Elder Braden Baker: I got another son, I love the people here, and I love Christmas!

In the mission field, when you train a new Elder, they call the trainer the dad and the trainee your son and I don't know if God is trying to tell me something for the future but I am yet again training a new Elder. Elder McGuire and I are both staying together, thank goodness, and we are both staying in Kakinada thank goodness but we received a call Wednesday from President saying that we are going to trio train! Our son (new companion) is named Elder Bhandari and he is from Mumbai. He is just 18 which is pretty rare for the Indian elders. They usually wait until after they graduate college to come on their mission. Elder Bhandari is really humble and really excited to learn and be a missionary. We are so excited!!

When President Thomas told Elder Bhandari that he is going to Kakinada, he said that Kakinada is the place to be right now in the mission and he is so right! I am still loving it. We had a 3 day Christmas Carnival activity this week and it went soooo good. Seriously I'm so impressed with the members here to plan everything and work together to completely decorate the church and plan all of the activities and food and everything. We planned to have about 140 people come and about 260 people came to our activity which was so good. Everyone came all dressed fancy in their Indian traditional clothes which are so SICK!! I WAS SO JEALOUS. I just wanted to get all dressed up in full Indian traditional clothes. We had some dance performances, we sang hymns, and then us Elders were in charge of an activity. For our activity, we did one called "Walk With Christ" where we turned off all of the lights and blind folded everyone. Then we played some really spiritual music and narrated all of the events from Jesus Christ's life from his birth to his resurrection as we let the people feel special items about his life like a crown of thorns and nails for his crucifixion and other stuff for different events. WOW, it was so spiritual to imagine and literally walk through Christ's life and imagine everything he did for us. I am so grateful that Jesus Christ was born, died, and most importantly he lived again and lives today all for us.

Sandeep!! Well, last week I told you how well Sandeep is doing and how happy he is and how he told us he has 100 friends he wants to invite to the church and to introduce to us elders. Well, this week we taught him twice and both times we went to his house, he brought a different friend. So, I mean that's 2 out of his 100 promised but he is doing great so far! This week, we had a really special appointment with him. So, last week we set a baptism date for him for January 4th. This week, we went and taught him about the commandments and he just wants to follow everything right now. I've never seen someone so ecstatic about the gospel and so willing and ready to change. Elder McGuire and I were talking about moving his baptism date sooner but before we could even mention it, Sandeep said this, "Elders, I don't want to wait until January 4th to be baptized. I need to be baptized before the new year because new year, new Sandeep!" HAHA I thought of those "New year, New me" memes you see on Twitter but this is actually legit this time. Sandeep is the real version of that meme. So, we moved his baptism to this Saturday, the 28th.

Finally, the Kuna family. Literally my new Indian family. I love them so much. They are the sweetest people ever OH MY!! We just started teaching this family this week and they are amazing. They are a family of four: mom, dad, daughter, and son. On Wednesday, we taught a wayyyy spiritual lesson about the restoration of the church and the gospel. They invited us back for dinner on Sunday. The ward members went to their home on Thursday for Christmas carols and they came to our Christmas activity on Friday. We came back on Sunday and taught a BOMB plan of Salvation lesson. They have actually been waiting 5 months to learn about the plan of salvation. 5 months ago, the Elders visited them and asked them to think about three questions; where we were before we came to earth, what is our purpose on earth, and where we will go after we die. The Elders said they will answer those questions when they came back. Well, those elders got transferred and no one ever told me about this family. Luckily, they came to church and the dad is best friends with a member. After five months, they didn't forget those questions and we answered them for their family. They were so happy. They also fed us some really good food. Wow, they are amazing!! The dad and son always give me a big hug and I sure wish I could give the mom and daughter a hug but I'm a missionary so I hit them with the most loving handshake ever.

I've been praying for the gift of tongues so I can communicate better and connect with the people I teach. Because even though my mission is an English speaking mission, they all know Telugu so I try to pick up some Telugu. It's really amazing to see what happens when the spirit is strong and we are teaching a lesson. The stronger the spirit is in a lesson, the more Telugu I can understand. Last night, I understood about 99% of the lesson we taught and was able to invite a family to be baptized, it was so amazing. Speaking their native language is really the key to the people's heart here. A tall white guy speaking their language really gets them going. It was so fun last night. They felt the spirit, I had them laughing their heads off with my Telugu and they were shocked. I love these people so much. A mission is amazing.

I'm having such a good time, I'm so grateful for the people I'm with and what I'm doing to really feel the spirit of Christmas. The true joy of Christmas comes from serving others and putting a smile on someone else's face. We can do that by emulating and following the Savior's example. To serve others as he served, to love as he loved. That's what makes a mission so special, we are always focused on loving others and that makes me happy. I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas!!

Love, Elder Baker