Guess what?...youre adopted!!

This week was a good one. Sorpresa. It was especially good because we had MLC (mission leadership conference) at the beach on Friday! I haven't been able to go to the beach since being in Tampa so that was fun being able to go.

- Everything's set for Maria and Jose's baptism tomorrow. Since I have a little bit more time today, I figured that I would just share with you their story today instead of next week. I love conversion stories, that's probably one of my favorite parts of being a missionary- is being able to listen to the stories of both investigators and members of how they got to be who and where they are. I've been keeping track of a few of them and have a list of the conversions stories I've heard on my ipad. Maria and Jose is a couple from Puerto Rico, they are in their early 50s. They have both been divorced but found each other and got married a few years ago here in Tampa. Maria grew up Catholic but never felt "filled" when she went to church there so she stopped going many many years ago. Since then, she has always prayed to find the church that God wanted her to be in and wanted her to serve. She has tried several and went to the church that Jose attended a few times but didn't feel good though so just stopped going in general and kept praying. That was about 7 years ago. Jose was brought up in a very Catholic family as well, but he left the Catholic church and went to several others throughout his life as well. He has always felt good in those churches, but not one of them ever gave him the desire to keep attending. He was always the type of person who would make up excuses not to go to church. He went through a really hard time in his life and didn't want to go back to church again after he didn't get even a call from anyone in his church because he had felt really alone and didn't receive  a hand of help when he needed one.  Then near the end of August,  Hermana Gibson and I rode our bikes to their neighborhood, locked them up, and said a specific prayer to be able to find someone in this area that we could set a baptismal date with. Haha the funny part is that there are a ton of security guards in this neighborhood that don't like it when we knock doors. Hermana Gibson was worried they were going to kick us out but I said "don't worry, if they ask us what we are doing we will just tell him we are going to visit our friend Maria and I guarantee that one of the first couple doors we knock someone will be named Maria" (its a really hispanic neighborhood). We go up to the first door, knock, and a lady named Maria opened up and let us in! She had been watching us through her window lock our bikes up and felt bad for us riding in the heat in skirts so had been planning on giving us some water. She was happy to let us pray with her  and because she liked us so much and the brief testimony we shared about the restoration she said we could visit them again and that she would make us dinner next time. So we came and ate with her and her husband Jose and taught them the restoration. They were really interested in what we had to share and wanted to learn more. Once we finally got on a fixed schedule to come by and teach them and they were finally able to get a car to come to church is when they really started progressing. Last night we had a lesson with them and they said that the first time they went to church, they went to please us because they liked us a lot. But now, they go to please God. They haven't missed a Sunday since their first attendance 5 weeks ago and said they can't imagine missing it now. We had a testimony meeting with them last night and with their fellowshippers. Jose talked about how he has never in his life had the desire to go to church on Sunday, but when he has gone to this one he feels something different. He feels a peace and described it like he felt his heart was being cleansed. He feels like he's part of a family when he goes there. He said one of the big converting factors for him is actually just the way we pray. He has learned by going to church that prayer is a simple, quiet, reverent thing. Not something loud and rushed. He now prays every day, something he had never done before. It has been neat to see "the evolution of Jose" in church. The first sunday he came in jeans and a shirt, the next with a button up shirt, the next with jeans and a white shirt, the next with jeans with a white shirt and tie, and then finally yesterday with the whole get up. We had  a member come up to us and whisper "el tiene la cara de un opisbo" He has the face, or look, of a bishop.  When Maria shared her testimony, she talked about how from our lessons, she really gained a desire to read the scriptures. She learned about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and bible together. She was given a bible years ago that she has never opened. One day after one of our lessons, she decided to start reading the Book of Mormon, and was reminded of that bible. She went and got it and started reading in Revelations and was lead to that scripture I shared with you in Revelations 3:20 that talks about the savior knocking on the door, and how he will be with those that open the door and he will dine with them. She felt the spirit really strongly and knew in that instant that that scripture was talking about us- how we knocked on the door, came and ate with them, and brought Christ into their lives. It's a good thing I like to eat right? Who knew that would come in handy haha. So after she got that confirmation she had no doubt that this church is Christ's true church . She said last night that recently she has felt so happy. She said she has the same husband, the same problems, the same house-- and yet she is so happy and can't explain why. We testified to them that it is because they are living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yesterday Sister Gibson and I had to teach the gospel principle class in church because the teacher wasn't there. The lesson was on the gathering of the house of Israel. It talks about how first, Israel will be gathered spiritually. The way the gathering is brought about is through missionary work. Whenever someone is baptized and makes that special covenant with God, they become one of the children of the covenant and are adopted into the House of Israel. While I was teaching, the thought came to me of how to be baptized, there is a process to it and some paperwork to fill out. I said " those baptismal papers that you have had to fill out, those are really just your adoption papers. Your adoption papers into the house of Israel." It was really neat to think about. I feel so blessed to be able to play apart in the gathering of Israel, of God's children, and with the adoption process. God is hastening his work and He wants all of His children to have the chance to learn and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether it's in this life or the next. He makes that opportunity possible for everyone, God wouldn't make salvation only possible for a few of his children. The atonement and mercy of Jesus Christ are available to all, it's just up to us to accept it and apply it in our lives daily. I know that the cleansing and purifying power of the atonement is real, and that it enables us to change. I know that because I've seen it in my life, and in the lives of the people around me. Keep praying for missionaries around the world, and for the missionaries in your home (YOU) to continue to find people who are waiting to hear that message.
Con mucho carino
Hermana Baugh

Que hace un pez? Nada

Buenas tardes

This week was a busy one. We had the opportunity to teach even more people than we did the last week despite having an exchange, interviews and a meeting with President, and a baptism. It is so neat to see the progression we have seen in this area since we got here. I think one of the reasons that we are seeing such great results is because we ourselves as missionaries have progressed, and as a result our ward, area and investigators are progressing  more as well.

-Joel's baptism went really well. As a tradition, I will give you his full story again. Joel is 32 and moved to the United states a year ago with his wife and his wife's family from Honduras. He and his wife have been having problems though and two months before we met him, he left to go to Colorado. But as soon as he got to Colorado, he felt like that was not where he was supposed to be and took the bus all the way back to Florida again. We started teaching his wife Dinora first after she had met the english sister missionaries. We had seen Joel briefly a few times but he didn't accept our invitations to learn. Then one day when we were teaching Dinora's cousin, we invited him to learn, he politely declined then walked out the door. A few minutes later though, he came back in and said that he actually did want to learn. We later asked him why he came back that day and he said that it was because God had told him to, he had felt in his heart that he needed to.  Since that day he has progressed so much. He has come to church every sunday since then, has completely overcome his coffee addiction,  tries to read in the book of mormon every day and is now in Mosiah, feels like his connection with God is stronger than it ever has been before, and that we were sent by God to meet him and introduce him to the church right when he needed it most. This past month as we have been teaching him he has been going through a divorce with his wife (not because of the church or anything, but past problems) and he really feels like God led him to us right as that door was closing so that another one could open that would allow him to strengthen his relationship with God during this hard time in his life. It was neat to see how happy he was at his baptism and after his confirmation on Sunday. He is going to be able to help a lot of people. What's neat is that Joel found out when he was learning about the church through talking to his parents in Honduras that his parents actually were baptized into the church when Joel was 1 yrs old. Since then they haven't been active. Joel has intvited them to start reading the book of mormon again and to look into going back to church. Hopefully he can help his family find the gospel again.

- Man I really need to get a picture of Maria and Jose. We are going to make some flan with Maria today though so I wil make sure to get one. They are all interviewed and set for their baptisms. They can't be baptized until next tuesday though because of some scheduling conflicts but they are so solid Im not worried about it. They haven't missed a day at church these last five weeks. haha they even bought Joel a white shirt and tie for his baptism it was so adorable. Next week I will tell you their whole story. Basically they are the most prepared people I have ever taught. I have been praying so hard for Jose this week to feel ready for his baptism because he was still expressing some doubts about feeling like he wasn't ready to make this promise with God because he still felt unworthy. I felt inspired to read Alma 7 with them from the Book of Mormon this weed and we had a really spiritually led  lesson on repentance. After the closing prayer, Jose had tears rollig down his cheeks and said he felt something in his heart he had never felt before. He said it felt like he was being cleansed from the inside out. We explained that it was the spirit, purifying him and helping him to know that God was proud of him. He feels prepared to be baptized ow because of that spiritual confirmation. Im so grateful for the guidance of the spirit and His converting power.

--Other important events this week? hmm.. Had my last interview with President Cusick this week before my exit one. I've learned to love him and admire him so much. I know he is called of God and that a major reason that I was called to this mission was because of him. God knew I needed to learn from his strengths and wisedom. My interview mostly consisted of him telling me how proud of me he was, and how much he loved me. Haha knowing president, this is unusual since he is  a man who is quick to offer correction and tell us what we can do to improve. Somehow we ended up talking about how I can do 60 pushups straight now and he almost made me do them in his office. That would have been interesting. Im so grateful for him. I also had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Sister Briggs, a newer misisonary in our zone. She is so great and doing so well. I loved being able to spend time with her. She was a cross country and track runner in high school too so it was fun going on a run together in the morning. It has been a year since I have had someone to run with me!! Things are continuing to go really well though, hope everyone has a great week
love hermana baugh

We're not tracting...we're practicing for Halloween

Happy Monday

Hope everyone had a good Halloween on Saturday! I'm thinking back and I just realized that I didn't eat one piece of candy...Im buying a bunch of discount Halloween candy today though to make up the difference. That's the way to go anyways. Halloween night we actually had quite a few teaching appointments set up (a lot of our investigators don't celebrate it because apparently its like celebrating Satan, they are pretty righteous investigators) but we did have a little bit of time to go trick or treating. Actually, I had  the idea to go reverse trick or treating. We taped some smarties to the back of pass along cards with a picture of Christ and info about the Book of Mormon and rang some doors and literally said "Hi! We are reverse trick or treating, here's a picture of Christ and some candy" haha it actually worked pretty well we taught a few lessons because of it. We had dressed up like Mormon missionaries so our costumes must have been pretty convincing because people actually listened to us. I did tape a little piece of paper to hermana gibson's tag though that said "viene" So we were hermana baugh and hermana viene.  Va (pronounced the same as Baugh) means going and Viene means coming so I thought that clever and at least I got a kick out of it haha.

-Things are still going really well here. We had a full week to just focus on our area without any extra meetings or exchanges and we were able to teach the most people I ever have in my whole mission! I feel so blessed in this area. We were also able to make some good progress with our correlation with the ward and our gospel principles class which are things we have been trying to improve for a while now so it was good to see some progress. Joel is all set for baptism on Saturday, he' s interviewed and everything. He would already be baptized but he knows he wants to be baptized on the 7th because it's a holy number. He does have a point. Pray that this week goes well and that he stays strong! the pre baptismal week is always the worst. Maria and Jose are doing extremely well and even brought their 25 year old daughter to church and sunday and Jose wore a white shirt. You know things are getting pretty serious when investigators start wearing white shirts. Maria downloaded the gosepl library app this week and I swear she is going to finish reading everything on that app in a few weeks. We got to our lesson one day and she was telling us about all these things she had been reading about in Preach my gospel ( the book that we use as missionaries that teaches us how to be missionaries and how to teach) and then another day we taught them about tithing and fast offerings and she said oh yeah yesterday I read about fasting on the app and how you have to start and end with a prayer so I did one. Who does that?? They are pretty cool. This week I had a few neat experiences where I felt like I was really able to teach with the spirit and explain things in a way that I hadn't before. Joel and Jose both had doubts about tithing. In thier individual lessons this week about tithing, I was able to say two things that really helped them to clear up their doubts. With Jose we talked about how it's not God who needs the money from tithing, it's us that needs the sacrifice and blessings of tithing. He really was able to gain a better understanding of it after gaining that persepective. With Joel, he has always paid his tithing but has never done it through a church. He always takes out his 10 percent, and then has that money ready to use whenever he sees someone in need or feels inspired to give it to someone. I was really trying to think of how we could help him gain a better understanding of tithing and to gain a testimony that God wants us to pay it to the church to be able to build his kingdom. I was reminded of Malachi 3:10, which wasn't weird because we use that scripture every time we talk about tithing, but it stuck out to me how it says to "bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house..." It says right there in the bible that we need to bring our tithing to the "storehouse" or to the church of jesus christ, so that He will be able to use those sacrifices we give him in the best possible way. He had never thought about that scripture that way before and completely understood it after. It was just neat to see how the spirit prompted me to say two things that compeltely helped them to resolve their doubts.

- Francheliz (the 25 yr old from puerto Rico who isn't married) is still doing really well. We sitll haven't been able to meet with her and her husband together though since he only has one day off a week and things have come up the last two weeks but he does still want to learn. We were able to have a really good lesson with Francheliz this week though that was just about the atonement. I really loved that. Just having a lesson completely focused on the atonement, what it is, why it is so necessary, and how she can apply it in her life more. I asked Francheliz what her favorite thing she has learned is since she started meeting with us and she told us that it is how she has learned that she has the responsibility as a mom to teach her son how to believe in God and pray and live the gospel. She learned that when we read the family proclamation with her and she realized for the first time how big of a responsibliity she has as a parent. It's so cute to hear her five year old say the closing prayers for the lessons now because she taught him how. I've really learned that not every person is going to go all the way, get baptized, the whole shabang. In fact that very rarely happens. But If I can help someone learn how to do something so simple as knkowing how to study the scriptures or say a prayer, then it is all worth it. Que les vaya bien
con mucho carino
Hermana Baugh

We Are Different

This week has been a good one!

I have spoken more spanish these last two weeks than I have my whole mission. Speaking spanish to each other all the time has pretty much been a companionship goal I have had my whole mission. It's so hard though since we live in America and in case you didn't know, everything in America is in english which makes it hard to always speak spanish. But a few weeks ago I thought I'd make speaking spanish within our companionship something competitive since Im just naturally a competitive person. So every time one of us has started to speak in english these past few weeks, we have to give ourself a point. And then on the following pday, you tally up all your points, and the number of points you have is how many minutes of a massage you have to give your companion. It has been working really well, we've only spoken english to each other a few times these past two weeks.

- Maria and Jose, the couple from Puerto Rico that I talked about last week are doing so so well. This week Maria got a spiritual confirmation that this church is true and what she has been searching for. She said that she had some time during the day so felt like she should sit down and start reading the Book of Mormon. and so she did, and a little bit into it, she was reminded of the bible that a friend had given her years ago that she had never opened. She felt like she needed to so she went and got it and was led to revelations, and read the entire book of revelations. While she was reading, she felt the spirit really strongly when she read Revelations 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." She said she felt so good when she read that and thought about how she had opened the door to us, felt something different and wanted to learn more, we ate dinner to us, and how she feels like she has felt more closer to Christ every since she did that. She said that because of that, she feels that us and this church are the answers to her prayers to be able to find the church where God needs her to serve. She is so set on getting baptized on Nov 7, but her husband wants to get baptized on Nov 14th.  hahah in the lesson it was so funny she was like "Im not waiting for you! I feel like Im going to be ready the 7th!" hhaha so we will see what happens with that. I want them to get baptized together though. On Sunday we had a miracle. We woke up Sunday morning with some texts from Maria saying she was so sorry that they actually wouldn't be able to come to church because she didn't have any more skirts and didn't want to wear pants. I quickly went to my closet, grabbed a few skirts I thought might work and we dropped them off on her porch hoping they would work and that they would come. Nothing could describe my happiness seeing them walk into sacrament meeting beaming! She was so happy and grateful. They are doing so good

- Joel is doing really well too. One of the members came to a lesson with him and shared her conversion story and how she stopped drinking coffee to be able to be baptized. She said it was really hard, but that she was able to do it and she talked about all the blessings she has seen since being a member of the church. Since then, Joel hasn't drank coffee once and he's done it all on his own. It is a real testimony to me to see how much faith others have and that God blesses us for that faith. He came to church again too on Sunday and is continuing to progress well and he says he's set to get baptized on Nov 7th:)

-This week we heard from several people that they don't know what it is, or why they let us into their homes but something tells them to. Something makes them want to listen to what we have to say. One of those ladies is Betty who is another progressing investigator we met recently. We walked past her, then turned around and gave her a bom and prayed with her. We have met with her a few other times since then and she keeps telling us, I don't know why I keep inviting you back...the only thing I know is that I have never felt this good and this peaceful before. There's something different about you. The other day we tracted into an old lady named Anna who kept telling us "I just see the Lord in your faces, you have the lord in your eyes". She wasn't really interested in learning more...but she gave us fudge haha. Another lady this week named Yancy from El Salvador said " ya know, a lot of people have come knocking on my door and I have never once let them in. I don't know why you were different." I've thought about that a lot recently, why do people even invite us in? Or listen to us? I think about myself and if I were in their situation..two nun looking girls come knocking on my door offering to pray for me, would I even give them a chance? I realize more and more, that it's not me personally or hermana gibson that gets us into people's home or allows us to teach people, it is the holy ghost. Nothing else could soften people's hearts and inspire them to accept our invitations. I've learned from the example of the nephite people in 3 nefi 19:9, when they are prayign to have that which they desired most, which was to be given the holy ghost, that that truly is the most important thing to have with us. If I don't desire to have the holy ghost with me more than anything else, then Im doing this all wrong. Que Dios les bendiga

Hermana Baugh

Asi es la vida cuando soy misionera

Anyone remember the song the rescuers sing from the movie the rescuers down under that goes "R-e-s-c-u-e,- rescuing society!" Well I've come to make singing that song with the words "asi es la vida, cuando soy misionera!" my theme song on my mission. It basically means "that's the way life is when Im a missionary". I start singing it whenever something ridiculous happens that would only happen to a missionary-- when a man you gave a Book of Mormon to in your complex a few weeks ago stops you in your car, asks you to roll the window down and pray with him, when you're riding your bike and the wind starts up and you're holding your skirt down for dear life, when you have a day packed full of appointments and plans and they all fall through on you--- cosas asi. Things like that. It's a wonderful life:)

Guess what! I got  a letter the other day from Magali, she and her daughter got baptized when I was in Cortez and then later her husband Juan a few months later and I got to go back to the baptism. She said they are doing so well, her husband Juan is now in the young mens presidency and he just baptized their 8 yr old  son Yayir. They are taking classes to prepare to go to the temple together and read the bom and bible as a family every day. Getting that letter made me more happy than anything. It's such a blessing to have made so many close friends here on my mission and to get to see thier continual progress.

-Francheliz is doing well and still progressing. unfortunately her husband didn't want to get married (he wants a big wedding on the beach in puerto rico...too bad that is like ya know.. across the ocean..) But we did a fast that his heart would be softened and this week he actually accepted to start taking the lessons. so we are hoping for some progress there.

- Another neat family that I met a few weeks ago while I was here on exchanges with a sister named sister coleman is the williams family. They are an english family- and it is a single mom with three children and two have parkinsons disease. Her two boys with this disease are only in their 20s and they are already having some pretty serious effects from this disease. It was actually her 11 year old daughter that we met first outside and introduced us to her family. It was such a blessing to find them. They are all progressing towards baptism now and have a date for november 7th to be baptized and are really excited for it:) We decided it would be best to hand them over to the english elders though since we can't even go to church with them so we are introducing them to the english elders tonight. I hope everything goes well with the hand off and the elders can continue to help this family progress and im glad for the chance Iva had to teach them these past couple weeks. Hopefully everything goes well with their baptism and I can go and send ya'll pictures:)

- Joel is doing so well. He is Dinora's husband. We still haven't been able to have much contact with dinora because she works so dang much but Joel is progressing so well. He came to church again and is already half way through 2nd nefi. And guess what? He found out his parents  (in honduras) are actually members of the church! how cool is that? He has been getting great fellowhhsip from the ward, the first counselor in the bishopric is convinced joel will be the next elders quorum president haha. Please if everyone could pray for him though for his efforts to live the word of wisdom, that is what we are working with right now.

- This week we had a special mission leadership conference where we got the opportunity to listen to Elder Soares (presidency of the quorum of the 70) speak to us. He talked about the importance of our missionary purpose and to always make sure that we are "helping" EVERYONE to come unto christ, that we are motivating, uplifting and inspiring instead of convincing or dragging anyone to Christ! It was really amazing to be able to listen to such an inspiring leader.  Something that he said really stuck out to me was that on our missionary plaques... or I guess tags.. sorry spanish translation problem.. We have three names. The name of the church, the name of Jesus Christ, and the name of our Family. Our name is no where to be found on it. This work is not about us, it is about hastening the work of the Lord
s kingdom, serving our Savior, and honoring our families and helping others to be with theirs for eternity.
-So i usually don't talk about investigators in my letters until they come to church and now I can finally tell you about Maria and Jose! ( I know, all they need is a baby named Jesus right?) The way we met them was kind of funny. We were in this classy trailer park (I lvoe this place its seriously the best) called village of tampa and there are secureity guards all over it who dont like us to knock doors. So we went there one day a few weeks ago to go knock doors of course and a security guard was coming up to us and Sister Gibson got worried he was going to kick us out and I just said "It's okay, we will just tell him we are going to go see our friend maria, then we will go find a maria to teach" I say that because nearly every other hispanic is named Maria. And what do you know? They very first door we knock, it opens, We introduce ourselve and the lady who opens it said "nice to meet you! Im Maria." Im so glad I kept myself together and didn't start laughing then! We have been able to teach them a few times since then, and they call us their daughters now. WE've had dinner with them a few times and they always give us cake pops. They really made some great progress this week and came to church and absolutely loved it. They were pretty nervous but they got along so well with all the members and they fit right in it was perfect. Im really excited to see the progress that they keep making!!

Que tengan una buena semana
hermana vaugh