Email Chat With Elder Baker

Mom: ...you just emailed me!

Elder Baker: The work is slowly starting to pick up we have a couple of people who can possibly become progressing investigators this week if we have the time to visit them often enough. and yes we have Thanksgiving dinner with this non member Ellen and her Husband which should be interesting hopefully we can talk to them about the gospel we haven't been able to yet.  They are acting catholics but she has had great experiences with Lds people before so hopefully things will work out with her.

Mom: That sounds great about those investigators... What are your feelings about being a missionary?  Have you felt the Lord's hand in your efforts?

Elder Baker:  Ummm my feelings of being a missionary... well i love being a missionary.  I guess you could say that when i came out my thoughts were kind of if i went home it wouldn't be too bad. Now my thoughts are i don't see myself going home and thinking about going home is weird.  Well earthly home that is, it blows my mind when i think that one day i will be in spiritual paradise and eventually be a resurrected being walking around during the millennium with mortal beings and just wow it blows my mind every time!!! Iv learned so much and yet i dont know anything at all.
Yeah iv seen the Lord's hand in my life and in the things that we are doing. Its kind of hard not to as a missionary.  haha.

Elder Baker: This is me trying to tan with a happy light.

Mom: Got it! Ha,ha... did it work?  Are you "happy" now?  And what the heck is a happy light?

Elder Baker:  Thats the first thing that i thought when i heard about them but apparently they have happy lights in washington because people get sad so these lights are special and put off whatever the sun does or something... at least thats what im told.

Mom: OH, yes, I've heard of those. Soak up some vitamin D rays! Nice.
What can I pray for, on yours and Elder Webb's behalf?  Investigators? Goals?

Elder Baker: Umm pray that we will be able to find those who are ready to receive the gospel. I think that will be the best thing. Thanks MOM you are too great

Mom: I'm so grateful for your service son. Truly...
You're my hero and someone I really look up to. Thank you for giving me your shining example.

Hey- 18 more days and you will have 100 days in the mission field!!! (Not that I'm counting)

Elder Baker:  Yeah not that you are keeping track or anything haha

Mom:  I better run. I love you son!  I hope your week is wonderful and full of inspiring moments.  I will be praying for you guys.  ===uploading a huge hug===
Mom

Elder Baker:  I love you too MOM i miss you and I guess I'll be talking to you in about 6ish weeks so be looking forward to that =)
Love you
Elder Baker

PS  tell the fam i said hi


(It was fun to catch Elder Baker online and have a few minutes to chat with him today!!! I thought I'd throw in a few lines and this picture he sent! He is doing great and is excited to get working on new goals for the mission this week!)

Transfers. I Stayed

My New Companion Elder Webb

Loving my new companion! E. Webb is fantastic.  He's all about working with members  & it's good cuz I know nothing about that yet. Learning lots. Loving it. Love you!

Yours truly,

E. Baker

Bike Accident Week-Email and Photos

Hey!!!! so this week has been kind of crazy!!! Lets start with Monday.

Monday

I helped *kill off my zone leader which was super sad. Eventually went to a YSA FHE which was way fun met Angie who is a recent convert and heard all about her conversion story. Super long and complicated but super awesome. 

Tuesday

Transfers, my companion Elder Hansen got transfered and ended up back in his last area, and a friend that he was "raised" with from that area came to Bellevue and is my new companion who i dearly love and is super awesome Elder Webb. Pictures will be supplied soon enough. 

Wednesday

Had a last minute district meeting so that kind of messed up our day. But we made a return appointment with Sam and learned that he plays guitar and so does E. Webb so that is awesome for them to have something in common. 

Thursday

Elder Webb was sick so we didnt go out until we had to go to Ward Correlation meeting. Great meeting tons of fun and good ideas. Well leaving the meeting i had only been on the bike for probably 30 seconds and im just going over a speed bump with my bike which id done dozens of times only going like 4 mph and boom front tire just comes off. So this is literally what i was thinking during all this. front tire comes off and i see the ground coming "my face is about to be bleeding" next thing i know im on the floor "i should get up" throw the bike off myself stand up "hey Elder Webb is my face bleeding?" Elder Webb "umm yeah we should probably go back into the church actually let me grab some papers towels first so you can cover that up cuz you are dripping blood everywhere and i dont want you to freak people out." 

Then we went into the bathroom and checked myself out yea i was bleeding pretty good ahah it was kind of cool. Everyone was freaking out. So eventually Elder Cramer (i love that guy he is our other zone leader that i hopefully get to help *kill off this transfer) came in and told me to sit down because he thought i had a concussion and treated me like i was five which was probably a good thing because i was feeling a little wobbly. Anyways he walked me to a car and he drove me to the hospital and helped me get signed in and stuff. 

Well you know doctors gotta take your blood pressure and all that so i was like do you want me to take my jacket off i can. so Elder Cramer helped me take it off and when he starts to slide it off my left arm he says "OH! maybe you should keep the jacket on actually" i couldnt turn my head that far i didnt know why. well more useless details but i ended up in a room and this guy comes in to clean the gash on my lip. he pulled out this big bottle of clear liquid (probably 64 ounces) and squirted that into my lip which hurt SOOOO bad. Worst part... i think. So after that the doctor comes in DR. Shipley very nice guy one of 2 LDS doctors in who work in the whole hospital and the only one working that night, talk about luck right. so he checks it out and leaves. Then this girl comes in...well i guess she is a nurse but whatever,l i dont know her name but she is super nice we are friends now. She got the fun job of numbing my lip which was scary!!! big needle and that sucked. so it was pretty easy and all good until she put the needle inside the sliced open part of my lip that hurt like nobodies business!!!!! so i got the needle shoved in and out of my lip "80 OR 90 TIMES!!!!" (you are really cool if you understand this quote) but its kind of true. 

Dr. Shipley came back in and i got 12 stitches in my lip and it sucks cuz i cant get them wet so its really hard to do stuff. And both my lips are all swollen and that makes life really difficult because i cant eat very well in fear of ripping stitches and stuff. Good stuff, iv told the story dozens of times now!!! Lots of people felt really bad for me which basically led to me having a lifetime supply of applesauce now. Which is awesome im not ripping on applesauce. So that was really my week. We were inside for a while after that and havent done a whole lot.

*Killing off a missionary means that their two years are up and they are going home.

Definitely keeping this shirt forever

October 14th 2013 Email

Hey mom!!!

How have you been?

Iv been good, went on exchanges twice this week that was a lot of fun, i love seeing how other missionaries work. I went to the place in Bellevue during one of the exchanges and WOW the houses there were just phenomenal. Right on the water, most of them had their own dock in their backyards to park their boats...  Invited this Muslim guy named Mostafa to church and he said that he would come...he didnt come it made me sad, but hopefully he will call us sometime and we can just teach him. 

The girl that we had a return appointment with this week cancelled because she was sick but we have an appointment set up with her this thursday. hopefully we can commit her to reading and praying... 

We gave Brian a Doctrine and Covenants because he wanted one.  Hopefully he at least reads that...

During one of the exchanges we went to this transit station to contact people, which is way fun. However, since reading so much scripture and stuff i decided that before the end of my mission and if im ever in the city that i want to just stand up on benches on street corners and "preach" the way that i at least picture the prophets in the Bible and Book of Mormon teaching when they would go into some strange land. so i hope that one day i have the awesomeness and guts to do such a thing. i think that it would be so much fun and so awesome to do. Just stand up on some bench and be like "repent ye repent ye" well not really that would probably go bad but you get the idea. 

so i love you all and you are all wonderful people in my life =) 

im not sure what else to say. umm yeah 

love you 

Elder Baker

Walk a Day In My Shoes!

  

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

                                                                                            Isaiah 52:7

My Stompin' Grounds

My Apartment and Area

Home Sweet Home 

 

My Companion Elder Hansen

Our Decor

Me

Awesome house in Bellevue

Surrounding area

Into the Field so White

Seattle, Washington, Here I come! 

Check out the license plate! It says," #1 car in the zone/ The Golden Plates" 

The Mission Home 

Finally! More Pictures!!!

From the MTC

From a Collection of Letters on Oct 7th, 2013

...How are my sisters doing? Amanda should either be back now or be back soon right? If she's back I'm sure you are loving seeing the kids. Don't let them forget about me while I'm gone.

Did you guys like conference?  It was super good even the seventies who I usually don't pay attention to...but they were all at least good. Some definitely better than others though.

So I said I was reading Jesus the Christ. Well I read about 100-120 pages I thought were the most interesting...  But I'm also currently reading in Alma, I'm on Ch. 12 & based on average readings per day-ish I should finish it no later than the 23rd. And then finish the Book of Mormon no later than the 27th of Nov.  Something like that.  Then it is on to the New Testament. Then probably Pearl of Great Price & D&C.

A happy thought for you mom, I haven't lost any weight since I've been out  :)  I don't think I've gained any either though. So I'm holding strong.

We picked up some 25lb dumb bells from these other missionaries!!! Time to get chiseled...
And I was doing 210 push ups in like 12ish minutes but just today dropped down from my seven sets of 30 to 7 sets of twenty but putting my feet on the couch & each week adding 5 reps to each set & building back up.

Time is weird on a mission...I've never had time pass so slowly but then look back & see that another week is gone already. I don't understand it at all.     ...Anyways, that's all. I love you.

Love,
Elder Baker

Quotes from conference:

"Faith must proceed the miracle"
                                  -Timothy J. Dykes
                                                   of the Seventy

"There is no superior career than family"
                                  -Christofferson  (Slightly paraphrased)

Photos With President and Sister Choi

 Sister Choi   Elder Baker   President Choi

Elder William Baker 9/10/2013

Elder Baker arriving in Seattle, WA with his MTC group and Mission President and Sister Choi

Exchanges

From an Email dated 9/23/2013

Last week was a good week... I went on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders his name is Elder Cramer and he is an awesome guy. We found this guy Adrian who seemed so solid and like he was looking for guidance and answers. While we were talking we committed him to be baptized and he said that he would (this was Friday). We then invited him to a church tour for Saturday but he didnt show =(. We also met this gal Cayman (mid to late 20's) who is awesome and said that if she came to know that its true she would be baptized but she is a professional singer and theater performer so she is busy =/ we tried to go see her again but they had company and were about to leave. Her husband is jewish his name is Gavriel who i thought would be a problem but he seems like a super nice guy and welcomed us back anytime. So im super excited to help Cayman and her family come to know the gospel. '

Lets see what else? We met this guy Mark during "Super Secret Sacred Finding Time"...its not really called that but thats what i call it. He seems super humble and is looking to strengthen his personal relationship with God and doesnt really like organized religion. Long story short he decided to accept our invite to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So i cant wait to go see him again. Yeah thats about it. 

Havent had much time to actually teach any full lessons but doorstep lessons and things like that we have been able to do a few things with. 

Having fun, getting frustrated, and loving it all. 

We met this guy who only speaks pharsee and that was hilarious...we think he asked for a blessing for his legs (he was on crutches) but im not sure because well he only spoke pharsee. He kissed a picture of Christ that we showed him though which was interesting. We are trying to find a translator so we can teach him the lessons. 
Hope you are all doing well. I love you all...

MY FIRST WEEK...Excerpts from letters

From a letter dated 9/12/13

Hey!
   So the lst few days have been all about tracting & street contacts, but today we met with Bishop Gardner & we got lots of formers & potentials for tomorrow so that is gonna be way fun!
We walk so much cuz neither of us have bikes yet.  My feet are sore everyday.
Anyways learning lots. In the Lakeview Ward. About 600 members, I'm probably gonna have to speak in a week or two.  :|

Love,
Elder Baker

From an email on 9/16/13

"...we met with some people and now have 3 investigators which is nice. Craig, who seems like a super nice guy but is just incredibly busy. The Robinson family who we dont know much about but should be giving us a call in the next couple days. And then there is Brian who we went and saw yesterday and OH MY GOSH remember the part on The Princess Bride when Vicinni is talking with "The Man in Black" and the man in black is just like "truly you have a dizzying intellect"? yeah well that is exactly how i felt while talking to Brian because he just jumps all over the place and asks so many deep deep questions. But we are going to see him again so that is good. 

Umm yeah other than that it rained for the first time yesterday and i tell you we were miles from home and i got drenched!!! Like it was ridiculous but eventually we got a ride from this guy which i was incredibly thankful for because i had been praying for like 20 minutes that something would happen like a ride or no more rain or something. There was also lightning and thunder which was awesome. Iv never heard such loud thunder before in my life it was absolutely one of the coolest things ever." 

"OH! Thanks for the package. Very Awesome!"

First Night in Washington!

"Hey Mom,
   So I wrote you a letter but I haven't sent it yet.  Anyways I am here in Bellevue now.  My companion is Elder Hansen.  Umm what can I tell you that isn't in my letter?
We went out a little last night and talked to some people.  It seems like our apartment complex have all been talked to cuz most of them have Book of Mormons already. All the people that we talked to seem really nice, they are all Indian which is funny but they really are kind people.
Hmm nothing much else to say so far since I haven't done much yet ha,ha.
Well I love you and I miss you.
You should get me Dad's email so I can email him sometime.

I love you,
Elder Baker"

9/10/13
Dear Family,
    So 1st day in the field, I am in Bellevue.  I can't give you all the info b/c I don't know any of it.  My companion (Elder Hansen) & I got white washed into an area and currently there is no record book so...yeah.  Did some street contacts today, wasn't even bad.  I can tell it's gonna be fun.  We talked to this one guy & he was an interesting fellow who went to BYU but wasn't Mormon.  Anyways I wasn't sure but I think I love the people already.  That's all for today.  I love you & pray for you.

Love,
Elder Baker

A picture of Bellevue, WA. In French it means beautiful view.

Temple Ordinance Worker

As the time of my mission drew near I had the opportunity to work in the San Diego Temple as an ordinance worker.  Some missionaries in our Stake, awaiting their report date to the MTC, are extended this call to serve. It is a privilege to have this opportunity to learn the deeper meaning of the temple and the ordinances and covenants that we partake in within it's walls. This was great preparation for the mission field. Today my official release came in the mail.

                                               

I'm Off to Seattle, Washington!

"How do you like sleeping in?"
   After waking up at 2:30 AM we arrived at the travel office by 3:30 AM this morning. I was the lucky winner of the title of "Travel leader". Basically that means I am supposed to be in charge of tickets and making sure everyone is there.  We (about a hundred missionaries), with all of our luggage (which is a ton) boarded a bus, that took us to a train, that took us to another train, that took us to the Salt lake City Airport, that will take us to Seattle. That is a lot of tickets! Fortunately, I ended up not having to do much because they passed out our tickets as we arrived, so... other than a lot of switching transport, there was not much to it.
After bidding my loved ones farewell until Christmas, I boarded the plane to my two year destination!  I am excited and nervous. My testimony has grown a lot. I am looking forward to getting out into the field and applying all that I have learned!
Well... the plane is leaving!

My MTC Companion and District

Me and Elder Hodson

Stamos, Hodson, Prien, Savage
Mills, Me, Carpenter, Kelly

Excerpts From My First Letter

 Dated 8/30/13


"So it's Friday my first P-day & the internet is down so I can't email!!! It's so dumb. But I am having a great time. My companions name is Elder Hodson. He is a good guy..."

"I have only been here for 2 1/2 days & it feels like a week. A good week but still a week."

"We are all really good friends already..."

"The Spirit is strong here...that's what comes from being dressed up and doing personal study like 4 hours a day & class for another 6 hours a day. It's way different than I expected though. Everything we try and do is based almost completely on the Spirit, what we learn, what we teach, what we say, Everything!"


"You are all in my prayers and in my heart."

The Farewell Gathering

Please note the name tag 

The awkward photo.... no more hugs.

We can't hug him anymore. Immediate family only.

I'm taller than you

It's all about the handshake now!

The crowd

Bakers

Goodmans