Going to obey. Obedience is better than sacrifice. - 12/9/13

Giant Christmas tree on the beach

Monday. Monday. Monday. Mondays are good days. But then again, pretty much every day on the mission is a great day. There have been so many great things this past week. One of them being that I haven't been sick at all this past week. I've kind of gotten used to getting sick here.  Sick equals diarrhea. Or however you spell that horrible thing. It comes and it goes. I don't take any medicine. I just drink lots of water and it passes. One of the joys of South America! :) It's never super bad, but there is almost always one day a week where I don't feel completely perfect. This week was a great week though!

Tuesday morning Elder C and I went over to the house of Hermana E, who was baptized last Saturday, to paint the main room in her house. Painting is pretty fun. I really actually like painting. Getting ready to paint, however, is the worst. Honestly it took like 3 hours to get the walls ready to paint. All the old paint was chipping off, so we had to sand pretty much the whole room. As we sanded, the walls slowly changed from purple, to green, to blue, to orange, back to purple, and to pink. It's pretty normal here though. People paint their houses a different color every year. Gotta keep it interesting! Painting ended up going really fast. And it didn't look too bad either!

Painting is pretty fun!

Tuesday our pensionista made us pancakes. Pancakes! She has been cooking for missionaries for almost 20 years and she says that she knows gringos love pancakes. She is the best. She always asks what kind of food we want. Fish, chicken, beef, intestines, huevera, pizza, lasagna. You name it, she´ll make it for you. She always says to us, "The missionaries need to be happy. And if the missionaries have to eat food every day that they don't like, they aren't going to be happy." haha. She's the best!

Wednesday was a great day. We went running on the beach. I always love starting the morning with running. Mainly just because it makes me feel like I'm doing something for myself. Honestly, I'm getting chubby. And I don't like it. Definitely a great motivator to do your exercises though! One of the best parts of Wednesday night was the Family Home Evening we had with Hermana Esmeralda, and 5 people from the ward. We watched the Joseph Smith Restoration video. It was a super great thing. After the video we had a testimony meeting. It was so cool hearing everyone's testimonies about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, especially the testimony of Hermana Esmeralda. She is honestly one of the nicest ladies I have ever met. She's awesome. She is going to be a great member of the church and a huge strength for the branch here in Puerto Paita.

Thursday we had a zone meeting. I love getting together with other missionaries. Missions are the greatest. In the meeting we talked about the importance of goals. Honestly if we didn't set goals as a missionary, we wouldn't get much work done. We talked about how we can set more effective goals. President Rowley wants us to start using a 3 step system where we set long term goals, and then break it up in to weekly goals and then break up the weekly goal into what you need to do every day to reach this goal. It will be really good. We had some news at the end of the meeting. We are no longer allowed to use backpacks in this mission. Pretty big bummer for me. I honestly love my backpack. I'll be fine though. Going to obey. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Also, we are not allowed to use skinny ties any more. Luckily that only applies to 1 of my ties. The others are all okay. It made me think about the pictures of the ties dad used on his mission. None of them would be approved now!

Thursday afternoon went pretty well. We ended up finding 3 new investigators. That's a lot for one day here in this area. We are super excited. I am praying that some of them will be able to progress. We are in desperate need of new investigators in this area right now.

Friday morning we had weekly planning and we set some goals for how we can find more new investigators. We are praying a lot. Going to have to act by faith, and I know that we will receive the help we need. I really love weekly planning. It's a super great time to focus individually on the needs of every single person that you are teaching. It's super great.

Not much happened on Saturday, except that we painted the front of a house of a less active family! Elder C and I are the painting pros of Puerto Paita. We painted the front of this house bright yellow. That would be kind of weird in Utah, but it is completely normal here. Everyone plasters the front of their brick house with cement and then chooses a color to paint it to make sure that it stands out from the neighbors. I love it here. It reminds me of the show Dragon Tales where everything is rainbow colored. jajajajajaja, but for real.

Sunday was a great day. Sunday morning in church we got to sing church hymns. I love Christmas music. It would be impossible to get in the Christmas spirit for me if it were not for music. I absolutely love Christmas music. I love the hymns in Spanish. They are a little bit different. Like Silent Night is Noche de Luz. (Night of light). But even though they are a little bit different, they still carry the same message of the birth of our Savior. I'm so grateful for this Christmas season!

Sunday night we went up to the upper part of Paita to watch the Christmas Devotional. It was super great. I enjoyed it a lot. Probably more than I ever have before. Even though this Christmas is going to be different, I am still looking forward to it. It is important that we remember the true meaning of Christmas. One of the best parts of the devotional was when all the little kids were singing with Elder Nelson and the little boy winked at the little girl sitting next to him. I almost died of laughter! I love Christmas. Christmas time is the best! It's pretty weird to be sweating to death the month of Christmas though! Definitely something I'm not used to!

Today for p day we went and took some pictures with our district at the giant Christmas tree at the beach. Pretty cool. My first Christmas at the beach. It's pretty cool living here in Paita. Being able to wake up every morning and sitting up in my bed looking out the window at the ocean. I'm super blessed. After we took some pictures we went and explored El Mercado. El Mercado is crazy! People running around, animals, clothes, food, raw fish. You name it, it's there. There is so much fake stuff. Soccer jerseys are super cheap.  Nike shoes. Shirts. Nike backpacks. Bomba. Not sure how you spell it, but that's how you say it. There is no such thing as original Nike here. I love Peru!

 

Nativity at the beach.

My district here in Puerto Paita

Thanks for all of the love and support! Love you all! I hope you all have a great Christmas!

Elder Baker

P.S. Thanks for all the notes for the Christmas tree on my wall. It's super great! I love it!

 

My Christmas tree in my room

 Lauren. I love reading your letters. The Lord has prepared all kinds of people to hear this message though. A missionary in my mission baptized an Evangelical pastor! Cool huh?? Well anyways. Love you! Keep up the great work!