Wild weather in Duluth . . .

Artie and I were watching the news on Sunday night and saw terrible pictures of weather in Duluth - we didn't know the report was 4 days old!  Kinda worried us and we called the mission home the next morning but couldn't get in touch with anyone . . . luckily . . . Rhett filled us in on the details . . . just normal parents worrying about their kids . . .

June 25, 2012

dear fam,

All is well in the neighborhood. This week has been a blessing. Monday did our thing, than Tuesday afternoon we went off to Aitkin to spend some time there and help out the missionaries. It was ... a unique experience. The mosquitoes are terrible there. All the standing water from all the rain. We didn’t wear coats for rain, or snow, or cold, it

was to stop the nasty little bugs from biting us. Terrible things.. there was a rain storm that moved in. much like the lightning storms in AZ, but more rain. Wednesday morning see that the storm hit really hard and sister Clements called and said to stay put! Do not to go back to Duluth. We planned to go back Wednesday and we were both out of extra clothes. Come to find out that with flooding roads are closed so we went to the library to figure out a route that would work. Rather ridiculous, but went well. The exchange with them was good and it reinforced that when we don’t teach or role-play that our ability to teach simply dissipates. Teaching is very much like faith use it or lose it.

We get back Thursday from our trip to Aitkin and coming in to Duluth the road comes down into the city and gives a glorious sight of the lake. It wasn’t such a glorious sight this time around. The water was brown and filthy , the destruction was very visible.  Not so bad all

over the city but in places it’s very bad. The news, it seems, makes the whole city look destroyed but it is not.  There’s a few members that have flooding in their basements. We live in the basement of the apartment building, but lucky all is good, no flooding. The manager was saying that it was very close to flooding over in side. We live at the top of a

hill and there’s a nice mud slide. Pretty awesome but glad that we weren’t around for it all.

Friday was a long drawn out day. Did a lot of paper work. It helps president, I am grateful to help but it was long. We were able to teach a lesson. That was a nice blessing. The investigator is going through the motions doing it but not "wrestling" as Enos taught. He comes to church and reads and is willing to put those things high on the priority list, but isn’t willing to "feel" or put forth the energy to come to the belief that the Book of Mormon is true.

Saturday. Meet with our “date set”.  The joint teacher was just right for this go around on teaching. We asked how he came to believe the Book of Mormon. The joint teacher said, “it just makes sense, simple as  that". The date set loved how simple the answer was. Members often go into so much detail and emotion that it just passes by some investigators that haven’t had the deep conviction that the church is true.

Met with the bishop. As always he asks what we can do to help him out, and so we help. His wife typically makes breakfast this time she was on a road trip and bishop rose to the bar. Omelets and tons of hash browns. We did just about a normal size bag of potatoes between the 5 of us there. I was stuffed. Hash browns are way good I’ve decided.

After that we headed off to Grand Maris and the Boundary Waters, to clear water from the resort where the Van Tassel’s live. Great solid member family that come to church about once a month because of the 3 hours and 45 minute drive. They have the sacrament up there once a month. We have an investigator in that neck of the woods and we made a

member action plan for the investigator with the Van Tassel’s. Both people run a resort and are super, super busy but they are also able to connect on a few levels. We are hoping all goes well. The investigator is in a part member family, some day he will get baptized.

Sunday church was good. Really tired and hard to stay awake. The part member family that lives in Grand Maris, well one of the boys got baptized. The father who is not a member is the last one to join the club. One of the investigators that we have who is 9 years old, drew me a picture of her getting baptized and saying she wants to get baptized with her mom on the 28th of July :) This is the one that was set for August 11. We are excited for that!

Today is Monday. Last night was numbers and monthly standards of Excellence, averaging, all that fun stuff. Got to bed at midnight, than this morning got up at 3;30 to get laundry and studies done to go to Pine City where I currently am. A missionary is going home Thursday and there were some midnight transfers that happened, so we came down to help the elders relax and keep on going.

I feel ... tired :)

love

elder baker.