May22,2017,"We Aggressively Seek The Salvation Of Men"

This week was a slower week for us but the people definitely make up for it!! I am so grateful the lord has provided us amazing people to see progress!

Shayla is doing wonderful and asked amazing questions at our last lesson! She really wants to know if these things are true and is not sure how she will find that out or what that will feel like. She was telling us of an experience where she had the stove on and left her apartment and forgot it was on, and while she was at the neighbor's apartment she said "something told me to go back and I didn't think, I just ran" and she got there while her apartment was filling with black smoke and was able to prevent a huge fire from starting in her complex. She didn't know what it was that told her to go back but as we were listening, it was amazing to see how the Lord has been so involved in her life! I am hoping that as she continues to meet with us she will recognize all the tender mercies God has given her! 

Amanda is doing well and is really loving the lessons! Carly has been an amazing member anchor for her and is such a help to relate to Amanda. She is reading the Book of Mormon assignments we give her and is working on understanding it and getting a testimony of it! She is graduating from High School soon and wants us to come! I love that girl so much!

We had a lesson with the Johnsons which are a part member couple in our ward. She has been taught by missionaries previously but still hasn't got that confirming witness that this is all true. So we started working with her and are excited to see how the Spirit will speak to her. All our solid investigators are on the same boat where they like our visits and want to know if it is true but haven't got that confirming witness yet. I feel like this will be an opportunity for our faith to grow as they come to know for themselves that these things are true! I have felt that as we focus on the Book of Mormon and the Spirit that it brings, miracles and a change of heart will follow!

Diamond was confirmed recently (finally!) and is now planning on going to the Youth Temple Trip this upcoming Saturday and she is so excited! I am looking forward to hearing all about her first experience in such a holy place and it is making me look forward to the day when I can once again go to the temple and feel that special spirit there!

Love yall! I am grateful for my family back home and my ward family here! Thanks for all the encouragement and love! 

Sister Baker

May 15,2017

We spent most of this past week out of our area for two exchanges back to back. We spent a day in Callaway and then to Gulfbreeze. Again, every time we get the opportunity to go on exchanges with the STL's throughout the mission, I feel like I am the one who walks away learning so much! They are truly examples to me and I am grateful to serve around sisters like them and the influence they have with all the sisters of the FTM!

We had an open house for the new church and around 400 people came! We were able to meet lots of people that saw the construction of the new building and were interested and walked right in! The members were amazing and did the tours and we were at the end and got to meet them and answer any questions they had! So many people were amazed at the organization of the church and how nice everything was; one lady was blown away at the seminary program and couldn't get over that kids wake up early to study the scriptures! We are excited for the fruits that will come from that!

Recently, we got a headquarter referral from a grandmother that lives out in California referring her granddaughter. The backstory is the grandmother (who is a member) used to take Sheila to church with her and Sheila really liked it. One time Sheila was having a hard time and got a priesthood blessing and she talked about how uplifting and spiritual that experience was and how much she wanted it again! We were able to go over and teach her the Restoration and she is so prepared! She has a 3 year old daughter and wants so badly for her and her daughter to learn more and develop a relationship with God! She is at the point where she feels like there is something more but doesn't know what yet but something pulling her to us and the Book of Mormon! We are so excited to teach her and she is already talking about church and baptism! 

Love yall so much! I loved talking with yall and hearing your voices! I definitely have a good family supporting me and loving me at home for which I am forever grateful! 

Sister Baker

May 8,2017

Brace yourselves, there are a lot of pictures this week! 

We had a really amazing week and it ended well with 6 investigators (Janelle and her family and a part member couple) coming to church! Janelle and her 4 kids all came and loved it! Because they are not in our area (they are literally on the wrong side of the road) we have to pass them off but I am so grateful to have met such a wonderful family like them! And we met them all because a member decided to share the gospel at his work! 

We had MLC this past week and it was so spiritual and everything tied together so well! Sister Whatcott and I trained on having enduring faith even when miracles don't always pan out the way we want them to. I am grateful to have learned so much about that as we prepared our training; we truly never know where our words or actions might someday take people.

The Fairhope sisters came here for exchanges and it was a blast! Sister Housel and I had so much fun together and I learned so much from her example!

We got a new church building that we moved into last week and it is so beautiful! Grateful that the church is growing in Tallahassee; I cannot wait to one day hear about more church buildings being built ( and a temple would be nice too!)

Venetia is doing SO well! I absolutely love her and she is just soaking up the gospel so much! I feel like those lessons with her on the porch are the most spiritual lessons that I look forward to teaching! Sister Whatcott asked her, "What has helped you change in your life?" and she thinks for a moment and responds, "Honestly, you guys! Ever since I have been meeting with yall, I have felt happier and the depression doesn't seem to drag me down. It's fleeting and doesn't stay but I am getting there. I look forward to meeting with y'all so I can feel it again." Because we were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we were able to help her see that what she feels with us is not actually us but the Spirit, and when she is baptized and receives that gift, she will have it to be with her all the time as she lives worthy of it! I am very grateful for prepared people to teach! As I was reflecting about what allows me to find happiness on my mission, I have found that it is really the people that make it all worth it! 

Love yall!

Sister Bake

May 1 2017,"2 (Baptisms )is better than 1 year!!

This past week was a rollercoaster of a week in the best way possible! Ga'Daisha (9) was really looking forward to her baptism on Saturday! As we were working with her, Diamond (12)(Ga'Daisha's older sister) decided last minute that she wanted to be baptized this Saturday as well with Ga'Daisha! April 29th was a very good day! Ga'Daisha Collins and Diamond Chambers are now baptized members of the church!  The ward was so good and supportive at the baptism and those little girls are going to be such a nice addition to primary and Young Womens! Liz (their returning member mother) was so proud of her girls and now wants her other two kids to work towards baptism too! I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with those special girls, they are such lights in my life!

The rest of the week was amazing as well! We went tracting around a headquarter referral and the second door we knock on, this lady opens the door, tells us she is not doing good, and pulls us inside! We were able to talk her through a really hard time and afterwards she told us that we were sent by God to help her! I love being used by God in those situations, I know that the comfort and peace that they feel when we are there is not us at all, but rather the Spirit of the message of the Gospel we bring!

We also had another amazing lesson with Venetia! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved how "pleasant" it was compared to how other churches teach it! She watched General Conference and noticed how different it was, that everyone seemed so "peaceful and happy" and how badly she wants that for herself! Her testimony is growing so much and she wants so badly to be baptized when she knows for herself that this is what she needs to do! In the beginning of the lesson she asked us "why are yall so happy and at peace all the time? I see this happiness and I want that." It was amazing how the Plan of Salvation, or in other words the Plan of Happiness, was the answer. It is truly because we know where we come from and where we go after we die, why we are here now, and who we truly are! 

Shereka is doing really well too! She read the BOM where it talks about Joseph Smith seeing the angel and she told us she cried in the car when she read that! She mentioned that she has been given a BOM before but never took it seriously and she cried to herself thinking "this was here the entire time. It was right here!" She is seriously such a miracle and her life is already changing for the better since the first lesson we had with her!

We had to drop a lot of people this past week but it is cool to see that the Lord is providing for us with a few solid people to teach as we trust that He is going to lead us to those who are prepared and willing to act!

Love yall so much! I am loving the South! I am grateful to be a missionary for the Lord, He is so real and He answers my prayers!

Sister Baker

April 24,"Preparing For Ga'daishas Bath-tism"

Highlight of the week: Ga'daisha, Liz and Diamond all came to church so Ga'daisha is on track to getting baptized this week! We are so excited for her and it is such a joy to see how happy she is for her upcoming special day! (We found out that she got sick yesterday (Satan) so we are praying that she can recover and be healthy for the 29th) Her older sister Diamond is starting to like church, made a best friend with one of the YW and now wants to go to Girls Camp so we are hoping to be able to start working with her!

We also had a miracle this past week with a lady named Shereka! Sister Whatcott contacted her on exchanges so we decided to call her in the morning later that week. When we did call her she started crying telling us how much she wanted to give up, that she was frustrated with her life and felt so alone. We were able to talk her through and set up an appointment for later that day. Meeting her and being able to teach her was one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever been apart of! It was cool to see how the Lord had been preparing her to accept the gospel because recently she lost her job and house so she's living with her daughter, doesn't have enough money to take care of her 7 girls, family and friends left her alone, and no one has been there for her to help her. She has been feeling for awhile that she needed to get down on her knees and pray but has been pushing it off. So one morning she finally broke down and got on her knees to pray and someone called her. She ,at first, got upset thinking it was a distraction so she ignored it, and then the thought came "what if that was God trying to help you" so she decided if the phone rang again, she would answer it and then, a couple seconds later, we called. She takes that as a sign of God reaching out to her and was so open the entire lesson! Heavenly Father was definitely in the details of that one and I am so grateful that he was able to use us to help her! She told us how much peace she felt after the lesson and it reminded me of my purpose here as a missionary. The feeling you get knowing you were able to help someone and do something for them that they are unable to do for themselves is extraordinary! Truly, testimonies are strengthened and happiness is grown when you share what you have with others!

This past week, we had Zone Conference and it was so much fun to learn from the other missionaries and President Smith for a lengthy 7 hours! We also did service building a ramp off of a trailer for 7 hours in the blessed hot sun! Funny how I loved every minute of it!

I am grateful for my mission! It has blessed me so much!

Love yall!

Sister Baker