Elder Braden Baker: Free Lemonade, The Pastor, and the Book of Mormon

Hey everyone, seriously so many awesome things happened this week I don't know where to start! Looking back on this week, it went by so fast but somehow some days felt so long when it's 110 degrees and also 110% humidity outside. I actually timed how long it takes to where I'm sweating from every pore on my body when I walk outside in the sun and it's approximately 2 minutes and 43 seconds. It's pretty bad, I hope it cools down soon or rains or something! Anyway, this week was jam packed with great experiences from setting a baptismal date for a pastor and his whole village of believers, to spreading the light of Christ through a free lemonade stand, to knocking the door of a joined family of 45 members who coincidentally already knew our church! I'm really excited for the work here in Tambaram right now. Sorry in advance if you don't have time today because this might be long.

Right now, it is the hottest time of the year in Chennai so there is a lot of juice stands around town and I'll just say that their business is booming around mid day. So, us Elders decided to make some fresh squeezed(literally) lemonade and give it out for free in front of our church! In the morning, we hand squeezed A LOT of lemons and made a lot of lemonade. As we were making it, we were talking about the "legendary tambaram elders that gave out free lemonade to a guy looking for the true Church and was baptized because of it." Well, we kind of laughed it off as we made up the potential stories of this finding activity but I thought, hey why not? I've got faith. Anyway, fast forward through all the craziness of making the lemonade and traveling with like 10 gallons of lemonade in an auto to the church. (That's a story of it's own) We set up a table outside and set up our little lemonade stand and literally within 5 minutes, it was all gone! There was some workers running at us with big water bottles to get filled hahah. One man gets a drink and asks our purpose and if we're with the bank here and we told him there is a church above the bank and that we just want to help others. We started talking with this man and he really wanted to come see our church. So, we finished up and brought him up to give him a tour of the Church. We then sat down and had a really good discussion with him for like an hour. We taught him that he was literally a child of God and he has a divine role and purpose on the earth. At the end of our lesson, I had a strong feeling to sing the hymn I Am a Child of God. So I played the piano and we sang the hymn. The spirit was so strong testifying to him of the reality of this statement. He just sat and read all the words. After, I recognized the spirit present and invited him to come back to church Sunday and feel this again and learn about it! The only problem is he didn't have a phone to stay in contact with us. I knew he would come back though and that he did! Sunday rolls around, and this same man walked all the way to our church and was so happy to be back! I taught him about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and invited him to be baptized. We are meeting Thursday to talk more about this and I am so excited.

Remember the story of how miraculously Elder Tolbert's missionary handbook was returned to him as we met a guy on the train after it was pick pocketed. So, 6 months ago, the pastor I talked to on the train that day has been reading the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it too. He lives about two and a half hours away from the church but has come three times! We finally made a trip to see him in his village and we talked. He kept using the words "us" and "we" hahaha and saying how he's on our team now. He knows our church is true! He really wants to teach the Book of Mormon to his whole village and all of his church believers. He kept saying, "We need to teach all of this to my village believers. They need to know all of the truth that I've learned from this book!" So, the first step to growing the church out there in his village is to have him be the example and be baptized with his family and that's what we invited him to do! He said he will pray about it with his family and get back to us but it was really cool to see and hear this guys testimony of the Book of Mormon and he did it all on his own. The power of the Book of Mormon is true. It's a powerful book because it is true.

One day, Elder Rajendran and I were finding and we were walking down one street and saw a bunch of little guys playing cricket in the street. So, naturally they all swarmed me like flies on a pile of leftover rice thrown out on the road. I loved it. We started playing with the little kids and talking with them which caused some attention on the street and before we knew it, there was like 50 people out on the street saying, "enna che?" which means what happened?! Haha so we started talking with the dad and he knew our church! He actually made the signs for our church buildings in Chennai. He was the grandpa of this big joined family all staying in one home. Four familes and 45 people in this one home!! I hope we can start teaching them because that would be a full sacrament room on Sunday.

Well, if you made it this far then you are a real one and you should probably email me and tell me because I love you. Anyway, I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and missionary work. I know there is nothing better than living this gospel. Everything is just so true and my testimony is growing more every day. I have seen families lives change because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is amazing. I love being a missionary. I love you guys, have a great week!🖤

Love, Elder Baker