July 9th 2013 " opening up a new area with only 6 weeks left!...I'M KIND OF FREAKING OUT!"

Hi Friends,

For some reason Olivia & Richie had their P Day on Tuesday this week. Elder Baeza is doing good but did not have a chance to write an email to everyone. He did say "thank you" to those that had a chance to write to him, he loves and appreciates getting letters mailed to him as often as possible. SO PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING :D

Hermana Baeza wrote her longest email yet! So you may want to read it increments :D

Thank you for all your love and continuous support! Love Baeza Family

Elder Baeza:

24 Andrea Drive #110

Winter Springs, Florida 32708 or ricardo.baeza@myldsmail.net

Hermana Olivia Baeza

1591 E Temple Way

Los Angeles, Ca 90024 or olivia.baeza@myldsmail.net

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From: "Olivia Baeza" <olivia.baeza@myldsmail.net>
To: "Olivia Baeza" <thebaezafamily@comcast.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2013 3:41:06 PM
Subject: opening up a new area with only 6 weeks left!...I'M KIND OF FREAKING OUT!

hello everyone!! :)

Thank you Lara and Sister Jan Steed for my letters!! Lara, you look like a BABE in your engagement picture! I'm sooo excited for you and Kyle! I feel like it was just yesterday when I made you two dinner at our good ole' ridge apartment. I don't remember what it was that I made you both haha but it brought you two together! Deep down I always knew you two would get married...just saying.

 

Okay, so I have SO MUCH to tell you! We don't really have a rule anymore of how long we can write, just to be "respectful" to your companion but lol we both have to spend a lot of time on the computer so...get ready for the longest email of your life!

 

Tuesday we had MLC with the Wiedman's for the first time! They are so awesome! I could just feel the trust that President Weidman has for us! He is so, so different then President Baker. Throughout MLC I thought a lot about what President Baker said to us in the departing zone conference a few weeks ago. His council was to figure out what exactly we are to learn from President and Sister Wediman, especially the missionaries who go home tomorrow (weird...my mom dies tomorrow) and those who leave the following few transfers. I was able to receive great revelation from President and Sister Weidman, principles that I want to instil in my children and activities I want to have a part of my future home. Sister Weidman is soooo cute! She really doesn't have a clue what's going on haha but that's what makes her testimony so strong and powerful! You want to know the best part about MLC?...well, they dropped the ball and forgot to tell us to bring our own lunch (Sister Baker used to always make us a meal EVERY MLC and MLT!!) so we went to CAFE RIO for lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People, I have been craving cafe rio my entire mission haha and I finally got it! He paid for all of us. Oh man...Tuesday was so good.

 

Then Thursday was the 4th of July! That was kind of a crazy day. We got a phone call from President Weidman the night before and he invited us to do the training for the new sister training leaders because Sister Weidman doesn't know a lot about our calling. We were pumped! However, President Weidman dropped the ball again and told Sister Mellor (probably thinking the phone wasn't on speaker/he's brand new) that she would be getting a new companion! So since Wednesday night we've known that we weren't going to be companions anymore :( We were so sad! We didn't receive any other phone calls that night which meant that I was not going to be training my last transfer which meant that I went my whole mission without training. I was pretty bummed about it, not going to lie. I just wanted to at least experience the process of training a brand new missionary and teaching her everything I know! However, as I prayed to Heavenly Father that night, I knew that the reason why I wasn't called to train wasn't because I wasn't a good missionary. God just has something better in store for me! So Thursday we did the training and haha I was already starting to cry at the very beginning of it. I love being a sister training leader. I have become such a different person because of this calling. It broke my heart that day to know that I was no longer going to be a sister training leader anymore. So since Thursday we really knew that we weren't going to be companions anymore. We went to soup plantation for dinner since we were told that we needed to be back in our apartments by 7pm and we just took that time to bond and I guess kind of do companionship inventory by telling each other all the things we've learned from each other throughout these two transfers lol. It was so much fun! We then went back to our apartment and began weekly planning but...the dang fireworks were so distracting! We kept looking from our window to see them but couldn't...so we may of left our apartments at like...8ish to try and see some fireworks. It literally felt like we were in war haha because the noises were so loud and the sky was so gray and foggy. Oh yeah! At the training that morning I saw a picture of Emilio all dressed in WHITE baptizing one of our sisters investigators!! It made me so happy to see that picture. It was a great day!

 

Miracle Saturday:

Saturday morning sucked haha! NO ONE WAS HOME! It's funny, afternoons like those always make me think back to the missionary handbook where it talks about how weekends are the BEST time to find people...lies I'm telling you, lies! Okay, it's not a lie because it's in the missionary handbook and general authorities put that in there but lol it sure felt like it! We were just so tired, it was a hot day, and we just kept looking hopelessly at our watches. We eventually decide to visit Adrianna. Actually, she wasn't even someone we planned to visit but I felt like we should just try since it's "Saturday." Welp, turned out she was home! And we had a great lesson with her children! And one of her children gave the opening prayer! That lesson was just what we needed. We then go to find a less active in the ward so see if they still lived there. We find out that they don't and as we are walking out of the little complex, I noticed a door that was open. We walked by it and before we left the complex, I told Sister Mellor that I wanted to go back. We went back and turned out she knew who we were! Her husband is the brother of the family that we were trying to find but had moved! She invited us in and she was baby-sitting this cute little girl named Brooke. She has some sort of mental problem where she sturggles with walking and the doctors have told her parents that she will never be able to speak...NEVER! She's about 5 years old I think and just the cutest thing ever. We are on the couch and we asked if we could sing a hymn. Before we begin, Brooke climbs on me and we place her right in between us. I had to hold her in order for her to sit still and even though it's against mission rules...I felt like it was for a good reason. We sing the hymn to them and after we finish...guess who starts to randomly hum it? BROOKE! We had already begun a conversation and then Brooke starts to hum the hymn!!! We were all so shocked! It was such a tender mercy and her being there is what invited the spirit. We were able to make a return appointment with her and I'm excited for the sisters to visit her tomorrow! THEN! Here's what happened later that day. We went home early because we had things we still needed to work on (being SLT is hard because you literally never get time to get things done!) but then I remembered we had a referral from a member that we still needed to contact. We then left our home and went straight over to the referral. She wasn't home but then Sister Mellor remembered how there was a former that lived a few streets from the referral that we have been trying to visit but haven't had any luck. We drove by and we saw people in their home :) we went to visit her and she LOVED US! I mean...we like totally won her heart. We got along soooo well with her grandchildren and she just loved it. She wants to feed us as well! I'm so sad that I won't be able to see her progress but I have faith that she'll come around!

 

Sunday night was the departing missionary fireside. It was so weird to see Sister Cole standing up there sharing her testimony about how the mission has changed her life. She is my hero! I love her so much. I literally would not be the missionary I am today if it weren't for her being my trainer. I needed her and God knew that! She's so awesome and I'm excited to be able to reunite with her again in the fall. I had talked to her the night before on the phone and I told her that I wasn't training, that I was sorry that I didn't give her a grand-daughter (haha mission lingo...just go along with it). She told me how she was so proud of me and that it didn't matter that I trained or not! She was so proud of the missionary I've become and I feel like hearing that from her made everything better. She really is like my mom...I still to this day look for her approval haha!

 

Yesterday was such a good day with Sister Mellor. We knew it was our last day so we wanted to make it big! So what did we decide to randomly do?...RIDE OUR BIKES ALL DAY LONG! We still had Sister Young's bike at our apartment so we decided that for our last day together we would ditch the car and ride the bikes for the day. It was the first time where I had been on a bike all day. She got so burned haha! I was able to get a pretty good tan ;) But my gosh, our bodies were so sore last night haha I thought I was going to die! We were able to teach a referral from a member and it went soooo good! We also made an area vision of the goals we want to achieve for next transfer and we had an amazing dinner again con la familia Mataalii! They literally feed us a feast every single time. I'm going to miss their dinners! We also didn't have lights on our bikes so haha riding home was an adventure... :) We finally got the call last night for transfers and....I will be opening up a brand new area in the Visitors Center!!!! My new companion is Sister Quionez and it will be an English area (thank goodness!)!! We will be splitting the ward boundaries with another VC companionship. I'm almost positive we won't have any investigators haha only because it's so hard to have success in an area when you are also in the VC. I'm excited to go back but... I loved being in the field. I love just always being with my companion and not having anyone else see how we're doing. It's much more private out in the field is what I'm trying to say. But my new companion is great from what I hear from everyone I've talked to. She just finished being trained so she will be beginning her third transfer! I'm almost certain she will train when I leave so I feel this huge responsibility to make sure the area is perfect and ready to go for her! I'm so happy that President Baker has trust in me to do this my last transfer. It's going to be hard because I'm not really going to have any time to get to know the members or find people to teach but..I have faith that it will be a successful transfer! I am so ready to work my butt off and to come home exhausted every single day! I'm ready to work hard in the teaching center at the VC and to teach as many people as I can over the phone. I'm ready to become an even more consecrated missionary throughout these last 6 weeks. People...I'm kind of freaking out! I can't believe how fast time has gone! Please pray for me...I know that I'm going to be really stressed this week :)

 

I know the church is true! I know that God has a plan for me, even on my mission with which areas I need to be in and with which companions I've needed to have. My misison hasn't been easy to say the least but it has been so rewarding. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me this next transfer and what it is that He is expecting my to achieve and accomplish. Wow, tomorrow will be a weird day. I love you all so much!!!

Love, 
Hermana Baeza

 

1. riding our bikes!

2. being dead.

 

 

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