April 16, 2012
dear family
This week has been extremely different.
Monday I spent most of the day packing and getting ready. Tuesday was going from house to house saying goodbyes, particularly the ones that we worked with and helped progress in the gospel, as well the Dvoraks. They are an awesome family. Bro. Dvorak said president has being thinking about reassigning me for a while and just making sure I was prepared for what was to come.
Wednesday was a whirlwind of things. Riding the bus for 4 hours with 5 other elders was a good experience. It was weird because I had not a clue what was going on, but they all expected me to know what to do. Some things happened with transfers and well it ended up being a very late night and a very early morning. Since I have been in here. After talking with some of the natives here there has been frequent snow falls in the "summer" and it’s basically winter 12 months out of the year for this Arizona rat, but it’s been a blast. We are right next to the Lake Superior. There is another set of missionaries that share the North Shore Ward with us. Then we also help take care of another area I think its Twin Ports. The North Shore Ward is a young single adult magnet, much like in Rochester … how there was a Spanish magnet because there was not enough members to create a branch they just stick them all with a ward. The same idea, just with young single adults. There is a senior couple that lives in the same complex that are the single reps for the entire stake.
I lost my flipping planner somewhere between New Prague and Duluth ooooo such a pain without my BRAIN!
Thursday we were able to tract some of the day. Leadership stuff took up till mid afternoon and then tracted the rest of the evening. There are a lot of college kids and people that are new and are trying to find some spiritual enlightenment. We only knocked a few doors and talked with just about every one in each home and each person was at least 15 minute conversation. People just willing to talk, some are just scared and nervous about this new place.
I learned very quickly there is a lot of crime here. A bunch of lower class African Americans. They all seem to love " the Jesus police" and I am thankful for that. (I don’t think he’s trying to be racist . . . sorry)
Friday. ha-ha not a lot of work, just paper work and stuff...
Saturday morning we meet with the stake high councilor over missionary work. That was really neat to see how much people truly do behind the scenes that most people/members/missionaries do not see. I felt a lot like Moroni or was it Mormon that condensed the Book of Mormon. There was all these things that we wanted to talk and train the stake and missionaries on. We had to narrow it down to a few powerful things. It was amazing to see that. I think Elder Watkins is a little tired of me saying that this is awesome. I knew that there was a lot of time and effort put in to trainings and conferences but I did not know it was this much and how much revelation truly goes in to everything. It’s amazing! A little later in the day some appointments we had fell though and we were about to start talking about the next step when a member called us and said to come over. There was a returning member that needed to be moved, it worked out, there is a bigger plan :)
Brother Ferber, the hc, said one thing that stuck out to me. He talked about the Titanic and how that was going to be the basis of his talk in stake conference next week. There was a ship that was 10 miles away that could have easily been over to help the titanic and save hundreds of lives. But this ship, 10 miles way, stuck to the standard procedure of tuning off the radios at 10:30 (or it was 11:30).
The titanic started to send out the distress signals out 30 minutes later.... he related that to us there are people out there that are extremely close, that are sending out distress signals. Are we on the radio and prepared to help or do we turn it off and just go to bed worrying more about ourselves?
All day was such a nice day, short sleeve shirt walking around weather. The weather was just right! There were so many people out that all we did was stand and talk to people around us. We did a chapel tour with one investigator that loves making nick nacks and things. It went really well. The daughter is a little difficult. She is nine and a handful, continually saying "I am bored" . I remember mom saying "if you’re bored I’ll put you to work!"
This week has been extremely different.
Monday I spent most of the day packing and getting ready. Tuesday was going from house to house saying goodbyes, particularly the ones that we worked with and helped progress in the gospel, as well the Dvoraks. They are an awesome family. Bro. Dvorak said president has being thinking about reassigning me for a while and just making sure I was prepared for what was to come.
Wednesday was a whirlwind of things. Riding the bus for 4 hours with 5 other elders was a good experience. It was weird because I had not a clue what was going on, but they all expected me to know what to do. Some things happened with transfers and well it ended up being a very late night and a very early morning. Since I have been in here. After talking with some of the natives here there has been frequent snow falls in the "summer" and it’s basically winter 12 months out of the year for this Arizona rat, but it’s been a blast. We are right next to the Lake Superior. There is another set of missionaries that share the North Shore Ward with us. Then we also help take care of another area I think its Twin Ports. The North Shore Ward is a young single adult magnet, much like in Rochester … how there was a Spanish magnet because there was not enough members to create a branch they just stick them all with a ward. The same idea, just with young single adults. There is a senior couple that lives in the same complex that are the single reps for the entire stake.
I lost my flipping planner somewhere between New Prague and Duluth ooooo such a pain without my BRAIN!
Thursday we were able to tract some of the day. Leadership stuff took up till mid afternoon and then tracted the rest of the evening. There are a lot of college kids and people that are new and are trying to find some spiritual enlightenment. We only knocked a few doors and talked with just about every one in each home and each person was at least 15 minute conversation. People just willing to talk, some are just scared and nervous about this new place.
I learned very quickly there is a lot of crime here. A bunch of lower class African Americans. They all seem to love " the Jesus police" and I am thankful for that. (I don’t think he’s trying to be racist . . . sorry)
Friday. ha-ha not a lot of work, just paper work and stuff...
Saturday morning we meet with the stake high councilor over missionary work. That was really neat to see how much people truly do behind the scenes that most people/members/missionaries do not see. I felt a lot like Moroni or was it Mormon that condensed the Book of Mormon. There was all these things that we wanted to talk and train the stake and missionaries on. We had to narrow it down to a few powerful things. It was amazing to see that. I think Elder Watkins is a little tired of me saying that this is awesome. I knew that there was a lot of time and effort put in to trainings and conferences but I did not know it was this much and how much revelation truly goes in to everything. It’s amazing! A little later in the day some appointments we had fell though and we were about to start talking about the next step when a member called us and said to come over. There was a returning member that needed to be moved, it worked out, there is a bigger plan :)
Brother Ferber, the hc, said one thing that stuck out to me. He talked about the Titanic and how that was going to be the basis of his talk in stake conference next week. There was a ship that was 10 miles away that could have easily been over to help the titanic and save hundreds of lives. But this ship, 10 miles way, stuck to the standard procedure of tuning off the radios at 10:30 (or it was 11:30).
The titanic started to send out the distress signals out 30 minutes later.... he related that to us there are people out there that are extremely close, that are sending out distress signals. Are we on the radio and prepared to help or do we turn it off and just go to bed worrying more about ourselves?
All day was such a nice day, short sleeve shirt walking around weather. The weather was just right! There were so many people out that all we did was stand and talk to people around us. We did a chapel tour with one investigator that loves making nick nacks and things. It went really well. The daughter is a little difficult. She is nine and a handful, continually saying "I am bored" . I remember mom saying "if you’re bored I’ll put you to work!"
We decided to go by one former that was not very near to us. Thank goodness we did and she actually turned out to me a member, lesser active. She told us stories about how she used to be the missionary mom, but some family crisis came up and took a lot of her time away from church and other things and that became her new routine, but she came to church for 5 hours and LOVED it.
Sunday was nasty weather, but the 5 hours of church was well worth all the rain and wind.
Well a lot more that I wanted to say, but it’s a crunch all day and seems every day... I feel more weight on my shoulders than I have ever felt before. The bags under my eyes are deep. I am thankful for a loving Father and for the prayers that give me the energy I need.
I love you
elder baker
Sunday was nasty weather, but the 5 hours of church was well worth all the rain and wind.
Well a lot more that I wanted to say, but it’s a crunch all day and seems every day... I feel more weight on my shoulders than I have ever felt before. The bags under my eyes are deep. I am thankful for a loving Father and for the prayers that give me the energy I need.
I love you
elder baker
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