Title: The craziest Navidad...

This week has been a great one. On Wednesday we went caroling with our
Relief Society Presidency. We were walking for almost 4 hours straight
delivering tamales and singing. We went to all of the houses of the
older ladies in our ward. It was so special and the spirit that we
felt was so strong. The joy in their eyes was beaming when we arrrived.


Christmas in this crazy country is insane! They start their
celebration on Christmas Eve. All of the members in our ward invited
us to their house. So we had appointments with members almost every hour
from 3-9. Well, my companion had warned me that on Christmas eve and
Christmas day we are going to feel sick because all the members feed
us and it is rude if we deny the food.. So we go to the first
appointment which was right after lunch. Luckily she just gave us a
ton of cookies and grapes that we could take home for later.
With the next member she gave us tamales (this is the food of Navidad
here, and these tamales are HUGE). She ended up having to leave so she
just gave us the tamales in a bag to eat later. Well, we
had a ton of food to carry and we felt weird taking to all the
other houses with us because it looked like we had gifts but they
weren’t for them. So, with shame we found a place in an alley where we
could eat the tamales and stuff the rest in our bags. We then went to
the next appointment, they gave us ANOTHER tamale, cake, grapes,
ponche, and papaya. When we left I seriously thought I was going to be
sick. But I had to suck it up because we had one more appointment..
We get to that house and they wanted to give us another tamale. We said
that we were extremely full so they just gave us stuffed bread
instead, but a ton of stuffed bread. Ahhh we finally got back to the
house and I couldn’t move.. I thought I stuffed myself with xmas dinner in
the states, but now I really know the meaning of being full.
Anyway, the last family felt really bad because we didn’t eat very
much so she gave us a TON of food to take home. We aren’t going to
need to go shopping for a week or so.. On xmas eve everyone stays
up until midnight and at 12 they do fireworks. I am not really sure
how I slept that night because there was sooo many fireworks and music
playing in the street.

Christmas day we woke up at the normal time, 6:30. We opened a couple
of presents and stockings that my mom sent. We then went to the church
to bake cookies because we wanted to carol and bring cookies to our
investigators. We then talked to our families which was difficult but
so great. Then… more food. We had close to the same experience that
night with the members and the food, but it was so great to be with
the members, they are so strong here in my ward!  The first xmas away
from my family was definitely hard. I miss them so much! But I have
learned that this is where the Lord wants me to be right now. And when
I rely on Him and do his will, I really can feel his love for me and
can be happy in the hard times. I am so greatful for all of the
wonderful things that I am learning here in Guatemala. Time is going
to fly by so I have to remember to enjoy every moment, even those
moments when it seems like nothing can go right.

I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas! Enjoy the new year!

Feliz navidad, prospero año, y felicidad!

Hermana Baird <3

Title: Feliz Navidad!

Wow I cannot believe it is already Christmas! Time has flown by these past couple of months. I feel like it was just a couple of days ago when I arrived in Cerrito del Maiz. I am so excited for this week. We have a few fun Christmas activities with the ward and with the mission. I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and takes some time to remember the real reason for this holiday!

This week has been a good one. My birthday was on Wednesday and was so much fun. We went to the church during language study to make a cake. We invited one of our investigators to come for a lesson and after celebrate! The young women were having an activity so we shared our cake with them too and then they invited us to eat lunch with them. It was a great gift and so much fun! That night the power went out, and when the power goes out we have to enter our house at 6 because its pitch black and super dangerous. So on our way to the house we stopped at the tienda which is right in front of it that sells fresh papa fritas (french fries but wayyy better than in the states sorrrrry). So that was my birthday dinner papa fritas from the street vendors haha. 

Again I am short on time. But i hope everyone has an amazing Christmas! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Con amor de Guatemala,

Hermana Baird

 

Hola all!

Hope all is well I don't have much time to write today but I am going to attach some pictures! This week has been super good and we have been way busy. Christmas time is crazy here, there are fireworks everywhere, food everywhere, and fiestas every night in the central parque. The picture with the crazy people is at one of the events they were having for Xmas in our area. It is a tradition every year to have to "Combite" (the people in the costumes) to come and dance. The other picture is with Mayrena, our latest convert, and her family. We are making a tradition to have Domino's for lunch with our converts the week after their baptism. And yes I am a giant in this picture. I am a giant compared to all people here! 

 

Title: #HaNacidounSalvador

Wow Christmas is so soon I cannot believe it! It is a little difficult during this time because I miss being with my family. But at the same time it is amazing because I have the opportunity to remind people here what Christmas is really about. The church has a new video out Ha Nacido un Salvador (A Savior has been born). We have a portable DVD and try to show this to everyone we pass by in the streets.  Everyone should go and watch it! The website is  navidad.mormon.org. This month of December has been much different for me than in the past. Not only because I am on a mission, but because of my mindset about Christmas. I have been thinking more about the true purpose of it. We all get so wrapped up in gifts and materialistic things during this time, when really the most important thing to remember is the birth our Savior Jesus Christ. He is not only our savior in the sense that we can return with our Heavenly Father after this life, but he is also our Savior during this life. It is through Christ that we can be happy during our time here in this life. It is through repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can feel true joy and peace. I am so grateful for our Savior and invite everyone to take time to think about the true meaning of Christmas, and I know that it will make this season even better for you!

This week has been great! Our investigator Mayrena was baptized! She has 3 kids, two of them were baptized in September, and the other is only 6. They were such great example to her. And now she is a member too! She has such a strong testimony and is a great example to us. I love them so much. They are super fun to be around, and of course love making fun of my Spanish haha. 

We had the great opportunity this week to have a conference with Elder Ochoa, one of the Central American Seventies. It was so great hearing from a general authority here in the mission because they know exactly what we need to do here to have success. Something  I loved hearing from him was that it doesn't matter if people reject us. We are here to give everyone the opportunity to hear the message of Jesus Christ and we need to be bold and talk to everyone. Even if we think we are going to get a door slammed in our faces. I really needed to hear this because I got a little discouraged this last week. We were contacting in the street and we came upon a man who seemed extremely nice. He was smiling and seemed interested in what we wanted to teach him. He invited us in and we started the lesson. Well very quickly we learned he didn't want to hear it. He only wanted us to come in so that he could bash us. He would ask us what we though about something, and before we could even start he would tell us nope I don't believe it. He bashed us for about 1 hour. I wanted to cry, I felt so frustrated and angry! I didnt understand why someone was being so mean when we were just trying to share a simple messege with him. I felt discouraged but relized that this is just part of the missin and hard things happen so that I can grow. I learned that I need to develop more charity. So that I can love this people that reject us just like chirst loved those who rejected him. The mission is great! I am learning so much that will help me throughout all of my life. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for all of the support from my friends and family. 

Love you all!

xoxoxo

Title: Baptisms! :)--- Blogger's secretary was out of town until today:)

This week was great! Two of our investigators were baptized! The first was Manuel. I've talked about him before, but he is just so great. I am so inspired by his strong testimony of this gospel. He bore his testimony at the baptism and said that reading the Book of Mormon is the biggest help in his life and is what gives him strength. It is how he came to know everything in this church was true. I loved hearing that because its exactly what we teach our investigators, and he came to know that was true for himself. We brought him Dominos for lunch the next day and watched The Testaments with him. Afterwards he was saying that he was so grateful for the gospel and felt so much peace in his life now. He told us that Fridays are hard for him at times because that is when he would always go out with his friends and drink, but he says that every Friday he makes sure he reads el Libro de Mormon and his pamphlet that we gave him about the Word of Wisdom, and that gives him the strength that he needs and helps him to have no desire to go. I am just amazed by how the Atonement of Jesucristo has completely changed this man. What a great example he is to all of his friends and family.

Our other is Abner. He is 17 years old and is already getting excited about serving a mission! He was a great investigator, he understood our lessons really well and was ready to be baptized. It was a little bit sad because he lives in a different area than ours. His girlfriend is in our ward. she introduced him to us. So once he was ready for baptism he had to switch to a different ward. It is sad but
okay, we still get to see him sometimes! 

Everything here is going great. There are definitely some hard days, but the good days really make you forget all of the hard ones. Spanish is my biggest desafio right now, but poco a poco its coming along! My companion is amazing and she is an awesome teacher for me. I am really sad because we are probably going to have transfers before my training is over.. There is a member who told my comp he wanted to marry her yesterday hahaha.. So she probably is going to get switched to another area. Its funny, but not really! I don't know what I am going to do without her. I am praying that she doesn't get changed, but I guess we will find out soon! 

Hope everyone has an amazing week!

xoxoxo

foto 1: Bautismo de Manuel!

foto 2: Bautismo de Abner!

Title: A Crazy Week 

Well this week was a little crazy. To start with, on Tuesday I ended up having to leave my area and go back to Guatemala City to renew my visa! I was so sad because I had to miss lessons with some of our new investigators. But it ended up being pretty fun because I got to go with my roommate that I had in the MTC, Hermana Serrano, and another girl that was in the MTC at the same time as us. We left Tuesday afternoon and its a 6 hour ride so we didn't get there til pretty late. But we had a private taxi driver that worked for the church the entire time we were there so we were safe! We ate at McDonald's for dinner, which usually I absolutely hate but for some reason here any American food tastes like heaven to me. Anyway, we got to stay at a nice hotel that night and the next morning we went and started our journey at the immigration office. The church has a lady to help us through everything so we basically just had to stand there and wait while she did all the work. It was super slow though. After we finished our taxi driver took us to Taco Bell which again for some reason tasted wayyyy better than it ever has! We didn't get back to our area until like 10pm that night. It was the longest day ever. But I made it back safe and sound! 

Friday was so great! There is a lady we found who is inactive so we have been visiting her. We asked her last week if we could come by and do some service with her. She told us to come Friday. So when we got there we got to help her make tamales! So fun. Then she said we had to stay until they were done cooking so we could have some. Yuummmmy they were so delicious! Its a good thing I like corn though. For lunch that day we had of course tortillas, the tamales then at the next lesson atol, its a drink made of corn, then at our next lesson piñon, another drink made of corn. Holy cow... I thought I was going to be sick from all the food people gave us that day. Thank goodness everyday is not like that!

Something I learned this week: an entire day can be very bad and hard, but one thing can change the entire day into being one of the best days! We were having one of the hardest days. All of our lessons fell through because the people either weren't there or didn't have time to meet with us. So we were trying to contact on the streets. Well there was hardly anyone on the street so it made that hard as well. We were feeling a little discouraged and were ready for the day to be over. Well our last lesson of the day was with someone who we had contacted in the previous week in the street. Her name is Juana and she is around our age. We went to her house and began talking about the pamphlet that we had given her. She had actually read it which was so awesome! She explained to us that she has so much confusion right now because she is trying to figure out which church is true because there are so many. But in the Bible it says there is only one true church. We taught her the first lesson and invited her to church the next day. The cool thing was that on Sunday there was a special conference for only Guatemala and an apostle, Elder Bednar, was speaking at it! She wanted to come, so she, her sister and her daughter came. We passed by her house in the morning to get her and she asked us if we wanted to wear her corte!! Corte is the typical Guatemalan clothing and it is so cool! I want some of my own but I asked her how much it was and she said that its about 300-400$$!! They hand make the entire thing so I understand why. Anyway she is so awesome and I am so grateful that we were directed to Juana because this gospel is exactly what she has been searching for!

The thing that just made this week even crazier is yesterday I got attacked by two dogs! It was so scary. We were trying to contact some people and my comp said she wanted to, but they have mean dogs, so she wasn't sure. I said it was okay because I'm not afraid of dogs and I would go first. Well, I guess I needed some humbling because sure enough they ran around the corner and starting biting my legs! I must have screamed loud as we ran out to the street because people were running towards us. Luckily, two of them were nurses and when they saw my legs they ran back to there houses to get some stuff to clean out my cuts. Thank goodness they were there because I was freaking out and didn't know what to do. I called our mission nurse and the mission doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and cream, anddddd the dogs were vaccinated so everything is all good! And I learned my lesson that I need to be a little more cautious about the dogs here.

I love it here! I love the people here! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve them and the Lord. Hope everyone has a great week! 

Hermana Baird

Picture 1: Making tamales with Hermana Figueroa

Picture 2: Juana and her adorable daughter and sister!

Picture 3: Las niñas preciosa!

 4--Hermana Rodriguez and I at Rio San Juan!

5--Nuestra zona!

6--Mcdonalds in guatemala city!

Title: 2 MONTHS!!!

I love it here. These people are so much fun. IT feels like I am literally just the joke of my area. Everyone just laughs at me because I am the gringa who is trying to speak Spanish and sound like I am 2 years old--but I love it haha. I just laugh with them at myself and keep trying to talk! The members here are so sweet. We get to eat lunch with them each day and they feed us sooo much, oh my.  I think I probably eat 20 tortillas a week, no joke. They are so delicious because people are making them fresh daily! Its so cool how they make them, I tell everyone who can "tortillar" that I want them to teach me! They just smile and laugh...my comp said its super hard, so I think that's why they laugh. 

One of my favorite parts of the day is during dinner time. We never actually take the hour we have for dinner. We aren't usually suppose to eat street food because who knows whats in it and how much it could destroy our stomachs. There is a member who sells street food,  and since we know and trust her, its okay! She makes things called Chicharrines and I have honestly no idea how to explain it, so I am going to send a pic next week. But she always has the best Guatemalan food! Saturday she had empanadas that were made with  fresh corn tortillas and stuffed with potatoes and meat and then deep fried. So good! I love being able to support the members here through these kind of things. 

Its so funny, there are these two ladies we are teaching who are cousins and are probably about 30 or so. There are always a ton of kids outside of their houses so I always bring candy. I didn`t have that many at the last lesson so I just gave it to Maida and Aracely, the ladies we are teaching. They asked where I got all of it and I said ohhh my parents have sent me so much and I need to get rid of it or else I am going to be a little more than chubby or "gordita." They laughed and said they would have it. And I said okay if you guys want it just start calling me gordita and its all yours. So now my new name to them is Gordita Gringa. Hahaha I love them. Lessons are always so much fun with them and they are super receptive thus far! 

Thanks so much for all your support!

Much love from the beautiful country of Guatemala,

Hermana Baird

TITLE: I made it!

Well, I made it to the field! After a super long day of travel we finally made it. We had about a 3 hour drive to Quetzaltenango. We met the President and had a few meetings. Then met our new companions and headed out to our areas. My companion is the absolute best! Hermana Rodriguez is from Honduras and has only 3 more months on her mission. I am so grateful for her because she is so extremely patient with me. She doesn't speak a lot of English and my Spanish is not very good yet so it has been a bit difficult, but we are getting through it! She is teaching me so much, about Spanish and also about how to be a good missionary. She is amazing! I am in an area called Huehuetenango, its about 3 hours from Xela. My area is Cerrito de Maiz, it means hills of corn. And oh my goodness, there is so many hills! I went from sitting all day to climbing hills all day. I like the change but holy cow its exhausting. The people here are so great. So humble. 

The hardest thing is not being able to understand everything people are telling me. They talk SO fast! So most of the time I just smile and nod. Hopefully "si" is the right answer to everything cuz that what I have been doing! In a package from my mom I received a big bag of Halloween candy that she sent me to give to the kids. So that's how I get the trust and break the ice when we are looking for new people to teach. I just give them candy haha. And I try to talk to them and we usually just end up laughing together because I am not making a lot of sense. The little kids think its so funny when I try to speak Spanish. Which I  don't blame them, it is pretty funny. Day by day its improving though. I am able to speak fine in the lessons, its just outside of the lessons that are hard! 

My apartment is actually pretty nice. We don't have warm showers, but we are trying to fix it so hopefully by this week we do! But I am getting used to it, its no big deal. We get to eat at members houses every day for lunch. They cook yummy food, but lets just say my stomach is still getting used to it. People are constantly making tortillas, and oh my gosh, the tortillas here are to die for! 

We have a baptism date set for November 14 for a man named Manuel. He is amazing. I cannot believe how much faith he has. He has been an alcoholic for a long time, but once he learned about the gospel he realized that he needs to stop. We didn't have to try and convince him of anything, we simply taught the Word of Wisdom to him, and he said that he needed to change because of the commandment God has given him. Its pretty amazing seeing the strong faith of people here. I love it. It strengthens me for sure. 

Anyways, I don't have a lot of time to write, so to all of you who have sent me emails, I LOVE YOU! PLEASE keep sending them and keeping me up to date with your life, because I read all of them, I just don't have a lot of time to respond. Your emails keep me going and keep me happy. Thank you all so much for all your support!!

Muchas Gracias! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Baird

New companion

Hermana Rodriguez

First rain storm

Title: The Final Countdown!

Oh my goodness, I leave for Quetzaltenango in 6 days! I could not be any more excited. I am a little nervous due to my broken Spanish, but once I am out in the field I know I will pick up on it much faster because I will be totally immersed. Its likely that my first companion will be a native spanish speaker, which will be so good for me, it will force me to use my Spanish! Pray for her... She is going to need a whole lot of patience once she hears me try to talk! I can´t wait to meet her and my mission president. This is going to be such an amazing experience and I am so ready for it to begin.

This last week at the MTC has been a little different. The week started off great. Last tuesday we got to go to this little mall and shop around for awhile. We mainly just bought candy and snacks--and they had peanut butter!!! I was so happy. Well, unfortunately, I havent been able to eat any of it because a couple of days later I woke up feeling very sick. Turns out I had a stomach virus! I hadn´t ever felt so sick to my stomach before, the nurse put me on a speacial diet to try and calm it. It lasted about 4 or 5 days. Two of the days I was so sick that I couldn´t go to class and had to sleep. Thankfully this happened at the MTC so that my companion was still able to go to class and didn´t just have to stay in the room with me. I am so grateful for her, she has been so extremely patient and loving the last few days with me! Anyways, its all good now, I feel 100x better! Now these next 6 days I am just going to have to study my heart out so that I can make up for the 2 days I lost last week! 

Today was the last time we get to go to the Guatemala City Temple. It has been such a blessing to have the temple just right outside the gates of the MTC. Every morning when we walk down to breakfast we have an awesome view of it, with the mountains right behind it. Today at the temple I was just thinking about how great it is to be a member of the church that Jesus Christ organized. I was thinking about how blessed everyone in this world is to have a brother who would sacrafice his life for us, and suffer for all of his brothers and sisters, so that we all could progress in this life, and live with our Heavenly Father once again. Whenever I think about this sacrafice, it motivates me even more to give all of my might, mind, and strength to God these next 18 months, to show him how thankful I am for what his Son did for all of us. 

I love you all so much and am so grateful for your support!
Have an amazing week,

Hermana Baird<3

PS.  My mission address on my bookmark should read:

Sister Anastasia D. Baird

Guatemala Quetzeltenango Mission

5A Calle 14-35, Zona 3

09001 Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Title: THE BEST WEEK EVER!

Hola mi familia y mi amigos :)

This week has been so awesome!! Last Tuesday we got to start the day with going to the temple which is always amazing. After that we got to leave the MTC and go to the central mercado and central plaza in the heart of Guatemala City! It was so great to finally get out and see parts of Guatemala (in the MTC it kinda feels like we are still in America). The best part about this little adventure was when we went to the central plaza we had two Books of Mormon to hand out. My companion, Hermana Compton, and I prayed about who we should pass them to, and then began the search. We saw a couple sitting with a baby and a stoller and felt like we should talk to them. There names were George and Sharon. They had heard of the Church before, and seen missionaries like us before. George told us that his mom and siblings were actually members of the church, and that he had been thinking that he wanted to learn more about it--so cool!!! We got to know him, his wife, and his three kids for a couple of minutes and then introduced the Book of Mormon to him. We gave them a copy and the seemed so grateful and happy to receive it. They gave us their contact info and we were able to give it to the MTC president so that they could start meeting with missionaries that are in their area! Our next copy we gave to another couple, Rosa and Gary.  They were so kind and willing to listen to our message too. People here are so humble and accepting here it is amazing! They all love to listen to the messages we have. Anyway, we found out that Gary and Rosa were Catholic, so we asked them if they believed in the Bible. They said yes, so we began to explain the Libro de Mormon was an addition to the Bible, its another testimony of Jesus Christ only when he visited the Americas. We had them read a short part of the Introduction and they said, "que bonita!" They seemed to really love it and took a copy and said they were going to read it. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! It was such a great experience getting a little taste of what I will be doing when I leave the training center and am in the field. I am so excited--only three more weeks :) 

So last week Hermana Compton and I were talking to Hermana Cox who is the MTC President's wife. We were talking about what food we really missed from home and Hermana Compton said chocolate chip cookies. So then Hermana Cox said, okay sometime this week I am going to bake cookies for you two and your roommates. But keep it a secret because its only for the four of you. So on Friday after our exercise time we got to go to her and Presidente Cox's apartment and eat fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies :) I never thought I would apprecieate cookies so much. It was so fun getting to chat with Presidente and Hermana Cox for a little while. What awesome people with such a strong love for missionaries and the gospel. Since conference was the next morning they encouraged us to think of questions that we wanted answered. My main question was what can I do to become the very best missionary I can be, and that was definately answered! 

Conference was so incredible, and I was so grateful to be able to watch it at the MTC. The spirit here is so strong which made conference even better than I imagined it to be. I had a lot of favorite talks, but one of my most favorites was by President Monson about being a light, and letting your light shine. He gave us six ways that we could do this. Be an example in word and conversation, reach out to all in need with charity, be an example in spirit by having gratitude kindness and goodwill, be and example of faith by trusting the in the Lord, and to be pure. If we do these things we are qualifed to be lights of the World. We will stand out as bright lights in this dark world. As we are lights, we can light and illuminate the paths of others. I loved that. I know that if we do these things it will not only bring us happiness, but those around us! I love President Monson with all my heart, I love the Apostles with all of my heart, and I am so excited for these 3 new Apostles who just got called this weekend. 

I love you all so much, thanks for being such great supports. 

Much love from Guatemala,

Hermana Baird

Semana Numero Dos!

Hi Everyone!

Everything is going so great in Guatemala! I love my mission. I am learning so much about the gospel, and am trying to learn a lot of Spanish but it is still super hard! I am getting better at speaking it, but when people talk to me its hard for me to understand. I love this language though, its becoming so much fun to practice speaking it! 

I am really sad because tomorrow all of the Latinos are leaving for the mission field. I got really close to two of them. One of them was from Honduras and the other from Ecuador. They laughed at my Spanish a lot (I would too, I'm not surprised) but it was so fun practicing with them and learning from them. Hermana Jara, the one from Ecuador, is such an example to me! She has been a member of the church for only 2 years, and decided to go on a mission. She is the only member in her family and has such a strong testimony! When we were sharing our stories with each other we automatically bonded because ours are so similar!  I love all of the Hermanas here, they are so great and such great teachers and examples to me! 

My teacher here is so awesome. His name is Hermano Abadillo. He is from Guatemala City but served his mission in Houston Texas and got back about five months ago. He speaks absolutely perfect English so it gives me hope with my Spanish! He has so many super inspirational stories. Basically all of the Elders in my district have come to the mission right after graduating high school.. So the maturity levels between the Hermanas and Elders is a little bit different.. Okay a lot different, its a little hard for them to be quiet and stay focused on studying! Haha but luckily our teacher knows how to keep them in line. Every time one of them talks in English in class, says dude or any other slang, or is just being a bad example, he gives them a point and they are going to have to go and sing hymns in each classroom by themselves. Thank goodness they have calmed down a little bit since he started that! I love my district though! The elders are awesome even if they are a little outta control sometimes, and the Hermanas are amazing! All of us Hermanas in my district are going to the same mission so hopefully i will get to see them later on in the mission! 

I cannot believe its already been 2 weeks here at the MTC, time is absolutely flying by! In four weeks I will be out in the field. Holy cow. I cannot wait. Thanks so much for all of your support! 

Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos dios is verdadera. 

Yo se que José Smith es un profeta de Dios.

Yo se que el Libro de Mormón son las palabaras de Dios. 

Yo se que el templo es la casa de Dios y estoy agradecido que is muy cerca a CCM (MTC).

Yo quiero este Iglesia y mi salvador Jesucristo. 

En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen. 

Love,

Hermana Baird

(Staci sent pics to be posted but I was unable to open them, so we will try again next week.  Also she asked that I let you know her computer time is very limited so she may not get back with you right away when you email her.  She loves the support! Lynn)

Week Number One!!!

Wow this first week out as a missionary has been absolutely insane! The first day we arrived in Guatemala at 6:30 am after flying all night.  Right when we arrived at the MTC we had classes and meetings. Luckily we got about a 2 hour nap, but then had to get up and work again until about 8 pm.  It was so exhausting! But, as exhausting as it has been, it has been absolutely amazing! I have been learning so many new things about the gospel, and about myself.  I am attempting to learn Spanish, but it is SO hard! All of our classes are in Spanish and my brain just hurts at the end of every day from using it so much.  Luckily we are blessed with the Gift of Tounges. I know that this is a true gift from the Holy Spirit, because there is no way that my Spanish could improve as much as it has in the last 6 days.  I am so grateful for that gift! 

We already had two lessons with our first investigator at the MTC. They went great! Except for the fact that I don't know much Spanish and the lessons have to be taught in it... Thank goodness my awesome companion is really good at Spanish and can take over the lesson when I get absolutely lost in it! Its been so much fun though, I cannot wait to get into the field and teach real investigators about this true Gospel that can bless them and their families life's more than they can even imagine.  

P-days are literally like Christmas here at the MTC. We work so hard every other day (we have class from about 7 am to 7:30 pm) so its so nice to have a day that we can relax a little. We got to go to the temple this morning and then come back, write our families, and now we have deportes (sports) for the next 4 hours! Tonight the central america area 70 is coming here to talk to us. It is going to be so great. The devotionals and lessons here have been so amazing. The spirit at the MTC is like nothing I have ever felt before. It is so strong all of the time. Everyone is trying to become the best they can be and trying to be more like Christ, making the environment a perfect place for the Spirit to be. It is amazing.

This first week has defintely not been easy, but I know that this is right where I am suppose to be. Guatemala is suppose to be my home for the next 18 months. I know that I am going to go through difficult times and miss my family so much, but the experiences that I am going to be having will make up for those hard experiences that I will encounter. Elder Richard G. Scott promises that missions make us better daughters, mothers, and wives. Knowing that these next 18 months are not only going to be a blessing in my life and those i am serving, but also will be blessing my family and my future family, makes it all so worth it! I love you all and am so grateful for all the love and support! 

Love,

Hermana Baird