Monday, October 28, 2013

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

Monday, October 14, 2013

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










Saturday, October 12, 2013

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)