Let's Go Ride a Bike

Feliz Pascua!

So we had a great gift from the leaders of our mission at the beginning of this week... we get a text from our district leader that said that we will all be parking our cars and only using bikes from now until April 21st!! WOOH FULL BIKE.  We thought it was an April fools joke at first but I guess President Cusick doesn't believe in those haha. It has been pretty great though... as we've been riding all over Sarasota we couldn't help but come up with a whole new soundtrack of the best bike songs, coming soon to own. Here are a few sneak peeks

(to the tune of called to serve)
Called to ride our bikes in Sarasota
all the people stare as we go by
Wont ever stop cuz we've only rode-a
bout a thousand miles today
Pedal, always pedal
Sorry lizards in the way
Pedal, always pedal
Will not stop untill we faint
Sweating, always sweating
We ride to serve the Lord
Would you like to hear the message from the beneva hermanas?

(to the tune of lets go fly a kite)
Lets go ride a bike
all day and through the night (but not after 930)
Lets go ride a bike
and preach the gospel
Up to Pelau circle
Up to the street Myrtle
Oh lets go, ride a bike

And my personal favorite..
(Sung to the tune of 'there is sunshine in my soul today')
i have grease stains on my skirt today!
That can never be removed
When I think of biking all the day,
I can't be more enthused!
Oh my watch tan's getting darker,
and my farmers tan cannot be tamed
When the Amish see us riding by
they can't keep up with our pace

Stay tuned. Preorder yours today!!

So I hope that everyone got the opportunity to watch conference this weekend. It's not often that that many inspired and empowered people called of God get together to deliver a message right from Him to us (actually it only happens twice a year to be exact) so yeah pretty special. There were so many great things about it that it is hard for me to say what I loved most about it. I would have to say that Elder Holland's talk was one that really stood out to me. I felt the spirit so powerfully as he spoke of the Savior and His infinite love for us. Easter is a day that we celebrate victory. We celebrate victory over death, pain, trials, weaknesses, mistakes, EVERYTHING.  It is because of what the Savior did for us that we can have this victory. The Savior will never give up on us, and through Him everything is possible. This conference and this week I have just felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love for what my Savior has done for me. It is through His infinite atonement that I can continually be refined and reformed. This is a never ending process. The atonement is for everyone, for the worst of sinners and for the best of the believers. I have learned so much about how the atonement personally applies to me. A scripture that has come to mean a lot to me on the mission is Ether 12:27. It says
---" and if men will come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then I will make weak things become strong unto them."

 If there is one thing that I have learned on my mission is that I am weak. I need major help! This scripture says that as we come closer to Christ, we will be shown our weaknesses. One at first might think, okay if I am doing my best to know the savior better and become closer to him, shouldn't I be getting stronger? It is kind of like us with mirrors. When we stand super far away from the mirror and we look at our reflection, we say to ourselves "Oh dang.. I'm looking pretty good from back here..." (guilty of this). But as we get closer, and closer we start noticing things that are out of place, or might not look so good (Ew what is that?! Is that really what I look like??) That is kind of like how it is in with Christ. He is our perfect example. When we are far away from him, we think we are doing pretty good. But it is when we start getting closer to him, learning of him, truly coming to know him that we start to recognize the missing links in our armor. That is when we reach out, grab His hand and He helps us overcome those weaknesses. So that we can "become perfected in Him". So that we can be strong and happy and equipped for life. I love my Savior and I have felt His help in overcoming my weaknesses time and time again. And it's not like those weaknesses go away, they stay just enough to have me continually need the help of the Savior every day. I love Him and am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I can't believe almost half my mission has gone by...nope not going to think about it. Seriously though, so grateful for this time I have to really learn all of this and get it truly ingrained on my heart. Que tengan una buena semana!

Con amor,
Hermana Baugh

All Dogs Go to Heaven Too

Buenos Dias from Shareasoda, Florida. I don't think I'll ever get over how great that sounds. So I thought I would just share a few funny quotes/experiences that I had this week.

 We taught Mike the word of wisdom. In all seriousness.."Guys I have a real addiction problem..." *heart drops "..to Nutrigrain bars." *phew.  so we are helping mike overcome his Nutrigrain bar addiction haha... I think that might be a first.

The English elders found a family from Guatemala and "taught them the restoration and set baptismal dates with them" and were really excited when they told us about them. They handed them over to us and when we talked to the family they were so confused.  They thought the Elders were Jehovah Witness and all this stuff haha and they really understand like no English. The English elders learned their lesson and were like, we'll just give them to you in the first place from now on. Hopefully we can really teach them and set real baptismal dates with them now though!

 We taught our recent convert who is 9 years old and is hilarious. She is about to have a baby brother and when she was telling us about it she was like "I can't wait to have a baby brother...I love the way that new babies smell. They smell like hot glue guns." Kids are funny. We taught her about the sacrament, and she was like "wow okay so we are forgiven when we eat the bread. I have a lot of sins... I'm going to need a lot of bread." So this is what goes through the mind of every kid that takes a handful of sacrament bread instead of one. They are just trying to be super righteous.

Ok best part. So last night we planned a huge family home evening with Celfia, her girls, some of her girls friends and their neighbors. Background- Celfia pretty much lives in mini Mexico. I will have to take a picture some time. Everyone there is Hispanic and lives in colorful little box houses and chihuahuas run rampant through the streets. I hate chihuahuas... I always joke about just getting them with the car when we go through her street but then Hna Phillips convinces me not too. Everyone in her neighborhood knows us and we have pretty much taught everyone there at one point or another haha. Anyways, big family home evening. President Gazziro and his wife and then also the first counselor came too. We all sat in a circle and taught the plan of salvation. Then we went outside and made a big obstacle course and did that game where you put a blindfold on and have to follow the "Holy Ghost" and not listen to all the other voices so you can get back to heaven. Everyone loved it. Right when we finished the game we were outside eating brownies with all these little girls that had come and a car came around the corner and a little chihuahua was running in front of it. We were all like oh thats so cute when the dog suddenly slowed down and the car ran it over like five feet away from us! All the girls were just screaming and covering their eyes and running back into the house. Then one of the little girls said "it's okay the puppy will be resurrected too and go to live in heaven!" Ah man it was horrible and but a good object lesson at the same time. Hahah I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to give us a real life application to our plan of salvation lesson... just to make sure those principles really stick with us I guess. Wish I could tell you more but my time is up! Love you everyone!

Love Hermana Baugh