El Baul

El Baul

Wooo I am now in my second area! I am slowly getting adjusted, it feels a little like I am restarting my mission because I don't know anyone and never know where I am, but little by little I'm getting used to it! I am now in Quetzaltenango and am in area that is called Baul because Mt. Baul is right next to us. Its super pretty. Its actually super cold here and has rained everyday since I have gotten here. But I am loving it! 

The members in this ward are superrrr awesome and love missionary work which is great great news for us! There is a family in this ward who the dad was a mission president, the temple President here in Xela, and a 70. And this last general conference one of his sons was just called as a 70! Its awesome to see how strong the members are here in Quetzaltenango. Well yesterday was my first Sunday and my companion told me that I would be sharing my testimony during sacrament. I was fine with that until we were sitting in sacrament before church and a 70 walked in! I got super nervous because I was going to have to talk in front of a 70 haha but it was all good, and I don't think I slaughtered my Spanish too bad. It was a great opportunity to be able to hear from on of the leaders of the church and increase my faith a little more. 

My new comp is awesome! Her name is Hermana Ruiz and she is from Honduras. She reminds me in some ways of my first comp Hermana Rodriguez which is great. :) She has 3 months in the mission, and is already a super awesome missionary. I feel blessed to have her as my companion! 

Love you all so much! And just a reminder, I love hearing from you guys so write me! anastasia.baird@myldsmail.net. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Baird

The Best Way to End my Time in Cerrito del Maiz

April 18

Well, tomorrow I will be heading to a new area! I have loved my time here in Cerrito del Maiz, and I am already looking forward to coming back and visiting all of the members and converts here in this awesome area. We had the best weekend to end this change. Faustina got baptized!!!! And one of the niños who I talked about in another email (the ones who are in extreme poverty). It was such an amazing day.  It has been such a priceless experience to see the change in Hermana Faustina.  She shone with brightness after her baptism and we could just see the happiness in her eyes! Saturday we bought Dominos and had a little celebration with her and her two grandkids in the church. I am going to miss them SO MUCH! 

It was a miracle with Faustina from the start. We recieved a reference from other missionaries that had been teaching her for a couple of weeks because she moved to our area. We talked with her daughter over the phone and put an appointment with them, but the day of the appointment we couldnt get ahold of them and we didnt know where they lived, we just knew it was up in the mountains far from our house. So we tried calling a couple of times more but got nothing. So the next week we were contacting in the street, there was a lady with two kids that we stopped to talk with. As we got to talking the little girl said that they are members of the church, but there grandma, who they were with at the time wasnt. We then realized that their grandma was Faustina and that she was the reference we had recieved! We set up another appointment and the next Sunday when we went they were in their house and we taught them. Well, this first day we were able to put a baptismal date with Faustina. It was for the 6th of February. As you can see, this date fell through many times.  There were a lot of times that we thought maybe this isnt her time, maybe we should stop teaching her. There were a lot of times when our leaders asked us the same thing, "Maybe you guys should think about not visiting her for awhile and see if in a few months she is ready..." There were a lot of times we were sad because she told us she would come to church and didnt come, that she was going to pray, and didnt pray. But everytime we had the thought or recieved the advice or felt the disappointment, Hermana Godoy and I both felt the Spirit telling us that we couldnt stop teaching her. That we had to be patient and that we had to keep helping this hermana. After 3 months of teaching her and the last month visiting her almost everyday, we could see the difference and the change that happened in her. She wanted to come to chuch, she understood what we were teaching better, and we could tell that she really had the desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. I have learned so so much from this little lady. Patience, love, and humilty are a few of the things she has taught me. I am so extremely grateful that I had this amazing experience with this hermana. 

I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I know the Jesus Christ lives, and that as a missionary, I am only acting as an instrument in his hands. I know that through the gospel of Jesus Christ, one day we will be able to be in His presence, and that we will be able to be in the presence of our families for eternity. 

I love you all so much, and am so thankful for the support that you give me.

xoxoxoxo

Hermana Baird

April 11

Hey Everyone! So I don't have a ton of time to write this week but I am going to attach some pics and write as much as I can. :)

A huge problem in our area is that there isn't water! No one has running water. The only people who actually have water, is those who have wells. So the city passes by every week and gives each house two garbage cans of water. It is seriously a miracle that in our house we have never not had water. Heavenly Father truly looks out for his missionaries! Anyways there is a tank where people can go and fill up containers of water to bring to there house but it is super far from the houses. Well, we wanted to help Faustina, our investigator who is getting baptized Friday!!!!!, bring water to her house. And oh my goodness I just about died of heat and my arms almost fell off! These people live hard lives, we are so blessed to have everything that we have in the states!

We had so many miracles this week! I have been in the same area for all of mission so at times it feels like I know everyone here haha. But this week we found so many new people to teach! We visited a man named Adam last night for the first time and we were able to put a baptismal date with him! We are finding those people who are truly ready to receive the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is all thanks to the guidance we have everyday from our Heavenly Father! 

I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Hermana Baird

P.S. the other picture is a cake of our zone that one of the sisters in our stake made for us!

April 4

Weird food of the week... This could be why I am sick a lot. 

My Chilena daughter and I

Huehuetenango, Guatemala

The Sisters in our Zone at General Conference

Staci and Faustina

March 28,

Title: Semana Santa 

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone had a good one. Here in Guatemala traditions are huuuggeee, especially in holidays that have a religious background. So Easter was a big deal here! But here, its not just something that is celebrated on Sunday, it is for an entire week. Its called "Semana Santa" which means Holy Week. The catholics have a tradition of putting alfombres (there isnt a work for it in english) but what it is is a ton of dust from wood that they color and then decorate the streets with it. They put designs in it like crosses, or write scriptures, or basically anything that has to do with Christ! I wish I had pictures, but we didnt have the chance to go to one because it was out of our area. Anyways, Friday is when all the streets are decorated and no one is allowed to drive around there or anything. Catholics then carry a cross with a Jesus figure on it and carry it for hours during the day. Anyways, that is the Friday of Semana Santa, then on Sunday they start doing fireworks at like 5 in the morning and there are a ton of people in the streets singing Hallelujah. Its pretty cool all the traditions they have, but its not very fun to be a missionary during these days because there is absolutely no one home! Everyone goes on vacation or they are in Huehue central where all the alfombras are. But we visted members and ended up having a great Easter. :) 

Saturday we went to the Stake Center to watch the General Women's conference, and oh my gosh it was so amazing! It was super cool because one of our investigators came with us and she loved it too, and after talked about how happy she felt listening to it. Her name is Faustina, I think I have talked about her before, but she is going to get baptized on April 9th. We are so excited for her! Anyways one of the greatest blessings about the conference was that I was able to watch it in english haha. When we got to the church they hadnt set up a room for us gringos to watch it in english so we hunted them down so that we could. I am finally to the point that I can understand mostly everything in spanish, but the conference just isnt quite the same when you can't here the actual voice of the speakers. My favorite talk of the womens conference was by Cheryl A. Esplin. She talked a lot about serving. She said that when we serve we need to through away our mirrors and look through the window. If we are thinking about ourselves when serving others, they are not our focal point and we are not truly serving them with all of our strength, with all of our love. But if we truly focus on them, they will be able to feel the love that we, and that Jesus Christ has for them. 

We are so excited for this weekend to have the great opportunity to listen the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the twelve apostles, speak to each and every one of us. It is such a priviledge that we have to hear them speak every six months. I invite EVERYONE reading this to watch it! It doesn't matter if you are a member of the church or not, the prophet is the prophet of the world, not just the prophet of members of the church. He recieves revelation for the world. The speakers who will talk this weekend have prayerfully prepared talks so that they can give us the message that our Heavenly Father knows that we need to hear. We live in a world where there are many temptations and a whole lot of evil, but if we humble ourselves, and follow the direction of the prophet, who is an instrument in the hands of the Lord, we can resist these temptations, and we can find our purpose and happiness in this life. 

I hope everyone has an amazing week! Thanks for all of your prayers and your support. :) 

Con mucho amor de Guatemala,

Hermana Baird 

Car Seat Guatemala Style

Baptism of Mercy!!! We are so happy for her. :)

A cute little duck of one of our investigators.. That pooped on me 2 seconds after this was taken... 

Part of our area--Huehuetenango Guatemala