Hermana Baeza Birthday and P day, Thank you for all the BD Wishes :D

Thank you dear friends for sending Olivia BD wishes! So was so excited and happy! xoxo


Hello family and friends!
Thank you sooo much for all the emails I got today! I can't write any of you back lol but I'm going to print them during my last ten minutes and then read them while I'm on shift at the VC. Really, I'm excited to read all of them and see how everyone is doing! Thank you for the letters/packages I got this week: Elder Vance, Madz (YOU REPORT THIS MONTH!), Sue Lyon (thank you so much for your card, it really meant a lot to me!), Tia Lina (love you!), Leo Dicap (omg...I died!), mommy (you're the best!), Nana and Papi Marcos, Sister Tukuafu, Isabella, Tanner and Bradley! This morning was so much fun opening my letters/packages. I feel like I get two birthdays this year haha it's great! However, having my zone leader rub in my face how the 49ers lost last night wasn't so great....ugh...I guess it was a good thing that I didn't watch it haha.

I don't have much to write about which is good because I only have about...20 minutes. Here's a Sister Set story: We were walking back to our car and we see this kid riding his bike with his hair all slicked back and Sister Set says, "Look, it's Jake!" and starts singing My Heart Will Go On (I think that's what's it's called) from Titanic. Haha! It amazes me how much she knows about America. OH! So, I lost my flash drive somewhere between Christmas and New Years Eve and I have seriously been trying to look for it everywhere. It's been buggin me! I've even prayed to find it haha. Well, the other day I was at my favorite computer, about to make calls, and I pulled the keyboard towards me and literally, out of nowhere, the flash drive drops from the computer. I have NO idea how it got there but Sister Davis was sitting next to me and she heard me freak out and saw me holding my flash drive. We put it in the computer and it turned out to be mine! That was such a happy day for me! 

This week was such a great week in the VC. I felt the spirit really strongly this weekend for many different reasons...but it just further strengthened my testimony on how I know that I am suppose to be here. We gave a tour to this little boy named Aaron who is 13 and is getting baptized this Sunday! He'll be the only member of his family and he got introduced because his friends invited him to mutual - awesome! I was really excited to give him a tour because I too was introduced to the church when I was 13. I was thinking of all the things we could show him and trying to figure out if he would understand it all. When he walked in the VC, my heart was so full and I was reminded on how young I was when I first learned about the church. I mean, I was so little and really didn't know much about God or anything but I knew that what I felt was the spirit and was of God and that was all I needed to know. We took him around and he loved it! We showed him the 20 minute Joseph Smith Restoration movie and during the movie I looked at him and thought to myself, "Joseph Smith was only ONE year older then Aaron when he prayed to God to know which true he should join." It's seriously incredible! I know with all of my heart that Joseph Smith was called, at 14 years old, to be a prophet of God. Although he was so young, the Lord knew he was ready. I am so grateful for the courage of Joseph Smith and for him actually doing what the Lord had asked him to do. I mean, being so young, he could of easily ran away from the situation but he could not deny the vision he saw. He could not deny that he had seen God the Father and Jesus Christ. 

Yesterday we met these two girls who came in to find somewhere to pray! I talked to one of them and she's from the Bay Area - Hayward to be exact! I told her I was from Pleasanton and that I knew Hayward and she flipped out! She and I totally hit it off and she's so cool! She used to be Christian but then converted to be Muslim while her friend was Muslim and then 6 months ago converted to be Christian haha! We dropped them off at my old YSA ward and handed them off to the other sisters. It was so sad to be there because I saw Stephen (who by the way was wearing a tie! yes!!!), my old ward mission leader who is just so awesome, and I saw some of the members. Ahhh...I miss that ward. Well, Kelley (girl form Hayward) and Surough (she's from Iran!) came back to the VC and we showed them around for 2 hours! They were just so interested in the temple and thought it was so different how everyone in the church was so nice haha. Kelley was having a really hard day and when her friend asked her if she wanted to go to church, she felt like it was a good idea and I'm so glad that she came. They literally live across the street! Kelley moves back to Hayward on the 16th of this month and I felt prompted to ask for her home info. Her mom apparently wanted to be Mormon once because she works with a lot of Mormons but never joined. I told her that I wanted to write her while I was on my mission and that when I come home, I wanted to take her to the Oakland VC! She had no idea that we also had a temple in Oakland! I'm so excited to write her. I mean, if we actually stay in contact I can go home and visit her! And introduce her again to the church! Ahhh there are just so many connections while serving in the VC and I just love the fact that I meet people from the Bay Area that I could actually go back and visit. Kelley told Sister Set and I that we looked "pure", that we just radiated and we explained to her that it's because we have the gospel! It's because we know the truth and we're just happy to have it in our lives and we want to share it to others! She said she would come back and visit before she went back home so hopefully we see her again. 

Another quick story from the VC this week was on Saturday, well, there was two haha but one that I want to share. I was standing at the front desk talking to the senior couples and I noticed this guy just walking around. As he is about to leave I asked him if he was waiting for someone but he said he was just looking around. He told us he had come once before and just likes the feeling he feels here. After he made that comment, he started to walk out. It was then that Elder Bell had said, "If only he knew what that good feeling was." When he said that...my heart sunk. Why didn't I say anything to him? Why did I just let him walk out?? Well, I noticed that he had turned left as he was walking out which meant he was looking at the little statues. My companion was off talking to other sisters and so I knew that I couldn't physically leave the building. When I saw him finally leaving, I had this sudden impulse to run after him. I ran to the referral card cabinet, grabbed a referral, and ran to the entrance of the door! I yelled "HEY! Can I give you something!?" but he didn't hear me. Luckily, someone had turned around and I pointed to him and he came back over to me. I asked him if I could give him a card and he kind of just laughed at my face. I asked him if he was a member and he said he wasn't. I told him that I could call him and share a message to him and help him understand what that feeling was that the felt. He told me that he's going through a lot and didn't want me to call him but still gave me his number. It may be a wrong number but I felt like I had fulfilled my purpose then. Whether it be his number or some random persons, someone will answer on the other end and hopefully that someone will want to learn more about the gospel!

I seriously love my mission. Ahh it's crazy that I hit 11 months out this month! We got new sisters last week and they look so young! Well, they are haha they are just 20 years old! I love wearing my badge every single day. I love being His representative. I love being able to immerse in the scriptures. I love every hard day that I have. I love seeing my investigators progress. I love all the mini miracles that I get to witness every day in the VC. The church is true! I am grateful to be a member of it. I want to invite you all to write out your testimony in a book of Mormon and pray about an individual that you want to give it to. Just pray about it this week and then next week, give it to someone! I did that right before I started college and it went great! It was a little scary nonetheless but it feels so good to let someone know why you know the Book of Mormon to be true. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Hermana Baeza
1591 E Temple Way
Los Angeles Ca 90024

1. Kelley, Surough, Me, Sister Set!

2. Thanks bradley and tanner!! :) 

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