We're gonna go backwards this time because that's how my brain works :) To explain the title, I've never really been a part of baptisms before. And now suddenly there is a lot of them - 5 this week, three in two more weeks and countless in the months to come :) I love helping these children of God obtain all of the blessings 😊 It's like, the best feeling ever.
Sunday - The Huits came to church again! They are so wonderful. I love them so much. They are going to be baptized on the 15th of April and they are so so excited. It's awesome :))
As I was sitting in Spanish Sacrament meeting I was watching our three young investigators Noelia, Brandon and Jacob and wondering why we hadn't gone back to teach them for a while. For a little while I hadn't considered them to be legitimate investigators because they are 12, 9 and 8 and I didn't know the opinion of the parents. As I was watching them and thinking about how they were essentially members of the church that just hadn't been baptized and suddenly I had the impression, "You are withholding blessings from them by not teaching them and inviting them to be baptized."
So that night I decided we were going to fix that. When we arrived at their house the kids weren't home but we were actually able to talk to the parents and gain trust and become their friends! We talked about fruit and snakes and spiders and then we showed them the Prince of Peace video and had a really neat conversation about how sometimes we want to do things but we don't actually want them enough to do them, we allow our natural man get in the way of blessings of going to church, reading the scriptures and saying prayers.
Then, right as we were about to leave because the conversation lulled, the kids walked in! We make small talk and then I figured better now than never and opended my mouth and said "So what is baptism to you?" And then Jacob, the 8 year old says "I want to be baptized." and so did Brandon and Noelia. They asked their mom and dad and they gave permission. And then we were talking about when and Jacob says "Saturday!" It was so cute because he was SO insistent on Saturday but Brandon and Noelia wanted a little more time and we could see the parents going "Too soon, too soon!" and so we compromised with the 29th of April. As we were scheduling a return appointment, I flipped open my planner to Tuesday where I have a poor drawing of a temple because we get to go!!! And then we started talking about temples and Noelia said "I wanted to go with the youth yesterday to the temple but I couldn't cuz I wasn't baptized!!!" And I remembered the scripture somewhere in Alma that talks about how as missionaries we are responsible for the people under our jurisdiction and if we don't give them the opportunity to have all of the blessings that God has in store for them, then we get in trouble because that was our job! It was a good reminder :)
Saturday - We decided to use Saturday as a finding day. And it was AWESOME! We street contacting/knocked for 4 hours and found so many wonderful people! Then that night we went to dinner with a member where we finally began to build some trust in the branch. The branch doesn't hate us but they're kind of indifferent because in the past that is how the sisters have been with them so we're really working on helping them realize that we really do love and care about them! THEN we had an amazing (and really long) lesson with the Huits where we read through the entire Strength of Youth with them and taught them the rest of the commandments. We had been a little bit unsure about how really prepared they were but after this lesson, there were no doubts!! They are so excited and so are we and you can see such a difference in their countenances. Sean kept talking about the Spirit he felt in his friend's home and how much he wants it in his. AH THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!
Friday - It was craisy este dia. We had ZTM where I learned A LOT about how I can improve my teaching. Then we planned. That's fun. But not really. Had a dinner with a cute family from 1st ward and then taught the Book of Mormon class for the branch. It was SO MUCH FUN because in companion/language study we had dissected 1 Nephi 1 and we learned SO MUCH!!! It was so fun to share what we had learned and there was lots of awesome discussion and then we ended with chair soccer and I played barefoot and in a dress and it was a struggle but I WON!! Wa-pachaaaaaw!!
Thursday - We visited an investigator from Honduras who has his own Youtube channel for fishing and hunting and taught his wife the Restoration. They are super open and willing to learn more. Then they fed us green fried bananas with this spicy chicken and crema, holy cow it was so good!! Later we did a painting service for a member in the branch and painted and taped for 3 hours. It was AWESOME. And it built more trust :) Just loving the people helps so much :)) We ate dinner with one of my favorite people in the branch and then taught the English class and then had another really long lesson with Nicole and Sean where we found out Nicole wasn't 18 and we needed to have a woman with us this whole time. #missionarywork #itsfine
Wednesday - We went to the food bank and sang at an old people's home :) They are so cute and I get to play the violin every time we go. It's good sight reading practice. Thanks mom and dad for making me practice! We also had dinner with the 1st ward Bishop that night and had a stellar lesson where we established some of the things we want to do with the ward and he was more than willing to help us make it happen. Starting with PMG chapter 13 :)
Tuesday - We had a drop lesson with one of our dear investigators. It was really really sad. When someone you have come to love decides that they don't want to change it kind of kills you but I know that one day he'll accept it :) Literally nothing went as we planned on Tuesday but it was a fantastic day. We're figuring out how to best work with the Spanish branch and English ward and we're getting this ball rolling!!
Monday - spa day (see pictures :))
Anyway, Hope you all have a stellar week! I will! I get to go to a baptism in Ephrata tonight, the temple tomorrow and then plan a baptism for this weekend!!
Go check out the new Prince of Peace video. It is so amazing and it really has made me take a look at Christ again. He's something most everyone believes in but I don't think any of us actually understand what He really did and this video has made me study His life and example a little bit harder. I'm trying to take President Nelson's challenge and go through the Topical Guide and look up every scripture under the subtitle of Christ. My Bible is already painted with red and I just started! (I'm doing it in Spanish because that way I can kill a couple of birds with one stone :))
Love you!
Sunday - The Huits came to church again! They are so wonderful. I love them so much. They are going to be baptized on the 15th of April and they are so so excited. It's awesome :))
As I was sitting in Spanish Sacrament meeting I was watching our three young investigators Noelia, Brandon and Jacob and wondering why we hadn't gone back to teach them for a while. For a little while I hadn't considered them to be legitimate investigators because they are 12, 9 and 8 and I didn't know the opinion of the parents. As I was watching them and thinking about how they were essentially members of the church that just hadn't been baptized and suddenly I had the impression, "You are withholding blessings from them by not teaching them and inviting them to be baptized."
So that night I decided we were going to fix that. When we arrived at their house the kids weren't home but we were actually able to talk to the parents and gain trust and become their friends! We talked about fruit and snakes and spiders and then we showed them the Prince of Peace video and had a really neat conversation about how sometimes we want to do things but we don't actually want them enough to do them, we allow our natural man get in the way of blessings of going to church, reading the scriptures and saying prayers.
Then, right as we were about to leave because the conversation lulled, the kids walked in! We make small talk and then I figured better now than never and opended my mouth and said "So what is baptism to you?" And then Jacob, the 8 year old says "I want to be baptized." and so did Brandon and Noelia. They asked their mom and dad and they gave permission. And then we were talking about when and Jacob says "Saturday!" It was so cute because he was SO insistent on Saturday but Brandon and Noelia wanted a little more time and we could see the parents going "Too soon, too soon!" and so we compromised with the 29th of April. As we were scheduling a return appointment, I flipped open my planner to Tuesday where I have a poor drawing of a temple because we get to go!!! And then we started talking about temples and Noelia said "I wanted to go with the youth yesterday to the temple but I couldn't cuz I wasn't baptized!!!" And I remembered the scripture somewhere in Alma that talks about how as missionaries we are responsible for the people under our jurisdiction and if we don't give them the opportunity to have all of the blessings that God has in store for them, then we get in trouble because that was our job! It was a good reminder :)
Saturday - We decided to use Saturday as a finding day. And it was AWESOME! We street contacting/knocked for 4 hours and found so many wonderful people! Then that night we went to dinner with a member where we finally began to build some trust in the branch. The branch doesn't hate us but they're kind of indifferent because in the past that is how the sisters have been with them so we're really working on helping them realize that we really do love and care about them! THEN we had an amazing (and really long) lesson with the Huits where we read through the entire Strength of Youth with them and taught them the rest of the commandments. We had been a little bit unsure about how really prepared they were but after this lesson, there were no doubts!! They are so excited and so are we and you can see such a difference in their countenances. Sean kept talking about the Spirit he felt in his friend's home and how much he wants it in his. AH THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!
Friday - It was craisy este dia. We had ZTM where I learned A LOT about how I can improve my teaching. Then we planned. That's fun. But not really. Had a dinner with a cute family from 1st ward and then taught the Book of Mormon class for the branch. It was SO MUCH FUN because in companion/language study we had dissected 1 Nephi 1 and we learned SO MUCH!!! It was so fun to share what we had learned and there was lots of awesome discussion and then we ended with chair soccer and I played barefoot and in a dress and it was a struggle but I WON!! Wa-pachaaaaaw!!
Thursday - We visited an investigator from Honduras who has his own Youtube channel for fishing and hunting and taught his wife the Restoration. They are super open and willing to learn more. Then they fed us green fried bananas with this spicy chicken and crema, holy cow it was so good!! Later we did a painting service for a member in the branch and painted and taped for 3 hours. It was AWESOME. And it built more trust :) Just loving the people helps so much :)) We ate dinner with one of my favorite people in the branch and then taught the English class and then had another really long lesson with Nicole and Sean where we found out Nicole wasn't 18 and we needed to have a woman with us this whole time. #missionarywork #itsfine
Wednesday - We went to the food bank and sang at an old people's home :) They are so cute and I get to play the violin every time we go. It's good sight reading practice. Thanks mom and dad for making me practice! We also had dinner with the 1st ward Bishop that night and had a stellar lesson where we established some of the things we want to do with the ward and he was more than willing to help us make it happen. Starting with PMG chapter 13 :)
Tuesday - We had a drop lesson with one of our dear investigators. It was really really sad. When someone you have come to love decides that they don't want to change it kind of kills you but I know that one day he'll accept it :) Literally nothing went as we planned on Tuesday but it was a fantastic day. We're figuring out how to best work with the Spanish branch and English ward and we're getting this ball rolling!!
Monday - spa day (see pictures :))
Anyway, Hope you all have a stellar week! I will! I get to go to a baptism in Ephrata tonight, the temple tomorrow and then plan a baptism for this weekend!!
Go check out the new Prince of Peace video. It is so amazing and it really has made me take a look at Christ again. He's something most everyone believes in but I don't think any of us actually understand what He really did and this video has made me study His life and example a little bit harder. I'm trying to take President Nelson's challenge and go through the Topical Guide and look up every scripture under the subtitle of Christ. My Bible is already painted with red and I just started! (I'm doing it in Spanish because that way I can kill a couple of birds with one stone :))
Love you!
Hello from the emailing group woot wooooooot
--
Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission
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