New area and new missionary!

Well, everyone I'm training a new missionary again!! I loved training before so I'm really excited to train again. This time is a little different though. I just barely came to this new area Kakinada and I've been here for a week and mission President Thomas is sending me a brand new missionary. Literally brand new. He hasn't even gone to the MTC yet! He left his home on Wednesday and I met him on Thursday. That is because he is from India, and his mission call is in India but there is no MTC in India. So he has to go to the Philippines for the MTC but his Visa hasn't been approved!! So, I guess just send him right out. Anyway, his name is Elder Susaidass and I actually met him before while I was serving in Chennai. 

Kakinada is an awesome place. I know I was sent here for a specific reason. The work is starting to take off and I'm excited to be part of it. For now, I'm in a trio until the next transfer cycle and Elder Trainor will leave somewhere. 

Last Monday, I got a call from a random number. I answered and I legit thought I was getting prank called!! I thought it was my man Elder Hugie just pranking me because right away, it was kind of a high pitched voice and she said, "Hi Elder!! This is Bashira. I want to meet you guys tonight and I want to learn more about Jesus Christ!! I even told my friend about you guys and we both want to learn more about Jesus Christ!" Hahah I was like, what uh yes okay definitely!! We even met with them during P-day because I was so excited to know who they were. Let's just say God blesses you according to your efforts. We met them on P day and I thought my expectations were too high and I'd be shot down because I was way excited. I WAS WRONG. They were far exceeded. The spirit was so strong and so undeniable. As we were teaching the restoration, I had the feeling to recite word for word Joesph Smith's account of the First Vision while holding a picture of it. As I started, the room went quiet and both Bashira and Pawan locked eye contact with me. As I was reciting, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me..." I was overcome by the spirit and I thought for a second that they were both literally descending gradually upon all of us in the room. The Holy Ghost entered the room so strong that it left all of us sitting there in silence. The truth had pierced our heart leaving all of us longing for more. 

I have a testimony that the Holy Ghost is the real teacher. Us missionaries try our best and study and plan and try to teach the people so they understand which is all very important. THE most important thing is to feel the spirit. That is undeniable. Since that first spiritual lesson they have asked us to meet every day because they want to feel that way again and again. We have kept daily contact with them and they have read all the way through 1 Nephi chapter 11 and they love it. Pawan said the Book of Mormon helps him to be nicer throughout the day. Bashira said her personal prayers are being answered through the Book of Mormon. She is awesome! Every time she messages us when she finishes a chapter, she says, "This chapter was awesome!! I have to go to sleep now but the remaining I will read tomorrow!" I don't know if that's because of a lack of English knowledge or that she has a desire to read the WHOLE remaining Book of Mormon in one day!! (We like to believe the second option) 

Another quick story about God's Plan. We had to travel to Rajahmundry to pick up the new missionary Elder Susaidass. We had two appointments in the evening which we planned to get back in time for but Elder Susaidass's flight was delayed 3 hours!! Unfortunately we had to cancel those appointments. We got home finally at about 7:30 PM and had no appointments. Right then, a part member family called and asked for a blessing. We were available to go because we didn't have appointments anymore!! We taught them about the restoration of the priesthood and gave a blessing and they want us to come back and reach the rest of their family. So awesome. 

I know for sure that God does have a plan and it is best for everyone if we follow that plan. Everything happens for a reason!! I love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Baker

                                                                Pawan and Bashira!!

     Big group of guys who offered us alcohol and honestly just liked the white guys... but cool

                                Me and my new companion Elder Susaidass doubling on a bike!

                             Make your kid pedal for you if you share a bike! #community

                                                                 Cutest little kid selfie

 This is a sweet made out of rice paper and brown sugar and like cow's fat and maybe coconut flakes. Interesting.

                                                      Sunny and the Book of Mormon 

Kakinada is amazing!

Well, I'm definitely not in Bangalore anymore. I am back in the village where the houses could be blown over by the big bad wolf, no one speaks english, and I'm sweating as soon as I step outside. Right now starts monsoon season so it has been raining a lot which I like because it is a little cooler outside but as soon as the rain stops it is just crazy humid. Oh yeah, also we ride bicycles in this area!! I'm excited about that because it helps to keep theat rice belly away. Its does get a little muddy when it rains tho but it sure makes it more fun. Soooo, there has been some problems in this area in the past so missionaries would say that it is kind of a "dead area" right now but it has a lot of potential! I am really excited to start from scratch and work as hard as I can to turn that around. 

This week was mostly me trying to learn this new area as fast as possible. I was riding my bike all around finding members homes and discovering areas. It was a lot of fun and it rained on us a lot. Also this week has been me trying to learn how to speak telugu. Ugh pray for me because I just really want to communicate with all the people here and teach them about God's Plan. Telugu is a bit confusing at first lol. For example, 'me' means 'you' in telugu... yeah pray for a miracle. 

I already really like the members and the people here. They are so so sweet. I swear these are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They literally have close to nothing but want to and are willing to give everything they have for us. Now, also because this is a village area, not a lot of foreigners come here. When the kids see me, they all yell "hieyyy brrrroo". I usually get that like 25 times a day. This week, someone was driving by on a motorcycle and slowed down and stopped and said, "Are you from America?" We said, "Yes!" And they just drove away... hahaha that was the whole conversation.

Alright, you can imagine how easy it is to find people to talk to here. I just kind of have to go out on any street and someone will yell "hi bro" and then we're talking and then I'm asking if they go to church ever and they say yes and next thing ya know, we're in their home and I'm meeting the kids family. It really is easy and a lot of fun. 

So, here is the miracle of the week. Sunny boy.  We were leaving some appointments on Friday and we met a guy on the street and we started talking. Just briefly we were talking and then I got his number. He told me he goes to church every Sunday and wants to learn more about Jesus Christ! We were pretty excited. So, Sunday we met Sunny and had the most amazing lesson. He was asking so many questions and they were GOOD questions. Like, he legit wants to know everything. We taught him about the Godhead and he totally understood and then the questions he was asking lead directly into us teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ which includes having faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. I've never seen someone so intent on learning. The spirit totally directed our teaching and my thoughts as I then felt prompted to invite him to be baptized. WHAT! It was our first lesson I thought... I definitely felt the spirit though so I invited him to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. YES, he said yes!! He obviously still needs to learn a lot of things but his desire to truly do what he can to learn and follow Jesus Christ is amazing. I pray he continues to soak everything in as we teach him and be baptized. He truly wants to learn. He kept asking us, "How did you learn all of this about Jesus??" What a stud.

More next week, I love you guys!! 

Love, Elder Baker 

                                                         Rain puddles in the street

                                      BIG herd of goats probably about to be slaughtered...

                           We went to a blind orphanage school to give stuff to the kids.

                                                         Giving chocolate to the kids

                                     My new companion Elder Trainor during a rainstorm

                                   ELDER HUGIE!!! My guy from the MTC, I finally saw him. 

                                    These are the parents of an elder I know in my mission.

 Parting the red sea!

 Most of the roofs here look like this. This one is pretty sturdy because of the cement base.

 Zone Conference in Rajahmundry. 

 This is the view from my apartment balcony... beautiful!!

This little guy was chilling on our bike handle bar

Everything happens for a reason

What an eventful week! Seriously it was probably the most jam packed week of my mission. SO MUCH happened I cant even explain everything in one email. I have the strongest testimony that God has a plan for each and every one of us. Well, where do I even start? I had the first ever dinner appointment where I was fed homemade pizza!!! WHAT, we were shocked. We had MLC, zone conference, a few baptisms, some great lessons, I hit my one year mark, and OH I'm transferring to Kakinada. Surprise!

So, we will start from the beginning of the week and make our way through. First was MLC and we distributed smartphones to our zone leaders in the mission. We can now use smartphones in our missionary work which is going to be so helpful!! Also, hmu on facebook now because I'm going to (learn how to) use facebook!! At MLC, I gave a training on how to use the new technology as missionaries and it went great. Also, the next day we had Zone conference and the rest of our Bangalore zone missionaries got their smartphones. It's an exciting time here in india as a missionary!!

Thursday, August 8th was exactly one year since I entered the MTC and started my mission. I dont know how so many things have happened in just one year but it's truly hard to think it's been a year because it went by so fast! Everyone says this but it's true. It's so so weird to try and imagine where I was one year ago and more importantly who I was. It's only been one year and I'm still only 19(until the 27th) but I feel like I have grown in years and years of knowledge, maturity, age, confidence, and experience more than I could anywhere else in my life. I'm not done though, it's only halftime. 3rd quarter is important and then I'll finish strong through the 4th quarter. I'm so excited for the second half of my mission with these wonderful people in India. 

Okay, so Saturday was awesome!! The people I talked about last week in my email were baptized. In the morning, the Babu family was baptized. Then in the evening, Mamatha,  Harshitha,  and brother Chandrasekar were all baptized. It was one of the most spiritual baptism services I've been a part of so far on my mission. Everyone in the ward knew Chandrasekar very well because his family has been members for the past 12 years and to see him finally choose to take the step of baptism was amazing. Even Mamatha and Harshitha were so excited and so happy to be baptized. Their day had finally come they said. We actually taught an awesome lesson to them this week about missionary work and they are going to start preparing to serve a mission!! I asked why she wants to serve a mission and Mamatha said, "I want to be able to teach others like you taught me." AH I felt that.  So so sweet. Anyway, it was so nice to see these people happy and excited to follow Jesus Christ. They dont even know the potential they just entered into either.

That was the other awesome lesson we taught this week. "The eternal glory that awaits the faithful far outweighs the trials of mortality." There was a member that has lots of trials right now but she has a strong testimony of the gospel. She shared how she cant explain the difference the gospel has made in her life. She said, "I see who I was 7 years ago and who I am now and I've changed so much" which is awesome!! Its true, if we allow the gospel of jesus christ to change our lives, it will!! But while she was saying this, I had the strongest feeling from the spirit just saying, "you have no idea of your potential." So I told herhow we can see the past and today but God can also see the future and our potential is more than we can imagine in the sight of God. He loves us and wants us to achieve our potential. 

Okay, and finally just a little update. Sunday night I talked with President Thomas and then boom, Monday morning I got on a flight to Rajahmundry. My new companion will be Elder Trainor. I haven't met him yet but I'm excited to go see a new place and work hard in my new area Kakinada. So far I've served in Florida where the people speak English, then Chennai where the people speak Tamil, then Bangalore where the people speak Kannada, and now I'm going to Kakinada where the people speak Telugu. Let's go!! So much for all that Tamil I learned so far on my mission, it's time to start learning Telugu. I learned a few things on the plane ride to Kakinada so that's good. 

Well, it was a crazy crazy week and lots happened and I've learned a lot. Cant wait for this next week. Until next time, love you guys.

Love, Elder Baker

                                                                            One year

                                                                    Zone conference 

                                                                       "Peace" wall

                                                This is called a Falafel and it was GOOD 

                                                      Boarding the plane for transfers 

                                            Mamatha and Harshitha, and Chandrasekar

                                                               Homemade pizza!!

                                                  Baptism day! Chandrasekar's baptism 

                                                       Mission Leadership Council   

                                                              Pallavi and her cute kids

 I dont think y'all understand how big this is... we got fed pizza. Idk how she found cheese and stuff but yeah it was good!!!    

                                          Another one of the baptismhur with bishop

"To be honest, I hate Christians"

What the, its August!! Lets just say it is still kinda crazy that I'm writing "Aug" in my journal now. Like, I've written that in my journal before while on my mission about a year ago. My year mark is August 8th. Also, the transfer just ended and Elder Hakanson is getting transferred to my apartment. I'm pumped because we started together at the same time and were friends at the MTC!! I'm crazy excited for this month of August, it should be way fun. We got A LOT of great stuff planned. 

I told you before that there are a lot of people in my area that are Hindu and really hate Christians and especially the missionaries. Well, one of these people is the father of a member family! The mother, two daughters, and her nephew were baptized in 2007 and the father allowed them to be baptized but never accepted it for himself. He was raised Hindu and was taught to hate Christians. For the last 12 years, he explains, "Soooo many missionaries tried to get me to be baptized and come to church but they really just irritated me. I let them come to our home but I would leave as soon as they came. To be honest, I hate Christians". Well, obviously he learned a few things in the last 12 years about our church and one of those is about the temple. His family has a dream of going to the temple to be sealed together for eternity. The only thing is the head of the household is an important part of this. He started to think more about the temple and about his family's dream throughout the years. We had no idea it was on his mind.

Anyway, fast forward to now!! Last week, we had our Pioneer's Day Activity and he came. At the activity, we did a little explanation of the pioneers at the Kirtland temple and talked about temples today. We watched the video of Elder Rasband and Elder Bednar give a live tour of the Rome, Italy temple (which is awesome). Little did we know, he really needed to learn about what goes on inside the temple. After that, the spirit really did the rest. Here are his words, "My wife and I came home like usual and had dinner and then went to sleep. We both fell asleep like normal but something woke me up in the middle of the night at about 2 AM. I don't know what happened but I knew that I needed to be baptized. I woke up my wife right then at 2 AM and told her, 'I am going to be baptized. I need to learn the truth.'" Since then, we have been teaching him more and more about the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is preparing to be baptized on August 10th!! 

So, this week Elder Rather finished his mission on Wednesday. He had to be at the mission home on Wednesday at about 2 o clock. Well, for the last few hours he had of being a missionary, we went finding. In the morning we did a little exchange so we could go out together and do some work. We got some really good lunch and then went finding. We were pretty pumped to go finding because we are two Americans and I can speak in Tamil and Elder Rather can speak in Telugu, it was the perfect pair. Well, despite our excitement, we weren't having much success and he only had about 30 minutes left as a missionary. I thought of a Christian lady I met at a shop that we could at least go stop by and say hello. We had to walk for about 20 minutes to get there though so this was it. We started walking and I don't know what happened to me but we must've walked right past the shop. Idk if I was blind or the spirit kept pushing me to walk further. We had 5 minutes left. We stopped walking and I apologized to him for not being able to find the shop. His time was up. Right where we stopped walking, there was a road that led to a neighborhood. I was like okay we can at least walk down this road one last time. We went in and it was a dead end... I thought we messed up again. We turned around and started to walk back to the main road, some kids ran out of their house and we started talking to them. Then, their whole family comes out. It was a big joined family and they were all Christian! Only thing is they didn't know English, but we expected this! I was all excited so I asked them in Tamil if they know Tamil? nope... no problem, Elder Rather asks in Telugu if they know Telugu? nope... OF COURSE this family only knew Kannada. (The struggle of so many Indian languages in this mission) Well, what happened next had to be the miraculous work of the spirit because this family invited us into their home and we shared with them who we are and what we do. We gave them a picture of Jesus and said a prayer for their family. They even invited us back to their home on Friday. 

What a great testimony I have that we are blessed based on our desires and efforts. Elder Rather was already done! Literally, it was his last day. He could've slept in, got ready, ordered some food, packed his bags and went over to the mission home at 2 PM. Literally not even a full day, just the morning hours. Instead, we got going and were led by the spirit and had the opportunity to teach one more family. Just the night before, we were walking home and a drunk guy grabbed Elder Rather by his collar and was threatening us (that's another story smh). That is how you turn it around, don't give up!! I love you guys and wish you the best!!

Love, Elder Baker

                                                           Selfie with little Sami!!

                                     Giselle(left, 6 years old) and Pooja(right, 12 years old)

                               Elder Rather and Pandian at an awesome Chinese restaurant.

                                                  Me eating Butter Chicken and Naan

 

                                                            Last selfie with our apartment

                                          We bought corn from some guy on the street?

                                              The family I found on Elder Rather's last day

                                          

                                                      Hindu temple with a bunch of lights