Metamorphosis of a Missionary

Alright family sorry I don't have much time today so this is going to be pretty short!

So Abdi is doing really great! We have been able to see him every day and he has been reading every day, his faith is growing a lot! He prayed and talked to his family about it and he decided that he wants to wait to get baptized when he gets back to mexico so that he can get to know the members of the YSA ward in his city and have friends there to support him. He is already having all sorts of questions on how he can serve a mission and what he needs to do to go on one...it's so awesome!! It's been really cool teaching him...he is the first person I've met on my mission that is our age and actually speaks spanish haha which is kind of sad. He is our really good friend now! Hopefully we will be able to skype him or something when he gets baptized in Veracruz! Im just so grateful that I have had the opportunity to teach him here, if only for a little bit. I know this gospel is going to bless him for eternity though!

Alright so ready for the bad news? We had to drop basically all of our investigators this week. Yes...including Ricardo, Silvia and Leslie. Ricardo just doesnt have enough time to learn right now with his job.  He is trying to find a new one so hopefully in the future he will be able to keep learning. Silvia and Leslie just about broke my heart this week. We got a text from Silvia on monday saying that she was sorry and that she was going to stop learning about our church now because she is going to another church with her friends now. We tried to contact her a few times this week but weren't able to. If anything, my testimony of the importance of member missionary work and support has grown so much this transfer. We have prepared so many people for baptism this transfer, people who God has prepared, who have felt the spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of these things, and have seen great changes in their lives as a result of learning about the gospel. But a lot of the time, if these people don't feel welcome, or don't have friends in the church they are too afraid to make the change. I feel so blessed to have been able to take part in the lives of these people here though. Just because baptisms don't happen, doesnt mean success doesn't happen. We are successful when we can feel the spirit working through us, touching the hearts of those we teach. I love these people so much though and hope that one day the seed that was planted in their hearts this transfer will be able to start growing again!!

We started teaching english classes this week!! We have been advertising them for a while and finally were able to start them up. We had about 10 people come and it was so fun teaching I love it! muahaha I feel like I have so much power...I can get them to say anything I want. But anyways, we keep inviting them to church and we have members there during the classes so hopefully we will be able to get some new investigators out of that.

So real quick heres my little bit on the metamorphosis of a missionary. So as a missionary, you get to the mission field kind of in the form of just like this gooey blob mess. you have been in the MTC for 6 weeks, you think you know what missionary work is  but then you get here and you are like oh wait... what? At the end of the first transfer in the field, you have kind of formed yourself into a bit of a less gooey blob. So kind of just like a blob. At the end of training, you have a shape but youre still soft. Its the 3rd transfer in the field when you get your exoskeleton, you figure out what kind of missionary you are going to be. But, sometimes you need to get broken and rearranged in the later transfers as you learn new things and fix some of the things that went wrong or you didnt do quite right in the formative stages haha. Hermana Gibson is officially done with training and is ready to enter into the Exoskeleton stage! and me, im still breaking and reforming myself all the time haha. Im so grateful though that I have had the opportunity to train Hermana gibson though, even though I feel like I learned more from her than she did from me.

Oh yeah... Transfers. Should probably mention that. I am leaving Bradenton!!! Im not sure where I am going yet, we go up to transfer meeting on thursday in Tampa. Hermana Paulsen who is in Sarasota is getting transferred too so according to my calculations and algorithms, I'm guessing that she and I will just be switching areas and I will be going to Sarasota, which is kind of just like moving from Temecula to Murietta! Or I could be completely wrong and be going to an english ward hahaha sooooo watch that happen. But I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve here in Bradenton for 6 months. 6 months...I seriously can't believe it has been that long. I love this area, i love these people, I love these members and I am going to miss them so much but I am excited for this new change!! Stay tuned to find out where I'm going next week!!

love hermana baugh