Why would someone go through all of this? There businesses have been hurt, threats have been made, and lives have been unchangeably altered. Yet they know the gospel is true and that is what matters. All of them had all sorts of stories concerning the powers of heaven helping and lifting them in their times of need. They are a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the spreading of the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Their sacrifice amazed me! Their were some of the most amazing people I have ever met on my mission.

Well that is my week in a nut shell. Hope you all had a consist good week!

Love you!

Elder Baird

PS We just got transfer calls and for the first time ever I am actually staying.