oh hey :)
SO! This week has been rough haha but, that's an understatement. I
got the cutest/funniest zone mail from Sister Set and it was a text
message that Ernie (my recent convert) had sent to them randomly one
day. Now, if you go back and look at the picture of Ernie and read this
text, I feel like you will be able to understand more of who he is and
his humor :) Ahhhh I miss and love him SO MUCH!
"Talking with a young guy over the fence this morning; he and I noticed the approach of the street sweeping truck. Since it would soon pass on my side of the street, I noticed that there was a car parked there in danger of collecting a ticket. I expressed the wish for knowledge of its owner, the better to warn him or her as my friend skateboarded away. Just out of curiousity, I looked into the car. There was a picture of a man in robes holding a lamb on the dashboard...I instantly knew whose car it was. She beat the parking officer by a solid 45 seconds thanks to my quick, hard knock on the door. Proof once again; Jesus saves. This time, about $72.00!!!"
I did my first two exchanges this week and it was like walking down
memory lane! I was with Sister Perry in Venice and she had part of my
first area in her new area!!! While I was driving, I was pointing at
different houses of people that Sister Cole and I would teach or had
contacted. When I looked at my planner to see who our dinner appointment
was with...I about DIED! It was with my FAVORITE family from the La
Cienega ward!!! When Hermana Olivares opened the door she squealed and
yelled, "SOPRESA! SOPRESA!" which is "surprise" in Spanish :) She gave
me the biggest hug and immediately called Hermano Olivares to hurry up
and get home. They knew that Sister Perry was going to be on exchanges
but didn't know who would be the sister coming over. They never lived in
our area but we would get permission to have lessons in their home and
they would also feed us dinner at the same time. They are also the ones
who come to the VC all the time to bring us food and on Christmas Eve,
they came and gave each of us a present :) Oh man, it was the best
dinner appointmet ever and the best part was...I ACTUALLY had a
conversation with them the entire time! Before I would never talk so
they would always tease me about it. I just love that family so much.
When we had daily planning in the evening, I turned the page and saw
that we had a lesson schedule with one of my recent converst, EMILIO!
HAHA! I was seriously on cloud nine, I was soo happy. I called him that
night and told him that I was only here for 24 hours but that we were
going to come over and teach him! When we walked into his home that next
morning, there was a table with breakfast meals from McDonalds :) Haha!
He bought us breakfast because he knew I was going to be there. Sweet,
right? He's doing sooo good and is excited to soon start on his mission
papers! He hits his year mark in September but he is still planning on
going! Yeah!! I felt so spoiled with that exchange.
Then we did exchanges again (yes, back to back) and I went to
Sister Eastman's area. We had a great day together and taught someone
from her YSA ward which I was stoked about because I love teaching
people my age. We taught about the atonement and how we need to accept
Jesus Christ in our life. He told us that he doesn't want to accept him
in his life and that he feels like he's doing okay without him. That
when he feels ready, he'll accept him. I was so frustrated! I then asked
him, "Adam, lets just use this as an example but, what if you were to
die tomorrow? Would you feel prepared and ready to one day stand in
front of God and to tell him that you were a true follower of His only
begotten son, Jesus Christ? You say that you don't want to accept Him in
your life right now but, this is the time to prepare because to me, it
sounds like you're just making up excuses. Don't wait to accept him.
Don't wait until your time is over to then try to accept him. We never
know when our last day here on Earth will be." IT WAS SO AWESOME!!
Sister Eastman just starred at me haha and then with her sweetness, she
perfectly smoothed it out and he ended up saying the prayer at the end
of the lesson :) Ahh....I miss teaching YSA age people...you can just be
bold with them.
We had a mini missionart this weeked and she was so cute! She was
only 16 years old and was super shy about doing missionary work. We had
dinner with a less active male from the ward and she prepared the
spiritual thought for it. Then, at some point during the conversation
she opened up her scriptures (because she was being prompted by the
spirit) and then handed me her scriptures so I could share it. I
obviously said no haha and whispered to her to do it. She did so great
at it!! After the lesson, I made sure to keep reminding her how awesome
it was that she followed the promptings of the spirit because that
dinner appointment was just so perfect. It reminded me of a lesson that
someone in my Westwood ward gave in relief society, the importance of
explaining to our children what and how the spirit works and feels like.
Obviously she isn't a child but, it was good practice for me!
WE HAD A BAPTISM YESTERDAY! Alicia was baptized and it literally
went so perfectly. We did absolutely nothing for it haha we had the
Elders do the missionary moment, fill up the font, members bring food
(which, is not suppose to happen but...it's a spanish ward...lets be
real here), etc. It was so stress free and Alicia was soooo happy! Plus,
we had like over 40 people there! It was an amazing turn our and 3
non-members came! One was YSA age (my favorites) and I was able to get
his information and he's looking forward to meeting with missionaries!
It was the best and I just felt so happy for her. I know that Heavenly
Father was so happy for her!
This week was extremely hard with Spanish. I about cried almost
every single day haha. Sister Mellor and I cried together one night
after daily planning while our mini missionary was getting ready for
bed. I just feel like I'm not being as effective as I know I can be
because I need to do it all in a different language. I mean, I feel like
most of success with non-members this week were English speaking people
and I could be me!: bold, friendly, and effective. I just need to learn
how to do it all in Spanish. Please, please continue to pray for me.
I've been super down this whole week that I've thought a lot about home
and I haven't done that since my first two transfers...when I was in
Spanish :) However, mommy, I know you would want me to skpye but...I
want to see your face for reals when I get off the plane! Haha you are
probably going to hate me for that decision but I love you and I'll see
your beautiful face in August :) But seriously...it's not that far away.
You've already gone a year, WE can do it! :) I love this work so much.
It's hard, and it makes me cry a lot haha but I wouldn't change it for
anything. This is who I am and what I want to do forever. Tomorrow we
have what is called Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) which used to be
called Zone Leader Council (ZLC). It'll be the first time that sisters
get to be there! I have a feeling that we might train also for Zone
Conference next week...which would happen to us because we have 3
exchanges lined up this week...but hey, I'd rather be busy and working
hard then doing neither! I love you all so much!!! Please continue to
find ways to share the gospel to people. I promise you that as you do,
you WILL receive blessings and your testimony of the gospel WILL grow!!!
Love,
Hermana Baeza
1. EMILIO :)
2. alicia!!
3. the Olivares :) ohh i love them!
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