The Basics

Hello,
It was a good week. It went by fast. This is how it went.

Transfer Day: So this past week was transfers, and despite neither of us transferring we needed to go and help out with the transportation of some missionaries in the Zone. It started at about 10:45 and went until about 6 because of a lot of stuff that happened. First we needed to take the luggage of some elders moving into an apartment in our area who didn't have a car, then we waited for the rest of the missionaries to get down the transfer train (the bus that carries all of the transferring missionaries). 


After the missionaries for the zone came, we had to wait for them to get their apartment key and their phone, get a phone to another set of sisters, and then take them shopping and finally drop them off at their apartment. It all worked out. The only thing that we had left was to pass out the planners and a package or two for the zone and then a miracle happened. We went to drop off a package for one Elder in the zone (who lives in the same apartment as the elders who we dropped off the luggage for at the beginning of the day) and found the new elders in their new area. They had just whitewashed into a stake that was split, phone had stopped working, they didn't have a car, and they lived about 5 miles from their area. They had prayed 5 minutes earlier that someone would come help. By the time we helped them get settled, got them dinner and correlated with the other missionaries in their stake, we went on with the rest of our day. Crazy crazy day. But it was a lot of fun. Things just work out if you are obedient and do the best that you can to serve others and use your agency righteously. 

Skype Lesson: We have a skype lesson set up. Something that we can now do as missionaries is to teach over skype. If there is someone living outside of your ward/stake/state/country and they agree to meet with missionaries with you as their friend, then the local missionaries can come to your home and teach them over skype. We had heard about a hispanic family who had recently moved here and had decided to attend their english ward and their bishop wanted us to go over and introduce ourselves. We learned that the Soto family was from Venezuela, they were very active members of the church, and he had a mom who has not been baptized who still lives in Venezuela. She has a testimony but is overcoming some word of wisdom probems. We set up a time and the end of next week we will start teaching her in the Soto home over skype. It's pretty awesome and can happen anywhere in the world.

Returning to the Fold: A lot of the miracles this week came from starting to teach and setting appointments to teach some less-active families. One of them have been inactive for about 50 years, and even though they are not ready to come back to church, the husband agreed for us to start teaching him. She has had a testimony but is struggling with some personal things, but he never has. Over the past month he has started actually praying to God and is willing for us to teach him about who God is and how to pray, study the scriptures, and worship and come closer to our Heavenly Father. When we told how the appointment went with members of the ward, everyone was astounded that they would accept. Miracles happened in their lives and are happening in others. We were making visits with our ward mission leader in that same ward and visited a Less-Active 25 year old member who's in the ward and just was friendly with him and saw if he needed any help. He didn't, but directly afterwards told us he was planning to get in contact with us because he wanted to start coming back to church. We were able to set up a time and we will start teaching him. We also are going to start teaching a less active family in the Spanish branch. Our investigators are progressing well for the most part, and things are starting to happen in this area. It's super fun to be serving and helping these people come unto Christ.

The Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith: So when we taught a lesson to an Investigator this week, we learned and studied more on gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and know if tons of blessings are waiting for you in this life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that Joseph Smith was His prophet and revelator, that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet on the earth today in the Church of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and you will feel God's influence more in your life as you study and ponder it. Here are the major steps for each one of us, along with keeping the commandments (which includes going to Church).
Read the Book of Mormon and ponder its message concerning Jesus Christ.
Pray to God with faith in Jesus Christ to receive a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration.
Pray sincerely and have real intent, which means that they intend to act on the answer they receive from God
And it's easy to ponder the scriptures about Jesus Christ, here is two of my favorites: Alma 7:11-13, and Ether 12:32-34.
Thank you for all for your emails and prayers. Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Baker