14 de Abril 2014
Another week has passed by. Every
week here in Paita is different. Sometimes it feels like it's passing by super
fast, sometimes super slow. And you never know how your day is going to go. But
at the end of every day, I'm glad that I'm a missionary.
This last week started super great.
The day after P-day, Tuesday, we had a multi-zone conference in Piura. So
Tuesday morning we got to get up at 5:30 in the morning and get ready in the
dark. It was weird getting up before the sun. Not something that we do much.
And then we had to go to the bus station in Paita and meet up with our entire
zone to travel to Piura. We ended up getting to Piura at about 8 and helped set
everything up. Honestly, it was pretty fun. I love multi-zone conferences. I
love seeing tons of other missionaries. At that conference there were 3 zones.
Tons of people. The conference was super great. We talked a ton about the Book
of Mormon and a ton about Family History, two things that always seem to be
popping up here in the mission, over and over again. I think it must mean that
they are some things that are pretty important. I learned a ton during the
conference. It was super great. One of the greatest things was talking to some
of the new gringos in the mission that only have two weeks in the field with
Spanish. Poor little things. They didn't understand hardly anything. jaja. I
remember when I was the exact same way though. When I got to the mission field
I knew next to nothing. Because it would be miserable to spend two years
without understanding anything!
Probably the best part of the
conference was when I got to talk to Elder T. Elder T was in Lopez Albujar
right after me. And so I got to ask him about how Anthony Culquicondor, my
first baptism in the field, was doing. Inactivity is a HUGE problem here in
South America and I was praying that he wouldn't tell me that he isn't
attending. But he told me that he is super active and is the leader of the
Young Single Adults in the ward and is preparing to serve a mission!!!! That
made me so stinking happy! I'm so happy for him! I had a smile on my face for
the rest of the day!
After the conference we were on the
way back to Paita and a police officer pulled over the bus. The police officer
got on board and asked for the ID's of everyone. All the peruanos had their
DNI's but all of us foreigners didn't. He seemed kind of irritated that we
didn't have a DNI but whatever. He took all of them, got off the bus and we
just sat there for about 15 minutes. After that he got back on, gave all of
them back to the owners, and apologized for the delay and we went on our way.
None of us have any clue as to what it was about. Kind of weird. But whatever!
Wednesday we went and taught L C
again. He is super excited for his baptism. He's a super bright kid and
actually understands and pays attention when we teach. Unfortunately, lots of
people that we teach lose focus really easily. Everything you say and teach to
them goes in one ear and out the nose. But luckily L isn't one of those people!
I really like teaching him!
Thursday was a great day. On
Wednesday I was reading in Preach my Gospel and it talks about using a study
journal. And honestly, I haven't been the best about using a study journal.
Every once in a while I write things down in a notebook, but it's nothing
organized or anything. But I figured that since Preach my Gospel says that I
should do it, I should probably do it. So I went and bought a little study
journal. And Thursday morning I started to use it. Turns out the prophets were
right. It really does help. If you write things down, you are able to remember
a lot about what you studied. Just plain reading the Book of Mormon is good.
But really studying and pondering on what you read is better. And just to let
you know, that morning I read Alma 47. I hate Amalickiah. He's probably the
most rotten person in the Book of Mormon. I don't care for him much. Actually I
don't care for him at all..... jaja
Thursday afternoon we had a dreaded
lesson with Emilia Gomez. My companion and I have been praying a ton and
thinking a lot about her and her family. But we decided that she really isn't
keeping her commitments. Isn't reading, isn't praying, and isn't attending
church. So we had to have the dreaded talk with her and tell her that we're not
going to be able to continue and visit her super frequently. But we did bear
our testimony that everything we had taught up to that point is absolutely
true. No doubt about it. But anyway. That was pretty horrible. I didn't like it
one bit. But it had to be done.
Friday night we got back to our
apartment and planned for the next day and I was practically dead. I was so
tired. I felt super weak. That night I went to bed not knowing if I was just
super tired or getting sick. Turns out it was getting sick. The next morning I
woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck. Diarrhea, headache, neck ache,
sore legs.... EVERYTHING! Saturday was horrible. We ended up spending the
entire day in the apartment. I'm honestly not sure what it was, but luckily by
Sunday morning I was feeling a little bit better and was able to go to church,
which was great. I hate not being able to go to church. So the week ended kind
of stinky, but it's okay. Because now it's a new week and I'm excited for what
this week has in store for Elder R and me here in Puerto Paita!
Today for P-day a group of people
from our zone went to the "Playa de los cangrejos" to relax a bit.
Crab beach. It's actually super cool. There are little crabs running around
everywhere! It's super fun to try to catch them. Too bad they're super fast and
when they see you coming they run to their little holes in the sand and bury
themselves. It's okay though, because we're pretty good at digging really fast.
It's kind of scary though when you're scooping out tons of sand and a crab
pinches your finger. Kind of hurts. jajaja. Pretty fun though. And we also went
and explored tons of rocks and took lots of pictures. Pretty fun way to spend
the day!
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| 6:30 am Paita sky |
 |
| Beautiful beach with GIANT waves |
 |
| My little buddy, the crab |
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| The group that went with us today to crab beach "Playa de los cangrejos" |
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| My comp and me |
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| I'm on top of the world! |
I'm so grateful to be a missionary.
Sometimes it can be super hard, but it is all worth it. There is no where else
that I would rather be. I love being a missionary for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints!
Thanks for everything! Love all you
guys!
Elder Baker
P.S.
Dad, I've been wondering... How long
did it take on your mission before you felt pretty comfortable with what
everyone was saying and being able to understand it?? Honestly for me, I can't
remember a day. But it was about 6-7 months.
Thanks for that stuff from Elder
Bednar's conference talk. It's nice to be able to read it in English. I'm super
excited for the Ensign in English to read all of the talks from conference.
It's good in Spanish, but it's better in English! jaja.
Lauren, Sounds like you had a great
week in Australia. That's sweet about your investigator finally choosing to be
baptized! Sometimes I get jealous thinking about you being in Australia and
seeing kangaroos. How about after our missions we can visit both of our
countries ya? You can show me some kangaroos and I can show you some dirt...
jajaja Love you!
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