July 29, 2012

July 30, 2012

dear fam,

The baptisms where unique, none the less the spirit was there.  The speaker did well and the interesting part was the water was scorching hot. The member who did the baptism, our new ward mission leader John Paul normally never complains or says he is uncomfortable.  When he got in full body he said “it's warm, let’s put some cold water in to balance it." Ashen, as she put her foot in to see if the statement was true, sure enough she pulled her feet out and confirmed that the water was way too hot! Come to find out the member who filled the tank turned on just the hot water.... now we understood. It ended well and it was a good experience.

I do remember Brother Francis. One of his sons nick name was "fish" right? He was in the young men’s something scouting or Sunday School I can’t remember. That’s too bad that he is gone for a season... (we got word this week that a friend of ours drowned in a boating accident, only 55 years old)

A few highlights of this last week.

We went to teach our date sets before they got baptized. We talked about the baptismal convent from Mosiah 18.  Our joint teacher Matt Faerber (he is also the high councilor over missionary work that we meet with on a weekly basis) is a really smart man that’s always fired up. It’s amazing to see how much energy he has about sharing the gospel and how he doesn't have any reservations, at least from what I have seen with sharing the gospel. I have wondered about that for some time … I have also been studying my purpose in preach my gospel a little bit. There's a quote that's in there that talks about how if we do not share the gospel it is because of our lack of understanding the atonement. As we were teaching Ashen and Maria we turned to Mosiah 18.  In Brother  Faerber’s scriptures on this page it was packed with notes in the margins.  There was a verse that stood out to me -  when Alma prays before he baptizes Helam. He was than filled with the spirit and performed the ordinance with the spirit. In the margin it was noted  …  "alma prayed before he performed. Do I pray before I perform?"  I do fill bad for looking at his personal notes and his revelatory experiences, it was a great time for me to learn though and it all clicked in my head on why this brother is such a fireball.  He strives to understand the atonement and than apply the teachings in his life. 

We went knocking on a street that as normal we felt inspired to go to. Normally we find somebody on that street that we feel was that person that we needed to talk to. We generally stay in the city of Duluth but this time around we felt directed to the more sticky part of the area. We started walking down this dirt road and knocked on each door that we came to. This property was beautiful. It reminded me of the house in Tucson grass, trees placed just right, it was a great sight. (awwww, he liked our Tucson yard!) We knock.  Out comes a native lady that we talk to for a moment about the book of Mormon.  She tells us how she lost her copy and wants another one. Her husband, big grizzly looking guy, yet clean cut with a sleeve of tattoos. We have a great discussion. He talked about how in the Navy and sometimes in other jobs too, people say that  ”you can’t do that because it’s to heavy" or " you can’t stay awake for that long" etc… the connection between doing something and how people say it can’t be done bothered him a lot. He focused on something from deeper within that drove him. An artist Edgar Guest who talked about there’s no such thing as "can’t"  and every time he heard a "...can’t..." he thought of Edgar Guest and how he would help him  do whatever needed to be done. I then talked about how there are things that are much deeper and are a drive that makes things that seem impossible, possible. We talked about how God is that or at least is that ultimate strength from within to help us do all things – and that we have to remember that "God is bigger than the boogie man” … it was a great contact and lesson.  

At zone training, it went great. The elders were focused and willing and eager to learn.  Thankfully they had some energy and were willing to share their insights. There is an elder that’s going home (no one that you know) that is not focused at all.  It was interesting to see that as he bore his last testimony (when a missionary goes home he gives his last testimony at his last zone training/conference) his mind process and patience has grown and he wants to be more green with fuels and eat right and exercise to be good to his body, all wonderful things ... his understanding of the atonement though.... it made me sad to see that he has not grown a lot spiritually since the time in the MTC... 

Some men get a week out of a year; Some men get a year out of a week. 

This week should be funnnn, exchanges like crazy. Than next week will be ZLC on Tuesday, then leaving on Monday. (first thing he’s really said about coming home, my goodness)  Good times we may be hitting every district next week with the zone trainings.

hope all is well in az

love

elder baker