December 12, 2011

dear fam

My companion is from baffilo utah. (anyone know where that is?) He has been out for one transfer longer than me, its been 18 months he has been out I think... his tooth paste thats a good question! (I was just joking when I asked him how his companion squeezes the tooth paste – guess he missed that!) He didn’t come down with any and he hasn’t been brushing with the toothpaste .... he got some today all is good :) 

His name is Spencer Pedersen and he is 20 years old.

I gave Sister Kathey Dorset your email adress... umm her phone number is

605-660-5457. The sisters will be there as well we will be chilling there

from about 1 till about 7 or some thing like that, very lay back day. I know

this is way far in advance but could you make sure people don’t ask the same

questions twice as well. I would like to talk about schooling a little. In

January I can start going around to school websites and writing essays and

what not. 

Monday one of our investigators ex boy friend or fiance broke into her

house, beat her up took her cash and dashed. The cops were able to find him

and get the punk to jail. If I become a cop that will be such a joy to me.

putting cowards like that behind bars. That agitates me so much. At any

rate we went over to talk and to be there for her. The Blakes came along

for the rule of 3, but mostly because Sister Blake is legit! The husband

played with the little girls. She was and still is quite a wreck but is

turning to Christ and will be on her feet and being able to focus

shortly... i hope.

Tuesday i got sick as well as Elder Marks. Terrible day to get sick. E Marks packed and I cleaned and slept the rest of the day. I really dislike being sick. Wednesday sickness worsens to a cough and ballon for a head. As we were waiting for the new companions to get here, the 3 sick elders all slept while the other 2 did studies and tracted. Elder Orton is in our zone. It was really good to see him and catch up. He is doing really good. Really

figuring out who he is and his purpose. He has done so much good, particularly with helping missionaries who are struggling. 

Elder Pedersen and I were able to bike to the boon docks and teach a lesson. Bad idea, by the way, cold plus hills on a bike being sick, it made it all worse but we were able to pick up a new investigator. He is an older gentleman, worked at IBM in the finance part of it. For sure a kingdom builder. He enjoyed the message about the Book of Mormon and said he would read, however he wanted to go over the bom with his wife she ... is baptist, that may not turn out the way we like however that was a really good seed

planted. We went home and i slept!

Thursday slept like crazy. I feel apostate when my comp or I are sick, but a healthy missionary is a good missionary. Don’t worry this week is better :)

Friday had a good weekly planning session, made some goals for getting farther out in our area. Staying in the city of Rochester is driving me crazy. It seems like missionaries have over worked it.  Elder Pedersen enjoys having a physical draining day so we are able to get a lot more biking in, thank goodness. We went really far out - about 7 or so miles in snowy hills, was a lot of fun. Didn’t get any potentials out there but crazy thing when we got back for dinner elder p said he couldn’t feel his toes. He only has dress shoes and a few "warm" socks. I don’t under stand why he doesn’t have boots if he was out here last winter. Any way he took his shoes off and lo and behold he had frost bite on both feet, little toe and the tips of all the toes as well as the top and the outside of the feet. JOY!!! He went straight to the tub with cool water. I called Sister Clements and the zone leaders and the district leaders getting things approved and got a ride to the hospital. Got there and they said it wasn’t very serious so just go home and keep them in lukewarm water. Took them about an hour and half to decide that. Next we went and got him boots for a little while it looked like i would be buying them for him but fortunately i didn’t. We get him home and started soaking his feet. Well the hospital calls and says go straight to the ER. So i make some more calls, get it approved and the roch 5 dl area (Elders Horgmo and Ruckert) gave us a ride. We were there till 11:30 pm and all they said was we cant do anything for you its not severe enough but he does have nerve damage and shouldn’t be outside for longer than 2 hours at a time for a month and not to be out side at all saturday. So that was that! ooo and it was such a headache trying to call the area medical at 11:30 pm, trying to get them to answer and make sure there was nothing else to be done. I am soo grateful for our missionary mother, Sis. Clements, she is so on top of every thing!

Any way Saturday we scheduled some meetings with the sisters (Romrell and Payne) and also the bishop. That went really good, the ward is really stepping up their missionary work attitudes as well as carrying out their responsibility and they are seeing the blessings of that service. At 3 we started helping set up for the Posada or ward Christmas party. There were about 250 people there and tons of mexican food and dancing and partying. All that good stuff but didn’t start till 6. It went till about 9.

We were able to get some investigators there. A great turn out.

 and.... well gotta run ... sorry time snuk up

love

elder baker