Buenos Tardes! Wow, the mission is so fast. I cant believe how fast the time is going by. I have been here in Guatemala for 6 months now! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving the Lord here in Guatemala. I am learning so so much (I know I say that like every post but its so true). Something i have learned in the last couple of weeks is the power in serving others. When we serve others, it doesnt matter if it is our worst enemy or our best friend, we will feel a lot of love and charity for these people. During the mission the relationship that you have with your companion is one of the most important things. We have to have unity, or we cant teach effectively, we cant teach with the Spirit which is the most important. Sometimes being with the same person for 24 hours a day for three months straight isnt the easiest. One learns a lot of patience and how to build good relationships with everyone no matter what is the circumstance. My companion is awesome! I am super grateful to have her. But I felt that maybe we could strengthen our companionship a little bit. I decided to make a goal that I was going to do a random act of service for her everyday the past week (make her breakfast, make her bed, write notes of motivation, etc.) I was amazed to see how much stronger and better our companionship has gotten in the past two weeks! I started to feel a lot more charity for Hermana Godoy. I feel like our lessons are going a lot smoother and that we can teach with the Spirit a lot easier. The next week Hermana Godoy returned the service to me. Serving others is so important in any relationship. When you feel angry, annoyed, frustrated, anything! with someone, I have learned that the best way to fix it is serve them. As we serve others we serve our Heavenly Father. We can feel the love He has for us, and the love He has for them. The people we serve can feel charity, the pure love of Christ, through the service we do for them. 

This weekend we will be having a baptism! It is a girl who just turned 18 years old. Her name is Mercy. She is AWESOME! I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have had to teach her. Her story is super similar to mine so it has been a lot of fun teaching and sharing experiences with each other. She was 16 when she started to go to church and meet with the missionaries. She had a testimony of the Gospel at this time and wanted to be baptized but she didnt have permision from her family. Mercy is SO strong-her family was extremely hard on her for having this great desire to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ. Her family wanted to kick her our of the house, she would always say super negative things to Mercy, and sometimes she would be physical with her. Mercy continued in the church for awhile, but after some time she stopped going. About 2 months ago she came to church and told us that she would like to meet with us again. She turned 18 last week and wanted to prepare for her baptism that is going to be this Saturday! We are so excited for her! 

I am still in my first area, and I love it so much! I love the members here and I dont ever want to leave. I am scared that in 5 weeks I am going to have transfers.. I hope not! This week we went to a members house for dinner. The last time we ate with this member we were talking about all the weird things that people eat here in Guate. I told them that I want to try the weird food but only if they dont tell me what it is until after I eat it. Sooo we got to there house this day and they said, okay we are going to eat sometime weird tonight, but we arent going to tell you what. There was a HUGE plate of meat, some was steak, some was chicken, and some was that weird thing. I tried it and it wasnt bad at all. I actually thought it was just chicken. Well turns out, it was COW UTTER! Haha and I actually liked it! The  next time we eat with them they are going to have something different. i dont know if I am scared or excited.

I am so grateful to have this opportunity to share this wonderful gospel with everyone here. I want everyone to know of the joy that it can bring. Many people we teach tell us that they are happy, that the feel good in the church they are in, or the feel good with how they are living there life. But when they accept the gospel, it is amazing how there opinons about there life before changes. They can see that there is more happiness that they can feel. That when they are following the example that Christ gave each and every one of us, the can feel what the meaning of happiness really is. It is something super special to see the joy that the Gospel brings to people. 

I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Con mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Baird

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my mission family! my "daughter", "sister", and "niece".

 our bishops dog! i am in love!

 one of my best friends in the mission! we have been in the same district since the MTC

 All of the "parents" in our district.