February 27,"10 Months"

So much happened this week it is hard to know where to begin! 

It started off with Sister Smith, the mission presidents wife, coming out with Sister Whatcott and I for a couple of hours. We had such a good time with her, she is hilarious! Typical missionary labor pursued: people weren't home for their appointments, we got in and out and in and out to try to find someone to see since our back ups to our back ups fell through, and to make matters even funnier for Sister Baker, as we were driving over this really bad road (our car is pretty low to the ground) I drive over this pothole and the bottom of our car decides to scrape the road and let out this awful screeching sound! Sister Smith comments "oh" and then silence! We have gone over that pothole a good number of times but of course with the Mission Presidents Wife in the car, it decides to ruin my life! It's okay, we laugh about it now! Later, we tried to see this random LA in the area and found Kay, her granddaughter, living there and she was super receptive and friendly to us and made up for the whole night! We are excited to see where she goes since she was tearing up and thanking us for giving her the BOM saying "I needed this tonight, God knew I needed this." After the trial of faith, comes the blessings!  

This past week, we had another miracle as we were delivering a Bible to a referral that really only wanted the Bible.  As we were walking away, we saw this man and woman in a neighboring house with their door open! We waved and were about to drive away when we felt like we should go up to them. Awkward situations are my favorite situations so we walked up and the lady got us chairs to sit at her table and we were able to teach the full Restoration and she was loving it! She said at the end "I saw y'all and was hoping y'all would come talk to me; I am so glad y'all did." And then she CAME TO CHURCH! Carrie Jackson came to church and loved it! She is such an awesome lady and we are excited to help her along her path, she is a special one! I was laughing when we walked into Gospel Principles with her (we had only taught her briefly the Restoration and the BOM) and the lesson was on Exaltation and how to become Gods! haha But Carrie was awesome and said she learned so much and loved it and is excited to come back! 

We met a lot of wonderful people this week and that makes the work exciting! We also had MLC this past week and some men from the missionary department came to help our mission double our baptisms! They really inspired me to believe that it can happen for every missionary, including me! I am grateful that I learned so much and excited to apply it to my mission and see the fruits of my labor for Christ! 

Love yall!

Sister Baker

Pcitures:

Sister Smith, our third companion for the night!

former BYU bud Sister Jenkins (MLC)

Sister Saunders, my lovely former companion (MLC)

everyone from MLC 

February 20,"Shook The Hand Of An Apostle"

This week was another good, crazy, busy week! So many good things happened!

We set a baptismal date for G'adaisha for March 25th and she was so excited! It was funny because we wanted to check with the mom first before we asked the daughter so when we thought the girls were all gone we asked Liz about G'adaisha being baptized and G'adaisha comes out of her room screaming and falling on the floor that she wants to be baptized! We are really excited to help G'adaisha prepare for baptism, almost as excited as she is! 

Jennie Brown is my favorite person ever! Ever since we have been going over to see her she has come to church every week and is loving it there. She wants to be so involved in everything again! She asked for church material to pass out to her neighbors and friends the second lesson we had with her; such a stellar individual!

We met again with Talayshia finally! Her unstable home and school situation makes it hard to meet up with her but when we do it is so amazing! She is so accepting and open and wanting to really come to know God better! We set a BCD with her as well so we are hoping to help her work toward that and make it to church.

We had exchanges this past week with the Callaway sisters, Sister Jensen and Sister Crosby! They have become really good friends of mine on the mission and I am grateful for their examples! Sister Crosby and I had a lesson with a returning member Mary Howell who wants to go through PMG with us to help her become a better member missionary! She is a convert and such an amazing example to me of diligence to the gospel and I am so grateful for her!

Elder Stevenson, from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, came to Tallahassee and planned a couple hours to talk to our mission so the night before, all the missionaries in the entire FTM came to or near Tallahassee! It was crazy but so fun to see everyone that I have grown to recognize and love! We had a lot of sisters staying with us at the compound, which was fun to see all the sisters from the mission we don't get to see too often! 

Elder Maynes (70), Elder Parker (70), and Elder Stevenson all spoke to us and it was so inspiring to hear what counsel they had to give the missionaries. He reminded us that our "call is divine and sacred" and that when we testify, we are giving room for the Holy Ghost to bear witness and that we need to let him speak more often in our lessons. I loved his advice, that "when you go out to proselyte, you always go out in a threesome, with the Holy Ghost as your constant third companion." 

The love I have for my mission has grown immensely these past couple of weeks! Some days are better than others, but when I feel that great love for my mission, I really feel it, and know that Heavenly Father is pleased with my imperfect labor for Him! 

Love y'all as always!

Sister Baker

Pictures;

I held a chick at a members home, definite highlight!

Sister Crosby, exchanges in Tally

Sister Bradley, my baby, in Tally after the meeting with Elder Stevenson

Sister Whatcott and I decided to take another picture together even though we were surrounded by the entire mission

bad picture, sorry but I finally got a picture with my homegirl Talayshia; taught a lesson in the parking lot

Jennie Brown my other favorite lady

February 13,"The Best Days Of Your Life Are In Jesus"

Another good week here in Tally! I am loving this area and the people! I have learned so much from my mission already and grateful for the member-missionary I am going to be when I return! 

This past week we had Zone Conference where we watched the missionary broadcast again with all the Elders and Sisters in the zone. These changes to the schedule and the numbers we report has really helped me focus on the people more instead of the numbers! It helped me recognize that at the end of the day and at the end of my mission, it won't matter how many lessons we taught but the people we saw and helped feel God's love! 

We found some success tracting this week and were able to meet some super potential! It has been so amazing to see the ways God is providing for us and the super open and prepared people we find when we just let Him lead and guide us.

Some updates on some special people: 

Jennie Brown (a LA that we have been working with us) came to church and LOVED it! She was going around introducing herself and shaking peoples hands and welcoming them to church and waving at people she knew. It was so funny because every so often she would lean over and whisper to me who everyone was as if I was the one new to the ward.

We met an amazing prepared 18 year old Brianna who was so excited to read the Book of Mormon and for us to keep in contact!

We handed off Emory to the 1st ward Elders and it was such a good pass-off lesson! Every time I said something he agreed with he would say, "Tell it Sister Baker, tell it!" and then would shake everyone's hands. I love him and will miss teaching him!

Love yall! 

Sister Baker

Pictures:

Sister Whatcott and I at zone conference; floral and cardigans are the way to a sisters heart

the Tally 1 zone

church signs are the best signs

exchange with the Dothan Sisters, I was with Sister Leavitt

G'adaisha and Ayana; they drew pictures of the Sisters 

February 6, 2017

This week has been such a good week! We tracted a LOT the last couple of days and found a couple potentials! Knocking doors is something I am learning to love more and more as I go! It is so entertaining to meet random people and the more I have done it the more I realize it is actually not that hard to talk to strangers and bring up the gospel! People here in the south are generally pretty open to talk to us once they realize we are not Jehovah's Witness and want to talk about building faith in Jesus Christ. Plus, you always get good stories tracting!

Sister Whatcott and I have noticed a theme in our work here in Tallahassee. Every time we teach people about the Restoration, something goes wrong! Our investigators get sent to the ER, or get extremely sick, or something big occurs in their family life, or work gets busier, etc! We are working hard to find people and keep those people! 

We had a really good lesson with this family that I am in love with! Liz is a less active we are working with and she has these cute little kids we are trying to prepare for baptism, G'adaisha (9), G'ad (10) and Ayana (5). We had a Restoration lesson with them and it went so well and Liz stayed and bore testimony of it and it was so good! Then, they all came to church and the kids were so excited to see us! I love them a lot! 

We had exchanges this past week with the Atmore Sisters, Sister Housel and Sister Kirkham, my former MTC comp! They are such amazing, humble, hard working sisters and I am so grateful to have learned so much from them! 

I love Tallahassee so much! I love the members that take us out and take people to church and feed us and love us! They are so wonderful to the missionaries! 

Love yall!

Sister Baker

Pictures:

Lessons in a playhouse

Sister Housel and I on our exchange 

Sister Kirkham

The joys of tracting

Members taking us out!

Sister Whatcott and I (the skirt I am wearing is a skirt that is passed down from STL-T to the next)

Found the Holy Ghost headquarters here in the FL Tallahassee mission

January 30,"9 Months"

My mission has gone by so fast! I really am grateful for every milestone to look back on my time here and see how much I have grown! I have really learned to love the people, the mission lifestyle, and everything about my mission! I have found a lot of joy and happiness watching my testimony and love for the work grow so much as I strive to forget myself and serve those around me! Missions are so hard, it takes everything out of you, but I love to now see how the Lord is building and refining me to how He wants me to be! 

Sister Stephens left this week to go home and I truly miss her so much! I really love her and loved to watch her example as she finished out her mission! I felt so inspired to continue to give and give and give watching as she finished up her mission! 

Sister Whatcott, my new companion, is such a natural! I feel like I don't have to explain anything to her, she just goes and does and is so good! I am really excited to have her as my companion and continue to learn from her example! 

This week was a really good week! We had MLC where we heard some new changes to the mission! To yall it might not seem like a big deal but to us it was huge! They are no longer having us track lessons, referrals, or RCLA's, our only key indicators are BCD's, baptisms and confirmations, and new investigators, in hopes that we will choose to spend our time focused on those indicators. Also, our schedule is different so in the mornings we can choose when we would like to have our studies from 6:30 to 10 and when to have our comp study sometime throughout the day! And planning which is usually done at night is now done in the morning! So exciteing stuff in the mission world! 

Miracle experience this week: went out to find a potential named Frank but I couldn't remember where his house was exactly and since I had a new comp with me, it was up to me to find the house! So we go up to knock a door I thought was his house, and it turns out to not be Frank but instead Terry and his wife Wendy who open the door, let us in, and set up a return appointment with them! God works through Sister Baker not knowing where on earth she is going! 

Love yall

Sister Baker

Pictures:

Some little children LOVE to do our hair during the lesson and we come out looking crazy! Not pictured is the other bun in the back

The district
Us in front of the compound (our house)

last comp pic

MLC (bonfire and the next day)