Feb. 20, 2012

dear fam,

What kind of video filming was Mitch doing? Was it for school or is he going to be famous some day in Hollywood? bummer he popped it (his knee) out. Is surgery in the near future?

Teaching went all right. We did a lot of active member work this week. We want full trust with all of them. We and the mission leader (Brother Dvoak) are trying to get everyone on the same page.  We are here for the members and that they should trust us. Missionaries in the past have abused the members using them and using boldness with no love, creating separate teams. We need to be united in all things if this branch is ever going to change in to a ward.  On Sunday we as branch missionaries did a lesson that was with rs and the yw. It went really well. In order to get the men on board we gotta get the women on board first. The man may be the head but the woman is the neck.

We found one new investigator. Very hard heart. He is a youth minister for some Lutheran church. He is never willing to ask God questions. And then if we feel it, it may be from the adversary. bla bla bla. We may end up dropping him this week, too hard of heart. If it’s softened at all than we will keep him and work with him. In order to help him, and really any one progress, they need to be humble or at least a little more teachable.

We had three investigators to church. Next week should be four. On a steady rise hopefully. Before Elder Snedegar and I white washed in there wasn’t an investigator to church for about 4 months.

The focus on inactives isn’t a huge part of the work right now. There’s the Perry plan that is a mobilization in helping new and less active members become and stay active in the church. The branch has 10 families on the list that just got approved by the branch president. Now this week they will be inviting them to basically become active and we will go over once a week and jump start that process.

I have heard from Joe and Jordan. Seems like they are both doing good. Jordan makes me laugh! He gives me all this advice about contacting and how hard the work is but being able to stay focused on the goal. Joe talks about how difficult contacting is and how you only have a few sentences to get someone to listen. Missionary work generally is the same every where it seems.

That’s crazy about Matt and then Shamane!

One thing that’s been fun this week is filling up another journal. I have filled up two and if everything goes as planned, I'll do one and a little bit more.

The snow is almost all melted away but this week there should be more.

In the mornings we are starting to run, well I am running and Elder Sned is biking. (we have been biking more and more :) there’s a new member Cari Odegaard who wants her dogs to be a little more active. That’s where it all came up with wanting to run. It’s so much easier to go out and do something if someone is depending on you to get it done.

Well hope this week is a good week!

love

elder baker