I now know the things I used to believe. - 06/09/14

9 de Junio 2014

Well this last week went by so fast. Seems like just yesterday I was sitting here writing you guys!

This past week was pretty great. So last P-day Elder I and I went to Piura to take out our money for the month and buy our groceries at Tottus. Believe it or not, they had pancake mix. So I bought a couple of boxes. I'm so excited to be able to eat pancakes again. I know that you can always make them from scratch, but it's just so much easier to have pancake mix where all you have to do is add water. After buying groceries we went and ate at Pizza Hut with Elder C and Elder C. It was so good. I love pizza. Honestly, I've been super fortunate lately. I've eaten pizza probably 5 or 6 times in this last month, after going 6 months in Paita without it. It is so good!

That night we had a noche de hogar with a family here. We talked about the Book of Mormon with them. Hermana M R is an investigator and 3 of her kids are recent converts. It was kind of sad though. Because she has a new little baby and we could tell that she was worried about something the whole time. We finally got her to tell us that she was worried because her little 6 month old baby was sick with typhoid fever and that they didn't have the money that they needed to buy all of the medicines for the little baby. Good thing we had members present at that lesson. Because the next day, there was no need to buy more medications. The members here are super willing to help out with things like that, even though they don't have much themselves. I love how humble these people are. You can really learn a lot from them! And we were also able to give the little baby a blessing.

Later on this week we went back to their house for another lesson and the little baby was doing tons better and had all of the medications that he needed! We taught them this week about baptism and the lesson was super sweet. After teaching about baptism we invited the Hermana to be baptized. But unfortunately, she told us that she would like to be baptized but that she doesn't want to be baptized without her husband. She says that she has always done everything with her husband and that she doesn't want to make a life-changing decision without him at her side. That was kind of a bummer. Her husband is super cool. But he is a fisherman so he is only in their house about 5 days a month. So it's super hard to teach him the lessons and even harder for him to be able to attend church. But people have their agency. We can't force anyone to do anything if they don't want to do it. Hopefully with time though, she will change her mind and want to be baptized!

We were also able to teach our investigator D two times this last week. She is 18 years old and is living with a less active member that is 21, I think. That's pretty common here. Almost no one gets married. They just start living with each other and then about 10 years and 3 kids later they finally decide to get married or to split up. Pretty crazy. But anyways. She is a super sweet investigator! We were able to teach her the plan of salvation this last week. And she loved it. She is super interested and wants to continue to learn more about the church! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and she even told us that she feels like the church is true! The only problem is that they now need to get married or separate until they get married. But they both want to get married. So hopefully they will set a marriage date pretty soon so that they can get married and be baptized! Her companion is actually a pretty cool guy. And he is excited about returning to church. They live in the house of his family who are all active members and are helping us a ton with them! Pretty great!

Wednesday morning we had to travel to Piura to the mission office because our entire zone had interviews with President Rowley! So anyway, we show up to the mission office at 10:30 and saw a ton of people from our zone there. One crazy thing is that we saw Elder G and Elder C, my trainer, together. We went over to talk to them and it turns out that this last week there were tons of emergency transfers in the mission and now Elder C is one of our zone leaders here in Castilla with Elder G! Pretty cool! Elder C is about done. He finishes the end of July. It was fun being able to talk to him though. After that we all had our interviews. I love talking with President Rowley! He's the best! It is honestly impossible to leave an interview with him and not feel super motivated about the missionary work. He's the best! One of the funny parts about the interview though, was that President Rowley was talking in English the whole time. He would ask me questions in English and I would try to respond in English, but I couldn't do it. So for pretty much the entire interview he was talking in English and I was responding in Spanish. Afterwards he told me that it's super normal and that tons of gringos have trouble with English in interviews once they really start to learn Spanish. Kind of encouraging to see how far my Spanish has come along in 10 months. But also kind of scary. I don't want to forget English. Spanish is good, but English will always be better.

Thursday we had a zone meeting in Castilla. It was a pretty great meeting. I like Elder G and Elder C as our zone leaders. One thing I liked about the way that they taught was that they didn't just lecture us the whole time. It was more of a group conversation talking about ways that we can improve as missionaries. One thing that I really liked was that we talked about the importance of faith. As missionaries we have to have faith if we want to have success. We have to have faith in everything. The scriptures, the spirit, our investigators, our companion, our area, in prayer, and most importantly in ourselves. There is no reason that we should ever doubt ourselves. We need to have faith. I love the quote from President Uchtdorf that says that we should doubt our doubts before we doubt what we know. We need to have faith in everything. We are here on this earth without remembering anything that happened before. We have to walk entirely by faith. Our Heavenly Father is always trying our faith. We have to have the strength and the faith to continue on!

Another thing that happened this week is that on Friday our pensionista served us Alphabet soup for lunch. No joke, Alphabet soup. It was like a childhood dream come true. I had always heard about alphabet soup but I had no clue that it really existed! You should have seen us. We were like little kids searching through our soup to find letters to spell our words. Before too long I had spelled out ELDER BA ER on my napkin and was searching for the K that I needed forever! I finally found it though. Jaja. But for real. That was pretty cool.

So Saturday was June 7th. June 7, 2013, I graduated from high school. It is absolutely crazy to think about how I graduated high school over a year ago. In some ways in seems like 10 years ago, but in most ways it seems like maybe 2 months. This last year has been a crazy one that's for sure! But it's been great!

Well anyways. This last week was a pretty good week. I can hardly believe that this is the last week of transfers. I think that both me and my companion will be staying here for another transfer though. Which I'm kind of excited about. I like being here in La Union. And I LOVE being a missionary. Every day my testimony is strengthened a ton. I now know the things I used to believe. I have no doubt that this church is true. That we have a prophet that leads and guides us. And that we have a loving Savior and Redeemer that loves us and paid the price for our sins so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father someday.

I love you guys! Have a marvelous week!

Elder Baker

P.S. - Yes they have Papa Johns in Lima. They actually have it in Piura too. The only bad thing is that it's super expensive and I live about an hour from Piura.... And yes, it tastes the same. It’s amazing. But sounds like summer is already flying by as usual. 80 degrees sounds perfect! I would love to be able to mow a lawn. I miss lawn mowing. There is no such thing as lawn mowers here. 

Trip to Lima to change our visa status from tourist to religious visa - 06/02/14

2 de Junio 2014

Well hello there people. It's been a while since I've talked to all of you. Like 2 full weeks! And there is so much to tell you guys, and I don't think that there is going to be enough time to tell you guys everything. But I'll try.

So I'm gonna start with last Sunday night. So it was like 10:45 pm and Elder I and I were already in bed trying to fall asleep when the phone rang. And it was our zone leader and he told me that the next morning I had to be at the airport in Piura at 7:30 in the morning because I had to go to Lima. That was pretty crazy. So, we live about an hour from the airport. So we had to wake up super early the next morning and pack everything together that I needed and then we headed to Piura. We ended up getting there at about 8 am. It was super exciting. Because when I got there, there were like 20 other gringos that were going. It was super cool to see everyone! EVERYONE! I honestly had tons of friends going! So anyways, the personal secretary showed up and gave us all our plane tickets and our passports and we said goodbye to all of our companions and we went to go through security. Security here is a joke. It's nothing like the US. In the states they are so uptight about everything. Here you could take a live pig with you if you wanted to. But anyway, so we all got onto the plane at about 9:30 am. It didn't leave until about 9:45 though. It's pretty cool traveling by airplane. We got there at about 11 and then piled into combis and headed over to migrations. We had to wait there for about 2 hours and then it was finally our turn to go and meet with the person. We had to ask to be able to change our visa status from tourist to religious visa. So that took about 15 minutes. Nothing more. So anyways, after that we headed over to eat lunch. We ate at Papa Johns in this sweet mall. When I walked in, I honestly had no clue that things so cool existed in Peru. It actually made me feel like I would be okay living here in this country. And the pizza was so good. And we didn't have to pay for anything! Half a pizza for everyone!  And I ran into Elder P, who is one of the missionaries that is serving in Lima Central that was in my room at the CCM. Turns out that that is his assigned area! I also ran into Elder B and Elder F from Arequipa who were there for their visa as well. That was pretty cool. So at about 5 pm we were done with everything for the day so we headed over to the hotel. I honestly don't know why the church paid for us to stay there. I'm sure that there is some kind of other cheaper hotel in Lima. It was ridiculously cool though! And I had my own room! That was honestly super weird. First time of the entire mission being alone. I kept on turning around wondering where my companion was! I ended up spending most of the evening with Elder L, Elder C, and Elder S. Some of the funniest missionaries in the mission! Elder S is probably one of my best friends here in the mission. He's super funny! He finished high school when he was sixteen so that he could go and act in Hollywood. He has been in one episode of Victorious on Nickelodeon. McKay will probably think that's cool. But anyways, we played Uno, the card game for a few hours because there wasn't much else to do! Another crazy thing that happened that day was that I ran into Elder M from my district in the CCM! He was there from Cusco doing stuff for his visa as well! The next day went pretty normal. We got up early. I took my last hot shower for probably another 13 more months and then we headed over to Interpol. We were there pretty much the entire morning doing finger prints and stuff. Pretty cool. But actually it was super duper boring. After that it was time to drive over to airport to head back to Piura. We got there at about 1 pm but our flight was not supposed to leave until 3 pm. So we had a ton of time to eat McDonalds and stuff like that, that I probably won't get to do again until next year. That was pretty good. I bought some Dunkin Donuts too. That was something that I haven't been able to do in a long, long time. Donuts are so good. So basically, what I learned from Lima is just that I miss stuff from the United States because there is a little of it in Lima. But for real. I'm glad to be here in Piura. Piura is great! 

Getting onto the airplane in Piura

Me and Elder B in Lima

My own hotel room

Our hotel in Lima

At the airport ready to leave Lima

Me and Elder S waiting for our plane to leave Lima

Dunkin' Donuts I bought in Lima - they were so good!

Sorry but I don't have much more time. So I'll try to write this really fast. So this last week here in La Unión was a great week for Elder Ipanaque and me. Right now we have about 4 pretty good investigators that we are hoping to be able to invite to be baptized this week! 

A rice field here in La Union

Bienvenidos a La Union. Corazon del Bajo Piura.

The aunt of Elder I. And she is super receptive to the gospel. And she loves to read the Book of Mormon. And she loves to learn more. And she has accepted the invitation to be baptized. She just needs to attend church. That's her problem right now. So that's what we are going to work on this week! 

The spouse of a less active member. They're not married but they have plans to get married. But anyways, we´re working with the both of them! She used to be super Catholic, but she is super open to learning more about our faith! And when we taught her about the Book of Mormon this last week she told us, "I think it's a true book.  But I'm gonna read it just to make sure!!" That was super sweet! The spirit was definitely testifying in that lesson. And she said that when she receives a definite answer and can be married, she would like to be baptized!

J F. He is an 18 year old kid. His cousins are members. He has a cousin in the mission right now in Bolivia. He is a super sharp kid and has been doing a ton with the Youth here in this ward. His mom passed away a few years ago and so the plan of salvation is super cool for him. He's excited to learn more! The only problem with him is that he works in a factory Monday-Friday so we can only teach him on Saturday and Sunday. But he has Sundays off so that he can attend church! That's the best part!

M R S. Her kids were baptized a few months ago. And they are super strong. She has been attending church with them these last couple of weeks and she keeps talking about the changes that she has seen in her family! Hopefully she will accept the invitation this week to be baptized. It would be super cool if her 19 year old son that was baptized in March could baptize his mom! 

So anyways. Pray for them! 

Love you guys! I'm about out of time. Have a great week! 

The church is true! No doubts!

Elder Baker

We should give it our all every single day. - 5/19/14

Subject: 19 de mayo 2014

Well how are you all? It's been a while since we've talked—jaja, like a week. 

This last week was pretty great. Lots of things happened. I don't have tons of time today, but I'll try to fill you guys in on as much as possible.

So this last Tuesday was pretty good. Before lunch, we had to run all of our dirty clothes to the lavanderia. The lady that washes our clothes is super cool. There is only one problem—the problem is that her house is super far away from our apartment. So we have the choice of walking in the hot sun hauling our clothes or we can pay for a moto taxi. They both are pretty stinky options if you ask me. But we decided to walk. We're missionaries. We really don't have much money. jaja. And then we went to eat lunch. The lunch we ate on Tuesday was interesting. It reminds me of when McKay and I used to joke around and say that mom was making "Clear out the fridge casserole" jaja. But for real. It was rice, pineapple juice, beef, fried bananas, fried eggs, and sausage. That was a pretty interesting meal. I had never thought of combining those things before to make a lunch, and I don't think I will ever think of doing that again. But our pensionista is actually pretty good. For real!

Tuesday afternoon we had probably the coolest lesson of the entire week. It was the first lesson that we had with one of the cousins of Elder I. We left her with a pamphlet of the restoration before and had invited her to read it and told her that we would be coming back to talk about what she had read. Normally when we say that, we come back and the people say that they haven't had time to read. But she had actually read what we had left her. And she had a lot of super great questions about it. We were able to teach that lesson to her and it went so well. It was one of the lessons where the spirit is directing every single word that comes out of your mouth. And she understood almost everything that we taught! It was such a cool lesson. Afterwards Elder I and I just had to sit down and analyze that lesson. It was so cool! 

Wednesday probably the highlight of the day was the service project we had in the morning. We got to move bricks. Sounds pretty fun doesn't it? I actually enjoyed it! I like sweating out in the sun. I know. I'm weird. But I like it. And then that night we had a pretty cool family night with the Bishop. The bishop of this ward is super cool. And it's super good to be able to work with him. I'm really glad to be here in this ward! 

Thursday we had a zone conference. Our zone is Castilla, which is part of Piura. So that means we have to travel to Piura for our zone conferences. The stake center is about 45 minutes away from our area. It was a super great meeting. Elder G and Elder L are our zone leaders. They're super great. They talked a lot about the new trial program that our mission is participating in. We are one of 5 missions that are doing it. The point of the program is to use family history to help reactivate less active members and to help retain converts active in the church. The focus of it is to help less active and converts prepare names of their ancestors to take to the temple. It's pretty cool. 

Our zone on P-Day!

 After that they talked about giving it your all. Elder G talked a lot about not being okay with just being mediocre because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. We aren't mediocre people. We are here sharing the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  He said that at the end of our missions they should have to send medics to retrieve us because we have worked so hard that we can hardly walk. That made me think a lot. There are lots of times where I work super hard. But even then, I think there is maybe even more that I can do. And this conference was the motivation to just do it! And another bonus—I got my package of Easter candy! Thanks guys!

My Easter treats - a little late, but at least they made it!

 Friday was the worst day of the mission. I woke up super sick and was sick pretty much the entire day. I probably spent over 20 of the 24 hours in my bed. Luckily it was just a one-day flu. I don't really want to write about it again. You can read my journal after the mission. I wrote all about it.

Saturday I wasn't back to 100 percent, but I was feeling good enough to be able to work. Since we didn't get to have weekly planning Friday, we had to do it Saturday. Another thing exciting about Saturday is that I was able to teach my first class of English in the church. It's kind of fun teaching English. Some people actually catch on pretty quickly. But others just don't get it at all. I understand how they feel though. In the CCM I was one of those people. I didn't understand hardly a thing. jaja.

Well anyways. Not much else super crazy happened that I can remember. And I'm about out of time! Love you guys! Thanks for everything! 

The Church is true. No doubt about it! 

Elder Baker

Lauren, I'm jealous of that picture of a kangaroo eating out of your hand. If you want, next week I can send you a picture of me feeding some cockroaches if you want??? jaja Love you!

La Unión is pretty sweet. - 5/12/14

12 de Mayo 2014

Well. Another week has passed by. And another call home. It was so much fun to talk to you guys yesterday!  I can't wait for Christmas! jaja. Actually I can. I have to. And I might as well enjoy the time up until then. 

This week was my first week here in La Unión. And believe it or not, I actually love it here. There are definitely some things that I miss about Paita, but I was ready  for a change. And La Unión is pretty sweet. It's actually pretty pretty. Because here people have their chacras [farms] where they grow all different kinds of fruit and rice. And all of their fields are lined with palm trees that are super, super, super tall. It's actually super pretty. The one thing that is a giant problem here that wasn't a problem in Paita is Mosquitos. And it's a big problem here. I would probably die here without mosquito repellent. The reason that there are tons of them here is the rice fields—because to grow rice, you have to flood the field with water. And it always has to be wet. Which is exactly what the mosquitos love. So there are lots here. Luckily there aren't any in our apartment so that I can still sleep peacefully!

This last week tons of things happened. Tuesday we had our first District Meeting. That was pretty scary going to district meeting and having to direct that meeting. It wasn't that bad though. Our district is actually super cool. Since we are pretty far away from almost the entire rest of our zone, it is just the four of us here in La Unión. Turns out that I'm the youngest person in the district. They're all viejitos. jajajaja  jk. Elder Ipanaque is 19 like me. He turns 20 this next month though! Our district is Elder C, who is from Virginia and is 6 foot 5 and giant and his little companion that looks like an elf next to him, Elder Z, from El Salvador. And then Elder I who is my comp. I actually love working with him. He's a super great teacher. One thing I love about teaching with him is that he always asks super great questions that make the people think and really grasp what we are trying to teach them.

I really actually like working here in this ward. It was made a ward in the last year. So it's not super big yet, but it's progressing. And the leaders here are super cool. The bishop is super duper cool. And he has a suit that he wears to church that is super classy. He's super young though. I'm not sure how old he is, but he got back from his mission in 2007. So he's pretty young.

Our pensionista is Mercedes. But the nickname for Mercedes is Meche. And if you say Mercedes, everyone is going to look at you like you are crazy. She cooks pretty good food though. And she serves us a ton of rice. Rice kills me. The people here eat so much rice every single day it's ridiculous! I can't even believe how much rice these people eat! After 24 months here, I'm never even going to want to see rice again in my entire life. One thing that she made this last week was super good. It was like chicken cordon blue. I know that's not how you spell it, but I don't know how to spell it. So sorry. It was super good though. Chicken with ham and cheese. ahhhhhhhh

So funny story for the week... I already told this to you guys skyping yesterday, but the others haven't heard it yet. 

So yesterday we went on divisions. Elder I and Elder Z went to call their families with actual phones, and then Elder C and I went so that we could skype our families. Elder C had to use a computer at an internet cafe though. And we asked for the computer for an hour and a half so that we could get everything set up and so that he could call his family. But after he had been talking to his family for a bit, he turns to me and asks me to go ask the guy at the front desk how much time he has left. The problem was that I had been talking a little bit with Elder C in English yesterday and my mind was thinking in English. So I walk up to the front desk and ask the guy in English "How much time is left on number 9?" and after I asked that he just stared at me like I was from a different planet. And about a second later it clicked to me that I'm here in Peru and that this guy doesn't understand a word of English. So then I ask again "Cuánto tiempo más por numero 9?" And he told me and I walked away laughing. I felt pretty stupid, but whatever.

Well anyways. It's been a pretty great week. I love all of you guys! Thanks for all of the love and support that you guys show to me! I'm so grateful to be a missionary. Being a missionary is the best! I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! 

Love, Elder Baker

Park in Piura

Super Hero day in the park in Piura!

I was transferred today!... I will never be the same person ever again because of the time I had in Paita. - 05/05/14

5 de Mayo 2014

Well this last week has gone by super duper fast. And so much has happened, I can't even remember what happened at the beginning of this last week. So sorry. Good thing I wrote in my journal though. So I will be able to go out and read it.

First off, I was transferred today. So today has been a pretty crazy p-day. Pretty out of the normal. My head's spinning.

But this last week was pretty good. It was my last week with Elder R in Puerto Paita. Honestly, my 24 weeks in Paita were filled with so many things. Good times, hard times, boring times. But I'm grateful for everything that I was able to experience and for everything I was able to learn. Thinking about Wicked. "I have been changed for the better." But for real. I will never be the same person ever again because of the time I had in Paita.

So this last week we found out that they are going to be dividing the area in half and putting 2 sister missionaries in Puerto Paita. So that meant that we had to spend a long time this last week getting everything ready for them. We had to find a new apartment, find a pensionista to cook lunch for them, find someone that can wash their clothes, get another area book ready with all the maps and all of the investigators and people in the right books. And honestly that took a while. It made the time go pretty fast though. Not much really sticks out about this last week. Nothing super crazy happened. But overall it was a super good week. Even though we had to spend a lot of time getting the new area ready, we were still able to work hard and we were able to teach a lot of really cool lessons!

The last week of the transfer, everyone is looking forward to Saturday night at 8:30 when the zone leaders call and tell you all the information about transfers. And this week, Saturday sneaked up before I could turn around twice. I was kind of expecting to be transferred. Because I had 4 transfers in Puerto Paita and I don't know anyone in the mission that has had more than 4 transfers in one area. So I was kind of expecting to be transferred. But anyway, on Saturday night, the zone leaders called at about 8:45 and told us the details about transfers.

Elder D told me that I was being transferred to La Unión and that I am going to be District Leader. And that my companion is Elder I. He then told us that Elder R was staying in Puerto Paita and that his new companion is going to be Elder C. Pretty cool, no?  My trainer is going to be Elder R's new companion! 

So that meant that Sunday was my last day in Paita. Luckily it was Fast and Testimony meeting so I was able to bear my testimony in church and thank all the members of the ward. And then in the afternoon we went and said goodbye to a few of the people in the ward. I'm gonna miss some of these people. There are some amazing members in Puerto Paita. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to get to know them. 

At about 6:00 we went over to the house of Mariano and Mercedes to say goodbye to them. That was probably the hardest goodbye of the mission. That family has been a huge blessing in my life. They've almost been my family away from my real family during my time in Paita. They had written me a letter and gave me a hat. When it was time to say goodbye, we took a few pictures and then we said goodbye. The whole family had tears in their eyes. That was super cool but super sad. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to know them. And I hope that I have helped them in their lives! 

After that we went to Hermana C's to say goodbye. She is the best pensionista in the entire world. I'm so grateful to have been able to get to know her and her family. She served us dinner and had a cake for us. She is the funniest, nicest, most caring lady that I have ever met. And as we were saying goodbye, she started to cry too! What's up with that??  I love these people though! They may be from a different country and speak a different language, but they're like my family!

Sunday night I was up packing my suitcases until about 1:30 in the morning. I probably should have done it a little bit earlier, but I didn't want to. Procrastination! Actually, I really didn't have much time before. 

So this morning I woke up at 5:30 and hurried and showered and packed up the last few things, went up to the roof of the building to take one last look at the sunrise and the beautiful ocean, and then we headed off to the  bus station to travel to Piura. I had to say goodbye to Elder R. I’m grateful to have been able to be a trainer and to have been able to meet him. I learned a ton during those 3 months! And I know that he's going to be a great missionary!

I got to Piura at about 8:30 am and we went over to the stake center where Elder I was waiting for me. Elder I is a super super sweet kid! He's from Lima. And he has 6 months in the mission! From there we headed off to our area. So about our area. It's the second most south area in the mission. It's in a part that is called "Bajo Piura." It's part of the Castilla zone which is in Piura, but really it's about 1 hour south of Piura. And there are no grocery stores or anything. So that means we have to buy our food in Piura and travel an hour to our area. It seems like a really cool area though. 

And something super cool. Elder I was born in La Unión. But when he was 4 he moved to Lima. But about 6 weeks ago, President Rowley found out that he was born here. And the night before transfers 6 weeks ago, President called him and asked if he had family here, which he does. His grandparents, and uncles and aunts and cousins all live here. And he told him that he did. The next day he was transferred to La Unión. Pretty cool, no? Almost every single day he runs into his family. His cousin is the only member here though. And he is the ward mission leader. And so right now we are teaching all of his family members! Sweet! Don´t worry though. He's not trunky though. He loves to work hard. So I'm super excited for this next transfer!

Well I'm excited for this next transfer. It is going to be interesting being District Leader. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I'm sure that it will be fine. Everything will work out great! 

I love you all! This Church is true! 

Elder Baker

  

Lauren, Sounds like Tasmania is pretty sweet! I still have trouble believing that you are actually in Tasmania. That's super sweet though! Do you think that that will be your last area of the mission or will you be having another? I guess it's really up to the Lord though. Wherever he needs you. And you guessed it. This week I start as District Leader. Super nervous. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm sure I'll figure it out though! Love you tons! Keep working hard!