117 Miles and Rice (October 3, 2016)

So there isn't much time today due to the fact that I have been transferred to a gorge and the internet went out in the church building :)

My Week:
The days leading up to transfer day was full of miracles and memories. It was hard to say goodbye to so many people that I have learned to love for 6 months but it was nice to be able to shake off the dust of Wenatchee little by little as well.

Transfer day I drove for approximately 6 hours down to White Salmon. Which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Thursday we went tracting. There aren't any investigators yet, they all got baptized! So we're finding. And we found 7 new Spanish investigators in a couple of hours. It was so amazing to see the difference attitude makes. It has been an area where primarily less active and white work and poor Sister Hull doesn't hardly speak any Spanish because of it. She was ecstatic to find so many Spanish speakers. She is an answer to my prayers! She is so incredibly prepared and humble in this work. She loves being a missionary and makes it so much fun, which is how it should be!

We lived off of rice, a couple of eggs, rice cakes and cookie butter/peanut butter and apples for the past 4 days because her last companion took all of the food and we ran out of miles the day I got here... But it's okay! Because the members here, after hearing of our plight, essentially gave us their entire refrigerator.

I love Hermana Hull. She is such an answer to my prayers. I have learned so much from her already and I cannot wait to spend (hopefully) the next couple of transfers with her.

White Salmon is huge. GINORMOUS. Well, I say White Salmon but actually it covers like 10 of the small surrounding towns. Oct 1st (when we got miles back) we drove 117 miles. It reminds me a lot of Missouri honestly, very curved country roads. Except it's in the mountains. We were trying to find this one referral we were given a couple of days ago at 8:30 at night and when I can send pictures I'll have to show you how actually terrifying it is up there. Pitch black, curved, NO ONE lives up anywhere. Part of the reason there are 300 less actives here is because they all live in the middle of nowhere, way far away from the church.

It's definitely going to be interesting but I will send more next week! (as well as pictures)

--
Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission

 *Corinne taking mom-license. . . I got to talk to Jaycie's new companion's mom and she hooked me up to Hermana Hull's emails.  I'm going to take the liberty of including a few of those on Jaycie's blog because it's fun to hear more details about their experiences.  Here is Hermana Hull's take on the week:

Mi espanol es mejorando! PORQUE MI COMPANERA ES PERFECTA.Oct 03, 2016

Hola mi familia!!

SO.
Transfers happened on Wednesday and I hung out with members all day
visiting my area. Hermana Knight had to leave at 8 in the morning and my
companion didn't get here until 6 because she was in Wenatchee. I hung out
with mi amiga Megan Tew and she just got her mission call and is going to
the Pennsylvania Pittsburg mission! SO COOL. MISSIONS ARE THE BEST. I also
hung out with a lady in our ward and visited a bunch of less active women
in our ward. It was a solid day for sure.

HERMANA BAIRD IS PERFECT.
I can honestly say she is the companion I have been praying for.
She is me in blonde form.
Seriously.
No lie.
We are SO similar it's kind of freaky ahahahahaha.
I honestly don't think I could get any happier.
It was really rough the first couple days, with myself, because Hermana
Baird was sort of retraining me.  I was so frustrated. AND my Spanish was so bad and rusty and it
really surprised Hermana Baird and I just sat and cried.
Now she only talks to me in Spanish and I have mega improved in the course
of one week. I LOVE HER WITH ALL MY HEART.
Also,
We've figured out that there has been a big attitude problem in this White
Salmon area with missionaries and ward members alike. EVERYONE has told us
that there is no Spanish work here and that it's so sad.
WELL GUESS WHAT
We went out knocking on Thursday and found 8 new investigators. EIGHT
THAT'S RIGHT. And they are all Spanish. I said zero words to them because I
couldn't understand a thing, but I felt the Spirit nonetheless :) Hermana
Baird's Spanish is amazing. She promised me that I will be fluent by the
end of this transfer. She says she never breaks promises either. EEEEEEEKKK
I'm so excited :)

General Conference was absolutely amazing.
The 2nd session on Saturday was my favorite.
One of the talks that really stood was about prayer. He said the second we
say, "Our Dear Heavenly Father" He tunes into us with all his ears, eyes,
and attention. It was really amazing to hear that because I feel all the
time that I'm not very important, or that I might be praying to a ceiling.
It was such a good reminder that prayer is a gift for us to communicate
directly with God. I love Him so much!!
"Thine afflictions will be but a small moment."

I love you all and have such a strong testimony of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were taught in a training the other day
that we are helping people become converted to Jesus Christ, not the
Church. The Church provides the ways and needs to become converted to
Jesus, but it is not what we want people to believe in. We want them to
believe in Jesus Christ and that He suffered and sacrificed his life for
them. HE LOVES US SO MUCH. I love this gospel and I love the Atonement and
that through Jesus Christ we can live with Heavenly Father and Him again.

LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH
Miss y'all more than words can explain.
Con Amor,
Hermana Hull
1006 S. 16th Ave
Yakima, WA 98902

(picture explanations)
Carlos this nice Mexican man gave us these roses. He
might've been in love with us, but that's ok! WE GOT DELICIOUS SMELLING
ROSES.

she's perfect. so cute. oh and there are also some adorable chicks there !!!

 

 

 

How Lucky We Are (September 26, 2016)

Lots of crazy stuff happened this week.

Women's conference - The talk by President Uchtdorf was incredible! It is so fascinating to me to see how the Lord is aware of what goes on in our lives and how we learn precept by precept. At the start of this transfer, I did an intensive study on faith and the talk that he gave testified of all I had learned and been trying to apply. I loved the underlying message of all of the talks, how we have to have a clear understanding of the Doctrine of Christ and the Plan of Salvation. Maybe it's just because I'm a missionary and Preach My Gospel is practically scripture, but I strongly encourage all of you to begin to study Preach My Gospel in your homes with your families, study the scriptures, learn and love the doctrine because the more you learn and the more you know the more you can stand firm in the faith and with a steadfast hope in Christ that all will turn out okay. I was reading a talk from last general conference and it talked about a little girl who, when confronted with a question of "If you drank some of the brew from the witch's cauldron, what would happen?" and she responded, I would go to heaven and I would love it there because I would be with my Heavenly Father. And it made me think. Sometimes we sit here and struggle through life, suffering alone. But we don't have to. And if we recognize that we are precious children of our Heavenly Father, we not only have the assurance that He sent His son so that we would never have to feel alone, but that in the end, it is going to be okay. Death, which is so feared in so many ways is nothing but a return home.

We had the privilege of attending a wedding that was followed by a baptism. How grateful am I to be a part of the everlasting gospel where we are loved so much that we are given everything that we need to return to our Heavenly Father, to be together with our loved ones on this earth forever, in this life and the life to come.

We stopped by a less active and she had lost her license and green card. We said a prayer and almost immediately after she found it. She was sobbing, her feelings a mixture of gratitude and godly sorrow for how she has been living. She was at church this Sunday :) It is so wonderful to see how Heavenly Father cares for us, even when we fall off the path He wants us to be happy, even though the things in this life are small, they are big to us. And when these things happen, they turn our souls back to our Creator, our Savior and our Father. We relearn the meaning of the scriptures in Mosiah that remind us that we are the dust of the earth and we are nothing without His goodness and His Grace.

How lucky we are to be here on this earth, learning little by little, coming unto Christ little by little, falling and climbing. Go get Preach My Gospel! Study it! Learn it! Love it!

--
Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission


P.S. addition by Mom - Hermana Baird is being transferred to White Salmon, a town of approximately 2,200 which sits on the border across the river from Oregon.

Bye Bye Wenatchee! (September 26, 2016)

Chili dogs! Made by me.

Lucy and her three darling boys :)

 Hermana Isabell :)

Bishop Harris 

 Elder Call and Elder Aguirre (our new zone leaders) and Elder Adams workin on their smolder

 

​All of us trying to smolder but mostly just looking confused

The Testimony That Will Never Die (September 19, 2016)

This week has been crazy!

*We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and it was really neat. I loved all of the different trainings there were, it reminded me that there is always so much to work on. I was asked to do the special musical number and so we played Come Come Ye Saints - Elder Adams on the cello, me on the piano. It is such a simple song but the Spirit was tangible. I love music and have such a testimony of the power of music.

*Friday we had a carne asada and Abelardo, one of investigators came! He is really neat and the ward instantly fellowshipped him. There were testimonies given of how the gospel has blessed families temporally. At the end, he turned to us and said, "are you going to share your testimonies now?" We laughed and said no, we do that in the lessons! It was neat to see how much members impact the people that we are teaching. They make all of the difference. GO OUT WITH THE MISSIONARIES IN YOUR AREA! Find time, tell them "Hey I have one hour" and then consecrate that to the Lord. You will be blessed and the missionaries and those they teach or find will be blessed. Everyone wins!

*On Saturday we got to attend a baptism of Connie, our dear friend who we found and put on date. I love her so so much. Even though we didn't get to teach her, it was such a blessing for me to have developed such a brief and yet unbreakable bond with this amazing individual.

​

*Saturday night we practiced for Sunday with Brother Webb and it turned into a jazz session. Some much needed musical therapy. Again, music is so powerful.

*Sunday after the musical number I got kissed by a 6 year old. I confronted his dad (jokingly) and he said, "He likes blondes, he's crazy!" I also had a lot of people ask me to teach their kids piano and violin. It made me laugh.

*Sunday we played in both the English ward and the Spanish ward. One of our investigators came to church!! There were so many miracles that we saw, there are no coincidences in this world and sometimes we forget that we aren't the ones running the show. We're just little pieces to the overall picture.
That night we had an amazing dinner with a sister in the Sage Hills ward where we had a beautiful conversation about the Plan of Salvation. We just talked about the blessing that the gospel is in our lives and how much it has helped us. It reaffirmed my testimony and the reason that I am out here. It's been different to have little happening when at the same time everything is happening. But over and over I am reminded how much this gospel has changed my life. We decided to walk out pretty deep into our area and ran into a handful of guys who asked us a lot of questions about us as missionaries. They kept asking, "Wait, people slam the door on you?" "Yeah and sometimes they yell at us and tell us to get off their property!" "Why do you do it?" We got to talk to them and discuss how when you have something that you love, something that has brought you happiness, it's something you want to share. And this week I have truly come to understand that. It isn't fun to get run off of a doorstep, but it's mostly just sad that the happiness that they could have had, they just chased away. So often people think that we're here to make them Mormon. Of course not. We are here to help them come unto Christ, to receive the blessings of salvation, to have access through the Atonement. And that happens to make you a "Mormon". But it isn't the Mormon church, it isn't a prophet you worship. It is the church of Jesus Christ and if any single person will take just a small time out of their day to read and to pray they will know. So often they get offended, they think we're there to change them. We're here to invite them to change! We can't change anyone! Only Christ can do that and he can only do that when we take the steps to accept his sacrifice.

This week I have finally found the testimony that will not die. I have little time left but I would like to quote Alma 5:14-16

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

 16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

Have you been spiritually born of God? As you go from day to day, think about it, ponder it. We have a purpose in this life and we have been given all the tools we need to excel in that purpose.

Les queremos!
Hna Baird

P Day Hike to Saddle Rock w More Missionaries (September 19, 2016)

After scouting out Saddle Rock last week,

our district took some other missionaries on it this week.

 

all the sisters!! mostly

Candid posed senior pic

Lookin like a lion

Super wasn't paying attention

Made it to the top

--
Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission

Jaycie (Titled by Mom - September 19, 2016)

CAT

I found old person glasses. They made me happy

​No bake cookies for breakfast! (it was an accident)

(Insert by Mom - I had to label this post "Jaycie" because she has just summed herself up in four pictures.  A little random, fun and crazy, an interesting cook, and takes time for the beautiful and intriguing things on earth; for example, the shadows of the grass in her shadow.  We sure love and miss our crazy Latze).

P Day Hike to Scope out Saddle Rock (September 12, 2016)

I don't have my camera today and so I am poaching.

"Shaaaaaaaake breaaaaaaaaaaak!!"

photoception

Comp goals

District in a treeee

Dead tree on a cliff, naturally it is made to be climbed

​"Everything the light touches is our kingdom."
"What about that dark shadowy place across the river?"
"That's East Wenatchee."
--

​Fancy sodaaaaaaaas as a district. Minus Elder Adams
--