Hermana Baeza Returns home and will give a talk at church 8/25/13

Dear Family and Friends,

We are excited to announce our daughters Homecoming talk at our church on August 25th Sunday at 1:00pm. Our daughter Olivia has been serving an 18th month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ  Latter Day Saints in the Los Angeles Mission Field and LA Visiting Center for LDS.

It has been quite the journey both spiritually and emotionally, but in the end it has been one of the most rewarding gifts from our Heavenly Father. I can not begin to share all the Blessings that we have seen in our lives during the last 18 months. We are sincerely full of gratitude towards all of you for your support towards our entire family and for putting up with all our double dose of weekly email ( two missionaries), pleads for letters to my kiddos, care packages, cards, birthday packages, letters, your kind and loving email replies and of course many of you went the extra mile and dropped in to the Visiting Center to say hello to Sister Baeza!!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Our family is just filled with so much love towards all of you and we are just so very blessed to have so many loving friends (family) helping us make our missionaries feel loved and remembered. Please join us in welcoming  Hermana Olivia Baeza at church on August 25th Sunday, 1:00pm
She will share a short talk on her experience and tender mercies while she served her 18th month mission.
August 25th at 1:00pm
The address:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
3574 Vineyard Ave
Pleasanton Ca

Attach is her 3rd to last email that you will be receiving from Sister Baeza :D Now I will have just one little missionary out in the mission field of Florida Orlando, Elder Baeza will be approaching his one year mark on August 15th! So one more missionary to go and only one email a week from here on end :D xoxoxoxoxoxox

Love and Gratitude,
Baeza Family

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From: "Olivia Baeza" <olivia.baeza@myldsmail.net>
To: "Olivia Baeza" <thebaezafamily@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, August 5, 2013 5:28:00 PM
Subject: ...that one time I cut off President Weidman while driving...

Hey!!

Thank you Sister Florian for my letter last week!! I LOVED the pictures/letters from Gracie girl and Hunter! And I loved your advice, it was much needed. I was able to see some people this week:

Nolan Beatty is someone that attends the ward that Richie started his mission in! He came in and once he found out I was a Baeza he freaked out! Richie always told him that he visited LA that he had to come in and see me. It was fun to hear him say that Richie is hilarious, I'm glad he hasn't completely changed who he is!

I also got to see a Bishop that I gave a tour to almost a year ago! He came in and was really upset (I've mentioned him in my emails in the past every time I see him) and we were able to be his sources of advice. It's been amazing to see him throughout my mission and to see his growth every time. I got to actually meet his family this time!! They are so cute. I invited them to my departing missionary fireside on the 18th so I hope they come.

I also got to see Emilio again :) He was with the other sisters doing a lesson and I got to see him through the glass room teaching their investigators!! It's the best feeling in the world to see someone you taught teaching other people.

This week was amazing!!! We were able to have member present lessons which that in itself is a miracle!! One lesson in particular that we had was with the Gonzalez family. They are struggling with their church attendance and so we go to teach them to help build their testimonies and faith. When we showed up, again they are all just sitting on the couch waiting for us!! We watched Finding Faith in Christ and Brother Gonzalez was telling us his favorite part of the movie. He liked when it talked about the poor people and he related it to himself how they are really, really struggling financially and sometimes don't really have food to feed his children. He then says how the boys call him Superman because they don't know how their daddy does it all! He then said, breaking down into tears, "I'll never let anything happen to you boys, I'll never, I'll never!" It completely broke my heart. He said that although financially they are poor but spiritually they are rich because they have the gospel in their lives. Yes, they aren't really active at the moment but they know what's true and that is worth more to them then a brand new car, ipod, TV, etc. I really learned a lot from that lesson, more then they did I feel like. Sister Gonzalez had surgery last week and we asked if she wanted a  blessing and she accepted. So that night the Chinese elders (yes...we have chinese elders in our ward now!!) came and gave her a blessing. Before walking in, we told them that they were struggling in their testimonies and coming to church and that was all. During the blessing, Elder Kuo mentioned the temple and how they need to follow the commandments so that they can go as a family and be sealed. He had NO idea that they hadn't been to the temple yet as a family! That experience also strengthened my testimony of priesthood blessings and how they are literally blessings from the Lord, not by man.

I had a cool experience in the VC this week. We had a training on how we need to go through our mobile area books to figure out who should be kept and who should be dropped. I was going through my area book and found a kid named Chris. I have been trying to call him since February but then left in March and then when I came back in July, I called him a few more times. He actually called me back once and left me a voice mail but since then I could never get a hold of him. So I got to his teaching record and thought I should drop him because I've tried many attempts but just couldn't seem to get a hold of him again. However, from that same training we received that morning, Elder Shakespear talked about the power of leaving a voice mail that will invite the individual to think about what it is that we share and hopefully will get them to call you back one day. So, I decided to do my "drop" voice mail and guess what happened....CHRIS ANSWERED! We talked on the phone, mostly about his friend who referred him (whose now on a mission in Germany) and guess what? He accepted a BOOK OF MORMON! It was such a tender mercy and strengthened my testimony of following the spirit and how the spirit can truly bring a remembrance of the things we have been taught. I'm looking forward to follow-up with him this week and seeing if he received it yet :)

Yesterday we also gave a really great tour where this kid named David is just soooooo incredibly prepared for the gospel. Like, literally everything that came out of his mouth was true doctrine! It was cool because for him, everything that we shared to him was a confirmation of everything that he hoped to be true. Brothers and Sisters!!! There truly are people prepared ALL AROUND US! Please, pleaseeeeee reach out to them. There are people, just like David, who are either trying to find the truth or don't even realize they are finding the truth but it's only through YOU that they will know what it is that they are searching for. Ahhh man, people like David make me so happy and love my calling. I mean, I guess I'm kind of my own David because for me, everything just clicked and made since but...David is cooler!

Time is going by so fast. I literally feel like Pday was just yesterday. I know that there is a reason why I am here and why I have had the mission that I've had. I just learn new things every single day and one of my goals for the rest of my mission is to do daily repentance. I know, I'm a missionary and that should be something that I already do but I'm really horrible about doing it! I forget to repent of the mistakes I make every single day because, lets be honest, this girl is far from being perfect! But I know that it's through repentance that I can become more like my Savior. I love my mission so much! This week is going to be a crazy week because we get like, no time in our area but I'm excited to see more tender mercies!!! I love this work so much. It's so important! Please go out and fulfill your calling as a missionary!!

Love,
Sister Baeza

1. my compa and i :) she's so cute

2. the bishop i gave a tour to almost a year ago with his fam!

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